Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 herecgunina Oct 01, 2004 7:54:50	I'm launching a new Planescape campaign! It's going to start in a couple weeks, and I'm going to be running it over AIM for the group that I used to play with in high school (we all went on to our separate colleges this year: I'll have a player from the University of Connecticut, one from Boston University, a couple from Eastern Connecticut State University, and maybe one from California, while I run it out of Brown University here in Rhode Island. Fun!) Most of these people I more or less introduced to the game. We had an ongoing campaign for a few years whose premise was that each PC had the blood of some godlike being in them, which gave them special powers. However, it also attracted the attention of a mad halfling archmage who wanted to collect them for use in a ritual. the game got a little monty-haulish towards the end, and was FAR away from the games I usually play, but it was fun. And now I'm going to run PS with them! :D We had tried to do this once before, but there were a few very difficult players, and it just didn't last. Anyway, I gotta run to class now, but for now, please just leave little ideas for adventure hooks. I'll be back this afternoon to describe PCs and my ideas thus far for your commentary.
#2 herecgunina Oct 01, 2004 10:10:21	Alright, here's what I have. 1. The party is starting at level 3, to allow folks who want to play unusual races the opportunity. I created a Racial Exemplar template and a couple others in an effort to make everybody start at level 1 with an ECL modifier of +2 (if I'm using these terms incorrectly, I apologize, but I never really bothered to learn them). 2. The setting is pre-Faction War. I personally find FW to a well-written adventure, particularly in the way that the themes of PS are represented. However, I really like the kreigstanz of the factions, so I'm setting this one before the War. (I may well run a modified version of the adventure later in the campaign, however.) 3. I'm using mostly 3.0 rules, with 3.5 psionics (noteworthy only because one of my players is playing a psion). 4. The projected run of the campaign is levels 1-30 over the course of two years, having gaming sessions once or twice a week lasting about 4-5 hours each, longer in the summer and winter breaks when we're at home and can do it in person. I know the Epic Level Handbook can be subject to a lot of abuse, but I think it works fine even as late as level 40. Ultimately, I plan to break the campaign up into three major 'chapters': 1-10, 11-20, 21-30. Within each chapter, I plan to include three main 'campaign arcs', including one that will run continuously all the way through. (I like the Rule of Threes, what can I say). The first 'chapter' will have them being typical low-level characters (and also serve to introduce the players to a planar campaign), the second one will have them starting to 'play with the big boys', so to speak, and the last will have them having a chance to really make a significant difference on the future of the Multiverse. (No Lady-killing, though, I can tell you that right now. ;)) If it becomes apparent while I plan that I can't do the campaign justice in the 20-30 stage, or that it won't last as long as I'd hoped, I'll reorganize. 5. PCs! 1. Lawful Neutral Elven Wizard: This is the 'token Prime', I suppose you could say, of the party. She comes from the world of Krynn (largely because her player is a fan of the Dragonlance novels. Never were my cup of tea, but oh well), which should be interesting because as I recall, the folks of Krynn were just about the most closed-minded of all Clueless. 2. Neutral Good Genasi (can't remember which type at the moment) Mystic (spontaneous divine spellcaster: the player showed it to me from some 3rd party book or something, and it seemed alright.) The interesting thing is that he's a member of the Athar. I always thought the "Great Unknown Divinity" concept of the Athar was a really interesting duality for them. On the one hand they're atheistic, but on the other hand, they could be the start of a monotheism movement on the Planes. 3. Chaotic Good Chaos-Spawn Rogue: Chaos-Spawn are a race that I invented in opposition to the Rogue Modrons. (the actual name of the race I forget, but I'll check my notes. I know it includes the Xao- prefix that many chaotic things do on the planes.) They are a very rare breed of beings that are created entirely from the chaos-soup of Limbo. The logic is that in an infinite plane without any defined rules, anything could theoretically happen, including the occasional spontaneous creation of a mortal lifeform. (I'm still struggling with how to justify the fact that a life-form represents a certain amount of order, but I like the concept so I'll find away.) Anyway, this particular character is in favor of the creative side of Chaos (appropriate, since Chaos's creativity is directly responsible for his existence.) He's a Xaositect, and he was involved in the Painter's gang that did the Gymnasium mural a few weeks ago. 4. Neutral Human Psion: A member of the Society of Sensation, this character suffers from total amnesia starting about two weeks ago. Now before everybody groans and says "Not another Nameless One clone," this player has never played