Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

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Darcphaze
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Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

I tend to run millenia, which means a whole world (or more) in the same time frame. I am also a notorious cannibalizer, which means I'll use anything, previous campaigns, anything in public domain, anything I can lay my hands on (please see disclaimer at bottom of Pangea.htm). Pangea has been going on since January 2008. I put most of the details on a website so players could look there to 'remember' things or otherwise keep up on the Quest Information (separate page).

http://www.gamerzpit.com/darcphaze/Pangea/Pangea.htm

I've used DM Genii for character tracking since 3.0 (previous campaign that ran a couple years) because it organized things so well without me actually having to keep track of things. I may change that program now that 3.5 is no longer being supported. Still it has a nice calendar and campaign tree feature that keeps me from losing track of people, places and things. And yes, I have been exploring your other RP tools and find them very very interesting. I may well move everything over to your products. I will keep you advised.

My site only shows the Campaign Cartographer maps I use, but for a long time now, I've use the Jamis Buck Dungeon Generator* for underground complexes, because I like many people, just don't have the time to spend drawing them out. I had the foresight to get an offline copy which is actually geared for 3.0. While it generates rooms & descriptions, monsters and treasures, I tend to change those now anyway to fit my 3.5 campaign, but nonetheless, a fine program. A shame it is disappearing from the web, but I do note there are others. Also, I am a notorious cannibalizer and won't hesitate to use RPGA's many many maps as backdrops.

There are 5 regular players who take deaths very well indeed (and in fact I do keep track of their deaths on a separate webpage), and since I began using RP Maptool a couple months ago, they just love being able to unveil their latest exploration.

I update the website after the game every other week. Right now, players are exploring Beta ruins.

*note: Jamis Buck Dungeon Generator is still hosted by at http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_dungeon.php if anyone is interested
Last edited by Darcphaze on Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:03 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Orchard
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Post by Orchard »

wait, the Jamis Buck generator is being taken offline? ACK!!

Why!?

I'll post more about your campaign in a moment.
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Post by Darcphaze »

Orchard wrote:wait, the Jamis Buck generator is being taken offline? ACK!!

Why!?
I only know I've tried reaching

http://www.aarg.net/~minam/dungeon.cgi

for 3 weeks now and it's just not there

BUT, if you find he's running it elsewhere, I'd really like to get the 3.5 version back. I miss it terribly.

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Post by Orchard »

First off, thanks for answering questions about the generator...

Here are some links with similar content....YMMV:

http://www.bin.sh/gaming/tools/dungeon.cgi
http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=8

----------------------------------------------------------

As for Pangea....this looks great.

I like the concept as it gives the players a lot of familiar names and whatnot to work with. I find myself wanting to know more about the actual world, however. The areas with names that sound familiar--how similar are they to what I would expect? And the ones with unfamiliar names? What should I expect?

Dantier looks interesting...and not too different from what I created for my current campaign. Actually it's a bit more heavily populated than what I have.

My current campaign only boasts five major cities, and a very few minor ones, on a single continent. Ruins and wilds fill the interior of the continent and while there is a road between some of the cities, it is traveled only at great risk.

I like what I see so far. Perhaps as your campaign progresses you can post more information?
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Darcphaze
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Post by Darcphaze »

Orchard wrote:First off, thanks for answering questions about the generator...

Here are some links with similar content....YMMV:

http://www.bin.sh/gaming/tools/dungeon.cgi
http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=8
----------------------------------------------------------

And thank you! I hadn't seen the www.bin.sh model, and it seems very detailed. I love a self operating mechanism. The less I have to do the better!
Orchard wrote:As for Pangea....this looks great.

I like the concept as it gives the players a lot of familiar names and whatnot to work with. I find myself wanting to know more about the actual world, however. The areas with names that sound familiar--how similar are they to what I would expect? And the ones with unfamiliar names? What should I expect?

Dantier looks interesting...and not too different from what I created for my current campaign. Actually it's a bit more heavily populated than what I have.

My current campaign only boasts five major cities, and a very few minor ones, on a single continent. Ruins and wilds fill the interior of the continent and while there is a road between some of the cities, it is traveled only at great risk.

I like what I see so far. Perhaps as your campaign progresses you can post more information?
First I'd like to thank you for your comments and interest in case I forget.

To answer your questions, Yes my world is large, but not severely populated. I use AD&D population numbers with regard to calling a city a city, but when you look at the maps, those red circles? they're 50 mile areas. That's all the city can adequately patrol. Much of the world is wild.

