So yesterday was Thursday, which means I ran my D&D game last night, so I suppose that's a good topic for today.
The game is 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons, with a few house-ruled modifications, like the inclusion of the Pathfinder Critical Hit deck, and a few custom feats or modified rules that we've changed based on finding things not working properly, or working in ways that don't seem sensible.
Anyhow, I didn't want to talk about general rules today, but more about this campaign specifically. This particular game's been running for about a year and a half now. The characters all started at first level and have worked their way up to 8th, with each of them hitting that new level within the last two sessions or so (their XP has a bit of a spread to it due to player absences and magic item crafting).
I suppose I need to mention the actual backstory of things, cause it's a bit convoluted and the rest of the game won't make much sense without it. The story opened with "It was a dark and stormy night." This was followed by a series of quick snapshots describing where everyone was during this cold, rainy evening:
Zur Kroaten, a fledgling wizard, sitting in a rented inn room attempting to study his meager few spells.
Adam Arlington, a pickpocket, hiding out under the eaves of a dive bar, hoping to spot a likely target.
Narus Lacorin, a druid, huddled under the protective boughs of a fir tree with his wolf companion, trying to stay dry.
Grey, a trained marksman, relaxed comfortably in his yurt, delicately caring for his bow and checking his arrows for wear or damaged fletchings.
Thrusk Runeblood, an archaeologist and swordsman, sits hunched at a table in a dimly lit library, poring over a torn and aged tome.
A particularly loud clap of thunder sounds, a boom they could each feel deep in their chests. Lightning flashed, but this time each of them saw the massive, sparking twist of light headed straight for them, and before anyone could react, they each blacked out. They found themselves waking in cots, all together in a small stone room, none of them recognizing one another. A note on a table simply stated "We didn't mean for this to happen, we're sorry."
I'm going to skip a bunch of further exposition here and explain what the players, after six or eight months of playing finally figured out. A cabal of highly skilled wizards were worried about a woman known as the Bone Queen who was rapidly conquering the entire continent. The greatest heroes and warriors of the day had gone up against her and her armies, only to be cut down. These wizards developed a plan to reach back in time and pull into the present copies of the greatest legendary heroes, who could then defeat the Bone Queen. This plan went wrong. The ritual they created to pull forth these legends didn't work properly, and instead of gathering together a party of ancient heroes in their prime, the wizards instead found themselves standing over the unconscious bodies of those heroes at the very beginnings of their careers, barely more than untrained children. Not knowing what to do, the wizards left these poor souls with some basic equipment and an apology note, hoping they'd be able to simply go out and live normal lives. So, with no other direction or any explanation for how they got there, after the party woke up and got themselves somewhat put together, they wandered out as a group and have spent the last year and a half off on various adventures.
Now, something that needs to be said about this group is the staggering level of paranoia they tend to exhibit. They also voice their concerns out loud and so as a good DM, I make sure to keep their awful musings in mind. Their newest idea was something even I hadn't thought of, and it's been a lot of fun: They've discovered through various research and run-ins with people that their original selves still lived out their lives as they should have, some of them over a thousand years earlier. This led Dillon, the player of Zur, to think that any of them who are dead have likely left tombs behind, along with possible vast piles of treasure and/or magical items, all it would take would be to find these final resting places and loot them. The general consensus of the group is that this isn't grave-robbing, since they're technically like a reincarnation of these deceased heroes anyway, making the treasures technically theirs anyway.
A bit of research and some questions asked of various contacts, and the group was able to locate the first of the tombs, this one belonging to Adam Arlington (or Adam Prime, as the group refers to their original selves). A lengthy boat trip later found the group in the appropriate city, where Adam Prime appears to have been some sort of Robin Hood figure, assisting the poor under a tyrannical monarch, then working to depose this monarch and help rule the mostly democratic country afterward.
I'm actually running low on time this afternoon, due to plans with the wife in a bit, so I'm going to pause here for now and pick it back up with Adam Prime's tomb, hopefully over the weekend. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading! I know the narrative is somewhat convoluted and likely confusing as hell, so feel free to ask for any clarification or whatever if needed and I'll do my best to answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment