Record of Lodoss War-style game

[Dykstrav]

I've had players telling me how they never get a chance to play a high-level game, never get to play evil characters, and even talk smack about how I'll never use the Colossal Red Dragon in an adventure. These things have been rolling around in my head for a while...

It occured to me a few days ago to do a Greyhawk take on an old anime show called Record of Lodoss War. Before the Twin Cataclysms, the ancient Suel archmages bound five powerful dragons, one of each chromatic breed, to guard their most powerful artifacts. These ancient dragons have largely withdrawn from the world, spending the centuries slumbering away atop vast mountains of treasure, awakening only to eviscerate those foolish enough to challenge them for their hoards. Recently, a powerful party of evil adventurers have succeeded in killing Dimithkarjic, the great wyrm green dragon (thus conveniently explaining why there's no Gargantuan Green Dragon that they have to kill). When the green great wyrm is killed, the magic binding all of them begins to fade: the other dragons are waking to ravage the countryside. It's up to the PCs to stop the dragons and the party of evil adventurers from stealing all these Suel artifacts.

This would be a short campaign, perhaps four to six sessions over a single month. Characters would start at 22nd level and I'd throw the doors open on source material (i.e., allowing players to use Tome of Battle material, play warlocks, et cetera). If the players want to play evil characters, they can even play the villains seeking to take the artifacts.

What do you think? Does this sound like fun for a few sessions? Any suggestions?

 

[jdrakeh]

I'd run this using the magic system from Slayers d20!

 

[Remathilis]

I think you're overshooting your goal if you're trying to replicate RotLW.

Parn in the beginning is a nobody, barely a first level fighter. Garn is about 4th-5th, Woodchuck around 6th, Deedlit is about 7th, Slaine 5th and Etoh 4th. None of them have really powerful gear, or wield epic magic. Maybe by the end (around the 12th episode the surviving cast is 9th-10th level.

That said, I've always thought RotLW was a GREAT tool to introduce new players to D&D. You have the iconics (fighter, mage, cleric, thief, dwarf, elf), a dark elf, an anti-paladin, dragons, gnolls (called kobolds, whatever) undead, an evil witch, evil cultists, hoards of enemies and some good dungeon exploring in the beginning.

Now, if you are going for Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (which expands the story from Karla's defeat on) then Parn is truly an epic hero and Deedlit tosses around epic spells. They fight great worm dragons and evil fiends regularly.

 

[Dykstrav]

I'm not trying to slavishly recreate the series. The idea is to take the basic story from the beginning of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight: two groups of adventurers killing dragons for artifacts, and roughly put it into D&D terms. I know that Record of Lodoss War is actually based on D&D campaigns, but I'm not looking for a full campaign. Just a break from the regular game that rolls all those "we never get to _______" statements into one package.

The idea is to give my players the chance to do what they never get to do: fight incredibly high-CR critters (those D&D Icons dragons I've got), play very powerful characters, use source material that isn't typically allowed, and play evil characters if desired. The idea of fighting the dragons for Suel artifacts just seemed to neatly dovetail into this overall concept.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

i think its a good idea. One of my favorite parts of rolw is the spirit summons. this can be done pretty easy with a druid and just changing the description of the elemental summons.

 

[Cevalic]

Sounds like a fun little break. I'd give it a shot. Higher level can be a blast, especially for groups that never reach them.