Campaign Ideas

We are currently in the Campaign Ideas phase. You can see how I simplify that here. But right now I wan to come up with a few campaigns that could set-up for the next story. And in particular, I want to create the elevator pitches for them.

Now, when I think about coming up with an idea, there is an intimidation element to it. What is going to make a great epic story for a longer campaign? But I think it’s fair for people to borrow ideas from everywhere. So whether that’s a movie, an anime, a book, folklore, whatever it might be, borrow it to help generate ideas. There is a difference between weaving elements into a bigger narrative that show-up elsewhere.

So let’s get down to some ideas.

The End is Known

For ten years there has been war with the demons. No one knows how it started, but demons and devils poured forth from the hells working together. And now only a small band of heroes remains having battled and felt loss over the years. They face off against one last devil, Asmodeus stands before them, and they quake. Asmodeus speaks and it’s all over.

You awake with a new vague memory in your head. A voice that wasn’t there before. It says, something bad is going to be happening. It’s coming, the monsters are coming. But you look outside your window and it’s normal. It’s just another day in your life and nothing seems worse, except for this voice and this vague memory of a devil speaking some incantation. This one is inspired by a LitRPG book I listened to, couldn’t find the title of it, and A Returners Magic Should Be Special.

Notes: This is both the end and the elevator pitch all wrapped into one. The characters kind of know what the end is. But how will these characters now become heroes who can deal with what is coming. And what do they believe, do they believe that is coming or not?

The Puppetmaster

It’s a world of legends and stories. But new stories keep on popping up and they are similar to old stories that you’ve heard before. A magic lamp, three bears living in a house, and wolves, oh so many wolves. The stories are just that, though, right? They are just stories, it can’t be something real.

Notes: Short and sweet pitch here. Not much to set-up, the world matters less for this one, and I wouldn’t even use the title because it’s going to give away some of what the end might be. But this is a question of what if the fairytale world came to life and it wasn’t the happy stories that we know, but the bears, wolves, and everything is now out to kill you?

The Monster Within

The wrought iron gates clanged as a strong wind howled down from the north. It shook the window panes with an unsettling rattle. But neither the clanging of the gate or the rattle of the window were what drew your attention. On the wind there was a song of melancholy and despair. The words couldn’t be made out, but you knew that they came from the castle up on the mountain. There was a narrow cart path leading up there, and that is where you needed to go, because, there was a monster up there who needed to be dealt with.

Notes: This one is going to be a bit different. Clearly I’m going for a gothic horror vibe for it. But I want to go more monster of the week with it. I enjoy the monster of a week trope and it’s going to lean into that with beasts like werewolves, vampires, and other creations that are well fitting for a Curse of Strahd type setting. What does the end game on this one look like? Honestly, it could look like Strahd or some vampire lord, or even work up to a Lich lord who is controlling things.

Time of Legends

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

Notes: The obvious thing here is that the seal is weakening on the dungeons. The second obvious thing is that these are the heroes who are needed. But while the players will know that I know that and you know that, the characters wouldn’t. Why think that they are heroes when they just lead normal lives? And the in the big town, that is there real heroes live and fight in wars for kings and defend against assassins and cast amazing spells. This one steals form a lot of anime. I’m not going full Last Dungeon Town (etc etc) where they are super powerful, but they might find that city heroes aren’t what they think.

What’s the Next Step for this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign?

The next step is pitching the idea to the players. We spun up a Discord Server to share links and notes from the last session. So I plan to drop all of the options in there today with any tweaks that I want. And then the players will get to decide what campaign sounds the most interesting to them. If I ran a game for you, which one would you want to pick?

As the Dungeon Master, I like the idea of them all obviously. But I think that if I were a player, I like the sound of the first and the last the best. The other two feel more monster of the week whereas the first and last feel like they are going to lead to a more epic end. But let me know your pick on the Facebook post or down in the comment section below.

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The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Plot

Devils are trying to take over the world and the strongest sage, well, he is doing his best to hold them back. But out of the four crests, his is the weakest for combat. When the hordes and threats have been driven back. He takes the opportunity to cast a spell to reincarnate himself to come back stronger with a stronger crest to be able to defeat them once and for all.

That is how Mathias Hildesheimer is born. He is powerful, he has the crest he wants, but he needs to still grow in power and training to get back to the point where he wants to be. However, the world has changed a lot since he was alive before. And now his crest, what he knows to be the strongest is considered to be the crest of failure.

