Have fun!
In the meantime, everybody wants to beat up the poor old paladin. What did Sonya ever do to evil, except dedicate her life to fighting it? Is that so bad?
It's almost like the big golden armor is a painted target or something. :P
Sonya will one day go on to invent camouflage spraypaint, and is never seen again
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Had a hectic weekend here (E's player came down for a visit, we painted the town red...okay... pink?). Will post later today!
Poor Sonya's really been my punching bag so far...
She really has. :/
Hopefully the dice will give her a break and she'll be able to do some bag-punching of her own. :D
She's just gonna be a big mass of scar tissue at some point, hope it doesn't hurt her CHA
Hey, I hear chics dig scars.
*looks sideways at Seraka*
Darn it, you beat me to the line.
Regarding treasure: once y'all are properly adventuring as opposed to just responding to a crisis in the town, I'll get a loot spreadsheet going. As for things you've "found" so far -- obviously you weren't stopping to strip goblin bodies as you went, but their gear, which none of you can use anyway (save the potions), is still part of your WBL. So if it's cool with everyone, I'll tally up an approximate value and find a way to give the value of the killed-goblin-gear to you in story rather than necessitating some sort of 'and then we go find the goblins WE killed and make sure to loot their bodies' contortionism.
Just in general, do people have suggestions on fair loot divvying for campaigns? The vast bulk of my Pathfinder play is actually PFS, and I've gotten so used to that method that my sense of how to divvy stuff up fairly in a long term game like this that doesn't have 'here, you get x gold' is always a little fuzzy, haha.
I'm probably leaning towards a system in which we'll tally gold value between sell points, divide that evenly, and if there's some bit of treasure you want, its cost is deducted from the treasure you personally get-- it's only that that starts to fall apart when there's a single item that's worth, say, half the total, and you're technically getting 'your share' of the gold and then some for the next few loot splits, as it were. So, suggestions are welcome.
Yah, loot management can be a real punk, but at the same time, it’s important. I’ve definitely been in a game where we suddenly realized that one or two players easily had double the WBL in gear than the other players just because the things we were finding in-game were much better used by those players. It just kind of stinks.
I kind of hate to have to ask people to “buy” items from the loot pile (because, ya know, it’s loot … we should just get it, right?), but at the same time it’s often one of the best ways to monitor the equal distribution of wealth.
Two ideas come to mind that seem like they might work.
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Idea 1: simple community solution
The first way to do it would be to have a google spreadsheet where we track loot between “Sell points” (I like that term). It could all be tracked as one column of items with follow-on columns helping us track numbers, values, and notes for each item. Then (either below it or on a separate Tab), we could have a section for each player. When someone claims a piece of gear from the loot, it’s moved from the main list onto their page, where we make sure to note the items’ purchase value. Then purchase value totals are added up at the top of their section to show what their total gear value is. If it is becoming imbalanced, we find a way to adjust as necessary.
The sticking point is what to do with those (usually consumable or wand-like) items that are good enough for the team to keep, only one or two people can actually use them, but a person doesn’t necessarily want/need to have that cost added to their personal value total. Maybe a section for “Group goodies” that just kind of lists those out and who’s carrying them? I don’t know.
The second sticking point is how to divvy up gold after we sell gear at a Sell-Point. Do we make the sell and distribute the resulting gold equally regardless of what everyone’s current personal gear value is? Or do we somehow take personal gear value into account when distributing gold from loot sales? I think this gets messy because it could get skewed in weird ways depending what kind of loot we find along the way.
Idea 2: complicated “I get to make choices for my gear” solution
Some people don’t like to have what’s basically one big pit of money/gear that we’re just doling out as we find it. Some people want to have more control over what items they get for their character at any given time, and they want it to be equal to what everyone else has. It’s a fair thing to want, really.
