Kobold Love: Intro, Background and Summary, Part 1
I’m the type of person who needs to understand a process before tackling it head on.
That’s why this post is more about context and theory than actually writing Kobold Love’s first part.
Bear with me, it will be worth it.
First Impressions are capital
When a DM opens up a D&D adventure booklet, the Introduction, Adventure Background and Summary are the first things that will be read.
While layout, art and gorgeous maps will entice a DM to read the adventure, that first section will, IMHO, make or break the adventure more than any other section.
If you fail to hook the reader within the first paragraph, your adventure will be put away and may never be picked up again.
This section is also the one that sets the tone for the whole adventure, it puts the adventure within the context of a story and gives the DM a rapid overview of what’s going to happen in it.
This makes writing this section a very crucial task that must be tackled with care and blow the reader’s mind away by laying down what the adventure truly is about in the shortest number of words (yeah that’s going to be a challenge for me).
The evolution of the adventure’s introduction
I’m a DM that buys and peruses a lot of published adventures. Ever since the era of the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game, I’ve purchased numerous modules, and copies of Dungeon magazines.
Throughout the years I’ve seen a shift in the way the first part of an adventure was written. In Gary Gygax’s D&D era, published adventures had a few paragraphs of background in the likes of ‘The local Duke requires you to investigate this cave or he’ll jail you all” followed by a short context (A wizard is entombed here and no adventurer ever one came out alive) and sometimes a list of rumours.
Sometime during the evolution of the Dungeon magazine format, the 1st section was divided into the 4 parts that are now common practice in the industry which more or less follow these conventions :
The adventure’s Elevator Pitch, followed with the nuts and bolts of the adventure like what level it was designed for and for how many characters. If the Adventure was published in Dungeon Magazine, it also mentioned if the adventure was setting neutral or specific (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realm, Ebneron, etc). This is usually one or two paragraphs.
The Adventure Background: The backstory of the adventure. It covers the emplacement of the action, the main protagonists, the villain, his plan and the events that lead to the quest/events that will drive the adventure. This takes a few paragraphs and usually fits in a few hundred words, depending on how ‘fluffy’ the adventure is.
The Adventure Summary: One or two paragraph description of what the players will go through during the adventure.
Adventure Hooks: Some adventures provide Hooks, a series of short quests (usually 3 or more) and or motivations to get the PCs involved in the adventure. In D&D 4e, such hooks are often major and minor quests with appropriate XP rewards.
Fluffy vs Old School introductions
From my point of view there currently is 2 schools of thoughts on adventure background design. One, espoused by Paizo Publishing and Dungeon Magazine was to have detailed, rich back stories that involve several organizations and emplacements. Adventure path adventures like Paizo’s Pathfinder and Wizards of the Coast Scales of War are good examples of this.
The other, represented by Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics and Master Dungeon series is much lighter on context and backstory. They provide a quest and/or a villain, a few hooks and that’s often it.
Each type responds to different play styles and needs.
Where are you going with this lecture Phil?
It’s quite simple, I have to chose what ‘school’ of adventure Kobold Love’s intro will espouse.
KL-1(like good old time modules) will be written to stand on it’s own as a one shot, one evening adventure (if the DM does not expand it). Furthermore, as all 3rd party D&D 4e adventures, it will be need to be easy to adapt to all settings (including the Point of Lights non-setting) as well as all home brewed world.
Furthermore, it’s a limited scope adventure as I need to keep it rather short so I don’t spend 6 months on it.
So I’m going to write it closer to the old school way. It will feature limited fluff with lot’s of narrative hooks and grey zones to let imaginative DMs some leeway. At the same time, I’ll write enough to let a DM use it as a pick up game and still immerse player in the (half) kobolds’ experience.
Up next, Phil actually writes the adventure’s intro.
Credit: Wolfgang Baur’s Kobold Quarterly you should subscribe! (Image art by Darren Calvert)
Drunken D&D: Funny Quotes
I’m too exhausted to write a real post. But I have something funny to share it with you.
