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Mythology of the Table

Cognisant

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I think the best case I have for transitioning to an in-forum table is the story I've been yet unable to tell and even if the latest session went perfectly it would still take several sessions to tell on the roll20 tabletop.

Had my ISP not royally screwed me the party would have progressed through the dungeon until encountering the Guardians, these animated metal soldiers and their clockwork captain would have kicked your asses, taken you prisoner then disposed of you down a seemingly bottomless pit. Rather than dying you would have fallen into a underground lake rich in luminescent algae them swam to shore whereupon a small party of drow would race by laughing their asses off.

They weren't laughing at you, they'd just antagonised a goblin army by shooting fireworks into their camp (just because it was funny) and now by their recommendation you're running after them because assumedly wherever they're going is relatively safe. The drow pranksters lead you to the drow citadel (needs a name) which is a city carved into a mountain like column in the centre of a massive underground chamber, lit from below by lakes of luminescent algae with long mines-of-moria like stone bridges leading to it.

There's a picture of it I made, I'll upload it when I can.

So that's the end of that session, the Guardians were created by an alliance of four elder races in the ages before mankind when they sealed the primordial daemon lords (the original horsemen of the apocalypse, their thrones and titles since having been claimed by lessor daemons) the Guardians who threw you down the pit were specifically guarding the prison of Horeksim, the primordial daemon of war, the one who appeared before you as an apparition in the town's sewer/dungeon.

Horeksim was never defeated, indeed as the creator of the very concept of war it's arguable that defeating him by warfare would only make him more powerful, instead with both divine and infernal help (daemons aren't loyal as such) the four elder races tricked him and sealed him in a pocket dimension inside which time has been halted, yet he was still able to contact you through the scrying pool, he's just that powerful.

The Guardians themselves are constructs that create more constructs by enslaving spellcasters and ritualistically murdering people to create soulbound constructs (which are like a different species, but still bound by to the same cause) the eldest are mithril/adamantium masterwork golems made by the four races with combined divine/infernal help (the war to seal the primordial daemons is the reason why these metals are so rare) who being bound only to the duty of preventing the apocalypse were the ones who created the first simple golems, poor imitations of themselves.

The practice of using spellcasters to make new constructs is a fairly recent innovation in their tactics but a game changing one because with their help the Guardians are developing more sophisticated constructs including clockworks, the soulbound and various kinds of undead, there's even plans for artificial life being developed as an extreme final solution.

Anyway getting back to the drow citadel the leaders of that place are really interesting too, in drow society if a child is born weak, sickly or worst of all crippled the kindest thing the mother can do is kill it, unfortunately this poor child was born bind, deaf and to a poor family that needed the money. She could have been raised to be a helpless prostitute but her misfortune was even greater than that, she ended up in the demented hands of a fleshwarper, they're kind of like alchemists but really really fucking crazy, they craft monsters out of people for the sake of monstrosity itself.

The process is long, painful and indescribably horrific but she survived to become a runt of a drider, still blind and deaf, despite that a drider no matter how meek has value so she was bought and used like as guard dog for a merchants storehouse, her new arachnid heritage benefited her in this enabling her to weave ensnaring webs and capture would-be thieves alive, for this fact alone she turned out to be a good investment. Finally good fortune visited her in the form of a soulbound doll, a scout from the relatively nearby Guardian stronghold, by pretending to be a normal doll it had been picked up by an unsuspecting drow and sold to the merchant who owned this storehouse, a typical infiltration tactic for these things.

That night it set out to continue scouting and almost immediately flew into one of the drider girl's webs, stuck fast, and with nothing else it could do it tried negotiating with her, telepathically, after all these things don't exactly have vocal cords. Now the loss of one's eyesight or hearing can result in a greater reliance on one's other senses, for a girl that never had either she learned to compensate with a strong but primitive empathic ability, she could sense her owner's emotions without his consent, indeed not just his. By chance the Guardian scout found itself the tutor of an incredibly powerful psyonic, one that had the ability to read people's minds with or without their consent, even to delve into their memories and like a spider on a web her presence was never felt.

