Interest check: 20th Century Pulp Pathfinder. Visionaries Wanted.

[PhantomPistoleer]

WIP.

CHIEF INSPECTOR'S NOTES:

Special Agent Etienne Savage is...

• Birthplace -- Weston, West Virginia, 1890
• Father -->  Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
• Father -->  Veteran of the Boxer Rebellion
• Brown University, 1906
• Bachelors of Divinity and Law
• Native American linguist
• Special Agent Paranormal Affairs in 1910.
• Veteran of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti in 1915.  Top secret.
• World War I veteran
• Croix de Guerre for Bravery in the Argonne Forest in 1918 with the Lost Batallion under Major Charles Whittlesey.  Top secret.
• Death of Harry Houdini.

[Waldham]

what will be the frequency for the posts ?

[Ixy]

I wish for twice a week... It never seems to work out that way but I'd it's really happening then we can go three.

[eBadger]

Very intriguing, a nicely unique take on pathfinder!   

Running a few concepts in my head.   I'd love a character who's working to blend magic and machinery together into some sort of deiselpunk.   Not strictly sure how to make that work yet. 

[Chulanowa]

Very intriguing, a nicely unique take on pathfinder!   

Running a few concepts in my head.   I'd love a character who's working to blend magic and machinery together into some sort of deiselpunk.   Not strictly sure how to make that work yet.

The Tinker alchemist archetype comes to mind. Gun scavenger Gunslinger could kinda follow in that vein.

[eBadger]

Hmm.  Saw this too. 



Perhaps a French spiritualist/alcoholic absintheist, someone who had some talents in necromancy even before the rift. 

Possibly an aristocrat who went on to serve in the trenches, and uses drink and drugs to deal with shell shock. 

Alternatively, a woman who was part of a spiritualist cabal with her husband, until he murdered her lover in a fit of rage and bigotry; she took revenge by sacrificing him to bring her lover's ghost back, either taking over the cabal or becoming hunted by it.  Because cabals and secret societies. 

[Chulanowa]

So! I am down to... ugh... several ideas now.  :P Looks like you're getting another smol out of me, Ixy, no matter what idea I decide on.

Also... Please tell me you're going to call this campaign "The Roaring D20's"?

[Ixy]

I'm really glad to see ideas formulating.  I think we're almost to the point where I will open a character submission thread with a deadline and specific detail format/requests.  I'll link that to this thread as well. 

This is exciting, and I'm loving some of the ideas.

eBadger: You could combine the absinthe use with almost any concept... Either could use it as a means to empower a specific ability.  I would love to see that roleplayed out, in fact.  A tinker could work as well.

Frankly, I need much more caffeine and nicotine before I can crank out anything useful today, but I hope that those interested are approaching a point where they are comfortable narrowing it down.

Also... we could potentially use a character to act as muscle.  The concepts seem very flexible and competent, but a little intimidation and brute force tends to go a long way in an era where the police aren't dispatched by 2-way radio.

[Green Goo Theory]

It's a very fast and loose idea that came immediately but thoughts of a Frankenstein's monster.  I know the time period doesn't match, really.  The big problem is that I don't any ideas at the moment on how to effectively build such a concept.  But, the whole fish out of water type character seems like it'd be fun in this setting when dealing with a whole team of experts.

[Ixy]

Well it's entirely possible.  There's probably something in pathfinder that would fit it besides a Flesh Golem/Grave Servant template.  Or you could use that kind of background as an explanation for your character's particular power set.

[eBadger]

Android?  Just a bit of re-fluff and it seems pretty perfect.  Combine with monk or barbarian. 

[Green Goo Theory]

Well it's entirely possible.  There's probably something in pathfinder that would fit it besides a Flesh Golem/Grave Servant template.  Or you could use that kind of background as an explanation for your character's particular power set.

I'm fine with it being entirely fluff rather than crunch.  I personally never liked the golem examples to play such a character; they just do not work.  Except, perhaps, the Warforged from 3.5  I'll poke around the SRD some more but I'm cool with the character just mechanically being a human or something similar. 

