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It's funny you guys are talking about the Realms when I'm thinking about what I will use if the new group ends up playing Tyranny of Dragons like I guess we will. What pre-Troubles resources do you recommend? I'm not sure anything I own is pre-Troubles, except the grey books from the boxed set (which I do not own as a whole).
It is dangerous to venture nakedly near the molten PIE Pits of Ygg!
I'm heading over to run my Pathfinder Beginner Box Rise of the Runelords game with my brother-in-law and nephews. I'll be curious to see how far they get through Thistletop.
To the first player who asks to play the Mystery Race from today's blog: Your character died. Hideously. Roll up a new one.
You really want an option #6. That way, you can randomly generate with a d6.
Tordek: Did you get your names out of the Edda?
Everyone in Texas hates this invasive species and its infernal sound. There are TONS of them, squeezing out our beautiful Texas songbirds. When I'm made Emperor of Texas, we will feed these hell-birds to the poor, baked in pies!grackleUntil March (in Chicago) I'd never seen a grackle! My list of icterids will soon be complete! Not in North Texas. We didn't see them here when I was a kid. They started showing up when I was a teen and their numbers have just gone through the roof, driving out other species. Major pest and noise pollutant.
Dwarves are not the evolutionary peak of maggots in Ygg, rest assured, Tordek. I have generally leapt on mythological material that has inspired me, and then performed some sort of demythologizing on it that can stand as the truth the world that bears some interesting relationship to the mythic material -- at least, interesting to me. I don't feel particularly inspired at the moment when it comes to dwarven origins. Clearly, dwarves fit into the same broad category as elves in the nordic material. I'm happy to keep the traditional association with stone. If I was going to go crazy, I'd say they turn into stone when exposed to sunlight...but instead of having party dwarves running around in trench-coats with big hats, sunglasses, gloves, umbrellas, and tubes of sunblock, maybe it would just be fun to say that dwarven bodies turn to stone if exposed to sunlight after death. Here's another question I have not come to any decision about: dwarven women?
It could be the universe's way of saying, spend more time on happy things and less on unhappy things.
Wand Spells
Spoiler: MAGIC-USER 0-Level Wand Spells (Cantrips)
Resistance: Subject gains +1 on saving throws. Acid Splash: Orb deals 1d3 acid damage. Counter-Spell: Targets Magic-User must make save to succeed in completing spell. Detect Poison: Detects poison in one creature or small object. Daze: A single humanoid creature with 4 HD or less loses its next action. Flare: Dazzles one creature (–1 on attack rolls). Ray of Frost: Ray deals 1d3 cold damage. Disrupt Undead: Deals 1d3 damage to one undead. Mage Hand: 5-pound telekinesis. Mending: Makes minor repairs on an object. Message: Whisper conversation at distance. Open/Close: Opens or closes small or light things. Arcane Mark: Inscribes a personal rune on an object or creature (visible or invisible). Prestidigitation: Performs minor tricks. Spark: Ignites flammable objects. Summon Wand : Summons one wand not in anyone's hand. I'm thinking Detect Poison might should be Cleric instead of MU. These spells would be cast with the M-U's wand. Haven't come up with the table for Known/Per Day yet. EDIT: I don't have to come up with Spells Known. Hast thou forgotten the awesome intelligence table on page 7!?
People should spend more time reading my documents!
Good news: Just got off the phone with one of the original members of my gaming group from back in the days of youth! He's joining us for the PbP! I'll be introducing him once he makes himself a Paizo account.
I took some inspiration from our happy little home and baked it up in a PIE.
Most (but not all) of giantkind's races are chaotic. A neutral elf would cooperate with Lawful armies to lay smackdown on giants that were threatening balance, if you are thinking in alignment terms. Of course, you might just also be a good elf tying to stop evil giants. Alignment is an important element in the game, and the one that will have some mechanical aspects, but not the only consideration. (Although, more important for a cleric, admittedly.)
Char Gen Update: I will let everyone get the to-hit and damage bonuses from STR, but only humans can have 18 STR.
