North of Bayport, the mountains are wild, and nearly impassable. At least, they are extremely difficult to cross from the south. Swinging wide around the peninsulas extending from Kiel and Anspeth into the Glacier Bay, past the major port of Clear Harbor to Pinching, you can find easier access.
A river runs east and south down from the mountains to Pinching. The Iron Teeth are much easier to access from the north. Dwarves have opened mines throughout the mountains between the sea and Aron's Bowl. Aron's Bowl is a broad plain high on a mountain plateau within a ring of particularly high peaks. These are dominated to the southwest by a towering volcanic peak, generally referred to as Scarred Peak for the many jagged clefts and ravines splitting it apart. These have come from the many eruptions through the years.
It is believed that the mountain is home to an ancient red dragon. Access to the mountain is hindered by an area of swampy, brackish horrors known as the Molten Hills for its combination of lava, swamp and fetid pools.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
New Starts
It is a new year, and a chance for new beginnings. It is always tempting at this time of year to start a journal or a diary, begin some project or diet, etc. I've been neglecting this blog of late, but not the concept. I've been able to do something with D&D on a daily basis for some time, although the holidays have slipped a wrinkle into that. The bonus is that when I haven't been able to work on a game, I've generally been able to play in one.
The Christmas holiday means a busy two weeks of jumbled schedules and relatives in town, which means less time online, less time developing any of my games or ideas, but compensates by giving us a chance to sit at the table with real dice and play. That is the best distraction.
Now, the holidays are passed, and the new year has begun. So it is time to start fresh. I've been having trouble focusing on one thing over the last few weeks. Our regular online game has been interrupted, and with separate face to face encounters filling the space, it is easy to get distracted by all the other projects that have been floating in my head. I thought this would be a good way to combine several elements to mutual benefit.
I'll be back to regular play in another week at the most, which will tie my attention to that one campaign for a while. Taking advantage of the urge to journal with the new year, I can develop other concerns concurrently, and use the forum to focus my energies on them. I think for this project I want to develop a dragon adventure, The Expedition to Scarred Peak. This was the basis for my NaNoWriMo project this past November, and has some good features to it that will make a good game. That was a story, and this is a game, but it gives me a framework to start with.
Today is an introductory piece, a planning session. I'm not fully sure of how this will work or develop, but I needed to start with an idea. I have several locations sketched out, and that will make a good opening. There may be a week's worth of entries related to that, starting with an overview of the location, key points along the campaign's journey, featured groups and monsters, and magical items. Subsequent entries can explore some of these more deeply. The key isn't to drag it out unnecessarily, but to give everything the space it needs to be explained and developed without trying to cram too much into any one post.
For now, the adventure is set in the far north, beyond the Iron Teeth Mountains, and features a red dragon living in a temperamental volcano towering over the mountains at the edge of the sea. Unfortunately, the route to the dragon's lair is by land, and runs through a more circuitous route. Tomorrow, we'll start with the geography of the area, and highlight some of the key locations.
The Christmas holiday means a busy two weeks of jumbled schedules and relatives in town, which means less time online, less time developing any of my games or ideas, but compensates by giving us a chance to sit at the table with real dice and play. That is the best distraction.
Now, the holidays are passed, and the new year has begun. So it is time to start fresh. I've been having trouble focusing on one thing over the last few weeks. Our regular online game has been interrupted, and with separate face to face encounters filling the space, it is easy to get distracted by all the other projects that have been floating in my head. I thought this would be a good way to combine several elements to mutual benefit.
I'll be back to regular play in another week at the most, which will tie my attention to that one campaign for a while. Taking advantage of the urge to journal with the new year, I can develop other concerns concurrently, and use the forum to focus my energies on them. I think for this project I want to develop a dragon adventure, The Expedition to Scarred Peak. This was the basis for my NaNoWriMo project this past November, and has some good features to it that will make a good game. That was a story, and this is a game, but it gives me a framework to start with.