This idea is my best attempt at that level of equality and autonomy of gear selection (we started it in another game, but the game fell apart, so I don’t have a good idea of how well it was working). Similar to the first method, we start with a master loot list, with the same columns for numbers and value of each. As we’re adventuring, any item that is useful for a character to use (even if it’s not something they’re considering using long-term), remains on that master list of loot, but is noted as “being used by XXX”. So if we find a +1 cold iron longsword, which is too good for us to sell, could be incredibly useful, but isn’t really what either Sonya or Seraka want to actually give up a personal share of their loot to keep as their personal item … we keep it on the main loot list, noted as being held by one of those characters, for them to put to good use when we run into critters where that sword is the key to their destruction. At the same time, if it’s on this master loot list (even noted as being held by someone) is still group loot, meaning the group can basically vote to liquidate it.
Items that we find, are generally usable for the team, but we don’t want to hold against a character’s wealth level moves into a second tab/list called “Group Resources”. Wands/Potions of Healing, Restorative items, utility scrolls/wands, and other similar stuff like that fall into this category. Someone who can use it carries it, but it’s not held against their personal wealth level.
If we run across an item that someone wants to claim as their character’s (either because the group wants to sell it but they want to keep it, or because it has some mechanical, thematic, or story importance to the character), they have to “buy” it off the master loot list. Since the value to the team (on selling the item) was 1/2 its usual sell-value, the character can “buy” it for that amount of gold, and the rest of the characters split this gold evenly among themselves. That item is moved to that character’s tab/sub-list, with its total value listed off to the side.
We could still keep a running total of each person’s gear, which would probably help us notice when we’ve been looting really nice items for one character to “1/2 price buy” versus someone who’s having to wait and spend their money for full-priced items back in town.
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Thoughts? Questions? Obvious loopholes/problems I didn’t see when writing this down?
@Dien: Delaying it until it makes sense is fine for me - looting everything valuable (and not valuable) from a corpse always felt a little odd.
@Rokan: I'm fine with the second option. It pretty much automatically ensures that everyone's wealth are the same, and makes group resources like potions way easier. Plus crafting won't mess things up if people choose to do that - it just uses whatever personal funds people have.
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Rokan's second option sounds fine, though I generally advocate for the "Party Fund"... which is pretty much what he described as the "Group Resources", except that the "Party Fund" also gets a share of the gold looted.
The reason for that is so that items like potions and wands or campaign needs (that haven't been looted) can be purchased without coming from an individual PCs pocket.
As long as you're in a civilized location where arrows are available, I don't need you to track the mundane ones specifically, Rokan. If you guys set out into the wilderness or otherwise any place where it's not likely you could get arrows, then pay attention to it at least in a general sense. (This goes for any sort of mundane ammunition)
I'll work on trying to draw up a spreadsheet to reflect option 2. The running tally of everyone's WBL is good to make sure nobody's fallen through the cracks somehow.
We could also assume, say, a 5-way split of treasure rather than 4, with the 5th share being Party Funds to cover wand/etc purchases? Obviously you guys could individually toss more at it if you needed something in particular (or borrow out of if you're short a bit?), but it's like starting an investment fund or something.
Unrelatedly: I updated the campaign info tab with short descriptions of NPCs you've met or have some knowledge of, though in a few cases you haven't formally learned their names yet. (That should change soon for a few of them.) It's not 100% complete probably, but hopefully it's there as a quick refresher rather than needing to thread-hunt. Sandpoint has a LOT of NPCs, and while I don't expect you to meet or form significant relationships with all of them, they do help lend the town texture and are there for RP if you want to develop deeper ties with any of them, so this at least should be somewhat helpful.
The wiki to Sandpoint is also still fair game, but this will provide a quick shorthand.
Hey, I'll get a post up tomorrow. Been a crazy busy day
Woops, sorry, fell asleep before I posted. Now going to go finish that sleep, post coming later.
Here's a question:
One of the campaign traits I took (because it was very flavorful) makes us sell things for 10% more. Would that (somehow) only apply to me, or would we all just sell for 55-60% instead of 50%?
Sorry for the delay! I'll update properly later today at some point, but assuming that Sonya's in a position to sell things using her contacts, I can't see any logical story reason the bonus wouldn't apply to all of you, so enjoy the extra 10% and thank your friendly Abadaran. ;)
You'll have to excuse me if my posting is a bit scattered the next few days - I move into my new apartment tomorrow and the next day, but don't get internet until saturday
No worries, Battlespy-- I've been there! And this update is taking me a little bit anyway.
