Originally I was going to not put this one up, however the wife voted that I include it. Not too terribly much happens and, since I wasn't planning on uploading it, I wasn't taking proper notes during editing.
I will try to update this one and the last one for better notes when I get the chance.
When I call for Iris to give me a D20
it is due to an item they carry. They have a red nambian shard which
is a chaotic piece of crystallized elemental magic. There is a table
that I have that shows what random effects the person carrying it
will be afflicted with every time they take an extended rest. Some
effects last through multiple rests. They are completely random and
half of the effects are positive, half of the effects are negative.
NPC Alert!
Bross – Bross is the surly husband of
one of the other major characters in the story (A woman named Airal)
and brother-in-law to Zenlan. They recently saved Zenlan and his
wife at the temple of Nyosis (water god) to the west. After saving
them and leaving them in town they came back later to find Zenlan
gone. Last time in town they were blamed by Zenlan's wife for his
disappearance.
Jack's flask was filled with Anfibite
Brew which is extremely potent alcohol. Anfibites are one of the races in the world. They are subdivided into two types (Frog and Toad). They are master alchemists of the world and can speak only when they have alcohol in their systems.
In the middle of the session talking
about the manor house my wife breaks one of the arms off the couch.
Because she is a Barbarian and I haven't let her kill anything yet.
Sol plant themselves at night and
fertilize personal gardens whenever they get the chance.
What are the Garos? They are horses with distinct bunny qualities. They are the preferred mounts of the nobility and cavalry officers.
The storm damage that they see in this
part is directly linked to Amulet's Backstory. Before Rachel joined
the game her character was used as an energy source to create massive
meteorological effects. She is actually a Sprite who has used her
life force for spellcasting and that is the purpose of this
conversation.
The idea to make dolls out of grass
took me completely by surprise. It was as awesome as they are
creepy.
Willpower – An additional skill added to the game. Uses any 3 of the following stats (Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence)+ Half level (like normal skills). Players can also choose to take skill training in Willpower for an additional +5 just like any other skill. This skill is used for a few different things, but mostly it is used whenever you want to impose your will on something else. Characters wanting to do things in the Veil that are complicated use Willpower to do so. There is a heavy element of "mind control as foreign" in the campaign setting and powers that cause characters to become mentally afflicted require an "escape check" much like a player would escape from a grab with Athletics or Acrobatics.
Willpower checks can always be made against things that Willpower can effect once per turn as a No Action regardless of the condition of the player unless otherwise stated. If a player is unconscious, stunned, dominated, dazed, dead, turned into a turtle and being ravaged by Harpies and one of those conditions can be ended by a Willpower check they may make that check any time during their turn.
Pre-rolled Initiative - When the session is called to start each of the players takes an initiative flag, rolls initiative and then places it on the table. Sometimes we don't use them at all (Session One never goes into initiative order) sometimes we use them as soon as the session begins. The goal is to have as seemless of a transition into combat as possible. All I need to do, as DM, is add my monster's flags to the initiative order and put the characters on the map.
I'm an emotive DM – I use a lot of gestures.
I'll work on that for future podcasts. I'll try to say "you" less and give a descriptor for the person more often.
Crying to Create the Shining City - The players have learned previously from other characters that the methods of building the Shining City have been lost since time imemmorial. They have seen several children who, when put under extreme pressure, start to recreate parts of the lost city around them. One of which being the character in the party Iris. Iris is a 13 year old human female.
Terms:
“Godsoul” - Souls which have extreme control over a small area of the Wastes. They can mutate the world around them to such a degree that many of them develop a strong "god complex". Most of the creatures native to the Viel prey on these lost souls as they are immune from the Godsouls transformative powers.
“Write everything Down” - During the session the Reran Turmur talks about how inefficient writing things with a pen can be. A running gag with Vynn and Iris is that Vynn is constantly telling Iris to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN in a journal that she keeps of the player's adventures.
Discussion about Dissection – The
group is alive and people from the Shining City are spirits. They
are either already dead, or native to the spirit world. For creatures in the Veil it is not a problem to be pulled apart carefully, or to use pieces of their soul to perform certain tasks. The players assume during the session that this process would kill them since they are still mortal.
