Campaign-Wiki

Inspired by http://chorenn.stormgazer.net/Chorenn – a wiki campaign journal (See the Choren blog reported earlier). I’ve started a short discussion or perhaps more of a proposal, that we could do very much the same for our campaign.
A short notice, since we’re a roleplaying group located in Austria, Central Europe and our native tongue is german, I’ve decided to start the wiki in our mother language – due to more or less obvious reasons. The primary purpose will of course be to enhance the details on various storylines, enable the GM and players to keep track of locations, vessels, past events and most importantly persons in the game. With our gaming group being very stable on terms of players that come and go, I expect that the wiki indeed is a great idea, and since I’ve yesterday best my weaker self, and started a partial index and several shorter articles in the wiki, maybe the idea really has a positive impact on our group.
I’ll try to report back here in case you’re interested in a few weeks, and tell how things have turned out. For all those who are interested in our wiki, it’s located here. (As said before in german)

Dear all, have a pleasant and relaxing weekend, I’ll report back after our sunday’s gaming here.

Featuring…

Well I tend to update my blogroll (you can hardly miss it – it’s right next to this text) silently. But I have to admit doing so probably does not give the credit many blogs deserve. And I came to realize that today when I read through a few rpg blogs… Featuring other blogs tends to be the way to show what you like and a key feature one should utilize, whether he’s a regular blogger or just a irregular one as I am.

So I picked three blogs I discovered lately and though a short description and my sincere recommendation to give them a few moments of your time, if you’re (as I am) looking for interesting reads. Continue reading Featuring…

The Change, Death and the Lich

Or in other words,
we had a recent change (not extremly unexpected) in our roleplaying group. Thomas took the seat of a player for once again and Roman traded his for the DungeonMaster’s. Now this is a great thing, since Roman already has thrown a lot of motivation into it just by the action itself. Furthermore (as a meanwhile quite experienced dungeon master) I can only say, I love the aspect other Dungeon Masters bring into the game, especially new ones. For one thing I think it’s the best way to get a grip on rules regarding combat and for a player it’s the sheer aspect of what you usually tend to critisize and now have to endure yourself ;-). No actually I think it’s just a very pleasant experience – a common (pre-)judice Roman excels at all things dwarven, he has a strong favor for the stout people and for me this has already taken shape in the adventure-line. (Maybe by pure coincidence though…)

Well, last time we’ve been travelling by ship from Baldur’s Gate to an island in the far west. On our way we were attacked by an overwhelming force of undead on board of a ghost-ship. Continue reading The Change, Death and the Lich

Cat-TV and balm for the soul

Oh dear, I’ve been far too busy lately – and broke with my newly found intentions to write more often. Nevertheless the little spare-time that was left between working hours and business trips were spent quite creative… But have a look yourself:

It was rather tempting to give the three cats (Einstein (2), Jakob (3) and Jeanny (4)) a very special gift – a cat-tv which happens to be a little balm for human soul, too. At least it should be – when it’s finally up and working.

Cat-TV

Continue reading Cat-TV and balm for the soul

A Ghostship Story

Good morning,
it was a good afternoon & evening yesterday. Honestly we met around 13:30 / 14:00 for one of those nice gaming sessions, as we do so often (probably every two weeks). I started with short stories on our mission a few weeks ago and thought it appropriate to report back with more details now. Well, we did your way to Baldur’s Tor to find out, that Duke Eltan has a strange disease but we will probably not get any chance for an audience any time soon. Being “the good guys” here, we thought about something we could do to improve our standings with the city and the opportunity we’ve been waiting for might have been just here. We had several little happenings in the city, Sharyl escaping closely from a brawl when she first really botched it when trying to rob a drunk and Rei tried to help her with a real bad aim for the drunk’s leg. But they managed a close escape and got into a short talk with a shady figure in the city – they were kinda “hired” with the promise on some information to take out a lingering ghost from the sewers.
Well we didn’t as much as complain on our way, with Soinius noting that proper preparation would have been a good idea which went largely unnoticed. Not even having the gnome wizard with them, they finally got destroyed the ghost with the combined effords of summoned elementals noticing hardly how close they all were to dying there. A short inspection of the area brought (by the way) the insight that they were battling on the remains of a rather large temple of Bhaal. And it was spooky!

