Hello fellow message board peoples. I recently opened a recruitment thread for a game, and was very disappointed with the low response I received. I'm still interested in running a similar game, so I decided to start over, and involve the potential players more in the game creation process.
The kind of game I want to run is a gritty sandbox exploration and settlement game, using the settlement/kingdom building rules in Ultimate Campaign. I want the party to be a group of outsiders arriving in a new land with limited resources and the goal of conquest and colonization. The "new world" should be tropical, mainly jungle and hills. It will be infested with various types of evil humanoid tribes. The colonists should have a technological advantage, but fewer numbers and limited resources. They will have access to Guns Everywhere rules. I also want to house rule the alignment system out of this game.
The game will be a roughly 50/50 balance of combat and role play, and I expect the players to be good writers, interested in characterization and character development. While the majority of play time will probably be taken by combat (due to the nature of PBP), I'm looking for people who can write good third person narrative and really describe what their character is doing. If you tend to do more Tweet-like posts, this probably isn't the game for you.
Here are a couple of other games whose style I'm hoping to match:
Robert Brooks' Reign of Winter
Those and some of the basic character creation rules (traits, starting wealth, HP etc) are the only aspects of the game that I am 100% set on. I'd like people who are interested in playing this type of game, and able to post once every 48 hours or so to express interest and vote on which of the following options they'd like to play with:
Setting
1) Standard Golarion. We'd set the game in 4713 AR, and assume that all previously published adventure paths had been successfully completed by one adventuring group or another. If you vote for this option, please specify who you want to work for (nation, church, faction), and where you want to colonize.
2) Golarion-like standard fantasy. Deities, races and ethnicities ripped from Golarion and put into a generic high fantasy world which we detail only as much as we need for our purposes.
3) Start on Golarion and then getteleported/gated/flung/sucked or travel to some other previously unknown plane or planet.
Available Races
1) Core only
2) Core + planetouched (aasimar, tiefling, ifrit, etc)
3) Core + Featured
4) All Paizo published
5) All Paizo published + custom races up to 13 RP.
Starting Level
1) 4th; Two levels of NPC class, two of PC classes.
2) 3rd; Three levels of PC classes.
Ability Scores
1) 4d6 straight down the line, no moving stats, reroll anything below 7. To me this option is interesting as it potentially creates characters with flaws to be roleplayed.
2) 4d6 drop the lowest die, reroll anything below 7. Scores could be moved around as desired.
3) 20 point buy.
Right now, this is just an attempt to generate interest. If I can get six or more players on the same page, and whose styles I think would work well here, I'll create a recruitment thread. Post with your votes, and a couple sentence description of a character idea if you have one.
Still interested! I was just burning through character ideas like no tomorrow, so I did not post much in the other thread. Even then, I tend to turn in my characters the day of like I did with this joker. As for the formal voting, give me some time to strew on it.
Setting: 3 ..it just seems interesting to me
Races: 2 or 3..I have always wanted to try a grippli or other odd race
Level: 3rd level
Scores: 1st/2nd merhod..I love randomness plus at least I get to the roll 7 or power
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I am interested. My votes are:
Setting
#1 - Standard Golarion - I vote for Cheliax because I like the idea of going to colonize Arcadia and they have a colony started there. It seems tailor made for your idea.
Available Races
#1 - Core Races - There are so many options for customization with the APG and ARG which allow people to make a unique character.
Starting Level
#2 - 3rd - This allows for people to have all levels in their preferred class for the single class players while still allowing people to multiclass in other PC classes, or (with GM permission) NPC classes.
Ability Scores
#1 - 4d6 straight down the line, no moving stats, reroll anything below 7. - I agree with your opinion that it can create weaknesses which can be role played. I also like it because it harkens back to the old days and allows for a sense of the random. I like being able to come up with a general concept for a character, but needing to wait until I have rolled the dice to see how flesh out said character.
Speaking of which, my concept in this selection would be a Sargavan who still worships Aroden, refusing to believe that he is truly dead. Maybe he is a cleric or paladin. If he will still be able to cast spells, he might be a bard or oracle. The opportunity to go to Arcadia will be seen as a chance to escape the pressures of a civilization that has lost it's faith in the god of humanity and start anew by proselytizing to the natives of a new world who do not yet know of Aroden.
Setting: 1. Golarion works just fine, and we're all somewhat familiar with it. I don't mind too much who we work for, although the Pathfinder Society offers the most neutral way of doing it.
Avaiable Races: 4. I like weird races and I cannot lie.
Starting Level: 3rd. NPC Classes are just...frustrating.
