Shadow of the First World (Kingmaker) (Dead) (Inactive)

Game Master Shady_Motives

You find yourself wandering into a Brevoy tavern one night to see a cluster of people standing around a piece of paper nailed to the notice board. Once you are able to (elbow your way through, wait patiently, use your small size to scamper underneath the big people or use your commanding height to simply look over everyone's head) read the paper, it says thus;

All ye brave of heart and strong in desire, harken! To the south lies those lands long bereft of order and Lordship. The Swordlords call out for those of stout character to journey to the south and tame the wildlands for the glory of first themselves and then The Ruby Throne! All interested parties please see your nearest clerk's office.

KINGMAKER!

House Rules:

Time: The AP will start in the early spring of 4715. This is due to the fact that downtime for KM can sometime span years and the events that happen around the world (IE the other AP) are happening at the same time.

Alterations to Heal and Knowledge Religion: All heal spells/channel energy/lay on hands are modified by the casters total heal skill (min. of 0). Example: Joe Bob has a heal skill of 10. He casts cure light wounds for 1d8+3. Say that gives him an 8. Add his heal skill to that and poof, 18! This represents the casters knowledge of the healing and how to properly channel the healing energy to maximum effect. If used offensively, for example channel energy to damage undead, you instead use your bonus from Knowledge Religion. If you have feats that allow your channel to effect outsiders it would be K. Planar.

The bonuses to healing do NOT apply to effects such as fast healing or regeneration.

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.

Spells: Spells do not require a spell-book to replenish your daily use, thats accomplished with an hour of meditation. Spell-books are only required to change your daily spells or learn new spells.

Summoning Spells: Summoned creatures can have any of the following templates applied; celestial, entropic, fiendish, or resolute. With sufficient K. Planar rolls of DC 15+ the following templates will become available on a 1 by 1 basis; aerial, aqueous, chthonic, dark, fiery, or primordial. A good character summoning a creature that is ALWAYS evil (such as a devil or demon) risks alignment shift and vice/versa for evil characters. All creatures that can be called from the Summon Monster spells and the Expanded Summon Monster, Summon Neutral Monster feats are combined into 1 list. All creatures that can be added to Summon Nature's Ally from feats or Archetypes are also combined into 1 list. This also applies to the fiendish and celestial templates.

Traits: 4 to start, 1 must be Kingmaker trait. Additional traits may be earned through play. These are rewards or affects your characters will gain depending on their actions in the campaign.

Skills: Each character will recieve 2 extra skill points per level. They will also recieve 1 bonus skill of their choice that will be considered a class skill.

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.

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

Feats: Bonus feat awarded at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level.

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.

Magic Armor: Each +1 added to armor enchantment also increases Max Dex by 1, reduces armor check penalty by 1 and spell failure chance by 5%.

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 multiple times until you arrive at a set that you like (max of 5 times). You must accept stats as a set, no mixing and matching from individual rolls. You will also be rolling a Beauty stat with every set of rolls.

There is a 7th stat in my game that represents your characters 'looks'. 9-12 is average, <8 is ugly, 13-16 is very pretty. 17< is luminous beauty. Roll 3d6 and that represents your Beauty, no rerolls. You cannot increase/decrease the beauty stat through normal means. The following table illustrates the bonuses and penalties to social scores.

Beauty/Intimidate
3/+6
4/+5
5/+4
6/+3
7/+2
8/+1

Beauty/Diplomacy
13/+1
14/+2
15/+3
16/+4
17/+5
18/+6

If you have a beauty stat of 16 or higher a number of times per day equal to 1/4 HD you can attempt to charm someone who might be sexually attracted to your character as a move action. The willsave DC for this is equal to 10+1/2 HD+Beauty modifier. The charm is equal to Charm Person spell that lasts for 1 rd/HD.

Conversely if you have a beauty stat of 5 or lower you can attempt to frighten someone. A number of times per day equal to 1/4 HD you can attempt to scare someone as a move action. The willsave DC for this equal to 10+1/2 HD+Intimidate bonus. This ability is equal to the Fear Spell and lasts for 1 rd/HD.

-->Starting Level: 1st

-->HP: Max.

-->Alignment: No evil.

-->Choose a background from the Occupation and Backgrounds system. The gold you get from that system is your starting gold, maxed.

-->All archetypes allowed.

-->Content allowed: All Pathfinder, WotC 3.5. Dreamscarred Press Ultimate Psionics. Adamant Entertainment. Artificer Conversion for Pathfinder. No Occult.

-->Background Skills: Yes.

-->Variant Multiclassing: Special: Everyone will receive 1 free VMC of their choice. This means you do not have to sacrifice all of your feats for the VMC. Also since I am not satisfied with the rate at which VMC grants abilities they will be altered as such. You will gain the level 3 ability at level 1, the level 7 ability at level 5, the level 11 ability at level 7, the level 15 ability at level 11 and the level 19 ability at level 15.

-->Firearms: Commonplace: While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 25% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are still rare and cost the full price to purchase or craft.

-->Forbidden Classes: Any from Occult Adventurers.

-->Races allowed: All from core and advanced race guide. Can modify races up to 16 RP as long as the abilities fall within the theme of the race you are modifying. Races who have RP above 16 cannot be modified.

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:

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.

Good luck!

Spoiler:

And here's the real kicker. Don't do any of the above until you submit a basic premise of your character(1-2 sentences, something along the lines of a tiny thesis statement) that I will approve. This instruction is more to rule out people who don't read everything before jumping the gun then anything else. There will be subtle clues throughout the AP so I want people who pay attention. This does not mean you have been selected for the group, merely that your character idea will work for the AP. And that you have read ALL of the instructions.