Please use this thread for all OOC chatter, and anything not related to the current in game scene.
traveling circus party!
1 gnome
1 gnome tiefling
1 undine
1 half-orc
1 hobgoblin
1 cold pale tian creepy girl
and 1 human, who is clearly the weird one.
thanks for the pick. Telemakos is ready to complain about the heat, the insects and his misfortune. That's what he is there for. His eidolon can do all the actual work.
What information would you like us to put under the PC's name?
That is actually what I was thinking. Not only is this probably one of the most -if not the most- varied parties I have seen, but the human seems to actually be the odd one out...
AC and saves under your name is fine.
For combat posts I want 3rd person narrative of your actions first and then an OOC description.
Hankie slaps the goblin furiously, twirling on one toe.
_____________________________
And I also need everyone to put a macro for their typical AOO in their profile, preferably somewhere easy to see. Just like this:
[dice=AOO whip (power attack, other stuff)]1d20+5[/dice}
[dice=AOO damage (power attack, other stuff)]1d4+5[/dice}
15' reach, 1/Round
I will be providing the stats essential to resolving your actions in combat for each monster in a spoiler in my profile. So you will know right away if your attack hit and should describe it accordingly. If you cast a spell on the monster, roll its save for it. If you provoke an AOO, copy and paste the AOO macro from the monster's stats, as an attack on yourself. I will use your macros for your AOOs when the monsters provoke.
I will roll initiative for everyone, and then like creatures act in blocks. The highest roller for the party will set initiative for the whole party, and then actions will occur in posting order. Same goes for monsters, all the trolls will act together, all the goblins, etc.
This is to speed up PBP combat and to make summarizing the combat easier. It does not mean that you know the monster's stats in-character. That will still require appropriate knowledge rolls.
As I said in recruitment, I just picked the characters that I liked best, and that seemed to have the best writing. Airon, for a second language speaker your english is fantastic. Anyway, it just ended up being a circus, it wasn't intentional. It might be a day or two until I get the opening post up. I've got my RL game to run tomorrow, but I'll start working on it later tonight. Who knows I might stay up late and get it done. In any case I'll link it here when it's ready.
I need to check everyone's crunch one more time with a fine toothed comb. Please make sure all your gear purchases are final, and that you've chosen your skills for the free ranks in Craft and Profession.
Evening Guys! Jelani, I'm looking foward to another campaign with you. It seems that there is a lot of potential here and I enjoy the Aspis angle. I'll be standing by for feedback and I will work on the macros and change my purchases as mentioned in your notes. To everyone I have been in groups with before, I'm looking foward to this one. The characters are all strong as far as classes go. It will be interesting to see how we adapt with out a "standard" party.
Woot! This looks to be a great game!
We get free "free ranks in Craft and Profession?" I'll check my character. Craft (ships) and more ranks, because I already had Profession (sailor). Woot!
AOO stuff put between Offense and Defense.
cheers
PS Can everyone put their writing sample on their profile or repost here? It should provide an introduction of our characters to one another, and I'm struggling to locate everyone's. Thanks
I will have to take a look at Corridan's gear and perhaps purchase a thing or two, but otherwise he is finalised.
Also, as requested...
The sound of the man's cane meeting the floor as he takes each step towards the table tells the rest of those gathered that he is coming a few moments before they see him. However, those a little more perceptive may notice that, were he so inclined, he could have approached with barely a sound. There is no limp in his gait, meaning that he uses a cane not out of necessity but rather out of preference. And, excluding that soft but clear tapping noise, his steps are silent.
Well dressed in fitted clothes of a dark hue, he inclines his head slightly in greeting to the Gold Agent and takes his seat at the table, his expression friendly and his lips forming a faint smile. He glances at the others attending the meeting, seemingly out of mild curiosity, his eyes settling for a little longer on the pale black-haired woman with the strange eyes. He even raises an eyebrow at the formal and almost practiced way she introduces herself and then proceeds to pledge her assistance. 'Such variety,' he ponders after noting how many people of different heritages this meeting seems to have gathered.
"Madam," he starts, adding to the word another little bow of his head for good measure. "This sounds like a very intriguing proposition and opportunity indeed. Now, I may not be able to match Yamakawa-san's words in sheer conviction, but I too would indeed be looking forward to lend my skills, such as they are, to this expedition." His smile broadens a little. "And if all goes well and this exploratory mission results in some sort of settlement on the island, then I am sure the settlers could use a tailor, and a rather good one at that, if I may say so myself. After all, I have been thinking of expanding my business."
The words and the lie, or rather the half-truth included with them, come easily to him, practiced as he is in such things. He realizes of course that some are not going to be convinced that a simple tailor is looking forward to go into an unknown land simply for the opportunity to be the first to open a business there, no matter how great the profit. But knowing that something is not the whole truth is not the same as knowing what that whole truth exactly is.