Today is an introductory piece, a planning session. I'm not fully sure of how this will work or develop, but I needed to start with an idea. I have several locations sketched out, and that will make a good opening. There may be a week's worth of entries related to that, starting with an overview of the location, key points along the campaign's journey, featured groups and monsters, and magical items. Subsequent entries can explore some of these more deeply. The key isn't to drag it out unnecessarily, but to give everything the space it needs to be explained and developed without trying to cram too much into any one post.
For now, the adventure is set in the far north, beyond the Iron Teeth Mountains, and features a red dragon living in a temperamental volcano towering over the mountains at the edge of the sea. Unfortunately, the route to the dragon's lair is by land, and runs through a more circuitous route. Tomorrow, we'll start with the geography of the area, and highlight some of the key locations.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Still Here!
Six weeks after talking about regular play... In fairness, I spent November making daily D&D posts of a different kind. For NaNoWriMo, I wrote over 50,000 words for a novel with D&D at its heart. This is the fifth or sixth time I've tried writing for NaNoWriMo, and the first time I've successfully finished the 50,000 words. It was a great experience, and now I need to continue the novel, and convert it to an adventure campaign.
That was actually the seed behind the novel, the route I saw to completing the challenge. I have been playing D&D for over thirty years, and constantly working on campaigns and ideas during that time. We've been wanting to play a proper dragon quest for years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on that. Usually we talk about dragons or giants until we decide to just plop down a map and a monster and play out the encounter. With the new edition, there are added rules for lairs that felt like they would be fun to incorporate. It also seemed important to build to a final encounter of that magnitude, rather than just skip the preliminaries.
Against this was the successful completion of an adventure that had seen our characters work from 1st level to 5th level over a series of connected adventures. I had gotten an idea, and fully worked out a campaign arc to cover it. I actually typed it all up with maps and tables and directions for running with the intent of using it as a sellable PDF adventure online. This worked out very nicely for the preparation and execution. For the dragon quest, I decided to work it out in the same way, but by telling it as a story of how I expected it to develop, I could succeed in the novel challenge as well.
It worked... for completing the story challenge. Now, I need to go back to game mode and convert the story into a campaign. Stories take a life of their own, and the novel became more about character development than game progression, but I think it serves well as a prelude to the adventure. I can set up an arc for our characters that shadows the novel's events. That is the beauty of the book, it fleshes out a background that I can set the adventure within, for locations, motivations, interacting groups, etc.
What I wasn't prepared for was the lack of focus that came once I finished November and stopped writing every day. I wanted to break from the story to get back into game mode, but it was a different discipline, and I struggled with the transition. This post is about getting back on track and redirecting energy into game development.
I started by looking at maps. I found one I like with a courtyard and stable areas, that also had a tower with stairs descending into a basement. I could tell at a glance that it was "abandoned", probably by force. But the suggestion of a basement left me thinking that something was left behind. They came looking for someone or something, and they carried them away, but missed their objective. It was still in the basement. While the characters investigate, the raiders return to recover it. The party takes defensive positions and holds off the attack. They find the artifact, and realize they are in a bigger story.
It's a start, and it's rough, but it works. I like the idea of the party defending a building instead of storming one for a change. In terms of the novel, I left the party crossing a moor with a powerful magic item in their care, looking for information from a wizard on the item's function. The plan was for them to get captured and carted off to a mining community near the dragon's lair. This allows me to switch those characters out for the party made up by our players. The novel party got captured (maybe their rescue can play into the story of the adventure later on), and the artifact got left behind.
Now our party has the item, and can pick up the quest by visiting the wizard and learning what they have found. I think in terms of daily dungeoneering, it is helpful to spend time each day working on the puzzle, even if it just fits one piece. This break for November meant distancing myself from the pieces, but gave me a nice framework. Maybe it was clearing the table for the puzzle, counting the pieces, turning them all face up, even setting the edge pieces together. It seemed external to building the puzzle, and at the end of the month it didn't look like much yet, but it let me put myself in a position to go forward and build an actual dragon quest that will be fully developed and detailed.