Why It Doesn’t Work

We’re deviating from the normal format. Mainly because I don’t have much good to say about this anime. Visually, I think that it is good, not amazing but certainly not bad. And the voice acting is fine. I think that a lot of the characters are fairly annoying, but the voice acting is acting them as written, not adding to that affect. But otherwise, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is not good.

I guess to say one more nice thing about it, I like the premise, but it flubs it. I’m going to be comparing this to two other anime that I’ve watched, the first being Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and the other Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Came to a Starter Town. Why, because The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest does some things they do, but not as well. It’s more like The Wise Man’s Grandchild.

Mathias Hildesheimer

Let’s start out with the main character. I’ve mentioned that the characters are a bit annoying and he tends to be the worst. Mainly because for him, everything comes easily. There is no struggle with his character. Sometimes he fights a demon that is tougher, but only in the finale and maybe in the finale do you feel like there’s any threat to him. Otherwise he is just over powered.

Mathias always talks about how he needs to become stronger, but he’s already the strongest person alive. It might be true to some extent to get back to his power level, but it doesn’t seem like it’s much lower. In fact, in the finale, he defeats the boss without that much trouble, granted he needs a weapon to do so, but the danger, then feels contrived.

So he shows up to a school to learn and prepare. But he’s stronger than the teachers, he knows things that the teachers don’t know. And generally he just ends up being the teacher for everyone. Characters need a struggle and he has none. I guess his struggle is that he’s kind of clueless with the girl who likes him and he likes. But that also doesn’t make sense, he has his memories of a previously lived life. Was that not a part of his life? And if it wasn’t, why is romance a part of his life now?

The Comparison

So, I said that I was going to compare it to two other things. Let’s start out with the kid from the boonies, Lloyd. This does the same trope in some ways. The kid from the boonies near the last dungeon, you grow up there everything is hard. Monsters are hard to fight because it’s a high level town. So he goes to the starter town and he’s the most powerful. But to him, or for him, he can’t believe it. He doesn’t realize his power. He’s weak in his town, so now when he’s the most powerful, he doesn’t get it.

Compare that to Mathias, he is always the best out there. He knows he’s the best out there. He teaches teachers how to do things that were common place in his original time. Lloyd is struggling to fit into a new town. He’s struggling with realizing his power for what it is. Mathias is just the best there is, and he steps in and runs everything.

Then there is Bell from Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. Bell is a sweet heart, and someone who wants to get better and stronger. And he does so quite quickly, but there are always people stronger than him. I compare it because both Bell and Mathias are kids, but Bell is learning his powers. His struggle is to get stronger. Mathias never has that struggle. Even though that’s supposed to be part of his character. He is already strong.

The Premise

Finally, let’s talk about the premise, because I do think that it’s interesting, but the show or story misses on it. What happens, as I keep on harping on, is Mathias reincarnates to get a better crest. He does so and it takes a little bit but he regains all his memories. And he is just as strong, or nearly, as he was before, now with a better crest.

The problem, as I keep on coming back to as well, is that there is no character development. He’s instantly the strongest and mostly who he was before. He is just that as a kid. What would have worked better and they keep on hinting at, would be a struggle to get stronger. Have him know he should be better and get frustrated because his body can’t do what it used to do. Let Mathias struggle when he tries to do too much and it fails. Make there be problems for him, not a problem that is always resolved by the end of the episode.

The Comparison

Let’s compare the other premises, this time let’s start with Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and that story. It’s about Bell, who is a low level adventurer under a low level god, trying to improve. He’s always trying to push himself to be better because he wants to catch up to Aiz, one of the strongest adventurers because she saves him and he falls in love with her. But he doesn’t think he’s strong enough for her to even notice him. He has motivation and a struggle.

And with Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Lloyd’s struggle is that he doesn’t know what real life is like. And he doesn’t know how to balance his powers. He is amongst the weakest in his town, but it’s high level. So he struggles with actually being powerful, what his powers can actually do, especially in his town. And he just struggles with what normal life is actually like and the fame that comes with it.

The plot and Mathias in The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, he knows he is the strongest. And everyone treats him like that. He isn’t pushed to be better, it’s just something that automatically happens. And there isn’t much need for him to get better. So he doesn’t have a struggle to improve. And he doesn’t have a struggle of dealing with life. So the motivations for the plot, they just aren’t there. It’s a story that doesn’t give you a good reason as to why it is being told.

