
nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

So, I'm thinking about maybe running something, but I'm not sure what... I want to run something sandboxy, and where I don't have to go and look up stuff like who the mayor of this town is or what happened to the last high priest of that place (so not Golarion, or at least not the canon Golarion). I'd like the game to target 1 post per day from everyone, but be laid back enough that if someone's busy a missed day here or there isn't a big deal. I definitely want the game to have a theme though... like everyone is part of a barbarian tribe, ninja clan, knightly order, military unit, or religious sect; or all came together for some specific goal (barbarians from different tribes united against an outside threat, worshippers of different related gods united against a cult, scholars coming together to discover/research something, or something along those lines)...
So, who out there is interested in a game like this? Which theme would you prefer? What kind of power level would you be into: low point buy, high point buy, free variant multiclassing, gestalt, mythic; starting level? Any kind of setting jump out at you?

WreckTall |
Possible theme:
Orc tribe unification (PC's try and unify the Orc tribes to fight as legion against the continually expanding human empire)
Dead God (PC's Unite to escape the body of a massive dead god)
Amnesia (All players start in a room/world, with no personal memories, and you supply them as flashbacks as we greet the challenges of your world)

The Doomkitten |

Ultimate Intrigue game with no PC magic is what I'm primarily interested right now. More focused on social manipulation and setting up dominoes than combat.
I actually developed a rough set of rules for combat that make it way grittier, but really bogged down tabletop. It would run excellently in a PbP format, though.
Armor as DR and Wound and Vigor Points: Armor as DR and Wound/Vigor points make an excellent combo. Whenever an attack gets through Vigor points, the DR applies, but not before then.
Armor HP: If you take Wound damage after DR from armor applies, the armor takes the same amount of damage. The HP of any given armor piece is equal to 10 x the DR it gives. Repairing armor costs 1 silver per hit point.
Limb HP: This is the most complicated part. Each limb has wound points equal to half the character's CON, the torso has wound points equal to the character's CON, and you subtract damage from the character's wound points as a whole and the limb's wound points. Whenever an attack hits, the attacker rolls d100 to determine what part of the body the attack hits: 1-50 is the torso, 51-65 is the sword arm/right arm, 66-75 is the shield arm/left arm, 76-85 is the right leg, 86-95 is the left leg, 96-100 is the head. When a limb runs out of wound points, it is crippled. A crippled arm gives -4 to attack and -2 to damage, or halving the shield bonus to Defense (depending what the limb is holding), a crippled leg gives -10 to movement speed and -2 to reflex saves, a crippled torso is 1d6 bleed damage per round until it is patched up with a DC 15 Heal check, and a crippled head means decapitation.
"Piecemeal Armor:" This is a simpler variant of piecemeal armor, so the PCs can help decide the flavor of their armor. Armor gives the listed AC bonus as DR to the torso, but the DR for other limbs depends on the type of armor: light armor gives DR 1/armor to limbs other than the torso, medium armor gives DR 3/armor to limbs other than the torso, and heavy armor gives DR 5/armor to limbs other than the torso.

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

Would it be Pathfinder?
Gee, I guess that's a pretty important question... If there was enough interest in a concept that I couldn't pull off in pathfinder (and wanted to run) I might use another system but my preference would definitely be to use pathfinder rules (just because I know them so well I rarely have to look anything up).

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Jiggy wrote:Would it be Pathfinder?Gee, I guess that's a pretty important question... If there was enough interest in a concept that I couldn't pull off in pathfinder (and wanted to run) I might use another system but my preference would definitely be to use pathfinder rules (just because I know them so well I rarely have to look anything up).
Okay, figured I'd check. I'm personally done with Pathfinder (switched to 5E), so I guess this game won't be for me. Best of luck getting something going that you're happy with!

