RPG Superstar

How cool would it be to see something of your published in an offical book?  It might feel pretty good running an official adventure that YOU designed, or laying waste to those pesky NPCs with a weapon that you came up with.  Well, that’s exactly what Paizo has in mind for their latest contest: RPG Superstar.

From Paizo’s site: 

“Starting October 31, 2007, any ligible person will be able to submit an entry into the contest. For the open call, that entry will be a wondrous item using the 3.5 SRD. Each entry needs to be 200 words or less, and must include all of the proper mechanics and flavor. Judges will announce the top 32 entries on November 28; those contestants will advance to the first round of public voting, where they will be assigned a new design task, and their entries will be posted on paizo.com for the public to read, critique, and vote on. The designers garnering the most votes will continue to subsequent rounds, and the ultimate winner will earn a paid commission to write one of Paizo’s upcoming GameMastery Modules!”

I’m going to give it a go and see if I can get by Round 1.  For the complete list of dates and information, go to http://paizo.com/rpgsuperstar

Pre-Session 19 Summary (Pt.2): Race to the Acropolis

Yesterday’s post went over the 7 magi who are involved with the Ancient Evil (read, story arc number 1).  Since you’ve pretty much dusted off all but three of them, let’s move onto to a short summary of the players in story arc number 2: those parties who are racing towards the artifact hidden deep within the Iron Acropolis.

The Iron Acropolis, as you’ve found out, is a well guarded fortress created by the father of deities, Ao.  Inside lies the “Commands of the Gods”, a powerful scroll which gives the bearer a single moment of deific control.  It was created as a a counter measure for Ao to keep balance between his children, and it is guarded by a member of each alignment, the secret Order of the Boar.  This group was empowered to one end only: guard the Commands of the Gods that it fall into no one’s hands except Ao himself. 

Long after his death, information on Ao’s artifact has resurfaced thousands of years later, the result of research and luck.  It started with the Calad Brae aristocracy finding out, and soon turned into a full-island conquest with multiple parties involved.  Here are the people that are currently (or were) searching for the artifact:

CALAD BRAE HEIRARCHY (Disbanded) – The first group to come across the information of the artifact, the leaders consisted of Amadius, Falstrom, Locklin, Omus and Talgrow.  After Locklin was murdered during a trip to Ogden,  the seach for the gates reached a full tilt.  In a turn of events, Talgrow was betrayed by Omus and Amadius & Falstrom were forced to flee.  To this day, none of the original Calad Brae aristocracy exists formally, but have joined forces with your group. 

OMUS (Active) - After his coup of Calad Brae, the crazed mage has put the city into a military state with one goal: obtain the Commands of the Gods.  It has been discovered that a sour deal in his past (with Mask) left his wife and child dead.  Under a crushing guilt and sadness, he is trying to repair the mistake in two ways: using the Commands of the Gods to finally rid himself of Mask, as well as using a secretive mechanism that he has been constructing to reverse the affects of time. 

GARETH BARGDEN (Active) - Omus’ brother and prime trader on Alaron.  Using private funds he has launched an expedition to find the artifact.  The reason he wants it is not entirely known, but his relationship to Omus and the strange activity at his estate hint at foul intentions.

PALE COMMANDER (Dead) – In an attempt to recall the Blood Star from crashing into Cherrywood, he sent Puppet Master to obtain the artifact.  When it was obvious that the item would not be retrieved in time, he moved his base of operations to Alaron with the sole purpose of domination.  It didn’t work out so well – the group killed him in Burrowshead, and were then left with the problem of the Ancient Evil, now a free-roaming terror.

MASK (Active) – Long ago, the god of deception inserted one of his own into the Order of the Boar, allowing him an inside advantage to the Acropolis.  He has also perfected a ritual over the past thousand years to strike his name from the artifact, thereby rending him free of the item’s powers.  To the group’s knowledge, he is the current leader in the race. 

THE TRIBUNAL (Active) – A collective of the churches of Tempus, Torm, Lathander and Tyr.  Because of Mask’s (and at one time Cyric’s) involvement with the search for the artifact, the Tribunal has deemed it necessary to secure the item and throw it back into hiding.  it is widely believed that the organization has a secondary motive of using the artifact for their own needs (aka, “convincing” Lathander himself that sacrificing himself in lieu of the Blood Star to destroy the Ancient Evil is a bad idea).  Currently, your group is loosley “employed” by the Tribunal, who are still split upon their views of you. 

YOUR GROUP (Active) – Hey, it wouldn’t be a party without the group, right?  In typical D&D fashion, your group got pulled into this after investigating what was supposed to be an entry-level Watch assignment.  Your interest in the artifact is…..well, you decide. Saving your own hide?  Power?  Notoriety?  The ability to say “Yeahhhh, boyeeeeee!  Level 20!!!”

