The Campaign Builder's Guild

Really cool, I like your feats.

So it's been about two years since I posted this, and I finally got around to playing this campaign with friends. It went over very well, especially considering none of us have played for over three years and two players were completely new.

The Player Characters:

Half-Elf Sorcerer
[spoiler]More human then elf but with some elfin qualities (skinny and light, eyes shine slightly in the dark). The player really took advantage of the flaw system in Unearthed Arcana, so he has four flaws: Bloodthirst (has some vampire ancestry), Compulsive Gambler, Compulsive Killer and is Bipolar. Each flaw grants a feat. Normally its recommended that you only allow a PC one feat no matter how many flaws they have, but we worked out that his flaws were crippling enough that i'd let him take a feat for each one, especially because his ability scores are just average. He used the bonus feats to gain proficiency and specialize in bows, and is headed towards the arcane archer prestige class. Since he uses archery for offense, he can focus his spellcasting on utility. Also has a toad familiar with multiple personality disorder. Chaotic Nuetral, really walks a line. Means well but is very disturbed.[/spoiler]

Human Fighter
[spoiler] Played by a friend of mine new to the game but very excited about it. He's drawn character portraits and has an elaborate backstory. His strength and consitution are very high, so he's a melee oriented character with a ton of hitpoints. Basically a generic fighter, but he really brings out his character's flaws and personality. His character is a withdrawn and haunted ex-soldier who never wanted to fight in the first place, and ended up watching his best friends get slaughtered by orcs in a meaningless skirmish. His character HATES orcs with a burning passion, but so does pretty much everyone else. But he also hates half-orcs or anybody with orc blood, putting him at odds with certain NPCs throughout the game. Nuetral Good.[/spoiler]

Elf Ranger
[spoiler]A pretty generic elf ranger with average ability scores. It seems like the player has bad luck 'cause he rolled four critical failures in 3 hours of playing, amounting in a snapped bow, a tumble off a cliff, shooting another PC in the back and almost drowning in a puddle. Its alot of fun making up critical failures, and we all laugh about it. The player's really easygoing and just has fun playing with everybody else. He also has a good survival skill, very useful in a desert wasteland campaign. Chaotic Good.[/spoiler]

Halfling Ninja
[spoiler]This character is played by a good friend of mine who is pretty experienced with the game. His character is very well made, and he got very lucky rolls for his ability scores. A 20 for Dexterity, and a +2 racial bonus for halflings give him a +6 dexterity bonus. Intelligence is his second best score at an 18, giving him alot of skill points. He has a +10 in important skills for his class, like move silently, hide, tumble, disable device, etc. Despite the fact that his character is noticeably more powerful then the others, he's not a powergamer at all, and is more of an explorer/actor type player. True Nuetral.[/spoiler]


The campaign starts with the PCs traveling south through the desert with the explorer Zakk Mardon, who hired them as bodyguards. None of the PCs know eachother. After two weeks of traveling, the PCs awaken in the middle of the night to a wrecked campsite and footprints leading away into the desert. Zakk is missing, and the fighter finds some hair that he recognizes as orc hair. The ranger tracks the footprints through the desert to a rocky outcropping. They see a campfire and camp between some boulders. The ninja and ranger approach stealthily, the ninja climbs easily climbs up one of the boulders and gets a view of the camp. The sorcerer uses the message spell to ask how many there are.

There are eight orcs in the camp, seven with spears and axes, and one with a heavy crossbow sitting watch outside the camp. Zakk is tied, stripped and bloody, to a pole by the fire. The ranger tries to shoot the sentry with the crossbow, but rolls a 1. His bow snaps. The fighter, a full twenty feet back, says he wants to toss his own crossbow to the ranger. I tell him it'll be difficult but he insists, so I have him roll a Strength check for the distance and Dexterity for accuracy. He easily passes the Strength but fails the Dexterity. The ranger rolls Dexterity to try to dive and catch it, and rolls a 19 and catches it. He takes out the orc archer with one hit. One of the orcs in camp sees the sentry fall, and goes over to investiage.

This was supposed to be when the orc would alarm the rest of them and start the battle, but my ninja PC did something crazy. He told me he wanted to try to throw a shuriken and slice the artery in the orcs neck. Seriously. I laughed and warned him that it would be almost impossible. I figured to make the requirement 24, taking into account his high dexterity bonus. He wants to try anyway, so I let him, and he gets a twenty. The shuriken sails through the air and buries itself into the orcs neck. The orc collapses, gurgling blood. Six left.

All four communicate an ambush, giving them each a free round before the orcs can act. They get behind the boulder and spring their attack. The ninja throws a  the fighter charging the nearest orc and taking its leg clean off. Cleave lets him bury his sword into the next orc's chest. Four more.

