Themes

            There are 5 themes to Ulmachtlund. Despair, Dissolution, Suspicion, Horror, and Entropy.

I.                    Despair: People are giving up. People sense that the end is near. There is no hope. The winter is cold, the fog is damp, and the night comes too suddenly.

II.                 Dissolution: The Haspburg Empire, once dominant and thriving, exists only on a few tattered maps. The Empire has fallen apart. Provinces are mere collections of towns. Families have broken up. Guilds are non-existent. Trade and travel almost do not exist. Mentors and students abandon one another. Nothing seems to hold.

III.               Suspicion: Strangers are distrusted. Business rivals grow paranoid of assassination. Races are in discord, and withdraw from one another. Accusations bloom for no reason.

IV.              Horror: The old races are now The Taken. (See next section.) Things lost and forgotten ages ago are waking up. The old technologies and alchemy linger still, and none can say what they will bring.

V.                 Entropy: All breaks down. Innovation and exploration are gone. Technology reverses itself. The innocent fall prey to unknown diseases, mind-shattering taboos that walk, and sudden knives from attackers that have no motive.

Enemies and Obstacles

            The Hapsburg Empire has fallen, but not to outside attack, but rather some interior wasting. There are all the regular dungeons and dragons challenges, but they come in three guises.

The Taken. People whisper of the taken. A fog moves in. An eldritch machine is stirred to life. An unholy book is opened. People shrivel and change, and become the Taken.

The Taken are former humans, elves, and others who have undergone some horrible mutation. Their soul is gone, leaving behind a transmuted body. Humans become orcs, elves become drow, dwarves become derro or gnolls. Sometimes other things happen. In the Ulmachtlund play setting, many of the monster races are not true-breeding races, but warped and twisted. Things. Orcs are former human, which is why they can cross-breed with humans and make half-orcs. The Taken are always CE.

For some unknown reason, the half-breed races – half-orcs and half-elves – cannot become Taken.

Horrors. Horrors are terrible things, to behold them is to risk one’s mind. (See Sanity Points in the Game Mechanics section.) A Horror is some twisted thing that should not be, and the mere knowledge of it can destroy the unwary mind. Any monster can be a horror, but horrors can exist in books, in mirrors that show terrible things in reflections, and some say even in the rising moon…

The Revealed. The Ulmachtlund game setting has undergone a technological regression. Before the fall of the Hapsburg Empire, technology was going through a renaissance period. As the Empire dissolved and fell, the common folk blamed things on the makers of the strange machines, and fear of technology led to a lapsing and a dark age. The Revealed is anything touched by the now-taboo technology, and could be a golem, a machine, or even an alchemical elixir.

Races and Classes

            All of the standard Player’s Handbook Races are available, as well as shifters and warforged from the Eberron book, but those last two races are highly distrusted. Gnomes and halflings are rare. In general the various races do not get along, but even the same race will not get along.

            All of the standard Player’s Handbook Classes are available, along with the Eberron Artificer class. However Artificers are much distrusted, as they are seen as having been associated with the bad technology of the past.

Alignment

            Many good folk have turned to the worship of evil cults in an effort to protect themselves. Others have turned to diversions such as drink and drugs in an effort to alleviate the pain and fear. In general the cult one is associated with is more important than alignment. They are as follows:

            LE: Hextor the tyrant

            NE: Nerrul the Grim Reaper

            CE: Erythnul the Many

            LN: Wee Jas the Strict

            N: The Uncaring

            N: Elemental Worshippers (Fire, Water, Air, or Earth, or all of them)

            CN: The Laughing End

            Various practices will probably vary with locale. A Knowledge Religion check helps.

Character Generation

            The characters start at 3^rd level, and not multi-classed. (They can multi-class later.) The 25 point-buy system is used. (The PCs start at 8 for every ability score, and have 25 points to spend. The first six points, i.e. up to 14, are bought on a 1-for-1 basis, after that on a 2-for-1 basis. The racial mods are added.)

