Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons

Game development hub. Projects, modding, and resources.
Post Reply
MadPreacher

Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons

Post by MadPreacher »

Hello folks,

I'm in the process of writing my version of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E. I added a lot of new stuff while maintaining the core of the original. Some of the new items is ship combat. The system is familiar to those that have played AD&D 2E. The system is called The Family System beginning with Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons (DAD).

As part of this, the setting of Myths of Malignost (MoM) will be released at the same time. It starts the players and AM off right after creation. It gives that table their own unique history of their version of the world.

Malignost is unique in that it's designed around every table being different. The world that they play in is unique to that table. To accomplish this, we decided to have the party start at the end of creation. Their characters wake up and are instructed by the god that created them. At the beginning the players vote for the race they want to play and are limited to that race until the other races are discovered. There are 11 different races with quite few having a unique take on them. They are separated by thousands of miles to give them a chance to build a civilization unique to them.

The races are the following:

Èlaz: A race of miners that are similar to the Elves everyone is familiar with.

Annunaki: A race of angelic beings that were thrown out by their respective good deities for fighting a war against the Gallu.

Gallu: Are a race of demonic beings that fought to control the good gods at the behest of the evil gods. They were also thrown out and placed on Malignost as punishment.

Sisulu: Quadrupedal humanoids that resemble Centaurs.

Dumillu: A race short beings that have the natural inclination to being sailors, water based merchants, and pirates. They are akin to Dwarves in other settings.

Awilu: They are the humans of the world. They are the high god Malignost's prized creation. They are the first born.

Gudu: They are a race of bipedal bull-men and cow-women. Think of them as the early version of Minotaurs.

Kitharians: They are a bipedal feline race where women are the dominant sex in their society.

Alipharians: They are bipedal canines.

Sur-Èlaz: In Malignost, Èlaz can breed with any other race. Sur-Èlaz's are the offspring of these pairings. They are not able to chosen at the start of the game due to none of the races having met yet.

Sur-Dumillu: Like the Sur-Èlaz, Dumillu's can breed with any other race to create half breeds. Like the other half breed they can't be selected at the start of the game.

Malignost does have sexual dimorphism. Women of the race are weaker physically, but they get a bonus in other stats. The only exception to this are the Kitharians. There the men are the physically weaker of the two.

A big part of this world is the generational play. The players will have a pool of 2-6 characters of all different classes to have in case their main character dies. Their characters will get married, grow old, and develop their civilization. These characters are responsible for the creation of cities, castles, temples, and wizard academies. They are also responsible for creating dungeons and the like. When the character reaches 9th to 11th level they are expected to retire and the player selects from their children to play. In order to facilitate this changing of characters, the training rules are used where in order to advance to the next level it requires someone of a higher level. In the first generation, they will be taught by their creator deity.

At the start of the game, every class has an associated kit that is titled Savage (Class). This class represents the uncivilized beginning.

Deities are very involved in the world. They will look at the first generation and ensure their survival. As the races live through the generations, the deities may be more hands off or keep the same level of interaction. It's up to the GM and the players to decide.

Thus, in the beginning the entirety of the world is a blank slate for the GM and their players to build upon. As play proceeds, the tech levels will change from the Stone Age all the way up to Tech Level 5 which is the Age of Sail. A core component of this setting is one of the players being the leader of the tribe. As the ruler, the get to decide how their county is built with the addition of settlements that can be run by the other players. Technology and the character's class determines what they build. The overall goal of this part of the game is to build an empire. The settlement is the smallest title that can be held. The highest title is empire. A county has a max of 9 settlements. A duchy will have 4 or more counties. A kingdom is 3 or more duchies. Finally, the empire has a minimum of two kingdom titles.

The bestiary will be titled Kalarion's Interactive Database System (KIDS). We'll have a good selection of monsters based off of folklore to use.

Finally, the last book to be worked on will be Galactic Routes Amidst Monstrosities, Pirates, and Swashbucklers (GRAMPS) that is our version of Spelljammer.
Last edited by MadPreacher on February 11th, 2023, 01:50, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Ratcatcher
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 618
Joined: Feb 2, '23

Post by Ratcatcher »

How much of that is written or in early draft? Or is it mainly a roadmap? The project itself sounds cohesive enough and the nomenclature system lulzy and catchy, can def see this work.
My players in general aren't very fond of varied races, in every setting and/or system we play. Reading those I suppose you have linguistic system in mind already? They sound very consistent, which is good but also easy to mix, which is bad for the learning curve. Unless I understood the character creation procedure incorrectly and not all of those are integrated in a given campaign. An elegant solution when facing multiple races is using vulgar names but you probably already know that. Just sayin'

Is the current campaign the first attempt at playtesting or did you play this already?
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

The player section for DAD is almost completely done. I need to add in all the spells, ship combat, and ship stats for the basic ships. After that it's a matter of adding the Adventure Master's section.

The language we are using is Akkadian/Sumerian. Since the campaign begins right on Day 1 Week 1 of Year 0 all of the individual races awaken in specific parts of the world. Due to how time is structured using kingdom turns it will be years maybe even decades before the race your group chooses meets another one.

