Analysis of a TPK

OK, technically it wasn’t a true TPK since one of the characters got away. So I think I can still say with a straight face that I’ve never had a TPK. But to the extent that it wasted a ton of the players’ character development efforts, and a lot of my campaign planning, it was pretty much a TPK. A campaign reset. This is kind of a big deal – it’s not fun for anybody, it wastes a lot of work, and may be reflective of a problem. It’s especially alarming since another character was killed a couple sessions previously (to be fair, that one was just a random crit from a BBEG for a truck-load of damage). So I thought I’d take a little bit of time to understand it.

The background:
The group consists of a bunch of guys who haven’t played an RPG in 1 or more decades, much less 4e D&D. Mortgages, wives, babies, careers, graying hair, the works (I’m the odd guy out – a regular gamer for years, no mortgage, no baby, no gray, and I don’t think you can call freelancing a career. Thank god I’m married though.). We sit around, grill, laugh, drink and game. Their characters are all level 2 and consist of a Fighter, Cleric, dual-wield Ranger, Wizard, and Warlock.

I’m running the players through the Keep on the Shadowfell module and the players get to the kobold lair (spoiler alert, don’t read on if you are planning to play). In the module, the party runs into a large cluster of Kobolds outside the lair, and presumably one of them escapes into the lair to sound the alarm. The party sends its stealthier members forward to spring an ambush on the unsuspecting kobolds, but unfortunately this goes awry as Tostig the Fighter slips on loose rocks near the creek-bed. The party sprigs into action and begins to slaughter the poor kobolds.

I think I play the kobolds as being pretty smart and cunning. They fall back and take cover leaving the PC’s long-range attacks without good targets. They dart out, hurl javelins, and then shift back into cover. Some kobolds start sneaking around the flanks. When the PCs get strung out of formation, they rush forward and mob a single character to maximize their mob attack bonuses, combat advantage bonuses, sneak attacks, and concentrated damage. But ultimately, the characters are Heroes and the kobolds are, well... kobolds. They get mowed down. But the Kobold Slinger gets away to raise the alarm. The party splits up to gather thrown weapons, search for loot, etc.

Red Flag #1: when the kobolds mobbed Tostig, they did a large amount of damage – managing to bloody him. This should have alerted both the players and myself that “Hey! Being surrounded by kobolds just might get you killed!” But other than that one incident, quickly rectified, the kobolds weren’t really a threat.

Red Flag #2: drinking. I definitely enjoy having beers while we game and so do the players. But I do wonder if that clouds our judgment too much and we miss important cues like the above.

Red Flag #3: metagaming. Everyone has now played about a half-dozen sessions of 4e D&D and has come to expect the post-battle recharge – regain all your encounter powers, heal HP, etc. They feel comfortable with splitting up and letting their guard down. What the players don’t know is that when the Slinger ran away, that started a countdown to reinforcements. They aren’t going to get a complete rest and they squandered some encounter powers in the first part of the battle.

A couple rounds later, the first wave of reinforcements comes streaming out of the cave. OK, those of you who have read the module know that I’ve deviated a little from the script. Mid-way through the battle I went back and reread the encounter description. Somehow I ended up with the impression that if one of the kobolds got away to raise the alarm, the kobold reinforcements came outside in two waves. Otherwise, the two waves were encountered inside. Oops. In the module the party is supposed to be able to rest after taking care of the kobolds outside. However, because the party was still kicking ass and taking names, albeit strange hissing- and yipping-sounding kobold names, I didn’t worry about it too much. And the party was already level 2 due to some earlier adventures and the module is intended for level 1 characters. In my head, I decided to weaken Irontooth a bit (those 100+ HP BBEG just get boring to fight after a while anyway) to balance it out.

DM Mistake #1: the first real outright mistake was not giving the PCs a rest between waves. Even with the party being level 2, they just didn’t have enough powers to wade through that many foes.

