Jack Daniel
Legend
Current status: the game will begin as soon as all players have checked in and completed their character sheets.
Voda Vosa, Velmont, Lord_Raven88, Jemal, and Fenris have checked in. Waiting on Wystan.
Character sheets are on post #17 in this thread.
The Game Thread
==========
In the world of Faerith, on the island of Pensula, the year is A.D. 1824. The Second Civil War is over, and the island nation remains divided between Eorland in the south, ruled by the stern and beautiful elvish Queen Judith; and Eckland in the north, once the territory of the vile sorcerer Sir Merkedar, now naught more than a blighted, monster-infested wasteland.
Pensula is much changed from the days when Queen Judith and her human husband, King Clarence, first sat on the Eorlish throne more than eighty years ago. Now railways connect all the major cities, from Legas and the Coastal Cities in Weshire, to Betoüs and Pensula city in Eshire, to Delvedale and Medii in Sushire. The Royal Airfields send their fleet of airships around the world, onto the mainland of Lethand, and off to farther reaches, colonies on far continents across vast seas. And wars are bloodier things than they were even a century ago, now that science has invented bombs, bullets, and even electrical implements of death and destruction.
It is in this world that you will live or die, from the grimy and sooty streets of Pensula City, with its crime-infested slums and its fashionable aristocratic night-life; to the mysterious and inexplicably fey sights and happenings of the Ancients' Forest; to the majestic peaks of the Mythril Mountains and the unknown depths of caverns beneath them; even into the wild wastes of Eckland and its fearsome capital, Merk Vale... or maybe, just maybe, you'll take a swift sailing ship across the Phoenix Ocean, to face fearsome pirates in the Calidico Archipelago, or brave the rough frontiers of North Mercutia and its lawless, desert West; or perhaps you'll board an airship and travel to distant lands, magical and exotic... ancient Mephret, mystical Al-Quahad, the ruins of Archania, Imperial T'iangua, or the Islands of Sichisei.
==========
Engines & Empires is a campaign setting that utilizes the Basic/Expert (Red/Blue Box) D&D rules, including the Rules Cylcopedia revisions and my own house rules, to be detailed later in this thread. If you don't have any OD&D books, or you aren't familiar with OD&D or B/X D&D or BECMI D&D, that's okay. Having the books isn't required to play.
All you need to know to create characters is this:
Ability scores are generated by rolling 3d6 nine times and keeping the six best rolls. As DM, I'll be rolling all players' stats, so all I need from a player is a list of priorties. If, for example, you're playing a fighter, you can go ahead and tell me, "Put my stats in this order: Strength first, then Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, and Intelligence."
A classic D&D game includes eight classes (fighter, cleric, mystic, thief, magic-user, elf, dwarf, and halfling). My own setting requires something of a revision to this list, so player characters are allowed to choose from fourteen classes, six of which are human classes and eight of which are demi-humans.
FIGHTERS are warriors and soldiers of all kinds, expert in the use of weapons and armor.
MONKS are martial artists who specialize in unarmed combat and mystical qi powers.
CLERICS are scholars who have studied religion, philosophy, and medicine at university.
EXPERTS are skilled professionals who can turn their knowledge to thievery, dimplomacy, or anything else.
MAGES are casters of black magic.
SCIENTISTS are builders of technological inventions.
ELVES are immortal, magical demi-humans, capable of fighting and casting black magic.
DWARVES are short, stocky, hardy, warrior demi-humans.
HOBBITS are small, quick demi-humans who learn many skills, like experts.
GNOMES are small demi-humans who can both fight, and make inventions like scientists.
CENTAURS, part human and part horse, are excellent battlefield knights.
FAUNS, part human and part goat, are skillful, silver-tongued wanderers.
UNDINES, the mer-folk, are perhaps the rarest and most unusual breed of adventurer.
SYLPHS, the bird-folk, are winged warriors who eventually become capable of flight.
Once you choose your class and arrange the order of your ability scores, all that remains is to choose skills. I will post the skill list and inform the players of how many skill slots they have once the basics of character creation are out of the way. Don't worry about spells or equipment; the player characters will acquire those things after the game starts.
==========
Amongst a number of important house rules that will have some bearing on the game sooner or later, the following stand out as worth mentioning right away.
