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Greetings and well met, adventurers! I seek a group of brave soul to embark on a grand quest together! The question to ask first is... what quest shall we embark on? Now is your chance to CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!
In the spoiler below, I have shared 8 potential games that I would be interested in running. I would like to allow the gaming public to vote to determine which game. I ask that You select your first, second, and third choices. Also answer whether you would prefer the setting to be Golarion or the Forgotten Realms. If Golarion is used, it would be set right at the end of the 1st edition timeline, if Forgotten Realms are used, it would be set during the 3rd edition era.
Please reply with your thoughts below. I will be tallying people's votes in the attached spreadsheet, Choose Your Own Adventure. Your first choice will be worth 3 points, your second 2 points, and your third 1 point. I will be accepting votes for which game to run for the next week, ending next Wednesday at 11:59 pm EST.
Game Concept: Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
Character Themes: tavern regulars, classic fantasy tropes, tropes remixed
Campaign Arcs: anything is possible
The Broken Broadsword is a rundown, ramshackle tavern and flophouse that has been repaired and rebuilt so many times, a first time visitor might wonder how it even stands. Smelling constantly of stale beer and body odor, it is nevertheless the fabled watering hole of countless heroes throughout the ages. On any night you can find a rogues' gallery of characters awaiting the next bit of trouble - a hooded man stumbles out of the rain and with his dying breath drops a relic from a forgotten ruin, a demonic fiend is accidentally summoned by a drunken warlock, pirates storm in and press gang the passed out guests into a crew, the King's chamberlain sneaks in seeking volunteers to rescue a missing royal child, a pickpocket opens a seized scrollcase and discovers the legend of a mystical artefact, praetorian city guard storm the place to arrest the entire house, hordes of zombies come marching out of a nearby crypt seeking one of the Broadsword's guests - it all could happen on any night!
Game Concept: You get a kingdom… and You get a kingdom… and YOU get a kingdom!
Character Themes: bastard children of monarch
Campaign Arcs: new frontier, castle owners
The King has always been known for his womanizing ways. Given that the kingdom has a history of internal fighting because of its inheritance laws, the king is keen to maintain stability. He obviously can't openly acknowledge his many illegitimate offspring, yet wants to provide for them as well. The discovery of a distant island, complete with an ancient, not-quite-ruined castle, has prompted his high counselor to come up with a solution: grant the bastard children the island, with responsibility to rebuild the castle and explore and defend the land! Surely his offspring will all get along, right?
Game Concept: Fortune, Fame, and Honor… among Thieves!
Character Themes: same class/class category
Campaign Arcs: thieves' guild, oppressive monarchy, occupied country
Every grand city, full of amazement and wonder, is not without its beggars, urchins, and orphans. The destitute try to eek out a living in whatever way possible. From the ranks of the flee-bitten souls rises a band of intrepid rakes, looking to make a name for themselves. But in the shadows of the city prowl many a danger: rival gangs and powerful guilds, and worse things can be found if you pry too deep. Then, of course, there is the oppressive city guard. Can the hopeless rise to be lords of the city's underworld?
Game Concept: Holding out for a Hero
Character Themes: new batch (children/apprentices of past heroes), childhood friends
Campaign Arcs: recover artifact, stop evil plot, defend the kingdom
The tragic fate of the greatest adventurers is that with success comes responsibility. Many end up with duties and titles to kingdoms, religions, and major organizations. Gone are the days when they can deal with whatever problem they choose. But, they are often served by the best pupils, perhaps even their own offspring. And when such threats arise, who better to send then your best and brightest.
Game Concept: Born Under a Twice-Cursed Moon
Character Themes: secret society, last members of forgotten bloodline
Campaign Arcs: discover lost city, race against time
In the era before these times, the world was torn asunder by the elemental powers of chaos. The world nearly crumbled, but a band of brave heroes ventured to the city at the center of the shattering energy, and bound the chaos to hold the world together. They're very essence, the blood within their body, was changed in this process. Eons have passed since this day, and the bindings that hold chaos within are slipping. But if precious few descendants of those original heroes, who still bear touch of the blood, remain. Can they be united to once again fulfill the heroic destiny of their ancestors?
