mearrin69's page

Hi all,
Well, we're still up in the air on time but I wanted to post some character creation guidelines so you can get started:

* Era: Dark Times, after the official declaration of the rebellion but before the Battle of Yavin.
* Level: 5th.
* Classes: Any, but no actual Jedi. Force-sensitive is okay but you'll need a good story as to why you haven't been located by the Empire.
* Roles: Soldiers, scoundrels, diplomats, techies, medics, etc. all have a potential part to play. There won't be much piloting involved, though a pilot with other skills could still be useful.
* Attributes: 25-point buy.
* Races: Any era-appropriate race (i.e. no Ewoks, no ancient races, no races from the Unknown Reaches, etc.)
* Credits: 20k cash, up to 20k in "intangibles", which are basically: 1) "favor" costing 2k x CL of the character that owes it, 2) "ally" of 40k x CL of ally x % available, or 3) we can figure something out. edit: a Noble with the Wealth talent will double these figures, so 40k cash, 40k intangibles.
* Equipment: Period-appropriate equipment. Buy the license you need for it or buy it on the black market.

You will be performing a mission for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. You don't have to be a heart-of-gold member of the Rebellion but you at least need to have the ties required to be hired by them to do a job. The job might require you to set aside certain scrupals (no assassinations or anything like that)...or not.

Hopefully that's enough to get you going. Feel free to e-mail me at michaela a t acaciarg d o t com to discuss ideas, etc.

Back to time: what do you guys think about late Friday evening...after regular show events?
M

No problem on one-week's notice. We'll set a time shortly. I don't think Friday AM's necessarily a problem from a location POV - we could do it in my room, in the courtyard, or someplace else. Still, I'd like to fit it so everyone on this thread can make it so maybe Saturday night is another way to go. After everyone's sure of their schedules (early next week?) let's try to find a time that works for most people. I'll post my free slots here shortly after I take a shot at event trading.
M

edit: isn't Saturday night the banquet?

I like playing clerics. I like playing wizards. Sometimes I like playing other classes. I've never tried to put them on a scale to see which outweighs the other. The game I play in isn't all about combat and dealing damage (though I know not everyone plays the same game as my group) so I imagine I would weigh these classes' benefits differently than the OP.
M

Now if the Cleric had to take a feat so that my Wizard could save some money on scribing spells into his spell book, that would be equivalent.

Oh, you mean like Extra Channeling or Selective Channel so they can keep your sorry, greedy mage ass standing during combat? ;)

Maybe the fighter/paladin/monk/etc. should charge a "mage protection tax"?

I will probably bring Illuminati and Munchkin...though I have rarely played either in years.

Well, there's the drinking and orgies...oh, you meant gaming.

There are a couple of meeting rooms set aside for open gaming. It wasn't as active as I would have hoped last year but it is a good place to look for other folks that aren't currently engaged.

I ran a Star Wars game last year after the close of the show and drew a number of drop-in players by just putting my books and minis on the table while I prepped the game. I saw more than a couple of other games going on but don't know if they were set up ahead of time or were pick-up games.

There were definitely games going on after hours - including one below my balcony in the courtyard on Thursday evening before the event (I didn't mind at all, I'm just pointing out that it was happening) and I played in a D20 Terminator game before things started on Friday.

I'm not in very many organized games myself so am going to be looking for stuff to get into. Trying to put together a Star Wars game Friday morning and would like to run/play some other modern, sci-fi, horror, or post-apoc stuff while I'm there (I actually get enough fantasy gaming in at home so it's not my main focus at Paizocon).
M

Wow. I thought I knew what power gaming was...guess not :) Sorry, can't help with your character though. The dials are already up to 11 so I'm not sure how to turn them higher.
M

Yeah. I'd run something for the cleric who stayed in town...it was good roleplaying after all. Either give him some sort of trouble to quiet down or, if you're already past the time, then just give him the same XP the others got for their combat. They got theirs for combat. He gets his for RP.

Not everything a party does makes sense in terms of their characters. In this case, Belor asked (and they agreed) to keep watch over the town...and most of the party abandoned that promise. That's hardly laudable, even if they did end up doing something good on their trek.
M

Hi all,
So. Let's set the time for this after event trading and such. For now Friday morning is looking good for me and a lot of others, it seems - but who knows if that'll change. After we get it set up I'll forward how-tos on character generation. I'd like to do this at higher than 1st level so we'll want to do characters ahead of time for sure.
M

[rant]Little disappointed. I don't think I got even *one* of my 4-ranked events...[/rant]

edit: Okay, I guess I got into the SKR minis sessions, which is cool.

Interesting concepts.

