DM Burnout probably has just as much to do with the change of games as did the dice. In fact I just bought three more dice sets so.....when I am done playing and want to DM again,DCCRPG is back on the table.
Things I did in DCCRPG to give it a Blackmoor vibe.
1-Egg of Coot is a Patron. 2-Coot was discovered to be a plan of existence,much like D&D's Far Realm. 3-Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor a constant threat and place of weirdness that if the players ignored for long,grew and exploded with dangerous weird consequences. Three Orc invasions,one rampaging Steam-powered Dragongolem,Sir Fang and the Knights of Vile,100 gnomes,The Goblin King(David Bowie type magical Goblin King who escaped Blackmoor and know leads all of the Goblins from his new Throne of Night). 4-Used Blackmoor organizations like the cabal for player type guilds. Tried to involve the pc's in guild interactions but frankly failed at this. 5- The players(all but one notable case) all hero worshiped Uther. He was shown to be a true valiant king who inspired loyalty even fromt he few Elves and Dwarves in the party. 6-Used Guns only in very very rare instances (treat as magic items) but Steam-powered contraptions as more prevalent. The Dwarven Iron Knights(basicaly steam/magic powered Mech's) that the Lord of the Mines used to break the fourth siege of Blackmoor was the biggest example of Blackmoor Tech. The party did find a ancient Dwarven Tank at one point but they promptly ignored it. 7-The Cube of Coot was the largest single villain in the game(other than a single pc) a distant relation to the Egg,the Cube was shockingly strange and vile and sought to open the connection between Blackmoor and Coot and invade with the Army of Madness. He was defeated in the end and killed but it was revealed that that was his very plan from the beginning and that with his death the way to Blackmoor lay open. Nothing happened however so it was generally decided that it didn't work. 8-oh! All Beholders come from Coot! They found that out from there brief visit. 9-The Temple of the Frog was awesome but everyone died,less awesome. Never reached the level of cool I was shooting for and everyone stayed away. 10-Arcane Warriors -I made up the class for DCCRPG but none ever used it. Had several npc's that used it but none went very far. 11-The Dragon Knights didn't make much impact despite my attempts. 12-I had the Elven lands political intrigue thing kicked into high gear but the pc's mostly ignored it. Oh sure they got involved a little from time to time but only dipped a toe or two in really. 13-The whole spell foci thing backfired the friggin one time I got a Wizard to take the bait and due to one set of bad rolls he died very explosively,the party refused to take advantage of Blackmoors (Dragonstones). ok after looking at it from a ways off I can now see that I went to far into making it dangerous and otherworldly as well as I put too many limits on it for fear of overpowering it. Live and learn,in the future I will revisit this and make it better. 14-The Comeback Inn was a HUGE hit! Everyone loved it. Dave, The Deadly Darling of Arn was a huge hit as a old retired adventurer who bought the Inn and helped out the pc's for a fee every now and again. 15-Ash Goblins scared the crap out of the pc's! Thay really just did not expect Strong Deadly Goblins. The pc's tried to hunt ALL the Ash Goblins down until it was revealed there were thousands. Then they tried to call in a orbital strike in the form of the Battle of Ash Hill,the highest level full party wipe in our DCCRPG game, 7th level. That's like a full company of 14th level characters and several dozen henchmen all died. Only afterwards was it revealed that one of the pc's was a traitor and had organized the whole thing to weaken Blackmoor. That player character was then abandoned as a pc and became a npc,the player rolling up a new character with the rest of the party. This went VERY well,shockingly so in fact as I was VERY hesitant to let PVP into our games. In the past it has always lead to hard feelings and strife....something our games could do without. I guess we are all older and wiser than in our younger days because it went over great and everyone was ok with it. Perhaps it helped that that player went on to lose two more characters to that dastardly new npc!
Well it's late,im off to bed! Happy Blackmoor Dreams Gents!
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