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Campaign of the Month July 2025: Adoraith: Out of the Shadows
Make ready the main-sail and trim those lines! It’s time to brave the dark and briny waters of this month’s winning Campaign of the Month — “Adoraith: Out of the Shadows.” A maze of shattered islands awaits beyond the haze as we return to the world of Adoraith and ask this two-time winner how best to captain a crew who seek adventures on the high seas.
~ Obsidian Portal spoke with you last in 2016, when “Adoraith: Echoes of Epirus” won Campaign of the Month and we had the chance to get to know you. What’s new in your life in the last nine years?
Goodness, the last decade has been a whirlwind. I continued publishing 5e material, releasing several adventures, until my development work ground to a halt in 2019 when I broke my back in a freak accident. The accident landed me in a wheelchair. It took several years for me to get back on track enough to consider development again. Even then I had some setbacks that keeps me sidelined.
I don’t want to give the impression that my life is all doom and gloom though. My family and I moved to my favorite place in the world, New Orleans. The people, music, food and culture has been a real lift to my spirits. Obviously, I put together a gaming group and have been able to leverage nearly 40 years of content on the newcomers. It excites me to see firsthand how different groups react to the same content.
~ Your current campaign, “Adoraith: Out of the Shadows” is a tail of sails and ships upon the Sapphire Sea that varies piracy with a little classic adventuring. Why are we all so drawn to stories on the high seas, in your opinion?
Our oceans and seas remain the last frontier we humans have yet to completely explore. There persists a mystery to the vast ocean depths that draws our wonder and imagination. Not only that, but there is a romantic notion that life on the seas somehow freeing for the body and soul. In a very real-world sense, adventure still awaits!
Turning to Dungeons and Dragons, I like to have just as much watercraft travel as overland. Many DM’s prefer to cut to the chase and get their party to their target as quickly as possible. I take a different view believing that the journey should be every bit part of the adventure as their destination. This is likely due to the tedious habit of some DMs rolling for encounters each and every day that their group travels.
My approach is to prepare a number of encounters that relate back to the main plot that I can use while traveling. Having varied terrain types opens a world of perils and creatures to encounter.
~ What’s the story, so far? And without giving too much away to your players, where does it lead next?
When the campaign began, the group wanted a chance to do achieve something that doesn’t happen too often. They asked for a story driven game where the characters reach 20th level. After 3 years, playing nearly every Sunday (I think we have 130 adventure logs), they are now 19th level and very nearly at the end.
With nearly 700 hours of sessions under our belts, the thought of summarizing the events is a bit daunting. But, At the risk of oversimplifying the story, here goes.
Out of the Shadows refers to the rise of the Cult of Tharizdun revealing itself and attempting to free the chained god. It’s important to point out that I use the 1st edition backstory of Tharizdun. One where he was one of the eldest gods and posed a threat to existence of the multiverse. Tharizdun’s attempt to unravel reality led the gods, both good and evil, to ally and imprison him. Even with the entire might of all divinity opposing him, the battle was still a near thing.
My one change is that I leaned into chaos and madness making Tharizdun a Chaotic Neutral deity. I wanted to give him a slight sympathetic angle by making his existence one of pain and madness which explained his desire to trigger the Armageddon.
Tharizdun was still responsible for the creation of the Abyss, which was formed from his wails and ravings that reverberated into infinity as his prison was slammed shut. At that time, the Abyss was a realm of chaos but the creatures that made the plane their home twisted it to their evil nature. However, any creature spawned of the Abyss would be an easy puppet for the mad god and his followers.
Tharizdun’s avatar took the form of a young black haired pale skinned child. Studying the Lament for Lost Tharizdun, the last few surviving scraps of the mad god’s scriptures, the cult learned that key to his release lay in a ritual to imbue a specific child’s body with Tharizdun’s essence. This child will be born on the “Day of Omens” October 13th but under a specific moon (a harvest moon). The cult knew that the moon played a role but their few tattered pages of the Lament did not reveal the specifics. Thus, the cult spent years hunting and kidnapping children with a birthday of October 13th. With so many possible candidates, the cult wasted no time and began performing rituals to discover the vessel for the avatar.
Enter the heroes, several of whom were orphans who aged out of an orphanage found in the pirate hold of Freeport. For reasons unknown to most, Freeport was seething with a large orphan population. Later, these party members would learn that they were orphaned by the cult itself.
Against this backdrop, a very young, no older than 8 or 9 to most eyes, fire-haired elven girl named Exie appears in Freeport. She was not kidnapped by the cult but arrived in the pirate hold by happenstance due to her serial habit of stowing away on ocean going vessels. Exie would quickly befriend the heroes and would drift in and out of their lives frequently while the party was in Freeport.
Disaster struck while the party attempted to disrupt the cult’s activities. Exie tailed the party while they attempted to disrupt one of the cult’s rituals. With Exie present, both the heroes and cult were shocked to find that the ritual to infuse the power of Tharizdun into an avatar was successful. Exie, who had one the affections of the party, was stricken. Implanted with the seed of chaos on madness.
Determined to save Exie and stop the release of Tharizdun, the party has fought to help Exie keep a grip on reality and stop her from descending into madness. However, for all their efforts, the heroes know that the clock is ticking. In order to sever the tie between Exie and Tharizdun, they must repair Tharizdun’s crumbling prison.
These events were all nearly two and half years ago. Since then, the party has ventured from one side of the game world to the other, traveled the mists of Hades, and even delved into the Abyss.
The heroes now stand on the precipice of disaster. Exie has been stolen by the cult and taken to the Rift where a planar breech has torn a hole in the fabric of reality. Within the Rift, the heroes must do battle to rescue Exie and crush the Cult of Tharizdun once and for all.
~ It looks like you published some adventures and supplemental rules in the past. Care to tell us about that experience?
I absolutely love game development but as I mentioned above, health issues have derailed my publishing. Releasing good content takes an enormous amount of time and cooperation from multiple groups willing to test the material. However, there is no better feeling than hearing from gamers how much they loved a product.
Most of the material I have published are adventures, but I did collaborate with Kelsey Dionne, creator of Shadowdark, on a book of monsters called the Monstrous Lexicon. I find monster creation much more fun than adventure writing. When creating a good beasty you don’t have to worry about how the monster ties into a storyline or whether the encounter is balanced. All you need to do is let your imagination loose and try and create something completely outside the box.
As for the publishing process, I have released material on Amazon, DriveThruRPG, and the DM’s Guild. Of the three, the DM’s Guild has been a very disappointing experience. Sales were fine but I did have a hard time working with the back-end folks. One must also be wary of their exclusivity clauses in their terms.
~ Your adventure logs and journal entries for “Out of the Shadows” have been a very enjoyable read, and the addition of images of miniatures, mid-battle, draw those of us outside the game into the story. Do these kind of detailed archives of the campaign help you and/or your players — as memory aids or inspiration or otherwise — especially as you progress into higher levels and more complex plotlines?
When I run campaigns, I prefer to engross the players in a plot line that takes a great deal of time and investigation to unwind. Fortunately, we have been lucky enough to be surrounded by players who embrace that style and take the necessary steps to stay on top of all the moving parts.
The adventure logs were meant to be written from the perspective of the character writing the update for that week. So, if that PC incorrectly interpreted clues or simply disagreed with another’s analysis the log may not reflect reality which I absolutely love. Groups of people can look at a particular event and come to very different conclusions. The truth always manages to bubble to the surface as either an opportunity for the heroes to prevent a catastrophe or as a bomb that blows up in their face.
