Quote Originally Posted by jtougas View Post
I agree. We should finalize the outline so we can start on the encounters. I have no ego here just so everybody knows. It's been quite a few years since I've written anything that has to make sense in a game environment (mostly everything I've written is short story fiction that I can bend to whatever I need) so whatever makes the most sense for a game and will be interesting to the purchaser is fine with me.
Ditto.... I do feel rather strongly about a 1st level group probably NOT getting a hold of an artifact, even if it's one they can't use(players can surprise you and go mercenary... selling the artifact to the highest bidder.) In a new group, a good GM can better tell if this is possible after several sessions with the group as opposed to the very first session. Another thing to think about here is the whole "we saved a kings artifact on our first mission... what can we do to top that??" effect.... IMHO, players should feel like they are building up to epic adventures.

I would personally drag out the story for several levels before having them find the artifact. In "game time" that can realistically still happen in just several days worth of adventuring without much problem. Anyhoo.... It won't be disappointed if none of my ideas are used, just throwing out how I tend to think of DMing to try to link stories together and have them tied up.