Grimm Tales

Game Master Red Velvet Tiger

Hello, hello! My name is Red Velvet Tiger and I bring to you the macabre campaign world of Grimm Tales! Have you ever looked at a fairytale and thought 'that ending was too happy'? If you have, then chances are you were correct! The original fairytales were dark and twisted, often with enough gore to shame grindhouse horror movies. This is the type of campaign world Grimm Tales is set in: a dark, mysterious land of wonder, madness, horror, and despair. Like all good fairytales, victories are won through well-thought out strategies and out-of-the-box thinking rather than murderhobo hack'n'slash, puzzles and riddles abound, and being a hero means being able to make sacrifices, the cost of which may be too high to bear. Still interested? Read my character creation guidelines below and create a character... if you dare.

CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINES
Starting Level: 3
Ability Scores: Select one score to be your focus and set it to 18 before modifiers. Then, select one score to be your foible and set it to 08 before modifiers. Then, purchase remaining scores with an 18 point buy.
Race: Human, with the exception of one character that will be serving as a Fey (He's already been selected! Monkey, PM me about it.).
Classes: All except Antipaladin, Monk, Ninja, Samurai, Summoner, and Wizard. 3rd party material can be used, subject to approval. Casters be warned that certain spells will be subject to a Ravenloft-esque system where spells can be dangerous for their owner to cast. That being said, spells can be a VERY valuable commodity in this world, so the risk is balanced out.
Skills: You gain an extra skill point per level that must be spent on a Craft, Profession, or Perform skill, to represent your characters profession before adventuring.
Starting Gold: Average for level 3 characters.
Traits: 2, plus brainstorm a campaign trait for my approval.

BACKGROUND FLUFF IS A NECESSITY!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I love this idea, what are you looking for in characters?

How fairytale are you looking for? Is there anything that could be worked into the background? Evil Queens, monsters in the woods, meddling fae?

Are gods the same as on Golarion ?

Checking in. Character concept to come later. I'm thinking I want to play someone who escaped from witches as a child and has been hunting them ever since.

I read the title & got all excited that this might be FFG's 'Grimm' RPG...

Then I read the concept & I'm still interested, though not quite as much. As child protagonists are another staple of the 'Fairy Tale' trope do you have an objection to a character concept that uses the 'Young Characters' options in Ultimate Campaigns?

Very cool concept. I don't know if I have another campaign in me, so I may be forced to lurk.

cheers

Possible Campaign Traits:

Taken: As a child, you were taken by fey, witches, or some similar being. You may have been enticed by candy, ensorcelled, or simply convinced to come with them, but at some point, you managed to see through the rouse and escape. +2 on saves against mind affecting spells and spell like abilities.

I also have a request for a slight mechanic change. The spellkiller inquisition give disruptive as a bonus feat. However, as this is a ranged character primarily, that doesn't really do much for it. Can I change that to Disrupting Shot? It has nearly the same prereqs (6 level fighter) and does something related (screwing with casters).

Dotting, just to keep an eye on this :)

Are we buying stats from 8, or 10? I would suggest 10, since we starting with such a low point buy.

Except that we are only buying stats for 'four', not six.

edit: Actually, that begs a point. Since it looks like you are going with the whole 'Forte & Foible' introduced in Way of the Wicked, Red Velvet Tiger, is it accurate to conclude you prefer we not 'buy down' any of the four, nor try & build up any of them, so we only have one 18 & one 8?

Yea, that is true too.

Aaaand Dragon Master makes the *exact* character I was thinking of building. Nice build too.

Ok, back to the drawing board. I'll come up with something else.

What I'm looking for in characters are normal people thrust into the fight against dark forces of the campaign setting, with well-built statblocks, amazing fluff, and players adept at RP'ing, as this will be about as RP-intensive as old-school Ravenloft (Apart from the 'You got dropped in Ravenloft, kill stuff to escape' modules!).

