P.S. If you pull someone aside to have a conversation about something they're doing that's disrupting the game, and their response is "I'm just playing in character", that's kind of like when certain kinds of frogs have bright coloration to warn predators that they're poison. Someone saying that is warning you that they're poison.
I think your issue is playing with a jerk and a drama bomb, not a family member. Your niece wasn't the problem, it was the bard player for refusing to cease his asshattery, and her boyfriend for overreacting to the aforementioned asshattery. Either of those two people acting like civilized humans could have avoided this. I've gamed with both of my sisters and two cousins and never had an issue. I have also gamed with jerks and drama bombs and they are disruptive as hell.
I think we have everyone except @The Pale King. Do we have an ETA on your character?
But to be fair, I don't know any nation, even a fledgling one, who puts an 18 year old as the general of their armies so... there is that. To be fair, you don't have an army yet. At this point your general is just a dude who helps old ladies get cats out of trees. Trees full of kobolds.
I've been mulling something's over, and I think I'm changing up my initial thought on a barbarian to go with the Mad Dog archetype. Is there a reason your character lacks the birthmark, or is that just a piece of fluff to keep him from being the chief? I'm guessing you're going with Dreams of Lost Azlant as your campaign trait. The connection to a local tribe could work to your advantage; if you could add them to your nation you'd have citizens who actually know the jungle. I'd like to hear more about who the character is. Is he a proud tribal warrior? He kind of comes off as a bit of a softy in your background, but that's likely because he's constantly juxtaposed with a tribal society. When did he decide to leave his tribe to go off in search of his dreams?
Welcome to the new Pathfinder Encounters Master Thread, no longer overrun by the forces of chaos. We are always recruiting. New players please check out the Campaign Info tab. There is a spoiler there both explaining the game for new players and another with character creation information. There's lots of other information there for returning players as well, so it should be your first stop if this is your first visit here. Navigation:
Campaign Info: New player orientation, character creation, waiting list, special rules, adventure links.
Recruitment: Posting of completed aliases to be added to the waiting list, character creation questions. Gameplay: Crafting, shopping, duels, Tavern RP, and other in-character scenes not part of an encounter. Discussion: Discussing the games, or any other dumb thing in your head. This thread is only for posting completed aliases to be added to the waiting list for a game and character creation questions. Please do not clutter it up with other things. If you don't know where else to post something, please post it in discussion. Reading is power! Read the above instructions before posting.
So our heros could in effect use multiple Styles at the same time (using the Style Feats)? Everything works normally. There are no loopholes, there is only the addition of a new class feature also called style. You can think of the class feature as being called cucumbers if that helps. You can't use two styles or two cucumbers, but you can use a cucumber and a style at the same time because they're different. Edit: In-universe the cucumbers are the actual martial arts that people study, and the style feats are just stuff you can do, like any other feat.
If your DM has a thick skin you might consider showing him this thread. Nothing makes people reconsider their behavior like a chorus of people judging them for it. I've seen way more people change their behavior to avoid ridicule than change their behavior due to the power of a superior argument.
Foignar, Dwarven Ambassador "Humans are caught in a perpetual childhood, because they die before they come of age. They can't hold their drink, but spend money like they're always drunk. They never take the time to do anything right so everything they do is full of errors and quickly falls apart. They have no sense of history and most can't trace their family lineage back past a few centuries. Exactly like children."
Since every race is composed of individuals and not a hive-mind, such stereotypes are impossible to determine and utterly irrelevant. That's how things are in the real world too, and yet somehow stereotypes persist. Threadcap: failed.
Ming Yue is more of a Confucian anyway so you'd have fundamental philosophical differences about the celestial rank of the Emperor. To you he's just a secular ruler, to her he's basically a living god. You can pretty much guess that she's a Confucian based on her little blurb about the underpinnings of civilization being the empire. The Wulin would never agree with an interpretation of honor where the practical needs of the situation are held to be more important that the precise wording of an agreement. They're like honor lawyers. One of the things that separates the Wulin from polite society is the fact that they hold oaths sworn with strangers to be on the same level as family obligations and the like. Also, I should point out, because they're honor lawyers if you can find a loophole that violates the spirit of the agreement but not the actual letter of it that's 100% honorable. That kind of thing is the bread and butter of 'clever' heroes in Wuxia fiction. It's not a consensus, though. You could make the argument that it's better to disregard the orders of the emperor when he has made a mistake than obey them and ignore an obvious solution to a serious problem and some people would probably side with you. It's also worth pointing out that you haven't sworn anything to anyone, so for you it would always be more honorable to keep an oath you have personally sworn than to obey the orders of the Emperor who you never picked. Xia kind of get to go their own way. Honoring personal arrangement always trumps societal ones (to family or the government). In fact it's almost assumed that xia will disregard authority figures who they don't personally like. The Star Lotus society, however, would not. The entire purpose of their organization continued loyalty to what they see as the legitimate dynasty despite the fact that such treason is punishable by death. They'd rather commit mass suicide than disobey an order from the Xing emperor. Some of them would rather see the empire burn than be ruled by the Weili. If you were a member of the Star Lotus Society AND you disobeyed the order, that would be dishonorable because you had sworn loyalty to the Xing dynasty and so disobeying it would be breaking your word of honor. Otherwise you're not bound by his decree under any interpretation of honor. He's Chu Zhu Ji's older male cousin, so if you feel she's super traditional (ha ha ha) she might feel obligated to do what he says, but EVEN THEN he specifically forbade the Star Lotus Society, and she never joined that. So, basically, while Ming Yue would never step foot in there and would kill you all if you tried to force her, there's really no compelling reason for the four of you not to. If you explain just that you're a friend of the society but not a member (like you did) she won't have any reason to block your path. Assuming, of course, she buys it. If I missed something that you wanted me to address, just let me know.
"Listen cutter, don't you go calling us heroes now. Heroes are the kind of addle-coved berks who go off getting their names writ in the dead book over some other beings problem. We're adventurers, see?" I want to run a game of Planescape centered on a small group of adventurers operating out of Sigil. The tone would involve a lot of the ironic black humor characteristic of the setting and I'm looking for PCs who are less heroic and more opportunistic. Good alignments are fine, but you need to be able to work well with others who do not share your morals and ethics. This is going to be a very character-driven game so you'll need a character that is interesting on their own, independent of any plotline. You'll want a character who will be fun to roleplay and especially write dialogue for because that's most of what you'll be doing. You'll want to be capable of fighting when it comes to that, but combat will be rare (for a Pathfinder game, at least). I'm looking for complex characters. If you can give a pretty decent description of your character by listing your race and class then I'm not interested. That doesn't mean just be different for it's own sake; be interesting. The kinds of people who become freelance adventurers usually do so because they don't fit into normal society (or what passes for normal society for their species) and I want to know why. You can play a member of a species that is "always" a certain alignment with a different (even opposite) alignment if you want (making your character an extreme outcast among their kind). A lot of DMs get upset and start ranting about Drizzt and special snowflakes when players make outside-the-species-box PCs; I am not one of those DMs. Don't bother generating game statistics at first; I won't read them until I have assembled a group anyway. I'm only interesting in your character, not your sheet. I want everyone to have their characters firmly in mind as characters before pencil touches paper. Part of the "setting" will be AD&D 2nd edition (since I don't like altering settings to fit rules), so I'm going to be restatting certain Pathfinder things (mostly monsters) so they fit better with their 2nd edition portrayal. So, for example, be prepared for things that legitimately cannot be hurt without magic weapons. None of this will be anything players have to keep track of (except in the sense of cataloging the weaknesses of your enemies). Character Creation:
Level 8, Any core class except monks, Any core races, any of the half-outsider featured races (Teiflings and Ifrit et al) and you can even use CR as level for the purposes of making monstrous PCs (Outsiders only). Also stick to outsider types that were present in 2nd edition AD&D (feel free to ask me which ones). I'm also willing to look for or even create conversions of D&D specific outsiders without existent official Pathfinder versions. If you really want to play a Modron I'm sure we can make that work.
Humans and demi-humans can't take levels in any spontaneous arcane spellcasting class (since it's still 2nd edition so the way humans learn the Art is through memorization). If you're playing an outsider with spell-like abilities then you can take sorcerer levels as normal. If you're playing a prime (a character from the prime material plane, aka a non-native) then you can be from any TSR-era D&D setting (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms (and greater Toril), Mystara, etc etc etc.) If you're an outsider you can be from any plane which has native outsiders of your type. Finally, any character can be a native of Sigil. I will point out again not to stat your character until recruitment is closed because I will flatly not read any stat blocks until that time. I'm only providing this information in my opening post so people know what power level of outsiders are allowed. I will consider allowing non-core classes on a case-by-case basis after the characters have been selected, but assume you'll have to be able to make your character using only core classes. For Those Familiar with Planescape:
This is 2nd edition Planescape. The Faction War never happened. Die Vecna, Die never happened. No metaplot, no update, just baseline boxed-set Planescape. For Those Unfamiliar with Planescape:
The setting is highly detailed and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's worth it. I'm happy to provide any relevant information on-the-fly to allow those unfamiliar with the setting to fully participate. Just let me know so I know. It is currently Thursday at 1:40 p.m.. I will have open recruitment until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at which point I will select a party of three PCs. If you're interested in playing post a character idea and at least an overview of a backstory. You don't need to give me a complete narrative; just the sizzle is fine.
I'd like to run a game of Pathfinder based on Wuxia fiction, that is to say the genre of fiction that informs most kung fu movies. I'm looking for 3-5 players. I will accept submissions for two days (it is currently the 13th at 6:30 p.m.) after which I will select players based on the most suitable candidates. Please read every section before indicating interest. Premise:
You are known as the (Insert Number of PCs) Tigers of the Borderlands, the strongest youxia active in the borderland region. During your early careers, while you were all learning your skills, you became aware of one another by reputation, and a few of you probably fought duels or had brief team ups (or likely both). The group nickname was due to your roughly equivalent power level not because of any true affiliation.
Eventually a powerful demon became active in the region. The demon defeated each of you individually, and so you banded together to destroy it. This cemented all of your reputations as jianghu heroes and caused your group to become known as the "Demon Slaying Tigers". You became sworn siblings from that point forward. Since killing demons is one of the most unambiguously good things someone can do you are one of the only groups in the region respected by both the barbarian tribes and the imperials. This means you sometimes act as mediators as you are a powerful neutral party. From this starting point we can start to work up the complex web of master/teacher relationships, death feuds, and political conspiracies that characterize the typical wuxia story, with a few monsters sprinkled in to taste. Setting:
The setting is based on the version of ancient China presented in the typical wuxia novel, but unlike most wuxia fiction it's not going to be set in an actual historical period. The setting will be based on China to the extent that Middle Earth is based on Europe and will be developed as necessary as the game goes on. You can assume anything about the setting (within these parameters) when coming up with your character history. I still reserve the right to veto anything, however.
The specific region that the game will take place in is the borderlands between the Empire (which considers itself the center of the civilized world) and the desert steppes inhabited by nomadic tribes, roughly equivalent to the border between China and Mongolia. Think higher fantasy than a typical wuxia novel, but lower fantasy than the typical Pathfinder game. Basically a Jin Young novel but with monsters, wizards and strange tribes of humans added in. Magic is rare in general, but not uncommon within the underworld community the PCs will be involved in Character Creation:
I have created two new base classes specifically for wuxia games. They're called Shaolin and Wudang only because External Martial Artist and Internal Martial Artist are incredibly boring names. You can take either class without any affiliation with either sect (although you can still be Shaolin or Wudang if you want to be).
Nobody is required to take levels in them, but please do use them to represent martial arts training in place of the monk. Taking at least a few levels in one of the two classes will make me more likely to pick a character as this is a wuxia game and so martial arts is a major focus. Aside from that, characters will be 10th level and can use any core or base race (although all characters will be humans storywise races can be used to represent strange tribes or upbringings) and any core or base class in addition to the two new classes. 25 points point buy for ability scores. 65,000 gp starting equipment but you can't have more than three magic items total (although a collection of potions or some other cache of expendables is fine). Magic items are rare in general in the setting so you tend to have a few nice ones rather than a collection of mediocre ones. Unless your character comes from a wealthy background you must spend all the starting cash before play begins or lose all but a few silver pieces. All you need to indicate to me for now is your intended race/class combination. This sounds fun but what's wuxia:
I'm perfectly willing to explain things as we go to anyone not genre-savvy to wuxia, but please do tell me so I know to do so. It can seem intimidating at first, but it's a pretty easy genre to immerse yourself in.
Do keep in mind the type of hero typical to the genre: The traditional xia of fiction is a non-conformist who fights for justice. He is honorable to a fault, his word is inviolable, and his reputation is more important than life itself. Moreover, he is a master of the martial arts who does not hesitate to use his skills in the defense of his beliefs. Some good introductory movies: Iron Monkey, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Hustle. Books: Anything by Jin Young, especially the Condor Heroes trilogy. I'm more than happy to answer any questions anyone has; I don't get to prattle on about wuxia nearly as much as I'd like. Glossary: Jianghu (lit. Rivers and Lakes)- The underworld. This includes criminals, cultists, beggars, rebels, wandering martial arts heroes, and anyone else who doesn't fit into the normal social order.
Wulin (lit. The Martial Forest)- The community of martial artists. Most martial artists highly prize their reputation within the Wulin and would rather risk death than risk disgrace in front of their peers. A subset of the Jianghu. Lulin - The community of Outlaws. A subset of the Jianghu. Wuxia - Fantasy fiction about martial arts and chivalry (actually xia, a code with no English equivalent). Xia - Either a warrior's code that emphasizes personal honor, or an individual warrior who follows this code. Qi - Inner energy, equivalent to the Japanese Ki. Qinggong - Lightness skill, the ability to make oneself lighter and faster. The abilities that necessitate wire-fu when used in a movie. Neijing - High level martial arts involving qi manipulation. Neigong - The ability to build up, cultivate, and use qi. |
