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Knowledge (history), DC15:
Ravengro has a storied history as the home of the infamous Harrowstone Prison, constructed in 4594 AR to fill the need for increasing numbers of criminals in the county currently known as Canterwall. Harrowstone was as much of a publicity stunt as it was an earnest attempt at justice, and Ravengro was slowly built up for the sole reason of supporting the prison. For a time, Ravengro and Harrowstone were extremely successful, housing criminals from all across Ustalav, as well as those who had come to witness their sentencing and execution.
Harrowstone's destruction in the fire of 4661 damaged the town's well-being almost beyond repair. All of its prisoners were lost, and the prison was subsequently abandoned, pulling the reputation of the area down with it. Now, Ravengro is a modest village with a reasonably booming economy, but the memory of the fire and its citizens' fearful attitude toward outsiders has proven to be one of its greatest obstacles.
Check Gameplay for results of Knowledge (history) check, Dmitri. All checks and rolls will be resolved in the Gameplay tab.
I decided to make the call for max gold at 1st level. I didn't think it would change the game experience too much, apart from giving you all a bit more comfort as far as adventuring gear goes.
Gameplay and Discussion threads have been started. Finalize your characters according to the rules in the Campaign Info tab, and then introduce your characters. Let's get this show on the road!
Professor Petros Lorrimor was many things - educator, researcher, father, friend. Now, he is dead. The news came without warning and without explanation on a pallid parchment you each received in your travels, inviting you to the village of Ravengro to attend the professor's funeral. The details were sparse, but they promised that "important matters of estate and property requiring your assistance will be settled after the professor is laid to rest". Whether in honor of a memorable life cut short, out of curiosity of what will become of Lorrimor's legacy and property, or in the hopes of a new adventure to be found deep in the sprawl of Ustalav, the time for you to depart came swiftly. As you go further north, it's as if the life itself is drained from the landscape - colorful foliage and pleasant birdsong gives way to sparse, spindly plants and the mournful wail of the chill wind. The journey to commemorate one life lost gives you a great deal of time to reflect upon your own existence, and the wilds of Ustalav in which you now find yourself seem to mirror the melancholy occasion. Finally, you arrive in Ravengro. A heavy pallor, the shade not only of clouds and trees, hangs over the town. A prickling sensation on your neck draws your gaze to the hulking silhouette of a crumbling stone fixture lurking upon the highest hill, the hint of decrepit buildings and towers breaking the shape of its long-abandoned wall. Something within seems to call to you - then again, you're just psyching yourself out, so you shake off the feeling and continue into town. The funeral is still a few hours away, giving you time to get to grips with your surroundings. Your next endeavor is only just beginning...
First post in the discussion thread. Bear with me while I get everything situated here on the forums.
I'm in favor of max starting gold or average wealth by class. Background skills seem to be pretty well-received, and I think they're a great way to add some crunch to your backstory fluff without changing the game too much.
Your character concept seems like it'll work just fine, and I like the tie-in with books and magical knowledge. It'll be a great lead-in for Book 1.
@ Jesper - I just found all my old notes for Book 1 floating around, so I've got a reasonable amount of prep work done and can start running as soon as character builds are finished. If it's alright with you, let's plan to have you run Book 4.
@Delmoth - GNOME POWAAAAAAH. @Tamuzi - Background skills basically set all the Craft, Profession, etc. skills aside in their own category that's separate from other skills. In addition to your character's normal allotment of skill ranks, they also gain 2 additional skill ranks just to put into those background skills. You can read the full rules on background skills here. @Cedric Rydell - I apologize for not being able to fit you in. It doesn't have to do with your inability to GM, and I hope you'll keep an eye out for my next PbP campaign sometime soon.
