Midnight: Shadow of the Gods

[gambler1650]

So we've got a few people who have a character concept in. Let's come up with the stat creation bit. I'm going to repeat this information in an e-mail to everyone where I explain how each stat benefits your character concept and which tend to be most important for the class you've chosen.

I'm going to roll for you using the 4D6 and pick best 3 rolls method, unless anyone _really_ objects to this. I will also use the Player Handbook Guidelines for 're-rolling' so no one should end up with a character that's severely underpowered. However, some characters may be on the low power end of the spectrum, and some may be on the high end. If anyone considers this an issue to be avoided, please let me know and I'll rethink this, but as I consider this much more of a shared story than a min/max campaign, I think this is a fair way to handle things and could lead to interesting characters.

What we'll do is have y'all rank the stats like so:

1 - Strength
2 - Dexterity
3 - Charisma
4 - Intelligence
5 - Constitution
6 - Wisdom

If you want a bit more randomness, you can do something like this:

1 - Strength
1 - Dexterity
2 - Constitution
2 - Wisdom
2 - Intelligence
3 - Charisma

If stats have the same number, I'll determine randomly which stat gets which value.

After this stage, we'll do skills, feats, equipment and a special element of Midnight not found in other AD&D campaigns.

 

[gambler1650]

Here's a bit of information for people who might not be familiar with AD&D 3rd edition, specifically about those 'bonuses' in parentheses after your ability scores:

Simply put, the way everything in AD&D is resolved is by rolling a D20 against a DC
(difficulty check). Then you add in bonuses such as those for abilities, for skills, feats, circumstances, race, etc. So as a simple example, you might need to lift a beam that's fallen on a character. DC of 5 is something trivial, DC of 10 is average, 15
is hard, 20 is extremely hard, 25 is almost impossible for the average person, etc. I assign a DC of 15 because it's pretty heavy.

Let's say your character has a +1 strength bonus and no other modifiers. I'll roll one D20 and add your strength bonus (+1). If the result equals the DC of 15, you lift the
beam. Combat is done the same way with a person's Armor Class (now POSITIVE, for those used to earlier editions of AD&D) acting as the DC number.

Some checks are 'opposed'. For instance, if a character is trying to hide from an orc patrol, the orcs actively looking will make a 'Spot Check' and the character will make a 'Hide Check'. Whichever roll is higher 'wins'.

Anyhow, that's the brief description which probably covers 99% of the cases.

 

[gambler1650]

Skills (Overview which is more detailed in specific e-mails to individuals)

Skills help a character succeed at DC rolls. Generally, a person proficient in a skill needing a DC goes through the following procedure to determine success:

1d20 + skill modifier (Skill Modifier = skill rank + ability modifier + miscellaneous modifiers)

So, as an example, your character has a Climb Skill Rank of 3. The associated ability of the Climb Skill is Dexterity. Your character has a Dexterity bonus of +1. If you're a dwarf, you have a +2 bonus on climb checks. Therefore, your roll is 1d20 + 6 when asked for a Climb check.

You have a certain number of skill points to work with (At first level the skill points a character has at each level are multiplied by 4). There are Class Skills and Non-Class Skills. Class Skills gain 1 rank for each skill point applied. Non-Class Skills gain 1/2 rank for each skill point applied (you don't have to have a whole number here, but a rank of 1/2 doesn't provide a 'rank' for purposes of a skill check. So a skill rank of 1 1/2 counts as a skill rank of 1 when doing a skill check).
Your maximum skill rank at 1st level is 4 for a Class Skill, and 2 for a Non-Class Skill.

 

[gambler1650]

For those interested in what the continent actually looks like:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images2/mnmap.jpg

 

[Ibram Gaunt]

Gambler,

I'm a long time Midnight DM of a campaign thats been ongoing since the setting went live. I've never gotten a chance to play as a PC. Therefore if you ever have a spot open, keep me in mind please.

 

[gambler1650]

Sure thing! In the meantime I'll also keep you in mind if I need an NPC role in an area the characters end up in, if you wish.

