LowrollersLive Starts Tonight!
I have spent a lot of my childhood playing tabletop games which was initiated by my parents playing the game Champions in the Hero System. When I got into college, I think I mentioned D&D very loosely in conversation and was given one of three reactions:
1. Isn’t that a game for nerds.
2. That is Satan's game, how dare you play that!
3. Oh hey, I used to play that too.
And thus I ignored the first two responses and gathered some of my friends to begin the journey of becoming addicts to collaborative storytelling. We have played games like Fate, Fantasy Hero, homebrew star wars and starcraft systems, and most prominently D&D Next. And this storytelling concept gave us the idea to take our game to twitch.tv tonight! My friends and I have developed a weekly campaign that has accumulated our joint experiences as story enthusiast. I figured I will give you a brief overview of the characters and what to expect when you check it out!
Astor Mithlader is half-elf Bard/Paladin played by Daniel Garcia. Danny started my campaign as a rather new tabletop gamer. His character idea was thus very… shall I say it?... dull. He was in a traveling performing group and decided to make a name for himself as a bard. So I opted to make this character the target of my own storyline through an archfey Damh. Astor unwilling trapped Damh in his sword and thus Damh has forced Danny to make Astor more interesting. Astor explores a coming of age story that basically shows Astor making right decisions and being the hero he was destined to be.
Narroth is a half-dragon sorcerer played by Jonathan Edwards. Jon created this idea that he wanted to have the greed of a red-dragon and slowly become more dragon-like. I turned this idea on its head and played a storyline where Narroth can gain power by acting more human. From here Narroth is attempting to find a balance between his two natures leading to a theme of wholeness. Narroth will continue to learn more things about his draconic heritage while also realizing there is much power from simply being human.
Zarrius is a tiefling gnome monk played by Robert Seitz. I am incredibly proud of Seitz as a player, his normal archetype is a dumb barbarian or fighter whose main contribution is smashing someone's head in. When he joined the campaign, I basically told him I did not want a dumb brute just for the sake of combat. With much work, Zarrius was born. Zarrius has duel sponsorships, one from being a clerical devotee to Obad’hai and the other by signing a contract with Asmodeus to try and save his mother. Thus we find a theme of morality and specifically “doing the wrong things for the right reasons”. I personally find this character fascinating and very believable. How far will Zarrius go to save his family?
Lady Lillith Von Kiln is a human cleric played by Alan Seymour. Alan was having some trouble in the past chapter finding a character that truly fit in with the tone and nature of the party/story. Then we finally landed on Lillith, a character who is struggling to find peace with her past. Lillith blames herself for the death of a significant other and her acts in the Tower of Babel may have changed time itself. Thus a theme of forgiveness is present but who or what is Lillith trying to forgive? It is also important to note Alan is our New York friend we met while playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. While we no longer play the MMO, we come together to play D&D and have kept in contact because of tabletop gaming.
Bryn Wanders is our tiefling fighter played by our executive producer Daniel Allinson. Bryn will join the cast in the first episode tonight but she has been hinted at in the previous story arc. See Danny pitched me this character with a 35+ page backstory involving what has happened to Bryn and thus I am excited to see how he chooses to play her tonight. She portrays a theme of contentment and I personally am excited to see how she pushes the party.
Story-wise, the party has just been saved after a crushing defeat in the Tower of Babel where they accidentally set free an old God. This God is known as the Lecherous Lion, a mind-controlling beholder who has created the mind flayers and allowed psionics to enter the world. The party is going to try and fix the problem they caused and (hopefully) redeem their mistakes.
Check out the next chapter of Shadow of Death: Road to Redemption tonight at 9pm PST at twitch.tv/pwrlvlpodcasts!
