![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mar. 24th, 2005
Forgotten Realms
Mar. 24th, 2005 03:33 pmSo I've been going thru my paperbacks, and rereading some of the ones that have just been sitting around collecting dust. One's that survive my occasional culls to the giveaway pile, but that I still just don't read. A lot of which is shared world/tie in stuff. You know, Star Wars, D&D and what not. Right now its a pair of FR books by Mark Anthony; "Crypt of the Shadowking" and its sequel "Curse of the Shadowmage".
And they both remind me that I used to LIKE the Realms. I mean nowadays the Forgotten Realms exemplify everything I hate about Fantasy RPGs and Game-fiction. Over-powered NPCs. Giant world shaking events every other day. And the feeling of "Why bother? Let Elminster/the Harpers/Drizz't/etc solve it. Lets grab an ale."
But the Realms had a great deal of influence on my own later campaign world building efforts. One: Let little things build to big things. Solving the mystery of the haunted house leads to smugglers shipping arms to the lizard men which reveals the Midnight Circle agent which gets the players to the Capitol where they can be recruited to take on the bandits and find still more Midnight Circle plotting which leads to being recruited to find the missing crown prince. With assorted side quests along the way.
Two: Make intresting NPCs. The FR books eventually overdid this, making the background players the only real story. But the players should hopefully remember the grizzled old animal trainer or the dewy eyed teens looking for adventure or the stiff military commander. Same holds for the bad guys. Whether its the dark elf obsessed with hunting surface game or the mage who melds necromancy and plants, give them a hook so the players remember them.
And three: Secret Societies are cool. What I learned from the constant feuding of groups like the Zhentarim and the Harpers and the Knights of the Shield and so forth is that espionage can lead to story hooks. And thus I created or swiped such groups as the Midnight Circle, the Lodge of Starless Night, the Crown of Thorns, the League of the Scroll, the Soldevai Guild and the Children of the Harvest; amongst others...
And they both remind me that I used to LIKE the Realms. I mean nowadays the Forgotten Realms exemplify everything I hate about Fantasy RPGs and Game-fiction. Over-powered NPCs. Giant world shaking events every other day. And the feeling of "Why bother? Let Elminster/the Harpers/Drizz't/etc solve it. Lets grab an ale."
But the Realms had a great deal of influence on my own later campaign world building efforts. One: Let little things build to big things. Solving the mystery of the haunted house leads to smugglers shipping arms to the lizard men which reveals the Midnight Circle agent which gets the players to the Capitol where they can be recruited to take on the bandits and find still more Midnight Circle plotting which leads to being recruited to find the missing crown prince. With assorted side quests along the way.
Two: Make intresting NPCs. The FR books eventually overdid this, making the background players the only real story. But the players should hopefully remember the grizzled old animal trainer or the dewy eyed teens looking for adventure or the stiff military commander. Same holds for the bad guys. Whether its the dark elf obsessed with hunting surface game or the mage who melds necromancy and plants, give them a hook so the players remember them.
And three: Secret Societies are cool. What I learned from the constant feuding of groups like the Zhentarim and the Harpers and the Knights of the Shield and so forth is that espionage can lead to story hooks. And thus I created or swiped such groups as the Midnight Circle, the Lodge of Starless Night, the Crown of Thorns, the League of the Scroll, the Soldevai Guild and the Children of the Harvest; amongst others...
The high point of tonights Smackdown. Watching JBL lay down for the Worm. The Worm. The stupidest finisher in all of wrestling. Ok, maybe the Spin-a-rooni is stupider. But the Worm is pretty lame.
And JBL had to lay there and make it look effective. Hah!
I hate him so much...
So very, very much...
And JBL had to lay there and make it look effective. Hah!
I hate him so much...
So very, very much...