Lord Zack's Domain

Inspired by Dwarf Fortress...

2012-01-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Dwarf Fortress, and the fact that some players have actually managed to have they're dwarves colonize Hell itself, I have decided that if my players ever end up visiting Hell (or perhaps one of the other Lower Planes) there will be a dwarven fortress there, managing to survive despite the hostile natives.

A Different Take on Gargoyles

2012-01-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

This post has been sitting in the back burner for a while now, but I think I can just post it in it's current form.

In my campaigns, gargoyles are not evil creatures. They are in fact a form of benign fey with ties to the good gods and celestials, though they're forms are similar to demons and devils. They inhabit places also inhabited by men, protecting them from evil. They may have once been demons that were converted to good somehow, but this theory is unverified.

However, there are creatures similar to the traditional D&D gargoyles. They are constructs, created by demons in mockery of real gargoyles. Perhaps Demogorgon, infamous for his for his use of various constructs such as the Retriever commissioned the first of these, but that is not known for sure.

An article that intrigues me

2012-01-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

Article

This article has some bits that intrigue me, in particular this part:

"Second, and most important: Wizards is on the right track.

I’m not a fan of fourth edition. I find the combat slow, the powers limiting, and the rules inhospitable to the kind of creative world-building, story-telling and problem-solving that make D&D great.

But so far, the fifth edition rules show promise. They’re simple without being stupid, and efficient without being shallow. Combat was quick and satisfying; we got through most of an adventure in just a few hours. And I get the sense that fifth edition will bring back some of the good complexity of previous versions, allowing players to create unique characters and new worlds."

From that it sounds like they're on the right track to me.

5e, Hopeful, but not really optimistic

2012-01-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

So yeah fifth edition has been announced. I've been reading the Legends and Lore articles on wizards.com and they've given me hope that 5th edition might be better than 4th edition. Yet I can't really say that I am truly optimistic. Will they create a game that can handle my play style? Will it avoid the obsession with balance that IMHO made it difficult to run anything that's non-linear in 4e? Will combats not take hours each to resolve? Will it show more respect for the history of the game?

I don't want an edition where what has come before with regards to "canon" is cast aside. I don't want archons to be elemental warriors, or eladrin to be faerie elves. I want the Great Wheel to be the default cosmology, or at least not all that different from the default cosmology that I have to do a lot of changes to monsters and the like to use the Great Wheel . I want Greyhawk to be the default setting or at least playable with the core materials without lots of houseruling races and the like. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the Realms I don't want them to have been blown up. Seriously, if you can't play the most generic of settings in a new edition without a lot of work, something has gone wrong.

The focus on making sure everything is balanced makes it difficult to do a non-linear game. Thing is the assumption is that you're players will have exactly x encounters, get x amount of treasure, etc. That doesn't really jive with a game where the assumption is that these things will all be determined by the choices of the players and they're successes and failures. Never mind the idea that failure is often considered to be a thing the DM should avoid.

Well, we'll wait and see. Just might be me and a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.

Playing with the Nephew

2011-11-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I've mentioned this or not, but I have a six-year old nephew. Recently I ran a short game of D&D for him, using the 1981 Moldvay rules. It was fun for me, but I got the feeling that my nephew could have enjoyed it more.

I'm thinking of emphasizing the visual aspect, using minatures and a grid, maybe even during exploration. We were using legos, and he seemed to respond well to that, but it proved difficult to construct each area quickly as he arrived.

He seemed to enjoy combat most, though I stressed that there were other ways to solve problems. I think that I will provide more opportunities for combat, while still making sure he knows combat is not his only course of action.

I took the scenario from the original 3rd edition starter set, wherein you must rescue a unicorn from goblins. However I wrote pretty much the whole dungeon from scratch, utilizing the five room dungeon concept, but making the goblin lair part of a larger complex. He, of course, ended up going the "wrong" way, slipping by a patch of green slime to explore the rest of the dungeon. Hopefully I can run it for him again and he can track down those goblins and save the unicorn. But it's not a big deal if he goes "off the rails".

I'm still planning to run Monster Hill. I had a session almost lined up, but unfortunately circumstances forced me to cancel it. Hopefully I will be able to run it soon, however.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter from me and the ~~Wolf-in-sheep's-clothing~~ Easter Bunny!

Monster Hill Update

2011-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will begin running Monster Hill. I've got the first level all stocked, however I am thinking of a few tweaks. For one I'm reducing the size of the giant spiders in an area close to the main entrance and adding one more. Then I'll place giant spiders of medium size elsewhere on the first level. I like giant spiders. I'm also snatching a creature from the Legend of Zelda games- Aquamentus the boss monster in the first dungeon of the first game, and putting it in the dungeon, placing the cloaker I randomly rolled elsewhere. There probably won't be a report of the adventure for a while, since pbp games take a while.

My New Megadungeon: Monster Hill

2011-02-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a new megadungeon, Monster Hill. It is the name given by locals to a hill of ill reputation that spews out terrible monsters and is a haven for goblins and bandits and other neer-do-wells. It has in the past been know as a home to demon worshipers, who are supposed to have constructed the complex long ago. Rumors state that there are portals to the infernal realms in the depths.

I'm running this so that many groups can enter and leave they're mark on the complex. Theoretically I could play it for years for many different groups, and any changes the PCs make would remain. Also I'm going to be going with an approach similar to what James Maliszewski, at Grognardia is using for his Dwimmermount campaign, not creating too much of the setting at any one time, instead creating it through play.

