A Campaign Is Born

[sixsideddice]

A Campaign Is Born

For some time now, the desire to start a new fantasy role playing campaign has been playing around in my mind, steadily growing from a small seed of thought into flaming passion and happy contemplation. The desire for a good game is like a hunger to most gamers, and every now and again the inspiration takes a hold and the driving will to set something up and play a game becomes an imperative must.


Sadly, family commitments, college studies, work, and a legion of other considerations have an all too frequent tendency to get in the way of `playtime`, and the thought of all the hard work needed to set up a decent game can act as a stiff deterrent; which results in a lot of us never seeing our grand machinations reach mature fruition.


A hastily constructed game often leads to that feeling of slight disappointment and a distinct lack of satisfaction. All those plans, all those devious plots, all those euphoric thoughts of how the game was supposed to play out in our mind`s eye at least, end up being scrapped and replaced with the domestic practicalities of needing some personal space to play in, and all too often, the restrictive confines of time, force us to reconsider our grander schemes and to take some lesser road of contentment.


Over the years I`ve bought the choicest selections of miniatures, the most select collections of exquisite pieces... usually just ending up on the pile with the rest of the half forgotten, half painted, totally unloved and uncared for heaps of metal. In the end I would end up either selling these all off or giving them away to perspective enthusiasts who, I hoped, would make better use of the miniatures than I ever did. Sooner or later, I`d end up starting a new collection, and away I`d go again; full of enthusiasm, images of glorious battles and games ahead of me. But sooner or later I ended up in the same place, with that same old pile of unused lead. Again, I`d end up disposing of them, and...


....and then...... one day I woke up to what I was doing, and that was the very start of a personal lesson I`ve never forgotten or fallen foul of doing ever again.


Now I paint everything I buy or am given. I don`t stop or lose focus on any project until I have finished what I am doing, even if it takes me a year or longer. A prime example of this is when I had a brain storm and decided one day when all the bills were paid and I had the money in my pocket I`d go and buy the entire range of Games Workshop 28mm Lord of the Rings range of figures all in one go!


I can remember that day well. I walked into Other Realms in Cork City and started looking at one entire wall of the shop, upon which, on hooks, hung all the packets I was looking for with a greedy and desirous eye. “May I have a box please?” I enquired to one of the store keepers. After a few minutes, a lazy looking individual appeared from the store room and approached me in disbelief as I sat amidst a steadily growing pile of blister packs. The box was way too small. “Sorry” I said “I think I`m going to need a bigger box than that." I laughed. By now I was gaining some attention from both customers and staff alike.


After a few more trips to the store room, a disbelieving and excited shop owner came over to me in person with the biggest box he could find. I swear to this day his hands were shaking as he realised his overall sales for the day were suddenly going to rise very sharply.


I piled packet after packet into the box (ticked off on my double sided A4 notepad as I went along), and an hour later when I was done... I did indeed have almost 95% of the figures I wanted (the rest I would pick up at my leisure from GW`s online store - which I did do a few weeks later, to complete my collection). Actually the box didn`t hold all my purchases, there was the Mighty Castle, Helms Deep Wall and Keep, the hardback rules set and supplement manuals, various paints sets, packets of Dwarven Forge terrain accessories, and sundry extras I deemed I would need and might as well pick up at the same time... especially as I had, by now, gotten the store manager to agree to a hearty discount and I didn`t want to miss out.


After the awed murmur died down as I dropped 2500 quid on the counter, I had three staff falling over themselves to help me carry the stuff out to the car, they bought me a cup of coffee (on the house hehe), thanked them all happily and departed home feeling like a King. The store keeper shook my hand happily as I left, and I swear this time his hand was shaking visibly at this stage.


Well, no one believed I would ever maintain the interest to paint everything I bought, but I proved them all wrong. A year and a half later, I put paint and varnish on the very last miniature, and my Middle Earth Collection was finally complete and ready to be played with. To this day, my one time purchase remains a pride and joy I treasure greatly, and I always will.


But I had proven a point to myself. It didn’t matter if I only painted a couple of pieces a week. It was the forward motion and the act of doing something, of staying focused on one thing and seeing it through to the end, that had helped. Tenacity and single minded dedication prevailed.


