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Author Topic: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death  (Read 86424 times)

Grek

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D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« on: October 22, 2013, 01:36:58 am »

Game thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132580.0
Lore Post: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132330.msg4713960#msg4713960

With the end of the Sahuagin Wars has come the start of a new Age of Sail. Exploration is at a fever's pitch, with new lands are being discovered constantly, and you, brave explorers one and all, have come to the newest and least explored of them all: The Yianmarese Jungle. Situated at the heart of the far western continent of Yianmar is a vast and unexplored wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see before dipping beneath the horizon. The only natural port in the region lies upon the River of Death, a malarial, piranha-filled serpent that winds its way down from the western mountains out to sea. At the mouth of that dread river lies a tiny enclave, Rivertown, that bares the honor of being the first and only speck of civilization in this otherwise untamed land. There is where you will find your fame, your fortune, your destiny and your doom.

Character Guidelines
RP Considerations:
-Your character has recently arrived in Yianmar. How and why they got here is up to you, but they have to be fresh off the boat. For plot reasons, you cannot play a native.
-This campaign is focused on exploration. The rewards and XP are handed out for exploring, and characters who can't or won't explore should not be used in this campaign.
-This campaign is not very strongly focused on alignment, morality or religion. As such, your cleric can worship anything he or she pleases, I will not be paying much attention to whether your paladin is breaking his code of conduct and if you have to be a certain alignment to enter into a prestige class, I will waive that requirement if you come up with a good RP reason why.
-This campaign involves sailing up the River of Death in a canoe fairly often. A limited number of people fit in a single canoe. Furthermore, there are not per person rewards for missions, only a per mission reward to be split however many ways. Characters are allowed and encouraged to split into different groups and go different ways. Due to the format (see below) this is way less of an issue than doing the same thing in person.

Mechanics Considerations:
-Characters start at Level 3 and have 2700 gold to buy equipment. In other words, standard WBL
-"Books" allowed are: the 3.5 SRD (as seen here and mirrored here) and anything available online, subject to GM Veto. This is so that people who own (or pirate) every sourcebook ever don't have an unfair advantage. Exceptions are possible, but don't be sad if I say no.
-The following feats are banned: Natural Spell, Leadership. You may recruit hirelings for money, but you cannot have a cohort.
-As mentioned above, XP and money are handed out primarily for exploring. Finding treasure, mapping out regions and completing quests are what get you XP, not killing monsters. That's not to say that you can't get money for killing monsters, but it would because there's a bounty or because the monster has valuable hides, not because it spews treasure out when it dies.
-You are required to post or link a character sheet and keep it up to date.

Format Considerations:
-This is a Play By Post game. If you expect to have internet troubles for a week, tell us. If you don't post actions, and don't have a Marching Order specified (see below) your character will not do anything until you get back. If you don't post that you're going on a given trip, your character isn't going.
-I strongly recommend require that all players submit a "marching order" for their character when they go on an adventure. This is their standard operating procedure on an adventure and must have the following information in it: Which canoe the character will be in (two medium sized creatures per canoe, plus either one large, two more medium or three small between them), where the character sits in that canoe (bow, stern, left, right or middle), where the character stands when walking down a corridor (front, middle, last, second to last, behind X, etc.), and the first three turns worth of actions the character takes if they suddenly find themselves in combat. You can revise this at any time, but if you don't send me one, you do not go on adventures. This is done so we don't take two weeks to go through a single combat round waiting for people to post one after the other.
-Although an ultra-basic "Shoot it with my crossbow repeatedly." is fine if that's what you really want to do, you are encouraged to have conditionals in the combat section of your marching order. Saying something like, "Turn undead if they look undead, Charm Animal if they're animals, stab them with my sword otherwise." is a perfectly reasonable answer, if a bit short. More than a thousand words is probably too much, though.
-A valid marching order for combats is "Let the GM pick something non-stupid." If you choose this option, I can promise I will do my best to have your character behave intelligently, but I cannot promise that I will make the 'best' choice. I'm only human.
-If want to deviate from your combat SOP for whatever reason, you have 24 hours from when I post the "You get attacked by <X>!" turn and when I post the first round of combat to tell me what to do differently. Likewise, you'll have 24 hours from the 1st turn to the 2nd turn, from the 2nd to the 3rd and so on and so fourth.

