The Flaxseed Lodge Core Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

Hello everyone! Lithrac had some good ideas for the group so I'll just post his words here:

First, we could all have a common point that binds the PCs together and allows us to include one another in our backgrounds/roleplaying. For example, in our standard campaign closed group, we're called "The Orphans", and decided that we all came from Auntie Baldwin's Orphanage (from First Steps). It could be something else, like a common faction, etc.

Additionally, I think we should try and include as many story arcs as possible (as opposed to "disconnected" scenarios), and play scenarios in the chronological order to preserve versimilitude as much as we can. For example if we choose to play scenarios about the Shadow Lodge, we shouldn't play one where the fact that Grandmaster Torch is the head of the Shadow Lodge is well-known before another scenario that involves much secrecy about the Shadow Lodge (such as City of Strangers, for example).

About story arcs, it would be really great if we could play the Blakros arc in the correct order (Mists of Mwangi, Voice in the Void, Penumbral Accords, Echoes of the Overwatched, Storming the Diamond Gate, The Blakros Matrimony, The Disappeared, Fortress of the Nail, The Hellknight's Feast, Day of the Demon, Vengeance at Sundered Crag), since it really creates the feeling of a continued campaign, and I think it's a great storyline.

Of course, that shouldn't prevent us from playing our favorite "disconnected" scenarios! Another great thing is that we already know the scenarios, and can pick whichever we consider to be the best for us.

Here is the spreadsheet I put together. I'll let Lithrac add the games he suggested at whatever level he thinks we should do them. Feel free to add any games you want to play as well; I already added the Heresy of Man and Destiny of the Sands trilogies as my recommendations. I also added what is the most logical 12+ course of action (at least for now; it may change by the time we get there).

We can always adapt it as we go but this way, as Lithrac said, we all know ahead of time which games not to play/GM so that this group can do them together and keep our characters on the same level.

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As for characters, I'm planning to make all of my new Core characters Flaxseeds (so halflings) of all the core classes. I'm leaning towards playing a wizard with this group but I could be convinced to play something else if needed (not cleric though; I already have a mostly-vanilla Flaxseed cleric).

Lithrac mentioned maybe the whole group playing Flaxseeds as our 'theme'. I'd be ok with that. I'll still probably make my own Flaxseeds of all the classes but it's a big family so there's certainly more than one of each class in all the lost cousins and whatnot.

Also, if you have better suggestions for the name of the campaign, I'd be glad to hear them. I wasn't sure what to call it until the group gets assembled.

I've given it some thought, and TBH not all scenarios in the Blakros museum have to be played (or we'll suffer from being fed up with the museum before we even reach level 5). I'll add the ones that I think made sense to the list. The only tricky thing in the Blakros arc is that The Disappeared (1-5) and "Fortress of the Nail" (5-9) have to be played in a row, so that has to happen at level 5 if we want to preserve the storyline together.

Secondly, I thought that we could create a 100% Flaxseed group! That would be amazingly funny, with family ties between one another.

As for what I'd like to play, I'm learning towards Cleric, or Sorcerer, or Bard, but definitely a caster. If EF wants to play a wizard I'll gladly let him and will drop the sorcerer idea, in favor of cleric. How about a "black sheep" Flaxseed who had troubled teenage years and turned to crime before being redeemed by Sarenrae's cult and returning as the prodigal son, thus embracing a priest's life in service to the goddess?

Hello....hello!

Don't forget 6-02 Silver Mount Collection ('shudder'!), in that Blakros arc.

I would be down with a Flaxseed group. (I've never played a halfling.) I'd build whatever, including the "black sheep", though BS might jump on that one!

Edit: Oh! Is someone going to build a Larkin? That could be the "black sheep"!

Edit 2: I skimmed Lithrac's post and missed the cleric was the black sheep. Pardons.

I really like casters too, so I think I'll stick with the wizard for now.

As for you cleric idea, I like it! All of my Flaxseed characters worship Shelyn to some degree or another and my Flaxseed cleric does as well, but I like your different take on it and not all of the Flaxseeds need to worship Shelyn, especially if yours is a black sheep. And if/when I make another Flaxseed cleric I'll probably do something different than Shelyn too.

Ok, so I've got a wizard and Lithrac is probably going with cleric.

