Cannon Golem

Zerombr's page

Organized Play Member. 699 posts (2,263 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters. 9 aliases.



The Exchange

I've been listening to a Pendragon actual play podcast, the campaign seems very interesting and I think I know at least one other who may be interested in it.

Anyone got a passion for it that'd be willing to run it and show us the ropes?

The Exchange

M

So would you like us to already be in cahoots with each other as a salvage team then?

I'm game, if so I'll post a bit about Kendall's attitude and things of note.

The Exchange

M

Pasted from Grimcleaver's post

You've all been given a big-bellied four winged cargo ornithopter to use to haul salvage from the world back to Erarat. It has four blocky landing legs ending arranged in a circle around the exterior as well as four articulated cloth and clockwork bat wings. In the center is the cargo hold, with a winch that raises and lowers the floor down to the ground for loading crates and boxes. In the front end is a glass bottomed map room with the controls for steering the vehicle. In the back is the combination galley and bunkroom crammed with food stores and cookstove in the middle with hanging hammocks on the walls. On the port side of the craft is a cramped brig for chaining up up to two large creatures or four medium ones. On the starbard side is a shrine devoted to all the gods cluttering a tiny altar, with the rest of the area given over to ritual space with racks and cabinets full of components and foci and a fold out stretcher tied off up in the cieling when the ritual room needs to be used as an apothacary for patching up injured party members.

The onithopter is called the Lucky Leprichaun and is maintained by a warforged named Manifest back in Erarat. While you're free to use and abuse your ornithopter however you desire--it's effectively your lifeline back to Erarat and the world ending flood can come at any time, so take care of it or you may need to learn to swim.

With regard to salvage rights, Erarat takes the long view of things--other than the most powerful of artifacts, the salvage teams are allowed to keep whatever they find or sell it to the various businesses in the city, with the idea that as long as the goods end up somewhere in the city or with a salvage team, they are achieving their goals. People are a different matter. Anyone may be brought to visit, but citizenship being granted is increasingly rare--given only to those who display needed skills at an exceptional level of competency. It wasn't always like this, but there are fears of limited supplies and unsustainable population growth--and the city leaders have stepped forward to take a stern hand in determining the composition of the city's population. This is unpopular, since almost everyone has loved ones they want to rescue--which has led to smuggling and sedition among quite a few salvage teams.

The Exchange

I keep thinking of playing a TF game using an RPG system, my two systems that could possibly do it are Palladium and 4E.

Don't bother hating, I'm aware of the thuggish net mentality to both. Anyhoo, I'm sure that some other systems can encompass it, but I wouldn't want something generic. So I'm up for other systems that'd get the action hero metal transformer feel I want.

I just can't help but see a reflavored 4E being fun to use, Ratchet using healing word via healing beams, Wheeljack being an Artificer, Ironhide being the group tank, maybe Bumblebee or Mirage being a Rogue.

Throw in Generic Decepticons, leapers, Rumble and Frenzy as Artillery types.

It just feels like it'd work.

Any constructive thoughts?

The Exchange

Haven't played a good round of 4E D&D in years, since Rev Rosey's games on paizo. I keep listening to RPPR (Role playing public radio) and am reminded of the fun I've had with the system, but there aren't really many games running. So I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and say "I'm available."

Not totally familiar with Forgotten Realms or Dark Sun, specific settings like that, but I can learn. Send me a PM if you have a game that needs a player!

Thank you.

The Exchange

For those of you who enjoy the webcomic, and even those that do not, I was considering a 4E variant to a game I put together in Heroes Unlimited using the 4E rules. I've never ran 4E before, but I'm considering giving it a shot after playing in Rev Rosey's awesome games.

In terms of what we'd NOT be doing in the game, we'll avoid any and all memes related to the comic, in fact, it is loosely based off of the Skaia game itself and not much else! I thought given the game thematics for it, that 4E would fit very well as game engine of choice.

