Korinne Bryden |
This is my first time playing a low Wisdom character, so I'll likely occasionally make wisdom checks like the one I did in my last gameplay post to see if something that should be obvious and/or common sense occurs to her or not. In this case, it finally occurred to her that we might want to make sure that Oleg and Svetlana are okay with what we're planning to do :D
DM Jesse Heinig |
Just FYI, I am STUPID BUSY at the office today. I will probably have to catch up tomorrow. Sorry to keep everyone on pins and needles. :)
Cassandra Lupin |
You know, Telmarni would be a great Myrmidon, the ranged archetype of the magus.
Telmarni |
True, but the Myrmidon doesn't really work until after level 13. The archtype the comes in one of the more recent player companion books works a lot better, but I don't remember which one it may be.
Cassandra Lupin |
What happens at 13?
Telmarni |
Hm. Sorry, looks like I mixed it up with something else. Checking on it, it removes some spells and the means to recall spells.
Ah. I checked this messageboard, and found out the reason why it doesn't work as intended. Spell combat still requires melee attacks. So while it gets ranged spellstrike, any iterations still require melee strikes. Also, it doesn't allow to cast a spell without a free hand. Still would somehow get a weapon that can be used both as a melee weapon and a ranged thrown weapon, which doesn't help much.
But anyway, this really is not a place to discuss archtypes, lets keep such things away from here unless if it really matters to this game.
Cassandra Lupin |
FYI not trying to be difficult, just enjoying the RP. I think I will have to change to NG though. The two deities I listed are Erastil, LG, and Tulis, CG.
Carinna Del'annerie |
Cassie, I'm thinking about let the others jump into the conversation before we proceed... what do you think?
Cassandra Lupin |
Of course. But at this point it be nothing more than "[character] backs out of arms reach in case things get out of control". Though I am sure Telmarni or Tzerny have something to add.
Korinne Bryden |
FYI for posting, I'll try to keep up but I'm more of an afternoon/evening/nighttime poster as well as primarily a 1-2/day poster largely due to schedule and the number of games that I'm in. If there's something that Korinne would have reacted to I'll do it as a flashback/flex-time thing if the action has moved on.
DM Jesse Heinig |
And now a word about exploration!
Your primary task in the first AP of Kingmaker is to create a map of the northern Greenbelt (which encompasses the eastern part of the Narlmarches and some of the Kamelands).
Exploring is done on the hex map that you will currently find on the map link in the campaign info section!
Each hex is about 12 miles x 12 miles, or around 150 square miles. To explore a hex, you must move into that location, then spend time searching, mapping, and generally getting the lay of the land. Once this is done I will reveal the hex on the map and you will get 100 xp each!
Exploration will sometimes turn up other interesting things. You can also have encounters while exploring.
Exploring takes time based on your speed. If, say, you have a bunch of light horses, like the ones that you just liberated from the bandits, and everyone is riding with a speed of 50', you can explore pretty much any hex in one day. If you are going slower than that, heavy forest or rough hills might take more than one day to fully explore.
In addition to exploration, your charter calls upon you to defeat the bandit menace and restore order to the region. This is a long-term job, but from time to time you will pick up specific quests from people, and completing a quest is worth a bonus of 400 xp plus whatever favors, payout, or goodwill you earn -- on top of the xp earned for defeating hazards, role-playing, etc.
Once you've decided what to do with the current bandit captives, your first order of business is probably to explore the hex around Oleg's!
Remember to get rations! You don't want to run out of food and starve to death while out and about.
Important Note: The hex map is not aligned with north facing the top of the page. Yay Paizo for not knowing cartography. The "north" direction on the map is running along the hexes up-left. That means if you go straight left from Oleg's you are actually going west-south-west.
Cassandra Lupin |
1 dagger
3 shortswords
3 longbows
1 club
4 leather armor
1 silver amulet
1 composite longbow [2]
6 horses with 5 saddles, 1 pack saddle
I need the composite bow. Who wants what? I could also take the dagger.
Carinna Del'annerie |
Carinna would take the longbow and a horse.
Also, we'll not be able to use the speed bônus of the horses, since Cassandra won't be able to ride, but at least we can take one with us to carry our stuff.
DM Jesse Heinig |
Incidentally, none of the above is magical (as you might expect).
Going through the bandits' pockets and pouches more thoroughly turns up 75 gp and 10 days of trail rations (mostly smoked venison and salmon).
Cassandra Lupin |
I say we take what we need and give everything back to Oleg. That way he has some start up gold and trade goods to get back on his feet.
Telmarni |
Telmarni wouldn't mind a horse and a dagger. But we should keep the horses, we can use them as mounts, and as pack horses. Everything else, I agree with Cassandra. Maybe see if we can order a cure light wounds wand.
Cassandra Lupin |
There is only one dagger but you can have it. I was only taking it to build up the resources for a MW Survival Kit. Not technically necessary but I like to think she is collecting the pieces rather then buying an item. And I didn't mean the horses. I don't think Oleg would have a use for them.
DM Jesse Heinig |
Heads up that I'll be camping this weekend, contact may be sporadic until Sunday night or Monday!
DM Jesse Heinig |
Before I go:
For dealing with the first encounter with banditry, each party member gains 148 xp. This will be updated on the campaign info page with your running point total for the group.
Cassandra Lupin |
Long way to level 2 it seems.
Cassandra Lupin |
Also, congrats guys. We made it past the first mission. A lot don't.