Abilities Scores: The 1st or 2nd methods. A little randomness never hurt anyone. Plus, the potential of a 24 in a stat intrigues me. I'll never get it, because the Dice Gods hate my very soul - I doubt any of the stats I roll will be over 16, and most closer to 10, too high to reroll but not enough to be much help - but it is alluring.
Having recently gotten into the downtime rules a bit, I would like to see a campaign with them as a primary mechanic. I have not read up on kingdom building yet but it seems to be a fascinating system.
For the options, I would say...
Setting: 2 or 3
Races: 3
Level: 2
Ability Scores: 2
I was/am interested, just haven't managed to get around to formulating a character idea formally. I liked what I saw, though from what I've seen lurking on the forums it appears as if there can be general state of hesitance about joining games with homebrew settings, which strikes me as inherently odd (I guess people are just suckers for APs 'round here). But that's neither here nor there, I s'pose.
If there is any connection (spiritual or otherwise) to Planescape in any capacity, that is my vote. Beyond that? Definitely Golarion, if for no other reason than familiarity and enticement.
Personally, I feel like Andoran, Cheliax, Varisia, etc. has been done to death. I'd like to see some of the less mentioned nations taking a stab at something. I got a couple of ideas about this.
- Brevoy staking claims in Iobaria.
- Geb sending an expedition to Sarusan.
- Hermeans going anywhere. I've yet to really see much of anything based out of Hermea; maybe a band of exiles shipwrecked far off course in some strange environs?
I'd go with 5, unless it plays havoc on some story elements. Just so long as people don't expect their half-troll to be tolerated in social circles for no apparent reason, yeah? "I r an orc barbarian in Vigil; why for are you poking me with your lances, friends?"
Of the options presented, I'd go with 2. Would you consider a "level zero" approach of some sort? Wherein the characters begin as regular folk with NPC levels but can trade up for Core/Base Class levels upon achieving some noteworthy hallmark or training? Thematically, I find the idea of a commoner overcoming and rising above to something much greater very appealing. Mechanically, it's troublesome dragging the weight of said humble beginnings along with you for the whole ride (assuming you can't "retrain" out of those levels eventually).
I'm a sucker for random rolling stats. I'd personally vote 2 > 1 > 3 -- I think most people prefer point buys, though, so I may be in the minority in that regard. As a plot point, I think random stats straight down the line + npc class levels would play very nice in terms of story and character development. In my experience, most people prefer complete control to the whims of fate. Mixed bag. I'm rambling. 2.
I'll be decidedly tight lipped about story, race, etc. but I've been wanting to play a bladebound kensai for a good while. Mostly hinges on what races end up being allowed I think.
I'd definitely be interested in this game. The idea of an exploratory/colonial style game would be a nice change of pace. I like to think I'm a decent writer (although I do use British/Australian English, hope that doesn't bother you), but I tend to follow the trend of the campaign - there's not many PbPs that I've played that explore the internal point of view much...
As for the voting:
My vote would be for #1, as Golarion is a great resource to draw from. And while I'm not too bothered by which faction I'd be representing nor exactly where we explore, I think it would be awesome if you were to create your own "lost world", with dinosaurs, weird spirits, savage tribes of humanoids, an ancient sense of horror and the sublime. But that's just me.
#1, if not, #2. I don't mind planetouched, but I tend to find the more exotic races very cliched, often chosen for mechanical benefit, and generally incongruous with the given setting (I have been guilty of all these myself, mind you...). Of course, if you decide to go with a unique homebrew world that has gonzo baked into it, that may be a different story :)
Honestly, I've never played a PC with NPC classes before, so I don't really have an informed opinion on this one. I guess option #2 is simpler, but given that everyone will have the same level, and it's your own campaign, so you can set encounter CRs as you like.
Again, that may be just me. But I really like those kind of sandboxes.
I love the romance of rolling, and the lack of min/maxing option - but I invariably roll terribly, particularly with those character-defining early rolls, such as ability score rolls. As such, I usually choose point-buy as player and GM (I also hate seeing someone not enjoying the game because they were let down with their ability score rolls). However, I'm going to pretend that I don't know how unlucky I am, and vote for #1, followed by #2.
Okay, so them's my votes. However, they're really just general preferences, and I wouldn't be too fussed if I end up playing a drow adept/alchemist in Gonzoland created with point-buy. But there they are anyway.
Okay, I'm already glad I did this. Seems like there's plenty of interest here. I'm just going to keep a running tally of votes and make comments that pop into my head based on what I read above.
