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Male Giant 4th level MMA trainee/10th level Bully (lost class features with alignment shift)/2nd level Philosopher

I am Elminster of Shadowdale, called by some the Old Sage, and called far worse things by others. I've walked these realms for over a thousand years. Yet, I am far from the oldest, wisest, or mightiest being to walk the ground of Faerûn with my well-worn boots—and that is truth. But if ye learn the long history of my deeds, ye'll know precisely what I stand for and what I am. And that's a rare and precious thing, knowing yourself. Do ye know exactly what ye stand for? –Elminster, Chosen of Mystra.

The Forgotten Realms; ancient, majestic, and packed to the brim with Gods, Monsters and Magic. It is a world of endless opportunity as well as stark danger and black horror. The Realms are vast, and full of adventure, and while they cannot be said to be a particularly fair place, as the deserving often go without and the corrupt and useless handed more power than they can reasonably handle, there does exist a kind of a savage meritocracy for those with the will and ambition to take what they desire.

It is said that every mortal heart, from purist saint to darkest sociopath, harbors within it strong desires and dreams; deep seated wants that call out to be fulfilled. All men hear this internal siren, but intuitively understand that the deck is stack against them, that they are likely too weak and the world too hostile for them to ever obtain what they want. To merely survive their life with their desires unfulfilled is a bleak proposition however, so they try to talk their heart down. “I must be realistic.” Some say when they think of their dream. Others: “If the world were just I would have what I deserve, but as it is not, there is nothing I can do.” Some go even so far as to tell that most heinous of lies: “It’s alright in the end, I didn’t really want it anyway…not really.” The history of the sentient species is mostly one of dreams dying young and desires left behind to rot.

But this is not always the case….

There also exists people who, for reasons ranging from burning altruistic conviction to pompous megalomania, spit in the eye of an unfair world and demand that there dreams be fulfilled. The hearts of these individuals burn like a star compared to the faint candles of the average person. They have the courage, passion, and downright arrogance to believe that one small being in a vast multiverse can not only live a life that matters, but overturn the world with sheer bloody minded determination.

What follows are the tales of such larger than life figures and the conflicts, setbacks and victories of their manic struggles to squeeze a life of meaning from a spiteful and tyrannical world. Will their tales end in agony and defeat? Or will they achieve their ambitions and live their dreams? Only time will tell.

Join me now, and listen as their stories unfold….


Male Giant 4th level MMA trainee/10th level Bully (lost class features with alignment shift)/2nd level Philosopher

This is the thread for ooc character planning, story crafting and other fun chatting=)


Hi guys!

I’ve decided to create a high level, rules light, roleplay heavy, sandboxy type game set in the amazing Forgotten Realms setting.

The basic concept of the game is that you are an epic hero(or villain) who has reached the heights of power and influence and basically has almost everything they could ever want at their fingertips but for whom is not content with only having ALMOST everything.

The theme of the game is power and ambition and all the various ramifications and fallout that comes from that.

Players who are interested in this idea should come up with a concept of a character who is extremely self driven and ambitious. Characters don’t need an incredibly long back story but you have reached the heights of power so your tale is likely fairly epic with a long list of enemies and allies trailing after you and a history of kicking ass and taking names.

Epic Hero Character Creation:

Material from the following books may be used: Core Rulebook, APG, UM, UC, The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats* (*for your Epic Powers).

Characters are 20th level, built with 25 point buy.

You have maximum HP per hit dice.

Characters have at least 1,000,000gp worth of personal magic items.

You may select two traits.

Characters may select 3 feats from The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats as “Epic Powers”, these are granted separately from normal character advancement and do not count towards your limit of normally earned feats.

Unlike an average game where the DM controls all the NPCs and environments players will have the ability to control not only their PC but all the PC’s minions and most NPCs, monsters and set pieces in the world, having far greater narrative power than in a typical game to tell their character’s personal tale. In addition you can work with other players to mix tales and roleplay with each other if you wish.

As DM I control access to and narrative power over all “epic” elements of the setting: Gods, artifacts, characters over 20th level, gaining new epic levels and powers, etc. but as a player you can add any non epic material to your character’s repertoire and story you wish, basically having access to infinite wealth and narration power over all other elements. Want a pet dragon? It’s yours. Want to match wits with and battle a pit fiend? Go ahead and narrate that encounter.

My primary duties as DM will be to answer player questions, moderate any player conflicts and grant access to epic content and epic character advancement, as well as setting occasional epic encounters and adventures.

