Game Masquerade's page

I play in a small but steadily growing lodge (2 full tables a week, soon to be 3). My VL and VC nice enough people, but they fulfill their roles in the most bare minimum way possible. They are difficult to get a hold of outside of our weekly game night. They will often flat out ignore questions on the lodge's official facebook page. The VL shows up pretty much every week, but he seems like he's going through the motions most of the time. The VC is only present about half the time, and he no longer plays or GMs at all (sometimes he will show up, not speak to anyone, and then go play some other, completely unrelated game).

I understand that people have lives outside of PFS. I also understand that hobby fatigue is a real thing, and that sometimes it is difficult to muster a lot of enthusiasm after years of playing and organizing the same games week after week. My issue is that recently there has been a lot of new players and renewed interest in the games at our lodge, (and if I'm being honest, it's mostly because of my own efforts) and I feel like these new players are being let down by our current leadership.

At the risk of sounding ridiculously braggadocios, I put a lot of hours into recruiting, organizing, and driving interest in PFS at my local lodge, and it shows. Over the past few months, attendance has more than doubled, and more are showing up every week. I'm always the one who volunteers to run an evergreen cold whenever we have more players show up than our normal tables can accommodate. I'm active on the facebook page, fielding questions and providing helpful resources to newcomers. I bring tons of extra dice, character sheets, pregens, pencils, minis, etc. that I hand out on game days so that new players can just show up and play.

I'm really not trying to toot my own horn here, I'm just trying to explain that I like doing these things. I am passionate about this game, and introducing the hobby to new players. But my passion is also causing a bit of a problem. Since I'm the one doing the bulk of the organizing, players at my lodge are now turning to me with questions that are best directed to our VL or VC. The problem is that these two are often unavailable or unreachable. For instance, we have a small local convention coming up, at which I know our lodge will be hosting some games. Several of our new players want to attend, and have come to me to find out what scenarios are being run, and I don't have any answers for them. I've reached out to my VC, but he's been unresponsive. I contacted the convention organizers directly to see if I could just run some games myself, and they told me that all requests must go through my VC. I feel like I'm being hamstrung here.

I guess my question is how do I get involved in organizing PFS in a more "official" capacity. I've played Pathfinder for a long time, but have only been involved in PFS for the last six months or so, which makes me pretty "new" to the hobby, even though I've adopted more of a leadership role. And I don't want to usurp my VL or VC, just pick up their slack and maybe take on some of their responsibilities. Is it possible for someone in my position to gain the organizational authority of a VL or VC but without the actual rank?

I realize a lot of the responses to this thread are going to be "sit down and talk with your leadership", and while I do plan on doing that, I also firmly believe in the mantra of "if you see something that needs done, just do it yourself". I'm much more of an ask forgiveness, rather than permission kind of guy.

Last August, I started a home brew pbp set in a world of my creation that ran fairly successfully for about two months. Unfortunately, right around the end of that time, my personal life took a roller coaster ride (got married, bought a house, got promoted and had to start working overtime), and I was unable to maintain my duties as GM, so the game was summarily cancelled.

It was necessary, but I always regretted it, because it was turning out to be a fun campaign, and IMHO the setting is great and ripe for adventuring.

Fast forward about 7 months, and now my schedule has been toned down quite a bit. I feel the time is right to revisit this setting, only this time with a new campaign featuring a new area of the world (and perhaps a new group of adventurers!). Also, this game will feature rotating GMs, so it is expected that anyone who wishes to participate have at least a little experience GMing a game.

I'm looking for around 6 players for a non-evil campaign. Interesting concepts preferred. And rather than repost a bunch of information, you can find a lot of info on the setting here and here.

You can also read the first pbp thread here.

As far as my GMing style goes, I prefer a fun and engaging story above all else. I don't like to railroad my PCs, but I do like to make sure that wherever they choose to go, epic adventure awaits. I use a lot of visual aids to help spark the imagination, and I try to be cinematic and descriptive in my posts. Sometimes I play a little fast and loose with the rules, but only to the benefit of the players and the story. While I'm not afraid to let a PC die, I'll usually give them a way out if they play intelligently and look hard enough. I enjoy using a lot of puzzles, mysteries, and riddles in my games, too.

If you wish to GM in this game, don't feel like you have to play it safe. I'm pretty open-minded, and if a key NPC has to die to progress the story then so be it. I only ask that you honor the integrity and the spirit of the setting to try to maintain as much continuity as possible. Please don't have the moon crash into the planet, for instance :)

If you are interested in joining this game, please post your concepts here. Interesting, fully fleshed out concepts are always more exciting than one-liners. If you have any further questions, please let me know :)

Recently, my weekly table-top group decided to start a new Legends of the Five Rings campaign (L5R). Being a total newbie to L5R, I thought the best way to build my knowledge base and brush up on my rules-fu would be to dive in headfirst and GM my own campaign. And, thanks to the convenience of the Internet, and the rising popularity of pbp's, I now have that opportunity.

Here's the quick and dirty:

- Rule system will be Legends of the Five Rings, 4th Edition only. It's only been out for a few months, but my limited time with it has revealed it to be fast, brutal, and surprisingly balanced. It's also a whole lot of fun and a fair departure from d20 systems.

- Everything in the core rulebook is fair game as far as character creation is concerned. This includes the Spider Clan, blood magic (maho), Shadowlands Taint, Imperial families, minor clans, etc. In fact, I encourage characters that use obscure mechanics, because that will force me to learn those systems more intimately.

- This will be one of the only times where I will care more about the mechanics of a character, rather than a strong concept or detailed background/personal history. I want to build a party with varied and complimentary abilities, so I'm looking for characters that can fill different niches more than I'm looking for concepts and fluff. HOWEVER, if you can whip up a good story for your character, then that will probably get him/her a second look from me.

