The Future of the Friday Game

Well, it is getting to be time for a break from DMing the Friday night games, and while I have vowed to the guys that we are going to see their characters through to "god botherer" level.. around level 30.. after that, I am handing the game over to Robert to run a Star Wars campaign for five months, and after that, Gerwin will be running a Warhammer RPG for a few months, both of these systems and settings I am mad keen to try out.
Iain has said that once his Salushen campaign is completed, I can start my new campaign in the Tuesday night slot, with him taking it back when Gerwin's game is done and me shifting DMing duties back to good old Friday Night.

It gives me plenty of time to plan my new game.

Basically, the game centers on the city of Sigil (aka, City of Doors, The Cage).
Sigil is a unique, exotic location, a domain created and controlled by a mysterious entity known as The Lady of Pain.. she is the only real authority there, though there are many factions who would have you think otherwise.
Sigil is a city habitat that is connected to every other plane via doorways, gates and portals, all of which require keys.. and all the keys are different.
Because it connects so many different places, it is a truely diverse population that dwells there, and in the midst of them all are the player characters.

The characters are all members and new recruits to a mercenary group which has it's roots way back to when the Gith broke free of the Mind Flayers, in fact, the group is still mostly composed of Githzerai with an impressive mix of races comprizing the rest of the group.
Known simply as The Insiders, the group takes a wide range of jobs and sends members out on training runs to hone their skills.

What this translates into, is that during the game, the characters, who start at level 5 and can choose from a much wider selection of races than they normally would, are given selections of missions that they can do for set payment, or they can follow up on leads and go off on their own adventures.. as long as they maintain their obligations to The Insiders (after all, they get a lot of perks from being a part of the group, such as better prices on goods, regular work, the protection of their peers, etc).

Unlike my previous campaign, the focus is not the prime material plane (and the Forgotten Realms setting).. it is mainly about the wider cosmos, the politics of the various Factions at work in Sigil and beyond, and their own personal stories.
Because they will always have Sigil as a reliable home base, there is more scope for them to set up shop and background for themselves there.. who are they, what is their story?
Do they have family?
What do they want out of life?

Anyway.. I have started planning for it already (obviously) and already I am starting to create handy charts and tables for myself, to make the campaign a bit smoother and free flowing.

Here is a simple example...

Random Damage Type Table (for traps, spell effects, chaotic bursts, etc)
Roll D20
1-2 = Arcane
3-4 = Thunder
5-6 = Poison
7-8 = Force
9-10 = Acid
11-12 = Fire
13-14 = Cold
15-16 = Lightning
17-18 = Radiant
19 = Necrotic
20 = Psychic

I also have a nice map of Sigil, and plenty of ideas for how the Githzerai in The Insiders differ from their more jedi-like cousins.
For a start, they have what sounds like a Jamaican accent... why?
I dunno, it just seems to fit.

Settling into a good stride

It had been two weeks since I had last run the Friday night game, Sam had filled in last week, setting up a story arc where the player characters had a mission to go get the heart of a black slaad in order to for the wizard Lan to complete a ritual to retrieve the soul of former team mate, Cobalt Greymind.. from what he said and the feedback from the rest of the group, he did a great job.
Returning to Silverymoon for a few days of R&R and shopping, the players decided to put some long term goals into motion, so Gyrax Starscream the Genasi warrior thought that buying a plot of land in the city and building a place where all the Genasi could live and feel at home would be great.. it so happened that there was lots of cheap land, due to the spell plague demolishing some of the magical libraries and institutions, and the lingering magical contamination left the land drastically reduced in demand (and value).. he has purchased a large chunk of city property for the paltry sum of 80,000 gold, and contracted a local Earth Genasi artisan and elementalist to construct the land and building complex for 250,000 gold.
Of course, it is a golden opportunity for me to make this the seed of a couple of adventures.

The Ranger/Rogue, Arno, has decided that he wants to build an Ophanage for the city rascals, to get them off the streets and teach them some skills.. he has, interestingly, heavily involved the local dominant church and it's impressive militia of Paladins, who are only too happy to have so many young minds and souls to guide to a lifetime of rightious service.

