I think what attracted me first about Darkplane is really the art, it just has such a dream like sureality to it that it called to me. I like that despite the "darkness" of it all, there is light too. Need that to bring the darkness and horror into sharper contrast.
Changing by Benita Winckler
But once I got into it and started reading more, http://www.darkplane.com/, I discovered that this isn't just a campaign world, but a campaing universe to explore in.
The world is "Weird Horror" which is something I like, but rarely seen done well. So I am excited about this one since I think the author gets it.
This one has already got to their goal so now it is about getting past those stretch goals.
Lawrence Schick posted "The “Known World” D&D Setting: A Secret History" over at Black Gate. A nice history of how he and Tom Moldvay came up with the Known World for their own games and then ported it over to D&D Basic/Expert. It is a fascinating read if, like me, you are a fan of the Mystara world.
+James Mishler takes this one further and provides the maps for the Moldvay/Schick known world on his blog, Adventures in Gaming. James also provides a bit more information and some Hexographer files for them as well.
It is interesting how there are so many familiar names and even locations in different places. Like looking at a world you know, but through some sort of distorted lens.
But what is most interesting to me are the new lands. Places and names that are entirely new to me.
Certainly gives me some names and places to help fill in some blanks I have for my own Mystoerth world.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake as the children of the sun began to awake.
It's not easy pulling off a large mono-theistic religion in a FRPG, especially one where the world not only has a lot of pantheons, but also where all these goods are assumed to be real.
Fortunately there are plenty of examples from the real world. Especially in the Christ-like figure of Mithra or Mitra and the similar Sol Invictus.
I think a god like Mithra would be interesting in D&D.
The Church of Sol Invictus
In my Mystoerth world the Church of Sol Invictus seeks to unite the faiths of the world under the banner of one Sun God. They have a lot of influence in the temples of Pholtus, Pelor, St. Cthubert and Ixion. There are many similarities to this faith and the one of Taiia in 3rd Edition.
Proponents of Sol Invictus believe that their god is the only true god and all others are false gods or even worse elevated demons or mortals.
But the Church of Sol Invictus has a number of other, deeper secrets.
In addition to only recognizing the sun gods of various faiths as the only true god, they believe that these gods are really only aspects of a much greater god.
The high priests and the leader of the faith, known as "His Brilliance", feel that these aspects are in fact aspects of the god known as "He Who Was".
He Who Was was an ancient powerful god whose chief lieutenant was Asmodeus. At the behest of Tharizdun, Asmodeus tricked and betrayed this god. He was ambushed by Orcus, Demogorgon and a third demon whose name has been erased. He Who Was managed to kill this other demon and even split Demogorgon into two. Demogorgon later regenerated into his current form, each half of his head regenerating in to two complete heads. Orcus killed He Who Was and in a further act of desecration used his skull and spine as the the great Wand of Orcus.
The clergy of Sol Invictus believe then that by combining these aspects of the Sun God and destroying Orcus forever they can have their god reborn. They believe that this rebirth will make their god more powerful than he ever was.
In my larger world St. Aleena was also a follower of this philosophy and the Church of Law and Order in City of Dolmvay is just another aspect of this faith.
The major foes of this Church are followers of Orcus and pretty much any demonic cult. Also feared and mistrusted are the faiths that follow the Moon.
The Church of Sol Invictus are among the main witch-hunters in my world.
I am planning to work elements of this church into my current game, but not sure how much detail the players are actually going to get. The use a word my wife hates, I am going to let it grow "organically".
Some of this organic growth began when I first started pulling all this together for 4e. It was building the 4e version of Aleena that got this idea rolling again. I guess this is one of the reasons I have not let go of my 4e books. A lot of the fluff is still compatible with what I am doing in 5e.
Not everything is figured out though.
Given that I grew up in the 70s I would love to add some more left-over hippy shit to it all. I would love to add something like 12 houses to the faith, something along the lines of orders. Or 7 orders and break them down by color. The 7 orders actually fits better with some other things I had done in the past. Each order representing a different aspect of the faith. I had already figured out Red (Military might) and Blue (Knowledge/learning). It should not be too hard to come up with something else. Obviously Green could be related to growing things. Violet could be Guidance. Why? Well it brings in a group I had created separately that could work into this faith. Maybe they absorbed them. I could even have a "Black" for the secret police within the faith.
I will give this some thought. But yeah this could be fun.
Mine is a tie. My first and nearest to my heart was "The Known World" later called Mystara. But I quickly adopted Greyhawk. So when I ran games it was Mystara, but playing it was Greyhawk. Around 1986 or so my then DM and I decided to merge our worlds. We called "Oerth 3", not very original I know.
Many years later I discovered this map by Chatdemon based on an idea by James Mishler. It was exactly what I was trying to do. Plus this map was so much better than mine.
So my favorite game world of all time is Mystoerth!
I have been watching more videos of late of various designers, hobbyists and writers of all stripes and it got me thinking. Is that where their ideas are born? Now I am not going to start posting video blogs. I don't honestly think anyone wants to see and hear me rattle on about things. But all the same, here are pictures of where I do my own creating.
Here is my main computer, Frankencomputer. It's not much more than a web-machine and word processor which is what I want when I am writing. The keyboard is actually worth more to me than the rest of the computer. If I am going to sit and pound away on a keyboard then it needs to be comfortable to me.
My new work laptop. Since Frankencomputer is Unbutu and the laptop is Windows I have been using Google Drive to edit docs. Underneath is "Son of Frankencomputer" which I still need to drop another harddrive into to get working. I like to rebuild computers.
My game room. Shelves full of games I am currently playing and/or reading. The rocker was from when my kids were babies. Still the best chair to fall asleep in read a book in.
Underneath are my lower shelves. Or the stuff I am not using as much. These are most of my Modern games.
So how about you all? Where do you create worlds and fates of characters?
Share your work areas/game rooms!
I don't consider myself to be one of those GMs/Players with "Gammer ADHD". I like to make a plan and stick with it. My BIG PLAN for some time now has been to run my kids through all the classic D&D modules in some form or another.
