Speaking as one of those cats (meow?) from the Age of Worms game (the cat who didn't bail, of course), it does suck when players just drop out. However, I understand and feel what you're saying about Rajah. I honestly don't see why Gilfroy would ever have been friends with Rajah, given the cleric's sanctimonious personality, in the first place, so it is a little tough. That being said, it's not worth losing a player over. As Dax says, it's early enough to alter Rajah if you feel that's a solution you can live with. It's also early enough to say that Rajah decides for whatever reason to discontinue the association and enter a new character into the picture, as there are lots of great hooks to use (Walthus sends for a ranger friend, a mercenary of House Valdemar sent to keep an eye on the wayward niece of the house, etc.).
Further thoughts after sleeping on it:
I don't think Corinna will be able to switch out spells, as I very much doubt someone who has never slept anywhere but in a bed will get 8 hours of rest lying directly on damp ground in light street clothes. So she's working with read magic, dancing lights, prestidigitation, unseen servant, mage armor and mount until she at least gets a bedroll, none of which will do anything against skeletons.
She also has only piercing weapons which will similarly do next to nothing against skeletons, even assuming she can hit.
We can't follow a trail with Perception; we have to use Survival, which means we're dependent on someone with a +3 rolling well enough every mile. Not a problem if it's a DC 5, but since Corinna couldn't even find it with an 8, I think it's a DC 10. Odds are against us even being able to follow the trail.
I guess the monks are good; they always have bludgeoning weapons with them. But we really should have gone back for Walthus Proudstump so we had someone who could reliably follow a trail. Our characters wandered out here without thinking it through, which usually doesn't end well for unprepared fictional characters in swamps.
In re Rajah and Gilfroy: I thought they were both friends of Koya; that doesn't necessarily mean they're friends of each other. Lawful Good headed for paladin levels and Chaotic don't usually get along real well together. But do we really want to say Rajah isn't a good fit because he's Lawful? Corinna will be the next domino to fall, because she's definitely less chaotic than the rest of the crew. James Jacobs has said that this is probably the best AP they've written to play a paladin in, due to its not expecting the PCs to have to make morally gray choices.
Well I'm not the type of player to drop out of a game either. Furthermore, I don't want to drop out of this game, nor do I intend to. Despite the current conundrum, I've been rather enjoying the roleplaying. What I haven't been enjoying, so much, is the sense of being a weaker reflection of Melon mechanically. She and I have very similar skills with very similar bonuses. We fight somewhat differently but I don't feel like I'm contributing all that much there either.
I've been mulling over asking Navior (Hi DM!) if after we get back to the village, I could retire Aago to some other pursuit and just bring in a new Ranger character. Mainly because I'd like to be more useful than I currently feel. I wouldn't just change Aago though, or add a Ranger level with him.
Anyway, I definitely don't think that Javell should drop out.
I have that same situation in another game: There are two barbarians, only mine is a halfling and the other is a gnoll. Sometimes I wonder why my character is even there. Her max damage raging is less than the gnoll's minimum non-raging, I think. :P
I have that same situation in another game: There are two barbarians, only mine is a halfling and the other is a gnoll. Sometimes I wonder why my character is even there. Her max damage raging is less than the gnoll's minimum non-raging, I think. :P
I almost applied to that same game way back when it was recruiting with my own halfling barbarian but decided not to when I saw that you had the same idea. I totally should have changed my mind about the Monk when I found out that LoreKeeper wanted to play one. Ah well.
We can't follow a trail with Perception; we have to use Survival, which means we're dependent on someone with a +3 rolling well enough every mile. Not a problem if it's a DC 5, but since Corinna couldn't even find it with an 8, I think it's a DC 10. Odds are against us even being able to follow the trail.
I guess the monks are good; they always have bludgeoning weapons with them. But we really should have gone back for Walthus Proudstump so we had someone who could reliably follow a trail. Our characters wandered out here without thinking it through, which usually doesn't end well for unprepared fictional characters in swamps.
The funny part is that (as I commented quite some time back), in the book, Walthus doesn't even have ranks in Survival! Of course, I have redistributed his skills so that he does (a ranger living in a swamp without the most important skill necessary for living there just doesn't make sense), but it's a bizarre thing nonetheless.
As for following the trail, it's currently a DC 10 Survival check to follow. Even without ranks, anyone in the party can currently follow it. Of course, as Joana predicts, tomorrow it will go up to DC 11, making ranks in Survival necessary.
I have that same situation in another game: There are two barbarians, only mine is a halfling and the other is a gnoll. Sometimes I wonder why my character is even there. Her max damage raging is less than the gnoll's minimum non-raging, I think. :PI almost applied to that same game way back when it was recruiting with my own halfling barbarian but decided not to when I saw that you had the same idea. I totally should have changed my mind about the Monk when I found out that LoreKeeper wanted to play one. Ah well.
