The Unloved Ones - Bloodlines and Black Magic

Game Master Patrick Curtin

Celestial Healer wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Here's a super basic question:

p 36: Each character in Bloodlines & Black Magic starts play with two Feats, a trait of their choice, and an arcana (see below). Most characters, however, should have three traits, two Feats.

Bloodlines characters receive a trait from their chosen Career and another from their Arcana. They can select the third trait from any GM-approved place.

p. 52: When a character selects a particular bloodline, she automatically gains 7 blood points (abbreviated hereafter as BP). She can use (or save) these points to buy bloodline racial traits to reflect her supernatural heritage

So, I can choose a career trait (which I think they call a talent in the career section), an arcana, a third trait from anywhere, and purchase 7 BP worth of additional racial traits from my bloodline trait list? Sound right?

That was exactly my interpretation.

Ausgezeichnet. Wow, those racial traits are crazy. Half my character's abilities are in racial traits!

Yeah, they are pretty wild. I am certain that my bloodline traits are more powerful than my class abilities at level one.

There’s a twitch game going on with the creator of the game now GAME LINK

creepy music

Interesting...

After level 7 you don't level, but you can gain new abilities when you reach what would be another level. At those points you can either take a class ability you qualify for or increase something (like +1 BAB) SO you'd qualify for Death Attack somewhere around what would be level 10 if you just focused on your BAB after hitting 7

It's weird RPing a half complete character, opposite of how I always do things. lol

It's weird RPing a half complete character, opposite of how I always do things. lol

Right? For long campaigns, I like to plan my character out to 20. With this new (for me) system, I spent all of today trying to build L1. Sad.

Will have a post up in a couple of hours.

I always plan my characters out in advance. I even have a special sheet I made up just so I can do it (it also helps greatly when planning for a character who starts at a higher level).

Interesting...

Yeah I’m backing it. 5e might actually be a better fit for this

Am I the only one who never plans a character beyond the next couple of levels?

It can be a very zen feeling.

Am I the only one who never plans a character beyond the next couple of levels?

I think you're alone...

Am I the only one who never plans a character beyond the next couple of levels?

It can be a very zen feeling.

Nope. I’m with you. I barely plan out my characters at all. I hate mechanics , I hate figuring out the math, I hate interpreting rules.

Yet I love storytelling so much i masochistically end up GMing multiple games where I constantly have to do those things. ::ugh::

I usually did it to get to prestige classes ASAP and get the most out of them.

That’s why I like archetypes better than prestige classes. You get to play your concept from level 1.

Okay, for the life of me I cannot find anything about starting wealth/equipment in this book. Am I missing something? Or is it just kind of handwaved?

Some is covered in the lifestyle section (cars, housing, the accoutrements of life). The equipment section seems to imply that you have any gear or kits associated with careers or skills that require them. But I don’t see anything about things like firearms. Do they work similarly?

Okay, for the life of me I cannot find anything about starting wealth/equipment in this book. Am I missing something? Or is it just kind of handwaved?

Some is covered in the lifestyle section (cars, housing, the accoutrements of life). The equipment section seems to imply that you have any gear or kits associated with careers or skills that require them. But I don’t see anything about things like firearms. Do they work similarly?

P 156 + has firearm info with specific models.

I saw purchasing rules somewhere that said just look up online the kind of gear you need and use that. I used my char history and career/lifestyle to come up with money saved. So my list looks like this:

Kukri & sheath 30
Duffle Bag 20
Boots work/roper 150
Jeans, 3 pairs 100
Shirts 500
Oilskin rancher jacket 200
Misc underwear & kit 300
Stetson wool cowboy hat 100
Boot jack 50
Wallet RFID men’s 55
Leatherman wingman 50
Canteen 20
Tracphone 20
Minutes 100
Adv FAK 3 lb 240
Suture kit 1 lb 75
Headlamp 30
Solar charger 25
Jeans jacket 100
Leather gloves 27
Palomino sketchbook 30
Little Georgie Free
Chromebook/case 200
Moccasins/slippers 100
Charcoal 25
Sandy brown alpaca poncho 60
Magnesium Firestarter 2
Whetstone 3
Camping towel 10
50’ paracord & 3 carabiners 5
9 food bars 10
Bus ticket 250

All looked up online and roughly correct. The remaining cash is in a bank account.

I did NOT clear this with Patrick yet, which was another part of the buy process. Prolly more work than needed, but I'm like that.

That list looks fine

I have cleared the list with Patrick.

Yes, I saw the firearm stats (pricing is tougher), but it’s not clear to me if there is a budget for other gear. One month income minus lifestyle expenses? One year’s savings? Or am I just overthinking?

I think you propose it to Patrick, per page 132+.

I figured mine with a year of part-time work and living poor, saving for college. It's just a thumbnail calc.

We'd probably need to do more if it were a long campaign. I got the impression that they didn't want to worry too much about money and stuff.

So you could probably buy a Porsche and a bazooka.

Can we retcon that I arrived at the diner in a Learjet?

On a separate note, I am stoked about this setting. I am not usually one for elaborate backstory, but I just created 2-3 pages of notes about family including a detailed family tree. That is not like me.

Yeah, I’m not really going to go full granular with the money concept. You guys are good enough players not to cheese the game out with a lot of items. Take what you need and what makes sense for your character. No proton packs or Gulfsreams

Dammit... there go my dreams of an ocean liner

I admit I am still having trouble locking down a Career. Everything else is planned out and ready, but I just have no idea what to give her as a Career, I'm at a loss. So I figure I'd reach out to you guys and see what you all think is a good fit.

