It's been suggested that I post my ideas for the upcoming campaign somewhere rather than a long email thread to make it easier to keep track the plans and discussion. I've posted it here and to the Facebook group, and will update each location on an ongoing basis as I get new ideas, change my mind on others, and respond to questions and suggestions from the peanut gallery potential players. Feel free to add thoughts and pose questions in the comments to avoid the ungodly email string these things sometimes turn into. Note that you have to be logged in to a Google account to comment; that's the only way to keep the spam-bots under control.
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Below is a short summary of my thoughts at the moment, subject to change between now and whenever we start playing. For those of you not re-living your 1980's AD&D nerd-dom, feel free to tune the rest of us out for the foreseeable future. Rest assured, once we actually start play, there will be monsters to slay, treasure to steal, and Terry's character(s) to mock for their short lifespan(s).
In no particular order:
- Working title of the campaign is "Gygax & Greyhawk". I'll be using Greyhawk (focused in one area TBD) as the campaign setting, and we'll hit as many of the old modules as we can. This will be a regular campaign, not just a 'greatest hits', so their will be other things mixed in with the old school AD&D modules.
- The goal of the campaign is to get you guys to name level (i.e. 9th +) or higher and let you run rampant against one or more of the cool AD&D end game monsters and locales. Fight Drow and mindflayers in the Underdark, Asmodeus in the Nine Hells, or Orcus in the Abyss. Or something like that. To make sure we get there before we all (i.e. me) burn out, the pace of character advancement will be faster than in past campaigns. But I still intend this to run a 'full' campaign of 50-80 sessions or so.
- Of the modules you guys have mentioned the following are likely out: Pharaoh, Lost City, Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Slaver series. They don't quite fit with what I have in mind. The others (along with a lot of other stuff) are fair game. Agree with Jon that TOEE might be a bit much for the speed at which we play; but I might mine it for ideas and themes and bits and pieces.
- Rules will be 1st Ed AD&D, with the retroclone OSRIC (and houserules etc) as a backup for those esoteric bits in the original rules that are a wee bit obtuse. But as much as possible, we'll play rules a written.
- No Unearthed Arcana. Sorry, no barbarians, cavaliers, drow, or deep gnomes. I reserve the right to mine UA for magic items, spells, and bits of rules, but for players you are following the Players Handbook for everything you need character wise. I will entertain specific UA requests on a case by case basis.
- From a character perspective, if it's in the PH, it's game legal. Yes you can be a half-orc assassin if you so wish. And we're not using the psionics rules.
- Although character selection is entirely up to you, keep in mind these old modules are written for a well balanced party i.e. a good mix of fighters, clerics, magic users, etc. Sounds like most of you are leaning towards the fighter/cleric area; except Terry's werido options. I think Mary is also leaning towards elf fighter/magic user or something similar. But I'd suggest being flexible with your choices just in case a particular 'role' needs to be filled.
- Speaking of characters, we'll roll them all together at the first session. We'll use 4d6, drop the lowest and arrange as you like. So should be no trouble to get whatever race/class you want unless it's got some silly ability score requirements like paladins, monks, etc.
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