Gaming in 2024

2024 has been the year in which my gaming career effectively ended, at least for the foreseeable future - with the end of "Isles of Dread" I bowed to the inevitable and accepted that that group had run its course, but with no intention of seeking a new group and starting again.

In terms of purchases, there have been no physical RPG products at all (my update for last year said that that was the case then, but then contradicated itself by noting that I purchased one book; this year there really was none). I did, however, buy a fair amount of PDF material - completing a collection of "Dark Sun" PDFs, and two Kickstarters for "Tales of the Valiant".

In terms of reading, I think the only thing I actually got through was the aforementioned "Phandelver and Beyond", which I'm afraid I cannot recommend.

Looking forward, I really don't expect much to change, though we'll see. The one thing I am mulling over is picking up some more "D&D Classics" PDFs - the "Ravenloft" setting, some of the classic BECMI and/or 1st Ed adventures, and the bundle of the Historical Reference books. On the other hand, I don't foresee any use for any of these (or, frankly, the rest of my library), so I'm fighting the urge towards completeness on this one.

Favourite Campaign Endings

Over the years I've run a great many campaigns, and they've all come to an end. But only some of them have come to a good end. Some of my favourites, therefore:

All four of my "great campaigns" had strong endings. The first of these, the unnamed Tolkien rip-off campaign, came to an end with an epic confrontation between our heroes and the risen lich Pelenor Corariath, a battle for the ages that left the world forever changed. There's not too much more to say about this one, especially since it was so long ago - sword battled spells, and in the end the bad guy made a very satisfying 'thump' as he hit the ground.

The "Rivers of Time" campaign had the most unusual of the endings - this one came to a bittersweet conclusion as the world came to its end. The year was 2150, and our heroes were called to meet one of a former childe of theirs for a final toast. It was very quiet and contemplative, and brought together everything from five years of gaming to that point. (Sadly, that campaign had long-since outlived its best times. But the ending was solid.)

The "Shackled City" campaign ended with another great and epic battle, this time with the corrupted angel Adimarchus. As was fitting for the highest-level campaign I ever ran, this was the most epic, knock-down battle I've ever run. At the end, the PCs were victorious, but only just.

"The Eberron Code" came to another great battle, this time with the imprisoned Bel Shalor, the Shadow in the Flame. The stakes for this one were dramatic - win, and the Silver Flame would be cleansed of the corruption that had infested it; lose, and the demon would be freed on the world. This conclusion was notable for the death of a PC and his subsequent refusal to return to life, and that fact that it had a proper epilogue for all the PCs - something I highly recommend.

There are also a small number of noteworthy endings that are not from the "great campaigns". "Mists of Lamordia" saw the PCs battling Adam for their freedom from Lamordia (and Ravenloft as a whole). This one saw one of the PCs tempted with the chance to become the new Dark Lord (a role he eventually took), saw a sudden but frankly obvious betrayal as Victor Mordenheim turned against the heroes, and saw the battle hinge on the discovery of Adam's crucial weakness. This wasn't the greatest campaign, being hampered by the format, by Covid, and by a long-term player absence, but the ending was really good.

"Isles of Dread" had a decent ending, except that the climax came in the session before the last and the final session was then a brief epilogue. Taken as a pair, those sessions were solid; individually they didn't really work. Still, the battle against Red Bethena was fun to play out, and neatly encapsulated everything in the campaign.

Finally, "A Quest for Memory" had a noteworthy ending mostly because I reused the same "Forge of the Fire Giants" dungeon that provoked a TPK when running "Storm King's Thunder" itself. This time, the PCs were able to battle their way to victory, although it was a close-run thing. In truth I don't consider this one of the "great campaigns" and don't consider it a top-tier ending, but it's certainly interesting that the same dungeon run with two different groups had such different outcomes.

