I'm still not sure about this, but the quote at the end gives me hope.
Showing posts with label Robert E. Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert E. Howard. Show all posts
March 12, 2011
July 28, 2010
Garhelm - My Homebrew Campaign Setting
My next few posts will detail a campaign setting I created a few years back for D&D 3.5. I named the world “Garhelm.” Why? Because it sounded cool. (To this day, I’m waiting for someone to tell me that it means “small scrotum” or something in a foreign dialect.) I designed the kind of game world in which I would want to play. It unabashedly borrows from several cliché sources, such as Howard’s Conan stories, the Conan the Barbarian movie, Norse mythology, Lovecraft, classic D&D demons, and more. I also designed the world so I could fit just about every Necromancer Games module I owned into it.
I ran two short-lived campaigns in Garhlem, both of which ended for various reasons. One was a face-to-face game that involved players from different states. We didn’t meet often, so we had only about three sessions. The other campaign was played online via ScreenMonkey. This was before the days of Skype, so everything was chat-based. Suffice it to say, it was very slow. So, both of those campaigns had logistic obstacles, but, in both cases, lethality was the final campaign ender. It’s frustrating enough when your PC dies, but even more so when you seldom get to play and/or the play format (i.e., online) is sort of inherently frustrating to begin with.
I learned a couple things from these campaigns:
I ran two short-lived campaigns in Garhlem, both of which ended for various reasons. One was a face-to-face game that involved players from different states. We didn’t meet often, so we had only about three sessions. The other campaign was played online via ScreenMonkey. This was before the days of Skype, so everything was chat-based. Suffice it to say, it was very slow. So, both of those campaigns had logistic obstacles, but, in both cases, lethality was the final campaign ender. It’s frustrating enough when your PC dies, but even more so when you seldom get to play and/or the play format (i.e., online) is sort of inherently frustrating to begin with.
I learned a couple things from these campaigns:
- Be upfront about the death rate in the campaign. If there is going to be a high body count, let your players know from the start. Then they can pass on the campaign from the get-go and irritation can be spared by one and all. I made sure to do this with my Rappan Athuk campaign.
- Seemingly small mechanic adjustments added for campaign flavor can come back to haunt you.
July 10, 2010
Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane Poems
If you're a Solomon Kane fan, give these audio files a listen: link. I liked them so much, I burned them to a CD to listen to in the car.
You'll find the following at that site:
You'll find the following at that site:
- The One Black Stain
- The Return of Sir Richard Grenville
- Solomon Kane's Homecoming
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