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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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 Posted: 19-May-2011 11:33 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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I had an idea for a 3.5 D&D campaign done with "retro" stylings.
The inspiration came from a situation in which I was a player in another person's game. Everyone else had fancy prestige-class characters, while I had a plain vanilla cleric. By the time the evening was over, I had out-performed virtually everyone else simply by thinking my way through rather than relying on my character's purported awesome traits.
To this end, I'm wanting to do a "thinking man's" D&D 3.5 campaign.
Rules:
1. No prestige classes. Period.
2. In lieu of prestige classes, old-school multi-classing will be an option. This means that characters can start off being two or more classes at once, such as fighter / mage or fighter / thief. Each time they level up, they gain HP, attributes, and skills from both. This is borrowed from 1st edition.
2A. In exchange for getting the skills, attributes, and HP from all classes when they level up, the XP that they receive from each encounter is divided by however many classes they have. For example, a fighter / mage would only get half the XP of a person who didn't multi-class. This restriction is also borrowed from 1st edition.
2B. Rangers, paladins, knights, druids, and bards cannot multi-class; paladins and knights because it would be unrealistic, and the others because they're already inherently multi-classed.
3. Each player must flip a coin during the character creation process. Heads means that their character starts with a 10-foot pole in their gear, while tails means that their character starts with a boat oar in their gear.
4. Each player will get an extra 1,000 gold at the start of the game for the purchase of magical items provided that they can justify how a level 1 character would have it. However, that 1K is a hard upper limit; they can spend less (and receive the difference in coin), but cannot spend more for any single item. This would, hypothetically, limit them to a +1 item at most.
The set-up for the campaign itself would be that the party is part of the "military" guarding a clone of Andorra, which in this world makes most of its money by being a trade route between the clones of Spain and France. During a routine kobold-sweeping mission, the players hear rumors of hostile forces in the east that are on the march.
Turns out that the in-game clones of the Mongols and the Caliphates have made a heinous deal to split clone!Europe and clone!North Africa between them (IRL, Islamic invaders very nearly captured Portugal and Spain, but did not make it beyond that point due to Spanish resistance), and the two groups have begun putting out feelers to recruit soldiers and determine who's defending what.
The party starts out being tasked with conducting a massive sweep in order to help eliminate the kobolds and other groups plaguing the area so as to deny these would-be invaders local allies. But as the invasion begins, the party ends up serving as emissaries meant to help forge alliances between the different nations - the dwarves of Switzerland, the elves and druids of Germany, the barbarians of Scandanavia, the knights of England, the rogues of Ireland, and others - so that a unified front can be presented.
Thoughts?
Thanks.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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chihawk
Clan Blood Spirit
Master Bartender
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Location: United States
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Jun-2011 03:07 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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The campaign is presently on-going, and I had an idea for a straight role-play session as opposed to a combat session. I just want to see what people think about it.
An agent of the wealthy Wimbereley family of merchants and bankers seeks to hire the party for a sensitive mission.
It turns out that the only daughter of the head of the family has run off with a "disreputable" person of "alarming" character. It would appear that their intent is to elope, something that must not be allowed to happen: the head of the family has already arranged for her to marry the son of a rival trading family.
The agent, along with the daughter's older brother and her fiancee, seek the party's help in tracking her down and bringing the "ruffian" to justice.
The complications?
1. The girl's uncle is also afoot; as her running away is completely out of character, he fears that something is gravely wrong. He contacts the party separately, and offers to exceed the agent's bounty if they turn the daughter over to him instead of the agent.
2. The girl had good reason for running away. It turns out that her parents and older brother were mentally and emotionally cruel to her because they wanted another son, and made it explicitly clear that they merely tolerated her because they figured they could marry her off one day. In contrast, the guy she ran off with is the first person outside of her uncle's family to actually treat her like a human being.
3. The girl also has reason to suspect that her fiancee is involved in shady dealings. In fact, the fiancee's family has made its money in part by smuggling and forgery. An investigation on the part of the party will reveal this.
4. The "ruffian" she ran off with is, in fact, a major NPC who is more powerful than the party realizes (he's part of a family known for producing powerful spell-casters). If the party curries favor with him, he can arrange to make the entire campaign so much easier for them. But if they actively oppose him, he is capable of responding disproportionately.
If the party sides with the agent, then they'll get a large chunk of change, but will make a powerful opponent who can make their lives miserable at the drop of a hat.
