My Campaign Wishlist, as a Player

In a reversal of my usual list of Campaigns I would like to run, I’m taking advantage of my player phase to try and think of games that I would actually like to play in.

So, in no real particular order:

Pirates of the Sea of Fallen Stars [D&D 3.5 Forgotten Realms] – Swashbuckling, high fantasy, pirates… all in the backdrop of Faerun’s Sea of Fallen Stars.  If I want to go high fantasy, I’ll go for the usual 3.5 Forgotten Realms, not because I don’t like 4e, it’s just that I suspect that 4e might not be the right system for this kind of high adventure campaign.

Techno-thriller Cyberpunk [HERO System 5th Edition Revised] – One part Tom Clancy and three parts Ghost in the Shell.  I want to see chrome, cybernetics, bullets and kung-fu in a heady mix of cordite and ozone.   While this kind of campaign might be better served as an episodic / mission-based structure, I can see it developing a longer story arc in the long run.

Any nWoD Game - I know this is fairly generic but man, nWoD has yet to let me down.  My personal preference is Mage: the Awakening, but Changeling: the Lost is right up there with it.  My only requirement for these would be a heavy, heavy emphasis on characters and personal horror.

A Superhero Camapign [HERO System 5th Edition, Revised] – I haven’t played HERO supers for such a long time now and I figure it will probably be a cold day in hell before I end up playing.  Still a dark, Marvel Knights & Marvel MAX-ish sort of game of costumed vigilantes would actually be pretty damn cool.  I like the whole heroic angle of HERO, less outrageous builds, and a rock solid system.  With the right set of other players a serious game with darker, adult themes would be interesting.

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And that’s it, it’s a short list for now but these are the ones most prominent off the top of my head.  These are games that I would most likely fight tooth and nail in order to play in, and if it turns out that nobody will run them, then I probably will end up doing so anyway :p

4E DND Play Report I – Illyria, Magitech Setting

Hi there, Rick here.  Pointy asked if I could do a little report on how things are going in the campaign.  So here goes.

CHARACTER CREATION SESSION

My Illyria Magitech Campaign has been running for three sessions… so I suppose I’ll divide the report into three parts.  During the first session, the group and I held a character creation session.

Illyria was primarily a setting hugely based in Final Fantasy Magitech, Alexandre Dumas, and Elizabethan Europe – so to maintain the theme, I had to make sure everyone was on the same page. We had a few problems, with regards to character concepts… which include such crazy concepts like the purple elf and a mass-murdering demon worshipper.  I had to say no immediately.

4e Homebrew Setting: Illyria – A Renaissance Magitek Setting

I know I’m late for the homebrew carnival, but I’d like to take this spot to heartily promote a homebrew setting cooked up by RV, a fellow GM from my gaming group who came up with an amazing setting that mixes Final Fantasy with Alexandre Dumas and with a little bit of the Elizabethan Era thrown in for fun, all with the use of the 4e D&D ruleset!

Illyria is a setting where magic, fantasy and technology exist side by side. Magitech. Portals and Magical skyships, espers and engineers, summoners, and gunknights. Illyria is an unforgiving monarchy where the blood of dragons promote a person’s identity and social status. But still heroes arise in the name of the Queen, or in the name of the Country. Never both.

Please check out the full document HERE (PDF 1.6mb)

4e: Playtest Report #7

This weekend, Team 1 completes their adventure in Emerald Marsh, taking on a more story-aspected dungeon, a few run-of-the-mill traps, and a second run against the Guard Drakes and Needlefang Drake Swarms that gave them such a headache the last time.

4e: Playtest Report #6

This week, Team 2 begins their quest to stop a demon from realizing its plan to open a portal to the Abyss by sacrificing hundreds of lives to fuel a foul ritual.  Lacking one member (as the Ranger was not able to attend,) Team 2 heads off to find the temple ruins where the fiend was currently using as his base of operations.

4e: Playtest Report #5

Team 1 takes to the field today, settling in to their new location, a swamp town known as Emerald Marsh.  They arrived at a rough time for the town, as it was being torn apart by tensions between the churches of Melora (the goddess of the wilderness, and the sea) and Erathis (the goddess of civilization and cities.)  The rampant urbanization of the town is the result of the work of Mayor Tarrin, a halfling of some repute as a businessman.  Unfortunately, a string of disappearances of loggers from Emerald Marsh’s logging camp have raised fears and tensions, and this is where Team 1 comes in.

Villain Spotlight #2 The Thrill Killer

Welcome to the second installment to Villain Spotlight, where we go through the various villain archetypes that can be used for any game and any scale. Today, we’re looking at the Thrill Killer, one of the more common and diverse kinds of villains to be used in an rpg.  The Thrill Killer comes in all sorts of motivations, methods and madness, but they’re always good for a target of worthy adventurers.

Villain Spotlight #1 The Cardinal

Welcome to Villain Spotlight.  For the next few days, I’ll be going over the various villain stereotypes, their variants, and how to use them in a game as centerpiece antagonists of any scale.  The advice in this article is system generic, but may have examples for 4e, nWoD or other more obscure games just to give an idea of how the stereotypes are implemented in a game.

That being said, let’s hit the ground running with The Cardinal.

4e: Dungeon Building and Environments

It’s easy enough to think that D&D should alway take place in a dungeon with gray walls, flickering torches, mold growing on the walls, and with the occasional rat scurrying under your adventurer’s feet while they walk through yet another door to find a skeleton draped protectively over a treasure chest covered in cobwebs.  It’s iconic, easy to envision and almost always the kind of thing that pops into a gamers head when we mention dungeons.

However, it doesn’t always have to be this way.

As a GM, we enjoy having no limit to our special effects budget.  A dungeon can be so many other kinds of environments that it’s staggering.  Today, we’ll take a look at how a little bit of imagination, some research, and even some sources can be used to make a memorable dungeon outside of gray walls and 10-foot wide hallways.

4e: Manufacturing the Opposition

Things are going into full swing over in my 4e campaign, with Team 2 gearing up to head towards a desecrated temple to face a Demon Slavedriver and his horde of goblin thralls, and Team one sailing their way towards the Maya inspired region of the world, where insidious horrors await them in the jungles.

And now I reach the point where I let go of the prebuilt stuff in the Monster Manual and begin cobbling something together.  Enter: the Monster Creation Rules of the DMG.