Dude. That sounds over whelming to manage. But gadamn amazing lol. Now thats an under taking and a labor of love.
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The D&D thread
- Thread starter Kovaks
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
So I finally decided to start looking for a last few 4e books that I havnt got. And Holy shit these books are hard to find now.
Grabbit Allworth
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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4e is a breeze compared to 3/3.5.
Over the last 6 months I've been on a buying-spree of physical copies of old material to flesh out my collection and to replace stuff that I've lost, given away, or had stolen over the years and I've found that only incredibly rare print runs or copies of the earliest material, 3rd edition stuff is hands-down the most expensive.
I think it's probably because 3/3.5 was the golden era in terms of solid writing. Even without the crunch (which is easily convertible), most of the lore and ideas from 3/3.5 are an amazing resource.
I have everything that's been printed for 4e and getting close to having one of every 3/3.5 product, but my wallet has been getting ass-blasted. There are at least a dozen hardbacks that easily command 100+ dollars for just fair condition. I know that's not much compared to collectors items for many hobbies, but just 6-7 years ago those books were all but worthless.
That said, I'm in the market for physical copies of 3/3.5 stuff. PM me.
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Urlithani
Vyemm Raider
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Yeah I'm cheating kind of, but the players don't know that. I told them the map is already made, but I'm just going to have premade set pieces and drop them into a hex when they explore it. We can only play every 3 weeks, so I have plenty of time to make new content to keep things going.
I also have a lot of content to draw from. I went into the shed and pulled out about 40 issues of Dungeon Magazine and a dozen other adventure modules. I'm not afraid to cut up dungeons, encounters, or NPC's to throw stuff together at the last minute.
Arden
Blackwing Lair Raider
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No such thing as a GM cheating. Can't break the rules when you are the one making them up as you go
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j00t
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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honestly, i think this is the only way to do it. give them the illusion of an open world but only prepare for an on-rails game. i hate random encounters for this very reason. if you go through the work of preparing an encounter, don't let that go to waste, you know?
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Urlithani
Vyemm Raider
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Decided to type out the overall campaign arc, so I figured I'd do it here and share. If you got any feedback let me know.
Summary(TL;DR): Urdefhans living in The Beneath (Underdark) find an artifact called the Masquerade Machine, which transforms a being into a near-flawless specimen of another species, while retaining their own personality and memories. Szuriel, the Horseman of War, takes great interest in her childrens' discovery, and sends her servants to help the Urdefhans infiltrate many other societies. Using deception and subterfuge, they pit nations against each other until they grind each other to dust in wars that will bring this world ever closer to oblivion. The party will fight multiple wars to save their home, their city, and ultimately their kingdom.
Campaign: The Masquerade Machine
Rulesystem: 5E
Main Campaign Elements: Heavy Open map exploration, Medium thematic war elements, nation/government leadership (player optional. If not all players want to be leaders, we can do a good amount of that between sessions, and the rest can show up to be murderhobos/RP, etc.)
Inspired by: Pathfinder: Kingmaker on PC and the movie They Live.
Setting: Partially homebrew. Most of the gods are either Faerun or Golarion.
Major military conflicts:
Battle against the Bandit King,
War of the Lightning Horde (Orcs)
War of Sundered Honor (Western neighbor led by Paladin-Queen Erisia)
War of the Dead (Undead)
War of the Rivers' Children (Civil War)
War of the Unmasked Oblivion (Urdefhans and daemons, the children and servants of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse).
Game time length: Estimated 20-30 years in-game.
Wall of Text Campaign Summary:
Summary(TL;DR): Urdefhans living in The Beneath (Underdark) find an artifact called the Masquerade Machine, which transforms a being into a near-flawless specimen of another species, while retaining their own personality and memories. Szuriel, the Horseman of War, takes great interest in her childrens' discovery, and sends her servants to help the Urdefhans infiltrate many other societies. Using deception and subterfuge, they pit nations against each other until they grind each other to dust in wars that will bring this world ever closer to oblivion. The party will fight multiple wars to save their home, their city, and ultimately their kingdom.
Campaign: The Masquerade Machine
Rulesystem: 5E
Main Campaign Elements: Heavy Open map exploration, Medium thematic war elements, nation/government leadership (player optional. If not all players want to be leaders, we can do a good amount of that between sessions, and the rest can show up to be murderhobos/RP, etc.)
Inspired by: Pathfinder: Kingmaker on PC and the movie They Live.
