Woldiangames.com is excited to announce that we are starting a new ongoing game in our campaign world/gaming community! This 1 to 20 campaign game using the Pathfinder rules is named Cthonia. Cthonia is a sheltered and mostly unexplored land of jungle that is mostly avoided as "too dangerous for civilized folks." Savannahs surround the jungle providing stomping grounds for the larger of the multitudes of dinosaurs that inhabit the region, known to the natives of the area as The Thunder Gods. With the trade between points west and east growing, there is a great need for "Monster Road" to become a safer trading route as several recent tragedies attest. This is drawing all manner of explorer, great beast hunter, and trailblazer into the area. Can a young group of adventurer's make a difference ? Will they be the ones to unlock the mysteries of Cthonia? Only time and adventure will tell.
The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or sites that will disappear just as you are getting interested in the game and your character. So if you've been looking for that quality game that does not go away, we're your site!
The Wold is an Original Campaign World, using the Pathfinder game system. Originating in the early 1980's, it went online in 1997. It has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.
We currently offer 10 permanent ongoing games and many other pickup games for those members who want more. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. Play by post occurs on our self-made java programmed message boards with their own dice mechanisms, and auto-archiving features. We offer a Message Board called The Giggling Ghost where our gamers can chat "in character" and head out for various "pick-up" adventurers. There are also a series of private boards that allows the players to talk and discuss just about anything in an "out of character format." These boards helps us create that all important sense of community and friendship which is a part of any good group of gamers. Also added is a board called The Catacombs where all character shopping occurs and The Black Genie Center where all Woldians may go to help develop new original things for our campaign world.
To visit the Games Page to check out the ongoing games, go to:
Woldiangames.com is excited to announce that we are starting a new ongoing game in our campaign world/gaming community! This 1 to 20 campaign game using the Pathfinder rules is named Cthonia. Cthonia is a sheltered and mostly unexplored land of jungle that is mostly avoided as "too dangerous for civilized folks." Savannahs surround the jungle providing stomping grounds for the larger of the multitudes of dinosaurs that inhabit the region, known to the natives of the area as The Thunder Gods. With the trade between points west and east growing, there is a great need for "Monster Road" to become a safer trading route as several recent tragedies attest. This is drawing all manner of explorer, great beast hunter, and trailblazer into the area. Can a young group of adventurer's make a difference ? Will they be the ones to unlock the mysteries of Cthonia? Only time and adventure will tell.
The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or sites that will disappear just as you are getting interested in the game and your character. So if you've been looking for that quality game that does not go away, we're your site!
The Wold is an Original Campaign World, using the Pathfinder game system. Originating in the early 1980's, it went online in 1997. It has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.
We currently offer 10 permanent ongoing games and many other pickup games for those members who want more. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. Play by post occurs on our self-made java programmed message boards with their own dice mechanisms, and auto-archiving features. We offer a Message Board called The Giggling Ghost where our gamers can chat "in character" and head out for various "pick-up" adventurers. There are also a series of private boards that allows the players to talk and discuss just about anything in an "out of character format." These boards helps us create that all important sense of community and friendship which is a part of any good group of gamers. Also added is a board called The Catacombs where all character shopping occurs and The Black Genie Center where all Woldians may go to help develop new original things for our campaign world.
To visit the Games Page to check out the ongoing games, go to:
We have a group of players and DM's that has recently lost several members do to the dreaded "Real Life". As such we are looking for some new blood. If interested please post here and let me know.
We typically play on Saturday Evenings from about 5-11pm. We currently play Pathfinder and are getting ready to start Kingmaker.
Yeah, twice now you were supposed to fight the damn kobolds, and twice now you have talked your way out of it. I don't do auto success dip's, but if you have a good argument and a good roll you usually get what you want, a bad argument and a nat 20 get you nothing lol.
Knezul listens to all of the words before continuing.
Draconic:
Spoiler:
"If humans words have meaning and are not hollow about not allowing defenseless of any race be slaughtered, what do you plan to do with the dwarves. Surely you plan on siding with them over us. Who wouldn't. If however, you are true to your word, you will help us defend ourselves from them. If you do this, worthless rocks are yours. Meekis will be released, I see he was right in listening to you. Just know that if we are doubled crossed, which we fully expect, we will be ready for war. A war that we did not cause."
Knezul stands there, head slightly cocked to the side. It's hard to tell if he understands what Venedictos is saying and is contemplating, or if he is turning his head like a dog when a human talks to it, amused but not understanding a word of it.
DC 13 Sense Motive:
Spoiler:
It's the latter.
Brevaddelar steps in and repeats what Venedictos said so eloquently just a few moments earlier, however it doesn't have quite the meaning when it is repeated versus coming from the heart.
Meekis is in the back wiggling around, muffled pleas trying to come through the gag. It is obvious that he is trying to reason with the other kobolds.
However it is to know avail as Knezul yells back in Draconic:
Spoiler:
"Shut him up, now!"
The kobolds standing over Meekis begin kicking him until his please turn to yelps. They stop and look back to the Knezul who takes several steps forward and begins to speak to the rest of the group.
Draconic:
Spoiler:
"Dwarves break into warren, kill out miners, then our warriors, they even kill young ones and mothers. Our warriors finally kill them and chase down the ones who escape. Then you come along and free dwarf who had hand in killing our people. You expect us to deal with you. You who come in and try to side with dwarves even though they attack us. Then you call us cowardly and tell us we act like goblins. We have not raided you, we were raided. Then worse, you tell us we act like dwarves. We have not attacked your city with out warning and killed your women and children. Who are the monsters now?"
Knezul waits a moment to see if any of the words sink in or if some one is going to translate for him.
Draconic:
Spoiler:
"If you want peace, find the dwarf that you took from us, and bring her to us. If you do this, we will honor your agreement with Meekis. If not prepare for war."
Knezul turns to return to his group.
Draconic:
Spoiler:
"Oh, and one more thing. The dwarf. She is not as innocent as you may think. She killed my mate.
Approaching the group of kobolds in the clearing, it seems much similar to last time. You can't tell if these are all the same kobolds as last time plus a few new ones, a mix of new kobolds, as well as ones you met last time, or a new group all together. Kobolds really all look the same, especially if you only focus on one. You begin scanning the group for Meekis when you notice a kobold in the back, tied up and gagged much like Asvora was just five days ago. He looks strangely like Meekis. How odd.
One kobold runs up to the kobold nearest your group of adventurers and begins whispering in draconic.
Draconic and DC 14 Perception check.
Spoiler:
"That's them Knezul, that's the one we told you about, the ones who rescued the dwarf. The ones Meekis tried to deal with."
"Well of course it is!!! Who else would just ride up to a group a warriors like this. Now hush, and remember, not until I give the word." The one named Knezul purses his reptilian lips together with a finger over them and let's out a shoosh to quite the other kobolds.
Sorry for delay, apparently a few 17-18 hour work days in a row kinda make you not want to do anything aside from sleep.
It takes skitter about 45 minutes to get there and back with information. There are more kobolds than last time, but not many more. They seemed to be yipping back and forth amongst themselves, with a few on alert, but the rest mostly paying attention to the bickering kobolds.
Ready to proceed?
Please clarify where everyone is going to be, ie a marching order.
Sorry about not posting... Internet went out for nearly three days.
Simon, to answer your question Asvora was not at the meeting of the minds. However later she did stop by and had this to say.
"I thank you all for your help, it means alot that you are helping me get my clans remains back. To keep you from having to make the trek all the way back to my clan, I am going to set out, riding as fast as possible and have them come here to Tanner's Crossing to retrieve the bodies. I will set off at once. Thank you all again." Asvora turns away to exit the Everful, leaving a few coins on the table.
Ok, now to make sure, the plan is to meet the Kobolds back where you found them before, correct? If not let me know.
Sorry for the extended absense of no posts... my internet was out until a tech came and fixed it this morning. Sorry about that. I will get things fixed and posted shortly. I am trying to figure out how best to make maps without doing the generic Paint maps.
I'll get on it ASAP but no promises on when I'll get it out as I have about 50 hours of scheduled overtime over the next week and a half.
Apologizing for posting later than normal by about 8 hours... just got home from working a double again. And I have to work tomorrow morning. Have to be up in about 6 and a half hours. I'll try and get some quality posts in tomorrow and early Sunday. I have my RL D&D game on Sunday evening but will have the day of Monday. I have some things in store for you guys, of course you will probably do something spectacular to fix that though. Anyway, good night all!
Seeing that everyone is or was in the Everful at some point, I'll handle that first.
Haggard makes small talk with everyone as they enter. When asked to pony up some ale he has the follow to say.
"You want me to donate the a whole barrel of the greatest ale I've made to date, to a bunch of dwarves as a peace offering? Of course, assuming that is, that they will tell me how it compares to what they are used to... and of course you can take another batch for the kobolds, at least then if you do have to fight them, they'll be liquored up." Haggard continues talking until asked about the use of his wagon.
"Uh, well, you see it's the only one I have, and I have to... yeah it's fine, take it... but only because it's you Mercy... I swear, you better bring it back in one piece. You need two more? I know Igor has one that he is planning on letting you use, and there are a few other people around town that have wagons, Ol' John Abel don't farm no more... he might let ya use his too."
Igor walks in and addresses those he finds.
"Sorry I don't have any funds for the lot of you... but I did get people to donate the horses. And if I heard Haggard correctly and he is letting you use his wagon and mules for the trip, then you will have three wagons, as I and John Abel are both donating our wagons for the trip as well. I wrote this agreement up, per the stipulations in our meeting earlier this morning. It might not be perfect but it should hold up to the letter of the law. Oh, and Kender was kind enough to donate a whole barrel of lime."
"It's a grim task that we ask you to do... I thank you for your willingness to do it."
Momma Hex notices that her daughter seems a little more mature having had responsibilities and being out on her own (with the group) and seeing as she is actually serving in her capacity as a witch, she is actually quite pleased to lend Isis to the group again.
If you guys are ready to kick some tail... that can be arranged.
Quite honestly, I planned on you guys fighting the damn kobolds, but no, someone had to roll a Natural 20 on his Diplomacy check, so then I was just waiting on someone to take a pot shot or be disrespectful, but once again, you guys played the perfect.
The campaign was originally supposed to start out with a kobold vs human and dwarf war, but it has rapidly changed and evolved lol. Sorry if it seems too... um... serious, I am just trying to make it enjoyable for all of you.
I thought you guys were enjoying doing economics homework lol.
Anywho, if you guys want to lighten it up a bit, tell me, and I might have a surprise in store for you all lol!
Seeing that no one has any comments, the mayor says, "So it's settled, I'll leave the lot of you to deal with the issue. Good luck, I'm afraid you are all gonna need it."
