<span style="font-style: italic">UPDATE: The game has begun! Game thread is over here <a class="postlink" href="https://aryion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&amp;t=36179">http://aryion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&amp;t=36179</a>, but continue using this thread to talk about things, submit new characters, and ask questions!</span><br/><br/><br/>I'm going to take a stab at running a play-by-post Pathfinder vorish campaign, similar to others on the forum. We'll be using Pathfinder plus the VSRD rules (attached at the bottom of this opening post), 4th level characters in a homebrew setting left widely open for development during the game that centers around the disintegration of authority of a major empire and the opportunities left open for those who want to take them. I want to have 4-6 players, and I intend to post once a day or more most of the time with some prearranged breaks; that is about the level of activity I'd expect from my players in turn. I will be giving out bonus XP for page increases to incentivize posting, and bonus XP both for devouring creatures and escaping from creatures' stomachs as well. That's the super brief version; I'll detail out things in their own sections below.<br/><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">---Setting Information---</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">-Overview-</span><br/>There's been three centuries of peace and order in the civilized Empire, once the wars of unification were at last complete. An army of elves and men, united under the charismatic King Ioan, waged a decade-long struggle and conquered the majority of the known world. Only savage barbarians, often of various exotic and animalistic races, were able to remain free behind formidable natural barriers; inside, the grand armies set forth and began solidifying the half-elf king's control over his new domains. They were to a large extent successful, putting down the last great dwarvish-orcish rebellion in the field at Mount Whisper in a titanic battle thirty years after the Unification. That date was set as Year Zero in a new, official Imperial calender; the year is now 293 A.U. (After Unification), and the old Empire is finally dying. The current emperor, Ioan's great-to-the-seventh grandson, is a frail, sickly young man not expected to live to see his majority, and after him there are no obvious candidates for the silver throne. Imperial authority and military power has begun crumbling at the edges, with barbarian incursions over the frontiers becoming more and more successful and frequent, and feisty provincial dukes asserting more and more independence with one eye towards the future. Law and order hasn't -quite- broken down, but it's on the brink of it. Into the void of authority, an ever-growing number of adventurers have sprouted like mushrooms both for good and for ill; exceptional individuals who can and do take it on themselves to win glory, gold, and whatever else their dreams and ambition can fathom with little more than the strength of their sword arm and sharpness of their wit. The good and wise often protect vast stretches of territory from bandits and monsters- the evil and vicious often build their own power bases by thievery, murder, and other assorted crimes. All is poised on a knife's edge waiting for the first disaster, and into this charged situation a lonely provincial town issues a plea for help to any would-be hero who can hear their plea...<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">-Races-</span><br/>The two primary races of the setting are humans and elves. The two are historically fond of each other, and intermarry often; by tradition and custom, the Emperor is always as close to an even blend of the two races as breeding and politics will allow. As such, humans and elves are often more supportive of Imperial goals than others. Such support has led to these two races achieving a measure of economic and political superiority among traders and the nobility, though by no means complete. The Empire 'officially' does nto discriminate based on the race of its citizens, which many orcs (to say nothing of the more bestial races) would find a cruel joke. Dwarves and orcs were the last two to be conquered, and remained the most restive until their armies were massacred in the field. Dwarves integrated more-or-less sullenly into the new order, keeping their collective heads down and mining like good little Imperials. Now that the dynasty is failing, however, dwarven clans agitating quietly for a return to the good old days are becoming more and more common. Orcs never quite reconciled themselves to their status, however. They never have the numbers or ability to launch a credible rebellion, but nevertheless act as a seething pot of discontent. Especially in cities, orcish gangs are often the biggest threat to civil order- if a group of bandits starts daring to attack travelers on the road, many are likely to be the large brutes. Now that their 'oppressors' are weakening, such activity is growing at a frightening pace, and rumor has it that a charismatic orc in the south is trying to rally some of these far-flung gangs to his banner to march for the first time in generations...