“Ride! Ride for the sapling’s light!
Through thorn and shadow, day and night!
Steel in hand, we swear the vow-
We will not falter now!”
Come with us as we delve into the myriad of mysteries of Castles and Crusades with GM lordrodd in the month’s Campaign of the Month winner: Wyrms of Airhde!
Let’s start with an easy one, all about the GM behind the screen: Where are you from?
Dayton, Ohio USA
What are your hobbies? Are you working on any big projects?
Well, all kinds of tabletop gaming. This includes not only RPGs but board games/war games as well. I have lost track of the number of different RPGs I own and/or have played over the years. I used to run a small game convention in Dayton called FOPcon and I was a player and Game Master in the RPGA for several years, back when it was many different RPGs rather than just D&D and living campaigns. Right now, nothing super big other than working on writing a Castles & Crusades and Amazing Adventures scenarios to run at a local convention here named AcadeCon.
What introduced you to gaming?
I’ve been gaming since the 70’s. My first RPG was D&D when it came out in 1974 that a friend of mine had. I bought the white box and chainmail for myself later. Played many marathon games of Risk back then and went on to include playing many different Avalon Hill games.
What do you like the most about the Castles and Crusades system.
It’s very reminiscent of the old school RPG system I grew up with, yet with a modern touch. The SIEGE system the rules are based around are beautiful in their simplicity and adaptability. While the C&C rules system and mountain of material made it an RPG I knew I would play for a long time, the company, Troll Lord Games, is the reason that without a doubt like C&C will stay at the top of my RPG games. They are very engaged with the community and just down-to-earth nice people.
Are there any downsides to Castles and Crusades that you’ve had to work around?
Not really. I only got into C&C last year after being aware of it for many years. The lore of their published game world, Airhde, is immense, but I have enjoyed getting into it.
Tell us about the world of Aihrde, and your campaign:
Aihrde is the published setting for C&C. It developed out of TLGs homebrew campaign. It is a huge game world with just an insane amount of history and lore built into it. I set my campaign in it because there was just so much available written material and support and it made it easy for me to pick out an area of the world and start stitching together adventures and scenarios in a cohesive way to tell the story that my players and I are telling.
Tell us a bit about your players; how long have you known each other and played together?
I have been playing with them since the early 90’s. They have been playing together somewhat longer than that. We played lots of board games but always come back to RPGs. Call of Cthulhu is a system we play on and off. One of the other players is just in his element when he runs a campaign for us. Making props and stuff like that. I had a character in one of the games that was a pilot and he created a period accurate pilot license for the character. Our most recent games before we started playing C&C were Twilight 2000 and Star Trek Adventures. The plan had been to alternate ST:A with C&C as we like both the Star Trek universe and fantasy settings. We are enjoying C&C so much right now that ST:A is on the backburner.
Where do you play?
We play in person, although during the pandemic we played remotely. One of the players has a nice big room and table and we usually play at his house.
Your adventure logs evoke a sense of camaraderie and adventure. How important are those themes to the feel of the campaign?
We are all old, LOL, and the initial reasoning for the logs was just so we wouldn’t forget where we left off. Because many of us are creative types I think it’s only natural that it becomes more of an outlet for those creative juices.
Are there other pertinent themes?
With one of the players playing a paladin and we have a knight in our groups, one of the themes that has more naturally emerged is one of serving justice and goodness. One of the things I like about RPGs is how various themes and elements come out during play that you could never plan for and end up enhancing the experience. Back in the mid to late 80’s I was stationed in then West Germany in the army. We would play various RPGs in the barracks. I was running two different D&D campaigns then with the same group of people. One was a “good aligned” campaign and in the other the characters were all evil alignment. It was remarkable to me how the players would either be arguing or untrusting in the one and full of cooperation in the other. It was just a natural outcome of the different themes but seeing them occur side by side was enlightening.
The video clips you’ve used for your NPCs are very innovative. What inspired you to do that?
Whenever I create NPCs to add to a game they are usually based on some character or other that I recently enjoyed from a book I was reading or a movie/show I was watching. I’m also a geek and a very visually oriented person. I like play around with AI. I would never use AI to create something to sell but using it to enhance the story I’m trying to tell or the scene I’m trying to set just seemed like the next step in things I do to add immersion to a game I’m running. I like to use my NPCs to help tell the story and add the players experiences with their own characters. I have also used them to help draw out the more reserved players at times to help them get more invested in the story.
