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Messages - professorgear

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101
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: September 07, 2013, 06:13:14 AM »
As I promised earlier, a bit more discussion on morals.

Aside from special ascension, I think there is one more aspect of the game world that results in disorder in my cosmology. That would be the players themselves, lol. Aside from the fact that every PC at heart is CN, in all seriousness players do represent a warp in an otherwise smooth cosmology. Let me explain the reason.

I think the most convincing philosophic argument for God's existence is Plato's Uncaused Cause. In other words, everything in human experience exists because something else brought it into existence. Therefore, in order for there to not be an infinite chain of things that ultimately have no cause for existence, we must posit some thing (whom we call God), who caused everything else, yet is Himself uncaused. We receive a monotheistic result then. Furthermore, as I mentioned in the previous post, one of the qualities ascribed to God is omnipotence, and this is impossible if God has any "equals" who can curb his power.

Meanwhile, a game world has a DM who is omnipotent in that world and determines every feature of the game, which sounds orderly enough. But that's not the whole story. Players, who are beings equal to the DM, also have creative influence over the world. Even if they only create the PCs, the very existence of the players represents disorder because they represent opposition to the DM.

The above conclusions are rather practical, as I believe the chaotic alignment was created simply to excuse frequent player behavior as morally neutral, "Oh, I'm not being evil by shooting first and asking questions later, I'm being chaotic."

Of course, not all players play chaotic PCs. I would simply say that PCs have a chaotic tendency. Likewise, characters who specially ascend (practice arcane magic or undergo a ritual from Savage Species) should not be required to be chaotic. Simply put, these characters tend to be chaotic, and there is a temptation in the minds of these characters to behave more chaotically. On the other hand, NPCs tend to be a bit more lawful, as they are not controlled by the "free agents" we call the players.

Now, what are some of the implications of the above? I don't entirely know yet. For the most part, I wanted to know the nature of order and chaos simply so that I could get a taste for the outer planes and outsiders. I was thinking for several days on what sorts of behavior that are normally good-evil that in the game world should instead be chaotic-lawful. Simply put, I failed. I couldn't think of any consistent rules. So, I think the best decision is to simply let every player adopt a personal philosophy for their character, within reason. There are many different moral and ethical systems. As long as it vaguely resembles a sane interpretation of morality, we should accept it. In a sense, we can say PCs have this privilege because they're not solely judged by the DM, but by the DM and the player. I will say that, for the most part, acting harmoniously with the government and living a social life lead to a more lawful character while disregarding the government and living a solitary life lead to a more chaotic character. The reason I say this is that laws are imperfect models of justice and order. Likewise, worldly rulers are imperfect models of the one true ruler Who is God. So, disobedience to laws and worldly rulers (as long as they're not unjust laws or unjust rulers), is to some extent disobedience to justice and order and the ultimate Order. So lawful behavior is close to orderly behavior. Of course, in a world full of imperfect creatures, virtually every social situation needs either real law to govern it or the effective law of agreeable parties who impose self-discipline. The chaotic character doesn't care for law or many social situations, because in either case it involves his subordination to another being, like a governor. In a social situation, every individual member is subordinate to the group as a whole.

Anyways, as usual let me know what you think.

102
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: September 07, 2013, 06:12:44 AM »
Ok, so I thought we could put any discussion of morality here.

So, as you may have guessed, I'm Christian, specifically Catholic. Anyways, let's jump right into it. Because my faith forbids witchcraft, I believe in its real existence. Why would you forbid an impossible act? All the same, I think it was a rare thing in ancient times, and an extremely rare thing now, but nonetheless I believe it exists. Now, if I believe it exists in the real world, then what is the nature of witchcraft? Where does this power come from? Plainly, it does not come from man. Part of the definition of witchcraft is power beyond what is granted to man, i.e. supernatural power. Does it come from God? Obviously not, for He forbids it. Does it come from angels? Obviously not, for they do His bidding. Does it come from fallen angels? This is the only possibility. Angels are described as superior intellects, even superior beings, so obviously if a demon wanted to he could grant supernatural power. So, God forbids witchcraft because the source of that power is the worst sort (and of course that power is granted at a price, can you say Faust?). But is this the only reason witchcraft is wrong? I think not.

