Urlord

My name is Sebastian Croix, fifth and youngest child of Duchess Alexandra Croix. Having fought in the final two years of the Galon-Polg war, returning to the tedious life of a noble nobody was unacceptable. So, I didn’t return. Instead, I gathered fourteen loyal soldiers who also had little to return home to and we ventured into the Hangorian Foothills just beyond the Galon border. After some time, we found what I was looking for - The keep of Zangris the Exile. History Lesson ======================== About 300 years, Count Pol Zangris possessed a gift that whenever he gazed upon another person he could receive visions of their future. People went to him - all wanting to know their fate. Eventually, the King and Queen summoned Zangris to the palace. After learning their future, the Queen stripped Count Zangris of his titles and exiled him from Galon. Zangris, along with his family, friends, and followers retreated to the Hangorian Foothills. They never returned to Galon, but rumors spread about their community and the Castle of Zangaris the Exile. ========================= Back to the Story The keep lay in ruin, overgrown with vines and trees that pushed aside the chiseled stone. Gaining entrance to the courtyard, the keep appeared in a similar state. Ordering the men to spread out and search in groups of three, I took two men with me into the keep. The interior of the keep was much less ruined and possessed the standard furnishings one would expect. Then a spirit appeared to me (and only me). The spirit was not hostile and said it was expecting me. It was the spirit of Zangris. I befriended the spirit and over the next few months, Zangris told me of my fate while my men cleared the encroaching vegetation and restored the castle. I am now lord of this castle. Armed with the knowledge of my future and with the help of my spirit companion, there is much work to do.

Back when I was playing RoleMaster, we noticed that High-Elves had a natural +20 DB and RR to cold. So, they were hunted, killed and skinned to make soft leather clothing by nearby marauding barbarian tribes. It was awesome!

I have found that each persons idea of Low Magic is different, and not just regulated by point costs. To me, using spells to do things like building or repairing roads doesn’t fall into the category of low magic. But, that’s just me. As for your spells, if I had to choose one, I would go with the 15 AP Transform. It seems more like what you are trying to accomplish. Using TK or Tunneling seems a bit odd.

Yeah, creating a linear plot line and hoping the characters follow it can be quite difficult without the players feeling railroaded. Since the character let the rituals happen, the city has changed and they must live within the new paradigm. i would create three to five plot hooks and introduce them to the characters through rumors and such. Once the players have all the rumors, have them tell you which one they are going to run down before the next game session Then, you only have to detail that one. i do this with my group and it works out pretty well.

Both parts of your divided mind are correct. Casting spells at will is OP, If and only IF the spell effects are above what non-casters have access to. For example, if a missile weapon that can be purchased at a shop does 1d6 RKA, then spells that do similar damage should be available at a fairly low cost. However, if spells are doing more damage than what other characters have access to, then full cost is appropriate. I hope this helps.

What if the Burnout chance was variable based on the Acrive Points in the spell? For example (you would alter this based on the power level of your game): AP = Active Points. 01-20 AP = No Burnout Chance 21-25 AP = 8- Burnout Chance 26-30 AP = 9- Burnout Chance 31-35 AP = 10- Burnout Chance 36-40 AP = 11- Burnout Chance 41-45 AP = 12- Burnout Chance 46-50 AP = 13- Burnout Chance 51-55 AP = 14- Burnout Chance 55-60 AP = 15- Burnout Chance 61+ AP = Always Burns Out just an Idea.

I am currently running a campaign where all spells must be powered by END Reserve: Mana Pool (for Magic) or a Divine Pool (specific to each deity). The pool’s recovery requires Meditation/Study for Mana or Prayer/Worship for Dicine. The Recovery of the pools is also affected by the character’s physical location. Very High Mana Area = x2.0 REC High Mana Area = x1.5 REC Average Mana Area = x1.0 REC Low Mana Area = x0.5 REC Null Mana Area = No REC Deity’s Consecrated Ground = x2.0 REC Ally Deity Consecrated Ground = x1.5 REC Non-Consecrated Ground = x1.0 REC Other Deity Consecrated Ground = x0.5 REC Enemy Deity Consecrated Ground = No REC There is no difference to the actual spell casting unless the spell is built with a specific limitation, i.e., “Must be cast on the Deity’s consecrated Ground” [-1] or “Does not work in Low or No Mana Areas” [-1/2].

