WesternWolf
First Post
Hey all, I'm new to these forums, but I've been poking around the past few days and I like what I see. So I figured I'd post something. Let me start with a little background. I've been playing D&D for about 7 years now, but I've never really DMed anything. When I first started I was playing in home games, and then I moved on to RPGA stuff (mostly Living City), then I started playing Living Arcanis (formerly RPGA). I haven't really played in a home campaign in a few years and I'm starting to miss the freedom involved. Since it looks like our resident DM is content to just run LA modules, I figured I'd do the next best thing and run my own campaign. I'm going for something unique, and a bit less "high fantasy" than most campaigns. I'm using maps from the old Birthright 2e campaign setting, and might steal some other concepts from it. But the characters are just adventurers, not regents. I want the world to feel gritty, and deadly. Not many cities, and not much "civilization". I wrote up a little manifesto/character creation guidelides document for my players and I'd be interested to get some feedback on it. Since I can't figure out how to do a spoiler thing, I apologize in advance for the length.
Brief History: Cerilia is a savage world, currently in the beginning of a dark age. In former times, great empires covered the world, with the gods themselves on their thrones. Eventually war for global domination broke out, as it is wont to do. The great war enveloped the whole planet in fire and blood for millennia. Many of the wonders of civilization were lost in the destruction, and many of the gods themselves perished in the terrible conflict. When the dust settled, no one had won, and no one was strong enough to continue fighting. The gods retreated to outer planes to lick their wounds and forsook their creations. For almost 400 years the people of Cerilia have tried to pick up the pieces. Eventually organizing into tribes and small fuedal city-states, civilization was again born. It is in this time that the primal world is ripe for adventure and creating a destiny worthy of being remembered.
The world of Cerilia is a diverse one. Humans are still the most populous of the races, but the populations of other humanoid races are much much higher than in a standard D&D world. Gnomes are believed to be extinct, as are several of the Elven sub-races. Goblinoids, orcs, and the monstrous humanoids listed above, often live side by side with humans and the common races. While racism is definitely a problem in many places, humans and orcs don't automatically try to kill each other, and the "monstrous" races share the same moral rainbow as humans.
Playable Classes:
All PHB, except Wizard and Cleric.
Rangers and Paladins must use the Champion of the Wild and Holy Warrior class variants from Complete Champion.
Beguiler (PHB II)
Crusader (Tome of Battle)
Divine Mind (Complete Psionics)
Duskblade (PHB II)
Dread Necromancer (Heroes of Horror)
Dragon Shaman (PHB II)
Favored Soul (Complete Divine)
Hexblade (Complete Warrior)
Lurk (Complete Psionics)
Spirit Shaman (Complete Divine)
Swashbuckler (Complete Warrior)
Swordsage (Tome of Battle)
Warblade (Tome of Battle)
Warlock (Complete Arcane)
Warmage (Complete Arcane)
Alignment: In the world of Cerilia morality is painted in delicate shades of grey. Therefore it is impossible to represent good and evil in such absolute terms as alignment. Also the forces of good, evil, law and chaos do not exist as literal forces. The concepts of good and evil exist, a paladin still must keep a code of honor, and demons are still chaotic, selfish and evil creatures. Gods likewise have no alignments. Due to this all the "protection from" and "magic circle against" spells are removed. Any other spells whose effects directly rely on alignment are also removed. Features such as smite evil only work if the character using the smite has firsthand knowledge of the target committing evil deeds/is committing an evil deed at the time.
Magic: Magic is abundant in Cerilia, but not always in the forms normal to a traditional D&D world. The power to manipulate magic must be born within the individual and cannot be obtained through study. Deities are no longer powerful enough to grant spells to every priest, thus only the chosen of the gods (Favored Souls) and those powerful enough to wrest divine energy through their own will are capable of divine magic. Druids harvest the raw power of creation that suffuses nature, and need not venerate a specific deity to get spells, although most do. The ability to travel the planes is extremely rare. Therefore any spells granting access to any plane besides the Ethereal are restricted and require special permission to use.
Gods: There were once countless gods living on Cerilia. Almost one for every type of creature. But all but the mightiest gods perished or were forgotten during the Endless War. Even the survivors were forced to retreat from the material plane as the War dissolved. The remaining deities are not cohesive, and in fact many of the gods hold a bitter hatred for each other. Most mortals just invoke whichever name they figure is least likely to get them smitten. [edit] there was a huge list of gods here, but it's unecessary. basically a mix of traditional mythological gods from diff. cultures.[/edit]
Death: Death in Cerilia is treated differently than in other worlds. Once a person dies, it is very difficult to raise them from the dead. The gods are very jealous of their servants' souls, and Hades is more than happy to take the unclaimed souls for himself. Not to mention the other forces vying for the power over mortal souls. Within 24 hours of a being's death its soul has been judged and escorted by Anubis and his servants to its rightful destination. Thus to raise a corpse, it must first be healed to perfect condition (no HP damage) and then an appropriate spell must be cast on it before 24 hours have elapsed. After this time, only direct intervention of a deity (miracle spell) can allow a corpse to be raised. Even if the spell is cast within 24 hours, the caster must succeed on a Will save with a DC equal to 15+Hit Dice of the creature being raised, as they struggle with the will of the gods, or the spell fails. Even the powerful True Resurrection spell requires a Miracle to accompany it if the 24 hour limit has been passed.