As well as detailing your character you may detail your resources and holdings as you wish.

An Example of Your Potential Princely Trappings:

A verdant province with a population in the 30,000-100,000 range, spread throughout cites, towns, etc.
A huge castle with a keep, bailey, curtain walls etc.
A luxurious country manor.
A fleet of ships ranging from fishing boats to barges and warships.
Business interests and taxations that bring in around 100,000gp a year after kingdom upkeep expenses.
Expensive clothes, jewelry, pets, works of art, entertainment and sundry hobbies worth at least 200,000gp combined.
3-6 Hangers-on (various levels and classes)
A Chamberlain (expert 9)
A Throne Room Bailiff (fighter 12)
A Herald (bard 8)
A Court Magician (wizard 9)
A Spiritual Advisor (cleric 9)
A Spy Master (rogue 13)
A Trainer of Exotic Beasts (druid 8)
200 Skilled Servants: Maids, Cooks, Pages, Accountants, Grooms, Ladies-in-Waiting etc. (expert 4)
2,000 Men-at-Arms (warrior 4)
Multiple monstrous minions, including several very high level ones.
300,000gp worth of permanent spell effects, wondrous items and constructs protecting and decorating your personal demesne.

Players can set their character anywhere in the Realms they like and theme their character and holdings to fit the themes of that area.

Because narrative power rests largely with the players in this game as many people as would like to join can, as I won’t be overwhelmed with setting all the scenes and narrating all encounters.


You fool! You accepted it!

*trap the soul spell effect triggers*

Soon! Soon I will have trapped all of Paizo.com’s greatest heroes and then, then the website will be mine and mine alone!!!

Ahahahahhahaha!!!


To vote, simply favorite one of the three options below.

Poll: What is a BLT sandwich?


I recently started a thread for the LGBT gamer community here as a way to add another support system for my fellows and I to have a voice and connect in the world at large. Many interesting discussions and experiences have been shared there but there has been one reaction some people have had that honestly rather startled me; which was feeling that they were being left because their orientation didn’t match mine and that I was essentially creating an elite club thread and edging out non members.

This was in no way my intention and while I have stated there that this is not the case and that anyone could say what they liked after thinking about for a while I can see how you feel.

This thread is for gamers of any orientation, race, creed, or gender to share their life stories, experiences in gaming, and struggles.

Talk about whatever has meaning to you and interests you and feel free to be honest about who you are and how you feel.

*raises wine glass*

Cheers


27 people marked this as a favorite.

I thought it would be cool to create a thread where members of the LGBT community who are also gamers could come and share their life stories, experiences as gamers, and struggles (whether in dealing with their sexuality in relation to our society or not).

About Me:

I am a Bi-Sexual man in my twenties who has, quite honestly, lived a charmed life compared to the average member of our community. When I came out in my teens I was accepted by both my strongly Christian family and my somewhat ignorant but good natured community.

I have never suffered from physical abuse or been assaulted, although I have faced plenty of prejudice and harsh opinions.

The most significantly defining moment of my life actually has nothing to do with realizing my own sexuality or dealing with it but is the innocuous event that first set me down the road of realizing the effect I was having on the people around me and believing I had a responsibility to do my best for them

The event in question was when I overheard a conversation between my girlfriend and one of my best friends when they didn’t realize I could hear them.

She was saying that while she loved me and loved that I was a strong person capable of great kindness and generosity sometimes I committed acts so mean that even she, not a girl known to spare a kind word if doing so would decrease her popularity at all, was taken aback. She said she would just laugh along with the group but that she honestly wondered about me and whether I was just working out some childhood trauma or something.

To which my friend replied: “Nope, that’s not what is happening at all, don’t you get it? Don’t you see? He is the eight hundred pound silverback in a jungle full of tiny monkeys. He just does whatever he wants to whoever he wants because who is going to stop him? If there is a bigger dick in this entire world I’ve never met him, let’s just be happy we are his friends, right?”

At which point they shared a laugh.

OUCH, MY FEELINGS.

Many people have mocked me throughout my life, some quite viciously, but it has very rarely hurt me. This did. It split my heart in half like a guillotine through a watermelon. The honest assessment of my friend was said in a tone of gentle teasing but the truth of it cut deep and made me realize something: Even those closest to me were, on some level, AFRAID OF ME AND APPALLED BY MY BEHAVIOR.

Suddenly a lifetime of “pranks” and bullying suddenly seemed a lot less satisfying and I, ridiculously enough considering I was in no way being actively ostracized, felt like an outsider. I learned an important truth that day that has seemed to hold true throughout much of human history: That it is only funny until it happens to you.