The ninja pounces off the boulder onto the nearest orc, burying his dagger into its neck. The blade fails to go all the way through the muscular next and the orc throws the halfling to the ground and raises his axe and hails. Its the sorcerer's turn, and he kills the orc attacking the halfling with an arrow in the stomach. Three left.

Every PC has gone, so we roll initiative. Two orcs go first, then the PCs, then the third orc. An orc attacks the fighter, but the fighter's plate armor deflects the spear. The second orc charges the sorcerer and knocks him down. The PCs go: the fighter kills an orc, the ranger kills the orc that knocked over the sorcerer. The sorcerer tries to shoot the third orc but misses. Its the third and last surviving orcs turn. He smirks and turns away from the PCs, raising his axe to kill the helpless Zakk, tied to the pole. I roll an attack for the orc as a formality, and get a 1! This threw me off guard, because Zakk was supposed to die. The orc raises his axe behind his head, but is thrown off balance by the weight of it and falls backwards into the fire. His mane of dirty black hair burst into flames and he burns to death.

The PCs are highly amused and thrilled about how the battle turned out. I was suprised it had been so easy for them, I actually thought eight orcs might have been too difficult. The PCs gather themselves up and rest. The sorcerer's supply of blood is empty. (The Bloodthirst flaw demands that the PC drink blood every 24 hours, so the sorcerer carries vials with him and refills them when he gets a chance). He slips away from camp and refills his vials, quenching his thirst with orc blood, which he says is absolutely disgusting.

I'll continue writing the first session if you guys show interest.

Oh, and if these dwarves bear any similarities to the dwarves from Skyrim (lost civilization, etc.) its either a coincedence or Bethesda raided my thoughts, because I knew the general idea of what I was trying to do with these dwarves before Skyrim was released.

Thanks, that was the idea. Just trying to gt away from those terrible PHB races.

[ooc]So, I haven't posted anything of my own creation here in a while. For the last year or so I've had some ideas floating around in my head and today I was feeling particularly inspired so I decided to put some down. Please note: this is not anything particularly new or innovative. It is my take on standard fantasy and an attempt to make a setting that makes sense logically and suits me. Below is a write up of fluff for the dwarves of my setting, because i've thought the most about them so far, and their lore coincides with the history of the setting. I just want to see what you guys think of it. As of now, I have no pictures ('cause i'm artistically challenged) but I have a friend who's a good artist and might be interested, so its possible there are pictures to come.[/ooc]

Intro:

[spoiler]A particularly quiet traveler trekking into mountain valleys may come across a small figure whose clean shaven features seem to be carved from marble. These people are called by many names (Dwarves, the Fallen Ones, the Forgotten Ones, Mountain Folk, etc.) and their bloody history and role in the shaping of civilization stand in contrast with their reclusive existence and humble nature.[/spoiler]

History:
[spoiler]Three thousand years have passed since the fall of ancient dwarven civilization. Their former homeland is a sun scorched wasteland, and their population dwindles. It is relatively common knowledge (common to the scholars and men of intellect who search for such knowledge) that the dwarves were the first race to build an advanced civilization, and that they had some sort of power over the other races. The specific details are known in great detail to only a handful of scholars. At the dawn of civilization there were two proto-races: the Dvern and the Anmah. The Dvern were in touch with the raw energy of the universe,  and were mentally gifted. The Anmah, lacking such power, attempted to replicate it in the way of tools and invention. Despite the ambition of the Anmah, the Dvern could manipulate the universe directly, giving them a huge advantage. The Dvern created a complex civilization with a pantheon of Gods. Huge monuments and buildings were constructed with precision and perfection, and their civilization was peaceful and flawless in almost every way, except for one fact that would ultimately be their downfall: the entire Dvern civilization was built on the backs of the Anmah. How exactly the Anmah brought about the downfall of dwarven civilization is unknown. Whether the Anmah rebelled or slave-sympathizers brought down dwarven utopia is a matter of debate, but the great civilization ended when the sun "fell from the sky" and burnt the dwarf homeland to the ground. The Anmah split into different races, and the remaining Dvern retreated to the corners of the world[/spoiler]