Final Thoughts

I am disappointed. Like I talked about in the discussion on the plot, I think that there are elements that could have made a solid story. But those don’t really matter because Mathias is good at everything. And more so because Mathias doesn’t fail. Bell fails. Lloyd fails, though mainly just at life stuff. In both cases neither of them are perfect. Mathias is kind of perfect and he doesn’t fail.

I don’t think that there is a reason to watch this. It reminds me, in some ways, of the stories where the main character is an edge lord. Those are about the viewer or reader kind of getting wish fulfillment of being a bit bad and edgy. Mathias is wish fulfillment for the viewer or reader if they want to be good, but also be the most powerful. And it is a shame, because it could have been more.

Finally, I think a lot of this might be somewhat intentional, which is also disappointing. The plot level of this is very low. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, feels like it’s trying to target people who are new to anime. However, it does so by dumbing down the story so much and removing all danger it’s a bad story.

To do one last comparison. Harry Potter doesn’t really get in trouble when he does bad stuff. There are fun elements to the story and world, but great writing, it’s not so much that. Versus Keeper of the Lost Cities, it is a constant struggle for Sophie, she gets in a lot of trouble and there are real consequences for her and those around her. I wish it was more like that.

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Pros

• Page Is Good
• Epic Adventure Game
• Price Point
• True Solo

Cons

• Price Point
• Aesthetic (possibly)

The Page

This is an interesting page for me. I put in my cons the aesthetic, and I think it might be the aesthetic of the page more so than the aesthetic of the game itself. The game looks different than most fantasy big box games. While it has dragons and monsters, it feels almost more grounded and more medieval in nature.

But on the flip side that same more simplistic aesthetic on the page itself, it seems a bit too much like it was done in paint. Now, they lay out things well on their page. I get an idea of what the game is about immediately, but at the same time, I also feel like if this was a new company, I’d be knocking them on it hard for not being polished enough.

The section that really stands out to me with this is the stretch goals or daily unlocks. Parts of the artwork look great. Other parts look unpolished, I guess that is what it comes down to for me. And like I said, I think it works for the game. It isn’t the flashiest, but it makes the game feel different. For the page, it just lacks the selling itself I’d expect.

The Game

The game itself does a lot of things that I like. Good character progression, from the looks of it. And while it’s not something that I seek out, I really like the idea that a character improves as things get worse. Cthulhu: Death May Die, I believe, does the same thing where you can unlock more abilities as you go more insane. So instead of feeling every hit as much, you fight harder for your life as the hits keep coming.

I also like that you make permanent changes to the world. This is basically a legacy element of the game but it isn’t a true legacy, I’d say. Basic idea is that as you play through the campaign and survive, your knights will influence the world, leave a mark on it. If and when you come back now what you’ve done before will make a difference on what happens next.

Also, for me, true solo is a huge add to the game. Just to clarify what that means, it means as a solo player I don’t need to control multiple characters. The game might be meant for 4 knights to go through it, but I can play it with one. It adds in squires as support, but the overall bookkeeping of all the knights versus some automated squires will make the game simpler to play.

As they say, the true solo helps you focus on the story. And I think that’s what interests me most is the story of the game. You’re going out as a knight, not as wizard, warlock, even a rogue or a fighter. You fight for your kingdom(s) and try and stop the monsters that are coming after you. That is pretty normal dungeon crawler, but it’s less an adventuring party, and more knights sent out on a quest.

Back or Brick

This one is a tough one for me. I definitely want to back it and right now I am for the $12 US no reward but access to pledge manager and early bird, if I decide to go in for more on it. So technically it is a Brick for me right now. I’m trying to convince myself with the pledge with no reward that I might play it later, I have room with the campaign games I own and have coming in, since I’m sure this will take a bit to deliver.

But in reality, I probably have enough to last me another five years or more, plus some on the way. So I likely won’t back this just because I don’t need another campaign game. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want this. And I think with Aeon’s Trespass coming out soon, we’ll get a better idea of what the company does. But I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you back it.

So is this a Back or Brick for you?

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But what would happen if you lost that final fight, the world is now in shambles and everything is going to hell, or the abyss, and sometimes that means literally. Today’s campaign idea takes a look at what happens after the fact, but not to the planet but to those heroes who fought bravely and in the end failed at being able to save the world, they’re all dead, and now they are level 1 characters in the next life, the afterlife. But because the apocalypse has come to their world, this Crystalline Halls of what’s basically Valhalla are starting to crumble and there is evil seeping into a place that shouldn’t have had any.