That said, nearly every player keeps notes. Courtney in particular is very good about keeping minutes. She has a system for tracking NPCs, hooks, and events using a different colored pen for each subject. On multiple occasions her notebooks have saved the heroes from making disastrous decisions.
The pictures are something I insert now and then for posterity. I love documenting our adventures with photographs and have been doing it for years. I have pictures going back to the 1980s that I am fondly able to look back on.
~ What have been some of your favorite moments in this iteration of “Adoraith”?
As a DM, I find my favorite moments come when I am able to evoke a visceral reaction from my players. I don’t think there is any greater compliment to a DM’s effort than when the players become that invested in a campaign. I have been fortunate enough to experience many such moments but none more incredible than when Exie was taken from the party.
Mechanically, I truly enjoy creating magic items. In my world, every magic item comes with a beneficial enchantment and a curse. That said, I have removed the Identify spell from the game. Characters have to consult with the wise, research histories, and/or use trial and error to discover an item’s powers. I love watching my players weigh benefits against curses or stress about equipping an item without any idea of what the curse may be. Magic is a dangerous thing and not for the faint of heart!
~ Do you or your players have any other projects on the horizon for which we should keep a weather-eye? Any more plans for new campaigns in the world of “Adoraith” in the foreseeable future?
I have had to step back from game development due to health issues. I have done extensive work on Johnny Fraser-Allen’s, The Gloaming, 5e game setting. I also had a number of other projects in the works but everything is currently on hold. At least in regards to my involvement.
I really liked 5e until Tasha’s came out. I felt the features in that book and subsequent books were unbalanced and poorly written. I used to believe that it didn’t really matter what system you used. The only thing of consequence was the story and interactions of the players. Sadly, 5e became so lopsided in favor of the players that I spent far more time planning battlefield strategies than interesting plot lines.
There were really only two options left to me if I wanted to bring some balance back to my game. Either only use the core 5e books or switch to another edition of DnD. My table really didn’t want to return to an older system like 2e or 3.5e. As a result, for the first time in 45 years of gaming, I am retiring Dungeons and Dragons as my go to system. The plan is to run an Alien RPG Campaign to serve as a Fantasy RPG palate cleanser (I have already set up an Obsidian Portal page for the game here: https://alien-4.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page) and then start trying other game systems starting with Castles and Crusades.
~ And as we always do, Obsidian Portal loves to ask for any new tips, tricks, or general advice you’ve gleaned in the last almost-decade that you could share with other Game Masters, World Builders, and writers.
I am a huge proponent of homebrewing just about everything. I love to create new monsters, features, and spells that the players do not have access to or knowledge of. D&D has been around for 50 years and there are very few surprises coming out of the published material. If I want to challenge my players, especially when playing 5e, I have to customize just about everything.
Below are my player’s contributions to the interview:
Joe (Wade the human Ranger/Sorcerer)
Playing Wade, I’ve loved every minute of it, but there have been a few moments that have really stuck with me. It was around the time Wade was given his title of “the immortal” by Lin. We had found a mound that the evil lizard people were using to corrupt eggs and the group was going to go inside and smash them. Wade decided to stay back and be outside with Exie as to avoid the dangers there. Little did Wade know this would be the first of many many times when he stands in the back of the group only to get jumped but this time by a giant lizard man holding a club as he swings it, crits and hits Wade square in the chest caving in his chest and sending him flying 10 feet back. Only for the rest of the group to come out, kill the lizard man and then revive Wade for the umpteenth time in the short amount of time the campaign had been going.
For me the adventure logs are great it’s the first campaign I’ve been in where we’ve done something like this, when I started as the designated writer of them as the captain of the group I tried to give them a twist of not just a recap of the session but more of a POV from Wade, and when life got a little too busy for me to keep up I’m glad when Lin’s player took over for it, that he kept the same thing going. Of course, now we all chip in and I love how we all do it from our POV and add in a little personality to the retelling. As far as we are in this campaign however it can be very difficult to keep some things straight as to what comes next thankfully due to the journals and the notes that Meera takes, they help keep us on the right path.
The other favorite moment for me was the end of the Coraline arc when Meera finally accepted to be her “mommy” and broke the curse on her showing her true form of Sofil the Angel. It was a very emotional moment for Wade because of all the trials he had to go through to keep her safe and care for her in the landscape of Hades while also figuring out his new form of being a zombie. Wade growing up in an orphanage gives him a huge soft spot for children, and a very protective fatherly love for all of them and seeing her reach her potential filled me as a player full of love a pride that we were able to help her. I look forward to seeing her come back at the end of this campaign.
Scott (Reginald the halfling Paladin)
One of my favorite “moments” of the Adoraith campaign has been the planar travel. I read and listen endlessly to planar lore and it’s such an exciting topic for me. In my many years of ttrpg gaming and campaigns I’ve had very minimal time outside the prime material plane. (Except when I first me Pickled Dragon and he was running Temple of Elemental Evil). I joined Adoraith while the party was in Hades and afterwards went to the Abyss as well as the outlands, getting to see Sigil atop the spire and visit the gate town of Tradegate. Matt truly brought these places life making them unique and including game mechanics such as Gloom in Hades to set these places apart.
Another of the most memorable moments was when we were happy to see Demogorgon…. not because he is a swell fella but because the hatred between Orcus and him made it possible for us to escape Orcus’ palace alive.
Courtney (Meera the half-orc Fighter/Barbarian)
The adventure logs and journal entries are especially helpful when one of us has to miss a session. It’s also fun to hear another character’s version of events and how their perception differs from your own. Favorite moments: Some of my (Courtney/Meera) favorite moments include:
>Meera’s first awakening as the Dawn Champion, when all of her physical stats became 30 for the day (I’ve never felt so invincible),
>When Meera and KeeWee set off on a low stakes reconnaissance mission and ended up beating up some guy for being a jerk (not sure why a guest player thought Meera and KeeWee were too reckless),
>Anytime Meera pulls out the severed undead head in a birdcage she’s been carrying since session 2 in order to show (scare) a new PC or NPC
Jeremy (Lin the elf Rogue/Sorcerer/Cleric)
Favorite moments
Matt let me try something I’ve never done in a game before.. actively work against the party. We all came into the game as strangers from the internet, and my character wasn’t trusted at the start due to having a somewhat fancy introduction. Despite the distrust, I presented a character that proved his worth while at the same time set the party back along the way. One of my character’s goals was to get out of the organization he worked for and eventually came clean to the party. We were several months and levels into the campaign, and I felt my character had been through enough ‘party attachment’ events to have courage to reveal his ploys. I even brought cheesy, character specific Christmas presents (IRL) to the group when my character confessed. I got some grumbles, but oh boy the laughs that came out of some of the confessions were priceless.
At one point in the game, my character was cursed by hags and being controlled during long rests. I was only aware of the lack of resting for the longest time as exhaustion (2014) kept stacking up. Once it was revealed to my character that he had been up to nefarious deeds, I tried to take measures to disable my controllers’ abilities by setting nightly traps for myself Moon Knight style. When those weren’t proving to be sufficient, I turned to my most trusted party member and had them babysit my character that was bound, gagged, and blindfolded. Some of the other characters walked in on the scene and a couple of hilarious exchanges were had at my expense.
