LAN and Extra-Life

When I was asked to help set up a LAN event in my local community, I foresaw that it would take too much effort. Since I was already planning on running some D&D for Extra-Life, I thought that I could simply combine the two events and simply create one event. This changed yesterday.

LAN
There's a lot of planning when it comes to setting up a LAN, and I therefore sought a partner to handle the computer part, main part, of the event. I found an IT shop in Kalundborg, which hosted LANs and asked if he was interested in a partnership. He was very interested, but as the planning progressed it became clear that he had more than enough on his plate. He didn't take his phone, he didn't reply to emails, and he didn't attend meetings. He always apologized and explained about all the other things he was doing, and we therefore decided to look for another partner.

I was therefore put in contact with Sorby esports, and we are now working hard on setting up two LAN events in Dalmose, my local community. Setting up such an event takes time, and due to the change in partners, we decided to postpone both events. This means that I won't be running Extra-Life at our LAN event, and it also means that I suddenly have a lot more work.

Extra-Life
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Extra-Life 2016. Extra-Life 2014 was held as an experience to try and play 24 hours D&D. Extra-Life 2015 was held because we had done so the previous year and it was fun. We spiced up 2015 by adding prizes, sponsors, and more advertisement. Unfortunately it wasn't an improvement, which has gotten me thinking about Extra-Life 2016 for the past ½ year now.

Right now, I'm thinking about the following:

• Should I run Extra-Life 2016?
• Should I maybe run another charity instead?
• Should I run a competition?
• How do I attract more viewers?
• How do I get more donations?
• What adventure should I run?

So if anyone reading this have any ideas or answers, please leave a comment.

Gaming Event

Last time I gave you a project update, I mentioned that we were working on a local LAN event for Extra-Life 2016. Much has happened with this project, but the latest development requires a bit of an explanation.

We decided to seek out other pastures when it came to collaboration with a group to sort out the computer part of the event. We have decided to go with Sorby esport, who is hosting the largest Fifa event here in Denmark in May. The event will take place in Sorbyhallen, Kirkerupvej 16 4200 Slagelse. It is presented by Sorby esport, which is part of Sorbymagle Idraetsforening. It is sponsored by Elgiganten and EA sports. Sports-gaming.dk handles a lot of the technical aspects of the event and you can get more info and buy tickets online.

Conflict amongst Gamemasters

I would like to start by quoting something I wrote when we started the project in December: "how to handle internal and external conflicts, etc. The answer to all of it was quite simple. We would take a mature talk about it if it ever became an issue. This may seem like a dangerous plan"

Unfortunately it was the most dangerous plan. After this weekend's session, we have entered an internal and external conflict that isn't being resolved.

The Conflict
The conflict has mainly started internally. The characters are very different, they are members of the order for different reasons, they do quests for different reasons, they complete the quests in different ways, which is all things I appreciate about TRPGs. Difference in opinion and playstyle is quite alright, but in this latest session I experienced that half the party wanted to play a game with internal conflicts, meaning that our characters fought each other, both verbally and physically.

Example 1: At one point our half-orc rogue goes over to sniff an old man. The old man perceives this as weird and pushes him away by knocking on his head with his rod. Our rogue perceives this as a physical attack and smacks the old man on the head. This escalates into a fight where the rogue disarms the old man completely. Our druid is already uncomfortable about the situation, which has gone beyond her limit. I simply ignore the situation, but when the old man says that none of us or our order is welcome anymore, I become uncomfortable, since another player is ruining things for me.

Example 2: Our friend has been captured but after investigating the situation it appears that he's safe and amongst family. The rest of the party decides to leave without him while I stay to wait for him. I don't understand why the others are simply leaving, and by staying I also uncover a plot where our friend is trying to secretly destroy a family heirloom. We fail, but at least we get the heirloom and escape his family, but without the help of the rest of the party.

The Solution
I mentioned out game that I was unhappy about the situation for several reasons. Some of these reasons were the internal conflicts and I wanted to talk about them, as we agreed we would. After mentioning some of the situations, the answers I got was simply that it was role play and that it was too bad that I or anyone else was uncomfortable with the situation. I then mentioned that I didn't externally like to play a game with internal conflicts, but half the party said that it was the fun part about it, which was not something they had mentioned before. The final solution was that we all told each other what would trigger our characters' discomfort, but I don't see how that will help in the long run.


The Future
We have decided to continue playing, and personally I have decided to try to simply play with the group, avoid any conflicts even if it means playing my character wrong, and try to enjoy the game as much as possible. Internal conflicts will eventually split the group and cause more external conflicts, but hopefully now that we've gone over to the 3rd Dungeon Master, then we'll play a few sessions where conflict doesn't play as large a role and everything will become fun again. If not, then we'll have to split the group in two. 

D&D Maps

Over the past decades I have created countless maps for Dungeons and Dragons. At first I simply created maps on paper but as the digital age expanded I started using Paint, and then Campaign Cartographer, and now I'm using Gimp. Photoshop is also a perfectly good program to use, but in my case it has always been a program I've had to pay for, and I've therefore never gotten around to learning to use it.

Recently a danish publisher was on the lookout for someone who could make fantasy maps for three of their new fantasy books. I sent in the following three maps:

This first map was created in Campaign Cartographer. Originally, I had created an assortment of islands for a D&D 3.5 game but when the players turned evil they wanted to raise the land to create a single island. I allowed this and drew a map on paper first, and since then I've created this map to illustrate the lands that they conquered since that fateful day when they raised it from the bottom of the sea. Note that the names are a mixture of Elvish and names that the players gave the various places. Only The Tower of Magic and Dun are names from the original map.

