Something else for you guys, a list of faction specific feats. The Factions for this game, being placed before the faction war, is as follows:
Athar ('Defiers', 'The Lost')
Believers of the Source ('Godsmen')
Bleak Cabal ('Bleakers', 'Madmen')
Doomguard ('Sinkers')
Dustmen ('The Dead')
Fated ('Takers', 'Heartless')
Fraternity of Order ('Guvners')
The Free League ('Indeps')
Harmonium ('Hardheads')
Mercykillers ('The Red Death')
The Revolutionary League ('Anarchists')
Sign of One ('Signers')
Society of Sensation ('Sensates')
Transcendent Order ('Ciphers')
Xaositects ('Chaosmen')
In regards to the feats, ones that relates to specific factions not in the setting (like the Sodkillers, one of the two factions that the defunct Mercykillers formed after the Faction war) are still applicable, provided you can give me a reason. As usual, just run it by me if you're not sure.
So as far as solid contributions Aliah can make to this situation, she has a family in Scheherazade (a lavish floating oasis in the plane of air) who are more than happy to have frequent guests. Everyone would be fed, entertained, and greeted with warmth and joviality each time they go there. Aliah's family is very well to do thanks to the fact that she was born a noble djinn.
Aliah can also cast Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion several times a day (too lazy to look up exactly how many at the moment.) It lasts for 15 hours (1 hr./level) and could make for decent respite. It may not, however, make the best permanent meeting place. I'm simply proposing it for those times we need to rest and refresh but are in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.
Here's a description of the spell so you can see why we might want to invest in a tangible place.
By means of this spell, the wizard conjures up an extradimensional dwelling, entrance to which can be gained only at a single point of space on the plane from which the spell was cast. From the entry point, those creatures observing the area see only a faint shimmering in the air, in an area 4 feet wide and 8 feet high. The caster of the spell controls entry to the mansion, and the portal is shut and made invisible behind him when he enters. He may open it again from his own side at will. Once observers have passed beyond the entrance, they behold a magnificent foyer and numerous chambers beyond. The place is furnished and contains sufficient foodstuffs to serve a nine-course banquet to as many dozens of people as the spellcaster has levels of experience. There is a staff of near-transparent servants, liveried and obedient, to wait upon all who enter. The atmosphere is clean, fresh, and warm.
Since the place can be entered only through its special portal, outside conditions do not affect the mansion, nor do conditions inside it pass to the plane beyond. Rest and relaxation within the place is normal, but the food is not. It seems excellent and quite filling as long as one is within the place. Once outside, however, its effects disappear immediately, and if those resting have not eaten real food within a reasonable time span, ravenous hunger strikes. Failure to eat normal food immediately results in the onset of fatigue or starvation penalties as decided by the DM. The material components of this spell are a miniature portal carved from ivory, a small piece of polished marble, and a tiny silver spoon. These are utterly destroyed when the spell is cast.
(It is worth mentioning that this spell has been used in conjunction with a normal portal, as well as with illusion magic. There is evidence that the design and interior of the space created can be altered to suit the caster's wishes.)
Now Aliah herself refers to this place as her traveling residence. To her this space is good only to bathe, refresh, get in a good night's sleep in. She does have a proper residence in the Citadel of Ice and Steel, but that makes a terrible meeting place for obvious reasons. I'm not even sure why I brought it up.
Something else of note: the Faction prestige classes are listed in Dragon issue 339 pg. 43 (it's up in the Dropbox), given most of the article is post-Faction War, it's not really relevant, but that list of prestiges is for anyone interested in playing a faction member( though you don't HAVE to take the prestige to be a member of the faction, just someone higher up will probably have taken it). Most of the classes are in the Planar Handbook, but there are a few in other sources.
Well, I'd just written up a massive post and the forums, deciding they hadn't done anything to piss me off in a while, ate it. It's a good thing I had all the links I'd pulled up for you guys still floating around my dock.
Anyway, first thing's first: I need to apologize for my...less than stellar behavior last session. This dissertation's made me more on edge than normal and I'm sorry you had to bear the brunt of that. I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Next, the reason for this post; Planescape stuffs:
I've essentially finished writing and rolling up encounters for the dragon campaign at this point. There's a few more things I need to clean up, but aside from that, it's essentially done. We're looking at a maximum of 5-6 sessions left on this, more likely less, but it all depends on how it plays out.
