http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/blog.php/18517-Hey-I-Can-Chan Pen and Paper Games hosts a very powerful, but easy to seach and join database of players and game masters in the United States and Canada. Our forums are also a great place to find the most recent news, product releases, tips, and rpg discussion. en Thu, 23 May 2013 06:14:54 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/pnpg_style/misc/rss.jpg http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/blog.php/18517-Hey-I-Can-Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1765-General-DMing-Style Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:12:58 GMT I build a world framework. You help make that world real. I build the kind of world in which I’d like to adventure because my NPCs are adventuring... I build a world framework. You help make that world real. I build the kind of world in which I’d like to adventure because my NPCs are adventuring there. You then help make it into the kind of world in which you want to adventure by making choices about what happens.

I never have a PC when I DM. You are players. You have player characters. I’m the DM; I have all the non-player characters. I don’t need a PC to make me feel connected to the world or point you in the right direction. I made the world. They’re all right directions.

I run a sandbox-style game, but with plots happening all around you. You can choose to get involved with them or forge your own way. But things happen when you’re not around, and ignoring a plot doesn’t make it go away; instead, it means the campaign world will change because you didn’t get involved as much as it will change because you did.

I don’t expect the world to survive the campaign. I don’t expect NPCs to survive the campaign. I expect you to raze cities and murder NPCs. Don’t worry about them; I’ll make more. I have infinite resources for regeneration.

You should make character choices based on the kind of game you want you be in. If you take as your feat Weapon Focus, I’ll assume you want more combat. If you take an item creation feat, I assume you want more detail on that. And so on. Every choice you make tells me something about the campaign world and its shifting focus. But it’s also up to you to use what you have to solve problems. I don’t design problems specifically so your abilities will solve them; I set up situations, you solve them with your abilities.

I expect you to be smart. My NPCs will be smart (when that’s appropriate). It’s rare, but I might give you actual real-life challenges like puzzles and riddles that need solving with on your own brain power rather than a series of die rolls; I know that’s kind of shitty and takes power away from your character sheet, but I also know it can be interesting and entertaining and make for some good storytelling. In such cases, I’ll sometimes employ an intermediary—like the wife or the boy—to stand in for the world while I play an NPC if the challenge is a competitive one so as to even the playing field.

I don’t railroad. I’ve have an outline of what the antagonists are doing while you’re doing what you’re doing, and you tend to cross paths with the antagonists, but if you don’t care, so be it. If you want to go off the rails, that’s great: you can’t. There are no rails. Do what you want.

I’m tightfisted, but not unreasonably so. The game’s advancement scheme means that encountering treasure is less frequent than leveling up. You’re going to be poor, but your character’s going to be badass, so that makes up for it. You won’t feel it until you’re third level and still tracking copper pieces. That usually means you’re going too slow not that I am.

Don’t try to con me. If you want to do something, let’s talk about it. If you’re picking something because there’s a rules interpretation out there that you want to exploit, don’t spring it on me. Talk to me. Make sure we agree before you choose something upon which reasonable people disagree. I am an extremely liberal DM, but I’m not a goldfish. I think the rules are there for a reason, and sometimes shit doesn’t do what you think it does, and sometimes shit doesn’t do what I think it does.

Above all: Talk to me. I can’t game without you. ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1765-General-DMing-Style http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1764-The-Islands-Spellcasting Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:43:48 GMT (Note: This is ultra-crunchy. So if you were following along hoping for more world info, you're going to have to wait until the next entry.)

Spellcasting
All PCs have the Spells class feature. It looks like this:

Spells: You can cast spells. Your Spells Known are on Table [x].2: [class name] Spells Known. [ability] governs your spellcasting.

Yeah, that’s the whole thing. And here’s the skinny.

Divine Spells: You cast divine spells because divine spellcasting is quantitatively better than arcane spellcasting. There is no chance of arcane spell failure for divine spells. Expensive material components and foci sometimes aren’t even an issue (Player’s Handbook 174). Regaining spells is more convenient. You do need to get a divine focus, but this divine focus can be anything, not just a generic Player’s Handbook wooden or silver holy symbol. It can’t be a weapon, shield, armor, attached body part, or anything permanently stuck to you, and it must be something held in one hand. Damn, dude, get a lanyard and sling your symbol to your wrist if you’re worried about dropping your sacred tankard or whatever.

Minimum Ability Score: Your governing ability must be at least 10 + the spell’s level for you to cast a spell of that level at all; if your governing ability score is lower than that—for whatever reason—you can’t cast that spell. You should have your spellcasting stat be at least 11 at level 1, 12 by level 3, 13 by level 6, 14 by level 9, 15 by level 12, 16 by level 15, and 17 by level 18. You should want your spellcasting stat high anyway; it’s probably important to your class in other ways. But if you want to start with your spellcasting stat at 12 and apply all your level-up bonuses to it so you can just barely cast your spells, the DM won’t stop you. The other players might look at you like you’re an idiot, but, hey, screw them: It’s your character.

Spells Per Day: You can normally only cast 2 spells of your highest spell level per day and 4 spells of your second-highest spell level per day. Your highest level spell is 1 at level 1 and increases by 1 at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18.

Lower-level Spells: Once a spell level is neither your highest spell level nor your second-highest spell level, you can use any spell of that spell level at will as a spell-like ability (which means it still provokes attacks of opportunity (Player’s Handbook 141) but doesn’t have verbal, somatic, or material components; require a focus; or have an XP cost). You can still cast these lower level spells instead.

If it matters, when an effect (like a feat or spell) checks, you are considered to have exactly 0 and infinite unused divine spell slots at each level to cast these lower-level spells, and exactly 0 and infinite Spells Per Day for casting these spells, whichever is least advantageous for whatever’s checking.

