I've just printed GAZ1 and have a basic plot for my entire campaign. Now, I'm not sure how to make said plot come about without railroading too much. The setting will be, of course, Mystara, and the campaign will take place in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. Your thoughts?
... I admit, from the GM side of the screen I prefer the idea of everyone "earning" their XP and always starting from Level 1. But my impression is that's not nearly as feasible in D&D 3.x as in previous editions to have a mixed-level party. Is that the experience of people who have also played previous editions?
I would say yes. If you were careful for a couple missions. Your lower level character had a 'decent' chance to survive and would catch up fairly quickly. From 3.x onward, a first level character in a mid to high level party will probably not survive the very first attack of opportunity from a reach monster, damaging spell, or missile attack. So he can't even try to stay out of the way very well. He won't catch up in levels quickly (or at all). Has little chance to contribute except with 'aid another' actions. Since his attacks will miss and his spells are useless (in comparrison).
That's my opinion anyway.
Plague right? Not too railroady?
How does it hit the town and what does it do?
If it were MY game and I didn't want railroady...
- it hits my town as inflicted by a bunch of mites releasing a swarm of infected fire beetles into the town, either up through the sewers or down from the sky.
- the disease is a wound-transmitted effect that eventually turns the victim into giant vermin.
Adv 1 - the PCs are in the vicinity when the swarm first attacks; they defend themselves and put up such a good showing that a prominent citizen (guard captain, mayor, whatever) wants to congratulate them proper so he invites them to a party a few days later. The characters during the down time are asked to go on a short side adventure in the down time, maybe clean out a neaby ruin or hunt worgs or something.
Adv 2 - p/up a couple days later; people in town are getting sick/disappearing. The party shows up at the...party and the prominent citizen (trying to hide his/her sickness) can't take it anymore and succumbs, turning into a giant centipede. The party becomes a riot and the crowd calls for the party to get the cleric. Heroes go to church; dungeon crawl in infested church.
Adv 3 to ? - the party can basically go wherever and do whatever they wish. Some avenue of investigation eventually leads them to the mayor's Daughter, a sorceress who might have access to a cure. Ingredient quests ensue.
Adv last - after gathering all ingredients the party has to get into the mayor's manor. The very first time they met her the sorceress complained of rats in the walls of the manor. Since then clues or first-hand contact reveal mites. Now the party finds the manor infested with the critters and their bugs.
So it's still a LITTLE railroady, but gives the party SOME room to maneuver. Since they're on a deadline (10 days) it does have to be a tad linear. The random dungeon hack at the beginning and the smattering of ingredient quests however adds a bit of sandbox and opportunity to improvise with wilderness encounters, a unique couple of NPCs (dryad, maybe some dwarves) and exploration for cure elements.
@Mark
Well, I'm thinking the BBEG will be a Wizard(Necromancer?...maybe Enchanter)/Cleric/Mystic Thurge Lich and he's trying to take over Karameikos by attempting to magic jar the crap out of Duke Stefan...
Oh wow, I was WAY off then?
Well, if you want to go sandbox, have the lich's plans progress around the party. Their first adventure could be a soulless experiment gone awry, resulting in a low-level golem that's actually a mortal who simply can't die until his soul is returned. Then some exploration resulting in a graveyard having been cleaned out (the lich gathering his forces) with some lingering undead beyond his HD limit to control left behind.
Eventually after the heroe's annoy the lich enough he sends some low level mooks after them which provides the party the incentives and clues that start bringing all the seperate adventures together. From there they begin also running into nobles who support a new Black Duke.
The party can move to an endgame scenario by either gathering enough political support back to Stefan to weaken the Lich's control or following a scooby-doo-esque trail back to the citadel the lich is using.
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@The Rot Grub
I agree with your comment on the race/class restrictions, so this is a one time thing for this one group only. That said, I personally would find it fun to play in such a game myself, but that's just me. Maybe I should get into Castles and Crusades, get some of the 2e AD&D books, or go back to OD&D.
Race-class restrictions I'm completely ok with. I think not have a cosmopolitan view of race and class means that elves aren't just thin humans, halflings aren't just short humans, etc... AD&D was NOT a generic fantasy roleplaying game, it was Gygax and Anderson's roleplaying game. Right or wrong by 'modern' modern standards these restrictions are part of old school. A halfling paladin riding to battle on a wardog is not old school.
On level restrictions, if we ignore 1e for a moment and go slightly less old school (2e) then in a PHB it mentions mentions level restrictions but not what they are. This information is only in the DMG. Back then the DMG was for the DM and in theory not something the players need (or should) be reading - note of course all the magic items were only in the DMG also. Although Zeb Cook backs up Gygax's stand on level restrictions and some suggestions to raise them slightly there is non reason a DM can't ignore them completely (and the given advice on why they exist).
