Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BevisIscariot 09-26-06, 10:13 PM	This has probably been addressed before, but -- does anyone have any good house rules concerning characters being raised or resurrected? My players think the level loss stuff is b.s. and I'm kind of inclined to agree with them. But I've got to keep dying a real threat with real penalties.
SilentOne 09-26-06, 10:33 PM	Well... money and experience are the two biggest things for drawbacks that ressurection uses. Big honkin' diamond, and the level hit. If you were to get rid of these, or even just one, then it suddenly becomes hella cheap to bring someone back.... unless. Unless you make it so that instead of just some random big honkin' diamond, you need a big honkin' diamond blessed by the Seer of the Northreach Mountain once it's been coated in the blood of both a greater celestial and fiend and destroyed afterwards. Of course, the Seer of the Northreach Mountain won't bless just anyone's blood-coated diamond, no, he's going to make some outrageous demand like "You must bring me three hairs from the Golden Nymph Sisters of Lymphrasia, given in good will and knowledge, along with a kiss from each." Why? Maybe he's got a hair fetish. Maybe he needs them for his own magical schtick. At any rate, what this does it make it so people don't want to die simply because it's hard for them to come back. People need to actually quest and do stuff to get the soul of the departed friend back into his lifeless corpse and reanimate the whole thing such that no one knows it's just a zombie. Sounds very epic Greek style to me, but I like it. I'm sure there's other ways.
BevisIscariot 09-26-06, 10:50 PM	I like the quest idea but I hate to leave a player out of the game for as long as that might take.
jagggar 09-26-06, 11:12 PM	I think I've heard of people requiring the dead one to do a quest in order to come back to life. Is there a particular reason the group thinks the loss of a level is BS?
The_Levitator 09-26-06, 11:20 PM	We play a "low magic availability" and faith-based religious world, so resurrection, much like the proof of the existence of gods, is purely legend. That means, there is no documented evidence of a successful resurrection in our world. That said, my players know that I would never screw them if a high level character died as a result of dumb luck. So there are rumors of 1 or 2 people claiming to have successfully resurrected someone, and the party would simply have to follow their leads to these people if they really want to find out if it's possible. I have already planned for that contingency, and have followed similar path as SilentOne, making just finding someone who can even perform it a quest in and of itself. Then of course, the party would have to convince the healer that the deceased is worthy. And the third part would be the quest for items. The way I would involve the deceased is to have them play the role of the guide who takes them to the healer. I would then have them switch roles and play the part of the NPC that leads them to the item needed to conduct the resurrection. As far as the level loss thing, I don't do that. But they do come back at 1HP, and can only heal by natural means until they are at full HP (it's worth mentioning that I also include the CON bonus to healing since healing in our world is a little more difficult than a standard game). My only reasoning for this is the same reasoning behind why we don't have instantaneous healing. We want healing to be miraculous and not mundane. Healing magic will save your life, but we don't want it reduced to a videogame-style powerup in the heat of battle. This idea also applies to resurrection. The players will be able to find a way to resurrect a party member, but it will take some time for that person to be strong enough to adventure again, which takes resurrection away as a tactical combat option. If you take away resurrection as a tactical combat option but still make it available in extenuating circumstances, death will still be a dangerous threat but won't "kill" a campaign at a crucial time. :D
BevisIscariot 09-26-06, 11:22 PM	They think it's stupid that their characters suddenly forget how to do something they used to know how to do -- like cast a certain level spell, etc. I know the logic behind the rules, and I admit it makes sense in its own way; but I'm happy to oblige my players if i can come up with a viable alternative.
