When you realize that the past is past...

For the past month or so, I've been working on a campaign setting for the new Dungeons & Dragons game (5th edition to some, Next to others, D&D to me). It wasn't a new campaign setting, it was a coherent amalgamation of nearly all my ideas regarding a fantasy game settings of the past 28 years ago (except for the Drowning Woods). I wrote 20K words, about 117K characters, only to realize that setting might jam on paper, but that all in all it felt hollow and stale. The oldest parts of the setting are from the 1980ies and follow close in Tolkien's and to a lesser degree Eddings' footsteps. The newest parts are from about 10 years ago, and started with a dream. They are a grittier, more daring, at least that's what I tell myself. I took time and did a map in Campaign Hexographer that is based on an original map from 1990 drawn during my stay in the US. All the pieces fit together and finally make sense, even though some parts of the setting exist solely, because everything should have a place there. The setting roughly covers a continent the size of Europe without Russia. I have the mythology down, a total of 20 deities, and a history stretching back ten thousand years. At least in broad strokes.

Then I set back and took a look at the setting. I even started to construct the map for the campaign area. But gradually I realized that the setting is complete, but that maybe I just don't want to play there. It feels dated, it doesn't match my current sensibilities.

My influences on the setting were:

• Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon
• Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon
• Diana L. Paxson's The White Raven
• Mercedes Lackey's The Last Herald Mage
• A hint of Robert Asprin's & Lynn Abbey's Sanctuary
• The AD&D 2nd Edition Historical Reference series (Age of Heroes, The Celts)
• Myranor (a setting for the German role-playing game The Dark Eye)

All in all pretty standard, but my tastes have changed in the last 28 years (maybe not changed, but shifted). Instead of the above I would rather like to DM in a settting inspired by:

• Richard Morgan's World in Need of Heroes (The Steel Remains, The Cold Commands, The Dark Defiles)
• Tanith Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth
• Mary Renault's The Persian Boy
• More than a hint of Robert Asprin's & Lynn Abbey's Sanctuary
• The Spartacus TV Series (Gods of the Arena, Blood & Sand, Vengeance, War of the Damned)
• The Vikings TV Series
• The setting of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (just plain awesome)

In short, a somewhat grittier, edgier, moodier, darker and more exotic setting. A setting of sands and silk, sweltering nights and desperate days, splendor and decadence. A setting that marginalizes the standard races like halflings, dwarves, elves and gnomes, and instead features dragonborn, tieflings and drow. And I guess, I just hit on my working title Sand & Silk.

Comparision between D&D 5e and 13th Age

Someone in my G+ circles has asked me about the differences between D&D 5e and 13th Age. Probably, because he faces the same decision I did about a month ago: go forward with 13th Age, where a lot of rulebooks, a bestiary and a couple of adventures are already available, or wait for D&D 5e to be released bit by bit. 

Anyway, I think that such a comparison might be of interest to several people out there. This is meant to be a a comparison, not an invitation for "edition waring". Any comments going down that road will be deleted.

Both games are based on early editions of D&D. 13th Age via OGL, D&D 5e by virtue of being the 5th edition of the world's most popular role-playing game. 13th Age brings a lot of awesome to the table that's partially derived from "indie" game mechanics, but also can be ported to other games derived from D&D.