So I have an embarrassment of riches here. I have the systems, I have the modules and I even have the willing players. What I lack is time to do it all.
I guess the only thing for it is to make the time. That and stop buying games.
In my kid's 3.x game we are going to do the Tomb of Horror and I'll talk about that one later.
In their 1st ed game they are still investigating the Caves of Chaos. After that that we are doing T1 and L1 before moving on to the A series, to eventually do the GDQ series. I'll work other classics in there where they fit.
Here is my plan so far.
B1 In Search of the Unknown, levels 1-3 (played at Gen Con 2012)
The trouble is that living in a post-Drow world the impact of GDQ is just not the same unless I make them very different.
Also while Queen of the Demon web pits is fun, it lacks the final confrontation that I would like to do with a "big bad". Plus I'd like to go to 20th level.
I could scale everything up a little and stick I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City in there before the A series.
Other candidates are X2 (I already took them through X1), C1 and C2.
That would round out the classics really. Here is how they stack;
X2 Castle Amber, levels 3-6 (after L1)
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, levels 4-7 (after A but before G)
C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, levels 5-7 (after A but before G)
C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness, levels 5-7 (after A but before G)
Not to bad really.
It's not too difficult to turn the GDQ series up anyway, but are the drow and Lolth interesting enough?
Since this is the "NextGen" game after my 3.x one maybe Lolth is taking some revenge for her ally Tiamat, or moving into the recently vacated "most evil goddess" role.
While I don't need it a huge Lolth figure would be nice.
I had the oddest dream the other night. I am blaming all the allergy drugs. And the Absinthe I had on Sunday.
So the the other night I dreamed about this giant orc with a blue face. Not sure if it was painted blue or was blue. It was wielding a giant axe, but one that looked like it was more chopping word than necks. He was screaming and running at "me". He was also wearing a kilt.
Now a lot of this can be explained away. I have been reading a lot of Tolkien of late and his orcs are more, for a lack of better word, demonic than the typical D&D Orc or even the typical "new" Orc as first given to us by John Wick. I have talked about orcs before and how they fit into my world and the various sub-races.
I was also at the Bristol Ren Faire that day, so that explains the axes and even the kilt.
The idea of a blue orc is a cool one, so I looked for them online. I see there are blue orcs in Heroscape and they have sabre-toothed tigers. That is a cool idea. The axe makes me think northern climes and the kilt, well Scottish. I have a "White Orc", but I was thinking that these Orcs would be south of the artic areas, but still northern and cold. Think Canada.
Given my world's population they could even be another offshoot of the Green Orcs, like the White. Culturewise they are not much different than the Green. Maybe more savage and certainly more tribal. Wars with the Green and White keep their numbers in check. To continue the metaphor, if Blue Orcs live in Canada then the Green live in the US and the White only the most northern places. Greenland, Iceland, Siberia and Alaska.
Blue Orcs do not differ significantly from the other strains/sub-races of Orc in terms of stats. Though if anything I would give them a bit better survival skills in colder climates. Though this also reminds me of the Cailleach Bheur, the hag of Winter. Maybe Blue Orcs worship the Cailleach as some sort of Goddess figure. Pagan Orcs...the idea has some possibility and different than the other orcs. Perhaps they believe that their Goddess carved them from ice and stone and then breathed on them to bring them to life.
The more I think about it the more I like it. I'll have to use these guys soon.
Plus it gives me a chance to come up some Blue Orc witches.
This post might not be all that interesting (I know the WRONG way to start a post) but I have been digging up some old information on an old campaign I ran at the end of the 2nd ed era.
Many, many years ago while I was still deeply involved in the online Ravenloft community I postulated that Barovia, the home of Strahd in Ravenloft, is a domain taken from the Known World of Mystara, and Glantri in particular.
I was very active on the old MYSTARA-L and RAVENLOFT-L listservs.
Hold on a sec I have my combined Ravenloft-Mystrara-Greyhawk Time line here.
Now keep in mind that Ravenloft has funky time. So Ravenloft uses the
Barovian Calendar (BC) and the present day is 751 (according to the books)
or 753 (according to the kargatane). That would make it 1,346 AC. On *my*
time line.
This also coincides with 1,370 DR in the Realms (but who cares about that!).
I am correlating my dates based on the "fact" that the two Blackmoors are
the same in Greyhawk and Mystara and were destroyed at the same time,
possibly splitting Mystara and Oerth (and D&D from AD&D!). Then I use
Azalin from Ravenloft since we know when he entered the mists and when he
was a king on Greyhawk.
Barovia is founded in "an unknown world" in year 1 BC, or 596 AC. So what
areas were still ripe for conquest or settlement then?
Strahd is born in 299 BC (894 AC)
The "Tergs" invade Barovia 320 BC (915 AC)
Strahd pushes them back 321 BC (916 AC)
Strahd kills his family, Barovia is "cloned" and sucked into the demi plane
351 BC (946 AC).
So the world that Barovia is from, never knows it is gone since an exact
copy with out people is left behind. Well, some of Strahd's family remains.
800 AC to 1000 AC is a fairly well documented period of time.
Castle Amber (X2) has some amazing "Ravenloft like" elements. After all,
Old Averoigne *IS* from Gothic Earth! ;)
As does the Glantri Gazetteer.
Other modules from Mystara also have a very heavy Ravenloft feel to them,
more so than other worlds ("Death's Ride" anyone?)
There is an adventure where the character go to the Prime Material Barovia
around 740 BC (or 1,335 AC). Barovia of this time and place is rules by a
"King Strahd".
If I go with my "Holy Lands of Glantri" future Time line, 1,335 is a blank
period of time for me. A time between the "true" kings in which a regent sat
on the throne. It was an attempt by the mage guild to bring back the rule
of the Princes. They had assassinated the true king and his heirs, but one
escaped not to be "discovered" again till 1,496 AC.
SO, given my time line, I'd say Barovia is/was a principality of Glantri.
Granted this is not conclusive evidence, but it fills the holes I have.
What else do we have?
Warlock.