My life since that day has been a study of the intricate social interplays that happen between people and a self journey to discover my place in this world and what, if anything, I can do to make it better.

A lot of people have pointed out that this is a weirdly mundane event to have caused a person to do a 180 but to that I reply that I am simply not a person who ever makes the same mistake twice if I can help it. If I am being stupid the most helpful thing you can do is tell me about it and offer me a compelling reason why. I’m one of those rare people who will not only listen but adjust my thinking and behavior in response.

My last failed homosexual relationship and what I learned from it.:

So my last boyfriend, whom I loved dearly, lived his life in a way that I can only describe as “being half-way out of the closest.”

His current friends and coworkers knew his orientation but his family and the people he grew up with did not(supposedly, after interacting with them for a while I began to suspect it was widely known, just not talked about)

It didn’t seem to be that big a deal when we first started dating but as time went on it actually begun to become a serious problem.

Before we would visit his family he would get nervous, as he often did, biting his nails and becoming hyper critical of me and the fact that I might expose who he was to his family.

“You’re dressed too gay…” He told me once before going to hang out with them.

“Huh?” I responded. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re shirt is too tight.” He responded. “Can you change it before we leave?” He asked.

Ok, I did not that big a deal.

As time went on it got worse instead of better though. The most ridiculous fight we had happened like this:

Same scenario, we were going to hang out with his parents. He starts biting his nails.

“Ok what am I doing wrong?” I ask.

“You smell too nice.” He responds.

I give him the blankest stare I’ve ever given anyone in my entire life.

“Straight guys, they’re dirty, you know? You smell too nice.” He continues.

“Actually that is not really true, girls have a lot higher standards now then they did once. Lots of straight guys are clean and good smelling now.” I reply informatively.

“Mmmmm, no, I want you to do something about the way you smell before we leave, do something to smell dirty please.” He asked.

“Are you being serious right now?” I ask.

“Yes.” He replies.

So I took the kitchen waste basket and up ended it over my head and then, covered in coffee grounds and banana peels, shouted:

“THERE!!!! DO I SMELL ‘STRAIGHT’ ENOUGH TO YOU NOW????”

In the end what I realized after many long discussions with him that what the problem really was was not that his family thought there was something wrong with being gay but that he himself, on some level, thought there was something wrong with it.

You cannot have a healthy relationship with someone who hates themselves. It is just impossible.

That was not what made me leave him in the end though, that occurred when one day he was doing his being critical thing and not even concealing it in a polite tone anymore and I was trying to be reasonable but after one particularly nasty comment had to physically remove myself from the situation when I found myself raising my hand with the desire to smack him across the mouth, which, considering the difference in size and strength between us, would prolly have broken his jaw.

If things get to the point where domestic abuse becomes a possibility you need to leave.

He had a really hard time with the break up but I needed to do it and we are on good terms now but I will never put myself into a situation like that again.

If you can’t love yourself or at least be ok with the person you are it doesn’t matter if someone else loves you, you will never be happy or have a happy relationship.

Fun with Gaming:

I was only recently introduced to PnP games but I have to say I am really enjoying them a lot. Maybe it’s just the enthusiasm of being a new gamer but right now I feel like I wouldn’t mind wasting my entire life playing Pathfinder until the end of time.

I’m in seven different games right now and will soon likely DM for the first time and am excited about it.

Gamers are not people I have traditionally hung out with but I really like them. They are intelligent and imaginative, two qualities I really appreciate and wish I had more of in my life.

They sometimes have their own social issues but it often seems to be approached in a funny way.

In one of the groups I’m in there are these two really smart guys that have been friends since kids that constantly fight and argue. It is really funny. They are usually pretty good about not derailing the game but sometimes they get stuck on a point and the whole thing breaks down.

After it happened at one point one of the girls in the group approached me and said: “I’m not trying to be weird but when they argue doesn’t it seem strangely like a lovers quarrel?”

To which I replied: “I wasn’t going to say anything but there does seem to be some sexual tension there, no joke.”

We giggled.

Last week as they were fighting for some reason they actually turned to me and asked how I think they should resolve their conflicts, to which I replied:

“Me? I think you guys should simply square root of four thousand seven hundred and sixty one and get it over with. See? Judging from the looks on your faces you understood that joke, you’re smart guys, you can figure out something.”

I really like gamers, high intelligence and explosive tempers all, I look forward to having a lot of fun with you guys in the future.


