Ambitious Hearts: Tales from the Forgotten Realms

Game Master Dogbladewarrior

Hi guys!

I’ve decided to create a high level, rules light, roleplay heavy, sandboxy type game set in the amazing Forgotten Realms setting.

The basic concept of the game is that you are an epic hero(or villain) who has reached the heights of power and influence and basically has almost everything they could ever want at their fingertips but for whom is not content with only having ALMOST everything.

The theme of the game is power and ambition and all the various ramifications and fallout that comes from that.

Players who are interested in this idea should come up with a concept of a character who is extremely self driven and ambitious. Characters don’t need an incredibly long back story but you have reached the heights of power so your tale is likely fairly epic with a long list of enemies and allies trailing after you and a history of kicking ass and taking names.

Unlike an average game where the DM controls all the NPCs and environments players will have the ability to control not only their PC but all the PC’s minions and most NPCs, monsters and set pieces in the world, having far greater narrative power than in a typical game to tell their character’s personal tale. In addition you can work with other players to mix tales and roleplay with each other if you wish.

As DM I control access to and narrative power over all “epic” elements of the setting: Gods, artifacts, characters over 20th level, gaining new epic levels and powers, etc. but as a player you can add any non epic material to your character’s repertoire and story you wish, basically having access to infinite wealth and narration power over all other elements. Want a pet dragon? It’s yours. Want to match wits with and battle a pit fiend? Go ahead and narrate that encounter.

My primary duties as DM will be to answer player questions, moderate any player conflicts and grant access to epic content and epic character advancement, as well as setting occasional epic encounters and adventures.

As well as detailing your character you may detail your resources and holdings as you wish.

Players can set their character anywhere in the Realms they like and theme their character and holdings to fit the themes of that area.

Because narrative power rests largely with the players in this game as many people as would like to join can, as I won’t be overwhelmed with setting all the scenes and narrating all encounters.

Dotting for interest.

Hello. This is Tiny Coffee Golem. I would like to submit Sparel Radymah. (-Mah being an elvish title for a powerful caster).

I love forgotten realms. I have read many of the books and even have the book Grand History of the Realms sitting in eyesight of me as I type this.

I'm not an expert on Forgotten Realms, but I know alot. I'd LOVE to get into a game like this.

Please peruse Sparel's sheet. I'll have to level him up a little and edit him for your game, but the bulk is there.

The game that Sparel was built for disipated because the DM had some personal issues. I know the other players from that game would probably be very interested.

As far as narrative and holdings go I'd like to have a tower akin to Blackstaffs tower. It's a place of power/ school of wizadry/ generally bad place for enemies to try to break into. Sparel's history is one of devotion to his goddess and her wishes as well as intense desire to attain knowledge. For my 20th level feat I'll probably take immortality if DM allows it. Former DM let me take discoveries based on wizard caster level as opposed to wizard class level. If you'd rather not do that it's cool. I can edit.

If I get accepted i'll be happy to go into grand detail. As others who have played with me know I tend to drive the story should others get lax. I usually post at least twice a day if not more.

Hmmm Dotting for interest.

Dotting. Sounds like a lot of fun. Is there anywhere online I can go to look through the epic feats?

Just bought and perusing the epic feat book in hopeful anticipation. ;-)

Oh, here is an example of Sparel's play and personality style. As I said the game is long since deceased, so it's not competition, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Edit: Ok, I havent even finished looking at the overpowered feats, but they are definitely overpowered. Very cool, but massive ability to power game. I'm all for that, but I wanted to make sure it was out in the open.

Edit 2: read more of the book. If I get accepted the flavor will be the same, but some of these feats will definitely change the mechanics of the character.

Where are these overpowered feats? Also I may use Darius Blackfire, my antipaladin.

The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats.

Sounds awesome. I'm thinking of a Rogue/Wiz/AT who runs a powerful Theives guild in an empire. He control of the Emperor, who is basically his puppet. More to come later

Well,so much for submitting an updated version of my Living City Arcane Trickster.

Perhaps I might opt for a straight wizard or magus instead.

Nope, wizard spot is taken, maybe it's time to bring back Cael, my epic druid instead.

