The Beginning of All Things (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

How big is your world?


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How big is your world?

What if it were smaller? What if your world was nothing more than a simple village, a few hundred people of mixed races, some familiar, some strange? There might be a wizard, but he is not powerful, and there might be a witch, but she is not someone to be afraid of, and there could be a few people who know magic of other types. There is a Village Leader, and she is a veteran of some long ago war, but she doesn’t talk about it much. There is a Priest, and he is friendly, and often more helpful than he should be, but he is well liked. There are farmers, craftsmen, and skilled workers of many kinds, but mostly it is a humble, little, quiet, village.

I would like to suggest a game, the rules of which will be drawn from the entirety of the Pathfinder Rules (including Pathfinder Society), but with a decidedly smaller feel.

This will not be a big city, or a large town even, but a simple village. There will be a limit on the races and classes you can choose from, in the beginning, and there may be other limitations, equipment and such, but this is my idea:

I want to try and create a campaign setting, not all by myself, but with your help.

As the Dungeon Master I will provide opportunities for you characters to explore the world around this small village, discover dangerous things, find adventure, and with your input we will shape a new campaign setting, as we play.

I would like to keep as many of the core idealizations of Pathfinder, intact, but I hope to breathe new life into those frameworks. Goblins will be Pathfinder Goblins, statistically speaking, but how they behave, why they do and what they do, we will develop as the game plays out.

Most importantly I hope to see the discussion thread of this game used as much as if not more than the actual game thread.

Characters will be created by a system that is a consensus of eligible player ideas. I personally prefer rolling ability scores, but am willing to explore options. If there is interest in this game, I will post additional character creation guidelines.

The general idea will be that your character is a regular villager, taking up a new role as an adventurer, and the things you will explore will be created out of ideas we all put forth as well as my history of running games.

So, tell me, exactly, How Big Is Your World? How Big do you want it to be? How big can we make it?


It is an interesting idea. Do you envision as levels go up people stay around the village, or go adventuring, or that this becomes an analogue to "the shire" in "hobbit/lord of the rings"?


I am certainly interested. It sounds like the meager beginnings of most epic fantasy novels.


interested!


Quote:
So, tell me, exactly, How Big Is Your World? How Big do you want it to be? How big can we make it?

Go from a tiny village in a hole in the ground to fighting a planet-sized machine for the destiny of every sentient race?

Or we could just stay home and gossip about the neighbors. I'm interested in either or anything in between.

Quote:
Characters will be created by a system that is a consensus of eligible player ideas.

Care to explain?


I assume that 1st level is the starting point?


I'm quite sure I would be interested in this. It sounds very neat.


This sounds really cool! I'd need to put something cool together for it.


I am interested in this idea. It takes a village...makes the interplay with the town more realistic when that's all there is. Somethiing like Hommlett as a starting point and then it grows from there. I like.

Post some creation rules so we can get to rollin' em up. If that's also up for debate:

The idea of ordinary villagers means not really extraordinary abilities, I'd think. Core Races, 15pt buy max (or just 3d6) to set abilities. Not a bunch of superpowered dudes cracking heads but some ordinary joes who stumbled into something.

Average or less starting cash. Backstory pretty limited by environs. Strangers and strange characters would be socially outcast. Weapons would be pretty basic to start out with too.


Ooh, I've always wanted to play a game like this, it sounds like good fun. You have my full interest. I'd also like to agree with Mister Shaft over there: throw up some character creation rules!

Also, I know there's a Genius Guide to Apprentice Level Characters and a few other books with rules for starting out as "0-level" PCs. That sounds like it would be right up the alley of this kind of game.


This is pretty interesting. Posting and hoping I can contribute


@Terquem: Not attempting to derail this by any means; I think this type of game would work perfectly fine in Pathfinder. You should give Dungeon World a quick gander, though. That game is built around more of a "narrative control" model, players included. Not saying you should run a DW campaign, necessarily, but it might be a good source of inspiration or unique subsystem mechanics to draw from.


Terquem wrote:

... a simple village, a few hundred people of mixed races, some familiar, some strange? ... There will be a limit on the races and classes you can choose from, in the beginning, ... but this is my idea:

I want to try and create a campaign setting, not all by myself, but with your help.

