DnD 4e - Initiative Cards

When I was preparing the first adventure for my Spelljammer campaign I ran across the initiative cards I had previously been using, and wondered how much I actually used the information contained in them.  

Old Initiative Card:

Really, the only section I used was the name and initiative. Furthermore, I'd always have to refer back to the monster manual when attacking PCs. So all the work I put the player through, not to mention my work of transferring monster data from books to cards, I deemed unnecessary.  

I heard about a new way of tracking initiative on The Tome Show podcast, which was to take index cards and fold them in half, placing players, as well as NPC/monsters, names on each side of the folds, creating a kind of stand up sign. This way as you run your game you can easily shuffle your initiative around. I had my friend try this on one of his adventures and it worked really well. Players could tell when their turn was coming up, and people who delayed or had readied actions could easily be reintegrated into the initiative.  

During my friend's adventure, I noticed he was referring to the Monster Manual constantly. I didn't want to do that. I always prefer to move the information to sheets of paper when I run my adventure, but instead of looking through a book, I'd be looking through pages. Very little difference between the two. So I decided to combine it with the initiative card.

I went ahead and used the smallest font I could read and printed the monsters out on the DM side of the initiative card. If it was long I could always fold it underneath a few times. I also decided I could keep track of all of the monsters Hit Points right on the initiative card. 

I found another problem though. The card stock paper I had (90#) didn't hold ink very well. It would kind of flake off, especially in the folds. So I just printed it out on regular paper. It ended up cheaper and much easier to read, especially with that small font. Also, when I folded it stayed perfectly folded and standing as if it was card stock.  

Instead of placing the name of the monsters on the player's side of the initiative card I decided to put a picture of the monster on it. The players liked seeing the monster pics so much I decided to place pics of their PC's on the back of their cards as well. The player cards are the ones with names above the pictures. Here is how they turned out.  

If you give this a try let me know how it works out for you. Also, if you can improve on the process I'd love to hear your idea.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.08 Ship Repair House Rule)

The Slave Ship, the Drudge, will be subjected to many battles, therefore I needed some way to repair it, after and during battles. Searching around I couldn't really find anything, so I decided to make up some house rules.

When I opened it up for discussion with my group they all immediately said, "Thievery". So I proceeded to make up rules for it. However, as I read the Thievery and Disable Trap description it became apparent that it didn't make sense to use it. 

So I went through all of the skills, and none really went towards full-scale repair, skipping the Heal skill as well as a few others. So I went through again, but this time read through Heal. It stated, "You know how to help someone recover from wounds or debilitating conditions, including disease." The rules in the Adventurer's Vault almost treat vehicles as living objects. They can be damaged, immobilized, slowed, and restrained.

So I figured how about using First Aid on them, but after reading through that it didn't quite fit either.

So House Rule Time:

Ship Repairs

Standard Action
Primary Skill: Heal (Wisdom)
Assist Skills:
PC's assisting in Ship Repairs must be within 3 squares of the Primary PC, but do not have to have a line of sight. However, they must be able to converse.

• Acrobatics (Dexterity) - You are able to get to the hard to reach places that need repair.
• Athletics (Strength) - You use brute strength to move the debris out of the way and to the repair pieces into place. 
• Insight (Wisdom) - You get an idea of what damage is more serious, and how it might affect the other parts of the ship.
• Perception (Wisdom) - You quickly assess the damage and point the repair crew into the right direction.
• Thievery (Dexterity) - You know how to do the detailed repair work.

DC: Base DC 15 (up to 4 people can assist to give a maximum +8 bonus)

• Success: 1 hp repaired + 1 additional per point over the DC (a maximum of 20 hit points can be repaired per round)
• Fail by 5 or more: Ship gains ongoing damage 1 until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll.
• Fail by 10 or more: Ship loses 2 Hit Points, gains ongoing damage 1 until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll, and slows by 2 spaces until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll.

Note: PC's assisting can Fail during their assist skill check inflicting the appropriate repercussions onto the ship.

Unspecified damage inflicted on the ship can be repaired from anywhere. However, if the damage is specific (a specific mast, rudder, etc), the Primary PC must be adjacent to the damaged part.

DnD - Miniatures (Cheap Dragon Figurines)

My friend has been running a campaign where Dragonborn is trying to create a city for their race, as well as dragons. Our PC's are working for them to do things like clearing lands, assisting the Dragonborn King in political espionage, spying, etc. And so far our Paragon PCs have found 4 dragons. We have been using Legos for the dragon mini's which just don't seem menacing, so I had been searching for a dragon figurine. 

Going on eBay I saw that Dragon's of Huge size are selling for $40 and up, which is way over what I wanted to spend. So I decided to give up on the idea of getting one. 

