I made some additions in italics.
Setting
A world made from the bits of other worlds that got smashed together after all the gods had an epic battle and died leaving their bodies to form the framework for the remnants of the the mortal world and the 'faerie' realms to stick to.
This was a war between the gods of the mortal realm and the faerie realms. It was so destructive that it not only killed the gods, destroyed most of the faerie realms and large chunks of the mortal realm, but set off a chain reaction that threatened to destroy Everything. The First sealed the bodies and lands off from the rest of Everything leaving the World to form from the bits that were left and what condensed from the Sea of Chaos that is the divine essence of the old gods(their souls).
Premise
One of the gods is still slightly alive. Unlike the rest of the gods that had their souls destroyed by the Chaos that surrounds the world, this god only had most of his soul destroyed, the other half is locked outside the Sea of Chaos. This drove him mad, but with him being mostly dead and mindless, nothing has happened for a few millennia. However, as a god he has been waking enough that his spawn have awakened and are hunting to gather the largest and most powerful of his remains to resurrect him. Since the majority of his body has long since become part of the world this is a BAD thing. Since he has only part of his original soul AND is insane that is double BAD.
The PCs are also going to be gathering the bits of him that are needed to resurrect him, to prevent him from being resurrected.
AND I am stuck at roughly that point. I wanted to make the world weird enough that it justifies all these random holes in the ground with weird shit and magic, but at the same time to have more reason to go into the holes in the ground to get epic loot.
Interesting so far.
Except, of course, that I just got a too-vivid image of your adventurers spelunking in a dead god's arse...
Quote from: Luna on February 22, 2011, 09:11:19 PM
Interesting so far.
Except, of course, that I just got a too-vivid image of your adventurers spelunking in a dead god's arse...
Excellent.
cool concept - sounds like a cross between the God Isles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#God-isles) and Castlevania II.
Do the players know what the world's back story is? Or do they discover it during the game?
Right off the bat, the setting theme looks like "A whole can be formed from disparate shattered remains." -- you've got a complete (albeit confused) world which is composed of other worlds. So can they rebuild the god in a way which makes him sane?
I love the image of spelunking deep into the earth for treasure, but you're really excavating the remains of a huge dead deity. You could really do entire dungeons based on a single god concept. Like if they crawl around inside of fallen Pelor, the dungeon will have a lot of sun/fire themed stuff, maybe a puzzle involving light, and maybe they'll get to see a crystallized memory of how the deity died.
I like your setting concept, but I'm curious about how clerics would function. I suppose they could literally derive their powers from the earth itself.
Quote from: Unqualified on February 22, 2011, 09:22:06 PM
I like your setting concept, but I'm curious about how clerics would function. I suppose they could literally derive their powers from the earth itself.
If I were feeling particularly evil as a GM, I might require they ingest a portion of their particular deity's anatomy. (In short, mud... but they'd darn well better get the RIGHT mud...)
Quote from: Cramulus on February 22, 2011, 09:17:02 PM
cool concept - sounds like a cross between the God Isles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#God-isles) and Castlevania II.
Do the players know what the world's back story is? Or do they discover it during the game?
Right off the bat, the setting theme looks like "A whole can be formed from disparate shattered remains." -- you've got a complete (albeit confused) world which is composed of other worlds. So can they rebuild the god in a way which makes him sane?
I love the image of spelunking deep into the earth for treasure, but you're really excavating the remains of a huge dead deity. You could really do entire dungeons based on a single god concept. Like if they crawl around inside of fallen Pelor, the dungeon will have a lot of sun/fire themed stuff, maybe a puzzle involving light, and maybe they'll get to see a crystallized memory of how the deity died.
I am still debating how much the origin will be common knowledge.
I am not intending for the god to be put together. But having said that I just realized that the parts they are hunting would logically be artifact level items and therefore hard to destroy...but no putting him together because that would destroy large portions of the world and/or jack up the seasons as they are.
And yes the crypts and tunnels that contain his relics will be heavily based off his theme, which is the opposite of Pelor. God of Darkness and Insects (and now madness so creepy aberations)
Quote from: Unqualified on February 22, 2011, 09:22:06 PM
I like your setting concept, but I'm curious about how clerics would function. I suppose they could literally derive their powers from the earth itself.
There is a second tier of 'gods' that arose from mortals and other things who ascended into the power vacum. This means that clerics are actually weaker than previously, or in other words the clergy of the Old Gods were fucking badass pimps compared to the clerics of now.