Experia - Goddess of Heroes

D&D isn't really made for monotheism - for the most part the game basically assumes some sort of barely-present polytheistic world view where everyone just kind of gets along. (There is potentially a storm coming there, as differing portrayals of religions gets labelled "problematic" the same way as portrayals or race have been. Or maybe not - we'll see. Anyway...)

These days, if I were to craft a monotheistic setting, the way I would do it would be as follows:

• Firstly, divorce all PC capabilities from any named higher power - Clerics get their power directly from their Domains, Paladins from the Oaths, and so forth. So no alignment restrictions, no expected tenets or behaviours, etc.
• I would then introduce a single deity, Experia, a goddess with no alignment, no temples, or tenets, and indeed no worshippers as such.
• However, what Experia is interested in is heroes. Where she empowers certain beings, her Chosen, as heroes, beings who are uniquely capable of learning and growing in an exponential matter by the completion of heroic tasks. In effect, they are the only beings who can gain Experience Points.

I suspect that the world most likely to come from this would turn out to be something like "Masters of the Universe" - a number of brightly drawn heroes, a mostly content populace around that, and several forces keen to tear it all down. Of course, combine that with the notion of having several factions (Humans, Elves, Drow, Orcs, Giants, Undead...) and the setting more or less writes itself.

Though I probably wouldn't include either Orcs or Goblins nowadays - if I included nonhuman species at all (very doubtful), I'd replace those with Goliaths.

The Thing I Never Did

I have two unrealised ambitions, one of which is to one day see my name in print. As time goes by this seems less and less likely, but it's actually the more likely of the two at this time. But that's a topic for another place.

However, in terms of RPGs that gives rise to the biggest thing I never did in gaming - I would have liked to put together something and have it published.

There were a few steps towards this, but they never paid off:

• About a quarter of a century ago White Wolf put out an open call for freelancers, to which I made a submission. I actually got a reply back saying they'd be in touch, but it never came to anything. It didn't help that the email I gave them stopped working not too long thereafter. Oh well.
• During the 3.5e days, and during the pomp of Dungeon magazine, I wrote a handful of short adventures for publication. In each case these had a single draft of the right length, but I never got so far as sending an enquiry. That's probably just as well - looking back, they're not actually terribly good. Had I known then what I know now...
• Most recently, I wrote up the "Isles of Dread" as though it was intended for publication (although in reality is was never going to be). That was an interesting experience, and I'm pleased with the result, but was never going to submit it anywhere. Plus, it became rather more bespoke than would really be appropriate.

So there it is - three steps towards doing something, but nothing that actually went anywhere. And, of course, that door is now effectively closed by the new edition, by Dungeon magazine being shuttered, and, most obviously, by my gaming career coming to an end.

The Great Secrets

I've never written these down anyway, so in order that they don't get forgotten, here are the three great secrets at the heart of my home setting of Terafa:

• The Dragonborn origin story doesn't fit with the creation myths of the other races, and indeed with the known age of the world. The reason for this is that they're not from the past of the world, but rather from the far future - the devastation their seers foresaw was actually the end of the world, and their "Return to the Egg" saw their elite using flawed technology that actually cast them far back in time.
• The origin of the split between the elves and the drow was actually due to the latter choosing to share the secrets of magic with humans. Everything since then is propaganda. Unfortunately, so pervasive has become the propaganda, and so much bitterness has grown up that the drow are now enemies of all surface-dwellers.
• Choriam, god of rulership, is actually a usurper. The true god of rulership is trapped in the Fastness of the Divine, with all knowledge of him erased by the death of Memory, the lost deity. This is also why the pantheon in unbalanced, and why the dominant mythology all feels 'off'.

But, of course, it's all subject to change if I ever get back to it!

Every Story I Want to Tell

This post was originally going to be about the campaigns that I would like to run but am now never likely to, but it changed. It changed for one very obvious reason: there aren't any. There are, certainly, campaigns I could run, and concepts I could readily work up, and there are campaign structures I'd be inclined to explore more and build upon if there was a need for a new game.

