[AP] Curse of the Crimson Throne by GMs Rutseg, Zek and Snowheart (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

(Don't pick on fat people!, you sir are a bully.)lol

ty Bashiel. Ill work with the group don't worry. I totally believe in what is right, and I will only try to kill whom I believe to be non repentant. Or that do truly horrific things. Not the average thug or thief. I wont be a problem for party cohesion. Brin is not a maverick he just wants to help. with a slightly more death penalty outlook. That is the only way I can justify his alignment. I have to walk a fine line with this class.

I am glad to have some lack of trust for this random group that just got thrown together for Mission Impossible. Loving it so far!

Role playing! Let's keep it up!

I'm a little map challenged and didnt want to confuse people although I seem to be doing that anyway. (I'm too used to no matter the orientation the top of the map is north)

I really liking the fact we still have some surprise going on here. Gregor didn't care what Kalem did with one of Lamm's men but when we finally come accross the kids it might be a different story after how he's been speaking about them.

Kalem isn't a "bad" guy. He was once a lamb too and doesn't want to hurt any of the kids. But he is 'pragmatic' enough that he'll break a few eggs to make an omelet. That is, Lamm must be taken down, and removing him will in the long run prevent far more hardship.

So don't worry about him going all murder happy or torturing innocents. But do keep an eye on him, as he is willing to be less than nice.

----

Also must say, I really like Brin. He is just so damn disturbing. If Kalem really knew everyone here, the only person he'd likely be afraid of is Brin.

On the halfling, you find:

Mwk kukri (small)
Studded leather (small)
Disguise kit
A key
7 gold

Kalem takes everything but the armor. If anyone wants something feel free to take take it, but for now it's on him.

Kalem - Gregor already took the kukri here, but the rest is still there... just so you know.

Good to know, thanks

Happy to hear everyone is on board :> I saw some of the internal thoughts in italics and I got a little worried. Probably read into them too much. I've heard some bad stories about players that decide to backstab their party because "thats what their character would do". Looks like I was silly for worrying.

@Brin The only thing I'm worried about is how to RP if Bashiel discovers Brin's past. That's going to be a doozy... OTOH, Bashiel is also all about sending the unrepentant to Osiris to be reincarnated, so maybe they'll get along really well. We'll see how things pan out as the characters get to know each other better.

@Kalem Glad to hear Kalem won't be randomly going on a innocent torturing spree. That one would be hard to let lie! :>
Btw, Bashiel looted the halfling already here. I'll say he probably picked up the key and disguise kit while leaving the rest alone.

I haven't been posting much but I do want you all to know that I am still here, just hasn't been much for me to do or say.

@Kalem Happy for you to have the Kukrui at some point, forgot I can't even use it.

I think your the only small person though (small kukuri). lol.

Hey all. I don't know about you but I'm having real problems with the forums. My connections keep timing out and I get the goblin server error. I'm trying to keep up but every time I'm free to post I can't connect.

Yeah, its been unstable the last couple of days. I've never noticed it down for longer than 10 mins or so though.

Hopefully you'll be able to post soon!

Exactly the same here, I've lost two posts before I figured it was the server crashing out.

I wish they would figure this out.

It's an ongoing problem that makes PbP difficult here. It's hard enough to keep a long-running PbP game going, but it's made more difficult if people can't post during their available time.

The attack roll-ercoaster has no brakes. Attacks so far (rolls in parenthesis):

Crit (19, 17 confirm)
Miss (3)
Miss (2)
Miss (2)
Crit (20, 12 confirm)

Seems like I'm up for 3 more misses next.

Yeah, I started another campaign as a player, blew my good rolls on a throw away pickpocket encounter then got slammed in the actual fight. Them dice is fickle!

Hey all. I'll have a post up this afternoon; I want to properly write something for Ilsa and Gregor. In the meantime, just to clarify in response to Bashiel's question, this was the only other source of noise. You haven't heard anything else.

By the way, if I'm having a total brain fart and have forgotten that anyone other than Ilsa and Gregor have living people they are searching for (connected to Gaedren), give me a holler (and accept my apologies).

Thanks for the clarification!
Looking forward to hearing what else the kids have to say Re: Bashiel, Ilsa and Kalem's question.

Grazi. That's what I get for writing something while also trying to drive.

:-o I didn't just say that.

Just a heads up. I will be leaving Thursday morning for a 4-day retreat at the beach that lasts til Sunday afternoon, then I have a Sunday night concert to attend. I will take my computer with me, but I may not be able to post much til after I get home. Please feel free to bot me if I delay the game at all.

On Monday, my dog goes into surgery and when he returns home on Tuesday, I will be on a full-time home care regimen with him. He needs to be walked with a belly band whenever he needs to relieve himself or get up to get a drink or eat, so it will be a busy time. (He's an almost 100 lb st. bernard puppy, so he can't be carried for these things).

I'll be able to post regularly again starting Monday, but perhaps not as frequently as usual for a while.... Anyway, sorry in advance for any lack of posting on my part. I will do the best I can.

Enjoy the vacation and my best wishes for a speedy recovery for your pup. We have a 150# kuvasz who has had more than his fair share of surgeries. I know what it's like.

Hey all, I will be on spring break with my family (Moab Utah).

My posting from Wednesday until Sunday will be spotty, though I hope to check in from time to time.

Enjoy your vacations all, I'm not even a little jealous

*stares wistfully into the distance*

Also good luck with the pupper Quinlan, I know that can be an ordeal :>

Yah! Enjoy your vacations. I've got a four day weekend next week to look forward, I really need it.

