[3.5] In-game explanations for the revision

[Templetroll]

I'm curious to see if anyone out there plans on incorporating the 3.5 revisions into the story of their game.

In my homebrew campaign world I have this uber-lich that predates the current known history of the world. he is my deus ex mechana for resolving real time issues instead of in-game issues.

Someone can't show up for a game? The Emperor 'summons' them, with an appropriately flashy lightning bolt from the sky. The next game session they show up, the bolt sends them back.

Changes in game system? the Emperor summons representative group of adventuring types, gosh, it just happens to be the party, and they are subjected to magical torment that represents the changes.

for 3.0 - anyone can be a wizard now? A wizard type has mystic energy drawn from him and splashed around the others, who feel pain as this odd energy flows through them.

Changes in stats, like strength no longer being 18/whatever, a strong person feels his muscles ripped from the bones and reattached, incredibly painful... but, they feel stronger after it is over. this is confusing since the Emperor wouldn't do something to help now, would he?

for the 3.5 gnome change, a gnome will be tossed into that magical organ artifact (Heward's?) and a tune played. Said tune works the magic upon the entire race.... and the gnome may want to try and find it again. I'd describe it like that torture device Duran Duran used on Barbarella. Nice and weird.

My players understood that the Emperor was my standin in the game; but they found that they could lie to him, he didn't notice everyone who was in the party, at least not right away and he had no idea who it was who was summoned until they got to his throne room. Even then, he always asked. Acouple of people tried ot make deals with him, one dwarf created traps that i planned on placing in the way of the party if they ever did attack. One tried to attack The Emperor, he got sent to the prison. Another found a unicorn horm, in the dining room so folks could be certain there was nothing poisoned - she took it to him and demanded to know where the unicorn was! She also got sent to the dungeon... in a cell across from the imprisioned, grievously wounded and yet magically living unicorn. the span of the hallway between the cells meant the character could not reattach the horn. When she returned to the party they suddenly had a quest that they wanted to work on! the horn was a nice magic item and weaponin the meantime, also.

the players also knew that they could face The Emperor, since they saw two versions from time to time. the normal version was well-dressed and polite, looked normal and sat in the throne room. the other was complete lich on a baaad day with his arm blasted away and what seemed like a war going on outside the ruined castle they were in. they got they idea it was themselves attacking some future day. It would be the nasty Emperor that would make the changes to the party, and they would see piles of ash that resembled themselves laying in mystic circles on the floor. He would notice the glances and say, "Fear not your past. It's your future you need be concerned with!" and then send them back to their original location.

My current GM has given us Spellcraft checks to see if we notice some of the differences. My wizard dwarf had the best shot at this and rolled a 1. So it goes!

Not sure what else he has in store, but we are looking forward to it.

[edit to add the first five words of my reply, makes more sense that way]

 

[DM_Matt]

well, since i'm going to convert my existing dragonlance game to fit better with the new DLCS, tossing the change to 3.5 in the mix isnt really that much more work. The systems are pretty compatible anyway, and all my players are humans so the only real issue will be my girlfriend's rog/ranger/assn character. she took a level of ranger for twf, and suddenly it doesnt work like that =)

Well, now that TWF isnt two feats anymore, she can just take the first level of firghter instead for the new TWf that is like th eold TWF and Ambidex. She loses the favored enemy and track, though.

 

[tburdett]

Right now I am leaning towards Requim for a God. That has the flavor I am looking for.

 

[Hardhead]

You know how Tony Stark was originally caputred during the Korean War, then Vietnam, then Desert Storm, and each time it's changed, it's assumed to have always been that way?

That's how we're dealing with it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

For changes to classes, it'll be not-too difficult. I'd simply let players rebuild their character to match the concept. If the concept is the same, the only thing switching around is the rules.

As to changes to magic etc - you COULD let them use the old spells, but with significant, painful drawbacks. For instance polymorph could start having an effect on the casters mind after it's new expiration time. Make sure that the side effects are severe enough that the player will want to stop using the spell when the limit hits.

In fact, you could make that a general case for the durations of spells - something in me says it'd be way cooler for a wizard to suddenly start feeling the chill of his frost shield a few rounds before it expires, then suffer severe frostbite once it's duration is up (culminating in the death of the character a round or two later) than to have the spell suddenly wink out of existence with no harm done. Or that stoneskin spell suddenly starts making the wizard feel stiff all over, eventually turning him to stone if he doesn't stop the spell. Or invisibility starts making you intangible as well until you vanish from the world.

You'd need to make most of these side-effects work on the caster rather than the subject (otherwise your party would start invisibleing people to death with no save...) and you'd need to add (D) to their durations.

 

[magnas_veritas]

For changes to classes, it'll be not-too difficult. I'd simply let players rebuild their character to match the concept. If the concept is the same, the only thing switching around is the rules.

That's what we'll probably do in our game, if we switch. I've already worked on reallocating my character's skills and feats based on his concept and the leaked changes; so far, he's feat-neutral, and if the whole Keen & Imp. Crit. not stacking thing is true, then he's got a spare feat. Woo-hoo!

When our group (in a campaign I wasn't playing in) switched from AD&D2 to 3.0, the changes were explained as part of the Rod of the Seven Parts' "chaos waves."

Brad

 

[ArielManx]

When we made the switch from 2e to 3e, we waited until we'd completed a quest, and when the characters awoke the next morning, the DM said, "The world just seems a little bit different, and you feel a little bit different as well." That was all. I'm not sure how it's going to go with the 3-to-3.5 switch, but I'd guess it would be something similar.

Ariel