If you have played tabletop rpg’s like Dungeons and Dragons, then at some point you have had the chance to play through the adventure “Temple of Elemental Evil”.  I was first introduced to it over at my friend Art Z’s house when I first started playing D&D 2nd Edition.  I was a newbie (new player) to the D&D universe, and my only exposure to tabletop gaming had been to see a TV movie called Mazes and Monsters with a young Tom Hanks.  I told the guys I wanted to play something simple until I was more comfortable with the rules.  Well from that first foray into D&D and various other rpg games, I was hooked.

But back to the Temple…(lol)

The adventure pitted you and 4 others against the untold horrors of a Temple created to venerate the mad God Iuz and his demon consort Zuggotmoy.  Why you ask am I talking about this little adventure?  Well i have just finished reading the Greyhawk novel of the same name.  It was AWESOME!  I was not a big fan of books set in the D&D universe, but this one was well written and flowed very well.  The POV (point of view) that you are mostly reading from ( Or hearing the story from), is Shanhaevel the wizard as he an his companions, a druid, a rogue, a ranger, a warrior and a paladin strive to stop the releasing of Zuggotmoy from beneath the Temple where she was imprisoned.

The author’s words were so well crafted that I could picture every detail in my mind.  It helped me to remember every aspect of the original adventure that I played through, the number of times we stopped to rest and memorize spells after each fight, the loot we got from the guys we defeated or the chests we opened (the ones that the rogue disarmed the traps for…lol). Some of us got magical weapons, some got magic scrolls, and If I remember correctly, the wizard in the  party found a couple of spell books that could be useful.  The amount of loot was almost equal to the amount of danger that you and your friends faced.  A good GM (Game Master) could either make or break your character depending on what you decided to do during the adventure.

You could never finish the adventure in one sitting.  It took several sessions just to get past the first two levels, although it will not take that long to read the book…lol.  It is a good read and it is worth a look at least.

TTFN…

Carrion Crawlers are large (3′ to 4′ long) pale yellow and greenish creatures similar in appearance to a centipede. Crawlers possess eight long tentacles protruding from the sides of their heads, allowing them to stun prey. Carrion Crawlers scavenge the dead and occasionally prey on living creatures.

The OD&D Greyhawk supplement Carrion Crawler reminds me more of Sponge Bob than a threatening monster, but it got nastier in appearance as it got older.

Hi!

I kind of like the “cute” Carrion Crawler best. It seems more devious to me as a GM to have this happy looking guy munching on PCs rather than the predictably ravenous looking later versions.

This critter is one of the most infamous of D&D foes. A good dungeon adventure, old grave yard or other suitable place where they would live make great places to encounter Carrion Crawlers. Having hundreds of newly hatched ones swarm PCs (say, in a pit trap or hallway) is one way to keep this creature formidable, even to higher level characters.

-Jeff
“Retro”

Lord Greyhawk

This summer, people were posting in depth on their “RPG DNA” – their gaming history and how it shaped their gaming. My first two installments were:

My RPG DNA, Part 1: The Texas Years – Self-starting with Star Frontiers in junior high and moving on to D&D/AD&D.

My RPG DNA, Part 2: The Early Memphis Years – Returning to gaming via Magic: The Gathering and then escaping the D&D Ghetto!

Now I’ll talk about the Late Memphis Years.  My roommates and I were obsessively playing any game we could get our hands on, and for the first time I was attending cons. We had a pretty big group of gamers, some regular and some irregular, playing all sorts of stuff.  Many were in IT or were med students (as I was in IT and my first roommate Robert was a med student, those were our main contacts) but as friends of friends added in we had a dozen people from various walks of life. I played some, but GMed mainly, and the more I experienced the more I wanted to take roleplaying “to the next level.”  I really enjoyed the experience of a “realistic” game world and the point of roleplaying, to me, was immersing into your character’s mindset and experiencing that world through that character.  And this was hard to do “right.”  So I set out to craft a campaign that would be all about that from the ground up.

Night Below

For my big immersive campaign, I used D&D Second Edition.  Why, when I had played lots of other games and had escaped the D&D-only ghetto that too many gamers languished in?  Because everyone knew it, and because it was actually the right tool for the job.  The rules were light enough to not get bogged down in them, and were oriented towards simulating a coherent world. And, to a degree, because I wanted to show that you could indeed do something meaningful in D&D, in my opinion that though to a degree “system does matter” you don’t have to use a different game to catalyze real roleplaying.

