Ubo the Talker's page

Updates

Between work, reconstructing the recruitment, and playing both Red Dead Redemption 2 and the 4K remake of Resonance of Fate, I have not really had time to post. If I go missing again over the next week, try not to worry too much, this is just a lot of work to get done, even moreso than a normal GM's job.

I have roughly fourteen pages of the PDF reconstructed, including most of the lore, GM and PC rules, the big list of what books are permissible, the list of what is nerfed or banned, the list of un-nerfs, and new items for the game.

What remains to be reconstructed are the sections on sample boons and vanities, the adventures I had planned to allow people to vote on for my own game, information on each major plane's lodge, descriptions of rival factions in the setting, and a few other additions.

I will try to check in every so often so as not to worry people overmuch, but I can't make a guarantee of being able to every day because of how much work it is getting that PDF written and polished.

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So... would an Ancient (or Very Old) Gold Dragon be allowed for Master-tier as one side of the Gestalt? Yes, it has DR 15, but I doubt at that level that things that count as Magic would be in any kind of short supply.

That depends on the dragon. Which one were you thinking of?

I am relatively interested and i am a big fan of Spheres of Power/Might myself.

With monster levels permissible, would something like an illithid be doable, and if so, how many levels would i have left to play with? just spitballing but i do love the race.

As-written, Illithids are not allowed due to numerous high DC at-will save or sucks, including an instadeath power. Maybe one of the lesser Illithid variants would be something you could look into?

I would be interested in this as a player for sure.

One way to make this campaign work mechanically is to allow people to be gestalt or tristalt. Most people consider the power of tristalt to be batty, but it's not really bad in the hands of an experienced GM who knows when to say no to broken interactions. It could easily simulate the superhero tone you are going for.

I don't think a three-day gap between posts is necessary if the GM is organized. I have actually ran a home game where six PCs split up into an arm of the dungeon (it was sacred temple containing an artifact crafted by the gods centuries ago that could defeat the fallen god the PCs were going to be going up against; each wing of the dungeon was for a specific PC and each had to face their own doubts, fears, and regrets in their wing). The way I managed it was having each PC do their piece incrementally. They would finish one section, whether it was overcoming the manifestation of their doubts, fears, regrets, or what have you, then I would switch to the next PC's. When I finally made it back around to the first PC, he would have spent the intervening time going through long corridors and looking at wall-carvings that detailed the past, present, and future on the walls and just then reached the next room. In PBP, juggling 5 solo adventures shouldn't be too hard.

I'll try to log on Discord tonight and fish for a GM on the Pathfinder Discord groups.

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Eh, I guess we're not using templates, right?

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Eh, uh... another question...

"Planeswalker" means each could come from a different universe? I mean, one could come from Faerun or Krynn? Maybe Draenor, or even Earth itself?

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Is it so? That is awesome!

How would one of those PCs from a distant world be recruited to the Society? I mean, how does this society work? I'm fairly new to this planar shifting thing.

That depends on the template. Templates do cost more than their +CR suggests because of how powerful some are and I will not allow just any template, but I am not outright banning them all. Each PC is limited to one template though.

This campaign will take place in Golarion's canon multiverse. That includes a pre-WW2 Earth, but doesn't extend to other IP universes. So no Starwars, World of Warcraft, Dark Tower, Diablo 3, or other characters. In my own home game canon, Jandelay is the exact center of all realities and joins them together, but the Planeswalker Society is going to more or less play Golarion's multiverse straight. Something like a Silver Age comic-style supersoldier from WW1 or an occultist from London that somehow got sucked through a dimensional rift and arrived in Golarion's multiverse might be permissible, since that era of Earth is canon, but it needs a very good story.

The Planeswalker Society is more or less just a homebrew Pathfinder Society that is in the planes. Baseline Golarion has the PFS, Starfinder has the SFS, and, to me, the planes deserved their own Society. Think of it like an adventurer's guild.

Honestly? For a play-by-post I could work with just being a familiar, too. Unlike in a face-to-face game, I'm not stuck sitting around doing nothing during combat--I can read through what everyone does and post a brief something about what antics my character gets up to, then go on with my day.

On the other hand, being a 'familiar' who's actually on about the same power level could be fun, too. I guess I'll have to debate about it. :D

You have plenty of time to mull over your options. The thread is still a week or two away.

