Campaign Setting

(Direct from the DM's Desk)

Douven's Den: Douven Darcel is a mage that has made it his quest to study the many races of the multiverse. In his eagerness to study these other races first hand he once agreed to take in an orphaned Dragonborn child. What started as a scientific curiosity ended up appealing to the older Darcel's gentler side and he found that he cared for his scaly son as the years passed. When a similar case occurred a few years later with a lone elf child Douven again agreed to take the child in. Word of the odd Darcel's compassion spread amongst the travelers that heard about it and over time others who found a lone survivor of a raid, lost child, or other orphaned child of any race, he took them in as well. Over the past 200 years Douven has raised dozens of these children. His nature and understanding of the various races allows Douven to treat all of his "children" the same and without prejudice. While he learns from his children as part of his life's purpose he really does consider them all his children and treats them with kindness, patience, and understanding for their particular racial needs.

Douven has the children earn their keep by doing chores, helping with the younger children and running the occasional errand. He in turn dedicates his time to educating them with the basics for existence in the civilized world (language, math, manners, right and wrong, etc) and teaching each of his children about their origins and their race in so much as he understands them so that they know their place in the worlds.. He also is studying their behavior the whole time to find their particular aptitudes. Once he understands what a particular child is ideal for he then ensures that they are trained accordingly. He will teach mages himself and clerics can receive instruction from one of the two temples in town. But anyone with aptitudes outside of those get tutored by travelers who work out a barter arrangement typically where they teach for a period of time in return for some magical service or item.

Douven's full-time helper is a gentle yet gruff spoken Dragonborn named Ebonscales, Douven's oldest "son". When Ebonscales reached maturity and was urged to go out and find his place in the worlds he instead chose to stay and help Douven full time. Whether out of some sense of debt or perhaps love he won't say. It was simply the right thing to do he says but for 200 years now he has helped Douven run the Den as it is referred to now. Ebonscales is a Paladin by profession which is not so common in Moonstorm. He also does not teach others to become paladins since in his own humble way he does not consider himself worthy enough to teach and fears steering a child the wrong way if he tried.

The children are limited in exposure to many of the truly "special" aspects of Moonstorm until such time as they have matured and are ready to be let go to find their own path.

(DM's Note)
And yes, if you read it well enough and draw a few conclusions... nothing says that you have to play and elf or whatever race from the World we have been in [sic] (nimberthal). You could easily have been drug in from another world / realm completely.

FYI - as a result of the campaign setting I have decided to change the name of my PC to "Twig". Seeing as he is an "orphaned" elf with no family name or lineage to trace, his den brothers and sisters would've given him a nickname along the line of his physique.

D&D 4th Ed. PC Generation

Last night we wrapped up our 3.5 campaign being run by Dave Roycroft. We began creating our PCs for Shane Phelps' campaign using the new 4th edition rules.

My initial impressions:

Character Creation - surprisingly quite fast and simple. Simple as long as you know the majority of the daily, encounter and at will spells, abilities, etc. We used the point allocation system (22 pts) and it seemed even better than the older systems using 28 or 32 pts. More "heroic" type characters even at first level. They are set apart from the commoner because of abilities and skills.

Spell Casters - Interesting. Makes spellcasters at any level a force to be contended with. Even though the number of spells seems small the sheer fact that you can cast the at-will spells - well, at will for as long as you can draw a breath - makes the character more intriguing. No longer are spellcasters (mages and warlocks) needing to carry a boatload of scrolls, wands, staffs and/or rods. No longer are they relagated to staying out of the way when their spell wad is spent. Not bad at all...

The next gaming session we'll begin our adventure. Stay tuned!

Initial 4th Ed. read

Ok. I have perused the 4th edition rules - note that I said perused. I did not fine-toothed comb it; look it over with rules-lawyer goggles; or highlighted it for reference. But here is my initial reaction.

WTF! I am going to be playing a video-game character. I can self-heal. I will have abilities and spells which are usable anytime, once per encounter and some once per day. OK, I may admit that is harsh considering that one of my friends (and the first to DM 4th ed.) explained how some of those abilities can be explained in the game-story. But, coming from him (a munchkin non-par [sorry dude]) doesn't necessarily make it better. Anyway this Friday we wrap up the 3.5 edition campaign we are in and we begin our PC creations.

I will continue to keep an open mind but its a little rocky out-of-the-gate.

Nelson
soon to be aka Elinaeus - Male Elven Mage

Hello World

Hehehe. Going back to Programming in Basic...

Anyhow... Hello everyone. I will see what madness to discuss shortly. In the meantime I will begin writing my review of D&D 4.0. Many gamers came into the new version with predisposed opinions. I was one of those but I have resolved to play the new version with an open mind and review it as objectively as possible.

Nelson
aka Aramen Saren, Eleazar, Metzradt, Nigel, Aerindel, Khazid, Yemina, Ghost, Aernuld and ???