Dawn breaks over the vacuous streets of the city I once knew. Gone is the gentle caress of wind in the familiar trees, replaced by the unyielding clutches of the steel spires overhead. Gone are the lilting songs of a proud people united, replaced by the dispassionate murmur of cascading magic underfoot. Gone is the soul and hope of a sovereign nation, replaced by the scrutinizing gaze of false authorities beyond the judgment of mortals.
This is the very empire of gilded atrophy I sought to overthrow those many lifetimes ago. Now, I can see that my mission has not changed. We must be free once again…
—————
Alright, ya hooligans – the time has come to take the plunge into a world born from magic, raised by the arcane, and just entering its brooding teenage phase with copious amounts of edge to boot. Get ready for a fast-paced, genre savvy, self-aware romp through the arcane underbelly of a fantasy world gone horribly right.
Get ready for Dungeon Punk 1350!
What Is Dungeon Punk, Anyway?:
I’m glad you asked, friendo. When fiction started going punk, movements beyond the usual frontrunners like cyberpunk and steampunk started to emerge. Dungeon punk is the fantasy version – it’s about worlds that go wild with magic instead of technology, where magic is the technology, with elemental-powered trains and sky-pirates on airships and corporations that run on the soul trade and all other kinds of nutty magical nonsense wrapped up in the counterculture movements we all know and love.
This campaign is my first foray into the dungeon punk genre, so you’d better buckle up, buttercup. We’ve got one heck of a ride ahead of us.
The World After The Wars:
If you wage war long enough without a good reason for it, people start to get sick and tired of all the fighting. That’s exactly what happened when the Altivarn Adventurers’ Guild, aided by the clergy of the Parcivaldian See, rounded up the leaders of the Six Nations and got them to sign the Altruan Accords, putting an end to their squabbling over resources and territory. With peace came a magically-fueled industrial boom, and almost overnight, the world began to change.
Stone castles gave way to shining steel towers, covered wagons became cloud-skimming aircraft, and spellcasting, which had once been regarded as the most dangerous and difficult of professions, was given to the masses through the development of commercially-produced magical items. Even the Divines themselves set up shop here in the plane of Existence, leaving their lofty heavens behind to keep a closer eye on things with the common folk. Mortality rates plummeted and the value of spells skyrocketed; of course, it took the economy a few crashes to finally stabilize, but civilization has been moving right along with no stopping point in sight.
You know what it’s really like on the streets, though. On the surface, everyone sees the chrome-covered promise of a better tomorrow, and their hearts beat in sync with the arcane web pulsing through the city’s foundation, but life is never that simple. You’ve got your stuck-up knight-companies pushing their “security” on the common man, your all-seeing Temple Watch whisking spellcasters away in the night, your corporate snake charmers trapping people in soul-binding contracts. Every cat you see slinking down an alley is somebody’s familiar, and you can’t even be sure you’ll make it home in one piece, let alone the same pieces you started out with. All this in the name of a brighter future… but you know if you don’t look out for yourself, you won’t get to enjoy that future, assuming it ever shows up.
So, what kind of person are you? Are you working yourself to death just to save your pitiful excuse of a soul that you were so quick to sign away? Are you a Hedger, a magical problem-solver making your living right under the noses and two steps ahead of the authorities? Are you a visionary following some Divine-mandated directive in the hopes that you’ll ascend to a higher plane of being? Are you an up-and-coming mage looking to carve yourself a slice of the city with your mastery of magic? Are you one of the Mundanes who can’t cast a spell to save your life and can’t stand getting beaten down by wizards growing fat on ill-gotten gains?
Whoever you are, you’re in deep now, and this world has its claws in you until you find a way to break free.
Character Creation Rules:
25-point buy with 2 traits.
Any Paizo Publishing material. You can request 3PP content on a case-by-case basis, but most would conflict with the setting.
Any listed race from the “Races of Ralczan” document, which you can find here.
Characters start at level 2 and follow Fast EXP track.
No obviously cheesy feats like Leadership.
Feat Tax rules are in effect, which you can read here.
GM makes final determination on what is acceptable.