Yes a name is worth a thousand words. Japan (with Japan Isthmus), and Great Europe in particular would probably be more differentiated by architecture than anything else :) but yes, You Know What to Expect When You Go There. I'd give anything to see the party grovel before a Shogun. ha ha

I haven't filled all the countries in because it hasn't been necessary. Players haven't expressed an interest in these other sites, only the ones involved in the Quest Information page. Actually it allows me to fill in as I go along. Poor Maritain is now under demon control with a hodge podge of refugees hiding in the interior. Unless the party gets brave, it's unlikely they will go to visit this otherwise poor enslaved country. Nevertheless, even though the majority of the world is player unexplored, it gives me lots of room to be creative.

But if you take a gander at the Quest Information page, it does give the rather large clue of history ranging past 3000 years, which is still known about (like seeing through glass darkly) during the present day. The majority of ruins the party goes through are ancient 3,000+ years ruins architecture, and I think its safe to admit that even though the Imperial City is their main base of operations and any City News players hear is listed there, the Quest Information page sees more change and addition than any of the other pages. I only add what the players uncover.

They're such an unruly unorganized bunch. :)

Oh I meant to add that we play on an every other Saturday basis. These pages are meant as memory refreshers as opposed to diaries (which believe it or not, my players keep one themselves). But you are guaranteed the more they uncover, the more is there to read.

Thanks again for your interest.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D (Update)

Post by Darcphaze »

I've recently fallen in love with the Token Tool. I use to draw in much of the map info (i.e. secret doors, traps, stairs up and down) on the master map, then revealed them as we went along, but it was still awkward as once drawn, you can't really hide it unless you make a marker or token out of it. So I did. I now use a small growing set of map tokens (symbols) and information markers (color coded) to add such information to the main map, making them visible to players when the need arises.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

This particular post is unexpected on my part :D but after 1-1/4 years of adventuring in Pangea, my players are about to finish the main quest.

Instead of plugging an image in, I was afraid it would cause bandwidth problems or something, so I just plugged in a link, so if you want to see it you can.

What brought this particular map about is that my players love minatures and battle maps. Unfortunately, there are times when such a battlefield will take more than one session to run and there just isn't enough room on the floor or table, not to mention, repositioning and recording position every session.

This is what RP Maptool has given my campaign and I'm proud as punch about it.

Long Story short - my players are in an Oblivion type quest, saving Pangea from the invasion of the demons. They have the Chosen One in tow and are in an underwater church getting him blessed. At some point, they will teleport to this Church Square.

http://www.gamerzpit.com/darcphaze/RPma ... plain).JPG

http://www.gamerzpit.com/darcphaze/RPma ... wgrid).JPG

The Church square is 250 X 350 (N/S X E/W) -- center stage is the 30 foot fountain. This basic Church Square map is done on Campaign Cartographer.
A Legend is in order. Most of the NPCs are round
The Party tokens are Square Yellow with Letter (center of map just above the round 30' fountain)
Brown - commoners or animals, larger ones are mobs or horses
Yellow - clerics
Green - milita
Orange - city guard
White - paladins
Blue - Blades
Red - Demons, most of the medium sized are dretches or rutterkins, lots of weak demons at best as far as the party is concerned, but there are healthy chunks of others the party has yet to meet.
Square white & blues - mages
Square top overs - horses; horses with wagons; ox & wagons
Huge square T - demonic gate
Opaque template shapes - where magic is going off or is visible
The fire tokens weren't originally going to be there, but then I thought, what if the fire spreads? yes good question.

I'm looking forward to running this map so much, I had to share. I'm hoping they'll be flabbergasted with their situation.
Last edited by Darcphaze on Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by trevor »

That looks like one heck of a massive battle !
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Azhrei »

WOW! I appreciate your interest in running such a massive encounter, but man-oh-man that's going to be a lot of work!

Unless of course, you plan to use some kind of "large-scale" battle rules? Something that let's you focus on the overall flow of the combat until the forces are whittled down enough to go mano-a-mano?

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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

You bet yer bippie I gotta plan! Large scale battles can be intimidating and exasperating without a plan. I gotta plan. Its worked successfully in the past and I imagine it'll work in the future.

This map for example. When the players come in, this is where the battle starts, although its obvious the battle has been going on for some period of time. It's much easier to run units in a large battle such as this. Units can consist of 5, 10 or even 20 Creatures, much like an AD&D Swarm, but without all the confusing tactics. In other words, actions would be based on the totality of the unit, no matter how you set the unit up (ie, range attacks, spell attacks, melee attacks, or all 3). The players are free to go wherever their movement can take them. However the battlefield will be changing around them, so no matter where they go, the confrontations will still be there. NPCs & creatures will fight and die around them.

So far, I have worked out 3 rounds in advance (it will eventually be 10). So I already know where all 5 fronts of the battle are going (only 4 fronts are readily seen on this battlemap. I also have airborne combat going on overhead). I already know how many creatures come through that gate every round, which direction they'll be facing and where they'll go.

