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"Never say die!"
@Edwin Voskamp's - Current AD&D Game: Freehold
I started playing in a game by Chris Bickford,
who, after a long absence from Game Mastering in general, and GM'ing AD&&D in particular,
decided to run a game again.
Diary and Playing Dates
This is the currently (August 20, 2000) planned set of playing dates
(playing dates in bold),
for changes, email Kevin.
The links lead to Diary Entires that show a blow-by-blow track of what the party went through,
it's more for an overview of what went on, and hasn't been (re)written
in a particular character's tone or from a particular character's
point-of-view:
- September 12, 1999. Graduation Day.
- September 26, 2000. Graduation Day (part 2).
- October 24, 1999. Out of Freehold, The Elven Trading Town (The Dwarf Smith), The Dwarven Trading Town (Assassins Attack) and Onwards To Tara.
- March 12, 2000. Bounty hunting Orcs.
- March 26, 2000. Ambush at the Ford, the Hunters Hunted and The Caravan Attack
- April 16, 2000. Orc Attack At Dawn and Saving the Children
- May 7, 2000. Delivering the Children and into the Ruins of Cork
- May 21, 2000. Dwarf Fishing and Through the Brewery
- June 4, 2000. Getting the Good Stuff and Trading Up
- June 25, 2000. Getting Ready Getting Better and Once more to the Ruins of Cork
- July 9, 2000. Grimlocks and Trolls
- August 6, 2000. Disaster Strikes and Rebuilding Cork
- August 27: Not Scheduled - Lisa, Kevin not available
- September 3: Not Scheduled - Labor Day weekend
- September 10: Scheduled - All Available
- September 17: Not Scheduled - All Available
- September 24: Scheduled - All Available
- October 1: Not Scheduled - Edwin, Linda not available
- October 8: Scheduled - All Available
- October 15: Not Scheduled - All Available
- October 22: Scheduled - All Available
- October 29: Not Scheduled - All Available
Background
We talked a lot about the weirdness in AD&D:
- why is there such a difference between low level characters and high level characters?
- what do high level characters do?
- why do low level characters not run into high level monsters?
- why do they not run into low level monsters once they become high level characters?
- why do high level characters take a subservient role to, effectively low-level, rulers?
The result was the History of the Rise of the Freehold,
a write up of a setting that explains these issues away.
Part of the setting depends upon the particular setting:
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The Party
The current party consists of
a Fighter, a Hill Dwarven Fighter, an Elven cleric, a Half-Elven Ranger-Cleric and a Halfelven Mage.
The Halfelven Mage has her Wardog with her and leads the two donkeys in the party.
Here you can see their portraits, and their current character sheets.
The (later) episodes of the diary have the character sheets as they were at the beginning of that episode.
The Everchanging Territory
An interesting bit on how the characters gain more and more information about the lands they travel:
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The First Map:
The lands as the characters found it as they crossed the mountains that
demarcate the end of Freehold.
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The Second Map:
The lands as the characters understood it after learning a bit more from
Orc maps and characters they ran into, a local who joined their party,
and other bounty hunters and officials in the bounty hunters' camp.
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The Second Map:
The lands as the characters understood it after travelling near
the Orc town: they found hills where they thought there were mountains
and, from another adventuring party from the East, they learned about
the terrains a bit futher out.
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The Current Map:
The lands as the characters understood it after travelling through
Castle Xanth: they bargained with local map maker, trading their
information about the lands West and the Forest to the Orcs for
an updated map of the territories they would be traveling through.
The Everchanging Three-Ring Circus
The party has undergone many changes:
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Straight Out Of Freehold School:
The part started as party of five that was about to take their graduation exam
at the Freehold School:
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Picking up Angus:
Shortly after graduation, higher-ups in the Freehold Guild asked the party
if they would take up the sole survivor of another party that was to be graduated.
They agreed and picked up Angus, a Human Fighter:
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Well-met stranger:
Upon arrival in Tara, they ran into Banba,
a local who had just graduated from a nearby training school for fighters.
She also brought a donkey:
- Lothar, King of the Hill People, a Human Fighter
- Angus, a Human Fighter
- Banba, a Human Fighter, and her donkey
- Zooo, a Dwarven Fighter
- Claire, an Elven Cleric of Labelas Enoreth
- Thalen, a Halfelven Ranger-Cleric of Solonor Thalandira, and his two wardogs Sinann and Sanenn
- Rynna, a Halfelven Mage, her Wardog Thaddeus and a donkey
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Needing more carrying capacity:
When going into the Orc bountyhunting business,
the party quickly found out how much Orc heads and their equipment weights.
They bought a third donkey to haul their haul:
- Lothar, King of the Hill People, a Human Fighter
- Angus, a Human Fighter
- Banba, a Human Fighter
- Zooo, a Dwarven Fighter
- Claire, an Elven Cleric of Labelas Enoreth
- Thalen, a Halfelven Ranger-Cleric of Solonor Thalandira, his two wardogs Sinann and Sanenn and a donkey
- Rynna, a Halfelven Mage, her Wardog Thaddeus and a donkey
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Followers of Reputation, or A Three-Ring Circus:
After several expeditions from Castle Xanth into The Ruins of Cork,
the party developed quite a reputation and took on three local noblesons:
Edward, Menann and Finnegan.
They quickly took a shine to the women in the party,
Edward and Finnegan hanging around Rynna, Menann hanging around Claire:
- Lothar, King of the Hill People, a Human Fighter
- Angus, a Human Fighter
- Banba, a Human Fighter
- Zooo, a Dwarven Fighter
- Claire, an Elven Cleric of Labelas Enoreth
- Thalen, a Halfelven Ranger-Cleric of Solonor Thalandira, his two wardogs Sinann and Sanenn and a donkey
- Rynna, a Halfelven Mage, her Wardog Thaddeus and a donkey
- Edward, a Human Fighter
- Menann, a Human Fighter
- Finnegan, a Human Fighter
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Struck down by disaster:
In a disastrous run at The Ruins of Cork the part was cut down
by six Trolls.
The Trolls killed Lothar, Angus, Edward, Menann and Finnegan,
Thalen's Wardogs Sinann and Sanenn and his donkey:
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I attended a bullwhip handling seminar given by Gery L. Deer in Ann Arbor, organised by a friend of mine who had seen Gery perform at a local Science Fiction convention. Since I have practiced diligently and acquired two more whips: it is boatloads of fun!
I have been running my new game settings, based on my serial campaign concept,
as well as have complete websites: ShadowWorld Mainline, ShadowWorld WWII and Grand Design.
I am working on a new current day ShadowWorld setting, with a new, entirely different cosmology.
More ...
Underworld, though laying claim to prior use,
was renamed to ShadowWorld in the summer of 2002,
to avoid confusion with earlier published role playing games with same or similar names.
It was moved to its own website.
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