Skuldin's page

****NOTE*****

Rolemaster's Gorgoroth (the first RPG Book I ever received) has Sauron, the Nine Nazgul and the One Ring all detailed in full with all their gear). I can copy you the One Ring....it doubles your level when you put it on...

In rolemaster you gain more levels but the levels do less and less as you go up. Meaning the difference between a level 20 and a level 35 does matter but killing the level 35 is not impossible.

So for Frodo going from D20 Level 2 to 4 and the fact that as a hobbit could not or at least did not discern any of its powers outside stepping into the Shadow World means he saw little of its overall powers which are mighty.

Sauron in Rolemaster was Level 240 when he started to forge the ring but he bound part of his soul to it bringing him to 180th level. (think d20 level 30 dropping to level 20). But when he put it on he became level 360.

Same with Gandalf he would go from 50 to 100...

So for a hobbit or even someone like Boromir they wouldnt truly get the full effect like you would if you were already powerful and especially knew all its powers.

I will copy down all its "official" ICE powers in here as I get time. Gorgoroth is a superb book and I recommend it highly for any fans of LOTR of any game system.

OK official ICE Stats from Gorgoroth:

Will: Part of Sauron's own essence is in the ring and it is totally and irreversably evil. It can control its own size shrinking to fit or expanding to fall off an unsuitable wearer. Its will is uncontrollable to any who have not "mastered" the Ring. Mastery takes 600 days minus the wearers level (remember Rolemaster uses level 1-50 as levels so here I would do D20 level x3) and the ring resists at 60th level (agains /3 here so 20th level). Only Sauron can ever truly master the ring and eventually even someone like Gandalf would run afoul of it.

Powers: The One's primary abilities are to enhance the abilities and nature of the wielder. This will make the individual wearing it exceed at whatever capabilities they currently posses. For instance if they were a weaponsmith their effective skill at smithing would double.

-Draw the wielder into the wraith world, rendering him invisible to all those who are not of that realm. Creatures who make their home in this awful place, such as the Nazgul, can see the wearer perfectly. The wearer is also able to see those things that are invisible.

-Some senses are enhanced. Hearing and smelling become acute, and it bestows the wielder with the ability to "see" magical forces. (I'd add +5 to search, spot, listen and probably give detect magic continuous on the wearer).

-Drastically slows the effects of aging to near immortality however it slowly warps the wielder to a hideous creature of Darkness (i.e. gollum). Note: here I would use corruption points and maybe those tables from the Book of Vile Darkness or unearthed Arcana to see what happens to the wielder over many years. Eventually you will become a wraith such as the Nazgul...Gollum did not make it this far and the ability is latent meaning if you own hte ring it will happen to you even if you dont wear it.

-Permits the wielder to control or resist any item made with the Ring's help such as the traps of Barad-dur.

-The Ring cannot be destroyed by any method save by the fires of Orodruin where it was forged. If destroyed all of the other rings of power lose their potency and sauron and his nazgul become utterly powerless and pass from Arda.

MASTERY: Now if the appropriate amount of time and power is used to "master" the One Ring you get some sweet stuff.

-The Ring serves as a x18 Power Point Multiplier for all realms and professions (in d20 if you use memorized spells they basically would have 18 times as many spells or a crazy powerful version of a ring of wizardy). If you use spell points or mana etc take however many they have and X18.

-The wielder is able to control the wearers of the Nine Rings of Power. (this does not include the wearers of the Three Elven Rings of Power). Control may be exercised regardless of range or circumstances. (Wow basically you can mentally and irrevocably command the Nazgul)

-All spells have their range tripled, and the wielder may cast spells at any target he can see, even iwth the aid of a scrying device (palantiri).

-The bearer of the Ring may exert powers of command and control over others. This is especially true when dealing with evil creatures who instinctively fear the Ring. (ultra powerful dominate monster level 20 or 30 resist).

ICE Gorgoroth page 33.

I don't think so at all.

Dungeons and Dragons has always controlled the vast majority of the role playing market. When TSR was dying in the waning days of the 1990s the hobby as a whole was in steep decline. People were talking seriously about role playing becoming a minor niche hobby in the same way board wargames had quietly but steadily gone into near terminal decline from a high point in the mid to late 70's.

WOTC was able to throw a life line to Dungeons and Dragons in particular and the creation of the OGL meant that a huge number of companies came into existance to try and ride WOTCs coattails. The whole role playing industry essentially made a huge turn around and came back stronger then it had ever been by around 2004 or 2005.

All I can say to this is 4e doesn't seem that appealing unless they have rules for a more gritty "crit-based" skill-based system that accounts for less money for each PC and less magic items needed (ala Rolemaster).

If it has optionals for something like this I'll look into it otherwise I'll be a Grognard and stick with 3.5 modified to my taste.

****NOTE*****

Rolemaster's Gorgoroth (the first RPG Book I ever received) has Sauron, the Nine Nazgul and the One Ring all detailed in full with all their gear). I can copy you the One Ring....it doubles your level when you put it on...

In rolemaster you gain more levels but the levels do less and less as you go up. Meaning the difference between a level 20 and a level 35 does matter but killing the level 35 is not impossible.

So for Frodo going from D20 Level 2 to 4 and the fact that as a hobbit could not or at least did not discern any of its powers outside stepping into the Shadow World means he saw little of its overall powers which are mighty.

Sauron in Rolemaster was Level 240 when he started to forge the ring but he bound part of his soul to it bringing him to 180th level. (think d20 level 30 dropping to level 20). But when he put it on he became level 360.

Same with Gandalf he would go from 50 to 100...

So for a hobbit or even someone like Boromir they wouldnt truly get the full effect like you would if you were already powerful and especially knew all its powers.

I will copy down all its "official" ICE powers in here as I get time. Gorgoroth is a superb book and I recommend it highly for any fans of LOTR of any game system.

hmm; this is an interesting question; one I have pondered over and over considering what there is to purchase; how much will it take to entice the characters; how much money would any such persons who would hire pc's really have at their disposal; would the pc take a few cows and pigs instead. What services would be provided and thier worth compared to the risk involved and would any diety be willing to aid a cleric to aid said adventurers outside of thier religion; all kinds of details come to mind with no real solution; though, it is always intersting to sit back and listen to parties argue about whether or not to take a job and if they should or should not accept gratuity.

This is the whole reason I am completely disillusioned with the coinage, cost of magic items, and magic item frequency in 3.0 and 3.5. Player characters arise above even most wealthy people's yearly salary in the first adventure or two if you use the standard 'per level' wealth tables. By level three or four they have so much gold to throw around they are buying minor magic items. Suddenly it becomes a magic item fest where an evil fighter they are battling drops a +2 longsword but everyone in the group has better by level 8 or so and this item gets handed to a henchman.

Keeping coinage and treasure down makes it "special" when you do get a decent sum or a nice item and it keeps incentives for the PCs to keep adventuring (hopefully your plot plays into it more but some characters it just doesnt).

