Hi all, I've just heard from Sarah and she's back in hospital (complications from her accident last year). She should be fine but they've been keeping her in for observation to make sure she recovers. I'm not sure when she'll be back to posting.
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Damn, that is one hell of an intro. Appetite duly whetted. It looks like you've basically merged Gaedren Lamm with Devargo Barsi? Nice move, there were slightly too many 'secondary' villains in the module anyway. Clever - wish I'd thought of it. @Azih, Karma - hi! I don't think we've met before, so I look forward to gaming with you :) In terms of character build I have two I'm considering: a wizard (evoker specialist) or an eldritch scoundrel (URogue archetype). Either way, I'm planning for her to be an addict; if that creates issues/triggers for anyone please let me know and I will rethink. @GM Bellicose Poultry (nice wordplay, btw), I take it archetypes are permitted?
I'm not going to argue with folks any longer but you really should stop pretending that everyone feels the same way or believes what you do. I would put good money on the fact that the trans members of this community are all too aware that they are in a minority and that not everyone is in their corner. I'm not sure precisely what you gain from pointing this out, beyond reinforcing which side of the line you stand. (Also, for the record: what you were doing here wasn't "arguing" - that presupposes a measure of good-faith engagement with what other people are saying. I see no evidence of that from your posts in this thread.)
How much "middle management" do you think a company the size of Paizo has? They're a very small company, and there have been times where Lisa helped in the warehouse because they're so small. So yes, I fully believe the executive team would be involved in these decisions. I agree with this; and even if we accept - for the sake of argument - that this was all about the unsanctioned acts of some minor scapegoat/flunky, that still doesn't let the senior management off the hook. Either they didn't know about it when they should, or they did know about it and did nothing. Neither of these is acceptable. Paizo doesn't get out of this by shouting "do it to Julia! Do it to Julia!"
While these are good things, I hope that someone at the senior level at Paizo understands that the next statement has to have some context around this. You don't get to have a policy that specifically targets trans employees and then say "no it's ok, we changed it, everything is fine now." I would also add that there's the outstanding issue of misuse of Paizo customer data. I would like to see something about that in the next statement. At the moment, Paizo are doing a really, really good job of telling me they don't want my money any more.
So you don't want answers from people who actually know things, you just want to complain. Fine, I'm done trying to help educate people about what really went down. *Willy Wonka 'wait stop come back'.gif*
I'm so sick of this. Our trans friends do not owe anyone an explanation, about anything. They shouldn't have to keep "justifying" themselves. Moderators: I know you're low on numbers following SM's firing and Diego resigning in protest; and you're probably low on morale because of all the dust kicked up following said firing/departure; but it's not acceptable for all these losers to keep smearing their transphobia across this forum. "But I was just asking a que-" No. You weren't. And even if you were, you are not entitled to an answer.
I'm personally quite glad that Paizo have delayed their response. It has allowed time for the transphobia shown towards Crystal to be revealed; and I only found out about the doxxing a few days ago. I suspect that most of the community is still unaware of that; if it was more widely known that their personal data might occasionally be used against them by senior management whenever the mood took them, there might be a certain amount of outrage. Possibly even profanity.
The legality point is a complete red herring. I suspect (US laws being what they are) that the transphobia shown to Crystal was completely legal; it's also utterly unacceptable. Likewise, the doxxing of community members by senior management is utterly unacceptable, regardless of whether it was legal or not. And honestly, any time you find yourself tempted to write that "the victims should/shouldn't do x" then please, please don't. It's almost never going to be helpful. (FWIW I'm really sorry to hear that you were doxxed. It's not something I would ever wish on anyone and I'm sorry that you weren't able to get a remedy for it.)
Especially when those endeavoring to put LGBT+ and PoC rep into the books are not the person being accused of the transphobia, but in fact the ones targeted by it. I think this is the worst of it. It's bad enough that individuals on this forum are being targeted and made to feel unsafe by losers who post transphobic remarks before eventually being squelched. But there's a particular kind of horror to discovering that, all along, at least some of the calls might have been coming from inside the house. (anyway, I've posted a LOT in the last few days so this introvert is going to go back to lurking. But sometimes silence can look like complicity and I refuse to be complicit.)
While I agree with this, I will happily state for the record that if anyone from Paizo posted my personal information onto this forum I would want that person fired; and I don't care if they're the CEO or the janitor.
