MSI Rookie Squad Two (Inactive)

Game Master Nazard

Discussion thread for MSI Rookie Squad Two

Dotting, upcoming post into game thread soon.

I don't think you can set default aliases in different threads, Lady Trace. Believe me, I've tried and looked for such a feature.

I don't think you can set default aliases in different threads, Lady Trace. Believe me, I've tried and looked for such a feature.

Same :(

Okay, so I love players taking liberties with minor details, I really do. Of course, it's always hard as playrs to know which details are minor and which aren't. On the whole, I'd rather players take a chance and run with something, and if we have to sort out a small mess ft the fact, then that's what has to happen.

That being said, there is no uniform for MSI; Krojun is in a uniform because he's already in the watch and it makes sense for him to be wearing one at the moment. So we need a plausible reason why Dublaine has one as well. Suggestions?

Whoops

Edit: Maybe someone from management made a mess and gave him one when he entered the building and had to identify himself at the front desk?

All he had before(on his sheet) was armor and probably can be assumed peasant clothes so they gave him one since they cant have members of the watch looking like peasants, or wearing nothing under their armor. The watch does have to maintain appearances.

There we go. The front desk sergeant spilled his coffee on Dublaine when he came in, so they gave him a uniform.

coffee? smells good, tastes bad. Do they have hot chocolate?

Tea, coffee, no hot chocolate. :)

More stale pastries and muffins.

Sorry I haven't been posting in the threads, I've been a bit preoccupied at the hospital waiting for this baby. I started crunching numbers on equipment so I will add that info as soon as I can.

I hate to hold things up, so if there's someone with a character ready but without a spot, I'm fine with forfeiting my spot for the sake of getting the game rolling more quickly or joining Squad 2 after a case or two at Nazard's discretion.

Sorry I haven't been posting in the threads, I've been a bit preoccupied at the hospital waiting for this baby. I started crunching numbers on equipment so I will add that info as soon as I can.

I hate to hold things up, so if there's someone with a character ready but without a spot, I'm fine with forfeiting my spot for the sake of getting the game rolling more quickly or joining Squad 2 after a case or two at Nazard's discretion.

Oh my goodness, I totally forgot! No worries at all, we'll be waiting until you're free to post. There are priorities in life, and sadly role-playing is down on the list over trivial obligations like child birth. It helps me anyway to stagger the cases slightly, although since you'll probably investigate the first case differently from the other group, I'll still end up doing some of the same things at the same time.

On the other hand, I don't want to wait too long and have interest wane. There's no reason why we couldn't start the game, and have Grigory join up part way through the first day or two. We'll just give the other group a few days' head start, and then get going with squad 2.

DM Nazard, in one of your earlier posts you mentioned that the adventure were originally written for six players. Would bring a 6th person to the group and roll with five until Grigory can get back to it make things more smooth?

So in this room, we have Lady Trace, Krojun, Eudonius, and Dubline accounted for so far, with Grigory able to start soon when his RL calms down a bit. We can attempt to start with four and possibly recruit another en route, or just try the adventure with four/five. It would definitely make the final encounter one of epic difficulty, even with me reducing the power of the villain slightly, but doable. I don't want to wait any longer, though, so I'd like to get the game going tomorrow sometime.

I say we put this show on the road. When Grigory gets back he can joins us or we pick up another player as we go.

I agree.

Agreed, also. Expect this game to get started in a little over an hour.

Dublaine, the Prestige Points are nothing to do with prestige classes. They're a homebrew element for this game, tracking how well known your character is in various districts of Magnimar. Dublaine being a non-native probably has a rating of 0 in all areas, so nothing to apply to his roll yet.

I still need people to pm me their e-mail addresses (gmail preferred) so I can grant you access to the campaign site, the library of which will include a players' note document detailing some of these house rules and campaign things.

Welcome Grigory, and congrats on the new arrival. Hope you got a lot of sleep in the weeks leading up. As someone who's gone through that a couple times, I can tell you to kiss that part of your life good-bye. :)

Okay, the site has been populated with some useful pages, and blank character sheets are up. Don't feel like you have to use them, same with the inventory pages there. If you want to, by all means, but it's more important to have that information up to date on the Paizo alias than the website. There are some other useful pages, however.

