Dice were tossed, characteristics were arranged, classes chosen and abilities written down! Actual background was written by three players as well.
2 Human clerics of Agni (not the same as from Hindu mythos)
1 Human mage
1 Gnome illusionist/thief
1 Dwarven fighter
1 Human bard
+1 probable cleric on the way
The poor fighter is going to be a damage sink for everyone, but he'll be healed in no time with that many clerics.
Everyone started showing up on time for game on Friday. A very good sign. Dice were rolled, characters tweaked and gear was purchased. Now comes the hard part...
The town they are starting in went through a near bloodless coup about 2 years prior and there is a bit of a fascist regime in place. Grendelsheim is ruled by a young warrior who goes by the name of Eadred of Moorweld, but is better known by his title: Warlord.
The Warlord is aided by his friends and fellow adventuring party. They constitute a dangerous and intelligent force to be reckoned with. Their loyal henchmen form the Cohort, an elite unit of combat veterans, spell slingers, scouts and specialists. They are absolutely loyal to the Warlord.
After entering the town they were briefly interviewed and their weapons were peace-bound to their belts and scabbards. An adventuring inn was recommended to them and they all met over drinks and a meal.
The bard, Breylon, and one of the priests of Agni gathered rumors of a "gray" market that opens from dusk until dawn is the old abandoned section of Low Town. This "Goblin Market" supposedly has a twilight tavern called Pippin's Last Call where the Warlord is hiring trouble shooters.
What kind of trouble, no one seems to know.
Why now?
After a 15 year layoff from D&D, why return to an old version (1e-2e)? There are several reasons , but they all reduce down to a lack of time.
1. My players: half of us have kids and very active (demanding) family lives. We don't have the time to play once a week for 6 hours straight anymore. The best schedule is once a month for dinner and a game. This is set up well in advance to eliminate most non-emergency changes. "Aunt Edna is having an Arbor Day celebration." "Sorry, had this dinner and game scheduled since February... 2013."
2. The Newer Games: I love the concept of GURPS and have bought tons of material from all of the versions of the game. I've been a playtester for three books and helped in a very minor way on one other. I understand the realism in the combat system and the variations that can be used to make it more abstract. The problem is with scalability. It take me way too long to scale a challenge for any gurps game.
As such, Abstract = Faster = Better
3. The Old Games: Since I'm a packrat I still have most of the old notes and maps from 1999. By modifying some old modules to fit the current campaign I have eliminated the majority of my work while still creating something "new" for my players.
In addition, two of my friends who haven't played in 15 years will be playing tomorrow. They had no desire to learn a new system but are eager to go old school.
I've happily killed off my old campaigns several times, each time learning a little something about storytelling and entertaining. That's all DMing really is, although the genre may change radically from game to game. Sometimes the game changes the players (several instances of PVP during dark themed campaigns), but most often for me its the players who change the game.
I strive to have the PCs be the center of the show. They are in the right or wrong place at the wrong or right time and they decide how to play in the sandbox. They have the potential to be able to change their world. The NPC's have personal goals and ambitions, but they never take the reins and drive the show.
This Friday I'm starting a new campaign based on one that I ended in 1999. The setting is the same (Freewold Valley), but set approximately 50 years before the last PCs played. There will be player familiarity with the geography, but only a very few NPCs will have been around that they might have met.
...yes, I suppose its possible for them to be their own Grandpa. :-)
I've been DMing since 1978. In fact, most of my birthday presents that year consisted of D&D books. My Dad patiently drove me from hobby shop to hobby shop on the Saturday after my birthday as we slowly accumulated gear.
By the time the afternoon was over, I had a good pile of tools to build my first dungeon with: white box, Greyhawk, Blackamoor, Eldrich Wizardry (a tough sell due to the nekkid chick on the cover) and finally, the Monster Manual.
Oh, and graph paper...lots of graph paper.
The first dungeon utilized every square possible.
Fading Suns! This was the space RPG I couldn't remember. Cool concept, difficult players. :-)
