Author Topic: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest  (Read 11945 times)

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Brainpiercing

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Hello everyone,

I want to moderate (i.e. GM) a new Forgotten Realms +X campaign.

Just so you know who you are dealing with:
I have been playing RPGs for over 10 years on and off.
I have been both GMing and playing Play by Post games since around 1999. These games were freeform and as such VERY prose heavy, so you can expect some of that to transfer to here.
I have been playing D&D on and off for around 5 years, and have been participating on the Charop forums since recently. I do condone optimisation.

I am, of course, now looking for players.

On the Campaign:

I will be using a scenario based system instead of a completely written campaign. I will do my very best not to railroad anything. As such, there will be story flow presented as flavour text paragraphs, which the PCs are not expected to know about, while the PCs will have to drive their own story forward. There will of course be hooks, but no force. You are free to divert your PC at any time. There will be no pre-defined outcome of the campaign - except a probable PC victory IF they so desire. There will be no fixed sides. Of course there will be villains and people fighting them. The PCs can choose a side, BECOME a side, or just wiggle through the middle, if they so desire. (And yes, become means become. If you're evil and want to supplant the previous main BBEG, you will probably be able to do so - if you can.)

This is a HIGH ROLEPLAYING campaign, not a dungeon crawl. Fights will happen because they SHOULD happen. When they happen they might be tough. You won't find many random critters attacking you (simply because this detracts from the story and takes up a LOT of time in PbP). XP-awards will be given for fights, but also out of fights.
Story posts and player posts should be written in descriptive style in past tense, as writing an actual story. Elements like "he said", etc. should be used when appropriate. Only using colour coding is not always sufficient, especially when writing about several people. Rolls should be included in bracketed form.

Example combat posts:
[spoiler]
[ROUND 1] [Initiative rolls: Oddjob the Fighter: 10, Goblin: 14]
[Goblin's Turn]
The goblin cackled and spat as it approached warily [move from B15 to B18] and seemed to size up its opponent. [Aura opposed check: Goblin 8, Oddjob 10] It seemed unsure of itself, but it was, after all, defending its home. It's attack came as a sudden lunge with a curved and jagged scimitar.[1d6+2] [Attack roll: 16+4AB=20 vs. AC 18; Damage roll: 6 slashing]
[Oddjob's Turn]
Oddjob saw the little goblin approach, even though he himself towered over it. He readied his greatsword for the goblin's attack, but when the attack came, it passed straight by his sword and stuck an ugly gash in his side. Enraged and angered by the damage, Oddjob swung his blade in a wild diagonal slash at the goblin's body [Power attack 4, Roll 12+9=21 vs AC 15; Damage 19 slashing] followed by a reverse slash at the goblin's legs [Roll 4+4=8 vs AC 15] which unfortunately fell short of its mark.
[/spoiler]

Since this is PbP there will be some quirky house-rules, which I will announce as I find the time over the next few days. Some of these are a bit experimental. These will be categorized for easier reference.

Allowed Books
: All WotC, no mags. Certain erratas will be ignored and re-ruled. (Like Fauxlymorph.) All sources must be stated. Campaign setting specific material is subject to approval if it's from a non-faerun setting. [Edit] I don't own the Rules compendium. As such, previous representations of the rules will have to suffice. I also am not entirely familiar with every splat-book game mechanic available. I expect players to explain their characters upon request and direct me to relevant sections of those books.[/edit]

I would like to employ a Responsible Use system: Most things will be allowed, but I expect you to find IC reasons why your character cannot use them to rule the world (or do whatever). As such, there is no gentlemen's agreement, there is only wrath of the gods if you take it too far.

There will be coexisting creatures and individuals of all levels at all times. Since your characters are free to do what they want, they MIGHT run into places where they should not be at their level. For that reason there will be a new system to make it possible for a character or creature to gauge a situation:

AURA: Every creature will have an aura that corresponds to its power. A character has an Aura equal to his ECL. A creature has an aura equal to its CR. A PC can at any time gauge his aura relative to another's. To do so he makes an opposing Aura-check, rolling a D6 plus his Aura-value vs. the opponents D6 plus Aura-value. If he loses, he should feel reason to flee or submit (and likewise). Gauging an aura is a free action.

Concerning PCs
[spoiler]
Roleplay and Sheet stats: I fully accept that flavour follows function. Whatever class you think helps your character you are free to add if you can meet the requirements. There will be no XP-penalties and no favoured classes.

Point-buy: I don't see the point in diminishing returns in D&D, where not very many things follow diminishing return mechanisms. As such, there will be a all 8 + 25pt point-buy, WITHOUT increases in cost per stat point. So getting an 18 will cost a flat 10 points. The lowest allowable stat value is 6. The lowest allowable intelligence is 8, unless you promise to really play out stupidity, or the character is a cohort. Monstrous characters use a different system, see below.

