Looking for players for a Dungeons and Dragons type game!! (interest check)

Started by GreenHavok, July 30, 2009, 02:37:54 AM

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GreenHavok

This is an interest check for a D&D type game that i am looking to run. For this game i will need 4 player characters, preferably two male and two female. This world is a little different than your normal campaign world, in the fact that magic is seen by most populations as evil incarnate, with most cities having a ban on magic, punishable by death. I'm not sure if i want this to be system based, or free form, so i'll just go with a group consensus. If you are interested please post and send me a PM of a character concept following this rough design.

Name:
Race:
Profession/Class:
Alignment:
Backstory:
Family:
Fears:

Just to start off this rough outline will suffice, but if we decide on a system based game, i'm very familiar with 3.5 and would prefer it in that system. So put your thinking caps on, let me know if you are willing to give me a shot at my first GM on this site, and get ready for a (hopefully) memorable time.

Players thus far
GabrielM
Haibane
Akiko
Butterflykiss

I will accept one more, if there are any other interests, please either post or contact me by PM with your concept.

GabrielM


GreenHavok

I am also very open to non human character types, and open to other ideas, just PM them to me.

Haibane

I do not play system games and unfortunately for me most fantasy based games tend towards systems. However if you decide to go with freeform I may be interested.

I'm thinking along the lines of a female druid, but a real-world one, a herbalist, healer and companion/advisor type, something like a medieval version of the local GP, not a person with any magical power.

Please may I have some idea of the plot in advance so that I can make a decision on whether its a game I would enjoy (I have some definite offs regarding fantasy games and fantastical creatures). Thanks.

GrinningHound

Lets do it freefoooooorm!

I like system games but one is enough for me at a time, online.

I want to play a game more writing oriented and with a faster pace.  Dice slow things down online.

Pweeeease?  :P


Do you have a more detailed world or can we make it up as we go along?

Darkforged Dove

Uhm....

If a single 13th level druid can destroy any single non-magic using kingdom, why are there magic-hating kingdoms left in this world?

Wouldn't they have been destroyed under the stone hooves of Stone Destrider* riding armies wearing full plate, tower sheilds using, lances, longbows and longswords that a wizard could easily create from nothing using just Iron Wall + Fabricate?

*[The Stone Destriders being created by Bound Efreeti, a level 8 wizard can bully an Efreeti into giving him Wishes, and an 11th level one can just have a room of Bound Efreeti at her disposal, giving them as many as three Stone Warhorses per bound Fiend]

Wouldn't nearly every single Cleric or Druid just level the weakling non-casting cities for not allowing their dieties to be worshipped, or for encroaching of these cities on the wilderness? I'm pretty sure that even Pelor and Heironious would want to spread the word of their majesty; and the Elves and Dwarves and Orcs would all worship their Racial gods that created them. Which, funny enough puts humans in a massive disadvantage, as they have no magic, while their competitor species have full-casters with deific backing.

It really doesn't take that long for a character to reach level 20 (about 85-86 days with 3 encounters per day, minimum, that's just under 3 months; if you take a year, you are almost guaranteed to hit 20). Then again, you really don't even need to be level 20 in order to shatter a city that doesn't use magic, when you're a full spell caster. I think that a level 13 Cleric or Druid could probably do irreperable harm to even a metropolis (100,000+ people) sized city. Spells like Airwalk, Control Weather, Lighting Storm and Firestorm are more than enough to reduce a city that is even 6 miles across into a flooded bog, or a territory that is so dry that a few Firestorms or even Flamestrikes would light the whole place up.

Remember, unless there is a spell caster with the incentive to defend a place; most cities will seriously be destroyed once a single high level spell caster is offended enough to have to deal with a city that they do not like.

Also, D&D has powerscaling that rivals every other game system, once you are powerful, nothing below a certain power level even comes close to threatening you. At level 1 you fight Orcs, and they can seriously kill a Barbarian with 18 or 20 Constitution in 6 seconds with their axes if they get a critical hit. At level 8 the Bard can fight 50 Orcs on his own. Other CR 8 challenges are still going to present a challenge to him though.

However, at level 16; everything level 8 is just as trivial for a level 16 creature, as the level 1 Orcs were to a level 8 character. That's the sort of powerscaling that occurs in this system.

Just some rather interesting considerations to take into account. The high magic setting of D&D is sort of a circle. The powerful monsters in the game usually need wizard, cleric, druid, optimized rogue, or sniper ranger levels of character effectiveness to defeat; the result is that pretty much anything that's a spell caster in the core books are the only real classes that players should play. One half is the fact that only magic can stand up to the monsters in D&D, and the other half is that Magic users are the only ones that have the magic to deal with said monster.*

The D&D mechanics and game usually assumes that players will also have a magical equipment just to be able to "not die instantly" against challenges above level 4 and 5.

