Mardoc ... If you want to i'm more than willling to join up as secondary DM, focusing on the more practical battle sequences ... been playing on-off since start of 3.5 and are currently playing in 3.5/Pathfinder (depending on specific group) and knows the rules as the back of my hand ...
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the one with Magical railroads and golems (Warforged) is Eberron ...
As for starting location i'd suggest grabbing at least some parts form a allready existing product, since making a new world up from nothing is pretty tricky
(February 2nd, 2013, 09:15)Sian Wrote: As for starting location i'd suggest grabbing at least some parts form a allready existing product, since making a new world up from nothing is pretty tricky
I agree with this.
“The wind went mute and the trees in the forest stood still. It was time for the last tale.”
Yes, Pling, you're welcome. When I posted that, I was pretty sure you'd still want in when you came back. Anyway, teaching newcomers is fun. Makes you take a second look at what you're doing and why you're doing it. Looks like we have all levels of experience: people familiar with this system, people familiar with other systems, and newcomers entirely. But really the most important thing is a willingness to tell a story together.
And I would definitely appreciate help on the DM front, so that ideally combats can move when I'm at work or asleep. Have interest from Jkaen, Merovech, and Sian. I'll have to think about the best way to organize this so that we can hand off control smoothly mid battle. Probably something like a Google Doc spreadsheet for keeping track of hp and statuses, and some form of battlemap for visualizing the game. Anyone have experience with one of these, that they can recommend?
Anyway, I'll go ahead and create a new thread as requested. I'm not sure there's a lot of consensus here yet, but I wouldn't really expect it this quickly either.
Anyways, I don't want Eberron, I'd prefer a (more DnD-ish) Erebus. With some basic pieces of the lore, but a lot more like Classic DnD than true Erebus.
(ie, all classes and stuff play like classic 3.5/pathfinder Dnd ... its just that the nations and such are from Fall from Heaven )
ie Sidar Ghosts would likely be Rogue/Shadowdancer elites
most recon replaced by rangers and rogues of various strength
no 'melee line' but just fighters of various strength
Doviello fighters replaced by Barbarians.
etc
---> and spells (and dieties?) work as normal. No spheres like in FFH but instead schools of magic. maybe the dieties should be renamed? not sure. We could probably try and pull of an "FFH" like world, with many of the same nations, but with different dieties.
Anyways, I don't want Eberron, I'd prefer a (more DnD-ish) Erebus. With some basic pieces of the lore, but a lot more like Classic DnD than true Erebus.
(ie, all classes and stuff play like classic 3.5/pathfinder Dnd ... its just that the nations and such are from Fall from Heaven )
ie Sidar Ghosts would likely be Rogue/Shadowdancer elites
most recon replaced by rangers and rogues of various strength
no 'melee line' but just fighters of various strength
Doviello fighters replaced by Barbarians.
etc
Well, Erebus started as a long-running homebrew D&D campaign for Kael and his friends. I think, regarding mechanics, it was actually very similar to "normal" D&D campaigns, just Karl had to alter a lot to fit it into the civ4 system.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Might not be perfect but the best for battlemap i offhand can guess at would be a custom setup Googlemap with each box being rather square, and then have a sign for each player /Mob and paint inaccessable borders black (such as walls in a dungeon) so we know where people can run around).
My strengths DM wise is probably : Balance (Party vs Environment) and handling rules ... my bad sides (which annoys me much when running, myself) is that i'm not very creative when it comes to weaving a world ... Setting up interesting characters, sure ... weaving a world making it logical and such ... not that much)
(February 1st, 2013, 19:00)Mardoc Wrote: [*]What setting do you want? Forbidden Realms, Erebus, something more generic?
I'm not familiar with Forbidden Realms, but I guess it is the generic medieval + some magic, right? This seems very nice be me. I prefer medieval things rather than steampunk things and the like. But I'll roll with anything.
[*]What environment do you want? City, Wilderness, or Dungeon?
City and Wilderness seems best for me. But I have very little experience, so maybe cities and talking aren't so fun as I think they'll be.
[*]What sort of quest do you want? "Adventurer, the world is about to end and only you..." or "King X seeks adventurers to explore the Louisiana Purchase" or "Local merchant recruits caravan guards for low-risk journey" or "You're at the caravan stop, waiting for your friend Godot"?
I think the mercenary guild background and varied, but not so epic, quests seems very nice.
[*]Where do you want to be on the combat vs talk/intrigue scale?
I prefer talk/intrigue, but again, I lack experience. Anyway, I'm thinking of making a fighter as a character, since it's simple to play with for begginers (and I think I have a nice backgroud story). So, if my character end with average intelligence, low charisma and slightly above average wisdom, would I be able to participate on the talk? Or would I just be waiting, since talking a lot doesn't fit my character profile?
[*]How much risk do you want? Are you ok with replacing characters due to unlucky combat rolls? Due to stupid (er...heroic) decisions? Would prefer to mostly survive?
I like that we have a chance of dying, albeit the usual hero leeway should probably apply.
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(February 2nd, 2013, 11:05)Ichabod Wrote: I'm not familiar with Forbidden Realms, but I guess it is the generic medieval + some magic, right? This seems very nice be me. I prefer medieval things rather than steampunk things and the like. But I'll roll with anything.
Yes, that's correct.
Quote: prefer talk/intrigue, but again, I lack experience. Anyway, I'm thinking of making a fighter as a character, since it's simple to play with for begginers (and I think I have a nice backgroud story). So, if my character end with average intelligence, low charisma and slightly above average wisdom, would I be able to participate on the talk? Or would I just be waiting, since talking a lot doesn't fit my character profile?
A couple things here. First, you're only 'low' in a skill compared to a hero, you're probably about even with a normal human. What's more important is if your character is the kind of person who would join in, not whether he's awesome at it.
For ordinary conversation, investigating, negotiating, etc, I don't plan to require rolls, any more than I would for walking down a hallway and opening an unlocked door. You might not be the best candidate to try to persuade the guards that you're just taking the treasure away for cleaning and you'll have it back in the morning, is all.
Or, well, there's no reason you have to make charisma super-bad, either. You can be a fighter who's also everybody's friend.
i remember one of my previous characters ... a Dwarf barbarian who was very chatty and loved to sing together with his intelligent greataxe... and he had a -6(!!) on Preform singing (-2 from Charisma and -4 from a part of his prestige class which gave -4 on all Wis/Int/Cha skills except Search, Listen, Spot and Intimidate)... the sorcerer in the group had silence by request/demand of the rest of the party ... just goes to prove that you can certainly make a character that loves doing something he suck hard at
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