McFluffles
October 10th, 2015, 06:00
Hello there everyone! My name is Mcfluffles, a veteran DM of 15 years. Not really sure if that makes me a veteran but whatever. I'd like to think I'm fairly good at what I do. I am here on my first ever endeavor of actually using FG. I have done quite a bit of research on the program and by the beard of Zeus is this thing powerful! I could not have hopped to find a better program to play over the internet with! A little about myself before getting into the game itself, because if you don't mesh well with me to begin with, it wont be much of a fun game anyways!
I have been playing tabletop RPG's since my first game when I was 11 years old run by my father. He introduced me and I have been absolutely hooked ever since. That was... 17 years ago. At the time I learned AD&D and just grew with the game as it did. Now days, I play/run Pathfinder. It just jives the best for me. My DM style is dynamic. I am very open about what you are allowed to do in the game, and tend to run very sandboxy type games in which the players can collectively come up with what they want to do, and can occasionally split but I'm not fond of it. One of my signatures as a DM is that I run a game where your characters have a very really impact on the world around them. What they do matters. The choices they do or do not make, make a difference in what happens around them. You may have had a chance to save a slave from a traveling band of drivers, and later when he escapes, he may decide he wishes to hunt you down. Or instead of going to x location you go to y location and you come later to find out that x location was attacked by a dragon. You will be presented with options and sometimes you will dodge bullets and sometimes you will miss great opportunity. Eventually your characters will make names for themselves and stories of their travels with reach far and wide. If I have time to run multiple games, you may hear of things other groups have done in different parts of the world, and perhaps even meet.
I like to give the power to the players as much as possible, that does not mean I relinquish it whenever you want it. As far as rules lawyering, I do not like it at all. I'm a reasonable person, but to keep the game going my decisions will stand. If after a session ends you want to talk about a decision I made or point out something that I did wrong and can improve upon, please tell me. I am not adverse to criticism! I actually welcome it with open arms, how else do I grow as a DM?
A single "House rule" I use is this: If you are not actively making a skill check, I will be making them for you, usually using a "Passive" number which is 10+(Skill bonuses). This allows me to keep the game moving as well as prevent the situation of: "Roll (enter skill roll here)... okay." And then not saying anything because you didn't make a check, but then knowing as a player that I told you to roll something. It keeps the mystery alive!
One last final note, I am a Role player over a Roll player. I do not like min maxing. Yes being effective in combat is fun but that is not the focus of my games and it should not be the focus of the characters.
So now that is done and over with, lets get onto the stuff you came for!
FG License: Normal
Game System: Pathfinder
Time Zone: CDT/CST (US Central)
Day of week and time: Sunday @ 7PM CST (Starting time has been altered to 7pm from 6pm and will end at 11pm)
If new game, planned start date: 10/18/15
Planned Frequency: Weekly
Term: As long as I can hold your ADHD at bay. (Long term!)
Text or Voice: Voice
Voice software used: TS3
Roleplay & Combat mix: 50/50
Number of Players in game & needed: 4
Character starting level & equipment: 3
Character Creation Guide Lines
Races: Core Rulebook Only with APG Racial Variants allowed
Classes: Core Rulebook and APG, using the Unchained Barbarian, Rogue, Monk and Summoner.
Stats: 20 Point buy
HP: All characters start at max HP as per their HD and have the option of taking 3/4 max at each level they gain while playing or rolling and sticking with what they roll.
Starting Gold: Standard 3000G for 3rd level characters.
Starting equipment restriction: You may spend no more than 1/4 your total starting gold on a single item. So that means... no more that 750g on a single starting item. Players don't start with magic items in my games, they earn them. All starting equipment must also come from the Core Rulebook.
Multi-Classing: I do not penalize characters XP when they multi-class, I honestly don't know if that is even a rule in pathfinder that came over from 3.5, but if it is, ignore it.
Class Skills: Once a class skill, always a class skill so long as it was sufficiently used during the previous level (This is my judgment call). This only applies when going from one class to the next. Example: Rogue class skill of acrobatics, and you multi-class to barbarian (No idea why this would ever happen but you never know). So long as you sufficiently used acrobatics enough during the previous level as a rogue, it will carry over to your next level as a barbarian and continue to do so as long as it is continually used. If you stop using it sufficiently, just like any real skill anyone has, you will not have the ability to continue to progress in that skill.
I will continue to add to this as the questions come up. If you have a major problem with any of this, I am more than willing to discuss it with you!
Details of your scenario:
Varisia, the wild frontier of Golarion. Home of a fallen civilization with ruins scattering the land and a well known castle at its center. Viper Wall. For as long as anyone can remember, poison leaked into the air surrounding this castle from the mouth's of massive sneak heads statues. Thought to be the home of the Serpentfolk as an outpost of their home in the Darklands, this mist has vanished and the people living off Ember Lake have begun to become deathly Ill. No one has been able to find a cure, and Varisia needs help, hopefully someone will stand up and take up the mantle.
