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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4720330" data-attributes="member: 82106">This is overall an interesting concept, and in some ways a lot like some of the things I do in my game world (which I've been using for 30 years now, since before AD&D even existed).First maybe I should take a shot at interpreting the gist of what you're doing here, because I think while a lot of the previous posters have some very good points they may either not have explicitly articulated the basic assumptions or they may have missed some of the key elements of what the ethoses do.The way I interpret it characters do not so much HAVE an ethos as that their character building choices and in-game actions organically evolve AS an ethos. That is a PC doesn't 'pick an ethos', they simply are what they are and their ethos arises from that. As you say, it may be that many/most characters don't pigeonhole into one particular ethos, but their choices will tend towards a theme, and some characters may be fairly narrowly defined, to the point where they might be considered to be of a particular ethos.I don't know exactly how you mechanically factored in the effects on the PCs of ethos. You mentioned there were implications for the characters, such as perhaps greater or lesser vulnerability to magic associated with another ethos, or ethos associated items, etc. In game mechanics terms I think 4e can handle this without a drastic amount of work. There are a few different tools at your disposal, some of which are already being used with the existing 4e alignment system (which I agree is basically not worth much).1. Reskinning - As other people have mentioned, a LOT of the powers (especially the non-melee attack powers) are pretty easy to reskin. This can be used in 2 ways. You can go through and reskin powers in order to more clearly differentiate the predilections of certain classes for certain ethoses. Secondly it can be used to provide greater flexibility, so a player can reskin his/her character's powers to make the PC more thematically unified. 2. Specific feats - Existing feats can be reskinned or new variations created which allow you to reinforce the player's choices. The Divinity feats are an existing model of this, to some extent, though I think a lot more could be done with it. Instead of being Divinity feats they can be ethos feats. They won't be tied to a particular class feature necessarily, but they could be.3. Class features - These can certainly also be reskinned in various ways. "Fey Pact" can become "Initiate of the World Tree", etc. Nothing really needs to change mechanically. The Fey Pact related Warlock powers can themselves be reskinned a bit to provide a flavor that works with the reskinned pact. The reskinning could be more abstract than that as well, where Fey Pact becomes more like "A Warlock that uses life energy". What ethos they advance with that can be a different question.4. Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies - These are all really very malleable. The existing ones can be pretty easily reskinned or you can pretty easily write new ones. They are designed to be pretty lightweight for just this reason. Epic Destinies are really even simpler. There is very little in the way of game mechanics associated with them to start with.I also agree with other people that have suggested that this is best approached as a process that happens as the game evolves. There is little need to try to define everything from the start. I would get together with one or two of the players that are most interested in doing it and work out the most basic stuff with them. Just sit down with the 4e PHB and noodle it around. Consider what a particular character build might look like. What feat development would be needed to translate character X into 4e terms? Then you have an idea what you need. In a few hours you should be able to get to the point where you can construct a few low level test characters and work out what some decent power skinning looks like, etc. I think pretty soon you'll have figured out the general approach and then both you and the players can go on and extend that as far as they need to in order to build the characters they want to play.They may even have as much or more fun playing around with the rules as they do playing their characters! I know it would be the kind of thing that would interest me as a player, but of course I don't know your group. One thing is for sure, 4e is a lot easier system to DM than older editions in a general way. It has issues, but they are more issues of fitting a bit narrower style of play at the table than of being inflexible WRT the atmosphere of the world.</blockquote>

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