Then last weekend I was at my local Michaels Arts & Craft Shop with my wife and two kids, who were doing some pumpkin decorating. As I wandered around with my youngest, waiting for them to finish I found some 6" tall plastic knights with horses. Eh, way too big for D&D, and they didn't even look good enough to be giants.  Then on the next shelf, I found them...Red Dragons, in a pose almost exactly like that in the 2nd edition Monster Manual. Rooting through the box a bit more revealed a Green Dragon that was a little bigger than the Red.

I immediately broke out my iPhone and pulled up a ruler app. The claws would fit perfectly onto a 3" diameter. Just the right size for a huge size base. Each dragon was only 50¢, so it was a good price as well.  I ran around the store searching for something I could use as a base, or for materials to make a base. After a long search, I found 3" diameter wooden disks, probably useful in making doll tables or something, but they were a perfect size. So I grabbed a pack of them, which contained 6 bases, as well as two dragons. When I got home I painted the bases using green spray paint I had from making gaming terrain. then after some drying time, I super glued each dragon to a base and Viola! cheap awesome Dragon Figures.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.07 Spelljammer Campaign Trailer)

In an effort to get my players excited about my Spelljammer Campaign, I threw together a trailer using YouTube and Movie clips. I hope you find it as enjoyable as my players did. 

I got the idea from another Spelljammer video on YouTube, and I even used one of the clips from it (the one with the Hammership). 

The inspiring video was Eberron & Spelljammer: Etoile du Tourment. 

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.06 NPCs Background from Players Feedback)

Below are the backgrounds for the two primary NPC's on the Slave Ship, as well as statistics for the ship itself, which is called the Drudge.

Next Blog I'll post the video trailer I created for the campaign.

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Captain Krav Magra (Referred to as Captain, or Captain Magra)

Human, Male, Two-Blade Ranger
Description: Strong, agile, gruff, but fair.
Signature Items:

• A shiny, ornate, compass with an eight pointed ivory star in the background with crossed fists in the middle. Might be magical.

• Longsword with a red blade, blue oval gem at the base of the blade, 6 pointed star at the bottom of the hilt. Definitely magical. 

Previously a Gladiator/Slave, and won his freedom. When he returned to his home planet he decided that world was too small, compared to everything he'd seen. So he used his winnings to buy the Drudge. Due to a gambling debt he does the only thing he knows, to make money, which is to capture slaves for the Gladiator fights. Since he's a previous slave himself he wants to help free as many as possible by training them well so they can earn their freedom as he did.

PC’s public relationship with Captain Magra

• Woldstren(Chris): Respected authority figure on the ship, someone who we can trust will stand up for us as much as he can. Captain Magra appreciates him and allows him additional privileges.

• Mongo(David): Feels he treats him as a slave. Captain Magra is disappointed at this because he's tried to be respectful and friendly.

• Arcamedies(Stu), Flint(Trevor): Feel loyal to the captain.

• Chiana(Ken), Camella(Brad), Cristalla(Mick): No relationship with the captain. They try to stay out of his way whenever possible.

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First Mate Xera Sue-Arn (called Xera by the crew)
Kalashtar, Female, Class unknown
Description: Sleazy flirtatious attitude, but sadistic and cruel. Missing right eye and always looks disheveled unless going into combat, where she looks organized, proper and deadly. Xera does not wear armor. Usually walks around in a loose revealing shirt, and short skirt. She carries a longsword and a large shield. Has a group of NPC's who kowtow to her every need. She has obvious disdain for Captain Magra.

PC’s public relationship with Xera

• Woldstren(Chris): Keeps out of her way. She seems to steer clear of him due to his relationship with Captain Magra.

• Camella(Brad), Mongo(David), Chiana(Ken), Cristalla(Mick): Ridiculed and teased by Xera and her cronies whenever they get a chance.

• Flint(Trevor), Arcamedies(Stu): She seems to steer clear of them due to their relationship with Captain Magra.

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The Drudge
Greatship
Gargantuan vehicle
HP 400 Space 8 squares by 20 squares Cost 13,000 gp
AC 4; Fortitude 20, Reflex 2
Speed: swim 6, fly speed 12 (hover)
Pilot
The pilot must stand at the ship’s wheel, typically at the rear of the topmost deck.
Crew
In addition to the pilot, a greatship requires a crew of twenty, all of whom use a standard action each round to help control the ship. Reduce the ship’s speed by 2 for every 5 missing crew members. At speed 0, the ship sails out of control.
Load
Two hundred Medium creatures; five hundred tons of cargo.
Out of Control
An out-of-control greatship moves forward at half speed. At the DM’s discretion, it can move in the same direction as a strong wind at up to full speed.
Decks
The greatship has four decks: the topmost open deck (which incudes the upper deck and quarter deck), two middle decks for crew and passengers, and a cargo hold.
Sails
At the DM’s discretion, a greatship can take a penalty or bonus to its speed of –4 to +4 depending on the strength and direction of the wind when in the atmosphere of a planet or in the Phlogiston.
Weapons
Lightning Cannon, Light Ballista

Lightning Cannon: The lightning cannon requires two crew members trained in Arcana. Each must stand next to a lightning orb and spend a standard action. The cannon can be fired every other round.
Lightning Cannon (2 actions, see description; at-will, every 2 rounds)
Area burst 4 within 40; +14 vs. Reflex; 4d12 lightning damage. Miss: Half damage. The character with the lowest Arcana modifier adds his or her Arcana modifier as a bonus to the lightning cannon’s attack rolls.

