The rain is relentless, a pounding on the tent-roof that flaps awkwardly above you. For the last four days it has fallen without pause, and although everybody you speak to in this blasted rope-and-canvas encampment assures you that it represents the last gasp of the spring and will give way to glorious sunshine at any moment none of them have yet been proven right.
Your tent is your saving grace, erected on a raised wooden platform to keep it clear of the churning mud of the jungle floor and dry as a bone despite the weather. Roughly sketched maps and sweet-smelling spice bundles line the walls, keeping the insects at bay but also betraying your general lack of local geographical knowledge. It looks as though you'll be forging a way through untouched ground for the most part - a challenge, but not an insurmountable obstacle.
The jungle has been partly cleared around this still-young camp but less than a hundred feet away it thickens, untamed plants that you have never seen on the mainland springing up from the mud and twining into a thicket of low-hanging leaves and vines. The largest plants of the lot are not trees, but a form of thorned stems, each thicker around than a man can reach, that the local elven barge-polers call 'ketyin' - not poisonous, but with thorns the length and sharpness of shortswords certainly not plant to be trifled with.
A small fire burns on a stone set in the middle of the tent, keeping the room at a comfortable temperature despite the evening closing in. This will be your last night here, if the weather breaks by dawn. And as surprisingly comfortable as your own tent is... you do have a job to do.
Welcome, people - introduce yourselves, converse, and when you're happy as a group tell me how you spend your last evening and night in the encampment. Good luck!
How well do you think the world and feel of the dark souls universe would translate into a tabletop roleplaying game and, further question, which system would you use to run it if you were going to try?
So regrettably the Adrift on the Orphan Sea Campaign has lost a player, and we're looking for one or two new players with ideas for interesting characters to fill the gap.
The party are currently in a great place for new players to join, an underground magic-item market in a traditionally low-magic world. The group is looking for (ideally) a rogue or otherwise skilled character, or a psion/mage of some kind, built at level 4 (rules for building in the spoilers below).
So, if you're interested at all please take a gander at the linked thread to see how the characters interact and learn a little about the world (all there in the campaign info), and then post a few sentences of potential concept here.
- Gatsby
To Build a Character...:
20 point buy for stats, two traits (a drawback can be taken for an additional trait).
Characters should be built at level 4.
Characters have 4,000gp to spend, but a limit of a single magic item worth no more than 2000gp.
HP progression is full for the first level, then half (rounded up) for subsequent levels.
Available Races: Anything from the core or featured lists is fine, the uncommon races are slightly less likely to be accepted but certainly not banned, and due to the low-magic setting races with uncommon magical abilities are also less likely to be accepted (although a good concept could easily sway me).
Available Classes: Similarly anything from the Core, Base, Alternate and Playtest lists is absolutely fine by me, including archetypes. 3rd party content is, again, slightly less likely to be selected but certainly not banned.
In essence, as long as you show that you can make roleplay fun and engaging you could play a goblin Expert-NPC class and still be selected. The quality and effective roleplaying of a character is more important to me as a GM than their race, class or mechanics.
The carriage sways slightly from side to side, and you shift in your seat as you turn to take in the view.
The locomotive you're travelling in has just passed onto another of the ricking-bridges, marvels of engineering that connect mountain peaks miles apart, and the last one you'll need to cross before reaching your destination. You've been moving by road and rail for days, maybe even weeks, but the end is finally in sight.
Jevenwist.
You can see the lower tiers of the city below you, snow-covered rooftops and walkways layered and tessellating up the sides of the Katterfein mountains, occasionally shadowed by large iron-strutted platforms serving to house larger structures. You've moved through some of the outlying districts on your journey but this is your first glimpse of the city-proper, thousands of buildings perched precariously on the side of the continent's largest mountain. You're too far away still to see people but you know they'll be covered by warm furs, sprinting between covered markets and personal dwellings to keep out of the biting cold.
You pull your own too-thin garments around you reflexively - even though you thought you'd packed warm, the temperature is far below what you expected.
Your reasons for heading to the spire-city are personal, and the duration of your stay unknown. One thing is for certain, however...
You're going to be damn cold.
This is the recruitment thread for a homebrew pathfinder campaign set within the densely-populated mountain peaks of Auvenkine.
I'm looking for between five and seven players that enjoy games driven more by roleplay and player-choice than combat, who enjoy building a character from first level and who aren't averse to gaming in a low-magic world.
As far as classes and races are concerned, I will consider any combination that has a good backstory attached - this includes third party, and there will most definitely be preference given to the current versions of the playtest classes (as I have yet to see thm played properly...). There are also a few homebrew races for those feeling a little adventurous. As stated above, it's low-magic world (more details on the setting in the spoilers below), but casters are potential character choices as long as you're aware that you'd have to have a really god backstory or hook to have them considered. I'm expecting the finished party to have no more than two at the most (alchemists are a slight exception to this rule, and aren't counted as casters for the purposes of this campaign).
So, if you're interested all you need to do is post a name, race, class and single-paragraph story hook - why are you travelling to the central district of Jevenwist, what are you like as a person and one goal or ideal that you hold above all others will be sufficient.
