Online/mIRC Friday Night (USA) 3.5 DnD

[john87113]

I run an irc chat based 3.5 DnD game Friday nights (9 to 1 AM Eastern).

It is currently in a home brew setting, and house rules will be provided where they differ from core books. The game is a high level (15th), fairly high magic game. I prefer to keep everything based on the core books, but will consider races, classes, etc from other books on a case by case basis. However, if you want to play something crazy, please do not apply.

Two of our players had to leave the game because of RL issues this last month, and we do not have enough players left to continue the game or finish the scenario, unless we get some new people. This has proved very frustrating, because the group is 2 or maybe 3 sessions from a boss encounter / completion of a big plot line that has been over 6 months in the works.

Chat games tend to run a little slower than table top or skype games, but there are advantages to them as well including the fact the games can be logged. None the less, with a motivated crew, the party can make as much progress as in any other game and have as much fun as in any other format.

If interested, please send me a PM.

If you have questons, please post a reply.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Hi, I had some questions about your game.

- What is the character generation method? Point buy (how much?) or rolling? What would starting wealth be?
- What is the current party's make-up, and what roles would they most need?
- Is this just to the end of the scenario, or are you hoping the game will continue on after it?
- How much combat is there, generally, compared to role playing time? I'm fine with RP, but I do like games with a fair bit of combat.
- You said you'd provide houserules, so could you? Either in the thread or PM me. I like to know in advance, especially for certain houserules, like critical fumbles or death from massive damage.
- Anything else that stands out about the setting. Like "undead heavy" or "you're on outer planes a lot so anything that relies on being coterminous to X plane might not work most of the time," etc...

I'm well aware that chat games are slower than in person, I try to take my turns in combat quickly and not spend a really long time debating over what to do to help move things along.

 

[john87113]

Some good questions.

- What is the character generation method? Point buy (how much?) or rolling? What would starting wealth be?

Stats are rolled. 4d6, drop the lowest, roll 7 times and drop the overall lowest. This typically allows for a decent set. If the whole set is crappy, you can roll a second set and take the better of the two.

I added some other "class" skills based on alignment, and other factors. I added some additional skill points.

- What is the current party's make-up, and what roles would they most need?

The party currently has a mystic-theurge type PC, a cleric PC, a rogue NPC / follower, and a fighter-rogue NPC / follower. The barbarian (PC) and Ranger (PC) were the ones who had to drop. So the party is tank light.

- Is this just to the end of the scenario, or are you hoping the game will continue on after it?

Once we get enough players to play again, we intend to continue the campaign. The game has been running for over 3 years, and we are hoping to advance to even bigger / better things.

- How much combat is there, generally, compared to role playing time? I'm fine with RP, but I do like games with a fair bit of combat.

It tends to be more RP than combat. Probably 70/30; however, some of that was because combat went so slowly. The ranger had a tendency to bog things down and take longer to complete his turn than any other two players combined. As a result, I began to tweak things in order to reduce the number of combats. If we can get combat to more along better, then it might get closer to a 60/40 or 50/50. I do not expect it to get much more frequent than 50/50, even with an efficient crew.

Also, combat tends to have more of a DnD 1.0 feel to it, with descriptions for the combat setting, as opposed to using maps. There is a lot of "I attack the next closest orc." And less, "I move along these 5 squares and attack. I do include several 3.5 factors, so a common combat move is, "I move into flank the orc." Or, "Can I move without provoking an AoO?"

- You said you'd provide houserules, so could you? Either in the thread or PM me. I like to know in advance, especially for certain houserules, like critical fumbles or death from massive damage.

I do use critical fumbles similar to critical hits. There are some spells that have been altered. There are some classes & races that have been restricted. I have incorporated background skills that can be chosen for characters. The house rules are a couple pages. I will see if it is possible to send the file, or upload it somewhere that can be linked.


- Anything else that stands out about the setting. Like "undead heavy" or "you're on outer planes a lot so anything that relies on being coterminous to X plane might not work most of the time," etc...

They did do some planar travel / plane shift stuff, but they are not anywhere weird.

Dragons are not standard. The alignments and breath weapons do not always match the colors - one reason for this was to keep some of our veteran players guessing instead of automatically knowing all the weaknesses, strengths, etc.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think I'll have to pass, sorry. I like playing melee characters, but I really strongly dislike critical fumble rules and don't want to play with them. Or if I do, I make a mage who makes no attack rolls to avoid the system entirely, which...is ultimately just another form of not playing with them.

 

[john87113]

While the critical fumbles happen very rarely ("1" followed by a miss), I do understand that it is not for everyone. I appreciate your candor, and hope you find a game that is a better fit.

Good luck,
-John