Celebrity D&Dzzzz

PAX


Euro-Trip

Old School D&D Arcade Action

DDI?

Annihilative Reset: The New World

Ready, aim, fire! 


New world here we go. So, I took my old game world, Carceres and destroyed it to pave way for a new world.  The last game world operated under the assumption that magic and power worked a certain way - which was essentially governed by the rules system of the game, 3rd Edition D&D.  To be able to use 4th Edition I had to destroy everything so I could completely rebuild it, so that a new form of power (governed by new rules) makes sense.  So many fictional fantasy creatures had to die to convert to 4th Edition, I hope you're happy with yourselves Wizards of the Coast!  So anyway, its in the works, but its got potential for some cool shiznit. Welcome to the new world... read on, homie, read on.

New world name: Superna

Size: Same as Earth

History: More than a thousand years have past since the dawn of the new age and the birth of the present world.  The victors of a celestial war that ended the former age became the new gods and from the detritus of the former world, they forged Superna.

The gods of the first recorded age created Carceres, a once massive planet and the first mortal world. After centuries of rule, the creator gods suddenly decided to abandon the world that they created. The reasons why the gods abandoned the world have never been known. But the gods warned those living in the mortal world of their plans to leave.  The mortals knew, that without the help of the gods, Carceres would be at the mercy of the entropic forces that govern the multiverse, forces that would ultimately destroy Carceres.  The gods' ruthless decision of abandonment was absolute, but they offered the mortals one chance for survival. In their absence they offered a test for immortality.  Any hero who thought they were worthy was eligible.  Failure meant final and certain death, but if the hero had what it took to survive, the prize was immortality.  Once a hero became an immortal, they had sway over the balance of the mortal world, and could protect Carceres from its ultimate demise. Thousands tried and failed, but in a defining moment one warrior succeeded just in time to stop the world from being destroyed.  The first Immortal, IO was born.

Throughout time, many other powerful heroes eventually succeeded and also rose to immortality; forming a new divine pantheon in the second age.  As each hero ascended to immortality, they also became a power that helped govern balance in the universe and each immortal resided in their own personal domain of power. After many centuries had passed, the amount of heroes who continued to rise to immortality began to concern the immortals who were already in power.  As a result, some immortals began interfering with heroes who were taking the test of immortality, to see to it that they failed.  As a rule, the immortals were not supposed to directly interact with the mortal realms and the interventions caused by some immortals angered many others. This feud created a schism between the immortals, and sparked the beginning of a 900 year war that devastated the world.    

Not all the races of the normal world survived this devastating event; some of the old races were completely wiped out as they fought alongside their immortal patrons in the war, feuding with rival armies on Carceres.  However, the immortals who fought to maintain true balance in the world made preparations to save as many of the original races as they could.  Bonding their great powers together, these immortals created the mirror planes: two echos of the original world which were kept secret from the immortals they warred against. The first plane became known as the Feywild, the second plane  the Shadowfell.  Both mirror planes became echos of the original world and can still be accessed to this day. The Feywild and the Shadowfell became safe havens for many races of Carceres, during the 900 year war.  

When the war of the immortals had finally ended, the planet Carceres was completely shattered!  The immortals who had won the war became more powerful than the rest and were elevated to complete godhood.  Many of the surviving immortals were forced to flea far into other areas of the multiverse, never to return. Other Immortals simply agreed to leave.

The new gods took what was left of the shattered world and created the new world, Superna.  Other pieces of the planet Carceres were made into dominions or moons, ruled by each of the new gods. The gods offered the new world to the mortal races, who were now allowed to leave the mirror planes.  Most of the races were pleased to find their new home in Superna, though a few of the races stayed behind in the mirror planes.

Since Superna was a planet created from an old world, it is not odd that adventurers have made discoveries that seem to be out of context in the world.  Half of an ancient dominion may exist beneath the sea and an out of place, dead forest may appear underneath the mountains in caverns without sunlight.  Some of these odd geographical sites seem quite random, but others speculate that the gods created Superna so that the old realms of Carceres fit a new purpose in the new world.

