Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Blaznak 08-14-06, 04:40 PM	So, my 9 year old daughter and I went to Gencon and had a great time with the games! She ran a Drow Cleric of some necromancer god and I ran a Drow paladin. We had so much fun in our games. The first Faction mod was a real hoot (no spoilers) and while tough, was not "unfair". We only got to play the first two of the WoW series and had a very good time. We played with two different groups, both of whom were very cool to game with. Our refs were all good and willing to just run the module, rather than our characters - none of this "Oh, you would never do that" or "you really need to do this" sort of thing. We played around with some of the wierder Player Reward cards, just for fun. The Chapter Book seems particularly useful, and I wonder what a table of six players with that would really be like. The Bizarre Little Idol was met with many a "Huh?" by the judges and one judge decided to do a bit with it in the story. The mini-dungeon delve was also fun. Definately for the Attention-span Challenged as it was three quick combats in 20 minutes! My daughter got to command some weird undead guy (go Natural 20 on Turning, followed by Box Cars on Damage!) who got smashed to bits in the next room by what I can only guess was an elemental troll of some sort. Still, better him than me... Over all, lots of fun! THANKS! Jeffery A. Shield Lands Triad
Tyranthraxus 08-15-06, 01:22 AM	Jeffrey, The Cabal seems very interesting to me mostly .. and probably sadly cliche of me because of the alignment issue. In your example you cite the fact you were running a Drow Paladin (and thus Im assuming LG) and your daughter a Drow Cleric of The Blood of Vol (Vol is who you described as the 'Necromancer' God). How is the game set up to reflect that you might be playing on the same table as Evil characters. and does it go to lengths to try and put in plot methods to keep you together? In terms of roleplaying, it seems just because of Alignment possibities also the roleplaying requirements might be a little higher than other factions. For example would a Paladin take the advice of a Evil Cleric of Vol.. accept healing etc. And in the same way, is roleplaying such party 'conflicts' rewarded via final exp or is it ignored? Personally Ive always been more of a very firm black/white with the Paladin because of what they represent, but It would be interesting to learn from a person who actually probably played with evil characters. Did it get painful for the Paladin to detect evil on the foes only to learn that the party was more evil than the critters they were fighting?... or.. was the party fighting good aligned people? :)... that would make it very interesting..
Blaznak 08-15-06, 10:08 AM	Jeffrey, How is the game set up to reflect that you might be playing on the same table as Evil characters. and does it go to lengths to try and put in plot methods to keep you together? For example would a Paladin take the advice of a Evil Cleric of Vol.. accept healing etc. And in the same way, is roleplaying such party 'conflicts' rewarded via final exp or is it ignored? Personally Ive always been more of a very firm black/white with the Paladin because of what they represent, but It would be interesting to learn from a person who actually probably played with evil characters. Did it get painful for the Paladin to detect evil on the foes only to learn that the party was more evil than the critters they were fighting?... or.. was the party fighting good aligned people? :)... that would make it very interesting.. Great questions: First, I dunno if a ref will ever call me on this or not and if they do, that's fine. My view was: 1) My character is a drow. 2) People kill drow all the time just because they are drow (Character's Opinion - not a fact). 3) This is a bad thing. 4) My character decides to stand up for the helpless in Drow Society, and elsewhere... 5) Drow society is very unusual, and he does not agree with much of it. So... He is taking the "gentle waves on the beach" approach to the Drow. Maybe by his virtuous actions others will change. He cannot really just get all snippy and say "Oh! You all are vile" and leave because where would he go? As another poster stated, alignment is not as fussy in Eberron as it is in LG. I mean, my character will not put up with torture, etc. When the Cleric of Vol tried to get the party to slaughter some fey, I disagreed with it and we ended up looking for other solutions. So, will he accept healing? Sure! For a Cleric of Vol to take healing means a concious choice of selecting a non-evil spell.. Detect evil? Most creatures radiate very little evil unless they are outsiders, but that said, the paladin has yet to detect evil on the party itself or any members in it. He has no REASON to detect evil on any of the Drow, or other party members. As to fighting "good" characters, if they are so good, why are they trying to kill all of the Drow? Convenient justification for Role Playing? Perhaps, but I'm enjoying the character and the other folks at the table seemed to enjoy interacting wth him so... there you go! Good Gaming! JAD
Mark the Hammer 08-15-06, 11:30 AM	Myself playing an evil PC, I don't really care if the person that I am with is evil or not. Actually, all that I am concerned with is that they are a means to my end. They help me and Cabal succeed in their goal is what is important to me. I care not if they want to help the poor or lady cross the street or not. The success of the Cabal and my schema are of the utmost importance!! :)
Skerrit 08-15-06, 02:32 PM	Evil vs. good is a much bigger grey area in XE than maybe even Eberron in general. Expect our PvP rules to make some allowances for flexible paladins so they don't have to lose their paladinhood in order to play a game. That said, I think it should be VERY hard for a paladin to remain in the CoS and stay good, especially after the second mod.
