The Final Tales of Pendros (or the Curse of Crimson's Throne) recruitment thread

[goblins85]

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I remember it like it was yesterday, before our current sadness, before the dead wouldn't rest, before the end of days. Back when the world was in a time of happiness, back when we all lived in prosperity. Those were the final days of prosperity, the final days of joy, the final days of our innocence. Those...

Those were the final tales of Pendros.
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This campaign is one I ran before, based off of a few APs and stuff from my own noggin, mainly Curse of the Crimson throne, but twisted very very differently.

The game takes place on earth, in the near future, a future that couldn't exist in our timeline. It is vaguely based off of Urban Arcana, where the border between our world and another one is weak, and fantasy beings now live in our world. It is cyberpunk, and horror, pulling much, but not all, of it's mythos from the New World of Darkness. The setting takes place in a fictional city deep in the rocky mountains, known for its Casinos, Night Clubs, and University. Have I lost you yet? No? Oh good...

Because it gets nuttier. I'm allowing almost ANY d20 material. Well, lots of it anyways. Here is what I showed my players when I first ran this game, as suggestions:
The Displaced (those from fantasy worlds):
----------Last wave Displaced: D20 Modern [Urban Arcana]
----------New wave Displaced: Pathfinder/3.5 or 4ed D&D
Masked (those you are not hidden by shadow): Monte Cook’s World of Darkness/D20 Modern/Pathfinder
The Infused/Capes (superheros): Blood and Vigilance
The Infused (demigods): BESM D20
Mundane D7 Agent: M20 or D20 Modern [Dark*Matter/Future]

Here is a list of all the beings you could play:
* Means the Species is also a class that you MUST play
[sblock=Mundanes]
(Those who are known to the world and may even live normal lives)
Human
Android
Frank
Moreau
Mutant
Infused (Superheros, or at least those with Super powers at least)[/sblock]
[sblock=Masked]
(Those not known to the world at large. Some of them aren’t even known in the masked world)
Awakened (aka Hunters)*
Gargoyle*
Kappa*
Vampire*
Werewolf*
Werecat*
Wererat*
Wereboar*
Werebear*
Demon*
Mage*
Psychic
Ghost*
Feytouched (aka Changeling)*
Angel*
Succubus*
Kitsune
Dhampir (Half-Vampire)[/sblock]
[sblock=Displaced/Shadowkind/Shadowborn]
(The Displaced, also not known to the world at large, are people from another world, most likely a fantasy world. Recently, those coming from the other world did not lose large portents of their memories, which used to happen, and their powers remained. Shadowkind are those displaced from the other world, Shadowborn have at least one shadowkind parent, but were born on earth)
Aasmir
Bugbears
Changeling
Doppleganger*
Dragonborn
Drow*
Dwarves
Elves
Ghoul*
Gnome
Goblin
Half-Dwarf
Half-Elf
Half-Ogre
Half-Orc
Half-Elf
Hobbits
Hobgoblin
Human
Kobold
Medusa*
Minotaur*
Ogre*
Snakeblooded
Tiefling
Undead
Vampire*
Ghost*
Werewolf*[/sblock]

Now, this sucker has tons of house rules, including a whole new mess of skills; to make it so cross compatible, I had to change the skill selection. Most of the game is based off of the Pathfinder Rules. I will happily post more, but I'd like to know:
Is anyone at all interested? It proves to be a fun game, but I fear the rules madness might frighten people away.

 

[rangerjohn]

What level are you planning to start at? I imagine it would have to be pretty high to balance say a mundane D7 human and oh, lets say demi-gods, capes, weres, etc.

 

[goblins85]

5th level.

The players aren't balanced against each other, it is true. However, as I told my players:

"This isn't about power. If you make Xander, you make Xander, and you play Xander, who I imagine is actually pretty fun to roleplay. This game is more about roleplaying way more than it is about breaking a character; you can sneeze in this game and break a character. I care about how your character lives his life. Who cares if you do 50 damage in one hit? The Barista still wants to know what flavor latte you ordered,"

Most of my games are geared towards this mentality. Play Superman because you want to play someone who has to grapple with everyday life while he struggles with the endless task laid out before him: Save the whole world. Right this second. Oh, and don't be late for that date with Lois Lane. And Perry wants that article before 5 tomorrow. Toyman is killing an executive a block away, Parasite is sucking the power out of some newbie superhero, and there is a little boy who just fell out of a window five miles away. Right now! Right now!
Don't play superman because you want to move 160,934 miles a round and fly.

