Golarion-style!
THE PLAN
I'm looking to run a PbP for a Pathfinder updated version of this classic D&D module.
It is going to run very similar to the original with very few differences.
The Keep and the Caves of Chaos will be placed in a corner of the River Kingdoms, most likely somewhere in the southeast.
I will be adding names to all of the NPCs, shops and areas in and around the immediate vicinity of the Keep. (These were all left unnamed in the original... not a single NPC had a name!)
This thread is to pull together a pool of applicants who will be ready to start playing as soon as the second weekend of August. (I'm pulling for August 13th)
If all goes well, I am in the process of updating other D&D and AD&D 1E and 2E adventures that I would like to run in an Adventure Path style chain of PbPs, eventually taking the party to level 16-20.
THE PARTY
I will be recruiting 5 or 6 1st level PCs, as follows;
1) You will be using 25-point buys.
2) You will have any 2 traits to start. (except Adventure Path only traits)
3) ALL races available to players as choices will be allowed. This includes Dhampir, Aasimar, Tieflings, Drow, the Elemental-kin and all of the humanoids. There are only TWO stipulations.
3a) If you choose a kobold, goblin, orc or hobgoblin, you MUST take the "Civilized Humanoid" trait I have added specifically for this PbP as one of your 2 starting traits. NO EXCEPTIONS! The residents of the Keep know and HATE these common humanoid monsters, and will not readily accept them otherwise.
Trait: Civilized Humanoid. You were somehow introduced as a youngling to the residents of the Keep on the Borderlands and have grown up among them as a bit of a curiosity. Perhaps your adoptive parents took you in as a babe after murdering your parents, you may have been abandoned on the doorstep of a local monastery, etc. Either way you are known to the residents of the area as a "friendly" monster. You are still discriminated against regularly, especially by those who have lost kin to your kind, but at least you are not killed on sight. Benefit: Gain Bluff, Sense Motive, Diplomacy or Knowledge:Local as a class skill and a +1 trait bonus to all rolls with the chosen skill.
3b) If you choose a standard Core Rulebook race, you may choose ONE additional Trait.
4) ALL alignments will be allowed. Keep in mind that I am only going to choose ONE among all the applicants to represent the face of evil in the party, and know in advance that I will not tolerate the "I'm evil/Chaotic Neutral, so can do whatever I want!" mentality. It will get you ejected with no second warning. Consider this the First warning. I will be taking a mixture of good and neutrals to fill the remaining 4-5 slots. Favoring character concept, role-playing skill and player commitment over alignment. IF I happen to come across 2 players, and decide to run with a party of 6 I MIGHT, if you are truly exceptional in all 3 above areas, allow 2 evil PCs in the party.
5) ALL current classes are allowed. The Gunslinger, Samurai and Ninja classes aren't officially out yet as far as I'm concerned, and are thus unavailable.
6) The Antagonize feat will not be allowed in its current incarnation. If it gets fixed, I will allow it.
7) Words of Power will not be allowed at this time. I am busy with a lot of other things and don't really want to read up on this new system right now. I'm not familiar enough with it to use it at this time, although I have nothing against the system.
8) I'll review any spell, feat, trait, racial/class alternate ability etc. that you may want to use that aren't part of the current Pathfinder line. (Old pathfinder 3E compatible stuff, 3.5, etc.) Just throw it up along with your concept and I'll give it a look. You'll find that I tend to allow most things.
9) Lastly, and most importantly.
Once this game takes off, I will be expecting REGULAR posting.
This doesn't mean I expect to see you write out a 2 line post with a dice roll check every three days.
You MUST be able and willing to post at least 2+ times a day if you wish to partake in this PbP.
If you even THINK that you cannot commit to this, then DO NOT APPLY!
I will not hesitate to remove a slow or non-poster from the PbP as soon as it becomes apparent that they are a slacker.
...and that is all.
Good luck to you and I look forward to seeing some interesting PCs.
Keep in mind that Character Concept, Role-playing Ability and Commitment to Posting are the 3 biggest things I am looking for.
|
DM Feint, I updated Keep on the Borderland for Pathfinder Play some time back. (A lot of people on the Conversions section of the boards have requested it.) I initially set it in Lastwall, but it is fairly easy to move and you can file off the names of any of the NPCs if they do not fit your vision.
If you can give me an e-mail address, I can send you the file. I will not have the time to participate, but may the ghost of E. Gary Gygax kick me in the shins if I don't offer to help out.
