The Stormreach Campaign

[Deadlock]

Our Monday night static group, The Monday Marauders on Ghallanda, have just completed a year long tour of Eberron. To give our group an old school campaign feel, I set about writing a narrative that emphasised a lot of the rich lore that we have in the game. If you're someone who's taken the time to read NPC dialogue then you'll already know that there are a lot of really good story threads that we weave in and out of.

The idea was to create a number of illustrated chapters to our campaign that stitched together different storyarcs in a chronological order and set the scene for an evening's questing. This was expanded into a format that allowed us to record the XP that a group could achieve where every objective is attempted, maximum bonusses are achieved and all wilderness areas are explored. The result was a 324 page document including XP tables, maps and a history of Eberron collated in one place.

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/8655/6mABP5.png

Now I'm not a professional writer so it's obviously a bit rough in places, but it was done purely for my own amusement. Along the way, I took a leaf from Dan Abnett and introduced a number of redshirts. And whenever I needed a character name who doesn't exist ingame, I've just name checked guildies, friends on Ghallanda and people from the DDO community.

After a bit of thought, I've decided to make the PDF available as a free download via dropbox. Hope you enjoy it, and if you spot any typos then feel free to PM me and I'll correct them.

The Stormreach Campaign free PDF download (https://www.dropbox.com/s/klqtexnd3gmt57z/DDO%20The%20Stormreach%20Campaign.pdf?dl=0)

A huge thanks to the Monday Marauders for playtesting the campaign and their patience while I took notes and screenshots, and an equally huge (if slightly sycophantic) thanks to the devs who have over the years enriched the world with such great lore and such great storylines.

[Deadlock]

I was asked about the XP tables and completion times.

Our static group were a team of dedicated flower sniffers, we also played on completely untwinked characters with a mix of first, second and third lifers. The way we chose to play was to limit ourselves to items we pulled from quests, with "bonus" items permitted from TR caches or the auction house/crafting halls whenever the storyline warranted it. So for example, where you complete a chapter including particularly wealthy patrons, I would make the call that bonus loot would be awarded.

If I was giving a recommendation to completely new players who wanted to experience as much content as possible, I'd happily suggest they play on Normal for their first life, Hard on their second life and Elite on their third life if they really want to. We calculated it at 5.1 million XP available on Elite without XP pots, XP events or running any challenges, so there is plenty of XP available that you really don't need to worry about it.

Also, when I started writing the document, the Monster Manual only went up to volume 3. I'll include the XP from the later volumes at some point in time, but not in any rush to do that. I don't see anyone getting the exact same XP as we did because you'll inevitably get different rares in wilderness areas and quests, and the size of your party will have an affect too. I've included the Monster Manual XP as we received it just to give an idea of what it's worth if you take a one-and-done approach.

EDIT: Oh yeah and we didn't have the mechanism to turn off your bravery bonus, so the advice in places to take someone in overlevel and maybe run on hard doesn't apply.

[Cordovan]

This is hugely ambitious, and really well done. Congratulations!

[Steve_Howe]

Big undertaking. Well done!

[JDCrowell]

This is incredible and absolutely amazing! As someone who actually likes the story lines and how they are all woven together, this is something I'll greatly enjoy. Thank you very much for this. Proud to see a fellow Ghallandian do something incredible.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading this! :)

[DagazUlf]

Nice! Seems like a lot of fun was had by all.

[Nascoe]

Thank you for posting, looks like a great idea. Just downloaded it for reading

[Captain_Wizbang]

very cool. Nice to see people enjoying this game instead of the power grinding craziness we see all too often.

+1 for sure.

[Ambitious]

This is hugely ambitious, and really well done. Congratulations!


No Jerry, you are wrong. This wasn't me. He did it all by himself, honestly!

[Rys]

Awesome

[Wizza]

I commented it from the phone but apparently my comment didn't go through so I'll say it once more:

Amazing work. Been reading it and I love it!