Igor looks to the group, all seem to be awaiting his decree. "You have all voiced your opinions, and the consensus seems clear. Priority number one is to retrieve the dwarf fallen and return them to their families. The second is to work an alliance with the kobold and the dwarves, The former by supplying things which they want, the latter by giving them a portion of the gold. Regardless of the cost, it seems that we want to maintain peace. As long as we aren't attacked and the other two parties are fair, I don't foresee any problems. You have all done great things for the town so far, can we ask you to continue with this deal? Oh and as for who gets what money, it will allow us to lower taxes, build new buildings, repair existing ones, and pay people proper wages for an honest days work. Or for working on behalf of Tanner's Crossing as adventurers."
The mayor nods as he listens intently to what everyone has said thus far. He nods to those who haven't spoken, showing that he is waiting on an input from everyone.
DM JZ,
I apologize for not posting my character. I improperly bookmarked the thread and forgot to check it. I typically use bookmarks and not dotting. I apologize for causing you a delay and can completely understand your frustration with me.
There was no excuse for it and once again I sincerely apologize. I didn't mean to make you think I was blowing you off or ignoring you.
I would also like to apologize to the three other players who were waiting on me. I am very sorry about that.
I just want you to know I do not make a habit of saying I am going to do something and not doing it.
So what happened with Denis and Claire last night? It it went really well then perhaps he could be late and seem like he's in a dream.
Just a little small chit chat... nothing to much, but she is a nice girl whose company you enjoy and who seems to enjoy your company.
Also note there are no other town memebers, only the Igor, Risca, Haggard, Tanya and the PC's.
Tanya is all ears when she hears gold, and goes to say something but Caelin's little speech seems to calm her right down.
Risca steps up to comment. "I ain't usually one for speaking, but lives were lost over this mine. I'm not saying we are the ones to do it, but I say someone needs to go in and take care o' them little murders. I say let the dwarves who started the mine go back in there, get there money and clear them out. We found that they aren't a threat to us, let's just leave well enough alone."
Tanya can stay silent no more and interjects, "NOO!!! All of that gold down there, I say if we can get it then we get it. What happened to the dwarves were bad, but we can't turn down an opportunity like this. And the kobolds won't be much of a problem, heck we can just hire adventurers like yourself to go in there and clean the lot of the out."
"Now hold on a minute, the both of ya," Haggard begins. "The kobolds were peaceful, and only defended themselves from what they thought was an attack on their home. I say we broker the deal with them, maybe pay some restitution to the dwarves, help them bury their dead, and maybe even cut them in on the mine as well. There is no sense in us going to war over this, or anyone for that matter."
Igor rubs his chin as he listens to the heated debates, awaiting more input.
The next morning the town is abuzz. Everyone wants to hear what happened and what will happen next. Years of leading this town has given Igor the wisdom to know that a public forum will not be what's best for this town. Igor calls all of the members of the investigative party into his home as well as the other three members of the council, Risca, Tanya, and Haggard.
Once everyone is inside he beckons everyone around a large diner table has them take their seats.
"Mornin' all, I thank you y'all for comin'. I guess the best thing to do is just have one of you start buy telling us what happened."
Asvora is not present, stating that she wanted no part of the politics regarding what was going to happen.
The mayor nods in understanding and tells the group he will meet them on the 'morrow. He then tells all of the townspeople to give the group some space as they are likely very tired.
Finish up anything you want for the current day in game tonight, and tomorrow I will advance time the following morning, the big meetings etc.
The group of heroic companions ride back into town having lost no one, and in fact added to their already sizable contingent of adventurers. The entire village gathers are you ride back into town, curious about the newcomer as well well as word from the happenings in the west.
Haggard comes out and gives a very friendly welcome to Mercy and Claire begins asking question after question.
Haggard also smiles when he sees Caelin and comments that he missed his best customer, informing him that he has a new batch of ale that he wants him to try. "Drink all you want tonight friend, it's on the house."
After a few seconds of hounding Mercy, Claire sees Denis and waves and smiles shyly before blushing and talking to Mercy again.
Kiptera notices none of the dwarves from a few days are there. How ever the mayor comes up and congratulates her on a safe return and beckons Simon over as well. He then asks both of them questions about what they found. It's readily apparent that he completely trust the judgment of these two. "What news do you have?"
Isis realizes, much to her chagrin that her mother is in town and has her typical scowl on her face. She comes up to Isis and where no one but Isis can hear whispers. "You acted foolishly and impulsively... but you did the right thing, for the right reasons. You can stay out tonight, your sisters have taken over your chores while you were gone."
Brev and Vene have no one really seeking them out, being relatively newcomers, although everyone is rather friendly. It's a few hours after noon.
Every time someone tries to speak to Asvora she says little, only what is required to not seem unappreciative. She politely informs them that she would rather just be alone and have to think. After all she just lost 35 friends in about as many hours. She says she hopes to be ready to answer more of your questions when she gets back to a bit of civilization and gets to sleep in a bed.
You know what... I want you guys to level, but don't want to progress too fast. I think I will go for Fast Progression. You only need 550xp more to level.
I'm interesting in seeing where you guys take this... You guys are pushing the story, I'm just along for the ride.
Can't wait to see how you guys handle this with the Council in Tanner's Crossing. Of if you even stay in Tanner's Crossing. I am curious to see what you guys do.
And like Kiptera mentioned, I really appreciate you guys all posting, makes me feel better about not narrowing down who I selected.
Oh and for the fine handling of a diplomatic situation, and avoiding conlict, you each receive 500xp!
Furthermore, for RP that goes above and beyond he call of duty, you all receive an additional 250xp.
Speaking up, now much calmer than she was minutes before, the dwarf interjects a bit. "I believe you misunderstand me, my clan was not wiped out, far from it, my clan, resides about a 2 months north of here, only mining expedition of 36 of miners and surveyors were here in the south."
"My name is Asvora Stoneadder, and I guess I was a bit rude earlier, but you can understand my frustration I hope."
Isis:
Spoiler:
The kobolds were out of range, having scampered away as soon as they dwarf was released. Also, convincing kobolds to attack your townspeople isn't exactly the epitome of LG. More like LE as it was cold and calculated. =)
In Dwarven:
Spoiler:
Asvora will respond with a list of names and family members of all 36 members of the expedition that died, as well as the precise location of the mine, with where their campsite was, the mine entrance, and where they ran into the kobolds at. She also informs you that they had only caught up with her in this clearing.
Keep talking on your way back to the village or let me know when you want to kind of fast forward time to get back to town.
After hearing the fury of Caelin she quits speaking and just glares at him. She swats the finger away from her forehead and steps back, seething but not moving or attacking.
Please no one get upset because I am making fun of your character with the dwarf. If it bothers you just let me know and I'll tone it down. Just remember it's RP and I mean nothing about any of ya! Nothing but love.
"Of course, your kind always wants to try for peace, get information, whine like little babies... I'm alone because they killed the rest of my clan. We were mining and apparently one of our shafts opened up into their warren. Lizards thought we were attacking and we defended ourselves. The fell back we pressed the attack, thinking it was a small warren, we were wrong... they butchered us. I fled and they tracked me down. And you just let the butchers walk away. Bunch of flippin cowards you all are!"
Looking towards Caelin the female dwarf yells back, "You overgown, kobold-lovin, fat oaf, don't you dare raise threaten me, I flog your arse within an inch of your life... and you," she looks towards Denis before beginning her next tirade, "Don't you start with me about respect their goat boy, I don't owe you a damn thing, especially not respect. Why don't you just baaaahck on up and but out." The last line had some quick jabs at Denis' infernal heritage and her thoughts about him being a goat.
"Opinion my arse, they had me tied up and would've killed me if you hadn't come along, and you just let them go?" The dwarf seems to be royally pissed.
Meekis listens intently to Venedictos and then to Simon. "Meekis' clan fine miners, do hard work for tall ones, give tall ones metal tall ones want, tall ones give Meekis' clan other things. Meekis like... what tall ones call it... Meekis think it called, cake? Yes, Meekis like cake."
"Meekis and Chief be back in five moons." With that, Meekis runs and cuts the ties to the bound dwarf, leaving her gag in as she begins swinging wildly at the kobolds who all take off skittering out of her reach.
Removing the gag from her mouth the dwarf yells out, "What in the name of all that's good are you flippin' doin' dealin' with them evil lizards!"
On the western coast of the Isle of Kortos, where once stood a mighty siege town, rests the flooded port city of Diobel. The city's inner harbor is protected by a giant maze of shipwrecked war-barges, crumbling walls, and haphazard jetties of iron and wood. These defenses prevent larger trading vessels and warships from entering the harbor itself, and the deeper waters of the bay are often crowded with ships at anchor. Inside the maze lies a wide bay called the Shallows, which provides calm waters and safe passage to the smaller rowboats and flat-bottomed cargo vessels. The Shallows flow into a series of wooden and stone walkways, which stretch below the city, possessing various docks and bunkers called the Underdocks. Most of the town stands suspended on pylons above the Underdocks, or hangs precariously on the rocky shore of the bay.
Diobel has become a bustling trade town controlled by the merchant lords of the Kortos Consortium, who oversee much of Absalom's mining, farming, trapping, and fishing industry. While on the surface the Kortos Consortium is an open merchant's collective, accepting anyone willing to pay dues, it is in fact a semi-covert crime syndicate specializing in running contraband in and out of Absalom. Smugglers and food merchants have preferred to ship goods to Absalom through Diobel for centuries in order to avoid Absalom's stiff harbor taxes, its law enforcement, and its criminal element. This popularity has made Diobel one of the largest markets for contraband in the Inner Sea region.
Ships anchor in the harbor and transport their goods to shore over the Shallows in large barges. Traders meet with caravan captains at the Harpy's Gate to arrange overland transport. The caravans between Diobel and Absalom, which trade furs, timber, and food from independent farms along the dangerous route, are a major source of Absalom's food supply.
Lately, a massive, wealthy shipping alliance from Cheliax, the Golden Cartel, is trying to take part of the Kortos Consortium’s hegemony in Diobel and the surrounding areas. The Cartel is backed by the Thrune royal family and, while maintaining a hyper-professional public image, word on the street is that they frequently play hardball.
This week, aquatic monsters have been appearing in the Underdocks and attacking random citizens. Obviously, this is bad for business. Both the Kortos Consortium and the Golden Cartel have publicly sworn they will help with these matters. The eyes of the people are watching closely to see which of the great companies will deliver on their promise, fastest and best.
(A mixture of quotes from the wiki and my own materials)
This will be a rotating-GM, gestalt adventure. Everyone who applies to this game is signing up to be a GM. I will GM a short quest first and then swap my character in while the second active GM swaps their character out. I will provide more guidelines for GMs before game start.
