Darkest Doomed's page

As I mentioned in the recruiting thread earlier, I'm wanting to bounce some ideas about my character off some people and with the recruitment thread stalled, I'm inviting folks over this way.

We'd obviously need to wait & see how many show up. Once folks are here, we can either take turns talking about each character in turn and giving feedback or just kind of free-form it. I think the only real rule should be that you need to be giving said feedback on the characters of others. Probably feedback is best in the form of questions rather than suggestions, although the other might be called for as well.

The character concept I want to work on is Tessaviri, an elven hunter (fighter if gestalt, though I could be talked out of that perhaps) and her wolf companion Karogo. I'll otherwise hold off to let others go first.

Hi everyone

I've been a player in a long-running game of Ruins of Azlant that has been proceeding in fits and starts since October 2017. Plague-related issues caused the game to grind to a halt once again, and I've decided to try my hand at GMing the game myself. We also need new players!

The party is currently in book 3 of Ruins of Azlant, but if you want to submit a character you should still reference the Ruins of Azlant Player's Guide, available from Paizo for free.

Character Creation Rules:
* Attributes: - 25 point buy
* Races: technically any Paizo, but I'll admit a preference for Core races. Among non-core races, Undines and Gillmen have an advantage since I'm trying to hew closely to the original recruitment guidelines and they were allowed there. We also have an Undine in the remaining party. The original recruitment said that Undines had to take the 'Mostly Human' racial trait, but I can't even find that.
* Classes: any Paizo, use Unchained versions if they exist.
* Starting Level: 7
* Wealth: for now, just get starting equipment. I'm still debating how to handle treasure as it applies to new recruits. Don't buy stuff using Wealth by Level, although that's still an option on the table as we start moving the game again.
* HP: Max first level, half die-size +1 for other levels
* Traits: 2 traits, no drawbacks, one of the two traits should be a campaign trait
* Optional Rules: – background skills & hero points are in effect

We have two PCs remaining in the party:
Aurelian Fache – human swashbuckler
Zay – undine druid (does a lot of wildshaping)

Those players might show up here to introduce themselves.

I'll be looking for two or (probably) three more players to fill out the rest of the party.

The story has progressed some since Book 1, but it would still be a really good idea for your character to be a colonist. If they aren't willing to become one at a minimum, they aren't going to fit in well.

Although each of you has your personal reasons for being there, you find yourselves in the port city of Grunburg, which sits on the side of the reddish waters of the Teufel River. The local industry focuses heavily on shipbuilding, and the docks are filled more with the scent of woodwork than fish.

Marven's Magnificent Curios is known to stop in Grunburg periodically, but the pedlar is uncharacteristically late this time, and some in the town are starting to worry over the travelling merchant's fate. You received word this morning, however, that Marven's barge pulled into the Grunburg docks late last night. He should be available somewhere in Grunburg's market district this morning.

Just to be sure we've covered it with everyone, spoilers are meant only for the people that they apply to. I'll be posting "GM Stuff" spoilers periodically when I need to make rolls or track other hidden information, and those are GM specific.

Also, it's not too late to arrange for your characters to know each other in advance. Just sort out details beforehand in Discussion.

Greetings everyone!

As discussed in the Recruitment thread, I have some ideas for where I want to take this campaign, but those ideas are fairly flexible and could be suited to many ends. So I'd like your help in deciding what sort of campaign theme we're wanting to have.

What I mean by theme is perhaps a bit amorphous. An easy example of a similar concept can be found in the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games, however. They have different campaign 'settings' for Edge of the Empire where you play scoundrels and bounty hunters (among other things), Age of Rebellion that focuses more on the non-Force (mostly) fight against the Empire, and Force and Destiny that focuses more on Force users. All three of the systems work well enough together and they share some themes, but it is still helpful to know what sort of campaign everyone has in mind.