You might almost say.... it's a concept you're not familiar with?

Oof! I can just picture the meme dog with that caption!

Progress

Nothing was done today since I spent most of the day busy. I have a guild event on World of Warcraft in a short amount of time, so nothing will likely get done today.

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I am super interested in running a self-referential, comedic game (as GM) involving the troubles and woes of the Society's legal department.

I want to give players something a little more on the rules light, fun side as an option for people that want to keep their character engaged in the universe without requiring a super high amount of commitment. Inter office politics and absurd legal quandaries and fetch quests and all sorts of wacky things that tell a hilarious story about the mundane application of world shattering power. It also would be an amazing opportunity to dive deep into the lore of the universe and the Society, and in general a fun time for all.

That sounds appropriately madcap for a planar adventure! I might even apply for that, if you don't mind the head GM joining a game.

Awww, I'd been hoping to be at least a couple of levels behind him...

I understand. It all boils down to how each game would be balanced. If you were a lower level than him, you would likely be too weak to participate in most games as a full PC but, if you were not counted as a PC, you would be too strong for the game. I might be willing to make an exception if you were just a familiar, but that would relegate you to sidelines role in games where combat was a thing. What are your thoughts on that?

I'm still interested!

Though it might be a while before I can pin down a PC. I'll see if I can manage it this weekend after other stuff.

I have yet to finalize everything. What I put up is a rough draft to whet people's appetite until I can reconstruct the fairly massive primer that I had ready for the Planeswalker Society before my computer kicked it in July. When the official thread goes up, the Society will always be open for new players and existing players can create multiple characters to play across as many games as they wish. There is no need to worry about ever being late for a Planeswalker Society recruitment.

Progress

Progress is slow, but steady. I have reconstructed the lore sections on each of the Founders of the Planeswalker Society and have gotten most of the ban/change list finished.

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A couple of questions:

1) If we apply ABP armor attunement to the clothes that a Monk is wearing, does that still count as being unarmored for all monk-y purposes like Wisdom to AC?
2) Can we apply ABP weapon attunement to a kineticist's kinetic blast?

Not all of Automatic Bonus Progression is being used, just the two parts that replace ability score boosting items.

[Reads Ubo the Talker's post and begins to salivate]

Swiping away the drool, TheWaskally asks "Um..I enjoy leveling. If I make a novice character, can it eventually level up to Journeyman and so forth?"

Yes, you will be able to level up in-game and go through tiers. The general idea is that you will level up after every two scenarios, which means that it will take eight scenarios to reach a new tier.

Hello.

Ubo the Talker wrote:
Most classes and archetypes from d20pfsrd
With this you mean Paizo and non-Paizo as long as it appears on the page, right?

What do you think of Multiclass Archetypes ?

All Paizo and non-Paizo material from those websites are allowed unless they are on the ban list. There are few on the ban list, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

I remember seeing the Multiclass Archetypes a few years back. I like most of them, but a few are wonky. I would be willing to entertain requests for one of those.

Almonihah and I were discussing him playing a 'familiar' for my PC. Would something like that be allowed? Could he play at different tier? Ie, could I be a Journeyman, and he be a novice?

I have actually had other PCs want this in my past games and have allowed it. He may be treated as your familiar despite being a character roughly equal in power. I do have a few stipulations to put in place, however. If you're both fine with those, feel free to submit a master and familiar.

1. You must both be of the same tier. I remember in the Shackled City AP, there was a wizard whose quasit familiar was almost as powerful as him, so it's not like there is a lack of precedence.

2. You must both apply to the same games when you play those characters. He is your familiar and so all normal familiar rules apply, including the link.

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Hmmmm, so there's a possibility I could play a pseudodragon? :D

Yes. Pseudodragons should not be a problem.

Sound good!

@Monster PCs - In my experience it isn't the cool abilities that make monsters too strong. I mean casters can raise dead, teleport or disintegrate people already so those can't be any balance issues right :P

It's usually their vastly superior stat lines and extra hd with all that comes along with that. Might be worth to keep an eye on that especially in a gestalt game.

