GM Wolfspirit's PbP Game Day IV: Siege of Serpents (Inactive)

Game Master Wolfspirit

Discussion Thread for the PbP Game Day IV: Siege of Serpents. More instructions to follow for tonight, but for now please post your character name, PFS ID / Character number, faction, and email.

Smiley is here! Party can begin.

Smiley was told to read this scroll.

Character Name: Smiley Stonegirdle
PFS ID: 106336-12
Faction: The Exchange
Day Job: Profession (Odd Jobs) (if that's allowed)

"Jillia Tennille, Student of Swords, reporting for duty!"

A redheaded woman in silver and purple robes pokes her head through the door. "Hello? Am I in the right room?"

Good to see Jillia and Markus again! Also *waves* to Smiley; good to see you again too ;)

Hi! Come on in, says Markus brightly. Nice to see everyone.

A 6'4", thickly muscled half-orc arrives. Tattoos and brandings of a vaguely nautical nature, as well as symbols sacred to at least five or six gods cover his exposed greenish flesh. He rests his forearms on his massive Orc double ax and says My name is Kharg

Awesome, glad to see everyone checked in!

The specifics on how the Special is going to be run are starting to trickle in, and I've asked to clarify what all I can share (especially on the timeline and important dates.) I will say that there is a set timeline for some of the events, so it's important that everyone be able to post daily or let me know if you're going to be away.

This is especially important for Thanksgiving / Black Friday.

It's completely understandable if people have holiday plans or work commitments and the Unexpected always happens, I just want people to communicate whenever possible so nobody is waiting.

Other than that, things will begin tomorrow at noonish! There's the typical "ease-in / Muster" period that there would be for a tabletop Special, so don't feel like you have to mash your refresh button. It should be fun, however.

Other than that, one thing I'm working on is getting a set of "passive" skill checks set up in advance to save time during the game. I'll probably ask for people to send me a list of relevant modifiers to save some time. (More on that tonight.)

The way I'm planning to run things, if there's a passive check that would need to be rolled (Initiative, Passive Perception, Save, Monster ID Knowledges, etc) I'll roll in advance and spoiler the results for whomever it would be relevant. Hopefully that will keep up the flow of the game instead of asking for someone to make a check, have them respond, then post the results.

I'm sure I'll be posting more tonight as I think about it, but for now I just wanted to say how excited I am to get this rolling. I've run several multi-tier specials, but having things spread out over 45 days elevates it to feeling Epic instead of Chaotic.

Oh, one more absolutely important thing! If there's ever anything that you see that's questionable in play (like if I confuse someone's attack roll with a damage roll) or if you have any feedback on my GMing, please let me know. Even if it's just a "Are you sure that's the DC?" or a "Can you spend a bit more time with the NPC interactions?"

I'm still figuring out a bit what works and doesn't in this format and there's going to be a fine line between pushing between objectives and creating an immersive roleplay. In general, though, we're all going to be spending the next 45 days together (that still boggles my mind) and I'm always looking to make the experience better for everyone.

Allright, here's the list of rolls / "passive" skill modifiers I'm going to be collecting:
Initiative
Ref Save
Fort Save
Will Save
Perception Skill
Sense Motive Skill
Knowledge Arcana
Knowledge Dungeoneering
Knowledge Engineering
Knowledge Geography
Knowledge History
Knowledge Local
Knowledge Nature
Knowledge Nobility
Knowledge Planes
Knowledge Religion
Spellcraft

If anyone has some time and wants to PM me their modifiers and / or formatted text like "dice=Wolfspirit's Initiative]1d20+2[/dice]" that'd save me some time. (no idea if BBCode formatting sends over PM, and leaving off the lead ']' definitely allows me to copy it) Otherwise I'll be trolling people's profiles and collecting them on my GM Wolfspirit4W profile in the next couple of days.

Modifiers PM'd, with thanks to Smiley for doing all the hard work so that I could just copy and paste the majority of it!