Setting
1) 4
2) 1
3) 3
Race
1) 3
2) 2
3) 2
4) 1
5) 1
Starting Level
1)
2) 7
Ability Scores
1) 4
2) 5
3)
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So it seems like NPC classes are a universally hated idea. We'll probably end up rolling 4d6 drop the lowest, reroll <7, arrange as you see fit.
Setting either way is also leaning towards starting in Golarion. I was thinking it would be fun to have an evil or neutral faction or nation as the sponsor. Maybe the Aspis Consortium or Cheliax. The key thing is that the destination not be detailed in any Paizo source material. It drives me crazy when I put a lot of work into making up part of Golarion and then Paizo publishes something which goes against what I've written, and suddenly my game's no longer set in Golarion. That dislike is what inspired me to put up option 2 and 3 for setting. Another option could be just make some random large island out in the ocean that's not mentioned in any of Golarion canon and have the group's benefactors have recently discovered it. It was previously hidden by some powerful magic, and suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It's the size of a country and the Aspis Consortium want to be the first to claim it? You get the idea.
Race wise, I'm much more apt to open all the options. I actually kinda find the core races a little cliche and boring, it takes a really good writer/creative person to make an elf/dwarf/gnome/half-orc that's not just a collection of stereotypes with a standard personality tacked on. Also when I'm playing, I love the opportunity to create my own race for my PC, but I am an inveterate munchkin (^_^')
That's all for now. Keep the interest and votes coming. Feel free to respond to what I've written as well.
Missed me!
Yep, with regards to Golarion and canon, I hear you - I find it very discouraging when I create something in the gaps, then the gaps are filled... I almost included (but didn't) a secondary preference for #2. I think the "Lost World" angle can help avoid that though - as you say, just create your own previously unheard of island.
Another option for ability scores could be to roll 2 sets of (immovable) scores, so that if one is particularly uninspiring for the player they have a second chance. You could also offer a reroll for an array that falls below a certain point-buy (perhaps 12, 15, 17).
I'm really preferring the idea of scores in fixed positions, but I understand that a lot of people don't...
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Setting either way is also leaning towards starting in Golarion. I was thinking it would be fun to have an evil or neutral faction or nation as the sponsor. Maybe the Aspis Consortium or Cheliax. The key thing is that the destination not be detailed in any Paizo source material. It drives me crazy when I put a lot of work into making up part of Golarion and then Paizo publishes something which goes against what I've written, and suddenly my game's no longer set in Golarion. That dislike is what inspired me to put up option 2 and 3 for setting. Another option could be just make some random large island out in the ocean that's not mentioned in any of Golarion canon and have the group's benefactors have recently discovered it. It was previously hidden by some powerful magic, and suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It's the size of a country and the Aspis Consortium want to be the first to claim it? You get the idea.
I also agree that going with a heretofore unknown land in the world of Golarion is a good idea for your reasons above. I also like the idea of a national sponsor.
Race wise, I'm much more apt to open all the options. I actually kinda find the core races a little cliche and boring, it takes a really good writer/creative person to make an elf/dwarf/gnome/half-orc that's not just a collection of stereotypes with a standard personality tacked on. Also when I'm playing, I love the opportunity to create my own race for my PC, but I am an inveterate munchkin (^_^')
Interesting choice to buck the trend here. I can see a good reason for it as I don't suppose it would have an impact since ~90% of voters aren't interested in that option anyway.
I look forward to following the thread to see how it turns out.
Littlehewy - I didn't miss you actually, I tallied yours after hitting preview :P
Littlehewy - I didn't miss you actually, I tallied yours after hitting preview :P
Dang it, failed Stealth roll. I hate the lack of facing rules...
Setting either way is also leaning towards starting in Golarion. I was thinking it would be fun to have an evil or neutral faction or nation as the sponsor. Maybe the Aspis Consortium or Cheliax. The key thing is that the destination not be detailed in any Paizo source material. It drives me crazy when I put a lot of work into making up part of Golarion and then Paizo publishes something which goes against what I've written, and suddenly my game's no longer set in Golarion. That dislike is what inspired me to put up option 2 and 3 for setting. Another option could be just make some random large island out in the ocean that's not mentioned in any of Golarion canon and have the group's benefactors have recently discovered it. It was previously hidden by some powerful magic, and suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It's the size of a country and the Aspis Consortium want to be the first to claim it? You get the idea.I also agree that going with a heretofore unknown land in the world of Golarion is a good idea for your reasons above. I also like the idea of a national sponsor.
