So it seems I am not along on my trek across the desert to the promised land of “plagues, floods, and pillars of mother@##$%ing salt“.  By this, I mean my departure from the 4e ship and boarding the good ship Pathfinder.  Come with me, if you will, on a trip down memory lane….

There was a time, many a year ago, that I was initially hooked on the game that was D&D.  Basic D&D mind you.  The good old 5 box sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, and Immortal) were my friends and many an adventure was had by the neighborhood kids that I ran games for.  Hooked into GMing so young, running the game became my lot in the long RPG history that is part of my life.  But I didn’t care.  It made me feel just a little bit bigger growing up relatively average.  Like an imaginative god that can whip dragons at folks on a whim.

As we played, I began to hear about this AD&D 2nd Edition game coming out by the same folks that put out my beloved D&D (I didn’t have a huge circle of gaming friends so we kind of missed out on AD&D when it was first hitting the shelves).  My initial introduction to these new and, at the time, wonderful rules (I <3 THAC0) came in the form of the City of Splendors box set put out back in ’94.  I got a copy from a friend and was immediately pulled into the world of Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms.  To me, compared to Mystara, the Realms were the bike you got to ride after the training wheels came off.

Basic D&D was put aside and I began to devour 2nd edition AD&D.  and my friends came along for the ride.  We loved it.  they had more options to play with for their characters and I had new and exciting monsters to throw at them, new magic items to hide, and a new world to read up on.  It felt like the best evolution possible and was also my first foray into the oncoming edition storms that followed.

I remember my introduction to 3rd Edition like it was yesterday.  It wasn’t some grandiose event like, say Gen con.  But rather, a cold, rainy day in a large pavilion tent in a part somewhere in Madison.  I can’t say I recall if this was something Wizards was hosting themselves or a local gaming store had set-up, but under that tarp were numerous tables with a mini-encounter created to introduce players to 3E.  I played and, well, enjoyed it for what it was.  But, like the loyalists we were, we stuck it out with out beloved 2nd Edition.  But, somewhere along the way, out gaming group at the time made the change without myself and a friend and liked what they saw.  Several of them took the reigns of DM for a bit and 3E became the flavor of the month.

Somehow, I was able to avoid the desires to purchase 3E books until 3.5 was released.  I remember being in my first apartment with a friend as we were debating heading to our local anime club on a snowy winter night.  I had a coupon for Borders Books and a work bonus in my pocket.  Not long after, the 3.5 box set was mine.  And 2nd Ed joined it’s brethren in the tubs of storage they called home.

And yet, we had no qualms about the change.  We enjoyed 3.5 like we did 2nd Ed (By that point my circle of games had altered radically).  we found a new group of gamers at anime club while talking D&D between shows and a new group was born.  And it was grand.  In fact, it was with 3.5 that my first wholly successful campaign took place.  for years, I had single group of adventurers brave the breadth of Faerun and bring their tale to a satisfactory conclusion (rather than peter out like so many past campaigns did).  During the end of this is when Pathfinder was coming out and the last thing I was concerned with was getting into yet another edition of D&D.  I invested a lot into 3.5 and didn’t want to get swept up in what I thought would be another flood of rulebooks (Boy was I wrong on that one).

So 3.5 continued on…until 4E’s announcement.  By this point, I felt a certain “brand loyalty” to WOTC but was still financially apprehensive about a new edition of my beloved game.  And when details of 4E hit the interwebs, I laughed.  All I could think was “You got your MMO in my RPG!  You got your RPG in my MMO!”.  I wish I could say I never gave 4E another thought.  But something lingered in the back of my mind.  A gamer’s curiosity for the new and shiny and different.  And actually, thinking back as I write this, this is where things must have gone wrong.

I can remember being at a friend’s house when I got the copy of the City of Splendors, where he lived, and how nice of a day it was.  I can remember the orange streetlights on the snow, the bitter cold of the winds, and climbing into my car with geekish glee, 3.5 box set in my grubby little hands.  But I cannot recall when it was I got into 4E.  No fond memory.  No vivid picture.  I remember why we converted.  But not when i actually bought the set.  Yet, somehow, there I was with 4E box set in hand pouring over what I eventually thought would be the next best thing in gaming.  And, when it came time to jump start a new campaign (a sequel with new characters to my old 3.5 campaign), 4E was there to take the reigns and lead us on what I thought would be the best journey ever.  And for a short while it was.  We’d run some smaller 4e games previously so, by the time a new campaign was to kick off, I was fully integrated into the 4E machine.

