Sundren as a module

[Subal]

Was talking too a few buddies of mine and they wanted too try out sundren. Problem is there computers are no where near up too par.

Was wondering what the chances for future abilities that Sundren may be put into Pdf. file as a 3.5 Module so that we could purchase it off the site, i know when im out on the ship, my buddies and I cant play the computer. But too be able too take sundren with me as Pen and paper, would be quite entertaining.

Would others be intrested in something like this ? \ Would something like this ever be possible?

[KimKandor]

Think it's a great idea, don't have a clue how to go about it though.

[dieOrg]

Sounds interesting

What would be required to take Sundren to pnp?

[TheBlankStare]

Sounds interesting

What would be required to take Sundren to pnp?

Oodles and oodles of work . . . to do it right. In college a few of us developed our own campaign world from the ground up using the AD&D rules. It was quite the undertaking. Over the course of about six years we finally had what I'd consider a finished product.

I'd recommend that you just use the rules, background and guidelines found in the wiki and on the forums if you really want to play a Sundren based campaign. Just follow all of the other rules in the core books and make sure that the DM has a good grasp of the factions and lore.

I've run a couple of campaigns based on different persistent worlds that I've played and tried to be as true to the setting as possible. If you've got access to the internet when you're deployed you can keep up on changes and new lore pretty easily that way. You could even keep a sort of journal on these forums to let us know what you guys are up to.

One big thing that I learned is that you run out of things for your PCs to do pretty fast if you limit your areas to what's found in a PW. You're going to have to expand the setting a lot in order to accommodate a group of pen and paper PCs. The nature of PWs only allows for a limited number of areas to explore in the computer while PnP games are really limitless.

If you don't have the Forgotten Realms campaign setting book pick that up. It'll give you a bunch of options and background that isn't really covered in the wiki but is essential to making the Realms feel like the Realms. I've got oodles of DM experience if you want to bounce some ideas off of me for your group.

The most important thing I can say is that you make the setting your own. It's going to happen anyway over time so don't resist it. Just try to keep the major ruling parties and their antagonists in place so the setting feels more or less the same.

[Thief Of Navarre]

TBS is right; its masses of work!

even simple modules like 'Keep on the Borderlands' are extremely difficult to plan out but in a PW would be almost equivalent to a single area. Some like The Temple of Elemental Evil (greyhawk campaign you may have heard of since its PC remake) would take litteraly hundreds of hours to make.

That being said I love the idea

[cmosier]

For me world building was the fun part. I would start with a small area and expand outward. The advantage to this is that the player's become the heroes. You can shape your world around the characters, and from what I've seen, they enjoy this.

[Subal]

Its not i dont like Forgotten realm's i have about 25 books. I just personally like the atmosphere of Sundren vrs Forgotten realm's.

Been playing since i was a kid, just get tired of playing in forgotten realm's and i personally just suck at creating worlds. Great at dungeons and such, just crappy at the whole regional idea.

And the wiki idea i had already though around, but thats where i was wondering if someone who read this may actually have time too put the wiki info together create a File were the info is actualy in order and able too be downloaded as a file. perhaps even make it a group effort and a bunch of people could drawl up the outline for it?

[gbbishop]

quick question before i comment on yours.

how are dnd and other forms of pnp received in the military world?
my friends and i have affectionately referred to it as "nerding" and the first rule about nerding is of course that you dont talk about nerding.... not that we needed to hide what we did it was just easier on the normies if we didn't mention it.
anyway curious is all.

as for world building and being sick of FR i totally get where you are coming from. i suggest you look to cmosier.

start small... and build as needed. while you play, take notes! and have your players take note and give you a copy after.. it will help you build the next step. your notes will tell you what is important to you, and their notes will tell you what is important to them... and give you ideas to build on. in this way, you don't have to come up with everything on you own. and you will never fall in love with an idea and build it into a grand scheme only to have you PC's blast it to pieces by ignoring it or over coming it in a way you didnt expect...

the beauty of building world this way is that they are living and growing with your group.

i think i would be very easy for you to start a world in sundren and then grow in this way. you might arrive at a really sweet place.

also sundren is based IN forgotten realms. so its not the world of sundren you like better it's the mood/atmosphere... make note of this and figure out what EXACTLY it is that you like about sundren compared with your other experiences in the FR campaign setting. take these with you on your journey but dont hold yourself to them be flexible.. too many dm's suffer from inflexibility imho! maybe me too! (i tend to force action on charaters to further a story... which is my story and not their story--- this is what i am working on as a DM)

as for putting sundren in a source book that would not be too hard most is in the wiki already. so it a lot of cut and paste really... but i agree with CM and TBS you WILL need to expand.. so take the essentials of sundren; the feeling, the... well that it! take the feeling that you like and run with it. you can use the classes from here the factions the gear ect.. but i think that its the feeling that is important.

tuppence administered.

[The Almight Red]

I'll answer the first question. It depends. I was in the Army for a number of years, and believe it or not, it's where I started to PnP. It's also where I stopped PnPing.

You see, when you're on a tour, there's not a lot to do. Let me stress that. There is not a lot to do. You can get very bored when you're in a combat zone for 9 months to a year. You do get reprieves here and there, when they send you to the 'back,' (as opposed to the front line), but there's still only so much you can do. Watch some movies, get nice showers, get better chow, etc.

So, boredom is a constant. Which is how I got involved in PnP. I heard a couple of people in my platoon were playing it, I got involved, and I found it was rather fun to keep one's self occupied. I also ended up finding out that a surprising amount of military individuals play it.

Now, how is it viewed? It still has a stigma, to an extent, than it's a 'nerd' thing. We don't go around exactly advertising it, or anything. But the biggest thing I've noticed, as a dichotomy between the civilian world and the military world when it comes to D&D is to the nature of people who play it.

In the military, we play it either because we were bored, or because we looked at it as something that a bunch of buds can get together, drink beer, and bullshit together around (frankly, like watching a football game).

Then when I got back to the civie world, and tried to PnP, I noticed that the people who traditionally play (that I met, anyway, this is by no means universal [as it was just from my personal experience]), seem borderline obsessive over the game. They also seem to propogate the usual stereotypes. Very anti-social, poor hygiene, and quirky. I know this seems like an over generalization, but this is the exact sort of things I met with when I tried to continue PnPing outside the military.

It didn't last long at all. I ended giving PnP up, and have never played again to this day. I'm not embarassed by the idea I PnP. I'm embarassed by the types that like to giggle and associate real life with their elven avatar when we're going to eat chinese at a restaurant.

(Sorry, as this is obviously a bit off-topic, but it's something that's always fascinated me. The 'culture' of PnP. It's by no means universal, but those stigmas have obviously been adopted for reasons.)

[gbbishop]

i thought as much, thanks for the analysis red.

i think i was fortunate to find a good group of folk to pnp with... on occasion i have tried to reach out to pnp groups like when moving to a new city... and the "propensities" you highlighted as reasons you discontinued pnp, i think are both accurate and the reason i play is so infrequently now as well.