<br/><br/>Although those four races and various permutations thereof comprise the majority of the Empire's citizenship, they're by no means the only ones. Most areas of the empire will feature a large number of elves and humans, a scattering of dwarves and orcs, and a few other species more local to a particular area. Demonic looking tieflings, with their rumors of descent from demons, have large numbers in the south and maintain that they were only conquered because they would not unite; goblins are common in dwarvish areas and usually are found subservant to the dwarves, as kobolds do to any who will actually accept them in the north. Those are hardly the only ones, but an important subset are what are popularly known as the 'bestial' races, races that blend animalistic features to a greater or lesser extent with those similar to a humans. Nagas, centaurs, harpies, the cat and ratfolk- the variety is dizzying, albeit somewhat thin on the ground. Most of them remained outside the Empire and formed the backbone of raiding barbarian forces, but enough were conquered to have large and small enclaves of a number of races inside the Empire's borders. They usually are not allowed to serve in the military for 'concern' over asking them to possibly fight their more savage brethren; likewise, doors to high society usually remain barred not least because the bestial races are the races best suited and stereotypically most eager to devour other creatures whole. A result of this is that the bestial races supply far more than their fair share to the recent wave of 'adventurers' seeking a name for themselves if only due to a lack of other opportunities.<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">-Vore-</span><br/>In the bad old days, seeing people reduced to squirming bulges in a monster or another person's stomach was frightfully common among virtually every race in the known world; an accepted tactic in fighting, entire schools of combat centered around devouring your enemy before you were in turn devoured. King Ioan had a personal strong distaste for such combat, and when he formed his grand armies forbade eating in combat and developed phalanx and group tactics to combat such. After their victory, one of his first acts was to place a ban on devouring another creature alive, with it permitted only in a few cases; when one had an imperial permit to do so (usually only against criminals), as an act of self-defense against a creature trying to do the same to you, and against those outlawed by the Emperor or one of his agents. As a result, 'vore' plummeted in the Empire save for at its fringes where barbarians had no such qualms and fighting remained dirty and acid-soaked; generations later, many humans and others in polite society don't even know that they like every other race were born with the capacity to devour such large meals, or at least would never admit it! With the Empire falling, this prohibition too has begun to weaken; down to the level of mayors, it's become increasingly easy to get an official to outlaw someone. Sometimes it even happens retroactively, with a hunter handing over a small amount of gold over a writhing stomach to an official who looked the other way. The bestial races have preserved their own traditions, as well, and secretly or not kept themselves in practice. Seeing a naga coiling around and devouring a deer, few until recently would suspect a young man or woman keeping themselves trained for a day they could practice their art against more intelligent and delicious prey, after all.<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">-Religion-</span><br/>(OOC note: Unless anyone really doesn't like it, I'll be using a slightly tweaked version of the basic Golarian pantheon for this world, because creating an entire pantheon would be a lot of effort I'm not sure is worth it for this!)<br/>The known world has a more-or-less common pantheon of gods large and small, each with their own 'portfolio' of areas they have special power in. In the old days, these gods were more commonly willing to intercede and perhaps more powerful when they did, but as many other things their influence waned with the coming of the Empire. All are still allowed to be worshipped, of course, even the darker gods like Lamashtu, Mother of Monsters (especially by the bestial races). Distasteful rites have been... curbed... in the case of many of the more evil gods, with things like sacrifices and live devouring dramatically halted and only performed in secret as acts of outlawry. There is no real state religion, though naturally such imperial-friendly gods as Iomedae are widely praised. Gods' feuds have damped out as well, with the authorities frowning on brawls in the streets between those who can't get along with each others' worshippers. As authority has faded, the old gods have begun to step forward with the clerics and paladins of different gods asserting more authorities in the lives of their flocks and the cities they live in; miracles, long barely a trickle, have begun to flow once more as well. More concerningly is whispers of cults beginning to form, worshipping no known gods and with practices that would revolt an honest, orderly devil. One such cult, it seems, has sprung up in the western logging town of Kajaani...<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">-Kajaani-</span><br/>Not a small village and not a bustling city, Kajaani is a midsized town in the western reaches of the Empire, nestled alongside a sleepy stream running through a moderately large forest that stretches west halfway to the ocean coast; a single road in connects it to the main east-west trade road running through the center of the Empire, so that it's moderately well connected to the core lands but fairly remote and sleepy as well. Mostly its money is made from logging the forest, which was cleared of monsters a century ago by a brigade of Imperial forces- since then the poorly funded guard force has barely needed to raise their weapons, and crime is low as well. Currently ruled by Sir Balon Moss, an elderly individual who mustered out of the Army ten years ago from old age and was rewarded with a sinecure out of the way, nothing much has happened in quite some time. And then the cultists came. Striking without warning, bands of robed fanatics and monsters that nobody had ever seen brushed past and fought through the guard, before snatching most of the children of the city away into a stronghold deep in the forest. They have given Sir Moss an ultimatum to give over rule of the city to them or witness the sacrifice of dozens of innocents to their Master. Unable in honor to comply, and unable to get an Imperial detachment to deal with the situation, Sir Moss has issued a general call for adventurers to come to his aid to be posted in all the inns along the trade road that his riders can reach, with a promise of ample gold in reward for rescuing the children. The players are those adventurers who have responded to Sir Moss's pleas.