Minimum: once per day; I'd like to be able to keep a twice a day pace. If you have any issues, PM or text me.
GP fromatting:
Bold is for talking; Italics are for thoughts; OOC is for explaining your actions; Standard text for narrating actions; ::mind to mind communication::; all dice in {dice=}
I am such a fat-kid...
I'm sitting here reading all the gameplay posts to catch up before I post the next narrative.I have the T.V. playing Star Trek: TNG, and I have 15 double quarter sized cinnamon rolls and 2 large chocolate chip cookies piled up on a plate, and I'm dipping them all in milk before shoving them in my mouth! Haha!
I'm a few minutes away from posting. I just thought I'd tell you all about by bad habits.
Minimum: once per day; I'd like to be able to keep a twice a day pace. If you have any issues, PM or text me.
GP fromatting:
Bold is for talking; Italics are for thoughts; OOC is for explaining your actions; Standard text for narrating actions; ::mind to mind communication::; all dice in {dice=}
So, regardless of actual rules, I'll say you don't have to pay initial cost for follower teams, but you'll have upkeep costs, because they work for you/your estate.
Yes, PM me what you've done inn regards to carnaval events. Depending on what it is, I'll share the public repercussions with the group before game officially starts.
As it stands, I'm looking at Sunday for the start. That still might get pushed out because I've got a college graduation to attend this weekend.
I assumed that quality over quantity was the Standard feeling, and I'd like that to be true for all of you as well.
For ruling on firearms, if you can find it [at level 12], paizo approved is GM approved. Size accordingly.
As said before, combat is not the focus, and what you can do, I can do better.
my original estimate was that there were going to be far more heads of house. So, yes, as long as it doesn't change history up to this point, you may be the head of your house (You still only have your own money to work with to represent this)
AH! My mind is racing with all the possibilities you are all presenting!
Is anyone willing to gather, link and keep track of all the submissions starting tomorrow so I can keep them straight?
I noticed on my last compilation I missed like 3 of you, and I REALLY don't want that to happen when it comes time to start sorting out the pros and cons.
Inkwell is right.Of course!:
While I thought I'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 mediocre submissions, I really should've known that posting such a unique challenge, in both the creation guidelines and the limited space, would bring you guys out. By "you guys", I totally mean the uber-storytellers with amazing and well thought out ideas.
It's now officially past the midway point, and I've got so many options to think about in terms of who would be the best fit for this game that I might develop a fever from thinking too much... And the submissions aren't done!
I want to thank you all so much for putting forth the effort, and I want you to know that I'm already filled with dread about making any decisions in this matter. No matter what my final choice is, I'll be leaving a TON of REALLY good characters with extremely in-depth histories behind, and that makes me sad already. There is nothing I love more than a good story, and so many of you have already provided that. I appreciate everything you've done for the chance to play in my game. I don't really know enough RL people who play to have ever had anyone fight over my game before. This is truly a humbling experience!
If you are non-core you must be able to adequately justify why the Emperor would recognize you as a noble, and gift you with any Lands/Titles/Money. This is easier to do with something like an Assimar or Half-giant then it is with a Goblin or Orc (Yes even a half-orc would be difficult to justify)
That being said; In a nation primarily ruled by Humans, its easier to justify a Human then any other race as a noble. Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, Half-Elves or Halfling, (In that order) are next most likely. The Halfbreeds could likely have claims based on their Human lineage as well.
All of that in mind: If you are a Highborn, you still need to be legitimized by your father's noble family, at which point you are officially a gentleman/woman of the court. After that you need to be officially recognized by the Grand Prince (Or more likely one of his many servitors) to claim any title other than Lord/Lady or Gentleman/woman... its a lot of bureaucracy to be officially recognized as inheritor of your family estate, though its easier if you are born to it.