But I'm sure you have thought of this already. You seem well prepared : )

I already have that covered. I am still working out the complete list of limitations for monstrous PCs. Ability scores were an obvious problem that needed little mention outside of the main rules, but things like Regeneration and unlimited save or suck powers are often overlooked in campaigns that allow monstrous PCs and, in my experience since allowing those types of PCs since 3.5e D&D, cause the most problems.

How do the character creation tiers work? It’s unclear whether it’s a single character in a tier of our choice or one character per tier.

You select a tier and create a character for it. Rather than forcing players to grind through dozens of scenarios to reach their desired tier like in most organized plays, I allowed players to simply create a character in their desired tier. You can create as many characters as you want for Planeswalker Society play, but only one will be allowed per game. It's up to the individual GM if they want a player in more than one of their games, however.

Could, uh, dragons, by any chance, be allowed as your 'monster' side of the gestalt?

*slides GM 20 gp*

Depending on the age category, I might be fine with it. Rite Publishing's Tannim race and their racial paragon class that turns them into a full-on dragon are allowed regardless.

Only in terms of what third-party content is allowed, since my library is hitting close to 5,000 PDFs and I have a lot of stuff most GMs will not allow because it is third-party.

Wait, so not only are you letting us build whatever we want, you are actually fine with (and rewarding) players with massive backgrounds? Dotting!`

High-power? Check. Unique idea? Check. Something that brings back my Deadlands nostalgia? Check. Consider this a dot!

Before I get into the character creation rules that I promised, I have a message for potential GMs who want to get in on the PWS regarding a scenario limitation I placed while in the earlier stages of working on this. I originally listed that world-ending threats would be unacceptable in PWS campaigns since all the games would take place within a shared setting. Since one of the Founders is an epic-level chronomancer, I have decided to allow doomsday scenarios under one condition: they are all "simulations" of a sort run within a closed timeline created by Archmage Zalea in an Armageddon Echo-type reality. The Demiplane of Recursion, as the closed reality is called, is a creation of hers meant to simulate and find fixes for future apocalypses and major threats to the multiverse without endangering the timestream. She monitors each experiment and inevitably freezes time in those scenarios the second before annihilation occurs, extracts Planeswalker members, and returns her demiplane to a blank slate in the event that members fail in their duties. To her, even failed ventures provide valuable information in preventing those future apocalypses, even if that information is just how to not go about it, so she provides small compensation even to those who cannot prevent the scenario.

These are the character creation rules as they stand right now. There may be revisions or clarifications, but these are where they stand now. This is not the official recruitment and I am posting these just to give people something to look over while I finish up rebuilding about twenty pages worth of material.

Basic Tier-Neutral Rules

Race:Anything Paizo should be fine. Races from Ultimate Psionics should also be fine. I am willing to let people play as monsters, but it will eat up their levels on one side of the gestalt and there are quite a few restrictions that will be put in place that limit the pool of potential monster races, like no Regeneration, extremely high DR, unlimited save or suck abilities like the Medusa's petrification gaze, and other game-breaking abilities like that. All Monster races must be approved by me personally. I will not allow even fellow GMs to rule on allowing or disallowing these because of the potential consequences of allowing certain monsters.

Classes: Characters will be gestalt. Most classes and archetypes from d20pfsrd and the Spheres of Power Wiki are cleared for play. If a class or archetype is not included on either of those, you need to submit a request to me or one of my appointed approval GMs detailing what supplement the class can be found in (NOT links to a copy though!), the page number, and similar details.
*No Variant Multiclassing or Fractional Bonuses.
**Fighters gain Stamina for free.

Alignment: All alignments are allowed. There is a minimum standard for Planeswalker Society members to abide by both in and out of missions, all monitored via the Planar Wayfinders, so this is not to say that you can play anything. Harming/using/unlawfully stealing souls (stealing a soul that itself was stolen by a Daemon to return to the Upper Planes is not a violation of this rule), betraying the Society or your fellow members, engaging in unnecessarily destructive behavior on missions, or acting in ways that jeopardize the mission are all prime ways to have your character kicked out of the Society, assuming that they live long enough to do so.

Hit Points: Characters have maximum HP per HD.

Ability Scores: Characters should be built using a 34 point buy. No ability score should be higher than 20 or lower than 8 before racial ability score modifiers, class features, or other potential changes to ability scores. You still gain level bonuses to ability scores. In addition, you gain the ability score bonuses listed under Automatic Bonus Progression, which take the place of items that are normally used to pad those out.