 

[gambler1650]

Just to update folks, we've got three characters almost done (at the 'feats' stage). That'll be the last main character generation stage for non-spell casting types. Once a character is done, I'll start work on a 'World As You Know It" background piece, and then hopefully run a short prologue scene via e-mail.

I've also gotten the skeleton of the first 'adventure' worked out so once characters are finished, we'll probably be ready to go shortly thereafter.

My plan over the weekend/early part of next week is to get the three current characters finished up (expect a Feat list by Monday at latest). I'd like to get working on the remaining characters around mid-late next week, but no worries if you're unable to do so. I'm anticipating a 'start date' hopefully the 2nd week of January at latest.

 

[gambler1650]

Ok... Here's a bit of rules information for folks. Specifically, how spellcasting works for PCs. This is a fair bit different than in the AD&D D20 rules, which I'm not going to describe so as not to confuse the issue for those who haven't read them.

Any character can cast spells given the right development.

First, you need to take the Magecraft feat (all rules taken from the Midnight Campaign book):
Magecraft (General) : You have the blood of mages running through your veins. BENEFIT: Spellcraft is always a class skill for you. In addition, you must choose a magical tradition that you will follow throughout your career. Your tradition determines which ability score your spellcasting will be based on. The three traditions are Charismatic (CHA), Hermetic (INT), and Spiritual (WIS). Depending on the tradition you choose, you gain knowledge of a single 0-level spell chosen from the following lists when you take this feat.
Hermetic: Detect magic, mage hand, or healing
Charismatic: Daze, prestidigitation, virtue
Spiritual: Cure minor wounds, purify food and drink, resistance
A character with Magecraft can cast a number of 0-level spells per day equal to 3 + his spellcasting ability modifier (so if you have an INT modifier of +3 and chose Hermetic as your tradition, you can cast six 0-level spells per day). In addition, he gains an amount of spell energy equal to his spellcasting ability modifier and can learn and cast Universal spells.

The next step is to take the 'Spellcasting' feat:
Spellcasting (General) : Prerequisite - Magecraft
When this feat is selected, choose one school of magic from the list below. You may now learn spells from this school through one of the methods discussed in Chapter 2 (or in this post) and you may cast spells from this school that you have learned. The eight schools are Abjuration, Conjuration (lesser), Divination, Enchantment, Evocation (Lesser), Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. SPECIAL: You may choose this feat more than once. Each time you do, you must choose a different school of magic.

A summary of the spellcasting rules follows now:

A character with Magecraft and Spellcasting can learn spells. The character's level must be at least twice the spell's level (unless the character is a Channeler or Legate in which case they learn spells at an improved rate). The character must also have access to the school of the spell they wish to learn. A channeler can simply choose a spell from his known schools according to the rules for his character. Other characters learn spells by being taught by a spellcaster, usually for a price, finding it in a spellbook or on a scroll, or experimenting spontaneously until the desired effect is achieved. Each method has a cost in days per level of spell being learned, and a spellcraft skill check (DC 15 + spell level, DC 20 + spell level if spontaneous learning is used) must be passed each day in order to make progress.

When casting a spell, a character simply selects any spell they know (no need to memorize it in advance), and casts it. A given spell can be cast multiple times per day. Armor negatively affects the chance of a spell to succeed. Spells are cast using a combination of spell energy and a character's Constitution ability. Each character has a spell energy pool equal to their spellcasting ability modifier. So in the example above of a Hermetic character with a +3 INT modifier, they would have a spell energy pool of 3. Casting a spell removes spell energy from the spell energy pool equal to the level of the spell. Spell energy is completely recovered after resting for 8 uninterrupted hours. Channelers (and other spell casting Prestige Classes - don't worry about these now, nobody can choose a Prestige Class at 1st level, but as an example.. Druids and Wizards are Prestige Classes in Midnight, as opposed to being a base class in normal AD&D) can add 1 to their spell energy pool for each level they've taken in a spellcasting class.