If we examine Satan's rebellion, what does it fundamentally come down to? Satan wanted to be God. Satan did not want to be the being he was created to be (possibly the highest of all angels). Instead, he wanted to be God. Witchcraft requires an almost identical disposition of the human mind. At the least, we want to be angelic rather than the mere men we were created to be. But usually, we want to be like God (to the human mind, demonic powers are probably so great that they pass, for a time, as divine powers). So, witchcraft is also wrong for the same reason that Satan's rebellion was wrong, namely that it comes from ingratitude, envy, and pride. At this point, there seems to be two reason's why witchcraft is wrong, but I think things can be simplified even more. Demons would not be encouraging men in ingratitude, envy, and pride if they themselves had not fallen. So ultimately, it all comes down to the original rebellion. Ultimately, witchcraft is wrong because in its essence it seeks disordered power in ingratitude, envy, and pride. God created angels to be angels, not to be anything else. Likewise God created men to be men. Even if he had wanted to create another god, it would be a logical impossibility, as there can be only one Omnipotence. God stratified creation, and I think most Catholics would agree this has a great deal to do with its (creation's) beauty. A man wishing he was an angel or an angel wishing he was God is really as silly as me wishing that I was you. I'm not you, I'm me. Envy is a kind of insanity, to desire to be something other than what you actually are. And of course it fundamentally comes from ingratitude. While God delights in you and me, the envious man doesn't see good in himself worthy of delighting in. And this is of course pride to think your opinion better than God's knowledge.

And finally I can find a place for the law-chaos axis (or in more precise language, the order-chaos axis). This was really annoying me for awhile. As a Catholic, I can easily see any man on a spectrum of good and evil. But it never seemed to me logical to have a second moral axis. There is only good and evil, there is no other moral axis. But in a game world this additional moral axis solves some problems in logic and makes the world more conducive to gaming.

Most philosophers agree that the reason a given action is wrong is because it harms the soul (in psychological terms, the action is "egodystonic"). So, right and wrong can be modified in our world by changing the definition of a soul and therefore what may or may not harm a soul. In the real world, I believe a human soul should not be thought of as separate from its body. They are one psychosomatic whole. An angel meanwhile is "pure intellect." And there can be only one God. In the real world, what I would call "special ascension," to the extent that it's possible, would necessarily be evil. I am defining "species" here as any class of being. So by "special" I didn't mean "shortbus" but "having to do with species." Even if envy were not an issue, special ascension is evil in this world because it ruins the order ordained by God. A human soul is fundamentally human. For it to try and become something else would be nothing less than mutilation. In other words, the "humanness" of a human soul is not merely some trivial quality, but a defining characteristic. For instance, to take a white chair and paint it blue is to change a trivial quality of the chair: in the end, it is still a chair. But if I take a chair and remove its legs, I've changed an essential quality. It's no longer a chair. Likewise, to the extent that special ascension is possible in the real world, it is evil because it's an attempt to change an essential quality of the human soul, namely its "humanness." While mutilating a chair is no real issue, something sacred like a soul is a different matter.

However, in our game world, we could say that any given soul is not essentially defined by its species. In other words, the soul of a human is not particularly different from the soul of an angel or the soul of one of the gods. They're just souls inhabiting different vessels or ascribed different qualities - that's all. And, if a PC wanted to undergo one of the rituals in Savage Species to change from say human to ogre, this would have no moral value. Indeed, it would do no harm to the soul of the human in question.

It should be noted that I think any form of arcane magic is a form of special ascension. The reason for this is that in virtually every mythos the race of man is considered the one ordinary, normal, or mundane race. Yes, there are human wizards, but they are by definition exceptions to the rule. They are wielding power that is not proper to man. They are wielding a power that is above and outside of man. This is apparent in the case of the wizard who studies magic as a "subject." This may be less apparent with a sorcerer. But even in D&D, a sorcerer is not truly human. Yes, his power is natural, but HE isn't entirely natural as far as his humanity goes. He has a bloodline from a dragon or something. In other words, he has some of the blood of a creature to whom that power is proper.

Divine magic meanwhile (or miracles big and small) because it descends orderly from God, is not special ascension. The thaumaturgist (or miracle-worker) is not someone attempting special ascension. Likewise, if a PC plays an angel, the magical powers he would have as an angel are qualitatively different from the magic of a wizard. By this I mean the angel's powers are proper to an angel, while the wizard's power is not proper to a wizard.

Anyways, I apologize that this is doubtless very disordered, but hopefully you'll see how I'm beginning to pull things together. The law-chaos axis then should be used to describe behavior that in our game world no longer has a good or evil quality. In that respect it is neutral. However, to the extent that any given act is an instance of special ascension, it is chaotic. There are not really any positive lawful acts, but a lawful character is defined by his largely abstaining from chaotic acts.

