Alex Martin's page

You guys have been great to play with! Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Happy Christmas to all. May the blessing of the seasons be with you and all your families.

I'll be traveling the next few days, so for those of you in similar straights - safe journeys as well.

Sorry for my slow responses guys, over the past week I have been busy being a new father for the second time around. Our new daughter Abigail is absolutely beautiful, but is taking up a lot of time at the moment!

Congrats, Moth! Best wishes and good luck with the little mothlings.

;-)

Hello one and all.

I hope you guys haven't given up on me after another long absence.

After dealing with what I thought would be the end of my work crisis, there was another work situation where it looked like I would lose my job.

So, for the past two weeks I have "volunteered" to go through the interview process and take on a new set of projects that I have put me at work until late at night.

That process is now over; I get to keep my job; and all my projects are done. I should be posting more regularly - assuming everyone is still interested.

I appreciate your patience, and I hope you enthusiasm hasn't waned.

Hey, Alex. I just downloaded the Cities of Golarion book, should I avoid the section on Cassomir for this game or will we not really touch it at all?

Hello! That's a great book - I enjoyed it and I think it fleshed out some details about Golarion that were interesting.

I don't think there's anything major that would impact the group's trip to Cassomir. There's an adventuring leads portion that might provide hints for an adventure, but nothing game-breaking I think. So feel free to read away.

I like the location, but it isn't high on my list for an immediate trip - there's one specific way that the party may wind up in Cassomir, but I think it's unlikely (unless everyone suddenly wants to do an adventure there).

Hope that makes sense.

Much as I loved him in Airplane, I think he'll always be Lt. Frank Drebin in my book.

"My name is Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant, Police Squad. There'd been a recent wave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and unconscious in laundromats on the West Side. Unfortunately, I was assigned to investigate holdups of neighborhood credit unions. I was across town doing my laundry when I got the call on the double killing."

"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to keep on my toes."

"Sorry we would have come earlier but your husband wasn't dead then."

Before the Naked Gun, I thought he was great back when it was Police Squad on TV.

RIP.

Hello all,

I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and got to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday as it applies to you.

Internet was restored on Monday, but then I was "volunteered" to help coordinate a Thanksgiving Beach Music festival. So, I am finally getting a chance to get us going again.

Thanks for your patience and interest in this thread. You folks have been great.

Thanks for the thumbs up, guys!

I have laid out the first set of "activities" to get some basic responses. More exposition to later.

Wilhelm if you'd like to just rework a melee or hybrid melee character with Geriant's name you can have that spot, I'm letting Kurgand keep his original character, I know how hectic life can get at times...

Thanks for your patience.

Hello all.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. What an awesome bunch!
I hope no one has ruled this thing thread out as dead.

The corporate audit is done, and we are generally in good shape. One more program this weekend that will keep me occupied, but otherwise my time is slowly freeing up.

Hope everyone is still interested and willing to give 'er a go. I'll start doing some posting today.

Cheers!

Thanks for your gem of a story, FW.

Feeling much better now. ;-)

Hello all -

Glad to hear you are on the mend, FW. Hope your are feeling better overall.

Folks, I want to sincerely apologize for my long absence and the delay in continuing forward.

After I got ready to start working on posts, one of guys that I work with left his job on as we were getting ready for a corporate audit. As a result, I've had to do two jobs over the past week, so its been pretty much work and sleep the last week.

Not as serious as FW's surgery, I understand. But it could mean the difference whether I get to keep my job, which is kind of necessary for me in the current economy.

Anyhow, the crisis has passed for the most part, and I am going to start working on post again.

Thanks for your patience, and I'm sorry to disrupt the flow.

Thanks, guys!

And thanks for the point on the Trap Spotter - good to know as we proceed forward.

Thanks!

OK - thanks for the update information. That rolling is fine by me.

On another note, received a post in game thread that FW is in the hospital for his appendix, and we won't be hearing from him for a few days at least. Don't know the details.

Wow! Thanks for the update. Please extend well-wishes his way, and I hope he gets to feeling better.

Depends on how far west, but I think your likely choices are Nidal and Cheliax in the north; The Shackles and Mediogalti Islands in the South. None of these area have any issues with slavery as a practice as noted in the guidelines, as it can be a means for commerce or entertainment. Given Rahadoum's humanistic, atheist stance, I would suspect that slavery is not looked on kindly, but not as zealously opposed as Andoran. Thuvia may also be a location with no issues concerning the matter.

