A group of dedicated players is looking for a replacement GM for a Rise of the Runelords game. We are near the end of the first book. We have lost two GMs so far and in the interim, until we can find a new GM, I have taken over as GM. The game started 6/18 and other than losing and replacing one player all of the original players are still here. I've found that both playing a character and GMing at the same time isn't as functional as I would have liked so hoping to find a dedicated GM to take over for the long haul. Gameplay thread can be found here.
Current party consists of:
- A book loving, shy and fearful but friendly ratfolk Arcanist
- An energetic, hard studying, friendly gnome alchemist
- A snarky, self-proclaimed queen of the bow and rapier, human rogue
- A divine leader in training with a haunted past and dragon companion, aasimar paladin
- A Varisian wanderer, human warpriest
It's a good group of interesting characters that have shown dedication in sticking around while through two missing GMs. We all generally post pretty consistently so a GM that can keep up with a moderately quick paced game is a plus. Happy to answer any questions to any interested GMs. If someone would prefer I can finish up the rest of Book 1 and the new GM can take over at the start of Book 2 or whatever works best.
A few months back I picked up an abandoned Mummy’s Mask game. We’ve lost one player since. As such, I am looking to recruit at least one, but possibly 2 players. The group is currently near the end of Book 1. The current group consists of the following:
- Ai’sha - The dervish dancing female human Bard
- Aliva - The devout female human warpriest of Milani
- G’nock - The dexterous male lizardfolk Fighter
- Irakelesh – The bright human male Investigator
As can be seen the group is sorely lacking in the arcane department and a little light on healing. I am looking for players that can consistently post at least once per weekday, if not more, and help drive the story forward. No requirements as far as your past PbP history/experience just keep in mind these games are a lengthy commitment in terms of how long they last, so be sure you are up for it.
If you are interested, character creation details are below:
Character Creation Guidelines:
Level: 3rd
Stats: 15 point buy
HP: Max at 1st, half+1 every other level
Wealth: 2500 gp
Class: Anything, but party balance is important. Note I'm not super experienced with Occult classes so if you go that route bare with me as I pick it up.
Race: Core Races (others may be allowed with a good enough backstory)
Alignment: Any non-evil, preferably something good
Traits: 3 Traits, one must be a campaign trait and two others of your choice.
Misc: Paizo material only, no third party anything (this includes no feat-tax, etc)! No background skills.
Background: Give me at least a paragraph or two on your backstory. Key things to include are why are you in Wati, why would a team of adventurers want to have you join them and/or what are you doing to get recruited
To note we aren’t currently at a spot to bring in someone new, but the group will likely be returning to town soon. So, depending on the pace you may have to wait a bit to be introduced to the rest of the group or if you provide me a reason that makes sense for you to stumble upon them in a mostly sealed part of the city. If there is a wait in introductions I will do some RP in spoilers with you in the meantime. I will keep this recruitment open until 3/21. However, I reserve the right to close it early if we get lots of submissions or submissions slow to a crawl or the party needs their new recruits sooner rather than later. I look forward to what you have to offer!
I have recently picked up an abandoned Second Darkness game here on the forums. I am looking to add one more player. The group is currently near the end of Part 2 of Book 1, so about to go into the second half of Book 1. The current group consists of the following:
- Hedran - The no nonsense male half-orc Magus/Ranger
- Nessa - The seductive female tiefling Sorcerer who venerates Calistra
- Sarai - The down on her luck aristocratic female tiefling Rogue/Wizard
- Thrya - The tough female human Inquisitor of Torag, raised by dwarfs
I do have some very specific requirements in terms of the character and since this is for only one spot I also have higher expectations. There is also one caveat to mention from the start. While I am holding this recruitment now it could be a little while before you meet the group in character. As such, you need to be willing to just PbP with the GM solo for a bit through spoilers until it comes time for your characters introduction. Due to the specialized nature of this recruitment people who have already played through Book 1 & 2 may be a better fit than someone who hasn't played it at all. However, if you haven't played it and you are ok with my expectations then by all means feel free to apply. Please read over the expectations before any of the other spoilers!
Expectations:
1) You are an experienced PbPer. Sorry no new PbPers for this one.
2) You can commit to a long-term game, ie no major life changing events on the near horizon that you know will cause major interruptions.
3) You can post, almost always, at least once per weekday and often at least once per weekend. I know things come up, but the norm should be consistently at least once per weekday. If you can post more often, even better.
4) You enjoy roleplay just as much as roll-play!
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY, you are ok with being spoiled on a plot point of the AP and possibly still not being selected. The background options contain spoilers to the AP. Since I am only recruiting one person you need to be ok with being spoiled on some aspects of the AP and possibly not getting selected.
After reading my expectations if you are still interested character creation guidelines are below.
Character Creation Guidelines:
Level: 3rd
Stats: 20 point buy, no stat below 8 before racial modifiers
HP: Max at 1st, roll for other levels
Wealth: 3500 gp
Class: Anything except gunslinger, but party balance is important
Race: You must be an elf or half-elf
Alignment: Any non-evil, preferably something good
Traits: 2 Traits, one must be an elf or half-elf trait (depending on race selected) and one other of your choice. 1 Drawback may be selected to gain a third trait; all traits/drawbacks must be worked into character and will be enforced. Restricted drawbacks: Attached, Envy, Forgetful, Shadow Scarred, Umbral Unmasking, Warded Against Nature.
Misc: Paizo material only, no third party anything (this includes no feat-tax, etc)! No background skills.
Background: This is where things are a little more specific. You have two options as far as a key element of your background. Since there are so many details I’ve separated them into their own spoilers below. Fill in the blanks on the 'before' but you must choose one of the following background concepts.
Background Option 1 (SPOILERS FOR CURRENT PLAYERS, STAY OUT!):
You are a wild elf/(half-elf) of the Ekujae tribe of the distant Mwangi Expanse. You come from a long line of heroes who have served your tribe’s shamans since ancient times, and it was after one of those shamans received a vision of a pair of elves/(an elf and half-elf) holding aloft a single light against the darkness that you left your home with your good friend Kwava to seek your destiny. As a result, you both traveled Golarion for several years, eventually coming to the small town of Crying Leaf at the edge of the Mierani Forest. Here, you first learned of the Shin’Rakorath. After hearing the company’s rhetoric (“to be the light against the coming darkness”), you and Kwava took it as a sign and joined the mercenary company. Your direct superior in the Shin’Rakorath explained that he feared a renegade elf from the Mierani Forest might have fled to the human city of Riddleport, where the renegade might have recruited the aid of one of that city’s crimelords. Your first assignment is to scout out the city of Riddleport and the environs and to determine if any of the city’s crimelords had indeed taken in a mysterious elven ally of late.
Background Option 2 (SPOILERS FOR CURRENT PLAYERS, STAY OUT!):
#NOTE If you choose Option 1 I expect you will keep in mind that your character doesn't know these details!
After thousands of years, the elves returned to Golarion to find a world long-since recovered from the devastation of Earthfall. Humanity had become the dominant people of the world, and while their ways were often warlike, they
had, for the most part, become a peaceful and civilized people. Yet the first elves to return to Golarion were initially more concerned for those they left behind. As the elves spread out again through the world, reactivating lost elf gates and reclaiming ancient homes, they came at last to Celwynvian and were surprised to find evidence that their kinfolk had retreated beneath the ground with the city’s heirlooms and storehouses of knowledge. Scouts were sent into the Darklands to seek traces of these lost elves, and when they did not return, an army was sent. It was then that the elves first met the drow, and that first meeting was one of blood and ruin, for the elves were not prepared. The drow had grown in power and evil, spreading like a foul infection through the middle realm of the Darklands, and when they encountered their kindly cousins, their reaction was swift and brutal.
Thus began a bloody secret war between the elves and drow. The elves were desperate to keep the secret of their fallen race from the rest of the world, while the drow themselves now had a renewed interest in the surface world. Eventually, the elves were forced to retreat to the surface, where the light of the sun returned their advantage, for the drow were blinded by its brilliance and many of their most powerful weapons and armor swiftly decayed under its light. Celwynvian became a no-man’s land, an endless battleground between the elves and drow as each struggled to control the other, yet each being unable to fully claim the ruin as their own.
The elves of Golarion are desperate to keep their secret shame safe from the other races of Golarion at all costs, especially the worst secret of all: for once contact with the drow had been established, their taint seemed to spread through the elven people like a contagion. At first, the spontaneous transformation into drow among the elves was thought to be a drow weapon, yet investigation soon revealed the awful truth. Something had changed during Earthfall, and now, under the right conditions, any elf with enough cruelty and wrath hidden in her soul runs the risk of spontaneously transforming into a drow. Such spontaneous transformations thankfully remained rare, yet the elves were at a loss to predict when they would occur. Certainly, there were plenty of evil and cruel elves in the world who remained untransformed. Until the elves discovered a way to accurately predict the elements that would trigger such a transformation, they kept watch. Policing drow upon the surface world fell to a group of hunters called the Shin’Rakorath (elven for “Lantern Bearers”), elven rangers and arcanists who dedicated their lives to tracking down and eliminating drow as they appeared. To date, the Shin’Rakorath have been quite successful at handling drow—rumors of the dark-skinned and evil elves remain just rumors due to their actions, and most of Golarion’s surface-dwelling races think of the drow as little more than myths and nightmares.
Yet the drow are on the rise. Spontaneous transformation is increasing, but worse, the established drow of the Darklands are growing more bold. In places like the Worldwound, remote parts of Sargava, and particularly Celwynvian, the drow are pushing stronger than ever into the surface world. Recently an experienced elven ranger, Kwava has joined the ranks of the Shin’Rakorath. Being a new recruit yourself, you have been assigned to assist/keep an eye on Kwava for his first mission. Your direct superior in the Shin’Rakorath explained that he feared a renegade elf from the Mierani Forest might have fled to the human city of Riddleport, where the renegade might have recruited the aid of one of that city’s crimelords. You must scout out the city of Riddleport and the environs to determine if any of the city’s crimelords had indeed taken in a mysterious elven ally of late. What the Shin’Rakorath
leaders fear and have told you but didn’t tell Kwava is that this “renegade” is may in fact be a drow—they hope that their fears are unfounded.
Please, if you want to ask questions about background stuff either spoiler it to me or send me a PM. I'm doing my best to avoid potential spoilers for anyone who doesn't want to see them.
I will leave recruitment for this one open for a bit until March 21st. Of course, if I get a lot of applicants up front, or a few and things slow down, or if the game advances and I need to get someone in quicker I may close recruitment early. I look forward to what you have to offer!