In between writing my dissertation, I've been scrounging around on the net to see if I could find a simplified good introduction to Sigil so you guys wouldn't have to wade through all the books. I managed to find this site, which was put together by a DM of a 3.5 game online. It's pretty comprehensive when it comes to the factions and it has a lot of admittedly inane info bits that give you a good sense of the setting. On top of that it's got some character bios up, so you've got those to skim if you wish. There's also a site which copied over the map of Sigil from...I think it's In the Cage: A Player's Guide to Sigil, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, there it is.
Now, one last thing, I've got a couple of race things to toss out there. First is the Modrons, which even if we don't have one in the party, you should probably be aware of if you're a Cager. The Modrons are little geometric clockwork creatures from Mechanus, the plane of ultimate law. They were stat-ed out in one of the web enhancements as a player race, and the ones you encounter in Sigil are rogue or malfunctioning ones that more often than not are adventurers or at least cater to their peculiar set of needs. Also, I wanted to add that if anyone decides to run a half-celestial or half-fiend, you're not limited to the type the Monster Manual lays out for you. It'll take a couple of minor tweaks (like dropping or adding wings) but it shouldn't be too difficult of a change, so this adds more options if you like the idea of a half celestial character, but not specifically the one they lay out in the Monster Manual.
That's it for me, I'll go back to working on my dissertation. *slinks off*
You really don't need to apologize, hun. This isn't a job that you have to keep smiling for, it's a game that hopefully makes you want to smile. On days that it doesn't we all understand. Everyone has an off night and at least you were mature enough to handle it with grace.
Well, I just genned my FOURTH Burnie Fluffinstock character sheet. Mainly because there were some significant things that I wanted to change. Like ability scores. For instance, he's now actually an idiot. And he cannot jump. At all. But he can totally take on any dragons we encounter! Maybe!
Okay, so here's the faction site, which has some more prestige classes and feats that I mentioned last night. Ignore any of the mid class mandatory alignment shifts, because I think they're stupid as hell.
I could just edit the above post with this info, since it's not really all that long, but hey, I'm sick. It's a crap excuse, but whatever. Anyway, here's scribd links to the Planescape Campaign Setting and The Planewalker's Handbook. A lot of what these two detail are in The Manual of the Planes and The Planar Handbook, and we will be leaning more on the latter for plane setups, but some of the details (such as the paraelemental planes) are going to be incorporated into our setting.
Anyway, something else for you guys to think about; if you're not from the planes, where are you from? This is more applicable to corruptbiggins and Alcoremortis at the moment since I know (mostly) where everyone else is coming from, but it's important for this setting. You're also not limited to Idrin, you can be from any of the established settings, or even another homebrew plane if you wish, just make sure to run things by me.
(I'd kind of recommend Bernie be from Krynn, where almost every Gnome is some kind of artificer/spellcaster/inventor or Eberron, where the same sort of thing goes on. However, it's entirely up to you.)
EDIT: For those of you playing any sort of outsider, here's some information on the minor problem of getting you revived if you drop dead. Unlike most other living creatures, an outsider does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an outsider is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, revive outsider or true resurrection to restore it to life. An outsider with the native subtype can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be.
EDIT AGAIN: Just so everyone's aware, the time gap between the Dragon campaign and the Planescape one is about 18 years. Keep this in mind when making your backstory and all that.
Basically, a friend of mine (who I hope to someday coerce into joining our DnD group) found this and I thought it was hilarious and would probably be appreciated here. Enjoy.
Wow, that alignment chart is more accurate than one might think given its joviality.
Two things, first, I found this thing that I wrote back when with Cairn that I planned on sharing after the big spoiler of the evil thing, but then never did. I will likely not continue it in any way since I'm lazy. ANYWAY!
Also, it might be useful to compile a little website with all the DnD stuff collected on it. I dunno. Maybe just with the folder? I just gave away like a pint of blood so I'm not entirely here.
Thanks! That was a nice summary. I don't quite know where Burnie fits into all of this, though. He's very...different, I think. For one thing, I think he talks at a normal speed.
Edit: Also, it looks like I will be rather late today, as I have a subgroup meeting at three that I'm not supposed to miss. Should only be an hour or so, but who really knows with these things?
My afternoon class kicks in the morrow. Well, it kicked in Monday, but tomorrow is when you guys will notice it. The class lets out at 4:20, it takes me about five minutes max to get back to my place from class. So, basically, for the rest of the summer, if I'm not on by 5pm central time, start without me. Or don't wait for me at all. d: Just start when we usually do.
Just to let it be known that I have been able to put some thought into my Planescape character (though not as much as I would have liked) and I think I've at least chosen the class I would like to use which is that of Cleric as it gives me two big things I've not really dealt with at all yet which are spell casting & religion. I've not got a race picked yet though I am leaning towards an elven type as I was thinking of being a cleric of Corellon Larethian. It's a start at least!
Oh yes...I nearly forgot, and apologies for leaving it until late, but I will most likely not be in attendance tomorrow as my family is leaving on a mini vacation to the Place of No Internet. I was not informed that this would happen until yesterday evening because, apparently, my parents have forgotten that some people occasionally like to have a little bit of forewarning before embarking on a road trip.
I can't even stay behind because the house is being tented.
So yeah, if I find myself with internet at any point, I'll drop in and say hi, but it's not looking likely.
@Biggins: Awesome! We will finally have healing and all that goodness. Just don't kill all the necromancer's minions....they don't like the mass healing all that much...
Pretty convenient one for Tertia to miss, really. Since we can logically say she couldn't enter the tower and then wandered off in her boredom. After all, she knows that she'll get a share of the treasure regardless of actually doing anything since the other characters are good aligned.
Cleric, cool. At least you've got something worked out.
Pretty convenient one for Tertia to miss, really. Since we can logically say she couldn't enter the tower and then wandered off in her boredom. After all, she knows that she'll get a share of the treasure regardless of actually doing anything since the other characters are good aligned.
It is pretty fortunate, isn't it? In any case, if I find myself with internet and time, I'll try my best to drop in, though I probably won't say much if I do since I "technically" am supposed to be visiting with people I don't really know. We'll just have to wait and see.
Actually, I likely won't be there tomorrow either. My dad wasn't asked to work his day off, which means I'm probably going to be put to work here. Looks like Biggins is getting some help with his Planescape character this week.
No word yet on what's going to happen for the two weeks after tomorrow. I guess it depends on what projects my dad gets going while he's on vacation and where we're at with them. I may be able to wrangle Friday off, I may not. I'll keep you guys posted.
Now that I think about it, Rem was the main reason we were doing Fridays, so if another day does work better for the group we can definitely reschedule.
As for tonight, it sounds like it's just going to be Planescape prep, which is perfectly fine by me. Since we're getting through character plots in the Dragon game, though, I'd like you guys to start thinking about character specific things you'd like done in the Planescape game while you're hammering down these characters. It doesn't have to be too big right off the bat, I'd just like to incorporate a lot more character stuff at the beginning of the game to help everyone settle into character and get used to the setting before I pull out the big guns on you. :P
Just to let it be known that I have been able to put some thought into my Planescape character (though not as much as I would have liked) and I think I've at least chosen the class I would like to use which is that of Cleric as it gives me two big things I've not really dealt with at all yet which are spell casting & religion. I've not got a race picked yet though I am leaning towards an elven type as I was thinking of being a cleric of Corellon Larethian. It's a start at least!
Awesome, Cleric's a fun class to play. Race-wise, you probably should favor elvish races since Corellon and the Seldarine favor elves (though given what Cairn did for the Drow of Idrin you could run a Drow cleric of Corellon if you wanted ). That doesn't mean you can't run, say a Dwarf who decided the Seldarine was awesome. There's an NPC in Hallowed Ground who was an Elvish Paragon of Moradin, and I had an old player in my last Planescape game who eventually became a Gnomish paragon of Damh, the God of Satyrs, Q.E.D. (Says your DM like the big Literary nerd that she is).
All that said, I would advise staying away from most of the planar races though. With the exception of Angels, who serve a certain god; they're all exemplars, representatives of a certain ideal and alignment. The Guardinals represent absolute Good, the Modrons Law, the Slaad Chaos, etc. Since they represent that ideal, they'll rarely become a cleric of a specific deity, they'll choose to probably serve a pantheon or go the route of taking the Planar Touchstone feat and being a cleric of their particular plane.
Well, honestly, Fridays work quite well for me usually. It's just today that's bad. During the school year, it would probably be even better, though I'll have to duck out for about an hour to go to my Yongmudo practice at some point, but that's okay. If we were to switch to another day, it would have to be Monday, probably, as long as I don't have to tutor then and I'd still need to duck out for that same hour. Weekends are always good, but I seem to remember that they don't work for Kenny.
Also, this talk of "big guns" is sort of scary. I think maybe I'll start getting a few backup characters ready...
Query: Are gestalt characters allowed in this game? Cause I was thinking of trying one out for a backup. Actually, I may build one anyway just for fun.
Don't worry. When I'm DMing, my characters usually die first; especially when I have a backup ready, as I do for Planescape. Case in point: Kale.
