Rel's Faded Glory III: Glory Reborn (FINAL UPDATE 6/22 - SHE'S DONE, BABY!!)

[Elder-Basilisk]

These days, I'm spending more time working to pay the bills and less time procrastinating on my thesis at the computer . That means less time on ENWorld in general, and some of that has been over in the Rogue's Gallery 100NPCs thread.

It's also good to still have readers like you, E-B. It seems like I haven't seen you around as much lately as I used to. Am I looking in the wrong places?

 

[Old One]

It won't be too long before the end. The last week has been crazy busy for me and so was the weekend since I was busy with Game Day where...I got to play an adventure set in Old One's Faded Glory setting! I had a blast playing Brandis Tolhart the sneaky Halfling Scout. There were Sythian warriors, Fire Witches and Giant Scorpions galore. We very nearly lost our elven archeress to the Huge Scorpion conjured by a Fire Witch but thanks to Brandis and Vercinius of Osirian (I might have spelled that name right) played by our very own Riggs, we smacked down the Witch and poof went the Scorpion!

My schedule this week starts out hectic and finishes up light so I should be able to update by the end of the week.

Just wanted to pop in and say how much fun it was to see Rel back as Brandis Tollhart, halfling scout extra-ordinaire. This is the second time I have had the pleasure of DMing Rel in a Faded Glory 1-shot...and I must say he definitely elevates the level of play and discourse at the table...especially when "tricking" the groin area of unsuspecting Sythian guards !

Riggs also did a good job of running Vercinius, frequently mixing the holy word with the holy mace for celestial smacking !

Glad you guys had fun (if you can call fighting giant scorpions with unreal grapple bonuses fun). I would be interested in any feedback on how you thought the GT Ruleset worked for Faded Glory and/or the inclusion of the BCCS magic/equipment system.

Rel, great update! Waiting for the coming finale...

~ OO

 

[Rel]

Then by all means: write, man! Write!

I can't wait to see how this plays out.

Alas, it was not to be. My Sunday got spend working/having dinner at my in-laws so no time to update. If I can chip away at writing an update in small chunks through the course of the week then I'll post it. If not then I should have some time next weekend.

 

[Rel]

I would be interested in any feedback on how you thought the GT Ruleset worked for Faded Glory and/or the inclusion of the BCCS magic/equipment system.

~ OO

I thought the setting and system went together perfectly. Much more so than the setting fits with the core D&D rules.

Don't get me wrong, I love D&D and I'm happily playing it in Eberron right now. But, particularly as the characters rose in level, it was difficult for me to retain the original feel of the Faded Glory setting with the magic that the PC's and NPC's were becoming capable of.

This sort of ties in with the upcoming conclusion of my Story Hour in that most of the players were wanting to possibly return to this setting and the surviving characters when next I ran the game. I told them that I just couldn't do that because I didn't plan well enough from the start for the setting and system to mesh well at higher levels. I think that doing so with the BCCS and GT would have been much easier.

I don't know if that means the you're considering converting things in mid-campaign or not but if I was one of your players I would certainly consider doing so.

Hope that helps.

 

[Belen]

Great update. It will be nice to see how they do on the dragonmount.

 

[Riggs]

Just wanted to pop in and say how much fun it was to see Rel back as Brandis Tollhart, halfling scout extra-ordinaire. This is the second time I have had the pleasure of DMing Rel in a Faded Glory 1-shot...and I must say he definitely elevates the level of play and discourse at the table...especially when "tricking" the groin area of unsuspecting Sythian guards !

Riggs also did a good job of running Vercinius, frequently mixing the holy word with the holy mace for celestial smacking !

Glad you guys had fun (if you can call fighting giant scorpions with unreal grapple bonuses fun). I would be interested in any feedback on how you thought the GT Ruleset worked for Faded Glory and/or the inclusion of the BCCS magic/equipment system.

Rel, great update! Waiting for the coming finale...

~ OO

Thanks, I had a great time, including failing nearly every Coordinate roll when I only needed 7 or better!

