Interest Check: Swords & Wizardry, possible PbP

[gambler1650]

Binder Fred: We do need one more player. I like the character concept. Let me think about the 'reskinning powers' bit. My initial reaction is that it's an interesting take on elves, but there are some cases I can immediately think of which make it potentially problematic. An example: Your character tries to force open a door which is trapped. To be fair, the push spell used should still allow the same damage which could take the form of the spell being disrupted by whatever trap is set off and the 'feedback' causing the damage, or any of the spells used for strength actions are basically done at 'touch range'.

I'm also aiming for a somewhat low magic environment which a character with reskinning like you described might be a bit odd in. However, given that elves are limited to 5th level spells or less, it may still work.. and even explain WHY they're limited... they use part of their connection to the magical realm to help with their everyday actions and thus don't have as much to use in spells.

Let me think on this some more to see if it will fit the world concept.

It doesn't seem like Rhun's Casual Pathfinder game is getting off the ground, so I'd like to participate if I could (?).

I'm thinking of playing a young elven Fighter/Magic User named Antares. A scholarly, enthousiastically inquisitive type with an endless supply of oftentimes dangerous curiosity about - well - everything! Wears loose robes, tied at the elbow for convinience, and the starry silver circlet of an apprentice elven mage on his brow (hasn't earned the pointy hat yet ).

By the by, what are your thoughts on re-skining powers, Gambler? I was thinking of maybe making his Fighter/high Strength powers come from magical spells instead, if I could. Same crunch rule-wise, but IC lifting a big rock would for example involve casting a sparkly "levitation spell" with upwartd hand motions (same STR check to do it though), shooting a blazing "Fire Dart spell" instead of shooting arrows (still need the roll, the bow and the arrows as "material components", of course), shouting "Mellon" with grandiose gestures instead of bashing into a door, etc, etc. Would that be possible, in whole or in part?

 

[Binder Fred]

or any of the spells used for strength actions are basically done at 'touch range'.

Certainly works for me: simple, elegant and fair.

[Elves] use part of their connection to the magical realm to help with their everyday actions and thus don't have as much to use in spells.

Elves ARE often portrayed as more magical/elemental than humans, sometimes in their very essence. Some have it that this is due to an ephemeral, lingering connection to their original birthplace in the land of Faeries -- Exodus/Stranding from that land? Or a "land" that only existed in the far past before other races were born, when the Magic of Creation was still strong and plentiful? That atavistic connection *could* be stronger in certain individuals or lines (through fewer generations/mixing between themselves and the Original magic maybe?)? Just brainstorming here, but this last *could* eventually lead to the High Elf/Eladrin vs Wood Elf dichotomy, if you have that in your world...

Anything of interrest in there?


A few rule-questions while we're at it: how do you want to roll for begining spells? Choose Minimal Spells Known from the list and then roll for the rest? Roll everything and then re-roll if total spells known are below Min Spells Known?

Are we using Ascending or Descending AC? (Ascending has simpler maths, Descending has that old-school feel. Can't decide which I like better )

 

[gambler1650]

We'll be using Descending AC, for that Old School Flavor.

Let me think about the elf 'reskinning' physical actions as magical a bit more. I realized this morning what was bothering me, and it was a 'meta' issue. I'm hoping for the game to have a good amount of character interaction/development and RP on the boards, and my worry is that your character's unique way of doing physical actions might overshadow who he is and why he's doing the things he does: if that makes sense.

As a point of comparison, in a real life game I was part of, there was a player who insisted on using a British accent for his dwarf all the time.. very quickly it was determined that dwarves drank tea, and other 'stereotypes' taken from Britain. All I remember about his character is that he was a British dwarf who drank tea even though we played a few sessions.

There's also another mechanical issue. Spell dampening/increasing effects, magic resistance, creatures only affected by magical weapons, etc. We can simply say 'Absolutely no effects other than what would be caused physically...' but unless there's a solid reason why a Wraith can be affected by a magic arrow but not by an arrow that's created from a spell, then it spoils the suspension of disbelief a bit.

Finally, for spells known.. let me think about it for a bit.. I like the idea of you getting some flexibility of choice of starting spells, but your first method will make it much more likely to get more total spells (since you're effectively replacing some of the rolls with 100%). Came up with some methods, but the simplest might be:

Pick HALF (rounded up) of the minimum spells known for your INT (if it's 13, you know up to 3 first level spells as you want). Then order the remaining spells however you want and roll down the list but subtract 10% from the chance to know for each spell you chose at the start (so if you decided to know 3 spells, subtract 30 from the chance to know). For the first set of rolls, stop if you know your max number. If you don't know your minimum number after the first set, then start rolling in the same order for the remaining spells and stop when you reach the minimum number.

Example: You have 13 INT, you want to know Detect Magic, Magic Missile and Sleep. You decide to keep the first level spells in alphabetical order. You can know between 5-8 total spells, but your chance to know each is now 35%.

