The War of Many Facets
Being an Adventure on the Inner Planes in which
By: Center of All
Assistance provided by: NeoTiamat
Dear Sir or Ma'am,
I thank you most Humbly for agreeing to deliver my Package
I apologize for not being able to accompany you Immediately
Yours most Sincerely,
1. The Hook
The characters are hired out of Sigil by an arcane trader who wants a package delivered ahead of him to the City of Glass on the Elemental Plane of Water. The arcane pays the party half of their courier's fee up front and says he will meet them in the City of Glass in a couple of days to pay them the remainder. The total sum to be paid is considerable, but the arcane assures the party that the package is very valuable, but requests they keep it sealed and safe. Arcanes as a whole, of course, have a solid reputation for being very reliable on holding up their ends of bargains. They also don't have much of a reputation as black market traders -- they tend to make their way through more legitimate goods. Thus, unless a party member is particularly peery or paranoid, most should feel confident that their package is nothing harmful and that they will get paid in the end.
The game will begin shortly after the party emerges from the portal to the City of Glass. There will be a short opening at that point for the players to introduce their characters and interact a little, and then the party will be off to complete their mission.
I suppose it would be helpful to say when I'd like to get things rolling. So: I would like to start the game on or around January 15th. Please try to have character sheets and concepts drawn up and linked to me by then. Thank you!
As mentioned, I intend to write this game up as a full-fledged 4e module, PDF it, and submit it to Planewalker. As a result, I am relying on you all as more than just players; you are also my playtesters and I will be asking for feedback periodically so I can fine-tune my story for publication.
The game will take place entirely on the Inner Planes. This will be an event-based game. Essentially, that means it will be driven along at a rather fluid pace. The game will take place over a rather short period of time -- I do not anticipate the in-game time to exceed one month. I'll try my best to not railroad you more than necessary. But be advised that there are background matters occurring in one place while your characters are elsewhere. Some of these background events will happen regardless of the party's actions simply because the party doesn't have a link to those events yet. In some places your roles will be purely reactionary, while in others you will have a chance to influence what happens.
Rest assured that the climax and resolution will fall solely on the PCs' shoulders. After everything that happens, your own actions will determine the final outcome of the game.
3. The Characters
Character creation will proceed as follows:
- All players must use the online character sheets at www.myth-weavers.com to make their characters. Once you do that, make the character public and PM a link to me here. If you need help, please ask! If Wizards ever gets off their lazy butts and finishes their Character Creator, files created by that will also be acceptable. I'm not going to be a nazi about making sure everything on your sheet is perfect, but I do want to be able to know where you stand at any given time. This will help me plan encounters and award better treasure.
- All characters start at Level 5. You will have the minimum XP needed for the level. I don't recall what it is off-hand but I'll update once I do.
- 25 Point-Buy according to the 4e rules. This means all stats except one start at 10. The other one starts at 8. From there, you spend your points to raise your stats. Once you are done with all of that, add in your racial modifiers and the bonus +1 to any two stats for reaching level 4.
- All characters begin play with the following for magic items: one (1) Level 6 or lower item of any type, one (1) Level 5 or lower item of any type, one (1) Level 4 or lower item of any type. You also receive gold equal to half the value of a level 5 item, plus 100. I don't have immediate access to my books right this second but I will post the actual number shortly. From an in-character perspective, consider the 100 gold your "starting cash" and the larger sum as your advance paid by the arcane.
- You may use any race officially released by Wizards so far, including those from the back of the Monster Manual, as well as genasi (who fit right in).
- You may use any races, classes, feats, powers, items and books officially released by Wizards. Essentially, if it is in the Compendium, it's approved. If you use something outside the PHB, please cite your source so I can reference it. I do have access to all the books and D&Di, but I don't have them all memorized. Thus, if I need to look up what your character can do, it helps me to know where your ability comes from. The only race I respectfully request people avoid is the doppelganger. All told, I am really kind of lazy and the shapeshifting abilities just make more headache than I'd rather deal with. Nobody so far has expressed interest in doppelgangers, so I doubt this will be an issue. See "Flavor Modifications" below for a few notes on races and how they are played out in this game.
- Races like genasi, bladelings, etc. are approved
- Classes, the Artificer and Barbarian are approved for play (I can furnish the PDFs if you want these). Other classes that have been previewed (bard, invoker, etc.) will not be allowed.
- On languages, I will not be making a whole lot of use of different languages. This is mostly due to my personal laziness and the fact that language doesn't come up that often in many Planescape modules. For ease, we'll just stick with the 4e language system where it becomes applicable.