Game Concept: Stonefall: the Beginning
Character Themes: single race (norse), isolated population, clanbound
Campaign Arc: discover the unknown, race against time
Your clan are a proud people, a mighty people, who have survived for generations in the harshest mountains in all the world. Far from lands called civilized, you face innumerable dangers on a daily basis. Several other clans, like your own, have maintained a position elsewhere in the mountains. Get in recent months, your plan is lost touch with each of them. Uncertain what has become, your cleanse air has foreseen dire prophecy. Now is the time the mightiest must rise up, save your people. Now is the time of Stonefall, it has begun.
Game Concept: The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance...
Character Themes: misfits, convicts / dirty dozen
Campaign Arcs: impossible odds, race against time
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and there is no one more desperate than a nation that is losing a war. In such moments, one might consider the most likely of allies, perhaps even those inhabiting their own prisons. You have been given the choice, rot in jail til the end of your days, or help defend the country and win you're freedom. The odds are stacked against you, but the chance to return to your own life, free of shackles? That might just be worth the risk.
Game Concept: The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
Character Themes: refugees/exiles, monster hunters
Campaign Arcs: old king/god returned, guerilla warfare, horde (undead)
In days long past, our kingdom was ruled over by a cruel wizard and his vile arcane minions. They stood as gods above our ancestors, demanding worship. After centuries of slavery, the people rose up and defeated them. But they were not completely destroyed. Three years hence, their cultist followers, long working in the shadows, achieved their goal and saw their god-king reborn an undead ruler. The realm was swarmed by a plague of undeath, and those of us who escaped have plotted to bring down the fiend. The weapons used to defeat him are still secured in vaults within our once great kingdom, but we need to brave the horde of undead to recover them. Can a few nimble, daring souls make it in and recover the key to reclaiming our kingdom and laying low this tyrant?
PLEASE DON'T START CREATING CHARACTERS YET!!! We don't even know what game this will be. I posted the character creation rules so they are on the first post, rather than lost in the middle of the book. Once the Game voting ends on the 3rd and the game is announced, I plan to leave the recruitment open through November 14th, maybe longer.
Depending upon which campaign is selected, some of these may vary slightly (race, for instance, in certain settings), but the below will serve as the core for character creation.
Ability Scores 30 point buy
Level 4th
Race all common are welcome, uncommon and featured will also be entertained, assuming the character history fits the game.
Class all core, base, and hybrid classes are welcome. Summoner must use the Unchained rules; Barbarian, Monk, and Rogue can chose to. No 3PP material. We will be using an in-development ruleset I have been working on, [i]Demi-Gestalt. It occupies a space partway between full Gestalt and Variant Multiclass (neither of which are available in this game). The demi-gestalt system in fleshed out in the linked spreadsheet above.
Background I pulled these from PF2e and adjusted them for 1st edition. You gain a +2 to one ability score, and a -2 to another. You cannot apply a +2 to a score that also gains a bonus from race, but you can apply it to a negative from race to cancel it out. You also gain to skills as class skills; they also count as Background Skill when determining how you can spend your skill points. The backgrounds are fleshed out in the linked spreadsheet above.
Traits two, taking a drawback allows a third
Skills 2+int increases to 4+int, all others remain the same. We are using the Background Skills optional rule. We will also be using Athletics in place of Climb and Swim.
Feats Elephant in the Room feat tax rules are in effect.
Hit Dice modified minimum die (1d6 = 1d3+3, 1d8 = 1d4+4, 1d10 = 1d5+5, 1d12 = 1d6+6)
Equipment 7000 gp, no single item worth more than 3000 gp
History I expect a fleshed out character background, you can select the format that works best for you (freehand writing, appearance/personality/background, 10 minute background, bullet point list, etc).
