Feel free to discuss rules options in here. I'm open to suggestions regarding some rule choices. Further, if this goes well I'll probably run a slightly different version some day, e.g. with opponents beginning with line of sight to each other, so suggestions are useful.
Issues I'm looking for input on:
1. Currently, I am planning on normal lighting in the arena. This will affect race choices, stealth, perception, etc. Thoughts? I definitely don't want to go bright light or complete darkness but low light is certainly an option.
2. Thoughts on bringing minions into the arena? I could see players wanting to employ lesser planar binding, leadership feat, animate dead, animal companion, etc. I'm leaning towards allowing sensible things with what I consider fairly strict RAW and RAI limitations such as animal companions, familiars, and undead but banning leadership, hirelings, and limiting lpb to 1 hd per caster level and those are the only bound creatures you ever get.
Normal light seems fine. Maybe in the future have variable lighting areas to make stuff like low-light vision, darkvision, darkness, and deeper darkness valuable.
So, even though I'm not sure what the two tricks are that can RAW summon infinite big bad buddies, but I'm going to guess that one of them is Gate:
The primary issue with Gate (as it reads in the above link, at least) is that it says "In the case of a single creature, you can control it if its HD does not exceed your caster level."
Some people seem to take this to mean a free and automatically successful Dominate Monster on the target pulled from any other plane.
If that didn't sound silly by itself, I'd like to point out that that 'control' is contrasted with "An uncontrolled being acts as it pleases, making the calling of such creatures rather dangerous. An uncontrolled being may return to its home plane at any time."
I take this to mean that the 'controlled' creature cannot make Charisma checks, Spell Resistance checks, or use teleportation to escape (other calling spells can be combined with a carefully prepared 'calling diagram' and a Dimensional Anchor to prevent 2/3 of those escape methods, as detailed here)
Further, it seems that if you call an entity that is powerful enough, it has a status the same as if it was bound and then succeeded at an escape attempt.
Another problem is "If you choose to exact a longer or more involved form of service from a called creature..."
longer or more involved than what? Probably 3.5 where it was possible to summon Solars and, if they had Gate prepared, order them to Gate in another Solar because of this sentence that was disposed of in the 3.5->pathfinder transition: "A controlled creature can be commanded to perform a service for you. Such services fall into two categories: immediate tasks and contractual service. Fighting for you in a single battle or taking any other actions that can be accomplished within 1 round per caster level counts as an immediate task; you need not make any agreement or pay any reward for the creature’s help. The creature departs at the end of the spell."
Another problem is the wording in 3.5 where the creature departs at the end of an instantaneous version of the spell... so if you want to use the 3.5 version of 'control', you also ought to use the 3.5 RAW of the creature immediately disappearing before it can render service.
Something that I just realized that we shouldn't need to talk about, but I will anyway:
Infinite gold from the trait Hedge Magician!
You can make magic items for 47.5% of the purchase price and sell for 50%!
infinite time => infinite money!
[/lulz]
Yes certainly no selling items for more than crafting costs. Good point.
Will contestants be required to start on the ground?
Yes contestants will roll initiative standing in their square, even if they are capable of hovering perpetually.
Is there a ruling on using material from Pathfinder Unchained?
Yes unchained classes are allowed. Nothing else from UC. No skill unlocks, no variant multiclassing, etc. If there's something else from UC I should consider allowing, let's discuss it here or by PM if it's a matter of build confidentiality.
Got it. Will be pming you a character here in the next couple days.
Sounds good.
Point for discussion: How long do players have to respond to my PMs about their next actions in combat? Example, if I say "The man in the brown tunic hits you for 1 bludgeoning damage and 1 piercing damage. It is now your turn." How long does someone have to PM me back with what they are doing on their turn? I think 48 hours sounds fair but not too painfully slow. If someone does not respond within 48 hours, they spend their turn standing there doing nothing. Seem fair? I can make small exceptions (obviously 1 week is too long) if the player communicates with me about it in advance.
I think 36hrs without notice is fine. Maybe even just 24hrs?
Granted, 36hrs would probably end up being close to 48hrs depending on how often you get on the boards...
I think with how broken the boards have been over the last few days, it might run faster to do the combat somewhere else
Fair point. Platform suggestions?
Well, I originally saw this posting on the Facebook forums, so Facebook messenger might work. Other then that, Google hangouts, email?
I'm good with any of those. Email might be better in case some players don't have facebook. I think I might use the forums as we're able but ask the 8 combatants we end up with for their email as a backup option.