Vynn and Iris - Controlled by Shawn. Sprite wizard
Hiwi Deadgrove - Controlled by Hazel. Sol Shaman
Luke Ferris - Controlled by Sam. Human Bard
Jack Kincaid - Controlled by Alan. Human Sorcerer
Chunkus Boulderfist - Controlled by Cisco. Guarg Warden
Toy and Amulet - Controlled by Rachel. Sprite Barbarian (Berserker)
List of Races:
For now I will only list the races that are being played by characters in the game, or are characters that they encounter in the podcast. At some point during Episode One the characters will encounter a Waren, which is a race in the world but not one of the ones listed. When they encounter that character I will detail the race associated with it.
Sprite - These tiny balls of light and energy are the keepers of elemental magic in the world. If they so choose they can burn off pieces of their life essence in order to cast spells around them, but instead they take on apprentices to do their work for them. Basically the player plays as the two characters combined and in combat functions as either one. In the group Amulet functions outside of direct interactions (Basically as the voice and mind of the character) while Toy is the physical counterpart in combat. Vynn and Iris are a little different in that they both have minds of their own and both contribute outside of combat. However in combat only Iris fights while Vynn offers advice.
Sol - These are living plant people similar to Hamadryads. One thing that sets them apart is an Eidetic memory for sounds, which means they can remember the exact tones of everything they hear. They also use hollow vines in their bodies to make music and can replicate almost any noise they have heard.
Guarg - These are giant four-armed characters. Generally speaking they have a reputation of being gentle giants but they can be powerful enemies once angered. They are slightly larger than Golaiths and their torso is much larger than their lower body. They use their short, wide legs for balance and to jump with but when they want to run long distances they tuck their legs behind them and run on all four knuckles.
Reran - These are the closest thing to "undead" in the world. They are also the self-appointed keepers of law and order on the Mortal World as well as in the afterlife. They can change their shape in the afterlife to resemble humans (which they usually do) but that is not their true form. Reran characters are Rerans who have used their limited control over the death of mortals to slip backwards from the Veil to the mortal world. These beings inhabit the bodies of dead humans and those humans slowly take on more and more "Reran" traits such as growing wings. Rerans also do not see as per usual, but instead have a bubble of perception around them that slowly grows as the Reran levels. Within this bubble the Reran has the ability to concentrate on anything to an incredibly specific degree, but their senses generally default to looking at just the outside of objects. A creature standing outside a Reran's range is completely hidden from the Reran, but a creature standing within the range on the other side of a wall, or under the ground, is not hidden from the Reran at all.
Talikma - Lizard people that are extremely common in the parts of the world where the players are spending most of their time. They are broadly divided into three categories: Crocodile, Raptor and Gila. Crocs are usually very large and mostly female. Raptors are mid-sized and a mix of the two genders and Gila are small and mostly male. One of the big things is that for them human gender roles seem backwards. The females occupy most of the traditionally male roles (leadership, soldiers, manual laborers).
The Source, The Veil and the Mortal
World (The Garden)
The cosmology of the campaign setting is broadly defined in three different levels:
The Source
This is the furthest from the mortal level. It is a giant ball of spiritual energy left over from the creation of the universe. The Source is where all souls return to and where all Souls bud off from to make their trip to the mortal world.
The Veil
This is the "world between worlds". It is a covering, or Veil wrapped over the mortal world and expanding between the realm of the mortals and the Source. It is divided into a few categories:
The Great River of Souls - Running straight through the center of the Veil is a massive River of Spiritual Energy that connects the realm of the Mortals to the world of the living. In the middle of the river are souls going from the Source to the Mortal World. Surrounding that are ever-expanding layers of existences for souls traveling from the Mortal World back to the Source. The further a section is from the "center" of the river the longer the soul takes to go from one side to the other.
The Afterlife - This is the realm where the players who enter the Veil will spend most of their time. While it is called the afterlife there are a lot of creatures native to the Veil that were never part of the Mortal World. This area is further divided into four sections that are always in flux.
The Wastes - This is most of the Veil. There are vast wastelands of rough basic material called "Planar Wax". The Wastes are strongly effected by whatever is in them. Souls and creatures native to the Veil have a lot of control over their surroundings. For instance during the first session one of the NPCs makes a table out of the Planar Wax.
The Shining City - Home of the Rerans. An immense complex of Shimmering towers, Great Walls filled to the brim with souls who are not yet ready to join the Source.
Archaus - Home of the Sollarium. These are the ancient enemies of the Rerans who are crusading to wipe their kind from the universe.
