Great! I’m glad there’s so much interest. Let’s cap the number of players at seven; any more than that, and the game can start to bog down in waiting for people to post. Priority goes to those who posted first in the thread; that’s the fairest way I can think of to decide who starts the game. If you’re after that, never fear; there are always people who decide they’d rather not play and so we always need alternates. That would be Calatin, G0sp3l, John DiFool, Larry Borgia, Johnny Bravo, Suburban Plankton, and Grumman. Could you seven confirm that you’re interested? I try to post some kind of an update no less frequently than every three days, so if everyone else can check in that often, it should work fine.
We’ll play 3.5 or Pathfinder; probably Pathfinder, but as I’ve never DMed it before, I’m reading up to make sure that I’m comfortable doing that given that I do know D&D 3.5 pretty well. Let’s also limit it to the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Player’s guide, just to keep it simple. Rules for Pathfinder are available here.
Let’s plan on starting the players at level 3. Advancement will be a little faster than usual, given that an adventure can take a couple months or more to complete. XP bonuses for good roleplaying too, of course.
Grumman, I’m a little leery about the Dvarti character. Can you send me a link to the source material? A light cavalryman is a great idea, and there are lots of good historical models, from Iberian light horsemen to Mongol scouts to auxiliaries in the Knights Templar, and dozens more. Do any of those pique your interest?
I don’t know a lot about more obscure prestige classes so I would probably play something more straightforward. Maybe a rogue who could multiclass into assassin, if I could be a non-evil assassin.
Thank you! Did you have a character concept, either a historical background or a character class you’re interested in?
Absolutely. I prefer to DM non-evil characters, though I wouldn’t veto an evil character out of hand. Did you have a historical background in mind? There are lots of good options, but the inevitable comparison is to the historical Assassins, which is where we actually get the word “assassin” from. What ideas did you have for a character background?
Piece of cake. Human, or another race? Tell me a little about the character’s background-- why was he (or she) expelled from the village? Or maybe you’ve got another reason for traveling?
I have to confess, I haven’t given that much thought. I’m not really an expert in that era. I kind of skipped reading your list, but looking back at it, the hashashin might be the way to go. I’m assuming this will be heavily fictionalized. I’d rather not play a religious Muslim, that’s just not a mindset I can get into authentically. I’d sound like a particularly clueless white guy trying to talk like a black guy.
Heavily fictionalized is an understatement. But there’s lots of other options. The Borgia family in Italy was also very famous for their frequent assassinations to gain political advantage-- your character might be in their employ, or the employ of one of their competitors, like the Medicis. If you’re not sure, let’s do that. Italy was a big center of commerce, with people from all over the world, especially in the big cosmopolitan cities like Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Pisa. An Italian character would be easy for me to slip in to an adventure anywhere in the world.
That said, my default here is to at least start the campaign in Italy. There are lots of tiny squabbling city-states, which means lots of places to find enemies and allies. If no one has strong opinions otherwise, that’s what I’ll do.
I don’t have anything in mind yet. I may wait to see what everyone else comes up with - I also need to skim the Pathfinder rules and classes since it’s been a long time since I even peeked at it.
Can you give us some info on exactly how and why our diverse set of characters will be adventuring together, or will that be based on the makeup of our party?
It’ll be based at least partly on the makeup of the party. In all likelihood, you’ll get thrown together in an emergency and stay together because local nobles will hire you as a group for missions. My preference is for less dungeon-crawling and for more intrigue, innovative ways to circumvent problems, and sneaking around.
That’s a great concept. How far from home has he traveled? How estranged is he from his family-- can he ever go home again? What weapons are you thinking about using? And of course, what’s his favored way to perform? A harp, or a violin, or just chanting, or maybe something else?
I’ll say that he’s been traveling for a number of years now, having started in England. He’s not necessarily estranged - leaving and abdicating his responsibilities probably saved his family a certain amount of trouble insofar as finding something respectable for him to do, but he doesn’t have contact with home either.
He’s made his living as a kind of itinerant aide de camp to mercenary organizations and small armies, seeing that orders are properly disseminated through the ranks and dealing with other administrative manners. He has the dress, arms, and bearing of a soldier.
Performance-wise, I see him primarily as a charismatic speaker/leader, making use of the orate skill for the majority of his abilities. Since bards need to use an instrument to access certain class abilities, I figure either a trumpet or small drums would be appropriate.
So even though he’s left his noble family, he hasn’t fallen all the way to the gutter, though far enough that he does have to work for a living. Working with various mercenary companies would mean he’s probably very well traveled, and with contacts at many foreign courts. At the same time, you don’t have a life like that without making some powerful enemies, and those are going to pop up as well. That’s great, as it gives me lots of adventure hooks and ways to tie you into the story.
Oh, and a bard who’s worked in a mercenary company and plays a drum is actually the only halfway-reasonable explanation for a bard’s performance making a party fight better that I’ve ever heard. I like that a lot.