What about discord? It works really well for game chat, with notifications and everything.
My main thought is I want a platform that a large percentage of players already use. Discord is pretty common but less than FB or email.
I'll be completely honest: if the group decides to go with another venue, I'll drop out, as I tend not to enjoy voice chat games and I don't use social media.
I'm not planning to change venue ATM.
Fair enough. I just thought I'd mention it since it was being bandied about.
Sure thing. I think I will set up alternative modes of communication with people who are interested should paizo go down for extended periods of time, as it very often does.
Announcement: I'm checking the details but I believe the first kill has just been made.
The GM made a mistake in my favor, even. I died by my own stupidity xD
Are you sure we can't do 2/3 for every round? xD
That would be fun to do 2/3 for every round. But I don't want to change the parameters part of the way through, if avoidable. I definitely see myself running this kind of thing again in the future so keep an eye out for Overseer's tourneys.
Ooooh, something just occurred to me that might've been invalid, see my PM xD
Of course it was fine after all xD
BTW GM, mind if I point out the discrepancy between 3.5 and pathfinder that was the secondary cause of my death? I really wanna save others the same frustration that I'm feeling right now in case it somehow comes up Dx
It's actually not applicable to any of the other builds and we don't want to give away any info on someone's build. After we get through the fights, I think there will be plenty of discussion/venting/exclamation on how the fights went, which I'll share in gameplay.
It's not his build. It's a mistake I made with mine xD
Granted I suppose it might give a tiny hint as to how I died... fair enough. I'll wait.
FYI, during the round 0 fights, I gave participants some indiciation as to whether or not they won initiative. I don't think this altered any outcomes but is allows some use of metagame information. From now on, I'll just let you know when it's your turn, not whether or not you won init.
Good idea.
Now that you mention it, that information by itself would've been enough even without the mistake in my favor xD
I wish I had understood my own build better, he never would've stood a chance QQ
Are we allowed to talk to our opponent's about matches in private messages after it has concluded?
Sure thing.
Another announcement: For simplification purposes, minions act on the initiative order of their master. That can be broken up however the master wants. Minion move action then master standard followed by minion standard, etc.
Actually, I may refrain. I feel it may alter how I approach matches if I find out too much about how another player built and planned to use their character. I'll save that for after the tournament is over.
^ This.
I feel the same, except I'm outta the tourny xD
That reminds me: Overseer, did you find your tenth guy? I had a silly shenanigans build I didn't submit, but half finished for lulz... It's even worse shenanigans than the guy that beat me. I could give it to someone who wants to win the tourny xD
If no one responds in a second, there are a couple of ways to fill the 10th slot. My current thought is that the two players who volunteered to start all the way down at round 0 and lost can fight a loser's round to get into the open slot in round 1. Sound fair?
That sounds like a good way to handle it.
Yes and I think that from now on I won't let people know whom they're fighting. Otherwise ScegfOd would know something of your build if he met you in a later round, for example.
OOoh, A loser's round sounds great xD
I did a lot of thinking about my stuff in my frustration with myself >:D
Indeed. Although he has to remember that I'm learning as we progress as well.
Edit: You've stated that you are considering running more games like this. Any idea of what the next rule set might be? I've been looking around at options wondering what I might make.
I've been curious whether it might be even higher level, mythic, and/or gestalt.
Haha. All sorts of possibilities. CR 10 monsters. Lower level. Etc. I'll probably stick with relatively simple builds, however, as it is quite a lot of work to referee builds in all the detail that I would like to. So probably no gestalt or mythic next time.
That makes sense. It would be interesting to do a high power tournament at some point, but the logistics are a bit more staggering.
If only I had finished my shenanigans build and submitted that. This could've been a high power tourny too :P
I'll save it for next time if the rules are similar enough to this tourny xD
I know it's hard for some of you to tell but my, my there are some interesting fights going on right now.
Will you be sharing the gory details at the end?
And have you figured out where the 10th guy went?
No sign of the tenth guy but yes I'm tracking the gory details to share. Not exact numbers, e.g. when an attack definitely hits or misses, but description of what happened.
No tenth guy so you and avr are fighting for the right to come back into the tourney and take on saasha in round 1.
I look forward to it.
I'm really enjoying the trying to figure out what my opponents build is on the fly
Haha. I'm really enjoying your guesses. Lots of good guesses of varying degrees of accuracy.