Masque of the Red Death comments?

[DnDChick]

Those look interesting ... thanks!

I've been thinking that with some tinkering, there are certain low-level D&D modules that won't be too hard to run as Victorian-era adventures.

 

[Odhanan]

Got Masque of the Red Death. All the info given above is accurate. MORD is indeed an excellent addition to your d20 arsenal, especially for the kind of games you'd like to run, DnDChick.

You won't be disappointed, I think.

 

[ragboy]

You could also take the Gothic Earth setting apply some good ole fashioned Grim Tales to it. Don't know what your stance is on GT, but I'm going to use those rules with a similar setting (though the campaign starts about 200 years earlier). Overall, I like the modern classes more than the D&D archetypical classes. GT did a good job of integrating the d20 modern approach to any genre setting, with even more choice and customization than the modern ruleset.

As to Masque, I only have experience with the 2nd edition version, but it was a great vision of that time period...

 

[Marius Delphus]

That's just the type of game that I want to run too!

Ditto. My attempt at a one-shot along these lines using d20 Past actually went swimmingly this past weekend... except for the whole player mood thing. Wasn't really able to engage them in fog-drenched suspense in the space of four hours... no big surprise.

Anyway, the new MOTRD is back on my short list after reading this thread. Thanks for the comments all.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

The link below leads to Living Death's campaign book for Masque 3.5. A lot of the printed rules in the hardcover were based on this, though there's also been some changes. However, it should give you a pretty good idea of what it's all about.

http://www.livingdeath.org/files/3_5LDSourcebook.pdf

You might also want to try and pick up GURPS Screampunk, which is an early Victorian horror supplement. It's really more Gothic than steam age, but there's still some cool stuff in it. It's meant for use with their Steampunk book, so it's fairly short, and cheap.

 

[Wraith Form]

I have a fascination with running a game best described as "if HG Welles and Jules Verne collaborated to write the X-Files."

Oh, yeah....that comic book was called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore (NOT, fer all that's holy, the movie).

And I think you'll enjoy the Masque book, it's got the time period you're looking for.

 

[valhallan]

Stop! I hope I'm not too late to warn you away from MotRD! The book is poorly edited and all of the backstory and setting is from the old Red Death boxed set GMSkarka posted links to (70% of the book is taken up by this). I mean, its totally reprinted, every sentence, so if you're looking for setting don't waste your money!

The setting is great, however the classes are flawed to the extreme. I'm a huge Ravenloft and MotRD fan and I actually sold my copy on eBay three weeks after going through it with a finetooth comb and discussing errata on the forums to try to figure out the system.

For those of you who have it and are suggesting DnDChick buys it, tell me, how many domains does a mystic start out with? When do they gain new domains? At third level, how many domains can a mystic have major access to, and how many of those can she only have minor access to? Are these questions confusing? They are meant to be. The mystic's magic system deals in SPHERES! Yes, that's right, good old spheres of magic, like in 2nd edition, only with even less clarity as to how they function.

I'm sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news, but I thought it important enough to warn you away from this terribly written piece of drivel.

 

[DnDChick]

I mean, its totally reprinted, every sentence, so if you're looking for setting don't waste your money!

The setting is great, however the classes are flawed to the extreme.

So ... is the setting great, or is it not?

But in the grander scheme, thanks for the caveats, valhallan ... I'll look at it a little closer next time I'm in the store.

Is the mystic the only magic class that is screwed up? What other problems did you have with it?

 

[valhallan]

Sorry if I sounded a little harsh to folks before, I had to leave for something but wanted to get a message of warning in in case you were out buying it.

So ... is the setting great, or is it not?

The setting itself is fantastic. It is just the 2nd edition version (as in, rules) were written much more clearly. And you can get all the text for the setting for free on the internet, or better yet get the MotRD boxed set off of ebay, rather than paying $50 for the flawed book.

Character classes: I don't have the book anymore as I said, but I remember being particularly dissapointed with the classes. Basically there's like 5 main 'classes' (soldier, scholar, etc), and each one has three subclasses you have to choose from. So soldier has 'athlete,' explorer, etc. And they aren't like professions or templates, they are full-on classes. Meaning more pointless bookkeeping and obscure rules differences that could've been handled by feats or class choices as you level (like the 3.5 ranger). In most cases the differences are described all together in one big paragraph which you have to hunt through to find your rules.

The art is also nothing to scream about. A lot of it is cartoony like d20 modern (which I dislike) but in black and white. Again this is where the boxed set shines, the art is more charcoal-ish and dark.

The boxed set also comes with some sweet maps and stuff that the book lacks. I really mourned after reading that book as the d20 rules presented therein are very poorly put together. And if you are considering dropping $50 at a game store you don't even really like, I want to strongly discourage that. Get the boxed set used or download all the setting description and use the cthulhu d20 rules for your mechanics or something.

Maybe after reading the setting and thinking about what kind of character classes are available you can make your own classes, or steal them from somewhere else. I would love to read anything you come up with. When I played my PCs through some Gothic Earth I just used Cthulhu d20 rules and gave them free quirks I made up based on their chosen 'class' (priest, investigator, ect.)

 

[Marius Delphus]

The setting itself is fantastic. It is just the 2nd edition version (as in, rules) were written much more clearly. And you can get all the text for the setting for free on the internet, or better yet get the MotRD boxed set off of ebay, rather than paying $50 for the flawed book.

Character classes: I don't have the book anymore as I said, but I remember being particularly dissapointed with the classes. Basically there's like 5 main 'classes' (soldier, scholar, etc), and each one has three subclasses you have to choose from.

Ugh. I remember being very disappointed in the Living Death downloadables. I remember trying to modify the ruleset for my own use (when I had a Word copy), but I gave up on it. The class thing, the explosives rules, the 2nd Edition holdovers... all subpar. Plus, the layout was not to my liking (which is why I undertook a personal version). And as for the 2nd Edition boxed set: evocative setting ideas, terrible rules execution. Back off the short list. When preparing my own steamboat one-shot, I found d20 Past much more elegant for this sort of thing; as it relies on d20 Modern for rules material, it's quite easy to go "low magic" with it. (Make sure to use Pulp Scientist from Pulp chapter for that "mad scientist" NPC.)

N.B. Must seek out Grim Tales while at GenCon....

EDIT: Found it. I had 26 pages of spells left to review and format, and I was going to add the judge guidelines and other stuff as appendices. Then I was going to go through and scrub the rules to my liking... yet another partly-done project on the side of the road.