Miscellaneous ideas from rec.games.frp.dnd and from myself. This document can be found at http://www.zioth.com/roleplay Replacements for Level-Drain ---------------------------- 1) Level-drain is loss of skill, not loss of memory. It's like brain- damage, or a long period of physical inactivity. The character may remember that he could do it in the past, but can't for the life of him figure out how or why he did it the way he used to. It's also like a mental illness. 2) Each level drain makes you lose 10% of all experience gained from then on. Each level-raise lets you drop one 10% penalty. A 100% penalty means you're brain-dead. 3) Loss of life-force, spirit, will, drive, etc. 4) (from Eli) Your skill is forgotten as in loss of practice, so you earn tripple experience until the levels are gained back. LEVEL LIMITS By Eli Fenton, 6/3/99 ------------ Like many people, I think level limits for non-humans are stupid and unrealistic. So why aren't non-humans running the show? Their lives are long, so they never end up doing just one thing in their lives, like humans do. They may be adventurers when they're young, and then, after reaching level 6 or something, decide that they've had enough, and quit. Some would stay on longer, but not many. Additionally, adventuring may not be a common thing for non-humans to do. Adventurous elves, for example, may be scorned by their elders (who make up a huge majority of the communities) and encouraged to strive toward wisdom. Dwarves may be made fun of or punished for showing any desire to get out of work. Another solution is to say that long-lived races are old for a much larger percentage of their lives than humans. It's harder to adventure when old. Even with these ideas, however, there should still be some very powerful former-adventurers around, so I've made up a rule to get rid of those. If an adventurer doesn't adventure for a long period, he can lose experience and levels. Specifically, people lose experience at a rate of 2% a year when not adventuring. Humans, who are reletively short- lived and who tend to stick to one career, do not have to worry about this, but an elf, a hundred years out of adventuring, will find himself with only 13% of his original experience. After three hundred years, that drops to 0.2%, so an elf who was once level twenty, will be level three after a 300 year wait. The most obvious argument would be to point out that humans, in real life, who are "out of practice" with something, can pick it up again pretty quickly. Well, yeah, that works fine when they haven't done something in 10 or 20 years, but I claim it would be quite a bit more difficult after 100. LIVING MAGIC (summarized from msg by rasgon@aol.comvex (Rip Van Wormer)) ------------ Spells are semi-sentient entities. Describe how it feels for the alien energy to crawl out of the ancient tome and worm its way into the caster's brain, nestling deep within and feeding off of random neuron pulses. Describe how, as it's being cast, it takes control over the caster's hands and vocal apparatus, describing itself into existence with words and gestures. Show the unfortunate aftereffects of a casting a spell of far too high a level. Develop personalities for Magic Missile and Tenser's Floating Disc. A mage's spells are her children, and her masters. Weird interactions with magic items are fun. Making good NPCs ---------------- NPCs should have professions, titles, appearance, stats, equipment, land, wealth, reputation, habits, attitudes, goals, achievements. NPC stats might consist only of honesty and bravery. If NPC does something spectacular, drop a rumor to the players, even if they've never heard of him before -- it adds to the depth of the world. After a while, he gets a long history which builds up his personality. Give NPCs intelligence. REALM DEFENCE ------------- > And what should we do about the invaders who attack the small > communities in our surroundings? Under whose rulership are these villages? If none, claim them as your own domain. Field enough men-at-arms to make a daily circuit of the roads of your realm in troops of a dozen or so. Man your Keep with them as well. For spiritual growth through hardship and deprivation, assign your low level Clerical students to these patrols. Build Lookout Towers at likely points on the outskirts of your Realm where attacks are likely. Man them lightly (two or four men each). Include bonfire towers which can be lit to signal an attack is underway. Build these at every waystation of the Realm. Make it the Patrol's responsibility to keep the Bonfire Towers stocks with wood and dry. When the enemy attacks, fight him off the first time with everything you have. State that the villages you have protected are now under your Sovereign protection. Levy The above fees and taxes there. If another attack happens, do not send troops to those that demur your Lordship, on the grounds that you aren't in the 'getting you men killed for no reason' business. They'll change their tune when your troops move out of the way of the enemy when he heads towards unprotected villages. TAXES ----- Taxes would be for merchants. Consider fees, as well. Remember that a large portion of the income of a medieval Lord was not cash, but in kind i.e. labor, grain and goods. Traditionally, in return for land to farm, tenants turned over a portion of the harvest (often above 50%!). Tenants were usually required to work one day a week on projects of the Lord, be they irrigation, roads, timber harvest etc. Only once that day's work was accomplished were they free to get back to their tillage. Also, remember that the Lord also can ordain many tasks of daily necessity to take place in the Lord's Facilities. Examples: all bread must be baked in the King's Ovens (and a portion of each batch of bread kept as fee). None may harvest timber from the Lord's forests without leave. Charge a fee for leave, or a fifty fifty split of the timber. Grain Mills belong to the Lord. None are allowed to use any but the Lord's Mill, and any caught doing otherwise will receive the Lord's Justice (not pleasant). Of course, you keep a small part of all flour that comes out of the Mill. May not be sexy, but this flour and bread and timber and grain and vegetables which you 'tax' from the peasants feeds the Lord and the Lord's household. Anything surplus is salable goods. Use the day per week labor to establish roads, and build way stations, to encourage travelers and trade. Post a troop at each way station. Hold a Merchant Faire for the buying and selling of Wool and Timber and whatever resources you can get together. Tax all goods entering your realm. Tax anything leaving it. TORTURE ------- Torture ideas: To get the player to role-play better, it's a good idea to give him some incentive: Temporarily reduce stats. Max HP reduction. Modifyers to perception tests. Long-term confinement could reduce str+con. Blades, hot coals, acid etc to sensitive tissue could reduce dex. Psychological torture could reduce cha. Or DM can decide that the character's will is broken. If player resists torture, reduce stats. Create a sense of urgency in the game, and with stat reduction. If it lasts too long, character could very well end up blind, deaf, dead, crippled, etc. My idea: Reduce HP by some % per minute on a torture device. Since the adventurer's prone, there should be little reason a more experienced adventure would suffer less or survive longer. TRAPS ----- Magic Mouth spell: "To pass through this door you must first answer my riddle.. [insert riddle] ...". Of course, there is no answer, but it keeps the players standing around for a few turns wasting time on the riddle.