I plan for you all to finish your backstories together after I've accepted all the players. You all will be looking to answer the following questions after being accepted so keep this in mind while thinking up your character.

These questions will also influence your background, as you will not be choosing one of the basic backgrounds in the book.


When you've been accepted into the game, please introduce yourselves and your characters here. At this stage, you can add extra details to your backstory.



When everyone's introduced your characters, you can start answering the questions below.

• Brainstorm a single defining childhood incident which you all experienced and bonded you together as friends. [Everyone can throw out suggestions and you can tweak them to your liking]
  
• What are the relationships between your characters?
  
• Describe your mentor that trained you in your profession and/or your class. It can be one of the already created town NPCs. Then create another unrelated peer NPC in town that you have either a positive or negative relationship or experience with.
  
• Pick one of the two NPCs another PC mentioned and relate yourself to them.
  
• Describe a place in town that's special to you. Place it in one of the districts in town.
  
• Pick a place another PC has listed and describe a moment in your own childhood with that place.

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:25, Mon 17 Jan 2022.

Alright, the application period is over. Welcome to the game!

A couple of points I wanted to bring up:

1. I didn't ask for your alignment in the RTJ and I won't really mind what type of alignment you play as (although this is not an evil campaign, so don't be evil). IMO alignment will come through in your roleplaying, so I don't want you to feel restricted if you put down lawful good and you don't act lawful in whatever character scene, just make sure it fits your character narratively. If you worship a deity, you'll have to keep in mind what your god/dess's mission statement is, but I won't really convert your alignment unless you start acting way out of character than how you've portrayed yourself as.

2. This is a General Rated game, so I originally deleted the Lines and Veils House Rule, but after consideration, I want to put it back up and talk to you all about it. If you ever feel uncomfortable with certain events or actions or ways the narrative or other players is/are involving your character, you can post a capital X in the thread and everyone needs to stop posting in that thread until we work things out. Similarly, if you have any Lines or Veils you'd like to mention to me in PM, please do so. We will definitely not be including anything graphic in this game, but if there are other subjects that are just sensitive to you, we can still stay away from it.

3. Now as far as I can tell, everyone here is either ambivalent or not interested in Romance. If anyone has a plotline they'd like to explore though with romancing an NPC, you can message me about it either when you think about it or as it comes up organically. If you have an idea to romance a fellow PC, make sure to PM them and discuss it way before anything is to happen IC. Anyone, including me if you have a suggestion with an NPC, is free to reject this plotline if they don't want to participate.
If it is explored, Romance in this game will be limited to the bounds of a PG13 movie. If anyone's played these game, think Harvest Moon or Rune Factory styles of romance.

4. I don't really care about your class balance. I believe a smart party should be able to overcome most obstacles even without a proper balance. I will also not actively throw you things that require a specific class you don't have in the party to tackle. However, you are all free to discuss your characters amongst yourselves and if you wish to balance your party, you can change your details now in discussion.
I will also not totally hold back if you have a non-balanced party either. Buy potions and one use scrolls and the like if you need to compensate. If you have to run, run. :P

5. EDIT: One more thing, when describing NPCs important to your backstory, give as much detail for me to play them successfully. Anything you don't provide, I will make up to suit the purposes of the plot. For example, if you tell me only that your father's a blacksmith, I may say he's a blacksmith under Volker's stewardship. If you say he's a loud drunk, I may make him a really meek and quiet guy when he's not drunk.


When you're ready, please introduce yourselves and your characters, and answer the questions above.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:11, Fri 21 Jan 2022.

Olivia is an Elf, but not the sort you're use to adventuring with.  At the start of this campaign, she is in fact a 'Juvenile' elf.  In human terms, she is perhaps just past her teens in physical development.

I would like for her to be acquainted with other human character growing up.  Having the odd relationship of Olivia perhaps being the older sister type in our childhood, but as the years passed and your characters matured to where they are now, she has appeared timeless and unchanged.

Her parents were adventurers and after having Olivia, went on some adventure of some sort that they never returned from.  Her God parents are human though, and raised in such a household from an elf's point of view she may appear mature for her age, while from a human's point of view, she might appear a tad naive.

