LowIQGenius's page

I've been toying with an idea very similar to this, and I'm glad someone else has already tried and liked it. I'll give your method a shot on my next full playthrough.

Another item of interest that might help you is the new Pathfinder comic series call Origins. They might give you some scenario ideas as well. Valeros is out and Kyra is next up.

I'm actually thinking about trying to stay away from the Origins story lines because I want to write the fan scenarios waaaay faster than the comics will be released. Plus, they cost extra $ that I already have tucked away for Wrath of the Righteous :)

Scenario
- Setting: Abandoned Monastery
- Text:
-- Start with only the Temple and Deeper Dungeons locations. When the player defeats the Ancient Skeleton henchman, build the Shrine to Lamashtu location deck, adding the Heretic’s Journal villain card before shuffling.
-- For this scenario, you must roll 1d6 for your Arcane die. You cannot attempt any checks to recharge a card with the arcane trait.
Any skill feats for Intelligence are ignored.

- Prologue:
Having spent most of his adult years desperately searching for the cause of his father’s unjust arraignment for heresy by the Church of Abadar, Ezren’s hope was replenished when a dark, well-traveled man brought word of the hasty abandonment of a monastery less than three days away. This monastery, Ezren knew, was once home to Father Gragory Vincent; the man who had leveled the accusations that threw his family into misfortune! If he can manage to hunt down the evidence used against his father, he can surely reveal the truth of his father’s innocence. Bearing only food for the journey, Ezren set off into the countryside.

As he arrives at the abandoned monastery, Ezren pauses to reflect on the downfall of this once holy site. Its walls, still pristine and white, were now surely home to goblins, ghosts, or possibly some other unspeakable horrors. “Surely the Gods, who have shown their favor at last, would not abandon me to die before delivering my father from injustice?” Ezren pondered to himself before prying open the oversized wooden door.

- Villain
-- Heretic’s Journal
-- Check to defeat: Knowledge 10
-- Text:
--- If undefeated, shuffle this card back into the current location, then place the top card of the blessings deck on top of each open location.

- Henchmen
-- Ancient Skeleton, Poison Trap

- Locations
-- Temple
-- Deeper Dungeons
-- Shrine to Lamashtu

- Epilogue:
Ezren was relieved to find that the accounts contained in the journal were not penned by his father’s hand, but that relief turns sour as he begins reading. Page after page recounted years of secret rituals, orgies, and human sacrifices; all taking place in this secret shrine below the monastery, and always lead by some unidentified prophet. Appended to the very last page of the tome, Ezren discovers a pact of conformity and secrecy, scrawled out in an ink that he had never seen before, and signed in blood. He quickly scans the list, and stops cold when he finally recognizes a name. There, written in blood, was Gragory Vincent’s signature. This was the evidence he had been searching for all these years! Feeling the weight of decades of torment lifting from him, Ezren frantically surveys the remainder of the signatures. His newfound giddiness suddenly catches in his throat as he comes across the very last signature, which belongs to his father, and is followed by “Most High Prophet of Lamashtu.” Gasping for breath, and bracing himself on the cold, damp altar, Ezren struggles to remain upright as a torrent of thoughts solidify in him. He was wrong. His family was wrong. The church was wrong. Even the Gods themselves were wrong. Composing himself once more, Ezren quietly exits the shrine.

Swinging open the thick monastery door, Ezren is greeted by a different world than the one he left behind just hours earlier. This world was cruel to the unknowing, and contained no justice for fools. His tireless pursuit of the truth all these years has left Ezren with no friends, no religion, no home, and after a brief audience with the Church of Abadar, no family. Armed only with his wits, and vowing that never again would he allow his ignorance to get the better of him, Ezren sets off for adventures unknown.

- Reward: Heretic’s Journal loot card
-- Heretic’s Journal
--- Loot/Item
--- Traits
---- Magic
---- Owner: Ezren
--- Powers
---- Reveal this card to add the Adventure Deck number to an intelligence check.
---- Bury this card to move a spell from your discard pile into your hand.