If you are looking for a fast, mage duel style magic system, then I would say yes. However, the Dispell Spell would need to be build to accommodate such fast casting... no concentration, gestures, extra time, etc. and if it required a focus, the mage would need to have it ready since you cannot Abort to a Fast-Draw. Also - your bad guy mages need to do this to the PC mages a few times as well.

That's up to you, but I wouldn't allow it.

I completely agree with bluesguy about using the optional combat rules to get the Harn feel to your game. Here is a link to the Harn-Like Healing System I created for my Hero-Harn Game.

I ran a short campaign in Harn. We did a really gritty, low powered game with 45 base points plus up to another 15 in compilations. Equipment was purchased with money which I was really stingy with. It was going well until one of the players died from infection and didn't want to create a new character. It kinda just died after that.

Hi Urlien - Us folks with user names starting with "Url" must stick together... I have run several long term FH campaigns and your concerns are valid. I will try to address each one in it's own paragraph. 5th or 6th Edition - If this is your first jaunt into a FH campaign, I would just stick with 6th edition. But keep the 5th edition stuff handy because there is good stuff in there and most isn't hard to convert over to 6th edition rules. I have FH Complete, and it's not too bad. I would have liked to see more things in there, but I'm not one to second guess a publisher. Campaign Life and Advancement - This is a pretty big issue with any Hero campaign that lasts more than a hand-full of adventures. However, I do have a House Rule that is tried and true, because I used it with my longest lasting FH campaign (5.5 years with mostly the same characters). Some did die and were replaced, but they were replaced at near the same point level as the other characters. Here is the House Rule, which you can tweak for your own campaign... Experience Points & Levels for Fantasy Hero - This system uses an XP and Level system to for advancement of Fantasy Hero characters. It's designed to keep the characters from gaining too many character points too fast and out growing the campaign world. For combat encounters, the number of XPs the GM gives out is equal to half the Character Points of the enemies they fight. For non-combat encounters, the GM should give out whatever they feel is appropriate. There should also be XPs given out for Story Awards. When a character accumulates enough XPs to advance to the next Experience Level, they gain character points to spend. This system allows for 100 (or 60) CPs of improvement over the course of a long-term campaign (levels 1-20). The XPs and Experience Levels are listed below: __XP__ LEVEL CHARACTERS_POINTS 0 0 Starting CPs for the Campaign 500 1 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 750 2 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 1000 3 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 1500 4 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 2000 5 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 3000 6 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 4000 7 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 6000 8 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 8000 9 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 12000 10 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 16000 11 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 24000 12 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 32000 13 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 48000 14 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 64000 15 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 96000 16 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 128000 17 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 192000 18 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 256000 19 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) 384000 20 +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign) ​As far as supplements, use any and all that you have or can find. That's what I do. I hope this helps!

@BigDamnHero - Your concerns are actually the main point. When they return the items to the professor, right up to the last minute mind you (should be a nail biter), the PCs are told up front about the bet and that they were blind subjects in this most enlightening experiment/wager. The professor tells them that they are now free to live their lives again, thanks them for their participation, and escorts out the door. This should really piss off the characters and maybe even the players a little bit too. My players are really experienced and mature, so they'll be okay. I've been gaming with them for 20+ years. However, if (and they will) they start looking into the professor further (post the first five episodes), they start finding little hints and clues indicating, that perhaps the professor and his "friend" aren't as random as they appear. Could the professor be responsible for their deaths in the first place? Were the five items really stolen, or "Allowed" to be stolen? If they hadn't return the items would they have really died and gone back to hell, or was that a ruse? Who was the professor's "Friend" and what role does have in the whole thing? What long term purpose does all this serve? As you can see, there are plenty of questions for the players to ponder. This will set the Professor up as a sinister nemesis for the character to drive future adventures. The moral tests and the items are not linked at all. Passing the tests are completely based on the choices made by the characters while searching for and recovering the items. The five items MUST be found and returned to the professor before the deadline or they WILL die again and are sent back to hell. The items are the adventure timer that keeps them on the right track and moving forward - like a ticking time bomb. Each character will be tested against the opposing virtue of their sin. That character must pass the test individually, regardless of what the other characters do. For example, the character with Greed as their deadly sin, they will be tested against Charity... In the first episode, the characters leave their big city home and visit a tiny village where they encounter a little girl living on the street. The girl is 8-10 years old. She has a terrible stutter and has a deformed left hand. She takes a liking to the "greed character" and starts following them around like a little puppy. The players learn from the locals, "Her name is Wei and her mother died about nine months ago during the winter cold. She has no other family and no one will take Wei in because they believe she is possessed. She will probably die in the coming winter like her mother." The Greed character knows of a school in the city that will take her in, but it will require a significant payment for her tuition (almost all of the gold the greed character has). This is the test: Does the Greed Character leave Wei homeless or does he provide for her in a significant way - maybe not the school, but something to get her off the streets and keep her alive through the next winter? There will be similar tests for each of the characters, but hopefully they will be subtle enough so they won't catch on.