Build details:
Start at level 2
Max HP at each level
30 point-buy
Gestalt
Background skills in place
Elephant in the Room Feat Taxes rules in place (blogpost version)
Variant multiclassing allowed
All Paizo races except those listed as higher than 20 racial points (Standard races don’t have a value listed and are obv. fine). If you are playing a race that is more flavorful than powerful (esp for your concept), you may request some flexibility in moving around your ability score bonus/penalties, swapping out an ability for one of the same value in race points, etc.
All Paizo classes allowed
Emerging guns
Two traits. Ask if you want to take a campaign trait as some of those are crazy strong.
Start with standard WBL of 1000 gp. You may craft your equipment ahead of time but you may not employ any hacks that can lead to indefinitely massive wealth (e.g., hedge magician trait is fine but you can’t say that you crafted at 45% thanks to hedge magician, sold the item for 50%, and rinsed and repeated to get indefinite wealth. This is probably obvious but I’m being a little paranoid.) You may craft equipment for other party members IF you have a shared backstory of working with them. It is recommended (but not required), that you tip the crafter some percentage of the value of the item for spending their feat(s) to craft for you.
There are certain, notoriously broken or problematic options in Pathfinder 1st edition, like Sacred Geometry, Blood Money, etc. I’m not making an exhaustive ban list right now. Feel free to choose strong options, just be thoughtful, feel free to ask, and know that a really exploitative build choice might decrease your chances of selection and/or be ruled against by GMs after the fact. In general, I look more favorably on OP teamwork, like haste, rather than OP stuff that steps on the toes of other party members.
Retraining is generally allowed for zero GP, time, and trainer requirements IF it is for a non power-gamey reason, e.g., an in-character event motivates it or you realized one of your choices was a trap. Retraining for power-gamey reasons, e.g., a feat was useful for a few levels but isn’t anymore, is allowed but for the normal requirements of GP, time, and trainer requirements.
Hero points are in use but they are only gained when the active GM awards them for good roleplay, a heroic achievement, some really nice OOC work to help the party organize their notes, etc.
Backstory:
Backstories should be about two paragraphs, minimum. I prefer backstories to be written in narrative format as it’s more fun to read and gives me a sense for how you write/RP. Here are some questions of which I should be able to answer most, if not all, about your character after reading their backstory.
1. How did your character acquire their skills and values?
2. What does your character think is important in life?
3. What does your character look like?
4. What are some of your characters quirks?
5. Who does your character care about the most? (Hint: “no one” is usually a
bad, Edgelordy answer to this question).
6. What is your character’s biggest flaw? What about their biggest strength of
character?
7. What is your character’s history with the Kortos Consortium? Why are they
loyal to the consortium and exactly how deep does that loyalty run?
8. What is your character’s history in Diobel? Why are they loyal to Diobel
and exactly how deep does that loyalty run?
9. What are some ways you see your character developing as they try to help
Diobel and the Kortos Consortium while dealing with all sorts of threats
related to the rivalry with the Golden Cartel?
Game format details:
I will GM the first round and ask for a volunteer to be party scribe (to put XP and loot drops into the spreadsheet and write a summary of the quest in the party chronicle). Then we will determine who will be active GM and who will scribe for the second round and proceed with that quest.
The Kortos Consortium will award 50% of the GP (and GM will automatically require 50% of the XP) associated with moving from current level to current level+1 (I will provide these numbers). The rest of the GP and the XP will depend on what extra the party earns. The active GM is encouraged to include some pieces of loot and XP that the party will almost definitely get and some that are bonuses for doing an extra good/creative job. E.g., the GM can award XP for good roleplay, have a small, hidden cache of extra loot that requires a knowledge check to realize it is there, etc.
The active GM makes their own rulings on specific issues that affect what is happening right in the moment, e.g., “can I use Profession (beggar) to tell how rich the man is?” When questions are somewhat broader, such as whether a build combination works, it will be put to a vote. A dice roll will decide tiebreakers. Decided which purvey covers a given issue will generally be left to the active GM; as the organizing GM, I will insist something be put to a vote if necessary but I would very much prefer not to exercise this responsibility.
Active GMs and players are expected to maintain a very collegial attitude. GMs can provide stiff challenges but should not otherwise be an adversarial GM, trying to fudge things to keep the players from having “too much fun” or succeeding at doing their thing. Players should respect the active GM’s authority and ask questions about interpretations and what is allowed, not fire objections/complaints at the GM.
Active GMs have a free hand in the plot of their quests. They should just try to build on the plot that has come before and try to avoid completely undoing key plot elements that other GMs have developed.
Maps: Google slides that will be editable by everyone.
XP and loot drops: Google sheets.
Party chronicle: Google doc.
Everyone should post at least once per weekday and once per weekend. The active GM should post a bit more often than this. Player-GMs that ghost or are consistently too slow will be replaced (after warnings, communication, etc.)
If anyone has a problem with anyone, communicate first, either with them or with me, before you get too upset.
Sensitive content parameters:
Sexual content: I’m not very interested in having this in my TTRPGs. If you want to have a romantic relationship with an NPC or another PC, that may be ok. But most physical affection besides a hug, peck on the cheek, whatever, can happen off-camera. As for sexual violence and sexual harassment, I’m not interested in having those in my game.
Violence: Violence is an integral part of Pathfinder. But I’m not a big fan of any graphic descriptions of harm to children or graphic descriptions of torture.
Frequently, things beyond these parameters will come up. Let’s try to communicate early and often if we’re unsure if everyone will be comfortable.
Deities:
The standard Golarion pantheon is in play. However, I don’t require clerics to worship one of those deities. If you want to worship a lesser-known deity that you’ve homebrewed or a concept, you can. This means you can combine alignment and domains/subdomains as you like. However, you won’t get to pick any weapon you want as your deity’s favored weapon and you won’t have a deific obedience option associated with your deity/concept except maybe something basic chosen by me.
How to make a complete application:
1. In a Paizo alias, a well-formatted character sheet.
2. In a Paizo alias, a nice backstory.
3. In the application post, a brief description of what kind of quest you
would run when it’s your turn.
4. In your application post, a brief description of your GMing philosophy.
5. In your application post, a brief description of your philosophy for GMing
PBP, specifically.
6. (Optional) In your application post, link to a campaign in which you were a
good PBP player or (even better) GM.
Soon, I will make my own character sheet, backstory, etc., and present it as if I were applying to the game. This example should clarify more what I am looking for.
As questions make me realize further things I should include, I’ll put this information, an FAQ, and the most up-to-date list of application statuses in the Campaign Info tab here. In addition to myself, I will select 3-6 others (but probably not as high as 6).
Recruitment will close in at 5 pm (EST) on November 14th. Gameplay will begin as soon as the group is selected.
I would like to run a rotating GMs table of a PF 1e, Gestalt, Adventurer's Guild (of some sort). Each mission would be short and relatively simple with about four encounters (one combat, one exploration, one social, and the fourth could be anything). I'd GM the first one then another player would GM the second one, with my character subbing in for theirs for the second adventure. And so on and so on.
Parameters I'm planning on:
1. Gestalt
2. PF 1e
3. Google slides for maps. I think this will be the easiest way to rotate control of the maps without having to constantly change settings, change roll20 games, etc.
4. Short quests.
5. The PCs all belong to some sort of guild that sends them out on regular adventuring missions.
6. The party levels up after each short mission.
Parameters I want input on:
1. What point buy to use? I'm thinking either 25 or 30 would be appropriate for gestalt.
2. What materials to allow? My default would be all Paizo material with certain spot bans, e.g., on blood money, sacred geometry, etc. But if there were several people with a strong desire, I could see allowing spheres and maybe some other stuff.
3. What should the premise of the guild be? A chapel to a certain deity in an urban setting? An army fort in the wilderness? A thieve's guild? A generic adventurer's guild? All could be fun.
4. What posting commitment. I'm thinking 2/day, 1/day, or 6/week.
5. What deadliness level? Should CRs usually, approximately be party level*1.5 (easy for gestalt, imo) or higher like party level*2.
6. What starting level? For rapid leveling, 1 can be fine. Higher than 5 would probably be a bit much, esp with gestalt and the rapid leveling.
My motivation:
Thanks to the chronic shortage of good GMs (esp. for PBP), I've tried to get a rotating GM set up a couple of times and have run the first quest myself but haven't had any luck getting players to follow up and run a quest in return. So my latest scheme is to have a fairly continuous plotline and semicontinuous cast of characters in a rotating GM set-up. As usual, I'm willing to show my commitment by running the first quest. I'm looking for 3-5 other player-GMs who would be willing to run follow-up quests. The short and sweet nature will help prevent GM burnout and PBP's short attention spans.
Your world tears itself apart as your sick neighbour bites a chunk out of her husband! You scramble to find somewhere safe to hide as screams and unnatural moaning fill the City at the Center of the World. Once hidden, you worry about your loved ones and wonder if you’ll be able to scavenge what you need. Maybe even build somewhere safe? Then something thumps against the door…
This is a zombie survival game. The PCs will struggle to survive in an overrun Absalom. At first, you will be scrambling and hiding, trying not to die. If you are resourceful, you may be able to hold a fortified building and even take in some other survivors. If you are very resourceful, you may even be able to learn some things about what is going on and what you can do about it.
The base-building part of the game will involve the downtime rules. I like giving the PCs choices/difficult decisions and the PCs will have to choose among investing their resources in equipping the leaders of the base (the party), improving the bases defenses (traps, walls, etc), and their base’s means of production (for future resources).
I am taking applications to this game at least for the next three weeks as I am running two PBP games that are about to wrap up. I may allow recruitment to last a little longer. I will give at least one week’s notice when I finalize the date when recruitment will end. Then I will select the five applications that I think will best suit the game (note that I am advertising across a couple platforms, including Discord).
I will be using a lightly modified version of the PF 1e rules (named Chainbreaker) based on a project myself and some others have been working on this year (and are still working on). There’s a community-based nomination and voting process on Discord and we’re working on hosting our rules on our wiki (this is a list of changes we’ve made). You obviously have to be ok with learning and using this ruleset. It would be a big plus if you are interested in giving feedback on the rules, proposing ideas, or even going so far as to help manage the wiki.
Character creation:
20 pt buy
3rd level
Standard WBL: 3,000 gp. Pre-crafting is ok but you can only pre-craft for other party members if you have a shared backstory.
All Paizo-allowed classes and races (up to 20 RP) allowed. Only unchained versions of classes are allowed.
Spheres of power and might allowed but not required.
Emerging guns and know that I often feel that guns compromise the medieval fantasy feel. So, if your character uses guns, you’ll need to really feel like you fit into a medieval fantasy story in a well-grounded way.
Hero points will be in use except you do not gain them simply for existing/levelling. I will hand them out frequently for good RP, helping manage the loot list, keeping a PC chronicle/notes of what’s happened, helping edit the wiki that holds our rules, etc.
