Gameplay thread. You can dot this for now. Beginning of game will post tomorrow.
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Hello everyone! We'll be beginning the campaign in earnest tomorrow, so I'd like to use today to get everyone on the same page and talk a bit about expectations and approach to the game. First off: I ended up breaking one of my own criteria for recruitment, and have in fact put together a group of characters that may very well likely discover much to disagree about with each other. And this is not in and of itself a bad thing: as djdust said to while I was putting together a new character for the game they're running that I'm in: tension propels stories (or something similar. Paraphrase etc, etc). That said, I'd like you all to frame that potential tension within a really great piece of writing by Rich Burlew of Order of The Stick: "Choose To React Differently". What this is is essentially a reminder that your character is fully under your control, and you are at no point powerless to control how they react. This frames the challenge of good roleplaying not as "How do I slavishly play my alignment and allegiances to the letter" but rather "How do I play my character true to themselves with the goal of party cohesion?". Your characters are a group of exceptional persons in exceptional circumstances, and there is no more perfect environment for a character to make exceptional choices. A paladin of Erastil and a cleric of Gorum might find little in passing each other during a night at the tavern, but I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to see those differences overcome in the depths of a dungeon while cornered by eldritch horrors. Secondly: Time to put in some final touches on your backgrounds to polish things off now that we have the group finalized. One thing I an think of right off the bat is that, with their respective campaign traits, Khathi and Aekon almost certainly live in Fort Inevitable and likely have for some time. How well do they know/know of each other? What is that relationship, if any, like? Thirdly: This is a good time to get comfortable with each other in general. Share what you'd like to accomplish with your characters and the trajectory you're looking at with them (both story and crunch-wise) and work to build some shared expectations and goals. Fourthly: Time for final audits! Go over your character sheets and make sure everything is accurate and in order. I'll be taking a look at them later tonight as well once I'm done with my IRL business for the day. Fifthly: Questions for me! Anything you've got on your mind, any character elements you'd really like to explore in "side quest" material, anything you're uncertain about, or any expectations you'd like to elaborate on or me to elaborate on, now is the time! And massive thanks to every one of you. I am excited to run this group through the big, bad dungeon and see who they become in the process.
Hello all! As I mentioned in my Interest Check thread, I am currently running some IRL folks through Emerald Spire. Since I went to the trouble of designing some custom campaign traits for it, I figured why not get a little more mileage out of that and try running a PbP for the module. I will be selecting four players. Recruitment will close on Monday, July 26th and I will announce selected players the next day. To give you an idea of the “tone” I’m going for here, I kind of want it to feel like an old-school “blobber” dungeon crawl CRPG (like Wizardry, or Legend of Grimrock for a more recent example). I’ll start things off with the good bits, since that’s the most exciting, but please read this post in full before submitting. I am extremely firm on the parameters I am laying out here. Character Creation:
Point Buy: 15
Campaign Traits:
You, the players, will be part of an expedition team organized by various authority figures and important persons in Fort Inevitable. There are eight traits to choose from, divided evenly among four categories. Each category represents who hired you through your connections to them. You must choose one campaign trait for each character you make. It is perfectly fine for two players/characters to select a trait from the same category, or even the exact same trait. Hired By Paralictor Audra Drovust:
Armiger: You are an initiate -known as an “armiger”- in the Hellknight Order of The Pike. You distinguished yourself early in your training in some fashion, and Parlictor Drovust has her eye on you. Your official standing within the Hellknights grants you a +3 bonus on any Diplomacy and Bluff check with other Hellknights. However, you must always respect rank, as well as bring to justice any subversive elements within Fort Inevitable you may discover. Mercenary: You are a member of a well-regarded mercenary company that Drovust has had satisfactory dealings with in the past - perhaps even the locally based Salamander Company. You may not have the discipline of a Hellknight, but Drovust considers both your skill and professionalism acceptable. Being part of a successful mercenary company has paid well: you begin play with an additional 100gp as well as your choice of one of the following: a masterwork weapon, a masterwork suit of light or medium armor, or a trained warhorse. Hired by High Mother Sarise Dremagne: Sarise Dremagne is Fort Inevitable’s foremost religious leader. She is a cleric of Abadar, the Lawful Neutral deity of commerce, trade, and civilization. She holds the position of High Mother at the