Here is the campaign log from the fourth session of our Quail Valley campaign, written by RJ from the perspective–more or less–of Eoin. My GM comments, as usual, are in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.
We had our fourth Quail Valley Campaign session last night and although it will be a bit before the campaign log gets posted, I did want to share something that really struck me after the session. It wasn’t anything new as many, many others have discussed this issue in the past. It was just something that really struck me in the difference between how this session went and how the prior sessions had gone…all of the players trusted–implicitly–the GM and this made all of the difference.
Here is the campaign log from the third session of our Quail Valley campaign. I ended up writing this one (for reasons that will become clear later) and so I’m not going to write from any particular characters’ perspective. More of just a blow by blow of the important events. I suppose I’ll still keep my GM comments in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.
The party had decided, after Mook and Rithor recovered from their paralysis, to head back to The Troll’s Tongue as the creature could not be allowed to remain…particularly during Storm Season. Other travelers would have to stay at the inn to shelter from the storms and might fall prey to the ooze thing.
Here is the campaign log from the second session of our Quail Valley campaign. This was written by Rachel (who plays Isabel). My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.
In this session, the party continues its journey towards Fairhill and encounters a rather strange mantel decoration. We pick up where we left off last time…during Isabel’s watch she was ambushed by a rather strange creature.
This past weekend marked the beginning of our new campaign and a new game system. As I mentioned in my prior posting, we’re moving to a less “tactically challenging” game. The system I’ve selected is Myth & Magic from New Haven Games (aka M&M). The game isn’t officially released until late September but a pre-release is available. Myth & Magic started as a retro-clone of 2nd Edition AD&D but has become more than that. In a manner similar to Castles & Crusades, M&M looks something like a pre-3rd Edition D&D re-envisioned with modern sensibilities. I definitely prefer M&M’s BASE20 system over Castles & Crusades SEIGE Mechanic and over the d20 approach of ever escalating skills and difficulties. We’re going to be giving the pre-release a run until the September release. It is my understanding the upcoming release has a lot of things added to the game and some things reworked. We’ll re-evaluate if we’ll continue with Myth & Magic after that release.
We rolled up characters on Saturday. It took longer than I had hoped but that is largely because none of the players had ever seen Myth & Magic. I hadn’t shared what we would be playing until after we were into the character creation process. Two of the players also decided that they’d play two characters and that contributed to things taking a bit longer. The range of Ability Scores, as one might expect with 3d6, is pretty wide. Rachel got pretty lucky with her rolls while others did not.
The roster of PCs includes the following.
The campaign will be using the Vault of Larin Karr as the “base” upon which I’ll be adding a variety of different things. Some of these will be homebrewed but others will be a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Edition published adventures. This mix is intentional…I want to see how easy it is to convert materials from the different editions to Myth & Magic. I was going to start with the 3.5 “classic” adventure, The Crucible of Freya and the lead-in, The Wizard’s Amulet. However, Franklin immediately recognized it because he has run both in the past…so I’ll be making some definite changes. 😉
Each character received one or two rumors about Quail Valley or the village of Fairhill. These were basically reasons for them to be wanting to travel to Quail Valley and so when a wizard was looking for some traveling companions to head to Fairhill (a village just a day or two from Quail Valley), it was a good “in” for each character to agree to the trip.
Below is the session log from Rachel.
My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are spoilers for The Wizard’s Amulet and possibly The Crucible of Freya below.
I’ll get to the post’s title in just a bit. First, an update.
Since I last posted, we’ve still been playing with different players taking turns running some one-shot or short adventures. After Todd’s turn running “A Keg for a Dragon,” RJ took a turn. He ran the nearly unpronounceable, “Well Met in Kith’takharos” from White Haired Man. It took us two sessions to finish it and I think we all enjoyed it. RJ did a job of going with the flow right at the beginning as my character basically picked a fight in a tavern before we really even got into the adventure. He really can’t complain as he gave me a character that was both overconfident, stubborn, and a gambler. I swear that I thought the little guy was cheating at dice!
