Intro/Sign-Up for Uncaring Night

[Defeatist Elitist]

Best subtitle ever amirite or am I right?

Anyhow, Uncaring Night is a d20 system survival horror game I'm starting here based mostly on D&D 3.5. Don't worry, you probably won't need any books, because between homebrewing and free online resources like the d20srd you should be just fine.

Creating a 3.5 character for Dummies (or regular people that’s cool too):

Alright, let’s get started, I’ll try to make this as general and step-by-step as possible, but feel free to ask if you have any concerns.

1) Visit The Tangled Web (or if you like the site Furet posted better, feel free to use that), and set up an account. If you use something other than The Tangled Web, skip step 2 and try to figure it out yourself (this is the easier part that most of you probably totally know how to do).

2) Once your account is up and running, click “Profiler” on the toolbar located under the site’s logo. Under “Create New Sheet” type whatever you want your character to be called (or even “Character1” or “FirstDnDCharacter” or really anything) and select “d20 3.5 DnD” from the dropdown menu, then hit submit. Just above that section, the name you chose should appear as the first and only item in your character list. Click your character’s name to open their character sheet, which is where the actual D&D shit begins.

3) Briefly browse this page to familiarize yourself with the basics, and then VERY briefly browse this page and the “Base Classes” section of this page this page. Feel free to be extremely brief on the second two, as really you’re just going to basically be deciding what you want to play and keeping it in mind.

4) If you’ve already decided your class and race, enter those in the respective fields (same with all the flavor fields like age, appearance and name if you feel like it), and we’ll come back to it later. Enter “Uncaring Night” in the campaign field, and enter 3000 in Current XP (Tangled Web will then auto enter 6000 into XP required for next level). Enter 3 for level, and size is most likely S or M depending on race (Small, or Medium), but again, we’ll get back to this later.

5) You can now select your Ability Scores. Each of your ability scores starts at 8, and you have 32 points to spend on increasing them, which can be done on a one for one basis. However, any score of 14 or higher takes 2 points to increase by 1, and a score of 16 or higher takes 3. This means that, for example, a 14 costs 6 points, a 16 costs 10, and an 18 costs 3. 18 is the highest score you can buy up to at this point in character creation. Now, as you probably noticed, Tangled Web has automatically filled in your Ability Modifiers. For every 2 above 10 in a score, you get +1 to that scores modifier, and -1 for every 2 below 10 (usually scores aren’t below 8). Your Ability modifier is probably the most relevant component of your Ability Scores, as it is what gets added to skill checks, attacks, defenses, HP, and whatnot. Because of this, even ability scores tend to be preferable.

6) If you haven’t chosen a race yet, choose one now and enter it on your sheet. You can now enter your speed (in feet) in the Speed box (right under INIT), and your character’s size (S[mall] or M[edium]). Next, apply your race’s ability adjustments (usually 2 in one stat, -2 in another, but Humans and Half-Elves have none) directly to your ability scores. If your score in an Ability was 18, and you had +2 from race in it, it would become 20. Likewise, racial adjustments are one of the few ways to go below 8 in an Ability. Record your races free languages in the Languages section at the bottom of the sheet, then record any remaining racial abilities in either Feats and Special Abilities, or Notes. Ignore Favored Class, I don’t use that shit.

7) If you haven’t chosen a base Class yet, do so, and record it on your sheet. You will see a number like “d8” or “d12” listed under Hit Dice, this would normally be what you roll for HP at each level, but since in this game you get max HP, just add the number after the “d” to your Constitution modifier, then multiply by three (your level in that class). A Fighter (d10 hit die) with 16 Constitution would have [10+3]*3 = 39HP at 3rd level. Record the value you find under both Current and Total HP. After this, you should read the handy dandy table provided for your class. At the 3rd level line, copy the Base Attack Bonus (BAB) number to the Base Attack Bonus section on your sheet (you should only have to do it for melee, it should autofill the other two after). Then, record the listed Saving Throw bonuses (Fort, Ref and Will) in the base column of the Saving throws section. Finally, note any class features listed and record them under Feats and Special Abilities (unless they’re spells per day, we’ll get to that later), and read their description to get the gist of how they work.

7.1) Multiclass: If you choose to multiclass, simply divide up your levels between your classes (Fighter 1/Barbarian 2, or Wizard 1/Sorceror 2 [please don’t try to play this character], or Rogue 1/Bard 1/Ranger 1), then simply add together all the separate bonuses given by your level(s) in each class. Multiclassing also works slightly differently with Feats, Skills and other character level related stuff, so I’ll explain that later too.

