Skylord's Tears: A campaign

[Fuzzy_logic]

This thread is the thread where I throw all my ideas related to a PnP Tome game I'm running in January. The players have mostly played D&D before but are unfamiliar with the Tomes.

Some basic notes:

The earth is overrun by hordes of the undead. Nobody civilized lives there except the dwarves, who are just too stubborn to leave.

Fortunately, the sky is full of floating islands, where most people live. The primary means of travel is giant flying ships that go from island to island.

[the_taken]

Pirates of Cumulonimbus!!!

[Fuzzy_logic]

On Classes:

This is a tome game. I am definitely using the PHB casters, rogues, the Races of War characters, the outsider classes, and assassins and summoners.

For the other classes it remains to be seen. Some, like Jester, are awesome in concept, but may not quite fit thematically. I'm also sturggling with how many of Trollman's miscellaneous caster classes -- the energy mages, elementalists, bards, etc. -- to include. I don't want to bewilder the players with options. Plus, I would like to try to give each caster class a distinct place in the world.

On Backgrounds:

I like Frank's background mechanic. I haven't decided whether to write a bunch of backgrounds as a tool for enflavouring the world or just create a custom background for each plyer.

On economics:

Book of Gears-style items, for the most part. Magic, gold and turnip economies. RoW armor. More on this later

[Fuzzy_logic]

Culture Spotlight: Elves

The old kingdom was really, really groovy

The internets ate my last post on elves, so here's the summary.

Elves aren't arcanists stereotypically, they're druids. They invented druidism. The next most popular class is rogue

They used to rule an entire floating continent, but they finally pissed of the wrong people with their pompous arrogance, and somebody blew it up. Now they have whiny arrogance.

They live on the tiny fragments. You can bump into a colony of elves just floating around almost anywhere you go. Each island's elves look different cause of magical radiation, but other than that they're pretty similar. The swords remind them of their lost glory, the archery is for hunting. They tie strings to their arrows and harpoon passing birds.

They have basically two contributions to ST society: finely made handicrafts, and adventurers. The adventurers may have been sent by the druid's council to find a way to rebuild the lost continent, or they may have fled to escape the incessant emo-ness.

Other than that, they don't bother anyone else, and no one in their right mind bothers them.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Culture Spotlight: Halflings

You have displeased the Legion

Halflings. They're small. This means one island can sustain a lot of them. They have great teamwork. They work hard and never say die.

Halflings are the dominant power of this setting. A long time ago, they were more or less like D&D halflings: farmers ruled by toher peoples and traveling merchants. At some point the merchant class turned into hardcore spartan-style warriors and they liberated thier brethren. Now halflings own the central, most fertile islands in Skylord's Tears (the cluster our game is set in) and they push their borders a little further all the time. Generally, they wait for a nearby island's inhabitants to be killed by team evil, then they kick out team evil and annex the island, even going so far as to magically relocate it to within their territory.

Although adventuring rogues are common, halflings are just as likely to be fighters or Samurai. Their leaders are knights with bitchin' horsehair-crested legionnaire helmets and pegasi.

Of course, we all know armies of little men aren't enough to build a D&D empire, so it would be disingenuous not to mention the real cause of the halflings' success: the gnomes.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Class Spotlight: Wizards

The robes are bitchin'. If only they didn't scream "eat me first!"

Arcane magic started with one race. And it wasn't elves. It was dragons, who naturally possess the ability to shape the world as they fit. Most races who observed thought either "that's terrifying" or "that's a mystery we will never comprehend"

The gnomes thought, "that's shiny " Eventually, one of them figured out that by using the names of dragons they could do it too. Through using the names of dragons and certain symbolic gestures, they could steal the dragons' power for themselves.

This didn't actually hurt the dragons, but it didn't piss them off. They decided to kill all the gnomes. The gnomes, desperate for survival, split into two factions.

