Trapped Beyond Time (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

This is mostly just an interest check for an idea I'm hammering out... which is totally the opposite of I normally do, so I think it'd be good practice. XD The basic gist is this...

The PCs have, for reasons unknown to them, been taken away from the Material Plane and deposited within a small, mostly-empty demiplane. They won't know how to escape, but there is a door leading to what looks like a dungeon...

For this campaign, dungeons will be randomly generated (and randomly filled with treasure), with a major caveat - every dungeon is within its own demi-plane, and any treasure that remains within will be lost forever once the party leaves. Of course, there is a benefit to successfully clearing a dungeon in its entirety - the base area will expand over time using some of the rules for Kingdom-building in Ultimate Campaign (modified for more access to things - you won't be lacking in access to equipment). Wanna actually store your treasure? You'll have to build a bank. Want someplace better to sleep? Build an Inn. BP will be gained solely through paying treasure, and new purchases will only be built after a dungeon is fully cleared (probably with some kind of size limit - better buildings require larger dungeons to be cleared or something).

Combat will likely be post-only, as opposed to strictly following a grid and moving markers around.

I haven't totally nailed down what little there will be of any plot, but I'm leaning towards a high-power, high-challenge environment where you can really put your skills and powers to use and just have fun with the system. So the real question is... does anybody want to play an action heavy, plot-light (though present) kind of game?

You have my attention.

Sure, I could be up for it.

I'm claiming a Magus slot. :)

Antipaladin for me please :3

I claim a full caster slot. Either Wizard, Bad Touch Cleric, or Oracle. :-)

I claim a full caster slot. Either Wizard, Bad Touch Cleric, or Oracle. :-)

Get ye back to the dollhouse!

I am interested. I'll claim Warpriest.

I could be persuaded to throw in.....I like playing fighter types, but i can be whatever.....

@Rysky: Rocks fall, Neverhome dies. Happy now? ;-)

I'd totally be interested in this, claiming utility/skillmonkey character or the other full-caster spot.

Well that's 6. Let's get this thing started! :-)

id be up for this. i have a goblin shadowdancer id love to put into a game.

Fascinated - will there be people/monsters/things we can use to actually run these things? Or will we have to build them?

I'd love to play a (the) crafter in this game.

Well, that's promising. XD

I'm thinking that NPCs will arrive in the area when housing areas are built. Building tenements will tend to bring in riff-raff, while better housing means a better class of citizen. They won't know why they're pulled into this place, either, but will be able to work and run the other buildings. ^^ One housing unit is probably sufficient to run, say, three blocks. I'll see if I can have a running map of the settlement in Roll20 or... something.

Let's see, in terms of character builds...

-Paizo products okay. 3rd-party okay on a case-by-case basis (Auto-Approve: Content from Deep Magic, 1001 Spells, Heroes of the Jade Oath, and Ultimate Psionics). Playtest classes are okay, but redo anything invalid when the full book comes out.
-Level 1
-Max HP at each level
-25 point buy
-I value literacy and the ability to roleplay well. People who can elaborate on their actions instead of just saying "Attack Roll" are preferable.
-Gestalt (Because I do worry about people dropping out. This setting is very good for bringing new people in, but I don't want you all to get into trouble because someone stops posting - you will regularly be adventuring in dungeons above your character levels, and I plan to randomly toss templates into the mix as well. As such, your gestalt should cover different party roles rather than focus on making one super-powerful role.)
-Mythic (I'm hoping this lasts long enough to bring in the stuff from Mythic Mania's wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. XD Like I said... high power, high challenge. That said, anything that's TOO obviously broken will need to be changed. If you're so awesome that nobody else ever does anything to really contribute, that's gonna be a problem. You'll be strong enough as it is, so don't deliberately try to break the system. You will earn mythic, not start with it.)
-I prefer non-evil, but I will at least consider evil characters. If you just want to have the powers and don't plan to behave in a truly evil manner, then you may START with the mythic ability "Beyond Morality", and you will not lose access to class features because you're not behaving evilly. This will replace your first-tier mythic ability choice, and you will not have any other mythic powers (surge, etc., or even count as mythic) until you get them like everyone else. If you're looking to backstab the party, well... keep in mind that the rest of the party is mythic gestalts, too, and that your attempt would prooooooobably fail. I'm unlikely to approve such characters anyway. In other words... smart and interesting evil is okay, wild and treacherous is less so.
-If you die, you can either wait to be resurrected or roll a new character. If your body was left behind in the dungeon, then it (and everything on it) literally stops existing once the party leaves the dungeon, so you'd lose all of your carried loot and such (but keep anything stored in the base). Resurrection spells don't require your body if that happens; you'll appear in basic clothes where the spell was cast. Rolling a new character will cost half of your remaining treasure as of the last time you completed a dungeon - and attempts to get around making the payment will be rejected. XD Fair's fair, after all. If you don't have that money, I would seriously consider petitioning your friends to supply the difference. If they won't pay, and you can't, then you can re-roll at a lower-level or something. We'll figure that out if it happens.
-Encumbrance exists. I highly recommend investing in ways to bring more loot out of the dungeons. Remember, you literally cannot go back in once you're out, not even by leaving someone inside while everyone else leaves.
-Don't worry about food and water and such, because we won't be tracking that. Just assume that you ate before entering a dungeon, and that the food is really bland until you build someplace that supplies something better.
-Spells and abilities that allow movement between planes (i.e. escaping the area) will not work. Short-distance stuff (like going to the astral or shadow planes within the dungeon) are possible, but nothing like traveling back to the Material Plane will function.