Place in the World:
[spoiler]The word 'dwarf' itself is derived from the word Dvern (meaning "us", the 'd' is silent) but has been converted to the human language to simply refer to a short person. Indeed, many humans see the descendants of the Dvern simply as shorter humans who live in the mountains. Dwarves don't have much of a place in the world, and live in small clans or as hermits. Dwarves seen in civilized kingdoms are usually wanderers, but on some occasions can be found as teachers and advisors to politicians. Humans generally make no distinction between unusually short human and dwarves. Folktales often include dwarves as wise men of the mountains. Although their physical presence in the world is minimal, human civilization is based on ancient Dvern civilization. However, humans posses far more ambition and far less refinement then the Dvern. War and poverty plague humanity as a result. In essence, humans are still only tribal's who have adopted and improved upon a method of living created by a people far more suited for it.[/spoiler]



Physiology:
[spoiler]Dwarves are short (average height 4' 6'') and muscular. They are never fat (eating for pleasure is not part of dwarven culture) but their compact bodies make them heavy. Their features are sharp and polished, and their skin is rarely blemished or diseased. They naturally grow fine black or silver hair, but how they deal with their hair varies (see culture). Skin tones are always light, sometimes with gray tones. They have extraordinary immune systems and can only suffer from diseases exclusive to dwarves, and those are rare. Dwarf live far longer than humans, on average 250 years, with old dwarves reaching over 300. This allows them to keep their population slim but in no immediate danger of disappearing. Perhaps the most surprising feature of dwarves is that they are incapable of using magic. After the fall of dwarven civilization, a powerful Dvern High Priest turned slave sympathizer used all his power to forever wipe magic from the hands of dwarves. They are still deeply fascinated and enthralled by magic, yet unable to use it themselves. Also: dwarves are able to have children with their own family members without consequences, and sex is seen only as a means to produce children, not for pleasure.  Temperature does not affect dwarves much, and they are able to maintain their body temperature fairly easily. [/spoiler]

Culture:
[spoiler]Dwarven communities are made up of a few families living in a small settlement, usually in isolated mountain valleys or plateaus. Due to their immunity to the consequences of inbreeding, these communities could live for hundreds of years without outside contact. The community is considered the family, and the biological parents have no more say than any other adult. Inside dwarven communities, it is custom to stay clean shaven and free of tattoos, piercings and other things that would alienate the body, which is considered a temple. When traveling alone through human lands, dwarves often grow out their hair and beards. Religion and the old dwarven gods are forgotten and have been replaced with spiritualism and meditative exercises. Literature is limited to history, mathematics and other educational topics, which are taught to all young dwarves. Storytelling is prevalent and enjoyed by the community, but is just the recounting of entertaining stories, without the fables and allegories that inhabit human stories. Stories are largely recounted from memory at community gatherings and rarely written down, due to the limited nature of paper. Buildings are simple: usually the walls are made of rocks and stones, with interweaving pine boughs and branches creating the roof. Without the magic or slaves of their ancestors, they have no way to create large buildings and towns. Dwarves sustain themselves by herding goats and farming fish and fruits. Dwarves are very fond of the large cold weather tortoises that inhabit the mountains and often keep them as pets. Tortoise shell is a common material for dwarven armor, and in its finished state is not recognizable as a reptile's shell. Dwarves dress in simple clothes made from goat fur and animal hide, but have little need for heavy coats and such cold weather clothing due to an innate resistance to temperatures. [/spoiler]

Alright, here it is, up on Reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/shadowside/comments/te3lk/scavenger_short_story_fryfrofella/

Where exactly do you want me to post it? Sorry i've never been on reddit I don't know anything about it.

Hey FableForge, I think you'll be excited to hear this. So i've been thinking about your setting alot lately (particularly Scavenger, because
they're pretty damn cool) and I was feeling inspired, so I whipped up a short story about Scavenger. I'm not the greatest writer, but I feel like its quite good, and of course you can change anything you like, or not use it at all. It's three and a half pages, and showcases what kind of people Scavenger is made up of and how dangerous their recklessness can be. If you want I can email it to you, unless you want me to send you a PM, I don't know if you can attach documents to them though? It's a word document, 2007 I believe. There's some funky fonts at one point during an online chatroom, don't know if that makes a difference with compatability.

And again, no pressure to actually use it, I will completely understand if you don't want to.

Dude, I'm only on the Sisterhood so far and I already love your stuff. Seriously awesome.
I usually just lurk on these boards and rarely comment, but great stuff like this is why I
still stop by. Welcome to the community, it's the friendliest most encouraging community
I have ever found on the internet.
Keep it up man!

Quote from: Survivorman

Quote from: Xeviat

What is D&D Daggerfall? Some kind of combination of D&D and Elder Scrolls?

My bad, it's DaggerDALE. Apparently some place in the Forgotten Realms.

Quote from: Xeviat
I just want a current edition video game ala Baldur's Gate. I miss the 90's/early 00's.

Yes. Co/op hack and slash needs to make a comeback. D&D: Daggerfall was godawful.

