Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
The Eldritch Odessey Rules are as follows:
• Destiny Points - Succeed in one thing (DMs discretion). One per level. There may be unintended consequences.
• Bottle caps/Hero Points - Receive Inspiration when you spend a Bottle cap. Receive Bottle caps when you do cool stuff.
• Active Defense - Use Defense instead of AC. Roll defense values instead of applying 10+AC.
• Reactions - Characters who beat their attackers' attack roll with a Defense roll will roll on the Reaction table, gaining a free Reaction as they prevent the attack.
• AoO - Characters without Sneak Attack do Dirty Tricks instead. No regular automatic attacks. This is to create tactical situations, and make damage dealing more important, by making it less frequent.
• Hit Points/Vigor/Wound Points - Vigor is equal to HP, and replenishes HP at the rate of 1 per minute. WP is your negative HP and is the real damage. They heal normally and heal before any HP damage. Priority is WP/HP/Vigor.
• Progressive Feats - Feats that go up by +1 when you enter a new Tier; i.e. Weapon Focus, Spell Focus, Dodge, Weapon Specialization (+2/Tier), etc.
• Minions/Monsters/Standard enemies with classes/Lieutenants/Bosses -
Minions have 1 HP/HD plus bonuses. They don’t roll Defense, get Reactions, or AoO. They do minimum damage. Any monster 4 CR lower than the party's APL is a minion. They have no treasure.
Standard enemies with class levels get 1 Reaction per round.
Lieutenants gain an extra Feat and have 150% HP and two Reactions per round.
Bosses have two extra Feats, 250% HP and unlimited Reactions. They calculate treasure at CR +2.
• Unique magic - Miracles are different from spells, which are different from psionics, which are different from manipulating nature. Trying to affect another type is at a -5.
• Magic items - Scrolls, Potions, and Magic items act differently.
• Economic downturn - There are 5 levels of coinage: Platinum pieces, Gold pieces, Electrum pieces, Silver pieces, and Copper pieces. All magical items are priced normally. All mundane items are one level down from those listed. All treasure is one level down from listed. Identifying magic items takes 100 GP and 1 hour, or 10 GP, a skill check, and 24 hours.
• Appraise - Roll an Appraise Skill check. Prices are 10% of the listed value, and shop keeps are considered always to be taking 20. Then take the shop keeps score and the players score and minus them. For every point below 20, add 5% to the price the buyer will pay. For instance, they roll a 30, the party rolls a 7. 30-7 is 23; they offer 10% of the listed price or 10 GP on a 100 GP item. Next time, the party rolls a 17; 30-17 is 13. That's 7 points below 20 which is 35%; 35 GP on a 100 GP item.
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
Sigh. Shame. Yeah, I'll see you all around. I have a campaign my writing partner and I are making currently that I may want to test run on the boards, so perhaps I'll put that up at some point and see you all there. :D
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
I would say nudge us occasionally. Like...two days of nothing, nudge us, lol. PBP is slow anyway, and we can forget what clues have been dropped, or questions we might not have answered. Prompt us with a "You've found these things, do you want to do anything with them, or something like that. :) Otherwise, we may be RPing waiting for a post from you while you're waiting for us to do something. :D I run into this even at a table, and PBP is that x10.
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
I would put forth that this is not really video game culture as well...we simply see it that way because that is the easiest, fastest, most prevalent player-controlled story-telling mode we have. Film, television, and books aren't interactive, and RPGs are slow. This leaves the medium of video games.
But if we go back to before video games, and before RPGs, kids still played at killing each other. Cops and robbers. Aliens and astronauts. Hunting monsters. Go back to the middle ages and beyond, and I imagine you'll find that a good portion of the play was "I kill the bad guy."
I think that there are some things we can do to help to have players act with morality and nuance at the table.
1.) Establish table rules - Tell the players from the beginning "You cannot just kill everything. There will be consequences. This gaming table and story requires handling situations with more than the point of your sword."
2.) Establish world rules - Have consequences and laws. Make them fear "You're arrested, tried and jailed" as much as death because both end the story of their characters.
3.) Establish consequences - If they still are killing NPCs they perhaps shouldn't, write in the story reasons that this bites them in the ass. They killed a family member of the person they need something from, or whatever.
4.) Show, don't tell - Have NPCs have ANY tactic other than fight to the death. And goals that are ANYTHING other than killing the PCs. When we start with every NPC wanting to kill the PCs, we're teaching them this is how the world works.
5.) Reward them - Kill an NPC and get 200 xp. Negotiate with the same NPC, and get 220 xp. And tell them. This causes power gamers to start to play a bit more like story gamers and tactical gamers, and gives many players an incentive to try something other than damage.
I think killing is easiest. Honestly, making characters is easy...and as DeJoker mentioned, making characters have a good, rounded, nuanced, 3d persona and goals and foibles are HARD. It takes work on the DM and the players' part. And story-telling is not easy, which is why we teach it in schools. It is hard for professional writers to create compelling characters and engaging stories, yet we expect gamers to do it. And many think they do (hint, most of us will never create a really solid character, and that is okay. We create a fine one with a solid character build.)
Keep it up, Professor. :D This is a good idea you have.
I also have several others I can get the details out on if you and your party are interested in any of the characters. They each have some magic capabilities, as of course does the Kensai character.
• Blythe, (as mentioned), a 4th level Unchained Monk (flowing monk, master of many styles, wildcat)/3rd level Magus (Bladebound, Kensai).
• Khatín Kurón Xinivane a Mwangi Hunter (Primal hunter) with a kentrosaurus companion/Vigilante (warlock/wildsoul). She augments her dinosaur while blasting with mystic bolts and utilizes her arachnid soul to eventually shoot webbing.
This character also could be very fun as a "good" goblin, a bit of a wild shamanic character...
