The Plague Campaign

A discussion on a Facebook group about Plague Campaigns piqued my interest. In it there were people talking about how they’ve run plague campaigns and the usual discussions of how societ will break down and blah blah blah. I gave my typical opinion and viewpoint where I don’t believe that a magical society really has to worry about these types of things because Magic and centuries of curative spell items and so on and so forth. Numbers were thrown around, references were made, and a grand debate was had. It was a wonderful discussion. It also inspired me to have another spark of an idea for a campaign that will likely never see the light of day. I also have an Pathfinder Adventure Path to look into called “Curse of the Crimson Throne”, specifically the 2nd book because it apparently breaks down the numbers in a very meaningful way. (Something like a city of 18000 people might have between 12-20 Clerics capable of casting Remove Disease at a time and maybe 180 Divine casters total)

The idea has to exist in a high-fantasy world like the Generic DnD/Pathfinder world. The specifics don’t matter much, but it must be a D20 based system for this to work. The society is a properly outfitted and prepared society where magic exists quite as clearly as science exists to us. This is because humans act like humans and recognize useful tools, even if they don’t fully understand the tools they’re using they will continue to use them and find new ways to improve their lot in life. In my opinion this means that humans will do everything they can to ensure that they can do the best they can to prevent bad things from happening (more or less). In this case it means that someone will use magic to prevent plagues from breaking out.

Imagine if you will a world where magic is real and there is a deity along the lines of DnD 3.X’s Pelor who is dedicated to healing people and preventing outbreaks of disease. The god grants people very real and very measurable amounts of his own power that his faithful can directly use to influence the world. They can fashion magic wands, rings, potions, scrolls, and various other implements that have the ability to help stave off diseases, bolster people’s immune responses, or just remove the disease entirely. They can create wondrous magical fountains that could be capable of performing these deeds for them too and provide it to those who come to their temple. This is in addition to other magics they’ll have at their disposal, like scrying magic that would allow them to detect where a disease is about to strike, or detect who is infected and who isn’t.

Some people countered my thoughts on those with “these are higher level clerics that would have to do this” “there’s no way there’s enough of them to do that” “why would they waste their time, money and spiritual energy (read: xp) on those things”. Which are legitimate points if you’re talking about people thinking rationally about their own benefits; not a millennia old religious order dedicated to the prevention and curing of disease. You look at real world example where our religious leaders aren’t able to coat themselves in glowing magical armor by reciting a prayer and what real humans sacrifice for their religions based upon faith alone. We argue about the existence of deities because we don’t see real, measurable results like “Remove Disease” “Call Lightning” or “Animate Dead”. Imagine what people in the real world would do if their god rewarded their faith with access to a couple 0-level spells. Hell, Jesus displayed abilities equivalent to an 8th or 9th level cleric in a 3.X setting and we proclaim him to be the son of God imagine the world if your region’s Catholic clergymen could perform that stuff on a daily basis.

My point is, that when I look at a potential for a plague campaign there has to be more wrong than there just being a plague that exists. Religions like those dedicated to Pelor would have stockpiles of items with Spell-Trigger completion (that would allow lower level casters to use a spell like Remove Disease) while constantly making a new supply, active plans for dealing with outbreaks, Scryers and Healers working around the clock watching for plague, permanent magical artifacts at their temples that provided some type of healing or disease resistance, monthly cleansing rituals at the temple, and countless other measures that we might not be able to comprehend because we live in the real world. In order for a disease to cause a plague or have a major outbreak would require something different to happen with the disease.

If a disease is to cause an outbreak it either needs to be unusually virulent (Bubonic Plague is “only” a DC17, easily within the power of a low-level caster to help out with), magical in nature (very possible because microbial evolution is a thing. Just think about MRSA and other treatment resistant diseases), or allowed to spread in some way by nefarious people for nefarious purposes.

And now that this groundwork is established, here’s where things get interesting. The campaign idea starts with the PCs being members of one such religious order. They are tasked with taking care of a potential outbreak of some disease. They are sent off by their order into a district quarantined per their standard rules, but something is wrong. Maybe the disease is spreading in an abnormal pattern, or its resists all magical treatment, or maybe something is actively trying to stop them from curing the sick. Eventually the disease will have to escape from the confines of the quarantine and maybe something else is discovered about the situation. Maybe the order’s stockpile of Remove Disease Wands was stolen, broken, or disenchanted. Their magical fountain may have been smashed. Maybe their god disapproves of the city and is damning it for its sins. Is it the work of a doomsday cult? A lich? A mutated bacterial infection that has gained hive-mind sentience? SO MANY OPTIONS!!!