Well, you might have optimized yours better than mine ended up being. The final battle of the first module, she was literally unable to get past the BBEG's DR. Literally. She did one point of damage the whole encounter, and that was by swinging her weapon two-handed and rolling max damage. She's been largely useless since then. I kind of hope she gets killed before long because it's only going to get worse as the levels accumulate. :P
Sadly, the DM introduced a whole side mystery about the family she never knew, so if she dies, I'll never find out where he was going with it.
As for following the trail, it's currently a DC 10 Survival check to follow. Even without ranks, anyone in the party can currently follow it. Of course, as Joana predicts, tomorrow it will go up to DC 11, making ranks in Survival necessary.
Oh, good. So by not following it immediately, we have now lost our ability to follow it at all. If we're smart, we'll go back to town, get all the supplies we should have gotten in the first place, and hire a guide.
Re: Changing Characters.
It's a simple fact of gaming that sometimes characters don't work out. They don't end up quite the way you thought they would. Sometimes they don't mesh with the group either from a roleplaying perspective or a mechanical one. And sometimes, there isn't even a clear reason; you just don't enjoy playing the character.
Sometimes you can fix this by modifying the character's behaviour or personality a little (like Dax did with Malan), but sometimes that doesn't work either. So sometimes you just create a new character.
I would never expect a player to keep slogging on with a character he/she doesn't enjoy playing. The point of the game is to have fun, and there's no point being here if you're not having fun. You shouldn't have to drop out of the game either when the solution is simply to create a new character that you like better!
So in short: Javell, Wander, if you wish to do so, I'm okay with you creating new characters. :)
Well if we end up going back to town (which OOC, I actually want to do for the following reason) I'll have Aago say goodbye to the group and bring in a Ranger.
Which means I better hurry up and create one. Tonight, most likely.
I'd rather not bring in a character while we're in the middle of the swamp though, if we can avoid it. Mainly because I'd like to have Aago survive to go off into the sunset.
I don't want to cause any difficulties with you as a DM so whatever way for introducing a new character works best for you I'm happy to adopt. If it works better for the group to encounter him in the swamp instead of Sandpoint, that's fine with me.
Anyway, I'm not going to have easy access to my books or the SRD until tonight but I'll try and put together something pretty quick. I'm going to stick with the Crush trait because I really do want to see how the romance system works in play (particularly after the whole Sasha/ Lorenz romance) but I'm thinking of switching it from Shalelu to Ameiko. The only reason I didn't go with Ameiko in the first place was because I thought LoreKeeper was doing that one.
Other than that, I'm planning on going with an Archer so that I don't interfere with Melon and Malan's melee combat and will, of course, take tons of survival ranks. That's all I've got so far.
I feel good with Melon as she is, so no worries continuing on with her for now. :)
What if all the rest of us vote that she's too weird and off-putting to continue on with? ;)
What if all the rest of us vote that she's too weird and off-putting to continue on with? ;)
Then Melon and Navior will have a relatively lonely solo adventure, obviously. :)
What if all the rest of us vote that she's too weird and off-putting to continue on with? ;)Then Melon and Navior will have a relatively lonely solo adventure, obviously. :)
Well so far, the one thing that can be said for her is that she doesn't tap people on the ass. :) Of course, I'll leave whether this is a good thing or not up to the rest of you to decide.
I was thinking that when they get back to town Ameiko or someone could have a message for him from one of his siblings. Someone's hurt, ill, or lost and they need him to come home.
Well so far, the one thing that can be said for her is that she doesn't tap people on the ass. :) Of course, I'll leave whether this is a good thing or not up to the rest of you to decide.
I fail to grasp this reference.
130 gp. That's kind of disappointing, but okay.
One of the things I forgot to consider when I decided that I'd create a new character is that I'd have to pick a new profile pic. Crap.
There was one that looked pretty good but I suspect it's from Serpent's Skull and that might not be a good idea.
Which picture?
As long as people aren't confused by it, I don't have a problem with pictures overlapping between the two campaigns.
It's okay, I found another one that'll do.
Now I'm going to be wondering what the first picture was....
Speaking as one of those cats (meow?) from the Age of Worms game (the cat who didn't bail, of course), it does suck when players just drop out.
For the record, I know you weren't one that bailed. I wasn't speaking of you, bro.
,
That's not how he was at all in my RL game. You see, I always have run two players when we play in RL. So, when I was playing him, I was also playing Javell. Well, when you do that, one tends to suffer a lack of character. Not to say he didn't have one, he did, it just wasn't as developed as you can get one here on a pbp. Obviously, Javell was the "main" character.