Other details, such as EitR and how to calculate hp, can be found at our wiki.
Backstory:
Backstories should be about two paragraphs, minimum. I prefer backstories to be written in narrative format as it’s more fun to read and gives me a sense for how you write/RP. Here are some questions of which I should be able to answer most, if not all, about your character after reading their backstory.
How did your character acquire their skills and values?
What does your character think is important in life?
What does your character look like?
What are some of your characters quirks?
Who does your character care about the most? (Hint: “no one” is usually a bad, Edgelordy answer to this question).
What is your character’s biggest flaw? What about their biggest strength of character?
What are some ways you see your character developing as they struggle to survive a zombie apocalypse and decide whom to trust?
Setting:
Absalom in the year 4722. I will draw heavily on what’s already published about this setting but won’t claim to be any sort of expert on ALL that’s been published. If you’re unsure whether or not a published part of the setting is part of my game, you can always ask.
As you might expect, we will be spending a lot of time in Absalom. I will be using this map of the city for PCs to refer to and say “We explore F7” or whatever.
What I’m looking for in a submission:
I want earthy, grounded PCs who feel like a normal part of the setting. Normally, that would mean first level characters. But I know starting at first level gets old for players. So, your challenge is to make a third level character, who will necessarily be good at a smattering of things, but who also feels like an earthy, grounded part of the setting. I don’t think this means that your build has to be sub-optimal but there has to be some careful give and take between build and backstory so that your character doesn’t start out as a hero but can become one. Since the game is going to be somewhat deadly, you certainly want to have options for your character to learn to use the tools around them to help them and their comrades survive.
Example: You could play an absent-minded but community-oriented apothecary (alchemist) who spends most of their days tinkering with herbs to make poultices and potions. Most of your formula book could be little utility spells and healing spells. Maybe your character has never made a bomb before but, when pressed, they could try to recall something they read in an odd book and concoct a makeshift incendiary.
The party’s goals will involve trying to build a safe place or themselves and others to survive. Make sure your character is someone who is aligned with these goals. Evil alignments may possibly be allowed if they fit with these goals and will play well with others, e.g., a NE necromancer who believes in the circle of life and death and preserving the community by any means necessary, even if that involves employing the dead to protect against the dead. Such a character would need to deal with some serious stigma and suspicion from others but is an example of a concept that could be workable. A CN thief who just wants to steal from or sleep with everybody would not fit very well in this campaign.
Further, I’m fine with powerful characters (who also have good flavor) but I prefer power to be team-friendly. Not everyone should be a support character but even a fighter can help protect others, e.g., with combat reflexes and reach. I will look a little more favorably on a hyper-optimized buffer, healer, etc., than on a hyper-optimized archer.
Sensitive content parameters:
Sexual content: I’m not very interested in having this in my TTRPGs. If you want to have a romantic relationship with an NPC or another PC, that may be ok. But most physical affection besides a hug, peck on the cheek, whatever, can happen off-camera. As for sexual violence and sexual harassment, I’m not interested in having those in my game.
Violence: Unsurprisingly, there will be a lot of violence and some graphic description, e.g., of what is done to or by a zombie. Further, harm will come to a wide spectrum of people, including children, and there will be some evil people. However, I won’t include any graphic descriptions of harm to children or graphic descriptions of torture.
Frequently, things beyond these parameters will come up. I will try to communicate often and I hope the players will as well.
Game hosting details:
Battle maps will be hosted on roll20. City maps, etc, that PCs need to access frequently but won’t require fog of war and other dynamic tricks will be hosted on google slides so you can see them at any time.
Lots of details like loot, XP, etc will be tracked on google sheets. PCs will need to share some of this work with me, e.g., marking your capital spent or gained and dividing up loot I drop in the found loot list.
Gameplay and discussion will be hosted either on Paizo or Discord, depending on what party I put together. With your application, please state your platform preference from the following options:
A. I will only play if the game is hosted on Paizo.
B. I prefer Paizo but will also play on Discord.
C. I have no preference between Paizo and Discord.
D. I prefer Discord but will also play on Paizo.
E. I will only play if the game is hosted on Discord.
In this play-by-post format, make a habit of post every day or almost every day. I will have to replace players whose engagement is too spotty for too long.
Deities:
The standard Golarion pantheon is in play. However, I don’t require clerics to worship one of those deities. If you want to worship a lesser-known deity that you’ve homebrewed or a concept, you can. This means you can combine alignment and domains/subdomains as you like. However, you won’t get to pick any weapon you want as your deity’s favored weapon and you won’t have a deific obedience option associated with your deity/concept except maybe something basic chosen by me.
As questions make me realize further things I should include, I’ll put this information, an FAQ, and the most up-to-date list of application statuses in the Campaign Info tab here.
I've been planning a while to run a zombie survival game set in Absalom. If the PCs manage to find a safe place to hole up, such as a warehouse, etc, we'll also use the downtime rules a little bit as they choose between investing in their means of production, their built defenses, or their equipment. There's also a fair bit of investigating the mysterious origins of the plague and scavenging/exploring the dangerous city blocks around you. Social characters would not have as much fun as usual but still use from time to time in terms of convincing other survivors to cooperate, inspiring any survivors you take in to fight or work, infiltrating hostile groups of survivors, etc.
The minor wrinkle: I want the PCs to start as ordinary people who have a trade or what not who are forced to scramble to survive, becoming more competent over time (think Carol from Walking Dead). So I don't want epic builds or backstories. However, I realize that starting at level 1 can be a boring grind and this game will be somewhat deadly so I'm thinking starting level 3. But ideally, backstories and builds will cleverly set up PCs who are really good at whatever ordinary life they lead and just happen to be able to turn their skills to good use for survival.
Far to the north in the Stormspear Hills, near the Crown of the World, the humble village of Hame has suffered strange attacks this winter. White creatures have walked right out of the snowstorms and slammed villagers to the ground, breaking their bones and chilling them with frostbite before the rallying villagers have been able to smash them into many shards.
The desperate villagers send a rider begging for aid, spreading the news. A small group of experts answers the call, ready to investigate and put an end to the threat.
Far to the north in the Stormspear Hills, near the Crown of the World, the humble village of Hame has suffered strange attacks this winter. White creatures have walked right out of the snowstorms and slammed villagers to the ground, breaking their bones and chilling them with frostbite before the rallying villagers have been able to smash them into many shards.
The desperate villagers send a rider begging for aid, spreading the news. A small group of experts answers the call, ready to investigate and put an end to the threat.
This will be a homebrew oneshot. There will be some investigation and a moderate-length dungeon crawl taking place over the course of one adventuring day. Different degrees of success are possible ranging from TPK, partial success and retreat, to total success. Be ready for traps, stuck doors, wandering monsters, a time limit, puzzles, etc.
Build rules:
5th level
Any Paizo class. Spheres of Power and Might also allowed
Any Paizo races <= 20 race points
25 pt buy
2 traits (campaign traits may be allowed upon request)
Background skills are in effect
Max HP at level 1 then average rounded up at each level thereafter. Animal companion etc., hp works as normal (average at each level, rounding down the total).
10,500 gp worth of equipment. Pre-crafting allowed but without any further wealth generation hacks (e.g., no blood money, no hedge magician, etc.). Pre-crafting for party members allowed if you have shared backstory.
Backstory requirements:
Give me a sense of who your character is, why they have the skills represented by 5 adventuring levels, what their motivation is, and why they are in the Stormspear Hills. You might be a local or a traveler. Also, make it clear why you would answer a small village's call for help. Bonus points for shared backstory with one or more other applicants.
Game format:
Everyone will be expected to post once per weekday and once per weekend. I will bot/skip PCs that don't act in a timely fashion since PBP momentum is monarch.
Maps will be hosted on roll20. Mostly, they will be minimalistic maps but I might throw in one or two pretty ones.
Here's the non-traditional element: I have an itch to play with Spheres. So I am hoping to recruit a capable GM to play in my game and then run a similar, second oneshot for me and whomever else they wish to recruit after this. Spheres of Power and Might, regular posting, and some sort of visual battle map (roll20, google slides, whatever) are my requests. Anything else would be totally up to the second GM. If you are interested in this, let me know and tell me something about your GMing and what you would like to run. If I pick you to be my second GM, you would be guaranteed a party spot in this first game.
Recruitment closes at 9 am EST on Saturday, May 14th.
PF 1e: In Their Academy Days
This will be a brief one-shot set at a magical university where the PCs are novice students who stumble into some deadly trouble. The setting draws heavily on the universities in early Renaissance Italy. You may be the daughter of a farming family that scraped some silver together to send the one person in the family to university for a better life, the spoiled son of a rich merchant, etc. Because you are novices, you all receive instruction in a lot of the basics of magic such as the Elementary Theory of Magical Item Creation, Conjurative Curing, Introduction to Summoning, Defensive Transmutation, etc.
Game format
1. There will be a little RP, some investigation and social for you to figure out what's going on, then one combat. Be ready to contribute to a variety of situations, not just hitting things.
2. Post almost every day. 5 posts a week is a good goal. Don't make me bot you or keep everyone waiting on you. Similarly, I will restrain people from posting 50 times in one day and running off with a plan before PCs posting at a normal rate have had a chance to weigh in. If all of us are posting really fast, then I'll be happy to run with that.
3. Map(s) will be on roll20.
4. I'm looking for 5-6 PCs. JonGarrett has a spot guaranteed as he is going to run a follow-up one-shot at higher levels.
Complete aliases required for application:
Each alias should contain
1. Description of PCs appearance and mannerisms.
2. Brief backstory explaining where the PC comes from and what their basic motivations are. 2-3 paragraphs is ideal.
3. Full statblock of PC and any minions, like familiars.
Mechanical details:
1. 20 point buy
2. Roll here for starting wealth based on your class. If your build will be crippled by poverty, I may allow a reroll.
3. Max HP at level 1 for PC but minions (like animal companions) follow normal rules.
4. Any Paizo official race of 20 race points or fewer is permitted. You can ask for a 3pp race and we'll see.
5. Any Paizo official class is permitted. You can ask for a 3pp class and we'll see.
6. Level 1.
7. We will use the Background Skills and Feat Taxes rules variants.
8. Note that your character made it into a magical academy. So if you have no magical abilities, not even an SLA, it's going to be harder for your submission to convince me you belong in this game.
When I don't feel any need to collect more submissions, I'll give a 24 hr warning for anyone to get in a last second submission for consideration.
I like to run simple, PF 1e oneshots. There's a bit of RP as the characters meet, some social and exploration skill checks to briefly pursue the plot hook and put the party in a more favorable position, then a boss fight. It's great for making a fun character and getting to run them through their paces. At the same time, it doesn't require a long commitment, which is the bane of PBP. I have a lot of experience with PF 1e, PBP, and oneshots like this.
