Winter's Shadow

The first adventure to be published is called "Winter's Shadow". The design is complete and I'm working on writing it up, preparing it for layout, and identifying art needs.

I'll be running internal playtests this week and, once I get through with any revisions from that, will be sending it out for some external playtests.

In Winter’s Shadow™, the player characters find themselves in the middle of a conflict on the Isle of Deldesheim. The Baron of Deldesheim, Evander Agenor, is getting married in one week to the Lady Keira Morris, a noble from across the sea in Boyden Arbor. One week ago, a host of goblins and other beasts from the feywild invaded. After pushing back the initial assault, the Baron mobilized his troops, supplemented by two companies of troops from the Royal brigade. During the final battle against the fey, the Baron’s only daughter is kidnapped, which could cause the conflict to spiral out of control. Can the players rescue the Baron’s daughter and prevent a full scale war while battling their way through wild goblins, fey knights, and a mysterious gang of kidnappers?

Narrativism vs. Simulationism

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...

Setting

I'm still running my PBEM game at the moment (although participation has lagged in the last two weeks). Things are going pretty well and I've had some time to brainstorm, mostly because I haven't had time to write due to "real work" concerns.

Still, I have had some time to sit down with Brant and go over setting issues. I have a good scheme for areas that should help in multiple ways (both in-game/story and out-of-game/writing).

The biggest issues facing me are as such:
1. Time - I'm working about 50+hours a week, am a hockey season ticket holder, and have two children. You do the math.
2. Philosophy - I dislike the Arcane/Divine divide concerning magic and I'm still working on separating them from D&D Canon.
3. Mapping the known world - this one I solved with some brain-storming. The "known world" is fragmented and small, so maps will exist for individual areas. This has to do with the integration of the faerie-lands into the material plane. In other words, civilization will exist in pockets of faerie; traveling between them will be difficult at best.

Creative decision

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.

The game approaches

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.

Story theories

I will start GMing a game of Mutants and Masterminds soon with my normal gaming group. I haven't run a game in some time and I was going to try out a lot of the story and theme ideas I have read about on many sites, as well as some basic story structure elements I have read about while persuing my dream of fiction writing.

We'll see how it goes. I'm curious to see how the fiction structure will compliment or clash when you have multiple points of view all shouldering each other aside for screen time. It will have to be managed.

Themes, too

Continuing on Chris's idea of underlying themes, there are some things I was always big on with the original conception of Esaene.

1. History - there are a few 'big' stories that underlie the world and much of them are considered to be 'folk legends'. However, there are elements of truth in every fairy tale and legend, and separating fact from fiction can unlock some powerful secrets.

2. History, 2 - Everything has a story. That "longsword +1" in the pile of treasure is really the finely-crafted 9th blade of Ythifir the Black, one of the dozen he created for the Guardians of Perisis. It is distinguishable by it's off-center hilt, balanced for left-handed users (which all Guardians were) and the Illusin engraving on the blade. Such a finely-balanced blade moves with the wielder, giving him or her an edge in combat. Usually, stories like that are reserved for the Vorpal Bastard Sword +4/+6 vs Nocturnal Lycanthropes.

3. Motivations - No grand good vs evil story here. Everyone has a reason to do what they do, and people with perfectly legitimate reasons for pursuing their life's goals may often find themselves at cross-purposes. Chris highlighted that alignment is not a major factor. More important to me, people have to have a reason for doing what they're doing, instead of the wishy-washy "that's what my alignment would have me do."

4. Magic - A strange and wondrous thing. Even hedge wizards are treated with great reverence, once the crowd believes that it's not a sleight-of-hand trick.

5. Separation - There's no 'line in the sand' at the edge of the king's lands. But the distance from this land to that land is pretty vast when you have to spend 4 nights in "Injun country" to get there. Adventurers are treated in high regard but are very rare; merchants bringing wares from another land are also treated with great reverence for having travelled beyond the next two hills.

As Chris had previously noted - comments are welcome & encouraged.

Theme

Brant and I have been discussing story and theme for the Esaene setting lately. He has already published Esaene under his own rules several years back, but if I'm writing this thing I wanted a bit more creative control. We've decided that, instead of making everything in the world of Esaene, we're going to start with a specific place and work out from there.

Anyway, the themes are not well defined in the game as is. Brant's original idea was exploration and political struggle. I have a lot of ideas, but they need to be fully developed.

Themes

• Boundaries - the area between civilization and the wild is a thin line and one that should be examined. Where does civilization stop and nature begin? What are the problems encountered when they come into conflict?


• Consequences - There is no alignment in this game. There are plenty of sides and factions who believe they are right. Sometimes they both are. Each action has consequences and no one lives in a vacuum.


• Struggle - Conflict is always a theme and should always remain - Religious and political ideologies, mercantile wars, limited resources. Everyone is at odds for one reason or another, with the players inevitably in the middle. Peace is boring.


• Fantasy - Magic and wonder are still important parts to the game, but they come with their dangers. Fairy tales, tragedies, and myths should all have parts. The fantastic should not overshadow the characters though.

Those are the overriding themes as I see it. Anyone have any suggestions or critique?