Now, for those of you who play MMOs, you’re probably familiar with a certain kind of burnout that comes with the repetition that playing those games has.  When I ran Basic D&D, 2nd Ed, and 3.5, I never once hit any sort of a burnout on the game itself.  Sure, I hit creative burnouts at times.  Being mostly a GM over the span of 20+ years.  But I never burned out on the rules.  And that was something 4e started to do to me.  The change from 3.5 to 4E was a radical one and it eventually hit me that some of the things I liked about being a GM in previous editions was missing.  There was a certain flavor that came with designing adventures in previous editions that seemed to be lacking in 4E and, eventually, I started to lose interest.  Running a game of 4E began to seem more tedious and even caused an undue amount of stress behind the scenes.  When trying to keep that feeling running previous editions gave me, I had problems with 4E and could never quite recapture that feeling.

And so, the inevitable hit me.  I started looking into Pathfinder.  I would sit in my local Borders Books and peruse the shelves of Pathfinder material, which was surprisingly sparse (compared to 3.5) given how long it had been out already.  Eventually, with the closing of our local Borders, I abused whatever discounts and rewards I could and got myself a copy of the Core Rulebook.

And I could not be happier.

This was what I was missing.  This brought about that euphoric feeling of gaming nostalgia and GM giddiness I missed for so long.  Pathfinder was the fix to some of the problems 3.5 had as well as ‘fixed’ that which killed my previous 3.5 game (Which is what led us to 4E).  I don’t know why I failed to see it in the past, but looking through the rules and all of the corrections Paizo made to what 3.5 was, I felt like I was home.  And apparently, so have most of my players.   When I decided to abandon 4E (As a general rule set, I do enjoy running Encounters for folks on Wed nights), I told my group this and for some, there was much rejoicing.  However, one player expressed her desire to continue with the story I was running in my 4E campaign.  Even more glee was had by me when they even agreed to switch it to Pathfinder with a best as possible conversions for their characters (She’s the one 4E supporter left in the group, which I respect BTW.  I’m not an edition warmonger.  “To each their own” I say.)

So, my 4E books went to  a better home at Noble Knight Games and here I stand; a proud Paizo supporter.  And apparently, I’m not alone.  While their reasons are not necessarily my own, and vice versa, it seems folks like Tycho & Gabe, Mark Meredith at Dice Monkey and Brian Patterson over at D20 Monkey are also making that switch.

So a big thanks to the crew at Paizo for such excellent products that have jump started what was a dying GM battery.

But, to start things off slow and to show I do still pay heed to the comings and goings of the blogsphere, I thought I’d chime in on a subject that has recently been making its way throughout gaming blogs: “Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About” as initially mentioned by Noisms over at Monsters and Manuals.

* Book binding.
The majority of my RPG book collection has actually had decent bindings and only on a few occasions have I had some serious issues.  One of which was my old Cyberpunk 2020 corebook (By R. Talsorian Games) which saw an enormous amount of use about a decade ago.  Apparently, it eventually fell apart after I loaned it to a friend and he went and had the book spiral bound for me.  I’m not a 100% fan of spiral/ring bound books only because my brain tends to look at them more like notebooks and fears I’ll easily start tearing pages out of them with little effort.

My only other major binding issue has been with my Player’s book for 7th Sea.  Most 7th Sea fans could tell you that one particular book seems to have one of the weakest bindings in existence.  Though it typically falls apart in chunks.  Fortunately, this was something I was warned about when I got into the game and I tend to look for a new Players Book when I hit up the used book stores.

Now my concerns are leaning towards my Pathfinder Core book’s binding…

* “Doing a voice”. How many people “do voices”? Should they? How do you get better at “doing a voice” if that’s your thing?
I’m horrible at accents and not always consistent with voices.  However, I LOVE to inject them into my campaigns when I can.  I feel it adds a memorable quality to certain scenes and NPCs.  especially when they start impersonating them for fun.  The one I recall best was the voice for a cursed intelligent sword one of the players ended up with.  I added an over the top arrogant, snobbish voice that created that just-right level of irritability with the players when they started to hear that voice speak up without out-right pissing them off.

