D&D 5E, the Nentir Vale, and Other Assorted D&D Stuff

After more than two years of waiting, D&D 5E is finally about to be published. The Starter Set is coming out soon, and after that comes the Player's Handbook and the free Basic D&D PDF. Everything I've just said sounds absolutely awesome as far as I'm concerned. I love D&D 4E, but I'm currently having fun with the 5E playtest rules and I can't wait to see the full rules.

Picture from ENWorld.

I'm considering buying the Starter Set. Normally, I wouldn't, since I've been playing the playtest and I've been playing D&D for well over a decade now, but I'm trying to get an offline gaming group together, and at least one of them is a complete newbie to tabletop RPGs. The Starter Set, with its pregenerated characters and short rulebook, is going to be way less intimidating than Basic D&D or a full Player's Handbook would be. On the other hand, I may just stick with 4E Essentials and make my own pregenerated characters for the group. I'm not quite sure yet.

Whatever the case, I'll certainly be downloading Basic D&D. It's free, it's got everything necessary to play to level 20, and it should be just about perfect for anyone who doesn't want to buy the game yet, but still wants to play. I'm really curious to see what they do with it as far as aesthetics go - if it'll be bare bones with no art or anything like the playtest packets, or if it'll have a few pieces of art and the same kind of aesthetics the Starter Set previews are showing. I'm hoping it's the latter, of course.

In any case, 5E is still heavily on my mind as I'm running a Play-by-Post game using the 5E playtest rules from October of last year. It took a while, but I finally got a game together to try out 5E, which brings me to my next point: I'm not using the Forgotten Realms as the setting. I'm not a huge fan of the Realms, so I stuck with the Nentir Vale, which is easily my second favorite setting after Eberron. And my group went nuts with it. I've got a Paladin of Sehanine, two devotees of the Raven Queen (one Fighter, one Rogue), a Cleric of Zehir, and possibly a religiously-undecided Mage. The party's a curious mix of alignments ranging from Neutral Good to Neutral Evil. So far, I'm digging it.

But back to the Nentir Vale. I'm considering going through all my 4E books and putting together as much information as I can on the Vale. I'm aware of this Wikidot site that does pretty much the same thing, but that group's taken a bit of a different look at the setting than I plan to, particularly with their assertions about the deities. Obviously, this is a big undertaking and will probably take a fairly long time, but if I do it, I'll be able to use it as a player handout and a DM aid in any future games I run in the Vale. Plus, I'll be able to keep two copies - one for players and one for all my secret DM notes. I'll almost certainly post the full thing here, of course.

Last, I'd like to address that it's been a while since I posted here. I've been working on offline stuff, hanging out with friends and doing quite a bit completely unrelated to tabletop gaming. I didn't have as much time to devote to gaming, so I ended up dropping from all PbP games for a while. I'm back now, though, and I plan on adding quite a bit to the blog - some header images or something at the very least. Thanks for sticking around, and if you're new, take a look at what I've got. Might be something that catches your eye.

Campaign Prep - Creating a Starting Town Using ACKS

NOTE: If you're currently playing in my Adventures in the Nentir Vale campaign on RPG.net, please don't read any further.

I got my ACKS game going this week, so I figured I'd write up a blog post about creating the starting town, Nenlast. I've set the game in the Nentir Vale, the implied setting of D&D 4E, but I've changed Nenlast quite a bit from the way it was described in the Abyssal Plague novels.

So first up, I knew that Nenlast is described in the 4E DMG as a small fishing village, so I decided to run with that. It's small, so for population I decided on roughly 200 people. Large enough to warrant a wall and a militia, but small enough to keep fairly simple in terms of organizations and locations within the town. According to the ACKS rules, 200 people would make Nenlast a market class VI town and include a pretty small number of leveled NPCs.

After setting the population, I made some decisions on locations I wanted to have available: an inn, a disreputable tavern, some sort of church, a graveyard/cemetery, a place of governance, a couple of shops, and the docks. I wrote out some descriptions of these locations along with NPCs that might be found there, then moved on to the next step in the ACKS rules: criminal organizations.

Such a small town, in the ACKS rules, will have a correspondingly small criminal faction. In this case, I decided to have the town's known criminals consolidated into a gang known as the Crimson Hands. I incorporated The Drunken Boar, the disreputable tavern I'd created, and made it the gang's hangout. The tavern's owner, Belloc, became the gang's leader and that was that. Total gang membership is only 16 (8x 0^th level ruffians, 5x 1^st level, 2x 2^nd level, 1x 3^rd level boss).

I figure the Crimson Hands are small fish who think they're a lot scarier than they really are. The gang leader and a couple of his lieutenants might be a threat to some adventurers, but for the most part, the gang consists of level-0 normal people that probably won't want to get in a lethal fight with armed and armored adventurers.