Hi all my buddies! (any TAH fans in the house?) I would like to start developing fan-made scenarios for each character that helps explain their backgrounds better than can be expressed on the lower half of a playing card. The goal for each will be to offer a unique solo scenario that can be played at any time in an adventure path, but (except for a custom card or two) uses only the base set. The reward for each scenario will be a custom character-exclusive boon.

This thread is dedicated to a scenario for Ezren, whose origin story can be found HERE.

Okay, here's what I've got so far. This is the first complete draft of the origin scenario for Ezren. I tried to go for something that would require as few custom cards as possible (in this case, 2), but that's not set in stone.

Character: Ezren

Heretic’s Journal
-Loot/Item
-Traits
--Magic
--Owner: Ezren
-Powers:
--Reveal this card to add the Adventure Deck number to an intelligence check.
--Bury this card to move a spell from your discard pile into your hand.

Scenario
-Setting: Abandoned Monastery
-Text:
--Start with only the Temple and Deeper Dungeons locations. When the player defeats the Ancient Skeleton henchman, build the Shrine to Lamashtu location deck, adding the Heretic’s Journal villain card before shuffling.
--For this scenario, you do not possess the arcane skill, and any skill feats for Intelligence are ignored.
-Villain: Heretic’s Journal (villain version)
--Check to defeat: Knowledge 12
--Text:
---If undefeated, shuffle this card back into the current location, then place the top card of the blessings deck on top of each open location.
-Henchmen: Ancient Skeleton, Poison Trap
-Locations: Temple, Deeper Dungeons, Shrine to Lamashtu
-Reward: Heretic’s Journal loot card

Prologue:

Having spent most of his adult years desperately searching for the cause of his father’s unjust arraignment for heresy by the church of Abadar, Ezren’s hope was replenished when a dark, well-traveled man brought word of the hasty abandonment of a monastery less than three days away. This monastery, Ezren knew, was once home to Father Gragory Vincent; the man who had leveled the accusations that threw his family into misfortune! If he can manage to hunt down the evidence used against his father, he can surely reveal the truth of his father’s innocence. Bearing only food for the journey, Ezren set off into the countryside.

As he arrives at the abandoned monastery, Ezren pauses to reflect on the downfall of this once holy site. Its walls, still pristine and white, were now surely home to goblins, ghosts, or possibly some other unspeakable horrors. “Surely the Gods, who have shown their favor at last, would not abandon me to die before delivering my father from injustice?” Ezren pondered to himself before prying open the oversized wooden door.

Epilogue:

Ezren was relieved to find that the accounts contained in the journal were not penned by his father’s hand, but that relief turns sour as he begins reading. Page after page recounted years of secret rituals, orgies, and human sacrifices; all taking place in this secret shrine below the monastery, and always lead by some unidentified prophet. Appended to the very last page of the tome, Ezren discovers a pact of conformity and secrecy, scrawled out in an ink that he had never seen before, and signed in blood. He quickly scans the list, and stops cold when he finally recognizes a name. There, written in blood, was Gragory Vincent’s signature. This was the evidence he had been searching for all these years! Feeling the weight of decades of torment lifting from him, Ezren frantically surveys the remainder of the signatures. His newfound giddiness suddenly catches in his throat as he comes across the very last signature, which belongs to his father, and is followed by “Most High Prophet of Lamashtu.” Gasping for breath, and bracing himself on the cold, damp altar, Ezren struggles to remain upright as a torrent of thoughts solidify in him. He was wrong. His family was wrong. The church was wrong. Even the Gods themselves were wrong. Composing himself once more, Ezren quietly exits the shrine.

Swinging open the oversized monastery door, Ezren is greeted by a different world than the one he left behind just hours earlier. This world was cruel to the unknowing, and contained no justice for fools. Armed only with his wits, and vowing that never again would he allow his ignorance to get the better of him, Ezren embarks for adventures unknown.

While thinking about what kind of story I wanted to tell with this scenario, I decided to simply write out a prologue. Any feedback is welcome.

