Am I crazy (not rhetorical)?

[SylverFlame]

best related to a European culture with a strong French flavor

Not explicite, but can be construed. I've found that by alienating any real world relations helps make the culture itself more real. For instance, I wouldn't describe someone in a game as having an English accent. I'd say they have a refined accent where they annunciate every syllable and draw out certain vowels. Makes the sound more unique, at least I find it does.

 

[Beholder Bob]

SylverFlame:
Ah - I see what you mean. 1) That should have been removed from the text (not a good fantasy flavor referencing a modern facet or view). 2) I didn't mean 'racial' French or European, but rather some of its social and structural mores; a strong art movement, tall buildings in narrow streets, star status to a few composers, specific food & drink to give 'flavor' (expresso, bread, escargot, etc).

Thank you for catching that, that is something I'll definitely remove/clean up - it was intended as a reminder for me to develop these areas, which I promptly forgot about.

 

[ciaran00]

How do you think it makes a game more interesting for the players to know that the houseorwhatever has 104 seats instead of 105? It is, in some ways, akin to video game RPGs that thrust plot information on a player that couldn't care less (because it has nothing to do with anything and if ignored it would make very little difference). I've thought about this stuff too, but at the end of the day, how important or relevant is it?

Also, a society that "values honour"... THAT's not overdone

ciaran

 

[Beholder Bob]

ciaran00:

THE LOW COURT: also called the commons, has 104 seats determined by district and filled by vote every 4-6 years (determined by district).

This is flavor text - no more or less compelling then telling the players expresso and imported tea are all the rage in X city. The info is there - I do not think it will alter the course of a game, nor slow it. I'll also be adding, for each city, a section on specific city traits (popular foods, drinks, famous folks, architecture, etc). These are just window dressings, flavor as it were. If PCs find a way to use it in game, well, power to them. Imagine a game in which the players wrangle their way in politics, winning 2 seats for their district, giving them & their political bedfellows more power….or they decide to take advantage of a cities preference for a specific drink or liquor, blockade the 2 main suppliers from reaching the city, and then sell their supply at outrageous prices. Unlike the video game, info I put out can and will be used against me in the game of wa.. I mean D20. Players are tricky folk, and my players specialize in surprising me with the turns and twists they give my plot (You head east? But...but...why? I don't have that spot mapped out yet. Oh, that’s why.) I like the possible directions: not just dungeons, but politics, religious battle, back a revolution, become traders, explorers, social engineers who use a popular playwright to influence others...to use a phrase (that I abhor), it's all good.

As to honor - I see these fellows using the same tactics as the British in revolution war - lines of men on both sides, fire, advance, fire, advance. Bright uniforms and an easy time of identifying the leaders, etc. No Deepwoods sniper, no rank insignia while on the field, no salute for fear of identifying the leader, etc. Looting the dead is considered pretty nasty, if you give your word you do not break it (how many PCs adhere to this, I do not know), throw your cape in the puddle for the lady, having ‘social cards’ to offer others so that they may call on you for tea later… Now, the PCs are able to act how they want, but the society 'will not be amused' by base behavior. I’m aiming for a non-standard DND game – no wild west shoot him in the back 'cause he's too dangerous to face, kill 'em in their sleep game. I am hoping the game will have less of the DND 'gang tough mentality' and more of the stuffy powdered wigs game.

Is there a particular part of the text that made it redundant to you, an area for me to clean up? I may have missed an area of repetition, or perhaps a clarity issue. As to your earlier comment, I can only hope I make progress in my work perpetually.

As a final note, yeah, people are still reading this c#%p!! (turns out my mum lied, she ain't reading my stuff!! )

 

[Beholder Bob]

More of the 'rules'. After this, I'll post the alternate casting rules for spells (spells require a roll to cast, with chance of damage for some casters)

MAGICS NATURE AND USE

What the source of magic is: Stellar lines on force pierce the mortal realm, but just as radio waves are not noticed by modern man, so to are these lines not noticed by mortals. These columns off force are thicker in some regions and less so in others (a dead magic area would be free of these columns). Indirectly related, these columns of stellar influence, while beyond the notice or interaction of creatures in general, are what shape the nature of beings born in that area, giving them their astrological signs. The cumulative effect of these lines have long-term effects, causing unusual growths, encouraging veins of particular metals in the earth, and dictate the weather and soil conditions.

