Philly on Fire #2

Mike and James head back to Mike's place, knowing it's not really safe. But James needs to change his appearance and make some calls. He talks to one of his Charon peeps and finds out there's a "Mr. Stone" who wants to talk to him about the "situation." James wants some guns before any meetings.

Alvin hears about the manhunt for James and hops in the cop car with his 2 cop buddies. He also hears about Maeve being arrested. He convinces the cops to intercept the car with Maeve and offers to take her back to the station so the other cops can head back to the super exciting hunt for the terrorist (James). Alvin heads to the manhunt instead, with Maeve in tow.

He lets Maeve go while he joins the search. Maeve takes her sword and the gun and smashes the back window of the cop car before she leaves. She doesn't want Alvin to get in trouble for letting her go.

Alvin is told to search every building in an area. As he does, he finds Kara working in a soup kitchen trying to help the needy. He assumes she knows what's going on and where the book is. He convinces her that they need to find James and he's not letting her out of his sight. She suggests the best place to look for clues is James' apartment.

They head off and find Maeve trying very hard not to be noticed. They pick her up and then head over. On the way, they find Sean, so most of the band is back together (it's nice to have 2 players with "guide my hand").

James' place is swarming with FBI agents, who all outrank Alvin. But Maeve has an old friend with the FBI and he gets them inside. Kara finds some hair in James' bathroom and figures that'll make a good spell component. Alvin sees one of the FBI guys using a torch to cut into a safe. He manages to snatch some of the papers (client lists and personnel files) without drawing too much attention. But he tries for a larger distraction and ends up getting the lot of them escorted off the premise.

Kara casts her tracking spell and they find James and Mike still at Mike's place. NOW the band's back together.

They decide to split up. Mike does some internet research while everyone else heads to the local monster club for some ammo and then a meeting with Mr. Stone.

Mike gets a patch for the financial issues, but has to upload it into a secure banking system. Which is problematic.

James finds some heavy duty ammo for the lycanthropes, as well as some special "anti-fairy" rounds. He's good to go.

They head to the coffee shop where Mr. Stone is and Maeve is surprised to find it's the Denarian. He cordially offers them some coffee, which Alvin is happy to accept. Maeve and Sean take defensive stances with their backs to the wall as Mr. Stone calmly tells James he has evidence as to who set him up, where they are, and how he can get out of this whole mess without too much damage. In exchange he wants the last page of this book with 7 locks.

Suspicious, they ask him what's up with this book. He tells them that it's a history of everything that has and will come. He wants to know how the story ends. He doesn't want to know how to change it, just who wins the war. They're still suspicious, but it sounds like they may be able to appease Mr. Stone and the Winter Queen at the same time.

Before they leave, Mr. Stone tells James that when he finds the book, call a number written on the side of the pay phone on 22nd and Chestnut. Stone flips James a coin for the call. Alvin makes a lunge for it, but misses. James deftly catches it. But it's not a quarter. It's a silver coin...

Feats Only: What's a feat worth?

So as this "feats only" RPG thing takes root in my mind, I'm forced to wonder what a feat is worth. My first inclination is to say something like "+1" or "+2". But it's more complex than that.

My basic idea for progression is this:
1st level: Gain 1 class feat, 1 racial feat, and 1 "misc" feat.
2nd level: Gain 1 class feat.
3rd level: Gain 1 racial feat.
4th level: Gain 1 misc feat.
5th level: Gain 1 class feat.
Etc.

So the answer to the question of "what's a feat worth" is "1 level".

So far, here's what I've got, with no play testing or data to back it up other than my thumb in the wind.

Pick 2:

• +1 bonus
• 1 divine spell
• 2 arcane spells
• +1 level of hit points
• Fill a prerequisite
• +1 die of damage

or

Pick 1:

• 3 arcane spells
• A special ability
• An additional attack
• +1 level of hit points (stepped up twice)

So a typical fighter feat may be something like "+1 to hit and +1d8 hit points". A typical wizard feat may look like "+1 to casting and +2 spells". 

Feats Only: An Overview

Someone around here talked about making race just a feat you took at first level. After all, humans get an extra feat at 1st level (in 3rd and 4th eds). It makes sense that race is the equivalent of a feat.

This got me thinking about taking the idea further. In some editions, there are racial classes (whether they're racial kits that make elven knights different from dwarven knights or you actually take a level in "elf"). I really like this, since it kind of fleshes out the "typical" member of a race without making them all 0 level or what have you. It also sets PCs apart from typical members.

So what if you could take your "race" as a feat at 1st level. This includes the basics: elf, dwarf, hafling, human, etc. At subsequent levels, you could take other racial feats that have the "core" racial feat as a prerequisite. So at first level you take "elf" which gives you infravision and maybe something else. Then, when you get another feat, you could take a feat to make you a grey elf, or a drow, or whatever. But you'd have to have "elf" first. So you couldn't be a dwarf and take "drow". Your race would come first, followed by any subrace/culture/environmental stuff. And you could build some type of feat tree if you really wanted.

Taking this further, why not make class a feat as well? What if everyone gets 1d4 hit points per level. But if at 1st level you took "fighter" as a class feat and it gave you 1d10 instead of 1d4. Then you could take other feats that have fighter as a prereq (like weapon training, armor training, more attacks per round, higher damage, etc.)

If you took wizard instead, you get the ability to cast spells, but not any HP bump. Further feats could include better casting, the ability to create magic items, school specialization, etc.

If we combine them, we could potentially link the old "favored" class with a core racial feat ability like, "As an elf, when you gain a new racial feat, you may choose from the elf or wizard feats."

Progression then becomes just a series of feats:

1st level - choose 1 racial feat and 1 class feat
2nd level - choose 1 class feat
3rd level - choose 1 racial feat
4th level - choose 1 "free" feat (something like skill training, movement related feats, improved initiative, multiclass, etc.)
5th level - choose 1 class feat
6th level - choose 1 racial feat
etc...

I want to do some more thinking about this. But I think it might be neat to do. It could draw on the player's option stuff from 2nd ed, 3rd ed stuff, 4th ed stuff as a base and then take things further.