You don't worry have too much about the 'big guns' comment for a while. Things won't get heavy for a bit, there's over 12 early adventures that make first arc. One or two will probably get dropped in favor of character specific bits, but it's going to pretty standard adventures-in-Sigil stuff. After that, expect me to start being a little mean, but I promise I'll never be unfairly so. I've tried to write something drastically different than the Dragon campaign for the 2nd arc, so I'll be very interested to see how you guys react to it. Just...be aware it's more in my usual fiction style than any campaign I've written so far. Sen will know exactly what that means.
Gestalt Characters are totally fine, we've got two in the party already. Before you start building one though, definitely give the Unearthed Arcana a good look and if you have any questions wrangle Sen or I in to give you a hand.
Now that I think about it, Rem was the main reason we were doing Fridays, so if another day does work better for the group we can definitely reschedule.
Well, honestly, Fridays work quite well for me usually. It's just today that's bad... Weekends are always good, but I seem to remember that they don't work for Kenny.
Yeah, pretty much this. On Saturdays, I'm totally tied up by my best friend (whether I like it or not), and on Sundays, my dad owns me. I'm pretty flexible the rest of the week (except maybe for Tuesdays). I figure Friday works pretty well for us because it's probably best that we play the day before most people have a day off, especially with the time difference.
Since we're getting through character plots in the Dragon game, though, I'd like you guys to start thinking about character specific things you'd like done in the Planescape game while you're hammering down these characters. It doesn't have to be too big right off the bat, I'd just like to incorporate a lot more character stuff at the beginning of the game to help everyone settle into character and get used to the setting before I pull out the big guns on you. :P
I was totally stumped on this for a second, then I realized exactly who it is I'm playing. This could be interesting.
Don't worry. When I'm DMing, my characters usually die first; especially when I have a backup ready, as I do for Planescape. Case in point: Kale.
Also Karis. Or did Kurt's character die first in that campaign? Either way, you have yet to have your starting character survive in a campaign with us.
Yeah, pretty much this. On Saturdays, I'm totally tied up by my best friend (whether I like it or not), and on Sundays, my dad owns me. I'm pretty flexible the rest of the week (except maybe for Tuesdays). I figure Friday works pretty well for us because it's probably best that we play the day before most people have a day off, especially with the time difference.
That's sort of what I figured, but as people's schedule's shift we should probably keep this discussion in mind. Mine isn't going to probably until September (Minus that, after this coming Monday, I have 4 weeks of no IRL D&D so that evening opens up), when I'll be done with my dissertation and looking for a job, but we probably should have this discussion before that to deal with any new scheduling conflicts.
Also Karis. Or did Kurt's character die first in that campaign? Either way, you have yet to have your starting character survive in a campaign with us.
Kurt's fighter died first via fluke blinded Kraken flail critical. Karis, I think ended up with the more gruesome death since the Storm Giant's crit on her did x4 damage and brought her about 50 points below her max health at the time.
...I really should start taking bets to see when Kelder goes down.
Also I just realized all my initial characters for this group's campaigns have names that start with a 'K' how did that keep happening and I didn't notice it?
Gestalt Characters are totally fine, we've got two in the party already. Before you start building one though, definitely give the Unearthed Arcana a good look and if you have any questions wrangle Sen or I in to give you a hand.
I've been looking through Unearthed Arcana in my free time, which is what gave me the idea, and so far, I've been thinking I might want to try for a swashbuckler/sorcerer gestalt, since the swashbuckler is a fighter type that doesn't really wear armor (a bit like the monk in that sense). In any case, I'll probably hold on to this character for a future campaign, because it sounds like it would be fun to play.
Also, I have some ideas for how I might handle the beginning of Tertia's story arc (that we talked about last week). I don't know if I should just keep that for myself until we play that part, or if you want to know about it. I also had a bit of an idea for when she might come back as an NPC as well that sort of ties into things from the present campaign.
That's sort of what I figured, but as people's schedule's shift we should probably keep this discussion in mind. Mine isn't going to probably until September (Minus that, after this coming Monday, I have 4 weeks of no IRL D&D so that evening opens up), when I'll be done with my dissertation and looking for a job, but we probably should have this discussion before that to deal with any new scheduling conflicts.
Yeah, it's definitely something to keep in mind, in case the need to change days ever arises. I'm just saying I don't think it's arisen just yet. Fridays usually work out fine for me, just not today or for the next two weeks. Of course, none of the next 16 days are looking particularly good for free time, so it's not just Friday.