[cdbd3rd]

Just now downloading for reading later.

Sounds impressive, and I'm sure it'll live up to expectations.



(Seems I need to spread myself around a bit more before can throw ya some /props on this one.)

[Deadlock]

very cool. Nice to see people enjoying this game instead of the power grinding craziness we see all too often.

+1 for sure.

Nothing wrong with a bit of power grinding craziness :) But definitely it's good to take a step back sometimes to help avoid burnout.

I was the first triple completionist on our server. I enjoy some great zerg EE runs. But I still put up public LFMs and TR even though there's nothing to be gained for having 7 rogue lives ...

But despite all my time in the game, I still like the lore and I look forward to new content to advance the storylines.

We have some great stories in the game. I get that NPC dialogue boxes instead of voice narration maybe means that some people don't take the time to appreciate it.

There are so many potential threads that weave through a lot of the storylines that can be explored. I mean, to end the Daelkyr war, the Gatekeepers sealed the Plane of Xoriat. But through the quests we play through, we see stable portals to Xoriat appear and end up travelling there. This is immense but is the enormity of it fully explained? We made a lot of it during our campaign, so hopefully others will enjoy :) There's also a thread in last year's Player Council archives where I wrote up a Xorian Saga that starts from Xorian Cypher, touched on the Gate Chamber in Threnal, into Dreams of Insanity and continued into Delirium and the two Madness chains.

Happy to discuss any of the story elements raised and if there's any that can be improved then might be worth taking a note of for doing a second edition sometime :)

[Erdrique]

This definitely a great endeavor and looks really nice, look forward to reading it!! Congratulations on the final product!!

[Wizza]

I've been reading the pdf a lot today. It's actually so good, props to you.

[Deadlock]

Just a quick one. Just upgraded the Dropbox account. The number of downloads triggered a bandwidth alert at their side and they put a temporary suspension until they got confirmation that things were all okay ... which sounds like a good thing to me :)

So if you did experience a problem with the download during that 20 min period, should be fixed now.

Enjoy :)

[Ykt]

Great job, I'm downloading it now.

[Gedov]

My current character will be starting his final life within the next few weeks. I had already decided that his final life should be a methodical one focused on better understanding all the surrounding lore. This wealth of information makes me want to do this even more, and provides a great resource for me. Thanks so much for putting this together.

[Sianys]

This is great! It would probably also be an excellent tool to help new players, or to lure new players in. Or, as mentioned, for those of us who've been playing a while and just like to see it all coherently woven together into a great campaign story. :)

Spelling correction: page 32 (Archer Point story) - should be 'grisly', not 'grizzly'. The latter is a type of bear. ;)

[Saekee]

Am really looking forward to this--is it kindle friendly-- Old ink version?

[DANTEIL]

I just downloaded this and am looking forward to reading. Amazing job putting this together, even just mainly for the storyline elements (which I have always found confusing and mish-mashy since I seem to rarely hit questlines in logical story order). Makes me envious that your static group got to go through all of this. fun!

[Uska]

cool

[Son_of_the_South]

What a massive undertaking! Props to you, well done!

[Deadlock]

Just a quick thanks to Draculetta and Pineleaf over at DDOPlayers for their article on the Stormreach Campaign (http://ddoplayers.com/2015/08/26/the-stormreach-campaign/).

Glad you guys enjoyed and looking forward to your 50th cast. :)

And a thanks to everyone for the kind comments in the thread and the +1 reps, especially to those I usually spend my time arguing with on the main boards. :)

[Saekee]

I tried to convert it to Kindle's format but it was too big to send via email. But then the images are so well done, I did not want to lose them. So I will read it slowly on the computer. Props to you for doing this insane amount of labor.

[geoffhanna]

Just wanted to point out that the hardcover version of this is just about the most impressive DDO-related thing I have ever seen.

Awesome.

