Author Topic: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?  (Read 24954 times)

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #40 on: July 10, 2013, 09:22:41 PM »
If it predates the scientific method, where discoveries are largely accidental, sharing your findings is considered bad, and the secrets of automata etc. are lost if the maker dies with no apprentices...

I want to introduce science to the masses, damn it. I SHALL BAMBOOZLE THEM WITH MAGIC SCIENCE. :p

The first base class is a magic science warlock. Oooh...

Sadly the second base class doesn't quite look like it'll work as we'd need a government or other big organization patron(quite a few abilities rely on them and given their effect for good reason it seems). I mean unless the DM is willing to provide us with one. Like maybe the prestigious university has a lot of land and students in need of work... And then the class would end in a military coup of the head of the university  :lmao

Make one of the characters the child of a count or a duke or something. Boom. Access to family resources etc. :p

Offline DementedDragon

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #41 on: July 10, 2013, 09:24:03 PM »
If it predates the scientific method, where discoveries are largely accidental, sharing your findings is considered bad, and the secrets of automata etc. are lost if the maker dies with no apprentices...

I want to introduce science to the masses, damn it. I SHALL BAMBOOZLE THEM WITH MAGIC SCIENCE. :p

The first base class is a magic science warlock. Oooh...

Sadly the second base class doesn't quite look like it'll work as we'd need a government or other big organization patron(quite a few abilities rely on them and given their effect for good reason it seems). I mean unless the DM is willing to provide us with one. Like maybe the prestigious university has a lot of land and students in need of work... And then the class would end in a military coup of the head of the university  :lmao

Make one of the characters the child of a count or a duke or something. Boom. Access to family resources etc. :p

A nice idea for that. Though I still like the idea of having a military coup at a university. But child of a count or duke would work nicely. Show the head of the family and get their support.

Offline VennDygrem

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #42 on: July 10, 2013, 09:34:55 PM »
Well, the setting would still be fantasy. So I suppose it could be quite a bit like Eberron, but let's say that your characters are really the instigators of changing the world from being general fantasy to magitech fantasy, somewhere down the line.

Universities can exist in pretty much any world so long as there are scholars, and the Gramarie system seems predicated on the practitioners being studious and intelligent. Heck, the Gramarist has course numbers right in the class features. :P

So let's do away with the existing science. I still kind of like the idea of a theocracy of sorts, where the divine are in true power, but that, too, would be negotiable. A Magocracy also works, and I'd like to at least develop a world that's not the standard Regal Monarchy. There can still be Kings and knights and all that, but I'd like a world that's a bit more diverse than simple medieval fantasy.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #43 on: July 10, 2013, 09:42:30 PM »
Well, the setting would still be fantasy. So I suppose it could be quite a bit like Eberron, but let's say that your characters are really the instigators of changing the world from being general fantasy to magitech fantasy, somewhere down the line.

Universities can exist in pretty much any world so long as there are scholars, and the Gramarie system seems predicated on the practitioners being studious and intelligent. Heck, the Gramarist has course numbers right in the class features. :P

So let's do away with the existing science. I still kind of like the idea of a theocracy of sorts, where the divine are in true power, but that, too, would be negotiable. A Magocracy also works, and I'd like to at least develop a world that's not the standard Regal Monarchy. There can still be Kings and knights and all that, but I'd like a world that's a bit more diverse than simple medieval fantasy.

Theocracies are fun, but I like the feudal system as a low-level component rather than a monolithic state of doom. Things need to subdivide somehow.

Though now I'm thinking of what you'd get if you introduced the  bureaucracy associated with most Chinese dynasties and combined that with a theocracy as a basis. Hmm...

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #44 on: July 10, 2013, 10:09:07 PM »
The "patron" could be the university, depending on what kind of university it is.

Venn, I kinda agree with Raineh, for a different reason -- I had envisioned this as an industrial revolution, not a magical one. It's possible I could be persuaded otherwise, though.
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Offline VennDygrem

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #45 on: July 10, 2013, 10:11:11 PM »
Sounds like my original idea would have sat better with SirP, and at least one or two others prefer more traditional setting. Hrmm...


I'm sure everyone can come to a consensus but in the end you can't please everyone.

(Original idea being that Gramarie sits outside of both science and magic since it's sort of both).
Of course, all my ramblings here are just the things that popped into my head when reading all of this. It's by no means my only idea.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 10:17:03 PM by VennDygrem »

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #46 on: July 10, 2013, 10:14:37 PM »
Now you've got me thinking of ideas. Whyyyy. :lmao

Offline Mithril Leaf

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #47 on: July 11, 2013, 03:02:34 AM »
I imagine the easiest way to please everyone would be having many city states. One could be University ruled, another could be a communist dictatorship, another could be hippy druid communes. You could probably just steal all the factions from Alpha Centauri and paint them fantasy.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #48 on: July 11, 2013, 07:20:30 AM »
I imagine the easiest way to please everyone would be having many city states. One could be University ruled, another could be a communist dictatorship, another could be hippy druid communes. You could probably just steal all the factions from Alpha Centauri and paint them fantasy.

Zakharov is the best leader.

