In a little-known corner of Golarion, there rests an even littler-known town. Once a center of trade and culture, this little village has declined to not much more than a tiny collection of barely-tended farms and halfway-competent shops. But the people still hang on, loyally clinging to their ancestral homes.
Recently, a major trade caravan has constructed a new thoroughfare between two of the country's largest cities, bypassing the traditional path that brought most of the remaining trade to the little village. The village, while still a scenic spot, is declining even further, and people are beginning to say that they may have to abandon their home at last.
As descendants of the town's village heroes, and co-owners of the single tavern, you have decided this will not stand. You set out to bring back your village's old reputation and re-establish your business as the hottest spot on Golarion!
This here is an interest check for a silly little mini-campaign I've been thinking about putting together. With the recently published Downtime Rules in Ultimate Campaign, I feel the need to test drive these things, and what better way to do that than have a bunch of PCs run a flagging tavern?
Loosely based on some of the concepts in the video game "Recettear: an Item Shop's Tale", we'd be running the game almost entirely business/donwtime-centric. Yes, you all would be adventurers, but when you go out adventuring, we'd handle that portion with a glossed-over cinematic approach. Roll a few dice, decide how well you did, award gold and xp based on that, and give a quick summation of your amazing adventures, then back to the important business of running/improving your tavern and town!
I envision this starting at level 1, any official Paizo material legal (I reserve the right to veto, though), 20 point buy, average character wealth.
With a bit of comedy, some ludicrous ideas about making a viable tourist trap in a fantasy setting, and a few creative PCs, I think this could be fun. Bear in mind, at the moment, this is only the barest of ideas, and I'd love to see other people's input. If there's enough interest, then I can see about putting this together fairly quickly, and get it up and running sometime soon.
Whaddya think, folks?
Dunno 'bout the Ultimate Campaign rules, exactly, but this looks like a game where this NPC could be a PC (albeit not as awesome).
Sounds pretty fun! I like the unusual angle.
Not sure what kind of character to cook up, but ill have the idea stewing and see what thickens by the time you call for characters.
Love the idea, but although comedy may ensue... I'd rather it not be forced silly/slapstick.
Climate?
-Dan: Sure, go nuts with the Background Generator. I like how that thing plays out. No evil characters, though, so roll the appropriate dice for that part. Only fair to warn you again that I'm not sure when this thing would get started.
-Flenn: Sure, works for me. If you don't like the Ultimate Campaign rules, though, then this may not be the game for you, as giving those a test drive is a pretty big portion of the point.
-Tenro: Cool, glad you like it.
-Black Thom: I'm not really intending to enforce comedy, per se, but I do intend to keep it lighthearted. I would definitely be looking for players/characters willing to take themselves a little less seriously (I mean, seriously, you're running a tavern in between dragon fights). Obviously, though, the best comedy keeps its roots in reality (so to speak); I'm not looking for absurdism, just an awareness of what we're trying to do.
I have this idea for a Cavalier who really just wants to bring back in town the Jousting Festival.
I don't know if I can juggle another PbP, but I'll dot the thread for now.
Nice. Sounds like the kind of thing I'm looking for.
Thom - it occurs to me I forgot to answer your actual question, mostly because I'm not sure I knew what you were asking. If you meant the climate in the area of Golarion you'd be starting in, I'd say temperate? Somehow that doesn't seem like what you were going for, though.
Vineyard, crafting wines worthy of Kings' tables. Climate, soil, valley...
-Flenn: Sure, works for me. If you don't like the Ultimate Campaign rules, though, then this may not be the game for you, as giving those a test drive is a pretty big portion of the point.
Hah, you didn't understand. When I said I dunno about those rules, I mean that I really don't know about them. Like, at all. I haven't bought the book, and haven't gone looking for the rules anywhere online. As such, it'd all be new to me!
If that's an issue, no problem, I can step out. But just letting you know, I really have no idea exactly what they are :)
Would a tiefling barbarian bouncer be in line with your concept?
Dot for now as well :)
Hmm, interesting. Still waiting for my hard copy to arrive, I generally prefer to read that over the PDF but this sounds fun so I'll have to check out the downtime rules. Keeping in theme with using Ultimate Campaign, random character background says...
