I would like to see if there is interest in this adventure, or if it seems too complicated for a PbP adventure. This could be a recruitment thread, but it very well might turn out not to be one instead, thank you
A short adventure (with a long preamble) for a well established party.
The Premise –
You and your friends have seen better times. You’ve been together since your very first adventure. In those times, you worked well together, supported each other, made friendships, built bonds, and grew to understand each other’s idiosyncrasies. That was then.
This is now. It seems like one disaster after another has befallen your group. You’ve been lost, run out of supplies, spent all of the monies you’ve earned and squandered the treasures you’ve found. Tensions grow. What once was calculated and efficient now falls apart into bickering and misunderstanding. And it all began when one of you was left behind.
Whose fault was it? No one really knows. You don’t often talk about it. He was a friend, a companion, a simple but courageous fighter, and he was always determined to see the best in the rest of you. But now he is gone, left as dead when the rest of you had to run. You could have gone back, maybe you should have gone back, but you didn’t and now you can’t. It has been six months, and things are only getting worse.
But can there be redemption? Can you learn to work together again? Is there a task that might re forge the bonds that were broken?
Yes. Yes there can be redemption. You always believed it, and now it has come.
You have been wandering the fringes of civilization searching, hoping, waiting, and now you have come to a small village with a big problem.
Just outside of the village is a vast swamp, and in the center of this swamp is another temple. It is a temple similar to “that” one, where it all went wrong. Like that other temple, this one has fallen into ruin and disrepair, and has become the lair of a young Green Dragon.
The villagers have told you that her name is Ophelia Tharenaxeen. She has recently made her presence known. She is rallying the denizens of the swamp to worship her and rebuild the temple in her name.
If this is, as it seems to be, a temple like the one where you left behind your friend, then it must have the same kind of pool, the pool that grants a wish, at a terrible price. He paid that price, and you all benefitted from the wish.
Can what was done, be undone?
I would like to try and run a short adventure for a party of six to eight characters of fifth level. This adventure will have limited and unique role playing opportunities in that there will be practically no interaction with Non-Player Characters. Instead, you will be playing characters of a party that has suffered several setbacks and one significant loss. You now distrust each other. In all the time you’ve been together, you’ve never really gotten to know one another. Each of you has secrets, and you have preferred to keep them, but now, overcome with guilt, each of you knows that this opportunity may be your last chance to redeem yourselves and make right what was done wrong.
In this Adventure, your characters will begin at the entrance to a ruined temple. Each of you will be given opportunities, through private messaging, to establish exactly what your version of the story that has led you to feel that you must redeem yourself, now, is. There will be an official version of this story, but no single character will know all of those details and each of you will believe, initially, that your version is the truth.
Through the course of the adventure, which will be intense, you must interact with other players, confrontationally, to get at the truth.
Your goal is to reach the mystical pool of Cour Do’Nall, a magical pool located in the lowest level of a strange temple where, if a special sacrifice is made, a wish can be granted.
When you begin you are only vaguely aware of what you might need to do to be granted this wish, and you are not certain you know exactly what your wish should be, but you feel compelled to seek this solution to the problem that plagues your conscious.
Your party, once it is established, must reach the pool together, all of you, in order for you to “win”.
Here are some of the mechanical Details
The Party –
Players should submit a fifth level character created under the following guidelines
Ability Scores: Characters should be built using a 24 point buy, no ability score should be below 7 after application of racial modifiers
Character Race: Characters may be of any race listed in the PRD as “Core”, “Featured”, or “Uncommon”, but should be land dwelling and air breathing. Alternatively, a custom race can be selected with the following build restrictions: 12 RP, 3 traits per category
Character Class: All classes of the PRD are permitted
Wealth: Each Character will begin with gear valued at only 4,000 gold pieces.
Experience: you begin at exactly half way between fifth and sixth level on the Fast leveling track. Experience will be awarded every “Game Day”.
Difficulty: This will be a VERY challenging adventure for a fifth level party.
The Wish: As part of the character creation process, each player will be asked to define a “wish” that has been granted to them that provides a benefit to them and also has created a “Drawback” that affects their character in some way. These specific features will be discussed in detail in the discussion thread of this game.
Posting Conventions: I’m not so good at establishing firm rules for posting conventions. I can typically post once per day, am running a few games, and can be unpredictably ornery and at times very silly. If this approach is not one you are comfortable with, then this game is probably not for you.
The time necessary to establish the characters and the “story” behind this adventure may be long and only players interested in this kind of creative process should apply.
