Campaign Fall 2010

Author: Andrew /

Hey all!


This is the new post for the campaign that's coming up. This post is for character concepts and discussion. Allow me to put a few guidelines down:

-Characters will be level 1
-Standard point builds. If you use the character creator, it should never say "houseruled". If you're using "point buy" out of the book, the point pool is 22 with all stats at 10 except for one, which starts at 8 (this is off the top of my head, but it should be right). You may also just use a standard array for ease.
-Equipment will be very limited, run all needs and ideas past me first and we will discuss what will be done.
-Race restrictions: Drow, Warforged, as well as monster races (these can be discussed and if the point is really compelling, I may allow it; but I'm leaning towards no).
-Class restrictions: None, although proprietary classes may be denied (although I think all should be alright).
-Ideally I'd like characters to be the same gender as the player. While this is of course not a demand or restriction and gender is a relatively small thing, I have yet to see a male player really get me to buy their female character (kinda the way that when I see George Clooney playing Batman, I never once go "That's Batman", I always remember it's George Clooney). It helps me stay immersed if the players can play convincing characters and most guys know how to be guys better than girls, from what I've seen. Not looking to start a debate, just stating how I feel.

I strongly advise subscribing to D&D Insider, as their Character Creator is just awesome. It's a tool I love to use and it makes character creation extremely easy and friendly and fast. If you can't afford it, it's no problem, but it's a handy tool if you can manage it.

Also, for those of you who don't know (or do but want a handy little list in front of you) here are certain party roles that you may want filled:
-Tank
-Primary Damage
-Crowd Management and Control
-Healing
-Buffs
-Party Speaker (primary social skills like Diplomacy)
-Skill Focussed
-Off-damage / other focus

None of these are mandatory of course; you could all theoretically play Tanks if you wanted, I'm just listing these as a reference. I look forward to seeing what you've all got.

65 comments:

Lincoln said...

rolling a monk. so everybody knows. not sure what race yet. going to PROBABLY be shardmind. but i'm not 100% set on that, i might change it last minute. but I doubt it. Andrew. is/are any magic items allowed? even one? or armor? because Monks can't even wear armor without proficiency (which has to be taken in a feat) and i'd like to get SOME sort of armor bonus, which would have to come from cloth armor because that's all that's available to me. asides from that. adventurers kit? other miscellaneous minor adventurers gear?

Unknown said...

I'll be playing an Avenger...my race will be Githzerai. I was leaning towards being an isolating Avenger (I'd be able to single out an enemy in combat and isolate it from it's allies to help take it down), but with the number of adventurers in this group I may change that up to a commanding Avenger which works well on having other allies around attacking the same target.

Andrew said...

@Lincoln: No magic items. As I said, gear will be very sparse, at least at the beginning. You'll have to make due on basic basics. Cloth armor (clothing) will have to work for the start.

@Aaron: Characters that help the party with focus fire is good thinking, at least in terms of potential overall group strategy. I dunno how I feel about the Gith races, I'll give it some thought.

Lincoln said...

I was thinking about going githzerai but the whole race is kinda... creepy. or weird. i dunno. not an appealing race. seems to "off" to play one.

Andrew said...

Just to clarify a point perhaps not stated above, the game is starting with you all as level 1 characters, which means that you are not yet, really, heroes. You're learning the heroic ropes. This goes hand in hand with the lack of gear and whatnot. Know that I have a plan (at least to some degree). This is going to play like classic D&D where you'll start small. =]

Lincoln said...

kk. so no gear except for the basic basics. so like. adventurers kit? and level-appropriate gp? (100gp?)

Lincoln said...

or like 80 gp or w/e? (100gp - cost of adventurers kit)

Andrew said...

No, run any and all gear by me. Basic cloth is ok. No kit. Think about weapon but don't give yourself one.

Lincoln said...

sticking with unarmed methinks, anyways. so yeah.

