Hi, everyone.

I am doing a very general interest check for a Pathfinder campaign. Just want to see how many people would be interested in a particular sort of campaign and have available time.


First, I intend to run weekly sessions generally at late night by EST, because I live in Australia. The sessions will be about 4-5 hours in length, starting at 8:00 pm EST. I don’t mind running a bit overtime if people want to finish their current encounter/scene. Right now, I am looking at 8:00 pm EST either on Friday or Saturday for the game.


Second, as a DM, I am more of a storyteller than a gamemaster, so I tend to give the story and the interactions more focus. There will of course be combat, but those encounters are rarely mandatory. Experience is awarded for overcoming challenges and advancing the story, so there is no penalty for showing mercy…or simple discretion.


Third, the campaign will feature a complex world with low magic settings. The players do not take the centre stage, but are instead simply an agent in the grand scheme of events. The emphasis is on positional play, and the players will rarely feel like they are heroes. This is not to say that the party will not accomplish anything heroic or dramatic, just that the quest will rarely be as simple as “go over the hill and slay the ogre”. In order to succeed, the party will have to deal with sacrifices and losses, which can be personal to the characters.


Anyway, please let me know if you are interested in participating in this sort of campaign. Also it would be good if you could include your time availability and preference in your reply. If enough people are interested, I will post the rules for character creation and we can get the campaign going.


Feel free to contact me if you require further clarifications. I would prefer it if you could post your questions here, because chances are other people would be interested in the answers as well.


Eldritch
dukeeldritch@gmail.com

I'm wondering about when you say that the players will rarely feel like they are heroes. Can you tell what you mean by that? If it means that the players will rarely feel like they've accomplished anything, I'm not interested. If it means that the players will rarely feel like they should have a day named after them, I'm interested.

I also want you to give more detail about what yhou mean by low magic. What does it mean for the setting, and how does it affect classes?

Thanks for posting the questions here, Vash. =) Those two are the most frequently asked questions I get in email, so I was going to have to explain them sooner or later here.

Regarding feeling like heroes, it is in the latter category you described. The party will achieve many things, and most of your actions will have long-lasting consequences. However the world does not revolve around your party. The npcs, whether friends or foes, will actively carry out their plans, the politics will continue to shift and everything else will roll along as well. The party will end up spending most of their efforts to survive and to outmaneuver the more powerful and resourceful enemies and their organisations. As long as the bigger threats loom in the distance, a victory will often bring only a moment of respite. It is a very involved process, and the heroic feelings tend to come at major points, as opposed in a constant stream.

Low magic settings refer to the fact that magic is not a common tool or resource in this world as opposed to say, the Forgotten Realms. You won't see everyone running around casting light spells and wearing magic trinkets. The more general implications are:

- in most kingdoms, magic is not widely practised, so the development of magic tends to be rudimentary. Magic will also be affected by customs and traditions. For example, some places may have spiritual shamanic magic; while others use more nature-based magic.
- magic-users tend to provoke a strong reaction from the locals, especially if the spells effects they use are clearly supernatural (e.g. fireball).
- magical items are not common.

There are exceptions to the rule, but generally it means that the party will have less access to magic as a resource, which can make the lower levels encounters more challenging. Full spellcasters will have to be extra subtle, given the further social disadvantage in that people will more or less view them with suspicion or fear. There are however no restrictions to class selection.

Ok, let’s get the ball rolling.

Introduction

The story takes place on an unnamed continent, home to a number of states. The most significant being the empire that once claimed dominance over all the land, but has since then allowed other nations and states to form and govern themselves. The party comes from one of these small nations, where the various guilds have assumed the role of law enforcement. The players will be involved in the same guild, whose agenda is to investigate the more difficult and obscure matters.

The campaign starts with death and a hint of conspiracy. The king’s first advisor has passed away due to illness, but not before leaving a note pointing to a greater threat. The players, for their skills, efficiency and determination, were selected by the guildmaster to look into the matter and to uncover the truth behind it. What they will find however is that one does not always choose truth, but is forced to accept it…


Preparation Sessions

I have found it generally useful for the game if interested players can meet with each other and the DM to discuss their character concepts and expectations before the first session. It makes a much smoother experience when players know that they can actually work together in the campaign.

Therefore, I am going to hold some prep sessions where we can meet face to face to have a chat about character creation. I will do run two of these on Thursday and Friday, both at 8 pm, EST. I will advise the server and room one day before the session. We will mainly talk about the rules and game settings for character creation. It is very important that you come ready to discuss your character concept (more on this below).

You are welcomed to attend one or both of them. If you are interested and cannot make either of them, please let me know and we can work out an alternative arrangement.


Character Creation

You are will be creating level 4 characters using stand fantasy point-buy (refer to page 16 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook). The starting gold and equipment will be determined once everyone has created a character. We will be using the core rules.

Before you were to make your characters however, I would like to hear your character concepts first. In order words, your character’s personality, skills and motivations. Please keep in mind that as your character concept should reflect the fact that he/she is a specialist with a good deal of experience. In particular, you may want to think on the following:

- Reason for joining the guild: were you selected by your skills or trained by other guild members? Did you join the guild at a young age?

- Achievements: you don’t become level 4 by weaving a lot of baskets. What were, if any, the more significant achievements your character has accomplished? Your achievements can define your character whether by growth or trauma. For example, you might have captured a difficult bounty after a chasing him/her across the kingdom; or you have resolved a hostage situation without bloodshed by the power of words alone; or you have successfully defended a lone village against bandits, losing many friends in the process.

- Goals: what does your character want in the long-run? Wealth? Experience? Influence? Love/Relationships?

Ideally, when you come to the prep sessions, we can have a talk about the character concept and how to integrate it into the story


That’s all for now. I hope see some of you in the prep sessions.


Eldritch
dukeeldritch@gmail.com

Ok, the room details for Thursday and Friday:

Server: Openrpg Veav I
Room name: Eldritch's Pathfinder Campaign
Time: 8:00 pm~

No Password for the room at the start, but may implement one if it becomes too crowded.