PF Post-Apocalypse (Inactive)

Game Master BinkyBo

Set-up: A cache of an advanced space-faring race was discovered decades ago, and kept classified by the corporate-financed research team. Though the number of scientists and other necessary staff was huge, the delicate nature of "opening the vault" required the formation of an insular community.
The existence of this place had been just a rumor, until a garbled distress message was picked up by your rag-tag paramilitary survivalist team.

There are others in your force who can hold a gun and hold ground, but you are the ones who are sent in to claim that ground.
As your group takes over an area, new things will be available.

Character creation:
20 pt buy
2nd level (full hp 1st level, half max +1 2nd level)
2 Traits
Available "Campaign" traits
Specialized Training: Treat 2 skills of your choosing as if you possessed the Technologist feat. If you later choose Technologist as a feat, the selected skills receive a +2.

Any Paizo classes considered.
At least a couple Occult playtest characters would be preferred.
(if and when to implement any playtest changes will be up to the player.)
Though Magic users are less common than Psychics in this world, magic-using characters will not be hindered.

Core races and androids preferred. Other Paizo races considered.

Golarion gods. Abadar is the law of the land.

Bonus Feat (pick one)
Technologist
Power Attack
Combat Expertise
Point Blank Shot
Weapon Finesse
Dodge
Combat Casting
or
Amateur Gunslinger

Prevalence of Firearms: Early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 10% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are uncommon and cost 50% of the amount listed to purchase or 25% craft. somewhere between commonplace guns and guns everywhere (I am open to tweaking this... kinda shooting from the hip)

I expect this to go through 5th level.
I like tactical play. I will use maps.

For flavor... I guess think Thundarr/X-Com/Fallout/Borderlands.

Huh Count me interested.. How is combat being played? try to post in correct iterative order, or time limit on turns (usually 24hrs) so post when you can and it all happens via iteratives? or something else I've not seen before?

If it's going up to 5th level how long you think the overall game'll take? (not that it's hard to post, just kinda curious-I've not played pbp much)

What books? kinda sounds like any paizo?

I like the Mesmerist class alot. I've always wanted to play an Android as well.
but does their "emotionless" trait conflict with psychic's emotion component of spells? I asked in the playtest forums but I never found out. Whats your take on that?

I see the technologist guide feat Technologist. That combined with the space ship references. So is there going to be a lot of tech? I was assuming so then I saw the "early" and "advanced" fire arms.. which is stuff like muskets etc. Are things like lasers and all that going to show up? )
Plus mesmerist android with a laser gun of some kind is just cool. and good combo with painful stare.
(granted beyond 5th level gold ability haha)

Also interested, are third party classes allowed?
I'm
Thinking about playing either a vivisectionist er that is, fried medic (similar to the one from the team fortress game by valve) or a machinesmith (engineer would be his job description), whichever one I choose (or you choose for me if machinesmith disallowed) he will use a gun, but have a backup melee weapon.

Have you considered using the gestalt rule system for this? If we're facing the collapse of civilization, it'd help if we were more versatile.

Interesting...

I think I'm going to do a scientist Geokineticist who is interested in studying the alien metals.

I might be interested; is this Golarion astronauts finding new life forms on a different planet, or 'earthlings'?

This campaign is based off of the Tech book?

EDIT: I am VERY interested, I just don't understand the setting completely yet. Thanks!

I am thinking about playing an Android Necromancer or potentially Antipaladin.....?

I would be interested in building a character for this. Not sure exactly what type of character I'll want to play just yet... perhaps an Android Occultist? (I can imagine the implements being flavorful for an Android.) I'll start building a character today and see where it takes me.

How much gold do we start with?

The world is recovering from a brief, but devastating alien attack 100 years ago. To make rebuilding efficient, each city is owned by a corporation. Only those who work for the corporation can live there - or even enter the walls.
Outside these walls, the world has entered a dark age. Settlements have formed outside city walls which are near medieval in living conditions and lifestyle. Black marketeers, innocents just needing shelter, and everything in between.

>Zwordsman - I think an "emotionless" Android using emotions as weapons is cool.
I'll do combat order in "phases".
1st everyone who rolled higher initiative than the enemy, 2nd - the enemy, 3rd - players who rolled lower than the enemy.
If someone does not post within 24 hours during combat, I might DMPC one of their actions.
Regarding tech, advanced firearms were fairly new when civilization collapsed. Early firearms had been around long enough to remain common. Early firearm gunsmiths are nearly as common as blacksmiths.

