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All out-of-character discussions of the game will be in this thread. First question for all players: Do you want to play the adventure contained in the Quickstart guide "Riddermound"? If so, try not to spoil it for yourself by reading anything from p. 26 to p. 34.
I am interested in taking Free League's Dragonbane RPG out for a spin and running a short adventure based one of the ones included in the intro box. Basic game and character creation rules can be found in the Quickstart that is avialable for free here: DRIVETHRURPG.COM Anyone else interested?
This is the out-of-character discussion thread.
Hi folks, I've been absent from the forums for a good while now to deal with family issues that took up all my available brain space. I did not end my last GMing experiences here in the forums well (I ghosted my groups), so I'll apologize for that for starters: Sorry to all my players for ghosting our games. I was under a lot of stress at the time, but that doesn't excuse the poor way in which I dropped all of the games; nobody deserves that, mea culpa. ------------------------------------------------- I say all of this because it is my intention to run a brief game of Swords of the Serpentine, a fantasy sword and sorcery GUMSHOE game. To make it as simple as possible, I'll be running a pre-written adventure called "Ragamuffins" about a small crew of pre-teen street urchins who have to deal with a strange situation. Anyone who is interested will be playing one of the following pregens: * Gemma, a 12-year-old who fancies herself a freelance slink (P.I.) or a City Watch member, even if the Watch regularly chase her away.
Names and genders are flexible and can be changed by the player. If you're interested, this will be a game with a lot of RP and investigation and even a bit of combat. Since all of the PCs are children, however, most of the time it will be much smarter (and more in the spirit of this adventure) to run away instead of trying to win a stand-up fight. I am hoping to begin as soon as all the pregens are claimed on a first-come basis, or if they are not all filled, once new players stop showing up. No previous knowledge or experience with Swords of the Serpentine or a GUMSHOE game is necessary to play, and all rules will be taught during play.
OK, let's start character creation. Freebooters on the Frontier is a hybrid of both OSR and PbtA games, and a funnel is an introductory game in which everyone plays multiple underpowered "commoners" for lack of a better word. Most aspects of the character generation is random, so we'll be doing a lot of dice rolling to begin with. For those who are joining us on what I hope to be a fun, wacky adventure, please roll (or complete) the following: 1) Occupation: d100 (this will also generate your heritage and your corresponding heritage move) 2) Ability Scores: Roll 3d6 for all characteristics in order: Str, Con, Dex, Int, Wis, Cha, and Luck. In order means your first 3d6 goes to Str, your seond to Con, etc. Don't worry if these are low, they will get bumped in the next two steps. Once everyone has completed these steps and I've give you the results (if you haven't looked them up yourself, see the link to the free RPG docs in the recruitment thread), we'll move on.
Just seeing if there is interest in running a Level 0 Funnel using the playtest version of Freebooters of the Frontier (2e) by Jason Lutes. For thems who aren't familiar with this RPG, it's a hack of Dungeon World combined with OSR elements (mostly from Dungeon Crawl Classics). If you're interested, you can download the complete game from the Author's Dropbox Account (account not needed). The exact funnel adventure will be chosen by the players, but will either be a homebrew that I create with player input, or one of the published DCC funnels. What are the elements of a funnel game? (see also this StackExchange posting)
What are the elements of Freeboters of the Frontier?
This will be the OOC discussion thread for our Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Hollow's Last Hope game.
Hi folks, Looking to run Paizo's excellent module Hollow's Last Hope using the new Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Rules. Looking for 4 – 6 interested players who are willing to commit to a posting rate of at least 1/day during the week and at least once during the weekend. You don't have to own the Pathfinder for Savage Worlds game in order to participate, nor do I require familiarity with the rules, as I will teach the game as we go along. We will be using the standard Golarion setting of northern Andoran. Here's the blurb about the adventure: "The Town of Falcon's Hollow Needs a Miracle! The plague has come to the town of Falcon's Hollow, and not even the town's priest can abate its wretched course. With the coughs of the sick and the wails of the dying echoing through town, the local herbalist uncovers a cure, but she needs some brave heroes to retrieve the ingredients. Finding the cure means risking the dangerous Darkmoon Vale, infiltrating a witch's haunted hut, and delving the ruins of an abandoned dwarven monastery. Do your heroes have the skill and courage to find the cure in time?" If you have a copy of the rules, you are free to create a character using the Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Core Rules. If you don't have a copy of the rules, you are free to chose one of the pregens and reskin it as you see fit. Available pregens include: * Amiri (Human Barbarian)
If you are interested, please submit the following by May 20th, 2022: 1) Your interest and willingness to adhere to the posting rate (see above).