After half as lifetime of not getting things done, I was finally achieving my goals, my ambitions, and bingo! I had found my personal reward and hobby road to success. It all sounds like I`m patting myself on the back and going “hey, what a clever fellow I am”. But I`m not, quite the opposite actually. I had just grown tired of collecting wonderful things and letting them all go to waste.


I must have played literally hundreds of games with these figures, and written up at least a hundred battle reports and short stories, complete with colour photos and detailed maps. One day I may even put these all up on my website and share, with others, the pleasure I had. As soon as Peter Jackson`s part 1 of The Hobbit comes out, I`m sure I`ll break out the minis, relive my glory days and start playing games with them all over again.


So I guess I`ve started all over again, only this time with a project in 10mm. Hmmmm! not so much painting figures this time, most of them are already painted; no this time I will be concentrating on putting together a detailed campaign to use WITH the already painted 10mm figures. Having said that, I do now have two new packages from Pendraken which I
must get cracking on to get finished. But that already in hand, so I won’t worry about that too much. I have a target in my head of January next year to get that little lot ready by. But that’s a separate project anyway.


So, where to start? I already decided I will be doing it all from scratch; a homebrew campaign if you like. I suppose I could have made things easy for myself and chosen a pre-existing campaign world like the Dungeons and Dragons existing game aids: Forgotten Realms, or Eberron, but at the end of the day I didn`t really want to go that route. I`m already playing another role playing campaign with my partner and family that is heavily based on an existing commercial modules and figures - mostly bits and pieces from : “Descent, Journeys in the Dark” “Well of Darkness” “Alter of Despair”  â€œRoad to Legend” and “Sea of Blood”, "Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures Skirmish" and the new WotC Boardgames, some converted "Mage Knight", a few other bits and bobs, and of course various Dungeons and Dragons campaign material from various editions of the game; except I`ve ditched the rules and have replaced them with a hybridised amalgamation of the Dungeon World ones - with a lot of homebrew material added on.

So, back on topic: the new 10mm campaign will be called Albion, and will be firmly set in the old land of Albion. To me that name summons up images of Arthurian legend (The Mists of Avalon) Celtic mythologies, Norse Sagas, and the Welsh Mabinogian; a quasi- Dark Ages/stroke romanticised early Medieval romp through the thin veil of the seen and unseen: a dwimmer saga of light and darkness, freedom and subjugation, the plot unfolding slowly under threatening yoke of utter tyranny.


But more on this later.


I have run out of time and must go attend family things... in other words, they`re waiting for me to come join them watch Star Wars *wink*


Six  

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Might I suggest getting hold of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_(board_game) which is great fun, if you don't already have it, either that or Kingmaker as a map board.

[Squirrel]

So, back on topic: the new 10mm campaign will be called Avalon, and will be firmly set in the land of Avalon. To me that name summons up images of Arthurian legend (The Mists of Avalon) Celtic mythologies, Norse Sagas, and the Welsh Mabinogian; a quasi- Dark Ages romp through the thin veil of the seen an unseen: a dwimmer saga of light and darkness, freedom and subjugation, the plot unfolding slowly under threatening yoke of utter tyranny.

Now that sounds like my kind of campaign! I shall certainly look forward to hearing more. I started planning a campaign on similar lines when Warmaster first came out and I discovered 10mm miniatures, and more importantly Pendraken. I wonder if I've still got the A3 map I drew back then ....... I'm going to have to go searching now!!

Cheers,

Kev

[sixsideddice]

Might I suggest getting hold of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_(board_game) which is great fun, if you don't already have it, either that or Kingmaker as a map board.

I`ve heard great things about that game, but its not really my kind of game I`m afraid. I like hands on wargames, figures, loads of role playing, making my own maps, being able to go on dungeon crawls... and the occasional mass table top battle thrown in.

[sixsideddice]

Now that sounds like my kind of campaign! I shall certainly look forward to hearing more. I started planning a campaign on similar lines when Warmaster first came out and I discovered 10mm miniatures, and more importantly Pendraken. I wonder if I've still got the A3 map I drew back then ....... I'm going to have to go searching now!!

