Blog Archives

Obsidian Portal Campaign of the Month July 2022: Signs and Portends

Obsidian Portal loves to celebrate campaigns that have stood the test of time, such as this month’s Campaign of the Month winner — “Signs and Portends” by ketherian. Well-organized and well-loved, this game has been running for 10 years! We’ve asked ketherian to Hârness her experiences with the HârnMaster system, GM’ing, writing, and running conventions to answer a few questions and give us some insight into stories and fun that last for years on end.

Hail, ketherian! Congratulations on winning July 2022 Campaign of the Month! “Signs and Portends” is a captivating HârnMaster campaign that has adventure logs on Obsidian Portal dating back a decade. For those who don’t yet know the world of Hârn, can you give a quick overview of the campaign and what it’s about?

It started as a mystery campaign, although I’m sure the party would have called it a Murder-mystery campaign. The first few adventures are even written up for GMs on the Fantastinomicon Encounters page. But after many (many murder) mysteries, the party wanted something different – so the PCs “graduated” into something more political. After a war, and a long MacGuffin hunt — the party will soon embark on a there-and-back again type adventure to purify the MacGuffin.

According to your OP profile, you have many years of experience with many different kinds of games and even a few writing credits with published game material. If you had to narrow it down to some of your favorite systems and settings, which ones would you choose?

That’s a hard choice. I’ve played some games, and run a few too – but I’m always willing to try something new. For me, it’s more about the background world than the system. I’ve played HârnMaster and run games in HârnWorld for a very long time mostly because I fell in love with the detailed background, maps, and the quality of the fan-written materials. Is it my favorite? Currently, yes. But I’m always willing to try a new system and learn a new world.

What do you and your gaming group like best about HârnMaster?

We really enjoy the background and the details of the society. It’s not quite your standard Arthurian fantasy, but it’s close enough to feel familiar. From the system, we enjoy the fact that it has no classes, nor hit points. Instead, you build a person who has skills. It’s led to the party having a Mage-Knight, and a Cook (Herald/Thief/Spy), a Yeoman (Sargent/Guide/Tracker), and a Spearman (Guardsman/Shaman).

The other two characters (a priestess and a church knight) are a bit simpler in construction.
Another neat thing is that HârnMaster combat is lethal regardless of how experienced you become. Your player-character can die from your mistakes. And exhaustion kills. So, it’s no wonder that people invest in armor as soon as they can afford it.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your players, and your lives outside of game?

I won’t speak for my party; but we’re in Montreal and meet up every 2 weeks. Our game table is often laden with snacks. Home-baking and cheese feature prominently, and the tea is pretty free-flowing.

The other neat thing? The table has more ladies than men (by 1). I have spent so many years as the only woman in the game, that this is a most pleasant change (although, it’s not the first time).

How did you first get into gaming? How did your current gaming group find each other?

I started gaming when I was 12. My older sister was the GM. I thought she did a lousy job, so I took over. 😀

I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences (being a woman and a GM isn’t always accepted in conventions or when I join a new table), so I’ve had to learn to leave the bad situations behind. But I’ve had a lot more good experiences than bad, most of them at conventions. It’s incredible when a player viscerally reacts to what’s happening at the table (laughing, crying, shock, etc.); it’s even better when they show the emotion I was hoping for.

As to the Signs and Portends group, we mostly know each other through another hobby: running fan conventions. This makes gaming difficult during the convention season, but we manage.

I’m a forever gm, and I’ve run previous campaigns for everyone in the party (except the new guy). We’re not quite a permanent gaming group – but we are old friends.

Your campaign organization on Obsidian Portal is remarkably good and the pages are all easy to navigate. Do you have any tips for GM’s regarding organization?

I haunted the forums (and now discord). As much as I love messing with layout, I always started with the suggestions, advice, and templates created by others. When I ran into problems, I reached out for help in the community; and the community always helped.

I have a background in data management, and Obsidian Portal was not my first wiki. I regularly surf my own site, and I use it to share log updates and loot lists with the players, as well as background information – so it has to be easy to navigate.

When organizing your data, design your structure like you will never remember where you put things. 😀 And then, remember to define your categories on a page so that everyone knows what you mean with your categories.

