The Glade 4.0

The other day, I played through Warcraft 3. I commented to Taly that it was a great story until they jacked it up with WoW. Playing Warcraft 3 made me want to play WoW very briefly. Then I read some Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria stuff, and I no longer wanted to play WoW. Instead, I went to my favorite internet and acquired some of the out-of-print Warcraft and EverQuest tabletop books. They were really cool, and I wanted to play again.

One of the things that grabbed me was how recognizable all of the classes and abilities are. It's a third edition D&D engine, but the game is decidedly Warcraft. There were a lot of things in there that are clearly drawn from WoW, but what really grabbed my attention were all of the elements from Warcraft 1-3 that were missing from WoW. There were mounts in WoW, but they were just things you traveled around on. The tabletop game actually lets you play a orc worg rider. I thought the three-bladed throwy thing that the night elf cavalry used was really cool, and I was disappointed that WoW had no three-bladed throwy things. This has three-bladed throwy things! All of the little things that made WoW not feel as much like Warcraft as it should have are all in here.

There are rules for playing an ogre, even a two-headed ogre. The high elves are presented. There's a tinker class and a scout class. They've got the elven ranger as a prestige class. Reading a few of the books gave me many jollies.

I'm not too hung up on Horde vs. Alliance. Right around the end of the Third War, there was an uneasy truce over on Kalimdor. Over in the Eastern Kingdoms, they're all still battling it out, but those orcs aren't really part of the Horde. They didn't hop on the boats and go with Thrall. Likewise, it's a bit of a stretch to call Jaina's followers part of the Alliance. The night elves don't seem too likely to side with one over the other. Much of the beef that led to factionalization was played up to sell WoW. The political climate is should be a good deal more complicated than Red vs. Blue.

I want to leave the Forsaken alone. I plan to focus more on Kalimdor, which isn't where they're happening. I've always thought the Emerald Dream was cool, and I want to send you guys stomping around in there. Now, I'd prefer a bit more diversity than a party full of night elves, but having some sort of nature-oriented characters in the group would definitely help you all along. I haven't really settled on a starting level, yet. I want to give people enough leeway to play what they want. If someone gets a bug up their *** to play a dwarf gryphon rider, we'll see about making that happen.

It's a failing of mine that I'm not particularly good at keeping a pbp game rolling. I've had much better luck at live games. A little over a year ago, Kaffis joined my home group for a one night D&D game. The story is told in this thread. It went well, and I want to run another game in that format. I don't think I would launch this particular campaign in full video chat, but I do like the idea of being able to put a webcam on a battlemat or a lego board for battles. I also like the notion of letting you guys actually roll your own dice if you want.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I might be in, depending on the play schedule. Since I rotate shifts every 6 weeks and my days off are not set, I'd have to be careful.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I was planning to run on alternating Saturdays.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Oooffff... that'd be rough for me, since, assuming you're playing in the evening, I could only play when I'm on day shift, or when I have drill. I don't have anything like the seniority to get weekends off. I'll keep abreast in case I can work something out, though.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Yes please?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

As a bit of an update to your archival thread, there's a G+ app for both iOS and Android that would probably alleviate some of the laptop problems you were having, since the tablets are fairly good at doing video, plus allowing for multiple views, since you could use the usb webcam I've got from a desktop as well.

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Saturdays are a pretty rough night for me in general, though I am interested, as little as I post on anything. Though I imagine my dream of potentially playing a Blood Elf Bard is probably too far.

At any rate, the webchat RPG session went really well, and I would love to somehow make that work. The major selling point, of course, being the comedic team of Shuyung and myself arguing about the pronunciation of "Æther."

Again, is it Greek- or Latin-derived, or is it Norse-derived?

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Bards are unfortunately not offered in Warcraft.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I'd be game, depending on which alternating set of Saturdays it fell on. Alternating Saturdays are already DFK! and my meatspace RPGing group's schedule.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The specific Saturday would have to be discussed beforehand. I wasn't planning on just arbitrarily picking a Saturday.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I'm not picky about which alternating Saturdays we have.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I will post some example characters.

Drog Elfkiller, Male Orc Shaman (Far Seer) 9: HD 9d8 +18, hp 59; Init +2; Spd 30 ft.; AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15; Base Atk +6; Grp +5; Atk +6 melee (1d6, javelin), +9 ranged (1d6, javelin); Full Atk +6/+1 melee (1d6, javelin), +9/+4 ranged (1d6, javelin); SA spells, summon spirit allies; SQ low-light vision, augur, Sight of Worlds, Spirits domain (lesser), Favored of the Spirits, orc traits; AL N; SV Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +9; Str 8, Agy 14, Sta 15, Int 10, Spt 17, Cha 10.

Languages Spoken: Common and Orcish.

Skills: Concentration +14, Perform (Percussion) +9, Ride +14, Spellcraft +12.

Feats: Brew Potion, Extend Spell, Totem Expansion, Enduring Totem, Skill Focus (Perform), Drums of Courage.

Shaman Spells (6/5/5/4/2/1; save DC 13 + spell level): Drog’s Spirit score and his ranks in Spellcraft allow him to prepare 12 spells per level.

Domain Spells: 1st—Bless; 2nd—Call of the Spirits; 3rd—Bloodlust; 4th–Divination; 5th—True Seeing.

Domains: Spirit.

Possessions: +2 studded leather, +1 returning javelin, masterwork drums, spell component pouch, kodo mount.