Aquisitions Incorporated, the Cartoon!

Starring ....The Dungeon Master! (aka Chris Perkins)

Omin Dran

Jim Darkmagic

Binwin Bronzebottom

Aeofel "Al" Elhromane

How many of us would want to see this made into an actual cartoon?

Celebrity D&D!

So, the latest celebrity D&D game has been thrown up on YouTube; part 1 is seen above.

I have been following all of the WoTC celebrity casts, as many of us have - I have always enjoyed them. My favorite of these sessions is still probably the PA/PvP pod casts. I have also listened to other live play casts outside the WoTC ones; some of those podcasts lived up to being interesting while others bored my mind a new hole. Regardless, I think it's something to take note of, these D&D pod/vid casts. I personally think that live play casts are a very important cultural development, within this little sub-culture of RPG-ing we are all a part of. I also think that there is more potential to be had in this.

To me this begs a few questions: What makes a D&D Podcast or Video good? -and- What other potential is there in all of this; can it be taken further and into more specific interests.

Some examples of other like-minded developments can be found here: Esper makes D&D storytelling casts with images and Sword Plus One uses stop motion stories - what else do you think would be interesting?

...YESTERDAY, at PAX, the group that started Celebrity D&D, PA, PvP and Wil had a live play session. Below is a short video that a fan caught, along with a close up, edited screen shot.

Tomb of Horrors

Synopsis: Servants of the death god, Slayes have assassinated both the Baron of Argos and his successor while they were traveling on the main road to Corinthus. One of the assassins was captured and it was revealed that these particular servants were under the control of another powerful being, not Slayes. Evidence and information gathered from dusty tomes by the sages suggested that the culprit is an ancient, vile lich whose name had been forgotten: Acererack. Hyperian guards scoured the plains and marshland for more clues and discovered a gate in the Black Fens that led to the Shadowfell. The boundaries of the gate - dense briar and stone pillars - revealed symbols carved there that could only confirm Acererack's presence. Heroes of all types entered into a black, watery whirlpool forming the center of the gate and no one has come back. The Baron of Corinthus has now been assassinated too by similar servants, which has prompted the Hyperian Kingdom to call upon its greatest heroes... YOU!



Background info:

A long time ago carcesrus then coradel and morgana

how to make a portal

Dirk, Puck and Duval

Below are portraits taken from the pre-generated characters that Wizards offers up to all the 4E newbs. We used these characters in one of the first games I ran for my group in the 4E setting and the game became a fun little episodic side campaign, with short games run late at night.

I got accepted into a graduate program for art in New York, so I am chronicling this game now on a Wizards wiki site before I leave, check it out...

The Adventures of Puck and Dirk Skullsmasher in the Nentir Vale


DIRK SKULLSMASHER - Dwarf fighter


PUCK - Halfling rogue


DUVAL - Half Elf cleric

Hammerfast: A Dwarven Outpost Adventure Site

I recently purchased the new Hammerfast adventure supplement that WOTC just released. I have not read through the entire supplement, but I got the gist and for the most part, Hammerfast seems to be a pretty cool place to spring adventure plots for any group campaigning in the Nentir Vale setting.

Hammerfast is a town that has been built within an ancient dwarven tomb. Hammerfast obviously has a dark past, it was once the humble burial site of the local dwarves. Over time, the burial site became overpopulated with lavish, treasure encased sepulchers - making it a huge target for bandits. The enemies of the dwarves, a tribe known as the "Bloodspear" orcs eventually attacked the tomb to plunder its riches. They slew many of the dwarves there and swore to Gruumsh that they would retrieve all the tomb's riches. They failed. The traps and protections guarding many of the treasures were too great for the orcs. The Bloodspear eventually gave up and wandered away. When Hammerfast was clear of the original orc occupation, the dwarves eventually came back to build a town. Many ghosts now appeared in Hammerfast, of them which were haunts guarding their former life's treasures and some of which were fallen warriors from the war with the Bloodspear. The dwarves were forced to reside in peace with the ghosts of Hammerfast in order to build a town. At some point, the Bloodspear orcs also decided that Hammerfast was sacred ground to them and wanted to live there. Instead of facing even more war, the gods decided that Hammerfast was sacred ground for both peoples. The gods created a compact that forced both sides to live together, so that if they chose to wage war, divine strife would be placed upon them - lighting, plagues all that good shiznit. So Hammerfast is a town built on a tomb, where dwarves, ghosts and orcs all live together.

