New books and new games

Books -- I've had my eye on Magic of Incarnum, and teh Spell Compendium for a while. I have been deficient on the Area of magical learning for too long. I've known magic from the DM's point of view mostly. The kind of magic that is "Okay I need this to happen from this NPC...okay it happens." nothing to vested in the rules, and I need to change that.

Magic of Incarnum however looks to be something new nd very cool. I hope it doesn't turn into 3 editions Psionic rules... Where it always feels tacked on and not completely integrated... But I think i have the answer for that. In terms of Eberron Incarnum is the bridge between the soul and magic, and it was first pioneered by the Illumians, (Incarnum , Illumians it works doesn't it?) , it was first approached clinically by the Illumians a few other races were born into it however. (i've never read MoI but I can guess that wizards has put a few races in there that can use Incarnum by their racial properties.

Some of these new thoughts and developments are as a result of my thinking of my december campagin... I need a name for it

RPG smithing

Quite frankly, who amongst us hasn't memorized the mass majority of the rules of 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons? I sure as hell have, and everybody's got their own problems with it, and some deal with it differently than others.

In seventh grade, way before I got into D&D, I made up a game I can't remember the name of. Pretty much, you would play it in groups of two, and each person would have a character. In the one game I played of it, I was a black sorcerer (and I looked an awful lot like the dark magician from... Yugioh. (groan)), and my opponent was a dwarven warrior, mounted upon a firebreathing dragon. Pretty much, each of us would take a turn, stating what awesome looking move we'd use to try and kill our opponent, and then they'd counter in a similiar way. By the end of the game (which actually lasted about a month, since we'd do it during track practice), I was riding a giant zombie bat, and I had nuked the island we had started off on.

The game was fun because it had absolutely no game mechanics beyond the existence of turns, and we pretty much made up cool spells and awesome techniques. Unfortunately, if you want to have a game of D&D, it can't be that simple. Game mechanics have been thought up that quite frankly only do a lackluster job of making things well thought out. How often have you thought to yourself "Man, I wish I could do Such and such a Move from Insert video game name Here." Quite frankly D&D in its current mechanics only allows for oh so much development. Ryugu's new Quicksilver (from what I know is in it), takes a good step in improving 3.5's mechanics. My rules are much simpler, and quite frankly don't do as much, but also improve a few small things. Hell, I occasionally go to my Inquisitor Rulebook (games workshop) for ideas for rule changes, and also think up ways to improve that games mechanics. There are so many different game systems, with mechanics emphasizing different aspects of gameplay, that its quite difficult to make a system that fast, easy, or fun, let alone all three.

Wouldn't that be great? If you could just roll one die, see if you hit, and then just not have to roll any more dice? Wouldn't it be great if you could have a character who could melt into shadows and shoot energy blasts from his hands, without having to kill five bajillion orcs and multiclassing in thirty prestige classes? How about being able to make a game that has a average playthrough time of forever? I've evolved from game system to game system, slowly gaining better insight into the ideal gaming experience. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet. I started with video games (which lack flexibility in gameplay and story), I've played table top wargames (too expensive, too long to roll the dice), And I've played Tabletop RPGs (Inquisitor, too expensive, too difficult, but good gameplay and an emphasis on RP instead of balance, which actualy works), and from freshman year in high school I've been in D&D.

Within that I've made steps foward, first as a reader, then a player, and then a campaign setting creator and DM/GM. Whats the next step? I'd say its making new game mechanics, and thats gonna be a long one. Ryugus already up to his elbows in it, so we can all only really wish ourselves the best of luck in our own ventures into RPGsmithing.

The Next Few Posts (And The Last Few Posts)

We are al here because we have something to offer the group. I invited you all to join this blog, because we game together, and we work well together.

As the co-ordinator I feel a sense of Responsibilty over this blog, and I want to see it serve a useful purpose. This is an open call to Anyone who hasn't posted yet, or not even joined yet(BRYAN!) to do so.

Post a new Topic.
A Question that has been troubling you,(What are Magebreed animals anyway?)
Or a fact that you think is interesting (The bloodlines of the Dragonmarks seemed to exhibit the properties of the Marks even before the marks existed...)
Or a crazy idea{Gosh I love these} (Hey I wanna play a Dark Orc Bard/Black Dragon Disciple/Kensai worshipper of Tiamat!)

New posts are great, And any topic is welcome, even If its a little off topic (Conneticon)

And as for the old posts, don't leave them to languish! Many of them can become very viable and intersting libnes of reasoning. so take a monet to scroll down and see what the former offferings are

Above all else, post what you think, I don't care if they are half-formed thoughts either, just throw them out there!

Marks, Dragon or otherwise

Dragonmarks are what make Eberron. They are the only thing that keep its houses in power, and they provide amazing RP to use.

Any ideas for a new dragon mark? I've been muddling over this one for a whileand i haven't come up with anything yet. I saw on the D&D boards that somebody came up with the dragon mark of Prophesy; I really like that idea.

Then I tried to come up with a framework for how a Dragonmark works.

Minor scaleable power(Arcane mark, up to Symbol of *Blank*)

Adaptable power (Mage armor, and others)

not combat oriented. (see below)

The dragonmarked houses revolve around thie mark with subtle powers, they are economic powerhouses, that make little things in life easier, and make the big things possible.


any ideas for new marks?

