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Blood in Belkzen: A Champion’s Glory - The Hold of Belkzen is a harsh region where only the strong survive and only as long as their strength endures. Some would say that within Belkzen’s brutal wastelands nothing of lasting value can grow but every year gladiators from across Golarion prove that belief wrong when they compete for the coveted Bloodletter’s Crown and the immortal glory that comes with such a title. Hundreds will die in the qualifying rounds held in bars, fighting pits, and lesser arenas across the land but such is the price in forging a champion!
In this campaign the PCs will serve as gladiators on a quest to win the title of Champion and the riches that come with it. Combat will be the main focus but there will be some room for roleplaying and victory in the arena won’t be the only factor in securing the crown. Expect a campaign that’s moderate adventure, low fantasy, but with a significant dose of PvP (both as combat and not-combat). If you’re the sort that doesn’t like competition with other players in your tabletop RPGs, this is not the campaign for you. Estimate to run from levels 3 to 11.
Blood in Belkzen will have a minimal degree of houseruling but the scope of allowed content (mostly classes and archetypes) will be significantly cut. Monstrous races will be heavily featured.
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A Perfect Storm on Abeir-Toril – Within the noble kingdom of Cormyr events are in motion that could spell ruin for the people and lands of the Forgotten Realms – events manufactured by a powerful entity outside deific politics and chained to no master. A group of heroes appear in the wake of these cascading tragedies but can they rise above their circumstances to learn the truth and break the machinations aimed at the destruction of everything they hold dear.
The Perfect Storm is an epic adventure set in the Forgotten Realms in the post Spellplague era with visits to worlds beyond. This is a character-driven campaign with a healthy mix of combat, roleplaying, and dungeon crawling. High adventure, high fantasy, and high power (including a sprinkling of mythic). Estimated to run from levels 3 to 16.
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Restoration - For too long the empire of Taldor has waited in the background while the world turned, an echo of its past glory. Now, through sacrifice and good fortune, the once crumbling kingdom has begun a steady return to power and is on its way to once again proving itself Golarion’s greatest modern super-power. But the Empire of Taldor isn’t the only force working to reclaim its rightful place. Something else much older and much darker has returned and set its eyes on more than just the Inner Sea.
Restoration is a heavily modified story-driven Kingmaker campaign set in Taldor with a focus on the metaplot. As such, the kingdom building elements will all be heavily streamlined and in some places stripped entirely. Expect a solid mix of combat, roleplaying, and dungeon crawling. High adventure but generally low fantasy (at least on the protagonist’s side). Estimated to run from levels 5 to 15.
This campaign will heavily feature my Pathfinder house rules (tentatively named Feralfinder =P) including rebalanced core races, specialized human ethnicities, a revamped barbarian/rogue, and more!
I really can't wait to see which one wins out. I like the Abeir-Toril and Restoration ideas best, but I'll check out just about anything.
A Perfect Storm sounds, well, perfect.
Gotta go with the Taldor option, Belkzen is second although all of them are quite interesting.
I would have to see more about the Belkzen campaign as I am not a big fan of PvP as I cannot see how it would create a lengthy campaign if people's characters were dying on a regular basis.
I must hear more about this Feralfinder!
Currently Feralfinder is as assortment of scattered google docs. Was there anything in particular that peaked your interest?
Originally the FR campaign held the least interest for me, but now I would be equally happy with it or the Empire campaign.
I personally would like to see the edited core races as well as the rogue and barbarian.
So, how long are you planning to leave this poll open, GM?
Until Friday at least.
As for Feralfinder stuff, like I said it's an assortment of google docs right now. I'll worry about cleaning it up and finalizing things if it becomes necessary.
Feralfinder Core Races and Expanded Human Ethnicities
Both the barbarian and rogue have undergone some degree of playtesting in my Rise of the Runelords game. The race stuff is all new.
Something Else: Pitch it. You never know.
Razor Coast! :)
Building an Empire vs Encroaching Otherworldly Menace: Heavily modified Kingmaker with a focus on the metaplot and massively streamlined kingdom building. Likely set in Taldor. Relatively low fantasy.
