Allow me to preface this recruitment with a tale of woe. I have twice been a Kingmaker player, once at the physical table top, and once in cyber space and have been twice burnt by this AP. I will not go into the drama, just know that both have influenced how I view this AP, and my requirements for players. If you find my stipulations offensive, please do not rail at me for being narrow minded and dismissive of a type of play.
That being said…
I am a newbie GM. My experience thus far has been running a solo campaign via instant messenger. I’m not all that clear on the rules, but I figure following an AP is going to help me along.
Details, details, details…
15 pt buy. I don’t really want to hassle with converting encounters to entertain crazy strong players. Also, I rather like the idea of some guy who isn’t mechanically better than the NPCs distinguishing himself by just plain being awesome, rather than being comparatively super human. To qualify, I prefer Batman to Superman, Bruce Wayne has made sacrifices to be a hero, he doesn’t have X-Ray vision and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Two Traits, one from the Kingmaker Player's Guide, one free unless you make a compelling argument otherwise.
No Evil alignments. Furthermore, I frown upon neutral alignments as thus far I’ve seen them abused to do evil things, and that isn’t a game that I am interested in running.
CRB and APG and Magus class only. If you want to play some wild archetype, that’s cool, too. Some spells taken from UM, or feats from UC I suppose can be cool, but as I don’t own the UC, I’d like a link to something on the SRD at the very least to review. These restrictions are a personal preference, I really don’t want to have to police player’s ambitions to milk the game for mechanical profit. I’m not as interested in mechanics as I am in creative play. Samurai and ninja would be out of place in the sweaty armpit of Avistan.
Crazy multiclassing will be discouraged. I can understand dipping a class to pick up some skill points, or make you better at what you want to do, but a paladin/monk/rogue/gunslinger is not only an extremely silly idea, but it hampers your effectiveness as a character mechanically and within a group. This is a cooperative game.
Core Races only. This is the Stolen Lands, and there is some weird stuff about, but as I’m using the standard fantasy spread, it’d be disingenuous and unbalancing to allow the more exotic races, and to be honest it rather breaks my immersion as well.
Compelling story telling. Give me a reason why your character would possibly consider why he or she would not only be willing to travel to the untamed, lawless sweaty armpit of Avistan, but settle and try to establish a government in a hostile environment. Please remember, this is intended to be a social and political game.
As an aside, characters with histories with such violent and cruel incidences as rape I will dismiss outright, and history will be the first thing I read after the class and role you are applying for. Yes, the Stolen Lands are cruel, and some people are bad, but that is not the game that I am looking to run. I like a little moral gray to confound now and then, but villains are villains, and I like the knee jerk reaction to evil in and of itself to drive characters to do good, not some deep dark inner turmoil.
At least one post a day. This is meant to be a cooperative game, if you’re not around to respond to challenges or your fellow party members, it will drag. I’m not expecting more than a few posts per day from everyone, in fact I encourage quality over quantity. I understand people have jobs, significant others, children, etc. If you have to make a longer post later on to cover everything, I will read it, and hope everyone else will as well.
If you are currently in a game, or several, I’d like you to provide a link so I can get a sense of your play style. Pick whichever one you like the best, or showcases your talents. If you’re perpetually a GM, or haven’t ever played a PbP before, that’s cool too, as I said above, character history and concept are what intrigue me most, write those well and we’re golden.
All that being said, what I am prepared to give:
A noble bright adventure. Yeah, I want to see you all become goodly heroes. Everyone loves the good guy, everyone. Except the bad guys, but they’re there to remind you why you’re good, not to punish you. There will be challenges but think of them as opportunities to excel in your righteousness.
A full AP. I am interested in seeing this thing all the way through.
A responsive GM. There will be an OOC thread. If you want more of something, say, like you’re really missing out on the opportunity to mill about in the wilds and grind random monsters for XP and loot, I will try to indulge. But in that case, I would like a unanimous decision. Otherwise, I will reward good teamwork and social RP the same as random encounters and just level you appropriately with the AP. That being said, if you want to run at the final boss straight of the bat, I will strongly discourage that, but as I assume that you don’t want to face a TPK it won’t be an issue.