One mission we had to scale a massive cliff face to reach a fort. Some people’s initial attempts at climbing didn’t go so well, so I had my character begin stretching as I did the same around the table. My character succeeded in scaling the cliff, and other people indulged the goofiness of stretching out of game. The next time we had to climb an even more tumultuous wall, I had my character once again take time to stretch and encouraged the group. We succeeded with a minor, but quite scary hiccup. Matt was even shocked at the success of this climb, and we later found out we skipped weeks of planned content by making the climb. Stretching around the table became a thing after that anytime we had a seemingly monumental task before us. I still get a chuckle when people join in on the goofy suggestion around the table. Remember kids.. Stretch!
Matt does custom magic items complete with lore and potentially even curses. A favorite magic item that we have come across is the Gremlin Bag. It is a Bag of Holding with a Gremlin inside that is one of the vanest characters one will ever meet. My character took on the challenge of appeasing the Gremlin (more or less the curse of this item), of course many times lying to it, and haven’t looked back since. I even aided the Gremlin from an ailment at one point, and the Gremlin has honestly been one of the most valuable NPCs to the group in my opinion. The Gremlin revealed to my character his nefarious deeds while he was being controlled by the hags. We have utilized the bag in a number of instances to temporarily house people in need of saving. We used it to liberate an entire squad of harpies that have now become part of the hilarity of the bag. I even upgraded the bag at a magical forge, and some of the party suspect the Gremlin will wind up being the end game encounter as a result of my brown nosing. Despite all the vanity and requests, the Gremlin actually has standards… Please, please ask Matt about the Gremlin Bag!
Overall
Matt’s campaign and world is unlike any other I’ve ever played in over all my years of the TTRPG hobby. The world is gritty, dark, captivating, and best of all.. organic. All of our choices matter, even seemingly insignificant ones, and have consequences unforeseen for potentially months. Our characters wear their scars and have definitely learned from them. Some of our choices have even resulted in gods being
winked out of existence and going silent. We find out about them later when the general populace has no recollection of the deity. How big of a ‘whoops’ moment is that for a player?!?
I have never been in a game that encouraged complete journaling as a collective either. Took notes here and there sure, but never told the whole story. The journaling of the campaign has been awesome. Matt incentivizes it and we all enjoy it. It keeps the players invested and gives us all reminders of the previous session(s) if needed. I feel it also gets the players more attached to their characters as they are detailing thoughts and emotions they had at the table in those journaled moments that get brought to life for all instead of locked away in memories. I know I especially enjoy the creative liberties in telling moments from my character’s point of view, oftentimes including pokes at others that carries on party banter. The world, players, and characters all become more organic in how everything comes together as a resultl.
I even feel I have become a better player and GM from playing in Matt’s world. I took the journaling aspect to other games as a player and the GMs really appreciate the investment. I have taken the heavy consequences aspect of Matt’s game and applied to my own. Players get that shock factor in the moment, but usually laugh and change their approach to situations the next time while mentioning a previous big consequence. The worlds and games need to have consequences, even sometimes as a result of the party succeeding at a current, dire mission.
Raise up that anchor and make haste, mateys! We’ve strayed too long in these isles and I sense a storm coming up. Many thanks to the treasure-laden team of Adoraith and his crew as they write more grand tales worthy of a sailor’s song. And if you know a campaign just as worthy as this, be sure to nominate it in the community forums for consideration and even a chance to win the coveted Campaign of the Year!
Campaign of the Month May 2025: Nightfall
The 2000 year old Tengen Empire is in turmoil. After an abrupt and mysterious end to their fifteen year war with the magic-believing people of Midros, the Tengen Gods, the Taywa, suddenly face an even greater, almost unthinkable threat – insurrection within their own lands, led by new heroes ready to challenge their divine power and end their enslavement of souls. Join us in talking with GM alliedaines through the beautiful and fantastic world of Nightfall!
Feel free to tell us more 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?
Hi guys. My name is Alison, I live in the UK and have been roleplaying for what seems like a lifetime, but in reality has been around forty years. I love writing, pc gaming, my adorable husky and of course DMing. When I was in my 20s I went through a prolonged period DMing every day, but now, as online play requires a lot more work and I’m starting to feel my age, a couple of times a week is enough.
Did you build your Night Fall campaign on Obsidian Portal yourself? While building your campaign, what tools did you find useful? Do any of your players get involved in the campaign website’s design?
I have a great partner called Justin who is a musician and a developer. He helped me a little with some of the CSS but a lot of the background code used on the site has evolved over time through trial and error and hundreds of tweaks. I use AI art sites these days to generate nearly all of the artwork and other things like tokens I create or manipulate myself using Corel’s Paintshop Pro.
Many of my maps are made in programs like Wonderdraft and Dungeondraft. My players also love to create things as well, but as they work full-time jobs and play in other games, I do most of the site myself.
One of my players, Cate, recently used Suno to make a whole album of songs inspired by the party’s adventures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cby4zBjBfvs) and I myself created another album of songs for a musical town of Kenku that proved tremendous fun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AC6tLydHnU). Other players have created stories, in depth write-ups of their session 0s, assisted with the Previously on Night Fall weekly summaries and contributed art. It really is a collaborative effort and I am so happy to have such talented devoted players.
You’ve been running Night Fall with your group for over 2 years. Does your group, with your latest Chronicle (the 95th entry!) dating to March 10th, 2025, meet up in person or do you play online? Tell us a little more about your players and their characters!
We play regularly online using Roll20 and Discord, on a Monday night for around three hours and are all UK based. I think since the homebrew 5E campaign began, two years ago, we have only missed half a dozen weeks. I got to know my players first by playing with them in another game as I needed to know we were all going to be a good fit and I wanted them to get to know me first, my various foibles and sense of humour. It was still strange for them though as I did things a bit differently than other DMs they had played with. The biggest initial change was the amount of input I had on their backgrounds. They gave me a document outlining what they wanted for their character and I then took each of them, individually, through several session 0s of their childhood, teens and key events. I gave them families, friends, places in the world to grow up and we all relaxed into our respective roles. I have always felt like a character in a big campaign should feel connected to the world and NPCs in it and extensive session 0s help with that. The players immediately became invested in their characters’ fates. It takes a lot of work at the start, but it pays off long-term with plenty of content, mysteries and plot threads to explore.
I love to present the world as a living breathing place. Things happen in it regardless of whether the players are there or not and I believe almost every NPC should feel grounded to that world and alive, not just a sign-post for players to read and move on from.
The current player characters are Edlin (Cate) – a fey-cursed Living Spirit and Warlock of Valen with a Gloom familiar called Yarikh; multiclassed now as a Bard of the World Song. Nix (David) – a light-hearted Divine Soul Sorcerer, Torment (Neil) – a 3000 year old amnesiac war-forged sorcerer and Warlock of Skarkrux and Orel (Sarah) – a samurai paladin of the Taywa who is only around every other session and spends half her time as a ‘ghostly’ entity on another plane of existence.
Each of the players enjoys roleplay and piecing together things about the world and campaign. Sometimes they get together to theorise on what is happening when I’m not there. Which is crazy but they seem to enjoy it.
For those readers who haven’t yet read through Night Fall’s Timeline and the amazingly detailed Chronicles (Adventure Logs), could you give us a rundown on the story behind your campaign setting, and the events that are transpiring as your campaign progresses? In what direction, without spoilers, do you as the DM aspire to go with Night Fall?
