Warcry's page

I use my computer for almost every facet of the game. That projection tool is amazing, however!

1. PC's get created by HeroForge, a free download searched at Google. It's invaluable. It even makes monsters.
2. Because I do a home-brewed campaign, I have a website devoted to the campaign, and players can read up on countries, races, languages, political aspects, etc. (CalinDay.com/Havorra for the curious. Capital "H".)
3. I design maps, castles, dungeons, symbols, art, etc. in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. (Scanning art and such for the game or finding it on the web is rather useful for this.)
4. After each game, I write up a synopsis of the game, and email it to each player so they can do "downtime" via email rather than in-game. It saves time, and so far, we've got some 70+ pages of our campaign "book" scribed, it makes for a nice look back, and is useful as a DM for keeping track of plotlines.
5. If you haven't seen my post about music, it lists excellent choices by folks here who also use music in game, and I use my PC and iTunes for that.

Nice post! Very interesting solutions and ideas here.
- Warcry

Excellent topic. Here's what I use for my campaign:

1) Spellcasters must roll a concentration d20 for every spell, regardless of the spell, regardless of the place the spell is being cast. A 1 on a concentration roll means the spell fails. (higher rolls might also fail, based on DC for casting.)

2) A 1 on a d20 fails, I also use a fumble table. It also causes the person to lose all other standard actions in that round, including other attacks.

3) Reroll 1's on character creation, Roll 4d6 for each stat, throw out lowest number, and roll an extra stat, throw out lowest of those stat rolls. (This generates more powerful characters for my power-based campaign.)

4) Several races other than the standard listed are allowed, including Minotaur, Wolfen (not D&D), Lizardmen, Winged-elves, etc.

5) An individual background story is written up from birth to present for each character. Everything in their history is written down to help fit the character into the world.

6) A detailed account of each campaign session is recorded after it's played, and I host a website for my campaign for more information. (calinday dot com/Havorra capital "H") ;-)

7) Artwork, music, and other character development is actively encouraged and given extra experience for.

8) Experience isn't tallied, levels are given out in general as the story develops and the plotline requires. (Though levels are given and taken away for extreme circumstances or achievements.)

9) All pantheons and Wizards books are allowed regardless of the world they hail from. (Greyhawk, Ebberon, FR, etc.) Spells are limited to the books owned by the DM or the person casting the spell. (with DM approval)

The party is currently at level 10+. I have plans to take them to Epic and beyond, and really do enjoy 3.5 with all of it's new books.

- Warcry

Oh, I just got the Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack, a must have!

All of the suggestions on this thread have been great, I'm going to pick up the Reign of Fire Soundtrack and check out that NPR station next. ;-)

- WC

I can only go by those that the players in my campaign are using.

The Pious Templar is a nice change from a typical Paladin.

The "Divine Trickster", as opposed to the "Arcane Trickster", at GiantITP.com is one the cleric is using, very fun.

Also, the Dragon Disciple was interesting before he had to quit for school. (though a bit power-hungry)

If I were to play one, I'd definitely choose the Shadow Dancer.
Love that shadow walking stuff.
- WC

Mmm, Fudge. I love fudge. But I like white chocolate more.

Oh, rolls, right.

Well, let's see. I roll my attacks, init, and damage out in the open. I roll treasure, spot checks, listen checks, and vs. skill checks behind my hand unless I want the player to see the roll, but usually give the players some kind of idea as to what happened.

I do my absolute best to keep the players alive without losing the sense of danger to their characters, but have already killed one. He got resurrected next session, but only because his God showed mercy upon him, and will exact a sort of fee later. (it's complicated, but let's just say the resurrection spell worked on two people when it should have only worked on one. love those plot twists that cause curious looks, don't you?)

In other words, there's always an explanation for everything that happens in my game, even character death and resurrection.

Do I fudge the rolls? Nope.

Do I make a spellcaster roll concentration every dang time she wants to cast a spell? Even a 0 level one? Yep.

There's a 1 in 20 chance any given thing will fail or succeed. Love those dice. Roll roll roll. Preferably in the open.

Now, do I forget to add the +2 bonus to hit against the PC if it's going to kill them? Sometimes, but not intentionally. After all, it's dang hard to keep track of all those modifiers all the time.

