Despite the hectic pace of life and the difficulties that surrounds it, I have been able to maintain my home campaign for no little time now. This in spite of the ongoing employment issues (i.e.: the lack thereof) and the D&D Day at the Library (Tacoma Public, that is), which is nearly a year old at this time, and all of the other varied things that destroy my time and attention.
I can no longer refer to it as my Ravenloft (albeit house-ruled) game, as the players have managed to escape the demi-plane through the, to me, novel expedient of placing a
helm of opposite alignment on the head of a domain lord (Drakov, for those of you wondering) who promptly failed both his magic resistance check and his saving throw and caused Falkovnia to instantly collapse, causing everyone in it to be scattered across the planes. The PCs are presently in the Forgotten Realms.
A word or two about that.
Like much that I do, I take an odd approach to campaign settings. In my youth, I would strive mightily to re-cast canon into something useful or appealing (to me, of course) whilst still allowing the use of new material. Not so much at present. I am using the originally released Forgotten Realms boxed set, no other published information, just things I'm making up. I am compounding my hubris by having placed the PCs in an area not covered by said boxed set, thus forcing myself to make up a great deal.
So, at present, the party is cooperating with the incarnate deity Tash (NG, Reason, Fair Play, and Justice, quasi-deity) in hopes of obtaining more information about the demi-plane they so recently escaped. This with the goal (of the paladin, at least) of being able to destroy the evil or at least free the innocent. As Tashluta (City of the god Tash) is beset by two groups of enemies, Tash promised his aid if they could free up his resources by throwing a sharp check to one of these factions.
The choice being between the rakshasa lords of Narubel or the Serpent-Men of the Black Jungles.
They chose to go after the Serpent-Men...
As I am choosing to make the Realms something of an interdimensional Sargasso, said Serpent-Men are the descendants of an exploratory/colony group hailing from the Scarlet Brotherhood. Yes, they plummeted far back in time in addition to crossing dimensions.
All in all, things are going well on that front.
I am hoping to begin a weekly update schedule, detailing the various classes and rules changes I am coming up with. Several of the classes are completed, but I am struggling with how I wish to approach others (mainly the barbarian and cavalier) given my founding principle that a sub-class with higher entry requirements should be better than the base class. On the other hand, I have no wish to be as absurd as the classes presented in the old UA.
Good luck and good gaming!