Age system: Every individual running about the realms will accrue XP automatically at around 1000pts per year of age after reaching adulthood, even if he never goes adventuring. Adventurers gain a lot more XP. Now unless there are severe complaints I would like to employ the same system for PCs: You get to CHOOSE your starting age, and hence, your starting level. As an example: Fred the town smith is forty years old, he has been working for 24 years. Hence he has accumulated 24000XP. [edit]He has reached level 7 in his NPC class (commoner).
Oddjob the Fighter has been a brothel bouncer for 30 years. He has reached Level 8 doing this rather boring job. (Still he might be a crack fighter.) Unfortunately his little town is attacked and nearly wiped out by an orc warband, so Oddjob has to find some new way of surviving for himself. Even though he's already starting to get a bit stiff in the joints he gathers his belongs, picks up his sword and starts adventuring. (This could be YOU.)[/edit]
However, there's a catch: All levels taken at start of the game were taken while NOT adventuring. You can have been a guard, a town wizard, a thief, whatever, but you have not been actually adventuring before the start of the game. That also means that you have not been accumulating as much wealth as an adventurer. Starting wealth will be one half of recommended wealth, freely distributable between items and gp/valuables. Remember to keep a small reserve of gold to cover initial expenses. I also expect a history for every character starting at an advanced age.

[edit]Age bonus is the only way to start adventuring above lvl 1. I recommend start ages of around 25-30, but it will really be your call. Since this is Pbp, group balance can be maintained differently than by strict level equivalence. It is entirely possible to have huge amounts of fun following a more powerful character reaping the rewards of his battles. 
However, in order to benefit from an XP bonus due to low level you must have taken part in the fight, not just watched. I'm going to be handling the GM part of game balance, but I am going to leave group balance largely to the players. I am imposing an arbitrary maximum possible starting age of 61 years (for humans), hence about 45 years worth of XP, assuming near-adulthood at around 16. For non-humans I recommend just setting down the age categories and requesting a certain age. Possible the 1000xp per year won't fit everywhere, especially with immortals or very slow-aging races. Generally lvl 10 is the maximum possible starting level for any character. There WILL be ups and downs to taking a high age from the start. Age bonuses/penalties remain in place.Races Anything from WOTC books, basically. LA is allowed, buyback will not be used. Some races will have their LA adapted upon request. Racial hit dice are seamlessly incorporated into the age system (i.e. your starting XP can go into racial HD). Max ECL 10, as stated above.

Monsters as PCs: You can play as a monster. (On whatever side you wish.)
I like monsters to keep their characteristics. They should be neither over the top, nor suddenly be average down to look like humans. So what I'm going to do if someone wants to play a monster is this (modified if necessary on a case by case basis):

Take the monster's CR, add 1, or 2 if it's an extraordinarily awesome monster (like an Erinyes, which puts them out of range as starting characters right now): That's your starting monstrous HD and ECL. If this produces a very sub-standard monster because the monster gets really low CR for it's HD, then do the following: Look at HD, CR and BAB and adjust the HD properties to give about the same BAB as the monster entry.

Take the Monster's stats, and either keep them as they are, or modify them by a NONELITE-array to more suit your desired class you'll add. Pay in mind that the lowest allowed stat is a 6. Int should ideally be at least 8, or I want to see the effects of stupidity in your roleplaying.
If your monster is chaotic evil, change that alignment to something that allows cooperative play.

Examples: [spoiler]
Succubus: ECL 9, 9 Outsider HD. (Might be cut down to 8, depending on how a final character looks.)
Troll: ECL 7, 7 Giant HD. I'm going with the giant HD here due to regeneration, which is really powerful in PC hands. But watch that int, ideally use Nonelite-array to increase Int.
Imp: ECL 3, 3 Outsider HD.
Quasit: ECL 3, 3 Outsider HD.
Ethergaunts are unfortunately out of reach at ECL 11 even for a red Ethergaunt.
Medusa: ECL 8, 8 Monstrous humanoid HD.
Young Red Dragon: ECL 9, 9 dragon HD. YES, I know dragons get iffy this way. Take the abilities of a young dragon, but modify numeric values as per the lower HD.
Juvenile Green Dragon: ECL 10.
Orthon Devil: ECL 10, 10 outsider HD.

I guess you know the drill by now. In all cases show me your stats with and without equipment. I might impart an arbitrary bonus or penalty on starting equipment for monstrous characters.[/spoiler]

You may then advance your monster by Class level, but also by RHD, if you so desire, up to a max of ECL 10. This counts as aging, too, although the year count won't match the rest of the system.

