THRANCONIA
SECOND CAMPAIGN: OFFICIAL OPENING
ANNOUNCEMENT AND PITCH
The original Thranconia campaign was run in the first half
of 2019 in 11 sessions. It was
memorable, if plagued with an excessively high body-count. I’ve done a revision of some of the rules
to reduce, hopefully, the body-count and am beginning a 2nd campaign
right about now.
This will be a virtual campaign, meeting frequently but on an
irregular basis, as individual players feel the urge and have the time. Because of the virtual nature, I’m especially
encouraging former players who are at a physical distance to rejoin us for this
campaign.
The Campaign Structure
·
True Sandbox: we’ve tried Sandboxes before, but it always
seems to default to, we show up to the table, whoever DM’s has something
specific prepared, and we go with that.
There’s nothing wrong with that method, but used to do sandboxes decades
ago and they have their own virtues, fun and charm and would like to see one
happen again.
·
No fixed Game Day: this will not be our regular
every-other-Sunday game, but rather a side game. When someone wants to do something, contact
me, or eventually other willing Judges, and do it when it can be fit in. I see a lot of Saturday evenings, and maybe
alternate Sunday evenings being common, but nothing happens unless some reaches
out to a Judge or pal.
·
Players Pick adventure: on the wiki I have a series of Pathways
to Adventure which players can pursue.
The status of each at any moment will be described as best as possible,
it’s up to the players to pick one OR COME UP WITH SOMETHING THEY JUST WANT TO
DO.
·
Multiple Parties: even before the games,
beyond one solo one I’ve done, have begun, there are three parties at the
ready, and I have at least 1 character in each.
Some parties might be solo parties, some might have characters only from
1-2 players. Some might start at first
level, some at higher level. I envision
various parties acting virtually simultaneously in different places doing
different things.
·
Many DM-less games: some sessions will be
traditional Judge and players games, some will be Judge-less using various
random methods of resolving things, some will be solo games where the single
player runs all the characters and the monsters. As the over-Judge of the campaign, I want
some sort of limited say over magic item, gold and XP distribution, so we keep
everything in a certain moderate range of might and magic, but if you want to
solo, go ahead and we can add your results to the logs and calendar.
·
No overarching story: Thranconia is a place, not a tale. Each player or group of players create their
own story by their choices and actions.
There’s no meta-plot at all driving the action.
Game System:
·
The game will be played using the Blueholme
Journeymanne Rules as its base architecture. This is available at Drive-Thru. These are essentially a clone of Eric Holmes
1977 Basic D&D extended to level 20, with a bunch of spells taken from
Original D&D and AD&1e. T
·
I have added a series of house rules, especially
for weapons, combat maneuvers and general combat procedures, because the
Fighters in Journeymanne are under served.
Likewise I changed how Thief Skills work (ripping off a Gangbusters B/X
idea), because otherwise, thieves just toad the wet sprocket. Look at this page on the wiki: House
Rules 2nd campaign
How to Join In:
·
Most games will be done virtually (unless after
Eldritch Earth suffers a TPK and Thranconia becomes the Sunday game in a
post-vaccine world) using Discord for talking
and Owlbear Rodeo for battle maps.
Contact me for details.
·
Parties will appear on the Our Heroes
page of the wiki and email announcements sent out when players are needed. If you want to make a character for any party
let me know and we’ll get it done.
THE BEGINNING:
The following parties have already been formed or are
forming:
Up to Gnome Good:
if you are a Neutrally-Aligned Gnome Thief, Fighter/Thief, or
Magic-User/Thief, join the expert treasure hunters on expeditions from the Town
of Crossroads Tavern out into the ruins of the wilderness about.
Gordon’s Alive:
Squire Gordon of Boarswood is taking up adventuring with some of his
friends and relations in order to rectify his crushing debt problem.
The Cat’s Back:
Mrow, a hero of the first campaign, is back in action after a 1-1/2 year
research sabbatical. Who will join this
feline sorcerer?