Temple of the Golden Key, the largest religious congregation in the Fort. A stern, matronly human woman of 60, Sarise dislikes the Hellknight’s support of slaverey and their worship of Asmodeus, but approves of their vigorous enforcement of the law within the Fort. She is the most influential non-Hellknight in town, and she and Audra Drovust avoid meddling in each other’s affairs. However, Sarise and Audra share concern of the recent sightings of branded undead around the Emerald Spire. You have some nature of personal or professional connection to the High Mother, and you were referred to her when she began looking for expedition candidates. Friend In Faith: If you worship Abadar or an allied (Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, or Neutral) deity, you know the High Mother from working together on ecclesiastical projects. When she began searching for expedition candidates, she asked for you personally and offered a small up-front bonus out of respect for your professional relationship. You begin play with an extra 100gp. In addition, you receive a +1 bonus on all Knowledge (Religion) and Knowledge (Planes) skill checks and one of those skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you. Mercantile Connection: You are a member of a mercantile family or consortium that has a long, successful working relationship with the church of Abadar and you have a reputation as an effective problem solver. When the High Mother put the word out through her channels for skilled help, your name came up several times. As long as your relationship with the church of Abadar remains friendly, the church and its affiliates will buy treasure from you at 60% of total value, rather than 50%. Hired by Abernard Royst: Abernard Royst is one of Fort Inevitable’s most noteworthy residents. A white-haired male human wizard of 55, Abernard retired from adventuring some years ago to dedicate his life to studying and uncovering the mystery of the Emerald Spire’s true nature. Royst often takes on apprentices, and is in fact a much kinder and supportive teacher than his gruff exterior would indicate. While he’s not much for dungeon delving himself any longer, he always has a long list of tasks, items, or curiosities within the Spire that he needs completed, retrieved, or solved by eager adventurers. The old sage easily involved himself with the forming of the expedition to the Spire as the closest thing to a living expert on it. You have some sort of personal or professional connection to Royst, and he hand-selected you to represent his interests on the expedition. Apprentice: If you are an arcane spellcaster (Bard, Sorcerer, Magus, Summoner, Wizard, or Witch), you are Abernard Royst’s current personal apprentice. While he is stern in his lessons, he is ultimately a warm, avuncular mentor invested in the success of his pupils. He does not relish sending you into danger, but thinks it important that someone he trusts implicitly join the expedition. Select any one 1st-level arcane spell your character knows: You cast that spell at +1 caster level. If the chosen spell is from the Transmutation school, you instead cast it at +2 caster level. Favor For a Friend: A close relative or associate of yours is old friends with Abernard: perhaps even a member of his old adventuring party. When the old wizard sent out requests to friends to join the expedition in his interests, your relative’s adventuring days were long behind them. They owed Abernard a favor, however, and sent you - their capable pupil - in their stead. Abernard is appreciative, but deeply concerned for your safety on the expedition. You begin play with any three 1st-level arcane magic potions of your choice. Additionally, Abernard will brew you any 1st-level arcane magic potion of your choice once per week. Hired by Iliara Starcloak: Iliara Starcloak is a striking, dark-haried elven woman of 142. She is the leader of the Goldenfire Order, small mercenary band of combat-trained wizards based out of the nearby Thornkeep. She avoids visiting Fort Inevitable, and goes to even greater lengths to avoid ever dealing with Paralictor Drovust, but she has a bit of a crisis on her hands: two full wizards of the Order have failed to return from investigating the Emerald Spire and Starcloak fears the worst has befallen them. She has reluctantly cooperated with Drovust in recruiting for the expedition in the hopes that her friends yet live and can be rescued, or that at least their bodies and belongings can be returned to the Order. Experienced Delver: Having already lost two members of the Goldenfire Order, Iliara Starcloak does not want to leave anything to chance. Reaching out to a fellow mercenary company that specializes in raiding dungeons, they sent you -a talented and promising recruit- to Fort Inevitable as both a favor to Starcloak and as your final test to be initiated as a full member of the company. You gain Disable Device as a class skill and can use Disable Device to disarm magical traps. Goldenfire Initiate: Iliara Starcloak doesn’t want to risk any more of her small company in the Spire but you, a young initiate hungry to prove yourself, wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Eventually she relented and allowed you to accompany her to the Fort as her nomination for the expedition. You have spent months training in the Goldenfire Order’s unique blend of martial skill and spellcasting prowess: you may ignore 5% of the arcane spell failure chance imposed by armor and shields.