I know that’s counterintuitive, but some things mess with this, and I don’t want to deal with them (I’m looking at you, the Arcane Strike feat, you asshole).

For ease of reference, I’m calling spells you can cast this way Ω spells, so that way I can just say, “At level 3 your 0th-level spells are Ω spells.”

Your Ω spells are available to cast. This is so you can take reserve feats. If something else taps this mechanic on the shoulder and knees it in the nuts, let me know.

Bonus Spells: If your governing ability is 12, you can cast 1 additional spell per day of your second-highest spell level and 1 additional spell per day of your second highest spell level per 4 points after 12 (i.e. 2 additional at 16, 3 additional at 20, etc.). If your governing ability is 14, you can cast 1 additional spell per day of your highest spell level and 1 additional spell per day of your highest spell level per 4 points after 14 (i.e. 2 additional at 18, 3 additional at 22, etc.). So if you put an 18 in your casting stat, you can cast 6 0th-level spells and 4 1st-level spells per day.

Saving Throw DCs: The saving throw DC of your spells is equal to 10 + the spell’s spell level + your governing ability modifier.

Regaining Spells: You spend 1 hour in the morning meditating, screaming Screw you at the sky, masturbating furiously, fixing your hair, watering your plants, reading the newspaper, having a few drinks, or whatever ritual you dream up and you get back spell slots you used the previous day, if any. Yes, oodles of shenanigans exist for messing with this, but if you don’t travel to planes where time passes ultra-quickly so you can regain spells more often, I will avoid having you accidentally sleep through your spell-regaining hour and be boned for the day.

Spells Aren’t Prepared: Your Spells Known and your spell list are the same; you know and cast your spells from a list dictated by your class. You can cast any spell on that list without preparation. However, because Skip Williams hates sorcerers, a restriction applies to this: spells cast without preparation affected by metamagic feats take longer to cast (Player’s Handbook 88). We say no on that shit. If you have a metamagic feat and want to apply its effects to a spell, compute the new spell level, and, if you can cast it, you cast it at the usual casting time. Further, if you apply a metamagic feat to a Ω spell and doing so doesn’t push the spell level into the your second-highest or highest spell level, you can cast that metamagic-ed spell with its normal casting time. If, after the metamagic feat’s applied, the spell’s spell level goes up to your second-highest or highest spell level, you have to use one of your spells per day to cast it. So it goes.

Feats and shit that add divine spells to your spell list (not that just add cleric spells to your cleric spell list!) also add the same spells to your Spells Known and vice-versa. These spells are added to your spell list or spells known at whatever level the feat or ability says to add them at, however, and this is probably higher than what my game would’ve added them at. That’s another price for the versatility (the first being whatever got you those spells). Further, if you are granted 8th-level or 9th-level spells, those are on your spell list and your Spells Known, you just can’t cast them because you don’t get 8th-level and 9th-level slots. Unless you somehow weasel into that too, genius.

Universal Spells: All PCs have the following spells in addition to whatever spells are on their Spells Known list.

Table 1.1: Spells Everyone Gets
0th—arcane mark, detect magic, prestidigitation, read magic.
1st—summon component (Complete Mage 118), summon holy symbol (Complete Champion 128).
3rd—dispel magic.
4th—freedom of movement.
5th—contingency, greater dispel magic.

Your prestidigitation spell has a special effect based on your class. The betrayer’s prestidigitation is bleak and creepy, accompanied by ominous strings. The dragon’s is awesome and bigger than it needs to be, accompanied by crashing symbols and beating drums. The fist’s is needlessly violent, accompanied by drunken, unintelligible singing. The scoundrel’s is darkly funny, accompanied by nervous canned laughter. The gnome’s is smoothly mechanical, smells like a wet badger, and is accompanied by a 1980s keyboard ostinato. The martyr’s is bright and shiny, accompanied by a brief but loud full choir. The shootist’s always looks like it’s done close up, in slow-motion, and at a weird angle, accompanied by an acoustic guitar strum.

No, there’s no martyr or shootist yet. But there can be.

I never would, but you can suppress and renew your prestidigitation spell’s special effect at will during the spell’s duration. This is not an action.

Table 1.2: PC Spellcasting Advancement

Level Spells Per Day
1-2 You can cast 2 1st-level and 4 0th-level spells per day.
3-5 You can cast 2 2nd-level and 4 1st-level spells per day and all of your 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.
6-8 You can cast 2 3rd-level and 4 2nd-level spells per day and all of your 1st-level and 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.
9-11 You can cast 2 4th-level and 4 3rd-level spells per day and all of your 2nd-level, 1st-level, and 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.
12-14 You can cast 2 5th-level and 4 4th-level spells per day and all of your 3rd-level, 2nd-level, 1st-level, and 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.
15-17 You can cast 2 6th-level and 4 5th-level spells per day and all of your 4th-level, 3rd-level, 2nd-level, 1st-level, and 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.
18-20 You can cast 2 7th-level and 4 6th-level spells per day and all of your 5th-level, 4th-level, 3rd-level, 2nd-level, 1st-level, and 0th-level spells can be cast any number of times per day or be used as spell-like abilities at will.

Once you hit level 3 when you can use your 0th-level spells as spell-like abilities at will you’re going to have spells on your spell list that you’ll want to have on all the damn time because you can. These are, essentially, baked in class features that I expect you to have on all the time, especially if the duration of such spells is 1 minute per level or longer. Stopping what you’re doing every 10 minutes to spend 6 seconds staring into space isn’t that big of a deal, although it will be obvious to onlooker that you’re either doing something or retarded. However, spells and spell-like abilities with durations of 1 round per level must be used when the time comes; maintaining those all the damn time is too great a burden for even your characters.

