Ptolus

Game Master Ice_Deep

I am going to be starting a Ptolus game, 2 of my long time friends will probably be joining but that hasn't been decided so I might end up needing 5 players. I will had a max of 6, but prefer 4-5 with 5 being ideal for the occasional person being unable to attend.

I will be running this as a open ended/sandbox campaign, there will not by any railroading it will be up to the players to decide what to do. Some things are determined to happen, but the group won't be forced to follow any certain story.

I run things pretty RAW, with almost no changes to the rules. It will be Pathfinder only, Core+APG+Ultimate+Campaign/Equipment/Magic/Combat.

Ptolus races will be allowed, but you will have to pick another PF race to get your stats from. For example you can be a Litorians (Lion people) for flavor but will have to pick another race to get your stats/rules from. So in my example you could use Human or Elf whatever, as far as game mechanics but flavor wise you could be Litorian. This is to keep things even and reduce the need for EL +1 type characters.

I don't fudge dice, or encounters. If it's a random encounter and you decide to not run from a APL+5 that's your choice and what happens, happens. If you get critted and die, that's what happens. I am a firm believer in the dice has a say in the story just like you do and I do. So don't join if you can't except character death.

Basically Ptolus has about 2 campaign plots/adventures with of material, those will be options as well as doing your own thing. I will also be throwing in some PFS modules if I can to give the players plenty of choices on what to do. Politics is also another route the campaign can go, I want to let this be a sandbox the players determine what happens in not me forcing a story down everyone's throats.

I will most likely be running this game on D20Pro (thought Roll20 is a option but I had subscription services), so you will need to be able to run the software, and might have to purchase a license. I might be willing to purchase 3 additional licenses if thats whats needed as people can't afford to, or don't want to purchase the software (10 bucks) just to play.

I expect anyone who joins to be able to make most games, if someone regularly misses the games I will find someone else to fill your spot. Occasionally missing a guy with prior information that you won't be showing up is ok though, we all have lives.

I am flexible on the time Saturday we will play, but I want to run a 4-5 hour block so we can move things along. I will also be open to running 1 hour earlier and later than our set session for people who have more time to do things as a individual like join a society, guild or similar.

If you want to know more about Ptolus the players guide is free online, it's about 30 pages. Any questions hit me up I will be glad to answer.

As someone who missed out on the early days of tabletop playing home games of earlier editions sounds great. I am reading the guide now and feel like it would be a blast to play in I can imagine casting that web spell and having to humbly apologize to the various inconvenienced citizens as they shout and curse rather than run away. I have d20pro from a different homebrew game. On Saturdays I would be available every other Saturday 6:30pm est earliest 7pm would be best. I would be free all day the other Saturdays. Though in favor of honesty if it does look like I am about to die I will ask for 5 minutes to go over my character sheet looking for that one forgotten bonus that will save me.

Sounds good, glad your as excited as I am. I think the world is awesome and I am going to be spending a lot of time digesting the 800 pages of content I have for the world.

But yeah I am pretty relaxed about someone having some time to figure things out, it's spending a ton of time metagaming a strategy I try and move people forward on since often it's done to the point the game slows to a crawl. But taking a few moments in a "oh no!" situation is something everyone should do. In the same manner I often need a few minutes to find out what I will have happen when the PC's do something off the wall like bust down a random door in town, search to see if there is cannon info on it, if not use random roll generation to see if something happens along with some other cannon response.

I mainly mention death as I am not want to provide only CR +/-X encounters. While obviously your less likely to bump into a CR18 than a CR 4 there is always that chance. I feel having only appropriate CR encounters (+/- 3 to 4) a bit to unrealistic in a living breathing world. Some of my favorite moments in gaming in 2E was when we level 1's stumbled on a high CR and had to get around instead of plowing through. But to that end I always give players a chance to think about things, and come up with a plan or discuss if something is to much for there current power level as long as it's not for a long extended time (I was just a player in a game were they spent 20 minutes discussing a encounter at the start of a session we had a week to think about).

Hey this is a town that could legitimately stop high level adventures from robbing stores. That means its near stuff and dangers people that strong can deal with and prosper from. I will be a little metagamey in if someone rolls a knowledge and you say you get no information, I am running away.

Quick questions on Traits/Drawbacks, Mundane/Magical crafting and leadership. Pretty sure it would be 2/no/maybe/no/no and I am fine with that but no point in not asking.

Hey this is a town that could legitimately stop high level adventures from robbing stores. That means its near stuff and dangers people that strong can deal with and prosper from. I will be a little metagamey in if someone rolls a knowledge and you say you get no information, I am running away.

Quick questions on Traits/Drawbacks, Mundane/Magical crafting and leadership. Pretty sure it would be 2/no/maybe/no/no and I am fine with that but no point in not asking.

2 traits, crafting I'll have to think about (in this world people have lost stone of the knowledge on crafting high power magical items so much so there is basically a monopoly on them). So I'm leaning towards allowing it with the meta knowledge if word gets out there could be consequences. Say you make a business selling high level items you night have some high level people looking into your business. Mundane I have no problem with as long as it's not causing a negative impact on the game in some way. Leadership is a no, but I'm open to people earning followers through game play, they just are NPCs who have there own wants and needs and thus can't be used and abused. Good questions though.

My question for you what type of game do you want to play in? Sorry about formatting at work on phone.

The phone stuffs fine and occasional funny I have had GMs type about Mysterious cloaked strangers who "stick at a fart table" letting the shadows surround them.

To your question I like rp a bit more than combat. But tend to like a decent challenging fight at least once every two games in the early levels. High level I start to like fighting less because it starts to take hours per fight.

I am leaning toward a redeemed monster following your reskin rules from the Brotherhood of Redemption seeking out to help his fellows.

Oh right two things I don't really like are rolling hp and crit success-fail tables.

The phone stuffs fine and occasional funny I have had GMs type about Mysterious cloaked strangers who "stick at a fart table" letting the shadows surround them.

To your question I like rp a bit more than combat. But tend to like a decent challenging fight at least once every two games in the early levels. High level I start to like fighting less because it starts to take hours per fight.

I am leaning toward a redeemed monster following your reskin rules from the Brotherhood of Redemption seeking out to help his fellows.

Oh right two things I don't really like are rolling hp and crit success-fail tables.

Sounds good. That would probably be a great choice for this game as there could be some interesting RP dynamics. Would give me something to work worth and also probably create some group rp dynamics. Though I forgot to mention I don't show group PVP obviously.

HP I'm probably going to do full at first, at level up roll for half, and add the other half. Similar to PFS, so a d12 rolls d6+6+con mod. Helps even out the bad rolls. I'm not a fan of critical or fumble tables either. I'm open to suggestions to even it out so a level 10 fighter doesn't drop his sword against a kobold on 2 bad rolls. But there has to be something to even out the x2 or higher damage on a crit.

If you want to balance out crits I have had Gm make it so your next attack did half damage and another who put cumulative -2's on attacks vs that particular creature. Getting ones was rare enough that keeping track of it wasn't a pain.

If you want to balance out crits I have had Gm make it so your next attack did half damage and another who put cumulative -2's on attacks vs that particular creature. Getting ones was rare enough that keeping track of it wasn't a pain.

So far the ideal game time I have gotten from my friend who is going to play is 11am EST (8am PST) to about 4pm EST (1pm PST). So that will most likely be the time, we would be playing every Saturday everyone can make it. Would that time work for you?

Sort of, I work almost every other Saturday 9-5 so i would miss like every other game. Earliest I could manage those days is 6:30 est.

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

On a just realized side note this Saturday is one that I will be working.