[Interest Gauge] Pathfinder/Shadowrun 4th ed over RPTools

[Ulminati]

So I didn't even make it on the list?

I probably missed the post while multitasking between following the thread, reading up on the adventure paths, trying to write an intro to RPtools, looking over frameworks and trying to set up a campaign file. I'll make sure the list of people gets updated at least once more before we start to catch everyone.

D20 Username       Timezone    Day(s)       Time(s)      Experience   Preferences
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ulminati        GMT+1   Fri/sat/sun  Noon - Midnight    Lots      Spectacular player deaths :D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    root            GMT-3     Fri/sat         ??            None      ??
    Mrowak          GMT+2     Fri/Sat    Evening/Night      Lots      Exotic storyfaggotry
    lightbane       GMT+1   Fri/sat/sun     Evening         Some      ??
    Angelo85        GMT+1     Fri/Sat       Evening         None      Mystery/Intrigue
    DamnedReg.        ??       Any(?)        Any(?)         Some      Dungeon crawl with some LARP
    JagreenLern     GMT-5       ??     Afternoon/Evening    Some      ??
    Renegen         GMT-5     Sat/Sun  Afternoon-Night      Lots      Dungeon crawl
    Black Cat       GMT-3    Whenever      Stuffies         None      Elves, Fairies, Goblins
    Quilty          GMT+1   Fri/Sat/Sun Eve/aftern/all      Some
    CrimsonAngel    GMT+1     Whenever     Stuffies         Some      Shadowrun :p
    Jaedar            ??     Fri/Sat          ??            None
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Azira           GMT+1     Fri/sat       Evening         Lots      Dungeon crawl
    Azael           GMT+1      Sun     Afternoon/Evening    Some      ??
    M4BE1R0         GMT-3      ??             ??            none      ??
    Wetworks        GMT+1      Sun          Evening         Some      ??

People after the last seperator either haven't stated that they could play saturdays or indicated in their post that they'd probably have to drop out. the d20 column is where I'mma gonna roll a bunch of dice tomorrow

Very nice initiative though Ulminati, I hope to see some interesting write-ups and AAR from this.

So do I. :D That responsibility rests with the players though.

 

[Black Cat]

Urban intrigue in a nation that worships demons.

Interesting. This one's sounds kind of awesome. I will make this one my first pick but given I haven't played with you guys before and in my mind KKKodex's all about jerks and mean people and anti-LARPing policies I will probably get all timid and shy on the roleplaying department, at least until I get over my paranoid self.

Each of the 6 adventures are built around one of the classics of gothic horror.

So this one's basicaly Pathfinder's answer to Castlevania? Hell yeah. Second pick.

An attack by crazed goblins

Gublins? Hell yeah! A's my third pick, then.



So,

1.E
2.H
3.A

 

[Quilty]

Thanks! I don't have any experience with rptools, but I've been looking into maptools recently and it seems like a really cool program. It also comes with fan-made frameworks for games like Pathfinder (available on the forums), so you might look into that too.

 

[WetWorks]

I'm reasonably flexible and every other saturday is doable. This also means that night-times are open.

 

[Angelo85]

1: F (3 points), 2: B (2 points), 3: E (1 point)

So if all candidates vote for their favorite campaign, the actual group might end up with a campaign no one of the initial players wanted to play, or voted as second / third choice - or will you only count the votes from the people that made it into the initial group?

PS: is the Thread f'ed up for anybody else? Half the posts are only shown after I click on that page again on the page navigation at the bottom right.

 

[lightbane]

I vote for:

1: H
2: F
3: E

Regardless of which campaign we're goind to do, I insist before that we need to do a short one-shot adventure where the party is formed, the mechanics are learned, etc.

PS: Are Traits allowed?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Good luck bros. I didn't chip in since there's a tad too many people involved for my preferences. If this works out maybe we can organize more Codex RP sessions?

 

[Ulminati]

Good luck bros. I didn't chip in since there's a tad too many people involved for my preferences. If this works out maybe we can organize more Codex RP sessions?