That was actually the seed behind the novel, the route I saw to completing the challenge. I have been playing D&D for over thirty years, and constantly working on campaigns and ideas during that time. We've been wanting to play a proper dragon quest for years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on that. Usually we talk about dragons or giants until we decide to just plop down a map and a monster and play out the encounter. With the new edition, there are added rules for lairs that felt like they would be fun to incorporate. It also seemed important to build to a final encounter of that magnitude, rather than just skip the preliminaries.
Against this was the successful completion of an adventure that had seen our characters work from 1st level to 5th level over a series of connected adventures. I had gotten an idea, and fully worked out a campaign arc to cover it. I actually typed it all up with maps and tables and directions for running with the intent of using it as a sellable PDF adventure online. This worked out very nicely for the preparation and execution. For the dragon quest, I decided to work it out in the same way, but by telling it as a story of how I expected it to develop, I could succeed in the novel challenge as well.
It worked... for completing the story challenge. Now, I need to go back to game mode and convert the story into a campaign. Stories take a life of their own, and the novel became more about character development than game progression, but I think it serves well as a prelude to the adventure. I can set up an arc for our characters that shadows the novel's events. That is the beauty of the book, it fleshes out a background that I can set the adventure within, for locations, motivations, interacting groups, etc.
What I wasn't prepared for was the lack of focus that came once I finished November and stopped writing every day. I wanted to break from the story to get back into game mode, but it was a different discipline, and I struggled with the transition. This post is about getting back on track and redirecting energy into game development.
I started by looking at maps. I found one I like with a courtyard and stable areas, that also had a tower with stairs descending into a basement. I could tell at a glance that it was "abandoned", probably by force. But the suggestion of a basement left me thinking that something was left behind. They came looking for someone or something, and they carried them away, but missed their objective. It was still in the basement. While the characters investigate, the raiders return to recover it. The party takes defensive positions and holds off the attack. They find the artifact, and realize they are in a bigger story.
It's a start, and it's rough, but it works. I like the idea of the party defending a building instead of storming one for a change. In terms of the novel, I left the party crossing a moor with a powerful magic item in their care, looking for information from a wizard on the item's function. The plan was for them to get captured and carted off to a mining community near the dragon's lair. This allows me to switch those characters out for the party made up by our players. The novel party got captured (maybe their rescue can play into the story of the adventure later on), and the artifact got left behind.
Now our party has the item, and can pick up the quest by visiting the wizard and learning what they have found. I think in terms of daily dungeoneering, it is helpful to spend time each day working on the puzzle, even if it just fits one piece. This break for November meant distancing myself from the pieces, but gave me a nice framework. Maybe it was clearing the table for the puzzle, counting the pieces, turning them all face up, even setting the edge pieces together. It seemed external to building the puzzle, and at the end of the month it didn't look like much yet, but it let me put myself in a position to go forward and build an actual dragon quest that will be fully developed and detailed.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Regular Play
Four months have passed since we began playing 5e D&D on Roll20. It has been an interesting process. Those first awkward moments trying to learn how to find anything through the interface, let alone roll a dice have morphed into pretty sophisticated use of all the system has to offer. It has been a process, but it has been fun.
There are several facets of the experience that are noteworthy. For years, we have spoken of the need to play more often. With Roll20 we have been able to play four or five sessions of one campaign, and three more in a second. Eight sessions in 16 weeks you say... not a great percentage... On the face, the numbers are deceptive. There are vacations, concerts, moving, and general coordination of schedules involved that have influenced the whole. We have forced this situation upon ourselves, and fought to make it more regular. While it took time to get into a rhythm, it has paid off in allowing us to play more in these few months than we can usually find in the course of a year. It is a great way to get together when distance keeps you separate.
