The Story is an on going campaign set in the world of Rhea. Rhea is, in many ways; very similar to Earth in the first century A.D. Rome is the major power and rules a large portion of the world. Unlike Earth though in Rhea’s timeline the Keltic nations, Gual, Britian, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall united and threw off Roman Rule. The Seven Keltic nations have united to form the Kingdom of Keltia under the rule of an Ardrigh (High King). Other major differences between Earth and Rhea are that on Rhea magic works and there are intelligent races other than humans.

The Basic priniciple upon which the Story is based is the concept that characters (thru the auspices of their players) have free will. It is our belief that the DM should be an invisible bureaucrat rather than a central figure in the game. It’s the DM’s job to administer the rules of the game but it is the player’s that really create the game. It is only through the interaction of the players that the world takes form and the story begins. It is our hope to forge a campaign world that allows each player to create his or her own story and in doing so create, in part, the history of the world.

The question you might have is how do we do this. The answer lies in maintaining uniqueness to the world. In many on-going campaigns the same module is run several times. Running a module more than once often results in several groups of people having had similar experiences and even gaining the same items. We, the creators of the Story, believe that each event should be ran only once and that every player and characters experience in our world should be unique. It is our intention to only run each event or module once. Once a module/adventure has been run it will be retired. Retiring an adventure does not necessarily mean that people can not go through the same dungeon but it does mean that each time a group goes through a particular dungeon that dungeon changes due to the presence the player’s.

The Story is also unique in that for the most part we do not write specific adventures that players take part in. In most modules and campaigns we have visited the players participate in a linear series of events. The module requires that the characters move from point A to Point Z by going thru Points B thru Y. This method often forces the DM to give hints, speed the players along thru certain areas, and basically force a pattern upon what the characters do. This pattern we believe restricts the players individuality and free will. We have chosen a less linear approach to the writing of our campaign.

In the Story we give players the oppurtunity to explore the world the way they want to explore it. When a character enters "The Story" there are many things going on all around him or her. They will start out, as first level character’s who are just beginning to learn their trade. They will be given the oppurtunity to seek out further training or adventure as the player see’s fit. The character will find oppurtunities all around him or her but it is up to them to look and decide what they want to do. There might be soliders seeking recruits for the army, there might be government officials seeking to hire people to kill rats in the sewers, their might be recruiters for Gladiator School, or their might be merchants looking to hire on gaurds for a caravan. It is up to each individual player to decide what he or she wants to do. If enough players sign on for a specific event than that is where the adventure is. If only one person wants to do a specific event than for that player that is were the adventure is. This does not mean that we create adventures on the fly rather we have designed the area the event takes place in so that we know it initimately. We have created the setting, rented the hall, and prepared the Prop’s it is now the actors (the players) job to bring the Story to life.

In most campaigns that DM’s run at home the adventures are designed for "The Party". "The Party", is a specific group of adventurers who go from place to place slaying dragons, exploring Dungeons, and causing havoc. In such a world "The Party" has access to events, situations, and resources that the general run of the mill person doesn’t have. In such a campaign the Players work together to achieve common goals and generally are friends. In an On-going Campaign this method just doesn’t work. In an On-going campaign there is no "Party", rather there are a bunch of players who may or may not know each other or who may or may not have played together before. Each player brings to the table his or her own agenda and style.

For most On-going campaigns the solution to this mess is to curtail the player’s choices when designing characters. Many On-going campaigns won’t let players be evil, or assassins, or take character classes that might be disruptive to smooth playing. We, at "The Story", feel differently we believe that the solution is to open up the areana to everyone. If players wish to be evil they may. If players wish to be Orc Assassin’s they may. If players wish to steal from each other they may attempt to do so. If a character decideds to kill another character or NPC they may try and do so. The solution is consequences to your actions. If your character kills another character then he may become a fugitive from the law or not depending on the situation. The thing here is that we don’t protect the characters from suffering the results of their actions. If you attack an army alone you will probably die unless you have some extremely powerful magic’s protecting you.

Player Tips:

First when you decide to play in one of our events look at the title of the event. Our event titles are being standardized to give you more info at a glance. All of our modules will begin with the opening phrase of "The Story:". The next part of the title will give you a location in the world such as, The Story: Keltia". The third and last part of the title will give you some idea of what the event will be such as "The Story: Keltia – Paladins Quest. The term Quest is used to denote an event that will center on a specific character class. The word Gather will be used to denote an event that centers on a specific race such as Elfs. The Term Beginnings will be used to denote events geared toward new first level characters.

When you play in a story event you should be aware of where and when an event is taking place. Events will be occuring throughout the world at a convention but you may not be able to play the same character in all of our events. Characters are bound by time and location and must travel to a specific area to participate in the activities of that area. That means if you want to play in a event occurring in August in Keltia and an event occurring in Africa at the same time period you won’t be able to do it even if the two Events occur at different times in the real world. The way around this is to generate another character in one of the areas you wish to play in. Players may have more than one character but may only play one character per event even if those two characters are in the same area of the world.

If you wish to have your character travel in our world you may indicate that to the GM at the end of an event or you make take care of that during one of our interactives. Interactives are designed to allow players a chance to have one on one contact with the DM so that things like shopping, traveling, starting a business, buying a house, or other such day to day activities can be taken care of. Interactives will also generally have oppurtunites for Role-Playing and getting involved in events that might lead into other events.

Another Tip to those of you who wish to have a spell casting character be he mage, cleric, ranger, paladin, or any other spell casting character class. Spell Caster’s have delved deep into the mysteries of the universe and have spent a great deal of time studying and learning how to cast magical spells. This means we expect the players to do the same. Players with spell casting characters will be required to say their spell's words of power, (which may be in a foreign tongue), mages will be asked to decipher new spells, and basically you will be asked to roleplay. This means that you will have to work for your spells and that things might not be easy. If you don’t wish to invest the time in doing such things do yourself and us a favor and take a different class.

Techinical Info:

The Story uses the rules from the First Edition Advance Dungeons and Dragons game © TSR. Character’s can be generated at any event and eventually On-Line at our website. Our webpage can be found at Thestorywebsite.com.

Past & Future:

The Story Campaign has now successfully been run at Two Gen-Con’s (1999 & 2000) as well as OpCon XI (2000). Our hope is to expand the Story and run the events at other conventions in the future. We will be running an event this November 2000 the weekend after Thanksgiving at Conclave in Arlington Park.