CrazyCrab
2016-07-21, 06:44 PM
Hi everyone,
me and my friends have a 4-months per DM rotation and I'm planning my future game in advance, I have a concept in mind and I would love to hear some feedback.
So, for the 1st session all I tell people is: ''Get a clean character sheet, choose a race and stats (point buy). Have a class and a background in mind, but don't fill anything out. Only write down your stats, proficiency bonus +2, racial abilities. Come up with a personality, not a build or a gimmick, but rely more on what the character does and behaves rather than who they were or what they have.'' No world background, no story, just tell them it's a fantasy setting. As soon as we start a game, I have everyone roll a d8, re-rolling duplicates, assigning 'deadly sins' to each character in secret.
The game starts with everyone dead, lying deep underground in a pile of bones. A random player then opens their eyes, sees a number of cloaked figures accompanied by people in rags. The player can see their body slowly form in front of them, muscles and bones reassembling one by one, so that they cannot interrupt the process. The figures kill the ragged folk, spraying their blood all over the bones, casting powerful magic and the other players are slowly starting to reassemble as well. The figures then portal away. They leave a piece of parchment behind: ''Quyosh was wrong''.
That's all they know to start with. No names, not even their own names. No items. No idea where they are or who they were, or even why they have been brought back.
Now, onto the game mechanics:
-System D&D 5e.
-Players start at lv 0, (4 HP, no proficiencies) and then gain a level at the end of each session. (= We have very regular meetups, meaning that this will translate to app. one level every 6-7 hours) At lv 11 they switch back to usual leveling as before that point they are merely regaining their memories. They get some stuff (like background bonuses) whenever thing trigger their memories to snap back in place. Every time they level up they get to write down one sentence of their backstory, with my verifying if it fits.
- Gear is rare and hard to come by, think Fallout in terms of coming across actual usable gear. Getting a proper great-sword will take a while, so we will focus on things like crafting and improvised weapons quite a bit. NPCs are rare and few apart too.
- Combat id deadly, with reduced hitpoints, gruesome injuries and nerfed magical healing. If you can talk your way past someone you probably should.
I don't want to spoil too much, as I think that some of my friends use the site, but the general idea is that the players are in a massive mausoleum, they were ancient heroes once but each one of them committed a terrible crime and was executed. They are needed now, but because of [Spoiler] they cannot be officially brought back. Those sins will play a role, but, once again, [Spoilers].
So, what do you think? Could this be fun? I'm hoping for a fun, evolving story where we make all the stories intertwined and slowly building the characters from nothing will hopefully make them more relatable when it actually hits them who they were once, the theme being focused around forgiveness, change and not letting your past define your future. Thematically I'm going for a strong mystery vibe, think Twin Peaks, Gravity Falls and perhaps some Breaking Bad (psychological thriller) for good measure. You're not running into 'goblins', you're running into 'shifty green shapes starting at you from the darkness.'
me and my friends have a 4-months per DM rotation and I'm planning my future game in advance, I have a concept in mind and I would love to hear some feedback.
So, for the 1st session all I tell people is: ''Get a clean character sheet, choose a race and stats (point buy). Have a class and a background in mind, but don't fill anything out. Only write down your stats, proficiency bonus +2, racial abilities. Come up with a personality, not a build or a gimmick, but rely more on what the character does and behaves rather than who they were or what they have.'' No world background, no story, just tell them it's a fantasy setting. As soon as we start a game, I have everyone roll a d8, re-rolling duplicates, assigning 'deadly sins' to each character in secret.
The game starts with everyone dead, lying deep underground in a pile of bones. A random player then opens their eyes, sees a number of cloaked figures accompanied by people in rags. The player can see their body slowly form in front of them, muscles and bones reassembling one by one, so that they cannot interrupt the process. The figures kill the ragged folk, spraying their blood all over the bones, casting powerful magic and the other players are slowly starting to reassemble as well. The figures then portal away. They leave a piece of parchment behind: ''Quyosh was wrong''.
That's all they know to start with. No names, not even their own names. No items. No idea where they are or who they were, or even why they have been brought back.
Now, onto the game mechanics:
-System D&D 5e.
-Players start at lv 0, (4 HP, no proficiencies) and then gain a level at the end of each session. (= We have very regular meetups, meaning that this will translate to app. one level every 6-7 hours) At lv 11 they switch back to usual leveling as before that point they are merely regaining their memories. They get some stuff (like background bonuses) whenever thing trigger their memories to snap back in place. Every time they level up they get to write down one sentence of their backstory, with my verifying if it fits.
- Gear is rare and hard to come by, think Fallout in terms of coming across actual usable gear. Getting a proper great-sword will take a while, so we will focus on things like crafting and improvised weapons quite a bit. NPCs are rare and few apart too.
- Combat id deadly, with reduced hitpoints, gruesome injuries and nerfed magical healing. If you can talk your way past someone you probably should.
I don't want to spoil too much, as I think that some of my friends use the site, but the general idea is that the players are in a massive mausoleum, they were ancient heroes once but each one of them committed a terrible crime and was executed. They are needed now, but because of [Spoiler] they cannot be officially brought back. Those sins will play a role, but, once again, [Spoilers].
So, what do you think? Could this be fun? I'm hoping for a fun, evolving story where we make all the stories intertwined and slowly building the characters from nothing will hopefully make them more relatable when it actually hits them who they were once, the theme being focused around forgiveness, change and not letting your past define your future. Thematically I'm going for a strong mystery vibe, think Twin Peaks, Gravity Falls and perhaps some Breaking Bad (psychological thriller) for good measure. You're not running into 'goblins', you're running into 'shifty green shapes starting at you from the darkness.'