We should have at least one other character capable of casting healing spells for when Lithrac is GMing.

Here are a couple threads I have "favorited" in the past, that mention story arcs.

Link One Sort of.

Another, more arc oriented thread.

I think, with the setup listed, you could add Silent Tide and Song of the Sea Witch? (Both based in Absalom)

For the Blakros arc, I've actually dropped Voice in the Void, Echoes of the Overwatched and Silver Mount Collection so that we avoid too many scenarios in the museum. For those that made it to the play list, we'd need to keep them in that order, but when we do them can be changed. For example we don't have to do Vengeance at Sundered Crag (the final showdown with Desimire and Thurl) right after The Traitor's Lodge (which is one of my favorite scenarios ever, and makes sense to include with the Desimire arc). We can delay Vengeance at Sundered Crag a bit, hence my suggesting playing it at 10th level (also to save the earlier slots for interesting 3-7 or 5-9 scenarios).

I can make a bard to aid with healing.

Halfling Bard!

I'll probably build a couple other PCs, as well.

Halfling Wizard!

So who wants to take the initiative on GMing the first scenario? I would except that I've got far too many games going right now as it is....

I will if no one else wants to.

I'll gladly GM the first scenario (the Confirmation) even though I've got many scenarios running at the moment. The reason is that it requires little prep for me, since I've GMed it four time already (three times online, once on tabletop). Basically I've got everything ready (maps, etc), and it's a scenario I really love to GM.

I'm picking a Halfling Cleric of Desna, though I'm still hesitating on the domains. I'm thinking of taking Travel and Liberation (though the 1st-level ability does nearly the same thing), but Luck also seems like a great domain, and would fit a halfling well, I think.

Here's Jonah Flaxseed, fortune teller and wandering priest of Desna!

Thank you for the invitation, but I must decline. My capacity as player and GM for online games is already reached. Thanks for the invitation though. Have fun!

So who do you guys propose as our replacement 5th then?

Been a school all day and my laptop is stranded in Indy, thus no midday updates.

I'm thinking of a Sword and Board Ranger of the Linseeds. Where Thomas is more of a hardline Linseed (follower of ZK; jealous of the Flaxseed's position in Cassomir) and Zcha'zcha is a Linseed who got too wrapped up in fey magick and was transformed into a mutation of a halfling from the First World (wayang), the new Linseed would be a rebellious offspring who is trying to be a force for good in the world.

Thoughts?

If you're willing, I could propose that slot to my brother (Zinou), who has started playing PbP recently and is very committed to what he does. Moreover, I suspect he'd love the idea of an all-halfling group! Let me know how you feel about it. I know he's a new player on the scene, but he's a reliable person.

I also had another idea: what if we played Fangwood Keep at 4th level? I'd love the idea of claiming it for the Flaxseed family! Not to mention the obvious boon in Prestige Points.

Bold Strider, I like your ideas! Both flavorful and could be related to crunch. Just one question: when you say "sword and board", do you mean two-weapon fighting, shield-basher? That could be fun.

As for Jonah's build, I have mixed feeling about his ability scores. 9 doesn't seem like a great strength, but on the other hand I can't be good at everything. Any insight?

Perfectly fine for me!

The only two Core ranger styles are Archery and TWF. So, I was going to go TWF with a sword and shield, since the TWF style gives easy access to TWF feats without 17-19 Dex.

Also, Linseed is just another term for Flaxseed (IRL) so he might try to reconnect to his ancestral roots with the Flaxseeds.

All of this sounds good to me.

@Jonah: can't be good at everything. I wouldn't worry about 9 strength for a cleric. You'll probably be a caster more than anything anyways.

@Tektite, EF: By the way, my brother is the player behind Thorgull in Reign of Winter.

@Tektite, EF: By the way, my brother is the player behind Thorgull in Reign of Winter.

Yeah, I recognized the name, and saw his alias. Sounds good to me!

Great, I'll let him know!

Hi folks! Thanks for the invitation ! I am fond of halflings, but have never really had the opportunity to play one of them (cause, you know, humans...)
I see you have a wizard, a bard, a ranger TWF and a lucky cleric. I'm thinking to make either a sorcerer (arcane or fey), either a fighter (Weapon Master) archery.

