Post/Author/DateTime	Post
darksyngr 12-24-06, 04:34 AM	I trust my players to be honest and not read this as this would ruin the game for more for you than it would me. So read at your own risk. I am pulling a gestalt campaign together consisting of 4 players and a DMPC (not my choice they want me to have a character... yell at them not me). Each character representing ourselves transported to the land of make believe... ahem... Faerun,Toril that is. Each of us is transformed into a race I created called Etherians (believe me this was necessary). I chose the gestalt classes because most in Faerun begin adventuring at fairly young and... well... are accoustomed to life on Toril. We will call the gestalt leveling a little 'blessing' from the gods and part of being Etherian. I have yet to decide which god is responsible for pulling me from my cozy bed into a world full of dragons and elves.... how dare they?! If anyone has an idea please let me know. Party as it stands: 4 males, 1 female Etherian. In training to become: wizard/fighter-william, cleric/paladin-steve, rogue/wizard-me, fighter/psion-shmoo, sorcerer/ranger-mike They start in a keep, and because of their very unique appearance in a prison cell. The keep is situated in a strategic location high within a mountain pass that is charted as unclaimed territory by the surrounding kingdoms. It is one of the few points that the kingdoms from the east can get to the kingdoms that flourish in the west by way of army (haven't decided where on the map I should do this but I'm looking at SE in uncharted territory). Both kingdoms have fair rulers and are allies but should war break out the pass would be a highly desired location to march troops through. The keep is led by a Lord and Lady neither who owe any allegiances but have agreed to hold the keep defenses against any army that would seek to pass. Keep in mind even though the keep is not the only defense point it is one of the few key points should a war break out. Hint hint. A shadow organization seeking wealth and power have tried to gain a foothold in two of the more powerful nations but have failed. To weaken the noble houses the shaow organization seeks to turn the nations against each other. As their agents work the royal courts spreading their deceit another faction of the organization is quietly taking out the outer defenses of both kindoms leaving no survivors. Enter nerds from another dimension. The Etherians are a +3 lvl adjustment and for the next 3 lvls my players will be learning about where they are, finding clothes/equipment, and trying to discover why they are in the keep surrounded by a lot of dead people. Clues that will be left behind is a hand cut off from a shadow organization member that was conviently hidden beneath the body of the knight who did the cutting. During the scavenger hunt around the keep the players hear something outside the walls... sounds BIG... sounds mean... not going that way. The keep will eventually become the property of our heroes, but better yet they are stuck there for some time and will need to get rid of the dead to avoid possible heath risks. How does one get rid of a lot of dead people without bonfires attracting all sorts of the wrong attention? Sounds big, sounds mean... where did you see that catapult Steve? More later... don't want to write longer than one's attention span. If any ideas, thoughts, questions, or suggestions please do??
BlueDove 12-24-06, 05:37 AM	Nice... I normally despise gestalt purely on principle, but I'll definitely concede that you're making them work for it. Suggestion for power responsible: How about our dear Lady Doom, Beshaba? She's just the sort to give a group of die hard D&D adventurers a taste of "be careful what you wish for". I've always seen her as the ultimate Puck, unfettered by the guilty conscience of nature's altruism pulling at the heartstrings. She would surely delight at the world-wide chaos a group of "Etherians" would bring to Toril. That's about all I have atm. Thanks for the brain pick, I've been considering a "sucked into the game" campaign myself recently. ;)
darksyngr 12-24-06, 10:55 PM	The next phase is that the party will discover a 'training' dungeon used as a method to train people in adventure (to obtain the PHB classes). It will be a series of 0 level combat and puzzles. Those wanting to become spellcasters will be given the oportunity to learn how to obtain a familiar/companion as part of their training. I think make it a challenge to obtain animal 'friends' will encourage the players to make their companion more part of their character rather than an object to be used and forgotten when they aren't attacking. Anyway, they'll be required to swim, jump, spelunk, climb, and just about everything else. Combat and puzzles will be fairly easy but will require teamwork to achieve. I have a few puzzles planned as well as a few encounters but as always I am open to any ideas to help this be more enjoyable for my players. As for gestalt it is something of power leveling. I am not even entirely certain that is the way I want to go, but if I do I definitely want my players to earn it. Anything given too easy the novelty will wear off quickly. As a side note: as suggested per another member is to provide an option for the characters to perform the funeral rites for the dead. I will include that path in my game and hope to utilize another thread pertaining to funeral rites. However, I don't know if or how it is possible as there are around 300 dead bodies in the keep. So I leave with this question... if you were a player in my game what would you hope to see or achieve?
