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So I was discussing the changes made to Alkenstar with one of my players and a side comment I made caught his attention, I mentioned that Alkenstar has Alchemists and he was confused about this, after all, isn't it a dead magic region? It's a good point, why would anyone be an Alchemist in Alkenstar when the bulk of their abilities (Supernatural effects) are rendered useless? Or are Alchemists some sort of exception for this? Near as I can tell there's no crunch supporting this so unless the Alchemists in that industrious city are the poor bastards who made those items that become worthless after a level or two (you know, *those* items) why would there be any of the base class from there? Unless it was, of course, an oversight and something not quite thought out when it was written up... Any input on this?
A little over 800 years ago Hella, keeper of the dead, went mad and threw open the gates to the abyss freeing thousands of wicked souls before fleeing to become the goddess of the undead. Until then undead had never been seen on Rassilon. Scaetha, a war goddess, fought her way to the gates and shut them taking Hella's place but the damage was done. Soon the civilized peoples of the land had to face the Liche Priest and his undead armies. As per the usual in a fantasy campaign setting: they triumphed, though it took them some three hundred years before his hordes were defeated and he was shut away for eternity. Not three years later the Blizzard wars start as armies from the north, taking advantage of the southernlands weakened state, march upon the remains of civilization. The gods of Sun and Fire disappear without a trace as armies of frost giants, hellfrost dragons and other frigid beasts lay waste to the land. The armies of the south finally rallied together and pushed back their foes in bloody and costly conflict meant to utterly destroy them. As the enemy retreated to the north a massive wall of ice rose, literally over night, blocking the advance of the armies of civilization. The cold glacier lands became known as the Hellfrost. Now, five hundred years later, winters have grown longer, the sun has grown weaker, the very land seems to be dying in some places, and something is causing magic to fluctuate. The "Victory" of a half a millenia ago tastes like ash in the mouths of those who struggle to keep their homes warm and their families fed. The Kingdoms of Man are stretched thin, orcs and other beasts dot the out of the way places, bandits roam much of the roads unchecked and there are whispers that the armies of winter are growing stronger... Greetings, I'm looking to start a Hellfrost campaign. I've found myself fond of the world and system and dove right in buying all the books and then found myself without any interested players. Solution: take this show online! So I'm here to drum up interest. I would be running this game on RPOL, a site made for play-by-post games, as I've grown quite fond of them and used to their layout. If you're interest go to www.rpol.net and sign in then go here http://rpol.net/display.cgi?gi=4738&ti=5235&date=1289374718 and comment that you're interested in playing. Or simply comment here and wait until I have the game setup on RPOL to sign up and submit a request to join.
So, I'm running my second attempt at a face-to-face game of Kingmaker. The previous group dissolved due to conflicting schedule and by the time they had started gaming again I wasn't available so they started other games. They were good roleplayers and sort of made the exploration interesting on their own playing off of little bits I'd toss them about the weather and general traveling conditions. My present group has one or two good roleplayers but seem a little more focused on the hacking and the slashing. They can get down with the role playing (instead of the roll playing) in certain situations but dice rolling heavy aspects of the campaign (like the exploration) sort of fall flat. So, does anyone have any ideas on how to make things interesting and get rid of the monotony between encounters? Anything help would be welcome.
I'm considering opening up a Kingmaker and Serpents Skull play by post game. It wouldn't be here on the Paizo boards however, I've grown comfortable and used to the play-by-post sight www.rpol.net as it is designed quite specifically for pbp games as opposed to being a modified message board. If there are any takers feel free to post here and make an account on rpol.net where you'll be able to post an RTJ once I figure out whether I'll be doing one, the other, or both.
I have two players interested in joining a game of mine. They both have ideas that deviate a bit from the norm and I wanted to get some opinions and advice. The first on the list is Snowy.
