Design Team | Project | Main Objective
Converting KB to 3E | Inspirations | Copyright

The KaranBlade project

This world was created a long time ago, kind like five or six years before... At these days I were very excited about playing RPGs (mostly AD&D and Rolemaster) and reading J.R.R.Tolkien and Dragonlance books. So, I decided to write my own book, and called it Fire in Talantha. The book was basicaly about a rotunnian that followed his destiny and entered the most dangerous mission of all: The mission to stop the Balrog! Well, as you can imagine, at the end of the tale the rotunnian managed to send the monster to another long sleep, wielding the KaranBlade (unfortunely, I wrote this book in portuguese and can`t show it here... nor have the time to translate it).

Well, I finished this book, wrote part of a second one, and forget this world for a long time... Partly because I did stop playing RPGs too. It was about one or two months ago (just to say, I`m writing this 06/02/98!), when I restarted to play AD&D with a bunch of friends, that I got the inspiration to not only write more about KaranBlade, but to bring it to the internet too. I thought it would be very hard to put the things all together again, but now I know I have made the right choice... It took a huge time to do it, but it was wonderful to do. Not only for me, but to the many people that come visit my world. These people are always encoraging me, loving my work... Now I have more inspiration than ever, because of them, because of you that are reading me right now...

So, thank you all that have entered my page, signed my guestbook, put a link for here on your page, emailed me with comments... And, most of all, thank you that are using my stuff, or my entire campaign, to play AD&D or any other RPG you like. Cause, after all, that`s my final objective: To make people actually play my world! Thanks for you all.

The main KaranBlade`s objective

This campaign isn`t, officially, like many others that you may have played for AD&D... This campaign have a main objective: To stop the Balrog. Yes, oficialy the campaign must end when the characters got killed, or when they stop the Balrog from destroying the Near World... But, of course, if you want to run it as a DM, the choice is up to you. Anyway, there`s always the Planescape campaign waiting for god-like characters... :o)

At the campaign`s start, the lands should be not too dangerous, not too plagued by the demons surge... But, as the campaign advances, and the characters earn levels, the world should become more and more dangerous and scary, with more and more demons and vile monsters surging on the lands. At the campaign`s end, the world should be totally chaotic, with the races fighting between them for territory, the sky as red as rose petals, and the Balrog and his army destroying city after city... Of course the Magic House should be destroyed at the end, so the once poweful adepts will have to use their minds for the limit to be useful on the final battle!

For the final battle with the Balrog, I suggest the city of Talantha, that maybe the last city standing against the monster... Of course the characters will have to search hard for the Sword of Ethernal Fire (KaranBlade), but I suggest you to have them encountering the Balrog a few times before finding the Sword... Mostly because with the KaranBlade the defeating of the Balrog should be eminent.

And, at the end, if the Balrog is defeat, the world should return to be peaceful and bright... As the characters should become living legends, to be remembered forever among the lands! Or, if you want to continue the campaign, you may send them to Sigil (see Planescape) by some weird way... It`s up to you, my honorable DM. Make what you want, and don`t forget to email me if you need some aid for keeping your KaranBlade campaign running well. Cya around.

Converting KaranBlade to D&D Third Edition

If you are familiar with AD&D or have been through any updated AD&D site on the web, you should know that we have a new version of AD&D released by TSR since August/2000. The Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition is the sequel of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition, to which KaranBlade was originally designed for. The new rules are excellent and added much depth to the game. They decided to take the "Advanced" from the title to attract new players, but this version is for sure the most advanced (excluding the new rules for clerics, which seen to be all the same now, independent of to which god they pray for...)

