GM Storycrafter |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
OK, I have stats on the following characters:
- Horfil
- Colwin
- Leotian
- Steven
- Kensington
So I just need a character sheet from Aldaara. I'll be posting maps on Google Drive and posting links in the campaign thread, as I've seen that's a useful way to present graphic images such as maps as well as conduct encounters. I'd like to get you familiar with the area that you'll be adventuring in before we begin.
Are you guys comfortable with the notion of how you've all met? How familiar are you with posting with dialogue, action, dice rolling, and inner voice?
Colwin Throssle |
Its been a while, but I've done quite a lot of PBP, and all the commands are simply laid out below the add new post box so thats all easy. Its a crying shame the forums here don't allow for image posting, but no use crying over spilt milk I guess.
I am not sure about the how we all met thing yet. I have Colwin having heard a rumor on the road and heading there he would certainly be asking for directions and seeking companions. I'll take a look at everyone elses backstories and see how we can intergrate.
I am assuming that for dialogue we use, "Bold!", for inner voice I think we use italics don't we? I am assuming third person limited is preferred? So...
Colwin stared at the flickering light of the campfire idly tossing a tiny ball of flame back and forth, trying to watch Aldaara out of the corner of his eye. What is it about haughty women that so fascinates me? He thought wanly, there really is something wrong with me at the most fundamental level. Then, with a heavy sigh, he rose causing Gibbeous to hoot his annoyance as the owl flapped frantically to keep his place on his master's shoulder.
"I believe I shall turn in, my mother always claimed that eight hours a night were essential to stremgthen the humors. Utter nonsense, but sound advice nevertheless. Good night all."
OOC: If she is cool with it, I'm planning to have Colwin develop a crush on Aldaara, because I think it will be funny ;)
Leotian Mousekewitz |
Bold for dialogue, and italics for inner voice sounds good to me. I'm not real familiar with the dice rolling, but it seems pretty straight forward.
1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19 Test roll, if I have any trouble I'll OOC holler.
Do you need a breakdown of our equipment or anything? I'm pretty sure I just have the basic stats in my profile, I'll see about flushing it out more.
I don't want to make a real broad assumption, but it seems at least a few of us are meeting for the first time on the road to Arthfell. Do we want to RP the meeting or just take it for granted that we've introduced ourselves and agreed to travel together? Either way is good for me.
Colwin Throssle |
My preference is to start as close to the first encounter as we can, this is PBP RP happens almost by default, lol. Nothing to do with the fact that I haven't rolled a dice in anger for over a year ;)
GM Storycrafter |
I don't need a specific list of the items you're carrying right now -- I'll trust that you spent your GP wisely and are properly equipped, armed, and outfitted.
You will be travelling for some time on a dusty road, and very likely to be camping in a wood or 3. We can start the adventure with 6 individuals coincidentally walking alongside each other on the way to Falcon's Hollow.
I hear ya about the dice thrown in anger thing. Speaking of, the best advice I saw was to freeze some dice, then smash them in front of other dice. "See?! See what happens to bad dice?" <smash> "Gonna roll me some crits now?"
Just kinda waiting for everyone else to check-in here and then decide if we want to flesh out your knowledge of each other or just get started.
"It happened along the way to Falcon's Hollow..."
Horfil |
This is my first PbP so I will need to learn these rules. I figured that getting into this would be good because it said that it was a short campaign. I have however played Pathfinder for a couple months now.
Quick question what do you use to roll? if you just use the [ dice] thing then do you roll a real die ad input the result (that just seems like someone will cheat).
Using google drive is like google docs right?
Edit: And I don't role playing our meeting a bit. I'll just vote for the underdog.
Horfil |
And I was just looking at our party comp and it looks like we have 3 guys up front and 3 in back, the 3 up front are the paladin, the rogue and the dervish dancer, the 3 in back are the sorc, the wizard and the ranger.
This will be interesting and now I'm thinking of getting more offensive spells but we are limited to Core and APG right? If not then I'm getting spells from UM because there are some nice offensive ones in there that I can get.
Colwin Throssle |
When you put in the dice command it makes a roll for you, so you need to make the post to see the result. Generally you wait until the DM posts the results before you do your follow up post, some DMs will describe you hitting or missing, some will simply tell you you hit and have you post how, etc. If you get a nat. 20 you can get away with an immediate post saying you hit and rolling to confirm, etc.
What is the plan for init? I vote DM rolls everyones it ends up being much quicker.
GM Storycrafter |
I'm open to all Paizo material, so UM is just fine. Have that. Have almost all of it, actually. Keep in mind there isn't a dedicated healer in the group, but maybe your characters don't care as much?
