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For those of you who know what I am talking about, care for a trip down memory lane?
I use a fairly heavily houseruled version of B/X with some stuff from later versions thrown in. I have an extensively customized version of the old module B4: The Lost City that I could run. B4 borders on megadungeon territory, really.
For those of you who don't know, B/X is short for Basic/eXpert, the "introductory" editions of D&D published in 1981. I dug them out a couple years ago and got caught up in the simple elegance if it.
I'd prefer people who are familiar with the game already, but it is easy enough to teach.
I have a couple of houserules that assist with the lethality issue, though a friend of mine pointed out to me when one of his characters died that it should happen once in a while, otherwise combat isn't scary. Also, old school D&D has encounters that you should run away from.
It's kind of funny that you mention 5e because there were a few things that I used in my B/X games that appeared in 5e a year later, such as a save for every ability score and varying spell effects if you use a higher spell slot. I do think that 5e went a lot further "back to it's roots" than I really expected, but I don't care to shell out what they are charging for those books.
We can talk about character generation if there is enough interest.
So I'm guessing not much interest then? :(
So I'm guessing not much interest then? :(
You could always post up details on your houserules plus character creation stuff and see how it goes from there (possibly even bits of what campaign setting you was to use). 'Sides, what's the worst that can happen?
Well... all right then...
Campaign setting I would use would be a homebrewed modification of Mystara that I call Arcania. I loved the original Known World but the original map had some problems and I didn't like the way they fixed them (TSR wanted to avoid a retcon). The original countries are all there but I moved some, added some, and increased the scale.
However, being something of a Megadungeon, the campaign wouldn't interact much with the world outside the dungeon until later levels. The adventure basically hurls you into the dungeon real fast.
OK, Chargen would basically follow the old BECMI formula with a bit of a boost. So:
* Roll 4d6 (drop lowest) six times, IN ORDER (STR, INT WIS, DEX, CON, CHA) for your scores.
* Pick a class (but keep in mind the options below which might influence your decision).
* You may swap your highest ability score with the score of a prime requisite for your class if you wish.
* Then you may reduce any of STR, INT, or WIS (as long as they are not a prime requisite) by multiples of 2 points to a minimum of 9 for that score; for each 2 points such a score is reduced, increase a prime requisite by 1 (to a maximum of 18).
Prime requisites by class are:
* Fighter: STR
* Magician: INT
* Cleric: WIS
* Thief: DEX
* Dwarf: STR and CON
* Halfling: STR and DEX
* Elf: STR and INT (but STR may not be higher than INT)
(yes, demi-human races are classes in BECMI)
I have house rules for a lot of other classes if there is demand for them. Not all of them would be appropriate for this adventure.
* Hit Points: all characters get an extra racial hit die which is 1d4 except for dwarves who get 1d6. HD are rolled but reroll ones at chargen (not at later levels).
* Money: Start with 3d6x10 gp for all classes. I updated the equipment list a bit and some things used prices that are more AD&D (such as armor which has more variety). Players will have the opportunity to buy a pregenerated "fast pack" to save time picking equipment.
Ah, a blast from the past!
I'd be interested...
For the record, I also tinkered with the ability bonus table to be a bit more forgiving and also so that there is a value to have a prime requisite at any particular number (so there are no "dead" ability scores).
The start of the game assumes that the players have signed on as guards for a large caravan that is travelling through the desert.
Ahhhh... Memories of halcyon days rekindled! Interest piqued ;)
= 14 STR
= 10 INT
= 16 WIS
= 12 DEX
= 13 CON
= 12 CHA
Smacks of an olde school cleric methinks...
Will you be using the Mystara pantheons or home-brew gods??
Will you be using the Mystara pantheons or home-brew gods??
For the record, the list of Immortals in Mystara is not supposed to be exhaustive, so likely a bit of both. However, clerics have no requirement to choose a patron deity at first level, and the way I am running it, they usually wouldn't.
The "Church of Thyatis" would be the traditional church that most Lawful PC clerics would belong to, but may deities are acknowledged in their pantheon.
Before you choose cleric though, remember rule #3 above:
* You may swap your highest ability score with the score of a prime requisite for your class if you wish.
So you can choose a class and then move that 16 over to a score that is the PRQ for the class. This is from BECMI (did not appear in B/X) and is intended to prevent people from being forced to play a character they don't want to play. It's also very handy when you need to replace a character in the party with a new one.
Is there an article or publication that lists the Mystaran faiths, "gods" or Immortals worshipped? Mystara confuses the hell out of me when it comes to religion.
They key difference between Mystara and other campaign worlds is that in the Mystaran pantheon, all the deities were once mortal beings of one kind or another. Some are ancient but others achieved immortality in recent history.
Immortals are aligned with one of five "spheres" which are transcendent states of being - not quite like planes, since they overlap, but sort of. The five spheres are the spheres of Time, Thought, Matter, Energy, and Entropy. Entropy is strictly chaotic but the rest are not aligned any one way. Most of the destructive, "evil" deities are from the sphere of entropy.
Overall, though, there is very little need for 1st level characters to worry about any of that, and the module is actually written with the assumption that no one is pledged to any one deity. Clerics don't need to have a patron deity as they draw their powers from the spheres rather than the immortals themselves (though eventually having a patron helps).
