Month: September 2022

Rise of the Drow continued

Simon KingabyLeave a comment

RotD is a Sandbox

Rise of the Drow (RotD) is described as a “Sandbox”, not a “Scripted” Adventure. What this means to you as a player is that you will need to be creative to succeed. You are not on rails in this adventure. While there are plot elements provided, the overall story is yours to tell. There is not one single path from the start to the finish of the adventure. Instead, you are put into a world (sandbox) where several opportunities to do things are presented and you can choose how to proceed. Decisions early in the adventure will have consequences later in the adventure. There are some NPCs who are vitally important. You may never even meet them if your choices steer you in a different direction.

Also, like most Adventure-a-week adventures, the characters are woefully outmatched and outgunned by the enemy. Murder hobos will die quickly. While the threats are significant and your character(s) will most likely die if you’re not careful, the threats to the NPCs are urgent so if you don’t act fast, then important events might not unfold as they need to for your party to be successful overall.

For reference, Minecraft is the ultimate Sandbox, while World of Warcraft is a Scripted environment.

Character Creation

Alignment Reconsidered

Characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. Normally, I would say that characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. However, since we’re heading into the Underworld where evil things lurk, many of the Underworld Races are Chaotic Evil. Drow society, in particular, is highly functional, despite most of its denizens being Chaotic Evil. The trick is to figure out, “As a Chaotic Evil character, how can I balance coexisting with a party with being chaotic and evil.”

If you choose to play as Chaotic Evil, it is vital that you consider your character’s personal motivations and customized “code of ethics.” For example, one tenet might be not to kill people who either are or could be, useful to the character. This would include party members, certain NPCs, etc. While a chaotic evil character might have no compunction about killing an enemy and might have trust issues, even with friends, they are not likely to just murder on a whim. Chaotic Evil characters don’t have to be stupid, malevolent, quick-to-anger, spiteful, random, or murderous. Look at the evil characters in Harry Potter to see some of the diversity in Chaotic Evil characters. Bellatrix Lestrange is a typical loose cannon, Snape is cold, calculating, and patient, Peter Pettigrew is a snivelling coward, Lucious Malfoy is wealthy and selfish, Draco Malfoy is a bully, and Voldemort is power-hungry. They are all chaotic evil, and all have very different motivations.

Take the Ahooling, for example. A race of demonspawn, they are usually, if not always, Chaotic Evil. But what does that mean? They are all touched by the Blood Thirst, so they have to feed or suffer. Does that mean that they have to feed on the innocent? Perhaps they simply cast “Wine to Blood” and drink that instead of killing anyone. Or perhaps they only feed on the guilty and condemned. It would be incredibly short-sighted to feed on party members without explicit permission.

Re: Safety and the Evil Character

What if a player chooses to play a Chaotic Evil character and then starts doing things that the other players find objectionable, how should the other characters respond? How should the other players respond?

One mechanism is for the DM or another player to call a Pause. This is a tool for stopping the action so that the players (not the characters) can discuss their discomfort with the direction things are taking.

For example, if a character decides they don’t like the innkeeper and stabs her. Another player might say, “Pause for a minute. If your character kills the innkeeper, my character is going to have to defend the innkeeper and her family and we end up with a dysfunctional brawl between players, which is likely to spoil the game for all concerned.” A discussion on how to remedy the situation would then ensue.

Which gets us to Safety.

Safety Tools

“Safety tools are an easy way to ensure everyone around the table is having a good time. They’re not overbearing. They only take a little time to implement, and they put in place some powerful tools to make sure the players behind the characters are having a great time.” – Sly Flourish

For articles on Content, Consent, and Safety, check out these links:

https://slyflourish.com/safety_tools.html

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SB0jsx34bWHZWbnNIVVuMjhDkrdFGo1_hSC2BWPlI3A/edit

https://briebeau.com/thoughty/script-change/

https://www.montecookgames.com/consent-in-gaming

I am a fan of Sly Flourish’s work. His set of Safety Tools is quite useful and I will use them in this adventure.

Before we begin playing a campaign where evil abounds, let’s discuss some of the potentially disturbing subject matter that may come up in the game. I strongly encourage you, my players, to download the Consent-in-Gaming Checklist, fill it in and return it to me. I will also have some available on-site. Only you know your limits. For example, I don’t have a problem with baby flies, but my wife does and would prefer not to have them in her games.

Here’s my checklist:

Lines and Veils

Lines (topics that should never come up at all), and veils (topics to be handled off-screen or in the abstract) will be mutually agreed upon before we start.

Pause for a second

Anyone (including you) can say “pause for a second” any time during the game to break character and discuss the current situation out of character, including stating “I’m not comfortable with where this is going”. The phrase “pause for a second” interrupts anything else going on in the game. It’s used to break character and discuss or ask questions about anything going on in-game. Think of this as a verbal X card.

Rise of the Drow at JeffCon

Simon KingabyLeave a comment

Here are some details for the Rise of the Drow campaign being run at JeffCon 2022.

JeffCon is the last MACE and it is being run to honor the memory of Jeff Smith, who passed last year. Jeff was the organizer, brains, and soul of the MACE gaming conventions throughout the Carolinas. He was truly an asset to the gaming community and will be sorely missed. Thank you Jeff for all you’ve done for us over the years.