• Konghruul, a bugbear Brawler (mutagenic mauler, venomfist)/blood rager (blood conduit, primalist). I usually played him about a level below the party for the Bugbear. He is a former elf assassin that was killed and re-incarnated...as his most hated enemy, the Bugbear. (Could also be played as a hobgoblin, if a leveled-down Bugbear is not acceptable).
• Aliyah Tel'u'ath'ryn, an elf Spiritualist/Slayer, haunted by a ghost of her mother.
I have a magical build that I rarely get to try to play, and I wanted to see if you would be okay with it.
The build is intended to be someone who is absolutely brimming with barely controlled magic. I originally built her back in 3.5, and have updated her with PF rules, but the build utilizes a 3.5 Prestige Class...which I know some DMs have problems with. Some don't however, so I figured I'd ask.
At 7th-level, she would be a 1st-level Cross-blooded/Wild-blooded (Arcane/Sage) Sorcerer/Universalist Wizard 4/Ultimate Mage 2.
The Ultimate Magus Prestige class allows the spellcaster to play the classes off of each other, fueling one with the other as you grow more powerful.
At her 1st-level of Ultimate Mage, she would get "+1 level of lower-level existing arcane casting class", and Arcane Spell Power: "At 1st level, your caster level for all arcane spells increases by 1".
At her 2nd-level of Ultimate Mage, she would get "+1 level of existing prepared arcane casting class and +1 level of existing spontaneous arcane casting class", and Expanded Spell Knowledge: "At 2nd level, you can select one 0th- or 1st-level arcane spell from your spellbook and add it to the list of arcane spells known for a spontaneous casting class, even if you can't yet spontaneously cast spells of that level. (In this case, you would know the spell but wouldn't be able to cast it until you had spell slots of the appropriate level.)"
Its a more nuanced version of the Arcanist, which I, unfortunately, have found to be pretty bland.
Here is a description of the character (I will change locations to fit this campaign if chosen):
Ceilidh is a hard woman to love. She's brilliant and believes she is on a mission to civilize the world, one person at a time. She believes that society is doomed because of the way people treat each other, and the way the species treat each other. She believes that there is a problem with the rich crushing the poor, even though she doesn't believe that there is something inherently wrong with being rich.
She distrusts magic, feels it is only abused, and dislikes religion, feeling it is a big con. The conundrum of her life lies in the fact that she seems to seep magic from every pore. She would prefer to just read a book, cook an extravagant meal, enjoy an expensive scotch and cigar, and live out her life in a warm place overlooking the sea.
Calculating and thoughtful in her planning, she often doesn't think about what she is going to say before she says it in conversation. She believes in the best of mankind, but also believes that most people are idiots; sheep, with no willpower, to make an informed choice for themselves, bent on treating each other poorly simply for a lack of understanding, or because they want a cookie.
She was born to the south in Cyre, in the small village of Little Mingin, a dirty fishing village on the Kraken Bay just outside of Mardain. Her family sent her away to school in Metrol because "weird things always happened around her", the final straw is when she gave the mayor's daughter's a purple beard.
At fifteen her tattoo appeared, growing steadily down her back. She was afraid it was a disease or infection of some sort. Her fears, it seems to her, were confirmed. She is infected with magical energy. It took the form of a slowly growing upside-down tree, made of thousands of tiny arcane symbols, one by one appearing on her skin, bleeding down her back, slowly over the years. Every time something strange happened around her, the tattoo grew a little more.
At the age of 21, she awoke in an inn she was staying at in the city of Metrol in Cyre while working as a freelance researcher for Santaegus Obo...or what remained of the inn. Her bed alone stood unharmed, on an untouched rise in a crater where the 'Three Barmaids' once stood. She believes she destroyed it with her magic. That was when her Mark changed from a tiny shoot to a tiny sapling on her back.
She wants nothing more than to control this magic, so it can't hurt anyone else. She can't let this thing inside her destroy everything around her.
Fleeing, she jumped a ship heading up the Uta river, up over the pass, and down into the Sodden Lands. Over the next year, driven by fear of hurting anyone, she made her way to The Shackles, where the amount of alcohol they served seemed to match her thirst well. Fleeing a misunderstanding and a debt, she boarded a ship bound for Absalom.
She is a human, and rumor had it her grandmother was a tiefling, being from Stormreach, but she honestly considers herself human (no matter what those kids said). She cannot stand racism, and will quickly lose her cool if she sees it in practice. However, she is blind to her own racism, which she considers "just" racism, whereas the racism she faced was unjust.
She is not a hero and has done nothing she considers special.
Ceilidh wants to figure out why her tree tattoo began to develop... and what it means.
Aside from that, she is really wanting to learn how to cook rice the way they did in Manaket. It was like little pillows of air. That, and the perfect scotch. She hears rumors that there is a scotch from the Worldwound that has stopped the battle there, simply so demons and Paladins could share it.
Ceilidh's honey eyes are soft and warm and stark against her bronze skin. Her dark brown dreadlocks grace her shoulders. She has a noble posture, almost challenging. A tattoo of an upside-down tree runs down her neck, spreading across her shoulders. It's actually not one tattoo, but hundreds of tiny magical sigil tattoos, forming the image of a tree.
Ceilidh is very against inequality. She has been an outcast, and homeless, for good portions of her life, so she feels for the underdog, the marginalized. But she feels she's been "accused" of attacks against people and places, with her magic. She worries she's a bit of an unintended terrorist. So she has latched onto a few incidences she's read about that involved real terrorists...the elves of Valenar. Because of her frustration over her own situation, she tends to read the worst in elves and comes across as mildly racist, as she blames them for the loss of her childhood home, despite the fact she never wanted to return there.
She's brilliant, but a bit of an alcoholic. She can't sleep without a drink. She loves a good cigar but will complain about someone tracking in dirt, or not washing their face. Calculating and thoughtful in her planning, she often doesn't think about what she is going to say before she says it in conversation.