A mind that knew nothing but suffering & subservience blossomed into sentience, learning by the memories of all who passed within her considerable psyonic range and she soon found a kindred, a tiefling gladiator it the city's arena. Seen as nothing more than an aberration he was raised to fight, to kill, to survive, even amongst gladiators this boy was shunned for fear that his fiendish taint would bring them back luck, not to mention the normal xenophobia of someone who looks different.

So raised in the complete absence of kindness he fought, he killed and he thought nothing of it, he didn't even fight for the crowd his unusual appearance and effectiveness made him notable and in time a celebrity, the demon of the arena, the monster that just won't die. His detached, almost mindless way of fighting drew her to him instinctively (arachnid instincts) and the excitement of watching him was burned into the memories of so many, so with her mind she reached out to him and then they turned that city upside down.

You may have heard rumours of drow worshipping a drider or of a city where tieflings are accepted and without a doubt the citadel is the source, they rule it now, drow are notorious for scheming against their superiors but who could possibly out-scheme the (alleged) goddess of fate and even if you could who would be crazy enough to challenge her dual vorpal whip wielding tiefling magnus bodyguard and his regiment of arena champions?

Interestingly they never took revenge, he's too zen to bother with malice or grudges (dude doesn't even speak, if she's the goddess of fate he's the instrument of it) and she is regarded by the fleshwarper that made her as his unintentional magnum opus, he loves her like a daughter (in his twisted way) and she cares for him in kind, even lets him continue with his experiments, perhaps the citadel is so welcoming of monsters because it's ruled by the epitome of monstrosity?

The soulbound doll remains a member of her court and the Guardians maintain a church/embassy/thing in her city, they trade for slaves and serve as auxiliaries to the city guard (having slavers in your judicial system does wonders for preventing crime) they even help with waste disposal and accounting (having slavers in your tax system does wonders for rectifying tax evasion).

The merchant is an Obitu, used to pretend he was an awakened lich or an animated skeleton owned by the shop's true owner, now he doesn't have to and his shop has changed from selling typical drow crap to wildly esoteric crap because a lot of the rouges that can't steal stuff anymore (for drow it's a hobby) have taken appraising and collecting certain things, the treasure hunter's itch I suppose.

As you can see I daydream a lot and I like to write :D
 

Cognisant

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If we did an in forum game there could be a lot less killing stuff and a lot more talking and exposition, thus yielding a deeper more interesting world with NPCs that are more than walking shields wearing loot and filled with experience points.

Also if it's in-inform being overwhelmed won't be an issue for me so we can bump it up to high fantasy ability scores and everyone up to something crazy like level eight, the game would go from dungeon adventuring (picking coppers of corpses) to leading armies, engaging in political debates, making hard choices about the fate of the world and armadas of airships battling in the skies.
 

Absurdity

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Also if it's in-inform being overwhelmed won't be an issue for me so we can bump it up to high fantasy ability scores and everyone up to something crazy like level eight, the game would go from dungeon adventuring (picking coppers of corpses) to leading armies, engaging in political debates, making hard choices about the fate of the world and armadas of airships battling in the skies.

I like it.

Wouldn't mind doing it this way if we were able to sort out all the mechanics.
 

Cognisant

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Btw can I get some help naming my characters?

Everything I come up with is painfully trite.
 

redbaron

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If we're going high fantasy I'm re-rolling my character to a Fighter. I'll try some names soon.

Sounds really awesome by the way!
 

Jennywocky

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I'm game if you can work out the mechanics, since I can do more roleplaying. That's the unfortunate aspect of the roll20 format at low levels -- things tend to just devolve into goblin-smacking. So I take it that we'll still have our sheets and normal gear and powers and stuff at a higher level, but we'll be able to talk more about it as a story rather than as a game mechanics thing, and you'll mediate what happens?

But I don't really want to know all the secrets. Isn't part of the fun uncovering it all ourselves?

I think the 20-point spread we were using is "high fantasy". Epic fantasy is 25 point start.
 

Ex-User (9086)

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Btw can I get some help naming my characters?

