At the end of the next session of the Godfell Stone, the players will find a letter on the body of one of the NPCs. This is that letter.

You can, of course, click to enbiggen.

The writing is draconic, while the actual language behind the writing is a combination of Common (English) and Draconic. I’ll have a copy for each player, so that they can work on translating it in sections between the five of them. I’ll have a two-page draconic dictionary, as well as a letter cypher so that they can translate.

There’s a lot of text there, and the players will have a lot of work on their hands to translate. I hope they’re up to the task. After they’ve translated it, I’ll provide the translation here.

Here’s the question: Do I have them work on it at the table? With only two hours of game time a week, this will take up a good portion of the time, and it’s going to be after a big fight. Perhaps I should make them wait a week, kick off the translation at the beginning of the next session…

What do you all advise?

About a month back, I put out a post about this series. Now it’s finally here.

I wrote a post about Divinity a while back, that got some fantastic response, so I’m going to be talking more in depth about the worship of each god in detail, as I see it. I’ll be referencing things from the Divinity article.

Avandra, goddess of freedom and travel, is a fickle god. She distains organized worship, as it limits her disciples from their freedom, and yet, as with all of the gods, the worship of others is essential to her to maintain her power.

As such, her priests, known as Wanderers, travel the world, seeking out new discoveries and new paths. When they come upon another sentient life, they will often begin to preach to them, telling them of the power of Avandra. However, as goddess of freedom, she does not allow her followers to attempt conversion. Thus, the conversations usually is much broader, discussing the power of freedom.

The priests of Avandra travel light, and do not rush anywhere. Their thought is that the journey itself is the reward. This can be frustrating to a group they are traveling with, as they refuse to race from place to place.

Clerics of Avandra don’t usually wear heavier armor, choosing leather or hide to protect themselves. They see the protection and healing of those around them as a symbol of Avandra’s desire for freedom.

Paladins of Avandra actively seek out those who would seek to hinder freedom, and stop them. They actively work at ending prison sentences in civilized nations, offering alternative methods of punishment instead.

Avengers of Avandra are the assassins of the Goddess of Freedom. They will often be sent in by their goddess to free slaves, kill slavetraders, and stop those who would hinder freedom in any way.

That’s about all. Can you think of anything else Wanderers of Avandra would do? Avandra is a tricky one, as she wouldn’t have such defined religious structures. The ones after this will be more organized.

Following from yesterday’s post, where I discussed the good and unaligned gods, I’m going to talk a bit about the priests of the evil gods of D&D.

Asmodeus: The priests of Asmodeus are known as “Dominators”. The Dominators of Asmodeus seek to spread tyranny wherever they go. Fond of summoning devils, Dominators wish to aid their dark master, the Lord of the Nine Hells in his overthrow of not only the mortal plane, but every other plane in existance as well.

Bane: Priests of Bane are called “Warmasters”. The Warmasters of Bane often ally themselves with other evil gods seeking dominion, though they are just as often seen stirring up war for the sake of war itself. They are master tacticians, and are known for their ability to plan for nearly any battlefield situation. They believe that they worship their god and bring him praise through tactical genius.

Gruumsh: The priests of Gruumsh are called “Eyes”. The Eyes of Gruumsh are almost always orcs, though occasionally, other races worship him. Eyes tear out one of their own eye, in order to look more like their god. The Eyes of Gruumsh long for slaughter and destruction, rarely caring for the consequences.

Lolth: The priestesses of Lolth are known as “Mistresses”. The Mistresses of Lolth serve their dark mistress in horrific, bloody rituals, sacrificing creatures from the surface world while delivering dark and evil sermons from the top of large platforms as thousands of drow watch. They spread lies and deceit wherever they go, twisting words and confusing those Lolth commands.

Tharizdun: The few priests of Tharizdun who exist are called “The Shapeless”. The Shapeless of Tharizdun dress in large black robes, their faces obscured by masks that seem to change shape constantly. They worship in secret, hidden away from the eyes of civilization.

Tiamat: Priests of Tiamat are known as “Flames”. The Flames of Tiamat always travel in groups of five. Each wears robes the color of one of the chromatic dragons.

Torog: The priests of Torog are called “Flayers”. The Flayers of Torog wish to make themselves in the image of their god, flaying their skin, binding themselves in spiked chains. They will often take an unwilling victim, break their legs and attempt to make them as “Torog-like” as possible. The victim is left in the abandoned tunnels of the Underdark to fend for himself.