The story that I’d run with for this game is that because the heroes were the last ones to die, they remember and no more about the actual world. So while there are massive wars between Aasimar and Demons/Devils around them, the players are going to be tasked to find some way to undo what has been done. This is going to be a game about fighting a few small skirmishes, but exploring and finding where in the Crystalline Halls the PC’s can find what they need to turn back time and win the fight against whatever being it was that destroyed the world.

I think that you have several different plot threads that you can have the players run through. The first part would be about finding where the Demons/Devils are coming through into the Crystalline Halls. This would be a stealth mission of sorts, but there can be skirmishes with lesser creatures. Then they would have to explore in the abyss to find out the weaknesses of the being that destroyed the world that they couldn’t defeat before. Finally, they’d need to find a way to turn back time, either from the abyss or in the Crystalline Halls.

That is a fairly standard, end the apocalypse, but you’re going to be running the story in a different setting. I think creating the setting is very important here, because you want the players to feel like what they are doing is because they have specific knowledge, not because they are going to be able to stop the battle that is happening in the Crystalline Halls, if they fail at their mission, they fail and everything is over, there’s no after-afterlife.

I’d even be tempted to play around with the rules of magic a little bit. Only radiant damage works in the Crystalline Halls, but healing is boosted, and as long as a spell doesn’t do necrotic or fire damage, it does radiant damage instead. Also in the Crystalline Halls, anything that brings someone back from the dead doesn’t work, same when travelling in the Abyss, because the characters are technically already dead. However, healing is doubled in the Crystalline Halls, so if you’d heal someone for 6 points of damage, you heal them for 12 instead. Just to keep the characters alive. Now, in the Abyss, healing goes back to normal and spells do their normal things.

Another thing I’d probably add in as well, is that the players at some point in time stumble across a subplot where an Aasimar has been corrupted somehow or has turned evil and they are turning other denizens of the Crystalline Halls into Devils or Demons. You could even, once the players know about this, kind of use it as a timer where if they don’t stop the Aasimar or go back in time by a certain point the Crystalline Halls will have been overrun and all will be lost. It gives a solid branching plot for the narrative, like if the players feel like they won’t be fast enough, they can branch off and solve this problem first. And I’d make it some sort of magical item that the Aasimar has on or something like that which has been corrupted, or it’s a denizen of the Abyss or Hell who is disguised and pretending to be a specific Aasimar and the players need to prove that. Give it a few options there as well and see what direction the players immediately go with. But don’t make this an easy encounter, make it something that the players are either going to have to really race against, taking more risks, or it’s a fight that they’re going to need to prepare for.

Eventually, when the players likely have taken care of it all, and are ready to head back in time to stop the apocalypse from happening, give them some knowledge of the weaknesses of the being and probably some sweet weapons. Make them powerful, really powerful, maybe even give them boons that they can call on. Then send in waves of smaller monsters plus the big being that ended the world before and have an epic fight. Let the players do epic things and let the waves of smaller monsters die and run out, so eventually it’s that big final battle.

Would you play or run a game like this? What sort of story do you have at your table now?

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Dice Set – Now, I am going to primarily suggest that you get the normal 7 dice set which has a D20, D12, D10, D10 Percentile, D8, D6, and D4. These are the most common, and for games like D&D and Pathfinder. If you play other systems, you need to look at what dice those games use. The Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG and Genesys use specific dice that you can use normal dice for, but having a couple of sets of those dice make the game easier for everyone as well.

Dice Tray/Dice Tower – These are not something that you need for playing an RPG, but they can be useful. Both of them are basically something that can add for rolling dice. It’s nice if you have a wood table or something like that to use a dice tray as they are often padded so it makes rolling dice less noisy. It also keeps an enthusiastic roller from rolling them off of the table. A dice tower doesn’t make it any quieter, but it does the rolling for you. And it’s kind of fun to hear or see it bonk down the dice tower until it’s rolled.

The Core D&D Books – This is for someone who is getting into RPG’s and wants to run a game, the core D&D books are going to be great for getting them up and running. You get the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide. That’s enough to run as many games of D&D as you want. It’s possible that they already have some of them, but you can buy them separately or as a bundle. If they don’t have them, the bundles sometimes have cool covers. I wouldn’t spring this on someone who hasn’t expressed any interest in DM’ing though, because they might feel like you’re pressuring them into DM’ing.