Race wise, I'm much more apt to open all the options. I actually kinda find the core races a little cliche and boring, it takes a really good writer/creative person to make an elf/dwarf/gnome/half-orc that's not just a collection of stereotypes with a standard personality tacked on. Also when I'm playing, I love the opportunity to create my own race for my PC, but I am an inveterate munchkin (^_^')Interesting choice to buck the trend here. I can see a good reason for it as I don't suppose it would have an impact since ~90% of voters aren't interested in that option anyway.
I look forward to following the thread to see how it turns out.
Yeah, if I open up custom races it doesn't mean that the party is going to be filled with two headed freewibbles. Most people will still be human, and the other core races. It's not like I have a problem with that, I just like to see people be creative. I do find some of the races to be particularly unappealing though. Mostly ones from Tian Xia. Kenku, samsarans, strix, wayangs? Meh.
Must admit, I'm always tempted to make my own races, but they're usually variations on more standard races with a tweek. So I try and stick to the more standard ones.
If we work for an evil nation or corporation (Cheliax, Aspis, whoever) then are we going to be expected to be fairly evil in our methods ourselves? Colonialism isn't usually a very pretty process, and I wasn't exactly expecting to see many Paladins, but I'm not sure the personality I'm developing in my skull would work well with the Aspis or Cheliax.
As for the character I'm thinking of, I'm actually thinking of being a slave sent out to earn his/her freedom by taming the land with the others for his/her owner, but I'm not sure on class yet. Since he wouldn't be terribly fond of his owner, he probably wouldn't play ball that well once out of view, but some method or another would keep him from simply breaking for it.
I mean, there's not going to be alignment. So I don't expect you to be good or evil. I expect you to be people trying to take over inhabited land in a harsh new environment with limited resources. Good/evil/law/chaos will exist only as ideas, like they do in the real world.
That being said, the things you encounter are mostly going to be vicious, savage beings whispering sibilant horrors to dark gods over the freshly removed, still beating hearts of their neighbors. I'm going more for Robert E Howard on the morality scale than normal Pathfinder.
That being said, the things you encounter are mostly going to be vicious, savage beings whispering sibilant horrors to dark gods over the freshly removed, still beating hearts of their neighbors. I'm going more for Robert E Howard on the morality scale than normal Pathfinder.
Excellent.
Setting
Option 2 – Golarion-esque Standard Fantasy. I like the idea of toying with the environment. I think that having some small degree over the history and environment makes character creation much more fluid for players. That being said, there are plenty of supplements and books available to give detailed histories of Golarion for players to look up work around. Option 2 is preferred but Option 1 is manageable.
Races
Option 1 – Standard Races. Why mess with a good thing?
Starting Level
Option 2 – 3rd Level. This one took a while. I like the idea of giving NPC classes for our character backgrounds but I can see this getting messy with builds. In another game I’m playing on the boards, we’re using a variation on backgrounds for characters which basically gives players 2 extra skill ranks per level that must be used only for Craft, Knowledge, Perform or Profession. It’s simple, clean and effectively accomplishes the same. Couldn’t find a link for it but I did manage to dredge this up: Backgrounds/Occupations. I’ve never tried it and I’m a bit skeptical of 3PP but hey, it’s something to consider. Spit-balling here anyway, right? :-)
Ability Scores
Option 2 – 4d6 with bumper rails. Hands down, my favorite method of ability rolling.
The alias for Cassian Vespertine has a nice example of my writing skills and organization. I’ve had a hard time finding games that get to my comfort zone of roleplay/combat but Cassian’s story arc in Skyfall is precisely what I aim for with my PbP’s. I enjoy mysteries, puzzles and PC banter. I love this medium of gaming because it forces players to really drive a story. It’s seems like your games have a good track record of those things so it would be a pleasure to enlist.
To be honest, I like your home brew world/setting. None the less, I will work with the changes:
Setting
3) Start on Golarion and then getteleported/gated/flung/sucked or travel to some other previously unknown plane or planet. --> I am actually envisioning something like the sovyrian stone, our employer discovers a gateway/creates a gateway to a new world and begins colonization of this world through the gateway.
Available Races
4) All Paizo published -- > Why the heck not.
Starting Level
1) 4th; Two levels of NPC class, two of PC classes.
2) 3rd; Three levels of PC classes.
-- > I am fine with both these options.
Ability Scores
1) 4d6 straight down the line, no moving stats, reroll anything below 7. To me this option is interesting as it potentially creates characters with flaws to be roleplayed --- > Lets gamble.
EDIT: As for our employer, I think Alkenstar / Nex would be very interesting.
I missed the original thread but this sounds interesting.