Image

That's the world map with 48 mile wide hexes with elevation and the location of where all the various races awaken at.

As for the names of the races, that's up to the individual table on what they want to use. What is presented are the official names.

The campaign is currently being playtested. So far all of the players enjoy the fact that they have an entire party of characters at their disposal. It allows me to create encounters where they can pick the characters perfect for it. One of the players stated that it felt like it was a movie where you had main and support characters, but not always in the same scene. All of the player characters get experience to level up at the same time. This way if the main dies they can bring in a secondary to take his place. A new secondary is rolled up to bring the pool up to 6 characters.

With Myths I'm writing up the miniature battle rules. I need to finish putting in standard racial units from DAD and the new Age of Sail ships from Myths. The biographies of the gods are getting a pass through and the planet/moons of the solar system are having their descriptions written.

KIDS and GRAMPS haven't been started yet. It shouldn't take me long to write KIDS. GRAMPS is under my writing partner's supervision. He loves Spelljammer.
User avatar
The_Mask
Posts: 1723
Joined: Feb 6, '23
Location: The land of ice and snow

Post by The_Mask »

If you ever need players, I'm in. And I've subscribed to the thread. Good stuff!
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

The_Mask wrote: February 8th, 2023, 18:19
If you ever need players, I'm in. And I've subscribed to the thread. Good stuff!
I do have a slot open for the Saturday game. It's 1230 UTC-5/630 UTC+1.
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

A bit more about Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons.

The core races are the following:
  • Dwarves
    Dark Elves
    Gray Elves
    High Elves
    Water Elves
    Winged Elves
    Wood Elves
    Gnomes
    Half-Elves
    Halflings
    Humans
    Kobolds
I expanded out the rules for ships that were in the original PHB to include their stats for combat, hiring crew, and equipment for ships.
Last edited by MadPreacher on February 14th, 2023, 09:46, edited 1 time in total.
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

Update: Myths of Malignost is nearly finished. The only sections that are left is the god biographies being cleaned up and detailed. The planet/moon/sun descriptions needing to be written up. Art and final layout will be after that. It's been a long year of writing this and seeing it take shape. I've had a lot of great support from various people. I thank them for it.

If I had to describe Myths as a game it'll be AD&D+CK2+Civ+Total War. The core is basically my version of AD&D 2E, CK2 for the kingdom and barony building, Civilization for the tech research and technological ages, and Total War due to having actual wargaming rules to play out the battles between the various kingdoms.
User avatar
JarlFrank
Posts: 22
Joined: Feb 5, '23

Post by JarlFrank »

It's D&D going back to its wargaming roots and expanding from there.
User avatar
Tweed
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 1504
Joined: Feb 2, '23

Post by Tweed »

MadPreacher wrote: February 11th, 2023, 01:55
A bit more about Damsels, Adventurers, and Dragons.

The core races are the following:
  • Dwarves
    Dark Elves
    Gray Elves
    High Elves
    Water Elves
    Winged Elves
    Wood Elves
    Gnomes
    Half-Elves
    Halflings
    Humans
I expanded out the rules for ships that were in the original PHB to include their stats for combat, hiring crew, and equipment for ships.
You promised me KOBOLDS!
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

Tweed wrote: February 14th, 2023, 08:37
You promised me KOBOLDS!
Did you want them as a player race? I was going to put them in the monster manual.
User avatar
Tweed
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 1504
Joined: Feb 2, '23

Post by Tweed »

MadPreacher wrote: February 14th, 2023, 08:42
Did you want them as a player race?
Of course I did, but you know that.
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

Tweed wrote: February 14th, 2023, 08:51
MadPreacher wrote: February 14th, 2023, 08:42
Did you want them as a player race?
Of course I did, but you know that.
This is the first I've heard of it. :D

I'll see what I can do.

Anything specific you want for these kobolds? Like did you still want them to be evil etc.?
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

Kobolds added with my own spin on them. @Tweed is happy with how they turned out.
User avatar
General Reign
Posts: 1030
Joined: Feb 6, '23
Location: Scorched Earth

Post by General Reign »

I just wanted to point out how cool this is. I always appreciate people creating worlds for others to play in.
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

General Reign wrote: July 7th, 2023, 11:50
I just wanted to point out how cool this is. I always appreciate people creating worlds for others to play in.
Thanks. All I did was make the basis for other groups to have their own unique version of the setting. That's something that usually isn't done.
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

Should I add in monks as a playable class?
User avatar
The_Mask
Posts: 1723
Joined: Feb 6, '23
Location: The land of ice and snow

Post by The_Mask »

MadPreacher wrote: July 15th, 2023, 17:37
Should I add in monks as a playable class?
YES!
MadPreacher

Post by MadPreacher »

The_Mask wrote: July 15th, 2023, 17:59
MadPreacher wrote: July 15th, 2023, 17:37
Should I add in monks as a playable class?
YES!
I should discount your vote, but I won't. :lol:
Post Reply