As a 'class', Olivia thinks of herself as a Spellsinger, a sort of bard who's focus is Song to produce magic.  The creative aspect of Spellsingers appeals to her creative nature.  She has taken to learning the 'family business' from her god parents.  As the generation starts to change, she helps her foster siblings with the family business in what ever manner she is allowed and capable with.

I'm looking forward to meeting the other player characters and developing history with them.

[Have to make dinner, else i would elaborate a bit more...]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:39, Fri 21 Jan 2022.

Hey group, nice to meet ya, excited to be part of the game :)

So Davon is a human, comes from a family who has always been on the edge of real poverty, working long and hard to make ends meat. I imaging he got in a lot of trouble in his youth, was always joker/prankster, avoiding school/work and roaming about making mischief (and good/stupid memories for his mates). Very much more in the moment than a forward thinking person, sort term gratification kinda deal. Often took the fall for other peoples naughtiness, since everyone always assumed it was Davon anyway. He never grassed up his buddies. He’s always up for a laugh, never really serious, charismatic and full of energy.

The base idea is that some patron [NPC or Player related] sent him away for for schooling, seeing the path he was taking was likely to take a wrong turn sooner or later (I imagine he got beat up a lot for his various shenanigans, or might be that his ability to flee then scene and penchant for mischief made him ideal as gang thief or something). Originally the idea was this would be a bardic colleague, but this could be altered if we want more balance. I think various classes could work with ‘being sent away to school’.

After some time away Davon has returned to his home town, with a new set of skills and perhaps a little bit more maturity… or the appearance thereof.

I’ll leave it there for now and can develop the idea going forward.

Thanks for having me!

Hey!

About 10 years ago Apple was part of a normal almost middle classish family. Her father, Papado "Pap" Fynn, was a minor tea merchant who had the exclusive rights to import Telarian black tea. One day he was approached by someone (Big Monty maybe) to bring in a couple of extra cases of tea on one of his shipments. He knew it wasn't really tea but the money was good.

Apple's family lived in an apartment on the upper level of the small warehouse that her father used for his tea and that proved to be the downfall of her family. After the shipment with the special cases of tea was stored in the warehouse and the couple of workers that Pap hired on a case by case bases had went home, Pap was sorting through the crates of tea looking for the special crates; Apple was hanging around her dad, telling her usual silly stories that he could never seem to get enough of. Apple's mother and baby brother were upstairs in the apartment; her mother getting supper ready.

Pap finally found the crate's he was looking for and started to the first one toward the door when Boots, one of the several semi-feral cats that they allowed to hang around to keep the rats and mice down, ran under his feet tripping him. The man dropped the case trying to keep from falling, the case broke open, as well as one of the bottles. The contents, some sort of oily liquid spilled out over a large area and immediately caught fire (Greek fire maybe).

The fire spread quick due to all of the wood and Pap barely got Apple out of the warehouse. The man tried several times to get back in to rescue his wife and son but to no avail. They could not be rescued and the warehouse burnt to the ground.

Knowing he was doubly responsible for killing his wife and son (agreeing to smuggle the special boxes in and dropping one thus causing the fire) broke the man. He started drinking to drown the memories. However the "man" who wanted the boxes to be smuggled in did not care about the tragedy and just wanted his money. Pap had no other choice but to give what money he had available to the "man".

Now Pap is the town drunk and Apple tries to provide for them almost any way she can. They currently live in a falling down shack by the part of the docks where the fishing boats put in. Pap is almost always drunk and Apple spends the her time taking care of him, trying to find food, and sometimes hanging with some of the few people she can call friends.

-Apple blames Big Monty (if appropriate) for the loss of her mother and brother and may work her way up to trying to get revenge (possible story line)

-The Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson are constantly trying to get Apple to live with them. Using both coercion and legal means.

-Tomas Sawer is a middle aged man that has been instrumental in teaching Apple to "aquire" the food and little money she does for her father. He is always dreaming and scheming "The Big One" after which him and Apple will be set for life.

-Apple's "friend" Pugs, Tomas's previous "apprentice", a little older and way bigger than Apple festering a resentment bordering on hate for Apple tat Apple doesn't even know about.

-"The Old Man" a very old tree that limbs spread in a very large circle in a square on the edge of the dock district that Apple will climb and just hang out in when she needs to get away. While people may surround it, up in it's limbs Apple can find solitude when she needs.

