In this blog, I announced a new actual play online/YouTube stream featuring our group playing Beasts & Barbarians for Savage Worlds using the +Fantasy Grounds VTT and Hangouts On Air! for cam and voice. I also introduce myself as a role-player and Game Master.
In case you didn't know, it premieres November 13th at 10pm EST. Announcements will be posted on my "circles" feed (so add me if you'd like to receive it in your feed), the Beasts & Barbarians G+ community and the Savage Worlds G+ community.
In the first preview, I explained what Beasts & Barbarians is all about and why our group absolutely loves it. I also introduce one of the players of the group, +Stephen Dragonspawn .
In the second preview, I shed some light on what happened during our first year of gaming together and where the characters are at. This is where I introduce +Daniel McLaughlin , another player of the group.
Now, in this blog, I'd like to share some insight from behind-the-screen on where the next chapter of our Beasts & Barbarians campaign—The Beggar King—is going and why.
The first chapter of the campaign that took place over a year span was a mix of elements from two official modules: Death of a Tyrant and The Green World. It started out and concluded in the Red Desert but some time was also spent in the Green World (a pocket dimension inside a green orb). It had a distinct rural and barbarian feel to it that featured a Tulsa Doom-like sorcerer-priest as the villain. Long-winded character arcs were also developed during that campaign.
The prologues to the first chapter were a collection of one-shots episodic in nature. There wasn't much room for character development there as you would imagine but it was over-the-top and featured a lot of action scenes while I got to introduce the players to many interesting Dread Sea Dominions locations.
With The Beggar King I'd like to go back to those roots while introducing more character arcs. We previously showcased +Michael Lee's Kazan The Hidden and +Daniel McLaughlin's Prince Elkyr but it's now time to bring +Wulf Gar's Argoth the Vanquisher and +Stephen Dragonspawn's Kron the Barbarian to the foreground. Basically, the goal is to inject some continuity while using new episodic stories each week. Easier said than done when you only have two hours I know.
While I believe good preparation and structure helps keep a story interesting I'm no fool. I know that, ultimately, the players will decide what happens. After a year playing with them I can tell when something captivates them or when I have to let go of a story I hold dear but really isn't engaging them.
While carousing is a prominent trope of the sword & sorcery genre, we haven't had the chance to delve into that because, for the whole year, every sessions took place in the desert or a jungle with no tavern to carouse in. It's that simple. That's another reason why I'd like to keep each adventure short: so we can finally use the neat Carousing setting rule Beasts & Barbarians has and that I will explain in the next preview.
I could have sent the group on a wild cross country chase and featured more of a Dread Sea Dominons. I could have picked Tricarnia as the main location since there's a whole sourcebook out on the subject but this is in Prince Elkyr's wheelhouse and that character had plenty of spotlight in the first chapter. I could have used the material in one of the adventure modules entitled The Book of Lore to set the events of the next chapter in Ekul, Northeim, the Iron Mountains, Kyros or even put together a mercenary campaign but I ultimately chose Jalizar, City of Thieves.
I chose Jalizar because I wanted an urban environment to contrast with the rural setting of the previous chapter. I wanted a place where they'd never run out of establishments to get in trouble in. I didn't want a location where they couldn't carouse because they were in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to push my boundaries and be forced to role-play more NPC encounters despite the fact that, as a non-native English speaker, it is one of my weaknesses; something I tend to hand-waive but know too damn well it's an important element to a story. It's what makes the players feel they are part of the world their characters interact with. I also wanted to exploit the fun role-play possibilities of putting Kron the Barbarian in an urban setting and see what +Stephen Dragonspawn will come up with. And finally I chose Jalizar because... Lankhmar.
Yes, like +Ron Blessing and +Kristian Serrano, I'm a big fan of the Lankhmar setting and almost gave in to GMADD (Game Master Attention Deficit Disorder) and ditched B&B to run Lankhmar. Turns out I don't really have to do that. Jalizar is Lankhmar with it's serial number filed off. Here I've got these awesome players with a lot invested in their characters so why should I ask them to make new characters to play in a setting who's DNA is 99% compatible with Beasts & Barbarians?
So here we are in Jalizar, City of Thieves. Most of the characters are Heroic Rank and undoubtedly about to clash with the main powers and most likely tip it's fragile balance. With so many factions at my fingertips, old demons coming back to haunt them and the certainty they'll get themselves in deep trouble several times without my own doing I believe I've got more than enough material to keep things entertaining.
Finally, here are some recurring themes I feel will help me stay focused: cloak and dagger, intrigue, sleeping evil, legacy, a rotten city, famous heroes and cosmic horrors. Yes, I will add a Cthulhu Mythos touch to these stories because pretty much every game I run has an element of horror and because why not? Over-the-top pulp heroes facing cosmic horrors has got "win" written all over it.
In the next preview I will share the official Beasts & Barbarians setting rules and tell you about additional setting rules I will use for The Beggar King.
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