D&D Campaign

So, in the intervening gap between October and now, I've been able to start up a game of 5th Edition D&D. From what I've done with the system so far, I have to say that I really, really like it. It has a focus on clean design and relatively small scope, with some interesting mechanics to power down spellcasters and make fighters more interesting. Not everybody agrees with my assessment, but of all the editions I've played, 5th may well be my favorite.

And with the arrival of a new system that works well with low powered games and settings, my new campaign is built to those same ends. I'm running through it with players that are new to me, so there are understandably some rough patches as we get used to each other, but I'm hopeful.

Mostly I'll be writing this as a narrative. Not a proper story or novel, per se, but it's mostly going to be written independent of mechanics and rough edges. If I do feel the need to bring up this kind of thing - player absences, mistakes I make in story or ruling, et cetera - I'll do so in bold text like this. Essentially, it'll be using the same structure as Shamus Young's excellent Mar Tesaro campaign log. 

A word about style. As I mentioned above, I tend to prefer lower fantasy - I like extending the low levels of play, dealing with food and lodging, and characters that are challenged by mere mortals as often - or more often - than otherworldly terrors. Since I'm plugging inspirations, I should probably point readers towards Adam "Rutskarn" DeCamp's currently ongoing series Adventurers: Song of the Bastards. Unlike Adventurers, though I tend to prefer at least marginally heroic characters, and when I was advertising for this game, I requested as much. Did I get that? Well, we'll get into that later.

In the next post or two, I'll be getting into the setting and the characters before we dive into the Campaign Log itself.