Embodiment - House scion
Behavior - Ceilidh is used to a life of comfort, and takes pains to keep up to that standard while adventuring. She doesn't like to associate with other "adventurers" outside of work. She spends evenings reading about the histories of Cyre and House Cannith.
Language - Ceilidh was brought up well, and her manner of speaking reflects it. She has an educated vocabulary and a solid grasp of correct grammar.
Anyway, thank you for the consideration, even if you decide to not allow the Prestige class.
GM Mort, 2nd option:
My second option would be Blythe. At 7th-level she would be a 4th level Unchained Monk (flowing monk, master of many styles, wildcat) and a 3rd level Magus (Bladebound, Kensai).
She is unarmored, focusing on martial arts that defend herself, provides retaliatory strikes against enemies, and uses Combat Maneuvers to control the battlefield, attacking with her unarmed strikes, improvised weapons, and her katana, which is a Blackblade. Think Jason Bourne with a katana.
The daughter of Merrim Atranta and Lord Asher Merovingian, she grew up a bastard - a well-to-do one, but a bastard nonetheless. Her family's sigil was a valknut, two triangles in a knot, meant to signify freedom, family, and glory. Her father's family was an ancient tree, signifying the roots and the pedigree of the house. She took these and combined them with a snake eating itself, hand-painted over the top of the upside-down tree, growing out of the stone valknut. The tree is upside down to represent the fact the family is old and "dead" in this new world, and that she is a bastard of it.
She is willing to do bad things for the sake of the greater good. Her alignment is CN.
My uncle believed very...different things...from my father. He believed my father was mistaken for recognizing his illegitimate children. His whore-bairn, he called me. The fact I am a girl didn't seem to matter.
At the end of his...I guess you have to call it a rebellion...I was the only one who stood between him and my mother. She was wounded - gravely, though I did not realize at the time - and I confronted him in the courtyard. The red autumn leaves danced around us as they fell from their branches in the wind, as the buildings behind us burned. It was so beautiful. There was no way I could beat him. He was a master swordsman. His grace, his speed, his raw power...I've never seen the like in my life since. It was everything I could do to defend myself. To turn his blade from my skin. To retaliate, and counter, and parry, and...
I don't remember striking the final blow.
When it was over, I found her where I'd left her. Her blood was the color of the leaves that surrounded her.
GM Mort:
I also have some other options, if they are more interesting.
• Khatín Kurón Xinivane a Mwangi Hunter (Primal hunter) with a kentrosaurus companion/Vigilante (warlock/wildsoul). She augments her dinosaur while blasting with mystic bolts and utilizes her arachnid soul to eventually shoot webbing.
This character also could be very fun as a "good" goblin, a bit of a wild shamanic character...
• Konghruul, a bugbear Brawler (mutagenic mauler, venomfist)/blood rager (blood conduit, primalist). I usually played him about a level below the party for the Bugbear. He is a former elf assassin that was killed and re-incarnated...as his most hated enemy, the Bugbear. (Could also be played as a hobgoblin, if a leveled-down Bugbear is not acceptable).
• Aliyah Tel'u'ath'ryn, an elf Spiritualist/Slayer.
Do we need to finish up all of the crunch to be considered? I am willing to make the character fit the details if I'm chosen...but I've been on these boards for over a decade. I am not interested, nor do I have the time in games that ask me to remake characters into the DM's personalized expectations to then not be selected.
I know some of this will be lost because it is written, and not in person. I just need to know what your expectation is to consider players. :)
I just noticed the link to the original post where you said no Occult classes. I had already typed this out, so...bugger it, I'm still submitting her, lol.
Memory of loss “My brother Rafe was a writer. Death, he wrote, death is what the living carry with them." Khatín pulls on her cigar a moment, looking off in the distance. "He was a good writer, too. A great one. Mother sent him to Magdalen Abbey in Trieste, on the south side of Korvosa for schooling. He would tell me the most amazing stories about 'The Swann Knight', 'The five-year siege of Manobrier', and 'The Traveler’s Love with one Lady Trent Meridal and their incredible adventures in the depths of Tian Xia, the lost continent'. He wrote books for all three stories eventually, although you know the last one as 'The Traveler’s many affairs,' which is the name it was published under.”
“I was conscripted by the Magnimar military a little over...a decade ago now when I was 17. Served with the 'Endworld Fiends', a kind of special teams unit. I was originally posted in the east country, in the Mushfens." Khatín cracks her neck, taking another long pull on the cigar. She flexes her left hand, looking at it. "We had run-ins with bandits, some tribes of goblins, and...other things. After one engagement, I was knocked unconscious in an explosion. Still haven’t gotten back to the peak performance I was at. Still don't know what caused it.” Her hand trembles slightly.
“While recovering, one night I was on a ship in Varisian Bay. I’d gone AWOL the night before, found myself a pretty half-elf woman who liked it rough. They’re still trying to punish me for that. Going AWOL, not the woman. Like that matters anymore. Like any of it matters. She and I stayed up, and I read her passages from his book, my brother's book, 'A forgery of love'." Khatín smiles wistfully. "A stupid romance about two androids from Numeria on opposite sides in the war between Issia and Rostland - before they became Brevoy, mind you - discovering each other and falling in love. Eventually, they meet each other in battle on the slopes of Mount Veshka. It was never published.”
“We...we woke to silence. A messenger found me with...the news. It seems so surreal now. My brother was in Korvosa, I guess. I don’t know. And he just...he’s not dead. He once wrote I carry death with me, like a dark memory I have yet to experience, like a deep depression over what might happen.”
Khatín grew up a bastard of a noble in Magnimar - a well-to-do bastard, but a bastard nonetheless. Her mothers' sigil was a valknut, two triangles in a knot, meant to signify freedom, family, and glory. Her father's family was an ancient Elder tree, signifying the roots and the pedigree of the house. Khatín took these and combined them with an ouroboros, hand-painted over the top of the tree which she turned upside-down, growing out of the stone valknut. The tree is upside down to represent the fact the family is old and "dead", and that she is a bastard. Unseen. Invisible.