The world is homebrew and fantasy with a hint of Eberron-style science and tech. When I first dreamed up Night Fall, I began with two premises. The first – the idea that everything in the campaign would revolve around events that had taken place during the previous Night Fall war, 1000 years before, then an event called The Long Night, 300 years before. And that these events, over the course of the campaign, would slowly reveal their importance to the players. Second – how the players themselves and the theme of lost memories would play a pivotal role in the unfolding story, with players and their characters piecing things together as they went.
The next idea that really appealed to me was this: What if at level 1, I gave the players access to an ancient powerful hybrid flying vessel, filled with magic and science, capable of travelling a 1000 miles a day, filled with several kingdoms worth of treasure and around 30 magical items left behind by the previous crew who had ‘died’ in mysterious circumstances? What would my players do with this? Where would they go? What would they discover and how could their actions influence the next Night Fall war?
Being a big fan of Julian May’s Many Coloured Land books I then incorporated her system of metapsychic powers, careful not to intrude too much upon the traditional D&D 5E rules. Then, as I am also a fan of the BBC Sci-Fi show from the 80s called Blake’s 7, I made the group prisoners, deemed criminals because of their magic, gave them the ship, the Ancient, and an evil Empire to oppose. And that’s kind of where it began.
There is a threat to the world – well, a few actually – but then isn’t there always in big campaigns? And each of the players has specific goals from their backgrounds to achieve. But overall, I like to think the core of the campaign remains: What are the characters going to do with their super-powerful ship? Where are they going to go and how involved will they become in world events?
We are now nearing our 100th session. A bit of a milestone, as I know many campaigns regrettably fizzle out, long before reaching that number, for a variety of real-world reasons. And we just concluded and are now in the epilogue of a major arc centred around David’s character Nix. The players often joke about how they thought they’d stop at the Dominion of Krel for a day, find Nix’s lost friends and then leave, but ended up spending a year there in real world time, around sixty sessions, and getting a bit traumatised in the process. Now that they have finally escaped again, it’s time to get back out into the world and have some crazy adventures. Well… until fate comes knocking.
Are there any specific sessions you have had that stand out in your memory as being particularly fun for you and your players? Feel free to add any pictures or links, as well as any feedback from your players.
I asked them and they said the following;
David – “I have 3 standouts that come to mind. The first being session 1 – the way the group met being VERY different to any other DnD campaign I’ve taken part in. How we had to work together to help some others, like getting Rain down off the cliff. I just liked how different it was to the usual meeting in a tavern or being summoned by some lord. Second would be the attack on the Syndicate. That was just an awesome experience stretching across multiple sessions and involving such a variety of skills being utilised. And the culmination of fighting Imada was great fun too. Finally, the battle in the city to kick the tyrants out and get the people to freedom. The use of a different system and bringing together multiple factions was so engaging and such good fun especially since I hadn’t really known what to expect beforehand.”
Neil – “Discovering the Ancient. And the eventual escape on the Ancient.”
Cate – “The first thing that came to mind for me was all our session 0s before we even started the main campaign. I know we did them individually, but I’d never done anything like that before. It took me from having a 1 page sketch of an idea for a back story to being able to imagine Edlin as a living breathing person and Tifa as a real place. There were even times I could smell the spring flowers and the mulchy scent of the woods. That grounding in my character and the world from the very start meant I was totally invested from day 1 and felt supported to role-play, as I had so much already to pull from.”
Sarah – “One session that really sticks in mind is session 73, which felt like a fairly momentous convergence of different storylines, especially in the rp afterwards, as we began to discover unexpected connections between our characters. Session 94, I am Krel, I really enjoyed for similar reasons, as well as having the opportunity for Orel to face some character-defining moments. I would also like to add the opportunities I’ve had to delve into Orel’s memories between sessions. They’re a great opportunity to flesh out Orel’s character, are always very compelling and completely above and beyond, since I had no expectation of anything like that happening when I first joined the game.”
Having been a member of Obsidian Portal for four years, what would you say are the most useful benefits for you as both a Campaign Designer and as a person running a campaign?
First and foremost, Obsidian Portal just makes things easier. I used to build my campaign websites from the ground up but the OP’s tools and interface allow me to spend more time focusing on the actual story and campaign. I don’t have to worry about hosting or updates to things in the backend and can just get stuck straight in. I also love the search function. With a campaign as complex as Night Fall, I struggle to remember everything. The search function can usually pinpoint even an obscure entry in a page quite quickly, which is truly a godsend. Yes I would like to see additional things – such as the ability to click on images in a carousel and expand them to full-screen – but as it stands, the Obsidian Portal is stable, reliable, customisable and perfect for my needs. I love it.
As a final question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
Hah. You want my pearls? I think my dog ran off with them. OK. Let me see
One of the best things I picked up in the last few years from another online DM was the idea of having a role-playing channel in Discord. I have a Discord server specifically for friends and players and whenever the players want to continue their rp outside of the session, we create a separate thread in the rp-channel to do so. This means the sessions tend to flow better and the players get to explore all sorts of aspects of their characters and NPC interactions during the week, at their own pace. Some weeks we have had half a dozen threads on the go, with more than 200 posts in each of them and it has really transformed the campaign. For a story-driven rp-heavy campaign, I cannot recommend this enough!
Finally, listen to your players. Check in on them regularly and ask them how the campaign is going. Leave any ego at the door. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been DMing, there are always new and better ways of doing things, if you remain open to them. Be willing to change plans, shift gears and direction for the campaign. Remain flexible, open to feedback and take time to relax. Role-playing games are meant to be fun for everyone involved. So make sure you find a little personal nugget of joy in every NPC, every plot twist, piece of world history and reveal, big or small.
Love to the OP community… x
Alison Daines, Feistykitten, Kittenchops, Husky Mom and DM.
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!
Campaign of the Month April 2025, Department 7: Crescent City
Greetings Adventurers, come gather ’round for a tale unlike any other we’ve shared before! Set in a modern landscape, our tale follows a series of individuals who serve as agents who walk the line between the known and the supernatural. Join us in talking with GM Dungeon Master Loki as he walks us through this fantastic world of intrigue and action in Department 7: Crescent City.
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?
I’m an 8th generation New Orleanian of French Creole background, so I was raised in a storytelling culture. I started playing D&D in the White Box era while undergoing leg surgeries at Children’s Hospital, beginning a lifelong love of RPGs. After years of working in music clubs and restaurants I changed gears and began working in online communications (web content, community management and social media) for clients including the Open Society Institute, The National Association of Broadcasters, and The VCU Brand Center.
In 2003 I took on the position of co manager of Planewalker.com, the Official Planescape fan site, where I stayed for over a decade. That and my involvement with Spelljammer.org gave me a taste for sharing my game oriented fevered rantings with others. Since 2014 I have worked as a Table-Top Role Playing Game designer. A two time Silver ENnie award winner, some of my design and writing credits since include the ENnie nominated DarkRoads and Golden Hells, the upcoming Gloomhaven RPG, XCrawl: Louisiana Rising, Bloodlines and Black Magic: The Crescent City, The City of 7 Seraphs, The Pop Culture Catalog series for Starfinder, and many others.
In 2021 Hurricane Ida drove me out of my native New Orleans and I ended up in Cincinnati. Now I teach Introduction to Game Design at the University of Cincinnati and try to freelance enough to keep the bills paid. My family is pretty much all back home in New Orleans so I don’t get to see them very much. Up here in Cincy my family includes my girlfriend, who plays the party cleric / spelljammer pilot, a few close friends, and my two preposterous felines, Puck and Gremlin.