As per our Gentlemen's Agreement, you can have all your 1-hour-or-longer duration Ω spells cast all the time, and you can have 1 1-minute-per-level duration Ω spell cast all the time per character level.

(Note: Before you judge, you've not seen any spell lists. I comb through just about every book for just the right spells for each class, and then pick 8 each for 0th, 1st, and 2nd; 6 each for 3rd, 4th, and 5th; and 4 each for 6th and 7th. The casting of low-level spells at will just about eliminates the 15-min. workday that plagues 3.5. Making them all divine spells means everyone can wear armor because, well, armor is cool. Just making a list of what you've got always on prevents anyone from trying to pull shenanigans that will make such a thing happen anyway. The system is playable and fun, and once you use it and then have to go back to having your Wiz9 keep a tally of his 0th-level spells, you'll want to use it, too.)

Next: Campaign Style (or, "Sandbox? Seriously?") ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1764-The-Islands-Spellcasting http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1763-The-Islands-House-Rules Sat, 15 Sep 2012 19:00:10 GMT *You Play Your Gender:* If you are male, you’re character’s male. If you’re female, you’re character’s female. Things are easier on me that way. ... You Play Your Gender: If you are male, you’re character’s male. If you’re female, you’re character’s female. Things are easier on me that way.

Ability Scores: Your ability scores are 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18, arranged how you want. Okay, Jason, so you don’t want an 8. Fair enough. Anyone can instead choose 10, 10, 12, 14, 16, 16. I guess if you wanted to you could go 10, 12, 12, 14, 14, 16 or even 12, 12, 12, 14, 14, 14. I’m not sure why you’d want to—this is Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, after all—, but any of those are options for everyone.

You can’t begin play at an age greater than middle age −10% (Player’s Handbook 109). This avoids age shenanigans and willful extremism (“I want to be venerable with Str 5 and Int 21!”).

Open Locks: The Disable Device skill includes the Open Locks skill. All references to the Open Locks skill instead reference the Disable Device skill when the Disable Device skill is used to open locks. I don’t want to have to decide what’s a lock and what’s a device and have it really matter.

Precision Damage: Precision damage applies only to living creatures with discernible anatomies—constructs, oozes, undead, plants, and incorporeal creatures lack vital areas to attack. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is invulnerable to precision damage. Precision damage isn’t multiplied on a critical hit. This is probably quantified somewhere, but it’s here because it’s important. This is a mechanical decision to make writing easier. Sneak attack and skirmish damage is precision damage; favored enemy damage isn’t—favored enemy damage is I-hate-those-assholes damage (seriously, that’s actually not a house rule—I’m just clarifying).

Item Creation Feats: When you take an item creation feat as a permanent feat (i.e. the feat doesn’t go away when you regain spells or is granted by a magic item or spell or whatever), you gain an XP pool of 25 XP × your level when you gained the feat. You can spend this XP only for creating items with your permanent item creation feats. You can spend your XP instead of or in addition or in any combination with XP your item creation XP pool.

Some Spells and Effects Aren’t Banned, But…: PCs have access to very few I-get-to-pick-what-appears illusion spells (e.g. silent image), no spells that allow I-get-to-pick-what-I-change-into shapechaging (e.g. alter self or polymorph), very few high-level long-distance travel spells (e.g. plane shift, teleport), very few spells that allow long-distance spying (e.g. scrying), almost no spells that grant invisibility (e.g. invisibility, greater invisibility), almost no spells that do nothing but change your size category (e.g. enlarge person), and no spells that create areas of silence (e.g. silence and suspended silence) or darkness. Spells that bring other creatures onto the battlefield are also limited. I had bad experiences with these spells, trouble playing a game with these spells being commonplace, or know how hard it is to adjudicate their effects because they’re poorly written. You can still, during play, access these spells (such as through magic items or careful feat selection or knowing a dude who can cast them), and your opponents might have access to them, but I’m not going to give them, at least in quantity, to your class. It’d be really cool if you respected my decision to try to keep them out of the PCs’ grubby hands, but if you feel that you must have them, seek them out. Just be prepared to bring with you all of the books, errata, Sage Advice columns, rulings, and FAQs that are associated with them so we can work out how they should be gamed together.

If you have or gain access to a spell I don’t like (even if I gave it to you), be prepared for me to play the spell to absolute letter of the rules. Also, be prepared to solve any problems I would have with the spell—if you have considered beyond-the-obvious counters to it, let me know. Finally: I have the world to manage; you have one PC. I can’t have your single trick monopoloize the spotlight. If you can turn into, for example, an itty-bitty fish, you should have an itty-bitty fish stat block prepared before you hit the table, along with page references so I can anal retentively make sure you’re right. Same thing for complex effects like invisibility and charms. I don’t want the game slowed because you don’t understand what you can do.

“Can I Get This?”: My default answer is yes. That’s my superpower as Dungeon Master—the ability to say yes. Everyone else at the table can sigh and tell you, “Hell no, nobody would ever let you have that!” or, “Holy shit, that’s going to totally snap the game!” and I will still say yes. I will ask you, however, why you want something. If you want something because it leads you to something else, tell me what that is, and let’s discuss that instead. If you want something because you want to break the game with it, tell me how you plan to break the game with it so I can plan for that and figure out why no one has ever done it before. If you want something because it will give you an absurd unbeatable numerical bonus, explain to me why you want that—I mean, do you really want your character to be invulnerable? Why is that fun for you? What sort of adventures does an invulnerable character have? You could just play video games—with save points and restarts—by yourself instead of hanging out with us. If you’re going to rule the campaign world with what you pick, you can do that, but what stories can be told about after that?