13th Age

• Ability Checks: They usually are made using the attribute modifier + level + applicable background.
• Armor Class & Damage: Are hard-coded into your class depending on the type of armor and weapon you use. Damage also scales with level (e.g. longsword wielded by a level 1 character does 1d8 damage, wielded by a level 5 character it causes 5d8 damage).
• Adventuring day: For purposes of "daily" powers, an adventuring day consists of four encounters. No matter how much in-game time elapses between the encounters. After that time, the characters also fully recover their hit points and recoveries.
• Background: A background is basically a replacement for skills. You can be a Soldier +3, Hermit +5, and the rulebook encourages you to use colorful and evocative names for them.
• Classes: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard in the 13th Age rulebook, and Chaos Mage, Commander, Druid, Monk, Necromancer and Occultist in 13 True Ways.
• Class Abilities: They are structured somewhat like in D&D 4e into at-will, daily and encounter powers. They are short and complete rules snippets that determine ability used to hit, effect and damage.
• Combat: Doesn't use a grid, does use abstract distances.
• Default Game Setting: The Dragon Empire in an area about as large as the eastern Mediterranean and environs, centered around the Midland sea. The setting is a bit quirky and leaves much room for the GM to add stuff to.
• Defenses: Instead of saving throws, 13th Age uses Physical and Mental Defense as static values.
• Escalation Die: After the first round of combat, the d6 used as escalation die starts to increase by 1 each turn of combat. You get to add the die to your attack rolls making it more likely to hit a monster in later rounds. Also some nifty effects are tied to the escalation die, both for monsters and characters. (Note: in D&D 5e that die isn't really necessary, because as of this writing AC seems to be a lot lower than in D&D 3e or 4e).
• Feats: Gained at every level. They give a small advantage and are directly tied to class abilities (some are general feats).
• Hit Points: You generally start out tougher (about three time as tough as in D&D 5e), but monsters do more damage.
• Icon Relationships: You initially get three points to determine your relationship to iconic NPCs and their organizations in the game world. Relationships can be positive, negative or conflicted. These relationships will affect game play via relationship rolls on d6s, where 6 means a good result and 5 means a mixed bag.
• Levels: 13th Age game play stretches across 10 levels, divided into 3 tiers of play that determine how difficult things like skill checks are, how much damage you take from traps etc.
• Races: Dwarves, Elves (High, Wood & Dark), Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs as major races, and Aasimar, Dragonspawn, Tieflings and Forgeborn as optional races.
• Recoveries: Each character has a number of recoveries that allow him to regain hit points by rolling a number of dice dependent on his level (e.g. level 1 characters roll one die, level 6 characters roll six dice). The die size depends on class. Once per battle, one recovery can be used as an action. After a battle you can also use recoveries.
• Rituals: These are spells cast for story effect and the GM will tell you how long it takes to cast the ritual and what rolls to make.
• Spells: Spells are learned in slots and come as at-will, daily and encounter variants, their effect (often damage) increases depending on the slot they are in, but as you advance your slots advance with you (i.e. you loose your lower level spell slots). Each spellcasting class gets about as many spells as other classes get class abilities.
• Two Weapon Fighting: If you carry a weapon in your off-hand, you are allowed to make an additional attack roll, if your first attack roll came up as "2".

D&D 5e

• Ability Checks: They are usually made using the attribute modifier + proficiency bonus when applicable.
• Advantage/Disadvantage: This nifty mechanic allows you to roll 2d20. If you have advantage, you take the higher of the two results. If you have disadvantage, you take the lower of the two results. This replaces modifiers to the die roll.
• Adventuring Day: An adventuring day is tied to in-game time. You can have one long rest per adventuring day that completely recovers your hit points, and half your hit dice.
• Armor Class & Damage: Both are determined from class-independent tables.
• Backgrounds: A background provides your character with several proficiencies in skills and tools, some languages and social ability. You can be a soldier or hermit and gain proficiencies associated with that background.
• Classes: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard all right in the Player's Handbook.
• Class Abilities: They are very different from class to class. Usually they interact with the rest of the mechanics instead of being self-contained rules snippets.
• Combat: Doesn't use a grid, but defined distances.
• Default Game Setting: The Forgotten Realms. A sprawling world, defined in literally hundreds of books and novels. But apparently, that's only part of the setting called Multiversum that contains all the D&D campaign settings and the planes, plus whatever your DM comes up with.
• Feats: Stronger game-effects than in previous editions, but completely optional. If allowed by the DM, maybe taken instead of an attribute raise (roughly every four levels, none at character creation unless you are a human).
• Hit Dice: Your character has hit dice equal to his level. Their size depends on class. You can take a short rest of one hour and then roll as many hit dice as you like to recover lost hit points.
• Hit Points: You start out with a small amount of hit points determined by class plus Constitution modifier. Each time you gain a level you can decide, if you want to gain a slightly above average of hit points or if you feel lucky and roll the hit dice. Hit points scale a lot like in earlier editions, but instead of d4 you now use d6 for the former d4-using classes. The d6-using classes moved up to d8.
• Levels: D&D 5e has currently 20 levels of game play divided into four tiers that are used to determine which adventures are suitable for your character (especially in the Adventurer's League).
• Proficiencies: Your character can be proficient in various weapons, armors, skills, tools, saving throws and languages. If you are proficient, you add your proficiency bonus to the roll. The proficiency bonus rises after every 4 levels. Armor and languages work slightly different.
• Races: Dragonborn, Dwarves (Hill & Mountain), Elves (High, Wood & Dark), Gnomes (Wood & Rock), Halflings (Light-Foot & Stout), Half-Elves, Half-Orcs and Tieflings.
• Rituals: These are spells with the ritual descriptor. They can be cast in a short ritual and don't have to be prepared in advance, if cast that way.
• Saving Throws: Instead of static defenses, D&D 5e uses six saving throws (one for each attribute).
• Spells: Spells are prepared in slots, they don't increase their effect based on your character level, but instead increase their effect based on the slot you use to cast them. The PHB will contain more than 300 spells for all spellcasting classes.
• Two Weapon Fighting: As long as you only carry a light weapon in each hand, you can attack twice with your full attack bonus.

