Congrats Daedalus & Fallen_Mage!! I am really excited to work together in creating these characters and telling their story in the Stolen Lands!!
This link is a great link on how to create a Gestalt character if you have never made one, or even in need of a little reminder.
This link is just a great link I came across that is full of PBP wisdom. Not that anyone here needs it, but I personally enjoy reading through it to help keep me focused on what it is that we are doing, telling a story together.
Onto character creation time!!
Because it is only two of you, we are going to do 25 point buy.
I will give you guys the option to roll for stats if you would like, 3d6 reroll 1’s once. It is less certain but could prove to be fun.
The classes you both selected are great classes, all I ask is to let me know if there are any archetypes you would like to use. This also goes for racial archetypes.
We will be doing 2 background skills, but make sure they are tied into your background and make sense.
We will also be doing 2 traits, but again make sure they are tied into your background.
These above two things are to help flesh out who your character is, not to optimize them.
Max HP and Max Gold for 1st level.
I think that is good for now. Let’s get those characters going and have some fun!!
Awesome! Thanks for the select. I'll be back later when I have some time for full creation, but can we roll, and then decide to go with the point-buy if the rolling doesn't work?
You’re welcome! I am looking forward to running this AP. I have played it, but never ran it. Which brings me to a question that I didn’t think about previously. Have either of you two played or ran the Kingmaker AP?
Not a problem, we have time for character creation and fleshing them out. Also, we can always roll for the fun of it and if it turns out ok we can keep them as is.
Have both played and ran, never to completion however. Although truth be told I have more experience with the PC game.
Feeling like living a little on the edge, lets see what we get from rolls.
Str: 12
Dex: 8
Con: 13
Int: 11
Wis: 11
Cha: 11
Yeesh, I think I'll do point buy. If that's alright?
I've started playing a hyper-modified Kingmaker before (which is where Darivan was first made), as my first game ever, but we never even made it out of the prologue.
I mean, there's no harm in trying, right?
So, 12, 15, 14, 12, 12, 10?
Yeah.... I'll stick with the point buy. 3d6 rarely works out, 4d6 drop lowest generally yields better results, but regardless, I think the 25 point-buy should be plenty.
Ouch, yeah we will stick with 25 point buy. You guys will want some beef in your stats.
A few things that I want everyone to keep in consideration. I am ok with people sacking stats as they see fit, but please keep in mind what that means in the grand scheme of the game. I love the charts found here that gives a description of what each of the ability scores mean.
Another thing that I am ok with is people playing older characters. Keep in mind the aging effects that you can find here for each of the races.
Grrr.... Stupid post-eater.
Anyway, since I don't want to write up all that again, the highlights:
Paladin archetype: Oath of Vengeance. Darivan is very focused, looking to stamp out evil wherever it is, but knows how to prioritize and can easily get overly focused on one aspect instead of the big picture. Silver Champion would be cool, but is just the absolute worst.
Vigilante archetype: Teisatu. While the eastern flavor is a bit off-theme, it's entirely drowned out by the Paladin side, and it might be nice to get the option to pick up a couple of minor magical abilities later.
I do have a question to ask you GM, would you allow me to have the Rich Parents Trait?
Originally, when I first made this character, I used that trait to purchase my butler (stayed at the Trading Post), two horses, a bodyguard (also stayed at the Trading Post) and a carriage.
This is my plan to do again with your permission of course.
@Daedalus I took a look at those archetypes. Oath of Vengeance is cool, but I think that flavor wise Silver Champion fits what your original submission was striving for. It isn’t as “strong” as Oath of Vengeance, but it would be significantly cooler. There will be lots of opportunities for you guys to become powerful, so I would say go for what would add more flavor.
I don’t know enough about the Vigilante class to know how big of an impact the Teisatu archetype would be. Because it gives you those Eastern type of weaponry, are you going to be using those as a starting weapon? Being from a town near the Grozny Forest in Brevoy, how did your character become trained in those strange and unique weapons? Sir Aethelred Waincroft was the person who trained you and brought you up, was he skilled in these weapons? I am not saying no to this archetype, I am just wanting to make sure you tie it into who the character is and where he came from.
@Fallen_Mage I would prefer to not allow that trait. But, if you do come from a wealthy family it would make sense that they would send you with a personal servant, a bodyguard, horses and a wagon. I would be ok with them sending those along with you as you make your way to Restov to meet the Lord Mayor, but they would be NPCs. They could hypothetically be with you the whole time. I will level them up here and there, but it will be nowhere near as good as the Leadership feat would be unless you eventually took the feat. Below are what I would say that they would start as.
Another way to get a horse would be to choose the Pioneer trait from the Kingmaker Player’s Guide. If you were to do this route I would say that it was combat trained. The horses that your family would send you would just be work horses that are trained at road travel and pulling a wagon.
I just came across these Kingmaker traits. I didn’t realize they had campaign specific traits this far back. I would love to see you guys pick one from here, but it is not a requirement.