How are you going to address those issues? I'm asking since in my own DMing experience the only real ways to solve this are to simply give the players a very high array of stats, and use less magical items; or use the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8); and then use the assumed treasure rewards that each fight should give in order for player characters to be equipped to play the game.

*:This is assuming the core system + every splatbook published. Myself, and many of my gaming friends, use a series of alternate classes, equipment rules, spell rules, combat re-writes and more accurate "fluff" descriptions based on what a race or class can actually do in-game.

Like how... Sahaugin are seriously the biggest threat on any planet that they live on, but are fortunately limited to just the oceans. They're smarter, stronger, tougher and more dangerous than every other aquatic race (and more than humans as well), and have probably driven their rivals to the fringes. While say... Sea Elves are actually stupider than humans; making Sahaugin view Sea Elves intellectually the same way that a Human would view a Griffon's level of thinking.

Sea Elves, on the other hand, live in their equivalent of a post-apocalyptic world where monsters that are smarter, stronger and tougher than themselves prey on them for entertainment. The only reason that Sea Elves survive is that Malenti (Sahaugin that look like Sea Elves, so they're intelligent and tough, but don't have Sahaugin natural weapons like claws) commonly are the leaders of Sea Elf communities.

This content also has major game fixes, like the problematic spells like Wish, Ploymorph, and the Calling/Summoning spells. As well as having a Fighter class that is straightforward, can hold it's own against a Balor at level 20, and is worth going all 20 levels in. Knight, Barbarian, Samurai, Bard, Assasin, and Monk were all rewritten to be classes that you would want to take all 10 (knight) or 20 (the other classes) levels in.
Pretendy fun time games is good, but I tend to want as much of the real, original and undiluted as possible. A paradox, I know.

Haibane

Maybe we could have a D&D world without any REAL game magic at all, but the pseudo magic that some wizards and clerics claim to have gets them burned at the stake in a combination of Salem Witch Trial and Jeanne d'Arc?

I'm all for a fresh take on the old D&D universe(s).

Katina Tarask

Dove: You're taking things way too seriously.


In other news, I'm not particularly interested without some real information on the game itself.  Like... anything at all other than a possible generic fantasy game that may or may not be 3.5.

GreenHavok

To give a little more detail, there is magic used by kingdoms, but it's sanctioned. Divine magic is seen as acceptable, but there isn't the devastating spells. I am looking at a light setting as far as adult goes. your characters probably won't be getting gang raped by goblins or anything, but some romance between the pcs or with some npcs is very possible. The campaign takes place on the continent of Alusia, with is roughly shaped like western europe, i'll try to sketch out a map on paint or something, for a visual aid. The story will begin in an outlying town of one of the main kingdoms, this town is lower in population, but very "craft" oriented. Lots of tradespeople live here and travel in caravans to the kingdom. Your characters could be either crafts people, caravan guards, gypsys, traveling performers, anything of that sort. As i said, if you send me a character idea, i'll let you know if it's too out there. The main conflict is going to revolve around a secret coven of mages that has been crafting magical creatures to take over the main kingdoms, and your characters will have to out think, and out live the enemy. I don't want to get too many details out there yet, but i hope it will be fun and exciting at the same time.

Darkforged Dove

Katina,

Yes I do be do be doo. :3

When people say a specific system, it's good to have internal consistency, that way everyone joining is on the same page. Hence my questions.

If I said that I am going to run a Warhammer 40,000 set game, where the players are soldiers and special agents in the Imperial army; then it's assumed that I'm going to use all of the collected material possible for said game. I wouldn't introduce things that don't fit in, since they break immersion in the setting. Likewise, the players can probably assume that 1) you can't play an alien, since the Imperium of man is pretty much against aliens; and that 2) almost everything you meet is a potential enemy, and that you will meet few allies aside from people already on your side.

Likewise if say, I was running a LoTR game. Being a "wizard" is actually not possible; unless you're one of the 3 known "supernatural beings" of the setting (Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown). Likewise, you probably can't own the One Ring, unless your name is Frodo Baggins, and you are going to roleplay your character as wanting to get rid of the awful thing. Since nearly anything else would ruin everyone's sense of belief in the game.

The actual D&D setting is a very specific setting, and often using it for "low magic" games ends in disaster when a party gets Total Party Killed (or TPK'd), by something that they didn't realize that they couldn't actually kill, before it kills them.

Green,

You should probably build some basic example characters for yourself, and have a test fight against the monsters you plan on having people fight.

Stuff in D&D isn't very low powered. A 10th level fighter with Power Attack can do appreciable damage to  solid stone or metal with a dagger, or kill an elephant with a spoon. Fighters are recognized as being one of the weaker classes in the core system.