8) Then, find the Skills section of your character sheet, and hover your mouse over the black bar beside the word Skills and click “Autofill” when it pops up. Your class will list a number of skill points gained per level (which is always modified by your Intelligence modifier), and it will note that this total is quadrupled at first level. Each class has a list of class skills, and your maximum rank in a class skill is [your level+3], while your maximum rank in any other skills (known as cross-class skills) is half of that value. Cross-class skills are also purchased at the rate of 1 skill point per half rank, while Class skills are purchased 1 to 1. Read about skills here.

8.1) If you’re multi-classing, then you have to do things slightly differently. For each character level you have to determine your Skill Points at that level, and then use that classes class skill list. When you’ve had two or more classes, you use all of the class skill lists to determine maximum rank in a skill, but you still have to buy a half rank at a time for the skills that aren’t on your current classes class skill list. The major consequence of doing this stuff seperately is that, depending on which class you choose to be at level 1, your skill points can differ majorly, as only at your character’s very first level do skill points get quadrupled (as opposed to at the first level of every class).

9) While I sort of hinted at it at the end of 8.1, I’m going to make the distinction between Class Level and Character Level here. Class Level is how many levels you have in a specific class, like Rogue or Fighter, and determines class dependent levelling variables, like class features, base attack bonus, saving throws, spells, and similar. Character level refers to your characters total level, which is equal to all your class levels added together (plus any racial Hit Dice but forget I said that part), and determines things like the amount of experience you need to progress to the next level, when you get feats, and when you can increase your ability scores. This segways nicely into a discussion of feats. Your character gains one feat at 1st level, and another at 3rd level, then one at every 3 levels after (6th, 9th, 12th, etc), plus any bonus feats from other sources. Keep in mind these are character levels, not class levels, so a Rogue 1/Fighter 2 would get 2 feats for being 3rd level, just like a Rogue 3, or a Wizard 1/Sorcerer 1/Cleric 1 (seriously don’t play this character). A list of feats, along with their descriptions and prerequisites can be found here. Record Feats under Feats and Special Abilities on your character sheet. I’d also recommend trying to keep Feats and Class Features separate. Another important character level related variable is ability score increases. At every 4th character level, you can increase one of your character’s ability scores by one, permanently.

10) Now we should have a look at spells. If your character doesn’t have any spells you can safely ignore this section and skip to the next. Every (core) class that can cast spells has a number of spells they can cast per day, and a number of spells they know. Divine classes like the Cleric and Druid automatically know all the spells on their spell lists, whereas Sorcerers are limited to a very specific number of spells known which is listed on their Class page, and Wizard’s know a certain number of spells by default (though this can be basically doubled by a certain feat only available at level 1, which I’ll tell you about if you want to take it), but can essentially learn as many spells as they want, because they can copy spells from scrolls or other wizard’s spellbooks or shit like that into their own spellbook. The Spells per day of every class is listed in a table in every classes entry, and basically plainly states the number of spells that that class can cast per day of each spell level. Every class also gains a certain number of bonus spells of each spell level they can cast based on their primary spellcasting ability score, the specific number of which you can find in this table. Keep in mind, if you are not a high enough level in your class to cast spells of a certain level, you don’t get bonus spells from your ability score (you can’t cast level 4 spells at level 2 just because you have an 18 Intelligence). The Spell Lists for each class list every spell that class is able to use (in the core books, expansion books add more spells which you can totally use if you have access to those books [if you have an idea for a spell that you really want, just ask me and I’ll check if it exists in any of the books I have access to]), which for some classes, as I said before, is also their known spells.

Most spellcasting classes, like the Wizard or Cleric have to prepare and memorize their spells at the beginning of each day, meaning they choose a certain number of spells per level that they know, and they can cast those spells during the coming day. They can prepare multiple copies of the same spell if they choose, and they can decide to use a higher level slot to prepare a lower level spell (ie. you could prepare a level 1 spell in place of one of the level 2 spells you’re entitled to). Once they cast a spell, that slot is “used up” until they rest for 8 hours and reprepare it. Other classes, like the Sorcerer are spontaneous casters, and are able to use any of their spell slots to cast any of their known spells of the same level at any time during the day. They choose what to cast whenever they cast it. In this case, every spell they cast simply “uses up” an equal level spell slot (though again, you can “use up” a level 2 spell slot with a level 1 spell if you so choose), and you regain all your used spell slots after an 8 hour rest. One final thing that should be noted is that Spell Level and Class and/or Character level are completely different. Spell levels go from 0 to 9, and different classes get access to them at different paces.