* Breaks. How often do you have breaks within sessions?
Our sessions tend to vary in length from 3-7 hours.  Usually, if folks need to go, I’m not one for stopping them from taking a quick break.  but typically, unless we’re pulling some kind of all day gaming marathon (which we did once and enjoyed immensely), we tend to avoid long breaks so we can get in as much game time as possible.

* Description. Exactly how florid are your descriptions?
This depends on how much time I have to prep pre-game.  If I have enough time and the muse strikes just right, I tend to throw in as much detail as possible.  Otherwise, if pressed for time, I do my best to condense the picture I’m painting down to a few sentences and hopefully create the image I want the players to see.

* Where do you strike the balance between “doing what your character would do” and “acting like a dickhead”?
First off, I tend to avoid evil characters.  I’ve never really been fond of them as PCs since my mentality sees them more as antagonists.  If I’m the player and the character I’m playing may be some kind of trouble maker, i tend to inform the group first of what kind of character he is to make sure there would be no misunderstandings or out of character conflicts.  As for troublesome players in my games, I try to adhere to what I do as a player pre-game and, if things tend to head south still, I put the game on hold and try to work out the issue.  I want to be sure that the player is playing their character and not taking out their frustrations on the game.

* PC-on-PC violence. Do your players tend to avoid it, or do you ban it? Or does anything go?
If this builds story, I’m fine with it so long as the players involved are as well and understand the consequences of their actions.  so far, on several occasions in several campaigns, PC vs PC conflict has come up and i think it helped develop their characters immensely.

* How do you explain what a role-playing game is to a stranger who is also a non-player?
Most folks tend to have a basic understanding of what RPGs are.  For those who are still somewhat in the dark, I tend to describe it more as Improvisational Acting with the players acting out the protagonists and a director playing the parts of everyone else.  I try to avoid mentioning D&D when talking to total strangers as some might still conjure up the old stereotypes of D&D players and start to see it in a bad light.

* Alcohol at the table?
Never.  No alcohol or any mind altering shite is allowed at my table.  I had a long-running campaign come to a sudden and unfortunate death when a number of the players thought it would be fun to game while toked off their arses.  It was not fun for me or the two other players who failed to find their antics funny.  I’m not speaking ill of those who play things like Drunken D&D and what not.  Those sort of games are typically advertised as such and folks would have an understanding of what to expect.

To each their own, but not at my table.

* What’s acceptable to do to a PC whose player is absent from the session? Is whatever happens their fault for not being there, or are there some limits?
When I start a new campaign, I tend to check with the players first what their views on that subject are.  Typically, we do not play when someone is out to avoid them missing out on the story.  Unfortunately, this method tends to provide us with larger than desired gaps in our gaming schedule.  if we were to press on without them, I would probably just retcon their absence and press on as if they were not there for whatever reason suits the situation.

Anywho, the Press Release posted by Troll In The Corner after the cut.

Anywho, I’ve been able to start into encounters at the start of a brand new season which kicks off with The Dark Legacy of Evard, a so-far interesting Shadowfell tale.  Given the nature of the Encounters sessions, our first session had a different group of adventurers than my second.  What I recall of  our merry band included a Dwarven Cleric, a half-orc Paladin(?), a couple of spellcasters of some kind, and myself, a non-copyright infringing Drow Ranger (Hunter).  The second consisted of a Human Cleric, a Drow Hexblade, a Human Binder, an Elven Mage, myself, and a Human Paladin.

So, here is a brief summary of those sessions as told by Urdithane, Drow Hunter extraordinaire.

Session 1: The Old Owl
Our tale begins in the tap of the Old Owl Inn in the city of Duponde.  We were tasked with delivering a missive to city of Sarthel at the request of Lord Markelhay, the Lord Warden of Fallcrest.  We were forced to settled down for the night in the Old Owl Inn as heavy rains had washed out the bridge we needed to cross.  As the evening wore on and the taproom began to close, the conversation began to turn to the restless dead.  There was talk with a scholarly fellow named Nathaire, and his halfling companion Remy, of an old shadow mage named Evard that was rumored to be buried here.  The owner of the Inn, Tilda, hushed such talk, perhaps fearing the name of Evard, while Grimbold, the town captain of the guard, left to make his rounds.  That left a trio of dwarven stonemasons, Tilda, the wizard and halfling, and ourselves to our own devices.  However, with the tap closing, we all decided it best to settle down for the night.

And that’s when it happened.

