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I don’t mean this title at all as a dig, I just wanted to distinguish this idea from the really high power games that have threads going.
This basic idea is that a (good aligned) god-king has set up shop on Golarion (in northeastern Varisia) and recruited a cadre of ‘knights’ based on gemstone themes... the players would all be playing these ‘knights’ but would be free to interpret the theme. Mechanics-wise we’d probably be looking at something like a 25-30 point buy, somewhere around 9th or 11th level gestalt, with 1-3 mythic tiers. You’d each pick a gem and pitch a character that you think fits that gem. For example... you could pick the sapphire knight and then make a guy who’s sort of themed around water, or the sky, or cold, or a blue dragon, or whatever seems to fit that gem.
I would probably be looking at recruiting 3-5 players (only one per gem) for a self contained adventure. If it went well (and I had a good idea for another adventure) I’d probably keep running, possibly with a cast change if there were knights who wanted to bow out, or others that might not have been a good fit off the bat but could be later on...
Would anyone be interested in something like that?
I feel the same way you do. Gestalt is fun. Mythic is fun. But sometimes folks that want to go whole hog with the “high power” theme throw open the doors to so many options, 3pp, etc, sometimes even contradictory ones, that it can feel a bit overwhelming. I’m totally down for a high-but-not-too-high powered game.
Yeah- I have nothing at all against over the top games, that’s just not what I’m looking to run right now. This would be 1e Pathfinder with no 3pp stuff and very limited optional/variant rules.
@Rorek- drawing a connection between a certain gem and a specific school of magic could definitely work as long as the character was well developed.
Always up for this kind of thing!
I want to do the Amethyst(Purple) Knight if I can!
=)
I would probably like to do a female half-drow...
Rogue(Unchained)/Sorcerer - Gestalt.
I've been dying to finally use the Oni bloodline too, so maybe her human half would be from Tian Xia?
Mythic...I'm leaning towards Trickster (fits my theme) or Archmage. It really would depend on what everybody else in the group is playing.
Amethyst Theme: Darkness/Shadow...maybe a little necromancy too thrown in there?
=)
This sounds like it would be a very fun idea. The concept of themed characters is always fun, and I've played around with a similar game setup concept myself, too. I'll have to think on what gem I'd go with.
I am also interested. I'm a player in one of those over-the-top high-powered campaigns, but I think I'm the only one who took Pathfinder's ruleset into hand when I developed my character, so, count me in for this. Do you already have the gemstones in mind or would we get to pick them out for our concept?
Amethyst Theme: Darkness/Shadow...maybe a little necromancy too thrown in there?
=)
If you're going darkness/shadow/necromancy, I'd recommend Jet or Onyx as your gemstone.
I would be interested. I'm thinking an Onyx gem. Amelia Blackheart, a human scion Aasimar Spiritualist/Cleric, who has the ghost of a murdered girl as her Phantom. She'd have a very 'grim reaper' vibe on first meeting her, as she wield's a scythe, but she'd be a good person overall. I can flesh it out if you're ok with this... She'd be basically all about stopping undead and putting restless souls to rest (thus her helping the ghost of the murdered girl).
If you're going darkness/shadow/necromancy, I'd recommend Jet or Onyx as your gemstone.
Jet or Onyx is BLACK.
She's HALF drow. I feel the Amethyst symbolizes the path she takes between the world of darkness and light: The path of Shadows, half-truths, and hidden urges (Oni blood) vs. her need to follow and honor her chosen knight's path.
In the end, it is up to the GM as far as I'm concerned, but I have a good idea of what I'm going for.
I'd be interested in this with a white opal, white moonstone, yellow diamond, or yellow sapphire. Basically white or yellow says healing to me. Then something like a Cleric/Sorcerer/Hierophant primarily focused on healing with the occasional buff or offensive spell.
I want to be a Power Ranger, too!
I’m encouraged by people being interested enough to start posting ideas already but, just as a reminder, this is just an interest check at this point. If this level of interest continues though I may try to get an actual recruitment post (with way more information) up tomorrow night or Monday.
For those who have expressed curiousity: I was planning on letting people pitch their own gems instead of picking from a list (to allow for ones I might not have thought of) but there’d still probably only be one per color (no picking garnet in the hopes of not competing against a strong ruby submission). In my mind the value of the gems would almost have a connotation of rank associated with it... not necessarily between the players but within the in game order: things like diamond, ruby, emerald, or sapphire are more likely to be top tier knights; emerald would be more powerful than peridot, who would be stronger than chrysoprase... that sort of thing. Does that make sense? If picking your own gems is going to be too much for some people I could make a list, I suppose, but I kind of feel like it might be a shame if someone didn’t pitch a cool idea just because there wasn’t an appropriate gem on the list.
