One Campaign Ends, Another Begins

My wife and I finally wrapped up our White Box campaign. It took her from first to fifth level and ran almost a year.

The cult of Vecna were hunting for their namesake's remains to raise him from the dead* and bring him back. Olivia (my wife's character) hunted down cult leaders one by one, extracted information them, and eventually pursued the head of the whole operation to (a modified version of) the Isle of Dread, where she polished off the leader and her minions, found the dusty, powdered remains of the evil Wizard (all but the hand and eye of course), and destroyed them with acid.  Along the way she solved the mystery of an elvish ambassador's assassination, stopped a bugbear invasion of the region, took out a small but up-and-coming assassin's guild, saved a childhood friend from slow poisoning, and rescued her mentor from imprisonment, torture and impending death. For her first campaign I think she did OK.

When I asked what she wanted to do next, she said "scif-fi!" We watch a lot of sci-fi on Netflix, but I've never run a sci-fi game before so I'm looking forward to it.

We've created a character for her using White Star and the White Star Companion. Our setting will be Dark Matter-ish (which is what we're currently watching on Netflix) in tone -- so no Star Knights, magic, or sapient alien races. Just humans, human colonies, cut-throat corporations, criminals, and space hazards. Her character is Cielle de Rhé, a bounty hunter. Her sidekick is a Deep Space Explorer named Duncan, and she has a Robot named Axle. She also has a battered old scout ship named The Bête noire, acquired as booty when she brought in the criminal who previously owned it.

Today is the calm before the storm before my last set of exams and research papers comes in for grading. After that I hope to get an adventure written and get the play underway over the holidays.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*I took an intentional liberty here. Officially, if I recall correctly, Vecna was destroyed and only his hand and eye survived; I decided the rest of him was not destroyed but lay hidden for years in a long forgotten temple on the Isle of Dread.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day Seven

Herestauss' Treatise on the Unknown Inhabitants of the Ancient World (Magic Item)

Herestauss' Treatise is a magical speaking book, with blank pages. The user may ask the book a question on supernatural creatures (as defined in the GM's own campaign). The book will answer by opening and closing its cover like a mouth. The Treatise's knowledge is not complete. It will know an answer to a question based on the rarity of creature about which the user inquires. Typically this involves subtracting the creature's HD from 10 and multiplying by 10 to get a percent chance to know. For example, the book can answer questions on 1 HD zombies with 90% accuracy; on 4 HD gargoyles with 60% accuracy, etc. When the book knows the answer it will reply truthfully. When it does not know, it will provide a partially correct answer, or an incorrect answer, or no answer at all, at the GM's discretion.

Inspired by a book title appearing in Maupassant's short story "The Horla."

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 1 

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 2

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 3

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 4
Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 5
Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 6

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day Six

Lleweden's Healing Losenges (and other magical cures)

Lleweden's Healing Losenges are the poor adventurer's cure for injuries of all types. They can be purchased in most apothecary shops, and cost only 10-20% of the price of a Potion of Cure Light Wounds. Each losenge heals 1 point of damage.

Lleweden was one of the most famous apothecaries of his day. He is remembered for Lleweden's Bezoar Drops, which neutralize lesser poisons, and many modern scholars believe that it was Lleweden, not Castor, who developed the world's most effective cure for paralysis, namely Castor's Oil of Movement.



Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 1 

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 2

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 3

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 4
Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 5

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day Five

Cosmo's Reliable Worm Syrup

Cosmo's Reliable Worm Syrup is a magical potion that does exactly what the label says. It removes all forms of worms and dungeon parasites from the victim's system. Unlike most potions, it must be taken three times per day, over 1d6 days. Side effects may include nausea, dizziness, severe cramps, and diarrhea (entailing penalties to hit, move, AC and loss of hp, at the GM's discretion).

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 1 

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 2

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 3

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 4


With thanks: Tim Shorts' post on how Horror Comes in Little Packages got me thinking about this.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day Four

The Eye of the Storm (Magic Item)

The Eye of the Storm is a beautifully cut round amethyst, with dark swirls within it. The holder of the Eye may call upon the power of the storm to create a violent hurricane in his/her vicinity. The storm will create magical winds reaching hundreds of miles per hour, picking up all individuals and objects not bolted down within a 100 yard radius and throwing them violently away from the user.

Victims of the Eye outdoors must roll a save to avoid being dashed against an obstacle and killed instantly; falling damage may still occur. If the Eye is used indoors – e.g. a dungeon – victims are dashed against the nearest wall and killed instantly, no save. At the GM's discretion, very high level PCs, NPCs and monsters may take damage equal to 50% of their total hp, rather than suffering instant death.

The user of the Eye, along with anyone within a 10' radius of him or her, will suffer no ill effects from the storm, as this area is completely calm.

The Eye of the Storm can only be used only once per year. The Eye recharges on the stormiest day of the height of the campaign world's storm season. The GM, at his/her discretion, may also require a ritual for the recharge to occur.

