Session 0 - Hibernian Campaign

These are the characters for the BECMI campaign starting in Hibernia and taking place via Roll20. All characters will start out at level 3 and have one special/magical item designed/approved by the DM.

We are using a homebrew method for "fixing" the thief skills.*

Firearms are rare but permitted (some homebrew rules apply to this), and firearms count as magical weapons.

We are using a modified form of milestone leveling. PCs will be awarded milestone XP in "chunks" equivalent to Fighter levels. Thus, they will still level up at different rates, as intended, but our bookkeeping is simplified.

Dwårfy Dwårfsøn, a dwarf from the Galtee Mountains. For trade/networking reasons, he has opted to live among the humans for a year. Before he left, his mother gave him a special hammer, a family heirloom. He told Dwårfy to hang onto it in case of trouble. His hammer doesn't convey a bonus to hit or damage but does give him a +1 bonus (yeah, I know it's really a -1 because of the backwards saving throws in BECMI) to save vs dragon breath.

Vedica Potar, human thief, moved from a small, isolated village in Britannia, Stoke-on-Trent. Vedica comes from a small community where her family were renowned potters (hence the Potar surname). Not content with the slow lifestyle of throwing pots for the rest of her life, she decides to explore the rest of the small world that she knows of (basically just Hibernia). This mainly includes tracking paths that her extended family took to get from Munster to Britannia. As her family didn't exactly approve of her adventuring urges, she had to find money to do such things on her own, so started out as a pickpocket, and bartered with other traders using wares that were not exactly gained legally (hence the thief class). She doesn't exactly know what part of Munster her family originally comes from, which is why she finds herself in Tiobráid Árann. Turned to thievery to make ends meet. Is in Hibernia to trace her family roots. She knows Deirdre in Tiobraid Árann for her cookies, and her son, Brendan, tried to pick her pockets. She taught him a lesson by returning the favor, and may seek to mentor him someday in the ways of the cutpurse. Vedica is aided in her thieving by an amulet of invisibility that allows her to turn invisible for 1 turn 1x per day.

Tiv, human cleric. She is a devotee of St. Michael. Tiv didn't get back to me in time to pick a special item, but it will be a high priority for me to make sure she gets something really useful in-game early on.

Jack Flynn, a man from a very distant land in the midst of a great war. He carries a fancy arquebus that is unlike any most people ever seen before (not that people have seen many, as they're rare, but there's definitely something different about this one). His father sent him on an ocean voyage to sell crops from the family plantation, and a mishap landed him in the elven kingdom of Kernow, where his ship was confiscated. Most of the crew were released and spread out across Britannia and the European continent to try to make new lives for themselves here. Jack has come to Hibernia in the hopes of finding a ship willing to cross the great Western Ocean in the hopes he can still get home. He has a friend in town who came on the ship with him, Allison Anderson, a shaman priestess of a strange deity she calls "Sky Father."   His special item is his arquebus.

Murchad, human fighter leading a survey team near Hadrian's Wall that was wiped out by undead Roman soldiers. He then became a mercenary. He returned home after adventuring out of a sense of survivor guilt and a desire to find the familiar. (Also because he was finding that creatures he killed with the odd-looking gladius he got off one of the undead Roman solidiers starting coming back to life.) His magical item is a cursed gladius +1 called Gladius Hastiliarius Necronicae (shortsword +1, cursed) -- This appears to be a old Roman gladius, but a dark bluish/purplish patina tarnishes the blade. It is not unattractive, but it does not gleam as one would expect. The blade gives off a faint odor of decomposition, but it can only be smelled by a human within three inches of the metal. While it offers a bonus to hit and damage, this sword is cursed. The curse involves three components:

1 - You feel compelled to make your first attack on any opponent with the sword, provided you are able to close the distance to melee range for the first attack.

2 - You cannot give away, store away, or sell the sword. You love this sword and insist on carrying it everywhere. It is your most prized possession. If the sword is removed from your possession against your will, you will feel compelled to reclaim it. A Remove Curse spell can remove this part of the curse, allowing you to get rid of the sword, but if you use it again, you will again be subject to the curse.

3 - Any non-undead creature that is damaged by this sword has a possibility of returning as undead (see below). Any non-undead creature that is killed by this sword has double the possibility of returning as undead. Undead creatures are not affected by this part of the curse. Sprinkling the corpse of an affected creature with holy water prepared by a cleric will prevent its rising as undead. Sprinkling a corpse with a vial of holy water counts as an action.

When a creature damaged by this sword dies, the DM should roll d% and 1d4.

On a d% roll of 01-04, a zombie rises in 1d4 rounds

On a d% roll of 05-07, a wight rises in 1d4 turns

On a d% roll of 08-09, a wraith rises in 1d4 hours

On a d% roll of 10 a haunt (ghost) rises in 1d4 days

If the creature was killed with a blow from this sword, the probability changes to

On a d% roll of 01-08, a zombie rises in 1d4 rounds

On a d% roll of 09-14, a wight rises in 1d4 turns

On a d% roll of 15-18, a wraith rises in 1d4 hours

On a d% roll of 19-20, a haunt (ghost) rises in 1d4 days

The characters are all in Caiseal at the outset, but they have not yet met.

The starting area:

*Because the thief class was “broken” when the extension of levels up to 36 caused the thief skill progression to stagnate, the following system is recommended for “fixing” the BECMI thief class:

1) Thieves start with the skill percentages given for level 1 in the Rules Cyclopedia.

2) The thief is given 20 points per level (including level 1) to be distributed by the player among the thief skills.

3) After name (9th ) level, the player may devote the points to backstab damage.

Each point can raise a skill by 1% (max 99%). After 9 th level, each 10 points can raise the backstab damage by +1 (max +12).

This allows for thieves to reach maximum skills by level 20. It also allows for player prioritization of skill progression (a favorite feature of later editions). After 9th level, the player may choose to raise skills or raise backstab damage (or both) with each new level, allowing some flavor customization for the focus of the character. If all points are spent, at level 36, the thief will have +12 damage to backstab (a modest boost considering the demands of level 36 combat) and max thief skill percentages.