- In a normal classic D&D game, most of the human classes can advance to level 36, but mystics are limited to level 16, dwarves to level 12, elves to level 10, and halflings to level 8. In my campaign, *all* classes, human and demi-human, are permitted to advance to level 36.
- The damage you deal in combat is determined by your class, not your weapon. A fighter, for example, deals 1d8 damage with all one-handed melee weapons, from daggers to long swords. Classes with weaker combat skill deal less damage, so clerics and experts, for example, will deal 1d6 damage with the same weapon, while a mage or scientist will deal 1d4. There are no restrictions on what weapons the different classes can use. Even a mage can carry and fight with a sword (he'll just deal less damage with it than a fighter would). Armor, too, is not restricted by class; but just the same, if you plan on being a sneak or an acrobat of some kind, it's better to just stick to leather armor.
- Combat in the various versions of OD&D could vary greatly in the way that actions were handled each round. I prefer to use the rule that characters are permitted one single action each round, be that action to move your speed, make your attacks, cast a spell, or whatever. A character cannot move more than 5 feet and still act normally. However, you can move and attack in the same round by charging, which lets you move one time your speed in a straight line and still attack, rather like a "partial" charge in 3e. (In other words, you can think of every action made in an OD&D combat like a partial action during a surprise round in a 3e combat.)
- All spell-casters, whether they cast white (clerical/druidic) or black (magical) spells, keep spell books. Casters do not need to memorize the spells that they know in order to cast spells -- the spells-per-day charts given in the rule books become "MP per day" or "spontaneous spell slots per day" charts (whatever you prefer to call them). If anybody plays a spell-caster, I'll go into more detail about how spontaneous casting works.
That should be all for now. Other house rules will probably come up as the game goes on; but most rules beyond those metioned above are only minor tweaks. The game is now open and recruiting, and there are six seats at my table. The deadline is Friday the 27th, but if six players join before then, the game will begin immediately.
==========
Index of house rules mentioned later in this thread:
Scientists & Gnomes
Concerning Hobbits... & Skills
Ability Scores & Spell Casting
Mages & Elves
Experts, Fauns, Undines, & Sylphs
Voda Vosa, Velmont, Lord_Raven88, Jemal, and Fenris have checked in. Waiting on Wystan.
Character sheets are on post #17 in this thread.
The Game Thread
==========
In the world of Faerith, on the island of Pensula, the year is A.D. 1824. The Second Civil War is over, and the island nation remains divided between Eorland in the south, ruled by the stern and beautiful elvish Queen Judith; and Eckland in the north, once the territory of the vile sorcerer Sir Merkedar, now naught more than a blighted, monster-infested wasteland.
Pensula is much changed from the days when Queen Judith and her human husband, King Clarence, first sat on the Eorlish throne more than eighty years ago. Now railways connect all the major cities, from Legas and the Coastal Cities in Weshire, to Betoüs and Pensula city in Eshire, to Delvedale and Medii in Sushire. The Royal Airfields send their fleet of airships around the world, onto the mainland of Lethand, and off to farther reaches, colonies on far continents across vast seas. And wars are bloodier things than they were even a century ago, now that science has invented bombs, bullets, and even electrical implements of death and destruction.
It is in this world that you will live or die, from the grimy and sooty streets of Pensula City, with its crime-infested slums and its fashionable aristocratic night-life; to the mysterious and inexplicably fey sights and happenings of the Ancients' Forest; to the majestic peaks of the Mythril Mountains and the unknown depths of caverns beneath them; even into the wild wastes of Eckland and its fearsome capital, Merk Vale... or maybe, just maybe, you'll take a swift sailing ship across the Phoenix Ocean, to face fearsome pirates in the Calidico Archipelago, or brave the rough frontiers of North Mercutia and its lawless, desert West; or perhaps you'll board an airship and travel to distant lands, magical and exotic... ancient Mephret, mystical Al-Quahad, the ruins of Archania, Imperial T'iangua, or the Islands of Sichisei.
==========
Engines & Empires is a campaign setting that utilizes the Basic/Expert (Red/Blue Box) D&D rules, including the Rules Cylcopedia revisions and my own house rules, to be detailed later in this thread. If you don't have any OD&D books, or you aren't familiar with OD&D or B/X D&D or BECMI D&D, that's okay. Having the books isn't required to play.