Nohwear |

One idea is a group of Pathfinders who are tasked with a long term mission to explore the ruins of a thriving city. I believe that Osiron and Varisia have a number of such cities.
Another idea is to explore the area, I forget its name, after the Worldwound closes. Heck, you could use Ultimate Campaign to build a new kingdom.

mdt |

Something mid level would be nice. My characters keep getting rebuilt at 1st level, then the game peters out, then I re-use the character, then go through the same 2-3 levels, and lather rinse repeat.
Beyond that, most of my games have died. :( I'm down to playing in three games, but only one is active active, the rest they are at the once or twice a week rate.
Is there something you'd specifically like to run? Off hand I'd love to play in a less 'normal' type game. By that, I mean i get bored with core races only. Not that I want everything in the world to be odd, but if the fact the PCs were *not* core race was part of the concept of the game (specifically targeted by a mysterious benefactor for their unusual outlooks and skills, recruited by the king's spymaster as a special ops team, a specific group working for a god/goddess who has redemption as a portfolio (redeeming 'monster' races and using the PCs as an example that not all orcs/tengu/etc are evil, for example) that would be awesome...

GM Adamungus |

I'll kind of second mdt on this one. I totally understand why people put restrictions on non-core races and even 3rd party material stuff, but there's some really cool themes that can be made with some of that stuff. Every time I read a recruitment post I have to immediately throw out 3/4 of all the characters I've made because they were built around a theme that doesn't line up with pure core races or the like. I'll also second the mid-level. I've never found levels 1-3 to be interesting for most classes. Those levels always, to me, felt like the build-up to when characters really start to flesh out into who they are becoming (both mechanics and RP-wise).
In terms of suggestions, I'm always partial to creative spins on typical mechanics. I think someone like you, nate lange, who understands the PF rules well enough would be able to modify on the fly if necessary. I hate to use this as an example, because it doesn't exactly translate to high fantasy, but something like the Suicide Squad movie that's coming up soon. A band of narcissistic assassins who, because of circumstances, end up HAVING to save the world. A group of mischievous small races who keep messing up all the pomp and circumstance of a haughty society for the sake of tiny people recognition. I'm totally spitballing, hopefully the intent comes across?

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You could take a note from the old Curse of the Azure Bonds adventure, where the characters all get the Azure Bonds as a way to bind the party together with a common goal and then traipse around the countryside fighting the many villain groups in a showcase ensemble.
Another idea I've been kicking around doing at some point is Carceri, a great escape game in which everyone in the party is an individual who was banished to a prison plane and have banded together to find a way out.
Someone once ran a game here on the boards that was all aquatic - another interesting spin on that in the Pathfinder setting might be to do a variant Kingmaker-esque game with players exploring the ruins of lost Azlant and trying to "raise Atlantis," so to speak, and make a new kingdom.
Anyway, there are a few sandboxy ideas that give players a reason to work together, I'm always down for an interesting game.

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

Hey all, thanks for the responses. I'm definitely open to an unusual campaign. I probably won't use 3pp content because I don't want to learn any new systems/rules, but I might homebrew a few things if needed for the game. I probably won't do a full blown dimension hopping game just because even in a sandbox I like to have sort of a plot the PCs can choose how involved in they are, and maybe some recurring villains- that would be tricky to do with lots of dimension hopping (unless, maybe, it was a high level thing). Having unusual races available or even as the norm is well within what I'm willing to do.
My hope is that there will emerge an idea or two that a fair number of people are interested in... So far the most consensus seems to be around starting at mid-level. So, if you see a suggestion you like please say so!

Shi'Vatha |

Shi is an example of a character I've only got to play intermittently. The original GM who allowed him didn't find him overpowered at all, and we had fun with him, although the GM's life caused him to have to stop running.
Shi's an unfettered Eidelon. Basically built as an Eidelon without any summoner. The only modification the GM made was that at levels he wouldn't get a hit die (4, 8, 12, etc) he'd get a class level in some class.
If you were going for a 'unusual PC group assembled to stop some great wrong' that would work well for Shi, as an example.

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

@nowhere- your idea to explore Thassilonian ruins in a thriving city is probably too similar to a number of APs for my preference. The kingdom building thing sounds like it could possibly be interesting but I don't have the rules from kingmaker (and, as previously stated, don't really want to use any new rules/systems). Exploring around the worldwound has some potential. I'm not sure what you mean by 'outline the campaign' but I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to handle that myself.