If you're interested I will be starting a play-by-post game on this site.

Valarn's Vault: the Reboot

2011-01-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

Well you may remember from earlier posts my players in my previous campaign having explored a dungeon called "Valarn's Vault". Well I've decided to revisit this dungeon, applying the lessons I've learned about dungeon creation since then. So I'll rewrite the dungeon, pretty much from scratch. I will be using Pathfinder and am thinking of setting it in some undetailed part of Oerth outside the Flanaess, or a world of my own creation.

The Vault is a fortress that belongs to a powerful necromancer on an island not far of shore from a small fishing village in the tropics. The upper works contain a large garrison of various kinds of undead, however there is a back entrance to the far less dangerous storage area. The upper works are basically a "lair"-type environment, so aren't really suitable for low-level adventurers, but the storage area and lower levels are a more normal dungeon environment, so adventures here are not going to bring the wrath of every creature in the area on they're heads. Below the storage area is a series of catacombs that contain many undead of various kinds. I'll have fun utilizing all the various obscure kinds of undead in my monster manuals populating this area. The third level I'm thinking will probably be a series of laboratories, filled with all kinds of weird monsters, including templated monsters of various kinds. However, I'm thinking I might want to save that theme for a lower level, since I'd want to include more dangerous creatures like golems. The lair of Valarn himself will either be on the twelfth or lower level or a sub-level attached to it. Perhaps his lair will be a demiplane connected to the dungeon by portal. As for other levels, at the moment I'm focusing on the first three as Gary Gygax suggests in Volume 3 of OD&D, "The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures".

As for difficulty I am not going to be adhering strictly to the rules in Pathfinder. Like in old school games it will be somewhat challenging. It would in fact be likely to encounter ten goblins in a single encounter on the first level of the dungeon. However the PCs would be well equipped to handle such encounters, as Pathfinder characters are fairly powerful and it will be assumed that they will bring along non-player character hirelings to help them, including warriors.

My Crazy Idea: Super Robot Wars, the Tabletop Wargame

2010-12-14T17:26:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been playing the Super Robot Wars series of turn-based strategy games. These games are a crossover between many different Giant Robot Shows, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Gundam and many others. I now officially consider myself a Super Robot fan. Many of the games have not been translated into English, which is a problem because I'd like to play more.

So I got an idea, to create a tabletop game that allowed me to recreate the battles from the series and create my own. But I don't know how to go about doing that. Also, I'd need to have some kind of figures. I'd also need some one to play with.

Still Alive

2010-12-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

Yep, still alive. Me and my family have gone through some rough times lately, and I haven't had much time for gaming. At least we know that my father is not going to die immediately (he's been diagnosed with cancer and until recently his numbers were pretty high). That's always good to know.

On Combat and Exploration

2010-08-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Many see the primary activity in D&D as combat. It is said that D&D is about "killing things and taking they're stuff." I see it differently, as my favorite activity is exploration and I see that as the primary activity. Combat is something that often happens while exploring dungeons, but is not the only activity that adventurers engage in, in fact it can often be not the best solution or even counter productive, especially when facing a superior foe.

What made me think about this is the rather awesome, but also very long, combat that occurred in the latest session of my D&D campaign. In many ways it reminded me of my experiences in playing 4th Edition wherein combat is a very significant part of the game, certainly the central aspect, and also debatably more important than in other editions of D&D. This is part of why so many dislike that version of D&D and certainly why I prefer other versions myself. Despite what some have said though, it is not because 4th edition lacks "non-combat rules". In fact with the advent of the skill challenge it can be said to have more rules for non-combat than any other version of D&D. I personally do not believe that having many rules for non-combat is necessarily even desirable. In many cases having a few simple rules will serve better, as more complex rules may in fact bog down the game.

There are many aspects of the topic of D&D as a game of exploration that I could discuss. These include the role of mapping in making exploration more interesting, how many empty rooms should be included in a good dungeon, the use of tricks and traps, and many other things. Perhaps I will discuss those in further blog entries.

the Shattered Empire: Session 3

2010-08-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

This session was dominated by an epic battle against the enemy goblin tribe. Before that they fought them they did explore one not particularly notable room. It had a puddle of water and moss, but they thought for sure that something was going to pop out and get them. But there wasn't anything there.

So then they decided to attack the goblins. Shortly before they arrived they met up with a trio of orcs from the goblin tribe they had allied with. They asked that they be allowed to participate in the attack on the enemy tribe. The players agreed and asked that they go up front. "More glory for us!" the orcs responded.

When the party rounded the corner they saw two goblin sentries. With a cry of "Bree-yark" they called for they're tribemates and attacked. However they were quickly overwhelmed. Unfortunately the fighter from the north got too ahead of the rest of the group. When the rest of the goblins arrived he was facing them all without his allies. The rest of the group followed behind and were quickly confronted by the leader of the goblins and soon after that more of his people. The goblin got in a good sneak attack against the cleric, but got a few good hits against himself as well. He then retreated behind his minions. Meanwhile the goblins in the northern passage had surrounded the northerner and had dealt several telling blows, though he had killed a few of them before he went down. He was bleeding to death, but one of they're orcish allies pulled him away from the melee so he could be healed, while the other finished off the goblins. The other group was also slowly worn down. The leader attempted to deliever a sneak attack, but failed and was slain, dispite the effort of one of his minions to revive him with a healing potion. Then the remaining goblins were finished off.

