Campaign 10/11 - Intro.

POST CONTENTS: -
(This is as much for me, to remind me of what I was going to talk about)

1 - The game.

2 - The players.

3 - The setting.

~~~

1. The Game.

The game will be playing uses the 3.5 edition ruleset. For anyone joining D&D at 4th ed, only some of this may make sense to you.

It's likely we will be playing once a week over the course of a year which, going from past experience, may not let the players level that far.
(I played in a game that lasted for a year, playing at this frequency and we only got to level three. I took over, DMing it after that and in that time the players only got to level 6.)
As such, I've allowed the players to begin at level 2. In addition, I'll be keeping up my practise of rewarding good plays with XP too.
(In my last campaign I had to actually award players with XP if they turned up on time as they were all frequently late.)

2. The Players.

We have four players (with a possible fifth depending on whether I decide I can be bothered to rebalance everything properly), those four players being new to the 3.5 ruleset.
One of the players played with version 1 or something, two played with 4th ed and the third has never played before at all.

I aleady have first drafts of outlines of their characters (except one. I haven't sat down with her and gone through it yet, but I'll get round to it.)

And so, here is what we have regarding the characters thus far(copied more or less word for word directly from my notes):

===

'Mike's Guy' - Human

Typical 'wandering adventurer' type. Anti-hero. (Finding fortune & opportunity).
Chaotic Neutral.

From a Small town, beset by a cataclysmic disaster. He is the lone survivor.

An "X" shaped scar on chest, perhaps done by a dragon, with an as-of-yet mystical connection to said creature.

He wants revenge.

Trained by a swordsman.

Example of style = Witch-hunter from Warhammer 40K.

Wears medium or light leather.

He wants to start with a gun.

---

A little derivative but this kind of stuff is par for the course so we'll just go ahead with it.

He's probably going to end up going rogue.

As for the gun, if I go along with it it'll be a flintlock. They're rather limited, given their reload times and price so we'll see how that goes.

===

'John's Guy' - Originally Yuan-ti, now cursed to human form.

Not a good guy. (Don't fuck with him)

Chaotic Neutral?

Hard to trust.

Flawed physically (low cha score).

Sorcerer levels.

Primary goal = power. (Introduce negators after a few sessions)

Human form, change is relatively recent.

Was originally a snake-form Yuan-ti.

Skills in Herbalism & Poisons (and drugs drinks slyly with them) [Will need to take sleight of hand skill]

Outcast - wants revenge against those that cursed him.

Secretive guy - Cowled & Hooded.

Ashamed of his human face.

Int & Wis = High
Str & Dex = Low
Con = Higher than average
Cha = Low

---

This one's a little more original, given the yuan-ti past and the shame the character has to live with.

He is a sorcerer so we have at least one caster. Somewhere I have notes for a "negator", something that negates magic. I'm still debating whether to do this or not.

The targets for the ability scores are there, though how successful that will be will depend on the rolls so that's something we'll have to deal with later.

===

'Hannah's Lass' - Elf or H/Elf.

Bit of an enigma.

Not a big brute.

Uses magic. (Has a bow though loath to use it)

Helps others.

Cleric.

Had folks she was close to (like family) and now they're gone somehow.

Neutral Good.

---

What is it with players wanting to play "mysterious" characters? Oh well, can't be helped. Must crack on.

She's playing a cleric, which gives us another caster.
She hasn't decided what Deity yet. I'm designing the campaign setting more or less from scratch; with original map and history. As such, the deities wont be the same (except for a handful I'm keeping...storyline reasons) though I've set up the cosmology as such that new deities can turn up, if they like...so she can make a deity up if she likes. (Well, in principal, anyway. On reflection I'd probably better do it.)

The bow-thing gives the party a long-range physical combatant.

She doesn't have much in mind for a backstory so that will need to be worked on but we'll figure something out.

===

The other party member (played by Cassie) hasn't been arranged, nor has the character of the potential fifth player. There's only so much I an plan without that information but for now I'll have to try and work around it.

~~~

3. The Setting.

The setting is being built from scratch. The primary landscape is an archipelago comprised of three large continents, arranged around a small sea (where there was once a landmass but there is no longer after a disaster centuries ago), with smaller islands dotted about.

Each continent and the nations and kingdoms within it have their own flavours to them, with some being more high fantasy than others, some being a little more gothic, or steampunk, etc.
The map is open, with key quests being designed with multiple solutions so that the players can go where they like.

