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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Soulmage" data-source="post: 357773" data-attributes="member: 5403">Re: Re: Re: Re: The Black Company CampaignI think this is a key difference here.  My intent was never to exactly replicate the books and their story-line in a roleplaying format.  Doing so limits the options of the players too much.My intent was to take the characters and setting of The Black Company series, and create a standard D&D world in it, using The Lady, The Taken, The Dominator and all those other villains I loves so much.  Where necessary I adapted the setting to fit the game, rather than vice versa.  I know this is a cardinal sin for "strict constructionists" but my intent was to make the best D&D game I could, not the best recreation of the novels I could.  I leave that to Master Cook himself.For instance, Mr. Cook never intended his Dread Empire to co-exist in the same world as the Black Company.  But I found that given the Eastern flavor, and the ominous feel, I felt that the Dread Empire made a fabulous primary nation for an Eastern Continent.  No Eastern continent is ever mentioned in the books.fyi, I've stolen some names from FR, and adapted them to the BC world, not vice versa.  Sorry, but I really dislike the goody-good feel of FR and run a game completely the opposite in feel.  (see below)Any of my PCs will tell you that I've managed to amply retain this element.  My world is extremely dark and gritty.  The dark feel of the world, the NPCs, and the map as described in the books were in my mind the three most important elements of making the translation to RPG.  As such I've gone to great lengths to preserve each of them.(You should the the murial of the world now painted on the wall of our game room.  I'll have to add it to the site at some point.)In fact, the very darkness of the world often frustrates my players, many of whom are accustomed to a more traditional feel such as Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.  They usually play good characters, and find themselves trapped in a society dominated by lawful-evil.  Just about every major NPC in my game is evil (or neutral with evil tendancies) and the players spend a great deal of time (just as in the books) trying to stay out from underfoot.In fact, one of my players once asked me, "If the evil people get all the wealth and power, and respect, what do the good guys get?"  To which I smugly replied, "The moral high-ground."There are strong elements of this too in my world, it just mainly takes place "off-stage."  For the characters to be directly embroiled in these clashes at anything but the highest of levels would lead to a very short campaign.  Thus far, none of my parties have really reached the "Player" level yet, although a couple characters (notably evil ones) have in "retirement."I'd say FAR less than even this.  Perhaps 1/100th of what the core rules indicate.True, individual characters are the essence of D&D.Granted, again an essential element of D&D.You have to live to that level first.Yup.You're probably right.  However my campaign is a D&D campaign set in the Black Company world.  Your hypothetical "purist BC" campaign couldn't truly be considered D&D anymore.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I wanted to run a D&D game, not a basically home-brewed system.All true if you're willing to force the plot down the player's throats, rather than let the plot develop naturally.I think we're both on the same page at this point.  I was a D&D player long before the books were ever published, and I like to play D&D set in that world.  While I'm a rabid fan of the books, that does require some adaptation from the source.Anyway, good luck to you.</blockquote>

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