Deep in the Desert…..

This is the Q&A thread for the First Annual Alacrity’s Invitational D&D game – Pharaoh. Those of you who have received an invitation and accepted can start character creation here.

Why Invitational? Well, there are some people who I have always wanted to game with and haven’t yet, there are some who I have read while lurking who I admire their style and there are others that have tried to get into games but have missed the cutoff. Either way, I am attempting to address all these people in a single bound.

Accepted invitees so far are:
YeOlde - Cleric(Char received)
Jozan1 – Fighter (Char received)
Duncan74 - Mage (Char received)
Wyrmsting - Thief(Char received)
Utan The Orange - Female Half-elf fighter (Char received)
Skari-Dono - OUT

Grugg- not until Mid January so he will be “rescued” along the way

Characters should have ability scores totaling 90, with only one 18 allowed. Your hit points should be max, not rolled – because I give my monsters all full hit points. Classes are core rules or kits, not player options. I will entertain any idea that has a good story to it. If you want to play a mage, let me know as I use a mana based system that I, one day, will write up and post here because I am getting tired of writing it out over and over. In short you get mana points, you don’t memorize spells, you cast what you want from your spell list but it burns up mana. Clerics are basically the same as the book but I don’t fuss over spheres or domains or whatever they called it.

Magic items, everyone starts with 6 points, with each point representing a +1 or a single ability. You may pick magic and present it to me and I will yay or nay it. A max of 3 points in a single item allowed. No displacement allowed – I hate displacement and no monster will use it either.

Equipment – I’m not that fussy as you are experienced adventurers. Submit what you want and I will let you know if anything shouldn’t be there.

You start with 50,001 xp. If you want to do split class or multi-class, you are still working with 50,001. That means the average player will be 6th (druid or Rogue - 7th) level.

At the start of the game you are deep in the desert. How did you get here? This is a very brief outline - details will follow:

Your party was dealing with some evil dude in a dungeon somewhere and had defeated him, but in his dying breath he managed to open a portal beneath you and sucked you into it. When you landed, you were in the desert, with no clue where you were. You wandered for days until a group of soldiers riding Pegasi found you and brought you to the Oasis of the White Palm. This paradise in the desert was rules by Sultan Zoltan, who found you to be very interesting. You were taken in as honoured guests and have been living a life of luxury for some time. But the Sultan’s advisor –Visier Pfizer, grew to hate you all. He saw you as an evil influence and sought to banish you from the lands.

At the beginning of this game; you awake in the hot sunlight. You are terribly hungover, or at least you feel hung over. You can not remember anything that has happened in the last 24 hours. There are guards all around you, and they do not look friendly. All you equipment is in a pile on the other side of the guards. Some how, you suspect that the party is over…..

Any other questions – let me know here. I have one character submitted for a thief already. I would like a balanced party but I don’t like to force people to play characters they do not like.

I have two spots left (I want 6 players going in) and I am open to suggestions.

Is my submission set in stone or can I bump him a level?

Also, I forgot to send his history/description. It's done, but I just didn't send it -- yet.

Nothing is set in stone yet. I was going to suggest that you revamp the character you sent me.

A good bunch it looks like. Am I correct in assuming there's two more to be included? I'm liking the look of this.

I have two slots that the people I asked turned me down for various reasons. So I need to invite two more.

Hmm, I'll need some help with the character creation, but I'll do as much as I can for now. I'll use the Rdinn 2nd edition sheet and message when I get snagged.

Can someone put up a link to any 2ed rulesets/char creation guidelines? I am rusty on my 2ed.

I remember the basics, but can't remember some of the aux. stuff.

I sent the core rules to your email.


What system are you used to?

I know the system, but would still be helpful if you could email some core rules? Moving around limits my access.

Hey, Al.

Got your email; thanks a bunch, man.

The version I've played most recently was 3.5ed, an Eberron campaign.

The stuff you sent should be more than enough to get me on the proper path, since I'm only having to dust off the brain cells and remember it, not learn it from scratch-hehe.

I'll have a character ready for your approval in a day or 2.

--Dunk

P.S. I'll be a mage, since the other 3 basic archetypes are covered so far; so feel free to let me know whatever you think I need to know about your mana system.

As can be seen on the first post, we now have a full house. However I have too many mages (request) right now and not enough fighters. So if someone could re-consider, the life expectancy might increase significantly.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get the core book e-mailed as well. The link I thought I could use was a bust

Anyways, game's looking good so far

Cancel my mage and I'll work up a female half-elf fighter.

Mana

In my magic system you have mana points instead of memorizing spells. This is for mages only, not clerics. To cast a first level spell costs 1 mana point, a second level cost 2, etc etc. Your mana points are derived by using the 2e spell chart and converting the spells you would have got as a X lvl mage into mana points (so 4 1st 2 2nd and 1 3rd would be 4x1+2x2+1x3=11). Then you give yourself a bonus of one mana point for every intelligence point you have over 15. So with an 18 INT would be +3 (the above example goes to 14 mana).

I have a different system for calculating points but this will do for this game.

You can cast any spell that is in your book as often as you like as long as you have mana,. So if you want to fire off 3 fireballs in 3 rounds, you can – but you are now down 9 mana. You want to fry the skeleton with 14 magic missiles – you are down 14 mana.

Once your mana is gone, you should stop casting spells. However you can still, except you will start to eat you own hit points at a 1hp to 1mp rate. Hit points lost this way cannot be healed by magical means and you must rest a day for every point lost. Furthermore, if you go below 0 hp but using spells, you risk Wizard’s Twilight, a state of being where you mind is basically burnt out and you are like a zombie to anyone commands.

Mana is naturally recovered by sleep. Using this system, mages do not lose all their spells if they go unconscious.

For # of spells per level - a 6th level mage would have 9 firsts, 7 second and 5 thirds in his book.

Have to sleep a whole day's rest for each HP we burn in this way?