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A faint flash of light from above the clouds illuminated the gloomy sky. The rolling thunder that followed mixed with the whispers of the crowd. Since early morning the crowds had been gathered around La Scène, the fixed platform at the threshold of Le Vieille Ville, the central district of Isarn. When the nearby temples had finished ringing their mid-day bells, the rhythm of the snares sounded off from beyond the gatehouse to the old city. The crowd erupted.
The part of the crowd around the north side of The Stage, cheered raucously, but the larger section to the south drowned out those in support of the day’s events. Boos and hisses filled the air. A pair Grey Gardeners had been waiting patiently on platform. If they felt any particular way about the jeers, their masks betrayed no such emotion. The procession, four more Grey Gardeners and over a dozen guards from the Le Vieille Ville, escorted a single prisoner with a brown burlap bag over his head. They paraded between the two halves of the crowd and up to the platform. The most silent and patient attendee of the day was Madame Margaery, the most notorious of the national engines of death.
When all six Gardeners gathered on the stage next to Margaery and her awaited victim, the drummers picked up their rhythm to a march. Chipper flutes fluttered in, and a second procession came out from the gatehouse. Flanked by more Galtan guards, Citizen Goss, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, joined the day’s festivities. He smiled and waved at all in attendance, as though he were a victorious emperor returning home. He walked tall and proud, basking in the jeers as though they nourished him.
The yelling surged louder as Goss took the stage; he smiled and continued to wave as he found his spot beside the Final Blade. He continued to smile widely as the jeering finally began to die down. A tall man in red leathers, with a matching mask and a pointed cowl, ascended the stairs to La Scène to join the others. No matter their opinion of Goss or the current council, every Galtan, especially the residents of Isarn, feared and respected the Red Raven. As the vigilante scanned the crowd, the cheers and boos alike gave way to silence. The thunder continued to roll.
"Fellow Citizens!" Korran Goss' voice boomed out over the crowd. "I thank you for joining us today. We are gathered to watch as another enemy of YOUR government pays for spreading malicious lies and toxic rhetoric." Cheers and boos erupted again at the Goss' opening remarks. The Chairman smiled back at them for a short while, before signaling the Gardeners.
The executioners ripped the burlap sack from the prisoner’s head. The prostrated man struggled against his bonds, but his shouts were lost among the loud cries of the assembled mob. He railed uselessly against his bonds, but the Gardeners dragged him behind Madame Margaery. Cries for justice and mercy alike fell on the deaf ears of those on La Scène; a half dozen Grey Gardeners flanked on the left by The Red Raven, and Korran Goss to their right. The cheers surged louder as the Gardeners kicked the prisoner’s knees out from under him. They set his head into a pillory, fixing his neck firmly below the indifferent instrument of death. The lead Gardener, only set apart from his brothers by a small crest on his shirt, lifted his arm high in the air. The crowd quickly fell silent again.
Taller than an ogre, Madame Margaery's dark wooden frame loomed high above the crowd. The sharp, slanted edge of the blade held aloft between the parallel wooden posts. Between the posts, directly below the blade, a special pillory with a spot for only a person’s head. One of the silent Grey Gardeners, hidden beneath the mask of their order, stood at the lever. Once thrown, the heavy blade would fall, claiming both the prisoner's life, and his soul, in seconds. The heavy silence sat on the crowd. All throughout the crowd, people bowed their heads or looked away. Some citizens unconsciously rubbed their own neck in fear.
"Any final words, citizen?" Goss called out.
"My people! Listen not to this demagogue," the prisoner called out as loud as he could, but bent as he was under the Final Blade it was too soft to carry the impact the Chairman's did. "You were promised free and fair elections, but Goss has no intention of holding-"
Goss nodded at the lead Gardener, whose arm fell sharply. His loyal brother at Margaery’s lever promptly followed his command. Not the smallest gasp escaped the crowd, all of them far too familiar with the bloody scene. The silence of the crowd was broken as prisoner’s head rolled across the planks as his headless body slumped from the pillory. The dark brown cedar of Madame Margaery’s frame drew in a dark, red color as it drank the soul of its victim. When the red faded from the wooden frame, the crowd dispersed quietly as the thunder grumbled above.
"Thank you, citizens, for your support!" the Chairman called after the crowd as they left.