What is the best way to build a character as I've used that character creator (linked somewhere on the first page) for my character in the first campaign and I wasn't that happy with it but that was probably just down to me not knowing how to use it properly. I would be willing to do it manually if I even knew how or where to begin.
On a separate note, I've been thinking about the way I am on the Skype chats and I've realised that I'm behaving exactly as I would be if I was in a pub with my friends. I just tend to sit back and quietly drink while listening to the various conversations that go on around me, occasionally answering direct questions to me but rarely joining into a discussion voluntarily. What I'm trying to work out now if it that's a bad thing. But on the whole, I doubt it's that important.
I've been looking through Unearthed Arcana in my free time, which is what gave me the idea, and so far, I've been thinking I might want to try for a swashbuckler/sorcerer gestalt, since the swashbuckler is a fighter type that doesn't really wear armor (a bit like the monk in that sense). In any case, I'll probably hold on to this character for a future campaign, because it sounds like it would be fun to play.
Quite frankly, my personal opinion of Swashbuckler isn't very high, since you can get the same build with a DEX based fighter, which gives you a lot more options to play with (plus there are a couple of feats which pretty much eliminate Arcane Spell Failure with most armors, making you pretty fucking broken). This is just my personal opinion and if you want to run that gestalt go on ahead. It's best you give all the classes a try for yourself before going by my opinion.
The thing about Bernie is we can bring him back with none of the time constraints that Aliah and Kelder (being outsiders) have. Thus, if he drops in a fight, you don't have to fall on a backup character immediately if you don't want to. Besides, depending how we bring you back, it could be a very entertaining part exercise.
Also, I have some ideas for how I might handle the beginning of Tertia's story arc (that we talked about last week). I don't know if I should just keep that for myself until we play that part, or if you want to know about it. I also had a bit of an idea for when she might come back as an NPC as well that sort of ties into things from the present campaign.
Go on ahead and shoot it to me via skype or a PM about that. I do like to kind of know what to expect when I'm trying to kick off an adventure, and I like to know whats going on with NPCs.
The continuity between these campaigns is going to be quite fun, as well as some of the other campaigns that are tied into things. It's certainly made the heavier stuff more interesting to write.
Yeah, it's definitely something to keep in mind, in case the need to change days ever arises. I'm just saying I don't think it's arisen just yet. Fridays usually work out fine for me, just not today or for the next two weeks. Of course, none of the next 16 days are looking particularly good for free time, so it's not just Friday.
Right, so we'll just sort of keep to our usual schedule for the time being. Until work/school/whatever requires us to shift.
What is the best way to build a character as I've used that character creator (linked somewhere on the first page) for my character in the first campaign and I wasn't that happy with it but that was probably just down to me not knowing how to use it properly. I would be willing to do it manually if I even knew how or where to begin.
Sen and Guru have both been using Heroforge, which is an Excel setup and there's Spellforge for your cleric-y spells and stuff. I do it old school, personally, which just means I use actual dice (rolling 4d6 and take the best 3 for my base stats) and just build it from the ground up. I use Mythweaver's character sheets, so that they're up and online in case I need to shoot them to someone else (like the DM for the Saturday game). You have to join to get to use the character sheets yourself, but that takes like 4 seconds.
The Player's Handbook details building the base classes from the ground up the way I do it, if you decide to do it that way instead of using Heroforge. I don't use it on the grounds that Excel hates my lappy.
On a separate note, I've been thinking about the way I am on the Skype chats and I've realised that I'm behaving exactly as I would be if I was in a pub with my friends. I just tend to sit back and quietly drink while listening to the various conversations that go on around me, occasionally answering direct questions to me but rarely joining into a discussion voluntarily. What I'm trying to work out now if it that's a bad thing. But on the whole, I doubt it's that important.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, I actually do the same thing when I'm out with friends. I'm weirdly much chattier on Skype than I am in real life, unless I'm watching a movie or playing D&D with a group of friends (or I've had too much to drink, but that's another issue all together). You've also been playing a rogue, so being quiet makes sense character-wise as well.
Comments
Athar ('Defiers', 'The Lost')
Believers of the Source ('Godsmen')
Bleak Cabal ('Bleakers', 'Madmen')
Doomguard ('Sinkers')
Dustmen ('The Dead')
Fated ('Takers', 'Heartless')
Fraternity of Order ('Guvners')
The Free League ('Indeps')
Harmonium ('Hardheads')
Mercykillers ('The Red Death')
The Revolutionary League ('Anarchists')
Sign of One ('Signers')
Society of Sensation ('Sensates')
Transcendent Order ('Ciphers')
Xaositects ('Chaosmen')
In regards to the feats, ones that relates to specific factions not in the setting (like the Sodkillers, one of the two factions that the defunct Mercykillers formed after the Faction war) are still applicable, provided you can give me a reason. As usual, just run it by me if you're not sure.