Most gnomes sought asylum among the halflings. The halflings had fortifications that could sometimes deter dragons, and they had armies of little men. Plus, in a population that big, there were bound to be a few talented youths. So the gnomes settled in and founded a jedi-style LG order of wizards. Other races can join the order too, and indeed almost half of the world's wizards have done so.

The other gnomes went and hid on the ground, where even dragons won't go. They're small and unobtrusive enough not to attract much attention to their hidden necromantic schools. necromancy gives them power over the hordes of undead, and illusions are great for messing with the mindless.

To this day, wizards are still not very popular with dragons. How unpopular? It depends. All dragons are alignment: any; there's no colour-coding there. The distinction is political. Chromatic dragons kill wizards on sight, while Metallics simply treat them with extreme suspicion.

[the_taken]

What about crystal dragons?

[Fuzzy_logic]

Item Spotlight: Weapons

This section is currently incomplete, but I do have a question: Why do magic weapons take up one of our 8 item slots? Considering that fighting characters need a weapon and casters have no use for one, it seems like blatant favoritism to wizard,s not to mention screwing TWF *again.*

[Fuzzy_logic]

I don't have access to a 3.x crystal dragon write-up, nor a compelling motivation to introduce them.

[Fuzzy_logic]

World Spotlight: Planes

This plane flies from limbo to hell, stopping over in heaven, hades, and the city of brass

This cosmology has a handful of othe rplanes that work like D&D planes. The Ethereal is one. There may be others, but that's a subject for another time. However, the outer planes and inner planes as we know them do not exist.

Instead, there are "planar cores." These are giant balls of energy that exert an influence on everything around them. Any island bathed in their radiance gains a set of planar traits.

What this means is that Hell is a real place you could conceivably fly to. It consist of a set of islands with really unpleasant climates and evil sand. The sand is evil because of all the evil radiation from the evil star. They are inhabited mainly by devils and toher evil outsiders who are formed directly out of the evil star's malign energy.

Apart from putting the planes in a spacial relationship, this doesn't actually change any game rules. Plane shift teleport you to the island of your choice in another plane. Teleport sends you anywhere you want on the same plane. Things that don't work across planar boundaries don't work across planar boundaries.

What this mostly means is that airships, wings, and in some cases overland flight could conceivably be used for planar travel.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Class Spotlight: Clerics

Gabriel is a pretty groovy dude. He taught me how to light you on fire with my mind.

D&D polytheism is dumb. Plus, not many players can do religion convincingly. Clerics are still integral to D&D.

So here's the deal. Divine magic is learned skill like any other. It's not granted to you by any other being. Clerics are experts on planar magic-- just a glance at their spell list will confirm this.

Therefore, Clerics draw their power not from gods, but from the planar cores themselves. Their domains represent the specific cores they've learned ot draw on and/or the tradition under which they studied.

The majority of civilized clerics learned magic from an angel, or a mortal follower of an angel. They pick domains from a list associated with their angel and treat him in all ways as their patron deity.

In any event, clerics are partners with another living being, not servants of an ineffable force, though nothing prevents them from also being religious.

[Fuzzy_logic]

World Spotlight: Alignment

Alignment comes from the planar cores. Individual planes may have alignment traits, but every region contains trace levels of all four alignment particles.

These particles are attracted to certain types of people and actions. If you consistently murder, cheat, and steal, evil particles accumulate in your body. Eventually, they become so concetrated that they register on evil detectors, and you can be repelled by things which repel them. These evil particles also make you capable of safely handling unholy swords, but vulnerable to holy ones.

However, while doing moral or immoral deeds attracts the particles, the particles themselves have no morality. So if you're a Tiefling, for example, your body is so full of evil particles form birth that no matter what you do, you'll always show up on evil detectors.

Mindless undead aren't moral agents, but they *are* full of evil particles, a by-product of the process which creates them.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Creature Spotlight: Outsiders

"Returne from whence ye came, foul beast!"
"... Actually, I live just over there."

