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Campaign of the Month September 2026: City of Shadows
Welcome to colonial Singapore in the year 1870, a bustling metropolis filled with abundance and vitality. But behind the façade of prosperity lies a city rife with terror and mystery. Unfold the adventure with GM Nicesociety and company in this Campaign of The Month: City of Shadows!
1. Tell us about the person behind the GM screen. Where are you from, what do you do outside of gaming, and where can we find or interact with you online?
First off, thank you for the recognition — I’m honored to be selected for Campaign of the Month for a second time. I’m originally from California, but I’ve called Tulsa, Oklahoma home for the last 26 years now. Outside of gaming, I’m a history buff at heart, which probably shows in how I run things, and I love getting outdoors to camp when I can, along with writing in general. Most of all, though, I love spending time with my wife and kids — they keep me grounded when I’m not busy setting terrorizing 1870s Singapore.
2. How did you get into gaming, or what first introduced you to the hobby?
I started gaming 41 years ago, at 13 years old, back before Dungeons & Dragons was anywhere near mainstream — that’s what I cut my teeth on. From there I branched out into GURPS, Traveller, BattleTech, Rifts, World of Darkness, and just about every other RPG system I could get my hands on. In the ’90s I discovered Cyberpunk 2020 and Chill, and I still love both to this day. I’ve had the same gaming group for the last 15 years, and we still play weekly.
3. Give us a nutshell summary of your campaign: what’s it about, and what inspired it?
The base system is Mayfair Games’ CHILL, though it’s been heavily modified from the core rules with a lot of expanded house rules over the years. I’ve also borrowed concepts from Call of Cthulhu and The Dresden Files where they fit. My group and I love period pieces, and we’ve been playing in the same extended universe across several campaigns now — among them another Campaign of the Month winner, Aether & Ashes, along with Yesterday’s Sins, From the Ashes, and SAVE Rome. Each is set in the same universe at a different time and place.
Our current campaign, City of Shadows, is set in 1870 colonial Singapore. It blends Eastern horror, paranormal investigation, a touch of colonial exploration, and some gothic leanings. We’re leaning hard into historical accuracy for the period, and it’s given us a fantastic cast of characters to work with.
4. What is it about this particular setting or world that fascinated you enough to build a campaign around it?
Colonial Singapore in 1870 is a setting that does a lot of the work for you as a GM. It’s a genuine crossroads — British colonial administration layered over Chinese, Malay, Indian, and countless other communities, each bringing their own beliefs, spirits, and ways of explaining the unexplainable. That gives me an enormous well of folklore and cosmology to draw horror from, rather than leaning on the same handful of Western monsters campaign after campaign. As a history buff, I also love the tension baked into the period itself — colonial power convinced of its own rationality, sitting right on top of a city that doesn’t believe in the same rules. That friction between what the empire thinks it understands and what’s actually moving in the shadows of the docks and back alleys is, to me, the most interesting kind of horror: it’s not just supernatural, it’s cultural.
5. What game system and edition are you using, and what guided that choice? What do you like most about it, and are there any downsides you’ve had to work around?
We’re running Mayfair Games’ original CHILL system, though at this point “edition” almost undersells it — it’s been rebuilt from the ground up with expanded house rules developed over years of play. All mechanics run on D10 or D100, which keeps resolution fast and intuitive at the table without breaking immersion to look up charts. I chose CHILL originally because it fit the paranormal investigation tone I wanted and it was what I already knew from the ’90s .and what I love most about it now is how easily it flexes: the core system doesn’t fight me when I want to layer in something new, whether that’s a piece of period-accurate folklore or a mechanic borrowed from another system entirely.
Honestly, the heavy modification hasn’t created the downside you might expect. Even with all the house rules layered in, we’ve kept things simple enough that new players can pick it up without much trouble — though it’s worth noting we’ve had the same core group for over 15 years, so it hasn’t been tested by a revolving door of new faces. If there’s a real downside, it’s that not a lot of people really know about CHILL at all.
6. Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions: how often do you play, and is it online, tabletop, or hybrid?
There are five of us total, including me as Chill Master. We play in person every Friday night, usually starting with a communal meal before diving into a solid four to five hour session. As adults, real life doesn’t always allow for marathon sessions the way it might have in our twenties, so our campaigns tend to run long — a typical 13-episode arc takes about a year and a half from start to finish.
Obsidian Portal has been an invaluable tool for us throughout. It lets my players go back and review NPCs, locations, and details they’ve uncovered as the campaign unfolds, so nobody’s relying on memory alone between sessions. That keeps everyone focused and engaged at the table instead of spending game time trying to remember who someone was or where a clue came from.
7. Tell us about the central characters (PCs and/or key NPCs) in your campaign. What roles do they play, and how do your players bring them to life?
Our party operates as the Society of Oriental Studies, a name that gives them cover for exactly the kind of poking around dead men’s affairs that gets people killed in polite company.
Joe Gannon is our cowboy — a hardened survivor with a dark past and an instinct for evil that’s saved the party’s collective necks more than once. He’s also quietly running from Confederate gold he brought with him from the war, which has started catching up to him in ways he didn’t see coming.
Mei Lian is the shadow queen of Singapore’s criminal underworld — publicly a brothel manager, privately the real power behind an empire she built from nothing after being sold into servitude as a child. Nobody in the party plays the long game quite like she does.
Nathaniel Blackwood is a smuggler with a gentleman’s polish and a criminal’s instincts, moving opium and secrets through the docks with equal ease. He’s charming enough to talk his way into a room and dangerous enough that you should worry about how he talks his way out.
Phinn Farrington is our legal authority — an English attorney carrying guilt, duty, and a very literal scar from an encounter with something that shouldn’t exist, picked up during his Navy days in the Mediterranean. He brings order and respectability to a party that badly needs both.
Dr. Simon Williams walks the line between rationalist and mystic, a physician who lost everything to disease and was saved by methods Western medicine has no explanation for. He treats what official Singapore won’t acknowledge exists, and he’s usually the first to notice when something in the room isn’t breathing right.
And rounding out the party is Alice Brown, our thief — orphaned young in London and raised in a den of skilled pickpockets who taught her that a well-placed hidden pocket can be as valuable as any lock pick. What looks like simple thievery hides a far heavier truth: Alice serves a master whose nature is anything but human, and whose appetite for treasure has made her one of the sharpest, most resourceful operators in the party. Quick-fingered and quicker-witted, she’s just as likely to spot the ghost in the window as the unlocked door beneath it, and there’s rarely a room she can’t get into — or out of — without anyone noticing she was ever there.
Considering the character descriptions, and the fact that the players have all written their own backgrounds, the flair and creativity the players bring is self-evident.
8. What tools did you use to design or customize your campaign’s layout, banner, or overall visual presentation? What advice would you give other GMs who want to do something similar?
For images, we use a combination of Midjourney and Photoshop, with a lot of attention paid to keeping everything period-accurate. I also lean on Claude to help fact-check historical details and maintain authenticity, making sure the flavor of the campaign reflects the actual history of 1870s Singapore rather than a vague approximation of it. On the CSS side, a lot of what we use was built through trial and error — adapting code from other sources and reworking it until it fit. My wife, who works as a software architect and programmer, has been essential to that process; her help with layout and image integration has shaped the visual identity of the campaign as much as anything I’ve done myself.
My advice to other GMs is simple: details are what sell it. Small, consistent touches matter more than any single big flourish — a complementary color scheme, a visual theme that stays consistent scene to scene, and a willingness to give each campaign its own artistic identity rather than reusing the same look project to project. As for CSS specifically, don’t be afraid to go find something you like from someone else’s work and experiment with it. You don’t need to build from scratch — find a foundation that speaks to you and make it your own.
9. Where do you draw inspiration from when building your campaign, whether it’s literature, film, other games, or something else?
I draw from all sorts of cinematic styles — I actually imagine each campaign as a television season, thirteen episodes with occasional special “pilot” episodes labeled Episode 0. Books have a huge influence too. I’ve mentioned Jim Butcher’s work already, but I also draw heavily from science fiction, mysteries, and classic literature — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley all shape how I think about mood, pacing, and character.
I also build a soundtrack for every session. Music does a lot of heavy lifting for pacing and tension at the table, and I lean toward instrumental pieces that fit the tone of the setting — a lot of Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi, and others in that same cinematic vein.
10. What have been some of your (or your players’) favorite or most memorable moments in the campaign so far?
One thing we love doing is fan service — reintroducing a character from another campaign in the same shared universe. At one point we brought back a major villain who had been central to our 1936 game: a vampire lord, old enough and powerful enough that six decades backward was nothing to him. Dropping him into 1870s Singapore, decades before my players had ever encountered him, still landed like a gut punch. They nearly lost their minds when they made the connection.
But honestly, my favorite moments are the ones that build slowly — when the group has pieced together the clues themselves and really had to work for the resolution. We’ve had a handful of those moments over the years, and they’re always the most rewarding for everyone at the table, myself included. There’s nothing quite like watching a table full of players connect the dots on their own and realize what they’ve uncovered.
11. Without giving too much away to your players, what’s ahead for the campaign, or what are you most looking forward to?
Without giving too much away — we’re running several character-focused story arcs concurrently alongside the main seasonal arc, each one slowly building toward its own climax. Every player has a personal thread that’s been quietly developing in the background, and when those arcs finally land, it’s going to be huge. Each player gets their own payoff, I get mine as the one who’s been building toward it all along, and the main thread itself delivers a reward for the group as a whole. It’s the kind of layered payoff you can only really pull off with a table that’s been together as long as we have.
12. How did you discover Obsidian Portal, and which feature do you find most useful, whether for campaign design or for active play?
I’ve been a member since November 18, 2015 — at this point, I honestly don’t remember the exact details of how I first found Obsidian Portal, though it was most likely through an RPG forum somewhere along the way.
My favorite feature is easily the character and NPC pages, especially now that I’ve figured out how to categorize them in ways that actually work for a long-running campaign with a huge cast. The wiki pages have been just as invaluable for tracking places, lore, and ongoing threads. And being able to customize pages with CSS and HTML has been a great feature in its own right — it’s given the campaign a visual identity that feels genuinely its own, rather than looking like every other page on the site.
13. How long have you been a member of Obsidian Portal, and what keeps you coming back?
Asked and answered.
14. As always, what “pearls of wisdom” or GM insights can you share with the community this month?
Give your players real opportunities to contribute — not just choices within a plan, but the chance to genuinely shape it. Be flexible enough to pivot when a good idea comes up unexpectedly and be willing to scrap entire sections of your prep if something better emerges at the table. Details matter, so keep good notes, but don’t let them box you in — sometimes the best thing you can do is let go of the plan and go with the flow. At the end of the day, it’s about friends, fun, and collaboration. Have a blast, and don’t take it too seriously.
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure November 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
Campaign of the Month July 2026: Planejammer: Crisis on Infinite Oerths
“Behold, Planar Travelers of the Multiverse! July’s Campaign of the Month has appeared from the cosmic rifts of space and time, revealing “Planejammer: Crisis on Infinite Oerths” and her captain, the multi-award winning Dungeon_Master_Loki. As the intrepid crew of veteran players psychically sail through a culmination of campaigns — over 46 years of games built by a master of the artform — they traverse tales of adventure that go all the way back to the beginning of roleplaying games as we know them. Prepare your mental defenses for a campaign to end all others, unless of course the scattered heroes manage to save us all… again!”
~ Hail, Dungeon_Master_Loki! As a now 4-time winner of Obsidian Portal’s Campaign of the Month (and Campaign of the Year in 2011, and two Silver ENNIES, just to name a few), we have had the privilege of seeing your games unfold since basically the beginning of OP. And now we find ourselves here, at the finale, where surviving heroes of your other worlds cross planar spaces and timelines to join together and fight an all-encompassing evil that threatens all of existence. For those who haven’t had the chance to read all the adventure logs (or those young’uns who weren’t born yet when you started), can you briefly sum up the stories of your previous campaigns that have all lead to this grand convergence?
Each story arc was an individual subcampaign with successive generations of PCs. I’ve summed it up on the OP for Crisis pretty succinctly:
“The Lightbringers relit the sun of Greatspace saving the sphere from T’lann the Vampire Lord.
The Seven Stars managed to defeat Vecna’s bid for Godhood and take down the Engine Consummate before the Illithids could rewrite reality.
The Spelljoined retrieved the Dreamstone and put it out of reach of those who would abuse it.
The Misfits took over the Citadel of the Planes and evidence that Gith may have returned.
The Medicine Show stopped illithid agents surveilling Sigil.
The Parasol Patrol defended the crucial nexus points of Multiverse 19 and assembled the Shuttle of Skuld.
The Planewalker’s Guild gained firsthand knowledge of the Planebreaker and defeated the return of the Whispering Strangler.
Meanwhile in the far future on the other side of The Gap, The Drifters defeated the first appearance of Vecna cultists and Illithids in the Pact Worlds.”
Each of these events aided or foiled behind the scenes machinations of the illithidae leading to the current final act.
~ “Crisis on Infinite Oerths” seems like a massive undertaking. You’re combining multiple game systems, multiple gaming groups, different levels of technology, and what must amount to hundreds of previous storylines and characters. The rules laid out in your wiki seem to cover just about everything. How did you tackle this cosmic-level task and what advice would you give to those who want to do something similar?
Third Party Publishers are a vital rousource, hands down. There is a lot of work in our industry that is just as high a caliber as Paizo and WotC, often done by the same designers. In that ecosystem they can be more adventurous. The modern stuff I run, like Department 7, uses rules from the PF1 version of Bloodlines and Black Magic by Stormbunny Studios for instance. You can find solid stuff for whatever your weird little DMs heart could desire just by finding books you like and locating third party stuff from the same authors.
As to tackling the crazy amount of spatiotemporal detail, each campaign is a chapter with its own major and minor arcs and blood ties to the PCs in the other games. Each one has an increasing amount of source material to draw upon dictated by the actions of their predecessors.
Take notes or convince a player to take notes. Offer Bounties for Adventure Logs or other contributions from players, bonus points for art. Most of the art for this game is by one of my players (including a full tarot deck featuring present and past characters), Syreene (Kenari_Sanura on OP).
Most importantly, take notes. Use that wiki on OP to add stuff you make up on the fly. You can leave yourself notes in the GM section of any wiki page or character.
~ “Crisis” has been running now for about a year, it seems. Have there been any favorite, memorable moments so far?
I polled my players for this one. Here are some of the responses:
When Dinya flew all the way toward 2 different illithids, only to have them sniped by magic users, so Kenari teleported her right in front of a third so she could full attack. Dropped two mythic points to double the damage on the second crit and dealt a total of 156 slashing/cold/holy/warp/axiomatic damage in one turn. Pathfinder just has a lovely way with big-ass numbers.
… having to coup-de-grace the illithid everyone tried so hard to keep alive is a great honorable mention in a dramatic irony sort of way
When we found AU Superman in an illithid prison pod and it turns out he was a Deep-Cut Pelias (of Scarlet Citadel fame) reference
Dimension dooring into a kaiju’s eyeball
Kenari’s reunion with her lost lover Dassam.