But in terms of a campaign I actually want to run? No, there's nothing. I'm actually in a really good place to be taking a hiatus right now.

About "Tales of the Valiant"

In the past year or so I've backed two Kickstarters for "Tales of the Valiant" - the first was for the development of the system itself (a 5e near-clone with some nice enhancements), and the second for the Gamemaster's Guide (which looked very nice). In backing the second I actually broke one of my cardinal rules with Kickstarter, which is to never back a second project from a team until the first has delivered - but I mitigate that by noting that Kobold Press have never let me down.

Anyway, both Kickstarters have now delivered everything I signed up for, which tragically comes just a bit too late - I'm unlikely ever to even read any of the books (PDFs) they have sent me as I just don't have use for them at this time. (Plus, I now have two 5e near-clones, the other being "Level Up", and there's a third available in the form of D&D 2024.)

But that's a "me" problem rather than any sort of a problem with the product, and the Kickstarter was pretty much impeccable in its delivery. And Kobold Press routinely do great work, so I have no hesitation in recommending them as a company. Just a shame that it's come a little too late.

"Isles of Dread" wrap up

A rather belated post - the "Isles of Dread" campaign actually ended in July. However, the end remains somewhat fresh, and so in the spirit of completeness, here are my thoughts:

• This was intended as a short six-month campaign to pass some time, and ended up running for almost two years. That's largely a scheduling issue - with so few players we really struggled to get to a quorum. And that, in turn, is why I've called time on this particular group.
• That said, near the end of the campaign I took that view that we were essentially going ahead no matter what, and that actually worked much better. I should have done this throughout. And, actually, I think that may be a lesson for even "regular" campaigns - better to fix a slot and go ahead come hell or high water, and if you find yourself regularly struggling for a quorum then that's a sign to call a halt.
• I was very proud of the way the campaign was structured, prepared, and presented - I've posted about this separately, but the work put in did pay off, mostly.
• The extended duration of the campaign did, however, mean that some key callbacks never paid off. I suspect that would have gone better had things been fresher in minds. Or perhaps not. Either way, nothing vital was missed, so that was okay.
• The campaign structure, which I cribbed from "Lost Mine of Phandelver", was great. I highly recommend this for any sort of "beginner" campaign.
• I never did get an "inventory" sheet put together. With the release of new books, and since I'm now not gaming, I'm not sure it's worthwhile any longer. But it's definitely something that I've been missing.
• The rerolls worked slightly better. One enhancement was that characters now received a number of rerolls per level equal to half their Proficiency Bonus, rounded up. That seemed to make them a bit less of a scarce resource, and so they seemed to get a bit more use.
• For the first time we saw a feat being used (Lucky), but alas it wasn't great, largely because that one served to duplicate the effect of those same reroll tokens.

And that's basically that. A decent campaign, although not a classic, and a reasonable way to close out gaming with that group. I'm a little sorry that this campaign seems to also be the one to close out my career as a gamer, but so be it - ultimately most things end badly, or they wouldn't end at all, to better to wrap things up on my terms (even if in a suboptimal manner) than otherwise.

D&D 5e 2024

I have decided against buying into the 2024 revision of D&D 5e. From what I've heard it is, on balance, an improvement in the game, and it certainly has the advantage of consolidating things back down to the core three books. And there's basically nothing I've heard about it that I don't like.

But, very simply, I'm not playing a game right now, I have no plans to play a game any time in the near future, and so I have no use for the books. And there comes a point where you have to start justifying getting "stuff" - it has to be something that you intend to actually use in the near future.

D&D 2024 doesn't make the cut, and so I'm opting out. At least for now.

Thoughts on Writing "Isles of Dread"

One of the unique features of the "Isles of Dread" campaign is that I wrote the whole thing out long-hand as a fully fledged D&D adventure - that is, I followed the same format and style guides (mostly) as in published adventures like "Lost Mine of Phandelver". In all, the adventure came to something like 45,000 words, almost exactly the same as "Lost Mine", with a further appendix of monsters and other adversaries and some new magical items.