But there's my problem. He was actually a fun character in RL, but having to dig deeper into this character, due to the fact it's a pbp, has been a challenge. I never really knew "who" he was.
So, having said that, I'm gonna try and tweak him as Dax mentioned and did. Try to get him to that "nice" guy he is suppose to be. Dangit that irritates the crap out of me. Screwing up that badly.
Anyway, thanks to you all for the help and the patience.
Of course, you all may need a bit extra of the latter until I can figure this guy out. ;)
On a side note: I actually did that with another pc on these boards that I'm still playing. I absolutely HATED this guy and was hoping something or someone would just kill him, but, I fought through it and found a personality for him. He really doesn't do a whole lot, but at least it's fun now.
Regarding Malan: I must say, he is a far more friendly character. He seems more "freer", I guess? A bit less strict or tightly wound or something close to that. Not real good when it comes to finding the right word(s). He's much cooler. Hey, maybe that's it. Cooler. Way to go, dude.
You could just be ugly. Ugly people can be cool, right? :)
He's not ugly. He's a pretty, pretty elf. Were you not around for the castrato discussion?
Almost done with the new character. I'm just wrapping up the character bio this morning.
Yeah, I was totally kidding. That pic is too pretty to be ugly. :)
In the words of Big Mike(from Chuck, and slightly tweaked): "That is one pretty elf." :)
Mmmmm...Captain Awesome. :)
Okay, I've got a draft of Tevyn, my half-elf ranger, ready for your perusal. As I said before, I've chosen the Crush on Ameiko background trait. The background is included in the profile and has me set-up to ask if he can join Sandru's caravan. I figure he can be hanging out at Ameiko's when the party comes back, talking about his hopes for finding work and the rumors he's heard about what's been going on in the swamp and how he wishes he hadn't missed out on the chance to help with the goblins.
Anyway, profile can be found here.
Let me know if there's any mistakes or anything you'd like me to change. By the way, I'm reusing the profile for a character I created in another pbp that lasted for about 6 hours before the DM cancelled out so there's a few posts in the profile history that has nothing to do with the new character.
awww, I was hoping the ranger would be a bruiser. :(
Well we've already got Melon and Malan for the melee fighter roles. I don't want to just be another guy standing on the front line, that's part of why I dropped Aago in the first place. Besides, I'm already playing a ranger switch hitter in a different pbp.
Melon has an awfully eventful backstory for a PC with 0 XPs going into this campaign. ;P
Melon has an awfully eventful backstory for a PC with 0 XPs going into this campaign. ;P
So does Mahjik ;) - can't help that the rules don't cater for soft-xp well; but you can tell that both Mahjik and Melon have lots of life experience by the way they have 14+ Wisdom. That equals life experience!
I thought it just meant that they hadn't learned anything from all their experiences and thus hadn't earned any XP from them. ;)
I thought it just meant that they hadn't learned anything from all their experiences and thus hadn't earned any XP from them. ;)
Ha! That's good.
Totally off any topic, but I just read this and it has to be one of the funniest things I've read on these boards.
Shoot, I'm diving into the spoiler fun now too!
Did you have any particular preferences for how Tevyn joins in with the party? I was just waiting to see if any of the other PCs would talk to Sandru or Ameiko or whoever but it seems like it's primarily Malan right now. If you like, we can just play it so that Tevyn is hanging out at the bar and overhears part of Malan's conversation and heads over and asks a few questions.
Unless, of course, you had something else in mind. I thought I'd check first, just in case.
I was hoping for something like that too. I'd actually rather not have Tevyn be the supplicant one. "Please, let me join your group," doesn't quite put him in the best position.
I'm currently visiting family for the holidays, so posting may be sporadic over the next few days. I expect that's probably true for many of us. Happy holidays! :)
Geez, c'mon, Gilfroy. Don'w you see the big neon "PC" sign flashing above his head? You're automatically supposed to treat him as a trusted friend and accept him wholeheartedly! It's like charm person that way. ;)
I'm reminded of the scene in "Gamers" when the new PC is added. The GM tells the group that he wants them to roleplay the meeting, and reminds them that they don't know this person and have no reason to trust him. So how does it play out?
"You look trustworthy! Would you like to join our group?"
"Yes, I would."
:)
*shrug* First time I've seen it. I have noticed in the last day or two that I'll be reading a thread and someone will seem to be referring to a post that I don't see at all, but it's possible someone deleted the post before I got there.
At least we're meeting in a pub that people go to regularly, rather than out in the middle of the swamps.
"Hello there, fellow swamp trawlers! I have come to join with you, even though there's danger and treachery all around us."
That actually happened (albeit in the sewers) in a short lived pbp Joana and I were in together. My PC never did trust that guy.