As would Devan. Whatever the final wording ends up being is irrelevant, we can change it to whatever before the game starts, once Jubal selects the other characters. The point is Devan will be looking for generally altruistic, good aligned characters to join him on his quest to help those in need.
I was thinking Kienyacht would be a good fit with a couple tweaks to his background. Set his childhood in Korvosa and then have him join the Korvosan Guard(which are both military and police). After the alchemist incident he could have gotten recruited by Devan and Thondrir.
I generally leave the name of locations ambiguous so I can make those minor adjustments. Otherwise my character gets too rooted to a single place.
Well since its set in Golarion and the two preselects are from Korvosa those are probably safe details to include. My impression is that we will have been together for several years adventuring before the game starts.
So it's beginning to sound like Devan makes the decisions on who is acceptable? In which case, there's not much use in my continuing monitor. Anyone not good is not acceptable?
RE Neutral Characters doing good things: That kind of person would likely still be in the prospect stage of membership. Again, there is no literal alignment requirement, no one will be casting detect good on you. It's just would your LN Strix be interested in joining a group whose main purpose is traveling around helping people kill the bad things plaguing them (with or without reward)? That and basically taking non-evil mercenary work when there is no one who needs help? If the answers to those questions are yes, then it would probably work, whatever your character's alignment is.
So it's beginning to sound like Devan makes the decisions on who is acceptable? In which case, there's not much use in my continuing monitor. Anyone not good is not acceptable?
Devan is not making the choices alone...Devan and Thondrir would be the original members, then they would need to have voted in the other people during the time of collective backstory that has yet to be written.
In the end it is Jubal who is selecting people and we will have to work out in game details afterwards. I'm just trying to express the kind of people Devan would look for in character.
Then I submit Dorgrim and would like to see what happens then.
Would appreciate Devan if you like to see if Dorgrim would work well with yours.
Alias not up as It doesn't make sense to me to keep creating Alias only to be rejected. To make it worse, one can't just delete an unused alias and I only realised I can't edit it either.
Am using this one for now.
You can edit them if you don't make 10 posts. I usually just make an alias and then don't post with it, just link to it. Then if it doesn't get selected edit it for another game later. I'll look at your dude.
What you have for his background certainly seems in the right vein, but I would add more details. How did he become a fighter? Where is he from? Why is he naive? Why is he helpful? What happened to make him that way? What you have now is more of a personality description than a background.
Maybe just use Brek as his name maybe tie-in the title into his background. As in he doesn't know of his family or at least that much about them.
BTW Well Met. Wouldn't happen to be able to maybe catch me up on what has changed from the first post to here?
lol hi Azaelas.
I admit it's abut of a rush job here Devan. I'll see into putting more details. Never really thought about putting in alias like that. Will keep that in mind.
There. Done up.
There. Done up.
Much better than it was before. Probably needs an edit to catch some minor mistakes. Maybe read it out loud to yourself? That's what I usually do.
I think I'm going to bow out, I forsee nothing but interplayer conflict if I'm selected, as it bothers me to have a preselected player judging my character's worthyness.
Thank you all for your time.
Heh. For the however manyth time, I'm not the judge of your worthiness. I'm offering opinions on Dorgrim because he asked me to, but whatever.
Maybe just use Brek as his name maybe tie-in the title into his background. As in he doesn't know of his family or at least that much about them.
BTW Well Met. Wouldn't happen to be able to maybe catch me up on what has changed from the first post to here?
Nothing has changed from the first post other than the two preselected characters choosing their classes (a human summoner/alchemist and a dwarven warpriest). I also proposed an adventuring company to save Jubal some work, and because starting one is something Devan would do in character.
Then there was a lot of debate over which alignments would be acceptable for said proposed adventuring party due to the line about being willing to die for a stranger. But in the end it boils down to nothing has changed, and nothing will be final until after Jubal selects characters. The two already in are leaning towards altruistic goodness so it might be more fun for you if your character fits into that, and that's the idea behind the proposed adventuring crew right now, but it's all subject to change/tweaking to make it fit together post selection.
Interested. Will be submitting a Carnivalist Rogue. Have to downgrade the build to third level and rewrite background a bit.
Basic idea is that of a former varisian crook who after spending much time in prison has corrected his ways and is looking to redeem himself in the eyes of the Dawnflower, however he is held in check by his habits.