Oh, and because I'm the DM, I can kill any PC anytime I want, so why should I fudge the roll? After all, a diety could easily come down from heaven and slay them right there on the spot, and I bet I wouldn't even need to roll to hit. ;-)

But then, that's not role-playing, that's outright player killing for the benefit of my ego.

Go ahead, kill my monsters, I'll make more.

You'll run out of spells and get tired eventually. Even if your character is Epic, you have to sleep sometime, or bathe, or look the other direction, or blink, or eat, or drink, or breathe. Unless your PC is a God/Goddess, in which case I have other Gods to take care of that.

Even the Gods fight and lose sometimes.

- Warcry

I'm glad you brought this up. I was wondering what other DM's thought about all the new goodies. However, I think you just need to re-look at the solution to your dillema.

There are many facets to this topic. It's something I've run into with other RPG's in the past as well, so it's not just D&D.

However, here's my possible solution(s):

1.) Set a cap for skill bonuses. (say, +15 max on any skill)
2.) Don't forget max skill ranks in any given skill are already built-in to some degree.
3.) Eliminate "Synergy" bonuses for skills all together if you have to.
4.) Set higher subtraction modifiers for DC's. (Use a 25 DC instead of a 15, for instance.)
5.) Remember that Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate are things that might NEVER work on a Red Dragon, regardless of their bonus in the skill. After all, you role-play the dragon, not the PC.
6.) Stir it up. Don't let players think they know everything about the AC of a monster. Chaos monsters work great for this, as they might have random AC's and abilities each round... ;-)
7.) Keep the adventure and encounters at or near the level of the players. If they have a 30AC, make monsters that have a 30AC or higher.
8.) Know their weaknesses, and exploit them. If you know the party has an overall really low spot, use spot rolls all the time. If one of them has a really high spot, make it so spot is relative to wherever that PC is, and not where the others are, or make a monster with sick bonuses to hide and move silent.

It's all about finding the proper balance for the game. Too easy and they get bored, too hard and they get frustrated.

Anti-magic fields and anti-magic clothing, by the way, are an excellent way to level the playing field... ;-)

Oh, and don't forget, skill checks of any kind during combat usually take up a full round of actions. (or longer)

Touch and Flat-footed AC's are also great field leveling choices. Feats are almost always countered or balanced by another feat, same as skills.

Spell resistance and immunity are a wonderful thing for your monsters, as are damage reduction against any given kind of weapon type.

You can always create a creature they just can't beat. Plain and simple.

Example: My party is fighting a 16th level vampire/werewolf lord lycanthrope that can only be hurt by a few things: Silver/15, Sunlight/15, and Heal spells/10. Nothing else harms it. Period. Holy Water and Garlic anger it greatly but don't do enough damage to cause permanent harm to it with it's round-by-round regeneration. (It regenerates hp at 15/round.) It's immune to fire, acid, electric, cold, sonic, and the rest. It's got improved evasion, hide in plain sight, and a pile of other feats, same as your Epic players.

Oh, and it's in an underground lair where they're fighting it, it can us a standard action to sunder any non-magic weapon at medium range, and most heal spells are touch range. It also has access to a good deal of Vile Darkness and Evocation spells.

Good luck.

:-)

- Warcry

Right, here we go:

DMG 3.5, Page 41:

"Character Death"

"It happens... page 171 of PHB discusses all four resurrection types.. yada yada... The character's new XP total is midway between the minimum needed for his or her new level and the minimum needed for the next one. If the character was 1st level, he or she loses 2 points of Constitution instead of losing a level. This level loss or Constitution loss cannot be repaired by any mortal spell, even wish or miracle."

So, I guess Con subtraction might be a bit mean for any level past 1st, but then, I'm nice to the players in other ways, like letting them get resurrected anyway when they normally wouldn't have been able to... *wink wink*

- WC

warcry wrote:

In this case, he was on the verge of gaining 2 levels for xp instead of one, so now I'll only let him gain one. (minus the point of con for death, mind you.)

why a point for con? I Can't find that in da rules.

It's probably old-school, but the DM I played with some 10 years ago would always make us subtract a point of Constitution each time you died. When you hit 0 Con, you couldn't ever be ressurected again. (and your saves lowered eventually too.)

Not sure if those rules carried over from 2.0, (or if they were even ever there, but that's what I've always played by.)

- WC

This is an interesting post.

I'd have to think about it for a while, but keep in mind that an average adult human has 10's across the board for stats.