So, the first kobold wave comes streaming out of the cave. They split up, half engage the PCs directly, the other half move off a ways to hurl javelins at exposed targets. The party is caught out of formation and the kobolds gun for the “squishies” like the Wizard and the Warlock. Thankfully the players are able to get out OK and get the Fighter, Ranger, and Cleric up front. A back-and-forth melee ensues where the players continually cut down the kobolds. The players were continually mobbed by the concentrated attacks of the kobolds, and took a lot of damage, but nobody went down. So the second wave started off a little sketchy but the players rebounded.

When there were a handful of the wave two kobolds left, wave three arrived. At this point, the players were all still above bloodied and handling the encounter fine so I still wasn’t worried (in fact, I was vocally rooting for the kobolds because they were getting annihilated). But the situation went bad really, really quick. The party still hadn’t found a way to restrict the kobold movement. When possible, I had them avoid the axe-wielding armored horror that was Tostig the Fighter, and instead attack the weaker party members. The Wizard strayed too close and got sacked by a mob of kobolds – down he went. The Warlock was mobbed and dropped right after. A couple attempts to heal the fallen members were considered, but the party came to the conclusion that they’d just get immediately killed again, so the healing was reserved for those who were still standing. It was a moot point since the kobolds were finally able to completely surround Tostig and with the massive mob bonuses and concentrated damage, whittle him down. That left the Cleric and the Ranger who attempted to run. The heavily armored Cleric didn’t make it. Surprisingly, Irontooth took so long to wade into the fight that he had almost no impact – he only landed one solid hit.

DM Mistake #2: I don’t yet know 4e well enough to know when the players are in trouble before it’s too late. It’s easy to know the party is in trouble when half of them are bloodied or dead. A good DM knows this is going to happen several rounds in advance, and can take action accordingly (even if it’s only to remind the players that they can attempt to run away).

PC Mistake #1: never let cunning foes get at your squishies. They know this from nearly having lost the Wizard once before. There are a couple chokepoints on the map that the players never tried to occupy that could have limited kobold movement.

PC Mistake #2: party composition. I got the impression that the party had very little battlefield control. There was only one Defender, so the front line wasn’t very “sticky”. Both the Wizard and the Cleric focused more on direct damage powers than they did on control or healing powers. And only one of the characters was a truly melee character, with decent AC and HP. The Wizard and Warlock were of course ranged attackers, the Cleric was OK in melee but had better ranged powers, and while the Ranger had the AC and HP to support a more “front-line” role he preferred hit and run tactics. So this created two major issues: the kobolds could get at the more vulnerable party members fairly easily, and the single melee character was simply overwhelmed without support.

PC Mistake #3: maximizing short-term damage over concentrated fire. This may not be an entirely accurate recollection, but I swear I saw the party members repeatedly choose to make attacks that dealt the most damage to different foes, rather than concentrate fire on a single target till they drop. For example, I believe the Ranger and the Warlock repeatedly attacked targets that were closest to them so they could get the extra damage, rather than attacking the more distant kobold that Tostig had hit. Likewise, on a significant round the Wizard opted to do an AOE attack on a cluster of kobolds, which certainly was a nice amount of damage, it would have been better to pick off some of the wounded ones already engaged in melee. On any given round, the 5 players would seemingly attack 3 different targets.


In summary, I think I made a big mistake, but it was exacerbated by the fact that the players are still learning how to play 4e. They don’t yet have good tactics and party synergy. Interestingly, none of us had much warning that the encounter was going to go so bad – it happened very suddenly. The party went from slaughtering the kobolds to getting slaughtered in the course of two rounds. I think it was a combination of decent rolls and the party running out of steam (encounter/daily powers). Because it happened so fast, the party didn’t even know they were in trouble until it was too late.

I hope you find this review useful. Take the time to review your games, especially when they go wrong. I learned a lot by examining this. As a DM or a player, you will make mistakes. Learn from them.