Can we start pitching setting ideas now? "Small village" suggests to me that there would be one or two races that make up the majority of the population (and possibly the majority of the adventuring party), with only a handful of outliers (a single individual from this race, a family from that, etc.). Some ideas:

  • The standard 98% human village.
  • 98% gnome village
  • 98% vanara village (or other non-core race)
  • wayangs and fetchlings in a village in the Plane of Shadow
  • A village where the majority of the population are half-elves and half-orcs, with the occasional "throwback" child born mostly human, elf, or orc
  • Pair a core race and a non-core one


Interesting idea I will keep my eye on this and how it progresses


This sounds really interesting, something I wanted to try myself as well.
Thought to myself people start as NPC classes, so peasants, warriors or adepts etc..

I'll look forward to creation guidelines and see how it progresses.

Dark Archive

My interest is certainly piqued. I'd love to see something like this come to fruition.

What about something like the Warcamp from Goblins? We're all (non-Golarion) goblins/kobolds/mites and have to deal with the way the world views us if we leave the village? Whatever the race, it would be one of those 1st level stepping stones. The guys that would be adventurers track down just to hit level 2.


This sounds interesting to me, as well. I'm also curious about the eventual scope of it all. I wonder how many adventures could occur in a small village.

Some things that might occur:
Standard hunting trip
Travelling to the nearest larger town for supplies
Follow/track a sibling or neighbor to discover a secret affair
Spy on a travelling merchant in town that gives the local witch a bad feeling
Investigate a local kid's goblin sighting, possibly including guard duty during the night


dotting for interest.

Something like this to me seems really interesting... some starting rules could be extremely limiting because of the fact that we will be exploring/expanding/creating this world. since this is a small village im thinking somewhere around 150 people max live here. the village gold supply would be extremely limited. starting gold should be as well. no1 should be able to start with more than maybe a single martial weapon, and nothing very fancy at that... light armor only (starting out)... no masterworks or magical items save maybe 1-2 CLW potions from the local priest... would you also maybe consider having 2 groups running through this world completely separate from each other except maybe the occasional crossing path? this would give you alot more information for the world and its environs... of course they would use the same discussion board but maybe we post in different boards or mark which group we're in. i would say 15 pt buy max for something like this since were supposed to be average people at first then step up to do something different. and maybe even limit caster classes at the start. idunno i could have alot of fun with this let me know the character creation rules and ill roll one up

Dark Archive

@Rassil, the major problem I can see with two groups in the same world is posting frequency. If one group turns out to be really slow or very active, there could wind up being days, weeks, even months difference in their timelines.


Well, thank you, all of you, for the interest, suggestions, and questions. I’m posting this to say that I am writing up a longer post to address these topics:

Character Creation
Progression
Details of the Setting
Posting Conventions

Some things that I am thinking about, these would be my suggestions and do not necessarily constitute final decisions.

I do not like point buy systems

I like core races, but I do not like the half-elf or half-orc (In both of my existing campaign settings, Hamth and Riom, I do not allow half-orcs or Half-elves)

And I hope to open a discussion of the two things I do not understand about Play by Post adventures that trouble me the most. First, that it seems Player Characters do not ask enough questions. Second, that it seems that Player Characters do not easily engage each other with questions or discussions out of character about what they would like to try to do.

Grand Lodge

I am interested as well. I haven't played Play by Post adventures before, but i am quite familiar with Pathfinder. How big is your group going to be/will you have 2 different groups with so many people interested.

As far as engaging each other out of character you could post everything your character says in bold, and then general questions or comments out of character not bolded.

Dark Archive

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I think one of the reasons for the scarcity of clarifying questions like you might get at the table (I think that's what your first issue is about) is this.

0600 - DM Posts
1200 - Player 1 asks a few clarifying questions
1800 - DM answers questions
1900 - Player 2 asks a few more questions
2000 - DM answers those
2200 - Player 1 has some more questions
0600 - DM answers final questions

That's 24 hours of clarification and delays, in the eyes of most players. At a table, those questions take a few seconds. When some people only post once or twice a day, clarifying questions can stretch the introduction of a scene by hours or days.