Link to Gamecalendar page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=1649
https://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll5/incubusdreamsguild/Flyer.png
I have been playing tabletop RPG's since my first game when I was 11 years old run by my father. He introduced me and I have been absolutely hooked ever since. That was... 17 years ago. At the time I learned AD&D and just grew with the game as it did. Now days, I play/run Pathfinder. It just jives the best for me. My DM style is dynamic. I am very open about what you are allowed to do in the game, and tend to run very sandboxy type games in which the players can collectively come up with what they want to do, and can occasionally split but I'm not fond of it. One of my signatures as a DM is that I run a game where your characters have a very really impact on the world around them. What they do matters. The choices they do or do not make, make a difference in what happens around them. You may have had a chance to save a slave from a traveling band of drivers, and later when he escapes, he may decide he wishes to hunt you down. Or instead of going to x location you go to y location and you come later to find out that x location was attacked by a dragon. You will be presented with options and sometimes you will dodge bullets and sometimes you will miss great opportunity. Eventually your characters will make names for themselves and stories of their travels with reach far and wide. If I have time to run multiple games, you may hear of things other groups have done in different parts of the world, and perhaps even meet.
I like to give the power to the players as much as possible, that does not mean I relinquish it whenever you want it. As far as rules lawyering, I do not like it at all. I'm a reasonable person, but to keep the game going my decisions will stand. If after a session ends you want to talk about a decision I made or point out something that I did wrong and can improve upon, please tell me. I am not adverse to criticism! I actually welcome it with open arms, how else do I grow as a DM?
A single "House rule" I use is this: If you are not actively making a skill check, I will be making them for you, usually using a "Passive" number which is 10+(Skill bonuses). This allows me to keep the game moving as well as prevent the situation of: "Roll (enter skill roll here)... okay." And then not saying anything because you didn't make a check, but then knowing as a player that I told you to roll something. It keeps the mystery alive!
One last final note, I am a Role player over a Roll player. I do not like min maxing. Yes being effective in combat is fun but that is not the focus of my games and it should not be the focus of the characters.
So now that is done and over with, lets get onto the stuff you came for!
FG License: Normal
Game System: Pathfinder
Time Zone: CDT/CST (US Central)
Day of week and time: Sunday @ 7PM CST (Starting time has been altered to 7pm from 6pm and will end at 11pm)
If new game, planned start date: 10/18/15
Planned Frequency: Weekly
Term: As long as I can hold your ADHD at bay. (Long term!)
Text or Voice: Voice
Voice software used: TS3
Roleplay & Combat mix: 50/50
Number of Players in game & needed: 4
Character starting level & equipment: 3
Character Creation Guide Lines
Races: Core Rulebook Only with APG Racial Variants allowed
Classes: Core Rulebook and APG, using the Unchained Barbarian, Rogue, Monk and Summoner.
Stats: 20 Point buy
HP: All characters start at max HP as per their HD and have the option of taking 3/4 max at each level they gain while playing or rolling and sticking with what they roll.
Starting Gold: Standard 3000G for 3rd level characters.
Starting equipment restriction: You may spend no more than 1/4 your total starting gold on a single item. So that means... no more that 750g on a single starting item. Players don't start with magic items in my games, they earn them. All starting equipment must also come from the Core Rulebook.
Multi-Classing: I do not penalize characters XP when they multi-class, I honestly don't know if that is even a rule in pathfinder that came over from 3.5, but if it is, ignore it.
Class Skills: Once a class skill, always a class skill so long as it was sufficiently used during the previous level (This is my judgment call). This only applies when going from one class to the next. Example: Rogue class skill of acrobatics, and you multi-class to barbarian (No idea why this would ever happen but you never know). So long as you sufficiently used acrobatics enough during the previous level as a rogue, it will carry over to your next level as a barbarian and continue to do so as long as it is continually used. If you stop using it sufficiently, just like any real skill anyone has, you will not have the ability to continue to progress in that skill.
I will continue to add to this as the questions come up. If you have a major problem with any of this, I am more than willing to discuss it with you!
Details of your scenario:
Varisia, the wild frontier of Golarion. Home of a fallen civilization with ruins scattering the land and a well known castle at its center. Viper Wall. For as long as anyone can remember, poison leaked into the air surrounding this castle from the mouth's of massive sneak heads statues. Thought to be the home of the Serpentfolk as an outpost of their home in the Darklands, this mist has vanished and the people living off Ember Lake have begun to become deathly Ill. No one has been able to find a cure, and Varisia needs help, hopefully someone will stand up and take up the mantle.
Link to Gamecalendar page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=1649
https://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll5/incubusdreamsguild/Flyer.png