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This would take me some time to put together, but I'm thinking of reviving a highly unusual world concept I had from my first PbP game -- in short, it takes the major ideas from Alderac Games' Warlords of the Accordlands and moves it underwater, along with some other permutations.
Here are the major ideas
Underwater Ice world -- most of the world is fairly frigid -- about half (the upper 1/2 of each hemisphere, and then a central, temperate and tropical zone). This would include weird stuff like penguin, walrus people races. Almost the entire planet is aquatic except for some islands, and some desert continents that have no more than hunter gatherer, stone-age level tech in scattered regions, and not much.
Weird magic -- principally music based Strange Magic -- i.e. Composition Magic, but also cartomancy and ethermagic playing an important role.
A World of Music: -- the principle gods are all associated with musical instruments, the conception of time is similar to the movements of a symphony or the acts of an opera, the different pantheons of gods are divine orchestras with different conductors, one of the evil gods is a music critic, etc.
Weird Tech: parts of the setting would almost be a scifi/anime setting -- gundam bots underwater, pew pew pew las guns, submarines and hovercraft, domed arcologies, etc. Other parts are more traditional fantasy.
Rules: I put "PF1e" in the rules categorization because it's going to be almost like playing PF without the Core -- I want to use a combination of FFd20 classes, Legendary games classes, Talented-X classes, Spheres, Path of War, Little Red Goblin (principally the gonzo classes), Strange Magic, Akasha, and Psionics -- I'm not really interested in base class builds. Probably some kind of subjob or gestalt thing. Not thinking about base wizards.
Probably some other subsystems like oaths (spheres) artesia, elephant feat tax, skill unlocks, background skills, more skill points, orisons for 3/4 casters, a few other things. Maybe mythic.
The rules will probably allow for a decent amount of power, but I'm principally interested in WEIRD builds and character ideas.
Probably 8th-12th level.
Cerulean Seas and spheres of origin for races (and maybe prestige classes). That would mean stuff like mermen, underwater drow, catfish people, sea urchin people, selkies, penguin people, elves with ice exoskeletons, octopus people, frog people etc.
Campaign Concept: The principle story arc is that there is an enigmatic conspiracy that refer to themselves as the 'Wise Ones' who are set on some kind of fell design. The first scenario takes place in an underwater keep in which the peace delegation is occurring to end a long-standing war.
Fair warning -- Cerulean Seas has additional rules for 3d underwater combat, because of course you move in additional directions underwater. It's pretty complicated.
I'd be especially interested if someone wanted to help run a recruitment and answer all the rules questions -- I hate doing that.
Also, this is going to be super bizarre -- stuff like major religions based around musical theories and sub and hyper sonic languages and holy books that consist of musical pieces or plays. The most ordinary kinds of monsters are going to be mutant dinosaurs -- almost everything else will be a lot weirder underwater stuff. Campaign will probably have stuff like time travel and excursions to really weird outer planes (like stuff from Numenera, not the regular Great Wheel).
Iiiinteresting. Not often you see an underwater campaign being proposed.
Idk if I'll put forth a character concept or not, but I can handle the rules and recruitment. I feel like I have a fairly solid handle on Seb's likes/dislikes when it comes to that stuff.
You did read this is underwater right? I thought you hated underwater stuff.
Some additional information:
The history of the setting, at least in one popular account, consists of the acts of the grand Celestial Opera. The first act ended with the death of the Dragon Queen, who has been given many names. Her death, and that of many of her children, along with the gods who rose up against the draconic lords, scarred the world, and desertified most of the above-water territories.
The major powers of this region of the ocean are:
A nation of subterranean drow that live at the bottom of an aquatic rift deeper than any on earth, and who worship a pantheon known as the "Dark Symphony".
The Meraseatic/Merseen League -- a lose alliance of mermen states at war with the ice elves of the Melting Isles.
The Ice Elves -- ice-exoskeleton fey who venerate a mysterious polar bear demon known as the Great Tunbaaq, have just concluded a costly war with the Meraseatic League.
The Kolascrag Legions -- warlike orc/bugbear/kobold/goblin/ogre/scrag hybrid legions that serve different totems -- Kraken, Sea Dragon, Megaladon, etc. Currently led my a mysterious white sea-kobold known as Nasralon whose totem consists of a pod of mythic Orchestra Dragons.
The Anxylon Arcologies -- remnants of the pre-deluge time of high technology -- domed arcologies with previous surface races, a window into a lost world.
I'd probably play the shark Skinwalker; I just really like the race. Unless there's something super rad in Cerulean Seas racewise I like better.
Class...Spheres is probably the way to go, but maybe I'll try my hand at playing a PoW Mystic for the thousandth time lol.
okay, these are the build rules if anyone wants to start making a character
Level 8 gestalt
Stats: roll as many sets of 4d6, drop lowest, as you want; no mixing and matching rolls between sets. I have to see it in the forums.
