Emberverse Campaign - PEACH

First off, I've only read the first 2 books and I'm almost done with the 3rd. So please no spoilers if you've read the series.

Character Creation
Inherent Bonuses
Sanity stat added (SAN = WIS*3)
Monk from PHB3 replaced with Soul Knife (user created, looks balanced)
All characters are human
Only the books I own are allowed (PHB1-3 and all the Powers except MP2 and Psionic power)
Players are half-health constantly
No Hybrids

((Magic items aren't going to be common and I want the players to be dissuaded by combat. Maybe during CY1 they're at half health and by CY2, they're full health? I also intend on leveling them up at about 1 level to the CY.))

House Rules
'Idiot' rule - To speak OOC, put palm on forehead; otherwise, everything said is in character
Morale rules - I have a print out
Obsidian to replace the skill challenges
Pathfinder's kingmaker rules are converted/hijacked
3 minutes to a player's turn, 6 to the DM
Profession/Craft skill/feats - When a player learns a new profession or a craft (like blacksmithing) he'll get the +5 trained bonus for it. But if he tries to craft a basket, he won't get the bonus since it's a different craft. New skills learned by feats.


((I couldn't figure out the skill challenge rules but I understood Obsidian easier so I use that. Morale rules because morale is so important in combat. And I want to run a sandbox/hex crawl where the players have to create and run a kingdom so...I hijacked the pathfinder rules. Including the mass combat rules but I don't think that will be used much.))

Location
Portland Oregon (I'm going to have to enlarge and hex out the map from the books)
All major locations from the books

NPCs
All major characters from the books (Mike Havel, Juniper, Lord Protector)

Pre-Change (events inspired by the Dresden Files/Urban Fantasy)
I really need help here. A prelude adventure of sorts. I want it to be an urban fantasy beginning, so guns, sorcery, and monsters...maybe a murder mystery that turns into a climatic gun fight. Reason for wanting a gun fight: players will want to use them post change and notice that firearms no longer work.

Post-Change (this is the true Emberverse campaign)
Players will begin in portland. They either flee or stay. If they stay, Lord Protector tries to recruit them. If they say no, arena fight. If they win the fight, recruit attempt again. If they say no again, exile...and they get attacked by the armed escort out of the city. Or maybe slavery attempt? if they join, ultimately, they end up fighting the Bearkillers/Clan Mackenzie.

If players flee, they can attempt to set up their own kingdom. Eventually encounter Mackenzies/bearkillers. they join or fight them or whatever.



I need to convert some diseases onto the disease track from the DMG. The black plague and various other diseases were around in the first year. I'll be using the weather from IRL history to simulate the weather for the game.

Monsters come from other Planes. When a monster is slain, it turns into ectoplasm which will quickly evaporate (heey maybe make the ectoplasm necessary for new magic item creation?). Possible uses: ghost warriors attack farm house full of innocents for whatever reason. Players go to stop ghosts, succeed but there are civvie casualties. NPC Posse shows up and claims players are guilty! Encountering monsters results in SAN-loss

What will probably end up happening is an alternate history of the events in the Emberverse.



Lastly, I need help organizing this to share. I know it looks like a Frankenstein monster from all the cobbled rules but most of them have been used by a prior adventure or campaign of mine and I liked them quite a bit. If anything, the newest thing for this is the kingmaker and the SAN rules. It looks complicated but it's really easy once it's explained. I want to turn this nugget of a setting into something that can be shared via pdf or something.

I'm using 4e because it's the system I understand most and like best.

Thanks, for reading through that solid wall of text (or skipping to this last line). Any help is appreciated!

That looks like a good set of rules and you have obviously given it a lot of thought.

With monsters and magic involved, will it feel like Emberverse? D&D magic lacks the subtley of the books from what little I remember. I can see it working if people choose martial characters, but what if somebody chooses a wizard as their main? They are using flamboyount magic every round.

I am a big fan of post-apoc games and modern day sorcery games too. I love Cthulu and Shadowrun and Wyrd-West games. So I certainly think it is fine to have obvious magic in this setting, but if your players are fans of the books, you might want to make it more clear that it will include fireballs, or you might get off on the wrong foot with them.

Will monster HP also be halved? What about healing? Healers are a lot better if they are healing 50% of your HP every cast. If healing is also nerfed, is it worth casting a heal when you could just nuke somebody for full damage instead?

I like the sound of the game. 4e feels like a bit of a rough fit for this genre unfortunetly.

Unwise said:

That looks like a good set of rules and you have obviously given it a lot of thought.

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Thank you, this is my pride and joy of a setting.

With monsters and magic involved, will it feel like Emberverse? D&D magic lacks the subtley of the books from what little I remember. I can see it working if people choose martial characters, but what if somebody chooses a wizard as their main? They are using flamboyount magic every round.

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The magic...well, there's crazier things to have happened. In the book, something weird happened out in Nantucket. I'm suggesting that the event is magical in nature. The magic in the books is more divine intervention (from what I've read anyway, I'm only on book 3).

Have you read the Dresden Files? In it, people are described as knowing about magic, deep down, primally even but when confronted with it, they will "rationalize" it away. In one of the books, there is actual footage of Dresden fighting a werewolf. But when people see it, they all claim it's an "elaborate hoax" with crappy FX work.

Now, to continue with that precedent as a guiding principle in all urban fantasies, then it could easily fit within the Emberverse. Pre-Change, we rationalize it away. Post-Change, we figure "hey, maybe the Change did it" and we accept it. By leaving magic and the like to major NPCs (Lady Juniper will be a bard) then it *should* be largely limited. If anything, the NPCs would think it's all legend and exaggeration until they see it for themselves!

Will monster HP also be halved? What about healing? Healers are a lot better if they are healing 50% of your HP every cast. If healing is also nerfed, is it worth casting a heal when you could just nuke somebody for full damage instead?

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Honestly, this is where I am lost. If clerics can just heal all the diseases and injuries, the biggest threat during CY1 is overcome! Maybe I could make it to where the clerics have to cast a ritual (read: pray to their God) to regain Healing Word? But that adds more crunch than I think is necessary. I read this article that someone posted in another thread Look Ma No wounds part 3 and I will probably be blending that with what you shared earlier (thanks again btw!).

Perhaps I could just let it be? Then the PCs will gain a reputation as wondrous healers...and will have to deal with fame (and infamy!) that goes with it. More bandit attacks? More people coming to them for aid? The Lord Protector sending out more bounty hunters after them?

I like the sound of the game. 4e feels like a bit of a rough fit for this genre unfortunetly.

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It was actually harder trying to run an Urban Fantasy setting with 4e rules...until I realized that it's all in our imagination. The end result was more like Shadowrun, without all the cyberpunk. My players enjoyed it very much (I ran the adventure in our hometown and they ended up fighting zombies from a voodoo bokor in a trailer park.) Of course, my players are very laid back and I encourage them to add their own ideas to the setting.