Author Topic: Introduction  (Read 1757 times)

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Balthanon

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Introduction
« on: July 19, 2008, 11:00:15 PM »
This thread will provide introductory material to Shadow's Edge.  For the time being, you can find more information at my site.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2008, 11:29:56 PM by Balthanon »

Balthanon

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Active Characters
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2008, 11:01:46 PM »
A list of the characters active in the shared setting.

Players (Interest):
 - NineInchNail
 - Smudgyhandsman?
 - Straw_Man
 - Dictum Mortuum
 - PhoenixInferno?
 - EjoThims
 - AlisAtAn
 - Stratovarius
 - Detective Jabsco
 - JanusJones
 - TheWordSlinger
 - bayar
 - Callix
« Last Edit: July 19, 2008, 11:20:16 PM by Balthanon »

Balthanon

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Active DMs
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2008, 11:19:40 PM »
Shadow's Edge is envisioned as a shared setting in which DMs can take advantage of an existing player base and players can adventure and roleplay between adventures.  The DMs that are currently running content within the setting are listed below.  If you are interested in participating as a DM, please let me know (either via PM or in the OOC thread for now.  Later I will create a thread for DM discussions.)

DMs (Interest):
 - Pan-Fried Hamster
 - Prime32?
 - bayar

DMs (Active):
 - Balthanon

Balthanon

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Frequently Asked Questions
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2008, 11:24:52 PM »
I will post frequently asked questions below, for now, this is a compilation of my posts from the initial thread gauging interest in Shadow's Edge.

Quote from: Balthanon
I was wondering if there would be any interest if I opened up Shadow's Edge here on Brilliant Gameologists.  The format for play by post here actually conforms well to my original vision of the game, which was more of a freeform site based campaign setting where characters would adventure between adventures. 

For those who aren't familiar with it, it was (and is, the original adventure is still up and running) the first CO Play by Post campaign to get off the ground.  And the first thread, Gift of Nobility maintained the highest views on the Real Adventures boards for nearly two years straight, despite being discontinued at 600 or so posts.  Each thread in the adventure which came out of Shadow's Edge has claimed that #1 spot for at least awhile before being archived as well.

I'm not entirely sure that I would have the time to fully maintain yet another full adventure on my own, but this was originally envisioned as more of a shared setting in which many DMs can run adventures.  It would allow players to maintain characters which DMs could then tap when they require new blood or replacements without needing to go through extensive recruiting.  The local area had its fair share of problems as well and the original group of nobles, particularly Snow Savant, were dedicated to rebuilding the economy and military of the border province they had been granted.  So those who just wanted to stick around Shadow's Edge and help maintain the area could do just that if they wanted.

Anyway, I would be interested in hearing from both players and DMs about whether they would be interested in something like this-- there is definitely some history to draw on and it is something I have talked about with players in the past.


Quote from: Balthanon
For individual adventures, particularly those that leave the area of Shadow's Edge entirely, I would say the DM running the adventure can introduce any particular house rules or ban/reintroduce particular material if they wanted.  Most players aren't going to mind tweaking their builds if they're particularly interested in a given adventure and once the adventure is over, they can come back to the fold with a few more tweaks.

Overall, we would probably want to keep house rules to a minimum within the general setting and area to provide a base line for DMs and players.  When I'm running CO oriented games, I typically follow that course as a rule of thumb.  The type of house rules that I do use for my standard games are listed here.  The biggest impact any of the actual changes (versus new content) have is probably the restriction on metamagic cost substitution. 

That said, given that 3.5 is no longer supported, it could be interesting down the road to maintain some enhancements to older material to bring it in line with the final elements of 3.5.  (Or potentially new content.)  In my regular games, I have integrated a lot of Tome of Battle into older material that otherwise wouldn't be used for instance.

If something like that was done, a DM council (and possibly some of the more knowledgeable CO members to review if they were interested) would be required to maintain balance.

Quote from: Balthanon
My play experiences with 4th Edition so far haven't given me enough confidence in the system to run a long term campaign setting in it yet, so 3.5 at this point.  I haven't DM'd a 4th edition setting online yet though, so I'm interested in seeing how that plays out.  (I had a thread on the WotC boards to try it, but it didn't receive much attention and hasn't gotten off the ground.)

4th edition could technically be run by DMs with the characters in the setting, but you would more or less be redoing the characters stats.  All it would ultimately save you is creating a backstory and history for the character-- which isn't necessarily inconsiderable. 

Perhaps when the FRCS comes out in... next month?  (Jeeze, time is flying by way too quickly this summer.)  For some of the longer lived characters, that 100 years they're supposed to be fast forwarding isn't all that much.  It could be interesting to see some of the 1st-5th level characters adventuring a 100 years down the road in the paragon or epic tiers, being suitably vague about what happened in Shadow's Edge in the mean time.

I've also been meaning to reassure those who showed interest that I am still planning on doing this, work has just gotten very heavy lately and time is at a premium at the moment.

Quote from: Balthanon
Starting ECLs would probably range from about 1 to 10, with a preference for the lower side of that range, since 10 is where the original nobles started.  Adventuring in the area would obviously be very non-linear and site based, so there is room for a variety of levels to solve problems in different areas. 

If we have DMs who want to run higher level campaigns, we could start expanding on that, but for the nature of the campaign, getting too high is going to make it a little too easy to "fix" the area.  As is, avoiding instant wealth generation tricks would definitely make the game interesting for more people over a longer time period.  The overall "goal" for the campaign would be to help the economy recover, protect the area from the dangers in the border, and then build Shadow's Edge and the surrounding area up.

Quote from: Balthanon
If you want to send me a PM with your email, I can send you a few of the spreadsheets and such that I was using to organize the campaign.  The website has a fair amount of detail on the people, but I think I have a bit more information squirreled away here and there.

If you want to target a particular area and start planning, there is a small ruined fort in the pass to the northwest that needs restored.  That could make for a nice subset of the Shadow's Edge locale.  The powers that be in Sembia want it guarded again and have started pressuring the nobles (or Darse anyway) into doing something about it in return for extending their domain.

At the moment, the only remaining Lord in the village is Morgan, who returned a short time ago and has been acting a bit odd since.  (The first extended adventure that I am considering running or proposing is an expedition to go rescue Sinwa-- Morgan had no immediate success in tracking her down, for those who were following the thread, and is going to serve as a sponsor of adventurers and erratic or eccentric Lord in the mean time.  Unless Previn happens to show up and wants to resume control over his character.)