H1: Kobold Hall Treasure

It's Treasure Time! Below is a list of all the treasure you've recovered from the Kobold Hall. This does not include any rewards that you might earn when you go back to Fallcrest. The party consists of mature, honorable, goblinoids so I'm sure you can figure out some equitable method for distribution...

On second thought, let me make a recommendation. First divide up any magic or special items that anyone wants to keep. Take any remaining items and sell them, and divide all the cash evenly, with an extra share set aside for "party necessities" (healing potions, bags of holding, sunrods and other gear that benefits the whole party).

Also, you should figure out if you send Brickabrack's share back to any friends/dependents in Sharn, or if you keep it.


In total, the party has recovered the following loot:

Standard Treasure

Coins:
After counting up all the coinage found on various kobold bodies and in the dragon’s chest, the party has a hefty haul. Assuming it costs around 6sp a day to live decently in the lower levels of Sharn, this is a small fortune. The coins are mostly silver and copper, with a smattering of gold. There are even two coins made of a strange metal. Only after a minute do you realize these must be Brelish Crowns – platinum pieces! The majority of coins are from Breland, though there are many from Aundair, and a few from the other nations.

210gp

Gems:
Among the prizes are an oval-cut ruby, two round cut garnets, and a shiny pearl. Gemstones are often used as currency, but their very small size and the type of cuts suggest they were intended for jewelry.

50gp ruby
25gp garnet
25gp garnet
20gp pearl

Magic Items
The kobold chieftain wielded a large staff to deadly effect. Any character with a decent Arcana skill can determine that this staff writhes with violent magical energies that a skilled user may channel. The staff was clearly built by the kobolds – the shaft is carved into a single, serpentine shape, culminating in a dragon’s head with a deep red crystal clamped in its maw. Several 2-inch diameter plates made of copper and iron hang from the staff and have runes stamped on them – the hobgoblin witch Lu’uraleen recognizes these runes as the draconic symbols for several constellations named after mythical dragon-gods. Various animal skulls, teeth, and feathers complete the staff’s appearance. Unfortunately, another Arcana check determines that these items are an integral part of the staff’s magic and you’d be reluctant to remove them. The bearer of this staff will be wielding a very feral-looking staff.

+1 Staff of the War Mage (level 3 item)
Enhancement: +1 attacks and damage using this staff.
Critical: Adds +1d8 damage to any critical hit.
Implement (Staff) – a wizard may add the +1 attack and damage bonus, and potentially the critical hit bonus, to any power with the Implement descriptor.
Power (Daily): Free action. Use this power when using a power that has a blast or burst effect. Increase the size of that blast or burst by 1. (Note that any wielder may use this power, the implement descriptor is not required).

In the dragon’s treasure chest you found a sheathed longsword. The pommel and hilt are shaped like wickedly curved fangs and the grip wrapped in a deep, dark red leather. Drawing the sword from its sheath revealed jagged runes etched in the blade, and a large deep blood groove running down the center. Intriguingly, the blood groove runs all the way to the hilt where a hole has been bored into the pommel. Scrutinizing the magical aura, you ascertain necromantic spells at work. A successful Religion check reveals the sword’s runes contain references to the Blood of Vol, a religion that is found throughout Khorvaire, but most predominantly in Karrnath and Droaam. Vol is not a unified religion, but consists of numerous regional cults and orders throughout the land. The unifying doctrine is simple: that the faithful can escape the gray purgatory of the afterlife by self-examination, self-improvement, and achieving the enlightenment known as the Divinity Within. Only creatures with blood truly have souls, and blood plays a prominent role in their rituals and liturgy. The cult has strong ties to necromancy and is believed to have greatly aided the creation of the Karrnathi undead legions.

+1 Lifedrinker Longsword (level 5 item)
Enhancement: +1 to attacks and damage using this sword
Critical: adds +1d6 necrotic damage to a critical hit
Property: when you drop an enemy to 0 or fewer HP with a melee attack using this weapon, gain 5 temporary hit points.

