Gearing Up for Gencon
Hi all,
Just a quick post today to let you all know I’m still alive!
I’m getting totally geeked for GenCon. We’re less than 40 days, and this year could be awesome. Out of curiosity, who all is going? Also, if you’re going, did you sign up for one of my games? Let me know in the comments on either or both of these questions.
I’m thinking about some slight changes to the catalog description, and wondering if any of you are reading the blog these days. I’m curious if it’d be worth discussing those changes here.
Look for more posts soon!
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #15 - Specifics
Hooray for Gen Con!
photo credit: Templarion
This is the part of this campaign setting I’m excited about. As you may or may not know, I’m going to be running the very first game in the world of Lenryn at Gen Con. Event registration for Gen Con begins next Sunday, April 20 at 1:00 PM, PDT. I’m running four identical sessions so as to accommodate as many of my readers as I can. Here are the four sessions, along with their event ID:
Thursday, 6:00-10:00 PM, RPG00402
Friday, 12:00-4:00 PM, RPG00403
Friday, 4:00-8:00 PM, RPG00404
Saturday, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, RPG00405
Here’s the description, from the GenCon catalog:
Be the first to play in The World of Lenryn, the newest campaign setting designed by Bob Younce of dndreviews.com. Bring your own characters, as per guidelines on the web site. Role-play heavy. Free book, “How I Developed my New Campaign World, and How You Can Develop Yours” provided to each participant. Prizes will also be given for best role-playing, and best character concept.
As is always the case, spots will fill up quickly. Be sure to register early to reserve your seat.
For my local group, you guys can sign up if you want, but my hope is to run the same game for you all (after Gen Con, of course.)
Starting next week, I’ll be posting guidelines for character creation, and begin providing you with some of the back-story specific to the GenCon adventure. In the meantime, if you’re just arriving here for the first time, feel free to start at the beginning of the new campaign diary, and get a feel for what you can expect at Gen Con.
Also, check out my archives page if you want to pop through each of the campaign diary entries.
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #14 - An Adventure
I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve worked on the new setting. BAD DM. Bad.
I think we’re to the point now where we can actually start putting together an outline for our first adventure. I’m somewhat limited here because, well, I’m going to be running Lenryn as a 4E game (most likely. Did you hear the trepidation there? I’m slipping in my conviction that 4E will be good enough to switch. But, we’ll save that for another time.)
If writing everything you have so far hasn’t inspired you to write an adventure yet, go back and re-read it all. I’m certain that you will find something that jumps out at you.
For me, it is this figure of the Monty Fingers, the tiefling who is organizing a resistance against the eladrin elites. I like this guy, and I think I can develop him into a thoroughly interesting recurring character. So, let’s see if I can, today, put together some background for the first adventure using Monty Fingers:
Monty Fingers has, recently, begun recruiting members of his resistance organization in Halvinguard. His most influential recruit is, to date, Arsaen, the captain of the town guard. Arsaen has become disillusioned of late, realizing that it is unlikely that he will ever advance his station, regardless of how much he sucks up to the Eladrin in control of Halvinguard. In fact, Arsaen actually sought out Monty Fingers, and has been performing covert operations for some time.
On the advice of Monty Fingers, Arsaen has recently stolen the RING OF DESTINY from the Quessa T’alel. This ring is thought to hold extreme magical powers, and maintains some form of connection with other Eladrin bigwigs througout Lenryn. Not suspecting Arsaen , Quessa T’alel has assigned him to find the ring and bring in the perpetrators, dead or alive.
Unfortunately for the party, Arsaen intends to frame them for the theft. To do so, he will have to accomplish three tasks:
1) Plant the ring on one of the party members;
2) Get one of the party members to demonstrate sympathy for Monty Fingers and his motives;
3) Through the use of a memory-altering potion, transfer his memory of the theft to one of the party members.
To complicate matters, the party has previously come to the aid of Arsaen. Arsaenhas a trusted reputation in Halvinguard, and it is not likely that he will soon be suspect.