(keeping it random, rolled d3 for which chapter of advanced race guide (1), then a d8 for which of standard races (6, halfling))
Homeland - 87 - Traveling Band or Caravan
Parents - 92 - Orphan
Siblings - 54 - 1d4+1 (4) siblings
-> Sibling Ages - 15, 72, 82, 06 - The middle child, two older, two younger.
Circumstances of Birth - 88 - Cursed Birth
Parent's Profession - 40 - Thieves
Major Childhood Event - 87 - Ordinary Childhood
Step 2
(pulling out the d20 for class, oh yeah. Rollin' a 5 = cleric)
Background - 84 - Sanctuary
-> Crime - 89 - Smuggling
-> Punishment - 40 - Fine
Influential Associates - 80 - The Fiend (seems the curse came true :p)
Step 3
Conflicts - 7 - Minor Theft
Conflict Subject - 20 - Non-humanoid Monster
Conflict Motivation - 2 - Love
Conflict Resolution - 6 - No Guilt
-> CP - 5
Deity and Religious Philosophy - Desna
Romantic Relationships - 9 - Several Significant Relationships
Relationships with Fellow Adventurer
Character Drawback - 23 - Love
Gained acces to:
Traits:
Friend in Every Town (social), Orphaned (social), Kin Guardian (combat), Fiend Blood (bloodline race trait), Child of the Streets (social), Ordinary (social), Criminal (social), Possessed (magic), Starchild (religion)
Feats:
Accursed, Damned
Drawbacks:
Lovesick
Chosen traits (taking drawback of Lovesick for the third)
Criminal (Social), Fiend Blood (bloodline race trait), Starchild (Desna religion trait)
Well, that's quite an interesting background to work with :) This should be fun.
Alright, Viscount and Peanuts, you can let the Paizo people know that I've become intrigued enough by the rules that I splurged and bought the Ultimate Campaign PDF.
Anyway, once that finishes downloading I'll check it out and see if it sparks anything good.
They're some fairly extensive tables :) Only has options for the core races though (as far as step one goes), and you're meant to pick your race and class beforehand (as above I just rolled randomly.)
Hrm. My first shot at randomly generating a background produced some interesting, some good, some bad. Apparently ol' Flenn blackmailed a child because of religion ("Which don't sound like me at all!").
I'll figure it out, still haven't decided on a class, though I kinda like the idea of a Sensei monk, reflavored to be a barkeep brawler who's always letting the young'uns know what it was like in his day.
Yeah that sounds fairly suspicious. I commited a minor theft from a non-humanoid monster out of love! Hardly seems like a crime at all. (Of course there was also the smuggling he got accused of as a child, and he was possessed by an evil outsider of some kind :p)
Still have to put it all together, but you can have some interesting combinations.
I actually just came to the recruitment forum to propose something along these lines. I'd love to get in on this!
No idea what I'd play, although as I typed that, I just had the silly idea of being a summoner, with the eidolon as our bartender...
I'll research the 101 on entry-level etiquette and protocol, but if I post something out of format, please just let me know.
The two things that most matter (in my mind) are the use of tags and [ dice ] tags. But that's just me.
Yep, that was odd. I did like that his major event was having died, though--adds a neat touch to the character.
"Tha'? Tha's a scratch, I tell ye! When I was but a kid, I got m'self kilt, and I din' whine 'bout it none, nuther, 'r I's like to git a crack in th'ead from m' dear pa!"
An eidolon bartender would be hilarious.
Rolling up a male human summoner. May or may not be what I end up with, but it's something for now:
Childhood
-> Town or Village (access: Militia Veteran)
-> Only your father is alive
-> (access: Kin Guardian)
-> Younger sister
-> Younger brother
-> Lower-class Birth (access: Poverty-Stricken)
-> Serfs/Peasants (access: Poverty-Stricken)
-> Raiders (access: Axe to Grind, Foeslayer, Vengeance)
Adolescence and Training
-> Pick on Someone Your Own Size (access: Twinned Presence)
-> The Mentor (access: Mentored)
Moral Conflicts, Relationships, and Drawbacks
-> Corrupted an Innocent (+6 CP)
-> Soldier or warrior
-> Amusement or Entertainment (+5 CP)
-> Several Significant Relationships
-> Pleasure (access: Hedonistic drawback)
Wow. This summoner is not a nice guy.