Torment. I had a long talk with him about how I wanted to make sure that he could play this character well without being derivative or cliche, and I think he can handle it. Thing is, this particular player has always been the one to play really quirky sorts of characters. As a member of the Sensates, he hope that constant exposure to new experiences will bring him into contact with those who used to know him. 5. Lawful Good Aasimar fighter: This aging fellow was once the ruler of a small city-state on Bytopia. (His fairly inactive role explains his low level despite his years) He has given up the mantle of rulership and taken to planewalking, however, after his wife was kidnapped. He helps to provide part of the party-motivation in the early portions of the campaign. He's also a member of the Harmonium, but he's a soft sort of Hardhead. His advancing years have caused him to see many times that war produces too many corpses, so while he still agrees that universal peace depends on orderliness, he's not certain anymore that the Harmonium militant way is the answer. I think the combination of a Xaositect and a Hardhead (even a fairly passive one) should make for interesting roleplaying I'm planning on including a rewritten version of The Great Modron March as one 'campaign arc' in the early part (rewritten because my players already know that Show Orcus returned from the dead
#3 zombiegleemax Oct 01, 2004 15:41:55	A suggestion for starting things off a little differently... If there's one thing I hate more than anything else, it's the stereotypical meeting in a tavern. UGH! So, here's an alternative, done Planescape style. Sigil's calendar (pre-FW) has a 'month' for each faction, and each month has a Factol's Day. Factol's Day is often a cause for celebration or festivities, but of all the Factol's Days, none are more chaotic than 'Surprise!', the Factol's Day of Capricious, Month of the Xaositects. Unlike other Factol's Days, which occur at the start of the month, Surprise! comes (or sometimes doesn't) any time at all during the month of Capricious. So, it's the Morning after Surprise! Hangovers abound, cuts and bruises hurt, wallets and coin purses are empty. This year's Surprise! was the biggest in recent memory. Fires, riots, fighting and drinking in the streets, odd spells going off, you name it, it all happened last night. (a semi-concerted effort by a bunch of Xaositect mages has left hundreds of magic mouths all over the streets, spewing profanities every time a bariaur walks past them) The PCs wake up in a Hardhead holding cell, along with many others. With Sigil's residents gone completely off their rockers, the Hardheads stormed in and arrested anyone who couldn't outrun them, in an effort to restore some semblance of order to the city. They figure they'll sort the whole mess out later. The PCs are counted among those arrested last night. For a pbem or AIM game, you could get some friends to RP other cellmates, so that originally, the PCs don't know who the other PCs are! Let that go on for a bit, stir the pot as necessary and watch the players find their PC personalities in hurry. While they're there, the do overhear tidbits and morsels of info that could be used as plot hooks. It's important to fill the cell with a combination of honest folk and hardened troublemakers, githzerai AND githyanki, and so on. Make it uncomfortable. Let them fight if that's what it comes to. After you've had a bit of fun with that, you dangle the big baited hook. First you have one of the hardhead guards inform them that they'll have to remain behind bars for at least the next few days. It'll take that long for the Hardheads to figure out who's free to go and who's under arrest. Then, a little later, you have your iconic messenger/errand boy/tout inform them that a nameless patron is offering immediate release, for a price. If they agree to meet this patron and agree to take on the task he has for them, they're immediately freed from custody thanks to an appropriate garnish or favor called in. If they don't meet this patron, or refuse his offer of employment, they get to sit and rot in jail for a few more days. If you want to turn up the heat, either have some of the cellmates get aggressive, or have the guards inform them that their stay will be extended due to clerical problems -- a carry-over from the recent Surprise! (maybe a fire destroyed some files, or the secretary is pregnant with a Slaad-baby, or whatever!) If they PCs won't take the hook, you can offer others. Perhaps some of the cellmates plan a breakout and the PCs join them. That could go either way. Or perhaps the guard pulls them out for questioning, but instead offers them early release if they can trick one of their fellow cellmates into revealing the Xaosmen's newest hideout. Or maybe the guard's just fishing for garnish and a suitable bribe or favour might get them freed. Anyways, the point is that you have a relatively novel way to kick off the campaign, a way that offers several campaign hooks. Otherwise, the only thing the PCs will find out about each other is what their favorite drinks are! I hope you or some other reader finds this scenario useful. If anybody does use it, I'd love to hear how it went over. --------- Enzo Sarlas "Planescape: What doesn't kill you, makes you stranger."