A brief insight into your world and its history

"You have all grown up in a time of certain surroundings. It has been 30 years since the the great battle of Surma. This battle took place in the once proud city of Monk's Silvertol. It is well known now that a lich had risen a army of undead, and had taken over the city, and its surrounding lands. This was a dark time for the lands of Surma, as nothing seemed able to stop the lich and his evil minions from taking over all the lands of the releams. A year after the lich had secured his "seat of power" in Silvertol, a army lead by a mysterious human named Arathus Lighthem, marched from the south and fought the undead armies back into the city itself. The siege of Monk's Silvertol lasted five long years, but the army of Lighthem was able to defeat the lich and his scourge. Much of the city was destroyed in the long war, and to this day it is still in ruin. Arathus, installed him self as high steward of Surma after the battle, and installed a system of barons and other lords through out Surma to marshal in peace and civility. Arathus was a hero to all, and his sudden rise to power over all in the lands was not seen as anything but good for all. This is how its has been now for the past 30 years. Arathus himself has not been seen outside his stronghold in the ruins of Surma in 25 years. His "protective" army has become a totalitarian government, calling itself "The Red Guard". Rumors of brutality and crimes against common folk are rampant in the realm, but no one forgets that it was the Red Guard that saved this land from the dread lich.
The small town of WinterHaven is many miles to the far south of the ruins of Silvertol, but the power of the Red Guard is felt even in this far off corner of Surma."
This has been a quick history of Surma, for you to get a feeling of what the world around you is like now, I will throw up more tid'bits of history and such as we go along through the game. Much has changed in this world since the last game of 3.5, much has not.

I hope everyone has had time to read more on their characters and have started to put together some great stories of their past. This week we will pick up where we left off, in the small town of WinterHaven. I had a great time last week, and I look forward to what will come of these characters in these uncertain times.

F@ck'n rain

Well, its 12:00pm here, and I stopped by for lunch at my house to check on the basement carpet. This past saturday we got a ton of rain, and my basement, which does not usually get much water at all, well, lets just say between the carpet in the game room, and the theater room, they are very soggy, and have that musty smell. So, we may have to play out in my garage, I will make the final desision when I get home tonight, this isn't that big of a deal, as I have stated here before, I have used my garage for many poker games and such, its finished off, and insulated. No A/C, but with the door open, we should be fine. Again, we will see when I get home.

Update 6-9-08

Hey guys, I talked to Ryan today, and to no big surprise, he has already rolled up his character. He is going with a Tiefling ranger. With the new 4e rule set, they now label classes with "descriptors", just as, Leader, Defender, Striker, and controller. These labels, more or less help to describe a class and its role in the parties makeup. For example, a ranger is a striker, as they can deal out high amounts of damage to a single target. A wizard is called a controller, because they can use mass area effect spells on multiple targets. Paladin and Fighters, are both defenders, as they are more of the front line damage soakers, and a Cleric and Warlord are considered Leaders, as they can heal, offer party buffs and so on. Now, within the DMG, for a group of less then 4 players, they suggest you can do without a striker, or a controller. Since Ryan rolled his guy up as a striker, I can see two options. One, is we don't have a controller class in this group, and each of you has one character. The DMG says this can be done, but the group may take more time to handle certain monsters and encounters. They like to see one of every class type in a group, don't ask me why they seem to think everyone has four or more players. The other option one or even two of you takes on a second character to play. 4-5 characters for a group seems to be the ideal setup for this new rules system. I am perfectly fine with just 3 characters, but I also have no problem with 4, or maybe 5, but I will leave this up to you. Don't worry about having your characters rolled up for this Tuesday, as I know at least two of you don't have your own books yet. But maybe have a idea of what you might want to try.

Got'em!

Due to a error on my part with Amazon.com, I found out last night that I wouldn't be getting my 4e books until mid August. So, today I had the day off from work, and I went out to Barnes and Nobel and picked them up. I have also recieved the module that we planned on running for this weeks session, so... game on! Now I have plenty to read and study up on, has anyone else got their books yet? If not, before Tuesday, no big deal, this first module is set up to play as a "starter" adventure, to get us used to the new rules, so we will be fine.

Big Changes

With this game on Tuesdays, We are about to make two new changes, one, of course being the new rule set, 4e, the other, is something even cooler. Ryan has wanted to run a game of his own for awhile, Hollow Earth, so I suggested we switch on and off every other week, we play 4e one week, then follow up with Ryan's game, then back. This will not only give us the experience of two cool games, but it will allow better content development for both, having two weeks to work on the campaigns. Pat, google up Hollow Earth by Exille games. This looks cool, and I know Ryan will come up with a gripping campaign for us to enjoy. Change is good.