Plus I convinced the group to go to the Moonshaes and leave Amn. We are going to fight off the Amnian invaders there and become Privateers. Plus there are gnome-like creatures in steamwork armor and mechanical krakens attacking boats around Amn and the Moonshaes. It smells like something has gotten a hold of some old Lantan tech and warped it. I am finally getting to game in the Isles and am pretty happy.
So what have your recent experiences in the Realms been like? I would like to hear some of the fun stuff that has been happening in your games.
My players have returned from the realm of Vhaeraun in the Demonweb pits to Waterdeep, where they’re planning their next moves. They will brave the northern parts of Netheril and attempt to find Oreme and clues to the Tomb of Augathra the mad. Within they hope to discover the means to access a special Celestial Stairway that will take them past the Terraseer and his guardians, and to the Palace of Creation beyond.
It’s all very big, Epic, end of the world-ish and fun.
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In our 4.0 Realms game, the players are exploring the depths of Shadowfell Keep. They are on the second level and have just uncovered clues that indicate the a priest of Shar has his lair deep below the keep.
They have also uncovered clues that indicate the priest is actually a Cormyrean noble of the Rallyhorn noble family, who was said to have perished while infiltrating the fortress of Daerlun some forty years prior.
It’s low level (3rd, to be exact) but it’s also fun to get back to good old fashioned dungeoneering.
Call me crazy, call me a traitor, call me whatever. I really enjoy playing D&D in the 4E Realms.
I like leaving the house every other Monday to go to game with just two rulebooks (FRCG, FRPG) and a binder with my adventure and DM’s screen in it.
I don’t even need to bring the core rulebooks since my buddies have them.
Contrast this with the veritable wooden log of books I carry around for my 3.5 Realms game.
I like the simplicity of it. I’m a very experienced DM and I enjoy making stuff up as I go along. Having just two and three page explanations in the FRCG of the places in the Realms I like to use makes it easy for me to build on the information therein.
I like the challenge of it. When things change in the Realms, it puts players and DMs and Realmsfans (that don’t play D&D) on the spot. Some don’t like to see changes, sure. But I do when it’s a wholesale set of changes due mostly to the advancement of time.
I like returned Abeir.
MarkusTay has asked me in another thread why I wanted to go “down south” in my 4E Realms game.
Two big reasons are Tymanther and Akanûl. A third is the Abolethic Sovereignty, which conveniently lay in between Cormyr (where my campaign is at) and those two realms.
I enjoy the change of flavor. When you’ve gamed in the Realms as long as I and my players have, a change of pace is very enjoyable. It lets us treat places and things we “know” about the Realms as unknowns again. Add to that our choice to treat both our ongoing 3.5 and 4E Realms games as being in the same Realms instead of separate and you have an additional layer of uncertainty owing to the unique path our 3.5 game has already taken.
That’s fun because discovering something new or discovering a big change in the Realms during play is always a blast and so a big motivation to play.
But most of all I like the advanced timeline. That’s got to be one of best fuels for creative DM thought out there for DMs that are somewhat familiar with the Realms. It basically pushes you to consider the new setting from a “what’s transpired?” point of view.
When Manshoon the vampire has lived for a century through the Spellplague, consolidated his power over Westgate and the surviving Zhentarim, what does that mean? How did he do it? What secrets of magic and of returned Abeir has he uncovered? Is he dealing with the Eminence of Aurant or the Ironfell Council? Has he restarted any of his long term plots that were thwarted when all of his clones awoke? Have any of those plots come to fruition?
Basically, Manshoon being Manshoon, what can he have accomplished in 100 years beyond what the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide tells us?
My bet is: A LOT.
That’s what’s so fun about it for me as a DM. All these ideas and possibilities constitute fun thought exercises and are the seeds of future adventures and campaign arcs.
I invite those of you who have pondered things as I have to include your thoughts here.
I invite those of you who enjoy playing in the 4E Realms to post why you enjoy it, especially if your reasons are different then mine.
Lastly, let’s be careful not to let an edition war ignite here. Webster has the power to close threads and he will use it if we give him reason to.
I'm using it as a build-up to take them to Epic level and the Planes where they will have a hand in saving (or killing) Mystra and preventing some things from happening.
Ironically, through the many discussions I've been privy to over at the 'Keep, I'm less sure every day that Mystra will survive the adventure. But the Weave will survive, for sure. ;)
(the rest of the party is scared sh*tless) :PSadly my GM and two other player are deploying soon
Do you ever consider running your own game?
The focus now is on the personal story of the one of the characters. (I use the Background system from VtM in D&D so my players can have a structure for their character creation, I found it has worked well).