I might have totally misread what you meant about asking questions. If so, sorry about that.


quick response: That is a very good point,twilsemail. My experiences, limited as they are to only two current PbP games, are not like that, and for the most part have practically no questions at all. I blame myself for this, mostly, and am always looking for ways to encourage questions.


About the Group Dynamic

I see a couple of questions regarding the size and make up of the “Group” that might be a part of this campaign. Let me tell you what my first thought was in this area, but first let me make a disclaimer, now, that may drive some players away.

I have been thinking about this kind of Play by Post experiment for a long time. I have a few ideas about taking it in directions that might be unorthodox, and most importantly, I never saw this game taking off at the speed of a zephyr, like some PbP games do, and like many hopeful players expect. It has also been my experience that many on line forum participants seem to have an unnatural somewhat unexplainable fear that the internet might suddenly vanish, so therefore things should be addressed with immediacy. I do not expect Paizo to fold any time soon, and baring some change in Internet Accessibility Laws or Paizo’s interest in keeping these kinds of forums active, I don’t expect things to change. So my disclaimer:

This game activity may not move quickly enough for everyone’s satisfaction.

The idea of the “Group Dynamic” in the Woodbridge Campaign setting:

My first thought about establishing a small village, and creating an environment for Players to create characters that will interact with this village, and surrounding areas, did not include the creation of a specific “Adventuring Group”. What I actually envisioned, given the nature of the Play by Post environment, was that players would create characters that were part of the village (not visitors or professional adventures) who generally knew everyone else in the village, including all other Player Characters. As the Dungeon Master I will work hard to create as complete a setting (small setting) as I can that includes challenges that face the village as a whole, and possibly challenges for specific character types, and then it would be up to the Players, however many in number they are, to talk among themselves to establish “who” was going to go off and do “what”. Now this is just my initial idea and I can see the potential for problems with this approach, but I also see potential for establishing adventuring parties in ways that are not normally viable in the conventional, “sit down at the table and we have only a couple of hours to get this game moving” way.

So I envision a game thread where Characters are introduced, and situations are presented, and then Players try to make parties out of available characters to take on different challenges.

One of the rules I was thinking of working out would be a way to manage posting conventions so that no individual Player Character, or group of Player Characters, became disappointed with the progression of Natural (in game time) versus the passing of real world time. But I have some ideas about that as well and will post them in another thread.


This explanation has not diminished my interest, but instead enhanced it somewhat. The everyday life and look and feel strikes me as not being as forced as many canned adventures. Sounds like a lot more work for the DM especially if you have an "open" cast of characters.

But if my PC wants to buy a weapon, for example, and they have to buy it from another PC who is the blacksmith instead of a cliche NPC, that sounds unique.


About Progression

I would like to see character advance in levels. That being said, I have a question,

Do Play by Post players feel cheated when their characters level and nothing happened that allowed them to use powers or abilities they had selected for the previous level?

One of the things I was going to suggest was a two-part experience point system. The first part would be a participation award, granting characters experience awards for simply being active in both “role-playing” and campaign setting development. The second part would be an experience point award based upon word count of posts, not including dice rolls. And then finally I was seriously considering enforcing level advancement rules that were a distinct part of the village setting itself. For example, a character leveling in a Spell Casting class who is allowed to “automatically” add two new spells to a spell book or familiar, would be required to show, in the setting, how this new ability came to be, or a Martial Class character that wants to add a feat that describes a unique Martial Talent would have to “learn” that talent from someone, or somehow. I realize that this might add a component to the game activity that would seem to slow it down, but again as I’ve stated before, I don’t see that this game will appeal to players who are looking for a fast paced adventure atmosphere.

About Character Creation

I am not a fan of point buy systems. In my opinion they tend to lend themselves too easily to “Dump Stat” situations. Now in my time as a Dungeon Master I have had many Characters in games who had low ability scores, but it has been my experience that most players have a desire, even if small, to role play the character’s limitations, whereas in “dump stat” situations I am seeing in the past few years, the player has no desire to play the lowered ability score, and there is a real significant reason it is called a “dump stat”.

