Kagehiro asked me to relay that he is having computer issues.
I think I'm squared away now. Took a trial-by-fire course in BIOS flashing, but got it back up. At work currently, but will be trying to play catchup asap (across all games).
Computer woes continue. Finally nailed down what is causing the problem, though: liquid cooling system has apparently given out. My CPU is not well pleased (nor am I).
Ordered a replacement, which I'm hoping will be here and subsequently installed by Tuesday. In the mean time, my presence will be less than stellar. Basically, it will only be when I can sneak in updates while at work for the next couple of days.
Congrats Rob on Top 4!
Is everyone waiting on Crusty or what?
Yeah, he basically disappeared from all games.
Expect something sometime next week guys - as mentioned in Road to Damnation, s@+# in my life has hit the fan and I'm currently recovering from a battle from a dire half-red-dragon beef burrito from 7-11.
>.<
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Hey guys, I'm alive! Superstar has sucked a lot of life out of me, however, though since I didn't win I won't be saddled with additional work that'll keep me away from my games. I'm going to take the rest of this week to decompress after everything that's gone on, and I'll be back to my normal efficacy on Monday. Sorry for how things have ground to a halt these last couple months, but that's past now!
If you need to GMPC me for the next few days, please feel free to, I won't mind at all. I should've said something to that effect before radio-silence kicked in.
That-- is if Crusty hasn't died of burritoitis.
Alright guys, as you all know, I've been rather inactive for quite some time now due to life issues - as a result, similar to Rob, I'm going to have to put this game and my other campaign, Road to Damnation, to temporary hiatus. While I would love to continue putting in the effort to DM for both of these games, I simply do not have the time to do so currently.
By no means am I giving up on either of these campaigns, however. I have enjoyed playing with you guys immensely, and my lack of activity as of late is not due to boredom or disinterest. Therefore, I have every intention of continuing these games in the future, though I cannot say when.
I will attempt to be (semi)active on the boards - I don't plan on giving up being a player for either Rob's RoW campaign or Brimley's Fang and Shackle campaigns, so from here on out I'm going to attempt to be more active in those. I'll admit, due to my lack of touching PF in a while, I'm quite rusty, which'll make things a bit difficult to get back into.
So, I would just like to thank everyone for playing with me on this campaign, and I hope to get it up and running sooner rather than later! We've all put in quite a bit of effort in this campaign and I certainly don't want to see it go to waste!
Crusty, I understand. I myself have been going through similar things and it can be hard sometimes to rebuild the momentum after a break. I wish you nothing but the best and I hope that I will be able to re-join the game when it is going. Either way I will see you in Reign of Winter.
I somehow had a feeling this might be coming after Rob's announcement. Hehe, no worries Crusty, let us know when you're feeling up to anything again :)
Take it easy Crusty, and do what you need to do man.
Take care of yourself Crusty!
Cheers
Maybe put the campaign inactive now, and then re-active the campaign when you are ready to restart?
Who's still here and willing to run this campaign? As I have some more free time on my hands, I may be looking to get this campaign back up and running in the near-ish future.
Hoosible here, eager for a chance to play with more dried flowers and dried corpses.
Well hello, what is this strange undead creature I see. Oh it's my fellow legume! Heh, well I'm just starting a short course, so won't be as active as I was in the past but I remeber this being fairly slow paced anyway.
So insumation, yeah, interested :)
Am here. Depending on the outlook going forward, I might consider changing up the character a bit. Skill monkey extraordinaire might not be as reliable if some folks go missing.
Y'all know this wouldn't be the same without me.
Am here. Depending on the outlook going forward, I might consider changing up the character a bit. Skill monkey extraordinaire might not be as reliable if some folks go missing.
As long as you don't intend to change up his charming good nature. ;0)
I will probably allow people one chance to change their characters, but for now I'm mainly seeing whos still here.
As I told crusty, I foresaw Valko getting murder-knifed to death in his sleep by another PC long before we made it to any dungeon delving, haha. My remark above is only my own personal recognition of the fact that without a thick wall of people between him and danger, Valko's number is already punched.
I'm here. Pretty busy these days though. I'd be willing to play again, but I might be slow on posting at times.
Should this begin again, I may alter Radyx ever so slightly...go weapon/shield two-weapon fighting style.
Present. At the limit of my gaming, so I might be slow. Would consider changing characters.
cheers
Alright, so far we've heard from everyone except Rob and Cel, and honestly I"m not sure if we will be hearing from them. I've sent 'em both messages, but last I've heard is that they're both busy/unavailable/etc. That being said, I'm not ready to start yet anyways so we still have time to wait for 'em.
Those wishing to change their character, let me know - I'd rather you guys stayed within the same flavor of your current characters, but if you want an entirely new character, we can work with that as well. Same character creation rules still apply, but you don't get to keep any lucre that you've acquired if you make a new character (As your old one would essentially be reassigned). Experience stays the same, however.