Anyways, there's actually a lot more I will post on this, but it's getting late and I just want to get this out.

103
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: The Multiverse & Colosseum stuff
« on: August 26, 2013, 06:49:43 AM »
Ok, now to explain my most recent post. The final modifications I had to make to the rules of time travel involved the complications brought in by extra-dimensional travel. Hopefully my simplifications won't cause too much confusion, but I'm going to try and be brief as a proper treatment of the subject could take all of forever.

By "upstream" I mean going back in time from any one point (whether in the past, present, or future). You can guess what "downstream" means. By "correspond" and "correspondence" I mean every spin-off world shares the same timeline. While different worlds may have time pass at different rates or in different ways, every point on one world's timeline corresponds to one point and only one point on the other world's timeline. In other words, if I Extra-Dimensionally Travel (EDT) from Greyhawk to Faerun via the Plane of Shadow, I will travel from Greyhawk's present to Faerun's present. I will not be able to pick which time I enter into the Faerunian timeline. Because of the possibility of extra-dimensional travel and downstream travel in D&D, I had to create rules so our world wouldn't produce logical contradictions, specifically laws 7 and 8 from the above jpeg. Basically, as I've noted before, if I travel back in time, I create a new world. But, in D&D where there's EDT, all the worlds are connected and can basically create one "meta-world." So, as an example, right now it's Sunday night. If I go back in time to tomorrow morning, I will create another world for a total of 2 worlds. If I then stay in that timeline till Tuesday and then travel back in time till monday, I will double the number of worlds from 2 to 4. The reason is because the first 2 timelines began to "correspond" when the 2nd timeline went past Sunday night. By correspond I mean they literally became magically connected by the Plane of Shadow, such that people could travel between them and they composed one effective world. So when I traveled back in time the second time, this metaworld of 2 worlds was duplicated to yield 4 worlds. However, a world is not connected to other worlds via the Plane of Shadow the instant its timeline is initiated. It has to wait till "Sunday night," otherwise it could undo the very acts that led to its initiation, which would be the effect preventing its own cause. In rule 8 I simply used the temporal energy plane as this block or interruption because I thought it sounded cool.

Other terms that may confuse are "origin" and "father" timelines. This is just my term for a timeline that spawns an offspring timeline. So when I traveled back in time from Sunday night, the original Sunday night timeline is the father of the offspring timeline I'm in after the first act of reverse time travel.

BTW, I'm interested in this sort of stuff, but you don't have to be. We can each cover the other's blind spots in world-building, so if you don't really care about this stuff just let me know.

Rule 6 I found rather pleasing as a storyteller. Because the Plane of Shadow eventually reconnects all words into a kind of metaworld, eventually all the timelines become intertwined, and because the DM gets to say so, they will share the same fate, whatever that may be.

104
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: The Multiverse & Colosseum stuff
« on: August 26, 2013, 03:31:36 AM »
So, I couldn't resist. I wanted the gratification of some art, lol. So I made this little page which is totally a rough draft. We can change Jeriah's name, as mentioned earlier, as well as some of the wording of these laws. I understand right now some of them probably don't make sense as I haven't explained them, I'll do that later.



Personal note for later: headwaters, source, origin, offspring

105
Gaming Advice / +0 LA Acid Resistance
« on: August 21, 2013, 08:15:23 AM »
Ok, so I'm looking for acid resistance that doesn't come from a magic item, spell, or spell-like ability. I'm building a forsaker (MotW) with acid resistance. Presumably the only option is racial resistance, but I don't want a LA. Thanks for the help guys.

106
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: August 18, 2013, 04:00:50 AM »
Hey Tyson,
I've been working on a system of morals for the game, but before I make a post, it would be good to know what common ground I can reference. Are you Christian?

107
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: The Multiverse & Colosseum stuff
« on: August 13, 2013, 05:45:13 AM »
Anyways, as I mentioned in our chat, some thoughts on time travel.

Reverse time travel actually was a relatively easy problem to resolve. Just don't go with the infinite loop approach of say Harry Potter or Back to the Future. Posit multiple universes or the spinoff timelines, as in Star Trek, and you're good to go. But forward time travel is rather more difficult. And in D&D there are divination spells, the Time Dragon, time deities, and perhaps other beings and things which can travel forward in time. The reason why forward time travel is difficult is because it implies the present is determined. If I say someone traveled into the future and returned to my present, then he could tell me what happens in my future. He could tell me what I do, which means I no longer have the choice of not doing it. The same goes for divination spells. And there is the question of why future-seeing divination spells have an accuracy percentage instead of a certainty.

