Esaene Design Spot

Chris · at 9:33 AM

Friday 08:00 PM - 12:00 AM
Saturday 01:30 PM - 05:30 PM
Saturday 08:00 PM - 12:00 AM

D&D 4e- Fear of the Dark
Game Type: RPG
Event Type: Open-Play

D&D 4E, Level 1. When forced to lay over in the small port of Storm Watch, the characters get involved in a search for a missing friend and the first search party that went looking for him.

Pre-gens provided. May bring your own character (base PHB, level 1, 28 point buy instead of 22).
Maturity: MFV

Chris · at 8:53 AM

I've been busy with "real work" (AKA the work that pays the bills) so I've been spending my free time actually working on things as opposed to writing about working on things.

I have 4th Edition D&D and have run several games (before and after the release, based on the pre-release ruleset compiled by Verys Archon on ENWorld and the pre-release adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell). I ran Into the Shadowhaunt for D&D gameday and that went well - my party, consisting primarily of 10-12 year old girls for some reason, had a great time. They beat the adventure and the follow-up white dragon encounter in three and a half hours.

I'm currently starting 1 4th edition game at work, 1-2 times a week at lunch; I'm restarting my play-by-email game with the current ruleset (adapting EN Publishing's War of the Burning Sky for 4th edition); I'm also planning a semi-regular game at my FLGS (All Fun & Games in Apex, NC) as well.

The plan is, eventually, to start putting the adventure modules and publishable material into these games to prepare for eventual release. The main issue, of course, is that my job and family are very demanding of my time. So I'm not putting any undue pressure on myself. I'm going to Origins this month, DragonCon later in the year, and MACE (a more local convention) in November. Since MACE will be the first convention after the official third party release date, I imagine I'll try to have more official content ready to go by then.

Chris · at 10:08 AM

I've been seeing a lot of traffic on ENWorld lately about simulating critical wounds, dismemberment, and things like that. I suppose I fall deeply into the narrativist camp when I ask, "Why?"

To me, character-altering things like that should be part of the story, not up to random chance. "Sorry, your guy lost his hand. Sucks to be you." Think about Jaime Lannister losing his hand, or a real-life example of captured English bowman being maimed so they can't draw back their bows. Random stuff happens in real life, but in a story and even a game, random things don't jive well. Anything major has to happen for some reason.

Just my two cents...

Chris · at 12:44 PM

Hey everyone,

I know it's been a while since I updated this and it's been for a variety of reasons. Since 4th edition D&D was announced, I struggled with what direction to take the game. I needed more info to make sure my vision wouldn't be so close to Wizard's vision that it would make my work moot, so I waited and watched.

As it turns out, I like what I see. Based on the plethora of information available from D&D experience, and a few email questions answered from Wizards of the Coast, I've decided to continue forward with Esaene using 4th Edition D&D rules.

The current plan is to have several things ready for demonstration at Origins this year and have them available for sale starting January 1st, 2009.

More updates as we get closer.

-Chris

Chris · at 8:23 AM

I'm working on the first publication for Esaene - an adventure along with some setting information (location, groups, NPCs, etc.). Once I get that to a good point and have it all written out (after play tests in February) I'll start on the next one.

Chris · at 8:07 PM

I'm playing a wait and see game with fourth edition D&D. In the mean time, I'm spending most of my creative time on setting. I'll try to keep making updates as I come to it.

Chris · at 8:56 AM

I've made huge strides on the game system/mechanics and I have two and a half characters ready to start this thing. Once it begins I'll make regular updates of ongoing progress. So far I have an exile from the south, an army veteran turned mystic, and an ambassador noble with mixed heritage. I'm wanting to get one or two more characters sorted out before we start in earnest.

It should be fun.

Chris · at 8:27 AM

I'm starting a play-by-post game with several people soon to go through some setting and rules stuff. I plan on keeping it updated here as we progress.

Chris · at 8:41 AM

Session two of our game was last night - it brought us through Act 2 (of 3) of the first adventure. The group has done well and they all advanced to level 2 after resting at a safe house in the city (a temple). In the process of all of this I have made adjustments to the magical skills (combining the Scry and Divination skills into a Divine spell list; moving Dispel Magic to spellcraft). I'm also in the process of creating my first tradition.

In the adventure, the main NPC the party interacts with is a cleric/fighter called Torrent. I have made her a level 2 mageknight instead and I started creating a magical tradition to encompass her faith. This will be the first in, I hope, many of such traditions.

It's tentatively named the Order of the Blue Circle - a religious order devoted to a god/goddess protecting travelers. They will have certain restrictions on which spell lists they can take first and they will have some bonuses to certain types of magic. The faith began around water magic, so I think I'm going to require followers of the faith to make 3 of their first 6 spell lists water-based or air-based and give them a +1 MP limit on air/gen and water/gen spells.