On the western edge of the land of Varisia, along the southern reaches of a beautiful stretch known as the Lost Coast, the swampy expanse of the Mushfens and the coiling length of the Yondabakari River come to a stark and dramatic end in the shadow of a striking limestone escarpment jutting from the cliffs. Varisian legends have long regarded the place as a blessed resting spot for celestial messengers, and the wanderers would often visit in hopes of seeing an angel and gaining the good fortune such a portent presaged. Yet the upthrust mass of stone itself is overshadowed by an even greater sight—the Irespan, one of ancient Thassilon’s most prominent ruins. Known also as the Giant’s Bridge, this ruined causeway juts out from the Seacleft nearly 400 feet, with its ruined pilings extending farther out to sea, giving the unmistakable impression of ancient grandeur. Be it the point at which angels descended from the heavens to bless their Varisian wards or the ancient site of forgotten commerce and travel, the region has long captivated the imaginations of those who beheld it. Its position at the mouth of Varisia’s mightiest river and at the southwesternmost safe harbor on the mainland only further ensured that the site would, one day, host a magnificent city. Today, that city is known as Magnimar—the City of Monuments.
Built in the shadow of megaliths, Magnimar endlessly endeavors to surpass the overwhelming scale and grandeur of the ancient wonders that litter the Varisian landscape. A place of great opportunity, social stress, and cold beauty, the city exudes the air of a southern metropolis, seeking to rise above its ignoble beginnings as a refuge for Korvosan outcasts to become a beacon of culture and freedom in an unforgiving land. Yet its towering monuments, elegant gardens, ostentatious architecture, and elaborate sculptures form but a cracked mask over a struggling government and a desperate people in need of heroes.
Who might those heroes be? Perhaps those awaiting their fate to come to bloom in the quiet halls of the Pathfinder Society's newest lodge, Heidmarch Manor. Set like a jewel on the Alabaster district, this recently-restored house belongs to two of Magnimar's most eccentric citizens: esteemed hunters, explorers, and Pathfinders Sheila Heidmarch and her husband Sir Canayven Heidmarch. Rumor has it they recently retired and gifted their own manor to the Pathfinder Society, thus founding Varisia's first lodge. Rumormongers among the ranks of the Society itself acidly remark that without the unexpected discovery of the Aspis Consortium's plans to foil the Society's, Varisia wouldn't have been more than backwater to the almighty Decemvirate. Yet whatever the reason, Heidmarch Manor has grown to prominence in the last year, and it is now buzzing with activity of a thousand small hands perusing the grounds provided by the two former adventurers. Visitors are always welcome to the manor!
On the western edge of the land of Varisia, along the southern reaches of a beautiful stretch known as the Lost Coast, the swampy expanse of the Mushfens and the coiling length of the Yondabakari River come to a stark and dramatic end in the shadow of a striking limestone escarpment jutting from the cliffs. Varisian legends have long regarded the place as a blessed resting spot for celestial messengers, and the wanderers would often visit in hopes of seeing an angel and gaining the good fortune such a portent presaged. Yet the upthrust mass of stone itself is overshadowed by an even greater sight—the Irespan, one of ancient Thassilon’s most prominent ruins. Known also as the Giant’s Bridge, this ruined causeway juts out from the Seacleft nearly 400 feet, with its ruined pilings extending farther out to sea, giving the unmistakable impression of ancient grandeur. Be it the point at which angels descended from the heavens to bless their Varisian wards or the ancient site of forgotten commerce and travel, the region has long captivated the imaginations of those who beheld it. Its position at the mouth of Varisia’s mightiest river and at the southwesternmost safe harbor on the mainland only further ensured that the site would, one day, host a magnificent city. Today, that city is known as Magnimar—the City of Monuments.
Built in the shadow of megaliths, Magnimar endlessly endeavors to surpass the overwhelming scale and grandeur of the ancient wonders that litter the Varisian landscape. A place of great opportunity, social stress, and cold beauty, the city exudes the air of a southern metropolis, seeking to rise above its ignoble beginnings as a refuge for Korvosan outcasts to become a beacon of culture and freedom in an unforgiving land. Yet its towering monuments, elegant gardens, ostentatious architecture, and elaborate sculptures form but a cracked mask over a struggling government and a desperate people in need of heroes.
Who might those heroes be? Perhaps those awaiting their fate to come to bloom in the quiet halls of the Pathfinder Society's newest lodge, Heidmarch Manor. Set like a jewel on the Alabaster district, this recently-restored house belongs to two of Magnimar's most eccentric citizens: esteemed hunters, explorers, and Pathfinders Sheila Heidmarch and her husband Sir Canayven Heidmarch. Rumor has it they recently retired and gifted their own manor to the Pathfinder Society, thus founding Varisia's first lodge. Rumormongers among the ranks of the Society itself acidly remark that without the unexpected discovery of the Aspis Consortium's plans to foil the Society's, Varisia wouldn't have been more than backwater to the almighty Decemvirate. Yet whatever the reason, Heidmarch Manor has grown to prominence in the last year, and it is now buzzing with activity of a thousand small hands perusing the grounds provided by the two former adventurers. Visitors are always welcome to the manor!
This is a private recruitment for a Shattered Star game, invite only at the moment.
In Varisia's bustling frontier town of Magnimar, the Pathfinder Society's newest lodge recruits a team of rookie Pathfinder agents. Yet when Magnimar's newest heroes pursue their task, they find far more than they had been expecting, becoming embroiled in a quickly expanding hunt for a fragmented artifact from the height of the ancient empire of Thassilon that will take them to some of the most dangerous corners of Varisia!
Looking for 4-6 players that have been invited to this game. I may run two tables depending on the interest shown by those invited. I've run this through the first book for a RL group so looking forward of picking it back up and working toward running it to completion. Most of you are in games I am running, but as a refresher or for those new to me as a GM, check out my profile for details on how I commonly run things.
There is one big change in this recruitment as opposed to my standard. I am looking for a bit of a faster pace with the game. The goal is to consistently get at least 1 post a day but preferably at least two (morning/evening) on weekdays and at least one post, on the weekends. I know things come up and I'm sure it will happen to me, but the above should be the norm. With that in mind, I won't be botting players unless they give me advanced warning they will be away and provide some general guidelines. Otherwise you'll essentially just be 'delaying' for anything you miss. Please consider the investment up front and whether you can maintain a faster posting. Everyone I invited I have seen pretty consistent posting from, so I don't think it should be an issue but please keep it in mind.
With that in mind, if you’re still interested, I need the following for your Submission to be considered complete:
1. Character Stats
2. Backstory
3. Appearance & Personality
4. Time Zone
Please check out the Players Guide. The adventure assumes you are all members of the Pathfinder Society. I'm willing to work around that if someone has a concept that doesn't have them being a Pathfinder, but you need to have a good reason to either want to work with the Pathfinders or for the Pathfinders to want to seek you out.
Feel free to create an alias if you want, but it isn't required as I know how they can stack up. Instead you can just post your submission in spoilers here under your main alias.
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 1
- Wealth: Max for Class
- Classes: Anything within reason. IE nothing crazy like Synthesist Summoner. I'm not as familiar with the Occult classes so if you want to go that route be willing to deal with me working on a learning curve. Firearms are Emerging.
- Races: The Pathfinders come from all over. Any Paizo 15 RP or below. No custom races.
- Alignment: Any alignment is allowed, with the following condition:
Your character must be willing and want to work with the rest of the PCs and the Pathfinder Society, and not have any plans or intentions of betraying them.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 after
- Attributes: 20 point buy, no stat below 8 before racial adjustments, no stat above 18 after racial adjustments.
- Traits: 3, 1 must be a campaign trait.
- Drawbacks: None
- You may self-craft up to 3 items before the game at standard crafting costs, but only if you can succeed on the crafting roll by taking 10.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content (including the no feat tax rules)
- For any members of the Pathfinder Society tell me why you joined
While this is invite only, I'm going to need a little time to prep maps since it has been awhile since I have run this. Also, I want to give you all a little more time to work on characters/backstories. Since you all are assumed to be Pathfinder Society members feel free to interweave stories with one another. I'm going to set two rough deadlines for now.
1: Recruitment will close 3/15 for your initial character ideas.
2: Game will begin 3/25 at the latest to allow for any adjustments or tie ins for the party after selection.
The above dates are at the latest. They could be moved up if the recruitment goes quickly and I get my prep done fast. If you have questions let me know.
A group of dedicated players is looking for a replacement GM for a Strange Aeons game. We have barely started the first book, but 4 out of 5 of the players have stuck around hoping for our GM to return. The game started at the end of October and we've decided after not hearing from our GM for an extended period of time that we would try to find a replacement.
Current party consists of:
- A formal and antisocial Qadiran combat witch who is used to people being afraid of her and is obsessed with redemption
- A grumpy dwarf purifier who will be reading into everyone's dreams
- A ratfolk fighter who doesn't think that he is naturally a ratfolk
- A pink haired bouncy gnome who "Knows a thing"
We lost our rogue around the same time we lost our GM. Since we haven't gotten basically anywhere we would have no issues with a fresh start if a potential GM preferred to go that route. It's a good group of interesting characters that have at least shown dedication in sticking around while the GM has gone missing. We are hopeful to find a dedicated GM willing to either take over the reigns or kick of a fresh start of their own.
We have lost our frontliner Paladin and would like to find a replacement. We are just about to be on Part 2 of Book 1. You can find more details about me, how I run things, etc HERE.
Otherwise, if you are interested in joining we are looking for a primary frontliner/meatshield. Creation guidelines below. Work into your background why you were at the Exaltation Gala. A link to nobility/a senator would be preferable.
Recruitment will be open through Monday 1/14. Be prepared to wait a short time to join into the game for when we get to a part that makes sense for you to join.
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 2
- Wealth: 160gp
- Classes: Core, APG, ACG allowed. No Occult. Can use unchained for Barb, Monk, Rogue, Summoner.
- Race: Standard races or Aasimer would be preferred. If you want to play something unusual I may allow it based on background. Keep in mind Taldor is very human-centric and generally looks down on other races, except Aasimer.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 + con bonus after
- Attributes: 20 Point Buy, no stat below 8 before racial adjustments
- Traits: 2, 1 must be campaign trait.
- Drawback: 1 drawback is allowed for 1 additional trait. Be sure to incorporate your drawback in your character. WARNING: I will do my best to make sure your drawback does come into play at some point if you do take one.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content (including the no feat tax rules)
Application Requirements:
0-1) Download & read the Players Guide. This will provide a lot of help and insight for the other requirements.
1) Develop character concept. Crunch does not need to be complete, but it can be. Character concept should include the following:
- Class
- Alignment
- Characters link to Taldor, and specifically Oparra: How long have you been in Oparra? Are you a resident? If not, why are you here now?
- Livelihood: How does/has your character make a living?
- Motivation: Why are you interested in Taldan politics? Why would someone take interest in you regarding politics?
- Rollplay vs Roleplay: How will your character contribute to the group in combat? What about out of combat?
- Progression: How do you plan to mechanically develop the character (ie dips, multiclassing, PrCs, etc)? If you don't have a plan yet, that is ok.
- Background: What is the characters backstory? Doesn't need to be a novel, but at least 1-3 paragraphs of an overview. (IE what is your history, what are you doing now and what are you trying to achieve in the future)
2) Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post.
3) Tell me about your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in?