The rest of the book details many specific locations within Hammerfast and fills it out with lots of cool plot hooks and stories about the town and the surrounding Dawnforge Mountains.

My thoughts... I like that there are ghosts wandering the streets of Hammerfast, because it creates interesting social encounters, unique possibilities for new adventure dynamics involving the ghosts and compelling adventure activities. I also enjoyed one of the monsters found later in the book, a three-headed dragon named Calastryx! Very classy. There are in-game holidays they include, which are fun story-telling tools and good for fun social interactions and adventure ops. Hammerfast comes with one of those old school adventure maps that you can use with your minis and there is a large map of the town. Good visual aids! There is a cool little drunken "Giant Feat" game they describe in the bar too. For me, this book will definitely serve its purpose, as I am running two campaigns - one of them is in the Nentir Vale. Perfect...

The only part of this supplement that I do not like is the reasoning behind the orcs and dwarves becoming neighbors. To sum it up, the orcs (who slew dwarves in the name of Gruumsh in Hammerfast), feel Hammerfast is a sacred ground to them. The dwarves feel the same obviously, as it is a burial ground. They both want to live there. That's a cool point of tension for games... The part I don't like about this is that the two opposing gods concluded that they needed to allow both groups of followers to live in Hammerfast to avoid another war between the dwarves and the orcs. Why would Moradin, the LAWFUL GOOD god of creation come to an accord with Gruumsh the CHAOTIC EVIL god of destruction, just to avoid seeing a second war. Gruumsh defiled Moradin's tomb. Gruumsh is a god of destruction. Moradin is a god of creation. I really feel this part of the overall setup would have been better if there was some force that put both sides at a better standstill than an agreement to avoid more war. I'm trying to concoct something else for my game to make better sense of this part. Perhaps the original war created vulnerability to a Far Realm entrance in the Dawnforge Mountains through too much bloodshed on sacred grounds... near a deep cave. The realm is safe for now, but if that much blood spilt again... well... no one wants to see those weird tendril dudes creepin' on in.

Other than that one thing... I love the supplement and will plunder it for many adventures!

Harrowing Halls, Sinister Woods & Caves of Carnage

Here are more pictures of the tiles I used in my game last night. The house (Harrowing Halls tile set) was a Rogue's Den hidden in the woods, with the Sinister Woods tiles I used to make a 'front yard' area. I designated the dark green bushy areas in the front of the house, Daggerthorn Briar (Page 90 of the DMG). PCs and NPCs alike had one hell of a fight with the Daggerthorn Briar grasping at them when they moved into adjacent spaces to the Briar during the combat.

When the Briar hit, it would drag the creature it hit into the bush, dealing damage (as the dagger like thorns pierced flesh and drained the blood of the creature it hit). Consequently, the captured target was also immobilizing at that point. One thing to really understand here is that this fight would NOT have been challenging if you took the Daggerthorn Briar out of it. The combatants were 5 PCs versus 2 Shadow Hounds and one Human Knife Fighter.

Here are some more pictures...






The tiles I used for this set are from Caves of Carnage, minus the 3D tile at the far end of the set, which is from Harrowing Halls.

This is the next encounter the group will be dealing with. The Rogues are in league with a Berbalang who is beneath the sewers of the town, in secret tunnels, trying to gain access to old demon bones... what ever would it be doing that for?

Harrowing Halls

Dungeons & Dragons Banned From Prison

Wow, no D&D in prison!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27dungeons.html?emc=eta1

Picture of a Japanese D&D Book