Good luck! I was just trying out Carnivalist and had trouble being mechanically satisfied, I'll be interested to look at your build. *goes to see*
Interesting alignment debate, but I still cannot help but think that it is out of place in a recruitment thread. Hack should have no issues with the group or organization. I will flesh out the background a little more to get him to Korvosa for some time so that ties could have been developed.
I'm going to work on an Arcanist. He's a trainer of new Pathfinders at the Grand Lodge. He also happens to be a famous but controversial author, and he joins the Samaritans to silence his haters.
Background has been updated to account for Steed's Samaritans.
Shame to see you back out Kiana. It seems less "Devan is making the decision" and more "These players are offering their opinions on who their characters (not player) will like more."
Hmm I'll leave Dorgrim as it it then.
Shame to see you back out Kiana. It seems less "Devan is making the decision" and more "These players are offering their opinions on who their characters (not player) will like more."
Bingo.
I think perhaps its the tone of text (Whatever that is) could have being taken wrongly. Even though the Gm has has put in Disclaimers (see Front page), the feel that a player is making comments (Even though other players may have requested it) may rub others the wrong way as they feel that it is this player and not the GM who is making the decision.
Maybe because I bothered to check and I realised Devan is a preselected player who has already come up with an adventuring group thus I asked him for his opinion after all, there is no point to being selected and not get along as players. I feel.
The concept put forward while intriguing may be a bit difficult to concile as almost everybody seems to have a different interpretion of it.
We can only put forward our concept of a character and see if we're selected.
I did like the part where the group actually comes in to write a collective introduction to explain how they actually got together. Reminds me of the Companions of the Lance from Dragonlance. Different heroes with different mindsets yet same goals.
Good luck to all those who put up their submissions. We can only wait and see who gets in.
I withdrew because the longer the conversation went on, the more and more it became 'justify not being good' and the more and more the posts came across as 'I will make your life hard if you are not good', whether intentional or not.
I prefer not to walk into a game knowing there is going to be OOC conflict. As I said, I hope everyone has fun, and good luck to those who were not pre-selected.
Seems like a lot of semantic quibble over the rough draft of an idea, to me. I think the bottom line everyone needs to concern themselves with is killing bad things. The alignment restrictions on the recruitment itself is listed as Good or Lawful. As I understand it, the adventurers in question need to be willing to throw themselves into danger to take place in this module to begin with. Otherwise, you might have a bunch of selfish pragmatists who decide to walk on by and exit stage left where the adventure begins.
Also, and speaking for myself, I hate the idea of hardline alignments. People have different motivations, and typically more than one dimension. There aren't only "Lawful Stupid" Paladins, for instance. Given that, I think making a Lawful Neutral character willing to fight for the greater good is not a stretch in the least. Your motivations may not be altruistic, granted, but your purpose can be common. Dexter is a good example of an alignment behaving outside of its own preconceptions. He's a sociopathic serial killer, but he is bound by a code that pits him solely against some of the most horrible people to be found in the world. —[Note: serial killers need not apply to The Samaritans]— Given that, I think a Lawful Neutral character would not be a stretch: a devout Abadaran obsessed with eliminating threats to civilized society; a disciplined monster hunter trying to rid the world of unnatural terrors; a scholar who realizes the best avenue of furthering their own knowledge/wealth/whatever is adding their name to an adventuring party. So long as they adhere to whatever the charter ends up being, I see no justification for removing LN from the table as an option.
Finally, please bear in mind that Devan is not, nor has he claimed to be, arbiter for the recruitment phase. This recruitment is not typical, however; there are at least two players who are guaranteed a spot. It's not that he's dictating the creation methods of players, here; instead, it's a rare opportunity to make characters who are willing to work with one another from the outset. Devan as a character provides a very solid and tenable chassis to work with in terms of building a group of characters around a singular motivation: hunting monsters. A line of work that adventurers gravitate to independent of personal motivations. It is a common thread for us to develop a mutual history between our presented concepts, however. We can fine tune more specific information after selections are made, of course, but having your character in the ball park or on the fringe from the get-go certainly seems like a practical choice in the interest of not forcing sweeping changes when things are finalized.
Having said all that, I'mna get started on my own backstory.
Other than finalizing gear, Thondrir's ready to go. Take a look at the backstory Jelani, let me know if you want to dovetail anything in a more specific direction. I can certainly alter some details pertaining to Korvosa and immediately thereafter.
I may be wrong Thondrir, but I don't think you can get weapon specialization with the Warpriest:
I'll apply my character in some hours.
