Prepare for Boarding: Gearing up to run a Spelljammer campaign

I'm planning on giving our DM a break.  He's been running the campaigns now for about 5 or 6 years and has mentioned a couple times as we've hit points where we contemplate changing campaigns, changing out a character or two, or simply having the party relocate to a new region of Faerun, that he'd like to play a bit.  Yes, so far, we've always played in the Forgotten Realms.  We all love "The Realms."  Before our current DM (let's call him B) joined our gaming group, I'd been DMing for a year or so since our previous DM had gotten hitched and moved on.  Once B arrived, he volunteered to DM and I was ready to let him.  He's almost always overly prepared and has lots of hand-written pages of notes on just about any direction we could choose to go.

So, now I'm going to let him play again.  Previously, I had tried to run a Dark Sun campaign with most of the players in our group.  Unfortunately, most of them didn't quite grasp the extreme nature of that realm, which led the game to lack the punch I was hoping for.  My plan on this campaign is to surprise the players by having them start somewhere in Faerun and shortly thereafter get waylaid and find themselves in the hold aboard a spelljammer ship.  That, I believe, follows one of the Spelljammer module beginnings to some extent, but it's easy to use while keeping them from knowing what's coming.

More on the plans to come...


A few Spelljammer links:
Spelljammer.org
Spelljammer in Wikipedia
Spelljammer wiki in Wikia

Video: "Fantasy Love" by Stanley Clarke

This is one of my favorite songs by jazz great Stanley Clarke featuring Howard Hewitt.

Dungeons & Dragons: The comic book

Saw a post by Dungeons & Dragons on facebook the other day about issue number three of the Dungeons & Dragons comic book just be released.  I hadn't head that a comic book had been developed at all.  The comic book is written by John Rogers, illustrated by Andrea Di Vito and published by IDW.

I was browsing my local geek store, a.k.a. the comic store, this evening and decided to see if they had the latest issue of Dungeons & Dragons.  They didn't have number three, but they had an issue #0 Cover A, #0 Cover B, #1 Cover B,and #2 Cover B.  Looking inside the cover at home (yes, I bought them all), it appears that they have about 5 different covers for each issue.

I haven't yet read the comics, so I can't tell you whether they are any good, but I'll post a comment to this post after I've read them with my take on them.

Of note, the back of issue #0 (both covers) has two scimitars and the following:

SALVATORE

DRIZZT

2011

If that's a comic book, I've got to get my hands on it.

Book: Gauntlgrym, Neverwinter Book I by R.A. Salvatore

Let me start this review by saying that I might be a little jaded...

• R. A. Salvatore is one of my favorite authors.
• Drizzt Do'Urden is one of my favorite characters.
• The Forgotten Realms is one of my favorite fantasy settings.

This story of Drizzt Do'Urden, the famed Drow elf ranger, and dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer, King of Mithril Hall, starts 24 years after the Spellplague, in which Catti-brie and Regis were lost to them.  Wulfgar, too, has parted their company sometime over the years.  Drizzt's and Bruenor's paths again intertwine with Jarlaxle's, the Drow elf, and Athrogate's, the dwarf, and even Thibbledorf Pwent, King Bruenor's long time friend and dwarven battlerager, gets some face time.  As Drizzt spends a bit of the story reflecting on and trying to convince himself that he's done with the past, R. A. Salvatore introduces a new character:  the incredibly beautiful and deadly elf Dahlia.

Initially serving the Thayan Lich lord Szass Tam, Dahlia leads Jarlaxle and Athrogate into the lost dwarven city of Gauntlgrym on a mission to create a Dread Ring by shutting down the magic that keeps a primordial trapped deep below a mountain.  That mission is ultimately completed by another of Szass Tam's agents, resulting not only in the creation of the Dread Ring, but also in the destruction of the city of Neverwinter.  Dahlia eventually joins with Drizzt, Bruenor, Jarlaxle, and Athrogate on a quest back into Gauntlgrym to re-trap the primordial.

In typical R. A. Salvatore (writing Drizzt Do'Urden) fashion, well-written fight scenes abound and our pensive and very complex hero has believable inner turmoil and friends and acquaintances who help him work through some of it whether he wants to or not.  Most of the characters are multi-dimensional, with the aspects of the personalities added seamlessly through the story and I'm  most interested to see them fleshed out over the rest of this series and, hopefully, accompany Drizzt on other adventures yet to come.

I could hardly put the book down and spent too many nights with not enough sleep as a result.  I highly recommend this book and fantasy readers who are familiar with Drizzt Do'Urden and Bruenor Battlehammer and their friends from previous adventures should consider this as a must read.

At this point, this is my favorite R. A. Salvatore book about Drizzt, long may he live to entertain us with stories of his journeys and exploits in the Forgotten Realms.

Video: "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova

I figure this is as good as anything for my first post on this blog.

Enjoy a little "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova.