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Here is the OOC Discussion Thread. I'll post more information once we get everyone in here.
“We are mercenaries, all of us, but only a precious few have honesty enough to admit it. Whether we sell ourselves for coin, for honor, or ideals, we all have a price whose continued payment leads us inevitably to our end. But when that end comes, will you admit to your balance sheet? Or will you lie when you claim that the blood on your hands was spilled for just cause, not simply your hunger for glory?” The world has never been a safe place. Bastions of civilization populate a dark, menacing world—islands of order and reason exist in a land otherwise overrun by dark cults, vile monsters, creatures from the dark edges of the imagination, and worse. One of those bastions are the Elsir Vale, a quiet frontier land bordered by mountains. It is inhabited by farming communities and various small cities and towns. No monarch or ruler holds sway over the Vale; each city is run by a council and manages its affairs in a state of relative peace with its neighbors. Ancient History of Elsir Vale:
The scattered human towns and villages of the land now known as the Elsir Vale grew up along the Dawn Way, an important east-west trade road linking the heavily settled lands that lie northwest across the Endless Plains with the exotic kingdoms and goods of the coastal lands lying to the southeast. Much of the Dawn Way was built by an ancient dwarven kingdom that spanned the Wyrmsmoke and Giantshield Mountains more than a thousand years ago. While their kingdom is long gone, their roads, bridges, and cisterns remain in use to this day. After the kingdom passed, the presence of various monsters and raiders kept traffic along the Dawn Way light for many years; few caravans dared the long and dangerous trek. Few humans lived in Elsir Vale during those years - only scattered settlements of druidic folk who tapped into the rich planar magic of the Vale. In the end, however, they left behind little more than grassy barrows and stone circles on the hilltops. About five hundred years ago, the nearby city of Rhest came to control the vale and a large swath of land north of the Giantshields as well. Soldiers from Rhest secured the roads all the way to Dennovar and beyond, creating a safe passage for trade. More and more traders traveled the Dawn Way, and the kingdom of Rhestilor grew wealthy on the tariffs exacted from the passing merchants. Under the kingdom's shield, the towns along the Dawn Way - Brindol, Dennovar, Talar, Terrelton, and the rest - grew up from tiny hamlets or lonely soldiers' posts to flourishing human settlements. The kingdom of Rhestilor eventually collapsed under civil strife, monstrous incursions, and magical blights. Almost two hundred years and fifty years ago, the city of Rhest was burned by a savage horde that descended swiftly from out of the Wyrmsmoke Mountains. Although the warriors of Rhestilor killed much of the horde, the city was abandoned and the already weakened kingdom broken. The locks and canals surrounding Rhest fell into disrepair, and the Blackfens Swamp swallowed the ruined city. For centuries following the collapse of Rhestilor, the dry and dusty Wyrmsmoke Mountains were home to dozens of goblinoid tribes. Although travelers were forced to skirt the goblin-infested hills by a generous margin, in general the Wyrmsmoke tribes, depleted by the battles surrounding the collapse of Rhestilor, posed no significant threat to the nearby human towns and settlements other than the occasional bloody raid. In the years after the kingdom's fall, the towns of Elsir Vale came to look after themselves. Most of the local lords still held titles derived from the old kingdom of Rhestilor. While everyone knew that the kings of Rhestilor were long dead, no new realm arose in the Vale.
Elsir Vale Today:
The vale stretches almost 250 miles east to west and averages about 70 miles north to south. Several small mountain ranges and dense forests form the vale's borders. Though the borders of the vale are mostly hills, mountains and forests, the heart of the vale is grassy plains for the most part. Every town in the vale is surrounded by numerous farms. Beyond the civilized areas are vast rolling plains with infrequent hillocks and copses of trees. Elsir Vale lies in the subtropical latitudes. Summers are hot and dry (although punctuated by the occasional intense thunderstorm), and winters are warm and rainy. Large stretches of the area are quite arid, and the vale is flanked by the vast savannahs stretching for mile after dusty mile. The forests that stretch across most of the vale's northern reaches are stifling and sweltering hot in the summertime, with not a breath of wind to relieve the oppressive heat.The largest town in the Vale is Brindol, located roughly at its center. Brindol is a thriving trade community. At the western edge of the Vale, a week’s journey from Brindol, the city of Overlook and its fortress of Bordrin’s Watch command the only pass across the Stonehome Mountains and keep the Vale safe from the occasional Orc incursion from the wild, lawless lands of Thar. In between, along the Dawn Road, lie a number of smaller towns that serve as market centers for outlying farming communities and host various trade fairs. The town of Dennovar lies to the east of Brindol, and represents the last sizable population center as the Vale spreads outwards into the Golden Plains. To the east, across the Golden Plains (at least some of the time) lies the fae city of Mithrendain, known to residents of the Vale as the City of Autumn. This magnificent city strides the border between the mortal realm and the Feywild, and exists in each for fully half of every year. During the spring and summer, it resides a few hundred miles to the east of the Vale and is the source (or destination) of a significant amount of the trade that flows through the Vale. To the north, outside the borders of the Vale lie the ruins of the city of Rhest, once the center of a kingdom that spanned the entirety of the vale, but now a long crumbled remnant inhabited mostly by Lizard folk and other creatures best left unmentioned. To the south is the eerie and undead-infested Barovia... a blighted land that is ruled by whatever dark master resides there. Only the truly desperate or hopeless visit or worse choose to live in those lands.
EXPECTATIONS:
Setting Expectations The following guides are excellent resources for GM & Player's alike. Doomed Hero's Guide to PbP Painlord's Tips I have read several times and will be continuing to use the following guide to help the players and myself remain on the same page. Painlords PbP GM tips Some of the things that I want to set expectations on are as followed: 1 - We are here to have fun. When it becomes a chore to be active in the game it is time to take a step back and reevaluate. If the issue is something that a bit of communication and effort can resolve then drop me a PM. If not, and a brief sabbatical (two weeks), can not rectify the situation then I will not take issue with you leaving the game. Just communicate with me!
Fair warning I will not hold up the game for anyone. If you take longer than 48 hours, I may either assume your action (or "bot" you) or say your character does nothing. Barring unusual real life occurrences or especially busy work days, I will be prepared to post once a day (though I will likely check the game multiple times per day), but if there isn't anything for the GM to add then you will not see anything. That is why ensuring that each post is a "Push" per the guidelines threads above is important. If conversation has stalled out then I will push the game in my assumed direction. 3 - Put your vital stats, expended charges and active conditions in your forum tag line. It really helps for those situations when I may need to make a roll for the whole party (eg. everyone makes a reflex save) and I don’t have to click on everyone’s profile. When you edit the profile for your alias, anything that appears these fields will appear on your tagline in posts on a PbP thread (in this order):
All you need to do is put your vital stats in these three fields and you are good to go. Formatting goes a long way. Here is some code from GM’s Damo’s page (with extra spaces before the the "ooc" that you will have to remove). Gender: [ ooc]Male[/ooc]
4 - The following PC rolls will always be made by me to keep things moving:
Player dice rolls of these types will be ignored, unless specifically requested by me.
