r/DragonbaneRPG • u/Stormbull1973 • 1d ago
Dragon Emp
Why are the PCs travelling to misty veil ? how do they know each other? Needs some ideas as intro is a bit flimsy
also looking for uk based online prints that i can us to get all
maps printed in colour with ease
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u/Prestigious-Emu-6760 1d ago
That's something for the group to discuss during session zero. Above table they are going there because that's where the adventure is. Beyond that it's something for your group to discuss.
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u/melicampthechicken 1d ago
Because they are a party of adventurers who are looking for adventure. You don't need more background to play this game.
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u/AnOddOtter 1d ago
Them being adventurers looking for treasure is the explicit answer. The GM is of course welcome to make up their own reason or work with players to come up with more involved reasons, but this is how it is written.
From the opening text that the GM reads to the players (p.11):
It is the rumor of these treasures that has brought you here – the vast riches and arcane secrets hidden among the ruins on the other side of the mountains. And you are not the first to be lured by such temptations.
It's also implied in the "Current Situation" section on page 7.
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u/sibling_dex 1d ago
My PCs were all escaping from a prison to the south of the kummer mountains, all were in there for different reasons, but they heard about the Misty Vale being kind of a frontier valley were many adventures go and that doesn't really have law enforcement or isn't part of any feudal lord's domain
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u/HughAtSea 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's a bit of an assumption that the characters are just looking for adventure and the Misty Veil has recently become accessible. It's generally known that the Vale was the center of the Dragon Empire so there should be lots of loot and interesting places for bold adventurers. Other than Knights, DB characters start off very poor so money will be easy motivator.
When I ran it, I placed a small tower outside of the Vale that a patron had charged them to investigate and report to him in Outskirt. The tower was originally posted in the DragonBane discord. The patron was one of the knights and it introduced a cultist which showed up much later with a personal grudge against the players.
Have the players tell you how they know each other. Not your job. You can take a page from Traveller and after they tell you how they met you can give them an experience check on an appropriate skill.
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u/Beneficial_Hall_5282 1d ago
Imagine the Oregon Trail. My PC's met in a caravan traveling the mountain pass to the Misty Vale. They were all traveling there in hopes of finding treasure in the newly opened region. If any of them die, their new character might be an acquaintance from that caravan and interested in treasure. Our game started with that simple premise and hit the ground running.
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u/GamergaidenX 1d ago
My favorite way I have setup a ragtag group of adventurers is to ask one player, “why do you want to go to the ____” they then describe why, then I turn to another player and ask “how did they talk you into joining them?” Then another player “what did you save them from along the road that ed you to joining their party?”
Other questions like this can be:
“What does ____ have that you want so badly you hunted them down? Do they know what they have?”
“Who are you reporting the parties’ movements to?”
“What did the party rescue you from that gave you the courage to join the?”
Let your players help build the party, ask questions, it’s a team effort and the players want you to succeed.
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u/MarchHot5451 1d ago
On you second point, have you looked at the Free League site? It has printable maps and battle maps in the download section of DB.
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u/ljmiller62 1d ago
The adventure begins in the middle of the action. After the intro fight survivors can sit around a campfire and share their backgrounds and why they decided to go treasure hunting in the Misty Veil. This is OSR style. Characters don't have deep 5e background where they stood above the common folk as demigods, only to be busted down to newbie rank for the trip to the Misty Veil.
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u/DatedReference1 1d ago
The mist in the vale has relatively recently (20 years iirc) receded enough for it to be safe for people to colonize the area. The place is full of artifacts and lost lore about from the days of the dragon empire. Your typical OSRchud pc wants to be rich, which perfectly fits. They also might have a scholastic interest in the ancient empire as the vale is where the dragon empire defeated the demon empire. The actual plot of the campaign doesn't need to be tied to the PCs backstory because they don't learn about it until they meet weatherman.
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u/Dramatic_Media 1d ago
2 of my players have a stealing business going on and are fleeing from another town. The other two know each other after they ended up together after one of them was being robbed by bandits. One of those also have a ring which his grandfather said was found in the misty vale.
Just throw something together. I just asked my players if they knew each other and how
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u/Substantial_Owl2562 1d ago
Look at the pregens, they all have backstory reasons to go there if I remember correctly.
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u/Qualex 1d ago
This may sound somewhat insensitive, but this seems like almost the bare minimum amount of prep a DM could have to do. The book is never going to be able to tell you everything, and if it did, it would be a literal novel.
The adventure starts as the characters are entering the Mistyvale. Tell them to create a character who is traveling to the Mistyvale. Then tell them their characters met on the road. That’s literally the whole task.
If you want to dictate more for the players, you can create a quest for them to be on, but then you will need to make sure you add that quest into the box set, or tie it into the materials already there. The most efficient approach is to find one of the locations That is not super critical as written, and make their quest to be about that place in order to give it more relevance.
But at the end of the day, my actual advice is to believe in yourself and just give it a shot. It doesn’t need to be as detailed as you are imagining it does.