Maraia the Oracle's page

For five years, the faithful of Seven Maidens have attended church in smaller wooden structures rebuilt after fire destroyed the previous temple, and while their new pastor Abstalar was helpful, kind, and wise, church wasn’t the same. Now, the new cathedral is finally done. All that remains is for the Festival of Heroes to renew the site’s blessings from the gods and it will be as if the Sandpoint Fire had never occurred.

All about the small square before the new cathedral children play, adults talk and vendors ply their wares. Merchants from as far Castle City are in attendance selling all manner of goods: Calatian incense, Goron snap poppers for the kids, and one fellow is wearing all green as he shows his new 'fairy balloon game'. Others sell food, such as Kakariko Spiced Cuccoos, Desert Curry and even stranger, though local favorites dominate the stalls.

The air is clear, the sun shining, and mood quite jovial! Nothing, some say, could ruin this day.

Everyone in the party is in attendance as the crowds go about their business, preparing for the long day and night of festivities ahead.

First post to open the Discussion thread.

In the town of Seven Maidens, the annual Festival of Heroes is about to take place. The newly built Cathedral of Light draws the adherents to it as the market square bustles with activity.

But unknown to it's citizens, dark times and foul prophecies are at play. An ancient evil stirs, evil worms it's way into the hearts of those who once professed the Light, and the Demon King regains it's lost Power.

But all is not lost for it is told in legends that whenever Evil rears it's ugly head, heroes rise up to confront it.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE PATHFINDERS

Well? Basically I'll post some info about the new deities to worship, new races to play and some info on the setting/the map, but this will be just a modified Rise of the Runelords game set in Hyrule!

Any takers?

In the city of Neverwinter, a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker asked you to bring a wagon load of provisions to the rough-and-tumble settlement of Phandalin, a couple of days' travel southeast of the city. Gundren was clearly excited and more than a little secretive about his reasons for the trip, saying only that he and his brothers had found "something big," and that he'd pay you ten gold pieces each for escorting his supplies safely to Barthen's Provisions, a trading post in Phandalin. He then set out ahead of you on horse, along with a warrior escort named Sildar Haliwinter, claiming he needed to arrive early to "take care of business." You've spent the last few days following the High Road south from Neverwinter, and you've just recently veered east along the Triboar Trail. You've encountered no trouble so far, but this territory can be dangerous. Bandits and outlaws have been known to lurk along the trail.

With the group is a young Halfling named Radell Swampfoot who sits on the small wagon leading it towards Phandalin, his home town.

"We're just a few hours away from town. Quaint little place, not as hustle and bustle as Neverwinter but, eh." He shoots the party a wide smile.

You all may give me a marching order and may now talk amongst yourselves for a short bit.

Alright, this is for all OOC banter and such. I'll open the main game later in the day once everyone has checked in here.

While you all wait, how about you come up with ways your characters know each other. Maybe they don't. Maybe they've known each other on-again off-again thanks to Gundren! The ideas are there!

So, thanks to some odd bits of my life finally starting to come together, I find I once more have some free time on my hands and that itch to run a game rising once more!

So, I am looking to pick up four players for a game of Dungeons & Dragons 5E, the adventure being the one found in the Starter Set, namely The Lost Mines of Phandelver.

For those wishing to play, I will ask for the following for the submissions:

~ Point spread of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.
~ All core races as well as the Aasimar and the Eladrin from the DMG allowed. Variant Humans also allowed.
~ All core classes from the PHB allowed, as well as the recent additions of the Favored Soul and Spell-less Ranger from the most recent UA from WotC.
~ All backgrounds from the core rulebooks allowed.
~ All character submissions must have both a randomly rolled trinket (rolled here in recruitment) as well as a small written background for their character (please keep it open-ended and Realms friendly).
~ No evil characters
~ Submissions must be in by 21/04/15, and I will post the winning four later that day.

Also, please note that if players are really into it, I may extend the campaign out further, following up on loose threads of and kernels of possible adventure!

This game shall be ran on Roll20, with the days chosen for game a week or so in advance every session. The system being used is the Unofficial Elder Scroll RPG, which can be downloaded here and the blog maintaining all the updates here.

The game is set in the time of the video game TES V: Skyrim.