End result was that seventeen enemies were down without any fatalities though there were a couple of close calls. The loot amounted to just under five hundred silver pieces plus the gear of the goblins which they gave to they're goblin allies. The session finished with the players attending a celebration thrown by the goblins because of they're defeat of they're enemies.

the Shattered Empire: Session 2

2010-07-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night I had quite a surprise as some of my players showed up expecting to play. So I quickly set up and after a few minutes we started playing. The session started off when the party was attacked by a giant spider while camping out in the dungeon. They're sentry, Theron, was the first to encounter the beast and shouted for the others. After a few rounds of throwing javelins, and dodging spider webs he was joined by the rest of the party, including a new member. This cleric had come from the far north, more or less, "Russia". Well they quickly finished off the spider and in the morning started they exploration of the dungeon level.

From the stairs they entered into a room with three corridors leading off in all directions, except the one that the stair came from. The rest of the relatively short session was devoted to exploring a series of rooms that used to be storerooms for the old palace, before the cellar was expanded into a dungeon. They encountered dire rats, found some treasure, including a chest in a secret room. A particularly notable encounter was with some hobgoblins (recall that in my campaign, hobgoblins are the smaller version). They did not attack the PCs immediately and the PCs decided to parlay. For 1 gp each they got permission to travel through the goblins' territory and were offered a place to stay the night. The group opted to hide in the secret room however. They also learned of a second, chaotic group of goblins that worked for a minotaur that laired in the dungeon. They then began to explore other parts of the dungeon, and found a "T" intersection just before we decided to call it quits.

the Shattered Empire: Session 1

2010-06-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

At long last, me and my friends have finally gotten together again to play D&D! The first hour or so was devoted to making characters, definitely a disadvantage of using something derived from 3rd Edition (we're using Pathfinder). Then we got the adventure underway.

The game began with the PCs meeting on the road to Delphens, a corrupt town filled with bandits and thieves. Soon after that they were attacked by some of the bandits. However they were no threat to the players. After the PCs killed one, and knocked out the leader, the others surrendered. The PCs decided (at my suggestion) to recruit them.

Then the PCs finished heading to Delphens where they looked for an adventure to undergo. Theron, the warrior revealed that he had heard of a ruined palace on just the other side of the river. The underground sections of this palace had been expanded into a maze, which where filled with both treasure and traps. They also heard a (false) rumor of an invading army of goblins. Theron was unsympathetic and said the people in the tavern should be out getting ready for the war.

They decided to explore the ruined palace. They hired a fisherman to ferry them to the other side of the river and to return when they finished they're expedition. Theron taught the northern barbarian (currently nameless) about haggling.

When they arrived at the palace they began exploring the place. Some players wanted to barge right through, but Theron's player advised caution, and so they began methodically mapping out the palace. Most of it was empty, however they did encounter some stirges, a couple of dire bats and some dire rats. They didn't find any treasure, except for a masterwork longsword, because they didn't look in the right places (i.e. under a pile of rubble). When the session ended they were getting ready to head down to the under ground level.

All in all, it was fun. It could have gone better in some parts, but I enjoyed myself immensely. I'm looking forward to playing again in a couple weeks. I find it interesting that Theron, a neutral evil character is becoming so prominent.

the Planes of Existence

2010-06-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about how the planes of existence will be organized and which kinds will exist in my campaigns for some time now. The planes of existence are one of my favorite topics in fantasy games. The awesome Planescape campaign setting probably helps with that.

So my idea for what the planes should be like is very similar to the Great Wheel cosmology. However there are several changes as well.

Limbo connects to all of the chaotic planes. Except, perhaps, the planes that are only secondarily chaotic like Carceri. Furthermore, Limbo has it's own layers, including the realms of various chaotic divinities. These are not the roiling maelstrom that Limbo proper is, but are all still quite chaotic in they're own ways.
Olympus is chaotic neutral (good), like Ysgard. Olympus may be on the same layer, or a seperate one, I haven't yet decided. Arborea remains Chaotic Good, but may be undergoing some changes, like the whole plane may be getting the infinite layers deal that the Abyss has, with Arborea just being one of the layers. It may or may not be the uppermost one.
The Beastlands are very similar, but the various Animal Lords & intelligent animals may be moved to the Outlands, or perhaps scattered throughout the planes, with the plane (or at least some layers of it) retaining the general wild feel. That region of the Outlands may get the name Beastlands, with the plane of Neutral (Chaotic) Good getting a new moniker.
Not many changes to the lawful planes so far. One thing is that I may deemphasize Acheron's focus on battle. Also Grummsh and Magulybiet may be moving to the Abyss and (back to) the Nine Hells respectively. They're armies still battle, but largely as part of the larger Blood War. A significant fact is that since orcs and goblins are the same thing in my campaigns, they compete for worshipers. Thus they're relationship is altered somewhat.
Outlands may have other layers. For instance Illsensine's realm may be on a separate layer (if I decide to keep Illsensine at all. If I do he may also be on a different plane and may be a different manner of being, like a "Great Old One" rather than a god), as may be Tír na nÓg.
In addition to relatively normal worlds like Oerth and Abeir-Toril, material planes (not just demiplanes) may have wildly different rules and attributes. Oerth and Toril exist in a universe much like ours (I'm not using the crystal spheres idea from Spelljammer), but with more magic. In fact, like in the Spelljammer setting they may share the same universe, but others like Athas and Krynn would not. The Elemental Planes may just be a series of alternate Material Planes dominated by a single element, but I'm leaning towards having both the "main" Elemental Planes and element-dominated Material Planes. I'm changing around the Ethereal Plane. The Ether is part of all worlds, but the Ethereal Plane is not it's self coexistent with those worlds, instead merely connecting worlds.
The Astral is in fact coexistent with the Material, but not the Outer Planes. So if you Astrally Project you start off in the part that is coexistent with the world and can from there travel to the higher spiritual planes (i.e. the Outer Planes). This is also the realm of ghosts and other spirits, the "Spirit World" of Oriental settings. The demiplane of Dreams, if I decide to use it would also be in the Astral Plane. So it basically takes the role of the Ethereal in many ways, as I judge to make more sense.