“Signs and Portends” features a handy section on House Rules. What rules changes or additions have you found to be most useful, either for this HârnMaster campaign or for other games?

HârnMaster has 1 book of rules and 2 supplements (religion and magic). Most everything else is about the society and the world – so house rules tend to be few and far between. I set up house rules to try and make the game flow a bit more evenly and to give the players more control at the table.

House rules typically fill a need or fix a mistake in the game system. But when they get to be too numerous, they become their own problem. I prefer systems with less rules (even if that means not every situation is covered) and also less house rules than more.

What highlights of the campaign have your players loved most, so far?

A player got her monkey. The player asked for the pet at the beginning of the game. Rather than say no, I explained that (a) monkeys are not native to this part of Hârn, and (b) her character would have never seen a monkey. She came up with a backstory of where the desire came from, and I incorporated the whole process (getting pictures of monkeys, meeting with a master merchant, ordering a monkey and trading for it) into the game. It was a long, slow process – but she got her monkey. And the party celebrated.

The party fought a dragon (more-or-less). The Mage-Knight almost got bit in half. It destroyed his sword (which was quite the work of art). After the battle, the party found a master swordsmith – who cried at the site of it. The fight was part of a longer adventure where they cheated their way into an enemy keep and found and killed the evil oracle who ran the place. That whole long-ranging battle is memorable as the party was cut-off from their support, but still they managed to lure most of the forces in the keep outside before locking them out. Their success is a point of pride for them, and trust me, they really worked hard to get it!

After so many years there are a ton of stories, and lots of good memories. 🙂

What part of the story are you most pleased with? Or, what was the most enjoyable moment for you as the GM?

For me, it’s the little moments. A player will ask for something, or mention something they want to do. A lot of things take so very much time in Hârn (there’s no teleportation), so by the time that thing comes around — the player usually has forgotten (not the monkey though). So, when it does come to fruition, it’s a joy to see the effect on the player.

There are the odd jokes too. At one point the church knight is testing his ability to detect evil, and on a whim, I told him the goat nearest him was evil. I thought it would be a quick scene. The party still teases him with evil-goat references.

I often mis-speak, so the party has walked through thin thickets, dry waterfalls, and wet deserts. 😀 Somehow, we make it work.

Overall, what part of the work of a GM do you love best and why — world-building, story-writing, battles, improvisation, and so on?

I love the world-building and the story-writing. They are what keeps me interested in the hobby. I’ve gotten better at improvisation over the years, although I try hard not to rely on it.

Can you give us any hints about the future of “Signs and Portends” (pun intended) without giving too much away? Or, do you have other, upcoming projects?

The party wanted a there-and-back again adventure (a la Hobbit). So, they’ll be traversing Hârn and visiting the mainland (Lythia). They’ll travel a penitent path – traveling from holy site to holy site until they reach the high seat of Larani. In-game, it’s expected to take around 2 years. Naturally, something’s going to happen at each site (maybe even a murder!). After that – I’m not sure.

Given your experience in gaming — playing games, running games, and writing — you have certainly seen changes over time in roleplaying games at your own tables and within the industry as a whole. What developments over the years have really impacted or improved gaming the most, for you? And if you’re willing to speculate, what do you think roleplaying games look like in the future?

I love the session 0 concept. When I started, the world you played in was what the GM presented without party feedback. I was never that comfortable with that, and have found over the years that I prefer it when the party give me feedback and tells me what they want from the game.

I still sometimes have problems with acceptance and inclusion, but now it’s regulated to forum posts not games or conventions. Gaming is, and always will be an apprenticeship process. To be a good player, you have to play with other good players. To be a good GM, you have to be in games with good GMs. Taking feedback isn’t always fun, but if it’s given with compassion, it’s always valuable.

I love to see the innovation of other GMs and their parties. I read everything I can find about GM’ing, but also about communication, improvisation, and negotiations. I don’t know where things are going to go from here — but it will be fun to find out.

Finally, Obsidian Portal always enjoys asking if you have any advice or clever tricks to share, as a GM, author, a site-designer, or as a game-player in general.

Ask questions.