I am planning to run a group through the Rise of the Runelords AP as PbP for level 1 Characters. Before we delve into the nitty gritty let me tell you about myself, how I run things and my expectations.
About me:
I have been DMing on and off for nearly the last 20 years, starting in D&D 3rd edition. I am married and have two kids. Aside from PbP games, I have a regular VTT game I play in and on the weekends if not spending time with the family, doing house or school work (in a dual Masters program), then I am usually playing a video game.
As to my style I enjoy in-depth roleplay but I am not the kind of guy to write a 1000 word description about the scene or a 500 word monologue about the NPCs thoughts on your actions of killing some goblins. The one exception is the first game post. I usually make these long and in depth. In other words, if you expect all my posts to be a novella I’m probably not the right GM for you. On the contrary, I welcome my players to write walls of text, I enjoy reading them. Just remember depending on the pacing, you might get ninjaed by other players or myself while you are writing that wall of text. Regarding walls of text, or posting in general, be sure to copy it into an external program before you post it just to make sure all the effort you spent doesn’t get lost! Good times for wall of texts are over the weekend. On the other side of things if you only like to post during combat or your post only ever consists of a one sentence action followed by a dice roll then I am definitely not the right GM for you. I do not like to rail road, I greatly prefer a collaborative experience with my players. I want you to be invested in advancing the story. I like to see roleplay in between combat and more details about your action then “I move and attack with a 18”.
I am not a rules lawyer, per say, and there may be times I even consult the group on rulings if it is something extremely technical. Conversely, if it is something trivial I may simply gloss over the RAW and make my own ruling. I generally will not do this in situations where it gives either party a serious advantage over the other. I am definitely ok with RAI, in some cases, over RAW. With all that said Pathfinder’s supposed to be fun, and I’ll do my best to keep it that way.
How I run things:
=Dice Rolls=
Any rolls that are automatic, or pseudo automatic, such as Initiative, or if you say something like "every time we enter a room, I give it a quick scan", I make the rolls, so we don't have to wait. Likewise, I may make save rolls. I may also roll Perception, Sense Motive, and Knowledge checks as appropriate. All the rolls are above board, in spoilers to keep clutter to a minimum. I roll in either: (1) Alphabetic Order or (2) Initiative Order, as appropriate for the situation. If the Rolls are in a spoiler for GM they are meant for me. If they are spoilered with anything else like Initiative or Perception feel free to take a peek.
Any save whose result may result in very bad things for your character, I leave to you whenever possible. If you face a Save or Suck for instance, I don't like to roll the save for you. Your character, your karma, your luck . . .
If you plan to do something go ahead and throw out a roll to keep things moving. I can look at your character and adjust as necessary. For example, if you want to try and convince someone to do something roll a diplomacy check when you post what you are saying. If I feel what you said is really a bluff I will adjust the roll as necessary keeping your stats in mind. In combat, please account for everything relevant to your attack. For example, if you are an alchemist throwing a bomb, roll the attack, the direct damage, the splash damage and the misdirection if it misses. This is especially important as we get into higher levels to keep combat from bogging down.
=Game Flow=
One post per day minimum, excluding weekends. If you can post more often that is great and preferred. I encourage you to RP with each other and not just wait for me to make a post. I will always do my best to get in one post each weekday and one on the weekend. I generally check for posts around 7am Eastern and 2pm Eastern. However, I can often check multiple times between 7am eastern and 10pm Eastern, especially if people are posting frequently. During roleplay/story points I will advance the game as long as I have at least one person posting, unless there is a response needed from a specific character. For combat, I will wait 1 day before advancing the combat, unless you tell me ahead of time that you will be away and want me to play your character for you. In the event I skip your character, he/she will simply go on the defensive while he/she considers their next action.
I completely understand that RL events happen and can pull you away. The same will likely occur with me. In these cases, if you know in advance you will be away please let us know ahead of time so that we can set our expectations accordingly. If you do not post in over a week without prior notice I will PM you. If I do not receive a response to the PM in a weeks’ time I will consider you to have left the game and we may find a replacement for you. If you do reply to the PM, but it occurs frequently we may still find a replacement for you.
=Combat=
I will provide maps for combat situations via Roll20. There will be a link at the top of the page to the appropriate Roll20 campaign. You will need to login so I can create a token for you and give you access to move it around the board. I also, generally track HP on Roll20. All rolls however, are done here on the boards using the [ dice ] mechanics. When combat starts I will provide a listing of Init order. All players can go in any order within their grouping.
For example the Init order might look like this:
Round 1
>Player 1/Player5, Enemy 1/Enemy3, Player 4/Player 2/Player 3, Enemy 2
Player 1 & 5 can post their actions in any order and I will resolve them as appropriate. Then after Enemy 1 & 3 go Players 2-4 can post their actions in any order. If you post and someone’s earlier action effects your action I will take creative liberties. For example, if you magic missile a baddie that the Rogue just eviscerated, I’ll redirect your spell to a still-living target. This isn’t how I run things in a live game, but in a PbP, block initiative saves time and speeds up combat significantly.
=Player Discussion=
For any questions and concerns - please address these in the Discussion thread. That way everyone has the advantage of learning the answer to a specific question or ruling and we keep the gameplay thread less cluttered. When I post a ruling or what have you, I try to post a link to an appropriate reference document.
Note: I can be wrong, I'm not a perfect GM. When I am wrong, tell me and provide references. It is how we all learn.
=House Rules=
Actions: I'm a GM that does not punish the character for trying something new or cool, or even strange. Visually appealing actions are encouraged, the dc will of course depend on what are you trying, but you can try! I still try and follow the rules as appropriate, but I enjoy creative solutions.
Level up: I don’t level up based on XP. I level up based on your progression in the overarching story.
Sandbox vs Rail Road: This is not a very heavy Sandbox style type of game. As such, there is obviously heavy pre-defined story elements. However, I like players to help me drive the game, so I’m not opposed to throwing some Sandbox in there if it makes sense. As long as it does not completely derail the story I am open to creative avenues. If you do go someplace or attempt to do something beyond your skill I will attempt to warn you of the dangers, but I will not outright stop you.
Expectations:
As I’ve noted elsewhere I am expecting a minimum of 1 post per weekday. I expect you to work with me to tell the story, not just rely on me to rail road you everywhere. I expect that you understand taking part in a PbP AP is generally a multi-year endeavor. As such, before you apply make sure you are ready for that commitment. I know life happens, I’ve had to drop games in the past, but please keep in mind the time commitment you are signing up for before you sign up. I expect that if you know you will be away for any extended period of time (holiday/vacation/etc) you will let me know ahead of time. I expect that if something comes up that has changed your circumstances or unexpectedly caused you to not be able to post you will give me a heads up as soon as you are able. I will provide an alternate means of contact in the event you want to reach out from a smarthphone, not only for the above, but also in the event there are issues with the forums. I expect that you have read over all of this. To show that you have, please send me a PM with the phrase “Ready to Rumble” when you have completed your application.
Now with all that out of the way, if you are still interested, then please read on. First off, I already have 3 players for this game. The current party consists of the following:
Elf Sorcerer
Aasimar Evangelist Cleric of Netyhs
Half-Orc Goliath Druid
As such, I will only be recruiting for two more players. These two players will need to fit the following roles:
1) Front Line / Tank
2) Ranged / Skills
Below are the character creation guidelines and what is necessary for an application to be considered complete. I will say, I am going to prioritize players that have a demonstrated posting history over people new to play by post. Normally for my RotRL games I don't care as much and like to try and give new players a chance, but since this group has already experienced issues with players leaving I want to avoid that as much as possible this time around.
I will keep applications open until, Dec. 7 at 10pm Eastern. As such, I am looking to start the game by at least Dec 10. However, if there is an overwhelming amount of interest, I reserve the right to cut off the application window early. If you are really interested in playing this AP, I recommend you get in your application sooner rather than later. I will give notice if I do decide to cut off the application window early. Once the application window has closed I will only be reviewing completed applications. NOTE – You do not need to create an alias yet, but you are welcome to if you want.
If you have questions after all this, please let me know!
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 1
- Wealth: Average for Class
- Classes: Core, APG, ACG allowed. Will use unchained for Barb, Monk, Rogue, Summoner.
- Races: Core, Aasimer, Tiefling or Tengu preferred. Will consider others with exceptional background.
- Alignment: No evil.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 after
- Attributes: 20 point buy, no stat below 10 before racial adjustments.
- Traits: 2, 1 must be a campaign trait.
- Drawbacks: 1 drawback is allowed for 1 additional trait. Be sure to incorporate your drawback in your character. WARNING: I will do my best to make sure your drawback does come into play at some point if you do take one. Restricted drawbacks: Attached, Envy, Forgetful, Umbral Unmasking, Warded Against Nature.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content (including the no feat tax rules)
Application Requirements:
0)Download & read the Players Guide. NOTE - The original guide may provide additional useful information on the races/classes
1) Develop character concept. Crunch does not need to be complete but it can be. Character concept should include the following:
- Class
- Alignment
- Characters link to Sandpoint: How long have you been in Sandpoint? Are you a resident? If not, why are you there?
- Livelihood: How does your character make a living?
- Rollplay vs Roleplay: How will your character contribute to the group in combat? What about out of combat?
- Progression: How do you plan to mechanically develop the character (ie dips, multiclassing, PrCs, etc)? If you don't have a plan yet, that is ok.
- Background: What is the characters backstory? Doesn't need to be a novel, but at least 1-3 paragraphs of an overview. (IE what is your history, what are you doing now and what are you trying to achieve in the future)
2) Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post.
3) What is your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in?
Welcome! Feel free to Dot in the Gameplay so that it gets added to your campaigns section. You can then delete the dot to keep the thread clean until we start up.
Please work on finalizing your character and setting up an alias. For the alias be sure to include relevant important character information in the Race section. This is a good example of relevant info:
HP 36/36 | AC 12 | T 12 | FF 10 | CMD 13 | Fort +3 | Ref +3 | Will +4 | Init +4 | Perc +11
Please make sure you include your background, motivations etc in your alias.
We will be getting started by the 13th, possibly the 12th if everyone is ready by then. Use this to discuss among yourselves and ask me any questions you may have.
Welcome! Feel free to Dot in the Gameplay so that it gets added to your campaigns section. You can then delete the dot to keep the thread clean until we start up.
Please work on finalizing your character and setting up an alias. For the alias be sure to include relevant important character information in the Race section. This is a good example of relevant info:
HP 36/36 | AC 12 | T 12 | FF 10 | CMD 13 | Fort +3 | Ref +3 | Will +4 | Init +4 | Perc +11
Please make sure you include your background, motivations etc in your alias.
We will be getting started by the 13th, possibly the 12th if everyone is ready by then. Use this to discuss among yourselves and ask me any questions you may have.
Welcome! Feel free to Dot in the Gameplay so that it gets added to your campaigns section. You can then delete the dot to keep the thread clean until we start up.