Purple Yin 12-25-06, 09:17 AM	Being aware of the setting, your char (with the wiz/rogue) might want to get to a temple of azuth asap, as they freely give out training spellbooks and will teach you the basics for free.
Aratharn 12-25-06, 01:59 PM	perhaps you can introduce another NPC party that is in direct competition with your group, not necessarily as evil nemesis but just a group they cross paths with on some missions you could let them meet your group the first time they get out of that keep, the reason they are there is that they are a mercenarie scout unite send by one or both kingdoms hope that helps
MarkusTay63 12-25-06, 04:29 PM	And maybe that 'other' party actually came from the alternate earth circling in our orbit on the other side of the sun! :bigeyes: They meet their evil twins! :eek: Anyway, nice idea for a campaign, I ran in something similar waaaay back in the day. The motorcycle was great fun until it ran out of gas; helluva walk to Greyhawk. Anyway, I want to know just on thing... Do we still get cell service here? :rofl:
darksyngr 12-25-06, 06:18 PM	Anyway, I want to know just on thing... Do we still get cell service here? :rofl: Yeah sure, they'll meet Dr. Who along the way somewhere and use his laser screwdriver so they can get cell service anywhere any time :rimshot:
darksyngr 12-25-06, 06:26 PM	I like the alt party idea. Since some of my party members may look outlandish (see 'New Race' thread link below) the other party may attack on sight, so I will have to come up with a way the other pack won't TPK. I like the idea of them obtaining allies along the way. It'll be like NWN 2 where part of the adventure is them bringing followers and allies to repair and populate the keep. BTW, I would like to thank you all for commenting and your suggestions. I was beginning to think my campaign sucked, lol. http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=757295
dragonheart 12-25-06, 09:41 PM	An interesting twist on things. However, I would suggest sitting down one on one with yoru players and sorting out what (if any) skills/feats/etc they actually have. I had this happen to me back in 1e. and the DM didn't do this first - and every DM since has been sorry :D But then I didn't start playing till I was in Grad school and had spent 6 years in a variety of martial arts, been trained in some basic knife and sword fighting as well as martial arts weapons, earned a BS in geochemistry and spent my summers hiking, camping, and living off the land and teaching it to others. So instead of droppping off your basic level 5 expert commoner with nothing but the clothes on his back at the back end of a group of orcs the DM was dropping off a level 3 mionk/level 1 ranger with a pocket knife in his hip pocket - made a world of surviviability difference. I would also get teh group together to do a group discussion of what the stats for each person really are - you can boost them some with the race change to make for playability. Strength is the easy one as its already defined. but a good way to think about it is that each number represents a 5% increase in difference from the norm. that means that an 18 INtel actually corresponds to an IQ of about 140 not 180 (that would be an Intel of about 26) work out the stats but keep that difference in mind. also with all the immunizations and better health care and diet we have in the modern world most of our constitutions are much stronger than those of earlier periods (I do grnat that we do have a lot more folks wht lower cons as well as we keep alive many that would have died of problems like asthma and tender stomachs in an earleir age. so it can work both ways.)
Purple Yin 12-25-06, 09:58 PM	another thought- in Underdark it's revealed that one of the Imaskarcanum are in the underdark under the dalelands (i think) and being guarded by a creature that's quite weak concidering the artifact it's unknowingly guarding- go kill the plant thing and should the party come across deep imascarni, then use it to gain massive influence with the peoples. If you never come across the deep imascarni, then you still have yourself one artifact on the cheap.