This is a great thread and I am grateful to the OP for setting it up! I'd like to add to what others have said in their appreciation for Mark S and others: when the PF2 playtest was being conducted I had, um, opinions on a wide variety of topics and while - to the best of my recollection - I never veered into the personal, I am sure that the dissection of ideas and concepts that they had poured heart and soul into creating probably felt personal on occasion. So I'm grateful to Mark and Jason and all the others not only for not putting my head on a spike as custom and tradition demand, but also for continually engaging in the discussions, explaining where you were coming from and what changes you were making, and coming back for more.
One year is pretty much the standard in every country I've ever lived in. I love her story, it's a great antidote to the "normal people don't become adventurers" cliche. And Wayne Reynolds' art remains as fabulous as ever. I know that Paizo has accumulated a fabulous "stable" of deeply talented artists (and writers, natch) but for me WAR is the Iconic Pathfinder artist :)
Hi all, just to let you know that Sarah (Aisling) has been in hospital: it's not Covid, she had an accident (I've got her permission to tell you this, btw). She's OK but I don't know when she'll post again - she's struggling with pain management and other dull RL things.
Hi all, just to let you know that Sarah (Annelise) has been in hospital: it's not Covid, she had an accident (I've got her permission to tell you this, btw). She's OK but I don't know when she'll post again - she's struggling with pain management and other dull RL things.
Hi all, just to let you know that Sarah (Mara) has been in hospital: it's not Covid, she had an accident (I've got her permission to tell you this, btw). She's OK but I don't know when she'll post again - she's struggling with pain management and other dull RL things.
What interests me most about characters (and people in general) are contradictions and understanding the source of them. And I need established traits to build those off of. That makes perfect sense to me, thank you for your exposition. It's helpful to read about someone's formal writing process - in general I would regard myself as reasonably well-educated, but schooling in my country means (or meant, it may have changed in the last *cough* years) that you do science or arts, and you essentially make that choice at 16... All reading and writing I've done since then has been unstudied. Novel: I love that idea for a story! I'm a sucker for re-telling of the old mythologies. Oddly enough I was re-reading Til We Have Faces the other day - the pandemic seems to have regressed my reading back to the things I read when I was younger. Are there any particular authors you regard as inspiration?
Hey, Itzi! Happy to do drama and/or romance with you, if you like. I'll try and create a more cheery/less angsty character than my previous :) @Hrothdane - that sounds like a very disciplined and focused approach! I like the idea of being the director of my character, but I do find that my characters don't really like being directed: I can occasionally be found metaphorically rubbing my eyes as I reread what I/they have just posted. Do you find that your characters surprise you? Or does being the director mean that you tend to know what they will do in advance? (If you'd like to say more about your novel, I'm definitely open to hearing more, although I know that some writers prefer not to talk about work in progress until it's more completed) @Sarah - that was some great literary-referenceapalooza posting. I totally read his speech in Badger's voice! :)
Hi everyone! Looking forward to gaming with you all, especially people I haven't met before :) A minor correction before I dive in any further. In the tabletop game I was in, I played a Whisper who ended up becomeing The Dreaded in close combat. Actually, she was The Dreaded full stop. It's the only time I as a GM have been just a little bit scared of one of my PCs... I am planning to play a Lurk, but I'm fairly relaxed about what our crew is. I think Assassins and Bravos have some nice special abilities, but there doesn't tend to be that much variety in playing them. Shadows can do a bit of everything, Hawkers have the social option, and cults are probably a bit too grimdark for my taste. Not that Doskvol is a happy place exactly, but the game is generally fun to play - and I don't know how much fun a cult would be to play out.
