A GREAT IDEA OR A TERRIBLE FAIL!

So, I had a somewhat clever, or extremely terrible, idea. Have two campaigns set in the same campaign world happening at the same time. Ok, ok, I know it really isn't a new or extremely clever idea...but here's the kicker: the two campaigns use different editions of DnD!

What brought this on is the discovering of older adventures and world doodlings that I recently found which I thought were lost. One of the "artifacts" was a highly detailed adventure and world doodle I made for my first 4e game...which ended abruptly...and the other was the beginnings of a mega-dungeon I had started creating for B/X. Both of these artifacts use the same campaign world, my created world of Amsmoria, and both of them happen in, roughly, the same time frame.

So...I'm wanting to run DnD again...as I always do, but rarely do it, and I'm planning on doing that Old-School game at the FLGS, how long have I been planning that?, and I'm trying to get my old gaming group back together...the one that started the 4e campaign...so, why not have both groups...or, hell, just one of them...run two different campaigns at the same time in the same campaign world using different editions of DnD!


Hell yes! Planning here I come!

CHARACTER FOCUS: KY'REE RAYNESFORD

So I decided to create a 4e ranger...a female, half-elf ranger. Why? Because I've become obsessed with the Hunger Games and wanted to create a character influenced by Katniss Everdeen. I know, I know...

Anyway, I thought I would share her backstory and a few stats. I'm not going to post all her "powers" or other crunch stats...because, frankly, I don't care about them. I'm more about story and role-playing than crunch and numbers.

 Name: Ky'Ree Raynesford
 Sex: Female
 Race: Half-Elf  
Class: Ranger (Hunter)  
Alignment: Neutral  
Deity: Melora
Age: 17  
Backstory: Ky'Ree is the daughter of Alton Raynesford who once had an ill-fated love affair with an Elven woman named Talia Silverhair. He loved her deeply, but her love was nothing more than a fleeting curiosity. After the birth of Ky'Ree, Talia lost interest and left, leaving Alton with a child to raise and the fires of anger and shame to stoke. Alton turned to drinking and lost interest in pretty much everything else. Ky'Ree had to not only raise herself, she also had to support her father. This left Ky'Ree with a fierce sense of independence and burning distrust of most people...and Elves.

Ok, so it's not the most original story, but I'm excited to try her out!

THE SATYR

It's no secret that I've been excited about Heroes of the Feywild since it was announced. It's also not a secret that I was extremely excited when WOTC announced the book would feature the Satyr as a playable race.

Well, the book is coming out next month and WOTC has begun to release preview exerpts from it...and this week, they've released the Satyr! Yes!

The race information is set like those of the other Heroes books...plenty of role-playing "fluff" mixed with the crunch. The race looks really exciting!

Here's a few stats:

Satyrs get a +2 to charisma, dexterity, or constitution which makes perfect sense to me...especially charisma...they've always been known as charmers.

All Satyrs have to be male...love it!

Satyrs can make saving throws both at the beginning and ending of their turn against fear based effects.

Bluff is always a class skill...makes perfect sense.

And Satyrs get the lure of enchantment racial ability which allows the Satyr to slide an enemy three squares and gain combat advantage against it.

There's also plenty of fluff to go along with all the mechanical rules that really gets me excited about trying out the Satyr.

Recommended classes are: Bard, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Warlock (with Fey pack).

If the rest of this book matches this excerpt, it will turn out to be a hell of a supplement and well worth my wait and excitement!

Think I may roll up a Satyr Bard/Rogue!

THE ROAD TO MERCY

Here's some more photos from the first adventure of the MERCY mini-campaign I ran last night at my FLGS.

BEHIND THE SCREEN

Here's a behind the scenes look at the 4e D&D game I ran last night.

The first adventure in the MERCY mini-campaign.


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A Special Magic Item

The party found a very special magic item in tonight's 4e D&D game: a +1 Pizza of Yummy!


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Late Night Ramble

So, I'm watching the two part Star Trek: TNG episode "Unification," and it has me thinking of a killer campaign arc. I'll not bother with a summary of the episode, see it if you haven't, but let's just say the events can translate quite well into a D&D adventure. What can be more comparable to the Vulcans and Romulans than the Elves and Drow? Stew on that for a bit, and you'll see where I'm heading...

I'll have to work on this idea!


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RECURRING NPCs

Just a another tidbit I picked up from DMG2:

Have players create two recurring NPCs that have ties to their characters. They can be friends or enemies.

Not a bad idea. I've always, of course, used my own recurring NPCs, but never really thought about having the players incorporate their own.

Good stuff!

COOPERATIVE PLAYING

Rereading the 4e DMG 2 has given me something to think about: cooperative playing. In most games I've played in and ran, I don't think I've ever seen players work out how their characters met or if they have a prior relationship. Sure, in the games I've ran, I've had players work on their back stories and character motivations, but I've never, that I can remember, had players work out why all these characters were fighting together. They were together because they just were...that was usually my reasoning.