If a human is considered an adult by age 18, it could be assumed that one stat point each year could be a good guide on the whole. (give or take one stat point of sway in either direction, depending on the child.) 1 str 1 int 1 con 1 dex 1 wis 1 ch for the 1st year of life, 2 for 2 years, 3 for 3.

Then, at age 4, fine motor skills come into play, so dex might be higher, con a bit higher, and str a bit higher, but not by much. At about age 5 language becomes a skill, which includes rational thought and higher modes of learning.

Since intelligence, wisdom, and charisma are all "mental" skills for the most part, and mental development goes in leaps as well, I'd adjust for them based on the background of the child. (A child who is taught 5 languages from the time they can speak would logically have a higher INT than one who does not, but other stats would probably suffer at the same time.)

Conversely, a child who is put to work at a young age will naturally grow stronger faster than one who is not, etc.

By the time they hit age 18, it could be assumed that they will have reached their maxiumum potential in every stat. (not including those stat bumps that come with levels gained.)

So, I'd probably roll out a character like normal, keeping those stats as the PC's maximum potential upon reaching adulthood, then retrogressively assign stats based on those rolls depending on the age of the child. (I like the size modifier idea, but it still doesn't account much for a baby with an INT of 18.)

Example: I roll 12 14 8 10 16 10. If you allow characters to assign stats, I would assign them based on whatever makes the most sense. (If the child is going to become a Wizard, an 8 int probably wouldn't get them into Wizard school, etc.)

So, for a wizard, I'd have: 8 str 12 con 14 wis 16 int 10 dex 10 charisma. (At about age 8 he would have reached his maximum strength, as the bulk of the rest of the 10 years would be learning from books, not from weight-lifting and physical training, though writing small characters does require dexterity, and speaking to instructors requires normal charisma abilities, etc.)

At any rate, that's an interesting concept. I also seem to remember something in the DMG about commoners and their stats in general. You might also find existing stats for children in any given adventure mod or other "official" source, but I don't recall seeing any off hand.

- WC

I just killed off one of my PC's last game session. *evil grin*

Poor lad had -17 hp with one hit to the chest by an unded minotaur. Class kill though. Anyway, there are two ways I go about this...

In this case, he was on the verge of gaining 2 levels for xp instead of one, so now I'll only let him gain one. (minus the point of con for death, mind you.)

In any other normal case, I'd have them deduct the point of con, roll a hit dice to see how many hp they lose, (if you don't know what they gained last level, fair's fair), and of course take away any level specific things like spells/feats/etc.

Though feats can get tricky, because it's like, what, you forgot how to evade because you died? ha ha! Maybe I'll have to re-think that one. hmm.

Anyway, at the very least I'd have them lose a point of Con and HP for the level they lost.

If they were close to a level up, I might consider just having them not get that level they almost attained until a bit later. Makes it easier than re-figuring out the math. Sort of like: "You were almost level nine, now you'll have to start over at just over eight because you died. Oh, and take off a point of Con." ;-)

- WC

I find that after you have a realistic geography in place for your world, figuring out what races to populate the world with generally make sense per the monster manual and PHB.

Yuan-ti, for instance, prefer Jungle/Warmer climates.
Drow and Deep Gnomes in the Underdark, etc.

For a bit of variety, you can always do meaningful opposites, things like snow snakes, for instance, and ice-trolls, etc.

Also, knowing the cosmology of your universe helps greatly, are there many Gods and Goddesses? Or just one? Do they interact/interfere with the mortals? Or are the mortals largely unaware that they exist?

Figuring out the tech level of your world is important. Magic or Technology?

In my game, Technology lost the War of Power to Magic, therefore Magic holds the majority of the power in the world, with the rare exception of a few "artifacts" that show up now and then. (you know, batteries, guns, tanks, whatever)

The polotics of the world are just as important to me as the overall theme. Is the world a peaceful place? Or all-out war?

Does slavery exist, and if so, who is enslaved? Who are the rulers? What is the basic level of poverty and wealth in each area/country/continent?

Answering the broader questions about your own world will invariably lead you toward the more specific things, I find.

For instance: In a desert world, the one with the water rules. In a Diety-driven world, Gods make the power.

If I had to choose the most important features of a world, I'd say it's the Geography, then the Dieties, then the races, then the rest.

