Name: Pandora Simmons
Skin: Hollow
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Undecided
Backstory synopsis: Newly arrived at Summerwood University, investigations into Eve reveal little in the way of a background. There's a reason for this; In fact, Eve is a newly-created prototype bio-mechanical lifeform, created as a new approach to artificial intelligence integrating biological and synthetic techniques as a secret collaborative project into between a number of researchers across faculties at the university. Wanting to test their creation, and to provide more data for her to emulate, she has been enrolled as a student at the university.
Jodie hauled her battered kit bag to her shoulder. The khaki bag was a hand-me-down from older step-brother Mike from his first year at the PDF, and she'd been using it for just about everything since he'd given it to her four years previously. Dressed in old sneakers, a faded sweatshirt and denim shorts, it would have been hard to tell that the slim thirteen-year-old was a girl, were it not for her long red hair, tied into two messy pigtails. Adjusting her glasses with one hand she grinned at her mother as they said their good-byes, reluctantly letting the older woman envelop her in a hug. Jodie turned to her stepfather and repeated the embarrassing process once again, before finally giving her mother a final kiss and boarding the train, finally on her way to the UN PDF boot camp.
Finding a seat amongst the other passengers, she thought back over the last few months. It had been an exciting time - Her soccer team, where she played on the right wing had won the local school championship, and her baseball team, on which she was the pitcher, had done pretty well too, making the finals, but dropping out in the semi. And then there had been the examinations for entry into the Threading program - they had been gruelling, although she'd known a bit about what would happen from what Mike had told her on one of his visits home. The psyche test had been OK, boring, but not too harsh (although there had been some weird questions), but the interview had been horrible! She had thought there was no way she'd get through OK after she had yelled at the examiners but, apparently, things had gone well. After that had been the physical stuff - blood tests, urine tests, speed tests, balance tests, strength tests and endurance tests. That's all been pretty familiar from sports, although having to strip off in front of the doctor was embarrassing.
As the train pulled away from the station Jodie waved goodbye to her parents through the window and then settled herself back in her seat, pulling a battered book, War of the Worlds - a really old one, made of paper that her brother had given her for her birthday just last week. Opening the first page, she began to read.
If any of this doesn't make sense let me know (would a train trip be likely? If not, how would cadets get to boot camp?) - I make make further changes as more info becomes available or as I have ideas.
Filled with spidery handwriting and scribbled notes in the margins, this book is bound in badly stained leather and many of its pages have been torn out.
This book is so inaccurate that anyone using suffers a (secret) -5 penalty to Knowledge: dungeoneering checks made to identify oozes and their special abilities. Failure by more than 5 on such a check provides misleading information.
Dot,... And also interested in the Family, Field and Fury trait, or maybe indebted... Happy to be siblings with anybody. Will work out a character ASAP.
I think there definitely need to be some positive emotions too. Joy is great, as are compassion, etc. other good ideas I think I saw were flagellant, and the 7 deadly sins.,.... As another suggestion maybe hedonist? - the spirit is unable (or unwilling) to give up on the pleasures of the flesh and hangs around to experience them vicariously through the spiritualist.
It also seems to me that there should be (maybe) a bit more of an effect, of the type of spirit, on the spiritualist. Maybe they gain a bonus from doing something thematically appropriate, or each spirit type has a negative effect on the caster (eg penalty to saves vs. fear)?..
Down in the bilges, Alessandra works well, chit-chatting with Sandra and Shaeda as they go about their tasks. Shaeda, however once again struggles to perform her tasks, but Sandra manages to put in some extra effort that, at least, sees Shaeda's job performed adequately, although the halfling is still exhausted by the end of the day. Alessandra even has time for a quick search of the bilge water, but her efforts are for naught, and she finds nothing.
