Peering Into the Future

It's December 26th, the day after Christmas. One more pesky holiday to go before the season officially ends. Once New Year's is behind us, we can focus our attention more upon the campaign to come. Knock on wood.

So far, I have one scheduled event that falls on a weekend in January. I can easily schedule the game around it, but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. I still need to get characters back from everyone, and two players have yet to put pencil to paper for the characters that they will be playing.

And so it goes. More later.

Playing the Game, Part I

Being home sick today has given me a lot of time to think about things. So here I am, making a lot of posts and whatnot. Sue me.

While surfing, I found a column on RPGnet called "Keeping Kosher." In this installment, the author talks about being a good player. This is stuff we all know, but I feel that it's worth it for everyone to read it. So, please, read it. I'll be happy that you did, and everyone who does so gets some bonus XP.

It also gives rise to some topics that everyone should be aware of. Namely, how the game will be run, table rules, etc. It's all common sense, but I may as well get some of it out of the way now.

Mood & Tone
The tone of Midnight is necessarily grim. The world has gone to hell in a handcart, the dark lord has won, and if you die, you'll never find eternal rest and you've got a good chance of coming back as a flesh-eating zombie. Please take the tone of the setting into account when working out your characters, their backstories, and their goals. I can try to keep things gritty and grim, but it makes it ten times easier when my players are on the same wavelength.

Books
That is, the books that are allowed in the creation of characters for this game. This is a Midnight game using the 2nd edition campaign setting. As such, when making a character, picking feats, and choosing spells, there are only a handful of books you should be referencing:

The Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook 3.5
The 2nd Edition Midnight campaign setting
All other official Midnight products, with the exception of the 1st edition of the Midnight campaign setting and Against the Shadow.

I do plan to use monsters and other goodies from some of the official D&D books (including the Monster Manuals, Fiend Folio, etc.). I've also been known to use some of the spells from the Book of Vile Darkness.

Absences
I don't expect every player to be able to make every single game. If you can't make it, please contact me by phone ahead of time and let me know. The same goes with being more than a half hour late. I have a standing rule that if more than half the group "calls in sick," the game will be canceled that week. In the case of this massive play group, that means I'll be willing to run with as few as four players at the table.

Scheduling
I plan to run every two weeks. The games will be on Saturdays, and will run from 7pm until midnight. Try to arrive a little bit early, on average: somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes early is a good call. This gives you time to eat dinner (if you're bringing it) and socialize a little with the other players before we put our IC hats on. I plan to allow for a 15 minute break from play somewhere at the halfway point, say around 9:30pm.

Staying In Character
I, of all people, know that it's tough to stay IC (in character) 100% of the time. So long as everyone is having a good time, I think it's fine to have the occasional OOC (out of character) comment or discussion. Still, these sorts of things can spiral out of control and derail the train of thought. Let's try to keep things moving.

The Rules (tm)
The game has rules. I know them, for the most part, but even I'm not perfect. Sure, I write gaming material, but I also tend to reference a lot of books when I'm writing for a product. Since I don't have the luxury of neverending reference time when I'm DMing a game, I will sometimes play "fast and loose" with the rules.

If this causes a conflict of interest, and someone knows the actual rule that I'm breaking, pipe up. If it seems reasonable, we can move on and reference the actual rule later. I'm all about maintaining consistency. Plus, it's things like this that allow me to better learn how the mechanics work (especially those that I don't use very often, such as the ones for grapples).

Combat
I won't lie to you: combat is going to happen in this campaign. It may not be the answer to every encounter, but this is D&D. Swords will be drawn, blood will be spilled, and characters may end up dead (or worse).

Unless everyone knows the rules by heart, combat in d20 can be a slow process. I'm fairly certain that most of us are pretty familiar with the rules. To keep things moving, let's try and make sure that everyone knows what they plan to do when it comes time for their character to act. If you need to reference a rule, do it during someone else's action so that you're ready to jump in when your initiative card comes up. If you're still not sure, feel free to delay your action until you've got a better idea of what you want to do.

I've seen posts on forums that talk about the "five second rule," where players have five seconds to take their action or they unwillingly defer it to the next person in line. I don't like this rule, since it seems unfriendly to me, so I won't use it. Nor will I use egg timers, stopwatches, or the Jeopardy theme song in order to keep play moving.

Experience Points
I award experience as part of a lump sum, typically between games. I will occasionally make on-the-spot XP awards to players, but this is rare.

I also give out experience points for what I call "extra-curricular activities," such as writing character backgrounds, keeping detailed game journals, painting character miniatures, illustrations, etc. These awards aren't huge (in fact, they make a bigger difference at lower levels than they do later on), but they can add up. I'm not liable to award more than 100-500 XP for any one piece of literature, art, etc.

I'm toying with the idea of awarding extra XP to folks who do things for the group as a whole. This would include the person who keeps track of party treasure, the guy who maps the dungeon as you move along, or to someone who brings a liter bottle of soda or a bag of chips to share with the group. These awards will be small, somewhere in the 25-50 XP range, but it's a way of saying "thanks" for being involved. Let's not go overboard, either. Just because you bring in a case of cola and a truckload of Fritos doesn't mean you'll be awarded more than 50 XP.

Level Increases
So you've managed to score enough XP to make 5th level. Good deal! This is something I will be telling you ahead of time, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Upon learning that you're going up, it's your responsibility to get all the nitty gritty of leveling up out of the way prior to the next game. The only thing you should have to do at the table is roll your new hit points. Everything else (class and feat selection, spending skill points, etc.) should be done prior to the next game.

If you don't have all the books you need to level up completely, you're more than welcome to get together with me sometime before the next game to update your character. Just let me know.

More Later
I may have more to add later, hence the "Part I" in the title of this entry.

