I've participated in Hell's Rebels twice so far, both times with the same character and neither has seen the AP to completion. So I'll try once more, with a new character this time.
Short Summary:
Ginetta Cicerdos is a half-elf vigilante. Hiding behind a pretty face full of innocence, that she's happy to let people underestimate, she's working to locate a paramour who vanished in her youth who's dream was to join the Silver Ravens. Under the guise of Rose Nightfall, she's been making a name for herself as a thorn in the side of local bullies and street toughs.
@Itzi - the Kiss is one of the two advanced playbooks (the other being the Curse) which are off-limits for basic play. Given this is my first time running it, I'd like to stick to the basics please.
Darn. Oh well. I guess I'll probably do a Bravo then.
I'll pick up a copy of the rules today or tomorrow. Looking over the brief outline of the game, I'll probably be deciding between a Kiss or a Knack. Love me some intrigue and romance. :)
Okay, I'm throwing my newest character into the running.
Meet Floare. She's a human Pact Witch. She's a seemingly naïve young woman that is looking for a new start on life. Having left a monster of a mother, she wishes to find a new home away from the woman's reputation of horrors. A vegetarian by choice, the only friend she has in the world is her familiar, Dante.
And she's definitely not looking for love. ;)
Brainiac, would it be possible to re-theme her familiar from say a cat to a wolf pup? It would remain as a tiny animal for as long as the story required.
She may branch into more necromantic magic as she advances.
I have her statblock finished, but I haven't created a profile for her yet.
The subject line itself summarizes the question. What do you think is the general viewpoint of the Calistrian clergy in regards to succubi?
Admiration?
'Yeah, they're the epitome of lust, what's not to like?'
Indifference?
'Too reckless and they ignore the general idea of revenge.'
Hatred?
'They give lust a bad name!'
This came up because in a side story thread of a game that's now ended (and involving characters from a previous game), a high level priestess of Calistria was attending (and co-officiating) a wedding where two of the abyssal beasties decided to attend (in disguise). We were wondering what would the church's official stance on the demons be.
I've been anticipating the final book of this AP. Just purchased the PDF and downloaded it.
The single-file version is a little over 40MB, which is typical. The file-per-chapter version is over 550MB(!). Uh ... wow.
I'm just hoping that the maps and portraits - which I'm assuming are the source of the inflation - are easier to extract for online play than previous PDFs in this series have been.
Wow. Just downloaded the PDF for this. It's huge - both in page count (over 300 pages) and PDF size (176M). It looks to have about three times the content of previous Lost Omens volumes. I can't wait to dive into it.
I picked up the BitD rules a year or so ago and they really appealed to me. As a player who much prefers story over combat, the rules really drop right into my wheelhouse.
Letting everyone know in advance that I consider all my character's stories, love stories. I'm all about the drama and (PG-13) romance. If that's not your thing, no worries, with the GM's permission, I have no problems creating NPCs to scratch that itch.
I would prefer to play a Lurk, but could do a Slide as well.
As a crew, I think either Shadows or Assassins would be interesting.
Hobb #3 Bite vs Kez KAC 14:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16 Bite Damage - P w/ grab:1d6 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Botting Kez and Boots.
Katherine administers some self-healing and Ben falls to the dirt.
Round 4
Boots fires at the hound attacking Kez and manages to hit the beast. Chase slams her fists into the one standing over Ben's prone form, drawing its snarling attention. Kez takes a step back and fires her laser pistol at the vicious creature, hitting it. Penny races over to Ben's side and administers some magical healing.
The hound attacking Ben turns its snapping jaws on Chase, but only catches empty air. The one attacking Kez, however, latches on to her thigh, tearing into the flesh.
Kez takes 12 points of damage. Katherine and Ben are up and then everyone else for Round 5.
Just started my own run of this AP and one of the players (The Rising Phoenix) spent an inordinate amount of time to create a amazing trailer for it with renders of all the PCs as well as the BD514 and the Oliphaunt.
I've been using it for both Starfinder and PF2 and while it could be better, I find it is amazing. The amount of time that it saves me in developing characters is worth any inconvenience of an interface that is different than HLC, but still functions just fine.
As lag-tastic as it is, I'm amazed to see anyone say it saves time. I've seen it in action a few times and it would have been quicker for me to hop in a car, drive to the next town, buy the books, come home and make a character by hand... That's PER character... Years ago I used to have dial-up modem that loaded pages faster. :P
After seeing in action I downloaded an emulator and Pathbuilder. Best money I never spent. ;)
That sucks.
When they first released PF2 (on GenCon weekend) it was slow as molasses. However, my experience since then is it has done nothing but get faster. At this point in time - for me, at least - it beats the heck out of my bank's web interface or PayPal's business portal. It's not quite as fast as HLC, but for the trade-off of not having to install multiple applications on every single system I use, I'll take the minor hit.
I would love it if that were the case. But as someone that's had to deal with both item 1 and item 3 on your list, from a commercial perspective, the options you offer are not options.
Perhaps for a hobbyist or really light use. But from a multidesk perspective that depends on the software to keep the doors open and pay the bills ... Neither GIMP nor OpenOffice/LibreOffice will replace their commercial counterpart.
