To everyone who wants to know what other people think about their campaign ideas: Here's the thread for preposing your ideas and getting a critique. Amazing!
I am not affiliated with Paizo. I'm a long time GM, a player and most importantly, someone who is willing to give you an honest feedback about your idea. Additionally, if you want some ideas for your campaign then everyone here is welcome to contribute.
This is not a thread for trashing peoples campaigns or plotlines. If you read something here that you think wouldn't work out for you or a game you're in, please don't flame or say "This suckzor! LOLZ!" (this is how all teenagers speak, I'm fairly sure...) If you don't like an idea, please explain why you don't like it. That's the point of critique. Conversely, if you like an idea and think it's cool, feel free to comment as to why you think so. We're all adults here (mostly) and I think we want to provide a good experience for our players and make memorable sessions and campaigns.
-Tundra
WARNING: Honesty sometimes hurts.
It felt pretty off topic-y to me, that and does it really deal with house rules? Not really...
Eh, I put it here, if someone wants it moved it'll move.
-Tundra
Do you do campaign settings, too?
Do you do campaign settings, too?
Sure, campaign settings and campaign ideas are pretty interchangable.
-Tundra
If so, I'd like your opinion on my campaign setting. It's been a while since I updated, but...
Hey Freehold, there are a lot of things on this blog site. I'm seeing at least 3 different campaigns that you're running... Is there one of them that you're willing to target in on? I'm not sure I can read through 6 years of blog posts to determine what you really want feedback on.
Let's go ahead and avoid links and just write up plot ideas. If it can fit in a messageboard window, that'll make it easier for people to focus in on what you're wanting feedback on.
-Tundra
Blogger made a change with how their blogs are set up -they used to be easier to thumb through by date, but now everything is in reverse chronological order. If you could start with The Races: A Primer and work your way forward in time, I would appreciate your thoughts.
Freehold, I'm really offering to read people's plot ideas and synopsises. Not really looking to go through an entire blog website and 30,000 words about various classes and your preposed changes and that sort of nitty gritty. I guess I did open myself up to being asked to look it over, but I'm not going to read your blog.
New Rule: If you're going to throw some campaign ideas and plot lines down for people to read, please limit it to around 2,000 words. Thanks!
-Tundra
Neat idea. I'll be watching this thread!
Here is a list of ideas for my campaign setting:
Black Powder Fantasy: It must be done, and who else but me? Put your swords, bows, and armor away, and pick up a boomstick. Melee combat will still happen, but shooting is more common. Guns will use black powder alchemically treated to repel moisture, load from the breech, and have internal magazines or cylinders, reloaded by cocking the hammer. Aesthetically, they should look like rifle-muskets or revolvers. These guns should have a somewhat fantisized appearance, but damned if I know how to make that look.
North America is great, and so is Australia: I use fantasy analogues of real areas, kind of like Golarion, Dragon Age, and Ace Combat do. For these analogues, North America and Australia stand as the biggest sources of inspiration. The two continents I am currently writing up resemble them quite a bit. That's not to say that Europe, Africa, South America, or Asia will never get analogues (Great Britain, Ireland, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, parts of China, Arabia, and Persia are the most likely), but not right now. I'm focusing on North America and Australia.
Ninteenth Century Themes: Pathfinder's Alchemist class is based off of Ninteenth Century horror fiction. Pathfinder's Alchemist class is the most flavorfully delicious base class in the game. I happen to love 19th century horror, so the Alchemist's flavor was much appreciated. Though this isn't a pure horror setting, it should be able to handle 19th century horror in a very thematically fitting manner. It should also be able to do Victoriana, Exploration, Frontier Life, and Wild West. Monster hunting will be available in spades for those who want that.
The Gods have both Good and Evil aspects: All of them. None is pure evil or pure good. Religious characters tend to follow a single aspect of the deity and not the deity's entire portfolio. This is why good and evil clerics and paladins exist. The gods are fine with people only worshipping one aspect of them.
Zombie Infestation: Not a complete apocalypse. It's been mostly contained in one region of the area between Cocora and Alexa. However, that area has some very valuable things, so people still live there, despite all the undead. Cue a great many adventure hooks for low level parties.
Nations: So far, I have five nations planned for the North American inspired continent and am still brainstorming for the Australian inspired one. All the nations below are "North American". Unless otherwise specified, assume a mixed population of "British" and numerous immigrants.
Markland is on the east coast, and the first colonial nation ever established on the continent. It was settled by the "Norse", who discovered the continent, and they, along with natives, make up most of the population. Markland is located halfway down the east coast, and has hot/warm summers and cold winters.
Stornland is located in the northern area of the west coast, directly east of northern Cocora. It is a heavily populated and mountanous area, with a small but proud and hardy population. Mostly "Norse" and native.