If there's something that you're untrained in, you can leave it off. No need to re-send though, this is already a big help for me to get things organized.

So, there's been two different emails to the Special GMs, one saying that things would start at noon EST, and one that there was going to be an official post to kick stuff off. It looks like a bunch of the tables have started though, so I'll kick off our Gameplay thread!

I embellished the intro text a hair just to add context but it doesn't change the plot. Stretching material that lasts at most 25 minutes to covering several days Real Time exposes how flimsy the start as written is ;)

"So, if we're not on assignment, why are we essentially in Pathfinder teams? Why are we here?" etc.

Anyway, begin!

I was thinking I'd handle the Competitions aspect a bit different; usually you go around the table just rolling off on skills until times run out. I was thinking we could add a bit of actual RP to the various challenges and split off to the different events after the initial introduction is done.

There is a minor mechanical benefit to succeeding at the individual Competiions, so if we near running out of time, we'll go to just rolls at the end with a bit of a montage.

Here are the Competition categories, with the relevant skills / ability checks. Please post which ones you'd like to compete in; there isn't a limit to the number you can compete, but hopefully everyone can participate in at least 2. Whichever one or two are the most popular for, we'll segue way to first.

I can Intimidate some animals into doing what I say (so long as they're not bigger than me!) and Janira's obstacle course has prepared me for another run at some obstacles. I can probably also spot some stuff with my sharp Halfling senses, so I'll enter:

Animal Taming
Obstacle Course
Sleuthing

GM, I pm'ed you the skill rolls you requested. I would also like to thank Smiley for doing all the formatting on the list.

As for the competitions, my list, in order of preference would be;

weight lifting (strength)
Obstacle Course (Acrobatics)
Animal Taming (Intimidate)

Smiley blushes at all the attention.

Smiley likes these games:
* Weight Lifting
* Obstacle Course
* Sleuthing ('cos Smiley have many smarts)

Hell yeah, another obstacle course! I've got a bit to prove after the mixed results of the last one...

So:

Obstacle Course
Weightlifting
Boasting

Yes, thank you Smiley!

Hum...I think Nella would be most suited for:

Lore Symposium (Kn. Religion)
Sleuthing (Heal)

Just for fun, she might try:

Boasting/Storytelling (Bluff; Untrained)
Obstacle Course (Dex)

Though she's not exactly the best-suited for those last two skill-wise, she'd enjoy telling a story and I think she'd like to try and redeem herself for her performance during the last obstacle course she tried ;)

Looks like the Obstacle Course is a clear favorite, so we'll do that first with most of the party while Brob escorts Nella to the Lore Symposium. I'll probably post again tomorrow at lunch assuming everyone has a chance to finish introductions.

They've just posted up the link to the Overseer Posts page. Here's where any Special wide information will be shared, including a rough schedule, some clarification on terms, etc. It's password protected and I'll be PMing everyone the password; there were concerns about copyright material being shared in a completely open medium.

Think we're off to a great start.

Just a note, all the Rewards are a one time use during the scenario (per person.)

There really isn't a *downside* to attempting the competitions and unless you have negatives it's a near 50-50 shot, so when time starts to run out, I'll give the signal and everyone can give a go with anything they want to make a stab at (even untrained / straight ability checks.)

Phew. Think I hit all the Competitions anyone could compete in. As I mentioned, anyone can still compete in any of the competitions, even if it's an untrained skill check (assuming that the skill can normally be used untrained.)

Tomorrow night will be the wrap up of this Act, I think. Hope everyone enjoyed the Competitions :)

A few logistics things as we're coming up on the transition:

I've been thinking about is how we want to handle non-combat "active skill checks" for the upcoming Acts. I'll be handling the "Passive" checks, but if you guys want to decide in advance how to handle, say, who is going to be taking point on Diplomacy and who is going to be assisting, it might speed things up. One other option is that if the group is waiting on someone for a non-combat roll, I can roll it for them after a set amount of time (12 hours?) if that character hasn't responded. I really just don't want to waste a lot of time with "Well, my Knowledge Local is X, Who wants to roll diplomacy? Wait my Intimidate is higher!" that can take seconds at a physical table but could stretch out over a day in PbP.

