I like the idea of adventure paths, and all the cool ideas therein, but hate canned adventures. The result: this thing.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet with strange eons, even death may die."
The PCs are the champions of a long dead goddess, tasked with single-handedly restoring the greatest human empire Golarion has ever known. All you have are your own skills, those of your comrades, the vague sense of the location of your patron's last temple, and literal dreams of glory.
I'm looking for 4-6 players who can commit to posting once per day, preferably more (yes, that does include weekends as a matter of fact). Please read every section before posting. I hereby reserve the right to be snarky to people who ask questions that I answered in this first post.
All Acavna needs to be reborn is a consecrated temple, and mortal worshipers. Ever since the first time she touched your dreams you knew where it was, the last temple of Acavna, the only one to survive the Earthfall to the modern age. You can hear it out there in the jungles, calling to you. All you must do is reconsecrate the temple and perform a ritual of worship there, and the goddess will be reborn.
The resurrection of a divinity, however, will be the simplest leg of your journey. The goddess has been dreaming, and now plans to make her dreams manifest. She intends for you to found a city based around the new temple, a city that will grow into an empire and in so doing sew the seeds of a new Azlanti Empire.
I'm going to use the rules in Kingmaker for running the "New Azlanti Empire" (or whatever the PCs decide to call it) once it is founded. The game is going to be very similar to Kingmaker only more tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of PBP (hopefully).
-25 attribute point buy
-Any core or feature race, any core or base class. Summoners or Gunslingers, however, will have to blow my mind with their backstory. By this I refer to quality of prose, not quantity.
-Alternate racial traits, class archetypes, etc. are fine.
-6,000 gp + Free outfit
-2 traits, one has to be one of the special campaign traits below. As per usual, they are more powerful than normal traits.
-An interesting backstory; this is primarily what your character will be selected based on. Strive to be succinct; every word you choose should add information relevant to me, the DM. It's great the know more about your character, but when I'm making selections I don't need a description of what your character's sister wore to breakfast the evening of his falling out with father. Some stuff you can keep to yourself and use to enrich your roleplaying.
No playtest material or unreleased books. Don't even ask because it will inspire deep and abiding prejudices in the core of my soul against you, as it will let me know you don't even read before asking questions.
Acavna is still going to be the Godddess of the moon, but being reborn will have changed her so PC clerics can take whatever domains they like and this will influence her new portfolio.
Dreams of Lost Azlant: While all of your comrades have had dreams beckoning you to a lost Azlanti temple deep in the jungles of Mwangi, the goddess has been touching your dreams since childhood. You have spent almost your entire sleeping life exploring the pristine cities of old Azlant, and it feels as much a home to you as your true homeland. You gain a +1 trait bonus to any Knowledge skill checks made to acquire knowledge about Azlant, and you may make such checks untrained. Additionally, you gain Ancient Azlanti as a bonus language. Finally, you may occasionally gain useful but cryptic information about the task at hand in your dreams.
Priest of the Dead God (Divine casters only): You are a worshiper of Acavna and still recieve spells in spite of the goddess being dead. Prominent theologians claim that the power actually comes from your dedication to the ideals that Acavna represents, but you know that the even death cannot separate you from the power of your goddess. You may choose to either gain the ability to channel energy 1 additional time per day, or to use 1 Domain power (or similar class ability) one additional time per day. Additionally, whenever you channel positive energy to heal worshipers of Acavna, they heal an additional +1 hit points.
Without a Home: Whether an exile from your people or someone who never had a place where they belonged, your character lacks a home. Here is an opportunity to help found a new home, one where you would finally belong. Whether your character is openly invested in the idea, or merely operating on a more subconscious level, the quest to restore Azlant is, to them, a quest for a home. Choose either Survival or Stealth; the chosen skill is always a class skill for you. Additionally, your character gains an additional hit point every time they gain a level in the class they chose at first level (this is in addition to any favored class bonuses).
