Hey everyone,
I finally got the new PHB last weekend and I've now had time to give it a good read. Like a lot of people on the board, I'm really liking a lot of what I see. One thing though that struck me was how this version would really work well for an old setting I had back in the 90s for Runequest.
Earth's Dreamlands.
Back when Avalon Hill released the new Runequest, I did a conversion for fantasy settings set in Earth's Dreamlands. That's really not a far-fetched idea. Sandy Peterson originally meant for Call of Cthulhu to be a fantasy game set in H.P. Lovecraft's fantasy setting. I ran the game for awhile and it was well liked.
I think it first hit me when I was reading the Warlock write up. One of the options for a Warlock's power source is described as an 'elder god.' It struck me how much an elder god aligned Warlock was like a powered up Call of Cthulhu cultist (who knew that Keziah Mason from Dreams in the Witch House was basically a level 12 Warlock). After that I started seeing lots of ways to use D&D 5 with the Dreamlands settings.
Player races would have to be tinkered with. Lovecraft's version of Ghouls could certainly be a playable race (hell, if Dark Elves can be players, certainly ghouls can) and you would have different sub-sets of humanity. One thing that I allowed in RQ that might be harder to work with in D&D was talking cat player characters. But then a talking cat Sorcerer or Priestess of Bast might be pretty kick ass. Still, in RQ you don't have steadily increasing HP. It's hard to wrap my head around the idea of a house cat with 60 HP. Still, everyone knows that HP really isn't a direct correlation to physical damage so maybe not so jarring?
So these are just some random thoughts that I wanted to get off my chest. Right now I'm running something already, so I wouldn't get around to this for awhile. Still, any thoughts? Suggestions? Dire imprecations?
Been playing about converting various D&D creatures to see what I think they will look like in the new rules. This was my attempt at a Star Spawn of Cthulhu.
Star Spawn
Huge Aberration, Chaotic Evil
Armor Class 19 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 310 (27d12 + 5)
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft., swim 40 ft.
STR 26 (+8) DEX 11 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 16 (+3) WIS 19 (+4) CHA 18 (+4)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +11, Wis +10
Damage Resistances psychic, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities cold, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned
Senses truesight 60 ft. passive perception +14
Languages Aklo; telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 20 (25,000 xp)
Fear Aura. Any creature hostile to the star spawn that starts its turn within 20 feet of the star spawn must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw, unless the star spawn is incapacitated. On a failed save, the creature is frightened until the start of its next turn. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the star spawns Fear Aura for the next 24 hours.
Innate Spellcasting: The star spawns spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18). The star spawn can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
At will: Dissonant Whispers, Dream, Sending
3/day each: Dominate Person, Phantasmal Killer
1/day each: Gate
Overwhelming Mind. Whenever a creature attempts to read a star spawn's mind or otherwise make psychic contact, that creature must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the attempt is unsuccessful and the creature suffers 3d6 psychic damage and is Stunned for 1d4 rounds. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the star spawns Overwhelming Mind for the next 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack: The star spawn makes four attacks: two with its claws and two with its tentacles.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft. one target. Hit: 21 (3d8 + 8) slashing damage.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft. one target. Hit: 29 (6d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
A mountainous form lumbers to life, a hideous creature only accidentally humanoid in shape, its hateful face a writhing mass of tentacles.
Dreamer could make for an interesting background in such a setting, with dreaming up things as background feature.
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;783829One thing that I allowed in RQ that might be harder to work with in D&D was talking cat player characters. But then a talking cat Sorcerer or Priestess of Bast might be pretty kick ass. Still, in RQ you don't have steadily increasing HP. It's hard to wrap my head around the idea of a house cat with 60 HP. Still, everyone knows that HP really isn't a direct correlation to physical damage so maybe not so jarring?
It is a well-known fact that cats have nine lives... ;)
You have also the cat army in the Dream Quest for the Unknown Kadath as precedence for kick-ass cat warriors.
Fun idea! Lots of neat creatures to use as potential PC races.
The Ghouls like you mentioned.
Cats should definitely be an option... though they're built like normal cats so I don't know that they'd use weapons beyond tooth and claw.
Horned Men are pretty much Chaotic Evil in the stories but maybe there could be a 'Halfbreed' variety?
Zoogs seem like they're sentient... but don't speak? Maybe some form of natural telekinesis would bring them to the general strata of gnome/munchkin.
There were some frog/toad people in one of the stories... a vanished race I think but maybe some are still around?
The long-lobed people who are descended from gods?
Some great ideas and thoughts and an excellent write up on a Star Spawn, Jadrax.
I was wondering if you gave cat warriors a way to boost their claw and bite attack. I dunno, perhaps something like wildshape so they could assume a fighting form? One thing I did think was that the cat barbarian could select totem warrior and get instead of the bear, eagle, wolf totems use tiger, cheetah and panther? Those totem attributes would give them some extra power.
In my RQ game warrior cats usually sacrificed power for enchantments on their claws from the Rune Priests of Bast. They would also stack up on armoring enchantments. A Rune Lord level Warrior of Bast was not to be screwed with. Interestingly enough, of the two PCs who opted to run cat characters, both were magical in nature. One was a Sorcerer and the other was a priest of Bast. In the end the Sorcerer wound up binding a nightgaunt to him which he referred to as 'Jeeves.' Jeeves the nightgaunt would carry Roofdark (the sorcerer) everywhere.
