Proposal, Explanation, and Introduction of the Nappendixia 2.0 Campaign

 Mar-Millor Campaign 2.0-  Nappendixia

The Nappendixia campaign (unsubtle homage to Appendix N) is set in a region Southeast of the current Mar-Millor 1.0 Campaign hex.  There is an unnamed village about 50 miles south of New Haven (the furthest south the current group has been on the campaign map), and south of that is a dungeon location and an outpost near the eastern side of the Javan River. This will be sort of the northwestern edge of the campaign hex, new stuff will be inserted to the south and east, but entering into the Mar-Millor campaign hex is fine too.

One main important truism of the campaign is that it will be in 1:1 time, meaning 1 day in real life equals 1 day in game.  I’m excited to keep track of time and see how it influences the pace and direction of the game.  One thing I dislike about pausing after each session of gaming is how compacted in time everything gets, adventurers just jump from epic adventure to epic adventure, and sometimes that feels a little unrealistic.

The current development of Nappendixia is quite simple and open for lots of creative additions.  The hex currently has really just 2 locations of note, a nondescript “outpost” where adventurers can rest and resupply, and a dungeon location 1 day travel away.  The dungeon is the “B1- In Search of the Unknown” module.  The campaign “began” last weekend, Feb. 27th 2022 with the creation of 3 PCs-  Dougal the Red, Tom Shroud, Chance Talon and his trusty archer/torchbearer hireling Perry.  The group delved the dungeon a few times, and are now resting, resupplying, and trying to seek another hireling at the outpost.

The overall lore or setting of Nappendixia is loosely inspired by this image.  At the center of this hex is a small cinder cone (baby volcano) that consistently pumps out a strange particulate matter.  It fills the local atmosphere and affects the ecology here, and there are rumors that the strange dust can have mystical or somehow strange effects on people. (Think spice from Dune, but the effects are more vague and open-ended).  The volcanic dust makes it so the sky often can appear a color of pink or light brown.  The rolling plains of Nappendixia are different from the plains of Mar-Millor, less lush, green, fertile plains, and more badlands/desert/dry California-like ecology.  Imagery and setting-wise I'm influenced by Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series (which I haven't read much of, but like what I've read so far)  The setting and lore is more sword and sorcery/ sword and sandals/ weird fantasy than traditional tolkien fantasy tropes, but any fantasy tropes will ultimately fit.  The environment is more random and whimsical, a perfect setting for many different campaign ideas to converge and fit together.  It’s OK for things to not make total sense in this area because this supernatural volcanic dust can be an explanation for anything that wouldn’t make sense in a more “naturally” constructed world.

How can you participate in the campaign?  There will not be a hierarchy of DM at the top and players beneath having less agency in developing campaign ideas.  If a player wants to build or run portions of the world this will be encouraged.  Sessions will be mostly done online in chat, but there are certainly opportunities to schedule traditional gaming sessions.  There are 3 “Levels” of play-

PC-  this is the standard way to play an RPG-  roll up a 1st level character, preferably AD&D 1e, but I would consider including ACKS if people were interested in that.  You can then use that character or characters to interact with the system and world either through online chat play, scheduled sessions for solo or group play, or you can solo crawl and DM encounters for yourself.  I have lots of ideas and ways to support all of those ways to play.

Patron-  patron level play is for players who want to world build.  Come up with an idea that adds to the campaign source material, develop it and we will incorporate it into the campaign. You will be the expert on that topic, and run sessions that include that source material if you would like to run.  Or you could develop the source material, then give it to me to run for others.  For example, our current world is super simple-  just a nondescript outpost and a dungeon adventure 1 day travel away.  A patron level player could say “I’m going to develop the outpost.”  you would give it a name, map it, create npc’s to inhabit it, determine treasure, rumors, whatever you can imagine.  Then the outpost officially “comes to life”  and you are the keeper of all that information (or hand it off to me if you prefer).  Another current need for patron level play is to develop the Alpha level monster(s) that live in between the dungeon and the outpost.  Maybe it's a lair of orcs, or a larger mythical monster.  You develop the monsters, map the lair, develop traps, treasure, patrols, anything you can think of, and voila, now we have a monster threat to add to just rolling for random encounters.

Domain level play-  This is for established PCs of name level or near name level.  This is where we play with the stronghold building rules, army building rules, etc.  Your near 9th level PCs would be the movers and shakers in this world.  Maybe they are building a stronghold here and recruiting soldiers and specialists.  Maybe they are interacting with the 1st level or lower level PCs, giving them quests, hiring them for exploring, loaning (or renting) them magic items, in addition to whatever you can think of.  For domain level play ideally I would like to use the PCs from the White Plume Mountain game.  Matt, you don’t have a WPM character, but I'm up to hear suggestions how to get you a higher level PC, preferably not just making up a 9th level PC from scratch, but we can discuss.  Those characters could be building towers, keeps, temples, thieves’ guilds, or fighting other druids to go up the druid hierarchy.  Maybe they are building armies for defense or to go up against a monster threat.  Those battles could at some point be played out using Chainmail (after I read and learn the rules).

This kinda sums up my thoughts on the 2.0 campaign. I encourage you to join me as we explore this new (very old) type of play.