So let me know who'se out there and if anyone at all cares!

The Exchange

While looking through my pbp games, I noticed the bolded link Online Campaigns goes to the wrong page. It should go to http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/campaigns , instead it goes to http://paizo.com/campaigns . In order to see this faulty link, look at any main thread for a campaign. Here's an example thread, http://paizo.com/campaigns/TheLostCity4eParagon

Thank you.

The Exchange

I'm to run some Heroes Unlimited for my group, and haven't quite gotten a handle on things yet. We've done the bank robberies and all the basic meet and smash type things, and yet starting new characters as we are, it's always hard to get a group to come together.

You don't have to be too knowledgeable of the Palladium game to throw out a thought. I welcome anything right now, especially if there's an actual good link for plot hooks.

Anyone got any good thoughts for a new group of characters that have no real significant background to work with?

Thanks for reading!

edit: Not too sure of the characters yet. One psychic, one eugenic mutant powerhouse, one possible green lantern type (though less powerful), two undetermined

The Exchange

I can't possibly be the only one who had a lot of issues separating IG and OOG back when I started playing, so what strange experiences did you all have?

I'll share mine first, naturally.

My best friend decided to run a game. AD&D. First level characters, first-second time players. He has our characters get harassed by real-life events without any provocation or reason. One character had his RL girlfriend break up with him, my character was subjected to an enormous piano playing a song that I personally can't stand. Another was given an electrical circuit that he had to solve before we could move on, and it just so happens the GM and that player were both studying such things.

The title for the post comes from the confusion of IC and OOC, when he was talking about school or something, when we tried to clarify who he was speaking to, he said simply, "No, he says it to *you, (the player)"

Nowadays I look back and facepalm, how about you?

The Exchange

Hello all, My much vaunted Palladium group has dwindled down now to the point of infrequent play, if not entirely dissolved. I'm looking to correct this issue! In general we've enjoyed playing on Saturdays on the West Side, near the Airport Expressway, from about 3-Midnight, though RP may not always take up the entire evening. The other GM and myself generally enjoy Heroes Unlimited, Palladium Fantasy, and Ninjas and Superspies. Rifts is generally a no-go, but we do play it occasionally. We believe in high theme characters, of various levels of playstyle, anywhere from kid heroes to the city wide saviors.

Right now it's just me, the other GM and his son playing, but we're open to all sorts of players, new and old alike. We *do* have a bit of houserules we use to make the game more streamlined, but assuredly its all to make the game more fun. Hit me back with any questions, and post if you have interest, I'll be glad to answer any thoughts or questions!

The Exchange

Hello peeps, having rekindled some of my interest in Lords of Creation, that is, the forum game played here and not the actual RPG of the 80s; I decided to dust off my supplement 'Might of Mortals'. For the moment, I'm simply going to paste my original concept and mechanics for it, though I intend to start reworking it to make the system smoother.

I'd also like to get input from anyone with an interest in the game itself, if not a specific variant. I do understand that LoC itself can be rather complex, but what it generally lacks is a proper usage of the mortal side, especially when conflict occurs. That is the focus of MoM, it is a supplement that favors interactivity between mortal races, and supports actual 'winners' in the game if desired.

Intro:

THE MIGHT OF MORTALS
by Zerombr, and Vadin

The concept of MoM is to create a supplement, a companion to the LoC games, to help provide definition to the mortal flocks without overcomplicating, or clashing with the rules-light system of Lords of Creation.

All too often in game, wars happen between mortals, which, assuredly is both fun and entertaining until the inevitable question occurs of, 'Who wins?'. Generally the game suggests that both sides decide on a victor beforehand, and when agreed upon, this is surely the easiest and best way to deal with such things. However some players, myself included, may maintain that certain advancements in matters of magic or technology may cause the war to lean a different way.

That is what this system is hoping to represent, so let's get started explaining how it works.

