Sunday Gaming

It would appear we are going for gaming on Sunday afternoon. The votes that I've come across so far are Warhammer and D&D. As far as D&D goes, I figure the best way to get around Lance's character not being there is to reboot. (Characters tying their stories together - GOOD. One player in that tied group leaving for CHINA after two sessions of game - BAD.)

Now, James has expresses a preference for not running a game (and watch on in frustration as we merrily stomp around everywhere except the plot). And rebooting D&D would be a case of making up new characters (or just throwing the old ones in as if the first adventure hadn't happened). But since Wizards of the Coast decided to make more money, there's now the whole 3.5 issue to consider. Now, if you're voting for Warhammer, be advised that I'm about to launch on a big ramble about what I'm looking at with D&D. If you want to think about what sort of character you want to play, let me know by Sunday in case the vote's not carried...

Considering 3.5 was made much more spectacularly easy by Wizards releasing the 3.5 ruleset for free download here. So I've been going through the rules a bit. For those who may already have their own copies of 3.0, a nifty document may be found here. I probably won't be implementing all changes, but so far as a general rule I will be. (Bards, rangers and barbarians are definitely 3.5).

I'm probably going to stick with the same general kind of world (recent civil war, same weirdness with deities and stuff). As a result, clerics are significantly different - I'm dropping the domain thing and allowing them to spontaneously cast any spell - in fact, the whole level restrictions and things are merely guidelines, as they're actually requesting miracles from their deity. Who are somewhat impersonal, so yes, it's quite possible they'll leave you high and dry if you get into the wrong situation. In other words, clerics can spontaneously cast all their spells, but it's subject to deity's approval...

Similarly, sorcerors do not need material components unless I insist upon components for a certain spell - case-by-case there. Bards have to have an instrument as a spell focus for nearly all their spells (the 3.5 0-level spell 'summon instrument' is an exception). The 'bardic music' ability has to be channeled through an instrument to begin with, but can be maintained with singing (if the bard has enough ranks in Perform:singing). (No singing-only bards, see?) Since I'm not using stated alignments, paladins have to give me a code of behaviour that is at least as restrictive as being 'lawful good' - I might consider 'has to murder an innocent person every week' as such a code, for example (though I probably wouldn't allow a player to take it - you're supposed to at least be sympathetic characters, not fucking serial killers). I'm still undecided on how paladin spells should go - whether they're actual divine spells, like drudic rituals, or minor miracles like revised cleric spells.

That being said, I can't really come up with a scenario unless I have some clue of what kinds of people are going to be involved - so if you're wanting D&D, let me know what interests you. And soon. Cheers!

Another option is to use the early part of the session to make D&D characters then get on to aggravating James. :)