GM Granta's AP Planning

Game Master Granta

Please ninja-dot the thread, by deleting your initial post.

CHARACTER CREATION RULES

• Ability Scores: 20 point buy, maximum 20 after age and race
  
• Races: core only (including options in Advanced Race Guide)
  
• Classes: barbarian, bard, bloodrager (including spells), cleric, fighter, inquisitor (including spells), monk, oracle, paladin, rogue, sorcerer, wizard; (plus archetypes from Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic)
  
• Traits: two (one campaign), plus optional third (with drawback)
  
• Hit Points: maximum at first level, then roll (minimum Constitution modifier +1)
  
• Starting Gold: class average
  
• Background Skills: no, but everybody gets maximum ranks in one Craft or Profession skill
  
• Alignment: any
  
• Equipment: anything from Ultimate Equipment
  
• Forbidden: Occult Adventures, Pathfinder Unchained, softcover books
  
• By Permission: archetypes, feats, and spells not previously listed, but only from hardcover books

ON SKILLS

• The "background" skills will be useful in this adventure, if only because I like to get creative with such things and will provide opportunities.
  
• Each Profession will have two associated skills. It can be used in place of those skills at any time, even as a prerequisite. However, there is a -2 penalty on all such applications. For example, Profession (herbalist) would include some proficiency at Heal and Knowledge (nature).

ON TRAITS

All traits from Ultimate Campaign are legal, but only those traits.

STORY FEATS

Each PC gains a story feat at character creation, and can take additional ones later according to the normal rules.

ON SPELLS

The following spells from hardcover sources are approved:

• Communal versions of core spells, i.e. communal resist energy
  
• Greater versions of core spells, i.e. greater false life
  
• This excludes mythic spells, though.

DOWNTIME

The specifics of this may change, but the general principles will hold. Each time you level up, you will get two days of free time per level, i.e. four days when you reach level two. The story line will frequently not allow for that though, so the days will be held in reserve until it makes sense. Most likely, you will not have any free time until the end of book one, at which point you will have eighteen days to play with.

This time can be used to craft magical or mundane items, retrain, research unique spells, pull off a heist, etc. At the end of that time, you can ask for another day (again and again if desired). However, at the end of each day I will roll a percentile die to see if there is a random encounter. There won't be any treasure or experience for these combats though, they are just a risk to balance the reward of additional downtime--and perhaps a chance to practice your strategy and teamwork. Each day the percentile chance will increase, and each encounter the CR will increase--though both reset once the campaign resumes.

CHARACTER CREATION

• Ability Scores: 20 point buy, maximum 20 after age and race
  
• Races: core only (including options in Advanced Race Guide)
  
• Classes: barbarian, bard, bloodrager (including spells), cleric, fighter, inquisitor (including spells), monk, oracle, paladin, *ranger*, rogue, sorcerer, wizard
  
• Archetypes: Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic
  
• Traits: Ultimate Campaign and War for the Crown Player's Handbook only, two (one campaign), plus optional third (with drawback)
  
• Hit Points: maximum at first level, then roll (minimum Constitution modifier +1)
  
• Starting Gold: class average *maximum*
  
• Story Feats: Story feats are legal, and each PC gains a bonus story feat at first level. Prerequisites apply.
  
• Teamwork Feats: Teamwork feats from Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic are legal, and each PC gains a bonus teamwork feat at 2nd, 8th and 14th level. Prerequisites apply.
  
• Background Skills: no, but everybody gets maximum ranks in one Craft or Profession *Perform* skill
  
• Other Skills: Each Profession will have two associated skills. It can be used *rolled* in place of those skills at a -2 penalty. For example, Profession (herbalist) would include some proficiency at Heal and Knowledge (nature).
  
• Alignment: any
  
• Equipment: Each PC gains a free musical instrument or artisan's tools associated with their free Craft or Perform skill. May be upgraded to masterwork at character creation by paying the difference.
  
• Spells: Core plus communal and greater versions of core spells.
  
