Barbarian

Bozvrig Wur's page

215 posts. Alias of djdust.




Throw together a Level 1 PF2e PC. Remaster Rules. Give yourself a Stress Pool equal to your Class DC.


This is merely a test...

Roll20
Stress and Madness Rules


I'm trying to come up with a campaign style that is most fitting for forum PbP, and I think the best solution so far would be a "Darkest Dungeon" style campaign. Some loose ideas for the campaign:

•The PCs are part of a 'Delving Company' based in a large city. The campaign is broken up into 'delves', adventures into either a static megadungeon, or a randomly generated portions of various adventuring sites (more about that later).
•A delve consists of completing a simple objective: explore X number of rooms, defeat X number of monsters, collect X amount of treasure, or defeat a particular boss monster.
•Delves are either short (no rest), medium (1 rest), or long (2 rests).
•Delves have a difficulty level which signifies an appropriate average party level.
•Let's say we have 4 players. Each starts with a PC at Lvl 1 (naturally). After each successful delve, they can create another PC. Every new PC starts at Lvl 1. The goal is to build out a rotating roster of PCs. The max for a full roster is 20, so 4 players can each have 5 PCs, but only 4 can go on a delve at a time.
•If a player drops out and a new player joins, they start with 1 PC at Lvl 1. If a player drops out mid delve, that PC is presumed dead and the party must complete the delve without them.
•Experience is awarded at the successful completion of a delve.
•You can abandon a delve and retreat, but you gain no experience.
•Delving parties consist of 4 PCs selected from the current roster. This can be a mix of levels. Experience awarded is dependent on the average party level.
•Players are responsible for tracking experience for each PC and leveling up when appropriate.
•You can also 'level up' your resources in town: ie, the armory, the magic shop, etc. by spending gold. This gains you access to higher level items.
•Encumbrance and resources will be carefully tracked.

I think that's about it. I'm open to feedback.

The big question is:
Well, ideally, I would have this be a megadungeon adventure with a few initial delving sites that would eventually merge into one final megadungeon. But, I don't have the bandwith to design that right now. So, options are to randomly generate dungeons for each delve (appropriate to the Darkest Dungeon style) or use an already designed megadungeon (I'm thinking Dyson's Delve) and randomly populate it for the purposes of each delve.

A less big question maybe:
I'm thinking of running this in PF2e, but being strictly a dungeon crawler, there may be entire aspects of the system gone unused. Maybe another system, something like Dungeon Crawler Classics or other OSR would be more appropriate.

I'm just posting this here for thoughts and feedback. I'm nowhere near able to run anything like this now, but maybe like this summer, around August, I might have more availability.


Roll20!

Please dot in when ready!


Roll20!

Welcome to Crown of the Kobold King Plus!

For organizational purposes, this will be my GM Avatar for this campaign. You may refer to me as GM or NABU for short.

You've already introduced yourselves in the recruitment thread, but feel free to make further introductions here. Feel free to take a look at party makeup and make adjustments to your PCs as you deem necessary. Minor adjustments, no going changing your class or ancestry or anything like that.

If you have not yet, please create an Alias for your PC.

Also feel free to start developing some backstory ideas. But here's the caveat: You are from the city of Darkwater Crossing. And when I say 'from' I mean, born and raised. More than likely, you've never left the city for any extended length of time. Darkwater Crossing is the 'it' city for the region, so there's no real reason to go anywhere anyways. You are also a newly formed adventuring party, and as such, have newly registered with the local chapter of The Compass Rose, which is the somewhat global Adventurer's Guild (akin to The Pathfinder Society on Golarion).

All I'm looking for in terms of backstory is a paragraph or two. Describe your Background as per your character sheet, and how you came to gain the skills, feats, and abilities that puts you as a 1st Level (your Class here). If you'd like, you can create an important NPC that has had an impact on your life thus far; a teacher, mentor, family member, best friend, lover, ex-lover, nemesis, etc. If you have any pertinent questions regarding the setting, please ask.

Once everyone has checked in, we will do a little group activity that will help to create interpersonal bonds between the characters. So hold off on that for now.


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Hello.

I will be running a PbP game on these here forums for Pathfinder 2e.

The game so far will consist of The Fall of Silverpine Watch, which is an introductory adventure written for D&D5e by The Angry GM, but converted to PF2e by yours truly.

This will lead into playing through the recently released PF2e revision of Crown of the Kobold King, but set in a homebrew world so there will be a few changes and variations on the adventure as written.

This will likely get us to Lvl 5-7ish at which point, if the game is jamming and all are in agreement, we can continue playing shorter scale adventures.

I am just now getting acquainted with PF2e and this will be my first time running it, so this game is really meant for other players new to the system.

