New Game? Checking for Interest (Closed)

[Disciple of Sakura]

The game thread has begun!

I'm thinking about trying one more time to run a campaign on the boards. BUT, I'm not sure which one of the ideas kicking around in my head is the best fit. So I'm leaving this up to the poll and the guild to decide.

The game will be Pathfinder. Possibly with some limited 3.5 material allowed. Beyond that, the level and stat generation and what-not will depend on what we go with as the general focus of the campaign. As of now, the initial vote is over, and airships win. So, now we move on to a quick and dirty campaign setting poll:

1) Set the campaign in Eberron. In some way or other, your characters have an airship, and likely are either
1a) agents of an organization, possibly House Lyrander or
1b) pirates or privateers, on your own and looking for treasure and adventure.

2) Set in a world not unlike that of Skies of Arcadia, where the world is nothing but sky, filled with floating islands that help protect the inhabitants from the horrible, storm-wracked surface below the clouds. The world is under the despotic thumb of a cruel and power hungry Consortium of businesses more powerful than any nation, and the PCs are part of a rebel force or are at least opposition to the Consortium (a la Malcolm Reynolds and the crew of Serenity).

These are your choices now. Those interested, please feel free to vote, and I'll start a thread in the not-too-distant future once I've gotten a better idea what to do.  

[Arc Vembris]

I concur about your prior airship game. it was tough to get some spotlight time next to all those NPCs. If you wanted to crew the ship, they could have been faceless mooks.

That said, totally jazzed for an Eberron game  

[Disciple of Sakura]

The NPCs hadn't actually done anything to steal spotlight time - aside from interact with PCs, though. Faceless mooks would have been even more boring. As a player and DM, I'd prefer to see that NPCs have personalities and histories as well.

That said, if you'd like an Eberron game, I recommend also voting in the poll... though I suppose an airship game could be set in Eberron as well...  

[Arc Vembris]

Disciple of Sakura

though I suppose an airship game could be set in Eberron as well...

You are right about that.

The trouble with the NPCs wasn't that they were boring at all. Conversely, they were too interesting in a game that should spotlight the PCs. Rather than stealing time in the action, they dominated a lot of the introduction, right when we were trying to meet the other PCs. They mostly had PC class levels, rather than NPC levels, and I think I questioned at the time why these guys needed us to have adventures. It's fine to give all these characters personalities and backstories, but we got a heavy infodump on all of them right out of the gates. I think it might have been better to develop them as the story progressed, introducing them to us as necessary to the plot.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Hmm... Well, so far it's two for airships, two for local, and one for the agents one. Interesting...

I figure I'll give it another day before I decide what I should go with, and then start a recruitment thread for whatever it winds up being. I'm actually kind of interested in trying an Eberron campaign, now that I think about it, but I'm not versed in the setting beyond the main book and a bit of support material. And Secrets of Sarlona, because that book was amazing...  

[Arc Vembris]

The main book is mainly all you need. Eberron wiki can fill in any blanks you're having, but if you've got the map, the timeline, and some of the general themes of the setting in broad strokes, you've got Eberron. Most of my knowledge of the setting comes from the novels.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Hmm... airships are currently winning, though it's not exactly by a strong margin.

A question to those who have voted airships - does the "sky world" concept appeal to you, or would you rather have it set in a world like Eberron?  

[RafeRavel]

I would vote for a sky world myself, as little as my vote is worth! xd  

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

I vote for the 2... or first  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Poll has been updated to allow for voting for the appropriate setting for the airship game. I leave it up to you for the moment, fellow forumites.  

[Arc Vembris]

I voted freelancers, since fewer questions asked often means a weirder array of characters in a sort of Firefly-type mode. But then having a patron always helps the plot hooks flow.

edit: Would Dragonmark feats be allowed from Eberron Campaign Setting?  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Arc Vembris

I voted freelancers, since fewer questions asked often means a weirder array of characters in a sort of Firefly-type mode. But then having a patron always helps the plot hooks flow.

edit: Would Dragonmark feats be allowed from Eberron Campaign Setting?

The Mark of Storm would be pretty much mandatory on at least one character to make the airship run in an Eberron campaign.  

[Arc Vembris]

Unmarked characters can control an elemental vessel with an opposed charisma check (ECS p267), so we don't strictly need a Mark of Storm aboard.