The_Levitator 09-26-06, 11:37 PM	I agree! :D I forgot to mention in my post that I don't do the level loss thingie either. Actually, I have yet to even have to worry about it with this group, and 2 of them have been with me for several years. My players like to pretty much let the chips fall where they may and I don't think anyone's lost a character to pure dumb luck. If they ever do require it, my only "penalty" besides having them run around the countryside, will be that the resurrection requres a great deal of power, so they may have to sacrifice a few magical items in the ritual to pull off the resurrection. I really only think resurrection is an issue in games where players play more of a videogame style of play that maximizes crunch and minimizes fluff. The level loss and costs are really only necessary as a way to minimize abuse by players. I've been playing D&D since 1980 and I can only remember a couple of times where my character was involved with a party who had someone resurrected, so I'm probably not the best source on the issue. As a player I tend to let the game play out like it's supposed to. As a DM, I like my world to feel dangerous and I don't like my players to feel invincible, as if they can make bad decisions and just fork over some cash to get a "do over". Because of that, I've only had 1 player even get their character resurrected. I think that has been mostly due to the type of players I have had in my groups. They tend to be heavy on the roleplay side, even though we have a lot of combats (at least 2-3 per session). If a character died at a crucial moment in the story, and it made sense that the character needed to be resurrected, then as a group we would make that part of the story. As long as players don't see having resurrection available like "extra men" in a videogame, I would think that you could handle it however you wanted and it wouldn't really matter, because in most normal games, resurrection rarely happens anyway.
BevisIscariot 09-26-06, 11:48 PM	I like the way you think, Levitator. And it may even be that the real motivation behind my players chagrin is their desire to use resurrections as "extra men," like you said. I need to work it into the story and emphasixe the roleplaying a little more. Good advice.
riceisnice 09-26-06, 11:53 PM	Interesting adventure idea, based on the quest-for-resurrection thing: the PCs are hired to perform said quest on behalf of the king to raise his only son and heir, slain in battle. The extensive-quest-requirement concept settles the "Why don't important and rich NPCs get themselves revived?" plot-hole that's plagued DMs who sometimes need certain NPCs dead. But this would turn that whole thing around with an answer: "Sometimes, they do".
BevisIscariot 09-27-06, 12:00 AM	I like it.
riceisnice 09-27-06, 12:00 AM	Another in-game prerequisite: the god of the underworld won't release the character's soul back into the world of the living until he recieves the killer's soul as recompense...
BevisIscariot 09-27-06, 12:02 AM	Even better. I love a good revenge story.
The_Levitator 09-27-06, 12:59 AM	Wow, thoughtful and creative discussion about resurrection on a D&D forum? I feel a little Twlilight Zoney! This is great though and I'm glad to be a part of the discussion. I absolutely LOVE the idea of replacing the good soul with the killer's soul. I'm not sure how I would work it in to our world as gods and deities don't technically "exist". It would be an awesome quest however, if the party had to bring the killer, alive, back to the healer that is to perform the resurrection. THAT would work great with this group because they aren't a hack and slash bunch. They often defeat their foes without killing them so they've gotten pretty good at subduing, securing and transporting baddies. Of course, it would make for great substory, as the the killer's allies could be trying to get him back along the way, attacking the party or otherwise trying to free him. All this talk about resurrection and questing after killers is making me want to kill one of my players just to see it unfold! :devil: Nahhh, I'm one of those wimpy storytelling DM's and not an adversarial one. Although, the party is moving east to a new land that they know nothing about, so legends of resurrection, etc., could play very well here! :) :evillaugh
BevisIscariot 09-27-06, 01:07 AM	I'm one of those nonadversarial DM's myself -- hence my willingness to ditch the level loss inherent in by-the-book raise dead/resurrection. I was thinking, though -- couldn't you still have a sort of underworld or afterworld or something, even if you don't us gods/dieties, etc. Maybe, while the living players are trying to figure out how to raise their companion, you could do a solo adventure with the dead character -- maybe he's got to defend his dying spark against -- well, you know, something bad that wants to devour it or something.
