The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

[Wrathbone]

I hope you give him a proper burial so he can have a gravestone that reads “Smoked Hamfist”.

[Raid]

Good idea. Someone will need to dig the grave though.

Gainsborough!

[Mantis]

Why do I feel like we're going to forget all about this Horn of Unity thing and instead focus on rescuing Gainsborough's soul from hell?

At the very least we're going to need to find a new butler before we set off on our inter-planar adventure.

[Wrathbone]

This is going to end up with all the imps piling together inside a frock coat, isn’t it?

[Sly Boots]

*makes note*

[Mantis]

Seemed to work well enough for Nexori.

Incidentally, that recap really seemed to press the importance of going after the Horn ASAP, and I've dragged us back to Neverwinter to nearly get TPK'd.

[Sly Boots]

[Wrathbone]

I'm heading back home tomorrow, so should be fine for Thursday.


On a separate note, I'd guess there's still at least a few months left in this campaign but I'm starting to think about a second campaign (assuming we want to continue, of course). My initial thoughts are:

1) I'd like to create a new world to set it in, rather than the Forgotten Realms. Definitely not certain yet, but the freedom of an original creation than can be developed and shaped with the adventure is very appealing to me.

2) It might be a good change of pace to have a party driven by personal goals and wherever the adventure takes them, rather than world-ending events. Not to say that there wouldn't be world-ending events, as D&D naturally leans towards that at higher levels, but I like the idea of a big open map with lots of self-contained adventures, with world events going on in the background to give things context. Kind of like the X-Files with monster-of-the-week episodes, but the larger conspiracy sometimes coming to the forefront.

Any thoughts or requests?

[Sly Boots]

[Mantis]

Both sound good to me. The problem with the higher level stuff is that you kind of get swept up in world events after a certain point, but then it's hard to avoid because the characters are so strong that if left to their own devices they could steamroll most areas they might choose to just go play around with. Like, could you imagine us at level 18 causing trouble on the Neverwinter Council? Though to be fair, causing utter chaos is part of the fun.

We might have to hold off for another week. Its 50/50 at the minute whether I'll have to stop away with work on Thursday and I wouldn't want to leave it until the last minute to confirm it or not.

[Sly Boots]

Firstly, absolutely would love to continue following the end of this campaign.

Like Mantis, I like the sound of both options. I'm maybe leaning slightly towards 1 as a) that sounds awesome and b) I wonder if starting in a new world is a good opportunity to roll new characters? While I love playing as Slythe I'm aware we're all pretty high level at this point and wonder how long that's something we can sensibly sustain.

[Mantis]

I sort of assumed that any new kind of campaign would mean rolling new characters. We could wrap up the campaign after finishing the main plot with some little epilogue adventures or something, just to give the characters a meaningful ending. But sustained max level play isn't really an easy task.

The only thing that I'd say for keeping the setting within Forgotten Realms is that if you set it a time after the first campaign then there is the opportunity for cameo appearances from old characters or NPCs, which has always been really fun when I've seen it in the past. But it's not a deal breaker for using a new setting.

[Wrathbone]

I sort of assumed that any new kind of campaign would mean rolling new characters. We could wrap up the campaign after finishing the main plot with some little epilogue adventures or something, just to give the characters a meaningful ending. But sustained max level play isn't really an easy task.

The only thing that I'd say for keeping the setting within Forgotten Realms is that if you set it a time after the first campaign then there is the opportunity for cameo appearances from old characters or NPCs, which has always been really fun when I've seen it in the past. But it's not a deal breaker for using a new setting.

Yeah, realistically a new campaign would mean new characters.

One of the benefits of sticking with the Forgotten Realms is that there's decades of material to fall back on in a pinch, but that can also confuse things from behind the DM screen because inevitably the characters and locations end up veering from the source, and so you have to remember what's changed and what hasn't.

An entirely new campaign setting doesn't have that problem and provides absolute freedom. I thought it might be a lot more work, but in truth I already do much of the same preparation in the FR setting as I'd need to for a new one. It's not like I'd have to work out every detail of the world from the very beginning. And I'm sure the Unmentionables could find some reality-hopping method if we wanted a cameo or two.

[Mantis]

The homebrew setting I've used for the three one shots I've run so far is based on the Forgotten Realms, but 2000 years following a huge cataclysmic war among the gods which reshaped the entire world, ended with half the gods dead and three primary mortals risen as the new main divine trinity. The history has largely been lost to time and is heavily guarded by the main religious group, which lets me sprinkle whatever I want in from the FR without needing to worry about how accurate it is with the source material. The group I've run it for haven't even clocked that it's the same world yet, but then the games we played were all set on a new continent which didn't have any FR landmarks on at all.

We never have enough time to run a full campaign with it though. So it exists as a fun little spin-off world with rather comical one-shot adventures and I've never had a chance to reveal any grander plot elements.

[Raid]

Firstly, I'm available on thursday if it happens.

Secondly, I'd love to continue playing with you guys in a new campaign. I really don't have a lot of input on setting; this campaign has been my only real experience with The Forgotten Realms, so there's going to be as much to explore for me in the current setting as there would be in a new one. I have no objections either way.

Thirdly, I'm sorta looking forward to creating a new character. Charr has been a bit of a mish mash of personalities and motivations throughout the campaign, and I've never really properly defined him or his goals. I did start thinking of a proper backstory back in February when I was laid up with shingles, but I figured that it's likely too late in the day for it to make any impact. It included what to me sounded like a fairly fun idea, and I'm tempted to use it when it comes to creating someone new.