            The characters start with maximum 1^st level gold. One item of their choice gets a free masterwork upgrade. In addition, the PCs can pick any 2 potions from the following list (including doubles of one potion):

q       Cure light wounds d8+5

q       Invisibility for 10 minutes

q       Bull’s Strength for 20 minutes

q       Cat’s Grace for 20 minutes

q       Fox’s Cunning for 20 minutes

q       Owl’s Wisdom for 20 minutes

q       Eagle’s Splendor for 20 minutes

q       Fire resistance 10 for 10 minutes

q       Cold resistance 10 for 10 minutes

The DM will also assign one random magical item to each PC.

Example stats: Half-elven bard, Str 10 (8+2), Dex 14 (8+6), Con 12 (8+4), Int 12 (8+4), Wis 9 (8+1), Cha 15 (8+6+2)

Common Knowledge

            The Hapsburg Empire, which spanned from the Aegean Sea to the south, to the Russian Steppes to the east, to the Swiss Mountains to the West, and to the cold Baltic Lands to the north, is no more. Once a pinnacle of trade, education, art, and technology, its cities are abandoned, its people dying, and the survivors living in fear. No one knows why.

Game Mechanics

            All of the regular DnD 3.5 rules apply, with the addition of reputation points, sanity points, and action points. There will also be unexplained zones of wild magic or null-magic that require Spellcraft checks to successfully cast a spell.

            Reputation points can only be used for Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidation, and they have to be role-played. (“Don’t you know who I am?”) A PC gets as many reputation points as she has levels (thereby starting with 3). A PC must declare her intention to use a reputation point before making the check. Using a reputation point adds 20 to the check, along with all other relevant modifiers.

            Sanity points are things that the PCs must keep. At each level the PCs have 5 sanity points plus ½ their level rounded down. (Thus at 3^rd level the PCs have 6 sanity points.) There is a new feat, Stalwart Spirit, which is a general feat with no pre-reqs that adds 3 sanity points at each level. Unused sanity points do not carry over, they are refreshed at each level.

When first confronted by a Horror all PCs must make a Charisma check (DC determined by the DM, but it will usually be 10 plus the Horror’s Hit Dice.) If the PCs fail the check, they lose a sanity point. Sanity point loss is irreversible, and when the player’s sanity point are zero, it results in permanent sanity loss, incurable and final, effectively taking the PC out of the game. Spells protecting the mind do not help, altho spells that boost Charisma will.

The player only needs to make a Charisma check on the first viewing of the Horror, if it is a monster or a painting, or the first hearing of a horror if it is in a piece of music, or the first reading of a horror if it is in a book, etc. It is very difficult to know where a horror is lurking, and no one knows where they come from, which adds to the general fear, despair, and suspicion of the populace.

Actions points are lifted directly from Eberron. The PCs get 5 actions points plus half their level (rounded down) per level. The feat Heroic Spirit gives and extra 3 action points per level. An action point is used on any d20 roll (before the PC knows if it will be successful or not). When an action point is used a d6 is rolled and added to the d20 total. (An action point can used for a sanity check.) If the player takes the Action Boost feat a d8 is rolled instead. Actions points are refreshed at every level and do not carry over to the next level.

Action points can also be spent to reactivate a class feature, such as an extra daily use of bardic music, barbarian rage, or a monk’s stunning fist. Action points may also be spent to retrieve already cast spells, at the cost of 1 action point plus 1 per spell level. (Thus, spending 4 action points lets the wizard cast fireball an extra time.)

            Wild magic and null-magic zones will be explained as the game develops.

Game Play

            There is generally going to be a lot of role-playing and mystery solving, and XP will be given for such. (The merchant may suddenly decide that he doesn’t trust you, making buying arrows an adventure itself!) It will be good to speak more than one language and have many knowledge skills and social interaction skills. But of course, there will also be combat.

Game Beginning

            Your PCs awaken at a crossroads. Your army unit disbanded, leaving you here. You can go north, south, east, or west.