We did not have to wait very long for a real quest coming up and we had a few things that just pointed westwards (a missing relic of the Umberlee Temple, Eliath – the main reason for Sharyl and Rei to be around in Baldur’s Gate – the request of the flaming fist (local mercs that are very much the city guards)), well Eliath was somehow connected to the missing relic and we were hired of the Flaming Fist for some gold pieces to find out what really happened to an missing ship (~150 ppl + large battleship) on its way to a dungeon of trapped fiends.
Well, having enough adventure in immediate future – we started within days and did not question a lot – together with Helmfried, a local ass – ah I meant Helmite and Solvis one of the sea-bitch’s favored and roundabout 200 soldiers, mercenaries and shipcrew guys, we headed for the far west. Having a journey in front of us that would take several months. And it did not take long (around 2 weeks) until we met the first real encounter on ship – a ghostship from Luskan.
It was Selvis that tried to convince the captain to take the ship down to the depths of the ocean where it belonged when we found out that it was probably not our chosing – the damned vessel was coming for us – straight and that is where the fun for us players and probably the horror for our characters started.
We were very much determined to find the evil focus/foci on the ship and destroy it before the wraiths and undead would take down our whole crew. So Halfling and Gnome made for a good start and stepped through Dimensional Doors directly into the enemy’s ship-bow. Calling out to Brandobaris Soinius did his best to keep the vile ghosts at bay while his gnomish accomplice would take care of a protective circle. When finally Sharyl, Vadania and Rei arrived on the ghostship – a severe fighting of ghosts and men was ongoing on our own vessel. We had to hurry and find the unholy forces that kept this ship together…
Fighting dozens of ghosts ourselves with the unfailing backup of summoned celestial creatures to aid either men or direct combat on our side we managed to go below and were confronted by a powerful drowned undead wielding butcher’s axes, while the chains that were the focus were healing him and made him a tough challenge. It was then when the gnome had depleted all of his magic and dropped, Sharyl had taken severe hits and the party was working hardest to solve the puzzle, when Solvis send a message to the unnerved and deperate halfling – that the chains were the real focus of the enemy. Within moments Vadania and Soinius had channeled the undying’s doom, positive healing energy into several of them – it was then when Rei split chains with her bare hands and Sharyl cleaved at them with her blades. All happened faster than one can imagine this, the ship fell apart – indeed going back to unknown depths – Umberlee’s depths. While a quick prayer to the lucky one gave all, including the gnome that had regained his consciousness, the ability to breathe water, Vadania turned into a large bear and took off with the whole party attached to her fur, carrying the gnome in her mouth like a baby bear – flying back to our ship, where the exhausted and battered party picked the direct way back to their resting places. Forgetting to give a glance to what happened here – probably turning around when the crying and wailing of the wounded from above, make at least Soinius’s stomach once again turn upside-down.

Monday Morning Quiz

Good morning,
http://www.dungeonmastering.com/gaming-life/dnd-sunday-morning-quiz-magic
ok it was a sunday morning quiz, but I read it today so I think I could say I’ve 100 points without psychologial profiling modifier…

dungeonmastering.com has pretty funny quizzes every now and then – if you feel like needing a smile, do it 😉

Your score before profiling: 100 / 100
Your psycholigical profiling modifier: -6
YOUR SCORE: 94%

Astounding! Almost perfect! You’re a wizard, right?

At least I feel a slight tingling that I could write some Forgotten Realms Lore Quiz to improve the general background knowledge of my (fellow) players… Maybe a project for the immediate future.

Lars and the real girl – The delusive love story

What a nice coincidence, after yesterday’s work my best friend and my girlfriend convinced me to join them in one of the local shopping malls…
…after too much food, hot white chocolate drinks and a piece of apple-pie we met Dani and Sarah, who planned to attend the sneak preview (like in older times I’ve done quite often on wednesdays…)
Ok so our choice was – Sneak Preview, Saw 4 or Rambo 4 with the later two voted out due to our girlfriends – which made the choice more a fact *smile*.

