“Sorrowmoor? Of course I’ve heard of it. A bunch of cursed inbreds if you ask me. You couldn’t pay me enough to stay the night there.”
-Tavern patron
The small village of Sorrowmoor rests deep within the haunting shadows of the Hagswood. Its citizens are quiet and resolute - as one tends to be in such a harrowing place. The woods breed many dangers, and with them, many treasures. Sorrowmoor subsists on the earnings brought in through the trade of their highly sought after truffles and the rare herbs that grow in the fertile soil of the surrounding woods. Otherwise, Sorrowmoor is entirely self sufficient with its communal fields and skilled hunters and gatherers. Through faith, they find solace in their mundane lifestyle as many are devout followers of Erastil.
Sorrowmoor has never known conflict beyond on the threat of the wilds, and as such, has no army or militia of their own, only the local hunters and trappers who roam the woods. Which is why the recent events have set the town on edge with no one to protect them - a mysterious fog rolls in through the forest and into the town each night, and anyone found outside the safety of their homes when it comes is never seen or heard from again. People claim to see hideous shadowy forms creep the shrouded streets. To make matters worse, several of the villagers have fallen gravely ill - some fatally so. The mayor of Sorrowmoor, Coleman Ebonheart, has sent for aid to the neighboring towns hoping to find a cure for the illness and to put an end to the disappearances.
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This will be a grim homebrew adventure in which I hope to find 4 creative players to help collaborate and build the world together in a shared experience. I am looking for creative people with the initiative to stake their claim in this world and call it their own. Need a city that matches your character’s backstory? Then make one! Name it, place it, and breath life into it if you feel so inclined. Was there a well known historical event that shaped your upbringing? Let’s hear it! There are a few things that I will pull from Golarion for the sake of manageability and approachability, and that is the races, classes and deities. Everything else, however, will be born anew. There are no radical changes to how magic operates, no big racial twists where orcs are the benevolent saviors of all. Simply a new geography with a new atmosphere. That being said, I aim to paint this world as a very grim and hostile place in which society is often the only sanctuary, and even then, I’d hardly call it safe.
If you are still interested, then I encourage you to read Painlord's guide if you haven’t already (at least the part #1 on pushing and hooking) as I find it very level-setting and full of great information. And without further ado:
Races: Core races only.
Classes: All paizo classes.
Traits: 2 traits, 1 drawback.
Ability Scores: Roll 4d6 drop the lowest or 15 point buy. For buy: minimum score of 7, max of 16.
HP: Max first level, 1/2HD+1 thereafter.
Starting Wealth: Average.
Backstory: Please provide a brief backstory of your character. I’m not necessarily looking for a novel, just something rich, evocative and fun to work with. Ebonheart sent for aid to Morningport and Frostfall, but villagers have been fleeing on the main roads and spreading word of what’s been happening to all nearby settlements. Hermits and outlanders would be aware of something going on in the woods.
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hey, just wondering, have you ever heard of Dawn of Worlds? This rule set allows players to play deities and create the world, its races, and its history. just wanted to leave this here.
Dotting
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Collaborative narrative is one of the best kept secrets of PbP. It's something that can be done better in PbP than any other format of roleplay, yet I see it done only rarely. Count me interested.
Interested
Collaborative storytelling? A grim fantasy atmosphere? Rolling for stats? Count me as very interested.
That ends up as, what, a 10 point buy? And nothing very interesting going on, either. If you're okay with it, I'll just take the 15.
Interested!
(I dont know how to automatically drop lowest)
@rorek I havent, that's pretty cool. I'd love to do something like that with a group but probably not here. Although it does get me thinking if this gets going and people are inclined to make their own Inkarnate map, i could try to stitch it together.
@Loup Blanc yes you can point buy if dissatisfied
Rolling for stats
What is the time period for the setting? Medieval? Renaissance? Regency?
Medieval. Im not entirely sure what you'd consider current Golarion.
I'm no history expert, but I like to do a little background research to avoid tropes and stereotypes in medieval fantasy, but it will likely happen.
Classic fantasy with a touch of horror? Color me interested.
Okay, this could be interesting.
Let's roll:
28 points... Definitely workable.
Did you do the map yourself? Very nice. What software tools do you use?
Okay, this could be interesting.
Let's roll:
4d6 - 2 ⇒ (6, 2, 2, 4) - 2 = 12
4d6 - 1 ⇒ (1, 6, 2, 1) - 1 = 9
4d6 - 3 ⇒ (6, 4, 6, 3) - 3 = 16
4d6 - 2 ⇒ (6, 5, 4, 2) - 2 = 15
4d6 - 3 ⇒ (5, 3, 5, 6) - 3 = 16
4d6 - 1 ⇒ (6, 3, 1, 1) - 1 = 1028 points... Definitely workable.
Did you do the map yourself? Very nice. What software tools do you use?
OK, just had a brainstorm.
