Pictogram
2011-09-22, 04:32 PM
Hey playgrounders, longtime lurker here. I've been following the odds and end of this homebrew forum for a few years now, and i have to say it's definitely made me want to use hombrew more, most I’d say is reasonable however sometimes it get's a little silly folks :smallbiggrin:
but needless to say, a lot of it's frickin' sweet. I've tried my hand at a few projects some failed some decent, I never posted though out of stage fright. But what i feel comfortable to share and ask for advice with is our gaming groups new baby; The Wastes Junction. Collectively, as a group, being both old friends and new, we decide we had a terrible problem. A Dm motivation problem. All of us were competent Dm's in out own right, each with unique styles however each of us faded in interest as Dm's because we wanted to be heroes in the awesome setting we were unfolding. So I brainstormed a bit with one of my friends from the group, Sean. We decided on a very experimental, yet interesting idea ( still in the process of shaping). We would all, meaning everyone who participates as a PC in the campaign, Dm. Now seeing as this could create biased towards people for favoring their own motives, whatever, we thought whoever’s dming their character would be challenged elsewhere, receiving the same amount of xp/gold for the sessions that they Dm ( so as not to punish people for taking up the Dm seat). Sean and I bounced ideas off of each other a bit ( hours) and we came up with the barebones skeleton of our game. I had the most intiative at first, being so, i started the regulations of race, class, character creation. I wanted to make a setting both unique and memorable; A serious setting with silly overtones always appealed to me so we came up with the premise of the world. The driving force of the economy is dungeon crawling.
We decide that how this system and campaign would work is that every Pc would be a mercenary, a scavenger if you will, who's hired by companies, guilds, the lording city, or merchant houses to strip dungeons ( that is a very broad term in our group ( anything between a natural cave, actual underground dwelling, raised temple, flying structure, whatever) of their valuables. We thought, why don't the pc's just keep all of the share- why would they need these middle men? Simple reason: they control the water. Our setting is based in a sand sea, a harsh unforgiving sea that is ever shifting. These investors higher adventurers to sail to the different dungeons on their recourses and intell. Another question came up, if this is one of the driving forces for the economy, why hasn't everything been looted? This is where the word "conjunction" comes in. As i stated The Wastes are ever shifting, this isn't just a normal sand dune shifting over time, this is a whole dune shifting at once. it happens often, and when they do some deep and very powerful planar magic’s leak onto the material plane. They leak in the form of dungeons. When i say planar magic i don't mean the traditional planes to all extents. Some of these dungeons are from a different time, other worlds not aligned with element our alignment.
Nothing lasts in The Wastes however, I’ll state again, it's ever shifting. Some dungeons stay longer than others, for years even, but everything gets swallowed by the sand eventually...
We decided that the multiple Dm thing would come in at the simple place (mechanic) the job post. A bigass bulletin board that listed unearthed and unplundered temples in the waste. Each post would give basic intell on the place- how far it was away, how long it would take, how much they might be rewarded, and possibly the name of the dungeon if the scholars had learned that. We decided that each week every PC would have to come with their bulletin board post, a vague idea of a dungeon under a theme that we decided the week before. We have to decided on what our characters would choose on the post alone, we decide as a group, and then who got chosen has a week to design a dungeon under the theme, a certain treasure amount, and challenging but appropriate for the groups level at the time. We start at level 2.
I have ruled out a lot of casters in this setting: all tier 1's just don't exist. Anyone that can cast up to 9th level spell's don't exist. Any water spell's, don't exist. Oh another thing to mention, this is a steam punk setting. Many classes from the steam base class challenge thread are being used by the heroes. There is an aviator/ gunslinger, and a combatitronic maven also there is a Twilight Caster seeing as it dealt with the planes which i thought was appropriate, a Binder, and then me a factotum. ( more on classes, races, and the PC's later)
Comments, questions? Sorry about the massive wall o text. I just had a lot to say, I would love to get some suggestions and input by some grade A homebrewers :smalltongue:
but needless to say, a lot of it's frickin' sweet. I've tried my hand at a few projects some failed some decent, I never posted though out of stage fright. But what i feel comfortable to share and ask for advice with is our gaming groups new baby; The Wastes Junction. Collectively, as a group, being both old friends and new, we decide we had a terrible problem. A Dm motivation problem. All of us were competent Dm's in out own right, each with unique styles however each of us faded in interest as Dm's because we wanted to be heroes in the awesome setting we were unfolding. So I brainstormed a bit with one of my friends from the group, Sean. We decided on a very experimental, yet interesting idea ( still in the process of shaping). We would all, meaning everyone who participates as a PC in the campaign, Dm. Now seeing as this could create biased towards people for favoring their own motives, whatever, we thought whoever’s dming their character would be challenged elsewhere, receiving the same amount of xp/gold for the sessions that they Dm ( so as not to punish people for taking up the Dm seat). Sean and I bounced ideas off of each other a bit ( hours) and we came up with the barebones skeleton of our game. I had the most intiative at first, being so, i started the regulations of race, class, character creation. I wanted to make a setting both unique and memorable; A serious setting with silly overtones always appealed to me so we came up with the premise of the world. The driving force of the economy is dungeon crawling.
We decide that how this system and campaign would work is that every Pc would be a mercenary, a scavenger if you will, who's hired by companies, guilds, the lording city, or merchant houses to strip dungeons ( that is a very broad term in our group ( anything between a natural cave, actual underground dwelling, raised temple, flying structure, whatever) of their valuables. We thought, why don't the pc's just keep all of the share- why would they need these middle men? Simple reason: they control the water. Our setting is based in a sand sea, a harsh unforgiving sea that is ever shifting. These investors higher adventurers to sail to the different dungeons on their recourses and intell. Another question came up, if this is one of the driving forces for the economy, why hasn't everything been looted? This is where the word "conjunction" comes in. As i stated The Wastes are ever shifting, this isn't just a normal sand dune shifting over time, this is a whole dune shifting at once. it happens often, and when they do some deep and very powerful planar magic’s leak onto the material plane. They leak in the form of dungeons. When i say planar magic i don't mean the traditional planes to all extents. Some of these dungeons are from a different time, other worlds not aligned with element our alignment.
Nothing lasts in The Wastes however, I’ll state again, it's ever shifting. Some dungeons stay longer than others, for years even, but everything gets swallowed by the sand eventually...
We decided that the multiple Dm thing would come in at the simple place (mechanic) the job post. A bigass bulletin board that listed unearthed and unplundered temples in the waste. Each post would give basic intell on the place- how far it was away, how long it would take, how much they might be rewarded, and possibly the name of the dungeon if the scholars had learned that. We decided that each week every PC would have to come with their bulletin board post, a vague idea of a dungeon under a theme that we decided the week before. We have to decided on what our characters would choose on the post alone, we decide as a group, and then who got chosen has a week to design a dungeon under the theme, a certain treasure amount, and challenging but appropriate for the groups level at the time. We start at level 2.
I have ruled out a lot of casters in this setting: all tier 1's just don't exist. Anyone that can cast up to 9th level spell's don't exist. Any water spell's, don't exist. Oh another thing to mention, this is a steam punk setting. Many classes from the steam base class challenge thread are being used by the heroes. There is an aviator/ gunslinger, and a combatitronic maven also there is a Twilight Caster seeing as it dealt with the planes which i thought was appropriate, a Binder, and then me a factotum. ( more on classes, races, and the PC's later)
Comments, questions? Sorry about the massive wall o text. I just had a lot to say, I would love to get some suggestions and input by some grade A homebrewers :smalltongue: