LadyFae
2007-09-03, 04:12 PM
I've never DMed a game in my life. In fact, I've only been playing for about a year now. But today I got an idea for an awesome game.
I want to run a campaign, probably very loosely 3.5, set in the realm of Faerie. I don't want this to be a cute game, and I don't want it to be a safe game. I want this to be the sort of game where PCs don't start out with any PC class levels. I want there to be a mid-boss who eats babies, and I want the big bad evil guy to be nothing more than a distant presence until the very end of the campaign. I want it to be the sort of campaign where you have to justify any levels you take within the game and where the random encounter table is taken straight from Yeats' fairy tales. Pixies can be viscous, mirrors can be deadly, and it's VERY important to be kind to beggars.
For those of you who aren't quite sure what I'm talking about, I mean something like Tithe: A Modern Tale of Faerie, Into the Woods, The Black Cauldron,and The Tenth Kingdom all rolled up into one, with some Shakespeare and Yeats for flavor.
Now, the problem is that I'm almost clueless how to go about doing this. Obviously, it would be a very combat-light campaign, simply because the PCs wouldn't be able to fight these things very well at all. And I think I'll introduce first-level background feats like "Gifted: You have been given an item that is far more powerful magically than you realize" and "Watched: A deceased loved one guards you from above" and perhaps even "Interesting: A powerful Faerie has taken an interest in you (this feat may not be beneficial)." These feats would be based largely on backstory and character creation. Races other than humans would not be available to be PCs until later in the game. If a player insisted on being a fighty character, he would probably have to take Gifted, and then depend on his handy dancing sword.
So I got onto the GiantITP forums for the first time, knowing that if anyone would have advice for a first time DM it would be you guys. Should I even base this off of 3.5, or should I just play it diceless? If I do play it diceless how can I be sure to walk the line between Character/Flavor and Railroading? Is there an expansion somewhere for some system that is created for a game like this? Is it even likely that I can find players for such a game?
I want to run a campaign, probably very loosely 3.5, set in the realm of Faerie. I don't want this to be a cute game, and I don't want it to be a safe game. I want this to be the sort of game where PCs don't start out with any PC class levels. I want there to be a mid-boss who eats babies, and I want the big bad evil guy to be nothing more than a distant presence until the very end of the campaign. I want it to be the sort of campaign where you have to justify any levels you take within the game and where the random encounter table is taken straight from Yeats' fairy tales. Pixies can be viscous, mirrors can be deadly, and it's VERY important to be kind to beggars.
For those of you who aren't quite sure what I'm talking about, I mean something like Tithe: A Modern Tale of Faerie, Into the Woods, The Black Cauldron,and The Tenth Kingdom all rolled up into one, with some Shakespeare and Yeats for flavor.
Now, the problem is that I'm almost clueless how to go about doing this. Obviously, it would be a very combat-light campaign, simply because the PCs wouldn't be able to fight these things very well at all. And I think I'll introduce first-level background feats like "Gifted: You have been given an item that is far more powerful magically than you realize" and "Watched: A deceased loved one guards you from above" and perhaps even "Interesting: A powerful Faerie has taken an interest in you (this feat may not be beneficial)." These feats would be based largely on backstory and character creation. Races other than humans would not be available to be PCs until later in the game. If a player insisted on being a fighty character, he would probably have to take Gifted, and then depend on his handy dancing sword.
So I got onto the GiantITP forums for the first time, knowing that if anyone would have advice for a first time DM it would be you guys. Should I even base this off of 3.5, or should I just play it diceless? If I do play it diceless how can I be sure to walk the line between Character/Flavor and Railroading? Is there an expansion somewhere for some system that is created for a game like this? Is it even likely that I can find players for such a game?