Technology from the Tech Guide is almost exclusively owned by corporations and their military.

>Lord Foul - Machinesmith is fine with me if you would prefer it. I'd rather not do Gestalt. For one - it makes it harder for me to script appropriate encounters. Power levels of the PCs tend to vary too much.
I did actually consider it... add either techslinger or an occult class to another class, but that was when I was envisioning more of a "Psi-Corps" type thing.

>Doomkitten - sounds good.

>That Other Guy - My thought is that this was like Golarion millennia ago, then like our Earth, and called Earth. The world outside the cities is returning to a more "fantasy" realm. There are people from a few worlds here of different levels of technology... You could be from Golarion (they are the most common "otherworlders"), but more likely an earthling.

Yes, the tech you will be encountering is from the Tech Guide.

>Cartmanbeck - sounds good.

Lets do 1500 gold for starting equipment.

Missed a couple questions
>Zwordsman - any paizo source is OK for class, archetype, feats, spells etc.... I will accept very little 3rd Party, but a few things (like the Machinesmith) fit well.
I'm not sure how long it will take, but I'd say I have the equivalent of two modules worth of content lined up.

I'll have a character fully submitted in 24 hours by the latest. Are there racial demographics inside of the corps kingdoms? Or like, Golarion meets the Corporation from Alien inside, fallout:golarion outside.

Could you expound on the standards of tech and how advanced they are in different fields within and without the Corp kingdoms for me?

Help me enter your world, I can't wait to be consumed by it.

Thanks, this sounds like it can be really cool.

Dotting in. Sounds like fun.

How do you feel about dreamscarred press' Psionics?

I probably won't use them, even if they're available, but still, it'd be good to know.

About the setting: Do I understand it correctly that it's:
1) Generally a crapsack world.
2) There are giant corporations around who have some things going for them and access to tech.
3) We're the vanguard of a group who're sort of nomads/raiders.

I've almost got my character written up. Are there any regional languages that might be extra useful?

>That Other Guy -
There are few City Kingdoms... one or two per "state". You might not know about it, but they have most of what is in the Tech Guide. They are mostly human. One quarter are the other core races. In the following order of most common to rarest - Half-elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Elf, Gnome, Half-orc. Denizens of the wild lands are very diverse.

Technology is less common the further you get from the cities. Settlements just outside the cities have advanced firearms, and timeworn tech in the black markets. They might have better if they trust you.

Further from these settlements, there is only what people can craft themselves (or in small groups).

>The Dragon - I love dreamscarred press. For this I'm not sure. The occult playtest classes are what I will use for Psychic NPCs.

1)Essentially yes. Though more for the players than the world. Most middle of nowhere "regular" people live in villages with similar offerings as Old West towns (minus the Old West flavor). One in twenty of the indigenous people have some psychic ability.
Waay out in the boonies is where you will find the "crapsack". Where the mighty Colonel Kurtz's of different worlds carve out their own microcosms.
2)Yes
3)Yes

>Cartmanbeck - no regional languages, and no Golarion specific. Just...

Well, here's my character!

Sorry if my backstory is a little crappy, I was pressed for time.

Couple things. The Corporate-run City kingdoms range from Lawful Neutral with good tendencies, to Lawful "as Evil as they can get away with". Most citizens buy into their belief that this is the way to rebuild the world. Fear of being unprepared for another alien attack keeps the citizens motivated.

That said, I have no plan of your characters entering a City Kingdom. Likely the closest you will come is a city outskirt settlement with a decent Black Market. No big save-the-world thing here.
The main focus will be claiming this area (a survivalist's shangri-la), and then doing what it takes to keep it.

Mild disappointment at not being gestalt but that's fine, just gotta decide between field medic and engineer (vivisectionist or machinesmith)
Either way he'll be human.
I like to build gestalt characters and if we were doing gestalt I know if we were doing gestalt he'd be alchemist 2/machinesmith 1/gunslinger 1, eventually taking the Transmechanical Ascendant PrC, flavor him as a mad scientist who has a penchant for disecting people and "improving" them, he's better about it than most mad scientists, truely believing that what he does to people is good, and to prove it he expiramented on himself just As much if not more

But that's not quite viable with just one class or the other,
That said I still plan on having fun :)

And here is my (Cartmanbeck)'s entry, Draught the android Occultist!

