30_days_of_wonder

30 Days of Wonder


DM: Doc Cross mailto:doccross@aol.com

My Two Characters
Barzel the Archer on a character sheet.
barzel_the_honorable_archer.pdf From the character generator.

Barzel is a 2nd level human fighter. He specializes in the crossbow. His sword is strictly the backup.

Merkava Sholef on a character sheet.
merkava_sholef_the_forceful_-_great_sword.pdf From the character generator.

Merkava Sholef is a 2nd level human fighter. He is one axe wielding destroyer.

Barzel is on team <fc #800000>Heartless Bastards</fc>.
Heartless Bastards - Members Only



A summary of the posts from the 30 Days of Wonder Facebook Page

NEW EVENT! Starting in early January, this group will be the home for an online D&D 5E game titled “The Hunt For Magic” with players Josh Brown, Jeff Mackintosh, Avis Crane, Phil Lacefield Jr., Kayla Pollnow, Gabriel Gentile, Colin Speirs & Richard Aronson.

This is the Lonely Kingdom of Olias that you live in. This map is very old (about a century) and may not be entirely accurate. Note: Olias measures about 200 miles on a side. on the other side of the Border River is very dense forest (or swamp) full of dangerous beasts.
Olias

WHAT YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT OLIAS

Just over 150 years ago, the world was in upheaval. Most, if not all Wizards seemed to just go insane, as did Dragons and many of the humanoid races aside from Humans, Dwarves & Halflings. War flared up everywhere as they started killing one another. Many innocent people died.

Finally, the Five Gods stepped in and transported the people of many kingdoms away to places of safety, the so called Lonely Kingdoms. These refuges were protected from the outside world by dense and dangerous forests and wide rivers or canyons. The Five Gods told the settlers of these new lands that they must live in them until the Day of Change came. Unfortunately, the Five Gods didn't say when that day would come or how anyone would know.

So it was that the people of your kingdom, the Kingdom of Olias, came to be here. 150,000 people, mostly humans but, with a good number of Halflings & Dwarves, settle mostly along the river. For the first 10 years, it was decreed by the Goddess of Summer that on Midsummer's Day, a portal would open for 24 hours between Olias and Kordain, another Lonely Kingdom, so as to allow trade and even immigration. In winter, the God of Winter would open a similar portal to the desert kingdom of Ur Wadar.

But after 10 years, the portals stopped opening and have not opened since. Life went on, but people missed the news of other lands and the goods that came along with it.

Olias is now ruled by King Parlan, a tough but fair man of about 50. The kingdom is broken up into Baronies, which are ruled by men & women who run the gamut from wise to rather dim, from peaceful to belligerent and from honest to rather shady. It is said that the King plays them off one another so as to prevent any one of them from getting ideas about the throne.

Olias enjoys relatively mild weather year around, but it does snow in the north and get quite warm in the south during the summer. Most of the interior of Olias is either totally wild of very lightly settled. The interior is also the home of great numbers of animals and, legends have it, dangerous beasts like owlbears and slimes and such. The edges of the interior are also the home of bandits and other unsavory folk.

In general, life in Olias is good for most folks. Taxes are fair, there is plenty to eat, no great dangers threaten, education is free to all and there is universal equality. A young person just starting out can be whatever they choose to be.

Even a glory & loot seeking adventurer.

WHY ONLY HUMANS, DWARVES & HALFLINGS?

As the magic began going away, all of the humanoid races except humans began to slowly change. For some, like the Dwarves and Halflings, these changes were subtle and, over the course of three centuries, barely noticed. For other races, like the elves, the changes were blamed on degradation due to marrying humans or, more often, “lesser” types of elves. Races even further removed from humans changed or died out much faster. The last giant, for instance, was seen nearly 300 years ago.

The so called “dark races”, either died off fast or changed into what most people now think of as “ugly primitives”. Of course, any of the truly magical based races died off very quickly. Elementals, for example, are mere legends now.