The Void - Battlegrounds between the two rival forces. Rerans have limited control of the negative flow of souls into the Mortal World (Creatures dying and coming into the afterlife) and Sollarium have limited control of the positive flow of souls into the Mortal World (Creatures being born). When these two forces wage all-out war it creates giant tears in the fabric of the Afterlife that utterly destroy anything that enter them and send their souls directly to the source. As such the two sides often refrain from fighting one another directly and instead try to use mortal souls to fight their conflicts. This is what the mortals refer to as "The Eternal Battle"
The Elemental Worlds - Little pockets of elemental energy nestled on the edges of the afterlife. They are not within the direct flow of life from either direction but instead are the "coating" on the edge of the great pillar of souls going between the other two realms.
The Realms of the Gods - Gods, and other supremely powerful creatures, can remove themselves from the cycle all-together and create small pockets of reality completely removed from the pull of life and death. These exist outside of the Great Flow.
The Mortal World
This is the area where most of the campaign has taken place. Within the Mortal World are many different planets and systems but the one that matters most to the campaign is "The Garden of the Gods" or more simply "The Garden". That is the name for the system in which the game takes place on. The system consists of one large planet, three medium sized moons and a single star.
“Unlocking Paragon Paths”
Each of the players is currently undergoing their setups for their Paragon Paths. These are customized adventures that explore the parts of the world / mechanics / races / classes / character backgrounds that are going to lead into their powers in Paragon. The characters are level 9 and will be entering Paragon within the next 6 or so sessions.
Each of these Paragon Path "unlocking" arcs will focus on a particular character and the pieces of the paragon path that appeal to him. The group has just finished Chunkus' Paragon Path and finish up the last little touch of Jack's during the session.
The Map:
They start just south of Ketrace and then spend the campaign heading to Knine.
I've made this blog with two simple ideas in mind:
To showcase the methods I use to DM so I can get feedback from the DnD Community at large. If anyone wants to use any of the material from this blog or the associated podcast feel free to use any/all of it. The goal here is to help others make their games a better experience for their players and to use the feedback I get from the blog for the betterment of my players' experience at the table.
To work as a record of all the awesome ideas and epic moments that my players come up with at table. To preserve their fun for posterity's sake.
What?
We are a long-standing group of players with something in the order of 80 years collected gaming experience on both sides of the screen. As DM I am neither the oldest roleplayer at the table or the youngest, in age or in RPG experience. We are a big mixed bag of players who like to have fun and are current neck deep in an ongoing campaign of DnD 4th edition. I have long been thinking of recording our sessions and possible doing a blog or podcast but recent events, along with one of my players making it ridiculously easy for me to record the sessions, has pushed me over the hump.
The Campaign will be explained in a little bit of detail during the first episode of the podcast, but the main draw points are these:
There is no defined plot. Rather there are lots of stories going on in the world and lots of character avenues the players bring to table to act out in the cloak of their characters.
There are no safety rails on the sandbox. This means that if the players stumple into something way over their head they have to be creative, avoid the threat or be turned into character-flavored entrees.
We do not use Experience Points. Instead the players level when they complete certain in-game story goals.
We play with a modified Inherent Bonuses system. Magic in the setting is basically everywhere, but knowledge of how to use it is rare. The world is also very young so ancient crypts left abandoned by centuries-dead kings of old don't exist. If you are interested in this check out the Campaign Section of the blog (coming soon).
There are two types of extra rewards the players can earn. One is Rising Action Points and the other are Player Reward Cards. RAPs are awarded to players who work on this outside of session to help immersion. This includes giving me a background at some point in the campaign, writing me some sort of mini-article or journal entry for their character and helping me with the summary of last session.
How?
Ideally this blog and podcast will be divided into a couple of pieces. The first layer will be the actual blog itself which will help to answer any questions people have regarding the campaign information. The second layer will be the raw audio from the games themselves. People are free to listen to them if that tickles their fancy. The third layer is commentary from me combined with specific clips from the podcast to highlight certain elements of play. If, for instance, I talk about the idea of the "Theater of the Mind Skill Challenge" I will edit in pieces from actual play where I used those principles.
This doesn't mean that I'm perfect on a lot of these issues. Some of the early descriptions will contain a bit of my apologizing to one of the players for mismanaging something she wanted to do in game and discussing with another player about how he feels the balance between combat and political intrigue is handled in game. Hopefully I can use examples of things I do poorly just as often as I can use examples of things that I do well to help illustrate my flaws to myself and help others not fall into similar pitfalls.
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