Characters will be built on the Medium Power Level CrP and begin play with only some clothing appropriate to the region of Skyrim (shirt/dress, boots, and cloak). Once I get 10 submissions, I will my picks and then will close the recruitmen. Then we can discuss more about the style of game and what will occur.

And gameplay is now open. It will start in a few hours with my first post, but please feel free to dot the thread.

Discussion is now open!

Any of you guys from the game want in, post here and we can work out characters.

•20 Point Buy
•2 traits, one being a campaign trait. 1 drawback allowed.
•Core races and Aasimar, Changeling, Tengu and Tiefling allowed. Alternative heritages for Aasimars and Tieflings barred, but you may roll once (here in thread) for a variant ability, but then twice for alternate physical features if you do.
•Core, Base and Hybrid classes allowed, but run archetypes by me first, please.
•Max HP at 1st level, rolled thereafter (but add 1 extra HP at all levels)
•Hero points will be in this, but you will only gain them at a new level. No hero pount feats or traits may be taken.
•Leadership fear barred, as are the new pseudo-Leadership feats.
•No evil alignments, nor worship of evil deities.
•Paizo official material only. Have characters concepted, made and ready by 12/16, please.

The morning air was cool and crisp, the sun's brightness shining from the lack of clouds in the sky. It was around mid morning and the party were now approaching the trading post ran by Oleg. They carried on their persons a writ from the Swordlords of Restov declaring their mission:

Be it so known that the bearer of this charter has been charged by the Swordlords of Restov, acting upon the greater good and authority vested within them by the office of the Regent of the Dragonscale Throne, has granted the right of exploration and travel within the wilderness region known as the Greenbelt. Exploration should be limited to an area no further than thirty-six miles east and west and sixty miles south of Oleg’s Trading Post. The carrier of this charter should also strive against banditry and other unlawful behavior to be encountered. The punishment for unrepentant banditry remains, as always, execution by sword or rope. So witnessed on this 24th day of Calistril, under watchful eye of the Lordship of Restov and authority granted by Lord Noleski Surtova, current Regent of the Dragonscale Throne.

The cart the Swordlords provided is drawn by a stubborn mule called Block, who whines as they road ever-so-slightly changes pitch as you all draw near the closed gate. A ringing of hammer blows can be heard as you get close...

Opened the discussion!

Call me crazy, but I like running games. And I'm running a game I ran previously IRL (for a short while, all of the first book). So, without further ado, the recruitment thread is open.

NOTE - I will only accept Paizo official Pathfinder material. No 3rd party.
Recruitment Period - Until the 20 of October. Game starts 21.
Class Restrictions - All classes except Antipaladin and Gunslinger. Archetypes are approved except the following - BARBARIAN (Sea Reaver, True Primative), BARD (Masterpieces), FIGHTER (Lore Warden), MONK (Vows), RANGER (Urban Ranger), ROGUE (Carnivalist, Investigator), SORCERER (Crossblooded, False Priest), WIZARD (Siege Mage), ALCHEMIST (Internal Alchemist, Reanimator, Vivisectionist), CAVALIER (Dune Rider, Wave Rider), MAGUS (Bladebound), ORACLE (Black-Blooded Oracle, Dual-Cursed Oracle), SUMMONER (Master Summoner, Synthesist), WITCH (Gravewalker, Sea Witch), ARCANIST (White Mage), BLOODRAGER (Crossblooded Rager), BRAWLER (Wild Child), HUNTER (Packmaster), SLAYER (Stygian Slayer), SWASHBUCKLER (Mouser, Mysterious Avenger), WARPRIEST (Cult Leader, Disenchanter)
Race Restrictions - All Paizo races of 16 RP or less allowed except Gillman, Merfolk, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Drow, Duergar, Strix, Vishkanya, Gnoll, Monkey Goblin, Lizardfolk, Triaxian, Lashunta, Syrinx, and Gathlain.
Stats - 20 point buy, no stat above 16, no stat below 9 before racial modifiers.
Other starting info - Two traits, one of which must be a campaign trait. Third trait may be taken with a disadvantage. Rich Parents trait and Extra Traits feat are no allowed. HP is max at first level, average thereafter (half HD+1). No evil characters allowed. Starting wealth is Average for class +25 GP.
Background - I need a background for your character. Can be simple two paragraphs, could be several pages if printed. just so you know but more pages doesn't mean more likely. I'm looking for a solid and workable character for the campaign. Keep this in mind.