I play low coinage and relatively moderate on the magic items. I'm not super-stingy but I dont exactly hand the paladin in the party a holy avenger by level 9 either. I run into scaling monsters to the party all the time because of this. I try to then make a side adventure or two where hte PCs can acquire the 'keyed weapons of demon slaying' to handle the monsters but this ploy can get tiresome because the mechanic of needing 10 items per character is so broken.

Dragon 339 has some pretty cool feats for Hexblades.

I think that Ability Focus (MM?) would apply to the Hexblade's Curse ability.

sadly one of the only resources i lack are Dragon/dungeon mags

When playing a Hexblade, I'd recommend Arcane Strike from Complete Warrior. You can't get it until later levels, but it adds a little oomph to your melee attacks. Also Extra Slot from Complete Arcane beefs up your fairly limited casting ability.

I'd also HEARTILY suggest using the Dark Companion variant Hexblade (Player's Handbook 2) that gives you a shadowy panther-like creature instead of a familiar. The panther-like creature can't attack or be killed, but it lowers enemies abilities kind of like a curse, and makes it harder for enemies to save against your curses and spells.

ok the Dark Companion is sweet!

The Tiefling's stats after racial adjustments

Str 15
Dex 15
Con 13
Int 15
Wis 12
Cha 15

Weapon of Choice 2-h Heavy Flail:

I believe the character is taking Battle caster (allowing him to wear a breastplate without messing with his spell-casting). I'm looking for the feats you guys/gals would take with this class/race combo.

Since the PC was raised as a human I allowed him to either take the extra skill points or the extra feat at level 1. He took the feat so he has two feats to take.

Any suggestions would be great. Too many of the feats in these books are so situational they seem worthless in about 80% of the fights.

If you list a feat I would appreciate knowing where it came from. Thanks!!

My group was quite pleased with Cry Havoc from Malhavoc Press. Plenty of options for running small to large scale battles, and it integrates the player character's into the process well.

I also bought Cry Havoc and love it. I have run many war scenes over the years and used everything from home brew rules to old 2nd edition mass combat. Cry Havoc has a good feel to it.

To all DMs & players:

How much of a background do you feel a character at 1st, 5th, 10th and 15th level should have vs requires to have when written up (at those levels)?

I have only ran long-term campaigns so I have no experience with people creating backgrounds on characters at 5th, 10th or beyond.

I give from 250 to 1000 (usually around 500) experience points for a solid background involving parents, siblings, upbringing, training, hatreds, prejudices and other things that explain the skill set for the character. I find that by giving a material reward I see some really strong backgrounds for the campaign that I can use to pull from to spawn great adventures that really intwine the characters into the setting.

Grim: You're the only poster I know that can't help but turn a discussion of mechanics and balance into a discussion about game flavor. But that's alright, cause normally it's the other way around which is just obnoxious.

Thraxus: I could easily imagine a type of DR that works like energy resistance. Call it Precision Resistance; it reduces precision damage, but it doesn't affect normal damage.

In any case, someone on the giantitp.com forum came up with a solution I like more than messing with Fortification. There's some alternate class ability from Dungeonscape that allows rogues to deal half precision damage against foes who are normally immune. They only have to give up their Trap Sense progression, but I like it.

I like that as well Tequila. Another option if like me you use specific critical strikes instead of just multiples is the fortification could protect against those specific kinds of wounds which kill/incapacitate the characters.

Example: breastplate with fortification would still allow the dice multiplier because it was a solid strike but when the roll for the specific wound is rolled the fortification can remove this one based on its original premise. This keeps the crits "fun" but keeps them from being so deadly.

Note: I know this is only useful in really savage campaigns like mine but it would make fortification more "fun" or useful but leaves the dice multiples alone.

Well I'm sorry to see any old character die, I think Khelben's death fit with his life.

** spoiler omitted **

As to Ed Greenwood's writing style. I've read on Candlekeep and other places that the, um, casual attitudes towards nudity and sex are part of Ed's Realms, it's just not readily expressed in the PG version of the Realms in the rule books. I know he made quite an essay on the use of roses to indicate a person's status and what they're looking for. I plan to name the next adventuring band I'm in "The Company of the Steel Rose" because only a couple of us will get the joke.

THO also has said that Manshoon has a creepy attractiveness that isn't in the books too.

Ed Greenwood's Elminster: Making of a Mage was one of the worst books I've ever read. It was like Ed really played Elminster in a set of average adventures and then wrote about it because it jumps around so much without a coherent plot. Not to mention he becomes a woman. If FR wanted to do us a favor they would have killed off Elminster not Khelben. Khelben was the only "believable" wizard I can remember from my youth attached to the realms. The whole Mystra crap be damned. I think FR has too many gods interacting with the world on a daily basis and that really hurts the versimilitude (sp?) of the books and realms as a whole. I have ran many campaigns in the FR when I was younger but they felt a bit adolescent when I revisited them. Let's up 4e kills off a bunch of the fluff of FR and makes it more gritty.

As far as novels the Dark Elf Trilogy was "passable" compared to the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Meaning it was slightly better written with more believable characters but with Salvatore you can be assured that any series you read from him has the same characters just renamed.

There is emo angst guy (Drizzt); Grumpy but good-hearted guy (Bruenor); Barbaric misunderstood guy (Wulfgar) and the girl hero in the book that never gets wounded very much but never gets laid either...

What was the series Salvatore did with the centaur (ie Bruenor)???

One problem I have with almost all "fantasy" books is that they all feel the need to throw in unrealisitc female heroines in the mix. It's like women are equally strong in fantasy despite wearing half the armor and somehow never have a period, lose a fight, get "taken advantage of" by the evil people or die...we get it ...let it go <sigh> but I digress.

I suggest the Moonshae Trilogy if you want nostalgia. I suggest the Dark Elf Trilogy if you want Drizzt's childhood and history, I suggest avoiding the Gods War Trilogy (Time of Troubles BS) and anything with Elminster in it.

Vendle wrote:

The 3.0 paperback fighter's handbook Sword and Fist might've had the whip dagger. It also has a prestige class you may find inspiring called the Lasher.

What is the Lasher's deal? Whip focus fighter type?

The problem with the whip is in historical references it isn't a very "realistic" weapon to use effectively because of the space and time involved to hit something accurately. You can google this and find several sources that back up this claim.

I would make the guy fight with flails and maybe make a longer flail that is a bit more flexible if you want it to be "realistic". If you're playing a more high fantasy campaign the dagger-whip is fine and hey I have Castlevania I and II as my ring tones so that might be a clue to how much of a Belmont fan I am :)

Dealing with the murders:First off why did the PC's kill those people? Will they be missed and was it self-defence?[list]

Group make-up:
1 Vitaly CN cleric of Vmar (think a gypsy spirit of death/trickery)
2 Demetrius LN wizard and magister in training (he is the apprentice of the High Magistrate and a lynchpin in getting the party together early)
3 Innokenti (CN) gypsy bard convicted of murder but freed for questioning (this character will be killed off next adventure and this PC will take over a hexblade that is in the same secret order that Demetrius and the High Magistrate are in)
4 Volker von Rolf mercenary ranger who befriended Innokenti before he was murdered. He is a barbarian moved into the city to study the fighting and formations of the Sinestrian legions (think Germans studying Rome)
5 Markov Kaldarasha Luptavi (slavic) rogue (to be an assassin) has been sent as a "gift" to the High Magistrate to help relations with his people and the Sinestrath Empire
6 Corsus Octavius Calidus CG scout; Sinestrian wanted for murder in another city and entered the military to escape the noble family that wants him dead. He has been given special status in the legion to bodyguard Demetrius

First murder was in a tavern with three or four other patrons that would have seen a glimpse of Markov hamstringing a rogue snitch that ran to the bar to warn Vinovati (half-brother of Inno) that the party was incoming. Markov forgot he had poisoned his blade with Man-O-War poison and the guy suffocated.

