Vallen Silverclasp |
It's certainly possible. I know Nerk rolls his sense motives in private, so either Vallen failed his (He has a +7 so it's unlikely but possible) or they really didn't do it. What bothers me is we found no bird tracks. Also Blaidd said the bird-demons simply kill and leave bodies lie- it's odd the bird-demons took their equipment.
Don't worry, Istiel is going to be suspicious of them until the end. This is probably the argument between my characters Nerk wanted to see. :p
Zoriya Yelizaveta |
As do I. Istiel and Vallen are so vivid and distinct, I think you can do some really fun things with that.
Also, as an aside, I really enjoy this campaign. Everyone is so good at bringing characters to life, and Nerk, I love how you've inverted expectations and made all the factions vivid no matter what their alignment. A round of applause for all of you, it's well-deserved.
Vallen Silverclasp |
I love Nerk's Gming style- he never fails to surprise or impress. I only worry what else he has in store... The shock we got from the demon-dwarves was only the tip of the iceberg I believe.
Also I think we're all glad you're part of our happy and hungry family now!
Paaie Biseri |
Aw, thanks!
Also: Nerk, so Paaie is untrained in Linguistics, but base rules say that you can make an untrained roll in bonus languages to read them. Will this apply to speaking them as well, or she out of luck until she levels up?
DM Nerk |
Paaie:
Languages: I've thought about this, and decided that the standard "terrestrial" pathfinder languages (elvish, orcish, sylvan, draconic, etc) have parallels in the new world. Any character with a skill point in linguistics can make a skill check to understand the Native version of a language that they understand. The check can be made each time that language is encountered. DC 15 will allow extremely simple (think toddler) communication, DC 20 will allow "broken" use of the language, and DC 25 means that you understand the native version of the language well enough to add it to your list of languages spoken. Languages associated with extraplanar creatures (celestial, infernal, auran, etc) will be the languages you are familiar with.
I was fairly clear that linguistics was required to translate, and I think it makes sense, both in game terms and in terms of the reality of the fantasy we're creating. As Sorala has been demonstrating in the thread, there's a lot more than knowing a language to understanding how languages work, and the challenge of puzzling out written language is very different than hearing and understanding spoken language.
I think of an untrained linguistics roll being a guy sitting down with Chaucer and slogging his way through the text. An intelligent, persistent person (who speaks contemporary English) will be able to figure out enough to get the substance of it. On the other hand, if you listen to someone reciting Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon, you'll be lucky to get about one word in twenty. Sorala can do it because she's a) a genius b) a scholar who already speaks goblin and c) rolled really well.
An in game comparison is the untrained Knowledge roll, which caps out at 10.
PS, I'm not quoting myself at you to be snippy, but because it never hurts to refresh my own memory of the houserules I've cooked up.
PPS, Also this:
You can retrain skill ranks you have assigned to skills. Retraining skill ranks takes 5 days. When the training period ends, reassign a number of skill ranks up to your Intelligence bonus (minimum 1), removing them from your existing skill (or skills) and adding them to a different skill (or skills).
If retraining skill ranks means you no longer qualify for a feat or other ability you have, you can't use that feat or ability until you meet the qualifications again. (Or you can retrain that feat or other ability.)
PPPS, I'm pretty sure this answer has gotten long enough to be obnoxious, which was not my intent. Apologies.
Tomag |
I love when the DM is willing to give us a little glimpse into the inner workings of their settings and rulesets. Feel free to infodump at us as much as you need to. :)
As of right now, I'm pretty sure I do want to make Vada a Slayer. Not so much for the assassin flavor, but because it'd make him pretty well-rounded in all things mundane. He'd be a decent fighter, could be sneaky, would have a good number of skill points to do stuff with, etc. I totally understand if there isn't anybody around to teach him, though.
Istiel |
Hugs for everyone?
Depending on how this meeting turns out, Istiel may become a Ranger with favored enemy: Humanoids (Goblins).... muwhahaha.
After looking at the Zen Archer monk archetype I feel Istiel will one day be reincarnated as one, in another game, somewhere.
Tomag |
Zen Archers have always struck me more as Robin Hood types, honestly. Not so much "zen with the world" as "zen with my bow." They're really cool, regardless. :)
Vallen Silverclasp |
Busy at the moment but Vallen is going to discourage everyone from leaving, with the exception of Kal'tos because he'll be gathering ore.
I also believe we should spend a few days in Newspring retraining npcs, crafting, gathering materials, generating income, or whatever.
Cueta Guiding Star |
I think instead of leaving Kal'Tos should stay in Newspring and start training a miner team. Then, Kal'Tos can set the team to mine and he can be available for scouting /adventuring / whatever else. Basically:
tomorrow: Sorala cashes in her gp for 2 labor. We still need 2 influence (will cost 15 gp this month) and 2 more labor (will cost 10 gp this month). If others want to pitch in then on 26 Gozran we can start constructing a mining team, which will be ready for work on 28 Gozran.
tomorrow, scouts: If the scouts want to leave ASAP, they could set out tomorrow and be in hex 14E scouting by 26 Gozran, covering the hill hex in 1 day (if in fact it is a hill hex). They can be back home on 27 Gozran (so they could even take a day off and be back by the time the miners are ready for work on 28 Gozran).
