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What's the advice for them?What advice do they need? "Try to not die"?
It might've helped.
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And that's the point. You'll hear "don't dip" and "plan to use metamagic rods" and all sorts of advice that won't help. They don't apply if the game is low-level only. And many times, if you describe the game as low-level only, the advice columns fill with useless snark instead of some advice that applies to the situation.
That's a pity.
I'm not the guy to tell you not to multi-class, I honestly can't help myself, I know I shouldn't do it, it's just, my Medium would also be a kick ass Magus or Bard (I haven't decided which yet).
If the game is low level only, do other things that offend me. Set it in a place where magic is outlawed or viewed as evil by the prevailing religion. Toss in realism whenever possible. Have artifacts and mutants that radiate dead magic zones. How about you let all fighters cast magic missile, then fireball at 3rd level.
If you game ends early with a TPK try some of my Land Of The Dead classes. A reaper, a rider, and a poltergeist could rock most adventure paths. I haven't playtested any of them, but I would love to hear what happens.
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They don't apply if the game is low-level only.And you expressed surprise at that fact, which was befuddling to me.
Eh? Ah! No, that was sarcasm. What's truly astounding is how people have trouble adjusting to the honest likelihood that the campaign won't last after a few levels, and planning accordingly, instead of always assuming a 1-20.
@ Mr Green Jeans: yes, a sandbox, but one where the players REALLY take charge. Right now I have three "sandbox" games, all of which I spoon-fed my players plot lines until they took the bait. Not so much sandbox as they are "non-linear."
I want players to sit down to MY table and for THEM to tell ME: here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna go here so we can try to find this or accomplish this goal.
My players just seem so... passive. I get it at level 1, adventure 1, you want a little direction. But by level 5 after we've played this homebrew setting for a year, you STILL need me to give you a set of "potential plot points?"
Seriously. I want my players to take crafting skills and feats; I've even offered them as bonus feats in one game. All three of these games is using the Ultimate Campaign rules for Downtime. I want my players to go, get invested in the gameworld and be engaged as players in what their characters want. Form alliances, build items and businesses, make enemies.
My players want none of this.
My players want to sit down, week after week, and find out who the monster/villain of the week is. They want plots handed to them, then they want those plots to be "you start here... fight these foes... go to here... figure out X and finally... beat the BBEG." Too much American TV if you ask me.
So I guess it's not a different campaign I want. It's different players. Anyone in this thread interested in a sandbox and living in MN, USA?
I haven't had a game like that in years... Too bad you're not in northern California, my fiance and I would give you exactly that. Every character I come up with has goals and motivations that I usually wind up getting stifled because many DMs I come across prefer to spoon-feed the party plot hooks for whatever overarching plotline they've got going, and are loathe to let the party do other stuff.
When I run homebrew, I've usually got a general plotline of goings-on in the background. Politics, wars, cults of dead gods trying to raise their patrons again, continent-spanning grabs for power from the dragon council, that kind of stuff. If the players want to pursue that, by all means go for it. If they'd rather take over a bandit camp and carve out a new kingdom where might makes right and banditry is the law of the land, more power to 'em.
"Here's my world, it's got stuff going on off screen. Do whatever the hell you want!" is generally my motto.
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Eh? Ah! No, that was sarcasm. What's truly astounding is how people have trouble adjusting to the honest likelihood that the campaign won't last after a few levels, and planning accordingly, instead of always assuming a 1-20.
Never had that problem myself. When the GM of our core only campaign said that 4th level spells didn't exist, I started planning on taking sorcerer levels on my cleric to try out mystic theurge for once.
I haven't seen the new vigilante class, but the WBs line of DC based tv shows have been very inspirational for me. It's more about their choice of shows. I'm working on a class of singing swordsman loosely based on Galavant. Hint, he wasn't very high level if his inspiration was so easily disrupted.
Back to the topic, I'm thinking of a campaign where 6 armed, strong, violent monsters from another world are using rituals to create and expand dead magic zones. They are enslaving weaker humans , elves, ect. and have swayed to their side some fighters. They are mostly lawful evil but it is learned behavior.
@ Mr Green Jeans: yes, a sandbox, but one where the players REALLY take charge. Right now I have three "sandbox" games, all of which I spoon-fed my players plot lines until they took the bait. Not so much sandbox as they are "non-linear."
I want players to sit down to MY table and for THEM to tell ME: here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna go here so we can try to find this or accomplish this goal.
So I guess it's not a different campaign I want. It's different players. Anyone in this thread interested in a sandbox and living in MN, USA?
I would certainly play in a setting like that
Announce it as a new game engine. Actually it's just an excuse for fixing the stupidest errors.
True strike is available to fighters as a once a day feat.
The rime metamagic feat lasts 5 rounds per metamagic feat applied.
Anyone can take a metamagic feat and apply it to magic items.