A character can cast spells if their spell energy is depleted or not enough to cast a given spell. If they do so, they take temporary Constitution damage equal to the difference. All spell damage incurred in this way is recovered after resting for 8 hours.

Characters with 'spell-like' abilities (usually Elves or Halflings) do not suffer spell damage or spell energy drain when using these abilities.

There are magic items called Talismans that reduce the spell point cost of a specific spell by 1 or 2.

Those are the basics of magic in Midnight. In general it's at the same time more flexible in some ways and more restrictive in others than in the base AD&D rules. Any questions?

 

[gambler1650]

Oh, and here's the Midnight Spell List. Note it's for 2nd Edition (3.5 rules) but is pretty close to the 1st Edition Midnight.

Note that the 'Greater' schools can only be taken by a character at 7th level or higher when they take the Greater Spellcasting Feat. Note what that does to some of the staples of low level Wizards (ie, Magic Missile).

 

[gambler1650]

Just a bit more information, this time primarily for a couple members of the group who have access to the 2nd Edition rules but not the 3rd Edition rules.

In 3rd Edition (D20), there's something called Multi-Classing. The upshot is, at each 'level up' due to experience, you get to choose which Class you want to take a level in. Unlike 2nd Edition, each character class doesn't have its own Experience Point table for determining when to level up, each character uses the same Experience Point table. So... you start off as a Fighter. Maybe after a couple of levels you decide you should learn how to fight better without weapons. So at 4th level you take a Defender class level instead of a 4th Fighter Level. You are now a 3rd level Fighter/1st level Defender. All skills for the new class are determined according to that class. So a former 'Class Skill' when you were taking Fighter levels could become a Cross Class Skill instead. If all the levels of your various classes are within 1 level of each other (3rd level Fighter, 2nd level Defender) then you suffer no Experience Point penalty. However, if you have a difference of more than 1 level between any two classes your character has, you gain a 20% experience point penalty (you gain 20% less experience for any XP award) until your levels are within 1 of each other again. Each race has a 'Favored Class' and basically you ignore that class for purposes of determining this penalty. For instance, a Dwarf has Fighter as their Favored Class. That means a character with Level 5 Fighter, Level 3 Defender, Level 2 Channeler suffers no XP penalty, but a Level 5 fighter, Level 4 Defender, Level 2 Channeler would.

Additionally, there are 'Prestige Classes'. These are Classes that you can only take levels in if you meet certain requirements (often class levels in a base class, being of a certain race, having a certain alignment, etc). They usually permit greater powers per level than the base classes. In this campaign, Prestige Classes will be permitted via roleplay.. ie, learning of a secret organization, seeing someone do something that you'd like to do, etc. I will probably give a list of Prestige Classes to each person, and they can give me a response of which they'd be interested in pursuing, and I can try to work that into the story. However this won't happen for a bit.

Finally, Midnight has something called "Legendary Classes". Only the most remarkable individuals in the world of Midnight become Legends. Each Legendary Class has 5 levels. Once a character takes a Legendary Class level, they must take the next 4 before they're allowed to take any other class level (unlike Prestige Classes where a character could take 1 Prestige Class level, then a base class, then another Prestige Class level in the same or different Prestige Class, etc). These will be even more restrictive and I will likely not provide a list of them. Instead, your character will be approached by a member of said Legendary Class if they catch the eye of the organization. Mind you, this will happen past 10th level, and I have no idea how far we'll actually get.

Finally, and this is important for the 2nd Edition AD&D players. An orc is not an always an orc. An orc could be Gark, Slayer of Dwarves. Humanoid (and some other creatures) can now take Class levels too. In 2nd Edition AD&D, orcs were probably never seen again after the party reached a certain level. Here, you can see a 20th level orc (or a goblin for that matter). So the upshot is, never assume that the inauspicious orc you see alone is cannon fodder. It might be. Probably 90% of the time it's just a scout, or hunter. But it could be Gark...