Feel free to disregard anything I say here that's not helpful, but one thing I think is a critical difference between D&D/PF and BitD is the concept of "you play to find out." In PF, especially on this forum, for a recruitment to be taken seriously you need to have a really good handle on your character, who they are, and what their background is. In BitD, you can literally create stuff as you need it - we used to call it "Schrödinger's RPG" because until you've established something in the narrative, all options are open (yes, our group was entirely scientists, why do you ask?). A couple of examples of what I mean by that: As Sarah said above, the Hound starts the game with a fine hunting rifle and a permit. Because it's bulky and quite loud, it was 3 or 4 sessions into the game before he finally got to use it. At which point, he decided that it had been his brother's, who had served in an elite military regiment that had been almost wiped out in the war, and that he wore his brother's old uniform jacket that was really distinctive. At which point, the uniform, the regiment and even the brother not only existed but had always existed in the game, despite not being mentioned before. A few sessions later, he was tangling with a demon and I gave him the option of getting away, with the complication that - in addition to his injuries - his uniform jacket was utterly shredded and ruined beyond repair. Because of the previous characterisation, this became really meaningful and the crew then spent another session trying to find a replacement jacket for him and ended up having to steal one from a collector. (You obviously could make all of that up during character creation, but given that it was several sessions into play before the rifle even got used, that's a lot of work to do in advance.) Perhaps a more meaningful example in-game was when the group was doing a rooftop infiltration that went horribly wrong from the start. The first three players rolled appallingly badly and they ended up in a haunted attic where the family had stored all of their heirlooms that were no longer useful and leaked bad magic everywhere. At which point, the fourth player, who hadn't yet got involved, said "As soon as I hear the sounds of the distraction in the attic, I quietly break in through the second story window." Which completely changed the narrative: now, the group was deliberately being noisy in the attic - they were trying to draw the guards away, and that had been the plan all along. Up until that point, we'd all assumed that the group would break in together, but because he hadn't had his turn yet, he was free to place himself anywhere he liked in-game. Of course, having done that, he wasn't able to assist the rest of the group and he had to go it alone. (That is a lot more than I intended to write! But I hope some of it is helpful to anyone who hasn't played the game before.)
Hi Sarah - sorry for delay in letting you know this, but Alexi has a bad case of writer's block and I'm looking more towards Starfinder at this point. Maybe wrap this one up? I appreciate you offering to run it and I hope you learned a bit about DM-ing :)
Alright, I'm officially calling this game. Morwen, if you want to set up a character for Illyria's Mirkwood campaign that would be great as it would let us keep that game going. My plan for January is to get more active on these boards again. I will be running the Starfinder AP "Fly Free or Die" which is basically Firefly under a different name. If either of you are interested, you get a starting slot so let me know. I will put more details up in due course. Have a great New Year's Eve, and may 2021 bring better things for all of us!
Yes, didn't we have a kineticist at some point? He would have been useful, but yeah a full-on Evoker would have been handy. But then, everything's better with wizards, as long as they don't get cocky about it... Agree on 2WF. I think what keeps them humble is that it only works as a full-round action: did you move to attack? Did you opponent move more than a 5 ft step away? No 2WF for you this round! Or, as a certain president might have said, It's the [action] economy, stupid!
Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.
I agree with Therenger, your concept of Radagast is the best I've encountered. @Atlas - hello again, small world! Morvius here from DMDM's ill fated Fingerprints of the Fiend adventure :)
Sorry for delay in putting my concept together, I will have it sorted by tomorrow - or at least a first draft thereof. Faem, good to see you again (Finraeth here) - alas, poor Veig! We knew him not ;)
*kicks self* Fool of a Wastrel,
Stealing this!
I haven't posted because I don't have much yet. I have a concept of a Barding who's tied to the Woodland realm through his mother, who was a Woodperson. For reasons, she left and settled in Laketown, where my character was born. He grew up there and then in Dale once it was built (he may have helped with that in some way). He's recently decided to go and find his roots (pun most definitely NOT intended) and is either at, or on his way to, Rhosgobel to see if anyone has any records of his mother's family. That is literally as far as I've got. I may end up being That Guy who waits to see what everyone else is doing before deciding on a class. Of course, that only works if everyone else has a build in mind!
Wow. Even though I know what happens next, and have done for years, the story still manages to maintain its suspense. Quality storytelling! EDIT: should add, amazing artwork as well.
The situation sucks. I'm fine, but I know plenty of people who aren't. 100% this. Patients are dying because there aren't enough ventilators; healthcare workers are dying because there's not enough personal protective equipment. People who aren't sick are suddenly unemployed and wondering how the hell they're going to pay their mortgage, their rent, their food bills. Our resident troll (or perhaps I should say one of our resident trolls, for we are blessed with several) deciding that the real "not cool" problem here is people not buying pdf's is a stunningly bad hot take. Social distancing does NOT mean "alienate everyone around you by displaying a breathtaking lack of empathy."