I think next game I run, I'm going to have a pregame sit down where everyone throws around character ideas, story ideas, etc. May even make a random table to determine how characters "know" each other.

Interesting things to think about...

That's why I always like to reread the DMGs at least once a year...always find new ideas.

A SLIGHT DIVERSION

In the newest issue of KOBOLD QUARTERLY (#18), there's a nice little solo adventure called SILUS AND THE RED DOGS by Matthew J. Hanson. It hearkens back to days of TSR's ENDLESS QUEST books, THE LONE WOLF game books by Joe Dever, and, of course, the ever popular CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE books.

It's presented as a "Solo Adventure for a Halfling Thief." It's blurb proclaims:

This stand-alone adventure is designed for a single player with no GM. All you need to play is a d20, a pencil, some paper, and this magazine. The rules are explained as you play. Begin at number 1, and proceed from there.

It's formatted in a way as to be a slight amalgamation of 4e, Pathfinder, and Green Ronin's DRAGON AGE RPG. Although, the stat blocks favor 4e significantly.

I've been a fan of the "choose your own adventure" style books since childhood, and consider them a major influence on my love of RPGs, so when I saw this in the pages of the new Kobold Quaterly, I immediately started smiling...of course being the busy person that I am, I just now got around to trying it out...and, I have to say, it was a damn fine little diversion!

The story revolves around a halfling Thief named Silus who is trying to flee town and his former cronies THE RED DOG GANG. Of course, right off the bat, problems pop up that involves his sister...ok, ok, I won't ruin plot...let's move on to its layout...

It's layout calls to mind the basic structure of the Lone Wolf books and the 2nd generation Endless Quest books from the early/mid 90s. You are directed to read various numbered sections that present the story in small pieces that changes based on your choices. Combat is handled with d20 rolls and 4e styled stat blocks (instead of a random numbers table like in the Lone Wolf books). The adventure also calls to mind the solo adventure from the 1983 DnD basic set (and the WOTC version of the red box). It's very simple to play, and the story is written quite nicely and is fairly intriguing. I enjoyed every second of it, and plan on playing it again just to see where the other plot threads lead.

...oh, yeah, I should point out, that it is kind of a difficult game as far as combat is concerned...in other words, I almost died on more than one occasion...which probably had more to do with crappy rolls than anything else.

Anyway, I highly recommend getting the new Kobold Quarterly and trying out this little "diversion." I hope there are more adventures like this in the future! ...I really don't remember seeing any in past issues, but I am going back just to check.

GEN CON 2011 THOUGHTS

No, sadly, I wasn't able to attend Gen Con this year...or any year, for that matter...but I have been following its coverage on Twitter and some of the announcements Wizards of the Coast made gave me inspiration to type up this post.

One of the major things that caught my attention was the announcement of the player classes forHeroes of the Feywild, a book I've been excited about since its announcement last year. WOTC announced that the Satyr (that's right, an f'ing Satyr!), Pixie, and Hamadryad will be playable classes. One of them, they admitted, would be able to fly at 1st level...which I'm assuming will be the Pixie. In addition to the new classes, WOTC also announced a new Barbarian build (that goes from Defender to striker while raging), a new Bard build (a Skald type build), and several new Druid builds. Damn. My excitement level for this book just went from about 9 (out of 10) to about...oh, 20 or so.

Another bit of news that touched my fancy was some more information on the super-adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. WOTC announced that it would be an "open-ended," "non-linear" adventure. They also stated the box set would contain all a DM needs to run it: tokens, maps, adventures, and a 4e version of the Deck of Many Things (as an actual deck of cards). I must say, I'm more intrigued about this now than I was before.

The other big thing WOTC mentioned was the new campaign setting for next year. They would not say what it was but admitted that it would be something different and would be a "twist" on what people think of as a campaign setting. Now, the word "twist," when used by WOTC, kind of worries me. Their "twists" are usually things they think are great but fall flat on most gamers.

They did admit the campaign setting would not be Dragonlance, although it is on the "back burner." They also stated both Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim would be getting DDI support. Which I rather like.

Let's see, what else... Oh, they are working on a new miniature skirmish game that uses cards instead of dice, and they are planning to release non-randomized miniatures for both the skirmish game and the RPG.

Those were the main topics that I found interesting. Oh, yeah, they also showed interest in releasing digital copies of classic Dungeons and Dragons rules...which would kick all sorts of ass!

Other topics: new board games, new novels, whole bunch of elemental based things(including a new "Heroes" book), and a few more, mundane things.

All in all, I'm rather excited about the future of 4e DnD...first time in a long time.

