RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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With the new Kingdom building rules out in Ultimate Campaign, a long-gestating idea of mine feels ready to bandy about the forums. The concept is simple, if you're familiar with the often indecipherable, often insane, often soul-crushing PC simulation game Dwarf Fortress.
If you're not familiar with the concepts of Dwarf Fortress, allow me to sum it up:
A company of dwarven explorers set off into unclaimed and unexplored lands to build a settlement for themselves and encounter adversity and adventure along the way.
Dwarf Fortress as a Play by Post in Pathfinder would be much of the same. I would be recruiting a team of 10 players to create 1st level dwarf characters of any class that will become the leaders of a company of explorers. This initial company will venture far from Avistan to the distant land of Arcadia. But, having crossed the treacherous Arcadian Ocean is only the start of this journey, and the wonders of a mythical and largely uncharted continent brings with it many dangers and much excitement.
Dwarf Fortress: The Quest for Arcadia will utilize the Caravan, Kingdom Building and Hex Exploration rules previously highlighted in the Jade Regent and Kingmaker adventure paths. The goal of the campaign will be to trek across the Arcadian wilderness and choose a suitable spot of land to settle and build into a thriving kingdom.
The campaign would run for 1 real-life year and at the end of the year we'll see how successful (or unsuccessful) the settlement became.
Who would be interested in playing in a campaign like that? If enough people are interested I'd likely open recruitment for it sometime in June.
And remember: Losing is fun.
I would also be interested!
I would like to play a Dwarf Gun Tank (gunslinger)
I always loved the idea of dwarves being tinkerers, working with black powder, and wearing tons of armor. As such, this idea would be a ton of fun!
I would go with some crafting skills as well to help us build stuff for our fort and shore up defenses, etc.
I would love this! I can't believe more DnD players don't get sucked into DF. I'd have to go with a miner. Not sure on a class yet, but definitely using a heavy pick. Gotta have miners. Who else can dig out your fortress?
Never played Dwarf Fortress although I have heard of it. However I'd be very keen on an all Dwarven world building game. However I'm hesitant in regard to the number of players.
I don't think a PbP game can handle 10 PCs. The main reasons being:
a) people disappear...
b) the more players the slower games move. Especially in combat this could be a major issue
Any ideas on ho you'd want to tackle these issues?
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Damnit Lucent! I was going to do this! XD I had a very similar plan for when Ultimate Campaign came out to do something extremely similar to this.. and actually, my very first homebrew campaign dealt with setting up a colony on a distant continent.
So count me in! DF is one of my all-time favorite games out there.
Also, while I'm fine with 10 if you end up going this route, how about 7 instead? DF starts off with 7 Dwarves, and it would fit so much better if we had 7 original dwarves instead of 10.
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Also I'm calling dibs on the name Urist. :P
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Never played Dwarf Fortress although I have heard of it. However I'd be very keen on an all Dwarven world building game. However I'm hesitant in regard to the number of players.
I don't think a PbP game can handle 10 PCs. The main reasons being:a) people disappear...
b) the more players the slower games move. Especially in combat this could be a major issueAny ideas on ho you'd want to tackle these issues?
Exactly the reasons why I'd do 10. People drop off, lose interest, disappear. There'd be a posting requirement, and a strict one of once every two days at least. If you don't hold up (or don't give advanced notice of absence) you'd be consumed by the wilderness in typically dwarf fortress fashion, etc.
It will also allow there to be "home" and "away" teams. A full 10 player roster can fill out a large section of the kingdom, and players interested in sticking behind and managing day-to-day kingdom stuff can, while players who are more interested in adventuring can go out and explore the wilderness. I'll have separate threads for different "excursions", so there could be an above-ground exploration team, a spelunking team, and a "home" team once the initial construction site is established.
The "caravan" format at the beginning also allows people who don't want to take their turns to fade into the background of the caravan with other responsibilities (such as if they have to make a planned absence or what-not.)
I would also be interested.
Dwarven Vivisectionist Alchemist here, as per my "Specialsurprise" story a while back on the Dwarf Fortress forums. Backstory is basically well outlined already and it won't take too much to move him over to Golarion.. :P
Skill orientation would be on Knowledge (Nature), Craft (Alchemy), Profession (Brewer) and Craft (Pain and Misery), though by no means will that be it, as he should be able to get 8 skills with the build I'm thinking of. He'll be well muscled (As per Dr. Logem in my story), but he'll only use a little tiny dagger.
Expressing interest with Thorgrund here, a ranger (skirmisher) specializing in war axe/shield.
I can redo numbers when the time comes.
i'll do up my character when the creation guidelines come out.
interested!
Sounds cool. Count me as 'interested' as well.
This sounds extremely cool. I would be very interested in joining up. I'm thinking ranger. Will we have any support dwarves (farmers, craftsdwarves, etc?) or will we have to get by on what the PC's can do alone?
Dot
This sounds extremely cool. I would be very interested in joining up. I'm thinking ranger. Will we have any support dwarves (farmers, craftsdwarves, etc?) or will we have to get by on what the PC's can do alone?
Honestly I hope we have to get by on what the PC's can do, but Rob may have other plans, considering we'll have a Caravan.
Will the floor be lava?
