Author Topic: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]  (Read 45318 times)

iceemaker

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Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« on: August 18, 2010, 04:28:09 PM »
Game Title: Beneath the Red Sun
System: Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition
Players Wanted: Four to six
Posting Rate: Once every other day
Special Rules: (wall 'o' text ahead)
1. No divine characters. Athas is a world of barbarism and tyranny, where every day is a fight to survive (except if you're a sorcerer-king or one of their cronies, of course). The gods either abandoned the world or were wiped out eons ago. Regardless, there is no way to draw power from the divine.
2. Weapon breakage. If you roll a natural 1, your weapon breaks. Weapons are made out of whatever materials one can find, as metal is extremely scarce on Athas. Bone, stone, chitin; you name it, it has probably been used to construct a weapon. As such, one errant sweep of your weapon is enough to shatter it. To compensate for this, the following rule will also be utilized:
3. Fixed enhancement bonuses: In addition to any typical bonuses you gain from leveling up, you occassionally gain fixed enhancement bonuses (p. 209, Dark Sun Campaign Setting). This is to both offset the fact that you will be using sub-par weapons and reflect the rarity of both metal and magic items on Athas. You do the best with what you have.
4. Non-psionic characters may gain a Wild Talent, but I roll for it. Psychic power permeates the entire world of Athas, perhaps an evolutionary adaptation to the harsh environment. As such, it manifests in practically every being in one manner or another. But how it manifests is almost always unpredictable.
5. All themes listed in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting are permitted. Your character may begin with any theme listed in the campaign guide, as well as any others that may be released by Wizards in the future. In fact, it is highly recommended you do so, as you will need every advantage you can get!
6. You, as players, must determine a unifying theme in your party, a reason you are all together. It could be anything: trade cartel, thri-kreen tribe, templar agents, whatever interests you guys. I am extremely flexible and will happily work with whatever you guys devise. Given the nature of the setting and the medium we are playing with, it seems to me that determining (at least the basics) background ahead of time is imperative.
Advancement Rules: At the conclusion of a major plot point or every other combat encounter. Basically, Ross-esque "whenever it seems appropriate" leveling.

This will be an open-ended game, with you players serving as catalysts for change. Will you liberate the oppressed peoples of Athas from the tyranny of the sorcerer-kings? Become the dominant mercantile power in Athas? Scour the world clean of civilization and return it to the primal spirits? Maintain the status quo and live a life of decadence on the backs of the enslaved? Or does it even matter? In the end, you are just individuals - the march of fate is seemingly inescapable.

Prophecies tell of a reckoning, a time in which all of Athas will be consumed by a massive cataclysm. Will a new world arise in its place? Will the gods be reborn and usher in a new golden age of peace and prosperity? Or will everything be simply wiped out, leaving utter, pure, total, absolute nothingness? Only time will tell. You may only be a small group of people, against a harsh environment and an equally harsh populace. Sometimes, however, it requires only the fewest of people to enact the greatest of change...
« Last Edit: August 18, 2010, 04:38:06 PM by iceemaker »
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Ryo

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2010, 08:12:54 PM »
I'll play.

Mckma

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2010, 08:30:01 PM »
I'm in.

siriq

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2010, 03:57:15 PM »
Im in

infinitejesting

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2010, 08:19:00 PM »
I'd love to play

Ryo

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2010, 08:31:55 PM »
I'm thinking Striker, leaning towards rogue, since avengers are out. Maybe a defender if it comes down to no one else wanting to play one. I have a bugbear, but it looks like they and half-orcs are out so maybe halfling? Although I'm open to suggestions if we want to do a race theme group.

infinitejesting

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2010, 08:56:19 PM »
Hmm, I'm leaning toward leader.  Bard, if no one has any objections.

Also, I like the idea of a trade caravan as a unifying theme.  Traveling across the hostile desert wasteland, just trying to make a buck, (or the D&D equivalent) that sounds cool.

iceemaker

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2010, 09:33:15 PM »
Okay, four people so far. Excellent. I will keep this thread open for one more day, then I will ask Arje to create a campaign forum. Try to think about your characters and a unifying theme until then.