Feats: Feat Tax rules are in place, using the newest PDF copy on Michael Iantorno's Website. Link to the website.

Traits: Characters gain two non-campaign traits. No Drawbacks.

Gold and Gear: While the individual values for each tier of character are different, every Planeswalker Society members gains a minor artifact known as a Planar Wayfinder, a potent item based on the Wayfinders of Golarion. I have not decided on every feature the Planar Wayfinders will have, but they include: Planar Acclimation, which lets the attuned owner ignore the ubiquitous hazards of the plane such as becoming immune to the low fire damage a round from the Elemental Plane of Fire (although not especially hot sections or fire damage from other sources) or gaining underwater breathing (but not the ability to breathe water on other planes or the ability to breathe in liquid substances like blood) on the Elemental Plane of Water; Nexus Synchronization, which allows the character to synchronize the Planar Wayfinder to hotspots in the elemental planes and function like a Hearthstone from World of Warcraft (I found this suggestion elsewhere and love it) to any spot it has been attuned; the ability to store nonmagical items within a small pocket space, an aperture of which can be opened by the attuned wielder by speaking a command word; serving as a 'magical GPS' that a Founder can home in on; and serving as a focus for spells that resurrect the dead.

Bans and Reworks I am formulating a list of bans and reworks. The ban section is small and is just things people already figured would be banned, such as Dazing Spell, Leadership, and Sacred Geometry. The reworks section will be larger and cover quite a few things, such as fixing the ambiguous interactions with Synthesist Summoner and it's own class features, un-nerfing Scarred Witch Doctor, and in general either fixing broken rules interactions or buffing unnecessarily weak material. I was going to include this entire list, but it's not ready yet. I will not post it until it is a comprehensive list.

Tier-Exclusive Character Creation Rules

Level- Novice: 8, Journeyman: 12, Adept: 16, Master: 20

Gold and Treasure: Novice: 28,250 GP, Journeyman: 95,000 GP, Adept: 277,500 GP, Master: 782,500 GP

FAQS

"What sort of progression is there for Master-tier characters since they are already level 20? What can actually challenge them?"
Master-tier characters will gain mythic ranks as they adventure rather than the usual levels gained by other PCs. Unlike normal Mythic Ranks, these continue your BAB, FORT, REF, WILL, Skill Points, and HD progressions from your gestalt. In addition, the acquisition of loot has always been one of the prime ways a character advances in power in basic Pathfinder games. Despite players being maximum level in the Master-tier, they are not the most powerful beings in the multiverse. I have access to books upon books of high level creatures, mythic material (like the entire Mythic Monsters line with it's godlike Mythic Solar, Fenris the Devourer, and other creatures...), and know how to stack levels and templates with the best of them. I playtest my encounters and that helps me tailor encounters to provide challenge without being a TPK lurking just around the corner.

"Why are you allowing monster PCs with such heavy restrictions?"
I am allowing monster PCs because I remember the glory days of Planescape. Some PCs played as Modron Paladins trotting along wearing helmets on top of their cube-like bodies and it was unique things like that which stick out in my memory as a feature of Planescape. As for why I am banning creatures with certain abilities, it's because this is a society-type game and some monster abilities or qualities do not mesh well with that.

I have the first two 'tier' rules reconstructed. It shouldn't be but a day or two before all the tweaks are in place. When that happens, I will post and you all can work on dissecting the rules, coming up with questions, and working on a character while I work on the big part of the Planeswalker Society: PC and GM guidelines, the factions within the PWS, information on each major lodge, details on the nine leaders of the PWS, and all that jazz.

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Sounds like an interesting concept for a game, one I would like to know more about. One question, will the game(s) actually take place here on the boards, or over on Discord?

My games would take place on Paizo. That said, as long as people are abiding by the guidelines, I don't see a problems with GMs having games elsewhere.

The Discord will just be there to give people a quick line to me or other GMs for the game in case they have any questions about anything that needs a quick answer, give another venue for people to recruit or put themselves up for recruitment, and things like that.

A friend of mine has made the suggestion that I go ahead and, once I finish rebuilding the character creation rules, post those for people to browse over to get their cogs turning. I will do that so that people can be kept busy while I go about rebuilding GM and PC guidelines, the Planeswalker Society fluff, and the adventure I built for my first PWS scenario.

