A while back at My Play, Gerald Cameron proposed the idea of the “BHAC” (Big, Hairy, Audacious Campaign), the sort of campaign that’s earth-trembling huge its shear audacity and (I’m assuming) its variance from the norm. He throws out one example: normal D&D campaigns usually have a home town or city … what happens if … Read more
There comes a point in every expedition to Ravenloft Castle where the stalwart adventurers must seek out a certain Vistani woman for advice … and to have their “Tarokka” (a fantasy version of the Tarot) read. The cards drawn set the objectives of the expedition, and determine where certain random elements — like the fabled sun sword — can be found.
We have reached that point. Tonight we will visit the fortuneteller, get our futures told … and the real adventure will begin.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to try a different kind of role-playing game campaign: a medieval urban fantasy that combined traditional story telling with the sort of open-ended, sandbox-like openness of games like Grand Theft Auto. The setting would be Obsidian Bay, the homegrown metropolis that my friends and I had spent … Read more
Our brave adventurers are back in the dwarven stronghold of Khelez-Mar after nearly being consumed by a duegar-built green slime trap in the Obsidian Maze. The group argued mightily about the retreat, with the dwarves eager to press on and the others stating that a withdrawal to the stronghold was needed to restock and perhaps … Read more
This week’s Game Day sees us returning to role-playing with Khelez-Mar: The Dwarven Imperative. If memory serves, our last adventure saw the dwarves at the cusp of entering the Obsidian Maze, a sprawling subterranean dungeon in the Drachensgrab Hills of the Pomarj in the World of Greyhawk. It’s been years since our campaign ventured back … Read more
Wizards of the Coast is releasing a Magic Item Compendium reprinting 750 magic items from previous publications and Dragon Magazine articles, while adding in 500 new items. In anticipation of its release later this month, they’re running a series of articles by Andy Collins, one of the book’s designers. In the first article he talks … Read more
Jonathan Coulton’s undead anthem “Re: Your Brains” will lead off our gaming session tonight as our brave band of adventurers faces off against a horde of undead besieging the town of Barovia. But hey, it’s not just the undead we’re dealing with today: super hero gaming returns to the table as we get back to … Read more
Tonight … we begin our horror-filled return to Ravenloft! Erilar will be running us through Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, the updated and expanded version of the original 1st edition module.
I’m excited to play it — the last time I ventured to Castle Ravenloft, I was in 6th grade and playing my fighter Samuel “Battle Axe” Longriver (but, ah, he was just called “Battle Axe” then…) who eventually found and wielded the fabled sun sword. That was years and years ago, and most of my memories of Ravenloft have been consumed by the mists of time. Almost everyone in our group has been to Ravenloft at one time or another, and just about everyone is eager to return.
When it comes to pen-and-paper role-playing games, one of things that causes the most consternation for non-gamers is the concept of character death and the effect this has on players in the campaign. While those with religious objections may focus on the spell-casting and pantheonic aspects of games like Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve found that … Read more
The mountain dwarf Torthan of Clan Urtcheck, follower of Luc, dwarven hero of the Grand Duchy of Geoff, died at the hands of a vile undead shadow on Friday, Nov. 24. He was momentarily survived by himself, having risen from the grave as another of the undead creatures to threaten his fellow adventurers. They defeated him and his shadow progenitors, as well as the master they all served: the Mad Marquee of Sterich. His ashes remain lost to the world in the dungeons beneath the Marquee’s castle.
It was not the first time death touched him. During an earlier expedition to the Lair of the Eyebiter in Geoff, the barbaric bard fought and was killed by the evil followers of a rebel noble. His spirit could not be bound to the afterlife however, and he willingly allowed himself to be reincarnated by a druid. This resulted in his return to the land of the living in the form of a human.