Shooting out the beholder’s eye with a dragon pistol due to his anti magical field and then making him go away with a hostile gate.
Turning the whole evil marine tech army swimming in on us into a frozen Giger art with a Holy Ice wall
~ As a professional GM and long-time gamer (all the way back to Chainmail!), you’ve undoubtedly seen some fantastic characters come and go. You even got a chance to game with Nystul, of Magic Aura fame! Which characters were the real stand-outs for you — the ones that really made an impact in your memories and on your stories?
Oswald Lethbridge Smythe-Carruthers, a renegade giff played by Dudley Batchelor (who is no longer with us). Fabulously fun, laid back until it’s time to hit something, and eventually attained his goal of smacking a god when they prevented the ascension of Vecna in the Seven Stars game. A Strength of 22 so he was really good at hitting things.
Kenari Sanura the catfolk jaunter from the Spelljoined and currently at the table. Not only has the character been an endless source of fun but her artwork also has created the look and feel of the Planejammer Campaign. Played by Emily Vittori.
Captain D’artalon Rix played by Randy Eharb (also no longer with us). Fantastic role player who embraced the captaincy and made it truly his own. One of the few players to truly embrace the hero aspect rather than roguish or anti-heros types.
Etsuriko Chi-asson Toraneko the Shou monk, played by Rachel G. Primary cat herder of the party for over two decades. Now ascended and has become a celestial dragon after the player left the table.
And there are so many more after all these years of gaming I’d have to go on for pages.
~ What moments during these campaigns seemed to excite or resonate with your Players the most?
Obviously the big crazy combats, just as with many groups, but also when they put together pieces of the big picture. My plots are obviously complex and I love their glee and satisfaction when they figure parts of it out. This is especially gratifying as the pieces all come together.
~ We can’t wait to see the conclusion of this epic story. Without giving anything away to your players, can you give us any hints about what’s ahead or themes you’d love to explore further? What about campaigns beyond this one?
Crisis will unfold in different ways depending on two factors: Player Actions, and the Tarot Deck. We have a full tarot deck created specifically for the campaign (many of the cards can be seen throughout the wiki) and cards periodically get drawn influencing events so even I don’t know the exact final act.
There will be forays into other continuities including a return to the Weyland Yutani universe and possibly a visit to the United Federation of Planets in another. There will be at least one more visit to Gamma World. This is all known to the players. The rest is top secret for now.
There will be other games that share this omniverse, but they will be on a much smaller scale. I’ll also be playing around with other systems like Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press, the upcoming Delve from Stephen Radney-McFarland, the upcoming Heretic system from Total PArty Kill Press, and a lot more X-Crawl from Goodman Games.
~ As an author, designer, and teacher, you have already given us many lessons through your campaign pages, your interviews on Obsidian Portal, and your work on various game books that we have had the pleasure to read and to run. When it comes to preparing and playing games, we’ve learned a great deal thanks to your efforts. As GM’s and players, we thank you for it. In lieu of asking for tips and tricks, we’d like to instead ask your opinion on this final question: what makes storytelling with games important?
TTRPGs are, in my opinion, at their best as collaborative storytelling. Stories have been part of life since the cavemen were sitting around fires trying to explain the world. They resonate with something primal in us, and giving players some freedom to help create and develop the world not only takes work off your shoulders but also makes them invested. This is why I love storytelling games the most out of all the options available.
“And with that, travelers, another chapter in an epic saga ends. Stay tuned to this campaign to see how the adventure concludes. Keep an eye on the stars for other gargantuan games and future Campaign of the Month winners. Don’t forget to nominate your favorites (yes, even your own) via our community forums. Happy Gaming!”
Campaign of the Month March 2026: “Dark Sun: Shadow of the Monolith”
Feel the heat of the blasted skies in this month’s Campaign of the Month winner, “Dark Sun: Shadow of the Monolith” by MYTH_DM. It’s an artistic, anachronistic, Arcanotech masterpiece that blends several old settings into something so new that even seasoned veterans of the sand-swept wastes will raise an eyebrow… or whatever Thri-Keen have. Antennae? Read on and find out!
We would love to hear a little about you and your gaming group — who you are, what you’re into, creative projects you’re involved in, and how you got into gaming.
Our group of 8 (DM +7 players) are all friends who’ve gamed together for differing periods of time. One player has been with me for 20+ years and two are newcomers to the group for this campaign. The rest have all been players in my previous campaign ‘MYTH’, which ran for close to 3 years and finished with an epic finale last June.
I am a graphic designer with the Department of Defense. I have a wife (who is a player) and an awesome 14 year old daughter who is just as much of a gamer as I am. I’m a published illustrator and a writer with Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k & Black Library) and have had a side business building gaming terrain for clients around the world.
What I’m into…that’s a long answer so I’ll just list them…lol: Writing, reading (historical, fantasy, sci-fi), D&D (obviously), Warhammer 40k + multiple other tabletop wargames (Frostgrave, Gaslands, K47, Reality’s Edge, etc.). I’m a bit of a fitness fanatic, love the outdoors and Jeeps. I enjoy painting miniatures and building terrain for my games.
I got into gaming in the 80s with my cousins when I got the original D&D Red Box edition for Christmas. It’s been all downhill since…
PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
I’m consumed by my family and job and love the social interaction and mental detachment after long weeks that this campaign offers. I got into gaming during my active duty time where many of us just needed a fun way to get away from reality and lose ourselves in a positive and creative way.
Your action-packed, visually stunning take on Dark Sun is fresh and outstanding, especially to those of us who played old-school Dark Sun and have been searching for a more modern take. Can you tell us a little bit about the setting and system in your campaign?
Thank You! After finishing my previous campaign ‘MYTH’, my players were eager for more so I spent 5 months over this past Summer and Fall developing DARK SUN. While MYTH was pretty standard fantasy I didn’t want to do that again. Don’t get me wrong, I still love fantasy and still wanted it to be a big part of the next campaign. I just wanted to put an ‘out of the box’ twist on things, add in elements that really sparked my imagination with something new that hopefully hadn’t really been done this way before.
DARK SUN had multiple inspirations. First, three existing campaign settings: the 80’s ‘Dark Sun’ (of course), ‘Eberron’ and the Privateer Press ‘Iron Kingdoms’ world. I also have always loved Star Wars, specifically anything on the desert world of Tattotine.When the original TSR Dark Sun was released, I was excited, but ultimately did not enjoy the setting the way I thought I would. So, in high school I created a world called ‘Maelsearth’, which combined elements of low-tech Star Wars and Dark Sun together. It didn’t get far but I still kept all of my notes and illustrations which I pulled out this past summer (nearly 30 years later) – and used them to build the bones of my version of DARK SUN.
A new element I added to the setting was a version of steampunk, which I reframed into DARK SUN’s ‘Arcanotech’ – a mix of steampunk style technology and the arcane. Arcanotech drives everything in my version of ‘ATHAS’ – a world that is struggling to survive after a cataclysmic event called ‘The FALL’. Between arcanotech and ‘the BLEED’ (a corrupted arcane power emanating from the fractured Dark Sun) which powers it, the people of Athas have survived to build a new world in the harsh deserts, wastes and ruins of a former golden age.
The system I use in DARK SUN is a heavily homebrewed version of D&D 5e.
What elements or themes of Dark Sun inspire you most as a GM?
There are several themes that inspire me the most and drove me to create this setting. They were a mix of post-apocalyptic/dystopian world flavor, lost/ancient history, and arcanotech/steampunk style technology – including arcane powered guns, armor, airships and walking constructs made for labor and war (laborjacks and warjacks). All of this is combined with an overarching theme: salvaging, survival and rediscovery in a sweeping desert world hiding the mysteries of its own past.