Quests will be designed to cover the following:

- Storylines (Some based on characters and some based on locations),
- Circumstances (Character death, curing curses and ailments, pissing off the DM)
- Randoms (Random encounters beginning quest lines. With a few of these prepared beforehand they can be rolled out if and when the need arises).

==============

The first thing I need to figure out is where the party will begin the campaign.

The usual thing is to have the group meet (for some reason) in an inn. I don't think I'll be going entirely in that direction.
I need an original way to get the party in one place and to work together.

The idea I've gone with is to have them teleported to a singular location.

It breaks down as such:

Evil organisation begin cataclysmic attacks on several locations.
Good guys (with powerful wizards) turn up and begin emergency evacuations, resulting in large-scale teleportations.
Once people are through evacuation they must pool resources to survive the harsh terrain they ended up in.
All able-bodied personnel are grouped into 4 or 5 man units. Rewards for doing assigned jobs include money & supplies.

Examples of starting quests: -

- Kill monsters (pretty basic) so new colony can use land for farming and make-shift housing.
- Establish trade routes.
- Map terrain.
- Gather resources.

Main quest to lave this area will involved a captured badguy having escaped (by summoning all kinds of nasties) and the party's unit is assigned to go catch him.

Upon returning, they are freed from service. At this point (due to exploration) they should have several options for quest-lines.

So, first to design the intro and starting area...

DMing a new campaign.

It's been a while since I DMed but this September I begin again with a new group. Given how little I've updated this blog and given how much information I'm going to have to compile, returning to this blog and updating my progress seemed the best way to rectify both issues.

As such, I'll be blogging my progress; including the alchemy of my rulings and stat builds, thoughts on storylines and anything else that I decide is relevent.

Sadly, as much as I'd like to wow you with a comprehensive guide so that you can use this information yourselves in whatever way you need, I doubt I'm capable of being that coherant...though the thought had occured to me to structure it properly later. Maybe some day I will.

I'll be posting rules that I use as a reference to real-life events (as in what monsters I used and how the games panned out, etc) so I'm claiming "fair use" right here, right now. Just so you know.

As for my next post (which I'm typing alongside this but am seperating for ease of reading) I'll go into the outline of the game and the immediate demands for planning.

So, have fun. ^_^

Update and things - 27th august 2008

Hey kids. This will be mirrored on the forum and will remain there for a while, after which it will be moved to an all new archive's section once this news has gotten old.

I've dillied and dallied and stuff hasn't gotten done. It's mostly my fault, having not been active.

I've been distracted by MMOs, personal issues and writer's block.

Tomorrow this changes though...Well, it's today by now, seeing as I'm writing this so late in the night...

Ahem..anyhow...

The new magic system is about 40% complete. I'm giving serious thought now in to a mana-like system or simplifying the magic usage limits to essentially be just like a mana system.

For example, Algenon the Wizard is level something-or-other, meaning he can use 11 spell levels per day. That means he an prepare 2 X Level 5 spells and a level 1, or whatever combination makes 11.

How does that sound folks?

I've also been asked why I'm redoing the magic system.

Well, the idea behind the Synergy Project is to not only provide rules that work with everything, but to put more in the hands of the players and GMs. We aim to provide the formulas and calculations used to build things. That way GMs have more freedom to create, and in some circumstances, the players do too.

In other news I'm making an addition to character creation. They're called "Base Mods."

They're based on the old mutations system of D20 modern and are a means to add further details to a character without wasting feats.

I'll explain in more detail. In D&D 3.5, feats were used to purchase things like a regional resistance to cold or something. These are the same feats used to purchase special abilities gained through hard work and skill.

Now the two are separate, with Base Mods as an extra available. There's no pressure to take Base Mods (unlike feats, which you have to take) but will still be there as part of the core rules.

I will admit though that there may be certain Base Mods that will only be made available or "unlocked" with a feat, but they'll be in the minority. I had an example in my head in the shower the other day but I've forgotten it...

Anyhow, such base mods will be things like bloodline benefits like; "Accustomed to warm environments" whereby a bonus is given to stuff in heat.

To balance it, it'll be done using the point system of D20 modern. Each Base Mod will have a point value and adding traits will add or subtract from an overall score.

The above heat thing will be worth +1 although will have a corresponding penalty that can be taken in cold places worth -1...

I hope you're following this.

Any eventual score over 0 will result in a level adjustment.

