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Why isn't the title properly centered? Because AI image generators are as stupid as they are fast.

Why Is this Here?

I'm trying to organize a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign using assets from the Mythic Odyssey of Theros, Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, and Candlekeep Mysteries books, as well as the new Eberron book when it drops. Given Facebook is ever increasingly problematic, given Bluesky is not yet widely adopted, and given I've been asked to be open to eventually including minors, I'm going to try posting information for my players here on Blogger. Obviously the contents of this blog are only intended for a handful of people, but anyone else stumbling on it can feel free to use whatever I put up as a creative resource for their own games.  

Why Is It "The Not-So-Final-Frontier"?

My longest running D&D campaign is a Ghosts of Saltmarsh Campaign which has borrowed an enormous number of plot points from Star Wars, particularly with the inclusion of an army of "Forge Troopers" that were ultimately used to enact a military coup, and NPCs based on 18th century fantasy adaptations of Jango Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous, The Bad Batch, Hondo Ohnaka, etc. (albeit, with some unexpected departures to keep players guessing).  There've been a sizable number of Transformers references as well, and side-quests based on Jurassic Park, Halo, The Nutcracker, and The Grinch. 

While I'll certainly be continuing our GoSM campaign with my family back in [redacted], I want to start something new, fresh, and more frequent with people I've met in our new home in [also redacted]. Not wanting to double-dip on Star Wars (especially since my wife will be playing both campaigns) I'm going to take some character and plot cues from Star Trek instead. While Star Wars fits with the swashbuckling themes of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Star Trek certainly fits the themes of Homeric literature that inspired the Mythic Odyssey of Theros book.  So, while we won't be headed to space in this campaign, players should be careful of small fluff balls getting into their ship's cargo. 

Image generated by Google's Gemini
Also, the "orcs" might get a bit of a facelift in our setting. 

How Are You Going to Combine these Books?

This is going to be fleshed out in more detail on another page, but the set up is fairly simple from a game design standpoint. I'm dropping the Theros setting into our world as an island, ca. 1200 b.c., give-or-take a century or two, putting Strixhaven at the center of the Theros map, and putting Candlekeep library at the center of Strixhaven. 

The premise is that the knowledge held within Candlekeep was greatly coveted by the deities of Theros's pantheon, and their petty machinations to gain control of the library led to a war between the poleis of Theros that nearly wiped everyone out. The founding dragons then came to the island, negotiated peace between the deities, and established Strixhaven around the library, giving people (some carefully managed) access to the resources there. Now the city states of Theros have secured such a lasting peace that they've united into a federation, and are building up a naval fleet to explore and colonize the lands beyond their own shores. Players will be alternating between attending the academy (Strixhaven) and serving as ensigns/rowers aboard Federation ships. When they graduate from Strixhaven at level 10, they'll receive officers' commissions aboard a real exploration vessel, and sail to truly foreign shores.

At least, that's the plan.

Image generated by Google's Gemini.
But who knows what might Kirk it up?

Are You Using the 2024 Player's Handbook? 

Yes, but we won't be abandoning older resources like Tasha's Cauldron or Xanathar's Guide. I'll be looking to new books for the wording of spells and other mechanics, but character creation will be open to species and subclasses from older books. For the most part, I don't find adapting these older assets to be difficult - you mostly just drop the ability score improvements tied to "race" and use the ones provided by the new backgrounds. The Warlock class is very different, of course, and there are edge-case conflicts here and there, but nothing so severe as to justify curbing player's creativity and fun.  

Image created with Google Gemini, because I'm not wasting money on a pun.
Live long and prosper.


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