Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Sensei Suplex joins us to talk about his campaign, Project Aurora. Suplex started Project Aurora in college with some friends. They agreed to have a few different campaigns done by different DMs to all exist within the same shared world. Suplex transitioned to paid DMing and the world expanded beyond that into a huge RPG experience with dozens of DMs and thousands of people playing, all in a shared universe.

With such a large pool of players and DMs there's a decent effort to match groups in style, tone, and schedule so that everyone is happy with what they're doing. There are full campaigns and pickup West Marches style adventures as well. Sensei Suplex believes in matching what players want with his DMing style. Thus the world/universe for Project Aurora is varied with different cultures, technology levels, and themes for whatever a particular group is interested in playing.

There were some audio issues in this episode that we did our best to correct. Hopefully you can understand everything or close to everything! If you can't, you can always drop into the Discord to ask additional questions.

The story of Godstorm starts 70 years ago when a fisher from the city of Gulia went deep into the ocean. He came back many days later covered in various marks. The marks gave him magical blinking powers. The king of Gulia unjustly executed the fisher to remove a threat. The burning fisher's marks then spread throughout the populace, making it so now about 20% of Gulia's citizens bear the marks and their power. At the same time electric eels were being developed as an energy source. The eels are taunted to put their shocks into batteries which power a bunch of technology throughout the city.

The design goals for the system of Godstorm focused on every PC being able to blink in short teleportation jumps. There are a bunch of different classes that give little bonuses along with selected feats to the blinks. You could leave a hazard behind you, create a protective ward where you blink to, or heal everyone along the path of your blink.

John tells us about his campaign setting, Tahlvaen. The world was something he dreamt up in childhood that he's now turning into a campaign setting for D&D. Tahlvaen is threatened by eldritch entities known as the Outer Five. These nasty beings were cast out beyond the Veil that separates them from the Tahlvaen. The eight Veilborn gods protect the world from the Outer Five, but all planar travel is cut off as a consequence. New magic classes exist in Tahlvaen to reflect this, focusing on music, resonance, and psionics as sources of power.

John tells us about his actual play show, Blittle League Blaseball! The show is based on the now passed internet phenomenon, Blaseball. In Blaseball, baseball teams play against each other while using magical and technological powers. Their furious battles satisfy the Elder Ones and prolong the time before the Antediluvians rise and consume the world as we know it. So if there are professional Blaseball players... There must be a Blaseball Little League, right? That's where Blittle League Blaseball comes in!

The campaign focuses on a team known as the Summerville Sunflowers. The four PCs are the main members of the team who go on monster slaying missions as part of their Blaseball training. John uses the PbtA Monster of the Week system with players upgrading each time they go up a grade at school.

KC Broadhead is a certified life coach who uses D&D and other TTRPGs as a motivational force for his clients, mostly young men and boys. He meets with each person weekly to check on their goals for self improvement. Based on their progress each client is rewarded some building points that can be spent on their character in their weekly session. People who work more consistently on their goals get greater rewards in the game, instilling a sense of competition in the other participants to do better on their own goals. It's a new and effective life coaching method that KC is operating under the name Knight's Castle Services.

KC's world is named Liara. The world is used for all of his life coach sessions with each group adventuring at the same time but in different regions of the world. The history of Liara is consistently muddled, either due to magic or bad records. The gods of Liara are separated into nine different ranks called Rings. Creation gods at the top, followed by Elements, Time, Fate, Souls, Knowledge, War, Dreams, and Thought. The Creation gods made the universe while lower Rings sprang into existence as needed or when a particular mortal being became worshipped after their death. There's also a secret tenth pantheon...

The people of Liara are threatened by a violent race of fairies called the Zephyrynn. The best defense is the Ka’vothan, a race of super strong oni-like people that are able to fight back against the fairies due to their superior strength.