I will set up a Discord channel before too much longer so that people will more or less have a direct line of contact with me. I will create a general chat, a rules chat, a fluff chat, a non sequitur chat, and two recruitment chats, one for GMs to post in and another for PCs post in to note that their character is available for use.

Sound like a plan?

Any more interest? Just wanting to gauge how much interest is left.

Looks like there is still interest! This is great news indeed.

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I'd still be interested! And that's terrible to hear about your old computer. :( Was your hard drive damaged? You might be able to find someone technologically savvy enough to salvage your files from it if your old computer's hard drive is still intact.

The files are completely gone. The motherboard and hard drive both more or less melted, as they were covered in scorch marks and were warped. I dusted out my PC regularly and always turned it off when I got done using it, so it flabbergasted both myself and the techie that I talked to how it managed to heat up that much, especially since both fans seemed operational.

I still have the old tower if you are curious as to the extent of the damage, since I was considering reusing the frame for a custom PC before deciding to just buy a prefab to save money and so I could insure it.

I am still interested!

And some of those other options sounds fun too - but you really should run what you are passionate about. Something you can see yourself enjoying for quite some time. Players can usually be found for almost anything :-)

I'd recommend that you upload your self made stuff to one (or more!) web based storages available. Text or even pictures are pretty small compared to youtube visits anyhow and this way it's much harder to lose!

OneDrive might be included on your computer already and both Google drive and drop box are free options suitable to save notes on. If you put it on all three then the chance if all their servers exploding at the same time is pretty slim.

Sound advice. I will probably store my stuff on Google Drive since I already have a Gmail account.

I'm still definitely interested! If you're still down to run or at least start the Planeswalker Society I'd be happy to play and run on occasion. Having just gotten gestalt for Hero Lab I'm definitely ready to go whenever you are. Glad a promising game is coming back!

Wait, Hero Lab has gestalt now? I don't use Hero Lab, but I know several people who do.

I am back and I just wanted to give everyone an update. As of July 26 of this year, my gaming desktop that I had all my Steam games and my tabletop RPG material on, including my Planeswalker Society files I labored for hours on, died on me. Given how Paizo did not really work on my ancient phone's internet browser, I was left unable to update you in my personal time. Pair that with the fact that most of my friends and family have vastly different schedules from me and hopefully you see why I went radio silent in this thread.

In the intervening months, I have been saving up money to buy a new computer and, as of about a month ago, have purchased a new gaming PC. I have been trying to determine whether or not to run this game the last few weeks and would like to ask if people are still interested in the basic concept?

I understand if the hype is lost after around four months of waiting and will not begrudge anyone who is no longer interested in this game. I lurked on this forum enough to know the level of abject disappointment when a promising game dies because a GM vanishes. I was actually saddened several times when threads I looked on for months just poofed for no reason, particularly when the games had novel concepts or compelling mechanics.

At the same time, the idea was one that I poured dozens of hours of love and care into and I hate to see it be discarded because of a hardware malfunction. I am willing to sink hours of my time into recreating the concept of the game because the idea was so dear to me. It wasn't just going to be another game run between potential friends, it was going to be a community that grew friendships and an ever-evolving world that your characters could truly live in.

I have taken several steps to prevent such a scenario from happening again. For one, I bought a pre-fabricated gaming PC and took out a three-year insurance policy on it so I would not have to be without a PC while I desperately scrounge up money to get a passable replacement. For another, I bought the largest commercial flashdrive that Sandisk puts out in commercial stores and have begun using to store all of my tabletop RPG material in, both to prevent homebrew content from vanishing and so I do not have to spend over 100 GB of my limited monthly data redownloading all of my third-party publisher PDFs from DTRPG again in the event of another computer dying. And, lastly, I plan on printing off homebrew content and campaign material once it nears completion so that I have a hard-copy in case the unthinkable happens and the flashdrive somehow dies.

Are people still ready and willing to play in, or join as another GM for, this game? While I would love for people to be, if they aren't, I have about a dozen ideas I jotted down over the past few months that I have yet to run for my home group I recently acquired, including:

- A Pathfinder SAO/Overlord-style isekai game where PCs are trapped in an MMO world and become their avatars.