Cassandra Lupin |
Also, also, can I get a cure from Korinne's last spell of the day. I notice for Arcanists they can only prepare 2 at first level but you can cast 3. 2 plus a bonus 1 from high Int.
DM Jesse Heinig |
I bet some of you secretly thought I was gonna disappear. ;)
Telmarni |
I don't want to be in any dead games! I am glad that this gets to continue.
Telmarni |
So with all the gold we received, we should each get 10 gold from Oleg, and... 15 Gold from the bandits. So each of us got 25 gold after we defeated the bandits. Plus a horse for each of us at least.
Um, any chance anyone better with math see about doing a loot list or something? I find it a bit confusing trying to figure out who might have what.
Cassandra Lupin |
It's not much so here is a list. Once someone lays claim to something it becomes their responsibility.
1 dagger - Telmarni
3 shortswords - gifted to Oleg
3 longbows - 1 to Carinna the rest gifted to Oleg
1 club - gifted to Oleg
4 leather armor - gifted to Oleg
1 silver amulet - kept but Korinne?
1 composite longbow [2] - Casssandra
6 horses with 5 saddles, 1 pack saddle - kept
2 Potions Cure Light
1 Potion Shield of Faith - Carinna
7 small tents (Assuming Oleg gives one per person) - kept
7 waterskins (same) - kept
10 trail rations - 2 per person
75.1gp from bandits - gifted to Oleg
50gp from Oleg - 10go per person.
Good?
Cassandra Lupin |
Can we also earn story feats?
I think these would fit Cassandra:
Explorer
Nation Builder
Feral Heart
DM Jesse Heinig |
I have created a Google doc that you can use to keep track of your loot.
I will include a viewable link in the campaign listing.
Also, you might gain unusual features over the course of the game, simply as a result of your experiences. Story feats, or features like them, are not outside the bounds of possibility.
Korinne Bryden |
Thanks for the Swag Bag link, DM! Are we meant to be able to edit it ourselves? I ask because right now it seems to be set to 'View Only'. If not, that's cool. According to what Cassandra posted a couple of posts up, Carinna has the Shield of Faith potion. I'd suggest that anyone who anticipates being up in melee take the Cure potions; maybe Carinna and Telmarni? (Not sure if Cassandra is aiming to be primarily melee, primarily ranged, or a switch-hitter.)
Also want to second the characterization on the NPCs so far; it's always a good thing for a game in my opinion, but for a game where I expect we'll be doing a lot of interacting with others as we go along, it'll be extremely important!
And as an aside, I wonder if there's ever been a Kingmaker game (failed or not) that didn't have some difficulties over what to do with the bandits? The first game Kor was in, we ended up having a pretty lengthy in-character dialogue on the morality of using Color Spray to take them out of the fight before they'd had a chance to decide if they wanted to surrender or keep fighting...
DM Jesse Heinig |
I have to manually add your emails to the bag to make it editable. If I post a link that allows editing on the campaign page, then ANYone could edit it, and I don't wanna get trolled.
What's interesting to me is that every KM group I've seen (which is only like, 4, admittedly) has had discussions over the moral dilemmas of the bandits (except one group I was in was basically ramrodded by a guy playing a hyper-optimized slayer who believed both in- and out-of-play that "might makes right" and killing anyone who disagreed with you was the only true way to solve disputes; though everyone else had something to say about the morality involved). Oddly, though, the book says almost nothing about it and doesn't really make much in the way of allowances for how to deal with it. It's like the designers assumed that "these are enemies so of course you kill them, just like skeletons or orcs or whatever."
Cassandra Lupin |
I have seen mixed reviews about Kingmaker. Especially how much is left out and it really depends on the DM to add to the story to make it interesting and the characters be decisive about certain decisions. I think we have already been hit with some mild analysis paralysis. While its good to voice opinions and have fun roleplaying, such activities can hamper the game, especially PBP which already suffers from slow dialogue. Adding more can make others loose interest. But You have done well to move us forward. Good job on that too.
The point that I was getting at is that, most agree Kingmaker is a setting more a setting than a campaign. It is up to us to make it a game. Once the bandits attack, anything goes, so trying to account for PC variation would have made it impossible to finish. That is my 2 cents.
Korinne Bryden |
I can agree with that. I think for PbP it can be difficult from the GM side of things to determine when to move things along and when to step back to allow for some RP and such. Though I've never GMed, speaking as a player I like a nice happy medium - I don't really like feeling super rushed but I can also agree that some degree of momentum needs to be kept or things can grind to a halt pretty quickly.
Some of Kor's ramblings and dialogue is my attempt to get inside her head a little more and find her voice, which is different in this game than it was in her first. Namely, her wisdom wasn't nearly as low then as it is now ;)
DM Jesse Heinig |
I've found that KM runs very much like an old-school Basic D&D game, complete with the transition to land-holding and kingdom-building. A lot of the game is built to be self-motivated; that's part of the reason you gain experience points for exploring hexes: It encourages you to engage in just that behavior. Once you've dealt with the initial bandit camp you start to realize just how big the Stolen Lands are and how important it is to map them out, plus you can get a regular trickle of xp by mapping and doing side quests. That alone tends to motivate many groups. Also, there are some developments (that you shall see soon) that kinda help to nudge you along in that direction by taking care of some of the areas that make PCs hesitant to leave Oleg's and strike out into the world.
DM Jesse Heinig |
Currently visiting relatives for the holiday, we should get to business on Monday!