A fall from Heaven RPG?
- Thread starter Requia
- Start date
JanusTalaiini
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2005
- Messages
- 340
As I recall, that was actually the origin of the FFH setting.
![[NWO]_Valis](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/110/110973.jpg?1475248361){kind=avatar}
[NWO]_Valis
A bad kitty!
FfH civ mod was based on a AD&D campaign that Kael was running. The 'setting' is his own creation.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
Actually it is based on an amalgamation of multiple campaigns he ran over a 17 year period, some of which had very different settings. Certain aspects of the game, like Perpentach and the entire Balseraph civilization, were made up specifically for the mod without any basis in his campaigns. If I recall the only player characters that appear in the mod are Orthus and Tebryn Arbandi (or rather the archmage Ram, whom the the players allowed to be killed before he was brought back to life as Tebryn, the supposed Big Bad who turned out to be just a henchman for Laroth.) A lot of the big parts of the game were minor background fluff in the campaigns, and vice versa.
Make them up... That's half the fun of such games anyway.
Sit down and figure it out - How does one summon a spectre instead of a really upset wraith? What does one use, mana? Willpower? Some sort of energy? Focus items? What's the combat effectiveness of a wolf-rider who just finished raiding a brewery? Why has no fighter ever actually thrown their +25 Awesome Spear of Uberness at anything?
And, the most critical P&P role-playing question of all: Do Dwarven fighters have to have their helmets custom made because they are lower to the ground?
It's those kinds of mechanics that are incredibly fun to develop on your own. Get your P&P crew together, see how they like the idea and crack the books, copy tables and make up your own system for unique FFH2 features, spells, classes, etc..
Emptiness
[]
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
- 1,922
For all we know, the next game will be a P&P RPG...
You'll have to explain this one, I've never heard it before.
And yes, I'm working on making one, it occurred to me that I might want to check and see how much effort I'm duplicating.
It's a joke.
The point is that you can make up whatever rules you want, even some that are totally nonsensical. Those add spice, flavor.. and a bit of opportunity for some fun. So, what if you had a rule that Dwarves had to have helmets customized to fit them because their heads were so low to the ground?
Or, better yet - Lots of people like tinkering Gnomes that invent all kinds of interesting things that explode violently or make absolutely no sense, but still explode violently. So, one player's Dwarf warrior gets a +1 Dwarven Helmet made by Gnomes and its bonus is due to the fact, as explained by Gnomish Engineers, "It's custom fitted for races who are lower to the ground than others."
Makes perfect sense to me... and would be a continuing source of humor for the players, lasting much longer than the few minutes it took to come up with the reasoning. I've seen old player/friends still ribbing each other about similar things decades later. My friends and I do it all the time. It's greatly rewarding to know, as a DM, you gave them something memorable and entertaining. So, empower the Gnomish Engineering Corps! (Or Corpses, depending on who is doing R&D)
In other words: The rigid mathematical reasons the mechanics work how they do are no excuse not to come up with an interesting gag or neat twist on trying to explain to the players "Why" they work the way they do. After all, "It's Magic!"
P&P games are very personal. So, personalize it. Take awhile to gather some resources to help you, of course. There's no reason you can't benefit from other's work. But, feel free to invent your own world spawning from FFH2. Mod-Modders have taken free liberty with it and have some pretty interesting worlds of their own.
SurahAhriman
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 60
I'm currently running a D&D game using the FFH setting and the 3.5 base ruleset. I had to make some significant modifications to a bunch of the classes, particularly primary casters, and completely rewrote the monk. If you're interested, I could make a post explaining the class changes I made, as well as things like stats for certain FFH-specific creatures that have come up (such as Drowns, Pyre Zombies, Wood Golems, etc).
But no, to my knowledge there is no formal set of rules, and iirc, Kael was using a heavily modified form of GURPS when he was running it.
SurahAhriman
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 60
Hell, if WotC were interested, Erebus would make a great D&D campaign world. Perhaps I'll email them a tip to check it out and contact Kael if they're interested/
This could be pretty useful actually, especially the monk, spellcaster, and unique creature stuff.
SurahAhriman
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 60
The spellcasting is easy enough to describe. Basically, I threw the categorization of the spell lists out the window. Sorcerors, Clerics and Druids each start with access to three of the 21 mana spheres, and gain access to an additional one every five levels. Wizards start with 5 and gain one every 3. Bards/Rangers/Paladins gain one sphere when they can start casting, and a further one every 5 levels. Access to spheres is up to GM discretion. Clerics and Paladins obviously have to take the domain of their deity to start, and that is the cleric's domain for domain spell purposes. Druids must use two of their starting ones on Nature and Life, with the third limited to earth/air/fire/water (additional druid spheres have a bit more leeway, but, as an example, death and dimensional are still off-limits). Sorcerors are purely GM discretion; they're limited to spheres justifiablely part of the character's personality.
So, any caster can use spells from any list, but only if it fits into one of their domains. Which is stupid fun for a DM (a veil cultist only needs to be level 5 to be tossing fireballs at PCs), which generally balances out how potentially over-powered potential class/sphere combinations can get (My PCs have done an admirable job of picking thematic spheres).
Additionally, no cleric has turn/rebuke as a base feature. It comes with either the Life or Death domains. Domain powers are non-standard, I've been making them up as needed. The only one that has come up is Law, which became a +4 bonus on Investigate and Sense Motive.