Aliah can also cast Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion several times a day (too lazy to look up exactly how many at the moment.) It lasts for 15 hours (1 hr./level) and could make for decent respite. It may not, however, make the best permanent meeting place. I'm simply proposing it for those times we need to rest and refresh but are in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.
Here's a description of the spell so you can see why we might want to invest in a tangible place.
By means of this spell, the wizard conjures up an extradimensional dwelling, entrance to which can be gained only at a single point of space on the plane from which the spell was cast. From the entry point, those creatures observing the area see only a faint shimmering in the air, in an area 4 feet wide and 8 feet high. The caster of the spell controls entry to the mansion, and the portal is shut and made invisible behind him when he enters. He may open it again from his own side at will. Once observers have passed beyond the entrance, they behold a magnificent foyer and numerous chambers beyond. The place is furnished and contains sufficient foodstuffs to serve a nine-course banquet to as many dozens of people as the spellcaster has levels of experience. There is a staff of near-transparent servants, liveried and obedient, to wait upon all who enter. The atmosphere is clean, fresh, and warm.
Since the place can be entered only through its special portal, outside conditions do not affect the mansion, nor do conditions inside it pass to the plane beyond. Rest and relaxation within the place is normal, but the food is not. It seems excellent and quite filling as long as one is within the place. Once outside, however, its effects disappear immediately, and if those resting have not eaten real food within a reasonable time span, ravenous hunger strikes. Failure to eat normal food immediately results in the onset of fatigue or starvation penalties as decided by the DM.
The material components of this spell are a miniature portal carved from ivory, a small piece of polished marble, and a tiny silver spoon. These are utterly destroyed when the spell is cast.
(It is worth mentioning that this spell has been used in conjunction with a normal portal, as well as with illusion magic. There is evidence that the design and interior of the space created can be altered to suit the caster's wishes.)
Now Aliah herself refers to this place as her traveling residence. To her this space is good only to bathe, refresh, get in a good night's sleep in. She does have a proper residence in the Citadel of Ice and Steel, but that makes a terrible meeting place for obvious reasons. I'm not even sure why I brought it up.
Anyway, first thing's first: I need to apologize for my...less than stellar behavior last session. This dissertation's made me more on edge than normal and I'm sorry you had to bear the brunt of that. I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Next, the reason for this post; Planescape stuffs:
I've essentially finished writing and rolling up encounters for the dragon campaign at this point. There's a few more things I need to clean up, but aside from that, it's essentially done. We're looking at a maximum of 5-6 sessions left on this, more likely less, but it all depends on how it plays out.
In between writing my dissertation, I've been scrounging around on the net to see if I could find a simplified good introduction to Sigil so you guys wouldn't have to wade through all the books. I managed to find this site, which was put together by a DM of a 3.5 game online. It's pretty comprehensive when it comes to the factions and it has a lot of admittedly inane info bits that give you a good sense of the setting. On top of that it's got some character bios up, so you've got those to skim if you wish. There's also a site which copied over the map of Sigil from...I think it's In the Cage: A Player's Guide to Sigil, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, there it is.
Now, one last thing, I've got a couple of race things to toss out there. First is the Modrons, which even if we don't have one in the party, you should probably be aware of if you're a Cager. The Modrons are little geometric clockwork creatures from Mechanus, the plane of ultimate law. They were stat-ed out in one of the web enhancements as a player race, and the ones you encounter in Sigil are rogue or malfunctioning ones that more often than not are adventurers or at least cater to their peculiar set of needs. Also, I wanted to add that if anyone decides to run a half-celestial or half-fiend, you're not limited to the type the Monster Manual lays out for you. It'll take a couple of minor tweaks (like dropping or adding wings) but it shouldn't be too difficult of a change, so this adds more options if you like the idea of a half celestial character, but not specifically the one they lay out in the Monster Manual.
That's it for me, I'll go back to working on my dissertation. *slinks off*
Anyway, something else for you guys to think about; if you're not from the planes, where are you from? This is more applicable to corruptbiggins and Alcoremortis at the moment since I know (mostly) where everyone else is coming from, but it's important for this setting. You're also not limited to Idrin, you can be from any of the established settings, or even another homebrew plane if you wish, just make sure to run things by me.
