DM Frogfoot's Shapeshifter Apocalypse (Inactive)

Game Master Dalton the Thirsty

Discussion thread!

If any of you want to have prior association with one another in your backstories, discuss it here.

Isn't that half the point, though? To have bonds?

Yahuh. We're supposed to work out bonds to some degrees, and discuss thoughts on our characters before we get started. :)

Though __________'s ways are different than mine, I can still learn much from him.
__________ is troubled, and needs my help to find inner peace.
__________ has an ulterior motive for coming with me.
My master would not approve of me traveling with __________.

These are the monk bonds. Who wants to know me how lol

Keep in mind that those are only suggestions to get you started thinking about Bonds. If you have some other idea for how you and another character got to know one another, then suggest it. If the other player agrees, you get to write the Bond in your profile.

The more Bonds you have active with another player, the higher your Aid Another modifier will go for that player, up to a maximum of +3 for tightly bonded characters.

Here's an interesting thought, have I replaced anyone's limb?

I can have bonds with anyone who wants, maybe I sang some songs for you or a song about you, etc...

My master would not approve of me traveling with Svog Kos.

That was easy lol
Now, whether that was singing a song to me or a song about me... that's the real question :)

@Feustus: Not my limb, but you may have experienced some of my own handiwork on your travels...

"Svog Kos doesn't have nearly enough fun. I'm going to have to spike his water..."
"Feustus seems like a pretty interesting person, except for that strange smell. Maybe I should get him some Holly cologne."
"Not sure I like that Ryuko fellow. What with him disappearing every few days... I wonder what he's doing..."

These are all jokes. :)

Define 'replaced limb'. I think that's kind of a big deal that I understand what I'm agreeing to. 'Yes, it's real, but it's not mine.'

The idea being that you either lost a limb, or had to have it amputated. I used my abilities as a necromancer to either reattach it or give you a new one.

"Kazuya is too serious. I would like to try to teach him that life isn't just about being the best. There's more to it than that."

And... nothing listed for other backstories to work off of :)

Based in the jokes: Mazatl has an ulterior motive for coming with me...

But, based on your backstory: Mazatl is troubled, and needs my help to find inner peace.

I think that works :3

Also, is Svog Kos a play on Svogthos?

I don't know what is Svogthos haha, but is based on Svogthir and Agrus Kos from City of Ravnica (Magic: The Gathering)

That is the thing of which I was getting at. Svogthos is the Golgari guildhall.

Here's an interesting thought, have I replaced anyone's limb?

I'll take you up on that.

{note to Frogfoot: Would this allow Chaney to take 1/2 elven at his first advance? Coming to grips (*rim shot*) with this addition to his magical identity?}

{another note to Frogfoot: you might want to add these two links to the campaign page:
Wizard spells: http://mattie.net/dungeon/ch10a-Wizard_Spells.html

Cleric Spells: http://mattie.net/dungeon/ch5a-Cleric_Spells.html

Also adding all the class source links to the campaign page would make then easier to find following the inevitable deaths. ;7)

The wizard suggestions are odd ...

xxx will play an important role in the events to come. I have foreseen it!

xxx is keeping an important secret from me.

xxx is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can.

Any ideas sparking?

Haha, that's twisted. Go for it.

As to the bonds, just about anyone can fit "Keeping a secret." Banes and all...

You could be seeing me as misinformed. Given my rage at the injustice of the world.

And that would actually fill one of mine, too: Though Chaney's ways are different than mine, I can still learn much from him.

Yay, forgot about the name of the guildhall, but yeah :D

"Feustus magic is creepy and give me the chills" <-- This will be fun as I'm kind of scared of your magic and one of my banes is Fear.

"Ryuko is the perfect example of my epic songs and stories."

"Mazatl is wild, I'm going to keep an eye on her."

...

You could be seeing me as misinformed. Given my rage at the injustice of the world.

And that would actually fill one of mine, too: Though Chaney's ways are different than mine, I can still learn much from him.

Like that ....

Added bonds
Festus gave me a hand when it was sorely needed.

Ryuko is woefully misinformed about the world; I will correct that before it kills him.