Don is very tempted by the lure of the new Psion class, and I am certainly not discouraging him from giving it a whirl.. as I said to him "Hey man, I am all about trying out the new stuff!".
However, he is quite fond of his Warden and wants to stick with it.
I like Wardens, they are quite a challenge for a DM, and having another player who has a multiclass Shaman/Druid? Yes, very challenging indeed!

Anyway, things could not stay calm and peacefull for long, and pretty soon, evil was afoot.
Looking through the Forgotten Realms guide, I saw that it was time to change the season to Spring, so I invented the Blossum Festival and had the elves of the city (along with many drunken revellers) march in a magical parade out to the White Lotus Academy (which is far more impressive in my campaign than the little compound seen in Dragon magazine), playing flutes and harps and singing elven song enchantments that caused the wilderness around them to burst into bloom.
As they got to the academy, the expected welcoming display of pyrotechnics and symbolic rain of white lotus blossums, failed to eventuate.. in fact, the academy was forboding and silent.
Something was wrong!
And of course, it was up to the players to investigate.

Approaching the walls of the academy, they spotted some Flameskulls floating along the crenelated tops, some 30 feet in the air, and decided to try getting some answers from them.. this did not go so well, with the Skulls basically telling the snivelling mortals that they were not to try and enter or bad things would ensue.
Meanwhile, the Ro- uh.. the Ranger decided to scale the wall, sneak a look into the academy and find out what other ways in there were..
He did see that there was a circit patrol of Rock Elementals, who were marching through a series of magical circles which made odd noises.. rising in pitch until an elemental passed through, which seemed to reset the tone, which started to rise again.
The players immediately realised that delaying the Elementals would set off some sort of effect from the circles, and gave me filty looks of respect for my cunning deviousness.

The Ranger Arno decided on a more direct approach, and cut the heavy rope which supported the drawbridge style main gate, unwittingly dropping it right on top of the Dwarven warden.. Don took it with good humor, of course, but I thought it was hilarious.
Another case of "When good stealth goes wrong".

The players charged in, the Skulls took up good positions from 30 ft up, and battle was done.. unfortunately, the skulls had no idea there was a deadly ranger on a level with them up on top of the wall, but, they gave the players a good fight before they met their doom.

Next, the players raced across the open ground beyond the gateway, and managed to scale a magical rope to an open landing up a wall before more Flameskulls or the patrolling Elementals arrived.. it was a close call with the defender Gyrax however, who just managed to avoid getting into a fight with the elemental.

I managed to build a bit of urgency and tension in the game by telling the players at each stage, how many rounds they had before the next lot of bad guys would arrive, and I kept this up the entire way through the game, so they were going from encounter to encounter, but only slipped out of round by round action a couple of times the entire way through the adventure.
At first, it was Avoid the Elemental Patrol, then it was Get inside before the Flameskulls Arrive, followed by, Something is Crawling up out of The Pit of Shadows... you get the idea.

A lot happened in this game, but for the players, it was like one big skirmish and race to rescue to hostages.. exactly what I had in mind.

Inside the complex, they investigates a few hexagonal rooms.. one had a Pit, the other had a Summoning circle. and there was a hallway that looked like an obvious trap.. each doorway was activated by a password, and the main door into the complex was trapped with a lighting bolt that hit anyone who touched it.. tricky when trying to keep the thing closed from the inside as Flameskulls try to get in.

What followed was an amusing pot shot battle with undead who were crawling up the pit shaft out of a portal to the Shadowfell down below.. which at one point, the Shaman/Druid fell into..
There was also the arrival of a summoner bad guy and his two undead goons, who put up quite a fight, but in the end, the players managed to win the day and rescue a bunch of hostage wizards, escaping magically back to Silverymoon.

But, they still have no idea who or what has taken over the Academy, other than an idea that it started at the abandoned Halls of Necromancy.

We shall see how things evolve next week...

