Keys to the Clockwork Dead

Game Master Matthew Stinson

Hello, I'm Matthew Stinson. I'm starting up a new 3rd party company for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game System and am looking for play testers to test mainly new races, classes, archetypes, and feats has we finalize our first product and start growing our home setting.
The main race of our Aramir setting is the Moai.

MOAI (10 RP)

Moai (Rock People)
The tall men of stone once held a grand peaceful empire until the great sleep took them and the race as one slumbered for nearly 4000 years to wake and find the world changed and their memories lost. Now every couple of hundred years each individual moai will go to sleep and then awake hundreds of years later with no personal memories.

+2 Strength, -4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom (3 RP)
Slow Speed: The Moai have a base speed of 20 feet, and their speed is never modified by encumbrance or armor.
Darkvision (3 RP): Moai can see in the dark up to 90 feet.
Stone Legs (2 RP): Moai’s strong stone legs are thick and sturdy; they count as quadrupeds for the purposes of encumbrance and CMD.
Natural Armor: Moai have a +1 natural armor bonus.
Tired (-1 RP): Moai receive a -2 racial penalty on saving throws against sleep effects. Moai spellcasters that require sleep to regain spells need an extra two hours of sleep.
Memory Fragments (2 RP): Moai still retain some instinctive knowledge from their past lives. Moai may select any two skills to add to their class skill list.
Languages: Moai begin play speaking Common and Terran. Moai with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following bonus languages: Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, or Undercommon.

Feel free to comment below. Anyone interested in testing more material contact me at Matthew.W.Stinson@gmail.com
Thank you.
-Matthew Stinson

Dotting to show interest.

So are you interested conducting this playtest by running a game on here in your setting or are you looking for people to just take your race and play it in their home games and write back with feedback?

If you're talking about running a game in your setting I'd be interested in making a character, sure.

I'm with Grimcleaver. I don't have space to add anything to the campaign I'm running right now, but I'd be happy to Playtest if you're running something.

I've never done a play by post before. I'm willing to try if you all could help me out with what I would need to do and be patient as I get the material together.
If you do what to pay test this in you're own games though, please go ahead and let me know how it goes.

I think a play by post could be a lot of fun, yeah. It'd give us a chance to play the Moai in the setting and culture they belong in, which I think will help a lot. Plus I'm really not sure I'll have any other games coming up where they'd work, so this seems like the best opportunity.

As far as not having done much pbp before, don't sweat it. I'm sure it'll be fine. Take your time. I'm here if you need help with anything.

I'd be up for playing in a PbP. You'd probably want a 50/50 Moai/Core Races split so you could observe close hand how they stack up against the regular races. Of course, the ARG rules were supposed to have been thoroughly play tested, and if you're sticking to them, balance should be fine. With that in mind, if you are more interested in playing out their culture and your setting, and all Moai group might work better. Either way, I'm up for the game.

What is the name of your 3PP going to be, so I can watch for it?

Yes, 50/50 split would be best. For area of the campaign setting we will be starting in the main races, by population, will be humans, Moai, dwarves, gear-man (for the Midgard campaign setting), and rat folk. I have a full write up on the Moai I can email you all with special racial feats an some insight into their culture. We also have two core classes that we would like to play test, the Amazon and the Spirit Binder. Both are full BAB so the rest of the group will need to full the voids left. The world's name Aramir and is about American Civil War level technologies, but gun are regulated by the gear man with yearly fees and you need your papers upon you at all times. If you don't want to play a woman, the Amazon as a male-only archetype title a Panther Warrior.
Our company is named Gooddevil Press, we already have a face book page. I'm still getting a lot of the busy matters figured out, but it is slowly coming together. Please feel free to private message me you email so I can send you the extra material. I think this is going to be fun.

