Four Commoners

[SnowleopardVK]

At this point my current campaign is likely to end in a session or two with the players killing each other, and so the group has begun toying with ideas of what to do next. We're all still playtesting the same setting of course, but doing the same campaign again and again with the same group would get old fast, so my personal campaign's future playtesting will have to be done with other players.

At one point one of the players suggested a "four-commoner" game. It actually sounded pretty interesting and we ended up getting really excited about the discussions of characters and backstories, so we may actually give it a try. The player who suggested the idea will be DMing, which is nice both because I haven't been a player in a while and because of the five of us she tends to make encounters overly easy, whereas the other four of us tend to make encounters overly difficult. In other words she's probably the least likely of us to kill a party of four commoners.

We're taking another week or two to finish the game I'm currently DMing first, and she said she'd probably be ready to start pretty soon after mine finishes.

For now... What do you folks think of the idea of a party of four commoners? Obviously it's going to be difficult due to it being a rather lousy class and because we'll have no arcane or divine spellcasters, but we still think it could be a fun little deviation from normal adventures.

 

[pawsplay]

My brother and his friends used to call this "Farmer Brown." They would all player commoners, who at some point, would inevitibly get pushed too far and turn into murderous psychopaths.

 

[Thanael]

Check out this great campaign log of a single player commoner campaign: Meet Joe Wood - A Commoner Campaign

Also when speaking of commoners I have to link to my commoner rant post which has lots of nice links to NPC class builds...

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Heh, Joe Wood's story is a cool one to read.

I think ours is going to be more combat heavy (his had his share of combat, but a lot of it was non-combat challenges to suit the "mundane commoner" feeling). I'm not going to be the DM this time so I can't say for sure, but I believe the plan is for four "commoner adventurers", dungeon-crawling and all.

 

[SSuser]

I don't give npcs, npc classes. I make npcs as good as players. I've still kept a few npc classes but they are beefed up quite a bit.

I ran a good game a few years ago. I told each player to pick a standard class, then pick a job. A job like mayor, sheriff, magistrate... Now, run the town.

I explained them (the players) being new to the town, by telling them that the old council were just corrupt thieves. Furthermore, they'd been stoned and hanged to death. *Better make the town happy, and gain their trust.* I gave them problems to solve instead of monsters to kill. There were still monsters to kill but the standard day went like this, The group met during a council meeting discussed last week (last game) and plans for today (current game). I think the town size was 1250 adults. The first problem was the the town was about to double in size due to refugees. I gave them one game month to make plans. While plans were being made there was interference from the old mayor (towns people who saw him thought he was a ghost), an evil wizard who had killed someone; but it was an accident, a psychopath that started to kill for one reason, but continued killing for an other, an evil druid's bones had been eaten by a cow in a pasture (I used that like reincarnation; wild shape). More, more, much more. The town had been build on the foundation of a razed city, all that was left were sewers and basements of leveled buildings. Almost no one in the town knew of the old city, but a few had found a basement or cellar. The old city was added so I could give the players an almost working sewer. Provided, they were able to clean all of the creatures out of it first. All the notes and paperwork for the town had been stolen by the old mayor. The players had no idea who they owed money to, or who owed them. As the game progressed they found out. At one point, they were able to collect on a debt from an other town by helping defend/free the town from their enslavers.

It mostly turned into a scoobie doo mystery gang, mostly. Not what I had planned, but great fun never the less.

It ended up being one of my most favorite games that I ever ran.

I ended each game session with the deputy mayor (npc) saying "Madam Mayor, we have a problem!"

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Heh, Joe Wood's story is a cool one to read.

I think ours is going to be more combat heavy (his had his share of combat, but a lot of it was non-combat challenges to suit the "mundane commoner" feeling). I'm not going to be the DM this time so I can't say for sure, but I believe the plan is for four "commoner adventurers", dungeon-crawling and all.

Do you like...want help optimizing your commoner?

I'd start with a Dwarf, get the Blade of Mercy and Bully (or whichever one gives Intimidate as a class skill, I forget) traits, the Enforcer feat, and wield a battleaxe.

EDIT: You can swap a Half-Elf's Skill Focus for proficiency in any one martial or exotic weapon, too. Might also be a good racial choice, shame the dual favored class thing can't be traded.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Do you like...want help optimizing your commoner?

I'd start with a Dwarf, get the Blade of Mercy and Bully (or whichever one gives Intimidate as a class skill, I forget) traits, the Enforcer feat, and wield a battleaxe.

I believe we're limiting ourselves to human PCs only to fit with the particular time and place of the setting (immediately after Atlantis fell from the sky into the world and brought humans with it), and our DM has said she's probably going with the classic "roll 3d6 6 times for your ability scores, in order". I'll see how feat, skill, and equipment choices work out once I know my ability scores.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Update: Sessions haven't begun yet, but character creation has and I've got my ability scores rolled up. We did use "roll 3d6 6 times for your ability scores, in order" after all, and all four PCs are human. All four of us got pretty lucky considering it's probably one of the more unreliable methods of getting high numbers, but we all have pretty bad Wisdom. (To put it one way, I'm tied for second highest Wis with a 9)

PC1: (Me )
Str: 14 (12 + 2 for being human)
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 16
Wis: 9
Cha: 6

PC2: (She seems to intend to make a ranged-fighting commoner)
Str: 10
Dex: 16 (14 + 2 for being human)
Con: 11
Int: 11
Wis: 8
Cha: 17

PC3: (He seems to intend to make a dual-weapon or double-weapon commoner)
Str: 13
Dex: 18 (16 + 2 for being human)
Con: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 9
Cha: 12

PC4: (He seems to intend to make a standard "beat 'em up" single-weapon melee fighter commoner)
Str: 14
Dex: 12
Con: 15 (13 + 2 for being human)
Int: 11
Wis: 11
Cha: 18

With the highest Int in the group on my side, I think I'm likely to become effectively the Rogue (without literally taking rogue levels) of the group with the best skills. I'm also tied for highest Str, so I think a melee fighter is in order.

 

[RoryN]

Seems interesting enough just using commoners, but add into it a lack of healing/arcane magic to start, and it looks to be very interesting and fun. I hope you can keep a log of some kind to update those of us interrested in hearing how things go.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Seems interesting enough just using commoners, but add into it a lack of healing/arcane magic to start, and it looks to be very interesting and fun. I hope you can keep a log of some kind to update those of us interrested in hearing how things go.

Not just a lack at the start, there's a lack for a good-deal of the campaign. We aren't going to just start taking PC class levels at 2nd level, we're going to be taking more Commoner.

The DM's general idea is that accomplishing certain plot events might allow us to individually "unlock" other NPC classes like Warrior and Adept, but we're unlikely to get any PC class levels for a long time, if ever.

And I'll definitely keep a journal. Writing is what I do. I'll probably start posting it up in the Story Hour section once we start actually playing.