I will pick 4-6 players from the applicants, giving slight preference to those with whom I have played with before (especially if the game became inactive before its conclusion, even more so if I was the one that caused it to become inactive). Submissions will be accepted until May 20th, 2022.
It's pretty much all in the title. I just downloaded the proof of the new Magpie Games Avatar Legends RPG and want to try out the rules. Anyone interested in joining me? We'd all get input about the type of game it would be (mystery, coming of age, fighting oppression, etc) and what Era (Kyoshi, Roku, 100 Year War, Aang, or Korra). If you didn't back the Kickstarter, I think the quickstart rules are still available on the Kickstarter or Magpie website. For those who don't know anything about this, just do a web search for the Thread title and you'll get a lot of info about it.
This is the OOC Discussion thread for the OSE Palace of the Silver Princess Game.
Game Name: Palace of the Silver Princess (Orange edition) or Who Will Save Our Land? Game System: OSR (system TBD, see below) Theme: Young adventurers return home to find it in the clutches of a ruthless baroness and must rescue their friend Flavor: Open World Survival hexcrawl based on published B/X D&D and 1st ed AD&D modules, all flavors from dark fantasy to gonzo Background: You left your home in the Barony of Gulluvia only a few years ago, leaving behind your family, loved ones, and the places you loved in order to pursue your dreams in the wider world. You thought that you had outgrown the rolling hills and fruitful meadows of home, and were destined for great things. A month ago, you received a desperate letter from home. Bernadette, the younger sister of your close friend Jeremiah who had stayed behind in Gulluvia to take over his family's farm, was begging you to return home and help her brother. She wrote that Jeremiah had been arrested by the soldiers of Baroness D'hmis, who had accused him of being a traitor and thrown him in a cell. Appeals for justice and mercy had gone unheard, and the Baroness' magistrate was moving forward with seizing their family farm. Rushing home to come to your old friend's aid, you met Bernadette at the Shady Dragon Inn in the settlement of Velders on the edge of the Barony of Gulluvia. Clearly in a state of panic, Bernadette's eyes darted around, fearing she would be overheard. After you had sufficiently calmed her, she tearfully confessed that Jeremiah had been tried and convicted by the corrupt magistrate and was scheduled to be executed for treason in one month's time after which their farm would be seized as well. The magistrate proclaimed that if she could come up with 500 gp, however, she would be allowed to keep the farm. That amount of money was ludicrous, as no farmer in the history of Gulluvia had ever acquired that much wealth. Bernadette was deathly ashamed but didn’t have anyone else to turn to and asked you if there was anything you could do. Clearly, her estimation of your collective worth was off by a few hundred gold pieces, but that did not make the situation any less tragic. Game Information: This will be an OSR (Old School Revival/Renaissance) game based on published TSR adventures from the early to mid-80s. Your PCs will be a group of young people from the Barony of Gulluvia, which was first sketched out by Jean Wells in her only TSR adventure: B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, published in 1981. In that description it states that the barony was recently taken over by the ruthless Baroness D’hmis. However you feel about this baroness, you all want to free your imprisoned friend Jeremiah, but lack the funds to do so. Of insufficient experience to take on the baroness directly, you have instead decided to do the only thing you can think of for coming up with the 500 gp needed to free him: become treasure hunters. Knowing that you have only a few weeks before your friend Jeremiah is unjustly put to death, you head off into the mountains north of Gulluvia, following the rumors of a wealthy princess who ruled a hidden valley and possessed a giant ruby. Surely a ruby of that size (if it exists) would buy your friend’s freedom, would it not? Game System: As I mentioned above, I have not determined which of the OSR systems we will be using to play this game, but since I own several, we have options. I also thought it would be helpful if everyone who is chosen to play this game gets a chance to help pick it. As part of your application for this game, please select your top 4 from the options listed below in the "Application" section. Application: If you are interested in the game, please submit the following: Name:
Submission Deadline: Feb 18th, 2022
Hello Customer Service folks, Please cancel my Pathfinder Society subscription effective immediately. Please cancel my Pathfinder Lost Omens subscription once "Absalom, City of Lost Omens" ships. Finally, please cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription once "#174: Shadows of the Ancients" ships. If the Lost Omens and AP cancel requests are too finicky to work on your end, please let me know and I'll put in separate requests for each of them at the appropriate time. The PFS subscription can be cancelled immediately, however. Many thanks, Alex 
Howdy Paizoteers, The subject line says it all: Breath of the Dragonskull Product Page. I know, not the highest priority ever, but, you know :)
Hi folks, I've begun a new online campaign via video chat based on the old Dungeons and Dragons module B 1–9 "In Search of Adventure" using the 13th Age RPG rules set, and am considering starting a PbP here of the same thing if enough folks are interested. I would run the two in parallel and use the background and story elements that are generated by both games to cross-pollinate one another. Would anyone be interested in adventuring through the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, first presented in the Moldvay D&D Expert Set, albeit using the 13th Age RPG rules published by Pelgrane Press? The module as written is very sandboxy and allows the players to head off in a number of different directions. We'd start at 1st level in the town of Threshold and use the 13th Age Icon relationships to help inform backgrounds and plots. The Icons themselves would be powerful (although not immortal) forces in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos and surrounding nations. Any interest? Questions?