There are also going to be a lot of choices that the group can make. I was thinking about using the "rule of two": if two people express a course of action they want to take, we'll go with that. This is also going to be a case study for efficient Play By Post; it'll be important that people telegraph in OOC what actions they want or may take. There's a lot of opportunity for decision paralysis otherwise

Rerolls: I'm going to assume that everyone has some Character Folio or can run to their closet to put on a PFS shirt without needing evidence of the fact. If there's anything you want to use your re-roll on or use an ability to add a skill you don't normally have that might change the course of an encounter or a roll I made for you, we can re-wind and use that! It can be played off that close proximity to the Sky Key is giving glimpses of the future or something ;)

All sounds very sensible to me. I'll own up to the fact that I don't have anything to earn a re-roll with though.

Some say Smiley not that smart, but Smiley notices things.

If there's any Perceptin' to be done, Smiley's +6 is at your service. Aside from that, most of Smiley's skills are of the hitting/kicking/smashing/choking variety.

Besides a +6 Bluff, Jillia's pretty focused on physical skills.

Rule of Two sounds fine by me. And feel free to roll any skills/skill aids you feel are appropriate. I'll include any that match what I'm doing. And we can go from there.

Overseer Announcment

“Pathfinders, please get settled. All campus-wide events are closing. All venture-captains and field agents are invited to gather on the north lawn for refreshments and the keynote address in several minutes.”

Table GMs Act 2 begins November 10th when the Overseer Announcement is made, please begin to conclude whatever contests are ongoing.

Nella does have the Inspired trait which gives her a free re-roll on a skill or ability check once per day, but I don't have any t-shirts or Folios that would grant a re-roll.

Regarding skills, Nella's got a +7 to Heal and Sense Motive, +6 for Diplomacy and +5 for Kn. Religion. She's also got +7 on Craft: Musical Instruments but somehow I doubt that one will be relevant here ;)

Overseer Announcment

Overseer wrote:

“Pathfinders, please get settled. All campus-wide events are closing. All venture-captains and field agents are invited to gather on the north lawn for refreshments and the keynote address in several minutes.”

Table GMs Act 2 begins November 10th when the Overseer Announcement is made, please begin to conclude whatever contests are ongoing.

And we have the official "moving to the next phase" warning. I'm working on a wrap up post to tie up some of the lose ends (complete with show tunes!) Luckily, I'm taking tomorrow off to go to the DMV, totally not to play Fallout 4 and post the next Act right when it goes live.

Side note: Can you believe this section of content would be 25 minutes of "filler" while people get settled at their tables?

Sounds good! And really, just 25 minutes? Wow...

Also, let us know how Fallout 4 is, not that you're going to be playing it or anything tomorrow... ;)

(I've only played Fallout 3 and still need to play New Vegas, but I'm hoping for Fallout 4 for Christmas maybe!)

Don't tell me about Fallout 4, please. I've avoided getting an XBox1/P$4 up to this point...

The two skills I am best at: Acrobatics +6, Intimidate +5.

I am good with the rule of two.

I hope everyone can forgive a bit of GM-Pet-NPC-Grandstanding; that was also my Schrodinger's 4-Star GM celebration. Technically not there yet, but when this completes I will be!

Not a problem and an early congrats on 4 Stars!

Forgot to say earlier that I'm fine with the Rule of Two as well.

That song is amazing! Congrats on the 4th star.

*******************
Overseer Announcement
*******************

Am I right that we're in the North-West sector at present? If so, I think we should stay put, as we're not going to be able to get to the other sectors at any sort of speed so we may as well defend where we are.

