Campaign Progress

Happy Labor Day.

Today I finished up the first level of the Pits of Foreign Daring. The final total of keyed areas is around one-hundred and twenty-five, ranging from simple one line descriptions to one page write-ups concerning certain traps, complexes or shrines. Probably the most interesting encounters I constructed today are the chamber holding a Yeleth and an active shrine to Qon that may become a sanctuary and an ally.

I plan on next mapping out and writing up the Ssu spy post and the shadow-infested tunnels of Lukdrinnektu's spawn. These will be much smaller environments than the Pits proper, taking up only one page of graph paper each and having anywhere between 10 to 25 keyed encounters, with Lukdrinnektu's tunnels probably being the larger of the two sub-levels. In comparison, the first level of the Pits consists of six maps, ranging anywhere from 11 to 28 encounter areas per map.

After finishing the sub-levels, I'll next work on preparing two scenarios involving Tsolyani needing to hire adventurers. These will also concern exploring Underworlds, though these will be areas separate from the Pits, and one will be something of a nasty surprise.

Finally, I'll be stating up some opponents for the Hirilakte Arena, along with some Foreign Quarter NPCs the players could possibly interact with there. I figure it'll take maybe two weeks more prep time, then I'll be ready to advertise the campaign and start seriously recruiting players.

Speaking of which, while working on the game at Battleground I talked with two more patrons about the game, one of whom recognized and knew about Tekumel. I issued invitations, but while they seemed interested they were not certain if they would play, either due to work schedule or just lack of enthusiasm for gaming in general. Still, some interest is better than a flat out dismissal any day.

Reading what I've written for this post so far, I can't help but wonder if perhaps I'm over-preparing. Maybe just having that first level written up would be enough to start with. In general, I prefer having at least some notes and stats available over just winging it. It is something I'll have to think about.

An Encouraging Response

As of right now, my current intention for this experiment is to run it as a house campaign for my friendly local gaming store, Battleground Games and Hobbies. Earlier in the week, when I visited the store to start the groundwork for the game, I discussed it with the owner. Derek, a lover of old school gaming, was quite enthusiastic and promised to promote the game when I'm ready to start.

In addition, I've had two of the store's patrons ask me about the campaign. When I'm working on a campaign or adventure I usually write it up over at Battleground, since it has fewer potential distractions than my home, plenty of open space, and a fair number of gamers who enjoy being used as sounding boards for ideas. Friday, as I was writing up parts of the main Underworld that will be open to starting characters, I had a gentleman come up and ask me – a little incredulously – if I was actually working on a Tekumel game. I told him that I was, explaining my plans, and inviting him to participate when I finally got things off the ground. He seemed quite pleased, so I think I have at least one player for when I start up.

Today I had another gamer come up and ask me how progress on my games were going. Again I explained my current plans, and while he wasn't familiar with EotPT, he seemed intrigued by it. So as of right now I have some hope that I may have a good initial turn out when I start the campaign in a few weeks.

Also encouraging is the response I've gotten to this blog. I made a mention of it on the Tekumel Yahoo Mailing list that I've lurked on for years and got three comments and three followers right off the bat. Here I was thinking I'd be lucky to have three followers and a handful of comments after a few months' worth of postings, if I managed to keep the blog going for that long. Thank you all, and I hope you find what I write about here to be of some interest.