Similarly in Warhammer, we have careers available for Beggars and Thieves, Witch Hunters and and Rat Catchers as well as Envoys and Artists. Probably any of the Careers could work in any sort of campaign, but knowing what kind of campaign we're talking about in advance can help to guide character creation.

For instance, let's say that a player rolls up a Noble. Without any theme in mind, they might start imagining a background for their character that fits them nicely into polite society and start coming up with ideas for contacts and themes that will help them climb the social ladder. Fair enough.

But if that same player knows that the rest of the party is intending to make a group of con artists and gutter rats, with several of them taking Criminal talents, that changes things a little. Maybe the player decides to continue rolling on the Career table or to play a Charlatan instead. Or perhaps they stay with Noble, but one that has a very different background and motivation. Their character hasn't fit in well in noble society, and although they maintain the trappings of it, they have come to resent their social peers.

What if the theme is high society, but the player rolled a Beggar. The first impulse might be to reroll the career, but couldn't that be interesting as well? What happens to a Witch in a game that is focusing on supporting a campaign of religious fervor?

There are lots of ways that things can fit together, but knowing the general direction in advance can help to guide your choices.

Just looking at the career list in the Core book, I can see several possible themes that present themselves.

* High society & dealing with nobles
* Subversion of the societal order, either through crime or striving to overthrow the local governor.
* Magic on the edges of society, with Hedge Witches in the place of Wizards
* Religious campaign of many different stripes - Sigmarites could be trying to cleanse their own order or trying to rein in the excesses of Witch Hunters gone rogue come to mind easily, and only with a focus on Sigmar. Other faiths would imply a different kind of game.
* River campaign - focusing on the rivers and travelling from place to place in Reikland

I'll stop there, but I could keep coming up with lots of different ideas. Note that I explicitly don't mean that if we chose to do a religious campaign that everyone should be a Nun or a Witch Hunter or something. Only that people should choose to make their character with an idea that they could be motivated to support such an undertaking.

I will put in a special note about my thinking on the Riverfolk class. I think a lot of people overlook Riverfolk because we are used to mostly land-based campaigns. Unfortunately, even some published adventures in Reikland play into that. Rivers might be in the adventure, but they are only briefly touched on. That shouldn't be the case in Reikland: river travel is a major skill set there and if you don't have it in the party, expect to need to pay someone to do it for you sometimes (the same as if you lacked Heal or Lore (Magic) and needed it).

One final mention about theme before I open the floor. One sub-theme I've toyed with over recent times is a Port Reaver/Expedition to Lustria type of game. Most of the themes I mentioned above could fit in there, but it would definitely change the nature of the game we're looking at. For those not familiar with the idea, this is sort of like Cortez arriving on the shores of South America and carting gold and ancient relics out of the ruins he finds. Think a colonial atmosphere surrounded by jungles full of unknown dangers.

An Expedition to Lustria campaign would mean I would need to create stats for Lizardmen and possibly dinosaurs that the Core book doesn't have. There's also much less lore written for Port Reaver or other colonies in Lustria. You would still be Reiklanders since I don't have rules support to make a full Lizardman or Dark Elf campaign.

So, please share your thoughts about what kind of campaign you'd like to play in!

****

Some of you are probably eager to know about the tweaks to character creation I mentioned in the campaign thread. The only one I've settled on is changing Attribute generation to 120 point-buy instead of any rolling methods. I've never seen rolling for stats help a campaign and it can do plenty of harm, so I'm cutting it out. The XP for Attribute generation will be available to everyone. I'll still suggest not rolling up any new characters yet, but that's my plan.

Hi everyone!

I'm recruiting for a Warhammer Fantasy Game, using the 4th edition rules. I don't have any really solid plans for what we'll be doing yet, since I want to involve the party in the type of game we'll be running. I do have some of my own ideas I'm playing with, but those ideas could go in multiple directions based on what we're wanting to do.

I am planning on something more like an adventure rather than a campaign. It could expand out to something bigger later, but for now I'm keeping my ambitions modest.

