Shady_Motives's Untitled Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Shady_Motives

What is so special about you? Well there is really nothing special about anyone. Being told you were special is a fallacy that every parent tells their children that leaves them unprepared for the world of adulthood. But then when everyone around growing up goes through the same thing, it really means nothing. You survived your childhood and did the best you could, succeeding, failing, whatever. Smartphones, sensationalist news, megacorporations trodding over laws and freedom for the almighty dollar, racism, bigotry and the general degradation of society all seemed to the talk of the day.

But who has time for all of that when you are just trying to make a life for yourself? You have friends and family to rely on, to hate, to laugh and cry with, to forget, to cherish. So when you heard that one of your best friends has vanished in the forests that border Vermont and New York, you reached out to the other people of your social circle to organize a search, throwing whatever time and resources you could to take the five hour drive from New York City. What you find in those forsaken trees will shatter your belief and shake the foundations of reality.

The friend in question is Alex Grayson, 28. He grew up in Boston MA and went to NYU, a thrill seeker and overall good person with a large group of friends. He is an aeronautical engineer, an airplane mechanic who works at JFK airport and spends his weekends hiking, camping and doing many outdoor activities. His most extreme activity to date is spending three weeks hiking the Grand Canyon several years ago and barely dodging a flash flood during a heavy rainstorm. He has a younger brother Elias (my character), a 25 year old pediatrician who works in Boston.

House Rules:

Nat 20's and 1's: In my games there is a chance for even a 1st level character to impale a dragon through the heart against impossible odds as well as a 20th level rogue tripping and landing flat on his face. Roll a nat 20 and the accomplishment will go above and beyond whatever you are trying to attempt. Roll a nat 1 and it's an automatic failure, regardless of your base attack or skill ranks. Even gods can screw up.

Magic: Magic does not exist on Earth. That means feats, items, skills and anything else magical DOES. NOT. EXIST.

Armor: As this is a more modern setting most people in the world do not walk around with armor of any kind. Bullet Proof Vests are considered Light Armor and provide an AC of +2, Max Dex of 5 and AC penalty of -1. Only those with Profession (Soldier, Bouncer, Fighter, Law Enforcement) will receive Armor Proficiency (Combat Armor). Combat Armor is considered Medium armor and provides a +5 AC, Max dex of +2 and an AC Penalty of -4. No one has access to heavy armor of any kind.

Traits: 2 traits, 1 flaw. Additional traits are earn via playing the campaign. These are rewards or affects your characters will gain depending on their actions in the campaign.

PC vs PC Diplomacy Checks: This will not be allowed to force players to think or behave a specific way. You must convince them with traditional means of roleplay.

Feats: Feats are gained as normal, but additional feats may be awarded by group/character play. Bonus feat awarded at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level.

Feat Tax: I will be using the system suggested here.

Unarmed Attacks: All unarmed damage do 1d3 points of lethal. Warriors, who in this story will be athletes or soldiers and the like, will do 1d4 lethal unarmed damage. You have the option to do lethal or non-lethal with unarmed attacks.

Combat: Players will be given one day to post their turn in combat. By the end of day if a player has not taken their turn, they will be put on delay and combat will proceed normally. GM will roll all initiative rolls to keep from breaking the flow of the PbP.

Player Death: In the event of a players death, that is the end of their journey (If there is no chance to get a revival/reincarnation). This also means your participation in the campaign is done. No re-rolling of characters will be permitted. This is to allow other outside players a chance to participate in the campaign.

Party Wipe: In the event of the death of the entire party, a new recruitment will be held. You will be allowed to submit a new character then, but only then.

Character Creation:
-->Attributes: I like high powered games so start off thus; start off with 1 auto 18. Roll 3d6, reroll 1's, drop the lowest dice and add 6. Do that 5 times and you have a set. Do that as many times as you want until you arrive at a set that you like (max of 25 times). You must accept stats as a set, no mixing and matching.

-->Starting Level: Aristocrat, expert and Warrior, 2nd level. Eventually you will be able to 'prestige' into character classes.

-->HP: Max.

-->Starting Cash: This will be based entirely on your character background, class and current profession. This means I will tell those who are accepted into the game how much money they have access to.

-->All archetypes allowed (When classes become unlocked).

-->Books allowed: All Pathfinder with the following exceptions; No Occult Adventures or 3PP. Starfinder (very limited, case-by-case basis.)

-->Skills: We will be using the Starfinder skills with the craft skill added. Mysticism is now based on INT, not WIS.

-->Variant Multiclassing: No.

-->Firearms: Guns everywhere.

-->Races allowed: Human.

