Hey guys, this is going to be an experimental campaign where we basically learn how to create a character sheet and play a pf2e character
@Lessah, @Fighting Chicken
You are a baby, the equivalent of an 8 month old human child and you have just woken up from a nap.
Describe what you see... for example, your sleeping area... are you alone? Are there others around you? What is happening?
Of course this assumes something with a bit of a common method of being born and growing up.. If you guys are going for an ancestry like an Automaton, Conrasu, Poppet or something else then uh.. we'll adjust :)
Pathfinder 2 has some weird ancestries already.
I look around in the vast open space. There's not much I recognize in this strange world - then again I can't remember much either. It is warm though. Warm, cosy and safe. T
here's others here? I think so - I vaguely recall their touch. I try to raise my head to look around. It is heavy but with some effort I manage. As I move I rustle something and the sound of ... chimes? echo in the area.
Squinting I look around. Yes, there's others. Others like me? I'm not sure. But as I watch them, they in turn look back at me. And as I smile, they smile back. With hurried steps they approach; one two and ... more. Their warmth embraces me and I lay back down.
@Lessah
Very sweet, you relax and rest for a while, but... pretty soon you get restless and, you feel like showing off all the wonderful things you have been teaching yourself to do. Exciting things like standing, and walking, and running. This is what you’re going to attempt to do.
Every important act in the game is assigned a Difficulty Class or DC that reflects how challenging it is to carry out. To see if you character is successfully able to overcome the DC you roll a twenty sided dice called a d20 and see if you meet or beat the DC. The DC is almost always assigned by the person running the game, typically called the Gamemaster. That's a me.
So, to attempt to stand. Roll a d20 !
You know, I'm really starting to get the hang of this whole standing thing...
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I wake up.
First, there is just the warmth. And the scent of and closeness of my mother.
Then the rocking movement. Sounds of others. Sounds of footsteps. Voices. Some I recognize, like father.
I try to move my head, look around. I am in a sling, pressed against mother. So it is hard to see. Fading light. Many others. Walking and running. Going somewhere. Going onwards.
Cold. Weak light, blurry shapes. A mother enters, a mother leaves. Another mother enters, another mother leaves. Another mother enters. I eat. The greatest thing, the mothers are the best things to happen in this cold place. The mother leaves. I am angry. I yell, a squall of sorts, my voice - it is loud! - echoing around the cold place.
A father enters. The father has a deeper voice than the mother. All the fathers do. The father tucks me into a blanket. I am warm. The father leaves. I look at my hand. It is a good hand. It opens and closes.
@Lessah indeed you do. In fact since standing is something that you have practiced a lot the DC for the check was only 5. What this means is that your roll of a 17 is a CRITICAL SUCCESS.
Unlike a lot of other d20 games, in Pf2e a critical success happens when you roll 10 or higher than the DC. IF it's BY less it's just a regular success. Same in reverse for fails and critical fails. Not every action has a different results for the four tiers of success.
But here, the critical success means you stand up with such swiftness and confidence that it's like you've been doing this your whole life. The action of standing up becomes a free action rather than a regular action.
Which brings us to the action economy. In encounters pf2e gives characters three actions in a turn. Most actions (like standing) are a single action but more complicated activities make take two or even three actions (casting spells is an example of this).
Since you got up so fast you still have three actions. Now you feel like walking or toddling really. So go ahead and roll another d20 to see how you do there.
Also which direction do you decide to walk in? What are the people lying down with you doing?
@Karma you are used to this in your short life and are comfrotable in the sling as you are carried. You do notice an interesting object poking out of your mother's clothing though. Is it something you're seeing for the first time? Is it something you've seen before?
Either way, you want to grab it. When you're older grabbing something isn't going to be a big deal, but right now, for you, it is. Roll a d20 and let's see how you do in the first of your three actions this turn.
@Asta, you do have a very good hand, you also have good feet and you are still angry about your mother not being around. So you decide to take action, which means first, standing up.
Roll a d20 and let's see if baby you is as good at this as Lessah was in the first of your three actions this round.
@Karma ahh, maybe it's because you're bouncing around, but you're not able to grab the shiny thing as your roll is under 5.
What are you going to do for your remaining two actions? Do you try again? Do you give up?
Up and onwards! Well, up at least. Still working on the onwards. With a wobble I take a moment to survey my surroundings. The ones next to me seems asleep now. And it was quite dark. Not that I mind, I don't know what half the thing I see are anyhow ...
Still! I must choose a direction. So I aim for the brighter area, just some steps out of reach.