Conneticon

yes, I know a great many of you went to this Con, and I was thining ahead. I was thiking about playing D&D there, but I definately wouldn't want to do it alone, frankly i'd rather not be cast into the auspecies of some GM who i've never seen before. Or, somebody from our group could GM. That would also be fun.

Also :COSPLAYING!

Peter d: I've had three ideas, the first involves you. We should both go a Szark Sturtz. One of us evil, the other good.

Idea two: I go as the Maestro

Idea three: I'll need volunteers to go as Oblivion Folder! *see most recent Dominic Deegans*

Sylovia TNG

Heres the deal: Last summer I abrubtly ended my Sylovia Campaign Setting's first campaign. The quality of the sessions were decreasing, and quite frankly I was dealing with three groups of PCs doing different things at different times, and it was far too difficult, thus causing the aforementioned problems.

Its been about four months, and now I intend to make a triumphant return, in a way that should be quite satisfying.

Quite frankly, my last campaign was a rapidly moving story, and I was unable to have a session without the presence of all members, which allowed some great times, and prevented the whole "what happened last time?" problem. My new campaign, caringly titled Sylovia TNG (the next generation), will be a quite different format. For those of you not yet involved, heres some important information. First off, the majority of the adventure will take place within a single city, a major trading site in the East of Sylovia, Bazaar. What makes this campaign an improvement over the last is its format, very open ended, but with a central location. Each member of the "party" is a citizen of the city, ideally living there for the majority of their lifetime. None of the characters need to be connected, but they can, and this allows for any type of character interactions.

Another thing that I'm emphasizing, and this will be familiar to those of you with any experience with White Wolf products. A major part of your character will be their backround. Since a certain part is already determined (location), this allows incredibly detailing. Having a full fledged family, friends, clients (depends on occupation), enemies, and connections in a city allows both you (and me) to be like, "I go to my brother's blacksmith shop and ask about the weapons prices in the city" or "Your grandmother shows up, and asks you to investigate your second cousin once removed's murder."

Another thing that makes this all interesting is this: You do not need to show up for a session, at any time. If you say "I can't come to D&D for two months because I got grounded," that won't be a problem, because then your character will be busy with their own life to help with the groups problems.

Your character basics (class and such) will be determined by me at the beginning, before character creation (you'll all be between level 1 and 3, NPC classes only), with the classes chosen based upon your character's backround. This is done to represent that you're all regular people, although theres a good chance you'll start gaining levels in PC classes in no time.

Depending on time and such, Ryugu's Quicksilver rules may or may not be used, and who knows what other rules of my own will be thrown into the mix (Laws of Dazhai is their name).

I'll be sending an email with a link to this post to all people I imagine will be interested in this, but I know there are some people I don't have the email addresses of, as well as people I might not even know. Feel free to foward the email and any other information that might be important (like who the hell I am) to anyone who should be notified of this kinda stuff.

-Tab

December Mini campagin framework

My last day of classes at WPi is Dec. 15, and my first day of classes is Jan 12

I intend to get some hardcore D&D in during that time, and thus I introduce my Mournlands(Not Cyre) campagin

much talk has been about the Lord of Blades,and fuck it i'm going to do a whole damn campagin about him.

Every will be Warforged
Heavy changes made to Magic in general, to take into accoutn the mournlands
This will be the first campagin under the QuicksilverV0.5 rules and there will be some...rather weird changes. (note the magic changes are NOT a Quicksilver change, just for this campagin)

Five warforged sub-races(this number may fluctuate, but at least 3)

Alterations to melee combat (ore details once I get all the details hashed out)

Story: can't tell you much because most of it is revealed IG, but simply put, the Lord of blades has many more followers than anyone thinks, and there are two things about the Mournlands that interest him. Fallen Cyre's magical wealth, and the Current Horrors of the mournland, and their uses.

This will be a campagin where everyone gets ridiculously overpowered, but.....(MWAAHAHAHA!) your free to interpret that for yourself

More when I get more time!
~Ryugu~

Purpose of this blog

we will all disagree at some point in this bloog
we will all have differing opinions
we will argue and debate the merits of Eberron vs Faerun v Sylovia vs (random homebrew campagin that (peter/richard) makes up)

at no point will any of that debate be out of spite (duh)

don't feel bad about disagreeing with people, when you disagree you force the other person to articulate thier point, and thus refine their point

Debate good

me no make sense

me go write paper for school

Counter

Heres the thing. Theres a bajillion things going on at any given time in a campaign setting. There are people rallying for troll rights and such. But heres the other thing: nobody really is interested in that. If your character, lets say Jadestone mcwhatshis name is walking down a street in sharn, and hes heading to Brians antique shop, the DM isnt going to mention the three guys preaching the word of the purple dragon, it just isnt important. I'm sorry, but you've got a valid point about how lots of things in history involve the common people, but remember this as well, would you rather be a nameless soldier in a handful of battles, or a man who does something unique and important. Thats the entire purpose of DnD, and all other roleplaying games. Oh, and on a side note, more of that sort of thing will be in my next campaign. Did I just counteract everything I just said?