I'd absolutely be interested in this game, so long as you don't mind having someone in a GMT + 8 timezone .I can still make the 2 posts per day commitment. I'm a smidge busy for the next 3 weeks, but the surge of interest that a new PbP brings will be sufficient for me to power through the mire.
I have a few rough concepts I've been tossing around, but would you be able to provide a little more context for where we're starting out and what 1st level PCs would know? Are there any hooks our characters would be aware, and should we have a vested interest in the area?
Of the top of my head, I have a handful of character that I could flesh out further should any of them grab your eye, or if any of them seem particularly suited to adventure. Examples include...
A kellid magus from Numeria who's on the run from the Technic League after stealing some a piece of Numerian tech. I was thinking the blackblade archetype, with the weapon being the stolen technology, and containing some type of alien intelligence.
An Ulfen inquisitor of Erastil who's father moved to the River Kingdoms long ago to raise his family. Strong sense of duty and has an agenda of advancing or defending frontier settlements.
A tielfing wizard (diabolist, from the Book of the Damned 2 if allowable) from either Cheliax or Isger. He's a staunch supporter of the philosophy of diabolism, and extremely ambitious, but his heritage essential bars him from social advancement in his home nation. He's come to the River Kingdoms because he's heard that at the very least everyone is prejudiced equally. Not strictly an evil character, but he really walks the line between LN and LE. I've played him briefly before, and with time, he'd probably fall nicely into one alignment or the the other.
Those are the three I'd most like to play, and I will flesh them out further, but I'd like to see the direction a game is taking before I tighten them much further, so as to either avoid (or create!) friction in the party, and make sure essential roles would be covered.
DM Feint, I updated Keep on the Borderland for Pathfinder Play some time back. (A lot of people on the Conversions section of the boards have requested it.) I initially set it in Lastwall, but it is fairly easy to move and you can file off the names of any of the NPCs if they do not fit your vision.
If you can give me an e-mail address, I can send you the file. I will not have the time to participate, but may the ghost of E. Gary Gygax kick me in the shins if I don't offer to help out.
That would be MUCH appreciated!
Any less work converting on my part would be a blessing.You can send it to lordfeint@yahoo.com and have a gracious gamer grovelling at your feet.
Thank you again!
In fact, anyone who wishes to contact me off-site, feel free to drop me an e-mail at the above address.
I have a few rough concepts I've been tossing around, but would you be able to provide a little more context for where we're starting out and what 1st level PCs would know? Are there any hooks our characters would be aware, and should we have a vested interest in the area?
The party will most likely be a collection of fresh adventurers from all parts of Golarion who happen to be in the right place in the River Kingdoms to catch the attention of an ambitious merchant lord who has heard of the Keep on the Borderlands, and wishes to establish a direct trade route with the mostly forgotten place. He has already lost one group of adventurers he has sent out when they were tasked by the keep to tame the Caves of Chaos. More information/updates/hooks will follow. You don't need to have any particular attachment to anyplace however, as the Keep and River Kingdoms themselves are just the initial adventure that will take the PCs all over Golarion. (Think X1: The Isle of Dread, I2: Tomb of the Lizard King, I9: Day of Al'Akbar, maybe even I6: Ravenloft for the first 3-10 levels)
A kellid magus from Numeria who's on the run from the Technic League after stealing some a piece of Numerian tech. I was thinking the blackblade archetype, with the weapon being the stolen technology, and containing some type of alien intelligence.
Could be interesting.
An Ulfen inquisitor of Erastil who's father moved to the River Kingdoms long ago to raise his family. Strong sense of duty and has an agenda of advancing or defending frontier settlements.
Could also be interesting. Would be a strong candidate plot-wise for the initial adventure too.
A tielfing wizard (diabolist, from the Book of the Damned 2 if allowable) from either Cheliax or Isger. He's a staunch supporter of the philosophy of diabolism, and extremely ambitious, but his heritage essential bars him from social advancement in his home nation. He's come to the River Kingdoms because he's heard that at the very least everyone is prejudiced equally. Not strictly an evil character, but he really walks the line between LN and LE. I've played him briefly before, and with time, he'd probably fall nicely into one alignment or the the other.
I really like the sounds of this character. I have both of the Books of the Damned and will allow the content of either. You could flesh him out whichever way you chose.
Those are the three I'd most like to play, and I will flesh them out further, but I'd like to see the direction a game is taking before I tighten them much further, so as to either avoid (or create!) friction in the party, and make sure essential...
