Campaign Updates!!!!
Personal and Professional Games
Hello again!
Today is the first of many posts of this style: Campaign Updates! For those of you who are following me, I’ll be updating you on what is happening in my games. Fair warning, if you are in any of these campaigns, there may be spoilers. Up first, I’ll be talking about my newest campaign I’m running.
Dungeons of Drakkenheim
I’ve only ran two sessions of this on Start Playing Games thus far, but it has been phenomenal. The first session was possibly the best first session I have ever had as a GM. The energy and ideas the players brought to their characters, paired with the incredible setting provided by the Dungeon Dudes(YouTube content creators who made the setting) made for an exciting and dynamic first session. The second session was also quite exciting as the characters explored their first dungeon. They’re going back to finish the job next time and I’ve had multiple people share their excitement to play. So far, things are going as well as they possibly can and I am looking forward to seeing this world through the eyes of the characters.
Tyranny of Dragons
This game is two adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat. The players have finished Hoard of the Dragon Queen and are plugging along to stop Tiamat! We’ve had a few players come and go and right now we have a nice sized party! Currently the party is looking for an Adult White Dragon and a person who has gone missing. Recently the players survived a fight on a boat in icy waters and got to use several of their abilities(there are several characters with swim speed and one put it to good use). The victorious heroes are now staying in a village in the frozen tundra…
Keep On The Borderlands
I run a 5e conversion of this classic adventure every other week. It is roughly based off of the Goodman games conversion, but the players took some new and creative directions with this campaign. As a DM I struggled at times because I could see the classic “Go into a cave and kill things” directive was not going to work for this group. We ended creating a whole new and interseting little world around the Keep including: A Lolth temple/cult, a meteorite that mutated monsters, a tower that the party uses as a base, and three mysterious NPC’s who are clearly bad guys to fight. Currently we are in the process of storming the Keep with the monsters to take it over. There is something evil lurking beneath and the party is determined(maybe) to stop it!
Escape From Darkon
This one has a very special place in my heart. This is the first long term campaign I have ever ran and is based off of Darkon in the Van Richten’s source book for 5e. The player characters are trapped in Darkon, a domain of dread where fog is consuming the land. As the party as traveled Darkon, they have had complete direction in what they want to do(open-ish world). This includes helping an awkward Dwarf navigate a high society party, Killing a vampire lord, and making several risky bargains with a hag in the city of Il Aluk. Currently the party is working with one of the inheritors of Darkon to see what can be done to escape. Players, if you’re reading, let me know if I’m off on this one! I’ve been running this game for roughly three and a quarter years. This is another one that has seen a few people come and go. We’ve added in a few new players and everyone is having a great time! Will they escape Darkon this year? We’ll just have to see!
Dolmenwood
We just wrapped this up over the weekend! The players, after slaying a powerful sorceress, liberating her magic items, and realigning the power dynamic of the Fairy Court, returned to the Ruined Abbey of St. Clewd, where they were able to defeat the corrupting force, enabling the Pluritine Church to rebuild the abbey. This was my first non-5e long campaign and went for roughly a year. Dolmenwood is an incredible setting and I’ll probably be writing an article about it at some point. Even if you’re not interested in the rule set, the setting itself is worth the money! The players were able to use a pass wall spell to avoid a locked door to get to the BBEG, and after a rough first fight, they retreated, planned, and returned. Thanks to a magic item, they were able to stun the BBEG for most of the fight. One of the players told me that this was the first boss fight he’s been in where he was actually able to strategize before the fight. I’ll consider that a win! I loved that we were able to wrap this up on a high note, with no party deaths(in this fight, there were several throughout the campaign). The players got to use their cool items and I think it was about as a good a end as we could get.
Eberron
We haven’t started, but this is the next campaign that my Dolmenwood group is doing. We’ve made characters and done our session zero work, so in a few weeks, we’re going to start exploring the world of Eberron! I’m excited for the change of pace, from the British Isles fantasy world of Dolmenwood, to the Fantasy/Sci-fi world of Eberron. Like Dolmenwood, Eberron is considered a top notch source book and I’m just as eager to see this world through the player characters!
That’s it for my first campaign update! Keep following if you are interested, either way, I’ll be writing about it!