Then there's the other player. His gnome Cavalier is based heavily off of classic gnome D&D archetypes of big noses, mischievous pranks, etc. I'm trying to get him brushed up on Golarion gnomes but I think his concept can work with some tweaking. His Cavalier Order is that of the Forest Moon... unfortunately I don't have a full write up yet. When I get it I'll post it to see what people think. Thanks
Using the Paizo Critical hit deck in a pickup game recently one hit resulted in "Normal Damage and target is sickened" which I figured didn't apply to a creature made of fire. Looking through the Bestiary I only found that they are immune to being stunned but nothing about fire elementals stated they couldn't be sickened, this doesn't make much sense to me so I decided to ask here: Can an elemental be sickened?
So, I was running Kingmaker with a very good group. They stayed on task, and while goofing off and joking did occur we were able to get through many encounters. They all role played, even the new and casual gamers, and were a winning group all in all. Alas real life got in the way and the host got a job that involves heavy over time. So now the game is canceled and we haven't even made it to the second module yet. My other group is working their way through Legacy of Fire, which is a good AP altogether, but it still saddens me that I won't be able to run Kingmaker any time in the foreseeable future. :-(
Greetings, I run two tabletop games. One game runs smoothly, we get a lot done and still have room for the B.S. that's inherit in all but the most hard core of gaming groups. The PC's in that group are very prepared. They have printouts of their special ability as well as printed lists of their spells and what page number of what book they belong to. They roll their damage dice with their attack dice. They review their characters to make sure they fully grasp what they're capable of to avoid flipping through the book for ten minutes in the middle of combat. They even have a simple rule wherein you must use the restroom before initiative is rolled for going to the bathroom during combat is not allowed. While combat isn't over and done before I can blink this Player Preparedness helps things move quick and smooth. The other group provides a study in contrasts. Until recently we rolled initiative every round. I put my foot down and started using static initiative. The speeds things up a little (I've even timed) but not much. I've tried to convince them to help me out in this field but to no avail. It could be that the players are just more casual gamers compared to the above group. It could be I just fall into old bad habbits as this group holds two of my oldest friends whereas the above group I only just started gaming with in the past couple months. Anyone have any tips and tricks I might use to keep gameplay flowing relatively smoothly in spite of the Players themselves? I'm running Legacy of Fire if that is of any assistance. Anything from techniques on how to speed up combat to DM preparedness would be welcome. There are some ideas floating about in my head but I am curious as to what I can get from the community itself. Thank you for your help.
The PRPG answered many problems I had with 3rd edition. It condensed the skills down into something that made more sense to me mechanically. It gave me new rules for grappling and tripping that made such things not only viable in combat but easier to manage. It improved upon most of the melee classes (though I still think the Barbarian is grossly underpowered compared to the other warrior classes). It is not without it's flaws however, at least not in my eyes. Apparently there was a consensus amongst the community that spellcasters were too powerful. I could kind of see that but felt that they needed a trim but what they got seemed closer to castration. Sure they got some niftiness with the bloodlines and the domains but ultimately it didn't make up for what happened to their bread and butter: their spells got nerfed to near uselessness. There are some who do not think so, well... a lot, these changes couldn't have occurred in the RPG unless there was a substantial mindset that said spells were too powerful. If you are of that mindset: this thread is not for you. I agree that some spells were a little too powerful, some, not the vast majority that seemed to be fall under the axe. Those that I felt merited a little weakening instead of being trimmed the %10 they needed got cut down to half their potency and rendered nearly useless. Practically making battlefield control magic pointless and forcing one to focus on combative of defensive spells seeing as enchantment and illusion have always been flawed schools. Rant:
By way of example: Solid Fog.
