The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Xeviat

Quote from: Gamer Printshop
I forgot the name of the forum, but at the end of 3x, WotC got rid of their forum, then too - so this just seems like standard practice for WotC. I know that ENWorld forum is getting a large number of the WotC board members, since the closing.

Do you mean Gleemax?

Yes, that's it.

I forgot the name of the forum, but at the end of 3x, WotC got rid of their forum, then too - so this just seems like standard practice for WotC. I know that ENWorld forum is getting a large number of the WotC board members, since the closing.

Rite Publishing has a better one, also for Pathfinder, called Ironborn, it comes with a complete backstory and culture.

Steerpike is currently writing The Unclean Brand one-shot module for 1st level, while I'm writing Horror on Gila Express for 3rd level. Currently, Mike Riter, our main designer is working on new spells, new monsters, and alternate racial traits, having already created many class archetypes and the Corruption rules.

I'm also doing page layout on Horror on the Gila Express, shooting for a standard look to all Gothic Western page layout design. For example I've struggled trying to create a cover design, having scrapped 3 different attempts so far. I've finally settled on emulating a 19th century Harper's Weekly periodical, which appears as a higher quality newspaper in style. While there will be some full color art, most of the art I'm using is 19th century public domain art that's ideal for the period, and using a parchment colored background for every page.

Progress is moving forward...

Quote from: Tensen01I'm new here so I really don't want to come off as a jerk, but You have ignored everything I've said and only suggested ways that you'd do it and basically told me I'm doing things wrong. No one else seems to be having a problem, if they're not sure they're asking questions, not complaining about how their idea of doing things doesn't fit with what I'm doing. If you're not willing or incapable of abiding by what I'm setting down I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop posting in this thread.

I think you've misinterpretted everything I've said, there's no need to be defensive. I am not suggesting that my ideas are the only way to go, rather I design settings for publication now, and when designing a sci-fi setting this is how I do it. Now you might opt for a different way of setting development and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just trying to offer suggestions based on how I'd do it.

Without first defining what kind of planets are in your galaxy setting, I am not sure how to create a new race. To me any race is somehow based on biology and physics. I am only trying to help you by offering some possible planetary/environment configurations which can offer clues on what a given race might look like. Once you create the anatomy, then you can start to develop the society and technology behind each race. Any RPG needs races to fit specific niches - planet, environment, biology, physics are what I start with in the process of race development.

Honestly, I cannot dream of what you might need, without some parameters to help. Just to state, "I need new races", but then offer no direction on what the specifics are to best fit your setting, how can anybody help?

There is no right or wrong about it, but we need some direction.

So I will stop posting - obviously I can't help you.

Quote from: Ghostman
All of the races thus far appear to fall into the bipedal humanoid pattern. You could try looking outside that box for some more exotic things: races that move by slithering or crawling or flying, races without discernable heads, races that use trunks or tentacles instead of arms to manipulate objects.

One of my suggestions was for some kind of being that dwells in the breatheable layers of a gas giant. Such a creature would feature various flight capable limbs, some for distance flying, others for hovering, and probably limbs to hold and manipulate tools/weapons, but would undoubtably have no kind of legs as gas giants are normally gas only, no solid surfaces to stand on.

Another was a suggestion for an amorphous body type in a heavy gravity world, where bones would be less effective physically than other types.

I usually start with a specific exotic world or environment concept, then decide what kind of lifeform would be most ideal - and design from there.

Quote from: Tensen01Uhmmm... They're not called "Warforged" they're called Autons. The Parenthesis is what race they correspond to in basic D&D parlance.

I really don't think you understand what I'm attempting here. And I'm not sure why you felt the need to make a post entirely about how you wouldn't do it like I am. And Discounting my choices is all you did.

No, that's not what I mean. If all your alternate named "new species" have an equivalent D&D parlence race (Autons for "warforged", vries for elves, etc.), then to me, you're not really creating new races, rather only slightly changing D&D parlence versions. So when showing the four races you've created so far - and all of them are parlence D&D races, and you're looking for suggestions for other races, I have no where to go with suggestions, other than suggest doing the rest of the parlence D&D races.