Oh and that gets me to a topic I'm sick of people bringing up. I will say this once and for all to all of you.

Level Adjustments are NOT punishments.

They are a means of balancing the game that allows you to have cool stuff. They are a reflection of an easier game due to an advanced ability.

Say, for example my character was able to breath fire. I would have an easier time in fights, meaning that the experience gained wouldn't be worth it. Experience gained is there to reflect the lessons learned through battle and whatnot. If it's easier for me, I wont learn as much...making sense?

I was giving thought to something I've nicknamed "Roving Level Adjustments," or "RLAs." These are level adjustments that only apply to certain situations. I've really got no examples in mind; it simply occurred to me that it may come up so I'd better have an acronym ready for it

Well, I think that's all I've got thus far.

Have fun kids,

HMR

Looking for project leaders

Looking for Project Leaders

When I started the 3.S project I was the only person involved. Now the project is growing (we get on average one new project member every day) and I've found that I can safely pass on leadership of certain Builds to other people.

With that in mind I'm looking for people that can take over the overseeing of certain Builds...well, most of them actually.

Now that I can rely on people to help, it is in the best interests of the project that I hand aspects over to people better suited to running them; people with more knowledge on the fandoms being used as the Builds and with more experience on playing and GMing.

Currently looknig for new leaders are the following Builds: -

Silent Hill,
Bioshock,
Pokemon (though I'll be waiting until I've finished working out the basic mechanics. I'm determined to finish working this out an I'm almost done.),
Legacy of Kain, &
Naruto.

I've decided that I want to keep overseeing the Kingdom Hearts Build, seeing as I'm the most familair with the mechanics of it (seeing as I've written a majority of them) and it's the fandom I most enjoy doing the rules for.

In addition, I've also started work on a new Build, but I'm keeping the details of that under wraps. I'm doing this for a number of reasons, which I wont go in to right now. People are welcome to get involved but you'll have to PM me because that section of the forum will be hidden. If you want to be involved, you need to be open minded and not easily offended.

Anyway, that's all I'm saying about that for the time being.

Mission Statements and Whatnot

In other news, I was asked why I'm going through with this project.

At first I wasn't even sure myself but I've come to realise that it's not just altruism that's motivating me.

The truth is that I find working on rules fascinating. I don't know why; I just enjoy working things out and doing these rules gives me a tremendous amount of scope to play with. I suppose it's the same as people enjoying doing maths. It doesn't make much sense to the likes of us but they get something out of it. I imagine it's the same thing here. It helps me to take my mind off of things and it focuses me...as well as relieving the odd spout of boredom.

So while I'm busy creating I realised that the stuff that actually worked could benefit the D&D and D20 community. I realised that I wanted to put this to good use and with the introduction of 4e (which everybody hates) I thought I'd do my best to come up with something better.

And you know what? It's working. There's been a naysayer or two (negative folks with no imagination) but every day we get another addition (on average) and people are getting involved and liking what we can do with this.

So I want to thank every indivudual who is contributing, no matter how big or small.

Even those people who only come for the Roleplay or the General chat are building a community, a good community of imaginative and friendly people.

Everyone, in one way or another, are contributing to a wonderful project; a project that started as an errand thought and is flourishing in to something for everyone, by everyone.

Worlds are being built, friends are being made and ideas are being woven.

I had doubts, but the people involved have banished those entirely.

I want to finish with an open letter to WotC that I found on their forums which made me glad we're doing this: -

An open letter to Wizards of the Coast - by "drewnchick"

I've not engaged in the discussion on these boards, silently lurking and listening to everyone's responses, both pro and con. I waited, I hoped, I even read the books. Now...I am responding with what I hope is a thoughful letter to the Wizards.



Dear Wizards,

We feel spurned, WotC. So many companies had licenses revoked--er, not renewed...feels the same, WotC--and that wounded or killed a number of them. A hundred thousand readers of Dragon and Dungeon had their lifetime subscriptions forceably suspended, and THAT hurt a lot of people.

WotC (or Hasbro...makes no difference to us), your obvious drive to gather in everything for yourselves seriously offended nearly everyone. Yes, it was your right to do so, and maybe it even made good business sense from a bean counter's point of view. But business is NOT just about money; it's also about the relationships with customers, and you managed to tick off, worry, or confuse just about all of them.