As to where I lurk online, I”ve cut down a lot on that due to spam, AI, and turbulent politics. My website (sorely in need of updating), my Obsidian Portal profile, and my profile on Start Playing Games are really the best ways to contact me these days.
Tell us about “Department 7: Crescent City” in a nutshell. How did you design the world? What was your inspiration?
When I decided to run a modern game using my home city was an obvious way to make it easy on myself. I’ve already written books about using the Crescent City as a site for modern occult and cyberpunk games so I even had a good bit of material already developed for it.
Since several of the players have lived in New Orleans and played at my table ever since, I knew they had familiarity with the city’s culture and terrain. The others would play new transfers to the city from other branches of the Hoffman Institute. Additionally, it’s New Orleans. Our city is full of atmosphere, especially when you consider the folk tales and ghost stories to be true.
Scouring the internet for fringe stories about dinosaur sightings, alien abductions, and ghost stories made it easy to rapidly build a robust and crazy urban fantasy world with some roots in reality. The ones I thought would add to the world or provide good plot hooks would then get added to the game’s Google map. In addition there was an extensive array of such incidents / locations in the original Dark Matter game that I added.
How regularly do you play, and where do you play? Tell us about your current group of players.
We play on an irregular basis since the same players run different characters in some of the other campaigns in the series. Usually about once every month or two these days. We play online using my private server on Discord for Voice/Video/Text and Owlbear Rodeo for our VTT.
As to the players, they are a delightfully motley krewe.
Gary (Jacquemeaux DuBois) has played through several campaigns with me and is one of my old New Orleans crowd, now here in Cincy. Always good for extremely bad jokes and excellent food bribes for the GM (he’s a former chef).
Drew (Leif Luftson) is another who started at my table in the 90s when we worked in restaurants together. Now in Colorado he has returned to the table via Discord. Survivor of three Planejammer campaigns so far.
Desiree (Eulalie Anastasie “Stazzie” Dugas) another one of the New Orleans gamers at the table, despite now living in California. My former roommate (proving she is tolerant) and favorite Cajun who I got to return to the gaming table for the first time in decades.
Jaime (Michi “Michelle” Aoki) my girlfriend, and one of the team’s combat specialists. She’s been rolling dice with us since 2008 when I lived in Cincy once before. As a matter of fact one of her characters is an easter egg in City of 7 Seraphs.
Zan (Cole Morrin) A fellow pro game writer that I got to know while working with them on the City of 7 Seraphs. After playing Munchausen together at Gen Con 50 I knew they would be a perfect fit for the table. Zan rounds out the West Coast contingent at the virtual table. So far they have survived almost five years at my table without having to roll a new character.
Emily (Victoria Union) our campaign artist and mad journaler. Em is another Cincy gamer that came to the table in 2008 when I lived in Cincy a decade ago. Over those years she has become integral to the look and feel of the game. For example, the upcoming Planejammer Tarot deck coming soon from Evil Robot Games.
What made you choose Pathfinder for your system? How does that system complement your campaign?
The campaign series started back in first edition Dungeons and Dragons days, and has evolved embracing each edition until Pathfinder forked from DND 3.5. Since then Pathfinder 1e has been the baseline. My players like the granularity of control over their character the system gives them. Since it is a system I have written more products for than any other it’s also a matter of rules familiarity and comfort zone I suppose. One more point in its favor is that translating rules from one d20 based system to another is comparatively easy, opening up even more options for my players.
Your campaign integrates the real world with fantasy. Can you tell us a little bit about the immersion of the two? How do you decide which parts of fantasy are too much for the real world, and what is acceptable?
One reason I decided to run a modern sci fi / occult game was an idea I had for leveraging Google Maps as a game tool. Using a custom Google Map (OSIRS Worldwatch Global Anomaly Tracking) I was able to create entries for a lot of the high weirdness from Dark Matter, and other weirdness from Louisiana folklore, to create “known sites” around the world. Being able to fire up the map and see everything from reconstituted dinosaurs to secret alien colonies really helped my players with immersion.
It also allows for a lot of improv based on current events. The news and weather reports of the day set the tone If we are playing during Essence Fest or Jazz Fest, for example, they will have to deal with crowds, traffic and hordes of drunken tourists as well as chance celebrity encounters and the occasional musical interlude..Since it is a present day game I often use Google Street View to show them where their characters are and use screencaps from an aerial view to create any battlemaps I need. I’ve found that from the GM side of the screen it makes it a lot of fun and adds a lot of verisimilitude without a lot of extra effort.
As far as what is off the table? Not much. It’s a low to mid level game at present, but I do like big and flashy games almost as much as I love convoluted conspiracies.
Can you explain the structure and setting of your campaign? Your adventures are “cases” that your characters solve as agents in their agency?
In Dark Matter the players are agents in an X-Files style setting, so they work as paranormal agents for the Hoffman Institute. Much like the Men in Black movies reality is not far from what you see in the craziest tabloids.
This means that most of their adventures are assignments, while a few here and there are during their character’s personal time. This simplifies a few aspects of game play. Equipment other than personal items is requisitioned on a mission by mission basis easing the gear tracking part of the game. It also provides clear direction on what the mission goal is each time. For instance their most recent mission was testing out the Tangent Tunnel, an experimental device for travelling to alternate realities. While trying to rescue a lost exploratory team they ended up stranded in the Land of the Lost for three sessions. The upcoming session takes place after more testing of the Tangent Tunnel with them arriving on an asteroid city in the Tears of Selune in the Forgotten Realms.
That ties us in to the big picture. This campaign is part of a linked series of games that started in 1979. Events in one game can directly influence the others as they are all in a shared Omniverse. Currently one of the NPCs in the game is the cohort of Emily’s PC in The Spelljoined who got bounced into an alternate reality during a massive battle with the illithids (mind flayers).
How much time is usually spent preparing your game sessions? Describe a typical session.
It varies. Some of the episodes require several hours of prep time, but with the amount of info I’ve developed for the series over the decades, session prep is usually a short and sweet two to three hours if I’ve kept up with my notes (always a challenge). Since it is more of an event based sandbox game with an overarching metaplot, the players control a lot of the direction things take.
Sessions are usually about ⅔ investigation / role playing and ⅓ combat. Usually it takes about three sessions to resolve a case so far. Each case starts with a mission briefing and familiarizing the players with the mission and the current gear assigned. From fighting escaped, genetically engineered velociraptors through the streets of the Bywater to communing with nature spirits under Audubon Park’s Tree of Life the missions can encompass many story styles and objectives.
What can you tell us about the art presented in your campaign? Who is the artist? What made you choose this art style?
Things like the Hoffman Institute logo are taken directly from the Dark Matter game. The character art and most of the other incidental art is created by a freelance artist in our group: Emily “Syreene” Vittori. She’s been playing at my table since 2008 and has been the primary artist for the campaign series. She is also responsible for hundreds of pages of journal entries and campaign notes.The style is entirely her own choice and there are a variety of styles in her art for our games including classic game art, art nouveau, and even a few chibi images.
In addition there is art created by various players over the decades and a few professional pieces by Jacob Blackmon, done for the Starfinder game in the series, Catch My Drift.
How long have you been using Obsidian Portal? What brought you to the site and what keeps bringing you back?