Ouachitonian |

This might be too Golarion-centric, but an idea I had a while back was a group of undercover Andoran Eagle Knights or aspirants (the Twilight Talons branch, specifically) who go around trying to free slaves, disrupt enemy plots against Andoran, and generally cause havoc for their homeland's enemies. As undercover agents, the PCs would tend to be using their innate abilities more than fancy gear: if you're sneaking into a heavily-guarded Chelaxian prison to free dissidents (possibly by getting yourself arrested) you can't really be carrying a +5 Cold Iron Greatsword, can you? Of course, if you're a monk, or a sorcerer, or can wildshape into a T-Rex, that's rather less an issue.
I'm always up for Gestalt, free VMC, that sort of thing, but wouldn't mind a more standard campaign either.

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So, something that:
1. Does not strictly take place in Golarion.
2. Loans itself to Sandbox gameplay.
3. Uses Pathfinder rulesets.
4. Features odd/unusual/niche setting elements/character concepts.
Given these, I can think up of a few things.
A) Borrowing from Wrecktall, a group of adventurers having to escape the body of some immense being would be interesting. The shell of a planet-sized golem would be neat, with caves for veins and massive inactive magical temples throughout it. It's something that unless the golem has its own native population of player races, kind of necessitates starting at mid-high levels.
B) An island nation is set into disorder after a Mirror of Soul Snaring is unveiled at the coronation of the new king, replacing the king and several of his governors with evil doppelgängers.
C) The prisoners of an empire struggling to fight off a plague of undead are given a bargain, fight the undead for a chance at freedom.
D) Everything was unremarkable in a quiet village in the north, until the town's aasimar cleric is found murdered, and our party begins manifesting divine powers, leading to accusations that they're the culprits.

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

it doesn't need to feature odd/unusual/niche elements... I just said that I'm open to them because I know that its not often that most people get to play them.
Also, to clarify: I'm not so much looking for suggestions of what I should run (I have no shortage of ideas), what I'm really looking for is feedback on what people really wish they could play. It's not a hypothetical question, it's 'if I offered to run whatever you wanted (with a few provisos) what would you want to play'?

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I have a large stable of aliases of various sorts ready for use -- everything from the relatively mundane (bloodrager, fighter/wizard/eldritch knight, cleric) to the obscure, absurd, or controversial (verminous hunter, mystery cultist of Arshea, merfolk). Not super picky, but certainly there are quite a few players out there who have their own quirky favorites to play.

WreckTall |
Most fun for me to play.
Hidden story arc, that is learned as we play through (Things aren't what they seem)
Off normal good guy script. RP'ing from a unique perspective and moral relativity. (Like Orc's trying to save their land from the relentlessly colonizing and destructive humans; Instead of seeing the Orcs as uncivilized savages that we must clear from the land in order to grow. Think American Wild West from the native Americans perspective )
Adventure Hook that gets all the players moving into one direction. Sometimes lacking in sandbox.
I hate the alignment system in Pathfinder(especially being tied to combat system) But I love to play with Moral ambiguity in RP'ing

Grunyn the Mossless |

I have always wanted a campaign set in either Iblydos or Arcadia. I, too, have grown a bit weary of the Inner Sea; though rife with lore, there is a majority of Golarion left untouched, and both hypothetical-Greece and hypothetical-Americas are rife with history and beauty waiting the proper GM to touch.
Personal preference as far as gameplay for each location:
In Iblydos, I would love to be a hero of old. Vast amounts of nearly every culture was influenced by Greece, and it would offer plenty of opportunity for a true high-fantasy feel in an area of our world rife with actual fantasy.
Arcadia, to break away from the Inner Sea-centric (and thus Eurocentric) feel, most enjoyable would be to play as a native, ideally fending off the "invaders" from across the sea, with their false promises and strange way of life. I was very active in the Boy Scouts during my youth, and would heartily enjoy playing in a theme I "re-enacted" numerous times. Native American lore is everywhere where I'm from, and I would greatly enjoy roleplaying that aspect.