Sparel linked this game to me, as he and I have played a fair amount together.

I know a ton about the Realms, and have played and DM'd a bunch in them.

Akor can easily be updated to 20th, along with a history actually added in.

Since they are in UC, would a gunslinger be an acceptable class to play?

And if so, what firearms are they limited to?

Sounds like a neat idea, although it'd be nice if Ultimate Equipment was in lol, some neat stuff in there.

Some questions:

Are the various high level NPCs of the realms around? Mystra's Chosen, Manshoon, Fzoul, etc??

What time period are we using? Please, please avoid any of the nonsense that WotC did with Realms, Spellplague and all that stupid.

We are going to grow more powerful, correct? Does this mean gaining actual levels, or something else?

Also, how much personal narrative control can we have over countries, alliances, etc? Could I say, be the ruler of the Silver Marches, or in charge of all of Waterdeep? What about a bigger zone, say the entire North or the Dalelands?

Yep sound fun I am in, how this PC, would need some work but I like her.

At the moment she a NE Noble Drow, but May change to Half-elf and drop the template, up to you GM whats in.

She has one main goal
- Become a Summoner god no matter what it takes (there are NONE)
then
- get more power and followers.
- Rule

Welcome all.

@TCG-Yeah I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Realms either but I highly enjoy them too=)

Regarding your character and his holdings everything you’ve purposed is fine.

Of course you are welcome to play! Anyone who wants in is in but I will particularly appreciate players with a passion for the stories we will tell together

Oh yeah, I understand the insane power involved, it’s all good, that’s part of who your main character will be, a god-like being other godlike-beings fear.

@Krigare- Gunslingers are fine and you may use whatever firearms you wish.

@Akor-Yes the iconic characters are around and some of the Epic encounters in the game I drop in may involve them, directly or indirectly.

The time the game begins will be DR 1372: The Year of Wild Magic. I like Mystra so no, she is not going to arbitrarily die, though all the Gods will be killable by PCs (though I don’t recommend trying without bringing your A game and a lot of other PCs)

There will be character advancement in the form of levels and Epic Powers gained but they will not be XP based but tied to occasional world events where some epic shiznit goes down and if you choose to involve yourself in the event (you don’t have to) you will advance at the completion of the story.

@-Sol-Alar-Yeah that’s cool, Drow Noble is a bit of a power bump but that’s alright.

Here is my concern. When submitting a character concept for the campaign, I want to know if I will be accepted before I fully flesh out a character such as this.

This is a lot of effort to find out I didn't make the cut. About what I will do is make a detailed background but that is it. Once accepted I would do the crunch.

Fourth try at dotting for interest. I must be doing something wrong.

And this one finally took. Weird.

Cool. I'll make some edits and upgrade using your rules.

When do you think the game will get rolling officially? I just want to know how long I have to work.

this seems interesting however my knowledge of Forgotten realm is sparse at best.

I spent much of my gaming life in Greyhawk. I did touch some forgotten realms back in 2nd edition days but nothing beyond the original boxed set.

the OP says level 20 so what about templates? since level twenty is considered CR 19 by pathfinder should we go with final CR not to exceed 19 or 20?

Anyone who wishes to join this game is welcome!

Because of the sheer amount of thinking, planing, and paper work involved in character creation I think the earliest I will start the game is next Saturday. Also, because of the lack of built in unity between PCs and their stories new players will be free to enter the game at anytime after it starts.

I believe the way I want to do the beginning of the game will be with an introduction from myself and then simply letting the players begin telling their tales and interacting with each other if they wish, then after the game has been running for awhile and characters have had a chance to establish who they are and what they are about I'll introduce the first epic event then after it resolves go back to player story telling, then another event when things slow down etc.

Hey Dogblade,

Can I get an answer to my last question:

Also, how much personal narrative control can we have over countries, alliances, etc? Could I say, be the ruler of the Silver Marches, or in charge of all of Waterdeep? What about a bigger zone, say the entire North or the Dalelands?

the OP says level 20 so what about templates? since level twenty is considered CR 19 by pathfinder should we go with final CR not to exceed 19 or 20?