Also, I am wanting to add in eventual madness from close proximity to the remains of an insane god. Delving into the bowels of the earth insearch of bits of a dead god + fighting crazy weird old god spawn thingies = crazy making time.
Additions made in italics
RACES
There are two broad groups of races. The mortal races and the 'faerie' races.
The mortal races being the original inhabitants of the world that now comprises the bulk of the current world.
Humans (Duh)
At one time the slaves to various things like gods and dragons, and a few places still are.
Orcs (ORCZ IZ BEST)
More mountain and cave dwelling woad painted savages
Giants(AU race)
I'll probably drop them from this campaign and stick to standard races, BUT they are seafarers and stoneworkers. Their arms and armours tend to be made from stone instead of metals. Don't ask it's magic (no special bonuses just cosmetic)
The faerie races are those from the other realms. At one point they were very much like old fairy tales. Immortal, hurt by iron really magical all that shit. No longer the case due to the majority of the World being originally the mortal realm.
Elves (Yay gay fairies)
You know the deal. You got the elves that are all gay and tree hugging nature hippies(which are the slow rise), the weird ones that still closer to the original concept of mound dwelling sidhe. And no fucking drow JUST FUCKING NO I MEAN IT. Tree huggers live in forests and the mound dwellers still live underground in faerie mounds that still posses enough of the faerie realms to be bigger inside than out, which might have forests inside them all that cool stuff. A lot of the older elves still use arms and armour made from shadow, sunlight, moonbeams and other otherworldly materials spun into a glass like material(like the giants and their stone weapons it's just cosmetic), some of the tree huggers are very 'organic' in their arms and armour making them from alchemically treated leaves and wood and giant bug carapaces.
Goblins (Three different flavors of cannibalistic former fairies sized for every occasion)
If there was such a thing as a dark elf in this world, the goblin races would be them. All goblins look like hideous elves, much like orcs look like bigger and nastier humans. There are three classes of goblins. Least, high and great goblins.
Least goblins are basically a walking mouth of jagged teeth that will eat anything that doesn't put up too much a fight. Long ago they made up the main body of the Faerie Lords' armies. Now a days they are mostly wild things that should be exterminated before they overrun and eat everything in a region.
High goblins look like an elf on steroids that was beaten with an ugly stick. These were, and in many elf-mounds still are, the back bones of the elf armies. But don't let the fact that they are 'more civilized' than lesser goblins fool you. They tend to enjoy torturing those who run afoul them, and will in many cases eat prisoners of war alive to extract information. These were originally the product of an elf and goblin doing the nasty. Don't ask me why, but elves are fucking dirty bitches.
Great goblins are just big mean and will accidentally your whole horse. If there is a large, organized band of lesser goblins in the wild there is a good chance that it ruled over by a great goblin
Dwarves(maybe)
They live underground, mine like badasses, drink stuff that might kill lesser beings like it was water and have righteous beards.
Magical powers
Due the massive destruction and high ambient levels of magic in the World there are a multitude of forms of magic that have arisen and/or spread.
Arcane magic: Straight up standard magic. Almost every culture and species with higher reasoning has developed this.
Divine magic: Granted from "new gods" that ascended into the power vacuum left by old gods.
Pact 'magic': Those dead gods that are dead? You can still reach them, or some kind of facsimile thereof, or a really creative liars, or Something from Out There. You draw funny shapes in the ground and gain special powers and get marked from what ever Thing you just made a pact with. Considered in many places to blasphemous in many civilized areas.
Incarnum: The Wellsprings of Life of the mortal and faerie realms got smacked up and broken. You get you bind bits of new souls to your chakras and make magical effects.
Shadow masteries: You get to play with shadows and do weird things. You are probably going to go mad. (probably going to be restriced to NPCs as the Dead Mad God was the God of Shadows)
Yowza. A setting with Incarnum and 2/3ds of the Tome of Magic in it? Talk about a hodge-podge of crazy shit, with no end of bizarre and unpredictable NPCs.
I had a Wizard who was gonna become a multiclassed Shadowcaster/Noctumancer, but then I never played with him again. :argh!:
Good call on leaving Truename magic out of it, though. At a glance, I thought it was stupidly overpowered, given that you could generate a magical effect as often and as easily as speaking.
