Neuro's To Do list

Neuro's current project in development
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Neuro
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Post by Neuro »

1. Two cities of the West

2. The North
-6 tribes - people & politics
-cristoferian history &
integration in the North
-Technology in the North

3. Southern tribes
-cristoferian history and
integration in the South
-Important tribes & people
-Technlogy in the South

4. Avarnis
-History of the country
-History of the capital
-Important personalities
-Technology in Avarnis

5. Magic
-Common magic
-High magic
-Knights' magic

6. The Autumn Lands (private)
-Overview
-Relevant history
-Magic

7. System
-Adapt D20 to cope w/ our classes and magic
-Set up char gen for point based (no rolling)
-Address levelling issues

8. Website
-Message Board
. -Chapter shells
-Journals
-Maps

Okay, not all of this has to be done before we begin play. Particularly the web stuff may not make it up before we initially begin. It's also possible that I'll look into farming out parts of this, particularly systemic issues.

Some of these topics will not be available for everyone to read. I will make most of the general history, geography, and magic information available so that you can make characters. The more advanced magic and specific history I will keep private so that you will not be overburdened with out of character knowledge.

I am currently working on Item 6, anticipating that I will finish it tomorrow. After that, I plan to move back towards the beginning of the list. A good portion of 5 is already done, although the specifics will have to be finished as a part of dealing with system issues, so that there are specific methods for developing spells, etc.

A good portion of 4 and 1 are already also knocked out. I just wanted everyone to have an idea of where we are. I'd like to begin chargen in about two weeks and plan the first game for either the last week of November or the first week of December, as schedules permit.
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Post by BlanchPrez »

Without knowing anything about what you plan for the magic system, there are a couple of books you might want to look into. Arcana Unearthed offeres a different approach to spellcasting in D20, and it's a really good one in my opinion. Also, I believe that the Slann and Conan D20 games (not quite sure if COnan is out yet, though I'm sure if it were, I'd have heard from Gotesu on the subject) both offer low level magic systems.

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Post by smartmonkey »

Well, if you're looking for a -good- non leveling, point based d20 system, check out Mutants and Masterminds. Yes, it's superheroes. But it'd be really, really easy to rip off the point portion of the system for a good use...

Just a thought... :wink:
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Post by Neuro »

I'm not actually certain that I have anything against levelling, except that I dislike the 'suddenly you can do things you couldn't do before' part. I like it when IC development is reflected in character growth. It may even just be that we look into spending justification or changing the process so that levelling is a smoother ride, not a step system. Or I may just live with it. It's good to want things, Winter always says. Puts things in perspective.
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Post by BlanchPrez »


[quote="Neuro"]I'm not actually certain that I have anything against levelling, except that I dislike the 'suddenly you can do things you couldn't do before' part. I like it when IC development is reflected in character growth. It may even just be that we look into spending justification or changing the process so that levelling is a smoother ride, not a step system. Or I may just live with it. It's good to want things, Winter always says. Puts things in perspective.[/quote]

Another alternative is to figure out how many things a character gets when he levels, then put an "exp" cost on them. IE, every level a PC gets another hit die of hit points, another class skill, increases his saving throws and/or attack bonus. You could say that gaining another hit die will "cost" 150 experience points, or something. It would take a little bit of figuring out and a lot of math to come up with fair costs, but it is doable.



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Post by Gotetsu »

Or you could, you know, just play down the "unrealistic" mechanics, and just concentrate on role-playing challenges and having fun.

You know, like most games are designed to do? ;)
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Post by Neuro »

Re: downplaying mechanics

I downplay mechanics enough in play. Where mechanics support development and theme, I would like everyone to be fairly precisely on the same page.
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Post by Gotetsu »

I think my point was that you shouldn't overly concern yourself with the mechanics. Yeah, the levelling system is kinda quirky. But we are all (more or less) seasoned D20 players, so the system won't bother us much. Just tell a good story, and let the mechanics do what they are meant to do, simulate task resolution.
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Post by smartmonkey »

I was thinking of something along the lines of what Blanch has suggested... only, instead of dealing with large, unpleasent numbers (225 XP for +1 BAB, 50 XP for a rank of skill, etc...) I was going to suggest the point system in Mutants and Masterminds, adapted to a "Leveling" System. The relevant costs (that I can recall of the top of my head) are listed below

Per point of ability score - 1 point
Feat - 2 points
Skill Rank (Optional Rule: 4 points per purchase) - 1 point
Attack Bonus - 3 points
Defense Bonus - 2 points
Saving throws - 1 point per +1 Base, each.

and so on... again, this is just an idea... a level 1 character would have something like 15 points to play with...
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Post by Neuro »

That's just getting too complicated for me to follow. I think I've decided to adapt the magic system and keep pretty much everything else, except I'll be nixing and redefining some classes and making things a bit easier to dual class. The only other alternative was for me to go to GURPS and I just don't think it flies for fantasy.

