Courtesy geneticanomaly.com

Yesterday I touched on a subject that will hopefully grow more interesting and in-depth as the year gets underway. In keeping with the initial source and given that I’m creating a new character for an on-line D&D campaign, I find myself thinking about fully-formed campaign worlds that exist outside of the default setting, at one time called ‘Mystara’ or ‘Greyhawk.’ Some have fared well over the years, while others have become somewhat faded. Today I’ll tackle three, and tomorrow four.

Forgotten Realms

It’s difficult to call these realms truly ‘forgotten’ when their books, tales and characters persist through not one but two complete revisions of the D&D engine. Toril has long provided players and DMs alike with a rich, nuanced and vast world in which to tell stories, and the continent of Faerûn has seen more than its share of wars, intrigues, betrayals and upheavals, rivaling Azeroth and the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. With a history that is deep and storied and a world expansive enough to encompass all sorts from all walks of life, it’s no wonder players keep returning to these not-so-forgotten realms.

Eberron

Steampunk fantasy. Almost sells itself, doesn’t it? Just ask Privateer Press. While Eberron might not have the mighty hulking warjacks and pseudo-Soviet warriors of Warmachine, it does have fully autonomous machine characters, railways powered by lightning and cities reaching high into the sky. It’s not a bad setting, and there’s a lot of fun to be had there, but magic becoming technology isn’t quite as interesting as magic railing against technology, as it does in the aforementioned Iron Kingdoms. But that’s a subject for another post, I suppose.

Spelljammer

I’ve only played Spelljammer once. It was… interesting. Blending fantasy with science fiction has been done numerous times – Star Wars, Krull, etc – but in Spelljammer it felt a bit forced. It was still fun for me, back in my teen years, to give this a shot, but it never felt quite right. I had access to the Star Wars roleplaying game – wrote quite a bit in terms of campaign background for it, in fact – as well as 2nd edition D&D, and I found myself thinking “I could be playing this or that” instead of playing Spelljammer. Still, it’s a setting with potential, and a little refinement may make it worth revisiting, provided the door that leads from Sigil to the realm of the Spelljammers doesn’t just open on empty space.

More tomorrow on the realms of D&D.

The Nentir Vale is a campaign setting provided to new players of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It’s present in the Red Box and most of the starting materials. For a party almost all completely new to D&D and a DM re-familiarizing himself with the latest edition, it’s a great place to start a campaign. This will be an ongoing recollection of what happens to the party as they make their way through the Nentir Vale. Enjoy.

As the party took stock of themselves and made sure none of them were badly wounded, a loud croak was heard from outside the caverns. Recognizing it as the call of bullywugs not unlike those they’d just slain, the party readied itself.

“I draw my axe!” “I draw my sword.” “I draw my… boobs?” – Mike, Ben and Eric preparing for battle

The bullywugs outside were accompanied by a pair of giant frogs and a halfling bow at the end of the rope. The bullywug champion Uggloor had captured the boy when his friends had fled and he’d unfortunately slipped and fallen in the mud. As the party moved to take on the raiders, Lyria tumbled down the ledge behind Uggloor and her daggers found their mark. His minions tried to skewer the party with their javelins, and the frogs attempted to grab hold of one of the intruders with their sticky tongues.

“It tries to tongue you, and misses.” At this description, Ben died of laughter.

At the first sign of trouble, the halfing boy fled. Lyria kept Uggloor occupied to prevent him from giving chase. Be it from this focus or the notion of the abuse of a kinsman, she didn’t stop until the champion had croaked his last.

“She hit him so hard he leapt off the board!” – Ben

Meanwhile, the rest of the party resolved to deal with the remaining pair of bullywugs and their pet frogs. The tendency of their foes to leap about made bringing them down somewhat difficult. Keeping the bullywugs rooted to one location and dealing enough damage to prevent them leaping away became a top priority.

“I’m moving off the map.” “You can move off the map?” “Why do we even have a map?” – Danielle, Eric and Mike discussion spatial positioning in combat.

Eventually, one of the frogs grabbed hold of Andrasian and drew him into its gullet. The party laid into the frog, moving quickly to cut their friend free. The remaining frog didn’t stay around long enough to get carved up.

The halfling youth, a member of the Reedfoot clan, was very grateful for the rescue. He told the party that his uncle ran one of the many flatboats that traversed up and down the White River through the Harkenwold, trading with towns like Albridge and the farms in between. Before taking him home, the party returned to Tor’s Hold to report their success.

Bran Torsson was very happy with the news, and agreed to send warriors from Tor’s Hold in the fight to come. he also asked Krillorien, on the sly, to bless his house in which many of the soldiers were training, dining and sleeping. He felt Pelor’s blessing would inspire the troops, and it’d also piss off his shrill wife. Krillorien happily agreed.

From there, the party traveled towards the river. They found several halfling flatboats heading towards Albridge. One of them was captained by the youth’s uncle, Willet. He gently chastised the lad for losing his footing, and recognized Lyria as a Thorngauge, knowing her uncle Bobbin very well. The Thorngauges ran a caravan similar to the Reedfoot’s flatboats, only on wagons between Stormwatch and Erathgate to the south. Puffing on his pipe and concealing a brace of knives under his waistcoat, he had no trouble sneaking the party into Albridge.

On their way to the livery where Dar Gramath was organizing the resistance to the Iron Circle, the party stopped at a tavern. Inside, members of the selfsame Iron Circle were carousing and carrying on, drinking their fill without paying and harassing the staff and locals. Andrasian admonished them to stop. The head brigand responded by saying that the newcomwers needed to surrender their weapons, as only Iron Circle members could carry arms. Andrasian chellenged the mercenaries to take their arms.

“Now now, boys,” Melanie said as she swept into the tavern. “There’s no need to fight.”

There was a pause.

“Kill the elf-men and the shortstack,” the Iron Circle brigand replied. “Leave the woman for me.”

“Oh, balls. CHEESE IT!” – Eric’s reaction to the Brigand’s orders.

A tavern brawl naturally ensued…

All locations, NPCs, spells and equipment copyright Wizards of the Coast unless otherwise noted.