SOP Time! In addition to figuring out where the group wants to go to first, I want you guys to figure out a Standard Operating Procedure for how you want to go about things. There's a swirling mass of chaos with dead and dying Pathfinder Agents and a chaotic milling around of the leaderless.

Normally a SOP would cover stuff like "I search for traps on the door" during a dungeon crawl so that you don't have to roll every room you go into. For the purposes of this though, here's a couple questions to answer to keep up the pace:

• Do you involve yourself in ordering around some of the other Pathfinders?
  
• Are there any specific combats you seek our or avoid?
  
• Do you stop to render aid to the dead or dying?
  
• Do you just rush off to the nearest fight?

Markus wouldn't feel comfortable ordering around other Pathfinders, he sees himself as still very junior.
I don't think there is anything he'd specifically avoid combat-wise, unless it's clearly too powerful for him to handle.
Markus isn't very good at healing, but he's happy to stop and help stabilise people if the rest of the group can help.
Rushing off is probably not something Markus would do, he'd consider where he can make the most difference before committing.

Jillia:

Do you involve yourself in ordering around some of the other Pathfinders?
Probably. If not by direct word, certainly by example and raw optimism.
Are there any specific combats you seek our or avoid?
While not actively seeking out a fight, Jillia's not one to avoid one if it's headed her way.
Do you stop to render aid to the dead or dying?
Absolutely. Or, at the very least, fight to provide cover for those that can.
Do you just rush off to the nearest fight?
Only if that's the nearest problem to solve.

(1) Nella probably wouldn't try ordering around anyone that seems to be a senior Pathfinder but she has no problem with doing that with other initiates and newbies like herself if push comes to shove.
(2) Same as Markus, she wouldn't necessarily avoid anything in particular unless it looked to be more than the group can handle.
(3) Nella will absolutely work to help stabilize people if she can.
(4) As much as Nella might want to dive headlong into things to help, I think she'd realize that the group needs to pick and choose its battles (literally and figuratively) wisely.

No real preference on where we want to start though whatever section we're currently in seems most sensible. That would be uh...North-East?

From where you're at, they're all equally distant. Added a "You are Here" X

North-East is as good as any though, and as chaos erupts around you any decision is better than decision paralysis ;)

I'm thinking this question has 'no wrong answer,'- -there's chaos from wall-to-wall.

So, I can't remember my password and I am not seeing how to reset it on this overseer announcement page. Does anyone know how to reset the password?

OK, so as everyone else clearly remembered, we received the password by private message. Please disregard...long day at work..etc....etc

Smiley's carefully planned strategy is "find the nearest enemy and rush them". To Smiley's mind, anything else can wait until after the battle.

•Do you involve yourself in ordering around some of the other Pathfinders? Not particularly. If someone is frozen with fear or overcome with confusion, I can see Kharg shouting "encouragement" to the individual, but not too much beyond that

•Are there any specific combats you seek our or avoid? No

•Do you stop to render aid to the dead or dying? Not while there is something to fight, but if there is a lull, he would certainly render what aid he can

•Do you just rush off to the nearest fight? probably, unless one of the people at his table is under some sort of direct threat

Halfling luck continues to hold true.

Halfling luck continues to hold true.

Yeah. It's kinda starting to freak me out a little.

(Coming from a player with two Math degrees, heh.)

What does your math degree about rolling three 1s on a d20 out of 7 rolls? ;)

I actually feel kinda bad, heh.

That it should happen 35 times out of every 1280000000 times you roll 7 d20.

EDIT: That's not right. I shouldn't be doing probability in my head.

I'll come back to it during office hours.

It should happen (roughly) 7 out of 2000 tries.

So roughly 1-in-286.

(Exactly 914247-in-256000000 if you'd like).

@Markus, I'm not understanding "(Lockwood please)". Did I miss a memo?