So generally I'd prefer that characters not worry about it too much, unless you are just looking for background.
HERE is a list of Mystaran deities as presented in D&D 3.5 format (it's a conversion).
THIS looks promising but it's a 67 MB file. It isn't downloading very quickly right now... :( don't seem to have a very fast connection right now.
So only Str, Int and Wis can be reduced and only then they can be used to improve the Prime Req?
Yes.
Note that having a high DEX is awesome for many classes and I'd be inclined to leave it there for most types of characters.
I probably wouldn't play a thief with this, as you usually want a decent CON generally, but my houseruled thief abilities would give you bonuses to lockpicking, traps (both from INT), and stealth (from WIS) with this array.
A magician, on the other hand, would be outstanding here. A magician with DEX 18 is great, because you spend most of your time throwing stuff like daggers and flasks of oil.
Also FYI I tinkered with what ability scores do a bit so some scores are more useful. INT gives you your initiative bonus, not DEX (on the grounds that you think fast). This also means that magicians have the chance to hide before everything gets ugly, which seemed like something they needed. INT also gives you bonus languages, as in the original game.
If you want a "fighter" type, you could play a dwarf. With CON as a prime requisite, you could swap CON and DEX with this array, and then suck points out of INT and WIS and put them into STR. It would probably leave you with all your other scores mediocre except CON and STR, but that's not so bad for a fighter.
Alternatively, a halfling is a more range-focused fighter type character. Hit points won't be great but your AC will be very good.
Are skills etc going to used from the Cyclopedia?
Nope.
I developed a skill system based on the fast play pathfinder format, but it hardly ever comes up in a dungeon environment.
Let's see what the dice gods have in line. I've applied for a few games, but find it hard to resist old school.
STR 12
INT 14
WIS 6
DEX 17
CON 14
CHA 8
Well. It looks like this thief might just be unwise enough to try life as an adventurer, and unpopular enough to not be welcome in town, so maybe adventring is the life for him.
I'll review the books if I have time tomorrow. If not I've got a business trip coming up and might have to back out.
Hi, Scranford.
You could make a reasonable thief out of this; I would recommend dropping STR to 10 in order to buff DEX by 1 point. It's a shame WIS is so low but you could work with that.
For the record, since there are plenty of house rules here I will have to create some files for people; maybe on Google Docs, so that these rules I am talking about are accessible. So there's no rush.
Peet
Edit: as I mentioned before to Helaman, if you swapped DEX and CON here you could make a reasonable dwarf; dump INT to get more STR. Your STR won't be as good, but you will have a DEX bonus.
It seems like we have a few people interested, so I'm going to turn this into an actual campaign thread. We'll give it a week or two to get a few more people and to get the stuff on my end ready.
Peet
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That big file is 800+ pages... I can't believe it.
There is still a big fan community for Mystara. So it doesn't surprise me. A lot of things got brought in in adventures and the Gazetteers. It also includes the Hollow World stuff.
As I said, I wouldn't worry about deities too much. There actually are some spoilers if you dig so I'd rather not look into things in too much detail.
I am not going to apply for this game (I'm not a big fan of PbP gaming) but I wanted to give a virtual "Thumbs Up!" for starting this old-school game.
I remember playing this module when I was about 11 or 12 years old. It's an interesting adventure and I plan to read along.
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Okay, the "official" character generation rules are HERE.
This document is a draft but should be considered Beta at least.
You will note that a "Half-Elf" class is included. This is basically a ranger variant. I don't recommend this class for this adventure, but if the campaign goes beyond the Lost City they might be useful.
Will post rules on Equipment and Magic later on (not too long, hopefully).
Peet
Going to run with a Cleric of Madarua...
She is a Cynidicea deity but is found throughout the Northern Reaches, Thyatis and Darokin.
= 14
=14
=15
= 13
=10
=7
OK that's workable...
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Going to run with a Cleric of Madarua...
*Facepalm*
Actually she isn't. You have never heard of Madarua or Cynidicea.This is a spoiler that was written under the assumption that the events of the module happened a number of years ago and have become common knowledge.
I know you can't un-read this but try to forget that you did.
As I instructed earlier, clerics do not follow a specific deity at level 1, and normally venerate a pantheon. You just need to pick an alignment (between Law, Neutrality, or Chaos). I would not recommend Chaos for a cleric (it could be all right for thieves or magicians though).
You can also claim membership in a cultural religion (such as the Church of Thyatis). Just describe the kind of culture you want to be from - Mystara has a lot of countries that are "earth analogues" so if you pick a major culture from Earth there is likely a match there. Let me know what you have in mind and I'll tell you what the equivalent culture is. Usually such a "religion" is alignment-based (the Church of Thyatis is lawful, for example).
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Guys, I couldn't seem to get this thread to change names from "Interest Check" so I have created a separate thread for the campaign:
http://paizo.com/campaigns/ChroniclesOfArcaniaBXHomebrewGame/recruiting
Please report in there if you have rolled up a character, and create an Avatar for it. In the meantime, if you have any questions you can post them there.