The Way of the Wicked-Evil Ascends! (Inactive)

Game Master Yuugasa

A Character's ability scores are simple chosen by the player to fit their character's concept. You can choose any score from 3 to 18 before racial adjustments. Yes this means you could have an 18 in every score but unless you have a pretty great story for why your character is such a paragon of awesomeness I will prolly not choose your submission.

Alignment must be one of the following: Neutral, Lawful Neutral, Evil, Lawful Evil.

Core Rulebook races are allowed automatically others on a case by case basis. (though I will prolly favor the characters made with Core Rulebook races over exotic races unless your character really stands out, just personal preference.)

Your Character begins at level 3, not 1 and you will have max HP per level(you will receive max HP at every level throughout the game).

You have 2 additional skill points per level beyond what you would normally receive.

You begin the game with no equipment and no animal companions, mounts etc. Spellcasters who memorize spells will begin with a head full of prepared spells, but no spellbooks, material components, divine focuses, etc. You literally have nothing but the dirty clothes on your back.

Material from the Core Rulebook, the Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat and the Campaign itself will be allowed. (Anti-Paladin can be any Evil Alignment, Vampires and Lichs allowed according to the Way of the Wicked rules) later on the Mythic rules will also be introduced as well but that is a way down the road.

As far as optional rules I do not use any. (traits or hero points or the like, although you will select a crime before you begin.)

Besides simplying choosing a crime, you should also consider how the crime was done. Was this a wellplanned criminal enterprise or a crime of passion? Did you do it alone or did you have accomplices? Was this the first time you did this crime or are you a repeat offender? Answering these questions will help flesh out your character’s background.

Your character actually perpetrated this crime. You may have done it for what seemed like noble reasons. You may have gotten entangled in this criminal enterprise unwillingly. But there is no doubt that you are guilty. You have not been sentenced to the worse prison in Talingarde unjustly. You are here because you deserve to be.

Arson
You have willfully started a fire that destroyed property. To be sent to Branderscar, you didn’t start just a minor little trash fire. Your act of arson threatened a major town, city, church or castle and likely cost someone their life. You’ll be punished for your crime by facing the fire yourself.
Punishment: Death by burning
Benefit: Whenever you score a critical hit with a fire
attack, you receive a +2 fire damage bonus to your
damage roll. This bonus is a trait bonus.

Attempted Murder
You tried to kill someone and botched the job. To be sent to Branderscar Prison, you did not try to kill just anyone. You likely assaulted someone of great importance and prominence.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.

Blasphemy
Either you have defamed the great god Mitra or you have been found guilty of worshipping one of the forbidden deities (who preeminent among them is Asmodeus).
Punishment: Death by burning
Benefit: +2 trait bonus to Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (religion) is always a class skill for you.

Consorting with the Dark Powers (Witchcraft)
You have been found guilty of summoning an evil outsider. Likely you were captured by the famed witch hunter Sir Balin of Karfeld. The last thing he said to you was, “May Mitra have mercy upon your wretched, damned soul.” If only you could get a chance at revenge!
Punishment: Death by burning
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Knowledge (planes) and Knowledge (arcana) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Desecration
You have violated one of the churchs, cathedrals or holy shrines of the great god Mitra. To be sent to Branderscar this was no minor act of vandalism. Instead you have done something flagrant and spectacular to dishonor the Shining Lord.
Punishment: Death by burning
Benefit: You receive +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against divine spells.

Desertion
You have deserted from the Talirean military and been recaptured. To get sent to Branderscar this was not some minor or routine dereliction of duty. Instead, you abandoned your post during a time of crisis -- perhaps battle or while defending the Watch Wall. Regardless of the exact circumstances, your laziness and cowardliness must have caused loss of life.
Punishment: Death by hanging
Benefit: You receive one bonus skill point per level that must be spent on the Profession (Soldier) skill. Profession (Soldier) is always a class skill for you.

Dueling unto Death
You have engaged in a duel to the death and mortally wounded an opponent. The opponent was honorable enough to say nothing before he expired. Alas that his family or companions was nowhere near so honorable. Dueling was once common in Talingarde before the House of Darius came to power. The House of Barca all but encouraged duels of honor. Now, dueling of any sort is punished severely. Dueling to the death is a sure way to be sent to Branderscar Prison.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus to Fortitude saves.

Extortion: You have defrauded money from someone by holding information of their wrongdoing over their heads. To end up in Branderscar, this was no minor act of merely threatening to expose someone. Instead you have attempted extortion against someone of great prominence and for exorbitant stakes.
Punishment: Life at hard labor in the salt mines
Benefit: You receive a +2 trait bonus to Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.

