I'm excited

 I haven't ran a game in a good while.  I had a monthly 5e game going for a bit.  However that was derailed when my Dad moved in with us unexpectedly.

I was chatting with the guys on our Google hangouts thread and I suggested that I really want to run a game for them at some point.

This lead to the idea of each of us taking a turn once a month and running a game.  Rotating GMs!

I've decided to run a Holmes game, as I received a copy from my friend Jeff and have been itching to play it.

I read thru the sample dungeon and I may run that.  Alternatively I'm on vacation and may be able to create something.

Either way it should be fun!

I think this will be a hangouts game, no roll20 or maps.

Random places on dark world

 1.  An ancient magical portal that transports you to an elegant throne room.

2.  The outskirts of a ruined city, infested with bandits and slimey monsters.

3.  A lookout tower that allows a 360 view of the surrounding countryside.

4.  A marble chess board that is lifesize missing it's pieces.

5.  A small fen filled with greenish glowing water.

6.  A wasteland of rusted metal mounds piled high.

7.  A repository of information.  A small cubicle that will spit out a prophecy on parchment.

8.  A vacant marauders camp, their bones are piled on a former pyre.

9.  A field of low growing mushrooms, guarded by mutant dogs.

10.  Cracked earth, a cliff overlooks a deep hole leading underground.

11.  A small village being rebuilt.

12.   A purple Haze choked grassland.

More to come.  

Don't suggest it

Too often I here people say they are

Starting a campaign as a player

Or 

Creating a campaign as a DM.

This wording puts a lot of pressure on people.  Especially when you are first starting.  I myself have had this is issue numerous times.  Some anxiety seeps in and I spend way to much time over thinking it.

Your are playing an adventure or running one.  Maybe it will continue... maybe it won't, maybe it will restart.

I think the best thing you can do is play games with friends and see what happens.  Stop worrying about an end goal.

 I'm going to be running "horror on the hill" soon using whitebox fmag with some friends.

Why I love rules light games when playing online

I tried Shadowdark RPG for the first time this evening and throughly enjoyed it.  I should likely preface this statement by stating the following: 

• I had to take a brief break from the ongoing OSE campaign (which ended up at 30+ sessions)
• It's in the exact same world at the same time as the OSE campaign. 
• The OSE campaign was wildly fun but also fairly serious at times.  
• Trying a new game is a great restart for everyone.
• Hanging out with all my friends is making my heart so happy.  I honestly needed a laugh with everything that has been going on latetly. 

The nice thing about playing easy to run D&D like games online is you get to the meat and potatoes of gaming.  We start laughing and roleplaying and not worrying about any tactical, min maxing silliness.  

When you only have a couple of hours to play (Which BTW I absolutely adore...more on that later) its nice to just be able to jump into a game.  I rolled up my character in all of 5 minutes.

Honestly that's all I got.  Much like whitebox or holmes, I really enjoy just jumping and going and not getting dragged down with any extra sheets on my character sheet.  

I have to say Shadowdark is the best of a lot of the great OSR ideas that have come along over the years.  There's a bit of everything in there.  Definitely try it out. 

Dark world

While I'm still working on my greyhawk saltmarsh campaign, I did have an idea the other night for a different campaign.

I recently got the fifth edition monster manual and as I was flipping through it I found the death knight entry.  That's a monster I've always wanted to use.  More so than a lich, dragon or tarasque.

I really need to create my own setting this time around.  Saltmarsh is cool and all.

During a time of troubles the world started to spin slower.  It came about because of a magical apocalyptic event.  Because of this the world gets 18 hours of darkness.

Flora and Fauna are different than they used to be.  Things grow in the dark and the muck.

The dark races came upon the land from underground as the daylight races subsided into decay and death.  The dark races did not keep to themselves but formed communities.  They are not as evil as they once were.  Unfortunately some of the vile monsters from the underworld followed them.

A long time ago there was a great war.  A Paladin was on one side, but made a deal to save his friends.  When he did he switched sides.  A castle was under siege by the Knights former battalion, which included his sister.  In the chaos he killed her and became a death knight at that instant.

The death knight has been killed and rose many times.

I'm modeling him after cobra commander and skeletor.

Because the world of men fell, there are lots of ruins to explore and magic residing in the world.

An alien race has started to inhabit the planet, they are warlike and hungry for a new world to conquer.

This is what I have so far.

Completed my collection

 Even though I said I wouldn't play 5e I did.  I've enjoyed dming it, I've enjoyed playing basic characters.  I'm currently running a game and plotting a campaign that will require a lot of homebrewing and adventures.

I bought the monster manual today, which completes my collection. I need a shelf for this stuff now.

Don't get me wrong I'm still playing osr games, got one every Tuesday.

I doubt I will purchase anything else from wotc after all the bs.  But stranger things have happened.  

I don't want to play the new edition they are coming out with.  I'm perfectly happy with the books I have.

Next new session I run is going to be advanced fighting Fantasy.

Working on a campaign and house rules

After my new group finishes up lmop I am going to run saltmarsh.

I've been slowly working on some house rules, a campaign overview document etc.

For the campaign the first thing I'm going to tell the players is it's going to be a slow burn.  The intention will be to retire at level 10.  Alot of newer modules are a race to level 20.  I'm not a fan.  I like getting really good at playing at second level before moving up.

I'm hoping to only use the essentials rules for character creation, leaving out all the phb options that don't belong in greyhawk.

For the actual campaign I'll start with the first adventure and then hopefully pepper in some stuff from iceapire peak and possibly witch light.

Probably going to be the first time I have a real session 0.  Which is exciting.

Today after grocery shopping and skating I have to start going thru the book and making a document for the monsters as there are no stats really in saltmarsh.

Oh and I've got idea for a magic sword, the black crazor, formerly owned by a pirate.