Hey all,
I've been thinking about this forum, and considering adding another game. I think the genre and game that I'm most interested is oceanic horror. I'm interested in using an established, classic-seeming world that is not Golarion, and I'm interested in using the Pathfinder system.
My choice of setting is the Magic: the Gathering plane of Innistrad. Wizards has published a guide to Innistrad for players of 5e in its Plane Shift: Innistrad PDF. You'll be able to take a look if you're unfamiliar with MTG or Innistrad in particular.
I'd like to choose Innistrad because it's fairly classic. Vampires live in their castles and rule a whole land of sheeple humans. There's a coastal region where cultists worship krakens. There's a horrible mountain range where dragons live. There's forest humans who are sometimes werewolves. It's good, comprehensible, standard Gothic horror.
Characters will all be humans from one of the four provinces of Innistrad: Established and successful Gavony, Rural and independent Kessig, Foggy and coastal Nephalia, or the vampire-ruled county of Stensia. The story will revolve around the various human settlements and threats to their security, starting in Nephalia with a mad scientist's creations roaming the streets.
So, if I were to publish some more specific character-creation guidelines, who would like to jump in on this adventure?
I would be interested.
Concerning character creation, were you thinking of using background skills? Elephant in the room? Any Spheres of power? Variant Multiclassing? Do you want it vanilla?
What level to start?
How much gold to start?
How are we handling stats and each additional level's HP?
Creation of items reduced price before start?
Requirements for background/personality?
Post rate desired?
Classes restricted?
You said humans only, but do you allow variant stats from other races (example, the racial features/stats/traits from a half-orc but on a human body) or is it only pure humans?
Do you allow dual talent racial trait?
How many character traits do you want? Drawbacks?
Do you allow campaign traits to be taken?
I'd consider it.
I love me some gothic horror goodness.
To answer some of those questions, my aim is generally to allow whatever. I am likely to allow some third-party stuff (spheres, path of war) and pretty much everything first-party. The level range I'm interested in is between 5 and 11. I like to limit starting gold so very few magic items are available, and I will use ABP.
I think humans are diverse enough that allowing alternate races is not necessary. Probably no campaign traits.
I know that isn't everything you asked, but I feel some of those really specific answers just belong in an actual recruitment post.
I'd be game for something like that. Though I would like to know what time are we talking about? Around the events of the original Innistrad or during the Rise of Emrakul?
Did the original Innistrad have events?
I am not planning on including any Eldrazi.
I believe it was the story of Liliana Vess breaking the Helvault, releasing Griselbrand and Avacyn.
But I'm glad it doesn't involve the Eldrazi.
Tentatively yes. Itll all depend on how some other things go and if what i read of the recruitment thread draws me.
I'd be willing to throw a hat in the ring. Been looking for something appropriate to run an Occultist in.
This sounds interesting, I loved the original Innistrad.
To answer some of those questions, my aim is generally to allow whatever. I am likely to allow some third-party stuff (spheres, path of war) and pretty much everything first-party. The level range I'm interested in is between 5 and 11. I like to limit starting gold so very few magic items are available, and I will use ABP.
I think humans are diverse enough that allowing alternate races is not necessary. Probably no campaign traits.
I know that isn't everything you asked, but I feel some of those really specific answers just belong in an actual recruitment post.
Oh thanks. You didn't need to answer any of them here, although I do suppose it would help to gauge interest.
I am liking what I'm hearing. You are going to run what you want to run, but I'll just state that I enjoy level 5 to start. It gives us power, but not so much so that we can run rampant and not focus on the story.
I do have some questions about your game though:
Do you have a quest in mind? A direction in this open-world? The reason I ask is, some GMs on topics such as these just make a game to play in the world, but don't focus on the story. Do you have a plan/path set for us like in an AP?
How long are you planning to run the campaign?
How far out are you from starting the game? Are you still conceptualizing? Are you ready right now? Is this a 3 month+ journey and you're just poking around for interest?
How long will you run recruitment for if you go that route (which it seems like you have plenty of interest right now)?