Rather than do a character switcheroo I can just lock in my naturalist Gnome. She's is a life oracle which fills the healing role. Perfect! In that case, I think it's best we proceed with the original group of 6 - I definitely agree with Groundhog's point about 7 being an awkward number to GM, and that will keep the encounters more or less in-line with what's presented in the books. I'm trying to compile a list of finalized details for the campaign so we can get started soon. These are all based on my individual knowledge, so if I'm wrong or something's still up for debate, let me know. Things We Seem To Agree On
Things We Need To Finalize
My votes are for two traits only (taking an easily-subverted drawback for another good trait is one more step on the road to shenanigans), leveling based on the book's suggestions, and reserving a share of the loot gained for the GM PCs since it would be split six ways consistently throughout the campaign. Background skills are something I've never used, but they sound interesting and add flavor, so I'm in favor of using them. I just won't be brokenhearted if we don't. Finally, it would seem that my old notes for Book 1 have up and disappeared. I'm still willing to run it, but that puts Jesper and I on equal footing in terms of preparedness, so if Jesper would rather start out as a player, then I'm happy to take the first GM slot to let you guys enjoy the ride for a while.
I have a cleric that is still interested in playing. @Groundhog There's your cleric if you'd rather stick with your fighter early on. That would, of course, bring the player count up to 7. How does everyone feel about the party size going beyond 6? I agree on 20 points, two traits one from the campaign list. Do we use core races only? I'm personally okay with running races beyond core, though it seems like most of the players have their hearts set on playing humans of one variety or another. I like to do health like this in my groups max at first level and each level players either choose to take half or roll, and they can't roll and choose half after if it's bad. Max at first and half afterward would probably be the easiest to manage. For simplicity's sake, that method has my vote.
I'm basing this off my experience and assuming that we're going off standard 20-point buy. Campaign traits will need to be coordinated, but should be fine; you can select two traits with no drawbacks, or three if you also select a drawback. Hit points will likely need to be decided upon by the group as a whole - I'm not sure if we want max HP, average HP per level, or rolling (I would much rather go with average or max than rolled HP, considering how fickle RNG can be).
So eh, would it be okay if I ran a cleric for the first book, and came back in with my fighter in the third? Cause right now, the party really needs a cleric. That's probably a good move. I'm sure no GM would ever want to exploit that sort of hole in the party comp...
I'm still interested but I don't want to GM. Sounds reasonable to me. Judging from your character concepts, you'd be rounding out the party pretty well. I'm starting prep for Book 1 over the weekend. Based on those who've responded with character concepts most recently, we may just have our group. Please finalize your builds by next Monday, and we'll see about getting this show on the road! Delmoth - Half-orc skald or Gnome "naturalist"
All good info so far. As I said, I'm willing to run Book 1, and I own 1-4. I'm just hoping to put my character through Book 3. Speaking of which, my character is a half-elf Unchained Rogue who will be multiclassing into Weretouched Shifter as his lycanthropic lineage becomes more apparent over the campaign.
Agreed. I'm 150% ready to jump into the playtest, so if we do PbP, I'm in.
Ok, so we are going to be 7 players/GMs, right? Not exactly. As I said earlier, I took my name off the list, so there are 8 players who've expressed interest. Assuming there are a couple who don't keep up with the thread and refresh their interest, we'll likely be down to 6 or so, which (in my mind, at least) would be perfect. Should we create the campaign no the forums already an start talking about who begins GMing and the character creation rules? I'll look into creating a thread later today. For all of you who wish to participate in the GM rotation, please submit a post with your character concept, preferred character creation rules, and any books you're dead-set on/against running. This will help your soon-to-be fellow GMs get a better sense of who they'll be playing and working with. I'm sorry this has been messy and unorthodox, but on the bright side, this campaign isn't just dead in the water, and that's good enough for me. We can all just blame it on my inexperience with PbP.
I think the second option would be better so the GMs don't feel like the work they put into their characters is wasted. Since I'm running Book 1, I was planning on using my PC as more of an informant/rumormonger who eventually takes up arms for the party's cause, leading into Book 2. I'm sure we can shift the PCs into more of a supporting NPC role for whichever book their player will be GMing.
