
CaptainMarvelous |

"Encounters" in this case refers to elaborate, single-encounter micro-adventures. As outlined in the interest thread, I'm going to try running a series of these single encounter adventures (along with whatever other GMs decide they want to participate) for a pool of players and characters rather than for a set group.
Please read every section before posting.
This will be a dice fall as they may game. If the dice say you die, you die. No punches will be pulled, no outcomes massaged for the sake of drama. I'm going to place treasure with an eye towards the expected wealth tables but you get what you get. To use a phrase that has lost all meaning: this is going to be a bit more oldschool a game than the typical PBP pathfinder campaign.
Any core or base class by paizo.
Any core or featured race by paizo.
25 point buy.
Any alignment.
Up to two traits from two different categories (like PFS).
200 GP starting gear.
You can have as much or as little backstory as you want, and you are under no obligation for it to make sense, but I am going to ask for a minimum of a single-sentence in-character quotation.
If you would like to join the waiting list please post with a completed alias for a first level character. If you do not, indicating that you did not read enough of the first post to see either of my two notes about this, it will disfavorably incline me towards you. Posts without an alias will not reserve a spot on the list. It's first come, first served except as outlined above.
You can still post questions or comments or what-have-you without an alias, I will only become irked if you attempt to join the list without one, since it will indicate to me you don't read the first post of games you try to join. If any GMs want in let me know.

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Here we go, my first level character alias.
Give me a minute to fix him up, as I usually do make mistakes.
Edit: there is one minor detail that I have to fix and it is easier if I copy and paste it on microsoft word. I need to use the find and replace button so I can find and replace all instances of one word with another so it makes sense. Does anyone know how to use the find and replace button on microsoft word?
And my single quote: "Be gone with you evil doers" were his last words before was kicked out of Hell.

CaptainMarvelous |

Here we go, my first level character alias.
Give me a minute to fix him up, as I usually do make mistakes.
Cool, you're at the top of the list (there's a campaign tab now, and a list). Although I'd consider investing in a ranged combat option in case you run out of spells and don't feel like being a hero with that dagger. That is, unless you'll be happy acid splashing everyone.

Tenro |

Edit: there is one minor detail that I have to fix and it is easier if I copy and paste it on microsoft word. I need to use the find and replace button so I can find and replace all instances of one word with another so it makes sense. Does anyone know how to use the find and replace button on microsoft word?
CTRL+F ought to get you find, and the pop up should have a tab for replace.

CaptainMarvelous |

Dotting for a later alias post, I'll be leaning towards a class I've never extensively played, such as Monk, Magus, or Wizard. Although, Summoner's on the table, yes?
Yeah, this might be the only campaign ever where Summoner is not a banned class. Banned classes in this game are like spoons: there is none.
Leena Almadill
Zamph! You're on the list. You should also look into a ranged weapon.

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Despite his bestial appearance, HEY YOU is actually rather intelligent and a fairly-decent scientist. Born a slave and never given a formal name, he was freed by an Andoran patriot and brought up in the Pathfinder Society.
From Level 2 onwards, he'll be taking the Alchemist (ragechemest) route and will eventually prestige into Master Chemyst. That's right, I'm building the Hulk. :-)

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have you looked into magus Max? You get the free light armor no fail gig. Not as many spell choices or slots, but more combat ability.
oops or never mind someone else got it....edit
I've been a magus before, but I wanted more spells, plus most feats that are suggested a spellcaster takes are ones I don't usually take. I usually play/roleplay spellcasters differently. Not to mention sorcerors get at wills. Magus runs out of spells to early in low levels.
Come to mention it, one of my favorite spellcasters is warmage. warmage but that is a D&D 3.5 class. It can wear light armor without arcane penalty and cast spells without preparing them and medium armor at higher levels. There is no class in pathfinder that gives you the best of both, so sorcerer with feats that reduce spell failure chance is my best bet.

CaptainMarvelous |

Erlic Rondelmeyer
Shazam! You're on the list. And five is a good start so I'll begin the first encounter soon-ish. I have a bunch of ideas though so I'll start another as soon as I fill up with another group. After that people will have to wait for one of the active games to end, but I'll still add people to the list.
Also, if I'm understanding the death correctly, if we die, we get replaced by the next person on the waiting list, ie number 6, since there are 5 per game, as in death=death?
If you die then your character is dead, unless someone on-site has resurrection magic (or you pre-pay for your own resurrection at a temple and another PC hauls your corpse away). You can make a new character but they start at level one like every other new characters. Nobody gets added to the current encounter if someone dies.
Once an encounter is finished the people can re-add themselves to the list from the bottom, in case I was unclear about that. I'm not forming one group and then running for them consistently until people die.

CaptainMarvelous |

Tapping Max Gain, Bartleby Nutmeg, Leena Almadill, HEY YOU and Erlic Rondelmeyer for Red Tree of the Devil Chimps
Please post once in discussion to confirm your participation.
Still looking for characters to start group 2 though.

CaptainMarvelous |

Dwynra Naad and Yvanesh are on the list. I didn't have a chance to look over the characters as thoroughly as I usually like (I will later) but if anyone of you lack a ranged weapon pretend I nagged you about it.
Edit: Dwynra Naad: I'd suggest buying some ammo. Also could you link me to the Shadowstrike spell?
Yvanesh: Find a place on your sheet to record your typically memorized spells.

CaptainMarvelous |

I'm up for this. Haven't figured out what I plan to make, but anything involving satanic chimps is awesome.
You wouldn't be in the satanic chimp group but, don't worry, all of my encounters will be equally stupid.
If there's a healer of some kind in your pool of potential classes you might consider playing that, as healers tend to be at a premium in games like this. You're always in a group with a cleric if you play a cleric.