Before anyone cries foul at this rule: Remember Polymorph is not forbidden (although I haven't gotten around to thinking about how to errata it). Pure physical stats are easily reproduced by polymorph.

Monstrous races with ECL entries are either handled the same as normal monsters, as long as this produces playable characters, OR They might get a few bonus points after their average monster entry, OR they might even get full point-buy, depending on the amount of benefits a race gives.

Templates This is a bit of a mixed bag. Most templates won't give stat boosts significant enough to warrant reducing them to  being played as monsters. Still, I give the option of changing the templates' LA into RHD if those are other than humanoid. However, as with the CR for monster characters calculation, depending on the template I would impose +1 to +3 RHD on top of the templates LA, depending on the impact the template will likely have.

Remember in PbP it's ALSO possible to have fun by NOT getting the cake. That's the superior role-playing aspect that's possible in high-prose PbP-games. However, if someone feels unsatisfied with the performance of his character in any ROLLplaying situation, he should speak to me about it. Ideally, WITH a few ideas of his own how to improve the character mechanically. Generally many options are possible. Minor restructuring or rebuilding, adding a template, getting a permanent PAO, etc.

Classes:Mostly all classes are allowed. There are some that I dislike because the writers must have been on crack when writing the class (like the Dweomerkeeper). If a class has a flavour prerequisite you can re-write the class to fit your flavour. (For example: The Thayan Knight could just as easily be an Elven High Mage Bodyguard. Or whatever, if you can make the function fit your flavour. You can also rewrite Alignment prerequisites. I would just like to see the brief rewrite.
Monster classes suck so hard that I'm just going to disallow them. If you want to play a monster just play the monster (the specific creature is subject to approval).

Alignment and Mindset: I am distinguishing between Mindset and Alignment. Alignment is like a judgement of your actions. Mindset is what you actually think. You could be of lawful good alignment because you only ever do good, but actually be of lawful evil mindset - and just hide this fact by your actions. Alignment can be detected, mindset can only be found out by reading your thoughts, for instance. If you are cleric of a certain god you should try to harmonize mindset and alignment, because your god expects you to act in his name, and also just might find out your real thoughts. Possibly not all gods care about this.

[edit]PCs may choose all alignments and mindsets except chaotic evil. I regard chaotic evil as pretty much incapabale of functioning in a cooperative environment. Generally good alignments and evil alignments are at odds, but they MAY cooperate for whatever plausible reason they might find. (Like good PCs and devils working together to beat back a demon invasion.) [/edit]

Corruption, Taint, Depravity: These formalized evil aspects do not exist for the purpose of this campaign. Similarly, classes that require them are not accessible. Casting spells with the evil descriptor can only change your alignment if you do evil things with them. Corrupt spells exist but lose this descriptor. Corruption cost counts like a material component and cannot be circumvented.

The Undead: Not all undead are inherently evil. Non-intelligent undead are mostly of neutral mindset, except those that have been created with evil intent, for instance with a hunger for human flesh. Intelligent undead that keep features of their previous life (by adding a template) are usually of the same alignment and mindset as the living creature (for the purpose of this campaign these include Necropolitans, Corpse and Bone creatures, Dread warriors, Liches, Demiliches, Mummies, and possibly some others I have forgotten). Some undead that specifically mention that they are holding grudges and hate the living are of course more likely evil (for example Ghasts, Ghouls, Bodaks, etc.)
Most Undead are always at risk of acting evilly because their ability to empathise with people and follow altruistic goals is very much reduced. They basically feel very little emotions - which usually includes the negatives like anger or hate. Of course, this is not all set in stone. If you wish to be or become undead you are free to play as you like, I only expect consistency.

Leadership Is specifically allowed, with the EXCEPTION of a cascade with cohorts taking leadership, too. You do the paperwork, but I want to see character sheets for cohorts. When a cohort dies you should roleplay aquiring a new one. [Edit] Monstrous cohorts work by the rules I put up for playing monsters as PCs. Any cohort should match your alignment (but not necessarily mindset) and have a really good reason for following you around. Cohorts should be characters with their own personalities. They don't have to slavishy agree with every word their "master" says, and they might even flat out disagree with something. They follow you because of your qualities, because they see something special in you. They are not thralls.[/edit]

Minions and Hirelings, non-special mounts: Are allowed without much interference from me. Anything that has a character sheet is subject to approval. If it's just a pack animal or a mount you can buy for money or train you can handle it by yourself.
[/edit]