If instead I had an idea of what racial niches you need filled, instead of what other races can be defined by D&D parlence, that would give me direction in giving you aid. Let's say you needed a race of aerial beings that dwelled in the breatheable layers of a gas giant; amorphous lifeforms for a super heavy gravity planet; or a nano-race of microscopic humanoids, with advanced technology, equivalent to human sized in equipment, and having star cruisers that are almost visible to human sight - that would give me the direction to be creative. The parameters you've set with your provided race so far hamstrings where to go next, since the possibilities are almost endless. I need tighter parameters to help - that's all I'm saying.

Sounds to me like many of the standard D&D/PF races you'd find in any normal game, slightly altered to fit your sci-fi theme. If you need more, why not simply use the same with the remaining standard races: halfling and gnome. When building any setting other than vanilla D&D, I never include the standard races, rather more specific non-standard races (I personally loathe the typical: elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.)

I would certainly create a cybernetic race, as you've included above, but would never call them "warforged" - ick, that's Eberron, another D&D world - to me that's so unoriginal not to create your own non-warforged-based cybernetic race.

For a space game, I'd include humans, "Roswell" Grays, some warrior race (other than orcs), a cybernetic race, an aberrant tentacle race (squid people), and whatever else I could see fitting (?).

Note: I don't mean to discount your choices so far, just that using sci-fi flavored versions of standard D&D races is something I would never do myself.

In fact, I've published the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG), and despite being fantasy, the setting doesn't include Asian versions of elf, dwarf, halfling, orc, gnome, etc. (not even mentioned). Even Oriental Adventures created races like "Spirit Folk" which was a Japanicized elf race, even though Japanese folklore didn't include anything like spirit folk, so of course are not included in my setting because of that. In my setting I only adopted races/monsters directly from 19th century and older Japanese folklore. I like authenticity, and not the same old D&D races.

Very inspirational, especially since I'm developing a similar setting (though set in an alternate US Old West, rather than a completely ficticious setting). I love the wordsmithy! My setting is very much Cthulhu inspired with other-planar aberrations taking over the west, with the adventurers attempting to prevent the darkness. Keep this up, I might purloin some ideas from here.

I just got Steerpike to join (he volunteered) the Gothic Western development and writing staff! Thank you, Steerpike and welcome aboard!

Ah, good question then - there are no devils/demons/angels in the setting. The only outer planes thing that can be summoned or contacted by anyone/anything are aberrations, and nobody "good" wants to do that. Many existing spells are affected in the setting. Some spells do not function at all.  Many spells (magic items and other things too) cause Corruption with their use, so should avoid being cast. There will be a list of spells, magic items, and other things that cause Corruption. (Corruption is the equivalent to the Insanity score from Call of Cthulhu, though is a combination of mental and physical changes - insanity plus aberrant properties gained).

Divine spells and magic items that do function are assumed to be powered by God (and is), but as far as proving/disproving that faith and deities are real, aside from the fact that most spells work - its all a matter of faith.

Many existing and new monsters (and templates) in the setting gain attacks that cause Corruption, in addition to their normal abilities and special attacks.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Reminds me of Deadlands (a setting I enjoy).

Other modules might feature sites/situations such as haunted mines, prospecting/panhandling, stagecoach robberies/chases, cattle drives/rustlers, saloon shoot-outs, dam construction sites, bank vaults, bordellos, and native cemeteries.

Other adventure module ideas we're contemplating:

1. A cursed camera able to steal memories from people getting their photograph taken, and even magic jar their souls onto the glass plate inside. So an investigation adventure searching through a large town tracking this cursed camera and the photographer who doesn't even realize it to buy/steal/destroy the malignant magic item.

2. While pursuing an agent of the Order of Oblivion, the PCs find they have to cross a native burial ground and enter the closed "holy land" canyon behind it to capture their quarry. Of course once crossing the burial grounds, they are tracked by ghosts, encounter haunts, may be given a curse, and the closed canyon behind the burial grounds is affected with a unique property. Positive and negative energy is reversed there - healing harms and vice versa.

3. Boothill Graveyard - a former grand wizard of the Order of Oblivion is buried with an eldritch artifact which is causing instances of undead activity, so his grave will need to be opened, the offending artifact removed and disposed of - of course the former grand wizard is a lich-like mummy, with gun-toting ghasts or other corporeal undead as minions to fight off.

4. A native shaman's apprentice has gone rogue, while protecting a powerful native artifact or other powerful magic item and hiding out in a "holy land" slot canyon in the canyonlands, causes hazards to form like avalanches, flash floods and quick sand, native ghosts and other powerful spirits can be summoned. A forest of saguro cacti becomes an enchanted forest of sorts, and nature becomes supernatural.

