Mul Racial Feats and Utility Powers for 4e: Athas.org

The very first character I played in Dungeons & Dragons as a college-age player was a Mul thief in the desert wastes of Athas. I don't really recall now --all these long years later-- why I chose Mul. I chose thief because I had rolled a high DEX score, but I'd also rolled a high STR score so I could have been a fighter or gladiator. In fact, the way that I played her, she was more of a thug and a bully rather than a refined thief. Born a slave and not one to share her identity much, she changed her name many times over the campaign. At various times in her career, she was known as Zena, Xena (like The Warrior Princess?), Xenia, Shenta and Zig.

The character Indigo from "Ashes to Ashes" as imagined by Brom. (Source)

Muls as a race were a common part of the Athasian setting and important enough that I'm glad to see they are keeping them updated for the latest version of the D&D games. For a list of Mul racial feats and utility powers for fourth edition, go to Athas.org.

Introduction: Solving a Kidnapping?

I mentioned in a previous post that I would be running a game for my daughters and our friend Zoë. We have had one session and I'm looking forward to a second one, possibly this upcoming weekend. I wanted to write a little about the characters that we created together and what the first half of their first adventure was like.

I can post the details of all three characters later, but let me just list the basics.

• Reese :: female halfling / 1^st-level fighter
• Olivia :: female elf / 1^st-level wizard
• Zoë :: female elf / 1^st-level wizard

Since O & Z were playing the same race and class, we discussed the possibility that they could be sisters and the two loved that idea. I insisted on starting the game with all three characters knowing each other and assuming a bond of friendship. I didn't want to role-play the introductions or some sort of contrivance to get them started.

When I was brainstorming adventure ideas and reading over the chart in the DMG about urban encounters, I rolled up a kidnapping event involving a parent seeking help from the PCs for their missing child. I started rolling up stats for a minor NPC father and built a story around this guy who would hire them to find his son.

His name is Jata and he is a 1^st-level commoner. His profession is scrivener and he owns a small shop with a few employees. His 9-year-old son, Nik, is missing. Jata claimed at first that he was kidnapped, which turns out to be a lie.

The truth is that Nik ran away from home because Jata is not the nicest guy. When business is not going well, Jata loses his temper and is abusive. Nik left his father a note. A number of clues in Nik's room and elsewhere in their home make this clear.

After the team investigated at Jata's house, they asked questions of his two mousy employees and also go visit the local monastery where they are currently investigating the kidnapping.

In Zethul, I have themed the Monk character class a little. Monasteries and monastic teachings are commonly accepted in the city, but there is a unique arrangement between these organizations and the royal family. To offset the difficulty of keeping the peace within the city walls and preventing crime, all teaching monasteries are required to be registered with the King. As part of renewing and keeping their registration every year, a certain number of young monk men and women are required to serve as citizen constables. They are fully deputized by the city guards and must patrol the streets, prevent or stop crime, and maintain order. These monasteries have each become their own little police station.

This frees up the city's regular militia and soldiery to patrol and expand the borders around the city and it's environs. As a win-win solution, it keeps the monks busy and provides a much-needed service to the community.

The monk most directly in charge of the investigation admits he has almost no leads and is low on the man-power to properly question every lead. But he does give the PCs a copy of a list of all of Jata's associates and clients. Through this list and further interviews with his employees, it's suddenly clear that one of Jata's aristocratic clients was always friendly towards Nik. Perhaps she has seen him recently?

Adventures for 1st-Level Characters and New Young Players

Role-Playing for First Time Gamers

I'm proud to mention here that I'm soon to begin running a game for my two daughters Reese and Olivia and one other girl named Zoë, the daughter of a close family friend. This will likely be the first actual game for all three of them and just for them. For accuracy, my daughters have each had at least one turn in a gaming session or two with my sibling in-laws. During those sessions, I would play really loose with the rules (for them). I don't think we ever actually completed their characters except for the basics. In all honesty, my goal was to game with the adults, but I appeased the kids enough to let them play along. We had fun, but they weren't the focus and the game went over their head just a bit.

But now, I've decided that they are both old enough (aged 8-11) to play the game for real. Zoë's parents also agreed, as we all used to game a bit back in college. And now it's going to happen.

The Basics: Rules and Setting

It is a given that we will be playing D&D 3.5 edition. I don't have the 4^th edition books (except for the one Dark Sun adventure I got at Free RPG Day) and I don't plan on buying them any time soon. I considered using the Dark Sun campaign setting and using the 3.5 rules from Burnt World of Athas, but a more traditional fantasy setting makes more sense for this crowd. We can "graduate" to Athas or Planescape on some later date.

I'm going to be using a home-brew setting called Zethul that I've been using and musing about for the last few years. I've told the girls they live in a city, but not much else about it. There are not too many back-story details that I will burden them with to start. I'll let them discover them as we go along.

Character Creation

I decided early on to start the characters at 1^st level. This seemed like a good idea at first so that the girls could learn the game as their characters grow. But I've run into a bit of a perplexity because I've never really played (or DMed) at this level. Most of the time that I played with Nate, Kate and/or Beth, I had them start at 5^th-level and the traditional starting point for the stuff I did for Dark Sun was 3^rd-level. My preparation has been researching 1^st-level adventures and getting into the mindset of what motivates less-experienced characters and younger players.

Dad, Can I Have a Unicorn --Or Perhaps a Pegasus?!

The first thing that I realized very early in character creation is that I'm going to still need to play things a bit loose as far as the rules go. And I should try not to get too stuck on the verisimilitude aspects. When picking skills and spells for Olivia's newly trained Wizard, she hit a sudden inspiration moment and asked what sort of stuff would she need in order to get a Unicorn. This also evolved into wanting a Pegasus so she could fly around. My initial reaction is to look at her 1^st-level Wizard and the magical flying horse, whose stats would make it a challenge for an 8^th-level party (of four characters probably) and to explain that this wasn't likely any time soon. However, I want her to be excited about the game and put her imagination into it, so instead I've logged that mentally as a possible future storyline. At the very least, it should be an easy way to motivate her and her character to quest for a magic horse or the money to buy one. This could get interesting and a bit wacky.

Zoë and Olivia also did something unexpected in that they both chose to create an elven wizard. And from there they made their characters related (sisters). They are going to share spell books pretty easily I assume.

Reese surprises me by choosing a simple halfling fighter. She had a sharpshooter concept that she wanted to create, an archery expert, most likely inspired by Legolas from Lord of the Rings.

The Stage Will Soon Be Set

And that's where we have it right now. I told the three of them that their characters are already friends and looking for work. There are a few minor details to finish up and then they'll be setting out. I'll post updates about how it's going whenever I get a chance.