Come with us and GM Nogame as we explore the lore of the forgotten What Was from the fallen realm of Terra Viss in this month’s Campaign of the Month: Dungeons of the Multiverse
Taking place in Justonia, Dungeons of the Multiverse has been an ongoing campaign for the last year and a half that features long lost technology, perilous puzzles, Bearcrabs, and plants made of meat!
Where are you from?
Our group entirely is from Milwaukee WI, playing locally every week-ish, depending on schedules.
How did you get into gaming?
I was raised in a family which facilitated classic board games which quickly dovetailed into more advanced board games, RPGs, and TCGs.
Do you have any hobbies or projects that you are working on?
Our group has been playing games and other hobbies for nearly two decades and in that time have participated in countless RPGs/games. Current future plans include some warhammer 40k, a continued campaign within the world of Justonia after this arc ends, and some board game design projects. The creative process of all of these things is what we truly appreciate!
What is your favorite snack on game nights or when you are prepping for the next game session?
Dott’s pretzels are hands down the go to snack of choice followed closely by the off brand twizzlers from Kwik Trip (local gas station). Any sort of random gummy candies work too. We are big snackers as a group so pretty much anything goes, other than nasty Doritos! Abomination of chips…
What is your favorite part of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition?
Character creation is my favorite part of 5th edition. Flexibility in starting choices fits well with growth potential of the leveled character too. The mastery of each weapon type was a nice change, giving each weapon a reason to take it versus something else.
What would you change about 5th Edition, if anything?
The game itself allows for adjustment, flexibility, homebrew, and overall freedom to do whatever GM/players wish to do! The game is a tool to deliver a storyboard, how you use the tool is up to each member.
What does prep time look like for your typical gaming session?
Prep time for my sessions is all week long and between everything I do. I replay the last session and think of plot hooks the players engaged with or mentioned that they would like to persue. Leaving open opportunities for the players to explore as they see fit, never forcing a direction. It takes a while to create open ended avenues to prepare for the wild adventures.
Tell us a bit about your players:
The play group consists of my brothers, shockingly have known them my whole life, two friends from elementary school age that we grew up hanging out our whole lives, and one friend that I met as a coworker. The whole group has been participating in this friday night gaming going on nearly 20 years now.
Where does your group play?
Week to week this can change but the primary location is my basement since I have established it as a recording studio.
What makes the Big Damn Heroes special?
The Big Damn Heroes are a ragtag team of champions from diverse cultures all around Justonia. Assembled together by the High Council to go and save the people from the events happening. This is typical theme of a RPG group, but the difference is that each player has a pivotal role to play in their own story arcs and the combined story. Working with the players to ensure they all are different, important, and vital to the overall story keeps everyone engaged.
What sort of theme does Dungeons of the Multiverse have?
To summarize the feel, I would lean to comedy drizzled with mystery. My play group uses the game as an escape from work, life, problems so it’s a great time to laugh and let loose. The mystery elements let me paint fun and vivid settings and events though. One of my players referred to our campaign as a High Fantasy of Guardians of the Galaxy!
Tell us more about the world of Justonia:
Justonia is a world that we collaboratively developed during a previous campaign of Wicked Ones, each taking turns creating cultures. We are still slowly encountering new things that need to be worked on and fleshed out. The whole theme is a fractured world flooded after an event years prior. The flooding has developed a lot of nautical effects to take a priority in evolution. Lots of shells and aquatic abilities exist throughout the wildlife and species. Magic is a lost training among the world, so wizards are rare if present at all. There are people that have innate gifts and it’s just natural, but not something taught or learned. “What Was” is a lost technology that is how most magical effects are justified within our world!
Vaetmons, Arcane Academy seems to be an interesting place to seek out answers and adventure. Tell us more:
Development of this Academy is something I spent time on since the beginning of this world building. How do I create and tie magic into this world that magic is unknown in? This secluded academy within the sky which has been present since who knows when! It fit the world so well!! Then what makes it special, the library is actually a dimensional rift throughout different pages in a book. Turn to a page in the front book, then enter the rift to transport to a collection of books and knowledge based on the page that was open.
Why Bearcrabs?
A very common troupe that our group thought was starting adventuring party encounters a bear in the woods. What would that look like in our world?The shelled creature the size of a bear, but with an aquatic feel…Bearcrab. A half sentient culture that are massive, protected creatures.
What is the weirdest form that What Was – Desperation has taken?
Utilizing it’s ribbon like strands it once formed a greatbow in the need to secure a victory at range. The wielder and it have a pure bond that allows the needs of the wielder take form.
Describe the most memorable moment from Dungeons of the Multiverse so far:
I decided to turn this question over to my playground to get their responses on the matter. The players came back with two events of note. First was my use of Formula D as a tool to facilitate a race the party encountered. I made up some rules and gave the racers new actions they can take on their turn but ultimately played a board game with their D&D characters as the pilots! The second noteworthy event was doing our haunted mansion adventure while utilizing levers from the RPG Dread.
Without giving away too much, can you tell us about some of the adventures that the Big Damn Heroes will face in the future?
The current path the heroes are on will lead them to the last specter, the group is well aware of this. The culmination of the story arc has some mystery elements that will tie pieces of the story together! I am hoping to have some shocked moments and surprises that the players will truly enjoy.
How difficult was it to set up your cameras and microphone to record your sessions, and how much time do you spend editing those videos?
The cameras, microphones, streaming software, and overlays just take a lot of modifications and adjustments to get them to work correctly. As far as editing, we don’t do that! We just are rough, crude, and real. If people don’t like that, I’m sorry!!
Dungeons of the Multiverse has a Youtube channel. How has that experience been?
The channel hasn’t taken off yet, mostly because of Youtube’s algorithms that uploads have to happen multiple times a week to get a priority. Since we have full time jobs that don’t leave us in front of computers to do editing, shorts, or other additional uploads, we just don’t!
How did you hear about Obsidian Portal, and what do you find the most helpful Obsidian Portal feature to be?
I googled campaign tracking services and did my research on multiple options. The options offered on Obsidian Portal fit our needs the most so I tried it, and loved it! The wiki style pages, linkable to each other is what I love the most. Adventure logs, npcs, and other wiki pages do a great job to develop our world and log everything we have done.
As a final question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
Listen to your players, take in feedback and ensure the story is collaboratively being told. Just because you’re the GM, doesn’t make it your story! Everyone involved is providing their time and energy, so make sure the appreciation is shown.
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure July 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
