Lost on the Planes (Pathfinder; Interest Check)

[SheerFantasia]

I've been wanting to do a sort of 'Lost in Space' game in fantasy - so why not Lost on the Planes?  The big idea behind this is to use an enemy that very rarely has an influence in most D&D/Pathfinder games: the environment.  That, and how people get around to approaching it in order to survive.  Then there's getting lost, angry natives, spoiled rations, mutinies, to say nothing of freezing temperatures, blistering heat and the whole gamut.  The whole idea will be to use skills, abilities, and feats other than combat focussed.

I think, at least initially, the game will be very plot-lite and dilemma heavy, with a starting level of 4-6.  The game ideally takes place in episodes, and players could create new characters each episode to account from the faceless crew (or carry one their previous ones at their higher level).  People could even jump in and out of the game as is there fancy, though they should be committed for at least the episode they are in.  I'm also thinking a planar ship that can be upgraded with various rooms and special equipment to weather dangerous environments might be in the works, with players having to set down and hunt for various components and materials (every bit helps to improve their chances).

For now, this is just to see how many people are interested in such a game, and if there's enough, I'll announce the date of a recruitment thread later.  Any ideas or questions can also be put here.

[Ghostwheel]

So kinda like Spelljammer, just with planes instead of space?

[Kimmy]

Absolutely interested! I like the episodic style with this concept - being able to try new scenarios with new characters every so often is a nice change to break up the pace. Especially if you can return to your main character in the next episode. ^_^ Especially since this is a lower level game - so we can enjoy a few levels but still fear all the challenges.

Questions:
For characters, are you having everyone from one place/setting? Or will you settle on a more traditional ship's crew & passengers - allowing us to be anyone? Be it passenger, crew or stowaway from any (planar?) port?
Oh, does this open up all the religions as well? There are a lot so it could open up a lot of flavor for religious characters.

And the old question - good/neutral only? Or is anyone welcome on a planar pirate ship? (All ships are pirate ships - they just don't know it yet... Unless their anti-pirate robot ships)

[SheerFantasia]

@ Ghostwheel:  Woo!  Somebody actually remembers the spelljammer!  But I think, generally yes, though obviously the planes are more varied than space.

@ kimmy: Thanks for you interest.  Let's see: the background story can more or less take care of most class combinations, but for the beginning, I'd like to keep races to the basic ones, and perhaps a few of the featured and uncommon ones as well.  As adventures progress, new races might become 'unlocked' depending on where people direct the ship to and if they have success in recruiting.  But on the whole, be it race or religion, good or evil, law/chaos, as long as players have party cohesion, I don't think it should become too great an issue (unless you bumble onto a god's home plane).

In perspective, the game might have a bit of an FTL feel (for those who have played the game) as detours to find exotic components to upgrade the astral ship to make it more planar-worthy, give it a bit more bite, or any other number of features.  I'm working to modify the Jade Regeant adventure path's Caravan system to make it work here.

Keep 'em coming.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

I do like the general concept.  Just not sure I like the notion that my character might be one of a many faceless.  Are we talking like they will just die or we, as players, just have a group of characters to select from to help problem solving?

[SheerFantasia]

@ Pumpkin Seeds: Hello Pumpkin Seeds.  I suppose that might have been a bit vague and misleading on my part.  In regards to faceless crew-members, I was generally referring to the fact that people can jump in and out of games with a character of their choosing - i.e., that character has always been part of the crew and now their story is coming out in the particular episode they are playing in - in that respect, all the unnamed (faceless) crew members are like blank slates, rather than being unimportant fodder.

So you could start the game with, say, a 5th level rogue.  Complete the episode, and moving to the next episode of life on the astral ship, you could play the same character or try a different one - that different one can be excused as a crew member who is only now coming into their own.  If that makes sense.  I hope!  In short, you're still creating whatever character you want to play or feel is appropriate to the newest dilemma facing the ship.

[kongming]

This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. I'm a bit flakey (or perhaps more accurately, I work at a school just about full time and for some reason, schools don't allow people to access adult sites), but I should be able to handle individual episodes - at certain times of year I can duck out, and return when things slow down again.

[Kimmy]

@ SheerFantasia: Yay! That gives this an open feel - with reasonable limits that we can work to open up. If your making up a system, perhaps you might consider letting players trade XP to unlock some new race they want to try (maybe using the race builder's guide so their not terribly unbalanced?) or even putting their xp towards a ship upgrade- like craft points? Just, if we can make new characters, people might want to cash their xp in for some new option instead of an extra level or two.

Unfortunately I don't know what FTL your referring to nor the Caravan system - but I do have a mind filled with the thoughts of Disney's Treasure Planet... And possibly space Zepplin's trying to pull a Stargate Continuum.