Her parents might be gentry, but Tryphena herself - who usually goes by Phena - was an accident. Her mother Emmeline was already betrothed when she was seduced by a wandering elven bard. She was married quickly to try to conceal the pregnancy, but people could count, and her daughter Phena's pointed ears were a bit of a giveaway despite lame excuses like "We've both got some elven ancestry".

Her parents were loving, but distant. For her mother, she was a reminder of her foolish fling. Her father couldn't help preferring the two sons she bore him. There was an upside: few paid attention to what she was doing, or really cared that she was hanging around with a bunch of local children [the PCs] when she should have been studying.

She's a crack shot with a bow, and a good rider. In other respects, though, she's woefully unprepared. She's upbeat, (over-)confident and enthusiastic about the idea of 'adventuring'... partly because she's got no experience of adventuring beyond what she's read in books. Phena also has unjustified confidence in her own abilities.

---

She may have been the target for some of Davon's pranks!

[To be expanded]

Olivia's parents were both renowned adventurers of their day.  Her mother had a fondness for roses and was known as the Sword of Roses while her father was known as the Winter Sage who's specialty with spells of frost, during the height of summer could leave the forest a winter wonderland.  Their affection for one another was not enough to overcome thee free spirit of the adventuring life that they led, and so Olivia was born out of wedlock.  Despite this, Olivia was well loved and named in honor of a departed mutual friend they were fond of whom passed during one of their adventurers.  So she would come to known as Olivia Winter Rose.

An effort was made to raise Olivia for a few years, but old habits died hard and when the call to arms and adventure came for the thirteenth time, it was deemed dire enough for her parents to answer and leave their child in the care of Walt and Mary Hawthorne.  Craftsmen of Ambal Corin who plied their trade around the forges and kilns of their workshop.  The were indebted to Winter and Rose who had done them a good turn and helped them when they were young.  In their absence, the two would be entrusted with Olivia as her God Parents.  Parents not of blood, but sworn before the divine to raise a child as if they were of their own flesh and blood.

It was perhaps a temptation of fate that should not have been indulged.  Winter and Rose to this day has never returned from adventure and Olivia was left to be raised by her foster parents.  Along with her foster siblings she learns the family trades of pottery work and metal working.  It was not a terrible childhood for Olivia.  While it was true she grew up without knowing her parents first hand, Walt and Mary were good to their word and treated her as one of their own.  Years turned into decades and before the young couple who Olivia had loved were looking forward to retiring while training their children William, Beth and Susan to continue the family business.  Of course Olivia has been a part of all that and while she had all the knowledge of her siblings, she barely into her teens.

Olivia was all too familiar with the lifestyles of her foster family.  Perhaps too familiar.  Mary's concerned led to Olivia's introduction to Rushara Glamordaen.  She was a founder of the town with elvish blood leaving her lifespan long enough to withness what she had founded to this day.  Through her Olivia learned something of what it meant to be an elf and the first hand historical accounts of the ages that were other wise distorted by historians that were not.

Rushara lived away from the town proper and was not of the age to overlook the daily visitations of a young child, let alone daily supervision, so she was turned over to Mother Lumitra for a more formal education.  Here in the house of Sarenrae, Olivia would learn kindness and compassion and develop her sense of right from wrong.  While much of the town seemed to mature and age, Olivia was reassured by the sense that Lumitra seemed just as resistant to the callings of age as herself (at least compared to her human foster family).  The hymm and songs of Sarenrae's calling will be the foundation of song that stays with Olivia through her life.

Spending her days among the family workshop, Olivia develops her own interest and picks up information here and there from travelling craftsmen and traders.  Through the effort of curious experimentation with much trial and error, Olivia starts to learn how to work with glass.  A trade with practical appeal to the commoners who might want a bit of light in their house with out the chill of winter that an open window would have and the affluent, who seemed to find appeal in creative glassware's delicate and fragile nature.  It was just a hobby for Olivia, but one that seemed to have a robust market appeal.


[This is Olivia's stand alone history for now (subject to gamemaster approval), going to look at the other player characters to see how they might have interacted now]
This message was last edited by the player at 13:38, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

These are my suggested interactions with the other player characters, i'm open to hear counter suggestions and look forward to you input.

Olivia - I was thinking that we could be friends as well. When absolutely necessary, Apple will accept "hand-outs" however, she believes that she can't grow to rely on them so she tries to provide for herself and her father as much as possible.

