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Or even a locale you would be interested in as a backdrop? I am back on one of my "make lots of characters" phases and have had one of those moments where I do not think trying to make a campaign just for myself would be very enjoyable and that is usually when I start thinking about trying to start a game on here. I would not say I quite have the "itch" back but it is a bit "itch adjacent" .
(Or any other interested players for that matter?)
It sounded like you'd lost interest, so I didn't know how high the bar was going to be. I didn't want to go through all that work and then be "Nah." I like making characters, but it takes me a long time usually (I spent all day last Saturday making a character for a PF1 Rise of the Runelords game. Literally all day.) So that's a lot of work for me to go through.
PF1 certainly has a raft of open ended options that can slow down the creation process.
I feel like I need a hook from a player to start thinking about what I want to build. Like, the idea right now is to have the 2nd level PC and a 1st or 2nd level DMPC to act as their companion (one who is likely a bit suboptimal so as not to overshadow the player). But without an idea of what the character, location, or background might be I do not even know what would be a good complement.
I have played with a couple of ideas a bit in my mind like, "What if the game started with the PC as a prisoner, Elder Scrolls style?"or "What if the initial 'questgiver' is an imprisoned dwarven smith?" But without a location or some context of a light character backstory that is pretty thin idea and not necessarily compatible with what a player would most like to do in the Inner Sea.
At my most itchy I even considered drawing up some characters myself and being like, "Pick one of these if you are having trouble," and we could then negotiate on the details of the story but few people play this game to roll as someone else's character idea unless you are doing something really different like Jason Bulmahn is with the campaign he is designing outside of work.
I made up a quick example character. The background is not quite as fancy as in depth as I might have liked, and I only have his build right now, not a character sheet. But it would work, I think, either as a PC or as the supporting character.
The Sample Prisoner, Heselem Alpur
male half-elf prisoner flurry ranger 2, neutral
str 16 dex 16 con 12 int 10 wis 14 cha 10
feats
ancestral - nimble elf
background - experienced smuggler
class - hunted shot, monk dedication
skill - hefty hauler
skills
trained - athletics, deception, intimidate, medicine, nature, performance, stealth, survival, underworld lore
Heselem never knew his father, a roguish elven bandit, who seduced his naive young mother one stormy night in the Drumish countryside. He was never quite allowed to forget this fact, not by his mother, who laboured for many years under the belief that her handsome beau would return for her. Nor by his distraught grandparents who had gained a sternness they had not possessed when raising their daughter. They all loved him in their own way, of course. But it made for many an uncomfortable dinner conversation as he matured.
A scandalous origin also did not endear him much with the local clergy of Kalistrade. And so, perhaps unsurprisingly, Heselem found himself pushed into stereotypically "elfish" pursuits: hunting, outdoorsmanship, and the like. And while he was mostly law-abiding man occasionally he found himself skirting certain laws against poaching and other bureaucratic distinctions. His skill was appreciated by his neighbours though and they mostly left him alone. Until the day when he fell afoul in his hunt with a small company of Mercenary League soldiers who had been tracking the same prey.
His crime had not been great, but the vindictive captain of the company pulled some strings and Heselem was imprisoned on trumped up charges. The sentence was to be fourteen years, including hard labour. And time certainly seemed to drag on forever. Heselem became hardened and all too well acquainted with his fellow prisoners. Fighting was a fact of life, and in the absence any of his old trusted weapons he had to learn to be effective with his fists.
At some point the half-elven Alspur was deemed to be more trouble than he was worth and was transferred to a dungeon where he seemed to have afterward been forgotten. Heselem continued his physical training to pass the time, but his health was just beginning to fade. And then about seven years into his sentence, quite suddenly everything changed.
Well no, but personally I'm not too keen on a solo game. And it would take me a lot of time to get a PF2 character ready; time I currently do not have.
I do enjoy your games, Kaodi, and if you decide to run one for a party I will probably join.
Funny you should mention that. I came close, very close, to posting a new thread yesterday to loosely inquire if you guys wanted to get Little House In The Vast going again. I was thinking of doing a significant timeskip, maybe put you guys up to 5th level, so that you guys could actually get to the "whiz around in our ship" part sometime this century. A couple of days ago I even checked to see whether the four of you were still posting and I saw three had activity in the previous day and the other a week or two earlier.
I think the thing that stopped me is that I have lost much of my familiarity with Starfinder and have the vague idea it might be better to stick to Pathfinder 2. That puts me in a bit of a bind because I am not that enarmoured with the thin idea of a plot I had for Frequent Bathing Required and we had hardly started that game to begin with. There was only my initial post and one from gargoyleking compared to LHitV's 280+ posts. Of course with a timeskip I would have to come up with a new plot, but it would be for a more significant game.
Edit: I guess for what it is worth everybody but Charwoman Gene is still active in the other game though KN is obviously out of commission for a couple of weeks.