Princes of the Universe D&D 3.5 campaign (Jeremy's game, Fall 2011.)

[captaincommunism]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ8lpCQbyw

There, now that I have your attention,
Okay gents, this here is the Wagnerian I mean queen epic, Princes of the universe D&D 3.5 campaign.

Now, before you start going “Captain Commiechrist, what the hell does that even mean?” well, let me say first of all I'm no kinds of christ figure. And secondly, let me say that this means the following:

→ Anything vaguely queen related, epic in stature or story, anything highlander-esque (*NOT ZEIST.* ANYONE REFERENCING ZEIST WILL IMMEDIATELY HAVE TORRASQUES DROPPED ON THEIR HEADS WITH NO CHANCE TO DODGE, and possibly a knife in their back c/o the rest of the party...) goes. Actually, anything just Highlander-esque goes, provided it comes from the first film, and the first film only...

→ You will play as actual princes of the universe, each going from your own characters' philosophy IN A WAR WITH THE DARKEST POWER........... (sudden guitar crescendo.)

→ You will fight like highlanders, in space and across planes of existence, in various rule of cool feats of awesomeness with possible sean connery cameos.

→ Wagnerian scale in all seriousness is what this is going for. There might well be battles of the gods, perhaps even battles of theologies (Norse pantheon vs. Greek pantheon? Just maybe) – Fucking... any god you can think of from a polytheistic religion goes.

→ That said, the point of each character should be to emphasize the traits of the particular god you're going for. As long as you let me know which god you wanna do, that's probably awesome as long as it's not mary fucking sue. (for those less learned in the wordlyness of TV tropes, A mary sue is somebody good at fucking everything to the point of fucking stupidity and/or rage.)

→ I will even allow you to use fictional gods, Khorne, something out of Cthulu or some shit like that all fine. As long as you keep the fucking flavour. Fucking fuck.

All that said, you might ask “what does this translate into in gaming terms Most Stalinist One?”
Well first off, Stalin's dead. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't like people stealing his thunder. He's a zombie now you see. (SUBJECT SENT OFF TO GULAG)

Just check out these Fine Features, Fancy Dan!
Featuring:

→ Gestalt blade wielding classes. Start at 8th level. What is gestalt you might ask? Well, you take two classes, and combine them into one, taking the best aspects from each. So, Bard + Barbarian = BardBarian (for more information, see unearthed arcana P72. it's an easy process.)

→ Arbitrary challenge ratings. Gestalt is weird, man. There is no good method for giving experience. I'll be giving it more based on merit and awesomeness and “how fucking challenging it was” than anything else.

→ Mandatory backstory writing. Who the hell is your character, and why was he selected to be a prince of the universe, IE, the champion of your particular god? Why do you NEED TO BE THE RULERS OF US ALL?

→ I will do my best from that to work shit into the campaign. NOTE: I MIGHT JUST BE VERY ARBITRARY HERE. YOU HAVE TO FUCKING TRY TO WRITE A GOOD STORY. THIS IS WHY I AM POSTING THIS SO EARLY. SO PUT SOME TIME, EFFORT AND AWESOME INTO IT.
→ Time travelling? Just maybe.

→ Born to be kings. Your power is in your own hands. I'll just let that sink in.

→ Edit: Now featuring Conan and mythos. By Crom!

→ An entire campaign based on queen songs. And wagner. And whatever else tips my fancy. Quite possible world smashing might take place. Anything is possible when the princes of the universe have a night on the town.

→ So, what's the catch then Comrade?
Ah, good, that's a better title. There are a few rules, though you might call them catches.


There are a few restrictions: Blade wielding classes are indeed as described (ELVES DON'T FUCKING COUNT. THAT'S NOT A CLASS. THAT'S A RACE. ANYONE USING JUST ELVES IN ORDER TO GET SWORD PROFICIENCIES OR OTHER SUCH SHENANIGANS WILL BE SENT TO GULAG)
SO, An Elf Wizard/monk is NOT ALLOWED. One caveat though: If your weapon is sufficiently awesome (IE, Warhammer or something similar) I might let you use it. If you smite Loki with Mjolnir while getting eaten by Fafnir or somesuch.

Another restriction is magic using classes → because it'd probably get horridly broken if you were to, say, combine Wizard and artificer or some shit like that, only one (full?)-spellcasting class per character, and only one of those may be a tier one (if you need to know what the hell tiers are, see the following websites:
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=bc18425e5fa73d30e4a9a54889edf44e&topic=1002.0

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5256.0
 – I haven't fully decided what to do about such things as Wizard/duskblades, not that I expect to see any, but regardless, I'll figure something out.

I fully expect people to try to break the game here – please don't. I reserve the right to say “no.” to any character – No pun pun or any such infinite combo bullshit.

