FFH lore
- Thread starter sypher_aka
- Start date
Kael
Deity
Grey Fox said:
The world history is actually in the concepts section.
Nikis-Knight
Deity
I had no idea. It's kinda hidden there, just make it it's own category, Background, or such.
wilboman
Hibernorse Frost Giant
I'd say Svart and Ljosalfar come from Norse, the old norse for faeries being alfr.
Uberslacker
Tilda Junkie
>>>And most of the civ names are from christian sources for the name of angelic and demonic groups (Malakim, Elohim, Mercurians, Sheaim, Balseraphs, etc).<<<
I sometimes play a tabletop rpg called In Nomine. Characters are (usually, but not always) angels or demons, which are divided into groups or breeds called choirs and bands respectively (the game has a musical theme all the way through it, reality is for example a Symphony originnally sung by god). Having the dual interpretations of these groups from FfF and In Nomine simultaneously has been a lot of fun for me.
This is cut from the wiki entry for In Nomine
I sometimes play a tabletop rpg called In Nomine. Characters are (usually, but not always) angels or demons, which are divided into groups or breeds called choirs and bands respectively (the game has a musical theme all the way through it, reality is for example a Symphony originnally sung by god). Having the dual interpretations of these groups from FfF and In Nomine simultaneously has been a lot of fun for me.
This is cut from the wiki entry for In Nomine
Spoiler :
Kael said:
I think it would have been better to use another term than Elohim as a name for a civilization as Elohim is also used in the Hebrew Bible when refering to God.
So everytime I play Bannor/The Order I am forced to redeem those arrogant heretics from their mortal existence
Kael
Deity
Uberslacker said:
Yeah, I've actually never played In Nomine but we both stole from the same early christian sources.
Kael
Deity
Draconian said:I think it would have been better to use another term than Elohim as a name for a civilization as Elohim is also used in the Hebrew Bible when refering to God.
So everytime I play Bannor/The Order I am forced to redeem those arrogant heretics from their mortal existence
There are a lot of meanings of the word Elohim, even within the bible. At times it seems to refer to God, at times to multiple divinities, at times to mortals. I choose it for them because as the defenders of holy places the Elohim seemed the most godly of the civs. And to my ear "Elohim" has a soft peaceful quality that represented their nature well.
You can review the etymology of the word here: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05393a.htm its an interesting read if your into such things.
Kael
Deity
I didn't run many large battles in my D&D games. Often entire sessions would go by without any combat at all. I loved intricate stories and complex characters, and had to force myself to throw a few occasions for dice rolling into every session (maybe a trip through a gambling house, sneaking into a place, etc). But I also kept a sheet full of random encounters that I could pull out whenever I thought the game could use a little action. A monster comes bursting out of the sewers, the players witness a carriage getting robbed, some women comes out crying for help because her beautiful baby boy is possed by a demon and throwing trees around).
Anyway, so I didn't run many large scale combats. Players were more likely to heckle armies marching off than sign up to join them.
But late in the campaign about the armageddon spells the players sailed with the united armies of several leaders (Falamar, Rhoanna, Charadon, Varn, maybe a few others) into the deadlands. Tebryn was the enemy and lived in tower in the center of the deadlands. The first Armageddon spell put the world in a permanent eclipse and had been active for a few years by this point (that event marked the begining of the campaign). He had also used one of the spells to make himself immortal (each time he was killed he was reborn somewhere else and the world and at the age of puberty regained his powers and memories). Tebryn was a runecaster and the rune that powered that spell was engraved in Abshi's forehead.
He also cast an arageddon spell that caused any living creature that died to be raised as an undead within 400 miles of his tower. Thats what created the "deadlands" and when army and army failed to attack him he built up quite a force there.
The united army sailed to the deadlands only suitable water border and landed. They quickly setup fortifications on the beach and consecrated the area. That night the undead came.
I loved this battle. The players were about 15th level and extremly powerful in my world. The reason I loved it was because the parties job was to act as special units and guards for Charadon. They basically watched the battle unfold until they were called for to step into certain parts and help out, or deal with a specific threat. A group of horsemen broke through the ranks and started charging Charadons standard, the parties Mage steped forward and made sure they never got anywhere near.
But my favorite was a lich on a nightmare (the demon horse, not the ffh monster) that was flying above the battle and throwing spells down. As I recall the lich was a powerful earth mage and when he raised his arms great stone hands came out of the ground and started swatting at the army. The soldiers had no good way of dealing with that and he was decimating their ranks. Morale was falling and the soldiers were starting to pull back toward the ocean. Charadon command the mage to cast fly on the parties paladin and send him in.