Android?  Just a bit of re-fluff and it seems pretty perfect.  Combine with monk or barbarian.

I forgot about Androids.  I'll take a look. 

[Chulanowa]

Android?  Just a bit of re-fluff and it seems pretty perfect.  Combine with monk or barbarian.

Don't combine android and barbarian. Rage is a morale bonus, androids can't gain morale bonuses, it works poorly

[HopeFox]

It's possible that my Muslim scholar could be a rather combative and intimidating Avenger Vigilante. I can go either way with her - vigilante or wizard, depending on what will fit best with the rest of the party.

... I promise she would only be slightly based on this:

[Ixy]

It's time for concrete concepts please.
Sheets not needed, but ok (minus equipment)
Required: concept, brief background, class, alignment

Due date: Friday, midnight ESTish.

Thank you--

[Chulanowa]

Khismia, or "Ruby Amberwithe"
Lawful Good Halfling Unchained Monk 1 / Sacred Attendant Cleric of Arshea(?) 3
Concept: A Qadiran nomad-monk who, stranded in a strange world, has taken on a life of entertainment through bellydancing; She proselytizes to her fans and acquaintances about the faiths she brought from Golarion, all while seeking enlightenment through experience.

Background:    Aakif was fortunate, for an orphan. When the weeping plague burned through the streets of Lopul, laying low camel-herd and merchant prince alike, the monks of the joyous cloud took in the halfling babe left squalling in the streets. Along with a dozen other such foundlings, Aakif - as the gardener who tended him named the boy - was raised in the curious culture of the monks. Combining traditions of their distant Vudran forbears and their long history in Qadira, the monks of the joyous cloud combined discipline and contemplation with bouts of exuberance and passion, which they called aydinlatma.

   When he came of age, Aakif took a sleeping roll, a belt of horsehair, and an alms bowl, and left the monastery. It was tradition, to see the world as it is, rather than simply contemplating it from within walls. Before he got fore than five streets away from the monastery walls, Aakif was punched in the head and his bowl stolen. It would have been shameful to run back, not even half an hour gone! The took the loss in stride, a learning experience. After a few more of these, Aakif had figured out how to fight back and protect himself. it took another two scuffles for Aakif to come to a realization; he would never be safe along on the streets of Lopul, and would never learn much more than thievery, moneylending, and head-punching.

   The caravan-master he approached was more than happy to bring the young monk along; halflings are good luck, eat little, and the monks of Lopul were known to be good fighters (even if this one looked a little bruised.) On the long journeys on the Golden Path through Qadira, Aakif learned a great many things. One of the most important was that he loved to dance; through the movements he felt aydinlatma, that surge of joy and closeness to all things. He also enjoyed being painted and dressed by the women of the caravans, and the applause of the men - and making love to both. In time, Aakif abandoned the name he had been given, and instead took the name Khismia and began living as a woman even when not dancing.

   It was in the dry borderlands between Katheer and Taldan that the event happened. Khismia, several goats, and a handful of other caravaneers took one step too many and ended up in a rainy cobble-lined city that smelled of smoke and howled with bustle; Atlanta, she learned it was called. Apparently several members of a marching band had vanished into thin air to be replaced with Khismia and her fellows. Coming to terms with this new place has been a challenge. Just the chaos of those first two years was maddening! Learning the language was probably the hardest part. The culture was so alien that Khismia mostly gave up trying to conform. Fortunately, these days there are outlets for that; it's 1924, after all! Khismia has taken the stage name "Ruby," and once again dances. She was overjoyed to learn that this world has similar dances, and has been busy seeking out and practicing with like-minded men and women. Along the way, she tries to spread the philosophy of aydinlatma, and the faiths she was brought up with; the lover-goddesses Shelyn and Sarenrae, and the servants of dance, Arshea and Avasha. While this has made her pretty popular among some of the more hip crowd, it has on occasion led to trouble with the local faith leaders and authorities...

