Fate of the Realms Session Six

 So after encountering the man smelling of rats they follow him to the Hall of Many Pillars before loosing him. It is as if he just mysteriously disappeared... So from there they decide to go to the north. They interestingly pretty much follow the same steps as the party in the fourth session, the main difference is that they avoid contact with the goblins and encounter some skeletons. They encounter the Hall of Heroes and the Bone Throne, but make no real interactions with them.

 They finally encounter the leader of the goblins who tells them that his room in off limits. They do manage to get him to answer a couple of questions, not that the answers are all that useful. They then encounter the main goblin group and decide to vamoose, which is about where we left off.

I honestly thought that the one player who had played in the previous session to mention something about how they were retracing his steps, but nothing.

The Halls of Knowledge and the Azure Havens

 So I have been giving more thought to my Post-Apocalyptic Alfheim campaign and my megadungeon now has a name- The Halls of Knowledge. Or possibly Halls of Divine Knowledge. Also, I have decided that I will be saving the creation of this adventure for later and for now will be focusing on a simpler scenario to start the game. Here is some of the background I have been developing

The campaign will start off in the Azure Havens, a series of elven nations along the eastern coast of the continent. Specifically, one of their cities has been greatly expanded to accommodate traffic from the continent to the east, one more similar to medieval Europe. This is where many of the elves emigrated long, long ago due to a second, less destructive schism with those who wanted to follow the leader of the Great War as their Overking and those that did not. Essentially those that followed the Overking were high elves and those that did not are wood elves, though I am uncertain as to whether I will have a mechanical difference between the two.

 This city is a mix between the old elven city and newer, largely human architecture. There are large sections devoted to the armies coming from the lands of men. Much of this is devoted to kinds of entertainment that the elves would eschew... Not far from this city is a citadel that has been destroyed by the goblinoid horde and has yet to be reclaimed... partly because the ruins have been occupied by fell creatures, including some remaining goblinoids. To clear out this citadel will be an early goal of the campaign. I am considering even having a portal to the Halls of Knowledge in the ruins of the citadel.

 I have given some thought to the other races. The dwarves are also generally split into hill and mountain dwarves...  with "hill dwarves" being those on the outskirts of the dwarven hegemonies (there are seven, one for each of the dwarven forefathers, though some are more centralized/intact than others) and the "mountain dwarves" are those in the metropolitan heartland, including the subterranean homelands, each centralized aground a great "manor," that may or may not be still inhabited by its original denizens. Except on the elven continent are the duergar, who dug too greedily and too deep and disturbed eldritch beings which altered them. Part of the drow have been corrupted by these same eldritch creatures after being driven into the depths of the world by their goblinoid former servants (though some remain under the drow's aegis).

Hello!

Hey, long time no post I know, but I am going to try to post again. Right now I am not doing much gaming, but I am hoping to start. I am playing a one-on-one game with my sister, set in Greyhawk and using first edition Pathfinder. I am also starting an Edge of the Empire campaign on roll20.net: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/144352/rise-and-fall-of-the-zann-consortium

Temple of the Underworld: Adventures on the Planes

I have been playing a new campaign for a few months now. It is 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules in a campaign world of my design. It is focused on a megadungeon called the Temple of the Underworld, which was, as it's name suggests was devoted to deities of the dead or the underworld. The elven deity Labelas Enoreth, though devoted to longevity, is the closest thing that the elves have to a deity of the dead and thus also worshiped there.

The first couple of sessions were rather routine explorations of the first level of the dungeon, with a very brief foray into a flooded sub-level. However the campaign would be uprooted by the actions of the dwarven fighter Grell defiled a shrine devoted to a demigod son of Zeus. This angered Zeus, so Zeus sent a spirit to confront the PCs and give them a quest to fulfill. They were to travel to the Temple of Zeus far to the south and present themselves to the priest their for further instructions. They... didn't make it.

In order to get horses to expedite their journey they agreed to do a task for the local count. They followed a map to what was once a bandit's lair, but turned out to currently be inhabited by orcs. They did alright at first, but due to my lack of understanding of 5e encounter difficulties ended up running into an overwhelming group of orcs that quickly defeated them (I am strongly considering using converted stats from 1e or 2e rather than the existing 5e stats). Instead of allowing this to end in a TPK I judged that Zeus, wanting to insure that the PCs did not die without fulfilling their obligation to him rescued them.

