laughmask21's page

I'll definitely give that a read, considering the background on Sajan had some good bits in it. There wasn't anything Vudra specific in the Occult Adventures, but there was a lot of stuff ties in with Vudran traditions, such as the psychic leaders of the different castes. I haven't picked up Occult Origins yet, so I'll need to give it a read through.

I have recently been attempting to gather all of the known information on Vudra and dump it all into a single document from which I can attempt to form a campaign. Turns out, there is quite a bit of information! Especially with the release of Distant Shores (which I am still going through). I thought I would share the document with you guys in the hopes of hearing some adventure ideas or finding new information that I missed. I am trying to leave a lot of the nitty gritty details out because I'm not entirely sure where that lies legally with regards to sharing and also to encourage buying their products. But I have included links to the SRDs or page references to their book locations for the most part. I have to say, this thread was the main inspiration for me doing this, as I saw the timestamps were pretty old and I figured new information had surely been published since. There are a lot of really cool sounding name drops through the various books that had no expanded definitions or details that immediately spawn adventure ideas which I tried to include (like the Night Weaver King!?) as areas for creative GM's to run wild with.

Anyways, here it is - the Vudra Gazetteer! (WIP)

A part of me will always have a special soft spot set aside for the ideal tolkien-esque setting. However, I've recently been working on my own setting with twists on all the typical races. But adding more of my own. I remember how shocked I was when playing the elder scrolls series - potential spoilers ahead - and finding out that dwarves are really just technologically advanced elves that live underground. I think that was the first time I had encountered a standard race being something other than the traditional.

Every now and then though, I want a good traditional game of a party of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings stomping on some goblins and orcs.

Seems reasonable enough to me, so long as you are willing to keep track of it and your players are on board. Might be easiest to keep AC the same but give them DR towards slashing/blunt/piercing as appropriate, since you're not necessarily harder to hit, just harder to hurt.

If you already have players picked for your game and have open communication, you could get them involved in the creation process by asking foundation questions and building from their answers. If not, ask yourself the questions and see where it leads.

What kind of service are they enlisted in? Military, Intelligence, Arcane Studies, Politics...

Furthermore, what was their last job? Fending off goblins, gathering intel on a growing revolutionary group, investigating a magic shard that was the only evidence of a demonic portal, negotiating with a local farmstead that was refusing to pay taxes.

Feel free to ask follow-up question: How did the last job turn out? What did you bring to the table for this particular job?

What is the country like? Warring, Artisanal, Peaceful, Wealthy, Poor, Import-heavy, Export-heavy, Slave-Driven, Religious. Have each player pick a tag as and have them explain how the country reflects this description. Or pick four for yourself and do the same.
Example: I pick Slave-Driven. The country flaunts an anti-slavery policy, but corruption in the system has led to a large underground, government-sanctioned slave-labour force that operates as the backbone for the politicians' endeavors.

Who do the players report to within their service (Create an NPC to be their "anchor")? This will likely be where they get their next "adventure" from.

This goes ahead and assumes that the players have already worked with each other by working on a previous mission together. Perhaps or two are new, but it eliminates the "how did we all end up here" dilema and leaves that to be figured out through discussion and table-talk. Based on the city description alone, you should be able to get a feel for areas that can breed adventures. The sort of service they are enlisted in will help generate a plot hook, and the anchor npc acts as a reliable person the players can report back to for aid (just don't make him a deus ex machina or supervillain right from the get go).

First off, I'm sorry to hear about this. It's a tragic circumstance and you guys are both brave and strong to carry on.

If the spouse has not given much input on the matter, I would turn to the other characters and ask of they have anything in mind. Let them know you have tried to contact the spouse and thatthey didn't seem too engaged. But perhaps a meeting with everyone else to come up with a touching "farewell" (whether through combat or or conversation) approach for the character would mean a lot for the spouse.

I hope all turns out well for you guys.

Unfortunately, it sounds like it might be a bit too late to try to convince your players to give you a chance with the Gear Wastes, at least with this upcoming session. I feel like trying to push it further might annoy the players, just as them pushing you has clearly annoyed you. However,to echo Ubercroz, try to get the players involved. Tell them that you want their help creating the world, even if not to play and you might be able to win them over with the concept. Taking a queue from Dungeon World, "Draw maps and leave blanks." In other words, make sure the players are integral in creating the world you imagine. It can be hard opening up and letting people into you precious world, but in my experience, it is an incredible adventure.

