Campaign: Dirge of Sorrows 

 

 

Abilities

We shall use the six abilities.  (if you see anything that mentions spirit or appearance use charisma, if you see both, use the lesser of the two)

 

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

 

I.  You may buy your ability scores at home

You have 120

 points

Score---Price

3------------0 

4------------1 

5------------2 

6------------3 

7------------4 

8------------5 

9------------7 

10----------9  

11----------11

12----------13

13----------16

14----------19

15----------22

16----------26

17----------30

18----------35

 

II.  You may roll your ability scores at the game

5d6 in order, drop the lowest two, re-roll any single roll taking the better of the two, then switch any two scores.

 

III.  You may use your own real life ability scores, try any websites like this one: http://easydamus.com/character.html  (My results)[†]  .

 

Base creature must be chosen from the Races of Mierdyyn section of the website.  Templates are negotiable.   Low level lycanthropes and vampires may be considered.

You will need to pick to roll a height, weight, age, and date of birth this will probably be an issue at some point.

Location:  New characters for this campaign are all from Oakvale, Ceirenity in Hibernia.  New characters will need a very good reason to be joining the party if they absolutely can not be form Oakvale.

Money:  New characters will roll their starting gp once for each level and add the total.  Old characters will use the money appropriate for their new level, subtracting the value of any equipment you keep gained up to this point. 

Level:  New characters will be level 3, old characters will have a level based on their level at the end of “Winds of Destiny” but minus a number of levels based on how long it takes them to find the Oakvale.

Character:  When designing your character I want you to think about fairytales.  Either emulate a known fairytale character or create one with a fairytale archetype.  Either way you will play this character after the character’s fairytale is over.  For example you might play little red riding hood after she grew up and became a ranger who specializes killing animals, you might play the big bad wolf as a lycanthrope with levels in rogue, or some boy of your own creation who stole treasure from a dragon’s hoard and then when the dragon came looking for his treasure, he tricked it into believing an ogre (who had been harassing his village) had actually taken it.

 

Choosing a class:

Oriental classes are discouraged.  The monk is considered an Oriental class

Factions:

Provide you friends, contacts, resources, and of course enemies.

Fighters’ Guilds:  These are groups of well trained if morally questionable mercenaries.

Thieves’ Guilds:  There are two major thieves’ guilds the Society of Gentlemen and the Company of Friends.  They do not get along.  The Society specializes acquirer in items is an unusually high difficulty level of acquisition.  The Friends specialize in getting each other out of trouble.  Well, that is the word on the street.

The Church:  There is only one religion, which has been around since time immemorial, seriously they lost the records over the millennia.  Nevertheless, there are a number of heretical teachings left in the world.

The Crusaders:  Technically subject to the church, these warriors in the name of God, exercise a definitive amount of autonomy.  Many soldiers of the Albion, Caledonian, Hibernian, and Vaelish militaries are also members of the Crusaders.  Since governments are considered subrodenant to the authority of the Church, this has not been an issue in over 3,000 years of histories.

Mages’ Guild:  Previously, merely a collection of the select few gifted with the ability to manipulate the ether.  But since the long night, their magics have become… dark.  The heretics have banded together in covens hidden across through out the empire remaining just one step ahead of the inquisition, for the most part. 

The Military:  Each nation has its own army and military divisions, though they are often very similar.

The Nobility:  Each noble house is a faction unto itself.   Each ruling house posses an ancient orb of power which grants all it members extraordinary power.  The ruler of the house controls the orb and may deny its benefits to any member of the house should he deem necessary, though doing so is neither easy nor taken lightly.  In the time of King Thaner Or’Dhyyn, there were nearly fifty known orbs, and it is said that before that time there may have been more than three hundred, but to day the location of only about thirty.

 

 

Prodigy: this is a person who is exceptionally good at their field.  To be a prodigy you choose one ability score to be your prodigy score.  You then choose to reduce your starting age in increments of 2/15^ths up to a total loss of 2/3^rds i.e. a human could reduce his age to as little as 5 years.  When doing this all ability scores except the prodigy score is reduced by 1 point for every 2/15^ths of age the Prodigy has lost in age.  Then as the character grows up he or she gains 1 ability point to every score including the prodigy score until all scores except the prodigy score are restored to their original value.

 

Clerical hierarchy:

 

Vocational title	Nominal title	Rank	Level Range
Pope	Archmother/Archfather	1	19 and up
Cardinal	Grandmother/ Grandfather	2	17 and up
Archbishop	High mother/High father	3	15 and up
Bishop	Elder mother/Elder father	4	13-22
Dean	Good mother/Good father	5	11-18
Priest/Priestess	Mother/Father	6	9-15
Parson	High brother/High sister	7	7-12
Abbot/Abbess	Elder brother/Elder sister	8	5-9
Prior/Prioress	Good brother/Good sister	9	3-6
Friar/Nun	Brother/Sister	10	1-3
Acolyte	Layman	11	Pre-level up to level 1 children only

 

Nomenclature:  It is acceptable to call a Friar, Prior, Abbot, or Parson a simply a brother or sister, or with far more reverence “holy” brother or sister.  The same is similarly true for Priests, Deans, Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals, and even Popes.  “Your Holiness” may be used on any clergy beyond a layman.