The problem: I like to play in good games, not just GM them. There are way more players than there are good GMs. The simplest, non-traditional solution I have is to GM a oneshot like this for someone, plus other party members, with the request that they would run a oneshot for me in return.
I am happy to GM first since "This whole operation was [my] idea." Further, I am happy to have my partner GM set some general parameters for what they would enjoy in their oneshot like level, gestalt/no, all bard party, difficulty level, spheres of power and might allowed, etc.
Some preferences of mine that apply both as a player and as a GM:
1. Roll20 for maps
2. Fairly frequent posting expectations, such as 5 posts a week
3. PG-13 content (I'm fine with PG instead but R is not my thing)
4. Little to no player-vs-player conflict
5. ~10% chance of TPK, especially if party isn't smart
I can be flexible on these as necessary.
Let me know if you are interested in such an exchange! I'd be interested to hear a little bit about your GM style If you want, also let me know what you would hypothetically like when you play and I GM. If there is a surplus of interest, I will select a partner GM based on their experience and GM philosophy.
A lot of us want PF 1.5 so a few dozen collaborators and I are working on making a community-driven, homebrew ruleset that achieves something like that. We work on a discord to vote to pass rules and are developing the wiki that stores our consensus ruleset.
We could use some more collaborators to vote, help refine rules ideas, help with the wiki grunt work, etc. If this interests you, drop your questions, notifications of interest, etc, here.
The forces of Hell and the Abyss have discovered an exotic opportunity to seize control of the Material Plane. For the next two years, the planes are more closely aligned than normal. If either the Archdevils or Demon Lords can obtain enough control over the Material Plane, they can drag it into their realm to become a new layer of Hell or the Abyss. To gain said control, they must possess enough lodestones, magical points that massive swathes of the Material Plane are connected to. A few mortals have gotten swept up in an attempt to prevent the end of their world.
Setting: Forgotten Realms. So far, the party spent time in and around Waterdeep, sailed to Chult, then sailed back up to the extreme north. Now they're in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.
Game platform: Discord for gameplay and roll20 for maps.
Expectations: A flavorful character with good backstory and good RP. You'll also need the mechanical prowess to keep up with gestalt's complexity for your build, what your teammates can do, and the correspondingly tricky challenges I throw at the party. Due to player attrition and other life reasons, play has slowed down some but the goal is for the game to proceed at the pace of 1 post/weekday and 1 post/weekend.
Submission: The game will be played on Discord so I just want a text submission formatted reasonably (in terms of text in blocks or on lines) that contains a good backstory, description of the character, and statblock. We can then copy it into the discord channel that will store your sheet. A choice of photo would be nice too (doesn't have to be a Paizo-allowed photo).
Mechanical suggestions:
The party has an artificer/rogue that shoots things with his guns,
a wizard/fighter that focuses on his reach weapon and a little battlefield control spells,
a paladin/warlock that smites things a lot and heals a little,
and a rogue/bard that buffs, skills, spells, and heals a little. So don't overlap with one of those too much.
Backstory suggestions:
1. Currently, the party is in a monastery occupied by monks who are mostly, aesthetically, vikings but very calm and disinclined toward violence. You could play a monk who has decided to journey with the party and help them in their bid to keep the material plane safe.
2. The monastery is located on a mountainside a little above a small, poor, rustic village. The villagers are mostly suspicious of the monks and the monastery, partially because the monastery only seems to be there sometimes and is gone at other times. The party will be conversing with these villagers soon. You could play a villager who, for one reason or another, has the skills, courage, and drive to join the party.
3. Not my favorite option but you could be some sort of adventurer who ends up with the party due to a magical mishap or other exotic adventure.
Ask me if you want more information/ideas on any of these options.
What builds are truly formidable for clearing a dungeon? How can you function with a small party? Let's find out!
I call for teams of two level 6 PCs to race against other teams to see who make it through dungeons the fastest. I will randomly generate a dungeon and pick a start point and end point within the dungeon. Then you will see how quickly you can make it through the dungeon, counting everything in terms of number of rounds, whether or not you are in combat. Then you will get a 24 hr rest/heal/shop/craft period that doesn't count against your time then run a second dungeon. Whichever team has the best time for getting one team member to the end of the second dungeon wins.
I will be looking for at least two teams with three probably being my preferred number. Teams ready to go first will be given preference, as will people that I know are reliable play-by-posters or seem to have a good track record. You can make a team of two characters by yourself, both controlled by you, if you want but preference goes to teams of two players.
After builds have been made, I will tell you the dungeon motif (Aberrant, Giant, Undead, Vermin, Desert, Underdark, Arcane, Fire, Cold, Abyssal, or Infernal) after which you will have 24 hrs IC and OOC to make final preparations of crafting, shopping, prepping spells, or casting buffs of duration 1 hr or more.
Character creation rules:
20 pt buy
Paizo races of 20 RP or less
Two traits, one of which may be a campaign trait
One bonus teamwork feat
Pre-crafting is allowed if one member of your party is able to perform the crafting
Blood money is banned
Each PC may bring one pet/minion/undead, etc into the maze and then summon more thereafter if you like
Play details:
Each team will play with me on its own Discord server.
Maps will be on google slides.
Each team has 24 hrs real time from whenever I update to take their next set of actions. Whatever actions (e.g. standard, move, etc) are remaining after the 24 hr mark are lost when I next update the round.
One player may control both PCs in their team, if they like, but preference will be given to teams of two characters and two players.
Dungeon settings:
Unless otherwise stated, ceilings are 30 ft high.
Dungeon level 4.
Dungeon Motif will be set by rolling 1d11 to choose from Aberrant, Giant, Undead, Vermin, Desert, Underdark, Arcane, Fire, Cold, Abyssal, and Infernal.
Map Style: Standard
Grid: Square
Dungeon layout: Rectangle
Dungeon size: Small
Peripheral egress: No
Stairs: No
Room layout: Scattered
Room size: Medium
Doors: Standard
Corridors: Errant
Remove deadends?: Some
I recommend generating a couple of dungeons before hand to get a feel for what the site will throw at you.
Background skills are amazing and help flesh out characters. But there are far more underused feats than skills. Hence I've seen several people discussing the idea of background feats and PF 2e essentially has that built in. So I present my codified system of background feats.
Feel free to comment here or in the google doc with a list of feats you think should be added to the examples! Questions or suggestions are also welcome.
One thing you can discuss is if anyone wants to re-spec slightly seeing the party composition. Talk more about your party roles but also what interactions you may have already had with the other party members here in the dungeon.
You like your job well enough. The pay is small and sporadic. A silver piece here. A well-chewed shoe there. The work isn't hard and food and lodging are included. Sure the hours are long. The boss doesn't even know your name. Yeah you don't see the sun very often. The lodging might be a dank cave. And the food often comes in sharp metal packaging that can make it hurt to chew on. But all in all, being a monster guarding an evil wizard's lair is a pretty good gig! It sure beats being a lone monster that adventurers just stumble onto and gang up on in the woods…
Game description:
This will be a monster campaign! You start as monsters guarding the lair of an evil wizard. But soon things go wrong and the wizard is out of the picture and you're left with the dungeon on your hands. Adventurers still come looking for trouble from time to time and it's the only home you have! As you defend your home and explore the surrounding area, you slowly piece together what happened to your late boss. You learn of a threat to the very existence of the world itself. Which is a bummer because you're rather attached to the world. So you'll just have to go and save it!
Character creation mechanics:
For the most part, your stats will be the same as those of the monsters you chose from the bestiary (HP and background skills being the main differences as explained below). Whatever skill ranks, racial bonuses, feats, etc that monster has it what you have. Those stats can then be modified as you take templates, class levels, or grow into a more powerful but very similar monster (e.g. a ghoul becoming a draugr) such that you still have continuity of the same character.
You will start off as CR 2 monsters. You may apply non-mythic templates as long as you keep a net CR of no more than 2 and as long as you have no more than a total of three zero or negative CR templates. No humanoid (or monstrous humanoid) creature types!
You may play any non-humanoid monster that could reasonably work for an evil wizard in her lair in the woods and then go adventuring. So poltergeist is out, for example, because it is bound to a specific site. But whatever you play must be capable of communicating with the other party members. So you have to be capable of speaking some language or telepathy. And the party will need to have some language in common.
To help with that, you get two background skills ranks for every CR you have. Max ranks in a skill will be based on your CR or HD, whichever is higher.
You will want to consider level-up possibilities when you choose your monster. Monsters may take class levels (with each level counting as one CR) but class levels may never be more than half your CR. You might want to play a monster that has a power progression already, such as most elementals, dragons, etc. You can take and re-spec as we level to make things work out. For example, your young blue dragon monk 2 (CR 11) can become a young (-1) adult blue dragon (CR 12). There will be a lot of options for how to do your progression. But your character shouldn't change so much as to disrupt the concept. E.g. your advanced dryad warpriest 4 shouldn't become a vampire. In addition, there should be a match between what your monster is RPing, learning, practicing, how its changing, etc that matches the mechanical change upon leveling up to a higher CR.
Players should be ready for the mechanical work of building and playing a monster. It will be significantly different than our classic PCs and will require some level of attention to detail. Players who aren’t ready to keep track of their monsters’ abilities won’t be well-suited for this game. Players who like mechanical challenges and building well will do well. A certain amount of power gaming will be fine as long as the RP does not suffer for it. Occasionally, an overpowered combo or element may arise which I will ban as necessary, e.g. the blood money spell is banned. When this comes up, I will just discuss it with the player(s) involved and we will find a solution that is as satisfactory as possible.
Banned templates: Class templates (e.g. wizard creature), mythic templates, anything that comes up as game-breaking
Allowed templates: All paizo and some 3rd party upon request and GM review.
No starting equipment except for what the bestiary says you would have.
When you take your first class level, you may take traits.
The first hit die that you gain you get full hp. After that, you get the avg rounded up (d8->5, d10-> 6, etc) at each hit die. Monsters don't get favored class bonuses.
Party roles:
Some party roles will be a lot easier to fill than others as monsters. Here are some important roles to think about how your party will fill them.
Face (very important and very difficult, would probably require disguise or some sort of polymorph effect)
Healer (important and difficult)
Utility caster (somewhat important and difficult)
Controller
Tank
Striker
Scout
Blaster
If everyone is a tank, striker, or scout, things will be very difficult indeed. If yours is the only submission capable of disguising yourself as a human and asking about the legend of the purple sorcerer in town, your chances of being selected go up. That said, if four other people have selected party faces, maybe you should fill another role.
Setting:
The entire game will take place in a homebrew setting of large river valley about 100 miles across and 150 miles long surrounded by mountains. The terrains here are mountains, plains, forest, swamp, underground, underwater, and urban. There are a number of small farming villages, a few larger towns, and two large cities. The cities tend to have more law and order but there is very little presence of a single legal authority over the entire region, so it's a little like the Wild West in that sense.