In general I'm looking to shake up the planes, so that there is more room for new material (though there was already a lot of room). My policy is not even the most knowledgeable of sages in places like the city of Sigil know everything about the planes (as much as Sigilians like to deride Primes as "clueless"). The Great Wheel is just one of many models for mapping out the planes, no more valid than any other. They may know that there are two layers in Bytopia, or three in Hades but there may be others that are uncharted.

Real-world Religions and the D&D Game

2010-06-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'm currently undergoing research to find out about the real world religions, primarily those of the ancient world, but also such contemporary religions as Hinduism and Buddhism. Now the primary focus of my research is not the mythology of those faiths, but rather the day-to-day practices of those faiths. After all, if you play as a priest how often does mythology effect most adventures? Or if you go to the village priest for healing? It's not a complete non-factor, after all creatures of myth are a common opponent in D&D and the rivalries between divinities are often the focus of an adventure, but actual religion is often overlooked.

I hope to garner from my studies a greater understanding of how ancient religions worked and how it might work in D&D. A thing I have noticed is that religion is often summed up as "you worship this god, he has such-and-such a dogma, hates this and this god, etc.", as if each deity has it's own separate religion. There are such things as monolatrists, but even so this approach oversimplifies things. Yes, sometimes simplicity is good for the game, where overcomplexity would be bad, but I believe that a greater understanding of how religion worked for various cultures could in fact improve my games.

Update on Shattered Empire

2010-06-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well since my players are home from college we are planning to get together in real life to play. Unfortunately this will actually be our first session since we haven't been able to get MapTool working. But I'm glad we'll finally be able to play!

Big Map of Kalimdor

2010-05-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

I have many projects I am working on or thinking about simultaneously. I do try to focus on the ones I'm actually playing or have a good chance of playing in the near future, but sometimes I work on other things. For instance I'd like to play a campaign in the Warcraft Universe, where the Warcraft series of games including the RTS Warcraft III and the MMORPG World of Warcraft are set. So I have been working on a map of Kalimdor, one of the continents in the series.

This map is large scale, with 30 mile hexes. Thus I am using twelve sheets of hex graph paper. One of the things I have noticed is that since the MMO has regions that should logically be much smaller in relation to the continent as they are presented as being, I have had to make decisions as to where these should be in relation to one another. For instance the zone called "the Thousand Needles" is supposed to be close to several zones, which are thousands of miles apart on my map. I had to make a decision as to where I wanted to put it, near on of the three zones, or somewhere in the middle. Ultimately I decided to put it near Feralas, a zone of jungle, as the explanation of it's existence presented in one of the RPG books that made the most sense to me, required it to be near that zone.

Ultimately, the fact that there is a lot of space between established regions is actually a bit of a blessing. There is a lot of space to put stuff that might not fit in one of the other regions. Furthermore players of the games will not know everything there is to know about Kalimdor. There will still be a lot of secrets. Though for some of the larger regions they still won't know everything. So over all I'm feeling good about my efforts. Just a few kinks to work out.

New Campaign: Lord Zack's Greyhawk: the Return of Elemental Evil

2010-05-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

I am trying to get a campaign going. It will be set in Greyhawk, but a modified version of the setting. For one thing many of the non human races will be fey in origin, the Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes were all originally fey, but eventually became more man-like. Halflings on the other hand are still considered demihumans, and there are additional demihuman races like troglodytes, no longer lizard-like, but instead a race of subterranean demihumans, and merfolk, which are obviously marine demihumans. I'm also rearranging the goblin races, hobgoblins are a smaller variety, rather than a larger one and the larger variety are called orcs, rather than having orcs and goblins be separate varieties. Goblins do vary by environment, as there are the more agile lowland orcs, and the stronger mountain orcs, as well as deep orcs. There are also crossbreeds of course, I'm thinking of making kobolds a crossbreed of gnome and goblin. Gnolls are in fact descended from orcs "blessed" by the demon lord Yeenoghu to resemble the canines that many goblins favor. Trolls also have changed as in my campaign they come in many varieties including ogres, and one resembling the traditional D&D troll. "Hill giants" for instance are a variety of troll. Goblins and trolls seemingly are related to certain varieties of evil fey, like the boggards and fomors respectively for instance. I am also using a version of Blackmoor closer to Dave Arneson's which also in a different place.

Now as for the campaign it's going to mostly be a sandbox, but there will also be a sort of plot, or at very least a theme. That being the Cult of Elemental Evil. Thus I will be using modules like the Village of Homlett/Temple of Elemental Evil, and the Giants/Drow series. These modules will not necessarily be as written. I'm considering heavily modify the Temple of Elemental Evil to address some complaints I've heard about it, for instance. I'm also using B2, and probably modifying the Caves of Chaos. I won't be using Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

the Shattered Empire

2010-05-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well it's been slow going, but it seems some time in the next week my game with my old group, minus a few people, and with a few new people will begin.

