INTRODUCTION

Welcome...

This site is dedicated to a classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign called "Queen of the Spiders" and those players who have chosen to embark upon it. The campaign is actually a series of seven modules written by E. Gary Gygax that were later combined to form one super-module in 1986. It was ranked as the #1 AD&D module of all time by Dungeon magazine on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game. 

The rules of this campaign will be using the Pathfinder gaming system which was published following the birth of 4th Edition D&D. I have chosen the Pathfinder system (and the D&D 3.5 Edition rules they are based on) since they resemble more closely the original game that Gygax created this adventure for. The setting of the campaign will take place primarily in the land of Varisia on the Pathfinder fantasy world of Golarion. Since the original adventure took place in the World of Greyhawk setting, there are going to be a number of changes to the module as written. But, the spirit of Gygax's creation will remain intact (as will the most significant encounters and most enjoyable moments).

Also, I have decided to start the players out with brand new 1st-level characters so that when all is said and done, the characters that survive can truly say they made it from 1st-level all the way to 20th! Since the original adventure was for levels 8-14, it will be necessary for me to "flesh out" some additional details, mostly at the earlier stages. Hopefully, the entire story arc will be lots of fun for all participants and well worth sticking around for.

For those who are unfamiliar with the setting or game rules, there is nothing to fear. Resources will be made available for anyone who needs them. What is more important is to get everybody comfortable with the concept of Play-by-Blog (PbB) gaming (which is new to me, as well). It should be very similar to Play-by-Post (PbP) gaming which I am very familiar with and have run games with in the past. So, do not worry... we'll get through this together.

The first thing you need to know is that PbB is slow moving. Sometimes very slow. While this can tend to reduce the excitment for some players, it also makes gaming possible for people who have very little time to game or who have schedules that don't permit large groups of people to get together in one place at the same time. The way it generally works is, I (as The Dungeon Master) will post something in the blog that poses some sort of situation, scenario, or challenge. Basically it is just like table-top gaming except I'm not reading the descriptions to you, I'm writing them in the blog. Then the players post their actions to interact with the picture I just painted for them. They do this by commenting on my post. Usually after all players have acted, I will comment in the blog again to reveal the results of the players' actions. It is pretty much that simple.

So, you can imagine that playing this way would not be very time consuming. As my adventuring group begins to assemble and develop their characters, I will go into more detail about how this blog, and game play, will work.