Resistance

For the first time in nearing thirty years, the self-proclaimed king of the Wildlands, Lord Ansehelm has left his eremitic lifestyle to proclaim the birth of his son; Hortensius. The wife who birthed him, Stana Magnus has died during Child Birth. In celebration for the birth, King Ansehelm has ordered the deaths of the two clan leaders living on the outskirts of Calodic Hold; Berahtraban Fulbert and Adelmar Hugleikr as fealty to his named heir. While this barbaric practise seems shocking to the humble people of Gis, execution to mark a great birth is a common tradition in the Wildlands which House Ansehelm has adopted. - In the late hours of yesterday morning, House Rouselle reportedly attempted to assassinate Baby Hortensius. Members of the Ansehelm court, Dame Ingeburg Courvert and Laird Ercanbald Genovefa have given eyewitness accounts of the attempted assassination. Reports claim that poisoned darts were fired at guards, members of the gentry, King Ansehelm and his son who was being held in the court by a wet nurse by an unseen assassin. The two-hundred year old King leapt from his throne and picked up the invisible assassin, then grappled and crushed the assassin's throat. The assailant was only seen after his death. - The Witch Hunter's Guild has published an article detailing illegal magic use by House Rouselle in an attempt to assassinate Hortensius, King Ansehelm's heir. Senior Witch Hunters suspect that members of the house have been consorting with devils. House Ansehelm and the Knight's Guild have agreed to put past accusations of necromancy and forbidden alchemy behind them to help combat the Rouselle threat. House Belsky have proclaimed that they would be supportive of House Ansehelm. House Caedmon has said that any attacks on House Rouselle will result in the standing armies of Gis, as well as the armies of Magnus, Courvert invading. King Ewin Torbern III has not made a comment yet on the rising tensions.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51375833/Stipend%20Rules.txt

Session today 8:00 PM GMT irc.tip.it #shores

When I get a free moment (waking up early to do homework at the moment) It's just the old setting, although I will try to write up a few notes on the houses + history. The main differences are: Rehill is now totally Uzram. Wizards Guild partially collapsed. Death of a few NPCs Mather, I am going to change the rules for guards so people have a stipend. Just working on a base price. Currently I have: 1-5: Level squared * 25 gp 6-10: level cubed * 25 gp This means people would have a choice of buying a war ogre for all their stipend along with a bit of their own, or just get three human mooks if you have 15000 gp. Price would be fortnightly, stipend would be monthly. I gave an extreme example, people were describing how the wind blew which I don't think anybody here has the patience to do - but I suppose it may be nice if people try to a little. - How do we feel about templates? Initially the picking and choosing of templates created some pretty overpowered characters. Templates will be more powerful than level boons, so after three level boons the template would manifest. Also, these are your class skills due to being a noble: Diplomacy Intimidate Handle Animal Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) Profession (all skills, taken individually) Ride Sense Motive Please check characters done for Saturday so I have a day to check over them. - Anybody in House Lambert, please discuss what you want with your fortress and where you want it located. Maybe one of the islands? The northernmost one near Thinebarrow seems like a good location. Or (it will be harder) one in the wildlands. 120,000 GP spending budget for the castle. Use SGB rules. Not underground, (make it as a mountainous region, and then insert insert it underground if you want). I'll be fairly liberal about upgrading.

Thanks for creating the character. I will look over as soon as I can. You can reroll either (major, minor) if you want, but if not you are effectively immortal. Depending on how this turns out, then downtime may be a benefit. I have made an error in Ansehelm. It is not the Royal House of Fleton, it has the throne of the wildlands - it has no presence in Fleton. Furthermore, the king has a dark past that may not be helpful You can if you want, although it's probably better if the whole party joins one - free castle and all. Nex you are right.

