dragons

[mongo]

You seem to have a dragon fetish, Charlie. A recent campaign was Dragon Suns. Darkness Falls featured Tiamat. Any deep, dark secrets from your childhood you'd like to share with us?

I like that you provided your players with some background material, especially the maps. As a player, I like having area and world maps. It helps me understand better how the campaign world is put together. My only suggestion is to put some mysterious locations on the map as well. Have a "Sunken Tower of Iyarim" in the Dydd Marsh and a "Halls of Carim, Here Lurks Ungaloth the Undying" in the Black Forest. Such things intrigue the players and add some history to your world. You, as the DM, don't have to have anything planned for these locations, but you can always use them later.

Care to share any secrets of the campaign world with us? I'm guessing that your players aren't allowed to read your column upon pain of level loss, so let's hear some.

And, of course, how are you planning to start the PCs in the campaign? This is the hardest, but funnest (to me), part of campaign planning. Thinking of how to hook the players on your campaign in a believable manner really gets the brain juices flowing.

Good column. I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Kravell]

mongo,

I can't be sure but I think the D&D cartoon with Tiamat showing up had a big impact on me. I kept wanting ol' five heads to eat Uni, but it never happened. Now, I live my dream every two weeks.

Your suggestion for interesting locales is a good one. The ruins of Whelming and Stonewood are both mysterious locations on the map. The PCs will hear of others (like a dragon graveyard and a sunken temple of evil) as we go along.

Let me sort through my secrets and see which ones might be the most interesting and get back to you. I start unveiling a few in next month's column as well.

We started simply enough. The PCs, whether they knew each other or not, were doing their wash in the Rushing Stream when some spawn of Tiamat jumped them. They kept screaming about killing the Chosen of Bahamut. It was kill or be killed.

When Ux Daex, the dragonborn cleric of Bahamut, summoned the PCs, they hoped to find answers. For some reason, Tiamat's spawn (and maybe someday Tiamat herself) wants to kill each PC. It seems the grudge is very personal. So they banded together, some reluctantly and some eagerly, to serve Bahamut and oppose Tiamat.

More on the developing story next month as well. Glad you're enjoying the column.

Oh, and our next game is Friday the 13th. That should be fun. Well, fun for me anyway.

Charlie