Master Han Del of the Web |

I'd like to see a Pathfinder game go full fantasy/sci-fi hybrid. Maybe something along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy or Star Wars. I've had an itch to play a gestalted Mindtech Psychic/Cyber-Soldier Fighter for some time now.
I would also like to ditch Golarion for a while and the orcs turning back the tide of man could also be a fun concept. Take a look at Cracked.com's After Hours episode arguing Sauron is the good guy.

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I have an old idea that might be interesting:
Somehow, something from the First World (perhaps one of the Eldest) managed to suck a couple pieces from Golarion into the First World... the PCs where coincidently in the same town and everything in a mile was sucked.
Now, trapped in another dimension, they need to find a way home and perhaps stop some disaster.
This idea would give a good sandbox game, since in the chaotic First World a big ice mountain could be a couple miles away from a scalding desert, an ocean or a tropical forest... if you throw in a couple rules about chaotic magic you'd have something quite different. In the First World, all faeries are basically immortals so it gives a new meaning to 'recurring enemies' lol.

trawets71 |

If I could play anything currently I've got a suli sorcerer/dragon disciple I'd dying to try out. High point level and Mid level or higher and gestalted with fighter and possibly investigator as a third. He's thrown off the shackles of slavery and hates those that enslave others, particularly genies. A party of all Outsiders (native) trying to stop the enslavement of their cousins, the jinn, elementals, etc.
I've found some of the themed games I'm in to be the most fun. Everybody is a local nobody, all goblins, all "monster races", kidnapped modern earth souls in a fantasy realm. Even things like low gear for all the players. It gives you a chance to over come something that isn't a fight. I love the idea of just exploring to explore.

Ouachitonian |

I'd like to try out the stuff that's regularly nixed in most of the games around here. Leadership, Synthesists, that sort of thing. I mean, who doesn't want to wear a magic Iron Man suit and have a company of minions to do your bidding? It strikes me that would go well with kingdom building; why have them following you around carrying your gold, gear, and arsenal of spare swords, when they can be the minor functionaries of your nascent kingdom?

Jedoric |

A few more thoughts and responses to proposals.
Thoughts
1) I tend to think the best environment for a sandbox is a large town or a city.
2) Designing something with more of an episodic nature allows more flexibility from one adventure to another and in turn a less linear campaign. Adventures could more often be character driven rather then campaign driven. Any campaign theme (if any exists) would be slowly revealed over time.
3. I like non-quest campaigns because having a more stable geographical center allows for a deeper roleplaying with NPC's you have a long history with.
Idea's I like
Wreak Tall: Amnesia. It's been done but it offers endless possibilities and we're as likely to wander off any linear plot that threatens us.
NohWear: Exploring ruins under a city. This could easily tie in with a city based campaign giving us the best of both worlds.
Tharasiph: We are the empowered chosen and we are hunted could be fun. maybe one of us his destine to .... but could be any one of us.
Ouachitonian: The Eagle knights or something similar could be fun. Along that theme we could be a team employed by the Pathfinder society. At first we're minions but as we go one we begin to see the bigger picture they are working towards.
Ms. Pleiades: I like the Murdered Cleric concept.
One more idea.
While it's merely a historical point in a campaign of mine it might be interesting playing in the wreckage of a villain's successful plot. The Coup worked, the evil necromancer raised the dead and they've overrun the city/county, a natural disaster has shattered the natural order, the orcish tribes have overrun the nation and you flee before them while trying to find a way to stop them,...you get the idea

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Master Han Del's comment reminds me of the Dragonstar setting for 3rd edition D&D, from Fantasy Flight Games. It was a full-on Star Wars meets D&D, scifi/fantasy fusion. I always wanted to play it, but never got to. It went out of print before 3.5. One could resurrect it in pathfinder with the technology guide.
The other idea I liked was the aquatic campaign. Always wanted to do that.

Monkeygod |

I would be very much interested in a mid to high level(possibly gestalt, but not 100% necessary), wherein we are each empowered with unique abilities(through the gods, destiny, a dead deity, etc) and are tasked with some great purpose. While also being hunted for out powers.
So basically Tharasiph's suggestion, though not limited the dead god aspect.