Alexa is in the middle of the continent's south. It is an empire with a proud and independant people, who bear a vicious loathing of strong central government and marked distrust of their leaders, yet are incredibly proud of their national identity and unwilling to change it in the least.
Malvara is located south of Alexa and Cocora, sharing land borders with both nations. It is a land of deserts, mountains, and jungles, and was once the seat of a now fallen native empire. Nowadays, it is a very aristocratic empire, with the trappings of royalty and other social status being of utmost import. They have a tendency to be a bit full of themselves, as well.
Cocora is on the west coast of the continent, and is a country of majestic mountains, shimmering beaches, thick redwood forests, and desert. It is a very new nation, with a slightly socialistic government and goal of being a nation where everyone has the basic opportunities they deserve.
kelsey, you missed the 'D' in all of your PowDer descriptors.
kelsey, you missed the 'D' in all of your PowDer descriptors.
The implications are unfortunate.
There must be black powder. It has a certain majesty to it that I want to import into Pathfinder.
One thing I am doing is getting rid of the Gunslinger for this setting. At first glance it seems like a perfect fit, but I feel that, in a setting where guns are simple weapons and everybody has one, it's rather redundant. Instead, I'm stripping the weapon and armor training abilities from the Fighter and giving it the ability to use Grit. In a gun heavy setting, weapon and armor training abilities are unnessesary. I may also make some new grit abilities that don't require a gun to use. Basically, the Fighter and Gunslinger are being merged to a degree. I just need to get my copy of Ultimate Combat mailed up to my Job Corps center, and I can get on that. Shouldn't be particularly difficult.
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If you are looking at 19th Century Australia, I suggest you research the following events and people for inspiration.
Bushrangers:
Ben Hall .
There are literally 100's more
Yea, Australia has a lot of very interesting legends and history. It also has a wonderfully fascinating culture and natural environment. That's why it's something I want to cover. It has much potential to be an amazing place to adventure.
Plus, I want to play an Aussie in Pathfinder.
Here is a list of ideas for my campaign setting:
Black Powder Fantasy: It must be done, and who else but me? Put your swords, bows, and armor away, and pick up a boomstick. Melee combat will still happen, but shooting is more common. Guns will use black powder alchemically treated to repel moisture, load from the breech, and have internal magazines or cylinders, reloaded by cocking the hammer. Aesthetically, they should look like rifle-muskets or revolvers. These guns should have a somewhat fantasized appearance, but damned if I know how to make that look.
This could be a lot of fun! Of course since everyone and their brother is getting touch attacked to death you wouldn't really worry as much about armor as you would dex or deflection bonuses. It would be very old westy, with a lot of people playing gunslingers, dual classed gunslinger rogues, or dual class gunslinger fighters. The fact that you could have dual classed clerics/ gunslingers and mage/gunslingers really makes this idea neat. You can ignore the alchemically treated black powder and just make it a plot point that the party has to keep it dry, just like the wild west did. I'm sure they'll find a way. Also for melee combat, you could write up all sorts of gun/melee weapon choices like a gunblade or something.
North America is great, and so is Australia: I use fantasy analogues of real areas, kind of like Golarion, Dragon Age, and Ace Combat do. For these analogues, North America and Australia stand as the biggest sources of inspiration. The two continents I am currently writing up resemble them quite a bit. That's not to say that Europe, Africa, South America, or Asia will never get analogues (Great Britain, Ireland, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, parts of China, Arabia, and Persia are the most likely), but not right now. I'm focusing on North America and Australia.
This really isn't so much a 'campaign' as it is an 'idea'. It's a good idea, but it's not really saying "Yes, here's the plot." Remember, the world is freaking huge, so if you're going to write up the world, be prepared for writer's cramp.
Nineteenth Century Themes: Pathfinder's Alchemist class is based off of Nineteenth Century horror fiction. Pathfinder's Alchemist class is the most flavor-fully delicious base class in the game. I happen to love 19th century horror, so the Alchemist's flavor was much appreciated. Though this isn't a pure horror setting, it should be able to handle 19th century horror in a very thematically fitting manner. It should also be able to do Victorian, Exploration, Frontier Life, and Wild West. Monster hunting will be available in spades for those who want that.
I'm certain this has been done before. I believe it's called "Call of Cthuthlu" or something like that. While using the setting of COC mixed with the classes of PF could be interesting, this is still a huge project.