Since I'm unlikely to be able to accomodate everyone, there's nothing to stop an enterprising GM from setting up his own campaign on another time/date. It looks like there are plenty of willing players around here. (Isn't that always the case? Everyone wants to play, noone wants to GM).

PS: Are Traits allowed?

I'm thinking one general trait, one campaign trait from the player's guide of whatever campaign we end up choosing. I haven't mentioned them thus far because I'd really rather people didn't preplan their character before everyone's together.

 

[Excidium]

Good luck bros. I didn't chip in since there's a tad too many people involved for my preferences. If this works out maybe we can organize more Codex RP sessions?

Sure!

 

[Damned Registrations]

1:E
2:H
3:F

Looks like it's going to be between those three, and probably pretty close at that.

 

[WetWorks]

I could possibly run something in the new year, not making any promises though.

 

[Renegen]

Good luck bros. I didn't chip in since there's a tad too many people involved for my preferences. If this works out maybe we can organize more Codex RP sessions?

Sure!

How hard can it be to GM? (dont answer :D). If someone here has any previous experience as a GM or with RPTools, maybe they could volunteer to run the 2nd place vote, or whatever else they like. (Campaign A has quite a few votes and seems great for a newbie GM or player) If no one steps up, then someone with no experience could do it, you'd just be reading from the campaign manual, and slowly learning the craft.

Sometimes we just need a kick to get things started, like this thread.

 

[Black Cat]

How hard can it be to GM? (dont answer :D).

It's the kind of experience you should try at least once in a lifetime. If nothing else, I have noticed groups of people who both play and GM are much more fun to GM than groups of people who just play, mostly because the former know how bloody hard it is and thus are less disruptive and much more respectful and colaborative.

But Pathfinder isn't the kind of game to get your first experience as a GM, given there's a lot of numbers and bloat and book keeping, and the system itself isn't so clean and streamlined as, say, Legend of the Five Rings or World of Darkness. It's fun to play, though.

 

[JagreenLern]

I vote

1. F
2. H
3. E

Also, are there any player races available other than the standard fantasy races? If not I'll just go with human or a dwarf.

 

[WetWorks]

How hard can it be to GM? (dont answer :D).

It's the kind of experience you should try at least once in a lifetime. If nothing else, I have noticed groups of people who both play and GM are much more fun to GM than groups of people who just play, mostly because the former know how bloody hard it is and thus are less disruptive and much more respectful and colaborative.

But Pathfinder isn't the kind of game to get your first experience as a GM, given there's a lot of numbers and bloat and book keeping, and the system itself isn't so clean and streamlined as, say, Legend of the Five Rings or World of Darkness. It's fun to play, though.

Isn't Pathfinder basically a more polished and fixed version of 3.5? Or has the crunch number gone up?

 

[Black Cat]

Isn't Pathfinder basically a more polished and fixed version of 3.5? Or has the crunch number gone up?

Yup, that it is.

It is much cleaner and straightforward than 3.5 itself, and it is much more roleplayable. It also has the cutest, most amusing, and totally huggable Goblins ever, which is the entire reason I own some of the books.

However, for all it's advancement it still is a class based system. By the very logic they follow, class based systems usually need much more book keeping and much more knowledge of completely arbitrary thingies and stuffies than skill based ones, where every single action uses the same basic formula and where all characters grow in the same way.

That's why most people in both gaming groups I kind of play in wouldn't mind playing a bit of Pathfinder every now and then but are totally not going to be the ones to GM it.

 

[Ulminati]

If people find the System Reference Documents too confusing to learn from, the offer still stands for them to send me a PM. I might know of a few magic direct links to the PDF files

Also, are there any player races available other than the standard fantasy races? If not I'll just go with human or a dwarf.

Just the standard ones. Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome (*groan*), Half-orc. There aren't a billion subraces like in FR. Rules exist for bringing in monstrous races as PCs, but that opens a can of worms I'd rather not delve into with a group of people I don't know.

Isn't Pathfinder basically a more polished and fixed version of 3.5? Or has the crunch number gone up?

The number crunch has gone *slightly* down, but D&D was always slightly cumbersome. Especially for a GM. The published adventures help a bunch, as do RPTools. But I'd still reccomend people try a few one-shot adventures with their friends before braving a full campaign.