The Less Cooperative Campaign: An arena campaign set in Belkzen. The PCs will work together on occasion but the campaign will still focus heavily on competition and PVP. Players will be expected to roll up multiple characters.
I think these both have some pretty interesting possibilities to them. Kingdom-building is always cool to me, and I love Belzken and orc gladiators sounds really cool, so if I don't submit anything I'd still like to lurk if you go this route, if that's OK.
I've long had the nugget of a gladatorial campaign in my head. I'd do one focused on gladatorial stables with less PVP and the conflict more geared around the PC's stable climbing the ranks to prominence and lots of intrigue between the PC stable and rival stables, as well as factions within the PCs' own stable. There would be a mix of individual combat and duels with rankings changing on wins and losses, as well as social intrigue, group duels, set-piece fights (the gladiatorial arena turned into a lake with warships, or a magical jungle grown with a group battle and ferocious jungle creatures running around, etc.), with plenty of dirty fighting and skulduggery out of the arena and behind the scenes. Alas, I just don't have the time to run something so ambitious.
Congrats on finishing up your 2nd pbp game!
I'll be putting an end to the poll and writing up a formal recruitment post later tonight.
PCs play familiars whose masters were kidnapped and must rescue them? Hedgehogs,foxes and crows!
Very interesting. Looking forward to the recruitment thread.
Poke poke?
Sorry, I was up late finishing my binge of Sense8.
Recruitment post incoming.
The Perfect Storm of Abeir-Toril
Campaign Blurb:
Within the noble kingdom of Cormyr events are in motion that could spell ruin for the people and lands of the Forgotten Realms – events manufactured by a powerful entity outside deific politics and chained to no master. A group of heroes appear in the wake of these cascading tragedies to push back against the chaos but can they rise above their circumstances to learn the truth and break the machinations aimed at the destruction of everything they hold dear?
The Perfect Storm is an epic adventure set in the Forgotten Realms in the post Spellplague era with visits to worlds beyond. This is a character-driven campaign with a healthy mix of combat, roleplaying, and dungeon crawling. Thematically, expect high adventure, high fantasy, and high power (including a sprinkling of mythic). The campaign is estimated to run from levels 3 to 16.
Character Building Info:
Characters should be built to start the campaign at level three using the high fantasy standard point buy (20 points). All official Pathfinder content is allowed but I reserve the right to make adjustments to content (classes, archetypes, etc) that I feel is poorly balanced or a bad fit for the campaign. Below are a number of ‘roles’ tied to the campaign’s story. Applicants should choose one or more and build their applications around the guidelines presented within.
Roles:
A simple man buried by his tragic past. With nothing but his vengeance to live for, he’s dedicated himself to wiping out the hordes of the Abyss wherever he can find them.
Race: Any (within reason)
Class: Something martial
Notes: The Hunter should originally hail from Implitur or some other region with a major demonic presence.
Despite being denied power and glory this noble son has remained loyal to his house, his friends, and his kingdom. But the hands of fate are working hard to test those loyalties and the bough that doesn’t bend, breaks.
Race: Human
Class: Something learned
Notes: The Dutiful is the child of a prominent noble house within Cormyr known for its influential matriarch.
A young soul at odds with itself, trapped between responsibility and the heart. Is it possible to have one without sacrificing the other?
Race: Human
Class: Something magical
Notes: The Free Spirit is the child of a noble house within Cormyr that's on the decline due to a lack of influence, coin, resources, or all of the above.
For some wandering isn’t a matter of being lost but searching for something. What that something is isn’t always clear and often you don’t even know you’re looking for it.
Race: Human or half-human
Class: Something jack of all trades-esque
Notes: The Wanderer is worldly, roguish, and charming.
Born of a dishonored and penniless noble family, this poor soul sought refuge in faith. Many find such relief among the gods. Others find the means to right the sins of the father and the will to do so.
Race: Human or half-human
Class: Something pious
Notes: The Redeemer is the last child of a disgraced and forgotten noble family.