I think that RJ was disappointed that he never really did any damage–in either session–to any of the characters. He even “cheated” at the end to try and kill one of us but with no success. 😀
After we finished that up, Pat was visiting and volunteered to run Pinnacle’s offering for Free RPG Day this year…The Wyld Hunt. This marked quite a milestone for our group…it was the first time that we ever finished an adventure marketed as a “one-shot” in a single adventure! We did our best to drag it out but first not doing what the adventure expected but Pat got us back on the rails. Pat also succeeded in killing one of the characters.
That’s what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks.
Since we had been expecting Pat’s game to take two session, I had to find something to fill the following session since no one was going to be ready to run something then. I hit on doing a higher Rank fantasy adventure as most of our Savage Worlds games have been at Novice and Seasoned Rank. The biggest conclusion I came away with from that session is that our group is just not a tactically oriented group. We’ve joked (and lamented) the lack of a tactician in the group for most of our history playing together but it really hit home that night. A fight with some trolls turned into a long, dragged out fight that could easily have turned into a TPK.
As a result, I’ve decided that we’re not going to use Savage Worlds for our fantasy campaign. We need something that is bit more forgiving for a non-tactical group of players. I simply can’t go back to 4e or 3.5…the combats in both just take too long for my preference and I really want something fairly rules light and simple in mechanics. I also want something that doesn’t really require “rules mastery” to play well and doesn’t require the players to focus so much on character builds. I want something that is easy for me to prep (from a mechanics perspective), easy for the players to play (again, from a mechanics perspective), and just lets us get on with playing the game.
We’re going retro!!!
Tonight marks the beginning of our experiment with either one of the older editions of D&D, a retro-clone, or one of the “near-clones” that are inspired by the older editions (e.g., Castles & Crusades).
More to come…
For out past two sessions, I’ve taken a seat on the opposite side of the table than I normally do. I’ve been a player and Todd has taken over the GMing duties! I had purchased, at some point in the past, the Reality Blurs’ module, “A Keg for a Dragon.” Todd took it and ran it. I haven’t read the module so I can’t say much about it beyond my experience of having been a player. I had fun playing a knight and leading the party…as the duly appointed representative of the King.
I think it was a good experience for Todd to run the game as well. It provides some perspective. At one point last night, he commented on how hard it was to not say something as we all were discussing a particular mystery that needed to be solved. Sitting there knowing the answer and watching us buzz around the answer we needed but not actually landing upon it is something that most GM’s have probably experienced at one point or another. He also got to experience players not searching for things when they are expected to and the nearly inevitable attempts (intentional or otherwise) to derail the plot of any published adventure.
It seems pretty common for folks to talk about GMs needing to be players periodically so they don’t lose the view from the other side. The same applies to players…they should run a game periodically so they have a sense of the GM’s perspective. So, while I continue working on my Savage Greyhawk conversion, RJ and Rachel are each going to take a turn at running an adventure over the course of a session or two each.
They just better not get any ideas of “taking over” the role of alpha GM. 😉
What?!? Yeah, I know, the last time I posted about what our next fantasy campaign might be, we were voting between Caladon Falls, Hellfrost, and Shaintar. Hellfrost got the cold shoulder from the players in our next round of voting…not because they don’t like it but because they want to try something different. So Caladon Falls and Shaintar were the finalists in our Setting Survivor spoof. The final round of voting resulted in…
It’s not a frog or Underdog either. Nope, just another reference largely unrelated to this actual post.
As part of our ongoing discussion about a new fantasy campaign, it seemed like a good idea to establish a few definitions for the purposes of our discussion. For example, “high fantasy” is often tossed around but not everyone necessarily shares the same definition of the term. So I laid out a few definitions. None of these are intended to be exhaustive or as the “end all, be all” of a definition. Just some working definitions to help us establish some expectations about our new campaign.