Sign up for the games at JeffCon is through the OGRe platform at: https://ogre.justusproductions.com/index.php/jeffcon. Sign-ups begin

This game is a Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition campaign adventure that will be run in five sessions throughout the weekend of JeffCon (November 11th to 13th). The gaming schedule is tentative and has not been approved or finalized. I have asked for Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning sessions, each lasting approximately four hours.

It is quite likely that your character will level at least once or twice per session, so either come with a first level character already created, or I can provide a pre-generated one for you to use.

BEGINNERS ARE WELCOME, though some familiarity with Role Playing Games (tabletop or on-line) is preferred. You will be expected to level up your skills as you level up your character. If you want to bring your child with you so they can play too, please do. You know your child’s abilities and whether they can be engaged at the tabletop for hours at a time. I love kids, and I want to encourage the next generation to play, so I will try to work with you to provide them with an enjoyable time.

About Me

My name is Simon Kingaby, I’ve been playing D&D on-and-off for approximately 40 years. I love this game. I am very happy with fifth edition. I believe that D&D is a game based on interactive story-telling (role-playing) where the DM and the Players negotiate the story that the characters are living through. This is more than just dice rolling and combat. It is a tale of villains, heroes, adventure, intrigue, challenges, triumphs, friendship, fun, and, in the end, a good time should be had by all. Please come prepared to play: that is, be prepared to live the life of your character, have fun, be silly, go a little outside your comfort zone, and enjoy yourself.

Rise of the Drow

Introduction

Tonight, a ceremony of light is taking place on the surface.
Meanwhile, a world away in the city of spiders, a drow matron solidifies a pact with soul-consuming entities who require great sacrifices in trade for unimaginable power. Drow eyes turn to the surface.
This adventure and setting, take characters across the surface and into the depths of the world. Adventurers will meet unique denizens, battle horrors of the Underworld, explore epic locations, and fight to stop the rise of the drow.

Resources

Rise of the Drow: Campaign Primer $0.99 – Please, if you can, purchase this primer for a brief overview of the Campaign and the Underworld Races.

Rise of the Drow: Underworld Races and Classes – If you wish to play as one of the Underworld Races, this book will be very helpful.

Occult Secrets of the Underworld – For even more options in the Underworld.

Character Creation

Please create a free account on DnD Beyond and create your character in the Rise of the Drow campaign shared here:
https://ddb.ac/campaigns/join/33319903294316595

By creating a character in that campaign, you will have access to all the sourcebooks (in DnDBeyond that is) and you will have a vast array of alternatives to choose between.

Race: You may create a 1st level character of the following races:

Overworld Standard Races:

  • Human (Very common)
  • Dwarf (Common)
  • Elf (Rare)
  • Gnome (Rare)
  • Halfling (Rare)
  • Half-elf (Very Rare)
  • Half-orc (Very Rare)

Overworld non-standard Races:

These are much less common and will be an oddity in the communities and towns that the characters visit. However, pretty much anything goes, within reason. We will be exploring the Underworld, so keep that in mind.

Underworld Races:

  • Ahooling
  • Colliatur
  • Dødelig
  • Draaki
  • Drow
  • Funglet
  • Gitwerc
  • Hoyrall
  • Kraidyl
  • Svirfneblin
  • Vestraadi
  • Zwerc

Characters may be created using the standard rules or the Character Options rules in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Ability Scores: Ability scores can be generated using the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) or by using the Customizing Ability Scores methods (sometimes called the point-buy method).

Feats: We will not be using Feats

Alignment: Characters can be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic but are usually Good or Neutral. A Lawful Evil character might be OK as long as it is not a jerk about it. Same goes for Neutral Evil. Characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. Normally, I would say that characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. However, since we’re heading into the Underworld where evil things lurk, many of the Underworld Races are Chaotic Evil. Drow society, in particular, is highly functional, despite most of its denizens being Chaotic Evil. The trick is to figure out, “As a Chaotic Evil character, how can I balance coexisting with a party with being chaotic and evil.”

Hit Points: You may begin the adventure with your maximum hit points at first level. Subsequent levels can be rolled or take the average. So a cleric with d8 hit dice would be at 8 plus their CON modifier at first level. At second level, they can either roll or take the average of 1 through 8 (rounded up) which would be 5 plus their CON modifier.

Money: Players can start with an appropriate amount of equipment or gold, depending on their class, but not both equipment and gold. Players who choose equipment have a balance of 10gp pocket money to begin the adventure.

Equipment: See money above. If you choose gold, then you will need to purchase the appropriate equipment. Characters may have a small number of portable personal possessions that are suited to their character’s background. For example, I might have a small statue of an elephant that was carved by my grandfather. First level characters do not have magic items.

Background and Backstory: There are a ton of backgrounds to choose from, or you can write your own. Please do keep in mind that we are adventuring in a place where the predominant race is Human and all other races are minorities, as explained in the Campaign Primer (see link above). Non-standard races are even more rare, possibly even unique in this region. Please do feel free to incorporate the information in this post and/or the information in the Campaign Primer to integrate your character more fully into the story. I will read each background and will keep them in mind while running the campaign.