Outsiders play a huge part in this campaign, always meddling with something or other. The lack of gods and easier accessibility of other planes helps.

The deal with outsiders is this: They're spontaneously formed out of the planar cores, and when they die they're returned to the core, thus unrevivable. They can't live without the energy of the planar cores, so they can't leave thier home planes. Unless, of course, a magical effect allows them to.

Native outsiders, like Aasimars, Tieflings, and Genasi, are mortal beings somehow infused with planar energy. This lets them level up in outsider classes and screws with thier alignments, but they're still mortals and thus can be brought back to life.

Summoned monsters are constructed from blueprints out of unstable planar energy, and quickly disintegrate.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Creature Spotlight: Dragons

Dragons basically fulfill many of the roles of gods. They've been around for a really long time, and they played a major part of creating the world. Specifically, the planar cores. As a result of this, they can do all kinds fo world-altering enchantments.

Fortunately these days they mostly live in remote islands around the edge of the skygod's tears, where they fight each other, manipulate sorcerers, and plot the destruction of the wizard order. Under no circumstances will they go down to the ground.

One other detail worth noting: every airship engine contains a dragonscale at its heart. This is an easy way to make something fly, but it has a downside. It's dragon magic, and dragons control it.

This means you can't fly through a dragon's territory without that dragon's explicit permission.

[Catharz]

1196372488[/unixtime]]Item Spotlight: Weapons

This section is currently incomplete, but I do have a question: Why do magic weapons take up one of our 8 item slots? Considering that fighting characters need a weapon and casters have no use for one, it seems like blatant favoritism to wizard,s not to mention screwing TWF *again.*

Wielded weapons don't count against the limit: it's for what you can wear, not what you can hold

[Fuzzy_logic]

Culture Spotlight: Raptorans

Raptorans are the bird-men from Races of the Wild. There aren't many of them left. They're a dying breed. They just don't breed very quickly and they don't build towns, so their culture is more or less disqualified from ever mattering.

But they used to be important.

Before the advent of wizard and airships, being winged was totally sweet. They had magic long before the gnomes did, fueled by the Plane of Air itself. They had magic pendants which cast remove fatigue and endure elements and thus were the only race routinely capable of getting from island to island.

Then one day they met a fleeing gnome, one of the earliest wizards, and took him in exchagne for a handful of draonscales. They invented the airships, and their society became prosperous and wealthy overnight. Soon, however, other societies got hold of the technology. Most notably, the humans.

These days they're still friendly to gnomes, tense with humans, and neutral to everyone else. Most of them are quietly fading into obscurity, while a few crusade to win glory for their people or their genie masters.

Class: Stormrider
Requirements: Must be Raptoran, must worship the Skylord.

BAB 1/1 Saves: Ref HD: d8
Skills: 2/level (spot, spellcraft, concentration, handle animal, ride, jump, speak language, sense motive)
1 Walk the Winds, Gust of Winds
2 Sky's Wrath, Air Magic
3 Quickened Gust of Winds , Skylord's Chariot
4 Sky's Tears
5 That's My Ride

Walk the Winds: (Su) You count as 5 levels higher for purposes of your natural flight ability. If you're already level 10, you gain flyby attack and your maneuverability improves one class

Air Magic: You can activate items with the [air] [electric] or [sonic] descriptors and items which are part of airships. You can also create airships and airship components, and you get a little airship for free.

Gust of Wind: (sp) all spell-likes DC 10 +1/2characterlevel +CHA, at will.

Wind Wall: (sp)

Skylord's Chariot: (sp) plane shift yourself and friends to the plane of air.

Sky's Wrath: (Sp) 1d6 per level electric, ray, close range.

Quickened Gust of Wind: (sp)

Sky's Tears: (sp) 1d6 per level electric, 20-foot spread, medium range

That's my Ride: (sp) With a command word, you can send any airship you legally own to the plane of air or call it back. You will be alerted if anyone not on the passenger manifesto touches it.

