kenkrajen
Prince
BEWARE: This is a lengthy post. I think I may even top MagisterCultuum with this (by the way your posts have been really handy).
Ive been working on a D&D 3.5 Fall From Heaven campaign in my spare time over the past several weeks, and in a few months Id like to launch my greatest campaign yet. I have a few ideas about it that Id like to put forward for anybody with two cents to comment on, such as whether you think people will be interested in joining this or not, and whether some of the rules Im coming up with for a Faction mini-game are balanced and make sense. Also if you have any ideas on whether organizations within the FFH setting should be controlled by players or if the concepts should be from scratch.
For my FFH campaign, I want to have as many people participating in it that can fit. I'm not going to launch this for a couple of months, but there are going to be 8 spots open for player characters. Two groups: one good, one evil, where every few adventures their paths will cross hopefully to become nemesis and create some interesing stories and fun quests. Now if youre reading this and youre thinking wow, that sounds awesome, I wish there was somebody near me who would run something like this, the beauty of this is that its gonna be online, and not in the sense of play by post/forum/email, but on an actual battlemat that you can see on a map where you can move your tokens around in great visuals with lots of cool features. I really couldnt get a grasp on how to run an online game until a few weeks ago I stumbled across Maptool. Essentially, like I said earlier the gm craft a cool looking battlemat and you play your character through the program. Heres a link to what it would look like: http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/maptool.htm (click on View for Player Quickstart at the top; its a ten minute video but if you cant find a group near you but cant find one, watch and thank the guys who made it later).
On the off chance this idea of mine catches on and I end up with more than eight people who want in, then heres the ambitious proposed plan of expansion: if there happen to be others out there who would like to DM their own online adventures in a joint FFH campaign as Apprentice DMs where parties can interact with each other and even become competitive rivals or nemesis (think of it as a Living campaign with a campaign world that you can actually affect with adventues custom made for individual parties, instead of a static world with standardized adventures that are the same for everybody). The idea of an Apprentice GM essentially is someone whod craft their own adventures but would submit to the head GM to tie things in to one huge yet cohesive story. For every apprentice GM that signs up 4 other spots open for players, or however many the GM thinks they can handle. This may all be wishful thinking, but you never know. It could catch on.
Now, if youre still with me after all of this, Id like to let you in on the main reason for starting this thread. In keeping with the idea of getting a lot of people playing, Im introducing a kind of mini-game for those who would want to join the campaign but for some reason cant and most likely dont think they have the time. This game would consist of the creation and play of organizations or factions that interact with the players, the campaign world, and one another. Id greatly appreciate some commentary on whether you think this from scratch rules system is balanced and makes sense. The rules will take a few minutes to pick up but play would be relatively quick, consisting of choosing how you want to spend your points and turns; then emailing your choices to the DM.
Now this is a very simplified version, but what I envision is a system with a standard income of turns and points. Points can be spent to purchase henchman, their levels, items, monsters, strongholds, and increasing an organizations sphere of influence. Whereas Turns will be spent to increase caps on maximum levels for followers, maximum amounts of followers, increase reputation scores, increasing the weekly point income, and sending all the resources youve purchased on missions. This is where itll get really fun.
You have all of these resources at your disposal (I forgot to mention that everyone gets a free leader, starts with an income of 20 points a week and 3 turns, which both accumulate week to week if left unspent) that can be used to affect the campaign world and craft stories parallel to the player characters, which is the essence of playing an rpg anyway. What makes this concept even better is that youll get all of that with as little or as much time as you want to put into it.
For example, lets say over the course of three weeks we end up with a few players for the faction game who have been accrueing there resources. The organizations are a thieves guild, a wizards order, and a noble house. The thieves guild has spent their resources on 25 Svartalfar/drow rogues (level 1) each equipped with climbing tools and masterwork thieves tools. Lets say hes has 7 turs unspent, and since he and the self-described richer-than-you-can-imagine noble house are both in the same city within his sphere of influence he decides to spend a turn to steal from them to hit the mother load (maybe the leader is a Khazad? wouldnt that be something). As Im sure it would, the thieves have provoked the noble house who responds in turn, and a faction war breaks out in the city. Meanwhile outside the city limits, the PCs have stolen a rare magical item from a member of the wizards order, who next week when he gets more turns promptly spends them to send the rest of their wizards after the PCs to get it back. This order has a small tower (its only been three weeks) and five 5th level wizards, opponents to the PCs that provide a good side adventure or who knows, they may become the main villains. This not only provides great background for adventure, but a fun game in its own right.