Ballistae: Each ballista requires three actions to operate:
1 standard action to load, 1 standard action to aim, and 1 standard action to fire. These actions can be taken by multiple people. A ballista can only be fired once per round.
Light Ballista (standard action; at-will)
Ranged 20/40; +13 vs. AC; 4d6 damage. The character aiming the ballista adds half his or her level as a bonus to the ballista’s attack rolls. The ballista requires a standard action to load.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.05 The Player's Ideas)

Here are the ideas that the players came up with. I added comments,in red, above each entry. 
Next post will feature the final ideas I decided on. 

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I hadn't even thought about making the captain a former slave. This is why the worksheet is such a great tool. You get a lot more ideas to flesh the world out, instead of being stuck with your own. It not only gives you a few new ideas, it also sparks new ones in your own mind.

Woldstren Gorvakson Character Worksheet

The Captain

It sounds like the Captain is one of us. A slave that has risen to the rank of Captain and now pilots the ship to different worlds for the slavers. If he is a slaver, then why would he be our mentor?

Name of Captain: Captain Melior or Captain Mel for short
Description of Captain: Large and gruff but fair. A no-nonsense kind of guy.
Description of Captain’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): A shiny, ornate, compass. It can be magical in nature but I have no idea what it would do.
PCs Public Relationship with the Captain: (with my above assumption being true) Respected authority figure on the ship, someone who we can trust will stand up for us as much as he can.

The First mate
Name of First mate: Arn
Description of the First mate: Sleazy, mature guy who knows how to get the most out of people. The problem is, he does it any way he can. He gets results but makes enemies in the process. He has a small group of lackeys that have realized that if they help him, they get special treatment.
Description of First mate’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): Whip?
Your Public Relationship with the First mate: I keep out of his way and he leaves me mostly to my own devices. I get my job done so he doesn't see a need to make an example out of me.
Your Public Role on the Drudge and Relationship with the First mate: Forecastleman if we are using Age of Sail style positions on the ship.

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Character Requirements
- 1st level
- Bugbear
- Ranger
- Silent Hunter background

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Forecastleman
2. Real relationship with the Captain: Respected Elder
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Contempt
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Too much inhumanity to the crew on the part of the slavers/slaver lackeys
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: Stalking and killing my first monster solo
6. A love left behind on your homeworld (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): My mother
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): Claustrophobia
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): Mild to severe depending on circumstance such as in a closet its a discomfort but deep underground and then in a small enclosed space it starts getting much worse.
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: The chef
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: I won a blood sausage eating contest in a fair and I hate the first mate.
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: I studied to become an assassin.
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: I killed one of the other slaves on the Drudge and made it look like an accident
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: None
14. A recurring dream: Running through the deep forest forest chasing something unknown staying just out of my reach.
15. PC Role on your Homeworld: Scout, hunter, skirmisher
16. Motivation to get back to your Homeworld: The wide-open forest and more of my own kind
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races): All normal (humans, dwarves, elves, etc)
18. Name of a Big City on your Homeworld: Portsmouth
19. What the Big City is known for: Sea trading
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Cotter's town
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Stepping off point into the wild forests
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: Bugbear 60%, human 25%, elves 12%, and other 3%

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I liked the idea of the poker game, but I really liked the idea of the captain being a former slave, so I used both. I liked the Paladin idea for the First Mate, but wanted the her, as well as the Captain, to be easy to like. So I ended up making the Captain human, and the First Mate a Kalashtar.

Chiana  Character Worksheet

The Captain

Name of Captain: Captain Rikker
The captain is a Warlord, anatural leader. He is a Dragonborn who lost his ship, the Drudge, in a poker game and can earn it back by performing the missions set out for him (gathering and training slaves for the arena).

Description of Captain’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): He wears a piece of his "birth" shell in a pendant he wears around his neck.
PCs Public Relationship with the Captain: We do what we're told for now so that we will one day get home.

The First mate
Name of First mate: Xera
Description of First mate: Warforged, female paladin. She was "built" very well and follows the captains commands to the letter. A little too rigid and uncomprimising though.
Description of First mate’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): Extendable energystaff (resizable q-staff with the Thunder property)
Your Public Relationship with the First mate: Tolerate her, but listen as she may be the key to getting home.
Your Public Role on the Drudge and Relationship with the First mate: Security detail.