Trait access: Milita Veteran (r), Kin Guardian (c), Poverty-stricken (s), Axe to Grind (c), Twinned Presence (m), Mentored (s).
Story feat access: Foeslayer, Vengeance
Drawback access: Hedonistic.
Actually Bobson...
-Dan: Sure, go nuts with the Background Generator. I like how that thing plays out. No evil characters, though, so roll the appropriate dice for that part. Only fair to warn you again that I'm not sure when this thing would get started.
Flenn - Yay, piqued curiousity! Obviously, we're all fairly new to these rules, so no fear about being unfamiliar with them - But you've now joined the ranks of we madpeople who buy products anyway, so moot point. Something other people should be apprised of, though, so that'll be in the bit at the end.
Dan - That half-elf sounds like the sort of guy I'd like to have along, yeah. As for what type of test: a little bit of both, but mostly the test drive. Obviously, any system can be broken, especially strange little side systems such as this, and while I would like to know where that point is, this is mostly about seeing how well it hangs together as part of a regular campaign. When building characters, I'd mostly like to see you build them as regular adventurers who happen to have a strong sideline in maintaining their hometown. Don't neglect your dragonslaying duties in favor of minmaxing your craft skill, for instance, as I will be taking into account your asskicking potential (in a general sort of way) when it comes to your adventuring rewards.
Black Thom - Ah, vineyard capabilities. Frankly, I haven't a clue what this sort of thing requires, but I'm picturing a lightly forested area near a mountain and lake, but with some plains nearby, in the middle of the northern hemisphere. Moderate seasons, nothing too extreme. In other words, a little bit of most things, so you can probably find whatever kinds of resources you're looking for.
Mousestalker - Yep, tiefling bouncers amuse me, why not? I'm not sure how much that guy would contribute to growing a whole town, but if you just focused on keeping the tavern successful, then I could totally see him eventually ending up as head of security at Golarion's newest, hottest casino (for instance).
Bobson - yep, Peanuts hit it. Evil = out. Overall, these folks are more or less working for the good of a community, and I don't feel like having party conflicts get in the way of that. If you do want to go that way, I might let it slip by with some real good reasoning why such a character wouldn't be disruptive.
Peanuts - Glad to see you're interested, character seems interesting, at least.
Everybody - Right, that definitely sounds like enough interest to make this a real thing. If nothing goes terribly awry, I should be putting up an actual recruitment thread sometime in the quite near future. Also, something that Flenn brought to my attention:
Don't worry about knowing the rules, downtime or otherwise! I can handle that aspect of it for you, as long as you're clear about what your character wants to do.
Ooh, I missed that. I'll reroll that section. Yay for not being a jerk of a character!
-> Betrayal (+4 CP)
-> Enemy or Rival
-> Justice (+1 CP)
That's now 5 CP, giving me a range of up to 1 box from LG, 2 if I don't feel at all guilty about it. I'm feeling inclined towards CG, so I'll probably go for "No Guilt".
I really like this idea and would be eager to participate. I have the beginning of an idea of a Samsaran alchemist who comes from a long line that has been a part of this small town's history from the beginning. With the connection to past lives he'd have an obvious reason for wanting to see the town prosper. Class wise I was leaning toward either Alchemist, bard or rogue. I'd probably dump a lot into profession and crafting skills - try to build up the town, create commodities that would draw in trade, etc.
Neat.
You know, with the right group of players, you can make an entire campaign based around the downtime rules. Sort of like Second Darkness's gambling hall, but instead, you start off in a small settlement (Sandpoint) and end up in a big one. (Absalom)
Certainly, the players would need be know this advance, that it would be less of an adventuring campaign than normal, but there are plenty of ways to include full on adventuring. Perhaps the players must first rid the abandoned building of a series of haunts or squatters, find the deed, begin building their business, ward off thieves, protect the neighborhood they're in from arson (Perhaps someone wanted to burn the entire district down), and even fight off a monopolistic company trying to take them out. Who would've thought that the Aspis Consortium could play the role of a major villian? :P
That's pretty much exactly what I'm doing, though with a different setup. Was that not clear?