Character management, inventory, purchasing items Basically I won't double check everything you do. Generally you can buy or craft/have crafted any item with a CL equal to or smaller than your character level without consulting with me, but you should write about your shopping spree.
Aquiring spell components may be roleplayed by you at your discretion. Some people enjoy this more than others. I won't hassle anyone over components or foci unless they are quite special. For example, the Hindsight(or was it?) spell requires a 1000+gp diamond shaped like an hour-glass. You should roleplay aquiring this diamond, and not expect every street vendor to sell one. I would expect at least one quality paragraph spent aquiring such a component. Body parts of creatures needed as requirements must be roleplayed unless they are easily available.
Training required to learn new class-features can be roleplayed. Spell research for spells granted by class features should be mentioned on an off between levels, but no great effort on part of the PLAYER is required. I assume the PC will make an effort, naturally.


Prereqs and Items, spell effects, etc.: You must meet the prereqs for any feat, skill or ability you wish to learn for at least your average 16 waking hours every day (as such, persistent spell effects work, as well as spells with a duration of at least 16 hours, as well as class abilities that can be made to last for 16 hours, like Wildshape). Any time you do not meet the prerequisites you cannot use that feat or ability.

Epic Levels: Epic levels are a normal part of this campaign world. As such epic characters exist, and depending on the time, it is theoretically possible to reach epic levels. However, due to the slowness of PbP, don't expect this. VERY FEW important NPCs MAY be epic level characters. I find the levels on many of the famous rulers to be a little low, so they might just get a few more. I won't be using many famous NPCs, but don't be surprised if you are confronted with an Aura check exceeding 30.


[/spoiler]

NPCs
[spoiler]
Level: As a rule, you can expect older NPCs to have accumulated more XP. As such, a young lvl 1 adventurer might still be smacked around in a bar fight. There will be young and old city guards, etc. Other than by age, important NPCs will of course have class levels.
NPCs vs. mooks:There are important NPCs and very unimportant ones. I fully expect each player to handle non-combat, non-hostile interactions with barkeeps, street vendors, shop owners, prostitutes, etc. by themselves. You can both invent and play these NPCs. You can even create NPCs as contacts (although information they give will be subject to rolls), magic item enchanters, etc.
Important NPCs will get more attention by me, will have a name, a position, some indication of status, and these will be played by me.
Due to the Aura system there won't be many fights against vastly inferior foes (mooks) (because they'll run). Should these still happen, it is entirely possible for a player to beat up a bunch of them without my interference. This should go pretty intuitively.

[/spoiler]

The Game World
[spoiler]
Gods: Generally I'll be using the faerunian pantheon. I will be adding certain gods from the D&D pantheon (Wee Jas as Lawful Neutral greater Goddess is pretty much certain), and I'm open to requests to add others, as long as their portfolio isn't completely covered by a faerunian gods. If you find a domain you particularly like in books like the SpC, CD, etc., which is not offered by faerunian gods you can also add this domain to a god if it fits his portfolio.
Faerun AFAIK doesn't allow devotion clerics. If you want to play one you're going to have to come up with a really good reason.

Famous faerunian people For the fact that I'm playing a FR campaign, I don't know a lot of famous characters. I haven't read any novels, although of course I do know some names. Basically don't count on meeting anyone. Probably it will just be a timeline in which these people aren't alive.

People who will exist (I'll be adding to this list if I find someone else useful):

Szass Tam exists in the timeline, is most probably a Lich, but only appears as a distant figure.
Halastar might exist, but similarly distant.
The big mages are historical figures, and spells get to keep their names.

Famous people (and critters) from other settings, or universal settings

The Githyanki Lich Queen exists in the world, but she's definitely not level 16. Probably more like level 25. Which also means that there are gith of levels higher than 16, although probably she'll kill everyone before they reach epic levels. So a lvl 20 gith might happen. Higher gets very unlikely. Still, it would be wise to keep a close eye on those silvery chords....

The Big T: Is known to be dead. At least, the one that was known is. And that doesn't mean it will stay dead.

These lists are positive lists, if someone is missing he or she probably doesn't exist, or may just be a historical figure. Nevertheless if you think someone is important, hey, name him or her, I can add them.

Accuracy of my representation of the FR world I don't hold a doctorate in FR lore. It's simply the setting I seem to always PLAY in, which means I know it better than any other setting. That doesn't, however, mean that I will get everything right. Count on me to change stuff, intentionally or un-intentionally. Count on me to put stuff on some of the blank spaces of the map. Count on me to forget things - even important things. People familiar with the FR may note these mistakes and changes, and might alert me to them. I may or may not correct my mistakes in such a case. If I've already built some story around the mistake, you'll just have to live with it.

