On last night's Greychat, the idea of a new postfest was suggested. There were a few rounds of discussion, and the idea of a cooperative postfest, which would showcase both the talent that visit's CF! and the quality of the setting was well recieved. We also want to use material that has been provided to CF! by various contributors over the years.
I should outline who WE are in this post: Gary Holian agreed to contribute an adventure. Argon, Mar, AncientGamer, RTaylor, and JHSII provided a great deal of input. I will provide an adventure, and I also have a lovely set of Guinea Pigs who will make excellent playtesters. All other volunteers welcome.
The following General Arc was outlined, with the idea that more detail would be added to each adventure. You will see where the PostFest enters in a minute. It consists of three segments of three levels apiece, an the DM can fill up the intervening period.
The goal is quality and consistancy within the setting. We don't want to place Vecna in Zief or remove all magic but a +1 sword from the world. Several people asked (This is to you Mar) that the adventures be converted to 2nd Ed, and so we are asking for a volunteer to do so. As an extension of this, we will not want the adventure so wrapped around a 3.5 convention that it wont translate (the final villan should not be a Sorcerer who is bent upon conquering the due to madness induced by his dragonbloodline or somesuch). Simply put, story over mechanics.
This initial portion of the arc would take the characters from 1st to 3rd level, and would begin in 575 CY. Background info for each adventure should indicate the state of the world in and around the characters at this time. The arc would end on or around 579 CY, and one would anticipate that there would be periods of rest between. Each adventure might begin with, "after a long winter in Lortenford." or some such. Events of this time affect only the lives of the characters and their families.
DM/POSTFEST !- From 3rd to 6th would be downtime and adventures. The Postfest would be for Sidetrek adventures for this period. The characters could establish political ties, build a home, gain a wife, children. They could also use this time for spell research. This segment begins in 579 CY and ends around 583 CY. Events should affect no more than the characters, their families and maybe their friends, with some possible involvement of their neighborhood or institution (church).
ARC 2 - The Second Segement Begins in 583 CY, and the party is again approached by a representative of the Dwarves. They are asked to go in search of more information on this ancient tome, and maybe artifacts related to it. At the time of this battle, the only humans in the FLaness were the Flan, and the dwarves believe Flan Loremasters (Read Old Faith Bards) have knowledge of the events in their histories. The only problem with this is that they are scattered out of Geoff, and must be tracked down. This arc is to end in 587 CY. Events of this arc are to involve a broader scope of the world, such as a town, tribe or organization. This will take characters from 6th to the beginning of 9th.
DM/POSTFEST 2 - From 587 to 590 CY the players are off on the DM's whim. However, the adventures should go from 9th to the beginnig of 11th. Their actions are starting to earn them a reputation around Lortenford and the southern end of Gran March, or whereever your adventures take them.
ARC 3 - From 590 CY to 592/3 CY the Final Arc takes the characters into the Hellfurnaces to discover the Tome, and the secrets the dwarves want to keep. However, the crossing Geoff is in their future, and giants are at the end. Organized giants bent on holding the kingdom of Geoff and making it into the first Giant Kingdom in thousands of years. This arc should take characters from 9th to 12th. The characters should be well known in the circles surrouding Geoff (Flan, KoW, People of Hochoch, Lortenford) and heard of beyond.
DM 3 - BLOW UP THE WORLD!!!! Take the future of Oerth anywhere you wish.
Now, these are just the suggestions from last night, and I like them. Clearly we have placed it an area that is dear to me, but tried to avoid those areas that have so much Canon as to be unusable. We also tried to start backward in time so that historic events can help the DM make the world seem more realistic.
Oh yeah, we also agreed no drow, vecna, iuz, iggy, devils or godlings. The idea of Kostitchie and his priests being a nemesis was popular. And no overland treks of 1,000 miles that take the PCs an hour unless they are using teleport.
This is a great idea. I'm sorry I missed the discussion. Not being able to make the weekly gathering is most annoying!
I wanted to comment on one of your suggestions: Esmerin. It would be very difficult to use Esmerin as anything but the finale of an arc. It is likely that the heros will never be allowed to leave the land, unless you can come up with a very compelling reason. "Hotel Esmerin" was the last episode in an arc I ran a few years ago, and the players were none-to-happy about being stuck there.
