Herding PCs towards a certain (swashbuckling) feel. Is it time to put my foot down?
- Thread starter Psion
- Start date
Macbeth
First Post
Somebody suggested music as a way to set the tone, so I can't help but chip in with the idea of taking some Flogging Molly songs, some sea chanties, and whatever other music fits, and making a soundtrack. Two songs on the new Flogging Molly album (namely Seven Deadly Sins and Tobacco Island) are such great piratey songs, I pulled out my copy of Skull and Bones and I've started planning an adventure/min-campaign. All based on these two songs. I'm amazed how much inspiration I've found in 10 minutes of music. It's amazing.
But that's just me. Music may not work for your play style.
But that's just me. Music may not work for your play style.
kigmatzomat
Legend
I wanted to chime in on the paladin swashbucklers. I've got a Marquis ship of paladins roaming the ocean hunting pirates and those guys are as swashbuckler as you get. Willing to die for a cause, take insane risks, and generally with an aquatic mount (seacat, celestial shark, etc). They ride a gnome-built trimaran with alchemist fire-filled outriggers mounted with fire cannons and a crude steam jet that can either propel the ship or turn the rigger into a torpedo.
You have to remember, a paladin should be much more willing to do the risky daring-do simply because he knows he can jump 30' off a mast and (if he doesn't go splat) take 5 seconds to heal himself. With a charisma generally higher than your typical warrior, they should also have more flair.
You have to remember, a paladin should be much more willing to do the risky daring-do simply because he knows he can jump 30' off a mast and (if he doesn't go splat) take 5 seconds to heal himself. With a charisma generally higher than your typical warrior, they should also have more flair.
Jon Potter
First Post
Psion said:
<HIJACK>
I've asked this once before, but I'll bug you one more time before I drop it:
Do you have your 3.5 update of the holy warrior in a form that you could email or post? Are you willing to share?
Sorry to bother.
Amazing the lengths I'll go to in order to serve my own laziness.
Psion
Adventurer
Jon Potter said:
I OCRed the Holy Warrior chapter of BotR so I could drop it in my house rules a while ago, and did a few edits for my game world, but never did anything with it since I switched to Second World and Traveller d20 for a bit. Now I am getting back to my D&D game world, and this possiblity came up, I am caught a little flat footed. Last night I STARTED a modification to align the Holy Warrior to the 3.5 Unholy Warrior and Paladin.
I might have something usable by Friday, but it will be in pretty, um, sloppy format. I've done most of the revisions to the holy warrior class itself. But the domains need some work to sift out into three levels worth of abilities. For now, I am going with the approach of typing the names of the abilities out into a table, sorting them into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level abilities, and perhaps correcting some formatting strangeness in the OCRed ability text, and a list of domains for my campaign's deities, and calling that good.
Desdichado
Legend
Jon Potter
First Post
Psion said:
That's essentially what I'm looking to do as well. I can't speak for campaign-specific stuff like linking the Domains to individual deities, but it shouldn't be difficult to modify the HW Domian abilities to work over 3 levels using the Unholy Warrior's Handbook (3.0) and the revised Unholy Warrior in Book of Fiends (3.5) as a model.
At least in theory, it shouldn't be difficult. In practice I can't even find the time to scan in and OCR the text from BotR. :\
Thanks for the reply.
Psion
Adventurer
Well, last night was the dreaded chargen session.
By surprise, not only did the new players make a new character, but one of the existing players decided to switch up his character:
The wind elf druid is the only remaining link to the group as originally created (which ran through the Isle of Dread and an adventure against the Yuan Ti.
The gnome bard's player decided to take one of the new player's desire to play a bard as a chance to play a new character -- a bronze dragon bloodline fighter specializing in the greatsword. I am using action points and masters of arms; given some of the nifty feats/maneuvers available, we can definitely get some swashbucklery play out of that.
The half-ogre player switched back to playing a half-ogre -- a bard. (!) The concept was that the character's mother was raising him to be a gentle and educated person, everything his father was not.
And the final player opted for a human cleric following Aphan the Rainbringer (domains Water and Storm), a local agriculture and weather god. 8 intelligence 18 wisdom. Forrest Gump.
