The Campaign Builder's Guild

As for the format, I don't much care for AIM and I have some bad experiences with PbP, but I'll PbP if everyone can agree to some kind of schedule or promise to post regularly.

Any ideas about the focus of the campaign itself - so I can think about what kind of character to make? Will you have a theme or story in mind, or will we just be free to bum around in Sigil as we please? Should we all belong to the same faction or something?

And although I've never personally experienced the joys of potion miscibility rules, changing my spot in the initiative order every single turn, or attacking one-and-a-half times in a round, I should be able to sausage through it once I get that pdf for reference.

And on a side note, I just found the best thing ever: http://www.mimir.net/cant/cant2.html

(1) General question, brought up by Turin:  What time zone is everybody in?  If it's not a US time zone, please include what it is relative to GMT so I have some sense of things.  I'm in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, GMT -5.  However, as I said before my schedule is EXTREMELY flexible with the exception of 12-6 Tuesdays through Thursdays.

If by some miracle a convenient time can be found for IRC or some other chat-based session to be held, I'd still prefer it.  However, after thinking about it a good bit I'm less averse to the idea of PbP than I was yesterday, as long as people can check in with some previously agreed upon regularity.

Now, addressing particular questions/comments:

[spoiler=Bill Volk]  I've got a few interesting ideas in mind for stories I've been wanting to tell in the Planescape multiverse.  However, I don't want to give the campaign an overarching plotline or 'theme' from the get-go.  For the PC creation, just design a character you think would be fun to play.  You don't have to all be the same faction, though I'd appreciate it if you coordinated it enough that we didn't have immediate interparty conflict from Day One (Ie, 2 Anarchists, a Guvner and a Hardhead = Bad News!)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Turin]  (A) Although my schedule has the benefit of being extremely flexible, I too am rather busy (in the next year I'll be writing a 75+ page thesis, taking several advanced Greek seminars, and applying to grad schools).  This game will not be extremely time-intensive.  If we go the chat rather than PbP route, I'd prefer to play either once a week or once every two weeks, depending on people's schedules.  (Less than that and it can be hard to maintain a sense of continuity, I find.)  The amount of time per session in chat format would be flexible - I prefer a minimum of about 3 hours, but honestly, as long as we get some good 'old-school' gaming in, I'll be happy.  I don't have a lot of pre-conceived notions about how this game has to go.
(One major advantage of 2e over 3.x is that it requires a lot less out-of-game planning on the part of the players: some during character creation, but almost none afterwards.)
(B) See above.  Depending on the time zones of other players involved, I have no problem running a session at what is (for me) unorthodox hours.  If it is a problem for other players, than I'm willing to go the PbP route.
(C) Don't sweat it.  If you had a pretty good grasp on how Baldur's Gate worked, you can learn to run a 2e PC without too much difficulty.  As far as Planescape goes - the most obvious solution would be for you to play a 'Prime' - a character freshly arrived on the Planes from some prime material plane like Faerun.  If that doesn't appeal to you, I can give you a crash course in the setting as well.  I love talking about Planescape. ;)[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Khyron]Planescape standard races means Humans, Rogue Modrons, Githzerai, Aasimar, Genasi, Tieflings and Bariaur.  If you wanted to play a Prime or were just really set on playing a standard demihuman on the Planes, that'd be cool too.  All I meant by that comment was that weird 'monstrous races' were not really appropriate.

Sounds like you had a bit of a 'rotten DM experience'.  Warriors of Heaven is alright when all the PCs are playing celestials, but I can't really see it working in a mixed group.

I'm not familiar with the Black Teddy Faction.  Tell me a little more?  (Somewhere at my parents' house I have the old CD set of archives of Dragon Mags #1-250, I'll look it up next time I'm back.)  I'd prefer nothing TOO ridiculous, but a little tongue-in-cheek humor is very in keeping with Planescape.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Soup Nazi] It sounds like there's a reasonable chance that we will go the PbP route, in which case I hope you'll join in.  If not, if this trip down memory lane goes well, I'll be writing it up in a narrative format for the Crossroads or something.[/spoiler]

Ok, I'm on GMT+1 (actually, right now we're on DST so it's GMT+2). If we could set up a live game (rather than PbP) at reasonable times for all involved I'd prefer that. In theory (but this depends largely on the day we'll be playing, *my* schedule for the next semester is pretty much set in stone) anywhere between 3 PM and 1 AM might work for me (that would be 8 AM and 6 PM for you).

Túrin

Never done 2e, nor Planescape. The idea sounds intriguing, but I'm a tad nervous about my utter lack of experience. I'm not sure whether or not I'll join in yet...