Fun. I don’t see the game as being a competition between GM and players, I’m interested in facilitating your fun. If you say to me, “Well, my character will not be fun to play without having this feat from this obscure splat book” then my answer to you would be “all righty, let’s slay some evil things in crazy ways, I’d like to see it!”
Finally:
If, after all the above, you’re still interested, throw me up an introductory post telling me how you learned about the charter, and what lengths your character would go to to secure one for him or herself.
And one last thing...
I really want to say is that I will not allow anyone to build towards and just assume that they can be the ruler, or that it has to be a monarchy. It could be an Oligarchy, or a meritocracy. I want the group to decide how the kingdom is founded. And I will be tracking how the characters play in game towards that end.
Hello hello! This is Tam Hawke half of the dynamic duo the Hawkes. :) we decided it would be fun to actually roleplay brothers since were brothers lol
Tam is the black sheep of the family. Hes always getting into trouble either with dice or other such gambling problems. His stamping grounds is always near the river wharfs where he is provided with quick esacpe routes in the tumble of supplies always being loaded and off loaded from merchant ships. Recently his father has suggested that he go out into the world and experience life outside Rostland plains and cities. To accompany him is his older brother Mordecai. Who is always pulling Tam out of fights. Or rather saving him from fights by stomping in and pummeling anyone who Tam has managed to rile up this time.
I'm not looking to start for at least a week, until I have read through the adventure and prepared sufficiently, so don't be in a rush to get your character sheets done. But I will be looking in on skills and such. Obviously, I would like someone to cover Survival since it is key in this game.
Greetings! I am honored to present myself, Mordecai Hawke, son of Jethram Hawke, at your service.
Mordecai is much more preferred by his father than his roguish brother Tam. Whereas Tam spent most of his time romping about the wharfs as a child, Mordecai spent his childhood being tutored and instructed by his father in the ways of war and honor. At his noble father's behest, Tam and Mordecai are now traveling towards the royal city of Restov to receive a charter to explore the mysterious "Stolen Lands". Mordecai is a warrior with the heart of a lion as well as a noble and pious champion of the innocent. He has a soft spot for his happy-go-lucky brother, which is the main reason why he is often caught pulling Tam's bacon out of the fire, capable of both talking down violent men as easily as, as Tam always says, "pummeling anyone too out of line"
Welcome, welcome everyone. As people arrive, those of you who are new, feel free to introduce yourselves. If you want to work out concepts and how they will fit into the game, feel free. Rather than just assume that you all meet in Restov and travel together by some queer happenstance that you all manage to agree to follow each other, why not just do so?
Tam, I already know how you post, but I'd like to get a feel for everyone, collectively. And I'll be answering any questions you all have that you feel that I have neglected to touch upon.
Ah, just as an aside, let me know what "role" you're looking to assume in the straight Kingmaker sense, so I have a general idea.
Well ^^ Personally i believe that Mordecai would do well as either a General, or as a Warden.
Oh I dunno I think tam would be a great general dont you? lol jk jk most likely spymaster
Max gold, max HP at 1st level, average +1 +CON HP for each level thereafter. Let me know at each level which class bonus feature you will be selecting, please.
Ooohhh... nifty. Gonna roll myself up an inquisitor of erastil, and his hawk companion.
haha so funny ryuko haha :p
I am sensing a disturbing lack of social skills. I am hoping Mark's diviney-bop can accommodate. Oor, I suppose I can roll up a NPC to communicate your will to the people, should that be necessary.
What ya mean Aria I think your supposed to find npcs that can fill in roles as well when you need
Just think of it as inclining me more toward an Oracle of some sort. Actually thinking that an Oracle of Nature could be quite fun, although I might go Life. We shall see.
@ Tam, yes, there are standard NPCs, but I would like to throw some others in the mix to give you some more options. I do not want to be completely lazy with this. Especially as all of you are playing males, at least thus far, having a few more female NPCs to round out the government will be nice, I think.
Unless you wish me to run completely by the book. Which is fine. But... as it is, given that this AP was meant to be run over years of in-game time, you're going to be competing for lovers and mates pretty quickly.
