Whoa, wait...pomegranate quiche...I think I can make that!
Good point about 2 launch titles not being in Aereth. Also about the proper link to Xcrawl.
I don't know what Xcrawl will be doing for 4E, but the modules could be crossover titles...DCCs set in the world of Xcrawl. Just a thought.
Barring that, we've got two options:
1. Go with entirely made-up gods.
This screws with continuity unless we use Joseph's idea of a here-to-fore unknown continent, but even then, this is not my fave idea.
Any other plane or unknown continent is still not really Aereth in the sense that it's part of the Known Realms.
2. Go with established Aereth gods. This is harder to do because the Sancturn don't interfere like the Greek gods, and we have to contrive a way why it matters our heroes perform quests to earn divine favor.
Alternately, they're not earning divine favor, but reawakening the Triad so they will reign in Ahriman. If you prefer, they aren't "reawakening" but "drawing the attention of" the Triad.
Patron-father of Sypkos the cyclops = Ahriman
Poseidon = Madrah or Ildavir
Hades = Daenthar or Centivus
Zeus = Ormazd or Choranus
Think about this, though...why are our heroes completing the tasks of the gods?
In my earlier version, we had them trying to curry favor to stave off a deific curse. That's not exactly heroic, although what they do to gain that favor will be.
We could substitute the 3rd round to be come kind of confrontation so that they earn their way out of the curse through direct action instead of appeasing the gods.
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
Jengenritz wrote:Think about this, though...why are our heroes completing the tasks of the gods?
OOH!
(This actually made me hop up in my seat in real time. I don't know if I can convey it right now. I'll try to type it up better.)
They're gambling for their lives. Unknown to them (until revealed in the Free RPG Day prequel) the evil gods have convinced the "God of Death" that the PCs must die. But ... again, unknown to the PCs, the good deities have interceeded on their behalf, so that the PCs will be offered "Death's Gambit." Suceed on 3 impossible tasks, and you win back your right to live.
How this plays out ---
At some point in the pre-story each PC sustains a terrible mortal wound. Wham, bam, they OUGHT to be deader* than a doornail, no questions asked. (Maybe, even the wound won't heal. It doesn't register on their HP total, but as soon as it does .... wham. Adios.)
Why? Because Death decreed that they died, but the Good Gods interceeded. Until the Death's Gambit is decided, the PCs are in this half-state, waiting for Death's other foot to drop and for them to be marked deceased.
Again, the PCs don't know this yet. So they go in search of an Oracle to find out what the hell is happening to them. The Oracle is kept captive at the center of a deadly maze. PCs defeat the maze, meet the Oracle, discover just what the heck has happened to them and what they need to do to beat Death.
This concludes the Free RPG Day adventure.
The tournament is those 3 tasks --- Death's Gambit. If the PCs win, Death is declared the loser and they get their lives back. If they are defeated, Death wins and the PCs are dead, dead, dead.
BTW, the "chess game with Death" scene just begs to be done. What if part of the final round is Death playing some form of DCC chess with the PCs. The PCs are shrunk into the game and fight against opposing peices even as they seek to out-think Deaths moves.
//H
*Remember the conversion scene from Pulp Fiction? The bad guy unloads a gun at the hero --- the hero should be dead, but he is still walking. This leads to the "Walk in the valley of darkness," speech.
(This, BTW, is totally railroading, but that's what Greek gods do. We can't have it both ways.)
Last edited by Harley Stroh on Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We're getting away from Greek, but I really like this.
How to incorporate this into a campaign setting? The GM essentially sets up a TPK, the party survives, has to complete the 3 tasks of Death's Gambit (our new title).
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
Jengenritz wrote:The GM essentially sets up a TPK, the party survives, has to complete the 3 tasks of Death's Gambit (our new title).
A lot of this could be in the "adventure hooks" of the Free RPG Day adventure. It would describe how each of the 4 pregen tourney PCs was "killed," with advice on how to do this with your home PCs if you have to.
The Free RPG Day adventure begins with the "Dead" PCs at the start of the labyrinth, and ends with the Oracle explaining what they need to do into order to defeat Death.
This is awesome. It's totally unlike every other D&D adventure, and it's "magical" in the best sense -- it breaks out of all the well-defined stock magic archetypes into something really unique. The fact that 3E has rules for everything ruins some of the wonder... but there are no rules for deities interceding on behalf of mortals, so we're into a scenario where the wonder is back, the players really won't know exactly what's going on, and there will be a sense of the fantastic throughout the whole adventure. The history on the pregens for Free RPG Day also supports what retailers wanted last year -- they wanted clip-out pregen character sheets, and now we'll give them pregens that are far more than just a bunch of stats.
Just a thought, but if we tease retailers with the Free RPG day adventure, we should *try* to go to print with the Tournament conclusion as soon as possible after GenCon. (Like we did this year, only if we anticipate it, maybe we can release it even closer to September.) There's going to be a ton of players out there wondering if their PCs can defeat Death.
I'm going to draw up the Oracle's maze this week for your guys' approval.
