Fresguleniation

So I've been talking to some people about Fresgulen, and they really seem to think it is a neat place. I wonder how much of that is "it is a neat place because of what is there" or "it is a neat place because it represents the work of Tony and Steve." There is a lot of "I miss Tony" in our group. Also, something smells like shit where I am typing this up and I really do not care for it. Anyway, Tony is missed and there is a lot of nostalgia for when he used to game with us. I'm going to tell you something, he was kind of a prick when we gamed with him. Mostly because he did whatever the fuck he wanted whenever the fuck he wanted, damn the consequences, even if they result in other people's characters dying. He did this mostly because he wanted to cause trouble and was frustrated with several of our players for some of the same reasons I was, but it was still taxing to game with him. He also made a lot of numbers up in his head, just like Jeremy did, but for different reasons. Heh. I often wonder how he would act if he gamed with us these days, with players that are relatively prepared for our sessions and genuinely want to be there.

Anyway. Jeremy and Eric really seem to think Fresgulen is a neat place, and have mentioned that they'd like to go there some time. Unfortunately, neither of their characters have even heard of the rumors of such a place as Fresgulen. Regardless, a portion of our next campaign arc will take place in Fresgulen, possibly even the majority of it. Yay!

That's right, I finally have a really clear picture of what I want to do with the next campaign arc. We're using Pathfinder for sure, Eric never really stepped forward in favor of GURPS and seems to like Pathfinder well enough. Prepare yourself for the shocking part.

Heather, my wife with no interest whatsoever in gaming at all, is the one that helped came up with it. I was talking to her and I said one thing about my initial kernel of an idea, she said another thing, I responded, and then she kind of came up with an idea. I tweaked it a bit to make it more appropriate for my setting and now I have a growing document in ZuluPad as a guide for the campaign.

On top of this, I've got Tony working with me to kind of refine what I do with everything to make sure I'm not taking cheap or counter-intuitive routes to get where I want to go with it. His insight from the player's perspective has been pretty helpful and hopefully he'll keep up with the input as I get a clearer picture of what is going on.

The interesting thing, I think, is that what happens in this arc will be directed by the players. I'm done with them sitting on the sidelines of their own stories. No more of this getting quests from quest givers and going out and doing something and returning for rewards. This next campaign arc is going to (hopefully) be driven by them and what they want their characters to do. It is time they were the stars of their own stories, that's why they're player characters and not random faceless mooks. They are the heroes (anti or otherwise) and it is in their job description to be in charge of their own destiny. This plot, or whatever you'd like to call it, that I have brewing isn't something where you can be someone's bitch and accrue valuable loot and xps. There will be plenty of goals and things that need doing, but it is going to be up to the players to determine what has priority and how they're going to achieve them. Unfortunately, they're going to have to know a lot about playing the game and ask me a lot of questions about my world to determine the best courses of action, and they don't exactly excel at that.

Fair warning guys, get ready to make decisions on what you want to do and how you aim to get there. I'll have all the information you need, but you're going to have to make the decisions, hopefully it won't take two and a half hours.

Also, Hector Aiden Vaux will make a guest appearance at some point.