Setting
Option 1- I like having a lot of information to draw on, off the bat Nethys church. But depending on things could go with a number of organizations and such. Option 2 sounds good too just would have to bug the DM a lot for nay or yays. xP
Races
Option 5- Just because I like to have options and sometimes to pull off a character concept it is best to have a unique race or anomaly member of a race. Still would only be against option 1, way to cookie cutter for my taste.
Starting Level
Option 2- I have no experience with NPC classes as a PC, so do not really have a solid foundation for it. Anyways it seems like losing levels to me sense they are not really that useful for PC's. Again I do not know much about it so just going with what I do know.
Ability Scores
Option 2- Truth be told this goes against my better judgment. I do not trust the dice at all. Still why not give it a chance, I admit sometimes it is funny seeing how hard the dice gods strike me down. xD
As far as character ideas go. I tend to pick spellcasters, depends on the party make up. Off the top of my head, a goodly wizard of the forest, a witch looking to carve out a place for himself, or a scheming bard trying to acquire everything he thinks he deserves. Plenty of choices and ways to go. ;)
SETTING
1) mostly because it gives you so many hooks to build the background on. No matter how much effort you put into a custom-built world, it is either going to pale in comparison to Golarion, or scare players away with hundreds of pages of original content.
Of course, the fact that it starts on Golarion does not mean it should end there. I kind like option 3) as well.
RACES
Not a fan of the traveling circus party.
1) Core only (maybe with one or two exceptions, for example I usually upgrade Orc as a core race)
weird races are ok for thematic parties - like a planar adventure with only planetouched characters, or an evil campaigns with mostly goblinoids and reptilian races, or an oriental campaign with tengus and kitsune and such.
CLASSES
I go with option 2) - never quite liked the idea of using NPC classes for PCs.
ABILITIES
I don't have a strong opinion. 1) sounds like fun.
Setting
Option 1 - However, feel free to alter the place as much as needed.
Races
Option 3+ - Core is a bit cookie cutter, and I have been itching to play an Aasimar lately.
Starting Level
Option 2 - NPC classes are alright for melee (good way to grab skills and proficiencies), but spellcasters really take a hit.
Ability Scores
Option 3 - I do not trust the dice.
When I get home from work later I'll do another tally. Looks like I've got a good sample size as far as the boards go, so I'm probably going to decide on and set most of the original options. I'll get more specific and ask for another round of voting on some more detailed stuff after that.
Dotting for definite interest, if there's room for another player.
- I also like the idea of having the background be in solid Golarion, so we can use the source material for our characters, but in the land itself being an unknown, whether that's due to mystical lost-land-ness, or however you want to run it.
- I'm fine with core races, I rarely play anything else anyway
- PC classes please
- Option 2 for scores.
As for my concepts, I'm thinking either a paladin of Abadar (seems like the god of civilization would approve of going out to colonize a land; much more play on the Lawful than the Good aspect of a pally) or something nature-oriented (ranger or druid), as the Aspis/sponsoring organization would want to send out someone who could survive in the as-yet untamed lands.
Setting
1) 3
2) 3
3) 4
Race
1) 6
2) 2
3) 3
4) 3
5) 3
Starting Level
1) 1
2) 13
Ability Scores
1) 6
2) 8
3) 1
So lets get some of this out of the way. I require no further votes on the options in the original post.
We will be starting out in Golarion in the year 4713 AR. The game will rapidly progress to a place that's not detailed in the Golarion canon. Please vote on which of the following you'd prefer for the place of colonization:
1) Bermuda triangle like area which has always made ships disappear. Now it was discovered to have a small hidden continent in it.
2) Hidden portal to a new world/plane (it's unclear at this point) discovered by your benefactors. They want to exploit the uncivilized new land's resources.
I will offer core races, planetouched, hobgoblins, and custom races up to 13 RP. If you play a tiefling or aasimar you will probably only get one trait to balance out their extra power a bit (commentary welcome here).
Custom races will require a well written, detailed and plausible back story as to how they came to be on Golarion, their culture, why are they so rare that no one knows about them etc. If your race is clearly there only to make your character more powerful, I will veto it. If I don't like your race, I will veto it. If it couldn't reasonably function in human society, I will veto it. It's probably a good idea to run your race idea past me before doing the work on it.
We will be starting at third level. You will choose one Craft skill and one Profession skill at first level. Each time you level up, you will get one free rank in those skills. Once chosen they cannot be changed more than once every five levels.