CaptainMarvelous |

I had, I think, a good idea:
To encourage other, not-me people to also GM, the first time someone who GMs an encounter they can "bank" a level to add to a character of theirs at a time of their choosing (but between encounters, obviously). Then, to keep the GMs all from having high level characters that never see play, every time after that when you GM you get a free roll on the magic items table appropriate to (one character of your choice)'s character's level for every encounter you GM.

Whack-a-Rogue |

As a prospective future GM, this answers a question I'd had regarding higher-level characters. Since some character concepts take a few levels to really get started, would it be possible to submit a higher level character at some point? I think it would be cool if eventually we had Tiers of games/GMs. Maybe someone could run games in the Level 1-5 range, someone else could run games in the Level 6-10 range, etc. Obviously, this assumes Pathfinder Encounters really taking off, but I can definitely see this becoming a Paizo forum staple like the Avalon Chronicles. :-)
EDIT: Sometime down the road, I have a cool idea for an encounter for characters in the Level 7-9 range.

CaptainMarvelous |

Well, in terms of the pool of players/GMs I'm trying to create here, I don't want to take away the specialness of having a high level character. If people can just plunk down a fresh level 5 it takes something away from the guy who played through 4 encounters using an enchanted mop because that's what was rolled. That's another reason why I didn't want to give GMs a level every time they GM.
Maybe we could figure something out where someone could make a high level character as a prize, because everyone loves prizes and one of the things I love about RPGs is you can give out imaginary prizes that people actually value. At the very least I would want the person to have a character of that level that they built up from the bottom.
But that doesn't mean someone else couldn't GM a similar idea with high-level starting characters. I would play in that game.

Whack-a-Rogue |

Oh, I definitely agree. Also, with the exception of some insane theorycraft builds, most concepts can have a solid foundation by Level 3. Maybe we could do something like: "Get a free level for GMing your first encounter, then one more for every 5 additional games GM'd." That way starting with a high-level character is possible but takes serious investment.
EDIT: I like the free random magic item idea as well. The more incentives for GMing, the better. Maybe we could set up a way for characters to trade items as well. After all, my Barbarian might win a pearl of power that looks awfully sweet to the Wizard who rolled a +1 agile breastplate. :-)

CaptainMarvelous |

Maybe we could set up a way for characters to trade items a well. After all, my Barbarian might win a useless pearl of power that looks awfully sweet to the Wizard who rolled a +1 agile breastplate. :-)
Way ahead of you. I've told the people in the game I'm already running, but what I'm going to do is the only way you can buy or sell magic items is by trading them between PCs. Otherwise you have to live with what you can grab during adventures, to give those items more meaning (instead of just being price tags). People with item creation feats will form the new aristocracy.
I'm thinking I'll also occasionally roll some random items up and have them "for sale" on a first-come first-served basis to keep people from getting too much of a back log of gold.

Whack-a-Rogue |

That's cool. I know we don't want to become a PFS knock-off, but what about buying/selling items if we're ever in a settlement? Scenario-dependent, of course, but if the party was (for example) in Alkenstar City and had some time, they should be able to purchase some aberration-bane bullets or whatnot.
This is HEY YOU, by the way.

CaptainMarvelous |

I dunno. NPC spellcasting sure, but I want to avoid being able to just pick something from the book like ordering from a catalog if at all possible. And these are supposed to be one-encounter long adventures; the PCs shouldn't really be spending a lot of time in settlements unless they're having an adventure in one.

Whack-a-Rogue |

True. I'm just a bit concerned about a mid-level character having 20k gp and nothing to spend it on. Of course, as you said, item crafters would become the new aristocracy, but then the time factor becomes a problem. You could commission the party Wizard to make you a belt of giant strength +4, but it'll take time, and the crafter will be doing that instead of adventuring.
Maybe roll up some random, level-appropriate magic items at the end of each scenario for purchase on a first-come-first-served basis like you mentioned before?

Whack-a-Rogue |

Gotcha. Thoughts on how to make crafting work? As I mentioned in my previous post, making magic items takes time - time spent not adventuring. What's the incentive for making, say, an Arcanamirium Crafter?

CaptainMarvelous |

Gotcha. Thoughts on how to make crafting work? As I mentioned in my previous post, making magic items takes time - time spent not adventuring. What's the incentive for making, say, an Arcanamirium Crafter?
Well that's the great thing because we have these huge gaps in time between the encounters so you can craft all you want. If that makes one specific crafter-specialist choice sub-optimal then I'm willing to make that sacrifice.

Yvanesh |

Updated my character profile :)
I believe there are 5 players now on group 2? I'm looking forward to starting the adventure with you guys.
RE: Crafting
So in between scenarios, I was thinking that it would be fair to craft or commission 1 item of their choice? But we're going to have to stretch the honesty system a bit if there is no central tracking.

CaptainMarvelous |

I believe there are 5 players now on group 2?
3 actually, 4 if you include my character who won't participate if I run the game (very likely).
RE: Crafting
So in between scenarios, I was thinking that it would be fair to craft or commission 1 item of their choice? But we're going to have to stretch the honesty system a bit if there is no central tracking.
Between scenarios you can do whatever you have the feats and money to. There's no need for an honor system because we'll have online documentation of everything that happens, given the nature of the game.

CaptainMarvelous |

If we can get one more player, preferably someone bulky, I'd have enough to start a second encounter. If we get another d6 hp class, though, I think we might have to wait for a party of 5.