I've tried, fought that battle and lost. They just don't hold up to the commercial requirements for most businesses.
Shadowlord, how do you feel about romance in your games between PCs or PC/NPC?
Oh boy, what a subject! I love this kind of stuff. Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I particularly enjoy this type of interaction in my games. I feel like it creates another layer of depth for the characters that helps fuel their desires and motivations. At least half of my characters that I play have some form of in game relationship at some point during the AP. Even if they don't last, the animosity or feelings caused by it once provide insight for me as a player on how to build their character personality.
i'm using that android app on my PC thanks to an emulator, so i don't think that that is much of an issue.
I don't really care about SaaS i just don't like it being through a browser i want an actual software package using my CPU not their server to run.
I totally understand that. I've been in IT (and software development) for a number of decades now and from a user perspective, I much prefer a simple run-time on my machine.
From a developer perspective, though, I completely understand why they've gone web-based. In fact, just this last year, we (the company I work for) just finished the final transition from an in-house developed application (in C++) that we've used for years to a web-based replacement (still in-house).
From a development and system-support standpoint, there's no contest - I'll back web-based any day. Particularly for a company with only a few developers, I totally get where LWD's shift comes from.
Pathbuilder is still incomplete in its implementation of PF2 but it, basically, rocks. I'd suggest people give it a try.
I'd love to, but it appears to be limited to Android devices...???
This!
This is one of the primary reasons that an online model is the only real way - in my opinion - that small companies will continue to survive in the software industry; Moving to the SaaS model.
I can use HLO on any of the desktops I have access to without regard to their OS or having to install anything. I can use it on my Surface. I can use it on my flippin' phone.
Is HLO clunky to use? For me it's no more clunkier than HLC. There are some features that I'm waiting for (other than rules systems) before it's a complete HLC replacement for me. But for character creation/management it's currently working pretty smoothly for me and I use it regularly for my Starfinder and PF2 games.
I'm not crazy about the idea that SaaS is the trend that will push out most of the old application pricing models, but I do understand it.
Yes, LWD charges for the software and then charges for the rules packs. Everyone seems to ignore the fact that LWD doesn't own the content in the rules packs. They have to license it from the content creators (Paizo, FASA, etc.). And the content creators have a lot of clout when it comes to the control of the license. As an example, 5e (other than the SRD) still isn't available even in HLC.
In the end everyone gets to decide for themselves if the model works for them. For me, I will happily pay $24.00 a year to be able to use HL freely on any device with a net connection.
If that doesn't work for you then feel free to use a pencil and paper, spreadsheet, Pathbuilder or any other application.
She's going to begin the game as an attractive but cold woman hiding within her magic, using it as a shield to keep everyone else at a distance.
A gregarious warrior or rogue would be the typical counter to her emotional distance. But anyone that wouldn't just walk away from her would work.
Initial plans would move her to Sorcerer as her Expert path. This would also be symbolic of her emotions looking for a release. Not sure yet what would be good for a Master path down the road. Might just have to see where it goes.
They could be brought together via a patron that expects them to work together. That would hold them together until some actual bonding takes place. Possibly a Tracy/Hepburn thing going on.
Will we be starting out at 1st level (with an initial chosen path) or will we begin at 0?
Is there anything we should know story-wise before we begin brainstorming characters?
We haven't yet decided on whether they already know each other or not. I'm leaning towards not so their relationship feels more organic.
I had already mentioned to Niko how much I disliked random character backgrounds/appearances. So I'm glad that portion of character creation is optional.
I'll most likely create a human, but I like the fact that they give a huge amount of leeway on their skin color, hair color, eye color, etc. :) :)
As much as I may be shooting myself in the foot here (and gaining ugly looks from my partner-in-crime), I would say a single game that is really good and that you have the time on which to spend is better than two (or three) games that end up being mediocre because your efforts are stretched too thin.
Yes, I want to play, but I would rather you enjoy it vs potentially burning out running more than you feel comfortable running.
I've encountered two different interpretations of the dhampir's Negative Energy Affinity. I'm not arguing for either version, I'd just like to know in advance which one you would follow.
1) Dhampir's take damage from positive energy no matter the intended usage. Example: the party's cleric uses Channel to heal the group and one of the members is a dhampir and in the AoE- they take damage.
2) Dhampir's only take damage from positive energy that's used specifically to damage undead. In the above example, the dhampir wouldn't take any damage - they just wouldn't get any healing.
Ok folks. It's getting really iffy where I'm located here in Northern CA. The Camp fire is getting really close so we're watching for evacuation orders. If that happens, my posting may be sporadic. Please bot me if needed.
Yeah seeing as how you are currently running this I might lean more towards players that are a little more “new” to this AP. I do understand that it is an older one and a lot of players may already know the story. However the recruitment just opened so I’m gonna see what happens. :)
I actually have an Undine Oracle (wind) that I've been interested in playing. She was created as a 7th level character but it would be easy to dial her back to 1st level.
Again, there's no player's guide yet so she still needs a campaign trait.
I realize that this isn't a sea-based campaign, but she's actually wind based so doesn't have strong ties to the ocean.
You can check out her 7th level self in my aliases.