Races: anything appropriate to setting -- look at Cerulean Seas or make up something with spheres of origin. This campaign is 99.999999% underwater, so make something that can deal with that.
Classes: anything from Cerulean Seas, FFd20 or PathFinal, Legendary Games, Samurai Sheepdog, Samurai Sheepdog, Strange Magic (interjection games), spheres Champions and Practitioners; gonzo classes (Little Red Goblin, Akashic Mysteries, and Path of War.
I'll look at other stuff on a case by case basis.
No base Paizo classes; if you want to be a druid, for example, you have to be an FFd20 druid, if you want to be a witch you have to be the S-series witch from samurai sheepdog, if you want to be an alchemist, you have to be a legendary alchemist or an FFd20/PathFinal chemist, etc.-- everything has to come from a third party publisher from the sources I outline above
I'll consider spheres casters if you can come up with something musical, but there's not a blank endorsement; the main forms of magic are ether magic, cartomancy, and composition magic.
I'll provide a list of gods later if someone needs them for divine casters, but assume you'll be able to match your mechanics to some fluff and don't worry about that
Free (i.e stacking/gestalt, don't replace, but rather add features) on both sides of the gestalt.
Skills: all classes get +2 skill points per level
Feats: 1 feat per level with Elephant in the Playground Feat tax rules (pdf revision, not original post)
--also, everyone gets combat stamina for free, as well as the skill feats for the skills for which they are eligible for skill unlocks
HP: max and add 50
You can swear oaths from the spheres wiki and use artesia for combat
- 1 Major Drawback
- 3 traits, up to 4 with a drawback
1 mythic tier
Additional rules: every combat round, you can pick to use the normal or unchained action economy
milestone advancement
pregame crafting fine; wealth per level.
Many of the above sources(Cerulean Seas, Legendary classes, Akashic, PoW) can be found on the Library of Metzofitz. Spheres, Strange Magic, Gonzo, Mythic and more are here. This is where you can find Final Fantasy classes.
Seb, are psionics allowed at all?
Also, I assume 'Free (i.e stacking/gestalt, don't replace, but rather add features) on both sides of the gestalt.' is supposed to be about archetypes?
yes free archetype -- psionics are allowed.
13, 16, 12, 11, 17, 17
12 11 11 10 14 13
12 10 9 12 9 13
...Eww.
12 15 13 13 10 11
18 12 13 16 11 18
...Yeah, I think I'll go with set 4.
I'd probably play the shark Skinwalker; I just really like the race. Unless there's something super rad in Cerulean Seas racewise I like better.
There is a shark race in Cerulean Seas called the Samebito. Then, in the Seafolk Hybrid (think merfolk) list, there are the Human/Sahuakin mix and the Seafolk/Sharg races. All of which have shark themes. These however can let you breathe underwater indefinitely, unlike the skinwalker (wereshark).
@Seb: You mentioned discordant music. Would you say that evil races, or those cast out by the celestial orchestra are those who play their music in contrary ways? If so, would then it be looked at as a good thing to end the lives of such beings? Sort of how in Pathfinder, a Paladin may seek to end demonkin?
"Your cacophonous flute toots are an affront to god and man! Prepare to meet your end, foul minstrel!"
I'd probably play the shark Skinwalker; I just really like the race. Unless there's something super rad in Cerulean Seas racewise I like better.There is a shark race in Cerulean Seas called the Samebito. Then, in the Seafolk Hybrid (think merfolk) list, there are the Human/Sahuakin mix and the Seafolk/Sharg races. All of which have shark themes. These however can let you breathe underwater indefinitely, unlike the skinwalker (wereshark).
Do you happen to know which Cerulean Seas book these races are in? Some aren't in the base book.
Though, this did remind me of the Samebito from Dragon Tiger Ox. Little Red Goblin sent me a review copy many moons ago and I've sadly had very few chances to play with it. It's a great book though, I recommend it to anyone looking to run a martial arts/wuxia campaign.
Does this seem like a potentially allowable race, Seb?
TYPE: Humanoid (Samebito, Aquatic)
Size: Samebito are Medium creatures and thus
receive no bonuses or penalties due to their
size.
• SLOW SPEED: While on land, a samebito
has a base speed of 20 feet. However, a
samebito’s speed is never modified by
armor or encumbrance.
• +2 STRENGTH, +2 CHARISMA, -2
WISDOM: Samebito are monstrously
strong, which leads to their fearsome and
intimidating appearance and reputation.
Samebito are also known to have an
impulsive nature that most likely stems
from their cousin’s inability to stop moving.
• AQUATIC: Samebito have a swim speed
of 40 feet and gain the +8 racial bonus on
Swim checks that a swim speed normally
grants.