Hmmm I usually avoid templates, but this is a bit of an anything goes game, so let me think about it for awhile.

Hey Dogblade,

Can I get an answer to my last question:

Also, how much personal narrative control can we have over countries, alliances, etc? Could I say, be the ruler of the Silver Marches, or in charge of all of Waterdeep? What about a bigger zone, say the entire North or the Dalelands?

Ah, your faction and resources should be invented by yourself. Existing countries and groups will not begin under player control. However you can have preexisting relations with countries if you wish. As far as narrative power you can actively narrate the actions of low ranking members of any non-PC controlled group freely on the low end and make policy decisions for the group on the high end subject to my approval.

Given what was said above and my highly magical nature what if I just had an island with a tower or something? I'd like to have strong relations with Comyr and the elven homeland (the name escapes me).

If possible I'd like to set up a gate network using the Create greater demiplane spell. Essentially I could allow friendlies to access the various gates. Possibly even use it as a high end trade facilitator with a reasonable toll to cut off weeks/months worth of travel. It'd be monitored, etc. Access to this "realm of portals" could be a great negotiation point for friendly people/nations.

Evermeet is the name of the Elven homeland.

Are any Realms specific material allowed? I have a ton of the books and it would be nice to make some use of them, even if its just for some NPCs.

I think I'll focus on Cormanthor, Myth Dranor and the Dalelands.

Evermeet is the name of the Elven homeland.

Are any Realms specific material allowed? I have a ton of the books and it would be nice to make some use of them, even if its just for some NPCs.

I think I'll focus on Cormanthor, Myth Dranor and the Dalelands.

OHHH Myth Dranor!

On another note what about artifacts? We're of the level where we're bound to have a couple. Though they have no prices.

Also the "Horiffically overpowered feats" are epic feats, right? We can't just take these as normal feats is that right?

Meaning that since we're starting at 20 we really can't take any since we don't get epic feats until 21?

For example

Its nice to see you're still all special in teh head Spare.

From Character Creation:

Characters may select 3 feats from The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats as “Epic Powers”, these are granted separately from normal character advancement and do not count towards your limit of normally earned feats.

not using a template for my build so my question is now irrelevant.

unless you decide otherwise.

the way I read the OP post on the overpower feats to be as follows:
we each get to select three from the book as special boons above and beyond what we normally get.

Its nice to see you're still all special in teh head Spare.

From Character Creation:

Characters may select 3 feats from The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats as “Epic Powers”, these are granted separately from normal character advancement and do not count towards your limit of normally earned feats.

Yea, I saw that afterwords.

Basically I printed out Sparel and am making notes about what changes then I'll update his character sheet as needed. It's a process. ;-)

So I have a feat at lvl 19, 20 (bonus feat from Loremaster), and 3 HOP's to pick.

Any thoughts?

Edit: I'm talking to Akor, but it's an open question. I've had good experience with crowdsourcing.

Gestalt, Magic-User, Prestigious, the Full Caster trio are all good for Sparel.

Personally, I plan on taking Gestalt(likely Paladin), Favored and maybe Prestigious.

As for your pair of normal feats, metamagics, Spell Mastery are good.

Theurgy also works well for you.

Leaning towards:

Mental Paragon
Magic user (sorcerer)
Spell shifting - Awesome spell options

and WIth my bonus 20th level slot

Prestigious: Dragon disciple

The bonus 20th level one may have to be a discovery instead. Options include

Immortality - The main reason behind this would be for "instant" magic item creation. Teleport to demiplane with all of the ingredients and the "permanent" magic effect of the plane will make time stop effectively permanent until I leave. Profit. The reason to have immortality is so that I don't appear to age uncontrollably. I'd probably also need to take craft wondrous item to really make this useful.

Golem constructor - Probably to make an advanced shield guardian.

Staff like wand - for awe inspiring low level magic. Of course I'd also have to take craft staff. Craft wand as well to make it truly useful.

Edit: Just considered Gestalt (alchemist) and taking the Doppleganger simulacrum. For a mere 1000GP I have an extra body to use and swap to at will. ;-) Plus other fun stuff like wings and extra arms and what not. ;-)

In case anyone missed it I'm going a bit nuts with the possibilities. It makes me giddy.