Setting: Partially homebrew. Most of the gods are either Faerun or Golarion.
Major military conflicts:
Battle against the Bandit King,
War of the Lightning Horde (Orcs)
War of Sundered Honor (Western neighbor led by Paladin-Queen Erisia)
War of the Dead (Undead)
War of the Rivers' Children (Civil War)
War of the Unmasked Oblivion (Urdefhans and daemons, the children and servants of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse).
Game time length: Estimated 20-30 years in-game.
Wall of Text Campaign Summary:
“The masquerade returns, a dance of war
The fire ignites, burning evermore
Eternal damnation, for all but the blessed
A conflict unending must be put to rest
Those who will rise and extinguish these flames
Shall save the land, and end these warped games.”
Act 1: With the collapse of the nation centuries ago, the small village is beset by troubles after years of relative peace. Only the party and their neighbors can save their home because nobody else is coming. After returning from resolving several dangers, the village is raided by bandits before the PC's can make it back. They learn from surviving bandits that they have formed an army under the banner of the self-styled bandit king, who calls himself the Golden Lion. After tracking down and exterminating several bandit camps, the party finally frees hundreds of prisoners at the bandit fort of River's Reach. They also learn dire news: The bandit king is bringing his army south to their home!
Returning home from River's Reach while escorting the freed villagers, fate intervenes. A forbidden ruin that was once sealed has opened again. Desperate to find any advantage, the party is implored to explore it while everyone else returns home to prepare to defend against the Golden Lion's army. They do find treasures that give them a little hope, and a chance to win. Upon returning, the party arrives shortly before the army does. Those unfit for battle have been evacuated, and the battle for the village begins.
Act 2: Following the defeat of the Golden Lion's army, the former inhabitants of many of the neighboring villages chose to stay, their old homes razed. The village is now a town, and the party are well-respected voices and leaders of the people (if they choose to be). As the year passes, fewer merchants arrive from the mountains to the east. In their place are more people, looking to set down roots. Rumors start to spread, and soon the truth becomes clear: It has been several generations since the last Orcish horde has descended from the mountains. They have outgrown their dwellings, and have started displacing people with raids of ever increasing intensity. It will not be long until the party must fight for their homes again.
Act 3: Through great sacrifice, the war is ended. The orcs have been turned back. The town is in bad shape, but the surrounding lands are worse. Over the next several years the party will take the mantle of leadership, and guide the reconstruction of their home, possibly turning it into a city-state. Just when things start going well, terrible news comes from the west. A Paladin from the noble nation on the other side of the forest has brought a formal declaration of war! Necromancers from the east raise the dead, and soldiers under the banner of the city-state have been razing villages and burning fields. The last straw was the regicide in the royal chambers, as both the crown prince and king himself were murdered. The guilty parties were captured and, through divination magics and confession, implicated the party's government. The party must find proof of a set up and present it to the widowed Paladin-Queen Erisia before their young realm is trampled underfoot by a vastly superior professional army.
Act 4: It has been a few years since the war ended and the plot to frame the party's government exposed. The doppelgangers who orchestrated the events fought to the death. Once enemies, the Paladin-Queen has become an ally and helped heal the land. Despite vigorous investigation, no more leads have presented themselves to reveal a greater plot...until the next war starts from within. The dead walk the land, and an army of the unliving soon threatens to tear the young kingdom apart from the inside out. When several drow necromancers are killed during campaigns to cleanse the undead, it appears that the dark elves of The Beneath have made their move. The party looks for allies, and finds them in the dwarves of Clan Laghdannor. In exchange to help them find and secure the lost dwarven citadel of Kraggenach, the dwarves will guide the party further into The Beneath.
However, when the party finds the Drow city of Leth'nilyrn, it too is under siege by both undead and monstrous aberrations. When the party finally establishes communications with the Drow, they discover that the drow were being assaulted by an army of surface dwellers. However, their enemies made a mistake, and the Drow discovered the deception; these surface dwellers were not actually surface dwellers. This caused the assailants to drop the act, and they intensified their efforts to sack Leth'nilyrn. The Drow offer a treaty in the interest of mutual survival for both kingdoms, and to find out who tried to pit them against each other.