Verbal, Somatic and Material components. A wizard isn't going to be stealthily casting this spell if he's in sight of anyone. The components seem easy enough to come by. Duration of 1 minute a level. More or less guaranteeing it will last a combat session. Perfectly reasonable. It acts like the 2nd level Fog Cloud so it only covers a 20ft radius, that's 40x40ft square and 20ft high. Not a lot of ground. It hampers movement reducing it to 5ft a round. Can't really see in or out. Those withing suffer -2 attack and damage penalty and falling objects are slowed. This doesn't seem over powered for a 4th level spell to me. It's good for battlefield control, keeping that onrush of minions from getting at you until you've dealt with some of the heavier hitters (or vice versa) or maybe letting the BBEG slow the PC's down so he can either cast a fireball or buff himself or heal himself. Or the PC's could use those same tactics, all in all a reasonable trade off. Now let's look at the PRPG version... Virtually the same as far as components duration and area of effect go. In fact it's virtually the same save for one glaring difference: It's considered difficult terrain rather than hampering movement to 5ft a round across the board. I could see that working for a second maybe third level spell but not 4th. It'll only really effect any enemies for what, two rounds at most and that's if you caught someone smack dab in the middle. A 4th level non-damaging spell that only hampers it's victims for a round, maybe two. I could see it work out if the AoE increased some. Maybe to 40ft radius, but it doesn't. I can kind of see the reasoning. What happens if you use Solid Fog on someone with a higher movement rate, is it fair that he's slowed just as much as everyone else? Maybe, maybe not, but rather than think out how to balance it for such a case, trim it down to the %80 percent it probably needed they took the cheap way out and cut it down to near uselessness. And it's not just that spell. This is done with many spells that got hacked up and spit out sad shadows of their former selves. Game balance is well and good but it seemed they went to far with this. I could go on as to how the Druids shapeshift abilities just aren't worth it in comparison. I could see how the 3.5 version could be abused but did you need to render it pointless now? Now the druid can shapeshift into the weakest brown bear in the woods. So this long winded rant brings me to my request of the community. I have two players who love playing spell casters. Unfortunately the game just isn't fun for them any more since the spells got neutered. I want to try and make it fun for them again by making spells worthwhile but not going back to 3.5 spells completely. Do you guys have any suggestions for handling this so that I only need the PRPG book and don't have to carry a 3.5 PH around to reference it's spells? Should I go through them and adjust them on a case by case basis? One player recommended I create wands that act as the 4th edition implements and serve to enhance the PC's spells rather than store charges of spells themselves? How would you have edited the wizard spells that got nerfed? How would you have handled the Druids shape changing ability? One of my PC's is quickly losing interest as he realizes glitterdust is virtually useless now and that web might as well never grace his spellbook, he's basically reverting to what he hates: a blaster and it's because the utility and battlefield control spells have been chewed up and spit out in a manner that made the great 3.0->3.5 nerfing look like a power up. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
The time has come. For the past few months, since it was announced that you were selected for the coming trial of the Quest for the Everflame, it seemed every day has been spent training. Those you've learned your skills from have been working you three times as hard as normal in their enthusiastic pride that their respective wards have been chosen. Thankfully you've all been given a days rest for contemplation and to settle your nerves though whether or not it has worked depends on you. Not that there's anything to fear. While some have gotten hurt on the Quest for the Everflame it's usually been by their own stupidity or accident rather than any real danger. Everyone knows that the traps are safe and the danger only in your minds. Still, the solemnity with which the people of Kassen deal with the quest is quite infectious. You find yourselves there, in the town square on that cold fall morning. A winters wind blows through the town cutting through garments and chilling you to the bone. No one in the town can be seen save the others who are undertaking the Quest for the Everflame and the silence is rather oppressing. As leaves are blown across the cobbles when the wind blows through again you realize you have some time to yourselves to prepare for the coming challenge.
Those who are questing...(More information forthcoming)
Those who have come before... None... yet. Character Creation/Advancement Rules: Abilities
Hit Points
HD HP/lvl
Material's Allowed
Character Traits
Experience Advancement
Starting Gold
Barbarian: 10gp 5sp
There are two exceptions:
House Rules
Races Humans get the Multitalented ability that the Half Elves get. Why: Quite simply, I thought the humans got the shaft. One of their perks was that they were better at multi classing than everyone else because they were able to pick a favored class. Now everyone can pick a favored class, which is, to me, the humans losing out. So they get the Multitalented ability. I think I recall someone writing me wondering if they could get the weapon proficiency that was available in the PRPG Beta testing. I figure if someone is willing to give up the Multitalented ability above they can get the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat. Classes Clerics get Heavy Armor Proficiency if it fits their deity.