I have decided to start a new campaign instead of continuing my old one. I have set up a sandbox, though I'm still making a few adjustments to the map. They will be starting in the town of Delphens, which has a corrupt government and is dominated by rogues and thieves. Nearby, there are a couple of ruins from the old empire, that had been conquered by a human slave of the elves. There is also a mound that is inhabited by evil fey and a cult of elves to the north. Farther to the east is a ruin of a truly ancient culture that possessed great arcane and technological knowledge.

I tried to run the first session last Friday, but I had problems with MapTool.

Update

2010-03-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't written anything for a while. So I'll give it a go now.

Things have been a bit difficult in real life, but I have been getting some gaming in. Last Saturday I went to the PHB 3 Game Day and won a package of miniatures in a trivia contest. I've been working on a new campaign that I hope to start next month. I have an Obsidian Portal site on the campaign here.

To summarize he campaign is set in the outlying areas of an empire that fell 500 years ago. It's a sandbox campaign, so I've been creating maps and populating them with various threats and sites for adventure. It's been pretty fun.

Think that's pretty much it for now. I hope I am able to post again soon.

The Call of Cthulhu

2009-12-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had not yet read any Lovecraft stories. Well I just read the Call of Cthulhu. It was fascinating. Also completely horrifying. It does make me want to explore the idea of such alien beings in my games. However I do not believe, as the stories of Lovecraft posit that humankind is insignificant. I believe that we are even created in the very image of the Creator. To some degree or another that idea has shaped my idea of mankind's role in the fictional universes I set my games in. So my view of beings like Cthulhu is also shaped by that idea. It would be entirely possible for an adventuring party in my games to prevail once and for all against dread Cthulhu, not merely stalling the "inevitable", but averting it entirely. Not very Lovecraftian at all. More similar to the treatment of such beings in World of Warcraft, wherein being like C'thun and Yogg-Saron are to put it frankly, Raid Bosses. Now enemies in my games are not quite "Raid Bosses" that can be farmed for loot and the like, but a true adherence to the spirit of the Cthulhu Mythos would likely not give such beings statblocks and the like at all. I am not ashamed of this philosophy, but merely note the dichotomy between the spirit of the original material and my treatment of it. In fact I am considering having some kind of Chtulhuoid being be the guardian of the Water Crystal in my Legacy of the Titans campaign. Though as the Kraken that was the Fiend of Water in Final Fantasy, the inspiration for my Legacy of the Titans campaign in the first place, was quite like Chtulhu anyway, I might just use a Kraken and emphasis the similarities.sp

The Disciples of Pyro have returned!

2009-12-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

Well I have got a hold of some my old friends online and we've arranged to play Dungeons and Dragons online together! I think I might have them hear of the legendary Fire Crystal and thus, perhaps, engage in a pilgrimage to this obviously holy site... Then they may get involved in the Legacy of the Titans storyline. This is quite different from where the campaign was likely to go before, but even these plans are not set in stone.

Classification of Beings in the Castle Acheron Campaign

2009-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

I have given a lot of thought to the manner of beings found in the Castle Acheron campaign. What varieties of being are there? How are they classified? How did they come about?

There are certainly animals, plants and other forms of life, similar in nature to those found in our world. There are also beasts that are not found in our world, but are otherwise similar to natural animals. "Above" those are spirit beings, which include spirits clad in flesh and disembodied spirits. It is in this category that humans and others that can be considered people, (like hobbits and orcs, if I decide to include them) are found. These beings are primarily spirits, but inhabit animal bodies. There are also ascended beasts that are similar, but different in that they are created only late in an animals life and then only under specific conditions. These would include the kitsune, tanooki and nekomata spirits of Japanese myth. The spirits of people survive the deaths of they're bodies. Most leave this world for other planes of existence such as the Lands of the Dead (Hades, Hel, etc.), or the realms of they're Gods, but some remain in this world. There are also various spirits of nature, such as those found in animistic religions. Then there are spirits that do not have animal bodies at all, but may have "psuedobodies" of different natures. These include beings we might call faeries, but this category may also extend into the third category I have yet to discuss. Elves, dwarves and gnomes would fit under this category.

This third category also includes beings we might call angels, demons or gods. They are not spirits in the same manner as those of the second category, but of a different sort. I'm not really certain about the basis of the distinction, but I do think that beings such as demons and gods should be distinct from men. However, in this campaign I will make no distinction between demons, angels and gods. Though, some "angels" may in fact be beings created by "gods" to serve them. The distinctions between "gods", "angels" and "demons" will largely be a matter of the mythologies held by mortal beings. However, it's not that they are completely wrong, as they're mythologies will have some basis in fact, reflecting much of the actual relationships between the deities. However going further into this subject would be beyond the scope of this post. Perhaps I might call this category "celestials".

There may also be a fourth category of abberant beings that don't fit any where else. Similar to the aberration creature type of 3rd Edition or the aberrant origin of 4th Edition, and like those inspired by the Chtulhu Mythos. I haven't read any actual Lovecraft stories, but only things inspired by them like D&D and Warcraft. I find the creatures and beings of the Mythos to be fascinating, but do not agree with Lovecraft's world view. So the influences of the Mythos on my campaign are likely to be superficial. It should also be noted that my "celestial" beings include certain elements that make them similar to beings from the Chtulhu Mythos like alien forms and to some degree mentality. Some are at least superficially human-like but others are less so.