For characters, I had a thought about a cloistered paladin or cleric character who spent most of their life training & reading religious texts. Cooped up in some restrictive (& zealous?) paladin only style society. Right up until their first love formed for one of the other divine entities in their scriptures. So, finding themselves dissatisfied with their life & god, they decide to jump the fence & stow away on a planar ship - in the hopes of finding this deity/demon/angel/devil/??? and dedicating themselves to their first love! Fire, love & passion come to mind as emotional drives & spell themes. And maybe a lot of hopelessness - what does a paladin know about planar ships anyway? A bit of a *run away with the circus* concept. Then there was this thought about a couple of cats and dogs trapped on a pirate ship - were-wolves & catgirls & ratlings or something. Leaving this mess of crew ranks and racial animosity for the Captain to keep in check.

*Paws* I wanna make a character now... But this is just an interest thread... I shall be forced to unleash my secret weapon...

*Puppycat Eyes* Please find lots of players soon?

[Anon315]

I like the concept, and I have wanted to play an android and this seem the perfect sort of concept in which to do so. Not particularly an EDI clone, but there could be an association with the ship.

[Foxfyr]

Count me interested! I would love to learn more about what you have in mind.

Plus I would love to play a ship engineer. =D

[kongming]

I'm more interested in exploration and gathering parts than doing the upgrading, so perhaps if I play a ranger or ninja I can take care of those aspects, helping provide materials for the engineer. We can tackle different duties as we see fit, helping each other out via being a team of specialists.

[Foxfyr]

I'm personally imagining a monk of one type or another as the engineer who despite his best efforts to maintain his center of mind, can't help but pull a Scotty when the pressure is on.  I certainly like the notion of seeing how his training would be tested as various systems inevitably work against him.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Thinking of trying to play a wizard/ plane navigator?

[Kimmy]

For a ship's crew role, I'd love to try for navigation/mapper. Perhaps mixing in some holy oracle/divination magic into the theme? Though just a general crew position would also be quite appropriate for the ideas in my blossoming imagination  >:)

@ Kongming: I'm not sure if your comment was aimed at me or just a general comment, but my thought is that hunting down rare & exotic magical components would be the expectation in most circumstances. I was just thinking that if people were retiring a character, they might want to put their xp to good use within the ship. Particularly if Pathfinder's magical crafting rules work like D&D - requiring spells, rare components, lots of downtime & XP to be spent. If the party as a whole can burden the gold & xp costs of crafting magical powers for the ship then we can get a flying space pirate-cyborg-demonic Zepplin of Doom +1 much sooner¹.

Does anyone have any ideas for what crew positions might be on a fantasy planar ship? I can only think up more normal crew positions...

¹ Whilst this method may speed up the crafting process, some scholars also suggest that holy offerings to the lesser known God Fantasia, particularly those in the form of high proof alcohol may also be required to ensure the GM is appropriately inspired enough to consider ship upgrades beyond the usual Flying Ships or even the less popular Self Immolating Doomed Airship of Automatic Firey Doomed Crashlandings +1. Indeed, some scholars went so far as to propose offerings comprised of highly experienced Scottish whores along with the alcohol. However it should be known that virgins are not highly regarded by the gods. They want to have a good time - not spend the next year teaching Sexology 101. Well - unless their hungry of course...<sup>2

2</sup> Assumptions made in these scholarly reports may be inaccurate. The margin of error is calculated at 1.2 cases of alcohol multiplied by the average strength of the local brewery/winery/tannery³.

³ Drinks procured from the local tannery may cause irrational behavior, blindness and/or imminent demise. Tannery based alcohols are not recommended for any species under 180 years old nor those without magical immunity to poisons⁴.

⁴ The people responsible for these Off-Topic annotations have subsequently been fired. We apologize for the complete lack of on topic commentary. The people who hired the aforementioned employees are also about to be fired. They... oh bugger. They read this annotation and buggered off before we could finish posting it. Anyone with information on these missing Off Topic Commentators should contact the Commentators Hotline via PM. Do not message these commentators. They are armed with bad humor & should be considered in poor taste. I repeat, do not attempt to contact these Off Topic Commentators. They may be hazardous to your mental health.

[Shaitan]

I'm certainly interested in playing, hoping that maybe the playtest for the advanced class guide might be allowed, I've been hoping to find a game to play a slayer in, ranger rogue, how is that not the perfect scout for an exploration of places you never knew existed?