Asta's hands and feet are very good, but the mothers are wonderful, tall and red-topped and always smelling of milk. Where are the mothers? Asta must find them. She rolls onto her stomach and slides her hands under her body...
@Lessah the DC of toddling is 12 and your roll was a regular failure. Wobbling is pretty much all you're able to accomplish. You have two actions left, do you try again? Do you give up? Do you maybe get impatient and try to do something that you've been thinking about vaguely which is to not only toddle.. but run?
@Asta your hands push and you heave yourself up a bit unsteadily into a standing position. You did it! And you have two actions left. Do you try to move? What direction do you think the mothers are?
Oh. This was harder then I had imagined. Should I try again or just go for it? Indecisive I stand for a moment. But then a small smile - a gesture I've seen others make when content or clever - spreads on my features. Already so clever! I know how to stand and how to sit; I simply combine these into a mode of locomotion I shall call "crawl". Onwards!
@Karma
This time you are as swift as you were clumsy right time. A critical success on the DC5 check means you grab it and still have two actions. Is the shiny thing attached to your mother in some way or is it loose for you to do what you will? Do you want to try to figure out what it is? Try and keep your mother from finding out you have it?
@Lessah,
Very smart, crawling is easier than standing. And you crawl *really* fast with that roll (DC4 to crawl) . And you easily get to the bright area that you were aiming for. So... what's there? What do you want to do? You have one action left.
Aha! Yes. This is the way. I hurry along the ground towards the light. Right now, it's just a thin sliver. But wide enough for me to squeeze through. As I enter the other area, room was it?, I see one of my kind tending to the blazing warmth. Ma-ma? I think, but I can't quite vocalize it yet. Or ... Can I? I have tried before, but newer quite managed. I reach out towards the shape and inhale. Let's try!
If you never managed to say Ma-Ma clearly before, then let's put it at a DC15 and... you succeed! High and clear you say "Ma Ma!" and the reaction is exactly what you would have wanted. "Ma Ma" rushes over and picks you up to toss you into the air and swing you around with an expression that you recognize as delight and joy though you don't have the words to describe them as such!
Congratulations Lessage, Stage 1 is complete! You stood, you crawled, you said your first words. Truly an eventful day.
Asta puts one foot forward, hesitant, and wobbly. The mommies come into the room, as if existing from nothing, by that big rectangle which opens and closes. Maybe that is the thing that makes the mommies?
@Astra your second action doesn't meet the DC of 12 so you try, but you're unsteady and just wobble in place. That's your second action. What do you want to try and do for your last action of this stage? Try to walk again? Something else?
As a mommy says when Asta yells, for whatever reason, "My daughter is no quitter!" the girl wobbles, and then forcefully puts her foot forward, a first, glorious step!
@Astra, and succeed you do, barely! but you toddle forward towards the big shape and successfully reach the threshold, whatever you see beyond, and whatever happens next is beyond the scope of this stage of character creation! You're on to stage 3.
@Karma, Considering how careful your mother usually is, keeping anything from her is Definitely more than a DC 15 check. She notices you nibbling at the shiny thing right away! It's a critical fail, but not every check does different things at different outcomes. She quickly yanks the shiny away from your mouth. How do you react? And what do you do with your last action?
And your mother loves you @Karma, but not nearly enough to give you something dangerous to chew on no matter what you do. She makes a frowny face that you know means she's' *not* happy with you.
And that's it. You're onto stage 3 as well! Adolescence awaits.
@Lessah
So where did your sprite family grow up? In some parts of the world this is some sort of wooded place usually though with some deep connection to the Fey realm. Do you grow up with a lot of friends or siblings?
You grow up there a bit hardier than your peers, getting sick a little less and getting fewer bruises from rambunctious play, what helps with this are the flimsy evanecsent wings that sprout from your back at a young age, basically allowing you to jump really high and grab stuff to play with that you otherwise would not be able to.
There is a small village of humans though living near where you live, those lunks are everywhere you learn, and they have trails through your families living areas that are somewhat busy.
One dusk, a time of day you can see in clearly thanks to your low light vision, you are out playing. Are you alone? With friends? Frenemies? Either way a human comes wandering down the path close to where you are and they stop a second to take out a torch. The jokers can't see anything in even the slightest amount of darkness apparently...
What do you do?
I grew up in The Forest. I'm told there's many like them, but this one is ours. Not quite sure where they - or even this one - are. Has not been a problem just yet. I hope it will be in the future! There's a tattered map decorating the walls of our house, full of fantastical wonders I'd love to see. My brother and I spent many nights watching it by the light of the hearth and imagining our adventures!