I am using a Ravenloft adventure for this side-trek, there is Sword & Sorcery book called Dark Tales & Distrubing Dreams and I am using a story from that for the plot. The characters found themselves pulled from their 32nd level bodies and placed in the bodies of 5th level characters :D
Good for them. :D
Anyhow, I can start a new game (with my two younger boys to start), but I haven't figured out what I want to run, nor what rules to use, and my youngest is only 6 (which is not impossible, but it does make it a little more difficult).
I may have to find someone else's game to play in soon, which means heading to one of the LGS's, and 'making friends'. No big - maybe I should be just a player for awhile .
Perhaps I need to re-learn how to just enjoy myself.
Well, they were going great until I stopped speaking with my eldest son awhile back, so now I've lost half my players (he and a friend), and the other half is my other, second-oldest, son and his friend, who are at that age where girls and their social life has become far more important then hanging-out with an old bastitch like me.
-I'll hang out with you.
-That sounded creepy... :: shrug ::
A cleric of Amaunator (hails from the Border Kingdoms, a descendant of the player's FR 3rd Ed. character), a female halfling rogue (from Cormyr), a female tiefling rogue (from High Imaskar) and a timelost female crinti/half-drow warlock (feypact, formerly a sorceress, from 3e Dambrath).
We started with a small political inspired kidnapping adventure in Cormyr's King's Forest, then headed to Eveningstar and it's Haunted Halls (solving a murder mystery and defeating an 'ambassador' of the 'Eminence of Araunt'), went to Waterdeep via the ambassadors one-way portal (the rogues protecting an not so innocent man from a cult of Assuran /Hoar, while the cleric was tricked into a confrontation against an infernal warlock by an erinyes). To be continued...
The game itself was fun, but my players who played FR in 2nd and 3rd Edi. do complain about the changes made to the world quite a lot when discovered(dead gods, vanished lands, the cleric's player dislikes the Lathander's 'new' name). Adding to this they 're quite disatisfied by some of the 'simplifications' of 4e and it's 'combat-/miniature orientated' rules.
So we decided that 4e is not our cup of tea and we'll return to the 3ed rules on our next gaming session. Maybe we'll even try a bit of the Pathfinder rules. But we'll most likely keep the 1hp-minion-monsters from 4e who are generally popular among my players.
But the main change will probably be bringing back some of the 'stuff' my player's liked about the 'old' Realms.
Mystra will return (to explain the change of the way magic now works again, as Mystras' being alive or dead seems to be the only thing that can effect the game mechanics ;) ) Eilistraee will also return (as the Masked Lady), the Crinti will retake Dambrath and put the eberronic Shifter's to the torch, reduce Far Realm influence (Aboleths), and quite alot of other things.
As novels will apparently be the only source of Realmslore I see almost no problem ignoring the books that absolutly doesn't mix with 'our' realms.
But Amaunator will keep his 'new' name, just to tease the cleric
Best wishes
Lirdolin
Now I am wondering if we should just head to the Isles or try out Candlekeep
and see if I can learn anything about this new threat that is using modified gnome-tech. They might actually be working with Amn but we cannot prove that.
So hopefully we can alternate Deadlands and D&D. We shall see.
I wish them well.
Do you ever consider running your own game?
Is hard for me to DM in english, I tried but when it comes down to details (like how the room looks ) the words just don' come out
Is hard for me to DM in english, I tried but when it comes down to details (like how the room looks ) the words just don' come out
-When they say something, just tell them "Good day!", and walk out on them, a la Fez. ;) :P
-Though, since you are in the military and everything, have you ever thought about running a game via E-mail, or IM, or whatever else? Since it's text, you just have to type and since I know you, or your players/fellow soldiers and whoever else are moving around with some regularity, you guys (or girls) don't even need to be together to play.
Is hard for me to DM in english, I tried but when it comes down to details (like how the room looks ) the words just don' come out
I am a bad DM like like. I give the bare essential details of a room and let the mat and marker (or tiles) do the talking for me.
-When they say something, just tell them "Good day!", and walk out on them, a la Fez. ;) :P .
Heh, that's was my nickname at Basic Training :P
-
-Though, since you are in the military and everything, have you ever thought about running a game via E-mail, or IM, or whatever else? Since it's text, you just have to type and since I know you, or your players/fellow soldiers and whoever else are moving around with some regularity, you guys (or girls) don't even need to be together to play.
We were talking about it last week, I have computer but this one at work. we probably are gonna have it on stanby while they come back and i'll DM a sidestory or something...
