A Land Far Away

December marks the kick off for my next campaign on BG. I am usually free to DM after 11pm EST most days of the week. I will be running plots regularly with the Swords Edge player group on Wednesday nights. However, I am keeping the entire campaign arc open to anyone playing a PC on BG, of any level and alignment. To facilitate this, I am going to make most campaign related posts in this public BG forum as well as the BG IC forum. You can read IC rumors here:

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 88#p605388

My suggestion is to group with other PCs when you are logged in. If there are multiple PCs online I will prioritize groups of level 1-4 PCs first, as I want this to be a level 5-15 campaign, then grouped PCs of a higher level. I plan on running many plots as short ad hoc sessions. I hope there will be a running narrative among PCs during times when a DM is not online. If I find that there is a group of PCs regularly getting ad hoc time with me I will look at scheduling a second dedicated night.

A short note on myself as a DM. I really enjoy role play, intrigue, and complicated relationships. At the heart, I am a fan of dungeons & dragons, and am a high-risk, high-reward combat oriented DM. I also enjoy hardcore gaming and permadeath. If your PC dies, do not expect a rez, though it could possibly happen. If you are low level PC with higher level PCs, keep that in mind and act accordingly. I will balance encounters towards the higher level PCs. If you are not ok with a real risk of permanent PC death please do not join my sessions.

I would like to use this thread to coordinate between players and DMs. Post about your PC, any OOC topics, and use the IC forum for any in character interactions.

I plan to return around the second week of December and hope to add to this plot. I, as a DM, have been at the root of a few secret organizations who will be looking to capitalize on changing events in the region. I will certainly be coordinating with HEEGZ, and ditto his notes on DMing.

I need to mention something else regarding enemies in combat. I have spent a considerable amount of time working on upgrading monsters and their tactics, etc. I follow the Monster Manual suggestions for using X bosses per Y minions. When I increase the hit dice of mobs, I also try to increase their size as well. So if you see a batch of enemies, and two of them are a head taller than the rest, you can bet they are probably more dangerous. There are adjectives in my enemy names, so that provides an additional clue to the type of enemy you are facing.

You may make Knowledge checks to try to identify more info about enemies you come across. Because I am aiming things at mid-level PCs, there will be significant upgrades of standard mobs, so expect most encounters to be a challenge for your party's average PC level. Determining a marching order for your party, and your roles in combat, will have an impact on encounter difficulty.

I am learning about HEEGZ handles his NPCs and combat and trying to emulate the same for continuity.

Players should no longer consider the road to Nashkel to be safe. If you are delivering mail and I am free, I will be rolling on an encounter table to see whether or not you have a random encounter. Soloing will likely lead to your death. Party up if you want to go to Nashkel...

HEEGZ wrote:Players should no longer consider the road to Nashkel to be safe. If you are delivering mail and I am free, I will be rolling on an encounter table to see whether or not you have a random encounter. Soloing will likely lead to your death. Party up if you want to go to Nashkel...

Sweet, at long last! The roads of the Sword Coast have been far too safe for some time.

I've placed another staged encounter as well. Lots of things going to be happening now that I've finished my zSpawn project. Check out IC forum for details on staged encounters, etc. I have two plot hooks outside of the main campaign in server now.

Anyone wanna coordinate on this?

Twin Axes wrote:Anyone wanna coordinate on this?

More info here:

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 24#p605924

Twin Axes wrote:Anyone wanna coordinate on this?

Interested in working together to defeat them.

Three big cheers for HEEGZ. The consistent picture enhanced updates and storyline within all your posts show such awesome detail and such a great full story of what's going on, hip hip horray! werd

A lot of my encounters got wiped with the reset. I've been swamped at work this week with finals and a ceremony I have to run tonight. Hope to replace many of them soon and pick up the plot after this week/semester is over.

How about.... dropping in non-hostile encounters sometime folks?

It would really be enhancing to see non-hostile groups or solo NPC neutral or good creatures, etc, that... PCs can RP with... it's all about your potential and ability to enjoy a scene, even alone, but especially with others you might be with... *shrugs* Just a thought.

It's not always about "See hostile 'thing', sneak up/cast at it, it attacks, and dies, or PC dies."

Not to mention, if a PC meets a non-hostile NPC/encounter, he or she can also still just decide to "right-click attack" it anyway... might initiate some interesting future situations as well... Said PC might wander by another PC and say: "Yea, i found this hot nature woman, she appeared out of a lake offering friendship, so i ripped her head off YEA!" - the PC he/she is talking to about it might not be happy with that etc...

aaaaaaaaanyway...

More goblins! yaha! *sigh*!

Well I'm saving the non-hostile encounters for DM'd events that I am running myself. The staged encounters are by design hostile, with loot and xp with no DM on. They are supposed to provide some interest, fuel for RP, and particularly a reason to party up with other PCs and get in game and have fun.

[edit]
I resolved after last Wednesday night's session to begin rolling dice to randomly generate NPCs, per the DMG. Also, zSpawn is great at making random NPCs too. In honor of Galadorn's request, I will be hiding/stealthing/placing non-hostile NPCs about the server. I will try to put a bit of meta in their name and dress them up a bit so you can guess the RP hook. Take a screen shot, RP with them (not too long) and send a summary to me via forum PM or in an IC forum post. I will reward your RP with a little XP bump and hopefully manifest the NPC with you at some point. Let's see how this goes, no harm in trying it out.

Cool. Might have a looksee....
and...

HEEGZ wrote:...RP with them (not too long)....

Not too long is 3 hours for some people! :-/