All the bells and whistles

After a very lack luster game on one Friday, and some feedback from the players, I finally managed to pull together a great many of the things I have learned about the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and the results were quite good.
We were one player short on the night, and as that player happened to be the one who quite often had to work the next morning, we were suddenly free to play as long as the game required.
This ended up being a game which ran from 7.30pm to around 4.30am.. I still can't believe we did that at our ripe old ages..
The game featured a hasty mission into the mysterious chambers beneath the Dwarven city of Sundabar.. ostensibly on a rescue mission for the dwarven king, who's son was off looking for a cure for the deathless plague which the city is suffering from.
The players got their gear together, found an entrance to the city beneath the Cathedral of Moradin, and soon found themselves facing some of the unexpected elements I had thrown together for the evening.
First off, a puzzle.. quite an odd riddle was asked of them by a bunch of ancient guardians..
'What is family, what is face, what is pride of the dwarven race?'
It stumped them.
The answer was 'beard'.
They then got into a scrap with the guardians, but quickly discovered that they were way more powerfull than their opponents, so they finished them all off very quickly, and were in a good mood..
Innovation number one for the evening.. I gave them hordes of mooks to obliterate.
Next up, they had some doors to get through, and decided they would leave them propped open, thus avoiding any need for levers and such later on, though at the time, they had no idea what a great idea they had just had.
Innovation number two.. let players foil your evil schemes.
Next, they discovered that there were demons in the premises, and once more, they were pretty punu examples of their wretched kind.. The wizard of the group managed to do a devastating attack, literally pasting the demons in mid air, resulting in a slick rain of demon goo from above as they figured a way across some odd rooms full of narrow paths, sickening drops into dark waters below and some chains hanging from the roof (some real, some illusionary).
I totally expected the players to just use their flying carpet to get across, but they didn't, they prefered to do it the old fashioned way, just because it was more fun to use their skills.
What followed were more rooms and more fun, somewhat underpowered fights with creatures that were interesting, but not much of a challenge.. it did allow the players to all have fun with their abilities and resulted in quite a few laughs.
For instance, we all refer to Dimensional Marauders as "Warp Chickens" now.
The final encounter started when I would normally be winding the game up with a 'to be continued'.. but we decided to play on.
It featured the following..
An already open portal wall to the Abyss, which periodically spat our more demons.
A Yochlol demon who seemed to be in charge.
A glowing magical crystal hovering above a round shaft in the middle of the room, the crystal being the obvious source of power for the rift into the Abyss. (and yes, we made lots of Dark Crystal jokes)
There were two big Neldrazu demons, a bunch of Rupture demons (which lasted to the very end of the encounter, much to my surprise) and a small army of Dretchs.
The Dwarven King's son was there, manacled to the wall, and the manacles were a trap version I had included in a couple of places on the complex before the players got to this room, so they would know how to deal wth them before the fight started.
During the fight, they had some Gnaw demons show up, as well as some Bloodseep demons.
In the end, it was a combination of defeating the boss monster and destroying the crystal that closed the portal and ended the fight, and by that time, we were all completely frazzed.. Thank goodness for my method of keeping track of monster hit points and conditions on printed copies of their monster manual entries, otherwise that combat would have been a real mess.
But, the players absolutely loved it!
They greatly enjoyed fighting creatures that could not hope to match them, and they really liked the combinations of odd enviroments, terrain hurdles that were mildly challenging, but mostly just interesting to imagine.. and creatures that were pesky, not particularly deadly.
The final fight was great because at the start, there was an actual horde of bad guys.. they were facing ten Dretches, four Ruptures, two Neldrazu and a shape shifting Yochlol.. that is fairly intimidating.. but they charged in anyway.
They were heroic, they were epic, it was a clear case of good guys vs bad guys, and they got to rescue a prince!
What's not to like about that?

I consider it one of my best ever game nights.

plan B

Well, the new monster manual does indeed include the Spriggan.. thank frak I did not write an ecology article for that race!
What I am going to do is create an entirely new one.
I tested out these guys in a Play by Post game a few years ago and I have a real soft spot for them (akin to my abiding love of Kobolds).
They are an alpine race of people with the body of a goat and the upper torso of a humanoid, with goat ears and horns, but a face a bit like a gnome. They do wear clothes and tend to decorate their horns, travel widely and have a great sense of adventure. The Dwarfs like them because they can be hard workers and canny traders or merchants, plus they are really good miners when they set themselves to it, though it is not really in their nature to mine without a fair bit of encouragement.
Bray are not a very exciting monster race, but I think they make a great player character race.
The Centaur is cool, but they are just too damn big! Minotaurs are too monstrous and Satyrs are lumped with the whole Greek mythology thing.. and the whole sex crazed drunkard stereotype.