Jereru |

I'd love a game about a group of spellcasters setting off to put the martial's in their place.
I thought that was happening EVERY game :P
About the matter at hand, well, I'd like a setting where the norm was not the archetypical fantasy world, that is: Advance Middle Ages tech, fake feudalism, standard modern concepts, etc. Back in my University days, some friends and I were developing a world set in a Mediterranean Ancient Age, the kind of place you would find Romans, Greeks, a Persian Hobgoblin empire, etc, and the food, architecture, art, etc would look different than the typical you can find in most RPGs (where there is usually a standard of Center European things with splashes of Arab, Japanese and Scandinavian somewhere). Sadly we all got into our own life projects and the thing was abandoned.
So yes, I totally approve the Pre-Columbian Americas, Greek Heroes Age (me wants to play Diomedes!), 1849 Gold Rush, Roman Republic military-intrigue, Age of Warring States, Sengoku Jidai, Napoleonic Wars or other similar things.

mdt |
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Following on Jereru's idea, maybe a world where various bits of random other worlds were 'sucked in'.
One of the current thoughts by physicists is bubble universes, that is, each reality is really a bubble of reality. Bubbles get formed, crash into each other, form new bubbles, sometimes merge, sometimes split. Nobody notices because reality alters each time.
So maybe a world where a dozen bubbles 'impacted' on each other simultaneously, each left a bit of itself behind as it rebounded, and those bits formed a new bubble.
So entire 'mini continents' or 'huge islands' all left behind, either floating in the ocean, or even odder, floating in nothing, near each other, each from a different reality. All the various races each coming from a different reality that had never heard of the other races, so all the 'eww drow kill it' baggage get's left behind. It's just the 'eww it looks different kill it' baggage that's there. :)
The PCs could be anything from a group looking to survive to a group specifically put together by factions to explore the new universe...

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

One of the current thoughts by physicists is bubble universes, that is, each reality is really a bubble of reality. Bubbles get formed, crash into each other, form new bubbles, sometimes merge, sometimes split. Nobody notices because reality alters each time.
I've read about this before... it does explain the whole berenstein/berenstain bears thing... (please don't derail the thread discussing this, lol)
I have a friend who is/was running a 'different islands floating in nothing' campaign... so I'm not sure how close to that I want to be, but the idea of having access to very different locales is an interesting one...
I actually have a fairly sandboxy time-hopping campaign that I've been talking about trying as a PbP... it would take a little more time on my part than I was hoping for, and I'd want a higher level of commitment from the players, but it sounds like it might be a popular option...
Regarding the episodic structure- I've run a couple of games like that (its nice for face to face games because if someone can't make it its really easy to leave them out of that one short adventure and having them wait back at homebase for the next one). The two most successful were one based around a kung fu school (that started very realistic and worked its way to over the top movie and then into anime territory), and one where everyone was part of the same ninja clan.

mdt |

Along those same ideas, if you wanted to go different areas but not have to work out physics...
...you could go with a Stargate setup. An old starget system activates, and the PCs get caught in the opening (from different worlds, etc) and pulled into a 'central nexus' type thing. Part one would be figuring out how to repair/rebuild the nexus so they could go home.
After that, they could have adventures in various worlds...

Olaf the Holy |
I have a friend who is/was running a 'different islands floating in nothing' campaign... so I'm not sure how close to that I want to be, but the idea of having access to very different locales is an interesting one...I actually have a fairly sandboxy time-hopping campaign that I've been talking about trying as a PbP... it would take a little more time on my part than I was hoping for, and I'd want a higher level of commitment from the players, but it sounds like it might be a popular option...
It would be popular, at least with me.

