Rise of the Runelords (play-by-post edition)

[Autocad]

Looking for up to four players for a Rise of the Runelords game.

There will be some houserules to streamline the rules for play-by-post.

Also I plan on incorporating a combat-sex system later on.

Since this is E, smut is available, but will likely be confined to a single post or a single exchange of posts so as to not bog things down.


Character creation:

Level 1, 25 point buy, max HP at first level, 2 traits, average wealth at first level.

Paizo published sources allowed.

Core classes only, no multi-classing. Prestige classes will be allowed, though.

House rules:

Perception and Initiative: So you know how some people have a pretty character-status header at the beginning of each post (On a side note, I encourage that, even if I'm not making a hard rule about having it)? Besides the usual things that go there like HP, AC, etc, also have a Perception check and Initiative check pre-rolled in there. You can roll each check once and then keep it until the check is used, i.e. no need to reroll on every post. When I need a Perception check or Initiative check from you, I'll just grab the numbers there so I don't have to use a round of posting asking you all to roll. Only after using the result will I ask you to pre-roll another check for the next time I need it.

Turn Order: Combat goes Surprise Round --> PCs with initiative --> Monsters --> All PCs --> Monsters --> Repeat.
You did pre-roll Perception and Initiative and put them in your post, right? So I'll use those to figure out who is surprised (or not), and who has initiative (or not). Within PCs' turn, players act in the order that they get posts up.

Positioning: If there's a map, then combat proceeds as normal. Minor skirmishes might not warrant a map, though. In those cases, the following rules of thumb apply:
-Each side has a front line and a back line.
-It takes one move action to move into melee with an enemy on the front line.
-It takes two move actions to move into melee with an enemy on the back line, and triggers an attack of opportunity from an enemy on the front line.
-If there are more enemies in the back line than in the front line, you can charge into the back line (you still trigger an AoO from an enemy on the front line).
-Two characters in melee with the same enemy are considered to be flanking it.
-Two characters can go "back-to-back" and cover each other's back, then they cannot be flanked, but they are considered to be within melee range of each other.
-Area-of-effect spells/abilities affect one (for small AoE e.g. color spray) or two (for normal AoE e.g. fireball) targets of your choice, plus anyone within melee range of them.
-Short-ranged spells can only reach the front line, while medium or longer ranged spells can reach the back line. Cones can only reach the front line. Lines affect one front line target and one back line target.
-DM reserves the right to final decision regarding ranges and AoE.
-Specific battlefield conditions may create exceptions to the rules.
-DM has the final say!

Attacks of Opportunity: AoOs are resolved at the beginning of the attacking character's turn. Only standard attacks for damage, no fancy things like trips allowed. For example, A triggers AoO from B --> end of A's turn --> beginning of B's turn --> B resolves AoO --> B takes turn as usual.

Saving Throws: If you cast a spell or otherwise do something that requires the target to make a saving throw, and their saving throw modifier is given, roll it for them to save time (A courtesy rather than a hard rule).

Spell-casting with threatened: If you are being threatened, you must cast defensively. Not allowed to trigger AoO, because either it needs to be resolved right away breaking the flow of combat, or if resolved at the beginning of the attacking character's turn, too late to interrupt the spell.

Buff spells (e.g. Bless): 1 min/level duration spells, if cast in a dungeon, will be automatically extended to last through the whole dungeon. 1 hour/level duration spells last for the whole of the adventuring day until it comes time to rest/sleep. (And then it wears off come the night...  )

Natural 1s and 20s: A natural 1 on an attack roll or save is an automatic failure. A natural 20 on an attack roll or save is an automatic success. Skills do not have automatic failures/successes. Also, the DM reserves the right to have "fun" things happen on natural 1s and 20s. 

Sin Points: Any time you make a d20 attack roll, after you calculate the result, you can increase the dice result as if you rolled a higher number to beat the enemy's AC. Whenever you do so, you gain a number of Sin Points equal to the amount you increased your roll. Track your Sin Points in the same place where you put your pre-rolled perception and initiative (you haven't forgotten already, right?) in your post.

