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Due to a seeming Lack of interest, I am considering closing this blog.

Otherwise the next installment is delayed until further notice.

So ive decided to create my first proper non hack n' slash campaign. My first campaign was 10 levels of sheer death. Being very inexperienced I learnt that it can getvery boring just killing things for a few hours with no plot after weeks;this time ive created a plot for thestory line and im going to blog how I do it.

The new campaign is going to be split in to 3 parts:

The 1st part will be Discovery (the heroic tier), it will be introducing the plot to the characters, keeping the story quite vague but enough to get them intrested; they will be learning about the world they are playing in. The players will be getting more comfortable with there characters nearer the end of this section and will be learning more and more about the campaign ahead.

The 2nd part will be Action (the

Walk along the shadows as I do, you'll see more than you ever expect. -Shadowmaster Darias Lonarian, Third master of house El'Lonarian.

The previous two installments of D4rkVision only touched on motives driving the PC's. Most PC's have the motive to earn gold and magic items from villainous monsters.  This drive goes on with each success.  Evil PC's, when played wrong, tend to hinder these successes, however this does not always need to be the case.

So how do you drive PC's forward when presented with the obstacle of an Evil PC?  Often this has to do with the way the player of the Evil PC goes about his/her characters actions.  So what should be done?  I had hinted that the DM can help prevent this from happening before the game begins by setting ground rules.  Rule number one

I finally began my 4e campaign, after a lot of time abroad and thus far from my gaming group, and guess what, in all this time I hadn't prepared anything meaningful! :-D

I decided to rely on improvisation, following the guidelines I had previously decided. I had many ideas for plot and general setting, so at least the improvisation was not entirely random.

Now that a few sessions have been played, and the story really starts to take form, I decided to start crafting some custom things for my world, in order to make it feel a little more unique.

I come from the typical 3e DMing philosophy of crafting custom monsters using templates and adding and mixing class levels and feats. This kind of strenuous job is not part of the game anymore, and as many DMs out there, I'm pleased with the new direction.

Well after about 2.5 years since my last campaign I am planning another. This is a big thing for me for several reasons. The first is that this is my first attempt to run a 4e campaign so it will be a big learning curve. I have been studying the books tho and listerning to the podcasts from "Major Spoilers" (Get them from iTunes!) and I think I am figuring it out.

What is more interesting tho is that I am not living in the south anymore. Since my last campaign I have moved north to Baker Lake in Nunavut (Canada's north for all you folks not up on your geography). The location is VERY remote and also very small. There are no gamers up here so I am setting up a campaign with friends over the Internet. This is resulting in a large investment as I am purchasing minis and dungeon tiles to make

A.k.a. Give me a break - You seriously want to do that?

This is a continuation from the first episode of D4rkVision.  In the first episode we discussed the initial introduction to playing an Evil PC.  Part two here will discuss how to deal with players who go too far with their alignment, specifically related to Lawful Good and Evil PC's.  DM's have all had that player who play the Lawful Good Paladin who wants to kill evildoers before they even do anything.  I've been a player on the end of a paladin's blade because of the Paladin's detect evil ability.  My main argument, I haven't done anything evil near you.  This changed the way my DM at the time thought on Evil characters(PC's specifically).

This was a quite annoying thing to have happen to me and this was back when I played

Take a walk in darkness as you explore the depths beyond the wells of light.

As an introduction to this blog, I would like to welcome you and introduce you all to the idea behind this thread.  I may not have years of DMing under my belt, however as a DM I have discovered that other DM's and even players seem to have an issue with playing or including Evil PC's in their games.  Playing good characters seems to be what many agree to, however in D&D and other games there is always room for going against the norm.

This being said, lets take a walk through moral ambiguity and the implications of evil. The PHB defines Evil as Tyranny and Hatred. This is a pretty basic definition for this alignment, a more complete definition of the evil alignment is on the very next page and actually echoes