The next seven murders were out front of the Sleeping Dogs tavern and 7 guys ambushed them giving Vinovati time to escape...all of them were killed in the street and left there at night.

So self-defense could be used on those seven except for the fact Vitaly cut their fingers off so it looks like a serial murderer is on the loose.

I am running a somewhat low-magic campaign so Speak with dead etc i'm trying to avoid at least right now. However there is a CSI kind of guard on the case to find the killer(s).

Ok I'm running this campaign in an election year for Lord Senator; a seat that only comes up once a decade. Only lords may vote on other lords (no votes for yourself) at a council to decide who the Lord Senator is to become. The PCs are working for the High Magistrate indirectly (well one PC is his apprentice) and the High Magistrate is the primary advisor to the incumbent who is seeking a second term.

On the night of Mid-Summers Eve a nobleman's son (Curio) who backed the incumbent Lord Senator Q. Misonius Othos was murdered after carousing around a bunch of gypsies in the Old Quarter of the city.

One of the gypsies was accused of the murder and sentenced to death three days hence at the gallows but the High Magistrate saw this as a "message" murder sent to the other lords to place their vote somewhere other than to Othos. He asked the PCs to pay the guards watching him off under the table and to free the gypsy for questioning of why he did it (who hired him etc) or if he did not do it who did. The gypsy swears he was framed by his half-brother Vinovati so the PCs go gambling hall to tavern to tavern looking for this guy leaving a wake of dead bodies behind them (8 in all and all of them missing a right ring finger thanks to the psycopath cleric they have with them) so it looks like a serial killer is on the loose.

The PCs bumble around and finally figure out that Vinovati has fled out of town to a safehouse (insert the House from the SInister Secret of Saltmarsh) that is said to be haunted. Some say he (Vinovati) uses gypsy magic there and speaks with demons.

The PCs made it into the basement and are now in there...i have this part all planned out. The gypsy that is with them that they freed from teh death sentence (A PC) really was in on the original murder because they owed the young noble large gambling debts, but they were hired by a guy posing as the young noble's bodyguard Vadim.

When the PCs find Vinovati it will be a brother vs brother yelling match about betrayal and Vinovati will swear up and down that Vadim betrayed them both and he had to flee his wrath as well and that he planned to free Innokenti (the pc gypsy framed for murder).

Well the Pc in question has decided he doesnt like his bard (Innokenti) so he is in on this plot twist and we have planned to kill both half-brothers off or at least make them disappear in the main combat scene upcoming Saturday night. He has written a story and pre-rolled a hexblade that he wants to play instead. Not a problem and it makes for a nice early plot twist that the PCs actually freed a guilty man.

My problem lies in city adventures with a 6 man group. I know the high magistrate will be PISSED that they killed 8 bodies and left 7 of them in the streets for the morning guard to find. Town criers will be yelling about a psychopath on the loose etc...my question lies in when I kill off Vinovati the only lead they will have is the name Vadim.

I dont want to nose ring them right to him so how do i make a 6 man party interact in the city in a fun way that will lead them eventually to this character to try and find out if "he" is a main threat to the current Lord Senator or if he isnt who HE works for?

I'm up for any suggestions.

Sporadically, I come across comments from posters who seem to have a strong dislike for the Realms as a campaign world. I'm curious: what specifically turns you off about the setting? The only thing I've never been fond of are Ed's hard-to-pronounce names for some of the denizens...

I can speak here from a DM who has run a lot of FR campaigns in the past but has moved past it. To me FR is more of an adolescent setting. Nothing is too dark or harsh (hellgate keep was a letdown) and there is a frickin cr@pton of magic. You walk in Waterdeep and level 10 wizards are on every corner selling potions...because somehow a level 10 wizard would have no other way to earn a living with all his spell power than to sell some adventurer potions (but i digress).

My biggest problem with FR was that it's so generic. They took everything from every game world including multiple pantheons from real-world myth and threw them all together in one big lump.

Then they threw in technology and the "new world" and tried to have it co-exist with 13th century technology in another area of the world only a hop skip and a jump away.

I prefer a more serious Hyboria, Birthright, Middle Earth setting personally and after I got out of my mid-teens found FR and its books to be very childish...

Ok there's my rant on FR

P.S. Let's not forget just how horrible the gods war books were with Cyric just up and turning evil and into a god; oh and the Elminster book Making of a Mage ...worst book ever; talk about a mishmash of horrid writing.

I was revamping the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh that I stole from Kikai13 many years ago (ok I think he gave it to me but that's beside the point) and I was reading through the adventure to find two creatures that were staples of 1st edition that seem to have fallen into oblivion. Does anyone know if they still exist anywhere? Rot grubs were so gross I just have to use them :)

Well the premise is that casting a spell is a long process--ten minutes of lighting candles, reading long evocations, making chalk diagrams and passing around arcane foci. You do all of this work, and then just leave a little bit off the end--the finishing words and gestures. If you prepare two fireball spells, you go through the same 10 minute ritual twice that morning--finishing one, then wiping down your ritual space and setting everything up again and preparing the second. Thus when you're finished you have two partly constructed dwomers laying inactive. When you do the finishing words and gestures, the magical effect takes place. When you do the same finishing words and gestures again, you are completing another spell that you had begun that morning. They are rituals 90% done--hence the bomb analogy, and so you can have any number of the same spell prepped separately with an individual ritual you had to do for each. I have to imagine an early era in magical history when people could only do magic on the spot by breaking out their ritual gear and performing the whole ceremony in one long go. Magic was powerful, but not as portable nor quick enough to cast to really be practical. Later, wise archwizards were able to create these "fire and forget" spells to expedite the magic using process.

I really like it.

Now that's not at all to say that if you're emulating magic from another kind of setting that you shouldn't--that my way is the best for everyone. It's just to say that it does work for me, and I really think it's a fun and fresh system for the game. My personal favorite.

I've even been working on "on the fly" magic. Basically I have DCs that you make spell checks against using three charts. I have the highest DC chart be the "free form" magic that is basically a wizard creating magic on his own. As wizards figured out formulae to these spells they began to write them down and thus cloistered magic was born (this is the standard SRD spells). Finally as wizards began to band together forming orders there became an even more specialized form of magic known as "order" magic that is the easiest to cast. For example a 9th level Free Form spell is dc38, cloistered dc34, and order is dc30.