That does not mean I am against using a point buy system exclusively. I see that there are players who prefer both Point buy and Die roll methods. When I used the expression, “a consensus of eligible player ideas,” I meant that. Now, I haven’t, yet, figured out what is going to be the criteria for determining what an “eligible player” is, but I do want to encourage a discussion and eventually a consensus among the players as to what will be the preferred character ability score generation system for this campaign.

As far as other Character Creation factors, I will be working, today, on the village, I am going to take some ideas mentioned above and post suggestions about the Size and Diversity of the village, and that will determine things such as starting equipment, wealth, classes represented, and races available.

To start I need some feedback on some basic assumptions.

Is the village geographically isolated (beyond a mountain range, dense forest or desert) or is it located where travelers often come and go (along a major navigable river, or maybe on the shore of a large lake, or is it a coastal village, though I do want to be cautious about creating another “Sandpoint”.

I feel the village should be part of a bigger unified political entity, but what should we establish at the start? Should we say it is part of a Township (the highest authority being a Knight/Sheriff type individual), or do we need to establish something just a bit larger, County, Parish, Barony, Kingdom?


On Character Creation: A point buy system will work for if dumping is your only concern. All that would be required is to set a floor on how low you can dump an ability, like 8, for instance. A PC does a 20 Point Buy, but no ability score can be lower than 8 after racial adjustments.

Setting Questions: I agree that you need not develop[ any further at this point than a ruling authority in a Township, or mayby a Barony, if you really want to stretch it. So long as there is some level of authority beyond the local elder or mayor from a protection and law enforcement perspective.

Grand Lodge

I really like where this is going as far as explaining of new abilities or spells. Some might view it as slowing the game down, but i think it increases the role playing factor.

In regards to the ability score generation, i personally prefer randomness (die rolls). Would you do 4d6 drop the lowest, or just 3d6 for each stat?

For the village geography this is your show and i'm up for anything. If i had a suggestion though, i like the idea of being somewhat secluded by a mountain range and dense forest. I feel this enhances the small village feel.

Depending on how secluded we were would obviously change the political structure. We could be part of a county with a Lordship that rules the nearby lands.

Dark Archive

I'm not deterred at all. It sounds like a wonderful idea for a game.

PC Creation: I'd love to see people have two options (and stick with them) You can do 4d6(drop Low) or a 10 or 15 pb. High risk, possible high reward. Perhaps you can do either 3d6 or 4d6(dl) in order. Again, there's risk involved.

Geography What about an island in an archipelago kingdom? It's different than the norm and it limits commoner travel about as much as a remote village does.


twilsemail wrote:

I'm not deterred at all. It sounds like a wonderful idea for a game...

Geography What about an island in an archipelago kingdom? It's different than the norm and it limits commoner travel about as much as a remote village does.

At first this sounded intriguing, but then I was stumped by the notion that, yes, commoner travel is difficult, but merchant and noble travel, in this situation, is easier.

If our village has regular (monthly?) visits along shipping routes, then there should be a representation of just about every race possible in the campaign setting. So, I’m thinking island would be harder to manage than a remote village.

I’m also narrowing down some ideas about race choices. I think there should be no more than 6, and the ones I’m thinking of should be; Human, Halfing, Dwarf, Elf, and one monster race, and then two more selected from a collection of existing Pathfinder races and a couple of races I’ve created in the past that never got to be in the spotlight.

Two that are possible in that list will be:

Maetaur: A Medium sized centaur, the human looking part is about the size of a Halfling, and the horse part is more like a small pony.

Gymnagaophthian (Naga): A human-lizard hybrid (the name is derived from the Family, Gymnophthalmidae, of the Order Squamata). The torso is again similar in size to a halfling, while the lower body is a long tail, including a structure below the hips that resembles the fusion of two limbs at the knee, but with no lower leg bones. This body structure gives these Naga-people the ability to “stand” after a fashion making them almost as tall as a short human, but they normally prefer to move with their waist nearly touching the ground. Unlike Snake-people, who have long bodies and short tails (something the Naga-people are usually quick to point out) Naga-people have short bodies and long tails. They are semi-aquatic and biologically related to Skinks.