Lastly, mounted on stalagmite was a gleaming white sphere. It radiates freezing cold and was clearly intended to make the white dragon’s lair more comfortable. Based on the Transportation Guild mark at the base of the orb, you reckon this must be a Chillstone, used to preserve perishable foodstuffs during transport. Any character who bears this item will be miserably cold regardless of the number of layers they wear.

Chillstone (level 2 item)
Property: over the course of a day, this item will chill a 40’x40’x40’ room to just below freezing. Larger rooms or uninsulated areas will be cooled but not to freezing.

Miscellaneous

The key that unlocked the door from the kobold chieftain’s throne room to the dragon’s lair was made of silver. It can be kept or else easily melted down.

1sp Silver key to area 5 of Kobold Hall

The players also found a tradebar stamped with the seal of the Banking Guild. While House Kundarak (the clan of Dragonmarked dwarves who run the Banking Guild) rarely manufactures tradebars anymore, some are still in circulation. In present times, most merchants would simply carry a House Sivis-magemarked letter of credit from the Banking Guild than lug around a heavy gold brick.

50gp gold tradebar

In the dragon’s chest was a thick roll of blue dragon hide. Dragon hide is an exceedingly rare item – not only must a dragon be slain, but it must be done in such a way that the hide is minimally damaged, and it takes a skilled tanner to cut and treat the hide. Dragon hide armor is not innately superior to any other scale armor, though certain enchantments favor them, and it is highly valued as a prestige item. To the right buyer, it would be worth a pretty coin.

Blue dragon hide bolt - 40gp (up to 200gp to the right buyer)

The players discover in the dragon’s treasure chest a mysterious letter written in Draconic.

The letter will be detailed in a later post.

Finally, the party has found one of Glipkerio’s missing chests. Based on the letter, it would seem that the contents consist of Dragon’s Fury – a potent narcotic that, when properly brewed and imbibed, is a potent and addictive stimulant that increases belligerency and suppresses fear. While illegal, it’s known that many soldiers during the Last War made use of it, often with the tacit encouragement of their officers, and became addicted. Fulfilling that addiction is now a very profitable black market industry, and the cause of a great deal of violence and pain.

Dragon's Fury: Until the end of the encounter, gain +5 temporary hit points and +5 defense against attacks with the Fear keyword. The user is hyper, belligerent, and irritable until the user completes a long rest (DM may assign a -2 penalty to some skills). In addition, the drug makes a +8 attack vs Will to cause addiction (+2 per additional use per day, and +2 per consecutive day of use).

H1: Miniatures Challenge!

So at our last game, M. expressed some disappointment at my use of a large displacer beast miniature for a young white dragon, of spear-armed kobolds representing sling-armed kobolds, etc. He offered to buy me the minis if I sent him the list, because mismatched minis were confusing.

To be fair, that probably has more to do with the bottle of scotch and cooler of beer that vanished over the course of the game. But he does have a point, it would be nice if I had reasonably appropriate miniatures. I can't take him up on the offer to buy me the minis because a) I can afford them and b) it would ruin the surprise of the upcoming encounters!

So I am hereby declaring a self-imposed miniatures challenge: I will no longer bring food/drink/money to the game but instead will buy all the miniatures, and make them as accurate as reasonably possible. Even though I'm not overly fond of the look of pre-painted plastics, I'll probably rely heavily on them since they transport well and don't require hours of painting.

I'll post the shopping list and conversion guide for each encounter after the players have been through it.

H1: Introduction

This was the email I sent prior to our first session to set the game tone. In the actual game, each character had their own very similar conversation with Glipkerio. Nikkit is a goblin NPC that I had made up as a placeholder until the players sent me their characters. Gwarfank has pretty much taken his place in the storyline.

