Post by monk on Feb 16, 2015 20:27:53 GMT -5
I thought I'd post up a short description of the house rules and setting we use in my campaign for any who are interested...
LOST CONTINENT
Classes
Standard are Fighting Man, Magic User, and Thief, but non-standard are common. Usually we use the generator in one of the issues of ODDities to work out the XP, then dither over details for a while. There have been Cat Men (kind of FM/Thief), Witch Doctors (MU/Cleric), etc. There are no clerics. In the past there were several, all played by the same player, but he and I came to the conclusion that we didn't like them so they're out.
Races
There are no Elves, Dwarves, or Hobbits. There are several types of Humans, Constructs (sort of robots), Phraints (in the South), and Cat Men. There will probably be many more but these are the ones the players have encountered and/or made characters. Race doesn't effect the PC much mechanically, but situationally is important.
Hit Dice
We use Moldvay hit dice, essentially, with a big house rule: starting HP is 1/2 of your CON + full HD. So a MU with a CON of 10 would start with (10/2)+4 = 9 hp. Other than the initial 1/2 CON, however, we don't add any hp bonus per level. This makes first level PCs slightly more durable, then it evens out after 3 or 4 levels. Reasoning: see "Death" below.
Death
We realized after years of play two things. One, that one of our favorite parts of playing is seeing a character's backstory grow through play. This means we don't really want to play "throwaway" characters that die quickly. Not a lot of thought is put into a character at first, outside of race and class and a name, but they quickly accrue favors, titles, reputations, etc. and we don't really want them to croak. The second thing I realized though, is that my players have the most fun in combat when they're close to death or think they might die. Since we use Moldvay optional damage with the frequent multiple attacks of monsters, play is pretty deadly. Revivification is possible, but a pain in the butt. The cost in gold and favors is so high that players often have to really think whether they want to do it. Usually they do go for it though, not wanting to lose a character with lots of built up flavor.
Damage
As I said, we use the optional weapon damage in Moldvay, and the monsters attack like Moldvay monsters (frequent claw/claw/bite, and the like). The PCs don't get a lot of magic items, but they do sometimes get their hands on ancient tech that blows huge holes in things and then fizzles out after 5 or 6 blasts. Magic swords are not frequent, but since I use the 3 LLB treasure tables they are often intelligent and have secret powers.
Monsters
Few of the normal D&D monsters are present. Nothing from Tolkien or Northern European legend really. Most monsters are mutated humans, cultists, dinosaurs, jellies and blobs, alien beings, alchemical accidents, ancient constructs, and chimaerical beings of unknown origin. Deep Ones are common group antagonists.
Setting-Style
The setting is mainly a large city like Morrocco or Tunis or something. Dry, full of shady hookah bars and zoroastrianish sorcerers. A thousand strange guilds, cults, etc. An unfathomably deep honeycombed underworld below the city, full of catacombs, lost shrines, ancient tech, etc.
The guys like a caper style of play that involves short dungeon crawls motivated by a present necessity (they want to sell psycho-active magical flower bloom drugs, so they delve under the city in a place where it can reportedly be found). They also like to get involved in bigger dramas that involve bigger dungeons and figuring out a mystery. Exploration for the sake of exploration doesn't seem to be a favorite for them. They're pretty brutal with enemies and like to think of themselves as outlaws, but they usually can't pass up a girl in trouble or a sob story without helping out. I'm getting better at not over complicating the hooks and trying to create problems that can be sorted out in just a few sessions rather than 15. We all like closure fairly often, even if there's plenty more to explore.
Tech
Generally the setting is early medieval tech level with min-mod level of found ancient tech. Inspired a lot by EPT and the New Sun books in this regard, the items are similar to magic items and usually impossible to understand beyond basic use.
Hmm. That's all I can think of for now. I really love the fact that my players have let me keep DMing in this same setting for all these years. The build up of layers and legends is really cool. It's very bottom-up construction in this regard, and as they explore, more of the world is colored in. Players' character creation has lead to lots of setting details I wouldn't have though of myself, like the Cat Men and Robo Wizards, for instance.
