At the Onset

Let me just give regular readers a heads-up, because we always did cover gaming, we just haven't much since we moved here (from the GeoCities site): we are still going to cover comic books and related stuff; this is not going to morph into my personal gaming journal, and I most certainly am not going to bore you with that cheap "in-game campaign diary" bullshit. However, The Weirding is largely dedicated to roleplaying games and gaming, in general, I just haven't been able to actually game these last few years, so there's been a dearth of that stuff.

That said, I wanted to mention that this is going to be one of the first truly "high-fantasy" campaigns I've ever run. Let me rephrase that, it will be a "high-powered," but not necessarily "high fantasy" game, as the Atlantis setting is no more fantastic (and probably a lot less so) than other campaign settings - it's actually quite "realistic," as far as that goes.

Years ago, in/around 1992-93 (when I'd just graduated highschool), two friends and I started a campaign. We were going to "play it right": start at 0-level and hit the obligatory dungeons to 2^nd-3^rd level, struggle through the mid-range by trekking across the countryside for one reason or another, then purchase and build the stronghold at 9^th-10^th level on land conquered and claimed, and attract all the henchmen, etc. Use all the Handbooks, Sourcebooks, and "Official" canon (plus some more detailed, optional stuff from the Dragon library, et.al.) - it was all "Official" AD&D stuff - we weren't even using any of the "Approved For Use With" stuff; we'd decided we wanted to really play the game as it had been written to test its mettle and judge it on its own merit.

That campaign lasted about a week, maybe two. Mind you, we played most days; even on days we didn't actually play, we got together and went over stuff (strengthened characters, moved items around, roleplayed through little discussions and barters, whatever). Both friends were seniors in highschool and had nothing better to do. I was unemployed, living off the money I'd gotten for graduation, and smoked insane amounts of weed.

It was a glorious time, the memories of which rush over me whenever I hear anything from the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head album (that's all we listened to for what I now believe was at least 7-8 months, though we were not gaming that entire time - we just listened to that album backward and forward for months on-end until something else came out, though I forget what, now - everybody was listening to Check Your Head, it was the soundtrack to at least a year or two of my life). But that campaign lasted no time at all because, in "learning" (re-learning) the Official AD&D rules, we had read all sorts of optional stuff, and between one of those friends and myself, we had basically everything for AD&D (at that precise moment; one of the biggest turn-offs for me in regards to gaming was the glut of books TSR put out for that edition).

And so it happened late one night that, between bowls, we decided they would go on and roll-up a Minotaur Barbarian and a Psionicist. Both classes I'd barred from the "Official" campaign for reasons obvious to fellow DMs. This was decided at probably 2-3am. We remarked on the dawn when it greeted us, but we continued to play. We played that game until every one of us was literally nodding-off.

It was so freeing! It was so much fun! These characters, who both started off at 1^st-level but were like 3^rd-level characters comparatively, came upon a small kobold keep and plowed right through the tribe to the back of the hillside! They took their licks, mind you, but they eventually triumphed; I did not pull (m)any punches (I'm the Storyteller-type DM, especially since it takes so damned long to make new characters) - they earned the win. They even showed mercy time and again, letting routed troops make a break past them, etc., so they enslaved two of the kobolds who would provide hours of comedic relief throughout the next several weeks of play and claimed the hillside lair as their own.

That was the game where we wound-up using all the Official stuff: I still have reams of notes from that campaign - everything from what is in which room to what the weather was like (and would have been like) for weeks on-end. Of course, Minotaurs and Psionicists are rarely PCs and enslavement of any sentient being is generally frowned upon and kobolds are perceived as being "weak" and so on in like fashion. No matter; that was the most fun I've ever had from a D&D game in my life, and remains so to this day.

That's why this time, when the 1^st-level Mage randomly rolled a Griffon as a flying mount (with accompanying Non-Weapon Proficiencies, tack, and barding), I said, "Take it." He also rolled "Well-to-Do" status (UMC - UA, p.82) with its bonus NWP (Etiquette) and 150% max starting money, as well as a Noble companion. And I let it all in. The Acolyte of War rolled UMC, along with several ranks of Riding: Land-Based (along with a mount, tack, barding, and Handling), as well as Religion at no cost, and ranks in several other skills. He can also Incite Berserker Rage and is Specialized in (WS:)Broadsword.

Technically, this makes both of them a bit (just a little bit) above the general 1^st-level character in almost any campaign - especially one using Tournament rules (which I do suggest, if you game regularly) - but it's perfect for us. I have no idea how long this will last, I have no idea what to expect; one of them has never played tabletop before, but is a big RPG video game junkie and seemed to really get into making his character, and the other hasn't played since he was a kid. And since I use the same character generation rules for all characters, anyone who joins in will be equally adept.

So I grabbed Check Your Head from the closet and set it on repeat, then grabbed Dark Races (Mayfair) and looked-up "kobold." Life's too fucking short to quibble over "Official" rules and whether or not a Halfling Guardian female is as strong as a male and shit.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009