But the forest. The forest smells like home; pine and a hint of earth. Right now the floor is covered by a thin layer of snow, but I remember; it is different when it's warmer. Right now though it is cold. My exhalation forms a small cloud and I giggle, pretending to be a dragon. I breathe a bit on my friends and mock-roars. There's three of us playing a few moments away from the village, frolicking in the glade. We're actually waiting for the stars to rise, so we can watch them; but we're all old enough to manage two tasks at once!
Aerica is the first to spot the human lumbering forth. With an excited whisper and much pointing she lets us know, as if we hadn't noticed her bouncing up and down already. Regardless - we already know what to do. We're fey after all.
I get to speak, since my fluttering wings lend some regal height to our riddle. With a small leap I fly up to one of the lower branches of a nearby tree, close to the humans path, and clear my throat. "*Ahem*" Swiftly I hop to another slightly higher branch - too high to reach for a human on the ground. My voice rings out again, like wind chimes in the breeze, and I do my best to sound both mysterious and about a thousand years older.
"Round and round I roll, my body shaped like a baker's toll. My kiss is winter and woe, but away in spring I go. What am I?"
From the corner of my eye I see Tara sneaking around behind the human, already rolling the snowball that was the riddles answer. And I Aerica giggles somewhere further down the path. Yeah, it might not be the most cunning of pranks. But it's all ours! Holding my breath I wait for a reply...
That sounds like a Deception check! That's a skill, and you haven't boosted Charisma from what I can tell. So it's just another flat roll of a d20 to see if the human is taken in.
The human, since you're not trying to hide, sees you.
"*Giggle*"
Oh gods dammnit the human exclaims as she squints at you and keeps going through the motions of lighting the torch. Running into a sprite doesn't seem to be unusual for her. Maybe you've seen her walking down the path before? I just want to go home... fine.. what.. is it.. gone in spring.. so ... snow?
"*Gasp!*" I hop down a branch. Yes, maybe I've seen this one before. Maybe. I don't play much attention to the humans - when they're around I have mostly jokes on my mind - but maybe I should.
"You were so close! So very close. But it's a snowball! Half wrong!" A wrong answer gets the tiny snowball from Tara! (Of course, so would probably a hundred percent right answer...) I wait a moment to see how accurate the throw is. Then I hop down along the branches towards the path.
"But you were half right too!" That meant she should get some sort of reward. Another snowball? Fun, but unlikely the human would enjoy more pranks then. "Hmm..." Watching the human struggling with the torch gave me a bright idea - literally! With a little bit of concentration I started to glow and encouraged my friends to do so too with a gesture. "As a prize - we'll light your way! Come!"
I skipped down the path. Of course, I had no idea where the human lived. But it was probably at the other end of the path; they worked like that. Otherwise what was the point of even having a path?
@Asta, So as you grow up, do you continue to be a mama's girl? Do your earliest displays of skill at yelling and talking continue into your adolescence? Or does your hardiness, strength, and, frankly, hardheaded nature takeover your interests.
In anycase, you grow up in Korvosa and, because the world is full of dangers, you are in a self-defense class. Is it in an alley, the courtyard of a mansion, something in between?
Either way your club is at the ready and you're facing off against your instructor who has a shield and is urging you to STRIKE. What's your relationship with the instructor? And what do you do?
@Karma,
Coming from a nomadic peoples, you are expected to start contributing to the family meal and food stores at a pretty early age. Which means you've been given toy bows to play with for as long as you can remember and games break out between you and your peers in target pratice.
Your dexterity helps you with this a fair bit, but are still able to keep friends with your personality even though you're better at the bow than most. Do you enjoy the competition? Is there someone else who's as good or slightly better than you?
In anycase, today is your first real hunt. Your toy bow has been replaced by an actual shortbow that's still a little big for you, but you can manage you're sure.
Are you out travelling with just one guide from your family? A whole hunting party? Whatever it may be, they point out an a small group of deer, not small targets. You creep up behind your guide and they point you towards a somewhat frailer looking member of the group and not the big ones with the impressive antlers.
Don't kill the big one, kill the weak looking one there, that way, the family will remain strong and make more deer for us to hunt? Yeah? Also will be easier to chase down if it runs.
With that instruction they go to one knee and pull back their longbow with an arrow notched. What do you do?
A ranged attack! So Tara adds her dexterity modifier to attach. Now she'd have still missed. If it wasn't for the fact that Tara was [i]flat footed[/i[ to the attack which means her AC of 13 drops to 11 and it just manages to hit.
