Bulldrek v3.0

After deciding that Vampire: The Masquerade was not entirely the game we [read: my gaming group] thought it would be, we decided to try our hand at 3rd edition D&D. I am to DM this fun endeavour and I'm looking for some advice regarding my plans...a bit of constructive criticism if you will. Since the WotC forums are populated by morons, I thought I'd ask here.

Excuse the disjointed story, I'm pouring my brain out on my keyboard.

Forgotten Realms
Though I want to start out small, with starting level characters, and a very sober, low-magic feel to things. Much closer to true medieval life than the epic, high magic setting that Forgotten Realms has turned into over the years. My reason for doing this is three-fold; 1) We have some newbies to D&D and I think the first few campaigns shouldn't be too over the top, 2) my players aren't looking for an epic level game, and 3) I want to take things slow, character development slow and character build-up slow, in order to do it right and not rush into things. The reason that I did pick Forgotten Realms is because I have a fair bit of experience in this setting, and there's a lot of interesting material to cannabalise. Also, once we get past a certain point, the level of magic can pick up a bit, and the games can become a bit more grand and epic, if my players want to. So there's scalability.

Low Magic
I've seen a lot of systems to enforce low-magic D&D games, and I'm going to ignore them all because I think it's too much work. I'm just not going to drag many wizards, sorcerors, spell-wielding bards into things, and I'll be damned sure to make every magical item unique. Priests and Paladins are to be denied their powers if they call upon them without good reason. Cure Light Wounds will, with the avarage God, only be granted if the reciptient is truly wounded and unable to heal without intense and long effort, and if the God in question deems the recipient worthy. I think everyone gets the drift.

Setting
I've decided to place the group in "the North", north of the Silver Marches and the Western Heartlands, along River Mirar, upstream from Mirabar where the river comes down from the Spine of the World Mountains. It's secluded, it's dreary - something I immediately associate with medieval England, which is sort of the idea - and it's dangerous territory.

In short - very short - the town is called Williamsborough, named after it's founder William Stuyvesant of Waterdeep, a well-off noble who came there in 1329 DR with two friends to exploit a small abandoned Dwarven mine, empty since 1257 DR due to prevailing illness amongst the miners.

The Dwarves were part of the Battlehammer clan forced out of Mithril Hall by the shadow dragon Shimmergloom and his hordes of goblins in 1172 DR. While most of clan Battlehammer went north, past the Spine of the World and settled near Ten-Towns on the Icewind Dale, some broke away and found another mining sight in 1173 DR. When, after 84 years the miners started becoming ill with a disease that the Dwarven priests couldn't cure, and their natural hardiness couldn't withstand, they decided to abandon the mine and meet up with the rest of clan Battlehammer.

Years later William Stuyvesant of Waterdeep offered a token sum of gold for the deed to the mine and started exploiting it. Now, in 1372 DR, the town is still small, with only 350 or so inhabitants - slightly more during spring and summer, due to trade - it is run by Miranda Stuyvesant, William's daughter, who took over from her father after he started suffering from a brain-fever about a year prior.

The town has three forms of income; 1) the small gold-mine, 2) logging around the northern edges of Lurkwood, utilising a small, but efficiently run saw-mill on the river, and some minor agricultural products, which is mainly used to support the population [potatoes, carrots, etc.] The logs are moved downstream towards Mirabar three or four times a year, tied together in rough rafts, carrying excess food supplies and gold for trade to Mirabar, and sometimes Luskan beyond.

With the Spine of the World Mountains to the north, the Lurkwoods to the south, a river running through the town, the isolated valley in which the town rests, with the Silver Marches to the east, the Trollmoores to the south-east, Mirabar and Luskan to the west, and some traderoutes to the south-west, everything some 7 - 14 days distance, I think this would be an ideal spot to start the campaign.