Once I finished up the basics on the Crimson Hands, I wrote up a few tavern rumors for the PCs can follow up on. It's a hexcrawl/dungeon crawl game, so I won't be using many, if any, published adventures. I figured these rumors were pretty decent stuff for a low level party to be interested in taking a look at.

I'm working on a map of the town, so hopefully that'll be finished up and posted later this week.

Locations in Nenlast

Black Trout Inn

Famed around the Nentir Vale for its beer-battered trout, the Black Trout Inn is owned and run by Red Toran. Small compared to inns in larger towns such as Fallcrest, the Black Trout Inn has a core group of regular customers who like to sit and chat about the day's events during most evenings.

Chapel

Rather than having multiple churches dedicated to individual deities, Nenlast has only a small chapel with individual altars or statues for most of the pantheon: Erathis, Pelor, Avandra, Bahamut, Melora, Ioun, and Kord. The chapel is overseen by Korlas, a priest dedicated to Erathis, though there are a number of other priests of various deities. The Raven Queen is not represented at the chapel, but there is a small shrine to her at the entrance to the graveyard.

Docks

Easily the most bustling area of Nenlast on most days, the docks are where the village's small fleet of fishing boats and rafts are moored. Near the docks is a beach where the ice-fishing shacks are kept during the summer.

Erkar's General Store

Most popular for its wide selection of bait and tackle, Erkar's General Store sells just about any necessity for life on the shores of Lake Nen, including archery gear and leather products. Erkar carries some of the most basic spell components, but it's a small selection that he doesn't really cater to, as most mages prefer to buy from the Sapphire Tower

Ironheart Smithy

The Ironheart Smithy is run by the Ironhearts, a family of dwarves living in the only completely-stone building in Nenlast. The Ironhearts are known for their no-frills, high-quality craftsmanship and blades that are very durable and solid. Most iron and steel products can be bought at the Ironheart Smithy, including swords, axes, and armor. The smithy is run by Kora Ironheart, who boasts that she is the best smith in all of the Nentir Vale.

The Drunken Boar

The only competitor of the Black Trout Inn, The Drunken Boar is a tavern in a rather run-down state. Run as a front for the local thieves' guild, the Crimson Hands, The Drunken Boar is a home for the town drunks, ruffians, and other disreputable folk.

Moon Tower

Named for the silver crescent moon painted on the door, Moon Tower is where Nenlast's few mages congregate. Owned by a doddering, half-senile old mage by the name of Cromlen, Moon Tower is a combination magic shop and residence. While Cromlen's powers have waned in the last decade or so, rumors abound of arcane secrets and trinkets held within the tower.

Important NPCs

Lord Mayor Thure Karn

Red Toran, proprietor of the Black Trout Inn

Korlas, priest of Erathis
Erkar, proprietor of Erkar's General Store

Kora Ironheart, master smith at the Ironheart Smithy

Belloc, chief of the Crimson Hands and owner of The Drunken Boar

Tavern Rumors

1. Goblins have been plaguing the Old Hill Road, besieging trade caravans. The Lord Governor of Nenlast has set a bounty of five silver pieces for goblin ears, and an extra bounty of 100 gold if presented with proof that the goblins are no longer a threat.

2. Rumor has it that there's a nest of owlbears in a cave just inside Winterbole Forest, five miles out of town. Everyone knows owlbear eggs are a delicacy, and their pelts make for the best leather in the Vale.

3. An old wizard's tower has fallen into ruin outside town. It's rumored to be haunted and the wizard's treasures are said to still lay within. The tower is perpetually shrouded in mist, and none have been brave enough to enter in years.

4. Legend has it, an island known as the Fang on Lake Nen is home to an old smuggler's den that may still hold a cache of valuables left there long ago. Most sailors in Nenlast think the Fang is cursed with bad luck and won't go anywhere near it, however.

5. The teens of Nenlast insist that the local graveyard is haunted. They say that, if you spend the night in the graveyard during a full moon, a restless spirit will appear. The identity of the spirit is always changing – some say it's a half-elven woman, while some insist it's a full-blooded orc warrior (though why an orc would be buried there is another mystery altogether).

6. A local farmer, Old Man Hatchet, is willing to pay good gold to enterprising folk willing to clear any unwanted beasts from a cave on his property. Purportedly, the cave contains some sort of giant rodent or insect – Old Man Hatchet's sight is failing and his account varies from telling to telling.