Everything I come up with is painfully trite.
How many characters do you need to name? Any theme/Earthly corresponding simile?

Do we stick with normal mechanics on this play by post or do we storytell?

I can take care of the rolls and mechanics during the play by post, if we decide to make one person to roll everything.

I can help in creating the character sheets for everyone interested, if we decide to dump our previous characters.

I am also inclined create my own play by post campaign if Cog decides he wants a break and play with others too.
 

Cognisant

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But I don't really want to know all the secrets. Isn't part of the fun uncovering it all ourselves?
What happened to the drider girl's family? Why dosen't the tiefling ex-gladiator speak and what exactly is their relationship? What exactly is the Obitu merchant selling? What is the fleshwarper currently working on? What exactly are the guardians playing at with this church/embassy thing?

Worldbuilding snowballs, the more exposition I give the more there is to discover.

How many characters do you need to name? Any theme/Earthly corresponding simile?
Just the ones in the OP, I felt they deserve more.

Do we stick with normal mechanics on this play by post or do we storytell?
Follow the link and look in the spoilers, they were actually playing the game.

I am also inclined create my own play by post campaign if Cog decides he wants a break and play with others too.
I'm very keen to be a player, we could even DM parallel campaigns so nobody misses out.
 

redbaron

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I'd be keen to DM a game too :)
 

Cognisant

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Can I play a living weapon?

I mean there's rules for intelligent items, more powerful ones can talk and cast spells, they even have HP, of course as an inanimate object I won't be able to move by myself unless I can dominate my weilder for that turn (or take the summoner class and have my eidolon carry me) and I won't exactly be partaking in any loot we acquire, unless perhaps I could pay blacksmiths to reforge/refine me or an enchanter to change/add spells.
 

Cognisant

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Level one iron dagger laying on a table, someone comments on what a crap weapon it is.
"You wanna get shived cunt? Yeah, bring it!"
The owner gets beaten to a pulp while trying to say it was the dagger that said it.

Level fifteen claymore placed before a bewildered blacksmith by a construct.
"Hey turn me into a cannon, bitches love cannons."

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
The helm.
 

redbaron

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Why can't you just be a normal person?

=(
 

Cognisant

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Story of my life.

If you're not up for it redbaron that's fine, Blarraun might be but if he isn't I'll accept that too, I'm practically asking the DM to come up with a new race just for me and I know that's a lot to ask for.
 

redbaron

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There's like 45 races to choose from dude.

But if you really have your heart set on it I can make some rules up for some kind of robot race if you like? (=

Give me a day to flesh out some ideas and special rules and I'll get back to you. So you basically want to be a sentient weapon? Something like Drach'nyen from WH40K lore? (though obviously less powerful to begin with).
 

Cognisant

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There's androids but they're kinda OP.
 

redbaron

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Feel free to be one, difficulty can be tweaked accordingly.
 

Jennywocky

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Level one iron dagger laying on a table, someone comments on what a crap weapon it is.
"You wanna get shived cunt? Yeah, bring it!"
The owner gets beaten to a pulp while trying to say it was the dagger that said it.

Yeah, I always loved the idea of a bitch-slapping cuntmouth puny dagger+1 that lived to get its owner in as much trouble as possible -- kind of a foul-mouthed Bill Paxton persona.

The helm.

So really, the knight itself was saying nothing -- it was the helm that instigated the entire sordid mess.
 

redbaron

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Anyway I looked at the android for playable race. Not all that OP - feel free to roll as one. I think rather than you being a sentient weapon I could introduce them? Just ballparking.
 

Cognisant

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So really, the knight itself was saying nothing -- it was the helm that instigated the entire sordid mess.
And controlling it, I figure that's a intelligent weapon's primary ability, it would probably have to use them as a conduit for spell casting but would have to make a wisdom check every round to both control the wielder and (if it fails that) to remain in the wielder's hands, unless the wielder is consenting, except there's little reason why the wielder would be consenting since the same economy of actions per turn still applies, an intelligent weapon could cast a wizard's spells with the hands of a barbarian but for that round the barbarian can't do anything.

