Your campaign -- Hangups with generic material
- Thread starter Psion
- Start date
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Illithids and Beholders. You'd think they'd work well in a setting, but it's really hard when you take away the Underdark. Course the whole thing was ridiculous to begin with but hey they STILL need a home! 
Everything else is fairly workable. Btw I figured I just toss all the gnolls on Termana. They get to have more fun tormenting the gnomes anyway.
Everything else is fairly workable. Btw I figured I just toss all the gnolls on Termana. They get to have more fun tormenting the gnomes anyway.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Medieval Europe clones for one.
They were fun when I was 12 but the closest I've been to Medival europe since I was 18 is the Slavic region of my Yuan (Mongol) Empire homebrew (currently I'm doing Polynesia)
That using the core settings means PCs are wandering mecernaries who go around killing monsters and looting tombs. I want my PCs to be members of their community wirth responsibilities and a purpose in life.
I dislike the Race = Culture fallacy and that Races are given Alignments. Cultures may be Chaotic or Lawful and outsiders Good and Evil. A Race is neutral and every member should NOT be branded as anything else.
I dislike the lack of monster ecologys and the prolifieration of races and subraces (I have NO subraces - an Aquatic Elf is not a distant cousin to a Forest Elf, and Mariner Elves are genetically identical to other Elves they just happen to like boats)
I dislike the Magic-can-do-everything system which basically allows spellcasters the chance to replace the skills and abilities of EVERY other class with a spell.
They were fun when I was 12 but the closest I've been to Medival europe since I was 18 is the Slavic region of my Yuan (Mongol) Empire homebrew (currently I'm doing Polynesia
)That using the core settings means PCs are wandering mecernaries who go around killing monsters and looting tombs. I want my PCs to be members of their community wirth responsibilities and a purpose in life.
I dislike the Race = Culture fallacy and that Races are given Alignments. Cultures may be Chaotic or Lawful and outsiders Good and Evil. A Race is neutral and every member should NOT be branded as anything else.
I dislike the lack of monster ecologys and the prolifieration of races and subraces (I have NO subraces - an Aquatic Elf is not a distant cousin to a Forest Elf, and Mariner Elves are genetically identical to other Elves they just happen to like boats)
I dislike the Magic-can-do-everything system which basically allows spellcasters the chance to replace the skills and abilities of EVERY other class with a spell.
spunky_mutters
First Post
Howling IV was the were-kangaroos, I think.
I don't have a real underdark, but I've put Illithids as super-outsiders in an unreachable spaces sort of way, not a remote planes sort of way. If you know what I mean (they are pretty cthulhoid anyways). Beholders fit fine as the apparent rulers of a slave empire. They have nasty palaces that are mostly underground, but that doesn't stop them from being the only power in their kingdom.
I find I have to change most stuff to be able to use any of it. Generally I'm happy if there's a good NPC I can drop in unchanged, or maybe a cult, or something. If the supplement contains any amount of geography, I probably won't be using it, and adventures are pretty much right out (I have enough trouble keeping the multi-threaded homebrew plots on track, no need for a derailment).
I don't have a real underdark, but I've put Illithids as super-outsiders in an unreachable spaces sort of way, not a remote planes sort of way. If you know what I mean (they are pretty cthulhoid anyways). Beholders fit fine as the apparent rulers of a slave empire. They have nasty palaces that are mostly underground, but that doesn't stop them from being the only power in their kingdom.
I find I have to change most stuff to be able to use any of it. Generally I'm happy if there's a good NPC I can drop in unchanged, or maybe a cult, or something. If the supplement contains any amount of geography, I probably won't be using it, and adventures are pretty much right out (I have enough trouble keeping the multi-threaded homebrew plots on track, no need for a derailment).
BluWolf
Explorer
The biggest problem I have with generic module is the NPCs. My homebrew uses rewritten spell casters. So I have to go and redo any spell casting NPCs. The low level guys are easy but once they get about 8th level it takes a little while longer.
Also no spell for Rangers and Bards so I've gotta watch out for them.
Damn, races too. My elves are allergic too cold iron. All that little stuff.
Also no spell for Rangers and Bards so I've gotta watch out for them.
Damn, races too. My elves are allergic too cold iron. All that little stuff.
Wormwood
Adventurer
Races: I don't use demi-humans.
Religion: I only have one god, not a pantheon.
Cosmology: I don't use default cosmology (no planes, no Celestials, no Fiends, etc)
Magic: I rewrote the spellcasting classes from the ground up.
Monsters: Nothing emerges from the Monster Manual without some *major* alterations.
Still, I try use most of what I buy. The splat-books were instructional, but largely useless.
I enjoyed Eldritch Might 2, and was able to integrate most of it into my world. Bluffside was *excellent*, and I've freely adapted much of the Scarred Lands and FRCS.
Religion: I only have one god, not a pantheon.
Cosmology: I don't use default cosmology (no planes, no Celestials, no Fiends, etc)
Magic: I rewrote the spellcasting classes from the ground up.
Monsters: Nothing emerges from the Monster Manual without some *major* alterations.