Enemy of My Enemy: You have made enemies of the worshipers of the demon Nergal, and now take particular pleasure in opposing them where ever you can. The opportunity to restore to life the demon's greatest rival is too perfect to pass up. You receive a +1 trait bonus to attack and damage rolls against any worshiper of Nergal (except those who successfully hide their allegiance from you). You are also known to the cult and, while this can cause trouble, it also gives you a +1 trait bonus to intimidate checks made against worshipers of Nergal (whether you're aware of this or not, as long as they know who you are).
Posting a lot in here will endear you to me because it will show that you post a lot. I'm happy to answer questions, brainstorm, give suggestions, anything like that.
Anyone who is interested should post a backstory here, and I'll select characters based on these by Friday. You can build your character now if you like, but the backstory is what I'm primarily interested in at this juncture (although I'll want to know what campaign trait you're taking). Also remember that the most interesting stuff to happen to your character is yet to come; your backstory doesn't need to be an adventure tale.
Now that's a cool premise for a campaign. Dot for interest.
Dot.
Dotting for interest! I've had a few ideas floating around... I'll think on it for today.
I'm a little bit puzzled as to why you're not using Lissala for this.
She is, you know, evil and stuff. So, while I never really considered Lissala, I would have rejected her as a suitable patron for the PCs for that reason.
Also I prefer Azlant to Thassilon. It's way cooler to revive Atlantis than Thule.
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Her being evil is a bit of a damper, I'll admit, but she *is* a dead goddess, from Azlant, and the origin of rune magic (probably), which is all very cool. You could easily reflavor her as non-evil, perhaps simply misunderstood in the modern age. Nevertheless, it's your campaign. I just noticed the similarities were striking.
Does anyone else hear the king of the hill people saying
?
oops, I messed up my quote, first post to the messageboards. I'll get better.
Her being evil is a bit of a damper, I'll admit, but she *is* a dead goddess, from Azlant, and the origin of rune magic (probably), which is all very cool. You could easily reflavor her as non-evil, perhaps simply misunderstood in the modern age. Nevertheless, it's your campaign. I just noticed the similarities were striking.
Yeah but Acavna is the goddess of the cool broken moon, her death is epic and heroic, she isn't evil, and, most importantly, we've heard less about her (which I tend to like when I'm going to be making up a lot of stuff, I like room to stretch).
Not that I don't appreciate the suggestion, but I spent some time thinking about it and am very happy with my final choice of patron gods.
Interested. Thinking of maybe a bard, someone with some Knowledge skills who, despite not being a Cleric or anything, would have some scholarly knowledge about Acavna, having put themselves into researching her after recieving visions. But I'll see where it goes once I've had some time to think on it.
When you say no playtest or unreleased books, should I take that to mean any other official books are valid, and I can build something digging into the deepest dredges of Player Companions?
notable question is 3pp completely off the table?
When you say no playtest or unreleased books, should I take that to mean any other official books are valid, and I can build something digging into the deepest dredges of Player Companions?
-Any core or feature race, any core or base class. Summoners or Gunslingers, however, will have to blow my mind with their backstory. By this I refer to quality of prose, not quantity.
-Alternate racial traits, class archetypes, etc. are fine.
Consider yourself snarked.
notable question is 3pp completely off the table?
You can use feats, spells, equipment and other things you can find here:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
But please asterix anything from non-official sources so I can double check it. I give no guarantees for 3pp material. They have a lot of stuff from APs on that site, and those are all fine by me (no need to asterix).
No 3pp classes or races though.
When you say no playtest or unreleased books, should I take that to mean any other official books are valid, and I can build something digging into the deepest dredges of Player Companions?Consider yourself snarked.-Any core or feature race, any core or base class. Summoners or Gunslingers, however, will have to blow my mind with their backstory. By this I refer to quality of prose, not quantity.
-Alternate racial traits, class archetypes, etc. are fine.
I asked for items, not classes, so consider your snark misguided. Plenty of stuff to play around with outside of core where it comes to equipping characters, and that's where my interest lies.