Ohh: Supernatural spell monster (wizard) It'll mean my spells are supernatural and thus not subject to spell resistance, dispel, or attacks of opportunity. Plus it'll free up 3 of my normal feats. Eschew materials, Spell penetrate, greater spell penetrate

Edit: Are supernatural abilties like Spell-like abilities where they don't use material components or foci?

Yet another DM question. Regarding loot. If we can make it ourselves do we get the 50% discount? I ask because I'm considering taking a few crafting feats. I can work with either, I just need to know how it works. P.S. If you do allow the discount I'll probably want to craft an artifact and the discount is the only way I'll be able to afford it.

Same question about Golems. ;-)

Any limits on allowable races?

Interesting. Would be fun to finally play a super level bard or sorcerer.

I propose a halfling sorcerer, potentially with a brass dragon cohort & a small-sized castle built from rocks he personally quarried & transported to his "aerie."

Expressing some interest

edit: whoops! missed the year clarification

Just a question while pondering things, if you take gestalt for one of the overpowered feats and take it for something like fighter, does that mean you get the fighter bonus feats of a fighter of half your level as well?

@-TCG-Yep, your story set up looks fine. The demiplane idea is cool.

Regarding artifacts they fall under the “Epic” part of the game and you will not begin the game with any, rather they will mostly be doled out as part of Epic events, however, I will also allow players to find some as part of their personal stories if they wish, more on that later.

As far as your personal fortune goes and crafting items and constructs, you cannot build artifacts but you do essentially have infinite wealth. It basically means the 50% discount for crafting doesn’t really have any meaningful impact but, to make crafting still worth something, I think I will rule that having the feats allow you to build custom items, using the magic item creation guidelines in the core book.

Yes your 20th bonus may be any of the discoveries but may not be an additional HOPF.

I’m actually not sure what turning your spellcasting into a supernatural ability would actually entail, beyond ignoring SR, concentration checks, and AoO. I think I am going to rule you still need all the components, because there are other HOPF that remove individual components and it would be silly to make them obsolete with supernatural spell monster.

In regards to everyone’s Gestalt questions yes, anything that is a class feature is gained and stacks with any levels you already have in that class.

@Akor- I’d prefer if you build your main character using just PF material but for side characters, enemies and allies feel free to go nuts with the Realms specific material.

@-Psion-That’s cool, sound good.

In regards to templates and playing monstrous races, I think the way I want to do it is I will allow it and just rule how it works is that the CR of the monstrous race or template eats into your class levels. i.e. if you want to play a bugbear vampire you would be that plus 16 class levels. I realize this opens the door to a lot of potential power gaming insanity but I want y’all to have fun and be invested in your characters so oh well.=)

Hum, okay, some other questions...

I don't suppose instead of having a spread out chunk of a country and cities and towns and fleets of ships and territory and what have you, I could instead have just the one city?

*cough*

Just the one /flying/ city? Netheril styles, like the Shades and the Selune worshippers of Opus have to their names and etc.

Basically sort of noodling an archwizard concept.

Hum, okay, some other questions...

I don't suppose instead of having a spread out chunk of a country and cities and towns and fleets of ships and territory and what have you, I could instead have just the one city?

*cough*

Just the one /flying/ city? Netheril styles, like the Shades and the Selune worshippers of Opus have to their names and etc.

Basically sort of noodling an archwizard concept.

Yes, that's cool.

mark kay wrote:

Hum, okay, some other questions...

I don't suppose instead of having a spread out chunk of a country and cities and towns and fleets of ships and territory and what have you, I could instead have just the one city?

*cough*

Just the one /flying/ city? Netheril styles, like the Shades and the Selune worshippers of Opus have to their names and etc.

Basically sort of noodling an archwizard concept.

Yes, that's cool.

Neat!

I'm going to try and include as many of the rest of my questions in this post to avoid pestering you unto oblivion.

Do you allow the paladins of no specific god, but instead sanctified by their general devotion to good sort of paladins?

