Rednal's Untitled Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal


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The Discussion thread is open for Caliphas Noir: Thicker Than Water.


You're still open to a second game to play your original idea, correct? If so, I'll quit beating around the bush and throw my hat in the ring. I did go ahead and glance over the Spheres of Power PDF, and it does look quite interesting.

So, as I mentioned, I don't really have time to create something from whole cloth for this, but I have been thinking over a few alternatives:

1) I could run an Adventure Path for you. There are several that I think would be interesting to solo. Probably I'd start you at level 2 or 3 instead of 1 as part of my solo-friendliness-modifications. Here are some of my thoughts on ones I'd feel confident in modifying for a solo player:

Jade Regent--There's built-in NPC support, and I've already run it once with some heavy modifications to try to shore up the rather disappointing (in my opinion) middle section. Your goals are rarely just 'kill everyone', which opens up the possibilities for the kinds of alternative solutions that solo play is better suited for.

Reign of Winter--I love the variety in this Adventure Path, and I have some ideas of tweaks to make things more solo-able. There are also a lot of interesting characters, some of whom could be amenable to being companions if needed.

Iron Gods--I'm less confident on this one, because I haven't run it all the way through yet. It would be a bit more difficult to modify for a solo player, but I have some ideas for the first portions that I'm guessing would extend into the later parts.

I've also played most of Rise of the Runelords, but I wasn't actually a huge fan of it, so I'd rather not run it. I also have Hell's Rebels and Wrath of the Righteous, but haven't played them, so I'd be much less confident modifying them.

2) We could do a more 'episodic' campaign, where I string together a number of modules, combined with some of my own creations. I actually rather like episodic games, but I know they're not to everyone's taste. As for how I'd run it, the between-module parts would be more sandbox-y, with the modules scattered about the world as seems appropriate. I would probably modify things to fit into my personal world rather than Golarion, because I think Spherecasting matches the kind of magic there better than Vancian casting does.

3) A more hybrid approach, where I use an adventure path more as a skeleton and for setting info, but shuffling the particulars up to both make things fresh and give more opportunities to solve problems in ways other than "Kill everyone in the room". This would be more experimental than the first two, which would mean more opportunity for things to go wrong... but I think the possibility would exist for things to go very well, also.

Now, on the topic of my qualifications, I'm aware I don't have much history here on the Paizo boards. This is because the Paizo forums are only the most recent manifestation of my all-consuming hunger for role-playing. A lot of my play-by-post history is actually in Google Docs, often with one co-player, doing more free-form, character-development-focused role-playing. Here are a few examples of characters I've played and the Google Docs that resulted from playing them:

Ignis, possibly Earth's last dragon. This Google Doc is pretty readable without context. This one is still in progress (in a second doc, because the first was getting slow).

Iolar, Guardian Spirit of Eagles. This one is also pretty clear without context. This one ended when the other player had some horrible writer's block and couldn't think of what more to do with her character.

Almonihah & Zakhin'Dakh, who were originally D&D 3.0, 3.5, and then Pathfinder characters, whose adventures post-20th level ended up taking place in a Google Doc with only occasional references to the rules. This Doc is kind of hard to read without context, especially since the segments are in reverse-chronological order (the newest portions are on top, the older on bottom), but it should serve as a third example of how I stick to RPing long-term. It is still ongoing (again, in a second doc).

Of course, I recognize that free-form role-plays are hardly the same thing as GMing a solo Pathfinder game, but I hope these show my dedication to sticking with a role-play long-term. Please let me know if you have any questions.


Incidentally, Spheres of Power has a number of extra handbooks out (and more coming), expanding on individual Spheres. That stuff is on the wiki. ^^

And yes, I'm still open for at least one more game.

As for Adventure Paths, I'm currently running Jade Regent, so I'd avoid that. I actually have characters for the other two (Neve, a snow-themed druid, for Reign of Winter, and Eir, an Android Mesmerist with a Synth Summoner nanosuit, for Iron Gods).

Wrath of the Righteous is actually pretty easy because of the crazy-fast levelups and all the mythic power. XD It does NOT keep up with the PCs without modification, and this is well-known. I'm GM'ing that one, and Runelords, here on the forums.


@Rednal

I would definitely like to throw my hat in the ring for this.