The_Levitator 09-27-06, 01:50 AM	I may have explained myself poorly. Gods and deities DO exist in my world and they do grant prayers. Technically there is no difference between my world and a standard D&D world in that regard. The difference is from the character's perspective. In my world Bob the God doesn't sit down and have a beer with King Larry. There is no proof of the existence of gods and deities in the gaming world, but they work just like normal in a mechanical sense. I can definitely use the underworld deity needing the killers soul premise, but I just have to be cloudier about describing it in the gaming world. In my world, the god of the underworld wouldn't appear at the ritual and suck the lifeforce out of the killer himself. In my world, the healers would understand that the ritual requires the soul of the killer to return the soul of the murdered. So rather than have some big scary reaper guy appear and swap souls, I would probably describe it as a shadowy glowing light leaving the body of the killer, transforming in mid-air, changing colors and increasing in intensity before entering the body of the slain. The gods and deities, while they do exist, don't directly interfere with the world and in fact can't because they exist on another plane and can't directly move from their plane to ours without permanent consequences. They can though, transfer small bits of their power and grant it to their faithful. Interdimensional is exceedingly dangerous in our world (to go with the grittier more down to earth feel). Few creatures who attempt it survive out of their natural plane. And going back is even more difficult. This helps keep the super fantastical idea of fighting creatures in other dimensions and fighting demons and celestial creatures, well, super fantastical, and reserved for only the bravest and greatest heroes in the world. I had thought of creating a "solo journey" that the slain character must succeed in to get their life back, in fact I really like that idea. My problem is that I'm currently running a main campaign with 5 players, a 2 person gestalt campaign with 2 of those players, a 2 person "regular" campaign with 2 other people from the main group, and 2 solo campaigns for players in my main group. I'm pretty full up with that load and wouldn't be able to handle another solo campaign at this point! :eek:
rydi123 09-27-06, 01:59 AM	Another in-game prerequisite: the god of the underworld won't release the character's soul back into the world of the living until he recieves the killer's soul as recompense... great idea! i am not fond of the way resurection works in d&d. it's just too easy, and the roleplay element is not present enough. i have ran epic games where the pc party depended on trueres for every battle, and death was assumed for some characters at the end of a fight (frenzied berserker). they stood in the afterlife line for a while, chatted with the afterlife functionaries, then came back. death became quite mundane. and that is fine if you are going to run a game like that, but for most people, the game is supposed to be grittier and more like standard fantasy, in which death is, you know, important. which means there need to be more strict limits placed upon it, gm approval, etc. but since d&d is often an 'adversarial' system with the gm trying to kill off players, and the system is almost entirely combat based, i can see why the standard system doesn't make it too hard to come back. I had thought of creating a "solo journey" that the slain character must succeed in to get their life back, in fact I really like that idea. My problem is that I'm currently running a main campaign with 5 players, a 2 person gestalt campaign with 2 of those players, a 2 person "regular" campaign with 2 other people from the main group, and 2 solo campaigns for players in my main group. I'm pretty full up with that load and wouldn't be able to handle another solo campaign at this point! by pelor thats alot of games! when do you work/sleep/etc?!
Slapstick 09-27-06, 04:28 AM	I suspect he often "makes it up as they go" :)
The_Levitator 09-27-06, 04:51 AM	I suspect he often "makes it up as they go" :) I only wish!! :D That would make my life sooooo much simpler. I'm actually one of those **** retentive DM's that likes to create every single person in a village. OK, well maybe not an entire village but I did do a thorpe once with 90 people in it. I am very particular about planning for as many eventualities as possible, using my triple branch approach to designing campaigns. For every single decision the group will have to make, I try and think of at least 3 possibilities on where they may go from there. From each possibility, I do the same thing, figuring on another 3 possibilities from that decision and then I go one more level. That usually gives me enough for long sessions with a lot of variety for the players. I also mix in time-based events that may or may not affect the party when they occur. The ONLY way I could do this is by using DM Genie. The campaign planner is my bible and it really saves me a ton of time preparing adventures. The nicest part of using DM Genie for campaign management is that you can save any portion of an adventure as its own adventure. The best way for me to use that is that I create all of the villages, towns, cities, etc. as individual adventures. So, if it looks like a party is heading toward Scardale, I just import my Scardale Adventure into their campaign, and I've got a complete city in a few seconds. The initial work took quite a while, but now I can slap campaigns together quite easily, even reusing BBEG's and their minions too because I can save them as Group files that can be inserted into any campaign. I have a few factors working in my favor when it comes to making time for gaming. The first of which is most of these campaigns are only every other week, which means I'm only running 2 games/week. One of them (the 2 person gestalt), only meets once per month so that week I have 3 games. Another thing that helps me is that one of the solo campaigns is on the the same day as the main campaign, so I can kill 2 birds with one stone. The second of which is that I use the same campaign world for all of the campaigns, which is a highly bastardized version of FR. This not only helps with preparation immensely but helps players with continuity because they don't have to remember different campaign details. The towns are the same, the NPC's are the same (like nobility and shopkeepers), etc. The main differences are the characters and the storylines. Lastly and probably most helpful to me is that I'm a self-employed entertainer. Thankfully, I've built up my business over the last 7 years to such that I only need to perform 4-6 shows per month to earn a nice income for myself. I sometimes do more and I don't want to give the impression that I'm lazy, but I also take care of our 3 year old daughter during the week. My wife is middle management with a cable company and she has a 2 hour roundtrip drive every day. This gives me a fair amount of flexibility in my schedule for gaming. I also gave up football this year. I will still watch games, but I just haven't been the rabid fan I used to be. With all the free agency and 5 minute celebrations for every little thing, I've lost a lot of my interest as an active fan. One other thing that has me running so many campaigns is that I'm planning to go on the road full time in the next couple of years, which means bye bye gaming, at least with my tabletop group. I usually have a lot of downtime when I perform on the road, so I'll probably try to keep my group going via the net.