Still, I try use most of what I buy. The splat-books were instructional, but largely useless.
I enjoyed Eldritch Might 2, and was able to integrate most of it into my world. Bluffside was *excellent*, and I've freely adapted much of the Scarred Lands and FRCS.
Heretic Apostate
First Post
Let's see. IF I were to get back into gaming, I'd base my campaign on a "loot everything worth having" philosophy.
The generic d20 adventures and supplements would be only marginally useful. I'd want to start over from the basis of D&D 3E, and try to build up something more gritty than d20, but more epic than GURPS (with a dash of Alternity tossed in). Basically, hit points aren't so ridiculous, but heroes are still HEROES, dang it. (Yeah, I know about Grim'n'Gritty. It's a nice starting point.)
So that would mean redesigning the classes, the races, the magic system (and magic items), weapons, and so on.
That obviously means I'd have to redo all the crunchy bits.
Some ideas: All giants are basically reduced down to ogres. All dragons are reduced down to the size of REALLY big crocodiles. (Modern crocodiles, like out of Lake Placid, not those huge prehistoric crocodiles.) Make them something that someone who is more-than-human could defeat. None of this Drow, Sun Elf, Moon Elf (yeah, I read a lot of Forgotten Realms) stuff. All elves are elves. On the lines of Feist's Midkemia, mixed with ancient elven kingdoms of FR. (In FR, there are, IIRC, five ancient elven kingdoms, before the Crown Wars. Take the ruthlessness of the drow kingdoms, the arrogance of the Sun kingdoms, the openness of the Moon kingdoms, and apply them to societies, not sub-races.)
Stuff like that.
I like the idea of doing late-Medieval/early-Renaissance alternate Earth.
And so on, and so forth, ad nauseum.
The generic d20 adventures and supplements would be only marginally useful. I'd want to start over from the basis of D&D 3E, and try to build up something more gritty than d20, but more epic than GURPS (with a dash of Alternity tossed in). Basically, hit points aren't so ridiculous, but heroes are still HEROES, dang it. (Yeah, I know about Grim'n'Gritty. It's a nice starting point.)
So that would mean redesigning the classes, the races, the magic system (and magic items), weapons, and so on.
That obviously means I'd have to redo all the crunchy bits.
Some ideas: All giants are basically reduced down to ogres. All dragons are reduced down to the size of REALLY big crocodiles. (Modern crocodiles, like out of Lake Placid, not those huge prehistoric crocodiles.) Make them something that someone who is more-than-human could defeat. None of this Drow, Sun Elf, Moon Elf (yeah, I read a lot of Forgotten Realms) stuff. All elves are elves. On the lines of Feist's Midkemia, mixed with ancient elven kingdoms of FR. (In FR, there are, IIRC, five ancient elven kingdoms, before the Crown Wars. Take the ruthlessness of the drow kingdoms, the arrogance of the Sun kingdoms, the openness of the Moon kingdoms, and apply them to societies, not sub-races.)
Stuff like that.
I like the idea of doing late-Medieval/early-Renaissance alternate Earth.
And so on, and so forth, ad nauseum.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Heretic Apostate said:
I did this = well sort of
Basically Giants come in four categories
1 Minor Giants 9 - 10ft tall Weight up to 600 lbs
Must sleep* 12 hours per day or be fatigued, Eat 2*xrations per week
Minor giants are available as a PC race (+1 ECL)
2 True Giants 10 - 14ft Weigt 2000lbs
Sleep 16 hours per day Eat 3x rations per week
True giants sometimes appear as NPCs
3. Greater Giants 15 - 20ft Weight 5000lbs
Sleep 24 hours (active every 'other' day) Eat 5xrations per week
Very rare
4. Legendary Giants 20ft+ - 100?
Sleep d10X10 years, Eat 10-20 x rations
These are the Ancestor Spirits of Giantkind and only exisit in myth (such as legends of sleeping giants turned into mountains)and as epic encounters
(NB *IMC giants have incredibly slow metabolisms (hence the increased sleep requirements) this also means they can eat one large meal and then spend weeks digesting it (like a snake) - this keeps them from eating everything, instead the eat once then digest)
The increase sleep requirement was inspired by fairytales in which most gaintslayers are able to defeat the giants because they catch them when they are sleeping)
Sammael99
First Post
Medieval Europe clones for one.
They were fun when I was 12 but the closest I've been to Medival europe since I was 18 is the Slavic region of my Yuan (Mongol) Empire homebrew (currently I'm doing Polynesia
If you read French, there's a complete Polynesian RPG available for free on the net called "Légendes Thaïtiennes". It was written by a friend of mine, and I played it for a couple of years. It rocks ! Here's the url :
http://home.nordnet.fr/~stlegrand/Travail/lgendes.htm
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
The biggest problem is pantheons of gods, since my current campaign is monotheistic.
Next biggest problem is those character classes which I've heavily modified, or races which are not as homogenous among society in my world as in the generic D&D.
Next biggest problem is those character classes which I've heavily modified, or races which are not as homogenous among society in my world as in the generic D&D.
