Thoughts on a Twisted, Generic D&D Campaign

While walking my kiddos to school and then coming home the other day, I started thinking about how taking the stock fantasy world D&D uses, and giving it a little bit of a twist, that would make it fresher experience to all the BTDT crowd. For now I’m not digging into doing a map of this world, just the people populating it. There should be a logical flow to some of this, so everything makes a little sense with just passing info. Then over time and playing, details can be filled in if needed.

Let’s start with Elves. Tossing out the Tolkienesque descended Elves (and various subtypes all the editions have added) we’re used too, and we’ll replace them with just three types: Surface, Underground, and Wild. We’ll keep the extreme longevity and other abilities, but tweak the fluff of them.

• Surface Elves look physically just like your typical fantasy elf. But they are all very dark skinned, with tones running from olive to almost black. Hair color tends to follow the same colors as humans and other demihumans. They can grow facial hair, but it is sparse and only comes in like a goatee. They absolutely love art or artistry in all their various forms, but due to their long lives, they can be very snobbish or elitist about their current favorite “thing” this decade (or century, their patient). Temperament wise, they run the gamut from good to evil, just like humans/other demihumans. However while they are cordial to other races, they do not tend to make friends or forge alliances with them, due to elves often outliving other races, their descendants, and in some cases the country they lived in. This is why there are several Elf enclaves within other countries borders, that tend to remain neutral to the country’s politicking. Culturally, their like the Achaemenid Empire (the first Persian Empire), in that they have regional governors, standard imperial coinage, and tax districts. Also like the Achaemenid Empire, they -nationally- follow one god, but they are tolerant of other religions.

• Underground Elves are the descendants of clans who assassinated the king, and tried to install weak willed puppet on the throne. Failing, they fled the kingdom and laid blame on another clan for their collective failure. Some sought help through arcane means, and eventually followed their new demon god and its spawn into the underground. Several thousands of years living in darkness, they have -as a people- lost the ability to see completely. This is compensated by enormous ears -that they can individually move- and a hearing range that is comparable to bats. They are of course all albinos. Additionally, their pantheon of gods is lead by the demon god that first helped them.

• Wild Elves are descended from the other group of Elves that fled the kingdom. Instead of seeking aid, they fled far from their home lands and hide in the depth of an ancient wood. From there they raid the surrounding countries. Other than being blood thirsty savages, not much else is known about them or their customs.

Well, that seems to be the state of things right now. I have a few ideas dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, but they need a bit of time to percolate.

Still Working at This

Pardon my absence, I was trying to find a job in a whole other state then the one I currently live in. Having done that, I am now waiting on a background check. So more free time, yay...

Anyways, I did find a little time to gather some notes on the mega adventure for Dragonlance. This will be a straight comparison of the DLs, DLCs, 15th Anniversary book, and the 3E books, encounter for encounter. Paths that deviate from the original three books, will be also be complied as a just in case measure.

 Having read DL1 to prep, I’m trying to find the railroad most people talk about. Other then  the initial encounter and a little bit of “keep the meta plot moving” rules, the module is a straight up wilderness hexcrawl. If they even make it to Solace, they still have to go to the bar, mingle a bit, and engage the old man telling stories. Skip any of that and no quest. Additionally Xak Tsaroth is just a two part dungeon crawl. If anything, people should be grumbling about the GM map and the Player map not matching up like they should. There are two different maps (style wise), and every single peak labeled on one, is else where on the other. And the GM map is done in black and shades of grey, on white. With white encounter numbers. My vision isn’t all that bad, and I have trouble reading the thing. Can’t imagine someone with worse vision trying.
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Now I will point out that it might be assumed that the players of DL1 are knowledgeable about the plot of the books, and thus their quest. Because outside of the above mentioned NPC with a quest or Goldmoon and Riverwind’s background, there is nothing to serve as a plot hook until they either get to Haven (then directed to Xak Tsaroth) or stumble into Qualinesti/Darkenwood (not only directed to Xak Tsaroth [screw it, XT from now on] but immediately taken there as well).

If some how the characters haven’t gotten a clue or fast traveled to XT, they can wander around the open plains in the Eastern half of the map until the Dragon army takes over everything and kinda pushes them into XT. This might be why people think these are a railroad, but I don’t feel that’s the case. We’ll have to see how the rest of the modules pan out.
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However the characters make it to XT, it turns from a wilderness crawl to a dungeon crawl. And an  extremely deadly one at that. Simply slogging through the swamp -vice walking on the out of water land parts- can result in combat with either a catobelas [Save vs Death gaze attack], a nest of black dragon hatchlings [with three attacks each], a nest of poisonous snakes [damage + poison attacks], or upwards of a dozen level draining wraiths. And then the characters get to fight the black dragon itself. A GM with a “let the dice decide” attitude, would TPK a group in no time, because there is no healing magic in the world yet. Survive that, and you get to head down a level and try not to fall into the bottom of XT.

Making it to the bottom allows characters to take in the sunken city of XT. But any prolonged or noisy combat could net players upwards of 50 draconians or even the black dragon again. The later can only be killed through luck, or the blue crystal staff and its “win button” move of smacking the dragon with the staff.
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Anyway, I’ll finish getting the Dragons of Despair arc written out and post it in a few days.