Astrology Rules in Your Campaign?

[Nightfall]

It's kind of world-specific, but you might want to check out 'Relics & Rituals II' for Scarred Lands. They have all of the astrological signs and their relevance laid out. Also, there is a prestige class for scholarly types who work their magics in conjunction with the stars (High Astrologer, I believe).

IIRC, there are also feats you can take that give you an ability based on your birth month. Unfortunately, I don't have the book with me here at work.

Worth checking out, even if you run your own setting. If nothing else, great material to steal from.

Darn ruined beat me too it. Btw I will say I like the High Astrologer...but then that's just me.

Samthedm, just browse through it. If you don't like, that's fine.

 

[grodog]

For anyone in a Greyhawk campaign, check out the Canonfire article on Bakluni astronomy at http://www.canonfire.com/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=274

Thanks for all of the pointers. I've always wanted to play with astrology in a campaign, and you've given me several additional ideas to explore

 

[Samothdm]

FYI, for those still interested in the topic...

I have yet to check out Relics & Rituals II 'cause my FLGS didn't have a copy on hand. My local Borders has one - I just have to try to get there after work.

I looked through "Star Magic" and "The Quintessential Witch", both by Mongoose and ended up picking them both up.

"Star Magic" is basically all about using stars and constellations to cast spells. I haven't fully gone through it yet but from what I see so far it basically makes "Star Magic" a new "school" of magic. The practioner can cast "Stars" (which are low-level spells) and "Constellations" (which are higher level spells made by combining various "stars"). Not a great description I know, but I haven't really had time to read it too much yet. There are also some astrology feats that give bonuses as varied as bonuses to Knowledge checks or bonuses to using swords in combat (for the "Sign of the Sword"). I also noticed a section in the back on calendars and noting which signs are "ascendant" and "descendant" (although I thought the proper term was "retrograde").

"Quintessential Witch", besides all the requisite player concepts and PrCs and such for witches, has a whole section at the back on the phases of the Moon and different holidays around the equinoxes and solstices and suggestions for game mechanics that revolve around the moon. This section is similar to the section on lunar magic in Green Ronin's "Witch's Handbook" but I think that both could be combined.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Glad I caught this.

Okay, I mostly have other races adapt different 'forms' of these astrological systems. Like, the Orcs kind of follow an Elvish system, only instead of roosters and monkeys and dragons they have rather dark takes on all of them (pig turns to boar, monkey to flesh-eating ape, rooster to cockatrice, etc.).

The different PrC's focus on gaining powers and aspects of the different critters as they relate to the mythos.

So the Sign of the Rooster PrC focuses on light and sonic effects. They get powers related to banishing darkness and being charismatic. They're mostly made up of elves, and the requirements generally favor bards (which means that those heavily influenced by the sign of the rooster would tend to bards as a generality).

The Sign of Fire PrC predictably focus on Fire, but mostly in it's personality aspects...emotional, devouring, etc. Barbarians are great fighters.

The Sign of Scorpio PrC focuses on scorpion association, poison, but also on libido and athletic achievement.

The Sign of The Swift (Mercury) PrC focues on transcendance between life and death, swift personality changes, and general speed.

The Astrologer PrC for someone born under the Sign of the Rooster, in the House of Fire, within the Realm of Scorpio under the Domain of the Swift would focus on fast flaming rooster-scorpions, and incorporating that into expanded spellcasting with specialized spells (such as Elemental Totem Summon, which in this guy's case would summon a flaming rooster).

The PrC's require a bunch of bookwork, but you really only have to work on the ones your PC's choose, so you should be mostly golden.

 

[LuYangShih]

I use an Astrology system based almost entirely on real world Astrology. 12 signs, 10 planets. I could make it extremely complicated, but I just use two basic bonuses/attributes, which is the sign and the ruling planet. I like to keep it relatively simple.
Signs grant a bonus feat, and more feats from a list, and Planets grant attribute or save bonuses.

 

[Larcen]

I know I am going to get stoned here for mentioning this, but a game that had a really good magic system based entirely on Astrology, was "Fantasy Wargaming".

The game always got a bad rap in reviews, for various reasons, but I still think that if it was cleaned up a bit in terms of presentation and layout, it's magic system is incredibly powerful and versatile and looks to be very well researched. The author obviously tried to make it as "authentic" as possible. Even character creation revolved around the zodiac.

If you want a lot of good astrological ideas and how to relate it to roleplaying, see if you can find this now long out-of-print harcover. Or beg me to copy the relevant pages and charts out of my dusty copy...assuming it's legal to do so.

 

[Samothdm]

I'd like to see the charts to which you're referring, but obviously don't want to create any copyright infringements. I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are for you posting those charts from an out-of-print book.

FYI, I picked up "Relics & Rituals II" last night and there is quite a bit of stuff in there related to astrology for a campaign, including feats and a PrC and a bunch of Scarred Lands "flavor text" (which is not appropriate for my home brew but which I always enjoy reading).

I think I'll probably end up doing a combo of a bunch of sources that I picked up, and also I love the ideas from Kamikaze Midget. Do you have a website where we could check out all the details to which you're referring?

 

[I'm A Banana]

It'll be going up on Stuff, Etc. eventually, but right now it's not up there because I'm busy n'stuff. Besides, a lot of it's still in a "sketchy" stage. Only one person IMC has actually taken up the sign as a calling, and that would be the bard who follows the sign of the Rooster. Everyone else just kind of seems happy to have the sign hit 'em at character creation, and nothin' after that.

 

[Kilmore]

My campaign world, Edyleine, is actually a moon of a Saturn-like gas giant named Leathane, sorta similar to the situation in the movie "Pitch Black", only it's a standard D&D world instead of an alien-infested hellhole.

So I'm thinking that not only with the sun, other planets and the constellations, but also with that big pink thing in the sky, the rings that are visible at all angles at different times, and the dozen or so other moons that are visible around the planet, not to mention comets, meteors, and other things flying around, the astrology on my world must be interesting indeed.

I'll be darned if I could figure out how it's supposed to work, though.

 

[Samothdm]

Kilmore, I hear you on trying to figure out how it would work. I have two different moons with different cycles, and also a recurring comet that's seen once every decade or so, and around 7 planets and of course the sun.

And, I complicated matters by having several different calendar systems in my world (for different races and cultures, etc.). Some follow a lunar calendar, some a solar calendar, etc.

My step first step (actually, the only thing I've done so far) is to lay out a calendar based on the most popular calendar and then plot the phases of both moons against the calendar, so I can figure out by month what phase each moon is in and see the overlaps between the two moons (when they're both in the same phase).

I've also worked out a list of the astrological signs for each of the main races in my campaign (some based on planets/heavenly bodies, some based on animals, some kind of like a Chinese astrology so each sign is a year long versus a month, etc.).

Next step is to figure out when each sign is ascendant or in retrograde, I guess. I don't have any idea how to figure that out. I think on Septentrionalis it's just a random dice roll each month. That's one way to handle it, I guess, but I may want something a little more specific.

I'll need to spend some more time with Star Magic and Relics & Rituals II to see what kind of ideas they have for figuring that out. I'd be happy to share my learnings with you if you don't have those two books.