Ryuko Kazuya wrote:

-snip-

Like that ....

Chaney sees your focus on immediate personal victory as dangerous and extremely limiting. He is trying to convince you there are other ways to win that are just as valid if not superior.

God's speed ;)

Now we just need Aifric in here. Of course... my last suggested bond is Aifric has ulterior motives for traveling with me. Now I need to know what they are lol

@Mazatl: Just realized how best to help you gain inner peace- just give in. I'd definitely be good at helping with that.

'Gave me a hand.' XD

How about 'Svog is surrounded by ghosts, I must find out why'?

Chaney: Want me to owe you my life for something? We can work out details on that, but I'm pretty certain 'blaster with healing powers' could totally save someone from some Ferals :p

'I owe Chaney my life. It's not every day someone sticks their neck out to save you from some Ferals... then helps to close the wounds to boot.'

'Svog Kos understands passion in a way I don't believe I ever will... not without becoming that which I fear. Perhaps I can learn of it through him, if not first hand...'

'Kazuya is too serious. I would like to try to teach him that life isn't just about being the best. There's more to it than that.'

'Feustus carries a lot of strange things... jars, a shovel, and dresses in black robes. He's no ordinary mender of men...'

Is what I'm going with so far. Any problems?

Looks good to me :)

The problem is, they all seem to be things I'll pretty much-never- mark XP for... unless something else takes precedence.

Sorry, worked all day and ran a tabletop DND game tonight. I'll have to work out my bonds tomorrow.

How about 'Svog is surrounded by ghosts, I must find out why'?

Just some surfers I ate while I was a shark.

You can make more bonds while you play, so don't worry and sometimes resolving them is hard.

@Aifric: So, my only open bond was Aifric has ulterior motives for traveling with me.

Any ideas?

Are we limited to four bonds, or do we get one per person?

I recognize you can have more than one per person, so I figure 'yeah, just four'. I may have to drop two of those for the newcomers to tie them in a bit.

of interest to Festus and just in time for Halloween.

Mazatl: I openly encourage people to have many bonds with one another so I'm not limiting the number of bonds. However, you have to have some IC explanation or justification for having a bond with a character - some interaction in your past that explains the bond existing. So it imposes a roleplaying burden on you but also opens up new opportunities.

Questions for Frogfoot

Long range trade? Collapsed or a going concern? If you want post medieval tech you will need trade or another way to get rare goods.

How long ago did Magna Ultimus show up and has the city officially accepted his(?) rule?

Ideas for Frogfoot
With 1/6 of the pop having 'issues' with silver coinage and gold being too rare for general use the setting's economy will have problems.
I had a couple of solutions:
A) Adoption of paper or leather or wood currency. This solution has severe forgery and trade impact as the city-states are not strong enough to support fiat currency.
B) 'Money gloves' everyone wears gloves or at least one allowing them to handle cash w/o touching it. Some folks w/o silver bane might go glove-less but the smarter folks will wear the gloves to disguise the fact theat they do NOT have silver bane. There are only so many banes, hiding the fact you don't have a specific bane means it is harder to discover the ones you do have.

To substitute for silver, copper has arisen to become a dominant form of lesser currency. Silver mines are closely guarded treasures because of the new special lethality of silver weapons on many of the populace, and possession of one of the material Banes is a crime in nearly every city-state. In the wake of the great Howling, silver was rounded up by authority figures the world over and melted into caches of weapons to be used on other lycanthropes. Possessing a silver coin in this day and age is to be in possession of a rare and illegal relic.

City-states have largely adopted their own currency, making trade with other regions more difficult and expensive. There are still modes of transportation, even a train network that covers much of the continent, but there are complications and difficulties with using it - certainly nowhere as convenient as Grand Central Station.

Magna Ultimus showed up only a week ago, and has been holed up in the Governor's mansion for much of that time. His supporters have been stumping up demonstrations and rallies all over the city to drum up support for Ultimus, whom they refer to as the One True King, with varying levels of success.

Here are some possible bonds for me.

