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Hello everyone!
This will be my first time running a campaign on these boards, but I've decided to take on GM'ing as I like the idea of running Council of Thieves and am looking forward to choosing from the characters you all bring to the table!
To begin with, please download the Player's Guide from the Paizo store (it's free of charge and will give you a good idea of what to expect from this AP!).
What I expect: Reliability and general interest in playing a character that's made and tailored for this AP. I would also prefer at least one post per day (multiple would be better), as I prefer faster paced AP's. However, I myself have ever changing work patterns and will range from being able to post multiple times in one day, to updating once every couple of days, so if applying for this, I hope you can appreciate that, as I appreciate everyone has schedules and things that come up in their own lives.
Character Creation Guidelines - Please read carefully!
Stats: Roll 3d6 six times and if 7 or lower is rolled, that stat will remain a 7. I allow you to arrange your stats as you choose, but you must roleplay your stats as I prefer players who roleplay well over those who just want to optimise with dump stats.
Races: Aasimar, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human and Tiefling only.
Classes: Any, minus Monks (though I am allowing the Martial Artist Archetype), summoners, gunslingers, cavaliers and samurai's. I don't feel these classes to be a good fit for this AP and am on the fence with Alchemists.
Traits: 2 (1 campaign and 1 of your choosing).
Alignments: Only good aligned (NG, LG and CG) because your character should feel he/she wants to make a better living for himself and those within Westcrown - unless you like oppression and living under a fascist regime? ;)
Wealth: To be rolled.
HP: Rolled every level including level 1.
NO THIRD PARTY MATERIAL
Reasons for Race restrictions:
This campaign is about remaining anonymous to begin with. Dwarves are often loud, Half-Orc's cause attention and Gnomes usually excitedly let most things slip, so in this case I'd like a more professional, human oriented line up of characters as I feel it fits into the story better.
If you want to play a race not allowed, you must have a very good reason for me to consider your application.
Of Note:
I am quite a lenient GM and I like to do things sometimes that aren't necessarily in the rules (such as giving the PC's boon's or abilities unique to a campaign depending on what they wish to do with their character), so I feel this won't be a campaign for rules lawyers, and if you are one, it may be best if you don't apply to this as I have my own unique style where I follow most rules but like to experiment with others (such as swimming mechanics and things like addictions) while keeping true to the core mechanics of the game.
What I'd like from you all is a detailed reason as to why you're in Westcrown, what your personality is and what your backstory is.
I'm preparing myself for a barrage of applicants, so please don't give me pages and pages to read through. 3-5 paragraphs for a backstory will be sufficient, a bullet pointed description of your personality will be enough, and your reasoning for being in Westcrown should only be 1-2 paragraphs long.
I will also notify you if for any reason I need to stop running this campaign, but that would be very unlikely seeing as how I've gone through the process of reading a large chunk of the first book already, so I know how to set the mood properly, but life happens, so I wanted to mention this in advance.
Challenge: I will play encounters exactly as I feel they should be played, so expect a challenge!
Maps: I will do my best in making maps for you, but now imageshack charges for hosting, I'll either use roll20 for maps, or if one of the chosen players is kind enough to host via google docs (I haven't done that before), I'll email over images to that player so we can host an editable map online.
Deadline: I don't have a set deadline as of yet, but will most likely get started within the next week so for safety's sake, the deadline will be Tuesday night (the 4th March) at 6pm GMT (1pm EST) unless I decide to extend it.
If you have any questions, please ask!
Dotting for interest.
Stat rolls:
Couple of things I forgot to mention:
1. All official products/books are allowed (UM, UC, APG etc).
2. I'm looking for a party of 4
Thanks for your interest!
I'm thinking either a wizard or sorcerer trying to get into the Hellknight Enforcers. Are you incredibly against the new FAQ on SLA's qualifying for PrCs? Wiz1/Ftr1/EK3/HK- would be my likely build if no.
Dotting for potential interest + rolling some stats :)
Wow, talk about extremes. I'll have to give it some thought on character concepts.
I don't have much experience with council of thieves. Is it mainly a speaking, or combat adventure?
EDIT: Nevermind saw the original post about the player's guide online download. So this is an AP?
I like rolling dice, and I'd like to play this AP, so let's see what happens.
REALLY? 3 7's and a high stat of 15. Guess I am the village idiot...Not sure there's a viable characther in that mix, but it might be fun to RP.
Even with the round-ups it's a -4 point buy. I guess I am hamburger and will find a different game.
Also, a question on races. If we do take the Tiefling trait will we be forced to take the Infernal Bastard trait in the campaign guide?
Dotting
That roll HP at first level rule seems like its going to make many characters extremely problematic at first level. If I decided to play a barbarian and ended up rolling a one I feel the character would be unplayable at first level. Is there a reason for this choice? I can only see it as a huge disadvantage for players and GM.
Ah well, I have like to have come up with something but yay zany character creation rules...
With the exception of the first couple of people, it seems like the dice roller is in a foul mood tonight ;_;
Nope -- not those a 13 pt buy.
It will make sure the lucky ones get in.
I would note as a previous Council of Thieves GM, that this campaign IS NOT about taking down the House of Thrune or fighting Cheliax, despite the Player's Guide indicating so. This campaign is about saving Westcrown from the shadow curse and improving the lives of its people despite the infernal government.
I just thought I'd point that out because when I ran my game, players were disappointed by the deceiving nature of the player's guide and initial part of the first adventure.
Now, lets see if the dice want me to play...
Meh, no thanks. Good luck guys!
That sounds pretty good. I'll try to come up with a character to go with those stats.
This ain't happening. There's a difference between challenging fights and stupidly hard fights with underpowered PCs. Good luck to those who rolled 17s...
