It looks like I may have enough free time to juggle one more pen&paper campaign sometime in the foreseeable future. I'm considering bypassing the usual suspects in my pen&paper circles for this one and running something entirely through RPTools.
Mandatory URL to show what the fuck I'm on about
-SR4 framework
Pathfinder Framework
Basically it's a free, java-based die roller/chat client/group whiteboard. It's scriptable, and people have made frameworks for a bunch of different systems. Depending on the framework, tokens can contain pretty much an entire character sheet and keep track of all kinds of weird status effects. It's all pretty neat. Frameworks are all run server-side, so players don't need to worry too much about them. (Although they do modify the UI while running). The rptool client (maptool) can either be downloaded and run locally or launched directly through their website. No registration/purchase needed.
So here's what I was thinking: If there's sufficient interest, I'd sit down and prepare someting. I'm thinking there'd be room for 4-6 players. (Less than that and everyone would be screwed if someone missed a session. More than 6 and I'd be stressed to keep everyone engaged). It'd be either shadowrun 4th edition or Paizo's pathfinder, as those are the systems I'm most familiar with. I can either dig up a published adventure (more railroaded, but less work fo rme reduces the risk of GM burnout. Paizo's adventure paths for pathfinder are pretty decent) and tweak it, write an epic of my own or we can run something sandbox-style where it falls to the players to motivate their characters to go & do shit while I just provide flavour text and random encounters.
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. For shadowrun it'd be the core book and possibly street magic, arsenal and/or augmentation. I really hate having to keep track of shit across multiple splatbooks.
- Sessions would be bi-weekly on a set weekday (probably friday, saturday or sunday). Additional sessions might be squeezed in if both GM and players all have the time and inclination. Time would be afternoon/evening central european time. Specifics to be hammered out if this thing gets off the ground when I have an idea of the timezones of potential players.
- Someone (not the GM) will be in charge of logging the session and posting a writeup for the amusement of the rest of Codexia.
- First session would be chargen. I'm a big fan of players being able to bounce character ideas back and forth when they roll up their little dudes. It helps a bunch in creating a balanced party and giving characters IC reasons to want to stick together.
- Players won't be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'll try to work out something that has the greatest chance of everyone being able to actually showing up. (similar timezones/preferred playing times). I'll maintain a list of reserves in case someone drops out midway through. I might possibly recruit one-shot cameos from the reserve list in case of NPCs joining the party temporarely.
- I'm going to assume people are able to gain familiarity with whatever system we choose to use on their own. I can provide PDFs of the rulebooks if needed and answer questions to the best of my ability. But some reading will probably be required of the players.
So what do I need from you people?
First and foremost, I need to know who's mad enough to want to suffer under the tender ministrations of my GMship. Nothing is binding at this point. I just need to know if there's actually enough people ready & willing for this to get off the ground.
I need to know timezone and preferred day(s) to play on. also, if showing up on a fixed day on a biweekly basis may be a problem during some periods, I'd rather know about it now rather than 4 sessions in.
If you have any preference for system to use. Convincing arguments to sway the opinions of others allowed.
Whether we should go with a published (tweaked) adventure, a dungeon crawly adventure I write/cannibalize from a bunch of sources or something sandboxy where I cook up a gameworld and players decide what the fuck they want to do. (EG: Players get a ship and a map of an archipelago. It's up to them to decide if they go hunting for buried treasure, sign up with the navy, trade cocaine etc.)
If you've already played/read some of Paizo's adventure paths and it looks like publised campaign might win, please mention it as well. It's no fun for anyone if someone in the group knows exactly what's going to happen around the next corner
Whether to use the default setting (Pathfinder in Pathfinder, Seattle in SR4), an alternate setting (Eberron/forgotten Realms/Darksun/etc in Pathfinder, Denver/Hong kong in SR4) or something homebrewy (Shadows of Copenhagen with lots of action in the Christiania Free Trade Zone anyone?)
Any other input/cool ideas for setting/campaign focus. If they make me cackle with malicious glee I might end up using them. More specific details on the campaign will be hammered out if/when we settle on a system and a campaign style.
