New game in home-brew world

[dead_radish]

Like the title says - I'm starting up a new PbP game in a massively homebrew world, the Narrowlands.

It's an extremely low magic world. Characters will start at 6th level. The game will be a combination of political and hack-n-slash, set somewhat before the orc wars.

A quick summary of the world, and the primary house rules, follows.

The Narrowlands: Heroes and monsters face off in brutal battles to reclaim an ancient golden age.

The Narrowlands is an isolated world, one where magic plays a far less important role. A semi-full history will follow later. Characters may start from any of the three primary human nations (Estolad, Angrenost, or Doriath (the Kingdom of the Wall)). Good to neutral alignments only.

"Official" DM posts will come every other day at the most, sooner if possible. Responses as needed will show up as well.

The relevant House-Rules (Note: This world is still under playtesting).

Classes allowed: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Barbarian, Rogue, Bard and Adept.

Races Allowed: Human, Dwarven*, Halfling, Petty-Dwarf, Grey Elf, Fey Elf (*Modified).

Magic use: There are no magic items. None. The only items with magical abilities are Fated items, defined in a moment. Bard, Ranger, Paladin and Adept are the only spellcasting classes. To cast a spell (from a restricted spell list), you must have a primary attribute of 15+spell level (Yes, magic is hard. It's meant to be). Bards gain spells at a slightly faster rate than the PHB.

Modified Races: Dwarves: Stats are the same, history is different - dwarves are made, not born, from the stones deep beneath the earth. New dwarves are created only upon the discovery of a mystical item known as a Dwarf's Heart.
Petty-Dwarf: +2 con, -2 int, -2 wis, -2 cha, +1 hp/lvl. Petty dwarves are hardy, but generally considered a wasted race, somewhat like the Gully Dwarves.
Grey Elf: +2 dex, -2 con, -2 cha. Grey elves are intimately familiar with forests and beasts, attracting animal companions like druids, and having connections to the forests and animals.
Fey Elf: -4 str, +2 cha. Fey Elves still have a bit of the music used to create the world running through their veins, which grants them a small amount of mystical powers, making them an enigmatic race.

Fate points: Starting characters have d4 fate points (+1 if halfling, +2 if human). Fate points may be spent for things such as +30 to a single roll, auto critting for max damage on a roll, imbuing in Fate Oaths (grant bonuses while pursuing the oath), buying Fated feats.

Parry bonus: Characters wielding melee weapons gain a bonus to AC of half their BAB. This is lost when flat-footed.

Familiarity bonus: For every 2 levels you use a particular weapon (aka: The sword your father gave you when you left) as your primary weapon you gain +1 attack/damage with it. Max +3/+3 after 6 levels. If you’re a bard and applying this to your favored musical instrument you increase the DC by 1 for any spells cast using the instrument as well as a +1 familiarity bonus to perform rolls while using your favored instrument.

HP: Full at first level, at least half every level there after (If you roll less than half hp, you get half hp).


Overall, characters are more powerful personally, but less powerful due to items and such. Monsters are correspondingly more powerful in several ways.

If people are interested, general character concepts only for now - if there's enough interest, I can post relevant information.

Cheers!

 

[Timothy]

Low magic and political, interesting

I think I'll play a human bard, who has some power and knowledge politically.

 

[Leopold]

whats an adept give you?

 

[garyh]

I'm interested in a halfling rogue.

 

[National Acrobat]

I'm interested. Fey Elf Adept sounds cool.

 

[Leopold]

dwarf adapt sounds kool..what books are you going to allow?

 

[Timothy]

what books are you going to allow?

Here we go again....

 

[reapersaurus]

I'm interested in fulfilling the melee frontliner.

I'd like to play Killian Maxwell, an intimidating somewhat amoral but good-hearted fighter-for-hire who specializes in the spiked chain.
By 6th level, I think he'd be ftr4/Master of Chains2.

Description and Summary:
5'9", dark scruffy almost curly hair, 175 pounds. Stout build, some minor scars from living. Focused and determined look.
Killian is a rough-and-tumble good-hearted but not bleeding-hearted fighter from a far-away land of barbarians.
He possesses incredible stamina and fortitude, almost oblivious to environmental conditions due to growing up in a savage, brutal society. He views family and friendships as all-important.

Background:
Killian was born to a large family, and has fought to eke out a place for himself ever since.
He grew up in the wild lands where it seemed you had to have a large family, since it was so rugged and dangerous around there, many would die to the cold, sickness, or to the beasts that roamed the wilds.

As the 5th born of 7, with 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters, and a younger brother and sister, Killian would frequently be alternately beaten up by or beat up on his brothers, depending on the age of the brother involved.

The rugged land provided a fertile learning ground for young Killian - he saw how work was sometimes rewarded, sometimes taken advantage of by raiding parties, sometimes bartered unfairly for, sometimes finagled into more than its worth.
Being able to see both sides of the situation was something that came naturally to him, not being too swayed by either extreme, settling in the comfortable, non-committed center.

