Although we have at least another year before we finish "The Shackled City" I thought it would be nice to share a bit about some upcoming 4E features. Here is a bit of fun for everyone. Heroforge has already been pumping out the 4E characters sheets. It still takes a book to make a character, but it also help solidify what a character will look like.
Enjoy and happy character making.
Your happy little GM
Claude
4 comments:
I'm thinking of blogging again..
I wish I could find a near-abandoned Blogger Comment section to scratch up.
Hmm..
blog away my diranged and freakish friend. You are always welcome.
STILL WORKING ON THAT NOVEL, HMM?
Alright, here we go.
A good story.
Maybe I'm overthinking this, but when was the last time you heard a good story? I mean, it doesn't always have to be in book form, it could just be standard water cooler talk. About things you've done or crazy ideas you've had.
But lets go back and try and figure out what makes a good story.
For me, I think the one of the main attractions is that you have to honestly care about the characters. If you can't relate to someone on an emotional level, your far less likely to be interested in them and whatever obstacles the characters try to overcome really comes into a 'meh' plot device.
Now that you've got a character, what's thier purpose, or thier reason for doing what they're doing?
I know, your asking yourself, "Jooj, where the bloody fark are you going with this?"
Well, I'm trying to do a sort of "reversal" outlook of how stories are done and made.
Let's say I wanted to write a novel or make up a module for an adventure. It honestly helps if you have interesting characters and memorable experiences, often with situations the reader or player can relate to.
So onwards to where I'm going with this:
Well, last weekend we took a break from DnD and had a special guest GM take us throught the perilous world of Warhammer. For those of you not in the know, Warhammer is a pretty unforgiving game. It includes critical hit tables where limbs are lost, and sometimes people show up with an arm missing or if they've been tainted by chaos they might have an extra one.
It's not a pretty game.
But that isn't important right now.
I think roleplaying games often captivate people because it pretty much nails that first rule of writing. The people get to roleplay characters they will automatically care about, because it's essentially a part of thier own creation.
Anyone whoever has died in DnD or Warhammer sort of has that, "Wow, all that development and progression just got lost because that kobold luckily rolled five 20's in a row."
I'm not saying you should run out of the room in a crying hissy fit because your orc-monk got lambasted, but everyone feels a little sting when they drop dead.
It's even more devastating when the party wipes. Not only are the characters that were growing washed out, but the story module the GM was working on seems to be for naught.
So back to the story.
Well, almost, before that, we need a good plot device too! If you get all three of these nailed. Good characters, a good story, and a good plot device, you should be working on a novel.
During our warhammer weekend, Our intrepid group of adventurers were to travel across beastmen infested swamps, have reoccuring nightmares, and run into friendly helpful NPC's that would turn against us in judgemental situations.
Our main goal was to hastily get an object before the next eclipse happened. Or more precisely, retrieve the "Egg of the Moon" and bring it back to the city after venturing across the countryside for days on end. This all in all seemed like a pretty atypical quest.
We fought undead in muck infested swamps, had beastmen swarm in and out of densely foggy marshes disappearing and rematerialize with narily a wink. We found caravans whose riders were strewn about the pondish mounds and lay witness to pig men (not orcs.. actual pig men, easy to confuse) that hid among the thick treelines.
After all was said and done, we finally found the Egg of the Moon.
Now, most of us think might of thought of the grail goblet, or some sort of sphere. Maybe even an actual egg of some sort. It was pretty vague, we just knew we where in the right area and really close to the "Objective One Complete" stage.
Nope. And this was where one of the whole-care-about-the-character, a-good-story, and plot device hits it home.
Egg was an adorable little girl.
This was one of those moments where I looked at our GM and said...
Well, I swore at him.
One, the plot didn't say anything about kids. As traditional roleplayers, we wanted the "Bursting Sword that kills Chaos Evil Asunder" or it's equivalent artifact. Two, we have to safely drag this kid back across to the safety of the city.
Vin Diesal made two movies. One was The Chronicles of Riddick and the other was The Pacifier. I still like to watch the Chronicles of Riddick where its kind of a high fantasy/sci-fi backdrop. Whereas the Pacifier had him as a militant babysitter. I could barely watch it. That's where I felt this adventure was headed.
But as it turns out it was probably was one of the best adventures and stories I've played in a long time.
It also nailed one of the reasons I enjoy role playing so much.
Good characters, a good story and interesting plot devices.
Still working on that novel, hmm?
* Special thanks to Ben for dragging our butts through through that adventure!
Go for the eyes, Boo!
Nice write up jooj.
I concure. coming up on Egg was sort of a WTF moment. A very nice twist.
It was a nice break and throughly enjoyable.
Lets hope the same enjoyment can be had of the now more than one year compaign in Caulderon. Lets hope. Otherwise I guess I'm a lame ass.
Thaks Ben... it was a great time.
claude
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