First of all, being confronted with the old Primarch's brain fever. Second, the sudden appearance of two strange adventurers in their town during the autumns months - a fierce dwarf, sporting bladed and spiked armour, and a long-haired easterner, carrying two odd looking identical blades - claiming to have been sent to end the Ogre nuisance the town has been experiencing in recent months. And last, the slow, but steady tension growing between the miners and the foresters, coming closer and closer to out and open violence, and a seemingly ambivalent Sherrif, whose sinister neutrality smells of corruption.

Comments?

...please?

Dennis wrote:
Low Magic
I've seen a lot of systems to enforce low-magic D&D games, and I'm going to ignore them all because I think it's too much work. I'm just not going to drag many wizards, sorcerors, spell-wielding bards into things, and I'll be damned sure to make every magical item unique. Priests and Paladins are to be denied their powers if they call upon them without good reason. Cure Light Wounds will, with the avarage God, only be granted if the reciptient is truly wounded and unable to heal without intense and long effort, and if the God in question deems the recipient worthy. I think everyone gets the drift.

This works out well, so long as the opposition does not have access to many of their spell like and extrodinary abilities as well. Also, will you be keeping folks from using their granted powers, such as Domain abilities and granted Powers?

Dennis wrote:Setting
First of all, being confronted with the old Primarch's brain fever. Second, the sudden appearance of two strange adventurers in their town during the autumns months - a fierce dwarf, sporting bladed and spiked armour, and a long-haired easterner, carrying two odd looking identical blades - claiming to have been sent to end the Ogre nuisance the town has been experiencing in recent months. And last, the slow, but steady tension growing between the miners and the foresters, coming closer and closer to out and open violence, and a seemingly ambivalent Sherrif, whose sinister neutrality smells of corruption.

It sounds like you've got a decent setting for beginning level characters. There should be a number of low CR challenges about that will let them increase in power gradually.

Cazmonster wrote:This works out well, so long as the opposition does not have access to many of their spell like and extrodinary abilities as well. Also, will you be keeping folks from using their granted powers, such as Domain abilities and granted Powers?

I have to admit that I'm not entirely up to snuff on 3rd Edition rules, but if I understand you correctly you're wondering about inate abilities that some characters might have.

Yes, they'll get their inate abilities, since they are the "heroes" and "anti-heroes" in the story, they should be extraordinairy people, but the reaction of ordinairy individuals will be one of shock, awe and/or fear. A normal human being has a very small chance to actually run into an actual magician willing to talk about magic, to show some magic or to teach about it. In fact, one is very lucky to be witness of something like a divine wonder, or some arcane tomfoolery even once in his or her lifetime.

This leads to the general populous being superstitious and...well, fearful of magic. Perhaps they don't even believe in it, since they've never been privvy to it, thinking bards, travellers and merchants are loud-mouths with exaggerated tales.

I'm sorry, I just need to say it.. Stuyvesant? You're seriously using an ordinary name like William Stuyvesant? Ok, that done...

Setting is good. Individual comments follow.

Low Arcane Magic: There are certainly portions of FR that will be magic-backwater in any case. As long as you do't have an arcane caster in the party (or at least not a sorcerer or a wizard) you shouldn't have too much trouble with the Low-Magic end. The only simple mechanic to restrict magic outside of that is to force them to work very hard at getting new spells. Force them to travel to find a master to study under, or find a new spell book or whatever.

Low Divine Magic: For this to work well, only allow on-the-spot spells. In other words, divine casters do not pray for spells at the start of the day, but rather pray for a spell when they need it. All spells should be at least full-round actions, if not longer. Length of cast is inversely proportional to the need. Thus, something being cast because it'd be kinda nice will require a half-hour of devotion from the entire party, whereas a critical cure light wounds to prevent death might only take a round of asking nicely.

