Journey of A Fallen Star

With Exploration Driven campaigns on my mind and inspired by a comment I received from Timothy Brannan, I thought I'd share my memories of a favorite game I ran that very much fit this theme.

Starting out as a One-on-One campaign with my childhood best friend Joe and expanding to include a small group of additional players, this game is one of my first full-on open world Exploration outings. 

Journey of a Fallen Star

The campaign began with a falling star blazing through the sky and crash landing in a mountainous region in the North East hemisphere called. It exploded upon impact and the flash and billowing smoke could be viewed for several miles, if indeed there had been anyone to see it. 

As it turned out, there was. A Dwarf Rogue, cast out by his kin and searching for Starmetal to get back into their good graces, just happened to see the meteor strike. 'STARMETAL!', he thought aloud and rushed to see what he could find. 

When the Dwarf arrived the impact crater was fairly large, likely deep, and a bright light glowed from within it. He found himself walking closer and closer, even though his inner voice told him to run. As the smoke cleared and the glow dimmed, he saw a...a figure...a person? Yes, someone was standing amidst the flecks of burning metal and rock! 

Eserwun Starfall / SR-1

It was an Elf (he assumed), clad in some kind of fancy magical armor. He stood completely motionless, as if frozen in time. Then...suddenly...the helmeted head turned towards the Dwarf.

The Elven Knight in enchanted armor spoke a language the Dwarf did not understand, his voice powerful and hollow...eerie. "See here Sir Knight! I do not understand you. Do you not speak the Common tongue?", the Dwarf shouted.

Strange quiet noises, like cricket chirps and flute playing, came from within the Knight's visor. "I do. Where am I? Who are you?", the Elf asked in that same disconcerting voice.

"You are in the Crystalrock Mountains. South of the Dwarven Halls of Crystalright. I am Enut Deepshadow, a...prospector of these parts. Who are you?", Enut said, feigning as much confidence as he could muster.

"I am...S...I am...", the Elf began, seemingly having trouble recalling his own name. "I am SR-1 of the Third Interstellar Legion. I...may be damaged."

Enut Deepshadow

The Dwarf moved closer, his demeanor friendly. He reached his hand out, though he still stood some distance away from the Elf. "Eserwun you say? Well, I'm not surprised you're injured. Falling from the sky will do that", Deepshadow said with a chuckle. The Elf did not laugh. He did walk to meet the Dwarf however and reached out to shake his hand. 

So began the travels of 'Eserwun Starfal'l and Enut the Dwarf. The former searching for his missing memories, some lost weapons and gear, and out to slay the Six Demons of The Void. The latter serving as Eserwun's guide, his squire, and before long, his friend. 

Joe, playing Eserwun Starfall, would look at the map I drew and if anything interested him he would point it out and ask , "What do you know of this place?" I would give him the knowledge the Dwarf had on the location and he would decide to go there or not.

Yellow Dots indicate places visited by Eserwun Starfall during the campaign. 

 

Sometimes he would stop random merchants or pilgrims on the roads and simply ask them, "Greetings and well met! Have you heard any strange tales recently? Any mention of swords with blades of blue light or monsters you've not heard of before?" All in hopes of getting a lead on any of his goals. 

My favorite instance of this was when the two adventurers came upon highwaymen waylaying a trader and his family. They beat the brigands senseless! Afterwards, Eserwun held one over a cliff ledge and said, "Speak the truth and I will not drop you. Have you heard anything about 'Demons of The Void'?" The thug said there was someone calling themselves that in such-and-such city and gathering a small army of sellswords. Eserwun picked him up off the ground, thanked him, and let him run away. 

Eventually word of the campaign spread and friends of ours wanted in. I used this as an opportunity to expand the map. Eserwun and would travel to a new place that wasn't familiar with and the pair would ally with or hire a local (i.e. a new PC) to guide them through the area.

 The 'Known World' of Ranul.

One time the heroes had heard a rumor of a terrible monster living in a nearby swamp [between Zollner and Vogel] whose description sparked Eserwun's memory - one of the Six Demons of the Void! They get there and meet a Human Warrior (a newly joining PC) who, it turned out, was also after the monster. The character had a Magic Sword that Eserwun claimed was his! It had fallen away from him as he descended to Ranul (the name of the campaign world). 