Arsaen calls the party in on the premise that they are to clear out a farm outside of town that has been overrun by goblins. The farm is half a day’s ride away. It is while the party is gone from town that he will commit his crimes.
Upon arriving at the Farmhouse, the party will realized that it is empty and abandoned, and probably has been for years. There is some sort of pestilence here such that nothing will grow within a square mile. In fact, this pestilence is such that, should the party spend more than 2 hours here, they will have some sort of negative effect (to be determined once 4E core rules are released!)
Investigating the farmhouse thoroughly provides access to several location encounters:
The attic - old diseased woman, speaks only in rhyme, smells of decay
The cellar - slaughtered animals (1 week fresh) perhaps people? Evidence of cultic activity of some sort.
The barn - Rats or some other appropriate feral creature. This creature will have a natural immunity to the pestilence, and will be the party’s only hope of a cure - consuming the animal raw.
Field - formerly growing, now dead. Closer inspection shows that the ground is not covered in dirt at all, but some sort of living material. The dirt itself seems to be moving.
Upon returning to Halvinguard, there will be several event-based encounters. I’ll be leaving these for another day, but it is worth thinking about something here:
On purpose, I’m combining some of the big adventure models. I have a linear beginning (PCs have to get out of town for it to work at all). I have location-based encounters at the farmhouse; and I’m using event-based encounters on return. See how I did that?
Truth is that my group and I really enjoy all three models. I like the control that comes with linear and the momentum that comes with event-based. Location-based encounters probably make the least sense to me as a DM, but they do have their uses. The above use is a great example.
What about all of you? What model or models to you prefer and use?
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #13 - Organizing
(The above pic has NOTHING to do with Building a new campaign. I just liked it, thought you might like it too.)
Up to this point, I (and hopefully you) have just a ton of materials, some of which are related to one another, and others that aren’t. I decided this weekend that it was worth taking the time to get things a bit organized. So, I bought myself a 2″ 3-ring binder, some binder tabs, and got organized. Here’s what I did; if you’re feeling a bit scattered, you can try it too:
- Print out all of the Lenryn campaign materials that I have only in digital format, being certain to label them so that I know the file name they came from.
- Gather the written materials that I’ve got (really just a couple of notebook paper pages worth of notes, and a poorly-drawn map.
- Create my Campaign binder categories. I recommend these categories, but you can, of course, use your own:
- The 41 Questions
- The World
- Maps
- Geography
- Cities and Towns
- Races and Classes
- Important People
- Encounters and Ideas
- Adventures
- Handouts
- House Rules
- Miscellaneous
- I also added three tabs at the back:
- Freewriting
- Inspirations
- Other development notes
So, there you have it. Someplace to put everything else going forward!
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #12 - Sociology Redux
It’s very cool to watch a world start to take shape. If you’re like me, the process of campaign design is a lot like raising a child. You conceive the thing, and pretty soon it’s right in front of you; then, the real work starts. You’ve got to teach it, train it, love it, provide for it, nurture it, and, eventually, release it on the world.
OK, maybe not the best analogy, but it’s the best I can do for a Thursday.
At any rate, today, I want to continue answering some of the social questions originally posed in the 41 questions:
- What is day-to-day life like in this world? For PCs? For good NPCs? For evil ones? For the rich/highest social or poor/lowest social?
Lenryn is a rough world. Day-to-day life can be solitary , poor, nasty, brutish, and short. This is especially true for those that are not a part of the Elite. The those on the lowest social rungs can expect that their lives will be of little value to anyone but themselves and the closest of their kin. They are preoccupied with finding their next meal, and avoiding the horrible evils that lurk in the uncivilized areas.
Cities and towns, almost without exception, are walled. Those evils that lurk in the uncivilized areas are known to venture toward civilization on a regular basis. There is not a single farmer who hasn’t, at least once, had an entire year’s worth of crops destroyed by these ravening hordes. Nearly every city has a standing militia, as well, for this same reason. In the more metropolitan areas, the Eladrin have set up magical wards and alarms to protect the outlying areas, but these have their limitations.