Welcome to our Galt intrigue game. Le Quatrième Voile and I will be running this game together. The PCs will begin by joining a secret society aiming to stabilize the revolution torn Galt.
Game Summary
Combat: 1-2/5
The amount of combat will depend heavily on player’s methods of approaching the big picture objectives provided to them, but brute force will rarely be the most effective method of dealing with problems
Intrigue: 5/5
This game is all about immersion in the living city of Isarn and all the various groups vying for power or their own slice the city. All character choices will impact future quests and interactions.
Lethality: 3-4/5
Death is cheap in Galt, and more so in Isarn. While in most of Golarion, people fear death, in Galt it is a greater kindness than ending up beneath a Final Blade. There will be powerful players in Isarn, crossing the wrong group at the wrong time can result in making enemies that might be out to get you, and the possibility of having your soul trapped in a Final Blade is an ever-present concern for Galtans.
Gazetteer
For the last 2 months, we have been hard at work on a Gazetteer for Isarn to make it feel like a living city. We’ve populated it with various districts, organizations and over 50 points of interest (and counting). We will present the final version in the recruitment thread to offer players sources from which to integrate their characters into the city.
Game Concept
Inspired by a West Marches style of game, PCs will join a Council. The Council will provide objectives and it will be up to the players, as a group or as individuals, to decide on a course of action. There will be some suggestions provided by the Council, but players are encouraged to choose their own paths to achieving Council goals.
We’re trying an ambitious experiment to give players greater autonomy. We have 2 GMs because players will be given an objective and can then choose to tackle that objective as the group sees fit, which can mean splitting the group.
Events will breakdown into a loose outline. First, players will be presented with an objective and an in-game time limit, along with some suggestions on how to proceed. Next, players can choose to use those suggestions or concoct their own plan(s). This can include breaking up the members into as many groups or individuals as they see fit. Once a course of action is picked we (the GMs) will pick the groups to run for, creating threads as needed for the individual goals. We will allocate a real-world time limit for these threads to play out. Finally, players will be brought together for the resolution of the event, returning to the main thread to see the result of their actions. After the event, the players will be called back to the Council with a new objective, starting the process over.
To give an example, we’ll present a very high-level outline of the first event.
Phase 1: The player will be told they need to prevent an execution in 2 days (in-game time).
Phase 2: The players decide that one player will coordinate a distraction along the guard’s route to the execution site, the other two players find the place to prepare and execute an ambush from.
Phase 3: The GMs will split the groups into their own threads and give two weeks (real-time) to play out the preparations.
Phase 4: Once all preparations are complete, the players group up again to execute the ambush together.
This will be a learning experience for use all, so the structure may be adjusted as we try it out.
Recruitment & (Known) Character Creation
While we haven’t hammered out all the character creation details, we want players to have an idea of some character building criteria we’ll be using.
* Will start in 4-5 weeks. We will be filling out the city and incorporating player feedback.
* We will be starting at lower-mid levels (5-9)
* Core Races + Tiefling and Aasimar
I like the idea of a group trying to repair the damage done to Galt.
Will the format be pbp or sessions? I am usually available for pbp, not live sessions.
Will there be alternate rules in play? e.g. Intrigue?
This will be a PBP game.
As for alternate rules, those are not yet settled on yet. If players feel strongly about some of the intrigue rules, I hope they let us know here. I don't think most UI systems are required, but we'll definitely consider them if players want them in. But we didn't want to require them from the get-go.
Thank you for the swift reply. I'm provisionally interested. I haven't yet played a vigilante, and this sounds like it could be a perfect campaign for one. Dedicated to the cause of restoring order and sanity in a nation gone mad.
Ohhhhhh, Lawdy Lawd, this sounds awesome! Been dying to do an intrigue-based game ...slaying monsters is fun and all, but social manipulation and intrigue are so perfectly suited for a two-GM game.
GM Renard and myself (LQV) are friends and players in the same home game. We coordinate a lot online, but a lot of the initial work on this was done with us in person. The concept actually came to us from a mutual friend. The main thing we've realized in bringing Isarn to life is this: a single GM doing this would have taken years.
Very interesting! Will we be playing in French?!
