RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026, Days 1-3 - The Fifth Moon of Elysia, plus Kraite Felrune and what's in the night sky

Buckle up, everyone...it's challenge time!

(Ugh.  "Buckle up."  Really...😅)

So anyway...when Adam Dickstein aka Barking Alien posted the details for his RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE (not sure if the caps are important or not) last week, it was obvious to me that I wanted to take part.  It's always fun to be part of something as I tap away in my little corner of the blogosphere.  BUT...it wasn't obvious what I should write about.  The only game that I'm currently sort of running is the eponymous Monstrous Matters campaign, in which Father Josh continues to indulge my ridiculously overwrought dilemmas with even more ridiculously designed solutions.

I also really love the idea of having a blogging challenge force me to shape ideas bouncing around my noggin (oh man, I'm turning into my Dad...) into a form that's accessible to (1) people other than me, and (2) me, years from now when I mine my Monstrous ramblings for memories.  And so...I'm going back.  You might even say way back.  More than six years ago, I started writing about a gaming project that I had the bald-faced audacity to call "The One I'm Going to Finish."  That endeavor was also known as Project 5.5...a plan to formalize some game rules that make use of stocky, overmuscled, 5.5-inch action figures in the style of Masters of the Universe.

I even found an eBay deal for some old figures, to kickstart my character creation...

I'm actually not 100% certain where these figures have been stashed away since we moved to New Jersey, which is probably some sort of metaphor for my lifelong struggle to pay attention to one of my "million dollar ideas" long enough to get a few bucks' worth of fun out of it.

Alas...aka of course...that didn't end up being the one I finished.  But maybe there's still enough time to correct that...?  And even if I don't completely complete it, in a complete way, maybe some creativity will get splashed onto my other creative projects through their connections to Project 5.5 or simply the mind-flexing that will surely accompany seeing everyone else's posts for the month.

Then it's settled!  For Barking Alien's RPG Campaign Tour Challenge, I present...

The Fifth Moon of Elysia...

The fifth moon is that blue marble to the upper left of Elysia; image by Decster1

...a heroic science fantasy setting filled with rebels, magic, technology, and lots (and lots) of muscles.

So let's get into this thing!  (And get...almost caught up...!)

Check out Adam's full post for more details on the daily assignments...which I'll also write out as I go...

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Day 1 - Campaign Introduction and Overview
What is your campaign called, what system does it use, and what is it all about?

The Fifth Moon of Elysia is all about heroes and villains battling for the magical soul of the multiverse.  Elysia is the fifth planet in its star system, and many of the celestial bodies within rocketshot are prime adventure locales.  The system's heroes are colorful, and its villains are pretty unflinchingly evil...but maybe we can even work in a shade of gray here and there...

For the game (not star) system, I'll take a stab at polishing up the framework I've been throwing about for playing with action figures of a slightly smaller scale...which will broadly follow the rules of my own take on a (Monstrous) fantasy heartbreaker.

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Day 2 - About Your Tour Guide
Introduce us to a character who can serve as our guide through your campaign and its setting.

All right, let's see.  I think maybe I have a direction to take this, so let's go with this guy...

Kraite Felrune

Image by Land_of_Books_YouTube

(He's the one in the middle.)

Kraite spend much of his youth with various Orcish raiding parties, having plenty of good times and causing plenty more destruction across the entire system.  But now he's seen the light, found his purpose, and started fighting the battles of a hero.  He stands in fierce opposition to the cruel authoritarian rule of the Evil Being That Wants to Rule Everything™.

We'll all learn more about Kraite as the month goes on...

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Day 3 - Where the heck are we?
What is the campaign's location, and where is that location in related to other important places?

Let's zoom in on our moon of interest:

Image by AdisResic

If it looks Earthlike...well, yeah.  The fifth moon of the system's fifth planet (sometimes referred to as astronomical body 5.5) would definitely remind us of our own homeworld.  There are even a bunch of the same organisms living on both our Earth and AB5.5.  But rest assured...there's some weird shit here too.  (I can't wait to learn about it all...!)

Oh!  This fifth planet (name TBD soonish) actually has nine moons, plus a tenth that only appears during certain time windows in the story of the universe.  And all of the moons are really closely tied to the magic in the setting.

Hmm...

Okay, thank you for reading!  See you soon with more from AB5.5...

Not AB5.5; also, swiped from the Battle Ram blog.