I'll keep an eye on this thread and any thoughts or questions, just ask. Oh! And don't make a profile unless chosen, okay? No need filling up your character list, yes?

Here is where we can discuss things out of character, and generally chit-chat. You all may also work on ways your characters may know each other if you wish.

And the game shall start shortly

A strange light in the sky holds a danger unknown for ten thousand years! Deep beneath Golarion's surface, the greatest shame of the elves is stirring once more. Seething with hatred, the drow have come up with a plan to wipe out their ancient enemies and bring a second Age of Darkness. And this time, there's only the heroes to stop them...

I'm starting up a play-by-post of Second Darkness, the third AP from Paizo. Deadline for submission will be October 5, game starting a day or two afterwards. Character generation rules are as follow:
- 20 point buy, no stat above 17 or below 9 before racial modifiers.
- Core and races up to 15RP allowed.
- All classes allowed (except Antipaladin, Ninja and Samurai), including the new ACG ones. Gun-users will be at a disadvantage though, so heads up.
- 2 Traits max, one of which must be from the Second Darkness Player's Guide. Not feats or drawbacks allowed for more traits.
- LG, NG, CG, LN, N, and CN allowed.
- 150 GP to start with.
- HP is max at first level, and then average +1 in all subsequent levels.
- As a bonus, all characters start with one bonus racial feat (they must still qualify for the feat).
- 3rd Party Content not allowed.
- A backstory is required.
Good luck to all!

Fight the power!!

How about Geena Davis she was awesome in "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Cutthroat Island"

There are hundreds of games over the years that I have thought were awesome and sank alot of time into but below are the ones that I find myself re-installing or finding the disk/cartrage for over and over.

Final Fantasy 4 SNES version (FF2 in the US): first RPG I ever played.

Mass Effect: entire trilogy awesome story, great characters, lots of re-playability.

Skyrim: took what I loved about oblivion and made in 10x more awesome.

Fallout 3 and New Vegas: took what I loved about oblivion and added guns, mutants, ghouls, and a post apocalyptic earth.

Castlevania SOTN: Timeless gameplay and hidden endings. Father of the Metrovania genre need I say more.

Diablo II: this game ate a few years of my life lol.

1: What's that you're eating?

2: (Looks at what's in his hand for a little while) No idea.

Stargate? When they are eating with the natives.

...All the PC's have 2 first names....Billy Bob...Mary Sue...etc.

"And you haven't even been out of jail for 24 hours. He's habitual, Hershey. Automatic 5 year sentence. How do you plead? "

"Not guilty? "

"I knew you'd say that. "

"5 years? No! No! I had no choice! They were killing each other in there! "

"You could have gone out the window. "

"40 floors? It would have been suicide! "

"Maybe, but it's legal. "

"Judge Dread" with Stallone. Every time I see a character with a LN in the alinment block or hear a referance to hellknights I hear "I AM THE LAW!" in the signature Stallone voice lol.

Demands that Obvious Troll use the term fanperson since fanboy is clearly sexist.

"Whenever a man gets that drunk, he's either going to kiss a girl or kill a man. Which is it?"

Abe Lincoln: vampire hunter...

@toz: I recommend the google nexus 7. Cheap reliable and the screen is just large enough to view PDFs on without squinting.

If you can find a copy of the Hackmaster 4th ed. players guide has and entire chapter on dice ediqute and mojo/luck/superstition. Complete with various ways of testing new dice, blessing new dice, removing curses, and a list of circumstances that a die should be thrown away and the proper disposal procedure.

The chapter also has various rules about where to place dice when not being rolled and "fame rubs" signatures of various TT gaming superstars like Gygax that you rub your dice on for luck.

Since I am normally the GM im going to change the OP's question to "How often are you surprised by your players?"

Every. Single. Session.

While it is a little annoying it is not a bad thing. Out of the box thinking should be encouraged. Infact I would be willing to wager that most GMs have the same experiance like the saying goes "The best planned adventure never survives contact with the players,"....or something like that lol.

I also think every GM gets rules lawyered (or does the lawyering) every so often. Generally if the rule makes sence to me I will apologize to the player and roll with it. But if I think its silly I'll toss it out. So far I havent had a player complain any more than a grumble when the ruling is made.