CaptainMarvelous you seem to be running three other campaigns, I just wanted to check if running a 4th was actually going to be viable? I used to have loads of free time, but then I had kids and now the thought of having enough free time to run 4 campaigns is somewhat alien to me :)
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First of all, I imagine you don't want just *any* domain being pinned onto your "Godddess" (like Death), so how would you feel about a cleric with Chaos & Darkness domains? What about the Leadership domain?
Secondly, would you allow TWF with Dervish Dance on Flame Blade and Produce Flame? Clearly this would not add Dex to damage, but should allow finesse on Flame Blade. Since you are not "holding a weapon" with the Produce Flame hand, Dervish should still work (though I can understand an argument against it). Finally, I am assuming Produce Flame can work as a (light) weapon since it can be thrown as a thrown weapon as per the spell description. None of this seems terrible unbalanced, but perhaps it is too gray-area for you. Just let me know.
Finally, this is me being really nuts, but... I've made my own monk archetypes that I may want to use. You can see them here, here, and here. Please note they are much more balanced than they appear at first glance. Give it some thought or simply ask me to explain the parts that look insane to you.
Anyway, that's all for now. We'll see what else I can bug you about later.
I should have mentioned in character creation: buy supplies for a week-long (or more) trek through the jungle, with the intention of setting up a base at a Ziggurat that may or may not be full of monsters and staying there indefinitely. And it's hot. So bring more supplies than you think you'll need, especially food and expendables.
CaptainMarvelous you seem to be running three other campaigns, I just wanted to check if running a 4th was actually going to be viable? I used to have loads of free time, but then I had kids and now the thought of having enough free time to run 4 campaigns is somewhat alien to me :)
The third thing I'm doing is a low-impact goof-off game with lots of GMs where my participation is on an encounter-by-encounter basis. This will be my third actual campaign, which I find is my limit. I find I can run three games with the same amount of spare time as one, and having more keeps my interest up. If I did drop something it would be Pathfinder Encounters, not this.
I also have no children.
First of all, I imagine you don't want just *any* domain being pinned onto your "Godddess" (like Death), so how would you feel about a cleric with Chaos & Darkness domains? What about the Leadership domain?
There's a new moon phase, or whatever they call it when you can't see the moon, so I can see darkness working. I love chaos in general so if the other players are cool with it (I'm always wary of the alignment-ones for a PC patron) I say go nuts. The moon seems chaotic to me. Werewolves. There, I just justified it.
Secondly, would you allow TWF with Dervish Dance on Flame Blade and Produce Flame? Clearly this would not add Dex to damage, but should allow finesse on Flame Blade. Since you are not "holding a weapon" with the Produce Flame hand, Dervish should still work (though I can understand an argument against it). Finally, I am assuming Produce Flame can work as a (light) weapon since it can be thrown as a thrown weapon as per the spell description. None of this seems terrible unbalanced, but perhaps it is too gray-area for you. Just let me know.
Great, now I have to police your wonky build. Sigh. Let me get back to you on this. If I come back from reading all this s!~+ and you're trying to pull something I will be disappointed because you seemed cool.
Finally, this is me being really nuts, but... I've made my own monk archetypes that I may want to use.
You can stop right there. NOOOOOPE.
Getting back: You can definitely use Dervish Dance on Flame Blade, but I think a spell you're attacking people with in your hand counts as a weapon in the spirit in which Dervish Dance was intended. You need your other hand for balance, so you can't be blocking or attacking with it.
You could use Dervish Dance if you had Produce Flame in your hand but weren't, on that particular round, attacking with it, though.
Will Acavna be CG in your campaign? This thread suggests JJ would unofficially support that: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns&page=749?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Qu estions-Here
(Reason I ask is I had the kernel of an idea for a lawful good character, but that doesn't fit with a chaotic goddess.)
I asked for items, not classes, so consider your snark misguided. Plenty of stuff to play around with outside of core where it comes to equipping characters, and that's where my interest lies.
Almost missed this one. Snark: denied.