At Gen Con, I played 2 sessions of Drunken D&D (designed by Dave the Game, DMed by yours truly) with my fellow bloggers friends.
I wrote a 5 scene adventure for it and Graham created the PCs.
We ended up playing only 2.5 scenes out of 5 because I put too many elite Brutes in Encounter one, we needed a lot more time to absorb the powers of 12th level characters and we actually roleplayed for about one hour in one scene.
But these 2.5 scenes were among the funniest, most entertaining hours of D&D I have ever played.
The DD&D quotes!
(BTW: Tequilus was the name of the God of Spirits, Hangovers, Shame and Porcelain featured in our game)
- Vanir: I answered the call of Ernie (Keebler), and all I got was this T-shirt.
- Yax: I’ll come over there and we can pound flesh together.
- Yax: Oh, wow, I just found a new power under my sheets.
- Dave: I have bloody Parkinson’s, and I’ll have you not to laugh.
- Bartoneus: Let’s attacks some bitches with some hoes.
- Vanir: All my congratulations are in my stomach.
- Bartoneus: Solar Wrath! – The golden ray of Tequilus bursts from me… or maybe I just had to pee. I mark them all!
- Dante: “I may be topless at this point.”
- Dave: You would not believe how many ninjas have tried to put clothes on him.
- ChattyDM says: If your tables become undead and if they are varnished, they will burn better.
- Vanir: “Are you a wight supremacist?”
- Yax to Vanir: “You have a very high sentence to ‘WHAT?’ ratio.”
- Dante: “Everything in life I learned from watching Yax”
- Yax: “I want to behead him with my maul.”
- Chatty: “What’s the armor class to hit puberty?”
- Vanir: “We call that a critical mistress”
Cheers!
Credits: Dave Chalker (Game Design), Graham Poole (Character design, adventure co-design), Wizards of the Coast (Image)
4th Edition: Playtest a Barbarian
Second Edit: See here for the Barbarian release, no fooling!
Edit: It appears Wizards has removed this snippet from the Table of Contents, sorry everyone!
The table of contents for Dragon #367 is up, and it looks like we’ll be getting an early look at the Barbarian class from the PHB 2 that won’t be printed until 2009. Here is the excerpt from the table of contents:
Playtest: Barbarian
By RPG Staff
Our next playtest opportunity is here! Check out the barbarian class from Player’s Handbook 2, which doesn’t release until 2009.
It also looks like this issue of Dragon will have a few more juicy bits, such as an expansion on Gnolls as a playable race by Keith Baker, new types of golems and oozes (thank god!), history of the genasi, plus new / more rules for intelligent magical items by Logan Bonner. I imagine the barbarian article will come out later in the month, but if it’s one of the earlier articles I’ll be ecstatic! It’ll be very interesting to get a peak at the primal power source and how they’ll be handling new power sources in the future of 4th Edition.
DM Chronicles: Session 1, That's how you start a Campaign! Part 2
See part 1 here.
The Banquet
We started with all PCs participating in a seemingly endless Banquet hosted by the local Merchant Baron, Brandobaris the Fat. Late into the scene’s night, after some interesting Roleplaying, Brandobaris opened a casket of Drow Wine, reputed to turn into a deadly poison 5 minutes after being exposed to air.
All PCs tried it carefully, while Brandobaris quaffed the whole cask in one large gulp. He then burped loudly and fell unconscious… a sigh of relief going through the whole Banquet Hall.
Ninja Sleepy Time!
PCs moved on to the hall’s second floor, where the guest bedrooms were, as Brandobaris was carried to his extensive quarters. Most PCs moved to their assigned room in the early hours of the morning, with Takeo coming in last after having done one last review of the premises. Fizban and Bjerm elected to have their trance/rest at the far end of the corridor where a balcony overlooking the sea stood (See Figure).
Soon after Takeo joined the rest of his buddies, all PCs heard an unnatural hush fall over the whole pavilion. I made an attack roll vs all PCs Will defense. All but Takeo were affected by a deep slumber.