They awoke in the presence of Zeus himself. Zeus bade them again to go to his temple, but this time the one in the extraplanar city of Sigil. The PCs agreed, but before leaving Olympus sought an audience with Ares, who granted it because the Count was preparing for a war and had his favor. So Ares granted them another quest in exchange for assistance, including a guide, which was a new PC (one who only showed up for one game as it turned out). The PCs then sought out the Great Eagles of Zeus, the descendants of the giant, golden eagle that is Zeus's personal companion.

Before they made it to the roost of the Eagles they encountered a dryad in a grove on the slopes of Mount Olympus. It charmed their guide and when they attempted to leave with him she summoned two wolves to attack the PCs. However they were able to smooth things over by mentioning their obligation to Zeus. When they met the Great Eagles they again mentioned their obligation to Zeus in order to secure their aid. Thus they secured a ride to the town of Thrassos, where there was a portal to the gate town of Glorium, from where they could get to Sigil. However, to access the portal they needed the consent of the town elders. It took some time to secure that consent from the busy elders, so while they waited they sought out a mage to send a message to the Count on the Material Plane. The halfling rogue, Himaru, was dismayed that unlike many of his companions he could not see in the dark and so commissioned a magic item that would make up for this weakness. The mage agreed in exchange for money, trade and a service. It seemed a certain house in town was the site of mysterious events.

They set out for the house and quickly experienced a number of strange phenomena, including two parallel passages that led back to the other and an unusual creature, like an ambulatory bush that was responsible for the strange phenomena. I used the The Random Esoteric Creature Generator by James Raggi to create this creature. They did not want to fight this bizarre creature and so parlayed. The creature seemed interested only in being left alone, so they left, but warned the creature that they could not guarantee others would not come. They did advise the mage of what they found. The PCs also took on another quest in order to hopefully expedite their audience with the elders. They pursued a priest of Loki to a nearby cave where they discovered a hidden, ruined temple to Loki. They soon found the priest, accompanied by hirelings and learned that he was searching for what he described as a Hammer of Thunderbolts with a short handle.

After a short time they fought a group of norkers and their orc allies. While the PCs were dealing with a group of goblins that arrived as a random encounter, pursuing them as they fled, the priest and his party slipped away and discovered their goal in a nearby hidden room. The PCs soon realized what was happening and hurried after them, discovering the priest trying to tip over a pedestal so that the hammer would fall in. After the battle the PCs realized what the hammer was, no mere Hammer of Thunderbolts but the Hammer of Thor himself, Mjolnir. The PCs resolved to return the hammer to Thor, not wanting to anger him by trying to keep it, not that they had any way to use the hammer. Of course by hindering Loki's priest they attracted the attention of Loki, but would hopefully have the favor of Thor.

After another week they elders could finally let them through the portal. In Glorium they sought out the Temple of Odin, which contained shrines to other deities, including Thor. They prayed at the shrine and Thor himself appeared. After a demonstration in which a tree was demolished by Mjolnir's power Thor granted boons- Boots and a Cloak of Elvenkind for the rogue and a ring of Enlarge/Reduce for the dwarf. Thor also directed them to the portal.

Finally they arrived in Sigil, the portal leading to the Great Gymnasium, headquarters of the Transcendent Order, one of several factions that held influence over the city. They were ushered out of the building by guards as the gymnasium was closed to the public at that time. They sought out a guide and found one, an Azer. He agreed to show them to the Temples of Zeus and Ares in the city and they got their new quests- find the relic that started the whole thing and bring it back to the Temple of Zeus and travel to a dungeon on the world of Abeir-Toril and share it with the Count. They were able to find a portal that led to the depths of the Temple of the Underworld (one I intended for them to find during there adventuring originally) and started searching for the shrine, since they came out in an unfamiliar area. They encountered Manes demons and Shadow Demon and a swarm of ambulatory fungi, before deciding to take a rest, which is where things stand now.

D&D Campaign Setting: Earth: the Planes

Here's what I've been working on on the "D&D Earth" Campaign Setting I talked about earlier. It's a work in progress, but it is about D&D Earth's relationship with the rest of the planes.