I fear that this game won't get any takers, because I'm asking people to do something new and unusual, and because I am asking them to possibly play Xander. And the house rules are nuts. But I'm going to try anyways.

 

[Walking Dad]

Maybe interested. I would like to see what other character ideas come up, but I want to play some Vampire, so I will go with a MCWoD Vampire (Gangrel or Nosferatu) character.

 

[goblins85]

Hey thanks! I had about given up on this getting anyone!

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm also tentatively interested. My biggest fear with "catch-all" type games is that the story is either too bizarre or is completely unfocused so that the characters never feel "real".

I have a wisecracking Demon/Kyton from another campaign I could import. Not sure how you'd want to work him regarding class levels, or if "Demon" would BE my class. If the latter, the guy is statted up using d20 Modern and 3.5 rules.

 

[goblins85]

Alright! I guess I shouldn't have been writing this game's eulogy so early...

[MENTION=36150]Herobizkit[/MENTION]: First, the story is based off of Curse of the Crimson throne. It does get crazy near the end, but it gets weird in the original as well.

As far as playing an Evil Outsider, here are the options you have:

-You could play a Demon from Earth's Hell. If you did this, you would have to play a demon that plays primarily by the rules because you don't want to go back. This would use Monte Cook's World of Darkness, if you don't own it, I could...figure something out.
-You could play a tiefling in D20 modern.
-You could play a Kyton out of Savage Species, pulled from his original world and deposited into this one. I personally think this is your best option.

I want to double check people's interest, because of my house rules. Before you you decide if you are in or out, I'm willing to talk about these; I am very keen to hear thoughts and fears instead of "I'm out!". These are probably the weirdest part of the game, not the cross-system rules (I should mention that once you choose a system, you can't select something from another system).
The first house rule is that there are 8 attributes instead of 6:
[sblock=Attributes]Physique (Phy) (Body’s strength and health)
Fighting (Fgt) (Your natural fighting ability)
Agility (Agi) (Your body’s gross motor abilities)
Coordination (Cor) (Your body’s hand-eye coordination)
Intelligence (Int) (How well you learn)
Wisdom (Wis) (How well you evaluate the world)
Charisma (Cha) (How well you interact in social situations)
Luck (Lck) (How lucky you are)[/sblock]
I can tell you, the second weirdest part is that Base Attack and Saving Throws are skills (Base Attack becomes Close Combat and Ranged Combat), the third is that there is Social Combat (Called Social Conflict). The forth, I've already told you; I changed all the skills to make them universal (So they all use the same skills). It maybe odd, but I've found that it works, it just takes a little time to convert a character, something I'm very willing to do for those of you who have very busy schedules. If you guys think I'm coming up all of this from my own noggin, I'm actually not, I'm actually basing this off of Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition.

 

[Walking Dad]

What is the concrete use of the Luck attribute?

Is/are Defense/AC/Parry/Dodge another Skill(s)?

 

[Herobizkit]

@goblins85 : My Kyton was designed as a pure Savage Species build. He went all 6 levels of Kyton and can be seen here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/5096314-post11.html

What I've noticed about the differences between the 3.5 and the Pathfinder Kyton is that the PF Kyton gets 4 chain rakes versus the 3.5's 2, and that overall, the Kyton is built more like a Cleric than a Warrior.

Now as I said, I'm not in love with the idea, so if this is the avenue I'd have to take, I may look into a more "normal" class.

 

[kinem]

I'm a bit leery of the house rules, likely lack of balance, and monstrous (evil?) PCs.

That said, it might be interesting to bring my 5th level PF sorcerer Skendra, who was in a game here that didn't get too far, into this.