Not in French, no. Sadly the high school French I learned in American high school is a few steps below fluent.
To us GMs at least, Galt's Red Revolution is influenced by the French Revolution, and with the help of Google Translate, we've put together some locations and names that are French in origin. Like a Dumas novel in English, not every instance of bread would be pain, but Le Bastile is Le Bastille. I think we might be using some common French phrases and proper nouns, but for the most part we'll be playing in English.
Very interesting, too many general ideas.
I doubt you'll have trouble drumming up interest.
...you had me at Galt. :D
Well, don't hesitate to ask! My mother tongue is French and I studied at a lycée :)
This sounds really interesting, I'll be following this one.
I've always wanted to play an intrigue, information-gathering focused campaign! I've been hoping for one for ages, and was almost going to modify an adventure path to have something like this myself!
So yes, consider me very interested.
Oh, this looks very cool. Color me absolutely interested.
Looks very interesting! Any chance that you would be able to incorporate Spheres of Might/Spheres of Power into the game? It tends to give martials more out of combat things to do (which can only be helpful in an intrigue game) and makes combat more cinematic.
Interested,
Curious question, with the stipulation that combat is the lesser cousin in this game, most people are gonna be looking at doing more skill based characters. Instead of doing perhaps a proper Gestalt, have you considered for this game, Homebrewing the BAB as an upgrade for all classes (1/2 to 3/4, 3/4 to Full.)?
It would certainly open up player options without having to introduce 3PP material. It would certainly be less powerful than Gestalt characters but give players the buffer they'd need if things went to pure swings? The less extra rules, the better and smoother things typically go,yea?
@Vitaliano da Riva:
That is an interesting idea! I would question how it would work for Avenger vigilantes, should anyone choose to play one, as they have full BAB already. I'm more inclined towards Stalker vigilante myself.
Interesting, I loved the Dumas books and remembering reading Scaramouche many years ago. A Swashbuckler or Illusionist could work well in such a setting.
I reckon a Vigilante would fit right in with this setting.
Thanks for all the interest, feel free to ask any more questions you may have.
@Vitaliano: I don't think we're likely to do that. We'll balance any encounters as the party needs it. In my experience, 2/3 casters rarely have issues performing well in combat. There are certainly ways to be effective at each combat and some non-combat skills, and I think the tension between the will heavily influence the group's dynamics and tactical choices.
If it proves to be an issue as the game goes on, we'll revisit it then. I don't want to start making solutions to problems we don't yet have.
@GM Renard if I made an Vigilante (-Stalker Specialisation) would find it acceptable to use their hidden strike ability to meet the prerequisites for the arcane trickster prestige class?
I wonder how well a party of vigilantes would do. There's a lot of variety in the class even before archetypes such as warlock or zealot.
OwO
Now, I'm curious as to how well an All-Vigilante party would do as well.
Vigilante's been the one class I felt would only really fit in if everyone else were also Vigilantes.
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Let me see if I can't address a couple of these questions and offer some clarification of our game.
When this idea was presented to us, we were going to be joining a RL table game where this took place. It ended up falling through because, well, Galt is one of the sparsest regions in Golarion in terms of development. The creation of a city complete enough to run an urban sandbox game has been (and continues to be) a lengthy process for us. We have built in every bit of canonical information we could find on Galt, and have worked hard to fill in each of the many gaps we need to make it complete.
It was the brilliant Matt Coleville who gave me the spark of inspiration that I shared with GM Renard: "What if we run a PBP game that's like a West Marches style of play. Except instead of being location-based, the challenges are event-based." Two months later, and we are still about a month from being finished enough to run a game.
Our hope is that we are able to recruit players who think in terms of 'How will my PC achieve this goal.' Sometimes things will be accomplished as a team. More often, a PC may need to set out alone to accomplish. Besides that, we want to make good use of players' downtime to explore their own agendas and discover the many secrets of a city in constant upheaval.
We certainly want players who are active, committed, and post narratively. We also want folks who can be creative problem solvers. Each event will come with some simple suggestions, but players are encouraged to make their own plans.
Your PCs will be either citizens of, or visitors to, one of Avistan's poorest cities. The game as a whole will not just be about moving from event to event. The events will be spread out over the calendar we will track. Knowing how many earth-days until the next event, PCs can and should, fill the many hours between events however they see fit. We are both VERY MUCH looking forward to adding sites, organizations, or NPCs that are created by or as a result of player involvement.
