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Mystic Muse
2010-01-21, 10:28 PM
okay. I'm going to be running a 4th edition campaign with my cousins. I was wondering if there are any homebrew campaigns out there that are based off of "avatar the last airbender"?

My cousins said they wanted to play an "Avatar the last airbender" game and as far as I'm aware there isn't one that currently exists. I figure my cousins won't complain that it isn't exactly as Avatar should be because the oldest of them is about 12, and three of them haven't even seen the series.

So, does anybody have a campaign based off the series? Or anything to help me make my own? I've watched the series but the world of Avatar isn't exactly my area of expertise.

Inyssius Tor
2010-01-21, 11:29 PM
Well... doing 'bender characters in 4e isn't at all difficult by RAW. You don't even need to alter powers' damage types, though doing that would make things even easier (and it wouldn't break anything whatsoever, in a campaign played by 12-year-olds).

That's about all I can think of on the topic.

Oh, wait, no, there was this discussion (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=475864) over on RPGnet:


Recontextualize the opening monologue from Katara, and the order in which the cycle of reincarnation happened.

It's someone talking about discovering the Avatar with her brother, as the world is assaulted by armies from the sea... and then it turns out to be Azula.

"So you've got The Last Earthbender: In a world thrown out of balance by ravening sea-raiders (The Water Benders), the besieged Fire Nation prince and princess in-exile go on the run with a blind girl of phenomenal power...

Pursued by a deadly Water Tribe commander known as the Mad Schemer, and then later by his powerful sister - a woman capable of possessing armies like puppets and turning them against her foes - backed by an elite core of warrior women.

.......

It sounded like Raw Awesomesauce served on Awesometoast, and fit alarmingly well all things considered.

What'd happen if Azula and Zuko were less messed up, while Sokka and Katara were more so? And Toph was still Toph but lacked some of the confidence her own experience has already brought her in Avatar as we know it?

If I've misremembered any details or filled in gaps without noticing and this is the game of someone on the board? Mea culpa. Your ideas filled me with Fearsome and Terrible Glee.

Mystic Muse
2010-01-21, 11:35 PM
I don't really think I should put an Avatar in though. It will either be by its very nature a very bad DMPC or it will completely overpower the other players.

Unless I made them all avatars which I don't think would work so well.

Kuma Da
2010-01-21, 11:45 PM
That...that is...

Wow, Tor. Just wow. I would play that. Heck, I would watch that. Good find. I'm sure the fanfic scriveners are setting to work as I post.

As for running Avatar as a game, there is a complete conversion for it for 3.5. Just takes a bit of googling. Also, depending on your DMing style, Avatar could be very fun (and rules-lite) to play using Wushu Skidoo. It's a very simple system (and free.) It can also be googled.

However, given that three of your cousins haven't seen the series and you're not totally confident with the world of Avatar, you might also want to consider brewing up something with a strong Avatar feel instead. I hear James Cameron has some ideas I bet a little bit of messing around with elementalism and different cultures could produce some interesting settings.

Edit: about balance and Avatars: yeah, they're kinda mutually exclusive. You could, however, have some uncertainty about who the next Avatar is, and make the PCs a group of potentials. Depends totally on which cycle it's set during, and whether you're using an AU. It also requires everyone to bend the same element, but it could be cool in spite of those restrictions.

Maybe poll your cousins' opinions a bit and see what else they want from this game. More feedback never hurts.

Mystic Muse
2010-01-21, 11:57 PM
would this be the wushu skidoo you're talking about? http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=wushuskidoo

I would also very much like to see the Avatar 3.5 but google hates me and I can't find it.

Inyssius Tor
2010-01-22, 01:00 AM
I don't really think I should put an Avatar in though. It will either be by its very nature a very bad DMPC or it will completely overpower the other players.

Not... necessarily, I think. You just need an untrained/inexperienced Avatar, or gifted/trained other party-members, to compensate. Aang never particularly dominated any of his fights until late in the series--unless he was in the Avatar State, which can't be controlled or reliably provoked and which carries its own drawbacks. (Which is to say that you, the DM, pull it out in case of in-combat TPK or out-of-combat appropriateness.) He wasn't significantly better in one-on-one fights than any of the other main characters except Sokka, and Sokka could have been a better fighter (look at Ty Lee, or Suki, or that Swordmaster dude, or Sokka himself in the third season--transplant him back to Book One and he'd have been the top combatant of the bunch).

As for the d20 project, it's over here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67493) I still prefer 4e for it, myself, but I could possibly be biased.

Mystic Muse
2010-01-22, 01:06 AM
Believe me when I say this.

If half my cousins knew they were traveling with the Avatar they'd ask why THEY couldn't be avatars.

then the other half would find out what an Avatar is and ask why they couldn't be one.

it's just going to be a big headache in addition to the one I'm going to get from the disruptive players.

Yakk
2010-01-22, 01:49 AM
Easy twist:
The fire plot worked, and every airbender was killed before one could become the avatar.

Now, push back the darkness, or watch civilisation go up in flames.

Nightson
2010-01-22, 02:24 AM
I don't really think I should put an Avatar in though. It will either be by its very nature a very bad DMPC or it will completely overpower the other players.

Unless I made them all avatars which I don't think would work so well.

Ah but you see, the horrible plot device that occurred in the past was meant to destroy the avatar forever, instead it fractured it, and now a spark of the avatar spirit has moved into one person of each element.

Mystic Muse
2010-01-22, 12:06 PM
Ah but you see, the horrible plot device that occurred in the past was meant to destroy the avatar forever, instead it fractured it, and now a spark of the avatar spirit has moved into one person of each element.

doesn't work either. I've got 2 water benders, 2 fire benders 2 earth benders and no air benders