That’s when a shuffling noise was heard under the door and a strange cloying vapour seeped from underneath it. Takeo moved in behind his room’s door, ready to ambush whatever was trying to sneak in the room.
He struck hard and fast, but only managed to scratch the Brutish Silver-backed Ape-Man Swordsman. A furious fight exploded between the two while the other PCs woke up and ran to join the fun.
The Assassin (a lurker) managed to hit Takeo very hard twice thanks to his auto-combat advantage rechargeable power. At that point, I was describing each hit, swings and misses with numerous details of dodges, sparks and the assassin using the Censer as a shield (total fluff but it really was cool to describe).
The assassin was mortally dispatched with no permanent injuries to the PCs.
Running an investigation… literally!
The following investigation, somewhat disturbed by the legendary snoring of Brandobaris, revealed that no other assassins were around and that the PCs seemed to have been the only targets.
The assassin was found to be a Zain-Kin, a race of slave Ape-Men known to have served the long dead enchanters of Parhok. Said enchanters were thought to have self-destructed around the time of the cataclysm.
The assassin’s tracks were very fresh and led northbound toward the elven forests surrounding the Eladrin capital of Baragramir. The tracks went very far, the assassin had walked for several days to get so near Hobble’s Point.
Fictive Geography Aside: I may write a gazetteer series of my campaign’s world as we build it. Right now it consists of a coastline with a huge Crater surrounded by dead lands/waters (hints to long time readers… crater used to be Ptolus). There’s also a Halfling port named Hobble’s point 2 days east of the crater and an elven region of forested hills around an Eladrin City (Baragramir, 2 days north of Hobble’s Point) built on the ruins of an ancient eleven city of the same name. That’s it.
Obligatory Ravine Scene
The PCs followed the tracks northwards for 4 days! Bringing them through the inhabited forest, past Baragramir and into some undiscovered ruins featuring a recent 200′ long, 60′ wide and several hundred feet deep rift. That’s where the tracks stopped.
All PCs with good passive perception felt observed for quite some time. After a short exploration of the surroundings, it was determined that the assassin had come from the rift. Peeking into the rift showed that a waterfall crashed atop a walkway joining a pair of matching doorways about 300 feet down.
We fast forwarded the climbing and rappelling scene (except to check that there was enough rope). Once Bjerm (the 1st to climb down) was level with the doorways, he noticed that a rusted broken down set of scything blades was protruding from under one of the doorways.
As this was reached, the party saw their topmost rope drop down the ravine and two small figures standing way over them, chucking 15 lbs boulders up their heads. Takeo was hit hard, hanging on the rope through sheer willpower (read: a high d20 roll).
Bjerm tried to jump on the platform but it triggered a still functional pit trap. Now a bit later in the round, while PCs were being pelted with boulders, Yan pointed out that he didn’t ‘get’ that the door was opened and would have tried to swing inside the doorway and not on the obviously trapped platform (he noticed the rusted blades under the walkway).
We did a partial retcon by allowing a Saving Throw to see if Bjerm grabbed onto the pit’s edge instead of falling. He did and remained on the rope. Everyone was happy.
Just as this happened, Roco got hit by a boulder and slipped from the rope, falling into the pit… only to be grabbed by Bjerm at the last minute. (All the time I was trying to describe the action as dramatically as possible, down to the wetness spreading into Roco’s shining leather pants).
Now that’s a Battlemap!
After a short rest in the corridor, the party made it to a strange multi-tiered arcane laboratory filled with ruined benches, jerking brains in jars and skeletons. Like a funnel, the room featured 20′ wide ledges arranged in tiers.
As Roco and Bjerm were investigating the room looking for traps on the floor in the first few squares of the Walkway.
When the rogue hit the second square, the invisible imp flying above released a sphere filled with a Needlefang Swarm (think a few scores of Jurasic Park 2′s 20 inch high little raptors) that crashed on Roco and Bjerm… At the same time, 10 skeletons rose and attacked!
PCs moved on all levels and the combat was truly action driven… I really like battlemaps set over multiple levels, it makes tactical decisions more exciting.
I had an absolute blast describing how the Needlefang Swarm knocked down PCs and tore their armour, clothing and skin to shreds. It also ‘talked’ to the Dragonborn Warlord (Takeo) in primal draconic: “Why you kills us brotherssss”
It was just so cool!
After some close calls, all skellies and the swarm were dealt with. The party rested again and headed down to the Portal door on the floor of the bottom level. While looking for traps or marking, the party was attacked by the transparent Gelatinous Cube (an Elite level 5 monster BTW… PCs are level 1) sitting over the only apparent exit of this room.
The Cube promptly ‘ate’ 4 out of the 6 PCs by engulfing and dazing them, putting a serious dent in the group’s fun factor.
Of course, the Eladrins both teleported on the upper tiers and started shooting Magic Missiles and Eldritch Blasts. The cleric sent Sacred flames and Lasers of Faith while the warlord was shooting javelins into it. After a few failed attempts at escaping, Bjerm and Roco fought from inside the cube, while getting healed repeatedly for acid digestion from both the cleric and the warlord.
It was like the Gelatinous Cube was the Galactica and the PCs were Cylon Basestars/Internal agents.
It finally collapsed in a pool of acidic bile after the cleric Sacred Flamed it for its 154th hit point.
It was 11 PM, we called it a night.
Best Campaign start ever!
Lessons Learned:
- Making silly voices, describing things enthusiastically and ignoring your friends snickerings when you are being a bit too silly for their comfort is SO worth it.
- Don’t hand out XPs when dead tired, I don’t give enough for Roleplaying (that’s why I’m going to double XPs each session if we keep this level of energy and enthusiasm).
- There’s some sort of subtle power struggle between me and some players when they insist on arguing things that just aren’t all that important for the fun of the game. I think it’s just a male friends thing but I may look into this.
What players liked:
- The feeling of a party that finally has a reason to adventure together.
- Killing that Cube!
- The atmosphere of the whole game!
What Players disliked:
- While dice rolls were played, some traps still felt arbitrary to some. I might also have taken an overly active role in placing the minis on the map when I triggered the Swarm trap.
- Burning Daily powers because of a flubbed dice roll absolutely sucks.
- The combat against the cube was somewhat static… especially with the 2 PCs stuck in it. I’ll likely never use one again, it’s done it’s thing for us.
Credits: Goodman Games (Adventure), Harley Stroh (Adventure), Britt Martin and Clyde Caldwell (Art and maps)
Epic Laundry Basket: Arrogance vs Cockiness
One of the things that I associate with success is giving the appearance of fearlessness, of being Gung Ho about one’s abilities. It does not have to resonate true inside but it sure needs to be outside if you want to be taken seriously.
When fame does arrive, people start having reasons to hate you. I guess it’s one of the prices to pay.
One of the easy grip haters will have on you is calling you arrogant.
Arrogance implies that you look down on some people and treat them with disdain. Much like haters do.
Cockiness is close to arrogance and can get irritating at times. However, it’s just overprojected self-confidence, not an imposed sense of superiority.
The line between both can be slim sometimes.
In my upcoming career as a RPG writer (or whatever it is I plan to do), I aim to have my 2 feet well set on the side of cockiness, not arrogance.
I firmly believe that the only time you should look down on someone… is when you help them up.
177 words.
A Closer Look at 4th Edition Multi-Classing
I’ve heard over and over again, from various people, that they feel multi-classing in 4th Edition just isn’t worth it. I even got to the point of asking several of the Wizards staffers if their current games (each staffer seems to be playing in several games of 4e) had any higher level multi-classed characters that they could tell us about. I didn’t really get solid answers; it seems most of their in-house games are understandably still in the heroic tier. What I think a lot of people are missing is the bigger picture: how a character develops over time and how multi-classing plays into that. I believe most of us are simply reacting based on first level characters, and honestly, multi-classing in the very beginning SHOULD suck.