General setting makes good sense and has several inherent plot hooks. The small-town feel will keep things slow. Not much outside stimulus, no shops or temples for easy fixes, no mid-level NPCs to draw upon. You might want to have a herbal healer on hand in town that can increase natural healing rate somewhat without making all injury essentially meaningless. Once they outgrow the region (by clearing out the local problems) they'll be in a good position both in terms of experience with system and in game their characters will by high enough level to move up to a more epic style of game if desired.

My only recommendation is not to use the Forgotten Realms. At least, don't use the names. The setting is established as a high-magic setting. Anyone who happens to read something published about it may be a little hacked off if your Forgotten Realms ain't the same. (But I don't know your gaming group, YMMV.) Otherwise, it sounds great. And let me know if you want a big, bad NPC. I have an old char who was played to 8th level if you want a local level "evil-mastermind" to torment your players with.

Anguirel wrote:I'm sorry, I just need to say it.. Stuyvesant? You're seriously using an ordinary name like William Stuyvesant? Ok, that done...

Stuyvesant is a bastardisation of a Dutch name. It also happens to be one of the original [Dutch] settlers in New York City, which is why a large part of New York is named after them, including streets, public buildings, etc.

Low Arcane Magic: There are certainly portions of FR that will be magic-backwater in any case. As long as you do't have an arcane caster in the party (or at least not a sorcerer or a wizard) you shouldn't have too much trouble with the Low-Magic end. The only simple mechanic to restrict magic outside of that is to force them to work very hard at getting new spells. Force them to travel to find a master to study under, or find a new spell book or whatever.

Yes, that's a good idea. 1) Spell component registration. 2) Spell learning. 3) Casting time. Thanks.

Low Divine Magic: For this to work well, only allow on-the-spot spells. In other words, divine casters do not pray for spells at the start of the day, but rather pray for a spell when they need it. All spells should be at least full-round actions, if not longer. Length of cast is inversely proportional to the need. Thus, something being cast because it'd be kinda nice will require a half-hour of devotion from the entire party, whereas a critical cure light wounds to prevent death might only take a round of asking nicely.

I'll have to do some thinking about this. I've never been very fond of the whole "miracle on demand" side of D&D, but strict adherance to prayer-time should at least make things a bit more interesting.

General setting makes good sense and has several inherent plot hooks. The small-town feel will keep things slow. Not much outside stimulus, no shops or temples for easy fixes, no mid-level NPCs to draw upon. You might want to have a herbal healer on hand in town that can increase natural healing rate somewhat without making all injury essentially meaningless. Once they outgrow the region (by clearing out the local problems) they'll be in a good position both in terms of experience with system and in game their characters will by high enough level to move up to a more epic style of game if desired.

That herbalist is a good idea. Thanks, Ang.

paladin2019 wrote:My only recommendation is not to use the Forgotten Realms. At least, don't use the names. The setting is established as a high-magic setting. Anyone who happens to read something published about it may be a little hacked off if your Forgotten Realms ain't the same. (But I don't know your gaming group, YMMV.)

Well, I've talked this over with my friends, two of which are closely familiar with Forgotten Realms, and one of which has a passing familiarity with it, and everyone agrees to the low-magic/slow power build-up idea, so I think that'll be okay.

Otherwise, it sounds great. And let me know if you want a big, bad NPC. I have an old char who was played to 8th level if you want a local level "evil-mastermind" to torment your players with.

Hit me.

Dennis wrote:

Anguirel wrote:I'm sorry, I just need to say it.. Stuyvesant? You're seriously using an ordinary name like William Stuyvesant? Ok, that done...

Stuyvesant is a bastardisation of a Dutch name. It also happens to be one of the original [Dutch] settlers in New York City, which is why a large part of New York is named after them, including streets, public buildings, etc.

Yes, I know. Peter Stuyvesant was the mayor of New Amsterdam. I'm a font of random knowledge. I just had to point out the inherent weirdness of using an ordinary name in a D&D game. It wouldn't be particularly weird for me to use it. as no one around here besides me even knows who Peter Stuyvesant was... but I'd guess the name is a bit better known in your region of Europe. As I recall, the book even encourages you to use silly fantasy names... Just had to make the observation, as originally stated, though.