Adventurers are regarded in a variety of ways. To the common folk, adventurers are an oddity. To the Eladrin, adventurers are, very often, a threat to their control. To merchants, adventurers are an indispensable source of security as they travel between points of light.
When it comes to people, the lines between good and evil are often blurred. A folk hero to the underclass is likely considered a destructive and evil force by the elites. While some consider the Eladrin as gracious caregivers and protectors, others seem them as jailers. Those that engage in obvious evils, like cold-blooded murder, theft for selfish gain, etc. are shunned by most elements of society.
Merchants are in a unique position, as well. The underclass look to the merchants as either an inspiration or as potential benefactors. The elites look at merchants as common folk attempting to mimic the upper class.
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What is civilization like? Is there any?
Civilization is, as it is in the core D&D world, made up of points of light in a sea of darkness.
- Are there cities? How common are cities? Is most of the world rural or is it urban?
Much of the world is rural. Toward the Straights of Gorana, there are cities and towns within a day’s walk of one another; the further you get toward the outskirts of either continent, the more sparse cities tend to be, often being as many as three or four days ride away.
- What is the form of government? Hierarchical? Anarchy? Oligarchy? Aristocracy? Theocracy?
Governments vary from region to region, with the Eladrin at the head of each sort regardless. I’ve touched on this here and here.
I think I’ll stop there for today. On Monday, I hope to step back once again and look at what I’ve put together so far, try to merge any inconsistencies (there are a few, I know - it’s part of the process).
Enjoy your weekend!
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #11 - Get to Know Your World
Time to zoom back out for a day or two. In fact, I think it’s time to revisit the 41 questions, don’t you?
I think that we’ll delve into the section on sociology for the next couple of days. Let me pick one or two of the questions for today, and see where I can get with them:
There are two divergent types of the Common tongue in Lenryn, each for one of the continents. Goranans speak Goranish, Alramans speak Alramish. The two tongues are vastly different, and spring from different sources. Goranish developed from the original language of the Eladrin, and is very similar to the modern tongue of the Eladrin, so much so that Eladrin in Alrama actually speak Goranish, and refer to it as if it were Eladrin. (The Eladrin who reside in Gorana speak “High Eladrin,” a tongue that more closely approximates ancient Eladrin.) Goranish is known for the ease of pronunciation, but also the complexity of its grammar and its overwhelmingly large lexicon. Goranish is a flowing tongue, with few consonantal sounds.
The origins of Alramish, on the other hand, are lost to history. Alramish shares some commonalities with the native tongues of Tieflings, in its use of guttural sounds, and the use of the alveolar trill (rolling r’s). The lexicon, however, has more in common with the Dwarven folk. This would seem to be advantageous to communication, however it actually serves in the opposite way. More than half of the shared words between Dwarven and Alramish have opposed meanings. Thus, “tall” in Alramish means “short” in Dwarven, etc.
The races all have a native tongue, as well. Tiefling, Dwarven and Eladrin have been mentioned; The few Dragonborn that remain in the world speak a variation of Draconic; Halflings are the exception that make the rule, as they tend to speak Common exclusively.
There is one other language worth mentioning. The merchants of Lenryn have developed a universal trading language, so that as they travel from region to region or deal with various races. Referred to by merchants as, simply, “tradespeak,” some others have referred to it, in a derogatory fashion, as “greedspeak.” The ability to speak tradespeak provides many benefits in terms of the marketplace.
- What are the social stratifications? Are they economic? Are they social? Racial?
Society in Lenryn can vary greatly from one region to the next, or even from one city to the next. However, there are some basic principles that govern most of the world:
- Eladrin are considered the Elites. They are the ruling class, and deference should be paid to them. They hold the majority of positions of power in government, religion, and social organizations.
