It’s possible that Terry’s Shadow World opus magnum is the “unfinished” Grand Campaign (GC). Even a short review of the material shows the connective tissue between early Shadow World books, material introduced in Emer: The Great Continent, the online journals of Kalen Avanir and his novel the Loremaster Legacy. Whether the GC guided Terry’s future work, or his writing directec the GC will never be known, but the meta plot was there early on in 1989-1990 when the box Emer Set introduced Schrek.
As an adventure path the GC could seem daunting. Three sections lead the PC’s from a lowly beginning to a finale that allows them to save the world–or at least postpone it! Is this really a campaign that can realistically take players from 1st level to 20th level or higher? Terry was always more interested in the story and seemed less concerned with Rolemaster RAW or the actual mechanics of roleplaying. Is there enough material, encounters and challenges to level the players up? Is the GC too “railroady”? Can the material survive a significant plot pivot forced by the group? Finally, can the players actually triumph at the end? Do they have the power and skills or will the GM need to provide assistance or a deux a machina to force the victory. Lets explore this a bit.
But before I dive into particulars I would ask this: is the Grand Campaign really unfinished? Sure, there is material that could be updated to align it with narrative changes that Terry made, but despite the lack of Emer IV, most of the missing material in the TGC is now readily available. What was once alluring references found in the Master Atlas and Emer are now fully fleshed out in updated version of Cloudlords and newer Shadow World books: Xa’ar, Haalkitaine, Eidolon and Emer I-III. I would suggest that by using the existing outline in the GC and grabbing content from those mentioned books, then there the majority of the material is ready to use. Let’s take a deeper look at the Grand Campaign.
FOREWORD
Right out of the gate, Terry tackles the issues around defined plotlines and extended campaigns. By the late 90’s there was already pushback against “extended narrations” like the Dragonlance modules. Players wanted to experience the material found in books through the gaming medium but that necessitated a strict storyline without much variation. ICE already grappled with this with their early work in Middle Earth. Rather than embracing the material adjacent to the LOTR storyline, ICE expanded the setting, plumbed the depth of obscure lore and/or added their own spin on Middle Earth (Court of Ardor). Terry cautions the GM that while side adventures and subplots can exist, the main narrative is paramount. I find this awareness refreshing, and despite his attempts to address the railroading, I believe most Shadow World users have shied away from using the Grand Campaign.
PART 1: OVERVIEW
The overview is a collapsed outline of the major chapters of Part I–with fleshed out chapters later in the work. These adventures take the group from Lethys to the Mur Fostisyr and is basically the Grand Tour of Jaiman. Given that both Jaiman and Emer are the most detailed continents of Kulthea, and represent the majority of Terry’s writings, there is considerable material to fill in any missing parts of the Grand Campaign as well as insert smaller side adventures and subplots. Well explore these sections in the later chapters of Part I.
PART 2: PLAYER-CHARACTERS
The Grand Campaign follows in a similar vein as the Journals of Kalen Avanir (the Loremaster Legacy novel). A lowly group of adventures, with mysterious heritages and heirloom objects, stumbles upon, and is central to, world changing events. The Heroes Journey.
Terry has built a roster of 10 PC’s, each with a unique and useful history, racial background and powers. He also suggests that the initial group should be around 6 or even 7, so some of the PCs will be unneeded. Does this create plot holes? Are some PC’s more critical than others? I think they are all pretty cool and illustrates Terry’s gift for flavor and descriptive writing. Each character is compelling with interesting roleplaying hooks. They also represent a variety of races and cultures that makes Shadow World such a great setting. Terry’s writing brings it alive.
PART III: TIMELINE
This section is just a few pages highlighting some major historical events from the 1st to Third Era. It provides some meta data for the Grand Campaign narrative. Notably, the timeline ends at or around 6051 Third Era, an important inflection date for Shadow World material. (fyi MA 4 goes to 6054.)
PART IV: GREATER POWERS
While there is nothing new in the Grand Campaign, much of these “Greater Powers” have been fleshed out in more detail in later works, specifically “Powers of Light & Darkness“. Notable to me, and one that I discuss often on the blog is the lack of traditional fantasy monsters: orcs, trolls, ogres, giants etc. Shadow World has a unique fauna, once that adds to the setting, not dilutes it. The PC’s are up against great evil and terrible foes, but not reduced to common RPG tropes.
PART V: LETHYS
This city is probably one of the lost opportunities in Shadow World material. As the largest city in Rhakhaan, a Lethys book would have been a great addition to Shadow World material. Jaiman provides about 1/2 a page to Lethys and the this chapter gives it 3-4 pages. However, Martin Jaobsson did quite a bit of work on this as an unofficial product, which can be found HERE so anyone that wanted a detailed, building level description of Lethys, then Martins work is fantastic. With Martin’s work a GM could dramatically expand the start of the Grand Campaign and perhaps add some more flavor to the “party build”.
This chapter also pulls together motivations for the party build: why and/or how does this group connect? Of course the answer is always “in a tavern” (Flask & Mug) but honestly, the reasons for a party build of a diverse group of strangers has always felt a bit contrived in any gaming group. Terry provides the barebones of motivation so the group can begin the journey. Perhaps using Martin’s Lethys material, a more layered approach could be developed. Perhaps a series of mini-adventures or encounters that build the group one by one. Less involved is to have two smaller groups that eventual join up and collaborate. One reason to cooperate between 2 groups is an easier pull than having multiple reasons for 6 to join forces?