Came up with another idea for you: In a magic-poor game, charlatans will probably be more common than actual mages and clerics. You might consider a few con men "magicians" or "master healers" coming through the area and magnanimously offering to make a stop in at your village, for a modest sum of gold... Players would be welcome to interfere or not as they chose, of course, but if they caught on it'd emphasize that even cheap tricks will usually fool most of the populace.

Another thought I had. Ang brought it up with his charlatan remarks. In a magic poor world, there is really no need for the clergy to be made up exclusively of clerics. Here, any joe off the street could conceivably hold the title of priest. Think about that when the Vicar of Ilmater has to make do with a salve he made from some tree moss or the Chosen of Tempus starts whupping up on bad guys with Great Cleave and Weapon Specialization...at 4th level.

Come to think of it, this might be the basis of a new feat.

Ordained
Prerequisites: Wisdom 10+, worship the ordaining deity.
Benefits: The charater is ordained as the clergy of a particular deity. This results in a +2 divine bonus to Charisma checks with followers of the same deity and Heal and Knowledge (Religion) are always class skills for this character. Clerics have this feat as a bonus feat (or maybe not).

Anguirel wrote:As I recall, the book even encourages you to use silly fantasy names... Just had to make the observation, as originally stated, though.

Well, as I said before, I have been lurking aroung the WotC boards for a while, and I've come to associate the "Correllathianalantalas Tyr'Elkampursynth" style of names with really really really really pathetic, sad, and immature individuals that take fucked up and "interesting" names just to be interesting. It simply doesn't make sense to me that everyone would have a name rivalling that of a Elven noble. Especially when the person in question is human, with human names. The Western Heartlands is largely modelled after Western Europe and thus I think people should have names that reflect that.

...not only that, but it's easier for me to remember hundreds of names.

Came up with another idea for you: In a magic-poor game, charlatans will probably be more common than actual mages and clerics. You might consider a few con men "magicians" or "master healers" coming through the area and magnanimously offering to make a stop in at your village, for a modest sum of gold... Players would be welcome to interfere or not as they chose, of course, but if they caught on it'd emphasize that even cheap tricks will usually fool most of the populace.

Hmmm, that's an interesting idea. This opens up the idea that magic is actually known by the general populace, but that they have never seen or felt it, first person. Though that would take the "fear" out of magic, which I am desperately trying to get into the game.

I had the same problem with my Shadowrun game. Everyone and his mom knew about magic and its possibilities, and the fear was gone. *frust*

paladin2019 wrote:Another thought I had. Ang brought it up with his charlatan remarks. In a magic poor world, there is really no need for the clergy to be made up exclusively of clerics. Here, any joe off the street could conceivably hold the title of priest.

Well, I've always treated standard clergy as nothing more than average humans with no divine connection to their deity. Like the apostles, or just an average preacher, I suppose.

Keeping magic levels low in the game while allowing the characters their powers and abilities shouldn't be too hard, as long as everyone remembers the wonder of what they're doing. Even a simple cantrip is more than the average person will have seen in their life, and even to the magician, it's kind of a wonder. Let me tell you, I come from an age of wonders, and if I could light a candle with my mind I'd /still/ be blown away by it, even the thousandth time I did it.

Sounds like a fun time; I've always wanted to play a low-magic, low-epic kind of campaign, but we usually can't manage it for more than a few sessions.

Figured I'd drop a game mechanic off here, just to show that you can get by without magical healing, its just slow as snot.

Under the care of a person with the Heal skill, and while resting, a character will regain three hit points per level per day. And as I recall, one healer can heal the wounds of up to four patients per day. At this rate, most characters can be ready to go back out adventuring within a week or two.