Population, cities, magic, threat levels
Populations will probably be generally LARGER than it says in the books. This not a medieval world, it's a medieval world with literally TONS of magic. There are very few diseases you can't heal. Immortality is within close reach. Infrastructure can be created with magic. Food and water can be created with magic. Fast travel is just a few hundred gp away.

Metropolises can have up to one million citizens.
Large towns will have populations of one hundred thousand or more
Small towns in the tens of thousands
Large villages in the thousands, small villages and hamlets cover everything else.

So basically FORGET the city maps you might have seen.

With the amount of magic in the world, certain aspect will necessarily change. If any mid-level druid can create a tornado that could flatten a city or a major portion of one it'll be a given that people will have found ways against that. Don't expect to be able to destroy anything larger than a village with a control winds spell. Expect a large town to have a defense against even Tsunamis and the like. Expect structures in any town sized settlement to be fire-proofed and efficient fire-fighting to exist even in smaller towns. Expect towns to take measures to protect their water supplies.

Expect any larger village to contain at least one higher level (10+) character with classes other than commoner. (Mid to mid-high level commoners are, well.... I have to say it, common.) Expect towns to contain several such characters. Expect a layered response to law-breakers in anything of town-size. Expect cities to have very effective ways of dealing with law-breakers that really mean trouble, but also expect them to take a while to react. (This necessitates a slightly more Shadowrun-like play-style when playing clandestine operations.)

This version of Faerun is probably both generally safer, but also critically more dangerous in places. Since NPCs are generally of higher level than normal, the frequency of roaming monsters is far decreased. Travelling in civilised lands will not be much more dangerous than taking a stroll through the American mid-west. However, brigands, robbers, rebels and also hostile non-human populations pose on average GREATER threats than normal. Don't count on tribes of orcs and goblins to be made up of 1-2HD mooks. Countries bordering on non-human occupied lands have a harder time defending their borders. This also means one thing: A shorter border is sometimes a better border. Countries will compact a little to be able to defend more tightly. There WILL be room between the high-safety and high threat zones for moderate threat adventuring. The FR map is pretty big.

Warfare Expect warfare to be tactically modern rather than medieval with ranks of soldiers. This is a simple consequence of the large amounts of mass-destruction that can be easily dished out by spellcasters.

Wish economy Efreet exist. So does the planar binding spell. This creates problems. Which is why all major countries (and a few select large and powerful mage guilds - including the Red Wizards) have a deal with Efreet communities. Since they can't use their wishes for themselves they need others to activate them for them. The proceeds are divided, depending on the contract. So basically many countries run on wished gold. If people try to do non-legalised binding of efreet you can expect SOMEONE to crack down on them. The countries will, if they find out. The lawful churches will, because people wishing for free creates problems. The nine hells will, for similar reasons. The efreet will, because of non-contractual work. And if you wish for the wrong things, the GODS will interfere as well. Binding and murdering in order to get undead efreet will have even worse repercussions. As long as noone finds out, fine. But if someone does, expect trouble.
Thanks to these long-running agreements most efreet are now apparently lawful evil. What mindset they have remains their business.
Zodars remain little known. If you ever meet one in the campaign, THEN you can think about shapechanging into one.

[/spoiler]

Game Mechanics
[spoiler]
Rolling: I'm going to do the unbelievable: I'm going to trust you. Make your own rolls and write the results. In order to not disturb the flow of the prose text I'm going to decide upon a specific format for putting rolls into the text.

Hit Points Hit points are determined by Half-HD+1. (So a D4 gives 3HP, a D6 gives 4HP, a D8 gives 5HP, a D10 gives 6HP, a D12 gives 7HP.)

Roleplaying vs Rollplaying: I want to read nice posts. Even in combat. Expect enemies to get circumstance bonuses to AC or saves if your posts seem to take too little interest, or circumstance penalties if you try an ingenious or just well-written attack. The same goes for social situations. You don't even need to roll many social situations if your posts are written well enough.


Retraining: Retraining represents forgetting stuff and learning new stuff. As such, there are some changes:

You  may retrain feats, skills or abilities (= in this case: Class feature that lets you pick different abilities; Also spells selected by class features or feats) that are no longer useful to learn new feats, skills or abilities. The retrained feat may not be a prerequisite for a feat or class you still have. You must meet the prerequisites of the new feat at the time of retraining, you need not have met them previously.