PART VI: NOMIKOS LIBRARY.
The second stop is Ormian and the famed library of Nomikos. The Jaiman source book has detailed information on the library so there is ample floorplans and background for a GM to guide the adventure. There is a subplot involving the Changramai and some contrived exposition via research to provide info on the Crowns and the more expansive story line around the Secret Circle. I would note that this would be a perfect entry point into the extended Sea Drake Legacy campaign found in Jaiman. This would allow a more extended adventure, build character experience and levels and uses a lot of great material.
Also, the segue from PART VI to VII is awkward at best and uses a Essaence Storm to redirect the group. The extended Sea Drake Legacy would make the eventual trip to the Zorian Wastes much more organic.
PART VII: THE ZORIAN WASTES
I recently blogged about the Zorian Wastes and the inclusion in the Grand Campaign is fantastic for a post-apocalyptic adventure. Clearly Terry repurposed much of this chapter into the Aalk Vaalg adventure on Drivethrurpg so while there is not much in new material, there is enough to make this chapter into 2 or more gaming sessions.
PART VIII: HAALKITAINE
I don’t believe Haalkitaine was published when the Grand Campaign came out, but now with that book a GM could add a number of side plots or expand the scope of the campaign. One note is the lack of Uthgool in the Haalkitaine book. Also there is some changes when it comes to the Phoenix “items”. If the Seadrake Legacy was inserted after the Nomikos Library, then the PC’s will already have built some experiences in Haalkitaine. Another adventure in the sewers and catacombs would be the segue into 3-Return to Underearth. Rather than search for the “sword”, the group could merely be fleeing a foe or utilizing a mysterious underground tunnel to access Tanara. Note that there is a Major Essaence Flow barrier between Haalkitaine and Tanara following the Gray Mountains.
PART IX: TANARA
Tanara. In the GC, Terry cautions the use of the Cloudlord books due to changes in material and a differing timeline; but with the update of Cloudlords of Tanara we once again have a fully fleshed out region that can complement the Grand Campaign story line. The Tanara plot is fairly basic, so this is a good chance to introduce the Cloudlords or even the Narselkin. Depending on the group, acquiring powerful weapons and artifacts will be critical for their ultimate success. Plus the players love themselves some cool kit!!
PART X: THE GRYPHON
Gryphon College. The Gryphon College in the Grand Campaign isn’t quite fleshed out as in Jaiman and for the GC, the purpose of the visit is for exposition/information dump via Visions and guidance from Zaris. There is no mention of the Gryphons, or the Ilarsir but they could meet Kalen and Jad! The floorplans in the Jaiman book will be useful. If the group ran the Sea Drake campaign, then they will have a better understanding of the Crowns and this visit to Gryphon College could be more purposeful beyond R&R.
PART XI: THE SARALIS FRONTIER & PART XII: A CHILL WIND IN LU’NAK
These sections of the GC was great in 1990 when there was little know about the NW of Jaiman. However, this whole section could be replaced by using the Xa’ar Source book. Encounters with Shards, Elor and learning more about the Earthwardens would be useful to the overall campaign. A journey through Saralis and the Blue Forest would be an epic overland journey–so far there hasn’t been much for wilderness adventuring in the the Grand Campaign.
PART XIII: THE MUR FOSTISYR
The region where it all began. The Iron Wind. Perhaps my favorite roleplaying supplement, the Iron Wind would be a rich environment for an extended series in the Grand Campaign. For the Grand Campaign, the plot centers around one of the PC’s a Ky’taari, but the Iron Wind provides ample adventure opportunities that could add to the campaign: the White Dragon, the Demonlord, the Udahir and the Syrkakar.
PART XIV: Urulan
For me, this was an intriguing section of the Grand Campaign. What was going on in Urulan? Over time I think Terry changed some of his thoughts on Urulan, but I based a lot of Empire of the Black Dragon on his material in the Grand Campaign: the Steel Rain, the Iron Warriors and the mechanical mining devices. This is the entry point in my Empire of the Black Dragon module and takes the characters to Emer, then to Agyra and includes further interactions with the Sisters of the Steel Rain, Jenkyna and Ulya Shek. That material segues into Priest-King of Shade and then the group returns to Sel-Kai for an interlude…
Because Terry fleshed out Jaiman, Book One of the Grand Campaign is a intensive and ready to use adventure series. The Grand Campaign itself is less important as a narrative, but more useful as sign posts using existing Shadow World material.
Martin’s Lethys — Jaiman/Nomikos — Jaiman/Sea Drake Legacy — Aalk Vaalg –Haalkitaine — Cloudlords of Tanara — Jaiman/Gryphon College –Xa’ar — The Iron Wind –Empire of the Black Dragon–Priest King of Shade –Eidolon.
Book One is likely years of adventuring if a GM were to utilize a majority of the adventures, encounters and subplots. These would include interacting with most of the notable organizations and forces of Jaiman and build a knowledge base for the group. In short, the Grand Campaign is a full tour of Jaiman!
The meta plot, (Secret Circle etc) is really a side issue for Book One. This first part is for leveling up, skill building and group strategy. I think the group can realistically reach 8th to 10th level, which is probably a good level to be for Book Two!
Stay tuned for Books Two and Three. These were only outlined by Terry but once again the material is there for use.