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

re:PFS- I'm currently running two RotRL games... my parties are great and I'm enjoying the games but sometimes I get frustrated with having to stop and look up someone's name or where this inn or that store are located. And then some people are already really familiar with certain locations or NPCs... That's a big part of the reason I want to avoid another game in the established Golarion canon. So, pretty likely not going to do a PFS game, sorry.
re: multiple world set up- this is intriguing... as I said, my time-hopping game would definitely have some of these elements, or I (now) have another idea for a game set in magical library that would include a bunch of this... the downside to these ideas is that they would probably be a lot more time consuming for me than a single world game... Even a very non-'standard' world might require a bunch of set-up work but then wouldn't be too much trouble to run; a world/time hopping game requires making tons of different settings. I'm not ruling it out though.

WreckTall |
re:PFS- I'm currently running two RotRL games... my parties are great and I'm enjoying the games but sometimes I get frustrated with having to stop and look up someone's name or where this inn or that store are located. And then some people are already really familiar with certain locations or NPCs... That's a big part of the reason I want to avoid another game in the established Golarion canon. So, pretty likely not going to do a PFS game, sorry.
re: multiple world set up- this is intriguing... as I said, my time-hopping game would definitely have some of these elements, or I (now) have another idea for a game set in magical library that would include a bunch of this... the downside to these ideas is that they would probably be a lot more time consuming for me than a single world game... Even a very non-'standard' world might require a bunch of set-up work but then wouldn't be too much trouble to run; a world/time hopping game requires making tons of different settings. I'm not ruling it out though.
A saving grace with Play-by-Post is the slow moving nature of it. I love the idea of time/space hopping. It also sets the tone for an episodic game play (like Sliders or Stargate) If you limit the mechanism of travel in some fashion, it would eliminate the need for multiple world building up front

nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |

yeah, the Tower of Ages (my time-hopping game) is only one world but it can change quite a bit depending on when you are, and there are different locations to explore, but it has a lot of the controls/restrictions in place already. the library idea would have its own whole set of restrictions that would that help keep the workload more manageable...
of course, one issue with starting up the tower is that my RL friends would probably snatch up like 3 of the spots...

stormcrow27 |

Anything that isn't dungeoncrawl centric. A lot of the APs are really focused on that concept, with little to no real change in layout. Go to this dungeon, defeat enemy, go to next dungeon or hideaway, etc. If I wanted to do that, I can play Diablo.
What I would love to play in is a city based or town or traveling base sited adventure. Different intrigues from various factions trying to control the city or town, or a chase from continent, or exploration to gain badly needed resources for a group's home. Just not saving the world from the mage/outsider/dragon trying to take it over. A different BBEG, or even a non-BBEG but instead an event such as a plague, inclement weather, an ancient curse, an attack of kaiju, or a joining of two planes into one. And a group that has a good connection to the town and each other (whether family, organized group like the Pathfinders or the Red Mantis Assassins, an inherited duty, a lost pantheon of gods who now find themselves mortal and are trying to gain back some form of power, etc). Plus a campaign in which you're not the typical dwarf, elf, gnome, etc 40 year repeat race garbage. What are you? I'm an elf wizard or a dwarf fighter or a gnome rogue/illusionist or a drow ranger..... Instead how about talking animals? Dragons? A tribe of orcs or boggards? That sort of thing.

Olaf the Holy |
Honestly, if I were running a multiworld game I'd be making a lot of stuff up on the spot, throwing just a few threads of plot out there that I'd worked up in advance.
Then again, I'd also allow my players to dictate a bunch of stuff, so maybe I'm a little strange that way.
@stormcrow, don't knock dungeon crawling 'till you've tried it.

stormcrow27 |

Honestly, if I were running a multiworld game I'd be making a lot of stuff up on the spot, throwing just a few threads of plot out there that I'd worked up in advance.
Then again, I'd also allow my players to dictate a bunch of stuff, so maybe I'm a little strange that way.
@stormcrow, don't knock dungeon crawling 'till you've tried it.
I've done it for 30 + years off and on. Trust me, I've tried lots of it over 4 editions ranging from crap like Keep on the Borderlands to decent adventures like Dark Tower by Judge's Guild to Rappan Athuk to the classic G1 et al to Rise of the Runelords, Night Below, and lots more through Krynn, Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Golarion, Greyhawk, Palladium Fantasy, Rifts, Planescape, and more.