I know it sounds geeky, but whenever your character gets something, that something should lend itself to telling more and bigger stories. That’s really what we do at the table. I don’t want to have to say no. Saying no means that you had something in mind—had an image for your character—that I have just squashed, and you only get that one character while I get the whole damn world. It’s inherently unfair for me to limit you. But it’s also unfair for you to choose to make the game less fun. Pick things that are fun. Pick things that tell bigger stories. Don’t just chase numbers.

Remember: You're not multiclassing; your custom class should do everything you want it to do without the need for multiclassing, so the choices you make are things like feats, allocation of skill ranks, selectable class features (every class has some), skill tricks, and sometimes spells. If you want to multiclass to get some class feature your class doesn't have because that multiclassing class feature fits your concept, let's fold it into your class instead.

Psionics, Action Points, Auras, Chakras, Essentia, Invocations, Martial Maneuvers, Mysteries, and Other Piles: I have no particular bias against things unmentioned in these rules, but I don’t know them that well, so many classes don’t do anything with them. If you really want to incorporate one of these other piles into your character, I’m not adverse, but you have to find a way to do so on your own, and you’re going to have to explain the rules to me and how those rules interact with everything else in the game. Usually, each pile has a way for you to get a few benefits from the pile using your feats—if that’s how you want to go, rock on. Just try to keep it fun.

If there’s something reasonable that you want to do that can only be done with more than a passing dip into a pile, let’s find a way. If we can’t, I’ll just make shit up.

Leveling Up: You gain 1 level for every 4 session in which you participate. The game skews to the highest level PC at the table, and for every level you're below that, the value of the session increases by 1 for your PC. For example, if 1 PC is level 4 and another is level 1, the level 1 PC's session counts as 4 sessions, and he'd level up at the end of it. In other words, you'll catch up rapidly if you're behind, but you still gotta tough it out. I'd prefer everyone start at level 1 even if the group's way beyond that, but that's something that can be discussed at the table.

Useful References: There are different kinds of special abilities—extraordinary, spell-like, supernatural, and natural (Player’s Handbook 141 and 180, Dungeon Master’s Guide 289). Things with no Ex, Sp, or Su tags are natural abilities.

Next: Spellcasting (spoiler: All PCs cast spells.) ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1763-The-Islands-House-Rules http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1762-The-Islands-Characters Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:07:48 GMT *The Characters* Characters are unique to the player and, often, the campaign. I don’t want you to sit down at the table and think, “You know, the... The Characters
Characters are unique to the player and, often, the campaign. I don’t want you to sit down at the table and think, “You know, the next fighter we encounter could be me.” And I certainly don’t want you to be outclassed by an NPC that I, purely by accident, made more effective than you made your character. That’s shitty policy in a role-playing game of high fantasy adventure.

So your character is special.

You tell me what you want to do, and I build your character class.

When I say, “You tell me what you want to do,” I don’t mean in a mechanical, numbers-oriented kind of way. I want you to have an idea of what kind of character you want to play on a wholly narrative level. I want you to think about the novel that would be written about that character and the cool shit he’d do, and tell me that. And then I’ll make that happen. You also need to consider what your endgame character looks like—at the campaign’s near conclusion, when all the stops are pulled out, what does your character do? Let’s do that. Let’s make that happen.

I like high adventure. I like being a fan of the PCs. I don’t like you having to muddle through, doing things you don’t want to do because they’re more effective than doing the things you want to do. Playing any class means you’ve changed the rules. If what you want to do is mechanically unsound but awesome, let’s make it mechanically sound instead of forcing you to lump it.

But there needs to be some kind of concept behind it, and you should be able to summarize that concept in terms of archetype (“I want to be the brawler”) or action (“I want to poison God”). If you can’t, then you’re not thinking large enough. Your class should occupy significant conceptual space in the campaign, wherein I have to move things around that are already in it to accommodate you. It needs to be big enough to fill 100 episodes of a television series. If you wouldn’t watch 5 seasons about your character, why would you want to play that character for 5 seasons?

Have you read astral spell? At level 17, a wizard or cleric is, essentially, immortal for a pittance. The game has 3 levels left, and the wizard or cleric can’t die. Consider that when you consider your end game.

Thanks for trusting me with your class. I will make mistakes that we’ll need to talk about. That happens when you try to customize anything, so be open when I inevitably say, “Wow, I didn’t realize you were going to do that with that. We have to tone that down.” It’s not because I don’t want you to be powerful or effective. It’s that I want you to have a good time, and you’ll have more fun if the campaign can punch back, and I want other people to have fun; if your special abilities are spotlight hogging, no one else gets to be cool. That’s the crux of this exercise: everyone should be equally cool for just as long.

Oh, yeah, you’re human (unless your class is something special like being the ultimate gnome or something), and you don’t multiclass. If you’re not excited about just gaining your next level of your class, or you’re dreading the slog of having to gain 3 or 5 levels until you’re cool again, I’ve built your class wrong. Let me know if that’s the case, and we’ll change things around. You should feel awesome every level. Most games don’t run until level 20. Playing in a game wherein you’re a chump until you’re cool is stupid.

Current Characters
The Betrayer: I want to poison gods.
The Dragon: I want to become dragons.
The Fist: I want to punch everything.
The Gnome: I want to gnome a lot.
The Scoundrel: I want to be luck.

Note: This is not a debate--not even a formal one, wherein rather than trying to convince me you're trying to convince the (very small) audience--where you explain that my fun is wrong. You might not like this; you might think the D&D 3.5e fighter is just as viable as the 3.5e druid. That's an opinion; keep it. Instead, deal with the idea that this is how my game goes and people have been having fun playing it.

