Past Glory

[Daos]

Past Glory is a sequel of another game, War of the Lance, which was hosted on another site. This game takes place in the same setting, a decade later, and in a different location with a different focus.

This is a 2nd Edition AD&D game set in the world of Dragonlance, on the continent of Ansalon. It will start ten years after the War of the Lance, in 360 AC.

Once, the Ergoth Empire was the largest human empire in Ansalon. But that all changed when the gods, angry at man's hubris, threw a fiery mountain into the city of Istar, shattering the continent in the process. Ergoth was not only suddenly cut off from the mainland, it was split into two large islands. Northern Ergoth, where what remains of the Empire resides to this day, and Southern Ergoth, which was all but abandoned and later claimed by ogres.

Meanwhile, the Kagonesti (Wild Elves) made a home for themselves in the southern forests of the island. But during the War of the Lance, the Silvanesti (Grey Elves) and Qualinesti (High Elves) lost their homelands and were forced to seek refuge in Southern Ergoth. Now all three elves share the land, and not without complications.

In addition, the Solamnics (of the human kingdom, Solamnia) man an outpost on the island, to watch over and protect the final resting place of Huma Dragonbane, one of the most revered and famous Knights of Solamnia, and the birthplace of the legendary Dragonlances.

With all of these factions, many of them opposed to each other, suffice to say Southern Ergoth is something of a chaotic place right now, even after the war has ended.

My basic idea is this:  The party are all slaves, forced to fight at the coliseum for the ogres in the city of Daltigoth.  Every year, there is this one big, blow-out of a fight--their version of the Superbowl, basically.  It's incredibly dangerous and a fight to the death, but any slave who agrees to participate is given their freedom if they win.  Once free, the party will be able to go anywhere they want and do whatever they want, turning all of Southern Ergoth into one big sandbox.

1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)?

2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (heavily house-ruled).

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (e.g. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)?
The game is set in Dragonlance, during the Age of Despair in the year 360 AC.

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?
I'm looking for 4-6 players.

4. How fast or slow of a pacing do you want to set? Some games require that players post once a day, every three days, or once a week.
I prefer players who can post at least once a day, if possible.

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)?
The party will begin with 25,000 XP.

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with?

All PCs will be given a preset of gear based on their race and class, at first.  Once they win their freedom, they will be given a large sum of coin and can buy new equipment.

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes?

Any classes are allowed, except for Sorcerer and Mystic, which don't exist yet (and there are no 2E versions of them anyway).

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species?

Check out the Character Creation thread here.  In the very first post, it describes which races are playable and which are barred.  Keep in mind that if you choose to play a more exotic race, you'll need to come up with a good justification in your backstory.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?
You can use Method V (4d6, drop the lowest).

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?
You can play any alignment, just don't be a jerk to the other players.

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it?
Yes, all races can either multi-class or dual-class.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?
Players can make their own rolls using the forum's dice roller, although the DM may make rolls for them from time to time for the sake of expediency.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.
Hoo-boy, there sure are.  Find them here.

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)?
Yes, I'd like an appearance, personality and history.  The history should include their early life, how they learned their current skill set, and the circumstances of how they were captured and enslaved (including how long they've been in that situation).

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above?
More or less a combination of them all, but being a Dragonlance game there will be more emphasis on roleplaying.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters?
See the link posted in #13.

[GravityEmblem]

I might be interested; thus sort of game is one I’m not really familiar with, and I’m honestly kind of eager to continue my role of “the player who plays literally everything".

Edit: OK, I've already come up with a concept for a Hobgoblin Warrior: Either a Fighter (Beast Rider or Gladiator) or Ranger (Beastmaster or Feralan).

[Rax]

I'm not a huge Dragonlance fan, but I'm happy to give the game a shot to scratch the 2nd ed itch.

I've no clue yet what I'd want to play, but I might as well toss out some questions. If a character survives the death match, is the intent for the game to stay on wholly on Southern Ergoth, or would there be opportunities to pursue interests and goals elsewhere?

