Playing Over Google Documents

Posted: May 25, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 3.5, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Homebrew, Legacy D&D, Meta, Online Gaming, Other Hobby, Other Systems, RPG, Warhammer 40k | 1 Comment »

I have had fairly strange interests in RPG games. My first roleplay experience was when I was ten at a freeform play-by-post forum. When I learned D&D 3.5, I was 14 and had nobody to play with. So I played it over MSN Messenger with some friends. Since then I’ve played a lot more maptools, chat games, and play-by-posts than real life stuff. I’ve always liked running the game with text. I think it lets you do some fun story stuff that you couldn’t do around a table because people don’t have the text they can go back to, manipulate, or take their time with. The way I play takes more time than a normal game, but I enjoy it, especially because I have limited time to allot to running games over Maptools or Google Hangouts. I can play more leisurely. Google Documents has been a big help hosting play by post stuff for me. So I thought I’d briefly discuss how I play on it.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Prismatic Art Collection Kickstarter

Posted: April 7, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, Characters, D&D, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, Meta, News, NPCs, Other Systems, RPG | 2 Comments »

The Prismatic Art Collection is a Kickstarter aiming to create several pieces of high quality fantasy artwork. These pieces will be released as Creative Commons Share-Alike, so that they can be used by anyone in any product. This, by itself, is a very laudable goal. But the Prismatic Art Collection is more ambitious than this – they’re also aiming to recruit a diverse variety of artists to create this artwork featuring a diverse array of characters, male, female and of varying ethnicity. So you’ll likely see many new faces, both the artists and the characters alike – always a worthy goal to me.

I am a person with diverse interests in people, and most fantasy stuff doesn’t meet them. Hell, I’m a bisexual Puertorican male whose parents are Puertorican devotees of Hinduism – I generally don’t exist in fantasy at all! When I take on projects I try to represent people who are often made invisible in these fantasy stories and fantasy games. In the World of Adel I’ve made all kinds of characters, and in their stories and descriptions in my articles I try to include all kinds of physical characteristics, sexuality, sexes and genders. Because I’m interested and inspired by all kinds of people, and also because I want readers of all kinds to find people with whom they can connect on some level, or to believe that in my world they could exist as characters without barriers. I’ve consumed nothing but “ordinary” works for so long that I wish for more diversity.

I think that the inclusion of more people, ethnicity, sexuality and so on is a very reasonable and achievable goal, especially in fantasy, where there’s such a variety of ways to make that not only justified but interesting and inexorable in the history and culture of the fictional milieu. I feel very excited and happy with what I’ve done with Adel on that order, and I wish more people would try their hand at such projects as well. Thankfully though, I’m far from alone in these endeavors. As usual with Kickstarter, there’s various tiers of involvement. The more funding it gets, the more ambitious the project can become. I’d like to see some alchemists, myself! So head on over to the kickstarter site, look up some of the contributing artists and see what you think.

Maybe at some point someone will draw a couple of fox-eared villagers!

Map of the Adelian World

Posted: February 14, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, D&D, D&D 3.5, D&D 4e, Legacy D&D, Other Hobby, Other Systems, RPG, Spirits Of Eden, Worldbuilding | 2 Comments »

The expanded hex map of the World of Adel is complete. Read on for some idle talk and explanations about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dungeons of Adel: The Hellmouth

Posted: February 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 3.5, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, Products, RPG, Spirits Of Eden | 1 Comment »

One of the Arch-Dungeons of Adel, the Hellmouth is a member of a family of massive, seemingly living spaces that exist beneath each Nation of Adel (and the Abyss Isle and Noshiki), their exact positions shifting, shrinking and growing as they are sealed or “destroyed” and thereby forced dormant, until such a time as their evil can resurface months or (if lucky) years away. Each Archdungeon is a piece of the Lost World so foul that it continues like a cancer within the land, spawning corrupted presences, and endangering the population as its tendrils rise to the surface, opening new entrances.  Their size, shape and what a brave and foolish soul may discover within will vary greatly each time the dungeon resurfaces.

The Hellmouth is the “iconic” dungeon of the Republic of Andaliel, dubious as that honor is. The Andalians believe themselves masters of their land, building their vast and great capital of Oomash within a vast hollowed-out circle in the cold Hetuku Mountain, and taming the lush Southland that is the fertile and beautiful breadbasket of their nation. This is not mere hubris – they understand their relationship with the land, and they care for it. But the Hellmouth still seeks to punish them for their accomplishments. Heralded by the rising of entrances that seem like toothed maws, the Hellmouth is a living corruption of the element of Earth, one of the cardinal elements in the Adelian Wheel of Life. Read on for more details of this cursed place.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fantastic Locations: The Voyaging Liberator

Posted: December 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, Fluff/Inspiration, NPCs, Other Systems, RPG, Spirits Of Eden | 2 Comments »

Though the aerial forces of the Adelian nations are still burgeoning, with perhaps a two or three new ships accepted and incorporated every few years, Airships are still an important part of the military force, if not yet civilian life. For most folk, a ride in an airship is a novelty of a few hour’s time – the thought of being trapped in one for days as it flies across a nation is too strange and unproven. While some airships serve niche mercantile interest, such as delivering perishable goods faster than through land, to places where they will sell optimally, civilian and mercantile life is largerly earth or seabound.

But ever looking toward new frontiers, Vedaria commissioned the Guardian class P.A.S (The People’s Airship) ‘Liberator’ destroyer in P.C. 2002, and ten years later it is as advanced as it has always been (largely because technology in Adel advances at a snail’s pace). Its crew of airborne infantry and specialists grow accustomed to life in the air, and hope to help all sorts of new recruits, as well as civilian passengers during their yearly exhibition flights, to shed their fear of the air.

Read the rest of this entry »

Factions In Adel III: The Humanist Societies

Posted: December 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Campaigns, Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, Spirits Of Eden | Leave a comment »

While it is difficult to say that there are many groups in Adel outright dedicated to evil, there are quite a few who run counter to the best interests of those around them, or who engage in dangerous activities with only their own position in mind. These groups are often a source of conflict or at least a source of tension, as their aid may sometimes be needed, but it is quite often stressful to procure. They can just as easily be the enemies who must be stopped and defeated to insure safety, or the begrudging allies whose aid is needed for the greater good of a community, a nation or even the world at large. Their contact with the Lost World, and the fragments they’ve gleaned of the dead culture of Humans, have warped their outlook.

Read the rest of this entry »

← Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 584 other followers