Needless to say we bought the tickets and – well everything started with quite a lot of action – the trailers of TheDarkKnight (Batman), 10.000BC and at least one more trailer I do not remember… And before this there was a strange “28 days to war” trailer, I couldn’t find anything on this horror movie – it at least seemed like one.
Then the main movie started “Lars and the real girl”.
(First impression – “Oh no, not another heart-breaking romance only – movie!”)
The beginning five minutes were not very promising, everything takes place in a small village, a sister trying to convince her brother Lars to join them to their breakfast/dinner… Lars at work trying to avoid every contact from people, especially women. [This was the one weakness I really didn’t like about this film, you see Margo + Lars and can figure the ending within one moment there]. But then it starts with a creative mix of humor and the real girl (a lifelike doll) is shown on the monitor of Lars’ colleague.
6 weeks later a quite large box is delivered by UPS (perfect product placement there) and everything unfolds. Lars goes over to his brother and sister-in-law and announces he’s got a woman over at his place. He would like to come to dinner and like her to sleep at their place in the pink room (because she’s quite religious and stuff).
Well without spoiling everything in the film. It is a good choice for a nice evening – maybe not a movie to watch more than once (within a few years) but definitely a great choice for a film that has all a movie needs. It’s quite sophisticated, has a lot of humor and still a lot of seriousness. The actors did an outstanding job and according to IMDB it’s already nominiated for an Oscar and has gotten several awards.
It’s not perfect and probably not for everyone, but it’s combinations of light-heartedness, psychological relevance and sophistication (probably the worst words I’ve ever used for a review) make this film special. I’d give it 9 of 10 points.

Insurrection

The second part of six is done. Honestly I start to understand why I was not overly fond of the first part…
Thomas M. Reid did a good job on the second one – this one is about the journey of a handful Menzoberranzanyr to Ched Nasad to find out what happened to Llolth, did other drow loose contact as well?
As usual I will try to give a review without spoiling the fun of reading the book yourself. (It is probably worth it, I liked it)

The first part describes the journey to Ched Nasad itself, the band of drow itself is quite amusing, with refreshing quirks of characters I got to “like” during the first part (though I did not like the style of writing).
I am sure if you like demons – this part will be quite special and will provide you with a special insight that will keep you smiling throughout the whole book. The second part is about special happenings in the city of Ched Nasad – a plan going awry –
– and finally the third part is mainly about underdark war.

Insurrection gives an insight on guardian spiders (which are described in a very lovely way), on duergar mercenaries and their tactics and a lot of destruction.
I really recommend this book for all those who like underdark adventures – Thomas M Reid does an excellent job on spell descriptions, internal conflicts and thoughts of the various (refreshing) characters.
While I wouldn’t say this is one of the best books I’ve read for a time, it still is a good second part, which prepares for something completely different upcoming. I’ll keep reporting on the upcoming Condemnation.

Insurrection

The Realms vs. Ptolus

It is not a real frustration – but recent events making things easier for me to shift my plans from Faerun to Ptolus. I’ve written two short (though german) reviews of Ptolus mid last year. But I never made it real to transfer to campaign to this world.
Why? Well, I’ve stuck with Forgotten Realms for (seems to me) endless years. I still know about Myrkul, remember the realms for the Beholders and Dragons in it. I remember Mist from the Curse of the Azure Bonds as well as the bladeback paladin and Alias. It was back then when I fell in love with this world – part of them were -my- realms.
I remember reading Ed Greenwood’s Elminster x-o-logie, I enjoyed Troy Dening as well as Elaine Cunningham in those realms – I instantly enjoyed so many novels, sourcebooks and more. Last but not least I was riding on the shadows with Paul S. Kemp’s Erevis Cale – and ended up against Shadovar, the Sojourner, several Creatures of Chaos and Evil – and it felt so thrilling – so pure – so fantasy – just fantastic.