As you can see I've reworked the magic in the world quite a bit.

Well really, the "use and forget" spellcasting model died its death in 2nd edition. 3.0 introduced a really interesting reinvisioning of that that I enjoy. It works a ton better.

It's spell preparation. During that time in the morning when mages are getting their spells ready for the day--they aren't re-learning them. They are doing 90% of what is really a long elaborate ritual, saving just the completion actions (tossing a bit of bat guano, making the last physical gestures and magic words) to do when they need it. Metamagic feats allow you to finish more and more of the spell in advance, so you have already done all the gestures required, or said all the words. It's more like making a bomb and then just lighting the fuse rather than putting the whole bomb together right there on the spot.

I like this idea. The magic feels different from other settings and drips with flavor. Spell points or exhaustion just don't feel like D&D. They feel like Final Fantasy or Wheel of Time. Meh. I would much rather dig into the meat of how magic using is actually supposed to feel in D&D, flesh out the details so it's a fun and dynamic process, and then make the mechanics bend to the fluff--rather than just plug and play a whole different system in that doesn't belong.

Then again, I've also felt that Sorcery and Wizardry should have entirely different mechanics--that they shouldn't even share spells. Clerical magic likewise needs to have its own flavor text created, that feels more like entreating the gods intervention with offerings and petitions rather than "god magic". If more stuff felt like what Moses did to Egypt, then clerics would be right where they need to be. Druid magic, on the other hand, doesn't even make any sense at all. What exactly is getting magic "from nature"? I've kinda' always played it as a sortova' magical version of kung-fu monks learning martial arts from cranes and snakes. But really there's just no detail to it at all.

While I see your angle I personally want my game to have a literature or movie feel to it rather than a "game" feel to it. My meaning behind that is in no literature that I've ever read (I havent read the Vancian books) did a wizard-type character cast a spell and then later on in the same day say "I can't cast that again because I only prepared it once." It's usually along the lines of "The magic it took to keep the Balrog at bay almost did me in (IE mental/physical fatigue)". If a system can't imitate literature or books then in my humble opinion it needs to be revised.

The semantics of 2.0 to 3.0 magic are just that; semantics. They can call it what they want but basically it is fire and forget magic. The explanation they gave still does not satisfy me because then how do you explain preparing say vampiric touch more than once in a day? If I prepared the ritual ahead of time then I should know what it takes to complete it all the time. If I have enough bat guano for three fireball spells why would it be that I can prepare the ritual twice but not finish it the third time? See it just doensn't make sense in my mind.

Skuldin, drop me an email at lpotter5<at>tampabay<dot>rr<dot>com and I'll send you the Spell Point variant we use. It has tables and stuff, and wouldn't translate well to a messageboard post.

I sent you an email. Thanks!

I am not fond of the memorize and forget system of the standard 3.5 rules and I've tried to write my own version using Spell Points and fatigue but if anyone has a homebrew or even store bought system that works well I would love to read it.

Other highlights of what I'd like in a spell system.

I want casters to roll a spell check in stress situations just like a fighter swings his weapon. I am currently using a d20 instead of the take '10' on spell resists. Basically resisting a spell is now the caster's d20 roll, plus spell level, plus stat instead of 10+level+stat.

I would like to have all spells based on this have a 1 failure 20 crit chance unless you took a feat like fighters to double the crit threat range. This would include having fireball spells possibly do 20d6 on a crit etc, BUT at the risk of failing every cast in a desperate situation.

I also want to have the system be robust enough to allow overcasting for desperate situations or something that you could take feats into allowing you to cast spells over your standard level but at great risk, mental fatigue and chance to blow yourself or allies to tiny pieces at thy mercy.

If anyone has a system that can do "some" of this I'm all eyes/ears :)

Rothandalantearic wrote:

Are you trying to get your players to roleplay the characters differently? Do they not "act" dwarven enough? Or too much?

Nah, I've never had a problem with how players role play the races even if they do it badly. This idea is mostly a thought experiment for me; the only result that would really excite me would be that I could create a race of elves that are what they should be in my mind--perfect and Tolkienesque--without limiting players from playing the 'graceful' PC archetype. (the set of stats from the PHB that we call elves would be called something else, while elves would be a powerful 'monstrous' race mostly under the DM's purview)

Love it Tequila...this is how elves in my world are portrayed for the most part. I have Tolkien elves and I like the Midgard Dwarves out of the source book that's name just escaped me "Frost something or other " gah..i hate brain farts

I've heard quite a few people complain about the role playing and logistical aspects of the demihuman races. (For the non-grognards, that's all the non-human humanoids)

Too many gamers play elves like aristocratic humans and dwarves like taciturn conservative humans! If each demihuman race is really different from humanity in any significant way, how can we really know how to role play them? A group of elves moves to a different region and after a couple generations has become a completely new sub-species, and yet the most populous species of all, humans, are always just humans?! Every new splatbook that comes out seems to have more obscure races, but how are DMs supposed to integrate entire new races into their campaigns?

So what if demihumans weren't different races, but simply sub races of humanity? Then there would be no expectation to play an elf as an aloof super-hippie born-of-ancient-wisdom character or whatever. "Elves" would just be a group of people who live in the Weirding Wood and live in tree tents. They might have strong personality tendencies, but nothing beyond the experience of a decent role player.

What if certain areas warped any group of people who lived there? For example, any group who spends two or three generations living in the Redbond Peaks becomes shorter, broader and hairier and developes a fine sense of the metals and gems that riddle those peaks. Maybe a group of ancient archmages infused certain areas with this warping magic, maybe the gods have created these disturbances or maybe these areas possess this warping magic naturally. For whatever reason, these isolated areas change people and monsters who live there and provide the perfect excuse for humanity to remain the dominant race and yet have ample plausibility for however many other 'races' the DM needs.

So is this a good idea or is it just like painting a plum green and hoping for an apple?

It has merit if you want to get away from "typical" fantasy. I went with more of a Hyboria approach breaking humans into races/cultures even giving +1 -1 stats in certain areas as well as cold resistance for my vikings as well as sailing bonuses etc.

Skuldin wrote:

Ok you still are missing my point.

No I didn't miss your point, I just chose not to respond to it because I do not consider it an issue. If the DM wants to run a game with conan-type characters he/she can use a high point buy. There are plenty of DMs who run point buy games in excess of the 32 point "high powered" variant in the DMG and/or institute the "1 for 1" rule so that players don't have to sacrifice anything to have awesome stats.

If the DM isn't looking to run a super high powered campaign, you shouldn't expect to have a super hero character regardless of whether the DM uses rolls or point buy. If you get lucky and roll 3 18s that's great for you, but otherwise you're just setting yourself up for dissapointment.

Ok we agree the DM has final say on such matters.

I was simply stating that no matter how much you say that background is more important than the dice rolls for your character and as a long time DM I am inclined to agree; the stats do determine a lot about your character. If I state in my background that "through years of living in the wilds he honed great strength and was the strongest of his tribe" simply wont happen with a 15 strength. Low powered is fine but what i've found in games is when characters have relatively lower scores the DM seems to Monty Haul the campaign and give out tons of magic items to boost the characters up to face the high challenges. Forgive me, I come from a Rolemaster background where I prefer inherent character skills to be a determining factor in victory/defeat over having a +4 longsword.

