The Time Structure of the New Campaign.

I've decided to go a different route with the time structure of the new campaign, and this is going to be important to the players because I will be *starting* the campaign on August 9th with the players having had a complete month worth of  in-game "Off-Table Time" to get them accustomed to using the concept. While it might sound complicated, I'm just going to codify stuff we're already doing...to be as fair as possible. 

When a gaming session is occurring, the players are said to be on "table time," which is pretty obvious-we're playing, etc.

When the session ends, the characters are either paused or in "off-table time" which may be used for traveling (with limitations) or accomplishing things at home (or in another safe place.)

Things that may be done in off-table time include research, conversations and plans between characters, shopping (with limitations), restocking, creating items/spells/special attacks (again, with limitations), leveling up, fixing the fence at your dad's farm, healing from normal damage, recovering from exhaustion effects, etc.  Things done in off-table time accumulate very little experience points per hour, or none at all. (People creating things and spells will get more experience, but have less opportunity to do so.)

Off-table time will be given in the form of "maximums" between "events" (ie: 'There is a maximum of seven days of off-table time between now and next session') and if you intend to do anything off-table, you have to contact the DM at least 24 hours before the next session. There will be no piling on of 'oh, I already did this' at the start of sessions. It makes the DM go crazy.  There is no guarantee that the off-table time will be as long as the maximum, so if you want to do many things, you will have to tell me the order they happen in.

If you need to contact the DM in a hurry, you know my phone number, my twitter and where I live. If you just want to put something on paper, and you want me to get to it eventually, you can send it to thane@fenlock.org or contact your liege-lord on twitter at @ThaneFour 

I will be using these as catch-alls for campaign related questions and stuff. In addition, the office of the thane will provide a "the current time is" tweet on  a semi-regular basis.

Remember, unless something changes, character selection is 6pm this Friday. If you aren't here, you might not get who you want (although there are more characters than players.) Sometime between now and Friday, if the fates allow it, I will post a bit about how the batch character creator worked, and why I chose to go that route.

Getting Prepared for the new campaign.

After a break (due to my health) and the health of one of my players, this blog was set aside for a while,  and now it should be revived as we're gearing up for our new campaign, which will start in August, and use some slightly different (and new) techniques in what should be an epic storyline.

What's interesting for me (as the DM) is that I will be resolving a storyline that started in 1991 or so, in a campaign where I was playing a person who fought the first iteration of this danger (one of my rare Lawful Good characters who was not a paladin, by the way.) The DM of that campaign, me and 2 or 3 of our 15 some-odd players were really serious about gaming, and it sort of fell apart as we graduated High School, started colleges, started families and moved on, leaving the storyline to sit and moulder for a couple of decades. In my version, all the PCs from that campaign, and most of the NPCs, came to a draw, and headed for the hills. My version is pretty darn different from what I remember, both because I don't want to rewrite a campaign I didn't start, and because it never really ended...

My campaign world, sometimes jokingly called "The Remembered Realms" (because it was contemporary with many of the FR materials) was originally divvied up, as several DM's with their own 'lands' sort of agreed where these lands were on a map. The area of this campaign sits about 1000 miles south of my own 'lands' on the map, and often when I was doing a campaign we just avoided going that way, because 'nothing good comes from there.'

In the 500 years or so of game time elapsed between the campaign from when I was a kid, I've sort of assumed the bad guys got their shit together, stopped warring, and are now becoming a problem for the nearest towns to the epicenter of the badshitquake, which is where my campaign is starting. I've also decided that this is a good introduction to how the campaign world works for new players, and a great way to share the materials.

So....a lot of player materials, data and information will be shared here over the next several months. If you find it helpful or inspiring, or want more details, feel free to email me with more information. Once the characters in town have been 'shaken down' a bit, I may be opening up the campaign with parallel play-by-post type world building stuff. I'm not certain, and make no promises, but, again, it's all about how much I can handle with my own health concerns.

Pantheon Mondays: Kamah, Kiree

Kamah        

Greater God of Love                                                                                                                    

Chaotic

Portfolio: Love, Lust

Kamah's Clerics are all regular Clerics as described in the Player's handbook. His holy symbol is three entwined rings worn on a chain.