Sometime into the night, we were roused from our slumber by a disorienting, wrenching feeling, as if being pulled in multiple directions.  Truly something unearthly.  Examining our immediate surroundings, we noticed that things seemed, well, our of sorts.  The air was cold and almost palpable and the room seemed slightly, well, askew  Yes, a strange way to describe such things, but there was an uneasy feeling as we looked about the room.  Warily, we donned our garb and slipped down to the tap to see if anything had happened.  Fortunately, my companions that were trained in the ways of the arcane were able to deduce that we had somehow slipped into the Shadowfell, the land of the dead.

And that’s when the attacks began.

Suddenly, as we were examining the taproom, a number of the small gargoyle statues sprang to life.  Not only were we beset by them, but the shadows itself seemed to desire our very lives.  Unfortunately, while we fought them back, they were at least successful in claiming the life of the half-orc.  He died a noble death however, saving myself from a gruesome fate.  May the Raven Queen watch over his soul.

Session 2: The Garrison
Having finally dispatched our assailants, we gathered our wits about us and assessed our situation.  Searching the inn, we discovered that only ourselves, the three dwarven engineers, and Tilda remained while Nathaire and Remy had disappeared.  After explaining to the four where we were, and dealing with their panic-driven fits, we decided to help them board up the place before we went out in search of Nathaire and, hopefully, discover how we got here.

When we finally ventured outside to begin our search, we were overcome with fear and surprise.  It seemed the entire town of Duponde had slipped into the Shadowfell rather than just one small building.  Be it for that reason or others, the direness of our situation began to weigh heavily upon us.  Fortunately, we were able to shake off our doubt and proceed on, determined to put right what had happened.  As we proceeded down the streets, once familiar to us but now almost a living maze, we came upon Watch Captain Grimbold and a few of his men.  Pleasantries were exchanged (As best as one could in this god-forsaken place) and we came to discover that they actually spotted the halfling Remy fleeing town a short bit ago.  However, they were hesitant to pursue given a lack of manpower.  It seems that when they tried to roust the militia, some strange beast was lurking in the Armory.

We decided it best to aid Grimbold and his men with the Armory as more armed men in the streets might help keep folks calm and provide a decent defense.  However, what we found there was something that I truly did not wish to face; spiders.  You’d think that given my…nature…I’d be less apprehensive about dealing with hordes of spiders.  But, to be honest, it’s that very reason that the damned thing give me the willies.  And, when their ‘mother” joined into the frey….let’s just say I was less than thrilled.

However, despite the odds, we managed to prevail.  Many of us had been seriously wounded, though the paladin seemed to come through with nary a wound on him), but the armory was freed of the pests and the men were once more able to arm themselves.  After a brief respite, we decided to press on towards our goal; The city’s cemetery and, hopefully, answers.

So far, this has been an interesting Encounters adventure and a nice introduction to the Shadowfell.  I do find it a little odd and difficult to build a report character-wise with others when the players keep changing.  But, I’ve not been out from behind the screen for very long so I’m still getting my “player-legs”.  We’ve got another session tonight so Urdithane will keep folks posted about our progress.

So, there I sat in anticipation, freshly made fighter in hand, my D&D Essentials virginity waiting to be taken. Promptly, the GM and players arrived; a friendly lot that I would enjoy playing another session with. The map for tonight’s encounter was set up, the previous session details reviewed (Having not been a part of that, it was nice to see what transpired beforehand), and we were underway.

Now, this is where the pain begins.

By no fault of anyone (since anyone can bring a properly made character to the table) we ended up with a party of four, level 2, Strikers (two fighters, one rogue, and one warlock). This, coupled with a VERY poorly planned encounter written by WOTC (not something I’m a stranger to) led to our getting trounced by a band of lizardmen and their drakes. Our opponents consisted of two level 3 Brutes, one level 6 Brute, and two level 3 Strikers (or whatever the drakes were classified as).

Now, truth be told, we did not have a balanced party. Four Strikers does not equal success in this case. And, as mentioned, we felt the pain of that imbalance. After the Rogue was the last to fall, we woke up back at base alive, but our pride buried deep in the privy we woke up in. So, we did what any determined band of adventurous folk would do; rest up, plan our attack (now knowing what we are dealing with), and give it that old college try once more.

Yeah. We all apparently failed college.

Despite our plans and expectations, we found ourselves pummeled once more, our dignity no longer acknowledging our own existence, and the time up on the session.

Ouch.

