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Post by Doktor Payne on Nov 21, 2015 11:20:07 GMT
As I mentioned in my HELLLLOOOOO post, RQ has inspired me to run my own Pathfinder game. I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to GM a system that wasn't World of Darkness, which is ruled over by millions of D10's and a hugely in depth knowledge of the in game history across its many titles...
I've also been very much looking forward to using my specially constructed gaming table which can seat five in comfort. My flatmates DnD 3.5 game with EXTRA PIRATES is taking forever to get off the ground, so if I want a game I'll need to do it myself.
I have limited knowledge of traditional Pathfinder settings, and little time to research them - but I do have a lot of knowledge of colourful real history, and was already thinking down that path before even hearing RQG. That you guys can do something similar, and have it still be engaging and exciting as a setting, means I can explore my ideas too.
With that in mind I've bought hard copies of the Core Rules and the Advanced Player Guide, and I'm getting stuck into setting up a game.
I have two of four player slots filled, and at least one of the others is a formality. I'm getting to work on a setting based on Richard II's time period, which features the end of the Hundred Years War, the beginnings of The Wars of the Roses, the Black Death and its economic and social aftermath, and tonnes of opportunities for small adventuring bands to really thrive. I even plan on including the whole Knights of the Garter, which was mostly set up as a sort of social club for Edward III's adventuring buddies, the generation before I plan on setting my game.
To that real world stuff I thought I'd add the whole "magic is real" thing as having happened a few centuries before, with an associated proof that some of the Greek Gods are provably real (only minor ones - not the Olympians or the Titans). Other forms of worship do exist, such as Christianity, but they are fringe minor religions and they don't have working clerics and the like. I was considering a Small Gods type of thing, where these other gods COULD later manifest if they received the right forms of worship and perhaps some of them are nacsently real - but I don't think any of that would really impact on the setting in the timeframe I'd be setting the adventure in...
As for races, I'm leaving that pretty free and easy. I definitely want to avoid a situation where races are entirely segregated by national borders. An Orcs = French type of deal doesn't work for me. Overall I think I want to make the setting ahistorically advanced in a social sense.
My mind is still buzzing with different ideas to throw in the mix though! At the very least, thank you guys for the inspiration!
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Post by Alex Newall on Nov 23, 2015 2:56:12 GMT
Hey no worries! That's an intimidating sell! Careful you don't record it or you'll put us out of business! Seriously though, we'd love to know how it plays out.
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Post by Doktor Payne on Nov 23, 2015 6:00:20 GMT
So far so good. I have four players, each wanting to play one of each of the traditional party roles. I took receipt of my hefty dead tree format core rule book yesterday too. I've been thinking of encouraging the PCs to have a look at www.heroforge.com to knock up some miniatures of themselves - with one of them being a Golden Daemon winner a few years back we can custom mod and paint the results up nicely. (I was playing around with it earlier and got a fairly decent basic model for Sir Bertie, which would require many many MANY more Falcons to be glued on to really do him justice). And importantly - all my players seem to be intrigued and excited by the scope of possibility in my setting. Never fear though. I'd never be able to record it. Whilst my voice is mellifluous like a thick smoke made of honey being poured into a hot tub filled with Nobel professors, my players would end up on the X Factor audition blooper reel.
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Post by Brave Sir Robin on Nov 23, 2015 10:23:30 GMT
Excllent use of simile there. We may need to recruit you as an advisor on 'things sasha can flow like'... Sounds like an excellent campaign, and as Alex said, do keep us up to date as it plays out.
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Post by Alex Newall on Nov 27, 2015 20:26:20 GMT
Wow. You similes please me like a... good... thing... with the... um...
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Post by Doktor Payne on Dec 2, 2015 15:26:59 GMT
I've nailed down a hell of a lot of the setting now - the religions, politics and recent history are all done. I have some NPCs planned out and even a good chunk of the story arc. I think I've done enough work that my history interacts with real history in such a way as to make it interesting but not alien to play in it...
All I need to do is get all the players sat down around the table at the same time so as to discuss what they want from the game and so we can start creating a party from the characters each player has in mind.
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Post by Doktor Payne on Jan 11, 2016 13:41:36 GMT
This may be a bit of a long post...
I have five players now, though only four characters created (the fifth needs a sit down on Friday - he wants to build a character that interacts with one of the other PCs).
John Mortimer is from an illegitimate line descended from Roger Mortimer (the guy who deposed Edward II, an is probably responsible for the old "hot poker inserted where hot pokers don't go" manner of his death). He's a squire in the household of a minor Somerset Lord (de Mohun). Straight human fighter build, and has dreams of making himself legitimate and eventually claiming the throne.