At first level you have to take an Initiate/Student feat which officially makes you a multi-class character, and each one gives you a small portion of the second class’s power. Typically the class’s at-will power is given to multi-classed characters as an encounter ability, because do we honestly want someone who is only a wizard on the side going around and blasting things as much as a full-time wizard? I don’t think so! I think a lot of the disappointment comes from this. At first level you really don’t get a huge feeling that you’re playing a multi-classed character. [Read the rest of this article]
YouTube of the Week: Don't Feed the Batman after Midnight Edition
A fan redone version of a segment from Gremlins. Be sure to check out the making of video too.
Kobold Love: Interlude 2, Reflections and the Half-Kobold Template revealed
The Cliff is higher than I thought.
Over the weekend the immensity of what I have tackled with Kobold Love crashed on me.
As comments, mostly positive, and some (well deserved) reservations started pouring in, what initially felt to me like a public adventure prep exercise took a new dimension.
This is the real deal Phil, you will need to play by the publisher’s rules. That means mastering the 4e rules set (even if rules are lies), writing (and editing) above and beyond my current habit and make design choices that will be open to criticism.
I’m fine with that, I can take diverging opinions and criticism. Heck, chances are I will most certainly rise to the challenge and outdo myself.
I won’t try to please everyone. That’s absolutely impossible, no matter how talented I may be. I will listen to people and seriously consider their opinions, but at the end of the day, I will go where my guts tell me to go.
That’s one of the many reasons the adventure is up for Hacking by anyone, so you can make it into something you would like to run!
Hacking the Love!
Speaking of hacking, some people contacted me with questions and/or not too sure about what was this whole part of the project about.
Here’s the rundown of what I expect of you my hacking readers:
I will work on the 4e version of Kobold Love. I will possibly publish it commercially if it gains sufficient interest. However, anyone reading the blog will be able to get a playable adventure by just copy/pasting these KL posts.
I invite others to start with my Elevator Pitch posted back here and create their own version of Kobold Love in their favorite system (apart from 4e, see below).
It doesn’t have to be about kobolds… It just has to be about taking some of a games’ core tropes and subverting them to the breaking point and back.
Those who participate on thier own websites or on our forums get a chance to win a few prizes.
Those who make it to the end and offer a playable adventure get to go under the readers’ spotlight and run a chance of being voted ‘best hack’ and win a bigger prize.
I don’t lay claims to anything more than my 4e version of the adventure (and ask people not to tackle it in 4e, but I won’t kick in your door and seize your laptop if you do). All I really ask is that don’t sell your adventure without talking to me first.
Posting Schedule
The specter of ‘blogging as work’ as started showing its ugly head again and I only have myself to blame. I have just too many bloddy cool things to write about. As I try to flap my arms while falling from my cliff, I started feeling anxiety again… for the first time in nearly 6 months!
Anxiety for a project that I don’t even depend on to live, that’s bloody ridiculous.
That’s a clear sign that I have to slow down somehow. That’s also why I’ll probably try to do no more than one full KL post a week and an interlude one to discuss the projects’ current issues.
I might do more, if the fun is there, but I won’t press the issue if I don’t feel like it.
Enough with the whinning Phil, gimme the damn Template!
Okay, okay! Here it is…
Designed by Yan Décarie. Feats by Yan Décarie and P.A. Ménard.
Yes I’m sticking with this idea, I just will offer a less gross finale as the main Scene 5 alternative. The idea is that the Half-kobolds are a blend of Kobold Cunning and Human resourcefulness. They are also medium size and don’t come with the dreaded shifty ability built-in the racial template.
[Begin race template]
Half-Kobolds
Average Height: 4´3”–4′-9”
Average Weight: 80-100 lb.
Ability scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Common, Draconic
Skill Bonus: +2 Insight, +2 Diplomacy
Dual-Heritage: You can take kobold and humain feats
Survival Instincts
Encounter Power
Immediate Interrupt Personnal
Trigger: You missed an attack roll or an attack has hit you
Effect: You can add or subtract two to the attack roll and change the result accordingly.