5. Celebrating H. P. Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth, a tiny desert town's entire residential population is acquiring aberrant properties, in various stages of advancement, some just showing odd signs, others completely inhuman. Work being done by an evil cabalist sorcerer in league with the Order of Oblivion.

6. A traveling physician dispensing health care to every community he encounters, while a skilled surgeon is also an agent of the Order of Oblivion, and is some kind of alchemist (or a new class with alchemy as one of his class features), that specializes in the creation of toxins, contagions and eldritch brews that he dispenses to his patient/victims with hypodermic needles. He is in fact skilled in combat using these hypodermic needles gaining a Sneak Attack in using it. The party needs to stop the crime spree of killed patients by capturing or slaying the physician. I'm calling the class or archetype, the Hypodermist.

Quote from: Steerpike
This is an interesting idea. In a sense HP systems are actually pretty good at simulating gunfights if abstraction is stressed - there's a lot of not hitting one another.

The Unclean angle raises some interesting questions. Since this is alternate history, I assume lots of Clerics worship the Christian god - how will you be handling that with Pathfinder mechanics?

Except for spirits worshipped by native Americans, and the various cults and secret societies possibly worshipping Cthulhu (or other aberrant super being), I'm assuming everyone else worships God - the Christian one. I don't see how that would make a difference regarding how spells are granted. Mormons have a place in the setting too, with the Territory of Deseret, but though Mormon politics plays a role, beyond mentioning that some of their practices are incongruous with other Christians of the setting, Mormon religion beyond spells granted by God have no place in the setting. Nothing disparaging will be present in our publications to any real-world religion. Any clerics, paladins and inquisitors of the setting will function as they normally would in Pathfinder. Why would there need to be a difference?

Quote from: SteerpikeWhen you wrote "Shootish" before is there any chance you meant "Shootist"?

Yeah, shootist, is what I meant as in the John Wayne movie of the same name. I wanted a name to imply "gunfighter", that was something other than that or gunslinger (which is a PF class), so while "shootist" is odd, since it was a John Wayne movie, that gives it justification for a differing archetype name whose entire schtick involves shooting revolvers.

Here (though the wording might get tweaked some more) is the Shootist so far:

Shootist (Magus Archetype)

The shootist blends mystical arcane powers, masterful prowess with a firearm as his chosen weapon, and a deck of cards for a spellbook.

Weapon Proficiencies: Shootists are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with one-handed firearms.

Arcane Firearm (Su): At 1st level, the shootist gains a pistol as a battered firearm identical to the one gained by a gunslinger. He also gains the deadeye and quick clear gunslinger deeds though instead of expending points from a grit pool to activate these deeds, he expends points from his arcane pool.

This ability replaces cantrips, but the shootist gains the detect magic and read magic cantrips and places them in his spell deck. He can cast either of these as 1st-level spells.

Spell Decks: Instead of a spellbook, the shootist begins play with a spell deck that resembles an ornate playing card deck with cryptic symbols and formulae hidden in the numbers, icons and borders of each card. Upon careful inspection, an observer can learn the true nature of a spell deck (DC 15 Perception or Spellcraft). This spell deck otherwise functions in all ways as a standard magus spellbook.

Arcane Pool (Su): A shootist's arcane pool can be used to augment only ranged weapons. At 5th level, a shootist can use his arcane pool to add the following weapon special abilities to ranged weapons: brilliant energy, flaming, flaming burst, frost, ghost touch, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, or speed.

This ability alters arcane pool.

Spell Combat (Su): This ability functions as the standard magus ability of the same name, but instead of a melee weapon the shootist must use a one-handed firearm.

This ability alters spell combat.

Ranged Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a shootist casts a spell with a range of "touch" from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any firearm he is wielding as part of a ranged attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a shootist can make one free ranged attack with his firearm (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this ranged attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the shootist makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this ranged attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range, but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.

This alters spellstrike.

Ranged Arcana: Any magus arcana which affects melee attacks and melee weapons instead affect ranged attacks and one-handed firearms.

This ability alters magus arcana.