In the case of ascendancy: You have proven your worth to the empire as a common person, and the Grand Prince publicly recognizes you as worthy of nobility. This usually requires that some other noble sponsors you. This course of action typically takes a decade or so to work out, unless you have done something that puts you directly in the eye of at least a dozen other nobles who want to sponsor you... having 1 Sponsor is good, having 30 is better.
A couple of things popped up these popped up while I was making a response to the first 10 posts
Bigrig107 Asmodeus is the Patron of Cheliax, an enemy that Taldor hates almost as much as Qadira… If you were discovered to be a clergyman of his faith (You kind of have to use a holy symbol to use divine spells), you’d likely be tried and executed… and it would probably be a VERY quick trial. Please note that Sarenrae is about as good a god as you can get, and while there is less persecution now than 10 years ago, in some counties they still skip the trials and go right to the beheading.
Your potential story here is certainly appealing to me as it would be very interesting to see how you keep your head on your shoulders. I still foresee the issue that was presented with Grovo’s concept: how do you find yourself getting along with mostly altruistic Taldoran nobles who want good for their country and why haven’t you spilled their secrets to the world in your benefit?
Grovo: Ser Thomas I like what you are doing with this concept. Being that this game has ties to another being run, I’ll share with you this: I am a player in the other campaign, Specifically, I am the Chief Detective Inspector of the Narrows/Crowngate, and my Arch-nemesis is the Masked Marquis, Whom I’m the only person who has almost caught him. As stated in my previous post, though, there are potential concerns about party dynamics that I don’t see addressed I know your character posting was put up minutes before my first response --- Edit: I believe you’ve addressed my concerns
Raven: Constantine That is one sexy fellow! I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went in to creating such a flamboyant character, and the potential turmoil your youthfulness could have made for you in court! While I have limited experience with the Path of War, I do not foresee anything from Dreamscarred being terribly unbalanced. PLUS! If you ruin my game, there’s always the much feared “GM Nerfbat” disease going around golarion! Lol!
Jonny … Panic: Lady Calista It’s good to see a core non-human! I appreciate the Sub story more than the initial background, it’s a lot more telling about who your character really is.
SCKnightHero Being an Elf or Assimar might give you the option to have experienced the last clash with Qadira and/or Cheliax(Something like 50-100 years hence), which also may indicate that the Last Emperor could have landed you for exemplary service. Again, I’m less looking to fill traditional roles, than I am looking for someone who is going to add a higher level of interest to this game.
Rednal: Yes, while having diplomacy in this setting will be a useful tool in your box, it will not be the traditional “Roll diplo=Success/Failure” If you can achieve a ridiculous diplomacy, then so can my NPCs. Think of your social skills as Aim-assist in FPS video games: If you’re almost there, using skill can bump you over the edge. Having a higher skill means you’ve got better aim assist, but if you are shooting at the wall instead of your target, it’s not going to help at all.
Recruitment will be open until Friday May 30th, 0000 Hours Rocky Mountain time. I will announce my selection by May 31st
Lords of Taldor: Ascending Majesty
Taldor is a land of lost glories, an empire teetering on the brink of ruin. The nation is stretched thin and threadbare, having lost several satrap states like Cheliax because of massive overreach. Taldor's courts, once bastions of civility, honor, and justice, have become diseased, filled with corrupt bureaucrats, backstabbing nobles, and a pampered emperor who symbolizes all the empty decadence and power-mongering of the elite. Whispers of a new war with Qadira echo in the nation's courts, threatening to bring the final blow to the ailing land if the desert kingdom decides to finally retake Taldor. The age is dark and the problems are many. It is clear that Taldor needs heroes. Will you step up and breathe life back into the nation? Or will your actions inadvertently snuff out the kingdom forever?
This game is a collaboration with a second GM, and there will be times at which they will cross over with the players in the other game
This particular game will be one of courtly intrigue and world shaking politics. While that may indicate to you that martial characters have a less dramatic role to play in this story, I assure you, Taldoran nobles LOVE their chivalric knights, and there will be the ability to venture forth in to the dark dungeon from time to time. Being aware that this is a more social-type game, please consider that you should have some ranks in social skills. Failing ranks in social skills, you should have the ability to compel me with your writing (I’m looking for your social skills to either reinforce your words or to help me overlook blunders).