Doc, busy all day with the tasks of both fishing and cooking, fails to catch enough turtles to feed the crew. Despite this, the meal he actually dishes up is pretty good, somehow the Dwarf manages to turn salted pork and the remaining dried fish into a tasty soup. Whilst Diego, once again running from place-to -place belowdecks, is rewarded for his efforts by catching more than a few large rats.
That night Shaeda, Doc and Bellara (who seems very sick and pale), both slip off to bed early, whilst Alessandra approaches Badger. Although the half-orc's threat seems to quieten the woman, you do notice that both Plugg and Scourge are on deck much later than usual, spending most of their time in close conversation with Giffer and Fipps.
As Diego works on his tattooing below deck, Sandra approaches. "I think you and yer friends need to know that PLugg 'n Scourge 'av started to notice that yer makin a lot've friends 'round here" she says as she sits next to him on the floor. They're up there now tryin' to lay down the lore a little. Be careful, if they think yer getting to big fer yer boots, they'll do something about yer,.. whether we're short've crew or not."
Plugg and Scourge have started to intimidate the crew:- keep an eye on their attitude!
DAY 8 - Hurricane
The next morning you are woken by the terrible crash of thunder and flashes of lighting as the sky opens up. Almost immediately the ship's bell begins to ring, and the crew hurry to the deck, jostling as the now-massive waves seem to toss the ship around like a cork. In the driving rain Scourge barks out some quick orders. "All Hands on Deck! Yer all going to be needed in the rigging if we're to see this storm through! Hurry yer blaggarts! Get to yer posts!" quickly you are all assigned rolls and, in the driving wind and rain you hurry to your posts...
Doc & Diego: Mainsail duties: DC10 Profession (sailor) or Strength and Con DC 10 or fatigued.
Alessandra: Rigging repair: DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Dex and Climb DC 10
Shaeda: Upper rigging work: DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Dex and] Climb DC 10
You can not take daytime actions today (so no taking 10) AND all these checks are at -2 because of the driving wind and rain, and the tossing of the ship.
Ideally, to begin with I'm thinking that Whisp's powers might be an essentially instantaneous-type effect - so, from her human form, she insubstantially streaks forward as an incorporeal, small blue ball of light through an object or person, afflicting it (if living), returning to her normal form at the end of the movement.
Later she might gain the ability to maintain the form for longer periods. To mechniacally achieve this i'm not sure how to go. Should I use Flight, Shrinking, Affliction and insubstantial? If so how do I make the effect duration short enough? Is there a better way of achieving this with different effects? (maybe Teleport instead of the above???).
Also,
Would the "reaction" modifier allow the ability to be used intentionally as well as in response to the "trigger"?
Background:
Claire Austin grew up in England, in the southern city of Brighton. She had a happy childhood, her family was well off and her home-life was mostly happy and carefree. Going to an all-girls boarding school, Claire had little experience with boys, and was always shy around them. Unfortunately it was on her first date, and the instance of her first kiss, that her powers first awoke, leaving him almost catatonic for days and unable to feel normal emotions.
Powers:
Claire has minor empathic powers allowing her to sense and to some degree positively influence the emotions of others. Additionally, those nearby her experience feelings of mild pleasure, her touch, however, induces powerful and incapacitating feelings of euphoria and ecstasy. Claire is unable to control her powers, and wears long skin-covering clothing and gloves at all times to prevent accidentally affecting those around her. She hopes that Xavier can help her to control her powers so that she can live a somewhat normal life, free from the risk of injuring other people and from the constant hubbub of their emotions.
Personality:
Claire is very shy, especially around boys. She tries her best to stay apart from others (especially since that group of boys just wouldn’t stop following her around!) and is happiest reading alone in her room or in the school’s library. Claire is what’s generally called a teacher’s pet – she’s polite, neat, hardworking and never gets into trouble, she is embarrassed by her powers rather than horrified or proud of them, and wants training primarily so that she can live life without their effects.
