This is going to be wonderful :D
Yeah. Should be fun.
I'm looking at recruiting one more to replace Ankova if she doesn't return, or to complement the group if she does. Laliytsa has provided me with a few names of prospective players, but if anyone has someone they like to play with, PM me and I'll add them to the list of people to message.
I have a few people I like playing with. I'll put my thinking cap on and PM you soonish.
Thanks a bunch to Laliytsa for finding another player. My real-life got insane for a few days there, and I appreciate her helping me out like that.
Hey there, Laliytsa directed me here. Im told you would appreciate some sort of divinely inclined personality. Im thinking Oracle, possibly Aasimar if allowed. If allowed, are the variants on the table? (Like angel-kin and such)
Aasimar is fine with me, as are the different bloodlines of them. We had an oracle, but she had to drop out due to personal issues. Oracle should be a good fit. Any particular archetype/mystery/curse in mind? (everything is on the table.)
As far as backstory, I'm open to a lot of things, but it'd be great if you had two or three NPCs you wouldn't mind me using later on.
Awesome to have you aboard!
Awww, a charisma-based class? And here I was hoping to see the awkward farm boy thrust into rulership :P
Nah, seriously, good to have you aboard. (Sweet, I'm not the newcomer anymore!)
4 3 5 6 1 2 makes sense to me, Daen. Unfortunately, my computer is in the shop and I'm on an ancient junker, so I won't be able to adjust the tools at all until then. If you've got suggestions on how to improve anything I'm doing, whether it be maps, RP, combat, or anything else, I'm always open to them.
Welcome aboard! To be honest, a well thought out character is all we really need, we can work out the rest. That's part of the fun of this game is making it work.
I've got a real life group that is doing a CORE only run of Rise of the Runelords with two sorcerers, a druid and a monk. So far so good.
I'd like to knock out the Moonradish Soup quest just because it seems easy (famous last words I know). I am pretty sure that going 4 3 5 6 1 2 would take us right through the patch, but I just want to double check that.
Great to see you over here Deliverance! :D
4 3 5 6 1 2 would take you through the patch. You've been through the hex before, but on the way to the bandit camp you didn't have time to explore and I handwaved the trip back.
Once Deliverance has a character up, I'll find a way to do introductions and you can be on your way.
Ahh, ninja'd my last post I see. The tools are fine if we all understand them. I'm good with keeping things as they are for now. It fits an uncharted wilderness.
Also, what time did we get back? Are we going to have to rest up before we leave? That would give time for the new blood to arrive.
It was around sunset. You're talking by fire-and-candlelight now. You'll have time to rest up. I mean, at this point, if you wanted to spend three weeks fortifying Oleg's, I would do my best to GM it interestingly. Sandbox is open for the children.
Do we have any progress on that new character? I'm kind of itching to get this thing going again...
I'm eager too. Hopefully we'll be moving soon!
My computer is back, and with it are most of my files for this game!
I didn't know it was gone?
There's a story there.
Yeah, my laptop started crashing really hard, like, freezing up within 5 minutes of booting up. I brought it to the shop, and they did something or other to it over four days and fixed it. I did lose a lot of my downloads, but luckily, Inkscape and most of my books were on my junker, so I flashdrive'd them over to this machine. It's as good as new, except Steam died a horrible death and my internet here is painfully slow. Ah well.
I'm thinking if you want to get started, I can come up with some other way to get Deliverance into the game. Up to you guys, though.
EDIT: Deliverance, feel free to dot the Gameplay if it helps you keep track of where we are.
My biggest hold up right now, is lack of inspiration for character background, could probably knock out crunch in a hour or less.
If everyone is fine with him starting as a blank slate that gets some story later, I can get it ready pretty soon.
I've got no problem with that, so long as some sort of background happens eventually. If the others are okay with a minimal or no-background character, I'll make it work.
You can always pull the half-starved man found in the wilderness with no memory schtick. That's always a good time. Then just have some random dreams or something and work it all out later. My wife did that once and had a great time until she got eaten by some extraplanar illithid god. That's really never a good time.
Are you kidding, Daen? From the GM's perspective, that sounds like a great time!
