DnD Tonight

I have recently restarted an old DnD campaign. When 3rd edition first came out my DnD group transitioned from a cool Dark Sun game to one where we all played evil guys. That set of characters were known as "Porn Has" (a really stupid anagram of the word "orphans" of which all the characters were). Anyway the city that they operated out of was loosely based on a medieval Houston that I called "The Sprawl".

As that campaign wore on, it became more and more difficult to motivate the party to do anything. Evil people just don't have enough in common with one another (one of the guys was trying to become a Godfather-like crime lord, another was a crazy cleric that wanted to become an evil god.) In the end the party of Porn Has splint in twain. And it became increasingly difficult to DM.

So we created as our second batch of characters for the new DnD system (at the time, still 3rd edition) a group of good characters. This party was notable by the fact that most everyone had a charisma score below average, with the median being around 6. Everyone was ugly, so that group became known as an agglomeration of two words which formed the title the "Fugglies".

We took the Fugglies through the DnD 3rd edition introductory module, the Sunless Citadel and then through the mega-module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. All the while I kept that group in the Sprawl environs. Through much of the adventures, the first group, Porn Has, made several appearances and worked as reoccurring villains for the Fugs. There were several times when members from Porn Has and the Fugs switched sides. In fact, the 2nd to last part of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil was actual performed by Porn Has instead of the Fugs.

The entire Fugglies campaign was very dynamic and symbiotic with the first campaign of Porn Has.

And then the death knell of all DnD games occurred: the Fugs got to level 15.

The DnD game breaks down in a major way at late mid-levels. Encounter generation is cumbersome for DMs. Battles are tedious as everyone has a billion options. And fights tend to be either impossible or mind-numbingly easy for the characters. I hated high-level DnD.

So we abandoned the Fugs about 3 years ago. Since then, DnD has release as new, partial, edition -- 3.5. And the support for high-level characters has gotten a bit better. Now, at least, there are some published adventures with high level bad guy stats, and some of the newer monster books have some high-level monsters stated out that I can use as-is. So when our last campaign ended, I sent this email out to our group:

"Ioctl is the new super for a condo development in the ruins of the caldera dungeon, the Crater Ridge Mines, and has to find a way to patch the hole in the mountain and refill the lake inside. Rumors abound about a Prince of Evil Earth Elementals that can be found in the inner fane. Maybe he can repair the caldera? There is also rumor of an artifact-level decanter of endless water located in some ancient tomb in the Sprawl. An ancient tomb? Solve a problem – gain a new development property. Sounds like a win-win to Ioctl.

"Sir Rafael the Grey has entered politics and is running for Mayor of the Sprawl. For the last three hundred years, Sprawl mayors have only survived for a few weeks before being assassinated. In the last seventy-five years only three people have run for mayor, all unopposed, and all serving a cumulative time of 16 days in office. Rafael’s +10 sword should keep him in office longer, but who knows? Maybe the fact that his running mate is CHA=2 Jerpy, will discourage would-be assassins.

"Grummish, feeling a little threatened by a rising half-orc deity sends several tens of thousands of orcs to "check things out" in the Sprawl. When the hoard arrives to town, the orcs cause massive headaches for the citizenry. They book all the rooms at the Sprawl hotels, pack all the restaurant full, they don't tip, they overflow the tourist attractions, and other very annoying things. It is now impossible to go out on the town since smelly orcs are everywhere. The Sprawl officials are desperate. The Fugs must solve the problem diplomatically; Jerpy and Sir Rafael demand it. It’s their campaign slogan: "Fugs to eradicate orcish hoard peacefully!"

"Dracustous' great-great-great-great grandmother dies (she was an ancient blue dragon wyrm) and names her great-great-great-great grandson the sole heir of her hoard. All he has to do is come and get it. Of course Dracustous has relatives that were spurred by Gggggrammy and want their fair share of her hoard. They come armed with restraining orders and legal counsel. Drac really has no option but to mount an assault of the Law Office of Gronk, Bonenose, Redaxe and Acererak and kill every damn lawyer there. It won't be easy – Acererak is a demi-lich. Oh, and the law-office only hires lawful evils so its safe to annihilate everyone in there.

"Nate's sheriff duties become too overwhelming for his meager faculties. He hires a deputy and takes a vacation. When he comes back, the entire population of Tikki Town has either been murdered or is missing. Where is everyone? Where is his deputy? Several days later a package is delivered via FedXorn with the decapitated head of Rufus and a note saying, "I know you are the new half-orc god. This material plane isn't big enough for the two of us! Prepare to die when I find you. -One Eye G." Who sent the package? How did the head of Rufus end up in it? Is it related to everyone being gone? The mystery must be solved.