Khatín Kuron Xinivane is a Mwangi human of 27 years. She is a spiritualist and will take classes in Slayer, as she regains her confidence. She cares less about rules than individuals and values others over herself. (CG).
Khatín likes the comforts in life. Not necessarily money, she believes a lot of wealth comes from corruption. For her, being true to one's self is the most important. Being genuine. "I don't care what you believe, believe in something. I don't care what you stand for, stand for something. I don't care what you fight for - fight." She is a true believer in the untested power of democracy. She does not like roughing it, or towns that lack certain amenities. She can be quite dismissive.
Khatín has the left side of her head shaved, and the rest of her dark hair is dreaded. Her eyes are like deep green moss. Her body is lean and strong.
Her phantom appeared on the day the news of her brother disappearing arrived. Who the phantom is (could be her brother or someone else), or even if the phantom communicates is a mystery up to the GM. We can discuss if I roleplay what the phantom says, or if the GM (or someone else even, lol) roleplays the phantoms' personality. She is wanted by some over-zealous Magnimaran leaders for desertion, and wanted by the half-elf woman, possibly.
Khatín wants to do all she can to stop innocents from being hurt, and find out what happened to her brother.
Khatín is largely defined by the trauma of the loss of her brother. She fought hard to defend her city, despite feeling lost and alone. She carries plenty of scars - on her body and on her soul.
She adventures because you can’t think of anything else to do. She can’t just go back to her place of birth...it all seems wrong if he is not there. She hasn't spoken to her mother in years. Adventuring seems like the only option left to her, and it offers the opportunity to continue using the skills she learned in the service of Magnimar.
The fighting and eventual disappearance of her brother savaged her soul far worse than it could ever hurt her body, and she remains bitterly wounded. Her life is a contradiction. Violence is a language she is fluent in. Still, she can never shake the waves of disgust that course through her when violence is necessary. But she lives by violence, and she's not sure she knows how to give it up.
She clings to this ghost, this haunting because it is comfortable and familiar. No one but her knows it exists, and she secretly both hopes and is terrified it might be her brother. While she is a bit chaotic in her choices sometimes, she finds comfort in a regimented schedule, though she wouldn't admit that.
She has a rich vocabulary influenced heavily by her brother's writing. She loves reading, but nothing is as good as what he wrote.
Question 3: I think the intent is really important in the subject matter. Darkness, evil, gore, corruption, racism, slavery, and many other subjects can be totally appropriate in a game...but if someone handles them in a less than respectful way, it can feel it's there just for shock value.
I often feel this in my industry. Writer's who think they are Tarantino because they swear, have lots of violence and random crazy behavior. They 100% are not, and they will never understand why they don't get the same accolades he does.
A lot of people point to Critical Role to justify their behavior. "They are playing not good characters, they are murder hobos, they are doing crazy behavior." The issue is every single one of them is good at story-telling, and acting, and has an arc where their character will change, and the group knows and trusts each other. Under all that stuff is really well-written character.
I think the issue with "R-rating" and above is we don't know everyone at the table. We don't know how gracefully and respectfully they can handle really difficult, mature subjects, or how they might handle someone being made extremely uncomfortable at a table.
I tend to go R-rated. Blood, descriptive injuries but trying not to be horrific and gratuitous. Sex is behind a veil because honestly zero of us could write it well and most wouldn't actually want to read it if they could. Racism, slavery, etc. needs a solid character motivation, not just because it is shocking.
At a table where trust has been built and we know everyone is respectful and considerate and skillful? Gloves are off, lol.
Stormraven: For me, I play alignment a little differently, usually. I found a post online years ago and adopted it.
Alignment:
Lawful is about rules mattering more than individuals.
Chaotic is about individuals mattering more than rules.
Good is about other people's well-being is more important than my own.
Evil is about my own well-being is more important than others.
Neutral is determined on a case-by-case basis.
LG Laws protect everyone. They are fair and try to be just. We can't make exceptions for you, but I trust the system will not punish an innocent person.
NG I will break the laws if it helps many people. I will probably not break them to help one person.
CG Damn your laws, they aren't helping rescue her. I won't let her die because you say it is "illegal". That is immoral.
LN If we allowed you to get away with it, we would have to allow everyone. Laws are what make us a society. Even if he is getting away with immoral behavior, if it is not illegal or hurting many people I don't feel comfortable interfering. Your morals are subjective.
N No individual is worth more than another. Whether you abide by a law or break one it does not justify hurting someone or letting someone be hurt. I will always choose what helps the most people. Groups are worth more than individuals, and people are worth more than laws.
CN I fight for them. I will burn the system down to save as many people as I can, and I will sacrifice myself or an individual for the cause.
LE If you really wanted it you'd have it. The law is clear. As long as the DA doesn't press charges for the death of your husband, you cannot arrest me. No matter what evidence you "think" you have. it's not corruption if the law allows it.
NE I'm going to get mine. I won't tell you what you can and can't do, do not tell me what I can and can't do.
CE Screw the law, and screw you!
So I use it as a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. I am WAY into grey and nuanced morality. Eberron is my jam, lol.
"We are looking for players who understand the difference between monologue and dialogue". :)
Yeah, that's always a thing I've looked for in groups. It is HARD to actually get in a pbp, because you'll have player A say something to an NPC, and that NPC will respond, and then players A, B, and C will reply to the NPC, and another NPC will move on, and the discussion will continue...but then player D, who hasn't been online in two days will come on and write a long post describing what he does over the WHOLE conversation, writing questions and answers out of order, followed by other interactions with other people. And you end up with one post, out of context for everyone, that is super long and honestly feels invasive to me. Like a boulder being thrown in a placid lake. It is the thing in pbp I struggle with because it tears me root and branch out of the story.