Just remember to have fun and you'll do fine! :-)

- WC

I always wanted to look into Car Wars back in the day, but I never got around to it. Was it any good? If so, I may try ebay. [/QUOTE

Nah, Car Wars was really more of a supplement to the crazy drivers we had in Shadowrun who hook themselves up to their own car for an adrenaline rush every time they hit the gas. :-)

It wasn't deep enough for more than a few games, in my humble opinion, but a nice add-on.

Oh these are great suggestions! I'm definitely going to have to go out and get several of those you all have listed. Many I've never heard of too. Excellent. :-)

Thanks! - WC

1) Drow
2) Dragons
3) Gnolls
4) Winter Wolves, Worgs, Wolves, and other Puppies
5) Lycanthropes, particularly Werewolves

I make it a point to have my computer play a custom built soundtrack of sorts during play. (I make it a point to avoid songs with lyrics because they interfere with game play)

Do any of you do the same for your game? If so, and if you have a CD you really love, list it here, would you? :-)

Thanks,
- Warcry, (who meant to post it here, not in the Amazing section of the site...)

My Music list for campaign:

13th Warrior (good overall)
House of Flying Daggers (excellent for combat)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (good overall)
Hero (some good, some not so good)
Last of the Mohicans (an alltime fave)
Lord of the Rings 1-3 (good all around, but specific for theme)
Conan the Barbarian (alltime combat fave)
Xena, Warrior Princess (surprisingly good)
Immortal Memory, Lisa Gerrard (good temple tunes)
Aion, Lisa Gerrard (good temple tunes)
Master and Commander (ARR! Pirate tunes matey!)
Pirates of the Carribian (ARR! Pirate tunes matey!)
Alexander the Great (not bad overall)
Kodo, Traditional Japanese Drums (OMG! Combat Fave!)
The Village (overall quiet but good)
Lorenna Mckennit, various albums (good tavern tunes)
Enya, various albums (good tavern/vocals)
Dances with Wolves (good overall)
Kitaro, various albums (some songs not bad, some too loud)
Classical, various artists/albums (often too traditional)
Kaki King (excellent guitarist, almost no lyrics)

Tuesdays, 7pm-11pm.

Tuesdays worked better than Fridays, as no one has obligations on Tuesdays most of the time... no gf's, no parties, no long weekends, no vacations, etc.

It's been my best game night so far.

- WC

Rolemaster by I.C.E.: D10 (math, anyone?)
Middle Earth Role Playing: D10 (more math)
GURPS: D6 (good universal)
Shadowrun: Various (fun future tech)
Elfquest: D10 (simple, maybe too simple...)
Car Wars: D6? (been a long time)
Star Wars: D6 (as I recall, and rather limited in plotlines...)
Palladium: (been too long, but LOVE those Wolfin)

I've played them all, and had fun at them all. I'd have to say for that fantasy feel, Rolemaster by Iron Crown Enterprises was the most rewarding. (Monte Cook used to work on it, now he's part of the WOTC clan, If I'm correct, and I see a lot of stuff in D&D that's similar to it as of 3.5)

- Warcry

I make it a point to have my computer play a custom built soundtrack of sorts during play. (I make it a point to avoid songs with lyrics because they interfere with game play)

Do any of you do the same for your game? If so, and if you have a CD you really love, list it here, would you? :-)

Thanks,
- Warcry

My Music list for campaign:

13th Warrior (good overall)
House of Flying Daggers (excellent for combat)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (good overall)
Hero (some good, some not so good)
Last of the Mohicans (an alltime fave)
Lord of the Rings 1-3 (good all around, but specific for theme)
Conan the Barbarian (alltime combat fave)
Xena, Warrior Princess (surprisingly good)
Immortal Memory, Lisa Gerrard (good temple tunes)
Aion, Lisa Gerrard (good temple tunes)
Master and Commander (ARR! Pirate tunes matey!)
Pirates of the Carribian (ARR! Pirate tunes matey!)
Alexander the Great (not bad overall)
Kodo, Traditional Japanese Drums (OMG! Combat Fave!)
The Village (overall quiet but good)
Lorenna Mckennit, various albums (good tavern tunes)
Enya, various albums (good tavern/vocals)
Dances with Wolves (good overall)
Kitaro, various albums (some songs not bad, some too loud)
Classical, various artists/albums (often too traditional)
Kaki King (excellent guitarist, almost no lyrics)