Another advantage of playing regularly shows in the flow of play once engaged. Some weeks we've been able to play consecutively, others have been after a week or two of inactivity. Those can take 30 minutes or more to get everyone together, get settled, and remember where we left off. When you only allot two hours a week for play, that is a significant loss. Playing regularly helps keep everyone engaged in the game, and able to spring back into the gameplay quickly.
It is also helpful in terms of role playing. Each encounter allows the nuances of the character to emerge, and regular play lets you find that playable element and develop it consistently. This is an interesting and critical part of the game. We've often fallen into pretty narrow types with our characters because of the infrequent game sessions we have, and it has been jarring at times to break out of that routine. At times we've been able to play in consecutive weeks, and the out of combat moments have blossomed into some more memorable actions and sessions as a result. It has allowed for better interaction within the party as well.
There is a weird dynamic within any D&D game, and one of the aspects of this is that each session can take on the personality of one of the players. Even when you try to account for this by designing elements to focus on one character, it is often another that steps out to dominate that moment. It is a fascinating part of the interplay within the game. I've found that the more fractured the scheduling, the more disparate these moments become. With longer breaks, it is more difficult for everyone to fall into character. When there is better continuity of play, the party dynamic rises on the individual styles and provides a more balanced, harmonic session.
I'm looking forward to learning more from continuing to play in this fashion, and hope to add further insight as it comes.
There are several facets of the experience that are noteworthy. For years, we have spoken of the need to play more often. With Roll20 we have been able to play four or five sessions of one campaign, and three more in a second. Eight sessions in 16 weeks you say... not a great percentage... On the face, the numbers are deceptive. There are vacations, concerts, moving, and general coordination of schedules involved that have influenced the whole. We have forced this situation upon ourselves, and fought to make it more regular. While it took time to get into a rhythm, it has paid off in allowing us to play more in these few months than we can usually find in the course of a year. It is a great way to get together when distance keeps you separate.
Another advantage of playing regularly shows in the flow of play once engaged. Some weeks we've been able to play consecutively, others have been after a week or two of inactivity. Those can take 30 minutes or more to get everyone together, get settled, and remember where we left off. When you only allot two hours a week for play, that is a significant loss. Playing regularly helps keep everyone engaged in the game, and able to spring back into the gameplay quickly.
It is also helpful in terms of role playing. Each encounter allows the nuances of the character to emerge, and regular play lets you find that playable element and develop it consistently. This is an interesting and critical part of the game. We've often fallen into pretty narrow types with our characters because of the infrequent game sessions we have, and it has been jarring at times to break out of that routine. At times we've been able to play in consecutive weeks, and the out of combat moments have blossomed into some more memorable actions and sessions as a result. It has allowed for better interaction within the party as well.
There is a weird dynamic within any D&D game, and one of the aspects of this is that each session can take on the personality of one of the players. Even when you try to account for this by designing elements to focus on one character, it is often another that steps out to dominate that moment. It is a fascinating part of the interplay within the game. I've found that the more fractured the scheduling, the more disparate these moments become. With longer breaks, it is more difficult for everyone to fall into character. When there is better continuity of play, the party dynamic rises on the individual styles and provides a more balanced, harmonic session.
I'm looking forward to learning more from continuing to play in this fashion, and hope to add further insight as it comes.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Begin Again
Two years into the new edition, and we've reached a sort of balance. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post, but interestingly, it came just as the first campaign sourcebook, Princes of the Apocalypse, was being released (this doesn't include the two part starter setting released in concert with the rulebooks, The Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and The Rise of Tiamet). At this time, the fourth since then has just come out, Storm King's Thunder. There has been a dramatic shift in that time within the game, particularly the last six months.
On the other hand, many of the initial criticisms of the game still hold true, and in a sad twist, have returned to that point from a more evolved platform. There were nice strides from the company following Princes, with fairly regular releases on the website covering rules, variant gaming elements, and profiles of the game. They also began producing a "monthly" webzine, Dragon (about 10 per year), that gathers the website pieces and pads them with longer pieces of fiction, art and commentary. Unfortunately, the last few months have seen a return to an empty, static site.