Epic Fantasy: The player characters, although they may start off as “farmboys,” eventually become movers and shakers in the world or, at a minimum, a small part of it. More often than not, the player characters play a significant role in saving the world from destruction and/or the evil machinations of some sort of big, bad guy. A non-epic fantasy campaign would be one of simple survival, greed, or the like. It would lack the world saving or the heroic element.
Everyone wants a heroic, epic type campaign. As that tends to be my preference as well, it is nice that the players feel the same way.
Adventure Path vs Plot Point vs Sandbox. For our purposes, this is essentially a continuum of how structured the plot is going to be in the campaign. At one end is the Adventure Path, epitomized by Paizo’s Adventure Paths, in which one adventure follows another and each is at least partially dependent one what happens in the previous adventures. The player characters typically have to complete specific adventures in particular order because the plot is already scripted out and is dependent upon them doing exactly this. The Plot Point is less structured than the Adventure Path but there is some sort of overarching plot already laid out. Gee, kind of like the Plot Points in many of the Savage Worlds campaign settings and nicely explained here. There is a background story going on that unfolds during the game but the adventures (or even that background story) aren’t already scripted out. The Sandbox has no structured plot or even a background story going on. Instead, the world is simply there for the player characters to explore.
With that crude continuum, I asked each of the players what they’d prefer. No one was interested in an Adventure Path type campaign. One liked the idea of the Sandbox and the other two are keen on the plot point type of approach. This makes me happy. My favorite campaigns have always been ones where there is some sort of background story or plot going on that slowly unfolds but not everything is related to it. Even better are the ones where that background story is driven as much by the actions of the characters as by the general framework or ideas that I’ve established. The Company H campaign pretty much took this tact. Actually, most FRG campaigns are like this…which is why I’m happy that’s what the players picked. It fits my GMing style.
High vs. Low Magic: This refers not to the power or magnitude of magic in a setting but, instead, to the availability or commonality of magic in the setting. In a high magic setting, magic is a fairly common thing regardless of the relative “power” of said magic. In a low magic setting, magic is a relatively rare thing but could still be quite powerful. The Lord of the Rings, for example, is more a relatively low magic setting in comparison lots of other fantasy literature from this definition. Magic is rather rare thing. You can almost count the number of “wizards” in the setting on one hand and the number of magic items on the other (as long as you don’t count all the rings).
In a “higher” magic setting, wizards and other spellcasters are common as are magic items. Most of the typical D&D campaign settings are relatively high magic settings; actually, most fantasy rpg settings are high magic. Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Mystara, and Eberron are all settings where you can’t shake a stick without hitting a spellcaster or explore a dungeon without finding magic items. A good example of a non-D&D setting that is “high” magic by this definition is Glorantha. Almost everyone can cast spells of one sort or another and magic items, even if not overly powerful, are pretty common.
Two of the players want a more high magic campaign while the third didn’t really have a preference, feeling that the pros and cons of each were pretty much equal. I’m okay with doing either so still all good.
Fantastic vs Realistic Campaign: A fantastic campaign setting is one that has elves, dwarves, and other typical fantasy fare as standard races that can be played (if not even stranger or more fantastic things). A realistic campaign is more like the real world with fantasy elements added on. Player characters are human and the more fantastic races are things of myth or, at the very least, exceptionally rare. In other words, a campaign with demi-humans being both common and playable races or one in which they are rare and, most likely, not playable races.
Everyone wants to play a more fantastic campaign. I’d be good with either so still all good.
Setting vs Campaign Centered: Some campaigns put the setting first and foremost where others put the campaign itself at the forefront with the setting just being something of a backdrop on which to play out the game. A Setting-Centric campaign has a very detailed and rich setting and the players need to have at least some basic knowledge of the setting to play. It is even better if they are well-versed in the setting and characters are expected to be deeply embedded within the setting. A Campaign Centered campaign focuses much more on the PCs and the interactions that they have with NPCs and the various situations/adventures the GM tosses out. The setting is there (or not) but it just provide some flavor. It tends to not be highly detailed and characters often are not deeply embedded within the setting.