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I would suggest making a list, and even placing them into teirs (as you said, diamond, ruby, saphire etc) would be high "ranks" in the setting, it wouldn't do much, but if someone wants to play a young hopeful, selecting say, garnet, and eventually ranking up to "ruby" may be a fun concept.
I would also suggest leaving gem selection open, and you get the best of both.
Of course, this is all if you even decide to run the game :D
Ugg. Now I'm afraid I will miss out on the REAL recruitment post.
=/
Question @GM: Would you require full write-ups? 11th level gestalt with Mythic ranks is a lot of paperwork. Or is just pitching our ideas with decent background info the plan?
This is a most interesting idea and I will very likely submit a character if/when actual recruitment goes up. Even if Alelia Blackheart has stolen my first idea. Grrr. :P
I have an observation however. In tabletop we were playing Mummy's Mask and then went mythic. Shortly thereafter the campaign ended as the characters could hardly be challenged.
There was another campaign which was gestalt, mythic and the 2 characters had the half dragon template. That started at level 1 and died at level 4 because the characters rolled over everything like it wasn't there.
Maybe it will work differently in PbP or nate lange will handle it better. But I would think level 11 gestalt is high powered enough and more likely to last. Just a suggestion.
Finally, I would like to say I agree with He'sDeadJim's suggestion that writing up a full lvl 11 character is complex and likely not needed as a submission.
Gem Magic? Cool!
I am developing a weird liking for most of your game proposals, Nate. Should I go to the doctor?
I think I've never played an archer with some mythic tiers, this would be a nice opportunity since I know the game will be dope storywise. Can anyone suggest me a gem that could fit the archery theme?
On the power level thing, well... if Mythic PCs run over everything, then the answer is obvious, throw some Mythic things at them.
@Rorek- I was starting to lean towards making a list too... if I separate them into clear tiers it would allow the option to run other games/adventures in this world at different power levels (like maybe the top tier is gestalt11/m3 and the middle tier is gestalt9/m2, and the lowest tier is gestalt7/m1, or something like that)
@HDJ- If/when I post an actual recruitment thread I’ll drop a link in this thread. I wouldn’t require full work-ups of characters before selection but I’d need more than just a concept... like, you won’t have to pick all your spells or equipment, or even every single exploit/arcana/talent/whatever necessarily, and you won’t need a sheet/profile with all your class abilities copied into it, but I’m going to want to see stats, how many levels you’re taking in which classes (and archetypes), your mythic path(s) and abilities, and enough of your skills/feats/class abilities to really understand how the character is going to function (and tie to his/her theme).
@Joynt- a while back I was adapting and running RotRL to start at gestalt11/m1... we finished almost all of book 1 before RL issues caused the game to fizzle and I think the players definitely felt challenged (they rolled over some of the encounters, but some of them provided memorable challenges). I think I can manage to keep a high power game interesting (I guess every GM who pitches a game like this thinks that, lol, but I’m not completely in the dark about what it entails)
@Jereru- there wouldn’t (necessarily) be any gem magic involved- that was just one possibility for how someone might theme their character. As for a gem for an archer, I think the key might be figuring out what else he does... like a ranger/Druid archer could be the emerald knight (associating green with nature), or you could pick something with strong elemental ties (like, pitch the ruby knight and shoot flaming arrows and use a bunch of fire magic), or something like that?
A page on colour symbolism might be handy for ideas.
What sort of plot are you looking at? Much or little combat? Other expectations?
@Rorek- I was starting to lean towards making a list too... if I separate them into clear tiers it would allow the option to run other games/adventures in this world at different power levels (like maybe the top tier is gestalt11/m3 and the middle tier is gestalt9/m2, and the lowest tier is gestalt7/m1, or something like that)
@Joynt- a while back I was adapting and running RotRL to start at gestalt11/m1... we finished almost all of book 1 before RL issues caused the game to fizzle and I think the players definitely felt challenged (they rolled over some of the encounters, but some of them provided memorable challenges). I think I can manage to keep a high power game interesting (I guess every GM who pitches a game like this thinks that, lol, but I’m not completely in the dark about what it entails)
The different levels you are considering running sounds like an interesting idea.
As to your comments in reply to my earlier post, while I have done a lot of roleplaying and GMing over nearly 40 years, I am fully aware that their are people who know Pathfinder much better than I.
I ran an Elric of Melnibone Pathfinder Gestalt campaign through to level 10 or thereabouts w/o the power level getting out of control. But I have not run anything mythic and won't. The mythic campaigns I have been in didn't last due to power issues and I don't know how to avoid that.
Which does not mean nobody else can. And maybe PbP will be more forgiving, by it's nature you tend to get less of a combat focus. And there is no law against re-starting the campaign sans gestalt if need be.
It looks like a different and fun idea and i hope it starts and thrives.