As for the system mixing, I thought it went really well and smoothly. I don't really know too much about GT actually, but did have to jump into BCCS and like that system. It's tricky to be a mage since you have different things to consider: gone are spell slots and memorizations, and now you worry more about casting time and drain..makes for a more choosy mage. We had lots of props and I blew through most of mine. I am curious about how warrior-types and wizards progress in a BCCS campaign...kinda of the scale we use when describing a class "coming into its own at around Xth level"
I liked that you included some other mechanics, like Battlefield Events on Init 1's. I think that makes combats more unpredictable, though not extra dangerous usually. It's fun to all moan "oh crap" when we see a 1, but this doesn't kill you usually so it's a nice effect (don't try to tell Brandis that, a 1 roll made him fall into the swarm ) For that matter, the exploding 6 variant was cool too, and I'm not just saying that because Verc got to be dramatic with it at the end. Maybe a little.
I do like the levels of equipment quality there are in BCCS too. It's not too complex, but adds a cool touch in a limited-economy and low magic availability setting.

And sorry Verc took away your character-kill...I bet that Prop won't be in the next bag Verc carries! just kidding.

 

[Old One]

Thanks, I had a great time, including failing nearly every Coordinate roll when I only needed 7 or better!

But you kept trying...that's what matters !

As for the system mixing, I thought it went really well and smoothly. I don't really know too much about GT actually, but did have to jump into BCCS and like that system. It's tricky to be a mage since you have different things to consider: gone are spell slots and memorizations, and now you worry more about casting time and drain..makes for a more choosy mage. We had lots of props and I blew through most of mine. I am curious about how warrior-types and wizards progress in a BCCS campaign...kinda of the scale we use when describing a class "coming into its own at around Xth level"

The spell system definitely takes some getting used to...

I had jotted down ~ 6 effects for enemy casters (basically one "quickfire" effect and one "memorized" effect), but it was still tough to juggle. The drain mechanic adds some book keeping that was tough to keep up with (for me) since I was really watching the clock. I eventually just hand-waved it and essentially let low-levels cast 3 spells, mid-levels 5 spells and BBECasters 8 spells until they exhausted themselves (unless they were hooked up to the Demon Scorpion energy source).

That said, I think working with it from the ground up would make this a lot easier (ie, starting with a 1st or 2nd level party and working up from there).

It was pretty interesting seeing the choices that both you and Henry made in balancing out "big booms" with the nasty drain of higher level spells.

I liked that you included some other mechanics, like Battlefield Events on Init 1's. I think that makes combats more unpredictable, though not extra dangerous usually. It's fun to all moan "oh crap" when we see a 1, but this doesn't kill you usually so it's a nice effect (don't try to tell Brandis that, a 1 roll made him fall into the swarm ) For that matter, the exploding 6 variant was cool too, and I'm not just saying that because Verc got to be dramatic with it at the end. Maybe a little.

Agreed. The melding of the BCCS and GT action points/battlefield effects/exploding action dice was fun. The only thing I didn't incorporate, which I might in the future was the number of action dice rolled. In BCCS, the higher level you are, the more dice you get to roll (taking the best of the rolls). The flip side is that I probably wouldn't include the exploding dice option...since that makes it a bit too easy to pick up an exploding die.

I do like the levels of equipment quality there are in BCCS too. It's not too complex, but adds a cool touch in a limited-economy and low magic availability setting.

Agreed. I really like this aspect of BCCS. I would probably expand on it significantly and add various abilites through "times x" power components and the "Imbed Magic" rules in BCCS.

And sorry Verc took away your character-kill...I bet that Prop won't be in the next bag Verc carries! just kidding.

Truth be told...I completely forgot about that Prop! In a real campaign, I probably would make that much more expensive to use...something like a DC 30 Heal Check and a permanent point of spell energy or something equally grievous.

Glad you had fun and thanks for the comments!

~ OO

PS - End thread hijack!

 

[Old One]

Hijack Alert!

Rel and Riggs,

Would you mind swinging by this thread and adding any thoughts? Thanks!

GT + BCCS = Fun

Thanks in advance,

~ OO

 

[Riggs]

Rel and Riggs,

Would you mind swinging by this thread and adding any thoughts? Thanks!

GT + BCCS = Fun

Thanks in advance,

~ OO

Done! At least initially

 

[Belen]

We cannot let this get to the 3rd page.