Salvaging is the main premise surrounding the character’s involvement with the world. Called ‘Freelancers’, the characters are ‘salvaging’ lost arcanotech from the blasted remains of the world that existed before the FALL. This offers a means of survival, which ‘might’ lead them down a road to rediscover what happed to their world in the distant past and possibly even a way to bring it back…
Your first adventure log jumps right into action in the midst of a running battle. What do you like about games that begin in the thick of conflict?
This was new for me. I really wanted to start this campaign off with a bang – drop them right into the thick of things, into a narrative that was already moving forward. Specifically, I wanted the first thing I said in at the start of Session 1 to be: “I need everyone to ROLL INTIATIVE!”.To me, this created instant immersion and set the tone for a campaign centered around danger and high stakes. It allowed me to show them elements of the world through direct action rather than just telling them about it through a long exposition intro.
PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
As a player, it sets the tone and forces each character to come together immediately. In this campaign, we were “thrown” together instead of coming up with a party background. I like the focus on each individual without the need to explain why Ven-Ka is doing whatever with Vale. We were put in a situation and the GM gets to play with how and why. Flexibility and creativity for all of us.
The campaign has only just started, but has already hooked us as readers with a tale of a secret map, powerful syndicates, and dangerous, magical storms. What have been the most interesting parts of the game so far, and (without giving too much away to your Players) what parts are you really looking forward to, next?
Honestly just exploring the world has been the most interesting part, because – to me – it is such a unique setting with something new always around the corner. I love setting up scenes that help show off all these new trappings to the players. Trappings that step away from classic fantasy that we’re all used too.What I’m looking forward to next is the continued exploration of the world. There is still so much to reveal! Maybe even some stuff about the enigmatic ‘Builders’…
What moments during the campaign seemed to excite your Players the most?
Hard to say, They seem to be enjoying everything so far. I try to keep a balance of combat/action, narrative/story and individual character development with each player getting a chance to explore their backgrounds or having elements of their backgrounds becoming part of the current narrative. Of course, we are still early in the campaign so not every character has had this opportunity yet, but they will. I strive hard to form complete arcs for each character by the time we hit the finale a few years down the road.
PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
While combat is always fun, I really enjoy the snippets of story that gets unfolded each session. Who gets introduced next? Is this a nemesis to someone, or a link to something deeper? Is there a clue to some yet undiscovered puzzle? I cannot wait for the next session!PLAYER: Kristen / ‘Vale’
I love it when we have to work together on something as simple as a puzzle to figure out a clue or decipher it. I think it helps us figure out our strengths as a group and individually. It gives insight into how each of us thinks about solving a problem, or looking at it from a different point of view. I love learning about other players’ back story (or origin story) in-game and out. What you reveal and how you do it says a lot about the kind of character you play.
Are there any game mechanics in this version of Dark Sun that have been especially fun?
I have enjoyed developing the entire arcanotech / salvaging economy along with developing all magical items around this theme. In DARK SUN there are no pure magic items – or least none have been seen since before the FALL. Magical items are now created in the form of arcanotech devices powered by Bleed by using arcane schema or blueprints. Artificers (or as I call them: Splicers or Relicsmiths) play a huge role in DARK SUN.Also, an especially fun part of the creation process was developing all the customized character races and classes that fit uniquely within the setting – all of which can be found in the wiki.
A mechanic within those classes that I paid close attention to was the ‘cost of power’. If you are a normal martial or rogue-like character, you’re fine. But, if you are a Bleed Sorcerer, psionic or a divine Shardbound then your otherworldly power comes at a cost…
PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
Ven-ka is the pseudo “Tank”, so the I don’t experience the risk/reward as much as Samara… yet. I’m sure the GM has something planned in time to make me rethink what I’m going to do. This is probably the aspect I enjoy. Bleed corruption causing mutations or negative effects from casting are exciting!I love the customization based on core D&D. A custom realm, with modified races and classes really lets us put a fresh spin on everything from character creation through game play. I genuinely look forward to each session and what we get to experience next.
Our research shows that you used to make some pretty impressive miniature terrain, back in the day. Has there been any creative terrain or prop-making for this campaign yet? Or does your group rely more on digital tools? Or simply theater-of-the-mind style play?
Yes, I did have a commission studio a few years back called ‘Broken Sword Studios’. It was a pretty successful side business that allowed me to create a lot of terrain projects for clients across the US and over-seas. However, it became so busy that after a few years I decided to put it on the back burner to spend more time with family.This did not stop me from making miniatures and terrain set pieces for my own campaigns though. I try to do a mix of physical terrain and digital maps (I built a custom gaming table with a tv inset for digital maps). So far, in DARK SUN, we have just had digital maps, but some physical terrain is coming soon!
The art for the campaign is breathtaking and the overall page layouts and design work are top-notch, as are many of your other campaigns on Obsidian Portal. How did you approach the visuals for this campaign and what advice can you give to other designers who want to achieve this level of imagery?
The visuals for this campaign were driven by some artwork I stumbled across online. It was a desert setting with a combination of fantasy and steampunk style technology that really inspired me.
I know a lot of people are down on AI art, but to get everything created in time over the Summer and early Fall to meet the kick-off date for the new campaign, I taught myself Midjourney. To me it was a fantastic tool that allowed me to create some amazing visuals that all lived in the same world – once I figured out my prompting formula that achieved similar/complementary styles/themes.
Some of the other art is derived form Heroforge – the miniature creation tool that you can use to design and 3d print miniatures. I always create, print and paint custom minis for my players so it was easy to use Heroforge to create art for the site that perfectly matched my setting.
Lastly, the general graphic design/layout of the site all comes from my background as a Graphic artist.
Advice: find a theme and strive to stick to that theme/look & feel across everything you create for your campaign in order to give your world consistency.
As we always do, Obsidian Portal loves to ask if you have any tips, sage advice, or inspiring quotations to share for other creative entertainers?
Absolutely! A gentleman named Joseph Staten was the lead writer for the wildly famous HALO video game. He was invited to do the commencement address at his alma mater and this was a portion of his speech – which I have framed and hanging on a wall in my ‘War Room’ – what we call my gaming room 😊:
‘Create more than you Consume’
“We live in an on-demand world, where everything is there for us to consume. I urge you to resist. I am not asking you to turn off the internet, or the TV or the radio. What I am suggesting, if you can, is to ask yourself everyday:
‘What did I create?’
‘What did I contribute?’If the answer is ‘nothing’ or ‘less than I consumed’, then strive to tip the scales in another direction. Pursue your passion. Time is precious: do not squander it by only reading, watching or playing other people’s accomplishments.
By all means, be ravenous in your consumption because that leads to true inspiration. But do not stop working to create something even more inspiring because it is your own.”
-Joseph Staten
PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
If you don’t like the answer (or lack of) from the NPC you’ve been looking for, just levitate him until you get what you want!
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure April 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
Campaign of the Month January 2026: The Island of the Prince
They call it The Island of the Prince – England, a realm scarred by pestilence and bled dry by war. The Black Death has emptied the villages, leaving fields untended and halls in ruin. Those who remain send their sons to die on foreign soil, as the endless struggle with France devours the kingdom’s strength. Join us as we take a journey through the adventurous mind of GM Terrancedavis in the first interview of 2026
First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen. Where are you from? What do you do aside from gaming? Alter Egos? Life partners? Family? Where can we interact with you on the internet?
My name is Terrance Davis, I’m from Queens, New York, and that background has shaped how I see the world and how I run games. I’m an Army veteran, which taught me discipline, responsibility, and how quickly situations fall apart when people stop paying attention. Those lessons carry directly into my work behind the GM screen.