Edit: July 24, 2011. No leadership. The party is assumed to have an army of sorts backing them, but they are not the focus of this game. There is wiggle room here, but in general, no cohorts will be granted from this feat.

Lastly, “fullish” knowledge of the rules of D&D is essential. Don't show up expecting a “how do I D&D lesson.” or any shit like that. Being an experienced player here is a must. And I will not be merciful to a player who does not know how grapple or turn undead works the seventh time it is explained to them. There might be a torrasque who is very hungry for such people. “Torrasques fall, the party dies” is something I'd prefer not to have to say.

[The Goliath]

Just a question here, wouldn't this campaign be better suited to a system like exalted or mutants and masterminds? D&D is a nice system but a level 8, even with gestalt abilities might not be EPIC enough for this kind of adventure. If you're having issues with magic characters you could also use the Iron Heroes system which focuses more on swordplay and epic maneuvers (such as badass decapitations) instead of magic missiles and fireballs.

[captaincommunism]

I'll be looking at exalted. right now it is going to be D&D. Also, a clarification: martial weapon proficiency is required. Somehow. because this is fucking highlander. not planning on iron heroes because I want magics to be a part of this campaign.

[Jfan999]

Is this going to be point buy or rolled stats?

Can you give a little more clarification of the setting for back stories?

[captaincommunism]

I think it'll be 32 point buy.
As for setting, it's going to be along the lines of Wagnerian Valhalla (IE, the ring cycle of operas). The princes of the universe will do battle with each other and such, but you've got more or less free reign to say "for this, he granted me the spark of power to become the prince of <blank>" -- write your own backstory how you want, describe your fortress of doom/light/whatever, which immortals you've decapitated, what your favourite Queen song is (now calling them the progenitors, for they are the creators of ludicrous awesome.) (for that matter, you can base yourself on a song by queen. this gets my stamp of awesome.)

Leo has described exalted a bit, and it sounds like it's different than what I'm really going for. This is rule of Serious Cool, not rule of hilarious cool (though that might well be a part of it anyway).
If you have any more questions, just give me a shout.

[Jfan999]

I don't think I'll have time to play but I made a character if anyone wants they can use it.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=312789

[captaincommunism]

Most likely going to run this on tuesdays. to those that are interested: what time is good time? --> I would personally prefer to do it earlier in the day if possible, but if not, that's fine too.

[captaincommunism]

A few more things: No more than 1/3rd of starting gold can be spent on any item. this is a fairly standard rule. as for writing backstories and such, describe how you got your powers (cutting off the heads of immortals? God given powers? Conan-like feats of amazing? Get to it!) if you have any questions, shoot me a message.

[Iron Wall]

Uhm, I would love to create my character but I am lacking the req'd books to do so. Where can I nab 'em?

[RantingRavager]

IIRC Unearthed arcana + Whatever books your class is in.

The rules are easy.  TAKE TWO CLASSES AND MASH THEM THE FUCK TOGETHER!  Best of both worlds baby!  BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.

[GoatBoy]

The rules are slightly more complicated. Take the better of the two class's attack bonus, hit die, skill ranks, and save progression. Take the class features of each, and any skill considered in-class for one is now in-class for both. Only one class per level may be a prestige class. "Theurge"-type (dual progression) prestige classes are discouraged since players will already have an abundance of options. Stipulations such as alignment restrictions or arcane spell failure due to armour are still in effect.

Full rules here: http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/unearthedGestalt.html

There are no official rulings on subjects like level-adjusted races, but you can presumably use them as if they were class levels.

There are also no new rules in regards to favoured classes, but my suggestion would be as such: don't even try. It is advised to completely ignore the rules for favoured classes.

[GoatBoy]

Can I pick an Iron Maiden song instead of Queen?

Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name (Studio Version)

Can I use a scythe instead of a sword?

Can I use animate dead to create horrible undead minions?

[captaincommunism]

scythe's fine, iron maiden's fine, animate dead is fine as long as it doesn't slow combat down too much (IE, just have a limited/reasonable number of skeletons etc.)

[GoatBoy]

All done:

Maloch Anathem - LE Half-celestial human Paladin/Cleric/Crusader/Bone Knight

Couple more in case I decide I don't like this one, or if anyone else needs some ideas:

Kraunim Tiirne - LN Drow Wizard/Duskblade/Swiftblade

Knokker Chim-chim - N Kobold Bard/Rogue/Swashbuckler

[captaincommunism]

Alrighty. I think we'll start this on Tuesday the 13th of september. that's not this tuesday, but next tuesday. still not entirely sure who's all playing in this. speak now or forever hold your peace.

[Gaming]

Summer 2013:

View Calendar

There aren't any users online.