Adrian, Chris: do you guys want to start pinning down themes and settings for rounds 1 through 3?
Free RPG Day Module Author: Harley Overview: Heroes in a labyrinth Featured Encounters: Cyclops Plot Points: 1) cyclops is protected by Xeleuth, 2) heroes slay cyclops, 3) heroes are cursed by Xeleuth
Tests of the Gods Project Lead: Me Authors: Doyle, Ferguson, Maffei...with me writing clean-up
Each author will be asked to write one entire level of the module; Doyle writes round 1, Mike writes round 2, Maffei writes round 3. Overview: By slaying the Cyclops, the heroes have greatly offended Xeleuth, the God of War, who has ordered his clergy to hound the party incessantly and has cursed them to never know peace...wherever they go, destruction follows, any home that shelters them is burnt, any city where they hide is sacked. Consulting an oracle, the heroes learn they must gain the favor of three of the greatest gods - wise Pelagia, wicked Ahriman, and mighty Madrah - to gain their intercession on their behalf. This favor is earned by performing three tests...our Herculean labors. Plot Points: 1) There are two points tracks: one is tournament points, and another is divine favor (the earning of which also earns tournament points), 2) completing a round's main task earns favor, but so does performing several other small tasks during a round, 3) when the party accumulates X favor for a god, they gain an immediate benefit that lasts for the remainder of the tournament, 4) it is explained to teams beforehand that "the gods are watching their every move," 5) at the conclusion of the third task, the offended patron manifests an avatar or summons a champion, 6) at this point the gods who have been implored give the party some aid, and the final battle begins, 7) each level has five encounters, period, 8) the final encounter counts as one of the five for round 3. Round One: Long ago, a priest of Pelagia named Aniketos and a priestess of Elas named Ophyla fell in love. Their passion was an affront to both their gods, who demanded the tryst end. Ophyla asked Aniketos to abandon his faith and live with her, but he had a moment of doubt, believing this to be a trick of Elas, and refused her. Spurned, Ophyla slew her lover and stole his body to be with her forever. Ophyla was cursed by both Pelagia and Elas, and transformed into a hydra of singular ferociousness.
If he heroes are to appease Pelagia, they are to recover the remains of Aniketos, who in the end was faithful to his goddess.
The round takes place over a series of islands as determined by Doyle. Round Two: Evil is never content, and when it runs out of goodly foes to fight, it occasionally turns on itself. The Duke of Hell Bei'thor has stolen a soul from Ahriman, God of Suffering. This particular soul is that of Etropos, a strategist of unparalleled ability from ancient times. Bei'thor wants Etropos's guidance in his wars against the other Dukes of Hell, and the wicked man is happy to be free of Ahriman's torment.
If the party is to appease Ahriman, they must capture the soul of Etropos WITHOUT slaying the body it now inhabits (and they're not sure which body that might be).
This level is subterranean demi-realm as layed out by Mike Ferguson. It should have a chess motif but not so much as to distract from the overall Greek-ness of the module. This level should also feature at least one ruin knight. Round Three: This round is last because it involves the greatest amount of travel. The first temple of Madrah ever constructed was atop a high mountain in the Southlands. In gratitude, the god gave the temple a special gift...a lightning bolt captured in the split moment of its existence. This bolt, some forty feet long, was the focus of the temple for many years, but it was sacked ages ago by followers of Xeleuth and the lightning bolt toppled from its perch.
If the party is to gain the favor of Madrah, they must re-erect the Everbolt. Until they do, minions of Xeleuth will be able to endlessly gate or teleport or otherwise spontaneously arrive at the site. The Everbolt, however, is a frikkin' lightning bolt of a god...so this won't be easy to do, especially while fighting off endless zealots of a god that already hates the party.
This level is a mountaintop temple ruin, now a monastery of War (or shrine of War, or whatever) as dictated by Rick. Super-Final Encounter: The party slays the Cyclops from the Free RPG module, now an extraplanar avatar of war. Format: levels 9-10 ideal, 4-man teams selected from a pool of six, 40 tables in round one, 10 tables in round two, top 3 tables in round 3. Tournament runs until Sunday.
Last edited by Jengenritz on Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
Nice work guys. Adrian, I hope the PBJ flu has passed by.
What's the proposed level range for the tournament adventure? It would be nice, but not necessary, to have the FreeRPG Day adventure be levels 1-3 (because it's a quick start adventure, not because of any theme restraints). But that might be too constraining for the tournament envisioned.
We're considering fairly tough mid-level challenges, here. A storm giant is CR 13.
Hums to self, "I want my, I want my, I want my SRD."
//H
Level range...good thing to point out...above post edited.
Free RPG Day mod can be levels 1-3, and tournament can be 5-7 or 7-9. They take a while to figure out how to beat the curse, and to get tough enough to take on the tests.
If Free RPG is written for 6 characters, in fact, story-wise two of the heroes die off before the tournament begins...the four survivors make up the teams.
Storm giant was a toss-out for an idea, but who knows what CR it will be in 4E. I'm planning on some hinky stuff thrown around in regards to calculating difficulty of encounters.