@Terquem: Can we have a final ruling on the ability score generation?Ii am just asking because based upon the races that you have suggested and what has been decided so far, I think we can start to generate characters for your review once this decision has been made.


Well, thank you for the enthusiasm, Filios. Yes I do want to start bringing some of these ideas together, but as I've already said, it might be slower than you are comfortable with.

Now I can post thousands of words every day (writing made up things has never been difficult for me), but I do not want to rush down the road of , “A wagon is overturned, and there are goblins” just yet.

But I will get some things solidified, soon.

Also, I am all for having players in this campaign having to deal with each other for things they want or need. It will be a small village, and each Player Character will be an important part of that village, in some way.


That's fine. I completely understand the notion of reaching consensus before progressing. I certainly had no intention of pushing anyone to a hasty conclusion. It just seems to me that you have had several different options presented for ability score generation. This is your game, and you will eventually have to make a ruling. We can talk about it until we are blue in the face, but I do not think we will ever agree totally on one way because everyone has different preferences.

Dark Archive

@Tarquem: I'm picturing Kin when you describe the Gymnagaophians. That about right?

I like the sound of both of these peoples. Do you have cultures developed for them?

I kind of like the thought of playing a Gymna ferrier or ferrier's apprentice.


In appearance, yes, but perhaps with a slightly shorter overall length

The Naga-people I have been working on (yes they have an established culture), would take offense to being referred to as “Yaun-Ti” or Snake-people. Though for most people in the campaign setting it is difficult to distinguish the differences, but primarily, Naga are smaller. They have smaller human-looking torsos and smaller (shorter) lengths. A typical Naga is not usually over twelve feet long, and again they are quick to point out that the lower part of their body is, in fact, a tail, and they will explain, at length, that snake-people, have shorter tails (though they are longer overall) and long bodies. Also, Yaun-Ti, in this campaign setting, cannot remain upright, without support, for very long, whereas Naga-people can stand for long periods, balancing on the bone structure of their lower legs (which are completely within the lower “lizard looking” part of their body).


I would also be interested. I've never played a PBP, but have a lot of experience playing PF and editions of the game before PF existed.

Regarding the setting, what about something like late 18th/early 19th century Saint Louis (now Missouri, then part of the Louisiana Territory)? It was a small town situated near enough to three rivers that people would come and go, mostly fur traders heading up the Missouri and Upper Mississippi Rivers, into Indian country. It existence as a trading outpost allowed for some interaction with the outside world (and its goods), but the city's remoteness from the cities of Louisiana in the south (New Orleans, smaller trading posts and missions) meant both overland and riverine travel was a long, dangerous journey, replete with natural hazards, hostile Indians, and bandrity/river piracy. Still, the money was worth it, and folks, mostly mountain men, naturalists, artists and explorers who were good at navigating different cultures and comfortable in the wilds would head to the Northwest, and then back through St. Louis to New Orleans in a repeating cycle, hoping to acquire wealth, fame and power along the way.


I think this is the framework to begin with. Not too remote, isolated, by geography, and possibly frontier setting.

I’m not a big fan of firearms in fantasy settings, so unless someone has a strong argument in favor of it, there will be no guns.

Dark Archive

Is this a society composed of all of these races living together? How long has this village been around? Is it normal to see humans with maetaurs and the monstrous race all hanging out together?


Good question. I've been thinking of how that could work. I usually change some basic features of some races (Elves and Dwarves do not live hundreds of years in my other campaign settings, but typically live well over 120, so this creates the myth among humans that they live much longer).

I'm thinking a Human village, or primarily a village that is on the frontier of a Human region, on a navigable, but not large, river. The river source is unknown to the people of the village, but upriver, just a short distance is a Naga settlement (less than five families, and they inhabit a fort like settlement that may not be of Naga origin – we’ll see how that could develop).

There are also two other settlements within a short walk from the village proper. These additional settlements (part of the village economics but separated from the main village enough to create a comfortable distance) will be for a small Maetaur community (a couple of families) and any other race that would not normally live immediately with other humanoid races, if we want to have one or two other races.