(I'd kind of recommend Bernie be from Krynn, where almost every Gnome is some kind of artificer/spellcaster/inventor or Eberron, where the same sort of thing goes on. However, it's entirely up to you.)
EDIT: For those of you playing any sort of outsider, here's some information on the minor problem of getting you revived if you drop dead.
Unlike most other living creatures, an outsider does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an outsider is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, revive outsider or true resurrection to restore it to life. An outsider with the native subtype can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be.
EDIT AGAIN: Just so everyone's aware, the time gap between the Dragon campaign and the Planescape one is about 18 years. Keep this in mind when making your backstory and all that.
Sucks to be him, doesn't it? He becomes what he hates most...
Two things, first, I found this thing that I wrote back when with Cairn that I planned on sharing after the big spoiler of the evil thing, but then never did. I will likely not continue it in any way since I'm lazy. ANYWAY!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TaMxFhSHQLKigkGQiQcYwvtI6npw8y_osodFJHluHwM/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CNiG0KUD
Also, it might be useful to compile a little website with all the DnD stuff collected on it. I dunno. Maybe just with the folder? I just gave away like a pint of blood so I'm not entirely here.
This thread, just got 5 times more awesome.
I also found a Doctor Who one, a Ghostbusters one, a Muppets one...and, the one that threatens to topple over the Futurama one's status of #1 chart...
A Big Lebowski one.
Linked it, because NSFW-ish.
http://www.dlnexus.com/lexicon/13444.aspx
Thanks! That was a nice summary. I don't quite know where Burnie fits into all of this, though. He's very...different, I think. For one thing, I think he talks at a normal speed.
Edit: Also, it looks like I will be rather late today, as I have a subgroup meeting at three that I'm not supposed to miss. Should only be an hour or so, but who really knows with these things?
I can't even stay behind because the house is being tented.
So yeah, if I find myself with internet at any point, I'll drop in and say hi, but it's not looking likely.
@Biggins: Awesome! We will finally have healing and all that goodness. Just don't kill all the necromancer's minions....they don't like the mass healing all that much...
Cleric, cool. At least you've got something worked out.
It is pretty fortunate, isn't it? In any case, if I find myself with internet and time, I'll try my best to drop in, though I probably won't say much if I do since I "technically" am supposed to be visiting with people I don't really know. We'll just have to wait and see.
No word yet on what's going to happen for the two weeks after tomorrow. I guess it depends on what projects my dad gets going while he's on vacation and where we're at with them. I may be able to wrangle Friday off, I may not. I'll keep you guys posted.
As for tonight, it sounds like it's just going to be Planescape prep, which is perfectly fine by me. Since we're getting through character plots in the Dragon game, though, I'd like you guys to start thinking about character specific things you'd like done in the Planescape game while you're hammering down these characters. It doesn't have to be too big right off the bat, I'd just like to incorporate a lot more character stuff at the beginning of the game to help everyone settle into character and get used to the setting before I pull out the big guns on you. :P
Awesome, Cleric's a fun class to play. Race-wise, you probably should favor elvish races since Corellon and the Seldarine favor elves (though given what Cairn did for the Drow of Idrin you could run a Drow cleric of Corellon if you wanted
All that said, I would advise staying away from most of the planar races though. With the exception of Angels, who serve a certain god; they're all exemplars, representatives of a certain ideal and alignment. The Guardinals represent absolute Good, the Modrons Law, the Slaad Chaos, etc. Since they represent that ideal, they'll rarely become a cleric of a specific deity, they'll choose to probably serve a pantheon or go the route of taking the Planar Touchstone feat and being a cleric of their particular plane.
Also, this talk of "big guns" is sort of scary. I think maybe I'll start getting a few backup characters ready...
Query: Are gestalt characters allowed in this game? Cause I was thinking of trying one out for a backup. Actually, I may build one anyway just for fun.
You don't worry have too much about the 'big guns' comment for a while. Things won't get heavy for a bit, there's over 12 early adventures that make first arc. One or two will probably get dropped in favor of character specific bits, but it's going to pretty standard adventures-in-Sigil stuff. After that, expect me to start being a little mean, but I promise I'll never be unfairly so. I've tried to write something drastically different than the Dragon campaign for the 2nd arc, so I'll be very interested to see how you guys react to it. Just...be aware it's more in my usual fiction style than any campaign I've written so far. Sen will know exactly what that means.
Gestalt Characters are totally fine, we've got two in the party already. Before you start building one though, definitely give the Unearthed Arcana a good look and if you have any questions wrangle Sen or I in to give you a hand.