Outside of gaming, I run a small welding subcontracting business. It’s practical, physical work where shortcuts show immediately and mistakes carry real consequences. Metal either holds or it doesn’t. That mindset influences my campaigns as well. Preparation matters, choices matter, and immersion only works if the foundation is solid.
I’ve been with my fiancée, Crystal, for nearly eleven years. She has supported me through long nights of prep, creative risks, and the constant balancing act between work, life, and storytelling. She keeps me grounded when my head disappears into medieval France or a war-torn future America. I have a Daughter and three sons.
I don’t really think in terms of alter egos. I’m a welder, a veteran, a business owner, and a lifelong storyteller, and all of those parts show up at the table in one way or another.
People can reach me and interact with me through;
Obsidian Portal (https://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign_invites/891a9b47a897f93793a80bbb/accept),
Discord (where you can hear our Deep Dive Podcast about Island of the Prince topics) under the name terrancethedungeonmaster,
Startplaying
(https://startplaying.games/gm/islandoftheprincecampaignsetting),
Chronica, you can further explore the Island of the Prince,
( https://chronica.ventures/join?ref=495d44d05607ceb91af5)
Patreon, you can read short stories and learn other lore (https://patreon.com/Islandoftheprince?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink).
I stay engaged with my community and enjoy talking about campaign design, history, and what makes a story feel real rather than staged.
At the end of the day, I believe tabletop games can be more than entertainment. They can feel like shared history.
Your campaign is set in the historical world of the 100 Years War between England and France. What inspired you to create a fantasy role playing game during this time? What sources did you use? What adaptations have you made?
The Hundred Years’ War appealed to me because it was a time when the world genuinely felt unstable. Borders shifted, loyalties fractured, the Church was under strain, and ordinary people lived with war, famine, and plague as facts of life. It’s a perfect historical backdrop for fantasy because the fear, desperation, and moral uncertainty are already there. I didn’t need to invent a grim world. History did that work for me.
The campaign itself grew out of a much older place. My older brother, Darren, has been the one consistent player since the very beginning, going back decades. We started imagining this world as kids, long before it had a name. Even now, with all that shared history, he’s still a player at the table, which means I deliberately keep information from him like I would any other character. That tension between shared roots and narrative secrecy is part of what keeps the campaign alive.
In terms of sources, I lean heavily on historical material. Contemporary chronicles, military histories, maps, church records, and firsthand accounts of medieval life all inform the setting. I pay attention to things like travel time, weather (which we track in our Chronica calender, along with events), food shortages, social class, and how authority actually worked on the ground. Fictional influences matter too, but history is always the spine.
The adaptations come in where fantasy needs room to breathe. Supernatural elements exist, but they are rare, feared, and costly. Magic is dangerous and often misunderstood. Monsters don’t replace human cruelty, they sit beside it. I’m not trying to rewrite history so much as thread dark fantasy through the cracks that already exist in it.
The goal has always been to create a world that feels lived in. A place where legends are born not because they were destined to happen, but because someone survived long enough to be remembered.
You are using some version of Dungeons and Dragons for your campaign. What version of the game and what made you decide on the particular system.
I use a hybrid of Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, primarily drawing from the 2014 rules and selectively incorporating elements from the 2024 updates. The main reason is practicality. We’ve been playing almost entirely online for the past year, and Fifth Edition remains the most accessible, well-supported system for virtual play. It’s familiar to players, easy to reference digitally, and flexible enough to be shaped into something more grounded.
That flexibility is the real reason I chose it. I’m not interested in running Fifth Edition “out of the box.” I ban a lot of options, starting with the most obvious one: this is a humans-only campaign. The setting demands it. The tone, the historical grounding, and the horror elements all work better when characters are fragile, limited, and unmistakably human. Many abilities, ancestries, and character options that lean toward high fantasy or power fantasy simply don’t fit, so they’re cut.
Using Fifth Edition as a framework lets me keep the mechanical language familiar while enforcing a very different philosophy of play. Choices matter, resources matter, and survival is never guaranteed. The rules serve the setting, not the other way around. Fifth Edition gives me a sturdy chassis, and everything that doesn’t belong gets stripped away until what’s left supports the story I want to tell.
Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions. How often do you play? Online? Tabletop? Who does what in any typical session?
I’ve been a Dungeon Master for many years (since 1985), and one of the things I value most is a table where players take the world seriously and respect each other’s role in it. I’m fortunate to have exactly that.
Christian acts as my co–DM and moderator, especially since we play online. He helps keep sessions running smoothly, manages logistics, and serves as a sounding board when I’m stress-testing ideas. As a player, he’s exceptional. He plays Sir Wilhelm, an English lay knight fighting in France, and when I run one-shots he also steps into the role of Sir Guiscards de Beaumont, a French Hospitaller. He understands tone, restraint, and character motivation, and he elevates every scene he’s in.
Kurt plays Absolon Gyllenstierna, a rogue from Gotland who fights alongside the Ravenguard in France. I’ve run games for a long time, and I can honestly say he plays a rogue better than most. Absolon isn’t underhanded or treacherous. He’s a dashing, capable fighter who uses skill and intelligence in service of the group. He proves that the rogue archetype doesn’t need to rely on deception or selfishness to be compelling.
My big brother, William “Darren” Davis, who is in Law Enforcement in real life, has been the one constant player since the very beginning of this campaign’s long history. He plays Sir Arkan Warwind, a Moorish convert to Christianity and a Hospitaller knight, and in one-shots he plays Sir Michael Brigge, an English Hospitaller stationed at Sainte-Flamme du Refuge in northern France. Despite our shared history and decades of worldbuilding, he’s still just a player at the table, and I deliberately keep secrets from him like anyone else. That boundary is important, and it keeps the game honest.
We play once a week on Sundays, entirely online, which has been our format for the past year. Sessions are structured but flexible. I handle narrative, pacing, and adjudication. Christian supports moderation and flow. Players drive the story through choices, roleplay, and hard decisions rather than mechanics alone. Combat is tense and grounded (we use a brutal critical hit and miss table), but much of the session time is spent on investigation, moral dilemmas, and character interaction.
Looking ahead, I plan to expand in 2026 by running additional sessions through StartPlaying, but the heart of the game will remain the same. A consistent table, serious roleplay, and a shared commitment to treating the world as real, dangerous, and worth caring about.
Your adventure logs are well written and seem to be in the form of tales told by “Carla the Serving Wench”. Tell us a bit about her. Why is she an important chronicler? Is it just you as GM writing, or do other players get involved?
The adventure logs are written as tales told by Carla the Serving Wench, and she has been part of the campaign for its entire life. Carla is a bard, a traveler, and a witness. She isn’t powerful in the way knights or monsters are, but she survives by listening carefully and remembering accurately. In a world where most lives pass unrecorded, that makes her quietly dangerous.
Carla is important because history in this setting is not written only by kings, generals, or the Church. It is shaped by rumor, song, and repetition. Carla moves freely between taverns, villages, camps, and courts, hearing things no official chronicle would ever record. When events are remembered clearly, it is often because Carla chose to tell them straight.
She also stands in contrast to the other storyteller who circulates through the campaign, Martha the Goodwife. Martha is well known in markets and village greens, and her stories are always louder, juicier, and far less accurate. She exaggerates, slanders, and reshapes events to suit gossip, personal grudges, or whatever will hold an audience. Between Carla and Martha, players see how the same event can become either history or rumor, depending on who tells it.
Players write their own adventure recaps in Chronica.
