Dramatis Personae

So, who are the members of this intrepid group of adventurers? It was a long time finding a good crew with the time free in their schedule to commit to semi-regular gaming, but in the end we ended up with the following characters (and players):

Tergus (played by Jenn D.), Chaotic Neutral Human Fighter

Tergus was the son of a bankrupt and destitute noble family located in the Duchy of Geoff near the Barrier Peaks. He grew up with the fading trappings of courtly life, training as a knight, going for hunts on their estate, and spending a fair chunk of his later years drinking and gambling with his brother and friends in their decaying family manse. One especially drunk evening, he caught his brother cheating at cards. They got in a fight, and Tergus accidentally killed his brother. He fled his home, taking with him the family sword. Ironically, the sword has no special qualities, as the original was pawned by his father long ago and replaced with a replica festooned with paste gems and painted gold accents. He also rarely uses it, relying more on his boar spear and his exceptional brawling skill to get by. Having been on the road looking for adventure, he fell in with the current crew in hopes of leaving his past behind and making a new name for himself.

Terrible Sally (played by Anne K.), Chaotic Good Gnomish Illusionist/Thief

As Tergus moved through the Kron Hills on his way into the Village of Hommlet, Terrible Sally was sitting on the side of the road, waiting for him. She said that she had been waiting for him, and that she had a dream that she needed to help him on his journey. She has offered no other explanation, but has fit seamlessly in with the group. She always seems to have an animal with her that she found somewhere, critters which leave as mysteriously as they appeared.

Amberyn (played by Diana H.), Chaotic Good Human Ranger

Amberyn is actually the niece of the drunk trapper in Hommlet, and lives with him and his drunk son. She moved in with him back during the first uprising of the Temple of Elemental Evil, as a band of bugbear raiders killed her parents and burned their farmhouse in Nulb. As a refugee, she went to live with the only family she knew of. She had been forced to do all the work around the house, as her useless uncle and cousin couldn't do anything but drink away their lives. She did learn plenty of woodcraft from Elmo, the 'town drunk' (who was anything but, as she realized early on that his reputation was only an act). She also learned how to shoot a crossbow extremely well from the town tailor (who is himself secretly an amazing crossbowman). Finally, after a drag-out fight with her uncle, he tried to hit her and she laid him out cold. She didn't kill him, but took his town militia-issued polearm away and left. She then met up with a group of adventurers she'd seen earlier in town, and insisted that she join their group.

Diarmuid (played by Zach M.), Neutral Good Dwarven Cleric of Dumathoin

Diarmuid is an acolyte of the Dwarven god Dumathoin, the god of mining, the deep vastness of underground caverns, and of hidden and forgotten secrets. He had been working as a lay minister for dwarven mining teams, but recently had been summoned by the cult elders for a specific task. There were signs and omens that the cult of Elemental Evil to the south was once again on the rise, and any evil cult infringing upon the earth realm of Dumathoin was anathema and unacceptable. They tasked him with finding out if the signs and rumors were true, and if so he needed to to what he could to thwart the resurgence of the Elemental cult. They also mentioned that the auguries required him to secure the aid of a spellcaster for his journey.

Tristan Brightstar (played by Ben H.), Neutral Good Human Magic-User

Tristan had just graduated from his apprenticeship as a true Magic-User. Having been gifted by his master with his first spellbook, and trained moreso than most mages in melee skills and combat engineering and siegecraft, he was planning on finding an army to join up with as a battle mage. Before he left, though, a dwarf named Diarmuid stopped by his master's tower, looking for a magic user to join him on a noble quest. How could he refuse an offer like that? Eager and earnest, yet a bit naive about the world at large, he readily joined the dwarf and headed south to the village of Hommlet to make a name for himself as an adventurer.

D&D Rules Rewrite completed!

It's been ages since I've done anything with this site, so I figure I better put it to use. One major point of note is that I've finished the House Rules AD&D rewrite project! It took way longer than I expected. One of the biggest issues was the fact that once the core rules were tweaked and updated, all the spells for spellcasting classes had to be edited for content as well. That meant re-writing every single spell in the Players Handbook, Unearthed Arcana, 2nd Ed. Players Handbook, and adapting some spells from the Baldur's Gate video game series. But it's done!

I managed to complete a workable unarmed combat system. It is clunky, but much less so than the version in 1st edition, and much more realistic and useable than the 2nd edition system. It has rules for pushing, pushing with weapons or shields, grappling, grabbing items, pinning/overbearing, strangulation, and rules for armed or unarmed attacks for charging, parrying, disarming, two-weapon fighting style, two-handed fighting style, one-handed fighting style, and weapon-and-shield fighting style. I also have expanded weapon proficiency ranks for all weapons (and unarmed attacks). Above the Unskilled and Basic ranks, there is Specialized, Expert, Master and Grand Master, all of which offer special modes of attack and combat effects (including Skewering, Entangling, Knockback, Knockdown, Stunning and others) which vary by weapon type.

I need to fine tune how poisons work, how the Intimidation skill works (both in and out of combat), how Charging and Trampling work while mounted, and a few other things, but on the whole, I believe it is a very workable system.

The next step was to see how the rules worked in actual playtest. To that end, I adapted the classic campaign module T 1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil to my new rules set. I even wrote up 3x5 notecards for all creature and NPC encounters in the entire module for easy accessibility during gameplay and helping to speed along combat and other potentially boggy areas. (Those cards fill three whole 3x5 card holders.) I've also slapped together electronic character sheets and combat info sheets using the Google Spreadsheet program on Google Drive, and I have electronic versions of all the characters and all the major NPCs (who have more info than can fit on a 3x5 card).

Like I said, this has been a lot of work. :)

I'll be updating this site as I go along, occasionally with rule tweaks and additions as problems reveal themselves through playtesting, but also as an adventure journal for the T1-4 campaign as it unfolds. We've only had a few meetings so far, but it has been quite entertaining for the players, and for me as a game-master.

Stay tuned for the latest adventure updates!

-Michael Keith