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First Post
.WHAT: Imperishable Fame, a game set in a mythical Proto Indo European time period.
RULES: Swords and Wizardry, a free OGL retro clone of OD&D. The more free form rule set will facilitate play over a message board, IMHO.
RACES/CLASSES: Human only, with three classes--
Fighting Man (mostly nobility, with three sub classes/castes: the Werewolves, beserkers, unmarried wild warriors. As per fighters except +2 to hit, limited to leather armor;
Brothers of the Axe, married warriors, per standard fighter;
and Amazons, the female order of fighters/hunters As per Ranger sub class. Ranger class pdf is here.)
Druid (the middle class, spiritual leaders of the community), Druid class description pdf can be found here.
Magic User (spellweavers using oral tradition of poetry in a pre literate society; typically from lowest rung of society like sheepherders).
There will be a few minor changes to Magic Users. MU's can wear leather armor, and may use say, spears, daggers, and slings. MU's are more akin to keepers of an oral tradition without spellbooks.
CHARACTER GENERATION: Characters begin at level 1, which seems appropriate. DM will roll starting gold and ability scores, which players can arrange as they wish. Although the game will not use a gold coin type economy, at chargen players will use starting gold to gain starting equipment. At game's start, excess wealth will be converted into items of value for the economy such as jewelry, religious artifacts, or local glory and reputation.
Players begin with max HP.
Also, although the time period is early Bronze Age, the standard equipment list for Swords and Wizardry will be used.
HOUSE RULES: 1.) Morale/NPC reactions- I will be using a simple monster morale and npc reaction system for encounters when necessary, although PC roleplaying is still very important, obviously.
2.)"Skill" System-although there are no skills per se in old school rules, I will use a simple system for tasks that may have an element of risk or chance and not covered by the rules. A roll of 3d20 will be used to roll under a characters appropriate ability score. An easy task will use the lowest roll, a medium the middle, a hard task the highest.
3.)Bind Wounds-Characters may bind their wounds after a battle for 1d4 of HP; the character can't gain more points than were lost during that particular battle, and can't bind up more than 100% of starting HP.
4.)Death- At 0 HP a character is unconcious, death occurs at negative hp equal to level, ie a level 3 character is dead at -3 HP.
5. Ascending AC-For simplicity of usage, I'll use the ascending AC option, which like d20 games has a base AC of 10 and gets higher. This figure is shown in brackets in the rulebook for monsters and equipment.
THE PITCH: At the dawn of Western civilization it doesn't matter whether you live or die, it's how you die that is important. Will you overcome death via the immortal poetry of the weavers of words, or will you survive as a holy force, a semi-divine boon to future generations? Only the mightiest of heroes and the bravest of deeds can achieve Imperishable Fame.
(blurb stolen brazenly from Jeff Rients blog, which I'll link to below.)
I have long wanted to do a psuedo mythical dawn of time game where the players are the first heroes, and are the basis of later legends. Magic, monsters and civilization itself are all new.
My past attempts to run such a game (usually 3E set in Yamato Japan) have been unsatisfactory. But I have been recently inspired by a re reading of RE Howards Kull stories and a few entries at my favorite gaming blog, Jeff's Gameblog.
At any rate, take a look at the blog archive here from Jeff's Gameblog to get an idea behind the campaign. The oldest and first entry into the 4 part series is at the bottom. I plan to shamelessly rip off just about every detail of these entries, since Jeff has formulated these concepts far better than I.)
Any interest in such a game? I'd like to do equal parts of social interaction and dungeoneering. In the end it would still be D&D, however, with places to explore, monsters to overcome and dark places to delve.
I have another game recruitment thread brewing, but it seems to be lacking in interest. If this game idea does take off, I'd abandon the other (Sundered Empire) game and offer two spots for this game to Holy Man and grufflehead for their kind interest in my other game.
Comments?
RULES: Swords and Wizardry, a free OGL retro clone of OD&D. The more free form rule set will facilitate play over a message board, IMHO.
RACES/CLASSES: Human only, with three classes--
Fighting Man (mostly nobility, with three sub classes/castes: the Werewolves, beserkers, unmarried wild warriors. As per fighters except +2 to hit, limited to leather armor;
Brothers of the Axe, married warriors, per standard fighter;
and Amazons, the female order of fighters/hunters As per Ranger sub class. Ranger class pdf is here.)
Druid (the middle class, spiritual leaders of the community), Druid class description pdf can be found here.
Magic User (spellweavers using oral tradition of poetry in a pre literate society; typically from lowest rung of society like sheepherders).
There will be a few minor changes to Magic Users. MU's can wear leather armor, and may use say, spears, daggers, and slings. MU's are more akin to keepers of an oral tradition without spellbooks.
CHARACTER GENERATION: Characters begin at level 1, which seems appropriate. DM will roll starting gold and ability scores, which players can arrange as they wish. Although the game will not use a gold coin type economy, at chargen players will use starting gold to gain starting equipment. At game's start, excess wealth will be converted into items of value for the economy such as jewelry, religious artifacts, or local glory and reputation.
Players begin with max HP.
Also, although the time period is early Bronze Age, the standard equipment list for Swords and Wizardry will be used.
HOUSE RULES: 1.) Morale/NPC reactions- I will be using a simple monster morale and npc reaction system for encounters when necessary, although PC roleplaying is still very important, obviously.
2.)"Skill" System-although there are no skills per se in old school rules, I will use a simple system for tasks that may have an element of risk or chance and not covered by the rules. A roll of 3d20 will be used to roll under a characters appropriate ability score. An easy task will use the lowest roll, a medium the middle, a hard task the highest.
3.)Bind Wounds-Characters may bind their wounds after a battle for 1d4 of HP; the character can't gain more points than were lost during that particular battle, and can't bind up more than 100% of starting HP.
4.)Death- At 0 HP a character is unconcious, death occurs at negative hp equal to level, ie a level 3 character is dead at -3 HP.
5. Ascending AC-For simplicity of usage, I'll use the ascending AC option, which like d20 games has a base AC of 10 and gets higher. This figure is shown in brackets in the rulebook for monsters and equipment.
THE PITCH: At the dawn of Western civilization it doesn't matter whether you live or die, it's how you die that is important. Will you overcome death via the immortal poetry of the weavers of words, or will you survive as a holy force, a semi-divine boon to future generations? Only the mightiest of heroes and the bravest of deeds can achieve Imperishable Fame.
(blurb stolen brazenly from Jeff Rients blog, which I'll link to below.)
I have long wanted to do a psuedo mythical dawn of time game where the players are the first heroes, and are the basis of later legends. Magic, monsters and civilization itself are all new.
My past attempts to run such a game (usually 3E set in Yamato Japan) have been unsatisfactory. But I have been recently inspired by a re reading of RE Howards Kull stories and a few entries at my favorite gaming blog, Jeff's Gameblog.
At any rate, take a look at the blog archive here from Jeff's Gameblog to get an idea behind the campaign. The oldest and first entry into the 4 part series is at the bottom. I plan to shamelessly rip off just about every detail of these entries, since Jeff has formulated these concepts far better than I.)
Any interest in such a game? I'd like to do equal parts of social interaction and dungeoneering. In the end it would still be D&D, however, with places to explore, monsters to overcome and dark places to delve.
I have another game recruitment thread brewing, but it seems to be lacking in interest. If this game idea does take off, I'd abandon the other (Sundered Empire) game and offer two spots for this game to Holy Man and grufflehead for their kind interest in my other game.
Comments?
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