<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">---Character Creation Details---</span><br/><br/>Players will begin as 4th level adventurers. 20 point point buy, standard starting wealth (6,000 gp). Full HP at first level, with 50%+0.5 after that (4 on a d6, 5 on a d8, etc). VSRD rules apply (see bottom of sheet); as an added incentive to vore, in addition to your usual feets you will at 1st level and at every level where you gain an attribute (4th, 8th, etc) get a Bonus Vorish Feat that must either come from the VSRD or be a feat directly related to vore in some way (so, improved grapple, improved unarmed attack, etc). No traits/flaws. I will be checking and making my own PDFs of your character for my own sanity- if you have questions I am happy to help people new to the system, and the d20pfsrd is an invaluable resource too, so don't fret too much about newness! No custom classes. As for races, I suggest reading the fluff section about races above to get an idea of general standing. There are races I will allow no questions asked; anything I mentioned in that section is OK, as are gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, tengu, and kitsune. If you want to make your own race either of one of the races above or your own creation, you have a hard limit of 11 RP that I will allow for custom monsters. In addition, any created race I would *like* to approve before you go to the hassle of building an entire character around it, and this goes for any race I haven't explicitly OK'd above as well. I am not going to disallow stuff just to be a tyrant, but I am also going to keep an eye on party composition and tone. Additionally, DO NOT WORRY about party balance; if my party lacks a crucial role (healer, front line fighter, spellcaster, etc) I will create an NPC one level less awesome than you guys who will be your adventuring companion and make sure you're not getting screwed over by PCs not covering every base. Play something you want to play, don't feel constrained to be a fighter because four other people already made rogues and wizards. Unless you want to play a gunslinger, because they're banned as not fitting the tone; all firearms stuff is too.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><br/>---Tone and Other Assorted Notes---</span><br/><br/>There is going to be vore, with players on both sides of the swollen stomachs. If you are absolutely, 100% opposed to this happening, you can limit its likelihood on the one side by never trying to eat anything and on the other by buffing your character with preyish vore feats that make it less likely. In the end, though, every PC is a possible meal, just of different likelihoods; I will not insulate your character from vore attempts because you ask me to. Sorry! Part of the fun for me as a GM is having a lot of options. Sex is an option, but one I will not be pushing on anyone; it is an adult game, these things may happen. NPCs sometimes have a mind of their own, the wily sorts.<br/><br/>As you may gather, there's going to be a lot of somewhat serious stuff and horror going on. I will try to insert some humor too, because I adore that stuff, but when you're starting off with mad cultists threatening to sacrifice children there isn't going to be a laugh riot right off the bat. I should also mention for the squeamish that you will have a very good chance of saving all the children, and anything bad that happens to them will happen offscreen because I don't really want to write that, myself! If you are coming up with new races, as a personal preference I would aim more for the types of critters that are part-human part-monster than full on anthropomorphic animal as a matter of tone.<br/><br/>Additionally: Approach making a guy from the perspective of you're already pretty good, maybe locally famous, but you haven't really hit the Big Time yet. Not really a scrub, not really a hero yet.<br/><br/>Final note: There are a lot of details not covered in the setting info above. If you want more info about a specific thing, just ask. Or write something up about it yourself. I am a big fan of players helping collaboratively build a setting, it I often find makes a game more fun when both players and GM are building details!<br/><br/>So how is this going to work? The earliest I am going to start is a week from Saturday, September 14th; recruitment will be open at least that long no matter how much I get. I want at least four but no more than six characters. I will give the thumbs up that characters I get in the thread are OK when I get to reviewing them, after which you're done unless you want to make changes. I will be around in the portal chat room (as "Sansuki") for most of tonight and whenever I can over the weekend to talk in chat about questions you might have. Submit a character sheet and as much or as little as you'd like to give me an idea of personality and how you'll be playing them. That's all; good luck, and I look forward to seeing your ideas!<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">---Links---</span><br/><br/>Kajaani NPC PDFs (so you can get a glimpse of two important NPCs you'll meet early; I won't give out all sheets, and won't promise these are accurate if you try any Funny Stuff):<a class="postlink" href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3291946/Kajaani_NPCs.pdf">PDF Link</a><br/><br/>Pathfinder SRD (almost everything you could possibly need, ruleswise, for Pathfinder):<a class="postlink" href="http://www.d20pfsrd.com/">Link to SRD</a><br/><br/>VSRD Base Rules:<a class="postlink" href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3291946/VSRD_base_rules.rtf">Link to VSRD Rules</a><br/><br/>VSRD Spell List:<a class="postlink" href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3291946/VSRD_spells.rtf">Link to Spells</a><br/><br/>VSRD Magic Items:<a class="postlink" href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3291946/VSRD_magic_items.rtf">Link to Magic Items</a>