If someone here has any previous experience as a GM or with RPTools, maybe they could volunteer to run the 2nd place vote, or whatever else they like.

I have pretty much every pathfinder book as PDF. I'll be happy to provide an enterprising GM with the adventure path/fluff books/map folio etc. If they settle on RPTools and the same framework I end up using, I'll also gladly send whatever tiles and tokens I end up cooking up their way.

 

[Black Cat]

Just the standard ones. Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome (*groan*), Half-orc. There aren't a billion subraces like in FR. Rules exist for bringing in monstrous races as PCs, but that opens a can of worms I'd rather not delve into with a group of people I don't know.

D'awww! No +4 DEX, -2 STR, -2 CHA little guys who can throw sand into other people's mouths as a special ability? Life's so unfair with pwetty nekos.

 

[WetWorks]

I've always disallowed the funkier PC races as well. Nothing is worse than a party full of Drow, Githyankis, Bugbears and celestials. Fucking travelling freakshow.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I would definitely be interested in joining in. Loads of P&P experience, though sadly none with actual Pathfinder (or RPTools). Plenty with 3.5 though. GMT and Saturday evenings work well.

However, I'll be leaving for Finland soon(ish) though, so I couldn't reliably commit until February - so since it seems there are plenty of players, I can bow out (or be a replacement guy).

I'll have to cook up a Shadowrun campaign. Might run it for other Codexers starting in February, if noting else.

 

[Ulminati]

I'll have to cook up a Shadowrun campaign. Might run it for other Codexers starting in February, if noting else.

Bro, I am SO there

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I've GMed a few times, first one was a bit of a railroading disaster (this one was an IRL RP), but I've gotten lots of praise for my Vampire: The Requiem meets Call Of Cthulhu game I ran on a forum (also convinced a bunch of people that rule-based RP is superior to freeform RP, and can be done on a forum), which was sadly not finished due to complications. I'm much happier as a player and pitching ideas for the GM (this is more than anything due to the fact I'm a hopeless storyfag when it comes to PnP preferences, for instance I advocate avoiding player death outside of drama purposes).

I could write up a Promethean campaign, I guess. I need to go through some cliff notes on mysticism, astronomy and alchemy for it though. And re-read The Invisibles and From Hell. Also, someone better promise to either make a second Promethean game or a Victorian Ages: Vampire globe-trotting game. Or an Authority style superhero game using the HERO system's new edition.

I've never used RPTools either, so it'd be handy for this group to post some demonstrations based on their experiences. Though it's not necessary, a message board and a chat program can fill the role just fine.

Also, Random who also posts here is a fantastic GM and player (he was a key player in that Vampire-Cthulhu game), but presently he's busy with this year's Final Exams. He and I also have locked Sunday's due to his CthulhuTech I take part in.




PS: As I've mentioned before, I generally don't play DnD except with Tiefling Wizards.

 

[Black Cat]

Since we are at it, are you going to allow classes from the Advanced Player's Guide or only base clases?

 

[lightbane]

Since we are at it, are you going to allow classes from the Advanced Player's Guide or only base clases?

You failed the Perception check. Back in the first page, Ulminati wrote:

Regardless of system chosen, a few things would be in effect.
- Character options limited to core books and 1-2 sourcebooks. For pathfinder it's be the core book, the advanced players guide and possibly Ultimate Magic/Ultimate Fighter...

 

[Ulminati]

Right. It's thursday over here now, so I'm going to close the voting. I've got a few busy days ahead of me if I'm to get everything ready. Especially since it seems like people want me to cook up a oneshot introduction run on top so everyone can get a feel for the system.