My own conclusion: I went the D&D 5e road starting with D&D Basic. That wasn't motivated by any of the above, though. I am still torn on the issue which system to use. But when I asked my gamer friends, if the would like to play a regular 13th Age campaign, I was met with lukewarm interest. When I told them, I think about doing a D&D campaign, the reaction was markedly different. There was enthusiasm or at least a "Sure why not?" response. Therefore, D&D 5e was a no-brainer despite the excellent support from Pelgrane for their game system. D&D 5e was simply "better" at grabbing the attention of my friends.

TJ2 Against the Spectre Queen

This is a continuation of the previous adventure "TJ1 The Barrow of the Dwarven Queen" that I DMed via Google Hangout. The adventure is loosely based on my Dungeon World adventure "Against the Spectre Queen".

Notes: The session used D&D Basic V0.1 and monsters from "The Lost Mines of Phandelver".

Cast of Characters:

• Aelar, male high elf wizard (spy)
• Grimbolt Doomhammer, male mountain dwarf fighter (folk hero?)
• Maedric, male human cleric (soldier)
• Tanris, male human rogue (criminal)
• Tendrak Talis, male human fighter (soldier)

The characters are staying at the Silver Cat Walk Inn in Svarturvigi. Some (Tendrak, Maedric) have traveled together with Sorrenson the merchant and his beautiful daughter Ingdis from Solacebury to the fortress of the dwarven king Rafnar the Black. The others are guests at the inn. In the morning, Sorrenson finds that his daughter has disappeared (again). He asks the characters to help him find her and (again) offers a generous reward.

The city streets are patrolled by grim hill dwarfs in the service of Rafnar. Maedric first suspects Haddun, a fellow caravan guard of eloping with Ingdis and thus the group searches the gates and the harbor. But they do not find a trace of her, but manage to alienate the townguards (or at least Maedric manages that). Aelar even visits a brothel because a town guard insinuates that Ingdis might have gone there. Embarrassingly, it turns out to be a brothel for dwarfs, halflings and gnomes. So as mistress Roshildur informs him, the elf won't be served here - even though she finds him cute.

After trying the harbor, they investigate the old city cemetery that is protected by wards designed to keep something in as Aelar discovers. But apart from ancient tombs and catacombs dug into the mountain side of the actual black fortress they don't find anything there.

With empty hands the adventurers return to the inn. There, they decide to search Ingdis' room. Apart from a smashed mirror they don't find anything. But it dawns on them that she might be possessed. Tendrak asks a serving girl about Ingdis. And indeed the girl saw her leave in the early morning - alone, no with Haddun - for the temple of Nastruhal, deity of crafts and smithing.

The group goes there as well and finds massacred dwarven priests, and a break-in into a secret crypt beneath the altar. In the crypt they are confronted by skeletons and zombies. After defeating them, they discover that whoever was down here, stole a book that was chained to a lectern in the crypt.

As they leave the temple, they see a massive storm gathering over the city that is centered on the cemetery. They rush there to discover Ingdis inside chanting from an ancient book made out of stone. As the group attacks, the ritual is interrupted and a wraith leaves her body to attack the party. In the fight, Grimbolt is killed by her touch, before the combined might of the surviving heroes can defeat and banish the wraith. The storm breaks and the heroes return Ingdis safely to her father. Aelar takes the book with him. He later discovers that it is the Treatise of Stone, containing rituals and spells of the First Dwarfs, those who are now known as derro dwarfs.

Grimbolt Doomhammer is honored with a funeral pyre at the temple of Waradin, the deity of battle, to prevent his soul from returning as a wraith.

WH2 The Ruined Village of the Goblin Lord

This is the second part of my home brew D&D 5e campaign. The last time the player characters found a troubling letter that previously belonged to a dancing devil "merchant" which they could not decipher.