Wizards align themselves with the magic, in effect sticking part of them-selves into the flow and interacting with it. The flow can be thought of as columns of water that rises & falls (as per an AC flow) at incredible force and speed – one does not jump in the middle and block this flow, let alone redirect it. They divert a small portion of the flow, using the components of the spell to shape the magic so that it conforms to the spell desired. Casters who are not careful, or intently grab for more power then they can safely accommodate are harmed, part of their essence being washed out in the flow of magic. Wearing bulky or movement inhibiting clothing/armor can inhibit the caster from going through the somatic motions required to direct the flow at the full speed needed – possibly ending the spell and or causing the caster harm.

Priests are under no risk of harm from casting their spells, but are unable to directly tap this flow of magic. Their prayers for divine intervention/spells causes these columns to reverberating up to the heavens (or below) to draw the attention of their divine masters and signal to them the magic needed. When they succeed in drawing attention, the divine masters send a wave down directed to the priest, giving them the spell. Thus a priest may need more time to cast his spells, and his knowledge of the sacred lore is critical in forming not just the basic words of the prayer needed, but also the correct entity to address it to and with enough authority to gain the spell quickly. The ability to channel, or turn undead, is a divine gift given to the priests and is an actual investment of divine energies in the priest. Channeling while requesting a spell is the equivalent of labeling the spell request “urgent”.

Bards use their music to cause sympathetic vibrations in the flow of magic, causing it to undulate and form rings that separate from the prime flow of magic. The bard builds up a reservoir and keeps it from re-uniting with the prime flow by continuing to play, tapping into it as needed. A concert of bards can share the same reservoir, working in sympathy. If the music ends abruptly, the magic quickly drains back into the main flow, losing all benefits accumulated.

Psions access the flow in a unique and dangerous way, they allow the magic potential to flow into their minds, charging it with incredible potential. Errors cause the body to bleed out, decompose, or fissure. This stored potential allows the psion to delicately direct magic without the normal required components, why encumbrance has no effect on their type of magic, and why psionic creatures feed off each other (for stored power).

Magic Items continuous items continuously tap into the flow of magic at a very slow rate, taking just enough magic to maintain their abilities. One shot items do not tap into the flow of magic, but are instead temporary vessels that hold magic. Items that have limited uses per day are like capacitors, absorbing magic until filled and slowly bleeding off the magic stored. Once emptied, it takes a while to refill with magic potential.

Magic’s impact on creatures in general, children and expecting mothers in particular. Magic taps into the fields that shape the development of a creatures spirit. Creatures can handle a limited amount of ‘interference’, the amount is dependent on how potent their spirit is. Exceeding this amount causes damage to the spirit of the creature immersed in it – and creatures born to those who exceed their limits risk their child having birth defects. Expecting mothers who travel frequently in magic rich areas or are exposed to high magic infrequently are at high risk of still birth, birth defects, and giving birth to a monster. These risks are not always immediately obvious, a child could appear normal only to begin to transform once they reach their teen or adult years.

 

[SylverFlame]

I like the outline by class. Helps to make the world more "yours". The explanation for psions is also a neat one. I am assuming you are using the "Psionics are the same" set of rules. If not, you may want to rework that part.

 

[ciaran00]

This is flavor text - no more or less compelling then telling the players expresso and imported tea are all the rage in X city.

The thing is, in my game doc, I had barely started doing the same thing when I realised that it's fairly redundant. Instead, waiting to see what the players were interested in and developing those elements in the game were much more fulfilling as a DM (having effort completely ignored or bypassed can be frustrating). The quantum universe is a DM's best friend. It ain't there until you look.

Imagine a game in which the players wrangle their way in politics, winning 2 seats for their district, giving them & their political bedfellows more power….or they decide to take advantage of a cities preference for a specific drink or liquor, blockade the 2 main suppliers from reaching the city, and then sell their supply at outrageous prices.

In some ways, I'd rather not. We leave economics up to a versatile excel chart, and play out the interesting fantasy elements out over the table. Also, the fluid game world that you're going for is defeated if it's wholly described in the original game doc. You shouldn't be able to recognise significant chunks of the game world after a bit of play... otherwise it truly is stagnant (and the players are probably better off reading the game doc itself to entertain themselves). So, plagues hit and wars happen... none of this should, and could be found in an original draft of game world conditions. You're better off designing the thrust of the next war (never detailed in a game doc), than describing what colour bottles hang from the carts of traders in village X.

Unlike the video game, info I put out can and will be used against me in the game of wa.. I mean D20.