Details on expanding your base will follow. ^^

Oh neat. Question though, what's gestalt and how does it work ?

Gestalt is basically the advanced version of multiclassing, and while it can be used for many things, the goal here is covering multiple roles.

See this guide for information on how to do it:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm

And feel free to ask if you have any other questions. ^^

Ooooo, hello Antiapaldin/Witch or Barbarian/Witch :3

I claim….interest.

Gestalt, and possibly 3PP… Interesting...

I've had several bad experiences with Gestalt before so I think I'll drop out on this one.

GESTALT RULES

I'm interested. How do you feel about crafting magic items?

You CAN do it, once you've built the places for raw supplies, but it won't be especially necessary... mostly because you'll also have the opportunity to build shops that sell just about everything (except Artifact-grade items). On the other hand, the party could just not build the shops and voluntarily have one of their members craft things instead. Either way works, really. You'd have to talk to the other players about it.

Dot me for interest
thinking of a bard/witch. Although a magus/rogue would be fun too. Gives that old school fighter, magic user thief feel from 1st edn.

This looks like a crossover between kingmaker and a homebrew I use to run that I no longer run. I'm just not meant to run a homebrew, or maybe cause it was my first time Dming and I had a hard time finding replacements as they dropped out.
The theme I'm getting...
Anyway Building things, a high-powered game, and a twilight zone type of theme, creepy tone and many planes of existence, is what I'm getting from this. If I'm wrong about the theme and where you are going with it, let me know.

I am definitely interested. So very interested. I once ran a campain with similar plot line. The gestalt thing is uber. Maybe a paladin/sorcerer or maybe cleric/wizard or... I think I hurt myself.

Hmmmm. Would you allow a Soulknife/Bladebound, with the blackblade serving as the handle?

Lightsabers, ahoy!

As noted above, I'd like to see gestalts that are covering different party roles instead of mixing together to create a single, notably more powerful role. Of course, individual build has a lot to do with it - how would you be building such a character?

Is this game going to be magic limited? If so, I can tell you now that I would have a hard time making a gestalt character, considering I have to be two classes and be careful what I take as a class.

I'm thinking
Fighter/Soceror
or
Fighter/Magus
or
Ranger/Soceror
or
Ranger/Magus

Also, I'm going to be the brave one to ask this, but how do you feel about gunslingers?

The main limitation on magic is for travel magic, especially planar travel. It simply won't function if the goal is to escape the demiplane. Other travel magic will be of generally limited utility - teleporting to the stairs to exit a dungeon does NOT count as completing it, after all, and the PCs will want to actually clear the place in full (i.e. kill all the monsters) because of the extra rewards. Short dimensional hops may help get past traps, though.

Gunslingers are official Paizo, and okay. The only thing I'll probably reject is a Synthesist Summoner, simply because it's universally acknowledged as completely broken and characters have plenty of other bonuses as it is.

How do you feel about Priests? Or, are there any 3rd-party full divine casters that you would approve? I couldn't find any in the core or advanced books. everything divine is partial and I was thinking of building a divine monk or something to that extent.

Priests are okay. ^^

I'm actually going to use fighter/arcanist to be a better melee or upfronter. The concept if I went fighter/arcanist
For example. Spells like magic weapon, mage armor, burning hands, Anticipate Peril, true strike, vanish, resist energy. None of my spells would be meant for ranged if I went that route, except for maybe magic missile.
Feats would be stuff like arcane armor casting where I reduce spell failure chance as a swift action, improved init, etc.
But if that seems OP to you, I can come up with a different concept.

Here's the current system for base expansion:

Expanding the Base:

At the beginning of the game, the demiplane that serves as the base area is effectively empty. It's not very large (only about 20 square feet), and the ground doesn't seem to be any particular substance, but it's slightly soft and a boring gray in color. A tall door stands upright within the center, and a box to the side has a note hanging off of it that suggests putting in treasure if you want to make the area more comfortable.

