A World Apart (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

You awaken... slowly you awaken... everything hurts... but that's good right? You could have sworn you died... You try to remember how you died... was it falling into a bottomless pit? That seems to flash through your mind... maybe it was sinking into the mystical waters in that cave... you can't remember... a giant mouth? You shudder, please don't let it have been the giant mouth...

Scattered around are round designs, each no bigger than a single person can fit on. And next to each.. an hourglass six feet tall... the sands spin down... rapidly... yet as fast as they fall... the sands don't seem to vanish down...

This is an interest check for a homebrew campaign. I'm currently running two games here as PBP, and I think I have the bandwidth to do a 3rd. This is going to be a sandbox thing for me, so fair warning up front.

Your character died, or at least, they were fairly certain they died. They could have sworn they did, so your background should contain a classical 'they died, right?' death. The kind that leaves no trace of a corpse, and some outlandish way they could have returned. You know the drill, the person fell off a cliff, everyone saw it, but nobody saw the ledge they hit and cave they rolled into. Or they sank under the ocean and surfaced later somewhere else.... Just don't write the 'how they survived' bit. That's the start of the plot.

Once a character is accepted, they will go to a waiting area, where they awaken (see prologue above). The place looks like an Escher painting, filled with white marble and mist. Sounds carry only a few feet at a time. RP will continue until February 9th, and then I'll pick 4 to 7 characters to continue on. They'll transfer to another gameplay thread.

Things you need to know :

1) Magic will be non-standard, and you won't know what modifications are in place until the game starts. If you are the type who doesn't like surprises, don't play a magic user, or don't play. You have been warned, so no whining.
2) You may work with other applicants to have a common background, but please understand you may or may not get picked as a group.
3) I will try to form a balanced party, but, and I make this point very strongly, I want interesting characters too. So if I get 5 interesting characters who are all bards, and 5 cookie cutters of other classes, I'm going to go with 5 bards.

Crunch Stuff :

You may pick one of the following stat arrays :

I suspect the favored array will be #1. :)

Race - You may choose any race that uses class levels to determine BAB/etc that has been published by Paizo with a full page writeup. That means, any race from any bestiary, any race from ARG with a full page, etc. If you're not sure, ask me first. Caveat : If you want to play a Drow Noble, you don't get any Traits, and you have to take a Drawback to balance it out. I will consider 3rd party races if you can link me to a full blown write up of them somewhere on the internet (this includes 3.5 races if I either have the book, or you can point to them on line). Races that require reduction of class level (which means up to CR 2) will be considered on a case by case basis and require prior approval.

Class - Any Paizo published class, level 3, or combination thereof. You may use the playtest classes, but you are responsible for keeping track of changes, and keeping me informed of them.

Starting Equipment - Nothing other than mundane equipment. Given that, I'm only going to give you a spending limit of 500 gp. Note that magical equipment won't make the transition with you. You may take crafting feats, if you want, but remember, anything magical won't arrive (this includes potions!). Alchemical things will translate. Note that Alchemists are going to be part of the 'magic works weird' caveat above, so be prepared to not whine.

Traits - You may start with two traits, and may reskin traits to make more sense for your character. You may take a drawback to get a third. Some races may be considered too powerful (those with 21 or more build points!), and those will have reduced traits, and may require a drawback as well. Reskinned traits require an approval though (to make sure they don't turn into daffy duck traits).

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Lol, it appears not a lot of interest so far. :)

I am interested, but I have a few questions before I submit a full character.

1) Why rolled arrays? Why not point buy or a few built arrays to choose from. Or have us simply roll our own stats.
2) What is the setting (apart from the Escher painting)?
3) Any alignment restrictions?

My character I have in mind currently is a tiefling arcanist who was publicly executed by drowning by some backwoods villagers after being accused of killing some locals, only the body was never recovered by the rest of his party.