I keep imagining a Bray in combat, and can just see them rising up on their hind legs, in that classic head butting posture, only they are about to swing a sword with great force, or smack something across the chops with a wicked right cross!
The nimble grace of goats is well known, as is their hardiness and ability to eat pretty much anything.. also, they are gregarious and intelligent critters, who enjoy company.
So.. this is my next writing (and art) project.

The Bray!

Play by Post underway

The PDF is complete and I have created a play by post game at www.playbyweb.com called Dragonhammer.
So far, I have three players and they have killed five elves, scared the hell out of an innocent halfling and are on their way to the nearest town to save them from the Xeno scum.. weather they want to be saved or not.
The combat system seems to be working fine in the play by post (PbP) format, I have included an area map that reveals as they travel through it, and used a tactical combat map, in five foot squares, for the round by round combat.. when the players wanted to move, they stated they wanted to move up one, right three, for instance, and I altered the map for each new round.

So far so good, no complaints, a few bits of info on using guns and such, but I think the rule book is doing it's job well.
The Dragonhammer PDF may be viewed for free at http://www.youpublish.com/files/19356/Dragonhammer-Second-Edition

Next writing project should already be underway.. but I am currently obsessed with knitting scarves.. I will make a start tomorrow.
The theme is Underground ecology in the Feywild, and is intended to be published by Wizards of the Coast.

Work continues

Well, I have finished the basic character building rules and a selection of equipment for them, and the next part is to give them feats and powers for when they level up. Play testing the Space Marines went very well, and a couple of alterations were made for how we handle firing automatic weapons in the 4th edition D&D rules.
The gaming group has agreed that the last Friday of each month is a good time to play some Warhammer 4th ed D&D (maybe it would be easier to call it 'Dragonhammer'?).. I downloaded the PDF file of the game rules onto the www.youpublish.com web site, the image above is the cover picture I used.
Actual D&D writing is crawling along.. at the moment I am still thinking about fungus ecologies in the Feydark.

For the Emperor!

OK, so I have completed the rough basics of the Warhammer 40K conversion, here is the starting template for the Space Marine characters. We start with the raw Initiate stats, then add a template, such as Commander, Tactical Marine, Assault Marine or Devastator.
Then the player rolls a background for the marine, and it's ready to go.

Space Marine Initiate
(Starting Template)
Level 6 Brute
Medium Natural Humanoid
Initiative +5 Senses : Perception +7; Low Light
Hit Points 88; Bloodied 44 Healing Surge 22 Surges per Mission 11
AC 12 without Armor, 23 with Power Armor Fortitude 20, Reflex 17, Will 16
Immune to Injested Toxins, Resist 5 Poison or Entropic, Resist 2 Cold or Heat.
Speed 6
Action Points: 1
Attacks and Powers.
Assault (Rifle Butt) (standard; at-will)
+9 vs AC; 1d6 + 5 damage
Gain a special +2 Skirmish bonus to melee attack rolls when adjacent to only one enemy.

Bolt Rifle, Single Shot (standard; at-will)
Ranged 20; +5 vs AC; 1d12 (brutal 2) damage
The Bolt Rifle holds 12 rounds in a clip, reloading is a minor action. The rifle may be fired at an adjacent target but is -4 to the attack roll (it does not provoke an attack as a ranged weapon while doing so). Otherwise the range is 20/40.

Bolt Rifle, Burst Fire (standard; at-will)
Ranged 20; +9 vs AC; 2d12 (brutal 2) damage
Firing a burst at a single target requires 5 rounds from the clip and is less accurate, but more deadly.

Bolter Rifle, Auto Fire (standard; at-will)
Area burst 1 within 20; +5 vs Reflex; 1d12 (brutal 2) damage
Autofire targets an area and all creatures in it. It requires 10 rounds from the clip.

Zeal (Only while bloodied)
Gain +1 to all attack rolls.

For the Emperor! (Encounter Power)
End any ongoing damage, make a save vs any ongoing effects, become immune to knockback and fear effects until the end of your next round, and gain 10 temperory Hit Points.

Skills: Athletics 15, Endurance 16, Arcana 8, History 8
Str 20 (+8) Dex 15 (+5) Wis 12 (+4)
Con 18 (+7) Int 10 (+3) Cha 10 (+3)

Equipment: Power Armor, Bolter Rifle.

