Sunday, 22 August 2004

Demo Game

I find myself in the position where it's quite likely that I'll be running a short demo game for some complete newbies in the near future. This leads me to the following set-up:
  1. The rules-set is D&D 3rd Edition. It's somewhat simplified, as explained below, but otherwise as-is.
  2. I'm using pre-generated characters and a pre-generated scenario (more stuff from Dungeon - I'm very glad to be finally using that). There is one character of each of the 11 core classes, plus Illusionist, and one character of each non-human race (and so 6 human characters).
Characters are created by me using the 25-point buy method. The characters are all 3rd level, and all single-classed. My standard fixed hit-points rule applies, but since there will be no levelling up, this is hardly relevant. The simplifying assumptions:
  1. No multiclassing, and no favoured classes. Since the characters are pre-generated, and there's no levelling, this isn't actually an issue.
  2. No encumberance.
  3. Only good characters. This probably just makes things easier on the players - little or no need to explain alignment.
  4. No spell memorisation - all spellcasters can cast any of their spells at will.
  5. Limited spell lists. This is the reverse of (4) - Clerics and Druids will have a fairly short list of spells to choose from. So, no need to read the whole damn Player's Handbook.
To be honest, I think the best thing I could have for this sort of game is a Pokemon game using the Storyteller system. However, in the absence of this, this is shaping up to be quite good. Two final observations:
  1. I'm using 3.0 for this, and 3.5 for the Saturday game. It's quite wierd shifting rules sets - there are a lot of subtle changes.
  2. Now I really want to play a Dwarven Wizard and a Half-Orc Boxer (Monk) in a game... (Plus any number of Paladins, 3.5 Rangers and Mystic Theurges...)

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