• AMPHIBIOUS: Samebito can breathe on
either land or underwater.
• OCEAN WARRIOR: Samebito can gain
fast healing 2 for 1 round anytime they
submerge completely within a body of
natural saltwater. Stagnant, poisoned, or
trapped water (such as water within an
artificial pit or a bag of holding) does not
activate this ability. Samebito can heal up
to 2 hit points per level each day with this
ability, after which it ceases to function.
• HUNGRY MAW: Samebito gain a natural
bite attack, dealing 1d3. The bite is a
primary attack, or a secondary attack if
the samebito is wielding manufactured
weapons.
• LANGUAGES: Samebito start with
Common plus Foreign. Members of
this race with high Intelligence scores
can choose from any of these additional
languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Celestial,
Infernal, or Islander
Edit: Found it, it's in "Celadon Shores".
To me, Hungry Maw seems underpowered as all it's doing is taking away the provocation of attacking, as a typical human can just bite someone normally with a 1d3. I'd think it'd be a 1d4 with such sharp teeth.
The bite attack is definitely weak, but no, a human can't bite for a d3; they can't bite at all. Unless you do like weird Adopted --> Toothy shenanigans, but still.
He called it elephant in the playground, but yes. It is in his build rules post.
Actually, I've had a change of heart -- who wants to do 8 mythic tiers instead of 1?
Being honest, Mythic is almost more of a turn-off than anything since it's so ridiculously jank.
I've played two level 20/Mythic 10 characters and by the time we'd hit that point the game had long since become a race to see who could end encounters first. It was literally rocket tag against the other players in the party because the NPCs didn't get a say in the matter.
I can do either. It's your game. You set the build rules. Doing so may cause others to shy away from character creation, and it may entice others in. Do what you feel is appropriate for the setting. I just would ask that we don't continually keep changing elements of the build rules as the further I get along in the process, the harder it will be to edit the character and get it to fit the new vision.
ok, then let's just stick with 1
Is this a primarily good or evil campaign?
It's intended to be good though I suppose you could decide to ally with the villains
Nah, I'll side with the good guys. Just checking.
milestone advancement just means I'm not counting xp, but instead just leveling up at suitable thematic goalposts.
Howdy Sebecloki, I was thinking of making another Dragon like my old character and pairing it with Aegis. Big Bronze Dragon in Armor swimming around. My other idea was making a Spheres Technician/Aegis and having a submarine/suit combo. Wacky Inventor undersea adventures.
sounds interesting
Can we take 1st party classes if they are 3pp-ified? Eg. a Spheres of Might Fighter or Spheres of Power Druid?
Also, are we using any kind of Automatic Bonus Progression?
Hi GM, is it okay for a newbie in the forums to apply as well? It all sounds intriguing. I'm very much used to play and GM in person, but I'm trying to get into some games here in the forums (to play for a change, as most of the time I'm GMing!). I don't have much experience with 3rd party stuff but I'm open to learn if it would be okay (and I have some custom things that I wrote myself that I can share, if you'd be open, like races and classes).
Can we take 1st party classes if they are 3pp-ified? Eg. a Spheres of Might Fighter or Spheres of Power Druid?
Also, are we using any kind of Automatic Bonus Progression?
There's an FFd20 druid, a Legendary Druid, and a Rogue Genius talented Druid, so I see no need to use the Paizo Druid, no. Fighter, same deal -- FFd20 Solider, Talented Fighter, and Legendary Fighter. If there's legitimately a class that has no equivalent in 3pp., we can look at it, but these are definitely not examples where I'd make an exception.
I have to think about/look at automatic bonus progression options.
Hi GM, is it okay for a newbie in the forums to apply as well? It all sounds intriguing. I'm very much used to play and GM in person, but I'm trying to get into some games here in the forums (to play for a change, as most of the time I'm GMing!). I don't have much experience with 3rd party stuff but I'm open to learn if it would be okay (and I have some custom things that I wrote myself that I can share, if you'd be open, like races and classes).
You're welcome to apply and I'd be very interested to see your races and classes.
Thanks Sebecloki!
any preview on the races and classes or files I could look at?
I will put it up somewhere and share via PM! I'll focus mostly on some underwater stuff I have (might not be perfectly fit, but maybe it's close enough) :)
Seb, would you like me to make a couple channels in the Ro7P discord for this game? Should be easy to post/,message stuff there.
sounds good
Done!
Players, feel free to post your discord handle, or message it to me. Make sure you include the numbers after the # in your name.
Die rolling sets, someone release me from this hell.
Set 25 looks good enough.
So for those who didn't join the discord, there was suggested that instead of automatic bonus progression, we get 15 oath points (located nearer to the bottom of the page) to spend on boons.