Slapstick 09-27-06, 05:12 AM	I only wish!! :D That would make my life sooooo much simpler. I'm actually one of those **** retentive DM's that likes to create every single person in a village. OK, well maybe not an entire village but I did do a thorpe once with 90 people in it. I am very particular about planning for as many eventualities as possible, using my triple branch approach to designing campaigns. For every single decision the group will have to make, I try and think of at least 3 possibilities on where they may go from there. From each possibility, I do the same thing, figuring on another 3 possibilities from that decision and then I go one more level. Wow! I only wish I could prepare that well. I just feel that whatever I try to think my players would do, they turn around and do something completely different. I've more or less turned to simply establish the world and figure out who's who, and then sett my players loose in it. Makes it very exciting for me as well :cool: - Slapstick Maybe I should check this GM Genie out, sounds like it could help me prepare a bit better, and make it easier.
The_Levitator 09-27-06, 05:40 AM	Maybe I should check this GM Genie out, sounds like it could help me prepare a bit better, and make it easier. DM Genie is not only great for designing campaigns, but for running sessions as well. All of the rules are built right into, combat is extremely quickened (especially if you use the autoroll option built into it), weather, feats, skills, spells, psionics, you name it, it's all in DM Genie. Add to that a pretty large community of users that have created additional material like FR, Eberron, and even D20 Modern stuff. Janik offers a fully functional 60 day trial, which gives you 2 full months to play around with it. Don't be intimidated by the interface. It seems a little daunting at first, but you'll be surprised at how quickly you can get acclimated to it. I'm more than happy to lend a hand on learning the program and additional resources that you may want to add to it. DM Genie is infinitely customizeable. Just take a look at the variants I'm using that have been scripted within DM Genie to work automatically: - Armor as Dr. It is set up like the Iron Heroes DR system. In addition, it automatically tracks physical damage to armor and shields and notifies you when equipment is destroyed during battle. A nice little incentive for your meat shields to pick up a couple of ranks in Armorsmith! ;) This system also helps in describing combat in more detail. - Defensive Opposed Roll. My group loves this variant as it takes the inevitability out of attacks and mixes things up a bit. I love it because it helps me to be more descriptive during combat. With the Opposed Roll variant, it's possible for a terrible swing to connect, or a fantastic swing to still miss. - Battle Fatigue. A variant I came up with myself to resemble the Vitality/Wounds system but staying with the standard HP system. Basically, when you reach 50% of your total HP, you take light battle fatigue, which is -1Str and -1DEX. When you reach 25% of your total HP, you take battle fatigue, which is -2STR and -2DEX. Other little things I've been able to implement into DM Genie: - I buffed my shields to all be +1 higher than standard - Monks have fighter BAB. - Sorcerers get more spells per day (+1 per slot on the spells/day chart), and Wizards have a shorter memorization time - Clobbered Variant - Facing Variant (I added the UA flanking conditions) - Masterwork armor, in addition to reducing armor check penalties, also has a 5% less chance of spell failure. You can modify the armor as much as you like, changing hardness, HP, movement penalties, etc. - Increased the threat range of bows and crossbows. Our bows are now 19-20/3 and crossbows are now 18-20/3. You can create your own weapons and modify every parameter of existing weapons. You can download DM Genie here: http://www.dmgenie.com You can find me on the DM Genie forums as I'm there often, so don't hesitate to ask for help. :D
Slapstick 09-27-06, 06:38 AM	How very interesting. I'll be without Internett connection for a time now due to me moving, but I'll be back and then I'll want to check it out. Thanks for the tip! :)
riceisnice 09-27-06, 10:19 AM	Okay this whole idea has got me inspired. I've been on a big "make magic seem magical" kick lately and this fits with that pretty well. This particular idea is a bit darker than the rest... It's all well and good to get nymph kisses for the Seer of the Mountain so he'll give the party's fighter a new lease on life. But what if, in order to call a slain companion back from the grave, the object of your quest was to obtain foul gifts for a fpuler patron? One who was a true master of death, life, and all states in between, with none of the moral impunctions that get in the way? That's right, you'll be running errands for the evil necromancer. Use your imagination (or the BoVD) for what horrific spell components and magical paraphrenalia they might demand for their service. Perhaps the consequences of such an act are simply creepier than pencilling in a lower XP count on your character sheet. * The character arises, though a bit crueller, quicker to anger, and prone slip into to dark moods, represented by an alignment shift one step towards evil (provided the player is a bit flexible in their RPing, this might be a little heavy-handed otherwise). *The character is inexorably tied to the dark energies of death and is now healed by negative energy and harmed by positive (good luck buying potions of inflict light wounds at the temple of Pelor). *The spell reunites the character's soul with his body, but the life granted to the body is pale imitation. The characters type changes to "undead", with the "living undead" subtype (similar to warforged of Eberron's "living construct" status). Any of these make the whole resurrection business a bit more serious, and may end up being real handicaps for the players, such as when the good-aligned party cleric can no longer spontaneously cure the fighter since his trip to the other side. Could be interesting if the players are willing to go along with it. One thing's for sure, it gets rid of the Extra Men Syndrome.
Millennium 09-27-06, 10:36 AM	Make some attempt to understand why things are the way they are, rather than just saying "this is BS," before you attempt to change it. Otherwise, the changes you make will inevitably miss things which the current rules addressed, leading to a need for even further patching. Losing XP makes complete, perfect, and total sense. But if you insist on it being different, you could have characters lose a point of CON, the way it was done in the 2e days. But I'll bet you anything that within a few sessions, your players will be begging you to change it back, because it's much easier to earn back a level than it is to earn back a point of CON.
BevisIscariot 09-27-06, 05:54 PM	First off, I understand why the rules are the way they are, and, as I've already said, they do have a certain kind of internal logic, mechanically speaking. Second, it's my players, not me, who asked for a change in the first place -- so if it doesn't work out the way they expected they have only themselves to blame (we'll change it back next campaign if it's disastrous). Lastly, one shouldn't be afraid to change a rule or mechanic every now and then -- house rules are legion, and the DMG itself encourages tinkering with things to make them fit better with your group's desire's, needs, style, etc. -- as the previous posters have amply illustrated, sometimes thinking outside the box opens up a lot of new and interesting opportunities.
The_Levitator 09-27-06, 06:16 PM	Agreed. The reason there are not only so many variations of D&D but many different game systems is because there are many ways to interpret both fantasy and reality and make a game out of it. Just because someone chooses to change things up to suit their own tastes doesn't mean they don't have an understanding of the current rules in place, and assuming such can come off a bit presumptious. If there were only 1 way to do it, there would only be 1 RPG on the shelves and house rules would be expressly forbidden. ;)
riceisnice 09-27-06, 11:20 PM	Make some attempt to understand why things are the way they are, rather than just saying "this is BS," before you attempt to change it. Otherwise, the changes you make will inevitably miss things which the current rules addressed, leading to a need for even further patching. The house-rules board might not be the place to preach strict adherence to the status quo...
BevisIscariot 09-28-06, 12:51 AM	Well said.