Phena - you might have seen Apple watching you ride your horse and practicing your bow. She is not stalking you per se but does show up quite often to watch.

Davon - I could see us being friends when you left but I might feel (unfairly) like you abandoned me and when you come back I am very stand-offish.

Roughly what ages are people thinking of for their characters? I'm thinking early twenties for Davon.


Olivia - I like the idea that we've been friends, perhaps Davon seemed like the younger and Olivia was the more mature, caring sort. We could be class mates, but Davon probably wasn't there all that much! Davon's gone away a boy and returned a man, and now strangely maturity levels have been flipped and we need to figure things out anew.

Apple - Perhaps our Pa's are tavern buddies, one of the few people that tries to help with his drinking. Maybe your Pa sometimes crashes at Davon's family home when he's in a real bad way. As a youth Davon's helped him get back home or something. Davon's Ma might send any leftovers your way, in a neighbourly kinda way.

Phena - I think Davon's antics are probably examples of 'punching up', so whilst he'd definitely prank people he knows (You are all probably all in that group), but more likely he'd have aimed it your parents, particularly if they are wealthy. Perhaps as young kids we played adventures, running around outside with sticks and goofing about, but it's Phena that made good and actually has some skill. I imagine Davon would have been chased out of your estate / home area on sight, if anyone cared (more likely house servants than actual parents?)


At the moment we have Bard(?), Bard, Fighter and ?

I am thinking Rogue for Apple.

Rather than a handout, maybe from time to time, when Olivia (or her family) hits a labor crunch and needs some temporary labor, maybe Apple works for them part time doing odd bits of non skilled labor stuff that needs doing?


Olivia is offically, per the rules a 'Bard'.

She's not really a Bard in the classical running around strumming music to entertain the masses though.  Like most kids, she has a massive creative streak running through her and a natural brilliance regarding performance and the arts.  Due to her maturity, she doesn't take it seriously though.  So while there are two bards their outlook on the concept is going to be radically different.

We are... lacking healing somewhat... but (if it's like 1e) Bards have some healing spells.  It looks like we MIGHT be third level, if that's the case given her background i dont mind investing a level in cleric of some sort (given her attachment to the half elf mentor) it might make sense, and help keep us alive.

I see Olivia as a sort of 'Liberal Arts Major', which is an undecided dabble at things 'creative' sort over the more serious and focused sort.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:28, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

Yeah, sorry we're first level. I have yet to run PF2e at all and I need the experience running through all the levels. :P
The Character Sheet is just an example layout.

Also, apparently, Multiclassing works differently in PF2e. You always stay your class but you can take an Archetype feat (when you meet the prereqs and can take a general feat) to gain the signature ability of your other class. Then you have to keep dedicating feats to get more abilities in that class.

https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com/archetype/cleric/

I took a quick glance at the Bard Spell List and I see...1 healing spell. So you are not totally lacking in healing.
Although as they say here in America where we foolishly don't have a government health insurance program, don't get sick XD. It's expensive.


I've got some suggestions for your backgrounds too which I will post later after lunch. Good ideas so far though!

Yeah... I was wondering if Davon being packed off to something like Seminary might make sense. Could do down the reluctant champion/Cleric route. His ego could lend itself to a more to the hero type, but I could try and make either work. Not sure what's around the in game area.

Alternately he could have just straight up run away from the law and gone roguish but not sure that helps with group balance.

Alright, so some of my own ideas:


Olivia (and Phena): So I have another setting/plot idea that your parents being adventurers/wanderers would fit right into.

There is a 'native' custom in this region, based on old legends, but mostly practiced by local elves and a couple dwarves called the Starpath (translated from a long old elven name). It's practitioners are called Starpath Wanderers. Starpath Wanderers can be any adventurer but are mostly druids. They do have Champions (Redeemers) and Monks that take its cause as their deity though. Starpath Wanderers follow the 'destiny' laid out in the stars and seek to preserve the good in the world. They practice nonaggression, seeking to kill as little as possible, and step very lightly, constantly looking out for the ripple effect of their actions. They constantly seek to 'follow the stars' and thus never settle down in one place.