Relationships with Other Priesthoods: Kamah is very invested in the concept of concord, and, like Wyvan, is often represented in small towns and big cities by traveling priests. These priests tend to focus on getting people married and ending wars. It is rumored there exists a top secret collection of lovemaking techniques known to Kamah’s priests, but no one has found them. Note that Kamah, as a chaotic god, is generally more interested in seeing more people having sex and falling in love than in having kids or families. This is one reason why he has so few temples, as those temples would rapidly become little more than brothels and orgies.

Kiree

She of the Verdant Wastes

Lesser goddess of fertility                                                                       

Chaotic Good

Portfolio: Fecundity, Jungles, Marshes, Alligators and Wild Warriors

Major Spheres: Animal, Chaos, Combat, Elemental, Necromantic, Plant, Sun, War

Minor Spheres:Guardian, Healing, Protection, Wards.

Requirements for Specialty Priests: Dex 15, Wis 9, CG or NG alignment

Specialty Priest Weapons: Any, with preference given towards spears, bows, blowguns

Armor Allowed: None

Races Allowed: Any

Proficiencies: (Bonus) Survivial: Jungle, Direction Sense, Herbalism

Granted Powers:

·         Turn Undead

·         Ability to make Healing potions from Herbs. These will heal 1d4 points of damage per dose. Only 1 dose can be made a day (and the character must be in a jungle to find the herbs,) and an individual cannot use more than three a day.

·         +1 to hit with spears, bows and blowguns

·         Pass without trace as a druid in jungle

·         Find food and potable water in jungle whenever needed.

·         Animal Friendship effect with non-magical, normal sized snakes, alligators, crocodiles and primates

Signature Spells: Sticks to Snakes, Log to Lizard (2X duration), Wood Rot (2X area of effect), Many Thorns (3X duration), Mold Touch, Warp Wood (Casting Time of 1), Holly Dart (no material requirements required when in jungle)

Specialty Priests of Kiree inhabit savage and hot places, and wander through them with impunity, friends to the animals and fed by the forests. Her holy symbol is the frond of a fern. Kiree also has druids. Both druids and specialty priests tend to gather in groups no larger than three.

Relationships with Other Priesthoods: Kiree’s followers tend to live in uninhabited places, so they have little contact with outsiders.

Pantheon Mondays: Horae, Itat, Jasia

Horae          

Greater God of Time                                                                                                                                                       Lawful Neutral

Portfolio: Time, aging, Elves, patience, Alchemy, Magic

Horae’s clerics are regular clerics, he has no specialty priests. His Holy symbol is an eye.

Relationships with Other Priesthoods: Horae tends to be worshipped at the fringes of society, in small groups and secret temples in the deep deserts and dark jungles. As such, his clerics have no real contact outside of their own orders.

Itat, Lord of the Silver Blade           

Lesser God of Justice                                                                                                                                                          Chaotic Good

Portfolio: Justice, stealth and thievery

Major Spheres: Charm, Combat, Divination, Guardian, Wards

Minor Spheres: Healing, Necromantic, Travelers

Requirements for Specialty Priests: DEX:17, WIS:13, CG or NG alignment

Specialty Priest Weapons: Swords and Daggers

Armor Allowed: All, Any shields

Races Allowed: Any

Proficiencies: (Bonus) Appraisal, Fencing

Granted Powers:

·         Turn Undead.

·         May use non-fatal poisons without it being considered an evil act.

·         At 3rd Level: Move Silently 20% +2d4% each level after 3rd

·         8th Level: Hit with all swords at +3

·         18th level: Invisibility at Will

Signature Spells: Sparkling Sword (2X duration in both forms), Edge of Arumdina and Metal skin (spell is counted as one level lower, result is non-ferrous), Blade Bless (allowed despite not having major access to Healing sphere)

Specialty Priests of Itat call themselves The Blades, and about 50% of them are Paladins, not Thief-Clerics like those above. Itat embraces Thieves that work for justice. His followers bear highly polished swords, but it is a very unstructured religion, with no rank. The Holy Symbol of Itat is an inscription on the follower's sword, which is often silver.  In many towns, Itat's priests may draw swords even though it would be illegal for others.

Relationships with Other Priesthoods: Itat’s dual nature as a god of justice and thieves makes his religion hard for some more justice-oriented faiths to accept. Other than that, his followers only have conflicts based on alignment. 

Jasia 

Greater Being Of Pure Magic                                                                                                                                          Lawful Neutral

Portfolio: Mages and their protection

Jasia’s faith has been dead for a thousand years, she has no living priests at all.