When I come in to post, I reply in conversations in the moment, I don't write responses to things posted five, ten, or even more posts ago.
And I get WHY people post that way. They aren't on long or often, "make the post count." They don't want to feel boring, and most people incorrectly assume long posts=not boring, short posts=boring. And they don't like the idea that they missed part of a conversation with their character sitting there doing f^&kall. So they insert themselves back in the conversation, retconning the interaction and flow for everyone.
I can't stop people from doing that, but I will say I specifically try not to ever do that, as it just breaks the flow for me. Simple, direct dialogue, that tends to be my jam. :)
Mulder's little sister disappeared when he was a young boy, believed dead. He's always held out hope she's alive but doesn't want to share that with the people he's talking with, as he worries they may have been involved and doesn't want to tip his hand. But when one of the other people makes a jest about "disappearing the kids of their enemies", Mulder is pissed and needs to hide it.
"These people are lucky we don't just take all of their children."Adler scoffs, sucking on his cigarette. He leans back, blowing smoke with an air of smugness clinging to him like poop you just can't scrape off your boot. "We'd be better off, and so would the kids." He offers Mulder a cigarette from his pack.
Mulder's back stiffens, his head pulling away just a little bit. He then smiles, taking the proffered smoke. "You really think we'd do any better with the kids than their parents?"
Mulder's Bluff check to hide his emotions:1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 3 - 4 = 12. DC 12 Sense Motive check to tell that Mulder seems annoyed at something, DC 20 to get a hunch that Mulder was angered by the remarks about making kids disappear.
I could have written "Mulder's back stiffens, his head pulling away just a little bit. He felt angry at the comment, remembering his sister had disappeared. I wonder if these idiots had anything to do with her disappearance. I need to find out. He then smiles, taking the proffered smoke. "You really think we'd do any better with the kids than their parents?"
To me, the second one leaves no room for interpretation and is written in the omnipotent voice...which is great for writers writing to readers, but not ideal for gamers playing a game with limited personal knowledge, and a lack of the ability to know what everyone is thinking and feeling perfectly at all times.
I do not write my character's thoughts for other players to read. If I cannot get across what I need to through description of actions and words, I am certainly not going to just write the thoughts out.
I tend to write shorter posts, in a more conversational tone for my characters, rather than thirty-second soliloquies where the character speaks and speaks and speaks, in a horrid unnatural way. It comes from being a writer, I suppose.
Flawed is the only way to play a character, and I don't like to play "against the group"...part of my table agreement is to always find a reason my character wants to go along. I do not force the table to convince me to do the damn adventure, lol.
I tend to be character and drama-driven, with a high bend towards epic action.
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
We're all still running 100% over here, knock on wood. And fully boosted as well, so we expect to be fine, just don't want to help the spread. I hope you all recover with no long-term side effects.
Stormcrow27, how would you like monstrous characters built? For my Bugbear character is his 1st level bugbear? Or is there a class level in addition to his race?
Alright, I have narrowed down my submissions to:
Konghruul, the reincarnated bugbear brawler.
Egrias, the annoyed at being chosen Human oracle.
or Cawr Gydion Càraid, the half-giant psychic warrior with his sister's spirit attached to him.
stormcrow27:
Here are the blurbs I wrote earlier:
Konghruul, a bugbear Brawler mutagenic mauler venomfist who would cross-class as a blood rager blood conduit primalist. He was an elven assassin fighting in the holds of Belkezen, and when he was killed (and level drained) he was reincarnated as a bugbear. He is slowly regaining his skills and is furious at his current predicament, and at what he considers his betrayal and abandonment.
Egrias the blind, a male human (actually changeling, but the party won't know that in the beginning) oracle seer who will cross-class into a witch Dreamweaver synergist. He is a kind of detective in Magnimar. He was blinded as the end of the events of the Shattered Star campaign happened. He hates the world and whatever cruel God did this to him; the fact that they seem to have chosen him to be some sort of "vessel" disgusts him. He'd like to meet whoever tried to make him carry the water of life for the world in this dented and "holy" cup he calls a body, and punch them right in the nose.
Cawr Gydion Càraid, a male Half-giant Psychic warrior thunderjarl who would cross-class as a twinned Summoner, a manifestation of his dead twin sister who still fights at his side, Cawr Gwyndon Càraid. He has wandered out of the mind spin mountains, seeking to understand...or even reverse his sister's death.
How much of a story do you need? I tend to do more of memories than backstories, personally. Do you intend us to make all of the crunch before we are chosen? Or are you preferring to choose the characters based on their hooks and such, and then craft them with us when the party is chosen?
Thank you for your answer stormcrow27. I figured, just wanted to make sure it was okay at your table.
Thurin, thank you! I love them as well. Many of my characters have a twist like that. Konghruul the bugbear is in a body of a race he is actively racist against. Ceilidh has magic seeping out of her (her original build was much more flavorful, not an arcanist, but has 3.5 prestige classes, so...sigh), yet she believes her magic is a curse keeping her from a life lacking conflict and keeping her from accidentally killing innocents. Her twin sister Korihor, who has similar markings that are aberrantly focused, embraces the magic but is unable to do what her sister can and is furious about it. She feels her powers were unfairly given to her sister (who wants nothing to do with them). Taryk is a survivor out of one of the worst conflicts on the planet, and doesn't want the skills she had to acquire to survive...she wants her emotional pain ended. Cawr Gydion Càraid has his dead sister attached to him, driving him to grief and madness every day, as he has never been able to grieve properly.
Konghruul, a bugbear Brawler mutagenic mauler venomfist who would cross-class as a blood rager blood conduit primalist. He was an elven assassin fighting in the holds of Belkezen, and when he was killed (and level drained) he was reincarnated as a bugbear. He is slowly regaining his skills and is furious at his current predicament, and at what he considers his betrayal and abandonment.