--
Web Warlock,
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: http://www.rpghost.com/WebWarlock
The DnD Community Council: http://www.dndcommunitycouncil.org/~nbownw
Yeah I was still going by "Web Warlock" online all the time is a vain attempt to keep my academic persona (Timothy S. Brannan) seperate from my gamer geek one. Finally I said screw it and embraced my inner and outer geek.
There is more here and elsewhere. With James Mishler online now I should ask him what his theories were.
Here is something I posted years ago that I can't find the original of online anymore. Though it was quoted at Dragonsfoot. I have the original Word doc here at home still.
Barovia is from Mystara
While Ravenloft may be my favorite game world, it is not my first. No that (dubious) honor belongs to Mystara. So here is how I have used my two worlds together. We really don't know what world Strahd's homeland came from. Other lands are clearly defined as being from Oerth (Greyhawk), Toril (Forgotten Realms), Athas (Dark Sun) or Krynn (Dragonlance). That leaves both Barovia and Mystara obvious by their absence. So. I speculate that Barovia is a darker version of one the Principalities of Glantri. Of course this long before the Princes ruled. We know that from the adventure "Roots of Evil" that the original Barovia still remains on it's home world. Well Glantri has a principality called Boldavia that is surprisingly like Barovia. It is possible that they were nieghbors, but when Strahd and his Barovia was pulled into the mists, the lord of Boldavia took over the unprotected Barovia.
There are plenty of other clues of a Ravenloft-Mystara link.
The classic module, X2 Castle Amber, takes place in Glantri and the module reads like a proto-Ravenloft setting complete with mists and lands being pulled into demi-planes. X2 was based on the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, one of Lovecraft's inner circle, and both writers have contributed a lot to what makes up D&D and Ravenloft today.
Glantri has a very European feel to it. It is higher tech and higher magic than most of the other lands on Mystara and there is definantly a darker edge to it. Since Ravenloft also uses psuedo-European cultures, the ties fit rather nicely.
Demi-Plane or World
Ravenloft is a demi-plane. Or so they tell us. But this has never been a satifactory world for me. In my mind this only emphasizes the "weekend in Hell" feel of the world. So. With the latest edition of the Ravenloft rules, I have decided that Ravenloft is in fact it's own world. Granted it is a haunted world, but not much different than the "World of Darkness" of White Wolf. This has certain advantages for me. Worlds are easier to deal with. I can have a place that can seem real to it inhabitants and give me a reason to have native players. Plus if I want, I can use my Call of Cyhulhu, White Wolf, or Witchcraft RPG stuff to modernize the world, or give it a future. This is what I liked best about Gothic Earth. With 3E Ravenloft I could do a Gothic Mystara or a Gothic Oerth.
Personally I rather move the lot to Earth. But that is a topic for another time.
Plus this helps bring other ideas from the Ravenloft-list into line for me. Ravenloft has a mostly human population, but there are monsters. So a world can support a larger ecosystem. Monsters can run about. Another idea is move the mind flayers, Illithids, to the moon. This give them a more alien feel and ties in very nicely with Lovecraft. Plus I have the new d20 Call of Cthulhu book sitting on my self next to my Ravenloft one. So I am sure I can get something from their unholy union.
Another idea to flesh out this "world" is to use some of the new d20 products out there. Sword and Sorcery studios has some great books, like the Creature Collections and Relics and Rituals. The Scarred Lands of those books has the dark and gritty feel I like to inject into my games. I also have a few good official Wizards of the Coast products that also make a nice addition. Monsters of Faerun is a good example.
The Dark Powers
Who or what are the dark powers and what do they wnat? That is question that has been bugging players and DM of Ravenloft for a long time. We have had some clues. They could be evil outsiders, or gods. Or they could be Good and Ravenloft is a prison. Or maybe they started out as good and became evil. Who knows. The truth be told. I don't deal with them much in my games. While I dislike the idea of Ravenloft being a giant roach motel of evil, I also like to keep the players and the Dark Lords in check.
Plus there are the Dark Lords. Very powerful, not very mobile. I like to use a bit more flexibility with my Dark Lords and Powers. Granted this has not always worked out as well as I would have liked. But I'll keep experimenting. Normally I like to take a page out of the Masque of Red Death and not have Dark Lords at all. Or rather, they are there, but they are significantly weaker when they leave their area of control.
No Dragons?
How is it there are no dragons in Ravenloft, a Dungeons and Dragons game? Well I have added them. Yes they are evil and there is even a Dragon dark lord. The realm is Draconis, and it is also from Mystara. It is currently an island. It too has it's roots in Glantri. You can download it from PlanetADnD.com. Draconis.
If I continue the world metaphor then there are plenty of places for Dragon Dark Lords and Dragons. While Draconis is based on Glantri, it has it roots in the mystical "Dragon Isle" of so many fantasy stories, including the tales of Michael Moorcock's Elric.
BTW I still have Draconis laying around here somewhere. I reused large portions of it for my Dragon Ilse in my kids 3.x game.
My boys are getting ready for their huge campaign finale. The giant battle against Tiamat on the Island of the Dragon Empire. Back in the dawn of time the Dragon and their Dragonfolk surrogates ruled the world from the Dragon Island. Those days are gone and the Dragon Empire has fallen. But the Island remains and that is where the characters will make their stand.
Fantastic Maps - Iconic Island
I am gearing up for the BIG finale of my years long 3e game. The final battle where the forces of good battle the forces of evil happens on an Iceland-like island in my world. I could have drawn anything, I could have even taken an older module and altered the island in Photoshop. With this product I didn't have too. It even looks almost EXACTLY like what I wanted. The ZIP file contains maps of the island. Non-marked, marked and hexed variants. Plus a BW version. There is no text or fluff to go with this, which is great, I have my own. This is my new Dragon Isle! I would love to see more products like this one.
My new island is going to need people too.
Archetypes of the Jade Oath (PFRPG)
I got this product for the new witch hexes but the rest of it is great as well. There is a cool Eastern Flavor to this and I want to see if there is more in this series. While I have a lot of cultures on my game world the one thing that has been getting the short end of my attentions are Dragonfolk/Dragonborn. This book, while not explicitly designed for that, is perfect for my needs (and the cover kinda helps with that).