Description: Ruby only stands three feet and two inches tall, and is built as light as a feather. Her caramel-hued skin is accented by a speckling of freckles earned in the sun, offset by clear amber eyes and thick, dark brown hair. Her form is slender, with a slight chest and narrow hips, what curves are there are easy to see as she favors the form-fitting dresses of the day, worn just below the knee. On stage - or when she feels like it - she dons the garb she brought to this world, an assortment of veils, ribbons, chimes, and airy fabric that allow for total freedom of movement; when so revealed, it's clear that the small woman has a core of taut, sleek muscle, which she moves with deliberate grace. She speaks with a rich timbre, at least considering her sex and size, and laughs easily and fully.

Sexuality: On the long caravan trips, Ruby found pleasure and companionship with men and women alike, with halflings, with humans and elves. Aside from the apparent need for more discretion, that hasn't really changed much in this world. Though she doesn't have the word for it, she would be considered fully pansexual.

[Waldham]

Providence
Human Empiricist (and/without Forensic Physician) Investigator

Profile

• Hair Color:  Black
• Eye Color:  Brown
• Skin Color:  Bronzed
• Height:  6' 1"
• Weight:  180 lbs
• Gender:  Female
• Orientation:  Pansexual
• Alignment:  Chaotic Neutral

Concept

She puts her faith in facts, data, confirmed observations, and consistently repeatable experiments—these things are her currency of truth.
First and foremost Providence is superhumanly intelligent, especially when it comes to predicting and manipulating human behaviour. His inhuman perception allows him to see a persons deepest secrets and flaws after a few glancing moments or a conversation.
Though human, Providence has a superhuman intellect and the unexplainable ability to mold logic, sense and rationality to her will. Through words, gestures and expressions, he can subvert and dominate the will of even the greatest minds around.
Without any recognized psionic skill such as telepathy or telekinesis, Providence's mind has entered conceptual territory so far above our own that one might as well attempt explaining physics to an ant." Providence's brilliance usually shows itself in his ability to quickly figure out just about anything, from how to operate complex machines, how systems (social or technological) work, what the perfect strategy for any given situation is.
She isn't limited to verbal communication, she is just as dangerous with gestures and facial expressions. Any form of communication is a weapon for Providence. In addition to this, she's not helpless in physical combat should that ever be a last resort.

Background

She raised in a corporation. As a child, he grew at an amazing rate. The scientists working on him thought that he was imprisoned in his test tube, but at nights he would sneak out to learn more about the world outside. The scientist of the corporation was unwilling to let Providence go until Providence handed her a note with several numbers on it. The scientist immediately agreed to release Providence. When asked what the numbers meant, Providence explained that the top one was the phone number of the scientist's wife, the other four were the phone numbers of the scientist's mistresses.

Personality

She always seems to be a step ahead of everybody else. People are like pawns on a chess board which he moves around with ease, always multiple steps ahead of others. Words are his most dangerous weapon, allowing her to subtly apply psychological pressure, she can quickly manipulate people, forcing them to do what she wants or erasing specific memories.
Usually she manipulates circumstances so that he has no need to fight. Her ability to manipulate others not only allows for a personal army to fight for her, but rarely do her enemies find themselves able to lift a finger against her. More often than not anyone fighting her is stopped by Providence taking advantage of a weakness, or his enemies find it too costly to attack her.

Sexuality

• Ons: She likes all physical characters except obese and overweight. She prefers female and hermaphrodite partners. She can copulate with all races and species if she attracted by the partner. She likes knotting cock, large and small breasts, big and multiple penises, tentacles. Emille is not paying enough attention to the status.
  She likes anal and vaginal sex, the bondage, domination, multiple partners, oral sex, sex toys.
• Offs: She doesn't like giving or receveing ennemas, scat. She hates pain and torture.

Post Frequency:  I can post every day, sometimes stuff can get in the way.  If there's important things going on I try to make sure I stay on top of responses so people aren't waiting on me.