In the Beginning…

Two of the most basic concepts of Christianity that hold true across denominations is the dual idea that God is both Good (God is Love) and that God is Perfect (omnipotent, omniscient, always has a plan). A fine assertion but one that encounters some minor resistance when compared to the state of the world. Take a look around, does this look like the world a perfect nice guy would make? I’m not trying to insult you world but you’re kind of a mess.

Something went wrong at some point didn’t it?

Yep the world was paradise until mankind went and messed it up. We were given life in a garden of perfection and were told it was ours forever as long as we obeyed one simple rule. –Don’t eat the fruit off of one very specific tree- Seems easy enough right? Only an idiot would mess that up.

-sigh-

A serpent tempts Eve to take a bite and out of curiosity she does. She then shares it with Adam. Seems relatively innocent all told but that act apparently poisoned us completely and led to both our banishment and the Fallen nature of the world. This incident is later said to be proof of how it is solely our fault that we suffer so terribly (and also our fault that lions eat lambs instead of being best friends)

It’s the classic, magical tale of Original Sin and mankind’s fall from grace but it seems to possess a few logical hiccups that might be plot holes.

Most obviously: Why was it necessary for God to put something as hideously destructive as the ability to disobey him within our grasp? Why even give us the chance to Fall?

There are a couple of possibilities: 1. The Tree of Knowledge and Humanity could not be effectively separated, perhaps due to limited real estate in the garden, and what with the fruit sometimes causing severe gastrointestinal distress in addition to the spontaneous gaining of morality God told us never to eat from it, on the honor system. 2. God telling us not to eat from the tree was an offhanded comment he made when he was busy. It’s obviously a self evident truth that only an idiot would want to know the difference between good and evil and suffer under all the weighty bullsh*t that that brings, so he never thought to stop and explain to us why it was a bad idea.

The above examples are possible, but they go against the idea that God is Perfect as he is making mistakes, so let’s discard them.

Another possibility is that the whole thing was a set up and everything went exactly according to God’s plan, which fits with the idea of him being an on the ball master of the universe, but considering how harshly he punishes mankind for their mistake it does hurt the idea that he is a nice guy, so let’s discard it.

Perhaps it has something to do with the gift of Free Will he gave us? If we at least didn’t have one opportunity to disobey him then we really didn’t have all the options Free Will should grant us did we? But even this is confusing because before we have eaten of the fruit we have no concept of Good or Evil correct? And yet one bad choice will damn the species? Seems like Free Will is a gift in the same vein of giving a two year old a loaded .45 with the safety off for his birthday. One might hesitantly speculate that that is irresponsible parenting at the least, but perhaps that is what happened.

Everything is created and put in place by God and it is his plan that everything go perfectly smooth and joyously, and yet somehow we mess it up and it’s our fault, but how? Isn’t any flaw in the design the designer’s fault?

Imagine a man designs and builds a car. He drives it 100 miles then it just completely falls apart. He looks down at it and says. “Damn you car, why did you decide to be so crappy.” Huh?

Christians of a scholarly bent will often point out that taking this story at face value is a mistake when really it is poetry/allegory/just a story. Alright then, in that case can we drop the idea that the reason the world sucks is entirely our fault? What’s that you say? That’s a founding premise behind the vast majority of Christian thinking? Alright then, the ball is in your court my wise and learned friend, what exactly is happening here?


So basically I'm pretty new to Pathfinder(and actually RPGs in general) and I'm having a good time playing but recently my group offered me the chance to DM. My group plays multiple campaigns and rotates between them and they want to know if I want to start one. I do.

I have alot of good ideas for adventures and elements but I think I should start with a published campaign for structure so I'm looking for recommendations on which one I should choose. The Pathfinder APs are awesome but we are either playing in them now or the group has played them decently recently. I looked at the World's Largest Dungeon and while it seemed cool and decently simple to run I'm more a fan of a storyline based game then a simple dungeon crawl. My group has played Shackled City but are willing to play it again and I'm leaning pretty heavily towards it right now. A whole, decently intricate Campaign in one well laid out book? Nice!

Another possibility would be Age of Worms, which apparently no one has played yet but we don't have it and I think the only way to get it is in back issues of Dungeon, which I'm willing to do but haven't decided if I will yet.

I'm interested in any recommendations on good Campaigns, especially ones from third party publishers I might not have heard of. Ones based more on thwarting a villains plot than a straight dungeon crawl are more my speed but any recommendations are welcome.