I hope for a speedy recovery for your pup too Quin.

thanks!

have fun!!!!

I just wanna say that is the most spread out adventuring party I have seen in awhile.

We've got a lot of members and the areas aren't super big. Plus its more fun taking risks :>

Indeed!

man that's what I thought too. on the identifying, but when I looked it up online the reference doc gave me this. so whichever, apparently it looks like this is up for debate on other threads. so I'm good for either. do you want me to reroll? personally I assume they are cure potions.

Identifying Potions: In addition to the standard methods of identification, PCs can sample from each container they find to attempt to determine the nature of the liquid inside with a Perception check. The DC of this check is equal to 15 + the spell level of the potion (although this DC might be higher for rare or unusual potions).

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit...

All these years and not a single one of my players (including the rules lawyers) have ever noticed that.

Okay. Yup. That's fair.

You know the latter two are potions of cure light. The first looks the same as them.

We've known about it in our group, but no one is in a hurry to give it a try when any random bottle picked up could be a poison instead.

OTOH, in We Be Goblins style games, this is the ONLY method of identifying potions :>

Actually She looks "dead" tired. BWAHAHHAHAH........

I don't want to metagame- you want a heal chk or perception to notice. I was not in the room.

Lol. I'm not worried about that. If we were at a table, someone would just (somewhat reasonably) retcon it to say "of course we told everyone what happened."

The meta gaming that bothers me more is "based on the description of the monster we're fighting, I know it's an Urgothian Brain Guzzler and it has a weakness to bardic music...no, my PC doesn't have that knowledge check, but I'm still going to start singing".

But an assumption that you all communicate what you know, absent something preventing you from communicating...I'm not going to get hung up on that.

To be fair, Bashiel wouldn't have shared that she's still alive, partially because there hasn't been time to, and partially because he'd like to have at least one person to bring back to the Guard ;>

If it makes things easier though, we can say Bashiel mentioned it to Brin when he saw him walk back to the west side of the building.

As a side note, I'm looking forward to our first encounter with Urgothian Brain Guzzlers.

Lovely Brin and a smashing entrance Bashiel.

@ Bashiel and Brin - of it was intentional, then sure, Brin will have to inspect the body. I'd say a basic perception check (DC 12) would notice she is still breathing. Heal D.C. 15 to see she's unconscious but stable.

@ Gregor - I updated my post in the Gameplay thread to respond to your action

All,

As you know, this is my first time GMing a PbP game. Now that we've finished some RP portions and a couple of combats, I was wondering if you had any feedback or suggestions? Things that are working well, things that could be tweaked/improved, whatever.

I'm enjoying it and hope you are, too.

I'm super-excited about this game! It's the one I think about and plan for.

So I think you are doing an amazing job. I like your consistency in posting (HUGE for PbP success). I think you do a great job of describing the action and keeping all the actions in order.

The only thing I wish is that we could move our icons on the maps. But it also looks like you are doing some extra nice stuff with the maps (names of characters, dead bodies, etc.), so I don't want to mess that up.

Loving it!

That's helpful; thanks! I'm a player in a game where the GM has put the map into an excel file and folks can move their tokens between cells. I haven't figured out how to do that but maybe I can tinker with it some this weekend. It would definitely save some time on my part so it's a suggestion I am happy to explore!

I think the most popular options for moving around are Google Docs or Google Slides (slides even lets you move from your phone). I like the visuals of the map and character icons.

Basically, you cut and paste a map in Slides, cover unexplored areas with black squares (super easy), and then put the tokens on. Everyone moves their own token around.

I think in the long run it might be easier on you, since you only put the maps up once instead of after each area we explore.

HERE is an example from a game I'm running, and I've seen lots of DMs do it this way.

Again, this is a minor issue for me and I'm definitely loving the game!

yes, google docs and google slides are great! Other than that, I think you're doing a great job so far! Good descriptive text and keeping the action moving and letting folks do some good rp too...

Agreed with Ilsa here, I'm digging the way the game has been going and I think you're doing a great job! Your posting frequency and quality of descriptions/info provided are top notch :>

Google Slides works well for the maps for all the reasons Ilsa talked about. Each player being able to move their character to precisely where they want is pretty great. And being easy to update means you can reveal things exactly as we get to them rather than when you get access to a computer to do the edits and upload a new map. Google even saves the history of the file, so you can check the moves people made for legality.

The alternative here is something like Roll20, an online virtual tabletop. A little more effort to set up, and less functional when accessed from a mobile phone, but a lot more flashy (you can even set up music and the like).

One other thing that works really well is to include an initiative reminder in every GM post you make while we're in combat. Basically as a reminder for who we're waiting on and any relevant details people should know about. I saw you started doing something like this in the last couple of combat rounds, and I think it really helps keep combat clean and clear. Something like:

Initiative:

Round 4:

- Brin
- Kalem
- Gregor: You have an AoO vs. Urgothian Brain Guzzler to your west if you want it.
- Bashiel: Give me a DC10 FORT vs. Poison at start of your turn.
- Varor
- Quinlan
- Ilsa
- Spiders

Waiting on bold to post.

I think your doing fine man, good job.

Bo problem so far, its all been very smooth!

But I will echo what the others have said about the maps, Slides is very good for people to move themselves. I was also wondering if you could post the current map link at the top? On my phone I have a little problem getting in to google drive and then getting the map.

I was also wondering if you could post the current map link at the top? On my phone I have a little problem getting in to google drive and then getting the map.

There is a link at the top of the page that will take you to the "slides" map. Is that what you mean?

Thats exactly what I meant thanks Snow! Just to let everyone know this weekend I will be a little delayed for easter.