Psionics and Forgotten Realms

[Yesminde]

I don't know how much interest this will rouse, but here goes. I've been working on a game that I want to run involving Psionic characters in the Forgotten Realms, unfortunately, numerous snags have presented themselves and prevented it from becoming a reality. The biggest snag? No players.

So, here are the rules for my game:

Game Premise: You are a seemingly-ordinary (for a given value of "ordinary") individual. Some months ago (local time), you encountered a strange old human that refers to himself only as Nymbus. For whatever reason, he awakened or recognized psionic power within you and carted you off to his secret mountain retreat in order to instruct you in the use of this power. Nymbus really is an odd person. His motives for training you are unclear and his grasp of ordinary human concerns seems tenuous at best. Still, you have your own room, plenty of food, and interesting work to do, so it isn't all bad.

Game Style: A cross between narrativist and simulationist. I like lots of dialogue and role-playing interspersed with a few fights. Players that don't like to RP with other players and NPC's will probably not like this game. Neither will players that revel in angst or playing a grim loner. I run a serious but not grim game: your character should take their behavior as seriously as you take your behavior in real life.

Character Creation:

Level: 1

Races: Any race in the Expanded Psionics Handbook or Complete Psionic. The point of this game is to try out those two books.

Classes: Any class in the Expanded Psionics Handbook or Complete Psionic (including the Erudite).

Alignment: Any, however I expect some role-playing concessions here. You must have some overriding reason to stay with the group, even if it's only that you know them and there is safety in numbers. I grant that if you are not a master role-player this may be difficult with some alignments.

Stats: Use this set: 18 17 16 15 13 11. This is called "one of my players rolled really well and I'm a nice GM so I let everyone use it."

Skills: Yup.

Feats: Any feats in the 3.5 PHB, Expanded Psionics Handbook, or Complete Psionic are acceptable.

House Rules: I'm going to document the bulk of them elsewhere, I just wanted to explain the changes that will affect character creation here.

No AoO. This is not because I have a problem with AoO per se, but because they are a huge pain in the patoot if you don't use miniatures, so rather than mess with them, I'm just dispensing with them altogether. I realize that this has huge consequences, some of which I may not be aware of up front. I'm looking at options for correcting this problem, so it may change mid-game if I find something I like.

Psionic/Magic transparency: *favors psionics*. This is not a method covered in the book, so I'll explain briefly. Magic is transparent to psionics: Dispel Psionics will also dispel magical effects, for instance. However psionics are not transparent to magic. Dispel Magic will not dispel psionics. Power resistance is spell resistance, but spell resistence is *not* power resistance. Unfair? Duh. You're playing the psionic end of this equation, though, so don't complain.

Time: Thursday at 6pm eastern.

Means of gaming: AIM chat. I've considered using a platform but I find them inconvenient and restrictive, not to mention that it's yet another thing to buy. I'm still looking for one I like, though, and if I find one I will pay (if it's reasonable) for my players to get it.

 

[Whimsical]

Regrettably, I am unable to participate in your game. But I thought that you may be interested in my ideas for a Psionic-only campagin that I have posted in the past.

 

[dystmesis]

Sounds interesting, but sadly I don't have aim.

 

[Yesminde]

Well, if you have a computer and internet access it's free, you can also use AIM Express if you can't download the actual software because it's not your computer.

 

[Yesminde]

Revisions!

Heya, sadly no responses yet, so here's what I'm doing: I've decided to move the game night to Thursdays. I'm actually going to be starting *tomorrow* with two players each playing two characters, but I'm still willing to bring in more people! If you're interested, let me know and we'll figure something out.

 

[Arkhandus]

I hope you get enough players for your game!

Unfortunately, your campaign premise won't appeal to a lot of people (in general, and among those of us who actually like psionics), and the use of AIM is likely to also deter some folks from playing. :\

Good luck.

 

[Yesminde]

Thanks, I guess. I need to update my rules here anyway, because my existing players made their characters in a different way: I changed my mind before I found out they were still interested in playing.

Why do you think my game premise won't have general appeal?

 

[Arkhandus]

1. You're looking for players that like psionics, or at least don't mind psionics and are quite willing to give them a try. This eliminates probably half of the potential players, or more. Too many folks have a negative opinion of psionics, either because they personally feel it doesn't belong in fantasy/D&D, or because they were soured by earlier editions' unbalanced and complicated psionic rules, or because they think the current version is broken or otherwise problematic itself. Unfortunate but them's the breaks.