The Faction Game is an idea I expanded on from one of the roleplayingtips.coms archives, which I cant find again. Anyway, here our some of the rules Ive come up with, and if by some miracle youve read the majority of what Ive written here, tell me what you think. And when reading missions, remember my brain juices are running low, so there arent any rules for how they work yet, these are mostly notes, and the inspiration from this in addition to roleplayingtips.com came from a web browser game, so thats where some of the structure came from.
I'm planning on modifying a mechanic for sending followers on missions comes from the Star Wars RPG The Force Unleashed Campaign guide using their rules for organization scale: a faction (faction scale + skill) against a Difficulty Class to determine how much of a success or failure the mission was.
All opinions and ideas are welcome. Here are the rules:
The Rules
Points are the method used to represent resources. Each faction gets twenty points to spend per week. Character levels can be bought either in separate individuals or one person. Except for the free 6th level character (which can be upgraded using points, this character is allowed to be three levels higher than your maximum character level), each character level purchased has to be maintained by spending one point per level each week. Heroic character levels cost 1 point per level while NPC levels go at a 2 for 1 basis. For example, I spent 10 points to purchase 20 1st level warriors (npc class); 10 points will have to be spent each week to maintain those characters in service. If the points are not spent then week then the characters not payed for disband. Characters that have more than one level disband if all of their levels are not payed for. The max amount of characters allowed excluding the free one is ten unless turns are spent to increase that number.
1 point = 1 heroic character level
2 nonheroic levels
100gp
1 monster level/hd
50 points = 1 base of operations (10 stronghold spaces in Stronghold Builders Guidebook; 5 points equals 1 stronghold spaces)
Max Character Lvl Points Cost
1 free
2 free
3 free
4 10
5 20
6 40
7 80
8 150
9 300
10 500
11 1,000
12 2,500
13 5,000
14 10,000
15 20,000
16 50,000
17 100,000
18 200,000
19 500,000
20 1,000,000
Turns represent a factions ability to use their resources. Each faction gets 3 turns to spend per week.
1 turn = turns spent to execute different kinds of missions
Missions: change so that missions reflect faction skill uses
(needs rules)
Attack
Assassination
Diplomacy
Espionage
Raid
Rescue
Research
Sabotage
Steal
assigning extra personnel than the minimum required to
execute the mission (maybe)
buy magic item worth more than 1,000gp for transaction and
transport of gold and item (still have to pay gold), 5 turns for
excess of 10,000gp, 10 turns for excess of 100,000gp
Increase max amount of followers by 10
3 turns = Increase weekly point income by 5
1 reputation point (probably going to use the original star wars
d20 chart [reputation has to be earned, and can either be
famous or infamous depending on the kinds of acts of the
organization])
Points and turns can be accumulated if not spent. They can also be stolen by attacking another player faction. Attacking a player faction requires a mission (dont know which yet, or how many types) and an opposed faction check. If the attacker is successful he gains the difference between the checks in points. If he fails the defender gets a free turn. Additional side effects such as character deaths and property/base destruction are at the DMs discretion, or directed by rules that arent made yet.
Faction checks (look in TFU)
Everyone starts with one free 5th level heroic character, they can provide as many or as little details as possible, leaving the DM to fill the character out as needed
Can email me anytime about questions, from pricing strongholds to rules questions.
How does faction to faction interaction work? Do they all have a common goal? Make it an us vs. them situation.
Missions can be different skills, skills points can be purchased, missions succeed base on faction checks plus the skill modifier against the dc. Success has different outcomes, heroes of battle has some useful info. Most skills result in accruing more resources, or tools/plot devices that will help accumulate more resources.
The reward of playing a faction is seeing the result in news bulletins on how the campaign world, other factions, and the player characters are affected by their actions.
To improve an organizations scale, the organization pay a number of points equal to the Cost.
Scale Spere of Influence Cost Benefit
1 Small localized group 0 none
2 Larger localized group 100 10% discount on buying non-magical
items (excludes buildings, land, and
animals)
3 City area 200 henchmen with racial level adjustments
cost 1 pont less than normal
4 Small city faction 300 free building consisting of
30 stronghold spaces
5 Larger city faction 500 all missions cost 1 turn less than normal
6 Citywide 1,000 when spending 3 turns to raise weekly
point income, organization now increases
by 50 points instead of 5
7 Citywide (larger) 10,000 when attacking another faction,
the defender no longer gets a free
turn if you fail
8 National 50,000 when spending a turn to increase
the max amount of followers,
increase by 100 instead of 10
9 Regional 100,000 when purchasing buildings or
structures according to the rules in
the Stronghold Builders Guidebook,
reduce total price of stronghold by 25%
That's all folks.