The one oddity was the Luonnotaur(cleric); they don't fit neatly into this system. My solution was to limit the Luonnotaur to healing or anti-magic spells (such as Dispel Magic, Protection from Energy) for all their base slots, and allow the domain slot to be any spell. Luonnotaur have no domain bonus, but are immune to hostile divine magic.
The monk class I completely re-wrote. I remembered when looking over the base class the story about Mammon refusing to give the gift of Foresight to humanity (or at least Os-Gabella. This might all be flawed lore, but too late to check now
), and it seemed perfectly appropriate for the class. So I stripped the monk of all class features beyond a good Will save, and set up a system of "Sparks" along with a resource system I called "Chi" for lack of a better term. Essentially, starting at first level, and every even level after, the monk gains access to a "spark" of a sphere (justified in lore as the monk learning to access their divine spark in a more martial-arts style than a sorceror). Spark of Force is gained for free at first level, and is the source of the Chi resource (frankly, I could think of little else to do with it, but I think it fits as the only mandatory Spark). Each spark provides level-dependent bonuses, frequently returning original monk class features, but many branch out into sphere appropriate bonuses. A few examples:Air: 1st: Flurry of Blows, Reflex Saves becomes Good.
2nd: +10 Movement (+10 additional movement per 5 class levels)
8th: Expend one use of Chi to gain Swift Flight. This is a swift action.
14th: Expend one use of Chi to gain Levitate for (Wisdom Modifier) rounds. This is a swift action.
Enchantment: 1st: Your unarmed attacks gain a +1 enhancement bonus. This bonus increases by +1 for every additional four levels (1, 5, 9...) to a maximum of +5.
Nature: 1st: Improved Natural Weapons
5th: Woodland Stride
8th: Improved Natural Weapons
16th: Improved Natural Weapons
I can post the full class if you're interested, but I'd need to figure out how to hide things in those nifty little spoiler boxes.
I tried to balance the weird Tier 2 melee units as around CR 4.
Pyre Zombie
HP: 39 (6d12)
AC: 15 (+6 Natural, -1 Dex)
Init: -1
Attack: +6 Slam 1d6+3 + 1d6 fire
Saves: +3/+1/+3
On death Explodes for 2d6 fire in 5' burst. Ref DC 16 for half.
Drown:
HP: 39 (6d12)
AC: 19 (+4 Natural, +3 Armor, +2 Shield)
Init: +0
Attack: +8 1d8+4
Saves: +5/+2/+5
DR 5/slashing, Vulnerable to Fire
Diseased Corpse:
HP: 91 (14d12)
AC: 16 (+6 Natural)
Init: +0
Attack: 2 slams +10/+10 1d6+3 +2d4 + disease
Rotting Stench: Opponents within 10' of a Diseased Corpse must succeed at a Fort DC 20 or suffer a -5 penalty on all attack and nausea related rolls.
Disease: On hit, Fort DC 20 or 1d4 con damage.
Wood Golem x2
HP: 53 (6d10 +20)
Init: +1
Speed: 30
AC: 17 (+1 Dex, +6 Natural)
Attack: 2 slams +6 (1d6+3)
Special: Vulnerability to Fire, DR 10/magic,fire
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +2
SurahAhriman
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 60
There seems to be a time limit on editing, but I'd still like to make a couple clarifications.
The damage for the diseased corpse should not have the "+2d4" bit, that was a temporary buff cast by a cultist who controlled the only Diseased Corpse my PCs have fought so far.
And I mangled the part about where the idea for the re-done monk came from. I meant that the 20 remaining spheres (sans Foresight/Mind) fit the 20 pre-epic levels, so my initial plan was for a sphere with a level appropriate bonus per level, but I ended up going with a much more personalizable system. With the current set-up, only a 20th level human monk who had spent all his feats on "Extra Spark" could have all 20. I also forgot to mention that I had added that as an available feat, along with a host of others called "Flare of _______" that provided an additional thematic power. For example, Flare of Ice allows the monk to take a 20 minute "power nap" once every three days that will restore all Chi and class level in HP, harkening back to the uncorrupted meaning of Ice. But Ice is corrupted, so the monk must make a DC 20 concentration check or remain in the power-nap for 72 hours.
Not many of the Flares are fully thought-out/written up, and the Sparks are only finalized up to 10th or so level. The only monk character so far, either PC or NPC was 6th level when he was rolled, so I lazied out once I felt I had a solid buffer
.
The damage for the diseased corpse should not have the "+2d4" bit, that was a temporary buff cast by a cultist who controlled the only Diseased Corpse my PCs have fought so far.
And I mangled the part about where the idea for the re-done monk came from. I meant that the 20 remaining spheres (sans Foresight/Mind) fit the 20 pre-epic levels, so my initial plan was for a sphere with a level appropriate bonus per level, but I ended up going with a much more personalizable system. With the current set-up, only a 20th level human monk who had spent all his feats on "Extra Spark" could have all 20. I also forgot to mention that I had added that as an available feat, along with a host of others called "Flare of _______" that provided an additional thematic power. For example, Flare of Ice allows the monk to take a 20 minute "power nap" once every three days that will restore all Chi and class level in HP, harkening back to the uncorrupted meaning of Ice. But Ice is corrupted, so the monk must make a DC 20 concentration check or remain in the power-nap for 72 hours.
Not many of the Flares are fully thought-out/written up, and the Sparks are only finalized up to 10th or so level. The only monk character so far, either PC or NPC was 6th level when he was rolled, so I lazied out once I felt I had a solid buffer
.
