First of all, the 16:
1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)? e6 3.5e
2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)? REVENGE! See below.
3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many? 4-5 players
4. What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)? These forums.
5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)? 1st freakin' level.
6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with? Starting Gold, maxed
7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes? Pretty much anything, as long as I am asked.
8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? Pretty much anything, as long as I am asked.
9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points? 32 point buy.
10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so? Open for conversions of almost any class; no-one can be evil, though (story reasons, people, story reasons!)
11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it? No penalties for multiclassing.
12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them? Some DM rolls (treasure, etc) are made secretly. Everything else is rolled using invisible castle
13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules. There are several, as explained below.
14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)? I need one from each prospective player of 2 or 3 paragraphs before we start.
15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above? Some combat, some roleplaying, pretty much whatever comes up.
16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters? Any, as long as they pass it with me.
Alright, the premise...
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You are all normal people. Some of you might be paragons of virtue, some might just be your average Joe on the street, but you are all normal, well adjusted people.
Well, until you were chosen by the Elder pantheon. What is the Elder Pantheon you ask? They are the rejects, the generation of gods before the current one, which were tossed down by their successors, imprisoned far within the void where Vestiges now dwell. Each one is far stranger, and far more immoral than even the most alien of the current gods; and, for whatever reason, they chose to focus on... you.
Needless to say, you woke up one morning with a mark branded across your forehead, a mark both vile and seemingly living, which seeps blood.
And by the way, you now set off a Paladin's evil detection abilities as if you were the kind of person who kicked puppies, the blood running down your face ever so slowly doesn't entirely look human, and those ruffians down by the docks are slightly more accepting of your irate shout to shove off and stop bugging you.
Three questions present themselves... Why you? Why now? And who do you have to meet with to get this crap to stop?
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Alright, more mechanical time...
-No evil characters allowed. I mean it; this is more along the lines of "congrats, you're now going to Hell for reasons you don't understand by no fault of your own!" than anything else.
-You get the Evil Brand feat as a free bonus feat at 1st level. In addition, at 2nd level and every even level thereafter, you get a bonus Vile feat, ignoring the fact that you are, you know, not evil. These Vile feats can be chosen from any official source, as well as
this thread.-In addition, you get a Major bloodline for free. Not one of the wussy official ones, one of
these.-These awesome things are a result of EVIL power, however (the "bloodline" is actually from the bleeding mark on your forehead, for one thing.), and so carry a price... upon using them (i.e., whenever you derive benefit from them; I won't do this for a constantly active ability any more than once per day (at least to begin with.)) you are targeted by a Morality Undone effect, cast at a CL equal to your ECL and with a save DC of (14+your Wisdom Modifier). Yes, this means that whenever you use your evil powers, you have a chance of becoming Evil for a short period of time.
-In addition to all this, we're using the Sanity variant from Unearthed Arcana; however, instead of madness, depletion causes you to turn different kinds of evil (ranging from affable down to NPC-only level.). Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) is an actual skill (rather than the "unlimited ranks" monstrosity in the actual rules), which everyone with at least one Knowledge Skill as a class skill has as a class skill, which furthermore works like
this skill, as well as the normal checks.
You can take these feats if you wish.
-Oh, and we're also using
this..
Class restrictions:
-No Vancian spellcasting or psionics.
-Pass everything else with me first; I'm trying to make this lower-optimization, ad I would prefer if everyone stay at our below Tier 3 in their builds (low 3/high 4 preferable.)
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Character start-out information.You all live in the cape town of Faldwell, were the prime imports are rice from the surrounding paddies (it is a rather marshy town, think Venice in a marsh.), and the prime exports are trained Paladins and Clerics (a small sub-sect of a small, general pantheon of good deities believes that one of their holy men were born in the town, and so they have set up a school; as such, the community is, in general, Lawful Good, though it tapers off to be more neutral when you get near the more watery part of the town (the locals unironically call it the Waterfront.))
-More information by request.
-A note on the Elder Pantheon; I'm going to tailor each one to each prospective player's character (they may/may not be treating you as champions/prophets/cheese vendors/whatever. From any mortal perspective, they are nuts.), which is why I want that long of a backstory. The particular symbol on your forehead will be decided by the player, after I give them the basics of what their Elder God is.
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Tl;Dr: Someone cursed you with awesome, and now you are going to prod serious buttock to make them pay.
Oh, and does anyone else notice my love for the fluff for the Yozi and Green Sun Princes when they read this?