In order to retrain something the game mechanic a certain feat, skill or ability  fulfills must have become obsolete. During the level after which you wish to retrain a certain feat you must have not used said feat or ability. Even if in the meantime you have aquired other ways of using the feat (like from an item), you  may not use that feat if you want to retrain it. (So you can't get a feat, enchant an item with it and then retrain, while using the feat off the item.) There are two exceptions: a) Feats that give mere numerical bonuses without adding a distinct mechanism of use, like Weapon Focus. b) Feats that REPLACE a certain mechanism with a better/different one that fulfills the same purpose. This case must be roleplayed as an advance in abilities.

In every case, consult me when retraining.

Magic items and crafting: I am using the crafting guidelines from the SRD as well as in the MIC.

You CAN enchant spell effects or items that cast spells. Generally activation of such an item takes as long as casting the spell (you CAN enchant quickened spells).

You CAN enchant items with multiple effects. Any cheaper effect carries a 50% increase in price (which is also payable when adding a more expensive effect). Exceptions are weapon and armour enchantments which are given at a fixed price. Feats can be enchanted on items. A base feat costs 10000 gp, any feat with a prerequiste costs an additional 5000gp per prerequisite, and DOES NOT meet those pre-requisites by itself. Any crafter must have the feats and prereqisites he wishes to enchant.

Crafting time is reduced by level. Divide crafting time by 1/2 your character level, rounded down, and also round down the result.

You may use XP-transfer rules without special items or conditions. As such, a fighter can ask a crafting wizard to enchant an item for him using the fighter's XP, without using any special means to transfer said XP. Such an item costs 60% of it's market price. Tomes and Manuals are only available like this, unless you manage to persuade a rich and powerful mages guild that gets contractual wishes to create those items for you. No sane crafter will pump 5000XP into an item then sold for a bit of gold. To make up for that, inherent bonuses stack, up to a max of +5. (So you can buy your inherent bonuses little by little.)

Crafting an item with your own XP acts as an encounter with an EL of the item's CL, and as such grants XP. You can't generally craft and adventure at the same time, but those crafting wizards need to get their XP from somewhere, too. This mechanism will try to provide an XP source for dedicated crafting wizards who are not artificers. So YES, they exist in the game world, and will sell those items. (This is experimental right now. I haven't calculated whether this quite works out. Also, I'm hoping that the time factor will make sure crafters don't level faster than everybody else. It won't be a problem if they level slower, as long as they level at all. UNTESTED as of yet, and as such, subject to subsequent revision.)

Party PlayI expect people to roleplay their entry into an adventuring party. Players will not generally start together, rather, every player gets a few introductory posts. Parties should be realistically homogenous. A lawful evil character in a good party might work, neutral evil or chaotic evil probably won't. PvP is allowed, although if a player wishes to retreat before combat commences this wish must be respected, and a generally IC reason must be found to let him retreat. If someone provokes a fight with other players he may not demand the chance to retreat.This campaign will probably have less standard party play.

BANNED Stuff

Items: Basically if an item produces an effect that just makes the game ridiculous you should ask whether it might not be banned.

Thought Bottles
Starmantle Cloak AND spell

Classes:
Dweomerkeeper
Monster Classes (just play a monster with RHD)

[/spoiler]


Inofficial Errata by me, open for discussion
[spoiler]


Polymorph, can of worms
[spoiler]
a) The Polymorph Subschool (PHBII and others): The description of the polymorph subschool is to be ignored.

b) Alter Self, Polymorph, Draconic Polymorph, Shapechange
These spells work as per the description available in the SRD (with the exception of Drac. Polymorph), with the following exceptions.

Alter Self No changes to the benefits of the spell, with the exception that ALL numerical bonuses become enhancement bonuses. (For example Natural armour will become an enhancement bonus to NA.)

Polymorphenhancement bonus or penalty to its Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores equal to the racial bonuses or penalties of the new form, but receives no bonuses to its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. It also gains all extraordinary special attacks possessed by the form but does not gain the extraordinary special qualities possessed by the new form or any supernatural or spell-like abilities. The subject retains all special qualities, supernatural and spell-like abilities of its old form, except for those that need a body part no longer posessed by the new form. It loses natural attacks and special attacks derived from type or subtype, but retains all special attacks from class-features or feats. The subject keeps all spell-casting abilities except natural spellcasting, as long as it can supply all verbal and somatic components in its new form, too.
The subject loses its primary sense and gains the primary sense of the new form. (For example polymorphing into a bat causes the subject to lose sight (and appropriate secondary sight benefits like darkvision, low-light vision, etc., but gain blindsense.) If the new form has no mention of a different primary sense no change to the senses occurs.
The subject keeps all skills and feats, and does not gain racial bonus feats or skill bonuses from the new form.

All items worn by the subject remain at an appropriate place of the new form. Items that do not adapt size automatically or items for which the new form has no body slot meld into the new form and become non-functional.  Items equipped while in the new form either remain in place after turning back if there is an appropriate empty body slot available, or fall to the ground if not.