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1. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
2. The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
3. Holding out for a Hero
I've been waiting for this. I got to say I'm showing my age when I heard a song in my head for Holding out for a Hero.
1. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
2. Holding out for a Hero
(Same reason as Trawet...)
3. You get a kingdom… and You get a kingdom… and YOU get a kingdom!
I forgot to list where. I'm voting for Golorian. I loved FR but back in the AD&D/2nd ed days. I didn't care for a lot of the changes they made after that if I remember correctly. I didn't play 3rd or 3.5 ed so I only read of some of the changes.
1. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
2. Holding out for a Hero
3. Stonefall: the Beginning
Preferred setting Golarion.
Ooo, interesting concepts! Hmmm... which ones sound most interesting to me...
1. Born Under a Twice-Cursed Moon
2. Holding out for a Hero
3. The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
I would prefer Golarion, just because it's been so long since I've done much on Faerun.
Oblivion, glad to see you launching your own game!
I have two questions:
1 - The Felonious Few (I like the play on The Dirty Dozen), where do you see the characters, concept/alignment wise? Are these evil, hardened criminals, or moreso miscreants & antiheroes?
2 - Stonefall lists "single race (Norse)". Would we use the standard human race for this?
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Great idea's Oblivion's Scion.
1. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword: you had me at classic fantasy trope.
2. Holding out for a Hero: recover artifact, stop evil plot, defend the kingdom sounds like it could be the plot of a book :)
3. The King is (un)Dead, Long live the King: Will there be a chainsaw for someone who wants to play Ash?
I'd prefer Golarion only because I'm more familiar with it.
1st: Holding Out For A Hero
2nd: Fortune, Fame, and Honor… among Thieves!
3rd: The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
1. stonefall
2. The king is undead
3. You get a kingdom
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This sounds interesting I’ll thrown in my 2 coppers.
1) Another night at the Broken Shortsword, This sounds like it can go anywhere in any direction. And that’s exciting
2) The King is (un)Dead, Long live the King. I’m a sucker for undead, I have an investigator that I’d love to play just for this.
3) Stonefall, A name like that just makes me picture a race against doomsday, and that’s pretty dang cool.
As for setting, Golarian is very much preferred. I’m not a fan of the forgotten realms.
This sounds great!
I prefer golarion for all of these,
1st: The king is Undead
2nd: You get a kingdom, and you get a kingdom
3rd: The Felonious Few
I'll be monitoring the thread with great interest!
I'll put in a vote!
- Among Thieves
- Felonious Few
- You get a Kingdom
And Golarion setting.
Also, you haven't made the spreadsheet publicly viewable, so we just get a page saying "you haven't been authorized to view this".
1- Born Under a Twice-Cursed Moon.
2- Stonefall: The Beginning.
3- Holding out for a Hero.
Setting: Golarion.
Forgot to add, but it likely doesn't matter since there seems to be a consensus: Would prefer Golarion for a setting. :D
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Wow, thank you for all the early interest! I am also excited to see some of those who participated in my "pre-recruitment game design" thread.
Let me say yes, of course Holding Out for a Hero should summon up thoughts of that song, because that was my intent! Whether you know it from it's original film Footloose, from it's awesome 2000's appearance in Shrek 2, or it's most recent run in Loki, all are epic stories, befitting an epic adventure that this could possibly be.
For The Felonious Few, I would prefer to lean more toward the miscreant/antihero/criminal-of-circumstance side of this concept rather than a fistful of sociopaths. Not to say that evil characters would be unwelcome, just not looking for a CE murder hobo or NE guy who just has to betray everyone.
For Stonefall, I have an alternate race from a homebrew campaign to represent a "Norse-esque" people descended from giants. We would be using that, its a little more thematic but still gives options. And doomsday? Well, let's just wait and see....
Hmm, hadn't thought about Ash's chainsaw... But may just be tempted into some kind of steampunk fun if The King is (un)Dead happens... after all, hail to the King, baby.