Forgery
You have forged documents issued either by the crown or by the Church of Mitra. Alas, that your forgery while competent was not entirely undetectable. To be sent to Branderscar, this was no minor finagling of paperwork. This forged document could have cost lives, undermined the reputation of the Church or endangered the security of the realm.
Punishment: Life at hard labor in the salt mines
Benefit: You gain a +3 trait bonus to Linguistics skill checks to commit forgery and Linguistics is always a class skill for you.

Fraud
You tried to bilk someone out of their cash. To end up in Brandescar Prison, this was no petty con job or penny ante racket. Instead, you brazenly tried to defraud someone important of a huge sum of money. And it almost worked too!
Punishment: Life at hard labor in the salt mines
Benefit: You receive a +2 trait bonus to Bluff checks and Bluff is always a class skill for you.

Grave Robbery
It is forbidden by sacred law to dishonor a corpse after it is been sealed in its tomb by a clergy of the Mitran faith. Some may not honor this ban: necromancers, golem crafters, self-styled scientists, and alchemists delving into the forbidden secrets of life and death. These ghouls can expect no mercy from the Talirean Magistrates. And by sending you to Branderscar Prison, you have received none.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to confirm critical hits

Heresy
You have denied the supremacy of Mitra and been condemned for it. For this to be a crime, you were not content to keep your heresy to yourself. You tried to sway others. Likely you were captured by the famed witch hunter Sir Balin of Karfeld. The last thing he said to you was: “Mitra may forgive you yet for your lies. Talingarde will not.” If only you could get a chance at revenge!
Punishment: Death by burning.
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against divine spells.

High Theft
You had a foolproof plan to steal some great treasure. Alas, the scheme had a fatal flaw and went horribly awry. To be sent to Branderscar prison, this was no ordinary robbery attempt. You tried to steal something of great value or religious significance.
Punishment: Life at hard labor in the salt mines
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Reflex saves.

High Treason
You have willfully worked to bring down the current Monarch of Talingarde -- the beloved King Markadian V called the Brave of House Darius. To be successfully tried for High Treason you have done more than merely dislike the king, you did something tangible to undermine his rule. Alas, that you failed at your plot and are now headed to Branderscar Prison. Treason is the only crime that is still punished by the gruesome ritual of being drawn and quartered. Your stay at Branderscar will be brief.
Punishment: Death by drawing and quartering
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Will saves.

Kidnapping
You have abducted someone perhaps to ransom them or do unspeakable things to them. Unfortunately, you were caught and your victim was rescued (if they weren’t rescued -- you would be guilty of murder instead). To be sent to Branderscar Prison, you must have abducted someone of great importance or in a particularly gruesome manner.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to both Disarm and Grapple attempts.

Murder
You have killed without just cause and been condemned for it. To be sent to Branderscar Prison, this was no typical killing but a particularly savage and unforgiveable act. You may also have killed someone with powerful friends. Note: You are not allowed to have killed someone in the royal family of Talingarde. You may have tried (his would instead be High Treason -- see above) but ultimately they are too well protected.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You deal 1 additional point of damage when flanking a foe. This additional damage is a trait bonus.

Piracy
You have been caught in the act of piracy on the high seas. This is a rare crime these days since Markadian I called the Victorious burned the last major pirate fleet to threaten these isles. Still the crime is punished harshly. Likely you are the sole survivor of your ship.
Punishment: Death by hanging
Benefit: You may select either Bluff or Intimidate. The selected skill receives a +2 trait bonus and is always a class skill for you.

Sedition
You have attempted to covertly stir up rebellion against your rightful sovereign. This differs from high treason in that you attempted to convince others to make war against Talingarde instead of taking direct action yourself. A subtle difference to be sure. But it is the difference between receiving the swift justice of the axe instead of the slow suffering upon the rack.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Bluff checks and Bluff is always a class skill for you. Further if you ever take the Leadership feat, you gain a +1 trait bonus to your Leadership score.

Slave-Taking
Slavery is illegal in Talingarde and a very rare crime. Still, once in a great while, slavers from the mainland will foolishly make an incursion into Talirean protected territories. When they are captured alive they are always made an example of.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to both Disarm and Grapple attempts.

Slave Trading
Slavery is legal in other parts of the world and it can be tempting to the most decadent of Talingarde’s nobility to acquire a “souvenir” when traveling abroad or to purchase the object of their desire from a less reputable merchant. However you ended up trading slaves in Talingarde, you were caught red handed and now you will lose more than simply your freedom.
Punishment: Death by beheading
Benefit: You receive one bonus skill point per level that must be spent on the Appraise skill. The Appraise skill is always a class skill for you.

That being said I will not as the DM ever describe scenes of detailed graphic torture, etc (and will discourage others from doing so) but depending on how evil the players end up being we could end up with 'Sin City' levels of mayhem. i.e. potentially someone might get tied up and their limbs fed to a hungry dog but I won't be describing every rip and tear. =P

Note: I live in the United States and I am not sure what the rating systems are for other countries, hopefully my ratings comparison makes sense.