Glipkerio dismissively waves his corpulent, greasy hand over the tray of sweetmeats, indicating you may eat them. Clearly, this man understands that a goblin cannot concentrate on business matters when there is potentially free food about. With cautious sidelong glances at the menacing enforcers who flank you, you grab the plate and noisily clean it. "Good, eh Nikkit? Enjoy it, I think it will be nothing but hardtack and jerky for you for a while eh? See Nikkit – something has happened to one of our shipments up north and we need to find out what. But I can't send my men, oh no nonono. It can't be someone that Ool Yesugai would know. That would make him worry, eh? Better this way then."

Glipkerio leans forward and his waxen, sweaty face glistens in the light of the smoky brazier. "But you, Nikkit, no one knows you eh? Nikkit's clean – a hard gobbo to be sure eh, but he watches out for his own and keeps clear." He then smiles. "But I know you turned One Tooth Fik's list, eh? Did you make good coin on that, Nikkit? No? That's too bad. You embarrassed a lot of people, made them angry. I'd have hoped it would have been worth it."

"But I can make things alright with Fik and his pervs, Nikkit. I hear you've moved your bed beneath the floorboards, eh! Poor Nikkit. You'll be able to sleep again, no dagger beneath your pillow. Poor Nikkit. Do this little thing for me and you'll be Nikkit the Clean again, eh?"

Poor Nikkit, indeed. You thread your way through the dark alleys of Sharn, flat bare feet slapping the wet cobblestones, making your way to the Eel Gate to meet Glipkerio the Merchant's fixers. Glipkerio the Fat. Glipkerio the Greedy. Glipkerio the underboss of the Stink District whose swollen fingers try to touch every coin, every ballot, and every person that passes within his turf. You always were a goblin known for a sharp wit and a sharper dagger, always kept your nose clean and did right. Well, mostly. Exceptional for a goblin, really. But the dirt and the filth and evil of Sharn still closes in around you.

H1: Characters - Gwarfank

Gwarfank the goblin wizard is played by A. Nobody really knows much about him (not even me, the DM!) other than he seems to be a bit of a loose cannon. He seems to have been caught up in Glipkerio's machinations, though he doesn't seem to be too upset about it. Brickabrack accompanies him almost everywhere. Even though Brickabrack is something of his apprentice, and Brickabrack has managed to grasp Gwarfank's rambling magical theories enough to craft a wand of magic missiles. This has surprised the hell out of both of them.

H1: Characters - Brickabrack

P made an interesting character - an illegal warforged who appears to have been created by someone who didn't quite have the process down. He looks very steampunk & primitive for a warforged, and appears to have mismatched and salvaged parts. He was smuggled into Sharn via a cargo shipment but for some reason was never claimed. He was eventually discovered by Sharn goblins and his since lived among them in the slums. He thinks like a goblin, talks like one, isn't much bigger than one, and sometimes forgets he isn't one. The character is something of a self-taught Artificer (rogue with the wizard multiclass feat) - a tinkerer and dabbler in magic.

Brickabrack gets involved in the story through his mentor, Gwarfank - where he goes, Brickabrack follows.

H1: Characters - Tostig Al-Briarwood

M's character is a hulking male Bugbear fighter. Tostig Al-Briarwood was hired from Darguun as a merc, and he stayed on in Sharn after his contract. He acts as an enforcer and sends what little extra money he has back to his family. Tostig falls into that civilized barbarian archetype, he grew up on stories of the glorious goblinoid empire of Dhakaan and longs for the return of goblin civilization. At the same time, he's frustrated with his kin for their incessant in-fighting, slave-raiding, and other "barbaric" habits. He frequently finds himself falling back on those tendencies but tries to catch himself.

M has gone through several attempts at drawing Tostig, staying away from the classic D&D bugbear iconography.

v1: Adorable

v2: "beary" cool


v3: the cleaver is a nice touch.

