Advance warning of absence, and some musings.

[Dr Simon]

Just to let people in my games, and whose games I am in, that I shall be away after next Friday (18th) until the New Year, and probably without internet access for that time. I'll be playing up until then, though.

Also:

I've got some alternate campaigns ruminating in my brain, that I might try out next year. Expressions of interest, preferences of system and other input is welcome.

Idea One
I'd still like to have a go at the Tale of Might, now renamed to A Saga of Might. Perhaps the Book of Experimental Might is too obscure to use - in its place I'd probably use Iron Heroes, but the idea is to run a fairly low-magic, humans-only, swords'n'sorcery Conan-esque game where a small number of characters carve their own destinies from a savage world, trusting to their own exceptional abilities rather than magic items, where gold, gems and girls are won and lost by the whims of fortune and names have lots of Xs, Zs and Ks in them.

Idea Two: Tale of the Crystal Princess.
This is almost diametrically opposite in tone, being a heavily "fairy-tale" kind of setting, bordering almost on the cute. Expect to find a good kingdom where elves and unicorns can safely frolic, threatened by dark forces of forest trolls, wolf mercenaries and the evil Azulla the Wasp Queen. This might use standard d20 rules (with a twist for the magic), or might use (some of) True20 Fantasy/Blue Rose. Some standard fantasy races, again perhaps with a twist (I'm thinking that the standard Elf race is what is known in this setting as a Half-Elf, and that the Faen races from Arcana Evolved are also types of elf, for example).

Another idea (perhaps caused by currently reading the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) is to allow a character or two who have been transported from the "real" world, so perhaps use D20 Modern as a basis for mechanics. As I say, all a bit of a brain-stew at the moment.

However:
As I've experienced in the past, I'm pretty much at my maximum time/effort capacity for carrying games so I'd probably need to fold an existing game or two to fit them in. This would most likely be the Curse of the Crimson Throne games. I started them because I wanted to use a pre-published adventure to save thinking, but I actually find it easier and less time-consuming using home-brew settings. If you're in one of those games and you'd find this massively objectionable, let me know as well; I'll add it to the brain-stew.

 

[Shayuri]

Hmm! Well, I'm a big fan of your GM'ing, so I will share my reactions:

Idea 1: Sounds badass. I would have totally been in before, but requiring a book I don't have is just...no matter how good a PBP is/may be, it's hard for me to justify buying something -just- for a PBP. That said, I have Iron Heroes, so if you go that route I would again want in. I rather like the idea of a low-magic, primitive style game. So much fantasy genre is 'Medieval European Fantasy' when there's so many more possibilities to explore.

Idea 2: I am iffier on this. It -could- be good, but my inner muse often prefers to subvert such settings rather than embrace them. Fairy-tales have a sort of airy feel to them now...but at their hearts they're pretty dirty and nasty things. My question to you would be...to what extent would the game reflect this?

Semi-Idea 3: It would be interesting, as an exercise, to make d20 Modern characters and "import" them into a D&D setting (with adjustments to reconcile the small differences in system between them). This could be a fun origin for some, or all, of the PC's in either game idea you're floating.

 

[Dr Simon]

Ta!

One: Some of my favourite fantasy writing is the "Golden Age" stuff. I love the likes of Lieber and Vance, and having recently read some Conan stories I was surprised how much D&D was directly influenced - the acid-spitting giant slug, for example, or the remorhaz (although the Remoraz in the Conan story actually has the attributes of what we would now call a Frost Worm).
I might use RuneQuest (Mongoose edition) as an option. There's a free SRD available for it, but I *would* like to give Iron Heroes a try and I've played a lot of RuneQuest.

Two: Oh, there'd definitely be a dark edge to it. Part of the thought process was a setting where not only are good and evil clearly defined, but that the contrast between them is heightened (I usually play in shades of grey). So there will be palpable menace and cruelty from the like of the wolf mercenaries and Queen Azulla, but that doesn't mean that all the good guys are perfect, noble and trustworthy.

Three: Given that it's quite a common fictional trope I'm surprised I've never seen it used. The thought when it first hit me suggested just that - modern character (s) in a D&D campaign. Lacking an obvious setting, I've currently merged it with Idea Two.

 

[Ambrus]

As a happy player in one of your CotCT campaigns I guess you could put me into the "objectionable" boat. I've joined a fair number of PbP games over the years here and so far, only two or three of them have lasted long enough for one of my characters to gain a level. Your Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign has the distinction of being the only game in which my PC has gained 2 (!) levels during play. Having constantly started over and over at 1st level, now playing a 3rd level PC feels like a real step up for me. Another big milestone that I was looking forward to hitting in this campaign was in actually reaching the end of an adventure in PbP. I've yet to ever to reach the end of a story or module. I was kind of hoping that this campaign had the staying power to see me through into the follow-up CotCT module. Maybe that's a pipe dream though.