As a related note - even the Orison Cure Minor Wounds is enough to stabilize a dying character and put an end to many injury-related problems, like losing movement points due to caltrops and the like.

Dennis wrote:Priests and Paladins are to be denied their powers if they call upon them without good reason. Cure Light Wounds will, with the avarage God, only be granted if the reciptient is truly wounded and unable to heal without intense and long effort, and if the God in question deems the recipient worthy. I think everyone gets the drift.

For the most part. Quick question, though: are clergy still able to Turn Undead, and do Paladins still get Divine Grace and/or Lay-On Hands?

Also, do you know what classes your players will be taking? Fighters, particularly, will be hurt as early as third or fourth level without access to some magic items (particularly armor) depending on the composition of the group and what kind of threats you throw at them. Nothing sucks more than repeatedly getting levels drained by Undead or getting your head smashed in by an Ogre because your armor's pathetic.

Dude, take Expertise.

True, but then you have to burn a feat to get the same effect as a +2 enhancement to armor /without/ having to spend th full-round action defending.

Dennis wrote:After deciding that Vampire: The Masquerade was not entirely the game we [read: my gaming group] thought it would be, we decided to try our hand at 3rd edition D&D.

If you don't mind my asking, what turned you guys off from the game?

I had the same problem with my Shadowrun game. Everyone and his mom knew about magic and its possibilities, and the fear was gone. *frust*

Huh? Everyone knows that they can mess with your head- mind probe, suggestion, control- make you see and hear things that aren't there/real, are able to channel elements of nature or the embodied power of nature to do their bidding or just flash fry you with a fireball. Scary bastards. People like that started popping up nowadays and Homeland Security or national equivalent would be rounding them up for the national good. Or am I missunderstanding you?

Cazmonster wrote:Under the care of a person with the Heal skill, and while resting, a character will regain three hit points per level per day. And as I recall, one healer can heal the wounds of up to four patients per day. At this rate, most characters can be ready to go back out adventuring within a week or two.

This is sort of what I had in mind with the herbalist/healer that Anguirel suggested. So if the players aren't smart enough to invest in that skill, someone will be available to them. I think of making him/her a druid/hermit type, to keep the distance between the party and the cure one step greater.

As a related note - even the Orison Cure Minor Wounds is enough to stabilize a dying character and put an end to many injury-related problems, like losing movement points due to caltrops and the like.

Is this spell a standard one?

Salvation122 wrote:For the most part. Quick question, though: are clergy still able to Turn Undead, and do Paladins still get Divine Grace and/or Lay-On Hands?

I'm not entirely sure what Divine Grace does, but Paladins do definitely have access to Lay-On Hands, it's wether they use it properly that it gets granted to them by their deity or not.

Also, do you know what classes your players will be taking? Fighters, particularly, will be hurt as early as third or fourth level without access to some magic items (particularly armor) depending on the composition of the group and what kind of threats you throw at them. Nothing sucks more than repeatedly getting levels drained by Undead or getting your head smashed in by an Ogre because your armor's pathetic.

I don't know what classes everyone will take. I allow everything - with the notable exception of Psionicists, for now - and I don't care so much what their mix is going to be; they're not going to get magical items just like that. Because, well, you know, it's magic. I'll make sure to gauge their capabilities and adjust the challenge rating accordingly, but I'm not going to give them their victories for free. If they come up against an Ogre, a part of four or five first level characters _should_ be able to take it down, if they're smart.

So yeah, "Chaaarge!" isn't going to work.

FlakJacket wrote:

Dennis wrote:After deciding that Vampire: The Masquerade was not entirely the game we [read: my gaming group] thought it would be, we decided to try our hand at 3rd edition D&D.

If you don't mind my asking, what turned you guys off from the game?

