This thread is for players and the GM to discuss out-of-character topics with one another!
Dot.
Murob would likely befriend either Karzok (same race, similar backgrounds) or Mogwai (similar nature vs nurture duality) on the way to Arcadia.
Greetings! Time to read up on the background of the others and get a feeling for what's going on :)
Hello and thanks for the selection. I've got the mechanics and combat gear hammered out in Hero Lab, I just have to do the mundane gear and Karzok will be all set.
Looking forward to the game!
Dotting in! Gonna learn about y'all tonight, too. :D
Hi all! I'm looking forward to gaming with everyone. I haven't read everyone's backstories yet, but the ones I have read I have quite liked. There is an eclectic group of PCs here!
Welcome!
We still await YoricksRequiem, but I'm not planning on doing anything that will for-sure require every person for a bit.
We'll start off with some calm intro posts, some RP, and maybe a bit of NPC-meeting.
I've made the first pair of posts, so feel free to meander over to gameplay and start writing if you like.
There are a couple of things (normal session 0 things) that I'd like to discuss with you guys.
1. Deadliness. I struggle a lot with encounter balance, but my general thought is thus: Encounters and enemies which don't matter will generally either be skipped or won't be that difficult to defeat. Encounters which do matter have a worthy chance of TPK. I don't really like character death, so I tend to go easy on people, but I'm also a big fan of the de-leveled world, so be careful in-character.
That said, I do have a potential house-rule that could either let me take the training wheels off difficulty-wise or allow you to be a little less afraid of death.
I have in the past allowed people to be critically injured or otherwise crippled in exchange for not dying. This usually means the loss of a limb, some permanent curse or other debilitating injury in exchange for stabilizing at negative CON + 1 health at the moment of death. The injury is supposed to be appropriate to the situation, of course.
I am also open to the usage of hero points if that's something that people like to get through difficult situations.
- - - - -
2. Themes. I'm not an insensitive prick, and I won't subject anybody to anything particularly heinous, but I've grown more and more.... depressing? As my gaming career has gone by. It's likely we'll see some themes of horror, perhaps torture, and definitely a lot of violence. Is everyone okay with these things?
- - - - -
3. Alignment. I don't really care about it that much. That's all, really.
- - - - -
4. Mythic! I'm actually a huge fan of the mythic rules, maybe even because they are overpowered. I like it when my PCs seem special, so it's certainly possible that we'll see use of mythic in this game. It depends on where it ends up going, and what ends up happening. It also depends on what you do!
- - - - -
5. I am not a huge letter-of-the-law game rule type person, though I will conform to the rules in the absence of other things. If you'd like to come up with something with me, or you'd like to use something that 'isn't allowed', go ahead and ask. I'm sure we can work something out.
I'm also a fan of abilities as rewards instead of money, so expect free skill ranks, free abilities, free magic, and other things at some point.
- - - - -
6. Houserules.
I have a couple to make things a bit easier, a bit more lenient.
Crossbows and guns deal bonus damage. One-handed versions deal 2 flat bonus damage, while 2-handed ones deal 4 flat bonus damage.
When you attempt a Combat Maneuver, you only provoke an AoO if you fail the maneuver.
- - - - -
Thoughts?
Sweet! Thanks for the selection. I'll get my profile and first post up tonight, hopefully. Tomorrow morning at the latest.
1. I like that idea as a means to stave off dying, especially since it's a great opportunity for character development.
2. I'm good with all of this. I'm usually only antsy with rape and that's just because most people handle it like a B Horror movie and play it for shock value.
No complaints with the rest of the things, super excited to get playing this game.
There are a couple of things (normal session 0 things) that I'd like to discuss with you guys.
Excellent!
1. Deadliness.
Sounds good to me. I like danger and difficulty, and I've not used hero points yet. Critical injuries sound interesting. I hope that if Sorala ever loses her arm, we would be able to find a way to compensate for her magus abilites, which need one free hand to activiate!
2. Themes.
Grimdark is fine with me.
3. Alignment.
Sounds good.
4. Mythic!
I've never played with them. Willing to give it a go, though!
- - - - -
5. I am not a huge letter-of-the-law game rule type person, though I will conform to the rules in the absence of other things. If you'd like to come up with something with me, or you'd like to use something that 'isn't allowed', go ahead and ask. I'm sure we can work something out.
I'm also a fan of abilities as rewards instead of money, so expect free skill ranks, free abilities, free magic, and other things at some point.
Great! I think boons are good rewards, especially with a game built around (I assume, at least in the beginning) some resource scarcity.
Houserules.
Sounds good to me. Could I retcon equip Sorala with a crossbow?