Well I mean not just a mini-campaign, where combat is just cinematic on the side. :P
Fair enough.
Still, by no means am I saying this is a bad idea you have here. If you were perhaps allowing businesses other than just a tavern, I'd probably join in. Unless, we're allowed to run a.. uh.. side business through the tavern? I swear I won't sell poisons.. to most customers..
This sounds like a fun idea, I've got the idea of a drunken barbarian/monk that is the taverns regular that decides to help out. Or a ratkin that was caught stealing food and now has become the tavern chef, rats in the kitchen and all that ^_-
Since I don't have access to ultimate campain I'll make my own random rolls :)
Race: human, dwarf, gnome, halfling, aasimar, goblin, grippli, kolbold
Class: barbarian, cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, sorcerer, cavalier, gunsmith, oracle, summoner, aristrocrat ;)
Alignment: LG, LN, NG, N
We will start with that.
A true neutral kolbold oracle. K.
Mystery: ancestor, battle, dark tapestry, flame, heavens, outer rifts, stone, time
Curse: blackened, clouded vision, deaf, haunted, lame, toungues, wreaker
Oops, there was only 8 there but alas! I am a haunted kolbold time oracle that is true neutral!
Patron deity: chiuta, ferrakus, ithreia, linium, lyvalia, myketa, neria, paletius, veiloaria, yolania
Gender: male, female
Age: 14+1d4
Height/weight: 2d4
My deity is paletius, I am female, sweet 16, 2'10" 22lbs.
I'll have to do the rest later :)
Is it ok so far?
Alright, I'm gonna try the random dice rolls on this site to figure out what's going on with Flenn.
Race: Human, Half-Elf, or Aasimar? Human!
Town/Village
Both alive
siblings
Middle-Class Birth
Serfs/Peasants? Reroll required...
Merchants. More like it.
Raiders!
A human, born to merchants in a village. 6 siblings...
2 older, 3 younger, and he's got a twin.
Raiders hit the town when he was young, but both his parents are still alive.
Class: Alchemist, Bard, Fighter, Gunslinger, Monk, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Witch? Monk...
Secret Student...
The Criminal!
He's a monk (probably a drunken master, to keep with the whole bartender thing), who was a secret student and associated with a criminal!
Armed Robbery!
Lover/Former Lover...
Justice...
Resolution: Sincere Regret.
Deity: Cayden Cailean!
A few relationships.
The Past...
He committed armed robbery against a former lover out of justice, and regrets it sincerely. Now a worshiper of Cayden Cailean, he's only had a few significant relationships in the past, and he longs for the bygone days of yore...
This'll be much more interesting to work with.
How much of the new rules are we looking to use? I can see various scales for this. In smaller-to-larger scale order:
lol I like how your parents were middle class pesants :D
So a secret student associated with a criminal and became a monk? Sounds like the criminal recruited you and took you with him to his monastery.
So I got a good idea where I want to take my character, he is not an actual resident of the town, rather he is a merchant/someone rich who is passing through and stays at the tavern, renting a room. While there he gets a glimpse of the future (or at least he thinks) showing the town to become really prosperous with the tavern in the middle of it. Seeing a golden opportunity he decides to invest in the tavern to help get it started (and have a share in it, to make a profit of course ^_-) and do what he can to help out. He will rent a room inside and make that his residence for the time being (aka however long the campaign lasts) although he will venture out to buy/sell trade goods in neighbouring towns/cities and tag along on the adventures to make sure he gets his share of the profits. He wont really be optimized but I should be able to make him competent (well as competent as a first level oracle can be :P).
One thing though, I am changing it from female to male, I just cant figure out how to play a female in my head X)
Will do some more rolls here right away!
Edit: Oh ya I wanted to ask about a trait. Would it be alright if I took the dwarven only trait Coin Hoarder? I was thinking of taking it and rich parents to give me the rich merchant feel and be able to afford to invest and pay for services, ect. If not I will probably just take rich parents and reflavour it as something shrewd.