I'd be interested. Especially if I could be the one to GM book 2. That'd be great. I'm personally leaning heavily toward people who've expressed a strong desire to GM or would be willing to try their hand at it in earnest rather than simply hinting that they might do so. To be completely honest, I'm flying by the seat of my pants here, so having some assistance in getting the players/GMs together would be a great first step. Also, I'm assuming that all the GMs (myself included) are hoping to play a character of their own when they're not running the game. Is that a fair assumption? [EDIT] Corrected list of possible GMs and desired books. Since I've already promised to run Book 1 to kick off the campaign, I decided to take my name off the list. Dslak - any past Book 1
I think I can dedicate some time to have two pbp to gm, I was mostly looking for a game to play as I'm down to one both as player and gm. That would help out a lot, and my (very rough) plan right now is personally GMing Book 1 to focus on establishing the feel of the campaign. I think it's really important to get the mood right, particularly for a traditional Gothic Horror story. I know we've had a lot of interest from potential players, so we may need to switch to a recruitment thread that announces our intentions a bit better, e.g. actually including "GM rotation" in the title so people know what they're in for. [Edit] List of individuals who've volunteered to GM one or more books DystopianDream
Please correct me if I left anyone off that list.
Having gotten caught up at work over the past few days, I definitely wasn't expecting to see this much buzz on the thread. On the subject of GM rotation: it's an option, and while it's not one I'm terribly keen on, it does seem to be stuck in people's minds. Given the lack of interest in actually running the game versus simply playing, it's highly likely that I'll have to get the ball rolling by GMing Book 1. If that's the case, I'll also be responsible for sifting through character applications and deciding upon the party composition prior to starting the game, as well as establishing the rotation ahead of time. That's a fair bit of work on its own, and I would hope to be able to rely on people really putting in the effort to make this campaign workable. Assuming no one pipes up over the weekend, it seems the campaign will kick off with me GMing Book 1 (considering much of the prep was done for my last attempt, I'm okay with this approach).
First of all, I'm extremely happy and pleasantly surprised at the interest you've all shown - thank you for stopping by to pitch in and help get things moving. The GM rotation is far from decided upon; I think it's a good idea in theory, but will take a great deal of coordination and communication to pull off. It'd be far simpler to find a dedicated GM, but the issue then becomes finding and retaining said GM. Either way, filtering down the total player count to a decent number (read: 4-6) becomes the main consideration so we can determine who's playing. As for the source material, I own copies of Books 1-4 and would be willing to coach/share my notes with anyone unsure of their ability to run. For now, we've got a long way to go, but a show of interest like this is an excellent step in the right direction.
I’d be interested in playing. Great! The more indications of interest we get, the closer we'll be to putting a group together. Spread the word if you can! What about a rotation for gm'ing? Rotate every book? That's an interesting possibility that I hadn't considered before. I'd be willing to give it a shot - the character I have in mind would be the best fit for Book 3, Broken Moon, but I'd be happy to try running any of the others and see if switching off would work for everyone else once the party's been finalized.
Ladies and gentlebeasts of the Paizo Forums, I'd like to ask you for a favor. Last summer, I had the pleasure of running the Carrion Crown AP for several of my friends, but since we got nowhere close to finishing before real life set in and we went our separate ways, I've been chomping at the bit to revisit what has become one of my favorite APs, if not my absolute favorite. I'd also love to get involved in PbP gameplay, considering how well it fits with my work schedule and lets me space out my game time so I can properly focus on playing. It's been difficult for me to find players near me who would be interested in joining a PbP campaign, and I don't have the time to dedicate to a real-time game on Roll20, etc. That's why I'm here, and my request is fairly straightforward. What I'm Looking For:
This game needs a GM and a few other players to get off the ground. Many of the fiddly details - creation guidelines, player count, posting rules, and so on - will likely be up to the GM, but I'm basing my expectations off the following (and very common, I'm led to believe) rules.
Again, these are expectations that will not necessarily be reflected by the GM or other players - I don't want to backseat-GM anyone. Even if this post merely gauges some interest for getting another group together for CC, I view that as a step in the right direction. Please give this request your full consideration, and I hope you'll join me for a fresh journey through Carrion Crown.
I'd like to submit Dolvit the Dubious as my entry. I've been meaning to play a support-type character for a while, and I think going with Alchemist (Chirurgeon) brings a lot of versatility to the party while keeping up buffs and healing. The build should be finished on that profile, but please let me know if there's anything I should fix. Thanks for your consideration! |