That being said, I'm actually of an opposite mind as Shayuri in regards to the two proposed campaign ideas. I'm iffy on the first; it being all human with low magic strikes me as being a little... dry. The second fairy tale campaign idea on the other hand strikes me as much more imaginative and intriguing. I'd be curious to see what you'd put forth in its background as well as with what we could make of it collectively. It also strikes me as being a good opportunity to try a character concept that I've had in the back of my mind for years; that of playing a sapling treant from Savage Species.

 

[Dr Simon]

Ambrus, I don't think you need worry about the game closing yet. If I close anything it will be the Alpha game. Three of the four players are in other games of mine, and it's really not progressing with the pace of the Beta game and it's never felt quite "there". Nothing is certain either way, yet.

 

[Walking Dad]

I want in! Seriously!...

Ok, I just love your attitude for GMing and am very eager to play with my Iron Heroes Books. On the other hand, I also have blue rose (and there is a srd for it).

But I would really prefer 'a fairly low-magic, humans-only, swords'n'sorcery Conan-esque game where a small number of characters carve their own destinies from a savage world'.

If you do this, I will forget my pain for loosing Bael

 

[Dr Simon]

Some more brief notes on the two options:

1. Saga of Might
Specific background details will partly be determined by character backgrounds, but expect it to contain typical tropes like the Plains of the Horse Lords, the Northern Wastes where the savage Ice Tribes come from, the decadent City-State of Zur ruled by its sorcerer-king, ancient tombs on plateaus deep in the southern jungles and so on.

Characters start off as slaves of the more-than-human Ra-Men and their cruel empire, but with escape on their minds.

By "low-magic" I really mean that very, very few people cast powerful spells, and magic items are extremely rare. Mortal magic, such as it is, is unpredictable or subtle (or both). However, monsters, demons, undead and the like can still be found, as can ancient glyphs of power, mystical rituals, dead gods, pools of distilled puissance, etc.. There are no gods to lend their aid to the characters. Some that men name gods are aloof from human affairs, and may not even exist. Others are powerful demons or spirits, little more than huge monsters.

2. The Tale of the Crystal Princess
At the heart of the land is an as-yet-unnamed kingdom ruled by a noble-hearted king and queen, and their wise councillors in the maginificent city of Caer-Caradoc, seated amidst beautiful waterfalls. Darkness besets the kingdom from within and without. The king and queen's only daughter has been turned into a statue of glass by the curse of a wicked sorceress, and the resources of the kingdom are being directed to find a cure.

Human races include the Viajetes, folk who wander by land, river, sea and air. Airborne pirates scour the land from city of Skydock. The dwarves of the Zwergberg and Eisenberg mountain holds have not been seen for centuries, presumed destroyed. Trolls haunt the forest, with their sinister allies/masters, the baumgeisten. Sylvan folk of all kinds can be found, but the predations of the trolls is shrinking their lands. PLayer character options include all the faen races of Arcana Evolved, and a selection of talking animals, amongst other possibilities. Most good folk revere the Light, a vague pseudo-religion that holds life, nature and compassion to be sacred. Needless to say, this posits the existence of the Dark, an opposed force. Some folk worship the old pagan gods who bear a strong resemblance to Graeco-Roman, Egyptian or Norse gods amongst others. The satyrs, for example, worship their creator Bacchus, although the old god has no power to affect the mortal realm except as part of great drunken ceremonies.

 

[Ambrus]

Characters start off as slaves of the more-than-human Ra-Men and their cruel empire.

Damned Noodle-Lords; they're always trying to shackle us with their entangling pasta strands of oppression...

Sorry. I tried to avoid it, but I just couldn't help it.

2. The Tale of the Crystal Princess

I still say this sounds more intriguing as a campaign setting. The mention of air-travel has also piqued my curiosity.

 

[Shayuri]

The Might thing still sounds delicious like a hot bowl of pho is delicious...

But I have to admit that Narnia-With-Skypirates is sounding better than it did when I first saw the pitch. Because there's nothing that doesn't get better by adding sky pirates. Nothing.

Dang, that's a tuff choice now.

 

[Mark Chance]

1. Saga of Might

After reading this description, I was reminded of my old Rolemaster character Brown Sharleena, a halfling warrior-chef who had sworn a sacred vow to not marry until she met the halfling who could outcook her.

Ah, those were the days.