Knowledge checks
Furthermore, I may make a roll of any kind on your behalf if you do not make it within a timely manner (see above on this). * Where the group is involved in a diplomatic action and a diplomacy roll is required, I will roll using the PC with the highest modifier for the group as the primary roll and the next highest modifier for an assist. Depending upon roleplaying and other circumstances, I may allow multiple assists also, or require someone other than the PC with the highest modifier make the primary roll. Otherwise, the players roll these individually. 5 - Format speech in bold with the quotes still there. This helps to draw attention to what the character is actually saying (as opposed to what you are saying about the character). Eg. Jambon the Ranger runs back to the party. Goblins around the corner, beware!" Use "ooc" tags to say things out of character. It puts your post in blue and helps GMs and players alike to tell when you are talking about mechanics and when you are talking about your character. Eg. Jambon tries to squeeze through the door. Make sure to use the discussion thread for "ooc" text that is not relevant to your current post. For some cool ideas on how else to format your text, see Doomed hero's advanced tips. 6 - When leveling I will ask that you post all alterations and changes in the OOC Thread so that it can be tracked. 7 - We will be using the D&D 5E “Theater of the Mind” approach to combat. I will post maps / pictures as I feel necessary and have time to alter/create them. If clarification is needed for lack of mapping / pictures then please ask before stalling on the post. 8 - If some of this looks familiar… some of it was copied, altered, and twisted from GM Damo’s page linked off of Painlord’s Guide. Credit where credit is due.
The Crunch:
Standard rules apply except as follows: Race: Human (use Variant Human Traits) Ability Scores: Use the standard set (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) If you are still with me after reading ALL of that… here is the final steps for what I am looking for in the game. I will be looking to recruit 6 players to set off on this journey (though if, and I mean IF, there are just to many absolutely fantastic applications I might expand it to 8 players). Characters should be made at Level 4 with the above (Under The Crunch) ability scores. I tend to use an amalgamated world so you may see references to many gods or things outside of the “standard”. For example, you may see references to the Krynn Gods of Magic alongside of the Faerun or Greyhawk gods… I also have a soft spot for Norse gods. You may or may not noticed that I included a bit of my own spin to the Elsir Information (replacing the Thornwaste with Barovia and included an Eladrin City). I may include several concepts from other editions here and there… that being said I am pretty flexible with concepts. Everyone that is planning on putting in an application should understand that I ultimately plan to finish this module as a lead-in to Scales of War. Any player that makes it through the end of this module will be given priority for that but for now we will focus on the Red Hand of Doom. If you have any further questions feel free to ask them so I can expand upon anything here.
Like the title says... just curious how popular running one of the Paizo APs with 5E would be? Or maybe even the 4E Scales of War AP for 5E. I really like 5E, but I don't quite like their new adventure setup. I have so many AP resources though. I would likely keep the game in "The Theater of the Mind" because it is easier to work with in a PBP format. I have a few House Rules, but I need to look over them again.
This is the campaign that I am running with my tabletop group that the following thread was created to facilitate: Preparation-for-WOTR-Campaign There will be SPOILERS! You have now been warned in the title and in the body of the first message. Let me precursor this journal with the following statement: I love Paizo products and APs (they have some of the best stories available! I've followed them ever since Age of Worms in Dungeon and James Jacobs work with the Red Hand of Doom), but I have some issues with the Pathfinder system which are the same issues I had with the original 3era system, but that is neither here or there. I won't respond to any messages about that. This campaign is an experiment in that it uses the Paizo modules to run a storyline in an OSR game. We are currently playing through The Demon Within using ACK (Adventurer Conqueror King) but have decided to move to something with a more solid foundation. We will be picking up our old 2nd Edition books for Wrath of the Righteous. This game does not take place in Golarion, it is an amalgamation of several worlds and several campaigns. It is using the same world I have used off-and-on for over 10 years. Just so happens that during the Red Hand of Doom campaign that I ran in this world (2006) one of the players created a kingdom for the background of his Paladin with a similar area to the Worldwound. I have now borrowed the material from the Worldwound guide and the name from Wizards (The Chaos Scar) to fill out this area for the campaign. It formally used the old Greyhawk gods (or the stock 3.5 gods you could say) and an attempt at a custom pantheon, but has since "borrowed" the gods from Faerun. Now let us begin the Tales of the Crusade...
Life in Diamond Lake continues as it always has. This month was just like any of the other ones, however this week's featured treasure hunters happen to be a trio of adventurers from the Free City, who have been speaking openly of their intent to raid the empty Stirgenest Cairn for at least a week, their plan has had time to spread through all corners of Diamond Lake. Another word on the street however, is someone has gotten it in their heads to raid another cairn, each of you has heard it from a friend or an acquaintance that a meeting is set up in an abandoned overseer's office just an hour outside of town for those with reason to want to finally get out of Diamond Lake. And your reasons have brought you out here this early in the morning, dawn is still an hour away. The modest dwelling squats upon the crown of a small hill. While the rough stone walls of the first floor look mostly intact the second floor has completely collapsed. A half height wall rings the house but it too is in a state of severe disrepair. Rubble and dense weeds choke the yard except for single path leading up to the office which is made of smooth stone blocks, though it stands in shambles. Thick vines creep up the side and most of the windows are broke. The front door hangs open, barely on its hinges, under a sagging and partially collapsed porch. Small mounds of debris litter the floor of the building's interior. Loose stones, dead weeds, and grime cover virtually every surface. Paintings must have once adorned the place as indicated by the particular stain patterns marring the walls. The only light comes from a single lantern upon a table in the front room, which illuminates clouds of dust dancing through the stale air.
Welcome! Re-posted from the Recruitment thread.
I am using this thread to bring together some of the ideas (and my own thoughts) on the boards in a singular place in preparation for my new campaign. Maybe others can use it as a reference point for their campaigns or it could only end up useful for me. If you have ideas for the Wrath of the Righteous AP or know of ideas used in other threads or campaign journels, please share! First item up for bid is Book 1 of Wrath of the Righteous!
Since the beginning of history, the mortal world has measured time in ages. Ages of Glory, of Dreams, and even of Great Sorrows mark the human tally of years, giving a sense of order to the events of past centuries. But one Age has yet to occur—an age of darkness, of decay, and of writhing doom. Astrologers, diviners, and the servants of Fate believe that the Age of Worms may begin at any time. The canniest among them fear that it has already begun and the Herald of the Eternal Night calls... The PBP Guides:
Hello, potential applicants and readers! First off, I want to introduce myself. I have been around on the Paizo boards for many years now. Last year I had to step away to help my significant other through a hard time she was having medically, but we made it out the other side. During this time I spent my free time researching the retro-clones in my nostalgia for the “good old days” of gaming. After a few interest checks I have finally stuck upon the following game idea. Using the Age of Worms. one of the best Paizo APs (imho) chalked full of nostalgic goodness and using the Sword & Wizardry Complete. So without further ado... I present Herald of the Eternal Night (Age of Worms Sword & Wizardry Edition). This game will be Episodic, much like a TV Series, we will focus on each module and replace any fallen players during the transition from episode to episode. Part I is "The Whispering Cairn". Sword & Wizardry:
The Sword & Wizardry Complete rules are available for download on this very site! Sword & Wizardry Complete We will be using standard character creation rules for Level 1. Though you can shift your attribute scores around to be control the character you want to play. I have access to the Player's Companion which includes the Anti-Paladin and the Bard class... No one can play an Anti-Paladin. I will be accepting 4 to 6 players. There is a bit of details in the spoiler's below that should help to generate a small background. We will add more background once characters are accepted using the "Backdrop: Diamond Lake" suggestions for character ties. House Rules:
I am only using a single House Rule for now. The first one is a slight adjustment to Assassin. Their backstab has a 25% chance to kill the opponent, provided the opponent's hit dice are no more than 1 higher than the Assassin's level.