Huw Williams is a dwarven cleric of Enyo (the goddess of war). He maintains de Mohun's regalia from the lords glory days when he fought shoulder to shoulder with Edward III. He aims to unify religious practices and establish a national church. He's a bit Welsh.
Shaun "Swift" Tupplesworth is de Mohun's librarian, but he's intriguingly good with a spell book AND a sword (which is magical and talks to him). A human black blade magus, he wants to build a great library of all human knowledge to act as a centre of magical excellence. His sword wants something different - the gruesome death of one of the mightiest earls in the land.
Elestren Booker, a halfling bookkeeper by day - a Machiavellian spy master by night, wishes to know everything and have influence over all events. She's currently a pretty standard rogue build but we've already pretty much decided which direction she's going to go in and it's siiiiiick.
Between them, the players have worked a lot of the party dynamics out between themselves but I need my fifth character fleshed out to really build the party up properly.
In terms of setting I've decided on 1380 as a start date. It's a year or so before the Peasants Revolt and still in the early days of Richard II's reign. It's right in the middle of the Hundred Years' War with France, waves of Black Death are changing the socio-economic landscape and it's the very end of the high chivalric tradition.
I have done a lot of rather detailed work on the religious & magical side - which is rather critical to the game and I shouldn't discuss it too much here (at least two of the players are regular RQG listeners and may pop into the forum at some point, though they haven't yet!)
I went for a full on heroic ability score generation (5d6, throw away lowest two). I basically want them to build characters who are disappointed when they turn a corner and there isn't a full army waiting there to take on.
The game is due to start when they receive news that de Mohun has been killed whilst visiting London - when an army shows up to take possession of his lands and castle...
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Post by theoverlord on Jan 11, 2016 15:35:30 GMT
Sounds very good, if I ever have the chance I would like to have a look at the story. As it sounds quite interesting, I personally would have set the game 20 years later, where there were more real international tensions. But the time period set is good and looks very interesting.
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Post by Doktor Payne on Jan 11, 2016 16:34:32 GMT
I'm likely to take a lot of liberties with international relations as the mood takes me. There's enough bubbling away in the real historical period to be getting on with, plus I've effectively abolished the Papacy in my setting (monotheism is somewhat distasteful to society at large) so I can screw around with things as much as I want.
I really wanted to include the social upheaval in the 1370's and 80's, with enough of the important things staying largely the same within the British Isles that my players can do a little bit of wiki research to give their characters the correct contextual knowledge. I struggled though! I really couldn't decide on exactly when to pin things down until I fellin love with the wide open vistas Richard II offered.
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Post by Alex Newall on Jan 12, 2016 22:39:34 GMT
IT can be tough negotiating a specific period like this for gaming. Kudos for handling the right way.
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Post by Doktor Payne on Jan 13, 2016 5:54:52 GMT
I'm a right proper history geek and so are two of the players - both of whom have good points in relevant skills to reflect OOC knowledge. I have allowed a little fudging where it will add to the game but if someone were to play a bard, say, and wanted to Tudor him up a little it would be remiss of me if I failed to point out this is exactly Chaucer's time period...
For the most part it's laziness. I have all this knowledge about the time period that I don't have to relearn or keep straight in my head which means I can just crack on with writing a story.
I've been using a history podcast I'm obsessed with as my inspiration for the setting, where they go through the history of every British monarch from Alfred. Edward III's reign sounded like ripping good fun and each of the players has been played that episode to get a flavour of what I'm going for. Everyone but everyone loves Sir Walter de Manny.
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Post by Alex Newall on Jan 13, 2016 22:32:28 GMT
Oooooh what's the podcast? My British history needs to get significantly better than it currently is for Rusty Quill.
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Post by Doktor Payne on Jan 13, 2016 23:02:10 GMT
Oooooh what's the podcast? My British history needs to get significantly better than it currently is for Rusty Quill. Rex Factor. It's easy to listen to but well researched and mostly balanced history. Their first season are all the English monarchs, the second are the Scots (which aren't quite up to your setting yet - currently just after the conquest)
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Post by Alex Newall on Jan 14, 2016 21:38:12 GMT
Cool! Cheers dude!
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Post by Doktor Payne on Jan 14, 2016 22:44:59 GMT
I'm thinking your time period is probably mostly the later Stuart monarchs and the Hanovarians, a bit of a mash-up of that stretch of time. You should get some juicy historical tidbits anywhere from Willam III to Edward VII in that lot. I highly recommend William IV - I think a lot of the Rusty Quill setting feels 1820's and 30's ish.
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