Please work on finalizing your character and setting up an alias. For the alias be sure to include relevant important character information in the Race section. This is a good example of relevant info:
HP 36/36 | AC 12 | T 12 | FF 10 | CMD 13 | Fort +3 | Ref +3 | Will +4 | Init +4 | Perc +11
Please make sure you include your background, motivations etc in your alias.
We will be getting started by the 13th, possibly the 12th if everyone is ready by then. Use this to discuss among yourselves and ask me any questions you may have.
Greetings PbPers! I've had a friend drop out of my PbP game of Hell's Rebels so I am looking for a replacement. We are currently about half-way through the first book. We currently have a party of 4, the composition is below:
Human Bloodrager
Human Cleric
Human Wizard
Tiefling Slayer
With that in mind our player who left was the main Face of the group. As such, that is the primary role we will be looking to fill. This provides some unique challenges in integrating a new player so I am open to creative solutions.
Info about how I run my games, about myself, house rules, etc can be found in the campaign section for reference. I do have some expectations of my players that are spoilered below. I would like to wrap up recruitment by 11/16 at the latest, but if I get some great applications I reserve the right to close recruitment early. As such, if you are interested, get your application in sooner rather than later. I look forward to reviewing what you all come up with!
Character Creation Guidelines:
- No 3rd Party content (including the no feat tax rules)
- Starting Level: 2nd level
- Stats: 20 Point Buy, no stat below 10 or above 18 before racial modifiers
- Alignment: Non-Evil, preferably non-lawful unless you have good RP reason to be rebelling instead of following the law of the land
- HP: Max for 1st level; after, half + 1 + Con
- Classes: Anything except Occult classes, Gunslinger, Synthesist Summoner, prioritizing ranged focus. Can use unchained.
- Races: Preferably Core, Tiefling or Tengu.
- Drawbacks: 1 Drawback allowed but you need to make sure you incorporate it into your background
- Traits: Up to 3 if you have a drawback, one must be a Hell's Rebels campaign trait.
- Wealth: 1200 gp.
- Misc: Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post. Also, tell me about your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in?
- Background: If you are not native to Kintargo, there needs to be a good reason why you would be there during martial law that would also make sense why you would take part in a rebellion. I don't need a novella, but at a minimum answer the following questions:
1) Where/how are you living in Kintargo? (Doesn't have to be a specific location, but it can. If not specific, what part of town at least)
2) What do you do for a living?
3) Do you have any ties to the community, any locals you frequent, any groups you are/want to be a part of?
4) If you take a drawback, why does your character have that drawback?
5) Do you have any family/relationships in Kintargo?
6) Why would a group of (so far) secretive rebels be interested in you joining their group?
Player Expectations:
As I’ve noted in the campaign info section I am expecting a minimum of 1 post per weekday. I expect you to work with me to tell the story, not just rely on me to rail road you everywhere. I expect that you understand taking part in a PbP AP is generally a multi-year endeavor. As such, before you apply make sure you are ready for that commitment. I know life happens, I’ve had to drop games in the past, and I won’t hold it against you, but please keep in mind the time commitment you are signing up for before you sign up. I expect that if you know you will be away for any extended period of time (holiday/vacation/etc) you will let me know ahead of time. I expect that if something comes up that has changed your circumstances or unexpectedly caused you to not be able to post you will give me a heads up as soon as you are able. I will provide an alternate means of contact in the event you want to reach out from a smarthphone, not only for the above, but also in the event there are issues with the forums.
We have lost a player so I wanted to check for interest in picking up at least one new player, possibly two. We are still very early in the AP so you will still be starting out at Lvl 1. We lost our skill monkey so that will be a priority to replace. The existing party consists of the following:
Male elf Sorcerer
Male Tengu Inquisitor
Female Human Barbarian
Male Aasimar Cleric
This will be a short recruitment. Only leaving it open until Nov. 2nd. Details below. Extra points if you link into what has already happened to date.
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 1
- Wealth: Average for Class
- Classes: Core, APG, ACG allowed. Can use unchained for Barb, Monk, Rogue, Summoner.
- Races: Core, Aasimer, Tiefling or Tengu preferred. Will consider others with exceptional background.
- Alignment: No evil.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 after
- Attributes: 20 point buy, no stat below 10 before racial adjustments.
- Traits: 2, 1 must be a campaign trait.
- Drawbacks: You can take a drawback for one additional trait, however it should be something that will come into effect (ie if you don't plan to ever make a diplomacy check, don't take a drawback that effects dimplomacy). Restricted drawbacks: Attached, Envy, Forgetful, Umbral Unmasking, Warded Against Nature.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content
Application Requirements:
0) Download & read the Players Guide. NOTE - The original guide may provide additional useful information on the races/classes
1) Develop character concept. Crunch does not need to be complete but it can be. Character concept should include the following:
- Class
- Alignment
- Characters link to Sandpoint: How long have you been in Sandpoint? Are you a resident? If not, why are you there?
- Livelihood: How does your character make a living?
- Rollplay vs Roleplay: How will your character contribute to the group in and out of combat? Do you prefer one over the other?
- Progression: How do you plan to mechanically develop the character (ie dips, multiclassing, PrCs, etc)? If you don't have a plan yet, that is ok.
- Background: What is the characters backstory? Doesn't need to be a novel, but at least 1-2 paragraphs of an overview.
2) Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post.
3) What is your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in? Do you have a particular PbP moment you are proud of?
I would like to run a War for the Crown AP as PbP for level 1 Characters. Before we delve into the nitty gritty let me tell you about myself, how I run things and my expectations.
About me:
I have been DMing on and off for nearly the last 20 years, starting in D&D 3rd edition. I am married and have two kids. Aside from PbP games, I have a regular VTT game I play in and on the weekends if not spending time with the family, doing house or school work (in a dual Masters program), then I am usually playing a video game.
As to my style I enjoy in-depth roleplay but I am not the kind of guy to write a 1000 word description about the scene or a 500 word monologue about the NPCs thoughts on your actions of killing some goblins. The one exception is the first game post. I usually make these long and in depth. In other words, if you expect all my posts to be a novella I’m probably not the right GM for you. On the contrary, I welcome my players to write walls of text, I enjoy reading them. Just remember depending on the pacing, you might get ninjaed by other players or myself while you are writing that wall of text. Regarding walls of text, or posting in general, be sure to copy it into an external program before you post it just to make sure all the effort you spent doesn’t get lost! Good times for wall of texts are over the weekend. On the other side of things if you only like to post during combat or your post only ever consists of a one sentence action followed by a dice roll then I am definitely not the right GM for you. I do not like to rail road, I greatly prefer a collaborative experience with my players. I want you to be invested in advancing the story. I like to see roleplay in between combat and more details about your action then “I move and attack with a 18”.
I am not a rules lawyer, per say, and there may be times I even consult the group on rulings if it is something extremely technical. Conversely, if it is something trivial I may simply gloss over the RAW and make my own ruling. I generally will not do this in situations where it gives either party a serious advantage over the other. I am definitely ok with RAI, in some cases, over RAW. With all that said Pathfinder’s supposed to be fun, and I’ll do my best to keep it that way.
How I run the game:
=Dice Rolls=
Any rolls that are automatic, or pseudo automatic, such as Initiative, or if you say something like "every time we enter a room, I give it a quick scan", I make the rolls, so we don't have to wait. Likewise, I may make save rolls. I may also roll Perception, Sense Motive, and Knowledge checks as appropriate. All the rolls are above board, in spoilers to keep clutter to a minimum. I roll in either: (1) Alphabetic Order or (2) Initiative Order, as appropriate for the situation. If the Rolls are in a spoiler for GM they are meant for me. If they are spoilered with anything else like Initiative or Perception feel free to take a peek.
Any save whose result may result in very bad things for your character, I leave to you whenever possible. If you face a Save or Suck for instance, I don't like to roll the save for you. Your character, your karma, your luck . . .
If you plan to do something go ahead and throw out a roll to keep things moving. I can look at your character and adjust as necessary. For example, if you want to try and convince someone to do something roll a diplomacy check when you post what you are saying. If I feel what you said is really a bluff I will adjust the roll as necessary keeping your stats in mind. In combat, please account for everything relevant to your attack. For example, if you are an alchemist throwing a bomb, roll the attack, the direct damage, the splash damage and the misdirection if it misses. This is especially important as we get into higher levels to keep combat from bogging down.
=Game Flow=
One post per day minimum, excluding weekends. If you can post more often that is great and preferred. I encourage you to RP with each other and not just wait for me to make a post. I will always do my best to get in one post each weekday and one on the weekend. I generally check for posts around 7am Eastern and 2pm Eastern. However, I can often check multiple times between 7am eastern and 10pm Eastern, especially if people are posting frequently. During roleplay/story points I will advance the game as long as I have at least one person posting, unless there is a response needed from a specific character. For combat, I will wait 1 day before advancing the combat, unless you tell me ahead of time that you will be away and want me to play your character for you. In the event I skip your character, he/she will simply go on the defensive while he/she considers their next action.
I completely understand that RL events happen and can pull you away. The same will likely occur with me. In these cases, if you know in advance you will be away please let us know ahead of time so that we can set our expectations accordingly. If you do not post in over a week without prior notice I will PM you. If I do not receive a response to the PM in a weeks’ time I will consider you to have left the game and we may find a replacement for you. If you do reply to the PM, but it occurs frequently we may still find a replacement for you.
=Combat=
I will provide maps for combat situations via Roll20. There will be a link at the top of the page to the appropriate Roll20 campaign. You will need to login so I can create a token for you and give you access to move it around the board. I also, generally track HP on Roll20. All rolls however, are done here on the boards using the [ dice ] mechanics. When combat starts I will provide a listing of Init order. All players can go in any order within their grouping.
For example the Init order might look like this:
Round 1
>Player 1/Player5, Enemy 1/Enemy3, Player 4/Player 2/Player 3, Enemy 2
Player 1 & 5 can post their actions in any order and I will resolve them as appropriate. Then after Enemy 1 & 3 go Players 2-4 can post their actions in any order. If you post and someone’s earlier action effects your action I will take creative liberties. For example, if you magic missile a baddie that the Rogue just eviscerated, I’ll redirect your spell to a still-living target. This isn’t how I run things in a live game, but in a PbP, block initiative saves time and speeds up combat significantly.
=Player Discussion=
For any questions and concerns - please address these in the Discussion thread. That way everyone has the advantage of learning the answer to a specific question or ruling and we keep the gameplay thread less cluttered. When I post a ruling or what have you, I try to post a link to an appropriate reference document.
Note: I can be wrong, I'm not a perfect GM. When I am wrong, tell me and provide references. It is how we all learn.
=House Rules=
Actions: I'm a GM that does not punish the character for trying something new or cool, or even strange. Visually appealing actions are encouraged, the dc will of course depend on what are you trying, but you can try! I still try and follow the rules as appropriate, but I enjoy creative solutions.
Level up: I don’t level up based on XP. I level up based on your progression in the overarching story.