This is where we'll be discussing the game. Everyone should begin by going to the Torchbearer RPG Downloads page and download the "Torchbearer Sheets Bundle" and the "Torchbearer Cheat Sheet". After everyone checks in here and confirms they have downloaded both, we can begin the character creation process.
Hi folks, I have long been interested in the Torchbearer RPG published by Burning Wheel Press and am wondering if anyone else might be interested in playing with me if I run a game of it here. I've been reading the rules for the past few months and am ready to give it a try. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Torchbearer, it is a heavily modified version of the Mouse Guard RPG with some elements of the Burning Wheel RPG thrown in. Since I backed the Torchberer 2nd Edition Kickstarter, we'd be using the beta version of it that has been released for backers. If you have the 1st edition rules or none of the rules at all, that is perfectly fine, as the nature of Play-by-Post allows us to introduce rules elements bit by bit as we play. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Torchbearer RPG, it plays like a low-powered (compared to Pathfinder anyway), simulationist survival game where you have to keep track of supplies and live by the edge of your wits. Success or even just survival is not guaranteed, and players are encouraged to make plans and work together, rather than simply wading into every combat knowing that is is "balanced" for the party. In many ways it feels like the early editions of D&D and AD&D (which is intentional, as it is an homage to it). Unlike many modern games, it is actually quite crunchy rules-wise, but I feel the rules are well-designed and make sense. There are quite a few reviews of the game online if you'd like to check them out: HERE, HERE, and HERE (video). In order to make the game more friendly to folks here on the Paizo boards, I would be setting it in Golarion, specifically in northern Cheliax in the foothills of the Menador Mountains. Players would be portraying down-on-their-luck treasure hunters, searching the ruins of ancient civilizations for fame and glory. There's no need to come up with a character concept right away, as Torchbearer character creation is best if it is done along with your fellow players, so just let me know if you are interested. If you'd like to start thinking about your character, please go ahead. The available classes are: Halfling Burglar, Human Magician, Dwarf Outcast, Elf Ranger, Human Theurge, and Human Warrior.
Hi there. I'm home on lockdown with lots of RPGs that I've never played. I want to change that. Anyone interested in joining me for a short, low-key PbP adventure? I'm happy to GM. If you're interested, please give me a list of the games you've always wanted to play but never have and I'll let you know if I have them. We'll narrow it down to a half-dozen and then will vote. Sound good? Game on!
This is where OOC discussions will happen.