Next: House rules. ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1762-The-Islands-Characters http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1760-The-Islands-The-New-World-Part-2 Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:31:24 GMT *“What Do I Know about Where We Are?”* You know that Clenchwarton is the primary power in the islands; when you see a ship, it’ll probably be a... “What Do I Know about Where We Are?”
You know that Clenchwarton is the primary power in the islands; when you see a ship, it’ll probably be a Clenchwart vessel. You know that Clenchwarton nominally shares the responsibility with Waclaw for overseeing the largest city in the islands; they are both imperialist powers seeking conquest and resources and hoping to one-up and outdo each other. Pitting them against each other, especially on this kind of scale where it could actually matter, might even make a difference to the people back home… if word ever reached them.

You know that Fǔshùnese sailors kidnap people, and you’ve heard why. So that’s a little scary. You have heard that Fǔshùnese sailors sometimes entrap the unwary using attractive people as lures. That’s kind of scary, too. The Mastooran are courageous if sometimes foolhardy sailors who take extraordinary risks merely to brag later. They also just lie. A lot. The Kébéme are scared of something called The Witch, but She doesn’t seem to have a presence on the islands, and that makes any Kébéme very happy to be here. And a Langwarrin? How the hell did any of them get here? They’re all criminals and mad men. Best to stay away from them.

Besides that, the islands have indigenous peoples. They’re pleasant enough. They have welcomed the visitors with open arms. The women are Pacific Islander beautiful. The men are Pacific Islander handsome. They worship strange idols in private services, and sometimes people that stay with them for longer than a few days disappear, but that happens all the time in places like this.

There are ancient ruins on many islands. These are trap-filled monster dens into which only the bravest go. Those who do survive sometimes emerge with great riches and objects of power unseen since the legendary past. Others emerge with weird diseases and gray hair. You take your chances.

To make things easier on me, as I know jack shit about sailing, everything is measured in time. For mental reference, everyone is coming to the islands from the west, thus sailing east. You know that it’s about 6 months on a meandering course from Clenchwarton or Waclaw to the islands, 5 months if anyone were to sail the meandering course from Kébéme to the islands, 3 months to sail straight from Mastoorah to the islands, and about 2 months to sail southeast or northeast from Fǔshùn or Langwarrin, respectively, to the islands. In all cases, that’s to sail to the nearest, southernmost tip of the islands, which is lightly peopled and heavily monstered, but nonetheless a source of fresh water if a ship’s cleric or druid has died en route.

The first community anyone reaches is the port of Sabang (pop. 1,007) on the island of Kelor. Everyone uses native names to refer to islands and settlements because no one can agree to call them anything else.

Sabang is probably where you’ll end up, so that’s all you really have to care about right now.

To sail to the northernmost islands—with ice floes in the distance—takes 3 months from Kelor. To go as far east as you possibly can, to the last tiny island until there’s nothing but water and water forever until the edge of the world, takes 3 months from Kelor. Travel between islands usually takes from a day to a week, but sometimes longer to get to isolated places.

So, you as a player asks, “Why doesn’t anyone just sail west?” I don’t know, man. I just don’t know.

Languages
Clenchwarton and Langwarrin, obviously, share a language. Fǔshùn, Mastoorah, and Waclaw have different languages from everyone else. You get the language where you’re from and Common for free. And so does everyone else.

Kébéme has a hundred different languages, and if you’re from Kébéme you know only 1. List the number of Kébéme languages you know on your character sheet. Then, when you encounter another Kébéme, you’ll roll 1d100. If you roll under the number of Kébéme languages you know, you speak the same Kébéme language as another Kébéme speaker. Congratulations. But, fortunately, even as a Kébéme, you get Common for free. Frequent contact with foreigners and all that.

Most of the islanders only get the language of the island that they’re from. And there are thousands of islands. Usually, though, there’s at least one among them who can speak Common. Usually. And sometimes one or two will speak Sylvan, which is pretty rare among those from the old world, but it’s out there.

For flavor, a Clenchwart (and, by extension, a Langwarriner) should consider taking Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, and Terran (yes, the evil Welsh gargoyles speak Terran, Reuben). A Waclavian should consider taking Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, and Gnome. A Mastooran should consider taking Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Ignan, and Terran (genies are based on the elements, after all). A Fǔshùnese should consider taking Draconic, Elven, Gnoll, Goblin, and Orc. A Kébéme should consider taking Abyssal, Celestial, Elven, Halfling, and Infernal.

Religion
So there are three Churches of the Dragon. The original Church of the Dragon is the Waclavian Church of the Dragon, Dexter, whose seal has the dragon facing right, while the schismatic one is the Clenchwart Church of the Dragon, Sinister, whose seal has the dragon facing left. The Mastooran Church of the Dragon, Passant, has the dragon on all fours, facing right (if you care).

About 200 years ago, the Church of the Dragon split between the Dexter and Sinister. Greed, mainly. The Sinister Church is liberal, while the Dexter is conservative. The Passant Church went crazy for another desert prophet 500 years ago (all the prophets in the Church of the Dragon mythology come from the desert) and has been going its own wacky way ever since. To the Dexter and Sinister the Passant prophet was a charlatan. To the Passant, he was the Second Coming, and now they’re waiting for the Third Coming and, hence, the apocalypse.

Arumdinans think this whole dragon thing is bullshit. Arumdinan clerical spells still work, so their gods aren’t dead, and everyone else can believe whatever they want. Followers of the Church of the Dragon—all of them—think the little bastards are stealing power from the Dragon Himself and therefore don’t like them very much.

The Fǔshùnese worship the Emperor, and they get spells. That’s a little scary to the Church of the Dragon folk. And the Kébéme try to make their gods go away, yet they still get spells. That scares the leaders of all the Churches of the Dragon a whole lot.

Next: Characters ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1760-The-Islands-The-New-World-Part-2 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1759-The-Islands-The-New-World-Part-1 Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:46:37 GMT * The New World* The new world is lush and beautiful, yet with untold promise comes terrible danger. The new world sparkles but darkly. And the old...
The New World
The new world is lush and beautiful, yet with untold promise comes terrible danger. The new world sparkles but darkly. And the old world wants it.