I am a bad DM like like. I give the bare essential details of a room and let the mat and marker (or tiles) do the talking for me.
I'm all about the details (of all kinds of things not just Dnd) Tha't why I like FR over all others campaings. I kinda get turned off for lack of it. just tuesday I tried to play on this brand spanking new DM' Homebrew campaing and I walked out... when there's a paladin AND a cleric of Optimus Prime, that's when I draw the line
Basically, after you'rte done describing a room or scene, they tend to 'read into' something way too much - they may spend an hour or more taking apart a bed, because they are convinced you mentioned it for a reason!
My brother-in-law's group was that way - they chased a farmer's dog for half a day because they thought it had information... No... I'm not kidding...
So hopefully we can alternate Deadlands and D&D. We shall see.
Ack!
I LOVE that setting, but have never found a group willing to play it!
The closest I came was my very short-lived campaign set in Anchorome in the 1470's - sort of 'Wild, Wild West' meets High Fantasy, wiith some grunge Steampunk sprinkled in.
I loved it, but alas, my players did not.
Anyhow, I was borrowing heavily from the Deadlands D20 rules for it.
-I'll hang out with you.
-That sounded creepy... :: shrug ::
I appreciate the thought, but right now I have travel limitations as well (no vehicle ATM) - once I get my life back in order (a major underataking - but I've made some News Year's resolutions), I'm hoping to meet you and everyone else in person.
Actually I started up a campaign probably two weeks after I got the FRCG. Originally I was going to run a homebrew, but the FRCG made me feel about the FR the way I used to when I first got the Old Grey Box (1987? Well right after it first released ). So the homebrew got put on the back burner, and the FR came up to bat.
I set the players up in the city of Phlan (Under Construction AGAIN) as a convenient starting point. Consisting of three members Taigen the Elf Ranger, Nigel the Halfling Warlock, and Garruck the Genasi Swordmage. In the beginning they started by doing some favors for Nigel's uncle, which culminated in recovering some lost goods and meeting Lawrence the best spoken Kobold in the FR. Being an extraordinary kobold, Taigen agreed to take on Lawrence as an apprentice Bowyer in his shop.
Unfortunately Nigel ran afoul of the local criminal syndicate (jokingly referred to as the halfling mafia) when he decided to discipline the son of the Big Boss. Bradley not being very skilled at pickpocketing had picked the wrong pocket, however his father Alistair could not let such a slight (read business opportunity) go unanswered. Following a conversation with Nigel the party finds itself doing "item recovery" (repossessing) work for Alistair, and discovering the slippery slope of attempting to deal with some criminals as reasonable individuals. The status quo that develops is unfavorable for the party, however before they have time to really deal with it, Taigen's sister blows into town with Netherese Agents hot on her tail.
The party is inducted to deliver an important message to Ecthelion Orlainth who is in the Zhent ruins in the Border Forest. A magical missive cannot be delivered to him because it would alert the Netherese to his presence. Traveling west at a rapid pace, which is made more rapid by the fact that Garruck in his latest drunken rage decided that getting into an altercation with Bradley might be a good idea. Having beaten the Big Boss Alistair's son to within an inch of his life, it was deemed wise to proceed at breakneck speed.
Traveling across the mountains the party comes across a slaver camp with slaves in tow. Fortunately they decide to do the heroic thing and free the slaves. Taigen sneaks in and wreaks havoc by killing half the slavers in their sleep. Finally noticed the others come to his aid and make quick work of the confused and outgunned slavers. The slaves are Barbarian Clansmen from The Ride, and naturally befriend the party. Once they are reunited with the rest of their clan, a member is chosen to guide the party and aid them on their quest. Amantor is an over enthusiastic, somewhat troublesome young man, who promptly proves his worth.
Continuing their trek westward towards the Border Forest, the party runs afoul of a platoon sized element of Netherese on patrol. Avoidance is not an option, and they prepare to make their last stand. Through incredible luck they manage to defeat them (minions), and walk away with a hefty gain in ill gotten wealth.
Arriving finally at the outer ruins, the party decides to go poking around. After some encounters with assorted bony friends they, move on and finally find the Wizard Ecthelion. Having told their tale, Ecthelion begins packing and urges the party to hurry. Apparently playing patty cake with skeletons is part of the Netherese network of early warning systems. Escaping via a Linked Portal Ritual to the Isle of Mist (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1119255), the party is afforded a much needed rest.