No need for you to run a game for me, as I am playing in a game now and my inclination is significantly more to the DM side, rather than the player side and that one game scratches my itch for playing.

I am proposing to run the "Rise of the Drow" trilogy.

----------------
Part 1 (prologue): The Darkness Arrives, levels 1-6

You arrived in the city of Bildt on the island of Aegos seven days ago. After purchasing supplies, especially a cold weather outfit, getting directions to Rybalka, and hiring someone to ferry you across The Broken Bay, you set out five days ago for the small village, and the annual Vigil of Light ceremony where the moonshard was brought out and the light was displayed on the longest night of the year. It has been cold, snow has fallen occasionally on your journey, and you had to push the last day to ensure that you arrived at Rybalka before the ceremony would start after dark on Kuthona 22nd, which is the Winter Solstice.

As you approach the village you make your way down the street, you realize that the expected murmur of activity is missing and that the settlement of Rybalka seem ominously quiet and cold. Then rounding a building, you spot a group of villagers carrying torches towards the large stone cathedral on the edge of town. Following them, you see they rap on the doors, which are opened for a brief moment, allowing a sound of voices to escape along with some light and heat, causing the air to steam. The interior of the building is bathed in warm, inviting reds and oranges, sharply contrasting the cold whites and blues of the snow and ice surrounding you in the darkness outside.

You suddenly feel quite vulnerable standing out here all alone. The last of the villagers round the bend and pass by you, heading for the cathedral.

"You coming!?" one of the women calls, her voice suggesting that any other choice would be madness.

Part 2 (main adventure): Rise of the Drow, levels 6 - 17

Where you enter the Underdark and continue the adventure.

Part 3 (epilogue): The Commander of Malice, levels 17-20

Where you enter a demi-plane to destroy once and for all your foes.
----------------

Some points / questions:

1) I have the Spheres of Power, plus SoP: Expanded Options, plus several of the expansions, so while not foreign to me, I am not completely up to speed on it, and will need some help / guidance on a few things.
2) how do you propose to create the character?
3) Tristalt is fine, and the Armorist / Pactmaster / Incanter you propose is good.
4) I looked at the link for the Pactmaster, but the link that describes "Binding Spirits" gives a 404 at D20PFSRD, so I will need some help with that.
5) The trilogy states it is "four to six characters" starting at level one. I have not played / used gestalt / tristalt before so I may have to fudge a bit early on till I get the hang of the character, but I'll try and hide it from you.
6) Near the end of Part 1, you pick up some folks at least for the last few encounters. Also at the beginning of Part 2, you pick up a NPC that is with you for a character level of so, and there is the opportunity to pick up a NPC for the rest of the main adventure, but not required.
7) With only one character, and being in the Underdark from about 6th level onward, darkvision is darn near required.
8) For maps, I tend to use Google Drawings, and upload your token so you can move things around. For handouts, I put them in my Dropbox so you can link to them.

Let me know what you think....

-- david


1) Ask away! Even if I don't work with you for this, you'll still get more familiar with a great system. XD Win-win.

2) In Hero Lab, for the most part, with a separate reference for everything else.

4) d20pfsrd.com needs to update its links for the system. The old rules for pact magic are here. These HAVE been changed somewhat for the full version of the system, which is coming soon, so think of that link as more of a draft that's close, but not exact in every way. (The rules are OGL, so I can share them, but I'm holding off on that until the final draft is made available. That will probably be in the next few days, unless they decide to delay it a bit for more quality checking.)

5) The biggest difference in solo games is action economy. Generally, fights should only have one or two foes, unless/until the character has an effective way of doing AoE skills. You also want to be careful on ailments and conditions - things that are merely dangerous to a party, like paralysis, can be fatal for a solo character. One option is simply a flat +4 boost to all saves, which intentionally reduces the rate they're affected by things. Or you could simply try to limit use of such things. There's plenty of options,


I'm a little unclear--are you saying you'd be interested in playing Iron Gods or Reign of Winter with those characters, or that you're currently playing those characters?


If those APs were on the table, those are the characters I would submit first, having basically made them for games with that sort of plot. XD (Neve was actually for The Northlands Saga, but that has a lot of icy similarities with Reign of Winter.)


Okay, I understand now. Well, those AP's *are* on the table. :D


Let's see...I have all the Paizo campaigns up to the end of Hell's Rebels, Zeitgeist, Way of the Wicked, War of the Burning Sky (although that would be weird), Rappan Athuk, probably some others I've lost track of and more modules than I can count.