The regular village community is not unaccustomed to seeing Maetaur or Naga (or other races) and some trade and skills are needed between these groups, but the reason for the diversity can be established as the game takes shape.

Downriver a few miles from the village, going toward the mouth of the river, is a town, Castletown. It can be reached in a couple of days, by foot.

I would like to know if there are suggestions for the races for this setting.

Dark Archive

I'd love to see something less human. Kobolds or Ratfolk perhaps. If we aren't sticking with the PF races, then something even more alien or bizarre. Perhaps a plant race or a construct race with ties to the builders of the fort?

Are the maetaur and Naga natives or transplants? We are on the frontier, neh? Is that the human frontier or just the frontier of civilization? Are the Naga or Maetaur (or whoever might be the natives) being displaced?

Re:guns- I'm happier with a gunless fantasy and support your decision with all of the power vested in me as a potential player.


Terquem wrote:
I would like to know if there are suggestions for the races for this setting.

I'm finding the current list to look alright. If you do want a Monstrous race, as listed upthread though, how monstrous are we talking? On the more humanoid setting, I could picture Tengu, Catfolk, or Kitsune in here. A bit farther out there I could see Hobgoblins, Kobolds, or Nagaji (these are all just suggestions straight from the ARG that feel like they might fit without being too obstrusive.)

For the low key beginning, what's the stance on magic? Rare, fairly common, or somewhere in between? I don't think I've seen it mentioned particularly.


My thoughts so far:

1) the idea of frontier town on the edge of the creeping advance of civilization (like St Louis a little) appeals to me. The nearby town might be a larger outpost of human expansion into an area where the monstrous (and to some extent, fantasy) races existed before. Also, the nearest seat of power. This expansion creates friction similar to frontier vs indigneous people. War-like kobolds or goblins etc make travel to this area risky, friendly races help support and trade together, but friction is still there as cultures collide and the crush of civlization creeps inevitably closer.

2)Magic-I envision a low magick area, but not non-existent. The quality and depth of magical ability would increase as the characters/story developed, but would be limited at outset.

3)Guns - i agree about keeping them out.

Dark Archive

Re: Magic: I kind of imagine that magic is rare, not due to the scarcity in the world, but due to the lack of a proper academy this far out.

Wizards would have to travel here to live here.

Sorcerers might crop up from time to time, but that's all in the blood.

Witches are probably more common. This is their kind of neighborhood, I'd think

What's your stance on the Divine, Terquem?


Re: races: I like the idea of different cultures having to interact, with all the growing pains that it entails. A more monstrous race would bring the contrast into place nicely. I think Maetaur and Naga cover this ground as designed by Terquem, but the chance to play a ratfolk, kobold or tengu is appealing to me.

Re: guns: I don't mind them, but don't need them - good with whatever.

Re: magic: I think Twilsemail's thoughts are pretty cool, and that in general, as Shaft states, it would be rare on the frontier - at least learned magic. I imagine witches could serve in some areas as the divine, oracles would pop up in the most unexpected of places, and clerics would make their way to the frontier with dreams of bringing the locals into the fold of their respective religions.

Alchemists could be re-skinned to be herbalists using native fauna and flora for their extracts and mutagens. Or the one doctor in town could be an alchemist from a far away big city, a wealthy gent or lady who is always a little too pleased to see patients...


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Character Creation

Players will have the choice of either rolling their ability scores using the following method

Roll 4d6, a total of 4 times, dropping the lowest rolled number from each roll to generate four ability scores. Roll 5d6, a total of three times, dropping the two lowest rolled numbers from each roll and then selecting from the three rolls the two best scores to generate two ability scores. Characters that choose this method receive a bonus of +10% starting wealth.

Or arranging their scores using a point buy system with the following restrictions

Your characters ability scores begin at 10 and you have 20 points to purchase ability score increases per the standard Pathfinder rules. No ability score can be lowered to less than 7 AFTER the application of racial modifiers. No ability score can be raised to greater than 17 BEFORE the application of racial modifiers. Characters that choose this method will be given one BONUS trait selected from the Basic Traits list.

