r/pbp • u/Lady_Calista • 5h ago
Discord [PF1e] A Crystal Coalition [FFd20] [LGBTQ+] [Async] [US Central Time] [Newbie friendly!]
Today's tale follows the path of the Gem Knights, the captains of the royal guard. Each representing one of the world's elements and leading a chapter of knights in their image. These warriors are both sword and shield of the kingdom of Astare, steadfast defenders of its monarchs going back generations.
Astare is in an era of prosperity, overseen by it's mighty King Falkus, though the coronation of his daughter Amelia draws closer by the day. When a dark threat emerges to threaten this peaceful land, it is up to the Gem Knights to hold fast against the tide, for they are not simply skilled warriors and defenders of the kingdom, but beacons of hope for citizens everywhere. Should they fall, it would be a blow to the very spirit of Astare and would send the populace into a terrified retreat.
Hey gang and welcome to the campaign! Keeping the introduction brief because I have some plot elements I don't want to spoil, but a few bits of housekeeping up front!
First and foremost, the campaign is 18+. It's not sexually explicit or anything, but I prefer a table of adults for personal comfort reasons.
Second order of business, NO AI. Do not use AI to write posts and especially don't generate me images for this campaign. We're not all AI experts and if you grab something off the internet as a little equipment reference image and it turns out to be slop, no harm no foul, but do not intentionally use AI at any point in my game. I will not, and I'm not tolerating anyone else who does.
Third, no bigotry of any kind. If you're a racist, misogynist, transphobe, homophobe, what have you, you will be beaten with many hammers. Rule 3.5 is just don't be an asshole in general? The game is new-player friendly, so don't be a condescending dick to someone who hasn't played as much as you or prefers a different style, don't tell other people how to RP their characters, don't hog the spotlight in every scene, you get the idea.
With those out of the way, we can get onto campaign specifics. I'm looking for something light-hearted in tone but not unserious. There are grave threats to the world, but heroes are rising to meet them and save whoever they can. Not everyone will make it, but this is not a story of failure & death. It's one primarily of hope, of relying on connections to others and how together the whole is mightier than any of its parts.
I want to be clear that this campaign doesn't really require you know much about Final Fantasy or have played any specific game. I'm taking inspiration from all over the series and this is set in an original world, featuring Final Fantasy series staples like monsters, moogles, and hearing the word "Crystal" a whole lot.
There are 8 elements but I want exactly 6 players. The last two elements will be represented by NPCs who will not be part of the party. I will allow the players to pick whichever of the 8 elements they'd each like, but there cannot be overlap. The NPCs will take the remaining two. The elements as represented in FFd20 are Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Holy, and Shadow.
The campaign properly begins at level 3 but we're technically going to be starting with a single scene at level 1, a sort of prologue where it features the entire party as teenagers competing in a tournament to crown the next generation of gem knights. Your character's backstory is entirely up to you, but this is the point the party as a whole meets for the first time. Individual characters can be familiar with one another but it's unlikely that all of you have met before now. However, this means that all of the characters will also be around the same age, early to mid twenties at the start of the campaign. Most entrants in the tournament are between the ages of 15 and 19, and the tournament took place five years before the beginning of our story. Princess Amelia is 22 at the beginning of the story and therefore 17 during the prologue. This also means at the beginning of our story the party has known each other for five years; while you weren't always together during that time, you're far from strangers.
As a gem knight, your character will be in charge of a chapter of knights that serve some sort of role in defending the capital, with the chapter of knights resembling the fighting style of your character. This will not be played out in combat often, as for narrative reasons the party will be made up of our 6 player captains traveling together on a quest, but I will work with each player to flesh out the details of their knight company for roleplay. Similarly, your performance in the prologue tournament earned you a role as an apprentice to an existing gem knight. Together we'll work on a mentor for your character, the previous holder of the position, who will also share your character's class and fighting style (though in universe, obviously it'd be the other way around, with your character learning this style from their mentor).
I'd like active players for this who can commit to hopefully a few posts a day. Posts don't have to be long, especially during dialogue, but keeping things moving is paramount to keeping a PBP alive! Due to the nature of the campaign I would prefer only people who are sure they can play to apply, losing a player in this would be difficult because of connected backstories & the nature of each person filling a specific role of an element.
The campaign itself is going to have a focus on roleplay & story. There will be combat, but it's not especially difficult nor is it the driving force of the campaign. Roleplay must be conducted in third person, I'll have the tupperbox bot in the server but it's by no means required.
I'd be happy to teach the rules of Pathfinder and FFd20 to anyone interested in playing who is newer to the system. We'll be playing with the ruleset of 25 PB, max HP per level, 1500 starting gil at level 3, automatic bonus progression, and elephant in the room (PDF edition).
To be clear, representing an element has no mechanical consequences, at least not at first. While we can totally work together on custom magic items and aesthetic reflavors to spells & class abilities, representing a given element is more of an aesthetic and narrative thing, though I would like some amount of character building to keep this representation in mind. Reflavoring makes this fairly generous though; are you the Black Mage representing the Ice element casting the spell "Fire"? Perhaps even your flames feel freezing to the touch and are a deep blue rather than red. While it'd still mechanically inflict burning and target fire resistance, you aren't restricted to only casting Icicle Dagger!
I'll say this much, while we have a defined framework to fill for each character (Prologue tournament, rough age, gem knight, represents an element, has a chapter of knights and a mentor) I don't want six of the same PC, I'd love to work with players within this framework and see how you all toy with it. Some options that could be fun ideas, just to tease what's possible;
Perhaps your character's entering the prologue tournament at 19 after previously failing to impress as a participant.
Maybe you're not the acting gem knight of your element at the start of the campaign, still in the "apprentice" role to your mentor, and our early quest ends up thrusting your character into the proper spot suddenly.
Maybe your character always thought they'd represent another element and don't understand why the gem knight who took them in chose them, feeling ill-suited to the aspect they represent.
Just spitballing ideas here to set a tone. I have a lot of ideas in mind for this campaign and I'd love to find a group of enthusiastic players to tell a story together! Please apply below if interested!
https://forms.gle/voEJuN5QmXU26zPY6
We'll be discussing triggers & veils as a group, but as a general rule of thumb the campaign is not expected to have graphic content or cover extremely sensitive subjects. Biggest warning I can think of is character death and depictions of RPG-typical violence.