Fireclave 09-28-06, 01:05 AM	Perhaps you should consider restricting the power to restore to a Life Domain. Only clerics of a god with the Life Domain can cast Raise Dead, True Res, ect. Such orders would be rare and/or reclusive, so finding them or even learning anything about them will require a decently high Knowledge (religion) check. These clerics realize the importance of life and death to the natural order of the world and respect that balance. They aren't going to upset it simply because some dusty, dirty, no-nothing vagabounds march through their doorstep with a corpse, a big-honking diamond, and a bag of gold. In order to come back, you have to give these clerics a very good reason (which would depend partly on the alignment of gods the clerics serve). To make it even harder, make the god in charge of the life domain TN. That way, the god and his clerics won't be sway simply because X party member is of similiar alignment and conviction. Think Boccob here. This god just doesn't give a d*mn unless this adventurer can further his cause in maintaining the balance of life and death (or whatever else his portfolio might contain). The only other option available to the PC's would be Reincarnation, which is unpredictable at best (unless you want to restrict Reincartion to the Life Domain as well).
BevisIscariot 09-28-06, 01:32 AM	A Life Domain, huh? It's got possibilities. Definitely TN, that's right on the money. Come to think of it, those priests could make the centerpiece for an entire campaign -- imagine how eerie and aloof and almost ascetic they'd be. Sweet idea.
rydi123 09-28-06, 01:45 AM	so, tell me more on this dmgenie? does one have to find a magic internet lamp?
The_Levitator 09-28-06, 02:14 AM	I would derail this thread terribly if I started talking about DM Genie. Suffice it to say that for me, DM Genie is the best thing to happen to D&D since D&D! It manages every aspect of the game from combat, to campaigns, to maps, to magic, to items, to weather, to........see? There I go again! Check out the site at: http://dmgenie.com They offer a fully functional 60 day trial. Don't be intimidated by the interface as it can be a little daunting at first. There is a large community of users that are more than helpful, including myself. :) The best part about DM Genie is that it is infinitely customizeable so you can implement campaign specific classes, spells, items, feats, conditions, skills, etc. If you decide to take a look at it, register on their forums as I check it daily and will be glad to help in any way I can.
rydi123 09-28-06, 02:27 AM	thanks for the link. ill go and take a look when i am both more conscious and done with the multitude of things i have to do this week.
Rhialto 09-28-06, 04:25 AM	This is almost liek more campaign. I've basically barred raise fdead to anything except divine intervention. Even healing spells are teh sole domain of a single deity. And that deity doesn't let her clerics strike at anyone at all for any reason, so it7s kinda self balancing.
darktoad 10-05-06, 01:54 AM	Here's my ruleset, feedback is encouraged: In D&D, death usually doesn't mean you should tear up your character, as there are numerous spells that can return life to any fallen player. This doesn't come without a price, and the price exacted in the rules can be pretty steep. Higher level characters have greater access to spells that can return them to life. They typically lose the equivalent experience to five or more gameplay sessions (from the loss of one level). The player in question may lose access to spells, and the character's power level may continue lag behind the rest of the group for the remainder of the campaign (without some special device put into play). These are major blows that can have a profound impact on that player's enjoyment of the game, and depending on the player's attachment to their character, personal investment and morale may even be forfeit. To promote more "fairness", here are some alternate rules to deal with spells that cheat death, intended to provide alternate costs, and options for distributing the costs across the party, so one person isn't impacted as greatly. Note that these costs supercede the experience and material costs for Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection. Reincarnate remains unchanged. Sacrificial Offering: You make a sacrificial offering to the dead character's deity. The sacrifice must offer what essentially amounts to paying off the deity to return your comrade. The cost is shared by a number of willing participants. The caster need not participate in the sacrifice to cast the spell. The value of the offering can basically be broken down in the following ways: Sacrifice Creature: Sacrifice a number of living creatures of an opposing alignment to the fallen's deity. Their total hit dice should be no less than twice the fallen's character level before death. If the party offers a key opponent to the fallen's religion (like a priest of an opposing deity) the sacrifice only needs to be equal to the fallen's character level before death (instead of double). Sacrifice Experience: Figure out how much experience would be lost by the character having lost a level. Divide this total cost as evenly as possible between the participants. No one other than the individual being raised can sacrifice enough experience in this process to lose a level. The caster that is providing the raising spell need not sacrifice xp, but the fallen character always needs to. Sacrifice Treasure: Donate treasure to a church of the fallen's deity. The total value of treasure provided must be no less than 2x the projected xp loss (for the fallen character) in gold. If this value is less than the listed material component costs for a raising spell, the value must be raised to equal the listed value. Sacrifice Health: The fallen character may sacrifice 2 points of Constitution (if this would reduce its Con to 0 or less, it can’t be raised). This level/HD loss or Constitution loss cannot be repaired by any means.