As for some of the background, the land is plagued by wicked monsters under the control of The Five, powerful sorceresses with sinister powers and even more sinister motives. They are reputed to serve a shadowy figure called 'The Sixth'. The Five are best known by their soubriquets: The Heartless Queen, The Lady of Mirrors, The Blood Maiden, The Ice Witch, and The Witchlantern

The campaign will have three gods, so no Golarian pantheon.

Young characters are not out of the question, but you would have to explain exactly why the adults of the group allow them to put themselves in danger.

Dragon Master, yes, you may change that mechanic.

Buying stats from 10, but you may 'buy down' stats.

may I use the Invoker I sent you via pm?

Dragon Master here

@Doomed - Sorry about that. Great minds think alike, I guess.

@Red Velvet - Awesome, thanks. Is the story ok? or should I tone it down, making him more normal. Anything I should change to increase his chances of getting in?

How prevalent are the monsters? Are monsters a relatively frequent menace to the folk of this realm (thus opening the possibility of a profession being a monster hunter"? or is it a rare event, but a growing problem?

Edit: changed a bit of crunch and slightly edited backstory. Now uses composite longbows and he is just a normal hunter, rather than monster hunter, at the start of the story.

RVT, would you allow the Brawler from the Advanced Class Guide playtest? I've been thinking about making one for a while, and this seems like a prefect setting to try one in.

I'm also thinking about playing a Child (maybe 10 or 12 years old). I know, it's a change from my original stance. I just have this great idea for a street tough orphan who ran into something supernatural and got swept up into events he has no business being involved in.

Could I just re-fluff a Halfling, or should I use the Young template? Something else?

I've been thinking about a Druid with a Wolf Animal companion. I like the idea of playing young characters as well. I'll try to get something up tonight.

Ooh, very interesting. I love the dark fantasy, such as things written by Joe Abercrombie.

I understand a lot of the banned classes, but why wizard? Just curious, you usually don't see them on a ban list unless it's a no or little magic campaign.

Brainstorming some ideas, nothing too solid yet.

Viluki, I don't remember getting info on it.

Johan, the story is fine. Monsters are not something seen every day, but they always lurk at the shadows of society and people who venture far from the settlements are rarely seen again.

Doomed Hero, yes to your questions, except for the race. I have stats for the Ravenloft race the Booged, which are children who have been spiritually scarred by the supernatural. Their bodies are permanently stunted, locked forever as a child. While they are stronger and tougher than the average child, they are still no match for an adult. However, being locked into an age where learning is at it's peak makes them smarter than even most adults. Their emotions tend to be either divorced from most of their emotions or have emotions as violent as a tempest.

Tiasar, wizards just do not fit the fairytale flavor enough. I don't know why, they just don't.

That works for me. What are the stats?

Doomed Hero, go to the Fraternity of Shadows website for Ravenloft/Masque of the Red Death, go to the downloads section, and look at the Quoth the Raven zines. Don't remember which one.

Anyone wanting to play a twisted, socially-shunned outcast should look at them as well, for the expanded Caliban race.

Ah, I gotcha. You like magic portrayed as something wild and natural, not something you can get out of reading a book. Still have no idea what I'm going to make, but I'll definitely come up with something for a campaign this cool.

Here are the basics of Yyarth. Still need to come up with background (Got a good idea...just too tired right now), and finish equipment.

Works for me! ^_^

If anyone wants more information on The Five to help them build a backstory featuring them or their servants, just PM me.

Found it.

The Booged is designed as a 3.5 race and so is much less powerful than a Pathfinder race. I punched it into the Race Builder (adapting a couple of the race traits to their nearest pathfinder analogue. The +10 bonus to convince people that they are children would just become the Childlike feat, for example.)

I came up with a 7 point race. That's only 1 point higher than the Kobold (the weakest playable race in the game).

Any thoughts on bringing them up to Pathfinder standards?

Would the Scholar class be a good fit for this campaign?

They seem to have a lot of useful knowledge and support abilities.

Providing character for review (all necessary information in profile). Made using one feat from Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus (Greatweapon Spell Combat). Please let me know if any changes need to be made or if information needs to be expanded upon.

Character was created assuming maximum HP at first level and then average for every level thereafter as well as working on the medium experience track.

