Chronicles of a Pathfinder GM, part 1

Gods, it's been a long time since I posted here.  But I'm in a writer-y mood, so I shall post a bit of stories as a GM.

For the past year, I have been running Pathfinder for my group of players, which consist of my wife, my brother, my brother-in-law, and a friend or two.  We have had 3 campaigns during this time-frame: 2 of which were Pathfinder, and one attempt at Shadowrun (that didn't go so well...)

The original run of Pathfinder used a few different modules.  My players were all newbies, save one, so this made things... interesting.  The party included a ninja, a magus, a paladin, a rogue, and my wife playing a ranger by the name of Paul Jourgensen (he was a lumberjack, too).  The best stories of this campaign involved Paul.

So the party were traveling to a small mock-up dungeon for the newbie adventurers (a dungeon that by terrible plot twist was infested with undead), and during their first night camping out, they were attacked by wolves.  Nothing special - combat ended almost as quickly as it started.  But Paul surprised me with his actions afterwards.  "Can I skin the wolf?"  I have my wife roll it, which ends in a crap roll.  It was her response after that that was surprising: "Is the head alright?"  "Yeah...?"  "I put the head on my head.  It's a hat now!"

So envision, if you will, a lumberjack with a chopped off wolf head as a hat.  This became a running joke...

This campaign brought many firsts for me, including running my first dragon encounter.  And it was a random encounter one.  My friend from work, playing the magus, figured it'd be a great idea to wander off on his own.  Mind you, he had been doing a lot of stupid things recently, and had a bit of odd sense of humor, so half of the party had no problem of him going off on his own.  But the ninja figured it'd be wise to follow him.  So I rolled for a random encounter, and got a young green dragon.  I giggled to myself as the magus failed his perception checks to see the dragon.  And before he knew it - the two of them were running as fast as they could back to the rest of the party with a small dragon chasing them.  Eventually, the party killed the dragon (using Paul's falcon companion, Scruffledink Fogglesworth).


Later in the campaign, I had my first player kill ever.  While this wasn't my first time running, I usually do not try to kill off characters.  The party were fighting a golden golem that radiated heat - had concealment, spell resistance, damage reduction, everything that a GM would want to fuck up a party.  The party surrounded the golem and whittled away at it HP, as it wailed back upon them.  This was already entertaining for me.  The magus drops below 0 and hits the dirt.  The ninja gets him back up with a potion, bringing him to 0 HP and staggered.

Now, I don't know about you, but my first plan of action normally would be retreat and heal.  But our magus player wasn't particularly bright.  No - he attacks!  And he drops again into negatives.  Whatever, I think - but it gets better.  Thankfully, he stabilizes on his own, and they all think he'll survive the fight.  Until they destroy the golem and it self-destructs.  Paladin drops into the negatives and the magus dies right out.

What followed this was the magus's player running a few sessions, to give me a break.  These were referred to by my players as 'Whore Island'.  Because that's exactly what it was.  With demons.  And devils.  And I'm sure there would've been a Kyton or three, if he knew what those were.  I still face palm about the whole thing to this day.  Barely had a chance to enjoy playing my gunslinging alchemist...

More next time, on my current campaign.  Maybe.  Not too many good stories there.

Building the Megadungeon...

So, I will be starting a new section of posts here over the next few weeks.  Yes yes, I know.  I have posted much in a long while.  Screw you too.  But it's time to put some ideas down on digital paper for the world to see.  So what am I doing?  Building a megadungeon!

Minor story segway time!
For the past 2 months, I have been running a Pathfinder game for some friends and family.  All of them newbies.  While this is fine and dandy, most of them are foreign to role-playing and crafting characters (unlike us geeks in the D&D field).  So they've become the fightery fighters of fightingness, or FFF as I will refer to them from here on out.  There is only a half caster in the group, a magus (who's archtypes has diminished his spellcasting even further...), so they're kinda very screwed in the future.  I will indeed punish them for that by killing at least one of them during the megadungeon.

Right, the reason I segway'd - since my players don't care much for story or role-playing, I'm building them a megadungeon so they can explore and kill and loot all they want.  I have a few more weeks of buffer time to work with, between crappy work scheduling, a few more seasons of their current adventure, and my friend running for a few seasons for me.
(end segway)

So, I am recording the whole ordeal of making this dungeon for the world to see.  Mostly because this will get interesting.  As well as try to record how my players roll with the whole thing.