I think the answer to this question is that beings who travel into the future are utterly lost to the present. They are in a new and entirely different reality. If they "return" to the present, they have actually traveled back in time from that particular present, and the same rule applies to this reverse time travel as applies to other reverse time travel: that it creates a new spinoff timeline. So future time travel would be dealt with in one of two ways, depending on the situation. Either said being travels to the future (whatever that is, no one knows) and never returns. Or he does return, and people may even know about it, but he only "returns" in a sense. What he's actually done is gone back in time from the perspective of the future, thereby generating a new spinoff timeline. There are now two timelines: the unaffected timeline and the timeline he created by traveling into the future's past (lol, I hope I'm not giving you a migraine).

Because not only the characters but even you and I (which is to say players and DMs) are temporal beings and not eternal, we can only understand reality as existing in a linear temporal setting. Because of our limitations, no one knows anything about the true future. The future in our game I think would be really and truly "determined" which is to say in some sense immutable. But reverse time travel (from the future) and future-seeing divination spells only see what was the true future of the unaffected timeline. In other words, the character who went into what would have been my true future then returns to tell me about it is really only telling me about what would have been my true future if he hadn't changed the timeline by returning. But because he did return, he did change the timeline. So what he tells me is now only a probably future. The true future will now only be "close" to the future he describes to the extent that the timeline as it now is "closely" mimics the unaffected timeline he came from. Divination spells work off of this same principle of probability. Basically we would describe future-seeing divination spells as features or aspects of the future traveling back in time to our present. Like if you had a visual-audio "experience" of a future event, what that would really be is more or less light and sound being magically transported from the future to its past, which would be your present. But by virtue of that light and sound going back in time, they created new spinoff realities. And though those realities would be extremely similar, they wouldn't be exactly the same. Hence why divination spells work off of probabilities, even if they're very high probabilities. Anyways, let me know if I made any sense.

108
lol. Well that doesn't sound menacing or anything.
Just fyi guys I haven't dropped from the game, I was seemingly absent though because I had a few questions that was being taken care of via PM. Which then became a series of PM's.

109
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: The Multiverse & Colosseum stuff
« on: August 05, 2013, 04:54:24 AM »
Yippeeekayaaay muthafukaaa! I just had another epic brainwave. I've been thinking days about how to reconcile the stupidity of D&D's planes with what I was trying to do with my game. Then you reminded me of the image from Crono Trigger of the End of Time. There's a lamppost surrounded by undefined darkness. So I would like to propose the Lamppost cosmology.

[Before I get any farther, I'd just like to know that I'm tired and my brain is addled. So I will probably leave out many transitions. Hopefully you'll be able to see where I'm going.]

In case you're unclear about what I'm alluding to, I'm proposing the Lamppost cosmology as opposed to, say, the Great Wheel, World Tree, or World Axis cosmology. Because it's hard to understand how planes interact, these "cosmologies" are simply visual representations of relationships between planes. The thing mentioned earlier that I was trying to reconcile was the fact that alternate worlds connect in D&D via the Plane of Shadow. At first, it didn't seem there was any good reason why the Plane of Shadow, of all planes, should be the plane that connects alternate worlds. But then I realized, I was wrong to think of the Plane of Shadow as "something;" I should think of it as "nothing." The Plane of Shadow, then, connects alternate worlds in a similar way that outer space separates Earth from other planets. Unlike outer space, though, the plane of shadow sort of "borders" on reality, receives some of the traits of the realities that border on it, and therefore is not entirely nothing. Anyways, in this cosmology then the Plane of Radiance is the lamp, the outer darkness is the Plane of Shadow, and the lit area surrounding the lamp is composed of the other planes, like the Abyss and the Elemental Plane of Air.

Every separate world is it's own lamppost. Greyhawk is its own lamppost, the Forgotten Realms is its own lamppost, worlds created by the players are their own lampposts in the darkness. Technically, there is no effect that allows a character to travel from one lamppost to another. However, they might theoretically do so with a wish or miracle. However, every DM or player is the god of their own universe. Or truth be told, any DM or player can be the god of multiple universes or "sister" universes in a "family" of universes. In our game, for instance, the DM is god of the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and all other official settings. Anyways, if a player and a DM agree to allow a character to travel from a player's lamppost to a DM's lamppost (or to force the character), then the travel can (or will) happen. A character that makes this journey gains the Scar of Destiny, which is a mark that he is sort of "maintained" in this world by the active will of the player and the permissive will of the DM. Hence why, if the player goes on vacation, active will is absent, and the character disappears (presumably back to their world of origin). Also, if a DM stopped permitting the presence of a character, he can force him out (which allows a DM to scar port a player who has dropped from the RADAR). This cosmology is even more like Crono Trigger in that the iron gates imagery would also be present, as characters can only enter a lamppost cosmology at the discretion of the DM (who we could call a gatekeeper, among other things).

