Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 15:00:22 -0400
From: Michael
To: bretg
Subject: Thought this might interest you...


This is a letter I sent to Jim right at the begining of the planning
for Reunicon IV.  It shows you what I was thinking when I first started
working on it, before we had written anything.  

Enjoy!

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Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 18:32:05 -0400
From: Michael
To: jim
Subject: Tourney stuff
Status: R


I don't know what Alex told you  about our ideas. Here is a synopsis:

(1) Party is sent to lower planes to recover a magic item.
(2) Party is high level, but encounters level-drainers in ambush and
    reduced to low-level BEFORE play begins.
(3) Cleric with Plane shift spell is either to low level to cast, or is NPC
    killed in ambush.  Party has no immediate means of escape.
(4) Party consists of Paladin Lord, his squire, wizard, and his apprentice.
    An additonal thief or cleric or other can be added.
(5) Scoring will be based on the following scheme:

	Each character will have a set of goals based on his background
	information and relationship with other characters.  Though these
	goals will be made clear by background, it will never be stated
	by the DMs that they are TOURNAMENT GOALS and SCORE POINTS.
	Scoring of certain points may be dependent upon the living/death
 	status of certain characters, for example:
		(A) Squire scores points for survival of his lord,
		    whether or not the squire himself survives.
		(B) Wizard scores points for retreival of Staff only
		    if he survives (other characters may score for this though)

(6) One goal of this tournament is to bring the D&D back into the tournament.
    So far, most of the emphasis has been on "puzzle solving", especially
    in the first two tourneys.  The emphasis in this game is on
		(A) Role-playing
		(B) Resource Allocation
		(C) Tactics
		(D) Strategy


-------------

Now what we have to do:

		A LOT !!

We have to build a full-size, believable, interesting demon castle,
which is both challenging and survivable for mid-level characters with
high-level magic-items and extra resources.  This will not be easy, IMHO.

The first question I had was:  How can they get out?  So I put Alex to
work on a list of "50 ways to get home from Hades".  That'll give us
some ideas.

Meanwhile I've been working on the characters.  I've been working on them 
in my head for 1 year already, but I'm just starting to write them down.
What I want to do is come up with stats, equipment, and background for
4 (maybe 6?) characters, and also a description of how each character
views each other character.  I'll send you what I have written so far 
about Ptarlis Venkkarion, the Paladin Lord.  It should give you some idea
about the background that Alex and I have talked about.

At this point, absolutely everything is open for discussion, and the details
of Ptarlis especially so, so please send me any ideas.

In the mean time, why don't you do this for me, since you're coming at
this fresh.  Come up with a list of 100 things you might find in a castle
on the lower planes.  As much or as little detial as you want.

This should be fun!!

Michael