However, despite our horrific beatdown, I did have a good time. The folks I met, whose names I did not actually get, were friendly lot and fun was still had all around. I’m sure I’ll find myself back there once more next week to see what horrors await us.

Except this time, I’m bringing a frigging cleric.

These are the words typically used to describe Xivitan Andrix, a Grigacian and former Time Agent turned criminal.  How he came to this life after being a respectable member of the Time Agency is still a whirlwind of jumbled thoughts and faded memories.  But Xiv would not have it any other way. 

“Give me the clothes on my back, a handful of credits from the pockets of that gent over there and a ship to steal away on, and life is alright by me.”

However, despite his bravado and charm, Xivitan is constantly paranoid and always on the lookout for the truth to his current state of being.  All he recalls is waking up one day in a cold cell in the Stormcage Containment Facility.  He had no recollection of what had transpired and even less when he was eventually granted an audience with his former partner to explain his crimes.

He was shown a video clip from a security camera of a high ranking government official on Epsillicus 5.  There he saw himself standing over the body of  dead government official, a smoking blaster in one hand and The Star of Pandrica (A diamond as large as the fist of a Yeti and most likely owned by said dead official) in the other.  He denied ever taking part in these crimes, having no recollection of these events.  But despite his pleas of innocence, he was locked way in The Stormcage as the evidence does not lie.

Before he left, Xiv’s partner paid him one last visit in his cell, thanking him for acquiring the Star and helping him and his partners out.  Realizing he had somehow been double crossed, Xiv swore he would find a way out of prison and get his revenge.

And escape he did.  Although details of this escape are usually quite sketchy and Xiv’s story tends to change every time he tells it.  Usually it starts off with:

“There I was. Locked away in the one of the most fortified prisons in the 52nd century with nothin but my wits, my smile, and the clothes on my back…”

From there, the tale varies, one time involving him using his clothing as an escape tool and fleeing prison naked in the back of a female guards hovercar and another involving a toothpick, a lasercutter, and 6 pounds of grease.  However the tale, Xiv was able to escape and, in the process, reclaim his Vortex Manipulator, held there as evidence.  Unfortunately, it seems his former partner had tampered with the device before turning it over, rendering it’s ability to travel in time problematic at best (when it does work, he cannot seem to control it).

Despite his predicament, Xiv began wandering the stars, a wanted man by the galactic authorities and the Time Agency (He is unaware of it being disbanded).  Since his escape, he has hooked up with a number of unsavory characters in several different eras (If a criminal they label me, then a criminal I shall be) including one Sabalom Glitz.  From Glitz he learned about The Doctor, an outlaw Timelord from Gallifrey and the one man Xiv believed might be able to repair his manipulator.

However, his search for The Doctor led him to someone a little less inclined to aid the crook.  During one of his attempted time jumps, Xiv appeared in the pool of The Professor’s TARDIS, unsure of where he was, he caused quite a commotion for The Professor, Michael and Lucy before being caught and questioned.  Realizing he was not much of a threat (in part thanks to his glib tongue), they released him and he travelled with them for a short time before an incident on the planet of a rather advanced civilization involving Xiv, the ruling leader’s daughter, and a golden sphere said to contain the power of a sun that belonged to the royal family.

Xiv claimed innocence but eventually the truth came out and The Professor left Xiv to the mercies of the planet’s authorities.  However, escape from their jail was child’s play (thanks, in part, to the help given by the leader’s daughter), and Xiv once more took to the stars.  He would encounter The Professor several more times, some of which involuntarily as use of the Vortex Manipulator usually seems to pull him back to the TARDIS, much to the chagrin of its owner.

So, for now, Xiv travels the stars, currently with The Professor once more, seeking the truth and his fortune.

Xivitan Andrix

However, as Lucy got older, she began to realize that this mysterious wizard of time and space was no mere tale of fancy as more and more strange and mysterious events happened to planet Earth.  And many of those involved a strange man in a blue box.  Realizing that she desperately wished to meet the man of her childhood fantasies, Lucy decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps.  And, seeing as how The Doctor and UNIT had a tendency to cross paths on many an occasion, she joined them, working as a field medic in hopes that such a position would put her on The Doctor’s path.

As a member of UNIT, Lucy studied as much as she could about the Doctor. She even had the opportunity to meet a few of the Doctor’s former travelling companions and heard tales of strange worlds and alien beings.  However, as time went on, despite all she had heard and read of him, Lucy began to feel she was no closer to meeting him than she was when she started.