- A Pathfinder monster game that has PCs be part of a Droaam/Tomb of Nazzerick-style nation of monsters who do monster-like things.

- Two Pathfinder variations of a magical girl game. The first plays the trope more or less straight with Sailor Moon level antics. I have considered setting it in Golarion and having each one be named after a planet in Golarion's system, gaining unique powers based on the planet they are blessed by, such as Sailor Aballon becoming more machine-like and gaining a laser blast. The other idea is one that puts a twist on normal magical girl tropes and has PCs play as dark magical girls who can turn into fiends. These dark magical girls work with their creator, the Queen of the Dark Moon, to usher in an age of tyranny in a homebrew world.

- A Starfinder game inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion and it's Rebuild set in a Not-Earth. Traumatized teen pilots and severe mech body horror optional.

- A Pathfinder My Hero Academia/X-Men First Class-esque game where PCs are exceptional young mutants raised in a privately funded school, with PC superpowers being represented by the Spheres system.

- A Pathfinder all-ninja gestalt or tristalt game that mashes up the Jade Regent and War for the Crown APs, gives players Ki-fueled Path of War maneuvers and free stances, and adds a lot of intrigue... plus clan wars. If you are a GM who has ran both of these, you would still be welcome in the campaign since it will be fundamentally different from either component AP.

- A pentastalt game, which a friend of mine pointed out to me has actually existed at some point. The specifics are not even being considered yet, but the idea is one that makes me wonder how far I could push the narrative into cosmic levels and how insane I could build antagonists.

- A game where PCs are all Sephiroth-esque lab-grown soldiers for a powerful nation who can take on the form of monsters and later turn on their amoral creators in favor of the people who treat them like actual human beings, as opposed to tools and puppets. I am not too ashamed to admit I got the idea from a friend who was considering picking up a similar request from the forums, but never decided to make an account and do so.

All GMs of the Planeswalker Society who wish to post a Planeswalker Society game must post the advertisement, or a link to said advertisement, here. This will help the PWS players see your ad easier due to notifications.

All players who are accepted, please dot here for your character's official acceptance into the Planeswalker Society. Only those who are cleared and have dotted are eligible to be picked up by prospective GMs. I will be personally checking each person who dots here to ensure they have been cleared so that there is no issue further down the line.

If you have not been cleared and post here, you will be unchecked as a player and politely reminded of the rules. You will be allowed to attempt to get cleared after this warning because I understand people can make mistakes. If you post here again without being cleared, however, I will mark you as being banned. This isn't because I am being mean but, since this is going to be an organized play of sorts, I do expect people to read the rules and follow the very small amount of procedures we have.

I found someone who may be willing to run this! It's not quite 'redeem-ons' in terms of theme, but it will allow PCs to play as Eidolons. Here are some of the big bullet point concepts that were thrown around in the discussion. Let me know whether to give the green light for the prospective GM to post or not, as he doesn't check Paizo much, but is on the Pathfinder Reddit Discord a lot.

Artificial Eidolons: The PCs are not full-on outsiders. They are, instead, mortal beings who either volunteered or were forced into undergoing a super soldier program akin to SOLDIER from FF7.

All PCs have their Eidolon Form and their original form, effectively being able to switch as per Alternate Form. PCs will obviously have the (Native) subtype instead of (Extraplanar). If a PC is knocked to 0 HP or less while in Eidolon Form, they revert back to their mortal form and cannot assume their Eidolon form until they gain 8 hours rest.

I am not 100% certain if this will be implemented, but it was suggested that Evolution lists from both regular and Unchained versions of Eidolons will be smashed together, with conflicting point costs being ruled on a case-by-case basis.

Setting: Magitech setting akin to classic JRPG games such as Playstation One-era Final Fantasy. There will apparently even be enough tech level where vehicles are a thing, as one of the things discussed was PCs being dropped off in some areas by a helicopter. The world was described as "What would happen if you took a typical fantasy world and and had a realistic timeline for technological and societal development."

There was also apparently a war with dragons in the ancient past and some areas in the setting are still tainted by the dragons undying souls, becoming 'dragonblighted'. The few dragons still alive in the setting hide in the wild places of the world, with many having devolved into Linnorms. What's even more intriguing is that some of the most powerful dragons, lost in powerful emotions at the time of their death, can form new bodies out of raw elemental power, becoming Wrack Dragons. As a Scarred Lands fan, I know of those dragons in question and rather like that concept.

