It's great having you here! I'm Andrzej and it's my place for sharing the hobby of tabletop RPG games, mainly from the GM perspective. If you are new to them and think about starting as a Game Master, you'll find plenty of my first-hand learning experience and hopefully some useful tips here. And if you're interested in some inspirations or session reports for your games, there's that too.
Last time, I promised you in a facebook post a collection of music fit for the campaign in the lands of the Northmen. Here it is, around 7 hours of instrumentals to evoke the Germanic themes – with the exception of the “If I Had a Heart” (from the “Vikings” series’ intro), which I always start my campaign sessions with. After the song finishes, I call the players’ chatter to end and proceed to the game.
From time to time, the cold, windy darkness yields to dots of light – quivering yet warm. These are the homesteads of the Northmen, as the Gondorians call them. Settlers in this yet-untamed land.
How did I come up with the timeline and ideas for the “Sagas of the Northmen” campaign? I was inspired by Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay about it. But more on that next time. Essentially, I wanted to explore the core ideas presented by the Professor.
May the everlasting Darkness doom me if I don’t try my best to make that change!
What change? And why swear such a terrible oath? Let me explain – and start just a step earlier.
I’ve always had that impression of Forbidden Lands reflecting the Wild West movies, especially the old ones like Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood. And it never was stronger than when my group was gearing up for their final dungeon exploration. They searched for an outlawed ranger, Vike, to enlist him as additional support in upcoming fights. A gruff hunter banished from the village greatly resembled a gun-for-hire theme in Western films. Besides, as I’ll get to expand at the end, the latter turned out to be very rewarding and easy to work with as source material – including publishing my own modules as well.
So, that was one heck of a positive message, that last one, wasn’t it, huh? Well, I guess there’s certainly a reason why I put “Drama” in my blog’s title. But drastic times call for drastic measures – and I’m planning on some drastic changes to how I handle this site and my roleplay-gaming activities altogether. Just let me pick up that low note I ended up on last time.