Sandbox vs Rail Road: This is not a very heavy Sandbox style type of game. As such, there is obviously heavy pre-defined story elements. However, I like players to help me drive the game, so I’m not opposed to throwing some Sandbox in there if it makes sense. As long as it does not completely derail the story I am open to creative avenues. If you do go someplace or attempt to do something beyond your skill I will attempt to warn you of the dangers, but I will not outright stop you.
Expectations:
As I’ve noted elsewhere I am expecting a minimum of 1 post per weekday. I expect you to work with me to tell the story, not just rely on me to rail road you everywhere. I expect that you understand taking part in a PbP AP is generally a multi-year endeavor. As such, before you apply make sure you are ready for that commitment. I know life happens, I’ve had to drop games in the past, and I won’t hold it against you, but please keep in mind the time commitment you are signing up for before you sign up. I expect that if you know you will be away for any extended period of time (holiday/vacation/etc) you will let me know ahead of time. I expect that if something comes up that has changed your circumstances or unexpectedly caused you to not be able to post you will give me a heads up as soon as you are able. I will provide an alternate means of contact in the event you want to reach out from a smarthphone, not only for the above, but also in the event there are issues with the forums. I expect that you have read over all of this. To show that you have, please send me a PM with the phrase “Ready to Rumble” when you have completed your application.
Now with all that out of the way, if you are still interested, then please read on. Let us talk about War for the Crown! War for the Crown is a particularly RP heavy game. There is still a good deal of combat but almost the entire first half of the first book is RP and skill checks. With that in mind, be sure that you build a well-rounded character! It can be difficult to get in a meaningful post at least 1/weekday when you focused everything about your character around combat and we are deep in RP/skill checks. I run a VTT game of this so I can tell you firsthand how sucky it is for a player when they have little to contribute to several hours’ (which in our case could likely be several weeks/months) worth of gameplay.
Below are the character creation guidelines and what is necessary for an application to be considered complete. I am looking for 4-6 players for this game. I will say, I am going to prioritize players that have a demonstrated posting history over people new to play by post because of the nature of this AP. Losing players can be extremely disruptive in any AP, but especially so an RP heavy AP like War for the Crown.
I will keep applications open until, Nov. 8 at 10pm Eastern. As such, I am looking to start the game by at least Nov 13. However, if there is an overwhelming amount of interest, I reserve the right to cut off the application window early. If you are really interested in playing this AP, I recommend you at least dot sooner rather than later. I will give 48-hour notice if I do decide to cut off the application window early. Once the application window has closed any dots or unfinished applications have 24 hours to complete their application. NOTE – You do not need to create an alias yet, but you are welcome to if you want.
If you have questions after all this, please let me know!
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 1
- Wealth: 160gp
- Classes: Core, APG, ACG allowed. No Occult. Can use unchained for Barb, Monk, Rogue, Summoner.
- Race: Standard races or Aasimer would be preferred. If you want to play something unusual I may allow it based on background. Keep in mind Taldor is very human-centric and generally looks down on other races, except Aasimer.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 + con bonus after
- Attributes: 20 Point Buy, no stat below 8 before racial adjustments
- Traits: 2, 1 must be campaign trait.
- Drawback: 1 drawback is allowed for 1 additional trait. Be sure to incorporate your drawback in your character. WARNING: I will do my best to make sure your drawback does come into play at some point if you do take one.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content (including the no feat tax rules)
Application requirements:
0-1) Read over everything in this initial recruitment post and follow instructions.
0-2)Download & read the Players Guide. This will provide a lot of help and insigh for the other requirements.
1) Develop character concept. Crunch does not need to be complete, but it can be. Character concept should include the following:
- Class
- Alignment
- Characters link to Taldor, and specifically Oparra: How long have you been in Oparra? Are you a resident? If not, why are you here now?
- Livelihood: How does/has your character make a living?
- Motivation: Why are you interested in Taldan politics? Why would someone take interest in you regarding politics?
- Rollplay vs Roleplay: How will your character contribute to the group in combat? What about out of combat?
- Progression: How do you plan to mechanically develop the character (ie dips, multiclassing, PrCs, etc)? If you don't have a plan yet, that is ok.
- Background: What is the characters backstory? Doesn't need to be a novel, but at least 1-3 paragraphs of an overview. (IE what is your history, what are you doing now and what are you trying to achieve in the future)
2) Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post.
3) Tell me about your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in?
For five years, the faithful of Sandpoint have attended church in temporary structures erected after fire destroyed the previous temple, and while their new religious leader was helpful, kind, and wise, church wasn't the same. Now, the new cathedral is finally done. All that remains is for the Swallowtail Festival to renew the site's blessings from the gods and it will be as if the Sandpoint fire had never occurred.
People have been up for hours, several merchants have set up tents to vend their wares of food, clothes, local crafts, souvenirs, and beverages. Others folk have arrived early to gain positions near the podiums and the tables beyond. Tables loaded with a picnic buffet ready for the congregation after the ceremonies. The Swallowtail Festival begins promptly as scheduled, and the turnout for the opening speeches is quite respectable. A stage has been set up in front of the cathedral and a woman with short auburn hair stands in the center. Behind her sit four wooden chairs, three of them occupied. The square before the church is crowded now, staff loading the tables and merchants hawking their goods join other locals and travelers as Mayor Deverin walks on the stage. As the crowd notices her, the chatter begins to die down and eyes turn to the stage. She smiles and begins to speak.
"Good morning everyone." The attractive and personable woman welcomes the crowd with her usual friendly attitude. Her excitement is obvious and proves contagious as she welcomes visitors and locals alike. "I see everyone’s arrived. Even Larz Rovanky has left off tanning hides to be here. I’m sure his workers are glad it’s not their hides getting tanned, at least not today." When the chuckles died down and Larz stops glowering past a reluctant smile, Mayor Deverin continues.
"It's wonderful to see so many of you here to join us on this proud day, and I'd like to extend my welcome to the many new faces I see in the crowd. As Mayor, I’d like to welcome you on behalf of the town. I hope you all are enjoying your stay here in Sandpoint and I sincerely hope that you're having a wonderful time. Our town has much to offer and I hope we can consider you as new friends. Spend some time in Sandpoint and you’ll grow to love it like we do. And even if you don’t stay long, spend your money while you’re here!"
Several of the merchants give a vigorous applause, and the Mayor lets the crowd settle before continuing over the remaining chuckles. "And to all of the old faces I see, thank you for coming and thank you for everything that each of you has done to keep this town strong. Thank you especially for all the time, sweat, and love you've put into building this fine cathedral. Sandpoint didn't seem complete without a church. We've always had heart. The true heart of Sandpoint is you, her people. But now we have an expression of that heart, and we built it ourselves!"
"Anyway, I can smell the lunch our tavern keepers are cooking already. A round of applause to Ameiko, Garridan, Cracktooth, and Jargie! I'm sure Father Zantus can spare an extra prayer that they don't burn anything before we get to eat it." More cheering erupts: the enticing aromas drifting over the crowd are overwhelming. "Now, since you have three more of us to stand here through, I'm going to sit down. Today as mayor I am declaring a town order to have fun! This is my favorite time of year!"
The crowd responds with a roar, and its a while before the Mayor could continue over the applause. "Without further ado, let me welcome our dutiful Sheriff, Belor Hemlock to the stage!" She indicates a dark-skinned, bulky man, clearly of Shoanti descent, wearing his armor and armed with a prestigious looking sword. Sheriff Hemlock nods and steps forward onto the stage.
"Thank you, Mayor. First off, let us have a moment of silence." He bows his head and begins speaking, "Let us remember the memories of those friends and family members who lost their lives in the tragic blaze that made our new cathedral necessary. Cherish those memories and may the blessings of our Gods see them happy and well in the Afterlife." He raises his head and stands in silence for a moment scanning the crowd.
"Over the next three days all instances of wrong-doing will be dealt with swiftly and to the fullest extent of the law. No exceptions. As the sheriff of Sandpoint, I, Belor Hemlock, would also like to welcome everyone to enjoy themselves today, and you may or may not be aware of the planned bonfire at the beach tonight... it looks to be a promising festival. Do trust that I will be monitoring the level of safe conduct late into the evening. I am trusting our fun will lean to the side of caution. If you are a militia member, remember where your duties lay, and help Sandpoint keep the peace. Thank you." With that the sheriff steps back awkwardly and beckons with his hand, for the next speaker to approach.
The next speaker is quite a contrast to the Sheriff; he is brightly dressed, sports a well-groomed goatee, and seems to be thoroughly enjoying the day. As he reaches the center stage he loosens his collar a bit, winks into the crowd and starts to talk:
"Well, thank you Sheriff for that uplifting oratory. Don't worry I doubt there will be any fun for you to stress over today. If things get out of hand you can ask Ameiko to take the stage and put us all to sleep with one of her stories." The crowd responds with a combination of chuckles and offended heckles.
Without a beat Ameiko shouts from her merchant tent "What about the story of your last flop at the theater? I'm almost done with my newest ballad, I call it Cyrdak the Unimpressive! Who wants to hear?"
The crowd responds with laughter and cheers. Amieko can still be heard shouting over the crowd "Your secret boyfriend helped me come up with the name!"
Cyrdak stands awkwardly waiting out the crowds laughter to die down, as it does Amieko sneers in one more one liner, "What a sleepy crowd Cyrdak!"
After the noise finally quiets Cyrdak continues with a forced smile as if nothing happened, "We can all agree, this is our time to celebrate! I know this town has been through some hard times, but we don't lay down easily. Look at what we've accomplished!" He motions towards the church. "And I'm telling you, they spared no expense with this place. Father Zantus' chamber pot? It's solid gold and comes with a singing choir standing nearby. It's no doubt our neighbors and nobles put a pretty copper into the construction of this joint. And to think they wanted nothing in return, but to enlighten us and our taxes for many lifetimes to come. But worry not about your coin purse, I've heard from father himself that the gods are getting their gold together to help pay for this place. But don't take it from me, let me hand the stage off to the man who's in charge here. But before I let him get things going I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my personal invitation to each and every one of you to the new production of "The Harpy's Curse" starring the world-famous Magnimarian diva Allishanda as Avisera the harpy queen! It's all premiering tomorrow evening and continuing throughout the next two weeks at the Theater. Come see it, it will be fabulous! And now join me in a bit of applause for his holiness himself, Father Zantus!"
The crowd cheers as Cyrdak motions Zantus to the center stage. The young priest looks noticeably abashed at the reception set up for him. He wears the traditional ceremonial robes of a priest of Desna and a shiny silver holy symbol about his neck. He smiles and tries to calm the crowd down, eventually speaking when the applause has subsided: "Ahem, thank you. Thank you Cyrdak. And thank all of you for coming to join us on this most Holy day."
“Today ushers in the new Fall season. A season I have always thought was named appropriately, as today was the day Desna fell from the heavens during battle with Lamashtu."