But fate works in strange ways and for Lucy, that was no exception.

During the incident involving mysterious planets overhead and an invasion by the Daleks (The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End), Lucy’s squad was mobilized to help civilians who’ve escaped the Daleks to safety.  However, during a patrol in the countryside, a small Dalek force found them and attacked.  Panic overcame her as her squad was gunned down, so she ran deeper into the woods looking for a place to hide. 

Lucy lost track of time as she ran onward.  After some time, she felt she had eluded the Daleks and stopped to rest.  Overcome with exhaustion and guilt, Lucy’s world slowly lost focus and eventually faded to black.  She came to a short while later in the arms of a young man who was carrying her through the woods. 

Apologizing, he introduced himself as Michael Taggart, son of the renown physicist Jonathan Taggart.  Apparently, she had found her way onto his father’s land and, in turn, Michael found her passed out beside a tree.  He offered her shelter at his father’s home since it wasn’t safe to be outside alone.  Unfortunately though, this became self-evident when they returned to his father’s country house.

Realizing his possible importance, the Daleks had arrived a few moments earlier and were searching the grounds for Michael’s father.  The two of them made their way to an old brick greenhouse in the back yard they used for storage.  To their surprise, Michael and Lucy found Jonathan there as well, pacing back and forth, fiddling with his fob watch, and mumbling about abandoned experiments.

Lucy took a seat on a box as Michael and his father began to argue about what to do next.  Michael suggested finding a better place to hide while his father wanted to sneak back in and collect a few experiments he did not want to abandon.  Despite Lucy’s words of warning for them to keep it down, the two men’s bickering attracted the attention of the Daleks.

The two began to argue with renewed vigor as the Daleks approached the shed, debating the best course of action.  She saw Michael grab the fob watch his father had been fidgeting with which invoked an immediate response from Jonathan who struggled to get it back.  Suddenly, before the Daleks could advance into the shed, a bright light filled the room.  

Moments later, the light cleared and Lucy could see that both Michael and his father were immobilized, surrounded by swirling motes of light.  As she tried to snap them out of their paralysis, she heard the Daleks outside commenting about the energy readings and their old foe, the Doctor.

For a moment, Lucy was awestruck.  She had finally met the man of her childhood stories and now, they were going to be killed by the Daleks.  Desperate to survive, Lucy scowered the large shed for something to fight off the mechanical monsters.  She could hear the Daleks outside, chanting about exterminating their oldest foe; a fate she would not allow him to suffer.

She began to panic again and, in her frantic struggle to find something, she tripped over an old tarp covering fairly large pile of boxes.  At least, that is what she thought until she looked up and saw a familiar blue color and the words ‘Police Box’ etched along the top.  As she stared at the TARDIS in all its dust-covered glory, a familiar voice behind her snapped her back to her senses.

“So that’s where I kept the ol’ girl.”

She turned to see Jonathan standing there smiling.  He seemed a bit more composed and something about him seemed to calm her nerves.  He smiled, shouted for Michael to get a move on and opened the door, ushering Lucy and Michael inside.

“We don’t really want to dally here and longer now do we?  Nasty thing those Daleks.”

And with those words, Lucy began an adventure all her own.  She discovered not long after that the man she met was not, in fact, the Doctor, but rather another Timelord who called himself the Professor.  However, she began to wonder if it really wasn’t the man she was seeking, but the grand adventure itself she heard so much about.  Only time will tell and, with a Timelord, there is plenty of it.

Lt. Lucy Powell

I’ve recently been bitten by the Who bug again and have had quite the urge to try the system out once more.  Fortunately, with the airing of the Dr Who Xmas episode on BBC America christmas night, a friend of mine is planning a small shindig to eat, drink and watch the episode.  He mentioned we could also play the RPG afterwards which got my mind racing and my inner Who geek squealing with delight. 

However, knowing how long it can take my players to make characters they enjoy playing, I’ve decided to get the jump on them and provide them with some hopefully decent pre-gen characters they can use.  This will also help me tailor the adventure to them without having to either wait another week or try to wing it from scratch.  I’d prefer a few more sessions of this game under my belt before making that attempt.

So, to share in my Who fandom and my love for Cubicle 7′s RPG, I’ve decided to share the four pregens I’ll have available (Don’t think we’ll have more than that playing).  I’ll be making separate posts for each providing what background pops into my head as well as their game stats for anyone else to take and use as they see fit in their own Dr Who campaigns.