We all see through the guise. Yes, we were complaining about a few aspects of the game. But no, we did NOT ask for 4E. Some of us will like it, and some will give it a chance. A few will even begrudgingly make the switch. But those are the exceptions. A strong and vocal majority of us--individuals and small companies alike--have followed you through the TSR days all the way to Seattle. We gave you all the support any company could want, and we really feel like you have treated us badly in return. We will NOT be following you anymore.

If it was your purpose to wipe the slate clean of all your "old-school" customers and start all over with a fresh and innocent generation, then I applaud your brilliance. If you intended to lose the "dead weight" of the past while boldly storming into the "future of gaming," then you have succeeded. But we feel the sting of your slap to our faces. We loved you; we supported you; we even held out some hope that 4E would NOT be the disappointment we saw coming. Nope. You slapped us all pretty hard, WotC. The final slap in the face would be you dedicating 4E in memory of E. Gary Gygax, who voiced his displeasure with your direction and decisions. Oh, wait...you actually did that.

So...we feel spurned, WotC. But there remains a ray of hope for us. Paizo Publishing is a-courtin' and we're becoming all too happy to switch loyalties. We know when we're not wanted anymore, but we also see a bright future for this company who WANTS us "old-school" gamers, who LISTENS to our collective voice, and who COOPERATES with other companies for the betterment and enjoyment of all who truly love D&D more than money.

Well, I hope the lesson you learn from this isn't TOO painful. I really hope you learn it. Don't say we didn't warn you.


Signed: A fed-up, old-school, pen-and-paper, tabletop gamer.

Project Updates: The Era system, Roleplaying and Free Stuff (as competition prizes)

The Era system

The first draft of the Era System is complete (all except one part but we can do without it for now). We can now begin applying the 3.S system to any world we feel like, which means no more separate rules systems for medieval and modern settings. There's still a lot to do, such as price modifiers for things, class restrictions due to era and diplomacy modifiers and whatnot (not unlike Ravenloft's system) but we've got enough to need a review and we really do need people to opine on this.

Roleplaying

We're also beginning to build the worlds the game will be based around. One of our staff is heading up a Play-by-post Roleplay to build up the world in a creative way. How it works is quite simple:

You create a character and write his/her backstory. There are little to no limits on what kind of story you can have. These details are factored in to the story and the roleplay begins.

As the story goes on, elements will be used to form the basis of the D20 Synergy world. Some aspects of the game will be left in, some won't.
So this is a good opportunity to not only roleplay, but have you and your character achieve a sense of immortality. Your character could very well be featured in the games of untold numbers of people for a long time to come...and how cool is that? Each roleplayer will also be credited in the book once it's released and if there's enough to go round, you may get a free hard-back copy.

Competitions for Free Stuff

There'll also be competitions with prizes, such as t-shirts, mugs, hats and all sorts of other unique and cool stuff. Things like best roleplay and best character will be awarded with other awards being added later. So if you're good at roleplaying and have a good imagination, join here and claim your immortality and free stuff.

They wont be the only prizes given out though. We're going to be giving away prizes for all kinds of contributions. Things like; best artwork, best NPC, best spell, best story fluff, and more will be rewarded. Every member of the forum is eligible for a prize, whether they've posted once or a hundred things. It's quality we award, not quantity.

So come and have a look. I've also opened up the "general" section so that guests can respond to topics and give their thoughts. Guests still can't start topics or polls and if bots start turning up, this feature may be stopped, but in the meantime you can now get involved with some discussions without having to join.

In other news (though not as important) I'll be away for a week or so due to technical issues (and it's all PC World's fault) but the forum is being left in good hands and the community will still be as active as ever (being rambunctious in my absence perhaps?)

So, until later...

Have fun folks

HMR

Potions and their spell limits...

During the course of writing the rules for D20 Synergy, we've had to make a few decisions. Some come from a blatant dislike of the rules as they were for D&D 3.5 or D20 Modern and some come from house rules that were good enough to include. Over the course of the project's development, I'll post the more pressing questions here for your consideration.

In this particular instance we are discussing the spell limit for potions.

In the rules of Dungeon and Dragon's 3.5, the highest level a spell could be that could be made in to a potion was 3. For a variety of reasons, the option of changing this limit or removing it is being discussed.

Below is the discussion as it has played out at the time of printing.
(Please note - I've had to shrink the display so that it fits on the screen...)