"Elani is newly divorced – her husband citing irreconcilable differences. He gutted her share of her adventuring treasure by a hiring super-slick lawyer Milford H. Bonenose. She just sits in her Sprawl apartment with her growing number of kitties. Does kitty-witty want swom fwood? Kitty-witty wuvs mummy. Mummy wuvs kitty-witty... Will anything stir her from her depression?"

I know you don't know the Fugglies. I'll try to introduce them later. But I just wanted to demonstrate just how my games work. I basically love to take people's character concepts, and manipulate that concept in a different way. Then I hope the player runs with it and we get something we both weren't expecting. Some people do this well, others hate it. My buddy, Kelly, hates it. When he plays a game, he doesn't want *anyone* to tell him what his character does, did or is going to do.

The game group (I DM most of the time, but sometimes Chris DMs Sprawl games, so I have one character in this mix):

Adam (that's me):
Porn Has - Donkeh Jones - Male Half Elf Bard/Arcane Archer
Donkeh falls under the "psychopath" heading. He has been killed once, by Brian's "Porn Has" character, Rollo. Both Rollo and Donkeh were "confused" and attacked one another. Rollo won initiative. If Donkeh had one more round, he would have killed Rollo. This fight started a huge enmity between Rollo and Donkeh that shows up when ever these two play together. Donkeh follows Fachish in the "Mad God" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - no character

Bill:
Porn Has - Pepe - Male Halfling Rogue
One of two neutral characters in the evil party. He is known as "The Rogliest" since through all sorts of DnD power gaming, and me giving him insane narrative dexterity bonuses, he has an impossible dexterity score. Pepe is the only character, that as a DM, I cannot kill without cheating. Pepe follows Wendel in the "Crime-Lord" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - Jerpy - Male Half Orc Ranger
The ugliest character that I have ever DMed. He has a charisma score of 2. I punish this score by every time he walks into town, he gets thrown in jail and/or sent to the gallows. The rest of the Fugglies have rescued him from imminent execution multiple times. He ties with Nate as being the character that has died the most (at least 5 times). Oh, and sometimes Grummish, the evil god of orcs, possesses him and gives him deity like powers. This has happened so much now, that Jerpy has started to take on permanent diefic traits, and is actually being worshiped by a large number of half-orcs.

Brian:
Porn Has - Rollo - Male Human Fighter
After Rollo killed Donkeh, I took back over as DM for the group and told Brian that if Rollo didn't show some remorse for killing Donkeh, that I, as DM, would punish him. Brian instead mocked me. So I spent the next 8 to 10 sessions trying to kill Brian. I finally got my shot when the KouToa Monks of the Left Arm captured Rollo, and then severed his left arm in homage to their god. At the time Rollo had speciallized in two-handed axes, so missing an arm was pretty bad. A good highlight was when he had an arm polymophed (I think) and Ken's sorceror, Sam, accidentally caught him in a dispel magic that made his new arm disapear. Rollo follows Wendel in the "Crime-Lord" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - Ajaris - Male Human Psychic Warrior | Killian - Male Human Arcane Trickster | Ioctl - Male Human Dungeon Delver
Brian has gone through more permanent deaths in the Fugglies campaign than anyone else. Ajaris was turned into a lich by the dark god Tharazidun (sp?) and eventually destroyed when Bill's Jerpy was possesed by Grummish and then smitten with an Orcish Doubleaxe. Killian was killed by Geoff's Fachish but in his dying breath, summoned Tiamat, goddess of evil dragons, which destroyed a large section of the Crater Ridge Mines. Tiamat, in turn, crushed Fachish along with Ken's Psychic Bob. Finally Ioctl finished out the last campaign, and when the dungeon was cleaned out, attempted to revive the property as vacation homes.

Chris:
Porn Has - Wendel - Male Human Drunken Master
The leader of the bad guy group. Intends to run the Sprawl with a huge crime syndicate. Wendel is most know for rolling poorly. Whenever Chris plays Wendel, he always rolls "1"s. We don't know why. He just does. It is now expected. Whenever I give Chris a chance to role-play Wendel, he drinks from his flash of booze and gets drunk. Wendel is quite the souse. He also runs from battle frequently, so he has never come close to dying. Wendel is now in charge of the "Crime-Lord" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - Nate - Male Half Orc Barbarian/Cleric
Nate isn't that ugly, but is very stupid. He has an intelligence of 5. When Chris levels Nate, he spends Nate's lone skill point on "Craft - Basketweaving". Its a joke. Whenever Nate gets nervous, he weaves baskets. Nate is known throughout all of our games as being the most broken. With certain augmentations and conditions, Nate's strength can become insanly high. Fortunatly Nate's armor is very poor, and he dies a lot. Nate holds the record for dying the most times in a single session -- 3. One of those deaths was via a Grummish possessed Jerpy.