So what do we get? 20 pages (with cover, credits page, OGL statement and 2 pages of "Ads"). While there is an Eastern "flavor" to this, it is presented mostly context free.
The Barbarian is based on totem animals, which is a really awesome variant. I normally don't play barbarians, but I would try one of these. The Cavaliers are the Order of the Ancestors and Order of the Creed. Monks, a natural fit, are presented as Kensai (one of my favorite classes back in the day). Imagine the typical unarmed monk, now armed. And finally, the Witch, with a bunch of new and exciting hexes based on Elemental magics or Dragon magic (see it is a perfect fit!!). In fact these are some of the best Dragon Witches I have ever seen. So this is worth the price of the book alone to me.
We also get plenty of new feats. This was a nice surprise and I am very happy with this.
Midgard: Player's Guide to the Dragon Empire
I own a few of the Midgard products, but this one really called to me. This Dragon Empire is very similar to the one I was crafting for my own game world, so this saves me some heavy lifting.
The 30 pages of this book is jam-packed. What did I like in this?
Well I love the castes. Dragons seem very arrogant and a caste system makes sense. I liked how the castes were set up as well. Lots of great role-playing potential in these. We get a bunch of new Traits and Feats.
Classes get a bit of an update as to be expected. There is a Cavalier archetype, the Order of the Firedrake (which is a PERFECT with my world's own White Drakes). The Druids have the Elemental Exarch. Fighters get Edjet Warriors, and the Magus has the Dragon Magus. We get a couple new monks, Monk of the Fiery Fist and Monk of the Wind Palm. There is also the Mystery of the Void, Greyscale and Void Elemeentalist for the Oracle, Rouge and Elementalists respectively. There is also the Dragon Emir prestige class which I am sure my son would love. The book end with new spells, exotic goods and magic items, including magic the magic carpet. Cool stuff. I am going to have to look for more books in this series.
Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder RPG
We always need more monsters. Over a 100 new monsters for Pathfinder. Lots of really interesting ones too. I loved the Shadow Fae, Ice Maiden and Red Hag and have hooks already for all of them. The new dragon types are also very interesting and I can't wait to use a Mithril Dragon or Baby Yaga's Horsemen. In fact there are two completely separate campaigns I want to use this book in, a Dragon based one and a Witch-centric one. Both need unique monsters that the players have never seen before, and there are a number of monsters here that are perfect for one or the other or both!
Also available for 4e and AGE.
Lineage Draconis
This 28 page (27 + cover) pdf features 6 dragon crossbreads including the oft stated Orange and Yellow Dragons. But you also get the Blade, Steel, Rust and Gray Dragons. These dragons are pretty interesting and for the game I have coming up I need a lot of interesting dragons. The book also includes the Dragon Blooded "class" though it is also sort of a race. They are humanoid dragons. Plenty of things you can do with this class as well as alternate versions depending one where the blood came from.
In a neat little feature you also get the art from the book in a seperate file. So now you can show your players exactly what a Yellow Dragon looks like.
The Modern Spellcaster Basic Class
This book is for the d20 Modern Game, Pathfinder and a few other d20 based games. It presents a generic form of a spellcaster that isn't a wizard, cleric, witch or druid. In a sense it is a throwback to the older "Magic User" class. The basic premise here is to provide full powered (up to spell level 9) spellcasters from D&D like games to your Modern Games. I am not sure how this works out in play, but the concept on it's own is interesting enough. There are new feats and a fun "arcane death" table. Frankly I would like to see that expanded into an "Arcane CSI" to be used in any modern game with magical elements.
My current big project is "Darwin's Guide to Creatures, Mythical and Mundane" a creature book for the Gaslight RPG (OGL and Savage Worlds)
I got on this since it covers many of my interests well. I love old bestiaries, the Victorian age and my interest in Darwin himself.
I thought that since today was Darwin Day, Id spend some time talking about this book.
For starters it is a monster manual. Creatures mythical and mundane to pit against your Gaslight characters.
It is circa 1888 and we are at the height of the Late Victorian Empire.
The book is written as a naturalist guide, similar in some respects to Darwin's work on the Galapagos Islands in his study of finches. I tried to put myself into Darwin's shoes and write about orcs and trolls as if he had seen them himself. Not an easy task. I also tried whenever possible to avoid any supernatural agencies. That was particularly difficult. I rather like what I did about elementals, but less so about undead and will have to edit them a bit.
To prep for this book I reread Darwin's greatest work, "On the Origin of Species". If you have never read this, then please do. It is a masterwork and so ahead of it's time. This man, through careful and painstaking observation put together this theory of common descent and change of species over time. I know from reading his autobiography that this was not an idea he took lightly. He knew that this would not sit well with the clergy and especially his religious wife. But he also knew it had to be done.
Reading his autobiography got me to one of the key conceits of the book. The book is "published" in 1885 or thereabouts. Darwin was of course dead by that time. It is edited from years worth of notes by his son William Erasmus and his daughter Etty.
I wanted to stay true to the spirit of Darwin, if not the letter, but I also wanted to stay true to the game system and world. Gaslight is a world where Dracula preys on maidens in their bedchambers while Sherlock Holmes peruses Jack the Ripper and Mr. Hyde in the streets of White Chapel.
This is also giving me a chance to stat up some monsters that I have not had the chance to try out yet. In particular some dinosaurs.
Looking forward to getting this one out there too!
Just picked the old GAZ3 Glantri Gazetteer.
I had it before, but lost it in one of my purges over the years.
Glantri was my old stomping ground since I first picked up the Expert Set all those years ago.
Course I changed it around 8th grade (82-83), the population was tired of being controlled by creatures they barely recognized as humans, so there there was an uprising.
Eventually a king was named and the country converted to a Lawful Good religion. I began calling this "The Holy Lands of Glantri". If you were on the old MYSTARA-L lists you might have seen me post somethings about it.