Author	Topic: Potion spell limit? (Read 33 times)
HearMeRoar Administrator Overlord member is online Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 113 Karma: 101	Potion spell limit? « Thread Started on Jun 28, 2008, 9:50pm » I've been going over what is likely to be included in the updated rules and I'm mulling over the rule that potions can only contain up to level 3 spells. I'm of the opinion that this is ridiculous and I want to do away with this rule. After all, as long as the cost to make and purchase the potions increases accordingly and the experience to make it increases, then where's the harm? What do you all think? HMR Link to Post - Back to Top Logged
FireFALL Staff Mm? What's that, my boy? member is offline Is There A Doctor In The House? Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 14 Location: Here......Why where are you? Karma: 10 [ Exalt | Smite ]	Re: Potion spell limit? « Reply #1 on Jun 29, 2008, 4:08pm » I'm with you dude, as long as the cost to make it increases then why shouldn't you be able to have potions which contain over lvl3 spells. Link to Post - Back to Top 77.96.71.124 Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation
HearMeRoar Administrator Overlord member is online Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 113 Karma: 101	Re: Potion spell limit? « Reply #2 on Jun 30, 2008, 7:31am » Of course. The DM's handbook in 3.5 has a formula for working out the cost of magic items. The cost of one use items is rather simple (and it uses a potion as it's example) so I mistakenly took my cue from that and didn't impose a limit on the spell level of a potion and used to formula to work out the value. It's a shame my campaign ended because Nailo has a potion that would turn her in to a giant warforged titan. ^_^ Methinks those kinds of potions make a noon-limit worth it. The question is, should we let epic level spells be potions? It'd make things interesting, of course, but I wonder if it wouldn't be too powerful. Link to Post - Back to Top Logged
fallennorth New Member member is offline Joined: Jul 2008 Gender: Female Posts: 7 Karma: 1 [ Exalt | Smite ]	Re: Potion spell limit? « Reply #3 on Jul 3, 2008, 9:33am » I was looking forward to see that potion put in use to, it would have been hilarious. We did fine with out limits, so I reckon we shouldn't be too concerned about the spell level, though you're right some Epic spells could be to powerful to be available in potion form. Maybe thats where you should call you limit. Link to Post - Back to Top 91.111.117.224
ori New Member member is offline Joined: Jul 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 5 Karma: 0 [ Exalt | Smite ]	Re: Potion spell limit? « Reply #4 Today at 8:54am » The whole point of level 3 potions and below were that anything above it gets progressively too powerful to take a long. The biggest problem is when you start giving the warriors of the party the wizard self buffs that make them combat gods. It simply breaks the combat system. (even the level 4 spell of stoneskin would make your bog standard warrior a shed load tougher) The only exceptions I'd make were more potent healing potions. And even then, only if the party doesn't have a cleric along for the show, which means it's the GM supplying the party with such potions. Link to Post - Back to Top 92.20.0.32
HearMeRoar Administrator Overlord member is online Joined: Jun 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 113 Karma: 101	Re: Potion spell limit? « Reply #5 Today at 10:11am » Today at 8:54am, ori wrote: The whole point of level 3 potions and below were that anything above it gets progressively too powerful to take a long. The biggest problem is when you start giving the warriors of the party the wizard self buffs that make them combat gods. It simply breaks the combat system. (even the level 4 spell of stoneskin would make your bog standard warrior a shed load tougher) The only exceptions I'd make were more potent healing potions. And even then, only if the party doesn't have a cleric along for the show, which means it's the GM supplying the party with such potions. That's an interesting point. In my experience of dealing with my players it didn't make that much of an impact though. I still think that it should be allowed, but with this point in mind I think we may need to figure out a better way to balance it. As far as I can tell, the system for working out the cost of such items is fair enough (though I'll review it again). In the meantime, progressive feats allowing a potion crafter to make progressively stronger potions (one that allows level 6, the next allows 9...or something) would mean that the players have to pay the cost of a feat to do it...and any other ones are at the discretion of the GM to give out. The thing is, it's possible to have the same thing with Runes and they work in the same way as potions. All one needs do is use them and they carry no spell limit (in fact, their cost is worked out using the same system as potions). I shall explore the rules further... « Last Edit: Today at 10:14am by HearMeRoar » Link to Post - Back to Top Logged

So far the general consensus has been to raise the limit. Personally, I'm inclined to go with allowing all spells except epic-level spells...or at least making epic potions ludicrously difficult to create.

If you want to have your say, head along to the forums and cast your votes and opinions.

HMR