Whoops. Yep, I forgot about that 4th level requirement entirely. Also incorrectly assumed Warpriest levels counted as Fighter for feat qualifiers. Go go reading comprehension! Interdasting.
I also did that. I'm testing a level 10 warpriest in a PFS module. I was human and had definitly a lot of talents to choose from, but none of them pleased me two much, since W.Specialization, Greater weapon focus and improved critical were not available to me. Finally went with versatile Longbow/Longsword user, focus, in both.
Hey Jubal, do you have a sense of duration and arc for this? (How long you think it'll run, and what level you expect we'll get to?)
Ok, I'm applying. Esaul's background/appearance/behavior are ready (the part previous to the Samaritans). I did enjoy seeing he develop through his first level, and would like to do so also at the second and third, but that depends on the acts of the Samaritans.
Besides, crunch is being updated frequently, but I'll leave lvl 1 crunch there for now, to match the background, while I add the crunch at third level at another spoiler.
Maybe just use Brek as his name maybe tie-in the title into his background. As in he doesn't know of his family or at least that much about them.
BTW Well Met. Wouldn't happen to be able to maybe catch me up on what has changed from the first post to here?
Nothing has changed from the first post other than the two preselected characters choosing their classes (a human summoner/alchemist and a dwarven warpriest). I also proposed an adventuring company to save Jubal some work, and because starting one is something Devan would do in character.
Then there was a lot of debate over which alignments would be acceptable for said proposed adventuring party due to the line about being willing to die for a stranger. But in the end it boils down to nothing has changed, and nothing will be final until after Jubal selects characters. The two already in are leaning towards altruistic goodness so it might be more fun for you if your character fits into that, and that's the idea behind the proposed adventuring crew right now, but it's all subject to change/tweaking to make it fit together post selection.
Would a criminal seeking to repent for his past, which admittedly isn't that bad, be a good fit? I am thinking of going Inquisitor*, Paladin, Crusader, or Fighter(Brawler).
*Current plan.
Devan lol
Inquisitor of Ragathiel who is Attached to his Holy Symbol after being saved from execution as a child, after being caught and falsely accused of stealing something he rightfully owned, by a Cleric of Ragathiel.
The Symbol is a Bastard Sword with a Crimson Wing wrapping around it and it originally belonged to the cleric, who was sort of an adoptive Sister for the orphaned child, before her untimely death.
Hey Jubal, do you have a sense of duration and arc for this? (How long you think it'll run, and what level you expect we'll get to?)
That's tough to estimate. I plan for you to gain 4th level during the module and probably level to 5th after it ends.
For a real time estimate, I really don't know. In the game where the two pre-selected players and I started at 2nd, we just leveled to 3rd after nine months. By that measure, the module could run a year, maybe 15 months?
By that time, the next module in this series might be out. Or we might be sick of the game, or we might want to fast forward several years and levels to play another module with the same characters. I don't know what state of mind I'll be in then. Who knows?
cheers
Oh well. We'll just play and see how it goes by then I suppose.
Looking forward to final cuts so that things can get rolling forward. Good luck to all.
As Steed's Samaritans are written, I don't think my own character would fit in with them; I wasn't planning on playing someone who risks his life on a constant basis without expecting any compensation. You say you just want good Samaritans, but the Samaritan didn't risk his life to help someone, and in fact lost practically nothing for his act. I think Shuo would definitely help an injured half-orc along the road; I don't know that he would if doing so puts his life in jeopardy. I was told LN would be okay, and my character definitely sits in the LN area.
It's hard to do this stuff now when I don't even know if I'm playing; I wouldn't want you to change the group based on my suggestions if I'm not playing in this game.
I think the whole "risk your life for others" idea is based on the idea of helping other people. Doesn't mean we will be stupid and challenge something way bigger than our ability. My character is not trying his life in the garbage, but he will do what he can. If you die today you can't help anyone tomorrow, so I believe no one will do stupid things.
Besides, this kind of job pays much better than city watches or occupation as soldiers, although the income is irregular. But we already have some ammount of gold, it's not like we're starving...
Our characters can even care for having high wealth. The better equipped we have the higher the chances we work in the cause of good.
Now please, don't take it too literal. You make it sound like the level 3 characters are gonna face an ancient dragon CR 20 who kidnapped a lady... please...
By the way, every adventurer/soldier/samaritan/tax collector/priest risk his life everyday. The first one more than anything, and I believe the game was not made mainly for cooking challenges where no harm may come out of it...
