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Tequila Sunrise

Adventurer
@Tequila Sunrise Seems like no one else is jumping on your bandwagon, but I am still interested and I suspect several folks lurking are too. How's the conversion going?
Well I got the factions done, though I'll probably go back and tweak some wording after writing about the planes and gods. Right now it's end-of-semester crunch-time, so everything D&D is on hold. :(

I can post a pdf of my take on the factions if you're interested, though I don't have the exocet font. What program do you use, btw?
 

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Quickleaf

Legend
[MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION]
Yes, same here with architecture school deadlines and exams, I totally understand.

If you mean how do I create PDFs? For simple stuff I just use Word with a print-to-PDF converter like Bullzip. For stuff that requires more pretty layout I use Adobe InDesign.

Btw, I forgot that I wrote up notes for a "Belief Points" action point variant based on (and expanding on) ideas from the Planewlkers Handbook. May have other stuff lurking on laptop too...
 

Tequila Sunrise

Adventurer
If you mean how do I create PDFs? For simple stuff I just use Word with a print-to-PDF converter like Bullzip. For stuff that requires more pretty layout I use Adobe InDesign.
Weird, I use InDesign too. CS3, and no Exocet.

Btw, I forgot that I wrote up notes for a "Belief Points" action point variant based on (and expanding on) ideas from the Planewlkers Handbook. May have other stuff lurking on laptop too...
I don't remember much about the PWHB, but I've been thinking that a FATE-like reward system would be much more fun than faction benefits and restrictions. (From what I hear; I've never played FATE.) Sounds like what you've got; care to share?
 

Quickleaf

Legend
Weird, I use InDesign too. CS3, and no Exocet.
Oh, I downloaded Exocet from the net at one of the free font sites - it's widely available. For example: http://fontzone.net/font-details/exocet-heavy. There are two versions, one heavy like the one I linked, the other light (sometimes it's just called "Exocet").

I don't remember much about the PWHB, but I've been thinking that a FATE-like reward system would be much more fun than faction benefits and restrictions. (From what I hear; I've never played FATE.) Sounds like what you've got; care to share?
Not all players were into the factions, but I think they're an intrinsic part of the game, and some of them (e.g. the Dustmen's "Dead Truce") actually impact the fiction. The Factol's Manifesto improved on lots of the faction abilities in a much more thematically appopriate way. For example, take Senses; while infravision and a bonus to poison saves kinda makes sense, the sensory touch they gained in Factol's Manifesto just fit their philosophy better.

Anyhow, here's the "belief point" system I worked up....


BELIEF SHAPES THE PLANES

These optional rules replace the action point rules with “belief points” - a measure of a PC's adherence to their beliefs. The essence is that you can do cool things with belief points that you cannot with action points, but in order to gain belief points you need to act in line with your beliefs. Each player decides whether to use belief or action points.

Beliefs
Come up with a couple beliefs your PC adheres to. Between 1 to 3 is a good start, and you can always add more or change them later, though PCs should have 5 beliefs at a maximum (for purposes of keeping track). It’s fine if some of these beliefs aren’t compatible. When you act according to a belief in the face of great cost or personal loss, you gain a belief point.

Using Belief Points
A belief point lets you “break the rules”; you can spend them as you would action points – to gain an extra standard action – or in any number of ways. For example:

• Automatic success: Succeed an attack roll, skill check, ability check, or saving throw.
• Break the rules: Do something that slightly breaks or changes the rules.
• Gain an intuitive clue: Ask the DM a question or just get a hint.
• Invent a plot twist: Invest a plot twist related to one of your beliefs.
• Reshape the planes: Trigger a worldfall, (de)stabilize a portal, shift a gate-town from the Outlands to neighboring plane (or back), establish a temporary sanctuary in an otherwise hostile plane, shape unstable planar matter, etc. At the DM’s discretion reshaping the planes may require multiple belief points be spent, or may require certain conditions be met first.
• Ritual magic: Fast-cast a ritual as a standard action, spend a belief point in place of a ritual’s component cost, or improvise a ritual you haven’t mastered.

Gaining Belief Points
When you act according to a belief in the face of great cost or personal loss, you gain a belief point. Nearly dying (or actually dying) in a dungeon, sustaining a debilitating disease or injury, sacrificing magical items, forgoing important personal (or group) goals, refusing to comply and expecting to die for it – these are examples of great costs or personal losses. Belief points never go away, but you don’t gain them by resting or reaching milestones either. If you’ve stockpiled a bunch you can only use one per round, though there is no limit to the number of belief points you can use in an encounter.

Feats, Paragon Paths, and Magic Items
Anything that refers to 'action points' applies to 'belief points' as well. When you spend a belief point, it's the same as spending an action point for purposes of paragon path features, feats, magic items, etc.
 
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Tequila Sunrise

Adventurer
Oh, I downloaded Exocet from the net at one of the free font sites - it's widely available. For example: http://fontzone.net/font-details/exocet-heavy. There are two versions, one heavy like the one I linked, the other light (sometimes it's just called "Exocet").
Thanks, didn't know fonts are so easy to get!


BELIEF SHAPES THE PLANES
...
Nice, this is exactly the kind of thing I've been thinking about. Great minds think alike, and all that...

Btw, it looks like you had some great idea involving slaad and modrons on the ginormous article thread. Mind summarizing them here?
 

Quickleaf

Legend
Nice, this is exactly the kind of thing I've been thinking about. Great minds think alike, and all that...
:)

Btw, it looks like you had some great idea involving slaad and modrons on the ginormous article thread. Mind summarizing them here?
Sure. Modron and slaad are alien monsters, but they're not alien like fey; instead their alien-ness comes from an innate compulsion to "share their world view." How they go about doing this defines them as monsters...

Modrons "unveil the clockwork universe" to get ignorant beings to understand the perfect order of the multiverse; they do this thru the Great Modron March, by taking the guilty to hierarch modron courts in Mechanus, and by constructing strange machines that change the physics of the planes. The modron threat rarely comes from force of arms, instead it comes from their constructs (physical and otherwise).

Slaad "spread the chaos seed" because that is their instinctive reaction to being unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality; they are, in a sense, the ultimate solipsists (taken to a distorted extreme). The real slaad threat comes from those infected by the slaad, turning them against their fellows.
 

Quickleaf

Legend
[MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION] What factions did you axe and which ones did you add? Also do you have a sample writeup for a faction you could share?
 

Tequila Sunrise

Adventurer
@Tequila Sunrise What factions did you axe and which ones did you add? Also do you have a sample writeup for a faction you could share?
I wanted to finish the factions before sharing them, but one thing after another has been eating my spare time. (Only one more final though!) It turns out I only axed four factions. (Can you guess which one was almost the fifth?) Anyway, here's a link to what I've got right now: Link

I talk about my reasoning on page one. :)
 

Quickleaf

Legend
[MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION] Good luck with your last final!

Hmm, I'm using iPhone right now and can't view google docs apparently.

I always thought the Bleak Cabal was a hard sell as a faction players would have any interest in.
 


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