Corridan takes another look at the others seated at the table, trying to gauge their reactions, if any, at his words. As he does so, he briefly wonders if one or more of them are not what they seem as well. 'It has been a few years since people tried to kill me,' he thinks to himself, perhaps a little surprised to find that the thought amuses him slightly. 'Perhaps it is that time again?'
My first post will likely be an amalgamation of everyone's writing samples as an opening to the meeting. Might have to edit them some so they fit together well.
Oh, another thing about combat posts, when you list your OOC actions at the bottom, list any spells currently cast on you and their remaining durations as well as your current AC/saves if they are different from normal. If you've taken damage, you need to track HP in each combat post as well as under your name, as the posts are a permanent record and the profile thing can be changed at any time without a record of past changes.
Castor - Now that you've been accepted, please start posting from the Corridan alias. It's easier for me to get to his profile if I don't have to look far for a link to click.
Hey y'all, excited to be in this, it looks like a great party. Khanjar, I agree that it'll be interesting to see how things play out -- because of the nonstandard mix of roles (as you called out), but also because of the personality and motivations of the various agents selected, and then of course the fact that the gold agent's story makes it sound like we're about to journey to some Cthulhu cult island.
For Iliante and anyone else interested, here's a link to my intro post
I've made a few edits to Grel's sheet (filling in +1 trait and a drawback, listing the number of charges for his two partially charged wands) and listed his advancement choices and his (pathetic, hoping never to use unless maybe it's poisoned) AoO macro.
The thing I haven't completed is finishing up gear. Part of that is a Guns question. As I understand it, ammo for advanced firearms will be 1.5GP/shot at first, and will go up to 15GP/shot (minus any shared crafting we do) once we get to the island. Is that right? Is there a cheaper way to fire an advanced firearm (short of, say, casting Abundant Ammunition)? My hope is that Grel's bombing most of the time, but will use either a gun or a longbow (with or without alchemical allocation) sometimes too. Trying to decide whether it's worth the cost to have his backup be a firearm.
Thinking about healing: I have +5 Heal which ain't too impressive at 3rd level, but might be the best in the party. Anyone else have the skill? I assume that I and Pennance are the two folks who can use a CLW wand without UMD. I had purchased one already with 25 charges, but maybe we should decide how much we want/need/can afford and chip in for two wands, one carried by each of Pennance and myself. What do y'all think?
This is the fool who took out the Horned Brothers. I dried him like a like a fig, but he still owes us a lot. Maybe you can use him in the expedition: he knows a lot of languages, has magic touch when it comes to animals and that genie that follows him could beat an ogre to a pulp.
He is useful, I’ll give him that.
He is still a fool though, so use him but don’t rely on him!
Profit Above All
Rascaro
With deliberate slowness, she folds the letter in two, then in four, puts it away in a drawer and closes it with a small key.
“So,” she finally looks Telemakos in the eyes “I guess you know why you are here.”
Telemakos tries to appear more formidable than he is, in his new safari outfit “Of course, of course!” Show confidence, that’s the key, show it and she’ll buy it “I do wish to enlist my servant in the expedition.” he snaps his fingers and Arasmes appears, tall, powerful and smiling with way too many teeth. “I trust you’ll find him quite formidable. His strength is unmatched, his flight swift as the wind, and…”
“Yeah, look what I can do!” the roaring voice of the genie cuts short the gnome. Arasmes starts flying around the room, his legs transmuted into a small whirlwind. Pieces of paper fly off everywhere, a rare cactus the Gold Agent kept on her desk crashes to the ground, and Telemakos’ turban almost fall off.
“Not now, not now, you dimwit!” screams the gnome “You can show her later, not in here, for the Nine Hells! Look what you’ve done!” the genie, looking a bit contrite, settles down and starts collecting the disordered paper, putting it back on the desk.
The Gold Agent, imperturbable, combs back her short hair with a hand “I trust he is reliable?”.
“Of course, of course!” Telemakos wipes a drop of cold sweat caused by the glacial stare of the woman “Just… enthusiast, you might call him that! I’ll be along to keep him under control.”
The woman scribbles something on a scroll in front of her “You do realize that you will be expected to work in the settlement. Not just command your…”
“Arasmes is my trusted aide, madam. And yes, I can work. I have a gift for tongues and quite an experience working with animals, both trained and...”
“He’s great! You should see how well-behaved is our pony Parsley! He’s a sweetheart!” interrupts Arasmes.
The woman ignores him “And you do know that you will be asked to fight, not just watch him” she nods towards the genie “from behind a bush.”