Yeah, pretty much this. On Saturdays, I'm totally tied up by my best friend (whether I like it or not), and on Sundays, my dad owns me. I'm pretty flexible the rest of the week (except maybe for Tuesdays). I figure Friday works pretty well for us because it's probably best that we play the day before most people have a day off, especially with the time difference.
I was totally stumped on this for a second, then I realized exactly who it is I'm playing. This could be interesting.
Also Karis. Or did Kurt's character die first in that campaign? Either way, you have yet to have your starting character survive in a campaign with us.
That's sort of what I figured, but as people's schedule's shift we should probably keep this discussion in mind. Mine isn't going to probably until September (Minus that, after this coming Monday, I have 4 weeks of no IRL D&D so that evening opens up), when I'll be done with my dissertation and looking for a job, but we probably should have this discussion before that to deal with any new scheduling conflicts.
Oh god, this is going to be hilarious.
Kurt's fighter died first via fluke blinded Kraken flail critical. Karis, I think ended up with the more gruesome death since the Storm Giant's crit on her did x4 damage and brought her about 50 points below her max health at the time.
...I really should start taking bets to see when Kelder goes down.
Also I just realized all my initial characters for this group's campaigns have names that start with a 'K' how did that keep happening and I didn't notice it?
I've been looking through Unearthed Arcana in my free time, which is what gave me the idea, and so far, I've been thinking I might want to try for a swashbuckler/sorcerer gestalt, since the swashbuckler is a fighter type that doesn't really wear armor (a bit like the monk in that sense). In any case, I'll probably hold on to this character for a future campaign, because it sounds like it would be fun to play.
Also, I have some ideas for how I might handle the beginning of Tertia's story arc (that we talked about last week). I don't know if I should just keep that for myself until we play that part, or if you want to know about it. I also had a bit of an idea for when she might come back as an NPC as well that sort of ties into things from the present campaign.
Yeah, it's definitely something to keep in mind, in case the need to change days ever arises. I'm just saying I don't think it's arisen just yet. Fridays usually work out fine for me, just not today or for the next two weeks. Of course, none of the next 16 days are looking particularly good for free time, so it's not just Friday.
On a separate note, I've been thinking about the way I am on the Skype chats and I've realised that I'm behaving exactly as I would be if I was in a pub with my friends. I just tend to sit back and quietly drink while listening to the various conversations that go on around me, occasionally answering direct questions to me but rarely joining into a discussion voluntarily. What I'm trying to work out now if it that's a bad thing. But on the whole, I doubt it's that important.
Quite frankly, my personal opinion of Swashbuckler isn't very high, since you can get the same build with a DEX based fighter, which gives you a lot more options to play with (plus there are a couple of feats which pretty much eliminate Arcane Spell Failure with most armors, making you pretty fucking broken). This is just my personal opinion and if you want to run that gestalt go on ahead. It's best you give all the classes a try for yourself before going by my opinion.
The thing about Bernie is we can bring him back with none of the time constraints that Aliah and Kelder (being outsiders) have. Thus, if he drops in a fight, you don't have to fall on a backup character immediately if you don't want to. Besides, depending how we bring you back, it could be a very entertaining part exercise.
Go on ahead and shoot it to me via skype or a PM about that. I do like to kind of know what to expect when I'm trying to kick off an adventure, and I like to know whats going on with NPCs.
The continuity between these campaigns is going to be quite fun, as well as some of the other campaigns that are tied into things. It's certainly made the heavier stuff more interesting to write.
Right, so we'll just sort of keep to our usual schedule for the time being. Until work/school/whatever requires us to shift.
Sen and Guru have both been using Heroforge, which is an Excel setup and there's Spellforge for your cleric-y spells and stuff. I do it old school, personally, which just means I use actual dice (rolling 4d6 and take the best 3 for my base stats) and just build it from the ground up. I use Mythweaver's character sheets, so that they're up and online in case I need to shoot them to someone else (like the DM for the Saturday game). You have to join to get to use the character sheets yourself, but that takes like 4 seconds.
The Player's Handbook details building the base classes from the ground up the way I do it, if you decide to do it that way instead of using Heroforge. I don't use it on the grounds that Excel hates my lappy.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, I actually do the same thing when I'm out with friends. I'm weirdly much chattier on Skype than I am in real life, unless I'm watching a movie or playing D&D with a group of friends (or I've had too much to drink, but that's another issue all together). You've also been playing a rogue, so being quiet makes sense character-wise as well.