Do your multi-classing rules also remove all restrictions on which class combinations are allowed? I.e. can anyone basically pick three classes and advance them together?

Would you be amenable to first rolling using Method V and - if the results are awful and/or boring - allow a switch to Method VI?

[Daos]

Gravity, are you sure you're up to it?  You seem to be having difficulty keeping up with the four games you're already involved in.  But if you feel like you aren't heading for a burnout, I can add you to the list.

Rax, to answer your questions:  1) The intent is to stay in Southern Ergoth only, yes.  As the name of the game suggests, the overall theme is old, crumbling powers that are trying to rebuild themselves, such as the Ogres, the Ergothians, the Qualinesti and Silvanesti, etc, and the party helping (or hindering) them.  But, there will be plenty to do there.  Fortunately, it's pretty big (larger than Texas, even) and incredibly diverse in terrain (mountains, plains, forests, desert, hills, coastlines), with lots of ancient ruins monster-filled wilderness and such, as well.

2) The only restrictions I'd put on which classes you can take for multi-classing is that you cannot combine two classes from the same sub-group, like a Fighter/Paladin/Ranger (which would be useless, actually), or a Cleric/Druid, or Thief/Bard.  Otherwise, as long as you qualify for the classes in question, I think it should be fine.

3) The idea is to pick rolling if you want to be surprised and point-buy if you know exactly what you want, but sure, I'd allow that.  In terms of ability scores, what matters the most to me is that all of the players are roughly equal.  I'd rather you all have amazing scores than one of you having amazing scores and the rest of you having mediocre or bad ones (or vice versa).  So if you wind up with something far below everyone else, I'm fine with re-rolling or trying something else.

I also know HorizonsDream and Ezeze expressed interested in this game in the past, so if Gravity and Rax are in, and those two, as well, that makes four and I can open up the forum with that.  So everyone let me know, as well as anyone else who might be interested (I'll take up to 6 total).  Also let me know if there are any further questions.

[Rax]

Feb 2, 2019 18:33:02 GMT -8 Daos said:

1) The intent is to stay in Southern Ergoth only, yes.  As the name of the game suggests, the overall theme is old, crumbling powers that are trying to rebuild themselves, such as the Ogres, the Ergothians, the Qualinesti and Silvanesti, etc, and the party helping (or hindering) them.  But, there will be plenty to do there.  Fortunately, it's pretty big (larger than Texas, even) and incredibly diverse in terrain (mountains, plains, forests, desert, hills, coastlines), with lots of ancient ruins monster-filled wilderness and such, as well.

2) The only restrictions I'd put on which classes you can take for multi-classing is that you cannot combine two classes from the same sub-group, like a Fighter/Paladin/Ranger (which would be useless, actually), or a Cleric/Druid, or Thief/Bard.  Otherwise, as long as you qualify for the classes in question, I think it should be fine.

3) The idea is to pick rolling if you want to be surprised and point-buy if you know exactly what you want, but sure, I'd allow that.  In terms of ability scores, what matters the most to me is that all of the players are roughly equal.  I'd rather you all have amazing scores than one of you having amazing scores and the rest of you having mediocre or bad ones (or vice versa).  So if you wind up with something far below everyone else, I'm fine with re-rolling or trying something else.

Okay, good to know the game's focus. I was considering making a character with a mainland background and a strong reason for wanting to go back there (e.g. vengeance, lead an insurrection, etc.) but I'll stay away from that and keep him strictly local in his character goals.

I'm currently considering a fighter/bard (gallant), maybe from Northern Ergoth. I read that the Ergothians have a hereditary "cavalier" class, so he could fit in that way. Or just be transplanted mainland knight. But ultimately I suppose I'll have to generate ability scores first and then decide on a character. Where do you want us to roll? Here, or will you be setting up a separate thread for that?

[GravityEmblem]

I mean, I’m planning on wrapping up Darkeye soon (needless to say, GMing just isn’t for me), but you do make a good point. Maybe I’ll see what the group size after a while is first.

[Ezeze]

So I spent a few minutes hem-ing and haw-ing over the setting, wondering what I wanted to play.