The PCs don’t even have to be just Clerics and Paladins either. Churches have use for all kinds of people with a variety of skills. Maybe a nun used to be a rogue in her pre-convent life. The paladins may be supplemented by regular Fighters and Knights. Oracles and Bards could be there performing their normal functions. Alchemists could Easily supplement the healing supplies. The trips out to cure diseases and help the down trodden could easily be construed as pilgrimages and evangelizing. What better way to convert people than by performing good deeds and curing people of The Plague and promising them further protection by attending your sermons?

For the first time ever I think I actually would want to play a Cleric…

PS: Upon further reading it appears that the spell Remove Disease grants no future immunity to a disease. So if you catch a virus it appears that Remove Disease will cure you but doesn’t allow your body to produce anti-bodies against future exposure to the disease. Interesting but useless trivia!

Magical Musings

A friend's blog inspired me to write a little bit tonight. Attempting to distract myself from the pre-election day conversations, debates, and accusations I thought about what he was trying to talk about and gave a thought out response that was probably too long for a comment on a blog on the remote corner of the internet. It got me thinking about what I picture the nature of magic in a fantasy universe, more specifically what I interpret the nature of magic to be in a Dungeons and Dragons based universe.

Magic in this system is basically split into 2 or more flavors. The two main flavors of magic are called Arcane Magic and Divine Magic. Arcane magic is the stuff of wizards and sorcerers. Divine magic is the stuff of belief. The power of the gods made manifest.

I typically will lump in a third type into the mix as well because I particularly like the flavor of it. It isn't typically considered a magic, but it fits in the category well enough. I am talking about Psionics, the power of the mind.

Each type of magic has its own strengths, weaknesses, and specialties. Arcane is typically associated with big, flashy effects. Fireballs and whatnot. Divine is a lot of buffing magic, typically capable fo subtle effects except when they call down lightning upon the heads of their enemies. Psionics is unique, it is a hybrid of the two, but typically only associated with the empowering of the self.

When I think of Arcane magic it is an art form or science. It is the ability of someone to look at the fabric of reality and be able to use a measure of innate talent or practiced knowledge to make the material world bend to their will. It is more of a nuanced approach to magic. It taps into what is physically there and alters it. It has roots in its own sets of laws, rules, and physics.

Arcane can be learned. It is about playing with the rules of reality using another set of rules. Magic items from this school are basically technology and follow formulas and patterns. Scrolls are basically instructions.
Divine magic is different. Divine is classically associate with Divine beings, gods granting a portion of their power, accumulated through worship, to their most devout worshipers to project their will into the material realm. This is only but one piece of the puzzle that is Divine magic though. Divine magic is the power of Belief. Yes, with a capital B.

Divine magic is the very nature of creation being channeled through the will of the caster. The nature of creation is by definition, unknowable. Everything is possible with it. Deities may be a piece of this energy, spontaneously rising to embody some aspect of reality. But not all divine power is granted to mortals through worship of these beings. Various divine classes exist that do not worship any particular deity and still they are granted power.

Divine magic has always seemed more organic than Arcane magic to me. If the Force were to be classified as a type of magic, I'd put it as Divine. It is powered by the very existence of reality.
Psionics is an interesting thing to consider as a type of magic. Classically it isn't considered magic in fantasy/sci-fi but in DnD it fits into the category. Where Arcane is like art or science and the Divine is the manipulation of that which powers existence, Psionics is the manipulation of the world around the character through sheer force of will.

The psionic character has unlocked the potential of their brain or has tapped into their own reserve of psionic energy to be able to manifest their will and basically force their perspective upon the world. I've always assumed that being a psionic character required a certain level of confidence. A confidence so strong that they just force their will upon the world and it bends to them.

The energies they manipulate are typically formed from their own energies and life force. That power source is what's represented by the Power Points system and feats like Body Fuel. These aren't learned behaviors, formula, or gifts granted by forces of nature. This is the manifestation of what the caster believes is their right.
Psionic characters have always seemed to me like the type that let their powers go to their head (no pun intended, well... maybe a little bit...). In order to manifest their abilities they have to be far more self obsessed and stubborn in nature. This is because their will must be strong enough to turn their own energy reserves into power.

Anyways, those are some of my thoughts on the nature of magics in DnD. Maybe I can delve into this type of thing more later and explain how all of this leads into the nature of magic in my campaign setting.
I mean, I do need to distract myself from the real world every once in a while.