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This last week or so I've gotten it into my head to run a campaign where the Players are the only people in the world with access to PC Classes.
Everyone else in the world is Adepts, Aristocrates, Commoners, Experts and Warriors.
Nobody has ever seen someone that can do the things a PC class can do.
Likewise it creates an odd shift in the support systems the PCs might be used to. Healing potions get more expensive. General Caster LEvel of Hired spellcasters goes up (Adept needs CL:5 for 2nd level spells for example)
Still Magic items in the world but the list drops to what Adepts can make.
No Paladins
No Rangers
No Shapechanging Druids
No one who can even Channel Energy of have Domain spells or powers
Only what the PCs actually have in their party
If anyone has played Brutal Legend I think that either an all Bard party(or at least everyone plays an instrument or sings) going on tour for gold and glory sound super cools.
I would have can't stop the music creates a disjunction on a magic trying to hinder their performance, at the rockstars level. Even if the disjunction fails, they still perform at the diminished level.
They can reinvent themselves when they go up a level.
If they choose the self parody genre they can cause hideous laughter on enemies who fail their will saves.
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This last week or so I've gotten it into my head to run a campaign where the Players are the only people in the world with access to PC Classes.
Everyone else in the world is Adepts, Aristocrates, Commoners, Experts and Warriors.
Nobody has ever seen someone that can do the things a PC class can do.
Likewise it creates an odd shift in the support systems the PCs might be used to. Healing potions get more expensive. General Caster LEvel of Hired spellcasters goes up (Adept needs CL:5 for 2nd level spells for example)
Still Magic items in the world but the list drops to what Adepts can make.
No Paladins
No Rangers
No Shapechanging Druids
No one who can even Channel Energy of have Domain spells or powersOnly what the PCs actually have in their party
Taking this to a different level, the big bad guys could also have class levels and abilities, but pretty much all other NPCs would be NPC classes. But yeah, this is a funky sort of 'superhero' version of fantasy roleplaying, where your wizard is pretty much the only wizard anyone has ever seen, and when you finally meet another wizard (generally as a foe...), it's a big honking deal.
This last week or so I've gotten it into my head to run a campaign where the Players are the only people in the world with access to PC Classes.
Everyone else in the world is Adepts, Aristocrates, Commoners, Experts and Warriors.
Nobody has ever seen someone that can do the things a PC class can do.
Likewise it creates an odd shift in the support systems the PCs might be used to. Healing potions get more expensive. General Caster LEvel of Hired spellcasters goes up (Adept needs CL:5 for 2nd level spells for example)
Still Magic items in the world but the list drops to what Adepts can make.
No Paladins
No Rangers
No Shapechanging Druids
No one who can even Channel Energy of have Domain spells or powersOnly what the PCs actually have in their party
Taking this to a different level, the big bad guys could also have class levels and abilities, but pretty much all other NPCs would be NPC classes. But yeah, this is a funky sort of 'superhero' version of fantasy roleplaying, where your wizard is pretty much the only wizard anyone has ever seen, and when you finally meet another wizard (generally as a foe...), it's a big honking deal.
pretty much the idea. Infact anything above 5th level level spell is pretty much considered "Realm of the Gods" Magic. Been going over just what kind of an impact it would have on a setting. The Adept spell list is pretty limited so that reduces the items that can be created in the world. An Expert with the Master Craftsman feat has more options open to him to make magic items than an Adept would so the party will be looking for legendary craftsmen instead of spellcasters to get items made.
Raise Dead is a really big deal since only a 17th/18th level Adept can cast it. Until the PCs can do it for themselves they litterally have to seek out the most powerful spellcasters in the world if they want to bring someone back.
Heck Cure Serious Wound Potion is over a 1000 gp, making it a 2 day investment for an NPC Potion maker.
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My idea for a "it'll never happen" campaign was to make the players members of the Resistance in a post-Judgment Day Terminator game, where there'd been a world-wide infestation of xenomorphs, a planetary invasion of Predators, and a global outbreak of the Evil Dead, all at once.
I like to think of it as the whole "Points of Light" idea taken to an extreme. Essentially, humanity's best hope for survival is that each of these four factions is more focused on each other than on annihilating the few remaining bands of humans.
You should totally check out Obsidian Apocalypse. It's kind of an Apocalypse Template for campaign settings with different end o' the world scenarios. You could probably combine them all together for a completely screwed world.
Here's a flip the script idea, like the cave age, except dragons and giants are the predators, and they adopt humans like hunting dogs. You have races like neanderthals, true early humans, small peking men, and cannibalistic apes. Classes are shamans, barbarians, druids, sorcerers, possibly ritualistic casters.
Enemies are wivern, snake people, cyclopes, sabertooths, ect.