Your character can’t be from the new world. You start play here, yes, but you didn’t start here. The issue is one of cognitive disconnect: If only one PC were to be from the islands, I’d have to give that one player all the information he would have and not give it to everyone else and then play a different game with that one player. Or I have to give all the information to everyone and then tell everyone but that one player whose PC is from the islands to forget they had that information. Those are both too hard. So, no, you can’t be a native. You’ve to learn about the islands like everyone else.

That said, you ask…

“How Did I Get Here?”
The short answer: On something that floats.

The long answer: Pick one from below or make up your own. Develop it in your head or write it down. Keep it to yourself or share it with everyone. But be prepared to share at the table when your time comes. Surprise everyone, even yourself, but be prepared to work in someone else if they have a similar idea. But beware: Your story must end up with you on a Clenchwart ship in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm. In what position is up to you; anything but captain is fine.

• The navy needed marines. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
• Courtiers are liars. Especially when they’re after your girl.
• The merchant’s offer was impossible to refuse. So you didn’t.
• It was this or another day in the factories. This should have been better.
• Everything was fine until the death ship showed up.
• Genies make poor navigators, and they won’t fight dragon turtles.
• The Emperor needs food! Badly! Let’s round up some savages!
• The Celestial Bureaucracy doesn’t believe in orc pirates. You do.
• The Witch must have made your parents sell you to the foreigners.
• It’s not that long of a walk from the jungle to the desert.
• You see all kinds of crazy things after seven weeks on a raft.
• If you motivate a hundred lunatics, they can take a Clenchwart ship.

And now that you’ve got that figured out, you ask…

Next: “What Do I Know about Where We Are?” ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1759-The-Islands-The-New-World-Part-1 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1758-The-Islands-Langwarrin-and-Other-Places Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:05:11 GMT * Langwarrin* The leader of Langwarrin (pronounced lan-GWOR-rin) is President Judas Pearcedale, a friendly enough sort who was elected president of...
Langwarrin
The leader of Langwarrin (pronounced lan-GWOR-rin) is President Judas Pearcedale, a friendly enough sort who was elected president of Langwarrin unanimously.

He voted for himself.

He lives in a beach shack on the western coast of the huge island that is Langwarrin. President Pearcedale waits until a shipment of prisoners arrives from Clenchwarton, gives them food he’s scrounged from the surrounding scrubland and local lakes, offers the newcomers the comfort of his humble home, waits until the newcomers are asleep, and then cold cocks them, ties them up, and dumps them in the wastes.

Those who survive usually come back a couple of years later looking for revenge. President Pearcedale beats the shit out of them. Then, if President Pearcedale lets them, they walk away, saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

Langwarrin is a prison. It’s filled with horrible creatures who want nothing but to eat everything that can fit into their mouths. And that’s just the people. Everything in Langwarrin is trying to kill you all the time. There are hardly any women, and the few that are there are either taken or tough as nails. Langwarrin is hand-to-mouth anarchy. A few outposts of civilization exist—a wizard-convict once managed to keep a couple of pages of his spellbook with him during the long trip to Langwarrin and magically crafted some buildings in the unforgiving, blasted landscape. But, otherwise, it’s a random and horrible collection of miscreants, felons, murderers, and debtors, all angry, hungry, and far from home.

If you’re a Langwarriner (pronounce lan-GWOR-reh-ner) you’re from fantasy Mad Max Australia. You were exiled here by the Clenchwart authorities. Clenchwarton abolished the death penalty about a hundred years ago and started filling up this monstrously large, monster-filled island with its human feces. Most didn’t survive, but reports from Clenchwart sailors who stranded prisoners on the island detailed seeing smoke from what they assumed were people’s fires. One of those fires might have been yours. You probably live near the coast, away from the deadly scrubland creatures but unfortunately close to your fellow inhabitants. You might survive—if you’re hardy enough—in the scrubland, but you better be one tough son of a ***** [note: Really, Pen and Paper Games, that's the word you censor? Seriously?] to do that. There’s the small possibility that you were born and raised here, in which case you are one bad ass bastard. You’re probably human, but with Clenchwarton sending its worst here, you could be anything.

You’d worship at the Church of the Dragon, Sinister, but there isn’t one here, and not doing that hasn’t made much of a difference anyway.

Langwarrin has the privilege of being closest to the islands, but the distinct disadvantage of not having any way to reach them. A few courageous souls—individuals and a few groups, even—have built boats, but those boats are rickety affairs of weeds, hope, and very small rocks that float. Most Langwarriner sailors are dead swimmers. A few months ago, though, a Clenchwart ship that was sent to Langwarrin didn’t come back. Nobody knows what happened to it or the sailors on it.

For any Langwarriner, the islands are freedom.

Names
Pick two horrible words that just shouldn’t go together as your Langwarriner name; that’s what all the people you killed called you before they died. If you were born in Langwarrin, that’s the only real name you’ve ever known. Otherwise, also pick a Clenchwart name. You can go by either.

Other Places
O, sure, there are other places. They are just as bad, if not worse. I’d rather you pick one of the ones I've detailed, though, because they taste good, and I went to all the trouble of creating them.

I tried my best to offend everyone equally, by the way. Here’s hoping you were.

If none of these sound cool enough—or terrible enough—for your character, let me know, and I’ll pound out 300 words on fantasy Sweden, Mexico, or Tibet. Just have something in mind first.

