Ancient Realms - D&D 3.5 (d20Pro)

Hailing interested players for a D&D 3.5 campaign of high fantasy, inspired by numerous fantasy/sci-fi works (see list at the bottom).

[ 'Pen & Paper Games' http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/ ... post163275 ]


Next Game: Friday, Sep 23, 2011 @ 6 pm PDT duration ~4hrs

Adventure: Destruction and Deliverance

Current Player List

• - Macgreine : Tenamore (Human Paladin)

• - Valthos : Kaldrich (Human Swordsage)

• - CoryFenrir : Wiz (Catfolk Magus)

• - Dragius : Orso (Human Druid)

• - Irianodon : Majid (Human Rogue/Wizard)

• - Kotawolf : Thadious (Halfling Rogue)

Campaign

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/ancient-realms

Era: Spring, 2679

Location: Island Kingdom of Dexsonia (founded: Dexitheus "the Seeker": c. 2179)

Banner: Silver Dragon Hovering Majestically with Wings Outstretched over a Castle

Leadership:

• - King Eriakes “the Swift” (shield: silver falcon in flight)

• - Queen Asta, “Golden-tongue"

Other Notables:

• - Shâirhi, “Wise Oracle of the Sky”

Capital: Castle Rockheart

Major Cities:

• - Lukehöld (founded c. 2182: Lucian, son of Dexitheus, “Tamer of the Wilds”)

Organizations:

• - Order of the Sacred Watchguard (tabard: upright sword w/ silver wings)

History

Dexitheus (“the Seeker”), at 45 years of age, sailed from the Land of Khentonnia with several ships to colonize a new island home that had been discovered in previous journeys. After a perilous voyage lasting several weeks, the survivors arrived at Firsthold and beheld the fringes of a wondrous land.

An ancient tower stood firm upon that small rocky, mountainous island—a piece of the mainland. It was abandoned, and the stonework seemed untouched by time or decay. If was of a curious design, and extremely well-crafted.

When the settlers traveled toward a beach on the mainland, they were greeted by a massive castle on a promontory, separated by a chasm from the mainland, and spanned by an archway.

This place—named by Dexitheus “Rock Heart”—was also abandoned. The walls appeared to never have been breached, though all wood or other furnishing had vanished into dust over an unknown period of time.

Scouting parties met no human denizens. The land had rich soil and numerous rivers and lakes. How great was this fortuitous undertaking?!

Work on the castle and a nearby port city began apace. It was at this time that a son, Lucian, was born to Dexitheus and his consort, Lady Shâarhi (“Moon Bright”).

However, barely a year had passed since their landing, when foul creatures spewed up from the earth, from a place now named “Bânsooth”. It is a blasted place, with dwarven-carved entrances (not the same work as the castle and towers) into some of the highest mountains—aside from those near the long-dormant volcano.

As numerous as ants, did foul orcs stream across the valley, and among them were fell beasts of old: eye tyrants, basilisks. And above all, a great (reddish) dragon of consuming flame rampaged forth.

And lo and behold, Lady Shâarhi (Shâarhithoosalaenaar) transformed into a massive dragon all glittering molten silver, and Dexitheus (not the least surprised, having known) climbed upon her back and rode forth into battle.

They decimated the enemies while the loyal warriors and knights fought back the scrabblers, but in the titanic battle through the skies, rippled with ice and fire, did Dexitheus and Lady Shâarhi meet their doom, as they saved their new home and people from the fell wyrm, taking him with them to a watery grave (though the King and his wondrous consort were lovingly retrieved and interred within known places under the castle proper).

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

We have started a 1st-level campaign and shall progress from there (currently 6th level). My preference is mid-to-high-level adventures, with epic quests throughout the planes.

As a high fantasy campaign, players are welcome to use the high-powered point-buy system, and most races (monsters) and classes are available after review. As this gets started, I'll post more of the flavor of this campaign setting.


About the DM

I'm a long-time gamer--usually the DM--and have an extensive collection of official, 3rd party, and fan resources for Dungeons & Dragons. I have run custom worlds, and incorporated existing modules (WotC, 3rd party, Dungeon magazine, etc.) into the setting, in addition to custom locations (cities, dungeons, etc.).

I enjoy adding story elements and narrative, and letting players interact with their game environment, including role-playing. I also really enjoy streamlined combat using tactical elements--and the d20Pro software excels at helping the DM and players with that.

With the addition of d20Pro--which can be used for entirely virtual games--I'm forming an online gaming group in addition to the in-person groups I DM weekly or monthly.


Online Tools (Virtual Table Top - VTT)

• - http://www.d20pro.com/

• - https://secure.logmein.com/products/ham ... nload.aspx (Unmanaged; free)

• - http://www.ventrilo.com/ (free client)
  
  I'll use d20Pro to reveal the color map, supporting artwork, flavor text, creatures encountered (and any combat!), etc. I've found over the past several months with in-person groups that this tool greatly enhances the accuracy and speed (and fun) of combat [it being an advancement over miniatures and the most excellent Dwarven Tiles].
  
  (Scroll down on this forum post to see some nice explanations and screenshots of maps, creatures, attacks, etc. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1134&p=5550&hilit=edwardcd#p5550 in addition to the main help files http://help.mindgene.com/ )
  
  I have extra floating licenses, so a player can use the free client available at the d20Pro site. Also, we'll connect to a Ventrilo server for voice communication.
  