I loved that the city of mostly waterways. And of course how could I not love the Glantri School of Magic.
Re-reading this now I am still impressed and can't wait to use it again. Though I wonder if I should run it as is? With the Princes in power. I really kinda like the political intrigue though I have now.
Great stuff here really. Even without my own additions.
One of the things I love to do in gaming is also learn something. One of the things I like to learn is geography. While knowing the ins and outs the City of Greyhawk or Glantri is fun, it rarely has a use in real life. Walking the streets of London in my games though has some out-side-of-the-game utility.
But sometimes I like something for the pure fantasy sake. So I like to use maps of the Earth in different times.
Long time gamers already know of the Paleomap Map project of Earth History. It has many maps of the different stages of Earth history and potential future maps. I will admit when I first saw maps of the really old Earth it was disquieting to me. I love maps and throughout all of human history the Earth has been the same. Not so throughout ALL history and prehistory.
If you ever played in the Known World of Mystara you know this map:
(image from here, http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm)
That is the Earth in 150 Million Years. Take a look at Africa-Eurasia. Remind you of anything? It did me. How about if I rotate it about 40 degrees.
Now compare that with this:
Not perfect, but a good fit for Robert E. Howards Hyboria. Yes, I know. The Hyborian Age was in the mythical past. And my "North" is really more North East. Well...uh..pole shift! Worked for Mystara!
Going even further into the future we have this little gem.
Earth in 250 Million years. The new continent is called "Pangea Ultima". I call it "Zothique".
Also not quite-perfect, but they are the same thing. Pangea Ultima is the future when all the continents have merged back to one. Zothique is more or less the same thing. If the Hyborian age is some post-post apocalyptic world, then Zothique is the Dying Earth of Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and others. Scientists are equally grim on the chance of life on Pangea Ultima.
There are other maps of the ancient Earth there. The Permian looks like it would be fun to use sometime too, or even the Eocene for something that is similar but yet alien.
Jason Vey has been tinkering on his home campaign of "The Wasted Lands" for a number of years. Here is a maps of the Paelocene and the Eocene,
Here is Jason's map
Not exactly the same, but very close. I like how it is a nice blend of REH's Hyboria and HPL's work. Plus it has Atlantic, Mu and Lemuria which I really like.
There is so much that can be done with the world we already have. So much adventure.
I know there were no humans around in the Eocene, but doesn't this look exciting? I mean even the name of the time is exciting; Eocene, the Dawn Epoch.
Maps speak to me. They always have. That one freaking sings. More than that, it is a Rock Opera. It's The Wall meets Tommy meets Operation Mindcrime and maybe just a little bit of Kilroy Was Here to keep the masses happy.
and like the Realms.
(I don't quite love them yet)
I have always been a Greyhawk fan. Some of my very first games were looking for ancient Suel mysteries or exploring the dirty streets of the Free City of Greyhawk. While I ran my adventures in the Known World of Mystara, I played in Oerth and Greyhawk.
For years I even combined the two into one world, and that worked out pretty well.
I remember reading about the Realms in Dragon Mag and I was never impressed. The increased fetishization of the Drow and Drizzt worship turned me off as well. I can't tell you how much I despised "Lloth", it's LOLTH goddamn it. Any way. I saw the Realms as an upstart to Greyhawk and not even a good one to be honest. This oddly enough was right around the same time I played my first game of OD&D set in Greyhawk. To me Realms fans were snotty little kids with delusions of adequacy.
My opinions have softened since then.
This weekend before last I was at the Games Plus game auction. I was able to pick up the Forgotten Realms books for 1st and 2nd Ed. AD&D. I picked up the 3rd ed stuff a while back and had the 4e stuff from Half-Price books. All in all I was able to get all these books for under 50 bucks total.
The 1st Ed box is in fantastic shape, minus some shelf wear. The 3 and 4e books are in mint condition.
I have been using the Realms for the 4e game I am running and I have been enjoying it.
Sure, I am still using elements from the Points of Light campaign that 4e is built around, but all of it is in the new version of the Realms. There are lot of things that came together nicely for this for me really. In the 4e game I am running the kids are going to go after Orcus. Much the same way as the old H1-4 Bloodstone series a while back. That was set in the Realms, so it is kind of fitting really. Plus it would help me flesh out some of the 4e Orcus arc (HPE series). Not sure how I'll fit Hell into it all, but I might not have to worry about it.
I love the gonzo feeling of two worlds mystically crashing into each other. I like that the place has some history to it. Plus I really liked the 3e Realms book. This might irritate some long time Realms fans, but I think the Realms fits better with 3e and 4e. Greyhawk is better for 1st ed and the like. At least in my mind.
So maybe it's my age or something, but I feel I can finally sit back and appreciate what the Realms really are and not what I think or thought they were. I have the main books/sets (for the most part) for all four editions of the game. Honestly I think that is enough. People have done far more with less.
NOTE: This is something I had submitted to WotC during their open submission window for Dragon. They took a pass on it. But that is cool, because it means I can expand it and pass it on now to you for free.
From the Ancient Dragon Scrolls, #54:
Selûne was created from the primordial essence of the universe, along with her twin sister, Shar. Together, they created Chauntea (the embodiment of the world of Abeir-Toril) and some other heavenly bodies and infused these areas with life. The two goddesses then fought over the fate of their creations. From these struggles emerged the original deities of magic, war, disease, murder, death, and others. Selûne reached out of the universe and from a plane of fire, brought forth a flame and ignited a heavenly body in order to give warmth to Chauntea. This greatly enraged Shar, and she began to erase all light and warmth in the universe. Desperate and weakened because of Shar's actions, Selûne hurled some of her divine essence at her sister. Selûne's essence tore through Shar, bringing some of Shar's essence with it. This magical energy combined to form the goddess Mystryl, the original goddess of magic.
"So says the legends of the Realms. Selûne and Shar, sisters locked in eternal battle, eternal struggle. But this is not the observations of a few; the chosen to know the truth. It is true that siblings fight, they argue, yet do they also not love each other still? Are they not more alike than different?