I'm going to finish typing this all up tomorrow and print it out for the Friday nighters to check out.

Distractions

I know I should be doing other things, but I can't get this idea out of my head.
I am making a 4th edition D&D version of Warhammer 40,000.
After looking over the Dungeon Master's Guide last night, I hit on the idea of using a basic racial template for Space Marines, much like you start with a monster's stat block, then add a specialist class to that, as you would when creating a customized monster role, and from there, you just add lots of special equipment, feats and skill selections.
Very simple really.
Since the characters will be quite basic, with only a few special abilities, they will be less exciting to play all the time, so I am going to have a platoon list available, of many characters, and the players get to build a squad at the mission briefing stage, where they pick a character from the platoon list that they are going to play, also, if the character gets incapacitated, they can call in fresh troops to replace those that are lost.
The basic Space Marine is modified slightly by his Background, which is his planet of origin, and this may influence his skills, base stats, feats and possibly his potential for psionic talent (Psiker abilities)... I am toying with the idea of Psiker ability being a risky thing, with potential for mutation and corruption.
Generally, the missions will reward troops with experience, chapter honors and relics.. the relic items are more powerful equipment for the troops.
The main equipment focus will be the Power Armor all marines except the Scouts wear, followed by the main weapon (typically a Bolt Rifle, or Bolt Pistol and Chain-sword) and then specialist equipment, such as Heavy Weapons, Sniper Rifles, Explosives, Targeters, Remote Weapons, and the all important Stim Packs.
Stim Packs will take the place of Healing Surges, and due to the more lethal nature of this game, the players will be able to pop Stim Packs as a Minor Action, whenever required (however, they don't get the total defence bonus of a Second Wind).
Each character will start off with a set number of Stim Packs on each mission, and there will be special items and chapter honors which award higher numbers of base hit points, later in the game.
Levels are important, because they allow access to high level equipment and make new class options available, such as the all important Apothecary, Force Commander, Librarian, Inquisator, Techpriest, etc.
Of course, there is a huge amount of information to draw on as I go, thanks to the very creative fans who have compiled a thorough wiki on the 40K game setting.

Anti Monsters?

So after more thought and research, reading the Players Handbook II and Manual of the Planes, I have a far more solid idea of who the Spriggans are, and I must say, they make for some sorry villains.
The story goes, the Fomorians are an evil and magically powerful race of giants from the Feydark (the Underdark of the Feywild), and have always been the race that Gnomes fear the most, due to Fomorians enslaving and often eating Gnomes. Most Gnomes are now free from Fomorian enslavement, but some are not... you guessed it, the Spriggans are those poor Gnomes who are still enslaved, abused and often eaten by the Fomorians, and what is worse, they can never escape.
It is the horrid nature of the Fomorians to crave and acquire power, and of all the Gnomes, the Spriggans have the greatest connection to elemental powers, so naturally, they were the target of the Fomorians. Spriggans have the ability to manipulate stone, to alter their size and summon storms, they can tend to plants, create stone portals to other places in the Feywild and even portals to the material world or Shadowfell. Since they can slip away so easily, the Fomorians had to find a better way to enslave them, and it was this that lead to a horrible curse.
Spriggans are bound to Fomorians through powerful and evil magic, by way of a ritual that they are forced to endure when they reach an age old enough to survive the ordeal.
It is this one chance, to escape when young enough, that drives the Spriggans to sometimes swap their own infants for those of mortals in the material world, and many tales feature these changelings. When the ritual is complete, the Spriggan is bound to the Fomorians, and so are their elemental powers. The Spriggans may roam as far as they like, they can never escape, and the Fomorian can command them, summon them, or kill them, at any time.
It is no wonder then, that Spriggans are irritable, paranoid, avericious and angry. They know that their life is doomed to misery and torment, and they resent any who are free.
The life of a Spriggan consists mainly of mining in the Feydark, or tending the fungus farms, all within the rough iron walls of the Fomorian fortresses. The Spriggans are pained by the mere touch of rough iron, so the walls are always there to remind them of their master's cruelty.
Some Spriggans, kept free by being raised among mortals, have taught their Gnome cousins some of the secrets of portal crafting, in the hope that one day, the Gnomes will find a way to free the Spriggans; but, the hope is a faint one.
Spriggans, when not commanded to attack by their masters, are reluctant foes. They attack out of despair and frustration, their anger is fueled by a lifetime of torment and all they wish is for their opponent to feel some of that pain. When bloodied in combat, the rage is such that they summon some inner reserve of their elemental power, and can briefly grow to giant size, manipulate the earth or the power of the air, cause plants to snare their foe and the ground to throw them from their feet.
But if it were up to them, Spriggans would rather not fight, they find the only peace they know in the work deep in the mines, or tending the fungus farms, avoiding the touch of the task master's lash.

