"Checking the Competition"

So for the last 3 weeks, we spent our class period playing the rival teams game mod. Overall, it was supremely average. Most of the ready  made character was some sort of vampire, and the big twist in design was that everyone was evil...... ish. The thing is, it couldn't even be a full on evil campaign which is can be a very imaginative game!

I played the swarthy half angel ranger, Michael Silvermane.  But the thing is I didn't even know, or couldn't know the half angel stuff as it was basically a ranger with all the names changed. After informing the designer, he immediately spruced up the character and added more angelic powers, even revealing a good twist to the characters overall play with a built in morality code that determines what powers you can use at which time.

Overall it was a decent campaign  especially the level and trap design, but the tone of the game was so standard and done before that it was easy to get bored. I hope they enjoyed our game though!

"The Masks"

As you (the imaginary reader) must be aware of by now, one of my favorite parts of this project has been the class of VeilBinder. One of my duties for this class was to come up with class specific items, mainly the masks themselves.

I spent hours doodling on graph paper to get a good plethora of choices to dazzle the PC's. Sadly I just came up with a handful.

The bulwark mask, mask of defense. 

Mask of sight, a dexterity users best friend. 

Mask of shadow, same dealies, but now for stealth checks. 

Mask of the mind, not a natural psionic? Jelous of Mage hand? Not anymore!

Also, as this was a class that used a patron diety, namely Shazek, I also came up with a ritual to use the faces of slain enemies to harness their gory powers!

So, the ritual requires the following

-Chalk (to draw summoning circle)

- Ceremonial Knife to cut off face (or equivalent)

-A healthy dab of the foes blood

-3 pieces of Elder Tree Bark (To be burnt in the summoning circle)

-Silence for Shazek to whisper his instructions. 

-One Mask of the Vielbinder

The Vielbidner must cut off the foes Face, or the closest one can make from the face, and place it in the circle on top of an older mask. The pieces of Elder Tree Bark must be burnt to help summon Shazek, and the area of summoning must be as silent as possible so Shazek may whipser his blessings into the mask. 

If Shazek finds the offering worthy, the Binder will be gifted with a new mask with new powers, if the ritual is ruined, or botched in any way, shazek may not appear, appear and create havoc, or steal the face of a compatriot. 

But how does one make the mask to be useable in game? It can be done in 4 easy steps.

1. Find the foe in your monster manual or equivalent literature.

2. Select one power of encounter or below ( no dailys) that the creature uses. 

3. Quickly think of a name for the mask, this can be as easy as naming it The Mask of Foe! ( Mask of The Kraken, Mask of the Goblin) or you can be creative as you can be!

4. Add one more aspect to give the mask some flavor, just look the foes info over and add something to give the mask more flavor (for example, +5 dark vision for Mask of the Vampyre)

- NOTE! You cannot create a mask on an astral creature, another diety, or spiritual creatures as they lack flesh to cut. 

With a creative DM, this creates a rich tapestry of options, for the groups veilbinder!

"A sailing we will go!"

As the team has settled to weaving our world together, it was decided to have the start of the adventure on a ship!

My first instinct was to make it large enough to accomodate the turmoil the PC's would inflict, however during the playtest, it only kept the players from attacking the solo boss, so shrinking the playing space became the first hurdle.

I used old schematics of 18th century corvettes and schooners as a basis for the overall design, even adding a lower deck option including life boats should the players imaginations take them down below. As a game designer, it is our job to facilitate the players growth and excitement through the world. Included are pictures of the final result.

Playtesting a new mod.

So as we slowly but surely got our races and classes fleshed out, we took to playtesting them this week. Using a gamemastery battle mat, we started in the future players shoes, aboard the splintery vessel heading through the bay of stars torwards the dale lands. Here, our players would fight a large kraken, and how they fared against it would dictate the rest of of their adventure.

The kraken itself was a gargantuan creature, and being able to summon semi autonomous tentacles to harry the players makes it a ridiculously fun solo fight for the characters.

Over the course of the 8 turns of combat, we discovered that.

-The kraken was far to strong for the beginning of the adventure, and we couldn't risk burnout for the players right off the bat

-While the tentacles where a great idea, there needed to be more of them to accommodate the large amount of players

-apparently, the ship I designed was nightmarishly big!


So with these thoughts in mind, we head towards the next week, fine tuning as we go.