Hey Zinou! Don't forget, this is a Core campaign, so no archetypes.

Hi! :) Oh, you're right I forgot that archetypes were introduced in the APG. So it will be most likely a sorcerer.

Can anyone remember offhand the scenario with Riddywipple? Falco has a familiar and I plan to take Improved Familiar on him so it would be nice to play that one but I can't remember without rifling through my chronicles.

I haven't played that one, but there is the lawful evil familiar in a scenario that Ace has played.

It's The Sanos Abduction, in season 4.

Just one thing, if Zinou plays a ranged caster, it means that we won't have a frontliner when Bold Strider GMs.

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OK, I'll make a Paladin of Sheyln, today. Never played a paladin, it was my second choice.

Edit: Or look at a way of multiclassing...or a melee cleric.

That's a great idea!

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Ok, here's the paladin.

Good idea :) Here's the sorcerer. I'm doing his sheet tonight.

One more thing concerning the campaign outline: we could complete it with scenarios we especially loved, but let's also remember that the items that you have on your chronicle sheet are available even if they're non-core, so if you see something non-core you really want for your character, please let us know!

This is the name and character for this campaign!

I'll assume we're going to play all the scenarios in the same thread, which isn't a problem (I'll keep the link to the battlemaps in the header of my GM alias).

Since I'm GMing the first scenario, could I have everyone's information as follows, please?

PFS number:
Faction:
Day Job roll (or lack thereof):
Initiative score:
Perception score:

Thanks!

I could also add a few generic "map 1", "map 2" links to the top and then the GM should be able to edit them and reuse the same google docs.

PFS number: #55162-27
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job roll: none
Initiative score: +3 (always acts in the surprise round)
Perception score: +3

Excellent idea about the generic maps!

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PFS number: 93583-11
Faction: The Exchange
Day Job roll (or lack thereof): None
Initiative score: +4
Perception score: +5

I'll also keep the Initiative and Perception dice rollers up-to-date on the Campaign Info tab for whoever is GMing; just let me know when/if those scores change and I'll take care of updating it.

Thanks EF, sounds perfect! Could you rename the last map into "handouts", please?

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I need to re register the Flaxseeds. I must have missed the new "Register a new Core character" button. I made these a RPG PCs

There is a button for that? Dammit...

I need to re register the Flaxseeds. I must have missed the new "Register a new Core character" button. I made these a RPG PCs

Yeah, I already had this number registered when they made the announcement but I was hoping that when it got reported it would be switched. I'm not sure about that though.

If you delete the character the number disappears forever. Which is why I don't have a #4 or #12 character; I found out the hard way.

PFS number: 93583-11

Faction: The Exchange
Day Job roll (or lack thereof): None
Initiative score: +4
Perception score: +5

Woops, sorry, Pandoor's PFS number is -10

Yes, when you create a PFS character there are three buttons now: stardard campaign, core campaign, and ACG character.

By the way, don't hestitate to step up and sign up as GM for a few games you'd like to GM! Similarly, the outline is almost filled out, but it doesn't mean we have to pick these scenarios - if you have any proposition or disagreement, don't hesitate to make your opinion known. The idea is that we can set this list so that we know what we can play with other core characters on the side.

Yes, when you create a PFS character there are three buttons now: stardard campaign, core campaign, and ACG character.

I know they said you will be able to switch from being a Core character to a PFSOG character by reporting it as such; I'm hoping that it works in reverse too. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to assign a new number to Falco. But we won't know until we complete the first game I guess. I just don't really want to leave an extra number open for now; I've already got too many characters as it is.

According to Mike Brock's reply in the blog post's comments, it's one way only. What I would do in your case is make sure you haven't made 10 posts yet with that character, which means that you can still change his name to something more neutral and turn him into a new standard campaign character whenever you want to create a new one, and create a core character with the next number in line.

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Ok, luckily I hadn't posted more than 10 times with any of my new characters so I just shifted all of my Core characters down and now have a couple empty slots. I'm sure I'll fill them eventually.

So the new number is:

Falco Flaxseed
#55162-29

Paeter Linseed is active on the Core Campaign!

73433-17
Liberty's Edge
Profession: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Initiative: +4
Perception: +7