1. GM Edwin's Zeitgeist Campaign

Game Master Insnare

Hi, looks interesting, quick question. How commonplace are guns? I am thinking of a human gunsmith or alchemist going into mad shootist with a perchant for really "unique" guns :)

Guns are commonplace. I suggest reading the player's guide.

We had a gunslinger of some description quite some time ago. I seem to recall his body washing to sea shortly thereafter.

My point being, the campaign is pretty unforgiving. Be survivable. We have lost a good handful of PCs (but not in a way that would suggest the DM is cruel, the dice just compound tough situations sometimes, and there are a lot of tough situations).

Commonplace meaning that we can get advanced guns? That'll make the faster reloading stuff way less necessary. I might go three levels of trench fighter first then as the 5th level ability to reload faster won't be needed.

I want to full attack with guns in both hands because that's what the theme feat encourages, even if I have to reload (as a free action). Normally you need two hands to reload. However if you drop one of your guns, you can reload the remaining one. If the first one blinked back to your belt, then you can then draw that later. However I just rembered Improved quick draw from path of war expanded which allows you to sheathe weapons as a free action. That'll also solve the problem without the need for houseruling.

I'll see if I can find links to the material later, though I'm leaning towards desperado anyway, so I might just go with that.

A warlord got plenty of tools for survival. I don't think you have to worry about that on my behalf.

Sorry, sorry XD
I had about 5 minutes at the Safeway I was at before my trip home and so I sent a quick question as it was pretty core to my idea. During the ride home, I have been reading up on the guide and I realize that it is indeed Commonplace, and they use firedust instead of blackpowder to fire their guns. Or it might be fun to use one of their more exotic propellants like magmite for funzies :)

For my idea I was thinking of using some sort of tinkerer/mad machinesmith or something of that flavor (free quickdraw is nice, although I would probably do something 2-handed) with an archetype like the Gun Scavenger to give him a very creative feel.
Or to go into Alchemist with the Explosive missile discovery so that he can attach different bombs to his gun and therefore create incendiary or freezing ammunition and other mad sciency things.
Beyond that, I havent given it much thought.

Another thing I was contemplating is that you currently have a techosmith and it might be fun to be "rivals" of some sort, where I try and keep my inventions hidden from you, and you try and figure them out when I use them in combat, and vice versa. Basically always keeping an eye on the other guys progress when he isnt watching yours.
But first I would have to look up his profile and read a bit, as well as asking the player himself!
Its the start of an idea :)

Advanced guns are not yet available. There is talk of technology out of Drakr that may have been working on something of that nature. So not until later in this adventure, maybe.

@Gobo,
You would have to talk with Cretien but make sure you have some social skills and stuff.

@Gobo:
wouldn't bother me as a player, but Cretien is pretty stressed out at this part in the campaign. He would certainly have some interest in another techno-person but probably not until downtime segments. "I dunno what the hell that was, i'm just glad he blew up the bad guys."

But then there'd also be the angle of everyone supposing to be a close team of operatives, secretive people might get taken for "dark secret" types if things go awry.

@ all:
Someone able to do small AoEs would be helpful. We have a decent amount of melee folks, one mage and me (sorta ranged, teensy bit magic). With all the melee, rarely would one have the option of dropping fireballs, but 5/10ft radius stuff would be great. Many fights have a lot of individual enemies, bad guys roll deep in squads. CC would also not go awry, however many of our combats are mobile affairs so wall spells or static radius emanations may not be as effective.

@Gobo again:
If you wanted to pursue a friendly rival angle, you could set yourself up as a student of Pardwight University or worker in Cretien's workshop (though i currently have none) and set yourself as a roval of Jonathan's as he sorta looks to Cretien like a teacher (i think). Much less secretive and suspicious. I think Explosive Discovery is a good idea, maybe look at my alias Vincent "Scab", i wanna say i linked the Engineer alchemist archetype on it which might suit you quite well.

I'm thinking of a Dwarven Eschatologist Monk/Aerokineticist. A philosopher/warrior. Perhaps a Risuri agent working in Drakr.

I'm familiar with the world, and I think I can fit into this well. I'll work on this tonight.

Hi - how would you feel about a words-of-power sorcerer? Probably a Skyseer with an emphasis on blasting.

-.-

@Philo, I like the idea. Sure if you could link your accessing the powers with maybe one of Finona's expeditions or something.

@Jonahkan, it is a little on the nose. the group really doesn't need another sorceror.

Advanced guns are not yet available. There is talk of technology out of Drakr that may have been working on something of that nature. So not until later in this adventure, maybe.

@Gobo,
You would have to talk with Cretien but make sure you have some social skills and stuff.

