What I want to post in the following weeks...

I’m amazed to see that I got three posts in a month. This isn’t because I’m having any free time (quite the contrary) but mostly because posting stuff here is cheaper than therapy. So, what am I going to do now? I have a few things in mind to finish:

1.  For DCC RPG I’m creating a Thanagarian Class. More accurately, I’m creating the one type of Thanagarian that I know and love – those dudes from the awesome Justice League cartoon in the 90’s. Besides being pulpy (Flash Gordon!), the idea of “alien flying warriors with anti-magic technology that fights Cthulhu Mythos” is just so cool and metal that I feel obliged to create it for my DCC campaign (which is almost certainly to suffer an alien invasion given the consequences of a nasty and evil-minded PC wizard).

Favored Enemy: Cthulhu!

I believe news classes should often have unique mechanics or new ways of approaching the game, so I want to find a proper niche for my Hawkmen (the ability to fly is surely one). Similarly, I also have ideas for an Imp/Goblin/Gnome class and for a Martial Artist class – both using new rules, instead of being combination of previous classes.

This is my "gnome" class for DCC RPG. A slave/servant caste of the Elves.

2.  I’m a late comer to D&D 5E. I mean, I read it and run it for my players during the Playtest Packs and I even did a few one-shots, but unfortunately 5E is my eternal “second option” for fantasy games (the blame is mostly on DCC RPG). I always gravitate to other games (today DCC, but I’m equally tempted by 13^th Age or just to return to Pathfinder and older D&D editions). I think that the solution to my “problem” with 5E follows similar issues that I have with 4E. I was never satisfied with my 4E games until I decided that I should create a homebrew built upon 4E’s idiosyncrasies. I believe that this was one of the main problems with 4E – the lack of a new setting that showed its strengths (like Eberron did for 3E).

I’ll try to create something for 5E. To accomplish this I started reading the Monster Manual to get the general feel of the “implied setting”. I think I’ll post my ideas here. Let’s see if this will work out.

They should have done a full setting with Nerath.

3.  Now, for Pathinder. First, a want to finish my Mastermind class. I’m a little obsessed with the idea of a “Tyrion Lannister/Sherlock Holmes” class: a PC class that is “brains over brawn” (check here to see my first attempt, for OD&D).

The Mastermind should be generic enough to fit concepts like sages, master spies, courtesans, tacticians, mountebanks etc. The Mastermind’s focus should be intellectual/social/party support, without resorting to magic to accomplish any of those goals (I want to stay away from classes like the Investigator).  Although I have Paizo’s Ultimate Intrigue I’m avoiding reading it until I finish the Mastermind.

4.  Again for Pathinder. The more I read d20 based RPGs the stronger my belief that races shouldn’t give bonuses/penalties to Ability Scores.

The way most d20 games treat ability scores these days I don’t think that race should modify it. By avoiding tampering with Ability Scores, you can keep the game mechanically simple and maybe more balanced. I believe that race should give you a list of racial benefits and disadvantages, some of which would be mandatory (a basic set of traits for 1^st level PCs) and other that are optional or available at higher levels. In fact, I think that races should be represented mechanically as list of options you can choose along the character advancement (if you read Dawnforge you may have seen a similar approach, but I want something lighter). By providing a more open-ended approach to races and the opportunity to get new racial traits during advancement, maybe I can keep races interesting and meaningful during the entire game instead of just at the first levels.

OK. Now let’s go back to work.