Vecna: The priests of Vecna are known as “Decievers”. The Decievers of Vecna seek to hide all knowledge from the world. Their spies learn everything they can from kings and lords in order to blackmail or overthrow them. More devout Decievers will actually cut off their hand, and gouge out an eye to look more like Vecna himself.

Zehir: The priests of Zehir are known as “Fangs”. The Fangs of Zehir are master poisoners. Their temples resemble large alchemical factories where poisons of every kind are created. Their assassins are legendary. Avengers of Zehir are relentless, seeking out more and more powerful poisons, then testing them on every kind of creature, from dragon to beholder.

And that’s what I have for the evil gods. Any changes you think should be made to them?

The Divine Power Source is fascinating to me. When you look at it, the differences between the four Divine classes are, from an in-game outsider’s perspective, the same thing. Sure, they may have different focuses and show off their abilities in different ways, but they’re all servants of a particular god.

In that way, I imagine monasteries would contain a couple, if not all of the Divine classes. Avenger would be less likely, due to their secretive nature, but I could see an Avenger and Invoker monastery. In the end, they’re all priests of their particular god.

Today, over on Twitter, Brian of D20 Monkey noted that in his world, priests of Pelor are called, instead of priest, “Lantern”. They’re “Lanterns of Pelor”, which I think is genius. A priest of the Raven Queen would be called “Shepherds”, since their goal is to shepherd people into death. I think those two are perfect. Here’s what I would call the other priests of other gods, and how they would act.

Avandra: Priests of Avandra would be known as “Wanderers”. Wanderers travel light, as they’re constantly on the move. They’re often seen walking, their horse carrying the things they need. They don’t rush to get from place to place, but instead enjoy the journey.

Bahamut: The priests of Bahamut are known as “Judges”. Judges of Bahamut are usually somewhat humorless and heavy on rules. They don’t appreciate any lawbreaker. They’re often found solving crimes committed wherever they are, even when they’re not welcome.

Corellon: Priests of Corellon are known as “Muses”. The temples of Muses are museums of beautiful art. Muses of Corellon are often closely aligned with Arcane practitioners, as their god is the god not only of art, but magic as well. Many Muses dabble in magic, multiclassing into other Arcane classes.

Erathis: The priests of Erathis are known as “Settlers”. Settlers of Erathis travel from settlement to settlement, town to town, ensuring their safety. They’ll inspect city walls, repair cracks in buildings, and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty to help build up civilization. The great roads of the world were built by Settlers of Erathis.

Ioun: The priests of Ioun are called “Librarians”. As such, the temples of Ioun are massive temples of stored knowledge. When Librarians of Ioun travel, they do so to aquire more knowledge, often seeking out old books to bring back to their home temples.

Kord: Priests of Kord are known as “Champions”. Champions train constantly for battle. Their temples look like training yards, where, for a small tithe to the church, they will train anyone who seeks martial ability. They often build their temples in locations wracked with frequent storms, as they believe it brings them closer to their god.

Melora: The priests of Melora are called “Savages”. Savages of Melora don’t establish temples in cities. Instead, their temples are found in the deep forests, the high cliffs over mountains, and in vast tracts of desert. The Savages generally eschew metal armor and weapons.

Moradin: Priests of Moradin are known as “Smiths”. The Smiths of Moradin are known to spend hours crafting weapons and tools at their forges. Their temples are hot, smokey places, filled with forges as the Smiths hammer away. A Smith of Moradin holds services while he forges a weapon. By the end of his homily, a new weapon is made and given away to one of the people who listened to his sermon.

Pelor: The priests of Pelor are known as “Lanterns”. The Lanterns of Pelor are the ones who light a city’s lamps at night and assist in tilling the fields in the Spring. Their festivals come when Summer is at its peak. They speak frequently about bringing the light to the dark places of the world, and their temples are bright beacons in any city.

The Raven Queen: The priests of the Raven Queen are known as “Shepherds”. The Shepherds of the Raven Queen are the morticians and grave-diggers of the world. They perform powerful rituals during funerals, ensuring the dead stay dead. They are often known as “Crows” as well, for both the goddess they worship, as well as the black robes they wear.

Sehanine: The priests of Sehanine are called “Visions”. The Visions of Sehanine are masters of illusion and love. Their temples are open only at night, when the moon is rising. Visions seek to end hatred and anger, perfering pacifism to war, though they recognize that sometimes war is inevitable.

I think that tomorrow, I may try tackling the evil gods.

What do you think? Any changes I should make?

The latest from Penny Arcade has Burr Helm-Hewer’s Facebook page. Pretty clever, right?

