FOE's Dark Sun

Like everybody else, I’ve been listening to the news about Wizards of the Coast’s 5.5 Dark Sun product. People have been asking me, “So, JP, what do you think about it?"

Do I think Wizards can produce something great, playable, and well-received? No, I do not. I don’t think the people they have there possess enough experience with the setting to understand what Dark Sun was. Or why it was so interesting in playing there vs Greyhawk or Dragonlance. They watched a few drawings and skimmed over campaign reports. The good ol' case of the allegory of the shadows in the cave.

So... what do I expect from Dark Sun 5.5? Not much.

Looking through my old Dark Sun material, I began to think about it and really wanted to play it. I went through my little beige book of notes and half-ideas and began blasting out Dark Sun-style content. I didn't want to redo Dark Sun. I wanted to take the elements I loved most about it and use them in a campaign setting of my own.

Something that would work together with the rest of the FOE settings while maintaining its complete independence from everything else.

I came up with a list of elements I wanted.
- Different city-states each with its unique culture and appearance.
- A unique dragon.
- A world in the throes of falling into complete destruction.
- Scarce resources
- Use psionics
- Possibility for a lot of adventure: exploration, politics, dungeoncrawling
- Great Mages
- Fit into the rest of the FOE universe, while remaining outside of it.

Over the course of the next few days, I will be posting what I have been working on this new "FOE Dark Sun" featuring unique opponents, in a series of posts.

[FOE Updates] Writing Projects.

These are the current FOE projects that I am currently working on.

- Olympia Chronicles 3: The Black Enchanter This is the third novel in my series set in Olympia. I am currently writing the third act where everything comes to a close. It will be about the same size as "The Bloody Notebook"

- Magic of FOE A compendium of magic items, tomes, spells, and other goodies. Something of a companion to the Fiend FOElio with items from the many campaigns I ran over the years.

- Vampire Rome: Killing Agrippina A short introductory adventure for Vampire: Dark Ages set in ancient Rome. Manuscript complete, adventure currently getting playtested. For the Storyteller's Vault.

- Dark Sun Class Options I have been putting together several class options for the future release of Dark Sun. For the DM's Guild.

- One-Page Adventures Last year, I created one-page dungeon/adventures for convention play and to serve as introduction to FOE settings. I am thinking of refining them into a single volume.

- Kukulmak I have been working on ideas to expand the setting of Kukulmak, first published in Power in Fickle, this was one of my long-time mini-setting idea. I have been wanting to update it to something more complete. Right now, it's a bunch of random documents and half-baked ideas to expand to something solid.

- Short Stories I am working on a series of short stories set in various worlds of FOE. I plan to slowly build up this collection.

- Gencon 2027. Yes, I'm already starting to stew some ideas on the format and overall plot for next year. My Gencon begins in September!

Any of these projects draw your particular interest?

[Gencon AAR] Part 7

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Tarsyn Outcomes

Bleeding Hearts
- Crimson survived the adventure
- 1/2 groups saved the Witching Tree

Conclusions

- I love GMing at Gencon. I haven't run since 2023 and it was really a fun experience.
- I love being the Overlord GM. Now this is a pleasure I keep all for me. I get to listen to all the chapters of an epic all at once. Plus, you never know what can happen.
- Great Crew of writers. The pool of writers is getting better and better all the time and their adventures really improve in scope and quality. I got them all FOE cups this year.
- Great Crew of GMs. None of this would be possible without my crew of Smurfs. They did fantastic! Especially dealing with my crazy antics and nerotic rantings.
- Have an AMA section. One thing I would like to do next year is a AMA: Ask-Me-Anything where players could ask me about the NPCs, the storyline, the novels, as the name implies... Anything FOE related.
- Must take GM pics esp after specials. That.
- Lucky to have a room-mom! Thanks to Chas for putting up with me through the con and jumping on tables and helping out. Yay! Mom!
- I am terrible at taking and ordering pictures of the con. That.

Next Year

The biggest question I have to decide upon: do we want to go to six tables next year?

Writing all this down already gives me some ideas for next year.

I threw a challenge to Bill already... to see whether it would spark his imagination...

I have ideas to shake up the formula again next year...

Friends

I met my friend Randy, who is also my GM in a Vampire: Dark Ages campaign he is writing. As a thank you, I make him a statue of my character, Isabeau de Montreval, a charming French (Brittany) noble...

