Hello Taxidermists!
I wanted to make a proposal to our combined squads of
D&D players. Currently, I’m running
two campaigns, as most of you know: the Aloran campaign and the Oriental
Adventures campaign. I’m enjoying both
campaigns a lot, and I hope you are too!
Right now, both campaigns are at a good pause point, so I
thought I would suggest another couple of options for D&D this summer. The first is one that I had mentioned to
several of you already, and that’s singleton adventures.
Singleton Adventures
In such an adventure, you would creature a new character
just like normal except that you would start a little higher and level your
character a little to start with. You
might start at 5th level instead of 1st level, and with a
significantly larger quantity of cash and items. You would have the full suite of 3rd
Edition materials to choose from when creating and equipping your new
character; classes, feats, races, prestige classes, weapons, spells…you could
make a very customized and personalized character this way and explore options
that may be unavailable or difficult for your campaign character to
obtain. Try a casting class if you
normally play melee, craft a specialized character with a unique combination of
feats and skills, or sample a prestige class.
This type of adventure is meant to feel more arcade-like while still
maintaining the depth and fun of open-world gameplay.
For continuity’s sake, these adventures would take place
within the world of Alora or Ashigon (for OA-style adventures); both have
plenty of room for exotic locales, political intrigue and dark, ancient
dungeons. I am nearly finished with
creating one adventure in Alora already.
Unlike our regular campaigns, these would be much briefer, perhaps 4-6
sessions from start to finish, depending on the group’s pace. Upon the completion of the adventure, if you
liked your character, you can use them again in another singleton adventure, or
you can make another new one for the next time.
This first adventure I’ve been working on is a
well-balanced, yet fairly challenging adventure for three to five players
starting around 7th level.
This is a high enough level that you can start dabbling in prestige
classes or multi-classing as well as some magical items, but not too high that
things will feel overpowered or sluggish.
I know for me, I love low-power games, so I enjoy low level RPG
encounters or Limited in card games. So,
I don’t want to drive us too high. This
adventure will probably take about six to eight sessions.
The other option is also an interesting one…
D&D 5th Edition
I have signed up to participate in the “beta” playtest of
D&D 5th Edition (they’re calling it “D&D Next,” but…it’s 5th
Edition.) They have sent me playtesting
materials, including a pre-made campaign and some fairly standard pre-made
characters (I’ll let you customize them as much as possible, though). The campaign is their classic campaign for
playtesting, used since the 1970s, called “Caves of Chaos.” I’ve looked at it, and it’s plenty interesting. It is more dungeon/combat-focused than my
campaigns tend to be.
From what I’ve seen of the new edition, it is much more like
3rd Edition than 4th Edition was. 5th Edition feels like what 4th
Edition should have been. Anyway, it uses a simplified, but still fun,
skill and combat system that provides for faster and clearer gameplay. This campaign, being a time-tested default
campaign, should move fairly quickly and it is designed to be easily broken up
into bite-size, single-session pieces. It
will feel a little more generic to play, mind you, but it still looks fun.
Campaigns
Alternatively, we may also just proceed with our campaigns;
I have written ahead plenty on both, so I’m happy to go down that path as
well. There’s plenty more for each of
you to do!
If you’d like to continue D&D over the summer, just let
me know which of these options sounds best.
1) Singleton
adventures
2) D&D
5th Edition playtesting
3) Continue
campaigning with current characters (alliteratively)
I’ll be happy to take other suggestions as well, or if
there’s a campaign or something that you’d like to try; if you want to DM, for
example, I’d happily play in one!
Let me know what you all think!
- Matt the DM