I am interested, tentatively. Is this going to be similar to The Broken Ones? Is it a dungeon-crawl, an RP with some combat, or a standard adventure? Is this a unique setting or an existing one (Such as Pathfinder's Golarion, Oathbound's The Forge, ect.)? Wanting to know so I can decide whether or not to create a character and if so, what to create. I'm leaning towards either creating a character that was a deranged murderer put to the sword who views this whole thing as just some wondrous hallucination, a timid suicidee, a priest wondering if he's in the afterlife, or something similar to these ideas.

Hey tkj'kkt ;)
It does sound interesting. I just need to think in what i would want to play ;)

Greetings Broodsibling! ;)

Goragg Gashnose reporting for duty, Sir!

(He has a Hated Enemy of "Dwarves" currently -- if there are any dwarves chosen for the adventure, I will change it as that would obviously be a problem.)

That's 4 potential candidates! Waiting on more information before rolling out a character.

Also, impressive posting number MDT! I'm surprised I haven't seen you around that much! :P

LOL, I guess interest picked up. I'll try to answer all the questions.

1) Why rolled arrays? Why not point buy or a few built arrays to choose from. Or have us simply roll our own stats.

Personal foible of mine. I dislike point buy because I tend to see the same stat arrays (IE: 18/16/12/10/7/7 or something like that) and everyone ends up being a social cripple unless they have to put points into Charisma.

The argument against rolling, usually, is that it's unfair that person A got 17/16/14/14/12/10 and person B got 15/13/13/11/10/8, because some people are lucky and some aren't.

By rolling the arrays myself, and presenting everyone with the same arrays, I end up with characters that (usually) aren't social cripples and martial characters who aren't the village idiot. In exchange, everyone still has the same starting point, and nobody can be 'lucky' or 'unlucky'.

2) What is the setting (apart from the Escher painting)?

The Escher painting is the 'phase 2' area where everyone RPs and gives me an idea of posting frequency & RP style and character personality. The game, once it starts, is going to be a unique world that I'll be building out as the characters explore it. So, to some extent, it's a fluid world with an overarching game physics setup, but it will be fleshed out during exploration. In other words, I have the rules of how the world works in my mind, but the specifics of continents, layouts, peoples you meet, etc are going to be a bit randomized. We'll be using some of the campaign exploration rules from Ultimate Campaign, along with some of the kingdom building if people decide to go that route, and the down time rules for building up a city if they decide to form a new city to live in (not a bad idea, as there are going to be nasty indigenous life forms.

3) Any alignment restrictions?

I would prefer to avoid evil. If I did allow an evil in, it would be LE, as they can generally at least abide by their words if they give them. :)

My character I have in mind currently is a tiefling arcanist who was publicly executed by drowning by some backwoods villagers after being accused of killing some locals, only the body was never recovered by the rest of his party.

A good example of the type of background death I'm looking for.

I am interested, tentatively. Is this going to be similar to The Broken Ones?

No, you don't have to be a broken one, you could have been a perfectly happy sane adventurer who happen to trip on a root and fall into quicksand. :) You can play someone who needs to redeem his previous life, but it's not a required thing.

Is it a dungeon-crawl, an RP with some combat, or a standard adventure? Is this a unique setting or an existing one (Such as Pathfinder's Golarion, Oathbound's The Forge, ect.)?

I think I answered this above? But it'll be a mix of all, RP, combat, dungeon-crawl, standard adventure, kingdom building, city building, etc.

Wanting to know so I can decide whether or not to create a character and if so, what to create. I'm leaning towards either creating a character that was a deranged murderer put to the sword who views this whole thing as just some wondrous hallucination, a timid suicidee, a priest wondering if he's in the afterlife, or something similar to these ideas.

All of those would work, just make sure the final character can actually work with a team and not be a sociopath. :) Sociopaths don't tend to last long when stranded on islands with sane people, because sane people see them as a danger. :) Of the ones above, I'd probably avoid the deranged murderer put to the sword, his body is firmly known where it's parts were buried. The timid suicidee who leapt off a cliff and woke up could work, priest who is wondering if he's in the after life could work well too (just remember the warning about odd magic system).

Goragg Gashnose reporting for duty, Sir!

(He has a Hated Enemy of "Dwarves" currently -- if there are any dwarves chosen for the adventure, I will change it as that would obviously be a problem.)