I have two players lined up so far (one a real life friend and another that's been GMing for me), and I'm looking for up to three more. Participants aren't required to have their own copy of the 4th edition rules, but it would very much help if they did. I'll be selecting among those who express interest here randomly, so everyone has a shot!

Don't start rolling up characters right now: I want to wait on that until we know what kind of game the players want to have.

I'll keep recruitment open until Monday (15 June 2020) morning, or until I've determined that I have more than plenty of recruits to randomly select against, whichever comes first.

We're recruiting one player for a level of the Emerald Spire!

This is a PFS game, and the other players just completed the level immediately prior. The current adventure is #12 and the one just before it is The Tomb of Yarrix. The level range for this level is 9-11. This is a module equivalent, and the chronicle can grant 3 XP.

I can't confirm the classes of the current party of five yet since some of them started talking about changing characters. On the last level, though, the party they ran was able to self-sustain pretty well so I don't think they'll be badly in need of anything specific.

I'll keep recruitment open until Sunday morning (1 March 2020), roughly 48 hours from now. Then I'll do a random selection of any players who replied, so you don't have to worry about who replied fastest within the recruitment period.

After recovering from your last adventure, you move to descend to the next lower level of the Emerald Spire. The stairs leading down from Yarrix's tomb soon present the group with a shaft that necessitates a climb. The descent is easy for a time, before you come to a section where the rungs of the ladder as well as the walls are all coated in slime.

The discussion thread is up!

Let's do player information more properly this time. When registering your character with the thread, please give:

Character Name
PFS # & character number
Faction
Progression (slow track or normal)
Day Job Roll (if any)

Optional information I can include on the chronicle if you wish:

Player Name
Chronicle #
Starting XP
Starting Prestige & Fame
Starting Gold

Our Ruins of Azlant adventurers have found ourselves ashore without a GM! We could use some help.

As noted above, our party has just barely completed Book 2 and our prior GM told us that the party is now level 7. We're unfortunately losing one of our players in the transition as well, but the current team is:

Aurelian Fache – human swashbuckler
Jenner Holystone – dwarven warpriest of Abadar
Sarine Dulciare – human bloodrager
Tettia Tuditanus – human arcanist

...I don't think anyone intended to have a full party of ACG classes, but there it is...

If anyone considering taking on our party wants to review the current campaign, they can find its many pages here.

Our current house rules include:
Feat Taxes
25-point buy (not really a house rule, but good to note)
Background Skills
Hero Points
Legacy Weapons
A few character specific tweaks

I confirmed with our group that we're willing to negotiate on the house rules above if that would help a new GM. Thank you to anyone who takes our plight under consideration!

Sorry for the lack of much introduction in the gameplay thread. I was aware that there are some prep docs for the Emerald Spire PFS introductions, but I went looking for them and wasn't able to find anything deeper than level 10.

If anyone (or their characters) is new to the Emerald Spire, let me know. I can try to give some spoiler-lite background information.

Edit: Just put up the maps link. You should be able to add a mini for your character and move things around. Let me know if you have any problems.

As you descend from the Magma Vault the stairs come to a small, level chamber of dressed stone blocks. To the north, the stairs curve around the Emerald Spire where it protrudes from the western wall as they descend. But to the east stand bronze double doors sealed with red-and-black wax and hung with lead seals suspended from rotting silk ribbons. Runes are engraved around the door frame.

Recruiting here for up to five more players! This game will be under Pathfinder Society rules. One spot is reserved for whoever Qstor wants to bring.

This is a lower level of the Emerald Spire and the level range is 8-10.

Welcome to the Gameplay thread!

Discussion thread open here!

Treerazer is hungry for your souls.