So in brief;
Demi-humans being the only race to truly multi-class is a real flavour injection. If I personally was going to try PF old school I would allow demi-humans to level as per normal PF rules, but humans would have to 'dual-class', meaning that they couldn't use the abilities of a previous class until the new class exceeded the old in level. Also I would keep the rule that a human required a 17 in the prime stat of the class they wished to 'dual-class' into. This should make the world demographics a little more old school. Lots of multiclassed demi-humans and mainly straight class humans. With PF's level capstones etc it isn't so bad. I think I would work on a list of multiclassing combos and not allow every possible combination - with all the new PF classes this could get a little tricky. But with the advantages of being non-human perhaps no one would play a human? I guess then we are back to why Gygax had level restrictions on demi-humans...
Founding member of the SADEE (Society Against Demi-human Equal Employment),
S.
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@Stefan
Dude...you're racist...lol.
In my game, humans can be of any class, but they can't multi class, while demi-humans can multiclass once...with the exception of my BBEG, because he can break the rules in order to be an awesome BBEG.
@Mark
It destroys the body and makes the victim go insane. When they die, their bodies turn a sickly purple, which means the virus is airbone. What is the damage it should do?
To the OP: Inspired by this thread, I decided to "kick-it" old school last night. With my game room ready, but much of my stuff still unpacked, I did the following:
>Did not use a GM screen
>Did not set up initiative tags like usual
>Did the "wooosh" sound every once in a while and split attention from player to player as they went their seperate ways in town. In old school we often did "split the party". So as a GM, I did a LOT of cut-scenes back and forth, monitoring everyone's engagement in the game. When one person seemed a little checked-out I would "woosh" over to them, and make some s~@& up on-the-spot. It made for a very entertaining game of Pathfinder RPG.Old School Prep:
Instead of printing elaborate stat blocks and flagging pages in bestiaries, and instead of using Combat Manager, or my tabletop projector rig... I just had ideas jotted down on a quarter sheet of tiny graph paper. Yeah we used graph paper back then. The tiny stuff is the bomb. All I did was jot down some NPC names, drew a little dungeon, made some notes about monsters and traps, and off I went.I cannot tell you the s$$# I came up with on-the-spot.
Here's a taste of where the mind goes when you're not shacked to modules, minis, maps, or rules:
1) One of the pirate NPCs the party had traveled with for some time was hanged.
2) Peeking into a noble's manor they saw a man who'd been the victim of vivisectionist experiments
3) A secret underground "prince" delivered a missive and an enchanted sword via an organization member
4) The bard received a mission from the local brothel house.
5) The plot about one PCs father was revealed as it pertained to the slave trade.
6) A new PC character was introduced by way of the local church, a church that participates in ritual executions of criminals
7) A known sorceress claimed the inquisition forced her to work for them because she could raise the dead***** My only OOPS!-Factor - a casualty of improvisaion that I shall figure out by next week.
MY POINT: None of this had...
I don't think I'm at a point where I can be as good as you when it comes to improvising, but your experience is making me want to try out one of these One Page Dungeons. For those of us who don't want to homebrew something but also don't want to be tied to any long descriptions or fluff, these seem to do the trick. I'd love to try one of these, and they're pretty system-neutral.
I found this simple list on the Immortals (I'm assuming they're gods, but due to the social stigma of the day, they're called Immortals) of Mystara. I know close to nothing about the Immortals individually, but you could search Pandius or look at the old books about them. It's only a hop, skip, and a step from this to bring them up to Pathfinder standards...and speaking of that...I may or may not, in the future, embark on a quest to obtain information on Mystara and bring it up to date with all the Pathfinder changes to the rules. There was an attempt to bring Mystara into 3e, but I assume it lost it's momentum. I believe the Known World has spent too much time in the metaphorical basement. Time to clean it up and bring it back to the light, but that is something for a different forum.
The disease makes you insane b/fore it kills you? You can go with one of 2 scenarios:
1. make a save or suffer X con damage and X wis damage
2. make a save of suffer X con damage; in addition make a save or be permanently afflicted with an insanity (randomly rolled).
I have a custom disease afflicted by the fey, called the Grins. It deals con and cha. As the disease progresses the victim loses more and more control over facial muscles and they tend to half smile or smile with creepiness at inappropriate times. When the victim dies their face is twisted into a "black hole sun video" grin.
I thought about making it a Joker thing from Batman, but I didn't go that way; too over the top w/the whole white skin, red lips, green hair thing. What are you calling your affliction Luna?
@Mark Hoover
Perhaps I should call it The Wasting Madness?
Nightmare Rot? The Creeps? Mindfire?
The fact is its insidious, awesome, and one threat soft Duke Stefan is not going to be able to turn a blind eye to like his cousin.
In the meantime, while this thing grips the people with fear, no one will notice until afterwards that a few countryside graveyards emptied themselves amid the chaos.
The Church will have to summon all 3 immortals to get them out of THIS mess!
The sickness is actually what is filling up the graveyard of this particular village. Some are rising as undead still carrying the sickness. Some are zombies while a few are Allips.