I feel like this class might need a little more...

[Fuzzy_logic]

From "Unsorted Material"


"A constant item must be worn/used and working properly for it to count against the Eight Item limit, and activation items can only be used one at a time. For example, Tommy of the Twelve Magic Daggers can wear a constant effect magic armor, a constant effect magic cloak, and five constant effect magic rings and still throw/activate his daggers one at a time in a round (assuming he can throw more than one each round), but if he tried to use two at a time with Two-Weapon Fight (for example: to benefit from qualities like Defending), then one of those daggers is not working and is basically a non-magical dagger. Some situations may arise where it is difficult to decide if a character is exceeding his limit; and in those cases, use your best judgment (meaning that if you are a DM, be consistent). For example, Tommy might be holding a magic longsword by the blade in his hand, so it's not "active" since he can't take AoOs with it and get its bonus and its not providing him with any Constant benefit."

[Fuzzy_logic]

On Feats:

Here are some of the feats I'm planning to create --

Skill feats. This is the most important one. I like a lot of the ones already posted, but want to try to make some feats which affect two skills. Not sure exactly how to make this work

New Outsider feats and spheres -- for genies and angls

Some feats designed to give supernatural abilities to members of any class

A feat or two related to airships

Some item-related feats

Gadgeteer -- [Skill] (UMD)
Benefit: items you hold don't count against your item limit
UMD 4 -- you may take 10 on UMD
UMD 9 -- you may have 9 constant items
UMD 14 -- You may have your CHA modifier in active magic items that operate independently (figurines of wondrous power, apparati of kwalish, flying carpets)
UMD 19 -- You may deactivate one item and activate another as a move action

[MagnaSecuris]

The wizard can be equally affected by this if you say that his spellbook is a magic item that he must be attuned to to cast a spell he prepared from it. The problem comes not from the weapon, but from the armor. A character, such as a wizard (or rogue), who does not need to wear magic armor is at an advantage over a fighter or knight, who does.

[Fuzzy_logic]

World Spotlight: Religion

The existence of any god or gods is not empirically verifiable. Many inhabitants of the region known as Skylord's Tears believe that the multiverse, or at least the part they live in, was created by a god named the Jisora, the Skylord.

The Raptorans claim to serve him. This may or may not be true. They do definitely have mysterious air magic and an alliance wiht the great djinn lords.

Most citizens of Halflings lands ofer their prayers to the Host (of angels). These angels are frequently the patrons of clerics. The following are the most idely honored:

Michael-- LG -- Fire, Law, Good, Protection
Angel of protection and judgement

Gabriel NG -- Air, Travel, Good, Plant
Angel of rulership and wisdom

Raphael CG -- Healing, Water, Good, Chaos
Angel of healing, mercy, and forgiveness

Azazel LN -- Magic, Knowledge, Law, War
Angel of the intellect

Azriel N -- Death, Protection, Sun, Luck
Angel of death

Kiiriel CN -- Earth, Animal, Trickery, Chaos
Angel of passion

Ben-Shachar NE -- Strength, Trickery, Evil, Good * (yes, really)
Angel of extremism

Ariel CE -- Strength, Chaos, Evil, War
Angel of vengeance

Uriel LE -- Destruction, Law, Evil, Death
Angel of retribution

There is no requirement to match alignment with your patron. You must have the appropriate alignment to take an alignment domain UNLESS you follow Ben-Shachar.

Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Azriel, and Uriel get along and consider themselves the orthodoxy.

Azazel, Kiirael, Ben-Shachar, and Ariel are "rebels." Nobody likes Ariel except Ben-Shachar. Nobody trusts Ben-Shachar except Kiiriel, who loves him. None of the orthodoxy trust any of the rebels excpet Kiiriel.

The interrelationships are more complex than that, and there are more angels, but this will do for now.