A Nagaji Time oracle. A reptilian noble warrior who was snatched from his time (when reptiles ruled the world) and sent into the far future.
Eons ago (maybe 10,000 to 100,000 years ago) the world was a tropical paradise and the dominant species were a variety of related reptilian humanoid races. Primitive, but strong and proud, they created empires built from stone and wood, and though they had riches in gold and silver they never mastered the use of bronze or iron.
Mammalian humanoid races, such as humans, elves, and others, were kept as slaves, and only had their freedom in the remote cold areas near the poles, which were too cold for the reptilians to bear comfortably. The mammalians, chafing under the domination of the reptilians, made a bargain with dark powers to end the reign of the reptilians. These powers diverted a huge comet towards the world, which burst over one of the great seas. A worldwide catastrophe ensued, and an ice age began. The mammalians were able to migrate out of the poles and dominate the world, leaving the reptilian races with only a narrow band of jungles and deserts near the equator.
The mammalian races forgot the dark bargains they had made and built new civilizations, embracing gods of warmth and light. But the dark gods remembered the bargain, and now begin to draw near the world to exact their payment, while the mad gods of the reptilians and armies of ghosts demand revenge for the slaughter they faced as a result.
No crunch yet but I kind of like the idea.
What do you think?
Medieval. Im not entirely sure what you'd consider current Golarion.
I'm no history expert, but I like to do a little background research to avoid tropes and stereotypes in medieval fantasy, but it will likely happen.
Golarion is very much a grab bag of time periods, everything from early medieval to late Victorian existing concurrently.
Are we sticking to the fiefdom model of society or kind of waving that off?
@Peet I sent you a PM. The map is my own, made with Inkarnate.
@Master Han Del I imagine feudalism largely dominates the realms. But I'd also turn that question back on you :P. The picture I had in mind, but not stone, was Morningport as the large royal city, Firstdawn, Garren's Folly and Sorrowmoor provide goods and services, and Frostfall is a larger city owned by a Lord serving Morningport and provides military, money and goods to Morningport.
Some additional information:
- The time of year is currently fall.
- The region of Ilderan is similar to Norway in landscape and climate.
- My intention with core races only was to clearly evoke the theme that non-core races are truly uncommon or vilified. That's not to say you couldn't come up with an awesome character story that makes your character stand out from the norm, but I wanted to keep it out of the party to really give it a foreign feel.
Here's the full character submission for me!
Athanasius of House Liriedir
Elven Magus (Eldritch Archer)
Outlander of the Hagwood
"You don't survive in the Hagwood as long as I have without being a bit jumpy."
Physical Description: Athanasius has a tall and slender build, about what you'd expect from an elf, accompanied by freakishly long limbs. He has shoulder-length dark hair with hints of forest green. His eyes are bright green, and his complexion is very pale. His armor is always adorned with various furs, including a wolf pelt he wears across his shoulder.
History:
Born to the northern City of Farondar, Athanasius was a perfectly average child who did his best to honor his bloodline. He showed mediocre magical prowess and was to receive further training as a blade dancer when he was accused of a curious crime by a major bureaucrat. In a Kafkaesque twist of fate, the details of the crime were never revealed to him, and he was found guilty in a sham trial when he was forced to defend himself against a crime he knew nothing of. He was thus permanently exiled from his home as a child at the age of 28.
Stripped of the scholarly duties he had known all his life, Athanasius wandered south, many times taking to begging and relying on the kindness of strangers in order to feed himself. Near the city of Frostfall he met the person who would change his life, a human woman called Elsie.
Elsie found him along the main road, emaciated and begging for scraps. She accused him of being lazy and stupid, and promised that he would never have to beg again if he accompanied her. Elsie began to teach Athanasius the ways of the forest, how to set traps and live from the land.
That was over 40 years ago. The two became inseparably close friends, and built a small cottage deep in the Hagwood. The pair took to trading furs as their main source of income for necessary supplies, though Elsie has always been careful to avoid revealing her face to others. Elsie's hair has grayed and she can no longer stalk the woods as she once could. She relies on Athanasius to hunt much as he once relied on her. Most days, she sits on a rocking chair on their front porch, though even at her old age she is never out of arms reach from her bow and arrow.
Meanwhile Athanasius has begun experimenting with weaving magic into his arrows, mixing his classical training with Elsie's teachings.
As of late, Athanasius has found himself returning home earlier and earlier before dusk each day. The strange fog has him set on edge, and the scratching at the cottage door each night grows louder and louder. Elsie recently said what both were thinking out loud "Something is stirring in the Hagwood."
15 Str
16 +2 Dex (18)
14 Con -2 (12)
17 +2 Int (19)
10 Wis
10 Cha
Traits:
Savage (social)
Arcane Temper (magic)
Paranoid (drawback)
Mythweavers sheet here ~ https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1267920
Still Working on spells atm
Dotting
@Peet I sent you a PM. The map is my own, made with Inkarnate.
Thanks, I'll check that out.