Next: The New World ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1758-The-Islands-Langwarrin-and-Other-Places http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1757-The-Islands-Fǔshùn-and-Kébéme Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:08:24 GMT Fǔshùn
The ruler of Fǔshùn (pronounced foo-SHOON) is the Celestial God-Emperor in the Ninth Sunrise of the Jade Forever Majestic, Xuzfei (pronounced SHOOZ-fy) the Eternal Warrior. He is a lich who, until three months ago, consumed a soul a day to maintain his corporeal form. Now he must consume ten, and it is rumored that soon he will need a hundred or possibly a thousand. No one knows what brought this about, but the weather in Fǔshùn has taken a turn for the worse: it rains all the time everywhere. Floods are constant. And Emperor Xuzfei sits silently on his pedestal, hand outstretched, surrounded by the Celestial Bureaucracy, who supplicate themselves in a desperate attempt to avoid being Emperor Xuzfei’s next snack.

The Fǔshùnese are always at war with the orc hordes to the west, and continually involved in suppressing pointless uprisings in the north. The Celestial Bureaucracy downplays the importance of these events, but everyone knows the orcs could strike at any time, and that rebels are little better than the Emperor, wanting nothing more than the destruction of a way of life that history records for over ten thousand years.

If you’re Fǔshùnese (pronounced foo-SHOON-ees) you’re from evil fantasy China ruled by an uncaring, undead overlord. You’re a peasant farmer who lives in constant fear of the Emperor turning his hungry gaze toward your village and devouring you and everything you hold dear to prolong his horrible unlife for a month, tops. It’s either that or you make your way on the streets, peddling your wares by day and returning after a 12 hour day to your cramped dwelling shared with six generations of your family to split a handful of rice and a pinch of salt. You’re an elf (and meeting an old elf would be a new experience for you), half-elf, very sad and abused half-orc, or human. All sort of goblinoids are off to the west so you could be that, too.

You better worship at the Celestial Temple of the Jade Sunrise, which has Emperor Xuzfei at its center. Obviously.

Fǔshùn is the second-closest nation to the islands but hasn’t needed them until recently. The Celestial Bureaucracy has started quelling certain wealthy merchants who fear revolt by importing the Emperor’s meals.

For Fǔshùn, the islands are food. For the Fǔshùnese people, the islands are relief.

Names
Pick a Cantonese or Mandarin given name you can pronounce as a first name; make sure it means something cool. Then pick a city in China with fewer than a million people that you can pronounce as a last name.

Kébéme
There is no ruler of Kébéme (pronounced keh-beh-MEE). There are, however, a thousand chiefs of a thousand tribes, each with his own needs and desires. But they all fear She At Night, the Witch.
The Witch eats children. The Witch steals food. The Witch burns down villages, kills farm animals, breaks pots, soils clothing, harms your sister while she’s sleeping, and takes your money when you’re not looking.

And everyone is the Witch.

Your mom is the Witch. Your best friend is the Witch. Your dog is the Witch. The only way to avoid the Witch is to keep your eyes open and be always alert for Her. Or have nothing She wants. Or appease Her. And She is not easily appeased.

That’s not all, of course. There are the shapechangers. The ones who can become animals or take the shape of your best friend by eating his finger. You must be always wary.

If you’re Kébéme (same pronunciation), you’re from fantasy Africa. You live in a village with your family, waiting for the day when they will inevitably betray you and say it’s not their fault. Or you live as a member of a nomadic jungle tribe, failing miserably to stay one jump ahead of the Witch. You’re an elf, halfling, or human.

You don’t worship any god. Instead, you pacify the Witch and your tribal spirits so they stay away from you. The last thing you want is them actually around.

No Kébéme comes to the islands by choice. They have either been taken by or sold into slavery by their family or tribal elders to Clenchwart or Waclavian traders. It’s possible for a Kébéme to have made his way to Mastoorah and then joined a ship’s crew, but that would be a long trip through the world’s darkest jungles. That’s not a background; that’s a goddam miracle.

For Kébéme, the islands are where there is no Witch. This pleases them greatly.

Names
Pick an African name; I suggest a Senegalese one. Confirm you can pronounce it. Make it mean something cool. You don’t have a last name unless you get one from another culture.

Next: Langwarrin and Other Places (spoiler: there aren't any) ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1756-The-Islands-Waclaw-and-Mastoorah Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:15:01 GMT * Waclaw* The ruler of Waclaw (pronounced VAK-LA) is Duke Pawel Wladyslaw, a dipsomaniacal nitwit who is the plaything of his Council of...
Waclaw
The ruler of Waclaw (pronounced VAK-LA) is Duke Pawel Wladyslaw, a dipsomaniacal nitwit who is the plaything of his Council of Significant Persons, corrupt businessmen and landowners whose goals are to squeeze every copper from every pauper, live magnificently on the backs of as many peasants as they can gather, and conquer foreign lands where they can continue doing the previous two things.

More than anywhere else, the nation of Waclaw is nearly dead. The land is stripped of resources, the oligarchy that controls the throne has shrunk via subterfuge and conspiracy and barely legal shenanigans to a tiny handful, the common people farm dirt and like it, and the secret police monitor everything.

If you’re Waclavian (pronounced VAK-lay-vee-an), you’re from fantasy Soviet-era Poland except ruled by Dudley Moore in the good version of the film Arthur who’s manipulated by a half-dozen Rasputins. You drink a whole lot, but everybody else does, too, because, hey, it’s Waclaw, so nobody brings it up. You’re a subsistence farmer who gives half of what he’s supposed to subsist on to his landlord who often just lights it on fire to see it burn. And then he laughs. Or you work in one of Waclaw’s enormous factories, mindlessly churning out trinkets or weapons or armor or gears or something that you don’t even know what it does, hoping the secret police can’t hear you thinking about how great it would be to sleep. In a bed. In a room with fewer than 8 people. You live in abiding fear of the great giants that live in the mountains surrounding your nation. Luckily, the islands afford the Council the opportunity of conquest in another direction. You’re either a dwarf, gnome, or human.