A D&D Campaign Setting: Earth

There are a lot of references in D&D to Earth, such as why and by whom the Forgotten Realms were forgotten and Oerth being one of five alternate worlds with varying amounts of magic, Earth being the least magical. So yesterday I got an idea to detail Earth as a D&D Setting, where the PCs would either be visiting from D&D worlds, or being Earth natives dealing with D&D elements crossing over. This has sort of been done before, with d20 modern's Shadow Chasers and Urban Arcana, but I'm thinking of a somewhat different version, including a bit of "Yog-Sothothery". Other inspirations is the 2e Historical Reference series.

The world has had periods of waxing and waning magic, with the earliest having been in prehistory, during the time of Atlantis. The waning of magic contributed to Atlantis's destruction, but magic eventually came back during the Age of Myths, including the age of the Greek heroes. By the time of Classical Greece most magic again disappeared. Magic again peaked during the Dark Ages, including the reign of King Arthur (who yes, exists in this version of Earth), then started to wane again during the Middle Ages, eventually reaching it's lowest point. However by the 20th Century magic again began to be restored, slowly and subtly. By the modern day it has again started to take hold again, and subtly effects society in the background.

Not all myths are true, but they do tend to be partially true. Mythological figures may have had somewhat different motives or be slightly different than they are presented in myth, different kinds of creatures might have been confused for those of a different type, or their may be more than one of a creature that was thought to be unique. The conventional understanding of history is wrong as well, since you know, myths and legends are true.

Most people, even many "bad guys" tend to be neutral, with optional rules for "unaligned" characters and "temporary" alignments, so that characters like paladins don't get completely nerfed. Hitler is evil however.

Just a few of my ideas. I will post more later.

The urge to play...

Okay, 4th edition is by far my least favorite version of Dungeons and Dragons. However, that still doesn't mean I hate it. Heck I've had a lot of fun playing Living Forgotten Realms. My preference might be for more old school games, but I still think 4th edition isn't completely bad. Once in a while I get the urge to play it. With my discovery of roll20.net this is completely feasible and I'm getting the urge...
.
However, if I do play it I'm likely to make a few rule changes. These include:

• Alignments are the nine traditional ones. However, you need not choose one of these and may choose to be unaligned.
• Races might get some tweaks. For instance I like Hobbit halflings.
• Hit points will be lower. I might even use hit dice.
• There may be some changes to the rules for rests. Perhaps a third category of rests will be introduced, with this one restoring all hp and the lesser rests restoring hp at a lower rate.

The "Core Assumptions" will also be altered:
 The World is Mysterious, But Not All Of It: Much of the world is covered with "swathes of light" with hundreds of villages that are relatively safe, with the occasional "point of darkness". However, the campaign will focus on the borderlands between these swathes of light, where it is much more mysterious and there are only the occasional "point of light"
Monsters are Everywhere on the Borderlands: Again, there are large swathes of light, where it is mostly safe. It's mostly on the edges of civilization that you have to worry about villages being wiped out.
Adventurers are Not Exceptional: The PCs might be special, but only if they overcome many difficulties to earn it. Just anybody could potentially be an adventurer.
The Common Races Sometimes Band Together: Alliances of men, elves and dwarves have stood against hordes of goblins, trolls and giants in the past, yes, but just as often have quarreled against each other. In human kingdoms civil wars are common, with feuding lords levying their people to march against their enemies just about every springtime after they have finished their planting.
Magic is Not Everyday: Peasants will often see magic, but they do not understand it very well. The common folk tend towards superstition.
Primordals Don't Exist: I'm not using the concept of primordals.
Gods Are Active: Gods regularly walk the world, and often interact with mortals.

Generally I will be using more story elements from pre-4e. Archons are lawful good immortals, Eladrins are chaotic good immortals. Succubi are demons. The planes hew closer to the Great Wheel model. Etc.

So, what do you think? Is it even worth bothering with 4e? Should I just stick with versions of D&D that are closer to my ideal? Will I even be able to find players willin to use these house rules?

the Planes of Existence

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. 

Classification of Beings in the Castle Acheron Campaign

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

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

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

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

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.

The Legacy of the Titans

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

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

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.

The Disciples of Pyro, and Company

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!

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.