For example, Gobby McDodgy has 20 AC. You have +5 to attack, meaning you need to roll a natural 15 (for 20 attack) or higher to hit him. But you only rolled a natural 13, so you have the option to increase the dice as if you had rolled a 15, turning a near miss into a hit, at the cost of gaining 2 Sin Points.

You cannot increase your dice higher than a roll of 19 in this way. Dice increased in this way don't count for critical threats, either. (But to clarify, you can gain Sin Points to increase a critical confirmation roll, if the original attack roll threatened a critical naturally.)

If you use a spell/ability that requires an opponent to make a saving throw, and you roll the save for them (as per the saving throw houserule), you can adjust the dice downwards in the same fashion, again gaining Sin Points to do so. You cannot decrease dice lower than a roll of 2 in this way.

You can not use Sin Points to adjust the dice of your own saving throws!

The meta behind Sin Points is to turn near misses into hits to speed things up. Or for that matter, turn wide misses into hits, after all there's no limit on how many Sin Points you can accumulate... (DM totally reserves the right to impose a cap on Sin Points in the future!)

What are Sin Points used for, you ask? Well, when it comes time for the enemy to attack you...  On the bright side, your Sin Points (and on a less bright side, your HP) will decrease after that is resolved!

[Foxfyr]

My curiosity is piqued, please tell me more of these streamlined rules and combat-sex play.

[Autocad]

Old rules, not applicable anymore

Some goals of the streamlined rules:

1) Avoid situations where a long string of unlucky rolls can drag things on, for example the PCs keep rolling low and missing a monster, and then the monster keeps rolling low and missing the PCs. Every roll should drive matters forward, whether towards victory or towards defeat.

2) Minimize interruptions that in a play-by-post format will drastically slow down combat.

3) Maximize the number of things a player can accomplish in a single post.

4) Make the battlefield abstract - sure, keep maps for boss battles, but there's no need to map out every little skirmish.

With these overarching goals in mind, here are some of the house rules:



Initiative and turn order: Rolling initiative only to get a low result and having to sit around waiting for another turn sucks. So, turn order is determined by the DM, who will set an initiative DC to roll against (usually 10 + the average initiative bonus of the enemies). The initiative check is rolled on the PC's first round, and beating the initiative check will grant some sort of bonus in that first round, e.g. flat-footed enemies.

Surprise round: Also determined by the DM, and where a surprise round is granted it will be a full round.

Mook combat: This rule applies to enemies designated as mooks (i.e. most non-boss enemies), who the PCs are supposed to defeat without breaking too much of a sweat.

Mooks are automatically defeated on a successful melee attack or ranged attack against them.

How does damage factor in, you ask? Calculate the maximum damage you can inflict on attack, as if you had rolled the highest dice possible. For every 10 damage, add +1 bonus to your attack rolls against mooks. For example, a 14 strength character wielding a longsword in one hand deals 1d8+2 damage, with a maximum of 10 damage. She gets a +1 bonus to her attack rolls against mooks.

If you make a ranged attack against a mook, resolve it as usual.

If you make a melee attack against a mook, things get interesting. Mooks have a preset counterattack value and counterattack damage value, that are set ahead of time, that lets them strike back automatically! Using the same d20 roll rolled for the attack, add it to your AC. If the mook's counterattack value is higher than your result, the mook hits for counterattack damage! This hit is applied whether or not you hit the mook with your own attack roll!

For example, if a character has +5 attack bonus and 14 AC, and rolls 12 on a d20 when attacking a mook, her attack result is 17 and her defense result is 26. If the mook's counterattack is 27 or higher, she gets hit for counterattack damage, even if her attack roll of 17 overcomes the mook's AC and defeats the mook in the same round.

Why would anyone make a melee attack against a mook, then? If the melee attack against a mook misses, you can try again in the same round as many times as you like until you finally hit the mook. Each roll you make is checked for counterattack, though - the mook can hit you back more than once, too! You can attack a number of mooks in this way equal to the number of attacks you can make on a full attack. (Bonus attacks from high BAB, dual wielding, haste, etc, all count.)

