G’day, all!

This Friday will see what will probably be the last session in our Savage Tide campaign. The following fortnight, if we’re very lucky, we’ll have the first session in a new campaign – for the first time, one of my homebrews instead of an Adventure Path. If we’re unlucky, the 4e books won’t be out just yet and we’ll gather again in 4 weeks instead of 2.

My basic plan for the new campaign is to set it in the Free City of Greyhawk and have the initial adventures be forays into the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk. The campaign will be set about 3-5 years after the end of the Age of Worms adventure path and it is quite possible that characters from that campaign may reoccur in this one, providing a richer texture of characters for us to draw on. At some point, I expect we’ll visit Halaster to find out how Holly is faring…

If anyone would like to remind me of the character they played during that campaign and where they see them now, please do so. If you want to play your previous PC’s apprentice or relation, feel free to.

There are six races and eight classes in the initial release of Dungeons and Dragons 4e. For various reasons, I will not permit the initial selection of the Dragonborn race in this campaign; they may become available later. A quick list of options:

Race: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Tiefling.
Class: Fighter (defender), Paladin (defender), Ranger (striker), Rogue (striker), Wizard (controller), Cleric (leader), Warlord (leader), Warlock (striker)

A quick explanation of the roles:

• Defenders are front-line combatants. Great in melee, they can soak a lot of damage and protect other party members.
• Strikers deal a lot of damage to single opponents, either ranged or in melee. Their defences aren’t as good as defenders, though.
• Leaders have abilities that heal and aid other party members, as well as having good HP, AC and combat skills.
• Controllers deal damage to large numbers of opponents at once; they have the worst HP and AC.

A “balanced” party will have at least one character of each role, but the designers have said that no role is absolutely essential – you don’t have to choose the cleric if you don’t want to! If you can give me an indication of the race/class you’d like to play, I’ll get an idea of the composition of the party. (I expect the players in this game will be Martin, Peggy, Bradford, Rich, Nate & Adam).

Initial adventure will probably be some simple dungeon delves as we get used to the new rules, although I expect there will also be quite a bit of roleplaying and interacting with NPCs. Story elements will gradually develop as I come to know the group and the system.

Let me know your thoughts on what you’d like to see in the new game and on the character you’d like to play.

Cheers,
Merric