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A place for random posts about painting and modelling miniatures for historical, fantasy, and science fiction tabletop games.

Friday, February 28, 2020

The Vanilla Campaign : Session Zero

Post Session Report


I managed to get through the first session without completely fucking it up, barely.

Hindsight be 20/20 it is clear to me that I should have done somethings differently.

Since this was technically session #0 it was a good opportunity to get all of the bugs out.

The biggest issue was the character creation portion of the night. Some of my players jumped right into it and created their characters. Some of the my players struggled. I found myself answering the same question over and over again, very frustrating.

Once we passed that hurdle, it was the intro to the campaign. If I am being honest, I tried hard to set the mood with ambient sounds but I just don't feel I did enough to bring the city to life.

What is the Vanilla Campaign?

The theme of this campaign is back to basics fantasy. A vanilla fantasy campaign world using the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game as the base rule-set with some optional and house rules bolted on.

All characters were to be randomly generated with no backgrounds (backgrounds for each character are going to be revealed in-game via random rolls).

All the characters have come to the city to join the Guild of Adventurers. They have to pass a try-out in the very first game to join the guild,

What is the Setting of the Campaign?

The Valley of Valor

The valley is 2,827 sq. mi. of rolling hills, dark forests, grassy plains and deep lakes. Many call the valley home, but civilization is sparse. The valley is organized under the leadership of the Lord of the Valley, but the settlements are so scattered that his Bannerman often have high levels of autonomy.

The peoples of the valley are divided into three distinct groups: Humans, Demi-Humans & Sub-Humans. Humans are the most numerous of the races, but they are in decline. The common folk tend to be illiterate, ignorant and superstitious; the high-born are often literate, arrogant and self-serving. Elves are rarest of the demi-humans; they are viewed with fear and awe by the common folk. The few elves left in the valley can be found in Rock Maple Wood. Dwarves are not as rare as elves; common folk have many tall tales about dwarves, many are untrue. Most dwarves live in Giants Reach. Halflings are uncommon and are considered oddities by people who have never seen them before.

Sub-Humans are composed of many different sub races, such as orcs and goblins. Giants, ogres and trolls are their own separate race known as the Joten.

Clerics are held in high regard as servants of the gods, while magic-users are held with fear and suspicion as demon worshippers. Many magic-users pose as sages, alchemists or soothsayers.

Giants (including Ogres) are real and greatly feared, Dragons are a myth, and no one has seen one in over 1,000 years.

Most people have never encountered a true monster or something supernatural, they are regulated to tall tales and fables. Most people have encounters with wildlife and various humanoids.  

Campaign Deities:

·         Solaris: God of the Sun (LG)
·         Luna: Goddess of the Moon (CG)
·         Terra: Goddess of Earth (N)
o    Old Man River (N)
o    The Ploughman (N)
o    The Water Maiden (CG)
·         God of Chaos (CE) – Vacant
o    Orcus, Demon Prince
o    Demogorgon, Demon Price
·         Aegis: Goddess of Darkness (LE)

Campaign PC Races:

·         Human
·         Stonefolk (Dwarf)
·         Moon Elf
·         Hillfolk (Halfling)

Campaign PC Classes:

·         Fighter
·         Cleric
·         Magician (M-U)
·         Thief
·         Fighter/M-U
·         M-U/Thief

Campaign Organizations:

·         High Council – Court of the Lord of the Valley
·         Fraternal Order of Adventurers
·         Temples of the Sun, Moon & Earth

Campaign Languages

·         Low Speech (Common)
·         High Speech
·         Stone Tongue (Dwarven)
·         Tree Speech (Elven)
·         Old Tongue (Dead Lang)
Min INT of 12 or Better = Literate

Campaign Social Ranks

·         King (Vacant)
·         High Lord (Vacant)
·         Lord of the Vale
·         Marshal (West Hold, East Hold, Lakeland)
·         High Captain
·         Captain
·         Bannerman (Lowest Level of Nobility)
·         Yeoman (Non-Nobility)
·         Peasant

·         Thrall







Wednesday, February 26, 2020

The Great Office Remodel

My wife noted that I was not using my office very much.

One of the reason why was it was not very well organized.

So we decided to remodel the closet and the difference it made was amazing.















Saturday, February 22, 2020

There and Back Again

Once again, I have neglected my blog. I tend to do this when real life takes over and I have time for little else. Blogging is a luxury of time.

It has been over a year since I posted anything which is kind of sad.

After a four month break, I am getting behind the DM screen again and I am going to be running BFRPG for the first time.

ACK Campaign


In that year, I was finally able to finish my campaign They Stood Against Evil, the second of my Generational Known World Series. The campaign has a epic ending and with the heroes defeating the big bad and setting up the next campaign which I have dubbed They Stood Against Chaos.

They Stood Against Darkness - B/X D&D

They Stood Against Evil - ACK

They Stood Against Chaos - 5e D&D or 2ed AD&D or Sword & Wizardry (*)

(*) I leaning towards this

There is a in-game time jump between each campaign of 50 years, this way players can play the children and grandchildren of their previous characters or new characters.

The side of effect of this, is my players really tend to think about things like legacy and will seek out spouses and try to have children.

Other News


One thing that has changed is I, along with my wife, are now the Directors of Table-top RPGS at CONjuration, our local fantasy con.

We have been attending for seven years and we have been running Rpgs games for six.

Every year we run more games and have more players and it is awesome, if not a bit stressful.

This past year I ran my very first miniature paint and take using Reapers Bones, I have over 20 people show up.

Outside of my Saturday Group, The Crimson Blades, my Sunday group the N. GA DCC group is continuing to go strong.

Miniatures & Wargames


I am trying hard to get back into painting and have managed to get some stuff painted.

I am also now getting into Star Wars Legion with my friend Stelios which is very cool.

I hope to post picture of what I have painted