Incorporeal or gaseous creatures are immune to being polymorphed, and a creature with the shapechanger subtype can revert to its natural form as a standard action.

For the purpose of feats and abilities that work with the wildshape class ability treat Polymorph as Wildshape:
 
Items that change size and shape for the Wildshape class ability also do so when the subject is polymorphed.
The Natural Spell feat allows supplying verbal and somatic components also in polymorphed form as long as both a mouth and appendages are present in the new form.

Material Component: An empty cocoon.


Drac. Polymorph

As Polymorph but...

Shapechange

....

Polymorph Any Object
....

Baleful Polymorph

As the spell description, but all racial modifiers of the new form are taken as penalties, instead of absolute stat values.

[/spoiler]



Death Ward, Life Ward [SRD and SPC]

Death Ward

Necromancy
Level: Clr 4, Death 4, Drd 5, Pal 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

The subject is immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, turning effects, and receives resistance 30 against negative energy damage.Gr. Death Ward, Gr. Life Ward
Level: Clr 8, Drd 9

As Death Ward but give immunity to all neg./pos. energy damage.

ALL Buffs with Caster Level dependant values or options

All buff spells that take any variables except duration from CL are capped at REAL unaugmented CL. It is not possible to buff your CL to increase the benefits from such buff spells. This includes Transmuation(Polymorph) type of spells.

Consumptive Field/Gr. Consumptive Field [SPC]
These spells are capped to kill caster-level creatures as per the spell description. They give benefits as per the spell description. (+1CL / creature killed; +2 Str / creature killed; +1D8 temp. HP / creature killed.) Once they have reached their limit they no longer kill creatures and maintain their bonuses while the duration lasts. Temporary HP lost from damage cannot be replenished.

[/spoiler]

More later.

Revisions
2) Added stuff. Edited stuff. Mostly editing should be bracketed with [edit][/edit].
3) Added stuff in the PCs and NPCs sections, added the game mechanics section.
4) Added stuff in game mechanics section (crafting, etc.)
5) Edited some details. Rearranged some aspects into different categories. Added stuff on party play and character management. Added example combat post.
6) Minor corrections. Added paragraph on epic levels and warfare.
7) Added the Game world section. Lots of new stuff there.
8) Added the Monsters as PCs section in the PCs section. Made some changes here and there. Defined starting wealth.
9) Added Inoffcial Errata section. More to come, there.
10) Edited Errata section. Added HP rule to Game mechanics.
11) Started Polymorph errata.
12) Some edits in PCs section about races and templates; A bit more Polymorph errata.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2008, 10:14:21 AM by Brainpiercing »

Brainpiercing

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2008, 02:29:49 PM »
Prospective players:

Prospective players so far:

Stratovarius

Risada

Straw_Man - concept present and approved so far. Can we say pathologically good alignment and mindset?

Smudgyhandsman - build ideas present, concept pending, I hope. Likely as not good alignment.

Snizor - build present. Concept present, and approved. Oddball or villain, at present.

DetectiveJabsco

Akula: build ideas present. Concept pending.

Pan-Fried Hamster - concept approved. Build present. Oddball so far. (Neutral alignment.)

JanusJones - er... pre-concepts! present, but as of yet undecided; Villain, likely as not.

Avalon: build ideas present, concept pending. Too late for now.

This post will be updated with a concept, alignment and hero/villain side when this information becomes available.

What can I add: GET TO IT. I absolutely do want CHARACTER concepts, not just builds.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2008, 08:41:59 AM by Brainpiercing »

Brainpiercing

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2008, 02:30:09 PM »
Reserved

Stratovarius

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2008, 02:31:36 PM »
I'll stick my head in and say I'm interested. Do you have a full listing of house rules?
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Risada

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2008, 03:30:14 PM »
Well.... aside from the XP bonus from the age, what's the starting level?

Oh yeah, I wanna join your game  :)

Ieniemienie

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2008, 03:55:01 PM »
sounds interesting :)
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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2008, 04:18:28 PM »

Expressing interest as well.
"No, no, don't think, Maya." Ritsuko chided. "We will not gattai the Evas or their pilots.

Such thoughts lead inevitably to transformation sequences."

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2008, 05:32:34 PM »
Really interested.  :D

Still havent found a DM willing to adopt a Blue Mage, might you be it? Other than that I want to try out a burrower or archivist---> Malconvoker.  :smirk
« Last Edit: June 09, 2008, 06:06:37 PM by AlisAtAn »
Odin, Feral Shifter Feral Shifter. "Can I drown the dead rat now?"
Loke, Dread Magnate "Me all good and nice. Ask any questions and I`ll kill you twice."