You are Aspis Consortium operatives, hand-picked by your superiors for one of the most daring missions ever attempted against the hated Pathfinder Society. For centuries the Society has been the hyena of the archaeological world, descending upon legitimate Aspis operations to snatch whatever the Pathfinders want, kill hardworking contractors, and grow wealthy on the profits of their “historical preservation.” As they say, the victors write the history books, and the widely distributed Pathfinder Chronicles paint the Society’s piracy as heroism guided by a moral compass as true as the wayfinder each agent carries.

Despite the thick walls and heavy windows of the rented home that serves as your safe house, the passage of Pathfinders from across the Inner Sea region creates a muted rumble as they make their pilgrimage to the Society’s Grand Convocation, an annual gathering in which Pathfinders tell tales of their exploits, show off their discoveries, and celebrate another successful year. Every additional Pathfinder is another set of eyes to spot trouble and another blade ready to defend the Grand Lodge, yet every voice and footstep makes it even safer to discuss the impending attack.

Players from the recruitment thread can post here!

Hopefully it won't take us very long to muster. It's awkward because I need to get the mission briefings out before we really get started and for that I need to know who everyone is for sure.

This scenario exclusively uses level 7 pregens representing members of the Aspis Consortium as they perform a heist against the Pathfinder Society. So, you don't need to have a character in the correct level range (6-8) but you do need to know which of your characters the chronicle will apply to.

I'll keep recruitment open until Monday morning (5/13/19) and then if we have more than six players I'll randomly select who will be in the game. That way we won't close out before most people have a chance to see the recruitment.

If want to join with a friend, post how many people are joining with you and, if they post, make sure they do the same (reference by the screen name you are using so I'll know who is who).

Edit: also, if you want to play a specific Aspis agent, post what they are. If there are conflicts among players we'll sort it out in discussion after recruitment ends.

I'm looking for information on which Adventure Paths form a series, even if the series is only loose. I have in mind things like:

Rise of the Runelords
Shattered Star
Return of the Runelords

While things like War for the Crown and probably Hell's Vengeance are more standalone.

Obviously, they aren't proper series since each Adventure Path has its own internal story and 1-20 (or at least very high) progression. The ones I mentioned above are all strongly Thassilonian/Runelord themed, however.

Are there other series out there? Did I get all the parts of the Runelords storyline?

Tayse breathed a sigh of relief as the ritual completed and the divine connection to the temple closed. So much had gone wrong tonight, and even more horrors lay ahead. She had nearly lost Tahlas, even. Each small victory gave her a measure of hope.

I can't let it happen again. I won't let them take everything from me.

"Farewell for now," she whispered to the collection of shrines as the chants faded from the air, her words just audible over the chaos coming from outside the temple. "We'll return as soon as we can. Phaendar will be back."

Start of discussion for our Ironfang Invasion AP!

For those new to the Paizo forums, you'll want to set up an alias. Any Pathfinder Society aliases you have created already would technically work, but you'll likely want to create a non-PFS alias for the gameplay thread here. You can do that under My Account -> Account Settings.

It isn't important in the discussion thread here, but standard practice for the gameplay thread is to use text formatting. You should see a 'How to format your text' spoiler at the bottom of the page. Typically, people will use bold for spoken words, italics for any internal conversations (somewhat rare) and out of character tags for any commentary you might want to give that wouldn't be appropriate for a story-like description. We probably won't use dice a ton since we're playing sessions in person, but you can roll dice here as well with the dice tags.

Another of the campaigns I'm in for the Ruins of Azlant AP is here if anyone wants an example. There aren't substantial spoilers on the first page, I think.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Nearly a year ago, Absalom fought off an invasion of demonflesh constructs and undead marines remembered as the Fiendflesh Siege, during which the city's siege lord offered every slave freedom in exchange for their assistance in defending Absalom. Practically overnight, one of the city's cruelest industries came to an end, and many hundreds of the liberated have since become Absalom's newest citizens.

Although most have welcomed their manumitted neighbors with open arms, an unidentified serial murderer known only as the Rose Street Killer has systematically slain at least a dozen of these freed people. So far, the city's guards have questioned scores of witnesses and suspects with no luck.

