GM Giuseppe's Pathfinder Society Core Campaign [SEASON 1] (Inactive)

Game Master Giuseppe Capriati

Aldus told us that he was going abroad, so I expected him to disappear. I'd rather wait for at least Fiammetta though. I usually bot my players quite frequently in my other games, but since this is PFS I'd rather keep things as fair as possible.

I'm good with either. Given that we only have a single opponent left, Delaying her or readying a ranged attack vs the guy casing makes sense.

Sounds good, perhaps we can work up some rules later regarding botting. I've also been somewhat preoccupied of late, an incident on the boards with the first PbP scenario I am GMing. But that's fortunately over with now.

Well, I vote for an arrow and acid splash.

Agreed. Let's get this thing moving again.

Are there any new faction missions for this scenario?

I decided to give up on faction missions, because they have no meaning without any form of reward for them. Most of them are also pretty lame, at that.

Seems like we're down to three active players, guys. I don't know if it makes sense to keep playing when I have to regularly bot two characters. I was hoping at least Fiammetta would suddenly pop up and post something, but that does not seem to be the case. Aldus will be back in a few days, I suppose. Anyway, I'll try to get you moving anyway, but I'd rather have one of you control (and roll for) the missing players. Any volunteers?

Sure, roll here in Discussion and then you can incorporate it into your GM gameplay post?

Or just post with our alias, but with a "Botting Aldus" tag at the top? And just whoever's available to bot them does so.

I like Jak's idea, but I would like to assign a single PC to a single player. I hope they will be back soon enough anyway, so it wouldn't last long.

K, I can assume the botting of one, Jak you want the other? To spice it up for ya I'll take Aldus. Double Bard duty isn't fair for ya ;)

Is the plan to wait until we're 5 again?

At least 4 Nebs.

Hey guys, since it seems like Fiammetta simply disappeared, and we're still waiting on Aldus, who's supposed to be back in a few days, I think we have waited long enough. I will post tonight and move the action forward, regardless of the missing players.

Very cool. Looking forward to it (though I likely won't respond until tomorrow morning). :)

Sounds good, thanks for the update GM!

Okay. I assume you have, but did you try to reach her via PM or e-mail? Seems worth a shot.

Hey guys! Aldus is back from revolutionary cuba. The internet situation there made it impossible for me to post anything, but I'll catch up on the latest events and will be posting later today. Thanks for the botting and such =)

Welcome back. Hope it was fun (and safe). :)

Welcome back Aldus, we missed you!

Sounds like a perfect place for Aldus to visit ;) Welcome back to Cassomir!

Potentially a longshot, but is Nebraska's current weakened state considered a disease?

Nope :)

What if we set stuff on fire (fabric, wood, etc), throw it in and just let the bastard suffocate/burn to death? Would that be legal in PFS? Less importantly, does thinking this make me a bit of a terrible person?

Suffocate/burn to death might be harsh but the tried and true "smoke'em out" strategy may be worth a try. No clue what else is in there though, cages of people in the building over...

Anyway, guys, since we're about to close this module, I think we should decide what to do next. My initial project was ambitious, I know. We lost Fiammetta along the way, apparently. Also, we failed to keep up with the original posting rate, dropping it to only 1/day. Also, we somehow ended up being less involved and losing a little pace of late, due to absences and other issues.

Now, let's start with saying that I personally would like to continue. Are you still up for this? To be honest, I feel a little limited by the fact that we're playing PFS. PFS is cool and all, but it does not allow me to handwave rules in order to reward your roleplaying (Thunder Bucket is just an example). You are a wonderful group, and I believe you deserve something more. Perhaps an AP (Ironfang Invasion anyone?) or a module. Anyway, I also know that probably you're more interested in keep playing PFS, and I like the idea of our core campaign too. I'm willing to continue our project, but I need to know if you feel restrained by PFS rules. I feel like PFS does not allow me to give you my best (check my other campaign, CoT for an example of what I mean), but if you're OK with PFS limitations, I'm OK as well.

