Saturday, June 7, 2008

Heroes of Falcon’s Hollow.

I made 5 characters for the Pathfinder adventure modules D0: Hollow’s Last Hope and D1: Crown of the Kobold King. I hope to run the modules in the next couple of weeks and post the results of the adventures. The backgrounds for these characters were meant to weave the heroes into the community of Falcon’s Hollow and/or explain how they came to choosing their class.






Eja Clayborne is close with the Eavewalker Family. Idris was an old friend of her father and became like a father figure to her. Idris taught her the skills of a ranger. They even saved the townsfolk from a menacing owlbear once. Idris knew the lumber barons would see any heroics as a possible threat. He warned Eja to always help the town in a clandestine way.

Idris left two years ago with a group of adventurers and has not been heard from since. Eja has remained a close friend of Idris’ wife Kitani and his daughter Kimi who calls her “Auntie Eja”.

Eja works at Goose’n’Gander, Falcon’s Hollow’s general store. She works for the only civilized gnome in the region, Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks. He is an honest but frugal business man. Asia has worked for him since before her family went back east. The gnome considers her family and worries about her moonlighting as Falcon’s Hollow’s resident defender from the wilds. (Human Ranger 1st level)

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Bjorn was born to proud parents Wolfried and Hildegard Hammerstein. Bjorn worked along side his father in the lumber yards most of his adolescents. The little dwarf family scraped out a living under the oppressive Lumber Consortium.

Than one day a missionary from the Church of Light brought news of Iomadae, the goddess of valor and justice. Bjorn heard the preaching of the human cleric. She spoke of a deity that blessed the courageous, who gave gifts to her faithful to defend the weak, free the oppressed, and champion for justice. The missionary told the people if they gave worship to Iomadae then the town would flourish and its people would be filled with the grace. For the large part, the people of Falcon’s Hollow rejected the missionary and her goddess. The Hammerstein’s, like most in Falcon’s Hollow, wanted nothing to do with organized religion. They were happy to live life however they felt fit and be able to change with the situation instead of being restricted a set morality. However, there were a handful of people that wanted to hear more. And no one wanted to hear more then young Bjorn, who deep in his soul longed for justice.

It was not long after the small group of worshippers pooled their time, talent, and treasures together and built the Temple of Iomadae. Wolfried was furious the day Bjorn quit the lumber yards to join the Order of the Sons of Iomadae and become a cleric. After a few years Bjorn reconciled with his father and even rid the lumber yard of a terrible poltergeist, which had claimed the lives of several workers, by invoking the intercession of Iomadae. Many of the lumber workers turned to worshipping the powerful goddess who had saved them through her servant know to all as Bjorn “Ghostsbane” Hammerstein. (Dwarf Cleric 1st level)

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Sangilak Ek-Chua made his way to Falcon’s Hollow over 20 years ago. Described by many as a quiet man known for his love of books. Few know he is a half-elf and none know of his pursuit of arcane knowledge. He hides his passion for the mystical. Magic-users not in the direct employ of the Lumber Consortium are viewed as highly potential threats and are usually run out of town.

For years he has worked as a records clerk at Hollows Tribunal, the local court house. Sangilak has been a silent confidante of Magistrate Varmos Harg for many years. Sangilak is one of the few people that know the magistrate’s shame, loneliness, and thirst for true justice.

Other then himself, the only resident student of the arcane that he knows of is Sharvaras Vade. Sangilak suspects Vade to be a dark wizard perhaps dabbling in necromancy. To complicate matters Sangilak befriended Savram, Vade’s son, hoping he can gently influence the boy to explore more benevolent magical disciplines.

Sangilak knows that only through live application of his spells will he excel in his craft. He waits patiently for an opportunity to help the community with his mystical powers.


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Eilo Buckram was raised by his widowed father. It was hard working long hours at the paper mill and trying to look after a young motherless Halfling son.

Eilo was never accepted by the other neighborhood children. He was ridiculed for being small and often picked on and bullied. It started as a game when the “bigger kids”, mostly humans, teased him saying he was “too small” to go with them. He would quietly follow them and every time they caught him he just got better the next time.

As adolescence came, the kids began getting into petty crime. Eilo was disgusted by them hurting the elderly, vandalizing property, and stealing from people. He started staking them to foil their plans, making noise to give them away when they were sneaking, steal back whatever they stole and give it to it’s rightful owner, etc. He learned to fight because he wasn’t always sneaky enough but he got tough, fast, and smart.

As they grown into young adults, his once playful rivals aspired to join the Redrock Guild, an organized crim syndicate. Eilo spent so much time sabotaging the plots of the Redrock Guild that his father had become convinced that Eilo was now a member of the gang. He couldn’t make his father believe he was actually fighting the real criminals.

Out of concern for his father’s anxiety, Eilo obtained a job as a bookkeeper. The work was honest enough for his father to believe his son was no longer a criminal. Also his work spared him physically so that at night he could pursue the task of keeping Falcon’s Hollow safe.

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Surinder Murali’s father left when he was young. Why? He could never be sure; the story would change with his mother’s sobriety. The questions concerning his father stopped to matters as much when the Goblin Wars begun. He was of age at the time and was carted off with nothing more then a pitchfork to fight wild goblin warriors. Soon he was assigned to a particular soldier who treated him fairly decent.