All Characters begin at first level

All Characters begin with Maximum Hit Points

All Characters begin with One (1) trait selected from the Basic traits list

The following Races are available to Players for creating characters

Human
Elf
Halfling
Maetaur
Gymnaga

The following Classes are available to Players creating characters (of any race)

Bard
Cleric
Fighter
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer
Wizard

The following Classes are available with Race restrictions

Alchemist: a Character that is an Elf or Halfling may be an Alchemist

Cavalier: a Character that is an Elf or Maetaur may be a Cavalier. Maetaur Cavaliers may only belong to the Order of the Lion (in this setting known as the Companions of Haeur) – they begin the game with an animal companion that is a Bobcat or Fox instead of a mount. Any Cavalier ability related to the use of a “Mount” is always available to the Maetaur Cavalier. Elven Cavaliers may belong to the Orders of; Shield, Sword, Seal, or Blue Rose

Druid: a Character that is an Elf or Halfling may not be a Druid

Inquisitor: a Character that is an Elf or Gymnaga may be an Inquisitor

Magus: a Character that is an Elf or Halfling may be a Magus

Oracle: a Character that is a Halfling may not be an Oracle

Paladin: a Character that is an Elf may be a Paladin

Summoner: a Character that is a Halfling may be a Summoner

Witch: a Character that is a Human, Maetaur, or Gymnaga may be a Witch

I am writing up details of the various Races and their relationships to each other. Basically the campaign setting involves Humans, Maetaur and Gymnaga who are indigenous populations, and Humans, Elves and Halflings who constitute “Invaders”. However, the indigenous population is not antagonistic to the “Invaders” as it will be shown that the invader groups have recently overthrown a third population of indigenous Humans and Snake-people who have had a tyrannical and unstable government for several generations.

Magic There are high levels of both Arcane and Divine Magic present in this setting. Local populations have limited access to powerful Arcane Magic, and have a small Divine representation as far as organized religion is concerned, but have strong representation in the Divine as Druids and Witches (with some Oracles). The Invader populations have very high levels of Arcane and Divine magic but these are under strict controls. It is rumored that there is a movement among the Elves that is in opposition to the authority of their Divine casters. A very strange relationship exists between the Elves and the Halflings regarding Arcane Magic.


Dot!


On Character Creation: Just a thought on class levels. How would you feel about letting us start out as an NPC class and working into a PC class? Maybe even trading out the NPC class levels as we progress in NPC classes. I imagine that a small village might have a handful of PC classes available but the majority of residence would be assumed to have NPC classes tied into a specific job or role in the community.

On Experience Rewards: I like the 2 tier XP system idea. After all, why should a person not progress in levels because of real world experiences? The PF XP system assumes you can only learn and grow by killing (mostly) but (generally) offers no reward for social interaction or other experiences.


Rolling for ability scores and hoping I do this right lol. We are able to rearrange the scores correct or is it strait down the line?

4d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 5) = 19 = 17
4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 2, 2) = 6 = 5
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 5, 3) = 12 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 3, 4) = 15 = 13

5d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 2, 5, 2) = 18 = 14
5d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 1, 3, 1) = 16 = 14

----------------------

IF I am able to re-roll that 5 then i will get

4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 1, 3) = 13 = 12


That re-roll seems acceptable

I’m okay with a player wanting to begin with an NPC class, but let me have some time to work out which classes (and which races) are compatible in this setting.

I am opening the discussion thread with two separate posts each one detailing enough information to create a Gymnaga or Maetaur. I will follow those up with some important information about the setting and some things about the existing (common) races that may be unique to this campaign.

To help me manage things I am not opening the game thread just yet, but over the next few days seems likely.

Please feel free to use the discussion thread for character development.

Dark Archive

I've got a while before I'll actually have a concept, but I'd like to express my interest in playing a Gymnaga. I don't know if you plan on capping out the ammount of PCs in any of the races. But that's me tossing in my claim.

I'm itching to read more about the custom races and how the Natives and "invaders" get along.

Just making sure I’ve got the gist of it -

Allowed Classes:

Alchemist
Bard
Cavalier
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Inquisitor
Magus
Paladin
Oracle
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer
Summoner
Witch
Wizard

Disallowed Classes:
Barbarian
Monk

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