Probably a good idea. :) Only issue I see right now is, Goragg has no 'death with missing body' in his background. He would be a fish out of water with no military around. :) Tweak up the background and you're good to go. On a note, this isn't PFS, so no PFS credit I'm sorry to say. Just a forwarning since he's a PFS character.

That's 4 potential candidates! Waiting on more information before rolling out a character.

Also, impressive posting number MDT! I'm surprised I haven't seen you around that much! :P

LOL, thanks. I have been around for several years, but only recently got into the PBP to kill some RL boredom. :) Mostly I post over on the Pathfinder RPG threads.

Awesome! My character will likely be a Half-Elf Bard, so I can have some backup capabilities if the magic gets squicky. I prefer social characters anyway (Exceptions: deranged Tengu Menhir Savant Druid, cold and calculating Drow Vivisectionist Alchemist, and Telekt Fleshwraith,). Or you know, I could always play a Goblin Wizard and scheme to take over this world; TEN TONS OF GREEN HYPERACTIVE TERROR, NOW AN ASTOUNDING 3 FT. TALL! Send my Dire Weasels after everyone! >:D

And you don't mind if we make our backgrounds from the character's perspective do you? It would make it much more... detailed. And does your new rules on magic apply to SU abilities as well? Call me crazy, but I'm willing to try the rules out for the magic system. I can only hope it's not TOO 'magic user=meat popsicle'.

The magic will be.... variant. How hamstrung or powerful magic is really depends on the players. If you're not careful, or if you don't play smart, everyone can end up in the meatsicle department. If you play smart and use your head, you can end up in the magic = world dominion.

And no, your background can be third person, or first person, or any other writing style.

Supernatural abilities will be affected by the magic system. So will Spell-Like abilities. Extraordinary abilities will not. This will give the non-casters some 'extra love' as they can be sure that no matter what, their abilities work.

Sounds like wild magic... I LIKE IT! I fireball the Orc!!! Oh great, it turned into flesh-eating butterflies. It makes me a bit nervous not knowing, but meh, who cares? A little chaos is usually fun. Or is it like Ravenloft's 'if you use magic immorally, you are now officially fudged'?

I have an idea! Do you allow 3PP material? I was specifically referring to Legendary Games. Can we say very dark bardic performances?

Oh and for reference, my character will be the 'utility' character stat-wise: buffs, healing, melee and ranged capability, HEAVILY social, and possibly taking craft feats. Personality-wise, she will likely be the glue that holds the group together, despite her own instabilities.

3PP is on a case by case basis and slightly frowned upon, mainly because I don't have a ton of it available. If it's legally online where I can access it, I will look at it.

Just be sure the character can play well with others. If she alienates every character she meets in the Escher area, she probably won't get out of it.

No problem there, this character is going to be VERY social, friendly, and will go out of her way to keep everyone cohesive, even as her own problems tear at her. The dark bardic performances are merely a reflection of her fractured mind, so to speak. I think LG is on D20PFSRD, but if not, are you amenable to Google Docs? And if not, will you add the PDF to your wishlist?

Nope, LG isn't on D20PFSRD.

If you can send me just the crunch and not the fluff, I believe that is covered under the OGL, either PM or Google Doc link (sent via PM).

So anyway, I'll run either one group of 4-5, or two groups of 4, depending on the amount of interest. So far it's looking like one group of 4-5.

Hey mdt. :) I'm interested if you wouldn't be opposed to having the same player in two different games.

You're more than welcome to apply MP.

I don't mind having the same player in multiple games. I don't advertise them in my games because I don't want people to feel pressured. :) I figure if they're wanting another game, they'll be looking and see my post, and post interest then. :)

Heya Mdt. Saw this and it caught my eye.
At first glance it seems like Torment with the swiss cheese memory effect.

In fact I smell a fun challenge. I'll take another array and stick with it if it's fine else I'll just go with Array 1 (Like you assumed everyone would) No spell casting for me. Just a bloke trying to make his own way and not doing very well.

