Engines & Empires - [B/X D&D] - OOC Discussion

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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I would like to play, the adventure seems amazing ^^
It will be nice to know something more abaut scientist class, though i have allready choosen a dwarf scientist he he. I think that intelligehnce is the principal stat... but i dont really know, some info for this class will be appreciated

PD: Sorry for my english, i know it aint pretty good =P
 

All right, here's the low-down on scientists. They work pretty much just like scientists from Pulp Heroes and d20 Past, with a few alterations.

A human scientist can learn any mage or cleric spell as if he were a mage or cleric of the same level (meaning that he gains 1st level mage spells at 1st level, 1st level cleric spells at 2nd level, 2nd level mage spells at 3rd level, 2nd level cleric spells at 4th level, and so on) and work them into inventions, bulky items that weigh 10 x the spell level in pounds and take up 2 item slots on the body when worn and used. Constructing an invention costs 350 guilders (the currency of the campaign setting) x the spell level x the scientist's "caster level", and each copy of an invention can be used 50 times before breaking down.

The other class that can use inventions is the gnome (dwarves can only act as fighters). Gnomes attack and roll hit dice as clerics (whereas scientists attack and roll hit dice as mages), and they have other special abilities as well, but they get inventions at a slower rate, not being able to build any inventions of their own until 2nd level; and gnomes never get access to 6th & 7th level clerical/druidic spells, or 8th & 9th level magical spells.

When a scientist reaches 9th level ("name" level), he must decide whether to become a technologist (he continues to travel and adventure) or an inventor (he settles down and starts a laboratory or factory). Both technologists and inventors can modify their inventions into miniaturized, simplified, extended, and mass-produced inventions, by increasing the invention's effective "spell level" by +1 to +4; but whereas technologists retain their freedom and autonomy, inventors have authority and acquire low-level scientist followers.

A gnome who reaches name level becomes a "lord inventor" and gains some of the abilities of high level fighters (i.e. lords), and some of the abilities of inventors.
 

I am interested in playing, may I inquire as to the outlook of hobbits. I would love to play one with Intelligence and Dexterity, and charisma being most important (in that order please.) (Wisdom, con, str after that)
 

JD - I love the idea, but don't have / Never played OD&D... I started at 1st Ed AD&D. How different is it from all the other editions? You said we don't need the rules to play, but what can you tell me that may help with char. creation/concept? Specifically this spontaneous casting.. I never played mage in 1st or 2nd ed, and my main selling point on 3E(at least initially) was the Sorceror.

BTW, Voda - It's PS, not PD.. ;) but don't worry, it's not bothersome as long as we can understand what you mean.
 

Wystan said:
I am interested in playing, may I inquire as to the outlook of hobbits. I would love to play one with Intelligence and Dexterity, and charisma being most important (in that order please.) (Wisdom, con, str after that)

Ah. Excellent. Hobbits are rather drastically altered from the standard Basic D&D halfling, wherein they are simply fighters with a weaker hit die. In this campaign, hobbits combine the features of fighters and experts, so they have the following abilities:
- Hobbits attack and roll hit dice as clerics
- They begin the game with 10 + Int. mod. skill slots
- They have a number of special abilities due to their hardiness and small size (a +3 bonus to all saving throws, a +3 bonus to all Stealth rolls which becomes +6 in wooded/wilderness areas, a +2 bonus to AC vs. large-sized creatures, a +1 bonus to hit with missile weapons, and a +1 bonus to individual initiative rolls).
- A hobbit who reaches 9th level becomes a "shire-reeve" (sheriff) and acquires resistance to spell damage, resistance to dragon breath damage, and the ability to detect evil and cast spells as a paladin.

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Now, this is probably a good time to go ahead and post the skill list and explain skills. All ability checks are rolled by casting the d20 and adding your ability modifier, in an attempt to beat an appropriate target number. The base target number for a 0-level character is 18 for an untrained skill check or ability check; 15 for a saving throw; and 12 for a trained skill check. All 1st level heroes have numbers one better than this, so they save vs. 14 and roll checks vs. 17 (untrained)/11 (trained). The target numbers drop by one point each at every 3rd level (4th, 7th, 10th, etc.), so a 7th level character, for example, rolls saving throws by making an ability check against TN 12, and trained and untrained skill checks against TNs 9 and 15.