You may choose to either roll 4d6 straight down the line, rerolling anything below 7, OR you may choose to roll 4d6 six times, drop the lowest die from each set and then arrange them how you like, also rerolling anything less than seven. Once you pick one of the methods you will be required to stick with it. If you roll abysmally you can take a 15 point buy instead. Don't roll in this thread please, wait for the actual recruitment thread.
Please vote for one of the following benefactors. If you don't know what they are, you can look them up on Pathfinder Wiki
1) Aspis Consortium
2) Church of Razmir
3) A Hellknight Order (please specify which one)
4) Prophets of Kalistrade
5) Hermean sepratists
6) A chartered company from Alkenstar
7) Holomog
8) A satrap of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh
I'll leave this open until it seems like I've heard from most of the people, or there's a definite decision one way or another. Thanks for your continued interest.
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Drayen - That would be me typoing. It should be higher than four, yes. It's moot, since I've decided that portion now.
Setting
No hard-wired preference here, they both sound fun. If the idea is to cut us off from substantial resources/reinforcement, then a planar gate sounds like a harder-to-cross boundary. This to me seems like more a flavor choice than anything, unless there's a mechanical aspect I'm unaware of, but other than the Bermuda triangle having a more 'nautical' feel, they both seem equally open to free leeway as you design the land.
Benefactor
I vote Aspis, or the Padishah empire. I've never really thought of the Razmiran priesthood or the prophets of Kalistrade as being the sort of powerful, resource-driven organization that would fund something like this, but I could be wrong. Padishah Empire is one of those bits of Golarion that intrigues me since it's apparently a HUGE empire that almost never gets mentioned.
Also, Hermea is kinda an awesome third option. Not enough done with Hermea.
I'd rather not have Hellknights because of my front-runner concept of a pally of Abadar-- I know what you said about good and evil only being abstract concepts, but even if my pally would probably feel more like 'lawful neutral' than 'lawful good', I'm not sure I could see him being outright happy to work for Hellknights. But that's my personal selfishness speaking.
(On that note, a question: would you even be allowing paladins, if good/evil are more abstractions than realities? I'd love to play the paladin as being basically The Hard Line of the Law/Order above all, but I don't really see him as being that Lawful Good, so it would be a matter of GM fiat if I could play a non-LG pally.)
One question on the craft/profession bits: would we only get the freebie skill points at 2nd and 3rd levels, or also at first? In other words, will we be building the chars with 6 freebie points for Craft/Prof, or 4?
I'll be rolling 4d6 and then placing them accordingly, for my stats (er, assuming I make it into the campaign, heh).
Sounds very interesting, yessireebob. Got room for one more? I have no idea what I'd like to play, or what I want, or anything! But I love roleplay heavy games. Sign me up, Scotty?
Setting
Both options sound like they could work very well.
Benefactor
I would say the Padishah Empire would be the most realistic (big, powerful empire with a ton of resources to spare), but the Aspis Consortium seems fun too.
I like that this game is going to be looser in terms of morality. I might finally get to build that Juju Oracle I was poking at.
Setting
Option 1 for me.
Benefactor
Either the Aspis Consortium or a Keleshite satrap. Both give me a sense of real power, whereas the others seem either petty or unimpressive to me.
Sounds very interesting, yessireebob. Got room for one more? I have no idea what I'd like to play, or what I want, or anything! But I love roleplay heavy games. Sign me up, Scotty?
Go ahead and vote. I won't be picking players until after a recruitment process.
Setting
No hard-wired preference here, they both sound fun. If the idea is to cut us off from substantial resources/reinforcement, then a planar gate sounds like a harder-to-cross boundary. This to me seems like more a flavor choice than anything, unless there's a mechanical aspect I'm unaware of, but other than the Bermuda triangle having a more 'nautical' feel, they both seem equally open to free leeway as you design the land.
Benefactor
I vote Aspis, or the Padishah empire. I've never really thought of the Razmiran priesthood or the prophets of Kalistrade as being the sort of powerful, resource-driven organization that would fund something like this, but I could be wrong. Padishah Empire is one of those bits of Golarion that intrigues me since it's apparently a HUGE empire that almost never gets mentioned.
Also, Hermea is kinda an awesome third option. Not enough done with Hermea.
I'd rather not have Hellknights because of my front-runner concept of a pally of Abadar-- I know what you said about good and evil only being abstract concepts, but even if my pally would probably feel more like 'lawful neutral' than 'lawful good', I'm not sure I could see him being outright happy to work for Hellknights. But that's my personal selfishness speaking.
