DM|Mag
June 16th, 2016, 21:26
I'm recruiting for a second instance of my Descent campaign right now, but it may be I lack enough interested folks to run *two* groups live. In that event, I may drop the second group and direct those interested into a new concept. Regardless, I'll still be working on this, I'll either have more time or the same I originally planned on. I always have concepts, but which to run and when can be a struggle for me. I'd like to run with my classless hack, its easier for me to DM prep with and I think it's interesting, but I'd allow standard issue characters as I think jumping into that is turning folks off. This said, I am still working on my Gestalt area of my world, but I could move onto another area if folks are looking for a non-gestalt game.
So I come here, and I suppose I am seeking input on a couple of quick ideas. Which generates the most interest, and from there, expand on that idea, shelve the rest. Flesh it out a bit here, and let me work on that one day a week for a while to generate my game world a bit, some content and then a campaign. Options then, before I continue rambling:
Character Creation Basics
Level Start: 1-6
Character type: Standard, Gestalt, Classless, combination of the 3?
Races: I've been doing Dwarf themed, is there another theme folks like, or just open races?
Game type: I tend to run strategy and teamwork focused games. I enjoy that aspect, and that tends to lead to dungeon crawls, war scenarios, kingdom building for a majority of the time when I go that route. I'd be open to something else however. Exploration, trade, intrigue, kingdom building, dungeon crawls, rebel fighters against big armies, big armies invading countries, small party explores ancient runes, etc. Is there a preference in the basic focus for preparing a game folks would have with the below concepts? If so, please let me know with the specific concept you'd be interested in.
Concepts
Mongolian horse tribe inspired plains region centric. Hunting, tribal warfare, border guarding, exploring nearby areas, etc.
Elves flee their home plane and plane shift into my game world in a forest ruled by Green Dragons. A struggle to survive for the Elves, trapped in this plane with just what they can carry in the forest, hunted by the family of Green's which rule it.
*Natural19
Badlands Expansion: This could go two ways. My first attempt didn't draw enough interest, but it was a human lord sending folks south across a river to grab land and start a new farming community in dangerous and wild frontier. That didn't get much interest previously, but I'll list it here with a flipped version. My orcs, and human bandits who live in the untamed frontier badlands defending their territory from goodly farmers expanding and their wizard human lord. This would be a scenario where the evil folks are actually justified in going to war that you get to play out.
East of the forest my elves are in, which is east of the horse lord tribe plains area is a realm inhabited by humans almost exclusively. This is your typical knights, lords, ladies, peasants, and a ruling royal family medieval style kingdom. Raids from Fire Giants, trolls and orcs from the mountains to the North are a factor here. Managing balancing the economy in an expanding and developing kindgom is another. Political intrigue, cities, palaces go hand in hand with peasant run farms and small town inn's and bandits.
North of these areas is a mountain chain which is a wall for your people that you just go around. Hundreds of miles across, it forms a wind break that stops storms rolling off of the seas against the mountains and strips the moisture from the air. Around these mountains, to the north a massive desert exists due to this. My blue dragons rule here, but are at war with both the sphinx and my Copper dragons who have joined forces. My Blue's are necromancers and have tricked a tribe of humans long ago into following them and believing it was their own idea. The corpses of the dead are used as soldiers and workers in this barren land and a society based around this is born. However, a neighboring kingdom to the west has declared a holy war on the necromancy cults in the desert.
Faerie realm: My faerie realm is the same plane my elves came from, and is one that is in danger from an outside force. Hence the elves left in a hurry, but the faerie folk refuse to leave, and are fighting to reclaim their land. A campaign where you could be a brownie or a pixie or the like.
In the port city of Thalmos trade by sea is their lifes blood. The city expands along the coast almost lazily to the North and South, the result of fishermen traveling further outwards looking for new places to catch fish as the city's population grows. Naval exploration and adventure could happen here, or trading expedititions across land to sell the things brought in by ship. Perhaps during this timeline an aggressive neighbor might decide to attempt to capture and plunder the city.