It's a fine line to walk between not enough magic items and too many but to me personally I hate that wealth by level chart they put in the DMG. Worst idea ever to have characters of massive wealth just because they happened to have fought in a lot of battles.

If that were the case the Vietnam vets that survived multiple tours would all be living in mansions :) but I digress.

We both have different DM styles and that's what makes the game great, I'm not saying one is "better" than the other but as a long time DM and online gamer I can sure tell you I want as much freedom in my character design as possible. The moment things are fixed and handed to me is the moment I might as well see the pretty graphics on a video game.

No, they arent apples to apples but apples to peaches is still comparing fruit to fruit.

I'm going to agree to disagree with you, as we obviously think of game stats in vastly different ways. To me, ability scores are a secondary part of personality creation--they should be used as rough guidelines for a character's history and personality, but they're much more important when the battle dice start rolling than during character creation
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Ok you still are missing my point. If I want to roleplay Conan under your scheme it isnt possible. A 15 strength may be "enough" strength for your tailored encounters but in the player's and even in the game he's not "that" strong. He isn't Conan, he isnt even close; in fact if I want a character to be as strong as Conan then I have to be mentally slow or as is the case with many players very unlikeable due to his 6 charisma.
The dice can sometimes govern what you will become much like being born. If I'm born very likeable and strong then I could be a swashbuckling fighter or a muscular fighter/sorcerer etc but "point buy" and "arrays" are basically static characters much like World of Warcraft where every undead fighter gets the exact same starting stats. I preferred 1st edition where it took a high charisma to be a paladin making the class more rare. Yes 3.5 blows 1st edition out of the water in 95% of the gameplay but in this assigning points I think it's basically only good for tournaments or one to three shot sessions where you are handed a character to run through "X" module.

In my world life aint fair and sometimes you have to make due with the stats you rolled (ie were born with); sometimes it's peaches and sometimes it's pits.

There are a lot of responses on this from the perspective of being a DM for new players, but what about the response from said players? I agree with the posts against super-powering players right off the bat, because they're harder to manage at "low"-levels later.

But I think the key is to explain to new folks what the stat array means to the character and game-play. Whether you roll an array or use a point-buy system, if the new players don't understand how the stats relate to other game mechanics, it's just a bunch of numbers. Any system can be abused by bad players or used poorly by new players.

Personally, I've always preferred point-buy, since I come up with my character concept, incl. race, class, and environment, and then can tailor my stats accordingly. If you want some randomness but the leveling power of point-buy, have each player write down a couple of stat arrays according to the point system and then pick one at random for each person. Best of both worlds, I'd say.

My players about had a riot when I mentioned an array or point buy system...they said "@#$@$ we might as well just play WoW or EQ if we dont even get to roll dice for our stats anymore..." I never asked them again and stick with 4d6 drop the lowest, you get 2 sets or a 3rd set if you take a random flaw on my personal flaw chart.

Hi! I've recived last Savage Tide adventure, and after revising the whole campaign path, i think it needs a new setting for my games. It's namely "low magic", but i think the word is "low magic avaliability". Those are the changes i pretend to do, i will thank some comments about it. I try to made it simple, rather than balanced, and i'm afraid some quirks escape me and ruin the game.

It's mostly a "pirates of the caribbean" setting, while magic exist, its not common. I plan to do this:

-use Defense bonus from unearthed arcana.
-Firearms exist (using rules from Dragon magazine #321)they are Simple, touch attack weapons.
-Remove most permanent magic items (except those needed for the storyline, and some scarce ones)
-Cut treasure 20% down (after all, don't need armor nor magic items)
-Expendable magic items exist (wands, potions & scrolls) but cost double. I aslo been thinking about reducing avaliability.
-Magic is exhausting. Every spell causes 1 point of subdual damage per spell level. spelcasters can cast one spell per spellcaster level ignoring this damage.
-Rangers has no spellcasting. Instead they have d10 hit points and a bonus feat at levels 5, 10, 15, 20.

For balancing purposes, I adapted character creations as follows:

-Use action points from unearthed arcana(they could be equivalent to magic items in some way)
-They gain a bonus feat every 2 levels, instead of every three.
-They gain an atribute increment to all atributes at level 6, and every four levels (6, 10, 14, 18) in adition to the normal increments.
-a feat, Armor Compatibility, allows to stack half your defense bonus with your armor bonus.

So long, that's all. I'll thank your advice and comments.

I would suggest Mongoose Publishing's Conan core books for inspiration in low magic. They even have codes for Pirates and such and have really done a nice job with Hyboria which is inherently a low magic setting.

As proponent of point buy, I do not "fear" super characters. I'm a player in a game right now and I rolled for my stats just like the others because that's what our DM wanted. Did I ever consider leaving the game because the DM has us roll for stats? No, but I would have preferred point buy despite the fact that both of my characters got pretty lucky with their stats--at the very least I wouldn't have had to make a special trip to my DM's apartment just to make my characters. I use point buy when I DM because it makes the game simpler for me. Could I make a poorly rolled character feel special by giving them extra goodies and designing fights specifically to let them shine? Of course I could, but it's so much simpler to just use point buy and not have to jump those particular hoops.
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Well to be honest I've never shafted a player that rolled two "farmers" I've usually given them a roll on the flaw chart and let them roll a third set. I think where I have my biggest problem with point buy systems is the sameness of every character. Sure it may be easier on the DM to do this and that's fine but as a high detail person with regards to character creation, background etc I feel that a unique set of stats is part of that process. How can you have "Conan" (can you tell I love Robert E Howard?) with a point buy system? If I put an 18 in strength then he's either going to be super slow, have low con or be dumb as a brick, not well liked etc?

Off the top of my head I would probably say Conan would have a stat line like this at level 1:

Str 18, dex 17, con 17, int 12, wis 9, cha 15

No way you could get a stat set like that with point buy, which is all i'm trying to say. I'm not saying every character should have a stat line like that but once in a while to have a character like that isn't all bad either.

To each their own and if you are looking for "ease" of use as a DM point buy is certainly better but the game has enough formula as it is with cookie cutter looking feat choices and the way combat plays out that I guess I feel that rolling dice to get an unique character is part of what makes DND better than say World of Warcraft. Character customization is king.

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Direct damage spells, by design, are less effective in high level play most of the time. Otherwise, most encounters would be over in in a round or two as the direct damage casters blast everything. The aggregate damage potential of a direct damage caster, even if the targets make their saves, is staggering. The only real limit to direct damage at high level play is elemental resistance/immunity and spell resistance. Against foes that lack elemental resistances or SR, the direct damage casters are pumping out large amounts of damage to multiple foes at once or massive damage to single opponents.

The problem is that at high levels almost everything has SR plus a few resistances and immunities. *Sigh* all those extra stats and rolls, just to counter-balance high level save-or-suck spells...I hope magic is simpler and better thought-out in 4e.