Greetings and welcome to the Recruitment Thread for "Operation Unfathomable" by Jason Sholtis using the Swords & Wizardry game system published by Frog God Games. At its heart, Operation Unfathomable is an Underworld exploration game in a surreal sword and sorcery universe that has more in common with the books of of Robert E. Howard (Conan), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), and Michael Moorcock, than the imaginations of Tolkien and his intellectual descendants. The universe in which Operation Unfathomable exists is cruel, uncaring, and more than a little weird, but Sholtis has injected quite a bit of humor (often quite black) as well. This is not a place of dashing heroes and steely heroines with high ideals and seemingly endless hit points, but one where people have to be careful and clever just to survive, and where most are just out for themselves. But does this mean that things are grim and there is no hope? On the contrary. I hope to create a game where the PCs don't always get along, but try their best to make the best out of a bad situation, and have a laugh or two while they're at it. Here are some additional notes about the game:
Posting Expectations
Character Creation Basics:
Spoiler:
ORASK ZORUNAM
Level 1 Magic-User Intense scientific interest in all things Underworld coupled with below-average wisdom a possible liability Speaks like David Attenborough and given to descriptive monologues with evangelical fervor STR: 6 (-1), INT: 17, WIS: 8, CON: 13 (+1 to hp), DEX: 13 (+1 to missiles, 1 pt. bonus to AC) CHA: 12 Spells: 1 first level/day Armor: None Weapons: Dagger [1d4] Age: 45. HP: 4, AC: [10], SAV: 15, Move: 12, XP Bonus: None Equipment: backpack, bedroll, waterskin, lantern. 4 flasks oil, 8 specimen jars in leather case, 2 contain fungal spore samples, 1 contains a dozen live microsnakes, 1 week iron rations, 10’ pole, vial of holy water, portable spellbook containing sleep, detect magic, magic missive, reveal location, scroll containing fireball, 16 GP Here are some additional house rules:
Please let me know if you have additional questions! I'll keep this recruitment open for two weeks (10/23) after which I'll take my pick from among the 4-6 PCs I like best.
I recently purchased Operation Unfathomable by Jason Sholtis and found it is really up my alley. For those of you unfamiliar with the setting, it's been described as a gonzo, subterranean sandbox adventure that's plenty deadly but is probably very different from any Tolkienesque game you have ever played. The game is written for the D&D 0E retro-clone "Swords and Wizardry", and since I've been curious about how that game plays, I'd like to give it a try. Everyone begins at 1st level with the standard classes and races from the Swords & Wizardry Core Rulebook, which is available as a "Pay What You Want" PDF. The setting below the earth (where the adventure is set) is well-described in the campaign book, but the world above as imagined by Sholtis still hasn't been published, so we'd all be making it up as we go along. Here is the blurb describing the game:
From DriveThruRPG:
OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE is a 108-page, internally-consistent, gonzo funhouse module for Swords & Wizardry that runs like a subterranean wilderness trek instead of a “down the 10 foot hall and kick in a door” affair. There are random elements aplenty to keep GMs guessing as well as players. No balanced encounters to be found here, but the clever setup allows low level characters to drop into the dungeon “deep end” and still have a chance of making it out alive—if they’re smart and wary.
OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE includes: Underworld Phenomena: Novel environmental hazards to challenge explorers like Horizontal Cave Lightning, Whirlwinds of Unbidden Transportation, Sudden Seismic Events, and many more!
And if you want more background about the actual adventure, here's the full player's background:
Spoiler: Sorcerer-King Syantides, autocrat of the ancient city-state Mur, has made a terrible blunder. The fabulous Nul Rod (an anti-magical artifact of mythic proportions), long kept safely locked away in his Tower Impregnable, has been taken by one of Syantides’ sons, the gallant Prince Eyraen.
Unable to master the mystic arts and doomed to obscurity in the shadows of his nine (confirmed) siblings, the Prince dedicated himself to mastering the arts of war and became a mighty fighting-man and prominent explorer. While outfitting himself for an expedition, Eyraen discovered the Nul Rod among his father’s substantial treasure hoard and appropriated the relic for use on a suicidal errand into the unfathomable Underworld. At some point in their delve, the Prince’s party met with a terrible fate from which only a single porter escaped. This young man, his hair prematurely white from terror, was able to offer very little in the way of coherent testimony before breaking free of his restraints and throwing himself into Stonespear River. The authorities found a rough map from the expedition in the youth’s tattered sack, along with a small golden idol depicting a little- known godling, Shaggath-Ka the Worm Sultan. Former associates of the Prince confirmed that Eyraen had long a terrible vengeance upon the Worm Sultan, to whom one of the Prince’s most ardent lovers was sacrificed in an unspeakable rite. According to the map, Shaggath-Ka’s realm lies somewhere beneath the frontier territories to which your group has traveled in search of adventure. Just yesterday, the local captain attempted to plumb these depths with a sizable force of soldiers. A half-insane survivor, before renouncing his citizenship and disappearing into the night, reported that the war band attracted so much attention they were drawn into a series of nonstop battles. The captain and his remaining stalwarts fell in an encounter with a singular horror that the surviving man-at-arms was either unable or unwilling to describe. The agents of the Sorcerer-King hope that a smaller expedition, proceeding stealthily and choosing their battles wisely (this cannot be overemphasized), might have a better chance of success. The section of the Underworld visited by the Prince’s party was at least partially pacified, and many horrors were destroyed. Certainly, whatever wiped out the party remains at large, but with care, planning, and stealth, the Nul Rod may still be recoverable. The further opportunity to reclaim any treasures procured by the Prince before fate overtook him should not be ignored. The entrance to the Underworld used by the Prince lies but a few hours’ travel into the nearby wilderness. But, with perpetual internecine wars raging on all fronts, most of the greatest heroes in the Sorcerer-King’s service are dead, occupied, or very far away. And so in Fort Enterprise, the modest wilderness outpost you have chosen as your base of operations, the Sorcerer-King’s regent has determined to press into service whomever he can find who might pass for bold adventurers. Your newly formed company, already planning a career in exploration, treasure hunting, and dungeon delving, will simply have to suffice.