Last but not least, instead of nuclear energy being used in the setting, mana drawn straight from leylines is the replacement. Interestingly enough, it was also mentioned that said mana was used in the super soldier program and that agents now require periodic 'submersions' into raw mana in order to keep their minds and bodies functional.

The Campaign: I was not told much about this, but I was told that it would begin as a pretty typical 'soldier campaign' and end up going off the the rails into JRPG, 'let's save the world from the BBEG' territory. The only thing discussed was the first mission featuring a 'meet'n'greet prologue' before having PCs deploy. I know that the GM doesn't want the game to just be endless combat and wants some deep plot development, both on his and the PCs ends.

The recruitment is about two days away from being posted.

My family's trip to the (almost) local casino was a bust from a financial point, but it was a pretty fun day. Just letting everyone know that I am currently back home and will resume work on this endeavor shortly.

Progress Report
- Lore is nearly complete. Decided to rebuild two factions I had planned and add some intrigue between a few of them. I have a general timeline for the Planeswalker Society's history.

- Mechanics are complete. Reworked some rules, fixed general progression, and added in 'starting packages' for those unaccustomed to planar games. Also decided to create a few pregens for those new to planar action and high-level adventuring, but not new to Pathfinder in general, who have no idea where to start building a character. Added in some 'boons' that PCs can acquire from the Society with 'Prestige', which is gained through completing adventures.

- My starter adventures are now complete. If people want a general synopsis of the adventures, I can offer some short descriptions later.

Disclaimer
I am going on a 'vacation' of sorts with my family today, so I will not be working on the campaign until I get back this evening.

Progress Report

- Lore is nearly complete.

- Most mechanical portions (i.e. point buys, et cetera) are complete.

- My selection of five 'starter adventures' for people to pick from for my personal games are almost polished to a shine.

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*AWESOME*!! super, hella excited!!

Question, would be able to put forth multiple characters to play in different games/adventures?

Yes. It should go without saying that only one character of yours can be added to any given adventure/scenario, but you can have any number of characters active throughout multiple threads.

Hi, Ubo. If you have bee lurking in Yasss Queen's 'Welcome to the Other Side' campaign, you are familiar with my character, Zaidel Michigan! I would be interested playing in anything inspired by that wonderful campaign! So, if you would allow it, I'd like to play a godling class from Rogue Genius Games. He would be similar to Zaidel, but a godling of Pharasma in the vain of James L. Sutter's Salim Ghadafar, productive member of the Planewalker's Society along with whatever errands his mother would want.

Ah yes, the John Carter of Godlings, right? I quite liked his attitude during the game. Godlings are allowed but, in Basrakal, you're likely to get some hard stares if you are known to have divine blood. It's just a setting element and one that I am not going to push super hard.

I have a few ideas knocking around, but Kaelmourn Vexidyre comes to mind as a mercenary. An 8th level drow antipaladin (VMC Cavalier). I can work out how he'd look as a gestalt. Perhaps oracle to represent his devout (if twisted) nature or cavalier to further cover charismatic martial aspects. Feel free to comment on his suitability or helpful changes that I could make.

Variant Multiclassing is not allowed, since it is really gestalt-lite and we're playing gestalt as-is.

Nitpick here. Basrakal is -one- stable point in the Maelstrom. Galisemni is another paradoxically stable point, and quite a bit larger and metropolitan. Depends on what features you're looking for in a city in the Maelstrom.

Well, well, we have Todd Stewart himself showing up here! That's definitely an honor.

I know that the Maelstrom has several stable points, some of which are larger and/or more metropolitan. However, Basrakal is more of a fit. It's stability is unnatural, influenced by several powerful forces, rather than the chaos of the Maelstrom 'folding into itself' to create stable anomalies. That, the city's generally lax view of everything apart from the 'big three', and it's diverse, quirky inhabitants are what influenced me selecting it, since it reminds me of the strangeness that old-school Planescape possessed.

I do see how my wording was misleading, however. If I could edit my reply, I would make the change to better reflect the reality of the setting.

YES.

Glad to see the enthusiasm!

I have officially decided to run this game, so expect the recruitment thread for the Planeswalker Society in a few days!