11) Alright, so now your character is pretty much all worked out, let’s get to your shit, because everybody loves having tons of sweet shit unless you have a Vow of Poverty. A fairly extensive list (but certainly not all encompassing) list of various equipments can be found here, though probably the most fundamentally important components for most characters are the weapons and armor sections. Weapons are divided into 3 categories, simple, martial, and exotic, and each class has access to specific weapons (just taking a single level in a class gives you its weapon proficiencies), which can range from categories, like the Fighter (all simple and martial), to explicit lists like the Rogue. If you want to be able to wield different weapons without massive hit penalties, you’d better take a Weapon Proficiency Feat.

Weapon descriptions are fairly straightforward, but I’ll explain the stuff that isn’t totally obvious. Weapon Damage (just read the M[edium] value, nobody is playing a Small character) is the base amount of damage someone does when hitting a target with that weapon expressed as the die you would roll, though this amount will generally be modified by something, starting with Strength Modifier for melee rolls. Critical will list the critical hit range, and how much damage the weapon will do on a critical in the format “crit range/crit multiplier”, if no critical hit range is listed, the weapon only deals a critical hit on a 20 (there’s a bit more to it than that, but it’s simple enough). Range increments are in feet, and list the number of feet you can launch a ranged weapon before it starts taking penalties for distance (there are several categories for range with different penalties). Type lists the damage type, which is mostly just important because some monsters take less damage from certain damage types, or can only have some of their defenses penetrated by other damage types. Finally, weapons can be Light, One Handed, two handed, or Ranged (which are basically always two handed). Wielding a light weapon in your off hand reduces the penalties for two weapon fighting, and one handed weapons can be held in both hands to increase their damage output. Two Handed weapons just require two hands to attack with them (though you can hold them with one hand if you’re not attacking, so you can still use a hand to do things like open shit or drink potions. Some weapons have Reach, which means they can hit a target 10ft away, as opposed to only a target directly adjacent to you (5 ft away, as 5ft is the basic space interval of the game, small and medium characters take up a 5 foot by 5 foot block on the battlefield), and Double weapons list damage values for both their sides and basically count as wielding a one handed weapon and a light weapon.

Armor also should be explained, though I’ve just noticed the d20 SRD actually has pretty elegant explanations for this shit, so you can just check here, which also handily contains a list of various armors.

The last thing I feel I should touch on is the subject of Magic Items. At this level your character may or may not want/be able to afford Magic Items, but I’ll go over them anyway. First of all, a list of basic magic items can be found here as well as the rules for making items (both actually having your character make the items in game, and actually coming up with the item itself, as their is significant leeway for custom magic items in the game), as well as pricing guidelines. If you can afford magical items, go ahead and buy the ones you’d like. One thing I would definitely add to this is that if you’re a Wizard and you buy a scroll, you can then use up that scroll to add that spell to your spells known list, so effectively you can “buy” extra known spells for the cost of a scroll of that spell.

Warning/Explanation of certain elements of the game

This is a survival horror game (with extra emphasis on the survival part). While I typically DM in a much different style, I won't be pulling many punches, and things will be very deadly. Get bitten by the wrong monster and fail a few saves and your character is basically dead. Because of that, I would recommend you not join this game if your fun will be ruined by your character dying due to mistakes or bad luck. I don't mean to make this seem like it will be Character Slaughter Fest The Game, but because your character being rendered unplayable is more probable in this game, I figured I'd leave a warning. This is also largely the reason I'm using 3.5, as while I feel 4e is far better as an RPG and certainly easier, some of the simulationist and magic elements of 3.5 will help here.

Setting Overview

The world is a dark and unfriendly place sometimes, and nowhere is this more evident than on the continent of Reinwash. Old kingdoms and duchies bicker and fight across its expanses, always caught up in some succession crisis or bit of intrigue in the church of Pelor. Ancient cities lie on even more ancient foundations, and nobody is really sure exactly what is happening at any time. Crimes in many regions may go unreported forever, and certainly many go unsolved. The eastern reaches of the continent are mired in superstition and terrifying abomination, and they are constantly encroaching further onto civilization. The world over the sea or beyond the deserts, tundras and mountains of the east is a mystery. Countries only exist in the most vague of senses, and are really more an extension of the crown. Feudalism is entrenched in the rural areas, though city states do exist to a certain extent.

The Towers of Wizardry care little about those outside their circles, and are locked in their own endless cycles of warfare and subterfuge. Every once in a while a rogue mage, aberrant priest, or even simply ambitious warlord rises up and carves out his or her own pseudo-nation before it inevitably becomes indistinguishable from the continent around it again.

For some reason or another you have found yourselves in the city of Perovac towards the eastern reaches of the Sun God's Most Holy Kingdom, and though you don't know it yet, this might just be one of the worst times to be around.