Clerics can Turn Undead.
Feats Spell Focus and Improved Spell Focus give a +2 bonus.
Spells I thought they went overboard on weakening a lot of the spells out there. Cutting them down by %50 potency when a mere %25 trim would have balanced them out nicely. The result: a lot of spells I feel are far too weak for their levels. These will be adjusted on a case by case basis. Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison
Why: I respect the desire to make Poison and Disease more deadly, really I do, but I don't like the idea of a poison or disease grinding my game to a halt. Personally, I thought it could have been an opportunity to make the heal skill more worthwhile, as it stands there's no real reason to pump more than a few points into that skill and call it a day. Now there is. Encumbrance I'm not a big stickler for encumbrance. I might peek in occasionally and see if that pack you carried into combat is overstuffed but if it's a few pounds over the weight category it's no big deal. If, however, you're carrying everything and the kitchen sink and you're the wizard with 8 str expect me to apply penalties to your rolls. Critical Hits I'm not a full on Grognard, my starting edition was 2nd Ed. AD&D, but back then a crit was a crit and I've carried that well into 3rd edition. I don't, however, want to make this too deadly for those who are not used to my method of doing things so I'll used a trimmed down version of my home game house rule. A roll of what is normally a "critical threat" results in the following based on your critical damage multiplier. x2 = Max Damage
See? Simple, and makes rolling a crit worthwhile, no more wasted natural 20's and you no longer have to worry about confirming a crit only to roll a 1 and do poor damage regardless. Of course if you have sneak attack or some magical ability on your weapon that adds a die of damage you still have to roll it and it doesn't get multiplied but that's normal. Does this mean fights will be deadlier? A little, but I think you'll be fine. I can't think of much else in the house rule thing. If I update I will post here in the OOC thread then edit and update this post accordingly. Posting/Combat Alright, this isn't like my usual PBP site so I have to adjust my standards some. Here's some basic guidelines as well as things I like and dislike as well as things you can expect from me as a DM. When you post please include any actions you take that have a game mechanic attached to them and post them using BBCode for OOC posts along with relevant information I'm including a crude example below. Finius waved his hands about and murmured a string of strange syllables in draconic before pointing at the brigand and whereupon a dark mist seems to surround the highwayman displaying unto him his darkest fears
Simple enough right? This goes for other things as well like skill checks. Sure you can assume I understand you're picking the lock if you describe yourself picking the lock or what not but I want to see it written out briefly in OOC. A few things not to do. Some go without saying but I'd rather spell it out then hear someone say 'but you never mentioned anything about...'
Skill Checks I like there to be a degree of uncertainty in my games, however I don't like to remove all control from players, so I strike a simple balance and swipe one of the few things I liked from 4th Edition: Passive Skill Checks. Basically it goes like this. Occasionally something is going on that you guys (the PC's) don't know about. Maybe an Assassin is sneaking into position or someone is lying to you. I will have these NPC's roll checks against your Perception or Sense Motive as though you were taking 10. This will not always be the case of course. Should you wander into an Ally way and roll a perception as you keep an eye out for danger then they'll have to beat that instead. Or if you don't trust that street urchin when he tells you the thief went that-a-way you can make a sense motive check. You can do this in two ways: either post in OOC that you're making a check and I'll roll it myself. Or you can post in OOC and use the BBCode to roll your skill check. That goes for any skill: you either roll yourself, or declare your skill check ooc and let me do it. Sometimes I'll use my own judgment if you forget or don't think of it. If you're trying to talk your employer into bumping up your reward but you don't post anything about making a skill check then I'll probably roll your diplomacy (or intimidate depending on the method you use IC). Languages
Whenever you are hearing someone speaking in a language other than common I'll check everyone's known languages. If someone knows the language being spoken I will post it as a spoiler with something indicating what language it is and those that can read it may look at the spoiler. Those that can't read such and look at the spoiler and then I find metagamed based on such knowledge will receive an XP penalty on the first violation and then get booted from the game on the second. So, you can look at stuff said in languages you do not speak but you cannot act on it unless someone translates. It's an honor system thing. Also, when posting in a language other than common, do one of two things: either post it as a spoiler identifying the language or post it without a spoiler identifying the language. Whatever your preference is provided you make it clear what language you're speaking in. Internal dialogue should be italicized. Knowledge Checks The results of a knowledge check will be posted as a spoiler. The spoilers will be listed with the name of whoever is permitted to read the information within. Knowledge checks work like skill checks above, you can declare and roll via BBCode or you can have me roll. Dice Rolling In case you haven't guessed, dice rolls made by players will be done via BBCode, pure plain and simple. I know some people like to use some website that's out there but I'd rather not deal with that. Any rolls I make will be made in private, think of it as your DM who rolls behind a screen at your table top game and you'll be fine. Combat
Whew, okay, I think I've covered the necessary bases. I know it seems like a lot but, well, I've played PBP with all types and I'd rather have all the above than not. Let me know when you're character is made and ready for me to look at. Send any questions, comments, concerns to dmofpayne at gmail dot com.