And now to the story... Diamond Lake:
Welcome to Diamond Lake, a small mining town nestled in the rocky crags of the Cairn Hills, three days east of the Free City of Greyhawk to which it is subject. Iron and silver from Diamond Lake's mines fuel the Greyhawk's markets and support its soldiers and nobles with the raw materials necessary for weapons and finery. This trade draws hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers and artisans, all hoping to strike it rich. In ages past, Diamond Lake boasted an export more valuable than metal in the form of treasure liberated from the numerous tombs and burial cairns crowding the hills around the town. These remnants of a half-dozen long-dead cultures commandeered scandalous prices from Greyhawk's elite, whose insatiable covetousness triggered a boom in the local economy. Those days are long gone, though. The last cairn in the region coughed up its treasures decades ago, and few locals pay much mind to stories of yet-undiscovered tombs and unplundered burial cairns. These days, only a handful of treasure seekers visit the town, and few return to Greyhawk with anything more valuable than a wall rubbing or an ancient tool fragment. In the hills surrounding the town, hundreds of laborers spend weeks at a time underground, breathing recycled air pumped in via systems worth ten times their combined annual salary. The miners are the chattel of Diamond Lake, its seething, tainted blood. But they are also Diamond Lake's foundation, their weekly pay cycling back into the community via a gaggle of gambling dens, bordellos, ale halls, and temples. Because work in the mines is so demanding and dangerous, most folk come to Diamond Lake because they have nowhere else to turn, seeking an honest trade of hard labor for subsistence-level pay simple because the system has allowed them no other option. Many are foreigners displaced from native lands by war or famine. Work in a Diamond Lake mine is the last honest step before utter destitution or crimes of desperation. For some, it is the first step in the opposite direction: a careful work assignment to ease the burden on debtor-filled prisons, one last chance to make it in civil society. Despite its squalor, Diamond Lake is crucial to Greyhawk's economy. The city's directors thus take a keen interest in local affairs, noting the rise and fall of the managers who run Diamond Lake's mines in trust for the government. This is the place you grew up in, this is the place you plan to leave behind for a better life once certain financial obligations have been met.
The Whispering Cairn: The lively mining town of Diamond Lake, a muddy smudge on the map of the hills east of the fabulous Free City of Greyhawk. Diamond Lake's inhabitants are predominately miners and laborers, serious folk who spend most of their lives toiling below ground. When not working, the miners celebrate along the Vein, a seedy road lined with ale-houses and brothels. Overall, the village is a sooty, sullen place prone to unpleasant bursts of violence and passion. But Diamond Lake holds plenty of opportunities for adventure, for the uplands surrounding the town are rife with the ancient tombs and burial cairns of long-dead cultures. Idly chatter around the village speaks of a trio of richly dressed adventurers who frequent the taproom of the Feral Dog, Diamond Lake's most notorious tavern. The confident heroes of Greyhawk spoke of hard-won battles on their journey to Diamond Lake, and of their intention to explore the long-abandoned Stirgenest Cairn on the lake's distant southeastern shore. The natives of Diamond Lake, know that cairn is oft explored by the community's youth, who always find it completely empty of marvels and perfectly harmless. Not so another cairn within a day's ride of the village. This cairn lies near an iron mine that went dry about 50 years ago. The mine's charter lapsed when its manager died a few years later. Situated in a sort of no-man's land, the cairn was all but forgotten, its yawning entrance overgrown with weeds and choked with debris. Rediscovered by a curious teenager a decade ago, the cairn has since been a sort of community secret held by Diamond Lake's youth, who dare each other to disappear into its cyclopean entrance to prove their bravery. Occasionally, when the wind is just right, haunting, almost magical tones emerge from the depths of the forlorn tomb. Those who know of its location call it the Whispering Cairn. If adventurers from the Free City expect to discover hidden passages and riches within the Stirgenest Cairn, it stands to reason that the Whispering Cairn might also hold a genuine opportunity for profit. In the rough-and-tumble mining village of Diamond Lake, where desperate folk slave in dank tunnels to profit wealthy masters, an opportunity for profit is an opportunity to escape.
My last interest check did not generate anywhere near what I hoped it would generate (1 person in 36 hours). I don't know if it was because it was an older AP (Age of Worms) or if it was the system choices. So I am breaking it into piece mail. I have become slightly obsessed with the new retroclones (or even the old originals) over the past year. The urge to run something using one of them begun to build. Originally I set my sights on Age of Worms (the amount of throwbacks in this AP has always astonished me) but without the previous interest I've decided that could certainly be tossed. Now I am just looking for the interest in playing one of the retroclones (or AD&D). And if the interest is there which one has the biggest following. Each of them has pros and cons... Sword and Wizardry Complete has a more extension list of Monsters available to it. Adventure, Conqueror, King has a rather interesting choice of classes between the main book and companion which I liked. AD&D 2E is a system I have a familiarity with (atleast formerly) and is a complete game with all the splat books. Dungeon Crawl Classics has the old school feel, but is a bit more modernized however it has some odd mechanics (Luck... Funky Dice).
I am considering running an Age of Worms campaign, but I have no interest in using Pathfinder or D&D 3.x/4E/5E. I currently have three choices in mind for the campaign. Adventurer, Conqueror, King
Just testing the waters for popularity of these systems and the Age of Worms which is one of the most "throwback" of all the APs ever released (and my personal favorite). Sword and Wizardry Complete has a more extension list of Monsters. Adventure, Conqueror, King has a rather interesting choice of classes between the main book and companion which I liked. And AD&D 2E is a system I have a familiarity with (atleast formerly) and is a complete game with all the splat books.
This is a campaign journal for my Friday Night Game Night. It consists of two different groups that rotate Friday Nights with me at the DM Helm. Currently the game hasn't started so I don't have names but the characters have been mostly created and the game begins at level 2. Oh... and the world is a mishmash of worlds into my own homebrew. Group A
Human Cleric (Folk Hero) - Spent the last year of the Crusade aiding the villages that were financial ravaged by the war and aiding the wounded warriors returning to Bordin's Watch from the Crusade. High Elf Monk (Hermit) - A mysterious monk that is training upon the Shadowdancer path. A follower of the Xae Yae faith and servant of the Twilight Monastery. Sir Drock Kalath; Dragonborn Fighter (Noble) - Fought in the Crusade under the banner of the Knightdom of Halstein. Currently travelling the Valelands to recruit people for the Endless War in Northern Halstein against the demonic influnce of the Chaos Scar. Half-Elf Warlock (Sage) - Not much is known about this character yet. Tiefling Wizard (Acolyte) - Raised in the Triadic Church by Father Dietrich, uncle to the Human Paladin & Human Cleric. Group B
Once again, I am back with a mash-up idea that is beyond ambitious. Currently preparing to run a game that is slated to use several Paizo modules and adventure paths (34 modules spread between 4 adventure paths, PFS scenarios, and solo modules there will be a list below)... well because I am a bit crazy like that. Paizo just writes some of the best modules in existence and often times the storylines can go far beyond the confines of a system (I have used several of them in different systems including Dresden Files RPG, World of Darkness, Savage Worlds, Star Wars... well you get the picture). Experience is not an issue for my group (we aren't even playing Pathfinder *shifty eyes*). I only use the maps and story structure from the modules as the framework then I hang my own stuff on it. Currently I am going through these modules for a list of locales so I can continue on my task to string all of the modules together. List of adventures:
Rise of the Runelords *Burnt Offerings *The Skinsaw Murders *Hook Mountain Massacre *Fortress of the Stone Giants *Sins of the Saviors *Spires of Xin-Shalast Curse of the Crimson Throne
Shattered Star
Other Modules
Unsorted/Unconfirmed
Most of these are gathered from the varies forums of other Mash-ups or the vast amount threads on side-quests in the presented adventure paths. I am still looking through the forums for other side-quests and now I am working on how to chain them all together. Any suggestions are welcomed, afterall the BrainTrust here at the Paizo forums are some of the more inventive and creative lot I have seen on the interwebs. Also if anyone can help with the lists of locales in the adventures that would save me a bit of effort here and there while I am glancing through these modules. You are probably wondering how I could chain the Varisia paths together with the Kingmaker ones... while that is simple... the game is not set in Golarion. I will post more as I begin to connect these modules together! A side note: This isn't a final list of confirmed modules... I've been thinking of using some of the Second Darkness modules too. I am also not opposed to non-Paizo modules. I considered Red Hand of Doom already but I don't really want modules that cover that large of a range. I have already ran Kingmaker #1 several times in attempts to get a Kingmaker campaign off the ground, but they never work out quite right. The last attempt saw the campaign start falling apart during Book 2 so I inserted Queen of the Fellnight Realm as an early end. This is particularly why I am not including Kingmaker #1, #2, #6 as my group already dealt with Fey antagonist in the last two years. I am avoiding Demon and Undead antagonist as well because several of the players in this group just finished another high-level gestalt game with me that dealt with Orcus, the Abyss, and Undead... lots of demons and undead. So I am trying to avoid them now... even though Carrion Crown and Wrath of the Righteous are some great modules.