Trapped Beyond Time uses a modified version of the kingdom-building rules from Ultimate Campaign. You can build many different buildings (once you have supplies), but there is literally nothing outside of what you have paid to build. Residents will be transported to the demiplane you're in when you build new housing, and can run other buildings at a rate of 3 blocks per housing area. If you have no residents, nobody's running the services... Remember that a Block is four lots in a square.
Discounts on BP costs do not apply in Trapped Beyond Time. However, each building does have its own uses, so they're generally worth getting. This is especially true of buildings that sell items - you literally cannot buy things like potions until you've built the right sorts of shops. (Exception: Whatever you start with, which was on you before you arrived)

Gaining BP:
Each character starts with 5 BP.
Gaining one point of BP costs 10% of the value of your treasure as of the last time you fully completed a medium-sized (or larger) dungeon - items like weapons and armor aren't factored in, but gold, jewels, etc. certainly will be. If you fail to complete a medium (or larger) dungeon twice, you can no longer purchase BP until you succeed in clearing one.
You may pool your BP with that of other characters in order to purchase more expensive buildings.

Spending BP:
You can spend BP any time you are in the base area. Your purchases will be completed the next time you fully clear a medium-sized or larger dungeon. Characters may only purchase one building at a time. Note that many of the more expensive buildings can only be built once, or offer bonuses to just one character.

The Buildings:

Ok, think I've got something in mind, but what are we doing with gunslingers? are they emerging, common, or guns everywhere?

In this particular setting... I'd say that firearms are emerging.

I'm leaning towards a Wizard/Alchemist. I'll focus on debuffs (necromancy spells), battlefield control (bombs + summons), and knowledges (high INT + Mindchemist archetype). While he will be a necromancer, I don't plan on delving too deeply into miniomancy, so don't worry about hordes of skeletons or anything like that. Is this acceptable?

Hmm... I think I can see that working out well enough. ^^

I think I'll try a Wordcaster Sorcerer/Bard combo. Someone who has focused there might into powerful speaking of doom. The Voice of Doom.

Question: How does favoured class work with Gestalt? Do you select one class to gain favoured class bonuses, or can you select either?

Gestalt.... now that changes things.

Ok so Emerging Firearms, do you have any restrictions on crafting advanced firearms later in the game?

I just don't want to be stuck at lvl 11 and I only get one attack.

@Jon: I'm going to say... you CAN select either class for the FCB, but you can only choose one bonus that's not HP or a Skill Point (across all levels and classes you have). If you can select the FCB from more than one class (such as through a Half-Elf's Multitalented), then you MUST pick either HP or a Skill Point for the second class, since you'd be getting both at each level. It would be a bit too easy to abuse otherwise.

@Grixus: It really depends on what kind of firearms you want to craft. XD It really depends on the kind of damage you'd be putting out. What were you wanting to craft?

I'd like to try a Monk-Sorcerer. I could cover both melee combat and utility casting.

What do you mean we cant throw people into the dump D: Whats the point in having it then??
Anyways, interested!
What to play, what to play >.>

Maybe I missed it somewhere upthread, but how many traits do we start with? What about starting gold?

Two traits (three with a drawback), 150 gold.

I suggest being VERY careful about how you spend the money on items, because that's literally all the items you will have until you can open up a place that sells more. XD Unless the dungeons generate some, anyway, in which case you're lucking out.

what about gold gaining traits?
How well do you want us to roleplay our drawback if we take it. If we take doubt for example, are we expected to act out with a lot of doubt?

I do prefer literacy, and I'll expect you to roleplay your traits and such when it's appropriate to do so. This campaign is going to be relatively light on the plot, so I think it's fairly important for the characters to add what flavor they can. ^^ Vivid personalities can make things much more interesting.

Just looking to set up a rifle or a pepper box rifle. I think its interesting that the pepperbox rifle is an advanced fire arm and the pepperbox pistol is an early firearm.

I feel like the biggest difference in the two weapons is one is a pistol and a person would need to transfer the idea of a rotating barrel from a pistol to a rifle. I'm looking at playing a dhampir (Vetala-Born) or if you would prefer a dwarf. In either case, I am looking at having the back story of having been in a guild that mass produced firearms for its members. Having probably seen the pepperbox pistol, I'd be tinkering to see if the idea of lots of barrels on a single gun could be applied to rifles.

Here's what I've got. :-) I haven't bought gear yet, but it's really only going to be a whole lot of scribed scrolls/crafted alchemical items. I'll do that if selected - as well as create an avatar.

Brief Background: Thackery Binx is a priest of Urgathoa and member of the Pathfinder Society. He's particularly knowledgeable about Ancient Thassalon and is often tasked with exploring ruins and deciphering ancient runes.

@Grixus: That should be workable. ^^ Dhampir are completely acceptable as a racial choice, too. I'm slightly more concerned about anything Uncommon, but Core and Featured will generally not be an issue.