Hadoblado
think again losers
- Local time
- Tomorrow 7:20 AM
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2011
- Messages
- 6,614
Hello0!
I am writing to inform you, the gumptious aspiring adventurer that I’m not dead, and the campaign is coming along nicely. Now that I’m finally getting around to learning the roll20 system (far better than that fool RB), the remaining obstacles are few indeed!
Currently the list of players includes:
1) Myself
2) RB
3) Abs
4) Jenny
5) Cog
6) Cheese
7) Blarraun
I don't intend on inviting any more at this point in time, though I may be tempted to run the campaign in two different groups if interest is high. Probably not at the same time though.
It’s time to start talking character design, and more importantly, to relay some of the decisions and design goals I have set for this campaign. These are still up for debate, though now that they’re public knowledge I will be more conservative in reneging them, as I want to avoid confusion if at all possible.
First of all, you may share information about your characters among yourselves freely. You’re also allowed to lie (and are encouraged to depending on your prospective alignment). The main reason for sharing would be to have some semblance of a balanced party. While I won't forbid it, it might be more fun for you if you keep your identity unknown for now.
Secondly, we’re using slow experience progression tables. See: here
However, some classes will receive more experience than others from battle.
2x XP: Fighters, paladins, monks, gunslingers, barbarians, cavalier
1.5x XP: Bard, ranger, rogue, magus, inquisitor
Erryone else: 1x XP (full caster types).
There are several reasons for this. Rebalancing is a big deal. But also, I want to reimburse the non-casters and non-skill monkeys in some way, for some of the other changes I’m making.
Thirdly, itemisation will be dynamic, and equipment availability will be restricted.
Fourthly, fuck numbering let’s bullet-point this shit.
- You will be starting buck naked with no cash, in an unfamiliar place far from home. As such, interaction with backstory elements are less likely than normal. Backstories aren’t as required as in other campaigns, but are still highly recommended for character development. I’ll be giving out XP rewards for backstories varying from 0 to 300 XP.
- Starting stats will be 25 pointbuy. I can arrange to roll some stats for those inclined towards more organic character creation.
- You start with one trait chosen for you by the DM. I will eventually allow people to pick more traits, including some from a custom list that are potentially more powerful. I will also be making traits exchangeable at certain times based on accomplishment and opportunity (hence the liberty I take in assigning a starting trait). Think of it more as itemisation of one’s character and exploits.
- The trait I choose for you is ‘indeterminate destiny’, rendering your alignment unknowable by PC’s and NPC’s alike.
- Alignment will not be concreted until reaching level four, at which point there may be penalties for changing (DM’s discretion). If your class has alignment restrictions then you’ll still need to abide by them.
- Experience will be awarded for character development and particularly impressive plays. Creativity will be rewarded the first time.
- The following feats are disallowed: balanced summoning, superior summoning, leadership, (please run any potentially controversial character choices past me first, I don’t want to have to shape a campaign around controlling one OP character and his infinite fucking minions).
- The following classes are disallowed: summoner. nopenopenopenopenope
- Using paragon surge to tutor for the expanded arcana feat is disallowed.
- Third party content is disallowed, but may be available upon request. I won’t be pushed into making it available however. A lot of third party content is BS and players have no business feeling entitled to any of it.
- As character alignments and personalities may clash, it’s recommended that there be some system for resolving disputes that is agreed upon before-hand (I personally enjoy opposed charisma checks for dispute resolution). D&D is often more enjoyable if the party works as a cohesive unit rather than a bunch of people that don’t really have any reason to be working together. A DM can only do so much to promote friendly play, most limit alignments to ‘friendly’, but I don’t want to do that. I will seek to replicate the same forces that lend themselves to friendly interaction in the real world. Consequences will never be the same.
- If combat does happen, teamwork will be important. The difficulty will sometimes be very high. While I'm not against roleplaying petty grievances, you may have to put them aside every now and then to survive. Eventually, your party will have been through a lot together, and I expect a certain degree of (broth/sist)erhood from all but the snarkiest of cuntromancers.
- I’ll consider interesting race choices if they’re not too powerful. RP = <11. We can customise to bring down power levels if there’s something you really want that’s too powerful.
- I will allocate time for crafting/researching/retraining etc. between sessions when appropriate. This will all be handled outside of sessions (as well as shopping and leveling up), if you don’t bring your propositions to me early enough then you may miss out. I’m unfamiliar with all this nonsense so I need more time to prepare than you’d expect.
- I will require people to handle their character sheets outside of the session. Having alternative spell lists is also recommended.
- Prestige classing is possible, but you’ll need to indicate your intention well ahead of time so I can write in the appropriate circumstance of exposure.
- I’ll be trying to bring a range of styles to the campaign. I do value feedback on what elements people do/don’t enjoy so I can tailor the experience to the players. It will however be largely experimental at first.