For the Investigator, without spells if it is possible. For example, the ranger with archetype trapper remove the spells and obtains traps. So something similary with the investigator.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Hey, Ixy -- my submission really fell apart, and I won't be able to complete a character for submission in the time allotted.

Good luck with your game!

[Ixy]

Well there's a few other ones you're in on soooo I'll forgive this one ;D

[Chulanowa]

All done, aside from deciding on a deity / domain.

[HopeFox]

Fatemeh Taleghani / The Lady in Black
Lawful neutral / Neutral good human vigilante 4

Concept: By day, Fatemeh Taleghani is an eager and well-spoken scholar of history, the Qur'an and politics. She is currently living in the USA after escaping the brutal drow regime that has taken hold of Iran. She advocates for aiding the oppressed humans of Iran and for women's rights worldwide. But by night, she is the Lady in Black, scourge of drow, protector of the innocent, and bringer of justice!

Background: Fatemeh was born in Tehran in 1898 to upper-middle class parents who ensured that she had the best education possible. Her father was an imam who taught her to read the Qur'an and learn the history of Persia, and her mother was a well-travelled author who ensured that her secular education was second to none. It seemed certain that Fatemeh would be at the forefront of the new wave of educated women in Iran, but everything changed when the drow attacked.

The drow saw little value in Iran's culture or its universities. All they wanted from the country was oil, and slaves who could mine it for them. Fatemeh's father was pressed into service in an oil rig, and she and her mother were forced to serve as administrative staff to the drow's mining operations. Life under the drow was harsh and humiliating, and, for many slaves, short. However, the people of Iran still kept their traditions alive, sharing their art and their faith behind closed doors and when the drow were sleeping. Fatemeh used her education to spread knowledge throughout Tehran, never letting the drow snuff out their culture for good.

Books and knowledge could only do so much, though. The drow treated their slaves cruelly, and in 1920, Fatemeh began to fight back in earnest. She discovered a gang of drow youths ransacking a museum while she was out on an errand for her mistress, and she knew she had to take action. She slipped into the museum and found an old scimitar that was purported to have belonged to Agha Mohammad Shah, a Sultan of Iran from over a century ago. The scimitar was a replica, of course, but it proved deadly enough when Fatemeh struck from the shadows to drive away the drow who were destroying artifacts and toying cruelly with the museum's aged curator. She knew then that it was her duty to protect her people from the drow, and perhaps one day to drive them out of Iran altogether. She began to patrol the street of Tehran when she could slip away from her duties, disguising herself in the same plain black burqa that so many of her compatriots wore, unnoticed by their drow overlords until it was time for her to strike.

For five years, the Lady in Black protected the people of Tehran from their oppressors, while Fatemeh Taleghani worked quietly as her mistress's secretary, gathering information that might one day be used against the drow. The drow were taking notice of her activities, though, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before the Lady in Black was unmasked. With a heavy heart, and no small measure of guilt, she used her network of contacts to arrange for herself to be smuggled out of Iran, to start a new life in America, where she could speak out against the drow with little fear of reprisal, and perhaps even gather allies for the fight to free her people.

Sexuality: Fatemeh had planned to find a nice scholarly Iranian man and raise a family, but the arrival of the drow threw those plans into disarray. Knowing that she might never marry, she has entered into a few brief relationships with fellow slaves, male and female, and found some joy and solace in their companionship. She is circumspect about her sexuality, but does not hesitate to pursue someone she finds attractive and compatible.

[Ixy]

Character creation rules: In case you need to touch-up or finalize your mechanics.

25 point buy
Level 4
Background Skills: Yes
Unchained: OK
Traits: 2, 1 drawback
Bonus "Appearance" trait

Money: Start with up to $500 in equipment. 

Custom Trait: Financially Set.  Start with $1000 in equipment and you have a modest residence in St. Augustine area-- a shack with land, a modest apartment in the city, or a small home in the suburbs.

