GM Kate's Extinction Curse [closed]

Game Master Kate Baker

Plan the circus here! I'll have a few posts with stuff about how I run games, including safety tools!

We will begin on the street day of 1/29 if everyone is ready, but please check out the player's guide and start discussing characters!

I'd like to see people post once a day on weekdays and at least once on the weekends. Obviously, life can get in the way, especially with a long campaign, but posting just to say you're busy/on vacation or whatever will let us keep moving along.

I can't post substantively during the workday, so if everyone is cool with it, I'd like to appoint one of you as an assistant GM to help resolve actions during combats against Bestiary monsters. This person won't get extra knowledge about what's going on in the adventure, but can describe if attacks hit or missed, update the map when combatants go down, resolve knowledge checks depending on how we run that, and so on. This just helps make sure things keep moving instead of waiting for me to say "Yes, that hit took it down."

My favorite safety tools for play-by-post are lines and veils. Lines indicate that something is a hard no for the game. Veils indicate that something can happen in the game, but "off-camera."

As far as content notes, I don't have specific warnings outside what you would normally expect in a Pathfinder AP. If you have a fear of clowns, this may not be the AP for you. I've seen the full outline for the AP, but not the final books, including my own, so there may be something that pops up. I'll give a warning here, but if there's something that you'd like me to keep a particular eye out for, please let me know!

I am still figuring out how I want to run secret checks and recall knowledge and so forth in play-by-post, so I'll put some slides together and we may evolve over time.

Hi there! Evie here. Super excited! I’ve got a concept for a CG elven sorcerer (aberrant bloodline) that I’m toying with. She’d be a calliope player and dancer who loves everything and everyone strange.

Excellent, I will be mulling over a couple concepts. Thanks again for the invite!

***RAWR!!!***

Fabric rips between sight, mind, and screen as Painlord enters the thread.

"I summon myself from the aether and into this thread! Let the circuits tremble and the pixels quake at my coming!" Painlord dusts himself off and removes he silver cord attached at the waist. He shudders to think what would become of him should that special silver cord ever be cut by a special blade.

"Extinction? Curses, eh? This new edition and rules are new to me. They vex and confound me still. Though I will make many mistakes and do many a foolish deed, nonetheless, I shall ponder the depths of my black soul and darkest intents for a character worthy of this group." Painlord looks around the room, meeting the eye of each to ensure his sincerity.

Painlord creates a large stone from the aether and places it near him. Painlord dusts off the rock, has a sit, and begins to ponder. His chin rests upon this clenched fist and that upon a bowed elbow upon knee. In his mind, he creates worlds within worlds, scouring for just the right mortal's essence to bring to life within the Extinction Curse.

Won't be sharing my character or concept with any save the GM. I encourage you to play whatever clown you want, whatever hobo just fell off the turnip truck, or the exact bearded halfling you wish to play.

Hey all, looking forward to playing with everyone!

I'm East Coast, but work second shift, so most of my posting tends to be earlier in the day (depending on the night, I can sometimes get in a post when I'm at work, like right now).

As for lines/veils, I have a hard line for any sexual violence, but otherwise am fine with standard fantasy novel-levels of violence/romance.

--

Also mulling over some ideas. I had a thought for a dwarf character, but need to figure out if he can work for this adventure. If it does work, he'd probably be a divine caster and -- I think -- a fortune teller. Though he might also work as a roustabout.

If not, I'd also be willing to consider doing some sort of creepy twins thing with someone who's interested. I feel like that could certainly be something at a circus. :)

The one necessary part of everyone's character concept is that they currently work for the Circus of Wayward Wonders. They do not have to be part of the show itself, since there are lots of jobs that are not in front of the crowd.

And as Rand says, do feel free to play what you want! There are lots of NPCs in the circus with you, so there are definitely people you can go to for help if needed. Also, you clearly all know each other, so building up connections between the PCs in advance is a lot of fun. (Siblings, as Jacob suggested, or rivals, or on the run from the law together)

Also, for those of you who have read the Player's Guide already and seen the bit about tricks, Jason Tondro's been coming up with some.

Also, for those of you who have read the Player's Guide already and seen the bit about tricks, Jason Tondro's been coming up with some.

Those are great!

So -- without invading Painlord's privacy ;) -- what are folks thinking so far for cahracters?

We obviously all know each other, so we'd have some basics (don't necessarily need classes, since I agree with Pain that it can be fun to keep that a bit quiet) like whether someone's a clown, etc.

I think I'm going with my idea I mentioned before, but changing the class to maestro bard. She isn't a clown per se, but uses that aesthetic, though I do imagine her in a ringmaster's outfit as well. She pretends to be a living mannequin, only letting a select few others know the truth. She has a custom-made costume to assist her in her act, along with replaceable faceplates for different expressions. She uses a combination of illusion magic and good-ol'-fashioned real world magician techniques to pretend that she can remove body parts.