If we end up being two short (Rob and Cel), do you guys want to replace them to fill out the 8-PC party again (As I am redesigning the campaign around 8 players), or just go with 6? We could also just run with those two being DMPCs for if Rob and Cel do ever rejoin us.
No rush in your decisions, as I probably won't be ready to start until early next month anyways.
I intend on keeping Valko, I would simply be shifting him from Investigator to Slayer. Probably will pick up a few traits to keep him in the ballpark of being a competent ruins delver. In a nutshell: turn him into an actual monster hunter. More Hugh Jackman than Anthony Hopkins (lame as it is to type that).
Honestly I love the current Valko (Despite his low-life expectancy), but its your call. Do note that your Investigator will be extremely useful - the group has a ton of killers already, but no true skill monkey. And, unlike a rogue, the Investigator is actually great at being a skill monkey, which may save you guys quite a bit of hassle in the days to come.
But, as mentioned, its up to you!
I'll stick with Ferit. His build is based around being an effective rogue that can kill anything with one punch. If it ever comes to fruition it will be beautiful.
Re Party size, I really think you should decide based on what makes it easier for you to run the game (e.g. does running it the size it was designed for require less modifications? or do you have something in mind that really requires a giant team?)
If some folks are toying with rebuilding -- and if we're (at least currently) down 2 players -- it seems worth discussing the roles we're intending to fill, and seeing if there are gaps anyone is drawn to filling.
I'll start:
Hoosible (word-casting dual-cursed oracle) will eventually be focused on (1) building his undead army and (2) summoning. In the meantime, he can do a smattering of debuff, battlefield control, and CLW. As a word-caster, he'll never be great at spells that effect > 1 target.
Looking at the rest of y'all (near as I can tell) we have an awesome front line -- even before Hoosible starts adding corpses or summons to it. We also have at least a bit of divine magic, arcane magic, and skills+extracts (with the characters as they currently exist). (Wilhem, I don't really know the Arcanist -- or what you plan to do with it -- enough to know what to expect from Wilhem beyond "Magic!"
I suppose we could use a bit more ranged, and given a large party+ a bard, evangelist, or other mass buffer would rock. (I'm really into the Hangover cleric alternate channeling idea nowadays, which works great with an Evangelist since the main reason for the hangover cleric to channel is the effect (nausea, dazed, etc) not the damage). Not to mention the fact that we're low on CHA right now. Alternately, if we're still shy on face skills after any new additions or changes, I could conceivably change my 2nd curse from Wasting to something else...though the way it captures his corpse-like look/smell seems super fitting.
One thing about this campaign is that, due to its nature as a series of massive dungeon crawls, ranged-focused characters are often going to be at a serious disadvantage due to shooting into melee, soft cover of your friendlies, and little space to maneuver. As a result, having few/no non-magical ranged characters is actually quite alright. Mostly. Except in a few circumstances. Should carry a ranged weapon just in case, though.
Testing the campaign with a test group that consists of a gunslinger, skill/ranged rogue, and pistol-wielding alchemist (Among others), I can tell you right now that those three are often having trouble getting in their attacks. Though the Gunslinger/Alchemist have fewer problems due to the nature of their preferred weapons - Firearms/Bombs can hit relatively reliably even when you throw on -4 from shooting into melee and +2 AC from the soft cover that is the Bloodrager, Brawler, Inquisitor, or Fighter. Those big fatties are always in the way.
As far as the player-base goes, I've already made most of the modifications so far for Book 1, thus the reason why I'd rather stick to 8 PCs - at least for Book 1. Book 2 and beyond, should Rob and Cel still be gone, I can modify for six players easily enough. Just as it stands, I've put a ton of work into making the encounters balanced for 8 players, and having to go through it and subtract 25% of the Exp and loot would be more of a hassle than I'd like.
Sounds like reason enough to play with eight then! Now the question is if you prefer two DMPCs or if you want to recruit two new players.
Cel and Rob probably aren't coming back. Cel was deployed then had to come back from overseas because of a serious medical problem with his wife. He hasn't been on the boards since really.
Rob basically just said he doesn't have time. I think the psychic blow of thinking he was going to win RPG superstar (well at least according to many of the official judges) and then losing after putting so much in kind of soured him on doing a lot of Pathfinder "work", and he has a busy lawfirm job.
My point is, we shouldn't count on them coming back as they probably won't. If you're set on 8 PCs you should either DMPC them or recruit two more people.
It's been so long I'm not sure what I intended to do with Wilhem, I may have just been keen to play the new class. That being said it'll hopefully come back to me when I get some time and reread his background and whatever else I can find on his character sheet. I don't forsee changing him, I still think the class is interesting.
As far as party size... what Hoosible said :p Do book one with NPC'd Rob&Cel and then shuffle them off somewhere else while we get all the phat loots. That said NPCing them puts more work on you so recruit if you feel it would be easier.
Best bet would be to simply DMPC the two until book 2 - little extra work for me, but less work than the hassle of recruiting additional players I believe. Plus we have a good group going here, and even when we lose Rob and Cel's characters at the end of book 1/beginning of book 2, the group won't be missing any major roles.