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Character Requirements
- 1st level
- Chiana "Chee"
- Shadar-kai (female)
- Swordmage (assault)
- Born under a bad sign background (bad luck seems to follow me around)

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Security, protection of people/goods, some knowledge of advanced tactics
2. Real relationship with the Captain: Follows orders, for now...
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Watchful, tolerate
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Need access to the captains logs to find what route to take to get home
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: Captured by a different group of slavers, but the captain won my services in a poker game. Not sure if that was good for him or not...
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): I'm pledged to protect the king of my land. I must get back there to resume my duties.
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): Heights
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): Generally avoids high places. Not too severe
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: the head doctor
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: none
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: Many of my close family members are necromancers
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: tourtured for a long time when first captured by slavers
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: None
14. A recurring dream: A charge died while under my supervision.
15. PC Role on your Homeworld: Elite guard for a high ranking official
16. Motivation to get back to your Homeworld: Must get back to my obligations, protecting the king
17. The racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races): All normal (humans, shadar-kai, elves (drow), etc)
18. Name of a Big City on your Homeworld: Nebari
19. What the Big City is known for: Kings palace
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Nebari
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Commerce, you can get almost anything there.
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: Shadar-Kai 50%, human 35%, elves 15%

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This player had some good ideas in combining some of the others ideas. I am eventually using the 'Company' idea he has, but that will not be until much, much later, maybe not until mid-Paragon. This player claims he likes to role-play, but notice how much he left blank in the Individual items section, which would have led directly to role-play events.

Camella Ann Character Worksheet

Woldstren wrote:The Captain
It sounds like the Captain is one of us. A slave that has risen to the rank of Captain and now pilots the ship to different worlds for the slavers. If he is a slaver, then why would he be our mentor?

I like it! Let's make him a Dragonborn as Ken said, but pilots the ship because he won his freedom through the 5 fights offer (through superior combat ability), but hopes to ease the path to freedom for those who follow (& whom he captured in the first place). His secret goal: He would love to end the practice of kidnapping slaves but can't do it himself because the corporate monolith in charge is too powerful. He wants to help free enough slaves to form a party big & powerful enough to take them down (& he keeps an eye out for kidnapees who might hold a similar view... eventually).

Chiana wrote:The First mate
Name of First mate: Xera
Description of First mate: Warforged, female paladin. She was "built" very well and follows the captains commands to the letter. A little too rigid and uncomprimising though.

I like it! Let's make her pure military through & through and just recently assigned to the Drudge. Secret mission: The Captain is "too good" at promoting gladiators to freedom and the company has sent her to spy on him. Ostensibly, this is a management efficiency thing to go back & train other slave ship captains, but also because the Captain is deemed dangerous and to be watched by the Company. She's a spy there to watch the Captain and any mentees of his.

Ross, the DM wrote:
Character Requirements
- Any Race in the Character Builder. (It cannot be Huge size or bigger) Doppleganger
- Any Class in the Character Builder. Bard
- Any Background in the Character Builder, but it must fit in with your history. Camella Ann was a rising actress with some early fame for some powerful roles she won many awards for. (entertainer)

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Morale Officer
2. Real relationship with the Captain:
3. Real relationship with the First mate:
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny:
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge:
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): acting, singing, adoring fans
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): animinity, to die alone and unknown
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): she spends most all of her alone time working on her craft, perfectionist
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not:
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: Most of her fans back home don't know she's a Doppleganger
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play:
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain:
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate:
14. A recurring dream: Winning Oscars & Grammys many years in a row
15. PC Role on your Home world: Part of a well known traveling troupe
16. Motivation to get back to your Home world: She doesn't want to be forgotten by her fans (fears this, in fact)
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races):
18. Name of a Big City on your Home world:
19. What the Big City is known for: Entertainment capital of the world
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from:
21. What your village/town/city is known for:
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from:

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This player didn't put any specific information in the First Mate or Captain entries, but instead mixed them in with his Individual Items. I like how there is finally a potential for a relationship. Even though he didn't contribute directly in molding the NPC's he has a lot of role-play potential here.

Cristalla Lenora II Character Worksheet

Character Requirements
- 1st level
Cristalla Lenora II
Female Deva
Invoker (Covenant of Preservation)
- Any Background?

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Ship maintenance
2. Real relationship with the Captain: She follows her orders and maintains the ship he’ll insure the crew doesn’t mess with her. The Captain knows someone may end up dead.
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Avoids the skum.
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Prison break at a location with easy access to transportation home.
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: The assasination of her mother who was the high priest of their temple and she was sold into slavery by the assasin instead of being killed also.
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): She plans to restore her temple and family name.
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): Fear insects - mainly spiders.
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): Will be the first she blast! Also lots of screaming!
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: Chiana
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: None
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: She like females
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: Has a crush on Chiana.
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: None
14. A recurring dream: The death of her mother.
15. PC Role on your Home world: Minor priest of her temple.
16. Motivation to get back to your Home world: Revenge of her mother's death
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races):70% humans, 15% elves & Eladrins, 0.5% Deva & remaining are misc races.
18. Name of a Big City on your Home world: Bellsdown
19. What the Big City is known for: Trade & black market trade.
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Bellsdown
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Trade & black market trade
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: same as above

The player pretty much plays the same character. Big, strong, but dense. I was hoping to get a bit more from this person, but ended up disappointed. I have a feeling he just filled things out to get the bonus magic item I offered for doing it early.