The wrinkle with Bard is that you utilize arcane power, which draws directly from the life force of plants and animals on Athas. Unless you're endorsed by a sorcerer-king (IE, a templar), you have to disguise your powers or risk getting lynched by a mob of townspeople. Of course, if you play as members of a trade caravan that won't be TOO much of an issue ;) . And you can just opt to not defile.
« Last Edit: August 19, 2010, 09:49:00 PM by iceemaker »
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Dom

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2010, 09:49:24 PM »
I'm in.

Mckma

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2010, 10:42:58 PM »
I was kind of thinking about druid and being more of striker than controller, but I'm also interested in defender (I've never played one), so I would have to look at them and see what there is as far as they go.  I think caravan would be kind of cool, but I think we should find some type of "unique" quirk for it.  Don't know what, but something to not just be a random trade thing...

Dom

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2010, 11:00:53 PM »
I can take any slot that needs to be filled, I tend to lean more towards the martial classes though I might try something else that catches my attention.

Normally, trade caravans in Athas bring water, food, weapons, slaves etc. Elven caravans are notorious for having stolen merchandise from merchants and travelers they have raided, but they usually sell at a low price and in Athas, not many are too picky when it means extra copper on their purse.

A rare resource in Athas is metal, as well as magic weapons and anything that might come from an age before the world became the wasteland it is now. Of course, that also means Sorcerer-Kings won't be happy to receive traders who might remind people of an era before they ruled.

iceemaker

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #11 on: August 19, 2010, 11:17:40 PM »
I'm definitely going to play up the whole Orwellian, 1984-esque rule of the sorcerer-kings. Especially the cultivation of ignorance through the systematic destruction of historical records and outlawing of literacy. If the people don't know that there was once a brighter, more prosperous Athas, what motivation do they have to rise against their oppressors?

The sorcerer-kings can do their damndest to rewrite history, but it is a cycle that will inevitably repeat itself - one that even beings as powerful as them cannot hope to stop.
« Last Edit: August 19, 2010, 11:30:06 PM by iceemaker »
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siriq

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2010, 12:03:16 PM »
I like the idea of a the party being part of a traveling caravan.  I think I am going to play a rogue or a ranger.  I have not decided as of yet.

Ryo

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2010, 08:51:04 PM »
I'm not against a traveling caravan, but it seems a little bland. Don't get me wrong, the concept works on a number of levels, different people coming together, adventure on the open road, access to cities and towns, etc. I'd just like to see some/all of us be more than passengers, guards, what-have-you on this "stage coach". ie a hidden agenda. Like raiders traveling with the caravan with plans to attack from within when the ambush happens or some working for dragonking while others oppose them yet something happens that forces them all to work together for the survival, etc.

infinitejesting

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Re: Beneath the Red Sun [DnD 4th Edition, 4-6 Players]
« Reply #14 on: August 20, 2010, 09:07:03 PM »
I'm not against a traveling caravan, but it seems a little bland. Don't get me wrong, the concept works on a number of levels, different people coming together, adventure on the open road, access to cities and towns, etc. I'd just like to see some/all of us be more than passengers, guards, what-have-you on this "stage coach". ie a hidden agenda. Like raiders traveling with the caravan with plans to attack from within when the ambush happens or some working for dragonking while others oppose them yet something happens that forces them all to work together for the survival, etc.

How about we're a cult?  Dedicated to preserving the memory and relics of gods that have long since abandoned the world?  Or perhaps the Gods never existed at all, and we're so desperate to believe in something, anything, that we don't look to hard at the lie.  (there wouldn't be any practical benefits to worship, we'd just believe) Either way, we have to move from place to place so the Sorcerer Kings don't suspect anything. 

I don't know if that works in Dark Sun, or if it fits with the type of game the DM wants to run.  Thoughts?