**This is the gmae thread for the Little Big Wars Gaming Group**
I have the basic books and a couple of supplements. If you want to do something beyond the Players Handbook for anything, please clear it with me first. It may be possible, but no guarantees.
Character Creation Basics: We will be starting at second level – a low level starter campaign, but up one level to improve survivability.
Stats: You are welcome to simply roll up your character on your own. I’ll trust your rolls. Or I will be around the store all weekend and we can do the rolls then. I want to give you some flexibility on the character you want. Remember, race will modify these somewhat. There are two options to get your stats:
- Roll 4d6 a total of 6 times. For each, drop the low number. You may put the results in whichever stat you want.
- If your results are not to your liking you may also use the numbers offered in the PH: 15,14,13,12,10,8.
Money: You can have the max for your class – Plus an extra 50gp for being second level. Not much, but a tiny bonus.
Hit points: Take the max at first level, but then roll for second level.
Classes: This adventure will have a little town stuff (possibly more long term if the game lasts) and lots of outdoor and dungeon stuff, so any class should work. Feel free to talk to each other to make sure you have a variety of skill types.
An Introduction to my GM style and the Blacktooth Ridge Campaign
GM Philosophy: The GM/DM is god. Blunt enough? What I mean is that while I will certainly be using the rules and running things according to the dice rolls and preplanned game-plan, in the end what I say happens is what happens. You are welcome to let me know how the rules play – I’m decent with 5E but certainly not an expert. But ultimately, I want to keep things moving and make for a good game. I also reserve the right to do things like change monsters, magic items and other such things. You may think you know what an Ogre is like, but it is my ogre, so be careful. Honestly, I don’t change that much. But I might. Baloth’s showed up in my last campaign. This really just a long-winded way of saying rules-lawyers aren’t likely to get the judgement they want. Not all the time anyway. The goal is a good game.
With that goal in mind I want to remind you that death is possible. I’d rather the characters not die, but if you make foolish decisions (Or the dice gods truly hate you) you will suffer the consequences. The Blacktooth Ridge is a dangerous place and there are things there that are much stronger than you when you start out. Be careful.
Dice rolls once the game begins: After talking to several people who run games at the Red Dragon Inn site I have decided that it will be easiest if I handle the dice rolls. You tell me what you want to do in your posts and I will tell you the results. If people would rather do their own rolls we can make that work as well, but I don’t think there was a strong opinion on this and I believe it will make things easier.
(For those who have not played D&D before, the Gm is the ‘Game Master’ or Dungeon Master’ – the one who guides the game for the players. In this case, that is me.)
An Introduction to Assault on the Blacktooth Ridge
This is a partially pre-fab campaign. The rough outline and a bunch of basic locations are ready made. However, a lot of the area is left blank. A lot of the details are missing. So, there is also a lot that will be my addition to this rough outline. Below is some starting information that might be useful as you consider your character.
This campaign is set in the Blacktooth Ridge – a corner of the Forgotten Realms.
The town of Botkinburg lies far from the settled lands of the south and the fabled kingdom of Outremere. It sits upon a bend in the Hruesen River in the shadows of the slopes of the rugged hills of the Blacktooth Ridge, in a land known as the Barren Wood. However, it was not always referred to in such dour tones. In happier days this land was a wild, forested country named the Hruesen. The forest was of an exceedingly large expanse filled with many beasts as well as the settlements of man, halfling, and elf. The great ridge offered hunting aplenty and was called by men the Highlands and by the elves the Avishean Ridge. There was peace in the country and little troubled the folk who lived there. But the world’s ages turned, and so with them the fortunes of those in that wondrous wood.
Long ago, beyond the memory of most in the Barren Wood, a power arose in the north and the whole part of the world fell under the rueful eye of a great evil, the Horned One. He turned his armies loose on the lands of the Hruesen. A great many orcs and goblins issued forth from the foul pits of Aufstrang and laid waste to the lands - driving the inhabitants south into the sea, enslaving them and scattering wide the free peoples that had been living there. His evil emptied the forests and laid waste to the towns and cities. For centuries the region lay under the Horned Ones evil shadow. The ridge now stood forth from the wasteland as a black scar, as the orcs occupied it and made it a fortress of sorts. They tunneled beneath it and built squat towers upon it. The ridge was renamed the Blacktooth Ridge, as it devoured all who entered it, and the lands about were renamed the Barren Wood.
After centuries the fortunes of those lands finally changed with the passing of the great evil in Aufstrang. The Horned Ones armies scattered and the region around the Hruesen River was given a respite, although for many years it remained barren and empty. In time, people began to move back into the region and found both the lands and the river fertile. But so too arrived remnants of the horned Ones armies; for the Blacktooth Ridge lies in the shadow of Aufstrang and the fell pits of that place are a never-ending source of foul creatures. The ridge itself, riddled with caves and ruins, is a wild land filled with evil creatures. In it’s shadow along the river and in the woods civilization has begun to take root.
The town of Botkinburg is one of the settlements that has been built along the river. Over the last 50 years it has grown into a community of several hundred and boasts a keep built by Lord Clement Botkin. Recently something seems to have stirred up the creatures of the Ridge and they have experienced a series of goblin raids. Messages have been sent out seeking adventurers willing to search the ridge and discover the source of these new raids and put an end to them. You have arrived in Botkinburg in response to this summons and now find yourself at the town’s tavern: The Bent Hook, known locally as Ortolf’s House of Sludge.
Character involvement in Botkinburg:
You may decide for yourself what specifically brought you to Botkinburg. Where did you first hear of the problem? Are you from near or far? Perhaps you are simply a treasure hunter, for legends of the ridge speak not just of dangers but of rewards. Did you know the other members of the group before arriving in town, or do you all meet at Ortolf’s? You can make a detailed or simple background - I’m happy to provide more information as needed.
Shadows of the Empire Q&A
Shadows of the Empire
Neva