The end result is, you can always take down a mook in melee in one round, the question is how many hits you take in the process. So if you get a string of unlucky dice rolls, you can keep trying until you finally get a good roll, or your HP drops negative, whichever happens first. 

Also, if you make at least one melee attack against a mook, whether or not their counterattack is successful, they can't act on their turn because their action is already "used up". A good way to protect squishy party members!

Attacks of Opportunity: Nope, sorry, they interrupt the flow of posting, so AoOs are out. If you need to lock down an enemy, engage them in melee!

Saving Throws: If you cast a spell or otherwise do something that requires the target to make a saving throw, roll it for them to save time.

Attacks and Full Attacks: You can always make a full attack with a standard action, even if you have already moved.

Positioning: Abstract battlefield - you can move adjacent to an enemy with a move action in order to whack them, and so can they. How to handle area of effect spells/abilities will be on a case-by-case basis.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Interested.

I'm always eager to try out things that makes Pathfinder easier to do on a message board.

[Ershin]

I'm also going to place an "interested" post in regards to this. Always nice to see streamlining of rules for PBP games

[Foxfyr]

I have a story premise and character proposal I would like to throw out there.

The world has become a dangerous place as the protective barriers of the Material plane seeks to wane. Otherworldly beings such as aberrations, elementals, demons, and worse have become substantially more commonplace; so much so that they are no longer content with hiding in the wilds. Rather, they have grown bold enough to threaten larger settlements, which has made the growing danger visible to the public at large. With civil unrest on the rise, the authoritive powers that be have declared a handsome reward for any information that leads to discovering how such creatures have been able to enter the Material plane so freely.

My character is a tiefling alchemist who has become a victim of the increasing prejudice and paranoia. It had escalated to a point where he had to defend himself from physical violence and what seemed to be an earnest attempt to take his life.  Resorting to his alchemical knowhow to give himself the upper hand needed to stave off his assailants, he imbibed a mutagen. While doing so certainly gave him the means to overpower the attackers, it had also accentuated his demonic heritage enough for the city guards to misread the situation that they had just stumbled on to. With the alarm of a demon attack being raised in the town, he was forced to flee, leaving behind everything aside what he had with him at the time.  With that, he realized the only hope he had to regaining any sort of normal life resided within restoring the natural order to the world. So he resigned himself to the life of an adventurer, travelling with those few who were willing to be in the presence of a tiefling.

[Thorne]

Squeak?

This looks like something more or less up my alley. Depending on what's needed, I probably have a suitable character available.
I notice no allowance made for characters with pets (rangers, druids, casters that summon things (not specifically summoners) and some familiar-carrying classes..? Or, for that matter, characters that work from range (archers and/or snipers).

[Autocad]

Old rules, not applicable anymore

Most pets would be melee fighters, so they are eligible for mook combat as well to speed things up.

For ranged classes, they don't get infinite retries the way melee classes do, that's in exchange for them not being able to be counterattacked. They can still one-hit-kill mooks.

And now, for casters...



There are too many spells to list down explicitly, but buff spells, damage spells and SOD/SOS spells have their own rules. Spells that don't fall under these categories function as per the normal rules.

Buff spells (e.g. Bless): Anything that lasts longer than 1 round/level is extended to 24 hours - so cast those buffs at the beginning of the day and get them out of the way.

Damage spells (e.g. Fireball): Anything that deals (caster level X dice roll) damage will one-hit-kill a mook on a successful attack / failed save. The downside is that on a successful save, they aren't affected (mooks are either alive or dead - their HP aren't tracked). If the dice roll is a d4, the mooks get a +1 bonus to their save, and if the dice roll is a d8 or higher, the mooks get a -1 penalty to their save. The DM reserves the right to say this rule doesn't apply for characters who dip into spellcasting classes to abuse this rule.

Save or die / save or suck spells (e.g. Color spray, Sleep): Only spells with severe "suck" effects count! For example, color spray and sleep are fine, but bane and its measly -1 penalty don't qualify. Be reasonable.  Mooks who fail their saves are immediately removed from the battle.

[Autocad]

I have a story premise and character proposal I would like to throw out there.

The world has become a dangerous place as the protective barriers of the Material plane seeks to wane. Otherworldly beings such as aberrations, elementals, demons, and worse have become substantially more commonplace; so much so that they are no longer content with hiding in the wilds. Rather, they have grown bold enough to threaten larger settlements, which has made the growing danger visible to the public at large. With civil unrest on the rise, the authoritive powers that be have declared a handsome reward for any information that leads to discovering how such creatures have been able to enter the Material plane so freely.

My character is a tiefling alchemist who has become a victim of the increasing prejudice and paranoia. It had escalated to a point where he had to defend himself from physical violence and what seemed to be an earnest attempt to take his life.  Resorting to his alchemical knowhow to give himself the upper hand needed to stave off his assailants, he imbibed a mutagen. While doing so certainly gave him the means to overpower the attackers, it had also accentuated his demonic heritage enough for the city guards to misread the situation that they had just stumbled on to. With the alarm of a demon attack being raised in the town, he was forced to flee, leaving behind everything aside what he had with him at the time.  With that, he realized the only hope he had to regaining any sort of normal life resided within restoring the natural order to the world. So he resigned himself to the life of an adventurer, travelling with those few who were willing to be in the presence of a tiefling.

I would prefer core classes to test the houserules.

I'll be running a published adventure path, not a homebrew campaign. Feel free to recommend any AP you particularly like.

[ExisD]

Hey, I'd also be very interested. Though I don't know anything about most of the adventure paths.

What do you have for the combat sex systems?

[Autocad]

I don't want to pile on too many things at once, so I'll save the combat sex system for another time.

As for campaigns, how about Rise of the Runelords?

Character creation: Level 1, 25 point buy, max HP at first level, 2 traits, average wealth at first level.

I know I said two guinea pigs before, but I'm willing to expand it up to four.

[Thorne]

Rise huh? Well, that counts me out - I'm running that one myself. ^^;

[Xunthrae]

Posting my interest! I'll begin working on a character. How do you want us to submit characters?

[Autocad]

This has now become an official recruitment thread! (See edited first post.) You can submit characters right here in this thread.

[Xunthrae]

I do you have a preferred character sheet template? Or do you want something on myth weavers?

[Ershin]

Mind if I ask something in regards to character creation? Does the "no multiclassing" rule also cover the Variant Multi Class (VMC) rules from the Unchained book (link - http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancement#TOC-Variant-Multiclassing ) which instead of substituting levels removes half a character's feats and in their place gives a small number (or sometimes a toned down version) of another class's features? Just thought I'd ask before going into character creation ~

[Autocad]

Myth-weavers is a good choice, but for those who can't make use of it, having a sheet posted up in text form is fine too.

For my own sanity, I'm going to say no to VMC. Hope that isn't a deal-breaker for you.

[Chulanowa]

Consider my interest piqued!

[Ershin]

For my own sanity, I'm going to say no to VMC. Hope that isn't a deal-breaker for you.

No worries in that regard, I always just think it's better to ask before I get any concrete ideas. :)
Might need a day or two to go over what / who I might like to play though... Maybe a Zen Archer Monk, a Bard or a Cleric? Probably going to go with Bard.

[Haztur]

I have never advanced to far in this campaign , and its one I would love to complete.
probably being a cleric or inquisitor searching for answers

I always run away from big groups threads because it becomes all crazy

je and would love some smut, specially on defeated characters or a s away to advance the story whenever possible, or as an alternate thread as to not slow what goes on in the story one

[Latooni Subota]

Assuming you're still giving this one a go, I'll give it a shot! Err . . that is . . if you want me. My track record hasnt been very good this year, I know. q.q

[rikka]

Interested in this mule if it is still going to budge and allow.

[Chulanowa]

Still interested. Just been a lot of busy-ness, and trying to decide what I want to play. Haven't done Pathfinder in a good while

[Latooni Subota]

I got a weird idea in my head for a Changeling Paladin, Enlightened Paladin archetype. If you want something even more vanilla, lemme know, and I'll think up a proper human paladin or something.

[Chulanowa]

Eyeballing a halfling of some flavor myself. Bard or druid seem most likely.