Anyway I looked at the android for playable race. Not all that OP - feel free to roll as one.]
As much as it would suit me I think I'll have to go with a goblin bard or something.
 

Ex-User (9086)

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Can I play a living weapon?

I mean there's rules for intelligent items, more powerful ones can talk and cast spells, they even have HP, of course as an inanimate object I won't be able to move by myself unless I can dominate my weilder for that turn (or take the summoner class and have my eidolon carry me) and I won't exactly be partaking in any loot we acquire, unless perhaps I could pay blacksmiths to reforge/refine me or an enchanter to change/add spells.
I am fine with it and playing a sentient construct would be accepted. I'd like to note that my session will/would be in D&D 3.5/D20 (or my author system [which has no classes]) as I find these systems less restrictive.

There are general rules for creating your custom races and classes in DnD, also there are index races many races in accepted DnD rulebooks. I'd say more than 200 races to choose from.

Does it mean that campaign we had is/was dumped?
 

redbaron

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Okay well make up a character sheet! Level 1 start, 20 point roll. I'll make a new thread actually.
 

Jennywocky

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And see, children, this is why you never let a fucking ENTP run a gaming campaign... because they get too bored by the limitations of whatever you're doing Right At This Very Moment.

:D
 

Cognisant

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Does it mean that campaign we had is/was dumped?
I'd say so, unless we really want to continue it here.

The characters can be recycled and I'd still use the setting again but I'm not keen to go back to roll20.net after all the technical issues we've had.

There are general rules for creating your custom races and classes in DnD
I'll look into it.
 

Cognisant

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Just for the sake of conjecture this is what I've got for the Pathfinder system.

A weapon's hardness is roughly equivalent to a character's AC (I imagine being sheathed would confer a bonus) and weapons have HP but typically a lot less than a PC would normally have, however most enemies wouldn't know to attack the weapon, unless they saw it possessing an ally and met a requisite perception/wisdom check (perception to tell the person is possessed, wisdom to realise that the possessor is the weapon) and a broken weapon won't bleed to death, it just remains unconscious until repaired or destroyed completely.

So a weapon's HP & AC may be less than normal but it can usually get away with it.

Ability scores such as strength, dexterity, constitution and charisma would be directly conferred to the wielder while the weapon is in control (doesn't stack) however the weapon wouldn't be able to use the host's special abilities, if it possessed something that was flying and the weapon didn't have the requisite points in the fly skill the host would fall out of the sky, nor could it make a wizard cast a spell the weapon itself doesn't know, even the effectiveness of spells it can cast (using the host as a conduit) are determined by its INT/CHA/WIS not the host's.

INT/CHA/WIS function as normal, the weapon doesn't take over the host's senses or read its mind (though they can communicate telepathically while in contact) so the weapon doesn't benefit from a goblin's darkvision, can't use the host's intelligence in skill checks or their charisma in bluff/diplomacy checks and certainly not their own wisdom to dominate them, of however the host is being attacked mentally by an enemy the weapon gets its own crack at resisting it, effectively overwriting the enemy's mind control with its own.

All in all a weapon isn't that different from a normal character, it just has a persistent circumstance bonus of being mistaken for a normal inanimate object.

As for being reforged, upgraded and enchanted the prices are the same as anyone else would have to pay, even being reforged into a different kind of weapon costs the same as that weapon would normally cost to buy outright.
 

Jennywocky

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I was reading the AD&D races and found this:
Asherati
(dessert-adapted
humanoids) (Sand p37)

Does this mean I can live off bon-bons and eclaires and bear-claw pastries and large upside down pineapple cakes and snozberry muffins?
 

redbaron

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Okay well I have some indispitably cool ideas regarding sentient weaponry. Shall I make a thread for you to sign up for a campaign that I'll GM?
 

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This is prolific, soon there will be 3 campaigns, I'll make a thread too. Before that I'll focus on DF thread.

I was reading the AD&D races and found this:


Does this mean I can live off bon-bons and eclaires and bear-claw pastries and large upside down pineapple cakes and snozberry muffins?
It's said in 3.5 that they need 1/4 humanoid daily amount of water, if that's what you mean. And they can glow too ;).
 