A lot of the advice here is good advice, and I dont want to repeat it, so here's another alternative. Try introducing a different system. Start fresh with a new setting, new rules and new characters. This can help to wipe the slate clean of any hard feelings as you all venture I to uncharted territory together. A system that I would highly recommend is Dungeon World. It is incredibly simple with a huge emphasis on cinematics and narrative. There is an srd for it that's freely available, or pdf versions for $10. It's a game that can be played with zero prep and really brings everybody together.

Aside from that, it seems you are in a tough situation. Send them all a text and let them know you aren't feeling very excited about the adventure path and if you're not excited, it won't be fun for everyone, and that you want to be able to provide a fun experience for everyone. Ask for suggestions on a compromise and propose some of the ideas suggested above. I hope everything works out!

I'd love to toss my hat in. I did up the character sheet with the fillable form but couldn't get it to save the content, so I'm going to have to redo it.

I'm going to make a two-weapon fighter, stout halfing using handaxes for melee and range.

14. If a room is flooding via trap or what have you, cast it on the ceiling for some more breathing room and extra time.

Remember that 1st level characters are particularly fragile, so if you have tough challenges for the PCs to face, you might try giving them favorable terrain, or terrain that they can make favorable through clever positioning. You know, a fallen tree/ rockpile they can hide behind, handy escape routes, etc. At low levels, tactics are *everything* and can make the difference between a wonderfully satisfying tough challenge and a disappointing TPK.

This is great advice. If you have players running combat with wit and tactics, they could perform almost a whole level higher. I created an altar room once with two lofted platforms on both sides of the main floor. Each loft had a brazier, which the rogue used to gain higher ground bonus (the RAW don't grant ranged bonus for higher ground, but I house ruled it because every every every tactical source cites higher ground as being advantageous) and he dumped his arrows into the brazier to light them and deal extra damage. Image of the room

A simple rule to go by to keep combat from slowing down and encourage tactical play is to just grant a +2 bonus if you are not sure. The player wants to do some acrobatic stunt before attacking for a bonus? Roll acrobatics and if he succeeds then grant +2 to the attack, otherwise he fails the attack.

Or just ask the GM if you could research a spell working like phantom steed but summoning a medium mount.

I would totally allow it.

This is also a great idea. I was going to suggest this until I found the mounts page. It still wouldn't be combat trained, but perhaps that could be something you learn over time.

As Rub-eta said, make sure you coax a drive out of the PC's, otherwise they won't be invested in their quest and may not feel immersed. You could give your PC's a chance to come up with a reason for you by asking them ahead of time to come with a reason that the Goblins need to be eliminated.

Another play-to-find-out approach would be start them off scouting, and stumble upon a hostile goblin scouting party (the goblins are lying in wait for an ambush if the PC's don't spot them first). Have a distinct "party leader" amongst the goblins who seems to be giving orders, and on his person would be a note written in common, "Spy on the invaders and assess their strength. -BBEG" and a map marking directions from the goblin camp to the settlers' (since goblins are stupid and need maps =P). The players then have a perfect hook to go scout out the goblin camp and return to the settlers, or they may discover the goblins taking up arms and they need to be eliminated. Goblins are best treated as minions to a larger player, perhaps a commanding Bugbear who rests in a nearby cave to give order (also the creature that wrote the note).

Evil is all about perspective. I killed an infant (evil). And enjoyed it (really evil). Because it was infant Hitler that I went back in time to kill (oh...not so evil). But I could have raised him to be a great humanitarian leader (...I don't know how to feel anymore).

When you give your players perspective, they will make their own judgement calls. If you display aggressive and hostile behaviors coming from the goblins - slaughtering kidnapped children, eating domesticated animals alive, burning their neighbors hut down - the player's will most likely deem it justified. And if they don't, turn it around. Give them a chance for diplomacy or even followup with armed settlers coming to finish the job and the players have to choose - Goblins or Settlers...or run.

What you have is fine, and the players will let you know how they feel once they start playing. You just need to be prepared and willing to react if things do not go according to plan.

List of Riding Animals Just scroll down passed the Animal Equipment and for the Riding Animals table. This includes a whole list of ride-able animals with a combat trained and non-combat trained price. If your animal seems to be dying too easily, consider buying it some barding. It functions the same as regular armor: you choose the type of armor (leather, chain shirt etc) and double the cost for a medium mount and now your mount has armor! A combat trained boar would cost 150 gp, and you could add on leather barding (+2 AC) for an AC of 16 for 20 gp. It has a nice d8 gore attack.

When calculating the cost of combat training for an animal, it is equal to 50% of the animals base cost (a simple observation from looking at the table). So if your GM was willing, you could ask him if you could purchase a combat trained mount of a type that you want for +50% gp.

You could also consider applying the Young template to a wolf, and having multiples of those.