The style of the logs reflects my own background. After leaving the Army, I briefly studied journalism, and that perspective never really left me. I’m interested in how truth is filtered through bias and voice. Before the Army, I went to welding school, which reinforced the same principle in a different form. Structure matters. If it doesn’t hold, it fails.
I write the Obsidian Portal logs as the GM, but they are never written in isolation, and are always wrong in many ways (stories change as they travel). They are shaped by player decisions, table conversations, and moments that genuinely land with the group. Carla does not invent heroics. She reports what she believes to be true, while Martha ensures that exaggeration and slander spread just as quickly.
Together, they show how legends are born, not from facts alone, but from who gets believed.
Tell us a bit about the central characters in your campaign. What roles do they play, and how do each of the players contribute to their game personalities.
At the heart of the campaign are a small number of central figures whose choices shape events far beyond themselves. Some are player characters, some are NPCs, but all of them matter, and all of them carry consequences.
Sir Arkan Warwind, played by my brother Darren, is a Hospitaller knight and paladin, a Moorish convert to Christianity who lives with constant tension between faith, identity, and duty. Arkan is not a simple holy warrior. He questions authority, struggles with the Church’s failures, and yet remains deeply committed to his vows. Through him, the campaign explores faith as something lived and tested rather than assumed. Darren plays Arkan with restraint and seriousness, treating belief as a burden as much as a strength, which gives the character real moral weight.
Sir Wilhelm, played by Christian, is an English lay knight fighting in France. Where Arkan wrestles with belief, Wilhelm represents loyalty, discipline, and endurance. He is a professional soldier who keeps moving because stopping is not an option. Christian brings a grounded, steady presence to Wilhelm, anchoring scenes that might otherwise drift into abstraction. When I run one-shots, Christian also plays Sir Guiscards de Beaumont, a French Hospitaller, which allows the story to show both sides of the war without flattening either into stereotypes.
Absolon Gyllenstierna, played by Kurt, is a rogue from Gotland who fights alongside the Ravenguard. Absolon defies the usual expectations of the class. He is not underhanded or deceitful, but a dashing and capable warrior who uses agility, intelligence, and timing in service of the group. Kurt plays him as a hero who solves problems through competence rather than treachery, often bridging the space between investigation and violence.
Traveling with the Ravenguard are two NPCs who are just as central to the story.
Lady Athena is a Hospitaller knight whose presence challenges every assumption about power, gender, and leadership in the medieval world. She is an extraordinary warrior, but her importance goes far beyond combat. Athena represents idealized knighthood colliding with a corrupt and compromised reality. Her choices force the party to confront what honor actually means when institutions fail.
Sarah Marsh is equally important, though in a very different way. She is a seer and survivor, marked by loss and guided by visions she does not fully control. Sarah brings the supernatural consequences of the world into focus. Where others argue about faith, politics, or duty, Sarah shows what happens to ordinary people caught in the wake of those decisions. Her presence keeps the campaign grounded in human cost rather than abstract morality.
Opposing these characters are larger, darker forces, most notably the Order of Judas, a shadow successor to the destroyed Knights Templar. Led from behind the scenes by the Black Pope, the Order is driven by vengeance against a Church they believe betrayed them. Sir Jordan, once a knight of the faith and now bound to that betrayal, embodies the cost of choosing revenge over redemption. He is not a simple villain, but a man who refuses to admit that his choice may have damned him.
All of these threads converge around the campaign’s central struggle, a brutal race for the True Cross. It is not merely a holy relic, but a symbol capable of legitimizing power, justifying war, and reshaping belief itself. Arkan sees it as a test of faith. Wilhelm treats it as a duty. Absolon views it as something that could either save lives or destroy them, depending on who claims it. Athena and Sarah understand that whatever happens, the world will change afterward.
Each player contributes not just a character, but a worldview. Together with the NPCs who travel beside them, they turn the campaign into a story about belief, loyalty, and consequence in a world where even holy things can be used for terrible ends.
How close does your game run to historical fact? What embellishments have you added? I note that you have dragons within the campaign. Tell us about them.
The campaign stays very close to historical fact in its foundation. The political landscape, the Church, the conduct of war, travel times, social class, famine, plague, and the general instability of the Hundred Years’ War are all grounded in real history. England and France behave as they did in 1356. The Church wields power the way it historically did. Most suffering in the world still comes from very human causes: ambition, fear, and betrayal.
Where I embellish is in what history could not record, only explain away.
Dragons exist in the campaign, but they are not common, casual, or heroic adversaries. They are closer to natural disasters than monsters. Their appearances are rare, cyclical, and catastrophic, and they leave scars on the land that shape history for generations. In that sense, they function much like real medieval events such as famine, plague, or mass slaughter. People plan around them, fear them, and build belief systems to explain them.
The two most important dragons are Flame (True Name: Pyraxia) and Pyre (True Name: Voradracus), both red dragons whose names are spoken with dread. Flame is the younger and more frequent of the two. She appears roughly every two years and is remembered for cruelty and spite rather than strategy. She can change her color to hide like a chameleon. Her attacks focus on crops, livestock, and forests. Flame causes famine. Villages don’t fall immediately under her shadow, they starve months later. To the common folk, Flame is remembered not as a battle, but as empty granaries and buried children.
Pyre is far older and far more destructive. He appears roughly every five years and devastates entire regions. Pyre does not harass. He erases. Castles, fortified towns, and armies are reduced to ash when he awakens. His attacks are remembered as historical ruptures, events that reset borders, depopulate regions, and force mass migrations. Entire political decisions are made based on when Pyre is expected to return.
No one has ever slain a dragon in the campaign. Knights who try become footnotes, if they are remembered at all. The Church teaches that dragons are hellspawn and must be destroyed, but history quietly shows that faith alone has never been enough. This tension between doctrine and reality is intentional. Dragons expose the limits of power, belief, and heroism.
In short, history remains the spine of the game. The embellishments are deliberate, restrained, and consequential. Dragons do not replace history. They complicate it. They give the medieval world another reason to fear the sky, another excuse for atrocity, and another legend that future generations will argue about, long after the ash has settled.
You have described your campaign to me as a low magic campaign. How do you fit magic into the historical context? What else have you added to “spice up” the historical context?
I describe the campaign as low magic because magic exists, but it is rare, feared, and costly, much closer to how medieval people actually believed the world worked than to a high-fantasy setting. Most people will live and die without ever seeing a spell cast. When magic does appear, it is treated as an event, not a convenience.
Magic is woven into the historical context the same way superstition, faith, and rumor were woven into medieval life. The Church condemns arcane magic as heresy or witchcraft, while tolerating miracles so long as they fit doctrine. Folk magic exists at the margins in the form of charms, blessings, curses, and whispered rituals, but even those carry risk. True spellcasting shortens lives, attracts attention, and leaves marks. People who practice it rarely live long or openly. If someone can hurl fire or heal the dying, the question is never “how?” but “who is coming for them now?”
Divine magic is not treated as guaranteed or transactional. A prayer is not a vending machine. Miracles are rare and often ambiguous, and even holy power demands sacrifice. Faith can protect, but it can also be tested, withheld, or misunderstood. This keeps belief meaningful instead of mechanical.
To spice up the historical context, I add pressure rather than spectacle. Weather is tracked. Food shortages matter. Wounds linger. Rumors spread faster than truth. Relics like the True Cross are powerful not only because of what they can do, but because of what people believe they justify. Institutions such as the Church, knightly orders, and secret societies actively respond to anything that threatens their authority.
Supernatural elements like undead, witches, or dragons exist, but they are treated as existential threats, not encounter fodder. When the unnatural appears, it warps the world around it, changing behavior, belief, and politics. The result is a setting where magic deepens the horror and the stakes rather than softening them.