It got me thinking, though: What would your PC’s Facebook page look like? Who would be their friends? What types of photos would they upload? Where would they “Check-In” to?

I’m going to work on an idea of a Character Sheet based on a Facebook Page, for a nice and simple RPG. It’ll be something I work on when I have time, but I think it’s got legs.

What would your Character’s Facebook Page look like?

I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed II lately, and have been having a great time. As a GM and blogger, I’ve naturally been thinking of utilization in RPGs. Beyond the simple things (What class is Enzio? Rogue, assassin, avenger?) I’ve been thinking that the Renaissance is an underutilized time in RPGs.

People usually like to think of the Renaissance as The Three Musketeers (not the new Steampunk version coming out), with gunpowder and rapiers. The world of Assassin’s Creed II is an earlier time than Athos, Porthos an Aramis. While rapiers are seen, gunpowder is almost unheard of. Guards primarily utilize crossbows. There isn’t anything particularly different from D&D as far as weapons are concerned.

The Reniassance wasn’t about technology, but a reniassance of ideas. The beliefs and political structuring began to change. The “Points of Light” that existed in Europe began to grow as civilization expanded. This is what would be represented in a D&D game set 200 years further into the future.

Here’s how I envision it:

The church is rising in power. The Temples of Pelor, Bahamut, Avandra and Erathis have gained more and more prestige, and now run the civilized world as a centralized non-government head of state. Imagine if the Pope was split up into a council in the early 1500′s, and had complete control over all nations. The Council of Gods is beginning to stamp out Psionics, Arcane spellcasters and Primal practitioners. From the shadows, Wizards, Warlocks and Artificers strike back, allying themselves with the Shadowfell in order to have the power needed to hold their own. They remain in hiding, unravelling the fabric of civilization that the Council of Gods have established.

Corruption reigns supreme. Adventures no longer take place in the wilderness, but in the cities, where the most intrigue happens.

If you’re playing in the Nentir Vale, Fallcrest is now a sprawling city, stretching into the Moon Hills. The Harkenwold has changed from many small hamlets into larger towns known as the Five Cities. Winterfell has been overrun long ago, burned to the ground by raiders and forces of Orcus.

That’s what I’d do if I was running a game in the Reniassance era. Anything else you can think of to add to a game set in this era?

So, yesterday we looked at the magical items in Link’s Awakening.

From here on out, we’re going to talk about how to run an adventure on Koholint Island. Remember, I’ve chosen this particular Zelda adventure for multiple reasons: One, because it’s the only one I’ve completed all the way through; Two, because it can fit into any campaign, being on an island and all; And three, because a lot of people haven’t ever played this adventure, so you’re less likely to have anyone realize you’re lifting the adventure from a Legend of Zelda game.

So, where to begin?

The adventure would begin with the players sailing to some particular location. Where, doesn’t matter, so long as they’re sailing. It could even be on an airship, as long as they’re over the water.

A large storm comes up, destroying the ship and knocking them unconcious. You could even run the storm as a skill challenge:

EYE OF THE STORM
Skill Challenge

While sailing on the open water, a massive storm sweeps in. Can you save the ship?

Complexity 4 (10 Successes before 3 Failures)

Nature (DC Moderate/Hard): You are able to tell of the approaching squall, and are able to prepare the ship for the approaching storm. During the storm, you are able to help navigate the ship on the waves.
If a player uses this skill before any others, it counts as two successes, and is a Moderate DC. Further tests are Hard.

Athletics (DC Moderate): Handling the rigging, you are able to keep the masts from being torn to shreds.
If you fail this check, you lose two healing surges. If you fail this twice, the power of the storm and the pulling of the ropes throws you into the mast, breaking your arm. Gain the Broken condition.

Broken (Condition)
Until your wound is fully healed, you can only use one arm. Take a -4 penalty to all Strength and Dexterity checks which would require two hands. In addition, you may not use any items in this hand. You may remove this condition by expending 25 Healing Surges (this will be broken up over multiple days).
Design Note: This is designed so that if the player wishes, they can sit out a few days to heal. Or, they may spend a few healing surges at a time to remove the condition over a longer period of time.

Acrobatics (DC Moderate): Climbing the rigging, you attempt to fix the sails from above.
Failing this check will force you to expend two Healing Surges.

Endurance (DC Moderate): Standing firm against the storm, you hold your ground.
This check will not give you a success, but will instead gain a +2 to all further checks. Failing this check will not give you a failure.