Mongo Character Worksheet

The Captain
Name of Captain: Captain or Sir
Description of Captain: Short (I am 7 feet tall and not the brightest)
Description of Captain’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): Hand that he slaps me with to help me listen/understand
PCs Public Relationship with the Captain: Slave

The First mate
Name of First mate: Sir
Description of First mate: Short but taller then Captain
Description of First mate’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): Whip (he is rougher then Captain)
Your Public Relationship with the First mate: Slave
Your Public Role on the Drudge and Relationship with the First mate: Heavy Lifter and Slave

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Character Requirements
- 1st level
- Goliath
- Berserker
- TBD if any

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Portable Crane aka “Hey you pick that up and move here”
2. Real relationship with the Captain: Slow Slave
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Stupid Slave
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Whats Escape?
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: Drudge came to village and picked me up as the biggest young guy and told me to get on ship.
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): Hunting
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): Bathing
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): Do not like scrub pads, hurt skin
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: Cook
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: Maybe smarter then lets on but they are not fully sure.
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: Isn’t nearly as smart as seems just lucky.
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: Mongo like killing things.
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: Mongo like lifting things.
14. A recurring dream: Mongo hunting in the mountains on his homeplanet.
15. PC Role on your Home world: Hunter
16. Motivation to get back to your Home world: Join the hunt.
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races): Only seen Goliaths like self.
18. Name of a Big City on your Home world: Only lived in his village
19. What the Big City is known for: N/A
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Home (elders might know real name but Mongo never heard or remembered it.)
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Hunters
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: Goliaths

This is from our primary DM, who created the world of Westron.  I like how he made himself a Githyanki, as I've decided that Plane Shift will be a standard feature of Spelljammer Helms, so Astral adventures will eventually come into play. Like that he put he knows about a spy, which I think might be the First Mate.

Arcamedies Character Worksheet

The Captain
Name of Captain: Krav Magra
Description of Captain: Slender but deadly, kinda like the T1000 in T2, a Half Eladrin
Description of Captain’s Signature Item : A six pointed ivory star with a crossed fists in the middle
PCs Public Relationship with the Captain: Loyal (well, as much as a Githyanki can be)

The First mate
Name of First mate: Hosin Sue-al
Description of First mate: A stocky dwarven woman, gruff, an enforcer
Description of First mate’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical): Studded Club
Your Public Relationship with the First mate: Wary
Your Public Role on the Drudge and Relationship with the First mate: Quartermaster, obedient (yes Sue-al)

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Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Quartermaster
2. Real relationship with the Captain: Sees self as a useful resource, needed by the Captain which will help me get off the ship.
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Thinks the first mate is a brutal jailer but fears her.
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Need to find a slave that is physically a match for Sue-al.
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: My school was raided and all the students were either slain or taken prisoner.
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): My extensive library of books on arcane history.
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): all non-Githyanki humaniods
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): distrust
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: Wha-Rung, one of the other Githyanki students from my Cadre that was also captured and he was the top swordsman in our class. There are three other Githyanki on the ship, but they were from other Cadres.
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: That most other Githyanki thought less of me for studying books rather than swordsmanship.
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: Knows the basis for making the silver swords of the Githyanki.
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: That there is a mole in the ship's crew, watching the Captain in the name of some unknown group.
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: None, I don't trust her!
14. A recurring dream: That I am a great swordsman instead of an acedemic.
15. PC Role on your Home world: A craftsman, historian and teacher.
16. Motivation to get back to your Home world: To resume teaching and studying.
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races): Githyanki, and slave races (e.g. humans, goblins, and a little bit of everything else) - occasional non-Githyanki merchants and adventurers
18. Name of a Big City on your Home world: Tu' narath
19. What the Big City is known for: Built atop the body of a dead god in the Astral Sea and ruled by Vlaakith, the lich Queen who has ruled for over 1,000 years.
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Wiki-nath
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Home to the largest military academy where the elite officer cadets are schooled.
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: Githyanki and then (slave) races and occasional merchants of other races.

I like how he made himself sold into Slavery rather than captured.

