[Game Closed] The Open Fist - A Thieves Tale

[Dracc]

The Open Fist - A Thieves Tale

It has been two consecutive harsh winters for Rend’s Port, or Rensport, as the people of the slums call it. On years like that, the ocean itself would freeze over, stopping all flow of commerce. For the people of Northport, this was merely an inconvenience. For the denizens of Southy, this was possibly life threatening.

It was fall now, and paranoia gripped the people of Southy. Very few felt they would survive a winter like the previous two. Many had already turned to begging on the other side of the wall in Northport. Not since its founding nearly 700 years ago, had Rend’s Port seen such dramatic times. In those days the giant walls that separate the two halves of Rend’s Port were constructed to keep raiders out. But the city outgrew itself and the slums rose outside the protection of the walls.

Now, the gangs that ran Southy are becoming more and more aggressive, and each day the territory might change by a whole block or more. The people who live between the two rivals sit in their homes, fearing the very out-of-doors.

Some of the kinder folks of Northport have been lobbying to send aid outside their walls to the sprawling slums around the majestic trade city. Despite the winters, Northport was prospering as usual. Though they themselves were stocking up this season to prepare for a harsh year, if it came. The city Magistrate had vetoed any attempts at sending official aid, but some charities had been started, and the neediest of Southy were receiving some supplies and menial amounts of money.

Northport’s attempts at "civilizing" Southy had been abandoned some years ago. Their efforts consisted mainly of sending members of the Sword and Shield, the city’s official guard, directly into gang skirmishes. This created a tremendous loss of life, and an uproar from Southy. Now, the Sword and Shield have all but disappeared from Southy, though patrols still stand just south of the great gates and hurl threats and insults.

Throughout all of this, one group of people who call Rensport home have prospered. Perhaps even more so than the rich traders and merchants who sit atop the old guard towers on the ocean side. The Empty fist. One of the most successful thieves guild on all the continent. So renowned are they, that the folks in Southy named one of their Inns, the Open Fist, after the group of scoundrels.

Stealing mainly from the rich merchants of Northport, the guild has been a major part of Rensport for over 400 years. It is rumored that the guild was started by a descendant of the city’s founder, Rend "Windwalker" Broadside’s. The group gained the favor of Southy 70 years ago when the current guild leader took to dumping a portion of their take throughout the streets of Southy. To this day, some families dine on the silver of prosperous trading household from those days. Most however, have been sold to survive the poverty.

One shining aspect of the Empty fist is their amazing longevity. They have outlasted all the gang uprisings, and even a coupe the of government in North Town. The greatest reason for this might be the simple fact that nobody has ever been able to find their hideout. A great many rumors circulate as to its location. One of the most outlandish of these is a commonly held belief that the Fists live beneath the docks, or somewhere under the sea. Another tells of a corrupt government who pretends to steal from itself in order to raise taxes.

Northport has been hard at work tracking the Fists lately, as their wintertime raids have been quite taxing on the middle class. With winter rapidly approaching, the guard has been doubled, and everyone in the northern city is on edge.

But you worry not. Why? Because you are among the newest recruits for the Empty Fist.

Your life has suddenly become full of political intrigue, adrenaline hyped missions, and complete secrecy. You, and a few other green members have been summoned to the sub basement of the inn known as the Open Fist, the headquarters of the Empty Fist Guild.

The Open fist is bordered by two other buildings, Mahrk’s Wears, and the Silver Goldpiece, a general store and loan agency respectively. Together the three buildings comprise the entire base of operations for the Fist. The general store cleverly sells of useless take to the poor of Southy at insanely low prices. The Loan agency launders coin, a recent addition to the Fist. When North Town issued a legal currency, they were able to track the gold by their stamp, which was nearly impossible to alter or forge. The Fists triumphed however, by buying up the adjacent building and adding it to the guild.