Cheers,

Kev

Woooohoooo Kev!!! Way to go mate 


Six 

[sixsideddice]

Okay, I have had to amend things slightly since the last thread, to take into account a few changes on how the campaign will be run. Last night as I sat down with Polly (my partner) drinking tea and talking about the events of the day in general; the conversation steered towards the campaign I`m putting together, and she told me the type of pen and paper/miniatures game she really would like to play. She is currently totally addicted to two online MMO`s* “Dungeons and Dragons (Eberron) Online” and “Lord of the Rings Online” and I think, although she doesn`t have a lot of experience with proper role playing games, she very much equates her likes and dislikes for a new game based on her knowledge of the two games she currently enjoys - because she can visualise them in her head very clearly from the computer images.


*{it’s funny really... there was a time not so long ago when she hated anything to do with computer games like World of Warcraft, Perfect World, Lord of the Rings, etc. She saw it as “wasting your life playing trivia”. Now I can hardly get her away from the computer, as she has not only discovered the joys of World of Warcraft, but also Lord of the Rings Online. Her favourite though is Dungeons and Dragons Online â€" ironic really}.

My eldest daughter is starting college in a few weeks, so I`1l be losing her as a main player, and as Polly really enjoys one to one interaction with Dungeon Master anyway, I have decided to drop my 28mm game and combine everything into one package and play this new campaign solo... with her as a player and me as the DM. So newly armed with fresh information about her gaming wishes, and better equipped to deal with the type of campaign she expects me to put together... I had to do a quick mental shift (a complete U-turn on my original idea) and start afresh. It`s always a good idea to listen to your players` wishes. It avoids mistakes and wasting time on creating something they ultimately might not even enjoy. Always better to ask and listen I think.


Meh! Teething problems. No biggie. I already had a backup plan in mind anyway, just in case my idea didn`t pan out smoothly.


I`d already decided that I would write the campaign material for the blog/website using a generic form of rule description. This way anyone collecting Pendraken Miniatures to play their own dungeon crawls and mass battles wouldn’t feel restricted to playing with just one set of rules. Rules are a subjective thing at the best of times, and when I think about it, the best game aid modules I`ve ever read have always been the generic ones... describing details, characters, monsters and events in a way that leaves the players free to re-enact things for themselves using which ever rules they themselves prefer to use. This means the main blog emphasis for me now with be on showcasing the 10mm Pendraken minis themselves... showing just how amazingly they come alive using literally ANY set of rules you like to play with. I may even switch rules systems from time to time (a Dungeon World game here... a Dungeons and Dragons game there) and just point out what I`m doing - as side notes.


So I`m going to go totally retro. Yes I`m going to have to make another U-Turn and base my game in a pre-designed world after all. But now this leaves me stuck with three completely different choices about where I`m going to place my game? I DO know (based on listening to her talking) that I will be playing in a Dungeons and Dragons setting. But which one?


Playing Solo (i.e. one player and the DM) is not always easy. I did it successfully and enjoyably for a number of years with an old friend of mine. But we were both very experienced, and by joint effort we collaborated to make the game come alive. This time round it will be harder because she is still inexperienced with `hands on` play and role playing.


Hmmmm....


The Classic Dungeons and Dragons game setting is Mystara, and I have a lot of material for that campaign setting. It’s easy to read, probably quicker to remember and to teach to her, and it has all the classic role play elements she seems to be looking for in a game. But the maps are a little uninspiring at times. Still, that leaves room for me to draw my own.


Greyhawk 2nd edition works on many levels. Its visually appealing (the maps are truly exquisite), the campaign world is diverse enough to cater for many styles of play; and the back story is open ended enough for me to be able to put in a lot of my own ideas (I`d still be able to get my Albion fix in). Uuuugh!! But I no longer have the Campaign boxed set... only The City of Greyhawk itself and the immediate surrounding environs. Not necessarily a problem in itself and I`d still be able to `drop in` the “World Largest Dungeon” if I wanted to. She likes the idea of an urban setting dominating the game, complete with vast dungeons underneath the city and sewers. But I can see that one day I`d run out of options here and would end up needing to find a copy of the Campaign Boxed Set (1st edition I think, if I recall rightly). As this set is now out of print, and I don`t really want to go the eBay route or have to use a PDF copy of the maps; I`m unsure what to do about this one... however, as a setting its ideal for my needs.


This leaves me with Forgotten Realms 2nd edition. I have everything I need for that. The City of Waterdeep, Undermountain (dungeon crawl extraordinaire), and a vast collection of supplement modules to expand the campaign in practically any direction I want to take â€" be it Arabian adventures, nomadic desert clans, Oriental adventures, or horror (Ravenloft)! The game is easy to learn, and yet still has a totally retro feel to it.