As far as game play I would like to make players aware of what my particular DMing style is like. I tend to be more story oriented as a DM than combat or mechanics oriented and as such my games always include a great deal of character interaction and roleplaying and I encourage the PCs to roleplay with each other as well, on the reverse side some of the classic elements of gameplay bore me and I tend to abbreviate them: In particular, dungeon crawls. They are not very fun for me and in a play by post where fighting through a few rooms of mooks and searching them can take potentially weeks of real time I will likely condense some of the locations in game so that the relevant parts are brought to light quickly and the empty rooms, filler mook fights etc, are glossed over. This will hopefully help keep the pace up so at no point are we all bored to F-ing tears.

Look at it this way, would you rather get on with the business of being awesome villains, intimidating innocent folks, plotting for power, dominating your minions, killing the heroes that matter etc? Or would you rather comb through your sixth twenty foot room looking for loose change after killing a few irrelevant guards in exactly the same way as your heroic non-evil counterparts do?

Anyway as for the game itself I plan to stick decently close to the source material, though things will be changed here and there to my liking, in addition I will be adding additional NPCs, antagonists, and organizations to keep things fresh.

You will start at level 3 and be level 20 by campaigns end, with some Mythic tiers earned later as well. In this game I will not award experience but will simply tell the group they have earned a level when I feel it is time.

I will DM this game till it's conclusion as long as at least one player is still active and wants to play. I will not abandon this game or randomly disappear.

I use a three warnings system in my games, where if someone is being rude or disruptive I will issue a warning while explaining the problem behavior and possible solutions, if the player continues with this behavior I will do the same thing again, if I have to do it a third time you are out of the game.

In general, just don't be a jerk and everything is cool.

My three other expectations are 1. Please don't bother joining this game unless you fully intend to finish it (although if later real life happens or you just get hella bored, I understand) 2. it is very important that your character be capable of working well with other PCs. and 3. although I don't necessarily think it's that great a story structure the adventure relies on the characters being willing to follow the direction of a greater villain for about the first 2/3s of the adventure. I will try to make it enticing in game but you have to be willing to do so to keep the adventure from going completely off the rails.

One concept I use in PbP you may not be familiar with is that I simply do away with Initiative. Instead combat rounds work like this: After describing a scene and saying combat starts players have 24 hours of real time to post their turn, after the 24 hours the enemy goes, then the players have another 24 hours to go etc until combat is done. PC actions occur in the order they are posted.

If you do not post your character's actions within a given 24 hour period you simply miss that turn.

This style of combat has a couple of advantages, it keeps combat moving and means that the game will never grind to a halt because of a lagging player. It also means as long as you are on during that 24 hour period you can simply post your action instead trying to fit in a specified initiative order.

In practice I find some players consistently miss turns but since we will have more than the normal amount of PCs this shouldn't be much of a disadvantage for the group, additionally if everyone is on the ball you should shred your opponents easily, as most encounters are balanced for 4-5 PCs not 9!

PossibleTraits:-
Trait 1: Vagabond(Select one of the following skill Disable Device, Escape Artist, or Sleight of Hand. You gain a +1 trait bonus on that skill, and it is always a class skill for you (Slight of Hand)) Theft has been a big part of Grip's life, even more so since he's left his clan. With much practice, he's found out how to be quick with his hands.
Trait 2: Goblin Foolhardiness(You have a tendency toward gross overconfidence in combat. Benefit: When facing an enemy that’s larger than you are, if you have no allies in any adjacent squares, your posturing, bravado, and cussing grant you a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls with non-reach melee weapons.):Grip is stubborn but not foolish, though he tends to be overconfident in his martial abilities. Perhaps he thinks because he's a few inches taller than the average goblin, that he stands a better chance against foes that tower over him.

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Description & Personality: Grip is tall for a goblin, standing easily a head above the average lot. He slouches to keep his presence down, but if he's not paying attention he can stand out in a crowd. As if it wasn't already bad enough being tall, his ears are also quite large, and perk up and out. It makes eavesdropping much easier, but it is also another way for him to stand out. He holds himself with much more bravado than he should, but one may chop that up to him being overly cocky in his abilities. He has quite the sinister laugh, and often will burst out laughing at things others wouldn't find amusing. That and he laughs at his own jokes, what pretentious goblin eh? Ah well, despite all that he tries his best to keep a clear head, and on the good side of those that are stronger and have more resources than himself.

Physically he stays fit, though that's never said to be hard for goblins.(Less you're one of those sit around lazily eating and whoring all day, like many of those obese leaders that Grip hates so very much.) His eyes are a dark brown with a red hue, and his teeth are oddly stained from tobacco and rum. He wears a red and black oil stained leathers, form fitting armor and boots that come up to just below his knee. He also keeps a full quiver of arrows on his lower back, and fairly well made bow as well.

