altcunningham
Laura Rings Enthusiast
Last few successful completed campaigns and what I played:
Dragon Heist 1-6. Played as a lore bard, Adora Hawkspar. Half-elven entertainer who joined a group for simple job, but ended up in a city wide criminal conspiracy. If you know Heist, it has modular scenarios and villains for the arc and payout, our villain ended up being Jarlaxle. We won, and Adora retired rich and as the owner innkeep of the tavern you get during the campaign.
Mad Mage 7-12. Sequel campaign to the above, but new party, connected universe and references. Played a Forge Cleric, Topaz "Paz" Ironstrike. Dwarven, very Russian in stereotype. Joined the delve into the Mad Mage's labyrinth for money, end of story. We ended up wrong turned into the Underdark and involved in a Drow political game. Won the politics, beat the Mad Mage and his Arcade-esque death traps and show. Campaign was meant to continue, but DM got a girlfriend and abandoned the entire hobby for her because she didn't like D&D or toys or Warhammer. Spoilers: Big mistake, huge.
Did Tomb of Annihilation to completion. High elf arcane trickster rogue, Meriele Silverbough. Just a fun swashbuckling pulp adventure alongside a stick up the butt paladin, wild magic barbarian goblin, and human fighter. Combat grinder that tonally whiplashes into puzzles, very little in between the way it was written and run. Had a lot of fun, though, the chemistry was just off the charts, even if I was the only one who could figure out any of the puzzles (as a human player).
Homebrew campaign in a Final Fantasy type world. Druid of the Stars Astral Druid. DM decided Elves were very feudal fantasy Japan, so I rolled with it and Akira Duskrunner was born. A cataclysm occurred in her childhood which saw her raised in a Fallout Vault, and once several teenagers with attitude showed skill, they were trained to return to the surface world and protect a new world that hates and fears them. You can see the DM has certain influences.
Akira ran with a dragonborn barbarian, halfling warlock, half orc assassin, and dwarf artificer, traveling the surface world and battling the evil empire that had taken over while they grew up in the vault. The cataclysmic event had been their initial assault on our peaceful moon. It came up early on that Akira's older sister Motoko had survived the cataclysm and had become a vampire. And then had her soul bound into a katana. Akira was gifted the katana by a mournful vampire, and when she cut herself with it, her sister would body swap over through magic nonsense, so now I also had a Samurai Fighter Vampire Astral Elf.
The halfling warlock sabotaged the party in game by doing patron things, and out of game by being a really unpleasant player and person. In one of their last acts in game, the warlock tried to sacrifice Akira and the half orc to some demons, and Akira/Motoko turned the orc into a vampire to save his life, then died. This had been the culmination of months of game drama before that player was asked to leave, but I rolled with it.
Re-entered campaign as Chase Razavi, Tiefling Chromomancy Wizard, and basically Indiana Jones/Lara Croft/Cable, on a quest to find her missing wizard mentor, who had been part of the core lore. She does a lot of sucker punching and trickery while recovering magical artifacts for the wizard conclave and protecting the time stream.
Another homebrew campaign run by a player in the above one. This one uses 2024 rules. I am a Gnome Worldtree Barbarian, the Baroness Karabella Rebelle Kikimama Fiona Maeve Blackthorne (reflavoring the world tree things as a Carnage-esque draconic magic symbiote thing). Her "Rage" is more "It's Clobberin' Time" glee. The class is Barbarian for mechanics only, she's refined and well-spoken, basically Arya Stark given how the backstory for the game went off. I rolled very good stats for her, so she's intelligent and wisdomous on top of being The Juggernaut where it counts. This campaign is based on the Strixhaven concept of a magical school, and smashed in with Harry Potter and Delicious in Dungeon. I run with a shadow elf wizard nerd and a Goth/Stoner wood elf artificer. Obviously Kara is the jock cheerleader on yearbook staff.
For this one, we actually have a schedule and attend classes (or not) and then get into after hours adventures. There's a long form campaign about a cult led by a Bronze Dragon in human form who wants to Make the Land Great Again by bringing back giants and bad dragons, so you can see where that DM is at.
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Since quarantine, I've also DMed a Star Wars Old Republic RPG using the Fantasy Flight Star Wars system, heavily doctoring some of their source material and my nostalgia for the Old Republic RPGs and MMO. Went into total What If... territory early on, of course.
Critically, for the players it was Star Wars dressing, but for me it was always Indiana Jones and Batman the Animated Series, with a pulpy adventure feel, and memorable set pieces as often as I could. We had the Crusade circus train sequence during a heist, as example, and the animals were all Star Wars ones like dianogas and the Mando rhino.
The Sith Emperor had vanished and left his throne open. The Sith waged a civil war with constantly shifting allegiances as to who would take the throne.