After we move on to 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons, we lose that old school feel almost entirely, so I`m pretty loath to look further forward than 2nd edition if I can help it.


Hmmmm, Mystara is out the window I think. I love the idea of simplicity. Actually I`ve always wanted to play a campaign based in Blackmoor, but as very little or nothing exists for this campaign setting (and I won’t touch 3rd or 4th edition Blackmoor with a ten foot bargepole) I`m pretty stuck on that one.


Yes, I think it’s really a tossup between Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms at this stage.


I`ll know for sure by tomorrow, at which point I`ll finally be able to get to work on the campaign properly. I hate this preliminary “what shall I do” stage. I want to be up and doing. Ahhh! Patience young Padawan... patience.


Okay, I`m off to have a bit of a ponder.



Six   

[Squirrel]

Ah, you can always rely on the 'other half' to throw a curve ball just when you think you've got everything sorted out in your mind

I'm not sufficiently familiar with D&D settings to advise directly, so with Polly's experience as you describe it, I'd go for the one you know best. Having said that, you could still use your original backgroud idea of Albion - but tailor it to Polly's experiences by introducing the creatures and factions that she is used to. Maybe ......  Londinium would be big enough to call an urban sprawl, and who knows what might lurk beneath ......

As to which rules, again in the style you will be playing, whatever you know best and can use unobtrusively will work best. Been in a few situations where a great game setting, using a good set of rules, was spoiled because the DM (and some of the players) were not familiar enough with the rules for things to flow smoothly. Everyone involved (including the DM) was left frustrated. We switched back to the old and familier rules (T&T at the time) and a great time was had by all.

What ever you decide, have fun with it, and remember - we're watching

Cheers,

Kev

[sixsideddice]

Ah, you can always rely on the 'other half' to throw a curve ball just when you think you've got everything sorted out in your mind

I'm not sufficiently familiar with D&D settings to advise directly, so with Polly's experience as you describe it, I'd go for the one you know best. Having said that, you could still use your original backgroud idea of Albion - but tailor it to Polly's experiences by introducing the creatures and factions that she is used to. Maybe ......  Londinium would be big enough to call an urban sprawl, and who knows what might lurk beneath ......

As to which rules, again in the style you will be playing, whatever you know best and can use unobtrusively will work best. Been in a few situations where a great game setting, using a good set of rules, was spoiled because the DM (and some of the players) were not familiar enough with the rules for things to flow smoothly. Everyone involved (including the DM) was left frustrated. We switched back to the old and familier rules (T&T at the time) and a great time was had by all.

What ever you decide, have fun with it, and remember - we're watching

Cheers,

Kev

jeeeese, talk about a curve ball, this one hit me square in the b..........     grrrrrr, Women     

As for Londinium (or its new disguised name)...  don`t worry, I`ll get my Albion campaign in, whether it kills me or she knows it or not. *drat, I forgot she reads these threads*  <-- will probably kill me.

It`s really funny you should mention T&T, I was just pouring through my old books and came across it sitting at the back of a shelf.... love at first sight - as always   

Anyway, things are coming together apace. She`s started taking an interest in T&T now, so I may be able to grab those D&D manuals when she`s not looking and keep her interested in this new idea.

"You SHALL go to the ball Cinders" <--- just might not be the same ball she thought she was at ^^

Six 

[sixsideddice]

Like a Blind Man Groping About In The Dark â€" who is Suddenly Handed a New Pair of Eyes

Once upon a time when I was a lot younger (according to my kids, I was never young.  Anyone over the age of 25 is old in their eyes â€" little swines) I used to make everything up myself. I was so purist I even shunned using rules I hadn`t written myself. My role playing campaign was home brew, the maps were my own, the background history , the family genealogy  and coats of arms of various noble faction, my thieves guild was my own (heavily based on Fritz Leiber`s writings), and a partridge in a pear tree, bla bla bla. I was a home-brewer through and through.


Well... I`ve grown older and wiser since then. It’s easy to be the way I once was when you`re young, arrogant, not yet conceived the concept of a full day`s work, intense study, family ties, raising children, and the sundry other problems that crop into our lives on an almost weekly basis as we juggle the responsibilities of `being grown up`.