She is a Witch of Bastet. She started her career in IT, but was fired and began working as a prostitute. She worked her way into a position where she runs girls who she treats well and protects, and who she uses to gather information. It's a weird concept I know, which is why I'm having trouble nailing a specific Career path for her.

Thoughts?

I guess you would look through the traits and skills to find one that seems to line up. Criminal path could be a good fit for a madam.

I suspect the PC who is a madam and the PC who is a cop are going to get along great! (Don’t worry - I like reasonable PC conflict. Good roleplay opportunities. Nace has plenty of secrets of his own and won’t be putting any PCs in handcuffs. Probably.)

On p 130 there are non-path careers like Business Owner. Or possibly Customer Service.

Business Owner might actually be a good fit skill-wise, depending on what you're looking for.

I think the meeting of you all will have to take place at your destination. I’m going to work on this this evening

I like the idea of serendipitous interaction in the diner, but it would take a lot to get strangers to voluntarily sit together in a restaurant. Going on to meet up at our destination and realizing we saw these people at the diner earlier in the day has a coolness factor.

Dammit... there go my dreams of an ocean liner

If Carnival or Norwegian go under, Pru could pick one up cheap, then run a floating brothel/casino with trips past the 3-mile line.

Alright, my overly detailed family history and personal biography are now up on Google docs and linked in the Background spoiler of Nace's profile.

Heaven help me if I ever want to write that much for a character again. I hope that there is a lot there that Patrick can use - I tell myself that, but know full well that reading character bios is a chore.

In the next day or so I'll take another look at his equipment before I run it by Patrick as a final list.

I didn't make a family tree.

I feel like a slacker.

I like the idea of serendipitous interaction in the diner, but it would take a lot to get strangers to voluntarily sit together in a restaurant. Going on to meet up at our destination and realizing we saw these people at the diner earlier in the day has a coolness factor.

Yeah there is that. There was something prior to the meeting I wanted you to experience together, but I think it’s a minor issue. I’ll advance the storyline. And I love backstory, so I’ll take a look

I suspect the PC who is a madam and the PC who is a cop are going to get along great! (Don’t worry - I like reasonable PC conflict. Good roleplay opportunities. Nace has plenty of secrets of his own and won’t be putting any PCs in handcuffs. Probably.)

lol... I was thinking the same thing when I saw your Profession

On p 130 there are non-path careers like Business Owner. Or possibly Customer Service.

Business Owner might actually be a good fit skill-wise, depending on what you're looking for.

I did consider Business Owner. Criminal, IT, and Service Industry were the others I was noting as possibilities.

I think you're on the money though and Business Owner would be a good one for her. Thanks everyone for the input.

Celestial Healer wrote:

I like the idea of serendipitous interaction in the diner, but it would take a lot to get strangers to voluntarily sit together in a restaurant. Going on to meet up at our destination and realizing we saw these people at the diner earlier in the day has a coolness factor.

Yeah there is that. There was something prior to the meeting I wanted you to experience together, but I think it’s a minor issue. I’ll advance the storyline. And I love backstory, so I’ll take a look

Great. I just added a list of plot hooks as well :)

I usually write long backstory, but nothing like 2-3 pages!!!

Patrick Curtin wrote:

Celestial Healer wrote:

I like the idea of serendipitous interaction in the diner, but it would take a lot to get strangers to voluntarily sit together in a restaurant. Going on to meet up at our destination and realizing we saw these people at the diner earlier in the day has a coolness factor.

Yeah there is that. There was something prior to the meeting I wanted you to experience together, but I think it’s a minor issue. I’ll advance the storyline. And I love backstory, so I’ll take a look

Great. I just added a list of plot hooks as well :)

Goddam overachievers.

I didn't make a family tree.

I feel like a slacker.

You've done more than I've managed to. I have a definite idea of what I want, likely ending up in criminal/reformed criminal type path given training/skillset/proclivities of my bloodline

OK, updated Miren's profile to include a link to a Gdrive folder containing her history, build process, char sheet, and her letter to me for Patrick's use. No family tree, though. It's not important. But I DID do past life history.

Past lives?! Overachiever.

Nace only benefitted from a family tree since he has a mix of blooded and mundane ancestry, and it helped me keep that all straight in my head.

OK... So... after getting all of her stats ironed out, all I had to do was enter them into the Word .doc so I could port them over to Paizo. But then the other day in the shower I had a brainstorm for a way to redo her stats a bit more how I wanted them initially but wasn’t able to. So while the character herself is all good, I’m gonna do a rework on the stats I had done. I hope we don’t need stats for a short bit. *fingers crossed*

Sorry I haven’t moved forward. I will attempt to get this rectified soon

Mine's coming together bit by bit. Working on gear now.

I think I'm good with my gear. I can't think of anything else that should be on there (but I left off obvious/insignificant items like clothes, shoes, wallet, etc.)

Patrick, let me know if you have any concerns.

Sounds good. Apologies for my tardiness in updating, my work got really busy and I don’t have a lot of ‘wait time’ available right now. I am hoping to get the next scene set, and we can move forward

I want PRU to head over to Halifax and hang around for the week, doing a little snooping on the place and the town itself.

Ok cool. Treppa has said the same thing for Miren. So I’ll just get you into town and see what we can see!

Yeah, that reasoning makes the most sense with regard to why one would arrive so early.

Miren is totally going to Santa's Village.

Lol. It would disappoint her. I’ve been There