Arcana (DC Hard): Twisting the arcane fabric, you attempt to calm the storm.

If the heroes succeed at the Skill Challenge, the ship smashes on the reef of Koholint. They are stranded, but the ship is in one piece, and they are concious. If they fail, the ship is struck by lightning, the ship is destroyed, and they are all knocked unconcious.

If they are still coincious, they’ll want to settle on the beach that night and wait for dawn. At dawn, a girl of about 16 named Marin will be walking along the beach and find them. Quite surprised, she’ll speak to them telling them of the island. See below for the types of things she’ll explain. When the heroes are done speaking to her, they’ll encounter the owl. See below for the owl.

If the heroes are unconcious, they’ll be found by Marin on the beach, who, with her father Tarin will take the heroes to Mabe Village, a little inland, to get patched up. When they awake, they find themselves in Marin and Tarin’s inn, where they are told of the island. They’ll also all have -2 Healing Surges for having been unconcious, as a result of failing the skill challenge.

Koholint Island is a moderately sized island, with two distinct villages. Mabe Village, where the humans and elves live, and Animal Village, where creatures who can speak the Common Tongue are kept. The island is dominated by Mt. Tamaranch, at the top of which is an enormous egg. According to the Legend of the Wind Fish, the island’s guardian resides within the egg in eternal slumber. They also inform them that since their arrival on the island, monsters have begun appearing everywhere: Goblins, Kobolds… and worse.

The heroes are without any of their possessions, and have to head back to the beach to find their things. This is where the owl appears, and the storyline merges from whether they were unconcious or not.

Swooping down through the beach’s palm trees, an owl perches on a low branch. “Greetings, travelers,” the owl hoots. “So you’re the reason the monsters have been acting up as of late…” His feathers ruffle. “I’m afraid it will be quite impossible to leave this island as long as the Wind Fish remains in slumber. If you desire to leave the island, you will find the information you need in the Mysterious Forest north of Mabe Village. Good luck…” With that, the owl flies off.

The heroes will have to venture into the woods. Within, they find it swarming with goblins. They’ll also find some strange mushrooms. If they pick them and save them, they’ll be able to give them to the bog witch later to make into Magic Powder. You don’t want more than two encounters with goblins, or it will get tedious. Eventually, they’ll find a chest in a goblin camp which contains a strange key the size of an arm. When they take it back to Mabe Village, Tarin is surprised to see it.

“That’s the key to Tail Cave,” he says. “It’s believed to be an old crypt built centuries ago. It’s been locked since before I was born, and no one’s been inside. The symbols on the key match those of the entrance to the crypt…”

With that, the heroes will be off to Tail Cave. We’ll look at that dungeon next.

Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy is the first Zelda game I ever played. It’s also the only one I’ve ever beaten. I remember spending hours and hours on the game, figuring out the dungeons, acquiring things like the Roc’s Feather and the Pegasus Boots. I stumbled upon the Zelda Wiki, and looked up Link’s Awakening. The plot for the game is this:

Link, who had defeated the evil Ganon and regained peace in Hyrule, had not enjoyed the archived tranquility for long, and eventually becomes restless. Feeling in need of training or enlightenment, he embarks on a journey and sails across oceans in a small sail boat. Eventually Link completes his training in foreign countries and begins to sail back to his home, Hyrule. But then suddenly the seas turn rough as the skies become dark, a thunder storm is stirring up. Link tried to valiantly fight the strong currants of the waves, even tying himself to the ship with some rope. But a bolt of lightning strikes the ship and everything turns dark.

Later in a faraway island, a young girl named Marin is walking along the shores of the island’s beach. She suddenly spots someone laying on the sands. Upon closer look, she finds an unconscious Link and tries to wake him up but with no avail. Unable to do anything else, Marin takes Link back to her house in Mabe Village. From beyond the darkness, Link hears the voice of a girl. He first mistakes the voice to be of Princess Zelda’s, but wakes up to discover that it was the voice of Marin. Not knowing where he is, the girl and her father, Tarin, explain the island to him.

Soon, Link learns that the only way to leave the island is to awaken the Wind Fish, who sleeps in an egg at the top of the mountain that overlooks the island. link travels the island, collecting the Eight Instruments of the Sirens, which can wake up the Wind Fish. Each instrument is in a different dungeon.

Sounds like a perfect adventure for D&D.

The great part is that all of the rooms in the game are square, so you can easily use Dungeon Tiles to recreate them. Each dungeon gives out a unique magic item, and each requires that item to solve the mystery of the dungeon. Each dungeon has a mini-boss and a final boss called a Nightmare that has to be defeated using the item before you can claim that dungeon’s instrument.