This next map was also created in Campaign Cartographer. It was the map I created for my first D&D 4e game. I took a map of Mars (near Terra Cimmeria) and then I started modifying it. Once complete, I made the central part of the map the human lands with the Points of Light from the Dungeon Masters Guide, and added a few extra names, including names from Mars. I then added various other nations, such as the dwarven mountains of Dawnforge, the elven forest of Winterbole, the halfling jungle of Harken, the ruined empire of Ma'adim, and the goliath lands of Chronium.

The last map I sent was created in Gimp and inspired by maps I have of Faerun from Forgotten Realms. Although I mainly play 5e now, I have a 3.5 game running, and this is the map that the players will play on from June and forth. It is the last vestige of life in the world. The game takes place at the end of the 3rd Age, and the players will fight in an Elemental War against forces of chaos and temporal magic. This map will eventually change over time. It is currently the map I'm most proud of, and I look forward to using it, and modifying it as the war progresses.

First review received

In february I published the "Valentine Love Adventure" on the DMsguild. Now, 7 weeks later, I've sold 13 copies, but more importantly, I've gotten my first review on one of my adventures.


"This was a fun mod to put into my on going game. Might be good to have suggestions on how to make this for different levels as my PCs were at lvl 6 when I ran this."

I got 4/5 stars and I'm happy that it was a fun mod to put into a game. The review points towards a party of 6th level while the adventure was created for 1-3rd level since it was meant for new characters.

In the adventure itself I pointed out how to change the difficulty of the adventure to fit 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level characters. The same concept could have been used to change the adventure to 6th, 10th, even 20th level, so I'm a little confused about the last comment. I've decided not to put too much weight in it, and simply continue writing adventures in the same way I have thus far.

The next adventure will be Blackbrook Lockdown, which is already nearly 2 weeks late, and in April I'll also try to release a Forgotten Realms adventure using Ravenloft rules, if I can get my hands on the new book, and it contains what I'm hoping for (rules on playing an undead).

Sunder's Destiny

I'm already planning the next adventure I'll write and publish in the DMsguild and I've decided to create an adventure that tells the story of what happened after the end of one of my 4th edition campaigns.

3rd Age
My homebrew setting is divided up into 5 separate Ages that mark great changes, especially in the physical and magical laws that govern the game itself.

In the 3rd Age a group of humans with an affinity for magic sailed the Great Sea and settled on a group of islands that they called Alrualland. Over a thousand years later, a group of elite soldiers from the Elven Isles were sent by the Elven Emperor to retrieve a powerful artefact. Throughout the millennium, a magical disease had spread throughout Alrualland. Those affected banded together and it was this group of Werecrocodiles (Lycans) that defeated the elves.

The people of Alrualland allied themselves with a dwarven kingdom that lived in the world of shadows called the Kingdom of Beldwhig. These dwarves worshipped Lithor, the God of Earth and Undeath. Lithor raised the elves to death knights, vampires, liches, etc and sent them to Alrualland to defeat the Lycans before they took over Alrualland, Beldwhig's allies.

After the Underworld War, the undead took over Alrualland and ruled as lords and ladies. At the end of the Age, most of them set out into the world to find a means to defeat Ithilba and his elemental army that was threatening Daedaloth, the new name given to Alrualland, which also meant "The Land of the Dead". Unfortunately, these lords never made it back to Daedaloth, and Lady Ahnu Suhni, a powerful lich, was forced to move Daedaloth into the world of shadows where Beldwhig was standing by to aid them. Thus ended the 3rd Age. 


4th Age
A group of Shadar'Kai made it to the Theocracy of Daedaloth, a land of genasi in the Shadowfell. The Shadar'Kai were led by the assassin known as Sunder, who set in motion a plan to take over and rebuild the ancient capital of Al'Rual and eventually overthrow the Speaker, the leader of the theocracy.

During the invasion of Al'Rual, Sunder came across a very special and unique type of lich. Liches in the 4th Age worked very differently from liches in the 3rd Age, and thus Ahnu Suhni didn't keep on being a lich across the Ages. Instead, she evolved into a Suel Lich, a mix between a lich and a ghost, mainly because her spirit was trapped after she had moved Daedaloth into the Shadowfell. Having been trapped for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, Ahnu's soul finally grabbed on to the first partially living thing that came close to her, the revenant Sunder.

5th Age 
This entire plot is now the basis for my next adventure, which will tell the story of what happened after Sunder was taken over by Ahnü's soul, and how such a lich, revenant, and the shadar'kai work. I'll place it in the source of my inspiration, Hallalia, which has suffered greatly since the Sundering, which I'm also going to use to create the locations and events in the game.

Game Crafts - with Nina

Hello everyone,
I have never really seen this as a player myself, but I have always been fascinated with the idea of crafted items for roleplaying games.
It doesn’t need to be big fancy time consuming things that the GM spend hours and hours on. Even smaller things like a note, a wanted poster or things like that.

Now that I am preparing a game for our multiple Dungeon masters project (see more about that here) I decided to make a scroll.
It took like 15-20 minutes in total to make it and it just adds so much to the whole gaming experience. Or so I hope. And most of that time was spend on making the “magic seal” which is totally optional.

What you need:
A blank piece of paper
2-3 spoonsful of coffee
Simply just pour the coffee onto the paper and spread it all over with your fingers. Repeat on the other side of the paper and let it dry. And done.
If you want to have some printed text on your paper, I would suggest that you do that BEFORE you add the coffee. Not sure how well printers and coffee mix.
I then decided to add a “magic seal” to mine because it fits perfectly into my story (which I can’t reveal until after the game has been played, sorry)
I have ideas for many more quick and easy crafts so I hope my players find stuff like that fun.
And if not, then I will still have fun making them J
I hope you are all doing well.
Hugs
Nina