Cognisant

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Definitely.

I don't want to be powerful rather I want something that gives me the freedom to play the loon insofar as other people allow me to, I.e. if I really misbehave someone can stuff me in a sheath and once they take their hands off me I'm trapped and there's nothing I can do about it.

This is prolific, soon there will be 3 campaigns
I'm taking a break from DMing for at least a week, I've got some stuff going on.
 

Jennywocky

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Yeah, I think I'm just down with one of the campaigns. I don't have the time to commit to three different campaigns that aren't even really planned out at this point; I'm trying to write a book, you know. :D
 

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Yeah, I think I'm just down with one of the campaigns. I don't have the time to commit to three different campaigns that aren't even really planned out at this point; I'm trying to write a book, you know. :D
I agree, we should agree on some order here. We will either suffer the lack of players/commitment, or lack of commited GM's if we don't.
 

Cognisant

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We could have the one campaign with multiple DMs.
 

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We could have the one campaign with multiple DMs.
One campaign and any player characters controlled by the current GM would become NPC following the team and performing usual combat (minimal roleplaying) support at that time.
 

redbaron

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I was kind of under the impession Cog's campaign was on hiatus until the end of this month. Plus I wasn't necessarily expecting the same group - there's others that I think wanted to participate too?

In any case I'm not in any real rush to set mine up. More planning time would give me a chance to scout out which VTT would be best to use. Roll20 is ludicrously resource heavy.
 

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I was kind of under the impession Cog's campaign was on hiatus until the end of this month. Plus I wasn't necessarily expecting the same group - there's others that I think wanted to participate too?

In any case I'm not in any real rush to set mine up. More planning time would give me a chance to scout out which VTT would be best to use. Roll20 is ludicrously resource heavy.
The seed has been planted. Right, there may be many variations of many, we'll see what unfolds. I need to think whether I can do it in non-native English or whether it should be text only.

May be relevant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_conferencing_software
 

redbaron

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Your English is pretty damn good to be honest. I'd be happy to do a joint one where we work together on design though. That way if we both know what's going on it's less strain. Personally I think with a big group 2 GM's is almost a necessity.

I'd be happy to take care of combat encounters too. I have character sheets for all sorts of enemies. So there's a wealth of different enemies with varied tactics and skills...not that I'd pull a "Tucker's Kobolds" on anyone...:phear:
 

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Your English is pretty damn good to be honest. I'd be happy to do a joint one where we work together on design though. That way if we both know what's going on it's less strain. Personally I think with a big group 2 GM's is almost a necessity.

I'd be happy to take care of combat encounters too. I have character sheets for all sorts of enemies. So there's a wealth of different enemies with varied tactics and skills...not that I'd pull a "Tucker's Kobolds" on anyone...:phear:
I want to do a mind control scenario here :twisteddevil:.
I would ask for your support in mechanics/combat-keeping as soon as there is detail. That would potentially involve familiarizing yourself with the relevant resources I would send you.
 

redbaron

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Not a problem. I'm familiar with everything to do with melee just about. Spellcasters bore me but obviously I'd take the effort to learn more about them :p

Mind control sounds fun (for the GM's anyway). What's your take on a mostly combat PC controlled by the GM's? I wouldn't mind putting one in there. Especially since if I make an encounter too hard I can pseudo-nerf it on the fly by using it as a meatshield. Heh.
 

Cognisant

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So just to summarize you're talking about a D&D campaign with two GMs, Blarraun runs the world and Redbaron manages combat/npc-interaction, on a VTT not in-forum.
 

redbaron

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Basically yeah. I do prefer Pathfinder though.
 

Cognisant

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Is the artifact race still a go or am I going with goblin bard?
 

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Basically yeah. I do prefer Pathfinder though.
You'll have more to choose from in D&D, including classes, mechanics and my toolset will be greater.

The other thing I consider is my own mechanics, which is attribute / skill based, without divisions on classes, much like morrowind.