Roughly 15 years nos. I stumbled across it ages ago and upgraded from the simple wiki I was using prior to that. When it comes to the things that keep me here the wiki is a big one, especially the ability to have sections that are for private notes between the players and myself. I also find that player participation away from the table, i.e. journal writing and such, increased when the adventure log became an option. It has a great set of features and solid organizational structure. All in all, other than some improvements to the backup downloads it is pretty much perfect for my needs.
If you had to pick just one thing, what would you say Obsidian Portal helps you with the most?
Creating an atmospheric portal for my players that organizes the ridiculous amount of house rules into a (hopefully) useful and appealing format. Even without knowing any CSS it is pretty easy to make it sing and it has much greater “out of the box” functionality than setting up a fully customized website. In addition the community is pretty great across the board.
What would you say is the biggest highlight of your game so far (please also provide images and links if possible)?
During one of the adventures that led them to Greyhawk I had the honor of having a special guest. Mike Nystul played with Gary Gygax in the days before D&D was published and the game has included spells named for his wizard, Nystul, ever since. Nystul’s Magic Aura being the most well known. Having him join us and play an updated version of his original character from Gygax’s table was an honor and a pleasure.
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?
It’s all about a combination of organization and improv. In the hopes it will be helpful to someone here is my approach.
If you have trouble making stuff up spur of the moment make a few lists as part of your prep. Each one can be as few as five items.
- A list of names appropriate to your setting
- A list of species/class combos that are common in your setting.
- A list of quirks or behaviors, i.e. constant toe tapping, a lisp, or a tendency toward puns.
With these three lists you have instant NPCs, just roll or choose one item from each list when you need it and the three combine to give you the basics.
For organization I use a triple monitor rig set up as follows:
Left Monitor – Combat Data Browser Tabs:
- Initiative Tracker Opponent Initiatives already pre-rolled and added. I advise adding the Dice Roller plug in.
- One Tab for each creature, trap, or hazard in the encounter
Middle Monitor – Interaction Browser Tab:
- Discord Video and text chat
Right Monitor – Maps and Rules Browser Tabs:
- Owlbear Rodeo Virtual Tabletop
- Obsidian Portal – Planejammer Hub for Core House Rules
- Obsidian Portal – Dept 7 Crescent City or current campaign
- Archives of Nethys Pathfinder 1e rules
- d20pfsrd.com Pathfinder Psionics rules
I keep a pad and pencils on my desk for notes. If I create an NPC on the fly their name / class / and defining mannerisms get noted as does any loot acquired, or major events / accomplishments of the session. (Add these to your wiki on OP immediately after the game because if you’re like me they can easily get misplaced before your group meets up again). It’s also worth noting that if you have trouble taking notes during games you can try recording audio or video of the sessions and go back to them to write your notes and recap. Just make sure to let your players know if you are recording!
That’s about it! May your 20s be both frequent and natural!
Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure May 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
Campaign of The Month March 2025: Age of Conan: The Rise of Yig
Between the years when the oceans drunk Atlantis… and the rise of the sons of Aryas… there was an Age undreamed of. Onto this, CONAN! And also to a lesser extent YOU, the reader! For you have wandered the wastes to find our newest Campaign of the Month winner — “Age of Conan: The Rise of Yig” by award-winning game-maker and author jasonvey of Elf Lair Games. So, put on your best horned helmet and sharpen those two-handed swords before you read the tales of this troupe of talented travelers and hear the wise words of the wizard on the hill…
Obsidian Portal last spoke with you in 2017, when your “Nocturnum: Rebirth” Unisystem game won Campaign of the Month and we had the chance to make your acquaintance. What’s new in your life since then?
Hah! My entire life has changed since then. As with all of us COVID altered our whole world. I am no longer working as a content writer. My day job is now an SEO consultant, while I have also since launched my own gaming company, Elf Lair Games. The game that powers the Age of Conan campaign, Wasted Lands, is one of my games, using the O.G.R.E.S. system (which I’d love to see added to Obsidian Portal, but I have no ability to program character sheets!). I’m still working as a staff writer for Troll Lord Games as well, and we just re-released a new “reforged” printing of Amazing Adventures.
Your current campaign, “Age of Conan: The Rise of Yig” reads like a tale right out of a Robert E. Howard book. In your opinion, what makes games set during the Hyborian Age feel so wonderfully different from other sword-and-sorcery fare to which many of us might be more accustomed (e.g. D&D)? What draws you personally to these kinds of stories?
That’s actually a great question. For me I guess it’s just having been steeped in Howard and Conan since I was a kid – my dad introduced me to the old Ace Paperback series when I was 10 or 12, and it was a formative thing for me. The Hyborian Age is as richly detailed a setting as any other, and more than many, from Howard’s own seminal essay through the many pastiches (of widely varying quality) that have been done throughout the years. So I really think that’s it – what sets ours apart is just that I know this world like the back of my hand. I understand the appeal of the gods and men of that world, of the struggle between barbarism and civilization, and the rich history and cultures that populate the world. Conan and the Hyborian Age, to use a cliche, are much imitated, but never exceeded.
Tell us a little about the rules of “Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age”, the “Powered by O.G.R.E.S” system, and what you like best about using them for your campaign.
O.G.R.E.S. has three mechanics, inspired by the earliest days of role playing games. The first is a d20 mechanic, wherein you roll a d20, add attribute bonus and other applicable bonuses, and try to get a 20 or better. This powers attribute checks and combat.
The second is a straight percentile check, which powers skills and class abilities (including spellcasting). When you need to do something specific to your character’s skills or class abilities, you roll percentile against your chance of success.
The third is the Rule of 2. This is a GM-only mechanic that serves as a quick way to adjudicate any situation you’re not sure how to otherwise resolve. Just pick a die, roll it, and look for 1 or 2. On a 1 or 2, something happens. This governs things like surprise, trying to listen for noise when you don’t have a perception class ability, whether someone hears you sneaking up if you don’t have a stealth ability, whether you notice a hidden panel in the wall, and the like.
O.G.R.E.S. is drawn from and inspired by the earliest days of gaming, and the three mechanic approach offers an elegance in that it’s intuitive and quickly lets everyone at the table know exactly what’s going on based on who is rolling what dice at what time. It cuts down on “Hey, what is she doing? Can I try that too?” It’s also very fast playing and intuitive. It was specifically built for the kind of gritty high action play that swords and sorcery represents. It is also scaleable for different levels of gritty through cinematic play, so it lets you customize your game for the exact style you like.
We noticed that, as an author of games yourself, you seem quite adept at kit-bashing together exactly what you need for the rules, genres, and adventures that you want to run. We must assume that the advantages outweigh the potential problems with this approach or you wouldn’t do it that way — but what advice would you offer to those of us who want to mix and match our own systems and settings?
Don’t overthink it. Make a call and run with it. Learn to adjudicate things on the fly and do not ever overanalyze what you’re doing. In the end, as we used to say, the play is the thing. If the game is moving forward and everyone’s having fun, you’re getting it right. I’m also not a fan of re-inventing the wheel. If you’ve got a mechanic that works, there is absolutely ZERO reason to create a new subsystem. Just use what you have and 99% of the time you’ll find it works just fine.
You have some extensive experience in writing for the gaming industry and quite a few projects under your belt. Which ones have been your favorites, so far? Any upcoming titles that we should keep an eye out for?
Of course my own Elf Lair Games products under the O.G.R.E.S. system are my children right now – Night Shift is our modern urban fantasy game, Wasted Lands our Swords and Sorcery, and Thirteen Parsecs our sci-fi game. All 100% compatible, all using the same O.G.R.E.S. rules. Other than that? Amazing Adventures from Troll Lord Games sits right alongside my ELG works. That was my first ever core role playing game and it will always be my favorite child as a result.