Whew
...I apologize again for the length. So what I'm looking for in replies are any obvious holes in my house rules. I'm not an experienced DM, and I know I'm prolly missing something. What am I missing about removing alignment that's gonna cause me trouble? How can I change the druid so it's not the only vancian caster on my playable classes list? Anyone know a good way to make the game feel kinda gritty and dangerous past 5th or 6th level (besides sending overpowered foes at the PCs constantly)?
Brief History: Cerilia is a savage world, currently in the beginning of a dark age. In former times, great empires covered the world, with the gods themselves on their thrones. Eventually war for global domination broke out, as it is wont to do. The great war enveloped the whole planet in fire and blood for millennia. Many of the wonders of civilization were lost in the destruction, and many of the gods themselves perished in the terrible conflict. When the dust settled, no one had won, and no one was strong enough to continue fighting. The gods retreated to outer planes to lick their wounds and forsook their creations. For almost 400 years the people of Cerilia have tried to pick up the pieces. Eventually organizing into tribes and small fuedal city-states, civilization was again born. It is in this time that the primal world is ripe for adventure and creating a destiny worthy of being remembered.
The world of Cerilia is a diverse one. Humans are still the most populous of the races, but the populations of other humanoid races are much much higher than in a standard D&D world. Gnomes are believed to be extinct, as are several of the Elven sub-races. Goblinoids, orcs, and the monstrous humanoids listed above, often live side by side with humans and the common races. While racism is definitely a problem in many places, humans and orcs don't automatically try to kill each other, and the "monstrous" races share the same moral rainbow as humans.
Playable Classes:
All PHB, except Wizard and Cleric.
Rangers and Paladins must use the Champion of the Wild and Holy Warrior class variants from Complete Champion.
Beguiler (PHB II)
Crusader (Tome of Battle)
Divine Mind (Complete Psionics)
Duskblade (PHB II)
Dread Necromancer (Heroes of Horror)
Dragon Shaman (PHB II)
Favored Soul (Complete Divine)
Hexblade (Complete Warrior)
Lurk (Complete Psionics)
Spirit Shaman (Complete Divine)
Swashbuckler (Complete Warrior)
Swordsage (Tome of Battle)
Warblade (Tome of Battle)
Warlock (Complete Arcane)
Warmage (Complete Arcane)
Alignment: In the world of Cerilia morality is painted in delicate shades of grey. Therefore it is impossible to represent good and evil in such absolute terms as alignment. Also the forces of good, evil, law and chaos do not exist as literal forces. The concepts of good and evil exist, a paladin still must keep a code of honor, and demons are still chaotic, selfish and evil creatures. Gods likewise have no alignments. Due to this all the "protection from" and "magic circle against" spells are removed. Any other spells whose effects directly rely on alignment are also removed. Features such as smite evil only work if the character using the smite has firsthand knowledge of the target committing evil deeds/is committing an evil deed at the time.
Magic: Magic is abundant in Cerilia, but not always in the forms normal to a traditional D&D world. The power to manipulate magic must be born within the individual and cannot be obtained through study. Deities are no longer powerful enough to grant spells to every priest, thus only the chosen of the gods (Favored Souls) and those powerful enough to wrest divine energy through their own will are capable of divine magic. Druids harvest the raw power of creation that suffuses nature, and need not venerate a specific deity to get spells, although most do. The ability to travel the planes is extremely rare. Therefore any spells granting access to any plane besides the Ethereal are restricted and require special permission to use.
Gods: There were once countless gods living on Cerilia. Almost one for every type of creature. But all but the mightiest gods perished or were forgotten during the Endless War. Even the survivors were forced to retreat from the material plane as the War dissolved. The remaining deities are not cohesive, and in fact many of the gods hold a bitter hatred for each other. Most mortals just invoke whichever name they figure is least likely to get them smitten. [edit] there was a huge list of gods here, but it's unecessary. basically a mix of traditional mythological gods from diff. cultures.[/edit]
Death: Death in Cerilia is treated differently than in other worlds. Once a person dies, it is very difficult to raise them from the dead. The gods are very jealous of their servants' souls, and Hades is more than happy to take the unclaimed souls for himself. Not to mention the other forces vying for the power over mortal souls. Within 24 hours of a being's death its soul has been judged and escorted by Anubis and his servants to its rightful destination. Thus to raise a corpse, it must first be healed to perfect condition (no HP damage) and then an appropriate spell must be cast on it before 24 hours have elapsed. After this time, only direct intervention of a deity (miracle spell) can allow a corpse to be raised. Even if the spell is cast within 24 hours, the caster must succeed on a Will save with a DC equal to 15+Hit Dice of the creature being raised, as they struggle with the will of the gods, or the spell fails. Even the powerful True Resurrection spell requires a Miracle to accompany it if the 24 hour limit has been passed.
Whew
...I apologize again for the length. So what I'm looking for in replies are any obvious holes in my house rules. I'm not an experienced DM, and I know I'm prolly missing something. What am I missing about removing alignment that's gonna cause me trouble? How can I change the druid so it's not the only vancian caster on my playable classes list? Anyone know a good way to make the game feel kinda gritty and dangerous past 5th or 6th level (besides sending overpowered foes at the PCs constantly)?
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