KirayaTiDrekan
Adventurer
Not so long ago, about two hundred years, in fact, we humans had barely explored the waters around our own islands. We knew nothing of other islands...entire empires of other races out there in the great ocean and we were ignorant of them all. The orcs came first and taught us to sail the open seas. We took to the oceans with zeal, expanding and colonizing, making friends among the other races...and a few enemies.
The first were the goblinoids. They had gone mad with conquest, killing entire populations in order to make room for themselves. We led our allies to glorious victory over them, not realizing that the goblins' home island was about to be destroyed by the volcano at its heart. The goblins are all but extinct now, just a few stragglers working as mercenaries and raiders.
The second of our enemies were the elves. Ten years ago, we made first contact with them. We'd heard of them from the orcs and other races - reclusive, insular, generally not interested in trade...and old, almost as old as the mysterious First Ones, who we dismissed as rumor and myth anyway. We were headstrong and arrogant after our victory over the goblins and didn't heed the warnings. We approached their islands and one of their ships met us. Our ships attacked first...the admiral assumed they were taking an aggressive stance...it was a terrible, terrible mistake. We drew first blood but they swiftly overwhelmed us. Their magic and advanced ships were more than we could handle...more than we could even imagine. In just under a year, their armada had surrounded our capital island. We were on the verge of annihilation. And then...they surrendered. With no explanation and no reason that we could fathom, they surrendered.
In the ten years since the Elf/Human War, the elves have become allies if not friends and together with the dwarves and the orcs, we have created an artificial city, The Fifth City. We call it the Fifth because the first four attempts were either destroyed or lost. The first and second cities suffered from design flaws that caused them to sink before they were finished. The third was destroyed by sabotage from those who could not tolerate peace. The fourth simply vanished. The Fifth City is a five mile long island, created by magic and hard work. It is our last, best hope for peace.
First, apologies to the players of "Playing Dice with the Universe" for flaking out. The lesson I learned there is to stick with what I know and am comfortable with. So, here we are with Pathfinder.
Second, the above description will look familiar to a certain fandom, Babylon 5. It is my intention to run a D&D campaign inspired by Babylon 5, adapted to a swashbuckling, seafaring, island-based setting. The player characters are the agents of the human governor of the Fifth City, an artificial island created to be a beacon of peace between the various races.
Third, we will be using the Pathfinder rules, specifically d20pfsrd and a few 3rd party sources (Book of Heroic Races: Seedlings, 1001 Spells, In the Company of Monsters).
1. Half-elves are unheard of do not exist as far as anyone is aware. They are thus not available as a PC race.
2. Half-Orcs are referred to as Orcs but use Half-Orc stats. The Bestiary Orcs are a degenerate off-shoot that were wiped out ages ago (and thus not available as a PC race).
3. Psionics are not available.
4. Arcane magic is subject to special laws, depending on the race. Humans, in particular, have a Corps of Magi, which all wizards and sorcerers must belong to or face persecution and death.
5. Humans, dwarves, orcs, and elves are considered to the major races. Most other races do not have the political influence of the major races and have formed an alliance known as the League of Unaligned Islands. In game terms, any PHB or Monster Manual race with a level adjustment + Hit Die of 5 or lower is possible as a player character, but humans, dwarves, orcs (half-orcs), and elves will have more story opportunities. Drow, duergar, svirfneblin, and troglodytes are not available, however.
6. Elven society is divided into three castes - High elves are the worker caste and the most commonly seen outside of the elven islands. Wood elves are the warrior caste and responsible for much of the destruction humanity faced during the war. Grey elves are the religious caste and also serve as the race's diplomats and ambassadors.
7. Until the Goblin Wars about 30 years ago, the dwarves were enslaved for nearly a 100 years by the orcs. The orcs suffered heavy losses during the Goblin Wars and were forced to withdraw from the dwarven islands, but not before burning as much of the islands as they could on their way out. Though both races have agreed to cease hostilities, the old hatreds are still very strong, and still very fresh in the minds of most dwarves and orcs.
8. Basics - Starting level is 1, ability scores are 32 point buy, starting gold is maximum (100 for monster races characters without a regular class at 1st level).
I'm hoping for at least three players, though I'll gladly accept more.
[sblock=Babylon 5 fans]The following races match up to the B5 races in case you were curious.