These were the first questions asked by the first of our order, the truths they lead to though would make us shunned by both the Light and the Dark. Shunned, because deep down they know their own teachings are only half-truths their litanies incomplete. Shunned because we know the terrible, wonderful truth that the Goddesses of the moon, Sehanine, Selûne and Shar, are in truth aspects of the One Triple Goddess."
Followers of the Triple Goddess, known amongst themselves as the Sisterhood of the Triple Goddess (aka Sisters) believe that the Goddess always has been, it is mortals that have artificially split Her into component Goddesses because they can not comprehend Her in Her true form. She is Sehanine, Selûne and Shar individually and all at once. There is no contradiction. Followers of the individual Goddesses fight among themselves because their doctrines are so close to each other, yet they only have a small piece of the truer picture.
Each Aspect is much as the Goddess she represents; Sehanine is the ever youthful Maiden, Selûne the powerful Mother and Shar, the most misunderstood but still shrouded in shadow, decay and death.
The Maiden. In Her guise as Sehanine Moonbow, the Maiden is ever young. She is represents new beginnings, youth and re-birth. It is the Maiden that represents the freedom of youth but also growth. She is most often seen in lush green vegetation, the eternal Spring, the Waxing Crescent Moon. For this reason she is also most often associated with the elves and the Feywild. She is young, capricious and fickle as befits Her nature. She dallies with Gods (and sometimes Goddesses) to sow the next generations. When she does she becomes the Mother.
The Mother. In Her Aspect as the Mother, She is most often worshiped under the name Selûne. Here She is the Goddess of the Summer, the Full Moon. She is associated with the Prime Material and the practical. She is the Mother. Strong, proud, and stern if needed, but loving and understanding. Since the Spellplauge She is depicted as being full with child. Some say she is pregnant with the reborn Mystra and it is through the Mother that Magic enters the world.
The Crone. The most misunderstood of all the Aspects of the Goddess. Though to be evil She is demonized as Shar, the Dark Moon. The Crone is far, far more than that. True, She is responsible for death, darkness and decay, but these are natural processes of Life, Death and Rebirth. She is the Crone of Winter and all souls pass by Her. Forgive her if She seems bitter or cold, She only knows of Death. For this She is most often associated with the Shadowfell. She honors the followers of Shar, but does not understand their fascination with death. Death is needed so that others may live and grow. The harvest must be sown, the fields must be cleared, sometimes burned, so that new seeds and growth can occur. The Crone knows much, but the price of Her wisdom is high.
The Worshippers of The Triple Goddess
The lay worshipper of the Triple Goddess is typically female (thus the name Sisterhood), as the Goddess waxes and wanes in course with the moon, so does a woman as she progresses in life as Maiden, Mother and Crone and through only monthly cycle.
Tenets of Faith The Triple Goddess is worshiped by anyone that worships one of her Aspects, but Her faithful know the truth.
• She is the Moon, waxing and wanning as the Moon does
• She brings Light, Life and Darkness to the World.
• She is the Goddess of Rebirth, Life and Death. Therefore her true believers can never use, or have used on them, any Raise Dead Spell; only Reincarnation.
• Share the word of the Triple Goddess, but do not attempt to convert others. They will come into the fold when they are ready.
• Do what you can to help followers of the Goddess' Aspects.
• Destroy undead. They are an abomination to the Rebirth, Life, Death cycle and therefore an affront to the Goddess.
Relations between the Worshipers.
The Sister of the Triple Goddess share many of the same practices of faith as do the followers of Sehanine, Selûne and Shar. In fact it is not uncommon that a follower of the Triple Goddess will be part of one of the other members' sects. She (and the followers are most often a she rather than a he) will quietly perform her duties next to her unsuspecting sisters, all the while knowing that only she knows the whole truth.
If discovered the follower is usually asked to renounce their heretical beliefs, other service or punishments may be required depending on the sect she belongs too.
Sehanine
The followers of Sehanine view the Triple Goddess as an interesting curiosity. They are more than willing to assume that Sehanine and Selûne could be the same and of course there are still many among the elves that believe that Sehanine is part of a Trinity with Hanali Celanil and Aerdrie Faenya, so this is not a stretch for them. Sisters are usually only asked to maintain pleasant relations with the rest of Sehanine's followers.
The Sisters see the followers of Sehanine as sweet, but hopelessly naïve. This they see as a consequence of only following the Maiden Aspect of the Goddess. They lack the experiences and wisdom that would come to them from learning from the Mother and Crone.
Angharradh
There is much similarity between the Elven Goddess Angharradh and the Triple Goddess. Cheif among these are Sehanine and their similar symbols. Sisters see Angharradh as a separate Elven Goddess more representative of the deep-seated desire in the elves to reunite their race. Unlike Angharradh, who is both the same as and seperate from her aspects, the Sisters believe that The Triple Goddess is One and Three as the same time. There is no separating Sehanine from the Goddess.
Selûne
The Selûnites see the Sisters as also being naïve, but not about the true nature of their Goddess, but instead underestimating the evil and influence of Shar. Some of the more Orthodox members even see the Sisters as a threat set up by Shar Herself to undermine them from within; something they refer to as the Heresy of the Dark Moon (in which they completely ignore Sehanine). It is not the Triunity or even Trinity they have the issues with, it is the fact they include Shar in it.
Though it is speculated that there are Sisters in some of the highest ranks of the Selûnite church.
The Sisters see the Selûnites as being blinded by their hatred of "Shar" to see the full reality; there is no "Shar" as a separate Goddess. Shar, The Crone is necessary for life to continue and grow.
The Orders Swords of the Lady: The "Lunatics" appreciate The Sister's stance on undead, but feel their belief that Shar is part of their Goddess to heresy in the extreme. The Sister's see the Swords as dangerous fanatics. Oracles of the Moon: The Oracles and the Sisters actually get along quite well. The Oracles tend to see more than the other followers and the Sisters find the Oracles very knowledgeble, but removed from worldly concerns. Silverstars: Silverstars are wary of the Sisters, feeling like the Swords, that cleave a little too closely to Shar for their liking. However individually they do tend to get along since Sisters value life above all else. The Sisters admire the Silverstars and feel their cause is worthy and just. They just wished they could find the way to seeing the full Goddess.