[SheerFantasia]

Hooray!  More interest!  Ok, so I've started some work on mapping the general layout of the ship, of which travel will take place on the Sasskiana (minus the dragons  :P).  Foreseeable types of crew members are:

CREWMEMBER TYPES
Possible listing

• Artificers (who maintain the elemental chambers that powers the ship)
• Cook(s)
• Entertainers
• Guard
• Healer
• Passengers (the wealthy kind)
• Scouts (trained Griffon riders, who fly ahead of the ship to make sure things are safe)
• Wainwrights (mundane maintenance of the ship)

There are also a few posts of leadership that should become available, given as players won't be starting off as complete greenhorns for which I'm thinking:

LEADERSHIP ROLES
Possible listings

• Master Artificer (keeping for more delicate arcane functions of the ship up and running)
• Master Navigator (self explanatory - the person at the helm, responsible for stunts and making everyone airsick)
• Master of Arms (training warriors, keeping discipline, keeping security)
• Master of Sails (most knowledgeable person on planar lore, navigating it and keeping the delicate astral sails working)
• Quartermaster (keeping the ships stores and inventory, and keeping it regulated)

All but the Master of Arms will be available for people to take up from the get-go with the right prerequisites under their belt.  The Master of Arms will be a significant NPC, who is also the acting captain in the interim until a suitable one can be picked (the last one died as a result of story casualty).  If no one takes the positions, I'll create significant NPCs to occupy the posts.

More soon...

[Kimmy]

If we wanted to apply as a scout, how would you handle the griffons? I don't really know of any way to get one in pathfinder besides buying an egg & rearing it yourself. Or could a druid or paladin take one as their special mount/animal companion? I'm intrigued by the scout role though I haven't an idea how to make that work in pathfinder. At least, not yet. I know more D&D classes unfortunately.

Also - some sort of stable master would seem to be appropriate as an additional role for the lists. As might a stow away role.

Thankies for the info - lots to think about...

[SheerFantasia]

Noted on the Stable Master idea Kimmy, thanks!

As for the griffons, given that everybody will be of fairly capable when they start off, it would not be unreasonable to assume your character trained their own griffon and came with it, though my general idea is that the ship maintains its own roost of griffons, and as long as your character is trained to ride them, you can use them (all necessary equipment should already be in place as well).

[kongming]

kimmy: I was just saying in general, seeing as we have some that would be actively working on the ship itself, I'd be doing more work at the other end, scouting out stuff to be using.

That said, I don't think I could ever justify spending actual character XP on... anything other than personal advancement. Also, in PF, crafting just takes time and money, not XP :)

[Kimmy]

Yay! Because I couldn't find a class that involved griffons or unusual mounts of any sort... ^^' So that saves a lot of hassle.

Does the Sasskiana have a particular purpose? Or are we just a passenger ship lost among the planar winds? I'm just looking for inspiration to help narrow down the half a dozen ideas running through my head...

@Kongming: Ah! I don't really have a lot of experience with pathfinder. I've mostly played D&D with lots of PF elements added in. Thankies for the info! Pathfinder is all so familiar - but I still feel completely lost on all the finer points. Thankfully we're just exploring the concepts at the moment... So I have plenty of time to learn. :P

[SheerFantasia]

@ kimmy: For now (and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future), is one world's first attempt into dedicated planar travel.  The loudly touted reason for it Science! (spelt with an exclamation mark) or so the man (and previous captain) who designed and created the ship said so - to put it as said in a well known sci-fi series: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

That said, there have been other factions (other chief contributors to the project) on board the ship that see it for other purposes - military, colonisation, and all those other greedy enterprises that people want.  The first 'jump' went well, with drifting lazily over a simple and primitive garden world, but inexperience caused problems with the next.  The Sasskiana found itself in the middle of an unknown and very environmentally dangerous plane, which almost ripped the ship to pieces.  They just managed to to hobble to the next intersection of lay lines and got the hell out, but the ship is in a very bad way now (in short, at this point its a simple airship, sans the balloon, ready to be upgraded, fixed, modded, you name it).  With most of the sensitive equipment damaged, the captain and the experienced members dead... well, I think a general picture can be drawn.  ;)

Hope that helps!

@ kongming: I'm sure anything you manage to drag back that helps to upgrade the ship would be much appreciated by the crew!  ;D

[kongming]

kimmy: I know how you feel. I'm more familiar with 3rd edition than PF, but every now and then some obscure thing leaps into view because it comes up or someone else explains the difference to me. It's like going from British English to American English - it's almost identical, but occasionally you trip up on some weird change when referring to armour (armor).

SheerFantasia: if you let us know the starting level, ability scores etc. etc. then tomorrow at work I could get a sheet done :D (or several, then get home and make a decision based on what seems best after several drinks)

[Kimmy]

I second Kongming's plan! There is far too much potential here not to take long considerations after tall drinks.  >:) Though only the heavens know what else my mind might craft up before then. But hey- maybe we'll land in one & can ask about it?

[ExisD]

This is a pretty wonderful sounding idea that I'd be very interested in. I love alternate planes, but never get a chance to play in games on them. I have an idea for an artificer that I've been sitting on for a while and the class is allowed(pathfinder version in this case because it has a much more mad-science feel to it).

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Oh good grief, I remember Spelljammer and it was soooooo much fun!

I think, if you're still looking for people and if your "perhaps a few of the featured and uncommon" races still applies, I'd like to submit a kobold alchemist for the role of Quartermaster. Or possibly as a scout, because hey, tiny angry women, gryphons and bombs...What's not to like?