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #49 on: July 14, 2013, 01:03:02 PM »
So, where are we up to?
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #50 on: July 14, 2013, 04:28:23 PM »
I have no idea.

I think Venn had a setting, but I don't recall anyone saying that they'd DM.

Also, I think it's your turn in the Legend RP, SirP. :p

Offline popmicpop

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #51 on: July 14, 2013, 07:12:40 PM »
The problem with finding a DM for a gramarie campaign is that, to challenge a gramarist at mid+ levels, you have to throw more gramarists at them, and gramarie is a very imagination-heavy practice, so the DM has to equal, or exceed the imaginative capacity off all of the players, who are, no doubt, brainstorming amazing creations together

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #52 on: July 14, 2013, 07:14:57 PM »
I'm tempted to volunteer, but I have no DM experience. :(

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #53 on: July 14, 2013, 07:21:32 PM »
So Venn, are you up for DMing? Or should we try to shanghai Raineh into doing it before she wises up?
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #54 on: July 14, 2013, 07:24:18 PM »
I'll go back to dealing with the woeful lack of fine-sized enemies and leave you to decide. :P

Offline VennDygrem

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #55 on: July 15, 2013, 12:53:55 AM »
Thing is, I'd need to do a lot of reading up on the Gramarie material to be familiar with it, so a campaign could be tailored to the characters. Also, the player list would have to be manageable. How many people were interested?

Also, I'd need to be able to either run combat without maps, or with fairly simple maps without having to update after every turn or two (like I have been for my 4E game, though that's a fairly unique requirement due to the necessary micromanaging of PC/NPC placement and movement issues).

If it can be run with minimal map work, then I should be able to make it work. The reason I had to call my Legend game off was due to not being able to commit the time to fully familiarizing myself with the game system, and figuring out logistics of running that game. I can't say for certain it would work out exactly the same here or not, but given a basic foundation of 3.5 I believe I understand enough the fundamentals to run the backend. Still, anything that could take any amount of pressure off my role would be useful. --edit-- I should note, I've also greatly reduced the number of PbP's I'm in and that need constant attention, and that has done wonders lately.

I suppose the most important questions to determine whether I can do this are: How many people, exactly, are interested in playing this, and what do you each want from the game?
« Last Edit: July 15, 2013, 12:55:33 AM by VennDygrem »

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #56 on: July 15, 2013, 08:03:23 AM »
I'm interested. Not really interested in another medieval european setting, but there's no helping that most of the time. Besides, it won't stay that way for long, will it? :lmao

Sandbox sounds good, quicksand box probably not.

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #57 on: July 15, 2013, 08:27:05 AM »
So far it seems like we have 5 players - me, RD, pop, demented, and mithril leaf. I also am trying to convince a RL friend of mine to join, but I doubt it'll work out. We can cap it there, if you like.

As far as work involved, it's been my intention all along to reduce DM work as much as possible. To that end, I suggest(ed) that we use an existing setting rather than brewing up a new one. So, here are a few options to that effect:
  • Eberron. The more I think about this, the more I think it might work well.  Eberron is well developed and popular, and has lots of published support -- we could play in a city like Sharn with little difficulty, or somewhere less cosmopolitan. It's already somewhat industrialized, which could make the transition to Gramarie more smooth...  and, existing guilds provide factions with well-defined goals which are almost certain to be at odds with the goals of the party, so bam! instant conflict. The major con I can see is that the gramaric revolution would be less of a paradigm shift, which may not be as fun for us gramarists.
  • Sigil. This has some of the same benefits as Eberron, but it's a lot harder to play low-level characters in a planescape setting, because there's a much higher density of creatures that could squash us without even trying.
  • Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, or Ravenloft. I'm less interested in these.
  • Kalamar, Freeport, Ptolus, etc. These are 2nd or 3rd party published settings with some support. Could work. I don't know most of them very well... and if we use Kalamar I'm vetoing any of the KoK dedicated rules because they're horrendous.
  • Existing homebrew settings. There are a ton of these. Here's a set that I haven't vetted at all. There are a million and a half over on GitP as well. The problem with these is that many of them have dedicated mechanics which we won't care so much about. Also, there's a lot less support than the published settings.
Thoughts?
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Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #58 on: July 15, 2013, 08:33:26 AM »
Eberron, already being halfway there and home of the Artificer, is a setting I want to avoid like the plague. It's no fun hijacking somebody else's industrial revolution;

Planescape would be amazing... if not for the fact we'd be squashed like a bug. :lmao

My sentiments on mixing FR with this are pretty similar. It would be interesting to mix this with Netheril... but that's 2E anyway, and leads to being squashed like a bug again, this time by far too many high level spellcasters rather than outsiders.

And I want to suggest that we just pool ideas and make one up as we go along. I like making stuff up. :p

Speaking of Industrial Revolutions, can someone please help me with actually giving these things feats? I hate feats. Feats are horrible to pick. :<

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie campaign -- who wants to DM?
« Reply #59 on: July 15, 2013, 08:39:17 AM »
Can we figure out a way to play a Planescape game and not be squashed?

I'm always up for world-building, if we want to do that, though.  And while we're waiting for the other two base classes, we could try one or both of the world-building games (microscope and i can't remember the other)...
I am the assassin of productivity

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