I’d like to start our setup for this campaign by laying out a few guidelines, answering a few questions and establishing a few facts. First off, characters:
Characters
Characters will be Gestalt characters, starting off at around 4th-5th level; the setting is a big, Victorian city, so Druids and Rangers really wouldn’t fit well, as classes go. Barbarians are a bit of a stretch, too, but I think we can make room for them. Weapons should generally be light and/or easily concealed (knives, clubs, rapiers, etc.) and I think I may use the Defense Bonus variant from Unearthed Arcana rather than have any armor at all - it just feels more right. I’d like to see an emphasis on using your skills and noggin’s to combat your enemies rather than weapons all the time (not to say that there won’t be combat, but just that it should be a last resort). Character creation will be with a modified Point Buy system - I’m going to give you a range of numbers (right now I’m thinking 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11) which you can assign as you please, adjusting them up or down as you see fit (increasing one stat requires a similar decrease in another). Anyone wishing to play a half-orc should talk to me, Ravenloft has a different but analogous race that fits that bill. Instead of skills, you will choose a number of Non-Weapon Proficiencies equal to your level + your Intelligence Modifier - these can be just about anything (including current skills) Diplomacy, Etiquette, Haggling, Climbing, Woodcarving - these represent important skills to your character and can be rolled against with a standard Ability Check. You will also choose 3 Traits/Flaws for your character, using these in play to create difficult situations for your character will earn you Fate Points which can be used to re-roll any d20 roll. Example Traits/Flaws: Greedy, Clumsy, Charismatic, Tidy, Vain, Ambitious, Stubborn, etc. Finally, you will also choose a Imp which will be following you around, bonded to serve you in penance for its crimes. You can name it and, if you want, determine what crime it committed. I think what we’ll do with these is, we choose them, but someone else plays it. So, for example, I will play M.C.’s Imp, M.E. will play my Imp and M.C. will play M.E.’s Imp. They’ll be ornery and pretty much cause chaos whenever they feel they can get away with it. Oh, and one last thing: everyone should write a secret for their character - something they know, something they’ve done, whatever, just don’t reveal it to anyone else. Secrets will be revealed whenever you wish, during play. I’d like to hold off on character creation for this campaign until we’re al able to sit down together and make characters at the same time.
Setting
Think “From Hell” I’m steering away from the steampunk influence, since A. I’m not really familiar with it and B. It just wasn’t fitting the mood. Martira Bay itself is a large port city on the North Western coast of Ravenloft - heavy trade city, boundless opportunity for corruption; grimy, gritty, potential for evil lurking around every corner. You belong to a secret society known as the White Rose Society. On the surface it is a charitable organization, holding auctions and fund-raising banquets that attract most of the cities well-to-do citizens hoping to gain status and reputation among the cities elite. Most of the funds, however, are funneled into the societies hidden side: the protection of Martira Bay’s citizens from the forces of evil. The society was founded by a mysterious former adventurer named Lord Faltron. It is said he is still living and moves about the society headquarters at his will, though no one knows who he is. The need for a society such as this was necessitated by the close proximity of Necropolis, the City of Undead. The society has had its hands full of late dealing with the problem of a sudden influx of demons & devils.
{note: normally, Ravenloft is closed off from the outer planes where demons and devils exist - sometimes they can get through to this plane, but not often. As such, the past few months have been spent learning about these new creatures and discovering what they’re about, and how they’re getting here.}
Gameplay
Since we’re playing both sides of the conflict, I’d like to establish some kind of ground rules so that things don’t spiral into chaos. I almost feel like it’s necessary to to keep each character separated and have the other two non-players co-GM for the entirety of that players scene. I’ve been considering working in something similar to what Burning Empires uses called Scene Economy. I don’t own BE so I that causes problems, but from what I’ve heard, you are given a certain amount of certain types of scenes that you can introduce in a given game session. So for example each player has a Fight scene that they can enact whenever they want. But now that I think about this, I wonder if there might be too much toe-stepping if we do it this way. Three DM’s all working with the same clay? I’m not so sure about this. The alternative is to just run the game as if there were two active groups, I make encounters for the good guys, I make encounters for the bad guys and eventually the twain shall meet. I don’t know, I’ll wait on this one and see what sounds best.
As far as monsters and the feel of this campaign: I really want lots of intelligent monsters, monsters that won’t wade into combat, who’ll try to out-think you or bargain with you in hopes of scoring a deal rather than risk putting themselves in danger. I definitely see my devils and demons this way - they’re here to stay and they don’t want to be sent back to the outer planes. Also, you guys asked for it, and this is in line with the intelligent monsters, I want lots of mystery to this campaign, mystery and intrigue all around you.
Hi! I'm Mike. This is my Gaming Blog.