- Tieflings are considered an underclass. They are generally distrusted, and it is rare to see a Tiefling in a position of legitimate power. The best hope for a Tiefling who wants to advance legitimately is through military service.
- Dragonborn are all but extinct (more on this later). They are considered oddities, and rarely come to any sort of status.
- The other races are, for the most part, somewhere in the middle. You may find a dwarf or a human in a position of power, although never at the very top. Elves are slightly toward the higher end of this range, and often favored by their Eladrin cousins.
- Economically speaking, wealth tends to be concentrated among the Eladrin. The lowest 60% of people own literally nothing, and live in a condition of serfdom.
- There is an emerging trend here, again among the merchant class. The merchant class, in many ways, has exempted itself from Eladrin control, beyond paying their taxes. In fact, many of the merchant class tend to be wealthier, if not of a higher status, than most Eladrin. In some areas, the Eladrin have seized this opportunity and regulated and taxed the merchant class In some areas they have tried a more heavy-handed approach, seizing property and imprisoning merchants who become too wealthy. Many of the merchant class maintain luxurious living conditions, yet are afforded little social status. At the least, the Eladrin tend to consider merchants a pariah, although other races and segments of society are warming greatly to the merchant class, and looking to them for liberation from serfdom.
There you have it. Dry sociological data. It reads a little like the original Greyhawk boxed set, without the flora and fauna section. God, there were times that Gygax was dry. At any rate, your explanation of these particular questions might not be as in-depth, but that’s all right. I’m sure I’ll skimp somewhere that you’re inspired, at some point.
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #10 - Evil Lives
“And don’t even get me started on the sense of control that a DM has. We know what world-building, god-complex control freaks they all are.” - Dave Noonan
I’ll confess for a minute:
I love building a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign world.
Even if no one ever read this journal, I’d love doing it.
Why? Lots of reasons. Yep, I’ve got the DM’s god complex. But there are other reasons. Here are a few:
- I’ve got something to say, deep down. Whether or not anyone else every hears it is secondary.
- I like toying with ideas. I’ve always been an idea guy; I majored in History and Philosophy. Building a campaign world uses both disciplines.
- I get to be the bad guy. I don’t know if I’m catering to the lesser angel of my nature here, but sometimes it’s just cool to be evil.
Which brings me to today’s campaign building diary. Today, I built a villain. Not just any villain, mind you, but a campaign-style villain. The villain that the PCs encounter at every level. The villain that is behind every corner. The villain that serves as a red herring, but only sometimes. The villain whose victory means the end of the world, and whose defeat means glorious retirement and fabulous riches for the PCs.
I’m not posting him here. If you play in my game at GenCon, or in the local campaign to follow, you’ll meet him soon enough.
Building a New Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #9 - Lessons Learned
Welcome back. I trust your weekend was good. Mine was a hoot.
You’ll recall that I had several things I wanted to do over the weekend. I accomplished several, and I wanted to share my results with you. Here’s what I came up with, goal by goal:
- Watch Rio Bravo
I did manage to do this. What did it contribute to my campaign? A couple of things. First, I like the fact that the bad guy (Nathan Burdette) essentially trusts his thugs to try to accomplish his goals. You see Burdette only a couple of times; usually, it’s his cronies. I want the arch-villain in my campaign to be like that. In fact, I want there to be waves and waves of assault, all sent from the villain, sort of in the style of Assault on Precinct 13 (a Rio Bravo remake if ever there was one).
- Read Poe’s The Telltale Heart;
Didn’t do it.
- Listen to my Phantom of the Opera soundtrack;
I got about half of this. I’m intrigued by the anti-hero/hero motif (always have been). I think that Eric, like Darth Vader, has “some good left in him.” Is there someone in my campaign like this, who can, at the last minute, turn from evil to good and help the party? I think so. Not sure who it is yet, though.