Another pretty crude continuum of sorts. All of the players want the campaign to be focused on the campaign but they also want the setting to be important too in terms of providing some context and background (but not to the point where they can get into arguments about the finer points of the setting’s history). Again, fine with me. While I greatly appreciate a well-developed setting, I don’t want one that is so developed that if I make a change (or don’t remember some detail), it will freak out a player because it doesn’t fit “canon.”
So, all of the players seem to largely be on the same page. They want an epic, high magic campaign with many options for races and fantastical elements where the “plot” hasn’t been scripted ahead of time but there is some sort of ongoing “metaplot” that can be influenced by the actions of the player characters and the spotlight is on exactly those actions.
Sounds good to me and all three of the settings that are still in the running (Caladon Falls, Hellfrost, and Shaintar) can be used for such a campaign. 😉
…or something like that.
Nope, despite the reference, this is not a post about Highlander. Instead, I’m just sharing how our group has been deciding on what future games we’re going to be playing over the summer and, hopefully, into the fall.
I suppose I could have been quite autocratic and dictated what we would be playing but I elected to soften my iron fist with at least a veneer of velvety democracy. I laid out some basic boundaries and then allowed the players to vote for what they want to play.
The boundaries were pretty simple:
We took an elimination approach for voting. In each round, we’d “vote off” one of the settings. For the first round, I provided reviews of each setting from Kurt Weigel of Game Geeks…assuming I could find one…to give a consistent perspective across settings. Hellfrost, Shaintar, and Sundered Skies each had such a review. I couldn’t find one for 50 Fathoms or Caladon so I gave a written review of 50 Fathoms and the video “intro” to Caladon Falls.
Each player then got to vote (myself included) and the results were three votes for kicking out 50 Fathoms and one vote to kick out Caladon Falls. To be fair, my vote was for Caladon Falls and I just rolled a d4 to see which setting was voted out since it was already a unanimous vote from the other players. My vote didn’t really matter and I was happy to see that none of my top choices got the initial axe.
For the next round, I shared the “initial blurbs” for each of the remaining settings…you know, the first few paragraphs from the beginning of each setting book which gives an overview of what the setting is all about. For full disclosure, we’ve all played quite a bit of Hellfrost and so I didn’t need to give a blurb for that.
The voting wasn’t quite as unanimous this time. One player voted to kick out Hellfrost! This player loves Hellfrost but decided it would be nice to try something new. Plus, since this was turning into something of a Survivor spoof, Hellfrost would probaby have already melted away on the tropical island. 😉
Two votes were for Sundered Skies. Was there some sort of conspiracy against Triple Ace Games? All three votes were for their settings!!! Sheesh people…where is the love?!? Wiggy even named a town after our group in one of the Hellfrost Region Guides and this is how you thank him?!? 🙁
I’m just playing with the voters so don’t let this influence any future votes…at least not too much. 😯
Grabbing my trusty d4 again, I rolled and voted to kick out Shaintar. So with two votes against it, Sundered Skies, as one of the players put it, failed to take off with the group and got the boot.
Again, my top choice(s) survived the cut which, of course, continues to make me happy.
For our third round of voting, I have provided sample characters for Shaintar (Heroic Archetypes which used to be a free download at RPGNow but I can’t see to find there now) and Caladon Falls (The Milltown Irregulars freebie from the Savage Mojo website). Again, we’ve all seen characters from Hellfrost (a few players have played more than one character due to deaths) and so we’ve got a good idea of what they’re like already. The players have also had the opportunity to take a look at the first chapter of Shaintar and the first part of the Caladon Falls Player’s Guide. Oh, I also shared the Travelogue of Tavish Thorne…a piece of free fiction from Savage Mojo for Caladon Falls available from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. They’ve all read the Hellfrost Player’s Guide previously as well.
Voting for the third round hasn’t finished yet. Hopefully, we’ll wrap it up by the end of the weekend. I’ve got my fingers crossed that my favorite(s) is/are still around…no one likes a pouting GM after all. 😉
I’ve enjoyed the process so far and I’ll post the third round results next week.