- Campaign arc will prioritise giving freedom to the players/characters. I will need time to write new material if major deviations from the campaign core are intended. A DM that is always adjusting is less able to provide the best possible campaign material. Please don’t planeshift without prior warning!
- Character deaths are expected, but aren't necessarily ‘fatal’. Magic bitches!
- Some fights will be unwinnable at the time you encounter them. If I've done my job well there should be ample evidence that a fight is not going to work out in your favour at your current level. I’m not a fan of the entitlement people feel being able to best anything they ever meet. Characters are encouraged to do everything in their power to inform themselves on what fights are worth taking. I’m not looking to make this a series of scaling combat encounters.
- Saves and HP will be important. People that look comparatively wimpy (<14 Con) will be picked on by cunning opponents, with a high chance of fatality. HP is even more important than usual since...
- Total HP will equal to precisely half HD + mods. No favourable rounding. A 3rd level fighter gets 15HP + mods (half 3d10). This is less than normal, particularly at low levels. Enemies will also strictly abide by this rule. It's easier to calculate and makes for faster combat. I'd feel bad but 25 point buy is generous.
- This campaign will have combat, but a lot of it will be optional. Skills and savvy spell use will be paramount.
- There will be a *lot* of custom equipment, spells, and other nonsense. Part of the fun of DMing for me is designing new stuff and seeing how you handle it.
- I'm thinking of implementing an end of session mini-poll, every player fills it out and gets 5xp for every PC name they remember, 5xp for each law/chaos axis they guess correctly, and 5xp for every good/evil axis they guess correctly. Players will also get 5xp for each other player that guesses their alignment correctly. This is meant as some socially engineered immersion and roleplay incentive. Thoughts?
- Use this thread to discuss house rules, balance issues, and give feedback. This is the meta-discussion thread. I will make other threads for keeping the story updated, and possibly for other things.
- I'm currently looking into some of the more technical automation for the roll20 system. If successful, I will be trying to get as many of you as possible to comply with some specifications such as using the roll20 pathfinder charactersheet, which if done well will allow me to unify tokens, macros, and character sheets, saving buckets of time. RB says that I'm a right dickhead for trying to do this, as it's hella complicated, so it may not work out.
I still don't intend on starting for a while yet (a couple months maybe?). But since I'm bringing everything together atm, I may as well get you guys organised too. Until then my thesaurus will be positively afroth at the prospect of describing and facilitating your co-imagined exploits in the near future. Good day.
~ I'll be adding more to this thread as I think of it. I'm now open for dialogue concerning character creation
I am writing to inform you, the gumptious aspiring adventurer that I’m not dead, and the campaign is coming along nicely. Now that I’m finally getting around to learning the roll20 system (far better than that fool RB), the remaining obstacles are few indeed!
Currently the list of players includes:
1) Myself
2) RB
3) Abs
4) Jenny
5) Cog
6) Cheese
7) Blarraun
I don't intend on inviting any more at this point in time, though I may be tempted to run the campaign in two different groups if interest is high. Probably not at the same time though.
It’s time to start talking character design, and more importantly, to relay some of the decisions and design goals I have set for this campaign. These are still up for debate, though now that they’re public knowledge I will be more conservative in reneging them, as I want to avoid confusion if at all possible.
First of all, you may share information about your characters among yourselves freely. You’re also allowed to lie (and are encouraged to depending on your prospective alignment). The main reason for sharing would be to have some semblance of a balanced party. While I won't forbid it, it might be more fun for you if you keep your identity unknown for now.
Secondly, we’re using slow experience progression tables. See: here
However, some classes will receive more experience than others from battle.
2x XP: Fighters, paladins, monks, gunslingers, barbarians, cavalier
1.5x XP: Bard, ranger, rogue, magus, inquisitor
Erryone else: 1x XP (full caster types).
There are several reasons for this. Rebalancing is a big deal. But also, I want to reimburse the non-casters and non-skill monkeys in some way, for some of the other changes I’m making.
Thirdly, itemisation will be dynamic, and equipment availability will be restricted.
Fourthly, fuck numbering let’s bullet-point this shit.
- You will be starting buck naked with no cash, in an unfamiliar place far from home. As such, interaction with backstory elements are less likely than normal. Backstories aren’t as required as in other campaigns, but are still highly recommended for character development. I’ll be giving out XP rewards for backstories varying from 0 to 300 XP.
- Starting stats will be 25 pointbuy. I can arrange to roll some stats for those inclined towards more organic character creation.
- You start with one trait chosen for you by the DM. I will eventually allow people to pick more traits, including some from a custom list that are potentially more powerful. I will also be making traits exchangeable at certain times based on accomplishment and opportunity (hence the liberty I take in assigning a starting trait). Think of it more as itemisation of one’s character and exploits.
- The trait I choose for you is ‘indeterminate destiny’, rendering your alignment unknowable by PC’s and NPC’s alike.