As personal equipment seems to be "minimum 1 million, maximum your non obnoxious discretion", if we do take things like crafting feats, that we can have made things at lower cost something that would be taken into consideration?

Any chance you're cool with the implanted into person ioun stone sort of ioun stones? (they're in.. various books at this point)

Stat boosting tomes, yea or nay?

Is "questing for the nether scrolls" a viable objective to have in game? Once it starts and such, as far as an epic one to pursue and such.

If we take the leadership feat anyway for all that we can cite a bumper crop of followers, would that amount to "these dudes and this particular cohort are super mega crazy loyal to you"?

Does the leadership cohort get the benefit of bonus op feats as well? Which might be a way to otherwise give taking feat some mileage in the face of being able to note hangers on as part of your panoply.

Um...

Nothing else comes to mind.. oh!

A pony. Can I have a pony? It will be an epic pony. I will feed it epic sugarcubes.

As far as narrative power you can actively narrate the actions of low ranking members of any non-PC controlled group freely on the low end and make policy decisions for the group on the high end subject to my approval.

To further expound on this statement what I consider “low-ranking” is essentially anyone who isn’t the top brass of an organization and “policy decisions” are any choices the group can make that may have a large long term impact on them. For example, using the Red Wizards of Thay, anyone who is not a Zulkir is considered “low ranking” and a “policy decision” would be something along the lines of your character tricking them into fighting a proxy war on your behalf.

In regards to using artifacts, epic powers, epic monsters etc. While I will be the primary source of these things in game I am willing to let players make use of them as plot devices in their stories. Perhaps that artifact is your Macguffin, or that epic dragon is your nemesis or you want to free that abomination as part of your mad plot to destroy the world. Really, as long as you treat the epic material as an integral part of your story rather than a toy(toys are what all the non epic stuff are) I’m down for allowing it.

Same goes with countries and groups, you won’t begin the story ruling Waterdeep but if you want to tell the epic tale of how you take over the city and make Khelben eat his own blackstaff I’m on board.

Okay, Sparel and Akor invited me, as we were in a party once and worked pretty well together. I will have to work out some details, but I was originally a Zen Archer. Bumping him to level 20 and taking some feats past that should be not much trouble. I will keep in touch.

@-Mark Kay-Yep non-specific paladins are cool.

I think what crafting feats will do for you is allow you to build custom items, as mentioned above, also they can be one of the storyline reasons for your massive wealth.

Can’t recall hearing of implanted Ioun stones, what is the difference? They can’t be snatched?

Yes stat boosting tomes are cool, just remember the maximum inherent bonus you can gain is +5.

Yes, the quest for the nether scrolls is cool, just make the tale epic!

Yeah if you take leadership I think I will rule they are die hard loyalists, they can still be turned with magic and the like theoretically but are otherwise 100% trust worthy.

No, only your main character may have HOPFs. It is a big part of what sets them apart and makes them special.

Yes, you may have all the ponies you want!

This looks like heaps of fun!

I'm considering making a character here, but I'm wondering what sort of posting frequency you're shooting for here?

They're in Rise of the Runelords (the updated one), and various of the pathfinder society detailing books (seekers of secrets, off hand) basically, yeah, that's pretty much it. You implant them in your body (they're still visible, they're embedded basically), they can't be snatched, that's the main thing of them. Well, and it's a semi involved process to do so. And you're certainly more exotic looking afterwards.

They can also be found in the SRD: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/ioun- stones

Ugh, okay, two more questions, just these, honest! They're plot things.

It's 1372, Shade has come back and all and done the Phaerimm killing rampage? And Cormyr had that war where Azoun died taking out that devil dragon thinger? I'd somewhat prefer yes to both as far as what I'm working on, is what I should say, but I'm cool with no.

Both happened that year, functionally, I'm just wanting to know if you're aiming for "not yet" or "yeah, just happened that year"

Their will be no requirement for posting frequency, I plan on the game having a rather relaxed vibe in that regard. With players largely driving the story as a whole and not being tied tightly together in an adventuring band I see no reason for such requirements.

Edit: basically I hope the game moves at a reasonable pace as a whole but as an individual poster just post when you have the time.