Synergy

I've finally settled on a character for Shawn's campaign, or whatever you'd like to call it. I'll be playing an Eladrin Bard with a few Rogue elements thrown in as well. I kind of like the character, his name is Erevan and he's kind of a get up in your face with swords and shit character. Most of his attack powers are weapon based and he's got a fairly decent AC. Because of his stats and a Bard feat, he's basically trained in every skill, which is handy. He was a circus performer, that is his background and I think I'm starting to get a good picture of who he is. If someone else ends up playing a Leader, I have an idea for a Seeker, which is a Controller class that is kind of neat. If Dark Sun drops and I find its data appealing, Thri-Kreen Monk, no question.

Lately I've begun walking for about an hour or so in the mornings after I get up. Heather joins me as well most days. On the days I take the walk alone I have a lot of time to think, walking is fairly simple and my mind can kind of wander around for a bit while I do so. I mean, there is the road you have to pay attention to, but other than that walking isn't terribly demanding.

Anyway, this simplistic exercise activity gives me the mental freedom to kind of process things through. It has allowed me to write out the tenth scenario of the campaign. I think I might actually be able to run it without everything written down, which would be cool, but I have time to write it all out, so maybe I should just do that. While I was on my walk today (which is actually Tuesday) I was able to figure out how to make Pathfinder/3.5 DnD work in my campaign setting.

One of the things I really love about 4th Edition DnD is that it separated innate racial traits that would stem from...genetics I guess, from cultural things. So your dwarves have a bonus to Constitution and they have the endurance innate to their species. Their tactics for fighting giants are still there, but you take a feat for them. It never made sense that a dwarf raised among humans or elves or whatever, would have his race's tactics for fighting giants. He would never have been taught those things or have trained with dwarven weaponry.

If we were to switch to Pathfinder or 3.5 Edition, that goofy problem would be back.

I am suddenly forced to laugh at myself. The problem that worried me is not actually a problem now that I think about it. None of the core races in 3.5 or Pathfinder work for my campaign, so I wouldn't even have to bother using the printed races. I tried to hammer elves and dwarves into my campaign once already, not doing that again, it is too confusing and moderately annoying for me. I would basically just need to get physical stats and the stuff that is core to the races.

I do have an idea for a system of traits available to each race, class, and country that characters can choose from at first level. Ideally, everyone would choose a trait based on their class, their race, and then their country, but I'd probably let them mix and match. Each trait would have about the power level of a feat, that way if characters wanted to they could spend feats to get more traits and whatnot.

So good, we can do Pathfinder if we want to. I have a lot of affection for 3.5/d20/etc DnD. It was the first edition in which the math made sense to me. I also loved the selection of classes and the joy of plugging in feats and skill points. Non-weapon proficiencies never appealed to me the way feats and skills do. They always seemed kind of vague or underwhelming.

The only problem with using Pathfinder is that everything is so much easier to get working in GURPS. I can do everything I want to do, and easily. Vyanth have longer appendages, there's an advantage for it. Dwenoren are eyeless and can sense their surroundings via sensory spines, advantage for that. Children of Volung have thick bony plates instead of a more conventional humanoid ribcage, advantage for it.

Also, magic would be way more hostile in Pathfinder than it could be in GURPS. I've found a system in GURPS that does pretty much what I want magic to do in my campaign world, but if we use Pathfinder, I'd go back to my spell misfire Excel spreadsheets I made years ago. A lot of janky things can happen, also, magic ends up coming in different flavors as well, and each of those flavors has specific ways in which it can unexpectedly eat your face off.

I guess the point of all this is that walking is fun and I am prepared for whichever way we go when we get to the conclusion of this campaign. Good times.