Agreed. Even the developers talked about the 3.5 and previous additions having a "sweet" spot of levels between something like 7th and 13 or something like that.

Skuldin wrote:

Do yourselves a favor and dont get caught up in "equality" at the gaming table.

That sounds mighty condecending. 'Do myself a favor'? 'Don't get caught up'? Thanks, but I do myself the favor every day of not getting caught up in the pretense of 'realism' of rolling for stats. Unless you're looking for a flame war, I recommend that you write your posts to be a little more reader friendly. Believe it or not, we are mostly reasonable adults here and we do not appreciate the inference that we are otherwise.

Look it was a suggestion that what I read a lot of on here is fear of a "super character". I think the fun of the game is having a "chance" to be super if the dice gods smile on you once every few campaigns. I'm not sure how you took "do yourself a favor" as condescending.

My point was d20 has a huge set of flaws inherent in the game from the beginning and that the least of which is handing everyone a pair of 15s and some dumps stats doesnt address.

I said what I said with the purpose of pointing out the game's flaws and to try and explain ways that I have worked around it (making character development a very detailed process helps).

I stick with the fact that DMs on here seem terrified that "Jack has a super character" and little Suzy might get offended. I've never had someone quit my campaign in almost 20 years of running it so I do think I have some valid ideas on how to keep suspense in a game despite good stats.

I had already been playing for a few years when I received the original Ravenloft adventure from my best friend for my eighth birthday. I might have eventually lost interest in D&D and found different hobbies if not for that adventure. Even with all the hoopla that came after, nothing Ravenloft-related can even begin to compare to that module. Even the recent hardcover lacks something that the original had, although I can't quite put my finger on what. And so, at the age of eight, I6 captured my imagination forever.

Some guy (Kikai13) :) had long 80s rock star hair and a room full of sweet ass Iron Maiden and Megadeth posters and invited me over to play. He was a harsh DM and I remember my first ever character was a half-elf named Falen Drakwood.

I had to fight a bunch of hobgoblins and I remember a room with a mirror that made you just stare back at yourself. I didnt understand that in those days my fighter/mage couldnt wear armor and cast so he was a bit gimped because I think I put him in platemail. Oh well it was fun even in Kikai was a merciless DM. I think his DM style stuck with me even into my 30s because if people do stupid crap I still dont hesitate to kill them off...I just dont take as much pleasure in it as he did..thanks -j for getting me into this stupid hobby :)

Skuldin wrote:

My favorite weapon in the game has always been the bastard sword (hand-and-a-half sword) but I never ever understood why it was exotic.

Bastard sword is only an exotic weapon if you want to use it one handed with a shield. Two handed it's a martial weapon and you get STR bonus x1.5 damage.

And as others have already mentioned, if the feat (or skill or anything else for that matter) adds to the flavour and makes a character cooler or more rounded then it's not wasted.

If you pick a feat just for power gaming or to qualify for a prestige class then fine.

But if you pick it because it fits the character concept then that is even better.

Hmm. Maybe I should change my avatar before Fatespinner accuses me of being a clone!

I realize that about the Bastard Sword, but for most people 1 extra point of damage(on average) on the bastard sword over the longsword isnt worth a feat.

I think i'll start using the unearthed arcana sets like Fatespinner suggested. thanks for the tip

Direct damage spells, by design, are less effective in high level play most of the time. Otherwise, most encounters would be over in in a round or two as the direct damage casters blast everything. The aggregate damage potential of a direct damage caster, even if the targets make their saves, is staggering. The only real limit to direct damage at high level play is elemental resistance/immunity and spell resistance. Against foes that lack elemental resistances or SR, the direct damage casters are pumping out large amounts of damage to multiple foes at once or massive damage to single opponents.

Or do what I did and add a spell roll to each cast with the chance to critical the spell or fumble. I took out the "take 10" on resisting spells and made it a d20 roll. This makes casters more unpredictable. The thing I dont like about d20 is the almost set nature of certain magic. Magic is supposed to be "magical" Anything could happen not some set 10d6 that pretty much averages to 35 (17 with a save) every time you toss it out there. 20d6 having a critical flame strike because the target failed by 5 or more makes even 10d6 possibly deadly...just remember it's more dangerous for the PCs too.

My biggest issue with 3.5 is that by the time you are levels 10-15 fights become very much like two fighters looking like a huge block of butter and everyone is armed with butter knives. The game loses suspense on all but the most escalated fights and the only way the game system balances that out is by handing out insane items because the game doesnt scale damage properly.

My solution was to add in a Rolemasteresque critical system but also adding in fate points so that anyone "can" kill anyone else but the chances are very very slim. Bard killed Smaug in one shot, in the current system DND is horrible at mimicking literature. If a game system cant imitate literature, movies and books then it falls short and right now the game really falls flat past levels 10-15.

There is never a time in any movie, book, or real life event when someone is surrounded by multiple foes yet feels completely confident about the outcome because "I have 155 hit points and these are only 4HD Orcs". The orcs should have a small chance to kill this fighter just like a level 5 fighter should have a miniscule chance to perform the impossible and severely wound a dragon or something. Look if the odds are 1-1000 that still gives the players "hope" but in the current system it is completely impossible which to me takes some of the fun out of the game.

Skuldin wrote:

As a Side Note:

All I know is point buy systems are boring. The whole point of a fantasy game to me is to have the "chance" that your character isn't average. I mean if you're pretty much average in real life why would you want to play an "average" farmer in a RPG? I still use the 4d6 drop the lowest. They roll two sets and keep their choice. If they roll total crap and want a third set it comes with a built in character flaw.

This hits a very interesting note- what is "average?" I think it varies by player, DM, and group overall. For example, I don't agree that point buy generates "average" characters; an "average" person has an array in the range of all 10's and 11's, or the non-elite array (which I believe is 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8). That is, for me, average. Thus, if you even have two 15s, you're already head and shoulders above most people in the world. A 16 is amazing. And if everyone's on the same playing field (meaning the PCs), and this is considered quite "above average" (since the common man can't even begin to compete with the PCs' ability scores), what's the complaint?

Now, I see more validity in the argument that point buy creates cookie-cutter characters, but really, I'm not super convinced of this. Characters made by rolling are likely to assign their scores in the same pattern as one made through point buy, I figure. Plus, there's no more reason to roleplay two rolled fighters differently (or not) than there is (or not) with point buy, since they're likely to come out relatively the same. Ability scores only make up so much of a character's personality, and overall story.

This "cookie cutter" syndrome can also be redressed by looking at what one considers "average" and "exceptional." On a high-powered scale, point buy just won't do for character diversification through ability scores, since you don't have enough points to spread around to make noticeable differences in the off-stats. If one uses a smaller scale of "average" and "exceptional,"...

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Well that's why I have huge background tables full of feats, skills and flaws that define a character's history and talents. No two fighters will be the same.