Flint Frostfang Character Worksheet

Captain and 1st MateI honestly can't think of anything better than Ken's

PCs Public Relationship with the Captain: Loyal
PCs Public Relationship with the 1st mate: Obedient but reluctantly so.
-------------------------------------------Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge: Deckhand
2. Real relationship with the Captain: Loyal follower. Captain is like a father figure to him.
3. Real relationship with the First mate: Intense dislike and distrust.
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny: Captain is killed by "the organization".
5. Keystone event that led to you to serving on the Drudge: Betrayed and sold to the drudge by a coworker that was in debt.
6. A love left behind on your home world (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc): Helja, his adoptive Dwarven mother.
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating): Cryophobia, fear of extreme cold.
8. Extent of phobia (can be debilitating): Becomes more irritable and anxious the colder the weather. Will panic and frantically find shelter in blizzard conditions. Will attempt to ensure any enemies dealing cold damage die first.
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not: Old Halgrew, the bilgeman. Is a member of an extremely long-lived race that Flint cannot identify, and has served on the drudge for a very long time (even before the current captain owned it. He knows a great many sailor's tales and legends, and will gladly recite them to anyone who will listen.
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not: Ability to shift into a more feral form.
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play: Trained by Dwarves in underground construction, including prisons.
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain: When they are both free, he would like to remain friends and work together, if possible.
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate: None, I avoid her.
14. A recurring dream: The drudge trapped in a frozen sea, and slowly freezing to death.
15. PC Role on your Home world: Underground construction worker.
16. Motivation to get back to your Home world: Settle things with former coworker, see adoptive mother again, find other members of his race and specifically his father.
17. Racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races): Human, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings.
18. Name of a Big City on your Home world: Cliffport
19. What the Big City is known for: Smithing and commerce. Dwarven port town carved from a sheer ocean cliff.
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from: Frosthold.
21. What your village/town/city is known for: Rare ore mines.
22. Racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from: Dwarven except for me.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.04 Letting Players Assist in Creating the Campaign)

The Return to Northmoor Podcast had a worksheet for the players to fill out. Its main purpose was to flesh out the world but to also get the players into the campaign without even playing in it. It was a fantastic tool, and I’d never seen anything like it.  Since the Northmoor campaign was based in a village swamp and mine was in space I had to change it quite a bit. Here is the original Return to Northmoor Worksheet.

Here is the form I posted on our message board, asking all players to fill it out.

______________________________________________

Please fill out the questioner below. The Glossary on the next post should help you. For questions about your world, this is your chance to kind of be a DM, so just make it up.

Character Worksheet

Group Items
Please insert your recommendations for these Non-player Characters:

The Captain
Name of Captain:
Description of Captain:
Description of Captain’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical):
PCs Public Relationship with the Captain:

The First mate
Name of the First mate:
Description of the First mate:
Description of First mate’s Signature Item (doesn’t have to be magical):
Your Public Relationship with the First mate:
Your Public Role on the Drudge and Relationship with the First mate:

-------------------------------------------
Character Requirements
- 1st level
- Any Race in the Character Builder. (It cannot be Huge size or bigger)
- Any Class in the Character Builder.
- Any Background in the Character Builder, but it must fit in with your history.

Individual Items
1. Real role on the Drudge:
2. Real relationship with the Captain:
3. Real relationship with the First mate:
4. Keystone event that you want/need to attempt an escape or mutiny:
5. Keystone event that led to you to serve on the Drudge:
6. A love left behind on your homeworld (does not have to be a person, can be a career, material item, pet, etc):
7. A phobia (does not have to be debilitating):
8. The extent of phobia (can be debilitating):
9. Someone you know, or like, on the Drudge that other people may not:
10. A secret that your fellow PCs know about you, but others at large do not:
11. A secret you've not yet shared with any of your fellow PCs, but would be interesting if it came out during play:
12. A secret that you shared with the Captain:
13. A secret that you shared with the First mate:
14. A recurring dream:
15. PC Role on your Homeworld:
16. Motivation to get back to your Homeworld:
17. The racial makeup of the world you’re from (just the major races):
18. Name of a Big City on your Homeworld:
19. What the Big City is known for:
20. Name of your village/town/city you’re actually from:
21. What your village/town/city is known for:
22. The racial makeup of the village/town/city you’re from:

 ______________________________________________

Here is the Glossary I threw together to help the players get started on their worksheet. I got most of the information from www.spelljammer.org.

 ______________________________________________

Slave Ship Campaign Glossary

Air: All bodies of any size carry with them an envelope of air whenever they leave the surface of a planet or other stellar objects. Unlike real-world astrophysics, this air envelope is not dispersed by the vacuum of space. These bubbles of air provide a breathable atmosphere for varying lengths of time, but 3 months is considered "standard".

Captain: A current mentor of the PCs on the Drudge. He is wiser, more experienced, generally liked and trusted. The players will flesh him/her out, and determine their group and individual relationships with him. Well known for wearing a particular item, that the players will define. He is kind regardless of the business he is in and promises to return the PC's to their respective homes after they win 10 fights for him, and are cooperative with helping out on the ship.