I sigh with relief nowadays when I see a professional gaming product which I can buy and use straight off the shelf with minimum fuss or expended energy. I take my hat off to the companies offering hundreds of pages of excellent material for immediate use by the purchaser.  For the mere equivalent cost of a couple of tickets to the cinema and a bag of popcorn... or to put it another way, the price of a week’s supply of cigarettes to an average smoker, the gamer can walk into his local store (or browse online with a credit card) and pick up a hardback campaign manual for his chosen role playing game, and get literally hundreds of hours of use and entertainment from it. And when you get to my age, I tell ya... these books are like gifts from the heavens.


So, after a ridiculous amount of deliberation, I finally decided on a direction for the new campaign.


I knew I wasn`t totally comfortable about starting with Forgotten Realms. I used to know the history backwards and inside out, but many years divorced from playing Dungeons and Dragons left me with only a passing knowledge of the campaign world. Looking at my bookcases with 20 odd hardback campaign manuals for this world all lined up for inspection before my weary eyes, I realised I could not put together a rich story tapestry or a convincing game any time soon; I`d need weeks just to re-acquaint myself with the world, and that was going to be a problem right now. Who`s to say I can`t move things in that direction at a later date? But for now my eyes shifted beyond the Realms and onwards towards Greyhawk... hmmmm, similar story! Too much to learn and not enough time to do it in. Sadly, the practicalities of putting together a new campaign often hits the brain`s logic censors long after the initial enthusiastic  “yaaaay” factor starts to fizzle out.


And then it came to me.


Okay, time for another of my long meandering stories.


Long long ago, in another decade, another home, and (sometimes it seems) almost another life; I discovered a game by Fantasy Flight Games, called “Descent, Journeys in the Dark”.  Now I don`t really like this game as it plays using the official rules. But the wonderful game components and miniatures gave it enough merit that I played around with it for quite some time until I got everything working the way I felt it should. As it happens, FFG gave me the other five boxed supplements for this game for free in payment for writing a lot of on line site and magazine reviews about their new product - and for the alternative additions I wrote for the game. I`ve never played with these supplement boxed sets, and in fact three of them still remain in their cellophane wrap on a book shelf in my hobby room.


I rectified this last night. I sat up most the night (I felt a bit like Ken St Andre writing his first draft of Tunnels and Trolls), and I systematically went through each module. I guess I wasn`t too surprised to find I was able to convert all the cards and almost all the rules for use in Dungeon World. The myriad of cardboard components alone will add a wealth of new material, playing aids, outdoor map tiles dungeon corridors and chambers to my game.


Used alongside Dungeon World, I just discovered me a whole new bunch of shiny new toys to play with.


The interlocking game tiles themselves are almost perfect for using as an alternative to the Pendraken Dungeon Tiles, and will certainly ensure things never get stale (the Descent ones are about the same size as the ones in HeroQuest, yet seem aesthetically to `fit` 10mm fantasy figures a lot better). The hundreds of treasure piles, furniture, traps, trip wires, pit counters, tomb stones, King`s throne, pools of water, fountains, waterfalls, statues, wall rubble, potions, elixirs, scrolls, crushing walls, rolling boulders, patches of goo, quest items, and a hundred other useful bits and bobs will ALL come in useful, essential even.... the hundreds of miniatures that come with the game are spectacular too, but that’s another story. For me, the other game components were what I was after. Most importantly, I started to study the campaign maps closely. Printed on heavy duty card stock, foldable like a Monopoly board (only much thicker card), I was immediately struck by their beauty.  There is a pair of campaign maps, one from each on the two latter supplement boxed sets. Combined with the hundreds of campaign cards, chance cards, encounter cards, and so on, I could see I had enough ready to use material to get my own game started with the bare minimum of effort... all the stats and everything were all ready-made for me in card deck form.


WOW, in a single night of preparation, I had not only discovered everything I needed to enhance my game, I also had the nucleus of a complete campaign at my fingertips; and a beautifully rendered one at that.


Combined with the new Dungeon World 3rd edition rules (which includes a few new neat ideas of their own) and the Dungeon World Variations (which will allow me to incorporate a lot of D&D Monster stats into my game...I have finally found where I am going to place my campaign.


I`m a very happie chappie.