Andrew said...

sounds good. Monks are easy that way. Anyways, what I'm thinking is more "Don't take any gear, but make a wish list of gear that you want."

Andrew said...

Example:

"I would like:
- a longsword
- a shield
- scale mail
- a 50 foot rope
- trail rations
- +1 speed boots"

This helps me think of things for later and how to organize loot and whatnot, plus I can structure events in the story around what you have and what I'd like you to have. Just be aware that I'm very conscious of what your characters have and/or want.

Lincoln said...

mk so yeah, shardmind stone-fist monk. cloth armor (regular clothing). that's all i've got.

Lincoln said...

as far as what my character wants. he could probably make use of most anything. more or less.

Lincoln said...

i equipped him with 1 piece of regular cloth armor I mean.

Lincoln said...

he will not be filling the "party speaker" role btw. his worthwhile skills consist of things relying on dex/str. ---> acrobatics/athletics/endurance/perception (one thing I ALWAYS take is perception) everything else he's got is scored at 0 to 3 for all of them asides from those 4 previously mentioned.

Andrew said...

Character with focus = good.

Unknown said...

Lol..I go to work and there are 2 comments..I come back and there are 14 more all between Lincoln and Andrew..hahahaha.

Lincoln said...

yeah. I wish there was a comment edit button so i could just add to what i said in the same comment, instead of having to recomment every time I think of something XD. also, andrew, what do you mean character with focus?

Lincoln said...

oh, and i dunno if I still have my subscription up. it should be up till the end of this month, so if anyone participating wants the most recent version of the character builder, go download it, then send me an email or message on here, i'll post my D&D insider account info for people who want it to update their character builder before my account expires. that way you can have an up-to-date(ish) character builder :)

Unknown said...

Ok..I would like:

- A greatsword
- An adventurers kit
- Journal and writing implement
- I'm fine with cloth armor
- Beacon of Erathis

Lincoln said...

I'll let you know if there's things i'd like later on. i'm not exactly sure atm. :P

Unknown said...

Oh..and I'd like a ranged weapon too, like a sling or a crossbow with some ammo/bolts.

Andrew said...

-Cloth is fine, no other gear to start with.

-I wish there was an edit button too.

-Character with focus means that your character build focuses on a certain thing, not trying to spread everything out and be "just ok" at everything.

Andrew said...

NEW NOTE:

1. At the beginning of the game, all characters will have only cloth armor and no other gear. Please (if you haven't already) make a wish list of things you'd like for your character to have / what they need.

2. All of you will know each other from before the actual play starts. I have this figured out in my head. More details will follow as things go. =]

3. I'm really excited. =]

Lincoln said...

when are we starting? we should start on saturday. or friday night. :p

Andrew said...

Not starting yet because I don't have word from all players.

Unknown said...

I'm cool with starting whenever...but remember I'm 3 hours ahead in time. Also, I work most weekends but I'm off by 8:30 at the latest on Saturdays and 6:30 on Sundays.

Andrew said...

Yeah, I'm usually out of town on Saturdays and Sundays. We might be able to start friday evening but I don't see fridays becoming the regular day. I also want to have one or two nights a week that we play regularly. I want to see commitment. If things are just going to fall apart or people are going to be wishy washy, then it makes it really hard to keep up motivation and immersion.If you have stuff that's scheduled, lets try to pick a time that's not conflicting and then we'll stick to that. We'll talk more about it but I'd at least like to have 3 people (I don't know if Daren and Chris are in or out).

Unknown said...

I'm up for starting tonight (saw your post on Facebook). I don't work until 12:30 tomorrow so should be a problem with the time difference tonight.

Andrew said...

Should be a problem?

Unknown said...

should not..lol. Could have swore I put the not in there.

Andrew said...

yeah, go figure you forget one of the most vital words in that whole thing. So, rundown, what are your characters. I'm allowing Lincoln's Shardmind; I created an interesting story for the Shardmind race. Anyways, Character names, races, what they're like (in a short paragraph or less)

Unknown said...