That's a shame. The trench fighter idea won't work very well then, since that would be reliant on picking one kind of gun and sticking with it. Pathfinder in general heavily relies on not changing weapons since so many feats and abilities require sticking with exactly one type of weapon. Would you perhaps allow me to retrain which weapon is chosen for the trench fighter if we do come across advanced weaponry? I guess I can use alchemical cartridges to deal with the reload problem. Though in a lot of campaigns retraining is not really feasible since it takes so much time, would that be the case here?

When you say guns are commonplace, but don't allow advanced weapons, that's somewhat confusing to me. Do the other rules of commonplace guns apply? Here what's it usually means, gotten from here:

Commonplace Guns: While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 25% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are still rare and cost the full price to purchase or craft.

With a large number of attacks this character will be able to deal well with either a large number of weaker enemies or a smaller number of stronger enemies depending on what we face. I guess I could even pick up a blunderbluss to get even better at AOE, with the quick draw it won't be a problem to switch it up. Though if I go the trench fighter route it might not be worth it to switch it up even if we do face large amounts of massed enemies. As for crowd control, maneuvers offer quite a few ways to impose status effects, though sadly they are often single target.

@Philo, I like the idea. Sure if you could link your accessing the powers with maybe one of Finona's expeditions or something.

@Jonahkan, it is a little on the nose. the group really doesn't need another sorceror.

Okay! I could do a blasting focused wizard (selective meta magic rod lets you exclude certain squares from the blast), or even a cleric, or a bomb tossing alchemist. I was basing that idea on Cretien's note that some AoE attacks would be useful. That would be either in the naturalist Skyseer direction or the Technologist direction (particularly the alchemist).

I can't see how to make a gun-wielding class work and a bow-ranger feels kinda odd in a modern game, but that was my other idea.

Now I read the section on firearms in the phb and I feel silly. Sorry for these needless questions. Though I do still wonder about the retraining.

This powdered variant of alchemist’s re produces less smoke when used in rearms, has a lower risk of fouling or corroding the weapon’s internals, and is hydrophobic, allowing it to burn even after immersion in water.

Does this mean guns are less prone to misfire?

@Oyzar, you could train for the new weapons later between adv 4 and 5. At the Drakr point you will have too much to do to retrain. Misfires do happen and I think it is fun. When I run a home game I am a huge fan of critical fumbles.

@Johnakahn, write me up a character with a good backstory.

I actually have a few more questions. Mainly relating to ammunition. Normally a keg of blackpowder costs 250 GP, however a cask of firedust is only 20 GP and even weights four times as much as much. Does this reduce this part of the component similarly? Examples:
Bullet + blackpowder costs 0.25 + 2.5 = 2.75
Crafted Bullet + blackpowder costs 0.025 + 0.25 = 0.275
Crafted Alchemical paper cartridge 0.3 gp
100 crafted bullets with blackpowder (that is, a keg of blackpowder): 2.5 + 25 = 27.5
Then the prices for firedust should be as follows:
100 crafted bullets with a quarter of a cask of firedust: 2.5 + 5 = 7.5 GP
Crafted Bullet + firedust: 0.025 + 0.05 = 0.075
Crafted Alchemical Paper cartridge 0.025 + 0.05 + 0.025(paper) = 0.1 GP

If this is how it works, it actually makes firing guns somewhat affordable, crafted paper cartridges are only twice as expensive as normal arrows. If it's not how it works, I would like to know how it does.

You mention that you like misfires, does this mean that alchemical paper cartridges still increase the misfire rate by 1? Paper cartridges are described as the standard ammunition in the phb. On the topic of misfires, if a double barreled gun misfires, does the whole gun misfire, or only one of the barrels?

The Man with Two Guns is God does not change the type of weapon a firearm is. Normally pistol is considered a one handed weapon rather than a light weapon, meaning I would take -4 penalty to use two guns. Is that correct? If that's the case, would you allow me to take the feat Stupendous Strength (also from Dream Scarred Press, but this time from the book Monster Classes) in order to treat the pistols as light weapons so I only get -2?

I'm considering going with double barreled pistols for my weapons. Every attack would then be able to fire two bullets, though at hefty penalty. I could potentially even pick up rapid shot and improved two weapon fighting as well for 5 attacks each firing two bullets, though at some hefty penalties. Is this too much? I'm fine going with a pistol instead if you are more comfortable with that (I'm not even sure which one is better since the penalty is so big).

Is combat stammina allowed, perhaps even free for fighters? It would fit nicely for this character.

Hmmm. Well mixing guns with bombs would suit the ranged single-target and small-aoe role well, and mixing rifles and bombs together should be plenty of damage on their own (about 1d12+3d6 targeting touch AC) so I wont need to focus my feats/discoveries on damage and I can use my extracts for other things.
Maybe beef up my defenses and utility?
Anyways, mechanics wise it should work.