Don't roll up complete characters yet, definitely - a suggestion is more than enough. What would be worthwhile is to forge an alliance with other potential players here, try to work out some interpersonal relationships - anything from sitting in the same locomotive carriage and having had a brief conversation at some point during the journey to sharing a common goal or family relationship would be good. A closer-knit party normally runs better, in my experience.
When characters are created...:
... it will be a level 1 20-point buy, archetypes allowed, double starting gold but no magic items, a set of warm clothing given for free, and 2 base traits (with a third optional if you also take a drawback). But as I said, don't get ahead of yourself!
The recruitment process will begin with basic character idea submission, then there will be a short roleplay test where players are encouraged to interact with eachother, and then I'll choose the 5-7 characters I think work best for the world, thy can draw up the crunch for their characters and the game will start.
For the main game, I'm looking for a 1-post-per-day absolute minimum, a few more than that encouraged.
Good luck, and be creative. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Gatsby
The Continent of Auvenkine (in General):
Auvenkine is a mountainous continent, isolated from even its closest neighbours by miles of storm-wracked sea. Although the continent itself is nominally peaceful, this is largely due to the precautions taken by its civilised residents. The cities, towns and villages are built on the easily defensible slopes of its major mountain range, leaving the badlands to tribes of orcs and savage humans and the mountaintops to the wolves. It is rare for travelers between cities to run into any kind of trouble more serious than bandits and highwaymen, and the roads and trade-canals between settlements are policed by well-intentioned amateur guards.
The mix of sentient species on the continent is reasonably even, with humans outnumbering the other core races but not by a huge amount. The non-core races are reasonably represented in towns and cities, but most keep themselves to villages and encampments on the fringes of society through choice, relishing their individuality and living by their own rules. Religions are tolerated but none has risen up to a position of dominance, and each major city is ruled by its own government (usually run in a vaguely democratic fashion, but there are exceptions). The average person would rarely stray more than a few miles from the place of their birth unless forced to, and existence is comfortable if sedentary.
Auvenkine's major cities are plunging into an industrial age, but the engineering fervour has yet to reach outside their walls. Apart from the presence of a few logging stations, smelting plants and sawmills the average township is rarely concerned with what advancements the cities are working on or incorporating into their daily lives.
Although the civilised areas of the continent are rarely troubled by unexpected violence, illnesses continue to take their toll. With little access to eldritch research or magical healing fast-spreading minor illnesses and plagues represent a real hazard, many of them brought by travelers who have frequented the badlands past the lower frontier. Town and village dwellers have built up immunities to many of the more infectious diseases over the years, but the strict policing of city borders has led to the populace being more susceptible to illnesses, and they thank the stars that such outbreaks are infrequent.
The cities and towns are surrounded mostly by forests and farmland, but there are occasional anomalies that most right-thinking people steer clear of. Underground networks of brass-coloured corridors are occasionally found and walled-up, and hard-to-reach monuments of an ancient civilisation can be seen jutting from the higher slopes of the mountains. These are seen as bad and unlucky places, the birth-holes of beasts best left undescribed. Every now and then a group of adventurers and restless souls will depart, stating that their intention is to make their way into one of these monuments – of those that can make the hard trek across the upper slopes and the unmapped regions few return, and those that do bring with them incredible riches to tempt their fellows, and even more incredible stories to keep them away.
As for the history of the region, it is a subject of debate for city-bound scholars all across the continent. Some evidence points strongly to the civilised nations being the remnants of a great purge conducted by unknown entities, a thinning of the ranks of sentience a thousand years in the past. Others hold that the elves are the true owners of Auvenkine's bountiful forests, and that the other races emerged from the badlands to bring industry, plague and a mixture of cultures to the mountain slopes, disrupting and co-opting a previously peaceful existence. An emergent theory is that the brass ruins that can be found dotted around the land are all that remains of a race of powerful Ifreeti, the last vestiges of the 'Smoldering Empire' mentioned in the oral traditions of the badland-dwellers to the far south. While it is rare that scholars can agree on exactly what the history of their continent is, they do settle on a single point – that Auvenkine is not truly theirs, and was once greater and more peaceful than it now stands.
Jevenwist, The Immediate Setting:
High up above the snowline of the Katterfein mountain range lies the Jevenwist, a sprawling city with districts spread across several peaks and connected by walkways and trainlines. The city is one of the most technologically advanced places in the continent, mostly due to the lack of available rivers for water-powered machinery, and local engineers are both prolific and inventive. An under-street heating system keeps the harsh cold out of the richer districts, and the peaks of the mountains themselves are partially hollowed and have been adopted as additional housing for those not hardy enough to live on the frozen exterior. Certain districts of the Jevenwist are also noted for their high levels of reliance on the continually-refined technology of alchemical interaction, although for some residents these districts are seen as unstable or inherently unlucky due to the stigma associated with the arcane arts.
Magic, and Those Who Use It:
The cities of Auvenkine are places of great learning, but this rarely encompasses a study of the arcane arts. There are no official magical institutions to join and, although there are occasional noble houses who pride themselves on creating practitioners of the esoteric arts, the common citizen will often breeze through life with no magical interference. Magic-users are regarded with a mixture of apprehension, awe and pity, and most individuals who have skill with the arcane decline opportunities to demonstrate in public, preferring to live normal, every day lives.