Quote from: Cainad on February 23, 2011, 03:18:48 PM
Yowza. A setting with Incarnum and 2/3ds of the Tome of Magic in it? Talk about a hodge-podge of crazy shit, with no end of bizarre and unpredictable NPCs.
I had a Wizard who was gonna become a multiclassed Shadowcaster/Noctumancer, but then I never played with him again. :argh!:
Good call on leaving Truename magic out of it, though. At a glance, I thought it was stupidly overpowered, given that you could generate a magical effect as often and as easily as speaking.
exactly, but as far as leaving truename magic out, everything i read about it indicates i desn't scal properly(as in not at all) and i didn't like the idea of a skill based magic system plopped in 3.5.
If you want functional True Name magic, check Earthdawn. You need the Name of something (and physical proximity to a 'pattern item') in order to weave threads of mana between you and the target. These grant specific situational bonuses when interacting with the Target Pattern. (I you weave a thread from a Wizard's Tower to your Physical Defense, your would get the 'rank' of the thread as a bonus to Phys Def while you are IN or Defending the Tower/Grounds.)
I have now set down what the first Scion of Darkness my hapless PCs will end up facing. A huge monstrous centipede with the Divinely infused template from Monte Cook's Requiem for a God, so all it is an humongous evil bug with one attack per round and some minor poison. Oh and a group of goblins which worship it as the "Great Dragon"
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
Quote from: Telarus on February 25, 2011, 07:41:23 AM
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
No. No, giant centipedes are NOT fun.
NOT when you blow the concentration check with a critical 1 on a Summon Monster 1.
(It was summoned into my pance. Hilarity ensued... well, for everyone ELSE... I will NOT be summoning one of those little bastards again.)
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 10:58:43 AM
Quote from: Telarus on February 25, 2011, 07:41:23 AM
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
No. No, giant centipedes are NOT fun.
NOT when you blow the concentration check with a critical 1 on a Summon Monster 1.
(It was summoned into my pance. Hilarity ensued... well, for everyone ELSE... I will NOT be summoning one of those little bastards again.)
So a giant centipede that takes up a 15ft by 15ft square isn't happy fun times?
I had a sorcerer(the first character I played in 3rd ed) whose familiar was a monstrous centipede. :D
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 02:59:55 PM
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 10:58:43 AM
Quote from: Telarus on February 25, 2011, 07:41:23 AM
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
No. No, giant centipedes are NOT fun.
NOT when you blow the concentration check with a critical 1 on a Summon Monster 1.
(It was summoned into my pance. Hilarity ensued... well, for everyone ELSE... I will NOT be summoning one of those little bastards again.)
So a giant centipede that takes up a 15ft by 15ft square isn't happy fun times?
I had a sorcerer(the first character I played in 3rd ed) whose familiar was a monstrous centipede. :D
Was NOT happy fun time. Well, not for character, anyway.
Any time everybody around the table is laughing hard enough that play is disrupted is officially a good time.
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 07:21:49 PM
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Meh, toss in a couple of extra healing potions. End fights should make players pee in their pance.
(You did NOT hear me say that, Richter. That goes for everybody but you.)
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 10:58:43 AM
Quote from: Telarus on February 25, 2011, 07:41:23 AM
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
No. No, giant centipedes are NOT fun.
NOT when you blow the concentration check with a critical 1 on a Summon Monster 1.
(It was summoned into my pance. Hilarity ensued... well, for everyone ELSE... I will NOT be summoning one of those little bastards again.)
Is that a summoned monster in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
Quote from: Ratatosk on February 25, 2011, 07:30:58 PM
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 10:58:43 AM
Quote from: Telarus on February 25, 2011, 07:41:23 AM
Nice. Gian centipedes are fun.
No. No, giant centipedes are NOT fun.
NOT when you blow the concentration check with a critical 1 on a Summon Monster 1.
(It was summoned into my pance. Hilarity ensued... well, for everyone ELSE... I will NOT be summoning one of those little bastards again.)
Is that a summoned monster in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
Always happy to see ya, Ratatosk. ;)
One of the perks of having such a bushy squirrel tail. :-O
Or as the goblins that worship it call it....