Ive been working on a D&D 3.5 Fall From Heaven campaign in my spare time over the past several weeks, and in a few months Id like to launch my greatest campaign yet. I have a few ideas about it that Id like to put forward for anybody with two cents to comment on, such as whether you think people will be interested in joining this or not, and whether some of the rules Im coming up with for a Faction mini-game are balanced and make sense. Also if you have any ideas on whether organizations within the FFH setting should be controlled by players or if the concepts should be from scratch.
For my FFH campaign, I want to have as many people participating in it that can fit. I'm not going to launch this for a couple of months, but there are going to be 8 spots open for player characters. Two groups: one good, one evil, where every few adventures their paths will cross hopefully to become nemesis and create some interesing stories and fun quests. Now if youre reading this and youre thinking wow, that sounds awesome, I wish there was somebody near me who would run something like this, the beauty of this is that its gonna be online, and not in the sense of play by post/forum/email, but on an actual battlemat that you can see on a map where you can move your tokens around in great visuals with lots of cool features. I really couldnt get a grasp on how to run an online game until a few weeks ago I stumbled across Maptool. Essentially, like I said earlier the gm craft a cool looking battlemat and you play your character through the program. Heres a link to what it would look like: http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/maptool.htm (click on View for Player Quickstart at the top; its a ten minute video but if you cant find a group near you but cant find one, watch and thank the guys who made it later).
On the off chance this idea of mine catches on and I end up with more than eight people who want in, then heres the ambitious proposed plan of expansion: if there happen to be others out there who would like to DM their own online adventures in a joint FFH campaign as Apprentice DMs where parties can interact with each other and even become competitive rivals or nemesis (think of it as a Living campaign with a campaign world that you can actually affect with adventues custom made for individual parties, instead of a static world with standardized adventures that are the same for everybody). The idea of an Apprentice GM essentially is someone whod craft their own adventures but would submit to the head GM to tie things in to one huge yet cohesive story. For every apprentice GM that signs up 4 other spots open for players, or however many the GM thinks they can handle. This may all be wishful thinking, but you never know. It could catch on.
Now, if youre still with me after all of this, Id like to let you in on the main reason for starting this thread. In keeping with the idea of getting a lot of people playing, Im introducing a kind of mini-game for those who would want to join the campaign but for some reason cant and most likely dont think they have the time. This game would consist of the creation and play of organizations or factions that interact with the players, the campaign world, and one another. Id greatly appreciate some commentary on whether you think this from scratch rules system is balanced and makes sense. The rules will take a few minutes to pick up but play would be relatively quick, consisting of choosing how you want to spend your points and turns; then emailing your choices to the DM.
Now this is a very simplified version, but what I envision is a system with a standard income of turns and points. Points can be spent to purchase henchman, their levels, items, monsters, strongholds, and increasing an organizations sphere of influence. Whereas Turns will be spent to increase caps on maximum levels for followers, maximum amounts of followers, increase reputation scores, increasing the weekly point income, and sending all the resources youve purchased on missions. This is where itll get really fun.
You have all of these resources at your disposal (I forgot to mention that everyone gets a free leader, starts with an income of 20 points a week and 3 turns, which both accumulate week to week if left unspent) that can be used to affect the campaign world and craft stories parallel to the player characters, which is the essence of playing an rpg anyway. What makes this concept even better is that youll get all of that with as little or as much time as you want to put into it.
For example, lets say over the course of three weeks we end up with a few players for the faction game who have been accrueing there resources. The organizations are a thieves guild, a wizards order, and a noble house. The thieves guild has spent their resources on 25 Svartalfar/drow rogues (level 1) each equipped with climbing tools and masterwork thieves tools. Lets say hes has 7 turs unspent, and since he and the self-described richer-than-you-can-imagine noble house are both in the same city within his sphere of influence he decides to spend a turn to steal from them to hit the mother load (maybe the leader is a Khazad? wouldnt that be something). As Im sure it would, the thieves have provoked the noble house who responds in turn, and a faction war breaks out in the city. Meanwhile outside the city limits, the PCs have stolen a rare magical item from a member of the wizards order, who next week when he gets more turns promptly spends them to send the rest of their wizards after the PCs to get it back. This order has a small tower (its only been three weeks) and five 5th level wizards, opponents to the PCs that provide a good side adventure or who knows, they may become the main villains. This not only provides great background for adventure, but a fun game in its own right.