Its not an excuse but telling a player no to an option then geing the sme option to an NPC is asking for angry players. But like I said that dosent give the player an excuse to be an ass hat.

I had a smiliar situation happen once when I was in the Army in South Korea.

A new (his first session with us) player demanded an option that I had banned at character creation (to be more precise I said that it do not exist in the world...period). When I told him no and cited the character creation guidelines he got irate cursed a bunch, knocked over some minis, etc. I kept my inner NCO in check took a breath and informed him that he had 3 options: 1. deal with it calm down and play 2. leave 3. be forceably removed my myself and the other players. He paused just long enough for one of the other players to take a step toward him...then he reaized I was serious and chose option 1. He played with us for about a year (until his tour was over) and was actually a decent player and person after that.

You wear them walking around a FOB because there is traffic. Never heard of anybody wearing them out on patrol or otherwise outside the wire.

This....infact in garrison (not in a combat zone) you only wear them when you are in your PT (physical training) uniform and a few other special circumstances. You dont wear them when on patrol...or even out side the wire.

semi off topic but:

So if I'm not mistaken the taxes they put on tobacco products pays for school programs of some sort or another...

I always wondered where they were going to get their money once enough people quit smoking. Looks like its going to be soda...since there area already bans in place...

Im just going to kick back and giggle since I no longer smoke and have instituted my own household soda ban lol.

Exactly similar to EVE it is a game of risk mitigation not eliminiation.

For example to mitigate you can: join a company/kingdom, hire guards, pay attention to intel channels, know where it is safe/unsafe for you to travel, dont equip or carry what you cant afford to lose, etc.

charm person..... so many applications...."Hiya Mr. Gates its your new bestie....so how bout you give me a bizzilion dollars huh?"

"Do you want to live forever?!"

I've never read the First Law trilogy but Best Served Cold was a great book that would be awesome as an HBO/showtime/starz mini series. I loved the delightfully sociopathic poisoner (whose name escapes me). Also I'm a sucker for a good Count De Monte Cristo style revenge story.

M'lord Merryweather Bloomingsdale III

bonus points if you RP the dwarf as insane and following "orders" recieved from the mole.

step by step pdf map to png/jpeg...

1. Click the map in the PDF this will highlight the map. you might have to drag a felection box around the map.

2. right click->copy image (or ctrl+c)

3. open ms paint.

4. right click->paste (ctrl+v) into paint.

5. file->save as...save with whatever name you want that choose the file extention you want .jepg or .png...or whatever you want to use. then save.

6. drag and drop the new file into roll20.net

EDIT: this also works with other art in the book if you want to do handouts for your players.

If you can get it the Hackmaster 4th editon players guide had an entire chapter on luck and dice. It had ways to test new dice for luck, cleanse bad luck from dice, "fame rubs" (rubbing your dice over a signature of someone like Gygax for extra luck), and a lot about dice ediquite (sp?).

The book is out of print now but it was pretty hilarious...and actually a fun system (modified 2nd ed rules)

IMHO there is no right or wrong way to create a game world there is only what works for your group or does not work for your group.

Oops seems I missed the point of the post lol i need to RTFP.

As for how we balance grinding with fun gameplay. The problem is that "fun" is different for everyone. You might like exploration and I might like collecting wolf paws and Mr. Snuffy might like RPing a lazy character sleeping in the inn.

So the only two ways I can think of to balance is to either give influence for everything in game or put influence on a real time system similar to XP. I doube either of these would work but it just the first two ideas I came up with.

Seeing an attractive and under dressed female of questionable age (17-19ish) and instead of thinking "Awesome!," I end up thinking "Who let her out of the house like that...where is her father..,"

But that could my age or could be that I have a daughter of my own now lol.

I cant wait for a researcher at FOX news to find this....just sayin....

After reading this thread I really want to play RISK: golarion edition lol

Dot

Just found this today and my reign of winter game is tonight...I think the PCs are in for a suprise on the way to whitethrone. I think at least one of them is going to bargin away all of his shoe strings and possiably all of his hair.

Yeah Ivan its a sad world when a 16 hr a day MMO player is considered almost normal but if you get together with your friends and play some D&D your the devil.

27. The rest of the party died...the show must go on!

28. "I had a bunch of onyx and animate dead in my spellbook what else was I supposed to do?"