You should be willing to engage other players in conversations that are intense and require only marginal GM interaction.
House Rule #1:
Perception is now an Intelligence based Skill
Sense Motive, as a skill is replaced by (and becomes a use of) a new Skill called
Intuition which is a Wisdom based Skill.
You can use both these skills untrained.
Intuition is a Class Skill for all Divine Magic using classes, Fighters, and Barbarians
Perception is a Class Skill for all Arcane Magic using classes and Rogues
Both Skills can be used to collect information about what the Characters are experiencing, and for the most part will reveal the same kinds of information, but you might get to that information in a different way depending on which skill you rely on. You can always choose to use both skills in any situation when you think you need to, but HERE IS the catch.
You have to call one Skill out and roll on it, before the other. So either you rely on Perception first, followed by Intuition, or Intuition first followed by Perception (if you want to use both skills). A failure or success on the first can affect the second. So you must wait for the results of the first role to be described, before you make the second. Be careful of your choices.
Perception will tell your character what he/she can deduce based upon the “smarts” you have and what you see, hear, smell, touch, or tastes, it tells your character that what he/she perceives IS what it appears to be. It can even clue you in as to how “hurt” a monster is in a combat situation.
Intuition will tell your character what he/she feels is “up with” any particular situation based on your characters past experiences and a gut feeling that something IS NOT what it appears to be.
Wow, that's quite a setup. I can't believe no one has responded to it yet. As you can see, I'm totally new to the Paizo forums. In fact, I signed up just a few minutes ago, having been idly browsing, because what you have here sounded too interesting not to comment on. I'm fairly experienced in PBP and am intrigued by the idea.
I'd have to give it some thought before deciding whether or not to commit, but it certainly sounds like something special. Kudos to you for your creativity.
Hmm....dotting for interest. I think Half-Dragon/Human Sorcerer (LA+2, which I'm ok with if you are), with undead bloodline (living draco-lich anybody :D). I GM one game at minimum of 1 post per day, so I should be able to keep up with 1 per day, possibly more. I work 3rd shift though, so I hope that's not a problem. I will say that because of this sometimes I only manage to update my campaign every other day.
I'll think of a write up soon, and bring it here. I'll also give this thread to my group, if any of them have interest in it. I would love to see this one get going.
EDIT:Actually, since I'm here, here's the stats.
Str: 12
Dex: 15
Con: 12
Int: 12>14 with Human +2.
Wis: 11
Cha: 16
Now with the Half-Dragon Template, the stats change to
If I am to play, I would likely ask to play a kitsune sorcerer, because I have one at that level who I think would work for a game like this.
From what I've seen of the Paizo forums, I believe you're right that this game might be too complicated for them. Have you ever tried Myth-Weavers? A game there can be much more organized, with more complex tools for post formatting and immersion. Example: this game.
I was one of the very early people at DnDog (DnD OnLineGames) and remember when the great "Myth-weavers" debacle took place. Unfortunately, I have a situation with "some" computes I use that I cannot access those sites as often as I can this one, so I've sort of made my home here.
I understand DnDog is no more and is under a new name, but i don't think I know what it is.
This does sound interesting, though I'm curious about what exactly we could wish for, maybe you could give a few examples, or can a character wish for anything?
I've never heard of the debacle you mention, but then, I've only been involved in PBP games for a couple of years, so I guess I wouldn't have.
A couple of questions:
1. The one wish each of us made before - that was in the temple where our companion was left to die? And that was quite recent, only a matter of months ago?
2. Is this adventure set on Golarion?
3. When you say the adventure is VERY challenging, do you mean that in the sense of it being VERY lethal?
I've never heard of the debacle you mention, but then, I've only been involved in PBP games for a couple of years, so I guess I wouldn't have.
A couple of questions:
1. The one wish each of us made before - that was in the temple where our companion was left to die? And that was quite recent, only a matter of months ago?
2. Is this adventure set on Golarion?
3. When you say the adventure is VERY challenging, do you mean that in the sense of it being VERY lethal?
Yes the wish was granted from the "pool" in the other temple, a Temple you cannot go back to (and you will each understand why you cannot go back to that other temple as the game is developed). It has been six months since you left that temple.
It could be set on Golarion, as long as no one asks me too many questions about Golarion (not well versed in Golarion lore).