All you need to know to create characters is this:
Ability scores are generated by rolling 3d6 nine times and keeping the six best rolls. As DM, I'll be rolling all players' stats, so all I need from a player is a list of priorties. If, for example, you're playing a fighter, you can go ahead and tell me, "Put my stats in this order: Strength first, then Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, and Intelligence."
A classic D&D game includes eight classes (fighter, cleric, mystic, thief, magic-user, elf, dwarf, and halfling). My own setting requires something of a revision to this list, so player characters are allowed to choose from fourteen classes, six of which are human classes and eight of which are demi-humans.
FIGHTERS are warriors and soldiers of all kinds, expert in the use of weapons and armor.
MONKS are martial artists who specialize in unarmed combat and mystical qi powers.
CLERICS are scholars who have studied religion, philosophy, and medicine at university.
EXPERTS are skilled professionals who can turn their knowledge to thievery, dimplomacy, or anything else.
MAGES are casters of black magic.
SCIENTISTS are builders of technological inventions.
ELVES are immortal, magical demi-humans, capable of fighting and casting black magic.
DWARVES are short, stocky, hardy, warrior demi-humans.
HOBBITS are small, quick demi-humans who learn many skills, like experts.
GNOMES are small demi-humans who can both fight, and make inventions like scientists.
CENTAURS, part human and part horse, are excellent battlefield knights.
FAUNS, part human and part goat, are skillful, silver-tongued wanderers.
UNDINES, the mer-folk, are perhaps the rarest and most unusual breed of adventurer.
SYLPHS, the bird-folk, are winged warriors who eventually become capable of flight.
Once you choose your class and arrange the order of your ability scores, all that remains is to choose skills. I will post the skill list and inform the players of how many skill slots they have once the basics of character creation are out of the way. Don't worry about spells or equipment; the player characters will acquire those things after the game starts.
==========
Amongst a number of important house rules that will have some bearing on the game sooner or later, the following stand out as worth mentioning right away.
- In a normal classic D&D game, most of the human classes can advance to level 36, but mystics are limited to level 16, dwarves to level 12, elves to level 10, and halflings to level 8. In my campaign, *all* classes, human and demi-human, are permitted to advance to level 36.
- The damage you deal in combat is determined by your class, not your weapon. A fighter, for example, deals 1d8 damage with all one-handed melee weapons, from daggers to long swords. Classes with weaker combat skill deal less damage, so clerics and experts, for example, will deal 1d6 damage with the same weapon, while a mage or scientist will deal 1d4. There are no restrictions on what weapons the different classes can use. Even a mage can carry and fight with a sword (he'll just deal less damage with it than a fighter would). Armor, too, is not restricted by class; but just the same, if you plan on being a sneak or an acrobat of some kind, it's better to just stick to leather armor.
- Combat in the various versions of OD&D could vary greatly in the way that actions were handled each round. I prefer to use the rule that characters are permitted one single action each round, be that action to move your speed, make your attacks, cast a spell, or whatever. A character cannot move more than 5 feet and still act normally. However, you can move and attack in the same round by charging, which lets you move one time your speed in a straight line and still attack, rather like a "partial" charge in 3e. (In other words, you can think of every action made in an OD&D combat like a partial action during a surprise round in a 3e combat.)
- All spell-casters, whether they cast white (clerical/druidic) or black (magical) spells, keep spell books. Casters do not need to memorize the spells that they know in order to cast spells -- the spells-per-day charts given in the rule books become "MP per day" or "spontaneous spell slots per day" charts (whatever you prefer to call them). If anybody plays a spell-caster, I'll go into more detail about how spontaneous casting works.
That should be all for now. Other house rules will probably come up as the game goes on; but most rules beyond those metioned above are only minor tweaks. The game is now open and recruiting, and there are six seats at my table. The deadline is Friday the 27th, but if six players join before then, the game will begin immediately.
==========
Index of house rules mentioned later in this thread:
Scientists & Gnomes
Concerning Hobbits... & Skills
Ability Scores & Spell Casting
Mages & Elves
Experts, Fauns, Undines, & Sylphs
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but don't worry, it's not bothersome as long as we can understand what you mean.