Let's focus on the positive. In March, they released The Curse of Strahd to great acclaim. A popular module from the old days, the reboot came with the usual publicity, but seemed to touch an extra nerve, sending an energetic charge through the D&D community that reaped rich dividends. Everyone was talking about the setting, and looking forward to its release. But the game changer came with a more subtle opening. Dice, Camera, Action! was an official play-through of the Strahd campaign live on Twitch.tv. After a few sluggish sessions finding their way, and adjusting to the form, the game took off, drawing huge weekly viewers, and spawning many similar games. Roll20 began an Adventurers League series that showcased that form and the virtual tabletop Roll20 offers. Matt Mercer was brought into the fold to promote the new giant campaign, Acquisitions Inc. added a series. There was a time in the summer where I was watching a D&D game played online 4 nights of the week!
Most importantly, I made the decision to play online! I've been toying with Roll20 since 2013, and with their series, I was finally able to mount the learning curve and begin setting up encounters. It was never difficult, but time made me tentative. This summer, I thought, we're only going to start if someone just does it. We're playing on this date in this campaign. It worked! It has been a learning process, and we're still trying to find a regular time, but the game works, and with each session, the ease of the process grows.
It is an exciting new world for D&D with online streaming and gameplay, and will be fascinating in the coming months to see how it continues to expand and grow.
On the other hand, many of the initial criticisms of the game still hold true, and in a sad twist, have returned to that point from a more evolved platform. There were nice strides from the company following Princes, with fairly regular releases on the website covering rules, variant gaming elements, and profiles of the game. They also began producing a "monthly" webzine, Dragon (about 10 per year), that gathers the website pieces and pads them with longer pieces of fiction, art and commentary. Unfortunately, the last few months have seen a return to an empty, static site.
Let's focus on the positive. In March, they released The Curse of Strahd to great acclaim. A popular module from the old days, the reboot came with the usual publicity, but seemed to touch an extra nerve, sending an energetic charge through the D&D community that reaped rich dividends. Everyone was talking about the setting, and looking forward to its release. But the game changer came with a more subtle opening. Dice, Camera, Action! was an official play-through of the Strahd campaign live on Twitch.tv. After a few sluggish sessions finding their way, and adjusting to the form, the game took off, drawing huge weekly viewers, and spawning many similar games. Roll20 began an Adventurers League series that showcased that form and the virtual tabletop Roll20 offers. Matt Mercer was brought into the fold to promote the new giant campaign, Acquisitions Inc. added a series. There was a time in the summer where I was watching a D&D game played online 4 nights of the week!
Most importantly, I made the decision to play online! I've been toying with Roll20 since 2013, and with their series, I was finally able to mount the learning curve and begin setting up encounters. It was never difficult, but time made me tentative. This summer, I thought, we're only going to start if someone just does it. We're playing on this date in this campaign. It worked! It has been a learning process, and we're still trying to find a regular time, but the game works, and with each session, the ease of the process grows.
It is an exciting new world for D&D with online streaming and gameplay, and will be fascinating in the coming months to see how it continues to expand and grow.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Defending the Stronghold
This week has been crazy, and no one has prepared anything for game night. Do we call everything off? No, you keep it simple and make the best of the time you have.
The biggest trouble with trying to make something up off the cuff is finding a way to provide something interesting and creative. Usually, preparing an adventure involves drawing out a map, placing defenses and traps, and at least mentally anticipating how the monsters will react defensively, regardless of how much you actually write down. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking takes time and relies on thoughtful preparation. So how can you make something quick that still delivers?
Put the characters on the defensive. Generally, most adventures involve the PCs tracking monsters to their lair, overcoming their defenses and carting off the loot. For a change, bring the monsters to the PCs, and make them do the defensive preparation and strategy as the game plays.