However, the inhabitants of the badlands to the south of the frontier have no such compunctions. Legends and myths tell of powerful mages and keen-minded alchemists who carve out petty fiefdoms amongst the sickly trees and hills of the badlands, marshaling small armies of magical beasts with which they hope to gain entry to the verdant mountain slopes. Few people believe these tales, or at least admit to believing them, yet the number of individuals who volunteer to help shore up the defences of the frontier towns are still markedly low.
Religion, or the Lack of It:
With the inherent lack of high level magic in the setting, traditional ‘divine action’ based religions do not have much of a foothold in Auvenkine. The lack of miracles, martyrs and, particularly, divine-channeled magical cures for illnesses or injuries means that although the majority of the population believes in the gods, they do so in a somewhat relaxed fashion. Auvenkine citizens are rarely supporters of the fervent worship seen in other parts of the world, although it's true that some individuals of that type certainly exist.
This does not mean that clerics or paladins are particularly rare, however, simply that they are more likely to devote themselves to the strengthening or reinforcement of an ideal over the whims of a deific being. It is more common to find a monument constructed to honour the abstract concepts of 'purity', 'bravery' or 'beauty' than a shrine devoted to Sarenrae or Calistria. Foreign visitors to the continent of Auvenkine often find this vaguely unsettling at first, although strong adherence to religious principles is only the subject of negative stereotyping when the doctrines of said religions clash with local laws.
The Sink and Rise Hours:
Living as they do on an incredibly mountainous continent, the people of Auvenkine have developed a slight idiosyncrasy when it comes to describing the times of the day (Due to the sun being blocked by the mountains for large amounts of time, throwing entire regions into shadow whilst leaving the surrounding slopes and hillsides bathed in the glow of dawn or dusk). These times are known as the 'rise hours' when they happen in the morning, and the 'sink hours' in the evening.
Different places experience these pockets of darkness at different times, and they can be dangerous for travelers who are moving alone or in small groups and don't know the local schedules, as the forests and slopes become progressively more dangerous to move around in throughout the night. Local legends (with more than a little truth to them) in many places describe the sink-hours especially as the favoured time for many savage creatures to hunt larger prey caught unaware by the sudden change in light conditions.
The Languages of Auvenkine:
The forests, slopes and cities of the Auvenkine region are home to a diverse mix of cultures and peoples, and a similarly diverse set of regional languages also exist. The list that follow details the most important...
Common Languages: Unsurprisingly, Common is the most usually-heard language throughout the region, spoken by just about everybody that belongs to some kind of recognisable social group. Dwarven is the language of choice in the dwarf-owned hill forts around the region, and it's common knowledge that the ability to speak it greatly increases your chances of entry. Those who commonly deal with elvish settlements often pick up a smattering of the Elven language, and it is seen as essential for a non-elf to know if they want to attempt to trade with such communities.
Religious Languages: Abyssal, Celestial and similar languages are very rarely spoken in Auvenkine due to the general lack of organised religion. However, the region does have its own historical 'religious' language in the form of Low Targiss, an ancient language very small amount of extremely out-of-the-way communities. It is written with a modified form of the elven runic alphabet and is most often found on extremely old relics and monuments out in the depths of the forest.
Planar Languages: Of the four planar languages the only one that is anywhere near common on the continent is Ignan, which is often found scribed across the interiors of the brass ruins near the lowlands and mountain peaks.
Bestial Languages: Gnoll and Goblin are most commonly spoken by the savage tribes of the badlands (whether the members of the tribe belong to those species or not) and by some individuals in frontier towns. Most other 'bestial' languages are very rarely heard.
Unusual Languages: Brass-tongue is the traditional language of bargemen and travelling tinkers, although it is rarely used for anything other than trading or insults. Hunter's Cant is an unspoken language of hand gestures used by trappers and woodsmen out in the forests to communicate without startling nearby animals, and finally Gearish is an emergent variation on common used by inner-city engineers, although they see such a name as an insult to what they hold is simply the obvious language of blueprints and new technology.
(A note for language-learners here, you are treated as 'fluent' in any bonus languages granted by your int mod. However, languages learnt through the linguistics skill are automatically set at 'learner' proficiency unless you spend an additional skill point to become fluent. A learner has no problem following basic conversation, but may have to take a linguistics skill check when trying to understand complex ideas and multi-clausal sentences. Gatsby)
Additional Races:
Tsykera
A race hailing from the sunward side of the Nasurai Water (known locally as the Orphansea), the Tsykera rarely journey to the lowlands and are spoken about with the same lack of knowledge and speculation as the durahjan. A typical Tsykera has fragile elf-like features and a slim upper torso, and could pass for elves if it weren't for the glistening darkness of their eyes – and their extremities, an unsettling parody of human limbs but thickly-plated with dark chitin that runs from shoulder to elbow and from upper thigh to the end of their over-long legs. Although their hands are human enough the Tsykera have no feet, instead balancing adeptly on two blade-like jags of chitin, giving them a slow but graceful 'dancer's step'.