Thanks for the update and best wishes to everyone at Paizo (and to all the gamers reading this, wherever you may be)! It's weird to see what windmills people will choose to tilt at in times like this, isn't it? Probably a displacement activity.
In the immortal - and possibly apocryphal - words of C.S. "Jack" Lewis: "not another f**king elf, Tolkien!" Going with an Elf wanderer (maaaybe a scholar) with the Emissary background. Most likely a Mirkwood elf, but am considering a Rivendell elf who is travelling East of the Misty Mountains - if DMDM will permit that. Mirkwood elf probably makes more sense but am still playing around with ideas.
Ah, understood! Will get to it.
Dotting in! Can you say anything about what characters the existing players are planning to run with? If you have a surplus of Beorning slayers or Woodmen scholars that would be useful information.
Ooh, will have to watch that (if only to see where I've got it wrong :/) Ok, the wait is over. Firstly, an apology: I wasn't able to take everyone. Only world-class DMs like Tolkien can run a party of that size. That said, this was NOT easy. My selection is as follows: (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
Please dot into gameplay and post in the discussion thread at your convenience. Thanks everyone.
Nearly there - just mulling over some final things before I announce the decision.
COMPLETED SUBMISSIONS (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
RECRUITMENT IS CLOSED Thank you all for your high-quality submissions, this is not going to be an easy decision!
COMPLETED SUBMISSIONS (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS (thejeff): unknown
RECRUITMENT WILL CLOSE TODAY. I WILL TRY AND MAKE DECISIONS ON SATURDAY
@gyrfalcon - looks good. I'm happy for you to have Radagast in your background; he doesn't appear too much in the Wilderland campaign so the fact that your character starts out knowing him isn't an issue. I agree that Lure of the Road (or more likely in this case Lure of the Trackless Path Through the Forest) is a more appropriate background than Loyal Servant. @Elbow - understood, but I will be closing recruitment today regardless. I have over a dozen completed submissions to go through already, and only four slots.
A Neutral deity has a curse that's really nasty, not nice, not cool, hurts feelings, aw aw aw. What did you people expect, "no ice cream except for weekends"? Dammit, now I just spent like 10 minutes thinking about which of the established Golarion deities might have that "no ice cream except for weekends" as their curse...
COMPLETED SUBMISSIONS (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS (thejeff): unknown
RECRUITMENT WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY. I WILL TRY AND MAKE DECISIONS ON SATURDAY
To be fair, there are only like... Six or so names suggested for female Dúnedain.You think that's bad? There are more suggested names for horses of Rohan than there are for female Riders of Rohan. Had not noticed that. That is... well, it's partly hilarious and partly really sad. @EverAnon - another high-quality submission! This is getting silly now. It's obviously early on in the chargen process, but do you have any thoughts on "discovery" (for want of a better term)? Is it something you want to happen? Something you're not interested in exploring? Or no preference? And to answer your questions, yes you can swap the two proficiencies around - but you'll feel pretty silly if you run into a locked door at 1st or 2nd level :P @Black Dow - I'm mostly selecting on character, to be honest, although I don't actually intend to pick a group consisting entirely of scholars. I'm not going to say you can't change your choice, but if I do it sort of opens the door for everyone. Let me think about it before I give you a final answer. @Sarah - good submission. I especially like the way you tied the weather-sense ability into her backstory to explain it. I'm generally NOT in favour of 1st-level characters taking honorifics or titles (you're 1st level, after all) but in this case I see that you took the King's Guard Cultural Virtue so it's probably OK. In the case of Horses v Mirkwood, I find for the plaintiff for now. In the aftermath of the Battle of Five Armies, the Shadow has temporarily retreated and the Elf-king has greater control of the forest: the Elf-paths are currently wide enough to allow travel by horse. (For now. In the not-too-distant future, this will change.) But on no account will Horsie leave the path - not that you should, either. And yes, you can "swap out" any redundant proficiency, but it must be replaced with something reasonably equivalent - in this case, ideally another Wisdom-based skill that someone with the Lure of the Road background would have. Please don't push your luck and take something completely unrelated, like Riddle or Sleight of Hand.