It will be challenging in that the encounters will be almost constant, and yes it could be lethal, but it will also be difficult in that skills will be put to the test of tier limits (assume a typical game has rolls that succeed on 8 or 10 or better, this one will be much closer to 16 or higher, or require cooperative efforts to reach success)
The wish will be determined by negotiation. We will work out things that give each character a special ability that the player is happy with, and we will determine a side effect of the wish that affects the character in a unique way but does not put them in an unplayable format.
I am deeply interested in this. I just need to come up with a pure Paizo concept. Most of my characters have at least a bit of third party fun in them.
EDIT: Although technicality not on the PRD, would you object to a Thundercaller Bard? I have one who is currently gameless and could be brought up to fifth level easily enough.
I am quite interested in this and the more I read it the more I think I got the perfect guy to play in this kind of game. He is an Aasimar Paladin who has essentially fallen, been stripped of his powers and forsaken by his deity. In his unconnected state he is very emotional and completely unable to hear his god speak. Instead he quietly hears another voice that he slowly starts to listen to and come to accept, granting him a different form of power than he had before (he is a paladin of the holy light, he loses all spellcasting and instead gains a nimbus of light ability). He is currently lvl 3, graceless (effectively) and about to accept his new patron at level 4, sadly he never made the cut for the campaign I built him for. Extrapolate him to 5th level and he would be perfect :D He lost his spellcasting and contact with his god when he ran and left a teammate behind, filled with remorse over it, I imagine a little moody, can go for long periods of time (he has about 9 lay on hands abilities at that point) and can nova on a single target with the best of them if need be (what was it? A potential 11d6 plus charge damage or something like that?).
I am heading out right now, but Ill get something up tonight, also I post frequently, easily multiple times a day and look forward to this idea coming to fruition :)
Oh I forgot, a question about that wish, is this a wish we have right now or a wish we will get when we make it to the pool in this new dungeon?
For now dotting for interest.
I have to think on a fitting character concept...
Hmm, whats you stance on Gunslingers? You wrote all classes ok, but decided to ask since many people dislike them.
While I've never played one so far, it might make an interesting contrast having that one guy using (and jealously guarding) the still almost occult secrets of black powder weapons.
Maybe even making the wish to uncover the secrets of gunsmithing, though they might be already to common in Golarion for that.
Yes the wish was granted from the "pool" in the other temple, a Temple you cannot go back to (and you will each understand why you cannot go back to that other temple as the game is developed). It has been six months since you left that temple.
It could be set on Golarion, as long as no one asks me too many questions about Golarion (not well versed in Golarion lore).
It will be challenging in that the encounters will be almost constant, and yes it could be lethal, but it will also be difficult in that skills will be put to the test of tier limits (assume a typical game has rolls that succeed on 8 or 10 or better, this one will be much closer to 16 or higher, or require cooperative efforts to reach success)
Thank you. I'm going to have to give this some thought.
One other question: isn't 7-9 characters (counting our missing member) rather large for an adventuring party? And also perhaps a bit ambitious for a PBP that will depend on getting highly complex characters to work together?
As someone who has already GM'ed quite a few games on different boards I have to say that 7-9 for an extended time is quite hard to manage, but since one usually looses quite a few people early on it is not a bad decision.
Likewise, I have GMed a few times and the prospect of running a game for a party that size would terrify me, even if it were just a normal dungeon adventure.
I don't think it's wise to go with a larger group, on the expectation that a few people will leave. Because what happens if they don't?
Putting my interest in for this! Sounds very intriguing ... I think this would be an awesome game to try out a rogue. Haven't yet made a rogue for PF yet.
I'm having a little trouble adding up some of the skill bonuses you have, but I'm sure there is something I'm missing.
I'll re-do them when both eyes are open, to be certain, but I get two languages per point in linguistics. Most likely I just botched them because it was late.
EDIT: OK, re-did the skills. I get a +2 point bonus to Linguistics and Sense Motive for the Aasimar trait Truespeaker, and two languages per point of linguistics (hence how I speak everything). There were several screw ups, mostly where I'd changed a stat and forgot to change the skill around, and I forgot I didn't get the Skiller Aasimar Trait since Truespeaker replaces it and added that as well. And a couple of 'What the hell?' ones where I have no idea exactly what happened.
All the skills should work now. I'll finish gear and do her early history a bit later.
A couple of questions, though;
I assume HP is calculated as Max for Level one then average for the other levels?
Also, two traits?
Are you using the new Drawbacks stuff from Ultimate Campaign? I probably won't bother, but it would be interesting.