The major core classes that define Moai culture and are pursued by most of the populace are the stonelord, the earth­blooded sorcerer, the akashic, and the time warden. Between the nobility and the social populous are the stonelords, the only ordained authority within moai society. They are the benchmark which all other moai judge their own personal honor and conviction while pursuing the wellness of their own people and social setting.
[The stonelord paladin archetype was first published within the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Races Guide and was listed as a dwarf only class. In games in which the moai race is a playable option the stonelord class should also be open to moai and oread.]
Sorcerers with the elemental earth bloodline is quite common among the moai. However, those that obtain advanced power through the “earthblood” is set apart as nobility and are often adopted into the royal household. It is believed that moai who have fulfilled the reincarnation sleep since the elder times are empowered by the earthblood, makings these the oldest and most pure of the moai people. Displaying linage as a stonelord and earth­blood sorcerer is the moai's way of holding on to the fragments of their culture that has held truth throughout the centuries. As a large number of the populace have grown eager to learn what has been lost or forgotten these symbols of lost nobility have grown ever more important.
This obsession with the past and lost knowledge why the akashics and time wardens now fill the roles of councillors, teacher, social leaders, and wise men. Over the last six centuries as a whole the moai have become more than proficient with the movement of time and it’s effect on the personal and communal subconscious. As more moai learn to navigate and manipulate temporal forces to investigate the race’s past (and future) the time warden’s must be ever vigilant in the watch as some might distort reality by accident or malicious. The akashic on the other hand are mastering the pool of knowledge within all moai and their own blood, gathered over dozens, if not hundreds of lifetimes before being pushed into the subconscious by the reincarnation sleep. By digging through their own lost memories, the akashic becomes a “physic archaeologist”, unburying the history of the moai people.

[the akashic is a core class within Monte Cook's Arcana Unearth, while the time warden and Time Thief are PDF supplements by super genius games]

Unlike those within their homelands, moai adventures tend toward the amazon, ranger, and time thief classes

My email is Grimcleaver@gmx.com

Hey Matt, I'm happy to give it a shot, but it is my first time too.

Hey Matt, this is Alex. I'm pretty interested in using the Amazon class for this game.

Okay. So we have Anthony Newman, Grimcleaver, J. Lighter, Mr. Stormwind, and Alex Kasten who private messaged me.

That's five, I'll take one more, to make six. You can talk amongst yourselves to decide who you want to play. You can play anything you what, but humans, moai, dwarves, gear-men (form the Midgard campaign setting), and rat folk make up the main populous. We'll need three moai with six players.

Classes from super genius games are okay, and kobold press's White Necromancer.

The additional roles to be filled, as we will be play test two front line fighters, will be;
One primary healer or two secondary healers, a utility, an arcanist, and someone will need to be the Amazon (female only) or it's archetype, the Panther Warrior (male only), while another will need to be the Spirit Binder.

Okay, Alex, who should have the call sign Pocsaclypse hear on the boards have called Amazon.

Ha! Alex you ninja'd posted me.

Dot dot dot

Okay, We have our sixth person. Zenergy. Feel free to talk about the group make-up and who will filling what role/roles.

I'd be interested in taking a core race through one of the two test classes to see how it plays against something else. Maybe a human, just for simplicity's sake? Alternately, I'd be game to play a Maoi Cleric.

How about a Moai Oracle with the Stone mystery? Will that work?

Just stopping in to introduce myself. I'm the lead designer of the Spirit Binder class and I did some work on the Moai and Amazon as well. I'll be helping Matt run the game if he needs it, providing answers to mechanical inquiries about the playtest content, and so forth. Hopefully ya'll won't be seeing much of me because that means everything is going smoothly :)

Okay, so as of now we have
Anthony playing a Moai Oracle with the Stone mystery (awesome).
J. Lighter as a Human Spirit Binder or a Moai Cleric
and Alex Pocsaclypse as an Amazon of an unknown race.

If more than one person wishes to play a Spirit Binder, there might be a way to build one for front line combat and one as utility. We'll just have to take a look.

It will be 20 point buy.
2 traits
AVERAGE starting gold.

I've got my character made, how do we share these with the group? Just copy and paste the text?

Actually, the believe I'll need to start a tread in the Play by Post section on the forums as this is the recruitment section.
I don't think it will hurt to post your character here though. And we can talk a little about their back ground. Did you read the Moai write-up?