The Gods have both Good and Evil aspects: All of them. None is pure evil or pure good. Religious characters tend to follow a single aspect of the deity and not the deity's entire portfolio. This is why good and evil clerics and paladins exist. The gods are fine with people only worshiping one aspect of them.We did this exact thing in one campaign! It was actually reasonably awesome. We had four deities. Celure, most commonly associated with love was also lust, envy, and the other gamut of emotions. Myer was all things dealing with civilization. Kelvara the deity of things nature. Finally, Amalgon, the deity of all things conflict related. All the deities represented the good and bad aspects of things, so while Celure was goddess of love, she also represented lust and more unpleasant aspects. Amalgon could be war, protection, haven, etc. It was a very neat concept. The gods also left most of the world alone, rarely manifesting except in rare circumstances. Cults from any deity were allowed to visit and we fought the occasional Thor groupie or Asmodeous worshiping villain, but most people worshiped one or all the primary gods.
Zombie Infestation: Not a complete apocalypse. It's been mostly contained in one region of the area between Cocora and Alexa. However, that area has some very valuable things, so people still live there, despite all the undead. Cue a great many adventure hooks for low level parties.This campaign would be called, "Everyone play a cleric or paladin." I can't imagine that fighting endless hordes of low CR zombies would be that exciting. It could be interesting to find out why it's still happening, perhaps the astral location where all those undead got stuck is flooding onto the world. I think it was in 2e planescape, bone cloud or boneyard or something. That could also account for higher levels of undead showing up, but expect your players to get undead bane weapons asap and start trouncing your encounters with their undead only spells.
Nations yada yada...
You already mentioned this earlier. Still a neat idea, but seriously, if you want to play an Aussie that bad, just have the damn accent and say you come from an island in the south. Hell, tell everyone you were borne to a whore on a prison island if you really want the experience!
No insult to Australia intended. It looks like a wonderful place...
-Tundra
Okay, I'm gonna bite a post an campaign idea a friend help me with.
Damsels and Dragons
The oldest children of important humans(wealthy merchants, guild leaders, nobles, diplomats, etc) having disappearing all across the continent for years. The last time any were seen they were talking to a very old man. He seemed a bit weird, but completely harmless and everyone liked him after just a short while. Over time, he's become a legend.
In truth, this 'old man' is a gold dragon who has gone senile in his old age and has come to believe that humans are the best of the non-dragon races. He's been collecting them because of their lineages, considering them the 'best of the best'. Having been working on this for the past few decades, he already has a enough 'grandchildren' on his island for a village. He plans to reveal his better human(humans with the advanced template) in the next hundred years, and if they aren't accepted as the rulers they were raised to be, he knows just what he'll do. War.
The PC's, of course, are to find a way to stop him.
Okay, I'm gonna bite a post an campaign idea a friend help me with.
Damsels and Dragons
The oldest children of important humans(wealthy merchants, guild leaders, nobles, diplomats, etc) having disappearing all across the continent for years. The last time any were seen they were talking to a very old man. He seemed a bit weird, but completely harmless and everyone liked him after just a short while. Over time, he's become a legend.In truth, this 'old man' is a gold dragon who has gone senile in his old age and has come to believe that humans are the best of the non-dragon races. He's been collecting them because of their lineages, considering them the 'best of the best'. Having been working on this for the past few decades, he already has a enough 'grandchildren' on his island for a village. He plans to reveal his better human(humans with the advanced template) in the next hundred years, and if they aren't accepted as the rulers they were raised to be, he knows just what he'll do. War.
The PC's, of course, are to find a way to stop him.
This would probably make a better 3-4 session plot line than a whole huge campaign. It's kind of a quirky idea, but it doesn't sound like it would be that urgent or pressing of a matter. Yes nobles are getting kidnapped and someone would have to find them, but after finding the village full of the best of the best what's to stop the party from just convincing the dragon that they could train these super humans or that they are good breeding stock. Sounds like an ideal village to settle down... oh and they have sometime in the next hundred years to stop him.
The idea is interesting, just difficult to work with. I really have no idea how you'd make that work as a long term level 1-20 campaign.
-Tundra
Okay, I'm gonna bite a post an campaign idea a friend help me with.
Damsels and Dragons
The oldest children of important humans(wealthy merchants, guild leaders, nobles, diplomats, etc) having disappearing all across the continent for years. The last time any were seen they were talking to a very old man. He seemed a bit weird, but completely harmless and everyone liked him after just a short while. Over time, he's become a legend.In truth, this 'old man' is a gold dragon who has gone senile in his old age and has come to believe that humans are the best of the non-dragon races. He's been collecting them because of their lineages, considering them the 'best of the best'. Having been working on this for the past few decades, he already has a enough 'grandchildren' on his island for a village. He plans to reveal his better human(humans with the advanced template) in the next hundred years, and if they aren't accepted as the rulers they were raised to be, he knows just what he'll do. War.
The PC's, of course, are to find a way to stop him.
Forget not Hermea.
Hmmm looking through some of the other boards, I'm thinking I should open this one up for "I have a neat character concept, what do you guys think?"
Characters are campaign ideas after all!
-Tundra