Post by reefwood on Oct 6, 2011 16:15:16 GMT -5
War Stories - The End, The Future, The Now
The End
Thanks again to everyone for coming out last night and over the past couple years! I had a lot of fun running this war campaign. It was neat to focus on the combat strategy part of the game, and this set-up gave me the freedom to have an general story arc/theme but still be able to mix in completely new things at times without worrying too much about connecting it to the last adventure or PC motivation. Sometimes a mission did spawn from the previous one, but a few were based off battle scenes from movies or simply built off wanting to use a particular monster and building the rest from there. Also, I liked building the world one piece at a time - an idea I got from Rabbit - so that I could add a new city or terrain around the corner based on my next idea as opposed to requiring the idea to fit into an already established world. And as time went on, everyone helped contribute to the world and mission ideas, and I enjoyed mixing in some non-combat elements as well.
In addition to focusing on the combat side of the game, another major motivation was to try out Pathfinder, and this has certainly given me a good feel for the system. It does have some bumps and vague areas, but I like it and will continue to use it for any other games I run. There are actually a few expansion books, but I will stick with the Core Rulebook and APG.
The Future
War Stories has come to an end, but like many things in D&D, it could be revived at some point. Not in the fall, and I might do some travel in the winter, but maybe in the spring - depending on what other games are happening and player interest.
If we do start up again, it will be with somewhat of a reboot, and this is what I'm thinking... PCs will be stripped of equipment, wealth, military feats and military skill bonuses. This will be a good way to look at the bare bones of the characters, and all stats will remain the same, except for two potential things:
1) The one or two most recent feats can be switched out for one or both military feats that were lost. In fact, this will be necessary if a military feat is a requirement for another feat you still possess. This is a way to keep your military feats if you want or need them, but this is not a way to exchange old feats for new ones.
2) The skills that were military skills will lose their half-level competence bonus, but they will retain whatever ranks were placed into them. However, they will no longer be automatically considered class skills, so you will lose the +3 training bonus if it isn't a class skill for your class. Either way, these skills will be lower than before, but if they don't already have the maximum number of ranks, you can shuffle skill ranks from other skills into your ex-military skills.
Everything else about your build will remain the same. As for equipment... we will use standard starting wealth for Level 16 and the basic starting percentages (25% armor, 25% armor, etc). I have no idea how this will compare to current wealth, but if you can afford it, you can repurchase everything you have now. Maybe even more. Or you could buy completely different equipment if you want to try something new. Also, access to super special magic items like the Deck of Wooden Cards and Zombie Headstone will carryover. The Wyrm Staff is not super special, but Sahme could repurchase it, and in doing so, even tweak it. I'm not sure how treasure will be handled, but I'm pretty sure the Reward Package system will be scrapped. It might just be spoils from battle (and maybe the occasional bonus - i.e. king gives reward for saving princess) with the army treated as the shop (i.e. trade-in items at half price to "buy" new items).
As for minions... Cohorts will remain the same. Their stats will not change. However, they will be stripped of equipment and refitted using the standard NPC starting wealth and percentages. Followers will remain the same since will we pick up at the same level, so even if Charisma goes up or down based on equipment changes, that won't have an affect until followers are recalculated with the next level up. Animated or created undead are kind of like equipment, so they will be lost but can be repurchased with onyx, and any permanent spells or effects can be placed on them before play resumes.
What else... you will have a base, if you want. The location will need to be stated, and it can be what you were building outside of Verdas, but you don't have to design all the details unless you want to do that. I'm not going to come up with specifications. It just has to be reasonable. Also, you can each have a personal home. It can be in the base or elsewhere.
Right now these ideas are pretty fresh, so who knows what I'll think of them when/if I pick this up again, but the basic gist is to get the PCs on a more "normal/balanced" track in terms of stats and equipment.
The Now
I will still use this board to post questions and ideas about Pathfinder. This last mission had me wondering about a few different elements, and I will bring those up in that thread.