Do I have a quest in mind? I would say that "make Innistrad safe for humans" is the first chapter. Each section is about the biggest bad guy threatening a particular county, and will involve some combination of dungeoncrawling and exploring. Becoming a planeswalker is unlikely, but traveling to other planes is possible.
I plan to make posts until everyone has ghosted me. I do not plan to re-recruit anyone.
I would say I am ready for some intro RPing and a few encounters, and my interest is in gaining the motivation to map out the first big dungeon -- the one that gets players to their first level-up.
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I have some questions of my own, for anyone who happens to be lurking.
Without getting too in detail on mechanics, what sorts of characters are we thinking? How familiar are we with Magic? What sorts of colors are our characters?
Innistrad features vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, cultists, witches, necromancers, mad scientists, and zombies. Which of these creatures are you the most excited about battling?
- - -
Innistrad's four counties are:
Gavony, the most successful. The only county with a real city, called Thraben. Thraben is protected by high walls and zealous cathars, and is surrounded by monster-haunted farmlands and light forest.
Nephalia, the most urban. Nephalia's geography is mostly coastal cliffs shrouded by fog and wracked by storms. The ocean that borders Nephalia is not traversable due to the krakens that inhabit the waters, but the county's cities are prosperous.
Kessig, the rural and wild province. South of the other provinces, Kessig is dominated by a werewolf-haunted forest called the Ulvenwald. Its people live in small forested villages and make lives as hunters and trappers.
Stensia, the northern mountain province. Stensia is ruled by aristocratic vampires who oversee the territory from gothic castles high in the mountains. The people of Stensia live in fear, hoping that it is their neighbor and not them who is targeted for feeding next.
Which county is your character from?
Well, there's a bare minimum amount of "Mechanic" I gotta get into to offer an explanation. Phantom Blade Spiritualist just seems PERFECT for the setting. A geistbinder from Nephalia, using the lingering spirits of the dead to conjure ethereal weapons to deal with the horrors that cover the plain?
Probably White/Blue to match up with the colors the usual spirit cards use. Go ghost bustin!
I love gothic horror.
This is a character I made for the Carrion Crown AP that had been modified to be extra gothic-horrory. So she has an extra level of horror to her backstory, being saddled with a generational curse and unorthodox means of escaping it. Read the spoilers in her profile if you're interested.
I'm not sure where she'd be from originally, probably Gavony or Stensia -- whichever province has room for human nobility that's not in total thrall to the monsters plaguing the area.
Sounds wonderful.
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I was thinking of playing a ninja with possibly a dip in warpriest.
I have played MTG since Mirage came out. I would say my character is a multicolor black/blue/white "color".
She is an assassin who worked under a vampire lord, in place of being a blood bag for them, she was given the choice of alternatively bringing her own kind in for an easy meal. It was more than she could take. In time she fled her masters. As a ninja, she manipulates the battlefield, but isn't afraid to kill. Despite this, she has turned a corner and repented from her past actions. She seeks to restore herself from the life she chose.
She definitely is more interested in battling vampires. She was born in Nephalia, but likely was put into bondage and brought to Stensia herself.
If it's helping the human settlements cope, I'd reckon an Inquisitor/Warpriest of Avacyn from Gavony (White/Green) would work great or ranger/slayer from Kessig (Red/Green)
I need to think of a character to exemplify my three favorte decks of all time. RDW, green stompy, and stupid green.
I have this PC I made and never used
Female / Kineticist-Overwhelming Soul L4/ Investigator-Psychic Detective L4
That I think will work really well for this setting, just needs work to fit in better. She would be from, Thraben, and be an Investigator.
Where in the timeline for Innistrad would this be? Has the Helvault been shattered yet? If so, is Emrakul spreading madness (adding cosmic and body horror) or has she already been locked in the moon?
Battling cultists,
Well anyway, I wrote a recruitment post. I know it was fast, but I guess I need immediate motivation in order to do work. Get over there and show me what you got.