(Discussion) General Part I

[Creamsteak]

How about Deities? Would you use an existing pantheon or make up a new one? If you make a new one, you would only need several (1 per alignment minimum I think) and other deities could be 'discovered' later.

Heh... well I'm only about 1 minute ahead of you... ever consider judging at times? It's not a 100% solid duty, but we could always use some extras.

So far my idea is that the Pantheon for the setting will be made up of 1 deity per admin/supermod/mod/forum leader. Hopefully all alignments get covered. After that, some may need to be made as filler for alignments or basic domains, and some will be made by players that progress.

Like, me, being a hosted forum leader or whatever it is I am, I'm creating a Lesser Deity. His name is Antonidas (Quarterstaff, Knowledge/Law/Community) and he is worshipped by scholarly bards, wizards, and scribes. No need for stats, but his background and portfolio and such will all be developed soon enough.

Morrus, for instance, gets to name the coveted Divine Rank 20 deity of his choice. He doesn't have to, of course, but I'm kinda hoping it works that way.

 

[garyh]

Creamsteak, I dig your pantheon idea!

Now, as for what alignments and portfolios I'd claim...

 

[GnomeWorks]

Hmm... you might also want to whip up a list of what books and rules are 'canon' for the setting. For instance, psionics - yes or no? Class splatbooks? 3rd party publishers?

I would also suggest keeping a list of what adventures are used where and when... for instance, I kinda doubt that RttToEE could be done more than once... keeping track of that kind of thing would be, imo, a good idea.

 

[garyh]

Hmm... you might also want to whip up a list of what books and rules are 'canon' for the setting. For instance, psionics - yes or no? Class splatbooks? 3rd party publishers?

I would also suggest keeping a list of what adventures are used where and when... for instance, I kinda doubt that RttToEE could be done more than once... keeping track of that kind of thing would be, imo, a good idea.

Good points, GW. CS mentioned above a little about canon so far:

Characters will be created with 30 point buy.
3.5 Game SRD
PhB Races and Character Classes
Max starting gold

...but addressing other sources, etc., would be important.

My 2 cp: No original splatbooks or psionics. I think we should stick to 3.5 stuff only. Maybe we can include the Complete Warrior (etc.) and 3.5 Psionics, but I don't think i'd be a good idea to try to convert the old 3.0 material.

3rd party publishers I'm torn on... There's a lot of good stuff out there, but we'd need to make sure only balanced stuf that fits th game world gets in. I suppose if the judges discuss it beforehand, we could allow 3rd party stuff. But we'd have to keep such power centralized to maintain consistency.

 

[Creamsteak]

Hmm... you might also want to whip up a list of what books and rules are 'canon' for the setting. For instance, psionics - yes or no? Class splatbooks? 3rd party publishers?

I would also suggest keeping a list of what adventures are used where and when... for instance, I kinda doubt that RttToEE could be done more than once... keeping track of that kind of thing would be, imo, a good idea.

To be fair, I think that saying, SRD and OGL content only is necessary. SRD does include Psionics, so your in luck GW. Splatbooks for 3.0 NO. But we might allow the 3.5 splats as they come out. We can add some core material not in the SRD, like Mind Flayers and Beholders as need be, but I want to make things as open as possible.

And as simple as possible, because I intend to write some feats and stuff and I expect players to come up with ideas to submit to the judges. Of course, developing a feat would require some kind of investment of resources (probably IC time, and possibly a little gold or experience depending).

I don't want to run too many published adventures, but there will be a few. The thing is, I can theoretically see two different RttToEE adventures, with enough changes. We should keep a running list though, just to be covered.



To summarize what I'm imagining beginning with: 3.5 SRD, with some extras taken from core. We can work within these confines for quite a while before we get bored. 3.0 Psionic characters will have to change over to 3.5 versions when the book is released and the SRD is updated.

 

[GnomeWorks]

My 2 cp: No original splatbooks or psionics. I think we should stick to 3.5 stuff only. Maybe we can include the Complete Warrior (etc.) and 3.5 Psionics, but I don't think i'd be a good idea to try to convert the old 3.0 material.