I was thinking of using the Ability Score Prerequisites listed here for the core classes in my game. I really want the players to roll their ability scores BEFORE the plan their characters. Also, I'll be using the organic method of roll 4d6 discard lowest (maybe reroll 1s), place in order, and swap two scores (I hope that is correct). I will allow them to roll two columns of scores and pick the better one. Apply the Class Prerequisites in addition to the race/class restrictions (Rerolling all over again if it results in a "hopeless" character) and I think I have a pretty old school, albeit limited, way of generating a character. I won't be using traits, but I WILL be using the percentile rolls for generating a background as detailed in GAZ1 Grand Duchy of Karameikos, possibly altering or creating new tables for Half-elves and Half-orcs...something I will need help on from you grognards. Overall, I would like some advice on things thus far...perhaps someone could roll a character and see what they can come up with using my aforementioned race/class restrictions and the ability score prerequisites detailed in the link at the beginning of this post (using only CRB, or course). Another point and highlight I find likeable from the earlier editions is the ability to build strongholds. I think this would fit well with the feel I'm going for, but I can really find any rules on this in Pathfinder. Perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong place. IF someone could direct me to the proper location, or at least give me some basis to go on, I'd be grateful.
Bump?
I really want the players to roll their ability scores BEFORE the plan their characters.
Didn't you say that one of your players was talking about playing an old dwarf paladin PC? What if the rolled stats don't align?
One system of rolling you might consider is have everyone roll up an array of stats using your preferred number of dice, then let the players pick any one of the rolled arrays.
I really want the players to roll their ability scores BEFORE the plan their characters.Didn't you say that one of your players was talking about playing an old dwarf paladin PC? What if the rolled stats don't align?
At that point, I was going to use the point buys system, and the ability score prerequisites are still up in the air.
I was thinking of using the Ability Score Prerequisites listed here for the core classes in my game. I really want the players to roll their ability scores BEFORE the plan their characters. Also, I'll be using the organic method of roll 4d6 discard lowest (maybe reroll 1s), place in order, and swap two scores (I hope that is correct). I will allow them to roll two columns of scores and pick the better one. Apply the Class Prerequisites in addition to the race/class restrictions (Rerolling all over again if it results in a "hopeless" character) and I think I have a pretty old school, albeit limited, way of generating a character.
Well, just now I "playtested" your formula, assuming I would shoot to become the hardest class to qualify for on that website, the Paladin (minimum Strength 12, Wisdom 14, Charisma 14). (By the way, the "Organic" method I remember from the 3.0 PHB included the option of rerolling one score and taking the higher result. Also, when do the racial modifiers apply in your formula?)
Initial Rolls:
STR: 8
DEX: 15
CON: 14
INT: 16
WIS: 15
CHA: 15
I trade STR for INT, to get:
STR: 16
DEX: 15
CON: 14
INT: 8
WIS: 15
CHA: 15
Granted, I rolled VERY well and likely would not get a paladin in most instances. (I believe that rolling 4d6 dropping the lowest results in scores averaging out at around 13.)
I prefer the Organic method because there is a balance drawn between randomness and choice: you get to choose a class of your choice while also getting some interesting combinations (a charismatic fighter, or a strong wizard, for example). But when you combine this with the class requirements, you get directed toward certain classes and close off some of these "interesting" combinations.
But it's all up to the goals of your campaign and your particular playing group: if you want to bring home the point of the rarity of certain classes such as the Paladin, then by all means do so. (And you may want to consider the even more stringent requirements of the 1e PHB, requiring a 17 Charisma for paladins.) But on the other hand one of your players WANTS to be a Paladin, so in that case would you make an exception? But then wouldn't that cancel out the rarity you're enforcing?
Food for thought! :)
try to focus on story, and dont let the monster stats disturb you.
try the skill munchkin bonus do not overwhelming you
enjoy the game as always and try youre own fixes... because this (3.0/3.5/3.75) system was made in the internet and sold as a ogl... there are a lot of issues, but still is enjoyeable
play white wolf, this the manner of how to lose the trainning wheels for table top games
I really want the players to roll their ability scores BEFORE the plan their characters. Also, I'll be using the organic method of roll 4d6 discard lowest (maybe reroll 1s), place in order, and swap two scores (I hope that is correct). I will allow them to roll two columns of scores and pick the better one. Apply the Class Prerequisites in addition to the race/class restrictions (Rerolling all over again if it results in a "hopeless" character) and I think I have a pretty old school, albeit limited, way of generating a character.
Sounds good, and sounds fun.
@The Rot Grub
The Racial modifiers apply BEFORE qualifying for a class.
So the player who wanted to play a Dwarf Paladin rolled for it in front of me. After the reroll and switching of two scores, we arrived at this BEFORE racial modifiers.
STR:15
DEX:18
CON:12
INT:10
WIS:14
CHA:16
He switched INT and CHA and rerolled his DEX, which was 3. Needless to say, he got lucky.