So you had mentioned before no backstory, right? I'm a human Avenger named Arein (lol). I'm a follower of Erathis. Believes in following laws, taming the wilderness, and defending civilization from darkness. I'm about teamwork and not being a lone wolf.

Andrew said...

Alright, change of plans. While you will be starting with "no gear", I will allow gear on your sheets. Simply disregard the gear until I inform you otherwise. You may have one weapon (or basic implement) and basic armor (no full plate). No magic items.

Andrew said...

Another idea. As we could do this through talking as well, lets all get Skype. It was suggested to me, it's free, sounds ez and it'll cut down on time taken with typing. I'll get it when I get home.

Adam Power said...

Hey guys

So Chris and I will be joining as well, we are going to be playing twins of the same build. We are both cleric/fighter hybrids. We only need chainmail, a greatsword, and a holy symbol. My character's name is Tataki and his is Tamago. Yes we are playing girls, sue us. They are strong, aloof, and exotic. They have a disciplined manner and are always prepared for battle.

Andrew said...

Aaaaaand another thing. You're all members of a small military company, used as squires, retainers, and assistants to a few powerful knights used to escort envoys and the like. This is how you know each other. You've been on a few missions (giving you your level 1 status).

Unknown said...

I've used Skype before. It should work out. You can set up a group with all of us then all of us can be called at the same time like a conference call.

Lol..twin girls? That's going to be funny.

Andrew said...

Yeah, should be good. I'm not going to kabosh someone's idea just because they choose the off-gender. I just want to be convinced.

Unknown said...

Oh..and if Skype doesn't work out, I believe I have access to a ventrilo server that we can use. Let me know if you'd like to go with that.

Andrew said...

Skype: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/
Hamachi: https://secure.logmein.com/US/products/hamachi2/download.aspx
Maptool: http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=downloads#MapTool

Unknown said...

Which version of the maptool are we using? The most current? Lincoln mentioned an older version the other day.

Andrew said...

use the most current, if it don't work, we'll downgrade. I'm going to try the most recent now connection issues are worked out.

Lincoln said...

i think I have access to a vent server as well. skype is easy to use, there's no reason it shouldn't work. (only downside to skype = no push to talk button, so whatever you say is heard, regardless of what buttons you push, so don't go talking if you don't want the other people to hear it :p)

My characters name is Kandel. shardmind. monk. not much of a talker at all. simple type, more or less. not much else to know about him. andrew. are there any impliments I could use as a monk that aren't magic that would make a difference? if not, i'm just going to stick with simple cloth armor & that's it.

Lincoln said...

um... i can't upgrade mine to most current or I won't be able to play in the other campaign i'm in. use this one.

1.3.b70

Unknown said...

You can download the newer one and put it in a different folder can't you?

Andrew said...

I think they should be compatible, I imagine. We'll see. It takes like a minute to download and you can use it right out of the download. Switching versions either way is fast and easy.

Andrew said...

is music transmitable over either vent or skype in a clear format, so I could possibly play campaign music while I speak over it?

Andrew said...

and by transmitable I mean transmittable ....

Unknown said...

If you have it playing in the background on your end high enough we should be able to hear it on skype..vent too as long as you don't have push to talk on.

Andrew said...

meh, maybe I'll pass. I'm leaving the office pretty quick. I'll see you guys in a little while. Keep an eye on here for details.

Unknown said...

You could always just give us youtube links for your choice music. A PBP game I was in a while back did that and it adds a nice bit of flavor.

Andrew said...

Skype is now set up, please shoot me your skype info.

Unknown said...

my name on there is Aaron Biedma..or use my email aaron.biedma@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Also, a small blurb on Tataki and Tamago:

Twin sisters who are both students of the blade and spirit. Each are as brilliant as the morning glory, yet cold and mysterious as the moonlit sky.