A few additional notes:
* Pay attention to the notes for the role that interests you. They aren’t hard and fast requirements but it won’t help you if I start to feel like fitting your character into the campaign is going to be a lot of work.
* Do a little brushing up on Forgotten Realms lore and work that into your character. This is like doing research on a company for a job interview – it shows you’ve done your homework.
* Don’t be afraid to ask for help or pointers.
* This isn’t an optimization contest. I’ve been in a few recruitment threads where the DM revealed after the fact that he wanted characters optimized to a certain degree. This isn’t one of them. If your character is going to force me to start one of those advice threads ‘Help: One of my player’s characters is broken!’ you’re probably going the wrong direction with your character.
Posting expectations:
Players should be posting absolutely a minimum of once per day but more realistically closer to 3-4 times per day. If you’re going to be away for a weekend, vacation, wedding, or whatever, speak up. Yes, real life comes first but you should still be respectful of everyone’s time. You wouldn’t disappear from your job for 24 hours without giving a heads up – don’t do it here.
Hiya, Feral. Dotting.
Planning on building a character that fits the Dutiful slot you're looking for: essentially, an Inquisitor of a god prominent in Cormyr. Do you have an idea as to what sort of noble family would have a prominent matriarch in Cormyr?
Time to brush up on Forgotten Realms lore then. Strange how I went into this thread wanting that campaign the least and ended up voting for it! I'm really excited by the concept of roles in the story, it makes it feel like our characters will have a much stronger connection to the world.
Questions:
1. Are Occult Adventures playtest classes allowed? I don't necessarily want to play one, but it seems a good question to get out of the way.
2. What year are we starting in?
3. Is it important to have some knowledge of the entirety of the realms, or should I be focusing on specific areas like Cormyr?
4. How much have the realms changed? I haven't read anything FR related in perhaps 10 years.
Planning on building a character that fits the Dutiful slot you're looking for: essentially, an Inquisitor of a god prominent in Cormyr. Do you have an idea as to what sort of noble family would have a prominent matriarch in Cormyr?
I'd suggest looking at the FR wiki to start.
Alternatively you could make something up. =)
1. Are Occult Adventures playtest classes allowed? I don't necessarily want to play one, but it seems a good question to get out of the way.
2. What year are we starting in?
3. Is it important to have some knowledge of the entirety of the realms, or should I be focusing on specific areas like Cormyr?
4. How much have the realms changed? I haven't read anything FR related in perhaps 10 years.
Occult Adventures classes are okay tentatively. The way psionic magic works will likely be tweaked.
The year is 1450. This is several decades after the collapse of the weave, the spellplague, and the appearance of Returned Abeir.
You don't need any Realmslore but having a basic knowledge of Cormyr like the major cities, current ruler, etc would be a good place to start.
Crownsilver sounds like a good fit. :)
Cormaeril would be a strong choice of house for the Free Spirit. Gives lots of strong background from the get go and links well to being in decline. (Though in this case I suppose they hit rockbottom and are just beginning to drag themselves back, is that okay?)
The Hunter and the Wanderer are also both appealing though, so we'll see.
Feral:
Regarding the hunter position, how left-field would lizardfolk be considered? I'm thinking of one whose tribe was nearly vanquished by a demonic presence, pushing him into contact with civilization. The marshes are spread about enough (and The Vast Swamp is quite proximal) to make the juxtaposition of such influences reasonable.
Lizardfolk is pretty left-field alright but there are a couple sizable swamps adjacent to Cormyr. I'm not opposed to the idea.
Cormaeril would be a strong choice of house for the Free Spirit. Gives lots of strong background from the get go and links well to being in decline. (Though in this case I suppose they hit rockbottom and are just beginning to drag themselves back, is that okay?)
Cormaeril would be a great fit.
Very well. I'm assuming Pathfinder Lizardfolk as opposed to the original?
Building a Free Spirit role character. Just letting everyone know in case you don't want to compete for roles.
Yeah, Pathfinder lizardfolk.