Yeah, I have the mechanical bits worked out, but I'm still working on the backstory. I used the Neceros Filliable PDF to make it since I'm not skillful enough to do custom stuff with Herolab. I can post the stat block later if you guys want to see it since I'm not sure how to share a PDF other than host it in my dropbox and provide a link.

I've went ahead and started the campaign here in the forums. You should see a bunch of different taps on the top on the page. Please start posting in the proper tab.

I got your message with the spirit binder class; can you give me the time warden, akashic, and amazon class so I have it on record? Thank you!

According to the tabs, the discussion and gameplay threads aren't connected yet. Haven't run a PBP since before they changed things around, so not sure how to fix that.

I'll have my character options hashed together sometime today. I'll put both options together just to see what the party needs.

According to the tabs, the discussion and gameplay threads aren't connected yet. Haven't run a PBP since before they changed things around, so not sure how to fix that.

I'll have my character options hashed together sometime today. I'll put both options together just to see what the party needs.

Hard refresh the page, it happened to me too.

Zenergy,
There's the link to the Time Thief srd, http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/super-genius-games/time-t hief I could find the Time Warden on there but the PDF is only 3 bucks and well worth it if you are going to play one. The Time Magic is divine magic for the Moai and arcane magic for everyone else.

jlighter wrote:

According to the tabs, the discussion and gameplay threads aren't connected yet. Haven't run a PBP since before they changed things around, so not sure how to fix that.

I'll have my character options hashed together sometime today. I'll put both options together just to see what the party needs.

Hard refresh the page, it happened to me too.

Still not working. Also tried going in from the outside, and looking for it in the thread list. Not showing up there. Restart the browser?

The akashic is from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearth, best utility class ever. I have no idea how to show it to you. Someone might have up dated it here on the boards some where as it's still 3.5. The Amazon class I'll have to email you when I get home from work tonight.

I have a copy of Unearthed Arcana. I can copy the data down here in a spoiler later. It should be available online, too.

I wasn't sure what math to use for the Aura distance. I'm guessing it's 5 or 10 ft? I also didn't know what starting gold math to use, so I just modified the gear for the iconic character that you provided. I also thought the Hungry Father would be an interesting one to play with as far as its personality. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

I wasn't sure what math to use for the Aura distance. I'm guessing it's 5 or 10 ft?

The aura of evil from an embodied blood spirit is the same as any alignment aura, such as a paladin's aura of good. It has no distance, no inherent effect, and only shows up if someone is actively using (in this case) detect evil or similar magic. Blood spirits are nasty little things.

Note that you'll only have that aura while you're actually embodying a blood spirit. If you have reason to suspect that someone's scanning alignments, you can dis-embody the hungry father spirit with a standard action. You'll lose access to exsanguinate and your embodiment bonuses (and penalties), but you won't show up as evil since your actual alignment is CN.

For starting gold, I believe I used the amount Fighters get, since Spirit Binders are intended to cover a similar role. Upon reflection, Rangers might be a more suitable choice, since SBs don't get heavy armor, but it's not really a big deal either way.

Okay. I'll double-check the math. Almost done putting together the Moai Cleric, as well. Just needs backstory.

Sorry ive been so quite. Busy couple days. I'll have a sheet up tomorrow morning.

Ditto Pocsaclypse.

So here's what I've come up with so far. Let me know what you think:

Y"know how when you're really exhausted working on something really important and you just close your eyes for a second and it's morning? For Sturvok he dimly remembers he had a group of close friends relying on him...for their lives, he thinks. He was doing something really important. He was part of something that was supposed to save the world, or at least his part of it...but he can't remember what or who, any of it. He was found by a party of dwarves out exploring. They took him back with them and tended him in his guilt. He dedicated his new life to becoming a paladin, steeling his mind and stony flesh, so that next time his friends need him he will not fail. He's struck out into the world to find his old friends and mission, whatever they were...or at least their descendants or a mission of similar magnitude so he can redeem himself and clear his conscience.