So, you should try to make sure that your character classes will be able to fight the monsters your thinking about. Something like a "Frankenstein Monster" (aka Flesh Golem) can really lay a pounding in melee, and are also pretty tough.

An other system?

I think that you're looking for a different system; which is fine. Warhammer Fantasy RPG is probably good for what you want people to use. It actually -has- starting classes like "fishmonger" or "town crier", which can lead to more powerful classes based on what a character is exposed to in-game; and expects people to face a realistic and grim fantasy world along the lines of Tolkien's books. Of courss, nothing is without it's limitation. It's hard to be heroic in WHFRPG, just as is to be too downbeat in D&D.

What D&D is more about

D&D is more about saving, or (damning if you're evil) not just a town, or kingdom, but eventually your whole plane, as you begin to start having planar adventures, and deal with planar threats and dangers to your home plane.

Things like invasions from an other plane (elementals, undead, aliens, demons, devils, angels; there is really not much limit), armies of mechanical creatures marching across eveything in their path; or even seriously a game where the task of the players is to ensure the end of a/their world, so that a new one can be built.

It's a system meant to tell stories that are more akin to ancient mythology, than the European medieval ages. Beowulf and Volsung, not Pier's Anthony's Xanth and Tolkien's Middle Earth; more Chronicles of Amber, over Chronicles of Narnia; Cu Cullain, Rostram, and the original un-diluted Welsh Arthuian stories, instead of Harry Potter.

I actually do read all of that, and realize that while the Xanth books are hilarious, they can't possibly outlive something like Beowulf or the Epic of Gilgamesh (6000+ years, and still taught in schools and translated into different languages, now that is a real test of immortality; we'll probably forget Charles Dickens before we forget Gilgamesh, but that won't be for a long time still).
Pretendy fun time games is good, but I tend to want as much of the real, original and undiluted as possible. A paradox, I know.

Cold Heritage

D&D's about more than what you make it out to be, Dove. Your ideas aren't the only ideas, and telling this guy what he can't do isn't helping at all.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Darkforged Dove

You can modify the classes and monsters; creating new one of each. However the mechanics for combat, feats and mundane equipment do still affect powercreep as the character's level up. A 10th level Commoner can still thrash a 3rd level Wizard.

Also, these aren't really "my" ideas. I'm talking about what is already written. If new classes and monsters are written up, then the game setting actually changes.

If the enemies are giant bears, and the characters are hunters with longspears, javelins and primitive bows and slings; then you could very well run a level 1-5 game.

It's that around level 5 and 6 that the game's skills and such enter the realm of the supernatural. Stuff like climbing a sheer stone wall in minutes with just your hands and feet (level 5 is 8 skill ranks; a +2 str modifier is reasonable; and a DC 20 wall is seriously a solid brick wall. If you're a human with 30' of base walking movement, you move at 1/4 that, or 7.5 feet every 6 seconds.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen someone scale a house with their bare hands at a rate of more than 1 foot per second; in 12 seconds they can seriously reach the roof of a standard suburban house.

That's the power scaling coming into play. The basic skill system will have players able to do some pretty increasable and impressive things by normal Earth standards.

Your negativity is interesting though. D&D isn't about what you can't do, but what you can do. Usually it's pretty incredible what a character can accomplish, and what sort of adventures can be faced.
Pretendy fun time games is good, but I tend to want as much of the real, original and undiluted as possible. A paradox, I know.

GreenHavok

Dove, this is why i said D&D like rp, not necessarily. Maybe i should have said a medieval fantasy rp, i'm not set on a system game or freeform yet, i was going to take a vote once we had players. I fully understand what d&d is about, i've been playing for near 10 years now, DMing for almost 7 of those years. I'm just trying to be a little more vague as to attract a larger populace into something that they may not have looked into before. If you prefer the number crunching of true d&d, then feel free, but i'm looking for a more free flowing, rp based game and not so many die rolls and tables and numbers.

OldSchoolGamer

You could always split the difference, and make it a low-magic world.

Magic is rare, and difficult to come by.  Sorcery is feared because, in the Age of Wonders, powerful sorcerers ruled the kingdoms of the world, and, in the course of warring, all-but-obliterated civilization...and much of the known world.  The Magic Wars drained almost all of the sorcery from the aether.

However, little bits remain, here and there, mainly in distant, hard to reach places.  For the world is a vast place, and even in the Age of Wonders, there were many seldom-traveled corners, filled with peoples and races that kept to themselves during the Age of Wonders, and went about life much as they had always known it when the Age blew itself apart.  There were summer frosts, and warm winters, and droughts...but after several such trying years, the sundered climate of the shattered world righted itself.  The powers and principalities of Man and Demi-Men come and go, but Earth abides...

