Fantasy Craft and Forgotten Realms

[Arioch]

I do not like conversions "on the fly"... I mean: if I start a campaign I like to have the rules I'm going to use well stated and accessible to all my players.

With "revised FR setting" I intend a sort of conversion guide, to help my player understand exactly how I'm going to handle the differences.

There are the FR Regions, races, domains, spells, prestige classes, magic items needing to be defined (even if only stating which is their FC relative)...
Not a complicated task (FC gives you a lot of opportunities) but maybe it can take you a while!

[Wolverine]

Fair enough, that is a fair bit to covert over. Just remember that a single Expert/Master Class can cover a number of 3/3.5 options with only minimal tweaking - or you could just use feat chains to emulate some of the lowered powered classes.

[Arioch]

Thanks for the suggestion!  That's why, among other things, I like FC a LOT!

[Morgenstern]

You might want to break it down by region. List what classes/feats you need analogs for to pull off characters fomr the area you plan to run in initially, the btranch out ot regions you want visitors from, the regions you players might move on to.

A lot of the FOrgetten Realms charm is based on regional flavors in conflict and melding in heroic parties.

[jameswllorimer]

Wow lots of quick replies on Xmas day.

I agree with what has been said here, you only really need to revise the crunch and leave all the lovely fluff that has been written alone.

@Arioch - That being said I'd be more than happy to help work through the list of stuff you mentioned to get down a set of rules for each bit. Preferably with some of the good and knowledgeable folks on here.

I do think starting with character options (regions, feats and classes) and working from there would be a good start.

[Arioch]

Ok... I'm starting now the work: define the regional benefits for a player.

If the player is human, the different sub_ethnicities available to him are to be considered as talents? (like the work of those in the thread previously linked by [jameswllorimer]?)
Or does the sub_ethnicities simply list a number of talents to choose from, typical of that culture?

And in case of the other species? In this case are the sub races represented by Feats?

[agent oni]

Did 4th ed carry over the regional feats from 3rd ed?

Personally, I think national identity can be handled by tagging it with a couple of the available Talents.  For example, People of Cormyr could be exemplified by the Crusading and Vigilant talents.  If a player wanted to play a PC from that country, he would choose either of the 2 at the beginning of chargen.

For other species, you need not look further than Species Feats.  There are many species feats already provided in the core book and if you want more, you can always create your own or look towards Adventure Companion for more.

[Arioch]

The 4ed destroyed too much of what the Realms were... so for the regional feats. In 4ed the regional benefits for choosing a given region instead of another are trivial (like +2 to a given knowledge check, for example).

In 3.5 (the edition I would like to focus on) a Region was an entry giving you the faculty to choose:

• your subrace (ethnicity  in case of humans): A given region is inhabited by some ethnic groups you can choose among. (A human ethnicity = a talent, so to have some option to choose from)
• Languages: Both starting languages, both the most common to choose from
• Favourite Deities: in FC can be alignments (but maybe we car return on this)
• Regional Feats: Sort of special talents available to those originating from the region. (I'm unsure how and IF include also this in the conversion, maybe a list of the most common specialty in the region?)
• Bonus equipment: about 100gp of regional-typical goods as bonus equipment (for those opting for one of the listed specialties?)

[Arioch]

First draft for the Human Ethnic groups: (I've not inserted all the talents because I was not sure about some of them)
The dots indicate that something more maybe can be added.

I think something like "proud" should be used for Mulans and something like "non-moral" (not immoral) for the netherese...

• Chondatans: adaptable, industrious...
• Calishite: charismatic, educated...
• Damarans: stern, crusading, single-minded
• Illuskan: cunning, grizzled, vigilant
• Mulan: intelligent, educated, wily
• Rashemi: Strong, Hardy, Single-minded
• Tethyrian: Striking, savvy...
• Gur: wise, unpredictable, svelte
• Imaskari: Methodical...
• Nar: ruthless, savage...
• Netherese: intelligent, educated...

[pawsplay]

I don't like the idea of partitioning the human Talents by region; although that would indeed enforce the desired flavor, it curtails player choice and in some respects may not be realistical. Are there no Svelte Imaskari, none at all? etc. Instead, I might create one or two feats for each region with a prerequisite of Study (homeland) (which natives all have).