Unfortunately not all is well in Denmark, and Taigen's sister is revealed to be missing somewhere in Mulmaster. Lord Finvar charges Taigen with finding his sister (who is apparently a highly placed member of the islands intelligence apparatus). Traveling to Phlan first to await an appropriate ship for insertion, the party decides to take care of some unfinished business that they did not "forget about".
Sneaking into town, the party hooks up with Lawrence who has been dutifully spying on the local half pint mafia. With this detailed information in hand the party discusses in great detail what to do about the situation. Garruck has a bounty, and the protection charges have grown to be too great for Nigel's family member's to bear. The decision the party makes is to brutally assassinate Alistair, and take over the organization by the sword errr.... I mean persuasive arguments. The killing of Alistair is a classic Godfather moment with blood everywhere, and a back clinging kobold with stabbity action grip. The bodyguards who were caught with their pants down by the sudden, surprising, brutally efficient ambush of their boss, decide that working for the new bosses is better than being ground under foot.
Over the next week some purges occur over the new direction the "Corporation" will be taking. Lawrence is put in charge of the new "Corporation". Finally the insertion ship arrives, the party embarks, and are currently in the process of attempting to avoid being intercepted.
Updates: After an intense chase scene with two ships closing quickly a surprising event occurs. The ship the party is on suddenly shifts planes, gliding into the Feywild Moonsea to easily escape their pursuers, or so they thought for a moment. Unfortunately one of the pursuing ships was similarly equipped.
Pulling up next to them arrows are flying all over the place, grappling being thrown, the occasional sailor falling out of the rigging looking more like a pincushion than anything else, the boarding action finally begins. An extended melee ensues, complete with swashbuckling action, the PC's join in on the acrobatic fun. For this session we have been joined by a new player who brought a Warlord to the table. This added a whole new dimension not only to the tactical aspects of the game (we do use grids and miniatures about half the time), but also to the role playing involved in the combat. Suddenly I had a troupe of teleporting, airborne, jaw jacking, demigods of death cavorting on a playground of blood soaked bodies.
The best part of the battle is difficult to pinpoint, but I cackled with glee when the halfling starlock asked me if he could pull this off using an action point. Huddled on of the ramps connecting the two ships during the boarding action, and nearby on the enemy ship were a group of boarders. Quite a few were minions. Well Nigel the halfling teleported (Ethereal Stride) burned his action point (he did something else too, just can't remmeber), now in mid air perfectly situated to take as many enemies as possible, he kicks off his Otherwind Stride, and well we reflavored it a bit. Several of the minions were (killed) dragged off to the far realms, by the visible maelstrom of glowing tentacles (and those immobilized), while the survivors were fighting off being dragged into this burning maw of hate. It was heavily reminiscent of a certain Space 1999 episode.
Following the battle the party regrouped, and both ships now with skeleton crews proceeded towards their destination; Mulmaster a wretched hive of scum and villainy. This should be a good time next session as the people they are looking for already know they are coming. Someone has been talking and I am sure all of the players will be wondering who the snake in the grass is, after all you should never trust a halfling rogue any further than you can throw him.
We picked up on a new campaign in Cormyr, playing the Tearing of the Weave adventure path. I finally gotten to play again after nearly 3 years! My character is Lyqueniis "Lynx" Ulondarr, a moon elven mhaornathil ranger 4 of Sehanine Moonbow. He already proved to be effective against the mysteries and lies laid down by Cyric and Shar. I really like focusing on a nocturnal seer ranger archetype... he seeks to understand the corruption he faces by unveiling their darkness seeking to actually use the darkness against evil.
Doesn't hurt our DM enforced a core only rule on us, and each party member had too flesh out their background with some question list as an aid, laying down a basic structure for character quircks, mannerisms, family and history. I picked the Ulondarr family as they have a long history of settling new territory for elven kingdoms, giving Lyqueniis an ancestral wanderlust befitting his character.
We were talking about it last week, I have computer but this one at work. we probably are gonna have it on stanby while they come back and i'll DM a sidestory or something...
-Ah...Well, there really isn't anything else you can really do with that, then.
My current character is a level level 8 blethran Witch (from the free netbook Liber Mysterium). The other characters are an Ultimate Magus, a Runescarred Berserker, a twin-dagger Rogue, and an ranged Ranger.
Zanan set the module in 1200 DR, in northern Impiltur. The landscape is littered with Nar ruins, which the Wychlaran purged of fiends a few hundred years ago. They also raised runed menhirs for easy traveling.
Our group is finally on the way after the abductors of spellcasters in the region. We entered the upper reaches of the Underdark, only to run from Grells almost straight into the lair of a shadow dragon. Luckily, we brought along a certain behir as fire support.