Campaign Trait:
Inspired by Greatness

I bought the book you suggested RVT. I like to support my 3pp friends, so its no biggie for me.

I need to fully read it over before I come up with a character concept however.

Hi! I'm very interested! Lovely idea for a setting.

My first idea is for a Princess who was captured and held captive by an evil witch to use as a bargaining token to gain power, or perhaps to take advantage of the girl's latent magic. She may or may not know she is royalty. (Something a bit Rapunzel inspired) Having thought the girl easy prey, the witch underestimated her as she came to her own. She's most like a sorcerer or a witch herself, but I'm also thinking of Rouge, relying on her wits to save her. We'll see, I'll be back soon with more soon. If any of "The Five" seem like good candidates for a backstory such as this, please let me know. Thanks!

Dotting for now. Mostly focusing on tbe other campaign and creating the Pyroclasm.
First thought is a barbarian with superstisious reflavoured as a complete disbelief of the supernatural and even when faced with hard evidence will still ty to come up with something "rational" or sientific to explain it.

Are you still taking players? A friend and I really like the sound of this and would be interested in joining. We are new to PbP and would like to join the same game and can post regularly. Please let me know if this would be possible. Thanks!

Doomed hero, I was planning on adding some new stuff to the Booged race if you were interested! And what is this 7 RP race? It sounds a bit too weak!

Kios, right-o, it would fit! ^_^

Neils, pretty cool! Reminds me vaguely of the whole Morrigan/Flemeth situation from Dragon Age! ^_^

Monkey, sounds good! I like Rite Publishing's 'In the Company Of...' series, because it provides cool, yet not OP, options for monster PCs. Also, I have a few abilities that I can add the the list of available ones that you select.

Brooklyn85, there are three out of The Five that could fit that description. The Ice Witch is an evil witch from the cold north with a heart as cold and frozen as her magic. She could have kidnapped her either to use her like an arcane battery (Keeping her frozen but alive the whole time as she drew both life and magic from her to fuel enchantments most foul,), keep her as a lovely plaything (For the Witch is fond of beautiful things and likes to 'collect' them,), or as a pupil, trying to create a 'daughter' out of her. The Lady of Mirrors, vain as she is, has been through several flings as she schemed, deceived, and murdered her way through the royal courts and could very easily have given birth to a child, whom she values as a possession but nothing more, (The Lady is as shallow emotionally as a pane of mirrored glass,). And the Heartless Queen, the Fey queen who tore out her own heart after being used and discarded by a mortal who took advantage of her love to gain his heart's desire, could have taken one of his descendants in cold revenge or could have taken the girl from a neighboring realm as a bargaining chip of some sort. The Blood Maiden and the Witchlantern have no interest in such a thing. If any of these interest you, PM me and we can discuss it. ^_^

The Gobbling Gobber, Gobo Horde, appears again! ^_^

Malakai2004, we are in the stages of recruitment now, and will be until Sunday, so feel free to drop in and create a character! ^_^

The big issue with the Booged is that they have a weak attribute bonus (+2 to one stat, -2 to another). Pathfinder races tend to have bonuses to two different stats. Fixing that would bring them up to 8 RP. One or two small bonuses would bring them up on par with humans.

It seems to me that the Booged, after being so drastically changed by fear, would either be terrified of everything, or practically immune to fear after that.

I'll use the basic Booged race to build a draft of my character and we can tweak it from there.

Sounds good, Doomed Hero. I was thinking that if they are afraid of everything, they get a speed bonus, but if they are emotionally dead, get immunity to all effects which target, induce, or manipulate emotions, even those that would normally be a positive.

Working on a character now, Tetori!

I'd be interested in this game.

Could you tell me more about the three gods?

Could you also give me an idea of what the fauna is like in the area where the game takes place? I'm asking in regards to possible animal companions.

As for a last question, would you allow the Hunter from the ACG playtest?

Cuàn, here are answer to your questions.

1. Actually, scrap the Three Gods idea. I will allow you to create one and include it in the setting, if approved. I just feel it would be cheap for the setting if I used gods from the Echoes of the Sephira, PCs or NPCs, and it takes a lot of thought to make good ones!