You roll horribly, and just get Read Magic, so you start from the top of the spell list again. The next spell you know will give you 5 total that you know, and you'll stop there.

Sound fair?

 

[Binder Fred]

my worry is that your character's unique way of doing physical actions might overshadow who he is and why he's doing the things he does: if that makes sense.

Well, he *is* a mage: magic is what he does. To my mind the changes are meant to make him more of an archetypal mage than trying to make him something that stands out as *individually* peculiar, but YMMV, of course. It's a bit like fearing that possession of a wand of magic missiles will end up defining a character: sure it *might* happen, but do we really need to protect against it? (Maybe you could re-assure yourself by reading some of my posts in other games, see the kind of indepth roleplay I favor? My active games are linked in my sig.)

The non-magical "magical attack"... Now that *is* a problem I hadn't thought about. Hm... Less aesthetically pleasing than my first idea, but how about saying the magic just creates (or transports?) a physical, non-magical missile to his hands and propels it? Anything that affects magic would affect the creation side of things (doesn't work in an anti-magic zone for example), while the impact side of things would be purely physical (passes through wraiths, doesn't trigger magic resistance, etc, *exactly* like an arrow). If we could throw-in a little blue glow of fading residual magic on the missile for effect, I'd be a happy boy.

 

[gambler1650]

Well, he *is* a mage: magic is what he does. To my mind the changes are meant to make him more of an archetypal mage than trying to make him something that stands out as *individually* peculiar, but YMMV, of course. It's a bit like fearing that possession of a wand of magic missiles will end up defining a character: sure it *might* happen, but do we really need to protect against it? (Maybe you could re-assure yourself by reading some of my posts in other games, see the kind of indepth roleplay I favor? My active games are linked in my sig.)

Oh, I'd already checked out your characters elsewhere... Put the way you did, my possible worries are vanished, at least as far as any meta problems...

The non-magical "magical attack"... Now that *is* a problem I hadn't thought about. Hm... Less aesthetically pleasing than my first idea, but how about saying the magic just creates (or transports?) a physical, non-magical missile to his hands and propels it? Anything that affects magic would affect the creation side of things (doesn't work in an anti-magic zone for example), while the impact side of things would be purely physical (passes through wraiths, doesn't trigger magic resistance, etc, *exactly* like an arrow). If we could throw-in a little blue glow of fading residual magic on the missile for effect, I'd be a happy boy.

I'll need to think about this some more, but mostly I think it works. We still have a minor issue with the strength based opening/pushing stuff, since some traps/doors could conceivably be affected (negatively or positively) by magic but in most cases it would be specific spells that would do so.

For the missiles, perhaps the 'material component' arrow actually is transported (as you mentioned above). Once it leaves his hand the magic very rapidly dissipates, perhaps leaving that slight blue glow that isn't really strong enough to affect anything magically.

In any event, I think I meant to say it and realize I didn't do so explicitly, but you're welcome to post stats and character concept in the official OOC thread as you've been accepted as a member of the group.

What's your thought on the knowing spells procedure I described?

 

[Pentius]

If you're willing to take another player, I would be interested in this game. I like the cut of your jib, so to speak, and have been interested in trying 'old school' systems lately. I don't want to commit to a character concept before rolling, since it looks like I might, for example, get all excited about a Fighter concept and end up with Magic-User stats.

Here are some examples of PbP characters I am currently playing:
Noriaki Matsumoto, Human Samurai/Shugenja(using Barbarian mechanics)
Howler, Half-Orc Pirate(using Ranger mechanics)
Canus Meran, Revenant Hexblade(ex-paladin)

And the IC threads:
For Noriaki: Serpent's Skull
For Howler: The Hanged Man Tavern
For Canus: The Tower's Shard Tavern

 

[gambler1650]

Pentius, I'm going to put you on standby. I want to stick with four for now to see how the dynamic looks. Thanks though!

 

[Pentius]

Works for me.

 

[gambler1650]

It looks like this campaign could use another player. So, please take a look at the info here, and in the "Talking the Talk" thread (which includes a link to the Playing the Game thread):

http://www.enworld.org/forum/talkin...ilver-dragon-swords-wizardry-core-4th-ed.html

Please let me know if you have interest, and as soon as I accept you as a player and you roll up a character under the rules described in the second post of the thread linked to above, you can start playing. We haven't really gotten into the meat of the campaign yet, just some roleplay around the town...

The current party is a human fighter, elf magic-user/fighter, and a halfling thief. So a cleric or perhaps another fighter would likely fit the group the best.

 

[Voda Vosa]

I'll throw my hat in because I'm a fool that doesn't understand that he is loosing work time because he is in so many games. Whatever. I'll pick some sort of front line skull smasher, as it seems it is what the party lacks.