Freelance Chronicles, Session One

It's been about six months since I've been able to run a game. In between moving, traveling, and settling - it's been a while since I've rolled the bones, so to speak.

Having finally settled into something resembling a life in my new corner of the earth, I've managed to get a game going. While I do own the 4th Edition rules, I find them to be about as close to D&D as masturbation is to sex. It's a near thing, sure, but it's not nearly as good.

So, I've recently acquired the Pathfinder rules and borrowed a copy of their first adventure. While I do find their campaign setting to be quite interesting, I opted to use my own instead. But yadda yadda yadda. You don't care about that. Let's just roll on.

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Characters

Doyle Pyziakos (Dwarven Fighter): The son of a merchant sent to Cliff's Edge to secure holdings for a future business enterprise. Blessed with criminally high stats aside from his woeful charisma of six. Wielding his battle ax, he proved to be an absolute tank for the party.

Luki Pedarest (Half Elf Wizard): A shy, soft spoken lad on the run from his wealthy family. Specialised in evocation, his force missiles and arsenal of damage dealing spells are coming in quite handy.

Ponz Bilchnous (Elf Bard): A charismatic cad, womanizer, and self promoting ne'er do well. Thus far some woeful Perform rolls have failed to endear him to the populace, but he and Doyle have become fast friends after a night of debauchery with a rotund bar wench.

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The setting I've established is a kind of steam punk. Essentially, the vast island sized city of Freelance has been cut off from the rest of the world for two decades. Built upon a towering spire of stone jutting from the Sea of Sorrows, the city's sole point of access to the mainland is now controlled by the maniacal Pit Lords - demonic mobsters who moved in to occupy the positions of power after society crumbled.

While a decades long war wages somewhere on the mainland, the people of Freelance now survive in scattered settlements - walled or fenced in against the roaming hordes of zombies, Pit Lord gangs, and the other dark things that prowl the streets.

Cliff's Edge exists, as its name might suggest, on the very edge of the city - teetering above a five hundred foot drop to the churning ocean below. Several years ago the settlement met with disaster when a fire swept through its poorer quarter - claiming the town's church and the lives of several unfortunate citizens. It has taken the ensuing few years for the town to rebuild.

The three party members arrive on an auspicious day - the new church is set to be consecrated and a festival is being held to celebrate. While Ponz tries and fails to earn money with his singing, Luki investigates the town's pride and joy - a still functioning glassworks. Hearing Goblin voices inside, Luki opts not to approach the authorities.

While the two of Elfish heritage explore, Doyle checks into the town's finest tavern and begins to make clumsy advances towards its proprietor, a beautiful Oriental woman by the name of Ameiko.

As the day progresses and the festivities reach their peak, disaster strikes! Screams ring out as high pitched, tittering yells herald the arrival of a gibbering horde of goblins.

Thrust together by circumstance and necessity, the three would-be heroes first fend off a trio of goblins before facing a much more difficult challenge when a Warchanter and her pyromaniac allies try to burn Doyle's beard. Thanks to Doyle's ferocity and Luki's quick thinking in combat, the trio manage to battle their way back to the King's Inn where they manage to rescue a foppish noble from some stragglers. Having worked out how to co-operate, the group make short work of the half dozen attackers.

Elsewhere the townsfolk and the many mercenaries in town for the festival have managed to turn away the raid, and the trio are given a hero's welcome by Aldous Greenacre (the noble) and Ameiko when they return to the King's Inn. While Luki retires to recover from the day's events, Doyle and Ponz celebrate with a little too much ale and bond in true footballer style when they bed the same serving wench.

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Some things I learned from tonight's session:

- Playing with smokers = many disruptions
- A seasoned stoner needs no downtime. A rookie stoner giggles at everything and almost gets his party killed.
- Nothing brings player's together like sex. But only if said players aren't getting much of it in their real lives.
- The Pathfinder crew manage to make goblins scary!

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Not sure when session #2 will be. New job somewhat interferes with my ability to stay up crazy late. Alas!

A Known World?

I think every single DM has, at some point in their gaming 'career', had a crack at creating a world of their own. Oh, there's plenty to like about the settings TSR (and later WotC) put out - but let's be realistic, we're all unique individuals and we've all got our own ideas. 

Some of them are brilliant (and I'll be sharing a few of the ideas I think are brilliant with you in good time) and others, like an intelligent sword imaginatively named the Vibro 2000, are not so brilliant. But it's these quirks and personal touches that turn a good game into a great one. I've found it's far more interesting for characters to visit a location that their past actions have somehow shaped or inspired. There's something really thrilling for players when they hear the name of somebody's former PC being thrown around as some great villain. Is that what became of Trasian after he disappeared all those years ago? What ever happened to that fifteenth level rogue that was forcibly retired when everybody graduated and the game went on a two year hiatus?

I find it a lot of fun to include little bits and pieces from past games in my world design, and you'll get to see some of that too. Characters such as Henry 'The Silver Dagger' Whittlesworth the Third and Trasian the Black are characters that have taken on lives of their own since being retired, killed, or otherwise removed from the game years ago.

But it's more than these little touches. There's just something thrilling about dreaming up, designing, and populating a world. As a DM, it's far more fun to run your adventurers through a city of your own creation. It may not be as in depth as Waterdeep - but it's your city. You may not have it all mapped out, but you know it like the back of your hand. You've already got an answer to most questions that your players are going to ask, because the world exists inside your head. Maybe not in a concrete sense, but there's enough detail visible in the swirling mists to piece it together when you need to.

I could wax lyrical (and maybe I already have) about the joys of designing and playing in your own campaign setting, but that's not what this post is about. You see, as is probably obvious, I have a world of my own creation. It's the result of almost a decade and a half of gaming; my over-active imagination; and my love for procrastination. For the longest time, it was known simply as 'The Known World', but as I've grown older - that name has gone from making sense to just sounding generic.

What should I call this world of mine? Do I opt for something fantastic and cheesy like Lynaris or Payuka? Something along the lines of The Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk? Or do I simply go for a name that encompasses the theme and feeling of the world ala Dragonlance or Ravenloft?

It's a question I'm going to have to answer myself. How can anybody else? So, as I blog, maybe I'll come up with that name. Maybe one of you will suggest something. I don't know.

What I do know, is that I'll be publishing snippets and concepts from this world as I go. You'll get to meet Trasian the Black and the famed 'Silver Dagger'. You'll be able to intergrate creatures such as the Deathwing Butterfly, the Lexican, and the Rajji into your games. And, in time, maybe you'll guide your characters through the steamy streets of Freelance; the haunted coasts of the Deadlands, or even through an adventure of my design.

More than that, this blog will be about the game itself. What's new in the world of D&D and Pathfinder? What's a good, old school adventure to run players through? What makes a good character? What makes a good encounter? I don't claim to have all of the answers, but I have the answers that have worked for me - and hopefully, you'll have some answers to share as well.

Saddle up, pack some extra dry rations, and let's do some exploring.