Six   

[nikharwood]

I need to stop reading this...

Six - this is great & inspiring stuff - you're making me want to go ransack my RPG library which, to be honest, is sadly neglected really: both hardcopy & digital...I would be seriously hesitant to cost out the money I've spent on RPG material since my first exposure to Basic D&D in ~1980.

I absolutely hear what you're saying about the beauty of 'newer' material as it's presented; I know you're not keen on 3.5 but the hardback [self-contained] "Expedition to" books for Ravenloft, Undermountain, Ruins of Greyhawk, Demonweb Pits etc are stunning. Really.

I can also relate to your thinking about switching systems through the course of the campaign: for me, this is akin to wargaming: if I'm doing big battles I'll look to WM - if I'm skirmishing, I'm looking at Mordheim / LotR etc....horses for courses & all that: makes perfect sense to me...I think my favourites would include D&D [all editions to be honest - including various 'clone' systems that streamline the older versions] & bung in some Mystic, Risus, and others including RQ, T&T...

Anyway, enough rambling from me - keep it up fella, this'll be interesting 

[sixsideddice]

I need to stop reading this...

Six - this is great & inspiring stuff - you're making me want to go ransack my RPG library which, to be honest, is sadly neglected really: both hardcopy & digital...I would be seriously hesitant to cost out the money I've spent on RPG material since my first exposure to Basic D&D in ~1980.

I absolutely hear what you're saying about the beauty of 'newer' material as it's presented; I know you're not keen on 3.5 but the hardback [self-contained] "Expedition to" books for Ravenloft, Undermountain, Ruins of Greyhawk, Demonweb Pits etc are stunning. Really.

I can also relate to your thinking about switching systems through the course of the campaign: for me, this is akin to wargaming: if I'm doing big battles I'll look to WM - if I'm skirmishing, I'm looking at Mordheim / LotR etc....horses for courses & all that: makes perfect sense to me...I think my favourites would include D&D [all editions to be honest - including various 'clone' systems that streamline the older versions] & bung in some Mystic, Risus, and others including RQ, T&T...

Anyway, enough rambling from me - keep it up fella, this'll be interesting  

Cheers Nik   if this only makes one person want to thumb through the books on their shelves, or rush out to the local games store to find that game they`ve always fancied trying but never have; or If this all makes you want to starting a brand new game of your own... then I`ll be happy to have helped in a small way.

Hmmm, it’s not that I`m not keen on D&D 3.5 Nik, its more that... well, I just can`t seem to get along with it. Every so often as I pass the shelf I`ve put aside for my D&D books, I can`t help myself and I pull down a beautiful, lavishly illustrated, crinkly new paper smelling, shiny looking hardback of something in 3.5: Players Handbook, Dungeon Master`s Guide, Monster Manual 1, 2, or 3, Fiend Folio, The Book of Vile Darkness, Underdark, Waterdeep, Undermountain, Unapproachable East, Faiths and Pantheons, City of the Spider Queen, Serpent Kingdoms, all the Ravenloft books.... oh god the list could go on and on, I have them all sitting on my shelf (and thats just my 3.5 collection), and even more on file backed up on my external hard drive. They are exquisitely beautiful books, and they repeatedly entice me to want to forgo using my White Box original set, Basic, and 2nd edition rules in favour of these magnificent tomes.... and now 4th edition (which I have in their entirety on computer file) is doing the same thing to me... largely due to the YouTube stuff by Chris Perkins (Robot Chicken), which always inspires me no end. No I don`t hate 3.1 or 3.5, I just find it all incredibly complicated to use. I mean, OMG just look at character creation, how is anyone meant to create a new character or NPC in anything less than a good hour? And that’s just a single new addition to the game... imagine filling a city full of NPC`s using 3.5, you`d be there a year before even sitting down to a game. As for the combat options, OMG again, there are more rule conditions, options,  and intricately detailed exceptions  than there were in the treaty of Prague LOL.

I`d LOVE to be able to use 3.5, but I just can`t seem to get my head round the 900 or so pages of rules contained in the three core manuals  

I know what you mean about the `clone ‘systems, I collect those myself. As for retro games, I think RQ, T&T, WHFB, etc are fantastic   My all time favourite is probably Judges Guild`s City of Invincible Overlord, utterly awe inspiring. As for the D20 system, I`ve always liked World’s Largest Dungeon and Worlds Largest City, The Lost City of Barakus and Freeport the City of Adventure.