[It's worth noting that I don't think the divination features of the Scar of Destiny have worked in the previous game, so those will probably be dropped, but we can discuss that elsewhere.]

Anyways, that's the Lamppost cosmology so far. With it, I've explained the Plane of Shadow. There are two other planes though that are important enough that they also need explanations. The ethereal plane I think should basically be the Spiritual Plane. It's where ghosts lives and it overlaps the material plane. We might consider having the Weave actually be material on this plane.

This astral plane is somewhat more interesting. I think it should be THE mental plane. In other words, the astral plane is my imagination, your imagination, and the imagination of all the players. In many ways, the ethereal plane is to the PCs and NPCs what the astral plane is to the players and DM. The astral plane is where the minds of the DM and players live. In colosseum worlds, the DM or a player acting as a DM usually make their minds visible to characters in the form of avatars (which are invincible and omnipotent). The astral plane, which is where ectoplasm comes from, might also be the kind of substance from which the DM forms the other planes.

Player avatars or minds do not need to travel on the Plane of Shadow to "go" from their world to play in our world, even though the characters they control do. Players interact with our world not through the Plane of Shadow, but through the astral plane.

In this schema, I think colosseum worlds are in fact full lamppost worlds, but they are usually very small (unlike some material planes, which have infinite boundaries).

Anyways, that's all I've got for now, lol.

110
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: August 03, 2013, 12:10:51 AM »
Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6048.0

How much of this is sirpercival's work? He won't mind if we use it, will he?

111
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: August 02, 2013, 07:19:45 PM »
Hey Tyson, I was skimming through your links on your High Arcana setting and couldn't find anything on your guilds. When you get the chance, could you post that material?

112
lol guys I thought we were going to stick together! Without my guardian angel (zero) and my master assassin (kwah-yah) I would probably go down pretty quick haha. Don't wander off to far....

113
Umm... guys? Valrin said as his companions started to head off down the tunnel. *sigh* Well... I guess it's just us as usual eh Punka? Valrin ushered Punka closer to the box. Hmmmm well.. I don't think we should be the ones to actually open it. Just in case its trapped. But since no one else is around we will have to make due. Stand back a bit... in case of explosions hahahaa.
Punka did not appreciate that joke like Valrin did. But he did as his master commanded and moved back about 15 feet. Valrin started chanting and weaving a symmetric pattern with his hands.
He then concentrated, and the box opened!.

((actions, casting greater mage hand. The way you described it, the lid sounded heavier than 5 pounds due to the stones and gold.. Anyways I open the box via mage hand.))

114
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: July 27, 2013, 03:03:45 PM »
Some more stuff you should know. The illithids I think are basically going to come from a future Greyhawk setting. They come from the original Greyhawk setting. Part of the Greyhawk setting is actually this problem of magic weakening and draining away. Some philosophize that the more mages use magic, the more it's used-up, so to speak. Boccob, who as I recall can time travel, never finds the solution to this problem. I was going to have it be a result of the fundamental supernatural laws Greyhawk was built on when Jeriah Chronos initiated its timeline. It might have something to do with Greyhawk not having a weave which holds magic together. In any event, magic disappears in Greyhawk's future, and this allows for the rise of technology. Eventually, psionics also develops, as there is still supernatural power concentrated in the individual soul even if Greyhawk doesn't have a weave. This results in at least one serious change with my game from published material - my illithids are not at all sorcerous. They are all psions or martial types. I always thought it ruined the flavor to not have them be psions anyways. In any event, one additional major reason for why they're so threatening is because they reached their power level only on psionics. Now they've gone to the past and to other worlds entirely where magic still/always functions. If they had mastery over psionics and the various forms of magic, they would be incredibly powerful. There is a league of individuals trying to oppose the illithids, largely composed of spellweavers, and needless to say one of their main objectives so far has been to keep the illithids far away from learning any magic. Up to this point, they've been mostly successful. But the occasional multiclassed illithid wizard can be found.