I feel like edition matters very little with D&D. People
will use whatever they're comfortable with; it doesn't
really change the experience that much, since the players
are the ones really creating the game anyway.
Bottomline: Tabletop RPGing is not a good buisness to be in,
because fans of your game make their own material.

Quote from: Xeviat
I bought After Man on amazon actually, it's right by my desk.

How much did you pay for it? I just checked and its like $60 for a used copy.

Heys guys, i've been lurking forever, but this thread drove me to come out of the creativity closet.
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  I love what you're doing, and if I commited to a setting I would approach it in a way very similar. I understand
the desire to explain things scientifically in the setting, not to mention its fun.
Dwarves
  Dwarves evolving from badgers is a great idea. You have alot of room to make them different from humans, because they evolved from a fundamentally different animal. Emotions we take for granted like envy, disgust, curiosity and pride might not apply to badger-dwarves. Any resemblance to humanlike emotions might only be due to exposure to human culture. This would not only make dwarf culture substantially different from that of humans, but explain the usual fantasy tropes about dwarves. Humans would see dwarves as just short, stubborn humans who pay no attention to the outside world. In reality, dwarves might not be able to even comprehend certain human emotions that lead to human habits that become pillars of our culture (dressing and behaving to attract the opposite sex, the pursuit of new ideas and technologies, the need for socialization and peer approval). Certain things common with humans, like jumping, might seem ridiculous to a race of stocky burrowing people, if they're even capable of it.

Obviously you wouldn't want to make them to alien, or they would just be badgers that look like naked little people.

Halflings
Halflings pyschology being very close to human's could work better then you might think. Certain things might be identical, like general social patterns and day night cycles. They would be driven by the same things: sexual attraction, curiosity, desire to better one's place in society. And I imagine physically they are very similar to humans, except much shorter and more agile, longers limbs and digits, and a jaw adapted to breaking through hard nutshells and fruitskin. They might have a strong digestive system from digesting some rougher fruits. Maybe they can eat other plant matter like leaves and grass, even if it isn't favored. This would make it very easy and cheap to feed a group of migrant Halflings.
    The prehensile tail, diet and height would be the things that divide humans from halflings. You have alot of potential for racism and social injustice, especially if Halfling migrant workers and refugees take alot of human jobs. And again, it lets you explain a fantasy trope. Humans consider Halflings to be natural tricksters and thieves, when in reality oppression has driven them to poverty and forced them to have to sneak and steal to survive. Its not hard to imagine (given their natural talent) guilds of Halfling thieves leading large scale heists on wealthy humans. They might be justified, but they also strengthen human resentment of their people.



Just curious about a few other things: do you have another thread for information on this setting? What system will you use, if at all? What do the tritons look like, what do they use to get around the ocean? Have you thought about elves?

 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons. I was excited when 4E came out, thought powers were great, loved everything about it. Now...3.5 nostolgia. Anybody else feel like 4E just pulled too far away from what D&D is? I just really don't like 4E. I'm not trying to complain, I just want to discuss it and see what other people think.

Things I dislike the most:

-First of all, the books and the artwork. The art in general is too cartoony. It turns me off to the game.

-Defining simple team roles. Striker, Defender, Leader, Controller. Just feels wrong. This isn't WOW, you don't need a perfectly balanced group where everyone fits like puzzle peices. The focus should be on cool, creative characters. Sometimes conflicting characters could be fun. Obviously i'm not saying there shouldn't be team work, but the way they did classes...blah....

-Powers. Not that every class plays like a mage (some people said that about powers in the beginning) but the mage doesn't feel like a mage. Magic should work differently then other things. And whenever I ran a 4E game, the Wizard was the only one who ever used his powers anyway. WoTC said they wanted to give every character interesting things to do in a fight, and claimed that mages had all the fun choosing spells and doing cool things.
     Looking back, I completely disagree. If you run boring fights in boring enviroments, of course fighters and rogues are going to be bored. I never had that problem. My PCs were creative and strategic, and interacted with the enviroments. To me, powers detract from the game. Like the team roles, it just feels wrong.

-Above all, the oversimplification and streamlining of the game. In 3.5, it had different levels of complication. It could be super simple, with only the starter set, or you could own every book and know every rule by heart, and craft your own settings from scratch. 4E is all made on the same basic starter kit level for eight year old kids who play it when the power goes out and they can't play WOW. There's no depth, and all the books are written like uninspiring expansion packs.

-They turned the Forgotten Realms into a cheap rip-off of Eberron.

  None of it would bother me at all, except that now most hobby shops have switched to 4E along with RPGA. What do everyone here think? What don't you/do you like about 4E?