The Tyskera habitually live in small communities below the snowline on the far eastern slopes of the Katterfein range, and although they rarely leave their homes and are protective of their culture they are more than tolerant of outsiders, relying on them for produce from above the snowline and past the swamps and marshes that run into the orphan sea (two places they feel particularly uncomfortable in). It is rare to find a Tsykera not fluent in Brasstongue, the language of travelling traders and their ilk.
A Tyskera has the following features...
Tyskera are Medium-sized Humanoids with the Insectoid subtype
A Tyskera has a a base speed of 20ft. This speed is not modified by armour or encumbrance.
A Tyskera gains a +2 bonus to its Dexterity and Intelligence scores but takes a -2 penalty to its Strength score. Tyskera are graceful and incisive, but despite their powerful legs have comparatively low muscle mass in their upper bodies.
Tyskera speak Common and Brasstongue, and Tyskera with a high intelligence score can learn any additional languages with the exception of druidic (and any other 'secret' languages).
Tyskera benefit from the following racial traits...
Mountain-Born: Tyskera gain a +2 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to cross narrow ledges and on saving throws against altitude fatigue and sickness.
Natural Armor: Tyskera gain a +1 natural armour bonus to their Armour Class.
Chemical Sense: Tyskera are particularly sensitive to minute changes in the body chemistry and pheromone output of those around them, helping them to see when certain topics of conversation or various actions anger, disturb or please those they are in contact with. Sense Motive and Diplomacy are always considered class skills for the Tyskera.
Nimble Faller: Tyskera land on their feet even when they take lethal damage from a fall. Furthermore, they gain a +1 bonus to their CMD against trip attempts.
Weapon Familiarity: Tyskera learn the traditional ways of hunting before they reach adulthood, and how to use the weapons of their ancestors effectively, though many do not practice the art after their childhood. Tyskera treat any weapon with the word "tyskera" in its name as a martial weapon.
Darkvision 60 Feet: Tyskera can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Meiharo
The meiharo are a race not native to Auvenkine, coming originally from a jungle-choked archipelago a few miles past the southern tip of the continent. Unlike many of the Auvenkinian races the meiharo have a talent for natural magic, and a biology completely unlike any of the more traditional races. Meiharo are comprised of rocks and metal deposits, their bodies humanoid in shape but stocky and strong. Although to an uninformed outsider they resemble vague descriptions of earth elementals the meiharo are a different breed entirely, and have a heart, circulatory system and other organs just like material races.
A Meiharo has the following features...
Meiharo are Medium-sized Outsiders, originally native to the plane of earth, and thus have Darkvision extending out to 60ft and eat, sleep and breathe as normal.
A Meiharo has a a base speed of 30ft.
A Meiharo gains a +4 bonus to its Constitution score but takes a -2 penalty to its dexterity and wisdom scores. Meiharo are strong and difficult to seriously damage, but their weight makes it hard for them to manoeuvre.
Meiharo speak Common, and Meiharo with a high intelligence score can learn any of the following additional languages: Dwarven, Goblin, Ignan, Terran, Gnoll, Orcish or Brasstongue.
Meiharo benefit from the following racial traits...
Stability: Meiharo receive a +4 racial bonus to their CMD when resisting bull rush or trip attempts while standing on the ground.
Camouflage: Meiharo gain a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks while in rocky or mountainous terrain.
Stonecunning: Meiharo receive a +2 bonus on Perception checks to notice unusual stonework, such as traps and hidden doors located in stone walls or floors. They receive a check to notice such features whenever they pass within 10 feet of them, whether or not they are actively looking.
Natural Armour: Meiharo gain a +1 natural armour bonus to their Armour Class.
Light Sensitivity : Meiharo evolved in the humid shadows of a great jungle, and are dazzled as long as they remain in an area of bright light.
Ravkha
The ravkha were human once, but those times are long past. Native to the southern badlands past the frontier, the Ravkha live alongside savage tribes of gnolls and their flind overlords, and through close living and interbreeding have taken on several of the traits of savage humanoids.
A Ravkha has the following features...
Ravkha are Medium-sized humans and thus eat, sleep and breathe as normal.
A Ravkha has a a base speed of 30ft.
A Ravkha gains a +2 bonus to its Strength and Dexterity scores but takes a -2 penalty to its Charisma score. The Ravkha are savage and fast, but also ill-tempered and impatient.
Ravkha speak Gnoll. Ravkha with a high intelligence score can learn any of the following additional languages: Common, Terran, Orcish or Brasstongue.
Fearless: Ravkha gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against fear effects.
Scavenger: Ravkha gain a +2 racial bonus on Appraise and Perception checks to find hidden objects (including traps and secret doors), determine whether food is spoiled, or identify a potion by taste.
Sprinter: Ravkha gain a +10 foot racial bonus to their speed when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions.
Carrion Sense: Ravkha have a natural ability to sniff out carrion. This functions like the scent ability, but only for corpses and badly wounded creatures (creatures with 25% or fewer hit points).
Weapon Familiarity: Ravkha are proficient with spears, and treat the flindbar as a martial weapon. .
Scavenger Empathy: Ravkha gain a +4 bonus on Handle Animal checks made to influence hyenas.
Low-Light Vision: Ravkha can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light.