The illithids traveling back in time was how psionics and advanced and modern technology were introduced into our timeline. Gnomes claim to have invented some advanced technology of their own, but for the most part they've just been lying to people with their superior illusion magic, lol. To their credit, though, the gnomes have been the best reverse engineers for mass producing advanced technology. The illithids would have rather kept this unique power sources to themselves, but necessity has forced them to trade with the drow and others, so a fair bit has disbursed to the general population. Mind, technology is still rare enough that it's expensive (as it should be, because it's generally more powerful) and that it doesn't change the essential high fantasy setting. So it's like high fantasy infused with Final Fantasy.

Concerning the name Jeriah, I agree it doesn't have the greatest sound. That's simply his parent-given name recorded in the history books. It means "taught by God" which I thought was rather appropriate. We could say for that reason, and because it is a humble name, that he always hated that name and took simply to calling himself Chronos. In most ancient cultures, individuals only had first names. At most you would have a first name and then "of [your city]." Like "Josh of Vancouver." So Jeriah may have been named Jeriah Chronos by his Netherese colleagues to distinguish him from other Jeriahs. But he may have preferred another name entirely, or later he may take on another name entirely for the sake of anonymity. Anyways, open to input there.

When I say my notes are in short hand, I simply mean there are a lot of incomplete sentences and references to things only I understand. I'm not Leonardo da Vinci, lol.

What I was hoping to achieve with the map is to have all the layers fused into one jpeg except the sewer tunnels and stories 2 and up. Obviously, from a bird's eye view, we can only see one level at a time, so I want that to be the ground level to start with. I would still like to see all the sewer access points if possible, but if that involves tediously separating them from the sewer PDF layer, then don't worry about it. I would like to have all the other label layers though. Obviously these will be painted away before players can see them, but while we're still building the map it would be nice to have them around so we know what areas need to be populated with artwork and what kind of artwork we should be using.

So, with what I've said above, I was intending on granting access to all officially published campaign settings and mechanics, including d20 Modern, d20 Future, and Pathfinder, in all mediums - books, magazines, and web. The easiest stuff to access is stuff from the core books and the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. OP things and things from other settings are harder to find, but they're still not considered homebrew.

So how I was thinking of handling homebrew is, you decide at character creation whether you'll use homebrew material or not (either way we'll have to give it the clear, of course). If you don't use homebrew, you gain another benefit instead. I was thinking that would be special knowledge. Maybe one item of special knowledge per level - that might be too much though, IDK yet. What I mean by special knowledge is a way to bypass knowledge checks to get access to OP stuff. In other words, normally you would need a high knowledge check to know the Wizard's College is experimenting on students. But if the DM writes into your story that one day you noticed said experiments while walking along, then you have the knowledge in spite of a check. So we might put players in libraries and have them luckily read exactly the right book for their characters or whatever. Then they know how to become a circle mage or something.

You're allowed to populate some of these other worlds if you want, but I was going to focus on the main timeline in Faerun and leave the other players to homebrew worlds if they liked.

So I suppose part of what's needed at this point is the decision to go or not ahead with these premade campaigns. That would require me to read them though, lol. I'm so cramped for time ATM. I might be able to read them in a couple weeks, but no sooner. They obviously won't already have an overarching quest, so we'll still need to figure that out. But it's hard to figure that out without know what they are about.

115
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: July 27, 2013, 05:22:50 AM »
Yeah, so I sent you two links via yahoo mail previously. One was for a google docs folder and the other was for a google docs file. A lot of my stuff on Waterdeep is scattered across many files and folders. The problem I have is it's all written in a shorthand only I would understand, lol. So I'll probably need to go through and edit some of it. Of course, some of it's only in my head. Anyways, it might be easier if we have something like google docs to share through.

What is your computer situation at the moment? I remember you saying you were using school for internet, but it's the summer now. What kind of browser and computer capabilities can I expect you to have? Something I'd like to address as soon as you get the chance is a question regarding a file I want to use, which can be downloaded here: http://www.candlekeep.com/downloads/ez_waterdeep.zip. This is an amazing map of Waterdeep, accurate down to a 5 foot grid. Since you have the software, I'd like to know if you can edit/manipulate the layers. I'm thinking I might need them in JPG form, IDK. It would be brilliant if we could just use this map for an entire map of our gameworld basically with minimal effort in mapmaking. For important areas we can paint over much more pleasing scenery. I know Roll20 at least lets you upload a JPEG as a map foundation of almost any size. It also lets you upload PDFs, but this one is too big.