That said, I love the canonArc idea. If I'd been at the chat, I'd have volunteered to submit something for it...
Well, maybe Esmerin is just a rumor they hear... they dont have to solve all the mysteries of the world, but having them thrown around in the story gives the players a sense of depth. It tells them that this is more than a story written for them, it tells them it is a world they can enter.
Maybe the secret is that the dwarves want to find Esmerin.
ooooooo dwarves, me like dwarves. Ok, sounds intreiging enough, but lets K.I.S.S. it a bit. Maintain a realistic as possible in a fantasy sort of way as possible. I mean, lets be more pratical and logical and ....wait a minute, I think I'm getting myself involved here. Ok, let me read through this some more, get a few trout slaps in on Samwise and I'll make it a point to be here, er... GreyChat for this Thursday and we can pound out some ideals there. I'll try (no promises) to come prepared and have something worth while to share amougst you high sages of GreyLore.
Cheers.
AncientGamer aka BusterBudd aka me.
PS. Yes, I slap Samwise around with a trout for not showing on time last night before I had to leave for geting my beauty sleep for work (open here...take a shot while you got it). _________________ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTb1Gpa-N7U&feature=related">
Anced-Math,
I like the fact you provided the links that will contribute to this postfest. I would like to add something. I don't think anyone should be discouraged from takening this information and putting their twist on it. I usually do everything that way. Their can be several different approaches to how this path begins. Lets say your party for some reason does not work well with dwarves. You can use a go between to get your PC's involved. It's your path create it and make it your own.
I like the fact you provided the links that will contribute to this postfest.
I wanted to be clear, the first post above was the suggestions drafted out of the Greytalk discussions. The second post contains my suggestions for the type of Canonfire! submissions that I would like to see used. These are only my suggestions, and I hope some of them are used. However, I think the community can come up with many more.
I have begun a 1st level adventure. It is set in Lortenford, Gran March and the surrounding countryside. The adventure is primarily designed to bind a disparate group of characters togeather and to give them an adventure that brings them to the notice of the seekers.
It is otherwise only mildly related to the arcs outlined above.
Hi all -
Remember reading "The Wizards First Rule" and all the subsequent books afterwards? I stopped somewhere around Temple of the Winds. I got Terry to sign the book, but I don't think I read it.
But what I'm getting at is that with Saga adventures being all the rage now, why not use this time to get a view of the world we know so little about. One of the reasons I like the concept of the Burning Sky is that it could easily be from the West and adapted to Greyhawk. We don't have to know a lot about what is in the Western lands of Oerik, but it would be a good foundation.
So having a new CanonFire saga adventure, some of it should have parties rely upon people from the West that have settled in the Flanaess. That way we get a chance to be introduced to the Western cultures.
Well I'm hoping it will be a great success. Good luck on this, Anced.
Theocrat Issak _________________ Theocrat Issak
Isn't close to being related to the suggested material of the Adventure Path but figure I could toot my own horn about material people should check out on CF.
Yes, I am in Greyhawk exile. I had to move in January of 2006 and haven't been able to find a group of dedicated players. Just cancelled the game i was running because the players just didnt really care.
So I am playing in a beer and pretzels Warhammer game. Fun to hang out and play but I miss the serious fun I was having back in Max_Writers game.
Anyway, This adventure path looks very interesting and if my work allows, I intend to submit to the postfest.
Well I'm hoping it will be a great success. Good luck on this, Anced.
Theocrat Issak
Um!?!?!? Not really the response I was hoping for. I am glad you like the idea, but I am hoping for more than praise. As laid out above, there are multiple adventures to write.
I am going to seed the field with a fairly long 1st level adventure and PSmedger volunteered to write one. But we need others!
When we were on Greytalk, Psmedger and several others who have some experiance with professional writting and the Dungeon Adventure paths suggested that we agree upon the general path of the arcs. Then we ask indaviduals to write the specific adventures for group review. Once the underpinnig arcs are established, a postfest is held to give DMs various interim adventures, sidetreks and generally more options.
Actually, it is a competition, for at least half the levels. And no one has volunteered yet. I am volunteering to do the first adventure to get this rolling.
I think we should (as a group) the general goals of the campaign, and an outline of the adventure. Then we write the adventures (using voluteers) and have a review group (just a couple of people to weed out the zany, silly, or dumb ideas) publish the thing. Then we have a post fest to fill in the gaps in any whatever way the author wants.
Anyway, that's my thought. I have to say the response does not appear overwhelming.
Actually, it is a competition ... I have to say the response does not appear overwhelming.
I have been waiting for what seems like forever for a postfest, but I cannot participate as this idea is laid out. Not that it is bad or should not go forward, but it is not for me and here is why:
I only know AD&D. Writing adventures is very hard and I have not made any progress in a long time on the one I am writing, which is not even in the area concerned. When there was an adventure postfest, to which I contributed, one that only called for merely fluff not necessarily mechanics, there was a very low response which took a lot of the fun out of it. This calls for a path halfway laid out, so the creative options are substantially narrowed.
I would not mind contributing a related article if my options were kept open, indeed I have a related bit of history in the queue, but I can’t help you on this.
BTW, I thought the "competition" element of postfests went out the window.
Ok all, lets summarize what has been said, because I want this to have as much chance of success as possible.
First- I don't have any authority to do anything. I am not in charge of anything. I started this thread in hopes of pushing this project forward. So, I ain't making the decisions round here.
Two- I am just working on the discusions of the participants of Greytalk. Gary Holian particiapted in this and voluteered to supply an adventure; this gave it more umph than most of the random discussions on GT.
Three- I want the community to input what they want out of this. Wolfsire, I have seen your work; you provided the Laws section fo the Gran March. I hate you feel you cannot participate. We need someone to provide oversight and review, and you have proven that you can do that also.
Four- I am going to provide an initial adventure in order to seed the clouds. I am hoping that this will engender a larger discussion of what people want to see. The only thing I really want is some one to rescue some of the great works archived on CF! and use them, make them living.
So... how the postfest might pan out, I cannot say. I like the idea that it is competative, and that the winner is made part of a single enormous PDF that makes up the CF! Adventure Path, and that the other submissions are added in as Side Treks. The goal is to garner participation. Tell me how to do this, not how it wont work.
I still have the unfinished manuscript of my Kol'gobsula adventure lying around here. It's centered on Stonefist, but I can develop it further if you think it could fit in. _________________ "A Minstrel's Memory": PBPs & Other Games, since 2005.
Anced-Math,
I had thought the postfest was to set a broad outline of how or what topics we would want addressed. The first part I thought would be submissions of how the first adventure in the path would be laid out those receiving the most votes would be the basis for the future paths. This way maybe one of several of the first submissions is chosen to represent the begining of the adventure path. Then their would be submissions for the second part of the path or possible side treks which will lead to the second adventure in the path. When the second adventure in the path is chosen then once again more possible side treks would be involved. Then for the grand finale the third path would be chosen. The best part is voting would be done as both an individual and total basis. With the overall best rated path beging posted in its complete state using the highest rated side treks as filler in either the OJ or maybe on pdf adventure path.
I think their are several ways to attack this, one is either stating the adventure path itself will be written by CF staff only. With sidetrek being written by members of the cannonfire community non-CF staff only. The other way is to have all members of CF community staff included provide paths based off of CF only submissions whatever they may be. Make it a three part postfest. Where each author is responsible for portraying 3 adventures for their submission. We can even keep possible side treks in the mix as a postfest option for authors who would like to contribute but cannot commit to three adventures. This way the only guideline is that the adventure path must draw from a CF submission which can be anything ever submitted to CF. The best part this leaves edition to the author whos written the adventure path.
That's my two cents let me know what you all think about taking this route as opposed to the above suggested outline originally discussed on Greytalk. I know when we originally discussed the possibility for the path everyone was interested. However it seems so far not much has come out of it. I know Anced-Math was really jazzed about the whole idea, and would like to see something come out of it.
A vague outline is established, identifying the componenets of the adventures (dwarves, giants, ancient battles, etc.,). Then the 1st three adventures are written. The next three from post fests? Then three more by staff/designated volunteers.
If I do a 1st level (and I already have some feedback on the adventure which I am incorporating) and we have two more volunteers, then we are through phase I and the ball is rolling.
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