As for initiative, I was hoping to just roll initiative for the group to speed things along, as Colwin suggests. I think the biggest challenge is going to be keeping up the flow of battle as those things tend to take long in real-time play as it is.
Horfil |
wow um... we have no dedicated healer... can i change my character to songhealer bard? This one will be roleplayed more peacefully (by that I mean changing my character from the terminator to hiccup from how to train your dragon). if not then oh well I'll just be more upfront and killing. (The songhealer archetype is a true support archetype)
GM Storycrafter |
wow um... we have no dedicated healer... can i change my character to songhealer bard? This one will be roleplayed more peacefully (by that I mean changing my character from the terminator to hiccup from how to train your dragon). if not then oh well I'll just be more upfront and killing. (The songhealer archetype is a true support archetype)
Only change if you feel strongly about it. Between you and the Paladin, there may be enough healing. Maybe. There are always wands and potions, so it's not a complete loss.
BTW, Google docs URL
This is where I'll be storing pictures and such. I'll post this in the campaign notes, too. You should see a large image of Darkmoon Vale and the forest of Arthfell. This is where our action begins (on the road east of the forest).
Kensington Stone |
Someone could always multi-class at second level.
I usually play druids. This time, I want to play a sorceress just so I can have the change of pace. Especially one like Kensington who, though she has a rich enough background already, has a family legacy on the mainland to really enrich her.
As for Kensington, the group could have found her anywhere. She did, after all, only just survive a shipwreck. She's only just learning the mainland, after all. She could've been found in any pub, in any marketplace, probably serving as a passing interpreter.
Colwin Throssle |
Eh, I've played in plenty of games with no dedicated healer and we've always gotten by just fine. At low levels it makes resting more important, and the heal skill comes in very handy if anyone has the wisdom to back it up. Once you get hold of a couple of wands it becomes a virtual non issue.
Horfil |
Unfortunately no one in our group is Wis based so heal is out of the question. And my class ability makes the caster level on items like wands potions and spells equal to my caster level.
And as for my character he has just recently ran away from his parents to help adventures on their quests (his parents are the controlling type and the "Don't leave me" type). So what he has is what he stole from his house.
Colwin Throssle |
So are we ready to go then? I say we skip the introductions, since we all know each others character names, etc. We could be travelling towards this rumor of, um, not exactly sure what the rumor is...
GM Storycrafter |
crap... the most fun would have to be the dervish dancer
So play it!
So are we ready to go then? I say we skip the introductions, since we all know each others character names, etc. We could be travelling towards this rumor of, um, not exactly sure what the rumor is...
I'd say we are. I fear the rogue may have gotten lost along the road, but let's get this party started.
GM Storycrafter |
Please feel free to join in as you will.
There will be a chance to roleplay some introspective character introductions soon, trust me.
GM Storycrafter |
Nice cover, btw, Colwin. I had seen your original post, and was trying to think of a comical way to play the combined diplomacy/intimidate actions. After a moment, I refreshed, and noticed that you had caught the simultaneous posting.
Maybe in the future, I'll make people keep what they post -- I think those accidental blunders, as long as they aren't overly costly, can make for some funny moments. I had, at one point, an image of the ranger walking towards the dogs, arms outstretched, dog-whispering to them, while behind him, a terrifying streak of flame shoots skywards, unbeknownst to Leotian.
Anyways, it's fine that you turned your action into a triggered action.
Colwin Throssle |
I'm thinking if it does not count as having the broken condition that chainshirt might be useful for Horfil?
Speaking of treasure, how are we going to divide it? I've always preferred keeping a tally of items sale values and ensuring everyone gets an even cut.
So say we had found a chainshirt and a MW dagger, with a total value of 402gp, that's a sale value of 201gp. So each player is entitled to 50.25gp. But since it is much better value to keep loot than sell lets assume that 2 characters each take one item, call them player A and Player B.
Player A takes the dagger sale value 151gp, and "owes" the group 100.75gp
Player B takes the chainshirt sale value 50gp and is owed .25gp
Player C takes nothing and is owed 50.25gp
Player C takes nothing and is owed 50.25gp
Just a siggestion, but I've found its typically the fairest way - sometimes its better to put in an extra split for party items like wands of cure light, etc. In which case everyones share would be 40.2gp.
Thoughts? Its pretty flexible, since people don't usually mind you owing the pot if something comes up thats perfect for you, etc. And its particularly good for classes, like the druid, that don't run into equipment for them as often - though I doubt thats relevant here.
If two people want the same item, you simply roll off - or you can bid for it, but I think rolling is simpler and easier.
GM Storycrafter |
What is this board you speak of? Remember this is my first online campaign so I'm a bit confused...