Well, the game focusses a lot more on the individual, than it does on the group. The whole game is set around the premise that "vampires are solitary creatures" and that cooperation is only done through selfishness. Now, personally, I had no trouble with it, but two of the other players did, and then there was another player who just didn't have any fun, no matter how hard she tried. We could've flogged that dead horse, and probably could've made it work - and I certainly would've wanted to see that happen - but majority ruled that we should put it aside - at least, for now - and do something less frustrating.

Huh? Everyone knows that they can mess with your head- mind probe, suggestion, control- make you see and hear things that aren't there/real, are able to channel elements of nature or the embodied power of nature to do their bidding or just flash fry you with a fireball. Scary bastards. People like that started popping up nowadays and Homeland Security or national equivalent would be rounding them up for the national good. Or am I missunderstanding you?

Well, this is a problem I've had with Shadowrun and the way Wizkids/FASA portrayed things;

• "Shadowrunners" and "shadowrunning" is a commonly known occupation and activity. They even have Shadowrun TV shows, for chrissakes!
• Magic is known to everyone - which is okay - but isn't _feared._ And that pisses me off, because it takes away the mystery, and the horror of what these people can do. There's even a Mage Detective TV show, for chrissakes! "Columbo and his Watcher Spirit." *sigh*

Dennis wrote:I'm not entirely sure what Divine Grace does, but Paladins do definitely have access to Lay-On Hands, it's wether they use it properly that it gets granted to them by their deity or not.

Divine Grace adds your Charisma modifier to all your saving throws and... to-hit rolls, maybe? Something else I don't remember.

I don't know what classes everyone will take. I allow everything - with the notable exception of Psionicists, for now - and I don't care so much what their mix is going to be; they're not going to get magical items just like that. Because, well, you know, it's magic. I'll make sure to gauge their capabilities and adjust the challenge rating accordingly, but I'm not going to give them their victories for free. If they come up against an Ogre, a part of four or five first level characters _should_ be able to take it down, if they're smart.

That's fine, then, as long as you're aware that they'll be slightly disadvantaged.

So yeah, "Chaaarge!" isn't going to work.

FlakJacket wrote:

Dennis wrote:After deciding that Vampire: The Masquerade was not entirely the game we [read: my gaming group] thought it would be, we decided to try our hand at 3rd edition D&D.

If you don't mind my asking, what turned you guys off from the game?

Well, the game focusses a lot more on the individual, than it does on the group. The whole game is set around the premise that "vampires are solitary creatures" and that cooperation is only done through selfishness. Now, personally, I had no trouble with it, but two of the other players did, and then there was another player who just didn't have any fun, no matter how hard she tried. We could've flogged that dead horse, and probably could've made it work - and I certainly would've wanted to see that happen - but majority ruled that we should put it aside - at least, for now - and do something less frustrating.

Huh? Everyone knows that they can mess with your head- mind probe, suggestion, control- make you see and hear things that aren't there/real, are able to channel elements of nature or the embodied power of nature to do their bidding or just flash fry you with a fireball. Scary bastards. People like that started popping up nowadays and Homeland Security or national equivalent would be rounding them up for the national good. Or am I missunderstanding you?

Well, this is a problem I've had with Shadowrun and the way Wizkids/FASA portrayed things;

• "Shadowrunners" and "shadowrunning" is a commonly known occupation and activity. They even have Shadowrun TV shows, for chrissakes!
• Magic is known to everyone - which is okay - but isn't _feared._ And that pisses me off, because it takes away the mystery, and the horror of what these people can do. There's even a Mage Detective TV show, for chrissakes! "Columbo and his Watcher Spirit." *sigh*

[/quote]

Dennis - Orisons are simply divine magic zero level spells and Cure Minor Wounds is one of the basic ones from the Players Handbook.

Sal - you don't have to use a full action to use expertise, and I was directing the comment toward fighters, who have feats to burn, and extra base attack bonus points.

