Lightfall [Pathfinder]

[Hanakai]

Hundreds of years ago, the kingdoms of Mazeron lived in an uneasy peace.  Not true peace, for monsters and bandits still roamed the roads.  Still, knights were noble and wars were kept between armies.  Adventurers roamed the lands, keeping the realm safe.  This was known as the Age of Heroes.  However, that age came to an end when a mad wizard tore open a gate into another realms.  Seeking power, the wizard was instead greeted by the mighty Umbral Dragon.  Behind it came a dark miasma that began to spread across the land, raising the dead and turning them into the dragon's mindless followers.  Many adventurers and armies stood against the onslaught, but were quickly cut down and assimilated into the undead army.  However, from this darkness came one hero; Torol.  He and his 7 knights, along with the brave remains of the continent's combined armies, fought through the scourge.  After months of fighting, the armies made it to the dragon's tower.  In the ensuing battle, Torol and the knights scaled the tower and fought the great beast until, finally, it was slain.


This is a fantasy world set centuries after the 'heroes' saved the world already.  After humanity had regained its ground, it began on a crusade against magic of all kinds to prevent such a travesty from ever occurring again.  Elves and wizards were driven from their homes, magic beasts were slaughtered by the hundreds, and even the mighty dragons were eventually reduced to nothing more than legend.  Aliech, a continental superpower, now presses against the northern kingdoms with firearms.  Only the recent creation of magitech has managed to hold them from going against their peace treaty.  Kings, queens, and courts still rule over most of the continent, though many have turned in their valor for coin.  To make the corruption worse, bandit tribes have become organized criminal empires rooted deep into grand cities.  Guns have long since replaced bows, though some traditionalists can still be found far at the edges of civilization.  The only reminder of the age of heroes that remains is the Dusk Tower, the ancient fortress of the umbral dragon.


This game will be run in Pathfinders.  I'm accepting all Paizo content, though I'm willing to discuss 3rd party items or even some Homebrew items.  I'll add more lore later, once we have more people.  Also, I'd like to use Roll20 (a free site) for this, but I'm willing to discuss that as well.


IMPORTANT:  


I tend to play semi-mature games, hence part of why I'd prefer to move it to Roll20.  Expect racial tension, gray morality, politics, etc. (M-rating for a video game.)  I will not be accepting players below the age of 14, though I personally suggest that you be 16 or older.


...I say that, but I'm not a serious person.  There's gonna be some serious moments, but I swear I'm not a killjoy!  I was just warning you and setting the scene

 

[Vaneheart]

Looks interesting.  Is Roll20 a session based thing, or a play by post thing?

 

[Hanakai]

It's a session based thing.  Hence why I said I'm open to discussing it once we have more people, since I know most of you are used to post-by-post.

 

[Vaneheart]

My schedule is pretty weird, but I might be able to make it work if it isn't play by post.  Do people still stick people with swords?

 

[Hanakai]

Depends on where you are.  They don't have firearms in the northern kingdoms, and magitech weapons are pretty expensive, so swords and bows are far more popular.  There's no magitech if you go even further north into the Dwarven kingdoms, so they're used far more frequently there.  In Aliech, firearms and ammo are still mildly expensive.  They're more popular farther away from large cities, where it's hard to get more advanced weapons in stock and weapon control laws are harder to uphold.  Some nobles, knights, and paladins serving the church also carry medieval weapons, but that's more of a tradition thing.  There's also the free city-states to the east, which kinda do and don't have laws...?  They don't have the right resources to make gunpowder, though, so guns are way more expensive there.  Magitech's also a thing there, due to a mineral that's found in some fossilized remains called Almasis.  Though since they don't have a lot of people with the proper know-how, there still aren't that many Magitech weapons available.  Fiore, an island country west of the continent, uses both firearms and medieval weaponry; they're famous for their undefeated gun-spear division.  Though the dictatorship there makes it impossible for any citizen to legally own a weapon outside the military.  There's an island controlled by orcs on the north-eastern sea too... I probably don't have to tell you that swords are quite popular there.