This will be the OOC thread for the War of the Lance Evolved... a re-imagining of the War of the Lance in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. The new 'Heroes of the Lance' are the following... The Prophet
The Leader
The Rogue
The Ranger
The Mentor
The Protector
The Idealist
The Hawk
“Gather around and let me tell you a story... this one is about the War of the Lance... no, not that one. This isn't your father's story, this isn't about the Innfellows from Solace, no... this story is different... certainly you will see some similarities if you look closely, but there won't be any Majere twins, or Sturm, or Tanis, or... well you get the picture. This story doesn't even begin in Solace... it begins about two hundred miles to the east in the town of Langtree.” Welcome! With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition or Next, or just Dungeons & Dragons, whatever you want to call it, I have found a renewed love for the old settings... like Dragonlance. After some consideration and a short interest thread I have decided to run a modern re-imaging of the Dragonlance Classic, War of the Lance... You won't be finding the Innfellow here or even all the elements of the classic storyline. The overall theme, the thread of Takhisis, and the epic-storyline to determine the fate of Ansalon, nay... all of Krynn. This game will begin in the town of Langtree. The following information is provided for your viewing pleasure (gathered off the Dragonlance Nexus Lexicon) Langtree:
Along the southwestern coastline of Blödehelm, lies the town of Langtree, or even Langtree on the Green. Following the Cataclysm, a Knight of Solamnia called John of Langtree fled from Solamnia with his family and journeyed to Blödehelm. Stopping on the western shores on an inlet of New Sea, he built a wooden stockade that would serve as their new home. Over time other refugees and exiles passed by the stockade and took up residence, and soon a small town had been built around the stockade. Eventually a fortress replaced the stockade and the town of Langtree was born. In later years, one of the rulers of Langtree declared the town and it's surrounding lands to be the independent Barony of Langtree, and the ruler to be the Baron of Langtree. The town became filled with mercenaries and refugees and the Langtree barons (being a military-minded family) were renowned for their private armies of mercenaries. Governed by the patriarch of the Langtree line, the town formed an alliance with the city of Vantal several years before the War of the Lance, to protect the Blödehelm region from the fearsome ogres of Blöde. Langtree Castle was built to replace the wooden stockade that was the first dwelling in what would become the town of Langtree. The castle became the home of the Langtree family, who are the rulers of the town. The castle is maintained to the highest order, everything clean and orderly. Stables are set to the side, and a vast courtyard dominates the area beyond the castle entrance. A spartan and orderly barracks is where the soldiers of Langtree are housed, and the castle itself had a laboratory set below ground level, where the baron's war wizards practiced their art and research. Located on the outskirts of Langtree is the large hill nicknamed "Heave-Your-Guts" where the Army of the Mad Baron was trained, by sending the recruits running up and down the hill in full battle regiment. The Army of the Mad Baron is the name for the various mercenary forces that united under the banner of Ivor of Langtree. Ivor, also known as the Mad Baron, was considered to have one of the finest small armies in all of Ansalon during the Age of Despair, as his forces were extremely well trained and disciplined. He often had requests from people asking to use his services, but would only allow his army to undertake requests that were good and seemingly honorable. Ivor of Langtree was the ruler of the town of Langtree in the years prior to the War of the Lance. Known as a wise tactician and strategist, Ivor signed a treaty with the king of Vantal, in order to maintain a joint alliance against the ogres of Blöde and any other enemies that would rise against either Vantal or Langtree. Ivor was also known to openly worship the god Kiri-Jolith, a practice which earned him the nickname "The Mad Baron", as most folk considered the gods to be gone from the world at this point. Ivor was known to be good at a game called Knight's Jump, and his favorite mount that he rode into battle was Jet. Born as a second son, Ivor never expected to rule and spent his young days living by the sword, hiring companies of men, which he led into battle. With the untimely death of his brother however, he inherited rule of the town of Langtree. Described as a small and slender man who stood at five feet and two inches, with a dark complexion, long black hair and brown eyes, he could almost be mistaken for a kender. However he was also reputed to have the courage of a much larger man. He was known to love fighting, gambling, ale and women, in that particular order. Whilst he did continue to serve as the ruler of Langtree, Ivor also continued to train and build his own private army of mercenaries, who were much sought after for many causes. However Ivor would only allow his troops to engage in causes he deemed honorable and just.
Character Generation:
Standard rules apply except as follows: Appropriate Races: Humans (use Variant Human Traits), Half-Elves, Hill Dwarf (Neidar), Kender (Lightfoot Halfling), Half-Ogre (Half-Orc)
Appropriate Classes: Everything except Sorcerer and Warlock. Divine Classes will find themselves under some restrictions in the beginning, remember this is the end of the Age of Despair. The True Gods have not returned yet and that is part of the story of the War of the Lance. Ability Scores: Use the standard set (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) Background: Choose your Background then choose your traits, ideals, bonds, flaws. I will not be using the optional Feats rule, if you wish to play with the Feats then you will need to be Human (which you get one Feat).
Character Roles:
The following eight roles were filled by the “classic” Heroes of the Lance and these are the roles I will looking for in characters. Ignore the information that seems strange (aka referring to d20 rules or talking about chapters because I copied it from Volume I Dragons of Autumn as I got into a bit of a rush.) The Prophet
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
The Leader
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
The Rogue
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
The Sage
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
Additional Archetypes
The Ranger
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
The Mentor
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
The Protector
The Classic Character
Riverwind, companion and defender of Goldmoon, also qualifies as a Protector. What Could Replace the Character
The Idealist
The Classic Character
Among the Innfellows, Sturm is not always understood. The rules by which he governs his life sometimes are at odds with the rest of the party. Tanis seems to have an uncanny ability to make Sturm realize that sometimes even the most rigid rules can be interpreted in different ways. As the story progresses, Sturm grows to realize that the world is not as black and white as he once thought. What Could Replace the Character
The Ingénue
The Classic Character
Laurana, Princess of Qualinost, also begins as an Ingénue, but later develops into a strong and inspirational leader of the Solamnic armies. What Could Replace the Character
The Hawk
The Classic Character
What Could Replace the Character
Although Gilthanas later becomes available as a PC (after Laurana is kidnapped in Chapter 2: Flame), any player who wishes to assume this role for his character should be given the opportunity to do so.
Any questions? I probably over looked several things in my rush to post this recruitment thread.
I have always loved Dragonlance, and only got to run a few short things in it. However I am greatly enjoying the new 5E ruleset, and seen a few other 5E games that seemed to fill up quickly so now I propose the following concept for an Interest Check... A modern re-imaging of the War of the Lance with the new Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. There has been a great many things that have come out since the early ages of D&D and Dragonlance, and that is why I am calling it a modern re-telling because A) You will be your own heroes. B) I have no plans on using the actual War of the Lance modules (maybe a few elements here and there), but I feel like there are better versions of the Evil Dragon Goddess invades with her armies and the heroes have to save the world from her machinations now. So I purpose the following line-up with some of my own custom alterations to the storylines... A) Keep on the Borderlands (or Return to the Keep on the Borderlands) in Dragonlance, set in the New Coast area just a few days from Solace (not set on that yet, but I've been reading around it would be a good area for it). into B) Red Hand of Doom (set across the whole of Krynn where Takhisis' invasion happens as opposed to the Vale in the book). This module has tons of dragon elements, and Evil Dragon Goddess elements that can be altered to Takhisis. into C) Something epic to end the machinations of Takhisis on Krynn and send her fleeing back into the abyss. I will continue to investigate this concept while I await to see how much interest it would generate.
