LocalDave's page

powell01 wrote:

Helaman wrote:

The Gong may be a good weekend!

Thinking about Gongcon. Just want to find out what's on offer beforehand.

Hey all! Just stepping in as a member of University of Wollongong's gaming club, the Guild, to let you all know some details about Gongcon, which we are indeed holding over the weekend of 21st to 22nd of July. We have a large building on campus, the McKinnon Building, confirmed as our venue. There will be boardgames and tabletop wargames, plus collectable card games, hopefully including a Magic the Gathering tourney with prize money, organized by the guys at Good Games Wollongong. There will also be movie marathons run by the Harry Potter Society (who will also be running Wizard Chess and Quidditch on the lawn outside McKinnon) and the Manga/Anime Society, and Rotoract will be holding sausage sizzles etc right outside the doors, with other food amenities hopefully open nearby on campus. At this point, apart from the Pathfinder games run by the Shadowlodge, we have three other confirmed rpgs- Dave Posener will be running Stranglehold- a Pathfinder political intrigue for a group of despicable villains of level 7, Michael Sweet will be running Jenolan Jaunt, a Call of Cthulhu scenario set in Jenolan Caves, and Dan Morgan will be running a desert island survival scenario using, I believe, Basic Roleplaying, which I have played through using another system and is a blast, as all Dan's adventures are. We are still accepting submissions from GMs (if any of you are interested in running something, contact me at thedmdave@aol.com for a volunteer form) until the end of May. I'm hoping for two or three other rpgs (I wish I could run an oldschool d&d game myself, but I will be busy co-ordinating the others). From what I gather, there should be loads of Pathfinder fun via the Shadowlodge- check with Al Rigg for details. Entry for the whole weekend will be $10, though there may be another small charge for things like the Magic tourney and so on. We will be taking...

Hey again- it has been a while since I was here. Just a note to let you all know that Gongcon was pushed back a week to th 28th & 29th of July, and will no longer be in McKinnon but in building 24. All of the details have been updated at our Facebook event. :-)

Helaman wrote:

The Gong may be a good weekend!

Thinking about Gongcon. Just want to find out what's on offer beforehand.

Hey all! Just stepping in as a member of University of Wollongong's gaming club, the Guild, to let you all know some details about Gongcon, which we are indeed holding over the weekend of 21st to 22nd of July. We have a large building on campus, the McKinnon Building, confirmed as our venue. There will be boardgames and tabletop wargames, plus collectable card games, hopefully including a Magic the Gathering tourney with prize money, organized by the guys at Good Games Wollongong. There will also be movie marathons run by the Harry Potter Society (who will also be running Wizard Chess and Quidditch on the lawn outside McKinnon) and the Manga/Anime Society, and Rotoract will be holding sausage sizzles etc right outside the doors, with other food amenities hopefully open nearby on campus. At this point, apart from the Pathfinder games run by the Shadowlodge, we have three other confirmed rpgs- Dave Posener will be running Stranglehold- a Pathfinder political intrigue for a group of despicable villains of level 7, Michael Sweet will be running Jenolan Jaunt, a Call of Cthulhu scenario set in Jenolan Caves, and Dan Morgan will be running a desert island survival scenario using, I believe, Basic Roleplaying, which I have played through using another system and is a blast, as all Dan's adventures are. We are still accepting submissions from GMs (if any of you are interested in running something, contact me at thedmdave@aol.com for a volunteer form) until the end of May. I'm hoping for two or three other rpgs (I wish I could run an oldschool d&d game myself, but I will be busy co-ordinating the others). From what I gather, there should be loads of Pathfinder fun via the Shadowlodge- check with Al Rigg for details. Entry for the whole weekend will be $10, though there may be another small charge for things like the Magic tourney and so on. We will be taking registrations from the start of June via our website: http://www.guildgaming-uow.org/ We will be opening a facebook event for it over the next week- you can find us for now on Facebook if you look up UoW-Guild-Gaming-Society.