Everyone in the unitied army knew, or knew of, the party. They were legends in every sense. When the paladin went flying above to meet the lich the army surged forward with him. The lich had a bunch of nasty abilities, but the first one he hit with was Entomb, a spell that completly encased its victim in stone.
Impossibly the paladin failed his save, there was a lot of abiltiies he could have used to help with that roll but he opted to save them. He has a really good chance of making it bare, but he failed. There with the whole army watching he was surrounded in rock and plummeted to the earth. The lich howled, the army was about to break.
The player was frantically looking over his character sheet. He was mostly a swordsman and didnt have many special abilities, just a few minor flavor abilities. One of those flavor abilties was the ability to meld into stone, but the ability could only be used on holy ground. The paladins of his order used it to merge into the statues of temple guardians when they stood watch over the temples. Since it was only useable on holy ground we has never even considered it a significant abiltiy.
Then he looked up at me, "Did you say the priests consecrated the ground here when we arrived?"
Me: "Yeah, so the undead won't be reborn, why?"
Him (smiling): "I can meld through stone on holy ground"
So out he shot out of the rock and into battle with the lich, the army cheered, the lich was killed and the battle went on.
It was one of many of my favorite gaming moments.
Anyway, so I didn't run many large scale combats. Players were more likely to heckle armies marching off than sign up to join them.
But late in the campaign about the armageddon spells the players sailed with the united armies of several leaders (Falamar, Rhoanna, Charadon, Varn, maybe a few others) into the deadlands. Tebryn was the enemy and lived in tower in the center of the deadlands. The first Armageddon spell put the world in a permanent eclipse and had been active for a few years by this point (that event marked the begining of the campaign). He had also used one of the spells to make himself immortal (each time he was killed he was reborn somewhere else and the world and at the age of puberty regained his powers and memories). Tebryn was a runecaster and the rune that powered that spell was engraved in Abshi's forehead.
He also cast an arageddon spell that caused any living creature that died to be raised as an undead within 400 miles of his tower. Thats what created the "deadlands" and when army and army failed to attack him he built up quite a force there.
The united army sailed to the deadlands only suitable water border and landed. They quickly setup fortifications on the beach and consecrated the area. That night the undead came.
I loved this battle. The players were about 15th level and extremly powerful in my world. The reason I loved it was because the parties job was to act as special units and guards for Charadon. They basically watched the battle unfold until they were called for to step into certain parts and help out, or deal with a specific threat. A group of horsemen broke through the ranks and started charging Charadons standard, the parties Mage steped forward and made sure they never got anywhere near.
But my favorite was a lich on a nightmare (the demon horse, not the ffh monster) that was flying above the battle and throwing spells down. As I recall the lich was a powerful earth mage and when he raised his arms great stone hands came out of the ground and started swatting at the army. The soldiers had no good way of dealing with that and he was decimating their ranks. Morale was falling and the soldiers were starting to pull back toward the ocean. Charadon command the mage to cast fly on the parties paladin and send him in.
Everyone in the unitied army knew, or knew of, the party. They were legends in every sense. When the paladin went flying above to meet the lich the army surged forward with him. The lich had a bunch of nasty abilities, but the first one he hit with was Entomb, a spell that completly encased its victim in stone.
Impossibly the paladin failed his save, there was a lot of abiltiies he could have used to help with that roll but he opted to save them. He has a really good chance of making it bare, but he failed. There with the whole army watching he was surrounded in rock and plummeted to the earth. The lich howled, the army was about to break.
The player was frantically looking over his character sheet. He was mostly a swordsman and didnt have many special abilities, just a few minor flavor abilities. One of those flavor abilties was the ability to meld into stone, but the ability could only be used on holy ground. The paladins of his order used it to merge into the statues of temple guardians when they stood watch over the temples. Since it was only useable on holy ground we has never even considered it a significant abiltiy.
Then he looked up at me, "Did you say the priests consecrated the ground here when we arrived?"
Me: "Yeah, so the undead won't be reborn, why?"
Him (smiling): "I can meld through stone on holy ground"
So out he shot out of the rock and into battle with the lich, the army cheered, the lich was killed and the battle went on.
It was one of many of my favorite gaming moments.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
One word: awesome.