I set it in Greyhawk, my favorite D&D world, which had just enough realistic detail and was at the time being used by fans in opposition to the super high magic and railroad shenanigans of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance – the online community for Greyhawk was awesome (people like Erik Mona were participants). I picked a boxed set campaign called Night Below, by Carl Sargent, which had enough content to sustain a long term adventure but was loose and sandboxey enough I could do whatever I wanted with it. I mixed in a more than healthy dose of Cthulhu mythos.

Then I formed a group.  I sat down with the existing large set of players and explained what I wanted.  Full immersion.  Total sim.  “I’ll run a casual game Wednesday nights.  But Sunday will be this game.”  I set expectations.  The world will unfold with realistic characters and consequences. People will be in character and on task 50 minutes, then we’ll have a 10 minute break, per hour.  There will be strict information compartmentalization – players won’t know anything their characters don’t – no sharing character sheets, no rules talk, lots of note passing and taking people aside.  Required attendance. This was to be a “pro level” game for people who were serious about taking their gaming farther than they had before.

I had a pretty large set of players who opted in.  After the first session, a couple of those realized I was serious about the sim and opted out, leaving us with a good small core group. Robert (med student), Suzanne (med student), Jason (med student), Travis (started at MIT but burned out, working at bookstores), and “Big” Mike (programmer). The group had turnover as life intervened – in fact, Travis was the only player who was there throughout the entire run; the group became Travis (now a Memphis police officer), “Little” Mike (med student), Laura (manager at a transportation company), Hal (musician then transportation then programmer), and David (med student).  The resulting adventures of Mikhail (mercenary and leader), Dane (excitable archer), Damia (fey gypsy girl), Orado (crazy old wizard), and Tristan (priest who had once been a fighter) were indeed the stuff of legends.

The campaign ran for five years and was insanely engrossing. People moved, changed jobs, etc. but kept coming every week with few exceptions. (Advancement was slow, I was doing by the book 2e XP and the characters were only level 9 max at the end.) We completed the campaign right before the real life group disintegrated with people moving away etc.  People still call me now, ten years later, to reminisce about the game.  With serious immersion and buy-in, we developed more “advanced” roleplaying skills at a high rate, and most of my more “deep” skills on things like creating horror in an RPG, balancing plot against character free will, improvisation, etc. all were crafted in this campaign’s crucible. Characters loved each other, betrayed each other, hated each other, protected each other, went crazy, discovered horrible secrets about their origins… In fact, it all worked almost too well – I have been somewhat disappointed in pretty much all of my role-playing opportunities since and some of the players openly say “I haven’t played RPGs again since, most campaigns are just silly compared to what we all had together.”

I could write a hundred posts on that campaign, so I’ll end it there, except to say that if you and your group can let go of all the baggage and decide to really  honest-to-God roleplay, you’ll get so much more out of it than powergaming, metagaming, escapism, gamism, narrativism, etc. provide.

The Casual Group

But it would be wrong to not mention the casual group as well!  Since I was getting my “serious gaming” jones in with the Night Below campaign, here we all just had fun.  Besides lots of great gaming stories, playing many different systems, experimenting with loads of house rules (like my 2e Classless Skills and Powers variant, bringing GURPS style character builds to a D&D near you, or my Feng Shui inspired 2e monk class, which is still cooler than all monks and was only really matched by the Book of Nine Swords), and other game related fun, this was a solid group of guys.  Scott, Brock, Tim, Kevin, “Big” Mike, and Paul were the founding members and many more have participated over the years.

Though I had more in depth relationships with the Night Below crew, it’s the casual crew who was there for each other in real life when people needed help.  In fact, this group still meets weekly today, ten years later.

My two favorite memories were the “Vampire Holocaust“, a simple 2e Forgotten Realms adventure gone awry and turned into a multi-month gripping PC-vs-PC deathmatch, and our Freeport campaign, our very first 3e game, where I kicked it off with Green Ronin’s Death in Freeport but then everyone in the group had to take a turn running with the same group in the loosely defined “World of Freeport.”  I handed out all the early 3e adventures (due to the OGL, there were a bunch out of the gate) and everyone ran – that was great, even those who weren’t “good” GMs per se did at least one thing that I learned from. I strongly encourage everyone to try  out round robin DMing sometime. The group started an email list at this time and is still known as “Wulf’s Animals” (their pirate crew name) as a result.

The casual group wasn’t as “artistic” an experience, but it had more belly laughs, that’s for sure.