Filtered out of? I'm cool- I have been absent with my wee one, at swimming lessons, and then making dinner. All is cool with me since I got my snazzy new email...

Glad the map is liked- I did it on Autorealm, which is free software and a tad more intuitive and forgiving than Campaign Cartographer.

I kind of like Junction or Wealdbrook (Woodcreek?).

I have sent you the first sketch of that map, which is less nice and more relevant...

I agree the Baron needs to be mid-level at best, and perhaps portly and inadequate to boot...

This is kind of sucky - I'll look for a blog that Dave isn't filtered out of.

I agree: 10 gods good. Sorry for the double email Dave. Everyone should have got a map from me too. Thoughts?

I forgot one thing on my list:

# of gods:
(1) Monotheistic
(10) There is a god of yellow highlighters.

My feeling is that we should limit this to perhaps 10 major gods + various demon/devil lords.

I know I'll seem dim, but I have a jpeg map (based on our discussions, Dan) which I'd like to post for you all to look at. How the hell do I do that? Is my only option to email it to you?
EmbarressedLocalDave

History (Local):
Yes we do.

Economics:
Might go so far as a 3 or 4, but no further.

Magic:
Absolutely disagree, Dave. Clearly, 1 in 978 people is a more appropriate figure...

Religion:
I'm an 8 too, but think Roman pantheon rather than Greek. Gods are are not omnipotent or omniscient. They have attachments to places or things which they are emblamatic for and in which their power resides. A god of the wood might actually be harmed by unchecked pyromaniac mayhem, for instance...

Celestial Interaction:
Mm-hmm- 3 or 4 for me too.

Campaign Questions:

Just a general questionnaire about some of the preferences for the new campaign (thought starters)

Creatures:
(1) Human Only [Earth / Alternate Earth]
(10) Every Race / Monster in Core Monster Manual [Faerun]

10 – Lets give 4th edition the full works

Homogeneity:
(1) All races stick to their own kind
(10) All races are accepted in all towns / cities

3 – Some small interchange between races, but most villages are mostly homogenous

Human Centricity:
(1) Humans are the main players in the world, elves can only be seen in deserted forests when the moon is full
(10) Humans are but one of the many sentient races, and can be expected to make up no more than 5% of the world’s total population

6 – Most NPCs are human more often than not, but a significant amount are non-human

Monsters!
(1) Monster attacks are rare and nobody believes they exist
(10) Monsters are expected and feared. Humanity exists in the cracks of the food chain.

9 – Monsters are everywhere! Some villages are holding back the darkness.

Cosmology
(1) No other planes exist
(5) 4th Ed Cosmology (Shadowlands, Feywild, Elemental Vortex)
(10) The great wheel

5 – 4th ed standard

World shape
(1) Gravity says “You’re a sphere”
(10) We live in a planar tree on the back of a unicorn made of pudding.

1 – Let’s not go nuts here.

Civilisation
(1) Massive cities, developed nations
(10) Wilderness, small self-sufficient hamlets
A range of 5 – 10 depending on region. Mostly towards the upper range.

Climate

Temperate to start with, but some opportunities to do cold / desert / ocean adventures.

Flora and Fauna

???

Names
(1) Modeled after a historical society
(10) Every name has an apostrophe in it.

3 – Towns with names like “Stonebridge” or “Stormleigh” should be common in human lands (varies with race)

Culture (Local)

Feudal lords and Robber Barons with no overlaying authority. Knightly...

Ok:
Creatures:
thumbs up for all core races- others we play be ear I say.

Homogeneity:
I think mixed settlements is best- racial towns tend to feel very 'mono' to me...

Human Centricity:
Yeah, I think maybe 1/2 of all folk in civilized areas are human, with exceptions to that rule for variety...

Monsters!
I picture towns being defensive stockades, folks clustered together in a largely hostile world. Innocent villagers need the help of bold adventurers, because military/the watch or whatever are thin on the ground...

Cosmology:
Yep, 4E standard.

World shape:
This is not an experimental or notional campaign, in my view. We want a Red-Box Basic D&D Back to Basics approach to encompass the new rules, in my view.

