Pain of Campaigning: XIX Getting My Hands Dirty

Last week I dealt with brainstorming for my military-based high fatality huge party epic campaign. This week, I’m going to elaborate on a few of the underlying concepts for the campaign. What follows are my preliminary rules/fluff for the game, subject to further consideration and reader feedback.

A Word on Magic: In my game world (this is in fact a MASSIVE prequel to the games my friends have been playing in since the seventh grade) I’ve held to a simple rule regarding magic and new spells: unusual circumstances allow for more powerful magic. It sets a tone for magic, in that if an NPC wants to use a spell to cause the apocalypse it’s going to have some steep requirements, such as the souls of thousands of innocents or a unique astrological event. In the past, PCs rarely have performed this kind of plot magic, though I’m not opposed to the idea. However, it colors the effects of the Magical Prophecy that fuels a bit of the plot and acts as an implicit promise that I won’t just massively overhaul the world with a huge spell out of nowhere.

The Prophecy: Although the first adventure is still coalescing, the background to the game is coming along nicely. Essentially, only nineteen small villages remain in the wake of a cataclysmic attack by the marauding “Fesh” on legendary city of Aurum. A preliminary report has the surviving attackers numbering 1900 “profanes” (i.e. Monsters). Each of the 19 Village Elders are accomplished spell casters. They assess realize the only thing they have to hang their magical hat on is the 19 numerology. True, it’s a bit of a stretch of fortune, but it’s coincidental enough to not be truly logic-defying. They craft an incantation-turned-prophecy to buy time and hope that there magic is strong enough. Their intention is to create a barrier to save their villages, the rest of their prophecy represents more of a wish list, initially. As it turns out, their blood sacrifice and the “19” numerology turns out to have enough power that the prophecy becomes an entity of itself, assisting the villagers and their champions (the PCs). Without further adieu, the Prophecy in question:

The XIX Prophecy
On the Eve of the Birth
Of the 190,000^th
Heroes Emerge from Scorched Earth
Of the Number Nineteen
Each path eldritch or Mundane
Answer to slaughter against their Name
Nineteen Towns the soul Survivors
Blood of the First Born
Barrier ‘gainst threats most Dire
Solace to those battle Torn
Nineteen Months it Shall Stand
Nineteen Heroes in a Fallen Land
Nineteen towns soon to Fade
Nineteen Harmonies to Aid
Heroes that would Fight
Against Fesh and its Blight
To Save the tattered Remains
Or else be reduced to Chains
By Nineteen Hundred Profanes

Design Objectives for the Nineteen Harmonies: Fluff-wise the Harmonies are 19 boons for the players when they select specific groups of characters for a mission. My goal was to make unusual adventuring groups viable, reward synergistic party relationships, and address some likely deficiencies typical adventuring parties would have in a military setting. Moreover, I wanted to give each “family” of Harmonies a distinct flavor, reward unusual composition, and encourage the use a diverse set of characters in the campaign. Each Harmony is activated based on a four man party, which means others can tag along and mooch so long as four characters achieve a Harmony. As such, there need not be any ‘balance’ between these Harmonies, they just need to be interesting enough that PCs want to use them and not so good as to totally make the party overpowering.

The Nineteen Harmonies: Successful use of a harmony on an adventure awards 250XP per Tier and 500 GP (possibly scaled each tier) to each character in the campaign.

1. Martial Squad: (Four Martial Classes)
   • 1/Enc: Each Member may reroll damage
2. Arcane Squad: (Four Arcane Classes)
   • Resist: 5 Energy Type of Choice (stacks with previous resistance)
3. Primal Squad: (Four Primal Classes)
   • Ignore Difficult Natural Terrain For Movement Purposes
4. Divine Squad: (Four Divine Classes)
   • +3 HP on any healing
5. Power in Diversity: (Four Different Power Sources)
   • Each PC: +1 to Defense of Choice
6. Defender Squad: (Four Defender Classes)
   • 1/Enc: Party chooses Hunter’s Quarry or Sneak Attack at the start of any encounter.
   • 1/Turn: One teammate a turn may use chosen ability.
7. Leader Squad: (Four Leader Classes)
   • 1/Turn: Team Member may Mark a Monster he attacks.
8. Striker Squad: (Four Striker Classes)
   • 1/Turn: Team Member May Use Second Wind as Move Action
9. Controller Squad: (Three Controller Classes)
   • 1/Turn: Team Member May Shift as a Minor Action
10. Balanced Team: (All Four Class Roles)
    • 1/Turn: One character may treat an encounter power as reliable.
11. Language Bound: (Shared Non-Common Language Speakers)
    • Special “Battle Tongue” that none outside the party can understand
12. Diversity Team: (Four Different Race Types)
    • Ability to understand all language w/ minor action concentration
13. Pure Blood: (Groups Apply to #12)
    • All Racial Encounter Powers may be swapped with the owner’s permission (still only apply 1/Enc. Total). In the case of humans, simply replicate either Half Dilettante or Half Orc power.
      • Human: Human, Half Elf, Half Orc
      • Fey: Elf, Eladrin, Gnome, Dark Elf
      • Rock: Dwarf, Goliath
      • Planar: Genasai, Deva, Tiefling
      • Misfits: Halfling, Shifter, Dragonborn
14. Light Foot Squad: (No Armor Above Light)
    • +Gain temporary training in Hide or Perception. If already trained, choose a +2 bonus to one.
15. Heavy Metal: (All Medium or Above)
    • Ignore (-1) Armor Check
16. Martial Prowess: (All Martial Weapons)
    • +1 AC to all Party
17. Simple Soldiers (No Martial Weapons)
    • +1 To Hit to all Party
18. Magicked Up: (All Party Members Have Magic Items)
    • Should any magic item be lost, any PC can make an Arcana Check (DC: Magic Item Level + 10) to discern its location.
19. No Magic: (No Party Members Have Magic Items; only applies to characters without magic items)
    • Each PC may choose to give one stat a +6 Enhancement bonus for the adventure.

Conclusion: So, there you have it, a pretty extensive post previewing the underlying concepts of my game. The Prophecy is serviceable and it rhymes, but I never particularly like my own poetry. Some of the Harmonies don’t seem quite right to me yet (particularly #10), and there’s definitely room to approve some of the wording, but overall I’m very satisfied with my progress.