Sure, but it's not a significant use is what I mean. Deciphering an encoded map to an artefact is significant. Taking 2 seats in a Low Court, in comparison, is minor (if nothing else, in terms of mood).

Players are tricky folk, and my players specialize in surprising me with the turns and twists they give my plot (You head east? But...but...why? I don't have that spot mapped out yet. Oh, that’s why.)

So, I can turn out maps, entire dungeons, and riddles on the fly. However, my players know that some things AREN'T immediately available: ie-- Player: I do research on Mechanus, and why exactly Modrons have been assembling thin black towers on the plane. DM: I'll post what you find in your research between this game and the next.

Having a calendar system helps. Given that there is no real lack of things to do, my players don't mind...

I like the possible directions: not just dungeons, but politics, religious battle, back a revolution, become traders, explorers, social engineers who use a popular playwright to influence others...to use a phrase (that I abhor), it's all good.

Plan everything in advance, and your players will beat you. Plan everything on the spot and you have a shoddy game.

I’m aiming for a non-standard DND game – no wild west shoot him in the back 'cause he's too dangerous to face, kill 'em in their sleep game.

Unfortunately, this is the norm though it happens only because these game worlds don't stand on their own. They're based off of simplistic character interactions and most often no direct consequences for actions.

I am hoping the game will have less of the DND 'gang tough mentality' and more of the stuffy powdered wigs game.

This is only made clear if the players consistently meet intelligently designed (mind you, not necessarily intelligent) enemies. Even a dumb animal has a lair, maybe a mate, or a friend. Every orc camp has the watchful eye of a local shaman, or odd tactics, etc. Combat is a very real thing to my players that can end in deaths of them and their followers. Since it's made clear that I don't pull any punches, they're more eager to parley. This point isn't very clear in many games... players can mow through most things since an overwhelmed DM can't effectively manipulate a random encounter.

Is there a particular part of the text that made it redundant to you, an area for me to clean up? I may have missed an area of repetition, or perhaps a clarity issue. As to your earlier comment, I can only hope I make progress in my work perpetually.

What I am wondering is: what makes your world all that unique? Don't take it as an insult. If I wanted to insult you, I wouldn't type several paragraphs in a reply.

ciaran

 

[Beholder Bob]

SylverFlame: Cool, thank you! Psionics is similar to standard magic, although dispel/counter/etc efforts suffer a –4 to roll. I went w/ system is different in a prior campaign, so I’m trying out a different style this time. The biggest difference, besides counter/dispel/identify effects, is wizards risk taking subdual damage for casting, while the psion risks regular damage. Do you use psionics as different in your game?

ciaran00: I should start with – thank you for feedback!
1st off, the document is not going to be handed to players in total, only in sections based on their character: take ranks in politics, get political info, born in this region, here you go, took astrology,…… Beginning characters will get info on their homeland and info relevant to their skills. I’m going to have to wing a lot of data (profession basket weaving, uh, I didn’t write up info on that trade), but each city should have enough flavor that it can be identified by the players after having encountered it before. Perhaps not instantly, but I do not want generic, cookie cutter cities that blend together. To accomplish this without adding extreme differences (ok, the floating city is next to the fire city, next to…). I’m not going to flesh everything out at once, but I do want a paragraph or two as a kernel to develop some of the more important aspects quickly.
2nd economics, battle for 2 seats, political infighting, screwing over some merchants to make a quick buck – hate to say it, but these things happen in my game already. Perhaps it’s the players, atmospheric effects, or maybe it’s the PC chow… As long as they have fun, I figure what the hell. They also get involved in wars, fighting the hordes of bad guys, scheme to undermine the dark lords, etc. If players chose not to get involved in the trade, politics, economics, etc, ok. I’m not going to do more then make the kernel – the effort isn’t put in until the players begin pursuing it themselves. My players like surprise actions – partly to see me jump – so I’m not going to flesh out any more then my writer tendencies push me. Oh, and Astorian glassblowers are making a killing with red glass with intentional imperfections, giving the glass a bubbly look. It started at merchants row, back in …..
“Plan everything in advance, and your players will beat you. Plan everything on the spot and you have a shoddy game.” Uh-oh – plan everything in the middle?
“What I am wondering is: what makes your world all that unique? Don't take it as an insult..”
Insult, hell no! Your comments and questions lead me to believe your actually reading my posts!!!! What makes my world unique? Tough question – do you mean with mechanics, cosmology, ongoing plots, or something else? I’ve presented my cosmology here (in larval state, sure, but here) – so I assume mechanics or ongoing plots. Hmm. Could you define the question?