Near-release beta for my Campaign Magic System

So I’ve finally finished most of the work on my magic system for my campaign. I will be writing it up in a PDF style format in the near future but I’ll put it here for now so people can look it over. The specific terminology may change and there may be a few minor tweaks depending upon specific mechanics that might pop up as being incompatible with the system, but overall I think this system is play-ready.
Anything in brackets [ ] is subject to change.

Spellcasting Alterations for Generic Fantasy World #4:

Magic in this world is a dangerous and corrupting otherworldly force. By using magic you allow energies not of this world to pass through your mind, body and soul. Magic corrupts that which it passes through and those who choose to wield it tend to suffer all manners of mental and physical disabilities while attempting to master its many nuances. Mages are subject to discrimination and distrust because of these things and choosing to wield magic in this world is a dangerous and depressing decision.

All magic users have a [Sanity] score. You determine this score by taking the character’s Wisdom Score and multiplying it by 5 (Wisdom x 5 = [Sanity]). This is your permanent score and is the maximum your character can have at any one time [and maxes out at 99]. This represents your character’s ability to withstand the unnatural forces coursing through your being.

There are two [Sanity] scores. The first one is your permanent score as previously discussed. The second one is your current score which fluctuates depending upon the amount of magic you’ve been using. As you use more magic your score drops as you temporarily damage your psyche making you more prone to the corrupting influences of magic.

Whenever a spell caster casts a spell they lose 1D6 per Level of the Spell of [Sanity] from their current score. When they lose enough cumulative [Sanity] equal to ½ your Wisdom score the caster must make a [Sanity] Check. A [Sanity] Check is a D% roll versus your Current [Sanity] Score. If the number on the roll exceeds your current score you fail the roll and gain [Taint] equal to the Spell Level of the spell just cast.
Whenever the caster gains [Taint], they must make a Will Save of DC (15 + amount of [Taint] gained) or be Dazed for [1 round]. [Taint] has some interesting effects that it manifests upon a caster’s body. There are 3 levels of [Taint] Manifestations and two ways they affect an individual. They manifest in Physical Corruption, and Mental Depravity. The 3 levels are Mild, Moderate, and Severe. [Taint] Manifestations appear immediately after completion of casting a spell conferring all of their penalties immediately.

Wisdom	No Taint	Mild Taint	Moderate Taint	Severe Taint	Insane
1-4	0	1	2-5	6-13	14+
5-8	0	1-3	4-11	12-27	28+
9-12	0	1-5	6-17	18-41	42+
13-16	0	1-7	8-23	24-55	56+
17-20	0	1-9	10-29	30-69	70+
21-24	0	1-11	12-35	36-83	84+
25-28	0	1-13	14-41	42-97	98+
29-32	0	1-15	16-47	48-111	112+
33-36	0	1-17	18-53	54-125	126+

D20	Mild	Moderate	Severe
1	Dead Eye	Lips Sink	Lich Eyes
2	Aggressive	Treacherous	Murderous
3	Ear Scabs	Fingers and Toes Fuse	Shriveled Flesh
4	Bestial	Deranged	Unbalanced
5	Gums Swell	Bones Thicken	Great Swollen Growths
6	Compulsive	Hysterical	Unresponsive
7	Feet Curl	Joint Pain	Spine Twists
8	Crazed	Jittery	Craven
9	Lumps	Eruption of Sores	Wrigglers
10	Disoriented	Hallucinating	Paranoid
11	Odor of Decay	Paralyzed Face	Nose Rots
12	Mild Phobia	Moderate Phobia	Severe Phobia
13	Palsy	Uncontrollable Seizures	Skull Deformed
14	Neglectful	Distracted	Enthralled
15	Skin Seeps	Blood Eruption	Internal Corruption
16	Opinionated	Solipsistic	Hubristic
17	Skin Sloughs	Skin Thickens	Skin Lichen
18	Prophetic	Delusional	Apathetic
19	Winded	Chronic Illness	Lungs Eaten Away
20	Sycophantic	Weak-willed	Fatalistic

*These two tables have corresponding information that will be in the setting booklet.