I'm curious: why complicate the topology of the thing? I think Niven's Ringworld or the mini-ringworld from Halo are already pretty darned difficult to come by (built of tremendous amounts of unobtanium, etc.) that the additional engineering problems behind a Mobius strip aren't worth the extra surface area. Also, I'm having trouble envisioning the configuration of the construct. Do you have a diagram? Is it constructed of some sort of flexible material? What happens when your portion of the 'world' happens to be facing away from the sun? Have you thought about the issues fixed by Ringworld's "sun squares" and how those might work with your world?

When you talk about above and below are you meaning figuratively or literally? I'm assuming you can't just take a drill and start boring to eventually reach the underdark, then the Magma Sea, then the Nine Hells? At some point you're entering another plane that doesn't actually exist in the Material?

Just some thoughts that came to mind when I first read through it. If you're dealing with pure Fantasy and not Sci-Fi, you can make any bloody thing you like :) but if you're thinking of introducing some Sci-Fi to it then I think you'll want to make sure the physics and so forth are defensible. Hope any of that helps or provides food for thought. Ringworld's an old favorite of mine too...and I'd love to RP on it (or in the Smoke Ring, actually).
M

You could...put it back yourself? :) For my game it's hard enough getting players to care about SP and CP, let alone EP.
M

So, his e-mail's not public but I sent him (Jim) a message on your behalf and pointed him to this thread. Hopefully he can help get you going.
M

Didn't used to have any sort of pre-requisites. I signed up years ago, though, so something might have changed. I'll see if I can dig up the group manager's e-mail and pass it to you.
M

Hey, that's weird. I've never had any problems with it. Haven't been there in a while but I just logged in okay and was able to move around in the site without it logging me out. My first suggestion is to try logging in to just the main meetup.com system and then trying to contact support about the problem. Second, you could try clearing your cookies to see if that help (IE Tools->Internet Options and Delete on the Browsing History section of the panel that opens). Hope that helps!
M

Last year I played in a Terminator game at 800am on Friday morning while fighting off the effects of the beer drinking the night before and it was a BLAST. Starting the day with some Star Wars goodness would be a nice start. And, the courtyard area worked really well last year for the Terminator game, so maybe we can grab that area (it's right outside the hotel restaurant, so coffee was a short walk away). Thank the gods for wake up call service in the hotel. ;)

Yep. I was there trying to stick it to the metal with you. They got my dog. :( I didn't have any beer the night before though. Have to do that this year!

Okay, so, anybody else good for Friday morning at around 8am?
M

Are you talking beginning and ending before the 12pm-5pm block?

I am. I know some gamers don't get up that early though :) Something like maybe 8am-11:30am? I'd go earlier if we can round folks up earlier.

Well, I'd *like* to hold it so it doesn't conflict with any Paizo events but it doesn't look like that's possible unless we do it Friday morning. We did it Sunday afternoon last year and that was great but I have to leave Sunday night this year instead of Monday morning. So, it would be good to find a slot that everyone has open...unless we grab Friday morning now.

What do you guys think about Friday morning? Any of you have commitments yet?
M

Ummm...not yet. :) I was going to wait until we got back the results of the lottery so we can schedule the game firmly. I guess that's not *really* necessary, though. I'll look at my notes and come back to you guys.
M

You could try GURPS Lite (which is free!). It's 32 pages but the actual rules section is probably less than half of that...a lot of the document being character-building components such as advantages/disadvantages, etc.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/

Hope that helps.
M

Yah. Buckler's the only way I know to do it, barring magical shield companion thingies. It's handy for my paladin, who decides at any given moment whether he wants to get an AC bonus or more damage from his sword. Doesn't make a lot of sense to do it with a full-time 2H weapon, though...unless he just uses it against ranged attacks on his way to the front and then doesn't use it in the actual battle.
M

Eat? Gamers don't need to eat when they're gaming...bring junk food! Seriously, though, there's a place at the hotel itself and a Dennys (if you can stomach it) nextdoor. If you want something more wholesome, there's a Whole Foods (or similar, I forget) across the street. There are a few other choices with a few minutes more walking or driving.
M

Glad I'm not the only one that saw the headline and giggled a little...

@Selk: You are a devious person. I like you. Heh. Really great stuff. Totally going to steal some of it.
M

I agree that they'll probably want some revenge. In my game, and maybe the adventure as written, they're pretty fiercely loyal to their boss because of who lives in his head. That means they won't just slink off into the marshes or something...the more the PCs anger them without killing them, the more they're going to want to add souls to their boss' warchest. Have one or both sneak into Sandpoint while the PCs are taking the winter off and start marking folks with the Sihedron rune. Then, when the PCs discover it (make sure they do) they'll be even more horrified about the raid. They don't know what it does yet (in my game anyway) but they know it's bad news.