Battles of this magnitude and larger must be planned in advance. Moving the minatures or moving the tokens in this case will take most of the time, but because its all done in advance, I could literally have a map like this for each round pre-made in advance, simply changing to the different round maps as I need them. I however do feel confident of running it in Real Time.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

Before I post this, I do want to say that I'm a storyteller. My games are full of heroic deeds, mystery, intrigue and EVIL. While I'm not a numbers junkie, nor do I do a lot of Army type scenarios, I don't have time for intricate calculations that would otherwise mire down any large scale encounter. I roll NPC results in advance with roll-offs. Who wins, who loses, how badly hurt. There are those who would say this isn't fair, but all my NPCs are actors in a play doing my bidding. The only thing I have to worry about is how any one of them at any moment may have to deal with the PCs. My large scale battles tend to be a backdrop to something much more important that the PCs are doing.

In this scenario, the PCs are actually trying (or should be trying) to make it to that church on the north side of the square where the Chosen One will be coronated. Needless to say, he has to make it in one piece. Any creatures that come within 10 feet of the party are fair game to confront them, assuming the party goes overland and doesn't Dimension Door or otherwise use some other traveling spell to promote their arrival to the church in time and unscathed.

However, for those that struggle with their campaigns concerning ARMIES and I do mean legions of creatures (lets say with groups of 100 critters), there's a wonderful article at Campaign Mastery that may be of help. I read this article but found it too full of numbers for the likes of me, although it obviously would work well mechanically and in fact I may decide to use it should the need arise.

Once this Church Square scene is finished, I can post the results here so that others may see what occurred round by round to resolve the scene for the PCs, if there's any interest to see what it looks like.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

Alrighty, my players are going at it. We began late last night and had to stop before Round 6, so what I have here is a brief synposis of what action is seen taking place in compass directions on the map, but it should give you more than enough to see how it worked out. The fountain is the center and all descriptions use this as a central source. Each picture is taken at the end of the round.
I was going to leave a whole synopsis here, but we were short a player and I'm posting it now on my website.

http://www.gamerzpit.com/darcphaze/RPma ... square.htm

I want to thank RP Tools for making this battle a pleasure and a breeze to run.
Last edited by Darcphaze on Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

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And so tonight, ended the quest. The entire fight ran another 7 rounds (totaling 13 rounds) in 5 (totaling 8 hours) of actual hours of play. I did have battle maps pre-done to round 10. By then the field had so thinned out from NPCs dying and running amok (beginning at nearly 600 starting the field to about 60 on the field at the end of 10), that a blow by blow in real time could be done without getting too boring. If the gate hadn't been closed early in the fight, this would have been very very different.

It began with 591 (598 including party members) participants. The number crunching is approximate but close enough. Mobs are run as a single unit even though their 'numbers' are actually higher. All 'medium' are single individuals. The arial combat was included, as during its course, 3 demons landed on the roof and punched holes, allowing access through the church rafters into the balcony and the coronation below.

9 party members, but only 7 present at both runnings
commoners were 2 huge mobs, 15 large mobs, 84 medium
clerics were 8 medium (plus 5 on the roof involved with arial fight over square and roof)
milita were 74 medium (plus 12 on the roof)
city guard were 101 (plus 5 on the roof)
paladins were 8 (plus 2 on the roof)
Blades were 21 (plus 2 on the roof)
Demons were 2 huge, 26 large, 182 medium (plus the 1 gargantuan, 20 large flying demons and 26 celestial angels of various powers in the arial battle)
There were 6 spellcasters (plus 5 on the roof)
There were 2 horses; 6 pack horses; horses with wagons(1); ox & wagons (1)
Also, there were 6 separate high level NPCs on the field, 4 of which died during the course of the battle.

Any critter that came into contact with a party member got a number and its own initiative. All unnumbered critters went into the Good Guys or the Bad Guys initiative and were run in groups. All in all, we had a blast. I am a weary but happy GM.
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by trevor »

That is one serious melee !
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Re: Pangea, 3.5 AD&D

Post by Darcphaze »

Alrighty then, our intrepid adventurers have moved on to the next quest. They're searching the Abyss Labyrinth for several things listed on the top of the page. I had to move the entire quest to this page, as it's certainly not going to get smaller. This particular map was oodles of fun to put together, as simple as it may or may not be, it is entirely done on RP Maptool because (survey says) I couldn't make it on another program and still get the clean zooming I get with maptool. I've gotten to mess with the export feature to reproduce it for their perusal on the website. It will be updated after every game play (every 2 weeks). It will no doubt take months for them to finish it. If this Labyrinth looks familiar to some, it is a cannibalized reproduction, and several features on the original are used to make the LONG trek interesting.
Last edited by Darcphaze on Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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