Your team of Pathfinders recently returned from their Confirmation, an initiation trial for members of the Society. When you returned, a letter was waiting for you.

I have a pair of groups that are forming up for the PF2 Playtest. One is hoping to meet on a weekly or biweekly basis, though we haven't decided on a day yet. The other group is going to go play-by-post.

I've heard that there are reporting deadlines by which Paizo hopes to have input on each part of the Doomsday playtest module. Additionally, I've learned that there are Organized Play scenarios.

Do we know what the deadlines are like for each one? Do we have two weeks for each part of Doomsday? How long are the parts? I have a feel for the length of PFS scenarios, but how much time do we have to complete them?

Closed group. We're doing some initial party planning for the playtest.

Discussion thread for Champion's Chalice I.

We need our pregen players to declare which character numbers they are playing under and which pregen characters they are using.

I guess I need everyone's PFS & character numbers sooner or later.

The adventure begins in Sargava:

The sweet scent of pipe smoke vies for dominance with the salty morning breeze blowing through the wide harbor window in Venture-Captain Finze Bellaugh’s small office. Bidding everyone to sit on one of two large brown couches, he pats his belly and settles in to the chair behind his desk. “Welcome, Pathfinders, and thank you for coming on such short notice. I have some fine work for you. As you may be aware, the Sargava Chalice is set to begin tomorrow morning, and you have been chosen to represent the Pathfinder Society in the competition. “For those of you unfamiliar with our customs here in Eleder, the Sargava Chalice is an annual overland foot race held just outside of Eleder. The course, which changes every year, crosses some of the wildest territory in Sargava, from the Laughing Jungle to the Bandu Hills and everything in between. To further complicate matters, there is a survival element to the race. Participants are allowed to bring only a set of nonmagical clothing with them—no weapons, no tools, no magic items. If you are to win the race, you’ll need to find ways to feed yourselves in the wilderness and craft makeshift weapons to defend yourselves from wild animals. “I assure you, we’re not putting you through all this trouble for our own amusement! You see, the race is named after the prize, a finely wrought golden chalice that was discovered during Eleder’s construction. Ordinarily, the winners simply get their names engraved on this chalice, but we’ve made a special arrangement with the Sargavan government to take possession of the chalice for a year should we win the race. Our studies indicate that this chalice dates to the time of the ancient cyclops empire of GholGan and that it serves as a key to unlocking ruins long sealed by magic. “For this reason, it is imperative that the Pathfinder Society wins the Sargava Chalice this year. You have some time before the opening ceremony tonight—you may wish to familiarize yourselves with the terrain of Sargava’s interior. My library next door contains a great many books on the subject; you are free to peruse it as you wish. Aside from that, you are free to perform any errands you have around town, though again I must remind you; you will not be allowed to bring anything with you when you start the race. I would caution you against trying to cheat in this matter. The officials are cracking down rather hard this year, and I wouldn’t want to smear the Society’s reputation or jeopardize our chances at retrieving the cup as our prize.”

We continue our story with PFS 4-05 The Sanos Abduction:

The renowned Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch strides into her study at the Magnimar lodge. Her eyes scan the space with habitual vigilance, honed by years of successful adventuring. Satisfied that there’s nothing amiss, she stands behind her desk, and turns her blade-like attention to the party before her.

“The Pathfinder Society has long been interested in the First World—the otherworldly realm of the fey. By all accounts the fey homeland is dangerous, bizarre, and entirely unpredictable. It’s the very type of place sane people avoid, and Pathfinders flock toward."

"Do you have any questions?"

Discussion thread start.

Closed recruitment.

I was doing some bookwork on my Bladebound Magus earlier today and ran into the section where the Black Blade gets skill ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) at a very weird pace. That's all fine.

The text doesn't have any suggestion that Knowledge (Arcana) is a class skill for the Black Blade. I'm fine with that although it seems weird. Is there some rule coming from somewhere else (or something I'm otherwise missing) that would give the blade Arcana as a class skill? Just making sure I'm not missing something.