Delta's work is one of the main things in my Silver Standard folder, yeap. What would have happened if the Greek city-states had hung around for longer than they did in an alternate world similar to our own? If, say, the Italian tribes had been dealt with by Norsemen and the Greeks had had less pressure from Persia (a world with monsters should could complicate things) and no Alexander the Great and had turned their attention to greater colonization of the Mediterranean Sea. That's the way my mind was going. They control trade in the Middle Sea, and various city-states trade with most folks that they can reach. The galleas (why can't I speel) would have been invented by them, eventually. A place for the classical look and feel to come into the game, and of course the classical monsters. Also, unlike the Greeks, they diversified their strategies and tactics in warfare, so that they did not lose to changes of circumstance like the Greeks did. They trade with the Magushabad, which receives stuff a la Silk Road, they have inland trade from the pygmies, and probably both overland and sea trade with the Norse. They are much more humanocentric than the Northlands...and maybe than Aryanastan. Religion focuses on the goddess (Thea Politas) and the god of the seas. Other members of the pantheon are less important now, partially due to a war with the Titans. Law is strong and centered on the patroness of civilization, the Earthshaker is more a power to be appeased so that the seas can be passed. There are different forms of government, different alliances and leagues, but on the whole a loyalty to the goddess and the classical way of life means they will circle the wagons (okay, ships) against outsiders. So, feel free to bring up anything from classical civilization and I'll think about how to work it for your character in this world.
Tordek: Looks good! Just one heads up: this game will use a more historically accurate silver standard. I'm still putting the notes together for that, but it's not as crazy as it may sound even though it's not finished yet. Otherwise, let's take a look at hitpoints. Char 2 we are doing RAW, but Char 1 you take the full HPs of your first level and then roll for you second level. I can't bring myself to use the rules for MCing. So choose your first class and then roll the second class. We will advance by classes, GM's discretion on timing, player's choice on which class advances. I am the God of XP, and thou shalt have no math before me. Also, did you remember to add in Con bonus?
Great! Which makes me realize, I had decided nothing about dwarves and gender in Ygg. Can anyone find an example of female dwarves in the Norse material? Lacking that, I guess someone could appeal to the Tolkien for their source literature.
AZ: Good. I don't think it's dropped yet. Also, <insert pimping of blog for F&D mention> Mothman: It's a cleaned-up, simplified, OGL version of D&D from the original little booklets. It comes in three flavors: White Box, Core Rules, and Complete Rules. The latter is a shiny book put out by Frog God Games. It shouldn't surprise you that a fellow Texan of mine is the genius behind all this.
Also, you can find some flavor of the world by looking at Ygg-related posts here.
So much for my speculation. You may now get your copy of the 4th printing of the Core Rules at RPGNOW!
YES!
Player's Guide to Ygg might not be a bad name. I've gone and re-posted player-safe material under that tab for you and others to read, Tordek.
Well, it looks like it is time to open up a discussion thread for this. Keep in mind that I am going to be in surgery Monday and in recovery for awhile, so please be patient if it takes me a while to get back to your questions. If you have not gone to download the S&W Core Rules, draft of 4th printing, you might want to do so. I know Matt Finch is getting close to releasing the 4th printing, and I'm not sure if there will be a period of time when the draft and the new printing are both unavailable in download during transition or not, but I figure it is better to be safe than sorry. When the actual 4th printing is available for download, I'll provide a link. Overtime, I'll migrate text from FB and DB over here, especially once it has achieved something of a more final form. Also, it occurred to me that now I am going to have to deal with a spoilers on the blog, so I think I will make two pages now. "THE DUNGEON OF GAME-MASTERY" will be off-limits to players thenceforth, so if anybody has a good suggestion for a name for the Player Page, let me know.
BTW, if you expressed interest in my PbP, there's a discussion in PIE and I've added relevant files to Dropbox.
Who over here has some Arabic? I need help with this. Too bad Google Translator doesn't give Latin letter transliterations. I assume it's Al Suq something wa-something.
So, I was playing with dice on and around St Patrick's day, and I had an idea; an idea that I am now shocked I never ran into before, and I'd like feedback on it from gamers with more experience out in the gaming world than I. (Which I assume is most of you, but I'd love feedback from any and all.) It's a method of character ability score generation. "Take 18 d6s and roll them all at once. Now arrange three dice of your choosing next to the six abilities until all 18 dice are assigned. You may juggle the dice around, but no re-rolls (no, not ever ones). Once you have assigned three dice to each score, you've got your abilities." 1. Anybody ever seen this before?
I'd love to hear what people think. I thought it was fun, and the only guinea pigs I had at the time were my two youngest nephews (not new to RPing, by the way -- I started them real young!), and they thought it was fun.
Link fixed.
I wanted something that said, "I'm the GM," but went instead with something that was purple and not used by tons of people. The sexy was icing. Maybe the horns and the fire at least communicate warning.
Too sexy? |
