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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Causey" data-source="post: 1992244" data-attributes="member: 13347">Second Half of Part INow, as we can see above, there is one big distinction between the two Initiation methods involving character rewards. One requires your level to be 3 to a power (^0, ^1, etc.) so that you can take a feat, and the other can occur at almost any time (when 100 free XP are available, pretty much any time except directly after leveling up.)I present this with the hope of it being available for many styles of play. Maybe one game needs the pace set up by the feat system to limit PCs in their growth with GCUs (and maybe one game has a feat per level, or purchasable feats).So, if feats work as your means of Initiation, then it is easy to see how this works. If you want more immediate rewards*, you could use the 'ritual' concept, wherein XP are expended.Or, and this is my thought, you can use either, but once Initiation has occurred, it's time for the next mechanic to kick in, which has its own measured pace without necessarily limiting characters.Part IIOnce initiated, a character can continue to rise through the ranks of a GCU, whether in a hierarchical manner, achieving great quests, dispatching rivals, or even by creating their own split-off GCU (usually with a limited support base, allowing only so much power to said individual). I'll call these characters Integrati (even if they disintegrated the GCU to form their own, they're integral to their new GCU.)Integrati learn the many ways and methods of their GCU, whether that be Diplomatic Channels, Kabbalistic magics, Backstabbing 101, or Divining Locations for Optimal Profit. They take on this knowledge in a much more integral way than they did before, and depend on learning from others within their group more.A GCU Integrati transforms the class of their choosing to represent their new outlook on life. This is handled by transforming whatever class the character was going to take on a minor level, and treating it as a substitution for that level.Example 1:An initiate has trained steadily at the side of his mentor, Sir Ranash the Mighty, for the past few months. Soon, both he and his mentor feel that he will be ready to begin on his own. When the time comes, Sir Ranash and the initiate compete in a special competition challenging all that he has learned, and some things that he hasn't, to see where his heart and bravery lie. At the end, the initiate has solidified his training, and he will travel one last time with Sir Ranash to meet the King and Cleric of the Duchy, and begin further training as a Knight of the Duchy.The initiate, a Warrior 2, is ready to take on a level of Fighter.GCU Substitution Level: Choose one key feature of the class being taken from the following list and remove the rest and all other class abilities; you can now begin to receive on this level onward the first echelon of GCU abilities as dictated by the GCU (similar to Bloodline abilities as presented in the Unearthed Arcana).Key Abilities:BAB, Good Save**, Class Features, Spell Casting Level**-A class with multiple good saves would only keep one.Example 1:The initiate above decides to take a level of Fighter, and his player wants to begin the first echelon of abilities as granted as a member of the Knights of the Duchy (he entered in by undertaking a week long ritual of fasting along with his mentor, and spent 100 XP to gain their trust, and limited access to weapons, armor, and a mount.)The player decides to keep the BAB of the Fighter and drops the good save and the bonus feat awarded to a first level fighter. The character does take on the first level bonus for a Knight of the Duchy, a +1 bonus to Strength, and will continue to receive benefits as the character goes up in levels, without needing to change them.When the character reaches the end of 7th level, in this example, (Warrior 2/Fighter 5), the player could choose to do so again and take on the second echelon of abilities from the Knights of the Duchy.Knight of the Duchy, Echelon 11-Strength +12-Diplomacy +23-Toughness4-Ride +25-Constitution +1Does this follow? Am I making sense? Does this seem to be too much? Not well done? At this point I'm looking for feedback and commentary of any sort.*-Aside: This, I guess, is at the root of one of my beef's with the D&D, and that's when rewards are handed out. I hope that I'm not too phrenic with my discourse; however, excepting treasure and loot, rewards are handed out slowly in my game and leveling can take quite a while (especially if games don't meet often). Thus, these little rewards are usable as a quick reward with long term effects and aren't necessarily a Monte Haul tactic.</blockquote>

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