- Read a chapter of The Spine of the World;
Wulfgar loses Aegis-Fang?!? What is the world coming to?!? I like this. A great loss. An epic loss. A loss of very personal identity. How does this fit in? I’m not sure yet. Maybe the party will find an epic quest item, and use it for a long time, coming to rely on it, only to have it destroyed or stolen. Getting it back may even spell worse doom than losing it to begin with. Maybe it comes back cursed. Maybe it comes back more powerful, yet corrupting.
- Read a story or two from Worlds Apart: An Anthology of Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy;
Didn’t get to it.
- Flip through Worlds and Monsters;
I’m interested in the Tieflings being a lost civilization. I really like the idea of it. It may be that, in Lenryn, the Tieflings ruled the world in a long-forgotten age, before the rise of the Eladrin. Maybe Monty Fingers isn’t just the leader of the rogues guild, maybe he’s a rebel, seeking to undo Eladrin reign. Maybe he has connections, far outside The Dagger. Maybe that is what, eventually, leads the party from Halvinguard to Breveton. In fact, I think Tieflings aren’t underworlders, as I thought before; I think they’re definitely surface dwellers, and hold the spot previously given to greenskins.
- Talk with my friend Randy about his new campaign setting.
Didn’t get to it much, other than to say that we want to use a shared cosmology so as to make characters portable from one table to the other.
- Read through Rich Green’s excellent blog about creating his new campaign setting.
- Read through Shamus Young’s campaign journal at Twenty Sided.
Sadly, I didn’t get to either of these. Next weekend, perhaps.
Overall, pretty productive here. Now, you go and do likewise. Think about those creative activities you did over the weekend, and see what inspires you.
Building a New D&D Campaign Diary - Entry #8: Inspiration
Note: Today’s task is big, so I’m giving you four days to work on it. Come back to the Diary on Monday to see where we land. Regular blog posts will continue, however.
I know I’ve talked about sources of inspiration here before, but I think it’s worth spending a day (or a weekend, if you’ve got it) thinking about the things that inspire us in terms of building our new D&D Campaign worlds.
The fact of the matter is that there are a finite number of dramatic archetypes in literature, movies, and other forms of story-based entertainment media. These are the ideas that we, as human beings, keep going over and over again. They are the ones that hit us deep down, that connect with something very basic. Something in the ground of our being. Something psychological, spiritual, or sociological, or perhaps all three.
So, what’s this got to do with building a new D&D campaign? Plenty.
A good D&D campaign is good, at least in part, because it incorporates those dramatic archetypes effectively. Raistlin rescuing Caramon, for example, is really just #8 - Daring Enterprise. I say “just,” but there is nothing small about the story. In fact, the opposite is true. Raistlin’s story strikes us so deeply precisely because it fits on the list of dramatic archetypes.
So, let’s get practical, then. I could send you out to read about the 36 archetypes, have you make examples that you’ve found in literature, TV, movies, or whatever. But, honestly, you’re not interested in learning to write dramatically (at least, not yet). Right now you need to be interested in experiencing those dramatic archetypes. So, here’s what I’ll be doing this weekend in order to do that:
- Watch Rio Bravo;
- Read Poe’s The Telltale Heart;
- Listen to my Phantom of the Opera soundtrack;
- Read a chapter of The Spine of the World;
- Read a story or two from Worlds Apart: An Anthology of Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy;
- Flip through Worlds and Monsters;
- Talk with my friend Randy about his new campaign setting.
- Read through Rich Green’s excellent blog about creating his new campaign setting.
- Read through Shamus Young’s campaign journal at Twenty Sided.
Now, I may or may not get them all done. Really, though, we’re only talking about 3 hours of reading, an hour of listening to music, 2 1/2 hours of watching a movie, and a having a conversation I was going to have anyways. At any rate, after each, I’m going to take 5 minutes, take some notes.
Your assignment for the next three days is to do the same. Pick a couple of movies, books, or whatever it is that inspires you, and experience them again. After you do, ask yourself, “How can I use the dramatic archetypes in this movie for my new campaign?” I promise you’ll find at least one good nugget there.