The FORGE

Meanwhile, Hal and I were so full-to-bursting with gaming goodness we wanted to do more and start helping the larger gaming community. In May of 1999 we met up with the RPGA regional director who also lived in Memphis and put together a Memphis-based group, the FORGE (Fellowship of Role Gaming Enthusiasts), which exists to this day. We started with game days at a library and eventually moved to the local gaming store (we had trouble initially because they basically let card/minis gamers have dibs on the space; eventually we worked out an agreement with them).  We managed to get a great core set of four officers, the “Red Hammer Council” – Hal, myself, Collin Davenport, and Mike Seagrave. In short order we were running 2-3 tables of games at each monthly game day, running a lot of the gaming for the local con, MidSouthCon, and a FORGE team even got third place in the Gen Con D&D Team event at Gen Con 2000.  Though we were RPGA-affiliated we made it a point to run a variety of games, and our earliest meetings had everything from Call of Cthulhu to Feng Shui to Aberrant to Fading Suns…

It took a lot of work – making a Web site and negotiating places and discounts with game stores and doing elections and a constitution and handling the “outlier personalities” that any group like this has some of.  But though it we met hundreds of great gamers from all over the Mid-South!

My Scooby Doo Cthulhu and Children of the Seed Blue Seed/Feng Shui mashups were created to be run at FORGE events.

The Rise of 3e and Living Greyhawk

Since I loved Greyhawk and was involved in an RPGA club, it was the natural next step for me to get involved with the huge event of 2000 – the launch of Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition and the Living Greyhawk campaign!  I was selected as one of the three “regional Triads” for the huge Mid-South region, which mapped to the country of the Yeomanry within Greyhawk (in LG, each real world region got a specific Greyhawk region to set their adventures in).  Myself, Kevin Freeman, and August Hahn (who has gone on to write a bunch of stuff for Mongoose) got galley proofs of the 3e rules to read and when Gen Con 2000 came along, we launched it with a bunch of great adventures. The region had loads of great volunteers and we had some stellar events and adventures.  There was some amount of frustration in that we were limited in what we could do – by the required adventure format being somewhat limiting, by Wizards IP restrictions in terms of developing our Greyhawk regions, and by the “Circle” in terms of them being overwhelmed and thus very slow to get anything done. But despite that we did a lot of stuff; even when I had to leave Memphis and couldn’t be a Triad for that region any more I still helped them out until Wizards brought LG to an end in 2008.

Sadly, most of the information, adventures, etc. from that era are lost now in the Great WotC Hate On for D&D 3 and Previous Intellectual Property Like Greyhawk.  The Yeomanry Web site is down and all the scenarios aren’t available (except on BitTorrent.  Yay!), and Wizards has purged most of the 3e/3.5e content on their site, and is trying hard to pretend that Greyhawk never existed.  My experience throughout LG with the RPGA and WotC definitely contributes to my current hate of them and their business practices with respect to 4e. As time went on, they treated even people doing huge amounts of volunteer work for them, like the Triads, as serfs and gave us all the mushroom treatment.

End of an Era

Whew.  That’s a lot and I feel like I didn’t do any of it justice; so much happened during a short span of years, especially 1998-2001. I have to say that I am proud to have helped found two things that have lasted (Wulf’s Animals and the FORGE), and two things that ended but kicked ass while they were in effect (the Night Below group and Living Greyhawk). And for anyone from that era who’s reading along – thanks so much for all the great memories, you all still mean a lot to me.

Next up – the Exile Period and the Austin Years!

Pete took out a bunch of his old D&D books, here are some relevant quotes:

MM2:

I’m paraphrasing, here, “He was winning the war in the Abyss against Orcus and Demogorgon when he was summoned by a mighty magic-user and pulled to the prime material plane. Cool. That fits right into the game we’re in.”

“Graz’zt is the handsomest of the demon rulers, at least by human standards. He appears as a huge, good-looking man, although his skin is shining black and his eyes are glowing green. Graz’zt is six fingered and six toed.”

The 3.0 Manual of the Planes is a nifty book. I especially like the 3-line descriptions of each plane:

“It is an infinity of clutching horror.
It is home to demons.
It is where morality crumbles and ethics perish.”

“This nation blah blah blah and that nation and evil monks the Brotherhood of the Red something-or-other.  Greyhawk is actually a city, a magocracy,” (my ears prick up a bit), ” until the arch-mages who ruled it got into a war.  A few left the plane, maybe going to Sigil or wherever.  So now-”

“Wait, stop the presses.  An arch-mage war?  That is the stuff.  I’d be up for playing the midst of an urban arch-mage war.  Shit, I’d want to play a wizard who wants to gain arch-mage status, wants to step up and gain something from the conflict.  I mean, this Realms game could end anywhere from 3-8+ games from now.”

Aaron get’s the scared look in his eye, the look of a player whose game will end before he’s ready for it to end.  He urges us, “Let’s not rush to find an ending to the campaign we are playing.”

“Nope, I’m on no rush but if it goes down, we could play that if Pete would run it.  That’s all I’m saying.”