Blaznak 08-15-06, 10:26 PM	Evil vs. good is a much bigger grey area in XE than maybe even Eberron in general. Expect our PvP rules to make some allowances for flexible paladins so they don't have to lose their paladinhood in order to play a game. That said, I think it should be VERY hard for a paladin to remain in the CoS and stay good, especially after the second mod. Uh, but can't we just "take one for the team" and STILL get all the benefits? I mean, I don't see ANY REASON AT ALL to 'run' my paladin during faction adventures... Am I missing something? I mean, why not just cheese the system and run him during main adventures, and 'take one for the team' during factions. (Seriously, I'm not planning on doing that, but I am looking for some background on why would I bother...). Sorry... I'm still trying to work out the kinks in this game system! Good Gaming, Jeffery A.
Tyranthraxus 08-16-06, 12:25 AM	An earlier poster hit it right on the head. Xen'drik Exp is probably not the campaign you want to play with a character with such moral inflexibility as a Paladin. It just seems a bit .. grey a campaign to allow for such White and Black types. Having said that, Im sure there is a Paladin created out there somewhere who is that inflexibile and will detect evil on party members (im thinking Paladin of the Silver Flame or Paladin of Dol Arrah). I like the Drow of Eberron because their origin story is still a little vague and because of the Scorpion Motif (which I prefer a lot more to the Spider fixation). While I find it hard to see a Drow ever forsaking Vulkoor like that to become a Paladin, I can live with it. Travelling around with evil characters though.. Well Im not sure as a Paladin I could deal with that. But best wishes to you Jeffrey, Im sure you will come up against many interesting challenges to the Paladin Oaths .. just be thankful you dont also have the knight code to uphold :) Matt
Skerrit 08-16-06, 10:01 AM	Uh, but can't we just "take one for the team" and STILL get all the benefits? I mean, I don't see ANY REASON AT ALL to 'run' my paladin during faction adventures... Am I missing something? When you take one for the team, you don't get any story objects (though there is no actual threat of death for your real PC).
Harliquinn 08-16-06, 10:24 AM	When you take one for the team, you don't get any story objects (though there is no actual threat of death for your real PC). Could you perhaps clarify this a bit? By the reading of the Mark of Heroes campaign rules (XE Rules don't have a section on this that I found), if your fast play dies (either while taking one for the team or otherwise), it has to be applied to your default or non-default slot. I was under the impression that the risk of death and the need to "Take one for the team" (Which has very explicit rules for which classes can be used and under what conditions) meant that any story objects, EV, and XP went to your default (or non-default) character as you determined. If story objects, etc. aren't transferred to your default character when "taking one for the team" (not just playing a random fast play), it seems people might be very hesitant or unwilling to do this (even if it helps the group out). Harliquinn
pedr 08-16-06, 10:28 AM	There's one significant difference between MoH and XE though: in XE you can only have one character per faction, so there is no 'non-default' character you could report as dead if you die 'taking one for the team'. Which I'd only just realised now, and does considerably add to the danger, particularly if it's not entirely clear what the system is and, unless things have changed, there's no way to 'un-dead' a character reported as dead in the character tracker, even if its a data-entry mistake by the Senior DM when reporting.
JJeff 08-16-06, 11:16 AM	Err... Just checking (and clarifying for anyone that may not understand the term), "Taking one for the team" is basically using one of the fastplays instead of your self-made character, right? Or, from what I deduce from the last few responses, it means dying as a matyr for the party??? And as the Boss says, there is no threat of death to your main charcter if the fastplay dies, right? But you don't get story objects if you play a fastplay instead of your main character? Really?
Harliquinn 08-16-06, 11:20 AM	Err... Just checking (and clarifying for anyone that may not understand the term), "Taking one for the team" is basically using one of the fastplays instead of your self-made character, right? Taking one for the Team has specific conditions: You must use a wizard, cleric, fighter or rogue and only if no one else in the group already has one of those characters. And as the Boss says, there is no threat of death to your main charcter if the fastplay dies, right? But you don't get story objects if you play a fastplay instead of your main character? Really? This is the part that needs clarification for XE. In MoH, if your fastplay died you had to apply the death to your default or a non-default character. XE has no 'non-default' characters it seems since each faction can only have one character. There isn't anything in the Campaign Rules yet about how fastplays work with respect to death or story objects. I would rather risk death using a fast play and get the story objects than not risk death and miss out in most cases (Unless you're in a group that you are sure is going to die :) ). Harliquinn