H1: Characters - Repko

G is playing Repko, a goblin cleric of Kol Korran, the deity of trade and wealth, revered by merchants, traders, and thieves. G's concept is something along the lines of a cleric who acts as a witness and middleman to black market transactions. As a cleric with martial training, he probably also acts as something of an enforcer of deals. I really like this idea - in a shady underworld where no one can be trusted, a neutral priest with a high Insight skill, much less the Discern Lies ritual, becomes a valued person. I am going to integrate this nuance into the Kol Korran faith.

Repko's hook is that he was an officiant to a smuggling deal, and that deal has apparently fallen through. Glipkerio is paying Repko's order to investigate what went wrong and possibly enforce the terms of collection.

H1: Characters - Lu'urlene

Lu'urleen Lu'urlene* is H.'s character, a female hobgoblin Warlock (Star Pact). The character's background isn't completely pinned down, but here's what I have:

You are of a long line of dirgesingers who closely follow the Draconic Prophecy (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041227a). Indeed it is the very study of the celestial ring of Siberys that you draw your power from. Something in the Prophecy drew you to Sharn to seek clarification on the omens, vague as they are (make up what you wish). Your witch-peers know of your mission and you should secretly send them updates, while they will do likewise for you.

As a dirgesinger, you are highly respected among the goblinoid expatriates in Sharn. Individuals started to come to you to read their omens. At first it was simple readings for common folk like "Is now an auspicious time to conceive a child?" or "Does Dragnat Stink-Eye love me?". You had cast the bones for these sorts of omen readings many times before, and you were very good at it. As your reputation grew, more came to you for readings, some with bigger questions. One day, a fat human by the name of Glipkerio came to you, asking for guidance on a very large bet he was going to make. 1000 gold on The Hawk in the Race of the Eight Winds (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041220a). More gold than you had ever seen, and he offered you a large percent. You knew something of this human's unpleasant reputation, but the bones were so clear and the gold glinting so bright that you did not hesitate to declare the victory assured...

Lu'urleen's Lu'urlene's hook into the story arc will be she desperately needs to pay back Glipkerio.

*The name is an inside joke. One night we were walking home from M's old place after having too much scotch. My wife was on the verge of hurling but wanted to get home first. Since the streets are numbered in our neighborhood, as long as she knew what street we were on, she could figure out how much farther we had to go, and could hold it in. But for some reason, at one particular intersection, 14th Ave is instead called Lurline Ave. As soon as my wife looked up at the street sign and plaintively said "Lurline...? Where the hell is Lurline?" she lost it...

H1: Game Theme

The DM's reward for gaming is very different from the players' rewards. In a way, the DM gets shafted - it's a lot more work, and I don't get to go up in levels, or defeat opponents, or root for my team in the face of terrible odds. But what I do get is to create an interesting world. So as my prerogative, I always impose one rule at the start of the game: the game needs a theme and the characters have to fit tightly within it. This really gives me something to work with. It gives me the inspiration and framework to take premade purchased modules and tailor them to the group. It gives ideas for quests, villains, and mood. So I sent out this email:

Depending on how much roleplaying vs. rollplaying you wish to do, having a more cohesive theme than "A fighter, a cleric, a thief, and a wizard walk into a tavern..." can be fun. If you have any ideas for giving the group a reason to be together, such as:

• you are all in the employ of an agency or ruler
• everyone has the same class or at least has multiclassed a little bit into a class (one of my best campaigns was when the PCs were members of a secret order of arcanists seeking forgotten lore in an empire where magic was illegal, everyone had at least one level of wizard. A party can be remarkably clever and inventive when they have 20+ spells per day among them!)
• the party consists of basically good but still pretty shady heroes in the vein of Han Solo/Conan/Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, etc. who are always looking for the "big score" but always manage to piss away their treasure in binges of various excesses
• the setting has a particular "feel" (e.g. exotic Arabia or Asia, pirates & buccaneers, mega-city like Grayhawk or Waterdeep)
• the party consists of ex-pats who have been displaced and have banded together as unlikely comrades (e.g. the dwarf whose homeland has been overrun by orcs, the half-elf banished from the elf kingdom, the halfling who has served in prison and can't ever get back into "proper" society due to stigma, and the spellcaster whose future in the Order was sabotaged by a rival).

then speak up, it makes my job more fun if I have a theme or context to work with and it'll help folks decide what character they want to make.