Recruitment

As of right now, I am less interested in a character build than I am in learning about you as a person. Who are you? Where are you? In the world, in life? What is your history of gaming? What interests you in this game? What is your honest commitment level?

For example:
I am a 38 (almost 39) year old male. I work as a licensed clinical counselor in Santa Fe NM, but I'm also a career artist. I am a new father with a 4 mth old baby at home. I first got into AD&D when I was in middle school, but fell out of the hobby until a few years ago when I started playing on these forums. I've run a few one shot in person games, and had a pretty solid long running homebrew campaign going until it became a victim of pandemic politics. I still run one PF1e campaign on the forums, and am active in one PF2e Beginner's Box game. I typically prefer creating and designing my own homebrew adventures, but with the current demands of my life, I'm happy to run some published stuff with modifications, an early levels game with the possibility of further adventuring. I can honestly commit to a post a day if things are jamming, but with most games it typically turns out to a post every 2-3 days. I'll do my darndest not to let the game stall out.

I'm looking for 4-5 players.

I'm hoping to get the game up and running the first week of the new year.

Setting

Here is the document explaining the setting.

Here are the deities available.

The setting is a homebrew mix inspired by the deities and lore of Purple Duck Games and the bare bones setting information provided in Fall of Silverpine Watch.

You will be playing a character from the capital city of Darkwater Crossing, part of a newly formed adventuring party. However, do not write up a backstory as of yet. We will do that together once player selections are made. However, please read through the setting as this may inspire some ideas about appropriate builds.

Build

Classes and Backgrounds: Since this is meant to be an introductory game, please limit Class and Background options to the Core Rulebook, anything with the Common Trait.

Ancestry: As per the demographics of Darkwater Crossing, roll a d100. 1-70 is human, 71-85 is halfling, 86-93 is elf, 94-98 is dwarf, and 99-100 is other (gnome, goblinoid, orc, kobold, ratfolk, catfolk, or tengu).

Starting Level: 1st

Gosh, I don't know, I think that's it. Feel free to ask questions. Please have your submissions in by Friday 12/23.

good luck.


Although I may soon regret it, I'm itching to start a new campaign.

I've got three ideas in mind:

The first, I developed and ran a campaign in a Homebrew World for an honest to god real life, warm body, in person, face to face, at the table group, that lasted a couple of years until it became a victim of the pandemic. This may be the easiest option for me, as I've got what basically amounts to 'Book 1' already mapped and planned out. It's more typical to your standard AP, although probably a bit more open-world-ish. There's a part of me that's still pretty sore from the group falling apart, but maybe giving it a second run can be part of the healing process.

The second option is and idea I have of a prequel campaign, same setting, but a good number of years earlier. This campaign would be more of a mega-dungeon adventure. I've got lots of ideas, but no actual work done on this.

These first two ideas would be PF1e games. I have no experience yet with 2e, and don't feel great about running a full campaign using PF2e. That brings me to my third idea...

I have a copy of The Angry GM's 'Fall of Silverpine Watch' adventure, which is written for D&D5e, but I would be willing to revise it for PF2e as a learning exercise. This is a short adventure, so probably more fitting for PbP.

So I'm just throwing this out there to see what kind of interest there is. Thanks!


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

There are only a few hexes listed that specifically mention that the target must be seen (ie, Evil Eye and Waxen Image). Does that mean that a witch who has been blinded can still use other hexes (say, Misfortune, for instance) without having a visual target?


not sure if this is the right forum, but, please can you double check my advanced creatures?

Basic Water leaper:

WATER LEAPER CR 2

XP 600
CN Small magical beast (aquatic)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 size)
hp 22 (3d10+6)
Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 20 ft. (clumsy), swim 30 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d4+1), sting +5 (1d4+1 plus 1 bleed and jagged sting)
Special Attacks bleed (1), jagged sting, water leap

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 13
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative
Skills Acrobatics +11 (+15 when jumping), Fly -3, Perception +6, Stealth +11, Swim +9; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics (+8 when jumping)
Languages Aquan
SQ amphibious

ECOLOGY

Environment any lakes or swamps
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Jagged Sting (Ex) A water leaper's sting causes dangerous shards too tiny for the eye to see to break off into the target's flesh and cause bleeding. A successful DC 15 Heal check stops the bleeding and removes the fragments. However, magical and supernatural healing of any kind doesn't stop the bleeding and instead seals the fragments within the wound, increasing the bleed damage to 1d4 points and the Heal DC to stop the bleeding to 20. Further such healing still doesn't stop the bleed effect, but also doesn't increase the damage or Heal DC further.