I am looking to tap the collective knowledge of the vast BrainTrust that is the paizo forums for the name of all the modules and scenarios that resolve around the Thassilon ruins, the Runelords, and 'artifacts'. I am planning an epic campaign that resolves around the ancient Thassilon, the Runelords, the Swords of Sin, and the First King Xin. The following are the ones that I am most aware of... Rise of the Runelords AP (Karzoug)
I would ultimate like the name of the module, or season/scenario, as well as the topic that it deals with aka which Runelord or artifact or Thassilon topic. Thanks in advance. For the Curious about my evil plans - Definite Spoilers - Info Dump: I am planning a massive mash-up campaign that resolves around the Runelords, influences from Carrion Crown (/Age of Worms), and Wrath of the Righteous. I am tapping into both Wrath of the Righteous and Carrion Crown for massive events/conspiracies leading to the awakening of the Runelords and the First King Xin. As a mash-up I plan on replacing quite a bit of locale and I am turning Xin into a God-Emperor (replace the Whispering Tyrant) and adding a sense of overwhelming evil to the Runelords (Carrior Crown/Age of Worm influences) and having a prophecy about blanketing the world in an eternal night that begins with a demonic invasion and ends with the rise of the ancient evils of the Runelords (Wrath of the Righteous connections). I am working out all the details but the above list is important to the planning of the campaign. I believe the Shattered Star ends with an awakening of Xin, which I have not yet read all of the Shattered Star. The Carrion Crown influences may not be necessary at all, but I have a man-crush on AA as an antagonist especially with the addition of the letters to the PCs from these forums. Also I am a huge fan of Frankenstein influence of Module 2 and the fact that suddenly the Gods are not the sole creators of life, etc etc). And well... The Wrath of the Righteous is just badass. I am running this campaign as a sort of continuation to another campaign from a long time ago where a player character had become an Immortal (long before Mythic Adventure rules using the old Wrath of the Immortals boxset rules), and will be replacing Terendelave as well Professor Lorrimors as a mentor. The current plan is for them to have some experience with the character beforehand (not knowing of his true nature) like Runelords 1 or Shattered Star 1 or even as simple as him sending them into the Crypt of the Everflame possibly several adventures, than run Wrath 1, former PC turned NPC goes down in a fight with a Demon Lord while saving the PCs (possibly using a massive unknown rune of protection on them, still in development), followed up by his funeral as per Carrion Crown 1 and the characters having to pick up where their mentor left off (stopping a demonic invasion, the rise of Thassilon, and the second coming of the God-Emperor Xin, again still a work in progress, I am open to suggestions!. Experience/Treasure are not an issue. I plan on detailing this campaign on these forums including the planning of the mash-up and the campaign journal itself.) Note: Several of the players were part of the former campaign so it is kind of a homage campaign for them to see their former characters as important NPCs. Which was basically a retooled Red Hand of Doom, followed by some home-made stuff including one of the PCs fathers becoming a Fallen Paladin/Deathknight which he had to defeat in solo combat, and a lich trying to corrupt an Immortal whom the PCs had to defeat and one of them had to take on the Immortals portfolio to keep balance... I have no qualms with breaking and tweaking Golarion! or throwing it out completely *shifty eyes*
Minkai has, in truth, been no stranger to civil war. The nation has endured several during its existence, although to date, none of these wars have fundamentally changed the empire's philosophy or methods of rule. In fact, Minkai has always been ruled by emperors from one of the five families invested with the divine right to rule by Shizuru herself. While one ruling family might command for several generations, it has traditionally been but a matter of time before another rose in power to take the place of the previous dynasty. Minkai's current internal troubles can be directly connected, it seems, to the fact that four of the five ruling families have vanished over the course of the last several decades. The last surviving imperial family in Minkai, the Higashiyama, held onto the Jade Throne of Kasai until just 3 years ago, when the Emperor was whisked away by his own guards “for his own protection” to an undisclosed fortification. In the emperor's absence, rule of Minkai is the province of the empire's so-called Jade Regent. Unfortunately, as the years have worn on with no sign of the emperor's imminent return, this Jade Regent has grown ever more despotic and demanding. Many believe that the emperor is dead, and that the mysterious jade-armored figure known as the Jade Regent is in fact a pretender to the throne—yet the Higashiyama family continues to staunchly defend the man they put in the role of regent, thus keeping Minkai's eight provinces from outright rebellion. But while the province's leaders remain outwardly loyal, their citizens, emboldened by what seems a daily increase in unfair taxes, brutal police action, and ever more oppressive martial law, grow restless to the point of rebellion. Minkai awaits the final spark to trigger an all-out civil war... ================================ Hidden away in the Forest of Spirits, near the border of Minkai just outside of the Jade Regent's influence and two hours from the Spirit Road, is the Twilight Monastery perched hundreds of feet above the ground on a towering crag called The Kami's Rest. The Monastery is a three-towered monument and only a score of monks dwell within it. They dedicate themselves Tsukiyo and a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit, and these secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens. Foremost among the monks is Samuru, a peerless masked combatant. Travelers infrequently seek out the Samuru and those few that even survive the path are turned away without ever gaining access to the Twilight Monastery, for Samuru deigns to accept only a handful of apprentices foretold to him via the agency of the night sky. Protected by the benevolent denizens of the Forest of Spirits; the Twilight Monastery guards a important secret that could save Minkai from the machinations of the cruel Jade Regent.
This is the Out of Character discussion thread for "War of Honor". I will be post information sometimes that doesn't quite deserve a story post as well as discussion issues about the game that may arise. I will also post any pertinent information here. Shortly I will be formally welcoming the six players that were chosen into the campaign. Over the next few days (re: as quickly as possible) be working to reconcile every character background to a single time-frame so we begin the on the same page of the book.