And I’m not in any rush to end the Realms game at all.  I’d be more than happy with playing around with Old Snarl and the siege of Felbar and moving on to other things…maybe doing some running around along the Sea of Fallen Stars, giving the Zhentarim a run for their money.  Those seeds are certainly planted and ready in the campaign already.

It was just funny and odd how quickly I got excited by Greyhawk once Pete showed me some situation amidst his nostalgia.  At some point, I will have to write a blog post about the arch-mage/gunslinger found within the Greyhawk canon.

Now for those who don’t know, Castle Greyhawk IS Dungeons and Dragons. The castle and the world that surrounds it were created in the late ’70s by none other than the late Gary Gygax himself, the god father of Dungeons and Dragons. While the world has changed and evolved over the years, the foundation stays the same.

In Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, the party travels to the Free City of Greyhawk on the eve of a ceremony that has attracted all sorts of people from around the continent. The Ceremony is a funeral for a cleric named Riggby, who recently died in the dungeons of the ruined Castle of Greyhawk. Riggby was a hero in the Free City, and an icon around the world.

On the road just outside of the city, the party stumbles upon a horde of orcs massacring a small farming town. The mob is lead by a half-orc sorcerer mounted upon a large Wyrven. Upon desposing of the monsters, the party tends to one of the only two men left alive in the onslaught, a stout young fellow by the named of Ricard Dimaris. Ricard thanks the PC’s for saving his life and offers them refuge in his establishment, the Green Dragon Inn. He says that the city is more crowded than it has ever been in the wake of Riggby’s funeral and that they are unlikely to find loding anywhere else in the city.

The next 6 hours or so were comprised of the party exploring the Free City of Greyhawk and meeting many of its inhabitants, some friendly, some deceitful, but all interesting. Far too much transpired on this first day for me to outline in a few paragraphs, so I will just make a list of key points:

- Yupa befriends Rethek, the dwarven armorer across the street from the Green Dragon Inn.

- Ofelia joins the Guild of Wizardry, accessing her to magic items at 1/10 the price and free spell components.

- Party met Gallancz, an old war friend of Ricard’s who is in town for business. He seems eager to learn of happenings within Castle Greyhawk, but has never been himself, though he is found of adventure.

- Discovered what appears to be a small cult of Iuz practicing in a small house behind the Green Dragon Inn. Townsfolk say that the diety is no more and to pay no interest to them.

- Rumors are spreading around town of a demon of some sort within the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk making a return.

Much more was done and I will update the list as things come to me. In the end they decided to spend the night upstairs in the Green Dragon and head for the castle in the morning, despite several warnings from townsfolk to stay away.

Upon reaching the castle, which are actually 3 large towers atop accompanying hills, they found that the only way in at the acceptance of a group of dwarves who have made their base of operations outside of the far right tower, the “Tower of War”. These dwarves call themselves the War Tower Wardens, and ask for 1/4 of all the treasure found within the castle if one wishes to enter. Wanting to give the offer some thought, we called it a day here.

In virtually all cases you will not find a person with any relationship to the creditor, investor, or pool. This is because servicers, trustees and other firms in the securitization chain are proceeding on their own initiating foreclosures without instructions, knowledge or any documentation from the creditor, investor or pool.

Editor’s Note: Greyhawk is of course right. But his assumption that this doesn’t happen very often is wrong. We have seen Wells Fargo foreclose on the wrong house and Wells Fargo sue itself because it securitized the first mortgage into one pool and securitized the second mortgage into another pool.

The central importance of these articles is NOT that the banks are stupid or negligent. For the litigator, the central importance is EVIDENCE. Think about it. Work backwards from the event. What would need to be absolutely true for a firm to seize a house in which it had no interest? And how can that help you in other cases where the facts are not quite as clear?

Well, for one thing it would require a belief on the part of someone without any personal knowledge of their own (witness is not competent to testify, plausible deniability thus given a layer of support to other firms in the securitization chain) that they DO have an interest. How could that be? It could only be true if they were using documents and a chain of possession of documents that were either falsified (fabricated) or incomplete (in which case they made assumptions that turned out to be false).

In order for them to make those assumptions they would have had to receive the instructions OR the documents from a “Trusted Source”. Find out the identity for the trusted source and work your way back to the person who actually wrote the document, the person who actually signed the document and the person who gave instructions concerning the creation of that documentation along with any written evidence contemporaneous with those events.

In virtually all cases you will not find a person with any relationship to the creditor, investor, or pool. This is because servicers, trustees and other firms in the securitization chain are proceeding on their own initiating foreclosures without instructions, knowledge or any documentation from the creditor, investor or pool.