Hekajin
The hekajin are the offspring of a pairing between a human and a shapechanged hekajoto, the hekajin look almost entirely human... save for a single unmistakeably aberrant feature. The hekajin have an unfortunate lot in life – although their physical form bears unmistakeable marks of their aberrant parentage their mental processes are far more akin to the humans that fear them (although still slightly askew).
A hekajin has the following features...
Hekajin are Medium-sized aberrations and thus eat, sleep and breathe as normal, but have Darkvision out to 60ft.
A hekajin has a a base speed of 30ft.
A hekajin gains a +2 bonus to its Strength score and a +2 bonus to its Wisdom score but takes a -2 penalty to its Constitution score. The hekajin are strong and have a skewed world-view, but their bodies are a battleground of the normal and aberrant.
Hekajin speak Hunter's Cant and Common. Hekajin with a high intelligence score can learn any additional languages (with the exception of 'secret' languages).
Abstract Tentacle: A hekajin has a disembodied tentacle that floats several inches behind their shoulderblades, a clear indicator of their heritage. Their tentacles can be used to carry objects but not to wield weapons, and can retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. It can be hidden by bulky clothing and a decent disguise check (DC 15), but does detect as slightly magical when in motion.
Hekajin can also make melee attacks with their tentacle. This is a secondary attack. A creature hit by this attack cannot move more than 10 feet away from the attacker and takes a –2 penalty to AC as long as they are ensnared by this tentacle (this penalty does not stack if multiple tentacles are ensnaring a target). The tentacle can be removed by the target or an adjacent ally by making an opposed Strength check against the attacking creature as a standard action or by dealing 2 points of damage to the tentacle (AC 11, damage does not reduce the hekajin's hit points). A Hekajin cannot move more than 10 feet away from a creature ensnared by its tentacle, but it can release the tentacle from the target as a free action. A hekajin can only ensnare one creature at a time.
Skewed Mindset: Hekajin gain a +2 bonus on all Will saving throws.
It's an insistent, low roar, or the purr of a satisfied cat. You try to pull the cheap hospital pillow up over your face to drown out the noise – except there is no pillow and, with a sense of concussed realisation, no hospital.
You're lying on the sand in a place you've never seen before. The bones of old ships surround you, bleached white with age and splayed open like a cracked ribcage. The sand is red, or brown - the colour of rust - and the seawater of the same approximate hue, if maybe a little darker.
Low stormclouds fill the sky, threatening rain but not yet delivering on their promise.
Your head hurts, and your ears are ringing. Your throat tastes of bile. You stand, coughing, trying without success to brush some of the sand off of your clothes and stamping your feet to bring a sense of life back into them.
And like the storm above you, the second wave of realisation spreads silently through you mind. It creeps up on you and whispers in your ear, and despite the fact that you're lost, cold, and completely alone...
It's an insistent tapping at the window, and you try to pull the cheap hospital pillow up over your face to drown out the noise – except there is no pillow and, with a sense of concussed realisation, no hospital.
You're lying in the mud in a place you've never seen before. There are roses growing in he underbrush, and tall oak-like trees stretching above you to form a canopy through which very little light penetrates. Everything here is brown or red, and dazzling white, not a shred of green to be seen. The petals of the roses, the leaves at your feet and on the trees are all as white as bone, and the mud you're covered in is brown and red in equal measure.
From the colour of the scant few patches of sky that show through the pale leaves, you would suspect it to be sunrise.
Your head hurts, and your ears are ringing. Your throat tastes of bile. You stand, coughing, trying without success to brush some of the mud off of your clothes and stamping your feet to bring a sense of life back into them.
And like the dawn, the second wave of realisation comes slowly. It creeps up on you and whispers in your ear, and despite the fact that you're lost, wet, and completely alone...
A place for out of character discussion on the topic of the Phantom Limbs: The Orphan Sea game. Please use this space to discuss rules, opinions, problems and potential actions, as well as getting to know each other as players.
I hope we all have a good time - the campaign thread will open later tonight.
A place for out of character discussion on the topic of the Phantom Limbs: Ikarida game. Please use this space to discuss rules, opinions, problems and potential actions, as well as getting to know each other as players.
I hope we all have a good time - the campaign thread will open later tonight.
You can go your entire day without hearing anything more invasive than the sound of insects bouncing against the window glass, the muted murmur of crowds and industry from the city outside or sometimes, if any of your fellow patients are feeling bold, the sound of shuffling feet pass by the heavy wooden door to your room.
You've been here for weeks, maybe months – you've lost count of the days now, but you still remember what it felt like to be whole. You don't know if you'll ever forget it, as much as you might want to sometimes.
You were whole, a while ago, and you were free. You never thought that anything bad would happen to you, not really. You'd lived through a few scrapes, lost a friend or two to the plagues or the forests, but you – like everyone else – thought themselves impervious, somehow, to the real dangers of the world.
You were wrong, and now you're here... or at least, most of you is. Whatever part you left out there is long gone now, and you resigned yourself to the fact that you wouldn't be getting it back a long time ago. Your hospital room, the occasional decent meal, a lot of regret and your memories. That's all that's left for you now.
Or at least that's what you thought before the visitor came, striding into your room like he owned you and then telling you exactly why he might. He wasn't a doctor or a nurse but a businessman, and he was there to offer you an opportunity. A 'second chance, if you like', he had said. He had promised to make you whole, and left with a whirlwind of promises and hints in his wake.