Well, the rest of the party was supposed to go rescue her... but they decided to rest and regain their spells first. The DM just looked over at my wife and shook his head slowly. He didn't expect the group to be like that. They had a paladin too, and he ran off to try to rescue her himself, but he couldn't take all the bad guys by himself.
I'm a fan of the amnesia idea.
Ok, heres my oracle, a free spirited Aasimar of elven descent. Will be a carefree wanderer seeking the betterment of others.
Thats all I got right now.
*looks over new character*
*suddenly feels superfluous*
Perish the thought good sire!! We need you to smack things!
Well, yeah, but now that's the only thing I bring to the table. If I just needed to smack things, I would have built a barbarian :p
Well, different strokes for different folks I suppose. And different brands of smacking.
Lionel brings four things.
1: Healing energies to soothe the pains of the innocent and heroic alike.
2: A few of those nifty spell things.
3: Buttery smooth persuasion skills.
4: Wicked flute solos like youve never heard before!
My thought process (with help from existing members) was basically, "Hmm, lacking in strength-based melee, AC, healing, diplomacy, and a charisma-based character for the Ruler leadership position... Yeah, a paladin will cover those!"
Now the only one of those I do best is strength-based melee. I'm just chuckling sadly, shaking my head, and thinking "well, f!##".
I'm not trying to whinge, or butt heads; this just happens to me a lot :p
:(
Is there anything I can do to make people feel better about this? I feel like it's my responsibility, and if people aren't happy with their characters' roles, I'd like to fix that sooner rather than later.
I had a big post put together and the site ate it.
It's more my bad luck than anything else. I felt like I had to spread myself a bit thin to cover what the party was lacking, so I ended up with someone who could cover the bases, rather than a more specialized character. And now I'm too attached to Kazimir as he is to change him much. (I also really wanted to see him end up as the ruler, trying to reconcile his duties with his faith and his sexuality. Would have been all kinds of fun.)
So I'm feeling a bit put-out, but it's a reflection on me as a player, not you as a GM. And right now, I'm at work and don't have the time to think about what I can do to fix things on my end.
I can work through this; it's just been a stressful week in general, and molehills are becoming mountains.
@ Kazimir: I can see how you're concerned about your role, given the stuff you've pointed out. I know you're not trying to whine, and I'd like to make everyone happy both with their characters and with their role in the party. That said, it was difficult to figure out which role was missing in the party. I felt like we had an interesting balance, but with Ankova missing, I had Laliytsa ask Deliverance for either a divine caster or skills character.
In response to your more recent post, if you're in need of someone to vent to about your week, my inbox is always open. As for kingdom-building roles, it'd be optimal to have the highest Charisma be the ruler, but there's a very reasonable chance that Lionel's character won't want the job. There are seven non-ruler roles that all benefit from Charisma, so there's plenty of opportunity for him to select something else, should his character go in that direction.
@ Lionel: Would it be possible to change mysteries? Having less focus on healing would allow Kaz to share that job once he hits level 2, and there are less situations in this AP that would require large amounts of healing since it tends to be one or two encounters a day.
It almost seems like you've built a bard flavorfully with an oracle mechanically, which I find interesting.
@All: As always, if you have suggestions on how I can do a better job, either in the past, present, or future, please let me know. I'm always learning how to do this GMing thing better, and there's a lot to learn.
I'll move the gameplay thread tomorrow, but I won't require finalized characters from either Kaz or Lionel until after the first combat of our journey. I feel like this is my fault, and apologize for it.
This can probably be boiled down to a lack of foresight and communication, and some weak character building on my part. I do that a lot, which could be why something like this has happened more than once. I don't see it as your fault, GM, if that helps you at all.
An alternative is that I can look for an archetype that gives up Lay on Hands in exchange for something with more oomph. Or, I could rebuild Kaz as a particularly pious cavalier or fighter, which could also work (though not as well as keeping him a paladin). That way, Lionel cold remain focused on healing, and not change mysteries.
I'm opening the floor to suggestions - fire away, people. Let's work this out like civilised folk, and don't hesitate to wag your fingers at me if I start letting my pesky emotions creep back into this. ;-)
While Paladins CAN heal, to me they always seemed more about healing themselves in combat to stay in the fight, rather than about healing allies (Though they can). Im curious though, what makes a paladin a healer at level 2?