Okay, I'll use a different trait, just thought I'd double check. I already have the Noble Born - Medvyed campaign trait. Also, their names are Jarvis (Butler) and Marcus (Bodyguard).
I would be going with Longsword as my main weapon, the more exotic weapons would likely never come into play.
Also, when I say the Silver Champion is cool, but useless, I mean it’s just horrible. You trade away practically everything for the drake, and the drake itself, from what I’ve heard, is actually worse than useless (people discussing it on the boards mention that their combat ability actually improves when they leave the dragon in town). Overall... yeah. Me mentioning it was more of a lament as to how terrible it was than anything.
Okay, barring figuring out my last trait, Darivan is done. I ended up taking Sword Scion as my trait, as I don't see him really valuing much of his family's values (conflict-avoidance is kind of the opposite of what he wants), but does much more value the art of the sword, even if the duelists are all a bunch of overly confident, arrogant, snobby dancers.
@Darivan Orlovsky I will take a look once I get home. I know the trait talks about a family member, but what if it was more because of your relationship with Sir Aethelred Waincroft? I believe that would be a great option instead of a family member. What do you think?
@Fallen_Mage how has the creation process been coming?
Clarification on the Starting Gold: I'm guessing we use the higher of the two classes?
Here's Fallen_Mage's character, sans equipment for now.
Gold! Yes, you will take the max of whichever class offers you the highest gold.
Are the servants and horses still going to be available to me? I'm only asking because there's some gear I'd like to purchase that I won't be able to carry myself.
Yes, I will allow your family to have sent you a servant, guard, the cart, and two light horses.
Alright, I should be finished. Replaced Dancing Lights with Light.
Oh, one more thing I forgot to add with character creation is favorite class option. You can do HP, skill, or the racial option.
Okay, finished. I took Armor Master as my second trait, and am ready to start the game.
Yes, I would definitely say that Sir Waincroft would be his primary inspiration for his motivations- while I didn't make it super explicit, his time away from home would have been his only chance to really come up with his own mindset away from his family's non-combative nature.
Oh, one more thing I forgot to add with character creation is favorite class option. You can do HP, skill, or the racial option.
Since I'm a Half-Elf, and can choose two classes as a favored class, does that mean I can get the bonuses for both the Ranger and Sorcerer? Or only one?
That would mean that each level, you can choose whether you get bonuses from Sorcerer or Ranger, instead of being stuck with just one (like I am with Paladin).
GM, might we be able to get Gameplay open, so we can dot in?
As Darivan said, you’d only gain a bonus from one of the classes.
Because today is Easter I have family coming in. I wanted to get things off the ground before today, but that didn’t happen. I will open things up tomorrow AM in the gameplay tab. You guys have a great day!
Hey guys, Sunday night and yesterday was a rough day for my house. Either we all got food poisoning or we all got a stomach bug... either way, no fun. I am getting the first post going now. Sorry for the delay.
Post up.
So I suppose I should share with you the playstyle I am typically used to. I am very much a DM that runs a game that things aren’t hand waved. If my PCs want it to happen then it needs to be RPed. I never just assume something. So if you’d like a spider silk rope then you need to check out the shops, etc. hopefully being in-depth is something you’d like to do so that we can build an immersive story and game together.
That's quite fair- maybe not super common, but it does sound fun. I'll have a gameplay post up shortly with luck.
Hmmmm, so what would be the odds of that Dwarves would have Spider Silk Rope?
*thinks for a minute* Nah, I'll stick with the regular silk rope. Maybe I'll take another craft skill and make my own later.
Hmmmm, so what would be the odds of that Dwarves would have Spider Silk Rope?
*thinks for a minute* Nah, I'll stick with the regular silk rope. Maybe I'll take another craft skill and make my own later.
Not a problem, I have you walking with Darivan as he is heading towards Lowtown. Feel free to let me know where Nerandeth cuts off and what he is thinking and I will run with it from there.
Also, this type of game is a bit like improve. In improve you always want to leave the door open for someone to interact with what you are doing or saying. It is the "yes, and..." principle. PBP games, even real life games, are exactly this. When we make post as players or DMs we should leave options for those who are telling the story with us to do something with what we are putting out there.
I posted it at the top, but take a bit of time to read This Post before continuing. It literally changed the way that I game.
I usually try to post really in-depth posts, but the busier I am, the shorter they get, it seems. These days, if I get out a few paragraphs of description, I consider that a victory. Once the semester is over, though, I can probably go back to my overly descriptive posts.
Hey guys! One thing I have been meaning to ask of you is if you could put your characters birthday on their sheets. Because this game can span years in game I want to keep track of that. Thanks!
Bump?
So... I guess this died? Pity, it seemed fun.
Yeah, in my experience Kingmaker is a tough one in PbP.
Yeah. This is, after all, my second game using Darivan. Ah well. It happens. Pity, though, this one looked interesting.
Well, message me if this ever comes back, I guess, GM.
-Daedalus/Darivan