2. You're looking for a subset of gamers that likes immersive roleplaying, lots of PC-to-PC and PC-to-NPC interaction, and a significant focus on roleplay/character development (of the non-mechanical sort). That similarly cuts the potential playerbase in half or so, as many roleplayers don't actually enjoy the RP aspects so much. :\

3. You're running Forgotten Realms, which some people will be uninterested in, or just plain dislike, or just feel like avoiding because they're not especially familiar with its details and don't think they could get by in a roleplay-heavy game set in the Forgotten Realms. Even though you couldn't swing a dead cat in a game-store or book-store without hitting scads of drooling, mindless Drizzt fanboys and fangirls, and even a few other Realms-lovers, there actually exists a sizeable number of FR-haters and disillusioned FR-players. The same can be said for various other settings, of course, but I think FR and Eberron are the current settings with the greatest number of haters right now (though also similar numbers of fans). So anyway, point is that the setting you use will likely turn away at least a few of the potential players.

4. You're looking to play online but at a particular time/day and using a particular program, which further limits the potential playerbase. Many folks won't have the same time/day available. We who play using virtual tabletops and such tend to have problems finding fellow gamers who can play consistently during the same timeslot, on the same day, and who are also interested in the particular style/system of game we're running.

5. Overall, it's just the combination of several limiting factors. You're looking for players who are interested in the style of game you're preparing, for the system you're running, for the world/setting you're using, at the same time and day that you're planning and on a consistent basis and with a particular program.....

At least when you're running face-to-face, people don't have much choice about whether or not to play, because it's either join the local DM/GM's game or don't play at all. Though less likely now that people have MMORPGs to occupy their free time if all they want is simple action.


So......your game's premise and set-up will likely turn away 75-95% of potential players (as in, people who see that you're looking for players and are themselves interested in joining a game soon), and the remaining 5-25% are uncertain maybies. Maybe 5% will actually be looking for exactly the kind of game you're hoping to run, and maybe 20% will be interested in just enough of your premise/set-up to consider it and contact you to figure out if they'd really want to play or not.

Not exactly a voice of optimism, am I? You asked for an explanation, and there it is. I generally try for open-ended recruitment calls on OpenRPG myself.


I'd suggest you cross-post though on RPG.net, the Wizards.com forums (I think they've actually changed them to Gleemax at this point? I forget, and I only bother to look at the Wizards forums once in a blue moon myself), and perhaps any other roleplaying forums you visit or know about. Your chances of finding players that will enjoy your game, or at least join in and give it an honest try, are better if you make a recruitment call across multiple forums.


As for myself.....I'm pretty much just not fond of Instant-Messaging programs and don't have AIM, don't have much experience with campaigns that involve more than moderate roleplaying, don't own the XPH or CPsi (though I've read parts of the XPH in the SRD, and I own the older 3.0 Psionics Handbook and the 2E AD&D Complete Psionics Handbook), and only kinda like the Forgotten Realms.

I've never played in any FR game that lasted more than two sessions, haven't DMed in FR yet, and would rather not bother with AIM. I love psionics, D&D, most other D&D settings, and RPGs in general, but I have no significant experience with deep roleplaying. Closest I've been to that was playing a pseudodragon in a short RP-heavy campaign that's on hiatus now, and my few years of participating on the slow-moving Beyond Dominia Roleplaying Mill, which was kind of like a freeform play-by-post using Magic: The Gathering as the setting.

 

[Yesminde]

Good, I was hoping it wasn't anything I hadn't already thought of. Like I said, I wasn't really expecting to find many takers.

That being said, I think I've found a platform I might actually be willing to use (Fantasy Grounds), but I want to experiment with it a little more before I decide to buy it.

I don't really like FR either, at least not the way most people seem to play it. Are we going to run into any of the old standby characters? No. I find Drizzt laughable and Elminster appalling. At most, there might be cameos from second and third tier characters depending on where the PC's decide to go. The only FR book I *have* is the base campaign setting book *anyway*, so I expect to be murdering the canon from day 1.

It's an "RP-heavy" game because AIM is easiest to do if people talk in character most of the time, and I've found that sessions longer than 3 hours with more than 1 or 2 short fights do NOT work well online.

Unless my current people just decide they hate all my NPC's and wander off into the middle of nowhere, I'm expecting this to become a hub-based game (meaning the PC's have a "hub" they return to between adventures), so at that stage it should work pretty well even for people that can't make it every session.

 

[dystmesis]

So... How goes the game?