DnD classes is kind of like art. You make lots of stuff that everyone loves but aint no fun to play. This one is like getting a nude pic of Britney Spears when she was hot above your bed.  Anyone can appreciate it. And it works as it should in practise, not just in theory. -Me to Strato regarding his Elemental

Smudgy

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2008, 06:02:06 PM »
I've always wanted to play a FR game, but no one's ever be able to run one well. Note that my interest is expressed greatly here.  I'm thinking of a strongheart halfling scout/ranger from Luiren who once patrolled the Lluirwood

Straw_Man

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2008, 06:04:23 PM »

Would a lesser tiefling enchanter anima mage fit in with the FR world?
"No, no, don't think, Maya." Ritsuko chided. "We will not gattai the Evas or their pilots.

Such thoughts lead inevitably to transformation sequences."

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2008, 08:58:13 PM »
Interested as well.
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Brainpiercing

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2008, 09:27:28 PM »
Heh, lots of interest already. I'll still be updating the campaign information and house-rules for a while (a few days, probably). I want to make sure you know what to expect. I recommend everyone interested to keep an eye out for changes, and to be honest enough to withdraw or at least complain when something comes up you will really dislike. I want to make this rewarding, but can't refrain from being unconventional.

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2008, 09:29:37 PM »
I would love to play An RP based Adventure.

Something like a Whisper Gnome Bard or Rogue
Like a Spy or something.

Brainpiercing

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2008, 07:45:29 AM »
Prospective players so far:

Stratovarius
Risada
Ieniemienie
Straw_Man
AlisAtAn
Smudgyhandsman
Snizor
DetectiveJabsco

What I'd like to see from any serious entry is a short character concept, like an overview, without going into details about classes and feats.

What I'd also like is a writing sample. Write a short atmospheric bar/tavern scene (it doesn't need to be about the character you want to play), a scene of your prospective character doing his schtick, whatever, including some insight into the presented character's reasonings, his inner workings. Since this will be a roleplaying and prose heavy campaign I don't want people who can't do basic creative and descriptive writing, and I'm going to be pretty adamant about this. Write this as if you were writing a very short story, in past tense.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2008, 11:21:06 AM by Brainpiercing »

Ieniemienie

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2008, 07:47:12 AM »
Since I am not a good roleplayer and have a kick-in-the-door type of playstyle, I will withdraw myself from this adventure
'DnD is not a game; it is a membership in a tribe that I joined long ago.'

Stupidity should be painful!

AlisAtAn

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2008, 08:27:04 AM »

After some consideration I dont think I should commit myself to another campaign, seeing as I`m already in 2. My chars tend to be more direct approach, anyway. Breaking things is fun. Good luck to the rest of you. =)
Odin, Feral Shifter Feral Shifter. "Can I drown the dead rat now?"
Loke, Dread Magnate "Me all good and nice. Ask any questions and I`ll kill you twice."


DnD classes is kind of like art. You make lots of stuff that everyone loves but aint no fun to play. This one is like getting a nude pic of Britney Spears when she was hot above your bed.  Anyone can appreciate it. And it works as it should in practise, not just in theory. -Me to Strato regarding his Elemental

Risada

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2008, 10:53:46 AM »
Due to some RL stuff I will not be able to post frequently, so I'm withdrawing from this game. Sorry Brainpiercing.

Brainpiercing

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #17 on: June 11, 2008, 11:33:20 AM »
Due to the nature of this campaing it will be possible to join later without too many problems. Anybody withdrawing now can still enter at a later time.

I am also not putting up a player limit. People can still enter later.

Posting frequency should be around 1 post per day.

Risada

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #18 on: June 11, 2008, 11:43:39 AM »
Due to the nature of this campaing it will be possible to join later without too many problems. Anybody withdrawing now can still enter at a later time.

I am also not putting up a player limit. People can still enter later.

Posting frequency should be around 1 post per day.

I will try to kill these problems ASAP so I can play this game, but until then keep me out. (besides, I still need to think what I'm gonna play.... most certain it's a Duskblade....)

Ieniemienie

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Re: Non-standard D&D/Forgotten Realms Campaign - express interest
« Reply #19 on: June 11, 2008, 12:51:33 PM »
concerning the campaign (Im not in, but still show interest;))
1; how do manage combat when a person can be level 1, but also level 10? will the lvl 1 guy not be smacked down with 1 stroke?
2; how do you handle LA or races with racial HD?
'DnD is not a game; it is a membership in a tribe that I joined long ago.'

Stupidity should be painful!