Water Leap (Ex) Water leapers get their name from their uncanny ability to ambush prey by leaping out of the water. A water leaper that begins its turn in the water can make a special leaping charge attack. This special charge doesn't need to be in a straight line with respect to altitude, allowing the water leaper to leap out, up and over the rim of a boat, and down onto its prey. At the end of a water leap, the water leaper can make both a bite and a sting attack.


Under the Water Leaper entry, there's this bit:
A water mauler is a Large water leaper advanced by adding HD. It gains two claw attacks, rend (2 claws), and pounce (replacing water leap).

Water Mauler:

WATER MAULER CR 4
XP 600
CN Large magical beast (aquatic)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6

DEFENSE

AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +2 nat, -1 size)
hp 52 (5d10+25)
Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., fly 30 ft. (clumsy), swim 40 ft.
Melee bite +11 (1d8+7), sting +11 (1d8+7 plus 1 bleed and jagged sting), 2x claw +11 (1d6+7)
Special Attacks bleed (1), jagged sting, rend (2 claws, 1d6+17), pounce

STATISTICS

Str 24, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 13
Base Atk +5; CMB +13; CMD 17
Feats Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (sting)
Skills Acrobatics +9 (+13 when jumping), Fly -6, Perception +5, Stealth +0, Swim +11; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics (+8 when jumping)
Languages Aquan
SQ amphibious

ECOLOGY

Environment any lakes or swamps
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Jagged Sting (Ex) A water leaper's sting causes dangerous shards too tiny for the eye to see to break off into the target's flesh and cause bleeding. A successful DC 15 Heal check stops the bleeding and removes the fragments. However, magical and supernatural healing of any kind doesn't stop the bleeding and instead seals the fragments within the wound, increasing the bleed damage to 1d4 points and the Heal DC to stop the bleeding to 20. Further such healing still doesn't stop the bleed effect, but also doesn't increase the damage or Heal DC further.

Basic Tentamort:

TENTAMORTCR 4

XP 1,200
N Medium aberration
Init +5; Senses all-around vision, blindsense 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+1 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 39 (6d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +7

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee sting +6 (1d6+2 plus poison), tentacle +2 (1d6+1 plus grab)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d6+1)

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 6
Base Atk +4; CMB +6 (+10 grapple); CMD 17 (can't be tripped)
Feats Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Climb +10, Perception +11

ECOLOGY

Environment any marshes or underground
Organization solitary, pair, or brood (3–6)
Treasure incidental

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 2 rounds; effect 1d4 Con plus nausea; cure 1 save.


Under the Tentamort entry there's this bit:
Some tentamorts grow much larger than their human-sized kin. Known as greater tentamorts, these ogre-sized creatures have at least 10 Hit Dice and are Large sized. Their two specialized tentacles grow to 20 feet long, providing the creature with greater reach than a Large monster normally possesses. Greater tentamorts are never found in groups, for these creatures can only achieve such monstrous size through cannibalism, as if there were some key nutrient in another tentamort's body that allows them to exceed their typical physical limitations. Some of these creatures have mutations giving them two tentacles and two stingers. Yet the most disturbing quality possessed by these monsters is their unexpected intellect—greater tentamorts are often as intelligent as humans, or more so. They cannot speak, but possess an eerie form of telepathy that works only upon creatures they are in physical contact with—a feature they often use to "chat" with their food as they eat.

Greater Tentamort:

GREATER TENTAMORT CR 7
XP 1,200
N Large aberration
Init +4; Senses all-around vision, blindsense 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., telepathy (contact only); Perception +14

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18 (+9 natural, -1 size)
hp 85 (10d8+40)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +9

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 2x sting +13 (1d6+6 plus poison), 2x tentacle +8 (1d6+3 plus grab); PA 2x Sting +11 (1d6+10 plus poison), 2x tentacle +6 (1d6+7 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d6+3)

STATISTICS

Str 23, Dex 11, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 6
Base Atk +7; CMB +14 (+18 grapple); CMD 24 (can't be tripped)
Feats Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus (tentacle), Weapon Focus (sting), Power Attack
Skills Climb +19, Perception +14, Stealth +9, Swim +19

ECOLOGY

Environment any marshes or underground
Organization solitary, pair, or brood (3–6)
Treasure incidental

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 2 rounds; effect 1d4 Con plus nausea; cure 1 save.

thanks!


Hello! We are down one player in an ongoing PBP game. The game is a homebrew adventure set in the Verduran Prefecture of Taldor. PF1 rules, with ABP, Background Skills. Current party level is 3, very nearly 4. The party has a divine magic deficiency, as GM I might highly suggest a Cleric or Oracle of Shaelyn.

The campaign thread is here.

Reply here or PM if interested. Thanks!


the skeleton template states:
A skeleton loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks.

poison is an extraordinary ability that improves the bite attack, but does it make sense a skeletal creature would retain its venom glands?

asking for a friend.


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Greetings and welcome to my campaign dairy for a homebrew campaign in a homebrew setting.

The setting is the World of Eshen. The player's guide to the setting can be found here.

The grossly simplified TLDR version is this: For most of its history, the world of Eshen was ruled by dragons. Each dragon ruled a kingdom, and most of the various races were created by the dragons to serve various purposes. The world existed in this sort of neutralized flux state for eons, until something sparked a global conflict. The nations divided among religious lines, the evil Chromatic dragons gathered under the banner of Tiamat, the Dragonmother, and the good Metallic dragons under the banner of Apsu, the Dragonfather. The Great Dragon Wars were waged across the globe for hundreds of years, annihilating entire civilizations and devastating the land. In the end, only one dragon was left, the Great Golden Wyrm Ciandra the Bright, and her kingdom of Brithan. With the rest of the world left in ruin, Ciandra rebuilt her kingdom under her egalitarian vision. Then, without known reason or warning, Ciandra flew off one day ten years ago and has not returned. Now, Brithan is a kingdom of colonies and outposts, of factions vying for power in the vacuum of Ciandra's disappearance as the darkness of the wasted world threatens from all directions.

The kingdom map can be viewed here.

The current campaign starts in the tiny outpost of Crow Hill, at the far edge of the Whispering Hills. Ibel Stonesurge, a dwarf from the mountainhome of Negolduhr, has arrived with an ancient map hinting at the location of a lost mithral mine somewhere in the Whispering Hills. Ibel hires on a group of four young adventurers to locate and secure the mine.

The adventurers are:
Danger- A dwarven ranger and Ibel's niece, from the halfling town of Manger in the Halftop Hills.
Sparky- A tengu sorcerer from a nomadic clan in the Whispering Hills.
Theres- A human rogue from the city of Bristling Bay.
Variel- An elf druid from the elven stronghold of Caelaluma in the Singmar Woods.

This is their story.


Battle Maps

Dot in when you're all set. Remember to adjust your Weapon Crit Ranges!


Welcome to the Bell Curve Adventures, where we will give the 3d6 a try.

This will be a relaxed, no pressure kinda game. A series of 5 Room Dungeons at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. A purely experimental game just to give this rules variant a try. Because of that, let’s keep the build rules simple:

-Core Races and Core Classes only.
-Paizo products only for class options, archetypes, feats, spells, equipment, etc.
-no multiclassing or PRC’s, this isn’t the place to try out your super cheese build, just keep it simple.
-20 pt buy
-2 Traits. No campaign specific traits/feats.
-Avg starting wealth by class. Wealth by lvl for lvls 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20
Other than that, standard stuff.

-One houserule. Most important. The whole point of us being here. We are using the Bell Curve Rolls Variant from 3.5. Read it, learn it, love it.

Because said rules have special rules for the Luck domain, I’d like to see a Cleric with that domain. Which brings me to...

-Setting: this is a non-campaign, so the setting isn’t too important. Let’s just say Standard High Fantasy World. But, let’s use Golarion Dieties, just to keep it simple.

If everyone who expressed interest joins in, that’s a party of 6.

Introduce yourself and what you might want to play. Go ahead and build for lvl 1. Please format your alias page as described here and post with your alias when you are finished. As simple a backstory as you need for a character concept is all that’s necessary. I’ll keep my eye on this thread over the weekend if there are questions.

As always, thanks for playing, and happy gaming!


Now I’ve frequently encountered the opinion that poisons and poison use are trap options in Pathfinder. I’m curious as to why. I can maybe conjecture a few reasons as to why, but I haven’t yet experienced it much in play yet, so maybe you can help me understand why this seems to be a popular opinion.

-One: Poisons are more effective against PCs than NPCs. The reason why: 3d3 con dmg is much scarier to a PC, who is expected to survive the encounter she was poisoned in only to go on to fight in 4 more encounters that day. If a PC poisons a NPC in round 1 of combat, that NPC is likely to be dead by round 3, poisoned or not. So, the poison feels wasted.
-Two: Unless you have certain feats and/or class features, using poisons is dangerous as you put yourself at risk of poisoning yourself. That, and the action economy isn’t that great. By the time you poison your dagger and stab the baddie, the wizard has already fried him with a fireball.
-Three: Poisons aren’t likely to work in the first place. First you have to successfully apply them to a weapon, then successfully hit something with that weapon, then that something has to fail one or more saves. That’s three points of possible failures. The most effective tactics are the ones with the least amount of fail points.
-Four: doing some research, it seems at one point, crafting poisons used to be a huge limiting factor. Now that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. And harvesting poisons from dead monsters isn’t too difficult, so I think this sticking point has been made moot.

It seems to me that poisons are best used in traps against PCs.