I'm leaning on vivisectionist, because I'm not seeing healers
But that saddens me as with so many androids, that PrC is perfect.

Awesome. One final question: are we generally from the cities or the outside, or is that our choice?

Prevalence of Firearms: Early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 10% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are uncommon and cost 50% of the amount listed to purchase or 25% craft. somewhere between commonplace guns and guns everywhere (I am open to tweaking this... kinda shooting from the hip)

..

I'm a bit confused on the costs bit.

haha. I really wish there was a easier way to get a boomerang proficiencys XD

Question. I was thinking about using Chakrams. That are basically sharpened Gears. Chakram can be used in melee at a -1 to hit. Chakram are classified as Heavy blade which is comprised of one handed and two handed weapons. So does it work as a one handed weapon? If so. Is it valid for Slashing Grace to allow dex to damage?
Android flinging Gears, illusions mind affecting magic and channeling "stored emotions" for the spells just sounds neat.
I'll use Chakram either way I think-cause it's cool. Just curious if that combo works.
Mesmers don't get a lot of spells at low level and androids get a negative cha race mod as well. So I should be sure I can do damage otherways too~

Still. Robo high speed spinning gears throwing (and possibly using in melee) is just neat.

Do have to figure out the proficiency issue..

>Draught - Very nice.

>Lord Foul - Feel free to stall for a while - to see how the party shapes up before you decide.

>That Other Guy - Up to you.

>Zwordsman (and anyone interested in firearms)
Actually, I think this is what I'll do...

Early firearms price to purchase is 20% of what is listed as in... a flintlock pistol is 200gp instead of 1000gp.
Advanced firearms are half of the price listed. Revolver is 2000 instead of 4000gp.

Cost for a gunsmith to craft is half of price to purchase just like normal crafting.
Flintlock 100gp, Revolver 500gp

Edit: You roll a DC 15 reflex save each time you use a chakram in melee to avoid hurting yourself. (and I agree chakram are cool.)

Chakram are classified as Heavy blade which is comprised of one handed and two handed weapons. So does it work as a one handed weapon? If so. Is it valid for Slashing Grace to allow dex to damage?

Since it is not a one handed slashing weapon, but a ranged weapon which can be used in melee... it is a stretch. I'd allow it, but that is a lot of feats to get there, and you still have the -1 to hit and reflex saves.

Indeed.. painfully so. trying to figure it out. Might not be doable. Hard to get proficiency and all that haha.
proficiency is the hard part right now. without dipping anyway. (since I'm hoping to test mesmer out rather than a dipped one).

Still such a cool visual

I'm intrigued enough by this and the playtest material to maybe give it a shot. No solid plans yet, although I really like the kineticist...

I've settled on making a Human Aberrant-bloodline Bloodrager. And we could tie in the aliens to his backstory somehow.

Flavorwise, I was thinking that in his lineage, one of those who had first contact with the alien life forms had ACTUAL contact with them, and some fluids and dna may have been exchanged... And then he was a minor player in what let these beings loose or whatever, and then lost his job, which in effect made him get booted out of the city, and my dude would be his grandson, who has made his life by either raiding or hijacking tech, or whatever... ...and then somehow he gets onto this paramilitary team. Can you tell me about what that team looks like/its role in the company//how someone on the outside would get into said team?

Tactically, I want to build him as a reach-tastic critbuild with combat reflexes, long arms, enlarge persons, reach weapons, keen edges and critical focuses, to be a monster. MAD as hell, but I'm going to try and see how I can make it work.

here is Zazz the clockwork gear juggler
Not sure if it'll fit your world, I wasn't sure how it was set up so I kept it pretty vague--though it has some Trigun-Outlaw Star influences I guess

I spent I believe exactly 1,500gold. That is the amount of gold we start with no?
I have not chosen my first level feat, nor the bonus feat as of yet. Nor the two traits.
edit: Forgot to choose langauges as well. I'll have to think of which ones fit his story.

I was wondering if having the job of gear-chakram juggler/scavanger (as per his story) makes Chakram valid for Rough and Ready which would mean I would be proficient in Chakrams (or at least that I don't get the negatives so i can use them-the difference between non proficiency-no penalty-and-profiecient is a bit weird given the different wordings on the different ways).
As I can't dip (after all trying to see the Mesmer stuff), If not then I think the only way to gain proficiency would be the feat-correct?