[rant]
Okay, all the whiners are making me want to withdraw. For the final time, the Steed's Samaritans post as it stands is a rough draft subject to TOTAL change after selection.
Obviously most of the LN people took issue with that giving up your life line (then put on their blinders and ignored everything else in the post). If any LN characters get picked we can all work something out that is mutually acceptable after selection. 99% of the time I play non-good or antihero characters, I don't give two craps about being good (in game). But the module is clearly one that will work better for a good (or mostly good) party. The DM is only allowing ONE non-good alignment, the one that's closest to good anyway (my opinion, not trying to debate). That's why I wrote up the Samaritans and not Steed's Surly Slayers or something less moral.
Did any of you take the time to write up an organization that would work better? No. Maybe instead of fixating on one line of a proposal, and extrapolating it to being forced on suicidal missions for no reward which don't exist, thus negating the organization's rules that everyone needs to majority vote to accept a mission, you guys could spend time adding more details to your backstories and making your characters real people whose families and homes have names beyond "his family" "the mountain/city/town" or whatever. You know, actually increasing your chances of selection rather than complaining. The enitre world of Avistan is open to us, and there are excellent random name generators for naming those background NPCs if you aren't feeling creative.
It’s early, too early. You turn over in your bedroll drawing its warmth closer around you and try desperately to fall back into the slumber that had stolen you away. But the smell of broken earth hangs heavily in the air around you. The recent earthquake has stirred more than just the earth, and you feel a growing sense of unease crawl up from somewhere in your mind. You look to your companion who notices you are awake and exchange a nod.
The morning sky is still painting with starlight and staring into the trees reveals only a deep and unbroken darkness. You rise from your bed on the soft broken dirt and climb to the top of the earthen barrier where you made your camp. The mountain looms above the treeline, its highest peaks only barely betraying the ashen purple of the coming day.
Something is moving. The light of the moon catches on armor and spear where hundreds of soldiers move like a black wave across the mountain’s cliffs. An army is moving north toward Fairhaven.
So unless I'm reading that completely wrong, we are going to be defending a town from an invading army. That's a pretty deadly mission if there ever was one. If your character wouldn't be willing to defend a town they have no attachment to from "hundreds of soldiers moving like a black wave across the mountain’s cliffs" then this probably isn't the module for them.
[/rant]
Thondrir - Looks good so far, it'd be cool if we could have also taken out the ghast which killed my family. Maybe when I found you, I had found the ghast and needed help to take it out. After you helped me with that, I helped you track down and kill the intellect devourer.
That's probably a good place to leave the backgrounds until after selection though. Anyone selected with a Korvosa connection can be brought in shortly after the well publicized street battle with the intellect devourer, and then the others picked up later during the group's travels through Varisia.
Esaul - Nice background man, I enjoyed reading it. It would also dovetail perfectly with Thondrir and my emerging narrative. You could have heard of the Samaritans after the battle with the intellect devourer in Thondrir's background.
Heh.
Chill Devan.
Others may just ahve read too much into your post and gotten the wrong impressions. I for one didn't read the adventure burb and I'm sure there are others who didn't.
Here's to looking frothward (pun intended)to selection!!
Sounds good to me. Thondrir would certainly have no compunction about killinating a ghast. It was actually a Neh-Thalggu (Brain Collector) and not an Intellect Devourer, though. I wanted to go for something way out of our reach as a duo; enough so to shock us into pursuing more recruits with a little more pep in our step.
Sounds good to me. Thondrir would certainly have no compunction about killinating a ghast. It was actually a Neh-Thalggu (Brain Collector) and not an Intellect Devourer, though. I wanted to go for something way out of our reach as a duo; enough so to shock us into pursuing more recruits with a little more pep in our step.
K, I'll write the ghast bit into my background. We could say that defeating it made us overconfident, thus nearly getting pwned by the Neh-Thalggu.
Made changes to my background to reflect the ghast. Keeping things kinda vague and general though.
Thanks. I took a while, so I'm glad anyone other than me enjoyed it ^_^
I've pictured myself entering the Samaritans after a couple years of its foundation, but we can make the time and motivation fit. If that was a street battle I could have heard about it shortly after, and because the group would have just been formed I would have joined with another ideas, mainly to really help the group develop instead of joining in a already assembled team that could be bad because of the name.
I could even have helped defeating the disgusting brain collector. After all, Esaul is green in combat, but not inexperienced, and at least some arrows he would have shot at the thing.
Also made changes, we should be set now.