RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I recommend that people who frequently GM should sit at a few tables with the pre-gens. At some point, you're going to have new players at the table, and it'll be important that one of you knows how to run the character. (The fighter's sheet is actually a little tricky. I keep running into players who have him fight two-weapons, but use the stats for each weapon on its separate, single-use line.)
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Part of my objection to using established Golarion / PFS NPCs as PCs is philosophical.
It's not a question of wrecking somebody else's game. It's a question of: I don't think someone should try to turn Torch, or Baron Jacquo Dalsine, or Drendle Dreng, or any other established NPC into their own character. Play Dreng's nephew, or one of Torch's half-orc guards, or Dalsine's body-double stand in. Likewise, I've seen PCs who are Baltwin's orphans, or one of the aasimar acolytes from inside the Hao-Jin tapestry. That builds the campaign's flavor into the PC's background without conscripting a memorable NPC for the player's private use.
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just run some Silverhex gamesWhile the rest of us are playing Pathfinder, Kyra is playing Paranoia.in the "Year of the Shadow Lodge" special, the bad guy used a magical widget to break himself into dozens of duplicates, each of different power and experience. I'm assuming that the same thing happened with the popular iconics.
In a world with clone, simulacra, doppelgangers, mirrors of opposition, and so on, I would find it easy to believe in Thomas Riker.
I thought it was Ezran who was playing Paranoia. Kyra is just amongst the most popular.
Someday, I half expect to GM a party consisting of Ezran, Kyra, Harsk and Merisiel. I would also expect Kyra to be the sole survivor.
Just did. 5 players:
Merisiel, RogueKyra, Cleric
Kess, Brawler
Adowyn, Hunter
Quinn, Investigator
It was interesting, especially with the strengths and weaknesses of the party, what with Quinn blasting away the Knowledge DCs, as long as they were trained, and the gaps in trained knowledges available to the party, including the lack of Spellcraft...
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Part of my objection to using established Golarion / PFS NPCs as PCs is philosophical.
It's not a question of wrecking somebody else's game. It's a question of: I don't think someone should try to turn Torch, or Baron Jacquo Dalsine, or Drendle Dreng, or any other established NPC into their own character. Play Dreng's nephew, or one of Torch's half-orc guards, or Dalsine's body-double stand in. Likewise, I've seen PCs who are Baltwin's orphans, or one of the aasimar acolytes from inside the Hao-Jin tapestry. That builds the campaign's flavor into the PC's background without conscripting a memorable NPC for the player's private use.
I agree completely Chris.
Detailed, established personae should be left to the authors and not taken on as a personal identity for a number of reasons, not the least of which is continuity. Also it is generally unfair to others at the table to essentially say, "Hey, you need to accept the fact that my character is actually this important NPC you have been dealing with in x number of scenarios and books, because I say so".
With a minor character/NPC that you are taking the time to flesh out and give a story to, that is one thing, but usurping the reigns of someone detailed and established always strikes me as a bit presumptive and imposing.
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or one of Torch's half-orc guards,
Da Boss doesn't like us quitting....but I get yelled at less when I stab people in the throat for Pathfinder...as long as they don't need talking to first.
Stabby
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I think just about any level of fluff is fine so long as the player doesn't try to leverage it for mechanical benefit. As a GM, if i sit down with such a player, at least I know he's familiar with the world or has read up on it, or possible has some awareness of story lines, all of which implies that he's that finest of all players: one who pays attention.
Without divulging spoilers (directly), I have a character who's a member of a certain far-northern aristocratic family - a member of which was (possibly) spared in a Year Zero scenario, thus granting the favor of that family. My logic was that one of my high-level characters had that year Zero boon, and when I retired the character, it happened that she took on a young ward - a member of said aristocratic family - and said ward is now a PC. So it's a background which played logically from my characters' lives, even as it's bound to "in game" specifics.
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Designer
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I think just about any level of fluff is fine so long as the player doesn't try to leverage it for mechanical benefit. As a GM, if i sit down with such a player, at least I know he's familiar with the world or has read up on it, or possible has some awareness of story lines, all of which implies that he's that finest of all players: one who pays attention.
Without divulging spoilers (directly), I have a character who's a member of a certain far-northern aristocratic family - a member of which was (possibly) spared in a Year Zero scenario, thus granting the favor of that family. My logic was that one of my high-level characters had that year Zero boon, and when I retired the character, it happened that she took on a young ward - a member of said aristocratic family - and said ward is now a PC. So it's a background which played logically from my characters' lives, even as it's bound to "in game" specifics.
Or for instance, Linda's sorceress Aspexia Thrune (dozens of unexplained fatalities away from the actual succession of course) made sure to grab the Thrune social boon when it showed up in a scenario, by GMing it I think, and so she has a legal mechanical advantage to back it up. Similarly, my 10,000 year old lore oracle has high enough Knowledge (history) by design so that I can say "Look, Lazeril lived in Haruka, so he knows its name, but if you aren't comfortable with waiving the skill check, I totally understand. That'll be a 50 on the check if necessary." That way, I get to be happy that Lazeril knows the things he should know, and the GM gets to be happy that the backstory wasn't providing an extra edge.
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...That'll be a 50 on the check if necessary." That way, I get to be happy that Lazeril knows the things he should know, and the GM gets to be happy that the backstory wasn't providing an extra edge.
Only a 50? Pshaw, I had a player role an 84 Knowledge(History) on me last week.. at level 5. He's been reported to have rolled >100 on a Knowledge(Local) check in the past. Legalistic Lore Oracle/Mindchemist and some other bonuses that I don't remember.
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Designer
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...That'll be a 50 on the check if necessary." That way, I get to be happy that Lazeril knows the things he should know, and the GM gets to be happy that the backstory wasn't providing an extra edge.Only a 50? Pshaw, I had a player role an 84 Knowledge(History) on me last week.. at level 5. He's been reported to have rolled >100 on a Knowledge(Local) check in the past. Legalistic Lore Oracle/Mindchemist and some other bonuses that I don't remember.
Yep, a 50. Why expend time (for the trance) and resources on it to make it higher when 50 is going to be enough for sure?
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I have a confession: one of my PCs in PFS is practically stolen from the NPC Codex. The entry for the fighter Flenta Casalina struck me as so much fun that I couldn't help but take it and make it my own. The fighter who wants to become a wizard but makes up for her lack of magical potential by using magical devices to feign magic talent sounded like roleplay gold and super useful too!
Unfortunately I have been having difficulty naming her anything other than Flenta Casalina, the name just fits her too well.
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Wish it wasn't so expensive though.Did you think it was going to be cheap to get into the Blackros Family?
Yes when it has so little to offer mechanically. I love these roleplaying aids, don't get me wrong, but that thing is going to languish on the sheet for quite a while until I can offset the PP hit my character's raise dead fund will take. And he's just the kind of power mad cretin that boon was written for!
Now the ship vanity, that's a bargain. Nothing cooler than being able to replace every nameless, often pre in medias res, ocean vessel with your own ship.
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I am still slightly curious that it has no other requirements. You are assumed to either marry in or get adopted. Which gives me the horribly funny mental image of the Charisma seven point this way at enemy characters married to a Blakros.
Sounds like the perfect tool for the family, easily manipulated and pointed at the correct enemy by a more intelligent wife, who dallies with more charismatic fellows while he is away Pathfindering.
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I forget can you actually get a petty Kingdom in PFS? The other option is of course marrying a Pathfinder to get back at mother. There must be more Victorian era novels to mine for bad ideas.
There are boons to let you get territory in the River Kingdoms. If you want to call your land there a 'kingdom', who is to stop you?