Inside my ring of fire mountain chain is an elevated land of lush vegetation, rivers, lakes and swamps enclosed by smoking volcano's. Here lies the heart of power on the planet, my Red, Black, Gold, Copper and Brass dragons vie for power hovering over what to them is a food dish looking down from the mountain tops. My lizard folk tribes live here as servants to their dragon lords, bred to tend the lush waterways and jungle. They are druids and rangers who put simply, specialize in growing the vegetation and tending it to be eaten by the dinosaurs my dragons bred as food. However, below this, and inside the mountains, my Dwarves are slaves to the Dragons and fighting a war for freedom. The option to play as the lizard folks or Dwarves in this scenario is open.
*Devalex
My goal here is to see what people like out of these concepts, and then how they would want me to handle some basic character creation options which were listed above. So what I am looking for from you folks if you don't mind is something like the following. You pick on of the concepts, and give me the preferred option on how you'd want the other things to go tied to it. Lets say the following example:
I'm interested in #5 because I want to play a desert warrior with a mastery of the spear, but I also want to be a part of the status que necromancy aspect of the society. This requires powerful magic. In order to manage that, I would add:
Concept: #5
1: 6th, I need 3rd level spells to cast Animate undead, and get my iterative attack at 6 BAB as a warrior of note.
2: Gestalt, classless or not, I need two classes to get a cleric spell casting and warrior prowess combo going for my character concept.
3: Races: This is a dragon and human land, so human is the obvious choice. Maybe I want to be a half-dragon though, lightning breath and perhaps I am a prince due to my dragon father. I note that here.
4: Kingdom building and intrigue might be fun. Building a complex, negotiating treaties, vying for political advantage or gaining power. Whether it be financially, or via favors, or military strength, there's a lot of things one can do here.
A response like this, with a bit of why you chose it would go a long way in helping me get an idea of what players are looking for. Preferences, direction, and perhaps a different mindset and direction of thinking with these ideas I have. If you have input for various concepts, have at giving me feedback there. Some folks absolutely love starting at 1st level every game, I did that for years, and moved away from it but I can do that again. Some folks love starting at higher levels for the reasons I moved away from it. Some folks want high powered games, others want low powered games. This goes on for all types of options, and I can go in many different directions while preparing content for my home brew world. The question is, which game will I work on next. I opened this several days ago elsewhere, and generated some input from a few folks who want me to run a PbP game there. I am thinking I can afford one PbP and another live FG game, so opening it here. Anything more than 2 pbp, 2 Descent Campaigns, and one more FG game (Out of this one) will be too much for me currently, so at most, only one of these will be put into use here in the near future. If folks have an opinion on a game concept listed here that they'd like to play it, I'd love to hear it.
So I come here, and I suppose I am seeking input on a couple of quick ideas. Which generates the most interest, and from there, expand on that idea, shelve the rest. Flesh it out a bit here, and let me work on that one day a week for a while to generate my game world a bit, some content and then a campaign. Options then, before I continue rambling:
Character Creation Basics
Level Start: 1-6
Character type: Standard, Gestalt, Classless, combination of the 3?
Races: I've been doing Dwarf themed, is there another theme folks like, or just open races?
Game type: I tend to run strategy and teamwork focused games. I enjoy that aspect, and that tends to lead to dungeon crawls, war scenarios, kingdom building for a majority of the time when I go that route. I'd be open to something else however. Exploration, trade, intrigue, kingdom building, dungeon crawls, rebel fighters against big armies, big armies invading countries, small party explores ancient runes, etc. Is there a preference in the basic focus for preparing a game folks would have with the below concepts? If so, please let me know with the specific concept you'd be interested in.
Concepts
Mongolian horse tribe inspired plains region centric. Hunting, tribal warfare, border guarding, exploring nearby areas, etc.
Elves flee their home plane and plane shift into my game world in a forest ruled by Green Dragons. A struggle to survive for the Elves, trapped in this plane with just what they can carry in the forest, hunted by the family of Green's which rule it.
*Natural19
Badlands Expansion: This could go two ways. My first attempt didn't draw enough interest, but it was a human lord sending folks south across a river to grab land and start a new farming community in dangerous and wild frontier. That didn't get much interest previously, but I'll list it here with a flipped version. My orcs, and human bandits who live in the untamed frontier badlands defending their territory from goodly farmers expanding and their wizard human lord. This would be a scenario where the evil folks are actually justified in going to war that you get to play out.