The standard Golarion pantheon will be in play but you are welcome to develop a homebrew deity as long as you run things by me first.
Character description/backstory:
This game will have very weird PCs, both mechanically and descriptively. There will be many weird, odd, cool, and funny moments. But like any game, it will need interesting characters who are motivated both in and out of character.
So your backstory should explain 1. how you came to be in the employ of an evil wizard guarding her lair, 2. what your motivations are, 3. what the personality, quirks, habits, etc of your character are, 4. what your character looks like, and 5. a way that you could see your character developing over the course of the game. Hint: Eating everything, acquiring power, and murder are all pretty uninteresting motivations to this GM. Having those are fine but there should be other, more interesting elements as well.. Second hint: Becoming more powerful is not interesting as a potential character development arc.
A few examples of potentially interesting motivations:
To make a safe place for outcasts
To find a group with which one can feel at home
To be well-liked and popular
A few examples of character developments:
Learning to trust
Becoming less willing to trust
Overcoming an extreme lack of self-confidence
Overcoming an extreme excess of self-confidence
Alignment:
All alignments allowed. That said, good alignments will have some trouble fitting in with monsters that might eat a significant portion of the creatures they encounter. On the flip side, being excessively evil will also be a problem.
Just like any game, party conflict has to be kept tightly under control. Any action antagonistic toward another player needs to be run by me via PM first. You want to steal their sandwich? I'll probably ok it, depending on the situation, since that could be fun for everyone. You want to steal and sell their most important possession? No way.
Additionally, the game would get old very fast if you alienated every creature you came across. Loot alone would be a big problem. Places that are easy enough for you to raid probably don't have much to loot but places with great loot will probably kill you if you try to raid them. And the game just won't work if you can't have alliances/conversations/business transactions/friendships with some npcs, including humanoids.
Your alignment doesn't necessarily have to match what is listed for you in the bestiary but you would have to have a good backstory to explain and make up for the fact that your young lantern archon is CE.
Evilish acts that aren’t going too far: Animating dead, casting evil descriptor spells, killing an objectionable individual who is causing problems for you, killing something in a fair fight and eating it, etc.
Evil acts that are going too far: Any sexual violence (not in my game, maybe someone else’s), violence toward humanoid children, completely senseless murder of intelligent, non-threatening creatures.
Good alignment constraints that would be going too far: Objecting to ever fighting anything, objecting to ever eating a foe that was already dead, objecting anyone in the party ever lying, stealing, or sneaking.
Game expectations:
I will post at least once a weekday and occasionally on the weekends unless something comes up that prevents it, in which case I will communicate that, almost always ahead of time. If you look at my track record on the boards, I’m pretty committed to keeping games moving forward. I expect the same from my players.
I'm a fairly relaxed GM who mostly plays things by the rulebook but doesn't mind some rule of cool here and there. When I mess up, I'm happy to have it pointed out to me and I'll do my best to fix it.
Posts should be descriptive, respond to what other players do, and push the action forward.
Players will manage their own loot. As GM, I will provide a spreadsheet in which you can do this and occasional reminders but that is all.
Players will get to deck out the dungeon they live in and use it as a permanent base, inviting other monsters to come live there, placing traps, etc. I will not introduce Yet Another Subsystem(TM) but instead will allow players to buy traps, materials to build traps, beds, etc for gp. Where I’m already aware of prices for something, I will use that. Where I’m not, players can either let me know where to find the price or I will rule something I deem reasonable. There may occasionally be challenges such as “there’s not enough food for this many monsters living together” but we’ll solve such problems with RP decisions, skills, etc, not a subsytem for managing kingdom resources. I’ve gone that route (e.g. in Kingmaker) and it can be fun but it’s not what I’m looking for in a monsters game.
Leveling will be done according to XP earned and as if the party were equivalent to the same level PCs. This means leveling up will be fairly frequent since the party will probably be more powerful than PCs of level = CR.
Maps will be on google slides.
How to make a complete submission:
Create an alias.
Provide a detailed statblock in the same style as the bestiary. If I can’t undestand why your stats are the way they are, then we’ll have to fix that.
Put a tagline into alias that includes AC T FF, HP, Saves, Init, Senses, Limited Use Abilities, and Botted Attack.
Include an interesting background as discussed in the background portion.
DEFENSE AC 50, touch 35, flat-footed 42 (+8 Dex, +15 natural, –1 size, +9 insight, +9 profane)
hp 594 (36d10+396)
Fort +33, Ref +20, Will +29
DR 25/cold iron and good; Immune electricity, poison, water-based-spells and effects; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 38
OFFENSE Speed 20 ft., swim 60 ft.
Melee +5 unholy mighty cleaving trident +54/+49/+44/+39 (2d6+18/19–20) or 2 slams +48 (1d8+13)
Ranged +5 unholy mighty cleaving trident +49 (2d6+18/19–20)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks water mastery
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 27th)
Constant—speak with animals (aquatic only), true seeing, unholy aura(DC 27)
At will—blasphemy (DC 26), charm monster (DC 23), control water, create water, deeper darkness, desecrate, detect good, detect law, detect thoughts (DC 21), fear (DC 23), greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), telekinesis (DC 24), tongues (self only), unhallow, unholy blight (DC 23), water breathing
3/day—summon (level 9, 1d6 shrroths, 1d4 nalfeshnees, 1d2 mariliths, or 1 balor 100%)
1/day—enervation, feeblemind (DC 24), summon (level 9, 72 HD of aquatic creatures 100%)
Spells Prepared (CL 20th)
9th—mage’s disjunction (DC 27), soul bind (DC 27), teleportation circle, time stop
8th—antipathy (DC 26), dimensional lock, horrid wilting (DC 26, x2), prismatic wall (DC 26)
7th—control weather, finger of death (DC 25), limited wish, mass hold person (DC 25), prismatic spray (DC 25)
6th—geas/quest (DC 24), flesh to stone (DC 24), mage’s lucubration, mass suggestion (DC 24), repulsion (DC 24)
5th—dominate person (DC 23), mind fog (DC 23), magic jar (DC 23), wall of force, waves of fatigue
4th—bestow curse (DC 22), confusion (DC 22), contagion (DC 22), lesser globe of invulnerability, stoneskin, wall of ice (DC 22)
3rd—blink, lightning bolt (DC 21), lightning bolt (DC 21), ray of exhaustion (DC 21), sleet storm, tongues
2nd—blur (DC 20), bull’s strength, fog cloud, shatter (DC 20), summon swarm, web (DC 20)
1st—magic missile, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement (x2), true strike (x2)
0 (at will)—detect magic, flare (DC 18), light, resistance
STATISTICS Str 37, Dex 27, Con 33, Int 26, Wis 29, Cha 28
Base Atk +36; CMB +50; CMD 86 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Alertness, Cleave, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Critical Focus, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Heighten Spell, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (trident), Improved Initiative, Maximize Spell, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Sickening Critical, Weapon Focus (trident)
Skills Acrobatics +47, Bluff +48, Diplomacy +48, Escape Artist +47, Knowledge (arcana) +47, Knowledge (geography) +44, Knowledge (local) +44, Knowledge (nature) +44, Knowledge (planes) +47, Knowledge(religion) +44, Perception +60, Sense Motive +52, Stealth +43, Swim +60; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Aquan, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ amphibious, planar omniscience
Gear Embrace of the Uncaring Sea
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Water Mastery (Ex)
Dagon gains a +2 competence bonus on attack and damage rolls and a +2 competence bonus to AC if both he and his opponent are touching water
GEAR
Unique Item: Embrace of the Uncaring Sea
Dagon’s unique weapon is a +5 unholy mighty cleaving trident.
On a successful critical hit, the target must make a DC 39 Fortitudesave or begin to drown. This affects even creatures that can ordinarily breathe underwater or are under the effects of a water breathingspell.
The target is allowed a new saving throw each round. The drowning continues until either the target is dead, a successful save is made, or the effect is successfully dispelled (CL 30th). Even if the effect is successfully removed, another critical hit starts it once again. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +10 racial bonus when used by Dagon.
I'll edit the profile of this GM alias to reflect clarifications arising from player's questions/comments.
Recruitment will be open until at least July 2nd at 5:00 pm EDT. I may or may not choose to extend it depending on circumstances. When recruitment closes, the campaign will begin immediately.
Interesting idea about fighting Calardan, rorek. I could be down for that. I think it would be kind of fun, though a huge advantage, to build for fighting a specific, known boss.
Sometimes you have a mechanical character concept as a player or battle concept as a GM you just want to take out for a spin. In the past, I've run a couple quick battles like this one that became two or this one that we ran twice because of TPKs. Those have been fun for me to try out various things on the GM screen side of things.
I enjoy those and could do another one or two but would also like to experiment some on the player side. So who would be interested in taking turns playing/gming something like this? All details are up in the air regarding build rules, level, and PF 1e or 5e. Most of those would simply be decided by the GM of the current one-shot but we should probably have a consensus regarding game system (PF would be my vote). Lmk if you're interested, what system you'd like to play, and any other thoughts.
Our party lost two players over the holidays and could use some more! Current party is barbarian/fighter and barbarian/wizard. Since we are at level 3, applicants an start with 200 gp and 1 uncommon item of their choice.
The band of adventurers traveled merrily to their next destination, spending the night in the Blue Ogre inn. It was a quaint, typical sort of place with good drinks and warm food. There, they heard rumors of the Elemental Forge hidden in a cavern nearby. The locals said this artifact could bind the elements together to create powerful magics but no one who entered the cavern had ever come back. Occasionally, bizzarre earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and forest fires plagued the area. But the locals put up with it, assuming that was simply their lot in life. But one old man in the corner shook his head. "No siree. It's gettin' worse. Somethin's happenin' with the Forge, I tell ya!"
Hey all,
I'm looking to run a classic dungeon crawl. Start at a tavern, clear the dungeon, beat the boss, get the loot, come back to the tavern. This is intended to be short and sweet.
Setting:
This is an intentionally classic (i.e. generic) Pathfinder setting. This nation is ruled by a king, inhabited mostly by humans, has a temperate climate, and tends to worship the standard Golarion pantheon.
Character creation rules:
Level 6
20 point buy
Standard wealth by level
Two traits
Background skills
Full hit die at level 1. Half of hit die max+1 for subsequent levels.
Races: Core
Classes: See below
Item creation feats and crafting ahead of time for self and party allowed
Backstory: Doesn't need to be long but should be interesting, flavorful, and give me an idea of who your character is, what motivates them, and what kind of interactions they're likely to have with the party. A good backstory will also make it clear why a character cares about the crisis surrounding the Elemental Forge.