“Herrrrr…” Telemakos’ fingers keep tormenting the fringes of his new blouse in a stress-induced tic “of course, of course. I just saw your magnificent display of weapons, downstairs… fresh from the Gunworks, I assume.” he looks at his fingers, biting his lip “I was just saving this…” he starts pulling a silver ring from his middle finger "no, this!" after a spiteful look from the Gold Agent he puts it back and slips off a golden one, with a small sapphire “Yes, I was saving this for one of those marvelous black powder weapons… they tell me they’re quite simpl… I mean, I found them very efficient in my many hours of target practice.” he puts the ring in front of the agent. Sigh… that was from Geliana…
I thought about fiddling around with traits and skills to get a decent Heal score... it does make sense for the character since he had to act as a veterinarian sometimes. If the party thinks it's needed, I can still do that.
Well four of you are spellcasters, so there should be enough healing to go around if everyone does their part. My RL game didn't go as long as I thought it would, so I'm working on the intro post now.
Edit: Man, editing together all the writing samples is going to make a giant uber-post.
Gameplay is live! Longest intro post, EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1112e12e
Checking in for checking in-ness. I'll start reading over guidelines and peruse the Gameplay thread today, likely won't have a post up until tomorrow, though. Feel like the poopy. Damn you, party liquor!
I've given Penance a short time to check in, if he doesn't I'll be choosing another player.
Sorry I'm late, guys, I was playing Eyes of the Ten* all weekend and forgot to check back with the recruitment thread on my internet breaks.
(*and jeezzzz am I pooped)
Anyway, rushing to see what I've missed.
No rush now that you've checked in. Just wanted to make sure you were going to be with us :)
Started putting stuff in the campaign info tab. I'll add more over time. Let me know if there's anything else you guys would like to have in there. I'm currently planning on adding stats for the sailors, a section about the story goals of each character, and a build point record thingy. Eventually we'll have the kingdom sheet there as well.
I just realized there's seven of us, and not one full caster, neither arcane nor divine. This has to be a first.
Yep. As I said in the first post of recruitment, I chose the characters I liked best without any consideration for party composition.
I think you'll be fine, A) because Paizo has spread healing out to nearly every class in some form or another, and if not you had plenty of money to buy potions or a wand to hand to one of the casters. B) There are seven of you. There was only one full divine caster submitted, and his writing was poor/unclear, and the character an insane sadistic/masochistic priest of Zun Kuthon (no thanks). There was a wizard as well, but kinda same thing. Story didn't do it for me, and he he was going to create issues for me by taking too many crafting feats/traits/etc (to the point where he was crafting at 25% normal price for wondrous items), again, no thanks.
You'll just have to be creative in situations that would normally be solved with spells :)
WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKIN' SPELLS
oh s*%! is that a swarm
You all bought plenty of 10 GP acid vials right? :P
Or better yet, had Grel craft them for you before you all get on the ship right?
Also I will consider fuse grenades to be firearms for the prices according to Guns Everywhere for now. That means they're 10 GP a pop before you leave Katapesh.
Grel doesn't have a wizard's flexibility, but boy can he handle splash damage. ;-)
Corridan, who specifically is your nemesis?
Telemakos, you need to pick a free story feat ASAP.
I will be getting an introductory post up in the morning. This weekend + work schedule hasn't lent itself much to posting period, which sucks. All kinds of stuff happening across my games.
When reacting negatively to slavery keep in mind that it's the norm around the Inner Sea, and that one of the Consortium's main businesses is slavery. It may strike us moderns as horrible, but it would likely be totally normal to your characters if they aren't from Andoran or somewhere similarly freedom oriented.
Yeah...I'm realizing I may find playing as a member of the Aspis (and as a colonizer) an interesting challenge on a personal level -- especially around slavery. Some forms of violence are (for whatever reason) easier for me to just handwave as part of a fantasy setting, slavery not so much. We'll see how it goes.
At any rate, Grel's no Andoran crusader but (while he's very different from his family in many ways) he's got some of the Gnomish love of individuality and freedom, which leads him to thinking of slavery as an unpleasantness at least -- one he's largely avoided so far in the same way that he avoids unpleasantly loud noises or exposing himself to the perils of melee.
Slavery doesn't always have to be the violent horrible American sort either. There have been different ways of doing it throughout history.
I personally find them all pretty f'ed anyway, but yeah.
Penance's dislike of slavery stems from personal experience. :P
He certainly is aware of slavery as the social norm, and he's not going to be all RAH FREE ALL THE SLAVES, but he certainly has private views on it.
Which is totally fine :) I'm just saying it's kinda like racism in the 1950s. There are a lot of people who know it's wrong, but most people don't think it is, and the ones that do speak out against it are usually ridiculed by the majority. If you all wanna be secret abolitionists that's up to you, but you do work for one of Golarion's major slaver outfits.
Telemakos' view of slavery is going to be a very realistic one... he is a spoiled hypocrite.
