<Username> on 27/11/2007 at 14:34

---

Seeing that there are several p&p roleplayers, gamemasters and storytellers currently writing on ttlg, some of whom are already collaborating on adventure ideas, background material and rule sets, let's introduce our campaigns.

Here is mine:

1. Rule System

Story Engine by Christian Aldridge. Helps keep the story moving fluidly and adapts very well to the ThiefUniverse.

2. Player Characters

A band of smugglers who operate from a steamboat that moves cargo along the main river and the canals from the City to the docks and back. A few weeks ago they were caught in a Hammerite raid and most of the crew was killed or taken to prison. Only the player characters are escaped. The boat is in dire need of repairs.

3. Central Plot Arc

Azaran the Cruel is a mage who was banished from the Brotherhood of the Hand for his interest in necromancy. He retreated to the City and continued his experiments in his tower in Dayport. His goal was to complete a ritual from the Book of Ash - an ancient tome recovered from the sands of long forgotten kings. He sought to gain immortality and succeed he did. But the ritual backfired. Azaran's body was destroyed. He became a shadowform, a figure of liquid darkness. He can only exist in a mirror realm of decay and absolute darkness. If he steps into the Prime World, he slowly withers. For decades Azaran has tried to regain a corporeal form. He seeks to reverse the ritual from the Book of Ash and has managed to recruit followers in form of the Cult of the Resurrection, comprised mostly of ex-bandits and thieves, the group has been on a mad quest to collect a number of arcane relics for use in bizarre rituals. Recently, one of the local Hammerite temples was just raided. Several key artifacts were taken from the temple grounds, and the Hammers themselves were left butchered and torn apart. The case is now personally being investigated by Inspector Drept. As for the Book of Ash, the Hammerites have unfortunately swept the necromant's tower. They found the Book of Ash and hid it deep beneath a factory in the mountains East of the City. The factory has long been abandoned to some kind of disaster. It is rumored the entire place is haunted.

The Golden Dawn is a order trying to restore magic in the City. It is headed by Lord Albert Signoli - nobleman, smuggler and formerly of the Earth Mages of the Brotherhood of the Hand. He is involved in an operation with Dorcas Goodfellow of the Blackbrook Underguild. Goodfellow secretly moves element crystals into the City which the Golden Dawn distributes and resells. Another of the Golden Dawn's endeavors revolves around locating places in the City where element magic pools up and to teach adepts on how to tap into these powers. The Golden Dawn owns a number of hideouts where a small group of young mages studies the magic arts. Signoli too has heard of the Book of Ash. While Azaran used it solely for dark necromantic rituals, Signoli believed the grimoire holds the power to unlock the mysteries of the universe, to elevate its user to a higher cosmic understanding. The influence of the Book of Ash and extensive studies on the subject have driven Singoli mad. And he knows it. Once he sought to make the City a better place, now his every thought is on one thing: the book. He can't help it. If he gets the ancient tome before the Cult of Resurrection, he will be elevated to the higher plane and imprint his madness into the Prime World through magic.

This is where Inspector Drept of the Order of the Hammer comes in: for a long time in the campaign, he will appear as one of the villains. For years he has pursued cutthroats and smugglers. Some of the most respected members of the Free Traders were caught and imprisoned behind the wall of Cragscleft Prison by Drept and his henchmen. He seems to be on a personal quest to eradicate the City from scum. He is a merciless torturer and in his fanatic worship views criminals as elements which he has to dispose of in the plan of the Builder. Most of this attitude stems from his time in the Shalebridge Cradle where he was an outsider and often bullied by other orphans of lesser intelligence. Yet is belief system is entirely coherent - Drept's prime motivation is righteousness. He might endorse the archaic methods of his Order but he has been known to set free, even against the will of his own superiors, prisoners whose guilt couldn't be proven.