[End race template]
We also propose three new feats (all powers and feat names are placeholders):
Shifty [Kobolds]
Effect: You can use the shifty Kobold power (MM P 278) as an encounter power
Improved Shifty [Kobolds]
Prerequesite: Shifty
Effect: You can use shifty as an at-will power
Designer Notes: The shifty ability is too powerful to give freely to a PC. I believe that Making it into 2 feats makes it more inline with current PC available powers
Trap Sense [Kobolds]
Effect: You gain +2 bonus to all defenses against traps.
Comment, suggest and discuss!
Credits: Gregory Taylor (Image)
Review: "Treasure of Talon Pass"
Synopsis: “Treasure of Talon Pass” is a an adventure for 4e D&D designed to take 2nd level characters to 3rd level. It is a fairly typical dungeon crawl that works well enough but also does not take advantage of environments and non-combat elements enough to make it more interesting than a string of combats.
Production: The print product was only available during Free RPG Day, but can be downloaded from WotC’s site in PDF for free. The product is 32 pages, of which the adventure is the first 20 (including one new magic item.) The remaining pages include 5 2nd level pregenerated characters and ads.
Notes: There are some spoilers for the adventure in the following review. If you are planning on playing in this adventure, ask your DM before proceeding.
DM Chronicles: Session 1, That's how you start a Campaign! Part 1
DM Chronicles, along my Adventure Prep posts are my longest running series on the Blog. The Chronicles are a DM’s report of my D&D game that I run twice a month from September to June every year. This year marks our 9th straight year playing with the same core group and my 1st D&D 4e campaign.
The preparation for the campaign’s structure can be found here.
We were all very eager to play as chatter on Email exploded in the days leading to the game.
One of the things I kept mum about both on the blog and with my friends was the actual adventure we would use. While I can write an adventure (heck I’m trying to make a part-time job out of it here) I often choose a published adventure and hack it to my players’ tastes.
In this first mini-campaign, I wanted to master the 4e rules set, try many new GM tricks and techniques so I didn’t want to spend much time prepping.
At Gen Con, I bought a 4e compatible adventure from the Goodman Games booth. A certain Harley Stroh was at the booth. I looked at the offerings and picked up one he wrote that looked interesting (yeah the nearly naked chick on the cover played absolutely no role in me picking it up). I gave it to him, paid for it and asked him to sign it… You should have seen his face! I might have been his first autograph fan!
I started reading the adventure on my way back from the con and was sold after the 1st paragraph, it’s fiendishly hard (I mean, Tomb of Horrors hard, except with no ‘Bang you’re dead’ fiat) but it remains one very well designed adventure. (Expect a Review soon, the adventure ships game stores today).
It was written for advanced players, which my players are… This is a brilliant concept for a new edition of a long standing game. Since I’m playing a published adventure, consider this paragraph as being a huge SPOILER WARNING.
All right let’s dive in shall we?
The Cast (includes the backstory info we shared and built upon as we begun the game):
Naquist (played by Math): Elven Cleric of Bahamut. Left the elven forests surrounding the Eladrin Capital of Baragramir to sail to the southern Dragonborn island city of Coral’s Bay to study at the Platinum Cathedral. Naquist is one of the only elves to have ever set eyes on and touched the Platinum Claw Relic in the Cathedral’s Inner Sanctum. He came back to the shore to spread Good and help the downtrodden in a life of adventure.
Intra party Relationship: Met Takeo on the sea trip back to the mainland.
Bjerm (Yan): Elven Fighter, left the elven forests to find worthy challenges to hone his combat skills. Spent some time in Hobble’s Port gladiatorial arena but was disgusted at the Halflings merchants obsessions with manipulating and rigging fights. Created the party by signing up on a quest to defend a Logging and Fishing coastal Fort against a Human slaver raid. (Quest assumed to have occurred before the campaign started).
Intra party relationship: Was a Gladiator in Roco’s uncle ‘stable’. He left right after uncle asked Bjerm to participate in a rigged fight.