@Timeskeeper - agreed, I don't see anyone trying to redo them for a good long while (and when/if they do, I suspect they'll go the Netflix/streaming route and do it in 1-hour episodes). If they wait long enough, maybe Sean Bean could be cast as Gandalf ("Yes, Sean, your character dies - again - but this time he gets better")! @Spazmodeus - true, but your character's foresight ability gives you more of a handwave since it lets them know stuff the other characters wouldn't have access to, so it's a very minor edit :-)
Thanks for the summary of dates (I love that you provide not just the month but the precise date for the Battle of Five Armies!), I do what I can but I occasionally lose track :-) Our game starts in 2946, so Aragorn is 15 at the time. Given that each adventuring phase takes a year it's entirely possible that we'll get to his coming of age (the Mirkwood campaign spans 30 years, or as the Elves call it, a "short nap"). And yeah, the thing that really dates LOTR is the shortage of female protagonists. I think Jackson did a good job on expanding both Arwen and Eowyn's roles in the films, so they're more than just ciphers - it almost (almost) makes up for his mangling of Faramir's characterisation, a deed that still makes me quietly wrathful whenever I think about it.
COMPLETED SUBMISSIONS (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
(I'm assuming the similarity of the names is just one of those weird coincidences) INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS (thejeff): unknown
So many good submissions, many rich with Tolkien lore. Wastrel, I don't envy you the task of winnowing them down! Tell me about it! @Spazmodeus - looks good. You need to pick a starting Virtue I think as I didn't see one listed. @Trscroggs - also looks good. @Timeskeeper - interesting background, although at the time this is set, Aragorn has only just been born (I think) and doesn't even know who he is - it's only when he comes of age that Elrond tells him of his true identity. You might need to rejig that section slightly. Also, although your mighty oath is "doable" that doesn't mean it's achievable, or even that the other PCs will be as interested as you are in fulfilling it. Do you have a plan for what to do if the game doesn't go in that direction? (Also, please don't apologise for dyslexia - I'm glad my glib comments, for which I do apologise, didn't put you off from applying.) @gyrfalcon - looks good so far, I look forward to reading the rest.
Any plan that has, as a crucial component, "I will annoy the god of kung fu to the point that he smites me with the worst curse that he has" might have a flaw. I just can't quite put my finger on it. On other topics: that is - by far - the best portait of Shelyn I have seen to date.
No problem! Always best to ask if you aren't sure :) COMPLETED SUBMISSIONS (Decimus): Harry Kettlegrass, Bree Scholar
INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS (thejeff): unknown
Ha, I could almost make a party entirely consisting of Scholars! Don't think I've missed anyone, but shout out if I have.
@Vrog - I'm selecting based on characters, not on their stats. I don't need to see a character sheet at this stage. And you're definitely starting at 1st level: this is a highly-modified variant of a game system I'm not hugely familiar with. @Helaman - that works, although I think it means it means he was 15 at the Battle of Five Armies (assuming my math is right)?
@Therenger - not a problem! I was vaguely thinking about making a separate alias for this campaign so I could put useful 5e and Middle-Earth links into the profile for future reference (probably something inane like "DM Wandering Loremaster"), so go with the avatar of your choice :-) @Decimus - I'd overlooked that. Good to know. @Timeskeeper - that is a Mighty Oath! It's suitably epic, and it's at least as doable as "we will vanquish the Dragon and reclaim our long-forgotten gold" so go for it. @Everyone - It's been ~48 hours since I opened recruitment and I've had a flood of high-quality applications. I know some of you (Sarah, Black Dow, Timeskeeper, and a few others) haven't yet posted complete applications so I will keep it open for a few more days. I'm currently thinking that Friday will be closing day, but if anyone absolutely needs more time than that please let me know asap.
@Helaman - yes, it's 5 years after the Battle of Five Armies. I like the background, but could do with maybe some description of what he looks like. @Decimus - that works. Also, did you really mean to say he's 4'8" and not 5'8"? That's not much taller than a dwarf... @Therenger - that's all wonderful grist to the roleplay mill, but what I was trying to ask is "what does he look like?"
@Helaman - no problem, recruitment will be open for a while. @Vrog - noted, thanks. @Decimus - looks good! (I didn't need a completed character sheet but I have no objection to it). He's very much not a combatant, is he ^_^ My only real comment is that the Seeker of the Lost background suggests that your character is seeking something in particular - do you have any thoughts on what that might be?
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