Civilisation:
I'll put an x on 7 here.

Climate:
Exotic locales are just that in my view of this game: distant, different. They exist, but you'd have to travel there.

Flora and Fauna:
Think France/Germany/Britain, but without extensive deforestation- arable land is clustered around settlements- the rest is 'wild Europe'...

Names:
Yep, generic. Ironhill if the town's in hills with nearby mines, Shimmerglade if fey-dominant. Nothing obscure...

Culture (Local):
A fat mayor and his hired muscle, perhaps?

Campaign Questions:

Just a general questionnaire about some of the preferences for the new campaign (thought starters)

Creatures:
(1) Human Only [Earth / Alternate Earth]
(10) Every Race / Monster in Core Monster Manual [Faerun]

10 – Lets give 4th edition the full works

Homogeneity:
(1) All races stick to their own kind
(10) All races are accepted in all towns / cities

3 – Some small interchange between races, but most villages are mostly homogenous

Human Centricity:
(1) Humans are the main players in the world, elves can only be seen in deserted forests when the moon is full
(10) Humans are but one of the many sentient races, and can be expected to make up no more than 5% of the world’s total population

6 – Most NPCs are human more often than not, but a significant amount are non-human

Monsters!
(1) Monster attacks are rare and nobody believes they exist
(10) Monsters are expected and feared. Humanity exists in the cracks of the food chain.

9 – Monsters are everywhere! Some villages are holding back the darkness.

Cosmology
(1) No other planes exist
(5) 4th Ed Cosmology (Shadowlands, Feywild, Elemental Vortex)
(10) The great wheel

5 – 4th ed standard

World shape
(1) Gravity says “You’re a sphere”
(10) We live in a planar tree on the back of a unicorn made of pudding.

1 – Let’s not go nuts here.

Civilisation
(1) Massive cities, developed nations
(10) Wilderness, small self-sufficient hamlets
A range of 5 – 10 depending on region. Mostly towards the upper range.

Climate

Temperate to start with, but some opportunities to do cold / desert / ocean adventures.

Flora and Fauna

???

Names
(1) Modeled after a historical society
(10) Every name has an apostrophe in it.

3 – Towns with names like “Stonebridge” or “Stormleigh” should be common in human lands (varies with race)

Culture (Local)

Feudal lords and Robber Barons with no overlaying authority. Knightly...

Okay, first of all, my 2c from a while ago, before I found the new blog, and in reply to Sydney Dave's bizarro-earth map:

I like your ideas, Dave, particularly pertaining to the large scale map parameters- I think an arbitrary map like that might work well, although with the massively increased land mass we might want to make the dark area which was north and south America, plus the area beyond it to the west which was part of the Pacific, into a big Atlantic style ocean...
Dan in particular seems fond of the idea of a developed starting point for the campaign, and for the fog surrounding it to be cleared as we explore, ala Heroes of Might and Magic. This leaves more creative leeway mid-campaign. We discussed a selection of hooks and locations, made by all DMs, which would go into a hat; they would then be drawn with knowledge checks etc. You might end up having to develop something unexpected, another DMs hook, which seems fun, although Dan seemed to want the right to put dibs on a choice hook he had ideas for. I think that this method would leave creative license firmly in the hands of the operative DM, but with world development occurring in four distinct and isolated paradigms problems are likely to arise. We could end up with a rather ramshackle setting.
I don't think we want our own 'Forgotten Realms' developed beforehand in minute detail- this is likely to turn into a huge lumbering behemoth that we'll all lose interest in. It seems exciting to me that the world can unfold as we play, and have elements of surprise. I do think, however, that we want some kind of blurry structure to build our setting upon. Somewhere between the two approaches might be best- a broadly painted background or 'bare-bones'(continents, major geographic features, rough population dispersal outlines etc...) which is fleshed out and drawn in finer detail as we go.
Thoughts?
ps: If you would like to set up a more accessible blog, now would be the time, before we've gotten too far into it...
LocalDave