The 3 basic aspects of a person are:
Body, which connects to the health, agility and perception
Mind, which connects to perception, intelligence and wisdom
Spirit, which connects to health, charisma and wisdom. (Spirit loosely translates to Willpower)

Furthermore, increasing one stat, gives increases in other areas and the development is fluid, where experience is assigned as you perform the actions, not as you choose after doing different things for a given amount of time.

For example, in a standard system a character would complete a quest, talking, persuading, trading, fighting, thinking, problem solving, then it would gain enough points to advance and be able to spend new points on totally unrelated things. Mage could become a warrior after never picking up a sword once in its life, etc.

In my system, if you observe others performing certain tasks, you learn, depending on your learning capacity. If you perform and fail, you improve, if you perform and succeed you improve differently, therefore, you are what you do, you can call yourself a warrior if what you do is fighting, because these areas will be developing for you, but if you were to start dabbling in magic, reading grimoires, listen to the mentor, you would start increasing your mind/magic related stats.

In my combat mechanics, I am focused on the realism. There is no increasing health pool, there are physical limits to what you can train and increase.

If you take a hit, all your attributes suffer due to pain, morale and wounds. If you fight for a few minutes, you lose tempo, exhaustion kicks in, short breath, fumbles, stress etc.

Combat is really short, if you are inexperienced, it takes one or two serious hits and you lose consciousness or flee in panic, humans are fragile and it's serious business.

It is incomplete, but hosting a campaign could be enough to prepare a sufficient version.

Is the artifact race still a go or am I going with goblin bard?
Tell me the details and I can start working on translating what you need into DnD/My system, or at least including it in my plans.
 

redbaron

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Okay Cog, tell me what you think of this. These are the conditions I think we could make an artifact work under:

- you're a bound sentient essence (you get to choose why you were bound)
- as you were formerly a sentient being, you have a particular purpose (your choice)
- you may choose your alignment
- you cannot directly move
- you can influence your wielder by choosing to make them aware of your sentience, or by making subtle suggestions. For example if you're the bound essence of an ancient Dragonslayer, you may find yourself in the clutches of a sufficiently powerful warrior. You may then potentially elect to encourage him to seek out these foes. Or if you see your wielder as unworthy, you may encourage him discretely to pass you on in some way. This also would potentially alert him or make suspicious to your sentience by the way)
- you may take a variety of forms that relate to the material you're made of. You could be a steel sword one moment, and a battleaxe the next. This means that you could tailor your form to the weapon proficiencies of your user. You can be other, more generic steel objects too. They must be of similar size and your metamorph time would be determined similar to how the "Craft" skill works.
- you could potentially provide unique buffs to your wielder that they may willingly or unwillingly submit to. E.g. if they are aware they may allow you to give them greater endurance to make a forced march without tiring for 24hours. But then they would run the risk of collapse the next day (Fortitude Save)

Can get creative here, but those are roughly the limits that would make the concept manageable with some flexibility.

~

Ah to be honest Blarraun I'm not all that enthused to learn a new system. I want something that has easily indexed references ready to go, so that I can spend the great majority of my time making things challenging with limited tools.

Example I have one template for a standard goblin enemy. Each can wield a spear, bow or sword. So from pretty much any range they pose a threat. You can be fighting a big Orc in front of you, and suddenly the goblin behind him makes a concealed thrust with a spear using the larger Orc's frame to hide the maneuver. If they make a sufficient bluff check against your perception check, they get to make an attack roll against your flat footed AC instead of total AC.

Also, each of the enemies would have an initiative roll too (they're meant to). So realistically you'd have a mish-mash of party members and enemies attacking at once. The way we did it was a bit silly since every PC attacked before enemies. So after a full round they all basically got smashed and could barely retaliate. Universal initiative rolls give combat much more flow and realism just within the easy-to-use PF template.

There'll be a lot more enemies trying to trip or disarm people. So maybe in one fight a party member makes a charge to defend the wizard who just got tripped over. In return the wizard might cast some mage armor on him next fight. Plus the party might decide to approach fights with more caution to avoid being split up or put at a tactical disadvantage.