Half tempted to just switch to something else... I'm not interested in guns (sans timework tech's stuff like rayguns haha). mesmer's stare is 30ft range anyway, and i assume the damaging stare goes along with that. So generally always wanna be midrangeish anyway

Not sure how he'll play in combat in the end. Mesmers have a bit low spells per day(and I've got a cha - race mod). seems sorta like he'll fill the gap and do what needs doing sorta thing.
-----------------
Did have one minor question. If we're going to need stuff like bedrolls, rations, upkeep sorta stuff. If so I'll probably have to drop the cyber art bit to afford it
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Ah I should note. That if chosen, this would be my first time playing a Post by Post game. in prep I read this thread . http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rqdb?Painlords-Guide-to-PbP-GMing-Make-Your-Wo rld

Thanks for the advice GM, my indecision if mostly born out of how awesome they mesh together thematically, espically with the PrC, but this game is still potentially very awesome.
Do androids need to eat/sleep?

I'm that other guy...

My backstory will probably remain more ambiguous until I understand this world more.

The biggest thing I am concerned about is how hard/how to actually tie in someone who was an outside raider to being inside of an assumed corporate paramilitary team. Help on that would be glorious and I'd really appreciate it.

I don't have my stats really 'fleshed out' on the profile page bc its really tedious, I'll do it later, but here is his FULL character sheet. The items in the inventory with a '-' mark after them are ones that I'm unsure need marking off with remaining GP usage, I don't know how gritty you want finances/survivalism to be, so I didn't spend time on it yet. Let me know.

Cavalrot, Devastation of the Wilds

This is also found on his profile, as well as his backstory as it is wrought, and his inventory.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything, or if I have to change anything. I took the traits 'Opportune Slayer' and Magical Knack.

Is the firearms period rules close enough to "guns everywhere" that gunslingers get gun training at level 1 instead of gunsmith?

That Other Guy - You are not a corporate group. You are somewhat like-minded individuals who have banded together to survive, but you have been run like a military unit. Take a position until resources run out, or forced to retreat by superior forces. Take on new people if they will benefit the group. (Somewhat like in Walking Dead)
I will look over your character soon.

Zwordsman - sounds overwhelming. I'll PM you.

Lord Foul - From what I understand, yes androids need to eat and sleep (or at least rest - if you go by journal fluff). They are immune to sleep effects, and the fatigue penalties, but "not needing to sleep or eat" is not included in their racial traits.

The Dragon - Gunsmith is still needed, just less special. I really wanted to avoid Gun Training at 1st level... Gunslinger does need some love to compensate (without further ripple-effect house rules). How about this?
Add revolver, rifle, and shotgun to the gunslinger's choices for starting weapon. (which can have since been made masterwork for 300g)
Keep Gunsmith feat.
Get Gun Training at level 3. (You will then have a better idea what guns are, and/or will soon be available.)

Ooh, with the gunslinger updates I might try doing something with that. Maybe renovate an old character... I'm guessing this isn't set in Golarion, so I might bring back this fella, updated for this game and with the mysterious stranger/pistolero clarification.

Or mix the two classes. Hm...

EDIT: Considering mixing gunslinger and occultist. In that case, would you be open to the third-party mechanist archetype? Seems fitting for this kind of game and I've never had problems with it in games in the past.

Applying with this profile.

Equipment still needs to be finished up, but I got the basics. Anything else is somewhat dependent on the world/setting we're in and how strictly we're tracking things like rations.

Background is pretty vague for the same reasons most other posters have mentioned. That said, being a junk seller, there could be a relation between Cavalrot and Mayze if That Other Guy is interested. Something along the lines of Cavalrot would sell/trade any interesting weird items he came across in his raiding and pillaging, and Mayze wouldn't ask a lot of questions. Eventually conditions in the area (other raiders, aggressive critters, lack of food/water) got bad enough we found ourselves in a situation where we had to fight off miscellaneous bad guys/worse guys, and thus a team, or part of one anyway, was born.

I will be pretty busy tonight and tomorrow. I will post some world clarification stuff on Monday.

Here is a brief timeline

125 years ago Earth (at the time in a 1850-1900 equivalent industrial age) was bombarded by a meteor shower. The destruction, and resulting effect on the climate was devastating, and nearly "broke" civilization back to a dark age.

120 years ago People began being born with Psychic abilities.

100 years ago Alien ships attacked. Earth was unprepared, and again the landscape battered. Then suddenly the ships came crashing down to Earth. The alien attack lasted one day, and there has been no sign since.