I got back some interesting responses, but the one that really resonated with me was M's:

ok - I have a proposal for our party - came out of H. going to mexico

The party are dirt farmers from semi-tropical area, driven from the fertile valley floor by large ranchers. We leave our families to cross the border - promising to messenger money back from our menial labor jobs in a richer nation. Once we get there we decide short order cooking sucks and so does construction - we're forming a gang of alien cousins to make money by illegal short cuts, looting tombs, selling outlaw services and commodities, protection rackets - whatever works.

From our background we are more or less acquainted with poison darts and blowguns, clubs with sharks teeth embedded in them and obsidian knives. Maybe some forest herbalism or primitive magic (more primitive than the fancy magic in this new country).

Unfortunately we look like immigrant labor and cant go to the best places in town - but then we have no social roots here and hardly view the people around us as people, so morally our hands are "less tied". I'm not married to this idea - so if you hate it say so now, before we cross the Rio Grande....

We had an interesting discussion about how much to draw on the real world for inspiration and when does analogy cross into racism. Didn't see that coming from a request for a party concept... But I really liked the core idea - I really like reading history and following current events and the opportunity to creatively weave them into the game. It also had jogged my memory about Eberron. I vaguely recall being amused about goblins and illegal immigration in Eberron. While I've completely dropped any reference to Mexico or anything like that, there's no direct analogy here, playing out some of the experiences of an immigrant underclass is a really interesting D&D premise. I did a bit more research and we settled on the party being Goblinoid immigrants from Darguun living in the shady lower levels of Sharn who reluctantly get caught up in the underworld.

Inspirations

Links:
Goblin Uprising Dragonshard
Heirs of Dhakaan Dragonshard

Books:

Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm - Eberron hints at the plague of unemployed soldiers and rise of banditry. I wanted to play this up, along with non-human banditry, and integrate more of the "dark world with a few points of light" feel that core 4th ed. contains. OK book, a bit dry, but very illuminating.

Boss Ruef's San Francisco, Walton Bean - I was curious what old school "Boss" politics was like and whether I wanted to integrate it into the setting. I think in my mind it will be, especially in a place like Breland that is limping towards democracy, but only in the background. I don't think I'll use this material in the game, but it's still an interesting read.

Merchant of Death, Douglas Farah & Stephen Braun - it's the only book I own that really touches on how transnational smuggling (arms trading, in this case) works. I can't say I own many books on the black market. How does all that contraband (Sharn, pg 160) get into Breland? What about the barrels of blood shipped around the continent by the Blood of Vol? This gave me some ideas.

In the end, this is the final "game theme" email I sent out:

So I’ve really come to like the idea of characters from an underclass who escape their bonds of poverty and alienation to become heroes. As P astutely noted this is not a cogent metaphor or commentary on current events. Certainly some contemporary or historical themes will make their way into the game – things like organizations that both prey upon and create community for immigrants (e.g. the Chinese Tongs from San Francisco’s history in the late 1800s, Irish-American gangs in New York during the early and mid-1800s, and even contemporary criminal organizations that fulfill similar roles today). These are fascinating and rich concepts for gaming, but let’s be tasteful about it.