The Inn itself serves as a meeting place, and has a fully functional tavern to entertain the denizens of Southy, as well as many retired Fists. Its rooms however, are used to house the newest members of the guild, as all the senior members have purchased homes in either Southy or Northport.

This precisely where you find yourself; In your room above the bustle of the tavern below. A note has been slipped under your door. It reads: All new recruits are to report to the Meeting Hall in twenty minutes. Below those words is a nearly incomprehensible signature that you recognize belongs to Jaden "The Courtisan" Ravenfoot, the current guildmaster.

Jaden took over control of the guild only five years ago, but in that time has managed to pull the group through one of the toughest times in their history. Many within the guild credit her single-handedly for fighting back the Sword and Shield, mainly through her political maneuvering. She managed this by creating an alter ego, a rich heiress who resides in Northport. Now she lives a double life, using her wealth to wheel and deal within the government, and her inside knowledge to keep the Fist safe.

Jaden's temper is legendary. What are you doing just sitting on your bunk? You had better get yourself down to that Meeting Hall!

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I'm looking for 2-3 players to join 2 preselected players. Please make a character sheet with description and back stroy included in the Notes section, and post a link in this thread. PM me with any questions. Applications will be accepted until October 14th, when final selections will be made.

All characters will start at level 2. At least one level must be spent as rogue.

We will be using the 32 point stat buy system found at the beggining of chapter 6 in the DMG.

Magic using classes of any type are forbidden, as well as any class or race with supernatural or spell like abilities. Asside from this, any class or race detailed in the PH, DMG, Stormwrack, or Complete Series books (Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, etc.)

At first level HP is max, and on subsiquent levels you may choose to roll your hp, or take the average scrore rounded down. i.e. A d10 HD has an average roll of aprox. 5.5. You may roll a d10 to determine HP, or you may automaticaly choose to take 5 HP. A d4 results in 2 hp, d6 in 3 HP, etc...

Alignments should be evil, though some neutral characters might fit in.

Other rules may be found in the offical game thread, The Open Fist.

Please note: The forum will remain under construction until the game begins. All information is subject to change. Changes will be notified in this thread. New threads are being created as the need arises, and more information is being added daily, however, there is sufficient information to begin character creation.

[Jondera]

Magic casting classes are forbidden, but how would we go about editing an existing class (i.e. Bard, ranger, paladin, etc...) to be non-magical?

[Obscurity]

There's templates for non-spell Rangers and Paladins in Complete Warrior, but I doubt you want to play a Paladin in this particular campaign.

[djrackley]

I was totally going to suggest that a bard could be an excellent thief. Just because he doesn't have access to all those skill points like a rogue does, doesn't mean that he can't steal stuff and be good at it. Just that's pretty much ALL he'd be good at. And with speak language being a class skill, there wouldn't be a language known that he didn't know how to speak fluently and get himself out of all sorts of trouble.

But with the dismissal of magic, I'm not sure I'm down with that.

[Dracc]

There is a religious system in this game, so paladins would really be religious fighters who fought for a cause. Given the alignment and rogueishness(Not a word) of the game, I doubt they would fit in well.

And yes, the non-magical variants for rangers would be allowed, however I think that the Urban variant of the ranger is even more appropriate, Combine those two and you have a very skilled urban hunter. A perfect character for this game.

Bards! Bards are awesome, and while they normaly gain magic augment them, they may still make good characters without it. Their music would still have affect in combat, as this is a non-magical effect. And I will increase their hitdie to a d8, and give them a +2 bonus on ALL charisma based checks. Remember, avoiding a fight is often a better solution.

I think that answers all the questions thus far. I want to reiterate one more time, please write up a chaarcter background and description in the notes section of your character sheet. This will be what gets you into the game, not the character itself. This will most likely be a very high RP game, due to the political turmoil etc. So smart, witty, and charismatic characters may even fare better than sneaky, deadly ones.

[Jondera]

One more question. I am used to 3E rules, and am not really familiar with the 3.5E rules, but I would like to participate. If I were to play a bard/rogue type character (which is what I would want to), what additional stats stuff would I need to know? (if any...)

