I have an idea for a campaign where the players are guiding a clan through the ages; reincarnating at times when their people need great heroes. It would start in the stone age, only a few classes would be available and the clan, like all other humanoid clans at the time, would have no racial stats.
Over time more classes would unlock and player's decisions would help shape their clan's racial stats. Each reincarnation the players would be able to bring parts of their past life with them; starting with 1 rank in a skill they had in past life (each reincarnation granting one or more "reincarnation" points) and farther in being able to retain feats or low level class features in their next life.
How long you play in each life would depend on the story that needs to be told in that life.
Of course there would be NPCs that could be encountered across the ages, that could including things like other reincarnating spirits, immortals, dragons, liches.
I would use some form of P6 for this. Overall your level would improve over the ages, but I won't be directly handing out xp.
Let me know if the idea interests you and if you have any ideas to make the scenario work better. I can't guarantee that I will use them, but I will at least consider them.
Very interesting. I like.
"You are profient in all weapons: rock and stick".
If this is the caveman era, you might also want to give a bunch of animal traits at the beginning that get bought off (like "low light vision", for instance.
I like the idea. But if you are starting that far back, and only advancing that slowly this is going to be a VERY long campaign. They tend not to be great for PbP. I mean, this could take DECADES as a PbP. With a good tabletop group this would be awesome (Do you live in Canberra by any chance?). At a minimum you're going to need to have short "chapters" and a very fast and responsive group.
In retrospect, I realise that criticism might not have looked constructive. Let me try to rephrase.
It's a *great* idea, that could lead to some truly epic roleplaying and worldbuilding.
If you are going to run it PbP, and at this scale, then I suggest you concentrate on getting a responsive group.
You could always run it with an 'evolving' player roster, but I think that would lose some of the unique appeal with this setting.
This sounds awesome I'm sure the concerns are valid but I think the general idea is totally worth it.
I acknowledge that people's concerns about campaign length and speed are valid but it is an area that I am going to focus on to reduce its impact.
The campaign is starting in the stone age yes, but it won't stay there that long. Hundreds of years will probably pass between reincarnations towards the start and most early plots would probably only take one session if we were doing this face to face. The plan is not to play through multiple levels with early or even most characters.
I see some interesting ways to handle characters, one life a rogue with an interest in magic, next life that interest is realized with a wizard, next life that magic remains creating a sorceror with a fondness for swords, next life a magus who begins to neglect his studies, next life a fighter etc etc etc
I see some interesting ways to handle characters, one life a rogue with an interest in magic, next life that interest is realized with a wizard, next life that magic remains creating a sorceror with a fondness for swords, next life a magus who begins to neglect his studies, next life a fighter etc etc etc
This is exactly the idea behind the campaign.
Having thouht about it more the reincarnation point table will look something like
1 point = 1 free skill rank in a skill your previous character had
2 points = 1 bonus hit point
4 points = one feat your last character had that you still meet the prerequisites for
5 points = 1 first level class ability your previous character had or 1 level 1 spell your previous character could cast 1/day.
Your first characters get a 15 point buy. No racial modifiers or traits. Only bone, stone or hide weapons and armour.
Classes available at this point are: barbarian, fighter, ranger, rogue and slayer.
You have half the normal starting wealth for your class.
I am open to discussion if you feel like something else should be included at this point and will let you guys decide what type of terrain your stone age clan lives in. At this point your clan probably has a dozen adults and a few children, so you will all be closely related.
This is an interesting concept and I would be intrigued to try it. I see the same concerns as other have voiced but I think it would be worth it. The real question for me playing it is how many games I'm already in when you get started with it.
Hmm. I'd suggest dropping the fighter ans putting in Witch. Fighter is very much technique oriented vs the primitive barbarian. As to witch being chosen by an outside force to wield power seems suitable.
Hmm. I'd suggest dropping the fighter ans putting in Witch. Fighter is very much technique oriented vs the primitive barbarian. As to witch being chosen by an outside force to wield power seems suitable.
My logic at this point is that you haven't discovered any type of magic yet.
It's a thought but witch is chosen by outside forces and could be the beginning, wizard is of course studied while sorcerer is the result of intermingled bloodlines. I'd also suggest Oracle as a possibility to spread word of the gods. Maybe shaman instead of witch and oracle.
I kind of like the no magic or atleast low magic to begin with. How would you address races as you moved through the reincarnation?
I'd suggest use of the race builder, we each get a few points to spend on a single feature, a die roll decides whose feature goes into effect, that person then can't be part of the evolution pool the others choose from on the next reincarnation
Magic will start showing up a couple reincarnations in, probably starting with druids, shamans and witches.
I'd suggest use of the race builder, we each get a few points to spend on a single feature, a die roll decides whose feature goes into effect, that person then can't be part of the evolution pool the others choose from on the next reincarnation
I would like it to be less random than that. Probably what will happen is at the appropriate times I will give players a couple options and let them decide which to take.
I would argue that if the world is a fantasy world, then magic has always been part of it, especially divine, but you have made your will known. I know when I'm beaten... Sometimes.
This sounds AWESOME!!
I would argue that if the world is a fantasy world, then magic has always been part of it, especially divine, but you have made your will known. I know when I'm beaten... Sometimes.
just because magic exists, doesn't mean the stone age clansmen know about it or how to access it.
Which would be why I suggested the classes I did as opposed to wizard, sorceror, cleric, or druid. It seems to me the gods, demons, and various primordial entitites would be jockeying for followers through magic in these early times.
At whatever point you do start allowing magic classes I'd start with something like this...
Oracle/Sorcerer=>Witch/Shaman=>Cleric/Wizard/Druid=>Bard/Inquisito r/Ranger/summoner=>various Adv Class Guide casters.
You could also mix in the occult classes in there as well. The idea is that you start with spontaneous, head into pact, then learned, then more advanced. Makes sense to me anyway.
With some, like the ranger, bard, etc, you could alwyas allow only archetypes that don't have spell casting.