Tataki is the more responsible of the sisters. Practical and stoic, Tataki desires nothing more than to fight and improve herself through the tutelage of clashing steel. She carries herself with swan-like grace, and her movements are precise and delicate. Beneath her iron temperament, she finds herself unfamiliar with even the simplest of emotions, and often responds to emotional situations with cold denial or outright aggression. A silent beauty, whose blade arts are to be compared to a swallow in flight.

Tamago, by contrast, is much less reserved. Impulsive, reckless, and confident to the point of madness, Tamago concerns herself with nothing more than the thrill of victory. Her arts are comparable to a wildfire, spreading ruin in every inch of her chaotic steel. A natural troublemaker, Tamago is known to start fights at the drop of a hat, confident that she is able to best anyone in swordplay, except her own sister.

Adam Power said...

Good game, good first session, looking forward to next week. I appreciate all the extra work you do to make the world come alive. Running a game online can be a real challenge, but I think it was handled really well. Thumbs up!

Andrew said...

Thanks!

Unknown said...

Very good for a first session. I can tell a lot of work went into the prologue, although I still wish we were able to write character backstories to help develop a history for the PC's squad. Perhaps this can be explored later in the game through flashbacks or some interactive roleplay development, but then again I don't know what you have planned, so you may already have this worked out in your head =O

I enjoy the work that went into fleshing out the narrative and making everything really detailed. My only gripe (which I vocalized last night) was in the dialogue of your NPCs; they didn't feel so much like conversations as they felt like instructions, where everything we needed to know about them was said in a single, concise paragraph. In my opinion, NPC's should be more like characters and less like bulletin boards; PCs should be able to interact with them and ask them questions, instead of simply having everything they know spoonfed to the players.

The encounter for the night was enjoyable; quick, but very lethal. The difficulty is just right; there shouldn't be a point to combat if there were no struggle to win. I do think, however, that combat situations of life and death should provide more dire circumstances to make things more dramatic. A forest tussle with goblins, while very much a fantasy RPG staple, holds no risk over our heroes aside from the basic threat of angry green men with pointy things. There ought to be ways to design encounters (especially if there's only going to be one per session) that hold dramatic and dire context to the players; what will happen if the heroes lose? What are the heroes risking by putting their life on the line? With a bit of context, a battle becomes less of 'something to do' and becomes more 'something that MUST be done'.

All in all, great game. I expect to see great clashes of morals in-character with this group =D

Lincoln said...

just a note. as far as my character went. I don't know if it was being made light of, it seemed that way to me, but regardless. the "group makes up the name for my character" was a serious proposal. having a name based more on personality and how my character is was my goal (you could give him a nickname based on how he looks. but... well yeah). It would offer some group cohesiveness, or at least some form of a seeming connection between the group, at least giving the feeling that the group had spent some good amount of time around my character, thus having given him a nickname. something along those lines.

(needless to say, hopefully pebbles wasn't your serious shot at a nickname for him, and I hope you will actually think on a nickname for him throughout the following sessions and the group can come up with one that hopefully we all like. My character WILL object to being called ridiculous things. he's a quiet and simple type, that doesn't mean he enjoys being called silly things. :p)

Andrew said...

I'm honestly leery about "clashes" within the party. Frankly, I asked everyone to work together creating characters together on here to begin with. Inter-party conflict might be entertaining for a moment but in my experience, it tends to get dragged out and on top of that, if someone's just a better role-player they tend to intimidate the heck out of someone who's not as good. Also, when it's a clash of views, usually the person who's better at role playing will not back down until the "weaker" role player gives in. I was much more hoping for some kind of harmony within the party.

That being said, "for the heck of it" fights are a part of the game. Not every fight is going to be a "World hangs in the balance" fight. The world itself is a world where there are lots of monsters running around and you're out in the wilds so you run into them. If you lose, you DIE. That's the consequence. I like drama and I like rp (as you well know) but it ceases to have effect when it's all over the place.