Egrias the blind, a male changeling oracle seer who will cross-class into a witch Dreamweaver synergist. He is a kind of detective in Magnimar. He was blinded as the end of the events of the Shattered Star campaign happened. He hates the world and whatever cruel God did this to him; the fact that they seem to have chosen him to be some sort of "vessel" disgusts him. He'd like to meet whoever tried to make him carry the water of life for the world in this dented and "holy" cup he calls a body, and punch them right in the nose.
Cawr Gydion Càraid, a male Half-giant Psychic warrior thunderjarl who would cross-class as a twinned Summoner, a manifestation of his dead twin sister who still fights at his side, Cawr Gwyndon Càraid. He has wandered out of the mind spin mountains, seeking to understand...or even reverse his sister's death.
Khatín Kurón Xinivane, a female Mwangi human monk (flowing monk, master of many styles, wildcat), will cross-class into a magus bladebound kensai. She seeks to become renowned, to test her mettle in these northern lands against the best her country can offer. Her uncle destroyed her mother and her line before she killed him. He was an aristocrat, so she fled north.
Ceilidh, a female human from Cheliax arcanist occultist looking to understand her magic before it destroys everyone around her. She studied in Magnimar, where she unintentionally destroyed an inn. Her mother was rumored to have joined a coven, or slept with a demon, or married a fey princess...or all three. She is still alive on some plane.
Taryk, a female tiefling ninja/unchained barbarian invulnerable rager drunken brute, a refugee who fled the worldwound. She is still traumatized and has some self-destructive tendencies. She kind of wants to end it, and so she drives herself more and more into danger, acting as if this nobility will make her ledger clean.
If you'd like to know more of any of these (if they catch your interest), please request it. I have all of them written down and have been playing here for over a decade, I just don't have three hours to get them all written out here. Hopefully, you are interested in seeing one or more at your table and request more information on them. :) When I am chosen, I'll work within your rules to build the character itself, so that I don't need to change up any of my pages if I'm not chosen.
Good luck!
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
Lol, I am as well, Varys. I used that as a (poor) example.
Alright, I will build Asher without a katana currently, and with EitR Feats. Thank you.
Summing up the character and game rules for ease of reference for myself:
Attributes 25-point buy.
Races/Ancestries Pathfinder 1st edition races.
Classes No 3PP. Summoners and Rogues must be unchained. No occult classes.
Starting Level 1st.
Hit Points Max at every level, you will be fighting giants after all and will need the extra hitpoints.
Wealth Max for your class
Skills I do not use the Background Skills variant rule from Unchained.
Traits Two traits, one of which must be a campaign trait that can be found in the player's guide or online here. Drawbacks are fine (implied up to two Drawbacks for up to two Traits)
Guns Emerging.
Questions:
- Do you allow Flaws for Feats?
- I'm assuming you are not using Wound Points, correct?
- Are Traits unrestricted, or are they still limited by race requirements?
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
I use HeroLab with EitR built-in, so conversion is 100% simple on my end.
Varys is from Kaer Maga? Asher likely would have traveled through there at one point, so they could have met (makes it a re-introduction, rather than introduction, I suppose). In the past, I've always liked moments at the table like that, where one player references something that the other player has to bounce off of. (Varys: "Asher! Good to see you! Gods, the last time I saw you you were on the back of that donkey, riding south to marry...what was her name?" I'd have no idea what that is, but roll with it. Asher: "His name was Keltan. Worst night of drinking in my life. After I escaped his...affections...I traveled north and ended up here. What brings you here?") Something like that, where the characters reference some innocuous bit of information that causes the other character to have to adapt and ends up with silly stories from it, plus implied relationships between the characters. I enjoy that stuff, lol.
But either way, I'm good.
Thorfinn, I pictured Asher as having studied under some master from Minkai in the northern provinces, sort of a kensai Viking. Perhaps we traveled from there to Trunau together, and have known each other a bit? He's very Doc Holiday but styles himself in the dress and styles of the Ulfen. What do you think?
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
I would actually advise anyone who has NOT listened to Glass Cannon's flagship to NOT listen to it. It is an in-depth telling of the story we are about to run, and if you want to avoid spoilers and have all the fun surprises, this will remove that for you.
Once we FINISH the story, then I would 100% advise listening to it. It is the singular best Actual Play podcast out there.
Asher (and all of his archetypes...I notoriously love them, just to get something different than what everyone else plays) is a single weapon, unarmored melee type. He can use unarmed strikes and his Katana.
BTW PathfinderPlayer35, we should sort out how he gets his katana. This will become his black blade. Does he start with it?
He should still have a high AC, as I tend to fight defensively and use Combat Expertise. PathfinderPlayer35, are we using the Elephant in the room Feat taxes rules? They're generally accepted to remove some of the most boring Feat taxes in Pathfinder.
I move through combat actually trying to provoke NPCs to attack me...banking that they'll miss, and that provokes Retaliatory strikes for me. So I tend to be pretty mobile. Any buffs to help me hit and do damage will go a long way.
For VTT's, I have used Roll20 to a lot of "meh" (It never clicked with me). My roommate and I have used Foundry and enjoyed that. The hard part will be leaving it up and hosted so anyone can access it whenever. Because of that, I am up for any solution, including Roll20.
I'll get my character up today. He'll likely be a local who traveled abroad and has come home. I find it easier (ESPECIALLY in a slower PBP) to just have the characters established as friends, so we skip the 100 posts that take 6 weeks of "who are you and why should I care" BS. Lol.
Are you using Unchained classes? Background skills? And I wanted to check on that Prestige class I asked about, as without it this character concept deflates quite a bit. lol. Currently, she is a sorcerer monk, and her second level would likely go wizard/Magus, and back and forth, with Ultimate magus eventually replacing wizard or sorcerer.
She is intended to be a martial character with no armor and one weapon, but brimming with magic.