95 years ago Government collapses. The fractured military looks to corporations for guidance. They surely would know best how rebuild with efficiency.

90 years ago Each city becomes ruled by a corporation or conglomerate as a monarchy. Citizens are employees or exiled.

I will also probably close recruitment (on Monday) for anyone who has not yet posted interest by Monday.
Selection will come within a week after that.

Calvarot - Looks good. I like strong reach-weapon characters.

Loup Blanc - Araden looks good. One note - With how we are doing initiative (in phases), Reactionary might lose some luster as a trait.
Also, I am fine with Mechanist as an archetype.

Mayze - Medium is a tricky one, but really cool. Looks good, and good suggestion.

Oh cool a mechanist! Now we have a trap person! Still not seein any healers, unless some of the playtest guys are healers, I haven't looked them over yet.

As a note, being immune to sleep effects and fatigue does mean you don't need to sleep as the penalties for not sleeping is fatigue
If you're a spellcaster you still need to have "restful activity" though.

Mayze has a level of bard and half a wand of CLW, with the plan to get other wands for various other healing type spells as needed. Entirely possible there will be spirits when the full list of 52 is out that have some sort of healing related abilities. So all in all she's not a dedicated healer, she can half ass it fairly well.

yeah...
that sounds like, enough healing to make up for a vivisectionist being a sub par healer (they're awesome in other ways), but not enough to let me be a machinesmith (even with the option to choose either one, I'm not sure which I'd go with)

We can brainstorm something. I wanted Cavalrot to have led a battalion of raiders that either failed after a long 'successful' campaign, and then got slaughtered or was dissolved over certain issues, then he laid low for a few years. I think his mannerisms and personality would somewhat be reminiscent of Darius from league of legends... Not copy pasta, but drawing some themes. ....I never thought I would use a videogame character as a springboard for roleplaying...... lol

Awesome. This is sizing up well. I think your idea is good Mayze, when your characters personality is fully fleshed we can discuss our partnership dynamics via PM.

I'm going to be listening exclusively to death metal while we are playing in this.campaign.

So! I think I managed to make an Alias (didn't even know that existed until people started referencing their names as character sheets haha)

So I put a fairbit of the info in it. I'll try to keep it fairly updated but mythweavers will be more updated.

Don't have a nice picture off hand though.

Also testing that roll effect..

PBS-Stare-CogWheel: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 231d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 Slashing Damage

Well got it to work.. doesn't look like I can label inside the rolls though. I guess I'll have to keep the rolls seperate.
PBS-Stare-CogWheel: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19 damage roll S- type: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Anything wrong with this style folks who know more?

I mostly prefer to get an loose idea of personality to begin with and let most of it evolve through game play. Though I can say the more I learn about the setting the more I see Mayze as similar to Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly. Hostile to established authority, especially the domineering type...cynical and pragmatic, but at her core a decent person. Likes to pretend she cares less than she does.

That's a good way to describe him.

Okay cool. Cavalrot is much like Jayne Cobb, mixed with a hefty amount of Forrest Bondurant, mixed with an also heavy amount of other themes.

He is very serious and doesn't really take humor well, has a very stone-cold leader mentality, and is always thinking survival/tactics. He believes he is indestructible, even though he lost his battalion.

OK we have...

>Characters Submitted
Calvarot - Bloodrager
Draught - Occultist
Mayze - Bard(archaeologist)/Medium
Zazz - Mesmerist

>Character not set or have just posted interest.
Lord Foul - vivisectionist or machinesmith
Loup Blanc - possibly mechanist or gunslinger
Doomkitten - terrakineticist?
The Dragon
jooker

I'm looking for 6. I'd like to start by Monday.

I'll google Forrest Bondurant, as I'm not familiar with the name. (EDIT: aha, the guy from Lawless...ok, I'm familiar then, rather like that show)

Also, woohoo for a whole caster party :)

Looks like we lack a trap guy, and we're dangerously low on healing for a post appocaplypse game.

Party composition should have strengths and weaknesses, like individual characters. I'm fine with roleplaying through the struggles and innovating tactics to overcome weaknesses.

If we don't have a healer then the game becomes a bit grittier as the demand for items for sustenance makes the interplay weightier.

However, I'm not commenting at all here about what you should build. Build what you want! :)

haha I didn't notice the classes were all partial casters. Though I think some are melee and some are ranged. I'm sorta half and half since my class abilities have a 30ft limit.