[LFP] Rappan Athuk: OSRIC Full Waistlist: 0

[archolewa]

I'll be starting up a Rappan Athuk game using the OSRIC rules shortly. I currently have three players lined up: Edeldhur, Rex, and rredmond.

Expected posting rate is roughly every 3 days, so about 2-3 times per week.

I would like to have four players, so I've got space for one more. Rappan Athuk is a megadungeon filled with a great variety of hideous creatures, straight up murderous traps, and shiny treasure. The plan is for the game to be a straightforward dungeon crawl. Your characters will be launching expeditions into Rappan Athuk (or exploring the local environs) in search of shiny treasure and (if your character is especially crazy righteous) evil to smite.

I am not a killer DM, but Rappan Athuk is a killer module. I'm not planning on stacking up the PC corpses like cordwood, but PC's (and their henchmen) will probably die.

Some things to note that may impact peoples' interest:

The game will be mostly by the book. Roll 4d6 drop lowest for your stats, arrange to taste. PC's start with max HP for their first HD, all others are rolled. Starting gear and gold are by the book.

Demihuman level limits are strictly enforced. Demi-humans are strangers in a strange land. Their level limit represents them getting struck with a longing for home (much like Elves longing to go West in LOTR).

NO weapon specialization. I want you excited by a Battle Axe+2 darn it! Though fighters will get a bonus to damage if they need to roll a negative number on their d20 to hit.

For magic-users and illusionists (and Rangers), I will go through each spell in each level and determine whether or not your character can learn that spell from scrolls or enemy magic-books following the min/max per level rules based on Intelligence. You will not know which spells you can or can't learn until you try. When selecting a spell at level up, you are free to pick any spell of a level you can cast, even if you can't learn it from scrolls. Dedicated tutoring is quite a bit more effective than puzzling things out on your own.

PC's will start with 11,000 XP (a little bit more than enough for a magic-user to be level 4), and come with a henchman of 5,500XP. You can create your henchman like you would a normal PC, or give me some idea of what you want, and have me create them. If you don't want a henchman, I'd be ok with you starting with some other boon, like a +1 weapon or piece of armor (I'd recommend the henchman). Magic-Users and Illusionists will start with 1d4 extra spells in addition to those you got at levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. So a Magic-User will start with between 8 and 11 spells (4 at first level, +1 at 2nd, +1 at 3rd, +1 at 4th, +1d4).

Your characters are experienced, but a bit down on their luck. Whether they got to where they are via treasure hunting (which has since been lost and spent), or other activities is up to you. Just because *PC's* get the bulk of their XP from gold, doesn't mean that non-adventurers don't get XP in other, maybe slower, less-interesting-to-play-out-in-DnD methods.

Your Alignment is *not* some innate sense of your moral fortitude. It's what Team you're on. A character with an Alignment is someone who has sworn their lives to a cosmic cause (typically a god) of that alignment. A Lawful Neutral fighter who has dedicated her life to Athena is Lawful Neutral because Athena is a Lawful Neutral goddess, not necessarily because that fighter cares about honor but doesn't give a fig about good or evil. Typically, people swear themselves to a cause they agree with, but "acting in accordance with your Alignment" is "acting to push your celestial (or infernal) lord's agenda here on Earth" not necessarily "refusing to lie to the orcs because you're Lawful."

This also means that if your character has an alignment other than True Neutral, I'd like at least a little bit (can just be a sentence or two) of your backstory explaining why they have that alignment, and whom they've sworn fealty to. Of course, sometimes it's obvious. "I'm a cleric of Thor" is all I need if the class itself provides justification.

This means that all clerics need an alignment (matching their sworn god), and is why Druids have to be True Neutral. They've sworn themselves to the natural world, not to "foreign" powers.

99% of all people are True Neutral. Both the selfless or selfish, honest or liars. They just haven't joined directly in the cosmic struggles.

No Evil characters please. You don't need to be heroic heroes of great heroism, but I don't want out-and-out villains.

There are four Great Gods: The Lawful Good Solar, Chaotic Good Luna, Lawful Evil Shadow Queen, Chaotic Evil Conflagration. All the myriad other gods, devils and demons are vassals of these four. Unlike mortals however, their alignments don't need to line up with that of their liege lord. So, Odin is a Neutral Good deity worshipped in the North, and is sworn to Luna. Thor is sworn to Odin, even though he is Chaotic Good, and so on.

Most mortal worship an entire pantheon of these lesser gods, the Four Greats being far, far above them. Even clerics will make offerings to other gods in the same pantheon. A cleric of Ares is a champion of Ares, working to fulfill his agenda on Earth, but that doesn't mean he won't make an offering to Poseidon before getting on a ship!

Finally, Edeldhur is planning to play a cleric, but I don't think Rex or rredmond have decided on a class yet.

Your henchman can be any class and alignment that is compatible with your main's class. So a ranger doesn't get a henchman at all, and a paladin's henchman needs to be Good (though a paladin is allowed to associate with the other PC's who may not be Good. Their church and god are willing to make accommodations for those holy crusaders willing to challenge Rappan Athuk).

[Rex]

My class with depend heavily on how I roll.

[Edeldhur]

Likewise, but hope to play a Cleric!

[rredmond]

My class with depend heavily on how I roll.

Likewise, but hope to play a Cleric!

Y'all get to rolling! My class will depend on what the party is lacking... though I'm hoping not to play an MU, but I'm pretty open (even to an MU, if necessity dictates!)
As long as we have a fighter type or two, a cleric and an MU as the main PCs, I'm guessing we will be as good as we can be to start.

[Ythgar]

I'll throw my hat in the ring if there's still room.

[archolewa]

There is! Room for exactly one in fact. I will go ahead and ask the admins to get a subforum setup over lunch today.

[Ythgar]

Excellent! Look forward to it!

[Rex]

Its up, once I have a campaign number I will get to rolling.

[archolewa]

Ok. So I've added the four of you as members to the Rappan Athuk campaign, and I've got an OOC and character sheets thread set up. Campaign ID is listed in the first post of the Character Sheets thread, so folks can start making characters. I'll also start adding topics with any background that may be necessary (starting with a topic explaining Alignment and Religion, and one for Optional/House Rules).