Defend the Stronghold - The stronghold doesn't need to be a fully plotted castle with moat overlooking a broad countryside, it can be an abandoned cabin in the woods, a knoll in the forest, or anything similar. The key to the situation is that they are the defenders. They need to assess the situation, choose a defensible position, and ration their resources to withstand the assault. My suggestion is that they defend themselves through the night or day, long enough to provide multiple sallies against them, but some period with a definite ending. This will help in parsing resources.
One beauty of this setup is that it allows players to see some of what goes into designing an adventure, and possibly inspires them to create their own to DM.
Another benefit is that since the situation will be more challenging to process, the monsters themselves can be very generic. Run some orcs and goblins at them, maybe some wolves, or a bear. With three or four basic fights, you'll have enough to take up an evening, and keep everyone entertained. Instead of time between encounters taking characters from town to town, up mountain paths, or so on, they can spend time healing, making forays into the woods for firewood or water, searching outlying buildings for lost supplies, healing potions, or a better spot to defend. It might be worth loosening some of the rules about long rests to allow an extra healing, or spell recovery. I suppose you could say they were defending for a longer time with fewer attacks per day.
This is a "lite" encounter night, so there is more to gain from relaxing time constraints in order to get a few hours of play in than being a stickler for going "by the book" and sending everyone home because you have nothing prepared, or the first two fights exhaust the party's resources. Let the creativity and non-combat elements of play come from this risk, and give them options in scavenging to make up for what they need.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Forests and Trees
It bothers me that WOTC doesn't seem to understand that D&D is a game and not a marketing contest. The closest they seem to come to providing content is when they have a new product to hawk. "Let's talk about the white dragon... oh, you can buy these miniatures of it soon!"
They have created a workable game system, and I like it. I don't think I'm alone in that. So why can't they generate some actual content for it?
Where is the reincarnated Dragon or Dungeon? Weren't they put in suspended animation last year about this time until the new system was out and they could reemerge in some form?
The Eberron content they added recently did offer a useful insight into magic item creation, particularly scrolls and potions. It may be the only useful item in the document, but it offers a way to handle those concerns. The DMG suggests magic item creation of the most common magic items takes 100 GP worth of time and money, with a spell caster able to contribute 25 GP of effort per 8 hour day. So a Scroll of Magic Missile takes 32 hours over four days and costs 100 GP to create? Yet once that is accomplished, another spell caster can spend 2 hours and 50 GP to scribble it into their spell book, with the time a result of figuring out the original caster's shorthand. This is a flawed system.
In Eberron, apparently, a certain class of wizard is able to expend a spell slot and spend 10 minutes creating a potion at 2nd level, and the same at 3rd level to produce a scroll. This is offered as a "path" available to spell casters.
Frankly, this is something that should be available to all spell casters automatically (at least, the primary casters - clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and druids - warlock powers are derived from their pact, and paladins, rangers, and eldritch knights are primarily fighters).
They have created a workable game system, and I like it. I don't think I'm alone in that. So why can't they generate some actual content for it?
Where is the reincarnated Dragon or Dungeon? Weren't they put in suspended animation last year about this time until the new system was out and they could reemerge in some form?
The Eberron content they added recently did offer a useful insight into magic item creation, particularly scrolls and potions. It may be the only useful item in the document, but it offers a way to handle those concerns. The DMG suggests magic item creation of the most common magic items takes 100 GP worth of time and money, with a spell caster able to contribute 25 GP of effort per 8 hour day. So a Scroll of Magic Missile takes 32 hours over four days and costs 100 GP to create? Yet once that is accomplished, another spell caster can spend 2 hours and 50 GP to scribble it into their spell book, with the time a result of figuring out the original caster's shorthand. This is a flawed system.
In Eberron, apparently, a certain class of wizard is able to expend a spell slot and spend 10 minutes creating a potion at 2nd level, and the same at 3rd level to produce a scroll. This is offered as a "path" available to spell casters.
Frankly, this is something that should be available to all spell casters automatically (at least, the primary casters - clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and druids - warlock powers are derived from their pact, and paladins, rangers, and eldritch knights are primarily fighters).
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