Ceilidh Blackwood
Female human (Chelaxian) monk (flowing monk, master of many styles, wildcat) 1/sorcerer (cross bloodied, wild blooded) 1/gestalt
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 Wis)
hp 19 (1d8+11)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +1
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +1 (1d6)
Sorcerer Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 7/day—arcane bolt (1d4 force)
Sorcerer (Crossblooded, Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1st (4/day)—magic missile
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, light, message
. . Bloodline Arcane, Sage
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +1 (+3 grapple); CMD 13 (15 vs. grapple)
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Crane Style[UC], Dodge, Eschew Materials, Spell Penetration, Unarmed Combatant
Skills Acrobatics +5, Appraise +8, Bluff +4, Fly +5, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Linguistics +5, Perception +5, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +5, Use Magic Device +4
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Infernal
SQ arcane bond (wand), bloodline arcana (+1 DC for metamagic spells that increase spell level), finesse weapon attack attribute, fuse style, redirection
Combat Gear arcane bond wand; Other Gear 5 sp
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Special Abilities
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Agile Maneuvers Use DEX instead of STR for CMB
Arcane Bolt (1d4 force, 7/day) (Su) Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a ray of magic force as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This ray deals 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. This damage is treated as
Bloodline Arcana: Arcane (Ex) When a spell level is increased by a metamagic feat, it gains +1 DC.
Crane Style Fight defensive pen reduced to -2. When in style, the Dodge bonus increases by 1.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials if component cost is 1 gp or less.
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute Finesse weapons use Dexterity on attack rolls.
Fuse Style (2 styles) (Ex) At 1st level, a master of many styles can fuse two of the styles he knows into a more perfect style. The master of many styles can have two style feat stances active at once.
Redirection (1/day, DC 11) (Ex) At 1st level, as an immediate action, a flowing monk can attempt a reposition or trip combat maneuver against a creature that the flowing monk threatens and that attacks him. If the combat maneuver is successful, the attacker is sickened for 1 round
Sage When a spell level is increased by a metamagic feat, it gains +1 DC.
Unarmed Combatant Always considered armed, no attack of opportunity on grapple attempts.
I have a player I've tried playing and haven't been able to get past level 1 in a PBP. She uses a Prestige class from 3.5, as it is the one that fits her flavor better than any other option. It is the Ultimate Magus. A PF conversion can be found here. I understand if that isn't allowed, but I would rather ask than not. :D Her build is intended to be Sorcerer Cross-blooded/Wild-blooded Arcane/Sage 1/Wizard 3/ Ultimate Mage (the Ultimate magus prestige class). This is her having magic naturally, then studying wizardry to learn to "control and harness" the dangerous power, before learning how to push her natural abilities with the teachings, and how to bend the rules of the teachings with her natural abilities.
Questions for Ceilidh:
1. What is your character’s name? Ceilidh Blackwood
2. How old is your character? 27
3. What would somebody see at first glance (i.e. height, weight, skin color, eye color, hair color, physique, race, and visible equipment)? This is her portrait, and this is her arcane tattoo.She has a nose ring (small hoop) in her left nostril and is lightly freckled.
4. What additional attributes would be noticed upon meeting the character (i.e. Speech, mannerisms)? She is impetuous and would be this world's version of a Social Justice Warrior. She likes cigars and whisky. She is outgoing but uses that as a defense to control how close people get to her...and how far at arm's length she keeps them.
5. Where was your character born? Where were you raised? By who? Nerosyan, Mendev. She was raised there by her parents until she fled towards the world wound, intent on "protecting" her parents and using her curse against the world wound.
6. Who are your parents? Are they alive? What do they do for a living? Up to the DM. I usually have it as a secret from my character that they are dead, potentially caused by one of her magical surges.
7. Do you have any other family or friends? She has an estranged twin sister named Korihor. She is unaware her parents have died. (Or haven't, up to the DM).
8. What is your character’s marital status? Kids? Single. No kids. Doesn't trust herself to do that, doesn't want to hurt anyone, or pass on her magical "malady".
9. What is your character’s alignment? NG
10. What is your character’s moral code? "I don't need a reason to help people."
11. Does your character have goals? wants to figure out why her tree tattoo began to develop...and what it means.
12. Is your character religious? Not at all.
13. What are your character’s personal beliefs? See below
14. Does your character have any personality quirks (i.e. anti-social, arrogant, optimistic, paranoid)? See below
15. Why does your character adventure? It is a bit of suicide by cop, where the cop is a slobbering Glabrezu or some other horrid thing.
16. How does your character view his/her role as an adventurer? Better me than someone else. I'm expendable.
17. Does your character have any distinguishing marks (birthmarks, scars, deformities)? See below
18. How does your character get along with others? Suprisingly well. She's friendly and helpful if challenging and fearless in regards to herself...but she is always afraid others around her will be hurt.
19. Is there anything that your character hates? Someone not being listened to, inequality, and flippant use of someone's power of any kind.
20. Is there anything that your character fears? That she is hurting others simply by living.
Ceilidh is very against inequality. She has been an outcast, and homeless, for good portions of her life, so she feels for the underdog, the marginalized. But she feels she's been "accused" of attacks against people and places, with her magic. She worries she's a bit of an unintended terrorist. So she has latched onto a few incidences she's read about that involved real terrorists...elves. Because of her frustration over her own situation, she tends to read the worst in elves and comes across as mildly racist.
She's brilliant, but a bit of an alcoholic. She can't sleep without a drink. She loves a good cigar but will complain about someone tracking in dirt, or not washing their face. Calculating and thoughtful in her planning, she often doesn't think about what she is going to say before she says it in conversation.
Ceilidh is a hard woman to love. She's brilliant and believes she is on a mission to civilize the world, one person at a time. She believes that society is doomed because of the way people treat each other, and the way the species treat each other. She believes that there is a problem with the rich crushing the poor, even though she doesn't believe that there is something inherently wrong with being rich.