If you have questions, post them!
« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 01:39:53 am by Grek »
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Grek

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2013, 01:37:24 am »

Character List:
People with approved character sheets:
Eli the Ranger, played by Dwarmin
Holdron the Oldbarian, played by Nerjin
Orgarr the Mule, played by Remuthra
Steffan the Bard, played by lawastooshort
Ashii-Karn the Druid, played by GiglameshDespair
Maru the Wizard Cat, played by maniac
Ashura, the Wu Jen, played by Kansa
Kalnaf, the Bardshall, played by TealNinja
Morazin the Dragonfire Adept, played by tyrar
Vray the Fey Bard, played by Harbingerjm
Rohan the Cleric, played by Zako
Lady Bethany, played by Weirdsound
« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 12:44:24 am by Grek »
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Grek

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2013, 01:37:41 am »

Mission List:
Missions:
1. The Temple of the River Lord is hoping to secure the blessing of the River Lord by anointing the River of Death in His name. This apparently involves having a priest go to the fork in the river and pour lots and lots of holy water in. Requirements: You have to sail up river with a priest and his 50 gallon keg of holy water until you find a fork in the river which has yet to be blessed. Once there, you must spend three days on site protecting the priest while he blesses the river. Reward: 1000 gold and maybe that stretch of the river stops being so horrible.
2. One of the earlier expeditions has not come back. The Royal Navigator's Guild wants them returned or, in case the worst has happened, confirmed to be dead. Requirements: Locate the Lost Expedition and return any survivors to Rivertown. Reward: 500 gold per survivor, 100 per buriable corpse, 1000 for finding out what happened at all.
3. The Militia Commander has received reports of strange, unnaturally intelligent animals abducting woodsmen near the village. He wants these attacks stopped as soon as possible. Requirements: Find out what is causing the attacks and make it stop. Reward: 5000 for making all of the attacks stop, plus 10 per pelt.
4. If all else fails, there's that mountain way off in the distance. Bound to be something interesting up there, right? Requirements: Go to the giant black mountain billowing smoke. Look around. Reward: ?

Standing Bounties:

1. The local Druid Circle is interested in seeing the local wildlife. Bringing unique live specimens safely back to Rivertown will result in substantial rewards. (25gp per HD squared for live animals, 10gp each for live plants; reward doubles if you find a mating pair.)
2. The Royal Navigator's Guild has a standing bounty for maps and travel journals by adventurers exploring the wilderness. 100gp per journal or significant map update. (This means writing an in character journal post or drawing in accurate info on the map in the second post.)
3. The Militia Commander is concerned about natives destroying Fort Deathriver, and wants volunteers to go out and prevent that from happening. For every native tribe that is pacified or signs a peace treaty with the fort, there will be a reward of 5000 gold.

Ruins/Caves/Structures:
None discovered!
« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 12:44:09 am by Grek »
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Weirdsound

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2013, 01:54:14 am »

*Might* get involved with this if I have time to make a character over the next few days. I've never touched 3.5 before, but I've dabbled in Pathfinder, which I understand to be more or less the same thing, so I shouldn't be totally lost.

Marching order system is perfect for me. My schedule is just plain unpredictable at the moment.
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mainiac

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2013, 02:32:21 am »

The marching order thing sounds like a good way to solve the PBEM slowness problem.  I'll come up with a character idea.
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Harbingerjm

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2013, 02:42:45 am »

Time to go build a character.
>Insert manic laughter here.

Can we get more info on basic character build allowed?
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Grek

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2013, 03:01:12 am »

The balance point you should be aiming for is somewhere in the region of "Spike Chain Fighter", "Rogue who gets all his sneak attacks" or "Wizard who knows Summon Monster". It's a game intended mostly for new players, so don't go crazy with "uses the planet as a throwing weapon" type shenanigans, but don't go out of your way to make character design bad choices either.
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Harbingerjm

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2013, 03:09:58 am »

I was thinking more point-buy/roll, LA buy off, etc.
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Grek

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2013, 03:23:45 am »

Point buy with 36 points, max HP for the first level, average rounded up for subsequent levels.

LA races are a tricky question, because the LA for most races is either too high or too low. They will be approved/denied/adjusted on a case by case basis. LA buy off is in for anything that is approved. You also have the option of asking me to stat up a LA 0 version of whatever you wanted to play.
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lawastooshort

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2013, 03:43:15 am »

This looks very interesting and I would like to see if I get the time to make a character.

Did I miss where you say how many people can join, or is it not there?
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Grek

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2013, 03:45:11 am »

I am willing to accept up to eight players.
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Dwarmin

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2013, 05:28:36 am »

Humm, looks interesting.

Really wish I had thought of marching order...

Progging out my sheet now.

Also, progging is my new favorite word.
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2013, 06:17:54 am »

Right. I'd like to play, but I don't really know about making a char sheet.
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Dwarmin

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2013, 06:57:47 am »

Question-this is an exploration game. Are we going to be tracking food/water/ammo/weight limits etc?

Edit: Also, might as well call RANGER.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=446464
« Last Edit: October 22, 2013, 07:19:14 am by Dwarmin »
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Nerjin

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Re: D&D 3.5 PbP: River of Death
« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2013, 07:38:49 am »

Well I'm going to try making a Barbarian or what-have you. I hope I'm doing this right... I'll edit this post with the sheet in a moment.
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