Setup
My campaign started in Threshold. I established Halia Antonic
as the mentor of the PC magic-user, so early on the party
was told that they were familiar with Verge and had been dinner
guests of Lord and Lady Antonic at the Tower. This later
helped hook Skarda's Mirror and provided them an introduction
to Sherlane Halaran. The party included a "DMC"
(Dungeon Master's Character)
cleric of the Church of Traladara.
I included the DMC so that I could bail the players out of
situations where they got stuck. I did this because I was
interested in a long-term campaign (see
Soapbox) and I wanted to hedge my bets about the party
getting themselves wiped out.
Back in those days (1989) I thought that if a DMC was used
the character should adventure and level advance with the PCs
so to not overwhelm the players with his or her over-balanced
power level. If I had it to do over again, I would start with
a super high-level DMC and play him as Gandalf in LotR (or
Fizban in Dragonlance). To ensure continuity I ended up pulling
rabbits out of my hat often enough. It's better to acknowledge
up front that that's the kind of campaign you're running.
Throw in the super-hero at the beginning, but only have
him resort to his "utility belt" (or Ring of Infinite Wishes)
if and when it comes time to save the players from wiping out
their characters.
Rahasia (B7)
I'm a fairly big fan of Tracy Hickman's work. Y'all know
the Desert of Desolation trilogy? The original Ravenloft?
The original Dragonlance? Yup, Tracy, at least in part.
If he's good enough to create Strahd and Soth, I figured he's
good enough to provide a module to start a campaign with.
All toadying aside, Rahasia has a strong and interesting plot
line and is playable by first-level characters.
To be continued ...
Created 14 Mar 97