House Rules:
Anima Block: Ralczan is steeped in magic, and even non-spellcasters feel the adverse effects of being deprived of magical energy. If you enter or start your turn in an area that dampens, nullifies, or suppresses magical effects or spellcasting, such as an antimagic field, make a Fortitude saving throw. On a failed save, you are fatigued; if you fail twice, you are exhausted. If you succeed, you do not suffer any ill effects. The DC for the Fortitude save increases by 1 for each round you spend in the area of effect, up to a maximum increase of +10. TL;DR: standing in magic-free zones fatigues and eventually exhausts you unless you pass an increasingly-difficult Fortitude save every turn. If you fail, the effects last 10 minutes after you leave.
Knocked Out of Alignment: on the streets of the new Ralczan, black-and-white morality is a luxury no one can afford anymore. If a class lists an alignment restriction among its class features, it is possible to play a character whose alignment is outside the restrictions while retaining all class features. You can find a complete list of acceptable alignments for previously-restricted classes on this document. Restrictions based on deity or where a companion must be within a certain step of your character’s alignment remain the same. TL;DR: you can choose most alignments on alignment-restricted classes now, except for classes where your alignment has to stay close to someone else’s or their alignment has to stay close to yours.
Magic Wands for Everyone: the advent of magical utilities led to a massive market for magic items that could be used by even those with no spellcasting ability. When purchasing or crafting a consumable magic item such as a scroll or wand, you may choose to purchase or craft a “commercial” scroll or wand. Commercial wands can be crafted or purchased for 20% of the original wand’s cost, but only carry 20% of the original wand’s charges. Commercial scrolls function the same as their original versions, save that the user can only activate one scroll or one spell from a scroll containing multiple spells each day, preventing them from using multiple scrolls in rapid succession. However, for both commercial scrolls and commercial wands, the user does not need to make a Use Magic Device check or have the scroll or wand’s spell on their class’s spell list to use the scroll or wand; it can simply be activated as a standard action, regardless of whether the user is trained in the Use Magic Device skill or has the ability to cast spells. TL;DR: commercial scrolls and wands can be crafted or bought and used by any class without a Use Magic Device check. C-wands are 80% cheaper with 80% fewer charges, while C-scrolls can only be used once per day.
Maligned Mundane Munitions: while firearms can be quite effective against even heavily-warded spellcasters and other warriors, the associated skills and materials to manufacture mundane firearms and ammunition are in low demand compared to more publicly-available magical alternatives. The cost of materials to craft firearms and ammunition for firearms is reduced by 30% of the original cost. TL;DR: firearms and ammunition are 30% cheaper to craft.
Only a Flesh Wound: life on the streets of Ralczan is all new kinds of dangerous compared to how it used to be, so if you plan on making a living where risk and reward are your kinds of business, you have to be prepared to lose life and limb wherever you go and in whatever you do. This campaign will utilize the Wound Threshold optional rules from Pathfinder Unchained, with the following modification: rather than the Wound Threshold penalties scaling as -1, -2, and -3 at Grazed, Wounded, and Critical, the penalties will scale as -1, -2, and -4. These penalties do not stack. TL;DR: the Wound Threshold rules are in play, and the penalties are changed to -1 while Grazed, -2 while Wounded, and -4 while Critical.
The Nth Degree: magic may run everything these days, but there’s no accounting for mortal errors and chance happenings screwing you over. When you roll against a target number, such as a Saving Throw against a set DC or an Attack against a target’s AC, the results of your rolls will be divided into several Degrees of Success rather than a simple “pass/fail” check. Rolls just under or just over the target number may succeed in unexpected ways or introduce new complications based on the situation, rolls far above the target number may be treated as major successes, and rolls far below the target number may be treated as disastrous failures. These Degrees of Success will only be used if there are serious consequences for your actions (or lack thereof) that could impact the game and story. TL;DR: rolling really well, really poorly, or even slightly off the mark will create new problems or opportunities based on the consequences of your actions and circumstances.
Plus Ultra:
In a world that runs on magic, why would you ever settle for being normal? A major part of the appeal of RPGs is the chance to enjoy experiences you could never have in our world, so with that in mind, I’ve set up several tiers of rewards for characters who dig deep into the world I’ve created, accomplish incredible tasks, or become pillars of the community within the setting.
Some of the things you have to look forward to include the following rules.
Gestalt Character Progression: once your characters qualify for and accept this advancement, you will undergo a brief “catch-up” period where your character comes to terms with their new abilities, but after a while, your gestalt class level will equal your original class level. This allows you to enjoy the power of a gestalt character with more organic character development since they won’t be starting off gestalt.