While I'm at it, my reading of the languages part is that the Black Blade gains additional languages but not any ranks in Linguistics. I wouldn't have mentioned it but while browsing the web for advice on the first point I ran into someone claiming that the Black Blade got Linguistics ranks and that just looks wrong to me.

A wail of agony ascends from the last paladin of Shiver as the necralith falls and its paired spirits flow outward to begin their journey to the Shadowfell. As the ritual falters the arcane field holding Lairess Kallios's body fades away, dropping the black-clad form into the pool below. The woman catches herself, falling to her hands and knees in the shallow water. "I'm alive," she gasps with a surprised look on her face. "I'm alive!"

Throughout the halls lie the bodies of the fallen, many of them former soldiers of the alliance.

Zaar is not present.

Hi everyone! This is Nathan. We'll probably have a few growing pains as we try to move the campaign over to play-by-post, and it may not even work. I'm glad everyone is willing to give it a shot though!

Take a look at the "How to format your text" section below, as we'll be using the tags down there. Typical conventions are that character spoken text go in bold tags, out of character tags go in out of character & so forth. I'll probably be using spoiler tags to hide information that you can acquire by making a skill check with an associated DC. We're going to at least try rolling dice with the dice tags as well unless it gives us trouble. If it is working correctly, an attack might be like:

Attack: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (1) + 28 = 29
Damage: 4d6 + 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (3, 6, 6, 3) + (3, 5) + 5 = 31

I recommend clicking on the leftmost tab (Campaign Info) and bookmarking that link. In the campaign I'm already participating in, we never post in that one. That makes it useful to reload the page, however, since the other tabs will then tell you if there are new posts to view. If you bookmark the Gameplay thread, you'll constantly be scrolling to the bottom of the page to find out if anything new has happened.

There's more I'm sure, but that is enough for now!

This campaign is a continuation of a long-running home game and is not looking for new players. Those who should join know who they are.

I've been talking with another player from my area about the faction cards, and our general consensus is that the Sovereign Court faction card from season 8 is really bad. Perhaps unbearably so. What I'm trying to figure out is if anyone out there thinks differently. Perhaps I'm missing something.

* Practiced Diplomat is awful in my view. It gives a minimum result to a skill check of your choice, but for many of the skills the minimum provided is too low to be of any use. It would be a *very* dedicated member of the Court to get their minimum up to 17 in a time frame where that sort of skill check result was of any use for, say, Diplomacy. Knowledge (nobility) could perhaps work, but the same card encourages Court members to put points into that skill as they complete their goals.

* Advocate is similarly bad. I just don't make enough prestige point purchases to make this trait worthwhile. I could perhaps imagine someone purchasing a whole lot of vanities, but the savings wouldn't be extreme even then.

* Spymaster is pretty decent. If the whole party is having to make certain skill checks, this could help. But if you select Stealth, for instance, the heavy armor guys are still going to blow it 90% of the time even with a bonus. A better use might be to boost a party member that's good at a skill to make them even better. Overall, I consider Spymaster to be good, but not nearly good enough to be the only worthwhile reward on a faction card.

Am I missing something? Or should we be making some noise to get a better card for season 9?

My Dwarven Ranger has finally come up to level 5 and it's time to choose a new favored enemy (first selection was Undead). My initial plan was to take dragons or evil outsiders - something that you really want a bonus against when it comes up.

My Grand Lodge faction ranger has been fighting the Aspis Consortium a lot lately, however, and it makes sense that he would try to specialize in fighting them. I'd rather not take something like humans as my favored enemy, as I'm not a fan of seeing that selection frequently on either side of the table.

Is there any way to take something more specialized? Perhaps Favored Enemy (Humanoids - Aspis Consortium)? I could maybe choke down +4 vs Undead and +2 vs Humans, but I'd rather not if I have a more direct option.