The Immortals Handbook

[Upper_Krust]

Hey S'mon!

I guess trying to stick with Level = CR, which as you've demonstrated makes increasingly less sense at higher levels.

Exactly.

Really my gut preference would be for each deity stage to be about twice as powerful as the one before, ie Lesser twice Demi, Intermed twice Lesser,

Which is exactly how its set out in the Immortals Handbook...going by 'average' levels that is.

though of course a war god will lay the smackdown proportionally better than a love god would.

Some deities will be physically tougher others more magically potent.

In 3e terms that would mean each deity stage being just +2 CR to the one before though*, which seems incredibly narrow.

Narrow for the official rules yes. But not for what constitutes 'proper' CR.

I know that IH works to correct this problem, although your CR/EL system in Grim Tales was too intimidatingly technical for me to use.

Well all you really have to remember is:

x1.5 CR = EL +2
x2 CR = EL +4

eg. Party of x4 CR 20 characters = 1 CR 40, or x2 CR 30. So a moderate challenge would be a single CR 20 opponent. A Tough challenge* would be a single CR 30 opponent

*By WotC standards what should really be a moderate challenge is a tough challenge.

x2 opponents = EL +2
x4 opponents = EL +4
x8 opponents = EL +6
x16 opponents = EL +8

I'm actually working on a reversed system (whereby EL stays the same and CR is modified) which may be easier to implement.

Taking the lowest deity level (Quasi) as a baseline of CR 25, that'd make Hero CR 27, Demi CR 29, Lesser CR 31, Greater-Intermediate CR 33 and Greater-Pantheon Head CR 35. That seems reasonable for a Norse-type pantheon, but the Pantheon Head would almost certainly need to have more than 35 character levels to fulfil their functions, even without 'Outsider' levels.

Well I don't necessarily use Outsider Hit Dice unless its for Demons, Devils etc.

 

[-Eä-]

Ea - if you're going for a hard-sf approach you might consider getting hold of GDW's old Fire Fusion & Steel supplement for Traveller The New Era - it's very technical but does a good job of discussing & statting realistic or at least plausible future technologies, and ways to design stuff from the ground up. Their Planet Tamer's Handbook I hear was very good for planet-related stuff, also. And the planet-generation system from any edition of Traveller (inc the d20 one) is easy to use and pretty nice for any moderately hard-sf game; at any rate the physical characteristics part, it doesn't really link physical characteristics to population size though so you can get a lot of implausible high-population vacuum worlds, but that's easily rectified.

Thanks..will look into it.

I am trying to make my game rather realistic using our own physics as starting point. While I certainly have some ideas myself, I certainly will benefit from others' experiences.

 

[S'mon]

I'd definitely say Traveller was your friend - You might like to look into Classic Traveller, Tne New Era maybe goes overboard on the simulated-realism, most people aren't going to want to have to track the bingo point on their ship's fuel reserves (though a realistic space CRPG could be great)

 

[Zoatebix]

This is pretty cool: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51917

I thought U_K might want to take a look, at least.
-George

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Zoatebix mate!

This is pretty cool: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51917

I thought U_K might want to take a look, at least.
-George

Thanks for the link. I think I have seen that before. Its a great effort from the Jester, although there are a number of points I disagree with (such as the idea that EXP alone* will give you divinity).

*and yes I know there are prereqs but they seem an indirect consequence.

Nevertheless though, commendable. At least, unlike WotCs effort it gives you a method of becoming immortal.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

Just a quick note that I updated the Godzilla and King Ghidorah stats, with some extra comments on the Godzilla page about Megasaurs.

However, I specifically wanted to ask people if they wanted to see the Monster List for the Bestiary or if they would rather just wait and be surprised? I don't really like the idea of spoiling the surprise for people but I am tempted to post the list just to give you all something to chew on. Any comments?

 

[Knight Otu]

Well, if you don't want to spoil surprises with the list, but want to give us something to chew on... you can give us something else.

 

[Fieari]

When reading fiction, I hate to be surprised. When playing a game, before I buy it I will often go ahead and look it up on gamefaqs to read the manual first (best way to see if a game is fun or not is to look at the fan-made guides). The monster list would be the equivelent of the 2nd, not the 1st. I say post it.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

I'll post the Monster List sometime later today.

One question though. Do people prefer primarily common or esoteric names for their monsters.

eg. Demon would be a common name while Tanar'ri would be an esoteric name.

eg. Hagunemnon would be an esoteric name while Protean would be a common name.

My own opinion is when dealing with subtypes put the common name first, but when dealing with individual monsters have the esoteric name first.

Does that make sense to people?

 

[Verequus]

Yes, it does make sense - and I like it, too.