nerdronomicon

One of the guys I play with requested I actually run one of the ideas I told him about a while ago, a short arc with potential for a longer campaign taking place in mythic Greece. The way I want to run it is to create a set of "races", sets of stats for children of each of the various gods.

He and I discussed and and he convinced me that it would actually be easier to offer some options for characters, then come up with stats for individual characters, than it would be to try to create a dozen or so balanced races for a system neither of us have actually played in yet.

I still plan to come up with stats for the various divine children of the Greek deities, but I want to run this sooner than doing that would allow, so I put together a list of all of the classes and their build options, picked gods to go with them, selected a gender, and started writing up bios for the pregenerated pcs.

This is what I have so far. Feel free to make suggestions for bios for the ones I haven't written up yet. I'll post the complete list when I have it, and the actual characters and their stats when the players have chosen which ones they want to play.

Cleric Battle Cleric Apollo M Hero
Fighter Great Weapon Fighter Ares F Kallisto
One day Demeter's rest in the gardens of Mount Olympus was disturbed by an argument between Ares and Apollo, both claiming they could father a more powerful son. The two gods descended to the lands of men in search of a woman to father their sons, both looking amongst the children of their most devoted followers. Apollo seduced one of his priestesses, who bore him a son named Hero. Hero grew up to be a brave warrior and devoted priest of Apollo. Ares raped the daughter of a merciless warrior who honored Ares with the blood of his enemies. Demeter, goddess of fertility, punished Ares for his cruelty and hubris, by seeing to it that this union was fruitful, and that it produced a daughter. Kallisto is a fierce warrior who shows her divine heritage with her strength and battlfield prowess. Ares remains unmoved and refuses to acknowledge her as his own.

Cleric Devoted Cleric Hephaestus F Melaina
Disgusted with her oafish husband and taking pity on the mortal woman Irina who praid daily to her for the love of a husband and children, Aphrodite cast her image on the ugly mortal and tricked her faithful husband Hephaestus to lay with her. Melaina is the product of this union. She is as ugly as her father, and also as talented, as kind hearted, and as faithful.

Fighter Guardian Fighter Zeus M Cleisthenes
Agapios, king of Actium, held a tournament to choose the suitor of his beloved daughter Callia. Zeus watched the tournament from his throne on Olympus and became enthralled with the beautiful Callia. Taking the form of a mortal, he entered the tournament and won the hand of Callia. Callia became pregnant and bore a son, Cleisthenes, who grew up stong and beautiful. Of course Zeus soon lost interest in Callia. He turned into a dove and flew away, never to be seen by Callia or her son again.

Paladin Avenging Paladin Poseidon M Erasmus
Eutychos, king of Dyme, and his wife Gaiana could not have children. They praid to the gods for a son. Poseidon answered their prayers by giving them Erasmus, his son by the sea nymph Corinna. They raised Erasmus as their own son. He is the heir to the throne of the city of Dyme, and a powerful warrior imbued with the divine power of Poseidon.

Paladin Protecting Paladin Athena F Nikephoros
Dion, warrior of Hierapolis, was rewarded by his king with a choice, marriage to one of his two daughters: Zoe the beautiful or Xanthe the wise. He chose Xanthe. Athena, pleased by his choice, blessed their union. Their first child was Nikephoros, divine champion of Athena.

Ranger Archer Ranger Artemis F Photine
Lysandra was a brave warrior and huntress, and faithful worshiper of Artemis. As strong as she was, she was unable to survive the pains of childbirth. Artemis claimed her daughter Photine as her godchild. She imbued the infant with a portion of her divine essence, and watched over her as she grew into adulthood. Photine is an archer and huntress, a mortal reflection of the goddess herself.

Ranger Two Blade Ranger Pan M Pankratios
One day while gathering wild herbs in the forest, the maiden Phile became lost. Night fell and she still could not find her way home. Pan seduced the maiden, and laid with her in the forest. He then played his pipes and danced, leading her to the path home. After some time she bore his son, Pankratios. He is a wild warrior, preferring to fight with his bare hands over any weapon.

Rogue Trickster Rogue Hermes M Panther
While running about the Earth delivering a message for Zeus, Hermes witnessed a thief captured on the streets of Athens. Taken by her beauty, he followed her invisibly as she was taken to prison to await her trial. When they were finally alone he showed himself, offering her freedom in return for her company. She accepted, and bore Panther the clever, son of Hermes.

Rogue Brawny Rogue Hades M Theocritus


Warlock Deceptive Warlock Pan M Georgios


Warlock Scourge Warlock Hades F Zosime


Warlord Inspiring Warlord Zeus M Archelaus


Warlord Tactical Warlord Athena F Sophia


Wizard Control Wizard Aphrodite F Eudocia


Wizard War Wizard Hermes F Ligeia

I have an idea for a 4e campaign, I mean, ANOTHER idea. I think I'm gonna run with this one but it needs work. Sarah, another player in our group, said she'd like to run a 4e campaign so I think I'm going to work on this idea for a while and vote for her game when the choice comes up.