The goal is always the same: to make the world feel real first, and uncanny only when it absolutely has to be.
I see you have customized the layout of the campaign. What tools did you use in setting things up? What advice can you give for new GMs who want to do what you have done?
I’ve customized the campaign layout primarily through Obsidian Portal’s built-in tools, using custom CSS and careful page structuring to control tone, readability, and atmosphere. The goal was never flash for its own sake, but immersion. The site should feel like it belongs to the world, not like a modern wiki with medieval content pasted into it.
I’m fortunate to know someone who is very strong with coding and troubleshooting, especially when it comes to working within the limitations of hosted platforms. Having access to that kind of expertise made a huge difference, particularly when dealing with finicky CSS rules, browser quirks, and the trial-and-error that comes with customization. It allowed me to experiment without breaking things permanently and to recover quickly when something went wrong. My pages are still a work in progress.
Beyond that, I rely heavily on consistent structure. Clear navigation, predictable formatting, and restraint go a long way. I use Chronica for in-world timekeeping and event tracking, Discord for communication and session management, and Patreon for community support and extended content. Each tool has a defined purpose, and I avoid overlap wherever possible.
For new GMs, my advice is simple. Start small. Don’t try to build everything at once. Focus first on content, tone, and consistency. A plain site with strong writing will always outperform a beautifully styled site with nothing to say. Learn just enough CSS to make meaningful changes, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from people who know more than you do.
Most importantly, remember that the tools exist to serve the game. If the world feels alive at the table, everything else is just scaffolding.
Whereabouts are your players in the 100 Years War? Are there any specific adventures you have yet to engage in that you are particularly looking forward to that you can give us a glimpse of, without ruining the surprise for your players? You can be as cryptic as you like.
At the moment, the campaign it is in the month of March of 1356, with the party operating in northern France, moving through contested territory during a tense lull in the Hundred Years’ War. This is the period before open catastrophe, when armies are maneuvering, supplies are thin, and everyone knows something terrible is coming but no one knows exactly when. Historically, this is the calm before the storm.
The major historical event looming over the campaign is the Battle of Poitiers, which will take place in the fall of 1356. Poitiers is significant because it is not just a battle, but a rupture. The English capture King John II of France, shattering French authority, destabilizing the realm, and turning the war decisively in England’s favor. In the campaign world, Poitiers represents the moment when order collapses. Alliances break, mercenary bands multiply, the Church scrambles to control the narrative, and entire regions are left exposed. Everything the players are doing now exists in the long shadow of that coming disaster.
As for what lies ahead, there are threads already tightening.
Relics are moving when they should be hidden. Old oaths are being tested by new commands. Certain factions are racing toward the same destination for very different reasons, and not all of them plan to arrive openly. Some truths about the Order of Judas are closer to the surface than they appear, and some allies are carrying secrets that will not survive the summer.
By the time the leaves turn and Poitiers comes, the players will understand that the battle was never just about armies. It will be about who controls belief, who survives the collapse, and which stories get told afterward.
That’s as much as I can safely say.
Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
My best advice is this: write a story worth interrupting.
Give your campaign a grand narrative, one with real stakes and a clear sense of direction. A larger story, made up of many smaller ones, gives players purpose. It helps them understand why their choices matter and why the world keeps moving even when they aren’t looking. Momentum is not railroading. It’s respect for the setting.
At the same time, build your world to respond honestly. Don’t protect plans that no longer make sense. Let player decisions alter outcomes, break assumptions, and force you to adapt. If the world bends, it should bend for reasons the players can see and feel.
Finally, remember that immersion comes from consistency, not spectacle. Keep your rules, tone, and consequences steady, and players will meet you there. When the world feels real, the stories that emerge will stay with your table long after the dice stop rolling.
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure February 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
Campaign of the Month November 2025: La Compagnie du Dragon Blanc
Finally, we are pleased to present you our September Campaign of the Month, La Compagnie du Dragon Blanc – join us in our exclusive interview with GM jean_luc_rousseau to gain a special insight on the mind behind the work!
Let’s start with the group: who are the players around the table?
Starting with 5 players, the White Dragon Company now has 8, ranging in age from 16 to…57 for the GM, which is me!
Tell us a little about your group: how did you meet and what led you to immerse yourselves in the world of Faerûn?
I’ve been playing AD&D 2nd Edition since 1984 and I’ve been passionate about the Forgotten Realms from the very beginning. I wanted to form a group, including two of my three children who discovered role-playing games through this. Other passionate friends have joined us for the past 3 years. Next March, our Company will be 4 years old!
How do your games unfold?
We play at my place and at our association, the Circle of the 3 Kingdoms, in Agde, in the South of France, usually in the evening.
How often do you organize sessions? Do you play in person, online, or in a hybrid format?
We play monthly, sometimes bi-monthly, and always in person. For me, distance breaks the immersion.
Most people here are familiar with D&D, but perhaps not the 2nd edition in particular. What appealed to you about this version?
I started with the first edition, then naturally moved on to the second. I like the fluidity of its rules. And it constantly takes me back to my teenage memories. I’m completing my collection for my son, a mage in the Company, who also loves this universe. The components of the second edition are magnificent, especially the cards. I love them!
You’ve certainly spent a lot of time on your various campaigns on Obsidian Portal. Which features have become essential for organizing and running your games?
The website is a very useful tool, providing a complete summary of each of our sessions. We add to it as we go along, and it’s a valuable reference tool. The character recall and management features are particularly useful.
I notice you have an eclectic mix of different fantasy worlds that many will recognize.
I agree, but I remain faithful to the overall storyline of this period in the Middle Lands. I incorporate elements that I adapt intentionally, but always respecting the story and the main events. I’m passionate about it, and the lore is so rich that it allows for easy adaptation without altering its core essence.
Are there any particular difficulties in merging these elements from such diverse worlds?
No, but I ensure the overall coherence. It’s important to maintain certain reference points.
The level of detail in your Adventure Journals sometimes makes me feel like I’m sitting at your table. How do you go about writing them? Do you manage it alone or as a team?
Thank you for the compliment! I do it alone, and it takes a lot of time, but it’s my passion! I do it all by myself, and I occasionally edit the summary, year by year, into a booklet for each of my players.
If you had to choose a single moment of resounding success or spectacular failure to describe your campaign so far, what would it be? Whether it was hilarious, poignant, or simply brilliant, we’d love to hear it.
A moment of success: I love role-playing, and we were able to spend an entire 5-hour session without rolling a single dice roll… the players were completely immersed in the game and their character portrayals—a real treat for the GM!
And finally, we always ask the question: what’s your secret to running a successful campaign?
The coherence of the whole, passion, and a solid “historical” framework that allows the players to feel like they’re part of the world they’re in. If you had to summarize your GM philosophy, what are the key ingredients that make your game captivating and keep your players coming back?
Allowing players to truly immerse themselves and embody their characters, rather than simply organizing a series of soulless battles. While combat is an integral part of the game, it’s not the most important thing for me. The relationships and interactions between players around the table are what make the game special, not the dice or the rigid application of rules! Freedom, consistent world-building, and role-playing form the foundation of my game philosophy.
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure of COTY in December, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns!
Campaign of the Month September 2025: Broken Shield
Enter the world of Golarion, where a group of adventurers fight against the devastating power of the mighty lich known as “The Whispering Tyrant” to save the area of Lastwall from utter ruin. Follow 10th_King and his team as they battle against world-shattering danger to the tune of German and Finnish metal in the dangerous, yet adventurous campaign known as “Broken Shield”.