Gods typically bestow knowledge upon their mortals, what we have done is separated each knowledge into one of eight classes, causing it to increase one of the base stats. Gunpowder, for example, is definably a military knowledge, though it has non-violent uses. In truth, what you label the advancement is solely roleplay. Granted, one should use a modicum of discretion, as to not bestow Knowledge:Nuclear warfare upon their flock, until Doomsday actually occurs.

A few LoC commands change using this system, most notably Nourish Populace, is renamed Encourage Populace: (advancement, bonus). Create Artifact automatically bestows a point of Encourage: Faith (in addition to creating an artifact). Create Class also becomes a part of Encourage Populace.

Every population will increase one of their stats at rollover, and can have up to two points per rollover encouraged by their god, anything above that is wasted as the mortals try to make sense of all the knowledge bestowed at once.

Once per week, you may add your DR to one of your mortal's Mights (this should be one related to your domain or a portfolio element, and once chosen can't be changed). This can be used after a conflict has been initiated but before you have rolled any dice. This is a temporary bonus for that week only.


Statistics:

Stats:

No one stat may be over 5 pts higher than the lowest stat.

The stats are as follows:

Populace
How large your population is, and things that promote health and welfare of your people, as well as more of a 'catch-all'. Populace is very important, considering that 0 populace is considered either dead or scant survivors, depending on how you wish to play.

Factotums, Chameleons can go here, all uses of Nourish Populace.

Military
Naturally all military tech goes here as well as military organizations and classes created, such as: Fighter, Scout, Warblade, etc.

Science
Mining, Smelting, Alchemy, it's all here, as well as non-magical and non-martial classes

Faith
Religious Doctrine, Holidays, Divine casters, religious organizations, and artifacts

Wealth
Commerce in general, Currency, Trade Routes, Caravans, Nourish Land can be used here, if creating valuable goods.

Social
Society in general, not quite the same as Populace, as this appeals to royalty, class systems and government, and all things that appeal to social causes, such as Bards, Rogues and Paladins of Freedom.

Arcane
Magical organizations, arcane spellcasters, creation of meta-magic and Nourish Land if used to denote a more magically inclined area, such as ley lines.

Spirituality
A more generic magic/awareness, that supplements nature. Druids, Shamans, Rangers go here. Arcane/Divine casters may go here if the god wishes to have their people close to nature.

Environment
This isn't a numerical stat, but it is important. Civilizations can only exist in terrain types that are included here. This can be added to a civilization as an Encourage Populace action or as part of Create Sub-Race. Create Sub-Race encourages 1 stat and adds a terrain type to the places the the civilization can exist in.

Land
To determine the number of squares a group of mortals controls, simply average the Populace and the next highest score.

So a flock might have stats like this

Populace: 4
Military: 2
Science: 7
Faith: 3
Wealth: 4
Arcane: 1
Social: 2
Spirituality: 2
Environment: Desert, Mountains

Such a stat block suggests a technological focus on the civilization with little regard for nature or arcane magic. They might live entirely in the desert or only in the mountains, but they could conceivably spread themselves out across both.

Mights and Combat:

Now let's discuss the Mights. A Might is determined by simply adding together the two stats that make it up.

Military and Populace are the backbone of the War Might, as they represent the standard army's power and size

Science and Wealth together are the Trade Might. Having superior goods as well as the best trade routes is not to be underestimated.

Arcane & Spirituality represent the general Supernatural Might, ie: Magical dominance, arcane aided armies and whatnot.

Faith & Social are the last might, the Religious Might. Conversion of enemy forces, divine caster based armies and their ilk

By themselves, these Mights are simple measurements for the gods to compare their progeny against each other if so inclined. Games may wish to reward those who have a high religious might, or wealth as the GM sees fit.

The individual stats can also be used for warfare itself, if desired.

Combat can be subtle or overt depending on what you pick to do.