A Note On Difficulty:
I am not, by any measure, a DM who enjoys or strives toward killing PCs. That said: The Emerald Spire has a reputation as a bit of a meat grinder: it frequently makes use of environmental hazards and obstacles -something many players may not have much experience in dealing with, it is rather a bit stingy on treasure, and the town you’re provided as a home base -Fort Inevitable- is a Lawful Evil fort run by the Hellknights - an organization Judge Dredd might think could loosen up a bit. The law is harsh, judgement is swift, and adventurers are kept on a short leash - taxes on goods looted from the dungeon exist, and letters of warrant must be purchased in order to legally slay threats beyond mindless beasts. In short: Don’t snub useful adventuring skills like swimming, acrobatics, or darkvision. Tough, self-sufficient classes like Monks, Barbarians, and Clerics are good choices. And lastly: I advise you to have at least the rough idea of a backup character at the ready, preferably one that serves a similar “role” in the party. The likelihood of one or two character deaths is fairly high. It would be a good idea to include a note about what your backup character would be (doesn’t need to be any more detailed then [class] that would do [role]). I would like to stress that I am extremely preferential of a group that can work and cooperate well together. Dramatic tension is fine, but I want to avoid any combination of characterizations that could lead to severe party schisms and “party harmony” is going to be part of my selection process. So I will note that while I am perfectly fine with Lawful Evil characters and even provided a trait to help develop that, you are potentially limiting your application. If the rest of the characters that are looking good to me are a bunch of Chaotic Good merrymakers, I am unlikely to select a Hellknight to accompany them. Lastly: I’m a bit of a luddite and was initially going to run this entirely “theater of the mind” as I did not have any particular desire to learn/obtain/run any of the various online play aids. I am rethinking that somewhat and may opt to include battle maps through a simple Google doc pdf. Ok! Start revving up your character ideas. I tried to be extremely through here, but I’m sure there’s something I forgot so of course, please feel free to ask questions on any subject I haven’t covered here. And thank you for your time and interest! 
Hello folks. First things first: I'm currently playing in a PbP, and have applications in for a few others. If I get in to more than one of those, I won't be doing this (I think three games is my maximum workload). BUT, in the event I only get in to one or none: I'm running Emerald Spire for some folks IRL. I wrote up a primer for the purpose of fleshing out the set-up a bit and also to help guide some of the more newbie players. The biggest thing in the primer is a set of eight custom campaign traits I created to tie each player into arriving at Fort Inevitable and participating in an expedition into the dungeon. So I figured "Why not see if I can get more mileage out of that work?". Most critically: I don't have much of a head for the various online play resources, and with the current amount of free time in my life I am uninterested in obtaining/learning/working with them. So this would be exclusively here on the boards and heavily theater-of-the-mind. I know that some players aren't fond of things being that loose and letting things like the physical situation of a battle largely boil to down to "GM's call and rule of cool" (particularly for a big dungeon crawl). As such, I wanted to test the waters if enough folks are interested in what I'm offering before I get around to writing up a full-on recruitment post. If it goes ahead, I will be looking for four players. For anyone involved in the PbP I'm currently playing, I am going to be completely honest and outright state I will likely be heavily biased in favor of your submissions should I go ahead with this and should you wish to participate. If I go ahead with it, it would likely start within two to four weeks. So lemme know what y'all think.
Heyo friends. We'll hash out our characters in this thread. You all have varying levels of experience with Pathfinder, so please do not hesitate to ask me for assistance. Here are the character creation parameters: Stats: 25 point buy
You'll also need to read the Hell's Rebels Player's Guide to familiarize yourself with the campaign. The above mentioned campaign traits will also be in the Player's Guide. It is a free pdf you can download from Paizo here Once I've got everyone checked in, we'll start formulating what you want to play. I am excited! I think this is gonna be a blast! |