Down down down to the land of the dead,
A dangerous path that we must tread,
Never knowing what lay ahead,
In search of things to gain,
Finding a deeper pain,
Will we return or is all lost,
If we survive be it at what cost,
Down down down we go
-Gratorin the Skald, from The Journey to Death
Last year a pitch for a 4e jumped into my brain. And when I
say it jumped it practically grabbed my brain and just kept screaming. For
weeks. Even months. It was a concept that just begged to be played out. I
ignored it, because I was doing other things at the time and wasn't quite over
the rude shock that playing Burning Wheel was to my DnD sensibilities. And,
honestly, I've been in some weird form of pseudo-mourning for the last few
years about that, that the first RPG I've ever loved was not capable of giving
me the experience that Burning Wheel did so deftly.
But this concept demanded 4e.
So over a year later I decided to go for it. 4e is many
things (perfect ain't one of them), but it seemed to fit with the idea I had in
mind. So I went and hacked a few things here and there into the ruleset,
trimming the fat and correcting some of the major problems. As time goes on
I'll get into how I modified the system, but for the moment all that needs to
be known is that ability score generation was changed to allow for greater
variety in class/race builds and that I borrowed some stuff from the phenomenal
game Miseries and Misfortunes.
Characters were given an 18 in their primary stat, a 16 in
their secondary, and rolled 3d6 straight down the line for the rest of the
stats, for some truly hilarious rolls. Players get characters who are very
proficient at their respective jobs but can have hilariously awesome
weaknesses, as well as unexpected strengths. I also asked the group to come up
with a Determination, which is the reason why the group is together. If they
get into arguments someone can invoke the Determination and quell the argument.
Each character was then given the chance to name a Virtue, which was associated
with their highest Stat (or if there was a tie they got to pick), which someone
else can invoke to make sure the player can get an auto-success, along with
three Action Points.
Characters
We generated the three main characters using Heroes of the
Feywild, particularly the background generator they have in the back of the
book. They will be getting a ranger from PHB1 as a companion character.
Acacia
A Hammadryad Berserker Barbarian with a Guardian of Nature
Theme, which was custom built, Unrelenting Virtue. Acacia is built principally upon maneuvering her
opponents into a bad spot and hitting multiple opponents at once. Since she's a
berserker she drops into rage with a Primal power, which she gets from her
theme (which is essentially a multi-class into Warden) and her class, allowing
her to spike damage when it becomes
clear that she doesn't need to defend the group anymore.
Acacia had always been concerned about balance. Nature was
about cycles and seasons and the hammadryad took that deathly seriously. Raised
amongst the lower echelons of the hammadryad community. When she heard about
the awful fomorians' eternal war upon Astrazalian, crown jewel of the Feywild,
Acacia could feel that the war was an imbalance in the world itself, one she
needed to try and end if she could. Over the next few years Acacia did
extremely well, serving on the front lines of that war. Having served well
Acacia was discharged. In search of new meaning, Acacia found herself in need
of something new to do. She went to the twilight city of Mithrendain, hoping to
see the Citadel Arcanum, a place known for trying to preserve the balance of
the world. She was denied. So Acacia broke in with a group of adventurers, hoping to learn something more about the world itself. She learned nothing. Leaving, she heard about The Prince of Frost and his eternal winter and the halting of his land's natural cycle. She marched to the Land of Frozen Tears and demanded that the balance be restored.
The Prince of Frost killed one of Acacia's childhood hammadryad friends, Citali, with but a word from his frozen throne. Acacia felt the life drain right out of her
And then told Acacia that if she was so self-righteous about the "balance of things", maybe she should figure out a way to go see her dead friend, in the land of the dead, without getting caught.
Gratorin
A half-battlerager/human Skald Bard, theme Unseelie Agent, who mechanically resembles with a half-elf, except with a bursting sword encounter power instead of grabbing another class's at-will as an encounter. Virtue is Magnetic. Gratorin is a melee buffer, running in and granting tons of temp HP and damage boosts.
Gratorin was the product of a human woman and a fey battlerager. One would think that being a half-elf with swords floating around him in a perpetual ring would make it difficult to be in commerce. On the contrary, Gratorin did quite well for himself. So well, in fact, that he was able to do what he liked. Gratorin went to Astrazalian and joined the Stars and Dolphins Guild, where he picked up a knack for market research. With enough money to his name Gratorin that he wanted to do something for himself. He went to the city of Shinaelestra, where pilgrims from the mortal world journeyed. Gratorin acted as a guide to these pilgrims. After that he went to the Prince of Frost, seeking an audience. He so impressed the Prince that he was formally dubbed as Friend of the Realm. Gratorin was then sent to to Senaliesse to attend to Queen Tiandra. While there Gratorin stopped an assassination attempt, earning the gratitude of Queen Tiandra. Returning to the Prince of Frost Gratorin was sent with a couple of ragamuffins to travel to the land of the dead. The Prince of Frost wanted to make sure the job got done, and he only trusted Gratorin with this task....