Act 5: Civil War! The party barely escape the capital with their lives after a bloody coup attempt. The usurpers begin a bloody purge, and a civil war pits neighbors against each other. Desperate for answers, the party is approached by a unique and unlikely ally: The Cyan dragon Zelcestixa. The child of a pairing between a green and blue dragon, she possesses a blue's desire to manipulate and control, tempered by a green's insatiable desire for knowledge and self-perfection. Although evil, she too has fallen victim to the manipulation by the same hidden enemy, losing her lair and control of her vast criminal network across the sea. They must work together if they wish to save what is theirs before there is nothing left to save. As the civil war rages, the party works with Zelcestixa, gathering clues from a kingdom of fire giants, a free city of pirates, and even fantastic locations on other planes.
Act 6 - March into Oblivion: The war has come to an end, and the real culprits have been revealed! Urdefhans, worshippers of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, have found an artifact known as the Masquerade Machine in a vault deep within The Beneath. The Masquerade Machine transforms any being into the perfect resemblance of another being while retaining it's own personality. The deception is complete and only the most powerful of magics can detect that something is amiss. Using the ritual created with Zelcestixa, the party wipes away the disguises, and purge their home of the Urdefhans who have infiltrated and conspired to bring forth oblivion.
The final war has come, as the party seeks to destroy the Masquerade Machine and remove the threat of the urdefhans once and for all. However, the Four Horsemen will not sit idly by and lose their foothold on this world. As the unlikely alliance of the kingdoms of paladins, humans, criminals, dwarves, drow, and giants amass to strike at their common foe, Szuriel, the Horseman of War, marshalls forth her daemonic army to bolster the urdefhans and protect the Masquerade Machine. Can our heroes win the day, destroy the Machine, and stop their world's march toward oblivion?
The fire ignites, burning evermore
Eternal damnation, for all but the blessed
A conflict unending must be put to rest
Those who will rise and extinguish these flames
Shall save the land, and end these warped games.”
Act 1: With the collapse of the nation centuries ago, the small village is beset by troubles after years of relative peace. Only the party and their neighbors can save their home because nobody else is coming. After returning from resolving several dangers, the village is raided by bandits before the PC's can make it back. They learn from surviving bandits that they have formed an army under the banner of the self-styled bandit king, who calls himself the Golden Lion. After tracking down and exterminating several bandit camps, the party finally frees hundreds of prisoners at the bandit fort of River's Reach. They also learn dire news: The bandit king is bringing his army south to their home!
Returning home from River's Reach while escorting the freed villagers, fate intervenes. A forbidden ruin that was once sealed has opened again. Desperate to find any advantage, the party is implored to explore it while everyone else returns home to prepare to defend against the Golden Lion's army. They do find treasures that give them a little hope, and a chance to win. Upon returning, the party arrives shortly before the army does. Those unfit for battle have been evacuated, and the battle for the village begins.
Act 2: Following the defeat of the Golden Lion's army, the former inhabitants of many of the neighboring villages chose to stay, their old homes razed. The village is now a town, and the party are well-respected voices and leaders of the people (if they choose to be). As the year passes, fewer merchants arrive from the mountains to the east. In their place are more people, looking to set down roots. Rumors start to spread, and soon the truth becomes clear: It has been several generations since the last Orcish horde has descended from the mountains. They have outgrown their dwellings, and have started displacing people with raids of ever increasing intensity. It will not be long until the party must fight for their homes again.
Act 3: Through great sacrifice, the war is ended. The orcs have been turned back. The town is in bad shape, but the surrounding lands are worse. Over the next several years the party will take the mantle of leadership, and guide the reconstruction of their home, possibly turning it into a city-state. Just when things start going well, terrible news comes from the west. A Paladin from the noble nation on the other side of the forest has brought a formal declaration of war! Necromancers from the east raise the dead, and soldiers under the banner of the city-state have been razing villages and burning fields. The last straw was the regicide in the royal chambers, as both the crown prince and king himself were murdered. The guilty parties were captured and, through divination magics and confession, implicated the party's government. The party must find proof of a set up and present it to the widowed Paladin-Queen Erisia before their young realm is trampled underfoot by a vastly superior professional army.
Act 4: It has been a few years since the war ended and the plot to frame the party's government exposed. The doppelgangers who orchestrated the events fought to the death. Once enemies, the Paladin-Queen has become an ally and helped heal the land. Despite vigorous investigation, no more leads have presented themselves to reveal a greater plot...until the next war starts from within. The dead walk the land, and an army of the unliving soon threatens to tear the young kingdom apart from the inside out. When several drow necromancers are killed during campaigns to cleanse the undead, it appears that the dark elves of The Beneath have made their move. The party looks for allies, and finds them in the dwarves of Clan Laghdannor. In exchange to help them find and secure the lost dwarven citadel of Kraggenach, the dwarves will guide the party further into The Beneath.