Another Night at the Broken Broadsword is definitely the most open-ended, allowing for all manner of dungeonny-goodness.
Let's keep the votes, and comments, coming!
EDIT I think I just fixed the spreadsheet link. Can someone confirm they can now open and view it?
Yup, link works now!
I’m at work now, but definitely interested. Will fill in my choices when I get home tonight.
First Choice: Holding Out for A Hero
Second Choice: You Get A Kingdom
Third Choice: Another Night at The Broken Broadsword
“ For Stonefall, I have an alternate race from a homebrew campaign to represent a "Norse-esque" people descended from giants. We would be using that, its a little more thematic but still gives options. And doomsday? Well, let's just wait and see..”
Now *that* is unique!
Golarian
1. You get a kingdom… and You get a kingdom… and YOU get a kingdom!
2. The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance...
3. The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
1.) Game Concept: The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance...
2.) Game Concept: The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
3.) Game Concept: Born Under a Twice-Cursed Moon
Edit: Oh, yeah. MUCH prefer Golarion here.
1) Felonious Few
2) You Get a Kingdom!
3) Stonefall
In any case, I'd rather play Golarion. I know that setting much better than the Forgotten Realms.
My choices would be:
1) Another Night at the Broadsword
2) The Felonious Few
3) Holding out for a Hero
All of them are interesting, but these are the ones that I liked the most.
Golarion is also the setting I know the best.
Given it's unanimous selection today, I think it's safe to say that people would prefer the game be set in Golarion - and so it will be! Consider the campaign setting question answered, and just focus on your three choices.
Hmm, I think I may have confused some. My post last night was meant to say that I will be running whichever game is selected in Golarion, but the game itself is still totally up in the air. Please keep voting for your top three choices for which game to run, I want your feedback!
Here are the current standings (remember, your first choice gets 3 votes, second choice 2, and third choice 1).
Another Night at The Broken Broadsword - 21
Holding Out for a Hero - 17
The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance - 16
The king is (un)Dead, Long Live the King - 16
You get a Kingdom, and YOU get a Kingdom - 15
Stonefall: the Beginning - 10
Under a Twice Cursed Moon - 10
Fortune, Fame, and Honor Among Thieves - 5
As you can see, it is very much still a close race I am planning to accept votes for game choice through November 3rd, so please, share any thoughts and ask your questions!
Locmore I will expand on the language in my Demi-Gestalt file to clarify a few things. It is a copy of the working document I have used with my local group, so I was able to explain more in person as I shared it.
As stated in the intro, it occupies a space between gestalt and variant multiclass. A sort of "lesser" Gestalt. It also allows an interesting option to focus further on a primary concept as well, something that the gestalt system left rather lacking. But that is all for the next phase of this recruitment....
I have my three choices, but was wondering: any idea where the proposed games would take place within Golarion?
1 - Stonefall
2 - The King is Dead
3 - Broken Broadsword
Very interested! My choices would be:
1. Another Night at The Broken Broadsword
2. Under a Twice Cursed Moon
3. The king is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
Hype for these ideas!!
1) Holding out for a Hero.
Would have preferred this in Faerun, for the reasons you mentioned about.
Maybe set in Golarion, each of the PCs are descendants of the class iconics??
2) Born Under a Twice-Cursed Moon.
3) You Get a Kingdom, as I rather like kingdom building, and the concept sounds fun.
Honorable mentions to give props for interesting concepts:
4)The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance
5) Fortune, Fame, and Honor Among Thieves
I'll be honest, there's not a bad idea in the bunch. Just sayin'.
:)
I'd be up for
1. Another Night at The Broken Broadsword
2. Fortune, Fame, and Honor Among Thieves
3. The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance
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What an unusual way to open a recruitment. I like unusual.
1: You get a kingdom
Haven't really had the chance to do as many games as I would've liked, much less kingdom builders.
