After a little urgin gfrom Valadarr I've put togther a short article detailing how to organize your campaign on a compuiter to make finding notes and key images a breeze to show the players or print for handouts as desired.
The question was asked about how you run a high level campaign. While this is a simple question it is not very simple to answer. Anyone who is an experienced DM will tell you that, especially for a beginner. In order to answer this I began thinking backwards.
It is December 24th. People around the world are doing last minute shopping, traveling, and getting their work done. The world is filled with moments of joy and amusement as the world is desperately getting ready for a joyous holiday (or going to the movies or Chinese food w/ the family… depending on the tradition).
Then, the Gates open and the world changed. Mythics began to appear. However, out of the gates, yes those magical gates, out pours death and mayham into the Malls and Streets. They don’t have a name, nor do they give one. Some call them demons, aliens, or experiments; others just call them Monsters. The Elfs, they call them Grinches.
Continued Below...
An article for GM’s and players alike upon the matter of the family and friends of the players.
For hundreds of years colonist from Earth have lived on Kerren. They came to Karren to live a simplier peaceful life. A pity that dream never materialized.
Kerren is a world in an age of Saurians. Giant megafauna live among huge trees. Smaller saurians and giant insects live in their shadows. The Humans live in Clusters, walled cities usually along cliffs, to protect themselves.
Kerren is a world of little metal. The colonists expected resources to maintain a minimal level of technology. Those resources did not exist or were unobtainable given their tools. They adapted to the materials they had.
In short their life was simplier, but it was not peaceful.
Zhan are extradimensonal blobs that fall from rifts caused by electrical storms. Zhan infect living things, twisting them into rampaging monsters. If Kerren was not dangerous enough, now “things” roamed the lands.
However, the Colonists found allies on Kerren- The Dragons. Working with this native animal species, The Ryders defend their people. Riding their dragons they destroy Zhan as they fall before they can contaminate the world, remove Zhani monsters in Grey Zones, and wrangle Mega Fauna and Jumpers. Together with their Dragons, Ryders help build and maintain the colony.
One player. One Game Master. Roleplaying in this way is slightly different than with a group.
Did you, like me, sit in the cinema thinking “Now this is what I want to achieve for my campaign climax”? Did you sit around afterwords trying to figure out how? Well I did, and here it is.
Starting a Campaign the MoonHunter way, what more is there to say?
Pieh asked:Its around midnight, you are scheduled to play some RPG at about 10am. All of a sudden you find out the DM is sick (sore throat, ect) and he knows you’re planning a game. The problem is you only have a world map. You don’t want to disappoint everyone by letting them show up with no game to play, what do you do?
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”
Great drama is at the core of the Gaming Experience. The character’s can’t be fighting the destruction of the world every session (though that can be fun), but there is great fulfilment in the climatic scenes of a campaign or long term adventure. Every climax is not seen in terms of violence (though it is very common). The personal stories of PC’s and NPC’s should also have meaningful expression in adventure climaxes. Yet all Climaxes in a campaign have similarities.
World Packs are the ONLY WAY TO GO!
Giving NPCs memories can go a long way to making a more realistic and enjoyable game world.
This is not a submission about creating NPCs, this is about presenting them. Not everyone walks around with a different accent, strange tic, or catchphrase, our memories are what make us different.