- Seeing as how I'll be sort of winging this and making it up as I go along, I don't have a particular era of history that the campaign will take place within, so don't build your concept to be to dependent on a certain time period. The world we will be using will be Rokugan, but more of a loose interpretation of it than what is strictly in the book. I like adding my own personal touch to my campaign worlds.

- When posting a concept, you need to include at least these five things for it to be considered:
1. Your character's clan.
2. Your character's family.
3. Your character's school
4. Your character's "thing" (basically, what he or she does best)
5. Your character's name, and what it means (if it means something)

This is a pretty open ended recruitment, so take your time creating your character. If I get enough interest in the campaign and enough concepts submitted, then I will close recruitment and kick off the game.

EDIT: I just realized that there may be some of you out there that have no idea what L5R is. It's sort of like samurai d&d. The world and culture is derived heavily from feudal japan, with a smattering of ancient Chinese and other asian cultures thrown in. Think samurai, ninja, sumo wrestlers, Mongolian warriors, monks, etc.

There are three broad archetypes that your character will fall under. Bushi (fighter types), shugenja (caster types), and courtier (social, or "face" types). Within those three archetypes are about a million different ways to build and customize your character.

Combat is fast and particularly brutal, with a heavy bent towards realism. It's a far cry from most d20 combats. Honor, glory, and personal status matter more than sweet loot, and actually tie into your character's abilities. Samurai duels also play a large part in the game, and often are the only way to resolve a conflict or dispute.

Ok, first let me make it clear that I am not offering to GM a Legends of the Five Rings Pbp. I'm just simply trying to gauge people's interest in the system and if such a pbp would even be viable on Paizo's boards. Who knows, maybe somebody will come out of the woodwork and offer to GM?

Regardless, the system itself looks cool. I've never played L5R myself, but I just downloaded and skimmed through the 4th edition core rulebook and I find it intriguing. I think it would lend itself well to a pbp.

What do you guys think?

Gold-Bottom Bay, A Hero's Welcome

Electric excitement fills the air. After months aboard the passenger frigate Resolution, the promise of land and freedom is almost too much to bear, especially in a place as magical as Gold-Bottom Bay. Indeed, just peering over the side of the boat you can see how the Bay got its name. Coppers, silvers, and shiny gold pieces seem to carpet the sea floor and twinkle as you glide across the crystal clear waters. Several patrons aboard the ship toss in a coin themselves as a token of thanks to Lady Luck for granting them safe passage.

Up ahead, the port city is a riot of color as the Festival of Fortune is in full swing. Thousands of fluttering kites fill the sky, intermingling with the singing sea birds that wing lazily overhead. A crowd forms at the bow of the vessel, eager to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of this majestic city. At the very forefront of this crowd stand six individuals.

The first is Samisel, the tall elven cavalier hailing from distant Verdan. Behind him stands Deston, the lean swashbuckler sporting a half masque across his face to hide his scars. He is a local, having spent his childhood here, but he hasn't been home in years, and a lot has changed since then. Next to him is young Qarxan the brilliant gnome wizard, schooled in the ways of air magic. Also present is the gnome druid Emmentian, holding his pet snake high so he may get a better view. Standing quietly behind him is Lynnara the Wavespeaker, enjoying the salt spray on her beautiful tanned skin. And finally, standing propped up on the railing, the mischievous halfling Talic looks longingly at the glittering city, eager to ply one of his many trades.

They are all friends and companions now, the inevitable result of living together over the past three months, sharing food and drink and stories. Since this land is foreign to most of them, there exists an unspoken agreement that this little band of companions will persist while each of them gets their feet wet. Though newly friends, there exists a feeling of trust and respect among them, almost as if their meeting aboard this vessel were more than mere chance.

As the Resolution pulls into port and the passengers offload, a large commotion begins further down the docks. An excited crowd is gathering around a peculiar ship as a large cage is offloaded. Within it lay a dark figure, perhaps some sort of creature, but it's impossible to tell without a closer look. Whatever it is, it seems to have caused quite a stir among the locals, as fierce looking men in black and white uniforms angrily push the crowd back to make room for the cage and its mysterious inhabitant.

First of all, welcome everyone! We are about to embark on a grand and epic adventure, so I hope you enjoy it very much!

This is the OOC discussion thread, where we will be discussing aspects of the campaign OOC. This is also the place to post if you have changes in your life that will prevent you from posting for a while (job, school, work, etc.). This is also the place to post your thoughts and critiques on the campaign, and offer me some real-time feedback to help make your experience as awesome as possible.

What I now need everyone in the party to do is this:

- Create aliases for your PCs complete with an avatar that resembles their physical likeness.

- Transfer all of your character sheet data into your character's profile page, so that I can check it as necessary. I'm going to require that everyone keep accurate and up-to-date records to keep cheating/fudging to a minimum. By nature, Pbp's play fast and loose with the rules as it is, so I would like to do everything in my power to keep things fair and honest.

- Submit (post) your character's wish list as far as magic items, new pets, etc. I want you divide it up by price, and list only one item per price increment. The price increments are as follows:
1,000 gp or less
5,000 gp or less
10,000 gp or less
15,000 gp or less
25,000 gp or less
50,000 gp or less
100,000 gp or less

Please bear in mind that this does NOT mean that your character will get everything on their wish list. In fact, it's entirely possible that they won't receive a single item from it. However, it does help me with ideas for loot, or for potential rewards if you are playing your character extremely well.

Thats all for right now, but if you have any questions/concerns, then by all means let me know.

One more thing...

I'm looking mainly for concepts here, not mechanics or crunch. Things like background history, personal motivations, and unique flavor mean much more to me than "pole arm fighter who trips a lot"

Your imagination is one of your greatest assets... Use it! :)