Bonds:
_Svog Kos_ and I keep an eye out for each other.
Things never go as planned with _Mazatl_ around.
_ Ryuko Kazuya_ can sense opportunity as well as I can.
Sometimes I think _Feustus_ has a death wish.

@Svog Kos, we seem to have the same assessment of several members of our party. I've got your back.

@Mazatl, I notice the wildness of your power. I like to be able to spot opportunities to strike, as mentioned above, but when my compatriots' actions are unpredictable, I am not able to optimize that. There have been times when I felt that you got in the way of what I was trying to do. In battle, I stay as far away from you as I can.

@Ryuko Kazuya, I see you as a dynamic fighter. Our fighting styles are quite different, but both of us seek out opportunities to strike. I want to be around you and learn your fighting secrets so I can incorporate them into my own.

@Feustus, I don't understand why you do those things to the dead. What if somebody did that to you after you die? Ohhhhh, now I think I get it. Death wish. Yeah, I'm going to stay away from you when I can, too. Nothing personal. Plus I just realized that, if I die near you, you are going to do stuff to my body. Yickkkk!

Sounds like it works well.
So, learning my secrets is your ulterior motive, eh?
YOU SHAN'T HAVE THEM!
...
Or maybe you will. We shall see :3

So what form are you usually in. Feustus is in his hybrid form. He is actually never seen in his human form.

I tend to stay in human form, unless I want to infiltrate something. Then, weasel. Hybrid form is a last ditch effort for me. Think Bloody Roar and you'd be close to the concept :)

I'm new to the Paizo message boards. Is there a way to get notified when a new post goes up in this campaign? Or do I have to just keep looking?

Thanks.

So far as I can tell it's just 'keep looking'. Though there's a page explicitly for keeping track of all of your stuff. At the top of the page, you'll see your name. Click that, then click campaigns. Make that a bookmark, click on that, and you'll be able to see all your updates.

So far as I can tell it's just 'keep looking'. Though there's a page explicitly for keeping track of all of your stuff. At the top of the page, you'll see your name. Click that, then click campaigns. Make that a bookmark, click on that, and you'll be able to see all your updates.

Thank you.

@Mazatl, apes ain't monkeys, Bambi! You see any tail growin' outta my backside? ;-)

I can imagine Aifric having said that to Mazatl in the past.

:p Mazatl's pretty sure she's never been to a jungle, and thus would not even come close to knowing the difference :p

I'm usually in my normal form, won't transform until is necessary. People don't like my teeth when I'm shapeshifted.

Mazatl pretty much only shifts when it's 'OH GOD RUN!' time. She very much prefers her human form... though I could totally see Hybrid form being cool, depending on how we roll. Centaur Mazatl could -totally- be a thing.

Chaney sees the human form as more generally useful. Hands and speaking and all that. The animal form for specific uses and emergencies only.

More questions for Frogfoot, Shapechange edition.
1.So are we assumed to have the Greater Lycanthrope Compendium Class move Hybrid as found in Number Appearing?

Hybid: You can change into a hybrid form which combines the best of both normal and animal forms. In hybrid form you can use all animal
moves (including Lycanthropic Regeneration) and also have hands and access to your possessions.

Meaning we can speak, read, cast spells et.al in man-beast form.

2. Are there were-insects? Do tiny were-flea/fly spies exist?

I've modified some of the rules in Number Appearing, but that was my baseline, yes. You can cast spells freely in werewolf form.

That's unknown to you. Rumors abound of them, but so far you have never seen one yourself, or proof of their existence. They are widely dismissed as fictional, but you know better than to rule them out completely.

:P Seems like a good source of what lies outside of the 'established realm'. I could totally see vampiric assassin ninjas coming out of the east, and some webspinning deceivers from down south... :p

"Silver weapons are especially deadly to all our kind"

Details?

Regardless of whether Silver is one of your Banes, lycanthropes feel an additional white-hot burning pain from silver weaponry. Some believe that angels and gods favor silver over all other precious metals, which is why they do more damage to the damned, the lycanthropes. Whatever the reason, you know that wounds inflicted by silver weapons will hurt more and take longer to heal than otherwise.