Mythic Power, Mythic Spells, and bonus Mythic Feats: if you make it far enough in the game to acquire mythical levels of power, the aptly-named Mythic rules will come into play. These will be awarded purely as a bonus for accomplishing incredible feats in the story, and will be selected by the GM to complement your character’s abilities.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you need anything else from me, send me a Private Message or pop into the Poetics’ Play-by-Posts Discord server and ask away. For those interested in playing, hit me with your character ideas down below and we’ll see if we can make them work. Don’t delay – this offer is for a limited time only!
—————
This message is approved and monitored by the Temple Watch. Go forth in truth, citizen, and be free of your fears.
These thoughts broke through the crust of a mind positioned several feet above a mangled corpse on the factory floor. The mind belonged to a man who looked like he rarely ever laughed and slept even less.
“Any word from the Circles?” He directed the question to a stoic-looking woman standing apart from the small crowd gathered nearby. Everyone was wearing the same uniform – jackets and pants in the cold blue of a frozen ocean, their immaculate gloves and boots polished with a blackness that could rival a Riftspawn’s soul. The leader, who was busy fishing something out of his pocket, was set apart by his lack of a hat and the golden cravat tucked down the front of his shirt, which contrasted with the dull silver everyone else was wearing.
The woman shook her head and replied, “None of the known Circles have claimed responsibility. They settled for the usual response to our inquiries, which was to blame us for bringing this on ourselves.”
Of course they did, the leader mused sourly. As he pulled an unadorned crystal lens from his jacket, he glanced at the other three bodies scattered further away. Only two of them had been visibly mauled; the one at his feet likely died of a stricken heart, petrified by fear, while the fourth had been flung a considerable distance, their bones shattered against the steel braces keeping the little factory standing. Aloud, he said, “Continue surveillance on their meeting grounds and holy sites, and keep a close watch on the industrial sector. I won’t have us losing any more workers on my watch.”
“Yes, Commander Elish.” The woman took half of the uniformed guards with her as she headed for the exit, leaving her commander with the remaining four. Calder, better known as Commander Elish of the Temple Watch, uttered a short phrase and then thrust the crystal lens into the air, where it began to hang as if suspended by unseen threads… which, more or less, was exactly true.
He followed the lens as it slowly moved around the room, carefully stepping over the lifeless victims when its path took it over their bodies. The other guards watched with a distinct lack of interest when the lens and the commander both stopped moving, eliciting a heavy sigh from Calder. With another brief mutter, the lens fell into his outstretched hand, and he pocketed it once more.
“No magical presence whatsoever,” he stated flatly. “Either they convinced a few beasts to break in, which got spooked after their little murdering spree, or we’re dealing with shapeshifters again. Scribe Norben!”
The skinniest guard flinched at Calder’s outburst and stepped forward. “Yes, Commander Elish?”
“Why do we hate shapeshifters?”
“Because shapeshifters leave no magical signs to trace or effects to observe, sir.”
“You got that right. Temple Watch, prepare the Final Rites for our victims.” Calder could feel the weight of the investigation pressing down on him, but it wasn’t the time to give up. Like it or not, a few bodies were just part of a normal day at work.
Still, it was a bit unsettling to see so much of a body after a murder. Spellcasters could be trusted to burn, dissolve, or otherwise dispose of the corpse, leaving nothing but a greasy film of organic residue and the lingering signature of magic to show their handiwork. Shapeshifters, on the other hand... five attacks in two weeks? They were extraordinarily bold, and he had to deal with them armed with this pitiful excuse for a Contingent. The See was ready to oust him after the recent murders, and they wouldn’t take kindly to failure.
If it could get any worse, Calder wasn’t sure how.
—————
Prelude in Scarlet:
“I’m telling the truth!”
This frantic declaration was met with indistinct murmurs and sideways glances from the rest of The Golden Arms’ patrons. No one wanted to tell the old man that he was a raving lunatic, but it was definitely on everyone’s minds.
“You gotta believe me,” he pleaded in a softer tone. “Why would I lie to my good ol’ friends? Georgie, you know I wouldn’t lie, don’tcha?”
Georgie shuffled awkwardly in his seat and, falling victim to the overwhelming noise of his conscience, nodded once. “You wouldn’t lie, Mattick.”