Having spent most of his adult years desperately searching for the cause of his father’s unjust arraignment for heresy by the church of Abadar, Ezren’s hope was replenished when a dark, well-traveled man brought word of the hasty abandonment of a monastery less than three days away. This monastery, Ezren knew, was home to the very cleric who leveled the accusations that threw his family into misfortune! If he can manage to hunt down the evidence used against his father, he can surely reveal the truth of his father’s innocence. Bearing only food for the journey, Ezren sets off into the countryside.

As he arrives at the abandoned monastery, Ezren pauses to reflect on the downfall of this once holy site. Its walls, still pristine and white, were now surely home to goblins, ghosts, or possibly some other unspeakable horrors. “Surely the Gods, who have shown their favor at last, would not abandon me to die before delivering my father from injustice?” Ezren pondered to himself before prying open the oversized wooden door.

For the sake of not having to worry about card formatting, I would suggest that you have the Academy and Woods (with the power causing you to have no Arcane skill), and then once the Academy is closed you build the two new locations (which actually fits better with the "graduation" theme) and then you win when you defeat whatever special Villain is added in those newly built locaitons. I'll work on it later and see what I can come up with. :)

I love the mechanic, but a seemingly major part of Ezren's back-story is that none of the academies would let him join, forcing him to train himself

I like the simultaneous flashback idea, and will ponder that for a bit. In the meantime, let me throw another idea out there for brainstorming purposes. FYI, this is a flashback.

There are 5 locations, but only 4 of them are available until you find and defeat a specific henchman (I'm picturing the guard-with-a-key trope). The fifth location is guaranteed to have the villain, which is actually the evidence of his father's guilt. I'm thinking it'll be a crazy high constitution check to defeat (or go insane).

Instead of using your character deck, you create a deck of 30 blessings (i.e. use the "timer" deck as your character deck. this also serves as an abstraction from the usual "health" mechanic, since it's all a memory). You have to use your base stats for all rolls, but you are free to play as many of the blessings in your hand as you'd like for a given check. All boons that you acquire get replaced with a blessing from the box. Lastly, exploration is free, since there's no timer.

And WOW that sounds like a seriously awesome idea! We could possibly use the storylines from the new Pathfinder Origins comics! If you'd like to collaborate on this, I'd be happy to help!

I would love any collaborative help. If I wanted to do this myself, I wouldn't be on the forums :)

Here's my general outline for the info needed for each character:

Character Name
-Owned Boon
--Type (probably loot)
--Traits
--Card Text (powers)
-Scenario
--Setting
--Special Rules
---Locations
--Prologue
--Villain
--Henchmen
--Epilogue

i'd enjoy the epic AP for solo Ezren, trying to prove his father's innocence, only to discover that he was actually guilty...

I've been pondering that one since the idea for solo scenarios came up. The biggest issue would be that Ezren had not learned any magic at that point (or so I've gathered). In light of that, there seem to be only two options for Ezren:

1) Make a "present-day" side adventure that can be played using the current version of the character deck. Though, I'm not immediately seeing a good way to tie in his past. I'm leaning toward this option in part because Ezren having a companion is not canon (yet... :P)

2) Create a scenario that uses a temporary character deck and only B and C cards, to be played as a young Ezren (or even flashback or dream Ezren). This one might need too many custom cards to be any good.

The way I see it, if Paizo was interested in profiting from community-generated content, they wouldn't have:

1) made a community use policy at all
2) published templates and guides for print-at-home solutions
3) allowed for "private" card printing, wherein only the card's creator has access to whatever content is on the print.

Why not have them be Loot Allies with a special trait you come up with. Then create a barrier that, if defeated, allowed you to choose one Loot Ally with that special trait from the box and add it to your hand. That takes care of how you get them.

I'm not sure of the math, but it seems like a single barrier might be just as rare as a single ally, given that there are usually fewer barriers in a given scenario.

