Thursday, July 14, 2011

Paragons of Waterdeep: Moving Worlds


So, my non-gaming life has asserted itself of late, specifically as it pertains to my work. I'm several months into my new job, and my workload is of course increasing all the time as I get the hang of things. So, this of course is putting more of a pinch on my time. And this of course means that something in my life has to give. As is all too often the case, one's hobbies are the sacrificial lambs.

However, this does not mean that my roleplaying days are over, not by a long shot. But, it does mean that I've had to re-evaluate the campaign I started very recently. I had set the campaign in the Dragonlance setting. This had been a long-time dream of mine: to run a game in the world that introduced me to fantasy fiction and Dungeons & Dragons. However, I have very limited resources when it comes to Dragonlance. I only have a couple of books to use for the setting. And there's also the urge in me to do it right. Meaning there's that certain flavor that makes Dragonlance what it is, and with my limited time I can't get that flavor right. I know, I sound like a perfectionist. And I guess I am.

But mostly I just want to run a good game for my Wednesday Night C&C group. So, in thinking about the future of my campaign, I realized that I needed to fall back on a setting with which I am more familiar, and for which I have many more books and other resources.

For me, that fallback world is the continent of Faerun on the world of Toril. I have more familiarity with the Forgotten Realms setting, having run some play-by-email games set in that world over the last couple of years. I've collected a lot of Realms materials in that time. It hit me that, while it would be great to run my long-awaited Dragonlance game, I need to return to the Realms.

But this is not a grudging return. Not at all. I really love the Forgotten Realms setting. I'm very comfortable with it, and I feel that it has a lot of potential. It never fails to inspire me, and I always seem to have good ideas for game sessions.

So, last night after our friend Rich ran his last City State of the Invincible Overlord session for the foreseeable future (he's moving away, unfortunately), I asked the rest of the group if they would bear with me and agree to shifting their characters from Krynn to Toril. They were very open minded and agreed! The good news is that there were only two sessions in the Dragonlance campaign with the current player characters. So there's not going to be much pain in the transition. Just need to do some minor tweaks, set up a new skeleton of back story, and have the cleric pick a new god ;-) I'm letting the characters keep the experience points they earned in the first two sessions, of course.

I have to say that I'm really excited about getting my campaign rolling full steam ahead! I am really looking forward to establishing a long-running game with our great group of players. I've decided to name the campaign Paragons of Waterdeep. Why? Well, only time will tell...

Now, if you'll excuse me,  I'm going back to work and finalizing my plans...

Happy gaming, indeed!

3 comments:

  1. Yes, the Realms was always my favorite setting too, and the wealth of information and depth of the setting is stunning really. So much potential there. I recently started up a table top campaign in Cormyr and we're having a blast with it so far. Good luck to you in your campaign and keep us updated!

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  2. @RW: I will keep an eye on your campaign via the following link:

    http://rwchandler.blogspot.com/search/label/Cormyr%20Campaign

    And I will definitely keep one and all up to date on my blog regarding my campaign.

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  3. I'm telling you - this whole "work" thing sometimes sucks.

    I've been in the some boat lately regarding the imposition of work into my personal life. Hopefully things will balance out again soon.

    Sorry to hear that you had to move away from your "dream" campaign of Dragonlance, but I'm sure you'll be able to get back to it again soon. You're lucky that you're still able to find time to game, and also that you have people to game with, so that you can continue on in the Forgotten Realms.

    Cheers!

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