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 1 

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 2

Click Here for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 3

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day 3

Ruegger's Perfect Arrows

Ruegger's Perfect Arrows are quite rare (and extremely expensive if made available for purchase). Each arrow is enchanted to automatically strike the target and do double maximum damage. Each arrow can be used only once. They strike the target with such force that they shatter and are unusable afterward.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day Two

Flayed Hand (Cursed Magic Item)

A Flayed Hand is the result of a magic-user's failed attempt to create a Hand of Glory. It is typically "a dried black hand, with yellow nails, the muscles exposed and traces of old blood on the bones." The hand's only magical property is its unquenchable desire to strangle its owner. As soon as anyone takes possession of it, it jumps (magically) for the owner's throat. On a failed save, the victim is strangled to death. On a successful save, the victim successfully grapples the hand, but must find a way of securing it (locking it in a chest, etc.) or it will make an additional attack as soon as it is released. Even if the hand is secured, the curse remains upon the victim, and if the hand escapes it will relentlessly pursue the victim. Only a "remove curse" spell cast on the victim can bring an end to the hand's desire to pursue and strangle him. The GM may determine how, if at all, the hand can be destroyed (magic/silver weapons, fire, acid, etc.).

Inspired by, and Brief Quotation from, Guy de Maupassant's short story, "The Flayed Hand."

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation, Seven Magic Items, Day One

Like many others, I'm doing a whole week of posts to celebrate Wednesday's Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. I'll post one new magic item per day. Today's item is:

Torquemada's Crown (Magic Item)

Made of iron and crafted in the shape of a crown of thorns, this is a magical interrogation device. Placed upon the head of any human, demi-human or humanoid, the individual wearing it must answer truthfully to any question, or else suffer damage determined by the severity of the lie. The smallest white lie – a lie that could harm no one – will deal 1d6 damage to the individual wearing the crown. A lie which could result in temporary harm to someone does 2d6 damage. A lie which could result in permanent harm to someone will cause 3d6 points of damage. A lie that could potentially result in someone's death will do 4d6 damage. At the GM's discretion, damage dice may be increased or decreased, and saves may be allowed.

Work Progressing on the West Kingdom Campaign

Despite coming down with a nasty bug the last week or so, I've done some more work prepping the West Kingdom campaign, mostly involving new details about the world in general and the environs of Fairbrook.

It's all been posted on the West Kingdom information page, here:

http://westkingdom.blogspot.com/p/west-kingdom.html

Information on Population Distribution, Religion, Banking, the Calendar, a General Description of Fairbrook, and A New Arrival's Guide to Fairbrook, have all been posted on that page (along with maps previously seen on this blog).

We're still looking for two more players, so if anyone's been on the fence about wanting in, why not give the page a look?

Swords and Wizardry White Box Play-by-Blog: Full Complement of Players!

The Swords and Wizardry White Box "West Kingdom" Play-by-Blog campaign now has a full complement of players!

We've reached our target number of four.

*****************************************************************

The West Kingdom, ruled by Berenger II, is a vast land, difficult to control. Its isolated towns are bastions of relative peace and order. The King's soldiers patrol the roads as best they can. But the woods, hills, ruins and caves remain untamed. From these regions, the minions of chaos come forth to menace the folk of Berenger's realm. With resources stretched, the King's men are fortunate to simply hold the settlements and byways. Only small companies of roving adventurers press the attack into the dark places where the enemies of the Kingdom abide. Fairbrook is where the story begins for one such band.

Rules: Swords and Wizardry White Box (Third Printing) almost entirely as written. A free pdf of the rules can be found HERE. Apart from picking and choosing from the options offered in the S&W WB rulebook, house rules are relatively few and straightforward, and they can be found HERE.

Venue: The game will be played on a dedicated blog (still under construction) HERE.

Posting Rhythm: one post every two days. More detail on posting schedule and conventions can be found HERE.

Tone: Light, but liberally seasoned with darker elements. Similar in tone to The Hobbit, The Face in the Frost, or the Prince Valiant comics. Not at all "kiddie" in nature (so a bit more grown up than The Hobbit), but also not as gritty as Conan or as heavy and epic as The Lord of the Rings.

Structure: Non-linear, sandboxish. Multiple adventure hooks at any given time. Players are free to choose which ones they want to follow, and which they want to ignore. NO overall, mandatory story arc and NO preconceived end game where players would "miss out" if they didn't do certain adventures in a certain order.

Scale: Relatively small-scale to start, expanding as needed.

PC Death: It happens, and it happens at 0 hp. Players have to be cool with this; at the same time, on my end, I do not see myself as the players' adversary, and I'll never be out to purposefully "kill off" the PCs.

Type of Players Sought: New players and veteran players alike are both MOST WELCOME. I'm especially interested in players who try to work well together cooperatively. I'm not a fan of intraparty backstabbing, nor of evil PCs burning and pillaging simple villages minding their own business.

Start Date: I'd like to start playing on March 1, 2012.

Contact Me: If you're interested in playing, send me an email at bard2941@yahoo.com.

In your email, please indicate your name (it can be your online handle – it doesn't need to be your real name) and briefly mention something about your gaming experience (RPG or other), especially anything you think is  revealing about you as a player. If more than two people express an interest, I'll pick players based on how well I think they'll mesh with my existing two players. My goal is to try to maximize chances of having four people that are a good fit with each other.