The two characters almost came to blows but they put aside their differences to track down and defeat the 'Void Demon'. As it turned out, the villain had a nearly identical sword which shimmered red instead of blue. The Warrior gave Eserwun back his sword and took the red one as a trophy. 

In addition to exploring to locate narrative related elements, sometimes the players just looked at the map and said 'what's over here'? Often it was, 'Let's pass through this area on our way to thing we need or want to do.'

They would also explore to find resources like food, water, or shelter. A player would look at the map and point to a body of water ahead and say, 'there's good fishing here' or to a nearby town and say 'if I recall correctly, this place has an excellent market for us to get provisions.' I would nod in agreement and say something like, "Well you're from here so you know best."

By the end the campaign ran for about a year or so (1980-81), playing roughly every other weekend. Sometimes we'd get an extra session in here and there or miss one because of holidays and family stuff. I remember we got to play a few times during the week because of school assembly or the like. Sessions were usually 6-8 hours. Joe was joined by two or three other regulars and two or three players that would pop in and out. 

The idea for the campaign came from Joe, who wondered what would happen if a Futuristic, Sci-Fi Robot landed in Medieval Europe and started hunting Demons and Monster (in truth Alien Criminals). A major source of inspiration was the Marvel Comic Book 'ROM, The Spaceknight'. Looking back on it from 2026 and its a little like the upcoming RPG 'MedivAliens'. 

Oh, in case you haven't caught on by now...

SR-1 was a Robot Soldier from some never specified starfaring society. He was rolled up and created as if he were an Elf Fighter/Magic-User (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition). His spells were made of 'Sci-Fi Energy' and the visual effects were always bright blue light (like his sword). When he would 'learn' new spells we framed it as if he was gaining access to more of his memories, programs, and capabilities.

While he didn't need to eat, SR-1 did sleep in order to recharge and self-repair. He could do both more rapidly by receiving an electrical discharge. This meant being struck by Lightning or hit by a Lightning Bolt Spell worked like a Cure Wounds Spell. :D

Several female NPCs made advances towards him but he would always raise his hand and calmly say, "I am sorry but I can not", which many took to be some sort of oath of celibacy but it was because he was a robot and not one designed for romance or intimacy. 

Like the Mandalorian Din Djarin, Eserwun would never remove his helmet, even in front of his closest friend. This was on account of having no head or face beyond the visage of the helmet. 

The other Player Characters were all native to Ranul but had often had a weapon, armor, or a piece of gear that had come to the planet from Outer Space. The Human Warrior had the Red Bladed Starsword and our Gnome Illusionist had an Energy Crystal on top of his staff, for example.

Enut our Dwarf NPC was a Thief. Bruce played the Human Fighter. Chris played a Gnome Illusionist and Wanda was a Female Half-Elf Druid. These were the regulars.

Not all of these items fell off of SR-1 during his drop. Some were from the Void Demons as mentioned above, while others had been on Ranul for hundreds of years. 

Ranul itself is our own moon, terraformed and rotating. The Great Moon of Ranul was a dead Earth. In my mind this was set in the far distant future of Gamma World. Elves, Dwarfs, and other such species were the descendants of Humans genetically engineered to survive this world. Goblins, Trolls, and other Humanoids were likely descended from Human hybrid experiments, their DNA spliced with animals or even non-sentient alien creatures. Monsters were Gamma World Mutants, Mutant Animals, Aliens, and even Mutated Aliens. 

Some of the weaponry, gear, and creatures were made by adapting Gamma World material to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition. Some were homebrew whole cloth.

The ' Six Demons of The Void' were Alien Villains ranging from a Cyborg 'Ogre', to an Organic Armored Lizard Man, to an intelligent Manticore-like creature. Their weaponry and powers were a mix of Monster Manual abilities and Gamma World Mutations.It was never clear (I never decided) if they had anything to do with SR-1's crash on to Ranul, though he did determine hunting them down was his original mission. 

During the course of the campaign we only encountered three of the Six Demons. All were slain but we faced one twice; the Cyborg Ogre was the one with the red sword. The Red Manticore escaped the first time and the PCs eventually tracked it down again and took care of business.. 

So there you have it, a heavily Exploration Driven campaign with a good deal of Narrative incorporated, and Missions created by the PCs themselves. 

That's it for now. Tomorrow we begin the RPGaDay Challenge. 

See you there,

AD

Barking Alien