"Once again the winter winds blow through the Fangwood, marking the end of another harvest. There are wolves in the woods, howling at our walls, and serpents in our shadows, waiting to strike. Just as it was one hundred and seventy-four years ago, when Kassen himself left these walls to protect us, so it is today. Where are the heroes? Where are the brave folk that will venture out to Kaseen's tomb and retrieve the flame to keep this community safe for another winter?"[/i] It was these words Mayor Uptal spoke to the assembled crowd that cool fall day as the winds did indeed blow through the town heralding the coming winter. It had been four years since you last saw the Mayor climb up and recite those words, four years since a small group of young villagers, each on the cusp of adulthood took that rite of passage, four years since the Everflame was returned to Kassen to keep the village safe for another winter. Sure the whole thing was little more than symbolism but it brought the small community to life and was an exciting ritual to undertake. Those who did were surely destined for great things in or out of the community and many a village youth longed to prove themselves against the tests the village elders and mentors pit against them. You have been given the honor of undertaking this rite, you have been selected by the town elders based on your merits and the praise of your mentors, are you ready? You've spent the past few years or perhaps all of your lives listening to stories about those who have gone before, of the experience and the legends behind this ritual and now it is your turn. Don't worry though, only rarely are people injured, the traps are harmless and the threats are simply clever illusions after all. It's for the fun, the experience and the prestige, what could go wrong? ************************************************************************ So, in case you didn't get it the first time, I'm starting a PbP game! Looking for first level upstarts... er... heroes to run through with spears... I meant the Crypt of the Everflame as well as the following modules. I've run plenty of PBP games over at www.rpol.net which is a wonderful site dedicated to the craft but I wanted to try my hand here. What I'm Looking For
English: I'm not too picky on spelling and grammer, gods know I'm certainly not perfect with it myself, just please make an effort to write legibly. Reliability: Things happen, that's understandable, but try to post regularly. What's regular? I'd say once a day but sometimes you're waiting on someone else to post or for me to update so I understand. I'm bad at updating on weekends so I'd say about five times a week is a good number to aim at. Secondly, do not try to join if you think something will happen soon that might take up all your spare time and keep you from posting. Are you taking 20 credits this semester? Perhaps you are expecting to switch over from part time to full time work? If you can handle posting under such conditions: Great! If not, might not be a good idea to join a game right now. Group Cohesion Your character doesn't have to be best friends with everyone else but I would like them to be able to work with the rest of the party. Look for role playing opportunities instead of conflict. Paladin doesn't like rogues? Maybe they can try and redeem them, provide something of a moral compass, plenty of RP opportunities abound. That being said if we have a Paladin we shouldn't have a child murdering necromancer in the group. Inter-party conflict can be fun, let's avoid making it not-fun. Alignment Good and Neutral alignments. If anyone is thinking of Chaotic Neutral they better prove to me they can play it. Want to Join?