- There will be ample opportunity to purchase needed items throughout the game. The center of the game is in the City of Glass, a city often called the "Sigil of the Inner Planes." As a result, anything you might need or want can be found here. You will be able to spend your money on anything you like immediately before delivering the package, so simply include it on your character sheet at creation. You may use the Adventurer's Vault and may also use magic items from other Wizards sources where applicable. As mentioned above, if you use something outside the PHB, please list where it can be found so I can reference it easily.
4. Alignment & Factions
No evil characters. All characters should be at least neutral, and good tendencies are preferred. Since mechanics do not have much effect based on alignment in 4e, and alignment is largely irrelevant to nature of the Inner Planes, I do not require players to list an alignment for the characters. If you choose to do so, though, please use the old Nine Alignments system instead of the new 4e system.
Faction membership is not required. Ultimately, it is neither encouraged nor discouraged -- I have no stance one way or the other. The Factions do not play a major role in this adventure, save for any involvement brought in by PC membership. That being said there are some factions that, for the purposes of this test run, will not be allowed for play. Those factions are as follows: the Doomguard, the Xaositects, and the Bleak Cabal. If we have a character playing a divine power-based character (cleric, paladin, etc.), I would prefer nobody play Athar since the group's cohesion would be extremely difficult to maintain with the wide, divisive gap between the Athar and anyone that gives service to a deity.
5. Flavor Modifications
5.1 Races
Generally speaking, if you want to make a flavor modification to your base race, you're welcome to do so as long as it does not change the mechanics. For an example, see Dunamin's idea of the azer that lost his flame and is played mechanically as a standard dwarf.
- Eladrin as 4e describes them are a little different from Planescape's version of Eladrin. For my intents and purposes, 4e's "eladrin" are actually aasimar. These aasimar have heavy elven and/or eladrin blood. Any aasimar characters may use these stats.
- Tieflings are just as varied and different from each other as Planescape dictates.
- Genasi have one and only one manifestation, similar to the original genasi concept. The Extra Manifestation feat will not be available.
5.2 Skills
When you run a planar campaign, certain information considered "obscure knowledge" by most games actually becomes "common knowledge." Both Arcana and Nature can be used to identify what plane you are on -- though when you travel the Inner Planes it is usually very, very easy to guess which one you're on. Both skills will also help in identifying naturally occurring phenomena and, if necessary, specifically where you are on a given plane. Streetwise can be used in a similar fashion for civilized areas. All three skills can be used to locate portals when it becomes necessary.
6. Combat & Skill Challenges
This is important, so read up. Combat is the death of many PbP games and it slows PbPs in general down considerably. Therefore, I am taking a page from a friend's game to deal with combat and skill challenges.
Once combat begins, each round will be adjudicated and updated about every 24 hours. This means each player has about a day to post an action for that round. After all players have posted their actions or after about 24 hours have passed, I'll summarize everything, post enemy actions, and move on. Any player that does not post will just miss his chance that round. Initiative does not exist in this game, so you may post your action at any time on any round.
Characters whose players let me know they'll be gone will get absentee immunity for the combat. This means their characters will neither attack nor be attacked in the fight. This only applies if you let me know in advance that you will be unable to post. Otherwise, while I won't go out of my way to hurt your character, you're considered fair game. In the case of extenuating circumstances that force departure without advance notice, just let me know when you return and some things can be retconned if necessary. If you are absent from posting for too long, I will remove your character from the game entirely.
In the above paragraphs, you can replace 'combat' with 'skill challenges' and the same rules apply.
I believe this sums up the major points. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be reserving the next few posts for some future details that will need to be posted.
As always, if you need to contact me, send a PM or feel free to contact me on AIM at Rilmani. I also use MSN and Yahoo semi-frequently so if you'd rather get ahold of me there, please feel free to talk to me.
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Cast List
PCs
Listed alphabetically -- Click on the character name to view the character sheet
Coal -- An Azer whose flame has burned out.
Formula - A military-trained warforged who turned to wizardry over the sword.
Okeanos - A water genasi who had a little too much Styx water.
Tamara Voidborn - A mysterious lass who can slip into the space between the planes.
NPCs
Listed by order of appearance
Thalivan - Arcane trader and the party's employer. He hired the party to deliver a valuable package to one of his buyers.
http://kaitou-kage.deviantart.com/ -- My deviantART gallery
http://www.planescapemetamorphosis.com/ -- Planescape: Metamorphosis, a Planescape webcomic in the works