As for the NPC's, a) there were really only 2 of them. One of them was the one who healed you all and got you on your way. He asked who you all were and that was an opportunity to talk with him. I let the silence hang and people weren't talking, so I moved it along. The second time, it was the little goblin and I was role playing him; after which he was executed.

All that said, I'm glad that the session was enjoyed and that everyone had fun, I did too. I hope to see more camaraderie in coming games.

Andrew said...

Game on Tuesday. We will be playing from 6:30pm - 10pm.

Andrew said...

Game tonight starting at about 6:30. I should be home a bit before that, please allow time for prep. I plan on starting right about then, though. Hope to see you all there!

Lincoln said...

I got a cool token now :D

Helene Wilson said...

My wife and I separated 4 months ago and our children, Emily and Robert, live with her but see me every weekend. I was totally devastated and confused until a old friend of mine told me about a spell caster on the internet Chief Nwaluta Mallam Zack who help people with the relationship and marriage problem by the powers of love spells, at first I doubted if such thing ever exists but decided to give it a try, when I contact him, he helped me cast a spell and within 48hours my wife came back to me and started apologizing, now she has stopped going out with men and she is with me for good and for real. Contact { nwalutaspelltemple@gmail.com } this great spell caster for your relationship or marriage problem at. Email nwalutaspelltemple@gmail.com Thanks you Chief Nwaluta Mallam Zack, i will always be testifying about your good work. Tom Brice, NY, United States.

NORAH PEDRO said...

I just lost my man about three months ago though he is back again full of love and passion with the help of great man Dr. IKHIDE. I NORAH PEDRO from Norway, have been into a relationship with daniel mark since I was 22 years old and I am 28 now. I so much love him but I could not show the love, it was very difficult for me to prove my realness to him because I thought to prove my love to him might make him look down on me and go after other girls. for over six years Daniel has given me all that I ask of him. I always threatened him with break up each time I want to see his level of love for me because I was told if I threaten him, he will propose to me and then will get married to him before I can show my love despite his complains of him not sure of my love I was responding to him with negative words. though I was suspecting he has another girl in his life, I did not border to ask him about that because I was so sure of his love despite my attitude. on the 8th of September a day to my birthday he came and gave me so many lovely gifts like never before claiming to wish me a happy birthday in advance with his words and behavior I expected him to propose to me on my birthday night then I will also tell him of my pregnant for him. I wait for him on my birthday he did not show up not even a call, I tried his number and it was not going through I refuse to go check on him because the anger in me six days later I went to his house and I found nothing not even a sign of my Daniel once live there. I was disappointed, frustrated, confused with so many thoughts on my mind like hanging my self if I did not see him again because I can not my parent about the pregnancy when the man responsible for it had disappeared. our religion's against that, my family will be disappointed in me, I have brought them shame. I look for daniel everywhere till I could chat with him on social network, he warned me never to disturb him again because he already had found another girl that he wants to live his life with, after a while, he blocked me from all access then I could not tell him of my pregnancy for him. so, I needed help from all corners of life, I decide to check to google my self or read some write up on-site on how to coup with my pain because I could not tell anybody about it not even my friends were aware of my pregnancy. I keep reading to cancel my self till I find how Dr. IKHIDE helps so many persons from different walks of life with their testimonies. then I decide to also contact him with dr.ikhide@gmail.com. Because I do not know much about contacting a spell caster, I was not sure he can bring my Dan back but I decide to give him a try though his requirement was another problem I meet with a friend for help because I could not the items that he needed I have to plead with Dr. IKHIDE to help me get the items because really need my man back to take away my shame. just two days after I send him the requirement Daniel calls me, plead for forgiveness. just yesterday he propose to me and I am so happy. you can also contact him with dr.ikhide@gmail.com

Post a Comment