Among the trees the soldier that accompanied him was taken down by a single crossbow bolt. The seasoned goblin warrior thought he would “play” with the human youngling before killing it. Unbeknownst to the goblin, or anyone including the young peasant boy, was the rage that had swelled inside him. From the abandonment by his father, the apathy of his mother, and shame of his inescapable poverty, fueled a boy of twelve to erupt and stab his pitchfork deep into the laughing goblin warrior. With his soldier dead, Surinder donned the fallen man’s helmet, picked up his short sword and trek further into the woods.

By dawn the sergeant had thought the soldier and his boy dead or had deserted until he saw the boy emerge from the forest. Surinder dropped the fifteen goblin scalps at the feet of the sergeant and sat by the fire without a word. Four years later the war was over and the boy was returned to Falcon’s Hollow like discarded military equipment. His mother had died while he was gone and years of fighting had left him without a purpose or hope. He began to drink.

His drunken brawls eventually landed him in the town jail. In the morning his throbbing headache was interrupted by Sheriff Deldrin Baleson giving him a sermon about a “purpose filled life”, “the greater good”, and “direction for his anger”. Somewhere between the coffee and the early afternoon Surinder began to listen to the Sheriff. By that night he had given up drinking and after a month of training with Sheriff he was deputized.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Gary Gygax, the father of role playing games is gone.


I had never met him but his invention greatly influenced my life. His game Dungeons & Dragons entered my life in 1990 when a few friends and I started playing fantasy role playing games. Dungeons & Dragons became an even bigger part of my life when I started The Lakeland Role Playing Guild, a club for Lakeland gaming enthusiasts to play fantasy role playing games, in 2001.



Most of my closes friendships were strengthened around the game table. I do not know what kind of man he was life but I do know he gave a wonderful gift to me, my friends, & the world.





Godspeed Mr. Gygax, may your eyries receive you, now at the journey's end.




Below is the CNN article:



"Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons creator, dies




MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.

He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gygax said. "He really enjoyed that."
Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.
Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children."

Thursday, January 24, 2008

D&D For Dummies

D&D is for you! Don't believe me? Listen to this nice couple....







Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight



Well Cassandra and I stopped by blockbuster to see if anything was worth renting. I saw the Dragonlance animated movie on the shelf. Now I hadn't heard anything about the movie because I don't hang out in Dragonlance fan places online. When I saw that Kiefer Sutherland & Lucy Lawless starred in it, I thought "Wow! Let's give this a try."




For those of you not familiar with the Dragonlance books, it is a fantasy setting similar to a Lord of the Rings world. You have humans, elves, dwarves, a bunch of mythical creatures like dragons, knights and wizards, etc. The world has a polytheistic mythology, like greek or norse myths where the gods are readily involved in the events of mortals. Now what makes this story different is 300 years ago an evil deity tried to take over the world, the people prayed to the good gods, and the good deities saved the day by defeating the evil god. Well the people thought the gods were so handy they asked for their divine intervention for every little thing and one day their selfish ungratefulness made the good gods stop answering their prayers.




So the people turn away from their religions and fall into centuries of hopeless atheism which leads to wars and extreme xenophobia. Well the evil deity, that was vanquished 300 years ago, comes back to find a world ripe for the picking. There are no alliances between the good people and everyone is convinced that the good gods have abandoned them so they are easily overrun with despair.



The main characters are these heroes that went separate was 5 year ago to go on a quest searching for evidence that the good gods are still around. The heroes are very archetypal. They have great dialogue between one another which help you learn their personalities, their back stories, and shows the friendship and almost a family like bound between them.




They have just finished talking about how they didn't find anything when this girl shows up with a staff that miraculously heals people. She explains it's from the gods and they are back but the only people that even try to listen to her are the heroes. So they all join forces to find out about the staff and hope that they will learn more about of the good gods.




The story turns into this epic struggle between good and evil. But to my surprise the story becomes more about holding on to religious faith even in the face of overwhelming odds and/or certain death. I've never read the books so I don't know how much the books emphasis the faith aspect but it did it very much in the film.




There are some intense violence scenes. The film is registered PG13 and I think that is very appropriate. If you watch it please tell me what you think! Below is the trailer for your pleasure.




Dragonlance Trailer










Sunday, January 13, 2008



I'm often asked what playing a role playing game is like. This movie illustrates it the best!



Part 1










Part 2










Part 3










Part 4










Part 5









Sunday, December 23, 2007

Dungeons and Dragons Gamer's Club

I ordered a new RPG!

It's called, Testament, the d20 role-playing game set in the Biblical Era. You heard me the Bible D20! I'm so excited!

The book's focus deals with the Israelites, Babylonians, Canaanites, and Egyptians. How much more interesting is the Old Testament going to be after your characters have done recon missions into Canna for General Joshua, or fighting the Amalekites in the desert, or being hunted by King Saul for your loyalty to David? This is going to be fun for my hardcore veteran gaming pals and my Church youth group and/or bible study.

And this is no slim gaming supplement; this paperback rulebook weighs-in at 240-pages! Not only is this a game book I have wanted ever since I heard it existed but this is the best part, the book retails for $32.00 (ouch! I could never afford that now). I got it on sale for $2 (plus 4 bucks shipping and handling) but still, 6 bucks for a 32 dollar book. That is a bargain! I can't wait for it to arrive!

For my more avid gaming friends you can read a full book review about it here http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9706.phtml

Anyone got any comments about this? Cool? Blasphemous? Want to try it? Tell me!