Rumble in the Jungle: GM of the Ape's Serpent's Skull (Inactive)

Game Master R0B0GEISHA

Shipwrecked on the notorious island of Smuggler's Shiv, our heroes uncover a secret that could lead to unbelievable riches—or a swift death.

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Expectations
- Committed players who can ideally post once a day.
- If you don't post for a week without an explanation first, I reserve the right to remove you from the game. If you don't post for an extended period (48+ hours) in combat, expect to be warned then quickly DMPCed.
- Don't be a jerk.
- I try to run all rules as written, unless otherwise stated before hand. If I mess up, tell me and I'll fix it. If you mess up, be willing to accept correction. I think I'm pretty fair.
- Applicants should be decent writers with a commitment to role-playing.
- You have read the Serpent's Skull Player's Guide and are at least somewhat knowledgeable about Golarion.

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Game Style
- We'll be using Roll20 for combat, so if accepted, please make an account.
- I roll initiative for everyone, enemies of the same type all act together. Combat is run in chunks. Ie all players before monster A and monster A (update), then all players after A but before B and B (update), then any left over players (update).
- I will try to remember to prompt you for knowledge rolls, and may sometimes roll skills for you when it would benefit you.

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Level: 1

Ability Scores: 20 point buy

Alignment: Non-evil

Races: Anything official. The weirder it is, the better your story should be. Alternate racial traits and heritages are fine. No Fiendish Heritage, you can be a Demon-Spawn or Asura-Spawn or whatever without the feat, no abilities of the d100 table.

Classes: Anything Paizo, all archetypes available.

HP: Max at first, then 1/2+1

Traits: 2 traits, one must be a campaign trait.

Starting Gold: Average

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To apply you need a completed stat block, a completed back-story, and a description of the characters appearance and personality. I am recruiting four to five players. I'm looking for good writing and characters that will mesh well together. Numerous grammar and spelling mistakes will disqualify you. Posting history will be taken into account. Recruitment will be open for a week (until May 26th midnight EST).

Good luck and thanks for applying! :)

Dot. I made a character for this campaign already, just need to make sure the requirements are the same.

I have a Serpent's Skull character that I've been sitting on (one of my friends was thinking about running it but decided not to, so I got inspired!).

Mizo no Hana is from Tian Xia, having traveled all the way to the Inner Sea at the behest of her lord to deliver a message. Players familiar with the old-school 1st Edition AD&D Oriental Adventures - or with some Japanese myths like the tale of the bamboo cutter - as a "spirit folk," a human with a touch of the kami in her heritage, represented with the undine race in this case.

Mizu is a loyal teammate, very determined, and a skilled warrior. She will continue to improve in combat as she gains levels (and feats that improve her fighting). The character is built to fill a melee role plus a bit of social skills and artistic ability if you use background skills (from her background as a samurai, who needs those kinds of skills at court, after all).

I'm a regular player in several games here at the boards, and I run three games as well, so I'm here almost every day and post often.

I enjoy good role-playing scenes and would be happy to post a sample or do some interacting with other players here if you want a "pre-game scene" aboard ship, or something like that.

If you don't use background skills, just knock the artistry and perform off her list.

Hi!
I'm fairly new to the boards, and am currently looking to play in an RP game to 'balance out' my Rappan Athuk game, as it were. That's not to say that it doesn't or won't have RP, but simply that roleplaying is not the central point of it, so to speak.

I'm probably going to submit something divine. Not quite sure what, but I've had my eye on the inquisitor and cleric, as of late.

Dot. Very interested. Loving playing weird things. Normally do lizardfolk when able but I'm already doing one so I'll think of something else fun soon. Post will be up later today.

Sure, I'll give this a go.

Let's see what I can come up with...

This character was built for a Serpent's Skull game with the same character generation rules as yours. Profile should be up to date.

Jacqueline <name>, Inquisitor of Asmodeus

Party-role-wise, she's suited to face duty, and is otherwise somewhat able to heal people, somewhat able to engage in melee combat, preferring to wade into melee with a two-hander. Jack of all trades sort of deal, fills the 'rogue' slot in a 4-man party.
Dynamics-wise, she's a potential straight man to any jokester or maverick characters in the party, if someone needs that sort of thing for their RP to pay off.

Obviously, not quite done yet. As for her wearing breastplate on a ship, well, sailors couldn't swim, back in the day. And when I say back in the day, I really mean not the last generation, but perhaps the one before that.

I figure with her ranks in Knowledge(geography), she's read enough of travellogues to know that knowing how to swim is a crapshoot - if you don't die of the shock, hitting the water, you're going to die of exposure sooner rather than later, even in relatively hot water. She might consider it a supernatural effect of the sea, even.

Drowning is the preferable way to go, all things considered.

baja1000 here!
Decided to make something I've always wanted to play and thats a construct.(no display pics for a wyrwood sadly, but thats ok)

Went swashbuckler, background and crunch all in the alias profile I made. I choose the trait get the cargo through for the extra gold to match his backstory, but I didn't spend any of it(for the same reason). He wouldn't spend it normally. If you'd like me to change this still GM just let me know and I will. It was weird building without con and not as easy as you'd think, though it did allow for a good dex. Just have to get to level 3 now so I can take Slashing Grace.