Anyway that's the idea I had in mind. So I'll probably set up my campaign around that kind of combat. This is really the kind of thing that I think embodies fun and engaging RPG combat - enemies who fight like real, intelligent beings.

Later down the track I might consider it, but I think I have my hands full just understanding the one system to learn another one :p
 
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Cognisant

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Okay Cog, tell me what you think of this.
It's too passive, if I can only make suggestions and cast buffs I've just an overly complicated magical item, and the shape changing probably takes a few hours or a day which means it's utterly useless too.

What I'm thinking of is something more like a cursed weapon or Jim Carrey's "The Mask", to that end I should at least be able to stick to someone or make their hand tightly grip me against their will, a step up from that being the ability to control their arm so I can stab my host or make them throw me, ideally into the next person.

I don't want to be just a weapon in another PCs hands, sure if they want to use me that's fine, if they stick me in a sheath I'm effectively imprisoned, I'm still happy to provide buffs or even healing but it should be a deal with the devil, you pick me up, I help you, but I decide when you get to put me down so every time you go to pull me from my sheath you remember this: I'm a double edged sword.

Arguably that's too powerful however I'm never more than one bad roll away from ending up on the floor, or thrown down a well, or dropped into the ocean, engulfed by lava, or stolen and fenced to a wizard that wants to dissect me.
 

Jennywocky

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Yeah I thnk this is the big problem with playing an item -- unless you implement some rules/abilities that allow you to exert some control, you're kind of at the mercy of any other character to move about and do things.
 

Cognisant

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I think a little mind control isn't too game breaking, if I'm a dagger I can only do 1d4 damage per round and that's assuming I manage beat my wielder in two consecutive wisdom challenges, three if I want to take over the whole body and attempt a coup de grace which would also require its own roll and if I roll 1 on the first dominate attempt I'm on the floor, that's a 5% chance to be completely disabled every single time I try to do anything.

Surely that's more than enough to compensate for hardness 10 and 2 measly HP.
 

redbaron

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Sorry I probably didn't explain that fully. I'm okay with a cursed item, but you must have a set purpose in that case. Curses generally have specific sort of criteria.

So if you want to take control of someone entirely that's fine. It's more that doing it against their will would entail certain drawbacks, is more what I mean. But if you managed to find some sort of mutually beneficial relationship, then maybe you'd get some more generosity. Maybe your wieldee decided to embed you with Adamantine for example because you're a particularly useful weapon or something. Get what I mean? I'm actually trying to give you more control if you put in the effort, because of the fact you can be easily discarded or broken.

Btw I meant that it would be, "like" crafting, not necessarily bound by all of its limitations.

Oh and stop worrying about being overpowered. Believe me, you don't need to worry about it.
 

Cognisant

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Sorry I probably didn't explain that fully. I'm okay with a cursed item, but you must have a set purpose in that case. Curses generally have specific sort of criteria.
PM'ed

So if you want to take control of someone entirely that's fine. It's more that doing it against their will would entail certain drawbacks, is more what I mean.
That's fine, it shouldn't be too easy but still easy enough so I'm not stuck rolling every round hoping for a lucky break, having separate rolls for the hand, the arm and the body with an increasingly higher DC should suffice, I should be able to dominate weak willed creatures and be completely helpless in the hands of the mentally strong.

But if you managed to find some sort of mutually beneficial relationship, then maybe you'd get some more generosity. Maybe your wielder decided to embed you with Adamantine for example because you're a particularly useful weapon or something. Get what I mean?
Can I heal? :D
That gives people a reason to touch me and a good reason to keep me around but as I said it's easy to pick me up but hard to put me down.

Save the adamantium for when I'm a high enough level to afford it, at low levels I should be forced to keep my nature a secret from my enemies as much as possible, holding back on making someone slit their own throat until I'm sure nobody else will see.

I'm actually trying to give you more control if you put in the effort, because of the fact you can be easily discarded or broken.
I'm not going to attack the other PCs (well I won't kill them) and loot is meaningless to me, unless I can pay blacksmiths to reforge me into different weapons or with stronger materials.