The End
Thanks again to everyone for coming out last night and over the past couple years! I had a lot of fun running this war campaign. It was neat to focus on the combat strategy part of the game, and this set-up gave me the freedom to have an general story arc/theme but still be able to mix in completely new things at times without worrying too much about connecting it to the last adventure or PC motivation. Sometimes a mission did spawn from the previous one, but a few were based off battle scenes from movies or simply built off wanting to use a particular monster and building the rest from there. Also, I liked building the world one piece at a time - an idea I got from Rabbit - so that I could add a new city or terrain around the corner based on my next idea as opposed to requiring the idea to fit into an already established world. And as time went on, everyone helped contribute to the world and mission ideas, and I enjoyed mixing in some non-combat elements as well.
In addition to focusing on the combat side of the game, another major motivation was to try out Pathfinder, and this has certainly given me a good feel for the system. It does have some bumps and vague areas, but I like it and will continue to use it for any other games I run. There are actually a few expansion books, but I will stick with the Core Rulebook and APG.
The Future
War Stories has come to an end, but like many things in D&D, it could be revived at some point. Not in the fall, and I might do some travel in the winter, but maybe in the spring - depending on what other games are happening and player interest.
If we do start up again, it will be with somewhat of a reboot, and this is what I'm thinking... PCs will be stripped of equipment, wealth, military feats and military skill bonuses. This will be a good way to look at the bare bones of the characters, and all stats will remain the same, except for two potential things:
1) The one or two most recent feats can be switched out for one or both military feats that were lost. In fact, this will be necessary if a military feat is a requirement for another feat you still possess. This is a way to keep your military feats if you want or need them, but this is not a way to exchange old feats for new ones.
2) The skills that were military skills will lose their half-level competence bonus, but they will retain whatever ranks were placed into them. However, they will no longer be automatically considered class skills, so you will lose the +3 training bonus if it isn't a class skill for your class. Either way, these skills will be lower than before, but if they don't already have the maximum number of ranks, you can shuffle skill ranks from other skills into your ex-military skills.
Everything else about your build will remain the same. As for equipment... we will use standard starting wealth for Level 16 and the basic starting percentages (25% armor, 25% armor, etc). I have no idea how this will compare to current wealth, but if you can afford it, you can repurchase everything you have now. Maybe even more. Or you could buy completely different equipment if you want to try something new. Also, access to super special magic items like the Deck of Wooden Cards and Zombie Headstone will carryover. The Wyrm Staff is not super special, but Sahme could repurchase it, and in doing so, even tweak it. I'm not sure how treasure will be handled, but I'm pretty sure the Reward Package system will be scrapped. It might just be spoils from battle (and maybe the occasional bonus - i.e. king gives reward for saving princess) with the army treated as the shop (i.e. trade-in items at half price to "buy" new items).
As for minions... Cohorts will remain the same. Their stats will not change. However, they will be stripped of equipment and refitted using the standard NPC starting wealth and percentages. Followers will remain the same since will we pick up at the same level, so even if Charisma goes up or down based on equipment changes, that won't have an affect until followers are recalculated with the next level up. Animated or created undead are kind of like equipment, so they will be lost but can be repurchased with onyx, and any permanent spells or effects can be placed on them before play resumes.
What else... you will have a base, if you want. The location will need to be stated, and it can be what you were building outside of Verdas, but you don't have to design all the details unless you want to do that. I'm not going to come up with specifications. It just has to be reasonable. Also, you can each have a personal home. It can be in the base or elsewhere.
Right now these ideas are pretty fresh, so who knows what I'll think of them when/if I pick this up again, but the basic gist is to get the PCs on a more "normal/balanced" track in terms of stats and equipment.
The Now
I will still use this board to post questions and ideas about Pathfinder. This last mission had me wondering about a few different elements, and I will bring those up in that thread.