Crystal Spheres: A crystal sphere (also known as a crystal shell) is a gigantic spherical shell that contains an entire planetary system. Each sphere varies in size but typically they are twice the diameter of the orbit of the planet that is furthest from the sun or planet at the center of the sphere (the system's primary).
The surface of the sphere is called the "sphere wall" and separates the void of "wild space" (within the sphere) from the "phlogiston" (that surrounds and flows outside the sphere). The sphere wall has no gravity and appears to be impossible to damage by any normal or magical means. Openings in the sphere wall called "portals" allow spelljamming ships or wild space creatures to pass through and enter or exit from a crystal sphere. Portals can spontaneously open and close anywhere on the sphere wall. Magical spells (or magical items that reproduce their effects) can allow a portal to be located. Other magic can open a new portal or collapse an existing one. Ships or creatures passing through a portal when it closes may be cut in two.

Drudge: A slave ship that the PC’s are on. It specializes in going to different planets and capturing worthy combatants that are sold or used in Gladiatorial arenas. The ship is a wooden galleon with 3 masts for atmospheric movement, with its primary propulsion being a Residuumjammer.

First Mate: An experienced fighter, he helps train the PC's for Arena combat. The players will flesh him/her out, and determine their group and individual relationships with him.

Gravity: All bodies of a sufficiently large size have gravity. This gravity usually (but not always) exerts a force equal to the standard gravitational attraction on the surface of an Earth-sized planetary body. Gravity in the universe is also an exceptionally convenient force, and almost always works such that "down" orients itself in a manner most humanoids would find sensible.

Home world: Each PC will have a home world, a world where they hail from. Most all PC’s don’t even know the name of their world since most were never even exposed to the concept of planets and worlds. Each PC will select features of the land and world they live in, based on their race.

PCs: (Player Characters) Our heroes, the characters crated by the players of the adventure.
The PCs were captured from their respective planets in the past year. Determining what they did their is part of their background development. Currently, they are gladiatorial slaves on the ship, the Drudge. You can choose to help out on the ship in any capacity (but will always be watched), be uncooperative (thus be confined), or something else you can think of. The captain has given you chance to return home if you help out on the ship and win 10 gladiatorial matches.

Phlogiston: The phlogiston (also known as "the Flow") is a bright, extremely combustible gas-like medium that exists between the Crystal Spheres. A signature property of the substance is that it does not exist within the boundaries of a crystal sphere, to the degree that it cannot be brought into a crystal sphere by any known means up to and including the direct will of deities. Every crystal sphere floats in the phlogiston, very slowly bobbing up and down over time. Travel between Crystal Spheres is facilitated by the formation of "Flow rivers" — sections of the phlogiston which have a current and greatly reduce travel time. Travel through the "slow flow" (i.e. off the Flow rivers) is possible, but very dangerous.

Race: Since various races are on every planet, race doesn’t necessarily dictate which planet you’re from. However, it might dictate how you might act though, and you can define that in your background if you feel it might be unique. For instance an elf from Krynn (Dragonlance) might be more of an isolationist, not even trusting other elves, whereas an elf from Westron would probably be more accepting of many other races.

Residuum Jammer: A type of Spelljammer Helm which runs on Residuum rather than being powered by an arcane or divine power.

Rock of Bral: A large asteroid city considered the hub for Spelljammer vessels.

Skiff: A small-sized boat made of wood with a small Spelljammer Helm and 8 oars. It has a capacity of eight medium passengers.

Spelljammer Helm: A magic item which converts energy to propulsion to the vehicle it is attached. It allows interplanetary and interstellar space travel for vessels which would otherwise not be space worthy.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.03 Slaves and a Fight Club)

Now that I had the seeds of the Return to Northmoor podcast in my head I started thinking about who, how, where and what. 

• Who could I use as a mentor or leader figure to the PC’s? 
• How would I get them to work together? 
• How do I send them on adventures? 
• Where are all of them from and where would they go? 
• What missions could I send them on? 

Turning different ideas around in my head I thought about different movies or stories that had old ships in them and suddenly it hit me. They could all be slaves on the ship and could have been captured on different planets/crystal spheres. That would explain all of the races and would give all of the PC’s a common background, but still be different. I started thinking about why the PC’s would be slaves, and if they were slaves how would they escape and take over the ship. And once they took over the ship what would stop them from just going home, which is the logical thing a freed slave would do.  

I decided I should use the Captain of the ship as their mentor, but why would they need a mentor. They were slaves. Then I dove back into the movies as I thought about Gladiator. Hey, they might be slave, but maybe they were captured specifically to fight for the owner of the ship, which didn’t necessarily have to be the Captain of the ship.  I thought what if the captain was a former slave and he freed himself by winning in the arenas? Hmm, what arenas? Do they fight in the same place? I decided to go with something I knew a little about, which is racing. 

My niece, Danielle, raced sprint cars. Every year she would run at several different race tracks throughout the season. It fit perfectly. That would even give the PC’s a reason to travel in the ship. There would be a circuit of arena fights on different planets in different crystal spheres with different battleground terrains. The fights wouldn’t be one-on-one, but instead group fights, where your team goes against another. 