This isn’t all doom and gloom though. Spell Casters go into their chosen paths knowing that they will be exposing themselves to these energies. With that in mind they start to develop a level of resistance to the corruption. This is represented by their Threshold. Threshold is equal to the character’s Caster Level. Every day a spell caster can ignore 1D6 of [Sanity] loss per Caster Level. So, a 3 rd level Sorcerer could ignore up to 3D6 of [Sanity] loss a day while a Fighter 2/Wizard 1 could ignore 1D6 a day. This Threshold pool is usable as the person running the character sees fit. The [Sanity] loss is traded out on a D6 for D6 basis. [If this is confusing ask me about it and I’ll try to explain it better]

There is an advantage that magic confers to those who wield it in this world though and that’s the ability to cast extra spells by taking extra [Sanity] loss a caster can exceed their Spells Per Day limit if they deem it necessary. The process for that is you add 1D6 to the normal [Sanity] loss for a spell and immediately must make a [Sanity] Check. If that check fails the Caster gains DOUBLE the [Taint] they normally would and must pass their Will save (DC 15 + [Taint] gained) or be Dazed for 1D4+1 Rounds.

[Sanity] is regained at a rate of [1D8 per Caster Level] per day. It can be quicker if in a special location/temple. [Taint] is lost more slowly, you have to avoid spell casting for 1 week and then you begin to lose it at a rate of [½ Caster Level (Rounded up)] per day until you cast spells again or have lost all of it. This spiritual cleansing process also removes Manifestations. The recovery from it can be sped along by finding special springs or recovery assisted in a specially sanctified temple room.

If a character loses all of their [Sanity] they are temporarily rendered unconscious. [This next part is still in flux. Mostly I’m looking at either making the character unplayable until they gain back at least a ¼ of their sanity. Maybe I’ll have them roll on an insanity table or something like that, but I’m not quite sure exactly how that’s going to happen yet. Losing all your [Sanity] will be a big deal with some type of semi-permanent/permanent consequences. Suggestions are more than welcomed.][This permanent consequences thing will also come up for those who exceed their [Taint] limit.]

Now comes the question of how magic items work. In short, unless they’re ancient heirlooms (most of which are controlled by the Sacred Empire and the Elves), they don’t exist and can’t be bought or constructed. [Item creation feats are going to be tweaked to compensate for this fact, eventually…] Magic enchantment has been replaced with Alchemical contraptions and multiple Masterwork item qualities. [Those systems are still in the early planning stages right now.][There is also a list of spells being developed that either don’t work, don’t exist, or work slightly differently. Mostly things like Wish or true resurrection, things that I feel ruin the game more often than not. If I nix a spell from your book, it’s because I hate the spell, not you.]

Bounty Boards

Hooray, more stuff for this campaign I’ve been working on for way too long.

Over time I’ve been transitioning the original concept for this campaign from a very structured, traditional storyline into a more Mass Effect or Borderlands style almost sandbox progression. Due to a series of brainstorming sessions that popped up after finally getting to game again I’ve been contemplating turning the system into a more Elder Scrolls style of gameplay with a few hand rails to guide the players to the storyline.
This causes me an issue though. I like to make sure my encounters are well planned out in advance and appropriate to the setting/party. This obsession is what usually has caused my campaigns to break down into worthless heaps of garbage thrown together with a poor narrative structure. I don’t want that to happen anymore, but a sandbox style makes it far more difficult to maintain the level of organization I want for gaming sessions.

This dilemma has led me to think about it long and hard. The current game I get to play around in is a sandbox style campaign where we the players have completely derailed any of the plans the DM had in the beginning because we basically decided we would rather start our own feudal kingdom/colony. With that happening it makes it increasingly difficult for our DM to spontaneously create new content to set before us.
The DM does a good job at it, but we only play maybe once a month and take care of all of our Major role playing outside of the actual gaming sessions via email. (This game is really showing the great advantages of modern technology applied to tabletop gaming, which is making me hopeful for having a more robust gaming life again. More about that another time though.) My problem is that if I tried to do what he’s doing I know I’d be lazy and screw it up for my players if I didn’t plan it out. No one wants that. So I’ve figured out a few ways to get around this inherent lazy streak I have by developing a Bounty Board system that allows me to randomly generate encounters appropriate for the PCs. Add it in with the concept of the “Five Room Dungeon” (5RD) and you can infinitely generate new adventures for players on the fly with minimal effort expended.

I’m still working on the percentile charts for this but that’s the easy part of the system. The challenge is coming up with a way to generate these things while maintaining variety and not creating the same problems introduced by the core system’s random encounters tables (can you guess how I feel about DnD’s random encounters system? I’m known to whine about these types of things), namely the chance that you’ll make something out of character for the game you’re running. Either the encounter will be wildly outside of your ideal challenge rating, you’ll see something that doesn’t fit with your flavor showing up, or you’ll end up with things that just don’t feel right being shoehorned into your game.