Looking Back

As you probably know, the game we're working up to starting is an extension of a Midnight campaign that I was running before. The game actually ran in two distinct spurts, the first of which began in August of 2003, and the second of which picked up in June of 2004.

I don't know how many games we had in the first incarnation; probably around 3-5. The second stretch featured five game sessions in total, if my notes are correct. These were short sessions, running 3 hours or so apiece.

The PCs started at 1st level, and included an Erenlander channeler, a Sarcosan defender, an Erenlander fighter, a Dorn wildlander, and a Sarcosan rogue. The PCs originally began as members of a slave gang, taken in a "tithe" by orcish slavers at the Dornish village of Donagh. The first session began with them in chains, being led northward towards Steel Hill and a short, painful life of slavery in the mines.

They managed to overpower their orc and goblin guards, and escaped with two NPCs in tow. The first of these NPCs, Deonaid, was an older Dornish woman; the second was Blair, a Dornish warrior. Both were citizens of Donagh, as was Herger, the PC wildlander.

The first goal they sought was to escape their captors, who continued to pursue them as they journied back to Donagh to recover the lore book of Arin, the PC channeler. Upon returning to Donagh, they found it filled with the dead: the orcs had left a present in the village well, which caused a plague to spread and kill the populace. Several of the villagers had risen as Fell, a type of zombie, and these creatures attacked the PCs, wounding most of them and killing Deonaid.

At some point, either prior to entering the village, or shortly afterward, the players encountered Athael, a snow elf from Erethor. Athael traveled with the group for a short while, and asked them to aid him by taking possession of an old Dornish keep which had recently been discovered by Izrador's minions. The elf had intercepted a message from the orcs' leader, which revealed the presence of a nexus within the keep's bowels.

The PCs were good boys and girls, and they set off towards the keep. In a harrowing battle which left them near death, they managed to free the keep of its orcish inhabitants, as well as chasing off the human legate that had been the leader of the orcish detachment. Two of the PCs, Tegus (the Sarcosan defender) and Shria (the Sarcosan rogue), left to pursue the legate.

It was at this point that the game broke up the first time. There were some tensions between some of the players that resulted in this incident. Despite the bumpy ride, everyone who remained seemed to have enjoyed the game, and it was predestined to return at a later time.

That time was June 2004, when two new players joined the party and the game was rekindled. The two new players, Rebecca (portraying a Dorn barbarian named Angus) and Tanya (in the role of Merekai, an Erenlander rogue), started alone. They witnessed the destruction of an isolated village, and rescued a young girl, Rasha, from the clutches of the orcs.

Making their way into the wilderness, they eventually happened upon the keep that the PCs in the previous game had liberated. They joined with what remained of the original party, and helped to clean out one of the keep's towers, which was inhabited by evil creatures that had been trapped on Aryth prior to the Sundering.

They also discovered that the keep is haunted by the ghosts of its former inhabitants: a Dornish lady, her children, and their guardian. The guardian, who was once a Dornish warrior named Tolbert, tells the PCs of the keep's history, and that the ghosts can only be put to rest if the fate of the keep's lord can be determined and proved to his eternally-mourning wife.

You see, during the last war against the Shadow, the keep's lord, Sir Hurdan Ghallaigh, went off to war and never returned. His wife, Minda, fell to despair. Fearing that the minions of the enemy would come to despoil the keep and her children, she poisoned her family and herself. Though the young children died quickly, the eldest suffered a lingering death. Following her oldest daughter's painful death, Minda took her own life.

Tolbert, one of the lord's men, returned to the keep after the war to find his master's family dead. He buried them, and stayed on to guard the keep until his death of pneumonia some years later.

Yes, tragic, I know. Try not to weep overmuch.

These revelations added a new layer to the history of the keep. While the players digested these things, Athael returned to congratulate them and inform them of the approach of a band of dwarves from the east. These dwarves, clansmen from the Kaladrun mountains, were brought back by Athael to strengthen the keep. Unfortunately, they had been ambushed by orcs, and several of their number had been killed or captured.

The PCs were then sent to find the missing dwarves, which is where the game ended. This time, the game was not halted due to interpersonal problems between the players. Instead, Rebecca and Tanya, through a series of financial hardships, were forced to relocate to Oregon mid-game. It was a surprise to everyone, and their preparations for the move precluded continued gaming.

As with all things, life went on. Though the game was tabled yet again, it was not forgotten. I plan to start it yet again, yet with only two of the original party present. Everyone else will begin anew, and we'll pick up where we left off before...

12/3 Meeting Results

Let me start by saying: it really sucks only having one Midnight 2E book to reference, especially when making five characters.

That said, we're more or less done with 5/7ths of the characters in the party. JD and Keri couldn't make it up, so I'll have to give them extra special attention in the off-hours (time TBD).

The rest of the group dynamic looks a little like this:

Adam: Dorn Wildlander (Ironborn)
Alex: Erenlander Hermetic Channeler (Dragonblooded)
Amy: Erenlander Fighter (Steelblooded)
Mike: Dworg Wildlander (Beast)
Stan: Gnome Rogue (Quickened)

The detail in parenthesis is the character's heroic path.

Classes that are not yet represented in the group are Barbarian and Defender. The other two types of Channeler (Charismatic and Spiritual) are different enough from the Hermetic Channeler to count as two separate classes, IMO. Likewise, we've got no multiclass characters (which surprises me a little bit, but it's not a big deal).

In any case...more later.

Shadows of the Past Meeting

It looks like everyone will be available for tomorrow night's meeting. We'll discuss the setting, character ideas and concepts, and we'll see where we want to take the game.

Note that this is a pretty grim setting. Though characters may start at 4th level, they're likely going to start with little else. Survival itself is often one's reward.