This is the OOC/Discussion thread for our Trail of Cthulhu game "Ritual Pursuits" written by Steve Dempsey. Feel free to post your rules-specific questions or other OOC material here.
It’s 1931 and the Indianapolis Indians have just opened their new Perry Stadium on 16th St., and the newly reformed Indianapolis ABCs are playing in the Negro National League. You are all traveling to Indianapolis cross country from New York in quite a decent car, a Ford Model A Sedan, looking to take advantage of these exciting times (Picture of Ford). There are two ball players, a sports journalist, a doctor, an author (whose car it is), a photographer, and Woodrow Chadrick, the driver. It’s not been an easy journey. Unmarried women traveling with men, and whites traveling with blacks, are viewed with great suspicion. You took a slight detour in Ohio to check out a haunting in Lima, Ohio. You had hoped to make better time, because you need to be in Indy tonight. You’ve been forced to push on into the night and now you’re just south of Muncie, Indiana. It is a moonless, clear and cold March night, and the stars are bright.
This is the recruitment thread for the demo game of Trail of Cthulhu using the GUMSHOE system, and a de facto continuation of the previous interest thread. As previously stated, we'll be playing the convention demo adventure "Ritual Pursuits", which serves as an introduction to the setting and the system. If you've previously expressed interest in playing, please let me know which of the pregens (see below) you'd be interested in playing, and if you have any questions about the game. Pregens: Fran Tyler, Author
Wondering if there is interest in playing through a very short demo game of Trail of Cthulhu. I'd be using the convention demo "Ritual Pursuits", which is very brief and serves as an introduction to the game system. Trail of Cthulhu uses the GUMSHOE system from Pelgrane Press, which is easy to learn. The setting is pretty much identical to a standard Call of Cthulhu game, except that is is set in the 1930s instead of the 1920s. Pregens are available if you don't have access to the rules.
Hello everyone! This is where we'll be having the kinds of discussions about the game that don't involve your PC saying "Hey, why is that goblin wearing a leotard?", or things like that. Got a questions about how I run the game? Put it here. Want to ask another player a question, or communicate something to the player (and not the PC)? Put it here. Want to tell us a funny story about what happened to you today? Put it here. ---------------- So with that out of the way, let me tell you a little about this game. This will be a sandbox game, very much unlike the Adventure Paths that Paizo publishes (and which are very good), but one which hearkens back to the game of AD&D that I grew up with back in the eighties. For those of you who don't know the distinctions, a sandbox game is one in which the players provide the goals and motivations for the game. An Adventure Path generally has a predetermined story in which the PCs play the central roles, but which they can't completely escape from. Sorry if this is very old info, but I have to assume that not everyone is in the know. Your sandbox adventure begins in the town of Saltmarsh (well, it begins in a tunnel underground, but think of that as more of a prologue), but from there you will be able to go in any direction you want. Want to work for the town guard and track down criminals? You can do that. Want to buy a boat and become pirates. Um, sure, you can do that, but please give me a little more time to plan. Want to explore an abandoned mine that is said to be teaming with monsters and treasure? Oh yes, sure. How will you know which way to go? I will hopefully be dropping lots of adventure hooks throughout the game, ones that will point you toward a place that you've never visited. Or perhaps you've visited them before, but you receive new info about a person in that place that you didn't know before. I would like to draw these adventure hooks from the types of PCs that you have created, drawn from their backgrounds and their desires, their wishes and dreams. Maybe your character really wants to become a nobleman and have his own stronghold. Is that possible? Well, maybe not right away, but given enough blood, sweat, tears, and gold it certainly might be. I can guide the story in that direction. Maybe during your adventures you meet a big bad guy, and you decide that THAT'S THE GUY WHO KILLED MY SISTER! Ok, thank you for the campaign arc, let me build something about taking down that guy (or gal). So that's basically how my sandbox game will run. How can you help? Let me know what your PC wants, desires, needs. Also tell me what he hates, fears, and is jealous of. Don't tell me here in this thread (well, do if you like), but I prefer it if you tell it in your character's actions, words, and in her backstory. If you have questions, ask away.