DISCUSS!
Mandatory URL to show what the fuck I'm on about
-SR4 framework
Pathfinder Framework
Basically it's a free, java-based die roller/chat client/group whiteboard. It's scriptable, and people have made frameworks for a bunch of different systems. Depending on the framework, tokens can contain pretty much an entire character sheet and keep track of all kinds of weird status effects. It's all pretty neat. Frameworks are all run server-side, so players don't need to worry too much about them. (Although they do modify the UI while running). The rptool client (maptool) can either be downloaded and run locally or launched directly through their website. No registration/purchase needed.
So here's what I was thinking: If there's sufficient interest, I'd sit down and prepare someting. I'm thinking there'd be room for 4-6 players. (Less than that and everyone would be screwed if someone missed a session. More than 6 and I'd be stressed to keep everyone engaged). It'd be either shadowrun 4th edition or Paizo's pathfinder, as those are the systems I'm most familiar with. I can either dig up a published adventure (more railroaded, but less work fo rme reduces the risk of GM burnout. Paizo's adventure paths for pathfinder are pretty decent) and tweak it, write an epic of my own or we can run something sandbox-style where it falls to the players to motivate their characters to go & do shit while I just provide flavour text and random encounters.
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. For shadowrun it'd be the core book and possibly street magic, arsenal and/or augmentation. I really hate having to keep track of shit across multiple splatbooks.
- Sessions would be bi-weekly on a set weekday (probably friday, saturday or sunday). Additional sessions might be squeezed in if both GM and players all have the time and inclination. Time would be afternoon/evening central european time. Specifics to be hammered out if this thing gets off the ground when I have an idea of the timezones of potential players.
- Someone (not the GM) will be in charge of logging the session and posting a writeup for the amusement of the rest of Codexia.
- First session would be chargen. I'm a big fan of players being able to bounce character ideas back and forth when they roll up their little dudes. It helps a bunch in creating a balanced party and giving characters IC reasons to want to stick together.
- Players won't be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'll try to work out something that has the greatest chance of everyone being able to actually showing up. (similar timezones/preferred playing times). I'll maintain a list of reserves in case someone drops out midway through. I might possibly recruit one-shot cameos from the reserve list in case of NPCs joining the party temporarely.
- I'm going to assume people are able to gain familiarity with whatever system we choose to use on their own. I can provide PDFs of the rulebooks if needed and answer questions to the best of my ability. But some reading will probably be required of the players.
So what do I need from you people?
First and foremost, I need to know who's mad enough to want to suffer under the tender ministrations of my GMship. Nothing is binding at this point. I just need to know if there's actually enough people ready & willing for this to get off the ground.
I need to know timezone and preferred day(s) to play on. also, if showing up on a fixed day on a biweekly basis may be a problem during some periods, I'd rather know about it now rather than 4 sessions in.
If you have any preference for system to use. Convincing arguments to sway the opinions of others allowed.
Whether we should go with a published (tweaked) adventure, a dungeon crawly adventure I write/cannibalize from a bunch of sources or something sandboxy where I cook up a gameworld and players decide what the fuck they want to do. (EG: Players get a ship and a map of an archipelago. It's up to them to decide if they go hunting for buried treasure, sign up with the navy, trade cocaine etc.)
If you've already played/read some of Paizo's adventure paths and it looks like publised campaign might win, please mention it as well. It's no fun for anyone if someone in the group knows exactly what's going to happen around the next corner
Whether to use the default setting (Pathfinder in Pathfinder, Seattle in SR4), an alternate setting (Eberron/forgotten Realms/Darksun/etc in Pathfinder, Denver/Hong kong in SR4) or something homebrewy (Shadows of Copenhagen with lots of action in the Christiania Free Trade Zone anyone?)
Any other input/cool ideas for setting/campaign focus. If they make me cackle with malicious glee I might end up using them. More specific details on the campaign will be hammered out if/when we settle on a system and a campaign style.
DISCUSS!