I was planning on mostly healing with Revelations (Life link, Channel etc.) and using my spells for support. Like you said about bard, id almost rather make Lionel into that than change Mystery, mostly because I have no clue what I would pick in its place.
Ill think it over a bit, but do give suggestion and/or opinions if you have them.
I've now deleted three posts that were too emotional and came across as b%@++y, so I'll be curt. I'm currently poring over everything I own, trying to find out what I can do, and how I can remain useful and true to my character at the same time. I'm running games for thirteen hours tomorrow, but the day after, maybe I'll have something.
I'm actually much in favor of a bard for Lionel. They are a really solid class, and we could use a bit more knowledges. Currently, we only have Knowledge Arcana +7 by Daen and Knowledge Nature at a +4 by Laliytsa. It would have been different had we kept Ankova, but I'm pretty sure she's gone by now.
The rest of the party currently is martially focused, and we would be quite strong with a bard's help. They are the best buffers in the game after all. I also think it fits your history better. Oracles usually have some strong pull toward their Mystery, and it's just absent in your story. I could actually see Bard, Druid, Feral Hunter, or even Dragon Disciple in that story very easily.
Keep in mind, the backstory currently in the profile is just there because I havnt edited the previous one out.
Bard is currently my go to, though I am eying Shaman.
Ah, re-purposing old avatars! I'm in favor of it. I am not quite as familiar with shamans as of yet, although I've heard good things.
Ooh, I've actually never seen a shaman in play! If you're at all interested in playing one, I would love to see how they work. I've thought about building one and adding it to my GoogleDoc of characters I'll never play.
So, um, do we have an idea of how things are going to hash out as far as characters go? I'm just unsure what everyone's thoughts are right now, and I'm hesitant to proceed when I'm not sure of the party's composition.
Well I really want everyone to play a character they enjoy playing. If Lionel goes the shaman/bard route we'd still have a lot of need for Kaz. Especially if he goes with Shaman since those are Wis based. Maybe once we nail down Lionel we give El Ronza a chance to tweak Kaz?
It's true that we could use more knowledges, but there's a way we could make that work with Shaman if Lionel is up for it. There's a nifty feat called Breadth of Experience that functions like a 4th level bard's Bardic Knowledge with the added bonus of affecting profession skills too. I have it on a gnome nightblade and it's just plain fun to use roleplay wise. Lots of conversations going "Did I ever tell you about the time I worked as a gardner for a crime lord" and "Oh I know about these mobs, I ran into them when working as a woodcutter" etc.
I use Breadth of Experience on one of my characters. It's a nifty feat. I would be willing to waive the gnome/elf/dwarf requirement.
I'd like to get this going again by tomorrow afternoon. My weekend is going to be quite busy (relatives from Mississippi on Saturday and visiting my grandparents on Sunday again), but I'll try to get a few posts up. By way of introduction, Lionel could have a charter, but have been delayed by the Shrike River, which was in spate.
EDIT: I don't want anyone to think that I'm uninterested in getting the game going. I've put a lot of work into making Inkscape maps for "random" encounters, developing NPCs, and even a mini-adventure at the end of Book 1. I'm pretty determined to see this game through. I'd just like everyone to be playing characters they're okay with first.
Either Shaman or Witch would work well, I think. I think they'd both fill a pretty versatile role in the party, which is good. Characters are ready to do intros, and then we can be on the road (or the narrow path through the woods, as it were).
I was kinda excited for Shaman, but feel Witch will fill the spot better. Havnt played Witch before either though, so its all good.
Btw, did we ever agree on why Luthor is here? Does he have a charter and is looking for the trading post? Or does his wandering take him here randomly?
He can have a charter if you'd like. It'd make assimilating with the group easier, I think.
So you're going with Witch then?
Sorry everyone, killer weekend for me just didn't get over on monday. I'll post something tomorrow morning.
Witch, shaman, each would fill a sorely-needed full caster role. I've never seen a shaman in action before (spare a local PFS bloke who has a fighter 3/shaman 1), but I know witches are versatile and fun. Go with what feels best :-)
I bet that fighter shaman had the Lore Spirit. Its granted ability is insane (standard action, gain +2 insight bonus to attack and AC vs one opponent for practically the whole fight)