Eilistraee's Champions

This was a homebrew that was approved some time ago, but it got lost in the mess or my poor organization, leading me to never actually posting it until now.

When outside of combat, a trained healer may attempt to manually aid a wound in healing, allowing them to maximize the healing spell at no cost. This may only be done outside of combat. It requires a skill check based off the heal skill at the following DCs based on spells. If the skill check fails the heal spell still goes off normally with rolled damage.

CLW: DC15
CMW: DC25
CSW: DC35
CCW: DC45

Mass spells require you to have one extra ‘nurse’ for each patient that can also pass an assisted version of the same check.

Alright so we have a new rule going into play here. All three DMs are in favor of it, there is no disgareement at all. So I am making this post so the players can discuss it a bit, maybe give some input. I am most likely going to put it officially into effect in the middle of next week at which time it will get migrated to an actual page in the homebrew section.

This first round of homebrew is for Performance themed dieties, because of course it is.

If performances fall into the portfolio of your deity you may make a performance check paired with a knowledge religion check as a religious act once per day in an attempt to appeal to your deity. The lowest of the two rolls is the deciding factor in this attempt, similar to how disadvantage works. This roll is then compared to the sacrificial rewards table found on page 27 of the Book of Vile Darkness.

One can bypass the disadvantage element by making a ritual sacrifice in place of the knowledge religion check. The sacrifice may come in what ever form is of interest and appeals to the deity in question and should have a value of roughly (10*perfroemr’s level) in GP. For deities that favor beauty of sorts this may be incesnts or perfumes being burnt. For that that favor the hunt this could mean meats or hides.

If this gains traction among the players this is likely to mean more of these homebrew are going to come up relating to methods and interests of other deities.

In my Land of M’kal game I am using custom legacy items for my players. Rules on those are here.
1. A Legacy item may be awarded to you from your family line, or some other important source from your character’s back story.
2. You must have a story to go with your legacy item to suggest why it has sentimental value for you.
3. Your legacy item does not level with you. It levels when the GM says it does. This will often be tied to quests, deeds, or direct actions.
4. The table below will tell you the maximum value of your item at each level. This is the maximum completed value at that level, not cumulative.
5. Once a magic is added to the item it cannot be removed or replaced. That +1 jump you put on will always be there unless you up it to +2. You can’t swap it for +1 dance, or remove it at all.
6. Use standard enchanting/crafting rules for these. Ignore epic crafting rules completely.
Level Maximum Value
0 50gp
1 150gp
2 400gp
3 800gp
4 1300gp
5 1800gp
6 2300gp
7 3000gp
8 4000gp
9 5000gp
10 6500gp
11 8000gp
12 10000gp
13 13000gp
14 18000gp
15 25000gp
16 35000gp
17 48000gp
18 64000gp
19 80000gp
20 100000gp
21 120000gp
22 140000gp
23 160000gp
24 180000gp
25 200000gp
26 220000gp
27 240000gp
28 260000gp
29 280000gp
30 300000gp
31 330000gp
32 360000gp
33 390000gp
34 420000gp
35 450000gp
36 490000gp
37 530000gp
38 570000gp
39 610000gp
40 650000gp

Examples of Legacy items that have been used so far;
Morticia’s Hand Crossbow:
The weapon came engraved with a poem that spoke of how teaching people of pain is also an act of love.
Every sneak attack the weapon gained 10xp per point of damage done. It levels up at the same rate as a PC does, and as it levels up it’s MAX value according to the table above.

What is metagaming first off?
Metagaming is the use of information your character has not gained, and has not been exposed to, to alter the way you play your character. Of course much of that information is contextual depending on setting and your personal background. If your father was a career guardsman in a dwarven mining city, whom you spent your youth training under, you likely know some things. Trolls are vulnerable to acid or fire. Dragons attack from the sky. Skeletons break easier when you beat them with a mace than when you try to cut them with a sword. Zombies move clumsy. But you won’t know things like.. three tear drops in a purple triangle is the holy symbol of Talona. You won’t know about the great elven war that drove the Drow into exile. You won’t know the detailed truth about how tieflings are made. You won’t the home plane of Illithids.

