Storytelling Collective

This month I am participating in an online program designed to help new authors publish one-shot adventures. I attended 3 similar seminars at GenCon this year and found them very inspiring.

Soundtrack

I am pleased to announce a new you tube channel featuring background gaming music. I have created an opening title theme with music by the talented Christian Andersson at Craze Music.

You can find the Isle of Dragons channel at:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCFwLCqsA2KAiaredFZuwhbg

Isle of Dragons episodes are written in a screenplay format. Music cues are written into the “script”. The opening battle in Episode 1 also features a piece by Mr. Andersson. His web site can be found here:

https://craze.se

Character balance

A central goal of the game mechanics is to create equal opportunities for all the players to shine. The different character types have abilities that, though different and customizable, are roughly equal in strength. Magic and physical attacks cause the same amount of damage. Health and bonuses are equal regardless of the character type. This is to keep players from feeling left out just because they rolled some bad stats on day one. This also prevents experienced players from exploiting their knowledge of the rules to create super characters that take all the glory.

Leveling the playing field..

Isle of dragons players start closer to what would be 2nd level in D&D. Their abilities are designed to hover around 3d to 5th level for most of the game. High level powers mostly come from finding magic items during the course of their adventures. Who doesn’t like giving the players cool magic stuff!

Isle of wyverns???

So maybe nitpicking the anatomy of fantasy creatures may be overthinking things… But, if dragons had 6 limbs wouldn’t they be considered insects? In this game, the dragons are descended from flying dinosaurs, hence four limbs. I guess the game could be called Isle of Wyvern. (Don’t ask me why Wyvern isn’t the plural, it sounds right to me) But, dragons it is.

Who wants to live forever?

From the first encounter, players will face fights they can win, and fights they can not. Some may live to retire… others will go out in a blaze of glory. A character may take a “Final Action” where they gain attack advantages in exchange for giving up being healed or revived. Sometimes the greatest heros don’t return from the battle.