Karzok's profile is good to go.
1. That scares me as a front-liner with an AC of 16, but all of your alternative suggestions sound good to me.
2. Nothing really bothers me much, so feel free to broach whatever subject you deem necessary.
3. I find most alignments don't really matter much anyway. The characters alignment always seems to come through in their role-play, whether intentional or not.
4. I'm not opposed to it, but let's discuss it when we get there in a year or three.
5 & 6. Sure thing. The combat maneuver rule sounds very interesting. That might open up some alternative build options for me, so I'll definitely keep it in mind.
I'm 100% on-board with this style of play. I love grimdark themes, would love to delve into Mythic, and have a fondness for boons over gold myself. This sounds like it'll be the best kind of game.
Ha, I've recently started playing Dark Heresy 40k with a group of RL friends, so who am I to object to any of that.
Apologies if my replies seem delayed, I'm probably on a different timezone that most everyone else (Central European Time, it is now my morning).
Speaking of, what kind of post rate are you aiming for, GM?
1. Deadliness.
Sounds fine to me. I am generally in favour of hero points, not just as an insurance against character death, but also for the potential of providing some dramatic moments.
2. Themes.
I'm fine with grimdark, on the same page with Mogwai regarding rape.
4. Mythic!
Never played anything mythic, but I'm curious to give it a try.
5. Boons
Sounds like a great opportunity to develop our characters more.
6. Houserules.
Sounds good.
-----------
And now for some out-of-character introduction.
I'm a 36 year old video game developer living in the Netherlands (not actually Dutch). My first encounter with tabletop RPGs was way back in the days of D&D 2nd edition, but I haven't played a lot due to lack of opportunity - it wasn't exactly a popular hobby in Eastern Europe. My style of play focuses more on character development, roleplay and cooperation. I'm not that well-versed with mechanics, so if you have any suggestions for Murob in that direction, they're welcome.
Heh, I actually am from the Netherlands :)
I've been reading fantasy since I was a kid, being told during a vacation by my older cousin that once I could read and understand the (English!) manual to the Middle Earth Roleplaying Game (MERP) he would let me join for a session. I was 12 and before the vacation was over I had read most of the juicy bits. Poor guy never saw it coming. And that's how I rolled into the merry world of tabletop RPGs.
As for the house rules and campaign specifics, I've learned to simply put some trust in the DM. We all want a fun game and the DM tends to put most time into getting the game going and keeping it going. I've only experienced a high level campaign where everyone had 1 or 2 levels of mythic stuff and it wasn't all that impactful. I reckon it has a bigger impact on lower level of play.
Early 30's web developer from Boston here. I actually didn't get into tabletop / pen & paper gaming until my mid 20's but I've done my best to make up for lost time. I've been playing on the boards here for about 4 years (Leinathan was actually my first online GM, interestingly enough). Like Murob, I'm more into the character development and roleplay aspects, which is one of the reasons I play on the boards - I find it generally awards more opportunities for that than in person tables tend to.
Mid-30s gov't contractor from Maryland. Been playing TTRPGs since D&D 2e. I like a good balance of all aspects of gameplay and I feel that too much of any one thing can get stagnant.
I just realized that the three characters I am currently playing are a ranger, a rogue, and a slayer, so I guess you can tell what my wheelhouse is, heh. Glad to be a part of the group and looking forward to seeing where this goes.
I'm a special collections librarian at a university down on the border, in south Texas. It is a lovely area of the world; citrus groves, amazing birdlife, the gulf, and in many ways more Latin America than USA.
However, it was also 108 degrees F here yesterday. Basically, our growing season is the winter, and everyone stays indoors in the summer.
I've been playing PF only on the boards for a few years now, as I can't reliably block out a chunk of time for tabletop gaming. Which turns out is just great, because I think the game translates more to my style of play better online; there's more time to consider and post.
Currently, I'm playing a Spheres of Power incanter barrister, an inquisitor pirate with a complicated relationship to Besmara, a teenage apprentice monster hunter, and a Brevic playwright court bard, so I'm a little all over the place with character creation.
I'm also GMing a game here on the boards set in Arcadia, though the PCs don't know that yet; they think it is a homebrew world based loosely off of a mashup of 17th century American waterways, Aztec and Incan empires, and renaissance Italy. They'll be in for a bit of a shock when the first Chelish warship shows up :)
I'm 22, I work as a contractor at Google in Seattle, and I do partner dance instruction on the side when I can.
I got into Pathfinder when a friend of mine in high school invited me to his dad's game. He invites me over to their house, and without a bit of small talk we sit down to play three successive board games. At the end, he says it's alright if I join his game.
