With my OSRIC campaign starting in just a little more than two weeks, it is time to nail down what will be in from day 1.
Rule Set: OSRIC. I think that for the group I will be playing with this is the best rule set. They have all played 3.x and have come to expect a certain level of complexity. This will let me keep that while being much easier for me to run. It also gives me a lot more room to mod the game than 3.x does, I can tailor it to this group. XP for gold and exploration will be the primary advancement mechanisms.
The Group: Looks like I will have 4 players. I have, to some extent, played with all of them before (maybe not 1). One member is part of my original gaming group and we go back to middle school and Mentzer. His wife will also be playing with us, she played in at least one of my 3.5 Monster Feature games (I think the one with the Kraken). I played with the other male player in a Shadowrun game last year and I think his wife also played in it. It is possible I met her at a different time though. They are all nice, and very smart people. Two lawyers and two engineers makes for a group that will pick up the rules fast. Four players is my ideal group size.
Additional Rules: From Knockspell #1 I will be using the "Random Hireling Generator". From Fight On! #2 (The Awesome Issue) I will be using "Shields Shall be Splintered", "The Entourage Approach", and "Random Inn Generator". I will also be using "Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names".
Setting: The campaign will be set in Amacui from "Points of Light II". The players will be arriving in Magnus Aquila in search of fortune and adventure. They will be fresh of the boat from The City State of the Invincible Overlord. This allows me to fall back on Supplement VI: The Majestic Wilderlands if I suddenly need to flesh out world details for some reason. It also allows me to incorporate the lovely Sword and Sorcery 3.5 version of the City State that has been sitting on my shelf for years. Very little detail about any of this will make it into the campaign for a long time. If the players decide to get back on the boat and go home, I have something to work with.
The Dungeon: I am using Stonehell. I won't go into a lot of detail in this post about changes I will be making since one of the players might read this. For those of you in the know, I am putting Stonehell in hex 0411. What you would expect to find several levels down in 0411 of Amacui will be taking the place of the nixthisis in Stonehell.
Changes to the setting and dungeon will be discussed in separate spoiler posts.
Table Rules: Mapper and Timekeeper. No real need for a caller with four players. I will be fairly strict about the map. The mapping player's character has the map. Try not to get him too wet or set him on fire.
Rule Set: OSRIC. I think that for the group I will be playing with this is the best rule set. They have all played 3.x and have come to expect a certain level of complexity. This will let me keep that while being much easier for me to run. It also gives me a lot more room to mod the game than 3.x does, I can tailor it to this group. XP for gold and exploration will be the primary advancement mechanisms.
The Group: Looks like I will have 4 players. I have, to some extent, played with all of them before (maybe not 1). One member is part of my original gaming group and we go back to middle school and Mentzer. His wife will also be playing with us, she played in at least one of my 3.5 Monster Feature games (I think the one with the Kraken). I played with the other male player in a Shadowrun game last year and I think his wife also played in it. It is possible I met her at a different time though. They are all nice, and very smart people. Two lawyers and two engineers makes for a group that will pick up the rules fast. Four players is my ideal group size.
Additional Rules: From Knockspell #1 I will be using the "Random Hireling Generator". From Fight On! #2 (The Awesome Issue) I will be using "Shields Shall be Splintered", "The Entourage Approach", and "Random Inn Generator". I will also be using "Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names".
Setting: The campaign will be set in Amacui from "Points of Light II". The players will be arriving in Magnus Aquila in search of fortune and adventure. They will be fresh of the boat from The City State of the Invincible Overlord. This allows me to fall back on Supplement VI: The Majestic Wilderlands if I suddenly need to flesh out world details for some reason. It also allows me to incorporate the lovely Sword and Sorcery 3.5 version of the City State that has been sitting on my shelf for years. Very little detail about any of this will make it into the campaign for a long time. If the players decide to get back on the boat and go home, I have something to work with.
The Dungeon: I am using Stonehell. I won't go into a lot of detail in this post about changes I will be making since one of the players might read this. For those of you in the know, I am putting Stonehell in hex 0411. What you would expect to find several levels down in 0411 of Amacui will be taking the place of the nixthisis in Stonehell.
Changes to the setting and dungeon will be discussed in separate spoiler posts.
Table Rules: Mapper and Timekeeper. No real need for a caller with four players. I will be fairly strict about the map. The mapping player's character has the map. Try not to get him too wet or set him on fire.
Sounds like fun a good set of premises, Rich. If you use any of my dungeon designs in "From Kuroth's Quill" do please let me know what your players think of them!
ReplyDeleteAllan.
PS - you finished the SH review yet?
I have finished reading through Stonehell. I will probably review it as we play. Since I have the opportunity to review it from play instead of just reading, I'll take it.
ReplyDeleteSome of the changes I will be making in the upper levels of the dungeon will be using stuff from Kuroth's Quill #1 and #2. I am going to add a sublevel and throw in some of the tricks from those articles.
In fact it was KQ #1 that introduced the idea of a sublevel to me. I actually have very little experience with large dungeons. And almost none at all with dungeons that are not strictly function over form.
I don't forsee too many portals until higher levels. But I might wind up using them to limit the amount of backtracking if it gets annoying by level 3 or so.
I will certainly keep you posted.
Sounds great---and I look forward to feedback from your players: I've been wrestling a bit with tension of complexity recently, and will be curious to hear what you and your players think!
ReplyDeleteAllan.