If it is a forest hex, then if they leave tomorrow they can be back on 28 Gozran, after two days of exploration, ready for when the miners set out. If the miners need accompaniment, the scouts can head back to the iron ore with them, or they can do something else.
By 28 Gozran, we've checked another hex off our list (and an important one, that will allow for a circular rotation of our foragers every so many days), we've set up income for crafting, and we've lined up our people so that they can be reconfigured in our two team system at the same time for whatever we tackle next.
Of course, this could all go belly-up if the scouts run into trouble / a dungeon / another group to treaty with. But in theory, it maximizes our time.
All that said, Cueta would like to hang out a Newspring for a bit, and she'd be fine with sticking around and rping a bit at home.
Sorala |
Sorala is going to start her retraining pretty soon as well. Probably the day after tomorrow. So, she'll be unavailable for income generation from 26 - 28 Gozran.
Tomag |
Tomag is pretty much willing to do whatever needs doing. He feels kinda useless, at the moment, because he can't translate, there's nobody to fight, and there isn't really enough food for him to be cooking stuff.
He'll either go with the scouting party (should we decide to send one) or hang out around town, looking for a way to be useful.
Vada is going to keep working on the farms, though I can have his work go towards labor instead of "gold," if you like.
Vallen Silverclasp |
I don't think we need a miner team right now, all resources should be going to gardens. Our food problem is far from solved. Kal'tos just needs to stick around and make some miner rolls to generate resources for the forge to the use when it's up and running.
Nerk might say that a miner team can generate resources for the forge to use as well (maybe, I'm putting words in his mouth right now) allowing for an additional route to generate resources for the forge, so it's not a bad idea if you all decide to do that.
I suggest the PCs stay in town so that our 2PCs can retrain and our PCs can continue to make income rolls. If we can wait three days and Istiel retrains as a ranger, she can go with the next group and be much more useful.
Won't you lose 4 skill points going from expert to Wizard? Just pointing it out.
Cueta Guiding Star |
@Tomag: I'd say if we do head out, definitely send one of your people out with us. We have 2 pcs because a situation happened earlier in the game where we split the party and one part of the party got wrapped up in a mystery, leaving the others on the sidelines for a bit. If you stick around Newspring, just insert yourself into a sitation. The halflings are still cooking food (just less of it), people will need spiritual guidance, you can tend to the sick, injured, children, etc.
@Vallen: I have no problem sticking around, and three days probably won't make much of a difference, but I'd like to get started exploring another hex as soon as possible. It will probably take three - four days to scout the hex if we don't run into trouble that eats up additional days (see: Portress). At some point, we're going to have to rotate our foragers out of the hex to the west of the goblins, and it would have to be before our Newspring hex is regenerated, or we're going to start running a really bad deficit again (full disclosure: math makes my head hurt).
As for which hex to explore, I see no reason why the goblins wouldn't let us pass through their territory, if we offer them safe passage through ours (of course, Nerk might see a reason why, but we should still ask them). The hex on the other side of the goblins makes the most sense to me - it is away from the coast (and thus according to the goblins, elvish lands, and therefore, with admittedly our very limited knowledge, safer by default).
Regarding the miner team, remember that a team is quick to construct and does, right now have the following equation: miner team = 8 food every few days (plus construction time for the glaives themselves). That is, they would bring in enough raw materials for 8 food every three? days, creating a total turnaround for food beginning in 6 days, plus construction time for the glaives themselves.
I agree that food is still our top priority, but I don't think spending a little of our resources impacts this much (it is not as nice as a farm or garden, but the team will still bring in food, indirectly), and we aren't losing Kal'Tos for days long stretches every now and then to get us the materials for the weapons to craft at food. Basically, we invest a little now and free up K'T's time and have a renewable food (and later other) resource going.
Sorala |
Well, I just Septimus/Kal'Tos's post, and if he's ok with losing time every now and then to rustle up the goods, I've of course got no problem with it. Just trying to save you some time, my friend :)
Well, and all of us a little time too. Remember, everytime we need the materials for the weapons, Kal'Tos will have to go mining, which means we either have to send a group with him or park everyone else at Newspring for what, 5 days including transit time?
And yes, Sorala will lose 4 skill points in retraining.
Vallen Silverclasp |
The forge will generate 2.0gp worth of smithing resources every day to use, which is enough to support the cost of one steel glaive/two days that Vallen can produce or the one cold iron glaive/four days that Vallen can make. I agree a supplementary miner team will be worth it eventually when we want to make more expensive things but not right at this moment, as a few days of Kal'tos doing his dwarf thing will supply enough of a buffer to get started on the glaives immediately.
Our 2PCs taking time to all retrain simultaneously will allow them to be much more useful to everyone, I believe. Though it would be hilarious to see Tomag take his farmer on an adventure.
Cueta Guiding Star |
We don't have to mine the ore to make the weapons with? The ore will just appear at the forge ready to go? If that is the case, then yes, I concede my idea is not worth the resources spent (and we don't have to worry about us spending time cooling our heels at NS while K'T goes mining every time we need a knew glaive, which is really my main concern).