Oddly, many if not most, of the “beast men”, those humanoids who were more bear, lion, ape or whatever than human, have evolved to be a bit more humanoid and considerably more civilized. There are rumors of Bearfolk and Wolfmen in the deep forests of Olias. This is substantiated by the fact that some farmers seem to sell much of their crops without actually taking them to market. These farmers always seem to live closest to the forest edge.

As you might expect, most magical creatures are gone now, although some have devolved to forms that are still dangerous. The biggest dragon you'll see now is a mere 25 feet long, wingless, may or may not spit poison like a cobra and is probably no smarter than a very smart dog. Still quite deadly, but by no means common. They do still tend to have a hoard, but it will be more like that of a pack rat than Smaug.

Getting back to elves, they did not get teleported to Lonely Kingdoms 150 years ago. It is said that they had gone insane and went off to some remote location to die. No elf has been seen anywhere since then.

Some background on Dwarves and Halflings in Olias…

Dwarves live mostly in the northwest, especially in or near the Greystone Mountains, where they do some iron and gold mining, but they can also be found in most larger towns, often working as smiths or brewers. Some join the Royal Army.

Halflings can be found in all human communities, a few Dwarf towns and in their own villages and town. Most notable of these is Woodsedge, which is at the southern end of the Great Hills.

There have been some subtle physical changes to both Dwarves and Halflings. Most noticeable is that Dwarven women are now much prettier than they once were and more Halflings find it necessary to wear shoes in the colder, wetter months.

How This Game Will Run


Since we have players spread out from Scotland to the US West Coast, regular weekly face to face sessions are out of the question. Instead, the game will start up, then run at the pace we all set. Each team will communicate via messages, texts, email, whatever. Once you've all decided what you're going to do based upon what I have told you, you'll send your info to me. I'll roll dice or something, then get back to you. Rinse, repeat.

Now, although each of you can always message me any questions or secret things you want your character to do, when it comes time to give the GROUP turn info, we will be using the old school concept of a “caller”, the player who tells me what the group is doing. This will keep things streamlined and fast, I hope. Each group should select it's caller before we start the game.

An example of how a turn might go.

GM message to Team Deadly Sweetness: You walk into the old barn to get out of the rain and there are three big mean looking bandits already in there. They see the four of you looking all wet and tired. They smile.

The biggest bandit speaks: “Well lookee here, mates. The Overgod has provided for us in our time of need. We'll just take all that stuff of yours, folks. After that, we'll have you strip down so we can see who is the plumpest and most tender looking. Me and the boys is powerful hungry.”

Holy crap, they're CANNIBAL BANDITS!

The inside of the barn is about 40 feet by 100 feet. There is a door 15 feet behind you and one at the other end. The barn has old moldy hay to your left and piles of old mostly composted horse crap on the right. The floor is stone, as are the walls. The roof is high above you and made of slate shingles. The bandits ate armed with broadswords and daggers. They are big rough looking customers with sharp looking teeth. They're wearing studded leather armor.

What do you do?

At this point, the players exchange frantic messages and a couple of them ask the GM questions related to their characters. A couple of hours later, the Caller messages the GM.

Team Deadly Sweetness Caller message to GM: I'll tell them “You can go fuck off or die, we don't care which.” I've got my an arrow nocked, the Dwarf has her hammer ready, the Mage is going to cast Magic Missile and the Halfling if going to try to dive between the big guys legs and go for a double dagger crotch shot.”

GM reply: OUCH! Ok, roll initiative.

And so it will go.

Hopefully, things will roll along pretty quickly. If any of you have other ideas or questions, let me know.

I will post team turns on 30 Days Wonder, but only a few days after they happen. Can't have the other team learning too much about things as they happen, can we?

Finally, just to refresh our memories, these are the teams.

Team Deadly Sweetness: Avis Crane, Josh Brown, Jeff Mackintosh & Richard Aronson.

Team Heartless Bastards: Colin Speirs, Gabriel Gentile, Kayla Pollnow & Phil Lacefield Jr.

Choose your team caller and let me know who it is.

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  • Last modified: 2015/05/06 16:10
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