The Great Dragon
Fiendish Giant Centipede, Huge CR 3
Total XP
800
NE Huge Vermin
Init +0; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Perception +4
DEFENSE
AC 15 Touch 8 Flatfooted 15 (-2 size, +7 natural)
HP: 29 (3d8+15)
Fort +8 Ref +1 Will +1
Immune mind affecting effects; Resist cold 5, fire 5; SR 8
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Melee: Bite +5 (1d8+5 plus poison)
Special Attacks poison, smite good
STATISTICS
Str 21, Dex 11, Con 20, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 2
Base Atk +2; CMB +9; CMD 19 (can't be tripped)
Skills: Climb +11, Perception +4, Stealth +8 Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +8 Stealth
ECOLOGY
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary or colony (2-5)
Treasure: null
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Poison (Ex): Bite-injury; save Fort DC 18; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Dex damage; cure 1 save.
Smite good (Su): 1/day as a swift action (adds CHA bonus (+0) to attack rolls and damage bonus equal to HD (+3) against good foes; smite persists until target is dead or the celestial/fiendish creature rests).
The "Great Dragon" rests in the central hall of an ancient temple, coiled around a pedestal, upon which is a multifaceted gem the same size as human head, which bears a disturbing similarity to the "Great Dragon's" eyes. The persistent twisted murmurings that have been heard since entering the disused temple intensify. It is a horribly twisted parody of the common garden centipede, strange growths adorn it's carapace, and dark fluids leak from glistening orifices.
Verrrrry nice.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on March 05, 2011, 01:58:26 AM
Verrrrry nice.
Thank you.
The fucker was a bitch, but I got to learn the PF way of advancing creatures, and then checking against this set of sexy tables to make sure it's not over- or underpowered. I had a false start stating this monster out. Starting from a medium sized centipede to a huge centipede ended up being stupid powerful for my intended CR, even though the tiny chart under Centipede, Giant said a 4d8 Huge centipede would be CR2.
I'm hoping to get my players believing it's a real dragon as they kill goblin fanatics screaming "THE GREAT DRAGON WILL DEVOUR ALL!!!"
Some quotes from the first session.
On golden fiddles
"That's the Devil, not the High Priest"
On why they are going on foot.
"I can't carry a horse in my backpack"
On smells
"Smell out of time"
On hiding clues ETA The clue is what the party believes is the severed foot of a little girl
"I put it in the horse"
On the High Priest
"The High Priest looks at you disapprovingly"
On race relations
From a half-orc to a human
"You are a foot ball"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52101269
campaign write-up thing.
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 07:21:49 PM
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Meh, toss in a couple of extra healing potions. End fights should make players pee in their pance.
(You did NOT hear me say that, Richter. That goes for everybody but you.)
I should have remarked on that earlier. The party completely ignored the potions. They got that paranoid in the dungeon.
Quote from: Canis latrans securis on May 19, 2011, 03:06:52 AM
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 07:21:49 PM
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Meh, toss in a couple of extra healing potions. End fights should make players pee in their pance.
(You did NOT hear me say that, Richter. That goes for everybody but you.)
I should have remarked on that earlier. The party completely ignored the potions. They got that paranoid in the dungeon.
Their own fault, then...
Quote from: Luna on May 19, 2011, 09:34:05 AM
Quote from: Canis latrans securis on May 19, 2011, 03:06:52 AM
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 07:21:49 PM
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Meh, toss in a couple of extra healing potions. End fights should make players pee in their pance.
(You did NOT hear me say that, Richter. That goes for everybody but you.)
I should have remarked on that earlier. The party completely ignored the potions. They got that paranoid in the dungeon.
Their own fault, then...
I didn't even have anything horribly evil jump out at them.
I guess having to search through goblin filth for clues and loot got to them.
Quote from: Canis latrans securis on May 19, 2011, 03:33:09 PM
Quote from: Luna on May 19, 2011, 09:34:05 AM
Quote from: Canis latrans securis on May 19, 2011, 03:06:52 AM
Quote from: Luna on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 25, 2011, 07:21:49 PM
I am a little concerend for how hard this monster bug will hit for (2d6+5) so I might end up reducing to a Large Monstrous Centipede with 5 hit dice instead of the Huge with 6 hit dice.
Meh, toss in a couple of extra healing potions. End fights should make players pee in their pance.
(You did NOT hear me say that, Richter. That goes for everybody but you.)
I should have remarked on that earlier. The party completely ignored the potions. They got that paranoid in the dungeon.
Their own fault, then...
I didn't even have anything horribly evil jump out at them.
I guess having to search through goblin filth for clues and loot got to them.
Wait,they got to deal with filth at their OWN pace?
We've had kobolds flinging their own shit at us for weeks. :x