Six  

[Squirrel]

I`d LOVE to be able to use 3.5, but I just can`t seem to get my head round the 900 or so pages of rules contained in the three core manuals  

I know exactly what you mean I love the whole concept of D&D but it always feels too 'heavy' to me. Your Dungeon World just makes game play so much easier.

I often search out scenarios for inspiration though.

Looking forward toseeing how you progress.

Cheers,

Kev

[sixsideddice]

I know exactly what you mean I love the whole concept of D&D but it always feels too 'heavy' to me. Your Dungeon World just makes game play so much easier.

I often search out scenarios for inspiration though.

Looking forward toseeing how you progress.

Cheers,

Kev

yes, "too heavy" puts it exactly; it`s too heavy by far. I just keep getting seduced by the cool concept, the wonderful artwork, maps, and... well I guess the professionalism of the look (that’s why they employ master designers and artists with  yearly salaries in excess of  five and six figures.

With so many tempting choices available to us nowadays, it is sometimes hard to remember the cardinal rule about gaming. i.e. the rules are only there to help us make in game decisions... the rest is up to creativity and suspension of disbelief.

As long as the rules serve their purpose, are clear, concise, are not `clunky` and do not hinder the DM from doing his job, the rest is really all up to the DM`s design work - and it is NOT the size of the rules which will inevitably make or break a game. However, an overcomplicated set of rules (however lovely they may look and feel) will reduce a game in no time... unless you have a DM who has both the time and patience to learn the system intimately so he can run things in his sleep. Personally, I do not have the inkling or the desire to want to dedicate myself to such a troublesome venture. I just want to GET ON with playing by the shortest enjoyable route possible.

Looking at things like Dungeons and Dragons, Dragon magaine, Dungeon, etc inspires me no end, gets me in the mood, and the artwork thrills my imagination and steers me on to good ideas of my own. But ultimately, I take all this stimulation, and use it to further my own simple Dungeon World experience.

Six  

[nikharwood]

All good points - and ones that I'd agree with entirely really. I'm off this week & am going to have a decent read of some stuff - particularly looking at my old Basic & Expert and 1st edition AD&D modules [I can feel an urge to play B4 The Lost City coming on...]

Once I've immersed myself fully in the plane of nostalgia, I'm then going to have a read of 4e - and it'll probably make my head hurt [although the graphics are beautiful].

Oh - and I'm a big fan of Chris Perkins DM-ing on youtube too; that Robot Chicken series was excellent. Going to re-watch that too. I love  having time off 

[sixsideddice]

All good points - and ones that I'd agree with entirely really. I'm off this week & am going to have a decent read of some stuff - particularly looking at my old Basic & Expert and 1st edition AD&D modules [I can feel an urge to play B4 The Lost City coming on...]

Basic and Expert are really cool, coupled with the fact that if you know where to look on-line, there are literally dozens on free PDF adventure downloads for these systems. Strangely, I missed 1st edition AD&D and moved straight into 2nd edition from Basic and Expert. I believe the favoured official campaign at the time of 1st edition was Grayhawk, yeah?

Once I've immersed myself fully in the plane of nostalgia, I'm then going to have a read of 4e - and it'll probably make my head hurt [although the graphics are beautiful].

Same here. 4th edition is inspiring on so many levels. But I find myself being drawn more and more to my 3rd edition... which is where the bulk of my material lies. I know I know I said I wanted to keep things retro (i.e. 2nd edition or earlier), but the 3.1 and 3.5 stuff is just so damn good. The campaign I am putting together (both for me to enjoy solo and to play with my partner and friends) will include a lot of 3rd edition DnD I think - especially the two books  by Jim Pinto/Alderac games "Worlds Largest Dungeon" and "Worlds Largest City". Both of these are fast becoming classics, despite many peoples` prejudices against them.

Oh - and I'm a big fan of Chris Perkins DM-ing on youtube too; that Robot Chicken series was excellent. Going to re-watch that too. I love  having time off  

I especially love Chris Perkin`s Celeb game at Gen Con... I love Will Wheaton in that one hehe.

Ooo enjoy your week off Nik, indulge yourself mate.... you deserve it.


Six