Isabelle White grew up the only child in a middle-class liberal family. Her childhood was relatively normal and her parents, both doctors, were always joining protests in support of gay rights, racial equality and even mutant rights. They always thought that mutants should be treated as people not monsters. That was until their own daughter showed the first signs of her developing powers. It was a normal day when Isabelle was just 15. Isabelle was in sports class, playing baseball. She'd always been pretty good at sports, and today, standing at second base, waiting for the pitch, she felt energised - like she could do anything. The pitch came, Sally Brindal hit the ball and Isabelle ran. Sally had not hit the ball well and it quickly came flying back towards third base. The opposing player caught the ball and began lowering it to touch Isabelle,.. and everything seemed to slow. Isabelle felt herself, shift, momentarily losing control of herself and somehow slipping through the girl's outstretched hand....
Powers:
Whisp has the ability to transform her body into a small ball of blue heatless vaguely human-shaped flame-like light. In this form she can phase through solid objects and can fly. When she phases through living creatures they are stunned (affliction effect).
Appearance:
Isabelle is short at 5ft.1in. with pale freckled skin, short black hair and a thin build. Being somewhat short-sighted, Isabelle wears glasses and, as a bit of a tom-boy tends to favour jeans and t-shirts, often with a baseball cap, rather than dresses or skirts. (I would determine Whisp's uniform in game if selected, if appropriate.
Notes:
I haven't played this system before so I'd need a bit of support in character creation and some of the mechanics.
@Electric Monk: No way! Another evolutionary biologist! Just finished my degree at Indiana University and starting a PhD in Genetics (evolutionary focus) (probably at the University of Wisconsin) next year.
Awesome. Mine's looking at the evolution of sex determination in Snow Skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus). Some do it genetically. Some by temperature (wierd!). Any idea what your topic is? (love the name by the way.. :) )
Presenting Jenna. Will work up stats etc, as quickly as I can but first
a little about me:
Australian, (Hobart). Just started a PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tasmania so can post most days and will endeavour to do so (unless PhD stuff interferes.) Feel free to check out the campaigns I've been in before. I like to link backgrounds with other players so the background below would be modified to include some links once everyone's been chosen.
Thanks for your consideration. :)
Jenna:
Jenna never knew her parents. What she did know about them was what she was told by her uncle Simas when she and her twin sister Arella were hunting with him, or in the quiet moments when he was able to sneak down from the big house away from his father’s prying eyes.
Simas and his sister, Silvana (Jenna’s mother) grew up on a large estate owned by a Varisian noble of Chelish blood. Their childhood was happy, although their father was always a gruff and strict disciplinarian. From birth Silvana had been promised in marriage to the scion of a Chelish noble family, and her inevitable departure from the land of her birth with only the promise of marriage to a man she had never met as a consolation, weighed heavily on the siblings. When she was a mere 17 years old, Silvana was found to be pregnant – to a man she refused to identify to her father and who’s identity even Simas did not know. When she finally gave birth it became clear that the man must have been an elf – or a half elf, since the twin girls showed clear sines of elven heritage.
Her father sent Silvana away and the twin girls grew up in the estate trying their best to avoid the eyes of their grandfather. Simas, however, tried his best to look after them. It was he who convinced his father that they should be given some education, and some training so that they might be able to make a living for themselves. So it was that the girls were apprenticed to the estate’s gamekeeper. Although they now spent most of their time away from the house and their grandfather’s hate-filled gaze, Simas managed to frequently join them in their hunting and training, sneaking away from the mansion whenever he could. So it was that Jenna and Arella grew into womanhood. Their future looked secure, if not to be filled the wealth of their family.
One day, however, the world changed. On a hunt. A hunt just like the hundreds they had been on before the two girls, accompanied by Simas, were attacked by a creature. The thing killed Arella with a single swipe of its huge claw and would have taken Jenna as well – If only Simas had not intervened, yelling at the horrified girl to run. Simas was killed and Jenna, after a terrified sprint through the forest, brought the news of his death back to the estate.