Adventure Modules – Now, it might be that you have someone who likes D&D plays, as a player, fairly often, but is intimidated by running their own game from scratch. This is where you can use the adventure modules. The starter kit would be a great one to get them, but there are a lot of other adventures. Curse of Strahd is generally the best received one, and while I didn’t have the best time running it, I think that it is put together well and that my issue was more the group than it was the module itself. But you have a ton to choose from, so if you want dragons, you can get that, demons you can get that, or giants, that’s out there as well. This is where I’d encourage someone who likes D&D a lot to maybe thing about DM’ing by giving them an adventure module.

DM Screen – This one is definitely for the person who is the DM in you game, otherwise there’s no real need for it, but if they have a makeshift DM screen, get them an official one or a cool one off of Etsy. The basic one from Dungeons and Dragons/Wizards of the Coast is fine, and I have it and I like it, but there are some custom CNC cut wood ones that are amazing out there and if you want to bling out your game, a custom DM screen, some with built in dice towers, but those tend to be a bunch spendier.

Adventure Zone Comic Books – What, this isn’t an RPG, no, but it’s RPG related, and with all the RPG podcast information out there, and all the people who are doing them, even me for a while. But this takes one of the actual play podcasts that is extremely popular and turns it into a comic. Definitely good for someone who likes the podcast and got into D&D because of the podcast, or just loves the podcast. I’ve looked a little bit at the books, but the artwork is nice, and definitely looks like a fun time.

Legacy of Dragonholt – This is often put into an area between choose your own adventure and RPG and board game, but I think that it’d scratch the itch for people who like the ideas of RPG’s but aren’t ready to make the leap. The character creation is simple, the role playing piece is low in it, but it’s story driven, and you have a character that can do things. It works simply on you either being able to do something or not. It is also a game that can be played solo, so if there is someone in your life who doesn’t have a group or who can’t play as often as they would want, this would be a solid option as well, though, a serious min/maxing player will find this way to light.

There’s so much more out there. There are a lot of indie RPG’s that people can check out as well that give you more specific settings than fantasy. And I talked only about the basic Dungeons and Dragons books and adventures, but there are other books that add in more monsters, more character options and many other things. Overall, there is a ton out there for RPG’s right now, and it’s a hobby that is growing still, which is cool. If you have someone who you think might like an RPG, you can also just give the gift of running a game for them, maybe you have a relative who they are their friends want to try and RPG, but none of them want to run it, you can give the gift of running a few sessions.

What would you want for your pen and paper RPG collection? Is there something on the list that looks really cool?

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They don’t love an extremely long time like Elves, they don’t live underground like Dwarves, Humans are just like humans in the real world. Very diverse, very able to adapt, and able to be any class pretty easily. Humans are the odd race in that they don’t get a +2 to any of the main six stats, but they get a plus one to all of them. Getting an even stat bump across the board means that you can be equally as good as being a wizard as a barbarian at the start. But that’s the big thing with humans, or the variant human, which gets +1 to two stats and then a feat (an extra ability), which can also help you create any type of character you want to be more effective from the start.

But enough about the mechanical reasons, let’s talk some about role playing a human. Again, they are pretty straight forward, but diverse. You have to decide on things like if you are from the city or a village or the country when playing a human to see how you might interact with the world, or are you wealthy or poor, or something along those lines. You don’t have those racial traits like Dwarves and Elves that are going to give you a basis for your role play, you have to figure that out as a player.

For that reason, it’s pretty easy to have fairly boring human characters. You don’t have that specific thing to latch onto and if you don’t put the effort into your backstory, you’re going to run into issues knowing how to role play your character besides being generic human adventurer #201348. So lean into some aspect that makes your backstory and traits unique for growing up. What sets you apart from the humans you might run into in a town miles away? What world view do you have from where you grew up? Does the outdoors and wild seem too open? Do the city streets seem too confining? None of this is unique to a human even, Elves or Dwarves can have the same experience, but it’s the experiences that you’re going to have to lean into for really playing a human.

So what are some backstories for a human?

Growing up on the farm, I really wanted to find more in the world. I was the second child and I knew I wasn’t going to inherit the farm. When my parents passed away it would go to my older sibling. My parents main hope was to marry me to someone who would be getting a farm of their own. I eventually convinced my parents to let me apprentice in town and get a skill that I needed. I heard stories of the world there, and I wanted to know more about it and see more of it. There were so many amazing tales, wonderful places of power and awe that I could only hear about and had never seen, and I wanted to see them. So I left with a group that came through town and made it to the city where there were supposed to be white spires reaching into the heavens. The real world is disappointing, people lie, but I know that some of those stories must have had truth in them, and I want to find it.
Class: Any Martial/Half Caster Class
Alignment: Neutral Good, Chaotic Good
Background: Guild Artisan