Minkai has, in truth, been no stranger to civil war. The nation has endured several during its existence, although to date, none of these wars have fundamentally changed the empire's philosophy or methods of rule. In fact, Minkai has always been ruled by emperors from one of the five families invested with the divine right to rule by Shizuru herself. While one ruling family might command for several generations, it has traditionally been but a matter of time before another rose in power to take the place of the previous dynasty. Minkai's current internal troubles can be directly connected, it seems, to the fact that four of the five ruling families have vanished over the course of the last several decades. The last surviving imperial family in Minkai, the Higashiyama, held onto the Jade Throne of Kasai until just 3 years ago, when the Emperor was whisked away by his own guards “for his own protection” to an undisclosed fortification. In the emperor's absence, rule of Minkai is the province of the empire's so-called Jade Regent. Unfortunately, as the years have worn on with no sign of the emperor's imminent return, this Jade Regent has grown ever more despotic and demanding. Many believe that the emperor is dead, and that the mysterious jade-armored figure known as the Jade Regent is in fact a pretender to the throne—yet the Higashiyama family continues to staunchly defend the man they put in the role of regent, thus keeping Minkai's eight provinces from outright rebellion. But while the province's leaders remain outwardly loyal, their citizens, emboldened by what seems a daily increase in unfair taxes, brutal police action, and ever more oppressive martial law, grow restless to the point of rebellion. Minkai awaits the final spark to trigger an all-out civil war... ================================ Hidden away in the Forest of Spirits, near the border of Minkai just outside of the Jade Regent's influence and two hours from the Spirit Road, is the Twilight Monastery perched hundreds of feet above the ground on a towering crag called The Kami's Rest. The Monastery is a three-towered monument and only a score of monks dwell within it. They dedicate themselves Tsukiyo and a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit, and these secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens. Foremost among the monks is Samuru, a peerless masked combatant. Travelers infrequently seek out the Samuru and those few that even survive the path are turned away without ever gaining access to the Twilight Monastery, for Samuru deigns to accept only a handful of apprentices foretold to him via the agency of the night sky. Protected by the benevolent denizens of the Forest of Spirits; the Twilight Monastery guards a important secret that could save Minkai from the machinations of the cruel Jade Regent. ================================ First and foremost this campaign is a modified Jade Regent campaign. It will take place entirely in Tian Xia, primarily around the Minkai Empire and the Forest of Spirits. I will likely borrow significantly from other modules, adventure paths, and influences of my choice as well. There will be no 'Caravan' in the campaign, but I will be making use of the Kingdom Building (and Army Rules) from the Kingmaker Campaign (more specifically the compilation of the rules presented within the “Book of the River Nations”) eventually as the party struggles against the Jade Regent. Table Rules in Play:
E6 – E6 was created for 3.5 D&D so some of the rules are outdated and since no one has completed an E6 update specifically for Pathfinder we will decide on any discrepancies on a case-by-case basis. Critical Fumble/Hits: I own the Pathfinder GameMastery Critical Hit and Critical Fumble decks, and will be using them in game. Fumbles use implementation option #1 (if you roll a natural 1, you follow it with a confirmation roll at your highest attack bonus, if that misses, you will receive a random yet appropriate effect from the deck). Confirmed Critical Hits replace 1x of your critical multiplier with a random card. Regular rules for stacking multiple multipliers apply. Alignment & Honor: Alignment will be largely ignored. Remove all spells dealing specifically with alignment. Any class with an alignment restriction loses it. Paladins may worship any god, save 'evil' gods who have anti-paladins. 'Neutral' gods can have either paladins or anti-paladins. Alignment will be replaced by Honor from the Dragon Empire Primer. A character's honor is represented by points, with a possible range of 0 to 100, a score of 0 represents someone who is untrustworthy and regarded as devious, and a score of 100 represents someone whose honorable deeds precede them. Honor is not a measurement of fame or goodwill so much as a gauge of loyalty, trustworthiness, and fairness. One could be a kindhearted-but flighty shogun with an Honor score of 0, or a cruel-but-stalwart monk with an honor score of 100. A character cannot have more than 100 honor points or fewer than 0. Any abilities that deal with Alignment (Detect Evil, Smite Evil, etc) will be modified by honor.
Character Applications:
Level: 1 Ability Scores: Epic Fantasy (25-point Buy). Traits: You get 2 traits (We will not be using any campaign traits given the modifications to the campaign). Races: A Subject of Discussion. Races of the Dragon Empires+Tian Natives (Tian Humans, Elves of Jinin, Tianjans (Aasimar), and Hobgoblins of Kaoling) will be given priority over exotic or Xijan (Foreigners) races. Absolutely No 3PP or Custom Races. Alternate traits are acceptable. Classes: Any Pathfinder RPG sources allowed except for Gunslinger (Tian Xia has laws against the usage of Black Powder). For obvious reasons Tian classes (Samurai, Ninja, Monk, etc) will be given priority. Archetypes welcomed. No 3PP classes. Wealth: You live in a Monastery. You start with the average gold for your class. HP: Max at 1st Level. Thereafter you will roll 2 HD and take the largest of the two rolls + Con modifier. Background: You should also have several paragraphs of background information about your character. I am looking for quality, no quantity. Two paragraphs of well-written back story is better then seven paragraphs of glaring spelling, grammar mistakes, poor storytelling, and horrible writing. Bonus points for including traits, story hooks, and well-detailed NPCs into your background. The current expectation for the campaign is that you have grown up in seclusion in the Twilight Monastery. If you wish to change this then you are required to include additional background information about how you came to be part of the Twilight Monastery. With the lack of alignment there is something to keep in mind when deciding/making your character. I want to care about your character and I want the other players to care about your character. I want the world to care about your character. I want the characters to be able to work well together as a group. I am not looking for the “Lone Wolf”, the “Anti-Hero”, or the “Mercenary that is only out for himself”. Your character does not need to be a straight-shooting, halo-wearing, happy-go-lucky, sickeningly sweet, how could someone be so utterly good character, but if they do not have any redeemable qualities or I don't think they will get along or be able to work in a group then I will not accept the character. Honor: At 1st Level, a PC starts with a number of honor points equal to their Charisma Score (not modifier) + 1 (for first level). Whenever a PC's experience level or Charisma score increases or decreases then his total number of honor points increases or decreases by the same amount. A PC can gain or lose honor points during play as well. E6 Addition – A character will gain a point of honor every time they gain a feat as if they leveled. Please answer the following question with your application.
The Councilor ensures that the will of the citizenry is represented. This position uses WIS or CHA.
Recruitment will continue until Thursday, December 13th or until I have 18 completed applications. I will then select SIX characters for the campaign that I find the most appealing for the game and campaign story. If I see a character that absolutely amazes me to the point that I can't see myself running the game without them I will give that character a slot ahead of schedule. Please be aware that I tend to run role-play heavy campaigns as the interaction between the characters are the story that I get to enjoy as a DM. Combat may be ran primarily free-form but I reserve the right to use a map when I can. It will really depend on what type of time-crunch I am in at the start of the combat. During combat initiative will be broken up by the bad guys' initiative (All PCs before Bad Guys' act, then bad guys, then all PCs after, etc). Feel free to ask any other questions that I may have forgot to include answers too.
I have been eyeballing the Jade Regent AP for awhile. I have briefly looked over the modules and have lurked a few of the threads here, but I am bringing this project to the forefront of my gaming initiative. I am a huge fan of modifying the APs as well as sometimes mashing them up. I currently am running a Curse / Kingmaker mash-up on these boards, and I am looking at Jade Regent now. I am on the agreeing side of some of the people that I would have liked to see more of Minkai in the beginning half of the AP. I have read about the dangers of Ameiko as well. I am considering moving her "destiny" of the AP to another character (PC likely) but I am worried about that PC over-shadowing the other PCs (but then again that is similar in Kingmaker with the "Ruler" PC). So what I am getting at is that I would like to hear about the modifications to the AP that other people have used. Additional modules and where they were inserted. What am I working on right now is bringing the AP strictly to Minkai and replacing the Caravan rules with the Kingmaker rules as they struggle to build a "rebellion" against the Jade Regent and return the rightful heir to the throne. Any suggestions towards achieving that goal would be welcomed. I will post as I come up with information to achieve this (I need to do a more complete read of the AP again).
I know that Curse takes the players out of Korvosa for some time. Does the Council of Thieves do a similar thing or does it stay in Westcrown? I am interested in this because from what I've seen about the Mythic rules, it looks like they are a sub-set of rules that can be used to give a game a very "Fantasy Superhero" feel. I want to run an Urban AP and go down that route with it and Council of Thieves seems the most likely to help that along for me. Given the players vs league of villains feel it seems to have... I modify all of my APs anyways and I want to run it more like "League of Heroes" vs a corrupt city (see Batman, Arrow, etc).