Well, things will change. I finished screening the Great History of the Realms. [Spoiler ahead] and things are going to change.
No honestly I don’t care whether Mystra dies again, I have to admit the idea of two gods ruling over the portfolio of magic never was my idea of a great system and with Mystra dead and Shar bereft of her shadowweave things will probably turn a better way.
On the other hand, Helm slain by Tyr over a very “human” dispute, misunderstanding or simply “Tymora” – seems to me very far from a good idea.
Furthermore the cleanup of the Realms just feels wrong. There are that many changes – in so little time. You probably remember 2nd Edition settings when they started with (as stated earlier) special events – Time of Troubles – it was great back then.
But again?
I mean why in the hells are things happen now in a span of a dozen years – again and again and again?
Instead of focussing on the things at hand – fleshing out the political disputes, intrigues and stuff – everything is changed by a “higher force” – something intangible – something that just doesn’t feel right to me and reading the gleemax boards (wizards.com) – at least several others feel very much the same here.

Instead of continuing the ranting and complaining. I’ll pick the better of it for me. I’ll try to convert to Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting now. Well, not instantly as I’m a “mere” player at the moment. But looking forward to the days of my dungeonmaster(y) *evil grin*… I will be searching for a nice way to switch from Faerun/Toril to the Ptolus setting. Maybe I’ll pick and find a way using Sigil/Planescape to transfer the group here.
But honestly I would love to find some suggestions. Something to ensure the captivation of the players. Something to make this transfer right. It will take us to one of the most creative worlds I’ve read in a long while. It’s a great place but I’ll have to make sure all enjoy it – and doing this will only work if the transfer works.
So that’s my current challenge. Dear readers. (I know there might be at least a few of your here). If you feel like you’ve an idea and can help – I would dearly appreciate your input on this.

Our current status quo is to incorporate Ptolus into the Realms. Well – it might not be the best idea, since a lot of flavour will get lost, on the other hand it seems like a good middle-way. But we’ve still some time until we decide which path we take. I’m very thankful for every idea and opinion.

And so the story began…

Friday was a special day – it all started with a communicative afternoon and turned into a fun(ny) night. Funny in the meaning of – (en)joyful and under the very words of “The lamb is heaven! The milk is the path!”
Before you regard me as a lunatic madman and stop to read the following lines. Let me explain – friday was great for we started with a new campaign in Faerun. As I reported earlier (in german language though) we gave a little “gift” (usually this should be normal but time has shown again and again it is not…) to our dungeon master – a rather extensive background with existing links of the characters to have a good starting ground without the usual lack of trust and strange pathways everyone would rather walk than – working together.
All started with the ending of our background story, we returned from the destruction of a legendary artifact in the shape of a drinking-horn. After several days of marching in quite bad weather, without great food this turned out to be a real heaven. The tavern inmidst between Candlekeep and Baldur’s Gate showed great hospitality and we left more gold there than dozens of citizens earn in a year there. Nevertheless it was worth it, and we discovered our path to the next adventure. Whilst we gathered the information, Duke Eltan of Baldur’s Gate was strangely sick, we already decided to go there – fix the wrong and help where we’re needed.
But the mere path should turn out to be a challenge. In a satellite-village we stumbled upon a story that the villager captured two were-wolves who slaughtered at least one of the inhabitants and tried to hurt an other one… This story of course made us listen and we wanted to have a closer look on those two. It turned out to be very unlikely that the accused girl-mage and the shy, frustrated friend of her were really murderers.
So we pulled the strings together, I won’t list every detail on this here for now unless specially asked for, and found out that two friends were the real criminals and while we started a lot of trouble there ourselves we won the captain of the beadle for us and ended with all four accused at the Helm Temple in Baldur’s Gate, where we found out that those servants of a watchful eye are not as even close to their reputation of their god and more like the blind Tyr’s. He admitted to have not interest in what is wrong and what is right – but adheres strictly to the word of the law – blind – as I said before…

Well conclusion was it was a very nice start into the game, showed us the not mere black/white realms of Tom for once again in a closer view. I honestly can hardly wait where the adventure takes us and hope we really come even so far to get a bit of information on the illness of the duke. So far I still do doubt that this will turn out to be our real adventure – though I sure hope we will find something on our way.