“See? So why don’tcha think it’s true?” Mattick pushed himself up off the rough wooden seat and pointed a gnarled, quivering finger at the assembled farmers in front of him. “I’ve known every one o’ y’uns since y’uns was born, taughtcha how to live as friends to the land, and you show me this kinda disr’spect?” Shaking his head, his next sentence blocked by incredulous rage, he stormed off, aiming to put the tavern and the embarrassment of confiding in a bunch of naysayers behind him.
Right as he reached the door, though, a slender hand grabbed his arm gently and stopped him. He looked for its source and saw a wiry-looking woman dressed in a practical tunic, leggings, and boots, looking as if she’d just crawled out of some lost ruins with a sack of gold in tow. She even had a whip, for crying out loud! “Whatcha want? You gonna laugh at an old man, too?”
She shook her head. With a voice as tranquil as sharpened steel, she answered, “No. I believe you.”
Mattick paused, caught off-guard by her commanding tone and deadly seriousness. He felt like he ought to have been afraid of her, like he should have been running away, but he couldn’t quite pull away. “You do?”
“Yes,” she said, releasing his arm and gesturing toward the open seat next to her. Once he had settled into the chair, she peered at him with an intense expression, making him fidget for several moments until she finally broke the silence.
“You saw a castle in the mountains.”
Mattick nodded. “Yep. It weren’t just any ol’ castle, though – it was covered in metal, and it was… hummin’.”
“Humming? Like, music?”
“Nope, just… hummin’ along, like it was thinkin’ real hard.” He trailed off and looked at the group of farmers he had just left, who had turned back to their drinks and were pointedly ignoring his gaze.
“Don’t worry about them,” the woman said softly. “Just refresh my memory. Was there anything else that stood out to you about this metal castle?”
Mattick remained silent for a little while longer. Then, he said, “It looked like it coulda fell over any second, but it didn’t. There weren’t no flags or nothin’ on the outside – just dark metal.”
Her brows furrowed. “Dark?”
“Yeah, like it’d got burned. It looked like it got rolled through the soot outta my chimney.”
The woman didn’t respond right away, but if Mattick had to guess, she got excited by his answer. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would be happy about something so strange. Then again, she was one of those weird adventuring types.
Then came the next question: “What chased you?”
He shuddered, the words catching in his throat at first. “Somethin’… awful. Big, ugly, covered in spikes. It didn’t make a sound – just came chargin’ outta the trees and took a swing at me. I ran, but when I looked back, it had vanished.”
Suddenly, the woman was standing and heading out into the evening air. “Thank you,” she called over her shoulder. Then, she was gone.
Mattick sat there in stunned silence for several moments. Eventually, he called over to the barkeep, “Say, who was that woman, anyway?”
The barkeep glanced around with a puzzled look. “What woman?”
When they laid the first arcane web under the city, everyone’s eyes were so full of hope that you could see the magic reflected off them. When we traded in our endless wars for a chance at cooperation, we were happy to be silhouettes in the promise of a brighter tomorrow.
Now, the reflection is absorbed in the emptiness of our eyes. Now, we crave the comfortable solidarity of once being silhouettes. The light of promise struck the world blind…
…and all we can see are the shadows of our success staring back at us.
Hello again, denizens of the interwebs! I’m here to fire a shot of inspiration across the bows of your imagination and bring you an experience that’s approximately three weeks in the making, give or take a few nanoseconds.
How would you like it if fantasy went nano, if magic were the driving force behind technology, and if you found yourself in a Dungeon Punk realm with ethical dilemmas and morally-questionable choices at every turn? Luckily, you won’t actually end up there yourself… but your characters will.
Dungeon Punk 1350 is a near-future AU thought experiment based on a campaign setting I’ve built over several years. It’s like Pathfinder, but with more trenchcoats and magitek airships, and that’s just the beginning.
The Premise:
The premise is simple: what began as an attempt by the Divines to shield the last mortal life in Existence led to centuries of external and internal conflict – wars for territory, survival in the face of demon onslaughts, and dozens of apocalyptic-scale disasters, most of which were the fault of some mortal or another. After all that, it wasn’t the Divines who set everyone straight, but a skilled band of adventurers who got sick and tired of the world coming to an end every few years and established the Altruan Accords to get the world back on track.
