Currently working on the mechanics of an Arkham horror style campaign.
Now, I personally have not read the books, so as far as that goes I'm blind, but I've played the games. And its the games I want to bring into a pathfinder campaign.
So that brings me to the first point..
What classes should be banned?
Currently my list is Monk, Paladin, Witch, Summoner, Most sorcerer Bloodlines, and alchemist. Also any archtypes that deal with transformation.
If they are allowed, it would be in the form of pregens. Already I'm thinking of having a redeemed witch and a paladin pre-gen.
Some of the reason why are they are not allowed is because of a certain power scale. Paladins for example have huge amounts of immunities to large amounts of things. As a result, they would be total cakewalk slugging through the evil outsiders.
What spells should be banned?
Currently all summon monster/polymorph and the like spells are banned. Anything that gives immunity to fear either doesn't, gives a +x amount to the saving throw, or is banned. Things that remove fear give a new roll with a +x to the save.
Not saying that you won't ever be able to cast these things, only saying that in normal character creation and leveling, you cannot get a hold of these things.
Necromancy is also in there. Most of the necromancy spells are banned. Exceptions though are made for Pre-gens and as time goes on and they find necromancy spells.
Insanity?
The biggest thing about the board games i've played is the fact after a while you go insane. Any ideas on how to get this to run? One friend suggested that we use the Dark Heresy insanity stuff, unfortunately I don't have the books.
I think you should think of your game world as a place where 6th level people are peak human to a supernatural level and almost everyone is 1st level.
The paladin is a good class. I don't think it should be banned. I just think that to run horror you should be low level. Let someone be Van Hellsing and when NPCs find out that he is such an awesome fighter that he can beat a dozen trained soldiers in a fight, which is just unbelievably great in the real world, the player will feel like his character is strong.
Then, you can have your amazing, nearly peak human party of 4th level characters struggle with investigation and horror, dealing with it on a human level sense 4th level characters aren't immune to much.
Agreed, E6 is really the way to go with this. It keeps the horror level and immunities low, while still allowing the players to really get some skills that are meaningful. Otherwise, your ideas are liable to make for a great basis for a game.
-X
E6?
I plan on running it to level 20 eventually. After all, several fun monsters are around CR 12-13. (I forget exactly where the hound of tindolos is..)
Big things that really make players immune to things is really certian magical items. If I prevent said items from being acquired then the amount of immunities the players can gain is rather limited.
However, I am running the campaign at slow leveling, along with a few house rules that slow down experience gain for high CR monsters. (as in running away from the monsters, not going to give full exp.)
Paladian is a great class, sure, but seriously.. when you call out for a horror campaign, I really see them becoming the end all class. I mean, We have a paladin in our kingmaker campaign who is our healer due to his own abilities to channel energy.
Now imagine, if you would, what would end up happening if paladin is allowed in a campaign where you will be hit with many saving throws constantly. It would be far too easy for multiple people to pick up paladin in its various archetypes and easily run over encounters as they could practically autosave vs everything.
Granted, you will have a few of those people who would build a character to do the exact opposite because "they don't want to metagame" but still, I only see it being allowed as a choosable class to result in problems. one or so paladin pregens in the random pregen table would be quite a bit better.
E6?
Here ya go. It more or less says that up to level 6 you stay roughly mortal and don't go beyond into super hero territory. Give it a look see.
-X
What exactly is an Arkham horror style campaign? The only "Arkham Horror" I know is a board game from Fantasy Flight Games. It seems what you're talking about is simply Call of Cthulhu in a fantasy setting, is that correct?
Well I've never read CoC. And this isn't really just Cthulhu and all of its mythos. This is something similar but also different.
If magic is my killer, then I simply weed out as much of the magic as I can. Already Polymorph, summon, many protection spells are eliminated, reduced or recycled.
More game breaking spells will also be eliminated as well. Oh.. scrying type spells will end up also being hit with something. Cannot really run an investigative campaign with them.
Magic is influenced by the cycles of the moon as well. A lunar eclipse gives 20% arcane spell failure. Bloodmoon gives +50% to effects, Blue moon gives -50% to effects.
I'm not sure if this is going to also include divine magics as well.
But the players will start at level one, run on slow exp, with things to slow down exp gain in place. Ultimately, while I say they will eventually get to higher levels, that eventually is pretty far out that. However.. that E6 has sparked my attention.. I wonder if the players will ever reach that?
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I guess I'm not really getting what you are going for here. I'm mostly thrown by you terming it an "Arkham Horror" style campaign, then claiming it's not really based on Lovecraft's Mythos. Unless it's based on Batman, I fear I don't see the "Arkham" connection. And if I'm misunderstanding you and it IS largely based on Lovecraft, then you absolutely cannot go wrong with familiarizing yourself with the Call of Cthulhu RPG (and for a fantasy take, the Dreamlands supplement). It's pretty much the default source, even for other system's takes on the Mythos.
Arkham horror as you found out is a board game created by that company. Then there is mansions of madness.
As I said, it is a "styled" campaign based off the boardgame. This means it has the style, not necessarily the substance of the target in general. If I was to make a Kingmaker style game, it doesn't mean we are going to be traveling around the greenbelt building a castle and reliving the events of Kingmaker in a different campaign that is the same.
This isn't Lovecraftian. I'd be a fool to attempt such a thing. It might have quite a bit of it in there, but I'm basing all my knowledge off the thing I'm styling, which is the board game. Otherwise I'd say "I'm making a Lovecraft campaign". Huge difference truthfully. Like trying to make a campaign based off a movie that was based off a book.. It would be all wrong.
Arkham horror as you found out is a board game created by that company. Then there is mansions of madness.
As I said, it is a "styled" campaign based off the boardgame. This means it has the style, not necessarily the substance of the target in general. If I was to make a Kingmaker style game, it doesn't mean we are going to be traveling around the greenbelt building a castle and reliving the events of Kingmaker in a different campaign that is the same.
This isn't Lovecraftian. I'd be a fool to attempt such a thing. It might have quite a bit of it in there, but I'm basing all my knowledge off the thing I'm styling, which is the board game. Otherwise I'd say "I'm making a Lovecraft campaign". Huge difference truthfully. Like trying to make a campaign based off a movie that was based off a book.. It would be all wrong.
I think what people are getting at is that even the arkham horror board game has a horror theme. Conflict is rarely the best choice all of the time. Running away or solid planning is usually the way to go. E6 provides for that. Players have more realistic options and or often faced with foes in which their objectives are not defeat, but survive and escape. E6 makes that managable. Players wont ever enter the super hero realm of mid levels, and it means things like a troll will always be dangerous to a degree. If you want a horror theme to your game, where there always seems to be (or is) a risk of death, you dont want to go all the way to 20, it wont work even if you limit magic.
Well that is why I am thinking of using the E6 actually. Currently reviewing it right now.