The city is a mean place to grow up when you’re poor. You basically make a living by stealing, begging, or charity of some temple. But I found another way, I met a man at a cross roads who offered to become my patron and a good hot meal. That seemed like a great deal at the time, turns out that he had more plans for me. He started having me do some shady jobs for him once in a while, but it wasn’t too bad. Eventually life changed for me, and I was able to set-up a little shop on the corner where I told people’s fortunes. Sure, it might have been a hustle, but compared to most others who had their little shops, I was more accurate. I had almost forgotten about the deal I made when the man came back to visit my shop and asked me if I liked my success. I said that I did, and he said that in turn for more success I was going to need to do him a favor.
Class: Warlock/Cleric
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral/Chaotic Good
Background: Urchin/Charlatan/Criminal
Note: This is a backstory that really screams Warlock, but I think it could be interesting to have the “deal” be less binding, but something more of a deity sending an emissary to this person because they need them eventually and giving them cleric powers.

The Neverending War, that’s what they’ll call it. And it might not actually ever end, not with the demons seemingly uncountable coming through a tear in dimensions from the abyss. Life is fleeting, even with our short life spans, the war makes it even shorter. Fight for five years and gain your freedom to do whatever you want. Less than half of us last that long. The government gives us money to live, but most of us still need to work to really make a life for ourselves. Some can settle down and start a smithy, farm a field, build furniture, but that isn’t for me. I’m just out of the army now, one of the few of my friends who survived. I know there are demons who are getting passed us into the real world. I want to find a group who can help me stop them.
Class: Fighter/Ranger/Rogue
Alignment: Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral
Background: Soldier

You can see how these are pretty generic backstories that would probably work for almost any race. But I tried to add in a few more human elements to them.

What do you think about those backstories? Is there some trait that you think is really human that I missed?

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I’ve gone through how I build a campaign, and I just picked up Mordenkainens Tome of Foes. Reading through that, or starting to, it was giving me ideas for more campaigns, and even some games that are actually set in the the realms created by Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons and Dragons and not just my own home brew games.

The Blood War, an eternal struggle between the ordered planes of the 9 Hells and the masses of the Abyss. The Devils of the 9 Hells have different hierarchy in the levels of what each one of them does, while the Demons of the Abyss throw their giant numbers in a much more chaos filled ways at the Devils.

That’s the simple backstory of the Blood War that rages on. There are a whole lot more details, but we’re going to focus on an interesting campaign idea surrounding that.

The idea is that if the balance is broken, either the planes will be overrun by chaos as the Demons run wild or the Devils will impose their own “perfect” order onto the planes. Something is now trying to throw off the balance. The Demons have allegedly found some sort of way to infiltrate Mephistopheles ranks and are going to be taking some of his research out with them, when they figure a way back out.

The adventuring party starts to see more random incursions of Demons and Devils into the Forgotten Realms. They are in fact contacted to dispatch and deal with some situations that are going on. Most of the time the Devils are countering some idea that the Demons have had to get their spies out of Cania in the 9 Hells. The work of the adventuring party doesn’t go unnoticed and an emissary of Asmodeus. The party eventually takes on a fairly powerful Demon and wins, and the party will be approached by an emissary.

The emissary will have a contract that is sealed with Asmodeus’s seal that lays out what he wants them to do to figure out the problem. Laying out how, if the Demons are able to leave with the information it might be enough to turn the tide of the war and the Devils would turn the Forgotten realms into a smoldering world of chaos. He offers the party some money immediately and provides them with some additional information on the 9 Hells.

Unfortunately for the characters, this isn’t something that Asmodeus really wants know what is going on. As part of the deal they are sworn to secrecy. And that also means that while he can give them information about how to get to the river Styx, he can’t just take them straight into Cania, they will have to go through the other layers of hell.

This is the big crux of the adventure being created. How are the players going to get through the 9 Hells? What tricks or bribes will they have to use when they inevitably run into one of the Lords of one of the levels of hell?

You can determine how you’d want your story to end, maybe someone was trying to play a trick of Asmodeus, and there wasn’t an spy in their midst. Maybe there was a spy in their midst. Maybe it is a situation where Asmodeus is testing his own defenses, but remember that Devils are Lawful Evil in what they do and order is extremely important.

I would expect each level of hell, there would only be eight as they aren’t going to Asmodeus level, would be about three to five sessions. So this should be a pretty long campaign, unless you play longer sessions. At the end of the dungeon, players should be hitting 15-16 level. You could even then continue after that, most likely having to face off against some high Demon in the Abyss if you want to finish it off. I’d also expect the party to be around level four or five by the time they hit the river Styx.

