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And now, a message
from the Dungeon Master...
Our current gaming group has been evolving since 1988, when I first
designed the Penderyn Campaign background during a high school English class.
Throughout the past 17 years, we've had players come and go, but some of the
original old-timers are still around, so we must be doing something right.
We play in central Pennsylvania, USA (because that's where the DM's lair
is located), but our players have been scattered all over the place:
Boston, Tampa, Wisconsin, Lancaster, somewhere in Virginia, and now
Canada. We gather a
when schedules permit and play D&D.
Our game system is a reflection of "Old School" D&D; we grew up on 1st
Edition. However, over the almost two decades of developing the campaign, we've
incorporated the useful ideas from the 2nd and 3rd Editions into the mix,
and naturally I had to go ahead and craft my own rules to add the
personal "flavor" to our world. For example, you'll find that the
"proficiency" system we've been using since the early 90's works very well with the
Skills and Feats mechanics from the 3rd Ed.
The material you'll find on the
website has been culled from innumerable sources over the years. Much of it comes from old Dragon magazines,
some from the TSR or WotC sourcebooks, some from d20 materials, some from
other sites online, some from my own head. I don't claim that all the
work on this site is mine, but it's simply not possible at this late
time to credit of all the authors whose work I've stolen, manipulated
and bastardized since the mid-80's; my apologies to them.
The mechanics of our playing style allow for all the rules to run
together smoothly, yet any bit of it may be ignored at no loss to the
rest of the system. They're structured so that the player characters
are the focus of the game. Secondary skills, languages, nationalities,
backgrounds, personality traits, all of these play just as big a role in
the adventure as the weapons they carry or the spells they memorize.
Visitors to our site may notice that the majority of it is devoted to
player character creation, and campaign descriptions. This should
demonstrate the emphasis we place on the characters as the heart of the
story, not treasure or magic items or coins or XP.
In our campaign, stupid characters (and short-sighted players) simply
don't last long. If a character doesn't use his wits, his talents, and
his skills just as much as his battle axe or his spellbook, then he's
probably troll-bait in short order. More than one of my players has
expressed appreciation at the fact that my campaign world is reactive,
challenging, and changing. I take pride in that. In turn, I expect my
players to be at their best, and nobody gets points for taking it easy.
Actions have rational consequences in my campaign, and more than once
this realization has come back to spank the characters on the asses and
remind the players that they ain't the only movers and shakers in the
world.
And it all works wonderfully.
The Voodoo Orc says so. |
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