With that in mind I came up with some ideas for characters last night. For starters I came up with one concept for each of the roles, striker, controller, leader and defender.


First I fleshed out an idea for a character I've been kicking around in my head for a while. We play in a game where our adventuring group is called "The Silver Beetles". I was being kind of silly and running with the Beatles inspired name idea, and said I'd like to play a dwarf named Maxwell Silverhammer. The more I thought about it the more I liked the name. This is what I came up with.

By the way, these pc's are all free of stats. I'm just coming up with ideas.

STRIKER:
Maxwell Silverhammer
Unaligned (LN) Dwarven Ranger, 45 years old
Two weapon build, fights with a pick and hammer
Maxwell Silverhammer comes from the dwarven city of Lodestone, deep in the underdark. He joined the military at a young age where he excelled as a scout, earning commendations and working his way up through the enlisted ranks. As a scout in the military he gained an affinity for ferreting out secrets and exploring uncharted caverns. When he left the military he took work as a prospector. In his explorations of the lonely underdark he met a blind goblin seer. Eventually they became friends. He would bring her food and gifts, and she would use her powers of divination to lead him to rich new mineral deposits. One day while reading his fortune, the crone told him his fate led him to the surface, where he would find riches and power known only in legend. He'd never had any desire to visit the world above but he's learned to trust her visions. So he made his way to the surface world. He is now a wandering adventurer in search of the fate foretold by the goblin crone. Maxwell is a gruff old soldier who still follows the strict military discipline that kept him alive all those years in the underdark. He's not unfriendly, but he doesn't like or understand the customs of the surface folk.

CONTROLLER:
Narfast
Unaligned (CG) Eladrin Wizard, 18 years old
War mage, wand, specializes in fire powers
Narfast is fiery, vain, erratic and arrogant. Confident of his own superiority and convinced he can learn more on his own than in the structured environment of the college of arcana, he has left the comforts of the Eladrin city of Highpeak to seek his fortune as an adventurer. Well aware that many were happy to see him leave, Narfast thinks his instructors and fellow students fear his innate understanding of deep arcana, that they just can't grasp. In reality they feared his chaotic nature, and feel inevitable disaster was averted when he left. While arrogant, unpredictable, and often infuriating, Narfast is also charismatic, loyal to his friends and fiercely protective of those he cares for.

LEADER:
Corbin
Unaligned (TN) Elven Cleric of the Raven Queen
Devoted cleric build, specializes in ranged cleric powers
I'm hoping whoever DMs will allow my character to cast his ranged powers in the form of black feathered arrows that he creates with his faith in the Raven Queen, and fires with his bow. I don't want any special powers or game mechanic changes, I just like the idea based on the character's origin.
Corbin found his faith in the Raven Queen when he was killed, or so he believes. While wandering in the woods he and his best friend were ambushed by bandits. Corbin was struck on the back of the head and fell, unconscious or dead. He fell through darkness and had a vision of the Raven Queen. When he came to, he saw a pair of brigands rifling through his friend's pockets. They didn't notice he was awake, because they thought he was dead too. He silently stood, and fired arrows at them before they could react, killing them both where they stood. Confronted by this proof of the Raven Queen's power over life and death, he devoted his life to her service. His tribe didn't understand his obsession with this deity not generally revered by the elves, so he journeyed to human lands to learn more of her faith and act as an extension of her divine will in the world.

i had an idea for a paladin but i'll have to post about that later because the real world is intruding on my rich fantasy life.

I posted some of the raw notes about my Gihon campaign world here.

I really do have way too many ideas and have trouble sticking to any one of them. I had plans to post a lot of the things kicking around in my head this weekend but I have the World's Worst DSL Connection (patent pending) so I ended up doing mostly non-internet related stuff.

Anyway, no matter what tangent I go off on, I always end up coming back to my Gihon idea. A lot of the ideas in it (world created by a powerful wizard, disk shaped world, impending apocalypse) have been done but, I like it.

Anyway, lately I've been thinking about my clockwork world idea. I've been considering the idea of making Gihon a slightly more civilized place than I had originally planned. I'm toying with the idea of playing up the clockwork idea, and introducing some steampunk elements.

Whether I do that or not, I need to come up with a new race. I need a tinker-gnome race, the feywild brownies in the new 4e books don't do it for me. I'd also need to come up with some clockwork devices, and possibly a class that can take advantage of the stuff.

So, in addition to all the other stuff I need to fill in, if I decide to take the clockwork idea further, I need to come up with a new race, a new class, and a new power source/technology.