"Though all the world wept for the loss of the goddess, it is said that she survived. She was discovered, on the rocks of a beach, by a blind orphan, forgotten and cast aside by the rest of the world. Though the orphan didn't know who she was and could do little for the wounded goddess, she still stayed by her side, holding a vigil on the beach, tending to her as best she could and praying to her god, Desna. When other followers had abandoned Desna, the orphan empathized and held hope in her faith. Through the care of this orphan Desna recovered and revealed herself to the blind girl. In return for the orphans care and continued faith Desna transformed her into an angel and offered the girl ascension to Desna's palace in the heavens. It is now there and forever that they shall remain."
Father Zantus motions toward the newly finished cathedral, the sunlight glittering off the stained glass windows. “This story reminds us that tragedy is just a setback, not an end. Though our place of worship was destroyed, and our previous priest, Father Tobyn, perished in the flame, we have persevered as Desna would desire, and built anew. Today is our day of new beginnings. Our day of ascension. Friends of Sandpoint, I declare the Swallowtail Festival officially underway!"
An acolyte throws off the canvas of a nearby wagon, revealing thousands of swallowtail butterflies...the Children of Desna. He opens the cages and the crowd begins to applaud as butterflies flutter in every direction through the crowd, and eager children begin chasing them.
Moments later Father Zantus and the others step off the stage and the crowd begins to disperse to enjoy the festival. Numerous games and contests take place during the day, including sack races, games of hide-and-seek, weight-lifting challenges, balance beam contests, tug-of-war events, and the like. Lunch is provided free, at the expense of Sandpoint’s taverns. Each brings its best dishes. It soon becomes apparent that the darling of the lunch is, once again, Ameiko Kaijitsu, whose remarkable curry-spiced salmon and early winterdrop mead easily overshadow the other offerings, such as the Hagfish’s lobster chowder or the White Deer’s peppercorn venison.
Feel free to give an RP dot. As we kick things off, please let me know what you are doing during the midday festivities.
Greetings all! I am going to be starting up a PbP game of Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition. This recruitment will be for up to 6 players. Application details are below. Note, you can just put the information in spoilers, no need to create an alias just yet. I will be utilizing Roll20 for tactical maps. Would prefer a solid posting history, but I won't rule out new PbPers. I have no problems running this a bit more sandboxy and may make adjustments to the standard AP for better RP. Looking for players who can, at least, post once daily on weekdays outside abnormal circumstances (vacations, business trip, etc), however I can generally post several times a day so if you can post more often during the week that would be preferable.
Character Creation Guidelines:
- Starting Level: 1
- Wealth: Average for Class
- Classes: Core, APG, ACG allowed. Will use unchained for Barb, Monk, Rogue, Summoner.
- Races: Core, Aasimer, Tiefling or Tengu preferred. Will consider others with exceptional background.
- Alignment: No evil.
- HP: Max at 1st, half + 1 after
- Attributes: 20 point buy, no stat below 10 before racial adjustments.
- Traits: 2, 1 must be a campaign trait.
- Drawbacks: You can take a drawback for one additional trait, however it should be something that will come into effect (ie if you don't plan to ever make a diplomacy check, don't take a drawback that effects dimplomacy). Restricted drawbacks: Attached, Envy, Forgetful, Umbral Unmasking, Warded Against Nature.
- Background skills will be in use.
- No 3rd Party content
Application Requirements:
0)Download & read the Players Guide. NOTE - The original guide may provide additional useful information on the races/classes
1) Develop character concept. Crunch does not need to be complete but it can be. Character concept should include the following:
- Class
- Alignment
- Characters link to Sandpoint: How long have you been in Sandpoint? Are you a resident? If not, why are you there?
- Livelihood: How does your character make a living?
- Rollplay vs Roleplay: How will your character contribute to the group in and out of combat? Do you prefer one over the other?
- Progression: How do you plan to mechanically develop the character (ie dips, multiclassing, PrCs, etc)? If you don't have a plan yet, that is ok.
- Background: What is the characters backstory? Doesn't need to be a novel, but at least 1-2 paragraphs of an overview.
2) Let me know your time zone and the time(s) of day you will most likely be able to post.
3) What is your experience with PbP? How many PbP games are you currently participating in? Do you have a particular PbP moment you are proud of?
I will let this recruitment run until 6/15, with a goal to get started on 6/18.
Well one of my friends who was new to PbP dropped out of the game. So take 2 on the recruitment, just a little different this time around. The game hasn't officially started yet, but will next week. As such, this will be a pretty short recruitment. Currently, I am just doing a prelude leading up to the start of the game. With that in mind, I am looking to fill 1 open spot for Hell's Rebels PbP campaign. I currently have a party of 4, composed primarily of friends I play a regular VTT game with. Current party composition includes:
Human Bloodrager
Aasimar Inquisitor
Tiefling Slayer
Human Wizard
I will be giving priority to ranged focused characters over other classes, but that is somewhat flexible.
Info about how I run my games, about myself, house rules, etc can be found in the campaign section for reference. I would like to wrap up recruitment by 5/27, as I plan to officially start on the 28th. Below are the character creation guidelines for this game. I look forward to reviewing what you all come up with!
Starting Level: 1st level
Stats: 20 Point Buy, no stat below 10 or above 18 before racial modifiers
Alignment: Non-Evil, preferably non-lawful unless you have good RP reason to be rebelling instead of following the law of the land
HP: Max for 1st level; after, half + 1 + Con
Classes: Anything except Occult classes, Gunslinger, Synthesist Summoner, prioritizing ranged focus.
Races: Preferably Core, Tiefling or Tengu.
Drawbacks: 1 Drawback allowed but you need to make sure you incorporate it into your background
Traits: Up to 3 if you have a drawback, one must be a Hell's Rebels campaign trait.
Wealth: 180 gp.
Background: If you are not native to Kintargo, there needs to be a good reason why you would be there during martial law that would also make sense why you would take part in a rebellion. I don't need a novella, but at a minimum answer the following questions:
1) Where/how are you living in Kintargo? (Doesn't have to be a specific location, but it can. If not specific, what part of town at least)
2) What do you do for a living?
3) Do you have any ties to the community, any locals you frequent, any groups you are/want to be a part of?
4) If you take a drawback, why does your character have that drawback?
5) Do you have any family/relationships in Kintargo?
Greetings all! I am looking to fill at least 1 open spot in a brand new Hell's Rebels PbP campaign. I currently have a party of 4, composed of friends I play a regular VTT game with. I will preface this by saying that 3 of us are adept at PbP, the other 2 are new to it. So keep that in mind. Current classes include:
I will be giving priority to a focused caster over other classes (Cleric, Sorc, Wizard, Witch, Oracle, etc)
Info about how I run games, about myself, house rules, etc can be found in the campaign section for reference. I would like to wrap up recruitment by 5/20. Below are the character creation guidelines for this game. I look forward to reviewing what you all come up with!
Starting Level: 1st level
Stats: 20 Point Buy, no stat below 10 or above 18 before racial modifiers
Alignment: Non-Evil, preferably non-lawful unless you have good RP reason to be rebelling instead of following the law of the land
HP: Max for 1st level; after, half + 1 + Con
Classes: Anything except Occult classes, Gunslinger, Synthesist Summoner, prioritizing pure casters
Races: Preferably Core, Tiefling or Tengu. You can play something else but as you are likely trying to stay out of the authorities eyes, there may be penalties for not being able to blend in.
Drawbacks: 1 Drawback allowed but you need to make sure you incorporate it into your character
Traits: Up to 3 if you have a drawback, one must be a campaign trait.
Wealth: 180 gp.
Background: If you are not native to Kintargo, there needs to be a good reason why you would be there during martial law that would also make sense why you would take part in a rebellion. Feel free to know other party members, but you can also be strangers. Some important questions to consider:
1) Where/how are you living in Kintargo? (Doesn't have to be a specific location, but it can, if not what part of town at least)
2) What do you do for a living? (This doesn't have to equate to a skill, but it can, especially if you want to do downtime things to try and earn money)
3) Do you have any ties to the community, any locals you frequent, any groups you are/want to be a part of?
4) If you take a drawback, why does your character have that drawback?
5) Do you have any family in Kintargo?
Greetings everyone! My group is in the market for an additional party member. To round of the party I am specifically looking for an arcane caster.
Currently we have the following:
Barbarian - Half-orc (Male)
Cleric - Human (Female)
Rogue - Dwarf (Male)
Monk(ZA) - Human (Male)
I would like to get things rolling again quickly. I will leave recruitment open until 4/21. If we get some solid applicants before that I may make an early decision.
Please take a look at the Campaign Info for more details about how I run things and feel free to catch up on the current going ons in the Gameplay thread to build into your background/story. We are nearing the completion of book one. I would like to try to maintain at least a 1/day posting excluding weekends from players, but would love more posting if you can.
Character Creation:
-Level 3
-2500 gp starting wealth
-Max health 1st level, Half+1 every level their after
-Classes from Core, APG, UM, and UC are acceptable -No ACG or OA Playtest
-Core races, Aasimer or Tiefling would be preferred. If you want to play something else I may allow it based on background. Monster races (goblin, kobold, etc) will be a hard sell
-NO third party publishing sources allowed
-All other Paizo products will be allowed
-Race traits, feats, magic items, and alternate class features from the ARG are allowed but you can not build your own custom race.
-2 traits, 1 of which is a campaign trait from RotRL . No drawbacks for extra traits.
-20 point buy with no stat above 18 or below 7 before racial adjustment at first level.
-Please include a background, personality and appearance block.
-Also please explain why you would be joining up with this group that are already unofficial heroes of the town and have the trust of a number of its citizens. More specifically, if you are already a level 3 adventurer why weren't you already helping out with things.
-Finally please provide what may have brought you to the Thistletop area where you may stumble upon the adventuring party if not already addressed in the requirement above.
I am opening up recruitment for an ongoing game of Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition. We have lost some party members recently and have 1-2 vacant spots.
The current party composition is as follows:
Magus (skirmisher) - Elf (Female)
Ranger (melee focused) - Dwarf (Male)
Cleric of Cayden Cailean - Human (Male)
We are sorely lacking ranged and focused arcane power. We are currently near the end of Book 1. Please take a look at the Campaign Info for more details about how I run things and feel free to catch up on the current going ons in the Gameplay thread to build into your background/story. We are getting posts in either daily or every other day and I would like to try and keep up the pace.
Submissions will be open until 2/28. If there are a large number of submissions or some really great applications I may close recruitment early so be sure to get in earlier rather than later.
Character creation guidelines:
-Level 3
-2500 gp starting wealth
-Max health 1st level, Half+1 every level their after
-Classes from Core, APG, UM, and UC are acceptable -No ACG or OA Playtest
-Core races, Aasimer or Tiefling would be preferred. If you want to play something else I may allow it based on background. Monster races (goblin, kobold, etc) will be a hard sell
-NO third party publishing sources allowed
-All other Paizo products will be allowed
-Race traits, feats, magic items, and alternate class features from the ARG are allowed but you can not build your own custom race.
-2 traits, 1 of which is a campaign trait from RotRL
-20 point buy with no stat above 18 or below 7 before racial adjustment at first level.
-Please include a background, personality and appearance block.