Small Scale Combat

Small scale combat can be waged and interpreted in any number of ways; skirmishes (Military), siphoning gold from opponents (trade), converting them (Faith), infiltration with spies and arsonists (Social), spreading hurtful rumors (Populace)...

These are generally used to 'soften up' a target before an assault, which helps define weak points to attack.

example: Jeff declares a Trade attack against Matt, saying that his people are starting a new trade route within Matt's cities. To see who benefits from this most, compare the Wealth Might statistics, with each side adding 1d6 to their roll. The victor may steal 1 pt of statistic from their opponent.

Large Scale Combat

Again, combat is what you make of it. Trade wars, overcrowding, conversion of whole cities can happen on a larger scale.

The attacker selects two stats to form his army's might, the defender must select one of the two stats to defend with, but gets to choose the second stat.

Let me illustrate

Warboss Gorgutz represents himself with a large Military and Populace, representing a huge bloodthirsty army.

Combining Gorgutz Military (5) and Populace (7), we see he is sitting at a dangerous 13 Army Might.

The Artificer on the other hand hasn't a huge army to work with, as his Military (3) is much less. His Populace sits much better off with a decent (6). However, the Artificer can substitute his love of machinery as a defense instead of simple footsoldiers, which allows the Artificer to use his Science of 9, giving him a 15 Army Might. One might envision warstompers, auto-traps, or even just better forged gear depending on the age in which the game is played.

Combat is resolved as such: Army Might + 2d6, high roll wins. The winner gets to remove up to three points of the loser's stats of the two used. One might have lost a great deal of population in the war, or perhaps a good deal of steampunk tech got shattered.

Large Scale Combat may only be done once a week.

I'm sure its still partially incomplete, but I am interested in opinions, just be gentle ^_^

The Exchange

(copied partially from other thread, due to not wanting to threadjack)

we keep considering gunpowder as just...well gunpowder

but what if it were more than that? what if the powder wasn't just charcoal, sulpher and saltpeter?

Those of you who have played FFXI, might remember the 'Quick Draw' ability, that let you fire off elemental damage shots.

Lets make gunpowder itself more fantasy based, as well as less prone to 'barrels of gunpowder solve any situation'

Maybe the gunpowder is shattered crystaline dust combined with alchemical properties or something.

I think this'll be a key concept to both up damage for gunslingers, and end some of the debate.

I've seen too many discussions about the realistic qualities of gunpowder and weapons, not to mention maintaining said weapons.

We're looking at this too realistically. Let's try to think up some more fantastical approaches to gunfighting.

Ideas:

Like perhaps a 'soothing' gunpowder that removes misfire chance,

or a hellfire(dragonsfire) powder that belches out a stream of fire when 'shot'

Elemental damage

maybe some sort of synergistic bonus if you can make bombs

supernatural abilities, like shooting someone's shadow

In short, maybe we need to think more of FFXI Corsair, and less (god love him) Jonah Hex

The Exchange

I'm running a 4 Rogue halfling cutpurse in PFS. So far I've got a few basic feats, TWF, PBS, and of course Weapon Finesse. I decided I'd like to upgrade to a mithril breastplate, but of course I have no medium armor proficiency.

As opposed to blowing my next feat on it, i was considering multiclassing. I'd prefer one with a good BAB to work with, so naturally i considered Fighter. The bonus feat is nice, but I am not certain if it is the best choice.

Currently I was going to get SF: Perception at level 5, to boost me up to an extra +6 for that level. Also, I intend to go into Pathfinder Delver, so I only need two skill points next level to meet the requirements for it, so that's not a huge issue.

That said, more skill points are always good. :D

So what do you peeps think I should pick? Ranger, Fighter, Inquisitor?

I intend for this to mainly just be a dip, but perhaps after I get Rouge 5, and Delver 2, I may return to it.

The Exchange

I dunno about any of you, but I keep thinking that Dawn of War's style is highly customizable, enough that it can represent different settings. I'd pay good money to get a mod to turn it into Legend of the Five Rings!

it's faction based, with multiple styles of characters, hero types, leaders and followers, it's totally doable!