Some thoughts:

• Firstly, and most obviously, writing all this up is hard! Perhaps more to the point, getting started is fairly easy, and making progress to a point was also quite good fun. But eventually, as happens almost every time I set out to do this, I got bogged down somewhere in the writing, and the thought of slogging through another 10,000 words and writing up a satisfying conclusion became really daunting.
• Finally getting to that end was not the achievement I thought it was going to be. Despite bringing the thing to an end, and indeed despite being happy with how it all ended, I nonetheless didn't feel that it was really worth the effort I put in. I certainly won't be doing this again, at least in this form.
• Related to the above, it's very obvious to me that writing something like this is very different when producing something for personal use versus for consumption by others - "Isles of Dread" was very much writen as though others would use it... but nobody ever will. Consequently, it represents a load of work that really didn't need to be done.
• That said, there is a lot to be said for advance preparation - the campaign had a number of things that were set up early and then paid off later. That wouldn't have been possible without putting in that work for the advance preparation. As indeed I found with "The Mists of Lamordia".

Ultimately... I'm happy I did it, but I wouldn't do it again. And, likewise, I think I might recommend people try it... exactly once, if only so they have a better appreciation of just how much effort really goes into writing an adventure.

Oh, yes, one last thing: I still really like the way "Lost Mine of Phandelver", and indeed a lot of the published adventures, are structured - a fairly constrained first section, then wider the choices out to a sandbox area, then widen it again to another, bigger sandbox, and then bring it back to a somewhat constrained climax. I definitely think that's something worth emulating.

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk

"Lost Mine of Phandelver" was the first official adventure published for 5e, was the first (and arguably only) classic adventure of that edition, and is perhaps the single best adventure that Wizards of the Coast (but specifically them - not TSR) have ever published for the game. So when they announced a new "Phandelver campaign" I was extremely interested and rather excited.

I then read the reviews, and that excitement withered. But a really good Amazon deal led to me buying the book, and so brings us here.

"Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk" is a standard 5e adventure book - a 192-page full colour hardcover with an RRP a fraction under $60. However, it is routinely available at a fraction of that price, which is fortunate as it is very much not worth that money.

Unlike other 5e adventures, this one is very much an adventure of two halves - the first half is a near-reprint of the classic "Lost Mine of Phandelver", with a handful of tweaks in the name of inclusion and a handful more to seed some hooks for the second part. The second part of the adventure then picks up with a new menace that is busy gathering the shards of a shattered obelisk and has to be stopped (because, of course they do).

And while the book is nowhere near the disaster that I had been led to believe, neither does it really work.

The fundamental problem is that while "Lost Mine of Phandelver" is a great adventure, it is a great adventure of beginning groups. Expanding that to a full campaign was a good idea, but it almost certainly should have been a beginner's campaign - something reasonably simple and classic to point new DMs towards.

Instead, the book awkwardly seques from a beginner's adventure into something considerably more advanced, complete with trigger warnings for material that really needs a deft hand to address. (Well... what constitutes tricky material these days. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay this is not.)

It also doesn't help that the second section is, frankly, another soulless railroad. It's fine, so far as these things go, but I wouldn't put it anywhere near any top-ten lists. Frankly, "Storm King's Thunder" is better, and that one is deeply flawed.

Basically, they've made the wrong product, and they've made it fairly badly. It's not an utter disaster (as I had been led to believe), but neither can I find any reason to recommend it. Except for one: "Lost Mine of Phandelver" remains great, and stocks of the original Starter Set are now running low, so this will soon be the only way to get your hands on that adventure.

But "Lost Mine of Phandelver" isn't worth $60, or anywhere close to that. So if you're a beginning DM looking for a first adventure, if you can't find the original Starter Set, and you can get this one at a huge discount, then maybe go for this one. Otherwise, save yourself the money.