The reason we know that documents are falsified and that it is not only common practice but institutionalized pattern of conduct to fabricate documents is simple: when you have a  mortgage that is still “performing” (i.e., payments are up to date) and you ask for the the documentation, they don’t have it.

It is ONLY when the “loan” becomes delinquent, or in default or the notice of sale is issued or there is a challenge to the notice of sale that the documents finally show up. And usually it takes 6-12 weeks to get all the documents. Why? If they started foreclosure proceedings, they would have needed those documents ahead of time.

Trustees routinely pull up a title report before starting a non-judicial sale. You shoudl ask for that and anything else the Trustee had at the time of the initiation of foreclosure proceedings and the date of receipt or creation (under oath in interrogatories as to the date of creation of the documents).

Plaintiffs routinely pull up a title report before they file a foreclosure lawsuit in judicial states. Yet when you ask for them, it takes weeks to produce them and when finally produced and examined and investigated, you will often find that the signature was not authorized, the witnesses were in a different state, the notary was in a a different state from either the witnesses or the signatory or that the signatures are forged (i.e., don’t match the normal signatures of the people who signed.

As for the “negligence” theory, here is the problem for them. How could they think they have something when it doesn’t exist. ANSWER: Because it does exist (or WILL exist when they get around to it) and it was thus fabricated and forged.

But it also means something else when you drill down on these transactions. The pressure to get these loans moving in the securitization chain was immense. Many mortgage brokers or originators took the MORTGAGE APPLICATION, changed it and completed the rest of the closing documents by forgery or simply described the loan as completed when they sent data to the first pool, the aggregator, who then took that description and attached it as an exhibit to his “assignment” to the second pool, the SPV pool.

This is precisely what probably happened in the case reported below. Somebody signed a loan application, never went through with the closing but the loan description went up through the securitization chain and so the originators had to treat it as real even though it didn’t exist. And when its number came up, which was fast because if you don’t have any borrower it isn’t hard to imagine that the “loan” went into default immediately due to non-payment from the non-existent borrower, they foreclosed.

This is where April Charney’s “Produce the Note” fame has been misused and misapplied by those who do not understand the rules of evidence as she does. It’s not just the note she’s after. She wants the Plaintiff in Florida and other judicial states, to prove their case and not be permitted to fake it. Those who report negative results using her material have not mastered the basics, applied a non-existent magic bullet and falsely concluded that April and others are wrong. Those who are too lazy to learn the whole story should withhold their judgment. April Charney is right and what she teaches is correct.

Thieves Guild: Bank of America Flubs Foreclosure, Seizes Wrong House — AGAIN

Sun, 01/17/2010 – 14:46 |  GreyHawk

Hat-tip Consumerist.

For some, the slogan “practice makes perfect” is a motto of encouragement to try again, try harder and achieve perfection. For Bank of America, it should be taken as a strong hint to try and do the right thing the first time, not to try and find a better way to seize the wrong house and then attempt to abstain from any recognizable responsibility.

It should be, but it’s not.

BoA has apparently attempted to foreclose on the wrong house once again, according to an article by Laura Elder in the Galveston County Daily News:

GALVESTON — A West End property owner is suing Bank of America Corp., asserting its agents mistakenly seized a vacation house he owns free and clear, then changed the locks and shut the power off, resulting in the smelly spoiling of about 75 pounds of salmon and halibut from an Alaska fishing trip and other damages.

Agents working for Bank of America cut off power to the property by turning off the main switch in the lower part of the house, according to the lawsuit. They also changed the locks, so Schroit was unable to reach the switch to turn the power back on, according to the lawsuit.

“The property sustained water damage, potential mold contamination arising from the standing freezer residue, water, heat and high humidity conditions during the time the electrical power was off,” according to the lawsuit.

This marks the second time known this has known to occur. The Wheelright, Ky, homeowner in that incident filed a lawsuit against the bank for a similar incident: the locks were changed, and the bank refused to pay any damages other than replacement locks.

Accidents happen, but the bank’s responsibility for its actions doesn’t cease to exist simply because it’s a corporate behemoth. If an average person had “accidentally” shut off power to someone else’s home, changed the locks and caused untold damage, that person would be held liable in both criminal and civil court for the actions — amends and liability would most certainly be assigned.

Bank of America’s incapacity to deal responsibly with “errors” that significantly impact the public should be a wake-up call that the bank has other serious issues that need to be addressed, and that the rights and liberties of “corporate personhood” should not ever exceed the rights and liberties of real living people.

The guidelines substitute inherent bonuses for magic items; you’re supposed to drop the highest and lowest level magic items for each level. There’s also some discussion of modifying gold income, since players need to make as many magic items, but I’ll revisit that after I figure out training costs. (It’s Greyhawk. You’re going to need to pay for training to go up a level.)