The thing is, almost everyone in this world is sensitive to magic in some form or another. Magic was always part of everything, but it’s become everything, pushing civilization to new heights (and depths) thanks to the possibilities of the arcane. This led to a world that doesn’t quite feel like ours: body modification and industrialized farming is a snap thanks to transmutation spells, firearms never became more than a hobby since you can just carry pocket-sized wands of lightning bolts and tailor-made curses to shoot at anyone who screws with you, and if the morning commute is too much, you can just open a portal directly to work.
Of course, what you know on the street is that everything has a price, and magic itself always demands a pound of flesh for its services. This isn’t an economy that runs on the gold-silver-copper standard anymore. This is a dangerous place where you can just as easily find yourself on the chopping block of the cutting edge, your soul ripped from your body for violating a contract… or breaking the law… or pretty much any other reason imaginable. If you’re lucky, you’ll get stuck powering a servitor construct for a few years before you get your body back. If you’re not… well, there are special kinds of hell for people like you, and they’re probably some fat-cat wizard’s Pocket Prison Dimension for Annoying People.
Tread lightly. Don’t look directly into the shiny steel towers or self-lighting lamps of the fantasy future. Keep your wits, your soul, and all your other resources close at hand, ‘cause you’ll need every one of them to make it out here.
If this post generates enough buzz for my liking, I’ll put together a recruitment thread soon. If you have more questions about the setting or just want to pick my brain to see how the interior insanity stays so pristine, I’m happy to welcome your comments down below, via Private Message, or on the Discord server I’ve set up for PbP stuff.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope to see you… in the future!
For better or worse, Ferris Falls is a place where something is always happening. Now, it's happening to you.
Greetings and salivations, everybody. Welcome to the recruitment thread for Downpour, an Of Dreams And Magic PbP campaign! Never heard of the system? I'm not surprised, as I have yet to meet anyone who's played it before (and I haven't either), so that's why I'm starting this up in addition to my current Pathfinder PbP campaigns, which you're more than welcome to follow along with now that the forums are functional again.
On The System:
ODAM is a fairly open-ended system involving magic in the real world, dreams of the utmost significance, and struggling with the all-pervasive Doubt that threatens to smother your aspirations (at best) or outright destroy you (at worst). There's a ton of flexibility in both setting and gameplay, since a good chunk of the story takes place in dreams. Translation: we can basically tell any sort of story you want to tell, play how you want to play, and still maintain an overarching plot! Even on its own, that's enough reason for me to risk untested waters and see how it plays out.
The Highlights:
Build your own awesome dream persona so you can save the world
2d10+modifiers rolling to determine success or failure, with one die being positive and one being negative
Heavy emphasis on using Dreamwalking and Dreamscapes to carry the story forward and play with interesting stories or mechanics
Based on our world, but with magic and monsters and all that jazz
On The Story:
Downpour is a bit of a departure for me as both a GM and a writer. It won't be one of the high-fantasy adventure epics I'm so fond of, and will stay mostly grounded in individual struggles, personal vices, and raising awareness of mental conditions and disabilities.
The year is 2018, and the PCs all live in the city of Ferris Falls, a once-great haven of touristy goodness that's gone by the wayside ever since the internet became a thing. Whether you're a long-time resident or a new addition to its quirky and fiercely-dedicated citizens, there's an allure to the city that you can't quite explain, and it just feels right for you to be there. Beyond that, your character's backstory is entirely up to you! Keep in mind that this story won't be taking place in the established ODAM setting, so things like the DCMA and MOX don't exist.
Stuff You Can Do:
Explore a very-probably-haunted city
Get your butt kicked in a barfight
Jump into dreams to fight the Doubt and help people overcome their personal struggles
Rap battle with a gang of goblins
Write the Next Great American Novel from the comfort of a coffee shop
...and so, so much more!
Prominent Themes:
Dealing with anxiety, depression, and other conditions of the mind
Discovering one's role in a group of people struggling with similar issues
Encouraging people to pursue their dreams in ways they might not have considered
Surviving external threats that use your internal struggles against you
The Doubt is a pretty nasty adversary, so that means things might get heavy and messed-up; also, I know that delving too deeply into subject matter like this might be difficult for some players, but the whole point of the campaign is to show you that you're not alone. I deal with this stuff every moment of every day, and I want to share what I have to say with people who will appreciate it.