First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM scr21een. Where are you from? What do you do aside from gaming? Alter Egos? Life partners? Family? Where can we interact with you on the internet?
My name is Nick. I was born in Seattle, which always feels like home to me, but have lived in Richmond, Virginia for so long now that I should really stop telling people that first part. I am married to a phenomenal person who has been my inspiration for so many things. I actually had them come into this campaign to play as the former demigoddess Arazni. That reveal was one of the best moments early on because every time my wife came to watch us play, at some point in the session I had one of the PCs notice a scrying sensor watching the party, but none of the players connected the dots until the big moment.
You have a very prominent banner on your landing page that is both detailed and intriguing. Why don’t you tell us all something about it.
One of my players commissioned a beautiful piece of art for the campaign featuring all the player characters in a Darkest Dungeon style. The video game was one of my early inspiration sources for the campaign’s atmosphere and I liked the artwork so much that it’s been my background on my home computer ever since. My players don’t know this, yet, but I altered the established adventure to make their characters functionally immortal partly because I appreciate this art and the enthusiasm for my game that it represents.
How long has your campaign been running and what made you choose Pathfinder as your gaming system.
This particular campaign is an adaptation of Pathfinder’s adventure path Tyrant’s Grasp and we’ve been playing it for about two years now almost weekly. Tyrant’s Grasp is a fantastic AP and Paizo used it to introduce some cataclysmic changes to their world of Golarion when they went to their Second Edition. My players and I have been playing in our own version of the Pathfinder setting (named by us Pathfinder Prime) for over 10 years. In that time, we’ve failed a lot of campaigns, both published and homebrew, resulting some sweeping changes to our own Inner Sea. I used Broken Shield to sell my group on PF2E and bring Pathfinder Prime in line with some of what I thought would be Paizo’s biggest alterations to the larger setting.
Do you play online or at a table? Tell us something about your average gaming sessions. How often do you play? What is your gaming group like?
We play in person most weeks. Classically, everyone brings snacks and I always try to theme what I bring based on what will happen in the session. A quiet little hint for the players to puzzle out for my enjoyment. We play at one of my player’s houses so he can help watch his son who has also made an appearance in a couple sessions. As a whole, my players are very tactically minded, forcing me to constantly be on my toes to have any hope of challenging them, but since we have so much established history in this world we’ve built and between ourselves, we also have a lot of lore and cohesion we can rely on for character creation and role play. My group is all very creative, giving us a wonderful balance of fluff and crunch. Every one of their characters is my absolute favorite at varying points. Look into the OP page for some amazing examples of their talent, but for a brief overview we have Andre Goncharov (a.k.a. the White Spider, a now world-famous circus wrestler grown into his own tall tale), Raffletholomew Twice-Dead (the midwife “native” of the town where inciting events for the campaign begin and host to one of Pharasma’s most powerful agents now clinging to existence), Wil Scarborough (the orphaned child of a different player’s former character in our Carrion Crown game), Mathias Forest (the adopted son of that player’s own Carrion Crown character who was not concurrent with the character that died and orphaned Wil), and Apollonia (the daughter of that player’s own character in a homebrew game now carrying on that player’s many-year legacy and plans for the setting). Each of these was unknowingly and completely independently made to be perfect for the campaign and weaving their stories into the adventure has been delightful.
Tell us about life in Lastwall. What dangers are still propagated by “The Whispering Tyrant”? What sort of adventures do your characters get up to? What are their quests? What are the challenges?
For those unfamiliar with Paizo’s Pathfinder setting, the Whispering Tyrant is basically THE big bad. A classic lich necromancer bent on world domination and his own superiority over even the gods themselves, his power over death is unimaginable and nearly unstoppable. The AP as written is about him destroying Lastwall as a nation, leaving it a land of horrors and undeath. The characters have at this point traveled hitherto unseen parts of the world to try and find a way to stop his onslaught, and have only recently come back with any hope of actually being able to do so. They have been several catastrophic steps behind him up to now and have been repeatedly caught off guard by expecting things to follow normal game tropes. More than once, they’ve discovered the thing they set out to stop or learn about is either already in progress or has already happened. I’ve worked hard throughout to give them the impression that many of these events were destined to occur later in the story only to pull the rug out from under them. That has sometimes backfired, forcing my hand even earlier, bit it’s been a BLAST.
Is the main WIKI mainly set up by yourself? Do any of your players help out? Do you have any tips for newcomers starting to build their own campaigns?
I built the initial wiki, but life and time have gotten away from me. At this point, a couple of my players have largely taken control of it and are responsible for how incredible a resource it remains. From day one, I have rewarded player’s for adding content, bribing them with Hero Points, but their efforts have gone above and beyond. I am truly in awe of the work they do every week.
There are several musical links in your campaign, particularly in the adventure logs. How important are these to your campaign? Do you use music during your sessions?
I create new playlists to use in session for each part of the campaign. Every major milestone means a change to the tone of the music I set. One of the first, as an example, used a lot of video game music, heavily featuring the Darkest Dungeon soundtrack which may have influenced the commissioned banner a player got. Currently I play a lot of German and Finnish metal as the players explore a Dwarven ruin and Elvish artifacts. My players also use music specifically to set the tone of some of their adventure logs and in particular I’ve been impressed with how many of Wil’s logs actually line up in their writing with the music playing as you read it. Line breaks frequently match breaks in the music if you hit play just before you start reading.
Without divulging any major plots, what is your plan for the future of your central characters?
We are honestly in the home stretch of the campaign, so my players and I are really all focused more on the legacy these characters will have on Pathfinder Prime at this point. I recently tried to force them into a difficult heroes choice where they had to risk that legacy to save the world itself. The characters all elected to do the right thing, but the players were very frustrated with my decision. They blamed the source material (sorry Paizo!) and will only learn I’m the culprit reading this, but I wanted the stakes to be real. I had to backtrack on that choice a bit, but we’ve worked it into the story and after some checks, only one of them will suffer the full consequences.
What would you say are the most useful tools available on Obsidian Portal, both in terms of Campaign Design and in terms of active playing?
I have used OP for every campaign we’ve run in our Pathfinder Prime setting. I find it incredibly useful for giving players background on the setting and character creation. Our group has talked several times about creating an Obsidian Portal wiki just to have our own wiki for our Pathfinder games and tracking all the changes from the published setting. By far my favorite part of Obsidian Portal, though, are the adventure logs and players’ ability to document their own perspectives on each session or other events in their lives. As both a player and a GM, the insight into another character and the creativity we all get to display even between sessions is incredible.
What have your main influences been in building and running your campaign? Think of literature, films, games, anything else.
There are honestly so many influences I draw on for this game. I’ve mentioned Darkest Dungeon a few times, but I’ve also relied on one of my favorite video games, Bloodborne, for creepiness and atmosphere. Supernatural and the Castlevania TV show have also been big inspirations. I have steeped myself in classic horror from Dracula and Frankenstein to the Cthulhu mythos to guide my own storytelling. I also listen to playthrough recordings of Pathfinder every day to keep on top of rules, and steal techniques and ideas from fellow GMs. I’d especially like to shout out Find the Path who are also currently going through Tyrant’s Grasp and who are a phenomenal podcast.
Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
I am truly blessed to have a fantastic group of players who are just as invested in this ongoing story as I am. The best advice I think any GM can give is to communicate with your players and use them to help us all tell a group narrative. Take their ideas and their goals and rewrite everything if you have to. You can definitely still surprise them by twisting their expectations, but the involvement you get is incredible and unique. This is a cooperative medium and watching something grow beyond any of us has been truly beautiful. My thanks have to go to Obsidian Portal for giving us a place to store and refer back to our legacy!
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 2nd, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