You got ambushed in the woods and killed by anti-goblin protesters. You should roll up a new character. Your old character has died, so it would certainly not make sense for a dead goblin to live for over a hundred years in stasis until the next horde of rampaging tavern adventurers come along. You were the one talking about the importance of story and character, but how can continuity errors make a good story. You're saying that playing a human is boring and hard, but the game itself is built so that the players become heroes far beyond the paragon of humanity. Furthermore, you don't even need to play a human - just a race that meshes with the setting, meaning no mary-sue glowing hair zealot characters. Goblins are fine to play. You have played multiple characters in the past, but now you're finding an excuse not to play anything. The setting is court intrigue/political drama, low fantasy, magical bloodlines. Pretty much any character archetype will work here, apart from super-archmage or clever-artificer - there certainly isn't a limited setting. Besides, I try to keep things as player driven as possible so whatever you create will probably work. The intention of playing new classes is so that people don't simply play the same characters, nor do they use the exact same play style. I even told you about a month ago that I was planning on phasing out guns after you rolled up a new character. Guns don't really mesh with the setting, and frankly I don't think they mesh with the pathfinder setting (which is ridiculously 'cookie cutter' in the sense that it tries to accommodate everything). They are rather overpowered at this level, I did a bit of a test last night and advanced guns outfire crossbows in pretty much all situations - longer range, target touch AC, no real limitations. Furthermore, putting guns into a low fantasy setting utterly ruins it - I don't like continuity issues, and otherwise I see no reason not to give all my NPCs rifles, as I have had to with witch hunters. In terms of character, guns really don't add anything. I agree that a lot of characters probably wouldn't do so well without guns (see : Dirty Harry) however have never made any references to having a gun, nor does your gun define your character. Trying to lump guns into your character doesn't really work. It's not a good excuse that you don't want to create a new character sheet. The setting has moved on and I am not allowing the same characters. Just because you are insistent on using a character editor that is as hard as possible to use, I don't have to concede - it is extremely easy to make a character sheet in just notepad, I do it regularly for NPCs and it takes me 10 minutes at most, and probably a little longer if I was creating a PC. In terms of combat, all you need to know is your saves, AC and attack - these can adjust if you're playing a barbarian or self-buffer character but if you're not (you're not) you don't need to use a character sheet like that. You're only limiting yourself by getting bogged down with slow computers. In terms of character investment, I can't see much reason for you to continue playing the same character. You didn't play one for the whole campaign, you didn't really achieve much due to short time. Even though people with quite a lot of character investment (Retech being the main one), they still died however they left a legacy - which in that case was a house. EDIT: I would say that in terms of not roleplaying we are on the extreme end of the spectrum. I have joined an IRC channel where the people are literally roleplaying as PbP games, but even without that (which I think is a little extreme) it would be nice if we did something like that, but obviously we can't because by playing super one-dimensional characters that are only really based around weaponry it's not going to be as fun.

Your character just died. You need to play a new class.

Session 8:00 GMT PM

I assumed that for the sake of the story, everybody agreed to switch to one house (Lambert). Also, I'm not sure whether it fits the setting for a goblin to be part of a house. "Note that even if you’re playing a goblin paladin of Iomedae, the rest of the world won’t necessarily see you that way. Goblins are, after all, quite common, and their reputation generally precedes them. In other words, the people of the Inner Sea region are quick to stereotype and judge a goblin on sight. As a result, even the slightest bit of eccentricity or strangeness on your part could well cause a violent overreaction among the locals. A simple trip to the tavern for a meal or an attempt to go shopping for new gear can be a problem for a lone goblin in a human settlement" Being a Goblin Lord ruling over peasants will not go down well. Goblins are essentially a lower social class, so it would probably make more sense to start as a Vagrant or Freeman or a separate social class altogether. - Two options for tonight: Continue with level 8 characters, that will permanently die eventually. Begin with level 6 characters. They need to be built for tonight. DO NOT OVER-OPTIMISE OR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY.

Lambert

Your current characters are fine, please just assume irrevocable loss of memory. WBL will not be capped as such, instead be based off of effective character level.

http://en.wikipedia....es#Core_deities Instead of Golorian Panthenon. removed: Carl Glittergold, Larethian, Yondalla, Obad-Hai, Vecna https://dl.dropboxus.../Statsrolls.png Clarification on character choices: This is a lower magic setting like Hyboria, LotR, Westeros so please adjust your characters accordingly. All core races bar orcs are refluffed as humans. No gnome/halfling. If your race is very similar to human, or fits a traditional setting: Dhampir, Fetchling, Changeling, then that is acceptable. Anything that is too excessive needs to be removed. Archi: Lord, Caedmon Mather: Lord, Ansehelm Alg: Knight, Liburg Nex: Knight, Ansehelm Jen: unrolled Everybody is free to choose House Lambert if they like. If this is the case, the party will start with a castle worth 50,000 gp initially in the location of their choice.

I want characters ready so that if we die mid-session we don't have to cut short. Also, I am going to be rather busy over the next couple of weeks so won't have as much time to check over.

