Campaign Chronicles

New Orleans, founded in 1718 by French colonists, has long been a melting pot of diverse cultures. Steeped in mystery and tales of the supernatural, the city has long been tolerant of the beliefs and practices of the people who live within its borders. Save for one family whose rumored dark deeds were beyond that of which even the most understanding and accepting populace would allow... the Grunches. This family, known widely for its predisposition for albinism and dwarfism, were said to carry out occult practices and dark rites so heinous that they were driven into the swamps outside of the city. Feared and persecuted by their neighbors, the Grunch family more often than not found themselves accused of crimes they had nothing to do with and hunted by those who judged them based on their appearance. After decades of persecution, the Clan patriarch embraced the dark arts his family had been so long rumored to command. Blood sacrifices and pledges of service to diabolical creatures gra...

Like many of you, I have a job (actually I have two jobs) so the amount of time I have to devote to sitting down and creating a world for my players’ PCs to inhabit is limited.   So I cheat.   I used pre-generated settings with the Forgotten Realms being my go-to for most of my gaming career.   Cities are listed, important characters and plot hooks are provided – everything you need to adventure in or around an urban area is right there in black and white at your fingertips.   But what do you do with it?   How do you take the information provided for you and bring it to life in the eyes and imaginations of your players?   I have always equated published cities with real-world counterparts.   I treated Waterdeep as a Seattle analog, Suzail as London, Marsember as Venice, as so on.   But sometimes, you need to create something of your own.   Awhile back, there was a conversation in one of Facebook’s D&D 3.5 groups t...