I do like the look and feel of the Diseases and Poisons Optional Rules which replaces ability damage with a progression of status effects. Flavor wise, it seems more true to life, and I wonder if it helps to eliminate any of the reasons highlighted above.

Are there more reasons not to fall for the poison use trap?


I've been interested in trying out the Bell Curve Rolls Variant for some time now. I've read through many forum debates on the subject, so I am aware of both sides of the argument. Thing is, I'm more interested in trying it out for myself just to see how it feels. I need that subjective experience, yo!

So, my idea is to run a game. Not necessarily a campaign, because story does not necessarily matter. Role-play is welcome, because that's fun too!

The game will consist of 6 x 5 Room Dungeon adventures, one each at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. That way, we can get a feel of how these variant rules effect the game at different power levels.

I'm looking for 4-6 players who, like me, have not played with this variant before, and are interested in trying it out without having to commit to a full campaign. Right now I'm simply looking for interest. If interest is low, we can go ahead and build PCs and jump right in. If interest is high, then we'll have to move into some sort of selection process maybe.

So, tossing this out into the ether. Is there anybody out there?


The answer might be subjective depending on the feat, of course.

But, if I want to create a magic item, basically a magic instruction manual, a book that if a PC reads they gain a Combat Style Feat, caveats being that it takes a full 48hrs of downtime to read, it crumbles to dust upon reading, and the PC must qualify for the feat in order to learn it, what should the GP value of said item be for sake of WBL?


As it happens in PbPs, one of my players has vanished without explanation. I've been contacted by another player interested in joining the game, and they've suggested simply taking over the PC rather than rolling up a new one and going through the struggle of writing characters in and out of the campaign in a way that feels organic and not forced.

I'm not sure what the proper etiquette for this is. I've opened the discussion with the rest of the group, but I'd also like to open it up here as well to get some feedback. Thanks!


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Our fortunes rise and fall together.


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Info | Battle Maps

Welcome!

Thank you for joining what, for me, will be quite an experimental game. I hope we all have !fun!

Oh, this will be my GM alias for the game.

We will start here. First, I think, we should build our characters. I wanted to do this part together, as a group, rather than have you all submit characters for application, in order to build better group cohesion and balance. I think it will also help to tie your PCs together with common backgrounds and the like.

So, let's start with build rules:
-20pt buy
-I am willing to allow one non-dwarf in this party of seven. The racial choices for this one non-dwarf PC are Oread with Dwarf Blooded Feat, Gnome, or Halfling.
-No 3pp material, please.
-All Paizo Classes and Archetypes are on the table. The only exception to this is probably the Oozemorph... I just can't wrap my head around it.
-I'd consider thinking ahead to the kingdom roles when designing your PCs.
-Two traits, or alternatively, three traits and a drawback
-Starting wealth by class. Once the group is consolidated, you will be given the chance to purchase more starting goods for your expedition.
-We will be playing with the Background Skills rules, with the additional rule that one of your Background skills must be a Profession that aligns with one of the Dwarf Fortress skills. You can be specific (ie cheesemaker) or more general (ie farmer). I'm pretty loose with creative uses of skills, so if you want to use your Profession(Wax Worker) to give a bonus to your Craft Wax Golem check, have at it :)
-Along the same vein (get it?) there will be plenty of downtime in this game, so plan accordingly.
-I'd deeply appreciate it if you format your character sheet on your alias as described here.

I think that's a good start. Ask questions if needed :)

As for fluff, as it stands, this expedition to reclaim Droskar's Crag is being chartered by the King of Taggoret, and Taggoret will be your starting point. In Dwarf Fortress tradition, there will be an Expedition Leader, and the Expedition Leader will recruit the other six PCs. If need be, I'll select who gets to be the expedition leader with a roll of the die. You don't have to be from Taggoret, but you should have some connection or enough renown that you'd be recruited. If you aren't a dwarf, it's probably best that you've spent a healthy majority of your life amongst the Five Kings culture.

Again, question away. Let's be as collaborative and cooperative as possible!


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=:Call to Action:=
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For years the dreams had come. Maddening dreams. Dreams of fire and molten rock. Mountains of great wealth buried in the heart of the earth. Dreams of terrible, forgotten beasts lost in the deep. Dreams of legend and glory, of sweat and toil.

For months, Tobul the Afflicted, Half-Mad prophet of the Forge-Fire, petitioned the Gathering Council of Highhelm to hear his plea. The lost Axe of the Dwarvish Lords called to him. For ages it had gone missing, and most had relegated it to the ashbins of history and lore, but Tobul knew, it wanted to be found.

For months he had been denied, laughed at and ridiculed, but today, he had received his summons.

