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Changing settings

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Changing settings

Unread postby icycalm » 09 Sep 2020 17:15

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I don't have the full range of setting change mechanics yet. I have had just enough to get us started, and I'll keep adding to them from there. So far, I have had just the initial spawning table that runs on a 1d4:

1: Abeir-Toril (FORGOTTEN REALMS)

2: Golarion (PATHFINDER)

3: Athas (DARK SUN)

4: Oerth (GREYHAWK)

As for the transitional settings, let me clarify something about Ravenloft: this setting won't be available until some group unlocks it by playing the original 1E Ravenloft adventure:

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This is setting-agnostic and can be slotted into any setting (well, except weirdo settings like Dark Sun). As you can see, it requires fairly high-level characters, and lots of them: 6 at a minimum, and ideally up to 8. It is, in other words, a Co-op Quest, as defined in the Quests chapter, and requires that one of the parties has cleared an Epic Quest first, which requires that the party has cleared a Versus or Versus Adventure Quest, which means the party must have wiped another party AND cleared an Epic Quest. And how they are supposed to accomplish all that BEFORE hitting level 7 and thus becoming overleveled for the Ravenloft adventure, I don't know. Maybe I ought to make the requirements for the Co-op Quests less demanding. On the other hand, there are only a handful of such adventures, and they're damn awesome, so it makes sense to maintain high requirements for them. On the other OTHER hand, the Ravenloft setting proper has tons of fantastic adventures, so keeping all of them locked until some party somehow manages to beast its way to the Ravenloft adventure would be quite the bummer. I think I may have a solution for this though, and Ravenloft's infamous mists might be it. Basically, we just wait until a group rolls Ravenloft in the setting-switch table. However, the adventure isn't activated immediately. We simply wait until a second group rolls Ravenloft too. And then at the first available opportunity, both groups go to Ravenloft and tackle the adventure together. That would give us 10 players at current group sizes, which is considerably above the adventure's maximum of 8. However, since it's hard to get all 10 players on the same day anyway, all we need is two dropouts to play. And if there aren't any, we just roll to see which two people won't play for that particular day (and we invent an in-game reason for why the characters are unavailable).

The setting transition table will run on 1d20 and look something like this:

01-15: Planescape
16-19: Ravenloft
20: Spelljammer

I am putting Spelljammer at such a small percentage for a couple of reasons. First off, because I've never played or read anything of it, so just to be cautious at the start, I am trying to avoid it for the time being. But most importantly, I KNOW that it has very few adventures. So we can't use it for routine transitions, we need to reserve it for special occasions. Moreover, because we're talking about space, I am thinking of SOME DAY perhaps adding Earth in the form of the Vampire/Werewolf and Call of Cthulhu, and maybe even Cybperpunk RPGs, and other RPGs. Science fiction versus sorcery could be amazing if done right. Apparently, Witcher 3 includes a reference to the Cyberpunk universe, so it has already been done. Not sure it if's been done well or not though. In any case, there are possibilities, but very distant ones, and if we do them we will likely do them through the Spelljammer setting. So it makes sense to try to reserve that for a later time. Unless the dice demand that we play sooner, in which case we will comply.

The above is the roll that determines which TRANSITIONAL setting will be used to effect the setting change. After the Transition Quest (which is always chosen by the DM) has been completed, and assuming the players don't want to stay in the transition setting any longer, there will be another roll to determine the destination setting, and given the wealth of options, we'll go with 1d100. The choice of whether or not to activate setting change will be up to the players, but the actual setting they get will be random (unless they are in the middle of a Versus Quest, in which case it will be mandatory: their target group's setting). I've not finalized the table of setting change yet, but this is roughly what it will look like:

001-030: Abeir-Toril (FORGOTTEN REALMS, which includes several other lesser-known "settings" such as Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim et al. in the form of continents)
031-060: Golarion (PATHFINDER)
061-070: Oerth (GREYHAWK)
071-080: Athas (DARK SUN)
081-090: Eberron (EBERRON)
091-094: Alphatia (MYSTARA, which includes Hollow World)
095: Smaller misc. planets (GHOSTWALK, RAVNICA et al.; roll further to see which)
096-097: Aebrynis (BIRTHRIGHT)
098-099: Krynn (DRAGONLANCE)
100: Io (COUNCIL OF WYRMS)

The "Smaller misc. planets" category at 95 gets only 1% chance because there's almost no materials for these planets besides the campaign book. This book might include some small adventures, but it usually just has story hooks. So in these cases I will just have to create something with the available materials, but it will be a one-off pretty much. So we don't want these planets to be coming up often, which is why I gave them such a tiny probability.

Io (COUNCIL OF WYRMS) gets such a small chance because you can make dragons and half-dragons there. If a group gets there, I'll read the setting and figure out exactly how that will work. In all probability, only one player will get this option, and we'll figure out some way to determine who that will be. We might have to run a battle royale among the group lol. There can be only one! This will play into my bloodline/procreation mechanics. Getting a dragon in your bloodline will be the ultimate coup for any player. It would be worth butchering the rest of the party for it, unless you're Good, in which case we could have a Good vs. Evil/Neutral fight, and if the latter win, they can have their battle royale.

Krynn (DRAGONLANCE) gets such a small chance because it is a setting pretty much dominated by one saga of 12 epic 8-player adventures. This might well be the best adventure ever written, but it requires two groups to join up and stay together for months if not years. It might well be the ultimate D&D experience. Just like with the original Ravenloft adventure, it would be extremely unlikely that this saga would be activated by the normal Quest mechanics, so we're putting it on this table instead, and once two groups of appropriate levels have rolled the required numbers, they'll get the choice to tackle it.

Aebrynis (BIRTHRIGHT) gets a small chance too because it pretty much hands you a kingdom. So basically, if you roll above 95, you'll get something incredible, whether that be a crack at a kingdom—without having to build it brick by brick—or a crack at the ultimate adventure, or the ultimate challenge/reward of a crack at getting a dragon in your bloodline.

All the above is SUBJECT TO CHANGE, and especially the tables will most definitely be adjusted in the future, especially after playtesting. I already have a revised initial spawning table in mind, and I'll post it soon. We've already rolled on that table three times, and it's become clear to me that it needs a revision.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 11 Sep 2020 03:21

So Spelljammer has been an obvious possibility of a link from D&D to science fiction, but up to now I hadn't been aware of any official attempt to make the link. When I mentioned above about adding Earth- and sci-fi-based settings to D&D, I was merely mentally exploring the possibility, but now I learn that it's already been done. There's an entire Pathfinder Adventure Path (that is, six linked adventures that take you from level 1 to near max level) that does just that, and it's even one of the most well-regarded ones, called Iron Gods.

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So the link already exists. The Spelljammer map already has the Pathfinder planet in it, and since Pathfinder has an adventure path with spaceships, the link is done. So what we're gonna do is use the Iron Gods AP the same way we'll use the original Ravenloft adventure: once someone tackles it, it will unlock science-fiction in the Battlegrounds universe. However, I am in no hurry to do this before we've played for a long time and feel comfortable with D&D rules before adding sci-fi ones. So the Iron Gods AP will remain hidden until we're ready to add sci-fi. But it will happen eventually.

And I just realized why Pathfinder is the perfect setting to make the jump to sci-fi. It's in the setting's art style. Look at this dude for a sec:

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Doesn't he already seem a step away from sci-fi? Like he wouldn't seem awkward wielding a laser-sword or something. The somewhat anime-leaning Pathfinder art style is just a step away from sci-fi.
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icycalm
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Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands


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