dizfactor 10-06-06, 12:57 PM	The best part about DM Genie is that it is infinitely customizeable OK, I'm planning a campaign with the following house rules: 1) No alignment. 2) Extra bonus Feat at first level, based on cultural background. 3) Vitality/Wounds in place of hit points. 4) Armor as DR and not "AC" 5) Two-pronged class-based Defense bonus imported from Conan D20. Each class has a Parry Defense progression and a Dodge Defense progression. Combat is based on opposed rolls (BAB vs Dodge or Parry) 6) Skill-driven magic system imported from Talislanta D20, fused with certain aspects of the magic system for Arcana Evolved and the XPH psionics system. All spellcasting classes are effectively homebrew and built from the ground up, with existing spell lists completely torn apart and rebuilt, no Vancian system at all. 7) Most non-spellcasting classes imported from Talislanta D20, AE, or Conan D20 8) Races and feats stolen from the above games, as well as the Sahasra, Nyambe, Mindshadows, Violet Dawn, Arcana Evolved, Eberron, Taladas, and Dark Sun settings. Might also work in material from OGL Steampunk, too. Can DM Genie handle this sort of thing? They think it's stupid that their characters suddenly forget how to do something they used to know how to do -- like cast a certain level spell, etc. Tell them to think about it for a moment. They just died, and their spirits have just been brought back from what lies beyond into their cold, cold bodies. I think it's reasonable to expect that their characters would find this to be very traumatic, and that they would be shaken up by the experience, and would need some time to get back into the swing of things before they were functioning at 100% of their pre-death capacity. In general, I'm a big fan of restricting the availability of spells that raise the dead, if not banning them outright. If they are allowed to exist, they should only be able to be practiced by a handful of rare people, who should be hard to reach, and who should just flat out refuse to raise the dead in all but the most exceptional circumstances. IMHO, dead should mean dead, and if you're going to bring people back, it should be the subject of a major quest which fails 99 times out of 100. Players should absolutely not feel entitled to being brought back from the dead.
The_Levitator 10-06-06, 01:13 PM	I'm not an expert on other systems, but I will do my best to answer these questions based on what I do know: 1. I don't see a problem with that. If alignment based spells are an issue, they can be removed from the game. 2. yes, and you can set DM Genie to do this automatically. 3. yes, although the VWS script that currently exists is a little clunky when used with other custom scripts. 4. yes. We use the Iron Heroes Armor as DR. Not only does it track that way, but the person who created the script also included tracking physical damage to armor and shields automatically. 5. I think so. I'm not familiar with the Conan system, but we are using a Defense Bonus system, although it's a very simplified system. Our defense bonus is 1/2 BAB. I haven't figured out a way to script this yet, but DM Genie has a misc. box where I can put this bonus in manually. Since it only changes when players level, doing it manually is no big deal and only takes a second. 6. Again, I'm only familiar with D&D's spell system. I have converted our druids and clerics to be spontaneous casters, but still use the slot system and not a point system. Someone at the DM Genie forums had created a mana point system script, but I am happy with our existing system so I've never played around with it. Creating the actual spells is easy to do and you can create as many spells as you like. DM Genie has a wizard that allows you to fill in the spells information, create conditions for those spells and link the conditions to the spells. 7. Yes. Creating custom classes and races is very easy with DM Genie. I run a couple of gestalt solo campaigns and I had to create the gestalt classes for the players. You can customize every aspect of a class or a race. 8. Yes. You can create an unlimited number of races and feats. You can also create custom skills, items, and weapons. I don't know if it will do a perfect port for such a highly modified system, but I know it will handle it better than anything else on the market. They offer a fully functional 60 day trial, so it doesn't cost anything to play around with it. If you want some help creating things like classes, races, spells, etc., email me at: thelevitator@gmail.com and I will do what I can to help. :D