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.
Posted by srmencken 
Posted by srmencken 
Posted by srmencken 