RP wise, I'm looking to play him kinda like from Star Wars: KotOR and basically have him talk in a very similar way.

IE: "Concern: Do watch your step, I fear the water might have made the deck of the ship a bit slippery."

"Question: How much would it be to purchase such a crossbow from your inventory?"

I've always wanted to do this concept so I'm very eager for it! I would have normally done it with a construct race built from the race builder, but this will work just as well! Can't wait to see what others build!

On this note: if anyone makes a caster of some kind. Please be my best friend and take Mending or Make Whole xD otherwise I'm gonna be dead so fast haha

Those aren't on the inquisitor list, sadly. Otherwise I'd grab them.

This is Captain Collateral Damage's submission, I still have to make a few changes and write up appearance and personality, I'll probably get that done tomorrow.
WT-516: Codename Sig: I would love to be your best friend and take mending! I actually GM a game with a construct character so I might have a few tips for you :)

From the description of mending:

This spell does not affect creatures (including constructs).

Unless there's something in the description of wyrwoods that says they can be healed with a mending spell, you're going to have some trouble until the party hits 3rd level.

Couple of questions:
1. Are we using Background skills?
2. Would you consider using Spheres of Power?

Not a big deal if the answers to those are no. I just need to know before I get to building.

I have an idea for a ranger with a bounty on her head that stowaways in Magnimar, and after getting caught offers to cook for the crew in exchange for passage to Eleder. More to come this weekend.

No, I just assumed mending would. Guess I'm gonna have to be patient(and survive lol) until Craft Construct or Make Whole shows up. I get a lot of HP to start with but nothing can heal me except those two it seems.

Hold up, wait, Cpt. Colateral Damage is Agyen? Hi there! That's a tad embarrassing; I didn't know that was you. :)

Tips appreciated too. I could have always taken the trait for healing myself and lost darkvision but this will be fine xD encouraging teamwork and playing smart is what I gotta do!

I'll dot my interest here, and will probably bring in a goblin cavalier of the cockatrice order I've had in mind for a while. It's not so much that he's actually in the order, but more he's convinced he's in it since one of their order gave him a fake badge just to make him go away, so he's out to make his name be all glorious and big. Probably going to go with the Emissary archetype, but not sure just yet. As far as what his mount would be, that would be up to GM discretion. If he can't have a goblin dog (which would be easy to understand why), he may go for a tiger, antelope, or something similar. I'm willing to work it out with the GM.

@ GM of the Apes:
dot dot

I'd be interested.

I have this Ifrit Skald I have not had a chance to play.

I know the back story would need to be altered, a lot.

Would he be acceptable otherwise?

Thanks!
(main alias is Xunal)

There seems to be a lot of interest here. Cool! Consider this a dot. Kiwi try to think of something that can compete with all this awesomeness.

Wow. Lots of responses already. :D

I'll answer questions tomorrow.

1) We will be using Background Skills, so adjust (or don't adjust) your submissions accordingly.

2) @AdamWarnock: Spheres of Power looks interesting and fairly intuitive. I'll say yes.

3) @Manzuqari: I have nothing against Ifrits or Skalds. As long as it's an interesting character, it will be considered.

Finally, it bears mentioning that while I have opened up virtually all the books for use, I am not looking for a party of weirdos and misfits. Bizarre race and class combos can be fun, but I'd likely only take one or two such characters if at all possible.

Oh, a nice recruiting thread... let's see if I can come up with something that fires bullets et al (Pirates? Pistols? Count me in!)

By the way, forgot to ask, is it okay to make an inquisitor of Asmodeus? She'll be very lawful neutral, generally benign, but more concerned with Order instead of Good, and not particularly repulsed by evil.

That said, Asmodeus is Evil, and you could easily make the argument that she's backing the wrong conceptual horse here.

1) @Jereru: You won't find very many pirates in Serpent's Skull. Are you thinking of Skulls & Shackles? This game has more of a "Darkest Africa"/jungle exploration feel.

2) @Olaf the Holy: Asmodeus is fine. A morally-grey character could fit in very well with the campaign, which could often call for allying yourselves with unscrupulous parties.

Chikura is updated to include background skill assignments.

Now sold with background skills lol

I'm dotting. Never played this, so I'll read up and figure out an idea.

D-d-d-dot. I think I'll be making an Investigator for this one.

dotting

@GM of the Apes, the first book of this game can either be really good or suck depening upon the DM. Can I see an example of who you resolve things and how you would do the first book? Feel free to use spoilers. Since I'm one of the few.
I've played through part of the first book with one DM and she quit after about two months and we were still level 1.
I've played through all of book 1 with another DM, but he skipped around a bit, like it got done within a two weeks with him skipping a lot of parts with him telling the basic story, though he dmed for people who played it before, so understandable. He is still a good DM, though I'd like to play through all of book 1, and hope book 2 is good just as well, as the beginning of Skull and shackles is the best part of the game. Then I've seen DM's make book 1 completely suck and forced their players out due to his horribleness, luckily I wasn't playing those games, but was watching.