- Alignment will not be concreted until reaching level four, at which point there may be penalties for changing (DM’s discretion). If your class has alignment restrictions then you’ll still need to abide by them.
- Experience will be awarded for character development and particularly impressive plays. Creativity will be rewarded the first time.
- The following feats are disallowed: balanced summoning, superior summoning, leadership, (please run any potentially controversial character choices past me first, I don’t want to have to shape a campaign around controlling one OP character and his infinite fucking minions).
- The following classes are disallowed: summoner. nopenopenopenopenope
- Using paragon surge to tutor for the expanded arcana feat is disallowed.
- Third party content is disallowed, but may be available upon request. I won’t be pushed into making it available however. A lot of third party content is BS and players have no business feeling entitled to any of it.
- As character alignments and personalities may clash, it’s recommended that there be some system for resolving disputes that is agreed upon before-hand (I personally enjoy opposed charisma checks for dispute resolution). D&D is often more enjoyable if the party works as a cohesive unit rather than a bunch of people that don’t really have any reason to be working together. A DM can only do so much to promote friendly play, most limit alignments to ‘friendly’, but I don’t want to do that. I will seek to replicate the same forces that lend themselves to friendly interaction in the real world. Consequences will never be the same.
- If combat does happen, teamwork will be important. The difficulty will sometimes be very high. While I'm not against roleplaying petty grievances, you may have to put them aside every now and then to survive. Eventually, your party will have been through a lot together, and I expect a certain degree of (broth/sist)erhood from all but the snarkiest of cuntromancers.
- I’ll consider interesting race choices if they’re not too powerful. RP = <11. We can customise to bring down power levels if there’s something you really want that’s too powerful.
- I will allocate time for crafting/researching/retraining etc. between sessions when appropriate. This will all be handled outside of sessions (as well as shopping and leveling up), if you don’t bring your propositions to me early enough then you may miss out. I’m unfamiliar with all this nonsense so I need more time to prepare than you’d expect.
- I will require people to handle their character sheets outside of the session. Having alternative spell lists is also recommended.
- Prestige classing is possible, but you’ll need to indicate your intention well ahead of time so I can write in the appropriate circumstance of exposure.
- I’ll be trying to bring a range of styles to the campaign. I do value feedback on what elements people do/don’t enjoy so I can tailor the experience to the players. It will however be largely experimental at first.
- Campaign arc will prioritise giving freedom to the players/characters. I will need time to write new material if major deviations from the campaign core are intended. A DM that is always adjusting is less able to provide the best possible campaign material. Please don’t planeshift without prior warning!
- Character deaths are expected, but aren't necessarily ‘fatal’. Magic bitches!
- Some fights will be unwinnable at the time you encounter them. If I've done my job well there should be ample evidence that a fight is not going to work out in your favour at your current level. I’m not a fan of the entitlement people feel being able to best anything they ever meet. Characters are encouraged to do everything in their power to inform themselves on what fights are worth taking. I’m not looking to make this a series of scaling combat encounters.
- Saves and HP will be important. People that look comparatively wimpy (<14 Con) will be picked on by cunning opponents, with a high chance of fatality. HP is even more important than usual since...
- Total HP will equal to precisely half HD + mods. No favourable rounding. A 3rd level fighter gets 15HP + mods (half 3d10). This is less than normal, particularly at low levels. Enemies will also strictly abide by this rule. It's easier to calculate and makes for faster combat. I'd feel bad but 25 point buy is generous.
- This campaign will have combat, but a lot of it will be optional. Skills and savvy spell use will be paramount.
- There will be a *lot* of custom equipment, spells, and other nonsense. Part of the fun of DMing for me is designing new stuff and seeing how you handle it.
- I'm thinking of implementing an end of session mini-poll, every player fills it out and gets 5xp for every PC name they remember, 5xp for each law/chaos axis they guess correctly, and 5xp for every good/evil axis they guess correctly. Players will also get 5xp for each other player that guesses their alignment correctly. This is meant as some socially engineered immersion and roleplay incentive. Thoughts?
- Use this thread to discuss house rules, balance issues, and give feedback. This is the meta-discussion thread. I will make other threads for keeping the story updated, and possibly for other things.
- I'm currently looking into some of the more technical automation for the roll20 system. If successful, I will be trying to get as many of you as possible to comply with some specifications such as using the roll20 pathfinder charactersheet, which if done well will allow me to unify tokens, macros, and character sheets, saving buckets of time. RB says that I'm a right dickhead for trying to do this, as it's hella complicated, so it may not work out.
I still don't intend on starting for a while yet (a couple months maybe?). But since I'm bringing everything together atm, I may as well get you guys organised too. Until then my thesaurus will be positively afroth at the prospect of describing and facilitating your co-imagined exploits in the near future. Good day.
~ I'll be adding more to this thread as I think of it. I'm now open for dialogue concerning character creation