 

[SylverFlame]

Only time we went with psionics we never really had to clear it up. As a result, I think we defaulted to a "same" world.

 

[Beholder Bob]

Only time we went with psionics we never really had to clear it up. As a result, I think we defaulted to a "same" world.

When I used 'different', it opened up some sticky situations, but overall was nice for flavor. It happened to align itself quite well with a division that existed in that campaign, which served my purposes nicely. I am removing the sorcerer from my campaign and the psion fits that roll nicely (I've never cared for the in game logic of 'I'm 1/28 dragon, it flows through my blood giving me magic! Oh, I'm 1/2 dragon and can not do a single spell.)
Oh-well. Below is the way wizards cast spells. It looks, perhaps, a bit complicated, but in practice, just as you would write down the DC's of your spells, you write down the DC's to cast spells of the given level. Well, so far its been easy - I'll find out more as the game progresses.

WIZARD SPELL CASTING

 DC 14+(2*spell LV) spell craft to cast w/out subdual damage.
 Gain additional spell/day at 1 LV lower then cast spell if roll made by 5.
 Extra time in casting lowers spell DC, DMG (for failure) & bonus spell as if 1 LV less per unit. 1 full R / 5 full R / 2 Minutes, 15 Minutes, 1 Hour
 Items that boost the Spell Craft roll are not counted for purposes of qualifying for the additional spell per day when the roll is made by 5 or more.
 Spell focus gives +2 roll with that type of spell
 Specialization gives +2 roll with that type of spell, but a –2 to all other rolls
 Failure to make roll still results in spell being cast, but causes the caster 2*(LV) subdual damage
 Increase spell by +4 DC (not with casting “on the fly”) and if fail take no damage or lose spell. Also, do not gain a bonus spell if roll made by 5. Not usable to cast meta magic “on the fly”
 Add meta-magic modifiers “on the fly”, increasing DC by 4 + (3*meta magic LV modifier). If the roll is failed, the spell is lost, and caster takes damage equal to 1d6 per (LV of spell + meta magic LV mod).
 Casting spell from a magic device (reading a scroll) with spell completion require spell craft checks, and a failure does damage to the caster.
 Physical contact with familiar grants a +2 to the casting check.

COMBINED WIZARD TABLE

LV....Spell Craft DC....Subdual if fail...Caster LV..Spell Craft AVG
0........... 15.....................1.................1st.............6
1........... 16.....................2.................3rd.............8
2........... 18.....................4.................5th............10
3........... 20.....................6.................7th............13
4........... 22.....................8.................9th............16
5........... 24.....................10...............11th...........18
6........... 26.....................12...............13th...........21
7........... 28.....................14...............15th...........23
8........... 30.....................16...............17th...........26
9........... 32.....................18...............19th...........28

---adding meta magic on the fly
Meta.........Add............DMG
Magic........to................If
LV mod......DC..............Fail
+0.............+4...........(LV+0) d6
+1.............+7...........(LV+1) d6
+2...........+10...........(LV+2) d6
+3...........+13...........(LV+3) d6
+4...........+16...........(LV+4) d6

Examples: 3rd LV wizard specialized in evocation, and with 7 ranks in spell craft and a 17 INT, casts a few spells. His has then, spellcraft total of 12 with EVO and 8 with other schools.

He casts Cold Snap (2nd LV EVO), DC 18, with +12 roll. If the roll equals or exceeds a 23, he gains an additional casting of a 1st LV spell that day. If he fails, he takes 4 subdual damage. If he takes an extra round to cast this spell, the DC drops to 16, a roll of 21+ gives extra casting of a 0th LV spell, and if he fails his roll, the spell still goes off but he takes 2 HP subdual damage.

He casts Burning Hands (1st LV ALT), DC 16, with +8 roll. If the roll equals or exceeds a 21, he gains an additional casting of a 0th LV spell that day. If he fails, he takes 2 HP subdual damage.

He casts Cold Snap (2nd LV EVO), DC 18, with a meta magic on the fly (+2 LV adjustment, so the DC 18 + 4 + 6 = 28, failure does (2+2)d6 damage, and the spell does not go off. If the roll equals or exceeds 33, he gains an additional casting of a 1st LV spell that day.​