BTW, I love that our rogue has decided to kife a sihedron medallion and wear it (semi-secretly). I'm going to have fun with that.
M

Both of mine escaped as well. Lucretia was able to get most of the weapons and gear on the road to the Fortress well before the PCs got to Hook Mountain. She and Xanesha, who had been at HM overseeing production, are on their way back to Mokmurian. Not sure what part they'll play. They might take part in the raid on Sandpoint but I've already got Nualia (who escaped as well) involved in that one.
M

Agree with the rest. Currently playing a pally and about the only dump stat for me is Int. For sure you want to focus on Cha but don't forget the other stuff.

Smite is great...just make sure you don't waste it because you don't realize that you don't really need to Smite a hell hound or manticore (because you made Int your dump stat and there isn't a wizard around to tell you any better).
M

Welcome to town, both of you :) Do check out the meetup if you get a chance.

How's it going? Missed your first post or would have responded sooner. Hillsboro's a bit of a slog for me (I'm just north of the river) but I wanted to point out that the local D&D Meetup group (http://www.pdxdnd.org/) is active and has a lot of prospective gamers (more than just D&D as well). I've met quite a few players via the site and I know others that have as well. Check them out. I think they have a semi-regular get together at Guardian Games. Good luck!
M

The fly spell has provisions for armor/encumbrance and speed. I don't think class features will supercede that...

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells---final/fly

So many questions, so few answers. :)

1) It's not realistic but I just treat coins as coins, whether they're old or minted yesterday. It's just a lump of gold (silver/copper/platinum) so I figure anything that's not "of the realm" gets melted down and reminted in the form of local currency anyway.
2) No reason for Malfeshnekor not to speak up a bit. I tried to be secretive about the world's history when I started but soon realized that with things like Linguistics suddenly letting the ability for Thassilonian to pop into characters' heads that it's a little unrealistic. So, instead, I've been dropping breadcrumbs of info that give some real information while dropping red herrings to mislead the *players* into thinking they know something that they don't.
3) Dunno whether Barghests are demons or devils and I haven't put much time into Great Beyond either. If they're devils I guess he could have been summoned/trapped or have made a deal he had to stick with? Honestly, in my game, it didn't come up. He ate a town guard's soul and then the party shut the door and went on with their business. He's still there seething and I've been trying to think of a way to let him loose to cause some havok in Sandpoint.
4) (sorry, you forgot a number :) )I think the aura thing is the way to go and I seem to remember that this was hinted at in the book...but it has been a while since I read/played that book.

We're just about to play the raid on Sandpoint. Our Nualia escaped and will be riding the dragon (hey, her final threat was that she'd see Sandpoint burn so what better way than from the back of a red dragon?) Think it's reasonable that she returns to Thistletop and manages to free Big M? I'd like to have him come loping into the town during the raid and start eating people...

For which game? Mine or Senshi's? I haven't actually decided about pregens or not for mine...last year it was a mix of characters made by players before the session and some rolled up on the spot. I'd prefer that, after I post the parameters (soon, promise!), we have folks make up characters before the game. I'm planning on doing something at higher level this year (last year we started at 1st).
M

They help me when I don't have books on hand but I can't say I'd ever *not* buy a Paizo product I wanted just because the meat of it was online. Having the old D20/D20M SRDs available didn't stop me from buying a shelf-crushing load of Wizards' hardcovers either.

Guess I'm one of those throwbacks that likes books (even if they're just electronic things that only *look* like books).

Not everyone is the same, though. I played 3.5 with a guy that printed out the SRD rather than just buying a copy of the PHB. I've met others that have done the same with "downloaded" material. Go figure...seems like more work for less quality to me.
M

I'd be up for playing in that. I always end up running SW, never really get to *play* it. :)
M

Hopefully Hugo's got you taken care of on the tickets but I just wanted to post to say I hope the surgery goes okay.

We have a number of "special needs" :) pets so I know how tough it is to deal with this kind of stuff, emotionally and financially...ours have run up a pretty nice car's worth of medical bills over the past five years.
M

Tastes vary. They matter a great deal to me...otherwise I'd just play Unreal (and even there I care about the backstory as much as I can). I think even my most "rulesy" players care about the world to some degree, though I have met (but never played with) some people that don't really seem to.
M

I prefer good color art BUT as Majuba indicates, I prefer good black and white art over bad color art. For an example take a look at GURPS 3E vs 4E; the former usually had decent B&W, the latter has quite a lot of bad color art (some is really good, of course). I love GURPS, BTW, not knocking it.
M

I was just going to ask this question another way myself.