I have always been a strong supporter of intra-party friction for the sake of good role-playing.
Alright, no real point in dragging my feet on this. I'd really like to give my tiefling wizard another go, since the last campaign he was in sort of crashed when our GM lost interest. Here's his background, personality, and general direction he will take as a character. Where you looking anything more specific in this thread, or is it alright to wait for acceptance into the game before we write up hard stats?
Devilborn. Tainted. These were the words that marked his entry into the world. It would be sure to cause a scandal. Common sense would have indicated his be disposed of, but he was rescued by the "wait and watch" approach taken by his father, who was unwilling to discard a potential asset so early. Word was spread that the child was a stillborn, and Mahlturis was presented as a bastard child of one of the servants, to be raised in the household and serve as an example of House Rhaed's charity. As he grew up, he demonstrated little talent for the drudgery of menial labor, but managed to employ creative solutions to a number of tasks, and his talent for staying in the good graces of his superiors caught his father's eye.
Slowly tested, slowly groomed, Mahlturis showed a knack for administrative duties as he grew older, and even an interest in the arcane arts. He seemed at home in the byzantine politics of Cheliax, garnering a thrill from navigating its plots and schemes. It was not long before he found himself occupying the role of seneschal to his house, and it was then that his father revealed to truth to him, caught up in an uncharacteristic moment of sentimentality. Mahlturis listened as his father explained the details of his birth and upbringing, and the whole while, he seethed inwardly. It was then that the young man realized that no matter how talented he was, no matter what competence he demonstrated, he would never be more than a second-class citizen. His ambitions would be doomed to failure before they ever got off the ground.
Over the next year, he began seeing his nation in a different light, growing wearing of its constant hypocrisy. He concluded that Cheliax was a poor execution of a brilliant idea, and after embezzling the necessary funds, he left, running far from his homeland's borders and setting off for the River Kingdoms, a place where goblins might live among men and bandits might become kings. He is intent on carving a place for himself in this world, using his knowledge of magic and diabolic politics to give him an edge in what he regards as a land of ruffians.
Mahlturis is shrewd and ambitious. He wants to make a name and a place for himself, and even though he is capable of using toadying and underhanding scheming to achieve his ends, he has come to favor more direct approaches. He hopes to influence one of the nascent kingdoms in his new home, if not found one of his own, planning to shape it into a true meritocracy, though one that emulates the policies of Hell - a Cheliax done right. He is utterly ruthless, and will due what is needed to meet his goals, though his does have an unusual sense of ethics that mostly involves offering the proper respect to those that have earned it, whether they be friend or foe, and not rendering judgments before they become necessary. He prefers to accomplish things with style when possibly, and always seeks to maintain a face of civility in both manner and practice. That being said, he thinks of good and evil as antiquated modes of thought. He believes the greatest virtue in the world is achieving one's potential, and while he aims to reach his own first and foremost, he will take opportunities to foster growth in others.
Currently, he is a LN Wizard, specialized in conjuration with illusion and necromancy as his disabled schools (one is too frivolous, the other too crude). I would like to eventually take the Diabolist prestige class presented in Princes of Darkness, and if that's not allowable, I'd like to use the Infernal Binder archetype from the Inner Sea Primer. As far as his mechanics go, he would focus on enchantment and summoning, as he enjoys dominating other beings. He'll have a selection of fire spells from evocation, though for the most part he focuses on battlefield control and lets his minions do his fighting. He'll have an assortment of academic knowledge skills, and will have dedicated ranks to cross-class social skills, especially Diplomacy.
For everyone,
I'll be starting the RP portion of the recruitment on the 5th of August and closing out the recruitment on the 11th. (The submitted characters will need to be fully statted out by the 11th)
The game itself will begin on the 13th.
For now, I am mainly interested in character concepts and ideas. If you have certain statistics you'd like to hammer out, feel free to do so.
DM Feint - I'll toss my hat in later on with a bastard son of a noble.
One quick question - are you open to Ultimate Combat content? The PDF gets released on August 4th so will be out before the game starts proper.
If not, then I'll keep myself to currently released material, just wanted to pop the question out there.
Hathin De'Lark is a Half-Elf born into one of the minor houses of nobility in the River Kingdoms. Still working on his background, and usually like to flesh some of that out through roleplay. Suffice it to say that he will be out at the border keep as he is no longer welcome at home.