Always wanted to do a v3.5 campaign set on Earth using S.M. Sterling's Dies the Fire setting, basically no electricity or gun powder and can't reproduce Steam-powered anything. Very limited on class selections, like nothing magical and some classes would need changed like the Ranger and Monk. Everyone is Human.
I've had no takers so far :(
You're basically trying to interest people in playing D&D, but without magic or monsters. I'd suggest using d20 Modern (at the very least) instead.
Search homebrew. Several people want to GM a game like that. You could start a play by post and take turns being the GM.
Always wanted to do a v3.5 campaign set on Earth using S.M. Sterling's Dies the Fire setting, basically no electricity or gun powder and can't reproduce Steam-powered anything. Very limited on class selections, like nothing magical and some classes would need changed like the Ranger and Monk. Everyone is Human.
I've had no takers so far :(
We did this very campaign last year using True20 rules. Part of the group was really into it, how to rebuild society etc. Kinda fizzled after about 8 or so sessions.
A long time ago, at a website far far away, I tried to run this game
“Who could love a fool?”
The situation:
At a large mansion outside of a peaceful and prosperous city, a wealthy nobleman has hired a troop of actors to entertain for an evening’s celebration of his daughter’s engagement announcement. Several notable citizens have been invited to the party.
The player characters must all be 3rd level bards. No one will level in this adventure. It is designed to end at the end of the nights activities.
It is basically a variation of a French Bedroom Comedy
Each player character is given a particular “problem” associated with one of the guests at the party. To win the game, the actors must get through the night, making sure that their time on stage is not missed, and at the same time avoid, or otherwise stay out of, the trouble that is given them secretly.
The game runs on a precise clock. There can be absolutely no lethal combat, but incapacitating different other player and non player character’s is allowed.
A map of the mansion is used to control everyone’s precise location at any given time. It is acceptable for players to know everyone’s location, because it really doesn’t help all that much.
I tried to run this game twice, at DnDOnLineGames (which I believe is no more, and maybe everyone moved to MythWeavers when it finally ended). Recruitment was always enthusiastic, but the game stalled both times because of the one thing I simply cannot understand and that is the tendency for players in PbP games to be absolutely dead set against talking to each other.
I am sort of thinking I might give it a go here,
What do you think?
I think it's a fun idea, but question the use of Pathfinder for it. It sounds like a good fit for a narrative style system with little emphasis on combat. Something with quick background focused character generation. Using Pathfinder for such a roleplay seems a bit mismatched.
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Campaign world based on The Labyrinth.
I think it's a fun idea, but question the use of Pathfinder for it. It sounds like a good fit for a narrative style system with little emphasis on combat. Something with quick background focused character generation. Using Pathfinder for such a roleplay seems a bit mismatched.A long time ago, at a website far far away, I tried to run this game
“Who could love a fool?”
The situation:
At a large mansion outside of a peaceful and prosperous city, a wealthy nobleman has hired a troop of actors to entertain for an evening’s celebration of his daughter’s engagement announcement. Several notable citizens have been invited to the party.
The player characters must all be 3rd level bards. No one will level in this adventure. It is designed to end at the end of the nights activities.
It is basically a variation of a French Bedroom Comedy
Each player character is given a particular “problem” associated with one of the guests at the party. To win the game, the actors must get through the night, making sure that their time on stage is not missed, and at the same time avoid, or otherwise stay out of, the trouble that is given them secretly.
The game runs on a precise clock. There can be absolutely no lethal combat, but incapacitating different other player and non player character’s is allowed.
A map of the mansion is used to control everyone’s precise location at any given time. It is acceptable for players to know everyone’s location, because it really doesn’t help all that much.
I tried to run this game twice, at DnDOnLineGames (which I believe is no more, and maybe everyone moved to MythWeavers when it finally ended). Recruitment was always enthusiastic, but the game stalled both times because of the one thing I simply cannot understand and that is the tendency for players in PbP games to be absolutely dead set against talking to each other.
I am sort of thinking I might give it a go here,
What do you think?
Have 2 topics. The play by post and the table talk.
Campaign world based on Gravity Falls.
It has the monsters. It just needs some sort of system, I think. Pathfinder is probably too combat-heavy.
A long time ago, at a website far far away, I tried to run this game
“Who could love a fool?”
The situation:
At a large mansion outside of a peaceful and prosperous city, a wealthy nobleman has hired a troop of actors to entertain for an evening’s celebration of his daughter’s engagement announcement. Several notable citizens have been invited to the party.
The player characters must all be 3rd level bards. No one will level in this adventure. It is designed to end at the end of the nights activities.
It is basically a variation of a French Bedroom Comedy
Each player character is given a particular “problem” associated with one of the guests at the party. To win the game, the actors must get through the night, making sure that their time on stage is not missed, and at the same time avoid, or otherwise stay out of, the trouble that is given them secretly.