Quick Example...
Ftr 2 (Str 16, Dex 12) with Scale and Large Shield (AC 17), armed with his Weapon Focus Longsword (AB +6)

and his companion
Clr 2 (Str 14, Dex 12) with Scale and a Large Shield (AC 17), armed with a Heavy Mace (AB +3)

encounter an Ogre (Str 21, Dex 8, AC 16, AB +8)

The fighter can ditch both points of his base attack bonus to get to AC 19 and still have a 50% chance of hitting the ogre (Which ain't bad, because the ogre will only be hitting him 9 out of 20 times).

The cleric fighting defensively (which you can combine with an attack action) gets to the same AC 19, but has only a 20% chance of putting mace to Ogre backside.

Of course, this assumes that the cleric is not going to be able to call on his Patron for magical assistance. If he follows a battle-minded god, he might be able to call on things like Divine Favor, Magic Weapon or Guidance or Bless. Any of which will get him to a 40% chance of clonking ogre and some of them get him extra damage as well.

A protector god could grant him Protection from Evil or Shield of Faith, both of which crank his AC to 19 without having to fight defensively

Salvation122 wrote:

Dennis wrote:I'm not entirely sure what Divine Grace does, but Paladins do definitely have access to Lay-On Hands, it's wether they use it properly that it gets granted to them by their deity or not.

Divine Grace adds your Charisma modifier to all your saving throws and... to-hit rolls, maybe? Something else I don't remember.

Just saving throws.

Just a bit on hit points and healing in a campaign without many heal spells: Do it as a function of % of total hit points based around constitution or the healer's skill roll or something like that.

The simplest method is: Under the care of a healer, gain back Con% of your total HP per day with successful heal rolls. On a failed roll or with no healer but in good care, you only gain half that amount. Under crappy care or stressful conditions or whatever, gain (1/4*Con)% per day. In non-resting situations, no healing.

For ease of use, figure up these percentages ahead of time and have them on the character sheet.

An average human (Con 10) under adequate care will recover from a mortal wound in 10 days to 2 weeks. A stout fighter in hospital could recover from zero HP in a week. A team laying low and hiding in the swamp with their wounded comrade may have to wait weeks before he's ready to move again.

Dayamn, that Yaga boy is smart.

Cazmonster wrote:Dayamn, that Yaga boy is smart.

Thank you.

Otherwise, you wind up with mages and thieves always healing up before the big beefy fighters.

I started using something like this way back in first ed. I think the idea came out of a Dragon magazine.

For those that might be interested, we just finished making characters - or rather, everyone finished thinking of the concept and rolling most of the dice.

We have, in no particular order:

- Paladin of Lathander. Third son of a wealthy merchant prince who fled his home after his father died and his older brothers were out for his blood to increase their inheritance.

- Priestess of Torm. After living a life of absolute debauchery, this priestess finds herself staring into the eyes of an angel, sent by Torm to put her on the straight path. She has seen the light, and the angel expells the poisons she has been getting high on for years from her body. Her devotion is born, and she's trying to repent by repaying the Three Debts of Torm, while she goes on her way to Tantras, to visit the city where her God died and was reborn.

- Half-elven Bard. A wandering minstrel, filled with many little tidbits of information about many things. As far as the players are concerned, this is the one I have the least background information on.

- Human Bard. A woman who runs one of the two inns in Williamsborough with a knack for "entertainment." Eager to get out of the town they are in, and go out to make the stories she is so fond of telling to others of her own.

I can't say I'm very happy with the make up of the characters, but I'm never one to impose any restrictions like that.

Why? You were expecting the standard mage/fighter/thief/cleric combo?

Dennis wrote:- Paladin of Lathander. Third son of a wealthy merchant prince who fled his home after his father died and his older brothers were out for his blood to increase their inheritance.

A friend of mine spells this Lassander. Not that the clergy use a different pronunciation.

Dennis wrote:I can't say I'm very happy with the make up of the characters, but I'm never one to impose any restrictions like that.