The PWS thread will be the hub for people to find information about the setting and character creation rules, a place to post characters to be cleared, and general guidelines for GMs regarding adventure building and GMing.

The 'gameplay' section of the upcoming thread will be for people to dot so they can keep track of any new games being set up. Accepted characters will be allowed to post here so that they show up as 'characters' in the campaign, thereby showing GMs that they are greenlit and ready to be placed in a game of the appropriate tier.

The 'discussion' section will be where GMs can post links to their PWS adventures. After I complete this massive mega-thread, I will be posting a few options for people to choose from, including a max-tier adventure in the City of Brass that gets PCs entangled in Efreeti politics and will see them journey to a lost city in search of a cure for a cursed princess.

The 'recruitment' section is where people will be placing their completed characters to be looked over by myself and/or other GMs. If accepted, players will be allowed to post their alias in the 'gameplay' section to be counted as an official player.

I got through about half of the lodges and realized what time it is. I am saving those in Word and will post them later today. With around thirty lodges having a description around a paragraph each, it's only natural that it takes some time to type!

Basrakal is the one stable part of the maelstrom, made so by an ancient kami, the former herald of Acavna, a dissonant protean who wants to stabilize the Maelstrom, and several outsiders who volunteer to serve as 'keystones' to stabilize the city of Basrakal and the islands surrounding it. The city is one of functional anarchy, with only three laws and no government.

In this city, one's past doesn't matter and few are willing to judge others. Basrakal is mostly populated by outsiders who run or challenge the roles they were given. In this city, the sight of drunken archon beggars lining the streets, pacifistic devil scholars of chaos and good studying in orderly scriptorums, oni chefs cooking grand meals, and psychopomp and sakhils performing alien theatrical and musical plays are all daily occurrences.

For all the dichotomy and disparity one can find in Basrakal, the city is surprisingly peaceful for a planar metropolis, as the outcasts all seem to have banded together against a multiverse that sought to constrain them in pre-existing roles. It was this very mindset that endeared it to many of the Founders and influenced them to build the First Lodge here.

That is actually a cool idea. I can't GM, since I am working on a huge planar game with multiple GMs and playgroups, but I would definitely be cool with joining such a game if someone steps forward to run it.

I thought of some additional questions that I suspect that people will ask, so I have made another FAQ section. We're off to a promising start, with another potential GM and a few potential players having posted, so let's keep this interest ball rolling!

Am I correct in understanding this is for, at minimum, 8th level, gestalt characters?

That's the current plan. If there is an outcry for lower level adventuring, I might add in a fifth tier of play for level 4 gestalt players. From my years watching other campaigns though, I don't believe many people will turn down the opportunity to play something eighth level or higher.

If other GMs would like to run a non-gestalt game, they are free to do so in the shared world. They need to be aware, however, that I myself will only run gestalt and so there may be conflicts if PCs from a non-gestalt game want to play with me or another gestalt GM. We could probably 'upgrade' them, but it's a potential player base split and the idea was for a unified play experience.

Good morning Paizo! My name is Ubo the Talker and I have lurked for years here. I have observed many inspirational games during that time, ranging from "oldies but goodies" like 'The Avalon Chronicles' to promising new games like Yasss Queen's 'Welcome to the Other Side!' game. Of course, Paizo is not the only website I lurk on for inspiration. I have also lurked on Giantitp, Myth-Weavers, and Obsidian Portal. After seeing so many Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society games open on here and elsewhere, I asked myself: Ubo, you know what these types of things need? PLANES! No, not the kind you fly... planes of existence. I had one of those aha moments that you see advertised on TV all the time and here we are a few days down the thought train.

Thanks for the assist!

I was about to create an interest check, but realized that I had no idea where to post it. Would recruitment be a good place to put it? It makes the most sense.

Giving you kudos for this guide as well, Painlord! Again, many thanks for the beaucoup of useful information.

Just checking in to give props to Painlord for the awesome thread! This guide, along with Doomed Hero's guide, answered quite a few questions I had before I joined and helped sooth some PBP GM noob nerves.

Awesome guide, Doomed Hero!

Might I intrude on you if I have any specific questions that crop up as I make my first campaign? The game is still in the early stages of being formed, but I'm planning on opening up thread to check for interest and get in some initial brainstorming.