@ Kalizkan, Oracle sounds cool. Although my personal preference is for clerics, a party face is a party face is a party face. :P
Hrrm. If you don't mind my asking, why do you prefer clerics?
NO!!!! add more npcs ive played a lil of kingmaker and its boring haha make it fun and new lol yes we have to stay along main story line but doesn't mean we cant bob and weave along the path hehe
Actually adding in more NPC's (mainly women lolz) would be really cool in my opinion. I don't think a Fantasy story can be an EPIC fantasy without romance and turmoil along those lines.
Hrrm. If you don't mind my asking, why do you prefer clerics?
Personal preference, as in playing them. I have no qualms about what you choose to play. I just like clerics.
Channeling is neat, especially now that you can do so many things with it.
Actually adding in more NPC's (mainly women lolz) would be really cool in my opinion. I don't think a Fantasy story can be an EPIC fantasy without romance and turmoil along those lines.
You can ask your brother how well I play female characters :P
And yes, I had planned on it. Since babes dig heroes.
Greetings. I am Stanislaw Branthorn Esquire, arcanamiruim universalist, and what most common people would call "a wizard". Author of such available works as "Converging Topography", "A commentary on Brevoyan laws" and "Multidimensional Verbosity - Languages of the Beyond".
My considerable skills in the realm of applied observation, cartography, legal matters and not to mention raw arcane potential, is at your service, good sirs and/or madams.
Uhh...You lost me at Greetings, Serah. Still, an honor to make your acquaintance *bows*
And hello to you, sir. I am __________ the Oracle of ________, helpful healer of holiness, master medic from maybe Magnimar, and kindly captor of alliterative aphorisms. And stuff. Marvelous greeting that, by the way.
Personal preference, as in playing them. I have no qualms about what you choose to play. I just like clerics.
Channeling is neat, especially now that you can do so many things with it.
Ah, gotcha. Maybe I'll look over the cleric again, actually, since I haven't played one in a game yet. Oracles always seemed more intriguing to me but then, I'm a fan of Sorcerers too. We shall see...
*stealthily rolls a Druid up*
*quickly eyes the wizard* Well sir do you fancy a friendly game of dice im sure a person of your magnanimity could spare a momment for a poor wretch like myself
Gives his brother a playful but meaningful touch on the shoulder, squeezing very gently once before letting go. "No betting"
AWWW! but it wouldnt be betting rather it would be winning :)
"Bet if you have to, but if you end up betting on your shirt again I'm taking away your dice. Both sets," gives Tam a mock-glare then nods deeply at Oracle (as yet unnamed) "And a greetings to you, good Serah."
lol a summoning wizard thus our fighter is negated in usefulness :)
Re: Mordecai: "Dear me, that sack looks heavy. I assume from your posture and the way your armor sits easily on your shoulders, that you are a puissant ade- I mean, warrior?" he corrects himself, seeming to have trouble letting the vocabulary rest "Allow me to try again, Mr Hawke; I am Stanis the mage. I make maps, cast spells and have lots of obscure knowledge." he smiles, his intonation sounding somewhat rehearsed rather than natural.
Re: Tam: The scholar blinks "Betting!? I am not sure if that is... well, legal, inside a public office like this. But surely, a game of dice would be entertaining, and since we are not betting, at least while within the confines of the city limit, I assume neither of us shall 'enchant' the dice to favor ourselves?" the wizard gives a somewhat nervous chuckle. "A joke. Perchance in poor taste?"
lol a summoning wizard thus our fighter is negated in usefulness :)
I am planning on summoning a little after a while. But I know how amazingly dull it gets when you have not only 4 players, but 2d4 critters between your current turn and the next. Also, the GM is new, so I think it would be kinda cruel to go completely nuts.
And people tend to be happier with a wizard casting Haste on the party rather than summoning in stuff to potentially outshine them ;)
Mordecai laughs heartily at the mage and claps him good naturedly on the back with his free hand, the other holding his bag over the shoulder opposite where his greatsword his slung.