I got into PbP a month or two later when I realized I went to a preppy school and there weren't enough nerds for me to run my own game, and the game Yoricks was in was my first attempt at DMing.
Four years, a lot of different life circumstances, quite a few games dropped or lost later and I'm a real adult now who writes fiction for fun and does homebrew games. I, too like Play-by-Post because of the thought and the organization that you get to put into it. Something I really like about tabletop is the blend between crunch and fluff, that somebody's stats can tell a story just as much as their backstory.
My current characters are a Mendevian deserter who's a rogue/investigator and who owns a smuggling business and a shabti of the Runelord of Pride, an illusionist wizard.
I'm 30, working as a planning/logistics analyst for a bank. I run two of their call centers on the East Coast, though I live in Idaho. I'm hoping to ultimately move to Seattle sometime in the next 2 years or so.
I've been playing TTRPGs since I was about 15. It started with 3.0, then 3.5. When 4th came out, I jumped over to Pathfinder. I now play in two weekly home games (Tuesdays and Sundays), which will soon become a weekly Starfinder/weekly Pathfinder.
I only recently got into PbP to play through the APs that my home group will never play (between all members, I think somebody has run or played in every AP that seems even remotely interesting), since I have only personally been through Iron Gods and Hell's Rebels, and we're in the middle of Strange Aeons and Carrion Crown now.
I have a degree in Literature, so I'm pretty insatiable when it comes to stories and storytelling, and I'm really enjoying the PbP format as a way to really let stories grow and breathe.
I'm really excited about this adventure, and absolutely think the things Leinathan said above will add to the experience, especially in PbP. Kingmaker is the AP I've wanted to play the most, so I hope this game manages to get off the ground without petering out as so many do.
The sad thing is that no one in my current face to face group has played Kingmaker, but no one wants to DM it since they want to play through it instead. Go figure :')
The sad thing is that no one in my current face to face group has played Kingmaker, but no one wants to DM it since they want to play through it instead. Go figure :')
I think Kingmaker is the one I'd love to DM most. So much room to play and modify things! I really love DMing in general, though. I'm an improve comedian in my spare time, so I enjoy doing the variety of voices and characters and all of that. It keeps things interesting and fun. :D
I've DMed three successive Kingmaker games.
My first was a dorm room game in college, and it failed when half the party died (because they got into a fight after disarming themselves in order to do some diplomacy) and they gained too much Unrest to keep their kingdom going.
The second was fifteen in-game years later, a homebrew game with my main F2F group. They were fleeing the Brevic civil war and started up their own settlement on the ruins of the first.
The third was twenty-five in-game years after that, it was with the same group, and they were playing the legacies of their first characters. Two people played their children, one played an NPC that he had helped create, one played a member of a military org that his first had founded, etc.
I like the concept of settlement games of all different magnitudes because it really lets the PCs assume responsibility for something greater than themselves. It really puts the consequences of failure right in their faces. And because it's easy to vary in so many different ways.
I have a thought and two things.
My thought:
There is no way that Yosiah speaks Taldane. However, there would definitely be an Arcadian common language among the Northern civilized races. Unless somebody has a strong disapproval of the awkwardness that might result from this, I'm planning on this being a thing.
Thing #1:
I like to convert fantasy languages into regular languages and then use translators to write out the actual text of what your characters are saying. One of my GMs started this trend and I think it adds verisimilitude. Do any of you have a problem with this?
If you don't, I'll be adding a list of languages for which I already have an equivalent to the Campaign Info tab for you to refer to. If any of you want to use a language that isn't there, just find a corresponding language and let me know.
Thing #2:
The campaign info tab! I try to keep it full of useful or relevant information, though there isn't much to go on quite yet.
I love that you're using the Campaign info tab! Makes me want to go do the same in my Hell's Rebels game.
And I also think the translation thing adds a bunch of verisimilitude and flavor to the world, so I'm 100% on-board with that.
Should I be waiting for an intro or just going for it? I wasn't intro'd and thus wasn't sure. I'll get up a post in the morning anyway.
I like to convert fantasy languages into regular languages and then use translators to write out the actual text of what your characters are saying. One of my GMs started this trend and I think it adds verisimilitude. Do any of you have a problem with this?
If you don't, I'll be adding a list of languages for which I already have an equivalent to the Campaign Info tab for you to refer to. If any of you want to use a language that isn't there, just find a corresponding language and let me know.
No problem here, I dig the idea.
Just go for it!
I love the idea of using real languages, I do that for my other characters whenever I can. Regarding the Arcadian language, Murob could hold a language slot open and learn it later, if that's ok with you.