Ah, Erastil dammit! she swears as the very very small snowball, practically a snowflake really, hits her on the neck.
As you light up and skip down the path, she brightens up herself though, and follows. You've got wings. Most of you don't. You special?
And with whatever you reply, that's this stage done!
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I draw the arrow, like the rest of the group. One eye closed, one making the aim though the tip of the arrow. I look at the frail deer - catching that doesn't feel so mighty at all. So I whisper to the girl next to me
"Psst, Alees. Look at the antlers on that big one. Don't you want to come home with those? Let's leave the weakling to the others, and catch the buck ourselves"
I switch the target to the big one. But I'll make sure Alees is with me in this.
Talking is a free action usually, but actually trying to get something out of it (like demoralizing someone or a request) usually costs an action. So that'll be a Diplomacy check, which right now is probably just a d20 with your Cha bonus and we'll say Alees is a helpful friend of yours so the DC will be pretty low.
Also make a Stealth roll to check if your guide hears this or not! That's a d20 plus your Dex mod.
I skip happily along the path. The human didn't seem *that* miffed about the prank - which meant it may be a good one. And chatting with strange folks was entertaining. "Big wings are for big heroes! And small wings can grow into those." I look back and flash a grin. "Grandma thinks so at least. Mom says only my head will grow if I think about it too much!"
@Karma, the diplomacy definitely works, Alees is very much onboard.
Your stealth very much does not though. Let me introduce you to HERO POINTS.
Pathfinder 2 has hero points which you can use to either reroll a check, or, not die. Everybody starts with one hero point a session and you can earn up to 3 at GM discretion.
So you could cash in your one hero point to try again, knowing of course, that the experienced hunter very close to you has excellent perception, or you can just take the consequences!
@Lessah Can't have big adventures without having some sort of big head, I've always thought. The human says as you all reach the end of the path and she continues towards home with a wave and a new story to tell of meeting the sprites in the woods.
Asta grimaces, wiping blood from her face. Her sergeant, the always frowning Kurgash Kent, a scarred middle-aged dwarf in the Korvosan Guard, yelled at the recruits. "Yer all a bunch of lilly-livered lootfish! You, Red, get yer shield up! Don't swipe, slash!"
Asta had taken a beating today. At once furious and tired, the guard cadet raised her shield and hid her practice sword behind it, stepping into her opponent, a lanky lad just on the other side of his teenage years. She'd bloody this poor bastard's nose today if it were the last thing she did.
@Karma - Sorry your nascent stealth is not close to meeting your guide's passive perception DC (10+their perception modifier).
Before Alees can respond, You get a cuff around your head and your prized bow is pulled from you. Never trust a fool comes the grunt from your tutor directed at Alees. The only trophy we need is the food in our belly and the warm hides on our body
@Asta, you're right in front of your possibly unfortunate opponent, go ahead and make a STRIKE action. Your sword is a 1d6 weapon that does slashing damage.
Now that's your second action, as RAISING A SHIELD to get the benefits of it for that round costs an action as well.
Raising her shield, Asta pushes into her opponenet - they boy's name was Ford, she now recalls - and swipes at him, trying to strike him had enough to leave a mark.
@Karma, yup. And Levels matter a fair bit in Pathfinder 2e, the power curve is real. Pretty embarrassing way to end the hunt ,but that's youth for you.
@Asta. You got it. That's right.
Ford isn't great at this, if he had his shield up then your sword might have clanged against it. As it is. you hit.
Ah, ease off Asta, He yelps.
And you have one action left. You've done what you set out to do, there is blood, so do you take it easy with your third action... or?
@Lessah
Your wings actually make you a very effective apprentice for the forest herbalist. You're able to gather herbs from higher in the trees easier than most of your peers.
Of course your teacher, who can actually *fly* a few times a day is even better at it, but, he's got you apprentices to do the dirty work. As you show the smarts and the clever fingers to really excel in the craft you get more individual attention and today you're huffing to keep up with him as he flies, in a showy spiral, high up onto a branch and points to the papery bark that's actually flaking off.
So, what do ya think about this one? Anything aspecial about it? he grins as you finally manage to get to where he is in basically glorified hops compared to his majestic flight.
What do you do? You've got some nice bonuses from your study for the Recall Knowledge action... which takes one action in a hig stress situation like a combat... or a test.
As a tip the nice thing about the more specialized Lore skills as opposed to the general Nature, Occult, etc. is that if you can apply it a situation (as per GM discretion of course), the DC of the check is lower.