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Story: Who is Grip?: From the deep north, Grip of Clan Slarg, had always been different. He was taller, quicker and smarter than most of the other goblins in their clan. It became a hassle everyday, as he constantly found himself making up for the others flaws. Whether it was hunting, crafting or even often negotiating with other clans. He did not excel at the latter, but even still he fared better than most. Eventually the incompetence of his tribe was to much, and so he left one morning, never to return. Upon leaving, he even abandoned the clan name and took up his own, Riddleshot.

Grip had spent years running with groups of thieves and vagabonds, still searching for his place to shine. He is ambitious for his race, often finding himself trying to take a leadership roll in the groups he joins or creates. It usually doesn't work out well for him, but he tries nonetheless. He would bring unique job ideas to the table, coaching their band to see them as a good idea. Ambush a merchant caravan here, break into a house rumored to be riddled with valuables there. Usually the information was solid, but the execution was flawed, always finding some form of complication. Luck stayed on his side for a long time, as him and most of his colleagues managed to escape, mostly empty handed. Grip would end up losing most of those who travel with him, only to round up another group for the next job. There were only a handful of others, that actually stuck with him through all of his mischief. He always had long term goals, and that was the reason the loyal ones stuck with him. They talked of creating a thieves guild of their own, one that could have influence over one of the greater cities. They would run it from the background, recruiting those of like minds. They would bring the wealthy nobles to their knees, lining them up in a order that the guild saw fit. Of course a venture like that, is going to cost a substantial amount of coin. That minor detail, is what kept Grip's brain constantly at work.

On one stormy night, Grip led a small group of four, to the next brilliant job. He was certain, this one was going to make them their fortune. Robbing a noble families crypt, right in the under their noses. They would use the cover from the storm to infiltrate, hit the crypt hard, and be out before anybody knew they were there. Of course, like most of Grip's foolproof plans, there was a complication...

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Complications(RP example): The storm raged above up above, rolling thunder and pounding rain, masking the sound of pickaxes hard at work. Getting past the guards in this weather, was so much easier than they had expected. Grip went to town on a marble coffin, chipping off chunk after chunk, a devious smile across his face. He could just taste the gold and jewels, that were all just waiting for him. His eyes glanced at the others in his small band, always being watchful, always being careful. Grip knew never to trust a thief, and he wasn't about to start doing so now. It was a cruel and vicious profession, having to worry about a knife in the back, as often as you needed to worry about armed guards. He wasn't really worried, just cautious, after all he did travel with two that he trusted. "There we go!" He thinks excitedly, as the pick ax finally breaks through the ridiculously thick coffin. Three more hard hits and he was through enough to start pillaging. "Ha Ha ha! This is what I'm talking about!" He jumps up and down a few times, pulling a priceless looking golden amulet, with a vast array of gems encrusted on it. He flashed it to the others, who were also starting to get through their tombs, and tossed it in a burlap sack. There was a collection of laughter, as they all went back to work.

Grip looted that coffin, and moved on to the next one, stopping to pick up a few urns and ornate boxes. He gave them a shake, and anything that sounded metallic, he tossed into the sack. The looted everything they could, filling their bags up to the brim. Everything was going according to plans, and within the next few moments they would be leaving this place with more wealth than any of them had ever acquired. "Time to go!" He called out to the others, as he held one last handful of gems and jewelry. Grip's cheeks hurt from smiling so much, the overwhelming greed taking over him. As he turned around, his smile faded quickly to a look of a shock. One of the new members of the squad, stood twitching with a longsword stuck through his chest. His bag of jewels falling to the floor, and spilling all over the place. Six fully armored guards of the house, blocked the entrance with shield and weapon ready. "Oh crap..." Grip's mind raced with possible ways to escape, his head turning and searching for an option. When he faced away from the guards, he took a golden ring and a small ruby, and threw them in his mouth, swallowing them both. He knew there was only one way out of this situation alive, and he turned back to the advancing guards, dropping the sac of valuables and his weapons on the ground.

Grip holds both of his hands up in front of him, and speaks out in the common tongue. "I surrender!"
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So, now Grip Riddleshot spends his final days locked away in prison. His luck finally running out, and now he was due to be beheaded for his crimes. He figured it wasn't the worst way to go, but it still wasn't something he found himself looking forward to. A once hope filled and ambitious goblin, now battered and lost, in a place where none escaped. He contemplated trying to take a few guards lives, and going out in a blaze of glory and chaos, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He has gone through various stages while being locked up, ranging from anger to despair. He cursed Mitra, and prayed to the old gods, begging for them to throw him a bone. Being locked up was a horrible experience, having not truly appreciated the freedom he had before. In the end, he resigned to keeping quiet and accepting his fate.