Pre-Session 19 Summary (Pt.1): The Seven Magi

Damn, that’s a long and confusing title. 

We’ll be gaming again over Christmas and in order to bring all of the information in this campaign together, I’ll be releasing sectioned pieces of relevant information, finally ending in a story arc summary.  I’ll try and keep the summaries in bullet-point form, as well as keep them short and high-level.  As of now, there are 4 story arcs, and within two or three sessions all of them should come together to form one cooperative plot that you guys can all ride out until the end of the campaign.

This post summarizes the 7 magi that are mentioned in the back-story and summoning of the Ancient Evil.  You’ve interacted with some, so a few of these NPCs should be familiar.  Here they are:

THE PALE COMMANDER (Evil, Lich, DEAD) – Attempted to control the Ancient Evil for his own dominance.  He was the last surviving magi and was killed by the group underneath Cherrywood.  When he realized he could not obtain the Commands of the Gods, he brought the Ancient Evil to the Moonshaes where he began spreading it among the populous.

MARZUL (Evil, Lich, DEAD) – An ex-cleric of Cyric who returned back to his faith.  He was killed by Mask after buying the sword (and his phylactery) from the group for a high price.  Unbeknown to him, he was to be executed by the Pale Commander and The Puppet Master after he was done playing his role.

THE PUPPET MASTER (Evil, Lich, DEAD) – Working with the Pale Commander to retrieve the Commands of the Gods.  He assembled a group of lieutenants and assaulted the  Moonshaes, attempting to open the alignment gates.He was killed (twice) by the group, but managed to keep his phylactery hidden.  He was betrayed by the Commander and his phylactery was given freely to the group, who destroyed it.

BERIMAAN (Unknown Alignment, Human, Consumed) -Killed by the Ancient Evil during the battle between Selune and Demagorgon.  His essence, along with two other of the original magi, remain trapped within the creature.  He is helping the group through the Belly of the Beast, in order to find the one thing that will kill it.

UNKNOWNS 1 & 2 (Unknown Alignment, Human, Consumed) – Killed, along with Berimaan, during the original conception of the Beast. It is not known if they have joined the collective mind of the creature, or if they are still independent.

UNKNOWN 3 (Neutral, Human, DEAD) – Killed by the Pale Commander and Puppet Master long ago for not conspiring with their plans of power.

D&D: 4th Edition Teaser

When I hear the words “4th Edition”, it conjures up (no pun intended) a mixture of emotions ranging from excitement to dismay.   While 3rd Edition vastly improved on the setbacks of previous releases, you have to wonder: when should a good thing not be improved upon?  Hasn’t the 3rd Edition ruleset “fixed” everything so that game-play can be easy and fast?  Yes, but we’ve all run into those scenarios where the set rules just don’t seem to apply, or they just produce ridiculous results.

With the core books for 4th Edition being released in June 2008, it makes me wonder how fast we’ll make the transition.  The last group I was in was playing 3rd while it was still in its beta stages, so I really have nothing else to compare it to.  In my opinion, I’d like to start sooner than later – if for no other reason than curiosity.  I know that Sam will probably be the first to get his hands on some of the books, so we may be counting on him for some up-front reviews.  ;) 

Anyway, EN World has a great summary of the new release schedule and what we can expect out of the new edition.  It seems that Wizards is adding another element called ”D&D Insider” which is a subscription-based program off of their site that allows GUI-driven games over the net.  It seems fairly intuitive, and the game-play looks fluid.  If you’re interested in seeing some of the new features, I’ve posted some videos from GenCon this year where Wizards unveiled it.  Mia and I got a glimpse of it at their booth, but these videos are the official presentation.

Last, but not least, here’s a teaser trailer for 4th Edition.  It’s pretty funny and gave me a chuckle this morning:

  

And here are the links to the other videos and docs regarding 4th Edition:

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Presentation: Part 1 (go to 4:10 for the lecture)

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Presentation: Part 2

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Presentation: Part 3

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Presentation: Part 4

EN World Unofficial D&D 4th Edition Info

First Dragonlance Trailer Released

Here it is: the rough draft that was screened at both GenCon and DragonCon.  I’ll reserve judgement until I hear some of your comments, so take a look and see if it meets your expectation.  Remember that this rough draft was made public because of the great demand for the final version, which has yet to be edited.  I’m not sure if that’s a goood thing – either they’re not nearly as far done with the film as they lead on, or they are foregoing the trailer in lieu of completing the product. 

Anyway, enjoy!