...also, before you ask, they did try to make gunblades in Fiore.  It hasn't worked so far; the weight and balance is so weird it's impossible to aim or shoot without cutting yourself.


But yah, I understand weird working schedules.  I'm just stating my own preference; I can do either, but let's wait on more people before we figure it out.

 

[Sherwood]

I'll give this a try, but I'm more into play by post. 

 

[Orikanyo]

I'm the same with Sherwood, but I'm fine for roll 20, if some handholding is given to learn the ways of the site. I'm typically free but come the next month i shall be in college, only free weekends and mondays(Wednesday but my irl games that day).


@TacoMann you interested? 

 

[Hanakai]

Taco who now?


And yah, I understand.  I'd only be available on weekends as well, though from the sounds of it we might end up doing play by post anyway.  I'm just worried because the forums lacks a lot of functions that Roll20 has; there's no combat map, so the best I can think of is using a photoshop file and posting that every turn.  Post order would be weird too, since sometimes someone might not have something to say or it's a conversation between two characters.  It also gets really hard when someone doesn't post for a long period of time... as I'm sure you all know.  There's no real-time rolling as well; you have to go to a different place to roll and then post the results.  Which, I know you 3 are honest, but I've had players try to cheat before.  If I catch you cheating, I'm going from catbassador to rabid panther on your butts!

 

[Orikanyo]

just checking if a buddy of mine would like to join, hes been wanting to play for awhile, thought I'd give him a nudge. 


be gentle on my butt kitty.


Yea, i get yea. I can work with roll 20, just haven't played anything on it yet. 

 

[Hanakai]

It's not fun if it's gentle~


It's a good site.  It has plenty of resources and is free.  Though I haven't figured out how to make custom tokens yet.  I'll need to work on that later.  And cool!


Since there's more interest now, I'm gonna work on more info.  (Countries, cultures, gods, etc.)  Give a holler if you have any questions.  I know most of it, I've just been lazy with writing it.

 

[Orikanyo]

oooooh no~!


I get yea, mostly stuff we need is the standard, point buy(if not rolling), class and race restrictions, 3rd party shenanigans, etc...

 

[Hanakai]

Oh, right.  I prefer a standard 4d6 roll, removing the lowest roll for each stat.


No class restrictions... though for any unchained, psionic, and 3rd party stuff, we'll need to talk.


No powerful, monsterous, or advanced races.


2 traits, or 3 traits and a flaw.


I won't require you to write a backstory or a personality, nor will reward you outright for it... that being said, I do reward players for RPing their character, and having a backstory helps me weave your character more into the story.

 

[Orikanyo]

unchained? msot of which is simply balances, save for monk, got the buff it needed...


but I get yea, only issue si the rolling stats, not certain how to get it to yea without seeming iffy.

 

[Hanakai]

Oh... I didn't have any experience with unchained, so I was just going with what I knew.  Ok, unchained is fine.  Also, I trust you enough, and I've seen enough BS to tell.  My friend's a notorious liar, so you learn this sort of thing.  If you're really worried, just do a high fantasy stat buy.

 

[Orikanyo]

I-i-i- just rolled 6 straight 18s! 


honest!


Scouts honor!


hehe I get yea, thanks for the option, might jsut do that.... or... test my luck.... hrmm...


And yea, folks don't use the barb unchained to, the change to rage was.... kind of a deal breaker for some builds. Monk gets the niffty things it should've had, abit more versatility to stack up with everyone else. And Summoners got a small nerf and some new toys, just a bunch of fun.


Now... to dig through my never ending pile of character ideas... whats the starting lvl and gold btw?

 

[Hanakai]

Hahah, not even that.  He tried saying he got 4 18s, a 16, and a 15 though.  After that, I just made him buy his stats.


Ahh, ok.  Nothing too broken then.  And 1 and standard for your class.  Either take the average gold or roll for it.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hahah, not even that.  He tried saying he got 4 18s, a 16, and a 15 though.  After that, I just made him buy his stats.


Ahh, ok.  Nothing too broken then.  And 1 and standard for your class.  Either take the average gold or roll for it.