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=:Campaign Summary:=
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Ages ago, the Rending of Droskar’s Crag destroyed the twin cities of Jernashall and Raseri Kanton, shattering the great dwarven empire of Tar Khadurrm and plummeting the Five Kings dwarves into an age of decline and apathy. Now, secretly, the Gathering Council of Highhelm have recruited an expedition of seven dwarves to reclaim Droskar’s Crag and redeem the glory of all of Dwarvenkind.

This is a kingdom building campaign inspired by the epic stories that are generated within the game Dwarf Fortress. Early levels will be wilderness survival and hex exploration until the party finds a suitable site to settle. Midlevels, the campaign will shift its focus moreso to kingdom management, defense, and reaching the heart of the great volcano. After that, the campaign will focus more on subterranean hex exploration and dungeon delving, all the while dealing with political forces on the surface. Overall, I wish for the campaign to be open-ended and player driven, with the overarching goal of reclaiming the glories of Jernashall and the truth behind the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. Expect goblin baby snatchers, orcish incursions, elven caravans, human mercenaries, badger tornadoes, catsplosions, giant eagles, nobles, kobolds, dragons, and the unspeakable horrorterrors of the underdark and beyond.

Gameplay will be PbP on these here forums.

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=:Recruitment Rules:=
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This recruitment will run a bit differently. As of right now, I am not interested in character builds. I am interested in you, the player. I want players who are able to commit to a long term, open-ended campaign. I want players who can agree to try with extreme effort to post at least once a day. I want players who love roleplay and can take it upon themselves to play through down-time segments. What I love most about these games we play is character interaction, watching relationships build and develop. Of course we’re gonna slay us some monsters and loot us some treasure, but what is kingdom building without personal agendas, inter-political strife, vendettas, and the like?

So, for your recruitment post, tell me about yourself, your history with gaming, your availability, your place in time and space and life, why you want to play THIS campaign SO BADLY, etc. Experience playing Dwarf Fortress is a plus, but not necessary.

There are seven spots. Once players are selected, we can do all the session zero stuff and work together on character builds, backstories, character motivations, and party balance. We can discuss optional rules, houserules, PbP etiquette, and the shape and form of the campaign. The campaign is still in rough draft mode, so there’s still work for me to do, but doing all the session zero stuff with you will give me the time and space to do it, as well as help clarify direction. With an open-ended campaign, I hope we can explore many gameplay styles.

Recruitment will close Monday June 18th.

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=:Your GM:=
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I am 35 years of age. Mountain Time Zone. I am two steps away from finishing a Masters of Art Therapy and Counseling program, so I’m somewhat in a transition state. I started gaming when I was in middle school, AD&D, and returned to the hobby a couple of years ago. I’ve fallen in love with Pathfinder, and I have no current inclination to grow into PF2. Currently I’m playing in one (maybe two) PbP games, and GMing another. For me, that’s enough. I’m excited to GM one more game, but I think that just about fills my plate. Please check out my other campaign to get a sense of my style. I make my own battlemaps.

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=:I Think That’s About It:=
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Feel free to ask questions if you feel I’ve left something unaddressed.

Interest Thread for Further Reference


The Gathering Council of Highhelm have decided. A new settlement shall be founded at the base of Droskar's Crag with the secret agenda of reclaiming the ruins of Jernashall and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords.

\[-.-]/\[-.-]/\[-.-]/\[-.-]/\[-.-]/\[-.-]/\[-.-]/

This will be a Kingdom Building adventure, inspired by Dwarf Fortress.

I'm not completely familiar with the Kingdom Building rules, so this will be a learning experience for me.

The idea is, your group of seven dwarves is sent to settle the base of Droskar's Crag. First, you must explore the land and find the best site for your settlement. Then, grow, expand, fight off goblins, orcs, and kobolds, and, of course, strike the earth! The purpose of your settlement is to dig down into the bowels of the volcano to reclaim the treasures of the Dwarven Civilization and usher in a new Dwarven Golden Age.

Starting out as seven dwarves, naturally, but as your settlement grows, maybe heroes of different backgrounds are attracted to the adventure.

This is an interest check for now, but I would like to run recruiting a bit differently. I will be recruiting players, not characters, and I want players who are committed and able to a stick out a game with an open end. Character creation will take place once players are chosen. This is a half baked idea, at best, so I am also looking for input as to how to best develop it. Here we can hash out ideas of the shape and form of the game and story.

If there is enough interest, we can evolve this thread into one of recruitment.


I have a phytokineticist PC in the campaign I'm running, and there is currently no wood element saturation like other elements have. I'd like to have this as part of a plot point accomplishment.

I'd love to hear suggestions on what a wood element saturation would be, the trials included, and the awarded powers.

Thoughts?


Hi there homebrewers.