However, when the party finds the Drow city of Leth'nilyrn, it too is under siege by both undead and monstrous aberrations. When the party finally establishes communications with the Drow, they discover that the drow were being assaulted by an army of surface dwellers. However, their enemies made a mistake, and the Drow discovered the deception; these surface dwellers were not actually surface dwellers. This caused the assailants to drop the act, and they intensified their efforts to sack Leth'nilyrn. The Drow offer a treaty in the interest of mutual survival for both kingdoms, and to find out who tried to pit them against each other.
Act 5: Civil War! The party barely escape the capital with their lives after a bloody coup attempt. The usurpers begin a bloody purge, and a civil war pits neighbors against each other. Desperate for answers, the party is approached by a unique and unlikely ally: The Cyan dragon Zelcestixa. The child of a pairing between a green and blue dragon, she possesses a blue's desire to manipulate and control, tempered by a green's insatiable desire for knowledge and self-perfection. Although evil, she too has fallen victim to the manipulation by the same hidden enemy, losing her lair and control of her vast criminal network across the sea. They must work together if they wish to save what is theirs before there is nothing left to save. As the civil war rages, the party works with Zelcestixa, gathering clues from a kingdom of fire giants, a free city of pirates, and even fantastic locations on other planes.
Act 6 - March into Oblivion: The war has come to an end, and the real culprits have been revealed! Urdefhans, worshippers of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, have found an artifact known as the Masquerade Machine in a vault deep within The Beneath. The Masquerade Machine transforms any being into the perfect resemblance of another being while retaining it's own personality. The deception is complete and only the most powerful of magics can detect that something is amiss. Using the ritual created with Zelcestixa, the party wipes away the disguises, and purge their home of the Urdefhans who have infiltrated and conspired to bring forth oblivion.
The final war has come, as the party seeks to destroy the Masquerade Machine and remove the threat of the urdefhans once and for all. However, the Four Horsemen will not sit idly by and lose their foothold on this world. As the unlikely alliance of the kingdoms of paladins, humans, criminals, dwarves, drow, and giants amass to strike at their common foe, Szuriel, the Horseman of War, marshalls forth her daemonic army to bolster the urdefhans and protect the Masquerade Machine. Can our heroes win the day, destroy the Machine, and stop their world's march toward oblivion?
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Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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Grabbit Allworth
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Looks interesting. Reading lore/story arcs for well-conceptualized content is fun.
I really wish I could do the same, but I have people that play in my campaign that read this thread. It can be super frustrating having to keep all the cool shit you know/have planned, to yourself.
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Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
- 13,699
- 34,209
Grabbit Allworth
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I started playing with 1st edition, but I quickly moved to 2nd and that's really where I cut my teeth. Despite the massive nostalgia I have for 2e, it (and definitely 1e) are objectively inferior systems to everything that came after it; including the trainwreck of 4e.
3/3.5 was golden age of D&D and (in my opinion) the best system for experienced players, though it eventually did kill itself by going off the deep-end with crunch. 5e is the best for new people or players that want a really streamlined system that allows them to focus on the narrative and/or character development.
If you don't have any experience with 5e, I'd suggest you at least take a look at it. It's very solid base, but the best part is that it's very friendly to customization. I find stock 5e to be too bland. Also, it doesn't usually present enough danger to players so that they feel the level of apprehension/anxiety they should in dicey situations. So, I've layered on A LOT of extra elements to my game and it's not that difficult to do.
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Urlithani
Vyemm Raider
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Well if anyone lives close to Denton TX you're welcome to join. Its 5e though. Plan is every 3 weeks on Saturday night, hopefully getting it to every other week. (My wife doesnt play, gotta get her used to it before I drop the, "we're gonna play every 2 weeks!")
Grabbit Allworth
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Though I obviously prefer newer stuff, there are a lot of grognards that feel exactly the same way you do. OSR (old-school rules) has a pretty large and faithful fan-base.
Grabbit Allworth
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Urlithani
Vyemm Raider
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You're welcome to join if you're willing to drive. It's supposed to be in person, but if some people can't make it in person we can do online when needed. I haven't done online before though so it seems disjointed as hell to have part of a group in person and the others online.
Never ran or played 5e before, and I haven't played anything in 8 years so I can't say it would be worth the drive.
Never ran or played 5e before, and I haven't played anything in 8 years so I can't say it would be worth the drive.