[Gencon AAR] Part 6

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7

Ozaka Outcomes

A Stolen Daisho by Chris-K
- Heroes traveled the low road
- Azaki Sadaharu was saved

Fiends of Dreams by JP Chapleau
- The yokai was not fully released within Shiro Azaki
- The Child remains a strange point of focus... Who is (s)he?

Friends we make by JP Chapleau
- The Princesses sided with Lord Tetsukabe
- The Princesses received a magical sword for slaying the Oni hound
- Azaki Tsukiko insulted Lord Tetsukabe's character in open court
- Shiro Tetsukabe was damaged by Ozakan forces

Battle of Shiro Azaki by JP Chapleau
- Lord Azaki Taro was killed by foreign allies of the Amicho Clane
- Lady Sazame Tomoe, the earth shugenja was killed in the sewers beneath Shiro Azaki
- Lord Tetsukabe Masanori was killed by foreign allies of the Sazame Clan
- The head diplomat of the Kobochi forces, Sister Ayame, was killed in battle
- Lady Azaki escaped to safety
- Iwazaki Aguro, the water shugenja survived the battle
- The head diplomat of the Kobochi forces, Sister Ayame, was killed in battle
- Lord Azaki's horse was returned to the Azaki forces
- Part of the walls were blown up
- Despite losing the city, Sazame forces succeeded in withdrawing in good order.

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7

[Gencon AAR] Part 5

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7

Olympia Outcomes

Heart of Decisions by Bill-C
- The Heart of the Colossus was shattered by the heroes, preventing the Titans from recovering it.
- No doppelgangers were located.
- Paranoia ruled the day!

What the Titans Leave Behind By JP Chapleau (with Brandon-A)
- Mytenian forces made a deal with Bazros
- The mirror was brought back to Queen Kreomene
- Nerissa's correspondence with Kymaros and Pelagene were read and uncovered.
- No one dared to read the rune on the floor
- Timon was not roused

To Find and Enchantress by JP Chapleau
- No one went after the war chest, so it is still in possession of the Titanic forces
- Nerissa was captured
- War golems damaged the city before they got depowered. They are now frozen in the city
- Some war machines were damaged
- Heroes chose Ares' solution to deal with the Titans: have his dogs Deimos and Phobos devour parts of the Titans every morning to keep them from rising again
- Both Zeus and Hera made a surprise visit to Mytenia, rewarding those who praised them!

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7

[Gencon AAR] Part 4

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7

Akhamet Outcomes

The Mirror of Bast by Brandon-A and JP Chapleau
- Grom was brought back safely
- The mirror is now in the possession of Meketra at the temple of Bast
- The Queen-of-Cats is still at large

Sifting the Sands of Obscurity by Matt-A
- Adjet was not resurrected
- The Shroud was returned to its hiding place

River Run by JP Chapleau
- The Portal Sigil was depowered
- The lock doors were not repaired, leading to damage
- The Portal Sigil was depowered
- Neferhana was killed by the emerging nightcrawler

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7

[Gencon AAR] Part 3

Part 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Saturday

Just like that, we were already passed the halfway point.

I had a slot to run, but did not have players. So I got a "free" slot.

The day went fine. A lot of repeat customers from previous years, but also from within the con. A testament to the great work my GMs did. I got to be entertained this year again by listening to them wield they craft. I am always fascinated by how each GM has a different touch, a different flavor, which DOES change and alter with the table. I know many of you love to listen to the great podcasts, but I still maintain that the best work is done by normal people, doing their best and crafting stories with their players.

If you haven't, thank you GM(s) today.

Thank you, Randy! (who tolerates my antics in his Vampire: Dark Ages chronicle)

The evening was, to me, The Big One, the second Ozaka special, called The Battle of Shiro Azaki. With this one, I was planning to shake the status quo in Ozaka. Advance the plot and allow me to tell different stories that would really separate it form the situation in Olympia.

Sunday

Sunday... Always sad to see it come. It's always a strange day... Who will show up? This year, I kept the Akhamet Special River Run, the special I had to re-write from scratch after I wrote myself in a corner. The resulting adventure was much stronger, though my main fear was that it was overly ambitious with two distinct parts. Each could've been its own adventure. One with the Sobekites raising hell. And then the source of the problem, as Saggakara plots to destroy Ophara. Limited slots.

Despite everyone being really tired, there was a strong energy in the room.

In the end, we made several new converts to FOE games.

We did a quick pit stop to the dealer hall and it was time to drive back to Tennessee.

I don't remember much after that... Once home, I slept for... about 20 of the next hours. Took me three tries to get through WWE Smackdown.

Part 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7