Krusty the Kodo: Large animal; HD 8d8+40, hp 76; Init +1; Spd 60 ft; AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 16; Base Atk +6; Grp +18; Atk +13 melee (2d6+12, gore); Full Atk +13 melee (2d6+12, gore); SA improved grab, powerful charge, stampede (DC 20), swallow whole; SQ low-light vision, scent; AL N; SV Fort +11, Ref +7, Will +4; Str 26, Agy 12, Sta 21, Int 2, Spt 15, Cha 7.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

If that Shaman can't just spam Chain Heal, I'm not interested.

It will still be fun, though I think an actual mana system would have been worth exploring.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

The way magic works is an interesting hybrid of prepared and spontaneous spellcasting. For the most part, there are two main spellcasting classes: the Arcanist and the Healer. The Paladin is able to cast spells, along with a few prestige classes, but their spellcasting is relatively minor. Mages, Necromancers, and Warlocks are all paths of the Arcanist, with slightly differing spell lists, and with altering special abilities at certain key levels. Likewise, Druids, Priests, and Shaman are all paths of the Healer.

Spells are broken up into spell levels, much like standard third edition spellcasting. Everyone gets spell slots, which fulfill the role of mana. Spells which would have interacted with a manapool in the RTS or the MMO will interact with spell slots in some fashion. Spell slots are used the same way a bard or sorcerer would use them, which is to say when you decide to cast a third level spell, you use a spell slot of level three or higher and cast the spell.

To cast a spell, it must be prepared, much like the wizard or cleric must deal with. The important distinction in Warcraft is that you do not prepare specific spells into your spell slots. Instead, the spellcaster may prepare a number of spells of each level based on their primary spellcasting attribute and their ranks in Spellcraft. The number is fairly generous, and a low level spellcaster can typically expect to prepare six to eight spells per spell level. Again, this is per spell level. Metamagic spells are prepared as normal, preparing the spell according to its adjusted level.

You can not prepare a spell you do not know, and unlike standard third edition D&D rules, divine spellcasters must learn spells following exactly the same rules as arcane spellcasters. This is not spelled out in the class description, but rather is explained in the chapter on magic. Divine spellcasters do not require spellbooks like arcane spellcasters do, but they must still learn them. Moreover, new spells are not acquired automatically upon gaining a level.

Healer class descriptions contain references to spontaneous casting, which is a relic of copy/pasting from the SRD, and from the first run of the Warcraft RPG. Such a term doesn't really have any meaning under the current system.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I did not notice a mention of Chain Heal in that wall of text, good sir.

Well if you want to cast all healing spells ad long as you prepare one per slot level you can spam until your heart is content or you run out of slots/mana

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

also the healer domain gives you the ability to cast quickened heals at a rate of 1+ spirt modifier per day. So the options for spamage are out there.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

That isn't the issue with spamming Chain Heal. The issue is that we don't have Chain Heal, unless it's in some other random book.

Chain Heal does indeed exist. It's called Healing Wave.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I think it's, at least in part, interesting that the RPG is so focused on the Warcraft III environment rather than the WoW one, which takes a lot of things which are staples of the WoW environment, things like the entire Shaman class, and some disparity in races, most notably the existence of High Elves but not Blood Elves, out of the equation. Granted, there's a reason I mention those two things in specific, seeing as how I likes my Shamans and Blood Elves, but it'll be interesting to see how that disconnect between the tabletop and the MMO plays out.

High elves have to deal with magic addiction. At that point, what differentiates a blood elf from a high elf? There is a difference between night elves and high elves. The high elves were the nobility who became addicted to arcane magic, and developed a separate cultural identity over thousands of years. Blood elves and high elves separated maybe five years ago. From a mechanical perspective, there's no reason why they would be separate races. Really, the blood elf entry would look like the following:



Likewise, the shaman class is present as an archetype of the healer. All three classes - druid, priest, and shaman - have their own spell lists and class abilities. They also have a healer spell list, and healer class abilities. Healer is a set of core competencies that all three divine spellcasting archetypes in Warcraft have, which are then modified according to one's religion.

So, I really don't get it. There are blood elves and shaman.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

The High Elf thing I'll give you, mostly because it'd involve bringing up points which are primarily storyline in origin. Unfortunately, this is legitimately a situation where the fluff matters, since the complaint is largely based on storyline factors rather than mechanical ones.

As for Shamans, there is some very minor perfunctory nod to the MMO in a somewhat poor recreation of Frostbrand and Flametongue, but the totem system is completely subsumed into just random spells, rather than being a separate mechanic.

The net result is that a lot of things that might have drawn you to the Shaman class in the MMO either don't exist (Windfury, any semblance of totem strategy, Chain Heal) or are made irrelevant in the transfer (the notion of Shamans technically being three distinct classes with three distinct roles.)

There certainly is a class called Shaman, and there certainly are some abilities that are named as Shaman abilities are named. But the actual gameplay of the Shaman, from the MMO, isn't there. And while one can certainly make the point of "if you wanted to play the MMO, then play the MMO," the fact is that the MMO creates a certain sort of expectation for the way things work in the RPG, which is a false expectation, because the RPG isn't based on the MMO.

Joking about my Shaman past aside, I would probably be most inclined to manufacture something from other Warcraft canon that doesn't exist in the MMO, for example, Spellbreakers, mostly because I adored wrecking the buff builds with them.