  
  Inspirational Fiction
  
  • - The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuinn (power of names, archmagi, schools of magic, dragons, great spells)
  • - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien (mythology, good vs. evil, artifacts, heroics, quests)
  • - The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (wizards, shapechanging, elemental powers)
  • - The Dying Earth by Jack Vance (wizards, rogues, ioun stones, time travel, spells ["Wondrous Prismatic Spray!"], demons, intrigue, ancient civilizations)
  • - The Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance (wizards, fey, plane hopping, spells ["Time Stop"], kingdoms-- war and intrigue)
  • - Hiero's Journey (far future, post apocalyptic, psionics)
  • - Darkover Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley (psionics)
  • - Creatures of Light and Darkness, Lord of Light, various others by Roger Zelazny (mythology and god-men, tech as magic)
  • - Madwand by Roger Zelazny (magic and tech, mythical creatures, quests, artifacts, wizards, planes of existence)
  • - Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny (magic and tech, shadow walking/teleportation)
  • - Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard (barbarians, sorcerers, creatures, battles)
  • - Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock (Stormbringer!, ancient kingdoms, pact/summoning, planes, multi-verse, doomed hero)
  • - Witch World by Andre Norton (planes, places of power, illusions, words of power)
  • - Et Cetera!
  
  Inspirational Movies
  
  • - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (epic narratives & battles, elves/wizards/dwarves/men/orcs, castles, wraiths, dungeons)
  • - Dragonslayer (magic, dragons, artifacts, wizards, spells [dimension door, control winds/weather, lightning bolt...] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonslayer
  • - Big Trouble in Little China (martial arts, wizards, quests)
  • - Willow (wizards, magic, quests, polymorph)
  • - Dungeon & Dragons movies (wizards, spells [teleport, healing, fireball...], quests, artifacts, traps, lichs, dragons)
  • - Et Cetera!
  
  Favorite Computer Games
  
  • - Fallout (I, II, Tactics, III, New Vegas)
  • - Deus Ex, DE: Revolution
  • - Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
  • - Baldur's Gate Series
  • - Icewind Dale Series
  • - Neverwinter Nights I & II
  • - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series
  • - Heroes of Might & Magic V
  • - Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
  • - Temple of Elemental Evil
  • - Et Cetera!
  
  System Reference Documents (SRD) 3.5
  
  • - The Hypertext d20 SRD - http://www.d20srd.org/
  • - D&D Wiki - http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Sys...rence_Document
  • - systemreferencedocuments.org - http://systemreferencedocuments.org/...=36&Itemid=103
  • - Andargor's HQ - http://www.andargor.com/ [XML, database formats]

Character Tools supporting D&D 3.5 that I have, or have used:

DM Genie ( $ ; used extensively; what I've loaded tons of references into; nice leveling wizard)
http://dmgenie.com/

HeroLab ( $ ; allows export from and import into d20Pro)
http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab

PCGen ( open source; extensive optional resources bundled; can be slow with lots loaded)
http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/01_overview.php

PathGuy's Character Generator 3.5 ( free; all-in-one-page scripted gen)
http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

Roleplaying Assistant (feature-limited shareware not time limited; wide game system support; data-based)
http://www.rpgweb.com/

 

Re: Vision9000's Campaigns

Hah, well yes, I was somewhat excited to begin.

I pushed the start time out a couple of times and reduced the duration. Didn't actually get to run anything. I...think...I have all of the Infrno settings correct (open registration, accept d20Pro connections, etc.). One person joined the game at Infrno but never connected to d20Pro.

I made another game (clone) for 3 PM Pacific Sunday and I'll see if anyone joins. I'm interested in learning the ins and outs of completely remote play. I've only used d20Pro in a LAN so far. I'm thinking of using ventrilo for voice chat if bandwidth is an issue (I've got 1.5Mbps down/384Kbps up ADSL).

I do realize plenty of notice brings better results...I just wanted to get something going immediately!

 

Re: Vision9000's Campaigns

Hmm, I realized afterward that I'd specified a game password in Infrno but I didn't fire up d20Pro with it (it was already running when I made a new Infrno game)...so maybe that was the disconnect?

I took off the password for the cloned game for Sun. It seems like people don't get the direct IP address anyway, so I'm less concerned about too many people trying to join--Infrno probably tracks how many people are allowed to join.

I did allow spectators, and then read later that the choice is good because it would actually allow people to join without an Infrno character specified. This seems like it would work well, because I can just alter owner in d20Pro for those who join.

Thanks for the tips on Skype. I'd used Vent in the past for games without integrated vchat--hosting my own on a linux server. I upgraded my Skype and I'm good to go for using it with a d20Pro session.

My hope for Sunday's game is to get some people up and running quickly, with voicechat, and pre-made characters. It would help to have somewhat experienced D&D and d20Pro members, at least until I figure things out enough to answer questions for newcomers.

That being said, it'd be way cool to put this new module through its paces.

The pre-gen'd characters do have more than avg magic for their levels (I'm sure some people have noticed), but the module is very challenging.

I'm going to keep prepping. (I saw in one vid/example where the GM for d20Pro popped up artwork as "maps" that weren't played on, just visuals. I want to do the same and capture some of the module art/props).

 

Re: Vision9000's Campaigns

One other key difference for me is that I've only hosted on my laptop which uses a different software-based firewall (we're still behind a hardware NAT firewall, of course) from my workstation.

It was on my workstation that I was trying to host--and I've now ensured that d20Pro can run as a server on the network. Barring that, I'll put the firewall in game mode or just turn it off.

Hopefully that was the issue (I can troubleshoot with both systems attempting to connect inside/outside the LAN as needed).

Update: I did need to turn off additional app and Web security controls, and have confirmed the ability to join a game hosted on my workstation--as tested via another d20Pro client to my external IP address.