Let me know ;)

I was about to ask about Fiammetta, actually. No news whatsoever from her? How does it work now? How much should we wait, should we start a recruitment or what? I like her character =(

As for continuing, I'm all for it, of course. As it was probably clear from my questions and suggestions in the past, I do feel that PFS is a bit limiting (I am now dreaming of a campaign around thunderbucket: get the ship, sail somewhere far away, go all odyssey with it, etc). But, I signed up for it willingly and will stick to it unless we reach a unanimous decision otherwise.

That said, I do feel that the GM is much more limited in his fun than the players, due to having to follow the scenario to the letter and etc. Is there anything that perhaps we could do to make you feel less restricted, Giuseppe? Like, more roleplaying with NPCs or perhaps small interlude scenarios in which you are completely free (and that we somehow manage to compartmentalise so it doesn't have any lasting mechanical effects on the PFS bits)?

It's sad we lost Fiametta. I am guilty of falling out of character a bit too after the down time where we were unsure of who was present, no fault of anyone the ball just stopped rolling for a moment.

As far as GM flexibility and fun, there is "Campaign Mode" which would actually let us have our cake and eat it too.

I agree, the PFS aspect is what drew me in but it's not a deal breaker by any means. With the campaign mode above, we could do anything we wanted and still end up in the same place with highish level characters we can play at Cons in the future.

So, after rambling I want to say freedom to be creative is important and GM's CoT game is awesomely steeped in RP. I 100% want to continue, but I also kind of feel like us staying together for a different story is still continuing. If a pivot in the game will fully realize our potential I'm all for it.

Perhaps an AP (Ironfang Invasion anyone?)

I agree, that thing looks great. I loved my time spent in Nirmathas with Crypt of the Everflame.

I am now dreaming of a campaign around thunderbucket: get the ship, sail somewhere far away, go all odyssey with it, etc

Sounds like Skulls and Shackles to me... ;)

Agreed on Fiametta. It’s a shame, but pbp player attrition is part of the gig, in my experience. You try to recruit committed players, but there are a million reasons a player could fall off. Oh well.

As for moving forward, I’m still in. I like Jak and this crew!

As for how to proceed, I’m torn, but Nebraska’s suggestion really has me intrigued. I’d really like to continue with some kind of PFS because I want to develop Jak into something to be played down the line in other places and formats. And, frankly, it makes me feel a bit more invested in the character.

Campaign mode seems to offer the best of both worlds, though, as it seems to offer the DM and players more flexibility and creativity in play. Getting to actually realize the Thunderbucket could be a ton of fun, and slipping outside the usual PFS formality of play into something a bit more long-term and continuous is obviously interesting.

If I can make one suggestion? I don’t know why, but I really like to get the Confirmation under the belt of my Pathfinder characters. It makes them seem legit, and specifically for Jak that’s something that’d be interesting. Would ti be possible to slip that Scenario in before we go haring off across the world on crazy swashbuckling adventures? (Because Skulls and Shackles does sound interesting, given this group).

Also, since we lost our caster, can we recruit someone to fill that void? Now we’ve only got two bards for casting and healing. Picking someone up who can create some more spell casting diversity could be crucial.

EDIT: the Confirmation thing isn't crucial. Just a "nice to consider" thing.

Also, since we lost our caster, can we recruit someone to fill that void? Now we’ve only got two bards for casting and healing. Picking someone up who can create some more spell casting diversity could be crucial.

I had the same thought about party build. With two 2/3 arcane casters and a general trickster I'm assuming we'd look to pick up a full divine caster?

I'm quite committed to Nebraska as well. As rolling new characters with the same group of people doesn't always guarentee the same meshing, I'd lean towards keeping these characters.

I was not aware of Campaign mode, thank you for putting that up, Nebraska.

I'm definitely still in, it's a bit sad about Fiametta, though. I'd like to continue with PFS, and the Campaign Mode seems like a really good option for what we are looking for.

Post is short while there are several issues to be talked over, sorry, am on mobile. Will take time to think about all this and make a longer post at a computer.

I was not aware of Campaign mode, thank you for putting that up, Nebraska.

My pleasure, I just found it recently too. No idea what the original source is, like the Field Guide or whatever, but seems pretty generous of PFS in a fun way.

Out of curiosity I searched the PFS Roleplaying guild guide and, on page 11 under Additional playable content, it says:

For sanctioned modules and Adventure Paths, GMs are allowed to use their own rules for character creation and running the presented content (the entire book or series). Credit is applied to an appropriate Roleplaying Guild character as if the character created was a pregenerated character.