Another form of toxic metagaming is when the rogue asks to make a spot check, then rolls a 2. The rogue doesn’t know he failed. You don’t know he failed. So it is toxic behavior for you to suddenly ask if you can make a roll. If the rogue doesn’t ask for help you have no reason to help. Similarly when a player asks to make a particular action and a bunch of others ask to make assist rolls. The answer should be no, unless the action was discussed in character before the player attempts the action.

So, a few days ago I asked my DMs to give me a PM telling me what they think is good metagaming, and what is bad metagaming. I have reviewed each of the lists I was given and here is what I would put forth that I agree with from each of these lists.

Limiting toxic language use while in character. If you end up with some players at the table with you that are to fragile for excessive profanity, but brash and harsh language is part of your character, fake it. Instead of using fake insults or just colorful combinations of words that would fit on the Shakespear list instead of the George Carlin list. This is metagaming to a degree because you are changing the character’s behavior to suit Billy sitting at your left. But you are not losing the point of the character’s language quirks.

Leveraging world lore for magical auto-convenience is a form of toxic metagaming. When you decide you want to play a barbarian that is borderline suicidal in her behavior, but suddenly decide to be a follower of Bahamut as well. Why? Because this city you are playing in has a temple of Bahamut so you expect you can get a cheap or free ressurection because you carry that holy symbol. You have no interest in playing to the religion, can’t name any of it’s tenants or teachings. But expect to be treated as a full member of the religion because of 7 letters at the top of your character sheet and a cheap hunk of wood you wear on a string around your neck.

Co-conspiring with the DM is a productive way to grow your character. Perhaps there is something you wish to do with your character that you can’t see a way to do, or you need the DM to lay out a bit of bait for your character to follow. In a living world like this with DMs juggling dozens of things, the DM can’t always put in the time to predict what you want or what you need. Drop a hint, a clue, a conversation. It will help you, and it will help them. This is not only good metagaming, it’s also a good way to build understanding. You may have taken actions recently that the DM didn’t quite understand or didn’t translate well with the game as a filter.

The Interference play is a popular and vulgar form of Metagaming. Similar to above where the party wants to all roll a check because the rogue failed his. This is where the players know there is a problem, perhaps because of a DM slip of words or because they saw a pattern in a series of NPC actions, or because they have played that scene out before in a different game. What ever the case may be, the players are now aware of a problem so they are conveniently taking irrational actions in character to try to discover the problem when there is no grounds for such an investigation to start. Bob gets poisoned. DM tells Bob that he should note on his sheet that he was poisoned and he will have to act on this next time he sleeps. Susan now suddenly wants to make a heal check, or to cast detect poison on Bob. Bob is showing no outward signs and Bob’s wounds were already tended and taken care of minutes ago. Now Susan is using out of character knowledge, to take actions she woudln’t otherwise, to gain in character knowledge, to solve a problem she knows about but her character doesn’t. Stop is Susan.

Being the DM’s Co-conspirator is another productive and helpful form of metagaming. This of course refers to letting the DM bounce ideas off you. To get your opinions on how something may be run. We have DMings of differing skills here with various knowledges of other games, other systems, and different literary backgrounds. Different ideas are going to come up and different methods of running the same encounter. A happy DM that is enjoying there time around here is going to begin to push themselves in new ways. Expose themselves to new ideas. Try new things. Sometimes these new things need a dry run to feel them out before they get put before the party officially. You may also notice the DM taking to long to respond to a question. Or may be stumbling for an answer. This is a good time to respectfully make a suggestion, or even ask the DM what they are trying to pull off. This does not ever include rules lawyering.

Playing your build/gimmick is a good way to make a DM tired of you showing up. If your primary motivation in your actions is your next spell in your spellbook, if your entire family history can be itemized by the feat they taught you or what class you take at which level, you are a waste of the DM’s time and an insult to the other players. You should be roleplaying a person. Who you are should effect what you do. If your future level ups are making your choices for you, then you really don’t understand the basics of who you are playing or even what D&D is about. You should think of D&D as improve acting, and your character sheet is your rules/guidelines. It’s not a scripted event and you should not let it be. This one comes off as hostile. I am not sorry. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine.