It appears that we have lost a player in my "Sounds of War" game so I am doing recruitment for a single replacement. The game is a modified mash-up of Kingmaker and Curse of the Crimson Throne using the E6 rules. Below are links to the game as well as a copy of the original character creation guidelines... "The Sounds of War"
Campaign Info / Character Creation:
This campaign is heavily influenced by Kingmaker and Curse of the Crimson Throne; in fact at the core of the campaign is a Kingmaker/Curse of the Crimson Throne mash-up. It may borrow significantly from some other modules, adventure paths, and influences of my choice as well. This will be my first attempt at running a play by post game on Paizo (though I have experience with running other play by post games and I played a select few a long time ago on the Paizo boards). The campaign will be set prior to the Swordlord's charter. The official name of the opening chapter is called “A Swordlord's Gambit”. This will be an E6 campaign that will be using the Slow Progression Chart until Level 6. I will be accepting SIX characters that I find the most appealing for the game and campaign story. I want to care about your character and I want the other players to care about your character. I want the world to care about your character. I want the characters to be able to work well together as a group. I am not looking for the “Lone Wolf”, the “Anti-Hero”, or the “Mercenary that is only out for himself”. Your character does not need to be a Lawful Good, happy-go-lucky, sickeningly sweet, how could someone be so good hero, but if they do not have any redeemable qualities or I don't think they will get along or be able to work in a group then I will not accept the character. Character Creation
What non-Ruler posting(s) will you as a player be aiming for? For optimal player cooperation, aim for a listed role, and let the eventual “ruler” be chosen by the party for in-game reasons.
Table Rules
Though roles have not been chosen yet since the game has not gotten that far you can see from the question in the character creation guidelines that I am interested in having the "ducks in a row". We have the following characters and roles. Antha Scapegrace - Half-elf Wizard (Grand Diplomat or Magister)
On the south eastern border of Brevoy the tall spires of the Free City of Restov rises from the Rostland Plains. It is a shining jewel of civilization known as a capital of trade and knowledge, a major access point to the Brevic south, and a city that believes in every man's freedom. The tall spires of the city not only boasts the Restovic University, dedicated to research of all kinds, but the Aldori Academy of Blades, the best martial school in the region. To the north of the city, the Rostland Plains are farmed, a breadbasket for the entire region. East lies the foothills of the Icerime peaks, rolling and gentle near the city, but turning steep and craggy. To the south Restov is edged by the Shrike, a wide and slow river once used for trade with other countries but now plagued by river pirates and bandits. South of the shrike lies the largely disputed but mostly unsettled land oftern referred to as the Stolen Lands. West of the Free City lies more farmland and light forest, quickly deepening into untamed wilderness. With the rumors of the growing discontent in the north, the Swordlords of Restov walk a delicate line. Now the city is filled over capacity, as the city becomes packed with guests, travelers, entertainers, opportunists, and undesirables for the betrothal ceremony between the Lord Mayor, Ioseph Sellemius, and the Lady Alexis Orlovsky. While many people are forced to find accommodations outside of the city, each of you got lucky and found a room at the Gnarly Hobbit, a modest inn ran by a family of halflings and one of the last inns with room. The proprietor of the inn and family patriarch, Bingo Guessford, makes sure the inn is well-cleaned while providing each guest with a hearty breakfast, a mid-day snack of honeyed sweets, and a modest dinner all for a reasonable rate of five silver a night.
Here is the OOC discussion thread for the game. I will be posting some more information in the next few days as well as working to reconcile every character background to the current timeline which is before the call to retake the Stolen Lands. I like to formally welcome the six characters to the game! Grendolynn - Hobgoblin Ranger
Now the current event of the campaign that is bringing people from all over Brevoy to Restov is the betrothal ceremony between Alexis Orlovsky (Daughter of Lord Orlovsky) and Ioseph Sellemius (Lord Mayor of Restov). It means lots of important people and lots of opportunity to get work or become involved with the right people. I put the following in the campaign information section. --------------------
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This campaign is heavily influenced by Kingmaker and Curse of the Crimson Throne; in fact at the core of the campaign is a Kingmaker/Curse of the Crimson Throne mash-up. It may borrow significantly from some other modules, adventure paths, and influences of my choice as well. This will be my first attempt at running a play by post game on Paizo (though I have experience with running other play by post games and I played a select few a long time ago on the Paizo boards). The campaign will be set prior to the Swordlord's charter. The official name of the opening chapter is called “A Swordlord's Gambit”. This will be an E6 campaign that will be using the Slow Progression Chart until Level 6. I will be accepting SIX characters that I find the most appealing for the game and campaign story. I want to care about your character and I want the other players to care about your character. I want the world to care about your character. I want the characters to be able to work well together as a group. I am not looking for the “Lone Wolf”, the “Anti-Hero”, or the “Mercenary that is only out for himself”. Your character does not need to be a Lawful Good, happy-go-lucky, sickeningly sweet, how could someone be so good hero, but if they do not have any redeemable qualities or I don't think they will get along or be able to work in a group then I will not accept the character. Character Creation
What non-Ruler posting(s) will you as a player be aiming for? For optimal player cooperation, aim for a listed role, and let the eventual “ruler” be chosen by the party for in-game reasons. Table Rules
I do not have access to the Advanced Race Guide so I will not be allowing it. I do have access to the Pathfinder SRD so races that appear on it will be allowed. 
I was just wondering if anyone has ran Kingmaker in other campaign settings? Which ones? What did you change / where did you focus the adventure? I was considering Birthright for the campaign at one time and was placing it in the Giantdowns. I was wondering where someone would put it in Greyhawk, maybe the Shield Lands / Bandit Kingdoms?
I am wondering if the following would be significant power boost for characters in an Adventure Path to replace the availability of magical items. I am prepping a game and want the world to be low-magic (arcane classes can not go over level 5 / 3rd level spells), and magical items are not abundant. Therefore the players will not have access to buying magical items and I will be toning down a lot of magical items in the books, giving the ones that I leave in place more special (they will have names and back stories). So in the place of that I am wondering if I allow the characters a much higher point-buy total (like 25 as I have seen many examples of 25-pt buy characters steamrolling encounters in the APs) and giving them Hero Points if that would make up the difference in the lack of abundant magical items?
As a huge fan of kingdom building and coming from an extensive Birthright background. That being said after looking at the Kingdom Building rules I came up with several adjustments that I am considering and would like to see implemented. My campaign is planned to take along time and span several modules (see my CoCT / Kingmaker mash-up thread in General Discussion) so I don't think my adjustments will hurt my players in the long run but I want to see what the community thinks about how the adjustments will impact the game. 1. Feudalism (Or Multiple Kingdoms)
Any attempts at splitting a nation into smaller ones will result in completely separate kingdoms per the rules. Any additional agreements reached by the rulers will be "binding" as far as laws go, but are not actually required to follow through on the agreement. There will probably need to be a check as the nation is aware of their "Sovereignty" and not upholding bargains can lead to war which causes the commoner a number of problems. 2. Cutting the Bonuses
I am leaving all bonuses granted by ability scores because of leadership roles alone. Bonuses applied by Buildings and Alignment are going to be cut in half. In the case of +1 bonuses it will require 2 buildings of that type to apply the bonus. I think this rule will keep the bonuses from getting out of hand but still leave the Kingdom sustainable. 3. Removing the Magic Item Economy
My idea is to use the "city value" as a bonus to BP. So each city built to max value gives a +4 BP (16,000 gp). This is personally my favorite idea, the Economy bonus is still lower but more sustainable. Obviously the PCs can sell their own magical item excess. 4. Slowed Building Rate
5. Seasonal Turns
What are some other adventures that are recommended to help round the Adventure Path out?
What are some other adventures that are recommended for the Kingmaker AP? I've seen several people mention the Carnival one.
Been awhile since I've been over on the Paizo boards but I have been lurking the last week and reading posts all over about Kingmaker and Curse of the Crimson Throne and mash-up campaigns. It has gotten me hooked on an idea that just doesn't want to go away which is a Curse of the Crimson Throne / Kingmaker campaign and if that wasn't enough I wanted to pepper some of the extremely good modules around into it. I haven't worked out the details as I originally considered something like Curse 1-3 into Kingmaker 1, as a start, but realized there is better ways to do it. As the Kingmaker Path proceeds the "characters former home" is increasingly hit with unrest and tyranny. I originally thought about running it in the Fate 3.0 system, but I've been recently talking about taking the best things I like about Fate 3.0 and layering them into Pathfinder in a sort of "Action Points" type of way, and that is Aspects / Fate Points. Since this campaign is neither Curse of the Crimson Throne nor Kingmaker and both at the same time I didn't think if it really fit in one of their sections, if anything I guess it would probably fall under the Kingmaker section tho. As an aside I was also heavily considering a Age of Worms / Carrion Crown mesh.