A recap of everything we've decided in this thread:

Game Time: Bi-weekly, saturday evenings. Somewhere between 6PM and midnight in the GMT+1 timezone. We may end up starting later if people have trouble making it and we may end up ending sooner if we reach a sensible point to break and peoples attention is beginning to wander. (That's 7PM-1AM for Mrowak, 2PM-8PM for root & BC).
First session: Saturday, dec 3rd 2011. 6PM GMT+1.
Campaign: Carrion Crown (16 points) wins out over Kingmaker (13 points) and Council of thieves (9 points)
Campaign log: I'll make a seperate thread in a bit where we'll (eventually) store handouts, character sheets and a written account of what happened every session. I'm expecting the players to make the writeups (I'll provide pictures of maps and handouts if necessary). We'll kick off every session by finding a "voulenteer" to keep track of what happens the rest of the session. If noone voulenteers, we'll roll a die for it between whoever has gone the longest without writing one.
Out of character chat: The RPtools chat window will be for die rolls and in-character chat only. We'll pick an IRC channel somewhere for people to toss rules questions and OOC banter about.
Character Generation: We'll do shared character generation during the first session. I'll post detailed chargen rules in the other thread when I make it.
Character sheets: I hope everyone will post a character sheet in the main thread after character generation and keep it updated. I'll make sure to update peoples tokens between sessions so they don't have to worry about that. If they want to link to a picture of some sort they want for their PC, I'll make sure to get it onto a token as well.
Players: I used the dieroller on the top-left corner of the RPGcodex page, rolled once for everyone in the order I posted then a page or two ago. Then reordered everyone by die roll. I ask everyone (but especially the top 5 players on the following list) to confirm whether or not they're ready & willing to play on the time(s) and with the conitions sketched out in this post. If someone in the top 5 bows out, the open slot goes to the next position on the list that's expressed interest and availability. If someone drops out once the campaign is underway, I'll refer to this list as a recruitment pool when I send out PMs looking for a replacement.

There's no shame in saying you're too busy/having second thoughts/think the choice of campaign is popamole/etc. at this point bros. I'd rather find out now rather than 2 sessions in. If people pass, I can either put them in the probably-not-interested bracket or let them retain their die roll on the reserves list.

D20 Username       Timezone    Day(s)       Time(s)      Experience   Preferences
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ulminati        GMT+1   Fri/sat/sun  Noon - Midnight    Lots      Spectacular player deaths :D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 16 Mrowak          GMT+2     Fri/Sat    Evening/Night      Lots      Exotic storyfaggotry
 15 root            GMT-3     Fri/sat         ??            None      ??
 12 Angelo85        GMT+1     Fri/Sat       Evening         None      Mystery/Intrigue
 11 lightbane       GMT+1   Fri/sat/sun     Evening         Some      ??
 10 Quilty          GMT+1   Fri/Sat/Sun Eve/aftern/all      Some
  9 Black Cat       GMT-3    Whenever      Stuffies         None      Elves, Fairies, Goblins
  7 JagreenLern     GMT-5       ??     Afternoon/Evening    Some      ??
  6 DamnedReg.        ??       Any(?)        Any(?)         Some      Dungeon crawl with some LARP
  5 CrimsonAngel    GMT+1     Whenever     Stuffies         Some      Shadowrun :p
  4 Renegen         GMT-5     Sat/Sun  Afternoon-Night      Lots      Dungeon crawl
  3 Jaedar            ??     Fri/Sat          ??            None
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 20 Azira           GMT+1     Fri/sat       Evening         Lots      Dungeon crawl
  9 Azael           GMT+1      Sun     Afternoon/Evening    Some      ??
  6 M4BE1R0         GMT-3      ??             ??            none      ??
  5 Wetworks        GMT+1      Sun          Evening         Some      ??

I even rolled for the people who said they probably couldn't make it. Azira with his busy family life scored a CRITICAL HIT!

Here's a copypasta of my vote tally if someone beleives I fucked up counting:

 5 A | 2 1 1 1
 2 B | 2
 0 C | 
 3 D | 3 
 9 E | 3 1 1 3 1
13 F | 1 3 3 2 1 3
 0 G | 
16 H | 3 2 2 2 3 2 2
 0 I |

@Schwartzkatze: Core rule book, Player's Guide, ultimate Combat, Ultimate magic are all allowed. Adventurer's armory too, but I'd discourage it since it confuses the hell out of me. No hero points. 2 traits (one general, 1 campaign). Base races (no monstrous). Ability scores by build points.