Btw I meant that it would be, "like" crafting, not necessarily bound by all of its limitations.
It's cool but an illusion spell that merely makes me look like a different weapon would suffice for my purposes.
 

Cognisant

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Oh and stop worrying about being overpowered. Believe me, you don't need to worry about it.
As long as the other players can't stuff me in a sack without fearing the repercussions.

I can wait :twisteddevil:
 

Kuu

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I think the best case I have for transitioning to an in-forum table is the story I've been yet unable to tell and even if the latest session went perfectly it would still take several sessions to tell on the roll20 tabletop.

Had my ISP not royally screwed me the party would have progressed through the dungeon until encountering the MASSIVE SPOILERS

That sounded like an interesting setting. Too bad you utterly ruined us the pleasure of discovering it. Posting that was absolutely unnecessary but it's too late now. I think you really need to ponder on "the story I've been yet unable to tell". Being a DM is not being a writer. If we want to read a novel we'll read one. RPG is having fun crafting a story together. I think the players craft the story much more than the DM. The DM has to put his ego to the side and make the player's choices mesh with the overall world, generating unforseen threads and twists and challenges.

Trying to make your extremely elaborate story on one sitting, and the forcing the players through it will lead to frustration for all. You will be frustrated because players aren't getting where you want them, doing things that are not relevant to your story. Players will get frustrated for being scripted and getting negged for no good reason.

What if the party decided to crawl out of the dungeon and do something else instead, and the whole Drow underworld is never explored?

What would become of the besieged city aboveground and the war and Mr. Whatshisname and Lord Cantbebothered and the mystery wizard?

What if the characters found a way to go out of the city? In the first session you categorically forbid us to go up the walls, saying it wouldn't be possible. Instead, you could have let us tried futilely and get in a fight with guards or landed in prison or something, or had a NPC character attempt to disuade us, so we took the hint... but through engaging, in-character dialogue.

If you wanted us in the drow city since the beginning, it would have been easier for us to be captured and taken there, or the dungeon floor collapsing and dumping us into the lake; skipping the whole tavern / town / dungeon and getting to the good stuff, finding ourselves in medias res.

Let the players try to do what they want to do (even if it is dumb, futile, or suicidal), and the dice will decide the success. Everyone is engaged, and mechanics mishaps will be forgotten because everyone was having fun.

Also, the whole oozes battle was terribly immersion breaking when I mentioned the guards that were supposedly coming with us, and you just brought them in without saying anything other than "...oh yeah"; could have said they were just lagging behind, exploring another part of the dungeon, etc., their entrance into the battle could have been dramatic, showing up just in time to save us... Then, having them all suddenly be dragged to the depths was, at least on a practical level, useful to move us forward, but the way it was executed was extremely poor. It came across as "DM is over his head, so encounter randomly and conveniently ended" instead of "Cursed oozes, we battled them in a frenzy but they managed to kill most of the guards. Then they lunged at us savagely and dragged the remaining ones deep into the pool, their bloody entrails smeared across the floor, desperately thrashing and screaming in the water, until the bubbles stopped and the pool returned to an eerie calm". Then legends would be woven by the townspeople about the guards' restless spirits haunting the tavern basement for generations...

If we did an in forum game there could be a lot less killing stuff and a lot more talking and exposition, thus yielding a deeper more interesting world with NPCs that are more than walking shields wearing loot and filled with experience points.

Please no exposition. What we need is roleplay.

I don't see why "a deeper more interesting world" can't happen in the current setup.
I don't see anything wrong with killing stuff, combat is roleplay too. What is lacking is a reason for our characters to do so.

Btw can I get some help naming my characters?

Everything I come up with is painfully trite.

How about

And see, children, this is why you never let a fucking ENTP run a gaming campaign...

QFT

I, for one, would prefer to stick to what we're doing and just work out the kinks of the way, instead of dump all the effort and start something else from scratch, which will probably also be dumped... Goddamn NTP give up if not instant success attitude.


And for the love of great Cthulhu, can't you people keep to one or two threads?
 
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