New campaign! (2014)

Well!  It's been a long time since I've posted here.  Since there will be a few new players, the first session (date to be determined) will mostly be a character creation day with maybe a small practice quest.  The first few meetings thereafter will probably also be simple, possibly unrelated to the two campaigns I intend to run (Ravenloft and one of my design based on the Symphony X album: The New Mythology Suite (V).

All the old campaigns are tagged with Contor/contour.  The new one will be tagged as The Power of Five or tpo5.

So as far as ground rules go, here are a few tips and recommendations with building your character for this world:

* Any default race and class for D&D 3.5 is fine.  If you want something other than what is listed (for instance a drow), as me and I'll try to compromise.
- (i.e. someone has asked to play a drow.  Since a majority of drows are evil, it would disrupt the flow of normal events so I settled on allowing a half-drow/half-other race so every NPC that sees him won't instantly distrust the group, thus limiting Role-playing oppourtunities.)

* I would prefer non-evil characters, but if you insist, I will insist that they be intelligent evil characters (i.e. they don't slaughter the innocent for fun discounting that every city will then probably hunt them down to kill them).  Intelligent evil characters might not even appear to do anything evil until a particularly significant moral choice presents itself (i.e. choosing to destroy a great evil and WILLINGLY not caring that it also will kill many innocents in the process).  Keep in mind that a neutral character might also choose to do this, possibly with more reluctance and a good character would almost not consider it.

* Similarly, Chaotic characters are fine, but chaotic does not mean insane.  Chaotic simply means a disregard or even completely opposing lawfulness.  For a truely chaotic alignment, think anywhere between a typical teenage punk anarchist wannabe to a civil activist opposing what they perceive to be a great social injustice.

* As it was a problem in previous campaigns, I don't expect it to be as much of a problem now since practically everyone playing is above the age of 20.  D&D is a team game.  Even if there is a Lawful Good PC and a Neutral Evil PC, that does not mean they should be at each others' throats the whole campaign.  That being said, a good inner party conflict is a great thing to have story-wise.  The main thing to avoid is outright attacking a follow party member (in game).

* For new players:  If you don't know how to make a new character or even play, that's what the DM (dungeon master) (me) is for.  I'll answer absolutely any questions you have so don't be afraid to ask.

* For returning and new players:  Feel free to make use of the forums as we did with the last campaign:  http://yomic.proboards.com/ .  Your accounts should still be active (I had to get them to email me my username since it's different than the display name).

* For people who know how to make characters and want to get a head start, create your character at level 4.  This'll help get new players acquainted with D&D while not being too boring.

* Finally:  Go to the forums above and go to the new "Post your Character here" thread under Yomic's Campaign.  This will just serve as a reference and possibly serve to inspire me to create content based around your character.

Sorry for the large post!

Campaign details:

* Part 1:  Side-quests and possibly minor sub-plots related to part 3 (levels 4-6)
* Part 2:  Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (levels 6-9).  This is a vampire
* Part 3:  The Power of Five (levels 9-???)
* Part 4:  I'll make something epic up, probably dealing with Time or the Planes if we're even still playing this long.

Character Stats Creation:

* We are using a point buy system so people who know what to do use this as a guide.  I'll help new people out on the first day of the campaign.

Assign your six stats.  You get 30 points to spend.  Each number has a cost, negative numbers give you points back:
Stat#:  |  Point Cost:
3 | -5
4 | -4
5 | -3
6 | -2
7 | -1
8 | 0
9 | 1
10 | 2
11 | 3
12 | 4
13 | 5
14 | 6
15 | 8
16 | 10
17 | 13
18 | 16

For example, a character with the stats of Str(8),Dex(10),Con(12),Int(18),Wis(12),Cha(12) spent 0+2+4+16+4+4=30 points.

New forum links of import:

New Character Thread
New Campaign Discussion and Schedule Discussion

Liyl's Unmasking and Defeat of Pirates in Wherst

(This post has been a draft on the blog for a few years.  I'm just publishing it now because I intend on using the same blog for a new D&D campaign.  This campaign, entitled "Contour", has been suspended (for a long time) and may not return.  Hope you enjoy the final post despite me forgetting most of the details behind it.  I hope the next campaign will be just as enjoyable.

Session 7 (Started approximately a few months since the previous post in 2010):

Woo... it's been about a month since we last played so we were a bit rusty (especially me). We had to recap the story a bit and then get into a D&D mood, but we did alright I think for all the earlier distractions. Ryan didn't show so his character wasn't played (1/2 exp unless there was a good reason he wasn't there). Apologies for the terrible bad-guy monologue that wasn't very thought out or scripted. Hopefully me having time here to think about it will count for something.

(Continued in 2014...)

The party decided to bring Liyl to the captain and ambush him there.  They go through town and arrive at the ship.  The captain, sensing the ambush called Liyl out and revealed not only was he Liyl's father but that Liyl was in disguise as a man.  Liyl's true name was Lily (how original, right?) and she was the captain's daughter.  Lily was unphased however and swore that she never forgave him for the depravities her mother was forced to endure as his slave and consort.

At that, she lunged for the captain and a fight ensued.  ((Here I do not remember the details of the fight, but the players were ultimately victorious.))

Lily apologized to the players for deceiving them.  She told the party her backstory that involved her mother always constantly being beaten and used by the captain, and that one day it went too far and she was killed by the captain's first mate when Lily was 8.  The night her mother died, Lily vowed to kill the captain and his first mate and escape.  She was able to kill the first mate, but it had become too dangerous to kill the captain so she fled.  She decided to diguise herself after failing to gather a crew as a woman, who the lowly pirates seemed to look down upon.  As a man, she used many pirates to do her dirty work and gather up enough strength to track her father down which led her to today.

The end (for now).

There was definitely more of the overarching campaign to tell, but the next one will be similar enough (after Ravenloft) for me to get the story I intended to tell out.

Retired characters (some will return):

Aurelius: Level 6 Human Duskblade
Cryllise: Level 6 Human Barbarian
Gerdrex: Level 6 Human Paladin (likely returning)
Kelch: Level 6 Half-Elf Rogue/Assassin (likely returning)
Kintel: Level 6 Dwarf Fighter
Naonomi: Level 6 Elf Ranger (likely returning)
Xanandethis: Level 6 Human Monk