For some people that works, but I don’t like it personally. So I worked out a way to randomly create missions for a bounty board type system for any new area that you would end up in. You start off with a randomly generated encounter level ranging from two levels below to two levels above current average party level. That’s easy enough to give you an idea of what you should be seeing the party fighting against. This of course will also help you more easily generate rewards appropriate for the encounter.

The next step is to determine the type of quest/bounty you’re after. Since this is a generic bounty board type quest I can be lazy with the general category of the quest you will be going after. In addition to storyline missions being on these boards there will also be randomly generated quests in the following categories; Monster (Notorious), Monster (group), NPC (Individual), NPC (Group), Fetch/Rescue, Escort.

Each of these quests is pretty straight forward in how they’re going to play out for the PCs, but I’ll lay them out below for clarity.

The Monster (Notorious) category will have an individual monster of some type that is either a bigger/meaner version of a local beasty (like an advanced Dire wolf, a vampire gorilla, or gargantuan spider, something you’d normally encounter, but advanced per the rules or that has a template applied) or a big unique monster that isn’t normally encountered in an area (like a Hydra, or a Medusa. Some type of mythical and mean thing that will give the players a challenge outside of the norm).

The Monster (Group) category will have the PCs hunting down a group/collection of monsters that are harassing an area. Pretty standard MMORPG fare at this point (kill these 10 gnolls/spiders/were-dire wombat ettins). Kill the monsters and/or remove their nest/base of operations. The monsters will be common ones for the area.

The NPC (Individual) is your typical bounty hunter operation. You hunt down a criminal or whatever using their wanted poster. They’ll usually have a small entourage but most of the EL rating is from the NPC you’re hunting. The character will be a PC class to ensure maximum challenge level.

The NPC (Group) is going to be NPC/PC classes acting as brigands or something similar.

Fetch/Rescue quests will be hunting down items from the nearby area or rescuing people who’ve been kidnapped.

Escort quests aren’t going to be your video game ones with retarded NPCs walking face first into enemy bullets. These are going to be some type of convoy or NPC escort into an nearby area where you’re either going to be fighting off waves of enemies or you’ll be ambushed along the way.

As I mentioned before I will be using the 5RD format for these bounty board quests. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a 5RD is a formula for making easy to run adventures that are likely to engage every member of your Player’s party. They consist of 5 “Rooms” (duh) that each have their own unique, single challenge for the characters to deal with. I use “rooms” in quotes because this isn’t about literally making a typical dungeon with only 5 rooms all in a row. Each room is just a concept for a new area with a single challenge in it. It could be those 5 literal rooms or it could be 5 different parts to a chase scene.

Room 1 is the entrance/guardian. You can make it a puzzle, a skill check of some type, or a combat encounter. Room 2 is a puzzle or Role Playing challenge. Room 3 is a trick and/or set back. Room 4 is the climax/big battle. Room 5 is the reward/revelation/twist.

So using a dungeon, you could have a Puzzle Door or a minotaur for room 1. Room 2 could be a statue on a floor switch type puzzle or an enchanted statue that requires you to solve a riddle to proceed. Room 3 could be the dungeon’s boss monster causing a cave-in that the players have to figure a way around. Room 4 would be facing the boss down while his minions swarm you. Room 5 would be raiding their hoard after finishing them all off.

Using the Chase example, room 1 would be encountering the fugitive you’re after and tracking him to the outskirts of the city you’re in. Room 2 would be convincing an NPC to point you in the direction they saw him go. Room 3 could be the NPC giving you bad info and leading you into an ambush, or the fugitive crossing a river and severing the only ferry across. Room 4 capture of the fugitive, whom you have to not kill. Room 5 would be bringing him back to the city for your reward.

So the things you can do with the 5RD are very diverse, but they allow you to use the format to give your players a very diverse set of challenges for a session without much extra effort. This makes them perfect for dealing with a random quest format like what I’m developing. The first 3 rooms also have the advantage of being interchangeable to fit with your particular format/feel in case you think something flows better when done in a different order than the standard format.

The challenge here is to make a random generation table for these 5RD formats that will allow for diverse options that reduce the chance of running the same things regularly. I think I’ll develop a table for each room type with sub tables for each condition. I’m not sure on the specifics, but that might be the best way. That’s if I even need to use a random content generator for these. Who knows, maybe the basics will be inspiring enough on their own.

Hopefully this entry isn’t as rambling as I think it is and you can make heads and tails of it. Let me know what you think. I need input otherwise I’m just in an echo chamber of my own self crapulence where all of my ideas are perfect. Which is a great world to live in until you try to actually apply it to reality.