You could swear that the last shadow moved of its own accord, but it was probably just a trick of the light. You were hired several days ago to accompany a pioneering caravan traveling via the "Old Dwarven Road", an underground highway built centuries ago by an ambitious, but now forgotten dwarven king. For the last two days you have been moving through darkened tunnels, crossing rope bridges that span crevasses, and squeezing through small gaps in natural caves, following a route that once was well-maintained and patrolled, but has deteriorated considerably after centuries of neglect. What once was a wide road paved with broken stone that was regularly patrolled is now a broken path frequently interrupted by fallen rock and patches of subterranean flora. For this and other reasons, no one has used the Old Dwarven Road in a very, very long time. These obstacles did not deter the dwarven spice merchant Amelius from hiring all of you to accompany the caravan and protect his mules for three days until you reach the coastal town of Sandpoint on the far side of the Old Dwarven Road. A young dwarf of high birth, Amelius bought a map of the Old Dwarven Road in an antiquarian's shop, and has invested a good deal of his inheritance on this expedition. Having no first-hand experience with the route, he hired an ancient dwarven miner named Grakkus the Deaf to lead the way. Grakkus is one of the few people old enough to have traveled this route during its heyday, and claims to "remember it like it was yesterday". In truth, Grakkus' memory has deteriorated over the years, and you have had to backtrack three, perhaps four times in the two days you have been underground. You have seen a healthy amount of vermin during your travel through the darkness, but none larger than a large rat. You have been told that there are goblins in these tunnels, but have not seen any so far. Grakkus has mentioned that Underdark trolls took over parts of the Old Dwarven Road several decades ago, but they haven't been seen in these parts for years. You have taken a mid-day break in a carved room with a fountain to rest, eat, refill your canteens and give the four mules a good long drink. Grakkus, as always, is studying the map, and Amelius is sitting on the ground next to the fountain, eating a piece of yellow-gold cheese and taking bites of meat jerky.
Greetings, I've recently been inspired to introduce some of the adventures I grew up playing to a new generation of players who might have missed them, as well as older players who never got the chance. Although I played quite a few during my misspent youth, I have a particularly fond memory of U1, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the fist adventure published by TSR UK back in 1981. The adventure was fun for a 1st level adventure and offered several locations, a fun mystery, and several RPG tropes that have become legends. Despite the nostalgia for the adventure, I don't really have any desire to run the adventure using the 1st edition AD&D rules it was written for. My tastes as a gamer have changed, and although I remember AD&D fondly, it's not a game I am dying to play again in a PbP setting. There are just things I enjoy about more recent games that AD&D just can't offer. I also am not particularly interested in running it as a Pathfinder or 5e game, as I prefer something a bit more narrative driven these days. I would therefore like to run SSS (Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh) using the new SWADE (Savage Worlds Adventure Edtion) rules with some modifications from the old Fantasy Companion to make it feel a bit more like AD&D. I'm fine setting the game in Greyhawk as it was written, as I still love that campaign setting. I would make some adjustments to the adventure to fill out the parts that haven't aged well or that need some more "interesting tidbits", but mostly I plan to run it largely as written.
I don't like my games to drag. By submitting a character you agree to post at least once a day during the week (M-F), with no posting requirement for weekends. If you plan on being away for more than two days, please let us know in advance. Once I post a GM combat post, you have 24 hours to post your actions (except for weekends), or you will be botted.