Though I'm not sure what the character credit part means, it sounds like a good compromise. I'm up for anything, and agree with Nebraska that ideally we would keep the same characters.

Regarding Fiammetta's possible replacement: a divine caster would also get my vote.

I also gave a more in-depth look at Campaign Mode, and unfortunately for us, it seems like it only allows to run modules and APs non-PFS rules for character creation and other stuff. The bad part of that is it only allows to run modules and APs. That means that we would have to abandon our initial project, and as far as I can see, no one wants to do so. Campaign mode would allow us to play an AP or a module with more freedom, but I can't see more freedom in running scenarios mentioned anywhere, sadly.

Does running an AP mean we would have to create new characters? Or could we just use these same characters and enter the AP midway? Though I said ideally I would like to keep the same characters, I'd be open for anything that leaves us all happier.

Do we want to run a recruitment thread for just one player, especially it it has to be, or really should be, a divine caster? Kind of limits the options, and if only one person is accepted, less people would apply. Then again, if we're no longer doing Season 0 PFS, and something harder instead, perhaps we could roll with 6 players. I'm not sure either, just pointing stuff out and offering suggestions.

Session reported.

Chronicles incoming.

Chronicles here. As you can see, this time I've chosen to let you do part of the job. You should complete the Chronicle yourselves, possibly using Acrobat Reader DC (which is free), entering all the required info about your character. Then please upload the document and give me a link to it so that I can put the chronicles in our Google Drive folder.

While you work on your chronicles, I will think about the future of this campaign. For your information, I'm currently set on continuing this campaign as it is (oh, Dolgarth, by the way, we're playing Season 1, not Season 0). I'm considering the idea of recruiting one more player, but if I don't find anyone suitable, perhaps one of our bards could use the free retraining to reskin as another class.

I'd say let's wait to see who we can recruit before we make any dramatic calls about our current characters. :)

If we end up needing to diversify, I'll be considering ways to keep Jak's character intact but round our out party comp. I think Aldus is working great as-is. :D

EDIT: meaning i'm going to hold off on applying the chronicle until we hear about our new team addition(s).

I would like everyone to work on their chronicles ASAP. Recruitment won't last for long.

Also, I think there's no need to change Jak nor Aldus classes anymore.

Is it just me or was this scenario much shorter and less deadly than the previous one?

@Jak: ha, I was actually looking through the cleric to see if I could make him some sort of crazy revolutionary priest. But I think we'll both get to keep our bards =)

@DM: just to confirm, besides the personal data section (name, etc), we also need to add everything we bought/sold before starting this scenario (e.g. darkwood bow, arrows), but not whatever we buy with the reward from the current scenario, right? On the same subject, should the stuff bought with PP be listed in the same place?

The scenario was actually very short and, in my opinion, one of the worst scenarios ever. Fortunately, the next one is one of the beast in Season 1, in my humble opinion.

As for your question, you are right Aldus. You should only add purchases made before TDWK II. Also, remember to add the amount of gp gained through day job. You should also list the stuff bought with PP, yes

Ok, I've done it. Not sure if everything's in the right place (e.g. day job amount on the items sold column), so let me know if I messed anything up.

Here's the link: https://we.tl/XxfL5HCZKm

I'll attack the Chronicle today! Thanks for another good game GM, If that's the worst the we're in for a splendid time.

Does running an AP mean we would have to create new characters? Or could we just use these same characters and enter the AP midway? Though I said ideally I would like to keep the same characters, I'd be open for anything that leaves us all happier.

We'd be able to keep these characters in spirit but the experience gained would have to go to a new used PFS #.

Very well, Aldus. Your chronicle was perfect. I'm waiting for the others to post their chronicles. Oh, and thank you Nebraska.

Also, I'm glad to announce that I've found our 5th member. He should post here within the day.

Alright, here's Jak's sheet for Scenario 2. Let me know if I need to make any adjustments, Giuseppe.
Jakwin, Scenario 2 Chronicle sheet

And, pre-rolling Scenario 3 Day Job, just to have it on-hand.
Perform (Sing): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Everything is in order Jak, thank you!