And what happened to the rogue we were supposed to have...
Sorry, from the "board" just means this message board (forum). I used the icon everyone's using for their character except Kensington, who doesn't have one.
As for the rogue, apparently he never made it to the road. We're at 5, which is 1 more than the module was actually written for, so I think we're safe. Honestly, for this particular adventure, you probably won't miss his skills. As for missing his charm and wits, I can't say for sure, but the fact that he never showed up may say something about his character :)
GM Storycrafter |
By the way, I'm trying to keep the image/map updated after every turn, so that if you want to refer to the map to make your next move, you should have an accurate picture of what's going on where. Hopefully the quality is high enough that you can make out who's who. I'm using Maptools to generate it, since that makes it very easy to slap icons on a background map image and move them around. I've added a few color rings and such to denote groups or other types of status effects.
Colwin Throssle |
Carrying this across from IC thread to avoid clutter. Grease does not interact with fire barring a houserule and I would says its inflammable because James Jacobs says it is and in 3.5 there was a 2nd level spell called flammable grease. If it is flammable Colwin, presumably, would know it and aim his line say three inches above the floor.
Colwin Throssle |
Why does everyone seem to want a leader? Is it for speeding up OOC reasons, or IC reasons? I've never played in a group with a set leader, so I'm a bit surprised. I understand Kensington wants one for IC purposes btw, and it certainly fits her character.
I'll admit it could save some time in decision making, but I think we would still want a discussion on important decisions so probably not much time. Since Colwin is likely to be more of a battlefield controller than a blaster, eventually anyway, I'll likely have him shout out to clarify his intent and perhaps explain the effects of some of hs spells to the team - especially if he can do so without the enemies getting an advantage, etc.
If you all want to have a leader I'll have Colwin reluctantly agree, and I'm fine with it IC, just a bit surprised.
Kensington Stone |
Kensington isn't trying to be difficult. It's just that she sees the party as tripping over themselves with everybody doing their own thing, as where she's accustomed to a much more organized way of responding. She's not trying to wreck the group or ferment jealousy, nor seize command of the party. As I said, please forgive her. She's lawful/neutral.
Leotian Mousekewitz |
Leo's not used to working with a group, he doesn't want anyone to get hurt because he doesn't know how to work as a team. Since Ken is pretty insistent on a leader and seems to know what she's talking about it must be a good idea. Both he and Ken took a surprise hit in their encounter, he thinks maybe that could have been avoided if they were more organized and understood what was expected of each other.
GM Storycrafter |
How we doin? Everyone having fun? Have I dropped the pace and made it too boring? If you have criticisms or requests, please share. I have thick skin and I was expecting to learn from the experience. Personally, I can't wait to see if you guys are still interested in the investigation and can carry it through. Or perhaps we're just waiting until the next combat?
Colwin Throssle |
I'm interested, but rather puzzled as to how to proceed. Colwin's not a very skilly character, or at least not with skills that are particularly relevant here so I'm kinda relying on others to spot the clues and mention them...
I'm having fun, but ideally I would like the clues presented at a faster pace so we can try to cobble together a full picture, it still feels like we are missing a significant part of the puzzle though I could be wrong.
Horfil |
Well this is my first PBP campaign but I'm feeling like this is getting too diplomacyish, glad that we have 3 classes that are cha based but I've never been good at the whole courtroom thing. Now my group IRL is doing Carrion Crown and I have heard that in book 2
Leoian Mousekewitz |
I'm having fun, I find the investigation interesting, and I like problem solving, puzzles, and RP more than the actual combat. The pace is maybe a bit slow as Colwin said, which makes the investigation seem more realistic but I think feels even slower due to the PBP format.
Finding the balance where each character has the chance to shine and use their skills to the fullest is very difficult, I think you're doing it quite well. Personally I think it's good to mix things up, and keep us guessing. A combat encounter fairly soon would probably be good, we did just have a couple before the investigation, but, because of our decisions on how to deal with them, the ended up being rather tame. The more battle focused characters might appreciate an opportunity to really cut loose.
Leo is pretty well suited to investigation with his high perception, and tracking skills, but it can definitely be more difficult for a character who isn't suited to this sort of thing.
GM Storycrafter |
Thanks for the feedback, all.
I'll give it a few more days before dropping any more clues proactively. It seems like at least a couple of you are actively working the clues and investigation, so I don't want to spoil it for you. As for this being skills focused, I don't honestly think it needs to be. True, some Sense Motives would have been helpful, but to be honest, there actually is enough physical evidence throughout the location to solve the mystery without any sense motive checks or any diplomacy. Some of that evidence you may have already seen and some you may not have. But you probably already knew that.