Her goal with her act is to walk the line between strange and unsettling, whimsical, and funny.

What you would know about my character, who's still far from fleshed out.:

XXX is a firm believer that the world is likely to end soon -- certainly in his lifetime. All the signs show it. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't all enjoy what little time we have left. Thus -- the circus! Sure, he made a mistake with his first attempt when he joined The Celestial Menagerie, but this new circus seems much more promising (you know, at least until the world ends). ...

I'm leaning toward animal wrangler or barker for his background, since I think either could fit the concept that's developing. If no one else wants to have an animal companion, I think it might be fun to do that. If someone else wants one, I can do without. He certainly could also not yet be a showman, but have that be something he's eager to get into (i.e. starting as a barker with aspirations to be a showman).

Painlord shifts his weight upon the rock on which he sits, his own ponderance causing his ass to ache. He shifts to the left, then to the right, then finally stands to stretch and test his silver aether cord before sitting again.

It is clear his ruminations and creations are not going well and he continues to dwell and stew upon the subject matter.

A clown.
A killer clown?
A killer clown...from where?
Painlord shakes his head angrily, certain that bad ideas do exist.

Recovering himself, he puts his chin on this fist, his elbow to his knee, and his ass to rock as he leans to think more. He ponders. He pontificates. He juggles. He does not know yet who or what he is.

Still kicking around concepts, but in no special rush as we have a month or more until book 1 is release. In addition, the HeroLab supplement has yet to be released.

You are making me nostalgic for githyanki!

I thought the street date for book one was the 29th, so in less than a week?

As for me, I’ve got most of the statblock done and have been moving on to writing the more fun character stuff :)

The street date is indeed January 29th!

If people need more time than that, that is okay too.

Your character can have one extra trained Lore to tie into their backstory.

For APs, I'm pretty generous with character tweaks, so if something isn't working out the way you thought it would, just let me know and it will probably be fine to change it.

I should have something built this weekend. I am waiting on a few more days from the authors tweets as I am looking for some inspiration on the tricks.

Yay, Gods & Magic finally shipped, so I can see if there is stuff I want to use from it (not to mention what my own contributions look like)!

OK, I think I'm going to play with Rova here, who found her way to the Celestial Mengerie and eventually a role as an animal wrangler, before fleeing with Thkrull, who she helped raise from birth, to join The Circus of Wayward Wonders.

She's starting to perform in the new show, though her performances leave a little something to be desired. They tend to all end up with warnings about the end of the world...

She'll be a bit of an able combatant, with an animal companion to boost that. She may also eventually be casting some spells. We'll see how that goes.

I'm really disappointed that they didn't make an elephant animal companion for this game. Kate, can we do something about that for this game? (If you'd rather play strictly with the published rules, I'm OK with that.)

This is Hrothdane! Got a bunch of my girl's info up in her profile, juicy character background and such plus stats. Stats are done so I can focus on the fun stuff :D

Rova can definitely have an elephant! Also, yay for Gods and Magic! Can you share what you wrote?

Yay! I just sent you some proposed stats in a PM.

As far as Gods and Magic, I did the Gorum and Rovagug sections! (Though the divine intercessions crunch should be credited to the developers.)

I have been compiling the twitter tricks in a word doc as I am horrible at sifting through twitter.

Extinction Curse Tricks List

Nearly done with Corkas. Still fleshing out her background info and her trick. Her stage name is Prism due to her constantly color changing features.

I love it!

Here's what I statted up for the elephant companion; curious to get any feedback (I previously sent it to Kate). That said, I'm thinking instead of indomitable charge for the advanced maneuver, it should probably just have trample. It's not super colorful, but I think that makes sense...

ELEPHANT
Your companion is an elephant, mammoth, or similar pachyderm.
Size Medium or Large
Melee [one-action] foot, Damage 1d8 bludgeoning
Melee [one-action] tusk (agile), Damage 1d6 piercing
Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int –4, Wis +1, Cha +0
Hit Points 8
Skill Intimidation or Survival
Senses low-light vision, scent (imprecise, 30 feet)
Speed 30 feet
Special mount
Support Benefit Your elephant uses its trunk to grab and hamper a foe. Until the start of your next turn, any creatures your elephant threatens is encumbered. (Note, this would make it Clumsy 1, so a -1 to Dex checks including AC, and a 10-ft. penalty to speed. That said, my reading of this would be that if it Stepped or Strided away from the elephant with its first action, it would lose that penalty.)
Advanced Maneuver Indomitable charge

Indomitable charge [two-actions] (move)
The elephant Strides twice, and ignores natural difficult terrain (but not difficult terrain because of magic). If you are mounted on the elephant, until the end of your turn, you can add a circumstance bonus to damage to an attack you make following an indomitable charge equal to twice the number of damage dice. If your weapon already has the jousting weapon trait, increase the trait’s damage bonus by 2 per die instead.