LOST CONTINENT
Classes
Standard are Fighting Man, Magic User, and Thief, but non-standard are common. Usually we use the generator in one of the issues of ODDities to work out the XP, then dither over details for a while. There have been Cat Men (kind of FM/Thief), Witch Doctors (MU/Cleric), etc. There are no clerics. In the past there were several, all played by the same player, but he and I came to the conclusion that we didn't like them so they're out.
Races
There are no Elves, Dwarves, or Hobbits. There are several types of Humans, Constructs (sort of robots), Phraints (in the South), and Cat Men. There will probably be many more but these are the ones the players have encountered and/or made characters. Race doesn't effect the PC much mechanically, but situationally is important.
Hit Dice
We use Moldvay hit dice, essentially, with a big house rule: starting HP is 1/2 of your CON + full HD. So a MU with a CON of 10 would start with (10/2)+4 = 9 hp. Other than the initial 1/2 CON, however, we don't add any hp bonus per level. This makes first level PCs slightly more durable, then it evens out after 3 or 4 levels. Reasoning: see "Death" below.
Death
We realized after years of play two things. One, that one of our favorite parts of playing is seeing a character's backstory grow through play. This means we don't really want to play "throwaway" characters that die quickly. Not a lot of thought is put into a character at first, outside of race and class and a name, but they quickly accrue favors, titles, reputations, etc. and we don't really want them to croak. The second thing I realized though, is that my players have the most fun in combat when they're close to death or think they might die. Since we use Moldvay optional damage with the frequent multiple attacks of monsters, play is pretty deadly. Revivification is possible, but a pain in the butt. The cost in gold and favors is so high that players often have to really think whether they want to do it. Usually they do go for it though, not wanting to lose a character with lots of built up flavor.
Damage
As I said, we use the optional weapon damage in Moldvay, and the monsters attack like Moldvay monsters (frequent claw/claw/bite, and the like). The PCs don't get a lot of magic items, but they do sometimes get their hands on ancient tech that blows huge holes in things and then fizzles out after 5 or 6 blasts. Magic swords are not frequent, but since I use the 3 LLB treasure tables they are often intelligent and have secret powers.
Monsters
Few of the normal D&D monsters are present. Nothing from Tolkien or Northern European legend really. Most monsters are mutated humans, cultists, dinosaurs, jellies and blobs, alien beings, alchemical accidents, ancient constructs, and chimaerical beings of unknown origin. Deep Ones are common group antagonists.
Setting-Style
The setting is mainly a large city like Morrocco or Tunis or something. Dry, full of shady hookah bars and zoroastrianish sorcerers. A thousand strange guilds, cults, etc. An unfathomably deep honeycombed underworld below the city, full of catacombs, lost shrines, ancient tech, etc.
The guys like a caper style of play that involves short dungeon crawls motivated by a present necessity (they want to sell psycho-active magical flower bloom drugs, so they delve under the city in a place where it can reportedly be found). They also like to get involved in bigger dramas that involve bigger dungeons and figuring out a mystery. Exploration for the sake of exploration doesn't seem to be a favorite for them. They're pretty brutal with enemies and like to think of themselves as outlaws, but they usually can't pass up a girl in trouble or a sob story without helping out. I'm getting better at not over complicating the hooks and trying to create problems that can be sorted out in just a few sessions rather than 15. We all like closure fairly often, even if there's plenty more to explore.
Tech
Generally the setting is early medieval tech level with min-mod level of found ancient tech. Inspired a lot by EPT and the New Sun books in this regard, the items are similar to magic items and usually impossible to understand beyond basic use.
Hmm. That's all I can think of for now. I really love the fact that my players have let me keep DMing in this same setting for all these years. The build up of layers and legends is really cool. It's very bottom-up construction in this regard, and as they explore, more of the world is colored in. Players' character creation has lead to lots of setting details I wouldn't have though of myself, like the Cat Men and Robo Wizards, for instance.