She distrusts magic, feeling it is only abused, and dislikes religion, feeling it is a big con. The conundrum of her life lies in the fact that she seems to seep magic from every pore. She would prefer to just read a book, cook an extravagant meal, enjoy an expensive scotch and cigar, and live out her life in a warm place overlooking the sea.
Calculating and thoughtful in her planning, she often doesn't think about what she is going to say before she says it in conversation. She believes in the best of mankind, but also believes that most people are idiots; sheep, with no willpower, to make an informed choice for themselves, bent on treating each other poorly simply for a lack of understanding, or because they want a cookie. They lack true power, so therefore hurt everyone around them simply to act powerful, or to take power. She feels she is truly powerful...and that scares her. She feels alone as if no one could understand.
She was born to the north of Nerosyan, Mendev, in the small village of Little Mingin, a dirty fishing village just south of the West Sellen River. Her family sent her away to school in Korvosa because "weird things always happened around her", the final straw is when she gave the mayor's daughter's a purple beard.
At fifteen her tattoo appeared, growing steadily down her back. She was afraid it was a disease or infection of some sort. Her fears, it seems to her, were confirmed. She is infected with magical energy. It took the form of a slowly growing upside-down tree, made of thousands of tiny arcane symbols, one by one appearing on her skin, bleeding down her back, slowly over the years. Every time something strange happened around her, the tattoo grew a little more.
At the age of 21, she awoke in an inn she was staying at in the city of Magnimar in Varisia while working as a freelance researcher for Venture-Captain Obo...or what remained of the inn. Her bed alone stood unharmed, on an untouched rise in a crater where the 'Three Barmaids' once stood. She believes she destroyed it with her magic. That was when her Mark changed from a tiny shoot to a small sapling on her back.
She wants nothing more than to control this magic, so it can't hurt anyone else. She can't let this thing inside her destroy everything around her.
Unbeknownst to her, her family's home was destroyed in the same fashion, at that same moment, back in Little Mingin.
Fleeing, she headed east, with no real destination, but definitely in the direction of home, the last place she wanted to be, but the only place it felt right to go to. Over the next year, driven by fear of hurting anyone, she made her way to The Worldwound, where the amount of alcohol they served seemed to match her thirst well.
She is a human, and rumor had it her grandmother was a tiefling, as she is from Cheliax, but she honestly considers herself human (no matter what those kids said). She cannot stand racism, and will quickly lose her cool if she sees it in practice, despite her own racist reactions to elves (those are justified, of course.)
She is not a hero and has done nothing she considers special.
Ceilidh wants to figure out why her tree tattoo began to develop... and what it means.
Aside from that, she is really wanting to learn how to cook rice the way they did in Manaket. It was like little pillows of air. That, and the perfect scotch. She hears rumors that there is a scotch from the Worldwound that has stopped the battle there, simply so demons and Paladins could share it. She wants several bottles of that.
Asher is a LG monk Master of many styles/Flowing monk/Wildcat. He will cross-class into a Magus Kensai/Blackblade.
Background:
Asher grew up a bastard of a noble in Breland - a well-to-do bastard, but a bastard nonetheless. His family's sigil was a valknut, two triangles in a knot, meant to signify freedom, family, and glory. His father's family was an ancient Elder tree, signifying the roots and the pedigree of the house. Asher took these and combined them with an ouroboros, hand-painted over the top of the tree turned upside-down, growing out of the stone valknut. The tree is upside down to represent the fact the family is old and "dead" in this new world, and that he is a bastard of it. A part unseen.
Currently his background is tooled for stories in Eberron...clearly this is easy to change. I just want to give you a sense of the character before I go re-work all of the stats. :)
A memory of fire...and fall:
My uncle believed very...different things...from my father. He believed my father was mistaken for recognizing his illegitimate children. His whoreson, he called me.
At the end of his...I guess you have to call it a rebellion...I was the only one who stood between him and my mother. She was wounded - gravely, though I did not realize at the time - and I confronted him in the courtyard. The red autumn leaves danced around us as they fell from their branches in the wind, as the buildings behind us burned. It was so beautiful. There was no way I could beat him. He was a master swordsman. His grace, his speed, his raw power...I've never seen the like in my life since. It was everything I could do to defend myself. To turn his blade from my skin. To retaliate, and counter, and parry, and survive.
When it was over, I found her where I'd left her. Her blood was the color of the leaves that surrounded her.
Description:
Asher has dark brown straight hair, shaved on the sides, and his eyes are like green moss. He has scars running across his face from an encounter with his uncle. His body is lean and strong. He sports a stylish short beard.
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
Just watched The Suicide Squad. 7.5. If you have any squeamishness about blood, gore, or animals being hurt, avoid it. It was a popcorn movie, and not bad, but not great. This was the best DC movie made since Nolan, and it was...okay.
One of my friends in Florida just caught Delta. I hope everyone is staying safe and hale and vaccinated. :)
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
No. Utah. We get all the smoke, and we have real estate going up upup. We’ve had one of the strongest economies for over a decade, and everyone moves here.
Male Human Film producer 3 Film director 2 Real estate investor 1
It's been a busy week for us here. We're looking for houses currently. Came across a too-good-to-be-true deal.
Now here is the kicker: I find those all the time. They're very findable. But there is a certain...feel to a too-good-to-be-true deal. This didn't have it. The real deals tend to have numbers that when looked at in a certain light are just excellent, or when you dig into a deal you find something interesting, like the square footage is listed incorrectly at the county, or there is an extra water right, or they will seller finance, or something.
But this one was just it was too good of a house listed for way too cheap. And...drum roll...it was a d@mn con artist trying to get me. Drove for almost three hours, too. Sigh. Quite annoying. The search continues!
Hope everyone's week was less exciting than that, lol.