Anyway, yeah, pretty much anything that's not a class or a race that's published by paizo is fair game.
Will Acavna be CG in your campaign? This thread suggests JJ would unofficially support that: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns&page=749?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Qu estions-Here
(Reason I ask is I had the kernel of an idea for a lawful good character, but that doesn't fit with a chaotic goddess.)
Her alignment will be whatever the PCs want, but D-Kal seems to be on the side of chaos.
If you want to be Lawful Good because of Paladin qualifications I'm willing to cut slack in that area.
Okay, I've thought about it a bit more. I think I'm leaning towards trying out an Elf Treesinger Druid with a creeper vine companion. I threw together a level 1 version of this character but haven't had a chance to play him yet. He'll need to be updated to meet your requirements, of course, though I may wait until I'm selected to do so, if permissible.
I'm still working on backstory at the moment, though I have some ideas in mind. I would likely take the "Without a Home" trait.
Where is the game taking place to begin with? Will the party be together already, or will our meeting be part of the beginning of the campaign?
Dotting.
Where is the game taking place to begin with? Will the party be together already, or will our meeting be part of the beginning of the campaign?
The game is going to begin with you already together, embarking on a long journey through the jungle to the last temple of Acavna.
Presumably you met up and bought supplies in Sargava, or somewhere else if you like, having been pulled in this direction by your dreams. We'll be able to hammer out something more specific once we know who the various PCs are.
Question: How much mastery is required in the kindom building rules?, I have never played that AP so I do not know them.
Question: How much mastery is required in the kindom building rules?, I have never played that AP so I do not know them.
Zero. They're dead easy, fairly intuitive, and I can explain anything you need.
The basics is your kingdom has three saving throws that you can influence by appointing competent people to various positions (or holding them yourselves) and by building buildings. Then every month you have to make saving throws in each of the three areas or bad stuff can happen. The bigger your kingdom, the higher the DC so you need lots of competent people and cool buildings to rule a large area.
It's a little more complex than that, and builds in complexity as you go, but like I said I'll explain new rules as they become relevant.
Colour me interested.
What's your view on SLA's counting as spells for Feats and Prestige classes? If you'll allow it, I'd like to play an Aasimar Paladin 2/Sorceror 1/Eldritch Knight 1, probably with the scion of humanity alternate racial trait.
Regarding Acavna's alignment, how about NG? this allows the Paladins but also the Chaotics; something about the moon being both a regulator (ordering the months and seasons) and a changeable entity allowing it to encompass both Chaotic and Lawful.
What's your view on SLA's counting as spells for Feats and Prestige classes?
That seems to be in keeping with the intention of the rules.
Regarding Acavna's alignment, how about NG? this allows the Paladins but also the Chaotics; something about the moon being both a regulator (ordering the months and seasons) and a changeable entity allowing it to encompass both Chaotic and Lawful.
Or maybe she is both Lawful and Chaotic at the same time, which would be a contradiction for a mortal but is within the abilities of a goddess.
I added some information relevant to the Kingdom building rules int he campaign info tab. I listed all the roles that needed to be filled in a kingdom. Some of them you'll need NPCs for, since there are so many, but pretty much every PC will want to fill at least one just so you get the better bonuses.
Is Amaznen coming back too? Speaking of gods of magic, the talk of waxing and waning reminds me a little of the gods of magic in Dragonlance before that series got all messed up.
Is Amaznen coming back too?
You'll have to wait and see. He hasn't been sending you any freaky dreams about jungle temples, but he might have his own group of chumps. Maybe all the dead gods are coming back, Black Lantern style. You'll have to wait and seeeeeee.
You could give her the law, chaos, light, and darkness domains. Because moon.
This kind of works. She is also alive, yet she died. Add contradictions to her portfolio. This gives her the special ability that allows her to have worshipers and priests as though she were of any alignment.