Building a New D&D Campaign Diary - Entry #7: From the Bottom Up
Tell me you didn’t see this coming.
We’ve spent a heck of a lot of time in Elfland and Topsy-Turvydom to this point. We’ve messed around with freewriting, we’ve taken a birds-eye view, we’ve asked the big questions and refused, on principle, to answer them.
Today, we go to the other extreme.
Now that we’ve got some scaffolding place, I want to start painting a tiny little corner of the ceiling. You’ll recall I spent some time previously on a city named Breveton. I think I’ll hold off a little on Breveton; it’s a little too metropolitan for a starting point. In addition, I don’t like what I’ve done with Greenskins there, and I think I may replace them with Tieflings. At any rate, yesterday I briefly mentioned Halvinguard. I think I’ll go back there. It’s as if I’d never left 
Halvinguard City Profile
- Population: 8,000 (65% human, 20% Elf, 7% Eladrin, 5% Tiefling, less than 1% Halfling, Dwarf, and other races).
- Government: Aristocracy (Eladrin), City-State confederation with Westland and Hilt.
- Religion: 2 Temples to Theodian, 1 shrine to Lucius
- Social Class: 1% Aristocracy, 10% Skilled trades, 5% Merchant, 60% Yeoman Farmers, 24% underclass
- Primary economic products: Citrus Fruits, wood
Halvinguard is located in the center of “The Dagger,” and is the tallest point on that peninsula sitting 300 feet above sea level. Halvinguard is an unwalled city, relying on the steep hills surrounding it, as well as the dangerous swamps, to protect it from enemies.
There is a single road that runs through Halvinguard from East to West, Known as Blade Way. Three roads run North to South: Merchant’s Street, Trades Street, and Market Street, with the various sorts of businesses occupying each of the named streets. There are around 150 houses in Halvinguard proper, with the vast majority of the population living outside of the city, on various plantation-style farms. At the head of the east road sits a temple to Theodian, with the shrine to Lucius directly across the street. At the other end of the road sits The Gathering Place, which is a city hall of sorts in which the ruling Eladrin conduct their business. Near The Gathering Place is a barracks and jail.
Halvinguard maintains a relative degree of law and order, largely due to the influence of the ruling Eladrin. The Eladrin of Halvinguard, led by Quessa T’alel, see themselves as protectors and benevolent benefactors to the “lesser” inhabitants of Halvinguard. Quessa T’alel has been at the head of Halvinguard as long as any living human can remember, and there is a statue erected in her honor at the entrance to the Lesser Temple to Theodian, located on Merchant’s Street.
Important people:
- Lydia Argon - Human, Keeper of the Shrine of Lucius
- Jacob Arsen - Human, Head of the Merchant’s Guild, philanthropist
- Misty Drinkwater - Elf, Merchant dealing in arms and armor
- Monty Fingers - Tiefling, Head of the Rogues Guild
- Dram Gutgarter - Dwarf, Barkeep and Tavernmaster of The Dagger’s Rest
- Yaros J’nan - Eladrin, Owner of the The Ruby
- Poril M’nelas - Eladrin, Captain of the Guard
- Quessa T’alel - Eladrin, Head of the Eladrin Aristocracy
- Eldan T’enos - Eladrin, Consort to Quessa
- Layna Windtamer - Elf, Owner of the Stables, guide
Important businesses
- The Dagger’s Rest (Tavern and Inn)
- The Ruby (theater)
- Windtamer’s Stables
- The Market (an open-air market with trades, as well as agricultural products)
- Waystop (Inn)
- Grigg’s Tavern (Tavern)
- Oril’s Oddities (Magic Items, spell components)
Is Halvinguard complete, then? Of course not. But, it’s complete enough for now. As time goes on, and we get to prepping that first adventure, we’ll come back here to visit. But, for now, I think we’ve done enough damage.
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