Kingdoms of Kalamar OR Finally, A Campaign Setting Where I Can B—- Slap The NPCs

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m a pretty hardcore D&D nerd. Not hardcore in an over-the-top sense, mind you, I just loves me my d20s.

For the better part of a decade, my buddy The Ninja and I have been playing D&D with the same group of friends that we met through a player recruitment notice at our Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store. For all of us, it was our first experience with Kingdoms of Kalamar, a fresh new D&D campaign setting from a non-WotC publisher. It was uncharted territory for all of us, and we took to it like fish to water.

The setting had a couple key selling points for us. Unlike Forgotten Realms, it had a decidedly LOW-magic flavor. Magic items are hard to come by, and clerics are the most common source of magic, not wizards or sorcerers. Admittedly, under the direction of our WEIRDO DM at the time, we took the low-magic thing to extremes; by 3rd level, we had thousands of gold pieces worth of treasure, but no magical goodies to spend it on. Our wizard, so some truly ridiculous houseruling, was required to submit a list of desired spells to the DM each level for his perusal and selection (at one level, all he got was Leomund’s Secure Shelter- not exactly what he had in mind).

Still, the low-magic flavor made every item we came across very special, and as we rotated DMing responsibilities, people took extra care to insure that the party came across some really cool, customized magic items. When PCs crafted their own, the effects were usually more utilitarian and flashy rather than powerful- it made magic items a lot more meaningful, which managed to give things a sort of 2nd Ed feel.

Another big feature is the emphasis of religion. No other campaign setting, in my opinion, does as good a job of fleshing out its religions. Each god in the pantheon has his own special domain, accessible only by his clerics, and each faith also has a special alternative option for their “channel positive/negative energy” class feature. Clerics of the god of magic, for example, can spend a turn/rebuke undead attempt to create a Dispel Magic effect in a 60-ft. cone. Not too shabby! Playing a cleric finally become really cool, and made them seem a lot more than one-dimensional healbots.

The emphasis on religion also helped create interesting adventure opportunities and NPCs to interact with. The party soon became closely affiliated with the cleric’s church, and we were dispatched on all sorts of crazy church missions (the legendary “Battle of the Thousand Bebiliths” being prominent amongst them). It was a great DMing tool, and I heartily recommend a good religious connection for any group of adventurers- it makes seeking out healing and potions at low levels SO much easier.

Last but certainly not least, Kalamar was a deliciously empty slate. There were NPCs, to be sure, some with pretty hefty levels under their belts, but none of them were fully-statted out they way they are in the Forgotten Realms. The campaign guide gave a quick blurb on each (as they pertained to their locale of choice) and their class/level breakdown, and left it to the DM to go from there. This really made us as players feel like we were running the show, instead of being stooges for Elminster or some other stupid Chosen of Mystra. After several adventuring parties, we’ve all retired a few sets of characters who are official “big rollers” amongst the NPC crowd. We’ve really enjoyed putting “our stamp” on Kalamar and making it our own.

Dr. Strangenerd, OR How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love D&D

Dungeons and Dragons is a game that, to many, represents the apex (or, to others, the nadir) of geekery. The popular perception of D&D runs thus:

-It is played by socially inept nerds, incapable of interaction with the opposite sex
-Said nerds are usually over/underweight, unhygienic, and completely lacking in fashion sense
-It has something to do with witchcraft and devil-worship
-It has a bunch of overly-complicated rules
-It uses a lot of funny-looking dice

Well I’m here to tell you that’s wildly inaccurate. Well, except for the rules and the dice. That’s pretty much true. And I suppose there ARE a lot of socially inept basement-dwellers who play the game. And strictly speaking, I HAVE played a few games with people who could have used a shower. The witchcraft thing is totally untrue, though, no matter how much Jack Chick may say otherwise.

But as with all stereotypes, the D&D image is based largely upon a mere segment of its population. There are many noted celebrities who are D&D enthusiasts. It would be as foolish to make assumptions about D&D based upon people like this as it would be to make assumptions about sports fans based upon people like this.

So why am I into D&D? I think a big part is escapism: I love getting a chance to take on the persona of someone besides myself- I can be a crafty wizard, a savage barbarian, a noble knight, a crafty thief, or any of a variety of clever characters gleaned from books, movies, television, and my own imagination. The thrill of watching a cool fight scene from Lord of the Rings is multiplied a thousand fold when you get to become Aragorn and start hacking your way through orcs.

I also like the tactical element- I think it’s a lot of fun figuring out how to take down a colossal red dragon without getting burnt to a crisp, or trying to defend a fortress against an assault made by a huge army of lizardmen.

I started getting into D&D back when I was an upperclassman in high school. My buddies and I never really had a chance to play very often, but we bought the third edition rule books and talked about it a lot. By the time we got to college, I found an off-campus gaming group that was playing Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It was great fun, and my first REAL D&D character, Archem the Evoker, was a champ when it came to incinerating the forces of evil with his spells.

That group began to break down after a year or so, as players drifted in and out, and my friend The Ninja and I began to seek out other gaming opportunities. We answered a player’s wanted ad at our Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store, and we soon joined a game set in the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting. Aside from a weird DM with way too many unbalanced house rules, it was a great group, and we’ve been gaming with the same people for the past 7 years or so.

But I’ll write more about that in my next post.

Excelsior!