The Vibe

The characters should be basically good – at worst they are benign scoundrels in the Han Solo or Fafhrd & Gray Mouser line of heroes. By dint of race and class, the characters begin the game in the seedy metropolis of Sharn. For whatever reason you are reluctantly tied to the criminal world that both protects and preys on your kind. Feel free to rationalize your relationship to the underworld however you see fit, just keep me posted on your thoughts. Some ideas that you may like are:

• You owe human traffickers a lot of money because they smuggled you and/or your family into Sharn. You’re desperate for a “job” – one with a big payoff.
• You needed money and did a minor thing to make ends meet. But now you find yourself caught up in things bigger than you intended.
• You’re an enforcer. Muscle for hire. You don’t really think about what you’re doing – you just follow the coin.
• You work for someone else – you’re a spy or an informer, or maybe even a freelance information broker in your own right. Every contact you make, every favor you bank, every face you see is valuable to someone.

The game will begin with a local boss sending you on a mission to find out what happened to a missing shipment. Please figure out how your character gets involved with this hook. This feeling of being tied to the underworld will recur throughout the early levels, the eventually you can outgrow it.

Character Races & Classes

The players should all be from the kingdom of Darguun. Darguun is a goblinoid kingdom fairly near to the human kingdom of Breland (and the continent’s major metropolis – Sharn). Playable races are Bugbears, Goblins, and Hobgoblins. Darguun is well-known for hiring out mercenaries (primarily hobgoblins and bugbears). Much like the ancient Romans had Germanic bodyguards, it is often a point of pride (and forethought) for merchants and nobility to have Darguun mercenaries. Sometimes the mercenaries stay on past their contracts as illegal freelancers. This would be a great hook for some characters. It should also be noted that rulers of Darguun secretly use these mercenaries as spies and informants.

Goblins are scattered about the continent as an unskilled and semiskilled labor pool. Contingents of laborers are frequently contracted out of Darguun. Many have settled outside of Darguun, often illegally, and an especially large population lives in Sharn. Many goblins attempt to flee Darguun to make a better life in Sharn and elsewhere – “goblin traffickers” both aid and exploit this need. These are great hooks for goblin characters.

Players are not limited to these three races if they can come up with another elegant way to integrate themselves into the storyline. It would be my preference for an all-Darguun party, but my job isn’t to limit peoples’ imaginations and I’ll be happy to work with you.

Any classes are allowed, although the goblinoid races and the game vibe really favor a subset of them (fighter, rogue, warlock, and warlord)

A long post, but hopefully there's something interesting or useful in there for you.

H1: Keep on the Shadowfell

I am going to give 4th ed D&D a shot - reading the rules, there's a lot I do like and a lot that I don't. But what the heck, might as well try it. And the best part is, it's with a new group of players who are all 30-somethings with some combination of mortgages, kids, careers, and drinking problems. They haven't played D&D since they were kids (1st ed AD&D!) and are super-excited.

It all started with a BBQ at M.'s, where I was outed as a D&D nerd and everyone made jokes at my expense. Then over the course of the afternoon it became apparent that almost every guy there had played D&D and in fact rather missed it. Conversation turns to the passing of Gary Gygax and next thing you know we're planning a campaign for old-time's sake. Here's the kick-off email:

So was it the booze talking? Perhaps it was the realization of one's own mortality and passing of innocence with the recent death of a childhood hero? Or maybe expressing a growing frustration with the moral ambiguity of a complex world and a need to return to a time when everything could be neatly plotted on law <-> chaos / good <-> evil axes? But I swore I heard you guys actually say you wanted to play D&D again.

The Keep on the Shadowfell module looks interesting, though I'll probably start with the mini-adventure in the back of the DMG, just so everyone (myself included) gets experience with the rules before the real deal.

I'm also going to attempt for the second time to make use of this blog. I've removed most of the old posts to get a clean start. The goal of the blog is to get stuff out of my email, make it easier for the players to find information, and perhaps even share useful hobbyist info with others. Maybe it'll kick me into painting miniatures again too. But the real reason I'm restarting the blog is the name "Bigby's Blogging Fist" is too awesome to be squandered on a dead blog.