Well, it’s time to grow up and get serious about this wizard
crap. We’re starting again in a couple of weeks, hopefully a bit more focused
this time. I wrote up a couple pitches to
see where the players' interests lie. One idea that seemed likely to bear fruit is an
exploration/survival hexcrawl in a vast wilderness. I think I described it as
“Oregon Trail with dragons” or somesuch.
In considering it further, I also had an idea that maybe I’d
set the unexplored wilderness underground. The PCs would play explorers funded
by a surface kingdom, chartered to explore the River Crepuscular and it’s major
tributaries, and to transport materials needed to build one half of a linked
teleportation gate to be used by future expeditions. Their guide swears that
somewhere in the Land of Always Night hangs a sun that never sets. The
hirelings tell tales of a New World below called Agartha, a strange Prester
John-like kingdom of jeweled streets and magical beasts. Then again, if
hirelings could be trusted we wouldn’t have to pay them to keep them from
cutting our throats as we sleep.
But, maybe I’m over complicating it and “Oregon Trail with
Dragons” is cool enough. I picked up Torchbearer a few weeks ago and though I'm not sold on the Burning Wheel system, I really
like the harsh take on the survival aspect of adventuring. D&D has moved
away from that because tracking your waterskin isn’t “epic” or whatever, but
anyone who thinks survival isn’t epic needs to revisit fucking Predator.