Note: This session was based on D&D Basic and monsters from The Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Cast of Characters:

• Grandor, male dwarf cleric (acolyte)
• Karsal Kesh, male stout halfling rogue (acolyte)
• Khelben, male human wizard (soldier)
• Mab, female human fighter (soldier)

Two weeks earlier: Khelben meets with his superiors in the ducal capital of Mirena. He shows them the letter captured from the dancing devil (a species of Tiefling that can only procreate with human females) Malzurban. It turns out that the letter contains a treaty of cooperation from the Walyran bishop of Taronn to the goblin tribes of the Weathered Heath in case of an attack on the mining outposts of Thoran in the heath. It is addressed to someone named Archibaldus. Khelben is entrusted with the mission to find Archibaldus and stop him. Grandor is hired to accompany him and Mab joins them as a bodyguard. Together they travel to Griffon Rock, a keep in the borderlands.

Now: As the trio approaches Griffon Rock, the attract the attention of Karsal Kesh, a rogue travelling to the keep as well. With some difficulties the party enters into the keep, as Karsal seems to be bend on alienating the guards at the gate.

Khelben immediately seeks an audience with Baroness Deirdren of Griffon Rock, but is met only by her husband. Apparently, the baroness is in deep mourning ever since her two sons passed away in the war against Walyra. Khelben tells Baron Padraig in secret about his missions, and asks him what he knows about this Archibaldus. Apparently, he was the apprentice to the resident wizard Peredur.

Meanwhile, the others go shopping at Shea's Warehouse, where Karsal again causes trouble as he really tries to rob the half-orc proprietress of the store. With some difficulty, Mab and Grandor get Karsal out of trouble.

Later on the party decides to spend the night at the Green Dragon Inn. There Mab has a run in with Geoffrey, the stable boy. They talk and Geoffrey promises her to go with them to Peredur in the morning. Apparently, Geoffrey knows the wizard from some favor he performed for Geoffrey.

In the morning the heroes seek out Geoffrey and after a short delay, because he has to fasten his belt, he leads them to Peredur. They get the old wizard to talk and he tells them of a ruined village and the former wizards' guild located there. Apparently, it was quite an illegal guild devoted to dark arts. The troubles with Archibaldus started, when the apprentice looted parts of the wizards' guild hidden knowledge. He turned down to a dark path and split with his former master. Peredur tells them the location of the ruined village.

Before the adventurers move out of Griffon Rock, Mab gets into a verbal fight with Geoffrey. She smacks him in the face for a perceived insult. That really seems to hurt Geoffrey, as he is really looking up to Mab as a female fighter. Apparently, women aren't allowed to practice the fighting arts in Griffon Rock. Mab doesn't understand at first, until Geoffrey shows her what he got from Peredur: a belt that changes her gender to male. Otherwise, (s)he would never have managed to become a stable boy. Mab is deeply moved by that revelation and promises Geoffrey to take him with her, when she leaves after the mission.

Then the party gets moving to the abandoned village. There, they get into various fights. Unfortunately, a chance encounter with twig blights gives them away to the goblins way too early. They get into an extended battle at the towers of the wizards' guild that they barely manage to survive. Then, they break into the tower and discover an excavation site in the cellar. A bugbear, a hobgoblin and two goblins try to break into an ancient sarcophagus. After defeating them, the heroes loot the sarcophagus themselves and find beautiful plate armor of the Order of the Dragon (Khelben's order). Khelben decides to allow Mab the use of arms and armor in order to complete the mission. Then the four adventurers barricade themselves into the tower for a long rest.

During the long rest, Mab dreams of past glory. She kneels before the first king of Thoran and his elven wife to receive arms, armor and a blessing. In a courtyard on the outside she sees a silver dragon rearing its head in triumph as she receives the arms from the king.

After the long rest, things get pretty serious. The evil mage Archibaldus knows that they are holed up in the tower and he has gathered his forces in the courtyard of the ruined castle overlooking the village. When Mab goes scouting, she is discovered by the mage and he sends her plummeting off the wall with a barrage of magic missiles. Thankfully, she survives the fall and Grandor heals her back to full health. Angered, Mab takes her bow and shoots an arrow into the courtyard over the wall. She aims for the position of the mage. He apparently hasn't bothered to move and is wounded. Angrily he orders the offense versus the heroes. A desperate battle ensues. The tide finally turns, when the heroes decide to flee, but Karsal is held by a spell. Mab turns around and attacks again, soon joined by Khelben and Grandor. In the end, the determination of the heroes proofs to be too much and the goblin forces are defeated, Archibaldus is taken prisoner and returned to Griffon Rock. Without their leader, the goblins go back to being disparate tribes again, instead of being a threat to Thoran.

To be continued...