Also, I looked up Scabs, and even went into the Old Orleans campaign recruitment but I was unable to find any linkys for the Engineer Alchemist but after reading the abilities on Scabs profile, it does look interesting and would likely work great for what I need. Currently my options seem to be a gernaider alchemist with the gunsmithing feat or a 1 level dip in gunslinger (probably Gun Scavenger).

Hows this? I am heading deep into the Danor, the city of Progress chasing after a rumor of a gunsmith out here who has figured out a trick of using phlogistite coated bullets and makes them out of a lighter alloy allowing them to fly further (basically a handful of +1 Distance bullets) and he is either trying to aquire them or has just managed to aquire them when he runs into the party and sees Cretien and one of his creations and is instantly enamored by it (and maybe hoping for a chance to study it and improve his own designs). Not a person to take something for free, he joins up with the party (or will join up) by offering protection for companionship. Or something like that.
I will also make him easily well liked, kind and honest. A real good guy who doesnt really have "dark secrets" but more just mad genius and annoying charisma. He would probably make a good fall guy if we needed that at some point :)

Misfires do happen and I think it is fun. When I run a home game I am a huge fan of critical fumbles.

Ya I quite enjoy misfires too (even though my DPR plummets...) :)

@Ozyr The questions about costs would be good knowledge for me as well. One of the ideas I had was to take the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat so that I could Craft and Invent new weapons for the party to further fit the mad inventor theme I have. The feat wont actually help me much since Gunsmithing takes care of almost all of my needs but it would be a good use of Requisition money :)
Along a similar note, I am just going to pay for everything at cost to start with, instead of pre-crafted, unless told otherwise.

@Oyzar,First, I will have to say "crafting" is a no-no term in this game. The proper term is "making" or "constructing" why, because craft reminds me of making Godeyes as a kid at Cub Scout camp. All foolishness aside, while on mission you will have not very much time to make things. Running the investigation takes priority and maintaining your cover too. The prices seem sound.

On misfires, if I am not mistaken there is a misfire table and then you would roll on the misfire table to see what happens. It is possible that a misfire could adversely affect the whole weapon or maybe just one barrel. I guess it depends on how unlucky you are on this occasion.

Could you send me a link to those links?

@Gobo, your idea on coming into the game wouldn't help very much because the mission is a secret spy mission and you wouldn't be privy to what they are doing plus your character probably wouldn't actually get into the game until mid December. A better option would be she already works for the RHC and Delft thought she would be a good fit for the mission. The key here is that your character knows the route of the Railroad or has connections. Depending on how long it takes, I would have you on the ship and then proffer a letter from Delft to say you are a valued member of the team.

There is combat in the game but more important than DPR is communication skills and the like.

Okay, I have in mind a Ratfolk Alchemist Technologist with an emphasis on bombchucking and spy stuff like stealth and bluff. I'll expect to have him ready tomorrow.

sorry, thought i had linked it in that profile.

here's the alchemist archetype, it isn't official Paizo, so ask the GM if you wanna use it.

Engineer

I'm going to have to withdraw my submission. To many irons in the fire.

Good luck all.

Skivven
Small Chaotic Good Ratfolk Alchemist (Grenadeir) 6

Skivven is a gutter-rat(folk) from the slums of Flint. The runt of the litter, he was neither strong nor charismatic enough to lift himself up, eking a barely-tolerated survival on the nimbleness of his feet and the quickness of his wits. In an attempt to pick the wrong pocket, he was collared by Inspector-Academic Griswalde, who, recognising something admirable in the young ratfolk, took him in as a scholarship-student of the academy. Skivven’s talents of alchemy flourished in the academy’s laboratories, amongst the smokestacks and chemical factories of Flint, where the space and materials for experiments deemed excessive or dangerous could always be found by a nimble ratfolk. The academy, it seemed, would be Skivven’s home, an institution blind to race and prejudice, its gears driven by merit alone. Yet this proved to be a mirage, a concoction of chemical smoke and optikal mirrors, for whilst a student was the lowest of the low, ratfolk no more or less than human, Skivven could find only assistant scutwork, whilst his peers found success as journeymen. Knowing he would never be a master, Skivven retreated into the RHC, following Inspector-Academic Griswalde’s route. Even there, his talents were put to use as a Spy in the shadows, rather than an Inspector in the light, but at the least he is truly valued in the organisation, and in its shadowy upper reaches he still hopes to find promotion and success.

PS: I’ll do equipment if selected, if that’s okay(?) - also, I’ve taken three traits and a drawback, if that’s acceptable? If not I’ll drop one of them.