"Nice to meet you Stanis, though just call me Mordecai, Mr. Hawke is my father. You don't have to be so formal, I am sure you will demonstrate your no doubt boundless skills on the road to follow. I will say you make me feel rather the simpleton." He laughs again good-naturedly. "After all...All I do is swing this here sword"
Well smite me silly, I'm actually intrigued by the idea of a Cleric of Abadar. Quick mechanically-themed question; how do you feel about the Leadership feat? Normally, I loathe it, but it seems appropriate for Kingmaker (or maybe redundant, I'm not sure on that part though), especially as the Nobility Domain (which gives Leadership at 8th, and is why I'm considering the feat at all) could be highly entertaining in conjunction with the Bastard trait.
Leadership feat is fine. We had it in our RL game, but limited to ONE cohort traveling with the party, IF the party agrees. I will leave the decision up to them, however.
Most likely it would be appreciated if you kept the cohort to hold your place, or assume another role in government for you while on adventure, though. That large of a party would probably be a downer...
Sounds good to me. I was actually thinking that the Cohort would do well in filling in for one or another of the roles in running the kingdom, with the others making good support staff (either in running a temple or as part of a bureaucracy, perhaps). I'm more than happy leaving the cohort at home, as it were. Like I said, the main reason I'm considering that feat is that it comes as part of the Nobility domain, which could be thematically fun and has a good first level ability, methinks.
"Oh there'd be no magic involved my dear wizard sir just mere luck of Desna, and if a little money changes hands we just explain it is "A legal transaction as per terms of a prior agreement met by both parties."
*looks back and winks at his brother*
What is starting gold im confused lol
Mordecai slaps himself loudly in the forehead then gives Tam a long look. "In that case I will be the judge of any agreed upon betting." then sits down facing Tam.
Starting gold is maximum for your starting class. Anyone planning on multiclassing, btw?
Not I.
Contemplated it but the fighter i want to play is going straight fighter and nothing else. only other thing i might take is barbarian but i dont like taking classes just for an ability.
Stanis almost buckles even under the friendly pat, taking a breath before straightening himself "Well, I hope you will not merely be swinging said sword, but rather _hitting_ those who would come for my rather poorly warded hide." he nods repeatedly "As my master used to say 'Give the village idiot tindertwigs, and even he can create fire. Wielding fire as a weapon, on the other hand, is hard.'"
Stanis scratches his temple with an index finger and stares off "Though if I were to integrate the principles of... no... That would likely burn me as well." he seems to realize he was in the middle of a conversation and gives a sheepish smile "Oh, yes. Swords. As I was saying, what a true warrior does with a sword, is as inherently different from merely swinging it, as what a promethea- sorry, wizard, does with fire, to a barmaid lighting a lantern. Which is my rather longish verbal detour to acknowledging your skills." he smiles and taps one of the tubes jutting out from his bandoleer "And I am happy to say I have a scroll with your name on it. Well, not literally, but rather, a spell that I believe will suit you just fine, as it involves making a big man even bigger."
Sleight of hand to whip out two sets of dice
Tam flicks out two sets of dice and begins flipping them around skillfully until the rest one set of dies are red and sit on the left the other set white and rest in his right.
"My good man since I like you so much ill let you decide which dice set we play with" *grins warmly*
Mordecai glares reproachfully at his brother, knowing how he is and fully expecting to have to pull his fanny out of yet another inevitable fire.
Perception:
Growls and grabs at the dice in his brother's left hand, the said set obviously loaded.
Strength check CMB to take the dice out of his left hand:
Upon failing to wrest the dice from his brother's hand, for once, he growls, "Then put that set away. I don't want your 'special dice' to interfere in your said 'innocent game'"
Sleight of hand to whip out two sets of dice 1d20+7
My good man since I like you so much ill let you decide which dice set we play with *grins warmly*
Heh, no takers on my former game. I wonder why... I am still checking in periodically, but will look over things tonight. I hope you are all playing together nicely :P
Stanis' eyes widen "Special? I have trained my sight for years, and I saw nothing! Bravo! Your nimbleness and speed is rather astounding!" he grins, seemingly completely disregarding the fact that he was about to be hustled, but soon, realization seems to dawn as his face grows severe as he checks his money-belt, and finally nods in relief. "Well, I would prefer we use the not-so-special set, please."