So the leash-wielding hobgoblin is appaling, but having the laborers carrying his bags and rowing the longship will be more or less fine.
In the end, Telemakos is still the guy who binds an outsider with a childlike level of intelligence and maturity and sends him in the front line of fight.
EDIT: having troubles with the Story Feat. Most rise from the fact that Telemakos isn't a hero, isn't ambitious, isn't a badass, really shouldn't nor desires to be an adventurer... he is being forced.
Any suggestions Jelani, since you read the backsotry and most likely know the Story Feats better than I do?
Lost Legacy seems pretty much perfect for Tekemakos. Regain your family's position of power, and the service of a full genie?
As far as Corridan's nemesis goes...
Sasayaki bore a grudge against Corridan's mother, a fact that resulted in his attack and subsequent success in killing her. Not content with just that, he wants to finish the job by also killing her son and although he made a mistake by sending two not quite so capable subordinates to assassinate him, he is not prone to making the same mistake twice. He will probably choose better next time, but if failures accumulate, he is not above getting his own hands dirty. After all, with the resources, both mundane and magical, these people have, it should not prove too challenging for a few of them to infiltrate even the Aspis Consortium and find their way on an otherwise unreachable island. In fact, perhaps they have already done so...
Lost Legacy seems pretty much perfect for Tekemakos. Regain your family's position of power, and the service of a full genie?
done! The mechanical benefits are somewhat useful to this character too, which is a plus!
FYI, I go camping for 3 days tomorrow. I may get another post in but there's a chance I don't until Sunday night (Pacific time). See you then!
Have fun!
I guess I'll give one more day for questions and comments and then I'm moving this on to the next scene.
I'm going to lay off making NPCs for the vacant leadership roles until after you guys have a settlement established. Who knows, you might ally with something and want to incorporate it into your kingdom before then. Obviously the person with the highest charisma should be the Viceroy, but other than that they are all based off different stats. Feel free to take a look and try to find a role that would work for your character.
If two people end up wanting the same position, we will hold a vote for it when the time comes. It'll be easier to decide that sort of thing once we've got some gameplay/characterization under our belts. If some of the positions with vacancy penalties remain empty I'll create Aspis NPCs to fill them. If some of you get stuck in roles less than ideal for your character, then it'll encourage them to grow to react to their situation.
I forgot to mention before how I do XP for my homebrew games. PBP is sloooooow, so I decide to reward my players for real life time invested, not just monsters killed. For now, every round of combat equals 500 XP per player. I'll kick the amount per round up as we level, but expect to level around every three fights or so. Ah, you say, "But what about if we kill X creature that would give us more than 500/round each?" In that case, you will get the greater amount. I will also reward XP for clearing hexes.
I outlined this previously, but I will reiterate and break it down further with regards to personal preference, now that selections have been made official.
General: While I'm sure Shinjuko would jump at the notion, as a Player I'm not sure it fits her very well.
Grand Diplomat: Quite the reverse in this regard; Shinjuko would think it a stale line of work, but I could see her excelling at it given her meticulous and strict nature.
Magister: She's been raised to believe that her blend of swordsmanship and magic is without equal, so she would easily rise to the occasion.
Marshal: About the same as General.
Royal Enforcer: Killing dissidents in the name of "liege-lord"? Yes, please. Although I think Khanjar would be far more suitable to this kind of thing.
Treasurer: Not the first choice by character or player, but I think she would excel at it nevertheless. She doesn't really put a lot of stock in material wealth—although that might mean she qualifies all the more.
Viceroy: Again, like the General; she would love the idea, but as a Player I think others would be better suited to the position. So long as they don't decide to sever ties with the Consortium, of course.
Did I spy with my little eye the role of Spymaster in that link you provided?
Yes
Out of character my reason for suggesting Penance was he's got a 16 charisma, profession soldier and the highest survival bonus. Also his character's personality is decisive and responsible.
Lovely. Just... lovely. :-)
To completely meta-game, we should look at characters' highest stat and see which position uses that stat. For Iliante, it is a 19 Dexterity. Therefore, he would be best suited for Marshal, Enforcer, Spymaster, and Treasurer. Let's identify what positions that we cover. Then, do the selection.
cheers
Telemakos would technically be the best Viceroy/Ruler, but his personality might not fit that well. Depends on whether he grows out of his nervousness.
Telemakos would technically be the best Viceroy/Ruler, but his personality might not fit that well. Depends on whether he grows out of his nervousness.
There are other positions for high Charisma, right? We should be good if every character is applying their highest stat to the kingdom.
Jelani, in the recruitment thread you highlighted the following roles: Viceroy, Warden, General (Which we'll call Commander), Treasurer, High Priest and Grand Diplomat. Is filling these roles most important?