You would not by any chance consider making it a 25-point buy, would you now? Heh, just kidding (mostly)... :-P
I do have a couple of actual questions though.
1) Would you allow the Trap Finder trait? I am asking because it is a campaign trait from Mummy's Mask, though the fluff of it can easily be reworked if indeed allowed.
2) Will you be using any Pathfinder Unchained stuff, such as Background Skills, Skill Unlocks and/or Variant Multiclassing?
I am considering a half-elven Wanderer, mechanically a CG male half-elf Unchained rogue with the Scout and Swashbuckler archetypes. His weapon of choice is to be the elven curve blade via the Ancestral Arms alternate racial trait (the Unchained rogue's Finesse Training really helps).
I haven't fully looked over the unchained stuff but I'm not overly fond of the unchained rogue. In general I'm not fond of stuff that devalues other stats (especially poor strength).
If you're interested in rogue you're welcome to use the Feralfinder rogue linked above.
I'm only going to allow the trait in if it ends up that nobody else has a way to deal with magic traps.
Interesting. From what I have read in the forums, most feel the Unchained rogue is actually a step in the right direction, considering the somewhat low power of the base class. And I do admit that my guy would not actually dump any stat (he would need a Strength of 13 to grab Power Attack, after all).
But this is not an argument. Your game, your rules. In this case though I will have to withdraw my interest. Have a fun game! :-)
The forums feel a lot of things, some that aren't necessarily in sync with actual play. I agree rogue could use some general improvements. I don't think hurting the relative value of strength and further buffing dexterity is the way to do that.
In any event, thanks anyway. Best of luck with your future gaming endeavors. =)
Would it be kosher to state story-wise the magic users brought forth by the Shadowscale's allies at The Skull Staff conjured demons to achieve their ends, subsequently butchering most of the tribe and expelling them? I believe this hook is probably the most direct to a uniform beginning for a campaign while maintaining the validity of the race roots.
Considering barbarian, ranger, or, name-appropriately enough, hunter for the hunter slot with the reptile.
Settled on building an Inquisitor of Oghma for the Dutiful slot.
Would it be kosher to state story-wise the magic users brought forth by the Shadowscale's allies at The Skull Staff conjured demons to achieve their ends, subsequently butchering most of the tribe and expelling them? I believe this hook is probably the most direct to a uniform beginning for a campaign while maintaining the validity of the race roots.
Considering barbarian, ranger, or, name-appropriately enough, hunter for the hunter slot with the reptile.
Yup. That's a great fit.
We can't all be fire knives...ah memories.
I'll take the weekend and see what of the FR stuff I remember, it's been a while and I'll have to set in my head when in the convoluted timeline we are.
Settled on building an Inquisitor of Oghma for the Dutiful slot.
I don't know if inquisitor's the best fit for the Dutiful. A big part of the inquisitor's identity is tied to his faith.
Really? The class does call for someone learned... did you mean like a wizard, or some such?
You could go for something expected to be 'classically schooled' like a wizard or investigator or maybe put an educated spin on another class like a fighter or sorcerer.
Maybe he meant a trained class?
I am thinking Arcanist for my free spirit character.
Edit: too slow!
You mentioned in your blurb that that there would be a sprinkling of mythic in this campaign. To what degree is this really relevant during character creation. Should we bear it in mind or is this, say, a nice surprise for the characters. Is it/should it have a backdoor mention in a backstory or campaign specific etc
Sanity has returned - I don't have time to do another game justice. I'm looking forward to lurking, however. Have fun!
Currently investigating something for the Free Spirit, or alternatively The Wanderer as to not compete with The Pale King.
Would Alchemist be a good fit for The Wanderer? They aren't as skill heavy as a Rogue, investigator, or bard, but their extracts helps them fill out that Jack of All Trades role in different ways.
I was planning on putting an 'educated' spin on being an Inquisitor. Oghma is the god of knowledge--I'd argue that he'd expect all of his faithful & clergy to be learned on a variety of subjects. :)
But if you insist, I can rework her into a tactician fighter or perhaps a cavalier...