What if, say, you're a fighter that has taken Dodge but you're wearing armor that has Max Dex of 0 (implying that your dex is temporarily being counted as 10 or 11, below the prerequisite for Dodge)?

Can you use Dodge while wearing that armor? Seems like not to me...but wearing the armor doesn't actually reduce the ability score, just the amount of bonus you can apply to AC, skills, etc.
M

That's pretty cool. Nice stuff. Looking forward to reading about your world on the site.

I recognize Sapiento from Cartographer's Guild - he's one of the best.
M

Oh yeah. Got mine for sure. :) And...it's actually cancellable within 24-hours (not that I will but it's nice to know I can). Last year it was non-refundable.
M

Not an authority on the subject but I'd say not because to take an AoO you have to be armed with a melee weapon - and you are not unless you have the feat. If you did allow it then I'd say that making the unarmed AoO would indeed provoke, because attacking unarmed without the feat does provoke.

Again, I'm not sure of the actual rules and I don't have any books with me but that's how I'd rule it on the spot.
M

I'm not even sure it affects room proximity. I was pretty much next to the elevator nearest the Paizo registration/store/banquet hall.
M

That's awesome, thanks. I totally forgot how I lucked into that rate last year...thanks again for pointing it out. [edit]I owe one of you, maybe both, a beer for saving me $100! :)
M

Sorry to continue the interruption of the roommate thread but @Alizor: how do you find that? I did it last year too but now I'm only seeing $109 and up. Would be nice to save some more.
M

I did about the same thing with a GURPS adventure I'm putting together for my group to play in the future. Funny thing, though, is that it was better when I reconstructed it the second time around. Sometimes it's good to lose data...because you also lose all of those things you've been so attached to you won't consider changing them. :)

BTW, speaking of new material, I just got notice of KM #2 shipping soon. Going to be sad to put it on the shelf in the shipping envelope. BUT worth it to get to actually play in a game for a change. :)
M

If you can table the issue for a bit you might later award the abandoned farm areas to them as a 'fief'. After Hook Mountain I had Grobaras give the PCs peerage (so many nobles having been lost in the recent Skinsaw Murders) and some of the lands south of Sandpoint...the ones that had been decimated during the ghoul uprising. For me, it's a good way to get them back into the area for what comes next (Fortress and the raid on Sandpoint).
M

Edit: Better yet, set the price high and let them start working toward buying it. When you award it to them later for their service it'll mean even more to them. Some of my guys are jaded...but maybe yours will appreciate it more.

I was actually able to post using my Blackberry's built-in browser (not sure what it is other than that...version or anything) but it was painful, to say the least. I hadn't thought of trying Opera but will look at it.

I have an iPod Touch (not iPhone, yet) and posting from Safari on that device is actually pretty easy, though the Paizo forums are a bit slow.
M

We had this same issue. We ruled that 1) if you were just moving through a threatened square and failed that you provoke and continue to move as desired, and 2) if you were trying to move through an opponent's square that you provoke and stop at the square from which you tried to enter.

Don't know if it's right or not but it was acceptable to everyone at our table.
M

Lots of text here and I admit to not reading all of it. Probably against RAW I am very liberal with my interpretation of "soft cover" when we're dealing with creatures of different sizes.

If a dwarf (small side of Medium) is fighting an ogre (small side of Large) and an archer <30' away wants to shoot the ogre I generally will reduce it to +2 to defender AC. Dwarves (dwarfs? or is that Tolkien?) plant their feet and hack away. He might bob and weave but I'd rule there's no way he's going to be obstructing the view of the ogre from about the waist up (so, +2 would make sense, no?)

For an animal companion in the way I'd probably consider the size of the creature. If it's a tiger and it's just standing there (i.e. not mauling the target) I'm going to say that a human-sized archer can probably shoot over its back with no bonus to target's AC. If it's an elephant, well, there you go...I'll give the target soft cover. Also, if that tiger is in melee he's jumping around and biting and what-not, so I'd probably give the full soft cover bonus.

So, my rulings on it are entirely subjective...we use RAW most of the time but we have some discussion about the weirder cases to try to come up with a ruling that is reasonable (not realistic, which doesn't IMO mix well with a very abstracted combat system such as PFRPG's).
M

I definitely *try* to provide situations (even in published adventures) that let PCs use the features they've spent time developing. It's easier in a system like Pathfinder than in, say, GURPS - where things can get pretty far afield. In GURPS, if you paid for it with valuable character points, you definitely want to use it (and the GM has to try to get in some of the bad stuff they got points for as well).
M