This is going to be a grueling game for the players. I would make things such as create food and water, maybe they work, but because of the extreme heat or cold of the levels of hell, probably won’t actually be able to sustain them. So they are going to have to be resourceful. And while there will be combat, create tempting spots for the players to sneak into, give them interesting loot, devil focused loot. At the end, you should have a well geared out party because of what they are finding on other adventurers who have braved the 9 Hells, and the Devils who have collected trophies.

What do you think of this game idea?

I think this would be interesting because you can create very thematic sessions as you go through the levels of hell. It is also interesting to have an adventuring party doing a good thing for a very evil being. Technically Asmodeus is having them do it so that he doesn’t lose, but it actually ends up helping the planes of existence from being destroyed or turned. However, it probably won’t be the happiest game, and it won’t be the most murder hobo game, though you won’t feel bad about killing anything. I’m also guessing this isn’t that unique an idea, but the Blood War was something I just learned about.

Would you want to play in a game like this one? Would you want to run a game like this one?

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I don’t think my opinion of the game has changed much really. I find it a fantastic game still, so let’s get that out of the way. The staying power of the game is really good, and we’ve gotten to open two new things in a box from when we started until when we played last night. And that is okay, because you get to like your character that you are playing, and you want to get to their higher level abilities. The story is still cool and the monsters change from section to section as you find out crazy things that are happening.

Let’s talk about some things that I want to call out from what I’ve noticed in the game:

We get rules wrong once in a while. We messed up big time at one point picking the correct level for the mission. That math isn’t tricky, it just isn’t what you’d think it would be immediately. I’m sure we’ve messed up rules with how certain effects work from time to time. However, when we mess something up, we tend to mess it up for both ourselves and the monsters and when we mess up a rule, so it isn’t like we’re giving ourselves an advantage.

Leveling up is simple and fun. There’s honestly not much more than swapping in new combat cards and getting a few more hit points. That is, however, plenty, because what you really care about is adding in those new combat cards. I went from having a few cards that did a little bit of damage and a contraption that I could toss out that could soak up damage to having a contraption that can attack, an auto turret firing arrows on my back, and a death ray. Everyone else has found new cool things as they’ve leveled up as well, and looking forward to leveling up and watching those XP climb is exciting, because you want to get to that next spot and to that next card.

We’ve also had our first character retire. Retirement is a little bit bittersweet from what I can tell, and I’ll be likely retiring my character next week. The reason for that is that you’ve grown attached to your character, you know what they can do and how you want to play them. At the same time, it is exciting, because you get to play a new character. I believe that most of the retirement conditions allow you to open up a new character box, but you also have the original characters as well that you can play. That’s one of the things we’ve gotten to open as well as the town records which has led to some interesting discoveries about the world that we’re playing in.

Another thing that I’ve enjoyed is that Gloomhaven gives you a chance to have absolutely epic moments. In the case of my character, I go through a lot of cards where I can play them once and they do something great, but then they are gone for that scenario. That means that I’m working on a pretty tight timeline for what I can do. I like the ticking clock that you have over you, but that means sometimes I don’t make it to the end of the scenario. So if I’m smart about it, I have a card or two saved for the last room, the toughest part to do something epic. In the case of last night, we were facing off against a large demon. It had 36 HP, and I had three turns left before I’d be exhausted. Instead of doing a little damage and trying to keep up with the action with lasting as long as possible, I decided to “burn” my cards so they would be used up for the scenario and ended up doing 17 damage to the demon in a single turn. So I, in a single turn, nearly did half the damage to the monster and left it greatly weakened for the rest of the players. We’ve had a number of those moments where someone has rushed in and killed half the enemies in the room in one fell swoop or thrown rocks at an enemy dealing them damage. There are a ton of cool moments that you can have in Gloomhaven.

I do want to offer a piece of advice as well. Gloomhaven is an investment to start out with, like a big investment. While it’s definitely worth the money, it’s probably worth it to invest even more into it. Now, I’m not just talking about the expansion that is being worked on, what I’m really talking about is a box insert. While my system isn’t bad and it makes set-up a whole lot faster and easier than it would be without the envelopes that I’ve used, I’m moving three boxes, the big box, a tackle box, and a shoe box full of monster envelopes out every time that we play. If it were to fit in one box neatly or even if it fit in one box with the lid slightly higher than it should be, that would be great and make it so much easier to move. Now that I’ve already sorted mine this way and spent a little bit of money on envelopes, I don’t feel like re-sorting it and spending more money, however, if you haven’t yet, I’d get an insert for the game, you’ll appreciate it. Broken token has a very nice one that I’ve heard nothing but good things about.