(On that note, a question: would you even be allowing paladins, if good/evil are more abstractions than realities? I'd love to play the paladin as being basically The Hard Line of the Law/Order above all, but I don't really see him as being that Lawful Good, so it would be a matter of GM fiat if I could play a non-LG pally.)
One question on the craft/profession bits: would we only get the freebie skill points at 2nd and 3rd levels, or also at first? In other words, will we be building the chars with 6 freebie points for Craft/Prof, or 4?
I'll be rolling 4d6 and then placing them accordingly, for my stats (er, assuming I make it into the campaign, heh).
Paladins and alignment: I will definitely allow paladins, but their codes of conduct would be based on their church. They wouldn't have to be the traditional lawful good paladin. You could even be a barbarian/paladin of Gorum or something. The one thing I will need to do there is come up for an alternate way for smite to work. That being one of their main class mechanics I don't want to remove it. As it's limited to a times/day I might just allow smite to affect everything.
Craft/profession: You will get the bonus every level forever. So when you make the character they will have six free ranks, 3 in a craft and 3 in a profession. I'll probably make it a craft and associated profession. Ie Craft (Armor) and Profession (Smith) rather than Craft (Leather) and Profession (Fisherman) or something like that.
My suggestion would be that, in the case of a paladin of Abadar, who is an extreme on the lawful-chaos scale even if not on the good-evil scale, they would gain a 'smite chaos' that would work against creatures detecting as chaotic. It would seem like the simplest solution, as opposed to getting crazy extra damage and bonuses versus EVERYTHING. :)
The only one that might be hard is a paladin of a true neutral god, haha.
But yay! that pallies are allowed. I personally far prefer the 'faithful to the codes of your god' take on paladins, so this pleases me.
Excellent re: crafting/prof skills.
Setting - 1) For some reason I simply prefer the idea of a bemuda triangle like effect, if only because we could find the remains of the previous vessels and creatures...and now I have the image of a crashed Shory floating city with a dragon stuck in the air intake.
Benefactor - I like the Padishah Empire and Alkenstar. If nothing else Alkenstar would explain why we have enough firepower to subdue a small continent. Holomog might also be interesting, if only because it's one most people will never have heard of.
2 -- I'm a sucker for planar affairs. Not that the first choice isn't appealing too, mind you. Have I mentioned Planescape thirty bagillion times in this thread yet?
I may shoot you a PM about something a little more out there (maybe tweaked a bit to be in line with the 13 RP stipulation). In general, I'm fine with whatever race guidelines are set. May change my character selection drastically, but it won't make or break my intent to submit something.
Word.
Just to clarify, is that first option supposed to be "drop the lowest," or would each ability score yield a potential 4-24?
My vote's 7 -- Holomog. I like both the Aspis Consortium and Hermea a lot as secondary choices, but Holomog seems way more "whatever you need it to be" in the grand scheme of things. Lots of blanks to fill in. The bit about the country gearing up for war again is a particularly juicy hook; perhaps they've found something that could greatly mitigate the costs and strain of feeding/fueling/funding a war effort?
Never been a fan of deity-centric Paladins only existing as LG. It doesn't make sense to me that only the righteous Gods would choose Champions as such. Always been a bigger fan of Paladins espousing the tenets of their faith. Usually just swap out types and descriptors with their equivalent counterparts (good for evil, law for chaos, celestial for fiendish, etc). Also call them something other than Paladin, usually based on their faith as well. Maybe a Gorumite would be a Reaver or Warbringer; Gozreh has Stormheralds; Nethys has Dweomer-Knights; etc. You get the idea.
Ability Scores
Just to clarify, is that first option supposed to be "drop the lowest," or would each ability score yield a potential 4-24?
The bolded one.
Hmmmm...
Setting: either one works for me, leaning towards Bermuda just for the nautical possibilities :)
Benefactor: I don't really know much about any of those factions so I will vote once I get to my computer to do a better search :)
Stats: hmmm...the choices lol
Other...
Never been a fan of deity-centric Paladins only existing as LG. It doesn't make sense to me that only the righteous Gods would choose Champions as such. Always been a bigger fan of Paladins espousing the tenets of their faith. Usually just swap out types and descriptors with their equivalent counterparts (good for evil, law for chaos, celestial for fiendish, etc). Also call them something other than Paladin, usually based on their faith as well. Maybe a Gorumite would be a Reaver or Warbringer; Gozreh has Stormheralds; Nethys has Dweomer-Knights; etc. You get the idea.
Yes. Basically this, except no alignment whatsoever. I will either remove the detect x spells entirely or replace them with an equivalent spell that allows you to detect worshipers of other deities.