@ aria Huh?
@ Mordecai
Tam nimbly moves his hand out of the way of his brothers clumsy hands and grins at him.
@ Stanis
they both look like very shiny dice to you lol but you can see my brother grabbing at my left hand and saying something about special dice
Working on alias now
"Ah well then I suppose we must use the black set then they are merely blessed by priests of Desna I fear you are right the red for passion can be expressed with the enthusiasm of the game and so one might be tempted to per say use special dice to honor Desna blessings for luck. But I can see you are a shrewd and worthy companion and thus I would never dream of using these foolish red dice. Here you may use these black ones and I shall. Now do you have a set of your own master wizard or shall I provide you with some?"
*with that the red dice vanish back into his pouch and some white ones now shine among his fingers.*
"Ah well then I suppose we must use the black set then they are merely blessed by priests of Desna I fear you are right the red for passion can be expressed with the enthusiasm of the game and so one might be tempted to per say use special dice to honor Desna blessings for luck. But I can see you are a shrewd and worthy companion and thus I would never dream of using these foolish red dice. Here you may use these black ones and I shall. Now do you have a set of your own master wizard or shall I provide you with some?"
*with that the red dice vanish back into his pouch and some white ones now shine among his fingers.* 1d20+7
Stanis eyes almost bulge out of his head in a I-SAW-WHAT-YOU-DID-THERE! manner
Alright, everyone, my skype game has ended, and thus, I am available for questions and to look over people's sheets and start compiling a list of them.
I'm very torn on my character... I have a few concepts in my head but... I guess I'll put a few forward
Switch Hitter Ranger with Falconer Archetype
Summoner with a huge eidolon bodyguard
Arrogant young cavalier... likely beast rider
Inquisitor with a companion
Druid with a companion
I dunno... maybe something else... someone find something cool for me... help me out here.
Whelp, so far, between the fighter and the rogue, we got striker and tank covered, unless I missed my guess. Hubby's wizard is going to go gentle on his wife's first AP and not break the game with Maximized empowered lightning bolt. Kalizkan is going cleric of Abadar, at last report, so we got at least some healing, and unless he's making a striker himself, some good buffing (together with hubby's wizard, too). As I recall, Abadar's favored is a crossbow, but that's not exactly ranged.
Cav beast rider could be cool. As I recall from playing, 70% of the encounters in this game are "we walk around and fight stuff" above ground. Very few dungeons, caves, etc, but once Kalizkan's cleric gets wind walk prepared... although with a larger party, that would have to be really high level, you're not going to want to walk around and fight stuff any more. So, I see that as being fun, plus girls dig guys who know how to ride.
Ranger might be nice for true ranged combat, and would certainly help with the running around "I kill stuff" parts of the campaign, but since I'm going to fast forward through most of that junk anyway (It was tedious at table, I cannot imagine forcing you guys to roll checks EVERY SINGLE HEX as is required to "map" things... just a personal preference...) it might be big bummer to build a character for that and not get to use it.
Inquisitor I cannot answer to, because I need to know what your deity would be and what your focus would be. Who are you looking for in the Stolen Lands to inquire about? The bandits? Some ancient enemy of your god?
Druid gets the entangle spell. I've seen how effective that is in combat in Kingmaker, and how frustrating for the melee dudes. That's if you make a casting druid, however. If you make a strength based fighty type, you're going to have the front line flank machine between you and the fighter, with Tam's quick little rogue putting down things with sneak attack. If hubby goes summoning type wizard, ya'll will basically be a marching machine of death in melee, if you play it smart. Girlies will love all of you, because girlies can get the dudes that hit things and make them die. The wizard that speaks in tongues and makes the fighter bigger, or summons pits of acid that combatants fall into and sizzle, nope, not so much.
Which is not to say the girlies I have in mind are all vacuous. There'll be some trixy minxes thrown in as well.
Should mention that I'm not huge on moral gray, because it causes arguments that I think would best be avoided, and it's not my intention to trap you guys into doing something bad just to make you look like rectums.
Whether or not I answered your question - only you can answer, I suppose.
I am not looking to start till earliest next weekend, so take your time.