The meeting down in the old rose garden, the meeting that he called, is about to start. It's been a long time since you've been out of your room – but you'll brave it, for a chance at a fresh start.
Phantom Limbs is a homebrew campaign run in a low-magic world, where the loss of a limb and the lack of a support network can lead to you being shut away in a hospital room for the rest of your life simply so that your city doesn't get another beggar clogging up its alleyways.
The characters are all patients who are being given a second chance at a life outside the hospital, individuals who lost parts of their bodies through accidents, punishment or foolishness. A well-known medical company from another city is in cahoots with a logging company centred in yours (a business whose lack of safety practices help keep these hospitals full), stress-testing a potential product by plunging a group of – frankly – expendable individuals back into the outside world. The characters are being offered the chance to undertake survey and 'clearing' work high up in the infamously unfriendly mountain territories. And the reward for such a foolish endeavour?
They get their lives back – the latest breakthrough in the newly-emergent sciences, artificial body parts to return what fate stole from them. Missing eyes, and legs and hands suddenly returned. They're not perfect, and they're not pretty, but they're better than nothing. And all the characters have to do is stress-test them out in the field with a little exploring for a month or so.
Easiest job in the world.
The rules for recruitment, restrictions, character-building and notes about the campaign world are below in the spoiler tabs – if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
...
Recruitment Process and Character Rules:
The recruitment process will be as follows -potential players should post on this thread with a race, class and name, and then a very short backstory or description (no more than one paragraph) detailing how they lost or irreparably broke whatever bodypart landed them in the hospital for a permanent stay (the current choices are Arm, Hand, Leg, Ear, Eye, Spine or Jaw). It is recommended you look at the spoiler tab in the mapaign info, graft traits, to see what kind of replacement options exist for you. And concerning grafts, as soon as the game starts you could hide them under your coat and never speak of them again from a roleplay perspective if that's what you really wanted, but the important thing is that they are what's getting your character back out into the world.
After a few days (anything up to a week) of character options and general questions/answers there will be a roleplay test, where the most promising characters will be asked to interact with eachother at the rose garden meeting. After a few days of that I will choose the characters that I think would make the campaign run as smoothly and enjoyably as possible and PM them with an offer to join the discussion and campaign threads.
So the game won't be starting immediately, you have time to think / consider / question. The way it's currently planned it's not a hugely long campaign story, most probably running between level 3 and levels 6 or 7. I'd also be expecting several posts a day per player, so if that would be a problem this may not be the campaign for you. I'm lucky in that I have a mostly flexible job and checking the boards isn't often a problem.
Anyway, The Character Rules are as follows...
20 point buy for stats, two traits (a drawback can be taken for an additional trait) and one mandatory free graft trait, found in a spoiler tab in the 'campaign info' section.
Characters should be built at level 3.
Characters have 3,000gp to spend, but a limit of a single magic item worth no more than 1,500gp.
HP progression is full for the first level, the half (rounded up) for subsequent levels.
Available Races: Anything from the core or featured lists is fine, the uncommon races are slightly less likely to be accepted but certainly not banned, and due to the low-magic setting races with uncommon magical abilities are also less likely to be accepted (although a good concept could easily sway me).
Available Classes: Similarly anything from the Core, Base or alternate class lists is absolutely fine by me, including archetypes. 3rd party content is, again, slightly less likely to be selected but certainly not banned, as are magic-users of various hues.
In essence, as long as you show that you can make roleplay fun and engaging you could play a goblin Expert-NPC class and still be selected. The quality and effective roleplaying of a character is more important to me as a GM than their race, class or mechanics.
All homebrew setting information is in the campaign info tab. So good luck creating characters, and ask any questions you wish.
And remember - if your concept fits the world you have a much higher chance of being selected.
... okay, well 'neophobes' may be a little harsh. Many GMs have legitimate reasons to exclude certain classes from their games, whether it be through a dislike for the flavour of the class, uncertainty over the mechanics or balancing, not having the time to research new pathfinder class additions, a clash between the class and the style of campaign they like to run or just simply not having the right books at their disposal.
Similarly, I know that the alchemist, gunslinger, magus, ninja and the like are hardly 'new' anymore - but they're not core, and those are the classes that I see on 'disallowed' lists on almost every recruitment thread, or that are subject to a variety of GM-imposed limitations.
So...
I was wondering what kind of interest there would be for a future homebrew campaign (not anytime soon, I'm already happily GMing one game and there's another in the works, and I do need to sleep sometimes) in a world that is specifically tailored to accommodate such classes? I'm sure many exist - I've even played in them, back in my tabletop days - but there seems to be something of a shortage of opportunities on the PBP boards at the moment.
What I'm looking for from you is concepts for characters that you think would be both interesting and fun for you to play - no crunch, or anything more than a brief description - that follow one simple rule...
They must utilise at least one 'newer' aspect of pathfinder.
I won't go into my own likes or dislikes, class-wise, or anything similar - I just want to see what kind of interest a homebrew world based around the core pathfinder mechanics and rules but specifically tailored to be accessible to the rarer classes will generate.