You worship at the Church of the Dragon, Dexter. However, if you’re a gnome, you might also be a mocked and repressed Arumdinan (pronounced ah-RUM-deh-nun).

Waclaw, having only a single (albeit huge and smoke-choked) city on the ocean, has the smallest presence on the islands, but when the Waclavians are there, they’re there in force. They’ll be the ones in full plate in charge of entire plantations of slaves. They came to the islands shortly after the Clenchwart.

For Waclaw, the islands are resources. For the Waclavian people, the islands are escape.

Names
Pick an Eastern European first name from the Czech or the Polish. Practice it out loud so you can say it quickly and confidently. Then pick a city in Poland with fewer than 100,000 as a last name. Practice that one out loud, too.

Mastoorah
The ruler of Mastoorah (pronounced mast-OO-ra) is Omlaj, Sultan of Ten Thousand Names. He is a wizard of incalculable power, checked only by the hundreds of contracts he’s signed with genies to keep him and his descendants in power in perpetuity. He lives in several laps of luxury, served by the Harem Asphodel, his all-female cabal of assassins, concubines, and spies, and surrounded by powerful beings from other planes.

If you’re Mastooran (pronounced mass-ta-ran) you’re from the fantasy Middle East a la Disney’s Aladdin only Jafar’s the sultan, and the genies he commands are from Wolfram & Hart’s genie division. You are a herdsman, living in the vast deserts of Mastoorah, watching your family die at an early age from the heat and endless toil and incurable camel-borne diseases. Or you live on the streets of one of the sun baked, brick cities, eking out a living hawking rotted fruit and festering meat from a creaking cart. If you’re one of the lucky few, you own a business that makes money, most of which goes to the sultan to pay his extraordinary extraplanar debts. You’re either a dwarf, elf, gnome, or human.

You worship at the Church of the Dragon, Passant. However, if you’re a gnome, you might also be an Arumdinan, who aren’t mocked and repressed in Mastoorah, just pitied as misguided, hell bound fools.

Mastoorah has known about the islands for centuries, and their sea tales are legendary, but only recently has the sultan’s need for new sources of income made exploiting them a priority.

For Mastoorah, the islands are resources. For the Mastooran people, the islands are adventure.

Names
Pick a Middle Eastern name you can pronounce as first name; make sure it means something cool. Then pick a tiny village in Saudi Arabia that you can pronounce as a last name.

Tomorrow: Fǔshùn and Kébéme
]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1756-The-Islands-Waclaw-and-Mastoorah http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1755-The-Islands-Introduction-and-Clenchwarton Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:53:55 GMT * The Campaign* This begins with where you came from (“The Old World”) and transitions to where you are (“The New World”) and ends with cleanup...
The Campaign
This begins with where you came from (“The Old World”) and transitions to where you are (“The New World”) and ends with cleanup sections on language and religion. This is all the information I’ve written about these places. I have concepts, ideas, and threads bouncing around my brain, obviously, but to give you more I have to write more, and I’d rather play more. Make wise decisions if you want more information.

Further, as this world has only just been born—and I totally don’t expect it to last in its current state through the whole campaign—you are welcome to just toss shit in. This is a collaborative process. If you’ve ideas you want to see, make us see them. Don’t be afraid of saying, “Hey, Rob, I think it would be awesome if…” because I am all about the awesome ifs.

The more you contribute, the more real the campaign becomes.

The Old World
The old world is far away, and the empires that span the old continents are dying. The old world is ruled by children, drunken monarchs, depraved sultans, merciless emperors, paranoid chiefs, and anarchic felons.

You’ll be adventuring in the new world.

The islands—they’re the future. But the past keeps getting in the way.

These nations are the past.

Clenchwarton
The ruler of Clenchwarton is Queen Claudia Friskney. She has accumulated over a hundred other titles in her 3 years on the throne as the forces of Clenchwarton wage a brutal war of attrition against the gargoyle hordes to Clenchwarton’s south. Queen Claudia is 12 years old and is everything you would expect of a person that age who is also royalty. A hereditary monarchy, Clenchwarton has been ruled by the Friskneys for hundreds of years. Queen Claudia, as first-born child, assumed the throne after her father’s death, but her 3 younger brothers are both popular and, obviously, male. It remains to be seen how long Queen Claudia will maintain her crown as civil unrest and poverty grip the land because of an endless war no one likes. But every courtier in the land is jockeying for the child-queen’s hand in marriage so he can be the next King of Clenchwarton.

If you’re Clenchwart, you’re from fantasy Shakespearean England, except instead of Queen Elizabeth in charge, there’s a petulant 12-year-old girl, and instead of hating on the French you’re besieged by gargoyles. You probably drink a lot. You worry about catching strange diseases from your food, the rats, and all the prostitutes you frequent. Your job is 80 hours a week at a factory where beatings are supposed to improve both productivity and morale. When you fall into debt, you are imprisoned until your family settles up for you. You’re probably human, but a fair number of dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings live in Clenchwarton. You worship at the Church of the Dragon, Sinister.

The Clenchwart discovered the islands only in the last 20 years. Their discovery has led Clenchwarton, an island nation and already a naval powerhouse, to new heights of industry. The royal navy has doubled in size since the islands’ discovery, and Clenchwart seamen are as legendary for their sailing skill as they are for their inebriation and lechery.

For Clenchwarton, the islands are hope. For the Clenchwart people, the islands are opportunity.

Names
Pick a biblical first name. Then pick a city in England with fewer than 100,000 people as a last name.

Tomorrow: Waclaw & Mastoorah ]]> Hey I Can Chan http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1755-The-Islands-Introduction-and-Clenchwarton