2e is definitely not for everyone, but I would encourage you not to worry much about lack of experience.  The rules (in my experience) are a lot quicker to pick up than 3e, after you get over a few mathematical quirks (lower AC/THAC0 is better than high, ability scores are not yet 'standardized', etc).  Planescape can be a bit baffling, but as I was telling Turin, there are ways to make a lack of knowledge about the setting a point of characterization rather than a weakness of the player.

I'm Eastern Standard time, but I'll be on Central time come October.

and another thing - what level will we be starting at, and which method of rolling ability scores will we use?

Give me a day or two on the method of rolling ability scores, I'm currently waiting on my vast collection of 2e books which are arriving from my parents' house (I brought a couple of them with me when I moved out into my own place, but not the core books since I never anticipated playing/running 2e again).

Unless people strongly object, in 2e it was always my tendency to start off at level 1.  If you feel that would be too crippling, though, it'd be fine to start a little higher (decidedly still a 'low level' though).

If I could get a definitive count in the next 2-3 days of

(A) Who's willing/able to play if we do mIRC/AIM
(B) Who's willing/able if we do PbP
(C) What hours you're available for mIRC/AIM chat sessions (and in what time zone those hours apply)
(D) Who needs what in the way of help/instruction from me

it would be great.

As far as a timeframe - like I said, my books are arriving in the next couple days, at which point I can begin planning an initial adventure and I can help those of you who need help building a 2e character. (Obviously for that we'll take it to PMs/e-mail/chatware).

I cannot believe anyone would ever want to play 2nd edition, especially after using d20 rules.

THAC0, aarg! :(

I don't understand what people found so deal-breakingly difficult about THAC0.  Yes, it's less intuitive than BAB. I'll grant you that.  But it's not impossible to understand:
You subtract your target's AC from your THAC0.  You have to roll over the resulting total to hit.
I'lladmit that it's not the absolutely simplest method that they could have come up with, but it's not something requiring an engineering degree to master.

Ordinarily I wouldn't mind having this discussion, but this isn't a 'debate 2e' thread, it's a 'who wants to play some 2e' thread, and people who portray 2e as arcane, incomprehensible gibberish are going to drive away people who might potentially want to play.

Hehe, easy dude. I'm sure those who are into this won't let themselves be scared away by a post like that.

QuoteUnless people strongly object, in 2e it was always my tendency to start off at level 1. If you feel that would be too crippling, though, it'd be fine to start a little higher (decidedly still a 'low level' though).

(A) Who's willing/able to play if we do mIRC/AIM[/quote](B) Who's willing/able if we do PbP[/quote](C) What hours you're available for mIRC/AIM chat sessions (and in what time zone those hours apply)[/quote](D) Who needs what in the way of help/instruction from me[/quote]
A crash course 2E would be great. I'd like to know a little about Planescape beforehand as well.

Túrin

Quote from: Kalos Mer(A) Who's willing/able to play if we do mIRC/AIM
(B) Who's willing/able if we do PbP
(C) What hours you're available for mIRC/AIM chat sessions (and in what time zone those hours apply)
(D) Who needs what in the way of help/instruction from me

To answer an old question first, I'm on Eastern Daylight time.

A) Not I.
B) I Am.
C) Random and seldom to never.  I work fast food at a place where my schedule changes a lot from week to week.  I also don't know what kind of software is involved in doing IRC, but I am on a shared computer, and I think my dad would prefer me not to download too much stuff.
D) Not a lot in the way of instruction, but I will probably need approval of certain ideas.  

(A) Who's willing/able to play if we do mIRC/AIM
Sure.
(B) Who's willing/able if we do PbP
Yep.
(C) What hours you're available for mIRC/AIM chat sessions (and in what time zone those hours apply)
usually after 10:30 Eastern time
(D) Who needs what in the way of help/instruction from me
I'm a little iffy on the 2nd ed. rules, but I'm enough of a blood on the setting to play a non-Clueless if it's called for.

It's sounding like PbP may be the best viable option to let the greatest number of people play around their busy schedules.  I won't say quite yet that this is the way we're going, but it seems to make sense.

Here are my thoughts on what kind of character I'd like to play when the time comes.

I'd like to take advantage of as much unique 2nd ed. goodness as possible without having to refer to the rules too much during play. I'm leaning toward a multiclass fighter/thief. Can tieflings be those?

As for personality/faction/etc, I guess I need to be somewhat of a smiley, the way things are going. It'd be hard to be a Fated or a Doomguard with a gaggle of lemons in tow. Maybe a Bleaker who's sick of watching planars walk all over the new meat from the Prime?