S&W Nentir Vale Campaign - More Campaign Prep

In my last post, I talked about a Swords & Wizardry White Box game I've been prepping to run for some players new to D&D (and RPGs in general). Unfortunately, due to some schedule conflicts (mainly mine), I didn't get to start the game this week as I'd planned. On the upside, that gave me a little more time to prepare, which I've spent scouring Dragon articles and the Internet for more info about the Nentir Vale and Nerath as a whole. Fortunately for me, I found an awesome map that Wizards of the Coast put in an article on their website for the Conquest of Nerath boardgame.

Holy shit, right? This map is bitchin'. Click for large version.

I've also written up a list of rumors that will lead to some pre-made adventures (both mine and published) that I can run for low-level groups. 

Rumors

1. Townsfolk have been disappearing from the town of Nenlast, to the northeast past Hammerfast. Gnolls have been seen roaming in the forest near Nenlast. (Obsidian Hall – homebrew module)
2. Several children from Falcon's Hollow have gone missing. Falcon's Hollow is to the west of Fallcrest. (Crown of the Kobold King – Pathfinder adventure)
3. Orcs have been raiding Fallcrest over the last few weeks. Supposedly, the orcs have been coming from a cave system nearby known as the Shadow Caves. (Shadow Caves – homebrew module)
4. A scholar named Parl Cranewing is offering a sizable reward to anyone willing to investigate and map an old ruined keep near Winterhaven. (Keep on the Shadowfell – 4E adventure)
5. Kobolds stole a trade cart on the King's Road on its way to Fallcrest. Teldorthan Goldcap, an armorer in Fallcrest, is offering a sizable reward for a cured dragon hide that was in the stolen cart. He intends to create a suit of armor from the dragon hide. (Kobold Hall – 4E adventure in the DMG)

Each player is going to get a rumor, and I'll keep one in reserve in case none of the rumors sound good to the group. I know that Keep on the Shadowfell has a really bad reputation; I haven't played it, but I'd really like to try and liven it up a little. Switching it from 4E to Swords & Wizardry will hopefully alleviate some of the “combat all the time” nature that 4E can get sometimes. All of these adventures will, of course, be converted over to S&W. I don't expect there'll be a whole lot of issue converting stuff, and if I don't get it all finished before the game, I don't foresee any problems converting on the fly if I absolutely have to.

After every adventure, I'll give the players some new rumors, and they can choose to either follow up on those or one that I've already given them. Some of the rumors won't lead anywhere though; if they don't get there in time, it's going to be assumed that someone else goes and takes care of the problem.

I'm also working on some pregen characters so that we can get straight to playing. I expect that, as characters die (and I'm sure they will), they'll start to roll up their own, but for the first game, I'd rather get right into gaming. In my experience, sometimes character creation puts off new players, so I rely on pregens a lot when I introduce people to gaming.

Swords & Wizardry With Newbs - Campaign Prep

I'm starting up an online game this weekend, probably via Skype or IRC, for one semi-experienced D&D player and three complete D&D newbies. As I've mentioned before, I love introducing new people to D&D. I prefer to do it face-to-face rather than online, but at this point, I'm going with what I've got, and playing online can be a great way to game.

So, here's some of the game specifics:

Swords & Wizardry White Box - I'm using S&W White Box because it's fast, simple, and it's fairly straightforward as far as objectives go: get gold to earn XP and level up. There will be some plot stuff and interesting setting info, but above all, this is going to be a dungeon crawling game in true old-school fashion.

Four players - One player has played D&D before (but only 3.5, I think) and the other three are completely new to the game. That's part of why I chose S&W White Box; it's very simple with plenty of room for me to add new, more complex stuff later as the game goes on and the players become more familiar with the game.

Setting - I'm going to be using 4E's default setting, the Nentir Vale. I really like the "points of light in the darkness" theme, and the multiple fallen empires (Arkhosia, Bael Turath, and Nerath, at least) provide a ton of adventure fodder and interesting locations to explore. It also means that I can more easily add in dragonborn and tieflings later on, and they've already got a connection to the setting. I'll probably start them off in Fallcrest and eventually move on to either Hammerfast or Winterhaven.

I hope to make this a proper hexmap to email to my players as they explore.

Dungeon Crawls - Much as I like the roleplaying aspect, lately I've just wanted to play dungeon crawls with players/characters motivated by loot. Fortunately, that's perfect for new gamers. I can point out to them that it's a game first and foremost, and ease them into the roleplaying and plot-heavier style that I typically run. To that end, I'm going to be running a lot of simple dungeons (I've got one called Obsidian Hall that I'll post as soon as I can get a decent PDF made up) and probably a few TSR modules like B2: Keep on the Borderlands.

As soon as the game starts (our first session is on Sunday), I'll get up an actual play report written up. Until then, I'll be working on adapting some of 3.5's and 4E's more interesting (though not necessarily mechanically outstanding) classes to S&W, and I hope to get one of those posted here either Friday or Saturday.