2. The fauna is going to be like Old World European forest and plains creatures and, in some cases, mountains, tundra, and marshlands creatures.

3. Hunter is allowed.

Right, so I just read above that monks aren't allowed. Does that extend to the Tetori archetype, which focuses more on grapples? And if it isn't, would the Brawler from Advanced Classes be allowed?

Aldrah, the main reason I did not allow monks is flavor. If you can theme it non-Asian, I will allow it.

I was just going to use it as more as a "Rawr I'm going to punch and grab things" due to her backstory/unique situation. That's why Brawler works better, since it has no ki pool.

Sounds good, Doomed Hero. I was thinking that if they are afraid of everything, they get a speed bonus, but if they are emotionally dead, get immunity to all effects which target, induce, or manipulate emotions, even those that would normally be a positive.

I'll take the emotion resistance. It's better fitting with my concept. Would that include immunity to Morale bonuses? If that's the case, it means the Booged can't ever be Barbarians (rage grants Morale bonuses). Pretty strong drawback. In terms of Race build points those two would probably cancel each other out. I'm fine with it in concept, but I'm not sure it's what you are intending.

Doomed Hero, a fair point. Hmmm... what would you suggest?

Mmmkay, if Brawler works, or if Tetori works (I'm willing to part with the entire ki pool, mind you. Leaves it a bit lacking, but Tetori is still nice, flavor-wise, since it does exactly what you'd expect the character to do, be a brute, punch things and throw crap all over the place.) I'm ready to my sheet, if you can stat up that MPD thinger.

You wouldn't part with Ki, it would just be 'clarity points' or something like that. Basically just a reskin of the ability that is purely cosmetic. The SU abilities of the class can be chalked up to your Caliban nature, twisted as you were by dark magic.

Merkay. That just leaves something with the MPD, though I could probably brainstorm that as a campaign-specific trait, actually. Let's see...

Fleeting Childhood: Having been twisted as you were by dark magic, you no longer resemble your previous self. By some twist, you've retained some portion of your childish mindset, for better or for worse.

(Just need to stat it :| )

Doomed Hero here. This is the basic outline of my character. I decided to go with the Swashbuckler rather than the Brawler since Aldrah already expressed interest in that class.

Full write up to come soon.

Oh, I'm going to do Tetori, Doomed, just reskinned to match the campaign.

Doomed Hero, a fair point. Hmmm... what would you suggest?

As I said, I'd be fine with it. It does tend to balance itself out, so I'd probably add things to other areas to make up the difference. It definitely adds to the flavor of the race that others can't inspire them at all.

A Dex or Con increase would probably be be good. Most pathfinder races get a bonus to one physical stat, and one mental stat, and a penalty to something else.

Since the Booged are stunted children and the Int bonus is supposed to represent an increased learning capacity, a bonus feat or bonus skill points like a human gets might be good too.

Those two things would bring them in line with standard power levels. If you don't like the bonus feat or skill points, they could be replaced by something else.

Some things off the top of my head, purely for inspiration and discussion-

Fear is Fuel: The Booged gains bonuses instead of penalties when targeted by Fear effects. Instead of the normal effects, the Booged gains a bonus to Attacks, Saves and Skill checks equal to the level of the Fear effect (+1 for Shaken or Demoralized, +2 for Frightened, +3 for Panic). This bonus lasts as long as the Fear effect normally would.

I'm Not Afraid Of You: Booged gain a +2 to their AC and to Saves against creatures that share a type with the thing that robbed them of their innocence. Use the Favored Enemy table when selecting or matching the appropriate creature type.

Fleeting Childhood: Having been twisted as you were by dark magic, you no longer resemble your previous self. By some twist, you've retained some portion of your childish mindset, for better or for worse.

Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus against mind-affecting spells cast by fey.

(I'm not good at making things. :| )

That would actually be a pretty good Trait. It's about the right power level.

Aldrah, that is acceptable.

Doomed Hero, decide which of those you plan to use, figure it into the race and let me know how many RP it will be around.