If you are a long time visitor of this site, you might know that KaranBlade now is a "section" of Dndworld.com, our new site designed to be a D&D 3E Portal. Well, and if you already visited Dndworld.com, you might have noticed that some races, items, and other stuff, are plain conversions from the same races, items and stuff from KaranBlade. So, if you want to update your campaign of KaranBlade to 3E, it will be easy if you have patience to wait for all our conversions being posted at Dndworld.com

Unfortunately we are not converting stuff this fast, and then you might convert KaranBlade to D&D 3E by your own... We just thought that we could help you doing that by listing some notes here:

-Classes: Amazingly, some of the D&D 3E classes and prestige classes fits perfectly to KaranBlade (maybe they had took a look at our site): The Channeler kit match the Sorcerer almost perfectly. The Adept kit might be considered a prestige class which resembles a Wizard with more spells per day and no familiar. The Nightblade kit/class also match with the prestige class Assassin very good. Yinai monks might be converted to the Monk class. The Gods of KaranBlade have their major spheres listed, it should be very easy to convert these spheres to the Cleric class domains. The Knights kits can be easily converted to Fighter alike prestige classes with the respective bonus abilities in exchange of the bonus feats.
-Races: About the races, the only unique KaranBlade races are already converted to 3E on Dndworld.com: the Uldras and the Syllian Orcs (Orkeens). Rotunnians might have the Barbarian as their Favored Class. Khitaians could be inclined to make Monk or oriental styled Fighters (usually with more Dexterity than Strength). All racial bonuses to abilities should be doubled (so, Elves gain +2 to Dexterity and -2 to Constitution, just like D&D 3E). You can get the Orc race from 3E Monster Manual and convert it to the Barren Orcs.
-Monsters: The Balrog should be a mix between the Tarrasque and a Pit Fiend (or greater demon), and the Baldreads can be easily found on the Demons of 3E Monster Manual as well. The Black Trolls are just like Trolls, but with vulnerability to sunlight and more strong/dumb. The Giant Eagles are already on the 3E Monster Manual.
-Items (& rest): For all the rest, conversions should be very easy. The Sword of Eternal Fire is already listed on Dndworld.com, and the Soluakh Crystals are just items who give more spells per day to the Adept class/prestige class. Spells are easily adaptable. The Gods can be easily converted by changing spheres for domains... About all the rest is just descriptive information, with no relation to any specific rule.

We hope that this helps you to convert your KaranBlade campaign to D&D 3E rules with ease. Don't forget to check back to both KaranBlade and Dndworld.com for updates and conversions. If you think you might help us with anything, don't be shy, contact us using the emails on the top of this page. Thanks for your support. Enjoy!

Inspirations

Well, I`m receiving lots of comments about this site asking how I came up with that idea for the KaranBlade campaign. Well, I just said above that I have taken the basic aspects of the world and history from a book written by myself years ago... But, of course it wasn`t just like that. Not only to write this book, but to do lots of things on the wings of fantasy, I have alot of personal inspiratons, from various forms of arts. So, I feel that I just had to list my inspirations here...

Who knows? Maybe some of you read this and get the same inspiration to do another creative things... On the wings of fantasy.

-Books: As I mentioned on my library, I have strong inpiration on the amazing work of J.R.R. Tolkien... Particularly on the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Also, I can mention Dragonlance novels, Conan books and comics, Bone comics, Groo comics, Dr.Strange comics and Dreadstar comics (by Jim Starlin). I got inspiration for the Ancient Lores by reading various mythos of the creation of our world, and also by checking the great work of Platho and the best book there is: Bhagavad Gítá.
-RPGs: D&D, AD&D (having to emphatize the great work of Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax and David "Zeb" Cook), M.E.R.P., Rolemaster, Palladium and the various AD&D campaigns (mostly Forgotten Realms and Planescape).
-Music: Yes (and Roger Dean great covers), Pink Floyd, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull, Tempus Fugit and various musicians from the medieval era.
-Movies: Excalibur, Conan, Willow, Lady Hawke, Brave Heart and Dragon Heart (which could be more serious).
-General Art: Well, I`m an engraver too, and if you haven`t noticed it yet, I love the work of M.C.Escher (you can find some of his works on this site). Also, I`m obviously inpired by the incredible TSR artists, particularly Larry Elmore. Finally, there`s Bosch (the first fantasy artist of this planet), Dürer ,Kandinsky, Dali, Frazetta, Mr. and Mrs.Vallejo, Vincente Segrelles, Moebius, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, John Byrne and George Perez (the man with more patience alive).

Rafael Arrais