The Faction Game is an idea I expanded on from one of the roleplayingtips.coms archives, which I cant find again. Anyway, here our some of the rules Ive come up with, and if by some miracle youve read the majority of what Ive written here, tell me what you think. And when reading missions, remember my brain juices are running low, so there arent any rules for how they work yet, these are mostly notes, and the inspiration from this in addition to roleplayingtips.com came from a web browser game, so thats where some of the structure came from.
I'm planning on modifying a mechanic for sending followers on missions comes from the Star Wars RPG The Force Unleashed Campaign guide using their rules for organization scale: a faction (faction scale + skill) against a Difficulty Class to determine how much of a success or failure the mission was.
All opinions and ideas are welcome. Here are the rules:
The Rules
Points are the method used to represent resources. Each faction gets twenty points to spend per week. Character levels can be bought either in separate individuals or one person. Except for the free 6th level character (which can be upgraded using points, this character is allowed to be three levels higher than your maximum character level), each character level purchased has to be maintained by spending one point per level each week. Heroic character levels cost 1 point per level while NPC levels go at a 2 for 1 basis. For example, I spent 10 points to purchase 20 1st level warriors (npc class); 10 points will have to be spent each week to maintain those characters in service. If the points are not spent then week then the characters not payed for disband. Characters that have more than one level disband if all of their levels are not payed for. The max amount of characters allowed excluding the free one is ten unless turns are spent to increase that number.
1 point = 1 heroic character level
2 nonheroic levels
100gp
1 monster level/hd
50 points = 1 base of operations (10 stronghold spaces in Stronghold Builders Guidebook; 5 points equals 1 stronghold spaces)
Max Character Lvl Points Cost
1 free
2 free
3 free
4 10
5 20
6 40
7 80
8 150
9 300
10 500
11 1,000
12 2,500
13 5,000
14 10,000
15 20,000
16 50,000
17 100,000
18 200,000
19 500,000
20 1,000,000
Turns represent a factions ability to use their resources. Each faction gets 3 turns to spend per week.
1 turn = turns spent to execute different kinds of missions
Missions: change so that missions reflect faction skill uses
(needs rules)
Attack
Assassination
Diplomacy
Espionage
Raid
Rescue
Research
Sabotage
Steal
assigning extra personnel than the minimum required to
execute the mission (maybe)
buy magic item worth more than 1,000gp for transaction and
transport of gold and item (still have to pay gold), 5 turns for
excess of 10,000gp, 10 turns for excess of 100,000gp
Increase max amount of followers by 10
3 turns = Increase weekly point income by 5
1 reputation point (probably going to use the original star wars
d20 chart [reputation has to be earned, and can either be
famous or infamous depending on the kinds of acts of the
organization])
Points and turns can be accumulated if not spent. They can also be stolen by attacking another player faction. Attacking a player faction requires a mission (dont know which yet, or how many types) and an opposed faction check. If the attacker is successful he gains the difference between the checks in points. If he fails the defender gets a free turn. Additional side effects such as character deaths and property/base destruction are at the DMs discretion, or directed by rules that arent made yet.
Faction checks (look in TFU)
Everyone starts with one free 5th level heroic character, they can provide as many or as little details as possible, leaving the DM to fill the character out as needed
Can email me anytime about questions, from pricing strongholds to rules questions.
How does faction to faction interaction work? Do they all have a common goal? Make it an us vs. them situation.
Missions can be different skills, skills points can be purchased, missions succeed base on faction checks plus the skill modifier against the dc. Success has different outcomes, heroes of battle has some useful info. Most skills result in accruing more resources, or tools/plot devices that will help accumulate more resources.
The reward of playing a faction is seeing the result in news bulletins on how the campaign world, other factions, and the player characters are affected by their actions.
To improve an organizations scale, the organization pay a number of points equal to the Cost.
Scale Spere of Influence Cost Benefit
1 Small localized group 0 none
2 Larger localized group 100 10% discount on buying non-magical
items (excludes buildings, land, and
animals)
3 City area 200 henchmen with racial level adjustments
cost 1 pont less than normal
4 Small city faction 300 free building consisting of
30 stronghold spaces
5 Larger city faction 500 all missions cost 1 turn less than normal
6 Citywide 1,000 when spending 3 turns to raise weekly
point income, organization now increases
by 50 points instead of 5
7 Citywide (larger) 10,000 when attacking another faction,
the defender no longer gets a free
turn if you fail
8 National 50,000 when spending a turn to increase
the max amount of followers,
increase by 100 instead of 10
9 Regional 100,000 when purchasing buildings or
structures according to the rules in
the Stronghold Builders Guidebook,
reduce total price of stronghold by 25%
That's all folks.
If you have an open space for the campaign, count me in.