Players have until Monday, February 18th to submit their completed characters. If you need help with the Savage Worlds rules, or even just the new Adventure Edition, please feel free to ask here. Beginning Novice character CONCEPT
RACE
List of Races:
Dwarf
*INFRAVISION: Dwarven eyes are accustomed to the complete blackness of the Underdark, allowing them to detect and “see” heat through their eyes. This halves Illumination penalties when attacking targets that radiate heat.
Elf
Gnome
Halfling
Half-elf
Half-orc
Human
HINDRANCES
List of Hindrances:
Anemic (minor)
Arrogant (major) Bad Eyes (minor or major) Bad Luck (major) Big Mouth (minor) Blind (major) Bloodthirsty (major) Can't swim (minor) Cautious (minor) Clueless (major) Clumsy (major) Code of Honor (major) Curious (major) Death Wish (minor) Delusional (minor or major) Driven (minor or major) Elderly (major) Enemy (minor or major) Greedy (minor or major) Habit (minor or major) Hard of Hearing (minor or major) Heroic (major) Hesitant (minor) Illiterate (minor) Impulsive (major) Jealous (minor or major) Loyal (minor) Mean (minor) Mild Mannered (minor) Mute (major) Obese (minor) Obligation (minor or major) One Arm (major) One Eye (major) Outsider (minor or major) Overconfident (major) Pacifist (minor or major) Phobia (minor or major) Poverty (minor) Quirk (minor) Ruthless (minor or major) Secret (minor or major) Shamed (minor or major) Slow (minor or major) Small (minor) Stubborn (minor) Suspicious (minor or major) Thin Skinned (minor or major) Tongue-tied (major) Ugly (minor or major) Vengeful (minor or major) Vow (minor or major) Wanted (minor or major) Yellow (major) Young (minor or major) ATTRIBUTES
SKILLS
List of Skills:
Note that everyone receives a free d4 in the skills marked with an asterisk:
Academics (Smarts)
DERIVED STATISTICS
EDGES
List of Edges:
BACKGROUND EDGES
Alertness (N, CR 37) Ambidextrous (N, CR 37) Arcane Background (N, CR 37) Arcane Resistance (N, CR 37) * Requirements: Novice, Spirit d8+ or Race: dwarf Improved Arcane Resistance (N, CR 37) Aristocrat (N, CR 37) Attractive (N, CR 38) * Requirements: Novice, Vigor d6+ or Race: elf Very Attractive (N, CR 38) Berserk (N, CR 38) Brave (N, CR 38) Brawny (N, CR 38) Brute (N, CR 38) Charismatic (N, CR 38) Elan (N, CR 39) Fame (N, CR 39) Fast Healer (N, CR 39) Fleet-footed (N, CR 39) Linguist (N, CR 40) * All non-humans receives this edge for free due to the Multiple Languages setting rule Luck (N, CR 40) Great Luck (N, CR 40) Quick (N, CR 40) Rich (N, CR 40) Filthy Rich (N, CR 40) COMBAT EDGES
LEADERSHIP EDGES
POWER EDGES
PROFESSIONAL EDGES
SOCIAL EDGES
WEIRD EDGES
GEAR
Greetings, I've recently been inspired to introduce some of the adventures I grew up playing to a new generation of players who might have missed them, as well as older players who never got the chance. Although I played quite a few during my misspent youth, I have a particularly fond memory of U1, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the fist adventure published by TSR UK back in 1981. The adventure was fun for a 1st level adventure and offered several locations, a fun mystery, and several RPG tropes that have become legends. Despite the nostalgia for the adventure, I don't really have any desire to run the adventure using the 1st edition AD&D rules it was written for. My tastes as a gamer have changed, and although I remember AD&D fondly, it's not a game I am dying to play again in a PbP setting. There are just things I enjoy about more recent games that AD&D just can't offer. I also am not particularly interested in running it as a Pathfinder or 5e game, as I prefer something a bit more narrative driven these days. My personal preference would be to run it using the new SWADE (Savage Worlds Adventure Edtion) rules with some modifications from the old Fantasy Companion to make it feel a bit more like AD&D. I'm fine setting the game in Greyhawk as it was written, as I still love that campaign setting. I would make some adjustments to the adventure to fill out the parts that haven't aged well or that need some more "interesting tidbits", but mostly I plan to run it largely as written. If Saltmarsh goes well and the group gets along and is interested in continuing, I'd be happy to continue to a different AD&D adventure, but that's far down the road. So is there anyone who might be willing to join me? I'm guessing that I won't be able to start the game until the end of Outpost II at the end of April, although that depends on how fast my games there go. If you've never played Savage World before, it's a pretty easy system to learn, and I'm happy to help teach. 