On The Rules:
The beauty of ODAM is that all the hard caps for character creation are baked into the system, so I don't have to limit you on point-buy or other elements of character creation. All the arrangements of Categories, Traits, and the like are fair game. If you have specific questions about character creation, you can either PM me or post here so others can see the answer.
Expectations (these should be familiar):
At least 1 post every 24 hours, with wiggle room on the weekends
Respect your fellow players, the GM, and yourself
Use the documents and Discord server I've provided to keep the lines of communication open
If RL gets in the way of the game, PM me or post in Discussion so we don't think you disappeared
There will be some funky stylistic choices and breaking of molds that I'm personally trying out to better myself as a writer. If we get into the game and you realize they don't vibe with you, let me know so we can work out a compromise (and you should let me know of any issue we ever have anyway; I can be reasonable from time to time).
Finally, I haven't decided if the campaign will be taking place here or elsewhere. With the recent outages, I'm inclined to swerve on that risk and settle for another solution, but I'll give the people whatever they want in that regard.
Since I've been wanting the chance to play for several years and just haven't yet, I'm skipping the interest check and going straight to recruitment. Show your love (or hate... if you're into that) down below. I'm hyped, and I hope you are too!
To all of you who decided to embark on this wild ride, welcome!! I can't really put into words how excited I am about this, seeing as how they're all trying to crash out at once.
Things to Remember
Follow the character creation guidelines in the Campaign Info tab and the Recruitment thread. All character-related questions can be sent to me.
There's a couple of documents that pertain specifically to the progress of the story. The Accumulated Knowledge doc does away with overlapping and unnecessary Knowledge checks, plus it will track everything the party learns over the course of their travels. The Dramatis Personae doc is a fun little thing to keep track of who's who and who's dead (not that I'm trying to kill anyone... as far as you know).
My intended start date is Friday, August 17th. Be there or be disassembled on a subatomic level.
So, there's a lot going on here that will probably need clarification and explanation as time goes on. Also, this is the space to debate/discuss in-game rules and events as they're happening.
Everyone, get those aliases in here so we can set this party bus on fire!
To all of you who decided to embark on this wild ride, welcome!! I can't really put into words how excited I am about this, seeing as how they're all trying to crash out at once.
Things to Remember
Follow the character creation guidelines in the Campaign Info tab and the Recruitment thread. All character-related questions can be sent to me.
There's a couple of documents that pertain specifically to the progress of the story. The Accumulated Knowledge doc does away with overlapping and unnecessary Knowledge checks, plus it will track everything the party learns over the course of their travels. The Dramatis Personae doc is a fun little thing to keep track of who's who and who's dead (not that I'm trying to kill anyone... as far as you know).
My intended start date is Friday, August 17th. Be there or be disassembled on a subatomic level.
So, there's a lot going on here that will probably need clarification and explanation as time goes on. Also, this is the space to debate/discuss in-game rules and events as they're happening.
Once, you thought this was all there was, the sum total of all Existence. Now, you're a sad little spark in a sea of slithering shadows. The last thing you remember is a blinding, scorching light that threatened to tear you apart down to the bone... but it didn't. You woke up, and even though most of your friends are gone, some got left behind, and now you all have to clean up whatever mess you've gotten thrown into. How's that for a fun time?
You may or may not have been keeping tabs on the interest check located here, but the time has come for an official recruitment thread!
Welcome... to the Last Continent.
The Premise:
For a long time, everyone thought the continent of Ralczan was the only gig in town on the material plane. For the most part, the humans who lived there managed to get along, barring the occasional war over succession or territory, but it never got bad.
Then fire erupted in the sky, the heavens split open, and everything went to s+!*.
It became clear that this wasn't the only plane with living things in it, and the Divines - as they called themselves - pleaded with mortals to help them avert a catastrophe the likes of which would never be seen again, mostly because it was going to end Existence (both the plane and the thing) for good. So, we started skirmishing the Riftspawn demons that were trying to wipe us off the map, and once we were good and ready, we marched off to war.
Of course, the war never happened thanks to the giant explosion that rocked the entire continent.
Now, here we are - dazed, confused, and somehow still alive. Some of us are missing, vanished without a trace. The land seems... mostly fine, to be honest, but it's different. Things have changed, and they're changing even more. We have to figure out what happened and why, and whether our homes are still safe after all this.