Thinking of a 2-hander warrior trying to be a farmer and not being very successful at it. Could make him a joke as a running gag.

Died by animal stampede, his home ruined and his neighbours already used to his infamous failures such that it took them a whole month to check on him before discovering nothing was around.

Mdt, ah I see! That's fine. I'll need to get around some WiFi first, however, so I can post it from my laptop. I usually post from my phone, since I don't live at the dorms. The wonders of being a pauperly college student, eh? Still planning on a bard. Oh, and am I getting a John Carter-ish vibe from the intro?

MechaPoet, just wanted to say that name is great! *Robot in a poet's hat stands, outstretched hand holding a book, chainsaw arm at the side* "Wherefore art thou, Fembot 9000? If I but could feast my optical sensor array on your tachyonic carbon frame, it would quicken my quantum particle accelerator. Forsooth, I felt the spark when we brushed by, the static electricity of love. Would you do me the honor of linking to my server? I, Murderbot MKIII, offer you my WiFi!" Sorry, just some ridiculous mental image lol!

Hated Enemy and backstory updated.

@Goragg - You may proceed to the Gameplay Thread for the Prologue, it may be a bit slow until others go there.

@Silver Prince - I would say that John Carter-ish is not incorrect, although I would also say that it would not be quite that cheesy either. :)

@Nightdeath - I'd rather you use one of the arrays already posted. The entire point of it is to give everyone the same starting point, without encouraging people to put in 7/7/7 mentally challenged melee people, or 7/7 weak/clumsy casters. If you end up with a better array than everyone else, that defeats the purpose of 'nobody 'got lucky'' or if it's worse, 'unlucky'. You did see the other two arrays I rolled yes? :) I'm fine with the 'oh woe is me' background, just make sure it's something big that ran over the farm. A herd of elk for example, or a herd of bison. 1200 bison would turn a farm into mulch, along with anyone working it. I'd say it was the fates trying to tell the man he was meant for better things.

Oh, I had a wonderful idea. Half-Drow Bard! Already torn between the dispositions in her blood, her 'death' finally drove her over the edge. Split between her main persona, the kind and gentle Porphyria and her 'other', the seductive but heartless Ophelia, she strides forth to meet her destiny. How would I go about alignment? CN or a shifting alignment of NG and CE? And yes, this is a VERY rough sketch of the character, not a complete backstory obviously. If a BPD character is too much, I can work on something else.

I would say, NN alignment. Sometimes she acts NG, other times CN with evil tendencies. Remember, CE not allowed. :)

Just to give an idea of what I'll be applying with, I was thinking about playing a barbarian/monk (martial artist archetype to avoid alignment clash), who focuses on unarmed attacks and grappling. She'll be a woman betrayed by her husband, who uses her bitter divorce as an opportunity to start a new life as an adventurer. Which is then promptly cut short, or so it would seem.

Grim the Wanderer

Barbarian 1/ Alchemist 2 (ragechemyst, Vivisectionist)
Medium Tiefling / Outsider (Native)
Init +3; Senses Perception +6, Darkvision 60 ft
==DEFENSE==
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +3 dex, +1 natural armor)
hp 33 (2d8+1d12+3)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +2
Armor Chain Shirt, Light
Defensive Abilities Scaled Skin (PFARG 169)
==OFFENSE==
Spd 40 ft/x4
Melee Glaive-Guisarme +5 (1d10+4) 20/x3 brace, reach, see text
Melee Small Claws +5 (1d4+3) 20/x2
Special Attacks Tiefling Claws (PFARG 169), Sneak Attack [1d6] (PFCR 68)
==STATISTICS==
Str 17, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 9
BAB +2, CMB +5, CMD +18
Feats Armor Proficiency (LIGHT / MEDIUM) (PFCR 118), Brew Potion (PFCR 119), Extra Rage (PFCR 124), Iron Will (PFCR 129), Shield Proficiency (PFCR 133), Throw Anything (PFCR 135)
Skills Acrobatics +7 [Jump +11, Jump with running start +11], Bluff +4, Craft (alchemy) +9, Diplomacy +2, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (nature) +7, Perception +6, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +6, Survival +5
SQ Sneaky (PFBty 264), Rage [11] (PFCR 32)
SU Alchemy (PFAPG 26), Extracts (PFAPG 26), Discovery (PFAPG26), Mutagen (PFAPG 26)
MC Rage Mutagen (PFUC 25), Torturer's Eye (PFUM 20), Bleeding Attack (PFUM 20)
Traits Accelerated Drinker (Combat) (PFCo: CEoD 18 - 19), Magical Knack (Magic) (PFAPG 329)
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Elven, Infernal