Character Creation Specifics

Characters should be level 3, generated with 32 Point Buy and with 3000 starting GP. If you need clarifiation on how to make them, ask me. If you want a place for online character sheets, The Tangled Web is good.

I'll accept basically any non-3rd party 3.5 material if you'd really like it, and I'm fine with Flaws from Unearthed Arcana as well (though I'll limit them to two per character). Basically any class or race is allowed if you so please.

There are a few differences from vanilla 3.5 though that I'd like to stress (more may be added later):

All characters get Max HP every level.

No multi classing EXP penalties or anything, mix and match as you please.

No Alignment or Alignment Restrictions. Feel free to state an alignment if you want, but the game will have no objective alignments or requirements.

As for backstory and personality and the roleplaying components, here are a few things to keep in mind:

- While I'm sure your character has a backstory and personality, you do not have to explicitly state these things. I believe in showing instead of telling in writing, and I believe in it in roleplaying too. Of course, having a backstory written up is definitely a good idea anyway because theoretically I as the GM should know all about your character's past.

- Feel free to make minor details about the world up, or even major ones (just ask on the forum or something to see if it's fine)

- Similarily, having menial unimportant NPCs do completely character appropriate things is fine for players to do. If you want to say "the bartender gives me my drink" then say it because it speeds up the game a lot and really does not need to be said by me.

Other House Rule Stuff

To be updated.

Characters so far

Sternblade, Human Barbarian

Tamara, Half-Elf Cleric

Damios, Human Rogue

Matthis, Human Paladin

Rine, Half-Elf Wizard

Stella, Human Wizard

Dwayne, Elf Ranger/Rogue

Ariadne, Human Fighter

Sign ups are open, and you can begin making characters if you want, though more house rules may come as I think of them.

If you join you should also go in the Skype group chat I made.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Defeatist Elitist

[Parrhesia]

I'll roll a half-elven cleric tomorrow. This sounds amazing~~~

... By the by, what does simulationist actually mean?

Edited January 15, 2012 by Furetchen

[Defeatist Elitist]

I'll roll a half-elven cleric tomorrow. This sounds amazing~~~

... By the by, what does simulationist actually mean?

Simulationist basically means (in this case), that the system more easily supports "realistic" things. That is to say, it is less obviously game-centric. Examples of this in 3.5 are that all monsters are totally statted out like PCs, even if it doesn't matter, or the way Commoner and Noble and whatnot are classes, or even how the spells and "physics" work.

[Parrhesia]

http://3edb.com/viewCharacter.asp?cid=21181

Domains are Earth and Good, but I wasn't sure where to put that.

I don't THINK I missed anything. Yes, 10+8+2-1 doesn't add up to 17, but she usually doesn't have her shield, so...

[Defeatist Elitist]

Added you to the OP along with Sternblade.

[Rehab]

Looks interesting, but I'd have a couple strikes against me in not having actually role-played or played DnD itself before. <:

[Nightmare]

That's alright, I've never played DnD before either, but I'm playing.

[Defeatist Elitist]

Looks interesting, but I'd have a couple strikes against me in not having actually role-played or played DnD itself before. <:

As Nightmare said, no experience necessary. I was going to write up a sort of tutorial for it when my keyboard stopped sucking, but since it's still sucking I'll probably just do it tonight.

[Rehab]

Thanks! I think I'd like to go ahead and make a character, but I'm still looking for an actual application I can use or something.

[Anouleth]

This is my character, Damios.

Tell me if you have any objections.

[Defeatist Elitist]

This is my character, Damios.

Tell me if you have any objections.

Looks exceedingly well done. I'm assuming that the +1 bonus on those Shortspears denotes them being masterwork as well? Adding him to OP.

[Rothene]

Matthis

Sign ups are fun to make, and the group seems to be in need of a watcher 8]

Also...his sister is totally not named Lena

[Rapier]

Well, do you have a newbie friendly guide to DnD's system? If you do, then I'm willing to participate. =P

[Defeatist Elitist]

Matthis accepted, and most of a tutorial added to the OP.

[Defeatist Elitist]

Also, I think I'll start this up once we hit 6 characters, or in a day or two if we don't. There will of course be the opportunity to join after we start.

[Rothene]

Decided to change Matthis' feat set. I'll leave the bruising to Sternblade, Matthis can focus on Tanking. If you're not happy with this decision let me know and I'll change them back.

Original: Power attack, Cleave, Combat reflexes.

New: Improved Shield Bash, Shield Specialization(Heavy), Agile Shield Fighter.

