Rules Tweak #1 - Hook 'em

So continuing the Dark Sun theme . . . I’ve been busy putting together the house rules and ideas I want to implement come August. My little outline looks something like this (actually it looks exactly like this) --




House Rules for Dark Sun

• Character Creation
• Hooks
• Gain a Free Feat
• Persona
• Beliefs, Goals, & Traits
• Fuels Fate Point System
• Dark Sun is Dangerous
• Ration Points
• Gritty Healing Surges
• Injury Mechanic
• Critical Fumble
• Broken Weapons
• Tweak WotC option?
• Heroes are the power, not Magic Items
• Magic Items as representation of personal skill
• Healing Surges as a Resource
• Never Give Up
• A subset of Fate point system
• Like Limit Breaks

So without further ado let’s break these bad boys down.

CHARACTER CREATION

I like to set one session aside for character creation whenever possible. I also really, really, REALLY like the collaborative character creation presented in the DMG 2. I’m not going to go through that piece by piece. Just read it.

However, let me say that the reason I like all that stuff that frontloads the DMG 2 is because it puts an emphasis on that most hotly debated of words, roleplaying. So, when I began to brainstorm some of the things I wanted to incorporate in my Dark Sun game, this desire was my compass.



To some degree WotC has a mechanic that encourages this – backgrounds. A player gets a little outline of their past (with some prompting questions they should answer) and a small mechanical boon. Dark Sun takes this a notch further with themes. Check out this article by Dungeon’s Master to get a sneak peek at the characters. Pay particular attention to the extra encounter powers; these are granted by the themes.



But I want more, of course. Thankful WotC has me covered. SRM (Stephen Radney-McFarland, I think), author of the Dungeon article “Save My Game,” has a sweet little piece about hooks. Check his blog here for the full details, but allow me to summarize:

Hooks are essentially backgrounds for characters that pertain uniquely to the campaign you, the DM, has crafted. For example, if I’m running a campaign that I know will be very heavy into aberrants, I may have a hook called Unspeakable Ritualist that is available to arcane casters and details their possession of a book of odd rituals or their knowledge of a mentor who teaches these things; perhaps I would have a hook Fled the Deep available to dwarves who’ve lost a clan to alien horrors that welled up from beneath their mountain home. Get the point?

These hooks create a little extra tie and immersion into the campaign the DM is running; it gets people on the same page, and creates some connections amongst PCs. One little wrinkle I’ll be adding to this is that each hook also offers a small bonus feat. These will not be combat feats, or if they are they will have very limited usefulness. The key here is flavor. For Unspeakable Ritualist I may attach the EXPERT RITUALIST feat; for Fled the Deep maybe BATTLE HARDENED (check the compendium for details on these).

These feats shouldn’t make things too unbalanced, especially in regards to combat. What they do, however, is make the players feel like they are good at something from the word GO. Additionally, the hooks themselves often create more questions than they answer, thus enticing the player to get a bit more involved in crafting his character’s personality.

Hmm. I am already pushing past 500 words here. Let’s stop. I want to commit a whole post to my ideas on Persona (Beliefs, Goals, & Traits) replacing alignment and the Fate point system they feed.

Oh, the Agony! (Dark Sun Style)

I’m stung by the swirling sands of Dark Sun once more. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Athas has been my favorite stomping ground for D&D since I first started rolling die. Now as WotC gears up for the big 4e version of Dark Sun, I hear the siren’s call once more beckoning me back to the rugged world . . . or perhaps it is just a belgoi tinkling its damn bell . . .

Regardless, inspired by this RPG.net thread, I’ve served up some quick Dark Sun ideas.

First is the Agony Beetle. This from the RPG.net thread and paraphrased from the 2e AD&D Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium “Terrors of the Desert.” –

{A tiny black 1" beetle that psionically lives off the pain of its victims. It latches on the victim, then waits till they're asleep, held, casting spells, or doing anything else involving concentration, when it activates its Spinal Tap ability. The Spinal Tap ability inserts a tendril into the victim's spine (without them feeling anything due to its anesthetics). The victim is overcome by pain and unable to resist as the beetle drain their Constitution into PSPs for itself. This is guaranteed to kill a victim who is alone.

The beetles live near water sources, where they latch on to prey. They need only plain for sustenance. They're also commonly found in torture chambers. Some rumors say the beetles originally escaped from a Sorcerer-King's torture chamber, but the entry states it's more likely they were drawn there. Dark Sun's cannibalistic Halflings use them in slings or through them onto someone's clothing. Agony Beetles make for bad eating}

Now statting up a single beetle isn’t likely right for 4e design – best left in the capable hands of a DM (though I can think of lots of devious ways a single beetle may be used). However, a swarm of them . . . now that’s more like it.

Does a few things it should: 1) Kills you if you are alone. 2) Feeds off pain. 3) Can make you feel pain (aura + Wave of Pain).

May tweak it in the future, and, as always, if you want the XML let me know. Though it should not be hard to simply copy this or make it in your own DDI Adventure Tools thingamajig.

But we are not done yet - What about some more agonizing stuff . . . like terrain?

SMATTERING OF AGONY BEETLES


A few agony beetles scuttle here and there about the earth.

Effect: The squares occupied by these dastardly black-shelled bugs echo suffering and pain at those who stand within. Creatures occupying this terrain suffer an additional 2 points of damage per tier whenever they take damage. Bloodied creatures double this penalty. As a standard action, a creature may stomp out the pests scuttling about their feet thus ending the effect.
Usage: Thematically works great with cannibal halflings (see below) and agony beetle swarms. However, agony beetles are a common, if deadly, pest throughout Athas. In encounters, this terrain effect maximizes artillery units as they can stand back, gaining the bonus of the effect, and none of the risk.



Encounter Idea:

Cannot take credit for this idea (check the rpg.net thread linked above).

Halflings of Athas have long made use of the animals around them. They harvest poison and food, use the bones of great beasts as weapons and their hides as armor. They’ve found a use for the agony beetle as well -- ammunition. Halflings use these beetles as sling bullets. While the beetles cannot latch on to targets at such velocity, every two successfully fired into a square creates the above terrain feature.

This is a great way to spice up an encounter, giving it both a dynamic evolution and a bit of Athasian spice!