The horned men and the long-lobed descendents of gods were sort of what I was thinking of as subgroups of humanity, but yeah definitely playable. Also forgot about the Zoogs, you could certainly make them a kind of 'forest-gnome.'
Oh and Skyrock, you are right on the money about the Dreamer as a background. I was thinking along those lines as well. I could see him not getting proficiencies, since the world is alien to him, but instead getting a cantrip level conjuration ability allowing him to 'dream' small useful objects into existence.
This also opens up another interesting line of thought. What IS conjuration in a game set in the Dreamlands? Conjuration is usually associated with bringing things from one location/plane/dimension to another. But in the Dreamlands would it be more about 'dreaming' something into existence. System-wise I'm not sure it has any real impact, but from the point of describing it in the setting it would change the nature of that school of magic quite a bit.
I'm not so hot on the idea of the Cats shape-shifting into a combat form... but what about giving it the ability to call/summon other Cats? In 'The Cats Of Ulthar' and some other places it's kind of implied that the cats have a common bond and connection... so maybe can do the Tarzan thing and call out to any cats in the area... including some of the stranger varieties, like the ones from Venus or mummified cats in a tomb or some of the larger varieties. The bond of cat-kin might cross alignments and cultures and maybe even death (ghost cats?). Good excuse for a random chart based on location.
The act of conjuration/dreaming sounds like it might attract the interest of other Dreamers and beings/creatures of questionable intent.
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;783829Hey everyone,
I finally got the new PHB last weekend and I've now had time to give it a good read. Like a lot of people on the board, I'm really liking a lot of what I see. One thing though that struck me was how this version would really work well for an old setting I had back in the 90s for Runequest.
Earth's Dreamlands.
Back when Avalon Hill released the new Runequest, I did a conversion for fantasy settings set in Earth's Dreamlands. That's really not a far-fetched idea. Sandy Peterson originally meant for Call of Cthulhu to be a fantasy game set in H.P. Lovecraft's fantasy setting. I ran the game for awhile and it was well liked.
I think it first hit me when I was reading the Warlock write up. One of the options for a Warlock's power source is described as an 'elder god.' It struck me how much an elder god aligned Warlock was like a powered up Call of Cthulhu cultist (who knew that Keziah Mason from Dreams in the Witch House was basically a level 12 Warlock). After that I started seeing lots of ways to use D&D 5 with the Dreamlands settings.
Player races would have to be tinkered with. Lovecraft's version of Ghouls could certainly be a playable race (hell, if Dark Elves can be players, certainly ghouls can) and you would have different sub-sets of humanity. One thing that I allowed in RQ that might be harder to work with in D&D was talking cat player characters. But then a talking cat Sorcerer or Priestess of Bast might be pretty kick ass. Still, in RQ you don't have steadily increasing HP. It's hard to wrap my head around the idea of a house cat with 60 HP. Still, everyone knows that HP really isn't a direct correlation to physical damage so maybe not so jarring?
So these are just some random thoughts that I wanted to get off my chest. Right now I'm running something already, so I wouldn't get around to this for awhile. Still, any thoughts? Suggestions? Dire imprecations?
This might be of use: http://dreamsoffreeport.wikispaces.com
Wow that looks really cool, Yojim. I'm never above swiping someone else's gaming work if it makes my prep for running easier. Thanks.
Quote from: jadrax;783840Been playing about converting various D&D creatures to see what I think they will look like in the new rules. This was my attempt at a Star Spawn of Cthulhu.
Star Spawn
Huge Aberration, Chaotic Evil
Armor Class 19 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 310 (27d12 + 5)
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft., swim 40 ft.
STR 26 (+8) DEX 11 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 16 (+3) WIS 19 (+4) CHA 18 (+4)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +11, Wis +10
Damage Resistances psychic, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities cold, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned
Senses truesight 60 ft. passive perception +14
Languages Aklo; telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 20 (25,000 xp)
Fear Aura. Any creature hostile to the star spawn that starts its turn within 20 feet of the star spawn must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw, unless the star spawn is incapacitated. On a failed save, the creature is frightened until the start of its next turn. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the star spawns Fear Aura for the next 24 hours.
Innate Spellcasting: The star spawns spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18). The star spawn can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
At will: Dissonant Whispers, Dream, Sending
3/day each: Dominate Person, Phantasmal Killer
1/day each: Gate
Overwhelming Mind. Whenever a creature attempts to read a star spawn's mind or otherwise make psychic contact, that creature must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the attempt is unsuccessful and the creature suffers 3d6 psychic damage and is Stunned for 1d4 rounds. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the star spawns Overwhelming Mind for the next 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack: The star spawn makes four attacks: two with its claws and two with its tentacles.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft. one target. Hit: 21 (3d8 + 8) slashing damage.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft. one target. Hit: 29 (6d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
A mountainous form lumbers to life, a hideous creature only accidentally humanoid in shape, its hateful face a writhing mass of tentacles.
Excellent!