Custom Trait: Affluent: (Prerequisite: Financially Set.)  Start with $2000 in equipment and you have a fancy home in St. Augustine-- either a restored farmhome with land and utilities, a spacious and luxurious apartment with decor, a suburban top-of-the-line Sears home with a swimming pool and such, or a permanent residence in a suite at one of the fanciest resort hotels in the old town.

Accepted Characters:

Player: Biblophilia
Character: Clara Louise Swanson
Notes: CG Human Bard.  You can update your stats and equipment as above.  I positively love the concept.  Her connections to crime notwithstanding, she will be where the fun is no matter where she is, and all the good stuff is illegal anyway... Are you okay with being involved with a key NPC at the start-- not romantically, but working/performing in the Club Zorayda?  Her employer is not particularly handsy, is very well-traveled, and when the place is closed down, it's spooky as hell.

Player: Chulanowa
Character: Khismia /  "Ruby Amberwithe"
Notes: Fantastic idea and I feel a real pang for this character, especially against the backdrop of the 1920's, and with hope looking at the times we've had in this country.  What better place than fiction to thread this out?  I suggest this hook: Her performance is getting a lot of attention, and she's showing up in film reels across the country, but the new American Film Ethics Institute is spreading nasty rumors abounding about her being a "freak" or a "pervert".  The talent agency urged her strongly to take a break for a while, sending her to Florida to recollect, settle her mind.  They know people...

Player: Waldham
Character: Providence
Notes: Love the character.  As far as the current setting, I rather like the idea that there's a lot of loose ends you left open.  Can I plug this character into a quietly-hired organization for contracted investigative work?  While she would be primarily reporting through contacts that strike her as 'military', she would be told it's a a recently-developing branch of the Bureau of investigation.  They believe that the "other siders" may have brought something more than orcs with them from the other side.

Player: HopeFox
Character: Fatemeh Taleghani / "Lady in Black"
Notes: So my thoughts on what happened in the MidEast in this world's history are similar in vein to what you've written.... think what happened with the installment of a religious regime in our history, but earlier, and instead of extreme conservatism for one faith, make it a merging of ideologies with manipualtion, magic, and fictional religion.  This is touchy stuff for many people, so I hope it's ok for all involved here.  This is just fiction.  SO!  Yes, many resistant, educated, and scholarly people who recognized the direction of the oppressive new regime would either have been executed or sent to work camps, and such happened to her family, perfect.  What I would like to suggest for Fatemeh is that she has caught wind of a plot from the Drow.... please take Drow as one of your bonus languages if you didn't already (can't check the sheet right now, firewall).  My suggestion: Fatemeh is going to carry in essential plot information as she pursues a very dangerous relic on its way from the mideast via ship... she arrrived in Boston, it arrived in Baltimore, and left by train a day before her...  As such, she's been chasing it, tracking it, for several weeks, and is arriving via rail through Jacksonville as the story opens.

If everyone's still in, please acknowledge, and I'll create the IC and character/OOC threads.  Thank you again for your interest, and I'm excited to see this come together.

[Chulanowa]

I've still gotta do traits, equipment, etc... But yeah, that idea seems solid. She's got kind of a Gilda Gray-meets-Josephine Baker thing in my head.

[Waldham]

Can I plug this character into a quietly-hired organization for contracted investigative work?

It's Ok for me.

Bonus "Appearance" trait : sexy.

[HopeFox]

Sounds great! So the drow governance of the Middle East is oppressive and ideological, but there are some humans still involved in the government as well? And most people aren't slaves, just very oppressed citizens?

On the subject of housing, I'm working on my sheet at the moment, and I've taken the Renown and Safe House social talents, which means I'll be able to set up a hideout of 40'x40'x40' or equivalent volume after I've settled in St. Augustine for a week. It's basically a Batcave without all the cool gadgets.

Is there an equivalent trait to Blade of Mercy that I can take while following an Earth religion? It's a very good (maybe too good) trait for people who like swords but don't like killing.