Solo Trade

[Llyarden]

So I've ended up with a...kind of weird idea that would never really be plausible in a normal game (for multiple reasons), so I figured why not try to do a solo trade. The basic synopsis of what I would like someone to run as a solo game for me can basically be summarised as follows: a party of epic level chefs running a tavern (in PF/3.PF.)

There are a surprising number of classes and archetypes out there that have food- and drink-themed abilities even before you start refluffing things, to the point that after a brief trawl through some 3pp books (and a little bit of homebrew people have posted) I found more than a dozen different classes. And then I started thinking of ways to connect them together and...long story short I ended up with 6 tristalt builds. And then I found some 3.5 homebrew (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?652446-3-5-Base-Class-Mythos-quot-When-a-house-is-both-hungry-and-awake-quot) that just straight up lets you play a building.

To answer the two most obvious questions I imagine people will ask:
- Why a party? Partly because trying to ram all those aforementioned classes and archetypes into a single build would result in some kind of monstrous...like, icosastalt? Or something? And partly because in a solo game I find controlling a group opens up more opportunities for RP than controlling just one character. Six (or seven if you count the tavern) characters is...slightly more than I would normally go for, but it's probably still manageable.
- Why epic? Honestly just because...there aren't many opportunities to break out high-level stuff, especially when it's niche things that aren't published online and well-known, and because even if the party end up wildly imbalanced with each other or some of the classes prove to be totally OP, it's not going to cause any issues amongst the players, because, you know, there's only one player and I'm not going to get cross with myself because one of my characters is more optimised than another one.

As for what I actually want to happen in the game, that would mostly be up to the DM. The whole 'running the tavern' part can probably be mostly background, because slice-of-life stuff is pretty hard to sustain for a long time in my experience, and I mean they're still powerful even if they are not exactly traditional adventurers so they can still get involved in random stuff that happens.

Obviously this is intended as a solo trade, so I'm happy to GM...basically whatever? I'm most familiar with PF, M&M, GURPS, PTU...wow I never really thought about how many RPGs use acronyms before now, huh. Aside from those I own a bunch of other RPGs so feel free to drop a message if there's a solo game concept you particularly want running. (You know, if the forums work long enough! This may or may not be my third attempt at posting this thread...)

[Auranghzeb]

I am fascinated by the premise. However I don’t like larger than 4 characters parties in PbP. It makes posting as DM exponentially harder. I can envision a Futurama-like tavern owners that need to gather absurd ingredients across the planes of existence to cater to epic entities… for now, I’m following this thread.

[Llyarden]

I mean, I'm fine with reducing the number of characters down to something more manageable like 3-4 or so. And wandering around having to find ridiculous ingredients would definitely work as a premise.

[Auranghzeb]

Ok, throw some character concepts my way. Not builds, just concepts. Who’s the chef and the sous-chef? Is this “The Bear” in the planes?

[Llyarden]

I'm...not really sure what The Bear is, to be honest. But as for vague character concepts, I can probably put something together...

(Mostly just made all this up on the fly, so things like race and gender...and names...are still up in the air.)

The Chef (and proprietor) - In another life, they would have been a preeminent archmage, with magical power and skill to rival the legendary figures of old. ...unfortunately, they were born in a small village where their magical knack wasn't picked up, and they were drafted into helping in the tavern's kitchen when they should've been mastering the arcane arts. They did eventually attend a proper magical education, but by that their childhood upbringing had left their magic a little...odd. Their entangles brought forth sticky noodles, their fireballs blasts of super-spicy sauce...they were no less competent than their fellows, but the more pressure they were put under to cast 'normal' magic, they more the stress led them to naturally default to what came naturally to them. In the end they were expelled in disgrace and became an adventurer, where their weird-but-effective magic was better accepted, and eventually made enough money to open a tavern, where they could cook in peace...or at least that was the plan, except somehow they started playing host to incredibly powerful entities and having to find extraordinary ingredients. It's not that they don't enjoy it - both the challenge and the acknowledgement - but somehow it wasn't quite what they had in mind.
* May or may not have been isekai'd from our world, purely because one of the classes I found is just straight up 'KFC the class' and it would be a little weird otherwise.

The Sous-Chef - Once a noble's private chef who fell foul of political maneuverings and ended up being scapegoated for some scandal, after which they were hired (since [The Chef] realised that having a professionally trained cook might be useful and had the money from their adventuring to pay well.) The most competent cook of the bunch, and probably also the most eager to keep going with the whole 'providing meals to epic entities' thing, but also the most grounded in reality. Has had to do a lot of political wheeling and dealing to keep the group from getting in trouble for impulsively doing what they want.

The Waiter - Also responsible for drinks (and maybe snacks?) Was the 'apprentice' to one of [The Chef]'s old schoolmates, although what it actually meant was that they had to make potions that their 'master' then passed off as theirs and sold for an exorbitant amount, until the group put a stop to it and offered them a job where they could actually get recognition for their talents. Sometimes sneaks enchantments into the drinks of people at the tavern - sleeping spells to deal with rowdy patrons - and, if they don't get the message and come back and cause trouble again, curses - but also more beneficial spells like remove disease for people they feel sorry for.

The Tavern Itself - Originally one of the targets [The Chef] received a quest to subjugate in their adventuring days, although at the time it was thought to simply be a haunted house. It eventually transpired that the former occupants of the house had attempted to summon a demon, but kinda stuffed up the ritual and bound the demon to the building, effectively starving it. It had enough sentience to watch person after person enter the building and be consumed by the power it had long since lost the energy to control, and slowly lost its connection to the Abyss enough to feel sorry for them, so its interest was piqued when a strange magician arrived and was able to hold their own against its hunger - and not only that, but even restore its energy with their own magic. Nowadays, it gets the energy it needs simply from the power radiating off the immeasurably powerful beings that come to visit. After centuries of being trapped in tavern form, its nature as a being of pure evil has faded with time, although it definitely has a mean streak when it comes to people who insult the tavern or its employees.
* Obviously this is only plausible if you allow the Dysokios class I linked in my first post. Kinda hard to have a living building otherwise.

[Auranghzeb]

I like those, the building won't see much adventuring, but I don't mind it as an entity and part of the narrative. But I'd lean on you for that. That party of three could work.

Generally speaking I see how this could work.

[Llyarden]

Sounds good! So, what would you want me to run in exchange?

[Auranghzeb]

I'd love to play something fast leveling with not many filler encounters. some 40/60 balance on role play and hack and slash. 3.5/PF. Maybe two characters. A Swashbuckling type and an Occultist/Binder. Perhaps the Buffy/Giles archetype, or the Arthur/Merlin archetype: the "chosen" one with a mentor. I'm not a complicated guy when it comes to my games.
I know you know your Spheres very well, so maybe a A sphere's Swashbuckling type, like the Bravo or a Fencing Prodigy.

[Llyarden]

Sounds good. Should we carry on discussing this in PMs?