Shield specialization is from Players Handbook 2 - Increase chosen shield type Shield bonus by 1

Agile Shield Fighter is from Players Handbook 2 - Changes penalties to attack roll with Shield Bash and Normal attack from -6 -8 to -2 -2.

[Anouleth]

Now we just need a Wizard to break the game over his knee!

Oh, and hooray, it looks like everyone is a good guy :)

Edited January 17, 2012 by Anouleth

[Rothene]

Everyone being 'not evil' is good. I'd hate to have to spend my once per day Smite Evil on one of the adventurers everyday.

[Rehab]

Matthis

and the group seems to be in need of a watcher 8]

Baw, you beat me to it, I was hoping to be alert ranger guy. Ah well, more points for trixy skills and detective work! Maybe I'll slant it harder towards damage-dealing archery.

It looks on the face of it like a wizard really would be the better choice for coverage's sake, but I already had a dude thought up and was looking forward to tracking things. Bagh, I'm making this complicated.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Rehab

[Defeatist Elitist]

Baw, you beat me to it, I was hoping to be alert ranger guy. Ah well, more points for trixy skills and detective work! Maybe I'll slant it harder towards damage-dealing archery.

It looks on the face of it like a wizard really would be the better choice for coverage's sake, but I already had a dude thought up and was looking forward to tracking things. Bagh, I'm making this complicated.

Don't worry, Rothene's character is a Paladin, not really anything like a Ranger, so go ahead with your plan. And Rothene, I'm totally fine with you using stuff from basically any WotC sources, and since the game hasn't started yet I have no problem with you fiddling with Matthis.

[Rapier]

It's halfway complete. Aside from the Items, I think it's pretty much done if there are no errors. I want to know if there are healing items, because I couldn't find anything about them and I don't want random encounters to fuck my char up.

Sign up.

[Defeatist Elitist]

Your character looks pretty good, though he still needs skills and feats, and spell choices (I'll get to those in a moment anyway).

One thing I would suggest is investing less in Strength, Wisdom and Charisma, and more in Intelligence, Constitution and Dexterity. While you could definitely keep some points in the prior stats if you wanted, Intelligence especially is really really important for Wizards, and conversely, Strength, Wisdom and Charisma tend to not be very useful. While you don't need to go quite to this extreme, I usually go 8,14,16,18,8,8 when I make Wizards. Again, the example I gave is pretty tweaked out, but I would definitely recommend at least going for an 18 in Intelligence. If you really don't want to then feel free to not do it, I just figured I would warn you that it could end up weakening your character.

[Rapier]

Your character looks pretty good, though he still needs skills and feats, and spell choices (I'll get to those in a moment anyway).

One thing I would suggest is investing less in Strength, Wisdom and Charisma, and more in Intelligence, Constitution and Dexterity. While you could definitely keep some points in the prior stats if you wanted, Intelligence especially is really really important for Wizards, and conversely, Strength, Wisdom and Charisma tend to not be very useful. While you don't need to go quite to this extreme, I usually go 8,14,16,18,8,8 when I make Wizards. Again, the example I gave is pretty tweaked out, but I would definitely recommend at least going for an 18 in Intelligence. If you really don't want to then feel free to not do it, I just figured I would warn you that it could end up weakening your character.

Well, could you explain what Skills and Feats are, since my idea about what they are is wrong?

Ok, I've edited my sign-up. What do you think now? =P

[Defeatist Elitist]

Looks pretty good now, and I'll be going over Skills, Feats, Spells and Equipment in the next bit of my tutorial which I am now writing.

[Anouleth]

Well, could you explain what Skills and Feats are, since my idea about what they are is wrong?

Ok, I've edited my sign-up. What do you think now? =P

Skills are how good your character is at different things. For example, my Rogue has +8 Hide. That means that when he's trying not to be seen, he gets a +8 bonus to his dice roll, which is pretty significant! The number of skill points you get is dependent on your intelligence modifier and what class you are. For example, your Wizard has a +4 INT modifier, so you get 2 (from being a wizard) + 4 (from being so damn brainy) skill points per level, except for the first level, where it's multiplied by 4. So for your first level, you'd get 24 skill points, and 6 for each following level, giving you 36 overall.

Feats are somewhat larger abilities. The most well-known Feats are used to gain proficiency in different weapons (allowing you to wield them effectively), but feats can do many other things. For example, my character has Lightning Reflexes, which gives him a +2 bonus to dodging spells and traps and stuff.

Your Sign-up has too much ability. Right now, you have 34 points "worth", so you either have to take out two points from DEX, CON, WIS, or CHA, or remove 1 point from INT and add 1 point to anything but DEX.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Anouleth