Sounded like a fun and awesome session ^_^
I remember a game of Mutant, where my friend's character was a bit crazy. And just as I saved our other partymember, a girl my character was in love with (at the end of the game), he kills us both and takes the reward himself. Kinda annoying, but funny as hell.
I remember a game of Mutant, where my friend's character was a bit crazy. And just as I saved our other partymember, a girl my character was in love with (at the end of the game), he kills us both and takes the reward himself. Kinda annoying, but funny as hell.
QES
Court Jester
Kael said:
My good friend Kael. I miss moments like you've just described, as that is also how I run many of my campaigns, story comes FIRST. Let me recount clever tactics by my own players once upon a time.
At level 4 and one character at Five, the party ran into a beholder. If any of you know what this beasty is, you'll know that it will eat a level 4 party for lunch. However, my players were not stupid and the ran from the beasty into the woods, as all their magic was useless and if it got a good look at them it would kill them outright. My clever players had a good lead against the beholder, and ran into a clearing where the path divided. The Bard came up with the best idea. There was one huge boulder of granit sitting in the clearing, the cleric quickly turned the whole of the boulder into mud, the mage then used levitate on the mud and put it in the sky some 30 feet above ground just beneath the underbrush of the trees. Everyone hid, and as the beholder came into the clearing, the bard cast ghost sound under the bolder. The Beholder looked up, its anti-magic ray returned the mud to stone, and the flying boulder to a non-flying boulder, and it landed on it, squishing it dead.
I was never so proud of them as i was then.
Also, if you're ever in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota, i'd love to game with you some time.
-Qes
Kael
Deity
Thats awesome. I love the irony of the beholders own power doing it in.
And yeah, those who have not played in a truly good pen and paper role playing game cant appreciate the experience. And those that have, never forget it.
And yeah, those who have not played in a truly good pen and paper role playing game cant appreciate the experience. And those that have, never forget it.
QES
Court Jester
Grey Fox said:
All you gotta know is that in general Dice get in the way. This is the first step. Dice should only be thrown (as a DM) when you yourself dont know what's gonna happen, or dont want to make the decision yourself. Sort of "where IS this story going? I wanna find out too!"
If you avoid throwing dice (or rather, if you avoid having dice throws MEAN much - same difference) everything starts becoming story. Players will naturally be molded into caring more about set up, and story line, and events and personages than their own dice abilities if they see that the environment is a more powerful weapon than the best spell could ever be. The boulder-beholder example is a pretty good one. Once players start to think in that sort of mind-set, the character sheet and dice become "back-ups" for when you've run out of ideas.
Battles still require them heavily (though my rolling of the dice is almost always meaningless, the battle will look how i want it to look, unless i myself dont want to know the outcome) but the more story-based the characters, the less battle is necessary.
<sniff> I miss gaming.
-Qes
EDIT: @Kael. Very true, very very true.
vorshlumpf
Emperor
Aw, man, now you guys are making me miss many a good RP session 
And now I have a girlfriend who loves to play RPGs (yay!), but she's a munchkin (hrm!).
- Niilo
And now I have a girlfriend who loves to play RPGs (yay!), but she's a munchkin (hrm!).
- Niilo
QES
Court Jester
vorshlumpf said:Aw, man, now you guys are making me miss many a good RP session
And now I have a girlfriend who loves to play RPGs (yay!), but she's a munchkin (hrm!).
- Niilo
Thats why i dont date halfings.
-Qes
EDIT: My main character (the one ive had forever, in various forms through RL time), always had a wierd association with Halfings, they were either trying to make him a god, make out with him, or generally follow him around and annoy him. What was amusing is that this happened with wholey different gaming groups, and different players throughout time. There was no set "joke" that repeated itself, as i tried keeping it quiet. Odd coincidences kept showing up, eventually he became margianlly racist against halflings, which for players who played halflings as "maniaclly curious" only made him more attractive to them. Twas bizzare. (He was a drow cleric of Kelimvor, LN)
QES said:
Yeah I agree, but still. When I was DM I always rolled the dice in secret. Then the players didn't know what the result was or if I changed it. Although, I guess I didnt spend enought time playing RPG's to become a good player/DM.
QES
Court Jester
Grey Fox said:
Bah, nonesense! Being a good DM (roleplaying storywise) only takes an active imagination and the desire to create. After that player-control becomes easy. I often rolled the dice "in secret", but i rarly ever looked at them.
A bugbear attacks you Sam.
<Rolls dice> He hits. <Rolls damage>
Sam - "Wait, you didnt even look at the dice"
He does 12 damage. Oh, my bad. < I look down>
He does 12 damage.