I could even make the PC’s fight for their freedom as the Captain did. A big question came up though. How could I prevent the players from trying to mutiny constantly?  My thought before was that they would just want to go home, but they don’t know how to get home. If the PC’s are from a planet that doesn’t know about Spelljamming, the only one who would know were they are from is the navigator of the ship which in this case would be the Captain. Therefore, if they mutiny and take over the ship he can just refuse to tell them where there home is. 
They couldn’t go by race, because several different races could be on a planet. In the Spelljammer universe there are a hundred different planets and spheres you could be from if you’re an orc or bugbear, or even a human.  

Since the PC’s would be kowtowed into fighting for the Captain, or whomever he works for, they could probably serve on the ship as well. That could lead to sessions on various planets in between arena battles. The ship would have to stop on strange planets for food, could be attacked by pirates, etc. The ideas were unlimited now.  

I have the Who, How, Where and the What. Now I have to refine my ideas, and the Return to Northmoor podcast had an excellent tool for that. In the next entry I’ll post the worksheet I customized for my adventure, along with the responses from my group. 

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.02 Ixnay on the Meeting in a Tavern Scenario)

We’ve been playing in our current campaign for many years, with no break, except for one excursion into a 3rd Edition modern campaign. But even that game started us out in Westron. So how could I get everyone to abandon their cherished PC’s and roll up new ones to go into space?

I was running a series of adventures that would bring the current batch of PC’s to Epic levels. It was very Cthulhu-centric, but I was relying on one player, who loved to role-play, to go along with the story and have his PC lead the others into each adventure. Well that didn’t go very well as the player decided he didn’t like how the story progressed and how it affected him. This pretty much shot down my whole idea of having the series be character driven. Although, I could easily have adjust the way the adventures were approached I decided to use it as an excuse to end the series and announce the Spelljammer adventures. To add more of an attraction to the new campaign I allowed everyone to create any race and any class they wanted. Everyone jumped at the opportunity to make their version of über characters.

I decided it would be nice if the players started out not owning the ship or even being in charge, but just serving on it. However, then I had to figure out why all of these different races were serving aboard the same ship. I could have just said they all met on the Rock of Bral or something like that, but that seemed kind of hokey, and I wanted to get away from the, “You meet in a tavern.”

I didn’t want this to be just another adventure. I had to find a way to engage all of the players. Coincidentally at this time I was starting to listen to podcasts, mostly ones from fans of TV shows, like Starkville’s House of El for Smallville, The 10th Wonder for Heroes and Galactic Watercooler for BSG. Searching around though I found The Offical D&D Podcast from Wizards of the Coast, and listened to all of those. But my ears weren’t satisfied. There had to be more good gaming podcasts besides listening to Penny Arcade and Wil Wheaton play D&D as Acquisitions Incorporated, which don’t get me wrong, is very entertaining, but it didn’t help with DMing.

I checked out The Tome Show, which was very good, but then I finally found one that helped me directly. It was called Return to Northmoor. It actually gave a walkthrough of how they decided to start a campaign from the ground up. They even had forms you could download from their website. After listening to the first few podcasts of Northmoor I started going to work on my Spelljammer Campaign.

Continued in the next Blog.....

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.01 An Idea Is Born)

I'm starting a new campaign for my DnD 4th Edition gaming group, and it's going to be a Spelljammer campaign. Since there are no official rules for Spelljamming in 4th edition I'm just making them up based on the 2nd edition/3rd edition rules. Much of the information is from the box set I have, as well as the spelljammer.org website.

I've always loved the Spelljammer campaign, as you can use every campaign setting without it feeling hokey. However, the primary event that got me interested in doing it was a 3D paper ship model I found from World Works Games.

Once I bought the plans for it I knew it was going to take a lot of time to build, and I didn't want to just use the ship for a one-time adventure. So I thought, how about if I use the ship as their base of operations and have the PC's go to different ports for each adventure, kind of like the original Star Trek. They could also have pirate encounters or even become pirate hunters, like Captain Deudermont in the books from R.A. Salvatore.

I started building the ship, and at the same time was playing in my friend Stu's adventure, which is located in a campaign called Westron he started, and where we have been playing in for over 30 years. We have 5 different DM's, all of which have been given permission to run adventures in various parts of the world, with consultation from Stu. The world of Westron is fairly traditional D&D, more akin to Forgotten Realms than anyplace else, and fairly vanilla, considering we've been playing in it for so long. 

The more I thought about it the more I didn't want to just visit ports where I was restricted by the previous stories told there, or the existing government, laws, NPC's, etc.  It didn't take me long to decide to shift my idea to a Spelljammer setting. I've always loved the setting, but only used one hammership in our campaign. We never used it to travel to different spheres or even different planets in the same Crystal Sphere. So, I had to figure out how to get the players engaged enough to want to move away from Westron and get them interested in Spelljamming, which was fairly new to almost all of them. 

Continued in the next Blog..... 

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