Edit: I just looked it up in the SRD, and I will play a Rog/Brd.

Expect me to have the character up sometime tomorrow.

[Nom]

Ok...I'm going out on a limb here to build a char which might not be possible. I'm hoping for a Monk/Rogue .!!!!!Yeah,yeah,yeah ...I know. Monk's can only be " Lawful" But if you go by the specific's, would not a " Lawful-Evil" char still be " Lawful" 'cause he had " Lawful" in his name ? !!If this is unacceptable so be it. I won't go any further. But I think they have obvious advantages that complement each other.
So here I go...rolling for 2nd lev HP as I add Rogue as my 2nd LEV Multiclass to my 1st LEV Gnome/Monk...Mind you, I will like to fall back on the original post by Dracc that allows us to use an AVG. HP if we'd like. See how I'm kinda SQUEEEEZING the rules to get this char out there.
Rolling for anything better than a 3

Dice Roll:

(as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code)
d6:	4

[Nom]

"4 " is better than a " 3" wwooohhoo !!!!!

[Nom]

Upon further inspection I believe that, " The char gains HP from each class, with the resulting HP added together." So I have to add a d8 to my previous roll...I bet it's a 1 or 2 !

Dice Roll:

(as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code)
d8:	7

[Nom]

I just know with that Dracc is going to come tell me the char is not allowed due to the whole Alignment thing...The Dice-roller Gods are with me, but the DM gods don't like Alignment tweaking !
Nom

[Hexril]

Okay, I thought I'd try to join this campaign. My character's going to be a full rogue. I'm not done with my character sheet, but here it is so far: Deksin

Hope I'm able to join.

HP roll:

Dice Roll:

(as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code)
d6:	1

Stats rolls:

Dice Roll:

(as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code)
4d6:	5, 1, 1, 2	Total = 9
4d6:	3, 4, 5, 6	Total = 18
4d6:	3, 2, 2, 1	Total = 8
4d6:	6, 4, 5, 3	Total = 18
4d6:	3, 2, 1, 2	Total = 8
4d6:	2, 2, 5, 5	Total = 14

[Nom]

OK , Here's a dilemma that I need clarification on . And I quote ," A monk who gains who gains a new class or ( if already multiclassed) raises another class by a level may never again raise her monk level, though she reteains all har Monk abilities. "...Here's the dilemma...Can I start out as a Rogue, add a 2nd LEV to my char of Monk, then at 3rd LEV add Monk again without incurring this penalty of " never again raising monk lev. " In other words, can I go 1st LEV Rogue, 2nd LEV Monk , 3rd LEV Monk ? Following that could I then continue on as a Rogue indeffinitely without incurring any multiclass penalty of XP / split between 2 classes ? Because the PHB says I can't progress " ever" in Monk does that wipe my slate clean of being a multiclass?

[aerondor]

The PHB rule is that if you have monk levels you may continue to advance as a monk until either
a: You lose your lawful alignment or
b: You take a level in another class.,

So you can go rogue 1, monk 1&2 then rogue 2->18 if you want to. At least according to RAW.

But no, that doesn't mean that if you pick up another class and take it above 3 you won't sufferer from multiclassing.

And if you are a gnome rogue/monk then you will have an even bigger problem as neither are favoured by gnomes so as soon as you make it to rogue 4 (after monk 2) you will take a multiclassing penalty.

[Nom]

Thanks so much for the info. It seems as though I need to start as a Human then. Thanks, Nom

[Nom]

Okay sorry for all the posts. Probably not getting into this game because I'm a nuisance...Or maybe I will get in because I'm such the avid poster...Anyway here's the deal.
Creating a Human Rogue/Monk-Lawful/Evil (No Ki-type abilities,only taking Monk to Lev 3)
Rollin for 2nd LEV Monk HP----------

Dice Roll:

(as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code)
d8:	3

See ya soon, Nom