Ok, I wasn't planning on applying to anymore Kingmaker games (in one already, but it's looking like I'm going to have to take over as co-GM on it, so will end up buying the AP). However, this sounds really interesting, so I am dotting for interest. :) Plus it seems like there won't be a ton of overlap between the AP and this plot wise.
Random Class
1 : Bard
2 : Cleric
3 : Druid
4 : Fighter
5 : Gunslinger
6 : Inquisitor
7 : Magus
8 : Ninja
9 : Oracle
10: Ranger
11: Samurai
12: Witch
13: Wizard
Huh, Bard, haven't done a bard... hmm, ever, that I remember, so a nice challenge.
Random Class
I'm underwhelmed by the amount of thought you're putting into this.
Plus it seems like there won't be a ton of overlap between the AP and this plot wise.
There will be virtually none; all the overlap is evident from the premise.
Random ClassI'm underwhelmed by the amount of thought you're putting into this.
You shouldn't judge without knowing the reasons. :) I've GM'd for over 20 years. I've created more characters than I can even remember, either as NPCs, or for other people. I can pretty much play anything, honestly. It's not about the crunch, it's about the character. I've found I'm in a rut though where I have a couple of classes I go to over and over on the boards. So I've started randomly choosing the class, to make myself put more thought into the crunch and build. Plus it's a way of challenging myself to come up with a good background for something I don't normally end up playing when I'm the player.
It's the same reason I usually randomly determine gender, and sometimes even race. It's a way of challenging myself to come up with good solid characters (background, competent build, etc, the whole package).
Speaking of which...
1=female, 2=male
Interested. :)
I'm thinking a Mwangi Barbarian (Wild Rager, Beast Totem) from the Moon Clan who has the Dreams of Ancient Azlant trait. He has been ridiculed by those around him for believing in the return of Azlant and the goddess. His dreams lately have driven him to prove himself right.
Oh Captain my Captain, color me interested. I'll get back to you on story and such but this seems like fun.
You shouldn't judge without knowing the reasons. :)
I know that wasn't the spirit in which it was intended, but here's what your post says to me:
"Oh look, a premise-driven campaign with lovingly crafted custom campaign traits and some implied niches. Or, as I see it, campaign #4,594. I'm not going to try to engage with any of this, instead I'll just play whatever the dice come up with because who f$%+ing cares. Oh, look, something I've never had any interest in before. Well it's good enough for your campaign because who cares."
Still not seeing how the context of your malaise is the redeeming element here. I don't want something you drew with your left hand because you want a challenge; I want people at their best.
I don't know how you'd react if someone came to one of your games with that attitude, but it's not exactly winning me over. Adding a random roll to your response as a little nudge wasn't terribly endearing either.
Let's start over. First impressions aren't everything. But someone who actually put thought into what they wanted to play is interested in playing a bard so you might want to reroll.
And if you feel you simply must do that kind of thing, don't post it here where I can see it and draw conclusions about how much regard you have for the game you're applying to.
Since I seem to have offended you, I won't bother you further. I wish you good luck with your game.
Since I seem to have offended you, I won't bother you further. I wish you good luck with your game.
Like I said, I'm willing to start over, I just wanted you to understand the nature of my reaction.
very cool. Need to read up on Azlant and imagine a great character concept.
Since I seem to have offended you, I won't bother you further. I wish you good luck with your game.Like I said, I'm willing to start over, I just wanted you to understand the nature of my reaction.
Thanks, but no. Honestly, I'd already started building up a character in my head, a female catfolk who'd always been a bit odd from birth, talking to dead people, seeing spirits, etc, who'd been contacted by the goddess because of her natural talent for seeing and hearing spirits. Had found a nice inspiration picture and everything.
As I said, to me, the character is the most important thing, the crunch is just bits of lumber and nails that build the character. The personality, and so on. I wouldn't really be happy coming up with some other character, and you would not be happy with my randomness for the (honestly not important) crunch. *shrug* I think we just are in two different worlds.
As I said, I wish you luck with your game, as well as all those who join in to play it.
Dot, will think of smth tomorrow ;)