Preparing for the Campaign:
As outlined in the interest check thread, there are several guidelines for character creation to keep your character firmly grounded in the lore. Here are the basic rules to get your started.
3rd-level start, 20-point buy.
2 traits and 1 drawback. Background skills will be used.
Choose from one of the following races, all of which have their stats outlined in the folder linked below: Dwarf (Rufalg), Elf (Kiranae), Half-elf, Halfling (Altruan), Human, or Kestari. Homebrew stats are liable to change as I learn more about how they balance with other races. The other races will be unavailable based on the current year, which is AC 13 by the Ralczan Calendar.
3PP content is on a case-by-case basis. PM me with suggestions, but keep it in-line with the established lore.
Unchained Summoners only.
To save on bookkeeping, we'll be using the marvelous Feat Tax rules to show all you martials a little love. Enjoy!
I've also assembled a set of documents in this folder that will shed some light on some of the lore and mechanics you'll be playing with, including lore and stats for all the races.
Expectations:
I'd like to think that I'm very easy to please. If I had a tail, I'd be chasing it in circles all the time. Since I don't, I play RPGs, and I also happen to entertain some semblance of a life beyond the game (but only a small one). My expectations should mirror those of many PbP GMs out there, so my one rule is really this: be courteous and consistent in all that you do.
I'll be posting at least once every 24 hours, and I expect you to do the same. Weekends are more flexible because of RL stuff, but if you're at all familiar with how tethered I am to a computer at any given moment, you know that I'll be able to get back to your PMs or posts almost immediately.
If someone or something is going to keep you from posting within your regular schedule, or if you're unavailable for PbP for a while, let me know via PM or the Discussion thread ahead of time.
RP is supreme; it's literally in the name of the genre and this game we'll be playing. Here, it's all about the characters and the roleplay, so we'll be more focused on that than combat or dungeon-crawling (though that's always on the table for later).
If you're gonna play an evil or conflict-driven character, at least have the good sense to make them compelling. That's not too much to ask.
Themes and Opportunities:
This is a game about people finding their way home, or, barring that, finding a new home. Your characters are adjusting to a world they don't immediately recognize, and with a massive outpouring of magic to deal with, the land will be changing frequently and rapidly until it stabilizes. There's a lot to do and not much time to do it in.
Whether you want to pitch in with reconstruction efforts in the battered villages of the Enscorn Plains, defend the realm from strange new creatures crawling out of Wallowmere, treat with the Divines at their seats of power in Uvast, plumb the depths of the Render Mountains for cultural treasures left despoiled from the Scouring, or set sail for the magical artifacts rumored to litter the Dragon's Maw Bay, there's plenty for you to do.
You won't be the only ones trying to make sense of the world around you, either. The human kingdoms of Telash and Parova are in turmoil, unsure of how to proceed after the Scouring. The elves of the Verdant Glens scramble to soothe the suffering of their beloved forests, while the dwarves of the Stonecrown Accord rage against the other mortal races who abandoned them to suffer in the depths. No one said changing the world would be easy... or painless.
I'm aiming for a start date of Friday the 17th, which gives everyone 9 days to get their characters and questions sorted out. If you'd rather not throw out public posts, you're always welcome to PM me.
It all boils down to a simple question: what stories will you leave behind?
You wouldn't think that a material plane that supposedly stretches for an infinite distance could ever be truly conquered, but somehow, the Defilers found a way to do it. They clawed their way across the surface of reality and spread their filthy shadow to everything they touched - well, sort of. There's still this little rock in the ocean, the so-called "Last Continent", and it's basically the only place we've got that's worth holding onto. It looks like the gods aren't willing to give up on us just yet. Maybe we'll survive, or even push the Defilers back a little bit. What do you think? It could be worth a shot...
Part 1: The Crunch:
Bros and brodettes, I'm looking to run a game. More than that, I'm hoping to build a world, or at least continue/finish up building what I've got so far. I'd like to keep this one firmly in the Pathfinder family, so if you get to the end of this post with your interest intact and have strong feelings about using either 1.0 or the Playtest for this game, please dish the details down below.
The Last Continent is a setting I've used over two prior RL campaigns, but after some heavy stuff happened that resulted in the abrupt end of the second campaign, it's been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for over a year.
Until now, anyway.