Deflecting Swagger (Su): At 4th level, the shootist gains the ability to alter the trajectory of a projectile fired at him through sheer force of will. He can deflect one successful attack from a ranged weapon per round as if he possessed the Deflect Arrows feat. At 11th level, the shootist's will becomes even stronger, allowing him to completely stop and redirect projectiles as if he possessed the Snatch Arrows feat except that any attack deflected in this way (including those made by a bow or a firearm) can be fired back at the original attacker. The shootist need not have a hand free to use this ability and can use it a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier.

This ability replaces spell recall and improved spell recall.

Fast Hands (Su): At 7th level, the shootist learns how to further blend his arcane power with his gunfighting talent. When holding two one-handed firearms in separate hands he is considered to possess the Two-Weapon Fighting feat. Furthermore, by spending a point from his arcane pool, the shootist is considered to have a hand free for the purposes of casting spells, reloading, and for using the spell combat ability. If he does cast a spell, then he may not attack with the firearm in the hand he used to complete the somatic components with for the rest of his turn. This benefit lasts for a number of rounds equal to the shootist's Charisma modifier.

This ability replaces medium armor.

Medium Armor (Ex): At 13th level, a shootist gains proficiency with medium armor. A shootist can cast magus spells while wearing medium armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a shootist wearing heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component.

This ability replaces heavy armor.

Greater Spell Access (Su): At 19th level, the shootist gains access to an expanded spell list. He learns and places 14 spells from the bard's spell list into his spell deck as magus spells of their bard level. He gains two of each of the following bard spells not on the magus spell list:

0-level, 1st-level, 2nd-level, 3rd-level, 4th-level, 5th-level, and 6th-level.

He can ignore the somatic component of these spells, casting them without the normal chance of spell failure.

This ability alters greater spell access.

Suggested Magus Arcana
Arcane Accuracy, Bane Blade, Close Range, Critical Strike, and Ghost Blade.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Reminds me of Deadlands (a setting I enjoy).

Other modules might feature sites/situations such as haunted mines, prospecting/panhandling, stagecoach robberies/chases, cattle drives/rustlers, saloon shoot-outs, dam construction sites, bank vaults, bordellos, and native cemeteries.

Its actually influenced by both Deadlands and Call of Cthulhu, but I have experience creating published Pathfinder settings, so it's easier for me to develop using those rules.

I'm introducing a Corruption mechanic - instead of CoC's insanity, though the signs of corruption include both mental deficiencies and physical alterations; aberrant properties. Also using Dante's Inferno (and the Divine Comedy in general) to help create our aberrant beings based on the physical descriptions of the beings of Hell described by Dante - though there are no demon/devils in the setting, all living monsters are aberrants in one way or another. Native curses like wendigo and undead have a presence too, but aberrations seem to be the majority threat - called The Unclean, in the setting.

An inventor class is definitely on my mind, along with some kind of mad scientist. Although most of the effort has been with archetypes (not that inventor couldn't be an alchemist archetype or something), but creating new classes as needed has definitely been a consideration since the beginning.

Adventure ideas for Gothic Western:

1. Horror on the Gila Express one-shot module (described above).

2. "Circus comes to town" with a Freak Show, consisting mostly of secret aberrants, the circus management is in league with the Order of Oblivion. In every town on the circus circuit, a local is kidnapped subjected to eldritch experimentation, then forced to join the menagerie having been given an aberrant property (acquired template).  One of the more combat oriented PCs will be kidnapped and forcibly given the template, which the rest of the PCs must confront the perpetrators and try to find a means of saving their ally from corruption.

3. Eldritch artifacts brought here by Knights Templar in the early 15th century (preColumbian period) to hideaway and bury these evil arcane devices from corrupting Europe and civilization were brought to the caves in the mountain wastelands of the New Mexico region. One of those sites is the fabled Lost Vaquero Mine, a cursed gold mine sought after by every prospector entering the region of Arizona (western New Mexico Territory). [I'm borrowing from the Lost Dutchman Mine legend.]

4. Ghost Town - there's an entire community of a Texas border town, that was attacked and slain by the Knights of the Golden Circle, while wearing native garb, to implicate the natives as the perpetrators. The entire town is one gigantic haunt, and the only way to lay it to rest is to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.

5. Lonely Waystation on a mountain trail, is being held by a family who was forced to endure cannibalism while snowed-in on a high mountain pass, and have acquired the Wendigo Curse template, which forces them to desire the consumption of humans, which grant a measure of strength and power. (Influenced by the event of Donner Pass, and ideas borrowed from the movie, Ravenous).

I need more ideas for modules, what are your thoughts?