-Also please explain why you would be joining up with this group that are already unofficial heroes of the town and have the trust of a number of its citizens. More specifically, if you are already a level 3 adventurer why weren't you already helping out with things.
-Finally please provide what may have brought you to the Thistletop area where you may stumble upon the adventuring party if not already addressed in the requirement above.
**Edit to add** I am open to the possibility of players taking over an existing NPC. If this is something you are interested please let me know your ideas and we can discuss in the recruitment thread.
So I am wanting to build an enchantment based mystic theurge. Would love advice on the build below. Also, curious as to what people's opinons are on ways to increase my enchanting as well as what class you would recommend continuing in after all 10 of the Theurge levels. Have Cleric Fate Inquis. domain for 2nd level divine SLA and then Aasimar Daylight 2nd level arcane SLA
Also a couple of questions for those a little more knowledgeable.
1) With the Clerics spontaneous healing, Can I only convert spells from the cleric or can I also convert spells from the other classes?
2) When I hit MT 3 I will be able to cast 2nd level Sorc spells, but won't know any 2nd level spells because of the crossblooded. I assume I can still cast 1st level cleric in my 2nd level sorc spot in this case with the combined spells ability.
A couple notes, this doesn't need to be PFS legal, but no 3PP. Also, I am stuck with an ability layout of 15, 14, 12, 8, 6, 5 but I am ok being the face/healer/enchanter.
If you are curious about the oracle level it is mainly because I wanted to get the Lunar revelation for Chr to AC/Ref, but maybe there is a better option?
Oracle/Cleric/Sorc/Theurge:
Female aasimar cleric of Nethys 1/mystic theurge 1/oracle (dual-cursed oracle) 1/sorcerer (crossblooded) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 42, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide 84, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 58, 69)
NG Medium outsider (native)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
hp 18 (4 HD; 2d6+2d8-3)
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +8
Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee (S) mwk dagger -3 (1d3-2/19-20)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 6/day (DC 13, 1d6)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . 1/day—daylight Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . 6/day—laughing touch
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . At will—lore keeper (18)
. . 1/day—augury Oracle (Dual-Cursed Oracle) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st (4/day)—bless, command (DC 17), cure light wounds
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, enhanced diplomacy, read magic, stabilize
. . Mystery Lunar
Sorcerer (Crossblooded) Spells Known (CL 2nd; concentration +5)
. . 1st (5/day)—hypnotism (DC 17)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), mage hand, prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Fey, Serpentine
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 2nd; concentration +4)
. . 1st—bane (DC 16), charm person[D] (DC 14), remove fear
. . 0 (at will)—detect poison, purify food and drink (DC 12), spark[APG] (DC 12)
. . D Domain spell; Domains Fate inquisition, Knowledge
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 6, Dex 5, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +0; CMB -2; CMD 5
Feats Eschew Materials, Noble Scion Of War[ISWG], Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits mediator, militia veteran (any town or village), trunau native
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Diplomacy +10, Escape Artist -5, Fly -5, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (planes) +9, Knowledge (religion) +9, Perception +4, Profession (merchant) +6, Ride -5, Spellcraft +6, Stealth -5, Survival +3, Use Magic Device +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Diplomacy, +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Sylvan
SQ combined spells, oracle's curses (lame, legalistic), revelation (prophetic armor), vow to self
Other Gear mwk dagger, 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Cleric Channel Positive Energy 1d6 (6/day, DC 13) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Cleric Domain (Fate Inquisition) Deities: Nethys, Norgorber, Pharasma.
Granted Powers: Fate is a powerful tool for those who dole out justice for their deity. You can read the strands of fate, and those strands guide your endeavors.
Cleric Domain (Knowledge) Granted Powers: You are a scholar and a sage of legends. In addition, you treat all Knowledge skills as class skills.
Combined Spells (1st) (Su) You can prepare the spells of one spellcasting class using another classes' slots.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Energy Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Energy Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Energy Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials, if component cost is 1 gp or less.
Lame One of your legs is permanently wounded, reducing your base land speed by 10 feet if your base speed is 30 feet or more. If your base speed is less than 30 feet, your speed is reduced by 5 feet. Your speed is never reduced due to encumbrance. At 5th
Laughing Touch (6/day) (Sp) As a standard action, if melee touch hits, foe can take only move actions for 1 rd.
Legalistic The shackles of Hell impose savage consequences should you violate a covenant, but also imbue you with remarkable guile. Whenever you break your word (either purposefully or unintentionally), you become sickened for 24 hours or until you meet your ob
Lore Keeper (At will) (Sp) By touch, learn about a creature with a Knowledge check result of 18.
Mediator +1 DC for [charm/compulsion] effects that result in peaceful acts & don't give ongoing control.
Prophetic Armor (Ex) You may apply your Charisma modifier instead of Dexterity to AC and Reflex saves.
Serpentine Your mind-affecting and language-dependent spells can affect animals, magical beasts and monstrous humanoids as if they were humanoids who understand your language.
Spell Focus (Enchantment) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Vow to Self (1/day) +4 morale bonus to one role to keep a promise.
So I spent about half an hour trying to get into the north east mountain hexes that border the map. I finally did it and, although there were no castles up there waiting for me. I did get to sneak a peak at the rest of the world to the North East.
Not that it looks much different but seeing it (I assume for the first time out of everyone) I felt like the 30 mins were worth it :).
Also, if you are interested in watching the escepades of me trying to get up there I highlighted those 30 mines and you can find them here. Skip to around 20 min if you want to watch the succesful attempt and skip all the failed tries :P.
So I thought this might be enlightening to some people. I've been working on a leveling guide for Cleric. Right now I only have up through level 3 but I plan to go through 6 and then hopefully past that if possible. I think it shows a lot of the decision making that can already take place and I look forward to this system expanding and becoming more diverse.
With that brief intro lets get started.
Gaining the first role of any level is reasonably easy and straight forward. It simply requires having the neccesary amount of experience and the pre-requisite proficiencies/training.
So for Cleric 1 it takes a total of 267 XP in order to get all the training you need to level. Getting this training will increase your abilities by the following:
Here is a breakdown of the training, listing <Who Trains it> Name of Training & Level (XP Cost) +Ability [Ability Score]. I've used --- to illustrate the relation of a feat to another. For example in the below, in order to get Divine Attack Bonus 1 you have to get Focus Proficiency 1 first.
Alright so level 1 of the Cleric role is complete. Now on to level 2. Again level 2 is pretty straight forward only requiring XP and pre-requsite training. Cleric 2 requires a total of 355 XP in order to get all the training you need to level. Getting this training will increase your abilities by the following:
Now Cleric 2 is out of the way. However, this is where things start to get a little more complicated. Cleric 3 has some pre-requisites that are not directly related to just training your necessary skills to advance the role. The first of these and the more important is having a Wisdom score of 11. The Wis 11 drives most of the rest of the pre-requistes as well.
Now you have been boosting your Wisdom score with your previous training. However, your previous training alone is not enough to get you to an 11 Wis. Without training anything else but your base training to advance in role you will have a Wis of 10.674. This mean we need at least .326 more Wisdom. There are a number of different routes to achieve this but for simplicity (in sticking with the Cleric themed build) I decided to look at Orisons and Domains. **Note** I assume that the picking multiple domains won't work once alignment is in place.
So the two options I looked at to get your Wisdom to 11 are getting mutliple orisons or multiple domains. For Orisons you would have to pick up 10 Orison 1 each costing 40 XP and providing a +.036 Wis boost. This would come out to a total of 400 XP and a +.36 Wis boost. The other options is picking multiple domains. In this case you would need to pickup 4 Domain 1 (aside from the domain you already have) which each cost 40 XP and provide a +.099 Wis boost. This would come out to a total of 160 XP and a +.396 Wis boost.
Remember before how I mentioned diversity. This is the only the start of what I was talking about. Here you can see that not only do you need to get the training directly for your role but you will need to get training in order to continue to advance your role. There are also other feats that are utility, skills, etc that you could use to replace the above. That was just the most straight forward example.
Now that the Wis is about 11 you can train 4 out of the 7 feats in order to advance to Cleric 3. However, in order to get the other 3 feats you will have to get another pre-requisite. This would be your first achievement. 3 of the 7 feats required to hit Cleric 3 require the Divine 1 Achievment. In order to get the divine 1 achievement you have to go out into the world and kill XX number (I believe it is 5 or 6) of things with your focus based feats.
So here we see a little more of the depth to the leveling system not only do you have to worry about XP, you also have to worry about your ability scores and going out into the world to accomplish tasks. Once you have gotten this achievment you are now ready to complete the leveling for Cleric. With all of the above Cleric 3 requires a total of 1844 to 2084 XP in order to get all the training you need to level. Getting this training will increase your abilities by the following:
So that is where I will stop for now. Going forward I am going to work on two seperate guides.
1) Least amount of XP to level each Role
2) Most beneficial way to level each Role (leveling items you will need later to level other parts of your role etc)
So I have a couple of questions regarding running Thornkeep for PFS players that I am hoping some of those much more knowledgeable in the PFS OP rules can help with.
I have a group of characters that I ran through the first steps games (back when they were still legal) and now we are running Thornkeep. We are running these as PbP games and they want to head abck to town after a nasty fight to rest (see spoilers)
Details with spoilers:
They ran into the Stirges and one of them is down -7 Con damage
Since this is for PFS characters if they go back to town to rest before finishing up the dungeon level (ie ending the game session before going to the next dungeon) what benefits do they get? If a character has ability damage does that all just go away, would they have to spend days resting, is it right to have them use PFS money to get restoration scrolls?
If it was a normal campaign I know these are all viable options, but I don't want to cheat them out of money since these are legal PFS characters.
I’m not sure if this is too early but I wanted to get a list of things I would like to see prioritized moving forward for the Alpha and into EE.
1) Persistency – There still seems to be some issue with the persistent nature of the game. Makes things a little difficult in testing when either you previous feats get wiped, your inventory gets wiped or your previous location gets wiped in the same game session between logout/login.
2) UI – The overall look of the UI is ok, I hope there are some visual improvements moving forward. However, the big thing I would like to see is more access to information via tooltips and more icons/images. One other thing not under those categories is for any window that has to scroll (namely the trainers feat windows) it would be great if you could use the scroll wheel to scroll down instead of having to click and drag the scroll bar. Also it would be great if you could resize the windows to make them longer/wider as needed. Finally, outside of tooltips/icons it would be nice if we could move the trainers feat window. All the other windows you open can be moved but that one does not. IMHO the UI is one of the biggest things that should be addressed first off.
Here are a list of things regarding tooltips:
It would be really nice if you could hover over feats in the training window and get details about them before you train them.
Inventory items could use some tooltip descriptions of the items as well.
On the character sheet please let us get tooltips when we hover over the stats to see what they are 10.xxx instead of having to go around to a trainer and find feats that list what the values are.
Here are a list of things regarding icons/images:
Definitely need more icons for the abilities and for all the various inventory items you pick up or harvest.