Unexpectedly tiring day today. Update coming later though, really truly. (After some sleep is had.)
Sorry for the slowness, guys, busy weekend. But I did GM my 100th PFS scenario! *polishes that shiny gold star*
No worries, darling! I've been busy all weekend too, and I'm heading out of town until Tuesday evening in about an hour.
I'll try getting something up in the car (while I'm awake) if I can!
I finally moved in all my furniture! Soon a return to normalcy
Bah, sorry guys, post coming first thing later today after I get some sleep, had some family stuff happen overnight.
Just re-read the last posts from Dien, Rokan, and Seraka. It makes Rokan's statements (specifically coming after Ameiko's blushing reaction) seem even more blunt and pointed than I had intended. For full transparency, I had intended it to be blunt, but more of a curious-statement-blunt delivered by a somewhat tone-deaf speaker. I didn't mean it as quite the 'in the moment' indictment that i think it might have come off as.
Not that I think it changes anything. I find Seraka interesting because of the way she's presenting herself, and I find Rokan interesting because of his unwillingness to be anything short of direct (read: blunt to the point of rudeness), and the dynamics that creates.
Anyway ... thus ends my likely unnecessary post.
Sorry for the slowdown, gang! Post will be coming tonight.
Post coming later today-- was working on it and I must be tired since I can't find a detail in the AP I am looking for that I wanted to double check, hrmf grmf. Will look again after sleep!
Gosh gang, I am so sorry, this week just sort kicked my rear end around the room. Update will come some time today, come hell or high water.
<3
I am doing nothing but apologizing for being slow lately, guys. ;___; I had a very fun out of town weekend where I thought I was going to be more productive than I was. I will make a concerted effort this coming week to keep us on a proper, timely pace. Thanks for the patience. Sleeping now, but post later today.
I didn't make a single Paizo post this weekend, and I can't imagine having a fun time away from your everyday makes writing posts any more easy. :)
I'll post hopefully in a few hours! Busy days recently, went to visit my college for homecoming
I will try getting one up later today as well
Updating later today, we had a local con over the weekend I'm still cleaning up after so to speak, and my grandmother's been pretty sick.
Hey Onelung, I have a secret to tell you that might help in the future.
I just discovered that invisible characters are allowed in alias names - so if you have another character in the future like E, you can do
ALT+255 to make an invisible ' ' character. I believe it works differently than spaces, which are trimmed off.
I know I've been really slow, guys, sigh, I'm sorry. I'm a full-time caregiver to my grandmother who recently turned 93, and she's been having a health downturn the last few weeks. I am still committed to our game, and I love you guys as players, but I've just been sapped recently and so anytime something's come up in a day I wind up putting off my game updates and suddenly it's the 'nope, too tired, doing it tomorrow' stage. >___>
Which is a prelude to my saying that, yes, I will update at some point today. Thanks for bearing with me.
I'll always be here for whenever you get time to post! Don't sweat it
Yah, th fact that I haven't even been able to get my other game off the ground should tell you I certainly don't hold life busy-ness against you, Dien. Like Battlespy, I'll be here, whenever you have the time and motivation to push things forward. :)
I'm hoping for the best for you and your grandmother.
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Post coming later today, sorry.
Just as a side note in case someone notices and gets confused - I got my main alias name changed.
I know that Seraka is having a really rough week and that E has been buried under homework (I'm actually at E's right now, we're going to a con this weekend). So I'll put us on a minibreak until Monday when I return home; hopefully by that point things will have evened out a little for all of us.
Ok!
Got home late-ish tonight; I'll come at things fresh in the mornin'. Well. Afternoon. Sometime after I sleep anyway.
Hey, sorry I've been MIA this week. I have a real bad stomach flu right now, and it's been beating the s#!~ out of me. I think I'm nearing the end of it (fingers crossed) so I'll hopefully be able to catch up soon.