You know the drill.
One thing I wanted to discuss right away is my dislike of how the boards shrink replies to existing comments. I don't mind two or three replies to a comment but if the comment box begins to shrink too much, please make a "new" comment so we don't get to the point of starting a new line every 10 letters.
How do you feel about Venturers? Mercantile ventures are neat, but it's also more or less a game onto itself; if you're running caravans you're not exploring dungeons for the most part. I'm also strongly tempted to pick one up as a hench just for the bonus market access, not to mention the 10% discount on eveything for life.
My feeling is that if the Venturer's character wants to do it and no one else does, we can abstract enough of it so that it's not a drag on the flow of the game, or else we can include one of everybody's henchmen so that, if something adventurous happens, everyone can participate.
I'd like to at least attempt everything you guys want to do, that comes with domain building and PCs hitting 9th level. I've more or less cleared my plate, from a PbP perspective, in case this game grows into multiple PCs going in different directions.
do you have space to acomodate one more player?
[quote="Lucasdelsur"] do you have space to acomodate one more player? [/quote]
Thanks for your interest but I think I'm gonna stick with six players for now. I had a couple outstanding invites as well, so I have to save some space for them if they decide to play.
Questions:
1) Suldawga, since it would be very relevant to a paladin, can you talk a bit about religion in your setting, please?
2) Also, what are your thoughts on a fighting Venturer? http://autarch.co/forums/house-rules/hr-new-class-varangian or https://lights-in-the-darkness-2.obsidianportal.com/wikis/venturer?
3) Or, what about a fighting Bard?
4) Any issues with a Lawful Assassin? While the word "assassin" conjures all sorts of negative images, neither the concept nor the implementation has ever struck me as deterministic in terms of alignment.
For the group, I'm counting out the Barbarian and adding Fighter on to the table. Any strong group preferences regarding Fighter, Paladin, or Assassin?
My traveling starts today, but I should be able to check in at least once a day.
Hope you brought your books with you!
There was an Empire. The Emperor died. There was much tumult as all three of his sons, one of his daughters, and two of his uncles vied for the throne. The Empire is mostly intact now (the youngest son somehow won out) but many of the kingdoms on the edges of the Empire managed to win their freedom in the struggle. The Free City of Ket is ruled by the Emperor's daughter and her husband, a Kettish noble. Think of her as "The Queen in the East". She has enough of an army to control and defend her domain but once you get past the eastern border, you're on your own.
Now that the War of Succession is mostly over, there are tons of displaced persons and unemployed mercenaries looking for new homes and jobs. Think "Free Companies roaming France during the Hundred Years War" except Ket is strong enough to prevent looting and is actively pushing these folks to continue further East. You guys may or may not fit that description, it's up to you, but you come from the Empire.
Within the Empire, there is a pantheon of gods. I don't have any strong opinions on what the pantheon looks like. If you guys want to create your own patron gods, I'm ok with that (I still get veto rights if you get too silly). Otherwise, I will give you one. It will be relatively small, six or seven gods.
In the East, there are lots of other people who are not Citizens (i.e. subjects of the Emperor). The East has been in the Empire, out of the Empire, colonized by the Empire, or some other variant of control for ages. As of today, it's been out of the Empire for a few centuries as the Emperor's focus was elsewhere. Thus, you have your usual assortment of refugees, malcontents, bandits, rebels, nomads, monks, witches, beastmen, and hermits occupying the East. Some worship the Empire's gods. Some worship evil gods. Some worship a different pantheon of ostensibly "Lawful" gods. Some worship the spirits or the elements or the Earth Mother. You name it.
Some of these folks in the East may end up being your allies or subjects. But if they worship "the Old Gods" and you come in with a Wonderworker and a Paladin of the "New Gods", there is potential for conflict. Religion is less important for some and more important for others. For example, they may be tolerant when you're a visitor but might get a little worked up if you build a castle two hexes over and start charging taxes.
As regards the Venturer and Bard custom classes, show it to me. It will slow the game down a bit as I make sure it's consistent with the Players Companion rules but, if it works, I'll allow it.
I encourage everyone to read the description of Alignment on p 37 of the core rules. I tend to think of Law as being more like Order. It's certainly not always Good. So I have no problem with a character of the Assassin class being Lawful.
Note that, in this case and all others, acting outside of your alignment could be punished by the gods. I'm trying to think of an illustrative example.
Taking out a corrupt town mayor in order to build a stronger Lawful domain would be ok from a Lawful PC.
Ordering a string of assassinations for profit isn't really Chaotic but also isn't really Lawful and could invite retribution from the gods. If that's your game, then you're Neutral.
Allying with beastmen to build your new domain is Chaotic, even though the end goal is a Lawful domain. The gods will take notice.
I hope you gathered your party before venturing forth
Got em in PDF
Double post
Regarding Susan's suggestion on which proficiency to apply while influencing NPCs, I think I'd rather just deal with those on a case-by-case basis. I may have to create a house rule if we get to a point where the negotiator has a number of different proficiences that apply but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
A paladin gets +1 to AC and saving throws against attacks made by "evil creatures." What constitutes an evil creature?
Go with the definition from the Protection from Evil spell.
Is it OK that I'm writing backstory for my magic items? I feel like some magic items are rare enough that they'd have been around for awhile and be notable. I can't imagine a world so magic-rich that a "generic" +3 sword exists. I've also been making up names and events as I go along.
All magic items in my campaign have unique origins. It's just a matter of if you know of them or not.
I am creating all the backstories but, for the purposes of the items you're starting with, I'm ok with players writing them up. I haven't gotten too deep in the overall backstory so there's room for adding your ideas!
Having spent some time with the Forums here at Autarch, I have to confess I am underwhelmed. Specifically, the problems I have with it are:
- Displaying dice rolls is problematic. One roll per line is not good.
- I don't like how replies to comments slot under the original comment, rather than at the bottom of the page.
- I don't like how replies to comments are more narrow than the original, and continue to get more narrow as more replies show up under the original.
- I don't like how the email notification sends me an alert when I post a message. I obviously already know I posted.
How do you players feel about switching over to Unseen Servant?