The Lumber Mill, Outside
The lumber mill stands quiet and dripping in the warm afternoon air, dragonflies darting between the puddles left by last night's storm.
The area in front of you has been cleared of trees and stands as a stark island of evidence for Hawcroft's grand industrial venture, several hundred square feet of rough earth and compact buildings surrounded by mile after mile of dense forest. The main work area takes up most of the clearing – to your left are stacked tree-trunks, ready to meet the saw, and off to the right the sunlight shines off of the tin roofs of the mill-workers' dwellings.
The sawmill itself is to the north, a hundred feet or so in front of you, and consists of two large warehouses and a cutting-platform that straddles the river running down from the distant mountain peaks. There are no sounds except for the chirping of birds, the chittering of insects and the splashing creak of the mill's waterwheel.
If you didn't know better you wouldn't think that anything was out of place.
There should be thirty of them, your guide and contract-holder points out, and even if they were in the middle of a retrieval from upriver at least a few of them would have stayed behind to snag the produce as it arrived. Doesn't make a lick of sense.
The contract-holder is Clarence Atterleigh, a tall man with dark hair and a backpack of scrolls and ledgers. He is a company man, an employee of Hawcroft Logging, the very same company that keep you on retainer to investigate bandit attacks or workmen striking - anything that stops the fresh timber flowing down the mountainside and into the city to the south of you.
The cart that brought you here stands a little off to the side at the south edge of the clearing, its horses stamping occasionally. They were skittish as they approached the mill despite the ministrations of your driver, as if sensing ahead of time that something would be wrong with your destination. The driver, a young man with a whip wrapped around his waist like a belt, is trying to soothe them.
Atterleigh adjusts his spectacles nervously. He had been sat next to the driver on your way up the gentle slope of the hillside, barely acknowledging your presence when you were picked up one by one from your respective homes. Although you are all held on retainer by the same company this is the first time the five of you have met – these hills are reasonably safe during the day, at least when compared to the lowland forests and the higher mountain slopes. Lots of people around, lots of villages, small camps and friendly towns.
It's rare for thirty people to just disappear.
Below are the various areas of the camp - you can explore them if you choose to, but please post where you're heading as well as reading the relevant tab
The Saw Platform:
A sturdy wooden platform with an iron roof (suspended between the two warehouses) acts as a bridge over the fast-flowing river, with space enough for several people to work side by side. The water-driven saw suspended in the centre of the platform has no safety barriers around it, but is mercifully still. The serrated blade is an inch thick, and is only very lightly speckled with rust. It is driven by some sort of mechanical system half-concealed in the roofspace of the platform.
Two sets of wooden steps lead up to the platform, one on each side of the river, and a rudimentary crane and pulley system have been rigged up to deposit halved logs into the clearing. Nearby sturdy leather straps extend from a jutting beam at the top of the platform, allowing floating logs to be snared and lifted up from the river towards the saw. One such log sits half-cut, surrounded by sawdust and drying in the light of the afternoon sun.
To find out more, pass a DC12 Perception or DC9 Knowledge: Engineering check, then open the 'extra' tab.
The Saw Platform, Extra:
The saw is still, but it shouldn't be - the mechanism that drives it is connected to a nearby waterwheel, which is turning without any problems. There must be a fault somewhere, a coupling severed or a slipped gear.
The Quarters:
The housing for the sawmill employees is cramped but cheery, five small shacks packed with iron-framed bunks, each bunk area plastered with personal effects. The wooden walls are covered with cheap play-bills advertising theatre shows from the city, sketches of what you assume are family members or sweethearts and faded Hawcroft safety notices. Each shack has a wood-burning stove at the end of the room, all of them sitting still and cold. Small chests without locks sit near each doorway. The silence of the place is unsettling – you can tell from the looks of it and the scuffed earth between the buildings that these shacks were a social hub for the workers, a place to wile away their off hours relaxing, boasting or reminiscing.
The Watchtower:
An iron-reinforced shack on thick strut-like legs, the watchtower stands at the northernmost point of the clearing. You estimate that it must be a least thirty feet tall, and you assume it would give you a commanding view of the camp and the rising hills to the north.
Unfortunately, assumptions are all you have – the wooden ladder that leads up to the shack's open doorway lies broken in the mud at the tower's base.
To climb the watchtower, two DC15 climb rolls are required.
The Timber Pile:
A stack of cut logs sits by the side of the river, in the shadow of a crane system sprouting from the nearby saw platform. There are large mounds of disturbed earth scattered around the stack that resemble oversized molehills, and a few of the logs look as though they've been gnawed upon by something.
To find out more, take a knowledge nature check. Pass DC12 to open Extra 1, and DC18 to open Extra 1 and 2.
The Timber Pile, Extra 1:
The disturbed earth betrays the presence of lumberwasps, fat burrowing insects almost the size of a dwarf. Despite their size they aren't particularly dangerous unless baited, and habitually avoid areas frequented by larger animals. They are particularly attracted to freshly-cut wood, but will feed on most fibrous materials.
The Timber Pile, Extra 2:
For lumberwasps to have been confident enough to start feeding on the materials of the logging site you estimate it has been completely devoid of any noticeable human activity for at least a week.