To use a vigilante based example, think of how the Defenders on Netflix runs. Sometimes you pair up, rarely you're all together, most of the time, you're living your life on your own. And only one of them could be considered a true vigilante by game-term standards.
To address vigilantes specifically, they will be a major part of the game itself. One thing we discovered is that the iconic vigilante, 'The Red Raven' originates in Galt. He will be a figure in this game (making an appearance in the vignette at the top of the thread) as will others that operate in Galt.
With that said, we've worked pretty hard to incorporate as much material as we can, in terms of resources for different PC classes, as well as faiths. A fighter or cleric can accomplish as much as a vigilante, provided they play to their own strengths to get there.
Please keep in mind that both of us review and discuss the rules questions/suggestions that you offer:
@Decimus as I become more familiar with the Intrigue rules, I am liking them. With regard to all vigilantes, I think we'd like to see more variety.
@Aipaca Spheres of Might/Power is VERY big system that neither I nor Renard are very familiar with. At a glance, it seems to not offer much to the game we want to make, so we do not plan to incorporate the Spheres.
@Kevin O'Rourke I think hidden strike would work to meet the sneak attack portion of the prerequisites, sure.
To everyone: While nothing is yet set in stone, Renard and myself are a little closer to character creation guidelines than we let on. We're about a month from dropping the recruitment thread. For the two of us, sitting on a character for that long, plus the recruitment time, would be aggravating. We certainly aren't ready to start reading submissions yet.
Just to add on to LQV's post, while all-Vigilantes is possible in many APs, and they do have a wide variety of abilities, the Council will benefit more from having specialists than numerous characters with similar strengths.
Because the group can be split, not everyone needs to be passable at certain skills.
Alrighty then.
Cheers for filling us in on all that.
If any of my post comes off as dismissive of people's character concepts, I must apologize.
The play-style we'll be running with will be very non-traditional. I think my Defender's analogy kind of works, but maybe not everyone is familiar with them. If we can offer clarification on our vision of play-style, please ask.
First and foremost, its success will come from people who have built well-developed characters that they enjoy playing. There's no reason that a vigilante won't work. So will almost anything else. We have pages and pages of material we've put together, and have been hard-pressed to find things that CAN'T somehow figure into the setting.
Spheres of Might/Power is VERY big system that neither I nor Renard are very familiar with. At a glance, it seems to not offer much to the game we want to make, so we do not plan to incorporate the Spheres.
While I understand the reasoning, and I will not pressure you to reconsider, I will point out the Trap Sphere opens up options with loads of planning potential, Divinations widen the array of Divinations players will have, Illusion is opening up tons of options, and Minds are basically enchantments.
Speaking of which, Divinations and Enchantments. What are your general opinions on them? How useful will they be in use?
To follow up on my slight poo-pooing of an all vigilante party. I'm not saying there shouldn't be vigilantes or that there's only going to be one.
We're looking for characters that approach problems in different ways. For example, a Stalker that infiltrates with stealth and lowers his enemy's defenses with skills and quickly subdues them, is very different than an Avenger with Celebrity that uses their status to get himself (and few close friends) into a high security function.
But that same Stalker will be considered as filling the same role as a Rogue that looks to be an "assassin" type. So rather than a class, think about HOW you interact with the city and tackle your problems.
@Vagabond: Divination and Enchantments will definitely be useful and will open numerous non-combat solutions to problems, especially for creative players. However, NPCs in positions of power have managed to hold those positions in spite of treachery before. It'll be unlikely you can just enchant one of the more powerful NPCs of the city, or scry them freely, but that certainly doesn't mean those schools of magic aren't useful or worth specializing in.
Part of the Lethality rating for the game comes from the fact that enemies will be shrewd and will also be using enchantments and divinations.
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Ok, I'll bite and throw my hat in, at least to follow this.
Also, I'd like to add my voice to those speaking up for the Spheres. The system can be daunting, but is quite simple once you get the hang of it, and, in my opinion, it both balances and streamlines many facets of magic and combat, as well as providing untold options for customization.
I'm pretty interested.
