Campaign 10/11 - Intro.

POST CONTENTS: -
(This is as much for me, to remind me of what I was going to talk about)

1 - The game.

2 - The players.

3 - The setting.

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1. The Game.

The game will be playing uses the 3.5 edition ruleset. For anyone joining D&D at 4th ed, only some of this may make sense to you.

It's likely we will be playing once a week over the course of a year which, going from past experience, may not let the players level that far.
(I played in a game that lasted for a year, playing at this frequency and we only got to level three. I took over, DMing it after that and in that time the players only got to level 6.)
As such, I've allowed the players to begin at level 2. In addition, I'll be keeping up my practise of rewarding good plays with XP too.
(In my last campaign I had to actually award players with XP if they turned up on time as they were all frequently late.)

2. The Players.

We have four players (with a possible fifth depending on whether I decide I can be bothered to rebalance everything properly), those four players being new to the 3.5 ruleset.
One of the players played with version 1 or something, two played with 4th ed and the third has never played before at all.

I aleady have first drafts of outlines of their characters (except one. I haven't sat down with her and gone through it yet, but I'll get round to it.)

And so, here is what we have regarding the characters thus far(copied more or less word for word directly from my notes):

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'Mike's Guy' - Human

Typical 'wandering adventurer' type. Anti-hero. (Finding fortune & opportunity).
Chaotic Neutral.

From a Small town, beset by a cataclysmic disaster. He is the lone survivor.

An "X" shaped scar on chest, perhaps done by a dragon, with an as-of-yet mystical connection to said creature.

He wants revenge.

Trained by a swordsman.

Example of style = Witch-hunter from Warhammer 40K.

Wears medium or light leather.

He wants to start with a gun.

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A little derivative but this kind of stuff is par for the course so we'll just go ahead with it.

He's probably going to end up going rogue.

As for the gun, if I go along with it it'll be a flintlock. They're rather limited, given their reload times and price so we'll see how that goes.

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'John's Guy' - Originally Yuan-ti, now cursed to human form.

Not a good guy. (Don't fuck with him)

Chaotic Neutral?

Hard to trust.

Flawed physically (low cha score).

Sorcerer levels.

Primary goal = power. (Introduce negators after a few sessions)

Human form, change is relatively recent.

Was originally a snake-form Yuan-ti.

Skills in Herbalism & Poisons (and drugs drinks slyly with them) [Will need to take sleight of hand skill]

Outcast - wants revenge against those that cursed him.

Secretive guy - Cowled & Hooded.

Ashamed of his human face.

Int & Wis = High
Str & Dex = Low
Con = Higher than average
Cha = Low

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This one's a little more original, given the yuan-ti past and the shame the character has to live with.

He is a sorcerer so we have at least one caster. Somewhere I have notes for a "negator", something that negates magic. I'm still debating whether to do this or not.

The targets for the ability scores are there, though how successful that will be will depend on the rolls so that's something we'll have to deal with later.

===

'Hannah's Lass' - Elf or H/Elf.

Bit of an enigma.

Not a big brute.

Uses magic. (Has a bow though loath to use it)

Helps others.

Cleric.

Had folks she was close to (like family) and now they're gone somehow.

Neutral Good.

---

What is it with players wanting to play "mysterious" characters? Oh well, can't be helped. Must crack on.

She's playing a cleric, which gives us another caster.
She hasn't decided what Deity yet. I'm designing the campaign setting more or less from scratch; with original map and history. As such, the deities wont be the same (except for a handful I'm keeping...storyline reasons) though I've set up the cosmology as such that new deities can turn up, if they like...so she can make a deity up if she likes. (Well, in principal, anyway. On reflection I'd probably better do it.)

The bow-thing gives the party a long-range physical combatant.

She doesn't have much in mind for a backstory so that will need to be worked on but we'll figure something out.

===

The other party member (played by Cassie) hasn't been arranged, nor has the character of the potential fifth player. There's only so much I an plan without that information but for now I'll have to try and work around it.

~~~

3. The Setting.

The setting is being built from scratch. The primary landscape is an archipelago comprised of three large continents, arranged around a small sea (where there was once a landmass but there is no longer after a disaster centuries ago), with smaller islands dotted about.

Each continent and the nations and kingdoms within it have their own flavours to them, with some being more high fantasy than others, some being a little more gothic, or steampunk, etc.
The map is open, with key quests being designed with multiple solutions so that the players can go where they like.

Quests will be designed to cover the following:

- Storylines (Some based on characters and some based on locations),
- Circumstances (Character death, curing curses and ailments, pissing off the DM)
- Randoms (Random encounters beginning quest lines. With a few of these prepared beforehand they can be rolled out if and when the need arises).

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The first thing I need to figure out is where the party will begin the campaign.

The usual thing is to have the group meet (for some reason) in an inn. I don't think I'll be going entirely in that direction.
I need an original way to get the party in one place and to work together.

The idea I've gone with is to have them teleported to a singular location.

It breaks down as such:

Evil organisation begin cataclysmic attacks on several locations.
Good guys (with powerful wizards) turn up and begin emergency evacuations, resulting in large-scale teleportations.
Once people are through evacuation they must pool resources to survive the harsh terrain they ended up in.
All able-bodied personnel are grouped into 4 or 5 man units. Rewards for doing assigned jobs include money & supplies.

Examples of starting quests: -

- Kill monsters (pretty basic) so new colony can use land for farming and make-shift housing.
- Establish trade routes.
- Map terrain.
- Gather resources.

Main quest to lave this area will involved a captured badguy having escaped (by summoning all kinds of nasties) and the party's unit is assigned to go catch him.

Upon returning, they are freed from service. At this point (due to exploration) they should have several options for quest-lines.

So, first to design the intro and starting area...

DMing a new campaign.

It's been a while since I DMed but this September I begin again with a new group. Given how little I've updated this blog and given how much information I'm going to have to compile, returning to this blog and updating my progress seemed the best way to rectify both issues.

As such, I'll be blogging my progress; including the alchemy of my rulings and stat builds, thoughts on storylines and anything else that I decide is relevent.

Sadly, as much as I'd like to wow you with a comprehensive guide so that you can use this information yourselves in whatever way you need, I doubt I'm capable of being that coherant...though the thought had occured to me to structure it properly later. Maybe some day I will.

I'll be posting rules that I use as a reference to real-life events (as in what monsters I used and how the games panned out, etc) so I'm claiming "fair use" right here, right now. Just so you know.

As for my next post (which I'm typing alongside this but am seperating for ease of reading) I'll go into the outline of the game and the immediate demands for planning.

So, have fun. ^_^