Combat:

During small(few to one monsters) combat:
Standard book combat rules apply.

During large(many monsters) combat:
Players Initiatives will be averaged, so players may take their turn at any time during the players group turn.

Enemy initiatives will be grouped together as well in the initiative order. They will be placed in respect to the averaged players initiative.

During Combat. Due to its lengthy nature, I will speed up posts to once a day. At the end of each day, the monsters will always take their turn. This is to prevent a month long combat sequence.

Ex.
Combat 1:
Players have an average initiative roll of 8. Monsters average initiative rolls is a 4. In this event, the Players take their turn first, then the monsters will after.

Crafting System:

Due to many but not all of the Pathfinder Craft categories being rolled in Starfinder, we will also be using the Craft skill for all those items which do not fall under Life Science, Physical Science etc. Below are a few examples.

Crafting Categories:
-->Ancient Armor (includes leather armor, fullplate, those sorts of things)
-->Blacksmithing (the normal application plus things like swords and knives)
-->Woodworking (normal furniture plus Bows)
-->Art (paintings, pottery, sculpting, etc.)
-->Clothing (anything that goes on the body not considered armor)

While this far from an exhaustive list, Craft will only be used to make something that does not fall under the normal Crafting rules for Starfinder.

What you need to craft?
To craft items in the campaign you must have the raw material to do so. Most raw materials can either be found, salvaged, or bought. There will be unique materials and components you can find to add special affects or bonuses.

When you have the required materials, you can do one of two things. You can either find/purchase a schematic in order to know the quantity of resources you need. Or you can make a Craft [Category] skill check to see if your character knows how to craft that item that you want. If you fail to pass this knowledge check you have to buy a schematic or take a penalty to your Craft [Category] check to when you craft your weapon.

How long does it take?
Crafting takes time in the game world, there will be moments when you enter towns where you will have access to what you need to craft your items. The length of time is calculated from a Craft [Category] check and the complexity/quality of the weapon. You can rush your crafts but you will take a penalty on your Craft [Category] check for quality.

How are the stats determined?
I will determine final base stats of your item. Your will make your final Craft [Category] check to determine your characters success at making the item. This check will help determine the quality of your item, or if your character blunders and wastes the materials.

Can I get an example?
Of course you can! (Note: All data here is an example and does not represent what the materials actually do.)

Bliggledorf the Dwarf decides he wants to make a one handed waraxe. First he makes a check to see if he is knowledgeable enough in crafting it.

He has a Craft: Weapons skill of 15. His final roll tallies results in a 25. Crafting a standard waraxe is pretty common knowledge so he doesn't need a schematic. He finds out he needs 2 ingots to craft it and it will take approximately 2 full days to make it.

Bliggledorf the Dwarf has enough Darksteel and Obsidian to craft it. He decides to use Darksteel because it gives a inherent +2 to attack rolls against Goblins. He knows this because of a finding a tattered book on Darksteel. Though a Craft Weapons check could reveal if he worked with that material before and possibly gleamed what it might do.

Bliggledorf then makes a Craft Weapons Skill check to Craft the weapon. He doesn't have enough time craft it so he wants to attempt to craft it in one day which raises the difficulty of the check. His skill check results in 20. Luckily since it is a simple weapon with no other enhancements he makes it without too much difficulty. His weapon now has the base stats of a common waraxe, but with a +2 to attack rolls against Goblins.

If he had extra time, he could lower the difficulty of the check or opted to use extra materials to try and get a boost to its effect or find a new affect by combining materials.

Posting: I expect a certain level of skill with the english language from my players. One sentence responses will usually not be sufficient. Repeated 1 sentence responses will result in the player being removed from my game. There is a built in spell check on the site but I would suggest writing your lengthy responses in a writing program. Blatant poor grammar (with the exception of idiotic character speech) will not be accepted and repeated grammatically incorrect posts can lead to removal. All this means is read over what you write BEFORE posting and spell check. It only takes a minute or two and saves everyone a headache.

At the beginning I will not be militant about grammar or post length as all of the players (myself included) will be getting used to the other players' writing styles. As time progresses however posts should become more fluid and well written as we get more experience as a group. If a character is saying something posting just the speech in bold font is unacceptable. Write your posts as if you are taking part in writing a book.

Major Events:

This is where any major/noteworthy events will be tracked, accompanied by a link to a document with any extra details on the event.

Spoiler:

I've created these rules based off of several games as both a GM and player so please don't bother trying to suggest an alternative to what is already stated. Any situations not covered by these rules will be decided on a case by case basis.

Recruitment ends in 3 weeks or sooner, depending on how many applications I get.