fluff:

Grim was an orphan who grew up in the area between two different cities

He survived these years because the was a long stronger then the rest of the kids that lived in the streets.

At 16 not really wanting to stay and enlist with the local thief guild
The next night, besotted with cheap ale and languishing in a humor most foul, Grim signed off and became a mercenary
He had been captured fighting in the Yerasol's about a year before the end of the company's engagement contract. Shortly thereafter he was bought from the work camp, a shell of his former robust self. He had lost over 80 lbs from his former 160+ pounds, and sleeping sores and unhealed cuts left his body a mass of scar tissue. He also had a slight limp from an improperly set broken ankle, but he was alive, and on a wagon headed for who knows where....

In the camp: bad treatment, little food, lots of work was the daily routine. The only person who showed some compassion was another prisoner given the task to keep the prisoner in working condition was an alchemist. He took Grim as a helper for the heavy lifting. The alchemist was also task to experiment on corpse and bodies from time to time. They had an escape plan has the alchemist was trying to make a mutagen that could be taken by others. But he was purchased before all that came to happened.

Those who exhibit special knowledge or skill useful to the laborers are treated with respect and given appropriate task. The Alchemist did his best to act as a doctor to all, amongst other "skilled, specialty" workers. My character being very strong and strong willed intervened to rescue the old man from a beating as he refused to carry out an vivisection asked. He insulted the Taskmaster and got himself a great beating (ankle broken) And that is where the relationship began. (in fact not quite as the alchemist has treated him a few times before for whip lashes.) Working with the alchemist they both came in with a plan. He would try to synthese his mutagen extracts in order for non alchemist to be able to use them in order to be stronger so that they would be able to escape one night (And so a team of specialty people was chosen to carry out the Great Escape Plan (think about the WW2 movie). On the day they were going to carry out a bunch of slaver traveling from Crsiol to Yragol stop at the Labor camp. They had suffered a bandit attack and figure they could replenish some of the lost slave / guard with what they could find. He was purchased amongst 10 others. The other were able to carry out the Great escape anyway while my character was taken to a big city and acted as a guard caravan on the way. Once more the caravan was attacked by bandits but the exhaustion was to hard and non of them prevailed and non of them surrendered. They fought to the last men bitterly non wanted to be grough back to to live again in the camp if the bandits took them back there.

As the bandits went around collecting ears for the reward they got less then expected. A body just wasn't there.

@MP

Sounds like a good concept. Go for it.

@Algar

Background is fine as I read it, might want to tighten it up a bit. It still needs a 'but his body wasn't found' bit.

phone rang :) during the final writing phase. (now its done)

OK, looks good. Is Algar the alias you'll be using? If so, proceed to Gameplay and rise up out of the mists 20 or 30 feet from Grog. If not, then alias up and post. :)

Can we even up the array by moving around points?

Like 10/10/14/15/16/17

or 10/12/14/14/15/17

Sorry, again, prefer everyone use the same array, and if changes are made, they won't be.

All done except equipment!

Looking good.

Based on the background, I think I'd suggest moving a skill rank from somewhere into Profession (Merchant). Never know, might come in handy.

Makes sense. Question, though: if I have a rank in a cross-class skill, and it becomes a class skill though multi-classing, I get the +3 bonus, right?

Yep.

Profession is a class skill for almost every class though. It is for Monk certainly.

