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	karen mcmullan...
		Level Design ...Halo Wars ...The War Chiefs ...D&D Writing Samples Gameography	...D&D Dungeons & Dragons (Pen & Paper RPG, 2007-8) Gray Men, Grim Fate Gray Men, Grim Fate is the opening encounter of The Balestar Rises, a forum-based Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I started in 2007. The ship everyone was on wrecked on the shore of a bleak island. Play began with the PCs waking to the screams of a friend being attacked by Gray Men (Lacedons, an aquatic version of the Ghoul). There's nothing like combat to kick off a campaign! Playing forum-based RPGs differs significantly from playing face-to-face RPGs. The DM and the players take turns posting actions and responses to game events. These posts allow for careful descriptions of scenes and deep insights into the PCs, but the pace of forum-based games can be glacial. One of the biggest challenges for a forum-based game is managing that sometimes glacial pace. And nothing slows a pen & paper RPG down like combat. A Combat Mapping Solution So, starting this campaign off with a combat was a little risky. To help my players (and me) keep track of and speed up combat, I devised a method that makes use of the Google Docs Spreadsheets to create an easy to update and read battle map. Creating the map as a Google Docs Spreadsheet meant that I had a lot of tools to make the map easy to read, use and modify. The Key to the right of the map makes reading the map a breeze. The PCs and NPCs are clearly marked. Obstacles, like ship debris, cliffs and water are all represented with notes on height or depth. The combatants are listed to the left of the map in intiative order where the numeric coordinates double as intiative scores. As play proceeds, PCs and NPCs who have acted are crossed off of the list. When a round is complete, the spreadsheet is copied and relabeled for the new round. Encounter Design The campaign opens with a combat to let players take their PCs for a spin and also to bind the group together; nothing's better for party cohesion than a good fight. There were over two dozen combatants in this one. The PCs and NPCs were grouped into two areas, north and south. The north group was all NPCs. The south group was a mix of PCs and NPCs. Gray Men were scattered up and down the beach attacking both groups with mindless determination. I like low-level undead in early fights because they're creepy and dangerous, but dim. It gives a group of players and PCs a chance to gel and square away their tactics against a predictable foe. A predictable and non-ranged foe. I had a couple players who were entirely new to current D&D (3.5th Edition, at the time), several who were simply rusty and a couple who min-maxed their PCs to the hilt. I didn't want to overwhelm the new guys OR roll over for the experienced guys. So, out in the water, were a number of 'reinforcements,' Gray Men clinging to ship debris. The tide was bringing the debris and these Gray Men closer to shore every round (if you click the above image, you can page through the combat and watch the debris drift towards the shore). The PC group included the aforementioned min-maxed PCs and a Cleric. Clerics are aces at fighting undead. So, in addition to not overwhelming my new players, these reinforcements out in the water stayed fresh to threaten the party anew if the min-maxed PCs mowed everything down (or the Cleric remembered to use his powers).  As the combat seemed to be drawing to a close, with several NPC casualties and a lot of shaken PCs, the fresh Gray Men approached from the water. The Cleric remembered himself at this point and attempted a Turning (an attack that drives away or destroys undead). This sent the remaining enemies (including those in the water) into flight and effectively ended the combat. Everyone re-grouped to plan their next move which was: Let's get the heck out of here! The new mapping system worked like a charm, the PCs were threatened, but not annihilated and all were entertained. A great success!
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