I would agree with Pathos on Varisian locations, if you want something more local to RotRL. It could be possible that some slavery of a hidden nature is taking place in Magnimar's seedier areas.

Personally, I'd email the story over to Jolly R. Blackburn. This has got Knights of the Dinner Table material written all over it.

And on a completely random note, that video made remember this old commercial.

Just like with DnD, I like the original better.

Dungeon Majesty

I was going to mention the same thing.

The commercial is apparently a shortened version of someone's submission for a D&D video contest (I assume sponsored by Wizard's and so they officially own it). The longer version looks like it culls a lot more illustrations from 1st and 2nd edition and pays homage to more than just the dungeons part of the game.

While it seems unoriginal for the company to manipulate it for a commercial, I have to admit it's so cool I could see someone saying "we gotta use this" for an ad.

World of Adventure

Dungeon Majesty's Youtube Page Looks like these folks like to do retro sci-fi and fantasy clips.

Exactly - Lets put a price on the life of a Human that is suitably crushing of the perpetrator's economy and send in the bill.

While I think that the circumstances of each perpetrator's action would mitigate that "cost", I understand your point on the matter.

(As some have mentioned - there may be some moral distinction between the planned murder/cruelty of some acts and actions committed as part of a greater war effort, even if all are horrible.)

I just cited further examples because initially it seems like your original post implied that only the United States was responsible for horrific actions during WW2 - which is not the case in that particular conflict.

And which you reaffirmed was not your intent with the followup response - so I'm following up to clarify my snark's origins.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyhow - going back to David's original posting....
Thanks for that - The whole idea of reparation for WW1 after all this time points out to me:

1) Just how bizzarely obtuse and frustrating the peace process was after the Great War (or War To End All Wars). I read a great book on the Paris Peace conference of 1919, and in hindsight, it's amazing anything got resolved. That another war erupted doesn't seem so shocking considering all the nations that came away from that treaty with grievances about what it did (or didn't do).

2) Despite the fact that it's now some 90 years past, it still seems to impact the politics and societies of Europe in ways no one envisioned.

Anyhow...just some observations.

I don't have the reference in front of me - I think it's in the Runelords area - but I believe the Lost Coast of Varisia is supposed to be similar to the Seattle/Washington coast. So, I would extrapolate from there in terms of what it would be like in the region.

Lets see them pay war reparations for WW2. Lets See the USA pay Japan for the two Nuclear Strikes on Major Population Centres. How do you put a price on Mass Murder?

How about asking the relations of 6 million Jews what that price is courtesy of Germany? Oh wait, how about Poland asks Russia what's the price on the mass executions in the Katyn forest? China's probably wondering where's the check from Japan's Nanking massacre. Plenty of reparations to go around on that war if you want to start pointing fingers.

Edit: Sorry to repeat Gruumash's sentiment.

Sort of. What they do is have a 'wrapper' that is functionally similar to an optimized DOSBox setup for the game in question. In some cases there are minor code tweaks to the games themselves to make them more compatible, but overall that's it.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense, and suspected some kind of emulation program. Still, the fact that everything's in a neat package rather me having to make everything work from the cobbled pieces is good. :-)

I'll confess that I still have these games on disk stored. I didn't know GOG existed, but it looks like they have made many of these games compatible with my new computer instead of having to try and DOS-Box them.

Very interesting. Thanks for pointing this place out, carborundum.

Hello,

Looks like this went fast. If you are taking anymore alts, I'm thinking a cleric or a paladin or whatever works for the party if there's gap missing.

Not that I'm ready to start something up right away, but is your group of four interested in getting into a PbP? You have a good dynamic, so I am just wondering since it looks like one of the PbP's I'm in is likely going to die, so I might have some time.

Secondly, what are you interested in? Someone mentioned Serpent's Skull - but then it sounds like some of you are already involved in it.

Just throwing it for now. Nothing in stone yet. Thoughts?

Maybe that trip will help. Sometimes a change of scenery or activity will get you away from the burnout, but I think you can't force it out. Otherwise, I think you only build up a resentment for it.

Reading something different that your usual stuff maybe. But something you might find interesting for different reasons. If you've been reading fantasy fiction, maybe something like the hard scienes would shift your thinking.

Generally, I just find that I need to pull my attention to something else for awhile.