One page is the 4710 Calendar, which is a spot to build timelines and keep a record of what's happened on what days, as well as see how the Golarion calendar is built for those of you who aren't as familiar with it.

There's also a page marked Casefile 1MSI001 and a "Clues" subpage. You should all be able to edit that page and should feel free to do so. Here, you can enter clues, theories on the clues, etc. You can also use the comment section to maintain a discussion of the clues outside of the table.

Establishing contacts, informants, and snitches in-game is a possibly very helpful practice for your characters. Those individuals can be entered in the "Supporting Cast" page.

Finally, please take a moment to fill out the information in the Contacts page near the top of the side bar. This is just a spot to put in your -email address and name, as well as your timezone so we can know when to likely expect a post from you.

so the watch doesnt have hot chocolate but does the city have hot chocolate for sale? or is chocolate even known in golarion?

I am working on this weekend so things have been a little chaotic. Dont have a gmail but promise I will create one for the adventure in the next few days.

Also, congratulations on the new arivel Grigory.

PS: Finnish twinking with my backstory to fit the campaing.

When making skill checks with Aid Another in there, I don't require that you designate a "primary" and "aiders". Everybody make a roll, I take the best one and add two for everybody else who beat the DC of 10.

Sometimes it's the blind wizard who trips over the MacGuffin, after all.

If Eudonius and Dublaine are going to pull the body out, I'll need a Sleight of Hand check in the game thread, and for this, you will have to designate a primary.

A map of Irefoot Hall has been uploaded to the website library. Below is a key explaining about the different areas.

A: This used to be a grand entrance hall, all of the local businesses with entrances along the walls, identified by carved mahogany plaques. A classic piece of sculpture sits in the centre of the room, with benches provided for resting and viewing the art. Several expensive oil paintings line the wall, clearly for sale before being ruined by dust. The northwest walls have collapsed, leaving mounds of debris. Protruding from beneath several large pieces of rubble are a pair of human legs.
B: Madame Ivana’s Boutique is a shambles, her inventory destroyed. While most of its walls still stand, the silks and dresses have been completely coated in marble dust from the collapsed walls and ceiling.
C: The Cherished Chelish has sustained the most damage from the collapse. Many fine antiques (furniture, art, jewellery) lie in pieces or mangled beyond recognition. Gaps in the ceiling let in beams of dust-laden light to highlight the destruction.
D: Not so much a store front as an office, Leaps and Spells won’t be in business again any time soon. Invoices, receipts, and travel logs lie strewn about the floor, mixed with the pungent odour of exotic arcane material components.
E: All That Glitters is certainly not glittering now. While debris crunches underfoot, shafts of light from windows sparkle off of colourful gem stones mixed in with the dust and rubble.
F: Taking the least amount of damage, Kovesna’s is practically untouched by the collapse of the building around it. Thick dust coats the pieces of gold work, but a bit of polish and elbow grease (and maybe a new wall), and the gold seller could be back in business.

Oh my. Inter-party tensions on the rise already! It's always more fun when the PCs aren't perfect friends and teammates right from day one!

How will Dublaine respond to the scathing snub of the Ustalavan tracker? Tune in next time!:D

No damage for Dublaine. Grigory barely got back in time to help out and take the hit, but Dublaine did get back before it was clear there was no mortal peril, so that might count for something.

Don't take anything I said too personally, Dublaine... I know firsthand that the dice can be rather unforgiving. My character, on the other hand, isn't so sure about you yet haha.

Investigative technique question:

Assuming the store owners haven't been allowed inside to look at the devastation: Can we bring them in one at a time and use Sense Motive to gauge whether they are genuinely surprised by the devastation or simply acting shockedv(in an attempt to find out if one of them had something to do with or knowledge of the cause of the collapse)?

Are you asking me if you're allowed to do that? Because the answer is you do whatever you want. Show them the freshly severed head of their dead mother if you want (albeit with an alignment change in place).