[Vargouille]

Just wanted to point out that the hardcover version of this is just about the most impressive DDO-related thing I have ever seen.

Having held it in my hands and looked at it, and shared it with some other long time DDO devs: Yes. It's pretty awesome.

[Deadlock]

Having held it in my hands and looked at it, and shared it with some other long time DDO devs: Yes. It's pretty awesome.

We're still talking about the book, right?

To celebrate their 50th episode, DDOPlayers have one of these to give away. Completely free to enter and someone must win. (http://ddoplayers.com/2015/09/15/ddo-players-news-the-stormreach-campaign-giveaway/)

There are only 25 of these in existence so it's most definitely a limited opportunity.

[Jango-EX]

OH. MY. GOD.

THIS IS SO AWESOME!

Gonna hunt for a vampire right now. Guess shroud of the vampire doesn't count? :D

[cdbd3rd]

We're still talking about the book, right?

To celebrate their 50th episode, DDOPlayers have one of these to give away. Completely free to enter and someone must win. (http://ddoplayers.com/2015/09/15/ddo-players-news-the-stormreach-campaign-giveaway/)

There are only 25 of these in existence so it's most definitely a limited opportunity.


Awesome contest!


I didn't see it mentioned, so - is there a limit on number of entries? 1 per email address? 1 per game account (tho not sure how you'd verify that)?

[Saekee]

how about uploading it to LuLu as a print-on-demand softcover? Am reading it slowly due to needing to use my computer, which is at a standing desk.

[Deadlock]

Awesome contest!


I didn't see it mentioned, so - is there a limit on number of entries? 1 per email address? 1 per game account (tho not sure how you'd verify that)?

No idea man, Draculetta would be the best person to ask. I would guess that provided the email and character in the screenshot were different they would count as a "unique" submission.

[Deadlock]

how about uploading it to LuLu as a print-on-demand softcover? Am reading it slowly due to needing to use my computer, which is at a standing desk.

At 324 full-colour pages it's not so simple. If you would like to have someone print you a copy, I'm happy for you to do that provided you're not trying to resell it.

Would definitely recommend entering DDO Player's competition for a chance at winning a hardback copy.

[Saekee]

At 324 full-colour pages it's not so simple. If you would like to have someone print you a copy, I'm happy for you to do that provided you're not trying to resell it.

Would definitely recommend entering DDO Player's competition for a chance at winning a hardback copy.
Ahhh good point! My dissertation was the same length but cheap since it was just text. (No worries--would never even consider trying to resell).

I will be entering the contest!

I have barely dented the pdf and it is giving me goosebumps. 4 years of playing this game and I was ignorant of the storylines!

[HAL]

Wow, very cool publication. Congratulations on finishing it and thank you for sharing :)

[Deadlock]

Patrick over at DDOCast has one of the limited number of hardback copies to give away as part of their 400th episode celebrations.

https://thestormreachcampaign.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/ddocast-400.png?w=625

You can find out how to enter by watching episode 400 over at www.ddocast.com. Good luck to everyone who enters.

[Phoenix-daBard]

Thanks for this. I went into the hospital a week before this was released for emergency brain surgery and my only computer was my tablet. Reading this provided excellent therapy on a subject I really enjoyed over the past few weeks.

Thank you very much!

[Ron]

I was lucky enough to get a hard copy of this book, and have spent the last couple of weeks reading through it. Just thought I would post some thoughts I have on the project.

I think just about everyone to some extent has been guilty of "clicking on the first line of dialog" until the quest is bestowed and then running for the entrance. I certainly have. That's just a part of MMOs, you're there to run the dungeons, not read pages of dialog, and that is especially true in cases where there is a party of six people involved. At best you might be able to skim through the text quickly. Which is too bad, because the devs put together a pretty decent storyline, and in a lot of cases, we just don't see it.

Deadlock has conquered that problem by putting the lore into book form. You can sit down at your leisure and read the story. And being in prose form, he has expanded on the characters and settings, while keeping true to the original lore the devs put together. It is an absolutely engrossing read.