Roco la Muerte (Stef): Halfing Rogue. Roco was the son of a rich Halfling Merchant in Hobble’s Port. He was destined to take over the family business. Instead, he ran away and joined the local Handlers and Cleaners Guild where he trained to become a master cat burglar and assassin. During his training, he met Roco, a legendary master Rogue who impressed him a lot. Soon after, the elder Roco vanished without a trace. When the young rogue ‘graduated’ from the guild he took up Roco’s name.
Intra party relationship: His uncle owns a large stake in the Gladiator’s arena. Due to a bad business decision, the uncle lost his most promising star: Bjerm the Fighter.
Fizban (Sigh… Eric): Eladrin Wizard. A graduate of the Tower of the Mages of Ar’Damara, the world most ancient organization (i.e. Math created that one when we were 15-17) and the only Elven building still standing in Baragramir. Fizban forswore his birth name in favor of one he read about in ancient documents recuperated from before the Cataclysm. Fizban is an absent minded scholar fascinated with strange monsters and ancient ruins. He often needs prodding from his buddies to react to danger which he’d much rather sketch than fight.
Intra party relationship: Fizban is a childhood friend of Masaru, they kept in touch during thier respective training.
Takeo (Mike): Dragonborn Warlord. Scion of a great military family of Coral Bay, Takeo has recently completed his military training and felt the need to venture out in the world to prove himself. He joined Bjerm in helping defend the coastal Halfling fort against the human slave raiders.
Intra party relationship: Met Naquist on the ship to Hobble’s Port (mainland) and both met again later in the quest to save the halfling coastal fort.
Masaru (Franky): Eladrin Fey Pact Warlock. Masaru’s ancestors were living in Planescape’s Beastlands prior to the cataclysm (i.e about 2000 years ago). In order to survive the troubled centuries ahead, Masaru’s Eladrin clan secured a pact with the primal Fey spirits that sprung up when the Beastlands fused with the mortally wounded world. In return, Masaru’s family had to leave the newly formed Feywild and live in the mortal’s world. The family helped found Baragramir over the ruins of the ancient elven capital but has never been among its noble families nor had any particular political ambitions other than survival. Since, the family has had at least one Warlock among it’s living members. Masaru is the latest of such a line.
Intra-Party Relationship: Masaru befriended Fizban earlier in their life. While Masaru’s status as a Warlock makes him ‘one of the weird kids’ in Baragramir, Fizban’s own kind of ‘specialness’ has brought them close together and they remained friends ever since.
(You can tell which players are storytellers huh?)
These short background, shared around a beer are so full of hooks and grey zones that we could make whole campaigns out of them. As each player shared his thoughts on his character’s origins, others were invited to chime in. It really created a sense that the party belonged together like we never achieved before.
The game started with the following scene (adapted by mixing my initial prep idea and the character’s backgrounds):
You are a group of adventurers who recently joined together to perform a quest for Hobble’s Port biggest Halfling Merchant Baron: Brandobaris the Fat. You answered his call for help to save one of his nearby Coastal Fishing and Logging Venture Fort from a Human Slaver raid.
Having successfully performed your quest, you have been befriended by Brandobaris. You have all been invited to stay at his legendary Coastal Banquet Hall in Hobble’s Port. There, you partake in the festivities that mark the beginning of the Harvest Season.
You are currently in the Lord’s company, eating and carousing. You are enjoying the Bard’s somewhat embellished retelling of your recent deeds. It’s a good thing that you are enjoying yourselves as no one is allowed to leave the table until Brandobaris passes out.
I gave the players the choice of either an Eladrin or Halfling Liege-Lord. When they voted on a Halfling, I improvised a fat Merchant King and picked the first name that came to my mind. Brandobaris was originally a halfling hero described in AD&D’s Unearthed Arcana in the Demi-Human pantheon chapter. Consider this one of many homages to Gary Gygax I hope to make in these mini-campaigns.
The actual game log will be in part two that I’ll post later this week after the next Kobold Love post.