The problem with 'point buy' is you have "dump" stats and if you dont want to have say a horrible wisdom or charisma you're stuck gimping your fighter in the name of "role-play". Not everyone is equal in the world and allowing for 4d6 drop the lowest means that the player drops the dice that control the ultimate destiny of their character. If they drop three 16s and an 18 then hey you can have that high strength, fast yet highly likeable barbarian (aka Conan). This isn't the norm but having the possibility of getting a really strong character is there. Too many people obsess with making sure each character in the game is "equal" and honestly this happens in online games like WoW too.

There may be a campaign where you have to play the Ron Weasley of the group while the other guy got lucky and gets Conan. It doesnt make Ron any less fun. In fact one of my favorite characters I ever played was a thief in 2nd edition named Brynn Foolsfriend that had pretty mediocre stats.

Do yourselves a favor and dont get caught up in "equality" at the gaming table. you can always balance out a weaker character with good game play and as a DM with a nifty item or two to help them along.

Ive seen a very solid breakdown of the "values" of weapons, based on damage, reach, "grip" (light, one-hand, two-hand), bonuses on trip-disarm-etc, and such.

Its pretty solid too. Simple weapons are all very close to each other in "value", martials are also close, and most exotics are as well, with the exception of some lemons like nunchaku and kama.

My interpretation is this: flavor can be acheived by modifiying the starting weapon package. I had a player with a frost sorceror who came from the arctic in one game, where some of the simple weapons (daggers even) made no sense, but because I had access to Frostburn, I could replace them with regionally appropriate weapons. None of this changed the fact that as a mage, he rarely ever used the weapons, but it drastically increased the flavor of the character.

Mechanically, the expenditure of a feat (a resource), should result in a mechanical benefit. End of story. So taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency should result in the ability to use without penalty a weapon or weapons with greater mechanical "value", such as the spiked chain, warmace, or bladed gauntlet.

My two coppers.

My favorite weapon in the game has always been the bastard sword (hand-and-a-half sword) but I never ever understood why it was exotic.

the most realistic way is 64 coins to a pound...DND used to use a much smaller amount to make a pound but having each coin weight 1/4 ounce is a decent method.

If you dont like that round it off and use 50 to a pound or something like that.

I let characters roll their hits but if they roll super low I give them a second roll that they average against the first. So if a fighter rolls 1d10 and drops a "1" on the first roll he rolls again and if say he got a "9" he adds the 9 and 1 divided by 2 for a 5. It keeps most characters at least average but allows for some variability.

As a Side Note:
All I know is point buy systems are boring. The whole point of a fantasy game to me is to have the "chance" that your character isn't average. I mean if you're pretty much average in real life why would you want to play an "average" farmer in a RPG? I still use the 4d6 drop the lowest. They roll two sets and keep their choice. If they roll total crap and want a third set it comes with a built in character flaw.

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:

Personally I found Autorealm such a pain in the butt to use that I just went with Gimp. Gimp is probably about as difficult to learn and has the benefit of possibly making really great looking maps. Sure your first few attempts probably won't look spectacular but you can learn and they look ever better each time you use it. With Autorealm your sort of stuck at not really all that great looking no matter how practiced you are.

I was able to make some decent looking maps with Auto-Realm, took a damn long time to get the hang of it, but I did manage. I've no experience with Gimp however. I'm going to have to check it out.

My biggest problem is I'm left-handed but use the mouse righty. So to use a mapping program is a huge pain in the ass for me; I end up having to switch the mouse to left-handed just for that one program because for all my years using a mouse the one thing I cant do right-handed is very fine detail like drawing.

What are the best mapping (city, castle, and overland) program out there that are easy to use and look halfway decent?

I take it no one uses a mapping program?

<sigh>

I was told in school that color blindness is seeing only in gray scale.

I am not color blind, I'm "sorta color blind". I see color, I just see them differently than other people. A lot of people seem not to know the difference. My grandfather was a doctor and he was fully colorblind. He did everything everyone else did; instead of memorizing "red, yellow, green" on traffic lights he memorized "top, middle, bottom." I myself have memorized "red, yellow, white" because I'll swear up and down that that bottom light in white. For the longest time, I figured that the bottom light used to be green in the early days of traffic lights and was still called green out of tradition.

My friends from back in high school like to play a cruel game with me; they point to something blue or purple and then ask me what color it is, which are the colors that I confuse most easily. I found a way to always win the game--"It's blurple!"

This character of yours isn't female is it? Because if she is, roll another bane because only men can be color blind. (Fantasy world? What's that? ;-)

No he is male; I think I'll just use it as a minor penalty to spot people or items standing perfectly still. -2 search in those situations...nothing major

What are the best mapping (city, castle, and overland) program out there that are easy to use and look halfway decent?

I have color blind on my chart of minor banes and one of my characters took a boon so now had to random roll and hit color blind.

What in-game penalties should this incur?

I was thinking search checks might have a penalty in situations where colors blended.

I'm up for any suggestions.

Basically the gypsy bard (Innokenti) that was due to be hung from the gallows is a PC but he did a pretty horrible job of leading the party to the real killer (his half-brother that happens to look a lot like him named Vinovati). Now the guy who played Innokenti wants to play a hexblade instead so I'm thinking about having this bard double cross the PCs and either get killed off or actually be guilty and attempt to escape the party and from there I will run him as a NPC thorn in the side of the PCs that rescued him or a neutral guy that owes the PCs for getting his neck out of the noose.

This is a quick summation of what happened Saturday night.

Asere 21st, 1070 F.C. (Founding of Constillonia)
The Sinestrath Empire has occupied the city of Dravnia for ten years
making incursions into Yrthgaard lands for resources and slaves. They
aim to bring civilization to the known world. Every decade the nobles
of a province vote amongst themselves to decide the next Lord Senator
of the province. For the first ten years Lord Senator Quintus
Misonius Othos has been in power and built aqueducts, a new "Noble's
District in the northern quarter of the city as well as an arena and
more barracks for the Sinestrath Soldiers and hired mercenaries. Lord
Senator Othos' tenure ends on the last day of the year so many
political factions are forming and trying to push their person into
power. The incumbent Lord Senator obviously wishes to maintain a
second term (there is no limit) and Magister Officiorum Mordavion
favors the incumbent because he is afforded much power and personal
freedom under his watch.

On Mid-Summers Eve Festival (known as Asere's Dance in other parts of
the continent) a nobleman's son named Curio was attending a gypsy
encampment in Old Quarter when something happened that sent him
running into the fire to burn to a crisp within a minute or so. A
gypsy named Innokenti was accused of the crime and was to be hung in
the Old Quarter gallows three days hence. However, Magister Scipio
under Mordavion's decree wanted Innokenti freed to see if he could
help track down the real murderer to find out for whom he(they) work.
The reason, Curio's father is a strong backer of incumbent Senator
Othos and they believe it was a message that no one is safe as long
as the Spada de Riga (Swords of the King) are still in power in the
city.

