Interest check, Homebrew, starting NPC classes, limited / no magic, all human, start on modern day Earth


Recruitment


What is so special about you? Well there is really nothing special about anyone. Being told you were special is a fallacy that every parent tells their children that leaves them unprepared for the world of adulthood. But then when everyone around growing up goes through the same thing, it really means nothing. You survived your childhood and did the best you could, succeeding, failing, whatever. Smartphones, sensationalist news, megacorporations trodding over laws and freedom for the almighty dollar, racism, bigotry and the general degradation of society all seemed to the talk of the day.

But who has time for all of that when you are just trying to make a life for yourself? You have friends and family to rely on, to hate, to laugh and cry with, to forget, to cherish. So when you heard that one of your best friends has vanished in the forests that border Vermont and New York, you reached out to the other people of your social circle to organize a search, throwing whatever time and resources you could to take the five hour drive from New York City. What you find in those forsaken trees will shatter your belief and shake the foundations of reality.

Alrighty! So if that wasn't vague enough let me shine some illumination on your quandary. This is an interest check for a unique campaign where everyone will start with 2 NPC class levels, everyone will be human and the story will start right here, on Earth, in the USA and more specifically New York/Vermont. Everyone will be early 20's and nothing is unique about the start. You are just a person starting your life in a world where the laws of Physics exist and there is no such thing as the supernatural, except for maybe that awesome TV show that you binge watch once a year when the season ends up on Netflix. However when one of your closest friends David, an avid lover of the outdoors and expert hiker, vanishes into to the northern forests you go looking for him. However you and your friends have no idea just how deep that rabbit hole goes. Monsters, Magic and everything unholy that only exists in stories is a hell of a lot closer then you ever knew.

Attributes: I like high powered games so start off thus; start off with 1 auto 18. Roll 3d6, reroll 1's, drop the lowest dice and add 6. Do that 5 times and you have a set. Do that as many times as you want until you arrive at a set that you like (max of 25 times). You must accept stats as a set, no mixing and matching.

Books: All Paizo (with restrictions, see below). I will also be using the Traveler system.

Starting Level: 2

Starter Classes: Aristocrat, expert, Warrior and adept(special rules).

Classes: Eventually you will be able to 'prestige' into a normal character class and as such build your NPC classes/skills to aim towards the class you want when that time comes.

Feats: I will be creating/adopting feats for modern armor, combat armor, firearms and such. I will also be incorporating many feats from the Traveler system.

Magic: With the exception of the adept, magic does not exist. And any player of an adept that gets chosen will have special restrictions on using said magic until a specific point in the story. That means feats, items and anything else magical DOES. NOT. EXIST.

Races: You will all start out as human. Eventually that may change.

Unarmed Attacks: All unarmed damage do 1d2 points of lethal. Warriors, who in this story will be athletes or soldiers and the like, will do 1d4 lethal unarmed damage. You have the option to do lethal or non-lethal with unarmed attacks.

Skills: Since magic does not exist (except for the adept, special restrictions) skills like K. Arcane, Spellcraft and UMD do not exist. K. Planar does exist but there are so many versions of Hell, Heaven, Nirvana and every other religion/culture it's considered mythology. There will also be skills from T20 incorporated into this game.

Firearms: Murica! However there are those pesky firearm laws to deal with. Or to ignore, your choice.

Adepts: For you, magic exists. However when you told your parents, they didn't believe you. When you actually showed them, you accidentally set the couch on fire. The punishment that followed was harsh as they thought you just did some malicious trick. The harder you argued, the more they didn't believe you until finally they sent you to a therapist. What followed was years of heavy therapy including drugs and shock therapy all to persuade you that magic didn't exist. As an adult you've adjusted and learned never to show or tell anyone but the scars are still there. And so is your magic.

There will be some more homerules that I will detail if there appears to be enough interest.


Sounds cool.

3d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2) = 14 drop the lowest = 18
3d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 4) = 13 drop the lowest = 16
3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 1) = 4
3d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 2) = 10 drop the lowest = 14
3d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 5) = 11 drop the lowest =15

Reroll the 1s 2d6 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3 again 1d6 ⇒ 1, again 1d6 ⇒ 6

1,2,1 rerolled 1,2 rerolled 1, and again 6... 6,2,2 drop lowest would be 14

so 18, 18, 16, 14, 14, 15.. thinking either an expert or warrior.