So, the first step was research and concepts.
Since this was my first foray into the megadungeon, I searched the internets for advice.  This link gave me a great deal of info for the whole thing.  Thank the gods for the internet.  Meanwhile, I scoured Pathfinder books for ideas to cement the whole thing into the world.  I have a great deal of flexibility here, given that my players haven't read anything into the world (lazy bastards) or they don't care (ie, my wife).  Eventually, I came across the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, and used that as a stepping stone.  For those who never played it/read it, it details the rise of one particular Runelord (ancient Super-Evil Mega-Wizards), but also suggests others return to the world.

The concept was simple enough - a mountain with a tower on top.  Eventually, I explaned the idea to making the tower go through the whole mountain, making it a hub of sorts for the various sections.  The players would start out by clearing out mines full of orcs, but then stumble upon the tower's hub at the end of the mines.  The door into the tower already opened by the orcs (as they came from another end of the tower hub).  Throw in some awesome plotting and scheming by a wizard or two, some ulterior motives, and a possible cataclysm ending, and this might just turn out epicly.

Taking the advice I found, I drew up a side view sketch of the whole dungeon.  We have the mountain contain everything, with the tower right down the middle.  Then I added various locations: the mines, the Crypt (gotta have undead somewhere), the Forgotten City (for those mindflayers and other fuckers that can fuck up your day), the Underground Lake (gotta have some water here), and the Pit (for the demons and other crazy monsters).  There is also the Orc tribe camp, which connects via a set of tunnels to the tower hub.  Speaking of the tower, that is also divied up - the Summit at the top, the Spiral below, the Tower Climb next (right around where the mountain peak is), the Cathedral (just above the main Hub), the Tower Hub (where most of the connecting areas meet up), the Tower Base (which connects to the Pit and the Lake), and the Cage (which can be only accessed by going through the Pit, and you have to be very high level for that shit).

To keep things easy to understand for myself, I created a small 3D sketch of where thing where in relation to the tower.  I will scan this page and post it later when I get to a scanner...

Plotting
I like to believe I'm decent at making an over-arcing plot.  So I created a basic job to bring the players in - a wizard in charge of a mining business hires the players to clear the orcs out.  After the boss orc, party FFF (or what's left of them after that fight) discover the door to the Hub.  Hopefully, at this point, they head back to town to get some answers from their employer, who then explains that the miners dug up the door, but left it untouched (in fear of any nasties that'd come out of it).  The wizard will offer more gold to secure the Hub, hoping to prevent any more monsters from coming up from the woodwork.  Of course, the party being the money grubbing fighters that they are, will dig deeper into the tower and it's related dungeons and kill off major monsters, guardians of the Tower....  And I will stop there in case my players find this post.

Mythic or Not?
At this point of my plots and schemes, I discovered the Pathfinder book, Mythic Adventures.  It's pretty cool stuff, and I am tempted to use it with my players.  They need all the power they can get during this thing.  Unless someone re-rolls a real mage.  Gotta kill someone soon...

Next time...?  I dunno what I will duscuss next.  Encounters?

MysTek Artifacts

Now for the post you really weren't waiting for, but should have been ('cause this is the cool stuff):

Mystical Technology Artifacts!

Nobody knows how the Ancients created these Artifacts, or how they work, or how they seem to evolve and unlock new abilities over time as it's user gains experience.  That's a secret that may forever remain in the past.  But really, most people could care less about that stuff.


What are Artifacts?

These items, which have strange angular lines etched along and around, have unique magic circuits.  Unlike the circuits that normal creatures possess, these seem to be ambiguous, and not hard-coded.  It's possible to alter and change how these magic circuits behave and do.  In fact, one can add extra abilities to Artifacts, with the right materials and tools (which have only been found in the Ancient Ruins) and skills.

Often times, most Artifacts have a core ability, one that cannot be changed entirely.  A fire sword Artifact will always be a fire sword.  However, if it has an extra ability to, say, shoot fire balls, or something, this feature could be changed to be a fire shield instead, if you had the tools and know-how.  You could even go so far to add a transformation ability so it become a fire gun, but such Artifacts capable of this are few and far between.  So far, only the Mage's Association has this knowledge, and they guard it fiercely.


Who can use Artifacts?

Thankfully, anyone can.  You just have to be able to use Mana.  That's it.


What kind of Artifacts exist?

The most common ones fall into one of three categories: Offensive, Defensive, and Utility.  Offensive Artifacts come in weapon varieties, like guns or swords.  They inflict damage, as one would assume.  Some even allow the user to take control of Ancient Golems (these are dubbed 'Director Artifacts').  Defensive ones usually appear to be belts, bracers, or pendants, and grant protection - either from damage, or secondary effects (like heat or cold).  Utility Artifacts are the most common, and often do things that normal items shouldn't be able to, like greater storage, communications, sensors, and other handy gadgets.  It should be noted that some Artifacts fall between two different categories.  The really powerful ones will have abilities in all three.

