zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 26, 2012 7:06:15 GMT -6
Here's kind of a cool character builder: truculent.org/llchar/ It's designed for Labyrinth Lord, but it'll work with basically all TSR-era D&D-type games.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 25, 2012 18:47:25 GMT -6
We usually schedule 4-7pm. I'd like to go longer, but my group is pretty cazh - plus DMing is tiring! Being "on" and taking responsibility for entertaining five or six people for more than three hours really taxes me.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 25, 2012 16:05:14 GMT -6
I haven't seen Your Highness, but I really liked director David Gordon Green's earlier pictures - George Washington and All the Real Girls. I think he'd be a great pick to do an auteur-y D&D movie.
I also haven't seen the second existing D&D movie; I saw the first one when it came out (on a first date, in fact - did not work out). I thought it was absolutely unbearable.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 23, 2012 12:17:04 GMT -6
"the Dragonarmy may have taken diferent places, and each place is a "city-state"."
Good suggestion - working in some internal tensions among the Dragonarmies could be very productive.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 23, 2012 10:08:13 GMT -6
"I like the clearcut good-evil breakdown."
Can I ask what it is about that arrangement that's important to you? And - moreover - are you opposing a "clear-cut good-evil breakdown" to a) a Sword & Sorcery-type amorality, to b) a setting whose social characteristics confront the players with moral quandaries related to ambiguities between good and evil, or to c) something else entirely?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 23, 2012 7:11:24 GMT -6
That would certainly be the OSR-ratified sandbox way to go about it - and I'm sure it would be a lot of fun. But one of the things I want to salvage from Dragonlance is the notion of a state under occupation and a large, bureaucratic oppressor with an evil dragon-goddess at the top, a bunch of underpaid officers in the middle, and a whole lot of disaffected goons at the bottom. In other words, I want to pit the PCs against enemies, not (as is sometimes the case with sandbox-style games) accidents.
I was rereading the beginning of the first DL module, and what struck me the most was the "tidal" quality of the Dragonarmy's invasion - the way that current events in the game world were producing refugees, destroying cities, and generally effecting social consequences. One day everything was peachy, and the next, you had to get in line for 45 minutes for a loaf of bread or whatever. My hope is that I can evoke this feeling with a minimum of world-renovation and prep.
I don't know what the 5th age is, so I doubt I'll be including any of that!
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 22, 2012 14:45:26 GMT -6
Apologies for reviving this long-dormant thread, but as it happens I'm in the process of preparing to start DMing a campaign set on Krynn during the War of the Lance. I'll be using a tweaked version of that indispensable Gedankenexperiment Searchers of Unknown. My goals in terms of adapting the Dragonlance source material are threefold:
First, detolkienize. No elves, no dwarves, no goblins, no Campbellian quests. Kender are in because playing a Kender can turn a normal player into a hyperactive anarchist, which is super fun. Despite the fantasy trappings, I'm shooting for a 1912-1945 struggle-against-militated-fascism (Takhisism, if you will) affect.
Second, decanonize. I'm certainly not going to look up Dragonarmy troop deployments and the names of municipal councilmembers. Making stuff up to meet the moment-to-moment needs of play is the order of the day.
Third, dedestinize. Whether they're unaffiliated adventurers, Knights of Solamnia, or wizards of whatever color robe, the PCs will be pitching in to help the resistance eff with the occupying Dragonarmies - sabotage, assassination, theft, reconnaissance, and espionage - with possible forays into creepy dungeons in search of potent artifacts to help the cause. They'll probably never march into Sanction to confront Takhisis, although they may work toward claiming some bounties on human or draconian Highlords or older dragons.
Has anyone else here tried applying any of the ideas kicked around in this thread? We'll be starting in a few months, but I thought I'd run my theses up the flagpole here first because this is a cool board.
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