Humans - Humans
Elves - Minbari
Orcs (Half-Orcs) - Centauri
Dwarves - Narn
Vorlons - Not telling.
Shadows - Not telling that either.[/sblock]
The first were the goblinoids. They had gone mad with conquest, killing entire populations in order to make room for themselves. We led our allies to glorious victory over them, not realizing that the goblins' home island was about to be destroyed by the volcano at its heart. The goblins are all but extinct now, just a few stragglers working as mercenaries and raiders.
The second of our enemies were the elves. Ten years ago, we made first contact with them. We'd heard of them from the orcs and other races - reclusive, insular, generally not interested in trade...and old, almost as old as the mysterious First Ones, who we dismissed as rumor and myth anyway. We were headstrong and arrogant after our victory over the goblins and didn't heed the warnings. We approached their islands and one of their ships met us. Our ships attacked first...the admiral assumed they were taking an aggressive stance...it was a terrible, terrible mistake. We drew first blood but they swiftly overwhelmed us. Their magic and advanced ships were more than we could handle...more than we could even imagine. In just under a year, their armada had surrounded our capital island. We were on the verge of annihilation. And then...they surrendered. With no explanation and no reason that we could fathom, they surrendered.
In the ten years since the Elf/Human War, the elves have become allies if not friends and together with the dwarves and the orcs, we have created an artificial city, The Fifth City. We call it the Fifth because the first four attempts were either destroyed or lost. The first and second cities suffered from design flaws that caused them to sink before they were finished. The third was destroyed by sabotage from those who could not tolerate peace. The fourth simply vanished. The Fifth City is a five mile long island, created by magic and hard work. It is our last, best hope for peace.
First, apologies to the players of "Playing Dice with the Universe" for flaking out. The lesson I learned there is to stick with what I know and am comfortable with. So, here we are with Pathfinder.
Second, the above description will look familiar to a certain fandom, Babylon 5. It is my intention to run a D&D campaign inspired by Babylon 5, adapted to a swashbuckling, seafaring, island-based setting. The player characters are the agents of the human governor of the Fifth City, an artificial island created to be a beacon of peace between the various races.
Third, we will be using the Pathfinder rules, specifically d20pfsrd and a few 3rd party sources (Book of Heroic Races: Seedlings, 1001 Spells, In the Company of Monsters).
1. Half-elves are unheard of do not exist as far as anyone is aware. They are thus not available as a PC race.
2. Half-Orcs are referred to as Orcs but use Half-Orc stats. The Bestiary Orcs are a degenerate off-shoot that were wiped out ages ago (and thus not available as a PC race).
3. Psionics are not available.
4. Arcane magic is subject to special laws, depending on the race. Humans, in particular, have a Corps of Magi, which all wizards and sorcerers must belong to or face persecution and death.
5. Humans, dwarves, orcs, and elves are considered to the major races. Most other races do not have the political influence of the major races and have formed an alliance known as the League of Unaligned Islands. In game terms, any PHB or Monster Manual race with a level adjustment + Hit Die of 5 or lower is possible as a player character, but humans, dwarves, orcs (half-orcs), and elves will have more story opportunities. Drow, duergar, svirfneblin, and troglodytes are not available, however.
6. Elven society is divided into three castes - High elves are the worker caste and the most commonly seen outside of the elven islands. Wood elves are the warrior caste and responsible for much of the destruction humanity faced during the war. Grey elves are the religious caste and also serve as the race's diplomats and ambassadors.
7. Until the Goblin Wars about 30 years ago, the dwarves were enslaved for nearly a 100 years by the orcs. The orcs suffered heavy losses during the Goblin Wars and were forced to withdraw from the dwarven islands, but not before burning as much of the islands as they could on their way out. Though both races have agreed to cease hostilities, the old hatreds are still very strong, and still very fresh in the minds of most dwarves and orcs.
8. Basics - Starting level is 1, ability scores are 32 point buy, starting gold is maximum (100 for monster races characters without a regular class at 1st level).
I'm hoping for at least three players, though I'll gladly accept more.
[sblock=Babylon 5 fans]The following races match up to the B5 races in case you were curious.
Humans - Humans
Elves - Minbari
Orcs (Half-Orcs) - Centauri
Dwarves - Narn
Vorlons - Not telling.
Shadows - Not telling that either.
[/sblock]
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