So clearly I’m still loving the game. I don’t see myself getting bored of it, and I’m already planning on getting the expansion when it comes out. Gloomhaven is very much worth the money investment and the time investment. If you can find a couple of other people to play it with weekly or bi-weekly, you are going to have a blast.

Overall Grade: A+
Gamer Grade: A+
Casual Grade: B

So just a tiny bit on the casual grade. B is still a very good grade, however, there is a fair amount of complexity to the game and to combat, and while I do think that my wife, who is more of a casual gamer, would be able to get it figured out after a few times, it does have a steeper learning curve and is a heavier weight game than a lot of casual games were want to jump into.

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So, how do you pick what you want to use in a way that doesn’t make it seem like you’re just picking from the book at random or what looks like it’s the coolest?

One helpful tool is that in the Dungeon Master’s Guide they have different monsters and creatures split out by habitat, so you can go ahead and pick out what works for the area that you are in. If you are in the jungle, you’re probably not going to see a frost giant, if you are in a freezing cold mountain and there’s a dragon, it’s probably a white dragon. That’s one way to help keep things focused in, but what if you really want to pick crazy monsters from the book?

My suggestion there would be, instead of having an obvious story reaching over everything, be a group of big game hunters who are paid to go around and find these wild and exotic creatures. You could need to bring them back alive, or maybe someone really want to have the horns of a minitaur, the shell of a flail snail and the beak of a owlbear for their collection. It would be an interesting game to play, and if you have a group where sometimes people miss, it would be easy because you don’t need everyone there to play, you just need enough people to kill the beast (hopefully) and birng it back.

But what if you’re already in a game and you’ve bounced around the world and you have a big story going, but you want to bring in something that wouldn’t make sense?

You have a few options, maybe you have the creature get loose form a cargo ship or a zoo. You can try and fit the monster into your story some way, there are a ton of different options. For example, in Dungeons and Flagons, the group has faced off against human pirates, Yuan-Ti, goblins, hobgoblins, a red dragon, elementals, devils and/or demons, and are now facing off against a beholder. They’ve been hopping somewhat all over the globe, but each of the monsters had their part to play, including the hobgoblins who were mainly there to be a distraction.

Finally, what do you do but the monster is too powerful or too weak?

Goblins are puny, if any of the characters in Dungeons and Flagons were to attack a goblin, it would either be killed a single sho or they would use their second attack on a turn ot kill it. How do you make your goblins scarier? You bring them in large numbers. When each player has four goblins attacking them, that is scary, even if they can dispatch one per turn, they’ll still get attacked a minimum of six times. Or maybe you don’t think that would be that much fun, well, maybe you have the goblins be a scouting party and signal another group of goblins who are a distance away, after the adventuring party has finished off that first group and is starting to think about looting the goblins bodies, you bring in that second group.

But sometimes you really want them to face off against that one really strong boss, and that boss is supposed to be a goblin, but the toughest goblin in the book isn’t tough enough. My first option would be to have other goblins with him, but sometimes that doens’t work or that isn’t what makes sense for your story. The second option would be to find a creature that makes more sense to face off against the characters (aka. is stronger) and call it a goblin. They have, in the back of both monster books NPC stat blocks for different types of people. There is a necromancer back there, it doesn’t say that it’s a goblin necromancer, but you’re in charge of your game, so you get to decide. Grab that harder bad guy and pu them in front of the players. Then instead of describing your necromancer as a pale human with a guant face who is wearing dark robes, describe it as a goblin who has a staff and who has raised the zombie horde that you saw in the courtyard. He has dark tattoos of demonic symbols across his body, roll initiative. And there you have two characters who would be the same stat block, have the same skills, and might even have the same evil plan, but ones a goblin.

That’s an easy conversion, but sometimes conversions make less sense. You want a really strong brawler to come up and challenge your group of adventurers and take a swing at them in a bar but you don’t like any of the options in the back of the book. Well, depending on what level they are, look at an owlbear or bugbear or some other creature. Sure an Owlbear is a bear body with an owl head and has a bite attack, but just don’t use the bite attack, use the claw attack and call it punches. Simply by reflavoring the attacks and calling them something different, you can take on creature and make it into another.