In your last post you mentioned previous questions; that wasn't you hinting that I've left some unanswered, was it? I thought I got them all, but I could be wrong.

Concerning worlds, I think John's point was legitimately good. Building worlds based off of our own psyche's doesn't make sense in a game where repairing those psyches isn't central (like what happened in Nick's TX game). I mean, those worlds could still exist, but I really can't think of any reason they would ever be explored in game by the central characters. Therefore, I wouldn't want to do it in my game. That being said, there are at least two worlds we could invite players to create. They can create their colosseum world. This may look like what would have been their psyche world, but it still doesn't really matter. PCs in this world won't be exploring the psyche world, they'll just be fighting one another. The other world(s) would be origin world(s) for their characters.

Of course, with this being a collaborative game between you and me and with players being invited to build their own worlds, there are some interesting questions about players becoming DMs and vice versa. I'm open to suggestions.

So I guess I should just let you know some of the central themes of this game world. There is the time travel aspect which sets up the existence of the multiverse, the connection of parallel dimensions, and the variety of reality in the game. Something which I've mentioned in passing is the existence of a potential apocalypse. Unlike Zane with Dragons, I've not just fixated on illithids because I like them. If you've skimmed a book like Elder Evils, you may be wondering why out of all the various potential end-times causes I settled on the illithids. Partly, because it just makes sense. Even the most powerful elder evil is only one being. One being is not actually all that hard to defeat for an epic party. The illithid, however, are an entire extremely advanced race. Secondly, the illithid are actually from a future where they succeeded in enslaving the world, which was basically that world's end. I've actually worked a lot on this end-times business. I've incorporated some stuff from the Age of Worms adventure path from Dungeon Magazine. Kyuss as you may know is an elder evil who threatens to turn all the world into worm food. The interesting thing about worms of Kyuss is that they kill a person (and later zombify them) by first eating their brains. Basically, the first worm of Kyuss was made by a mad spellweaver named Ma'kar who wanted to destroy the illithid at any cost, even if it meant destroying the world he was originally trying to protect. And an undead with its brains already eaten is basically an illithid's worst nightmare. There's no food left in the skull and the creature which threatens them is immune to telepathy. In Lords of Madness, the illithids flee the future to find refuge in the past because of some terrible evil that befalls even their great civilization. My interpretation of this is that Ma'kar's century-spanning plot eventually worked. Kyuss turned the world into wormfood, starving the illithid and even threatening them. But that was just the future of one universe in the multiverse. And even then Kyuss could possible be stopped (though unlikely if he got so far). In any event, an end game campaign in my world would look something like trying to destroy the illithid race, which would probably involve killing some central elder brain. Note, I don't really think that campaign would ever actually be played.

Lol, it's late, I just typed all that, and I don't really remember why. I guess I was just trying to inform you of the setting.

I'm very much open "to adding in extra stuff for players such as gangs/factions/guilds type of stuff." I don't recall, was there stuff like this from Imperium you wanted to add? Mind, there's a lot of stuff already in Waterdeep, so you may want to modify rather than add, but whatever.

Having said all the stuff earlier about end-times, there can still be an overarching plot for this particular game (you know, from levels 1-25 or whatever we decide). There are already three campaigns specifically published for Waterdeep: Expedition to Undermountain (levels 1-10), The Dragon's Legacy (level 13), and Vampires of Waterdeep (Dungeon Magazine 126-128, levels 13-20). We can use all, some, or none of these. If it was left to me, I'd probably use these (as long as they're not crap - I haven't read them yet), just because I'm lazy. But if you want to come up with different mini-campaigns, that's fine. I could certainly use your help coming up with an overarching campaign.

116
Valrin immediately directs Punka to walk over to the box. After studying the box for a moment he says to his comrades. Well.. it doesn't appear to have any magical auras.... Anyone want to open it? He looks around the room a bit. How deep are we planning to go? Maybe we should take this box and head back up?... He says as he looks back to Kwah-Yah and Zero.

After standing there thinking for a moment he continues. I wonder why this is here.... It must be for whoever the bag of gold was left for. Maybe we shouldn't take it back up, and instead wait to see if someone grabs it? He chuckles to him self then says to his friends. Hmm... There is so many options we could choose. What do you guys think?

117
Gaming Advice / Vulnerable Minds
« on: July 23, 2013, 02:16:04 AM »
Are there any constructs with vulnerable minds who also have rules for creation? While most living constructs have vulnerable minds (can be affected by mind-affecting effects), they also all as far as I can tell don't have rules for creation.