The party consisting of Calidus, Demetrius, Markov, and Vitaly
rescued Innokenti to find out he was light on information. He
believed it was his half-brother Vinovati and led you to Timofey's
House of Fortune as a possible place to find information on Vinovati.
At the House of Fortune Innokenti conveniently found Volk(short for
Volker) who was also at the gypsy encampment and backed Innokenti's
story. Seeing that this could get bloody Volker was hired on as extra
muscle by Demetrius. The trip led to the Dancing Kegs tavern where a
captive and employee of Vinovati swore under torture that Vinovati
used a curse to cause Curio to leap into the fire. The same man who
said Vinovati spoke with spirits and used curses said he sometimes
headed NW to a shadowed mansion overlooking the sea to be alone and
to speak with ghosts.

The party kept trying to track Vinovati down but an ambush was laid
at the Sleeping Dog's tavern resulting in a bloody knife fight
outside. Many were wounded but no party members met their end. This
left eight bodies for the morning watch to discover scattered
throughout Old Quarter which is going to be hard for even a
magistrate to keep under wraps and the party out of the bounty
hunter's sights.

Demetrius and company headed north just out of town a few hours to
this "haunted mansion on the seaside to find a tied up man, and some
rogues that fled when a mysterious voice threatened all within. There
was also a record keeper found downstairs that did not provide much
information before Demetrius' had him killed (I think Vitaly's idea
of torture or threatened harm would have been a better tactic to get
information). A mysterious black and gray cat was in a bedroom that
proved to have a few books and potions of use but also seemed trapped
in some way to cause sleep (poison gas perhaps?). Markov cut the cat
nearly in two as it tried to flee the room. he was also stuck in the
hand by a needle trap on a wooden box. From the room with the
pirate/bookkeeper came a shambling semi-corporeal undead which was
destroyed and the party stopped at the door labeled DANGER.

You still have very little clue where Vinovati is or what sort of
mysteries are causing the odd occurences within the mansion.

Roeder,

Dude you have to watch the new Holy Diver cover and Video from Kill Switch Engage --it made me miss your old bedroom which was a shrine to 80s heavy metal...ah the good old days man..

Sorry to hijack this thread.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=14 620102

Someone send me Roeder's email and i'll post him there next time. Kikai come the heck out and respond.

DMFTodd wrote:

I'd say players are more dependable online than in person: No snow storm keeping you from going, car troubles not as pressing, had one player take his laptop on vacation so he could play.

This has been my experience as well - although my players tend to lose their connections during snowstorms.

Any openings for a 30 something gamer? :)

I looked at RPoL but it seems to be a post and wait type setting. I'm looking for a site where you can try to get into a game as a player and meet online once a week and all play via an online message/dice etc system and play for a few hours.

Any suggestions?

Hello Kikai13, guess who :)

Yep your friendly DM in the SW corner of the state.

I wish you guys had a remote option for your campaign.

I think you need to focus on what you need now. If you give the players too much and too fast they wont be able to digest it all. Start small,and work your way up.

So choose and idea. You Like the murder mystery idea so run with that. I used the magic stuff just as an idea. The seed for that was from a really great sci-fi book called Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.

So someones been murdered,who/what did it and why. Your players need to figure this out so you need to know this in advance. As you ask yourself these questions ideas will form in your head and you can roll with that.

A time saver is to look at pre-published stuff and modify it to fit your game.Anything came help in this respect it could be as specific as a adventure from Dungeon set at a level for the PCs or as broad as a great book you read.

You're right, I think I've written so big of a web in my plotline that I'm having trouble with the starting point. I know where I want the campaign to go but I dont know how to get it off the ground so starting slow and simple might be the best method. Thanks and if anyone else has more input I'm all ears/eyes :)

And yes you were correct Savage he is the PC's patron. I am going to run this as a relatively low magic level campaign (somewhat like a Conan setting) so resurrections/clones while not "impossible" are not common place and are nearly impossible to obtain.

A murder mystery sounds good; I'm just trying to piece it together to have good ties ins to future adventures and memorable NPCs. It's like I have this city in my head but I dont have a mapping program so i have to spend so much time mapping it out and making NPCs that due to time constraints I just dont have them as detailed as I'd like --i guess I'd like the city to be so detailed that hundreds of people are fleshed out but that just isn't possible so I usually shy away from a full city.

I prefer the PCs not to be tied together due to random happenstance.

Here are some PC hooks I have that might tie together.

The mage PC is a favored apprentice of the head magistrate and thus the magistrate is going to assign the Sinestrian scout to be his guard. The scout was wanted for murder and put into the military but the noble family that wants him dead found him and so he was put on special assigment to work for the Magistrate.

The Luptavi rogue is being sent with a sealed letter to give to the Magistrate and basically the magistrate has been assigned this rogue to strengthen ties between the Luptavi assassins and the Sinestrath Empire. There is a long term goal of the magistrate to break away from the empire and to forge his own kingdom starting in the Dravnian capital. The Luptavi Assassins guild known as the Sons of Truth (Fius-al-Adevar in Romanian) work for the Luptavi Prince who knows of the magistrate's plans and is pledging his guild's services in order to jockey for position in the new kingdom to be.

The bard is a gypsy whose family was murdered on the roadside; he was the only survivor. He took on another name and travels town to town as a womanizer and a drunk. It is possible that his family was murdered because they were minor nobles before being forced to flee the city when the Sinestrians took over.

There is also an insance cleric pc that is the son of a baron that was murdered by his people for being so treacherous. This baron could tie in about anywhere in the plot but I'm sure his deceased father and abandoned castle could hold some secrets that could tie in later.

I'll keep this as simplified as I can but basically I'm seeking some city campaign help. I'm trying to keep it gritty (intrigue, political jockeying, and assassinations) but it's getting the thing rolling at level 1 that I'm finding difficult.

I've been running games for almost seventeen years now so usually I don't have issues with campaign plots but for some reason getting this upcoming campaign going is causing me grief.

Setting: Terranth (home setting)
The city-state of Dravnia is based upon a rough outline of medieval St. Petersburg Russia. In my campaign the city-state of Dravnia has been overrun by the Sinestrath Empire (think Rome) and occupied for ten years.

The old Dravnian king is in exile and no one knows where he is in hiding. The Dravnic peoples have splintered into factions; the ones that remained in or near the capital and are now ruled by the Sinestrath Empire, the ones that fled the city and wander as gypsies, and the third faction are the Luptavi which never lived near the city-state and were never really fond of being ruled by the original king in the first place.

The Sinestrath Empire is using the city-state of Dravnia as a staging ground for their wars against the barbarians of the north. They are also gathering resources from the barbarian areas including spider-pine wood for ships (highly fire resistant) and iron from the peat bogs.

My campaign will have as a centerpiece a Sinestrian mage (wizard but I use mana and not the memorize and forget), a Luptavi rogue (assassin), a gypsy bard, and a Sinestrian scout that will work for the mage.

The PC mage's master is the magister officorum (head judge and political advisor to the Lord Senator) and the Lord Senator's term is coming up at year's end so many lords are vying to be voted in by their peers to sit upon the emperor's council.

And so here I sit with many plots swirling but not sure how to mesh it together by Saturday night. I'm up for any suggestions or questions if you want further clarification about what is going on.

thanks!