Bringing the Curtain Down

Our game was cancelled again this week, and I must admit that it came as something of a relief. As a consequence, I've come to two fairly solid conclusions:

• This is indeed the final campaign with this group. I was almost certainly resolved on that point, but now I am certain - the reduction in group size means we've become too sporadic, and that combined with the very short sessions means that everything moves at a glacial pace. Since this adventure represents the minimum scope I'm willing to bother with (since there needs to be something to build), there's nowhere to go. A shame, but better to end definitively than linger in an unsatisfactory manner.
• I'm now planning to compress the last segment of the campaign as well - instead of the planned twenty or so encounters, I think my intent is to bring that down to half a dozen or so, coming to a quick close. I don't think anything truly important is likely to be missed there, but it should mean a handful of sessions rather than the rest of the year.

There are two lesser conclusions I've come to as well:

• I still intend to write up the remainder of the campaign, including the "full version" of the ending. Just to prove to myself that I actually can do that!
• I don't intend to seek out a new RPG group at this time. I'm not saying never, but my expectation is that this is, essentially, the end. I just don't have the time needed to invest properly, and don't want to commit to something if I can't.

Completed (close enough): Exploration of the Islands

The third, and by far the largest, part of the "Isles of Dread" campaign was part three, "Exploration of the Islands". This involved the characters travelling around all of the smaller islands in the chain, engaging in various mini-quests, and generally exploring. The party are now on their way to the final one of these islands, and currently engage in combat with a shoal of reef sharks intent on blood. But that's close enough to completion for this post.

The fourth and final part of the campaign, "Temple of Elemental Evil Fire" beckons. It shouldn't take so long. Unfortunately, it's also the section that I have yet to write...

On the Road Again

After a few false starts we finally managed to get together for the game last week. The session itself was largely unremarkable, with a battle against some kobolds, a subsequent interrogation, and then a journey to the dragonborn enclave. But that's okay - the main thing was to get going.

The next few sessions should see the party wrapping up this particular subquest, which hopefully should work out okay. Thereafter they have just a few of the smaller islands still to visit, and then it's on to Part Four of the adventure. So I guess I'd best get on with writing it!

My Worst Game Experience

Looking back through this blog, somehow I don't seem to have ever told this story...

A number of years ago I had a bright idea for a Shadowrun mini-campaign - six sessions (!) to tell a specific story in the vein of "Neuromancer" or some of the other cyberpunk greats. I was actually really proud of it.

So we dug out the Shadowrun 4th Edition books and started creating characters. And went on creating characters. And on. And on. And on.

Eventually, after about five hours we were finally ready to play! Huzzah!

The game rolled on, and into the very first combat, an introduction to the system and the setting, and the inciting event for the story...

Half an hour later and it was time to end the session. And I absolutely refuse to touch Shadowrun ever again.

The fundamental problem we twofold. Firstly, the combat system dragged to the point of being unbearable. Secondly, one of the characters was built so that his optimum approach was to simply ignore the ongoing firefight, walk straight across the room where it was all going on, and just punch out the bad guys - his character was literally unable to be wounded by a gunshot.

I've had some experiences with some sucky game masters, and some experiences with sucky games. I've also made a number of mistakes when gaming, some of which are pretty terrible. But of all my experiences while gaming, this was the absolute nadir.

Six Sessions?

Apparently, the average D&D campaign lasts all of six sessions, which I must say I find absolutely astonishing - even those campaigns of mine that have fizzled have typically lasted a good bit longer than that.

This means a number of things: it easily explains the finding that almost nobody plays at high level (since there's just no time to get there), and it also means that those huge campaign-in-a-book adventures that WotC and Paizo produce are very much more for reading than playing (again, six sessions means that there is just no time).

I do find myself wondering what that would mean for my current group - does that mean we should be aiming for 24 or so sessions (that being the equivalent of 6 'normal' sessions), or should I maybe be pitching for 6 hours of play.

It's certainly an interesting finding.