More info coming soon!

The Legions of Tannish

The military of Tannish is expansive and a little more complex than it really should be.  There are a handful of divisions within the Legion, including the Legionnaires (the ground troops), the Sea and Sky Corps, the Engineering Department, the Battle Wizards, and the Inquisition.


The Legionaires: they cover the whole ground forces, including land vehicles.  Almost everyone in the Legion ends up here.  Occasionally, rising to the other divisions happens (and it's not uncommon), especially if you show promise.  There's not a lot of choice when enlisting...  And draftee's have no choice at all.
 * Steam Knights are exclusive to the Legionaries.  It's often considered unwise to pilot one on an airship or boat.

the Sea and Sky Corps: the carriers and battleships that dot the waters and air belong to this division.  The air forces are fairly new, only becoming prominent in the current war against the Elves.
*Dragoons are units that possess special dual propler jump packs that allow them to hop from one ship to the next.  These are some of the bravest and skilled soldiers in the Legion, as it takes balls of steel to jump from a ship thousands of feet in the air onto another one that may be a few hundred feet away.

Engineering is in charge of repairing and developing new technology.  These folks are pulled from factory jobs to go up behind the frontlines to insure that tanks, steam knights, and ships are operating.  They receive some combat training to defend themselves in the worst case.
*Artificers are the rare engineer who delves into something stranger than normal.  Telsa weapons are their domain.

The Battle Wizards are the unlucky few went to the Mage's Association who claim Tannish home.  As part of a pact when a Tannishian joins the Association, they must serve the Empire when called upon.  While few in numbers (often times a unit only consists of 2-5 mages), their power is enough to support most war efforts.
*Alchemists, while not full mages, have proven themselves quite adept at battle.  Their bombs and alchemical shells more than compensate for their lack of spells, and doesn't interfere with guns.

The dreaded Inquisition keeps the entire Legion in line and serves as the Emperor's hidden agents.  They rarely operate in the open, and worst yet, they are armed with Artifacts, making them incredibly dangerous.  Deserters and traitors are often put down within days by these Inquisitors. The very fear of Inquisitors is just enough to keep most of the Legion serving the Emperor.

Steam-Age Arcanus: Magic

One would think magic is simple, but it is not.  It's not just waving your hands in a funny fashion with a few silly words to make a fireball.  No, this is mostly mental control and formulas.  Occasionally there's a verbal command involved, but very few somatic or material components, unlike D&D.

But before we describe spell casting, we should discuss mana, the source of magic.  Mana is everywhere.  Some would describe it as the source of life, but this is not true.  Otherwise everyone would be dead after the Mana Wars when magic all but vanished from the world (thank you cataclysmic events for that one).  However, mana is a source of energy that is prominet throughout the world, but some areas have more than others, and while a few rare locations are void of it.  The former surplus is the result of Leylines, walls of pure mana the criss-cross throughout the world.  They are visible during the night, appearing not unlike the Aurora Borealis.  The later is refered to a Dead Zone: an area with no magic and where magic cannot be used.  Nobody knows why.

The next important thing to go over is how mana interacts with people.  All humanoids (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc) have magic circuits - a special nervous system just for using mana.  Now, the average human only has a few (we're talking low single digits here), while elves have more (low 10's).  Mages have a great deal of magic circuits (anywhere from 20-50), while certain creatures have even more (some of the ancient golems have been discovered with over a hundred circuits).  In game system terms, a character with a high Energy Point pool will have more magic circuits than one with a low EP.  Regardless, to use magic or even magic items, one must have mana.  By drawing from those magic circuits while applying certain magical programs, one can cast spells.

The tricky part about spell casting is that they're actually just magical programs.  You have to 'teach' your magic circuits to use this spell before you can actually use it.  Which is harder than you'd hope.  This can take months, if not years, depending on the spell.  The more complex and powerful, the more time it takes for your circuits to learn the spell.  Afterwards, it's a matter of recalling the correct mental commands and directing mana through the right circuits, and the spell is cast.

This is where magic items, especially MysTek Artifacts, come into play.  These items have spells already programed into them, thus you just have to supply the mana to cast them.  Even constant effects may only require the essence of mana to be powered.  This is also how Dragonite is used - it possesses magic circuits that can only produce heat.

In all reality, most mages only know a dozen spells or so.  Only Archmages will know a lot.  It really comes down to the use of the spells, not the number, that's important.  Spells don't always have a singular use.  For example, a telekinesis type spell can be used to move something, or converted into a barrier to use against attacks.

Questions?