Sturvok - Moai Paladin (Need a cool dwarven god here, ideally something to do with duty...or regret)

Abilities:
+2 Strength, -4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom
(2) Str 14 +2
(5) Dex 10 +0
(5) Con 16 +3
(1) Wis 13 +1
(2) Int 12 +1
(5) Cha 14 +2:

Flaw:
Racial Narcolepsy: On a natural 1, fort save or doze off

Feats:
Iron Will: +2 Will Save
Toughness: +3 Hit Points

BAB +1
Fort +5
Ref +0
Will +5 (+3 v sleep)

HP 12

Skills:
Diplomacy +6
*Knowledge: Dungeoneering
*Perception +5
Sense Motive +5

Paladin Abilities:
Aura Good: 1
Detect Evil: 60'
Smite Evil: 1/day +2 to hit, +1 damage (+2 evil outsiders), +2 AC against

Moai Abilities:
Slow Speed: 20' never modified by encumbrance or armor.
Darkvision:90'
Stone Stability: quadruped encumbrance and CMD.
Natural Armor: +1 natural armor
Slumber:-2 vs sleep effects. Sleep 2 extra hours.
Memory Fragments: add two class skills*

Calcius
Male Moai, NG medium humanoid
Init +0; Senses darkvision 90 ft.

DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +1 natural)
HP 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +4
Weakness: -2 penalty vs sleep

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee longspear +2 (1d8+3/x3) or Morningstar +2 (1d8+2/x2)
Ranged sling +0 (1d4+2/x2)
Special Abilities: slow speed, stone legs, memory fragments

STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +2, CMD 16
Feats: Combat Casting
Traits Deft Dodger, Scholar of the Great Beyond
Skills: Diplomacy +7, Knowledge: History +5, Linguistics +4, Perception +6, Spellcraft +4,
Languages Common, Terran, Dwarven
SQ: mystery of stone, curse: legalistic, revelations: clobbering strike
Gear: longspear, morningstar, sling, 10 sling bullets, scale mail, backpack, waterskin, trail rations (5), 50ft rope, silken, 42gp

Spells
0- Detect Magic, Enhanced Diplomacy, Spark, Stabilize
1 - Cure Light Wounds, Bless, Doom

Calcius had always lived a simple life amongst his people, serving as a shrine keeper in a rural Moai village. Despite weilding divine powers, like most oracles he did not lay his faith at the feet of any single god, rather he revered the entire pantheon and the lessons they teach. Accepting and good-natured to a fault, Calcius worked diligently in his community, helping residents with their spiritual needs, resolving disputes with his friendly manner, and even helping to bring in the
harvest. However, on a pilgramage to a nearby underground grotto holy to the god of stone, Calcius entered a sleep cycle. When he awoke several hundreds of years later, his village was gone. Fields had overgrown, buildings stood crumbling, and there was absolutely no sign of his friends. Crestfallen, he returned to the grotto, beseeching the Lord of Stone for some sign or sigul to help him unravel the mystery of what happened to his people. In that moment, Calcius was challenged by the God with the Mystery of Stone. His quest is now to be strong, solid, and immovable in both form and purpose. A foundation of strength for his allies, and an uncompromising weapon against his enemies. He knows that if he keeps to this path that the gods have set before him, he will discover the truth and reach true enlightenment.

Sorry for the slow pace. I've narrowed down my list of ideas, and once I've picked something, I usually get it completely done in one sitting.

Sturvok - Moai Paladin (Need a cool dwarven god here, ideally something to do with duty...or regret)

A few other details I forgot:

Traits
Adopted [Dwarves]: Defensive Training +4 AC vs. Giants
Lucid Dreamer: +1 Knowledge (planes), +2 Will saves vs. dream targeting effects.

Starting Gold 175:
Scholar's Outfit --
Scale Mail +5, -4 penalty (50g)
Heavy Steel Shield +2, -2 penalty(20g)
Heavy Pick 1d6+1, x4 crit (8g)
Iron Holy Symbol (5g)
Holy Water x2 (50)
Portable Ram (10g)
Block & Tackle (5g)
50' Silk Rope (10g)
Grappling Hook (1g)

16 in coin