Here a first crunch version of my gunslinger. I also have the background crudely planned but the complete implementation will depend on how that whole wish/lost someone thing works out and I thus would prefer to wait with formulating it.
Here a short abstract:
Spoiler:
He comes from a mountain village where hunting with bow was common and archery the pride of every man, but he was always to weak to properly string a bow and had to use weakly crossbows. But one day he heard tales of a new invention in some distant land, that almost magically fired bullets. At first he tried to gather stories and invent one himself. After years of trying he finally managed to create working black powder, only to fail miserably trying to fire a shot, burning down his uncles house in the process.
Blaming that on the "new weapon" (and probably fearing it could diminish their skills with the bow) his hometown outlawed firearms. So he stubbornly went out to search for a more stable implementation and became an adventurer....
Also which, intuition or perception, does a gunslinger get? For now I guessed intuition.
And I might take some fighter level next, kinda feat starved right now.
Alright, I'll stick my nose in for at least interested. Not quite sure what sort of a character I'd like, my instinct is to run wild with prospects like 24 point buy, level 5 and wishes, but trying to restrain that to approach from a more RP heavy perspective. Reviewing Advanced Race Guide, a Samsaran Reincarnated Oracle sounds interesting, so I'll look at that :)
Basic background has been put together... not sure on how I will proceed with the wish issue yet. I'd like to get more info on it before I start making my decision on that.
Well we've had a few interested players, and a couple of character ideas
AdamantSunrise – Kitsune Sorcerer
NarcoticSqurl - ?
Dunebugg - ?
Dylos - ?
Shadowyfox - ?
Billybrainpan - ?
JonGarrett – Azana – Aasimar Thundercaller bard
Gobo Horde - ?
Teller of Tales - ?
Faelyn – rogue
Peanuts - ?
thank you, everyone, but that's only one alias and a couple of stated ideas, so well keep this discussion going until we have at least five alias' before we move to opening a discussion or game thread, okay?
Faelyn here! Alias setup. I'll work on fleshing out his background tonight at work. Also... just FYI my wife will be giving birth to our son very soon. So if I don't post something for a day or two... that's why. Still very interested!
Intriguing, too bad the wishes, backlash requires a PC c to still live, I actually have a character that would be perfect for this campaign...
With only a little experience GMing; and agree with other suggestions, that the number of spots should be the highest you can handle, even if you accept, less than ideal numbers all you can always recruit more later.
As to experience, I have a little, and a critical component of this adventure is characters interacting with each other as much as they interact with the setting so I am sure seven to nine players will be fine as long as no one is impatient and we can all post once per day.
So here is first exposure to Raphael the angelic Aasimar.
He still needs a feat, items and a backstory that I have written on paper but not gotten into code yet.
Still, it should be enough to say "I'm here!"
This will not be a campaign, so the opportunity to recruit later won't be there. What character did you have in mind that would be perfect?
I was thinking this...
A hobgoblin Gunslinger who went rogue fron his tyrannical people and is trying to find s way to redeem them (he is chaotic good, ) he also has a lover who was assassinated by some of his kin. He misses her greatly, and may wish for her to return instead.
He is level 8 right now, but the story is fairly solid.
This sounds more than interesting. I recently applied to another game with this character but if he doesnt get in that one then please consider him for this game.
Just a few adjustments for the change of stat point buy and wealth but otherwise ready to rock.
Btw, how long, both in playtime and levels, is this supposed to run?
I have a feeling the time required to get everything in line before the actual dungeon adventure statrs will take about a month, then there will be a Temple complex with three levels(going down) and it is overrun with creatures, and combats can take a long time, so maybe a year of PbP activity to get to the conclusion.
Characters should start at half way between level 5 and 6 on the Fast leveling track, and will probably level to 7 before it is over.
I'm trying hard not to spoiler myself here, but the real story in this game is how each character comes to terms with what happened to them, as a group, in that other temple.
The half-dragon template it is bit hard to swallow, but this is PbP with players who are willing to take on my strange game style so i suppose compromise on my part is needed, and as long as the character is 3rd level it shouldn't be too off from the balance.
The Hobgoblin gunslinger isn't a bad idea, but remember that a big factor in this game is the story of what happened to your friend. I'm not against a heavyt background, but keep room from the development of the character's as a party.
We are getting close to having seven viable characters and I may start sending out messages to your alias to start working on how we get ready to start the game.
OK, count me as fully on board for this game. I'll start working on the ability score adjustments and such. I'm sure the background will need a little work as well.