Shar
The Followers of Shar tend to be a dark, evil lot. They view the Sisters as cowards for not embracing true evil and watering down their belief with the likes of Sehanine and Selûne. They have nothing but contempt for them. Punishments can include forced re-conversion by torture. When the Sisters were first discovered within the ranks of the Sharites they were captured and infected with Werewolf Lycanthropy. What shocked and surprised both sides were that the Sisters so infected retained their own minds when transformed; something even the Selûnites could not do.
The Sisters see the Sharites as perverters of the Goddesses true form. Yes, the Crone is shadowy and surrounded by death, but it is the ultimate destination for us all. To focus on that aspect alone is perverse. The Sisters run the greatest personal risk from the Sharites, but they are also the ones the Sisters feel the need to reach out to the most.
The Orders Dark Justicars: The Justicars consider the Sisters to be dangerous heretics and usually kill them on sight. The Sisters avoid the Justicars at all costs. Some souls can't be saved.
Order of the Dark Moon: More accepting of the Sisters since their own tappings into the Dark Weave has lead them to believe that is of the same nature as the Weave. If this is true, then the teachings of the Sisters, as radical as they are, could also be true. The Sisters find the Order to be very austere in their thinking and are not surprised that their single minded dedication to the Shadow Weave also blinds them to the greater being of the Triple Goddess. They are not to be taken lightly, but represent the best inroad into Shar's cult they have.
Nightcloaks/Nightbringers: The Orthodoxy of the Church of Shar see the Sisters as a threat and one that must be destroyed. The Sisters view the Nightcloaks as the true poison in Shar's worship. If this dangerous element can be removed the Sisters feel the rest of the followers of Shar will become followers of the Triple Goddess.
Others
As an unaligned deity the Tripple Goddess is misunderstood by the clergy and lay member of most of the other faiths. The followers of Chantea in her form of the Great Mother have much in common with the Sisters. While the dogman and tenets of faith are very, very similar, there are enough differences to keep them from being close.
Centers of Worship
The Sisters are found everywhere that the worshipers of Sehanine, Selûne and Shar. In particular they are located in the Moonshae Isles. There are centers of worship in Waterdeep as well.
Fourth Edition
The Triple Goddess is the Unaligned Goddess of the Moon, Magic and Change.
Type: Greater God Alignment: Unaligned Gender: Female Sphere: Moon Symbol: Three interlocking circles Domain: Arcana, Change, Moon
Special: Worshipers may take any feat or Paragon Path that is limited to Sehanine, Selûne and Shar, with alignment considerations.
The Triple Goddess find worshipers among all sorts of peoples. She is predominantly worshiped by Witches, Celestial Sorcerers, Fey and Dark Pact Warlocks, Moon Elves and Half-Elves. She is also worshipped by good or unaligned Half-Orcs. Regardless of race or class Her faithful are mostly women. Those that devote themselves to destroying Undead will also pay Her homage, especially if they hunt at night.
The worship of The Triple Goddess is strongest anywhere where the Prime Material, Shadowfell and the Feywild overlap. There is known activity in Winterhaven.
Third Edition D&D
The Triple Goddess Goddess of the Moon, Change, Magic and Mysteries Greater Deity Symbol: Three interlocking circles Home Plane: The Moon Alignment: Lawful Neutral Portfolio: Moon, Magic, Night, Mysteries Worshipers: Women, witches, Astrologers, Cleric Alignment: Any Domains: Arcana, Change, Moon Favored Weapon: None (magic)
Dogma
The world is more complex than you know and there are still great mysteries. The Triple Goddess is the keeper of these mysteries, but to understand them you must first understand Her.
I still don't have a name yet for my new Realms based 4e game, but things are coming together really nice.
Now back when I said I didn't know anything about the Realms. Well that wasn't true. I don't know much about the lands or the peoples. I have no idea where Elminster is from, but I could pick him out in a police line up. But one thing I do know about is the gods of the Realms.
Back when I was working on my first Witch netbook I picked up what was at that time my only Realms specific book, Faiths & Avatars. I wanted some more info on various gods, various 2nd ed Kits and the human deities. Later I picked up Powers & Pantheons and Demihuman Deities.
So Gods, I know.
I have been playing around with the plots lines of the Spellplague and the events in HPE modules.
And I have decided that I have killed of a number of the Gods.
Here is who is living and who is dead and why.
Bahamut has taken on Tyr's and Torm's portfolios. Torm was killed by Asmodeus. Is now a greater power.
Bane - Dead. Why? can't stand him. Plus I need Asmodeus as a greater threat. He killed Bane and absorbed all his power and portfolio. Part of his Reckoning of Hell. Asmodeus is still keeping Tharizdun chained up deep in Hell.
Kelemvor - Was killed by Orcus in the demon lord's attempt to regain his godhood. In my games Orcus was not a human that rose up through the ranks of demon-hood, but rather he was Death Primordial/Titan that had the powers of a god. He had been denounced and banished to the Abyss. He is searching for an artifact to give him ultimate power.
Mystra is dead, as per the book. But she won't stay that way for long.
The Raven Queen - from the D&D core and not the Realms I know. She is alive, but she has not come into her power at all. In fact she is currently in the guise of a teenage girl ala Death from the Endless. She is the vessel of Kelemvor's power.
Sehanine, Selûne and Shar are much as they are in the books. However in my world there is also a heresy and a cult dedicated to the "Triune Goddess" or the "Triple Moon Goddess" who believe that all three deities are merely part of the same greater goddess. They are respectively the Maiden, Mother and Crone.
The mother, Selûne, is pregnant with the infant Mystra. Since Kelemvor is dead, Shar is pulling double duties till the young Raven Queen is ready.
We are playing D&D 4th Edition with the plan of going from 1st to 30th level
I will have *7* players aged 8 to 12 1/2
We are playing in the Forgotten Realms as it is in the 4th Ed books.