Some rough ideas on classes:
Paladin, Divine Champion, most Rangers, Hammers of Moradin, Slayers of Erythnul etc. -> Paladin
Eldritch Knight, Spellsword, Arcane Archer, Bladedancer -> Rune Knight

The Harpers probably justify a Master Class.

On racial clerical Domains: Why not just extract what it provides, and use existing paths or create new thematic ones? In many cases it partially overlaps with an existing domain thematically, and you only have to cover the non-overlap. For instance, the Drow domain is basically a mashup of Darkness, Knowledge, and Chaos, while Elf is Nature, War, and Wilderness.

[Mister Andersen]

Um, you're doing it wrong. As you'll see in the Adventure Companion when you get it, there would be new Talents, akin to Species, that define the archetypal inhabitant of a region.

[Coyote0273]

Like Anderson said, the various "regions" would be Talents. Ffolk tend to focus on certain attributes more than Sword Coasters do, and most Dale-landers tend to have recognizable attributes, etc. That is how the flavor of the game goes. Just like all elves get "these bonuses", everyone from the Dales gets "those bonuses".

Harpers, and groups like them, would really be Organization Tracks. Instead of just going Noble, Hero, or Military, you also now have Harper, Zhent, Red Wizard of Thay, etc.

[Morgenstern]

Um, you're doing it wrong. As you'll see in the Adventure Companion when you get it, there would be new Talents, akin to Species, that define the archetypal inhabitant of a region.

"Wrong" may be a little extreme. Sunchaser shows how you can use Talents to describe/define the archetypical human resident/adventurer of a particular region or culture. Making up new Talents expressly for that purpose is a nice bit of flavor for the setting, but a list of... traditional... Talents for each region can also go a long way towards describing the outlook of a region, either by itself or in conjunction with a customized Talent for the area.

In other words, the list he's started is not the most elaborate process that can be applied, but it's still a useful step .

[Arioch]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!

I want to explain the rationale behind my proposal:

1) I do prefer to adapt all the available material from the FC sourcebook before creating new stuff. This because I'm not that skilled with the FC rules yet, and because it is faster that way.

2) Humans are always portrayed like one of the most adaptable races. For this reason I do not like the idea of giving them just one talent related to an ethnicity. As pawsplay said, not all the Imaskari should show the *same* racial aspects. That's why I prefer to give players a list to choose from, for short it can be. If a player wants to play a *Strong* character, probably he/she will be more incline to select a Rashemi than a Tethyrian... But maybe with an example I can better explain my idea :

Let's say I want to play an Human hailing from Cormyr (a Country / Region):

The main ethnic groups of human in Cormyr are Chondatans and Tethyrians. So I can choose (according to the draft posted before) adaptable, industrious + Striking, savvy as typical talents. (Maybe we can add to this list some more talent more related to the region than to the ethnic groups?) If a DM does not like the idea of limiting a player only to a list, a choosing among the other talents can be allowed! In this case the character is considered an atypical one, not gaining the bonus equipment listed, but not limited in his/her choice! (Bonus equipment should encourage player to select typical talents not limit the choice)


@pawsplay: I like your idea of meshing up existing domains to cover the missing domains! For the classes: nice starting point. How to diversify an Eldritch Knight from an Arcane Archer? (Aside from the obvious weapon choice )

@Coyote0273: Nice the idea of the Organization Tracks! I do not agree on the region = talent equation, and I explained above why.

@Morgenstern:

the list he's started is not the most elaborate process that can be applied, but it's still a useful step

Thanks! As I explained above, I prefer the simplest way available when adapting rules. This is because in  my experience as a DM I've seen that the less home rules you introduce, the smoother the game runs.

P.S.: @Mr Andersen: I do have the Adv. Comp. and I like it, but the solution you suggest is a little too distant for what I like. Thanks anyway!

[jameswllorimer]

It seems as this has been said a little before but I'm just adding my two penneth's worth, to the melting pot.

In FR, picking your ethnicity rarely restricted your choices of class, feats etc. You could just as easily play a Chondathan Archer as a Chondathan Sorceror. Further to that, mechanically a Chondathan Sorceror and an Illuskan Sorceror were virtually indistinguishable. The whole point of the regional feat system was to allow variation, by introducing a choice of feats only available to certain ethnicities.

As it stands Arioch, the way you are proposing to do the FR ethnicities, limits players along the regions they pick. Any character should be allowed any combination, and feats should define them further IMO.