• Unrestricted Books: Core Rulebook and Ultimate Equipment
  
• Restricted Books: Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Campaign, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic
  
• Forbidden Books: Occult Adventures, Pathfinder Unchained, and anything soft cover
  
• By Permission: archetypes, feats, and spells not previously listed, but only from hardcover books

DOWNTIME

The specifics of this may change, but the general principles will hold. Each time you level up, you will get two days of free time per level, i.e. four days when you reach level two. The story line will frequently not allow for that though, so the days will be held in reserve until it makes sense. Most likely, you will not have any free time until the end of book one, at which point you will have eighteen days to play with.

This time can be used to craft magical or mundane items, retrain, research unique spells, pull off a heist, etc. At the end of that time, you can ask for another day (again and again if desired). However, at the end of each day I will roll a percentile die to see if there is a random encounter. There won't be any treasure or experience for these combats though, they are just a risk to balance the reward of additional downtime--and perhaps a chance to practice your strategy and teamwork. Each day the percentile chance will increase, and each encounter the CR will increase--though both reset once the campaign resumes.

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT NOTE

Please do NOT mention your characters' personalities or back story to each other. Those should only be discussed privately with me.

One of my ideas for working on our role-playing is to try to guess each other's personalities over time. For example, let's say that Bob is supposed to be pessimistic. If asked, people might say, "Yes, Bob seems pessimistic." However, if asked blindly about his personality, would they describe him as pessimistic, crabby, a jerk, insecure, etc.

If everybody says crabby or a jerk, then the player knows that the pessimism is coming through, but not quite as desired.

Grand Duke: Rules a prefecture and answers directly to the grand prince; because this is one of the few titles strictly defined by the land it is tied to, Taldor is limited to 62 grand dukes: 12 who wield real power (sometimes referred to as grand high dukes) and 50 lesser grand dukes (unofficially referred to as nominal grand dukes).

Governor: Appointed by the crown to rule a province; most are also nominal grand dukes.

Duke: Typically rules a duchy within a prefecture; dukes who serve a grand duke directly without governing lands are called attending dukes.

Senator: Votes in the senate; must have a noble rank.

Marquess: Guards a large wilderness estate or border region, such as those in the wild prefectures of Verduran or the World's Edge Mountains; generally looked down upon as uncouth, backwater nobility, but often command impressive military resources to defend against invaders or monsters.

Count/Earl: Rules a county (large tract of land and people within a duchy); counts and earls argue frequently over who holds dominion over the other.

Landgrave: Administrates a nonwilderness tract of land that lacks a settlement (such as canals, isolated farms, ranching lands, trade roads, etc.); theoretically the equal of a marquess, but in reality far less prestigious, as landgraves lack the military power a marquess wields.

Baron: Rules a barony (large swath of land with up to a dozen communities) or sometimes a single major city, or else an unlanded advisor to the crown.

Baronet: Assist a baron in administering the baron's lands; baronets are rarely landed themselves.

Viscount: Administrates a swath of land within a county, traditionally including two towns and the lands between them.

Tribune: Oversees a community, functioning as its mayor and judge; technically an elected position, but almost always a title granted in exchange for political favors; usually answer to a baron.

Lord: Holds and rules specific lands; usually a knight; normally answers to a baron rather than a viscount.

Knight: The lowest noble rank in Taldor, though many overlapping ranks and titles exist within "knight," including elector, esquire, and patrician; newly awarded nobles almost always begin at this rank (especially those who achieve the rank through military service); likewise, the children of noble families who've yet to prove themselves often begin as knights.

PRIMOGENITURE

There is a lot of vagueness and inconsistency in the published material, so I'm going to make a GM ruling: primogeniture applies only to the title of Grand Prince, and women in Taldor are not noticeably more oppressed than in other countries.

I know, that makes no sense given what you've read in the player's guide, but it is the only thing that makes sense otherwise. 1/3 of senators and 5/12 of Grand Dukes are female. That means women in Taldor hold more power than in any real country I know of.

Also, neither the AP nor Taldor, The First Empire mentions a single cultural or systemic abuse or mistreatment of women. As far as I can tell, the whole feminist story line was a last minute addition to the Taldan lore--and it causes way more problems than it solves, so it's out.

LINK to actual campaign. I am prepping the first post now, and will have it up before I go to work tomorrow.