Poor Sam was going to take 12 damage becuase I wanted his character to take damage. Dice dont matter. I never kill players using this method however. MUCH of the time, I myself dont want to determine what is going to happen next, and let the "dice decide all". This has killed more players than i ever have. That and players doing stupid things, like running INTO a particle vortex. <sigh> and then their loved one following them in after they hear a scream. Dm's dont kill party members, love and alcohol does.
-Qes
Grillick
Prince
Sometimes, being a good DM really all boils down to having a good story, with some kind of 'hook.'
The only successful adventure I've ever run on my own involved the following tactics:
A) I'm too lazy to invent a detailed world, and too forgetful to use one of the ones already created. So a dungeon-crawl fits best for me.
B) You still need some sort of story, but sometimes the best stories are uncovered through time.
C) I had each of the four players decide what character they wanted to play, roll up stats, assign them as they wanted, then trade their selection of stats to the right around the table, and make the character they had originally planned, only with the new stats.
D) The beginning of the dungeon had them all waking up in an empty room, with their starting equipment, knowledge of one another, the fact that they were friends, and their 'current' party roles and abilities, but no other memory of how they got where they were, or why they were there.
E) Each room in each 'layer' of the dungeon was completely randomly determined from a random dungeon generator I found. When they found the exit from the level, they reached a shop, where they were given a little bit of information about their past. Thus, each time they levelled up, they gained not only a level of the class they had originally set out to play, but also a level of the class that their stats had been 'designed' for.
F) The basic storyline was that the party was an exceptionally powerful group of adventurers who, in the opinion of their 'mentor,' an incredibly powerful spellcaster with specialization on memory and personality, had grown arrogant and too sure of themselves, without the proper respect for what others had to go through.
What we ended up with was a rogue whose stats were those of a fighter, who ended up 'uncovering' his past as a barbarian, while also learning the skills of a rogue at the same time; a wizard whose stats were those of a rogue, who ended up 'uncovering' his forgotten stealthiness, subterfuge, and whatnot, while learning the skills of a wizard; a cleric whose stats were those of a wizard, who ended up 'uncovering' his latent bookishness and magical aptitude, while developing a new closeness to his god that he'd never had before; and a Samurai whose stats were those of a cleric, who ended up 'uncovering' his forgotten center, for he had, in his past life, been an ascetic monk, while also learning an entirely new brand of combat focus and drive.
It was a whole lot of fun, and took almost no personal effort on my part, and I'd really like to try something similar again, sometime.
The only successful adventure I've ever run on my own involved the following tactics:
A) I'm too lazy to invent a detailed world, and too forgetful to use one of the ones already created. So a dungeon-crawl fits best for me.
B) You still need some sort of story, but sometimes the best stories are uncovered through time.
C) I had each of the four players decide what character they wanted to play, roll up stats, assign them as they wanted, then trade their selection of stats to the right around the table, and make the character they had originally planned, only with the new stats.
D) The beginning of the dungeon had them all waking up in an empty room, with their starting equipment, knowledge of one another, the fact that they were friends, and their 'current' party roles and abilities, but no other memory of how they got where they were, or why they were there.
E) Each room in each 'layer' of the dungeon was completely randomly determined from a random dungeon generator I found. When they found the exit from the level, they reached a shop, where they were given a little bit of information about their past. Thus, each time they levelled up, they gained not only a level of the class they had originally set out to play, but also a level of the class that their stats had been 'designed' for.
F) The basic storyline was that the party was an exceptionally powerful group of adventurers who, in the opinion of their 'mentor,' an incredibly powerful spellcaster with specialization on memory and personality, had grown arrogant and too sure of themselves, without the proper respect for what others had to go through.
What we ended up with was a rogue whose stats were those of a fighter, who ended up 'uncovering' his past as a barbarian, while also learning the skills of a rogue at the same time; a wizard whose stats were those of a rogue, who ended up 'uncovering' his forgotten stealthiness, subterfuge, and whatnot, while learning the skills of a wizard; a cleric whose stats were those of a wizard, who ended up 'uncovering' his latent bookishness and magical aptitude, while developing a new closeness to his god that he'd never had before; and a Samurai whose stats were those of a cleric, who ended up 'uncovering' his forgotten center, for he had, in his past life, been an ascetic monk, while also learning an entirely new brand of combat focus and drive.
It was a whole lot of fun, and took almost no personal effort on my part, and I'd really like to try something similar again, sometime.
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