Hi, I would like to end the recruitment by Friday November 11, 2016. PLease have them all up and ready by then.

Feel Free to ask me any questions. Remember when writing your backstory, connections to the countries of Danor, Malice Lands, Drakr and Chryssilir will be looked upon kindly. Having worked for the RHC as a spy or economic way would make my incorporating you into group that much easier. Thank!

Sounds good, I will try and have a character written up by then, and I will change his intro around to more appropriately fit your needs :)

About the class, would you allow me to go with the Engineer archtype? If yes, then I will go 6 levels of that. I think that the loss of mutagen and 1 extract per level would be worth it for the gun synergy. Plus I could shoot people with healing bullets! Or a Super Growth Gun >:)
If not, then I will go 5 levels of alchemist and 1 level of Gunslinger (Gunscavenger/Musket Master).

The engineer seems fine to me.

Life is a little crazy right now. I'll have to step away.

Took a couple of irons out of the fire. I'd like to resubmit my application. Will update crunch and fluff by this evening.

It looks like you've rolled for hit points:

1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 3
1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 7
1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 6
1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 5
1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 2

8 1st level,+23 Rolled,+12Con=43 total

@GMEDWIN: Are you doing wealth by level?

Yes I would says so. But make sure not to spend too much on one item.

I had in mind to do equipment if selected, if that's okay? I can do it in advance if necessary, I'm just starting to get invested in the character already, so if I do anymore I expose myself to disappointment...

In for a penny, in for a pound

Here what I spent my gold on:

Let me know if I need to change anything.

I will extend it through the weekend. Tomorrow through Sunday I am a bit swamped.

Making some changes going with Unchained rogue (Scout Rake) for 4 levels and Unchained Monk (Monk of the Manits) for 2 levels. Changed stat array. Will update equipment later.

1d10: 1d10 ⇒ 8
1d10: 1d10 ⇒ 10

New hit points:
8 1st level,+34 Rolled,+6Con=48 total

All done everything is in the alias.

Character updated with equipment and so forth

Skivven

Anyone else want to give it a shot?

Wish I had seen this earlier. I've a Berian half-giant machinesmith made when this first came out I'd have like to have tried. I don't think I have time to convert him for this though. And don't know that he is needed for your group.

Well give it a shot. According to the module, the group will be in First Class so money buys anonymity. As long as your character had been doing undercover work in either Danor, Drakr, Chryssilir or the Malice Lands you would fit.

Here is what I have Isaac Kgmetrepersecondsquared Need to buy more gear, finish traits and feats and update background some but this should give you a good idea of the character. Let me know if I should continue.

I really like the character and the concept. You may want to write to Cretien's player, he could have been your professor at Pardwright University.

I think your character already being undercover in Beaumont makes a lot of sense and you can then jump in after your character is ready.

I really like the character and the concept. You may want to write to Cretien's player, he could have been your professor at Pardwright University.

I think your character already being undercover in Beaumont makes a lot of sense and you can then jump in after your character is ready.

Thank you. I worked almost 12 hours today and need to head to bed to back in tomorrow. I'm off on thrusday and will have him done Thursday at the latest.

Sure, I shall be able to introduce you to the team probably by the weekend.

Good Morning!!!

I am reopening my recruitment for Zeitgeist.

Well it seems as though my Zeitgeist campaign is in need of one or two players. Basically, it is steampunk heavy on investigation and I would recommend being able to post once per day.

Please take a peek at the Player's guide so you can pick an appropriate Theme Feat. I would suggest you pick the theme feat first and then class it may help with a backstory. Really good theme feats would be Skyseer, Eschatolist but the others would be fine, too.

The character should be 6th level and have a decent backstory. 20pt buy. Possible plot hooks to get your character on the train: Working Undercover in the Border states, an attache to the consulate or embassy. Returning from a mission but you got dead drop message to join the party. Any other creative idea where you are apart of the RHC would help.

We are midway through adventure 4 and we need some good RPing players. Key skills for characters are stealth, knowledges, diplomacy and decent combat skills. The world is unique and a whole lot of fun to play.

3pp material is welcome if steampunk themed.
Thanks!

This looks interesting! I'm in another game with Dreaming Warforged and they mentioned this game is recruiting. I'm currently at the beach on vacation but I'll try to look into it later to see if it's something I want to commit to.

Noting interest. Checking out the game and current characters.

How are you doing HP after level 1?

Interested.....

I'll have to see what I can come up with.....

We roll our hp after level 1.

Interest!

I'm one of the players in this game. A fantastic AP that explores new ways of doing adventures (and does it extraordinarily well), and an amazing GM, focused on moving the story forward and the players engaged!