Low-Magic Campaign Experiment

[the Jester]

what is a Wyrd? ("1d4 Wyrd" from your attached document)

Something like a fate point.

In my campaign, we use a 'colorful critical hit' system and fumbles as well. The severity of a crit on you or a fumble is reduced by your Wyrd. You can also burn a Wyrd to have fate step in and give you a hand when you really need it.

 

[jdrakeh]

All right, I'll attach it as a Word doc.

It's pending my redo of bards, however- I'm waiting for feedback on the feats I'm working on...

This rocks.

 

[omrob]

Yeah 271 is the bomb

This rocks.

This is really one of the favorite campaigns I've played in lately.

It gets to the core of roleplaying and gaming strategy without a lot of extraneous fluff and a gazillion rulebooks to draw on.

Its much simpler than the other campaigns we play, so I think we all spend more time gaming than "meta-gaming"

The high level game gets so complex its a challenge to play your character to its full potential, the halfling game was full of comedy gold but not serious, this game just brings it all back to the core dnd experience I remember in my salad days.

Way to go J for putting in the time and the effort - to create this...

 

[the Jester]

Hey, thanks for the compliments!

From my perspective, it's a lot of fun to run. I'm using the opportunity to play with tons of variants- from not telling the pcs their xps to tweaking the CR system to having a much more story-based campaign than I usually run (usually my games are fairly well pc-directed).

It's also cool to see the party be more willing to flee- the look on everyone's faces when they realized they were facing an incorporeal creature with no way to hurt it was great. For once the pcs run away!! That never happens in my other games, even though the players are largely the same.

Another thing I really like is the pace. With the training rules in place, it's been nearly a game year already, and we've played only roughly a dozen games. I love that the pcs aren't advancing ten levels in ten game weeks! That is prolly my biggest complaint about 3e.

It is also very cool to see the players not taking it for granted that they can take random prestige class A and random feat B- it's spelled out pretty explicitly what your options are, and boy are they limited!

So far as I know (based on player feedback), everyone's been enjoying the Y272 campaign a great deal.

I'll keep this thread active whenever there's something new to discuss, a new tweak I throw out there, etc.

 

[Nyaricus]

My thinking on this is basically that I don't want raising the dead to be easy, but I don't want it to be virtually impossible either.

Check out heroes of horror > i have heard via another thread, that it introduces a new mechanic in which the dead can only be raised in a temple, or in an area that has been sanctified for their patron deity. That might solve this balance issue

 

[Knightfall]

NAs to why the wizard- I turned divine casters spontaneous because, frankly, I've always felt they oughta be anyhow. After all, they aren't really preparing spells, they're asking for divine intervention, right?

The wizard's major advantage in the Y271 Campaign is the ability to add spells to his list. Keeping the preparation also goes a long way towards differentiating the 'style' of arcane from divine magic. So far it has worked pretty well.

Question for you, J.

Did you consider using the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana when you were coming up with this setting? What do you think of those classes?

KF72

 

[Li Shenron]

It's about a year and a half already. How did the campaign go?

 

[Brain]

It's about a year and a half already. How did the campaign go?

It's been interspersed with other games, so overall pretty slowly. We just started up a new arc of the campaign - the characters are just getting to 7th level and they are in a very different environment.

 

[the Jester]

Question for you, J.

Did you consider using the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana when you were coming up with this setting? What do you think of those classes?

KF72

I did not consider using them; I was going for a very specific feel to each class, rather than an easily customized generic approach. I wanted to channel each class into certain 'roles', and I felt that by building each class towards that goal, I'd have the best ability to mold them how I wanted them.

However, I think the generic UA classes are cool! I might use them sometime, in a different environment.

 

[the Jester]

It's about a year and a half already. How did the campaign go?

The first arc of the campaign was awesome fun. The second arc is just starting up, with the pcs at 6th-7th level, and so far it seems to be pretty fun as well! But, as Brain said, the pcs have been thrust into an environment that is less low-magic and more... mid-apocalyptic.