I'm trying to use something like magic jar, mind switch, or true mind switch on a construct that I've built. I thought greater humanoid essence would help me, but that only makes a construct vulnerable to "humanoid only" effects.

118
Gaming Advice / Re: Spell to Power
« on: July 22, 2013, 12:35:45 PM »
Thank you sir. That feat reference is actually very helpful to me.

119
Gaming Advice / Spell to Power
« on: July 21, 2013, 09:29:38 PM »
I'm just wondering, by a strict interpretation of the Spell to Power ACF, am I not right in saying that 9th level spells can never be learned? The reason I say this is learning by repertoire or power stone is only possible if the erudite who assembled that repertoire or made that power stone in the first place had added that spell to his repertoire via the Expanded Knowledge feat. And that feat specifies that you can only learn a power one level lower than your maximum.

I guess the follow up question is, is there any way to manifest a 10th level power? Any psionic version of the Improved Spell Capacity feat?

Spell to Power
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060406b

Erudite
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a

120
Illithid-Apocalypse / Re: Brainstorming
« on: July 21, 2013, 02:22:32 AM »
OMG, I just had the grooviest freakin brainwave ever.

I've been trying to figure out for some time how Jeriah Chronos would figure into my game, and I think I've solved that puzzle. Jeriah Chronos is a name I stumbled upon while researching the Forgotten Realms. There is hardly any published material on him. Pretty much all that is known is that he was a Netherese wizard (think Zeal from Chrono Trigger) called by the Netherese simply "the Chronomancer." He died centuries ago in a war defending the people of Illusk. He seemed far too mysterious and enigmatic a character for me to just leave him alone - he had to be included in my game. At first I thought he would have just faked his death like any great wizard. But then I realized, "He's a chronomancer." Just because he died hundreds of years ago doesn't mean he isn't still alive in the present when my game occurs. As a time traveler, he could have traveled into his future (our present) and then traveled back to meet his doom. This of course brings all the interesting possibilities of him being a PC-discoverable NPC. But more importantly, it facilitates a solution to the puzzle of why a multitude of universes come into existence in our multiverse.

I'm thinking that Jeriah Chronos invented time travel because he had some huge regret in his life. I'm thinking maybe he was experiment with magic and accidentally killed his sister or something. So he wants to go back in time and prevent that from happening. Only problem is, when he goes back in time, he never actually stops his original sister from dying, he just initiates a new timeline. And he never feels at home in the new timeline because there's already a Jeriah Chronos who lives in that timeline. He becomes aware of the fact that he is in fact powerless to save his sister. You may ask why she can't be resurrected, but it could be the effects of a disintegrate spell. Or perhaps even more likely, Jeriah Chronos was just unwilling to use divine magic as he hates the gods.

Once he's become severely pissed off at the situation, he tries to find someone who's responsible (and not himself). There is no trace in the multiverse of the being that created the multiverse (basically the DM). Jeriah Chronos nevertheless upon seeing creation concludes that there must be a creator. He goes as far back in time as possible, to the very beginning of this world's existence. Rather foolishly, he tries to see if the creator is still there or left any sign of his presence. He tries to further divine whatever he can about the creator by examining and experimenting with the laws of reality in this nascent world. Again and again he experiments with the natural and supernatural laws that govern the world. Eventually, upon learning very little about this elusive and hateful creator, he gives up. But having experimented so many times, he caused a multitude of worlds to spin-off from his own.

Of course, you may ask how a mere chronomancer got enough power to fiddle with the laws of reality, but he had someone to help him. He found a powerful witch who was equally interested in discovering the true nature of the world. Using a ritual, he transformed her into a Living Wish spell. So she was with him when he traveled back to the creation of the world to examine and experiment. Really, it was she who did all the experimenting while he examined.

I'm thinking her existence will also explain the shadow weave, the plane of shadow, and why all planes connect at the plane of shadow. I'm thinking that it took so much magic to create her that basically a deficit of magic, or antimagic, or shadow magic was produced. In fact, she is surrounded by a dead magic zone that empowers shadow magic. So things she interacts with are kind of suffused with shadow magic. This would also explain why all the alternate/parallel universes connect through the plane of shadow. When she spun these universes off the main timeline they were kind of suffused with shadow magic.

Anyways, these are just some rough ideas I have right now, could still use a lot of revision.

BTW, just have to post this awesome music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtKCt8Afk9s

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