You can do the same with any other Legend of Zelda game, but I imagine that Link’s Awakening was played by the fewest number of players out there. It also makes a great adventure to take place when the heroes are on their way from one location to another, across the sea. In the course of their travel, they hit a huge storm, and awake on Koholint Island.

Soon, the heroes can find themselves wandering the island themselves, seeking out the instruments. You could even reduce the number of dungeons to the number of players so that each gains a magical item, and an instrument to play at the end.

I’ll be looking at the special items and dungeons in the future, seeing how you can adapt them to D&D.

Over at Geek’s Dream Girl today, Connie talks about playing the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game.

Now, I bought the game as soon as it came out. It’s been sitting on my shelf, as every other RPG has, because, when it comes down to it, my players would rather play D&D than anything else, due to the familiarity.

However, I would LOVE to run a game of Song of Ice and Fire, and not just because of the kick everyone’s been on lately thanks to the show and the new book. I mean, that’s helping, but that’s not the main reason.

The world of A Song of Ice and Fire is deep, compelling and, foremost, real.

While the rules for ASOIAF are sound, and in fact quite good, involving siege rules and more, there’s another set of rules that are even better for the style of the books: Burning Wheel.

Here’s how I’d love to run a game of ASOIAF: I’d use the household generation rules from ASOIAF, as well as the siege rules, when necessary, but would use Burning Wheel, with its character lifepath generation to actually run the game. I think the two could overlap easily, as the actual rules themselves could sort of be used completely separately. Then, for rules such as running the actual lands your house controls, I’d use Reign’s Company rules, as they’re able to be incorporated into most RPGs.

That’s my thinking. Do you think it could actually work?

There's no real need for this photo. I just wanted to post a picture of Felicia Day.

Yesterday, Felicia Day posted a link on her Twitter which led to the article “Psych Study Finds Gamers Play Their ‘Ideal Selves’“. It’s aimed towards video games, but it applies just as much to roleplaying games. The idea behind it is that when we play games where we can make our own character, we create idealized versions of ourselves, placing ourselves in the role of the game.

To quote:

“With the explosion of character customization and more-or-less sophisticated ethics and faction systems in video games over the past decade, we’ve seen a lot of conversation about what motivates someone to choose a particular path.”

While video games have only recently really allowed customization, roleplaying games have since their inception, so we’ve had a bit more time to “choose a particular path.”

“A game can be more fun when you get the chance to act and be like your ideal self,” explained Dr. Przybylski.

I know that for myself, I definitely play an idealized version of myself, or who I would like to be. This is why I usually play humans (or very human-like); I’m able to envision myself in the role much easier.

There are two archetypes my characters fall into: The Scoundrel and the Paladin. This is even when I’m not playing that specific Class. The Scoundrel is the charming and cunning character, easy to be around and very light on his feet. He is often not entirely trustworthy. The Paladin on the other hand, is the group’s cornerstone, very level headed, a straight shooter, and usually fairly humorless.

Examples:

Kibur Blastblade: My character in my online Star Wars game that wrapped up a few months ago. This is my first RPG character ever, so my longest living. He was the standard Han Solo type character, always happy to shoot first, ask questions later. Soundrel.

Aldan Vane: My Eladrin Swordmage from our Lords of Dust campaign. Initially, he was the idealistic, ready to take down evil Swordmage. Paladin. However, in the time between Heroic and Paragon Tier, he found himself in the Shadowfell, leading tribes of Shadar-Kai. When he came back, he was much shiftier, more back-stabby. Scoundrel.

Alric Hawklin: My Human Fighter from our Ancient Guardians Forgotten Realms game. Alric was a Purple Dragon Knight from Cormyr, all around good guy. He died fighting Turon, the Ancient Guardian, but died heroically. I’m sad his ending had to be that way. Paladin.

Ranneth Koda: He’s my current character for our online Star Wars game set during the Rebellion Era. He’s a middle aged, straight-edge mechanic, who simply wants to get home to his wife and kids on Alderaan. Too bad by the time he gets there, it’s going to be chunks of shattered rock… Definite Paladin.

I probably have other examples; the Gnome Rogue, the Tiefling Cleric of Pelor. But those above are probably the top ones.

I think the Scoundrel represents me when I want to be a lot more relaxed and carefree than I am, while the Paladin represents me as an idealized version of who I currently am.

How about all of you? Do any of you have an archetype you fall into? Why do you play that role?