WH1 Trouble on the Great River

Today we started our regular D&D 5e campaign in my home brew campaign setting. We are usually playing on Saturdays, and the players are drawn from a pool. Usually, the first four players that have time do get to play in a session. The pool contains about a dozen players, some have more time on their hands than others, so they and their player characters will be appearing more often. The actual play posts will appear at the date of the game session. That way it's easier for me to track things.

Note: This session was played using D&D Basic and monsters from The Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Cast of Characters:

• Grandor, male dwarf cleric (acolyte)
• Khelben, male human wizard (soldier)
• Milo, male halfling rogue (spy)
• Valrian Liadon, male wood elf fighter (spy)

Play is taking place in the Weathered Heath, a border region of the kingdom of Thoran. The kingdom is ruled by a half-elven nobility that was founded over 1,200 years ago by the marriage between a human tribal chief and the elven queen who sought to preserve the elven heritage beyond the time of elves on the continent. Her court followed her into the human lands where she stayed for the better part of a century to oversee the establishment of a strong dynasty. Her heirs still rule the land. She and her court returned to elven woods, where she still rules today.

The past decade has been troublesome for the kingdom. In the south, a new aggressive power has arisen. A theocracy based on the lawful teachings of the chief deity Celos. In Walyra, law is emphasized above good, and the theocracy is aggressively acquiring territory. A standing army of Paladins turns them into a formidable opponent. Thoran has lost it's southern most duchy to the theocracy in a bitterly fought war five years ago. Tensions remain high and the half-elven kingdom is wary about renewed aggression.

Khelben, a captain in the Order of the Dragon, is sent by his superiors on a mission to spy on Walyra. He is placed in command of Milo and Valrian, two spies who are to insinuate themselves into the Walyran border town of Karollyn. In order to appear inconspicuous, they travel with a barge of lightfoot halflings from the northern river port of Aescford to their destination along the Njangdal river. Apart from them, a dancing devil (a species of Tieflings who can only procreate with human females) called Malzurban and his two concubine-slaves travel with the halflings, as well as a dwarven cleric of Nangaloss called Grandor. Nangaloss is a northern deity of craftsmanship, smithing, dwarves and dragons. He is brother to the two moon gods Elissar and Nitarro. Grandor is telling legends of his god to the halfling children during the day.

At nightfall, the barge stops and a camp is raised on the Thoran bank of the Njangdal. The halflings start dancing and celebrating. Milo joins in the celebration, when a comely halfling lass asks him to dance with her. Khelben keeps to himself, Grandor is eventually persuaded to dance, and Valrian keeps watch above the valley. That was a good idea as it turns out. A group of goblins led by hobgoblins attacks the barge folk. The heroes are victorious in repelling them, but a some halflings are kidnapped.

Khelben promises to free them, and Milo, Valrian and Grandor tag along. After a short rest, they pursue the goblins across the Weathered Heath until they arrive at a small cave. The goblins enter the cave and shortly thereafter leave without the captives. Our heroes stay behind and investigate the cave. It turns out that it is guarded by giant spiders. But apparently, they let the goblins pass. The heroes attack the spiders and in harrowed battle enter the cave. There, they discover that the captives have been placed on altar dedicated to the dark goddess Sardyna. The eight-armed goddess is a deity of death and disease, more feared than worshipped, except by the most dark-hearted folk.

The pitched battle with the giant spiders nearly turns out to be a complete disaster. First, Milo daringly attacks a spider and injures her gravely. Valrian is knocked unconscious (the player had to leave early). Then Grandor goes down and Milo is killed. Captain Khelben saves the day. The wizard lures the surviving spider out into the open and then destroys her with fire. He saves the halflings who help him to return the unconscious Grandor and the dead Milo to the barge. Valrian is gone, when Khelben returns to the cave.

Milo is given a touching funeral on the Njangdal in the style of his people. His body is placed on a small raft with twigs and tinder. Then pushed out on the river while the halflings shoot burning arrows at the craft.

The halflings travel onwards. Khelben's mission is basically ruined as one of his spies is dead and the other has vanished. Therefore he decides to travel back to headquarters to get new orders. Grandor decides to join him. They do not disembark at Karollyn, but instead go on to the ducal capital of Mirena.

But someone does disembark at Karollyn: the dancing devil Malzurban and his two concubine-slaves. After they are gone, the halfling lass that Milo was dancing and flirting with, goes to Khelben and reveals that she stole a letter from Malzurban written in dwarvish script. Grandor cannot read it, so it seems to be some other language that is using dwarvish script. Khelben decides to show that letter to his superiors.

To be continued...