Tolla's first two levels are in barbarian, though, which is the only class that doesn't get profession, I think. :P

Ah, doesn't matter though, soon as it becomes a class skill, if you have a rank, you get the bonus. Basically the training in the new class awakens new ways to use the training you already have.

Anyway, looks good, go on to the gameplay thread when you finish equipment.

You might want to buy an extra Falchion, I suspect you might run into someone who'd pay dearly for one. :)

Grrrrr.

Sorry, automated defense response Goragg.

Goragg is pissed off.

I, the PC playing him, am pretty amused by the event. :-)

Well, I don't have a spare falchion, but I did end up buying a bunch of different weapons just in case. Tolla usually doesn't need such a shiny crutch to hurt people, though. ;D

I would like to dot my interest. I am quite interested in this game, and I was wondering if perhaps fleshing out the following idea would be worth something:

A fairly reclusive goblin alchemist who 'dies' in a very big explosion due to his lack of caring about safety. The other goblins all just kind of assumed his body had been completely destroyed and proceeded to loot all of his stuff before moving on.

If this is interesting to you, I'll expand on it with a backstory and crunch entry :)

Interested in all sorts of stuff. :) Go for it.

Gniel was a artificer, crafting both mundane and magical items for any who would pay for them in the village he took residence in. But thus was only his day job. He would frequently experiment with his magic, trying to create new spells. One day, however, when conducting one of these experiments, he accidentally set off an explosion. And explosion was heard from his lab, smoke pouring out. Many tried to put out the fire, but it took long. They never found his body.

Backstory: Goghurt was born a typical, normal, regular, completely mundane goblin (add in a few more words to say he was just the same as everybody else). Raised in the cage-nursery just like all of the other goblins, shown how to make dogslicers and to hate dogs and horses just like all the other goblins, baptized in fire in blood just like all the other goblins...but still, something within was different.

When he reached adulthood, he lost his childlike obsession with pain and screams. Of course, like most goblins, he still loved fire, but he was less interested in using it on people to see what happened and more interested in trying to find new and interesting ways to light things on fire.

This, of course, proved to be his weak spot. His tribe effectively excommunicated him after an incident with a torch and a stolen lamp and a destroyed building, so it was with little surprise and no chance of aid that he came to be presumed dead.

Goghurt was experimenting with cooking alchemists' fire on ice, trying to heat it up as much as he could without exploding it, when a massive inferno took his home and shook the rest of his tribe awake (he was, of course, experimenting in the early hours of the dawn, after having been awake all night).

Fire and pain, of course, but then...wakefulness. He woke on a strangely patterned marble floor. How?

Crunch:

Goghurt - CR 2
Male goblin alchemist 3
N Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +4; Senses Perception +0, darkvision 60ft.

--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 13 (+2 armor, +4 Dex, +1 size)
hp 24 (3d8+6)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +1
Resist fire 5
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30ft.
Melee
Ranged bomb +7 (2d6+3+splash)
Special Attacks bomb 6/day, mutagen
Alchemist Formulae Prepared:
1st - (empty), (empty), (empty), (empty)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 9, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 14
Feats Burn! Burn! Burn!, Point Blank Shot, Throw Anything, Brew Potion
Traits Pragmatic Activator, Unscathed
Skills Craft (alchemy) +12, Disable Device +10, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Sleight of Hand +10, Spellcraft +9, Use Magic Device +9, Ride +8, Stealth +12
Languages Goblin, Common, Draconic, Orc
SQ alchemist discoveries (explosive bomb), alchemy, poison resistance +2, poison use, swift alchemy
Gear -

--- --- --- ---

Okay! There is no gear, I generally dislike buying gear so I hold off on it until I know I'm gonna use the character. It's gonna be mostly spent on scrolls to fill his formula book and on alchemical throwing items.

Whaddaya think?

Gniel totally ninja'd my backstory :D

Sorry. I didn't see yours until after I had posted. We could connect them, both of us collaborating ending in disaster

I think it'd be more amusing if we didn't know each other, both got into the game, and then were like.

"How'd you get here?"
"Massive explosion, you?"
"Massive explosion."
"Yep."

You two should take a look at Goragg's background. :)