I’m running my first pathfinder homebrew pbp campaign here on the forums. I’ve recently discovered the angry GM website, and have been consuming it rather steadily. In his mega dungeon walkthrough he starts out with a table which plans out encounters per day and per level for his megadungeon. I saw that and thought, hey I need something like that for my campaign. Unable to find anything else like that, I built my own, and I’d like to share it with the community.

It’s a google doc

It’s currently built for a party of 5 on the fast experience track. That can be changed to fit your campaign pretty easily by changing some numbers. Other than that, there are some other assumptions:

-It’s ok if the actual experience earned on a level is a little over or under the XP budget
-Appropriate CR for a level includes a mix of easy, avg, challenging, hard, and epic encounters.
-Every 4th level is a power level, meaning, in PF, every 4th level is a significant jump in power. Thus, the overall challenge level for those levels should be higher. The challenge level should feel like it rises in 4 lvl iterations.
-20th lvl is endgame, and so should feel epic.
-The challenge level should feel like it increases throughout the campaign, but not steadily, more so in a fractal waveform-like pattern.

So you can see each level is itself ascribed a challenge level, easy, avg, challenging, hard, and epic. The goal was to get the average XP per Encounter to be around that challenge level while keeping the total experience earned per level as close to the XP budget as possible. You can see that some levels are over, some are under, and a few are spot on. That’s ok. This is a framework to build off of, a ballpark to shoot for.

Feedback and advice is welcomed :)


The mechanic of the spyglass item is confusing to me.

Why a penalty to perception per distance to object? Shouldn’t it be a bonus to perception for distant objects?

There’s a penalty to perception checks encoded to an increase in DC per 10 feet in distance, yet the spyglass, an item which magnifies distant objects, gives a penalty to perception per 20ft of distance.

I do understand how nearby objects, say objects within 20ft, would be harder to see (not in the field of focus for the spyglass).

Please, either someone explain to me how this is actually helpful, or help me devise a ruling which works the way a spyglass should work, making distant objects easier to see.


campaign info | maps

Dot in when you are ready.


campaign info | maps

Thank you, congratulations, and welcome to the discussion channel for this homebrew campaign Count of the March! (That's like the best, ambiguous title I could come up with)

BTW, this is now my GM alias for this campaign.

Here you can introduce yourselves, discuss your characters and any fine tune adjustments you feel you may want to make now that you have your party in front of you.

I'm going to take a break for now. I'll be back Tuesday and we can discuss group norms, any lingering questions, concerns, etc. before we begin!


In an upcoming campaign, the PCs will be working for a wealthy merchant as the mercenary force of a newly established frontier trading post. I am trying to find a reasonable monthly pay for them. Now, I have a hard enough time understanding money and economics in the real world, not to mention getting a mental grip on the economics of a fantasy setting such as Golarion vs WBL and all that. What I was thinking was to take the average starting wealth of the party and offering that as their monthly pay + room and board + whatever loot they get from adventuring.

Now, I kind of take starting wealth by class to mean that's the character's life savings up to the point they become an adventurer, so to earn your life savings every month, sounds enticing no? But then I look at the cost of higher level adventuring gear and it's like chicken feed in comparison.

So to try and get a better feel for this, do you feel that pay rate is:

A) Not fair enough
B) Totally fair
C) Way much too fair

If it's not fair, what would be?

It may sway your opinion that I've decided to use ABP rules for the campaign.


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Call to Action

You come across a posted bill:

“Hiring adventurous types for the protection of a newly established trading post and ferry on the Sellen River north of the Isle of Arenway. Please report to the Chateau Lambert in Threegates district of Cassomir to interview with Marquis Markus Lambert.”

The bill is stamped in wax with a seal that portrays three towers.

This bill was posted in the Taldan city of Cassomir as well as the nearby locales of Ridonport, Triela, Souston, and Steyr.

The Threegates district of Cassomir is impressive with its broad avenues and rows of expansive villas. The Chateau Lambert is on the outer edge of the district, a stately home of three stories. At the door you are met by an uptight butler who ushers you to an office on the second floor. Inside, seated behind a large mahogany desk, is a man in his prime, sporting a thin strap of a beard. Behind him stands a portly fellow, rather gruff looking, who grumbles and snorts as you enter. The man behind the desk stands and gestures you towards a chair. "I am Marquis Markus Lambert. I assume you are here for the job. Please, sit, tell me about yourself."

