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bipolarbarbarian · 2 years

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CRATERLAND synopsis pt.1

While it's still VERY much a work in progress, I have a set name, rough world structure, and the races I want to be native to what will be my upcoming campaign setting.

I have taken cracks at homebrew worlds before, but this is my first time adding homebrew classes or real in-game content like possibly mechanics or magic items.

There are maybe 3 or 4 inspirations that have really informed my beginning to create CRATERLAND (CL for short).

But the basis for the whole idea was I just wanted a giant, kitchen sink, playground of a world. So a big focus in creating it thus far has been shedding directed and linear writing, and instead literally just putting into it what I think is cool, neat, and odd, kind of in that order.

That spirit of anything goes and the more the merrier is what I have always loved about D&D specifically.

I remember seeing warforged in 3.5 for the first time and my eyes rolling back in my head, like holy fuck you can play a robot barbarian, still to this day that is mind numbinglt cool to me. Thats the attitude I want for CL, if I think its cool and something I would want, regardless of theme or genre, its in.

So back to those 3 or 4 influences, I wanted to list them out so that people can maybe see where I'm coming from with these ideas. So here they are!

Adventure Time

Eberron (Specifically the 3.5 version)

The art of Mike Mignola

Final Fantasy and JRPG stories (Like FFXII and FFVII)

Joseph Campbell and his books on mythology

These things have over the last two months, which is the period I've been working on this for, become ingrained as solid things that I look to for inspiration and fun bullshit. I think Eberron especially because it is my brothers favorite campaign setting. And that it really was that first holy shit, kick in the face, fantasy can be like this experience for me.

Adventure Time and Pendleton Wards penchant for balls to the wall insanity and psychedelia have been very instrumental to me as a creative as well, I mean the dude made candy a primal element, that guys the shit.

I have a series of posts planned for exploring my affection for each of those individually at some point as well.

And finally (for today) the class/races of CL. I wanted something different and weird, that at the very least wasn't just halflings, elves, dwarves, and humans.

There's a sort of rhyme and reason to these races, albeit a messy one. They are each going to correspond to a color, and colors are going to play a central role in the world fiction.

Thats going to be my next couple posts is just writing those races and fleshing them out, and fleshing out bits of the lore.

So without further adieu the race are going to be Gargoyles, Floranomes (psychedelic cactus gnomes that gained consciousness from the influence of a dead god on nature), Primmkin (Like monkey bugbear elves), Jellytons (Skeletons possessed by intelligent jelly that all recently animated and function as a semi hive mind), and the only Humans native to CL, the Daughters of Yonn that I posted yesterday.

I will have more in Part 2 as soon as its written!

#dnd homebrew #oldschoolessentials #d&d homebrew #campaign #dungeons and dragons #gaming #indie games #rpg

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dungeondivebar · 4 years

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Dungeon Dive Bar Crawl - Heck Knights In Space!

As we announced last week, we’ll be running a 24 hour stream for Extra Life on November 6 and 7! Check out that link for some more information on the stream and how to tune in.

Each Friday until the event itself, we’ll be publishing an interview with the GM of one of the adventures along with other material to get everybody super jazzed for the stream.

This week we’re talking to Megan, though you may know me better as Retha ;)

How long have you played TTRPGs in general? About five years now. I'd heard a lot about them beforehand, but could never find a group because no one in my tiny hometown was a nerd like me. Finally, in my freshman year of college, I found a group of nerd friends, including Alex, and started a D&D game. 5e was pretty brand-new at that point, so we started in 4e and then changed over not long after.

What is your favorite thing about TTRPGs overall? I love the character design. I'll usually start with a build and work out the concept as I go, but as I build further I usually find the character's personality solidifying in my head, and it's only a matter of time before they have a specific appearance, too. I'm an artist, after all.

How long have you played Pathfinder and Starfinder in particular? I've been playing Starfinder basically since it was released. I was barely familiar with Pathfinder at the time; I'd played a game with some friends that fell apart after about four sessions, and at the time I wasn't a fan of all the rules and options. Starfinder seemed a bit more reasonable on the options side of things, though, since it was brand new.

I came over to Pathfinder via the lore. I've always been interested in divine casters, and I took an interest in the gods of Pathfinder as they were represented in Starfinder. It's a long story, but I started writing a Starfinder fanfic that had me digging deep into Pathfinder lore, and eventually I got interested enough to actually try to play the game, theorycraft some builds, and get involved in the community of a certain other Pathfinder podcast.