Please dot and delete. Gameplay is scheduled to begin March 11.
Greetings, As I assume was true for others of my generation of European gamers, I was first introduced to RPGs not through D&D, but through the British "Fighting Fantasy" books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston (e.g. "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain", "Citadel of Chaos", "The Forest of Doom", etc). These books were IMO a step up from the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, because they felt more "grown-up", and your "hero" had stats and a simple combat system with which to fight the bad guys. The artwork by Russ Nicholson and Malcolm Barter sucked me in as well and was dark and evocative (just do a search for "Citadel of Chaos Art" and you'll see what I mean). The encounters and stories were good as well, and really gave you the option of how to play your hero (callous, helpful, etc). The five books of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! bumped it up even more, adding a full spellbook that your hero could cast from, and spreading a single adventure over four books while adding a magic system that AFAIK, has never been duplicated. The artwork in these books is also extremely evocative and the writing (if very "80's") was still top notch. Though the years I've lost or given away all of my Fighting Fantasy books, but a few years ago I was gifted the Sorcery! books. I'm wondering if anyone might be willing to join me in reliving this part of our youth (or just my youth if you never read these books) by play through them. I haven't completely decided on how to do this, but here are my various suggestions. Please chime in with your opinion of what you think might work out best. 1) Play it through "straight" using the rules of the books with one person playing the hero and me typing all the text as it appears in the book. This is basically the equivalent of you reading the book. 2) Have more than 1 player in the group using the rules as written, and multiply the enemies by the number of players. Because of the power of magic in these books, only one person would be able to cast spells. This would allow players to add a bit more flavor by interacting with each other and not just the NPCs. 3) Convert the story into some other RPG (not Pathfinder). This would mean changing the structure of the books quite a bit and would take some prep time for me, as I'd have to do the conversion. To speed up this process I'd prefer to use a somewhat simpler RPG that is not Pathfinder that would fit the source material like Orginal D&D or a clone of it, or something simpler like Fate Core or Dungeon World, or something that would work with the dark setting like Shadow of the Demon Lord or Zweihander. What do people think? Anyone interested in exploring the Shamutanti Hills, Khare, and beyond with me?
I just realized that I can't think of a single normal non-human ruler (historical or current) of one of the "human" nations of the Inner Sea region (i.e. those that are not explicitly non-human like Kyonin and the Five Kings Mountains). Can anyone else think of one? Yes, I know that the lich Whispering Tyrant ruled a wide area of central Avistan, and that a lawful good (no, neutral!) gold dragon rules Hermea. I'm talking about a otherwise normally human nation like Cheliax or Taldor being ruled by a non-human. Has it ever happened in canon?
Hi folks, As so often happens, we've lost one of our players in our ongoing run of Tom Moldvay's Classic "The Lost City" and are therefore looking to recruit one player who might be interested in playing a divine caster. You can find character creation rules in the Original Recruitment Post. Current PCs include a human diviner, a half-orc barbarian, a halfling rogue, a human ranger, and a human fighter. If you like writing fun, interactive prose and enjoy classic Original D&D modules, why not submit a character to join us? Submissions will be accepted until Friday, December 15th at 8 PM Pacific Time, and which point I'll make my decision. Preference given to interesting, well thought-out personalities.
This is the gameplay thread for "The Broken Tower", the Runequest Quickstart adventure. 
The sandstorm hit the caravan faster than any of you could have believed. One minute you were preparing the animals for the evening, and the next the wind was picking up and a mile-high wall of darkness was advancing toward you from the southeast. The caravan master Elloit called out a sharp warning, directing everyone to secure the animals and goods for a storm just as you had practiced weeks ago. Guards and muleteers sprang into action, securing the supplies and trade goods under weighted tarps, while others gathered the horses and camels who were already braying in alarm, leading them to a small rock overhang near the oasis where they would find the best shelter. The wind picked up quickly, and you began to feel the sand batter your faces and other exposed skin. Evening turned to night as the sand and dust obscured vision. Once you had performed your preassigned duties, some of you headed toward the nearest shelter: a small tent set up on the leeward side of one of the camels under the rock overhang, while others tried to accomplish one last thing.
Varnum Throttlefloat has not participated in any online campaigns. |