That's reasonable. If we want to keep it strictly 3.5, then I agree with your assessments.

3rd party publishers I'm torn on... There's a lot of good stuff out there, but we'd need to make sure only balanced stuf that fits th game world gets in. I suppose if the judges discuss it beforehand, we could allow 3rd party stuff. But we'd have to keep such power centralized to maintain consistency.

Hmm... fitting the game world, eh? Well, that's not my call. But, imo, there should be sections that are different... for instance, even if psionics isn't generally allowed, there could be one place where goblins are really common - and hence more blues - that psionic characters could come from, conceivably. That way, if a DM wants to run a psionics game with Enworld, then it can be done. The same could be said for many other ideas.

Having judges discuss new ideas before they are allowed is of course a necessity. They'd have to be aware of what was going on, and know where to look to check on rules and whatnot. Allowing 3rd party information would, imo, allow for a greater expanse of character options, thus further enriching the campaign world, thus making for a generally better experience for everyone.

And another thing, going off of the 3rd party publisher idea... what about other types of settings? Like creamsteak's FF-to-d20 conversion project, or AU... things that will fit in with the fantasy feel, but are slightly different from standard d20. IMO, these things could fit, though it would take a little work, and it would probably require the 'only a little section of the world can do this' a lot more than, say, psionics.

 

[Velmont]

To summarize what I'm imagining beginning with: 3.5 SRD, with some extras taken from core. We can work within these confines for quite a whiel before we get bored. 3.0 Psionic characters will have to change over to 3.5 versions when the book is released and the SRD is updated.

If Psionic 3.0 are taken, some change should be made, at least the same major change that have been made for spell to be applied to similar psi power. I'm thinking to Animal Affinity, which mimik the Bull's Strenght series of 3.0. I don't know much of psi 3.0, but there may be other change like that to do. I think it would be a most not to have some unbalance in the spell capabilities of psi over other class.

 

[GnomeWorks]

To be fair, I think that saying, SRD and OGL content only is necessary. SRD does include Psionics, so your in luck GW. Splatbooks for 3.0 NO. But we might allow the 3.5 splats as they come out. We can add some core material not in the SRD, like Mind Flayers and Beholders as need be, but I want to make things as open as possible.

While I'm glad to hear that psionics is available, cs, you've opened up a can of worms... For instance, is psionics the same? Or different? Or a mix of the two ideologies?

And as simple as possible, because I intend to write some feats and stuff and I expect players to come up with ideas to submit to the judges. Of course, developing a feat would require some kind of investment of resources (probably IC time, and possibly a little gold or experience depending).

Hmm... an interesting idea. I think I like the idea of the character having to drop out of adventuring for awhile to create the new feat.

I don't want to run too many published adventures, but there will be a few. The thing is, I can theoretically see two different RttToEE adventures, with enough changes. We should keep a running list though, just to be covered.

Well, I don't run many either, but I was just saying that we should probably be worried about it, as others may run them. I could see two RttToEE, but they would have to be substantially different... and even then, the second one would probably depend upon what happened in the first one. For instance, perhaps the second one is in the middle of construction after the destruction of the first one?

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

You have to brainstorm CS 30 min after I leave the comp for the night

Anyways, that said, count me in.

 

[Creamsteak]

Gnomeworks, you worry about too much at one time.

Keep it simple, we will add things as we get going. The first thing that I'm going to do is open a Rogues Gallery soon (I'm leaving for my University Wednesday, so prolly after that, but I might get excited and do it early). Then I'll wait till 10 or so 1st level characters are placed (really just stat blocks to start, maybe a general history). Then I'm going to make a thread that describes the first city, something that fits in anywhere.

Then I open up the Tavern thread, and let players start discussing, let some role-playing come out through there. From there, I leave my comp for about 3 days, while I write a suitable 1st level adventure. Then I introduce my hook to the bar and see if I get a bite. Meanwhile someone else will be working on the other adventure that might or might not intersect with my own.

Then when that's over, I'll add more to the setting. Maybe at that point we will really begin to introduce psionics (possibly waiting until after the 3.5 book comes out, scheduling some kind of world changing event or something).

What do you think of that?