Building for the party you are joining is a good form of metagaming. If you are trying to join a player that has two fighters and two clerics it may be a good idea to ask them if they want something more utility like a rogue or a wizard before you actually join. In a community like ours where the players actually do have a say in who plays with them it’s a good idea to see what you can do to be useful to the party. It’s even fairly okay to ask them a bit about their back story. Maybe there is something in one of their stories you can use as a hook to meet up with the party. Maybe, just maybe, you are a childhood friend of one of them. You should try to keep yoru character partially independant though. Otherwise if you play the baby brother of that higher level fighter then it may result in the DM having a hard time building story hooks particularly for you that don’t include the older sibling. This will lead to you feeling like you are stuck in your older sister’s shadow without any means to separate yourself and become independant or shine on your own.

Emotional baggage is a burden on every aspect of life. It’s something that is just plain stupid to carry into other relationships or projects period. Don’t start carrying your emotional baggage into our games. Especially if it’s because you have a bitter relationship with someone here left over from another server or another game. It’s really pathetic. I would call it childish but it’s even uncommon in children. I would not want to insult the children. This should not really even be considered metagaming but instead should just be called a need to seek theraputic advice. Yet this was suggested to me as a bad example of metagaming, so here we are.

Not all games run smooth. Sometimes it takes some OOC communication to get the characters to work together. Toss some random half dozen people into a party and run it with no planning and there is going to be friction, if the players actually bothered to build a person before they played. Personalities don’t automagically meld together. Sometimes the solution for this is some OOC communication. Find some way to manufacture a situation where the characters can begin to work together or create a means to trust each other. That doesn’t mean one player complains to another about their improper use of elven slurs and the other just suddenly loves elves because it’s convenient. Create an in game situation to create character evolution. Characters change over time based on what they are exposed to. Sometimes, for the betterment of the game, you need to put the situation in that will redirect the character’s growth in the direction the players outside of the game need.

A sense of entitlement is toxic in any field of life. It is also toxic here. Just because you are here does not mean you automatically are entitled to a game. Just because you are made a character does not mean you are automatically entitled to show up at a game and play. Just because you are in a party doesn’t mean you are entitled to the loot or information the party gains. Now, it’s pretty obvious that the splitting of loot is expected. But that too needs to be roleplayed out. If a character has information you don’t, that’s part of the game. It doesn’t matter what that information is. If it’s the rogue keeping his spy network a secret or the barbarian giggling as he watches you walk right towards a pitfall trap. Each character it it’s own entity. It’s mind is not a public library. There are no membership cards and you can’t pay a subscription fee. Unless information is voluntered, you can’t have it. To disallow this is to strip away player agency. If you dislike this, and your character manages to find out that secrets are being kept through legit roleplay, you can simply opt out of playing with that person by what ever means you feel needed. If you can get others to agree to eject them from the party then that’s an option. If you can’t find a way to roleplay your way out of this situation, then you are legally allowed to leave the table.

There is a lot I can continue to do and say in this post, but I think this is plenty of information for people to go off of and learn from. Metagaming is a constant small nagging problem, but recently it had a sudden spike across multiple servers I am on. Funny how trends happen like that. My hope is not to use this post to bash anyone over the head. Yes I do tend to make posts on a subject right after the subject becomes a problem. It’s not to weaponize the blog, or to attack anyone. It’s to inspire a conversation and get people to engage in the subject.

Roleplaying games are a great deal of fun, are they not? All the power gaming, twinking, and gimmick builds that are so hilariously fun to think about, but end up dying out as soon as you get your next pack of Mountain Dew to fuel your ADHD thinking machine. But we don’t care about those when we lose them do we? No, we do not. Because having a character like that live past a few levels is a burden. It gets in the way of the next gimmick. They are not worth talking about or thinking about.

This is about the people we have lost along the way. The characters that seemed to have lives of their own. Those characters that end up having lovers, family, friends, rivals, enemies, and maybe even a couple children running around. Those ones where you actually get upset because you know there is a very bad choice to be made in this situation, but that’s the choice would make. When they have a living personality that conflicts even with your own or with what is right in the moment. Those characters that mean so much that when they die, you have to tear the sheet up in a moment of anger and rage. Then minutes later you come to the frantic anguish filled desire to try to tape the sheet back together again. But it doesn’t matter, it won’t matter. No amount of tape is going to bring back that adventure, that story, that life experience.