Most characters start the game trained in 4 + Int mod skills. Experts, hobbits, fauns, and undines start with 10 + Int mod skills. All characters earn a new skill at every four levels (5th, 9th, 13th, etc.). The game includes 30 skills, which are as follows:

Acrobatics (Dex)
Alertness (Wis)
Animal-Handling (Cha)
Climbing (Str)
Concentration (Con)
Crafting (Int)
Deception (Cha)
Demolitions (Int)
Gambling (Wis)
Healing (Wis)
Inquiry (Cha)
Insight (Wis)
Intimidation (Cha)
Investigation (Int)
Jumping (Str)
Knowledge (Int)
Legerdemain (Dex)
Linguistics (Int)
Navigation (Int)
Performance (Cha)
Persuasion (Cha)
Piloting (Dex)
Profession (Wis)
Research (Int)
Riding (Dex)
Sabotage (Dex)
Spellcraft (Int)
Stealth (Dex)
Survival (Wis)
Swimming (Str)

There are no sub-skills, so if you take Crafting or Knowledge or Performance, for example, you always roll all related checks as trained skill checks.
 
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Jemal said:
JD - I love the idea, but don't have / Never played OD&D... I started at 1st Ed AD&D. How different is it from all the other editions? You said we don't need the rules to play, but what can you tell me that may help with char. creation/concept? Specifically this spontaneous casting.. I never played mage in 1st or 2nd ed, and my main selling point on 3E(at least initially) was the Sorceror.

Well, basic D&D is a lot simpler than AD&D. Some of the biggest differences include:

- You can't mix race and class. All fighters, clerics, mages, etc. are humans, while elves, dwarves, and all the other races are their own classes.

- Alignment is a simple matter of deciding whether you are Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.

- Ability scores use a very simple adjusment scheme, as follows:

3: -3
4-5: -2
6-8: -1
9-12: 0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18: +3

Demi-humans have no racial ability adjustments, and there is no way to raise a score above 18 or drop one below 3.

- There is no multi-classing or dual-classing.

- Combatants get only one action per round, rather than a "move action" and an "attack action", or a "full round action".

- The way spells and magic items work is usually greatly simplified.

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My spell-casting system is actually one of my more radical house-rules. I've used it for basic D&D, AD&D 2nd edition, and 3e, and it seems to work fairly well. The concept is this:

All casters (including clerics) keep spell books. They have to scribe the spells they want to learn from scrolls or other spell books, like normal, but the difference is, they don't have to memorize or prepare the spells they know in order to cast them. Instead, they simply have to have their spell book out and open to the right spell.

The hang-up is, turning to any given spell in your spell book takes an action, meaning that switching the one spell that you have available to you takes up one round. Say, for example, you are a 2nd level mage with 2 MP to cast 1st level spells with, and you know both sleep and magic missile. When a fight breaks out, if you didn't have your spell-book open, you have to take one round to open your spell-book to the spell you want. Let's say you try casting sleep on round 2, but it doesn't work. With 1 MP left, you take round 3 to turn in your spell book to magic missile, and cast it off on round 4.

Now, you can't always cast spells from your spell-book, because you need light to read by, you need two free hands (one to hold the book and one for somatic gestures), and it's dangerous to have your spell-book out in the open. Enemies will pick you out and try to bash or burn up your book (or worse, bash or burn you). So, to make casting your favorite spells easier, you are able to memorize a small number of spells each day. A 1st level mage can memorize one of his spells, for example, while a 3rd level mage can memorize any two of his spells, a 5th level mage can memorize any three of his spells, and so on. Memorized spells can be cast on the fly, without ever opening your spell-book; and you can change which spells you have memorized each day, by studying your book after resting.

So let's say that 2nd level mage in our example had memorized magic missile as his daily spell. In combat, he could either cast it right away on round 1. Or, if he had spent round 1 opening his spell book to the sleep spell, and round 2 casting sleep, he could cast magic missile right away on round 3 without taking any extra actions.
 
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I'll toss in my hat for a fighter. Let me ponder a bit on stats. A gun totting fighter sounds fun, but as does a more traditional model. Any thoughts there Jack?
 

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