Icons for the various status effects when you are in combat would be extremely helpful as well. It would be great too if these icons were used in the descriptions of feats so if a feat did Bleed there would also be a related icon.
3) Parties/Companies – The party functionality is great but there are a couple of things I think could really help.
a. Party stability is an issue. Currently the party windows work most of the time but there are a lot of times they do not function correctly either and simply disappear.
Party members should display at further ranges on the mini map and I think it would be really helpful if they could be displayed on the world map. It might be a part of the gameplay to not display them on the world map forcing us to describe where to meet etc and I am ok with that but if this is not the case it would be extremely helpful to have them on the world map.
I tried starting a VC and inviting someone but it didn’t seem to really do anything yet. Would be great to start testing this out as I know companies are going to be important in EE.
Kind of related to parties and I know others have mentioned this but PLEASE make it so that if you are not targeting anyone or you are targeting a hostile and you use a feat that feat activates on yourself. This is especially important for us battle clerics!
4) Models & Animation – This is the next big area I would like to see improved as we move forward through Alpha and into EE.
The animations are sluggish and the timing seems off in a lot of cases. There will be times where I cast a heal the animation goes off but nothing happens. Similar things for combat as well.
Would love to start seeing some more of the character customization options so we can start differentiating ourselves a little from everyone else. This would include adding in more types of armor, clothing etc.
We need more monsters! Currently we have skeleton (2 types I have noticed), goblin (4-5 types I have noticed), wolf (3 types I have noticed) Ogres (3-4 types I have noticed), and humans [bandits](3-4 types)/[cultists](3-4 types). Would love to start seeing some more monsters to deal with.
The only world type thing I can specifically think of model wise is in town it would be great to have a little more differentiation between the different crafting structures or maybe make the signs bigger and easier to read on first look.
This is not really a priority but I want to mention it since it falls under animations. We need emotes! At least some /wave and /sit
5) Map – This is one of the lower priority items but something I think would be really useful.
Please make the world map window bigger.
When you enter a town it would be nice if you could zoom into a level of detail where you could see the various town buildings (similar to the screenshot on the initial alpha blog for the locations of trainers)
This is probably a much later option but it would be great if you could make notes/draw on your map and those things would persist. An extension to this, again probably much later, is if you could then share those notes with someone else that was in your party or that you traded with.
6) Settlements – I know this is something that is going to be off in the future but I really want to start playing around with some of the settlement functionality!
So with another week of Alpha testing behind us I decided I am going to start writing up reports after each testing period. As such, here is my week 2 Alpha Report!
General Feedback
After the second week and a good number of hours played I can definitely say I am starting to get the feel for things. On top of this, I do feel that getting in, even this early and starting to test and get a feel for the world and how it works will provide a slight advantage once the game actually starts up. As such, for anyone that is really passionate about this project and has the available funds I would recommend getting in if you can to start to get a better feel for the world.
The combat still feels a little off and sluggish, but I expect that will improve moving forward. I think a lot of this might be related to the animation timings. The increased speed and (it seemed) longer leash distance did make the mobs more difficult. I think these could be increased even a little further if the advanced AI isn’t as much of a priority. I still have yet to delve into the PvP combat to see how it plays out, mainly due to wanting to be able to do other testing and not trash my reputation thus limiting my other testing.
I played most of the game on fantastic settings and it definitely increased the look of the game a lot! I can’t wait until this is optimized a little bit so it runs a little smoother with the fantastic settings, even so I was still getting around 30 FPS (when not live streaming) on fantastic quality. The graphics aren’t AAA by any means, but I would say to people complaining about graphics quality that these are still pretty good for the early state that the game is in.
I played with the crafting to a small extent, at least getting a first look at it. I can see there is a pretty good amount of depth to the system without making it overly complicated. On the harvesting side, I am hoping there will be more depth than just going around to various nodes around the world. I thought I recalled there being mention to harvesting operations and such which I think would feel a lot better than the nodes that are there now (which feel like the standard node you would see in WoW or many other MMOs). I did really like how you could use other things then direct crafting materials to craft things. For example, to make steel you could use Iron or you could use broken weapon parts from enemies. One thing I would like to see is the ability to break down actual loot, like weapons and armor to use in crafting as well. I plan to delve into this a little deeper the next time around.
I was happy to see this week that some of the areas to the South/West that were causing crashes seemed to be fixed. I really like some of the different terrain areas and can see a lot of potential for future gameplay with wars going on. There is a significant FPS improvement going from the forests to the mountains and even the plains. I am assuming this has to do with the trees. The world still feels really big even though it is a reasonably small chunk of the overall map. I did find in the very North East region I ran into the invisible wall even though there were still hexes I thought I should have been able to get to. I tried jumping up the mountain but didn’t manage to get up there. Are we going to see the map expanding at all during alpha or will it only expand on EE?
Bugs/Issues
In full screen on the login screen or on the character select screen there is not an exit button in order to exit the game. As such you have to alt+tab out in order to close it.
Related to the above, when using full screen if I alt+tab I cannot alt+tab back into the game it just sits there in the task bar.
Stephen provided a list of feats needed in order to advance in a role. My main is a cleric and in order to get Crusader 1 which is necessary to advance to Cleric 1 it required Heavy Armor Proficiency 1. I’m not sure if this is a bug or if it was simply not added to the list.
Related to the above I found that when you get a Role it does not display on your character sheet initially. For example, I got everything to get Cleric 1 the achievement showed up, but on the character sheet under the Role section it was not there. However, when I got Cleric 2 then Cleric 1 would show in the Role section of the character sheet.
On the action bars across the bottom, I cannot figure out a way to un-slot things from them. I can only see how to add or overwrite. Would be useful for organization purposes to be able to remove them as well.
On the character sheet, it looked like most of the Knowledge skills were there, however one I did not see was Knowledge Regligion.
Not sure if this was a feature or a bug but you can stand a really long distance away from a node in order to harvest it. On top of this it seemed like this would help to not agro NPCs but I can’t be certain on that point.
The map pin you can place on your map gets reset when you die. Not a big issue but something that could be fixed.
Trading was not working at all, as far as I could tell. I got it to work last week but I couldn’t get it to work this week.
General Question
For the Cleric you it was noted you need to pick the Glory Domain in order to advance to Cleric 1. Do the domains actually have any effect on anything at this point? If not what is the plan for them in the future?
For crafting, I didn’t get to delve into it too much, but are the recipes that you loot expendable or once you have them do you always keep them?
Can we also potentially get a couple more character slots enabled for testing? Would be great if we could have maybe 10 character slots.
I am curious for those of us who might be on playing at the same time, are you going to happen to be on a TS or something similar so we can hear there instead of delayed over Twitch?
**EDIT**
To clarify this was directed at GW. Since being in the game and watching the stream from them, if they needed help demoing anything or wanted us to do something it would be delayed.
We have lost a couple of our players over the course of the last couple months. As such I am opening this game for re-recruitment. I will award PFS chronicles for this game if you are interested.
There is a definite need for at least a semi-dedicated healer and a solid front liner.
I would like to get things rolling again quickly. I will leave recruitment open until 6/18. If we get some solid applicants before that I may make an early decision.
Please take a look at the Campaign Info for more details about how I run things and feel free to catch up on the current going ons in the Gameplay thread to build into your background/story. We are nearing the completion of book one. I would like to try to maintain at least a 1/day posting excluding weekends from players, but would love more posting if you can.
Character Creation:
-Level 3
-2500 gp starting wealth
-Max health 1st level, Half+1+Con mod every level their after
-Classes from Core, APG, UM, and UC are acceptable - No ACG playtest
-Core races, Aasimer or Tiefling would be preferred. If you want to play something else I may allow it based on background.
-NO third party publishing sources allowed
-All other Paizo products will be allowed
-Race traits, feats, magic items, and alternate class features from the ARG are allowed but you can not build your own custom race.
-2 traits
-20 point buy with no stat above 18 or below 7 before racial adjustment.
-Please include a background, personality and appearance block.
-Also please explain why you would be joining up with this group that are already unofficial heroes of the town and have the trust of a number of its citizens. More specifically, if you are already a level 3 adventurer why weren't you already helping out with things.
Thought I would post this up here in case there was any interest. I have a great group I am running through the entire Thornkeep dungeon via Play by post. We have lost two of our party members. As such I am recruiting for 1-2 more players. These are being run for PFS credit so you would need a Pathfinder Society organized play character. I would prefer a level 2 character and someone who is interested in sticking around for the completion of all 5 levels of the dungeon. However, we could potentially take level 1 characters as well.
The group is currently composed of
Bard 2
Ranger 2
Fighter 2
I have had these three characters in my PbP games since March of last year so it is a great, dedicated core group.
Thought some of you might be interested being that this adventure/dungeon came about because of PFO.
I am opening recruitment for this game. We have just barely started to explore Thornkeep and the goal is to play though all of its levels. This IS a Pathfinder Society game so you will need to have a level appropraite PFS character. In this case we are specifically looking for a cleric at level 2. Would prefer if you just hit level 2 so that you level with the party, but it is not a requirement.
Great group of players. We have gone through the First Steps Games together and we are looking forward to completing Thornkeep! Please post with your interest below.
Current party is Ranger, Fighter, Bard. In addition to a cleric we may also potentially consider a rogue type.
So it has been some time since I have really updated the PFOFan.com website. With the second land rush picking up and Alpha getting ever closer I wanted to bring this to everyones attention.
Since it has been awhile I wanted to re-state the goals of the site. PFOFan.com is intended to be a site for community building without directly linking it to a specific guild (chartered company, settlement, nation, etc). It is positioned to be a source of news for the game independent of any organization. Once the game is released I would also like for it to be a place that fosters the growth of the community and where community news about events and different things going on in the server can be found. Additionally, I would really like to see more of the commmunity social features utilized to the point it acts as a sort of social media site for the *characters* and guilds of the game.
**Emphasis on characters rather than players. The community social features could be a really great way to have more information and external play around the characters of the game, rather than focusing on the players.**
Current functionality includes:
*News posts about Pathfinder Online
*Community Social - features such as creating groups, events, adding friends, etc
*Forums
*Dev Feeds
*Teamspeak - Guild neutral teamspeak for anyone that registers on the site to use
As noted this hasn't been heavily updated in several months. However I am working on that aspect. Some things for those who are already familiar with the site. I have removed the link to the PFOFan wiki (the wiki is still there just no longer on the main page) Instead, I have added the link to the Pathfinder Wiki where I will be working on information moving forward. Also, as you may have noticed I swapped things out to the lighter color scheme. The old color scheme is still selectable but I will likely remove that in the future.
Finally I did want to put this out there. I am extremely busy so while I do plan to start investing a great deal more time into the site once again I would happily consider, if there were others, individuals that might be interested in helping to maintain/update the site. Specifically around posting up news around the game, if nothing else acting as data collectors/writers for me to post up onto the site. Additionally, if you are knowledgeable with Joomla and web development in general I could always use help with the maintenance and implementation of new functionality on the site. If you are potentially interested please feel free to shot me a PM here.