If you're asking if such a tactic would break City Watch protocols, i don't think your characters would have any way of knowing that.

I'm basically asking if a successful Sense Motive check confirm/deny an individual's reaction to that specific situation as genuine or staged (i.e. Are they really seeing the massive destruction for the first time or are they just pretending they are as to not give away the fact that they were there when the collapse happened). I've never really used Sense Motive much so I'm not sure of the in-game mechanics surrounding its potential uses.

Oh! Sorry, now I understand. That's exactly what it's for. If any of the merchants know more than they should, I'll roll a secret Bluff check for them to pretend innocence, and you'll roll Sense Motive against it.

Just to be sure, I am reading daily, but haven't posted because I don't think it is appropriate at the moment.

Dublaine, if by a wiki you mean someplace to keep the clues of this mystery straight, there is a heading for that on the campaign website,where people can post the clues you've found, and any theories they suggest.

I've plugged the clues from Irefoot Hall into the campaign site:

MSI Rookie Squad Two Clues

Also took the time to input my inventory while I was there.

Hi Nazard, could you grant me access to the site for that email that I PMed you?

I agree that Wards and Guards offices are worth a visit but I think our priority now should be to reunite the party.

At the time it did seem like the best course of action but looking back now I dont think it was a good idea to divide ourselfs. If one of the teams bumps into more challenges the other have to sit back and wait for them. Also both groups could have taken benefit from more people to roll skill checks helping out.

makes sense... i'm kinda metagaming i guess, taking my time at irefoot hall with the ooc knowledge that if we stay there, rumblemountain sshoud br showing up. i suppose the correct course of action, unless we can find tiberius nearby and question him, would be to head back and hear from lady trace and krojun that rumblemountain was headed to irefoot hall.

OK, quick logistical question:

What is Mrs. Brigglespan's Knowledge(Local) bonus?

The reason I ask is this:

When we're at MSI HQ, it might be beneficial to all just aid Mrs. Brigglespan on anything involving a Knowledge(Local) check assuming she has a higher Knowledge(Local) bonus for being a resident of Magnimar.

It would also come in handy when we bring back evidence or information to get her second opinion to either confirm or deny whatever our characters thought they knew.

*Also, apologies for the non-capitalization and typos in my previous post... I was typing one-handed at the time due to baby duty.

I am guessing the autopsy is made though a heal check, right? How long does that take and could I take 20 on it?

When we're at MSI HQ, it might be beneficial to all just aid Mrs. Brigglespan on anything involving a Knowledge(Local) check assuming she has a higher Knowledge(Local) bonus for being a resident of Magnimar.

If she has knowledge local but its smaller then ours we could also use her to aid another whoever is rolling the check.

If she has knowledge local but its smaller then ours we could also use her to aid another whoever is rolling the check.

True, I was just hoping maybe she had a really high Knowledge(Local) bonus by merit of living in Magnimar longer than most of our characters. Looking for any edge I can find, especially if these single-digit dice rolls continue.

Autopsy takes Heal and Perception (Heal for the medical side, Perception for finding evidence on the body), and yes you can take 20, but it takes 4 hours that way. If you think you're not on a time crunch, taking 20 is advisable. Rolling takes 1d4 hours (maybe just as long, maybe less time).

And yes, Aid Another is allowed in both situations. Also don't forget the +2 bonus from the equipment.

Ok, so thats what i will be doing for the next four hours.

Am I correct in assuming I automatically succeed in aiding another on Perception, Diplomacy and Sense Motive by virtue of my +9 modifier to each? (Lowest possible roll being a 1 and the +9 bringing it up to 10) Or is the roll requirement to aid higher than 10 and/or independent of modifiers?

I will let you roll this diplomacy Lady Trace. Social is not one of Eudoniu's streaghs. At least not at this lvl...

Lets just hope his lordship isn't involved with the criminal.

Don't forget to use the lucky dice for your Diplomacy rolls.

Lets just hope his lordship isn't involved with the criminal.

You wore quicker than me. I did not realise that until I heard his answer to our warnings.

I am hanging out, waiting for when we arrive.