No, no 5e was announced. That's probably next year. ;)

An Unprecedented Event

As the title says, I’m thinking of doing something I’ve never done before in my role-playing career: run a game in a published setting. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve never “turned my nose up” at campaign settings, on the contrary, I’ve kept up with pretty much every setting published since 2e…but, I’ve never ran a game in one. I always felt it was “bad form,” as Captain Hook would say, to use someone else’s world. To me it was saying that their world was better than mine and that my ideas weren’t good enough…which is bullshit, of course, but I’ve always been a bit “off.” I have used published adventures in my campaigns before, I've made quite a nice BECMI campaign based around The Keep on the Borderlands and The Isle of Dread, but I've never used a whole campaign setting. Anyway, I’m bringing this up because I’ve been reading the 4e Forgotten Realms campaign guide (mainly to see if it is as bad as everyone says it is), and it has really sparked my interest in running a Realms based game…something other campaign guides usually fail to do. Now the Forgotten Realms and I have never been “close.” I always preferred Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Dark Sun to the Realms, but I’ve always respected it as a nice, fleshed out world. I have to admit, I like what WOTC did with 4e Forgotten Realms (I will blog more about this later), and I think it’s a nice starting place for DMs to enter into the world. Not to mention, WOTC is releasing a new NEVERWINTER campaign setting which will just add more to the Realms.

So, next chance I have to DM a 4e game, I think I will run a campaign set in the Realms!

LOUDWATER

So, I'm finally reading the 4e campaign guide to Forgotten Realms...it only took me a year or so to get around to it, and I must say, the presentation of Loudwater at the beginning of the book is excellent! It's introduced as a starting "home" for characters and is full of adventure hooks that will allow players the opportunity to explore the neighboring regions and beyond. Of course, in true 4e fashion, it starts off beginning characters in the middle of a battle. I'm more into exploring than fighting, but, nonetheless, the encounter isn't too bad.

A map of Loudwater is given with details covering every building in the town. There's also a nice list of NPCs that send players off on various adventures. The town also features a criminal gang that is operating within the town's limits...which provides a nice starting adventure for beginning characters.

All-in-all, I'm enjoying the FR campaign guide so far. I know there are many (many) people out there who dislike what the design team did to the Realms, but, honestly, I think it was about time to shed some of its years of history.

Anyway, if anything else catches my attention, I'll write a post about it.

NEW BLOG FEATURE

As I've done on my other RPG blog, I will institute a new feature: Review.

So, expect some reviews in the upcoming weeks. Mainly 4e, Pathfinder, and other RPG related products.

THE MANSION ON THE HILL

I have begun work on The Mansion on the Hill, which I have mentioned earlier. I'm initially setting it up as a mega-adventure covering levels 10-14. It primarily revolves around a village living in fear of a evil entity that lives in the Mansion on the Hill. I don't want to spoil too much this early on...plus all the details are still in the planning stage, but this adventure should please fans of Ravenloft and other horror themed campaigns. I may even tie it in to the new The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond setting that's coming out. I'm setting it up more or less as a sandbox campaign with the actual Mansion as the focal point of the adventure.

THE SHADOWFELL...

All the special attention being paid to the Shadowfell lately, with the release of Heroes of Shadow and the upcoming The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond, has made me want to run Keep on the Shadowfell (again).

HOLD THE TOWER, BRING ME A MANSION...

Well, I've put the Tower of Mirrors on hold and decided to work with an adventure that's been running around in my head. Hopefully I can have it completed by October. I shall call it:

THE MANSION ON THE HILL

THE BORDERLANDS...

I find it quite exciting how much the flavor text in Heroes of the Fallen Lands references old-school DnD. There's a lot of talk about keeps on the borderlands...and, frankly, the whole text seems "retro."

Good stuff!

THE ESSENTIALS OF DUNGEON CRAWLING...

Picked up my copies of HEROES OF THE FALLEN LANDS and the RULES COMPENDIUM today! I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about the Essentials line. It makes me want to start a fresh, new campaign based more on the traditional dungeon crawling aspects of the game.

Just flipping through the books, I can tell these will be great references to new players or older players who have yet to play 4e. The books feel more "classic" than the actual PHB and DMG for 4e, and I think that will be a big selling point for the line. I also like the format of the books. When I first heard of the change from hardback to a smaller, digest sized paperback, I was a little dismayed. The end result, however, is quite nice and will be of more use to players and DMs at the table.

Oh, well, I better stop. I'm starting to sound like a WOTC spokesman.

THE TOWER OF MIRRORS...

So, I'm beginning work on a 4e adventure. It's not really fleshed out at this point, but I'm using the working title: THE TOWER OF MIRRORS. The name is partly inspired by the ending to Conan: The Destroyer, but the context of the adventure will center around the exploits of a 4e character I once played as an NPC. The character was a dwarven artificer who was exposed to the elements of the Far Realm...the after effects of which...well, let's just say it "changed" him a bit.

I had originally used this character to flesh out a party, but had the idea (around the time Psionics was introduced into 4e) to have him turn on the party. I had deduced that since Psionics were not a natural part of the character's world, exposure to it would probably cause him to go quite mad. He was going to become a major villain after turning on the party, but, sadly, that never came to complete fruition.

Anyway, he now has become the major villain of my newest adventure.

Stay tuned for details.



Edit: I've changed the title of the adventure from "The Temple of Mirrors" to "The Tower of Mirrors."