@DoubleGold: I'm not sure what you're asking. Is there something specific you had in mind?

I was planning to run the first module sort of like Kingmaker, if that answers your question.

Book 1 is heavy roleplayed and heavy story telling. Some DMs can do it well, others can make it suck. Some DMs try so hard at doing the heavy roleplay and story telling, they unintentionally and royally screw players up. Like they might go overboard and say ten pirates are going to kill you in your sleep as punishment, while others might have the roleplay so low. I want is to be good and while I don't mind it hard, there has to be logical ways out of things other than being forced into constant fights. Or be like, yeah the captain whips even though you did nothing wrong and got all your chores down extra early, because he feels a sense of power in watching you cry, can be a bit overboard. Other DMs just don't make the game feel lively and are okay at the first book at best.

⋮ (trimming a bit)

3) @Manzuqari: I have nothing against Ifrits or Skalds. As long as it's an interesting character, it will be considered.

Finally, it bears mentioning that while I have opened up virtually all the books for use, I am not looking for a party of weirdos and misfits. Bizarre race and class combos can be fun, but I'd likely only take one or two such characters if at all possible.

@ GM of the Apes:

Thanks for that.

I'm working on a revision of Manzuqari.
Especially the backstory.

I'll try not to make him too much of a weirdo and misfit!

Book 1 is heavy roleplayed and heavy story telling. Some DMs can do it well, others can make it suck. Some DMs try so hard at doing the heavy roleplay and story telling, they unintentionally and royally screw players up. Like they might go overboard and say ten pirates are going to kill you in your sleep as punishment, while others might have the roleplay so low. I want is to be good and while I don't mind it hard, there has to be logical ways out of things other than being forced into constant fights. Or be like, yeah the captain whips even though you did nothing wrong and got all your chores down extra early, because he feels a sense of power in watching you cry, can be a bit overboard. Other DMs just don't make the game feel lively and are okay at the first book at best.

This is a recruitment for the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path.

You're thinking of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path.

I'll do the skills, feats, and equipment later, but for right now, here's the basics for one Urf Rotnose, greatest member of the cockatrice order! (Warning: may or may not actually be recognized as a member of the cockatrice order.)

If something in the background doesn't click, I'm willing to work out details. I'll admit I kind of rushed it since it's so late, but I won't really have time to work on it tomorrow due to work and social activities.

Background coming after I get some sleep. Too tired to type something coherent.

@DoubleGold: I'm not sure what you're asking. Is there something specific you had in mind?

I was planning to run the first module sort of like Kingmaker, if that answers your question.

Being shipwrecked and trying to survive seems like pretty good impetus to explore - if only to catch dinner! :D

I've been wanting to play this since I joined the boards! May I present Janus of the First Law for your perusal.

Janus is all ready to go I think. I'll just double check he fits your character gen rules... should be alright now.

Would you consider a drawback for a third trait?

@GM of the Apes, the first book of this game can either be really good or suck depening upon the DM. Can I see an example of who you resolve things and how you would do the first book?

Feel free to use spoilers.

Actually, could we avoid spoilers please? I went into this thinking we were bound for Sargava, and now I know that we're going to be stranded. It kind of takes away from the discovery a little.

I'll submit Varisian Druid :) Still tweaking personality and appearance - need to find an avatar that fits.

That's one of my most favorite things about druids - it often ends up with wild animals wearing barding.

Armored dinosaurs, man. How badass is that?

I'm not sure I like the aesthetic, but its hard to justify why you would not give a beloved companion fighting alongside you every protection.

I was giving serious thought to a rhino to, but this seems like the AP where a dinosaur would be most appropriate so I couldn't resist :)

It has nothing to do with my childhood love of the Dino Riders toys *shifty eyes*

Janus was very nearly a beastrider for the dinosaur option. But I just couldn't make it work in the end.

I would LOVE to play Janus alongside the priest of Asmodeus... I can see that only going well!

J

dot because I see two players from another game (Rappan Athuk) that is going well.

Dot

I'm not sure I like the aesthetic, but its hard to justify why you would not give a beloved companion fighting alongside you every protection.

I was giving serious thought to a rhino to, but this seems like the AP where a dinosaur would be most appropriate so I couldn't resist :)

It has nothing to do with my childhood love of the Dino Riders toys *shifty eyes*

In my opinion, armored dinosaurs are totally awesome.

Hold up, wait, Cpt. Colateral Damage is Agyen? Hi there! That's a tad embarrassing; I didn't know that was you. :)

Hi! :)

All right, wrote some more for Jacqueline.

I'll make an alias if selected, if that's okay.

Are you using background skills or drawbacks or the like? I was looking at the characters posted and saw some variation, probably because the crunch still needs a little work, but I'd like to make sure.