By surprise, not only did the new players make a new character, but one of the existing players decided to switch up his character:
The wind elf druid is the only remaining link to the group as originally created (which ran through the Isle of Dread and an adventure against the Yuan Ti.
The gnome bard's player decided to take one of the new player's desire to play a bard as a chance to play a new character -- a bronze dragon bloodline fighter specializing in the greatsword. I am using action points and masters of arms; given some of the nifty feats/maneuvers available, we can definitely get some swashbucklery play out of that.
The half-ogre player switched back to playing a half-ogre -- a bard. (!) The concept was that the character's mother was raising him to be a gentle and educated person, everything his father was not.
And the final player opted for a human cleric following Aphan the Rainbringer (domains Water and Storm), a local agriculture and weather god. 8 intelligence 18 wisdom. Forrest Gump.
Nightchilde-2
First Post
My 2 cents regarding swashbuckling-esque mechanics.
First, Action Points are a must.
Give a lot of leeway on what the characters want to do. If it's cool and swashbuckly, let 'em, even without making them roll for a skill check or, if you really want to encourage such stunts, give them bonuses.
If they want to slide across the slippery deck, in between the invading pirates' legs to come up behind him and poke him with their rapier (or poke him as they go by), let 'em. Jump to the deck of the ship by using their dagger to slow their fall as they cut into the sails? Go for it! Cut curtains and swing into their enemy? Treat it as a charge attack. Unleash a bunch of barrels to fly at the enemy and jump on top of the rolling barrles and "run" along them? No need for a Balance check.
Also, give them environments they can use, and you will be well rewarded (hopefully). Lots of ropes, tables they can jump on, things to use as improvised weapons (perhaps, if it's cool enough, without the improvised weapons penalty), chandeliers hanging from ropes, tapestries placed on walls, stairways (with bannisters wide enough for sliding down), buckets of pitch (for waterproofing the ship's deck, of course), balconies overlooking main rooms (with, of course, a nearby handy rope or tapestry), stacks of crates or barrels, glass windows to throw enemies out of, mugs of piping hot cider or cool beer with a strong alcohol content.
Also, if they come up with something that could feasibly be there that you didn't think about being there, why not have it be there? "He just sundered my rapier? Are there any mops around?"
As for kibitzing on chargen, yes, definitely. I always "define" what is and is not acceptable within my campaigns, even if it's as simple as "no races with an LA, no evil alignments" or "only the races from the Eberron campaign setting are allowed."
First, Action Points are a must.
Give a lot of leeway on what the characters want to do. If it's cool and swashbuckly, let 'em, even without making them roll for a skill check or, if you really want to encourage such stunts, give them bonuses.
If they want to slide across the slippery deck, in between the invading pirates' legs to come up behind him and poke him with their rapier (or poke him as they go by), let 'em. Jump to the deck of the ship by using their dagger to slow their fall as they cut into the sails? Go for it! Cut curtains and swing into their enemy? Treat it as a charge attack. Unleash a bunch of barrels to fly at the enemy and jump on top of the rolling barrles and "run" along them? No need for a Balance check.
Also, give them environments they can use, and you will be well rewarded (hopefully). Lots of ropes, tables they can jump on, things to use as improvised weapons (perhaps, if it's cool enough, without the improvised weapons penalty), chandeliers hanging from ropes, tapestries placed on walls, stairways (with bannisters wide enough for sliding down), buckets of pitch (for waterproofing the ship's deck, of course), balconies overlooking main rooms (with, of course, a nearby handy rope or tapestry), stacks of crates or barrels, glass windows to throw enemies out of, mugs of piping hot cider or cool beer with a strong alcohol content.
Also, if they come up with something that could feasibly be there that you didn't think about being there, why not have it be there? "He just sundered my rapier? Are there any mops around?"
As for kibitzing on chargen, yes, definitely. I always "define" what is and is not acceptable within my campaigns, even if it's as simple as "no races with an LA, no evil alignments" or "only the races from the Eberron campaign setting are allowed."
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