Now the cause, not just of his daughter’s shame, but also of his son’s death, Jenna’s grandfather cast her out. Jenna fled Sandport – thinking never to return, but feeling within herself an aching need to hunt down the moster that had taken her sister, her uncle, and her happiness.
Anyone know of any groups in Hobart? Just moved down from Melbourne where I (briefly) played with Matt Goodall after making the top 32 of RPG superstar last year.
I'd really like to find a group to join (i'd even be willing to have a go at GMing) so if anyone knows anyone....
really sorry everyone. 4 days till i move interstate, niece visiting from the USA (her birthday was yesterday), started PhD a week ago and still have to paint the house.
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
Jacob W. Michaels wrote:
But what about something like organizations from 2012?
Was that still too rules-light to be helpful for you? If not, I think that's the type of thing that could be attractive vs. what I felt like was much rules-heavier archetype rounds in 2013 and 2011. I wonder if there's some happy medium in that area...
(If it was eventually too rules-light -- an attempt that didn't work for Paizo -- then that's less helpful, obviously.)
That's kind of what I was thinking. Not rules free, but a round where flavour is more important / more of a focus than the rules themselves?
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
* Shorten the voting period for R1. -YES!-
* Implement the R1 culling earlier to avoid so much exposure to the really poor items. And perhaps add a second culling. -YES!-
* Add a way to flag R1 items that break the rules -YES!-
* Add a way for voters to add a short comment to an R1 item that remains hidden until the end of R1. -YES!-
* Drop the playtest step from R4. -Not too fussed-
and other suggestions...
* Round 4.5 the wild card round. -I WISH!-
* No more archetype rounds, because I suck at them ;-) -Not as much as me!-
For myself, I'd kind of like a round which was a bit more rules-lite. A concept round. It'd be nice if this didn't necessarily need to be Golarion-specific. I love the setting but it'd be nice to see something from outside that particular box - maybe even a world concept round?
Ciera gasps as the sailor's blade opens her old wound but steadies herself and slashes forward with her blades. Due to her fresh injury, Both strikes slash wide, missing the sailor.
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
Congrats to the top 16 - sad not to be up there with you but I think that all the top 16 were better than mine.
Even getting this far has been amazing and, if I'm lucky enough to get in next year I know I've learnt heaps to increase my chances. Well done to you all,
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
I've discussed this with other people at Paizo, and we definitely want it to be a Golarion monster. I'll get the rules updated (as nobody can submit their monster yet, nobody has submitted a monster yet, so altering the rules at this point doesn't affect any existing entries.
As mentioned above, this might be considered a bit subjective. After all, most monsters can be used in different worlds even if there's significant allusions to Golarion. For example, even though the Sandpoint Devil is heavily tied to Golarion there would be nothing to stop anyone using it in a homebrew campaign.
Any chance of an example of a monster that would be considered Golarion-specific?
Sorry you didn't make it aardvark, which was your item? Maybe I saw it during voting? - still it's kind of cool that two players in your (awesome) game are in the top 32.?
What about including stuff from the APG etc. but with a sidebar saying something like;
"This content can be found in the Advanced Players Guide pp. 45. or on the Pathfinder SRD website. Alternatively x from Core Rulebook may be substituted instead."
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
Crowface wrote:
The advice about waiting to submit is that in the past, some of the judges have gone on the boards to post about "things we're seeing." These can be general comments about the types of items that seem to be popular, or examples of common errors or mistakes in submissions, etc.
For example, Sean just posted a bit about making sure to provide the name of your item both in the formatted text block AND in the subject line box provided. If you wait a bit before submitting you could possibly read some of that early feedback and avoid making the same mistakes.
George Cunningham
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
,
Star Voter Season 6 aka Electric Monk
Just wondering,... I love browsing through the ideas that pop up! I would imagine that it might not be until the 32 are chosen, however some advice has been to wait a bit to see what the comments are on other people's items before submitting.
Appologies if this info is already posted somewhere.