I'd probably look to play either an Illusionist Wizard, or an Infiltrator Investigator as something suitably unique with different options to handle different situations
Interesting, dot.
Interesting, so dot.
Not certain what class to play. A rogue sounds interesting, maybe heading to spy master prestige class.
But I can see a cleric being interesting as well. Certain deities come to mind.
Maybe a mix of the two.
So there are two classes that I've never gotten the chance to play because they're both geared more towards an intrigue, urban style campaign more than my friends usually end up playing. The first and the one I'd love to try here would be a Secret Broker Occultist. It was introduced in Ultimate Intrigue and I just love the flavor. Im a fan of somewhat eccentric casters and Occultist in general offers so many options to build a unique feeling character. The second option would be a Dandy Ranger. In most campaigns the Dandy would be rubbish more or less but since this takes place essentially entirely within Galt I could see the Dandy being really useful. Definitely interested and willing to give some backstory or a build if its requested.
As a quick note about spheres of power and might. I think its a great system but having played in a game where only some people were familiar, I dont think its a good idea unless everyone is comfortable using it. While interesting as a system, especially for an intrigue game Im not sure if this is the best place for it.
GMs do you feel followers of Milani would fit this campaign? If so I have the kernel of an idea.
@TheUnthinker - There are plenty of excellent intrigue archetypes out there, too narrow for most games, and I think this is an excellent place to make use of them. You're welcome to start thinking about characters, but there will be a lot more information on Isarn (the capitol city) in the Gazetteer / Player's Guide we drop when we open recruitment in a few weeks.
@FangDragon: The churches of some gods will have very different relationships with Galt due to its unique nature. While I don't want to say too much before it's finalized, suffice it to say Milani is a multi-faceted god in Galt due to the complex feelings surrounding the nature of the Red Revolution. Followers of Milani definitely have a place in this game.
@TheUnthinker - There are plenty of excellent intrigue archetypes out there, too narrow for most games, and I think this is an excellent place to make use of them. You're welcome to start thinking about characters, but there will be a lot more information on Isarn (the capitol city) in the Gazetteer / Player's Guide we drop when we open recruitment in a few weeks.
Wait, there's going to be a whole Gazetter and player's guide for this campaign? Damn, that sounds absolutely amazing.
However, it's going to take a few weeks for the campaign to begin!? I feel almost *heartbroken!* I'll wait, but I'm just looking forward to this campaign!
Cool, so the idea I'm toying with is a paranoid Inquisitor of Milani (Reformation Inquisition) called Jean Valjean (yeah because of Les Mis). Possibly Sanctified Slayer archetype because I like the mechanic and because it works better for long adventuring days. Anyway I'll await the character creation details before getting too excited :)
Depending on alignment my idea is for a rogue, with both the poisoner and underworld chemist archetypes. Nice varient of sneaky rogue.
Much like chillblame, if alignment isn't an issue a Ruthless Agent in a social/intrigue setting would actually be quite useful.
@Hawksw0rd
Players may be any non-CE alignment, HOWEVER, this is not a PVP-game; Isarn is treacherous enough without your allies stabbing you in the back.
Understandably, many characters that have set down roots in Isarn will be suspicious of newcomers. We don't expect you to be fast friends, characters may choose to withhold some information at times. But they should ultimately value their fellow Council members and also want the Red Revolution to end.
After seeing some ideas develop here, and some discussion between myself and GM Renard, we'd like to propose the idea of submitting up to 2 characters. We've realized certain "archetypes" (e.g. Assassin, Diplomancer) of characters are going to be popular. We don't want players to have to choose between differentiating their submission and playing the character they really want to play. However, if you submit multiple characters, you would have to play whichever gets recruited.
We are floating this idea out here, please give us feedback on this point as we are still evaluating it.
I'd be willing to create and submit two characters.
I'm certainly interested - I'll be along to submit characters once you guys are ready!
Indeed, that sounds good. My second idea is a cleric of norgorber or Callistra. Secrets and vengeance. Or maybe an oracle who respects both. Choices, choices.
Awesome, I don't need to choose between my concepts, I can build and submit both.
Thats cool :)
I have no intention of PVP, but the ability to interrogate and get information, while a morally dubious concept, could be helpful.
I'd be happy to submit two character concepts.