Obsidan Portal

2009-11-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

I have commenced writing up my Castle Acheron campaign on the Obsidian Portal Website. I plan on doing the same thing for my Legacy of the Titans campaign.

Magic Systems and New Magic Classes

2009-11-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

I like Vancian magic, but I have thought about different systems. I've especially thought about changing the way divine magic works and the best way to implement psionics and chi powers.

One thing I have considered is introducing ritual magic, like in 4th Edition. This magic may be completely separate and incompatible from Vancian-type magic, or a different expression of that kind, or a seperate discipline that is nonetheless used alongside Vancian magic.

In a similar spirit to my splitting of the fighter class I am considering using not one, but multiple magic-user classes. There would be an illusionist class, also having skill in charm and compulsion-type spells and a necromancer class, but also perhaps having a "white mage"-like variant that heals and reinforces his allies. I very much like the summoner class that Paizo recently developed for Pathfinder. I also have other ideas, like a warmage (evocation specialist, but also like a fighter/mage), a shapechanger and a savant (divination, primarily). That's also only getting into the wizard-like classes, I also want new theurge/priestly classes, probably along the lines of specialty priests. But I have a sort of problem. If there's all these specialized classes what class is Mordenkainen and Bigby? The obvious answer is of course "wizard", but what is a wizard? I don't want to have a generalist class, but what else are archetypal wizards? With the fighter I had the same problem, except using Yrag and Robilar as my examples. I came up with a solution in that case but I'm not sure what to do with the wizard.

Huh, that's funny

2009-11-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

So I was thinking about races for my Castle Acheron campaign and I wrote this about Dwarves:

A race of beings from the Underworld, short in stature with pale skin and large, bulbous eyes. They're long habitation of the Underworld has tied them to the land of the dead, thus some of they're kind have powers over the dead. They have a lot of arcane knowledge, which makes them highly valued as craftsmen.

The part about large eyes I put in as an afterthought, thinking "Hey, don't subterranean creatures usually have large eyes?" Then I thought about it more, and realized that that would make them look very different from the typical view of dwarves. Earlier in the process I had imagined them as kind of vampire looking. This conception is closer to Gollum with better posture.

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, bujt it's made me realize that changing the races will have consequences beyond just the world of the game. Somebody might come to my game with they're own notions of what a dwarf is and wanting to play that. My dwarves are similar to other dwarves, but also different in key ways. I don't want to turn people off to my campaign.

The Misadventures of Disciples of Pyro, et al

2009-11-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

Well after the new PCs were rolled up I had an adventure for them. It was around Halloween, so I decided to set the adventure in a haunted house. I wanted to have a horror theme, but I didn't know how to do it, so it was basically a hack-and-slash affair with a few clumsy attempts at adding some horror. I definitely would have done it differently now. I have wanted to get the chance to try it again since. Amusingly, they didn't actually permanently get rid of the main ghost that was haunting the place, so I was going to have a follow up, but I didn't get the chance to do that either. This adventure was still somewhat significant in that a discovery in the library of a reference to a place called "The Vault of Valarn" eventually led to the discovery of that place.

Then Santa Claus appeared in my game. He was called by another name, and didn't reveal that until they completed the quest. They had to delve into a cave system inhabited by various monsters, including a troll that had the package they had to retrieve. The players took the use of the word "package" in the wrong way, and started making all kinds of stupid jokes...

Anyway, though these sessions didn't really stand out, they were fun.

Fighting Men

2009-11-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

In 3rd Edition, according to many people, fighters suck at high levels. I don't know that from personal experience, but when it came up during the Pathfinder RPG Playtest, I came up with the idea of having, not just one fighter class, but several. Here are a few of my ideas.

Warrior: A basic, no nonsense fighter. Does not rely on fancy tricks, but simple, time tested techniques. Can call upon inner reserves of strength that give him an edge on the common fighter.

Soldier: Obviously most suited for the battlefield, but also useful in normal campaigns because they're abilities allow them to do well in adventuring groups.

Cavalier: The honorable fighter, often noble born. Probably based heavily off of the new Pathfinder class.

Duelist: These fighters pursue battle with a passion few others can match. Basically a "Kensai" class, but less culturally specific.

Hunter: A guy who hunts, but might be a murderous assassin or a heroic monster slayer. Generally based around taking down an opponent quickly and efficiently, and trying to stack the odds in his favor before battle begins.

I'm not sure what I'm doing with the paladin, barbarian and ranger. If I do retain them they'll likely be 90% identical to the versions in Pathfinder. The ranger kind of overlaps with the hunter, but if I make the ranger more specialized there might be room for both. It might instead be a prestige class, and paladin may also recieve that fate. Barbarian may also be a variant of warrior.

I've also considered changes to non-fighting man classes as a result of this idea. I'll discuss that in later posts.

The Legacy of the Titans

2009-11-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

The concept for this campaign is very much the opposite of the previous one I described. Unlike the previous campaign there is a plot, and it's very much routed in the Gygaxian tropes, though I am also mixing things in from my favorite fantasy worlds and taking things in my own direction. It's like an adventure path, but of my own creation.