I assume everyone created characters in isolation and then brought them to the table?

I love it when a team can come together to create characters so that they can complement each other and have some shared history. Unfortunately, I almost never have the opportunity to do this.

Bethyaga wrote:

Dennis wrote:I can't say I'm very happy with the make up of the characters, but I'm never one to impose any restrictions like that.

I assume everyone created characters in isolation and then brought them to the table?

Well, they came up with their ideas in isolation, and then brought it to the table for discussion. Initially, I was stuck with two clerics and two bards. Luckily, one switched his cleric over to a Paladin.

We'll see what happens, perhaps I'm overreacting.

So, uh, you will let us know when the "god squad" self-destructs in rampant debauchery and all the stuff on Nightsky's metaplane, right?

Go God Squad!

Just thought I'd toss in the pot that the forums at www.montecook.com are also pretty good for ideas, and the main site might have some things to help you out in general as well. I've been browsing it for the past few weeks and I must say that besides enworld.org, it's my fav d20 site.

Dennis wrote:

Bethyaga wrote:

Dennis wrote:I can't say I'm very happy with the make up of the characters, but I'm never one to impose any restrictions like that.

I assume everyone created characters in isolation and then brought them to the table?

Well, they came up with their ideas in isolation, and then brought it to the table for discussion. Initially, I was stuck with two clerics and two bards. Luckily, one switched his cleric over to a Paladin.

We'll see what happens, perhaps I'm overreacting.

Joor players understand 'Low Magic' right?

Cazmonster wonders at the paucity of Fighters and Rogues.

You more than likely have already read over this section but just in case...

The Life in Faerun section in the FRCS (p76-97) is extremely helpful particularly the section titled Magic in Society. It says that maybe one in a hundred or so people is a mage or sorcerer and it talks about commoners reaction towards magic. It would be easy enough if you wanted them to be even more rare to just heighten peoples reaction by a magnitude of how rare you really wanted it to be. They do imply that short of a temple cleric healing magic isn’t that common and most of the time the priest won’t heal you unless they feel it’s imperative that you be fully healed at that time. Factors affect this as well such as you following the same deity or not. If your deity opposes them it’s likely they’ll outright refuse to help you. But that’s pretty much common sense.

We never really got any further than the first two sessions when we were hit with a wave of absentees. I ended up rerunning the campaign about almost two years ago, with great success, and I am quickly approaching the climactic end of it. It did turn out to be a bit faster paced and more epic in the end, but the build-up was gradual and very controlled. I'm looking forward to playing something other than D&D soon.

Funnily enough I'm firing up the steam engines on my next D&D game!

I enjoyed rereading this, thanks!

We ended up stopping fairly soon before I rebooted the story with different characters about a year and a half later. It turned into an almost year-long campaign that is, to date, my most accomplished campaign. I was really happy with the pacing and the scaling of the story and I'm actually quite keen to do a sequel to it.

That must be nice. We were really getting a good gaming swing on, and then we let a new gamer into the group, and eventually let him GM, and now we don't roleplay at all. I've been thinking about starting a campaign of my own, but with everything else going on, I just don't know if I have the time and energy for it.

That's unfortunate. I have to admit I find it hard to find the time as well, but a lot of the brunt of the work is developing the concept, which I can do while on my way to work, ride an elevator and do other mundane things. What's left to do is a couple of hours of crunching and jotting things down, which, luckily, I can still find the time for.

Yeah, that's the part of development I'm terrible at, is the writing down of minutiae [and maxutiae, for that matter]. I'm also not particularly great at GMing, so it's frustrating to put a lot of work into something and then suck so bad at it. What I'd like to do is develop games for someone else to GM for me and my group.

Now that the weather has changed, and most of the trauma of the last year has settled, I think I'm finally feeling motivated to work on something again. And, of course, you always have a completely awesome campaign locked in stasis, just waiting to be picked-up again.