@Jereru- [...] As for a gem for an archer, I think the key might be figuring out what else he does... like a ranger/Druid archer could be the emerald knight (associating green with nature), or you could pick something with strong elemental ties (like, pitch the ruby knight and shoot flaming arrows and use a bunch of fire magic), or something like that?
Yes, we will see. I was thinking about an Ilsurian ranger, or some other kind of divine, who was dissatisfied by his people's stagnancy and saw in this new power a hope to get things done. Anyway, just a raw idea. Once you post the recruitment I guess you'll hand out more info about it.
Excellent!
That sounds like exactly what I was thinking about.
Looking forward to this then.
Dotting for interest! Hopefully I manage to see the recruitment thread as well.
I've got two ideas for this sorcerer dragon disciple/ fighter. I've had an idea on one of these I've wanted to try for a while. A yellow or red gem since he'll be gold dragon blooded.
The other would be a cleric/druid specializing in summoning. I'm thinking purple gem or a clear one.
Too excited! I'm already checking for classes to play, and a nice story to put it all together... and we don't even have a recruitment yet! xD
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I've actually done something similar to this before. Each gem was associated with a class (White Diamond -> Paladin, Black Diamond -> Anti-Paladin, Ruby -> Sorcerer, Opal -> Wizard, and so on). I'd have to dig out the list to provide some examples. Basically each alignment was covered, from LG to CE, and the players started in a cave, and each picked a different gem (that had to match their pre-stated personalities).
I've actually done something similar to this before. Each gem was associated with a class (White Diamond -> Paladin, Black Diamond -> Anti-Paladin, Ruby -> Sorcerer, Opal -> Wizard, and so on). I'd have to dig out the list to provide some examples. Basically each alignment was covered, from LG to CE, and the players started in a cave, and each picked a different gem (that had to match their pre-stated personalities).
I played in that game as a witch and it was very fun.
Uh, it would be nice to have a look at these correspondences if you still have access to them. Maybe we could get some ideas (I can't stop thinking about the legendary Moxes from M:tG).
It sure does, thank you!
Sounds like a fun concept.
Well, this seems like decent amount of interest! I’ll start working on a real recruitment post tonight. Feel free to keep posting ideas and whatnot here and I’ll post a link to the official recruitment as soon as it’s ready.
@mdt- that does sound interesting but the god-king the knights will be serving is Lawful-Good, so there definitely won’t be any chaotic-evil knights in this game.
We'd love to know more about this God-King. He's not truly a god,right?So if we play a divine character, should we worship him, or any other (probably Good) god? What are his (perceived) intentions?
Sorry for being too enthusiastic. I guess everything will be revealed in due time.
Since Mythic is on the table, seems like it'd be easy to have the god-king be a high-tier mythic character with the Divine Source abilities, and tailor his portfolio to something that he knights would find useful.
There will be more about that in the real recruitment post but the short version is that Ouach is mostly right... the god-king has the divine source mythic power and can be worshipped if you want, but the other Golarion gods are available too.
Sounds interesting. Would we all be some flavor of martial, or could you have something of a more arcane knight?
I’m using ‘knight’ loosely... you will not be required to have a martial aspect at all. Personally, I do tend to like balanced characters better than ultra specialized ones in gestalt games, but I’m definitely not going to disqualify anyone for not having a full BAB or anything like that. If you wanted to make a cold-based guy for the sapphire knight (just as an example) something like a scaled fist monk/elemental sorcerer is probably going to have more survivability and be in better shape against things with high SR or immunities, but if you have an idea you love for a havoker witch/elemental master arcanist go ahead and pitch it.
I definitely like the interesting synergies you can manage with gestalt characters, so I'm also in favor of a decently balanced approach to gestalt building. Looking forward to that recruitment post!
I would be interested. Probably choose my birthstone, Topaz. I'll have to do some research on it's properties and make a character concept based on that.
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Will there be a big purple enemy that collects the stones for his gauntlet?
Well this sounds interesting. Maka's theme is dragon's and fire, and could certainly be tooled for a crystal theme. The details could shift depending on how the overall theme and setting plays out. The idea would be your classic fire themes though. Maka is friendly and brash, quick to anger and quick to forgive, and always up for a good fight.
This definitely looks cool! I'm normally all for the insane-power games (hence me at least looking into almost all of them), but even I have my limits. I can't say for sure I'd have time to make a submission, but this is absolutely a cool concept.
@Ellioti- lol, there's not any real gems... they're just titles (Diamondknight, Rubyknight, etc), and I assume something that characters will incorporate into their appearance (not to power ranger levels, but maybe like color coordinated cloaks or some jewelry that showcases it).
@everyone- as promised, here is the official recruitment thread! I'll try to chaeck this thread too occasionally but there's way more information available in that thread already and I'll be checking it a lot more often than this one.