What have been some of your favorite moments in “Rise of Yig?”
That has to be going back to the earlier days of the campaign. We were running the old Mongoose Betrayer of Asgard campaign, and the characters had sought an old soothsayer named Mimir deep in the Asgardian mountains for the answer to a prophetic riddle. Alas, as happens to all of us, we had a bunch of things come up and gaming was put off for like a month. So when they got back, we picked up. They found the lair, and Mimir, who says, “Why have you come seeking Mimir?”
There was dead silence for a minute. Then, one of my players (Robert, if I remember right) went, “Oh, s–t, why DID we come seeking Mimir??”
Laughter erupted, as the entire group had forgotten what they were doing in the ensuing month.
Your wiki and adventure logs have been a joy to read — lost kings, thwarted assassins, and ancient evils slithering back into the world, it’s just fantastic! Without giving away too much of the ending, what can we expect to see as the rest of the campaign proceeds?
You’ll have to wait and see. I will say that for die hards of Conan, some familiar faces and references will absolutely be turning up! You may already have noticed that I canonized the much-maligned Conan the Destroyer by having Jehnna as the current queen of Zamora and her retinue as of the end of that film still serving her. That was a fun little wink-and-nod. I have also mentioned in passing that one of the Hyrkanian city-states is currently ruled by a fiery-haired she-devil of a woman whose swordplay knows no equal. I’m not sure if she will actually show up (and I’m not sure that bit made it into one of the logs), but again, little references.
And as always, Obsidian Portal loves to ask for any new tips, tricks, or general advice from the last eight years since your previous win that you could share with other Game Masters, World Builders, and writers.
Again, the big thing is to never overthink it. Dive in with gusto and as long as everyone’s having fun, you’re getting it right. It’s okay to make rulings on the fly, and always stop to think, “do I already have a mechanic that will handle this?” You rarely need a whole new character class, or a new subsystem, or something like that. Never try to be innovative just for the sake of being innovative. It’s rarely needed. Stick to the KISS principle, and you can almost never go wrong.
Also, let me just say it’s a real honor to be named Campaign of the Month again – in the same month, I think, as our last one, no less! We’re excited for this, and stay tuned! I’m a little behind on adventure logs right now but am working to get caught up!
The honor is ours, Jason, and we thank you for sharing your creativity with the Obsidian Portal community once again! We look forward to reading more adventures from the Hyborian Age, soon.
We’ve passed along your request to the OP Support team to get your game systems added to our library. And for anyone who would like to add their own games or ask other questions, don’t forget you can always reach out via email to [email protected] for just about anything. Be sure to check out the help articles, Discord server, and community forums too — which is where you can nominate your own favorite campaigns for Campaign of the Month consideration.
Until next month, fellow barbarians!
Obsidian Portal Campaign of the Month January 2025: Mass Effect: Spectre’s Angels
A group of galactic super spies travel the known universe, using a manipulation of ‘dark energy’ to enable faster than light travel. Follow them on their travels as they discover strange races on even stranger worlds in the year 2178 when you step on to the ship of GM Optimusnorm and his team, in their Traveller campaign, “Mass Effect: Spectre’s Angels“.
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?
I’m a Brit living in Dubai, UAE, where I work as an Investment Advisor, helping clients around the world manage and grow their wealth—whether through stocks, property, fine art, wine, or whisky. Outside of work, I’m a husband, father to two children, and a passionate gamer. I also enjoy camping and socialising, especially connecting with like-minded people. I’m proud to be a co-founder of the Gulf Roleplaying Community, a group we created to bring together roleplayers across the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East, offering a space for enthusiasts to connect and share their love for rolling dice around the table. I have been roleplaying since the late 1980s – I think my first RPG was Warhammer Fantasy RPG second edition.
You are running a Traveller space scenario, but before we get into further details, please explain in a nutshell the “Mass Effect”. What is it? What is its significance to the campaign?
“Mass Effect is a military science fiction franchise, best known for its critically acclaimed video game series. In the game’s universe, the term ‘Mass Effect’ refers to a scientific phenomenon based on the manipulation of a universal force called ‘dark energy.’ This technology underpins the series’ interstellar civilisation, enabling faster-than-light (FTL) travel, advanced weaponry, and biotic powers.
My campaign is a Mongoose Traveller 2nd Ed conversion set in this, universe, combining the franchise’s lore with the unique Traveller system, which is really the granddaddy of sci-fi RPGs
How long has your campaign been running and what made you choose Traveller as your gaming system?
The campaign ran for just over a year and is currently on hiatus while we explore other sci-fi projects (I am definitely more of a sci-fi than fantasy fan). Traveller was always my first choice for this setting because of its excellent character creation system, simple and flexible mechanics, and the inspiration I drew from other gamers who had successfully adapted a previous version of Traveller to the Mass Effect universe.
Your WIKI starts out by detailing Mongoose 2nd Edition Rules Conversions. How much work did this involve and what tips would you give to those enterprising GameMasters on Obsidian Portal who might be thinking of converting a Rule System to meet their personal needs.
This project has been a significant undertaking, but much of the groundwork was laid by fellow Obsidian Portal user Jacobkosh, who ran a Mass Effect Traveller conversion about a decade ago and generously shared his notes with me. I adapted those notes to the Mongoose Publishing 2nd Edition rules, and as a group, we’ve been tweaking, adding, and refining elements throughout the campaign. It’s truly been a labour of love. For anyone looking to attempt something similar, I’d recommend starting with the core rules and finding an understanding group of players who are willing to collaborate and help the game evolve through actual play.
You currently seem to have three active players listed. It is presumed they form the basis of the group, “Spectre’s Angels”. Tell us about this group and their place in the universe. And what about the people who play the characters? How often do you meet and how do you all interact?
Living in Dubai means we have a REALLY diverse group of players. Our current roster includes another Brit, his Lebanese wife, and a Russian. We also had a Filipino gent with us but he had to move away and couldn’t make sessions anymore. The transient nature of expat life often means people move on when they change jobs or relocate. As I only game in-person this means we sometimes gain and lose players.
The concept behind ‘Spectre’s Angels’ was inspired by the Spectres in the Mass Effect universe—elite agents with broad authority, akin to super spies. In our campaign, the group operates under a Spectre, much like Charlie’s Angels (hence we called it Spectre’s Angels!). The PCs themselves are a disparate crew with individual agendas but share a common goal: to pay off the debts on their ship and ultimately gain full independence.
We played every two weeks on average but again, the nature of expat life meant people go home for the summer, travel for work, head back for Christmas holidays etc so sometimes a month or more would go by between sessions.
How much of your gaming time is spent on space travel as opposed to action on various worlds? Feel free to give us a brief overview of the type of scenario your characters could normally expect during your campaign.
Space travel is usually quick in our games, unless the adventure itself takes place on a ship en route to somewhere. Most of the time, it’s about getting to a world, space station, or other location and jumping straight into the action. We tend to enjoy a mix of 50-75% investigation and interaction, with 25-50% combat.
One session turned into an epic bar crawl across a massive space station as the group hunted for a missing person, discovering weird cocktails and shady establishments along the way! Some sessions focus more on combat, but overall, the group isn’t too combat-heavy.
Did you build the Campaign yourself? While building your campaign, what tools did you find useful? Do any of your players get involved in the Campaign design?
