Campaign: Finsterschmerzen

"The Kingdom of Ruheundfrieden has enjoyed a century of tranquility and peace. For this they can thank Herr Scheisser, the evil and obsessed wizard who built a giant castle to house his collection. He named his Finsterschmerzen. Herr Scheisser incessently gathered all things evil in the kingdom and brought them to his ever-expanding castle and dungeon. Finsterschmerzen radiated such intense darkness that any evil left in the kingdom, be it monsters, artifacts, sin, or whatnot, was drawn to his infernal abode like a magnet.

Eventually, all the evil in the kingdom was contained in Finsterschmerzen and he resided there in nefarious bliss amongst his collection. Their kingdom now devoid of evil (for it was all securely trapped in Herr Scheisser's castle), the good people of Ruheundfrieden enjoyed infinite happiness in their clean towns and idyllic farms. Humans, elves, dwarves, and the other peaceful races lived in fellowship and harmony.

Now, a generation later, the people of Ruheundfrieden have come to the conclusion that Herr Scheisser is probably no longer alive and his grotesque castle is an eyesore that needs to be removed. A construct of such imensity and darkness may take such a long time to eliminate, but evil will forever be banished once it is done. Many brave men and women are volunteering to aid in the task. Will you fulfill your duty too?"

The Finsterschmerzen campaign is focused on providing a distinct style of pbem roleplaying with at least a hint of the immediacy and challenge of tabletop roleplaying, as introduced in my previous post on this blog. The preceding three paragraphs are pretty much all that the DM and players will ever need to know about the campaign setting. There is no adventure to be found outside of Finsterschmerzen castle. The Kingdom of Ruheundfrieden is so pleasant and joyful that it is more or less boring for gaming purposes. Once the characters leave the castle, all buying of supplies, healing, etc. will be abstracted and summarized. The party can then immediately re-enter the castle to continue their adventure.

Since all adventure occurs in the castle, what is it like? It is huge! Its spires rise high into the sky and its dungeons sink deep into the underground. Since the outdoor portion of the campaign setting is nonexistent and static, I wanted the evil castle to be a sprawling setting to explore unto itself.

To manage the exploration of the huge castle in a gamey way, I'm developing a system for dividing the castle into what I'll call halls. A hall is simply a section of the castle that can be mapped on a single 8.5x11 sheet of graph paper. A hall isn't just a corridor, maybe with some rooms attached. A hall could be anything: a giant chamber, a spiraling tower, a labyrinthine mess of passages, etc. Some halls may be an arbitrary section of dungeon, others may be a themed wing of the castle. There will be more than a hundred of these halls in the castle and dungeon and I will assign a difficulty level to each hall. Halls deep in the castle tend to be of higher level, with low level halls near the entrances. But...there may be surprises, so watch out and be ready to run.

[Another purpose of dividing the castle into discrete halls is that it will make use of the Very Probably Doom chart (see previous post) less daunting. Each hall will be small enough that fully exploring it in a month of play is manageable. Also, the players will be able to track their progress in the campaign as I update an abstract map of the castle to show which halls have been fully explored.]

Before a delve begins, the players involved will announce which hall they intend explore. Usually, only halls that are adjacent to already explored halls can be the target of a delve, but this rule isn't set in stone. Similarly, a delve is usually confined to a single hall, but this too is not set in stone. The party can quickly travel through previously explored halls, but often they will encounter wandering monsters there. It is important to defeat these wondering monsters, lest they eventually repopulate an already cleared hall.

Each player can have up to four active PCs at a time, plus a number of hirelings based upon PC charisma and wealth. Hirelings earn less experience points, perhaps a half share. When a PC dies, the player can choose to take on a hireling as a PC, or create a new PC from scratch. With multiple characters under a single player's control, that player can delve with only their own PCs and hirelings in the party, or he can join up with another player's party for deeper delving.

When multiple players join forces, one of the players is named the delve leader and can, essentially, control the entire party. The other players in the party are encouraged to a) participate fully as normal and b) communicate to the DM and delve leader what his PCs will generally do during times in which the delve leader is pushing the party forward under his control. The delve leader is encouraged to not do crazy stuff when leading another player's PCs. This delve leader concept is intended to a) keep the adventure progressing, especially during situations that may cause indecisiveness and b) allow a player's PCs to be involved and gain xp even if the player doesn't want to engage in a month-long "pbem session" on their own. A player is never forced to join a party with another delve leader, as it is entirely an option of personal preference.

The goal of the campaign? As indicated in the campaign intro above, the characters' goal is to completely clean out Finsterschmerzen and tear it down so they can plant a vineyard or something. The players can share the same goal, but due to the immensity of the castle it will require dedication. I suppose there is a good chance that the campaign will fizzle out before reaching that goal. For that reason, perhaps a more realistic goal (besides fun, of course) for the DM and players would be to strive for glory and bragging rights by delving the deepest and getting out of the castle alive to tell the story. Maybe you'll find old Scheisser himself...or his tomb.

That's the campaign in a nutshell...a brief background description and a few campaign specific house rules dealing with "process".