My suggestion would be that, in the case of a paladin of Abadar, who is an extreme on the lawful-chaos scale even if not on the good-evil scale, they would gain a 'smite chaos' that would work against creatures detecting as chaotic. It would seem like the simplest solution, as opposed to getting crazy extra damage and bonuses versus EVERYTHING. :)
Nah. There is no law or chaos either. There is no alignment, period. If you can smite everything it also means everything else can smite everything. I think its a fair tradeoff. No more being neutral to protect yourself from smite good, or being lawful to protect you from a hammer of law or whatever. It all just works on everybody.
Nah. There is no law or chaos either. There is no alignment, period. If you can smite everything it also means everything else can smite everything. I think its a fair tradeoff. No more being neutral to protect yourself from smite good, or being lawful to protect you from a hammer of law or whatever. It all just works on everybody.
So in other words, your god is basically granting you divinely-empowered attacks against anyone that you, as his/her servant, deems a foe?
Not arguing, just attempting to wrap my head around how it will work. It seems potentially overpowered to me, but I guess you are correct that the limitations on smite-per-day would probably keep it from getting out of hand.
Setting: 1) 1, Bermuda triangle
benefactor 2) 6. Alkenstar has always looked quite interesting as a technologically advanced place. Working under them would be interesting.
Nah. There is no law or chaos either. There is no alignment, period. If you can smite everything it also means everything else can smite everything. I think its a fair tradeoff. No more being neutral to protect yourself from smite good, or being lawful to protect you from a hammer of law or whatever. It all just works on everybody.So in other words, your god is basically granting you divinely-empowered attacks against anyone that you, as his/her servant, deems a foe?
Not arguing, just attempting to wrap my head around how it will work. It seems potentially overpowered to me, but I guess you are correct that the limitations on smite-per-day would probably keep it from getting out of hand.
Basically yes. As a paladin you are empowered by your god as long as you follow their code. They thereby entrust you with a portion of their power that you can use to smite whoever you want. If you run around using it in ways the deity doesn't like, you'll probably be breaking your code and lose your powers anyway.
As for overpowered (which I don't believe in for homebrew games by the way), if you can explain how I'll believe you. 99.9% of the time the enemies the PCs are fighting are evil anyway. That's an exaggeration, but probably not when it comes to BBEGs. So what if you can smite the golem instead of the demon? You can still only smite so many things per day. It's just giving paladin players more options, which I always like to do.
Oh, I'm down with more options, don't get me wrong. :)
I suppose my reaction of OPness is due to having GMed what promised to be a difficult fight last night for my party of five end in two rounds due the pally's smite. Most parties I've been in with pallies seem to really crank out the damage once smite comes into play, which is by no means a bad thing, just that I can definitely tell the difference.
Also, mechanically speaking, a paladin who has to use his move action to verify that what he is smiting is evil, versus a paladin who can get a full-round attack off if he can just smite whatever he deems, seems to make smite more powerful.
Note that I am by no means arguing with you how you want to run it! It makes sense in the context of an alignment-less world, for sure. I'm just blithering game-balance-wise to hear myself talk.
Setting
Bermuda Triangle - 7
New plane/t - 4
Benefactor
Aspis Consortium - 4
Church of Razmir -
A Hellknight Order (please specify which one) -
Prophets of Kalistrade -
Hermean sepratists -
A chartered company from Alkenstar - 2
Holomog - 2
A satrap of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh - 4
Oh, I'm down with more options, don't get me wrong. :)
I suppose my reaction of OPness is due to having GMed what promised to be a difficult fight last night for my party of five end in two rounds due the pally's smite. Most parties I've been in with pallies seem to really crank out the damage once smite comes into play, which is by no means a bad thing, just that I can definitely tell the difference.
Also, mechanically speaking, a paladin who has to use his move action to verify that what he is smiting is evil, versus a paladin who can get a full-round attack off if he can just smite whatever he deems, seems to make smite more powerful.
Note that I am by no means arguing with you how you want to run it! It makes sense in the context of an alignment-less world, for sure. I'm just blithering game-balance-wise to hear myself talk.
I can see where you're coming from, but I feel it's more of a concern when you're running prewritten adventures. I can easily give all the enemies maximum HP or multiply their numbers without ruining any aspect of the story. Also since it's PBP, nothing is happening on the fly. I am much more controlling in my real life games. But I have plenty of time to change monster's stats without disrupting game flow here. I mean if you look at the character's stats in the Witchwar Legacy game I linked to in the first post you'll see the power level I'm used to handling ;)
Good point re: the ability to tailor.
Oh no, now I'm afraid to. :P