East of the forest my elves are in, which is east of the horse lord tribe plains area is a realm inhabited by humans almost exclusively. This is your typical knights, lords, ladies, peasants, and a ruling royal family medieval style kingdom. Raids from Fire Giants, trolls and orcs from the mountains to the North are a factor here. Managing balancing the economy in an expanding and developing kindgom is another. Political intrigue, cities, palaces go hand in hand with peasant run farms and small town inn's and bandits.
North of these areas is a mountain chain which is a wall for your people that you just go around. Hundreds of miles across, it forms a wind break that stops storms rolling off of the seas against the mountains and strips the moisture from the air. Around these mountains, to the north a massive desert exists due to this. My blue dragons rule here, but are at war with both the sphinx and my Copper dragons who have joined forces. My Blue's are necromancers and have tricked a tribe of humans long ago into following them and believing it was their own idea. The corpses of the dead are used as soldiers and workers in this barren land and a society based around this is born. However, a neighboring kingdom to the west has declared a holy war on the necromancy cults in the desert.
Faerie realm: My faerie realm is the same plane my elves came from, and is one that is in danger from an outside force. Hence the elves left in a hurry, but the faerie folk refuse to leave, and are fighting to reclaim their land. A campaign where you could be a brownie or a pixie or the like.
In the port city of Thalmos trade by sea is their lifes blood. The city expands along the coast almost lazily to the North and South, the result of fishermen traveling further outwards looking for new places to catch fish as the city's population grows. Naval exploration and adventure could happen here, or trading expedititions across land to sell the things brought in by ship. Perhaps during this timeline an aggressive neighbor might decide to attempt to capture and plunder the city.
Inside my ring of fire mountain chain is an elevated land of lush vegetation, rivers, lakes and swamps enclosed by smoking volcano's. Here lies the heart of power on the planet, my Red, Black, Gold, Copper and Brass dragons vie for power hovering over what to them is a food dish looking down from the mountain tops. My lizard folk tribes live here as servants to their dragon lords, bred to tend the lush waterways and jungle. They are druids and rangers who put simply, specialize in growing the vegetation and tending it to be eaten by the dinosaurs my dragons bred as food. However, below this, and inside the mountains, my Dwarves are slaves to the Dragons and fighting a war for freedom. The option to play as the lizard folks or Dwarves in this scenario is open.
*Devalex
My goal here is to see what people like out of these concepts, and then how they would want me to handle some basic character creation options which were listed above. So what I am looking for from you folks if you don't mind is something like the following. You pick on of the concepts, and give me the preferred option on how you'd want the other things to go tied to it. Lets say the following example:
I'm interested in #5 because I want to play a desert warrior with a mastery of the spear, but I also want to be a part of the status que necromancy aspect of the society. This requires powerful magic. In order to manage that, I would add:
Concept: #5
1: 6th, I need 3rd level spells to cast Animate undead, and get my iterative attack at 6 BAB as a warrior of note.
2: Gestalt, classless or not, I need two classes to get a cleric spell casting and warrior prowess combo going for my character concept.
3: Races: This is a dragon and human land, so human is the obvious choice. Maybe I want to be a half-dragon though, lightning breath and perhaps I am a prince due to my dragon father. I note that here.
4: Kingdom building and intrigue might be fun. Building a complex, negotiating treaties, vying for political advantage or gaining power. Whether it be financially, or via favors, or military strength, there's a lot of things one can do here.
A response like this, with a bit of why you chose it would go a long way in helping me get an idea of what players are looking for. Preferences, direction, and perhaps a different mindset and direction of thinking with these ideas I have. If you have input for various concepts, have at giving me feedback there. Some folks absolutely love starting at 1st level every game, I did that for years, and moved away from it but I can do that again. Some folks love starting at higher levels for the reasons I moved away from it. Some folks want high powered games, others want low powered games. This goes on for all types of options, and I can go in many different directions while preparing content for my home brew world. The question is, which game will I work on next. I opened this several days ago elsewhere, and generated some input from a few folks who want me to run a PbP game there. I am thinking I can afford one PbP and another live FG game, so opening it here. Anything more than 2 pbp, 2 Descent Campaigns, and one more FG game (Out of this one) will be too much for me currently, so at most, only one of these will be put into use here in the near future. If folks have an opinion on a game concept listed here that they'd like to play it, I'd love to hear it.