Please don't do any rolling or character creation yet, this is just an interest check.


Interest, and wanting to play an Expert.


For sure interested. Got a nice cop combo id liked to try.


interested with a warrior probably, dont know much about traveler though


Oooooh. Interesting. I may make a character for this so I can be the one exploring a fantasy world.

Grand Lodge

interested...have ideas for characters...


Sounds interesting.


Sounds very interesting.


...huh. I'm intrigued. Also the potential to quote Harry Potter at actual wizards is not lost on me. I'm in.


Actually for ease of compatibility I've decided I will be using the Starfinder skills since they are more accurate for the story. The exception is that Mysticism will use INT. Will also be using the analog projectile weapons from Starfinder since I'm lazy and don't want to roll those up myself.

I WILL NOT BE USING TRAVELLER.


The start for a caster almost fits a PC of mine like a glove.
Quite similar on aspects of background.

Therefor adept is quite appealing to me.


I'm interested in the setting and would be willing to forge a connection to David; if you could provide more details on his personality/life, that would help in developing a character concept.


I am interested. Possibly as a faith-based character.


Sounds very interesting. An adept that believes that God, or gods, are real....


Or an adept who discovers, *gulp*, H.P. Lovecraft was NOT making stuff up. :P


Chyrone wrote:
Or an adept who discovers, *gulp*, H.P. Lovecraft was NOT making stuff up. :P

...may God have mercy on us all...


Really interesting concept, I ran a d20 modern game some years ago along a similar premise and really enjoyed it. Also, as a resident of New England who went to school in upstate NY, I think it would be fun to look at the region through a different set of eyes.

#1: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 4) = 7 = 4+6+6 = 16
#2: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 2) = 9 = 6+4+6 = 16
#3: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 4) = 12 = 5+4+6 = 15
#4: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 2) = 9 = 6+5+6 = 17
#5: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 2) = 13 = 5+6+6 = 17
#6 = 18

reroll#1: 1d6 ⇒ 6
reroll#2: 1d6 ⇒ 4
reroll#4: 1d6 ⇒ 1 void
reroll#4: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Wow, impressive. Thinking a native of either Vermont or New Hampshire, growing up in the shadows of the Appalachian mountains. Likely multiclass warrior/expert.

Will we be getting Traits to start?


I asked everyone not to roll yet, this is just an interest check. And yes you will be getting 2 traits to start.


My apologies, read the initial post then got excited and went right to crafting a reply without reading through the rest of the thread.

Silver Crusade

Interested.

Have you given any thought to delaying the start by a couple of weeks and going with 2nd ed?


No. I don't like 2nd ed. This will be a 1st ed. game.


DM, did you have a deadline in mind?


Is there a time table for recruitment/start date?


I'm interested. I've played a game like this back in 3.5 days, and it was a lot of fun.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I will have the recruitment up in a couple of days.


Sounds cool. Would lean toward Warrior or expert.


You mentioned that you will be using Starfinder skills. Is there any resource to identify what Starfinder skills would be class skills for the available classes? Example: The Adept lists Craft as a class skill, but Craft is not a Starfinder skill.


I'm thinking a kid faith healer who's father was caught in tax fraud, he ended up in the system because of this before he underwent "therapy" and growing up into one of the friends.


Craft will be a skill I do add since this isn't a true starfinder game. Mind you you can't make magic items with it (whenever we get to that point) even with the Master Craftsman feat.


*peers through a spyglass from the roof to spot recruitment*

^^


Any news on this, Skull?


Very interested. The very first game I started running here had the same idea of starting with NPC classes. It's still running strong, a year and a half later. I found it to be a great experience for two reasons:

1. It attracted people interested in RPing down to earth characters rather than people who just wanted to zap goblins.

2. It was a unique mechanical challenge to make characters within very tight limits on power.

All that just to provide some reasons why I'm interested and give you some context of myself as someone who's very ready for a game like this.


theasl wrote:
Any news on this, Skull?

+1

:|


Sorry this is taking so long folks, taking a while to nail down all the little things with a homebrew.


I understand. Having the same problem.


Sounds like an interesting idea. I find myself a little light on play-by-post games at the moment. I'll be tossing my hat into the ring.


Dotting.


DM, this is still on right?

Adjusting a specific PC backstory if so, leaving as is if not.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

This sounds like fun to me. I would be interested...feels a little like Magic Kingdom of Landover...


Yolo

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