Paul Lefebvre
09-12-1997, 03:19 AM
Martijn Buijs wrote:
> Hello everybody!
>
> I'm currently drawing out plans for a future BirthRight campaign.
> As I want it to be perfect, I thought I could use some help. Who
> better to turn to than to you?
>
> I want to create a unique roleplaying story. My greatest source of
> inspiration will be Tad Willaims' trilogy Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
> (which you should all read; Tolkien is the greatest fantasy literature
>
> around but Willaims is definately the runner up!) I also want it to
> have a genuine medieval feeling to it, primarily like 11th-12th-13th
> century England. I also want to use the myths of outlaw heroes in
> the middle ages, particulary Robin Hood and Hereward the Wake, and
> a bit of Arthurian legend. If anyone knows a really good historical
> work on the above period - please let me know!
>
> I, as a DM, will design all four characters that will be in the
> game, starting them as 0-th level juveniles and slowly letting
> them choose a class while the campaign enfolds, making them into
> first-levels only after a few sessions. Eventually, they'll become
> the regents of the land, dividing the various posts among them.
Okay, first off, you're right about Tad Williams. The man is a
fantastic author. I'm just praying he's going to add something else to
the series, but right now he's busy with the Otherlands series. It may
be a while, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn took like 8 years for him to write
or something obscene like that. I spoke with him through e-mail and he
did mention that he's writing a short story about Osten Ard that will go
into an anthology.
Now, on to your campaign. It sounds good, but I really hope you
have a good and accomodating group. Generally no player enjoys being
directed or controlled by their DM and being required to use a
pre-fabricated character may turn them off. It almost sounds like
you're planning a novel and not a role playing game :)
Basically, my advice is talk to your players first and make sure
they're OK about the way you want to run that campaign.
Just to give you an example of my experience, once I took my players
into Ravenloft (only planned for a couple adventures) without them being
so willing. When they realized where they were the players complained
and then one of them had his mage fireball the whole party (killing them
all, because they'd been weakened by a battle with Strahd's zombies) and
then killing himself. Well, we had to create a new campaign (and I had
created some cool adventures for them in ravenloft). I never made that
mistake again.
You may want to check out Ivanhoe, the Three Musketeers (off by a
couple centuries but lots of stuff with the heroes hobknobbing with the
underclasses I believe), the SerpentWar Saga (from Raymond E. Feist; or
his Riftwar series, the man is a master at portraying politics in a
feudal setting IMHO)....those are the ones that come to mind.
Whatever you do, good luck,
Paul L.
> Hello everybody!
>
> I'm currently drawing out plans for a future BirthRight campaign.
> As I want it to be perfect, I thought I could use some help. Who
> better to turn to than to you?
>
> I want to create a unique roleplaying story. My greatest source of
> inspiration will be Tad Willaims' trilogy Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
> (which you should all read; Tolkien is the greatest fantasy literature
>
> around but Willaims is definately the runner up!) I also want it to
> have a genuine medieval feeling to it, primarily like 11th-12th-13th
> century England. I also want to use the myths of outlaw heroes in
> the middle ages, particulary Robin Hood and Hereward the Wake, and
> a bit of Arthurian legend. If anyone knows a really good historical
> work on the above period - please let me know!
>
> I, as a DM, will design all four characters that will be in the
> game, starting them as 0-th level juveniles and slowly letting
> them choose a class while the campaign enfolds, making them into
> first-levels only after a few sessions. Eventually, they'll become
> the regents of the land, dividing the various posts among them.
Okay, first off, you're right about Tad Williams. The man is a
fantastic author. I'm just praying he's going to add something else to
the series, but right now he's busy with the Otherlands series. It may
be a while, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn took like 8 years for him to write
or something obscene like that. I spoke with him through e-mail and he
did mention that he's writing a short story about Osten Ard that will go
into an anthology.
Now, on to your campaign. It sounds good, but I really hope you
have a good and accomodating group. Generally no player enjoys being
directed or controlled by their DM and being required to use a
pre-fabricated character may turn them off. It almost sounds like
you're planning a novel and not a role playing game :)
Basically, my advice is talk to your players first and make sure
they're OK about the way you want to run that campaign.
Just to give you an example of my experience, once I took my players
into Ravenloft (only planned for a couple adventures) without them being
so willing. When they realized where they were the players complained
and then one of them had his mage fireball the whole party (killing them
all, because they'd been weakened by a battle with Strahd's zombies) and
then killing himself. Well, we had to create a new campaign (and I had
created some cool adventures for them in ravenloft). I never made that
mistake again.
You may want to check out Ivanhoe, the Three Musketeers (off by a
couple centuries but lots of stuff with the heroes hobknobbing with the
underclasses I believe), the SerpentWar Saga (from Raymond E. Feist; or
his Riftwar series, the man is a master at portraying politics in a
feudal setting IMHO)....those are the ones that come to mind.
Whatever you do, good luck,
Paul L.