The game runs on a precise clock. There can be absolutely no lethal combat, but incapacitating different other player and non player character’s is allowed.
A map of the mansion is used to control everyone’s precise location at any given time. It is acceptable for players to know everyone’s location, because it really doesn’t help all that much.
I tried to run this game twice, at DnDOnLineGames (which I believe is no more, and maybe everyone moved to MythWeavers when it finally ended). Recruitment was always enthusiastic, but the game stalled both times because of the one thing I simply cannot understand and that is the tendency for players in PbP games to be absolutely dead set against talking to each other.
I am sort of thinking I might give it a go here,
What do you think?
Fiasco would be BRILLIANT for this.
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Idea I had just a couple of days ago.
The Moon shatters, raining firy death down on the world below. Looking up through the streaking rain of fire the PCs can see massive dark tentacle like shapes emerging from the hollow wreackage of the moon.
The Pcs must forge ahead in this new ruined land with an Elder god always looking down upon the world from above, birthing it's spawn to decend upon the land from a starless sky
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Idea I had just a couple of days ago.
The Moon shatters, raining firy death down on the world below. Looking up through the streaking rain of fire the PCs can see massive dark tentacle like shapes emerging from the hollow wreackage of the moon.
The Pcs must forge ahead in this new ruined land with an Elder god always looking down upon the world from above, birthing it's spawn to decend upon the land from a starless sky
Ooh, I had a similar idea for a far future sci-fi plot, where Pluto is literally a dark traveler from somewhere else in the universe, the egg of some Great Old Thing, waiting for people from further into the system to land on it and provide it with the heads up that it's time to wake up and eat everything between it and the sun...
And Pluto's moon, Charon, is something planted there by more benevolent forces, that keeps 'Pluto' slumbering by destroying anything that might make landing and wake it up.
What roles do Nyx, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx play? :)
What roles do Nyx, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx play? :)
Kerberos (moon), the 4th moon of Pluto. The lawful gods took it away because planetoids should not have so many moons. :p
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3. "Rippers," once again using Savage Worlds. It's a prepublished setting on Victorian-era Earth, where all the things that go bump in the night are real - but so are all the fictional characters of the era, like Mina Harker, Sherlock Holmes, and Captain Nemo. So, yeah, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vibes are strong here. Continuing with that theme, the PCs would all be fictional characters from Victorian literature themselves - or, at the very least, ancestors from more modern literature or descendants of earlier. I've explained this concept to one prospective player, and he immediately pitched me a concept for John Carter.
Popping in here to update things - the stars have aligned, and I'll be starting this game up with some friends very soon! My party includes Henry Jones (eventually, Sr.), Lady Mabel Goring, Phileas Fogg, Alice Pleasance Liddell, Calamity Jane, and Lizbeth Borden. They will be recruited by Lord Arthur and Lady Laura Godalming to join the Rippers, and set up a Lodge to fight the Cabal at Chesley Wold.
Not so much as a campaign really but rather a good pathfinder version of Transformers. Androids and Warforge conversions all head in the right direction but part of the charm was transforming. I have looked at Wild shape and it gets closer. Picking your class is where you get the different abilities of the said Transformer.
Granted this is a fantasy medival setting and Transformers is not but still would love to see a sword wielding Megatron kicking monster butt.
Advance Beastiary
Transforming Construct Template
I had a few ideas...
One I think could work very well is a gladiator-themed campaign. The world is safe, all the ancient buried evils are destroyed, all the supervillainous wizards have been eliminated, so the only career left for combat-focused PCs is as gladiators in arenas.
Pretty much from that point, the plots are based on wrestling-themed plotlines of skullduggery and manipulation, as well as putting on a good show in the arena. Maybe mix in a bit of X-Crawl and have staged dungeon crawls as events as well.
I was going to say X Crawl!! But you already said it. Poo.
As for actual ideas - one that has always pulled at me, but I have no idea how to balance it or what the goals of the players would be, but a "trust fund" children of adventurers.
Tehy would start with generous point buy - after all, mommy and daddy have +5 bonuses to all of their stats, and they would start with fantastic gear and loot.
Of course, in most D&D campaigns, getting loot and gear is a big goal/draw. So if they already have lots of gear and riches.... What would be the goal or object of the campaign?
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Hm. Two ideas which sound fun but would likely be horrible.
1. End the campaign with "And then you wake up and realize it was all a dream..."
2. Slowly reveal that most of the PCs are actually figments of one PC's imagination, or fragmented personalities within his/her mind.
Bonus points on the second one if it turns out they're all figments of your GMPC's imagination.
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Bonus points on the second one if it turns out they're all figments of your GMPC's imagination.
*You look up from behind the GM screen. All players have disappeared from around the table. The whole group and game was entirely in your head. Yet all the snacks have also been eaten. How is this possible?*