Alderac really should consider this...

The Exchange

Quick question, a player I was in PFS with recently seems to have a "Plan A" for all encounters that comes down to casting Silence on a coin, then putting it in his haversack, withdrawing it as a free action any time he needs to mute a spellcaster.

Is this legit? I dunno any details of it really.

The Exchange

alright, I'm sure its not optimized, but I always liked the idea of in combat theft. Which is why the halfling rogue I'm making is a cutpurse.
with the two abilities therein

measure the mark: Target makes perception check first, Cutpurse can choose to not use Sleight of Hand, instead use bluff vs sense motive to pass off the incident.

stab and grab(Ex): Full Round action: Cutpurse may attack, and Sleight of Hand to steal from target. Attack must have sneak attack added to be able to do this. If the attack is successful, target gets -5 perception vs Sleight of Hand to notice the theft.

What confuses me is that the cutpurse seems to use sleight of hand to grab items, but the steal command is a CMD action! So which is it?

The steal command says that the target is instantly aware that you grabbed the item, but why, then, does Cutpurse allow you to give them a -5 to their perception on the steal?

Perhaps the steal ability itself is for the .....less refined pursesnatchers and Cutpurse gets something better.?

The Exchange

2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

I was thinking, I could combine the Master Craftsman feat with my Alchemist's naturally outrageous Craft:Alchemy skill to make wondrous items, at least the elixers/oils/soverign glue items.

Anyone think there's a problem with that?

The Exchange

Hello there! This is my first post on this forum, which I've been lurking in for a few weeks.

I just started Pathfinder with a new group, haven't had my first game just yet, and still not certain what is going to be legal, as well as the style of play for the group.

I do know we're using 25 pt buy, so I imagine it'll be a more heroic game if nothing else. We're also to have 2 sets of characters, one at level 5, the other at 10.

Now i've played several game systems and have played several roles in parties, so I decided I would make up four characters, and have the players choose who they'd like to have in the party. Then with a few quick eraser marks, I could make that character set for either party.

What I'd like is just to see if there's any interesting ideas to work with for any of my characters, just to help define personality, or uniquity in a group.

Here's my 4 concepts

a Half-Elf alchemist. He's a bit oblivious to the perils of his job, always reminiscing about his potion master and his witty sayings. "Course that was before he turned into a four armed monster,....we had to lock him in the lab for about five days......" *awkward silence* I'm planning on him taking Master Craftsman, using his craft:alchemy, to make small wondrous items you can't brew, like elixers and oils.

A female Halfling rogue. I hope for her to be sassy comic relief, a real attention getter. Ranks in singing, always grifting meals, and having a thing for the big folk. (I got that idea from the red knave in Alice in Wonderland) At first I thought her being an archer or other ranged attacker'd be best, but as I don't wish to multiclass just yet, that makes her best bet TWF of some kind. Possible Shadowdancer.

Half-Orc summoner, calling his Eidolon the "Spirit of nature" always some large primeval form, that'll shift every level or so. Weapon'll probably be a longspear or bow. I haven't thought too much about his disposition, though I expect him to be more than a little like a Druid.
,
lastly, I always liked in 3.5 the idea of a Tiefling cleric of Trickery. taking that Sanctified One prestige class to talk his way out of combat. He's verbose, to the point sometimes that he malaprops words, in an attempt to seem very intelligent. Always good for a laugh with minor spells. I know both groups need a healer, so I won't be surprised if he ends up being picked.

okay so, what i am asking, is ways to help define these chars even further, maybe even crunch ideas, whatever strikes you as interesting for these four.

Keep in mind, my group probably isn't going to be too optimized. 100 pts of damage in a round from one char at lvl 10 will be most likely accused of cheese. The players I do know in it, like to think of their chars as real optimized, though i know better.

Anyhoo, let me know your thoughts, and thank you for reading.