In the bustling city of Sacrafel, where the Noble Houses rule with an iron fist from their lavish keeps and the common people are little more than slaves catering to their desires, the ultimate heist is going down. A single, intrepid commonborn thief decides to do something about the social order by staging the robbery of the century. The plan is simple, yet incredibly daring. To destroy the Noble Houses forever by driving them into ruin with cunningly calculated high-profile thieveries. And to do that, he will need some help. His plan is utterly insane, everybody believes. Yet, he has a reputation for making the insane doable. Now he's looking for some others to join in his madness...
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This is the premise for the game, a kind of hybrid between political intrigue and backalley thieving action. This setting is fairly light on the magic, and gods are all but forgotten, so factor that into your character planning. In fact, a popular swearphrase is 'By the Forgotten Gods!'
Some information on the city and setting in general:The city of Sacrafel is a huge metropolis, with a population nearing two million, of which the vast majority are commonborn humans. The nobility make up only a few percent of the total population, but they have near absolute control of the city. The reason for this is very simple: They are the only ones with magic and armies. The practice of several forms of magic, while not common, is also not frowned upon or forbidden among the nobility. It is indeed regarded as a valuable talent. The near-slavish mindset has been impressed upon the commoners for several generations now, and most have lost their will to try and change anything. The nobles also keep a close watch on any commoners who might be trying to learn magic, or have some inborn talent. Those people tend to disappear without a trace in short order. This has led magical bloodlines all but dying out in the common people, and magic itself becoming something of a myth, most people no longer believe it even exists. The Inquisitors which hold a considerable amount of power in the city's hierarchy patrol the streets looking for unaccounted magic. Encounters with them tend to go very badly for the commoners.
The culture is mostly a mix between Victorian-style and Gothic as far as architecture and fashions go. Sacrafel is a city-state in it's own right, and easily the largest city on the continent, serving as a hub for the outlying small fiefdoms which all profess fealty to Sacrafel. The nobles hold lavish parties in the keeps that dot the city, and run the city's administration and armies, as well as most of the economy. Nearly all the rest of the work is left to commoners. The city is easily divided into the noble's areas which cluster near the keeps marking the High Families and are all high-class manors at the least, and the commoner's area which is mostly made up of hovels and other semi-decent buildings. Commoners have very few rights, are given no education which does not directly pertain to their chosen profession, and generally get treated like dirt. However, they still have a marginally better position than other races. Those who are not human are outright slaves, treated as possessions instead of individuals. Centuries ago, the humans of Sacrafel conquered and nearly drove to extinction the other races on the continent. Now the remnant of those destroyed races are used as slaves for all imaginable purposes, as happen to suit their racial traits. Elves are especially desirable as pleasure slaves, and dwarves are nearly always found near hard labor.
However, even after the centuries of oppression by the nobility, a few of the commoners resist falling completely in line, thus the city has a bustling underground. Groups of thieves, prostitute rings (some which even minor nobles like to frequent, as it's considerable cheaper than their own higher-class brothels), smuggling and other kinds of shady businesses go on under nobility's collective noses.
One particularly charismatic thief and con artist named Asleod has made a career in pulling off insane and impossible heists often hitting the higher tiers of the nobility. Many whisper of him, but none know how he pulls of his insane miracles. And now he's looking for some suitable candidates to join in his latest lunacy.
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The band of thieves and miscreants Asleod is putting together is where you'll come in. Your characters can be just about anyone who can fit the roles, nothing is set in stone beyond the general concepts. Most slots are filled already, as the game was supposed to start last year but got delayed by various circumstances. I'm still looking for 1-3 players more, though.
The game itself will in fact run as two concurrent, side-by-side adventures, split into the Nobility's Path and Underground's Path. Most of the time, the group will be split between those two Paths according to their position in the group. Folks who mingle with nobility will mostly spend time at balls and parties, and the underground thieves will mostly be using the cover created by those selfsame balls and parties to move in under the radar and clean out the vaults of whatever House is the target that time. Of course, between the jobs and on some special occasions, the whole group will be mingling together, probably mainly at the safe house.
Looking for players for the following:-Boss Asleod (Played by
me as a semi-NPC. Runs the crew, plans out the operations and has hoards of secrets.)
-Fixer/logistics person (Currently occupied by
Wintercat's alchemist, who is something of an all-rounder and a general go-to guy of the group.)
-Muscle (
Loki Aesir has this covered. A combat-type rogue, I believe.)
-Breaking and entering specialist (For when you actually need to get to places. Mostly involves spying, gathering information discreetly and of course stealing lots of stuff.) <-
Looking-Urban expert (
Shihong's Urban Druid is holding the job.)
-Spy among the nobility (Have a few people with various skills already on the job. Thus far, we got at least a Summoner(
Zaer Darkwail) and an open-minded elven pleasure slave(
Elven Sex Goddess). Seeing as the Nobility's Path will run on it's own, a person or two more in this category might not hurt. This is a rather flexible role, as there are no defined 'duties' you need to deal with other than gathering information and investigating things.)
-Any other role you feel will fit in with the game. (Anything beyond the roles described above go here. If your idea is more on the esoteric side, discuss with me first. Depending on the interest in the primary roles, I may take 1-2 of these extras into the game.)
Character creationThe game uses the Pathfinder rules, also known as D&D 3.75E. You don't need any books, all the info required for playing is readily available at the SRD:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com.
No earlier knowledge is required, though experienced Pathfinders are more than welcome.
Players of 3E and 3.5E of D&D are also entirely welcome, you should have an easy time transitioning to these rules.
Advocates of D&D 4E system are also welcome, as long as they don't gripe about the superiority of their chosen system vs this one. In that case, go away. This is a Pathfinder game.
Everybody else, RP experience not an issue: Most welcome! Hopefully you have a positive experience learning the Pathfinder system.
As for mechanics,
1st level characters to start with.
Max starting HP and Gold.
25 point buy for abilities.
2 starting traits as normal.
Races in the setting are mainly human, though other races are present in minorities, mostly as slaves.
Class and other material: Everything on the SRD is fine, as is stuff from Core Book and Advanced Player's guide. Everything else, run it by me first. Remember though, that magic is rare and highly controlled by the upper strata of citizens, if you play a magic-heavy character, prepare to be heavily persecuted. You should also consider the role you will be playing in the group when picking a class and skills.
Considering the game's genre and type, direct combat will likely be of lesser import than intelligence gathering and social skills. There will still be combat, though, and probably at the times you least expect it. The underground Path, in particular, may wind up in a scuffle or two with guards of one place or another.
The start of the game will be retconned slightly to accommodate new players, so I'll be starting fresh game threads once this kicks off the ground, though the old ones can still be used for reference purposes.
That should be all for now. I will provide links to the other threads soon enough, in the meantime, old players feel free to say hello and check if your characters need a tune-up. New players: WELCOME!
_LF_