Huh I just realized that they changed coin hoarder... It used to be you gained an additional 900gp, now it changes your starting gold to 500, a big drop D:
Huh I just realized that they changed coin hoarder... It used to be you gained an additional 900gp, now it changes your starting gold to 500, a big drop D:
Aren't you thinking of Rich Parents?
Ah you are right! the trait I am thinking of is Chosen Child, I got it mixed up with coin hoarder. I will still probably only take one or the other anyways.
Crustypeanut - Oh, any and all businesses are allowed, as long as the players aren't working at cross purposes (i.e., no Evil characters without a really good justification). You'll all have a share in the tavern at first, but you're not in any way required to run it, although if you don't put in any work, you probably don't get any returns, obviously: It's just there to give an automatic hook/idea for people. All I require is that you think of the town as your base of operations, so you don't just go haring off to adventure somewhere else.
Everybody else - sorry, running out of posting time this morning, I'll get to you later on today. One more note, though: You are by no means required to use the background generator to make your character, although feel free if you so desire. Just so's you know.
Sounds good VK! I'll start working on a character then.
Earlier I rolled randomly on the character background stuff (including the conflict resolution), and I rolled 7 siblings.. so I made all of them using the background system too.
A family of 8 humans, all orphans, between the ages of 20-27 (Their parents were prolific and had a kid a year), born to middle class artisan parents who died when the youngest was but a few years old.
Ended up with an alchemist who hated nature, two druids (One was attached to his animal companion dog), two female paladins (One was an Ex-paladin, had more sexual experience than anyone in the family, and was attached to her hedonistic bard sister), a female inquisitor of Abadar, the previously mentioned bard (who was funnily enough, still in a relationship), and the oldest, a male sorcerer who murdered a tradesperson for fun, but felt bad afterwards.
Two of them were kidnapped when they were younger, the non-ex paladin had killed something when she was younger, one of the druids was possessed by a fiend, and two of them had encounters with a sentient undead.
This family was nuts. XD (This isn't the family I'm using, though)
So... recruitment has already begun? Should I start generating an actual character? And any other requirements other than 20 points, average starting wealth and level one, non-evil?
I dont know if recrutment has already begun yet, but I figure if you get a character up now and recrutment starts later you are all set and ready to go for it.
2 other requirements are: must be able to adventure at least somewhat and must have a reason to be attached to the town or a reason to invest in the tavern.
Well ok then. This is what I'm thinking for a tiefling bouncer.
Question: Are we in any particular city on Golarion? Such as Sandpoint, Magnimar, etc etc? Or are we in just a nameless little spec of a town that has no real importance?
(Also, what size is the city?)
From what I can tell, officially recruitment has not started yet. In addition, he never mentioned the name of the location, only that it was a speck of a town that has become more of a village in recent times. It's located in a temperate location, but exactly where was never specified.
So it has been a few days, how is this coming along?
Since there's been some questions about this; official recruitment is still a little ways off. When I'm ready to roll out, I'll be making a new, more formal thread and post a link here. I'm just making sure I'm as familiar as I can be with all the wacky new rules we'll be rolling out before I start to try and run a game based on them. I don't have an exact time frame, really, but if it's more than a week from now, I'd be surprised.
Bobson: How small or large scale this game gets is going to be entirely up to the players. If they focus solely on running and improving their tavern, then this'll end up mostly as a game about a particularly awesome tavern. On the other hand, if they start focusing on expansion of their town into a city or kingdom, then suddenly it starts becoming a game about running a city. And if that kingdom then starts getting greedy, or pisses off its neighbors too much, then we're looking at a full-scale war game.
Crusty: Not a nameless speck - a named speck. When players are chosen, we'll work on deciding the name together. As for size, it's just barely village sized at the moment. It was once a small town, but as folks have trickled away, it's gotten smaller. Its specific location is going to remain somewhat ambiguous (probably Varisia or somewhere in the River Kingdoms), unless people really push for settling it in a particular area. I like Golarion as a setting, but I don't want to get too bogged down with geography if I can help it.
Cool, Varisia was what my background elements was suggesting to me for my character. Being a Cleric of Desna I could make elsewhere work, but Varisia as his homeland would be easier.
The riverlands are significantly less detailed than Varisia and so might actually work better for what you want.