Have you ever been the GM of a campaign or module before? I'm not quite a "forever GM," but I have GM'd a lot. My GMing resumé includes a D&D 4e homebrew that turned into a 5e homebrew, a 2-year Starfinder homebrew, a running play-by-post of the Runelords trilogy, Against the Aeon Throne twice (plus a follow-up homebrew adventure one of those times), an attempt at Hell's Vengeance, a rewrite of Tyrant's Grasp for an all-divine party, the Pathfinder 2e adventure Agents of Edgewatch, and countless one-offs. (Notable one-offs included an all-Shelynite party braving Nidal and a tournament of universes where characters from the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Golarion came together to fight Tiamat.)

What is your favorite part of being a GM? Getting to make up my own stories or add my own elements to prewritten ones, and ultimately, getting to decide what system we're playing, though if we're doing a long-term campaign the players get some say in this too. I love setting up opportunities for roleplay. I also like seeing what characters people bring to the table, especially when they have a lot of backstory I can work into the campaign.

What will you be running for the Dungeon Dive Bar Crawl? Can you tell us a bit about it? I'm running a homebrew scenario I've temporarily called "Heck Knights In Space." As the name might suggest, I required all the other players to be Hellknights for this game, which mostly just translates to lawful-aligned in Starfinder, since there's only one archetype for it and I didn't want to force everyone to take it. I don't want to spoil anything for the players if they happen to be reading this, but the module's premise is centered around exploring an abandoned Hellknight Citadel that's been broken into and involves both starship and ground combat.

What are you most excited about when it comes to Heck Knights in Space? Getting the chance to combine two of my favorite things-- Starfinder and Hellknights. As far as the module's content goes, there are some enemies that I've been wanting to use for a while now, as well as some I built myself.

Why do you like Hellknights so much?

...In all seriousness, though, I'm a very lawful person IRL, and also an edgelord. I first read about Hellknights in the Starfinder Pact Worlds book, and basically instantly fell in love. On a deeper level, I'm intrigued by the different Orders and their different philosophies-- I definitely don't like all of them. You've got everything ranging from a group of detectives whose specific objective is to take out bad-faith actors, to a group of bounty hunters that operate across multiple star systems while using their codes as protection from those systems' own enforcement organizations, to a group whose main "thing" is finding new and improved ways to summon devils and work infernal magic. And they all operate under the same overarching codes, the Measure and the Chain, with what I can only imagine are vastly different interpretations.

What do you like the most about the Starfinder system? The lore! The flavor! Watching people try to come up with a balanced party for starship combat (or not try, and then just utterly fail in starship combat... I’ve had that happen in a few Society games, oof) is always a good show. Building my own enemies to fit the campaign is always fun too, especially boss enemies.

Can you explain how starship combat works for the viewers? Screams internally well here goes nothing. PCs operate from within a starship and choose a role on the ship. The only part of their character build that's really relevant to what they're doing is the skill modifier they're using for that role. It usually becomes a team effort, though, because it's a collaborative game.

There's different phases in which different roles operate, though the captain and chief mate can operate in any phase they need to.

Engineering phase is first, and gives ships' engineers and magic officers a chance to repair any damaged systems or boost operational ones to give a bonus to anyone using them this turn.

Next is the helm phase, where pilots roll off for initiative. It's a bit like Star Wars X-Wings in how it handles initiative: the lower roll actually goes first, because whoever acts second has the positioning advantage. (I think at one point Paizo admitted that X-Wings inspired them). Also in the helm phase, the science officer can scan the enemy ship to gain info about it, or can move your shields around to defend the firing arc the enemy ship is facing.

Finally, there's the gunnery phase, where ships attack each other. Obviously, the gunners act during this phase.

It sounds really complicated, but it's easy enough to understand once you get going, as long as you understand what your role can do!

What do you think players are the most excited about? Depends on the player. I know David is super excited about the starship combat system. Alex is more interested in ground combat; he has a technomancer build he's been theorycrafting for a while. Sam is excited about the huge variety of race options; last I heard he was trying to make fetch shakalta happen. Though if that doesn't work, we might see a familiar face…

What do you think our viewers will enjoy the most? If my brother-in-law is any indication, the callbacks to a specific group of Hellknights in Pathfinder will be pretty fun. ;)

And that’s it for this week’s interview! Tune in starting at 9PM Central on Friday November 6 for the stream and in the meantime, join us at the bar for new Dungeon Dive Bar episodes every Monday at midnight Central!

#paizo #extra life #pathfinder #podcast #tabletop #tabletop gaming #tabletop rpg #tabletop roleplaying game #pathfinderrpg #Pathfinder Roleplaying Game #Pathfinder 2E #pathfinder 1e #starfinder #Dungeon Dive Bar #dungeondivebar

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