Painlord shifts on his hard rock again, his buttocks feeling not only his own weight, but also the weight of his thoughts. There is only so much his ass can take. He does offer a quick smile as he believes he is making progress.

Dreams and ideas have come and gone, and each one kept or discarded have gotten him closer to the act of creation. It is never an easy process for him, for there is never just one side of himself that he wants to put into any one character. Sometimes it was the pain of slicing oneself open and deciding what to share, other times, it was finding nothing but voids inside where one had hoped for charactered essence.

He sighs.

He’s closer. But not yet done.

He closes his eyes and thinks more.

That sounds like a demented murder clown character. Slicing things open to see what's in there to share.

Speaking of demented murder clown whats up with that creepy murder clown in the Player's Guide? Hehe.

Speaking of demented murder clown whats up with that creepy murder clown in the Player's Guide? Hehe.

I noted this as well. WTF? It’s so creepy.

creepy murder clown

This seems redundant. You can just say "clown" and save yourself some typing. :D

Yeah, it’s so creepy!

Oh god, the creepy clown is in the adventure!

There are a few player options in the book. I don't want to post any text before the street date, but if you want to tweak your character once you see it, feel free. (It's mostly not first level stuff anyway, but I know you might build a little differently if you know you're going to take an archetype.)

Rand has kindly offered to serve as assistant GM! Thanks, Rand. This will mostly involve resolving combat actions with bestiary monsters during the workday Pacific time, so that we don't have things drag on while I can't post.

We have slides! Please fill out the second slide as you have a chance.

There are circus rules for this adventure! I don't want to drop the whole subsystem at once, so here's what you need to know about your signature trick, if you choose to have one. (If you don't, or if you don't perform in a given show, there are non-performer roles you can take on.)

Your signature trick starts off with one type of check and can have one trait. Your check is the skill or saving throw you use to perform the trick. So if you are a trapeze artist, you would probably use Acrobatics. As you level up and your trick gets more complicated, you can add more kinds of checks. Maybe you climb up a rope to get to your trapeze, so you do Athletics and Acrobatics.

Traits add something special depending on the trait. You can pick one, but you don't have to. If the check has a skill associated with it, you get a +1 bonus with that skill to do that trick. If you did a trick where you ride a horse off a high dive (anyone else watch Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken a million times as a kid?), then adding the Animal trait would give you a +1 bonus to a Nature check and adding the Water trait would give you a +1 bonus to an Athletics check. You start off with one trait and can add more as you level up and make your trick more complicated.

There are two mandatory traits with certain options. First, if one PC co-stars for another PC, the trick gains the Team trait. (NPCs can't co-star for you.) This lets one person Aid another. Second, if your check is a saving throw, the trick gains the injury trait. So the NPC act Mordaine the magician uses a Fortitude save because she's holding her breath underwater. If she crit fails a check to perform her act, she gets injured.

Hopefully, that's enough to design your tricks! Don't hesitate to ask questions!

Oh, one more thing about tricks for now: you'll unlock additional traits you can choose from for your act as you recruit people to your circus. The ones listed in the slide are the ones you can use right now.

Player options! This book has archetypes for juggler and staff acrobat. There is also a juggle skill feat, some nature snares, and some circus weapons. Do folks want more details on any of that?

I might eventually want to use the nature snares, but I'm not there yet. (I can also just look them up myself if that's easier for you.)

--

Still working out the details of my trick, though it will definitely involve Thkrull. I think it will probably use Perform, but I'll see what I come up with.

--

Finally, default exploration activity: I'm leaning toward Investigate, but also open to see what others are doing/wanting.

Painlord shifts on his rock again, this time taking to his feet. Standing tall, he realizes that choices have been made, and now it was too late to change. In fact, his form begins to change, loosing his amorphous quality endowed by the Plane of Pain and becoming more solid, more dwarven, more real. His body bulges and changes, shrinking and fitting itself...into the guise of a male dwarf.

The dwarf smiles, looks around the room as if seeing it for the first time.

”Hi, I’m Mukluk. Nice to meet you all,” Mukluk says in a solid, confident voice. ”I hope that we shall enjoy the journey more than the destination as we travel these lands together.”

With that, he leaves the discussion room to go post on the gameplay thread.

Open backstory and description on updated on this alias. Feel free to read.

Yes, if you have the book, feel free to check out the player options yourself! I didn’t want to assume everyone had it.

Also, it’s a third level feat, but one referenced feat didn’t make it into the player’s guide and is instead referenced here!