Right now I use Hexographer.
Interesting. Let's roll some ability scores!
- 2 = 14
- 2 = 13
- 1 = 12
- 1 = 13
- 1 = 12
- 1 = 9
I was going to write a lengthy piece mentioning how much I love the idea of Collaborative Homebrew paired with Grim Fantasy and end with my wholeheartedly love of rolled stats... then I realised others did.
So I will only state Me want, me want and praise the RNGods for good luck.
Stats I totally can get behind, yeah.
So after some dialogue with Peet, he's swayed me to open up to broader race options. Having been a lifetime DM, I've not experienced the racial burnout of the classic Tolkein races that many others here may have. Additionally, it opens up for some more world building options to work with the other races, so I'd like to open it up to the other Paizo player races. If you've submitted a character and want to adjust, feel free. I apologize if you've already sunk some time in to a character, hopefully it work out in your favor though!
->15
->14
->14
->9
->18
->16
Not bad. Got this character from a game that died because we...well died. Made a poor decision and ran into a creature way to strong. There is a ton of backstory so TL;DR, his home village was corrupted by a cult that summoned something awful (he never saw it). Some faithful of Sarenrae saved him and some others. He followed them and became an Inquisitor. Now he hunts down evil in the name of the Dawnflower and this menacing fog sounds right up his ally.
GM: Does the above include Skinwalker?
Skinwalker is good.
I've been thinking about my stat array and contemplating what to do with that "7". I could dump charisma and build a pretty solid martial character or Int caster. But I'm more inclined to make a caster with a critical flaw. The low constitution, a la Raistlin, has been over done... but what about a old gnome sorcerer or oracle with a modified strength of 5... walks with a cane... maybe an oracle with the Lame curse even.
...Having been a lifetime DM, I've not experienced the racial burnout of the classic Tolkein races that many others here may have.
Honestly, I GM more than I play most of the time. But I still am tired of the classic tolkien races. Playing other races forces you out of old stereotypes.
This is Valjoen_KC's submission... Pfflÿs, the gnarled, old gnome shadow oracle. I have his basic crunch done, but haven't checked it against herolab as I'm currently on vacation. I also haven't completed my purchases, and I'm still trying to figure out his encumbrance. I'll get it cleaned up this weekend when I'm back home.
I'm also still working on his backstory.
Ian should be done.
I would say it's safer than rumors and superstition would let on. However strange events like whats occuring currently have to know to take place in the past. But perhaps common tragedies happen for reasons a little more supernatural and nefarious than the town is willing to admit.
Had seen a lot of people discussing spellcasters, so I felt the need to go classic - a dwarven smith/fighter. The crunch is done, and the fluff is coming along well. I am having fun writing some world material to create his backstory.
Question, as he is a smith, can I roll to craft any of his starting items?
@Choon Oof, that always sucks. I've gotten in the habit now of doing large write-ups in google docs.
@DuglinCrafting is fine. I'd like to put 4 weeks worth of work as a constraint though, to reflect that you'd presumably be working on them in your spare time over a long period of time. Given your craft skill, taking 10's should be pretty fruitful. Also, glad your enjoying it. Just read what you have and it's very cool.
Copy/Paste saves lives and keyboards.
Glad you are enjoying what I have written so far.
As for crafting, 4 weeks is more than acceptable.
Take 10 + 10 (skill) = 20
Craft (Armor): Scale Mail (500 sp)
DC 15 (ac +5) + 5 (accelerated) = 20
time = 1.25 weeks
cost = 16.7 gp
Craft (Armor): Heavy Steel Shield (200 sp)
DC 12 (ac +2) + 5 (accelerated) = 17
time = .75 weeks (.59)
cost = 6.7 gp
Craft (Weapon): War Axe (350 sp)
DC 18 (exotic)
time = 1 week
cost = 11.7 gp
Craft (Weapon): Warhammer (120 sp)
DC 15 (martial) + 5 (accelerated) = 20
time = .30 week
cost = 4 gp
Craft (Weapon): Cestus, Cold Iron (100 sp)
DC 12 (simple) + 5 (accelerated) = 17
time = .30 week
cost = 3.3 gp
Craft (Weapon): Javelin x5 (50 sp)
DC 12 (simple) + 5 (accelerated) = 17
time = .15 week
cost = 1.7 gp
Total Time = 3.75 weeks
Total Cost = 43.7 gp
So far it for submissions it looks like we have:
Athanasius of House Liriedir Elven Magus by ambnz
Pfflÿs Gnome Oracle by Valjoen_KC
Ian Black Skinwalker Inquisitor by Zayne Iwatani
Duglin Braehammer Dwarf Fighter by wanderer82
It looks like there's a few other with character ideas still out, so I think I'll post selections Monday morning (eastern timer for me).
People who proposed a character concept, and not just rolls:
Choon Elf Medium
Peet Nagaji Oracle
Rorek55 Monk/Occultist/Kineticist.