As a player, as a GM, and as a person – it’s better to ask and seek for answers than it is to remain silent.

Listen more than you speak. As a GM that’s really hard to do. 😀 But when your players are talking – listen. Take notes. Use what they say to enrich your world, and don’t always use it against them. You need your party’s trust. Earn it and repay it by asking them questions about what they want to see – for their character, and for their game.

And lastly, if you don’t like the way some other game is run or played – don’t harsh their yum. Be careful with your criticisms, and remember that your words have an effect. Make that effect positive, not negative, every chance that you can.

Thank you for this honor. I look forward to see what happens in the near future. Maybe people will stop liking my Rise of the Runelords adventure, and start liking Signs and Portends one. 😀

And many thanks to you, ketherian, and to your players, for sharing your creativity and craft with our community. As we say farewell to the world of Hârn, we look to other horizons for more excellent examples of gaming goodness. If you know of a campaign on Obsidian Portal that deserves distinction, let us know about it on the forums! Happy Gaming!

OBSIDIAN PORTAL CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR 2021

Congratulations to our COTY 2021 winner:
HEROES AS A SERVICE –
GM: Nuadaria (FEB 2021)

and to our runner up:
GAXIM PLAGUE –
GM: Frak_Lou_Elmo (JAN 2021)

FIRST PRIZE includes:

– Digital copies of both Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding and Kobold Guide to Plots and Campaigns from *Kobold Press*,

– Digital copies of both Starfinder and Pathfinder Second Edition Beginner Boxes and/or Core Rulebooks from *Paizo*,

– Physical Copies of Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022, and Paranoia Starter Set from *Mongoose Publishing*,

– 1 Year Ascendant Membership from *Obsidian Portal*

RUNNER UP PRIZE includes:

– Physical Copy of Seas of Thieves Starter Set from *Mongoose Publishing*,

– 1 Year Ascendant Membership from *Obsidian Portal*.

ENTRY PRIZES

Congratulations to all other campaigns entered into the draw. Each GM will receive free Ascendancy time from Obsidian Portal and will be contacted separately.

A special thanks to our Prize Sponsors!

Obsidian Portal Campaign of the Month April 2022: A Rising Darkness

Legend tells of a time when the Three Worlds of Chornalth – Beregond, Liga, and Krynn, were one. A time when science, not magic, ruled supreme. Of the deity of Destruction, Skotos, and his eternal struggle with the Creator God, Phos. A struggle which ended with Phos sacrificing much of his power to destroy Skotos, shattering the one world into three, ending science’s rule, and allowing magic to reign supreme. Located on Beregond, one of the Three Worlds of Chornalth, this is the world of A Rising Darkness, our April 2022 campaign of the month. Keep scrolling to find out more about this epic campaign in our interview with GM Keryth987 and party!

Thanks for taking the time to answer a couple of questions for us. So, as is tradition, why don’t you start off by telling us a little about yourself and what you do apart from run an amazing looking campaign and site.

Well, most of my info can be found on my Obsidian Portal Profile. However, I will add this to what is there gaming wise. As for IRL, well, I’m a School Bus Driver by profession, which actually provides a lot of time to think about campaigns. I have a girlfriend I adore and love, though right now it’s a long distance relationship. I have a great group of friends, all of who I met around the gaming table. And then there is my family – parents who supported their son’s interest in this crazy hobby, a sister who let me contaminate her with it, and two amazing nephews who I am working on converting into gamers.

Anyone who spends more than half a second on your site will see that you have perhaps a slightly less than traditional assortment of character races as options in your world. What was the process like for filtering down all of fantasy and scifi to an end result that includes Hobbits, Klingons, and Twi’leks?

My campaign world is part of three shared with two other GMs in our group (Collectively called Chornlath), and A Rising Darkness is only one campaign in one of those three worlds. Beregond, my world, is largely based originally on Forgotten Realms, the other two being based on Krynn and Oerth. We’ve each added things ourselves. As for the races, well Twi’leks and Klingons are only two of the ones I’ve added. The cleric in the group (an NPC) is an Asari from Mass Effect. I’ve also added Night Elves and Draenei from World of Warcraft. Why you ask? Because I think these races are cool and fun. And after 30 years or so of gaming, you get tired of the standard races of fantasy. This can be seen in the makeup of the party in A Rising Darkness. Only one half elf PC, the rest being a Klingon, Asari, Dragonborn, Satyr, and Minotaur.