I was in a very similar situation as the OP at one point in my marriage. My wife was mad that I was spending every sunday morning-early afternoon with my friends gaming. Just like the OP it stated at just complaining and slowly moved into full on fights. While I wont give you any advise, since I dont really know the whole story, I can tell you what worked for me.

I sat down with my wife and had a mature discussion about what was wrong. And obviously it was that I was playing too much. But when i brought up that it was just 6 hours a week she let me knwo just how wrong I was. It was the 6 hours a week + a few hours prep time for game + a few more discussing it with my friends between sessions + a little more reading random gaming books + time playing other games (videogames etc.).

As stupid as it sounds it was a little eye opening for me because in my eyes when I was spending all that extra time gaming I was at home and my wife could have come in and see me at any time. So it wasnt that bad, not like I was outta the house right? (wrong). But she (correctly) thought that she shouldn't have to interupt me to get me to spend time with her.

So after some discussion, or really listening on my part, I realized what I had been doing and ever since I have cut down on my gaming (the videogaming mostly we still have out D&D/PF group) and make it a point to spend more time with my wife and we both get what we want I get to game and she gets attention.

So the short version is think "How much do I game?" not just how long are you at session but how much time to you spend in total on games of all types and preparing for those games.

162. Polishing his wand. (comic version: Polishing his wand...*wink wink nudge nudge*)

Dot means that you post in a thread so that it shows with a dot next to its title when browsing the boards so it is easier to find later.

Also Dot!

I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted on the same day, dispite a bit of begging on my part. They didnt out me under or give me any gas just alot of novacane (sp?). Infact I once moaned in pain and the dentist looked at me and said "Dont be a wussy," before applying more novacane. Hooray for Army dentists. It was free though...

I guess I would burn something...preferrably a dog...we are in goblinville after all.

1780's France. We know how that turned out

IANDB but....Time to bust out the final blades. Viva la galt!!!!

56. I'm plotting to kill them one at a time.

I love that I entroduced my son to pathfinder and he liked it.

I Love that while my wife is not a gamer herself she undersands and allows me the time to play.

I love that I was able to get out of the Army, move home, find a job, buy a house, and be otherwise successfull in short order.

I love that my son and daughter are both healthy children.

this is kinda therapudic, more to com later

I am the GM.

I am not here to tell you what to do.
I am here to tell you the consequences of what you do.

I, as the GM, control the WORLD and everything in it. I control the horizontal, and the vertical as it were. BUT my players control their CHARACTERS.

These +1..IMHO the GM has 2 basic responsibilities the overall story of the campaign and ajudicating the rules based on the decisions that the players have made. But the players are responsable for making those decisions and their characters individual stories.

anything that is evil and is or resembles a human child...."Come play with us Danny..." shudders

So in our last session we fought a young white dragon that was being grappled by our enlarged dwarven fighter...dont ask....anyway the other fighter moves to behind the dragon and this is dialog that followed.

GM: "are you going to attack into the grapple?"
Human fighter: "Are you kidding im going to cornhole me a white dragon with my flaming longsword."

I know a little low brow but it got alot of laughs from my group.

Playing Hackmaster (modified 2ed). After a successful adventure the party (NE elven fighter/thief, CN human wild mage, LE gnomeling thief, LE human monk) returned to the nearest large city and I ask them what magic items they would like to look for.

The fighter thief role playing that his character probably did not have any real knowledge of magic items gives a list of items that he would like to the CN wild mage. With things on it like "A ring that makes me invisible," and "a sword that burns," ect. and way down at the bottom of the list is "A lucky rock."

So as the mages player reads the list I see his eyes brighten and a cruel smile appear. After a bit he gets me alone and tells me he would like to cast magical aura (or what ever the spell is that gives a false magical aura to an item) on a rock. And I say "umm...ok."

After we return to the game table he tells the fighter that he couldn't find any of the other items he was looking for but he had found the lucky rock he needed but it will cost him 20,000gp (the PHB price for a luckstone in that system)

It took about 7 months for the fighters player to figure out that he had been screwed by the mage (and in-game the character still doesn't know)

even though those characters have long since been retired to this day every time the groups goes shopping the wildmage's player makes sure to announce that there are plenty of "lucky rocks" for sale.