Geoff:
Porn Has - Fachish - Male Human Cleric of Tharizdun
Fachish started off as a member of the Fugglies, leading the Fugglies on a raid of the Fire Temple. Fachish was an NPC in the module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. And Geoff started playing with our group when Fachish was introduced, so I had Geoff run the NPC. He did him so well, Geoff kept him. After he betrayed the Fugglies, and got eaten by Tiamat, he was raised and eventually joined Porn Has. When Porn Has completed the Inner Fane portion of the Return to the temple of Elemental Evil, Fachish drew poorly on a Deck of Many Things and was banished to a prison plane. I had him go to the same prison plane that kept Tharizdun. Eventually, Tharizdun possessed Fachish and escaped the prison plan. Fachish/Tharizdun now leads the "Mad God" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - Dracustous - Male Half-Dragon Sorceror
Dracustous entered the game after Fachish was killed by Tiamat. He is known for killing a CR 25 Chaos Wurm by himself when he was only 13th level. To be fair, I played the Chaos Wurm poorly, but still, I intended the Wurm to kill everyone. Geoff plays Dracustous as a borderline nut-job that is obsesed about eating the hearts of evil dragons -- hoping to become one himself someday. Dracustous is also know for his use of walls of force -- creating mazes of force walls during encounters.

Kelly:
Porn Has - Fred - Dwarf Fighter
Fred was captured by Sprawl authorities and hung for his crimes. Kelly, disliking how late we played (we play till midnight and he gets up at 4am), quit Porn Has after the death of Fred. Rollo was next on the gallows, but was saved by a miraculous prison break.
Fugglies - Val - Halfling Rogue/Wizard
Kelly also left the Fugglies, but Val didn't die then. He eventually bit the dust as an NPC, however. Val was most known for being a wizard that never cast spells. In fact, at one point in the game, he dropped his spellbook on the ground and never picked it back up.

Ken:
Porn Has - Sam - Male Human Sorceror
Ken is another guy that hates when I mess with his character. So there isn't much to say about Sam, except that he is psycho. When Sam drew from the Deck of Many Things he had his alignment changed to lawful good. Recently though, Fachish/Tharzidun converted him back to chaotic evil. Sam is a member of the "Mad God" portion of Porn Has
Fugglies - Halfgan - Male Half Elf Druid | Psychic Bob - Male Human Psion | Elani - Female Elf Loremaster
Ken hasn't gone through many permanent deaths, mostly he was gotten bored with his characters and wanted to change them out. Halfgan is notable in that I had him taken over by a doppleganger and didn't tell Ken that he was playing a doppleganger. I just kept telling him that his spells failed when he tried to cast them. Eventually the party Paladin, Sir Rafael, caught him in a detect evil, and the slew Halfgan to Ken's dismay. Ken was grousing with Woody when I told everyone that dead Halfgan reverted to a dead doppleganger. Psychic Bob was fun to DM for. He was a momma's boy that eventually became sheriff of a small town (after Psychic Bob died, Nate took over sheriff duties.) Ken opted to keep Psychic Bob dead after he was killed by Tiamat. Ken then decided to be the first player to play the opposite gender (this still bothers some people in the game.) Elani entered the game with a cohort, her husband. Ken was disillusioned by the leadership feat and quickly had Elani abandon her cohort/husband in town.

Woody:
Porn Has - Josie - Male Human Barbarian
Josie is firmly in the psychopath camp. He is known for killing people, lighting their severed heads on fire and then throwing them at enemies. The most memorable moment for Josie is when Woody was expecting his first child. I had "Porn Has" have a fight where a pregnant woman was wandering around. Josie, in atypical psychopath fashion, stopped the fight long enough to let the pregnant woman get to safety. This says something about a player's tie to their character -- but I don't know what. Josie follows the "Mad God" portion of Porn Has.
Fugglies - Sir Rafael - Male Human Paladin/Blackgaurd
Sir Rafael has created a template known as the "Woody Paladin". Woody Paladins are know for being greedy -- taking all the treasure for their church. Running away from fights on horseback -- especially when fallen comrades are left behind. And forcing fellow party members into "reprogramming" when they do slightly questionable things -- even while being in a state of perpetual hypocrisy. I love Woody Paladins -- but I was put under so much pressure by the game group to punish Sir Rafael's non-paladin ways, that I had stripped of his paladin-hood. He wandered aimlessly until Saint Cuthbert enlisted him as his "enforcer" and changed into a neutralish Blackgaurd. Now Sir Rafael operates with ease in the confines of pure Lawful Neutralness.

Well, that's the group. I'll try to summarize the current campaign later.