He is a devotee of Our Lord in Iron and considers the tenets of that faith as the guiding force in his life. LN in outlook he believes in meeting all threats head on and bluntly, not believing much in diplomacy or stealth.
Will be a Magus with a strong focus on standing toe-to-toe with the enemy. Spell list will be predominately focused on death and destruction, especially those that can be channeled through the blade using spellstrike
DM Feint - I'll toss my hat in later on with a bastard son of a noble.
One quick question - are you open to Ultimate Combat content? The PDF gets released on August 4th so will be out before the game starts proper.
If not, then I'll keep myself to currently released material, just wanted to pop the question out there.
As far as any content from Ultimate Combat except the 3 aforementioned classes in the book, I'm open. My only initial concern with unreleased products is the likelihood of broken feats or abilities. (See Antagonize)
In fact, given the release date, I might even relax on the said classes. Given that they have a good back-story.
Edit~ I like the sound of your character concept too. Straight and to the point.
If there are one or two characters from the Keep, they'll most likely start the adventure as part of a small envoy from the Keep to the initial meeting place of the rest of the adventurers. Probably hired as liasons from the Keep to deal with the merchant guild that sent the first group of doomed diplomats out to the Borderlands.
As far as any content from Ultimate Combat except the 3 aforementioned classes in the book, I'm open.
Thanks for the confirmation - good to know. I'm mainly interested in the archetypes and what the new weapons are going to look like.
|
DM Feint, I updated Keep on the Borderland for Pathfinder Play some time back. (A lot of people on the Conversions section of the boards have requested it.) I initially set it in Lastwall, but it is fairly easy to move and you can file off the names of any of the NPCs if they do not fit your vision.
If you can give me an e-mail address, I can send you the file. I will not have the time to participate, but may the ghost of E. Gary Gygax kick me in the shins if I don't offer to help out.
I might kill a kitten if I can not get my hands on that reworking of Keep. I remember playing and running that when the old box sets where out have my original brown cover version of this in my library.
I've got a cleric that I'm applying with another game, but I'd like to give him a shot here. He's a debuffing cleric, bouncing around the battlefield hampering foes and creating chaos wherever possible. Let me know if the concept and background (in the profile) are up to snuff or if you need to see anything else.
It should be noted that I've never seen or read anything about this classic. I will be a blank slate. I'm not sure if that's positive or negative...
|
|
DM Feint, I updated Keep on the Borderland for Pathfinder Play some time back. (A lot of people on the Conversions section of the boards have requested it.) I initially set it in Lastwall, but it is fairly easy to move and you can file off the names of any of the NPCs if they do not fit your vision.
If you can give me an e-mail address, I can send you the file. I will not have the time to participate, but may the ghost of E. Gary Gygax kick me in the shins if I don't offer to help out.
That would be MUCH appreciated!
Any less work converting on my part would be a blessing.
You can send it to lordfeint@yahoo.com and have a gracious gamer grovelling at your feet.Thank you again!
In fact, anyone who wishes to contact me off-site, feel free to drop me an e-mail at the above address.
Check your mail.
I might kill a kitten if I can not get my hands on that reworking of Keep. I remember playing and running that when the old box sets where out have my original brown cover version of this in my library.
You could request a copy. Just give me an e-mail address.
|
|
You could request a copy. Just give me an e-mail address.
I might kill a kitten if I can not get my hands on that reworking of Keep. I remember playing and running that when the old box sets where out have my original brown cover version of this in my library.
Could I please get a copy my email is dmderek@gmail.com thanks and I will not kill the kitten. :)
Check your mail.
Much appreciated!
|
|
Could I please get a copy my email is dmderek@gmail.com thanks and I will not kill the kitten. :)You could request a copy. Just give me an e-mail address.
I might kill a kitten if I can not get my hands on that reworking of Keep. I remember playing and running that when the old box sets where out have my original brown cover version of this in my library.
Pet the kitten, or get it a good home. Heck, have it work as a miniature in the adventure. Check your mail.
|
|
Pet the kitten, or get it a good home. Heck, have it work as a miniature in the adventure. Check your mail.Could I please get a copy my email is dmderek@gmail.com thanks and I will not kill the kitten. :)You could request a copy. Just give me an e-mail address.
I might kill a kitten if I can not get my hands on that reworking of Keep. I remember playing and running that when the old box sets where out have my original brown cover version of this in my library.
Thanks so much and the kitten is gainfully employed as a foot warmer for a lovely elderly lady. :)