So, without further ado, I present to you the cast of my one-shot Dr Who episode (title pending).

The Professor:  A Timelord that escaped the Time War and the lock placed on Gallifrey by The Doctor, the Professor has been hiding on Earth (posing as Jonathan Taggart, a college professor at Cambridge, hence the name ‘Professor’) thanks to the use of his  TARDIS’s Chameleon Arch.  However, during the incident in The End of Time with Gallifrey reappearing over Earth, The Professor’s identity as a Timelord was reinstated during a struggle with his son Michael over the fobwatch.  Because of this and a mysterious system error with his TARDIS, the Chameleon Arch did not quite revert him to his original self as it should have.

Michael Taggert:  A physics student at Cambridge and son of Jonathan Taggart (a.k.a. the Professor).  He joined his father on his travels when an accident with the Chameleon Arch’s reversion process had some unexpected effects on his DNA as well.

Lt Lucy Powell:  Daughter of Corporal Beverly Powell (UNIT Historian from The Stalker of Norfolk webcomic), Lucy grew up hearing stories about The Doctor from her mother and friends and wished to meet this mysterious man.  However, an accident of identity landed her on the TARDIS of The Professor instead.

Xivitan ’Xiv’ Andrix:  A rogue Time Agent and a self-proclaimed charmer, Xivitan has, on several occasions, found himself aboard the TARDIS despite The Professor’s protests and, on some occasions, without The Professor’s knowledge. How he gets aboard without The Professor’s knowledge is, as Xiv puts it,”a discussion for another time”.

The TARDIS:  The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space (for those unfamiliar with Doctor Who)) has been with The Professor for some time, initially hidden away in the back of The Professor’s tool shed while he was in the guise of Jonathan Taggart.  The TARDIS seems to be suffering from an affliction like the one piloted by The Doctor as it seems permanently disguised as a police box from 1963. 

This technical glitch was due to a chance meting with The Doctor’s 8th incarnation during an emergency landing on a remote planet.  The Professor was in need of repairs and The Doctor was able to render assistance.  Taken with the Doctor’s design of his Console Room, The Professor acquired the designs and implemented them in his TARDIS as well.  He believes it was either the design copy or the parts used for repairs that afflicted his TARDIS with the same problem The Doctor’s TARDIS has had for ages.  Either way, he’s not yet been able to fix the issue.

Although the TARDIS is not an actual character, I wanted to add its description here as I’ve always had a fondness for The Doctor’s 8th incarnation and I loved the way his Console Room was designed in the comic series.

Which characters now almost completed (stats for which I’ll put up soon), it’s time I figure out just what I’m going to do about a plot.

So, given our recent, albeit brief, forays into 4th Edition and my urge to try it out in more detail, we decided to take that 100 year leap in Realms history and start a new campaign, set in the same Realms universe as the old CotCC game. 

We’ve been slowly working out details regarding what their previous characters, now regulated to NPC status, have done during this time.  While the in-between details are still being worked on, the main this is the creation of two newsettlements between Neverwinter and Waterdeep.  The Ironaxe clan has fully established a small settlement along the Sword Mountains known as New Melairbode while the elven Clan Cleleblas as laid claim to part of the Kryptgarden Forest.  These areas serve as a nice starting point for my players since they are somewhat familiar with the area, but it lacks enough development to give me some flexibility to create what I need out of it.

As for the players, I asked that they make new, 1st level 4e characters, but try a class different than what they previously have (trying to avoid the KoDT syndrome).  However, given the amount of work several players put into the creation of their clans for their previous characters, I allowed them to have some, albeit loose, ties to those old characters.  And so, we ended up with one of the strangest gatherings of PCs I’d ever seen:

Peylin (Dwarven Monk): The son of the Company’s former “battlerager-in-training” Dooley Pwent*, Peylin considers himself a bit of a black sheep given his desire to practice the aesoteric arts rather than follow in his father’s footsteps as a battlerager.  However, Peylin still displays his fathers reckless attitude towards danger, leaping into the frey whenever possible.

Faerelleth (Elven Invoker): A member of the elven Celeblas clan and a new recruit into the Gondesgalrin, a group formed from the Celeblas clan that seeks to reclaim their lost home of Myth Caravel as well as the Guardian Stone which once protected it, Faer finds herself amongst these adventurers at the request of Dooley Pwent to continue stengthening the bonds between Clan Celeblas and Ironaxe. 