A more complete listing for all the available rares. These are all Celestial Edition & POTD except for Fatina which comes from Words & Deeds. Dutiful Apprentice
Am I guilty of this mentality because I believe that combats should challenge my players and the threat of death to characters should be real and not "make-believe"? I am not looking for anything like a TPK but I do enjoy the occusional PC death. Maybe I just come from a different era of play where it wasn't a big deal if your PC died and you just spent the remaining session making a new one. In my gaming circle we use to talk about the characters that died more then the characters that survived. PC Death can be a powerful moment and is only fairly achieved in combat as opposed to say the powerful moment that is a storyline death of an NPC. The one thing that I seem to miss about 3.x is the lethality of it over 4E. I have seen far less characters die in a longer time span then in 3.x... I think between a handful of campaigns that I've only seen a single Feylock and a Swordmage die (and the Swordmage was my PC in another game, also just so happens the Feylock died in the same battle.) I am done rambling now...
Anyone really get to look at this yet? What would be your opinion on it.
Confirmed Cast
Work in Progress
Unconfirmed
A) This serves if anyone is interested in playing then they know what is currently coming or could be coming up for players. B) Serves as a bump that isn't just a stupid shameless bump.
The free pdf of the module is only valid as a subscriber, correct?
I wouldn’t waste the money on going to this movie in the theatre but it *may* be rentable if you are using an offer like Netflix; if not then I wouldn’t bother with the movie until it comes out on HBO or Showtime. I heard that the critics rated it poorly and I don’t normally put much stock in what the critics have to say but this time I would listen to them. The movie seems to be disjointed in that there is no explanation of how things are happening to the characters despite some paper that prophecied the great tradegies of the world by date, number of people dead, and coordinates. So the gist of the rest movie is Man is trying to figure out the great mystery behind said paper while protecting his son from these “strange” people that appear in the movie. Oh, he is also trying to protect his son from knowing about the tragedies as if the boy has never known about tragedies before. A bunch of disjointed plot later and the great reveal about what is going to happen and with all the weird prophecy stuff that was on this paper the man is still trying to treat these “strange” people that keep popping up as normal as if a gun was going to be helpful. Maybe Hollywood was trying to suggest that it is true in the fact of the strange and unexplained people try to rationalize everything! I would say that half-way through the movie I had already determined what two possibilities the “strange” people were and let us just say that I was right, I think. Yeah, it is that confusing.
I want to generate traffic to my personal blog site where I post my thoughts on varies products that I get may hands on from Books, Video Games, Movies, Television, and RPG Products in hopes that some poor sap will save themselves from spending money on something they don't need or in hopes of getting people to support the products that need to be supported! What can I say I am an idealistic... Oh I am also using the blog to post development information for my Darkspace 4E setting which is painstakingly slow and agonizing. Also anything else that Arcmagik Productions can come up with will eventually be show-cased on the site... as I said I am an idealistic fool! I have currently posted on the blogsite the following: 3 Movie Reviews (Dragonball: Evolution, Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li, and Race to Witch Mountain), 4 RPG Product reviews (Song of Ice & Fire RPG, Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, Warriors & Warlocks, War of the Burning Sky), 1 Darkspace Racial Preview (Procerian), and 2 Birthright-specific modified races (Sidhelien (Cerilian Elves) and Cerilian Halfling).
I had the following thought as I viewed the trailer for Race to Witch Mountain: “Why are they going to destroy a classic movie?” I mean I like Dwayne Johnson in most of his movies but I seriously thought this was going to be a total failure. As expected of Disney the movie is watchable and I am sure that children was enjoy the experience of watching it. However that doesn’t excuse the fact that they turned Witch Mountain into a military “ufo” facility or supercharged the once meager ability of the children of Witch Mountain. I wondered a few times if I was watching a teenage superheroes movie or something that descended from Witch Mountain’s original movies. Ah well, I will accept the movie for what it is which is a movie aimed at kids and young teenagers which is perfectly acceptable and I will no longer over-think the movie as anything except that.
I will have to admit to a complete lack of Street Fighter knowledge beyond the original SNES game before I complete my review. My first throught throughout the movie was “Who’s idea was it to cast Lana Lang from Smallville as Chun-Li?” I did see the original Street Fighter movie along time ago but I seem to be vastly more impressed with “The Legend of Chun-Li” then I remember being impressed by the first movie. As far as martial arts action movies it seemed to have been well done though I think it definitely had alittle length to it that seemed drawn out at some points. Now, my second thought throughout the movie was “Who taught Gen the Kamekameha?” I have to admit that I just watched this movie directly after viewing Dragonball: Evolution and there is a very similiar artistic imagery between the unnamed ability used by Gen and taught to Chun-Li and the Kamekameha used by Master Roshi and taught to Goku in Dragonball: Evolution. Though this connection in no one lessened my enjoyment of the movie and I admit that it will likely be rare that a person watches this on the tail of Dragonball: Evolution (see not-likely).
The Dragonball franchise has been a very popular franchise for awhile now it would seem. It has spawned three different anime shows: Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT. It got picked up many years ago and shown on Cartoon Network in America as well as spawned toys, numerous video games, a role-playing game, and now apparently a live-action movie. Now I sat down and watched the movie and here is what I thought about it. It brought back memories of my teenage years where I was always going over to a friend’s house to catch the weekly showing of Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network after school. Beware though there are differences in Dragonball and the movie as such Goku is a unpopular teenage instead of a child. The show briefly features Grandpa Gohan and then focuses on Goku, Master Roshi, Bulma Briefs, and Yamcha. Where is Tien? Krillian? Kami? The bad guy is Piccolo and some female side-kick though I admit I never watched the entirity of the original Dragonball series I got no explanation in the movie of who this girl is. There is also of course Chi-chi who gets some good scene time and the little teenage attraction with Goku. The brief flashes of the world seem like they crossed our modern world with the Dragonball universe to get an odd blend. The movie was amusing to say the least and there is the Dragonball humor which makes a few appearences during the show. The worse part about the movie was the length at about 70 minutes as they tried to pack the entire Dragonball series (along with their additions to the storyline I might add). I dunno if I could have watched two in a half hours of a Dragonball movie but they could have lengthened it alittle more if they were going to try to pack everything into it.
I need to cancel my Pathfinder subscription. Thank you ahead of time for your response.
There was an error when I was placing the order because of the browser I was using at the time. Somehow my former address was still stored in the system even through I have been getting Pathfinder sent to my new address. I am sending an email with the correction as I post this.
Why am I being charged for the Preorder of Pathfinder #13 and not at the time of Pathfinder #13? This is a very important issue because I am use to paying 18 bucks and suddenly I am going to be charged 33 dollars... though granted I am paying less for shipping if I do get TWO of them but I don't see how that works. Will I not be charged for shipping and handling as well as #13 the following
I am getting ready to start a new Savage Tides game and after some careful consideration (and some discussion with players) we decided to make the Dragonlance Setting our new adopted game world for our sunday game. Now, I know Krynn mostly from the novels, and from the 3.5e Dragonlance book, my friend is going to be bringing all the other 3.5e Dragonlance books. But I am going appeal to the boards for alittle help if possible as well with ideas about how to make things fit in Krynn. First order of business... Sasserine, after looking through the geography of Anaslon (sp?), I decided that Sea Reach will be the new Sasserine, and I will just use the Sasserine from the Player's Guide and the backgrop with its new name of Sea Reach. Now, I need to read more... 
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