Ha, I used google translate to put together Ehiz's name. In fact, I've used it for all my PBP characters on here. I figured Andoran to be a blend of French and English, what with the French revolution and American independence being core blend of the nation after all, so I used a splash of Basque, French and English and threw it into a shaker.
Erastil being a bit of a niche culture, the God of the more and more forgotten Andoran countryside, I found Basque to be quite fitting for that level of extra mystique :)
Thing #1:
I like to convert fantasy languages into regular languages and then use translators to write out the actual text of what your characters are saying. One of my GMs started this trend and I think it adds verisimilitude. Do any of you have a problem with this?
If you don't, I'll be adding a list of languages for which I already have an equivalent to the Campaign Info tab for you to refer to. If any of you want to use a language that isn't there, just find a corresponding language and let me know.
So, it would look like this?
Sorala looked confused, as the words coming out of her mouth were strange sounding and unintelligible. "Hey, hansı dili danışıram?"
Exactly like that, Sorala.
I'll work on putting a list of known languages into the campaign info tab today.
Oh, I realized I never answered about posting rate.
About 3-5 posts per day cumulatively seems like a sustainable rate. That is to say between everyone we see a few posts each day, so that it never feels like nothing is happening.
It's more important to me to keep pace during combat, and if it's been your turn for more than a day I reserve the right to bot you.
I put the fantasy languages spoiler in the campaign info tab. Right now it's just got the languages that your characters know.
I realized I forgot to answer a question - it's totally okay for Sorala to purchase a crossbow now.
I realized I forgot to answer a question - it's totally okay for Sorala to purchase a crossbow now.
Thanks, leinathan! Also, good stuff going on in the gameplay thread!
Dutch as Giant? Haha, I guess we got a reputation for being tall bastards.
(I'm only 5'10ish however)
I have to say, Murob is turning out to be quite the intense young woman. Not exactly what I expected when I created her, but this is one of the best parts about playing new characters - you get to find out who they are, and sometimes they surprise you.
I am also very much enjoying the scene on the ship, quite immersive. If we don't manage to save Daeron I shall be rather cross. :)
I'm glad you're enjoying this! Tis good to have some stress and tension in an opening scene.
I'm also rather enjoying my life as a native. It makes me eager for first contact, and is helping me figure out what kind of man Yosiah is.
I REALLY enjoy the contrast between Yosiah hanging out in the trees and the tumultuous storm y'all are dealing with. It's like a show or movie that cuts back and forth between chaotic fight scenes and something really mellow. :D
It truly makes me feel blessed, Yosiah ._.
I only just now realized I never bothered to check out the lizards the gillmen brought along. Doh. But going by my earlier botched knowledge nature check, it could be that he genuinely doesn't know and is too overwhelmed by the current situation to care / properly think.
Please take this opportunity to say your goodbyes to Karzok, because I'm pretty sure he's about to eat sh*t.
:)
Hey, I feel bound to tell you that on Saturday, I will be attending a party in a cabin out in the mountains and so won't have any Wi-Fi. Unless I get the chance to post Friday night, it's not likely that I'm gonna get the chance to update until Sunday afternoon.
However, after the colonists, the whole party goes in a big block. If you could post pre-roll actions here in Discussion, I can resolve them all when I get back. In fact, in general if it is not your turn but you find time to post (and the next few actions won't change your action a whole lot) pre-rolling will get combat rolling a lot more smoothly.
Pre-rolls should be hidden under spoilers, and will be copy-pasted into the gameplay thread.
Yosiah - sorry for the combat without you. You'll link up with the party sooner rather than later, if anything goes according to plan. If it does not, it will be because this combat turns out in a weird way, and plans for the immediately upcoming posts I have for you will need to be changed, so... hang tight.
Murob had cast Fortune on everyone in the party while the gillmen were approaching - is that ok, GM? If so, Mogwai, Ehiz and Sorala can roll twice and take the better result on one roll (you need to announce that you are using this before making the first roll).
If not, then Murob will cast Fortune on Mogwai.
...Yosiah - sorry for the combat without you.... hang tight.
No problem at all. I'm looking forward to the moment, and I appreciate you letting us all know ahead of time about the weekend. Enjoy the cabin!
Fortune lasts only 1 round.
Ah, of course. In that case, Murob can use her move action to cackle instead, and extend Fortune for another round.
For the PC gamers here, Owlcat Games are making a Kingmaker computer RPG.
I saw that! I was at PaizoCon, and they had some information about it.
Along with news about good ol' Pathfinder Online...
GM, by my count Murob has taken 21 nonlethal damage, which equals her HP, so she should be staggered, not unconscious...?
Also, I am really liking the combat tracker, very useful.