And just to be clear for exploration mode, you can change it whenever you’d like.

Also, folks, I am really looking forward to this. I think it’s going to be a really fun adventure. Thank you for playing it with me.

I am also quite excited! :D

As for exploration mode, I’m prob gonna do Repeat a Spell for Inspire Courage as my go-to.

Painlord shifts on his rock again, this time taking to his feet. Standing tall, he realizes that choices have been made, and now it was too late to change. In fact, his form begins to change, loosing his amorphous quality endowed by the Plane of Pain and becoming more solid, more dwarven, more real. His body bulges and changes, shrinking and fitting itself...into the guise of a male dwarf.

The dwarf smiles, looks around the room as if seeing it for the first time.

”Hi, I’m Mukluk. Nice to meet you all,” Mukluk says in a solid, confident voice. ”I hope that we shall enjoy the journey more than the destination as we travel these lands together.”

With that, he leaves the discussion room to go post on the gameplay thread.

Open backstory and description on updated on this alias. Feel free to read.

Noooo! Not Sad Rock. :(

Since we all know each other ahead of time, I took the liberty of jotting down some impressions people might have gathered before the adventure about Niksi as the circus has been traveling together:

-For someone that's always talking about capital-A "Art" and taking The Work very seriously, Niksi is unjudgmental and takes most people in-stride, though it would be easy to assume she's just a pretentious snob

-She has a broad base of knowledge and freely shares it without being asked, thinking she is helping, so she might be seen as a bit of a know-it-all

-She will also be completely unpredictable, such as walking up to you, saying "I am feeling very octagonal today" then walk away without a word. She likes to test out material to see if she's hitting the right balance in tone and takes notes on these interactions after the fact

-She never complains about being asked to help, no matter how menial the task might seem, and she considers everyone else's work as valuable as her own

-She takes her meals privately and keeps odd hours, which she intentionally does to encourage rumors that she actually IS a magical automaton

Noooo! Not Sad Rock. :(

Sad Rock's back! Or not...

Since we all know each other ahead of time, I took the liberty of jotting down some impressions people might have gathered before the adventure about Niksi as the circus has been traveling together: <good stuff>

+1. This is a delightful and helpful list.

Assuming you take on the act of scheduling, there is room for seven performances. Act 1, the opener, has one trick to get the audience warmed up. Act 2 has two tricks to build up the excitement. Act 3 is one big exciting act, and then Act 4 is the big finale with one act in each of the circus's three rings.

Each of you has a trick, I believe, and there are six NPC acts ready to go. These are listed in the slide. If any PC acts don't go on the schedule, that PC can take on another role, listed on Slide 8. As you set the schedule, you can either fill out the performers on the worksheet on the first slide, or just sort it out here, and I'll do it.

I still have a bit of confusion about putting this all together. Last night and tonight are busy so haven’t fully absorbed everything yet. Like, when I was writing my backstory, I didn’t know about the other Dwarven cannon ballers as already part of the circus...so not sure how to work that in (or should I rewrite my backstory?).

Anyhoot, as it stands now, I guess we need to schedule 7 acts, huh? There is also a framework around the acts.

Let’s do this?

Act 1:
1. Featherfall Five

Act 2:
2. Axle’s Amazing Aviary
3. Elizia and Mr. Tickles

Act 3:
7. The Dwarven Throwers (Mukluk may be assisting them)

Acts 4:
4. Flamboni Sisters
5. Niski and/or Prism?
6. Mordain the Magician

Feel free to edit or change or update. I have no idea, truly. :)

The Dwarven Throwers throw each other! Your act is definitely different. Also, they’re NPCs, so you should do the act you want.

Also, I apologize if the circus subsystem is confusing. I didn’t really want to drop the whole rules set at once, so I’m trying to just give you what you need right now. I can provide the full rules if that makes things easier, or we can just see how this first show goes and take it from there!

I'm happy doing this first show and then seeing if we want full rules. I feel like that adds to the verisimilitude.

I wasn't sure if we wanted to just do the acts here or in the game thread, either. I figure it's probably faster here, though. Not quite sure how everyone envisions their Tricks yet, but my suggestions:
Act 1: The Opener
1. Flamboni Sisters (feels like exciting and a good way to open)

Act 2: Build-up (animal shows feel like build-up style acts. Fun, but not as impressive as some of the others; that said, maybe also Niski/Prism here?)
2. Axle’s Amazing Aviary
3. Elizia and Mr. Tickles

Act 3: Big Number
7. The Feather-Fall Five (I'm a big fan of aerial acrobatics, but this feels big to me)

Acts 4: Finale
4. Mordain the Magician
5. Niski and/or Prism?
6. Big Shot Mukluk

Just to make sure we’re on the same page, you do not have to put all six NPC acts on the schedule.