E6: The Game Inside D&D

[Ry]

Finally, you may or may not have seen my new project, a wide open gaming product that's geared at building a systemless rpg supplement. The goal is actually somewhat similar to the Dictionary of Mu, and if you ever followed my Last Age threads you'll see a lot of familiar things popping up. Check it out:

http://www.greathundred.org

 

[joela]

Eberron E6 Begins

I sure wouldn't mind hearing about other peoples' E6 games - even if you're at a stage of "Hmm... my players are doing THIS right now but I don't know what to do next" feel free to post it here.

Sunday ran the first game of my E6 Eberron campaign. This was also the first game I've GM'd for nearly 20 years.

Issues that I discovered with E6:

Though all PC were at 6th level, their first encounter faced by the PCs was an CR 12 dragon. They couldn't even dent it and I was very loose with the rules. Fortunately, it was a flashback scene but I realized that the players were not experienced yet to run PCs to fight dragons. Their PCs, too, were also not equipped to fight them as well.

One player wants his PC to have enough Improved Precise Shot. Since the perquisites include BAB +11, I'd like advice on how to make it viable for him.

I'm using a variant of E6. Besides all being 6th level, all the PCs start with zero experience points. They gain a feat after 5k as per standard E6 rules.
However, once they've accumulated enough experience to qualify for 7th level, they become E7 characters and their experience points are reset to zero. I'm not yet sure how to adjust their challenges; most likely, I'll continue to wing it. Current plan to confront the PCs with lots of mooks (at least 5 per PC) to slow them down, traps, puzzles, misdirection, with 1-2 major opponents with CR equal to PCs+2. I'm currently using a heavily modified version of the official Eberron adventure, Whispers of the Vampire Blade and the main Big Bad seems to be the right level.

 

[Animus]

I ran an E8 one-shot Friday night, and it went very well.

It was a short dungeon crawl and dragon encounter. There were 7 PCs, level 8 + 5 feats, and a level 7 cohort (close cohort feat from Dragon magazine). I put them up against a adult green dragon (CR 13), built for melee combat (8 melee attacks in a full round) and big breath weapon madness (clinging breath and maximize breath: potential of 108 points of acid damage over 2 rounds, ouch!)

In the end, I held back just a little. I used Clinging Breath but not Maximize, and still nearly killed the cleric cohort. In total I put three people negative and severely hurt a lot more before they put it down. It was great fun.

The players enjoyed the versatility that having the additional feats gave, and my spell casters knew the 4th level spells fairly well, so their turns were fast too. This system really works.

 

[Hairfoot]

Sorry I'm late to the party. I can't believe I've missed this so long - it looks like everything I wanted 3E to be.

Just so I have this straight: up until 6th level, characters progress according to the standard PHB XP charts, and receive feats and skills at standard rates. After that, they receive a feat for each 5000XP, but no other class-level benefits?

 

[Ry]

Welcome to the party Hairfoot - yep, you've got it exactly.

 

[Cerulean_Wings]

Hi all, I'm about to start an E6 campaign in Rpol, but since it's my first low-magic campaign I'm forced to ask a couple of questions regarding treasure and items:

- Is there a formula for determining treasure for a low magic campaign? Such as counting the encounter as being 1 lower (an encounter of ECL 4 would count as ECL 3 for treasure), for example

- What items should be given to the players in order to keep them feeling like they're progressing in the "material" sense, but without giving it all at once, thus not having much else to give as rewards? This applies to magic items and mundane items alike

- What sort of "immaterial" rewards are there for the players, other than the trust of the people they help?

All assistance is appreciated

PS: If anyone is interested in playing in the E6 campaign via Rpol, go here: http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=27738&gn=DnD+3.5+E6+-+The+path+to+greatness&date=1194531114

If you like it, give me a request to join

 

[Eidalac]

I'm currently running the Red Hand of Doom with E6. In place of magic weapons and armor I've been using the alternative masterwork system found in the Black Company Campaign Setting.

Roughly, the best masterwork item in that system comes out just around the power of a +3 weapon, so it can replace the bulk of the magic items you'd normally see. I'm still using standard magic items for other types, just limiting the CL that's around.

Also, I found a very nice Rod in one of the Scared Land books, which has 5 charges a day which can be used to cast any one of the 5-6 spells in it. I retooled it into a staff for the wizard, and I plan on using it as a template for all other staves, as the basic mechanic is, I think, very much in line with the feel of E6.

 

[mfrench]

I am currently trying to run an E6 PbP, finishing up recruiting in this thread. One of the players wants to try a Vow of Poverty monk. I'm not really familiar with VoP. Does anybody have experience with it in E6, or has anyone given any thought to how it would work.

And by the way, mine isn't the first E6 PbP, there are several of them out there already.

 

[Hairfoot]

Regarding magic items, those who haven't visited Crystalkeep.com will find PDFs of items listed by creator level. Useful for selecting treasure.

 

[Theine]

Hello.

This is a very interesting variant. But what classes can it support?