It looks like you are managing to maintain a weekly schedule. What arcane rituals did you have to perform to lock a group of players into such a regular game? In addition, do you play in person, virtual, or a mix?

For those that aren’t in the know, you’ve been on Obisidan Portal for a while, what is your favorite feature for helping to manage you campaign?

Honestly it’s a toss up between the Logs and the entire wiki. OP lets me organize my thoughts. Lets me actually put down in an organized and coherent manner what I have in my head. And the Logs let me keep track of what happens in a session and have it in an easily accessed location for later in the campaign

In thinking about the themes of A Rising Darkness, what made you choose 5e as the backbone of your ruleset as opposed to starting in Edge of the Empire or Star Trek Adventures and moving the more “traditional” fantasy elements intot hose settings?

First off, my last few campaigns had been FATE campaigns, and I really wanted to go back to my roots and run a D&D campaign. I started the group on a 2yr+ AD&D 2^nd Edition campaign way back and it had been some time since I ran a “traditional” D&D campaign in my part of our shared campaign world. We had played 5e in a previous campaign (Shattered Empire, run by Marinex) and I really liked the system. I came into this hobby playing D&D and a lot of 5e hearkened back to AD&D for me, without a lot of the things I didn’t like. Also, I enjoy the streamlining from 3.5 and Pathfinder. Combat moves much quicker in 5e than in previous editions, and with less skills its simpler to figure what skill applies where – which f0r my group is great as we rarely default to dice rolls for anything that can be Role Played out.

What is your current favorite system outside of 5e?

My players might groan at this, but, being honest, probably FATE. I like Dresden Files usage of the FATE ruleset, as can be seen on my 4 campaigns of my Shadows Over New York campaign

If you had to pick just one thing, what would you say Obsidian Portal helps you with the most? Do your players get involved on the wiki too?

The most? The ability to actually put together a coherent campaign. My GM style is very much on the fly and reactionary to player actions, so, OP helps me keep all that making sense. I spend plenty of time running through my head during the week what I’d like to see happen in the next session or two, as well as what the overall BBEG and his cronies are doing, but everything at the table still essentially boils down to me reacting to the players actions.

I know you give credit to a few folks on your home page, but outside of influences and help via the commmunity, did you do all of the design and implementation work on your site yourself or have you collaborated with anyone directly?

Yes. Everything from the layout, to the content, to the videos and images was done by me. I got plenty of assistance from the OP Community, both on the forums and on the Discord, when I was stumped on how to do something I’d want, but the work and design was all me. I’d also like to thank one of my players, Elvathadrin, for always being there when I needed a second opinion on how something I tried looked aesthetically. 

What originally drew you to using Obsidian Portal as a platform for your madness?

How amazing many of the other sights looked initially caught my attention. I saw sights like Wolfhound’s Dresden Files Dallas and KillerGM’s A God Reborn, and I decided I REALLY wanted to do that myself. It didn’t hurt that at the time I had begun, on the FATE forums, to develop locations for the Dresden Files Campaign I was working on. I then found Wolfhound’s tutorial for OP (something I’d recommend anyone who wants to design an OP site look over, even though, since The Reforge, not all of it applies still)and I was off. Then it was just a matter of being able to easily work on my emerging Dresden Files Campaign (which surprised me by winning COTM and COTY)

Back to your game, what would you say has been the best moment your table has had thus far in your game?

Well, the game itself is still kinda young, the players only having reached 4^th level as of this interview. However, for me, it has to be the first time the group met with Lady Sorsha, the commander of the garrison assigned to the Town of Goldshire (where the campaign is currently based). The characters interactions with the overburdened Knight was a delight to role play out and hearing the new characters come to life before my eyes was just wonderful.

For this question I’ve again gone to my players and will let them tell you in their own words.