Race:
Gnome (in my game they'd just be gnomes. if used by someone else they'd be called tinker gnomes, or something like that)
+2 INT, +2 CON
Size: Small
Speed: 5
Vision: normal
Languages: Common, Gnomish
Skill Bonuses: +2 Thievery, +2 Arcana
Special Abilities:
Focused: You gain a +2 bonus to Will defense.
Gnomish Education: You are trained in the Engineering skill.
Sabotage: You can use sabotage as a daily power.

Sabotage - Racial Power
You notice a design flaw in your opponent's equipment, which you take advantage of to render it useless till the end of the encounter.
Daily, Clockwork, Reliable, Toolkit
Standard Action - Melee: Toolkit
Target: One Creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: Choose one weapon, implement, or piece of equipment that that your character can see which is worn, carried or wielded by an opponent. You opponent cannot use it and loses any benefit from it until the end of the encounter.

Notes on Clockwork power source:
New skill:
Engineering: allows the character to use, analyze and create clockwork devices. Similar to weapon proficiency, someone untrained in Engineering may attempt to use a clockwork device but they do not gain the proficiency bonus of the device if untrained in Engineering.

Feats:
Gearhead:
Prerequisite: Int 13, trained in Engineering
Benefit: You gain a +2 feat bonus to damage rolls with clockwork weaponry

Applied Engineering:
Prerequisite: Int 13, trained in Engineering
Benefit: You can create heroic tier clockwork devices of your level or lower.

Advanced Engineering:
Prerequisite: Engineering 101
Benefit: You can create paragon tier clockwork devices of your level or lower.

Doctor of Engineering:
Prerequisite: Advanced Engineering
Benefit: You can create epic tier clockwork devices of your level or lower.

----
I have to go to bed, gotta get up early tomorrow. I'm not sure this is all 100% balanced and the gnomish racial power I came up with would probably work better as a class power. But without it I think my clockwork gnome is underpowered. So I need to think of something else.

Eventually I'll come up with a list of clockwork devices, clockwork weapons, enchanted (or enhanced, as the gnomish engineers prefer)
versions of the engineer implement: toolkit. I'll make an Engineer class. What else? Oh yeah, ideas I don't have time to flesh out here but I want to get down so I don't forget:
Class: Engineer
Build options: Inventor or Saboteur
Squeaky wheel (get's the oil, get it? an encounter power that slides an enemy two squares and makes the square they were in difficult terrain until the end of the encounter)
bonuses on thievery, explosives, neat utility powers, devices that mimic effects of rituals, alarm, traps, wards, etc. caltrops, effects that slow enemies, effects that lower enemy defenses (itching powder lowers will and reflex? sneezing powder lowers fort? magnets that have some effect on metalic armor? magnetic caltrops that stick to metal weapons causing them to become unbalanced? blinding attacks?),
is the engineer a controller? combo controller/striker? combo controller/defender? low damage attacks that lower efficacy of opponents and/or affect multiple opponents.

okay i really gotta crash. feedback appreciated. i like this idea a lot but its very sketchy right now.

Children of the Gods is a campaign for fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons. It takes place in mythic Greece.
The player characters are all human children of the gods of the Greek Pantheon.

-=GODS=-
I stole borrowed this word for word from Wikipedia.

Aphrodite
Goddess of love, lust and beauty, wife of Hephaestus. Ares is her lover. Eros is her son. Known as the most beautiful of the goddesses. Her symbols are the sceptre, myrtle, and dove.

Apollo
God of music, prophecies, poetry, and archery. Also said to be the god of light and truth. Is associated with the sun. Also referred to as the most beautiful of the gods. He is Artemis's twin brother, and Son of Zeus. His symbols are the bow, lyre, and laurel.

Ares
God of war, murder and bloodshed. Brother to Athena, and is the son of Zeus. His symbols are vultures, dogs, boars, and a spear.

Artemis
Goddess of the hunt and wild things. Protector of the dewy young. She became associated with the moon. Apollo is her twin brother. Artemis is a virgin goddess. Her symbols are the bow and deer.

Athena
Goddess of wisdom, warfare, handicrafts and reason. Sister of Ares, and is the daughter of Zeus. Sprung from Zeus's head. She is the wisest of the gods. Her symbols are the aegis, owl, and olive tree.

Demeter
Goddess of fertility, grain and harvest. Demeter is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus. Her symbols are the sceptre, torch, and corn.

Dionysus
God of wine, parties/festivals,madness and merriment. He represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. His symbols are the grape vine, ivy, and thyrsos.

Hades
God of the underworld. Brother of Poseidon and Zeus, and consort to Persephone. His symbols are the bident and the three-headed dog, Cerberus.

