Interest check only, not an full recruitment thread.
I have been running a Pathfinder Rappan Athuk game set in the Mwangi for coming up on 2 years, and it has been a blast!
I am looking to add a second table, building off of what has taken place and allowing the second game to flourish in it's own right.
This would be a game of Rappan Athuk adapted on the fly to 5e, set in the world of Golarion, specifically in the Mwangi Expanse near Eleder. Character creation rules would be very straightforward, using the standard stat array and all races and classes in the PHB (without using varient humans). I would pick a party of 4-5 PCs and put others into an alternate rotation should someone drop out or get killed. Starting at 1st level and going, well...who can say? I would certainly want to see just how far things go, so up to 20 isn't out of the question. The game could certianly be quite leathal, though in the Pathfinder version I am running with 6 players (3 martial!) it hasn't really been an issue.
Hundreds of years ago, the Chelish imperial forces of Haliad the First moved to destroy the main Temple of Orcus which was taking root in the Eleder in Sargava. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon lord fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic fighters, clerics and paladins—led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the army of light that followed after them disappear as well. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.
The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill south of the Kaava Lands, a sylvan woodland on the northwest coast of Desperation Bay. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For years, they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.
Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these happenings, the cause of the creatures’ disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Aroden, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again—lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.
For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits, slavers and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”
Would you play this?
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I would want more details of the campaign parameters (level range, expected lethality, etc), but I might be interested.
I've often seen the title "Rappan Athuk" tossed around like it's something famous, but I actually know nothing about it. What's its notoriety?
Good questions Jiggy, I've updated the orignal post to include some more of that information.
This would start at 1st level and go, potentionally, up to 20. There is certainly plenty of content to explore in Rappan Athuk with lots of potential to gain experience and treasure!
Its notoriety comes from its lineage as a megadungeon and an apeal to dungeon-crawlly goodness. The leathality is certainly there and is part of the appeal of the original material. I believe that it may have lost a bit of that leathality in the conversion to Pathfinder, at least the low level stuff. Though, a party of 6 PCs with 3 strong martial types is going to be hard pressed to find CR appropriate challenges. This is the case with the Pathfinder version I am running, but we have been having a lot of fun so far.
I'm interested. I like the 5E system and would love to play in more games that make use of it. As for Rappan Athuk, I've heard lots of good things about it but haven't gotten a chance to really play it--I don't know a lot of specifics. Definitely would love to see this pick up, though, and see what people are thinking of playing.
Hmm. More 5e games to help me get used to the system, and with lethality I've thought long since vanished? What's not to love!
Yeah, I'll throw my hat in the ring. Not entirely sure what I'd play yet.
Interest level......high!
I'm interested. What would your expectations be for posting/post rate?
Expectations of post rate is pretty standard, 1/day more if possible is always better but understandable. Weekends are variable for many people so I tend to go with 'best effort' on those.
How strict are you in enforcing the 1/day post rate? I ask because too often the expectation is 1/day but in reality its 2-3/week and that is far too slow of a game for me.
Color me extremely interested... I'm a big 5E fan, and almost as big of a Necromancer / Frog God fan.
I've had a plan for a female Barbarian floating around in my head for a while, so I'll put that to paper and see how it comes together. If not, Dwarven Priests are my Goto characters... :-).
@GM Niles, I will not be tracking posts via a spreadsheet or anything like that (for example). If I feel like a player's participation is hurting the game play it will be addressed and if it cannot be resolved then the player will get replaced. That said, everyone has up and down times with their posting due to life and I certainly understand that and try to be accomodating.
Also, it has not been asked but I will be using Roll20 to track the mapping most likely.
This sounds fun! I’ll most likely submit an elven ranger from the Ekujae tribe.
It is mostly dungeon crawling, but I do enjoy a bit of RP with the Zelkor's Ferry NPCs, and there is certainly the possibility of learning , expanding and exploring new things because of it.
I will think about the dagger question, not something that has come up much in other games I have run so I'm not sure I feel a compelling need.
Seeing as I'm new to 5e, I'd like to ask.
Would a Champion Fighter, or Totem Barbarian, offer a Hill Dwarf more survivability? My favorite character I'd ever played in 4th (one of only like, 2), was the Mul Juggernaught (Mul, Fighter, Dreadnaught, and that one Adamantine 'something'). I notice the 'tanky' factor has dropped considerably in 5e, so I'm thinking of maybe running my Meat-Wall™ with, if feats are allowed, Sentinel and Polearm Master as a baseline, perhaps Alert, Durable, Tough, and Heavy Armor Master as well.
Would such a build be useful? And is there anything else I should keep an eye out for to help with said build that I'm not noticing?
Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure what character concept I'll find fun in 5e yet. I've got my eye on Warlock, but I've got a character for that lined up for another 5e pbp. For this one, I just felt like something simple.... Walking meatwall of DOOM!
I haven't seen the champion fighter in action, but I can say the bear totem barbarian (also a hill dwarf) is a pretty tough customer! Feats will certainly be in play.
I would agree with Helaman though, pitch something that you are interested in playing and let the rest sort itself out :)
This is GM Niles, I have a dwarf cleric ready to go.
Garnult is an archtypical grumpy dwarf...a walking stereotype.
I'll tweak the background to fit the campaign, and give said grump a good reason for being in the Mwangi Expanse
Oh, I am pitching something I'm interested in. I'm a very big fan of combo Dreadnaught/Juggernaught styled characters. Immense durability, laugh off attacks, and knock people around. My fave martial I've ever played in PF was a Deathless Half-Orc Unbreakable, for instance.
The only other character I'd pitch at this point is more of a build concept. Necromancer 2 for Grim Harvest, then Infernal Bladelock the rest of the way. Regain a bit of HP a few times, +temp HP every enemy dropped. If I knew of another ability that did that, I'd probably try and finagle that in there, lol.