I am now officially over the PBJ Flu, thankfully, and so is my wife. Hope the chest gunk has cleared up.
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
Jengenritz wrote:Level range...good thing to point out...above post edited.
Free RPG Day mod can be levels 1-3, and tournament can be 5-7 or 7-9. They take a while to figure out how to beat the curse, and to get tough enough to take on the tests.
If we make the tournament into a box set, this would free up the space for one of you guys to writing a bridging adventure.
Jengenritz wrote:Storm giant was a toss-out for an idea, but who knows what CR it will be in 4E. I'm planning on some hinky stuff thrown around in regards to calculating difficulty of encounters.
For what it is worth, I've always loved the storm giants. I think it is a great idea ----- oooh: Maybe we write in an "achilles heel" to an otherwise nigh-undefeatable monster...
And Pommier, why no writing? Yours was the best material in Fiend.
I'm the "anti-flake-out" writer...if someone bags on me, I step in, and I'm doing all the framing text and the final encounter.
This will free me up to fixate on RULES, RULES, RULES (if we ever get them), so I can nitpick and find loopholes.
That's the plan anyway.
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
- are we having Superfan make us battlemaps?
- are we printing them in color or otherwise?
- last year we made a concerted effort to have the maps printable on 8.5x11 sheets of paper (or a combination of same)...we doing that again?
All of this will severely impact level design.
Remember that with 40 round 1 tables, we're going to really need a LOT of Judges (and therefore a lot of maps).
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
Adrian and I talked about this today. I don't want to commit to maps (as a commitment to customers or judges). With 4E, and such a large tournament, there is a lot of potential for surprises -- whether it's WotC and timing on 4E, or rules disputes, or judges who don't learn 4E properly, or the logistics of a large tournament... There are a lot of variables, and I'd like to limit the scope of risk. Therefore, no commitment that there will be battle maps, and the module should be designed on the assumption we won't have them.
That said, IF Ben is able to get them done, and IF we find an economical printer (which is a problem every year), and IF we can get enough for every judge, then we'll do it. But no promises!
I'm a huge fan of Greek Mythology, so the direction this module is headed in is right up my alley.
I noticed there was some question about the power level of giants in 4E, so here's a bit I snipped from the front page of EN World:
I just picked up the latest issue of Game Trade Magazine this evening. It has two pages from Wizards Presents - Worlds and Monsters on giants.
It gives a background on the giants as being servants to "primordials" during the shaping of the world. Titans were first and had elemental ties (earth titans, fire titans). They created the lesser giants.
It also mentions similar creatures arose Feywild and Shadowfell. The formorians arose in the Feywild and death giants in the Shadowfell.
The giants had large empires in the ancient world. The giants enslaved the dwarves and the formorians created the cyclops as slaves. The death giants created lesser versions of themselves. The death giants also took gnomes and fey as slaves as well as being worshipped by dark creepers. Those empires eventually fell during the war between the primordials and the gods.
From a design standpoint they mention all giants have a more elemental basis. After a round with a storm giant you'll know what the monster has to do with both "storm" and "giant." They are distancing "giant" from including everything big & tall. Ogres, trolls, etc. aren't necessarily giants anymore.
All giants have two versions, a Large and Huge version. The huge versions are tied more closely to their elemental natures and have stronger elemental powers.
They have a picture of a cyclops (pretty much the Desert of Desolation miniature) and a mountain giant. The mountain giant looks pretty much like stone in a humanoid form (it's closer to an earth elemental than a stone golem).
The strom giant sounds like he's going to be one tough customer, so he might not fit a low- to mid-level adventure. However, the good news is the cyclops will be in the MM, and therefore, hopefully, in the SRD.
OK, been brewing this in my head since I read the latest 4E announcement...
Thinking about changing the author-encounter area layout. Last year Harley asked me to write an entire level of Chronicle, and I think that's the way to do things this year given the newness of the system and the possible scarcity of 4E rules.
One author writes an entire round.
I know in the past that we've had multiple authors so as to get the freshest of the ideas, everyone's BEST possible encounter, but I don't think it's a stretch to ask one of the established authors to write four-to-five encounters linked thematically as directed.
As far as actual authors, I'm at Ferguson, Maffei, and (in no particular order) Doyle, Harley, or Little (depending on who's on deck and ready to take a swing).
I think this might be something Joseph tried to tell me on the phone the other day, but I didn't catch it at the time, but this leads to a tighter module with fewer authors and more cohesion.
Floor is open for comments...
Co-Author:The Almanac of the Endless Traders, DCC #13, DCC #29, DCC #49, DCC #51, DCC #52, DCC #63
Author: DCC #55: Isle of the Sea Drake, DCC #61: Citadel of the Corruptor, more to come....
You know me, I love the aquatic encounters. The only problem I could foresee would be my schedule. Come April, I get bogged down with field work again.
In regard to Harley and writing Tourney encounters: the only way you will get better is to write a few! However, if you feel strongly about it, you could design the free RPG Day module (as we planned) which is less Team Tourney orientated and more general home brewed game orientated.