Hephaestus
God of fire and the forge (god of fire and smiths) with very weak legs. Was thrown off Mt. Olympus. Makes armor for the gods and other heroes like Achilles. Son of Hera. Zeus is his father in some accounts. Married to Aphrodite. His symbol is the axe.

Hera
Goddess of marriage, women and childbirth. Zeus' wife. Appears with peacock feathers often. Her symbols are the sceptre, diadem, and peacock.

Hermes
God of flight, thieves, commerce, and travelers. Messenger of the gods. He showed the way for the dead souls to Hades's realm. He shows up in more myths than any other god or goddess. Likes to trick people and is very inventive. Hermes invented the lyre using a turtle shell and sinew. His symbols are the caduceus and winged boots.

Hestia
Goddess of the hearth and home, the focal point of every household. Daughter of Rhea and Cronus. Gave up her seat as one of the Twelve Olympians to tend to the sacred flame on Mt. Olympus for Dionysus. Her symbol is the hearth.

Poseidon
God of the sea, horses and earthquakes. Brother of Hades and Zeus, and father of Polyphemus. Created horses from sea foam. His symbols are the trident, horse, bull, and sea foam.

Zeus
King of the gods. Most powerful god, Son of Cronus (Cronos, Kronos). God of the sky and thunder. Brother of Poseidon and Hades. Husband of Hera. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, and oak.

-=RACES=-
Child of Aphrodite
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Bluff, +2 Diplomacy
Special Abilities: not sure yet. something to do with enchantment.

Child of Apollo
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses: +2
Special Abilities: something like elven accuracy, maybe

Child of Ares
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:
+1 racial bonus to attacks versus bloodied opponents
Rage of Ares: encounter power, when bloodied gain an action point that must be used by the end of the next turn. +2 to attacks and damage as long as character remains bloodied or until end of encounter.

Blessed of Artemis
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed:
Vision: Lowlight
Languages:
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Athena
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Demeter
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Dionysus
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Hades
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed:
Vision: Darkvision
Languages:
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Hephaestus
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed:
Vision: Lowlight
Languages:
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Hera
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:
_________________________ ______

Child of Hermes
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Size: M
Speed: 7 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Bluff
Special Abilities:
Shifty
At Will
Minor, Personal
Effect: The character shifts one square

Speed of Hermes
By moving too fast for anyone to see, you appear to teleport a short distance.
Encounter, Teleportation
Move Action, Personal
Effect: Shift up to 8 squares, you are invisible during this movement.

_________________________ ______

Child of Hestia
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Poseidon
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

Child of Zeus
Average Height:
Average Weight:
Ability Scores:
Size: M
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Greek, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses:
Special Abilities:

-=LANGUAGES=-
Abyssal, Arabic, Celestial (because Supernal is dumb!), Draconic, Egyptian, Gaalic, Germanic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Primordial, Slavic, Turkish

okay, so I have way too many ideas. and nothing else to do right now. so i'm gonna post several short descriptions of ideas for games i've had, and follow that up with some slightly expanded ideas on those games as individual posts. that's the plan right now. i also have a short attention span so it's possible i might decide to do something else.

anyway, here are the short descriptions:

honor among thieves:
idea i had for a 3.5 game where all the PC's were rogues, or mutliclassed with at least one level of rogue. i suppose i could do it in 4e but i'm not sure i want to.

gihon:
this is the name of the campaign world i've had rolling around in my head for as long as i can remember. i've never run a game in it and i've never fully fleshed it out. i probably should.

kobolds of cloakwood:
i took the idea of the short intro game in the 4e dmg, made some minor changes, beefed it up so it would level a party of four to second level, and asked what seemed to me to be the obvious questions (what's a white dragon doing in cloakwood?) and kept coming up with answers to the questions until i had an idea that would take the party up to at least 15th level. i could probably stretch it even further if i felt like it, which i don't.

children of the gods:
campaign idea for a game that takes place in the ancient Mediterranean of myth. the characters are all children of gods, like Hercules. they go on wacky adventures. this is a favorite of mine. i may try to run it in 4e. I had some good ideas for how to go about it in 3.5 and i need to think it over more.

everybody dies:
I got this idea after a game a friend of mine ran. it ended with a tpk which nobody likes, except we all had a good time. i don't exactly expect our group to enjoy dying as much as we did that time, but what else can you expect when you play a game called "everybody dies"? i was thinking of making this be a zombie apocalypse game. i had considered continuing the game with pc's as zombies, or taking it to the afterlife. this game is more skeletal (hah!) than anything of my other ideas. it's really just an idea, what could i come up with for a game where i can guarantee all the pc's die?

little bastards:
idea for a game where all the pc's are small and evil. goblins, kobolds, nasty halflings, nothings off limits as long as it's balanced, small, and evil.

that's all i've got for now. i'll expand on some of these in separate posts.