Have any of you people read the last few installments?
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Post by Foxbat »


[quote="Neuro"]Have any of you people read the last few installments?[/quote]

I'm going to sit down and read through them this afternoon.



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Post by Neuro »

Thanks. I just wanna know if they're intelligible.
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Post by Gotetsu »


[quote="Neuro"]... and making things a bit easier to dual class.[/quote]

Using D20? How much easier could it be than it is?

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Post by Neuro »

I don't mean for there to be penalties or restriction on being dual classed, but again, this will depend on how I set up the classes to begin with.
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Post by Gotetsu »


[quote="Neuro"]I don't mean for there to be penalties or restriction on being dual classed, but again, this will depend on how I set up the classes to begin with.[/quote]

Ok, this confuses me. The only restriction on multi-classing (it's not called dual-classing anymore) is that certain races have a "preferred" class. Meaning that members of that race (ie.: that society) have a bent towards a particular career. And if they multi-class into something else, they have to keep their "preferred" class levels more or less even with the other's.



This rule, as with ALL rules in 3E (or 3.5E) are more guidelines. Just drop it, and there ya go.



Pretty simple. ;)

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Post by Neuro »

Actually, there are restrictions in allocation of points by class level that I want to get rid of, opening all available skill trees no matter what the level is taken in. I'll also be annhialating weapon proficiencies and re-evaluating armour proficiencies.The changes won't be severe, but there isn't a system that's already built to handle what I'm looking for. Some of these changes are directly related to changing system to support theme.
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Post by Infernus »

I played a game once where EXP only meant we were qualified to level when given the chance. We could not level until we were able to return to bastions of civilization, where we could train with trainers, pray, etc as appropriate to our characters. We werent always able to get back to town before we even qualified for two levels. If we ever had a really big jump in what we were supposed to do, it was usually because we had progressed within our organization and more was available to us (I was a soldier who became an officer and was then able to train with the officer's training corp). It also let the DM control what feats we were able to learn, because someone had to be able to teach us to use/do the things we wanted. It made time spent in town alot more interesting, but it also was a fairly complex system added.
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Post by Jake »

I don't know if you've seen it but Wizards new Unearthed Arcana has some real neat stuff in it. They have a new weapon proficiently system that lets players chose Weapon Group Proficiently (long blades, short blades, clubs and hammers, est…) Also some options for defense bonus to be used along with AC. They also have lots of modifications for the classes. Plus cool rules for things like being tainted by evil objects.
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Post by smartmonkey »

Liz, just ran across a little something on the web a minute ago, and I think it might work nicely.

It's called Risus, a nifty little free generic RPG that operates off certain "cliches" a character fulfilled. Like, I'd be a d20 geek (3), Deli Boy (1) Security Guard (3), and Can't Remember Jack Shit (3).

I'm not sure how you feel regarding uber-simple game mechanics, but I figured it would be worth a shot. The system was specificly designed to fade into the background when it needs to.

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm
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Post by Neuro »

We'll be using D20. I don't want things ubersimplified. D20 should work for most of our needs. We'll discuss available classes as they pertain to your character concepts.

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Post by smartmonkey »

Okie doke.

I wanna play a drow ranger/bard/cleric that worships heironeous and has two vorpal longswords and is rully hawt.

[/bastard]
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Post by BreakfastOfChampions »


[quote="smartmonkey"]Liz, just ran across a little something on the web a minute ago, and I think it might work nicely.



It's called Risus, a nifty little free generic RPG that operates off certain "cliches" a character fulfilled. Like, I'd be a d20 geek (3), Deli Boy (1) Security Guard (3), and Can't Remember Jack Shit (3).



I'm not sure how you feel regarding uber-simple game mechanics, but I figured it would be worth a shot. The system was specificly designed to fade into the background when it needs to.



[url]http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm[/url][/quote]


Not to threadjack too horribly, but that sounds a *lot* like Over The Edge

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Post by Neuro »

Human. You're going to play a human.

Cheers.
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Post by BreakfastOfChampions »

Thank goodness! Someone supports The Man!
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Post by smartmonkey »


[quote]Not to threadjack too horribly, but that sounds a *lot* like Over The Edge[/quote]

The creator gives OtE a -lot- of credit in the systems design. It's a bit diffrent though, and insanely tweakable.


[quote]Human. You're going to play a human.



Cheers.[/quote]


Can he be a half demon with a katana human?



;-)

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Post by BreakfastOfChampions »

wtf is a katana human?
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Post by Gotetsu »

Can I play a Barbarian weilding a 2-handed scrotum? :lol:
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Post by BreakfastOfChampions »


[quote="Gotetsu"]Can I play a Barbarian weilding a 2-handed scrotum? :lol:[/quote]

And the winner for the cross thread reference is...



That man back there, with the +2 Scrotum of Doom!

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