I'm also decent at creating a story.


I tossed Selene, my original Zeitgeist character, into another game... but that might be a fun option. If I remember right, that world seemed like a good place for Pact Magic. XD


If you feel up to a little Steam Punkery, I'm game.


All right, commentary seems to have dropped off... does anyone else want to express interest, ask questions, or post their thoughts?


I did have another thought this weekend, actually. Would you be interested in a 'dungeon lord' campaign--one where you play as the villain who, for whatever reason, builds and maintains a dungeon, into which he lures heroes? I was thinking that some of the Ultimate Campaign systems could be hacked for use in such a game, and a spherecaster could be an interesting dark lord. So there's a fourth option on the table for me.

I was also realizing, after reading through Spheres of Power, that the Shifter class would be perfect for the shapeshifting awakened housecat character I've always wanted to play. :D So that would be who I would want to play if you were to 'trade' with me.


Spherecasters can be a pretty good anything. XD They literally have an entire subsystem set up to help you flavor your casting. Want tortured shrieks and a dark presence whenever you cast? You can do that.

That said, for the character I want to test, I'd actually rather have them in a more normal adventure. (That's what most players would be doing, after all, and so that's the environment the character should be in. It's not a very good test otherwise.)


GM Rednal wrote:
That said, for the character I want to test, I'd actually rather have them in a more normal adventure. (That's what most players would be doing, after all, and so that's the environment the character should be in. It's not a very good test otherwise.)

Makes sense. Well, the other three options I gave would all fit that, I think.


*Checks watch*

All right, I suppose I'll wrap this up at the end of today...


Whoo! Jon was super early.


Submissions are officially closed.

...It's also kind of late my time, and I really should make this decision when I'm well-rested, not half asleep. XD So I'll go over everything in the morning and we'll go from there, yeah?


Actually, the way this turned out, there's only a few people here, and two of them I'm already doing games with. *Coughs* So!

DM Papa.DRB, let's do this thing. o wo/ If you still want to do Rise of the Drow, I'll go ahead and start reading through the player's material. Also, I might fluff the character a bit differently if they're going to be underground the whole time... XD


Have fun you two!

Now... I'm stuck with a great desire to play a housecat Shifter... just have to find campaign to stick him in...


Well, you can always start up a recruitment of your own. XD Solo games are popular with a certain crowd.


Let's do this....

Let me know when you have the character setup.

Discussion and Gameplay threads set up.

Setup an alias and we can start. Make sure you either have an "Endure Elements" type "spell" memorized, or a "Cold Weather" suit. As long as you have one of those, we will dispense with the cold weather checks.

As far as the players guide PDF available here at Paizo, no need for you to buy that. It is almost all fluff (read End's review).

Re; Underground - Yes, starting around 6th / 7th level you are in the Underdark till near the end of the adventure. Now, there will be places that have some soft lights (red / green / blue / purple) but the vast majority will be utter pitch black darkness. My wife and I took the kids to several caverns in Kentucky when they were young, and to Howe caverns here in New York. In one of these trips, they turned all the lights off underground, and literally you could not see you hand in front of your face. The guide lit a small torch and it was like a blazing sun for a few moments, which I am sure was visible for a long way in that darkness.

-- david

Note: I am in New York, USA, so that is Eastern Time zone. This post is being done at 11:27am my time. What time zone are you in please?


I'm in the Pacific Time Zone. Couple of questions....

1) Which level did you want to start at? (I noticed you mentioned a prologue starting at 1st. Having a character be a level higher than normal to help compensate for the lack of party members is an option, but really, it works either way. XD I can work with whatever's good for you.)

2) Any preferences for races? Did you want me to stick with something humanoid, or go for something a bit closer thematically, maybe a drow from a group opposed to the villains of this piece?

3) Background Skills and/or Automatic Bonus Progression? (The latter is good if you don't want to worry too much about treasure. XD)


1) 1st level is good. The first combat set of encounters, assumes that there are others working with you, so there is not a need to be a level up, but as an FYI, you will tend to level fairly regularly at the beginning.

2) Not Drow. My preference would be Core, with Aasimar, Catfolk, or Tieling as possibles.

3) Background skills and Automatic bonus progression are good.

-- david

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