I always build my campaigns from scratch, starting with a session zero where the players come together to create their characters. This gives them a chance to develop interlinked agendas and backstories, which I then use as inspiration and fuel for shaping the campaign. It’s a great way to make sure the story feels connected to the characters and their goals. I don’t really use any specific tools except Obsidian Portal and my digital notes.
Without divulging any major plots, what is your plan for the future of Spectre’s Angels?
The game ran just before the events of the Mass Effect 1 PC game. The future will likely be in parallel to the events of that first game, bringing in themes and plots that relate to the main story.
Having been a member of Obsidian Portal for over ten years, what would you say are the most useful benefits for you as both a Campaign Designer and as a person running a campaign?
Having one central place for both me and the players to refer to is invaluable. With the expat lifestyle sometimes causing long gaps between sessions, it’s great to have everything in one spot to refresh our memories and keep building on the campaign whenever we’re ready.
For me as a GM, it’s also a great way to gauge player engagement. Those who aren’t really into the game tend not to update their characters and get involved in the Portal, which helps me figure out if we’re a good fit to keep gaming together.
Are there any specific adventures you have had that stand out in your memory as being particularly fun for you and your players? Feel free to add any pictures or links.
We really had fun with a Casino heist scenario where the PCs managed to stumble through every step and succeed in the least subtle way imaginable! There’s been a number of ‘bumbling successes’ around the galaxy – often in clubs and bars!
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?
At its heart, gaming is all about the people. Every gamer is different, and as GMs and players, we all bring our own expectations and standards to the table. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that having the right group makes all the difference. A group with committed people who are truly present can thrive even with an unfamiliar system or an improvised adventure, while a mismatched group will struggle—even with the perfect story and a deep understanding of the rules.
Focus on building a group that clicks, and the rest will fall into place.
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 2nd, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!
Obsidian Portal Campaign of the Month November 2024: Dark Conflagration
“In a system on the Terra side of the Great Rift this group in service to an Inquisitor must prove their worth through grit and valor to hold back the closing despair. Join them as you pour through this restricted Inquisitorial system and read along with their adventures in their own words.” Please join us in this month’s interview for COTM Dark Conflagration with our GM Medacia and Kenkewl00!
Tell us a little about the people behind the logs. What’s your group like, how did you all start playing together, and what drew you to Warhammer?
We have a group of 3 full time players, one part time player, and the GM. All of the players are lifelong TTRPG players from various professional backgrounds like healthcare, finance, baking, and theater. The GM tailored a short list of concepts for each player and let them choose their favorite. You can see the flavor of the character and the style of the author in each entry into the Inquisitorial Journal System.
The group has been going with varying members for over 8 years, starting with a long-running Vampire the Masquerade game. A few of us got into (or back into) WH40k about a few years ago when they came out with the box sets for pre-built armies, and enjoy the more miniature-focused gameplay.
Warhammer 40K’s atmosphere of hopelessness populated with great acts of heroism is what drew the GM to the system. The grind of ten millennia of slow collapse and bureaucracy combined with the terror of the events surrounding the Great Rift create a need for sacrifice and courage to fight back the encroaching darkness.
How often do you play, and how do you generally do so (online, in-person, hybrid)?
In-Person, once every 2 weeks is the schedule. Occasionally we’ll miss a scheduled session due to real-world obligations or add a session in-between when we can.
For folks that are perhaps less familiar with the world of 40k, where does your game fit into the grim dark?
It’s set after the universe got split by the Great Rift as Cadia fell, in a GM-created star system on the Terra-side of the divide. It’s inspired from various events going on throughout the 40K universe in the early part of M42. The players are part of a small group in the service of an Inquisitor in the Consus System, near the Pariah Nexus.
I love the various art on your site, from Characters to Items, Adventure Logs to Wiki Pages. How do you create/source the artwork, and do you have a secret for keeping the feel so consistent across your whole site?
I chose a stylized realism for the overall theme. I sifted through many AI art sites and styles before settling on one that captured my look. I’ve used a lot of iterations of a single concept before settling on any image that makes its way to the site. As I learned more about how the AI responded to particular prompts I’ve been able to achieve my desired outcomes more efficiently. I’ve also tracked down specific pieces (like the propaganda posters) from existing art and included my favorites in entries or slideshows where appropriate. I’ve created or modified images and run it through a program that creates short videos for the cover page to create a more dynamic feel, hoping to give the viewer a more engaging experience like they’re breaking in to the Inquisitorial Journal System.
As you’ve been on Obsidian Portal for quite some time, what is your favorite campaign wrangling feature?
I have mostly used OP as a way to stay consistent as a GM – once its online, it’s easy to reference and I don’t have to deal with lost papers. I should probably use more of the functions truth be told. I like the session reminders, and the forum to post little things in-between sessions to keep players and fans engaged.
Swapping to your intense site for a moment, where did you come up with the style design you have?
I want to give the OP a more exciting feel than the standard campaign designs that I see. I want it to be an experience, and I want the players to sign in and make updates feeling like their characters journaling their horrifying experiences fighting the Chaos cultists. I also want fans to get excited to see the next update, to present a taste of how things would look in the collapsing world of 40K. I want them to feel like they’ve snuck into this secret archive and they’re watching the story evolve from afar. To inspire them to create their own star system, their own Inquisitorial warband and fight off the wickedness of a violent, indifferent universe.
I love your adventure logs, I see that one of your players is involved with them as well. How do you split that load?
Mendacia handles most of the details of the Logs – the game notes, the notable events/locations/people, that sort of thing. kenkewl00 gets involved by occasionally putting a placeholder Log in there for Mendacia to edit later, since one way to encourage player involvement we are utilizing is to give out in-game goodies (extra wrath tokens, given our system) for players to put notes from their characters perspective. kenkewl00, as a normally-GM type, tend to put more detailed notes than others, but the Ogryn puts a lot of time in to write the log in a low-int style since they are “in character journals”.
Back to your game, can you share an example of a particularly memorable moment from your campaign?
Lots of epic moments for a campaign that’s only six months old, plenty of acts of heroism and bloody conflict that I could reference here. However, I think the bright spots in this violent, grim saga are the personal exchanges between the Inquisition Pact members. The intro session for Roland (The Navis Imperialis Pilot) and Smasha (Militarum Ogryn) cemented their dynamic and it led to some great roleplaying. In the Calamitous Intent session this plays out with the Ogryn’s massive bulk and clumsiness enraging an entire bar full of patrons, effectively chasing him with torch and pitchfork. A few blocks of pursuit later the noble-born Pilot puts himself between the Ogryn and the crowd and has to use every trick up his sleeve (charm, bribery, his Navis uniform) to calm them. There’s a sense of obligation between Roland and Smasha, just the prior session Smasha had put himself between Roland and the blades and lasers of cultists.
Let’s round this out with one of our favorite questions for our featured GMs! If you had a secret sauce for running a great game, what would be the most important ingredients?
1. Don’t over-prepare. Set up the big detail points, but let the players choose how they get there. They’ll almost always surprise you.
2. When you’re getting started, don’t fall in love with your NPCs. Put out a large amount of them initially, and see which ones that players gravitate towards. I’ve had so many throwaway NPCs that wound up being central to the story because they meshed so well with the troupe.
3. Critical successes can lead to epic moments. So can critical failures. On both sides of the table! Make the most of these opportunities to engage the table and make memories.
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!