Jolene Wick
A minotaur witch, fey nobility theme. Virtue Cleverness. There was a lot of excitement about the witch subclass's ability to turn targets into small helpless animals. So we'll be seeing that a lot! Jolene actually is actually half-pixie (DON'T PICTURE IT) but only really wanted the fey keyword out of it. Well, and huge pink wings. On a minotaur.
Jolene was a minotaur with gigantic pixie wings. Her formorian masters found that funny, so they sent her to the tunnels of Mag Tureah to be a test subject. But it didn't take long for Jolene to realize that nobody was really watching her around the portals that lined Mag Tureah. So she slipped through one, winding up in Astrazalian.. She went to The Coven of the Full Moon and asked to be taught magic.The coven, impressed by Jolene's clear aptitude (and attitude) gladly trained her. Jolene quickly became a star pupil. one night, while staying up late to study, uncovered the truth about herself: she was fey royalty, probably connected to the Prince of Frost! She traveled to his castle and announced her presence as his relative. When the Prince asked how it was possible he was related to a minotaur with pixie wings Jolene winked and told him it was done in the usual way.
The Prince of Frost was not amused.
A few hundred years later and the Prince unthawed Jolene, telling her he had a job for her. Weakened by her time in the ice, Jolene would have loved to have throttled the prince, but could only listen. The Prince wanted Jolene to go to the land of the dead with a few other companions. They could talk about her possible... relationship... with the Prince whenever she got back.
Jolene realized The Prince of Frost was not asking. He was telling.
Further Rules
4e is not a perfect or tidy game, like any starting venture. While it's good as it is there are certain things that can certainly be improved.
Dice Rolling
We're taking from Pathfinder 2e here: anything 10 above the DC is a critical success in addition to a nat 20. Anything 10 below the DC is a critical failure in addition to a nat 1. If a character fails by less than 10 they can elect to try again. Critically failing means that a twist happens in the story that prevents further attempts at the same skill or possibly starts a combat. Critical success allows the player to twist the situation to his benefit.
Escalation Die
This is ripped from 13th Age. For those of you who do not know, the Escalation Die is the biggest d6 you own. You plop it into the center of the table on the second round, at 1. That's the bonus the player characters get to attacks. Of course if you combine that with the crit rules life gets very interesting indeed....
The Terror Track
Solos and elites in this game are simply not strong enough. They usually get outnumbered and cannot handle the action economy. Wizards had attempted to fix the problem by making it harder to stun solos and giving them more turns, but my brother in law Kyle had a far simpler fix, which I've since modified to be nastier. It's the Terror Track. The Terror Track is a bonus to attacks, defenses, and damage rolls. The Terror Track decreases by 1 each round and also whenever the solo or elite is hit with an attack. Each time a solo or elite with the Terror Track still active critically hits a target they gain one additional action point. Solos start at Terror Track 5 and Elites at Terror Track 2. At bloodied a Solo gains Terror Track 2.
Solos and elites may burn an action point to end all effects on them as a free action.
The Escalation Die cannot be active while the Terror Track is. Solos and Elites always benefit from the Escalation Die when it is out.
Virtues and Flaws
Like I'd said before, we're borrowing the system from Miseries and Misfortunes. Players get to describe an aspect about their character that is truly impressive. During play another player may nominate a roll you are making because of your character's Virtue. They have to wax long and poetical, with worldbuilding heavily encouraged. Compare your buddy to ye heroes of olde! Doing so gives you three Action Points. This may only be done once a session.
After getting to level 2 the other players will nominate your character for a Flaw. You may invoke your Flaw to automatically fail a d20 roll, describing how you get in the way of yourself. You gain an Actin Point. This may be invoked as many times as you like.
Action Points
You get one action point at the beginning of each session. Action Points do not carry between sessions. You may spend an Action Point to get an extra standard or movement action, add +10 to your d20 roll, or to get a bonus to your damage roll equal to your Healing Surge Value. You may spend as many action points as you like in an encounter.
Phase Initiatve
Regular initative is stupid, particularly in 4e when the turns can be so long. Break up the round into multiple phases, based upon what type of action everyone is taking. At the beginning of the round everyone must reveal their intended actions for the round. They get a minor, a movement, and a standard as is normal. Everyone rolls for initiative after declaring actions. And then begin to resolve actions in the following order:
Minor
Standard Ranged
Standard Close Burst
Standard Melee
Standard Close Blast
Move
Standard Area Burst
I've played this particular type of initiative before and it's really helped speed up the feel of combat.
Well, that's all the preliminaries. Next time we'll see if Gratorin, Acacia, and Jolene Wick can survive the perilous wastes, back to the warmer areas of the Feywild.
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