Laws and Every Other Damn Thing: Kingmaker 4e

While this is Golarion, we are changing it somewhat. The look and feel will be very much American West during the Gold Rush era, including the advent of firearms (see below). The West as a culture is slowly dying, but the people are still as barbarous as ever. Saloons teem with monsters hiding under thin sheets of civilization.

This will be a very adult-themed game.

Enter the nation of Brevoy. Long time ago it was two nations, neither of which liked each other, by the names of Issia and Rostland.

Badass fella came along name of Choral the Conquerer, who kicked the crap out of everyone in what is now Brevoy with his two buddies, who happened to be red dragons.

Because of Choral's immense ass-badness, he became the king and united both countries, who still didn't like each other.

After a short dynasty of Choral's less-badass children, the entire royal line vanished one day. Nobody knows what happened, but the Surtova family cited some bull-hockey that put one of theirs on the throne. The Surtova's are Issian, which made the Rostlanders extremely angry. Restov, a city-state that will get mentioned pretty often in this game, wants to challenge the Surtovan hold on the throne with a Rostlander king/queen.

The nobles of Rostland are called Swordlords, and yes, that is a stupid name. The Swordlords of Restov had themselves a great little schemin' party, and came up with the idea that they needed to expand their military might and holdings. The Stolen Lands to the south, long a threat due to bandits and barbarians, represented the perfect opportunity.

Unfortunately, if they'd just up and annexed part of the Stolen Lands, it would tip their hand; Surtovan interests would see that as an obvious power grab and they'd respond in kind. Ergo, the Swordlords of Restov decided that if they sent some adventurers down south to explore the area under the pretense of dealing with raiders, they could eventually set up an ally state beholden to them. When it came time to throw down against Issia, Rostland would have a powerful ally to the south backing their play.

So, the Swordlords of Restov put out the call, and have chartered four groups of adventurers (with a liberal sprinkling of their own people, to ensure loyalty to Rostland). You are in one of these groups.

Originating from the province of Alkenstar, firearms have spread like wildfire across Golarion as an equalizer to rampant mages running around as if they own the place. The current tech level allows for revolvers, rifled barrels, and standardized ammunition. As factories are still unheard of apart from the Alkenstar gunworks, the creation of guns is still an artform practiced by individual gunsmiths, some more effectively than others. However, there's enough of a consensus to have a few distinct calibers of ammunition that are compatible across gunsmiths.

The magic-using population of Golarion has stepped up their efforts in this arms-race; many wizards, sorcerers, and hedge-magicians have adapted guns as a focus for their spellcasting. They originally used these like wands, only to find out that the Gun of Cure Light Wounds tended to defeat its own purpose.

Mechanically, there are no rules for firearms. The way we're going to treat this is the time-honored 4e artform of reskinning. Essentially, I don't care much what you describe your awesome attacks as. In your posts you would describe your gunslinger blasting away at enemies with two pearl-handled revolvers while your deputy sneaks up on a flank with his double-barreled shotgun. That's fine; mechanically, the ranger is using twin strike and the rogue is coming up for a melee attack with a shortsword.

Feel free to get creative with your reskinning; pretty much any ranged attack can be done with a rifle/pistol, including magic. Melee attacks work well as shotgun blasts, and area effects can be any number of things, like dynamite or molotov cocktails.

Why are you using 4th edition for a Pathfinder module?
Because I like 4th more. If you want to see Kingmaker done as intended in Pathfinder, I strongly suggest you go buy the modules and run it yourself. Hell, I’d even ask to play in it, except that I’m already in a PFRPG Kingmaker game.
Can I reskin X race mechanically into a human?
Sure. Knock yourself out.

5-6 with party composition taken into account. I’m looking for people that can handle roleplaying and combat with equal aplomb; if you only like one or the other, you need not apply.

As for posting requirements, once a day is more than enough. If we end up waiting on you for more than a few weekdays during combat, I'll probably NPC your turn, the next time, we'll start looking for a replacement. Outside of combat, if we don't hear from you for a long stretch, we'll probably start asking after you and failing a response, will start looking for a replacement.

Anything put out by Wizards of the Coast for 4th edition. 3rd party 4th edition content on a case-by-case basis, and I’m willing to convert backgrounds from Paizo’s stuff.

Build characters using standard point buy at level 1 with 100gp starting funds. Please also check out the Kingmaker Player’s guide for background information, available for a free download here. Please note that at least a skim of this narrow volume is required for this game.

Update: Nowadays the characters are at level 2, so you'll be building at 2 with standard gear for that level.

I'm shamelessly stealing the writeup that Sandster already did. Here it is:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=81085

The regions of Golarion are all ripped shamelessly from cultures and, in some cases, stereotypes from the real world. While I'm not going to waste time debating whether or not that's questionable from a political correctness standpoint, it does allow me to describe those regions and peoples very easily.

Listed below are short descriptions of each ethnic group.

Chelaxian: Very similar to Rome during Caligula or Nero's rule. As a state they have made alliances with infernal powers; they are under the impression that they are in control. Here law and morality don't really coincide; ask any slave.

Garundi: Similar to Bedouins before the time of Muhammad. If you really enjoyed Lawrence of Arabia, this is a good race for you.

Keleshite: Middle Easterners after Muhammad.

Kellid: Less of a real-world analogue, and more ripped straight out of Conan's Hyboria. Specifically, Cimmeria.

Mwangi: Essentially African tribes, such as the Zulu.

Taldane: The English during Victoria's rule, with a strong emphasis on Imperialism and National Superiority.

Tian: Your token Chinese/Japanese representation. They added this in because someone is going to want to play a damn samurai.

Ulfen: Vikings.

Varisian: Gypsies.

Vudrani: Indians, complete with a religion different than Hindu in name only. Lots of monks come from here, incidentally.

The regions are a little more widespread than the ethnic groups, which I'll get into later. The Golarion Campaign setting is, well, huge.

It may be easier, if you wish, to pick a real-world historical culture/place, and then I can tell you which Paizo-fied intellectual property your character hails from.