2 Young Wolves and 2 Wolves - 1200 exp
4 Young Wolves and 1 Wolf - 1200 exp

"I am Chaotic" is a way to say "screw the law" but it has nothing to do with doing inherently evil or good things. Many players who play Chaotic Neutral tend to forget that even if that alignment is typically ambivalent to evil or good.

This is great advice. I would take some time before the next session just to go over everyone's alignment and work out what it means to them. Sometimes examples carry a lot of weight with these things, so I would suggest showing them this chart and make it clear Alignment Chart 1 and Alignment Chart 2.

Pulled from the Core Rule Book:
"Good characters and creatures protect innocent life. Evil
characters and creatures debase or destroy innocent life,
whether for fun or profit.
Good implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern
for the dignity of sentient beings. Good characters make
personal sacrifices to help others.
Evil implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others.
Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others
and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient. Others
actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some
evil deity or master."

With these definitions, it is hard to justify an evil character working with a do-good party. Sure, they may just be in it because they get to kill a lot along the way, but they still are lacking a genuine motive.

It seems to me like the Orc player does not really understand his alignment or that his actions do not properly represent it. Just opening up the session with, "So last session I noticed that some of you seemed to be contradicting your alignment, so I wanted to go over that with each of you and what it means to you. Also, here's this link."

As for your Oracle player, I agree with Rub-eta - not having a motive or drive is a poor roleplaying mechanic. If you want to be apathetic, don't do so with regards to the party's goal. The best way to give them purpose: Make the goal integral to their story. Before even meeting up next, before even planning for your next session, text, call or email him and ask him what caused him to be shunned by society. Questions will be your friend here, and the more, the better. Send him a bulleted list of questions and ask him to answer each one in as little or great detail as he wants. Then ask follow up questions. A few that I can think of to help provide good Hook material are:

• What happened that caused you to be shunned by society? (A forceful wording will encourage him to create a reason)
  
• When did this happen?
  
• If you have no reason, why follow the party? Loot, acceptance, experience, bloodlust (Hopefully not bloodlust)?
  
• You lost something of great importance to you in your past. What was it, what did it mean to you and what happened? (Let him know that this is an opportunity for him to make something up to add to the world. Then you can use this as your MacGuffin for the next quest - he sees an opportunity to reclaim the MacGuffin in a prophetic dream, coincidentally the party needs to recover it as well!)

Another option is an idea taken from Dungeon World, which is a derivative of Apocalypse World. In Dungeon World, character creation is done together with the everyone gathered nearby for one very special reason - Bonds. Bonds are a set of questions unique to each class that the players can fill out with the names of other party members. This gives them a great tie to the party and helps add some basic cohesion or roleplaying opportunities to the party. At the end of a session, if the players acted on one of their bonds, they can cross it off and mark an experience point. Even though you are already into the game, this is something that I highly recommend doing before you starting the actual adventure at your next session. Here are some questions that I repurposed from some of the classes in Dungeon World that you could hand out to them. Tell them they have to fill out at least one bond.

========================
Witch
========================
____________ fears me, and rightly so. (Why?)

I am troubled by ____________ 's behavior. Either they know nothing, or they know way too much. (What do they know?)

The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows ______________. (What was the danger?)

___________ has tasted my blood and I theirs. We are bound by it. (Please explain O.o)

========================
Oracle
========================
My animal friends respect ____________, so I respect him too. (What do they respect?)

____________ will save my life, I have seen it. (What did you see?)

____________ is keeping an important secret from me. (What is the secret?)

____________ is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can. (How are they misinformed?)

========================
Rogue
========================
I stole something from _______________. (What was it?)

_______________ has my back when things go wrong. (Why?)

_______________ knows incriminating details about me. (What do they know?)

_______________ knows what killed my parents, but is afraid to tell me. (Ask the bonded player what killed them.)

========================
Ranger
========================
I have guided _______________ before and they owe me for it. (Where and when?)

_______________ is a friend of nature, so I will be their friend as well. (How do you know?)

_______________ has no respect for nature, so I have no respect for them. (What do they do?)

_______________ does not understand life in the wild, so I will teach them. (Give some examples.)

Bonds are my favorite part of Dungeon World, and the players' as well because it gives them a chance to create their own story that fleshes out the world and their ties to the other characters. The follow-up questions will really help to draw out details that you can use later on down the line. Not only will it build an in-game relationship between players, but it will also build an out-of-character relationship. Have them collaborate on each bond to figure out why that bond exists. Make sure they know that it is okay for them to add to their world because it will ground them in the story. If a player is filling out details about another character with relation to a bond (i.e. The Ranger may say that the Rogue has no respect for nature because she is constantly plucking flowers, branches and leaves from passing foliage) and the other player doesn't want them taking control then ask that player to come up the details instead.

