Campaign Musings
We have now played quite a few sessions, and things are beginning to settle down into a pattern of sorts. It's now time to draw breath, and also some conclusions from the way the game is progressing.
First of all, it's worth reiterating that many of the old modules I'm using are for D&D or its many variants. This can cause some concern, because the combat system in Stormbringer is famously nasty. At first sight this might not seem like a major issue, but in combination with several others, it can quickly make even the most elegantly crafted scenario become unplayable. The simplest factor here is the number of creatures that can be encountered. The Levels system of D&D produces a situation where a moderately higher level group of player characters can easily overpower large numbers of lesser opponents due to hit points, spell availability, combat capacity and, in the case of the undead, clerical prayers. However, using a large number of even mediocre characters in the BRP-derived combat system could easily result in constant PC deaths. In addition, I want to keep my campaign relatively low on magic, which should be seen as a rare occurrence of great import - there is nobody running around with a demon sword that does 3D6 extra damage. Numbers of enemies and some of their associated abilities therefore need to be downgraded.
The corollary to this is that the game feels much less like a dungeon crawl, and encounters end up mostly being roleplayed, as opposed to turning into a hack and slash trawl through dungeons. This adds to the feel of the campaign, but it has also had one unforeseen (but welcome) effect: the players are definitely not munchkins. For example, the White Dwarf scenario entailed 'The Halls of Tizun Thane' could easily turn into just that: a mega-dungeon crawl. However, the players actually got bored of it really quickly, and just wanted to accomplish the goal set them for the scenario. This is a refreshing change.
Similar issues have arisen due to the range of easily available magic items so common to D&D adventures as well as the sheer variety of humanoid creatures to throw at the players. This does not happen in the campaign at all, as I explain in the accompanying pages to this blog. In an evening's play the party will perhaps come across a very few items of some import, and these will be remembered as being special. Some will need further research before they can be utilised at all, such as the various minor runic items that they find on occasion. So in the adventure at Tizun Thane's mansion, the characters acquired a couple of scrolls, two magic arrows and a weird cloak. All are single use items except the cloak. I like this feel because it's not too magic-heavy.
Death is relatively uncommon, at least in terms of its being visited upon human enemies. So far the only people who have been killed as a result of combat are a Pan Tang sea captain, a renegade Weeping Waste warrior, and a psychotic noble-merchant from Ilmar. That's three deaths caused by the characters in ten gaming sessions, and only the merchant was in fact killed outright. These events should be memorable.
In terms of the Young Kingdoms, I have acquired a couple of gazeteer-style products originally published for the Elric! game. These are going to come in really handy, but the Young Kingdoms world map is very different in places for that game. For example, in Elric! the Eastern Lands are located much farther south than in Stormbringer, and many of the desert-like associations of the Weeping Wastes are now located in the Sighing Desert, which is much closer to Ilmiora's northern border. I will produce my own hex maps for these campaign locations as and when I need them, but my basic operating principle is that the geography familiar to me from Stormbringer will usually take precedence. Any anomalies can easily be explained away by the fact that these are relatively unknown far-off places, and the maps are not reliable.
That's it for now.
First of all, it's worth reiterating that many of the old modules I'm using are for D&D or its many variants. This can cause some concern, because the combat system in Stormbringer is famously nasty. At first sight this might not seem like a major issue, but in combination with several others, it can quickly make even the most elegantly crafted scenario become unplayable. The simplest factor here is the number of creatures that can be encountered. The Levels system of D&D produces a situation where a moderately higher level group of player characters can easily overpower large numbers of lesser opponents due to hit points, spell availability, combat capacity and, in the case of the undead, clerical prayers. However, using a large number of even mediocre characters in the BRP-derived combat system could easily result in constant PC deaths. In addition, I want to keep my campaign relatively low on magic, which should be seen as a rare occurrence of great import - there is nobody running around with a demon sword that does 3D6 extra damage. Numbers of enemies and some of their associated abilities therefore need to be downgraded.
The corollary to this is that the game feels much less like a dungeon crawl, and encounters end up mostly being roleplayed, as opposed to turning into a hack and slash trawl through dungeons. This adds to the feel of the campaign, but it has also had one unforeseen (but welcome) effect: the players are definitely not munchkins. For example, the White Dwarf scenario entailed 'The Halls of Tizun Thane' could easily turn into just that: a mega-dungeon crawl. However, the players actually got bored of it really quickly, and just wanted to accomplish the goal set them for the scenario. This is a refreshing change.
Similar issues have arisen due to the range of easily available magic items so common to D&D adventures as well as the sheer variety of humanoid creatures to throw at the players. This does not happen in the campaign at all, as I explain in the accompanying pages to this blog. In an evening's play the party will perhaps come across a very few items of some import, and these will be remembered as being special. Some will need further research before they can be utilised at all, such as the various minor runic items that they find on occasion. So in the adventure at Tizun Thane's mansion, the characters acquired a couple of scrolls, two magic arrows and a weird cloak. All are single use items except the cloak. I like this feel because it's not too magic-heavy.
Death is relatively uncommon, at least in terms of its being visited upon human enemies. So far the only people who have been killed as a result of combat are a Pan Tang sea captain, a renegade Weeping Waste warrior, and a psychotic noble-merchant from Ilmar. That's three deaths caused by the characters in ten gaming sessions, and only the merchant was in fact killed outright. These events should be memorable.
In terms of the Young Kingdoms, I have acquired a couple of gazeteer-style products originally published for the Elric! game. These are going to come in really handy, but the Young Kingdoms world map is very different in places for that game. For example, in Elric! the Eastern Lands are located much farther south than in Stormbringer, and many of the desert-like associations of the Weeping Wastes are now located in the Sighing Desert, which is much closer to Ilmiora's northern border. I will produce my own hex maps for these campaign locations as and when I need them, but my basic operating principle is that the geography familiar to me from Stormbringer will usually take precedence. Any anomalies can easily be explained away by the fact that these are relatively unknown far-off places, and the maps are not reliable.
That's it for now.
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