Brave New World
Along the way, my campaigns and efforts sometimes go off the tracks. I usually record mishaps and missteps in a column with the word crisis in it somewhere. I’m trying to cut down on the number of campaign derailments, but I can give no guarantees.
Finally, I occasionally go off topic or even rant. I’ll try to keep both down to a minimum, but I’ve been writing this column for a while now. An occasional leap into madness is, perhaps, inevitable.
MCWoD from 7th level to 9th level
So last month I was all pumped up about the roleplaying crisis in my MCWoD campaign. I had many players involved and lots of e-mail activity.
Which is why, I suppose, that I kicked off the New Year with two and a half players in attendance and the Awakened half of the crisis missing. I say two and a half because one player had quite a bit of scotch during the game and fell asleep for part of it.
Which all goes to show that no matter how much a GM plans, no matter how detailed his adventure, no matter the level of world building things don’t always work out as planned. Not that we didn’t have fun, but it definitely didn’t go as envisioned.
And world building I did. I wanted to bring the Awakened back into an uneasy alliance with the supernaturals. The campaign was set to move from Chicago (spooky city of darkness) to Minneapolis (rubbled haunted city of doom).
So, an odd point in the game with the first week of January down. On the plus side, the two players who stuck it out roleplayed brilliantly and fought like supermen (which, as supernaturals, I guess they are). And the player who fell asleep got to de-stress from a long week at work so that worked out okay as well.
Minneapolis, City of Doom
On the last game night of January, I rolled out the next phase of the campaign goal to really hurt the Iconnu. Two PCs destroyed the Rancher, an Awakened killing vampire, to kick things off. Now, the PCs had to find two idols to get one step closing to finding power to hit the Iconnu where it hurts, in the Incursion.
The idols were in two locations. The eastern half of the University of Minnesota. The one described in the book as being full of tentacles and zombies. The other location was Fort Snelling under which haunted tunnels had appeared.
In my opinion, using the D20 Modern SRD is essential to running a MCWoD campaign. The creatures in the Menace Manual (and D20 Call of Cthulthu if you have it) can be used to populate nightmare sites and as back up for supernaturals. Also, the pre-statted NPCs are a big timesaver.
Here are two examples of using D20 Modern creatures in MCWoD. I’ll use the university and Fort Snelling as examples.
The PCs started with Fort Snelling because the tentacle monster of the university freaked one of the PCs out. Which is no easy feat, as the character is an extremely tough Gangrel vampire. Sometimes, though, the reputation of a nightmare site can generate real worry in both player and character alike, even if the character is a supernatural.
Fort Snelling
An Iroquois shaman took over the tunnels under Fort Snelling. He used his magic to bypass ancient cannon traps and Civil War undead. In his secret lab, he studied a powerful supernatural item, one of the idols the PCs sought, said to open gates to other dimensions.
I created the shaman as a mage. For muscle, I used rogue tulpas. These creatures are psychic thoughts made solid and dangerous. I also used some group traps from Dungeoncraft, modified to look like ancient cannon attacks and Civil War zombies.
I was able to spend most of my time crafting the mage. His hired muscle and traps came from existing D20 books saving me time to spend on the Big Bad Guy.
Eastern University of Minnesota
The eastern half of the University of Minnesota houses something that pushes purple tentacles out of the ground. It also zombiefies scavengers it catches.
For my adventure, I used an advanced satanic ichor. Basically, the creature is a big ooze that dominates the minds and bodies of victims. Perfect for my use.
For dominated victims, I used NPC stats from the Menace Manual.
For a lair, I used an ancient cathedral on the grounds that had used for various denominations and weddings. I used a map from the Shackled City adventure although D20 Modern Critical Locations has a map of a church as well.
I ran the D20 Modern monsters as written when negotiations broke down and conflict followed. The only modifier applied (and recommended in the book) is to lower the damage resistance to either 5 or 10 for all creatures. Anything higher gets too difficult to overcome.
Supernatural Items
Talking about the two idols the PCs recovered leads me into thinking about PCs getting supernatural items. Basically magic items, some with drawbacks, supernatural items are easy to overlook. MCWoD recommends handing one out to each PC about once every two or three levels. No balancing guidelines are given in the rules so having the Dungeonmaster’s Guide handy is helpful.
I’ve played enough D&D 3.5 to get a feel for the right power level of items to balance PCs. Otherwise, I’d rely on the DMG or the Magic Item Compendium to get an idea of what kind of items to hand out.
Supernatural items I’ve handed out include a mix of modified items from MCWoD and some of my own creation. Unlike D&D magic items, each of these items are tailored to a specific PC in most cases and are gained in a variety of ways.
Sometimes an old friend passes on item on to a PC. One PC who is a priest received a supernatural fingerbone of a saint to help him defeat undead from the Vatican for services rendered. A PC cop found his service shield took on healing properties, but only if he protected those in need. And so on.
Next Month
Converting free D20 Modern adventures to MCWoD. Mechs versus Cthulthu. And more world building: back to Antarctica, under the waves of the Pacific, and other locations.
D&D 4E
Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters sucked me in. While not related to MCWoD directly, I have been using pieces of D&D 4E in my game. The 6’6” garden gnome paladin of Bahamut and Russian merc (a confused demon if ever there was one) uses a supernatural item that allows the use of a 4E paladin smite.
If anyone wants me to go into more detail on Worlds and Monsters I will. Otherwise, I’ll just give a quick overview and wait for 4E to launch before delving in more.
Basically, in my opinion, D&D 4E will include everything useful to a DM who needs tools to make adventures and nothing more. So the Negative Energy plane is modified and the Paraelemental Plain of Salt is gone (both too difficult to adventure in effectively in current editions). The races all live above ground now in points of light in a darkened world. No more modern world looking fantasy maps with neat borders and highly settled farmlands. And each monster has a default mythology to place them in most D&D worlds.
And the art. Two page landscape spreads. Truly amazing.
However, Wizards still doesn’t have a handle on online contents. I’m still said about the current status of Dragon and Dungeon. That hasn’t changed, unfortunately.
If you want more on Worlds and Monsters and 4E just ask. Otherwise, I’ll wait until June if I can wait. Until then…
Keep your Awakened close and your Supernaturals closer, Charlie