Five centuries later, the world is still rebuilding.  Little is known of the Age of Wonders, with myths and legends about machines that flew through the sky, and shining buildings.  Ruins exist, but are still dangerous to traverse, and much of what is left is gone. 

But still, some parts remain...and the evil that spawned the War of Magic and held the arch-sorcerers as puppets on strings has not died...

Something like that.

GreenHavok


kylie

Quote from: Darkforged Dove on July 31, 2009, 02:25:28 PM
It really doesn't take that long for a character to reach level 20 (about 85-86 days with 3 encounters per day, minimum, that's just under 3 months; if you take a year, you are almost guaranteed to hit 20). Then again, you really don't even need to be level 20 in order to shatter a city that doesn't use magic, when you're a full spell caster.

     So you're saying in order to 'make the best possible use' of this particular system, you can play every night for the entire summer... And then hurry on out to save the planes, which is the single, best possible use these hundreds of books and millions of player inspirations can ever be applied to. 

     Or, just skip the hassle and make up a 20th level character in the first place.  (Why stop there?)  Here's one issue: How do you explain this divine right for your character to gain a "significant" level amidst a cosmos where cities and planets are pawns for these demigod characters?  Does every story start out as Moses in the basket or some underground bunker?  Something about all this starts to sound more like buying Warcraft points or something to me.  I'm not all against heroic stories, but it seems important once you claim to be going against unlikely trends inside the game world.

Anyway...  It's a game.  If you want to write the power level and point of the story, you could write a whole story or open your own game and look for people who want to make the system go just there.  I don't see the point of trying to convert all the other stories to a narrow interpretation of RPG utility.

     

Haibane

Quote from: GreenHavok on July 31, 2009, 08:46:04 PM
To give a little more detail, there is magic used by kingdoms, but it's sanctioned. Divine magic is seen as acceptable, but there isn't the devastating spells. I am looking at a light setting as far as adult goes. your characters probably won't be getting gang raped by goblins or anything, but some romance between the pcs or with some npcs is very possible. The campaign takes place on the continent of Alusia, with is roughly shaped like western europe, i'll try to sketch out a map on paint or something, for a visual aid. The story will begin in an outlying town of one of the main kingdoms, this town is lower in population, but very "craft" oriented. Lots of tradespeople live here and travel in caravans to the kingdom. Your characters could be either crafts people, caravan guards, gypsys, traveling performers, anything of that sort. As i said, if you send me a character idea, i'll let you know if it's too out there. The main conflict is going to revolve around a secret coven of mages that has been crafting magical creatures to take over the main kingdoms, and your characters will have to out think, and out live the enemy. I don't want to get too many details out there yet, but i hope it will be fun and exciting at the same time.
Works for me, that brief basis of the adventure's main direction is enough to allow me to say I'm definitely interested. I guess I could put up with some system like functions but I not enjoy rigid systems on forum RPs, they grind the pace of play to such a slow speed I get frustrated. Freeform would be much preferred by me.

Using a map 'like Europe' helps everyone get their bearings quickly we can get an idea of climate and topography fast and if you could load up a sketch map that would be lovely.

A generic freeform medieval fantasy game attracts me. D&D 3.5 does not.

I'll send you my druid character. She's more a local herbalist type, not a true druid. Let me know what you think.

And TnGuy - I agree a medieval fantasy game set in what is effectively a post-apocalyptic Dark Age works for me, the Age of Wonders being so distant now that the average peasant might not think of it at all any more and the average literate person may discuss it in the way we discuss the glory of ancient Rome, and archaeologists dig up ruins and find artefacts and such.


GreenHavok


Bayushi


Haibane

Quote from: GreenHavok on August 07, 2009, 03:12:22 PM
I guess not, kinda disheartening.
Have you thought of PMing the people in this thread who expressed an interest? I guess you've GM'd a fair bit before? I find you sometimes need to keep on top of things and poke people, etc.

GreenHavok

Well, we have 2 female interests and one male, leaving room for one more character. I'm currently drafting out the world and some major historical events. PM or post if you are interested.

Bayushi

Quote from: GreenHavok on August 08, 2009, 12:34:12 AMWell, we have 2 female interests and one male, leaving room for one more character. I'm currently drafting out the world and some major historical events. PM or post if you are interested.

What if one of the females is lesbian? :o

Like me?

GreenHavok

That is perfectly fine, the 2 of each was a rough idea, basically i only want 4-5 people. Sexual Orientation differences just add to group dynamics :D

Butterflykiss

Just to let everyone who's signed up so far know, I've been pm-ed to survey my interest, and I believe I'll be joining as well.

For my vote, I cast my ballot for freeform. It avoids all of the mess we've just seen. *points to posts above* I don't even read things like that. System arguments seem, to me, inevitable and really hold no interest for me whatsoever.