If the party sides with the uncle, they'll get an even larger chunk of change, but will likely cause the family to descend into a violent feud.
If the party sides with the NPC, two different trading houses will blacklist the town the party calls home, but the NPC will offer them magic in exchange and the uncle will open up a regional trading center within the town.
Thoughts?
Thanks. [/quote]
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 29-Jun-2011 17:14 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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Interesting and no easy way out. Good work sir!
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The dragon NEVER sleeps!
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 30-Jun-2011 10:51 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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I ended up running the mission on Tuesday, as the guy who was supposed to DM didn't have everything quite ready yet.
The PCs were able to make their spot checks, at which point they realized that the NPC in question is a silver dragon in human form. Suffice to say that they leaned heavily in his favor during negotiations.
Because of this, they'll be able to see the dragon and his cohort (I have him as a 6th level spellcaster in addition to everything else) on more pleasant terms in the future.
**
Now for the bigger question in my campaign.
Right now, there are three PCs in the group.
One of them is a ninja-type who specializes in subtlety and con jobs. She's 1000 XP away from 6th level.
One is a fighter who specializes in close-quarters melee. He's half-way through 5th.
One is a sorcerer who specializes in combat spells. He just burned some XP to create a few magical items, so he's just barely 5th.
Thing is, the guy who plays the fighter has thought his way through the entire campaign. Not only has he been careful about stacking his feats and skills, he's also been the one to strategize his way through everything. Between this and some lucky dice rolls, the character is dealing damage left and right. CR 8 monsters no longer directly threaten the party, and even entire platoons of kobolds and skeletons fall before the party.
He's succeeding because he's been smart, not because he's been munch. As such, I'm inclined to let him keep his character.
But that means I'm having to up the difficulty of the encounters to compensate.
I'm thinking of having the part encounter a 10th-level fighter and his level-appropriate cohort, something that would likely push it to a CR 15 encounter.
Would this be a good fight for the party, or perhaps too much?
Thanks.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 01-Jul-2011 14:05 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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CR is being defined as a moderate difficulty for 4-5 characters of the same level that should drain about 20-25 % of their resources. Use more monsters that are somewhat level appropriate. Kobolds are not really a threat for people four levels above them unless you give them some class levels and use clever tactics (and add pats and traps - Kobolds love those).
Would you like some sample monsters?
BTW did you try Pathfinder?
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The dragon NEVER sleeps!
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-Jul-2011 22:58 Post subject: Re: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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| Sleeping Dragon wrote: | CR is being defined as a moderate difficulty for 4-5 characters of the same level that should drain about 20-25 % of their resources. Use more monsters that are somewhat level appropriate. Kobolds are not really a threat for people four levels above them unless you give them some class levels and use clever tactics (and add pats and traps - Kobolds love those).
Would you like some sample monsters?
BTW did you try Pathfinder? |
I've been dealing with some drama in my accounting class (the prof didn't have his junk in order but is demanding that we have ours ready to go), so I haven't had a chance to look up Pathfinder yet.
What I'm thinking of doing is having the party reach the port where the ships are harbored and clear it out (maybe a nice CR 9 or so consisting of an ogre mage and his ogre bodyguard unit), only to learn that the guy who was actually in charge of the invasion force went on ahead and the party just missed him.
The twist for the twist will be that as soon as the ogre mage falls, it and the party will see a silver dragon drop a group of battered and broken warriors onto the deck of one of the boats. Turns out that the guy in charge ran into a certain NPC, and ended up getting stomped.
The region will be clear, as the invasion force will have been turned back and the trade routes secured.
But that still leaves Spain and Portugal to fight off the invasion that's about to tear right through them.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Aug-2011 08:14 Post subject: D&D Campaign Idea: 3.5 "retro" |
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Ideas for some gear I'm looking to introduce to the game:
1.. Paper armor -
This armor is made out of layered sheets of thick, fibrous paper rather than metal. The end result is that it provides the same level of protection as scale mail, but with only half the weight and cost.
The trade-off, however, is that the armor warps and distorts over time. As such, for every 50 HP' worth of damage the wearer takes, the armor loses 1 point of AC value unless a successful Craft: Armorsmith check (DC 17) is made to repair it.
2. Wooden blades -
These are based on the Japanese bokken wooden sword. Each weapon is like their metal counterpart, but they're half as heavy and half as expensive. The trade-off, however, is that half the damage done to an opponent is subdual damage rather than lethal damage.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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