The basic plot is taken from the first Final Fantasy game. However I'm putting in my own ideas. For instance, though I'm taking the idea of having four elemental crystals, which are the primary objective of the campaign, from Final Fantasy. However these crystals are in fact the power sources for four regulatory stations, ensuring that the forces of chaos cannot corrupt the world. These regulatory stations are magi-tech, built by the ancient Titans during the age when they colonized the world. However they have been compromised by the minions of a renegade Titan that wants to throw the world into chaos.

I've taken inspiration from this post by James Maliszewski about the Masks of Nyaralothep scenario. So I have come up with an initial scenario (though I've yet to write it out completely) leading them into the overall campaign, which will lead to the other scenarios. However, as with Masks of Nyaralothep the exact order in which these scenarios take place will not be predefined. So they might choose to go after the Water Crystal first. However, it may prove difficult to overcome the obstacles of certain scenarios if they aren't of a certain level. We'll see how this experiment works. There is also, of course, no expectation that the PCs will survive the challenges that they face. They may fail. I'll have to consider how I'll deal with that. If the PCs all die what happens? I am considering allowing them to choose PCs based on who they have encountered and what they have done. So if they befriended the King and he hasn't heard from them in a while, maybe he'll have his court wizard cast a divination. Then once he's learned the original PCs have died, he'll send a new party. Perhaps they'll even be able to retrieve the bodies of the original party and have them raised!

I have to admit, I have some doubts about this. This is far from the sandbox scenarios advocated by the OSR, though I am approaching it from a position that railroads are bad and that many of the attempts at doing plot-based gaming have been flawed. But I love epic stories like those in the Final Fantasy series and the Dragonlance novels. I want to run stories like those, I even want to run the Dragonlance modules, though they represent a lot of what is wrong with the story-based playstyle. But ultimately I think this campaign will be fun and isn't that what really counts?

Rules Systems

2009-11-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Not sure what rules system I want to use. I'm most familiar with 3rd Edition, but I'd like to give an earlier edition or retro-clone a shot. I've also considered designing my own rpg, but I haven't gotten very far and it'd likely be so similar to D&D anyway it might not be worth it. I've also been working on a modification of 3e which is a lot more likely to get done. I also want to DM 4e, but if I do it'll likely be in the second campaign I have yet to describe.

Me and the "Canon" of D&D

2009-11-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

Though part of the reason I am wanting to do the Castle Acheron campaign is to explore the "old ways" I also want to at the same time do things differently than before. I do not only love Dungeons and Dragons as a game, but I also love the world of Dungeons and Dragons. In my last campaign I adhered pretty close to the "Gygaxian Canon." I did do a few things differently, but in general I did things the way it said in the books. My first roleplaying book was the 1993 Monstrous Manual. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the monsters found in that book. Goblins and orcs, chromatic and metallic dragons and the tarrasque, and especially the extraplanar monsters (I hope to write a post on my love for the planes at a later date). So I grew to love the world of D&D and sought to learn all I could about it. But as I played I began to realize I tended to rely on what the book said over my own imagination. Now it's not necessarily a bad thing to use the published material, it;s what it's there for after all, but it should be a springboard, not a replacement for, my imagination.

Thus I seek to not hold so strictly to "canon" as I have before. I want my imagination to be less constricted, and though I probably needn't go so far, I am pretty much wiping the slate almost completely clean. Of course it's still similar in regards to the basic principles to D&D, there are powerful, mortal magic-users and dungeons, and stuff like that. I'm not going so far as to "ban" things that I like about D&D, and I don't have to come up with everything off the top of my head (for one thing I am using Rob Kuntz's new Dungeon Sets and maybe Robert Conley's Points of Light and I'm also including a lot of stuff from myths that is different from what's already in D&D or a different interpretation from how it's done in D&D). For instance, the "old me" would've instantly made the Gravelord a Lich, but I'm considering other alternatives. Maybe I'll still end up making him a Lich, though I may still have him be different than how a Lich is in D&D in that case, or maybe I'll do something that's different, but not particularly unique like a Ghost or Vampire. I'm not going to force myself to make something up just because. But the point is I'm thinking about alternatives and so I may come up with something more interesting. Not even old standbys like dwarves are safe from this treatment if I can come up with something cool to do with them. For instance I read on Wikipedia that dwarves were associated by the Norse with death, so I'm playing up that angle, hence why they were servants of the Gravelord. I'm also considering making them pale like in Norse myth as well, though they'll likely remain shorter than humans, but to what degree I haven't decided.

I didn't know Gary Gygax, but what I know about him from reading his writings suggest he'd agree with my view, if not necessarily the lengths I'm taking. When he wrote D&D I'm pretty sure he thought that everybody's campaign shouldn't be a carbon copy of Greyhawk, but that each DM should create his own world. Even when he put elements from Greyhawk in the D&D books I'm pretty sure it was as tools for the DM, rather than holy writ that must be adhered to. Hopefully by engaging in this excersize I'll free up my imagination to soar as high as it should.

Castle Acheron

2009-11-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

I am currently planning a campaign, or, rather two campaigns. The one I'm discussing in this post, however is intended to be an experiment in old school styles of play. It will be a sandbox campaign in structure, focusing on a megadungeon, "Castle Acheron", but also including the area surrounding that edifice.