[Fuzzy_logic]

Culture Spotlight: Humans (part one)

Upon my body... the ghouls may feast. But if you love Mi-kha-il, recover my knife.

Human originated on a group of sandy desert islands just on the edge of the Skylord's tears. They wear a lot of white and are required by their religion to carry daggers. (Weirdly, at the time I came up with this, I'd never heard of sikhs. I was trying to find a reason for the Daggerspell classes from CAdv)

Anyway, they all carry knives -- warriors, lots of knives. Each knife can be given on a particular occasion and inscribed with memntos and honors. But each man and woman has a personal knife which is mor ethan theirs. It's them. These Humans don't bury their dead -- they bury their dead's knives.

They do of course have lots of other weapons, but adventurers out to make names for themselves usually use knives. Thus, they tend to be TWF rogues, assasins, wizards (who will have special spells or classes that exploit them) or fighters/barbarians (who will have a PrC)

Other than that, their biggest contribution to ST (skylord's tears) society is described in humans part two.

Culture Spotlight: Humans (Part two)

Eventually, some raptorans came calling and, through a complicated chain of events the details of which are uncertain to this day, humans acquired airship technology.

Humans live short lives, and breed relatively quickly. They have more curiosity, desire for excitement, and willingness to leave home than any other race. Once the sneaky bastards reverse-engineered the raptoran ships, they might easily have spread like a plague of locusts over the cluster. That didn't quite happen. Instead, the crystals got confiscated by the priest class. Who were already unpopular. When the rest of the populace came to kick down the temple and steal the crystals back, the priests whipped up a few more crystals and launched thier entire temple into space Amazingly, this worked.

Generations later, there are about a dozen enormous jet-propelled temples, the largest ships in the sky. They also have the biggest fleet of ships of any race despite on of the smallest populations.

They fly around everywhere. They show up and leave unpredictably, buy and sell everything, and probably steal a bit too. Nobody really likes them, but they're many people's only contact to broader society. They have a bizarre and eclectic sense of fashion.

They're ruled, however, by wise and enigmatic mystics whose philosophy is half zen, half shinto, and half distilled awesome.

They tend to be monks and elementalists, but can really be anything. Also, since they'll let anybody hitchhike, they're an excellent plot device and facilitator of PC backgrounds.

[Catharz]

1196391697[/unixtime]]From "Unsorted Material"...but if he tried to use two at a time with Two-Weapon Fight (for example: to benefit from qualities like Defending), then one of those daggers is not working and is basically a non-magical dagger.

Well shit...

[Fuzzy_logic]

Class Spotlight: Sorcerer

This fluff goes with potentially out of date crunch, but I'll fix that later.

Sorcerers don't make sense. Verbal componenets don't make sense. Where did he learn these words? How are they the same as the ones a wizard uses. Same goes for somatic components. And material components? How, if he's working magic through intuition and force of will, does it occur to him to get some bat guano?

So here's the deal: Sorcerers are people with wizardry pre-progammed in their heads.

One day, while dragons were fighting the halfling legion, a party of orcs came to the wizard order's great library and stabbed all the librarians in the face. They were going to set fire to the books when the last archmage cast a spell which sucked all the words out of the books and sprayed them all over the place.

Sorcerers are the descendants of those affected. They have words in thier heads.

It's a tough life. The spells are like half of a catchy song in your head. It gives them wanderlust. The further they travel, the more places the go, the more bars they can remember...

Eventually, they meet a dragon. Sometimes they get mistaken for wizards. Then they get eaten. More often, the Dragon offers them a deal. The sorcerers get power and knowledge and draconic features which allow them to travel afely in dragon land. In return, they plot the destruction of the wizard order.

Oh, and since the orc horde was at ground zero, there are *lots* of orc sorcerers. And the Dragons have most of them.

[the_taken]

Now that is cool. I'd like to play in this campaign setting.

[Fuzzy_logic]

I'm glad someone is getting a kick out of it.

Were you referring specifically to the sorcerers, or something else?