Campaign Info
The early campaign will be mostly set in the Verduran Forest, with homebase a trading depot on the Sellen River. This region has a rich history with several factions keeping a tenuous peace and stability. I will try to reward your skill investments with as much political intrigue and diplomatic missions as action/adventure. Expect downtime. Expect lots of wilderness adventure, as well as dungeon delving and perhaps? extraplanar excursions. As the game progresses, I promise to make the best possible effort to include elements of character background in the unfolding story. My philosophy is that tabletop RPGs are a game of collaborative storytelling. If you feel your character has no investment in the story, then a conversation on how to best make that happen is necessary. The basic theme of the campaign is that this is a highly contested border territory kept somewhat stable through ages old treaties. There will be several factions of varying power with their own agendas for you to interact with. As the campaign plays out, it will be up to you to decide which factions to side with or not. Expect loads and loads of characters and the occasional NPC joining you on missions. I will do my best to keep a character and location log in the campaign info tab, updated with info as you uncover it.

Using Google Slides for battle maps.

Let’s try for a minimum of a post/day. I enjoy RP!

I will be selecting a party of 5.

Recruiting will be open for 1 week.

Character Creation
20pt buy
Races: Core and Featured
Classes: Core, Base, Alternate, Hybrid, Unchained, Occult
No 3pp material please
Starting lvl 1
2 traits, or 3 traits and a drawback, no campaign traits
Max HP at 1st lvl, half + 1 every lvl thereafter
Avg starting wealth for class
Background skills

Character Submission
You can post with an alias or not. Please include the usual crunch and fluff (backstory, description). In addition to this, please treat this as your character’s interview with the Marquis. In your character’s voice, tell me why you are the best candidate for the post.

If you have the invested skills, you may make the following Kn. Local checks before going into your interview:

DC 10:
The Lambert Trading Co. is run by three brothers, the sons of former Chelish nobles of Galt, who escaped the Red Revolution and rebuilt their fortunes in Cassomir.

DC 15:
The Lambert Trading Co. is run by three brothers, the sons of former Chelish nobles of Galt, who escaped the Red Revolution and rebuilt their fortunes in Cassomir. Markus Lambert is the youngest of the three brothers, and has recently returned from the Kitharodian Academy in Oppara married and with a title of Taldan nobility.

DC 20:
The Lambert Trading Co. is run by three brothers, the sons of former Chelish nobles of Galt, who escaped the Red Revolution and rebuilt their fortunes in Cassomir. Markus Lambert is the youngest of the three brothers, and has recently returned from the Kitharodian Academy in Oppara married and with a title of Taldan nobility. Rumour has it that his dowry included an almost ancient land grant deep in the Verduran Forest, dating back to before the Treaty of the Wildwood.

House Rules
This is all open for discussion, but these are the rule variants I would like to use:
I will be using a critical hit generator for confirmed critical hits. I’m a Dwarf Fortress fan so expect to see punctured lungs, spilled entrails, and severed heads sailing in arcs.
Diseases and Poisons optional rules.
Background skills.


Would it be fun or detrimental to lvl up PCs in mid combat? You know, theyve slogged it out with the big boss, are on the edge and out of options, and they reach down deep and pull some amazing new powers out of their collective butts to turn the tides and win with. Epic, right?

But in actual gameplay I imagine itd be, ok lets put this slogfest on pause and select feats and do lots of math!


The Infernal influence in Cheliax is pretty well spelled out, and I see Devils interacting with Golarion through the use of deals and contracts which are loopholed in their favor. Would it be outside the tactics of LE Outsiders to sow political discord into a region (false-flag operations, terrorism, psychological warfare) with the long term goals of causing enough chaos to necessitate the establishment of a totalitarian regime which favors a Diabolical theocracy? ie, using chaos to establish law?

Is this what actually happened in Cheliax, or did Hell just take advantage of the opportunity to prop up a puppet government?

A separate but related question, would an individual under infernal influence, either through subtle manipulation or straight up mind control and soul-jar-possession, ping as Evil under a Detect Evil spell?


Hi there. I'm going to be trying to convince some friends to join me in a pathfinder campaign sooner or later. I have an idea for a campaign storyline, or at least the start of one, but im more inclined toward a more loose sandboxy game. It would be set in Golarion to dave me the trouble of worldbuilding, but no published modules or APs or anything like that. What i would really love to do is take the PCs backstories and build them into the campaign narrative in a more collaborative storytelling way, encouraging PC interaction and character/relationship development over pure gaming. At least thats the part about RPGs that appeals to me most.

Anywho, im considering trying my hand at GMing this campaign as a PbP first, to get my feet wet as a GM. The advice im looking for as someone who has never GMd is: How much preparation is necessary to run a more open less linear campaign as a PbP? In my experience of PbP so far on these forums, they tend to run at a slow pace, with about a 'turn' a day. I feel this natural pace of PbP will allow me as GM to develop things sort of 'on the fly', or would that be contributing to the lag?

How far in advance do you plan as PbP GM? What aspects of the game take the most planning? (Overall story arcs, dungeons, encounters?)