Article R&D

So I am writing an article for submission to the D&D Insider team, for possible inclusion in Dragon magazine one day (I hope), I have had an article of mine published by Palladium Books, years ago, and that was the first thing I had ever sent in, so it would be great to have a 2 out of 2 track record.
Anyways, the article features The Fey Wild, and specifically, the race of small humanoids called Spriggans.
Spriggans are mentioned as cousins to Gnomes, and there are hints that many Gnomes are slaves of the Fomorians.. I find this interesting, because according to folklore, Spriggans were said to be sort of incarnations of the spirit of giants, and were said to be able to enlarge themselves to enormous size.
They were also said to be ugly, nasty little buggers, who guard treasures and steal from others, and also steal the babies of mortal folk, exchanging them for Changeling children.
They seem, according to folk tales, to be rather elemental creatures, with an affinity to earth and storm.. they were said to be able to blight crops by summoning lighting storms, and they guarded special stones, monuments, cairns, crypts and ruins.
So.. that gives me excellent source material to draw from.
My first draught at a Spriggan is the Spriggan Grump.

(Using D&D Insider's very handy Monster Builder)

Spriggan Grump

Spriggans are ugly cousins to Gnomes, with dark hair and eyes, thick black hair and twisted, muscular bodies. They are irritable, prone to reckless rages and don't get along well with anyone.

Spriggan Grump	Level 5 Brute
Small Fey Humanoid	XP 200

Initiative +2 Senses Perception +6; Tremorsense 10 HP 75; Bloodied 37 AC 17; Fortitude 19, Reflex 15, Will 17 Resist Melee wood or stone 5, Vulnerable Iron 5 Speed 5 (7 while enraged)

Rock Hammer (standard; at-will)

+8 vs AC; 2d6 + 4 damage

Swell with Rage ( (When first bloodied, transformation lasts for the rest of the encounter.) * Polymorph

When bloodied the Spriggan immediately swells to enormous size, taking up the space of a large creature. It adds 10 points of damage to all mellee attacks, gains +1 to Fortitude, -1 to AC and 10 temporary Hit Points. Also add +10 to all strength based checks.

Two Fisted Earth Slam (standard; encounter) * when bloodied

Close blast 2; +4 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 4 damage The enraged Spriggan slams the ground with it's fists, producing a shockwave which throws opponents to the ground, knocking them prone and stunning them until the start of the Spriggan's next turn.

Alignment: Evil Languages: Fey, Goblin Str 19 (+6) Dex 11 (+2) Wis 15 (+4) Con 15 (+4) Int 11 (+2) Cha 6 (0) Equipment: Rock Hammer

Spriggan Grump Tactics

Spriggan Grumps will charge into melee range as soon as they can, attacking the person who, for whatever reason, angers them the most. They will fly into a terrible rage when bloodied, and uncontrollably swell to giant proportions, becoming even more fearsome to their enemies.

Spriggan Grump Lore

Knowledge Arcana.
DC 15: Spriggans are Fey creatures with powers associated with the earth and rock, they often guard treasures and tombs and have a foul temper.
Like many Fey, Spriggans hate the touch of Iron.
DC 20: They are said to have links to the giant Fomorians, whom they are bound to serve, and given that they have the power to grow to giant proportions, there may be some truth to this rumour.
DC 25: The elemental power of Spriggans lends them resistance to harm from weapons of wood and stone. They can also call forth rocks from the ground and lightning down from the sky.

Thats the basic Brute category, I will need to come up with a few more types to add, as well as some exotic locations, some Spriggan Stone Magic, a bit of legend/lore, and a nice set of encounter groups.
I will include a good deal of material, so that the editors have options to pick and choose what they want or don't want.
Plus, you get paid per word!