Thaw of the Lich Lord Campaign - 2017

[CPalmer]

Hey guys,

It's been great reading this thread and the blog updates for this campaign. It all looks fantastic and has been a great read.

My gaming group have decided to run a Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign in 2018 - similar to you in playing one scenario a month.

Just wondering on what (if any) house rules you had in place for the large multiplayer games you ran throughout the campaign? - scaling starting creature numbers, wandering creatures, treasure placement, warband starting locations etc...

We are going to try and mostly have numerous one on one games running if possible, but figure in some cases based on availability and numbers we'd have some multiplayer games taking place so wondered if you had any tips and ideas around this for the campaign itself?

Red Kop-
   Thanks for the kind words regarding the campaign!  I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.  For our multi-player games we use a couple modifications.
     First, instead of using dice for Initiative, we use numbered poker chips in a paper bag.  We pass the bag around, each player drawing a numbered chip.  This is a lot faster than everyone rolling dice, comparing  numbers, rerolling ties, etc.  It lets everyone immediately know the order, and keep track of it.  Whoever got the last place for initiative gets the bag, and he collects the chips at the end of turn and gets to draw first for the new turn.  For the Awareness spell, the player gets to drop his chip back in the bag and draw a new one if wants to try and get a better number.
       For special monsters and buildings we usually multiply for every two players.  So for a 6 player game we multiply everything times 3, for 8 players, we multiply times 4, etc.  And we usually round the number up if we have an odd number. 
   We keep wandering monsters the same basically.  For their entry though, we usually count the number of feet around the perimeter of the table, ( i.e. a 3' x 6' table has  18' of outer edge), and mark one corner as the 0 point and count from there;  then we roll whatever size dice is closest to that total perimeter number to determine where the wandering creature enters. So for the 18' table in our example, we roll a d20 and ignore the 19 and 20 result.
   We don't change treasure placement.  For warband starting locations we set those along the two long sides of the table, trying to keep the number on each side as equal as possible.  Distance between players on a side depends on how many players you are trying to fit in on a given table size, but generally we keep them no closer than a foot apart, and no further than 2 feet apart. For choice of location, we draw the chips from the paper bag to determine the order of choice after the treasure has been placed.

We found the Lich Lord campaign worked really well for multi-player games.  We were able to convert all the scenarios.  For specifics multiplayer changes for each one, I suggest you read my blog report on the particular scenario you are doing.   

Good luck with your campaign!   I hope my answers help, and don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

[Red Kop]

Red Kop-
   Thanks for the kind words regarding the campaign!  I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.  For our multi-player games we use a couple modifications.
     First, instead of using dice for Initiative, we use numbered poker chips in a paper bag.  We pass the bag around, each player drawing a numbered chip.  This is a lot faster than everyone rolling dice, comparing  numbers, rerolling ties, etc.  It lets everyone immediately know the order, and keep track of it.  Whoever got the last place for initiative gets the bag, and he collects the chips at the end of turn and gets to draw first for the new turn.  For the Awareness spell, the player gets to drop his chip back in the bag and draw a new one if wants to try and get a better number.
       For special monsters and buildings we usually multiply for every two players.  So for a 6 player game we multiply everything times 3, for 8 players, we multiply times 4, etc.  And we usually round the number up if we have an odd number. 
   We keep wandering monsters the same basically.  For their entry though, we usually count the number of feet around the perimeter of the table, ( i.e. a 3' x 6' table has  18' of outer edge), and mark one corner as the 0 point and count from there;  then we roll whatever size dice is closest to that total perimeter number to determine where the wandering creature enters. So for the 18' table in our example, we roll a d20 and ignore the 19 and 20 result.
   We don't change treasure placement.  For warband starting locations we set those along the two long sides of the table, trying to keep the number on each side as equal as possible.  Distance between players on a side depends on how many players you are trying to fit in on a given table size, but generally we keep them no closer than a foot apart, and no further than 2 feet apart. For choice of location, we draw the chips from the paper bag to determine the order of choice after the treasure has been placed.

We found the Lich Lord campaign worked really well for multi-player games.  We were able to convert all the scenarios.  For specifics multiplayer changes for each one, I suggest you read my blog report on the particular scenario you are doing.   

Good luck with your campaign!   I hope my answers help, and don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

Awesome stuff, thanks so much.

Looking forward to getting into it in the new year and this information is great. I like multiplayer games and it looks like you've made it work well so definitely keen on piggy backing on all your hard work 

Thanks again.

[SerialMoM]

I missed to read some repots, when you have posted them, but now I could enjoy three of your reports.

Thank you so much for sharing these fantastic games with us and bringing your stories to life.

[CPalmer]

I missed to read some repots, when you have posted them, but now I could enjoy three of your reports.

Thank you so much for sharing these fantastic games with us and bringing your stories to life.

SerialMoM-
    Thank you so much for your kind words; and for your constant support and encouragement of our campaign over the past year!