Maltheas:

“For me personally, I think the best moment so far is a toss up between either my wild magic sorcerer becoming blinded for a whole day due to backlash from casting Detect Magic in the ‘primal creation room’ or the point blank fireball on the entire group when trying to heal somebody’s missing 4hp (granted, at level 2 missing 4hp is kind of a big deal but … lol).  WILD MAGIC, baby!!!!”

AaronSheffield (who decided to respond in reference to ALL our campaigns rather than just this one):

“This one is pretty hard to pinpoint, because there have been so many. But if I had to pick one, I’d probably say the time our youngest player finally graduated to be a DM, and completed his first game. Sure, it was a little rough, but it was his first outing, and he managed it from start to finish with a minimum of kibitzing from the table at large.”

Elvathadrin:

“For me it was when my character a Klingon Monk by the name of Torg, gained the second most important weapon to his people a Mek’leth by the name of Hurgh’lI’Iw (klingon, meaning Drinker of Blood), it was gained when Torg went and destroyed the altar/statue to an evil deity the group had stumbled upon, as he was slashing down to strike the statue his weapon was replaced by the weapon slicing the Statue is half destroying it. acquiring the weapon was completely unexpected, yet quite memorable.”

Apollodorus:

“Hard to say, as the campaign is so young yet. Probably the most dangerous moment came when our characters contacted the local (quite powerful) local mage. He was in a very foul mood but had a local girl accompanying him to his tower. She was obviously charmed, and one could easily see where this was going. This could have ended the campaign, but through a combination of tact and firmness we diffused the situation (and got the girl going to her home). This was definitely one of those encounters where combat wasn’t in the cards.

I’d say the best is yet to come, though.”

DaveInOCNJ_2k21:

“I love exploration and discovery in my games, and I am most definitely a fan of the combat for its strategy and it’s occasional “Wow, that made me feel really powerful” moments. But on the rare night when we’re able to pull off nothing but role-play, I sit back when it’s all over and just marvel at our collective ability to be dropped into this fantasy world and have an impact on it with our collaboration and decisions. Sometimes we all come to the same conclusion on how we should handle a particular situation, sometimes it takes serious discussion of our different ideas, and sometimes it even comes down to a vote because there are 2 or 3 viable paths we toss around as potential solutions to the conflict we’ve found ourselves in.

So yeah, I’d say my favorite moment in this particular campaign was the realization at the end of the no-combat session that we’re all vastly creative storytellers. Anyone can roll dice and kill monsters, but having a creative narrative is just priceless.”

Let’s round this out with one of our favorite questions for our featured GMs! If you haad a secret sauce for running a great game, what would be the most important ingredients?

To quote “Dorkness Rising” – Story trumps rules. Have an idea of what you want to do, and nudge your players in that direction, but also let everyone have fun and explore what they want as well. It’s a careful balance. And most importantly, remember, you are all there to have fun. Gaming is NEVER about GM vs Players.

That’s it for this month, folks! Don’t forget to head on over the the OP forums to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Until next time!

2020 Campaign of the Year Results!

Let’s do this!

It was a long and trying year, but we can finally put a capstone on 2020 and call that sucker done. Yes my friends, the results for the Campaign of the Year voting are in! Now is when we take one final look back and then put one in the win column early on in this newest trip around the sun.

So with all of that said, let’s dive into the results!

Vote for Campaign of the Year – 2020!

Show your love!

It’s February 14th, so you know what that means! No, not Valentine’s… Campaign of the Year! That’s right friends, it’s time to show your love for your choice of the best campaign from 2020! Last year might have been a rough one, but we tried our hardest to keep it afloat with some tremendous featured campaigns. The pay-off for all that effort comes now – in the form of a really awesome list of contenders for Campaign of the Year!

CotY 2019 Results!

It’s been a long time coming, but at last we have a bit of closure for the tabletop gaming world. Yes friends, the results for our 2019 Campaign of the Year vote are in! Dark forces out in the universe tried really hard to keep us from our proverbial “appointed rounds”, but they could not stop our diligent Selection Committee, or your vote. The best that they could achieve, was to slow us down but a little (maybe a tad more than “a little”, but hey, we’re being optimistic here!).

So let’s not permit another moment to slip by! Onward, to the results!