Can we build the 'Screw the wrold!' machine. :)
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Also interested in this game - probably I'm going to go for a dwarven druid or ranger.
Just a word of advice... if your game moves reasonably fast, you probably get roughtly a single AP volume done. So I'd suggest not a fixed-length run, but rather something done by chapters.
Well by the way Rob was describing it, it seemed like it might be like Kingmaker, where it's a major sandbox type campaign. In Kingmaker, its not really a fixed-length run, as it can span a year or fifty, depending on how they want to do it.
Definitely interested.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Just a word of advice... if your game moves reasonably fast, you probably get roughtly a single AP volume done. So I'd suggest not a fixed-length run, but rather something done by chapters.
Right now the "year" limit is just conjecture, but I definitely want to have some form of hard end date, much like the "Let's Play" format of Dwarf Fortress where a game file is shared around multiple players for one in-game year or something of the sort. Nothing is set in stone as far as that is concerned, yet, but it's something I'm interested in pursuing so that there's a definable goal.
As for Crusty's question of survival and getting about by your wits, that's something that is going to be part of the focus, definitely. While you may have a caravan to aid you in these tasks, it will also mean many more mouths to feed and other potential liabilities if they perish. The caravan will be large enough to have the manpower to feasibly build structures and maintain a community until you are able to start integrating "locals" or "pilgrims" if so desired.
Right now I'm sketching out rough ideas for the slice of Arcadia the team is going to be exploring, getting a feel for the kind of geographical region. It's likely going to be Northern Arcaia (analogous to North America) where the campaign begins. Then the task of populating the hexes with encounters and the like, getting a feel for the indigenous peoples/threats, etc.
This may or may not also be set in my "Ruins of Pathfinder" alternate reality, if only so that I can reference this event in future PbP campaigns I run on here. But if I decide to go that route, that'll be something I discuss more in depth later on.
This. Is. BRILLIANT!
Ruins of Pathfinder would be awesome. I'm in Rob's Reign of Winter campaign right now, and let me tell ya, its nuts in an awesome way.
Might make good point story-wise to have a group of Dwarves seek escape from that continent!
Dotting for interest. Will followup once I've got access to my computer again in a day or two.
I've got friends who might be interested as well.
I would certainly be interested in founding a new dwarven outpost. For Torag!
i am interested
bwahahaha.
aha
hehe
hoohoohoo
*ahem*
Sounds awesome. I never could figure out Dwarf Fortress properly, especially farms, they had water and seeds, what more did they want? :s
Anyway, I would be interested in playing a Dwarven Druid seeking to set forth and shape the land to his whimsy, or else an inventor seeking to test out his latest contraption (whatever that might be), who holds an overwhelming (and healthy) fear of fish and/or water.
Hmm, so he's still working on the game then? Heh, I mostly just liked digging out elaborate underground bases and making them pretty, wasn't much good at making it actually work :p
Its his life's work, he's still working on it.
I'm a fan of the Lazy Newb Pack then adding Fortress Defense to it, while also modding my dwarves to allow cannibalism. :3
And if I'm feeling particularly masochistic, I start in an evil biome where everything reanimates. Good times..
Heh, well I haven't actually played it in a couple years. Not sure whether I want to put myself through that again :p
Was fun though :)
Well I can tell you one thing - since you've last played it, they added necromancers, reanimation, and vampire immigrants. The reanimation is particularly brutal.. especially if you're in previously mentioned evil biome where everything reanimates. Horse skin from horses you've butchered, the horse's hair, that dwarves' arm that got lopped off, etc. Everything. Its in my opinion, far more dangerous than the evil glacier people used to speak of.
After a year or two in-game, you'll have an army of corpses shambling around upstairs on the surface; You'll lose most of your immigrants each time (or all of them, unless you've made a good system of entry), who will add to their ranks; You can't have animals indoors, lest one of them reanimates, so that means no meat for your dwarves; Any deaths must be handled with extreme caution, as even a simple death by starvation from an insane dwarf can bring hell in the form of a constantly reanimating zombie. Slashing weapons are off limits, as anything they hack off becomes another animated monster to try and strangle someone. Often, my starting animals I'll lock in a bricked-off-broom closet to await their starvation, death, and reanimation. Brings whole new meaning to the 'monster in the closet' when theres a zombie horse in your closet.
Its fun :3
Sounds crazy :)
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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No spots have been taken yet, just seeing if there was enough interest to even form a recruitment thread.
Answer: There is!
So there'll be a recruitment thread sometime in late June or maybe early July (as I have the whole first week off of work), depending on the prep work I get done in advance.
Aww, that's ages away :s Well, I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for it then.
He has to wait for Ultimate Campaign to come out to get some of the details out, so its understandable :D
I personally can't wait for that book myself.. my players (irl) are always talking about starting up a business or whatnot. Even wanted to start a shipping company in my Skull and Shackles campaign instead of being actual pirates. >.>
Muahahaha, I already have my PDF :p
I would be interested, as well. I am relatively new to the messageboards around here, though, so I beg that you forgive whatever ignorance I will doubtless display. Perhaps a hunter to supply the group with food? Or a beard-y wizardly type? Ultimately, I'm flexible, though, so I can make whatever you guys need.