I don’t want to eliminate magic weapons and armor, because again, it’s Greyhawk. So magic weapons and armor will just carry properties and dailies. No plusses. I’ll have them scale automatically with the wielder’s level, which does mean that the longsword someone picks up early on may be with them all the way to level 30.

No Transfer Enchantment rituals. No residuum. The magic item component rules also seem good here, although I won’t use them in the level 1 parcels.

Magic Items

Gauntlets of the Half-Giant

Power (At-Will): Standard Action. Strength + 2 vs. AC; ranged 6/12; you throw an object 30 lb. or less; 2d6 + Strength modifier damage.
Power (Encounter): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with a melee attack. Add a +2 power bonus to the damage roll.

These gauntlets were created by a hedge mage who was not quite powerful enough to make Gauntlets of Ogre Strength.

Chillpoint (Longsword)

Critical: +1d6 cold damage
Power (At-Will • Cold): Free Action. All damage dealt by this weapon is cold damage. Another free action returns the damage to normal.
Power (Daily • Cold): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. The target takes 1d8 cold damage and is slowed until the end of your next turn.

Chillpoint was carried by Baron Kenle two hundred years ago; it was a mundane longsword until he single-handedly slew a wight who was menacing his tiny village. His prayers to St. Cuthbert lent power to his arm, and to his blade: when he withdrew it from the undead thing, he found that it took on some of the cold of the grave.

Sandals of Celene

Power (Daily • Teleportation): When you fall, instead teleport safely to the nearest horizontal surface within 5 squares that can support your weight, take no falling damage, and land on your feet.

Sandals of Celene are always crafted in the legendary kingdom of the grey elves; from time to time, as a mark of their favor, a pair will be granted to the noblest of youths outside the kingdom.

Other Parcels

Two potions of healing + 100 gp
Two 50 gp tanzanites + 80 gp
One potion of fire resistance + 70 gp
One 100 gp opal + 200 sp
50 gp + 100 sp
400 sp

Robilar, Marshal of the Bright Lands

Just fiddling around for Greyhawk 4e purposes; thought I’d share.

Ecco dopo alcune ore di riflessione la nuova struttura della rete di progetti orientati al GDR che ho imbastito:

I Discepoli della Manticora: blog di riflessione sul GDR in genere, conterrà tutto quello che non è specifico di una campagna. Articoli sui mondi/setting, sullo stile di gioco, sullo storytelling e eventualmente link a programmini utili per DM e giocatori -risiederà sempre qui, senza cambiamenti.

LE CAMPAGNE

Riflessi Mentali: Campagna in Forgotten Realms, regolamento Pathfinder RPG. Avrà un suo blog, una wiki e un forum per discutere delle sessioni.

• Blog (registro d’avventura) : http://riflessimentali.wordpress.com/ (dovrò importare tutti gli articoli! Sigh!)
• Wiki: http://mickforgottenrealms.wikidot.com/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure e campagne di Forgotten Realms)
• Forum: http://www.micheletoscan.com/forum/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure di qualsiasi setting)

Vento e Fiamme: Campagna in Greyhawk, regolamento Pathfinder RPG. Avrà un suo blog, una wiki e un forum per discutere delle sessioni.

• Blog (registro d’avventura) : http://ventoefiamme.wordpress.com/
• Wiki: http://lombagreyhawk.wikidot.com/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure e campagne di Greyhawk)
• Forum: http://www.micheletoscan.com/forum/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure di qualsiasi setting)

Rise of the Runelords: Campagna in Golarion, regolamento Pathfinder RPG. Avrà un suo blog, una wiki e un forum per discutere delle sessioni.

• Blog (registro d’avventura) : http://riseoftherunelords.wordpress.com/
• Wiki: http://mickgolarion.wikidot.com/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure e campagne in Golarion)
• Forum: http://www.micheletoscan.com/forum/ (sarà comune a TUTTE le avventure di qualsiasi setting)

Salvo dimenticanze, questo dovrebbe essere tutto! E’ sicuramente piu dispersivo di Obsidian Portal ma almeno ogni componente è funzionale e gratuito.