The party was a group of mercs thrown together by an upstart crime syndicate (a primitive Black Sun) for an escort job:
Human heavy with a shotgun, Twi'lek pilot smuggler, Cathar agent, Medical Droid assassin, Gammorean with a flamethrower and a battleaxe.
the cargo ended up being a Padawan. The Padawan and her master had been privy to one of the big Sith Lord's next moves, and while the plans were destroyed, she had seen them and had total recall of these schematics and plans. She had no context, however.
The party didn't really care, just wanted the money, and had series of misadventures with Sith Imperials, gangsters, and pirates, but of course along the way they bonded with the young girl, and eventually figured out the new Sith weapon was an old Ratakan planet destroyer weapon trained on Tython, the Jedi homeworld. The Padawan was taken by traitorous Republic contacts, and the secrets ripped from her mind so the Sith and traitor admiral could get the weapon online.
They were supposed to stop it, but the dice were cruel that day, and everyone had bought in, so instead Tython was obliterated from existence. The heavy with a shotgun, who had become the beloved crew leader, was killed by the Sith Lord as they had a timed escape from the self-destructing Destroyer.
In the "sequel", they were joined by a dropout Jedi (and new player) who felt called to mentor the Padawan girl, who had become a crew member in the aftermath. We delved into Sith territory proper, and navigated their civil war. Eventually it was revealed one of the Sith Lords they ran against was the older sister the Jedi character. Both were strong in the Force, but she was too old to begin the training, so the Jedi just took him. She was taken by the Sith shortly after, but he presumed her dead with the Jedi point of view he was told about his family.
She became a gray area, where she compelled and manipulated the party to take out her Sith rivals (one of which was the murderer of their beloved leader). This all tied back to the Star Forge and Revan from the first game and MMO follow-up, and the party decided to work with a treasure hunting Hutt to find the Star Forge remnant and flip off the Republic and Sith, purely for the Outer Rim Outlaw of it all.
Of course, the Hutt betrayed them, and while this time they were victorious in all the best ways for all of their subplots, the True Sith Emperor returned with his Infinite Empire (it's an MMO thing) and we closed out the trilogy with a true Star War. It was a lot of heists and set pieces and inside baseball about the first two parts, so I'll spare the word vomit.
I ended it there, but another player wanted to see how this Elseworld would ripple into the Prequels and OT, so they ran an OT trilogy campaign. I played as a TIE pilot named Jenica Fel (EU nerds know) and ended up hijacking the Millennium Falcon for myself and my crew, so that was pretty cool. I played that up through the equivalent of Empire, but had to make way for school. Last I heard they had taken from Jedi right into a Prequels What If.
So I'm really proud of that one, as you can tell.
Dragon Heist 1-6. Played as a lore bard, Adora Hawkspar. Half-elven entertainer who joined a group for simple job, but ended up in a city wide criminal conspiracy. If you know Heist, it has modular scenarios and villains for the arc and payout, our villain ended up being Jarlaxle. We won, and Adora retired rich and as the owner innkeep of the tavern you get during the campaign.
Mad Mage 7-12. Sequel campaign to the above, but new party, connected universe and references. Played a Forge Cleric, Topaz "Paz" Ironstrike. Dwarven, very Russian in stereotype. Joined the delve into the Mad Mage's labyrinth for money, end of story. We ended up wrong turned into the Underdark and involved in a Drow political game. Won the politics, beat the Mad Mage and his Arcade-esque death traps and show. Campaign was meant to continue, but DM got a girlfriend and abandoned the entire hobby for her because she didn't like D&D or toys or Warhammer. Spoilers: Big mistake, huge.
Did Tomb of Annihilation to completion. High elf arcane trickster rogue, Meriele Silverbough. Just a fun swashbuckling pulp adventure alongside a stick up the butt paladin, wild magic barbarian goblin, and human fighter. Combat grinder that tonally whiplashes into puzzles, very little in between the way it was written and run. Had a lot of fun, though, the chemistry was just off the charts, even if I was the only one who could figure out any of the puzzles (as a human player).
Homebrew campaign in a Final Fantasy type world. Druid of the Stars Astral Druid. DM decided Elves were very feudal fantasy Japan, so I rolled with it and Akira Duskrunner was born. A cataclysm occurred in her childhood which saw her raised in a Fallout Vault, and once several teenagers with attitude showed skill, they were trained to return to the surface world and protect a new world that hates and fears them. You can see the DM has certain influences.
Akira ran with a dragonborn barbarian, halfling warlock, half orc assassin, and dwarf artificer, traveling the surface world and battling the evil empire that had taken over while they grew up in the vault. The cataclysmic event had been their initial assault on our peaceful moon. It came up early on that Akira's older sister Motoko had survived the cataclysm and had become a vampire. And then had her soul bound into a katana. Akira was gifted the katana by a mournful vampire, and when she cut herself with it, her sister would body swap over through magic nonsense, so now I also had a Samurai Fighter Vampire Astral Elf.