But, at least in my experience, it’s not the loss of my own characters that hurts the most. It’s the loss of the people we played with instead. Those sometimes irritating people you partied with, and went on those adventures with. Those people we have met, and while they may be fake, they last in your mind longer than the memories created by those so called real friends of yours. Those grand adventures that leave you feeling the suffering of loss as well.

There are some losses that linger for me many years later. Friends I will never get back, adventures I will never see again, worlds long lost.

It’s not just our games that do this. Sure, with D&D, Vampire, mage, Star Trek, Mass Effect, or what ever games you play can build some amazing things. It’s books and games too. If you are a lover of stories, and you actually consider it a hobby, then certainly there have been times when you come to the end of a book and you feel like an emotional wreck for a little while. Because the adventure is over. You have poured your soul and emotion into the story and the characters. Now the adventure is over, you will never be able to travel with them the same way ever again.

Stories end.
Characters are lost.
Players leave.
Moods die.
Sometimes it has nothing to do with the game, but it’s third party factors.
The loss of a family member outside of the game can kill your desire for a game.
Perhaps your favorite book series comes to an end becamse some jackass behind a desk up in an office decides the product line is turning 2% less of a profit than they would like, so they kill an entire product line and everything tied to it. P
erhaps a player leaves a game, and them being missing changes how everyone else behaves resulting in that chemistry dying off.
One of the contributors to a story just stops putting in any effort, and everyone else has to drag them alone pretending the story isn’t burning down around them until finally it does…

I was motivated to write this post while sitting and thinking about a couple games I have that are dying. There is no longer any passion for the characters. people are just going through the motions because it’s expected of them. We used to be really excited about our characters and we would get together an hour before the game to talk about our characters. We would spend many hours during the week talking about them. But these days for a couple of the games people show up at the last minute, go through the motions, try to rush towards success, and no longer care as much about the lives they live. I also recently had a Mask game that end under because one of the players could not be bothered to keep up with the schedule or show up on time.

Try not to let your characters die any sooner than they have to. But when they do, make sure it hurts you and everyone around you. Make them a person everyone will build connections with. Love, friendship, rivalries. Even hatred and frustration can be a powerful emotion that will create a vacuum when the target of those emotions are gone. Play the character that will be remembered years after the game is gone. Be that lingering smirk on someones face years later.

Goodbye, Jessie. You will be missed.

When I first launched this world it was not ready to be launched. But I had lost a big ambitious game because during the time I was homeless for a few months a few of the players just up and disappeared..(lights a candle for Vasa.)

So, I launched M’kal largely unready to make it up to the players I felt I had failed. The point system and point tables were born as a result of the need for help in building the world, and the desire to get players interacting with the website. I do have some players that would build the entire world from the ground up for me if I let them (Thank you Sarah and Tracey) but I wanted this to be a shared project everyone would take some pride in and love. I of course also knew it would meant some people would vomit up ideas that need to go in a HAZMAT bucket not a D&D world. Evil cults with fireball wands will take care of some of that no doubt.

The point system has gone through several iterations, and several changes. Some for the better, some for the worse. But currently there is a nagging problem I need to address with the tables, and that is what this post is about.

Some time ago it was suggested to me to begin adding items to the tables. On the grounds that it would make the tables more exciting and get people more interested. That has backfired. Sure, it has lured some more people in, but it’s also chased others away. Additionally the tables as of the past couple months have become all about farming items. I think it’s safe to say that about 200 items come off the table for every piece of lore that is written now. Sometimes it feels like players are just trying to scalp as many items as fast as they can to vomit it up on a vendor for cash. Other times it feels like players are just getting stuff they don’t want, don’t need, and can’t use just to deprive others of having something they could use and enjoy.

There is a small temptation to remove the items from the tables. But I realize that would just be malicious and vindictive. I could remove the allowance for players to manually choose an option. But that was originally added so players could choose to name 5 taverns instead of ending up with 2 inns, a myth, a landmark and a bard when they are not interested in geology or mythology. So I am just going to have to make the item choices less attractive. At the same time I am going to have to make the lore writing options more attractive.

In order to make item choices less attractive, if you manually choose an item from the reward table you will no longer get the bonus points from it. Previously if you chose #17 on the copper table to get a Adamantine buckler, you got the buckler and 1 silver. Or if you chose 20 to get the dart of caltrops you got the dark and 1d4+1 silver as well. No more. If you roll 20 you get the item and the silver bonus.