Since this is just a short fun dungeon crawl, I’m looking for a specific mix of classes/party roles:
Arcane caster: Played by an arcanist.
Divine caster: Played by an oracle.
Skills/traps: Played by an inquisitor
Fighter-type role: Played by a Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, UC monk, Ranger, Cavalier, or Samurai
These are the roles to be filled by applicants. Recruitment will be closed on November 29th, 5 pm EST unless revision of that date is required.
Dungeon crawl format:
There will be four main combat encounters in four main chambers before you reach the boss fight at the end. The boss will be a level 10 NPC with 4 minions of CR 5 each on a dynamic terrain. I expect this to be somewhat challenging and potentially deadly but I don’t intend to make it excruciatingly difficult. There will be traps (distributed in a reasonable, non-brutal way to avoid slowdown of gameplay), puzzles, and loot along the way. Unlike a normal dungeon crawl, it won’t be completely up to you when the next fight starts. Neither the monsters nor the dungeon itself is dumb enough to sit and wait to be slain.
Expectations:
Everyone should post at least 1/weekday and 1/weekend unless they let me know that a certain time is bad for them. If this doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you already like to do, this game probably isn’t for you. Posts (in general, not every single one) should involve reaction to what is happening or other characters are doing, internal monologue, flavorful description, and a hook or push that moves the action forward.
Terrible example:
Wizarding Tom casts haste.
Good example:
Wizarding Tom reaches quickly for a pouch at his belt and pulls out a small black shaving. This had better help or we're done for... That minotaur looks angry! C'mon now... focus... focus... The root glows brightly as power surges into Tom and his allies. Invigorated, he calls out to Barbarian Bog "Tear him a new one, Bob!"
Because of an error with Paizo's site, I can't currently edit campaign info to list maps, etc. So this alias will have links to those things.
Added to campaign info:
Text of advertisement:
HELP WANTED: Sackbury Mining Corporation
200 brenins will be awarded to the person or persons who resolve a rash of crimes occurring in Pentrefan. Mining equipment has been vandalized and several workers have been assaulted. The efforts of bodyguards, mercenaries, and investigators are all welcome. Report to SMC local office in Pentrefan for further information.
Note that Pentrefan is about fifty miles from Dinas Diwydiant along a somewhat arduous but commonly-used mountain road. Some coaches travel between the two cities (5 gp for a one-way ticket). Supply wagons travel more commonly along the route and would take a passenger for 1 gp. A brenin is the name of the platinum coin inscribed with the image of King Aeron, the last king of Haernwlad. During his reign, he transitioned the nation peacefully into a republic where land-holders elect the ruling body.
Let's figure out a couple things regarding what type of game we'd like to play. I'm thinking we should discuss preferred length, posting rate, story elements, pillar elements, and potential rule variants.
Length: I'd prefer something a bit on the longer side. All three of us post frequently and consistently so I think we could cover a lot of ground.
Rate: I'd like to have us post every weekday and once on the weekend was a minimum. I'll usually post every day and multiple times on weekdays but I can't commit to always doing that.
Story elements: I'm interested to hear from you guys first on this. Then I'll craft something around it if we do homebrew or suggest something published if we go that route.
Pillar elements: I like to keep all three pillars involved. Both of you have seen some of my weird exploration puzzles I like to invent so let me know now if you like or dislike them! I'm still tuning exactly how much info to provide on those so I usually provide too little then fill in the gaps as I notice them.
Rules: I like 20 pt buy and backround skills. I'm open to other options like combat stamina, feat taxes, etc. If we ran an AP, I'd probably have you guys do 25 pt buy.
You wake in the city of Waterdeep, a cold sweat on your forehead. Whatever business you had planned today is wiped from your mind by last night’s dream. Visions of blood, a heinous sacrifice, and a maw full of crooked fangs. Then the glowing white face of a terrifyingly beautiful woman floats into view. She speaks softly ”You can end this. Find the lowest point in the city. My blessing will be with you. And I will send others to join you. They'll meet you at the sewer grate behind the Laughing Giant.” Then you woke, feeling more capable than you ever have before, ready to head to the general store mentioned by the Lady.
You wake in the city of Waterdeep, a cold sweat on your forehead. Whatever business you had planned today is wiped from your mind by last night’s dream. Visions of blood, a heinous sacrifice, and a maw full of crooked fangs. Then the glowing white face of a terrifyingly beautiful woman floats into view. She speaks softly ”You can end this. Find the lowest point in the city. My blessing will be with you.” Then you woke, feeling more capable than you ever have before.
Hey all! Who’s up for some 5e fun? I’m looking to run a 5e homebrew gestalt game with a party of 4-5 players. Part 1 will run from level 1 to level 5, guaranteed. After that, I'm going to reassess whether or not we have the interest/momentum to tackle part 2 from levels 6 to 10. There was an interest check thread about this earlier as well as some playtest combat.
Gestalt rules in 5e:
My adaptation of gestalt rules for 5e:
1. Take two classes at every level. When two classes grant the same type of benefit, take whichever one is better.
2. No multiclassinig. You pick two classes and you stick with them. This is mostly to save headache for my first time trying to adapt gestalt for 5e.
3. You only get extra attack when a class grants it (e.g. 5 levels of paladin). You only get additional extra attacks if you have the fighter levels that grant it.
4. Unlike normal 5e multiclass spellcasting, you gain spell slots independently from each class. So a bard 2/sorcerer 2 has 3+3 first level spell slots instead of 4 first level and 3 2nd level. This will provide caster/caster builds with lots of splots but won't allow them to get higher level splots at lower levels than normal.
5. Again, gestalt counts differently from multiclassing so you don't have to meet the ability score prerequisites of your classes since you are not multiclassed.
A. HP: A wizard 4/barbarian 4 with +3 con would have 4d12 hit dice and 12+7+7+7+4*3=45 hp
B. You could choose class skill proficiencies from the lists available to both classes but you could only choose as many class skill proficiencies as the number granted by the class that grants the most. A wizard 1/sorcerer 1 gets 2 skill proficiencies from its class. A wizard 1/rogue 1 gets 4 skill proficiencies from its class.
C. Weapons and armor proficiencies: Pretty obvious here. You have any proficiency listed under either class.
D. Saving throws: You get the saving throw proficiencies of both classes! So a bard 1/wizard 1 is proficient in dex, int, wis, and cha saves.
E. Fighting styles: You get one from each class but you can't benefit from picking the same one twice, e.g. fighter 2/paladin 2 picks defense and defense. He gets a total of +1 ac.
F. ASIs: You get ASIs from each class at specific levels. If both classes grant an ASI at a level, you only get one ASI from that level. So a wizard 20/bard 20 only has 5 ASIs but a rogue 20/fighter 20 has 8 ASIs.
G. Equipment: You get the starting equipment of both classes.
Character creation:
Point buy. Max hp at level 1. Avg rounded up at subsequent levels. Starting equipment of both classes.
All official 5e sources allowed. UA potentially allowed upon a case-by-case basis.
Background and character description:
Background: Obviously, fill out the standard 5e background elements including your bond, flaw, etc (which can be customized). Why are you in Waterdeep? What are you doing here? How did you respond to the angelic vision? Why would you agree to help defeat a demonic cult?
Character description: Describe your character's appearance and mannerisms. What does your character like? What does he/she dislike? What kinds of people/behaviors are he/she more or less likely to get along with?
Example post: Give me an example post of your character interacting with an NPC in Waterdeep.
None of the above needs to be lengthy. Just show me the key information.
Posting Expectations:
Players are expected to post 1/day on weekdays and once over the weekend. If there's nothing for you to react to, post your current thoughts in the discussion, some internal dialogue of your character, something. As GM, I'll hold to this standard as a bare minimum. If you're going to be away for a little bit, let me know in advance and it'll be fine. Uncommunicated absences will cause significant problems. If this becomes a pattern for you, I'll PM you once about this then ask you to leave the game and get a replacement character if I have to.
Be a good team player both mechanically and in storytelling. React to the posts of others. Push the action forward. Act in the best interests of the team.
Logistics:
Use this character template for your submission.
Maps will use google slides. Group inventory and XP tracking will use google sheets.
How to get accepted:
Come up with an interesting character concept that makes sense as to why you have the two classes that you have and seems like it would be fun and/or cool to see interacting and working with other party members.
Make a cool build that will solidly contribute to helping your team achieve its goals. I'd love to see your two classes synergize really well to fulfill a party role.
Tell me a bit about yourself. How long have you been on the boards? How often do you tend to check your campaigns and post? Do you have a favorite campaign or moment from a campaign I could check out to get a feel for your style? How do you like to play?
Submit multiple characters if you want to. It certainly won't hurt your chances of getting one of them accepted.
Recruitment will close at 5 pm EST on August 20th, 2018. Gameplay will start immediately after I make my selections.
You enter the town at dusk. Things are all too quiet here. That's why you were sent here in the first place. The authorities found losing communication with an entire town quite... troubling... The vibrant colors of the flowers lining the streets testify to the recent tender loving care of the town's absent residents... The lonely wind whistles through the trees and buildings unaccompanied by the typical sounds...
Map up. Each square represents 5 feet. Buildings are 10 feet high and require a DC 12 athletics check to get on top of (no check required if you have a rope rigged). Everything but the road is difficult terrain. The road thin roads are consistently 5 feet across while the thicker roads are consistently 10 feet across. There is water in the central fountain. The doors to the buildings are closed (interact with an object to open if unlocked).
I've got some long-running reactions I'm working on this week and would love to run another quick boss fight in 5e but with gestalt rules! Level 3 characters.
Anyone up for this? I'm going to just throw you into the fight and I expect I'll post three or four times a day until the fight is over.
By gestalt rules, I mean the rules I've been working on in this interest thread for a campaign. Right now, I just have a little time for a single fight.
Take the starting equipment from both classes. Point buy. ALL UA allowed. If something's broken, I'm not going to worry about it for just one fight. Bring on the cheese, if that's what you want!
I will start this as soon as I have a party. Just looking to mess around and have some fun. I don't know exactly how to challenge a party of 5e gestalters so I'm making the fight pretty stiff. We'll see how it works out.
I love playing around with rules to try out new builds and abilities so I think it would be fun to run a 5e adventure using gestalt rules. I know that 5e is intentionally mean to be stream-lined and have less room for min-maxing but I, as I said, I enjoy monkeying around with things to see what happens.
My adaptation of gestalt rules for 5e:
1. Take two classes at every level. When two classes grant the same type of benefit, take whichever one is better.
2. No multiclassinig. You pick two classes and you stick with them. This is mostly to save headache for my first time trying to adapt gestalt for 5e.
3. You only get extra attack when a class grants it (e.g. 5 levels of paladin). You only get additional extra attacks if you have the fighter levels that grant it.