But I won't let that stop me from having fun! :D

That's what I hope everyone gets out of it. :-)

So you might have to occasionally spell out a clue for me here and there once I've actually FOUND it! ;)

OK - no problem. You might want to OOC a query if I you need a hint, just so I know what your need details on. :-)

Just wanted to add that I'm sorry to see this Pbp story come to a stop; it's been interesting to read and watch the characters develop.

That aside, good luck and stay safe, Dementia.

This is starting to kill me about these games released in October - I love them but no-where near the time to finish them all. I'll be getting Fable III, but I still need to finish all the expansions in Fable II. On top of that, Fallout comes out in October too, and I'll likely be getting that one.

And don't get me started on all the Mass Effect expansions...whew!

But I digress...yep I'll be getting it. ;-)

Hello all!

As mentioned, I'm back from traveling and should be posting again on a regular basis, as is needed to get things moving along.

Let me add that I hope everyone is OK with the direction the adventure is going. I'm sorry if it is too puzzle/trickery laden - there's supposed to be some danger in delving into Azlanti ruins in my mind.

But you guys are doing great and figuring it out, so I applaud your pursuit of it. If I am being to vague or you need more clues, please say so - I just don't want to spoil the mysteries too much.

If you feel like it is plodding along, I apologize. Hopefully, you'll find this leads somewhere interesting.

Just wanted to add my compliments on an interesting pbp on the Serpent's Skull adventure. You guys have certainly made it an entertaining read.

I'm missing Flint's dwarvisms. ;-)

You should check the link here.

This was discussed, but apparently if this is accurate Moore had some real disgust with the gaming industry after he was laid off by Wizards/Hasbro. So yea, it would be cool - just not sure it will ever happen.

Hope everyone's had a good weekend.

Just a quick update. Still traveling this week, but doing my best to check in periodically. It's been a good, if busy, trip.

Tomorrow is road travel, so I may not be accessing stuff until Thursday. In any case, feel free to improvise and keep it going if you like.

...sometimes Desna gets the snub because she's so willing to hang out with Cayden Cailean, who is so much younger than herself. There's talk that her favored animal is going to change from the butterfly to the cougar...

Not really contributing, but I had to highlight this as ROFL when I read it. Nice one!

Sorry to thread lurk here. Don't want to be instrusive, but I just wanted to compliment you all on some great RPing and the story you have going on. It has certainly made for a good read.

I'm curious to see where the story goes from here.

Understood - thanks for the heads-up and all. Good luck with the RL stuff (as fun that can be I imagine ;-)).

As for the former comment - quite right sir. I have a few favorites I like to visit while I'm traveling that never get old. :-)

I would have been curious to see a third part to the Rapture saga - just to try and bring it to a close like a story trilogy.

Nonetheless, this looks really cool and a logical extension of the Bioshock's themes of change and individuality and society.

So yea, very interesting for now.

I'm fine with Callum coming in. If you can find him! :)

No worries Alex. Thanks for the heads up.
Just check in when you can and let us know how your trip is!

Whereabouts are you traveling, and will you get any tourist-time? ;)

Atlanta; Hattiesburg; and then into Texas. From there it is Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. A side trip to Houston maybe involved.

I've been to most these places in the recent past, so the touristy part is kind of behind me. I get some days to hang out and chat with friends, so I'm happy for the break.

So perhaps "across the country" is a little broad - just seems that way to me. ;-)

This is an advanced FYI, folks. From Aug 30th through Sept. 16, I'll be traveling across the country. Won't be for another 10 days, but just in case.

In terms of posting schedule, I suspect this will limit my postings to once a day for the most part. If one of my scheduled assignments goes through I may find myself stuck on the PC with nothing to do on some days. I don't expect any outages, but if the internets goes down then, well it's a crapshoot.

I don't know if you'll perceive this as any different from my usual postings, but just in case it seems like I've slowed to a crawl in responses I wanted to let you know why.
I don't want you to think I've lost interest in the Pbp or anything.

Five seems to be alright, so let's proceed. If Callum would like to join us, I'll figure something out to bring him back, but I have no way of contacting him. I have to see if he's still lurking and wants to answer I guess.

OK - that's alright by me. We seem to be in good stride, but I wanted make sure with everyone. Further comments or suggested members?

By the way - is it just me, or is everyone having issues with the messageboards the past few days. It seems like I get the Messageboard is unavailable web listing alot the last few days. I thought it was my internet connections, but now I am starting to think otherwise.