Tomorrow would be a good opportunity to work on the creation of new characters, if everybody who can be there would join at around 7:30 GMT we can do rolls for the new characters and sort everything out. The Wizard/Sorcerer spell list will be edited to keep it more low magic. Flashy spells like fireball are removed. I will look through the spells not included on the edited spell list and include them. Wizards will not be nerfed too much, there will be access to a constant cursed (which is to say, has a requirement for use; blood upkeep, bathing in something, killing somebody every week etc) candle of invocation effect. Level 4 spells will be checked through just to remove blatant save or dies (Phantasmal killer). See the OP, I have edited the character creation guidelines. Please wait till tomorrow though. This is a rather large setting overhaul, but it's nearly over :P EDIT: Only phantasmal killer is banned from the Hyboria spell list.

I am still vetting and adding new ones, they're not really finalised. Mather has rolled, and you can if you would like but it's really after current PC deaths. Mather, it's based solely off of your bloodline score (how pure your bloodline is). The average player bloodline score is about 24, but you can make your bloodline score better by bloodtheft (killing other nobles). You will all have a minor bloodline score, which means one minor ability and one major ability. By ruling and bloodtheft you will be able to increase it. It's basically highlander. - I have just realised, you won't be able to resurrect as easily in level 6. Candle of invocation demonic pact Adventures into hell. Coming back as undead (necropoliton, skeletal champion, juju zombie), loss of bloodline?

I don't find minecraft as exciting anymore due to the terrain being changed. They have increased the relief of it, but it's still very much the same wherever you go. They're not going to do anything about it though, because as far as they're concerned it's 'done'.

Man up! I'm just raising the skill ceiling. Our campaign currently: http://www.frontiernet.net/~jamesstarlight/CampaignTypes.html#ITEM%203

In an attempt to make the game a more hardcore, I am going to introduce the following variant rules on new characters only. Ability score rolling 6(4d6) (card system, so that everybody is equal/similar totals, Reroll if CHA is lower than 8) HP rolling Lengthened spell-casting (all spells are one step higher: swift, standard, round). Does not affect instantaneous. Spellblights for all optional, bar UMD + turning This will be countered by bodyguards. Each person will get a certain amount depending on their noble position or wealth. You will also be able to hire soldiers, which will become progressively cheaper as you gain new lands and titles. EDIT: you will be able to hire trolls, ogres, devils and other malevolent forces. They will be cheaper or more expensive due to your general values. I am currently writing up the list. EDIT2: To supplement the desire for high level threats, I was thinking a sort of golem suit thing that isn't practical in all scenarios that works like Soul Jar - letting you command an army in a safe location. It will be a sort of second character, with a set of guiding rules similar to eidolon building rules however it will not be practical in all scenarios. The risk would probably be sustained temporary and constitution damage, 1d3 a day and a beserk chance. Furthermore, they will have long transport times due to an inability to be teleported. Somebody asked me how powerful nobles are. That depends on their influence and wealth, also how close the proximity they are to their castle. A minor noble from gis isn't going to have much luck telling a Cairn Peasant to lick his boots clean. A minor noble is better than a commoner, but a guildmaster or bishop have more power. A major noble essentially represents his house in terms of power, although before making promises and such the Head of House must allow it. Royalty is the same as a major noble, except in a major house. Royalty is always respected, except in the case of warring nations. "oh no, there's a dragon attacking the palace! Get Lord Badass over here." lord charges at the dragon head on, wrestles the dragon to the ground, doesn't scuff a nail. Instead. "Oh no, there's a dragon attacking the palace! Ask Lord Norm to lead the attack against it." The Lord leads the attack, and orders two of his bodyguards to act as a diversion whilst he sneaks up. He evens out the fight by ordering a strike with siege weapons on the west wing of the palace, while he gets to a suitable position to snipe the dragon in the eye.

The problem with rules like that, is that it encourages people to powerplay: "I'm fine doing that, it's not against the rules". Although the numbers are spot on. There is still an obligation to play characters of an equal, and average power level for this game. Specialism feats are essentially retrainable capstone feats. All of these extra, optional and villain feats are allowed however are changed to level 8. http://1d4chan.org/w...ic6#Extra_Feats. I will work on some level 8 ones and capstone feats and ability advancement. Every 5k every person gets one feat. This can be put this into the bonus feats which essentially emulate class levels. I think that's a rather good idea on the ability scores, Ability training, ability advancement now simply raise the cap. All further characters need to be audited. NEW RULE: ON DEATH, RECREATE AS A LEVEL 6 You cannot be the same class after death. You can be the same class with a different archetype. Resurrection is still allowed, this will just hopefully mean that over time we will end up E6.