Kanim (Dwarven Warden/Runepriest): Trained as a guardian of the forests that now surround New Melairbode**, Kanim has been sent with the group to become a more worldly individual and improve his skills as a protector.

Amakethatril (Elven Battlemind): Not much is known about this mysterious elf save there being a blood relationship between them and the Company’s bard, Xyphael.

Victor (Human Cleric): A priest of Kelemvor and initiate under Father Keirion, Victor’s aid was lended by the church due to the ties they’ve formed with the Ironaxe clan since the Spellplague (establishing a church in New Melairbode when refugees from Luskan and Neverwinter started to migrate south).

Tohrment (Tiefling Swordmage/Sorcerer): A mysterious newcomer, Tohrment is currently aiding the group after delivering news to Faerelleth and the Ironaxe Seneschal about the passing of his mentor, a member of the Gondesgalrin.  this news, however, has put him at odds with Faerelleth for reasons unknown.

The descriptions of my player’s characters are a little bit shorter than I’d like and I may have misinterpreted some information.  But we’ve only had two sessions so far with a six week gap between them.  So the characters are still developing as we go on. 

And, speaking of those sessions, I’ll be posting them as soon as I can recall the details of the first session.  As for the campaign’s name, we’re still working on that.  Given that the group has only been together for, in game time, about 2 days, they’ve not yet established themselves as an adventuring party.  Just as a group of people thrown together to do a job for Melairbode’s government (More on that next post).

Though, despite the “Epic Death” in our second session, I refuse to allow themselves to be called The Company of the Combustable Kobold.

1. Threatening Reach was apparently more potent than I realized and, having noticed the Threatening Reach power gained by the Goliath Racial Paragon Path in PHB 2, I felt it needed a slight alteration to tone it down a little more.

2. The Reverse Thurst Power I had for the novice level was also nearly identical to a 3rd Level fighter encounter power.  So, to try and make something a little more unique without looking like I just swiped most of these ideas, I revamped the novice level all together.

3. Looking at the Piercing Slam ability, I studied the daily powers around that level a little more and revamped the power as well to something I think might be a little more appropriate.

So, here is Round 2 of Duom Proficiency.

Duom (Superior Melee Weapon)
The duom is a longspear fitted with a standard spearhead, as well as two blades curved so they point backward along the haft. The weapon has reach, allowing you to strike opponents 10 feet away with it. Those proficient with the duom can also attack adjacent foes with the reversed heads using a practiced “reverse thrust.”

Proficiency +3
Damage 1d10
Range —
Cost 20 gp
Weight 11 lb
Group Polearm, Spear
Properties Reach

[Feat] Duom Proficiency
Benefit: You gain proficiency in the use of a Duom.

[Feat] Duom Novice
Prerequisite: 4th level, proficiency with Duom
Benefit: You swap one of your level 3 or higher encounter attack powers for the Duom Shifting Blow power.

[Feat Power] Duom Shifting Blow
After delivering a blow to an opponent, you twist the shaft of the duom and catch an adjacent opponent off guard with the hood blades shifting aside to prepare for retaliation.
Encounter, Martial, Weapon
Standard Action * Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a Duom.
Target: One creature
Primary Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2 [W] + Strength Modifier damage.  You and the target may shift 1 square each.  The target cannot end more than 2 squares away from you.

[Feat] Duom Expert
Prerequisite: 7th level, proficiency with Duom
Benefit: You swap one of your level 6 or higher utility powers for the Threatening Reach power.

[Feat Power] Threatening Reach
Daily, Martial
Minor Action, Personal
Requirement: You must be wielding a Duom.
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, you can make opportunity attacks using your duom against enemies within 2 squares of you.

[Feat] Duom Specialist
Prerequisite: 10th level, proficiency with Duom
Benefit: You swap one of your level 9 or higher Daily powers for the power.
Hooked Slam Feat Power

[Feat Power] Hooked Slam
You hook your enemy with the reverse blades of the duom, sliding them towards you where you dropping them to the ground.
Daily, Martial, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a Duom.
Target: One creature
Primary Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 2 [W] + Strength modifier damage and you slide the target up to 2 squares to a square adjacent to you and knock it prone. 
Level 25: 3 [W] + Strength Modifier damage
Miss: Half damage