Castle Acheron was the domain of a powerful necromancer, known by the title of "Gravelord". The Gravelord seized control of the castle due to it's presence at a convergence of laylines. He then proceeded to command his dwarven servants to create a series of catacombs, which served as not only a place for his dark laboratories where he experimented with bridging the gap between this life and the next, storage places for his powerful magical treasures, and housing for his minions and undead creations, but also he sought to use the construction to in fact weaken the barriers between the material world and the dread realm of Hades. This is why I chose the name "Castle Acheron" after the river that serves as the border of the land of the dead. In fact, it's likely that the players will visit the realm of the dead, by finding a portal to Hades in one of the lower layers.

As for the upper layers I'm pretty sure that dwarves will be a common threat. My dwarves are quite different then other dwarves, which I will elaborate on in my next post. Common dungeon threats such as goblins and kobold may not appear, which again I will address in my next post. Undead of various types are likely to be spread throughout the entire dungeon, in varying degrees depending on the layer of course. There will certainly be various kinds of vermin. Traps and tricks of various kinds will be a major feature. The lair of a powerful necromancer is a dangerous place. As you go lower, the influence of the land of the dead will get stronger. The idea that the region beneath the surface of the world is closer to the realm of the dead is true everywhere, in fact my world's equivalent to the Underdark is called the Underworld like the land of the dead it's self because of this fact. Castle Acheron is built to take advantage of this.

The Disciples of Pyro, and Company

2009-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

My last campaign was very fun for me. I admit it started off rather badly, as one-half of the characters died by the end of the first adventure, after one breath weapon attack by a black dragon. But after that things got better, as the players created they're own characters. My sister played a halfling rogue, named Karletta, which is based on her own name. This concept has become one of her favorites. My friend Gabe played a human fighter, which initially was named GLMH, after his initials, but I eventually got him to call the character "Gilhim". This character was originally a performer that used fire-ale to breath fire and was a member of an organization called the Pyro Guild. Then when we got to the "deity" section on the character sheet, he wanted to worship a fire deity, which he named "Pyro". Then we decided that this deity was in fact deceased and he wanted to revive him. This became the primary motivation of some of the players, and caused many interesting situations. Then there was Josh, playing an elven sorceress and Joe, playing an elven cleric. During the first adventure they had played the class the other player was at that point. So Josh had previously played a cleric and Joe a sorcerer. They're characters were the ones that were killed by the dragon. Finally later on, Nick joined the game with a drow fighter, named Leeroy Jenkins after the infamous World of Warcraft character. Fortunately, unlike his namesake he did not get the whole party killed. Unfortunetly he was rather underpowered due to the blasted Level Adjustment mechanic. He didn't even use his drow powers.

Where I to play the same campaign now with the knowledge I have now, I would probably have done some things differently. For one thing I would have tried to give Gabe's character more fire abilities somehow. I merely gave him the ability to make a rather weak fire attack with the fire-ale, a ring of burning hands and a flaming sword. He had this cool idea and I could have done more to accommodate it without letting things get unbalanced. Maybe I could have used the mechanics in the Book of Nine Swords to represent the fire-ale attack as a martial maneuver, and thus made it much more useful at higher levels. Also, since I read Unearthed Arcana my ideas about customization of character classes has changed. He was planning to multiclass into a prestige class that would allow him to cast divine spells of the Fire Domain. Now I might allow him to give up some of his Fighter Bonus Feats to do that at 1st level and without multiclassing out of Fighter. Another thing I know I would have done differently was the drow character. Level adjustments are a poor mechanic and were poorly implemented furthermore. Add to that the fact that the drow character was a level behind everybody else even after calculating in the level adjustment, and the character was quite weak indeed! Had the campaign continued I certainly would have taken steps to rectify that situation. Pathfinder has a good solution, splitting the drow into two sub-races, normal Drow and Noble Drow. Normal Drow are weaker, pretty much equivalent to the standard races and so can be played without any adjustment. Noble Drow are stronger, thus only playable by DM discretion (though normal drow are too, technically). Generally the rules for playing as monsters in the Pathfinder system amount to "it's up to the DM", but it is suggested that CR is used to weigh how strong a monster is compared to a normal PC race. I would also try to get Nick to use his race's abilities! Another thing is that I am not certain that cleric was the best class for Joe to play. He never used his spells, except for between battle for healing I think, so he might as well have played a fighter or barbarian. They needed healing, but I now know there are other ways to go about it then making some one play a cleric.

Though I do have these concerns the most important thing is that my campaign was fun. I wouldn't trade the memories I have of this campaign for the world. The game might not have been perfect, but the people I played it with made it memorable. There are more memories to share and I will do so later, but for now I think I will publish this post.

Old School, New School? I don't know!

2009-11-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

I feel somewhat torn. You see I have been reading a lot about the Old School Renaissance lately. This is, if you do not know, an attempt to explore the roots of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game and thus roleplaying in general. I find it quite fascinating, and a lot of what people say resonates with me, but I also am not certain about other things.

For instance, though I agree that the prevalence of strictly plotted adventures is detrimental to the hobby, I don't think that a game about saving the world is necessarily a bad thing. Also, though the pulp origins of Dungeons and Dragons mostly include morally ambiguous protagonists who sometimes do questionable things, I generally prefer that characters in my campaigns do nothing truly evil. Also, though I agree that characters should start off weak and work they're way up, I do think that truely mythic levels of prowess should be attainable. After all did not a 1st Edition Adventure involve taking on Lloth, a Goddess? In my opinion the characters who can achieve such a goal should be closer to Heracles, Cu Cuchulain and Son Goku then Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.

I plan to explore these subjects further and I will of course record my thoughts in this blog.