Apple: Big Monty can definitely be associated with your story that way. It actually gives me a great idea as to how to flesh him out.
A quick ask, how attached are you to the name Tomas Sawer for your mentor? I can work with the other NPCs but that seems so spot on that I can't really disassociate it from the inspiration character. Maybe something like Toki Saundor or something instead?
Also how do you feel about having a separate given name that perhaps your mother chose for you, and Apple is your nickname. I have the idea that your father would whisper it in his drunken forlorn moments or when he really wants you to hear what he's saying. Maybe Apalia or Apolonia.

Davon: If you're looking for champions, the Baroness is a champion of Iomedae, but she only accepts those that impress her personally and are already disciplined. Although there aren't a lot of standing religious institutions in the surrounding area, there are many wandering champions, clerics, and monks that take disciples, although that's a slightly different experience too.
If you are really looking for something like being sent off to military school relucantly, I can make up some religious reform schools overseas (just like I was gonna make up a Bardic College). I still don't think it's absolutely necessary to change classes though as Bards are so notoriously versatile.
Finally, if you are looking for rich patrons that will notice your talents, the mayor and Regis Baskers are both quite philanthropic and regularly make scholarships and recommendations for a Bard's or Wizard's education. Mother Lumitra would recommend you for a cleric or champion's training. The Temple has a scholarship fund too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:23, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

What? What inspiration character? I have no idea what you are talking about. LOL

I have no problem with a different name. I was thinking pronouncing it "Toe-moss" but I am not attached to it. Apple being a nickname is also perfectly fine with me and my actual given name could be Apolonia.

[Has negotiated housing for herself in town.]

So... Olivia is a long time resident of the town, and actually has pretty strong roots here, so she actually has a small cottage in this place.  So... if your characters need temporary shelter, or a place to stash stuff (hopefully not illegal...) she has a dwelling to store a modest amount of stuff.  She has enough clutter that a little more from friends to keep safe won't be noticed.





I don't know how much of this actually fits Olivia as a concept.  She is somewhat squimish and is not inclined to violence, but that's more of a maturity issue than a way of life for her.  The thoughtful nature and the way they consider cause and effect, is not something a little kid is going to be able to do.  Her Elvish mentors should be aware that she's not ready for this, maybe in a century or three when she's matured a bit, but at the moment she's more immature human looking like an elvish child.

They might have their eye on her for some reason or another related to her parents, but her parents did not raise her, so she only has a vague juvenile notion of the adventurous life.

I am actually quite liking the concept of Davon being this mischievous prankster, who almost the entire town reviled (except for those he was close with), disappearing for a while but returning as a reformed warrior.

I don't think it would work with the Baroness, because he was definitely undisciplined and not religiously devoted as a kid.

He'd need some complete basket case / hard nut to have taken on the challenge of reforming young Davon.  If he'd got in enough trouble to be in jail could be his punishment was to be sent off somewhere, so a distant reform school works well I think.

@Olivia: As long as you can envision your parents as followers of the Path, then I can work with that. I’ve got a plot line that you all can choose to follow or not about them.

@Phena: I’ve got your message about your parenting situation in the PM. Factoring that in.

@Apple: Alright! I’ll add your NPCs. Stat wise, I’d say you get your choice in Int or Cha as your background boost as well as your free background boost. You also gain the Pickpocket skill feat and you are trained in Society and Tea Lore or Underworld Lore.

@Davon: So sticking with Champion, then we could have you sent to a reform school overseas if you maybe pranked the Temple School in some impressive way. What deity did you want? And more importantly, WHAT DID YOU JUST DO YOUNG MAN?!

This is funny, i can see them being kids and Olivia being the 'mature one'... years later, Devon returns towering over Olivia in size... but... she's still the 'mature one'.

(laughs)

Are we allowed to meta coordinate and stuff?  I'm wondering if it would be okay to coordinate with the other bard to reduce overlap.

Well, if Davon chooses to be a Champion, you’ll be the only bard. But feel free to meta coordinate. Pm each other if it gets too cluttered in this thread. I’ll try to post a summary later on.

That totally works for me. The idea that Davon will be stripped of all his entertaining ways seems foolhardy. Perhaps he just directs it better.

I am leaning heavily toward Champion now, just doing a bit of research on my end. Will think on what the epic prank was that got him booted away. Like to think the stories about it over the years have exaggerated things a fair amount!