Additionally I am going to begin evaluating lore items and giving points based on quality and how well it ties into the location. I am not going to say how I am going to do this because I know a few people will just cheese it instead of writing what they actually want.

All of these changes will go into effect after this coming platinum day, so the next round of rolls.

Especially when dealing with a party of mixed levels as can occur with a West March style adventure, encounters are daunting for a GM. The Challenge Rating system assumes a balanced party of 4 players at the same level. Often, it seemingly does not fully account for special abilities, or specializations that the players may have taken. This can result in some strong encounters being overly simple, and some weaker encounters resulting in party death.

The first thing when designing encounters is to assess the objective. Is the aim to drain resources? Provide insight into what is occurring in their environment? Or a major plot point? Not to say an encounter can’t be all of the above, but for the purposes of this, we shall assume only one is desired at a time.

A good example of encounter process would be Left 4 Dead (1 or 2) when played on a high level of difficulty. The common infected slowly chip away at health, consuming ammo, temporary health. Sometimes stashes exist to resupply. Sporadically through the map, the special infected will attack, and cause much more ammo and health to be invested. Finally, a tank encounter may take almost all the bullets.

Resource chipping encounters are looking to get the players to spend one or three spells, maybe a X/day power, and take some hit point damage. This creates the need for the group to assess if they have the strength to keep forging forward. However, this is not to say the same group over and over again is the way to approach it.

In your average group, each player is likely to have things they excel at. Some may do incredible burst damage, while others do consistent but reliable damage through spells. To keep the players engaged, these methods need to be checked, and catered to. Yes, Catered To. If a character excels at something, but never gets to demonstrate that focus, the player becomes uninvested in the character and they will cast Sword (or equivalent) until all fights are resolved.

So, the wizard that specializes in using spells in combination to cause greater effects like grease and burning hands? An encounter should be designed where it is unlikely that the party’s martial characters can resolve, but have such abysmal reflex saves that the grease and fire will certainly resolve the issue.

Environmental difficulties can spruce up a low encounter fight. Rooms are not independant blocks of space and time. When allies are fighting nearby, the sounds are likely to attract others. Once verified that there are issues, why wouldn’t the new combatants try and circle around to press the party? Casters hide in the back for a reason. When the group suddenly has to split their focus, the encounter’s Challenge just increased. The players may retreat into a corner trying to draw both groups into a cone in front of them rather than the two fronted combat they have.

Sometimes its worth pointing out a flaw or issue in the group’s capabilities. If the group has a thing for will and fortitude saves, some undead will cause real problems for them. An overly strong character that faces a creature which slowly takes away their strength from a distance, while something else engages and blocks the strong tank can create quite a challenge for a group.

When using faceless enemies to fill an encounter out, the type and some of what is found with them can be just as plot relevant as the trusted LT of the evil overlord. If the relatively unknown manipulator behind a series of events that the players are following has gotten gnome rogues to attack the players this has a different meaning to some human street toughs even if as a GM you might use the same stats (minus weapon damage). The players might think to go investigate the gnome connection, and there is a political ploy that is present. With the human street toughs, one of them seemed to be stronger than the others (a leader of some description) who has a well faceted gemstone in his pouch, presumably as payment. When touched to blood, it shatters causing damage after a moment. The players now suspect advanced magic, and don’t trust gems.

A third option would be that two of the thugs look oddly similar. Asking around, leads to information about the twins. As known street toughs, their movements were more easily followed. Fourth option is for those who wish to upset their players. Players often take a ‘Keep what you kill’ attitude. Throw some items into the pouchs that could be heirlooms. Then have in a couple sessions the family of the deceased seeking vengeance.

Would you actually be interested in playing Multiplayer Morrowind? While talking to someone today they mentioned that the Morrowind Multiplayer mods have come far enough that it’s legit possible to run a server with dozens of players. This has gotten me far more excited than I have been about video games in many years. See? See? I smiled. Well.. Almost.

If there are enough people interested then I can get a server up and running within an hour of having the interest. We could play vanilla, we could play with a wide range of mod options. And we can begin building M’Kal in world slowly over time. This may or may not replace the minecraft server.