Friday Night Lights
The live stream community around Shard is growing. The newest entrant is Dessica Nuvell’s Lier. It airs on Twitch every Friday night at https://www.twitch.tv/dessicanuvell. The first episode is available on demand. A sneak peak at the way they used Shard to build out the shared world of Lier is also posted on the channel.
I caught up with Dessica to ask a few questions.
Q: Tell us a little bit about this new live stream campaign you started last week. What’s the setting? Without too many spoilers, what’s the spark that starts the adventure?
Lier is a bit of a labor of love that started about a year ago. It's a high fantasy setting within the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.
The basic overview is that an "Ancient" Elven "Mage" has pulled the players together to provide them with an ancient and powerful "Artifact" that has some unusual properties. This "Mage" also knows some things about what the party represents, as well as the initial non-player characters they encounter. Her meddling, as it were, has changed the outcome of some major events in the world, in some cases for the better.
Q: Who are the characters? Has this group played together before?
Currently, the characters are:
Shux - Half-Orc Ranger - with 2 adopted children a Tiefling boy and a Human girl.
Scath - Half-Elf Rogue - Noble who fled from home after being forced into an arranged marriage.
Viktor - Human Paladin - Raised by Gnomes, ex enforcer for the Gnomish mob turned Paladin for The Order of the Silver Flame.
Dr. Verhoven - Gunslinger Gnome - Renowned surgeon who recently acquired a brain-injury and now finds himself in a Dr. Jekyl Mr. Hyde scenario.
Xarmong - Tiefling Warlock - Raised by humans and pacted to The Great Old one Dendar. He lost his left eye in the pact and now a crystal is in its place.
Wulgar - Dwarven Cleric - Wulgar fled The Empire of Durol Dein 2000 years ago when something dark and dangerous was uncovered. During this fleeing, he was displaced 2000 years into the future where he is the last of his kind.
I played campaigns with two of them before. Hyste who is playing Shux was with me in a campaign a little over a year ago and we got up to some excellent hijinx. Viktor was my DM in a campaign that just recently ended where I was an Elven Sorceress.
Q: What do you like most about playing D&D?
As a DM I love the opportunity to tell an Epic Story that people are still talking bout long after it has ended.
As a Player, I enjoy being able to explore new character concepts and alignments for my only play style. Though, if I am being honest I'm almost always a Drow Sorceress.
Q: What drew you to Shard?
I was fed up with the available online tools as they were. I looked at a few options but in the end, Shard provided a clean UI and experience with a lot of room for customization. Joining the Discord for Shard and realizing how responsive the development team was, definitely confirmed this was the right choice.
Q: Do you have a favorite feature?
If I had to narrow it down it would be the customization tools that allow us to add in classes, sub-classes, items, and other features for the players to use. Honestly, this section of Shard continues to wow me each time we think of adding something new.
To catch up with Dessica and the cast, join them Friday nights on Twitch. You can also find them to ask your own follow up questions on the Shard Discord server.