-1 point build. Sounds legit.
Let's see what the dice roller has in store for me...
Hmmmm, so an average person more or less. My initial thought is a wizard, but perhaps a fighter.
Rolling dice. You sure about the rolled hit die at level 1? Combined with the rolled stats it's gonna make 80% of applicants unplayable for an AP.
Wow, I was not expecting to see such misfortune on the rolling front.
Anyone who rolled with results equalling 10pt buy or less, please re-roll your stats entirely (unless you want the lower point buy), and regarding HP, I'm ruling rolling at all levels (1 included) because I want this to feel old school. I want there to be a challenge, and if you're worried about HP, you could always up your con, take HP as a favoured class bonus and take Toughness as your first level feat.
The choice is yours, and to those asking if this is an AP - Yes it is, and the very first one to utilise the Pathfinder system and not the 3.5 system. :)
The campaign is an interesting one because it's not laid out like most. It gives me as the GM scenario's that I need to follow to progress the story, more than it gives details of rooms etc. I guess you could call it sandbox-y, but I like combat just as much as roleplay so I'll be trying to balance things.
Ultimately though, I want everyone participating to have fun (myself included), and if you are a rules lawyer and can play by my ruling, then that's fine by me. I just stated that because I'm looking to run a fun game, not an argument riddled adventure. :)
Amir Hiram - That's absolutely fine, and a medieval Captain America....nice, haha!
Racial Archetypes ARE ALLOWED
Dunebugg - I'm unsure what you mean by SLA and wasn't aware the FAQ has gone through an update. Abbreviations aren't my strong point on here, so please elaborate and I'll be able to give you an answer. :)
One more try. Also the statistical average of 3d6 is 10.5 which on a normal day is gonna add up to a point buy value between 0 and 5. So the fact that we are seeing nothing but commoners here is not an analmomy but just basic statistics.
Best of luck everyone...
Hmmm, I'll try to make some lemonade...or a rogue :)
I honestly can't believe your unluck.kill all the pugwampi and reroll until you get a build over 10pt buy.
If you've read my opening post as well...please do....anything less than a 7 rolled counts as a 7. That should help a bit anyway.
You have just as much chance rolling 6 18's as 6 7's. I don't want a low level game. I want a mixed level game, so don't let bad rolls deter you from having fun/participating.
It sucks you're all rolling terribly, but keep rolling and you'll get there!
Let's try again for the minimum 10-point buy.
so with the 5 adjusted to 7, the attributes are 7, 7, 9, 10, 11, 17. Not quite 10pt.
Success! I'll take those and get a character finished.
Curiosity roll!
Proof it can be done.
I really am just looking for mixed stat players, so just reroll until you get over 10 point buy. I want everyone to be able to survive but appreciate those who have no issue with the dice rolling rules.
Wow, -7pb...
10pb exactly...the next few rolls are even worse.
I might be able to make this work. But I think I might just bow out.
As a note Cortez, you seem to have conflicting desires. You obviously want a game with heavy role playing, this works against your desire for an old school feel. The reason old school games were so swingy is that rp was far less the focus in the early days and so rolling a terrible character and dying early wasn't such a big deal.
With the amount of work you want people to put into character creation, it's far less appealing if your character has a high likelihood of dying early due to bad rolls.
On a side note, the probability of rolling a 7 is actually 15 times as high as rolling an 18. If you consider and rolls under 7 also equal 7 it's 35 times as likely you'll end up with a 7 over an 18. There's a reason 4d6 drop the lowest is the standard if you insist on rolling...
Problem I found with that is that most of the time people roll too high with 26-37 point buy commonly.
That's why I scrapped the 4d6 rule, and I know, but there are ways to increase survivability.
A re-rolling we will go!
The shot-gun method seems to work. I'll choose E1 if its ok with you and get back to work on that rogue :)
A1 ..............................A2
B1..................................................B2
C1...................................................C2
D1...................................................D2
E1...................................................E2
And yet you already have a 35pb sitting alongside a slew of >15's.
This doesn't solve your problem it just makes people re-roll a whole lot more...
I'll go for a reroll..
Well, that's a 10 point buy exactly I think (if the 5 gets turned into a 7). Still not attractive enough for me to want to make a character though.
Ha! That doesn't happen often.
Cortez, how do you feel about variant Aasimars?
Absolutely fine with it. I'm allowing all Racial Archetypes from the accepted races in my original post.
As for everything else, I would be stuffed both ways, so rather than having to upscale every fight to make up for an army of overpowered henchmen, I went with the 3d6 rule, hoping there would be more varied stats rolled. The auto-7 attribute on anything lower than 7 was something I felt would help you and still do, otherwise you could end up with a 3 in one stat.
As for the old school feel. I think as everybody interprets things differently, it's hard for me to explain, but I mean old school as in I want it to be a challenge, but I want a party with all different attributes (some weak, some strong), so the players can all rely on each other and work in synergy, combining strength's and weaknesses and giving each player a fun time of roleplaying in the process.
Some areas will feature more roleplay than combat, but other areas it'll be reversed. This is due to the nature of how story-like the AP is written.
Gotta say it's pretty interesting though.
With the rolls, I understand you all need to roll more, but if you just copy and paste the dice rolls multiple times, you should have better luck. All I ask is that you keep rolling until you get a build higher than 10 point buy. It's been done a few times above so it's not impossible and I wish you all the best of luck.
@KoKyu - Roll 1d2 please. 1 is D2, 2 is E1 and that'll be your decider. :)
@nightdeath - 4hp sucks true enough, but you have con, toughness and favoured class to boost that, depending on what you want to do.
I'm leaning to Tiefling...are heritages ok?
D2 it is....will rework build