Ambientazione? Greyhawk ovviamente. O meglio, quello strano ibrido che sotto le sollecitazioni dello stesso Gygax di personalizzare il suo mondo come piu ci aggrada, è nato dal Greyhawk “canon” ed è mutato in quello che oggi chiamiamo affettuosamente Lombagreyhak. Su cosa sia esattamente questo setting non mi dilungherò. C’è la sua wiki, accessibile a tutti – siete invitati a goderne . L’importante è che finalmente sono tornato a giocare come si faceva un tempo: con un giovane guerriero neppure ventenne, armato di spada e vestito di semplice cotta di maglia i cui obiettivi sono semplicemente gloria, denari, giustizia e soprattutto spirito di avventura. Nessuna classe planare, nessun drow con due spade, nessun background di sessanta pagine: solo un giovane armato di spada, scudo, fede e coraggio. Docram Rax è un guerriero di quelli classici, quello che immaginavamo entrare nel dungeon nella avventura introduttoria nelle prime pagine del mabuale Basico, aka la “Scatola Rossa di Holmes”.

Docram è un guerriero di basso livello, legale e buono, amato dagli abitanti del villaggio in cui ha vissuto per anni. Purtroppo le guerre hanno segnato il Grande Regno e gli innumerevoli territori che lo comprendevano sono oggi ridotti a brandelli di umanità portata alla fame e alla carestia. Docram e il suo amico Colbert proveranno a riportare il sorriso sul volto dei giusti, dei bambini e degli eroi di guerra abbandonati da una struttura feudale che non esiste piu. All’inseguimento di una giovane spia, i due si lanciano all’inseguimento, incontrando fortificazioni e diffidenza ad ogni passo.

Il regolamento anche in questo caso è, ovviamente, Pathfinder (il cui manuale, nonostante sia stato pagato da oltre un mese, non è come previsto ancora arrivato).

Il blog della campagna: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/briganti-dalle-ceneri
Il forum della campagna: http://www.micheletoscan.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=30

L’indomani, dopo un breve riposo, i due recuperano un carretto e si aggregano ad Abby Starbottom e al suo manipolo di guardie gnomi e ai quattro gnomi alchimisti liberati dagli spriggan che sono diretti a Krestible, a nove giorni di viaggio verso sud, al confine delle Perrenland con Ket.

Il primo giorno di viaggio porta i nostri a fermarsi nei pressi di una gola, alla base della quale oltre cento nomadi del lupo si erano accampati. A causa dei rituali sacri che stavano venendo praticati, alla carovana dei nostri non è permesso passare per la notte, e sono costretti ad accamparsi anzitempo. Altre creature mostruose da Exag si riversano nella gola, e quattro nomadi che erano andati in avanscoperta tornano sconvolti dalla gola.

Il mattino successivo i nomadi liberano il campo, lasciando dietro i quattro che erano andati nella gola. Questi, tre guerrieri giovani e un veterano si offrono come guardie per la carovana, e seguono il gruppo verso sud, ansiosi di lasciare le Colline dell’Alba il prima possibile.

Un'ala del Monastero

Il terzo giorno di viaggio, a metà pomeriggio, il gruppo raggiunge una enorme cattedrale di legno, dalla pianta simile a una stella a otto punte. Attorno alla cattedrale acri di terre coltivate, frutteti, alveari, carnieri e mulini. La cattedrale sembra completamente autosufficente e permette al gruppo di comprare il cibo prodotto in eccesso. Tarna acquista sidro e salumi stagionati e affumicati, mentre Kay ne approfitta per farsi curare la ferita oscura inflittagli dallo spriggan Rakeri durante l’ultimo scontro. L’intero “old kerk” (vecchio culto) viene adorato nella cattedrale. Ognuno dei nove dei Flan della vecchia religione ancestrale viene riverito da qualcuno nella cattedrale, e i compiti sono ben divisi tra gli ordini. I conti e l’amministrazione sono in mano al clero di Allitur. I sacramenti di matrimonio, le benedizioni di nuove abitazioni, la preparazione della birra e degli spiriti e la cura dei campi e dei frutteti sono affidati ai sacerdoti di Berei, e la gestione delle benedizioni di questi ultimi a quelli di Beory – che colgono anche i frutti selvatici dei monti. La difesa del complesso è affidata ai paladini militari di Mayaheine, sotto il controllo dei sacerdoti di Allitur. I sacerdoti di Pelor si occupano dei feriti e della cura dei malati, mentre quelli di Rao sono coinvolti in voti di cotemplazione spirituale, e allo studio delle scienze. Un piccolo ma agguerrito manipolo di adoratori di Vathris si allena assieme ai sacerdoti di Mayaheine, ma spesso erra a sud dei monti, raccogliendo consenso da coloro che desiderano vendetta per i torti subiti durante le guerre. Essi si assicurano che il popolo Ur-Flan sia coeso, e che recuperi gli usi perduti in secoli di influenza Oeridian. E’ facile trovare un religioso seguace di Vathris dedito al recupero delle usanze tradizionali dei vari cantoni delle Perrenland. La loro controparte più agguerrita è presente nella cattedrallein forma del culto di Zodal, il dio della pietà. I dogmi dei due credo sono molto differenti, ma ci sono tra loro alcuni punti in comune. I sacerdoti di Zodal spesso si affiancano a quelli di Pelor nei tempi di carestia. Un ultimo culto è presente nel Monastero, seppur con un profilo molto basso, ed è il culto di Nerull, dedito all’imbalsamazione e ai rimedi contro le sofferenze. Il credo esorta al suicidio e all’omicidio, ma non è considerato un culto eretico. Per quanto mal visto, è necessario propiziare il Mietitore e l’invito al culto di Nerull a unirsi al monastero è stato sorprendentemente una decisione comune, seppure il clero di Mayaheine e Pelor si fossero astenuti in fase di voto.

