Lord Loss
2011-02-28, 07:17 PM
I recently started a new campaign (A phrase that’s become something of a catchphrase for me, I know, but this is the last one, I promise) with a very interesting premise and I thought I’d share it with the play grounders. It’s my very first evil campaign and it focuses on a band of Drow sent to the surface world in order to conquer it. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but it’s going great. My players love the amount of freedom they get when playing in this campaign, but they also enjoy designing intricate plans to bring down whatever city, tribe or what-have-you that I happen to throw at them. I’m enjoying this immensely and I hope that you do to.
Before I get into the specifics of the campaign world and the first session, I thought I’d take an opportunity to tell you about my players. Only two could come for the first session, but most have come up with a character concept at the very least.
R. He’s a new D&D player who won’t actually admit he enjoys the game. He loudly complains about it at times, but shows up for every session and enjoys himself once we settle down and play. He doesn’t want anyone to know he plays and gets quite annoyed when I mention the fact that he’s designed his very own campaign plot for whenever he gets to DM and is eager to show it to me ( I haven’t actually seen it yet) … in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have told you that.
C. He and D are my first two D&D players, back when we were a group of just three. He’s played in every single campaign I’ve ever ran and enjoys playing just about any kind of character. He’s a large source of comic relief, often coming up with insane solutions to simple problems, being a colossal jerk to NPCs and not paying attention when I describe things (albeit he’s Québecois and with the exception of myself, all the other players are Anglophone, so he sometimes loses track of what‘s being said, so this last one is more or less his fault). His last few characters have been described with the word “Brick” (One even being called Agent Brick), but he’s changed characters completely for this game. He’s playing a female Drow Priestess. And did I mention his reputation for… I’m fairly sure you can see where I’m going here.
D. The second member of the original trio. He is the player who most frequently attends my games (although he’s been busy recently, but I digress) and has a habit for playing angsty half-demon elves and/or Drow. I began this campaign with him in mind, whereupon he ironically enough told me that he always played angsty characters and wanted to try something new for a changed. He’s settled for a Warforged warrior of some sort, but he might change his mind once I tell him that I’ve re-acquired a copy of his favorite book, the Tome of Magic (he loves Shadowcasters).
A. One of my older players, he’s been playing with me almost as long as D and C have. He’s primarily a 4e player but doesn’t mind player 3.5. He is generally a great player, being good at problem-solving, role-playing and tactics, but admits to being difficult at times, hogging the spotlight or intentionally going against the plans of the GM or other players. Luckily, this comes up less and less over the years, he’s matured as a player quite a bit.
L. A friend of A’s. He’s my newest player and he enjoys D&D quite a bit. He doesn’t talk all that much but grasps new concepts very quickly, is a math whiz and can quickly come up with solutions to problems, albeit he doesn’t think outside the box too often. He doesn’t seem to enjoy role-playing all that much, but likes doing things in ways that lead to mass destruction and playing insane characters. When we played CoC, he wanted to know if there were rules for intentionally failing SAN checks or starting out with an insane character.
Finally, myself. I’ve been GMing for over five years and generally don’t enjoy playing in games nearly as much as I do running them. I also have a predilection for never finishing my campaigns ( I grow tired of them), a problem I seem to have solved by not planning out my plots (I have a few ideas in mind, but 90% of this game is improvised).
Now that we’re done with the introductions, onto the game itself. I’ll post the first session soon, but before that I’m going to get a few facts out of the way. Our party is composed of a Neutral Drow Wizard, a Neutral Evil Io-Rach Goblin Ranger (a Homebrew race that gets +4 Int, +2 Cha, -4 Con), a Chaotic Evil Drow Assassin and a Chaotic Evil Drow Priestess of Lolth. The races of the deep have had no contact with the surface world in eons, they have only now discovered how to undo the magic that keeps the two “worlds” separated.
So that’s that. Join me next time, when the Adventure Begins. We promise talking frog-dictators, democratic jaguar-people, machinations doomed to fail horribly, giant robots intent with unclear agendas, and other hilarity.
Please post any questions, comments and suggestions you may have!
Before I get into the specifics of the campaign world and the first session, I thought I’d take an opportunity to tell you about my players. Only two could come for the first session, but most have come up with a character concept at the very least.
R. He’s a new D&D player who won’t actually admit he enjoys the game. He loudly complains about it at times, but shows up for every session and enjoys himself once we settle down and play. He doesn’t want anyone to know he plays and gets quite annoyed when I mention the fact that he’s designed his very own campaign plot for whenever he gets to DM and is eager to show it to me ( I haven’t actually seen it yet) … in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have told you that.
C. He and D are my first two D&D players, back when we were a group of just three. He’s played in every single campaign I’ve ever ran and enjoys playing just about any kind of character. He’s a large source of comic relief, often coming up with insane solutions to simple problems, being a colossal jerk to NPCs and not paying attention when I describe things (albeit he’s Québecois and with the exception of myself, all the other players are Anglophone, so he sometimes loses track of what‘s being said, so this last one is more or less his fault). His last few characters have been described with the word “Brick” (One even being called Agent Brick), but he’s changed characters completely for this game. He’s playing a female Drow Priestess. And did I mention his reputation for… I’m fairly sure you can see where I’m going here.
D. The second member of the original trio. He is the player who most frequently attends my games (although he’s been busy recently, but I digress) and has a habit for playing angsty half-demon elves and/or Drow. I began this campaign with him in mind, whereupon he ironically enough told me that he always played angsty characters and wanted to try something new for a changed. He’s settled for a Warforged warrior of some sort, but he might change his mind once I tell him that I’ve re-acquired a copy of his favorite book, the Tome of Magic (he loves Shadowcasters).
A. One of my older players, he’s been playing with me almost as long as D and C have. He’s primarily a 4e player but doesn’t mind player 3.5. He is generally a great player, being good at problem-solving, role-playing and tactics, but admits to being difficult at times, hogging the spotlight or intentionally going against the plans of the GM or other players. Luckily, this comes up less and less over the years, he’s matured as a player quite a bit.
L. A friend of A’s. He’s my newest player and he enjoys D&D quite a bit. He doesn’t talk all that much but grasps new concepts very quickly, is a math whiz and can quickly come up with solutions to problems, albeit he doesn’t think outside the box too often. He doesn’t seem to enjoy role-playing all that much, but likes doing things in ways that lead to mass destruction and playing insane characters. When we played CoC, he wanted to know if there were rules for intentionally failing SAN checks or starting out with an insane character.
Finally, myself. I’ve been GMing for over five years and generally don’t enjoy playing in games nearly as much as I do running them. I also have a predilection for never finishing my campaigns ( I grow tired of them), a problem I seem to have solved by not planning out my plots (I have a few ideas in mind, but 90% of this game is improvised).
Now that we’re done with the introductions, onto the game itself. I’ll post the first session soon, but before that I’m going to get a few facts out of the way. Our party is composed of a Neutral Drow Wizard, a Neutral Evil Io-Rach Goblin Ranger (a Homebrew race that gets +4 Int, +2 Cha, -4 Con), a Chaotic Evil Drow Assassin and a Chaotic Evil Drow Priestess of Lolth. The races of the deep have had no contact with the surface world in eons, they have only now discovered how to undo the magic that keeps the two “worlds” separated.
So that’s that. Join me next time, when the Adventure Begins. We promise talking frog-dictators, democratic jaguar-people, machinations doomed to fail horribly, giant robots intent with unclear agendas, and other hilarity.
Please post any questions, comments and suggestions you may have!