The book is set up in chapters, with each chapter encompassing a few related quests within a level or two of each other. I really like how Deadlock took the existing lore and tied everything together. The devs did this to some extent (which DL took and expanded upon), but there are also quite a few one-off quests in the game, and DL took all of those and wrapped them together. Each chapter starts off with a "storyline" section, which effectively is the expanded lore as given by the quest-givers for the upcoming series of quests. There is then a short "objectives" section, which will outline the overall goals the party will be undertaking. Then in the "Adventuring Notes" area, you find the list of anywhere from three to six quests (usually, though in a couple of cases there are more or less) tied into that chapter. Also included here are any Wilderness area notes. This section includes some stats on experience earned, base level, etc. And then finally, in the "Victory" section, which is meant to be read after completing the series of quests, he ties up the storyline describing your triumph, very often transitioning seamlessly into the next chapter's story.

I cannot stress enough what a great read this is. If you play DDO with any regularity at all, I highly recommend you grab the PDF and read it. What would be really awesome would be to set up a static group and run a chapter with each session, making sure everyone has read the chapter intro, then run the quests (actually reading the in-game lore), and everyone logs out to read the Victory section (and prepare for the next session's chapter, reading the Storyline for that one).

One of the things this book will do is encourage a more thorough reading of the in-game lore, I think. As someone earlier up-thread has already said, this is probably the most awesome third party project ever done for this game. I very highly recommend everybody go get a copy of the PDF immediately. Immediately!!

Ron

[Deadlock]

DDOCast's 400th winner copy is in the post. Congratulations to Kyle who won it.

https://thestormreachcampaign.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/gamer-geoff-last-copy.png

Geoff over at DDOGamer has the last fansite copy to give away. For a last chance to win, with no limit on the number of entries you can make, check out DDOGamer's competition page (http://www.gamergeoff.com/win-the-last-copy-of-the-stormreach-campaign/). The closing date isn't until 13th November so still plenty of time to enter.

[Deadlock]

Congratulations to Kevin who was selected at random and won a hardback copy of the Stormreach Campaign over at DDOGamer (http://www.gamergeoff.com/and-we-have-a-winner/).

https://thestormreachcampaign.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/geoff-counting-entries.png?w=625

Lots of excellent haiku entries that Geoff's compiled up into a gif.

https://thestormreachcampaign.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/stormreach20campaign20contest20haiku20entries.gif? w=625

With over a hundred and fifty entries, it’s great to see so many people participating in the competition.

[Deadlock]

As part of the 10th anniversary celebration there are 2 copies of the hardback being made available. These are 2 copies that were initially put aside for the weekly Stormreach Chronicle at the time of the initial release but are now being made available as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations.

Feel free to harass Patrick for details of the DDOCast 10th anniversary cast prize details: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/472439-DDOCast-419-10th-Anniversary-Special?p=5790022&posted=1#post5790022

And feel free to abuse Jerry for how the other one will be given away :)

[Sho-sa]

Necro here.

Just found this.

Incredible job! Hope new players become aware of this.

[Lanadazia]

this is massive. wow!

[Cordovan]

That this isn't in the Hall of Fame is just an oversight, now corrected.

[Deadlock]

Cheers man, much appreciated :)

[Aelonwy]

Congrats!

[Draculetta]

Cheers man, much appreciated :)

Much Deserved!

[Saekee]

That this isn't in the Hall of Fame is just an oversight, now corrected.
excellent. One of my most enjoyable TRs was following this, highly recommended.

[Sweyn]

I'm 100% necroing this thread. This is probably the best work of art I've seen in a long time! So much time and thought has gone into this. I'm printing myself a copy on my home computer now, it might take a few ink cartridges and some time but it's worth it! (I hate reading things on computers). I'm definitely going to go through this on my next TR. Thank you!!!