We are going to do the H-P-E Modules starting with "The Keep On the Shadowfell"
Two of the kids are mine. Three are the sons of my friend Greg and two are friends of my oldest son. The two new kids have never played anything before.
Greg's kids have played a lot of games, mine have played a variety of D&D games, most notably our 3.x Dragon Slayers game.
We are going with the Orcus wants to become the God of Death plot line. The differences will be that it's Kelemvor that has died due to the Spellplauge and the Raven Queen is only a Godling, her power untapped. This makes her a more likely target to Orcus than the mature Raven Queen. I'll admit there are some things from Amber Benson's "Death's Daughter" that I want to try out too. I am still doing many of the ideas from this post back in 2010, except these characters are not the descendants of the 3.x characters and I am going to smash a world into this one.
Honestly I think it is going to be great. 4e has it's detractors, but we still had fun with it. Plus my son plays in a Castles & Crusades game with 3 of the other kids listed above and my two boys are still finishing up their 3.x game where I used all the old 1st Ed modules. We get to do all sorts of schools here.
What I have been considering for this game is moving it away from my normal world of Mystoerth to something new. Or at least new for me.
I am considering, very seriously, the Forgotten Realms.
I talked about this a while back. I picked up the Player's Guide then, and just got the Campaign Guide.
I own some Realms books as PDFs. They were one of the things I grabbed in the mad dash before DriveThru took them all down.
I mentioned before that I was never a fan of the Realms. I considered it to be a pretender to Greyhawk and not a very worthy one at that. In fact one of the first examples of my own Nerd Rage was how Anti-Realms I used to be because it took the spotlight away from my beloved Greyhawk.
I picked up the 3.0 Realms Guide when it came out and I admit I liked it. I felt it was a good book and all it really was missing was monsters. The new 4e campaign books are a good model too. Though this time I feel I have enough monsters.
But what I like the most about the 4e Realms book is how completely gonzo it is. Smash two planets together to get one world! I love that! Spell plagues? Bring it on! Races from Abeir now showing up? Fantastic!
I will be honest. I know next to nothing about the Realms. Nada. Zip.
Never read the novels, never played in the Realms EVER.
Normally I think this would be an issue. But since I am using the 4e material and it is about 100 years after all the events in 3e, not to mention world-changing events at that, that it is ok if that the players know nothing. All I need to worry about is their local part of the world.
The iconic NPCs are never going to show up, nor in fact will my sons' characters from our 3.x game.
I want this story to be about these characters right now.
I am also still planning to use the HPE modules for these characters to fight Orcus. Since it is the Realms I am going to add some of the materials from the old H-series, The Bloodstone Wars.
So here are my questions to those of you far more familiar with the Realms than me.
Should I read over any of the older material?
Where is a good place to start the characters? IE. What is "The Village of Hommlet" for the Realms?
Anything I should about running the Realms say as opposed to running Greyhawk?
Thanks! I am feeling really excited about this and want it to work out well.
Today I want to talk about the ONLY Mary Pickford movie I have ever seen. This movie though has had such a profound impact on my gaming and later writing that I would be remiss if I didn't talk about it at least once here.
Sparrows (1926)
I saw this movie back when I was in Junior High School. One of the great things about growing in my family is we are all movie buffs and we (dad, mom and my brothers and sisters) all have different tastes. Sparrows is one from my Dad's collection (though I am sure my brother Daniel has seen it too). Now I don't recall if I saw it on tape or on one of those Classic Movie channels back in the early days of cable TV. But I have very distinct memories of this movie.
First, and this might run me afoul of my blogging cohorts today, I don't like Mary Pickford. OR rather, I should say I didn't like her in this. What I think was supposed to be a quiet reserve of faith and strength to me became a weak and ineffectual character. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Sparrows was to me a horror movie. That is how I was introduced to it, and those were the eyes I viewed it. It was not though horror as I was expecting. You can read up on the plot on Wikipedia, I want to talk about what I saw and the effect it had on me.
I guess I like and hate this movie for all the wrong reasons. Molly (Pickford) was to me weak and spent too much time looking to God to solve her problems when I felt she should have been trying to solve them on her own. In fact the only time she and the children in the movie are safe is when she gets up and moves them on her own. I have (maybe because I am an atheist) always been fascinated by the "strong, silent faithful" type. I like it when they succeed, but most often I expect them to fail. I wanted the kids to escape, but Molly seemed like a poor candidate to help them.
Then there is Mr. Grimes. Not since the Baron and Baroness Bomburst of Vulgaria in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang had I seen a character more evil in his disregard of children (my mom ran a Day Care, in my mind the most evil thing was to hate or harm a child). He left a lasting impression to be sure. So lasting that to this day I have an evil necromancer character who lives in a swap (like Grimes) who hates children.
In my mind the dichotomous battle was set. Old, evil, Grimes versus the young, pure Molly. And so help me if I didn't like Grimes better. I really wanted the kids to rise up and just beat the living shit out that guy and his wife. But they never did, worse, Molly keeps looking up to the sky like she is getting some private communique. Like that is going to help.
I think about this movie fairly often to be honest. Many things I wrote after I watched it will bubble back up in things I write today. I still used swamps as my ultimate hideout of evil (but that could also be in part to the Legion of Doom).
Reflecting back now I would like to see this again, if for no other reason than to give this film it's due with more mature eyes and sensibilities.
Though the metaphorical descendants of Grimes (his own children if you will) will live on in my games for some more years.
Of course in the movie good triumphs over evil, but not because good was smarter/better but because evil was dumb. I can't help but think how this movie would have been handled by Jonathan Demme and if Grimes had been more like Hannibal Lector. Grimes was "Jr. High evil" not "world evil" to paraphrase Kim Possible (who also makes Molly look bad). There is a movie for you. "Sparrows 2000", the bad guy is a Lecter/Buffalo Bill like evil and the hero is a fiery red-headKim Possible type. Nah. It looses a lot in the translation. As much as Sparrows fails to measure up by my jaded standards today, it was quite effective when it came out and when I first saw it.
So to the movie I remember I do owe a creative debt.