Aye, lots of stuff that seems broken just seems scary on paper, and then when practice comes around with action economy, actual combat and such... Even the "pounce" a high lvl unchained monk can become rather... meh...


Alright lets see... what to play...

 

[Orikanyo]

Hahah, not even that.  He tried saying he got 4 18s, a 16, and a 15 though.  After that, I just made him buy his stats.


Ahh, ok.  Nothing too broken then.  And 1 and standard for your class.  Either take the average gold or roll for it.

http://www.brockjones.com/dieroller/dice.htm


useing this site I rolled this. 


Roll 15 16 15 11 9 16 


Bonus +2 +3 +2 +0 -1 +3 


kinda wish i could've shared a screenshot, but I have no idea how to do that. Not certain what the point buy equivalent is either.... hrmm...

 

[Hanakai]

Just did the math.  That's a good roll, you should keep it!  It's higher than a high-fantasy buy.

 

[Orikanyo]

Just did the math.  That's a good roll, you should keep it!  It's higher than a high-fantasy buy.

alrighty, has a ncie little 9 to give it a dash of fun, wonder where to stick it :^P


So, would you recommend any class? before I go about hammering away on the idea anvil?

 

[Hanakai]

Well, no one's told me about any characters, so I can't make any suggestions for a balanced party.  Thematically, however, something like a barbarian or a ranger/druid would stick out in a steampunk setting,  Arcane mages might also be interesting due to the laws against using magic in Aliech... but that comes with not being able to use your abilities freely.  If you don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, there are plenty or rogues.  You can also be a fighter or a gunslinger if you don't want to be skulking around; close-range combat is still viable, and there are firearms to play around with.  There's plenty of religious tension and religion in court to make paladins and clerics interesting, though you may want to wait until I write up on the various gods and pantheons before you go picking.  Should have that tomorrow.

 

[Orikanyo]

magic is outlawed huh? 


Pity... 


perhaps... A cavalier? not so much a charger but mr.bodyguard protector man? 

 

[Hanakai]

It's only outlawed in one country and that doesn't mean I'm disallowing it!  It's cracked down on pretty hard in cities, but again they can't do much in smaller towns or out in the wild.  Or if they don't see it...


And a cavalier could be interesting... even though it's steampunk, there are still things like knights and nobility around.  Not sure who you'd be protecting though while you're adventuring... maybe talk to the taco about that?

 

[TacoMann]

@Orikanyo @Hanakai I'd love to join in! But...


Roll 20 is session-based.


And my schedule.


I work off a 4 day rotation, and usually sleep noon-8pm, on my work days. Sessions don't work well for me unless everyone else can afford to be flexible, and I don't like doing that to groups. :/

 

[Orikanyo]

It's only outlawed in one country and that doesn't mean I'm disallowing it!  It's cracked down on pretty hard in cities, but again they can't do much in smaller towns or out in the wild.  Or if they don't see it...


And a cavalier could be interesting... even though it's steampunk, there are still things like knights and nobility around.  Not sure who you'd be protecting though while you're adventuring... maybe talk to the taco about that?

possible, if he wants to join of course. 


i was more talking about a build style instead of an actual character, aid another is a ncie thing that nobody remembers. 


I'm currently leanign towards tiefling, I happened upon a list of strange, silly, interesting tiefling mutations. it's all fluff but some are rather interesting and attest to the chaotic nature of their births, from the strangest to having one's hair constantly trying to take the horn of horns to havign your tears be a mild acid.


the oddest one I've found is that the person constantly smells like freshly baked bread covered in a melted slather of butter... not sulfer, not brimestone, buttered bread. 

@Orikanyo @Hanakai I'd love to join in! But...


Roll 20 is session-based.


And my schedule.


I work off a 4 day rotation, and usually sleep noon-8pm, on my work days. Sessions don't work well for me unless everyone else can afford to be flexible, and I don't like doing that to groups. :/

I'm certain we can work something out for you, nobody has really stated a strict schedule, we can work it somehow. hell, even with my school in the coming month I'm relatively free.