2: fortune fame and honor among thieves
It's an excuse to play rogues in a setting that almost certainly calls for them.
3: Felonious few
Bad guys given a second chance with potential for all manner of redemption arcs, antiheroics or just plain self-serving machinations? Why not?
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Another Night at the Broken Broadsword - Open ended fun is good.
The Felonious Few - Redemption, or villainy, sounds fun.
The King is (Un)dead, Long Live the King - Zombies Must Die.
I'd also go for Golarion.
1. THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING!
2. The Felonius Few
3. Holding Out for a Hero
Though I'd be fine with Another Night at the Broken Broadsword.
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1. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword; the first real play-by-post I ever did on the Internet was almost EXACTLY like this idea, so naturally it seems the most fun!
2. You get a kingdom… and You get a kingdom… and YOU get a kingdom!; the sheer potential for DRAMA in this is hilarious!
3. The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King; just the title ALONE is awesome, like that comic book series Once and Future! Plus it's got great Black Company vibes!
As far as setting, I'm more attached to Golarion than Faerûn, since it's implied this would take place before the Spellplague, meaning all our characters run the risk of exploding or going crazy after it's over...
This recruitment sounds intriguing enough; half-wondering if this Demi-Gestalt would allow for Class Archetypes to be incorporated... ;)
As for my three picks of adventure types:
1. The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King; as long as we're going for musical themes, [like Bonnie Raitt's Tyler Holding Out for a Hero], this one seems more incense and peppermint based with dead kings and many things that could be defined. ;p
2. The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance...
3. Gonna let the Dice-Gods decide with one being Another Night at the Broken Broadsword and so on, all the way til 6 being Stonefall: the Beginning. :)
.
Looks like Another Night at the Broken Broadsword will be my 3rd choice. ;)
As far as that Faerun vs Golarion deities thing goes, is there an actual Pathfinderized version of the Forgotten Realms pantheon, fan-made, that could be linked to? At any rate, with all of the convenient Golarion pantheon obedience rules-set already laid out over AoN, I gots me a feelin' that using the Faerun pantheon would be a much harder sell. ;)
All of these ideas sound really fun, I'm definitely interested, pretty much no matter what actually winds up getting chosen.
My top three picks are:
1. Holding out for a hero
2. Born under a twice-cursed moon
3. The felonious few
But like I said, they all sound fun, so that was tough to narrow down! Looking forward to seeing how this goes.
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Happy Halloween all!
Today is a Good Day... the overwhelming support for Golarion has already let me to call that game will take place there, so no need for updated Faerunian deities.
Tara Ravenheart I have been thinking a good deal about where each game could be set in Golarion, and will post that later today.
Okay, here are the current standings:
Another Night at The Broken Broadsword - 35
The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance - 27
The king is (un)Dead, Long Live the King - 27
You get a Kingdom, and YOU get a Kingdom - 22
Holding Out for a Hero - 21
Under a Twice Cursed Moon - 14
Stonefall: the Beginning - 13
Fortune, Fame, and Honor Among Thieves - 11
Remember, voting will continue through November 3rd, so you are still welcome to share your thoughts, and ask any questions!
1. Holding Out For a Hero
2. Fortune, Fame, and Honor... Among Thieves
3. The King is (Un)Dead, Long Live the King
I got to say I'm showing my age when I heard a song in my head for Holding out for a Hero.
i'm probably not as old as you, but me too, friend. also, may i interest you in a brilliant use of that song?
1. Fortune, Fame, and Honor...among thieves!
2. Stonefall: the Beginning
3. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
How are you handling creation feats?
I'll give it a go with a few votes.
Another Night at the Broken Boradsword
The King is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
You Get A Kingdom
1. The Felonious Few / Your Last Chance
2. The king is (un)Dead, Long Live the King
3. Another Night at the Broken Broadsword
I can see a lot of thought has been put into this selection. I'm curious to see what the outcome ends up being.