This e-mail should tell me the following things:
That should be enough. If you have a general idea how you plan on building your character as far as multiclassing or prestige classes go let me know. I like to have PC's roleplay entering into a prestige class rather than just getting in and advance notice gives me a better chance to set it up. I'm aiming for five players but if I get enough good submissions six is more than doable. Once I have my players I'll give out character creation information.
So, It would seem I have a little excess time on my hands, which means I want to get my DM Juices flowing by running another PBP game. Thing is, I've never run a game on the Paizo boards, I mostly stick to rpol.net which is specifically designed for PBP gaming and is where I run a Black Company game as well as a Pathfinder game (specifically the Darkmoon Vale modules). So I guess I'm here to see if there's any interest in a Crypt of the Everflame game that would include the following modules as well as whatever else comes to mind. Meanwhile I shall dig around the PBP boards and see how things are done here while I debate directing interested players to RPOL.net or trying my hand here at Paizo.com. Anyway, let me know what you think,
A little about what I'm posting first. I've had this character stuck in my head for some time. Maybe some day I'll play him but until then I'm simply going to write about him. I'm not sure what it is, maybe I've been reading too many Planet Stories... alright, that's not it, I'm afraid I've only read one of the Elak of Atlantis stories (I have a long 'to do' list when it comes to reading) but I've wanted to write some adventure stories set in Golarion for some time now. It's nothing spectacular, just a little idea I decided to go off of, and while it's not a Campaign Journal perse I figured this is the best place to post it. So I hope you enjoy it.
Feats have been one of the best, and occasionally most annoying mechanics of the D&D game since 3rd edition came out. Since then I've heard the phrase "You can never have enough feats!" I created a system in my homebrew (3.5, not PRPG Beta) where a player could sacrifice a feat for a stat point and, well, no one thought it was worth taking. Well, one did and that was only to round a 15 that was bugging him up to a 16. I ran into two feats, one I traced back to Book of Nine Swords and one I only know the origins of in a PbP game. I'm sure it exists elsewhere but I've no clue where that might be. The BoNS feat was Superior Unarmed Fighting (or something to that effect) and I think this feat is just plain cool. It allows someone to make an effective pugilist and increase their unarmed damage without dipping into monk or getting the shaft. It grows with the player and while the damage is never as good as a monks it's enough that it doesn't suck. The other feat I found was Ambidextrous, with 3.5 we saw that feat go the way of the dodo as the mechanics were combined with the then Two Weapon Combat feat to make the now Two Weapon Combat feat. Still, some people found it strange that while it combined the two feats the person who took them was never, in fact, ambidextrous. Ambidexterity is the equal use of both your right and left hand/arm, by definition you have no off hand. The feat I ran into fixed that by saying that your character had no off hand. I.E. A two weapon fighter using that suffered no strength penalty with his "off" hand. My main regret is that I was absent during the feat discussion of the PRPG and never thought to at least try and get some variant of the above two feats into the system. Gods know I'm house ruling them. Still there needs to be a purpose to what I'm writing so here it is: What sort of feats out there do you think are just plain cool? Not stuff for some uber build but feats that are downright neat? Perhaps the flavor of them struck you or maybe you thought "why the hell wasn't this made sooner?" whatever tickles your fancy.
Well, I'm running a 4th edition campaign set in a future Golarion, certain things have occurred and while some aspects of the world have remained the same a significant amount has been changed to fit my personal vision of a 4E version of Golarion. Chances are in some twisted alternate dimension where Paizo jumped on 4th edition and converted their 3.5 Golarion to said RPG system and used the setting as I have some of the changes would ignite nerd-rage across the message boards akin to what occurred with the Forgotten Realms transition. :P I, however, digress. I am curious, there are certain elements of 3.5 that don't transfer well to 4e and certain elements of 4e that I'm having trouble finding a Golarion counterpart for. One example are the gods. In the first gen 4e core books each god has a Divine Power feat associated with them. Any advice on who might get what feat or has anyone written up anything custom to the gods of Golarion? If so I'd love to see a thread or website that includes it. Should I not get anything here I suppose I could get off my lazy butt and page through the PH to find various equivalents.... :P |
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