If the character's return all five items as requested before sunrise on Day 31, they will not be sent to back to hell and be allowed to live out their lives until they die again. It isn't until Part 6 of the adventure that they learn about the wager between the professor and the devil. Regardless of who wins the wager, if the characters fulfill the quest, they are free to go.

Fellow Game Masters, Have you ever had a great hook for a campaign/adventure and when you get into designing it you have get a mental block? Well that's what is happening to me. Campaign Hook The characters are pretty low power (75 points: 50 Base + 25 Disads) to start and I'll be rewarding 3-5 XP per game session. The five player characters have adventured together before. Their last adventure didn't go well and they all died. When they died, they were judged in the afterlife and were condemned to hell because of one of the seven deadly sins. After spending what felt like 2-3 years of punishment, torture, and torment in their place of eternal damnation (they were actually only in hell for 2-3 days), they are released for some reason. They remember their hellish experience and which sin was their downfall (I had each player pick one of the seven deadly sins as the reason their character went to hell). When they are released from hell, they appear back in their mortal bodies along with all their old gear. They're standing in front of an old man, who introduces himself as Professor Jarill. Prof. Jarill says he is the one who bargained for their release from hell. In exchange for this furlough from their punishment, they are to perform a quest for him. They have 30 days to track down five items which have been stolen from him and return them to him. If they return all five items within the allotted 30 days, they will be pardoned of their prior transgressions and allowed to live their life anew. If they fail to return the items, at dawn of the 31st day, they will be taken back to hell. Before the characters are released to start the quest, they are given a description and a drawing of the five items, along with the known details of when they were stolen. No information is provided on how the bargain was made for their release, why them, or any other details of the deal. The Twist Professor Jarill is Lawful Evil and he often consorts with Devils through dark rituals. In one such meeting, the professor and a Devil named Seloxith got into a debate over if the punishments of Hell are an adequate deterrent to keep people from their sinful ways. Out of this debate they made a wager. The wager was to test five people who have actually experienced the tortures of hell to see if they would return to their former nature or if they would change. Therefore, the location and retrieval of the five items in the quest are vehicles for moral tests for each of the characters. If three of the five pass their moral test, Professor Jarill wins the bet. If three of the five fail their test, Seloxith wins. The looser must be the bound servant of the winner for 10 years. The player characters and the quest items are actually unimportant in this twisted, diabolical, wager. Here is where I need your ideas... I'm looking for good ideas for how to test each character against their sin. There should be a definition of success or failure for each test. The player characters and their deadly sins are: Half-Elf Martial Artist - Deadly Sin: Lust Half-Orc Thief/Bandit - Deadly Sin: Greed Human Soldier - Deadly Sin: Pride Halfling Wizard - Deadly Sin: Envy Dwarf Healer - Deadly Sin: Wrath There are 6 parts to this adventure (each part is it's own 6-8 hour game session). Parts 1-5 can be performed in any order. The character's tests should be woven into each of the first five parts of the adventure. The Dark Hartwood Bow - Location and recovery of a composite shortbow made of the heart wood from a Darkwood tree. The Silver Mirror - Location and recovery of a silver hand mirror. The Grimoire - Location and recover of an archaic spellbook. The masterwork Dagger - Location and recovery of a master crafted dagger. The Elderwood Staff - Location and recovery of an old blackened staff The Conclusion - Last minute race to get the items to Prof. Jarill before dawn of Day 31. They will be hounded and chased by the people they retrieved the items from. All your ideas are whole-heatedly welcomed. Our first game game session is scheduled for April 15th. Thanks,