Return to Northmoor OC

[PrecociousApprentice]

Those are both great sources for inspiration. Your concepts look great.

I hadn't realized that I hadn't given explicit enough chargen info. 1st level, use a standard point buy of 22, and follow method 2 for ability scores, as well as all the the usual PHB chargen rules. For equipment, use the standard starting gold for a character, 100 gold and you start with normal cloths. Any race in the PHB, MM, of FRPG, reskinned to be human. Any class from the PHB or FRPG. I only have to core three books, but other WotC books are fine as well for material, I will just have to be brought up to speed on the rules for anything that I don't have. We will go strictly by the books for crunch, and fluff is totally up for grabs.

I think that reskinning is really cool. Any concept that you can overlay on top of the rules is great. Want a cleric that wields a sword, but don't want to spend a feat to become proficient? Describe a mace as a sword, but use only rules that pertain to a mace. Want a wizard that uses timestop right out of the gait? Reskin the Sleep sell as a time vortex that slows/stops enemies. Want a wizard that summons an elemental? Try flaming sphere with a different description. You can do this on the fly or get a set of premade ideas. Swashbuckler? Rogue or ranger. Get creative, use the rulebooks for crunch, but let the fluff be anything that fits.

Here is an example I posted for another thread for inspiration. You don't need to rewrite the PHB to reskin though. Name the powers as normally in the OC thread, describe them any way that works in the IC thread.

Time Themed Reflavored Wizard
Powers
[SBLOCK=Telekinetic Burst]
Telekinetic Burst Wizard Attack 1
You unleash the force of your mind to send enemies sprawling.
_______________________
At-Will ~ Arcane, Thunder, Implement
Standard Action Close blast 3
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude
_______________________
Hit: 1d6 + Intelligence modifier thunder damage, and you push the target a number of squares equal to your Wisdom modifier. Increase damage to 2d6 + Intelligence modifier at 21st level.[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Chill of Timelessness]
Chill of Timelessness Wizard Attack 1
Time slows for the target as he is exposed to the fridgid darkness at the end of time.
_______________________
At-Will ~ Arcane, Cold, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One Creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude
_______________________
Hit: 1d6 + Intelligence modifier cold damage, and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn. Increase damage to 2d6 + Intelligence modifier at 21st level.[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Feel the Effects of Time]
Feel the Effects of Time Wizard Attack 1
The target shifts in the timestream to a point far in their future, their body a mere husk of it's former self.
_______________________
Encounter ~ Arcane, Necrotic, Implement
Standard Range 10 Ranged
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude
_______________________
Hit: 1d10 + Intelligence modifier necrotic damage, and the target is weakened until the end of your next turn.[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Temporal Rift]
Temporal Rift Wizard Attack 1
A temporary rift in the fabric of reality causes each target to be temporarily separated from the River of Time.
_______________________
Daily ~ Arcane, Sleep, Implement
Standard Action Ranged burst 2
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Will
_______________________
Hit: The target is slowed (save ends). If the target fails its first saving throw against this power, the target becomes unconscious (save ends).
Miss: The target is slowed (save ends).[/SBLOCK]

For reference this is thunderwave, ray of frost, ray of enfeeblement, and sleep.

 

[Atanatotatos]

Uhm. Flaming sphere being a fire elemental is a really nice idea...

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

I think that my game changed when I realized that the rules make the game interesting, the players and DMs creativity make the story interesting, and fluff belongs in the later and not necessarily the former. WotC fluff is dispensible. The rules are fantastic and seem to be balanced well. Keep the rules, only keep the fluff that is interesting.

I think that this is somewhat the approach that the Northmoor podcast adventure is taking. They give us a framework for the game, a decent plot, and we fill in any fluff that we like, within a few boundaries that they set out in the beginning. Their suggestions so far have been great. Sure, we are using some cliches for our worldbuilding, but the sum is an interesting world, and took us no time to set down.


By the way, how does this sound for a gridless combat system? Seems pretty simple.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/241564-grid-less-d-d-4th-edition.html#post4477775

 

[Leif]

Oh, wow! The whole re-skinning idea has already warped my poor brain! I like it, though, feels kinda.....curvy. I may need a bit of time to get through this. Gosh, going by the rules as written now would just seem like a total cop-out for the imaginatively impaired!

RE: Gridless combat -- In all my years of gaming, I can count on one hand the number of games I've played in that use miniatures. Slightly more have used a battle mat to draw tactical diagrams, but, by far, most have been handled using nothing more that the imaginations of all involved.

 

[Sparky]

Wow. Astonishing. That came together head-spinningly fast. I'm SO taking notes. A little too late for Toranthar (the aforementioned world I'm differently-collaboratively building with my players elsewhere on the boards).

I'm happy to contribute ideas to the glossary/roster, but I feel like the characters (and the sentiment of players and DM) are that they're plenty fleshed out.

So, I'll write up a concept with the questions and get it PMed to PA (is 'PA' okay?)

Good plan?

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

I have only used minis for Battletech. I was just making sure that everyone else was OK without them. I kinda thought that PbPers would be OK, but seeing as how 4e is really good as a tactical minis game, I wanted to try to retain as much of this as a strength of the system, without really depending heavily on the battlemat. Seems like the batlemat would be clunky for a PbP game.

Reskinning is amazingly addicting once you get started. The best thing for my excitement about D&D almost ever.

I got your character writeup Aparky and I like it. I looked into your PbP campaign thread. I didn't read more than the first page, but it looks interesting. I think that the difference here is that we almost completely ignored the game system and focused on the setting and character. I also set out a few constraints for design space to get the stuff going. I was totally surprised at the speed that this thing came together. I will give credit where credit is due, the prep materials for the module contained almost all of the stuff we did here. I added a few elements that i thought would be cool (reskinning, only humans, monotheism) and the rest was almost all from the other contributors. It was amazing. I couldn't have done anything like this all by myself.

Also, there is nothing wrong with sticking with the WotC fluff. We don't need to rewrite everything. I just would love to see some reskinning come out in our game. We could also add more as we go along.

 

[Leif]

Gonna have to take back what I said before. I looked at 4E 1L Cleric Powers, and I am not familiar enough with any of them yet to "re-skin" any of them. I think the "skin" that's on them now sounds plenty good enough.

Powers for my cleric are:
at-will: Lance of Faith and Priest's Shield
encounter: Divine Glow
daily: Beacon of Hope.

For a deity, I am looking at Pelor. (Obviously, my guy will be Good.)

Method 2, 22 point-buy:
S 14 (5 pts)
D 13 (3pts)
C 12 (2 pts)
I 10 (0 pts)
W 15 (7 pts) +2 (Human racial adj.) = 17
C 14 (5 pts)

Racial stuff: extra at-will power = Sacred Flame
Feats: Astral Fire + Pelor's Radiance (racial bonus)
Skills: Religion, Arcana, Insight, Healing + History (racial bonus)
Etc.:TBD

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I should have the writeup of the character done in the next day or so, I've been a little swamped.

 

[Atanatotatos]

I should have the writeup of the character done in the next day or so, I've been a little swamped.

Ditto.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

No problem. Take your time. I have a ton to do now as well, and I have some creative stuff of my own to do for this. This went way faster than I thought, faster than any other PbP startup I have been involved with, so we are actually ahead of schedule in my book. (As a medical student, I have a schedule for everything. Sad.)

In the mean time, if you guys want to send me your email addresses via PM, I will send you an invitation to the private blog I have created for this campaign. It will be really cool.