I will also be including a special homebrew twist to this adventure. Please create your characters as follows, and then view the “Special Rules” spoiler for this additional information.
Ability Scores: 15 point build, 1-1 scale with a base of 10.
This means that all of your abilities start at 10, and to increase you pay 1 point and receive a +1 to that ability. You may reduce a maximum of 2 abilities to 8 to gain the equivalent in points to spend elsewhere. While I am fine with powerful builds, I DO NOT want to see any ability scores above 24 or below an 8 after racial modifiers are applied. The exceptions to this are for Age Catagories and the +3 increase for your level ONLY
Race: While all Paizo approved are acceptable, Preference will be shown to the Standard Races (i.e. Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfing, Gnome, and Half Orc). Also, If you do choose a more monstrous race, you better have a deeply compelling reason why the Emperor of Taldor would allow you to attend his court.
Classes: Paizo, and Dreamscarred Psionic and Path of War classes only
HP: Max per level
Skills:+1 skill point per level
Traits 2 standard traits. You may receive a third trait if you take a drawback.
Fluff: This is the important part! Your Character is a 12th level noble of Taldor, you didn’t get to be that way by sitting on your thumb and spinning around (though some nobles did). What makes your character particularly suited to being a Noble? Were you born this way or have you been ascended by right of the Emperor? Are you interested in playing the Grand Game, or do you sneer at the thought? Please give thought to this, I want interesting characters.
Things you should include in your fluff: At least 1 good standing relation; At least 1 sour relation; Why would you be interested in reviving the might of Taldor in the face of receiving such lucrative spoils just for being a noble?
Gold to purchase equipment with: 110,000gp.
Alignment No CE; the other Evils will not knock you out of contention, but your character MUST be civilized in your Scheming and plotting and must be capable of playing on a team without trying to murder their associates. This is will be a game of intrigue, not of “how many bodies can my carpets hold?”.
Special Rules:
You will be receiving 10 “Pseudo-Gestalt” levels of Noble Scion to represent you noble heritage or the ascension to nobility. These levels will be in conjunction with your levels of chosen class. What I mean when I say “Pseudo-Gestalt” is that I will be giving you all of the class abilities of the Noble Scion, with none of the skills, saves, attack bonuses or HP gained from the class.
There are stipulations to these abilities, however!
As follows:
1) When selecting your Regional expertise, you can NOT select The Satrapy of the Desert 2) When selecting your Dilettante Studies you can NOT select Dilettante Scholar 3) Your Servitor is assumed to be your estate Steward, and will only be attending to your estate matters. Please give a description of how n depth you would like this to be, as I will be controlling your estate in the background while you are not there.
4) While money gained from Affluent may be spent on anything, I would like you to focus this spending primarily on your estate. This money comes to the whopping sum of 41250gp.
5) Your Estate is all of your land holdings. While I will not require you to purchase anything you don't want, I would like you to take into consideration any serfs or peasants residing on your land also need their own places to live.
6) You have the option of gaining a free Cohort of your same level, because of the Noble Scion ability Greater Leadership. You do not NEED this cohort, but it is suggested that you use this option to supplement the things you can’t do If you are a Caster, it is recommended that you have a combatant cohort, if you are a combatant, it is recommended that you have a caster Cohort. Skill cohorts are Always a good option if you are in politics. Your followers are assumed to be your estate servants and peasants
With those stipulations in mind
You are assumed to have a small Villa in Oppara whether or not you choose to purchase a large estate, this was either a gift from the Emperor or an inherited family villa.
You do not have to purchase your estate or build your cohort prior to the end of recruitment if you don’t want to, though the effort will not go unnoticed. There will be a full week after recruitment to work with the other players to establish your history, reputation, estate, and other matters.