The Foreman's Office, Exterior:
The foreman's office is larger than the worker housing on the east side of the clearing, a two-storey building made of wood and reinforced with iron bands. A small antechamber leads into the main building, and you can see pegs and shelves through the doorway that usually serve as a place to keep the site tools. They sit empty, the axes and saws that should be stored there absent. The door to the main room is closed.
Several flat-bottomed barges are beached at the rear of the foreman's office, used to carry cut produce from the site downriver towards the city. The canvas covering them blows gently in the wind, only half-secure. It was one of these barges that failed to arrive at the city at its allotted time, prompting Atterleigh to ride up to the site alone for his initial investigation – that was two days ago.
The door to the main room is locked, requiring a check of DC15 to unlock.
The River:
The river flows fast and strong, and is the reason the logging site was created. Crowded on all sides by ancient trees and wide enough to safely float produce-laden barges down, the nameless river runs mostly parallel to the path your wagon took on your way to the site, stretching all the way down from the higher mountain slopes and flowing through the middle of Barrjka, half a day's travel back the way you came.
Several fishing poles and a few nets sit unattended on the far side of the bank, alongside a small wooden bench. A barrel with a spigot at its base lies on its side nearby, empty enough to rock back and forth whenever the wind picks up.
The Forest Fringes:
The forests around Barrjka are safe when compared to the lands higher up the mountains or down by the southern frontier, but they still hold their fair share of dangers for travellers that enter them unprepared. Everybody has heard of the rogue elves that live feral far from the trade routes, and the elk that protect their territories with proud viciousness... and there are other things, hinted at by drunken huntsmen, that most people are happy to stay clear of.
If you'd like any more information, make applicable rolls or ask out of character - and I guess we've started, so do what you will!
Gatsby.
So, this is the discussion thread for the primary 'Hawcroft Logging' homebrew campaign. It's a place to throw ideas around, ask for rules clarifications and make suggestions, discuss the game or just get to know each other. Make good use of it!
The characters will begin the scenario on the back of a wagon drawn by a rather recalcitrant horse, heading up a well-maintained path towards the site of the 'incident' you've been sent to investigate. Any on-wagon 'getting to know you' moments that people want to indulge in can be done here before the official start of the game if you wish, but don't worry about going all 'in-character' - you'll have the main PBP thread for that soon enough, and ample time to make in-character introductions.
So anyway... hope it all goes well, and the first campaign post should be up within the next few days (I'm sure that people will be posting rather erratically around christmas day and boxing day at least, so don't worry too much until the twenty-seventh).
I've been itching to run a campaign for a long time and now have one hashed out, for the most part. I'm new to play by post but certainly not to GMing, and I'm looking to recruit a few players for a low-powered campaign to get me into the swing of things. Which means that if I mess something up, feel free to tell me (nicely) and I'll try to work on it. With that said...
The Setting: A landmass by the name of Auvenkine, reaching the tail-end of summer and shading into autumn at the time of the campaign. It's a reasonably low-magic fantasy world with a little scattered industry – humans outnumber the other races though not by very much, and the technology level is such that guns are present but are far from common, and the few standing armies that exist are still strictly in the sword and crossbow stage.
The Rules: This will be a pathfinder game beginning at level 1, with experience rewarded as much if not more for good roleplay and clever ideas as for combat. Anything from the core pathfinder rules is great, and by extension most things on the PFSRD are fair game as long as you run them by me first. As stated above the setting is reasonably low magic... but you're an adventuring party (sort of), so you're expected to be a little odd - if you have a burning desire to play a magic user, it won't be a huge problem. Similarly, don't worry too much about a balanced party – making sure that encounters are fair and obstacles can be overcome is a job to be done on my end, not yours.
Registering Interest: I'm looking for minimum three players, maximum five. If you're interested, just post on this thread. You don't need the whole crunch, but I'd heavily prefer it if you stated what kind of class and race you intended to play right from the start - it'll help get things going faster. Characters should be built with 20 points for stats, no hero points, and no stat below 8. Each character gets two traits, and a drawback can be taken to gain an additional trait if you really want to. All characters automatically benefit from the Weapon Finesse feat for free, a long time house rule that I see no reason to revoke. Starting gold will be set at 500gp, irrespective of class – your employer needs you ready for trouble. Character sheets can be sent to me as pdfs, which would be great, or hosted on Myth-weavers, but as I said, don't worry about the crunch too much yet.
Anything Else?
Yes, but only a little.
As far as additional information goes, your characters are all held on retainer by a local logging company, not as workers but as investigators, protectors and strikebreakers. You will have been called out by a representative of the company to attend the site of an 'incident' at one of the smaller sawmills, several miles uphill from the nearest city. Your employer has provided you transport there, and the scenario will start when you arrive as a group.
As a side note, if you're looking for page after page of combat this campaign might not be for you, as I'll try to keep full combat encounters quick and brutal (as much as you can in play by post). I'm definitely not using a grid system to start off with, and I don't much fancy the idea of each encounter being a month long. I'll be playing a little bit fast and forgiving, combat wise, at least until I get used to the electronic medium and possibly beyond. By the same token, don't enter this expecting to save the world - it won't be that sort of campaign unless the players all choose to drive it in that direction.
Apart from that... here's hoping, I guess? Any questions, just post and ask.
