Mad Scientist Campagin in 4E - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Mad Scientist Campagin in 4E

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
leliel
May 03, 2008 20:37:59 Well, given the way that destinies are handled in 4E (ie suprisingly well), I thought about creating a campagin exclusive for a character type that talks a lot about realizing their "destiny"...MAD GENIEUSES! *Mad Genusi? Whatever...*

In any case, I thought about how such a campagin would be handled in 4th, given the mastermind-ish class of the Warlord, the obvious intellectual potential of arcane casters, and the life-warping potential of druids and their plan.

So how would you think I should handle this?
#2
sigil_beguiler
May 03, 2008 21:16:06 Hmm... Well, what kind of Mad Scientist are you?

That is most important for there are many kinds. I would say... For classic, Frankenstein style, maybe when Necromancer class is done, or perhaps a Wizard.
#3
mordahk
May 04, 2008 13:06:56 The key to running this type of game is to find out what motivates the pcs. Discuss their long range plans and goals and see they can work together to accomplish their mad quests.
#4
valdrax
May 04, 2008 15:24:57 I have little in the way of suggestions for adapting it to a fantasy world, but I recommend the comic Girl Genius as inspiration. It's very much a Points of Light setting thanks to the ravages left behind by centuries of war between mad scientists.
#5
smerg
May 04, 2008 17:25:31 Watching the movie Iron Man made me think of Skill Challenges.

My thoughts on Skill Challenges (this might be better in the rules section) was the handling of inventing things or possibly 'dangerous' research.

One of the things that Tony Stark chooses to do is to sacrifice time for doing more guinea pig style of testing and research.

I would thus suggest that when doing a Skill Challenge of this type that you might offer people to take on a higher DC challenge to reduce the time to complete a project.

Failure though also increases in danger to the individual for removing the 'safe guards' of a more rigorous form of testing.

For example, if the DM says that each section of the research project should take roughly 1 week to complete, then they could offer the player the chance to cut the research time down to 2 days for an increase of +5 difficulty. A further decrease to 1 day would be a +10 difficulty. The fastest possible research would be a 6 hour time frame with a +15 difficulty (times are not linear as it is not considered that you are working 24 hours of the day with no sleep or anything).

Failure creates the equivelent of a trap. For the one week option, it is assumed enough safe guards were taken to avoid possible harm to the character. The +5 option creates a trap equivelent to the level of the character to survive. The +10 option creates a trap with a difficulty higher then the character. The +15 option creates a trap with a greatly increased superiority to the character.

The traps should pose real chances to harm the character if this is 'dangerous research' (but whatever other type of research would you be doing in a mad scientist/arcanist campaign?).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 leliel May 03, 2008 20:37:59	Well, given the way that destinies are handled in 4E (ie suprisingly well), I thought about creating a campagin exclusive for a character type that talks a lot about realizing their "destiny"...MAD GENIEUSES! Mad Genusi? Whatever... In any case, I thought about how such a campagin would be handled in 4th, given the mastermind-ish class of the Warlord, the obvious intellectual potential of arcane casters, and the life-warping potential of druids and their plan. So how would you think I should handle this?
#2 sigil_beguiler May 03, 2008 21:16:06	Hmm... Well, what kind of Mad Scientist are you? That is most important for there are many kinds. I would say... For classic, Frankenstein style, maybe when Necromancer class is done, or perhaps a Wizard.
#3 mordahk May 04, 2008 13:06:56	The key to running this type of game is to find out what motivates the pcs. Discuss their long range plans and goals and see they can work together to accomplish their mad quests.
#4 valdrax May 04, 2008 15:24:57	I have little in the way of suggestions for adapting it to a fantasy world, but I recommend the comic Girl Genius as inspiration. It's very much a Points of Light setting thanks to the ravages left behind by centuries of war between mad scientists.
#5 smerg May 04, 2008 17:25:31	Watching the movie Iron Man made me think of Skill Challenges. My thoughts on Skill Challenges (this might be better in the rules section) was the handling of inventing things or possibly 'dangerous' research. One of the things that Tony Stark chooses to do is to sacrifice time for doing more guinea pig style of testing and research. I would thus suggest that when doing a Skill Challenge of this type that you might offer people to take on a higher DC challenge to reduce the time to complete a project. Failure though also increases in danger to the individual for removing the 'safe guards' of a more rigorous form of testing. For example, if the DM says that each section of the research project should take roughly 1 week to complete, then they could offer the player the chance to cut the research time down to 2 days for an increase of +5 difficulty. A further decrease to 1 day would be a +10 difficulty. The fastest possible research would be a 6 hour time frame with a +15 difficulty (times are not linear as it is not considered that you are working 24 hours of the day with no sleep or anything). Failure creates the equivelent of a trap. For the one week option, it is assumed enough safe guards were taken to avoid possible harm to the character. The +5 option creates a trap equivelent to the level of the character to survive. The +10 option creates a trap with a difficulty higher then the character. The +15 option creates a trap with a greatly increased superiority to the character. The traps should pose real chances to harm the character if this is 'dangerous research' (but whatever other type of research would you be doing in a mad scientist/arcanist campaign?).