Will be fixed on the next update. Coming soon: Updated laws New NPC classes/templates More nobility boons Church boons Bodyguards/Military Wealth for houses Commoner factions

https://dl.dropbox.c...833/houses.html https://dl.dropbox.c...833/mapfin1.png Please take not of the scale of the map, it is 5800 miles across and 3450 from top to bottom making it rather large. People can travel on foot 74 miles a day. Between cities is wilderness, this can be forests, hills, grassland - but is generally empty. The less cities around, the more dangerous creatures that are able to survive in the area - making the Wildlands extremely dangerous. Some of the larger cities now have teleportation circles: Cairn: Headale Keep, Wizards' Guild, Nulbuzar, Thorsulfrot Fleton: Fleton, Ingheath Gis: Hewold's Delve, Wynes, Steinbye, Wybury The Wildlands: Calodic Hold, Theirnfief One-Way: Hewold's Delve > Headale Keep Hewold's Delve > Wizards' Tower Wizards' Tower > Arar Wizards' Tower > Rehill It costs 400 GP per travel - Nex, please contact me with your character sheet to see how powerful it is. It may be okay.

High level adventures are bad because: Take a lot more effort to plan and manage. Mean that the world is wildly inconsistent with the real world, level six is where humans begin getting 'superhero' style abilities. (why do castles exist with scry and die, etc) Makes combat drag out (last session, prime example.) The relative power of PCs becomes insignificant, because every time they get stronger, the easier it is to just attack things to get what you want. Killing a dragon at level 6/8 is awesome, it's harder, requires planning and tactics by you get a nice warm feeling. Takes away a focus from planning, and instead on powergaming and maximising damage. It probably is a little bit more difficult to collaborate on making characters of equal power level but other groups seem to do it fine. It's not possible to write a comprehensive guide on not-optimising, but in general: Don't create a 'build', just create a character. Don't try to abuse unintended features in the rules. Don't multiclass. If you start trying to get as much power out of a low-level character, I think with consistently average-power characters it will be helpful in putting more focus onto the story and onto roleplay. Optimisation has been the source of all of the problems with this game so far, because our mentality is that we have to beat everybody. It's why free templates were removed, it's why we had that whole massive argument about settlements and leadership. Stop going into the game to win, and instead just have fun and we should have a better time. Three options: E8 "Gentlemen's agreement" to stay at a similar power level, at this level there's less caster/warrior disparity so should be easier. This still means a character rebuild, and if possible collaborative. Saturday maybe? E6 Rebuild Characters I audit them all E6 Rebuild characters "Gentlemen's agreement" to stay at a similar power level, at this level there's less caster/warrior disparity so should be easier. Collaborative character building guided by me I prefer E6, I know people don't want to rebuild characters but I think option 3 is the best. Characters can fend for themselves rather well, it means that they are the paragon of humanity (realistically) rather than superhuman and due to the roll of the houses I think that it would actually work quite well. Roles of the houses: The houses weren't just to add flavour, hopefully they will also add a little 'crunch' to the world and help add a level of tactical gameplay. This way, direct combat will occur a lot less - such as when you want to lead troops in battle, prove your power through a duel, survive an ambush/assassination or if you're on a solo adventure. The intention is that houses will let you do non-combat things more common in higher levels at lower levels through wit and such. You will be entitled to a small group of bodyguards, building settlements and such - and later, wars and battles. This way, as requested the game will be more about tactics rather than direct combat. Although combat is still going to be rather a large part of the game and I don't want invulnerable characters fighting off anything, and that is why there needs to be a de-optimisation of some characters, particularly Jen, Archi, Nex. People have said that Mather's character is overpowered, but I think that he is on the right level of optimisation. And no, that is not an invitation to make an overpowered character to prove a point.

Session today, 8:00 GMT Please be there an hour earlier to discuss whether or not to go with E8, I'm just going to put it down to a straight up vote.

We could probably play e8, thoughts? Like E6, but level 8 - since in pathfinder level 8 is the paramount of caster/martial balance and apparently optimum fun.

This game in a nutshell.