The campaign is at its core laid out like this: the player characters get involved in the smuggling of element crystals, get confronted by the Cult of Resurrection, are introduced to the Golden Dawn, discover their own potential in magic, engage on a quest to recover the Book of Ash, discover their mentor has gone mad (a slow process visualized by the progessing decay of Singoli's much-beloved plants), team up with Inspector Drept to forever destroy the Book of Ash and Azaran. The finale of the campaign takes place in the vast underground deep below the haunted Hammerite factory in the Eastern mountains with Signoli and his loyal followers, the dissidents of the former Golden Dawn, the Cult of Resurrection and the Order of the Hammer trying to get to the book before the other parties.

I plan to add more twists and characters as I go along. The above is only a condensed version of my ideas. I want the Golden Dawn to feel like family for the players, a group of clearly defined characters the players look forward to meet again in each session. I always try to motivate players to come up with their own storylines. I assume their characters will want to learn more about magic so I will implement studying opportunities in the background along with associated adventure hooks. Mentors and friends in the Golden Dawn and among the free traders can always motivate characters as well.

Also, I should mention I started out with an introductionary scenario for players who weren't familiar with the ThiefUniverse. A transcript and my notes are available in German. Email me if you're interested.

4. Central Non-Player Characters

- Lord Albert Signoli; eccentric nobleman, smuggler, former Hand Mage
- Azaran the Cruel; undead necromancer, former Hand Mage
- Inspector Drept; inspector, Order of the Hammer
- Lady Katrina Greyhurst; mage, Cult of the Resurrection
- Dorcas Goodfellow; nobleman, Blackbrook Underguild

5. Sources

- Original Mission for Thief 2: Life of the Party by Looking Glass Studios
- Fan Mission for Thief Gold: The Cult of the Resurrection by David Riegel
- Fan Mission for Thief 2: The Inverted Manse by David Riegel
- Book: The Necronomicon Files by Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce III
- My own ideas, some recurring nightmares as well, etc.

<Username> on 5/12/2007 at 13:39

---

That scenario I downloaded a while ago where the party encounters a wounded messenger on a horse in the first scene and later sets out to find a missing person... yours?

Snakeskin on 5/12/2007 at 14:45

---

Correct. I have another one in the works as well. Including nobility, ghosts and pagan agents ;)

@Sola
Would sure as hell like to see your changes, if they are for the better. Please mail me your version.
[email]samgullman@gmail.com[/email]

CheeseshireCat on 23/1/2008 at 09:28

---

I have a few games (both P&P and PB*M) running in my own campagn setting, which isn't a Thief universe, but has something in common -- it is also akin to Renaissance in time, also has strong religious theme developed, and games are mostly "taffer"-centered :)

Lazy to get into more detail, especially since when last time I posted a thread asking if anyone is interested in a PBEM, no one was.

CheeseshireCat on 30/1/2008 at 11:26

---

Well, it is not what I meant by "details" when I posted (I meant the description of setting and stuff), and I don't really think it (system) matters a lot for PB*M... But if you're interested :)

For my P&P game, I use the game system I developed and was sharpening since late '80s, which is mostly skill-based, i.e., has no classes and character levels, only stats, skill trees and die rolls.

For PB*M, I generally use one of three:
If it needs to, stuff "flies at speed of plot".

If it doesn't (i.e., it is irrelevant to the plot, or any result can work, even if differently), it is either that system (if used), or a simpler one described below:

Event probability "ranks" (both positive and negative, usually integer, but not necessarily so) are added up, resulting in final "rank" saying how probable it is, then actual probability in the (0;1) range is calculated using a simple formula p=atan(R/k)/Pi+1/2 -- where k is a coefficient used to change how skewed is the graph. I mostly use k=2, because it is an integer and gives probabilities close enough to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 for ranks of 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively (though k=2.1 gives closer hits).

It is designed for an opposable factors system, but unlike opposable rolls, it can account for any number of factors, and is completely open-ended.