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View Full Version : rules for travelling in the mournland (Eberron. 3.5, but 4E also welcomed)



Kol Korran
2010-06-17, 03:37 AM
so... in some time from now i'm going to DM for a group in Eberron. as a possibility they might need to enter and travel a bit of the mournland. now i read the guidelines in the ECS (few and slim) and those in the Five Nations book (quite harsh on healing, as in- nearly none, unless you buy a wand of rope trick). i wish to make something of my own for my campaign, and so i seek advice.
i was wondering what sort of rules you DMs used to reflect the different nature of the morunland, and the hardship of traveling it. from navigation, finding a place to sleep, healing (natural and otherwise), problematic spells, and so on.

said group will probably visit the morunland and make a similar trip a few times. beginning with level 3-4, then at some other points in time up to level 12. i'd like the conditions to make it difficult on them, but survivable non the less.

suggestions please? :smallamused:

AslanCross
2010-06-17, 08:42 AM
Well, I think the Five Nations ones are pretty good, and if anyone ventures into the Mournland, they'd better go prepared regardless of level. I think the lore on what can happen there is plentiful enough that they wouldn't end up saying "Mournland? What's that? I just brought a day's worth of rations and a single waterskin." :P One Does Not Simply Walk into the Mournland.

You could mash together a random weather table that's far more random than the ones you normally see for the season.

Encounters with inclement weather, magical spell effects, and wild/dead magic zones should work too.

You could play up its wasteland theme by looking into Sandstorm---at least I'd think it would have more desolate wastes than any other type of land. Also add in a smattering of creepy sights and sounds.

Kol Korran
2010-06-17, 09:51 AM
hey Aslan. thansk for the advice. i have planned on some of this allready (the weather table, and of course lots of creepy encounters. this is the mournland after all...) loved the sandstorm suggestion, now if i could only find that book.

i think what irks me the most is the very harsh healing rules. sure, my characters could find about this easely enough, but i'd prefer they don't have to revert to a rope trick every time they want to heal. my ideas were a certain chance for healing not to work, or perhaps requiring using a higher level for lesser effect? (Cure serious wound healing 1 or 2d8 instead of 3 for example).

or (and this idea i especially like)- healing causes some ort of another dibilitating affect (decided by a random table)- some of these are not serious, more of a roelplaying concern (falling of hair, odd palor to the skin, spitting of bubbles of foul fume when you speak?) but some do- (an arm or leg becomes incapacitated, deafness (or hearing a whole screaming chorus that it comes out as the same thing), some ability damage (wisdom mostly? insanity coming up in small incerments), and so on. all effects fade away after some time, but perhaps with some lingering effects. what do you think?

besides, i always love to hear people's ideas for the place.

Hzurr
2010-06-17, 10:22 AM
Well, what's your timeline for running this? In August, the Dark Sun rulebook for 4E comes out, and I know that a big part of it is "the world is hostile to you," so you should be able to steal a lot of the enviromental rules and hazards for journeying in a not-nice place.

A few other ideas:
- Healing is only 1/2 as effective
- For every spell slot, roll a d6 at the start of the day after spells have been selected. On a 1 or a 2, the caster loses whatever was in that spell slot.
- When casting a spell, roll a d8. On a 7 or 8, apply a random metamagic effect to it (but add in some metamagic effects that are a hindrance, like only half damage, or the DC decreases by 2, or something like that)