I've decided that the best thing I can do is officially reopen the setting, and rather than jump around in the established timeline as I've been wont to do in the past, we're gonna take it from the top and start at the first major event in the history of the Last Continent. Without further ado, let's dive into the campaign rules that will provide you with loose guidelines to follow as we play.
Character Creation
20-point buy, 2 traits and 1 drawback. 'Nuff said.
Race options will be more limited due to the very specific lore I've made up for this setting, so even the Core races will need some reflavoring to fit in. Ask Me How.
3PP content is generally a no-fly zone for me, but I'm open to ideas if they fit the campaign and don't totally screw up the balance for everyone else.
Evil characters are allowed, but Chaotic Stupid is just as invalid as Lawful Stupid. I'd challenge you to make your character really compelling if you plan to go down this road.
Summoners need to be Unchained. Fight me.
Other Housekeeping
When all is said and done, there won't be a lot of homebrew content added to the game - it's more like minor tweaks to help bring the mechanics into the world of the game. True homebrew content, such as archetypes/prestige classes/feats/items, might come at a later date.
There's a substantial pantheon of Greater and Lesser Divines for the deity-centric classes, and it's not the same as Paizo's. Surprise, surprise.
Everything is magic. That is, the Last Continent is a high-magic setting, so certain (Ex) abilities may be retooled to (Su) or (Sp) abilities as needed - I'll give you a heads-up if it applies to your choice of class.
That about wraps it up. Now, let's talk about why you're here.
Part 2: The Fluff:
The blurb at the beginning sums things up pretty nicely: it's not called "the Last Continent" for no reason, after all. The Defilers are nasty buggers intent on corrupting and despoiling everything good about the material plane, aptly named Existence by many of the people who live there (and due in no small part to their hubris that "this is all there is"). Of course, Existence isn't the only plane you'll have to worry about, and over the course of exploring and defending the Last Continent - or, if destruction is more your style, banishing it to the Shadow Realm - you'll have the option of participating in some merry jaunts across Tempest, the realm of chaos and magic, and Uvast, the divine plane of order.
Each of the planes has a symbiotic relationship with the others, and the flow of anima from one plane to the next creates a cycle of life, death, and rebirth that is essential to the stability of the Last Continent. The Defilers, endearing little monsters they are, tried to get right in the middle of that cycle and wound up turning one of the Greater Divines, a real mean customer named Tornorus, into a magic-guzzling psychopath. Tornorus breached the plane of Tempest to absorb more power, which released some nasty Riftspawn (in layman's terms, "demons") that now want to chow on anything and everything remotely connected to the Last Continent.
That's where you came in. When the first waves of demonic slaughter came crashing down in all their crimson glory, you decided to step up and take the fight to the Riftspawn. It was gonna be a war for the ages. We were gonna win.
Except... the war didn't exactly happen... like, at all.
Part 3: The Hook:
There was a big ol' flash of light right when you were marching toward the bad guys. Then, you woke up with your back in the grass and your eyes to the sky, completely intact. You're the living definition of in medias res, but now it's your job to figure out with the HFIL happened when you got sucker-punched by 1.21 gigawatts of pure pain to the eyeballs... and why the world seems to have changed into something totally different in the time it took you to wake up. The Divines are pretty tight-lipped about it all, but hey, at least the Riftspawn seem to have disappeared. Now you just have to make it back home - assuming it's still where you left it, of course.
So, what's it gonna be, champ? Ready to write your side of the story?
Bonus Features:
About Me
I've been haunting the messageboards for a pretty short time compared to most people I've met on here, but I'd like to think I have something to offer the community with this campaign, plus any others that pop up after it's done. I've been GMing for about four years, mostly because it's one of the best outlets for me to put that high-priced piece of paper I call an English degree to work.
My RL alignment is definitely True Neutral, so consider yourself warned. I enjoy literary allusions and goofy pop culture references out-of-character (except that one time I made a skald whose sole purpose was to quote Led Zeppelin lyrics), though I try to keep things serious when it comes to the emotional storytelling bits. I'm taking this one a bit slow as I reacquaint myself with the setting, so bear with me and we'll figure this stuff out as a team.
As for the liberal doses of attitude I've thrown into the earlier paragraphs, blame my love of cyberpunk. It's all Gibson's fault.
Interested? Got some suggestions that'd make this campaign really pop? Just let me know.