4. Unlike normal 5e multiclass spellcasting, you gain spell slots independently from each class. So a bard 2/sorcerer 2 has 3+3 first level spell slots instead of 4 first level and 3 2nd level. This will provide caster/caster builds with lots of splots but won't allow them to get higher level splots at lower levels than normal.
Would start at level 1/1.
Miscellaneous examples/rules:
1. HP: A wizard 4/barbarian 4 with +3 con would have 4d12 hit dice and 12+7+7+7+4*3=45 hp
2. You could choose class skill proficiencies from the lists available to both classes but you could only choose as many class skill proficiencies as the number granted by the class that grants the most. A wizard 1/sorcerer 1 gets 2 skill proficiencies from its class. A wizard 1/rogue 1 gets 4 skill proficiencies from its class.
3. Weapons and armor proficiencies: Pretty obvious here. You have any proficiency listed under either class.
4. Saving throws: You get the saving throw proficiencies of both classes! So a bard 1/wizard 1 is proficient in dex, int, wis, and cha saves.
5. Fighting styles: You get one from each class but you can't benefit from picking the same one twice, e.g. fighter 2/paladin 2 picks defense and defense. He gets a total of +1 ac.
6. ASIs: You get ASIs from each class at specific levels. If both classes grant an ASI at a level, you only get one ASI from that level. So a wizard 20/bard 20 only has 5 ASIs but a rogue 20/fighter 20 has 8 ASIs.
7. Equipment: You get the starting equipment of both classes.
I won't be ready to run this for at least a month or two when some of my current games finish up but I figured I'd float the idea and see if people would be interested and discuss ideas for how to fine-tune these rules.
My (fairly safe) guess is that the class that gets used in the most builds is fighter.
Settlements and trading posts near the barbaric lands have seen unusual numbers of attacks by orcs and other raiders. Many unprepared villages have suffered immense casualties. Behind the attacks, a cold, calculating plan draws every day people into a game they never agreed to play. After a desperate defense of their home, a plucky group of villagers tracked the messages coordinating a pair of orc attacks back to a hideout full of illusions. After finally fighting their way past the lies, they captured an agent of the Elven council. Instead of killing him to avenge their fallen, they dragged their captive to the authorities to get answers.
Hey all! I recently ran a one-shot in which a group of villagers defended their town against an orc warband, only to find it was all part of something much bigger. Some of the characters retired (for in-character and IRL reasons) while two players and I decided to build a campaign off of this. The players seek to do something about the grander scheme they have stumbled upon. We currently have a shaman and a skills-focused archer. We could use some additional muscle or arcane power packaged in characters who never expected to play the hero.
Level 6
Races: Human, Dwarf, Halfling, Gillman, Ratfolk, Elf, Orc, Half-orc, Half-elf
Classes: Any paizo including unchained (optional).
20 point buy
2 traits or 3 and one drawback
2000 gp starting gold. The characters are currently well behind WBL due to their origins as villagers but that is not a long-term arrangement. There will be plenty of loot.
Background Details:
Characters should either be from the Bishopric of Helm (see Setting Details) or have some other emotional attachment to the Bishopric. Provide some explanation as to how an everyday person, such as yourself, has developed the powers of a 6th level character. Also explain how your character got wrapped up in the Elves’ plot. Perhaps you were one of the guards that is escorting the party and the captured elf. Perhaps you're a villager who's home was also attacked and you came to the capital looking for answers or help.
Setting Details:
This is a homebrew setting. The Golarion pantheon is in use but homebrew religions are also welcome. The Kingdom of Iustia is composed largely of humans and a few other races. It shares an uneasy peace with the other great power on the continent, the United Elven Lands, which is ruled by a council of elders. The Bishopric of Helm is a small, semi-sovereign state that emerged as a diplomatic solution to a dispute between the two great powers. The Bishopric borders the untamed barbaric lands of orcs, goblins, and other “uncivilized” races.
Expectations:
Frequency: Post once per weekday and once per weekend. Communicate if an exception is upcoming.
Style: Be descriptive. Acknowledge and react to elements from other characters’ posts, and push the action forward.
Communication: Let me know when I mess something up or if you have an idea about how to improve the game.
PM me “Pawns can be promoted” so I know you read all of this and care to play.
I will add a campaign journal to my tagline when I finish getting it together. This will have a world map and some other details for those who are interested.
Recruitment will be open until July 10th, 5:00 EST.
Here's the discussion thread! Mira has craft wondrous item so you can assume that you got all your wondrous items at half price. Just list what you want so she can make sure she could hit the required spellcraft check taking 10.
"Darkstone." the old crone cackled. "No one has been there since my granny was a child. And fer good reason. But if ye make it back alive with the Crucible, I'll make it worth yer while. And ye can rest assured that if ye root out the evil there, the land will thank ye fer it too." Your skin crawls as the hideous old lady explains why her messengers brought you to her thatched hut in the woods. You doubt her ability to pay you until she makes platinum coins dance before your eyes. Her narrow old frame is racked with laughter at the look of surprise and excitement on your face. "Tut tut, dearies, Not 'til ye bring me the Crucible."
Hey all! I find myself wanting to run something fun of relatively short length. What could be more fun than a classic-style, one-shot dungeon crawl played by gestalt rules?
Build details:
Level: 4
Stats: 25 point buy
Classes: Any Paizo (maybe 3rd party upon request)
Races: Any non-flying Paizo of 20 RP or lower (maybe 3rd party upon request)
Traits: 2
Drawbacks: Sure but it won't get you an extra trait
Wealth: Standard (6000 gp)
Pre-crafting: Encouraged. You may also pre-craft for party members. You must be able to succeed on the craft check by taking 10.
Character backgrounds:
A short and simple background will suffice for a one-shot. I just want a basic, brief description of who your character is, why they would go on this adventure, what kind of things they like, and what kind of things they don't like.
The most important thing is that your character is someone that you, the other players, and myself can come to understand, know, and appreciate over the brief course of a one-shot.
Given that this is a one-shot, I highly encourage the selected players to adlib their shared background.
Rogue/Cleric: "Remember when we fought that wizard?"
Fighter/Mgaus: "Oh yeah the one who had a really weird thing for summoning horses and killed Marty."
The more you can play off each other's characters, the better.
I would like players to be able to post once per day on weekdays and once over the weekend. Extra is gravy. I will post at least that often and probably more. Recruitment open until 6/18 5:00 pm EST.
Dare to descend into the Underdark! Discover the fascinating and horrific secrets of that hidden land and the plots twisting within it.
I'm going to run the published 5e adventure Out of the Abyss. Submit level one characters with point buy. More details in campaign info about posting expectations and what I want to see in submissions. I will update campaign info as good questions on here make me realize things I should clarify.
I love 5e and GM or play a lot of homebrew adventures for it. I have played LMoP and am playing CoS (no spoilers!) but I'd like to try out running a game from an adventure. I haven't decided which adventure to buy so I'm looking for interest. Disclaimer: This is not a democratic process but I do want input.
Currently, I'm thinking Out of the Abyss would be awesome but I've also heard great things about Storm King's Thunder. Lay it on me. What do you recommend/want to play?
PM me if you have an idea of something I can be doing better!
You've wandered through this cursed temple with little resistance along the way. Just snakes. Lots and lots of snakes. You've dispatched them easily enough but their writhing, desperate to bite you, is unnerving. You find yourself in a hallway outside some jade stone doors. Suddenly, you hear a noise behind you. The stone ceiling of the hallway behind you is crashing down, the sections furthest from you falling first. What do you do?
You can do whatever you want this round. The first thing you'll need to do next round is go through the jade doors. I'll provide a map once you open them.
1. Once two players agree on a course of action in gameplay, I will assume the party takes that course of action.
2. Please post consistently once per weekday and once over the weekend, with a few, occasional exceptions. Even if it seems like there is nothing for you to do (e.g. not your turn in combat) there is something you can post. Post your character's reaction to another's actions, comment on a recent event in the discussion, etc. Do something to keep yourself and everyone else engaged. In addition, ensure your posts have a hook or push for other players or myself to keep the action moving forward.
A. Example post with no push "John finishes off the last ogre with a mighty blow to the abdomen."
B. Example post with a push: "John finishes off the last ogre with a mighty blow to the abdomen. With blood still dripping from his face, he turns to his comrades. Let's search their corpses and get out of here."
3. Related to both 1 and 2, use the discussion thread a lot. Feel free to plan ahead so that gameplay flows smoothly, e.g. "My character doesn't know X yet but once he does he will want to do Y.
4. FYI, I update mostly around 10 am EST and 7 pm EST on weekdays and at some point during Saturday and Sunday.
These smugglers are more capable than most. They've successfully resisted and escaped arrest by conventional police on multiple occasions. Now the Shadows are sending you to end the problem. Intel says the leader of the smugglers is a wily fellow with magical power. How will you take this ring of criminals down?
You make your way to Lopul, a modest city on the famed Silken Way. As you enter the city, your nostrils fill with the scent of cook smoke and camels, a welcome change of pace after traveling through the desert. The small brick huts and tents clustered around the Pool of Sihbon are occasionally interrupt by larger buildings: the storehouses of merchants, the grand tents of chieftains, the tower of the mages guild, and dominating all, the palace of the Sheik. Modest compared to those you've seen in larger cities, the palace manages to impress as the grandest building in Lopul. Your can't keep your gaze from straying to the warehouse on the northern edge of town. Your dossier indicates this as the location of the smugglers.
As the red sun sets over the desert, many travelers search for lodging while some set out, braving the darkness of night to escape the heat of the day.
[url=https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LGvYDwe5VEg8qB74Tvd5MhOgJC6t7g10Eaixb8cE8oY/edit?usp=sharing]Map of central Lopul[url]. Smuggler's storehouse is marked SH on the map. Your location is simply marked by the letters "PT."
1. Once two players agree on a course of action in gameplay, I will assume the party takes that course of action.
2. Please post consistently once per weekday and once over the weekend, with a few, occasional exceptions. Even if it seems like there is nothing for you to do (e.g. not your turn in combat) there is something you can post. Post your character's reaction to another's actions, comment on a recent event in the discussion, etc. Do something to keep yourself and everyone else engaged. In addition, ensure your posts have a hook or push for other players or myself to keep the action moving forward.
A. Example post with no pushL "John finishes off the last ogre with a mighty blow to the abdomen."
B. Example post with a push: "John finishes off the last ogre with a mighty blow to the abdomen. With blood still dripping from his face, he turns to his comrades. Let's search their corpses and get out of here."
3. Related to both 1 and 2, use the discussion thread a lot. Feel free to plan ahead so that gameplay flows smoothly, e.g. "My character doesn't know X yet but once he does he will want to do Y.
4. FYI, I update mostly around 10 am EST and 7 pm EST on weekdays and at some point during Saturday and Sunday.