That would be excellent!
And I don't have a problem with waiting three days while people retrain.
Vada Medeo |
The only thing is that I don't really know how to justify turning Vada into a slayer just yet. He hasn't really done anything besides tend to the farms. I suppose a little martial training with someone could cover it.
In the long run, Vada's going to be in kind of a weird spot, no matter what I do with him. His stats don't really lend themselves to anything in particular. If his Dexterity was higher, I'd probably make him into an archer, but as it is now, I might have him just club things with a 2h weapon and call it a day. D:
Vallen Silverclasp |
Yup Cueta, Nerk said that the forge's building checks to generate GP can be used to generate resources for smithing instead. It will be taking 10 every day for 2.0gp of materials.
The guards have been training on the beach a lot, pretty easy to justify.
Cueta Guiding Star |
Aha! Well that is excellent, my apologies for derailing the discussion thread with my plan. I concede that your plan is much better, Vallen!
And I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day! Well, except for Gair, I hope you had a nice Monday ;)
Septimus Gar |
The only thing is that I don't really know how to justify turning Vada into a slayer just yet. He hasn't really done anything besides tend to the farms. I suppose a little martial training with someone could cover it.
In the long run, Vada's going to be in kind of a weird spot, no matter what I do with him. His stats don't really lend themselves to anything in particular. If his Dexterity was higher, I'd probably make him into an archer, but as it is now, I might have him just club things with a 2h weapon and call it a day. D:
Just get him involved somehow. Septimus just happened to be around when a bear showed up.
Vallen Silverclasp |
I don't get labor day off, I'm a graduate student. >:( Science never stops!
Vallen Silverclasp |
Everything all right Nerk? Hope you're well!
Cueta Guiding Star |
Everything all right Nerk? Hope you're well!
Indeed. Hope everything is good!
Vallen Silverclasp |
No worries, just wanted to make sure you're all right!
Cueta Guiding Star |
Ugh. Work is the worst! Nerk, if I ever win the lottery, I will happily pay you to be a professional GM.
Vallen Silverclasp |
Can you pay me to be a professional player in Nerk's professional game?
Jokes aside, Nerk as a professional GM would be amazing. Win the lottery soon Cueta!
Cueta Guiding Star |
Vallen, I think insanely rich people sometimes do a lot worse things with their money than pay people to play RPGs, so I'd say sure. I'm sad to say that I haven't bought a ticket in awhile... I'll get back on the horse!
DM Nerk |
Life back to "normal," picking up misplaced threads of the game, and hopefully getting some momentum back.
If I've missed anything or responded inappropriately, just remind me, and we'll fix it.
I did actually see a guy on the boards who claimed to be a GM for hire, advertising himself as ready and willing to run any system, any campaign, etc. Custom tailored to the needs of the players. Because why should you play in a game that isn't the game you want? My thinking was, he's full of crap, and I still think so. There are simply too many games and too many styles of GMing. Nobody likes every game, or every playstyle, and you know when your GM is out of his comfort zone.
Now, as I understand it, you are offering to hire me to run the game I'm already running, the way I like to play, using a system I like. I'd be happy to.
If you need someone to lay on the couch Al Bundy style and watch reruns of Breaking Bad for you, I'm also available for that.
Vallen Silverclasp |
Welcome back Nerk!
I also saw the guy offering professional GM services. I was interested in how many people were actually mad about it and called him a shill/harassed him. Ah people.
Can I pay you in dounuts? For either job.
Gair Hearthseeker |
Yeah, I'd certainly never hire him but it seemed like that guy got more hate than was really necessary.
In other news, welcome back Nerk! Glad to hear your life has settled down somewhat.
Cueta Guiding Star |
Welcome back! I missed the guy advertising himself as a GM for hire. Wonder if he got any business?
Now, as I understand it, you are offering to hire me to run the game I'm already running, the way I like to play, using a system I like. I'd be happy to.
That's my offer. Powerball is up to 120 million - I'll let you know if you're hired soon :)
If you need someone to lay on the couch Al Bundy style and watch reruns of Breaking Bad for you, I'm also available for that.
BB fan, eh? Now Cueta has to give Edmund an "I'm the one who stings!" speech.
Also, there is McSweeny's take on WALTER WHITE’S “I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS” SPEECH AS WRITTEN BY OTHER AUTHORS. If you're familiar with WW's speech then the McSweeney's take is all pretty great (my favorite is Joyce's or Austen's).
I'll get a gameplay post up this afternoon.
DM Nerk |
Moving on to the next day shortly. I may ask Zoriya and Vallen to spoiler their conversations with Sandra Thayer and the Hobgoblins (good name for a garage band)
Do you really see Edmund as a Skylar, though? I thought of him more as a Badger.
Also...
Most of my old players have had a chance to get their feet wet with the 2PCs. Hassan seems fairly anchored to Newspring by his responsibilities. I'm thinking of creating some drama to get Vada and Paaie involved a bit more, as well as some of the other 2PCs. If anyone has any thoughts on whether that's a good idea, or something that might get them into the action, I'm open.