Un secondo condotto tra i tanti che si dipanavano dalla caverna principale porta a una stanza gelida, ma prima di poterci arrivare lo stretto budello ha svelato al gruppo un pericoloso trucco degli spriggan che abitano il complesso. Grandi fori sul muro alla destra del gruppo permettevano agli spriggan di infilzare i malcapitati con le loro spade. Tarna utilizza il fuoco alchemico per allontanare gli spriggan e permettere al gruppo di passare rapidamente nella seconda stanza. Questa però si rivela colma di spriggan in formazione di combattimento. Tarna cade rapidamente sotto i colpi dei falsi gnomi, ma Eraj e Kay recuperano rapidamente lo svantaggio. Una volta uccise sette di queste creature, i nostri rinvengono Tarna, e controllano rapidamente la stanza, dal soffitto spiovente che si abbassa verso il fondo, dove sono riposti numerosi giacigli improvvisati. Nella stanza, uno specchio d’acqua porta a un condotto subacqueo che i nostri esploraranno piu avanti.

Un altro tunnel si dirige verso sud, dove i nostri incontrano un’altro spriggan, uno orribilmente deforme e con un occhio cieco, che approfitta dello scontro con altri spriggan che avevano teso un’agguato nell’ombra, per ingrandirsi e sollevare un forziere e portarlo verso sud. Sconfitti anche questi ultimi nemici, il gruppo segue il guercio, ma la stanza seguente pare sgombra, se non per un uomo orribilmente prosciugato della linfa vitale, un abitante di Exag, con ogni probabilità.

Rakeri e Krrgle attaccano Tarna sul ponte sospeso sul crepaccio

La caverna successiva porta ai tre avventurieri uno scontro memorabile. Un crepaccio attraversato da un ponte di corda occupa quasi l’intera dimensione della grande caverna. Dall’altra parte del crepaccio Bilgor, lo spriggan guercio, e un altro spriggan assai piu tetro e macilento, affrontano il gruppo, assieme a un grosso furetto grosso come cane di grossa taglia, e dall’aspetto preistorico. Eraj scivla sul ponte di corda, scomparendo nel buio. Kay e Tarna sconfiggono i due spriggan, e alla fine del combattimento recuperano Eraj, la cui gambe sono rimaste maciullate nella caduta.

Ulteriori note sulla campagna si trovano sulla wiki!

Il progetto della nostra Greyhawk adesso è parte di una wiki ancora in costruzione (http://lombagreyhawk.wikidot.com/).

Non andrò nello specifico sul nostro personale mondo di Greyhawk qui nel blog (quello lo farò nella wiki). Basti sapere che ci sono al momenti alcune avventure che si ambientano contemporaneamente in questo mondo. La prima è stata appunto la campagna Vento e Fiamme, i cui protagonisti sono un ladro di Greyhawk proveniente da molto, molto lontano, e una ladra giramondo dal passato oscuro. Anche se i miei primi propositi erano stati di lasciarmi andare completamente alla creatività in barba ai manuali ufficiali, al contrario del lavoro curato e rigido che stavo svolgendo con Forgotten Realms, non ho saputo resistere dal metter mano a un breve ciclo di avventure prese da uno degli ultimi Dungeon Magazine. Il cosiddetto ciclo del Sehan è cominciato, e l’avventura “L’Immonda Dipendenza” è appena cominciata…

Per farla breve, visto che non sono stato molto chiaro :

Il setting è Greyhawk, modificato in quello che chiamerò Lombagreyhawk. La prima delle campagne giocate si chiama Vento e Fiamme, e il perno di essa sono i due ladri Taja e Kay Demon. La prima avventura ufficiale “incastonata” nella campagna è “The Vile Addiction”, prima avventura di un ciclo di tre parti, collettivamente chiamate il “Seeds of Sehan” Campaign Arc.