And thanks for the points Ferit, I hadn't heard any of that about Cel and Rob (Besides Rob being busy), so I'll keep it in mind.
I'm totally speculating on his feelings towards the RPG superstar thing. It just felt that way to me. Rob definitely did say he's basically done with PBP for the foreseeable future though.
That's a real shame Ferit :(
Indeed, I miss the bugger. He was a very skilled and creative writer. I was in all but one of his PBP games when he quit too. But, what are you gonna do? -shrug-
Unrelated to the game; who here is signed up for PF online? Just catching up on emails from the last week, and reading up about the land rush. Would be cool to get into a guild early on if you guys are interested (or have a recommendation)
If I had the money I'd get into it early, but alas!
I've been keeping semi-tabs on it though. I'm a pretty big fan of EVE Online which this'll be similar to, so I can't wait for it to come out.
Yeah I noticed a couple references to EVE for a few of the systems. Haven't played it myself but a friend was pretty big into it for a while. Bit odd that XP will simply be accumulated over time independent of your actions (or even being logged on) in game, but really makes the early enrollment valuable I suppose.
I got in back when they did the kickstarter (spending a ridiculous amount of money) and I still had a job :p So I'm set up for the first month or two of Early Enrollment. Planning to make a Human Cleric, possibly of Cayden Cailean (though not sure how the gods are going to be implemented), and then make an alt later on when they add some more classes.
I play Guild Wars 2 right now.
But, I'm definitely going to play PF Online. I'm going to wait until it's in beta or something before I give them any of my hard-earned treasure. I don't like the thought of supporting accidental vapor-ware or a game that won't be playable for years to come. If you guys wanted to start a guild though, I would so be down for that.
I always wanted to start a mercenary company in an MMO. Tried EVE but I was so far behind the curve (it had already been out for years and years) that it was too frustrating. If we got in on the ground floor we could get a good thing going. Bounty hunting, mercenary muscle, possibly weapons production. I'm sure there will be competition, but that's part of the fun.
Yeah that's pretty much why I asked Ferit :) They say the difference between a new/low skilled player and long term/high skilled character is more about the long term player's flexibility, but that's only true to a point even if the system works that way. Resources, contacts, experience all play their part too.
The Early Enrolement (beta effectively) is meant to start in a few months, and their currently doing the land rush to secure the only 30 starting settlements in the game. Player's won't be able to create their own settlements until late in the beta or even the full release which is slated for early 2016. It's $100 to get into the EE, but considering it's going to be about 18 months before you can play otherwise it might be worth looking into. At least that's what i remember from this morning's reading, may not be entirely accurate. Regardless, good to get in early, and you need a guild to claim one of those settlements.
I might throw down $100 to play once other people start and say it's not total crap. I assume they're not going to be idiotic, and allow ongoing enrollment in the EE thing. I'll also have to make sure they don't block Asian IP addresses, as I've had the extremely unpleasant experience of buying a game before and then not being able to log in and play because of where I live.
Yeah they've said they'll be letting in a limited number of people month by month, though I didn't see anything about lowering the price. Not sure about the Asian thing, they said it'll be available worldwide but only in English initially.
Well, teh English is me good.
As I continue prepping for restarting this campaign (Getting some encounters adjusted after they.. ahem.. proved to be both a bit too harrowing and frustratingly-unfun for my test group), I came across a very minor loot disturbance within this group.
I noticed that both Isroth and Hoosible had interest in the Blood Reservoir of Physical Prowess - as far as I can tell, we never solved who would get that. Since Isroth is unlikely to return, Hoosible, would you like to claim it now, or would anyone else be interested in it? Not a huge deal by any means of course, but if you guys want to re-look over the loot and claim anything, feel free to do so before we get the campaign restarted soon.
*EDIT*: Also, Hoosible, did you notice you're level 2? You shouldn't be.. everyone's still at level 1.. :P
Re:Blood Reservoir I remember talking about it and there not being much interest. I think it's probably most valuable for one of the frontliners (since it can give a +8 boost to STR, DEX, or CON for up to two rounds) but if they aren't interested Hoosible will happily hold onto it...since Isroth seems even more creepily quiet than he once did.
Re: Level, Hmmm, isn't there some rule in PbP akin to stealing bases or stealing someone else's deal where you can get away with adding an extra level if no one catches you in time? ;0)
In seriousness, I suspect that was me considering him for another game when I thought this one was a goner. Let me look him over and see if anything else has gone wrong. I should have my old version to roll back to.
EDIT: Yep, there were a few other changes as well. Good thing I save these profiles in Google docs (and can go back through revision history as needed). Should be all good now.
Well if no one pipes up to claim the Reservoir by the time we start up the campaign again (Early next month), its yours if you want it. The 4 Con can be healed in a single day of complete bedrest with long-term care provided by someone else, so all you would need is one day of downtime. Easy enough!