You are using the bounties page, and it looks quite nice. What is your favorite aspect of the bounty system that you’ve built?
The C&C game has a variant Hero Point rule. In other games I’ve run I’ve always tried to add some mechanic that may allow the player to overcome a string of bad dice rolling. I modified the Hero Point rules to match what I wanted, and the Bounties page seemed to be the best way to implement them.
Has it helped with encouraging your players to contribute to updating wiki pages and POV logs?
Yes it has. Often on the day we are playing I’ll see an adventure log post or something else hit the site earlier in the day. They like their Hero Points (and burn through them quite often).
Music shows up frequently in your adventure logs; is music an important thematic element in your sessions as well?
I like immersion in my games. Even when playing boardgames at home I usually have some type of theme appropriate music of movie playing in the background. I even have playlists for different genre of games. In RPGs, for many years, I’ve used Syrinscape for background sounds and in combats to enhance the feel. In the combat sound sets there is always a Wilhem Scream option. In our current game during fights, I hit that when the players dispatch a bad guy/monster. I’ve noticed them waiting for the sound after they tell me how much damage they’ve done. Once again I’ve used AI to help in creating some music and songs. We have a main theme on the homepage, and I’ve liked using songs to recap some of the sessions. I usually write what the recap is and then convert that into a lyric. Then I will translate that lyric into a Chaucerian Middle-English lyric with a heroic couplet. I pop that lyric into a song generating AI to make a song using medieval style instruments. I’ve been having fun with it. I may change up musical styles at some point. Throw in some modern music here and there.
What does prep time look like for your typical gaming session?
I usually over prepare. We never get as far as I think we will. I normally do a read through before starting an adventure to get the overall story in mind and decide what, if any, changes need to be made to fit the campaign. During the week I’ll take some time in the evenings to read up on the upcoming encounters. If I have the time I will create images of the descriptions of locations or encounters. Some of them I will animate. I normally text those to the players during the game right after or right before I read the description.
What inspired you to create and run Wyrms of Airhde?
Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to run a C&C game and the Aihrde setting was a great big sandbox of a world to play in. Earthwyrms is the name of our gaming group, and we often just call ourselves Wyrms. I’ve used Obsidian Portal for many years running many different games. I looked at my account earlier today and the first game I used OP with was the Serenity RPG back in 2010. It’s nice having that historic record of past adventures.
Are there any specific adventures that you are particularly looking forward to that you can give us a glimpse of, without ruining the surprise for your group?
The adventure I’m running is Beneath the Canopy of Green, which is a grouping of semi connected adventures. It is published by Troll Lord games. I have a side adventure that is tied to one of my NPCs in which hints of have already been dropped here and there during different adventures. When the main part of that starts depends on when it fits best into the story. I’m looking forward to that happening.
You’ve been a member of Obsidian Portal for eighteen years now. What keeps you coming back to Obsidian Portal?
As I spoke to above, I like immersion in my games and OP helps with that. I like how I can revisit older campaigns and reminisce on the adventures had and stories told.
What do you find the most helpful Obsidian Portal feature to be?
There are many things. I have enjoyed the development of OP over there years. I find it easier now to set up and manage the campaigns that I used. That is probably a combination of your enhancements and my familiarity with the tool. Feature wise I like the Adventure Logs the most. I like the Character/NPC section, Maps, and the new Bounties page is something I can see using in any game I am running. That really encourages involvement from the players, which is great to see.
As a final question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
Something that took me some time to learn over the years is this, players will get out of a game what they put into it. As a GM you create the environment to tell a story and your players are story tellers with you on that journey. I’ve had players whose biggest enjoyment is just the gathering of friends, and the game is second fiddle. Don’t get offended if a player or players don’t seem to be putting in the effort with their characters that you put into the game. This is a hobby and is never supposed to feel like work. I put the effort I do into running a game because I enjoy that. When it starts to feel like work or if you start to feel like you’re not being appreciated for the effort, then you are putting in too much effort. Be adaptable. If something is not being enjoyed by the players be willing to switch up or try something different. Another thing I’ve learned is that I am a control freak. I had a problem railroading players down the tunnel of the game/story I wanted to run. Once I learned to set up the sandbox of the game or scenario it’s much more liberating to let the players guide where the story goes and keeps me thinking on my toes. At my age the more thinking I can do the better. If the story you want to tell is not the story they want to tell let that guide you into telling a story that everyone wants to tell.
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure June 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