What you said did just give me yet another idea, though. It would be very interesting to have a set of solo scenarios, each unique to a character, that plays out as either a flashback or some other interlude and has the respective companion/favored boon as the scenario reward. These could offer a lot of extra flavor to each character. The only problem is that I'm not very well versed in the Pathfinder mythos. Any help would be appreciated :)

I'm a little wary of making it a check that Ezren wouldn't normally be good at. They're supposed to be companions, after all. Do you happen to know what the highest arcane recharge in RotR is?

This is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. The recharge seems a little low, however. Maybe add the adventure deck number to the difficulty?

This also struck me - feel free to ignore. The idea is that only Ezren can use this card. What if you added, "If the character encountering this card is not Ezren, Ezren encounters it instead. If no player is playing Ezren. banish this card."

I had thought of something similar, but it turned out to be a lot of text. Of course, that was when I was playing around with some flavor text to go with the business stuff, so I'll see how it fits.

This idea just came to me. How about:

Succeed at an Arcane 8, plus the number of skill feats invested in Intelligence, check to recharge this card instead of discarding it.

Hello all, I'd like to get some feedback on a couple of card ideas I've had for the new custom card creator. I'm aiming for character-specific boons (preferably allies) that will level with the Adventure Deck number, and basically become that character's companion or prized possession. Here's my first idea:

Koios the arcane owl
Animal
Arcane
Magic

Check to acquire: Intelligence 4

Card text:
Reveal this card to add the Adventure Deck number to an Intelligence check.

Discard this card to automatically succeed at your check to recharge a spell with the Arcane trait.

Only Ezren may play this card.

Succeed at an Arcane 8 check to recharge this card instead of discarding it.

Glad you guys are loving it. May I suggest that specific cards created on the Card Creator be discussed in the Homebrew forum?

Ah, sorry about that. I need to refresh my browser more often -_-

[edit:] I started a thread here: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2s0uf?Custom-Cards-Characterspecific-boons#1

LowIQGenius wrote:

Wow, that was easier than I thought. If anyone would like to see my first card and give feedback, it's here: http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/145196/Koios--Custom-Card

Couple of thoughts:

1) Love the design. :)

2) Whoa, that's powerful. Maybe TOO powerful, even restricted to just Ezren, considering it's a B.

3) Adding to either Intelligence or Arcane is redundant if only Ezren can play the card. I'd just put Intelligence.

Maybe limiting Koios' powers to just Arcane checks would be better, but that's just my $0.02.

I appreciate the two cents. I was hoping that the benefits of the card would be somewhat mitigated by the fact that it would be extremely rare to come across (there's only one, and the card isn't basic)

How about this update:
1) Reveal this card to add the Adventure Deck number to an Intelligence check.

2) Discard this card to automatically succeed at your check to recharge a spell with the Arcane trait.

3) Only Ezren may play this card.

4) Succeed at an Arcane 8 check to recharge this card instead of discarding it.

Thanks!

Even if you nerfed it to be "add 1 per adventure deck number" instead of 1d4 I think it'd still be too powerful for a reveal. By AP6 I'd sure as heck take a card that revealed to add 6-24 to most of my relevant checks.

In light of that, the recharge power is actually kinda useless. +6d4 Ezren isn't gonna fail many recharge checks. :D

Thanks for the feedback. My intent wasn't to add another d4 per deck level, but simply plus one to the check (e.g. 1d4+1)

Wow, that was easier than I thought. If anyone would like to see my first card and give feedback, it's here: http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/145196/Koios--Custom-Card

Awesome! Now I can finally implement my idea of character-specific companions (allies) that scale according to the adventure deck number.

I encountered PACG about two months ago, and decided that it's a perfect fit in my diabolical plan to step my wife up the tabletop echelons from Carcassonne to Mage Knight. When deciding between RotR and S&S, the primary factor ended up being Kittenhoarder and Autoduelist's Adventure Guide for RotR, which holds a lot of appeal for me.* The upfront difficulty, additional ship mechanic, and the lack of a proper sorcerer also pushed me away from S&S; not forever, but it was enough to calm my doubts about getting the "older" game first.

* Seriously, Paizo needs to offer official Adventure Guides for future releases; it made this game 5X better and, surprisingly, more appealing to my non-gamer friends.