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gc25774
2014-05-31, 09:38 AM
GC Here. I've just joined this forum and would like some help on what to do. My players want to start up a new campaign where 3 players represent one person. To do this, One is the actual person and the other two inhabit a cursed sword that cannot be removed. Naturally, one is Chaotic Good and the Other is Chaotic Evil. The players must guide each other, twitch plays pokemon style to slay/convince a witch to undo the curse, allowing the sword to become two bodies. How does one even start writing such a unconventional campaign? Any ideas accepted.

Gildedragon
2014-05-31, 03:10 PM
Tricky as it seems a very PvP game. Which, well, is harder to DM and there aren't v. many rules for players cohandling a body.

What system?
---
Giving it some thought and well... I don't see it working. Only one player can do anything at a given time, and actions are more or less described in wide swathes (I go to X)
TPP isn't... A very runnable campaign
Now what could be done is giving the other two players incorporeal subtypes and take it from there.

DM Nate
2014-05-31, 04:48 PM
I ran a campaign once where a goddess gave the party members rings of Gestalt. Whenever they activated them, they would form a single character that used the highest of all their stats on whatever roll they were making (highest weapon attacks, saves, skill checks, etc.). They were allowed to do one action per person...so four people forming a Gestalt would have four actions. These were any combination of movement or standard actions--two moves and two standards, one move and three standards, or perhaps one move, one standard, and one full round. This forced them to work together as a party and decide on a course of action together, which they would then present to me.

It worked for this party because they never tried powergaming or breaking the systems I gave them. (For example, if they were smart, they would have had their wizard cast 4 high-level spells on the first turn, but they never tried that.)

gc25774
2014-06-01, 06:59 PM
Tricky as it seems a very PvP game. Which, well, is harder to DM and there aren't v. many rules for players cohandling a body.

What system?
---
Giving it some thought and well... I don't see it working. Only one player can do anything at a given time, and actions are more or less described in wide swathes (I go to X)
TPP isn't... A very runnable campaign
Now what could be done is giving the other two players incorporeal subtypes and take it from there.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. I'm just utterly baffled.

Gildedragon
2014-06-01, 07:08 PM
I would say: scrap the idea of handling a single body with 3 pcs.

Instead have 2 incorporeal PCs and 1 physical one that can easily see them.

gc25774
2014-06-01, 07:22 PM
I would say: scrap the idea of handling a single body with 3 pcs.

Instead have 2 incorporeal PCs and 1 physical one that can easily see them.

That's interesting. My brother, who is one of the players said that the reason the two souls are inside him are bound by a cursed sword that the third cannot get rid of. Might you suggest other ideas? Just spent a good while conversing with him.

Gildedragon
2014-06-01, 08:28 PM
The problem with 3 in 1 body is actions.
Only 1 player can act at a time, so the other 2 are relegated to not doing much while one of them plays.

having an intelligent item is cool and neat, but that is a DM sorta job. Leave the other players out of intelligent items.

---

As to what to do:
There is the incorporeal party I suggested, the other 2 players are "bound" to the intelligent item, but they can move around and explore as standard characters; though they might have trouble interacting with the physical world.

a party of 3 binders, and each selects a number of vestiges to be. Each binder is under full control of the vestiges they bind, so they exchange charsheets whenever they rebind, making sure that they all get a character.

CoreBrute23
2014-06-02, 07:18 AM
You know, there is an RPG that might give you some inspiration on what to do, or have rules you can adapt.
Better Angels (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/114269/Better-Angels) is a game where a player plays a supervillain, and the player to his right plays the demon next to him, trying to get him to commit greater attrocities. The supervillain player also plays the demon to the player to his left etc. obeying the demon gives you power, but perhaps loses control of your mind to the demon. Disobey and the demon punishes you.

Taking that system, so the player not only has a demon listening to him, and offering him bonuses/threats, the angel is doing the same on the left.

Not sure just an idea. If you end up doing the incorporal party idea which is a good one, the Ghostwalk campaign setting has rules to help you out.

ParsimonyJones
2014-06-02, 04:11 PM
You might also want to check out Primetime Adventures! PTA is very open and flexible, and meant to emulate the feel of television dramas. It is less of a proper role-playing game and more of a storytelling game where each person happens to control a character. It ask the players to take a lot of the creative responsibility, which isn't for everybody. The .pdf is only like $10, so it's not a huge investment if you think you might be interested.

LibraryOgre
2014-06-02, 06:35 PM
If you're going with this, you might try having the main body player be in control, but the secondary players being able to influence his actions. They might make diplomacy checks to convince him of things (which get easier when they're more reasonable... it's a lot easier to convince them to deliver a letter than it is to stab a guy in the face), offer to lend him abilities he doesn't otherwise have if he gives them something (control for a time, does a thing for them, etc.) They might also have the ability to outright force him to do things, vying with each other for control and able to subdue his mind when his ego is reduced due to injury.

I can see this being very frustrating to play, especially if someone has a run of bad luck.

Winter_Wolf
2014-06-02, 07:12 PM
3 people playing a single character in a tabletop RPG sounds like a horrible idea.

I say do it anyway.

It's sure to resolve itself in a limited number of ways, namely: players end up hating each other and violence ensues; players end up hating it but not each other; somehow something incredibly fun comes out of it. While I think that last one is the least likely result, I don't know any of the people involved and if it did work out it'd be pretty awesome. Well, I'd be awed by it, since I don't personally know any three people who can agree on anything.

gc25774
2014-06-04, 07:24 AM
Alright, thanks for the help. The campaign idea seems pretty rough but I'll smooth it out. Apparently, a witch cursed two people into going into the weapon. And when they kill the witch, the curse is reversed. This allows them to get their bodies back, becoming players again. I likely will make the 2 incorporeal PCs and 1 physical PC idea happen. It's a good idea.

Demidos
2014-06-10, 12:54 PM
One thing you might want to consider is pooling all their HP though -- The corporeal player is the only one likely to be damaged, especially at low levels, and a single PC wandering around a dungeon is likely to quickly get ganged up on and pincushioned.