Welcome to the website! I hope you find it enjoyable.

Can't speak too much to Chicago specific game, but if you keep checking the Gamer Connection thread, you'll find that there's usually a few games being setup - some via Pbp others via Chat/Skype/realtime stuff.

If you've never done the Pbp thing, it can be a great way to extend the role-playing side of things, but combats can get messy depending on how your DM handles it. Also, even if everyone posts each day, it can be a slower process than a live table-top. However, if you are new to Pathfinder that may not be a bad thing - as it gives you a chance to learn and discuss the mechanics.

That's my two cents. Good luck and hope you find a game soon.

You'll probably want to reference some astronomy data on the web to see if you can determine that information for your location. This may be a stretch, but maybe check with the local university, if there's one close. I know Univ. of Colorado Boulder has a great astronomy school, so maybe check their website.

For photography, I recommend you check out this guy's website. He discusses photography at sunset and makes some further suggestions and links. Site

Do you have an I-phone or I-Pad? If so, then a further recommendation I would make is that you check out an app called Pocket Universe. It's designed for skywatching and telescopes, but also should be able to calculate and monitor the sunset and moonrise from a specific location. It takes a little getting use to, but it's been a pretty good app for me - although I live near the ocean not mountains.

Hope that helps - good luck with your project.

OK - just checking in. I know our pace is glacial at times, but I just wanted to make sure we are still doing this.

Sounds like a fun idea - just be careful that rivalries don't get out of hand. As for ideas:

*The infamous tomb/dungeon. Have central location of interest, which each party may investigate for different reason, but leave clues as to group #1's presence for group #2 to find, etc.

Perhaps there's an artifact that group #1 has been hired to find, and group #2 gets it in their delving instead. Then they have track it down, but group #2 sells it and group #1 finds it in a curio shop instead somewhere else.

*The faction game. Have a each group wind up working for a different faction/organization on the frontier - maybe a politcal force or a church. While not necessarily hostile all the time, they may find themselves working at cross purposes on a project.

One group may have to clear a mine or dam site of monsters or bandits, etc for the local government. Once they do so and move on, the other group is hired by a nature cult to blow up/close the mine or dam. Therefore, the first may later find that the project they worked on was for naught, and ask why.

Just some thoughts.

Thanks all for the followup. I appreciate the feedback.

Here I go and ask for feedback, and then manage to wind up disappearing and working a double shift over the weekend.

OK - not to dismiss Davi's departure so quickly - but the next question I have for everyone is:

Do you want to look at recruiting one more to the party? Are you guys alright with five for now? We seem to be doing alright, and I can tailor accordingly, unless there's someone you guys would to have join us.

Just some food for thought.

12. Holy Chalice.
A simple silver chalice (possibly with a holy symbol of a good god). Any water poured into it will become clean and sanctified within an hour (maybe implying the dirtier; the longer it takes). This effect can be done 3 times per day, and makes the equivalent of a vial of holy water each time.

13. Workman's Mug.
A wooden and brass banded mug (possibly with a holy symbol of a neutral or mechanical god). Any standard liquid (no lava, etc.) poured into it transforms into a equivalent of a flask of oil. The oil can be lit, creating an impromptu (and potentially spillable) torch - the mug itself won't be destroyed. Duration is the same as a basic lamp would be. This effect can be done 3 times per day.

14. Black Vessel.
A tall obsidian cup (possibly with a symbol of an evil god, devil, demon, etc.). Any water or blood poured into it transforms into the equivalent of a vial of acid. This effect can be done 3 times per day.

Thanks for the follow-up, folks. I've been having fun, and I love the interplay of characters that is building in the story. Certainly things have gone differently than I expected is some ways, but I think that's good thing that your characters have brought to the table. If this were a "live" game, I suspect I would have flubbed at times.

I'll see if Bryan and James have anything to add, but for now I will continue with the postings and the story's progress.

No, just lost interest. You know, got bored, remembered why I prefer 4e's combat over 3.5's, you get the idea. I'll probably end up playing the character again in a different game, I just don't really care about what happens in this one, no offense. The various times of slow posting and the DM switch are probably to blame. (You're a good DM, you're just a different DM than the good Mr Keegan.)

Thanks for your candor and your gamesmanship. I'll confess that the combat aspect has worried me, and I have been slowly trying to refine the process as we move along.

Good luck with you next Pbp game, and hopefully Zareby's adventures will continue in some form.