The Grey Neighborhood's Log #1

In 2021, before I made the Itch account, before EMPLOYEE was even a concept, there was The Grey Neighborhood.

I even already declared it back then.

Back then, I even didn't know how to make a campaign, or a thing and two that I need to know and prepare to make a D&D campaign - heck, I even didn't really know what the current edition of D&D at that time! All I know was there is a game called Dungeons and Dragons that you play it with a dices and sheets and pencils and imaginations and a bunch of books. There.

And one day, I draws several simple figures and I posted it seperatedly at IG with each roles and health and defense and et cetera on each captions. And at April 28, I post the picture above along with their name - The Gray / Grey Neighborhood. At that time, it's just a concept - an adventure that involving a three boys, a sentient motorcycle, two creature that representing angel and devil, a tyrannosaurus, and a frog magician (that also a merchant). That's all. And I continue with my life.

2022, I started to joining the bandwagon. And all I had inside my head at first was The Grey Neighborhood. Due to limited knowledge and lack of experiences of current edition of Dungeon and Dragons, I believe it would be wise to based my game from it's fundamental, origin documents available on the internet : 

System References

By using Advance Dungeon and Dragons FIRST EDITION and AD&D Monster Manual. That was the first thing I had in mind - First edition will be providing basic informations that I needed. But Boy, how wrong I am.

I read the AD&D and didn't understand at all. I flipped the pages and presented in front of me tables with numbers and things. This is not as easy as I thought. After re-reading for several times and playing the introductionary solo adventure provided on the module, I gave up and start doing that I can do at that time : create the story.

Settings - why with the Risk Mgmt?

What is a semi-modern suburban area? what is encounter on risk management?

Imagine the first area from Tony Hawk Underground 1 but with red, ashes skies and it was a post-apocalyptic setting where the buildings were not buildings anymore but rubbles and ruins. Humans still exist in this world, but also with another sentient creatures - they are forced to lived side-by-side. And what with risk management encounter? I got the idea after purchasing Jason Tocci's 2400 and read several modules from it. And I thought "Shit.. this mechanism is risk-based management". But funny thing is, I didn't confident enough to put Tocci's 2400 on the system reference - I need more data and more evidence on how the game works.

Opening hook

As I mentioned above, I already had the setting on my head. And Preemo (from the word Primer) would be a great name for a starter point. 

Character creation

I remember when I deciding on this : I only had one d6 from a Monopoly and a d12 from MTG's bundle box. And why with the stats? Why there are only STR, AGI, INT, CHR, and WIS? Truth to be told, Constitution was the thing that I totally forgot and didn't understand at all. STR, AGI, INT, CHR, WIS - I'm familiar with these stat blocks, I knew it from the old JRPGs I played since I was a boy. While Constitution was a new thing for me. Hence, I left it out.

Three starting quests

And for The Grey Neighborhood, I wanted to implement a Quest system - which is an absolute steals from all those RPGs I played. 

I think I need to scan my writing book, it had so much more information regarding this.