The halfling warlock sabotaged the party in game by doing patron things, and out of game by being a really unpleasant player and person. In one of their last acts in game, the warlock tried to sacrifice Akira and the half orc to some demons, and Akira/Motoko turned the orc into a vampire to save his life, then died. This had been the culmination of months of game drama before that player was asked to leave, but I rolled with it.
Re-entered campaign as Chase Razavi, Tiefling Chromomancy Wizard, and basically Indiana Jones/Lara Croft/Cable, on a quest to find her missing wizard mentor, who had been part of the core lore. She does a lot of sucker punching and trickery while recovering magical artifacts for the wizard conclave and protecting the time stream.
Another homebrew campaign run by a player in the above one. This one uses 2024 rules. I am a Gnome Worldtree Barbarian, the Baroness Karabella Rebelle Kikimama Fiona Maeve Blackthorne (reflavoring the world tree things as a Carnage-esque draconic magic symbiote thing). Her "Rage" is more "It's Clobberin' Time" glee. The class is Barbarian for mechanics only, she's refined and well-spoken, basically Arya Stark given how the backstory for the game went off. I rolled very good stats for her, so she's intelligent and wisdomous on top of being The Juggernaut where it counts. This campaign is based on the Strixhaven concept of a magical school, and smashed in with Harry Potter and Delicious in Dungeon. I run with a shadow elf wizard nerd and a Goth/Stoner wood elf artificer. Obviously Kara is the jock cheerleader on yearbook staff.
For this one, we actually have a schedule and attend classes (or not) and then get into after hours adventures. There's a long form campaign about a cult led by a Bronze Dragon in human form who wants to Make the Land Great Again by bringing back giants and bad dragons, so you can see where that DM is at.
---
Since quarantine, I've also DMed a Star Wars Old Republic RPG using the Fantasy Flight Star Wars system, heavily doctoring some of their source material and my nostalgia for the Old Republic RPGs and MMO. Went into total What If... territory early on, of course.
Critically, for the players it was Star Wars dressing, but for me it was always Indiana Jones and Batman the Animated Series, with a pulpy adventure feel, and memorable set pieces as often as I could. We had the Crusade circus train sequence during a heist, as example, and the animals were all Star Wars ones like dianogas and the Mando rhino.
The Sith Emperor had vanished and left his throne open. The Sith waged a civil war with constantly shifting allegiances as to who would take the throne.
The party was a group of mercs thrown together by an upstart crime syndicate (a primitive Black Sun) for an escort job:
Human heavy with a shotgun, Twi'lek pilot smuggler, Cathar agent, Medical Droid assassin, Gammorean with a flamethrower and a battleaxe.
the cargo ended up being a Padawan. The Padawan and her master had been privy to one of the big Sith Lord's next moves, and while the plans were destroyed, she had seen them and had total recall of these schematics and plans. She had no context, however.
The party didn't really care, just wanted the money, and had series of misadventures with Sith Imperials, gangsters, and pirates, but of course along the way they bonded with the young girl, and eventually figured out the new Sith weapon was an old Ratakan planet destroyer weapon trained on Tython, the Jedi homeworld. The Padawan was taken by traitorous Republic contacts, and the secrets ripped from her mind so the Sith and traitor admiral could get the weapon online.
They were supposed to stop it, but the dice were cruel that day, and everyone had bought in, so instead Tython was obliterated from existence. The heavy with a shotgun, who had become the beloved crew leader, was killed by the Sith Lord as they had a timed escape from the self-destructing Destroyer.
In the "sequel", they were joined by a dropout Jedi (and new player) who felt called to mentor the Padawan girl, who had become a crew member in the aftermath. We delved into Sith territory proper, and navigated their civil war. Eventually it was revealed one of the Sith Lords they ran against was the older sister the Jedi character. Both were strong in the Force, but she was too old to begin the training, so the Jedi just took him. She was taken by the Sith shortly after, but he presumed her dead with the Jedi point of view he was told about his family.
She became a gray area, where she compelled and manipulated the party to take out her Sith rivals (one of which was the murderer of their beloved leader). This all tied back to the Star Forge and Revan from the first game and MMO follow-up, and the party decided to work with a treasure hunting Hutt to find the Star Forge remnant and flip off the Republic and Sith, purely for the Outer Rim Outlaw of it all.
Of course, the Hutt betrayed them, and while this time they were victorious in all the best ways for all of their subplots, the True Sith Emperor returned with his Infinite Empire (it's an MMO thing) and we closed out the trilogy with a true Star War. It was a lot of heists and set pieces and inside baseball about the first two parts, so I'll spare the word vomit.
I ended it there, but another player wanted to see how this Elseworld would ripple into the Prequels and OT, so they ran an OT trilogy campaign. I played as a TIE pilot named Jenica Fel (EU nerds know) and ended up hijacking the Millennium Falcon for myself and my crew, so that was pretty cool. I played that up through the equivalent of Empire, but had to make way for school. Last I heard they had taken from Jedi right into a Prequels What If.
So I'm really proud of that one, as you can tell.