Killian grew up among the others, doing his chores and such, while trying to distinguish himself from the 'pack', so to speak.
He knew he was destined for more than the life of a farmhand - he'd make it so.
His brothers dabbled in fighting - what Maxwell son didn't?
His oldest brother was the largest of the family, and favored a greatsword, like his dad.
His other brother preferred a longbow.
Killian usually had to make due with a shortsword or somesuch.

One day, after a raiding party of orcs and goblins attacked a neighbor's plot of land, he and a teenage friend wandered over to see if they could see anything interesting, when Killian found a strange large chain covered in spikes which looked quite nasty and dangerous.
One of the fleeing humanoids must have dropped it, and immediately Killian felt this was his weapon - a way to distinguish himself from his brothers, and cause people fear, or trepidation in dealing with young Killian. He practiced with it day in and day out, at first hurting himself often with the unwieldy akward weapon, but with much dedication, eventually mastered it and made it bend to his will in combat.

Killian soon reached the age of dajemma, a year-long journey steeped in ritual, wherein traditionally his clansmen would leave home to see the world and grow to adults. His immediate-older brother had already gone (the oldest brother stayed to work the family business).
He chose to travel (whatever direction would make sense in your world).
He did menial labor, and gradually worked up to be a bouncer, and guard, and then mercenary, alternately protecting his employers then attacking others, depending who's coin he was serving at the time.

He followed the trade routes thru (wherever).
He set out exploring the large city, and learned its laws and ways from where he stayed in the Port District.
While he was not a native of the town, so he was not granted full citizenship (as marked by a magical green mark on every person's arm), he joined the Fraternity of Venturers and took work as a man-for-hire, for any venture that could utilize his growing skills.

He sees no problem with using his skills to be paid - it's the way of the world, and fretting about it isn't going to change anything.

After Killian worked a few 'jobs', he booked passage on a ship travelling (?) to a large trade city. After settling in for a bit, and exploring the city, he decided to take employment with a caravan heading west as a caravan guard.

His smart fighting style, and rare expertise with the spiked chain was put to good use, and his services were valued by the caravan, who recommended him to another caravan which was continuing on.

The road is open before Killian, like his life is...
_____________________________________

I'd like to customize Killian's background for your world, but will you be giving us the geography, maps, politics, etc of your world, or be divvying that out as we explore your world?

And how much point buy, if we are to stat up the characters?

 

[Leopold]

Here we go again....

man does ANYONE ever allow the netbook of feats? I swear it's a great asset..but nooooo....maybe i'll find a generous one this time..

 

[dead_radish]

Books allowed: All of the splatbooks are allowed, with the caveat that some of the PrC's will be modified/disallowed - ask if you're interested in any in particular. And no, sadly, I won't allow the NB:Feats - I haven't read through it. If you have a particular feat you want, I can look at that one. I got Ultimate PrC, which was based off some of the NB: PrC, I think, and was disgusted by a lot of it, so ....

Adepts get you exactly what the DMG lists. Their spell lists are of course modified - they get a damage spell at each level (Flaming sphere, chain lighting, call lightning), and lose a few spells. Realize that adepts are intended to be an NPC class, so are less powerful than the average PC. However, they are a magic class in a minimum magic world....

Another note for those people interested in magic users - bards lose the heal capacity of their spell list, as well as the summoning threads, and a few others. Adepts can heal, but the healing rules are much less forgiving - after casting a healing spell, you make a heal check. You can heal your check, minus 10, plus spell level in hp max(IE an adept casting cure serious wounds, 3rd level, would make a heal check. If he got a 17, he would be able to heal 10 hp max). And healing takes place over 24 hours - there is no real instant healing.

Reaper: I will give more info on geography and the like. If you are interested, since you want to play a wildling type, there are two strains of Humans - Western and Eastern. The Eastern humans are basically half-orcs - +2 str, -2 int, -2 cha, but no darkvision. They also don't get +2 fate points (just fyi).

Spiked chains are available, but are even more rare than usual, and are somewhat regarded as "evil" weapons - those associated with the twisted races. You'll get some looks for it.

Re: Geography: Basically, humans come from three main nations - Angrenost, the Kingdom of the Helm, which is the most combat oriented nation (they are on the front lines of the battle, typically), Estolad, the nation of politics and houses, and Doriath, the Kingdom of Walls - their entire kingdom is surrounded by a great wall, and they are the most paranoid bastards around - in the Great Wars, they were infiltrated by creatures of evil that possessed the minds of many of their citizens, so they now have squads of Inquisitors checking the populace for signs of possession.

Angrenost used to be the Kindgom of the Sword (The Sword, Helm and Shield are the three great relics of humanity), but the sword was stolen by the orcs, and placed in a great black tower in Gorthal. It has become a symbol of loss and betrayal in Angrenost (thus, very few Angrenostians use longswords).

Bards are fine - I'll post up the spell list later on when stats come around.

Re: Point buy - it'll be non-standard, most likely in the 28-32 range.