Your Cohort follows the same standard creation rules as listed above, but do not use the special rules. They may be Highborn, but they won't have been officially recognized as titled nobility at this time.
I currently have 4 of 5 slots filled, and I'm looking for a final addition. I may choose a 6th, if you have a very compelling backstory.
Because of the special rules of this game, and its focus on Taldoran Court in place of heavy adventuring, your class selection bears less weight than your story.
The Characters I currently have:
A retired Holy Warrior and his Loyal Physician.
A Highborn Opera Singer intent on inheriting her house.
A Lauded Dame who would rather be on a battlefield than in a dress.
A Lady whose house has the honor of siring the Royal Guard's Captain.
A bit about me:
-I've been playing D20 Roleplaying games for over 15 years, and I've been F2F GMing for more than 10.
-This will be my first time running a PbP, and I may stumble a bit, but I have no intention of falling.
-I'm an interactive GM! You will find that as my player, you will have a large amount of input in how my game plays out. It's rare that I have to build the rails for the plot train to come chugging through your story! I like discussing how and where you would like the game to go.
Minimum: once per day; I'd like to be able to keep a twice a day pace. If you have any issues, PM or text me.
GP fromatting:
Bold is for talking; Italics are for thoughts; OOC is for explaining your actions; Standard text for narrating actions; ::mind to mind communication::; all dice in {dice=}
Hello my noble minions!
This is a closed discussion thread for those of you who have been slotted or recruited for Lords of Taldor: Ascending Majesty The counterpart game to Lords of Taldor: Reviving the Empire
Please ask unto the thread your questions regarding Character, Cohort, or Estate building. I will be happy to oblige, and as always, I'm happy to have you all help me work out the kinks in my planning stages!
I will formally announce here that, while I do have a difficult time saying the word "no" to my chosen players, I ask that you accept my ruling as final after any reasonable argument that we may have regarding this game... There are a LOT of of things to take into consideration on my part when moving all the cogs in a setting as large as an entire Empire (And perhaps even beyond that). Luckily I will not be moving those pieces alone. That being the case this is still a huge job with many watts of brainpower being expended to make sure that your manipulations are felt in the most proper of ways. It is a tiny thing for me to ask that when I give a final ruling, there is no rehash of said ruling.
Either way, I feel at a certain distance, there needs to be more than 6 seconds having passed.
It is correct to assume that chucking someone so hard they instantly (within 6 seconds) impact in the Andromeda system, would cause a shockwave (at least in an atmosphere) that would obliterate the planet you are on. F=MA, and F must have an equal and opposite reaction. Also, if you're talking about breaking the light barrier in multiple magnitudes, then your talking about turning whatever you're accelerating into tachyeons.
So, as I'm reading it, body bludgeon seems to be intended as a melee option.
Limitless range says that you literally don't have a maximum range, not that range increment penalties don't apply.
IF you plan on allowing body bludgeon to be used in conjunction with Limitless range than the "range" your character throws is effectively how many range increments until your character can only got 5ft square. (I'd say)
Say your character rolls a 35 to "hit" a non-descript location in the distance. Limitless range says your character uses "improv weapons" as though they had a 20ft increment. Range increment penalties apply until the effective negatives total the attack roll to "10". in this case the character throws to the magnitude of 12.5x20ft (250ft or 24d6 of "falling" damage)
Also, if the intended weapon character has flight abilities, there should be some mention of avoidance, likely using a fly skill check to avoid damage similar to using acrobatics to land. Though, fly would likely be able to negate any damage (outside of the 1d8 shock of being thrown forcefully) if they managed to gain control of thier velocity. Something like attacker's attack roll Vs defender's fly check.
Male Alacritous Sîshen Lao Samurai [Sword Saint]11/Magus [Kensai]13 -Gestalt
Sanzo looks up from what he was doing with a serious look on his face, "I can feel it.... Coming in the air this night, Oh Lords... We've been waiting for this moment for all our lives... Can you feel it coming, Ye Lords!?"