This is my two cents, I hope everything works out!

If this is their first time playing as well, then I would also endorse the idea of pre-generated characters. Do not force it, but put the idea out there. When I was first introduced to the game it was with the Basic Game in 2004. None of us had played the game before, except my brother who GM'd, so we stuck with the pregen characters that came with the set. I did not feel like I was missing out, and in fact it was great because we were able to jump right into the game with everyone getting the character they wanted. I still remember the Halfling Rogue that I played and it was such a fun time! So, do not think that pre-generated characters sap the fun out. However, it should be their choice.

As the others said, I would make it clear to the two players that their focuses will not see a lot of spotlight. The diplomat could still attempt to interact with the NPC in the crypt, but otherwise there is not much to speak to once the adventure begins. If they are okay with this, then bank on the fact that you can send them anywhere after the adventure that would be more suitable.

As others have stated, acknowledging a willingness to catalog a reference to all your abilities will surely gain you brownie points. A great way to catalog material used for your characters, that I have found, is to take pictures on your phone and save or back them up. Obviously the right technology must be available, but I am able to snap a picture of the books (or screenshot if using a pdf), then place them all in a folder with properly titled images and you can now pull up every ability, trait, feat etc that you need. Most smart phones are able to create photo albums, either built in or with the use of an app, which you can dedicate to specific characters and their abilities. I have my players do this, most of whom use pdf's, and have them email me the folder for their character for quick look-up during play.

As someone who has almost exclusively occupied the GM position, I would stress the fact that you are placing a great deal of trust in the GM to know the rules, be prepared and put in a appreciable amount of effort and that you would hope he could reciprocate an equal amount of trust that you will have everything perfect to a tee.

Not all GM's will be as receptive to new ideas as other. Some may not even wish to allow material from anything but the Core Rulebook, so it is a matter of finding the right GM. It is unfortunate, but just as GM's may not want certain players, you are most certainly able to want a more open minded GM. If they do not seem keen on your method of character creation, and don't seem willing to give you a chance, then you are more than likely better off finding a different GM because ultimately your differences will clash.

The main reason GM's will decline those sorts of characters will either be because they are looking for a traditional game, in which case you most likely won't be able to change their mind, or they feel like they are going to have to hold your hand and double check everything. If you can convince them that you can manage your character properly without constant scrutiny and supervision, then I think you will have their acceptance.

Goodluck with your search!

My Choice: 1d3 ⇒ 2

I will give a try drafting a character.

Name (Archaic): 1d100 ⇒ 46 Kali
Home: 1d100 ⇒ 21 Imperial World
Blessed Ignorance: -5 on Forbidden Lore tests
Hagiography: Common Lore (Imperial Creed), Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (War)
Liturgical Familiarity: Literacy, Speak Language (High Gothic)
Superior Origins: +3 Willpower
Birth Planet: 1d100 ⇒ 18 Backwater
Career Path: 1d100 ⇒ 76 Arbitrator
Divination: 1d100 ⇒ 22 "The only true fear is of dying with your duty not done." (+2 Wounds)

----------------------------------
----------- STATS -------------
----------------------------------
WS: 28
BS: 35+5
Str: 28
Tou: 36
Agi: 27
Int: 32
Per: 40
WP: 31
Fel: 27

Wounds: 15
Fate: 2
Wealth: 64

----------------------------------
------- APPEARANCE --------
----------------------------------
Build: 1d100 ⇒ 2 Slender (5'5"[1.65m] / 132lb[60kg])
Age: 1d100 ⇒ 68 Mature
...........1d10 + 30 ⇒ (4) + 30 = 34
Skin: 1d100 ⇒ 64 Dark Skin
Hair: 1d100 ⇒ 17 Bleached Hair
Eyes: 1d100 ⇒ 27 Brown Eyes
Quirks: 1d100 ⇒ 87 Devotional Scar

----------------------------------
---- SKILLS & TALENTS ---
----------------------------------
Characteristic Advance: Ballistics Skill Simple (+5)
Basic Skills: Awareness, Common Lore (Imperium)*, Inquiry*, Scrutiny
Advanced Skills: Common Lore (Adeptus Arbites)*, Literacy*, Speak Language (Low Gothic)*
Talents: Basic Weapons Training (SP)*, Melee Weapon Training (Primitive)*, Rapid Reload*, Sound Constitution

GEAR
Shotgun
.12 Shells
Club
Brass Knuckles
Knife
Chain Coat
Uniform (Good Quality)
Stimm x3
Injector
Arbitrator ID
Chrono
Pack of lho-sticks

I will think on a background and finish it up tonight.