The "you are a slave" angle is interesting, but I'm literally already a violently anti-slavery Paladin of Freedom in one game on our boards, and a self-involved mercenary type in the other game, and I don't feel a burning need to play a duplicate of either character archetype.

Then I reviewed your "race" list and realized, in a moment of amazing clarity; I could play a Kender!

Though I'll admit it has been better than a decade since I've read a Dragonlance book and I'm not totally clear on what you mean by (True) as opposed to (Afflicted) Kender.

[Daos]

Rax, playing an Ergothian Cavalier is certainly viable.  I can provide more information on them, too, if that's the path you want to take.  You can roll over on the Character Creation thread in the Past Glory forum.  I've created a group for it and added you to it, so you should have access to it now.  Let me know if you don't, because that means I messed it up somehow.

Gravity, let me know what you decide.

Ezeze, at some point in the timeline a new kind of kender were created known as 'afflicted.'  These are kender who can feel fear, and they tend to be more dour and depressive than true kender.  True kender are the ones you are probably familiar with--the ones with childlike wonder, fearlessness, etc.  The event that caused afflicted kender has not happened yet at the time of this game (360 AC), so true kender are the only kinds right now.

HorizonsDream, still waiting to hear if you're in or not...

[HorizonsDream]

Yeah, I'm in. I just need to finish the character.

[Ezeze]

Do you want us to post directly into the Character Creation thread?

And how do you do Point Buy in 2nd ed? I can't find anything about it.

[Daos]

Yes.  I've added both Ezeze and Horizons to the group, so you can post in there now.

Alternative dice-rolling methods are found in the PHB, chapter 1, page 13.  It's under "Rolling Ability Scores" and then under "Alternative Dice-Rolling Methods."

[Ezeze]

Feb 4, 2019 15:12:47 GMT -8 Daos said:

Alternative dice-rolling methods are found in the PHB, chapter 1, page 13. It's under "Rolling Ability Scores" and then under "Alternative Dice-Rolling Methods."

Thanks, I found it!

Feb 4, 2019 15:12:47 GMT -8 Daos said:

Yes.  I've added both Ezeze and Horizons to the group, so you can post in there now

Currently I cannot

[Daos]

Sorry, I think I see what I did wrong.  Try now.

[Snacs]

Oh, Hello!

So Ezeze poked me about the recruitment here ever since I nudged her to tell me when Daos started a new campaign up, so I'm here to throw my hat into the ring.

It's been since like, 10th grade in high school since I last really dug into the Dragonlance campaign setting, but I saw something in the available character races that caught my eye Daos. I always had a soft-spot for Draconians(child-Snacs thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread), and if I'm remembering right Fael-Thas shared a number of Draconians(and dragons) to the leader of Daltigoth during the war, which would give an excuse why there might be one being tossed into a superbowl-like arena fight.

Specifically, my idea was for a Kapak Healer(the female Kapaks had healing-goo instead of poison)- some sort of battle medic or foot soldier-turned-slave once the War ended? Though a more common Baaz warrior is perfectly acceptable as well. I honestly have no idea what their stats are in 2e to make them playable. Either way a fun thing to throw into the arena, and (if she survives) afterwards being part of a race pretty much hated universally for a massive war only a few years prior sounds fun.

Otherwise, a captured Minotaur slave sounds hella fun, with double points since ogres and Minotaurs dislike each other immensely and having a big, grumbly character to contrast Ezeze 's Kender sounds like good times. <3

[Daos]

Same here, I love the Draconians.  I was a big fan of the Kang series.  I've written up stats to make all the draconians playable. 

Just one hitch--female draconians do not exist yet.  Their eggs are hidden and canonically do not get discovered and hatched until the Chaos War (which won't happen for another 24 years in this game).  This was done by the Dragonarmies because they wanted to be able to control draconian birth rates, but then the war ended and they didn't care anymore and were happy to let them go extinct (eventually--draconians live a very long time).

Aside from that, though, I like all of your ideas.  I added you to the group, so you can post in there now.