Our current GM has been forced away from our campaign by circumstances beyond his control, and we find ourselves without a GM.
We didn't get very far: we're currently in front of Walthus Proudstump's home. In fact, 90% of the gameplay thread and the beginning of the discussion thread is, essentially, character development for the players.
We're looking for a GM who is:
- friendly
- helpful
- experienced (preferably)
- willing to allow us to be immersive
- can make the campaign feel unique (from adding 3rd party content from Legendary Games to crafting own ideas)
- willing to aid us in any unique flex time that we come up with
Any takers?
What kinds of characters do you have? How loose or rigid did the previous GM seem about character creation? Those are a couple of things I'd want to know before volunteering to pick up someone else's game - I'd hate to be a bad fit for the group you've got going.
What kinds of characters do you have? How loose or rigid did the previous GM seem about character creation? Those are a couple of things I'd want to know before volunteering to pick up someone else's game - I'd hate to be a bad fit for the group you've got going.
Our group consists of a mute human bard, a female elf ninja, a human samurai, a human oracle that is healer, a human draconic bloodline sorcerer, and a human trip-focused fighter.
Here were the rules that our previous GM set up:
The Rules:
• Races: All standard races from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook will be allowed. Any other 0HD race will be considered on a case by case basis.
• Classes: All classes (Base and Prestige) and Archetypes from Paizo Publishing will be allowed. 3.5 or 3PP classes/archetypes will have to be approved by me prior to acceptance.
• Alignment: Characters can be of any alignment, but must be able to play well with others.
• Abilities: Characters will be based on the High Fantasy (20 point) buy, found in the PFRPG Core Rulebook on page 16. No ability can be raised higher than 18 (prior to racial modifiers). Only one ability may be lowered below 10 and that ability cannot be lowered below 8 (prior to racial modifiers).
• Feats: Any feat published by Paizo Publishing will be acceptable. Any 3.5 or 3PP material you wish to use will have to be approved by me prior to acceptance.
• Traits: Character's will start with two traits, one of which MUST be from the Jade Regent Player's Guide.
• Hit Points: Characters will start out with Maximum hit points for their class at 1st level. Thereafter players may either roll for HP's or take the average (whichever is greater).
• Starting Gold: Characters will start with Maximum starting gold for their base class as found in the PFRPG Core Rulebook on page 140, the APG on page 26, UC on page 8, or in the UM on page 8.
Note: To all prospective Ninja's, Samurai's, and Kitsune and others, please be prepared to explain why such oriental classes/races are in a decidedly occidental setting such as Sandpoint.
Our GM seemed to be pretty lenient on character creation.Y ou can read the Recruitment, Gameplay, and Discussion threads to get an idea about the campaign.
Current character setup:
-Sharrd: Human (Varisian) Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline): Childhood Crush (Ameiko/Friendship)
-Masamune Mitsuhide: Human Samurai (Order of the Dragon): Foster Child (Koya/Rivalry)
-William Drak: Human Fighter: Best Friend (Sandru/Friendship)
-Jacen 'Ash' Teleris: Human Oracle (Blackened/Life): Foster Child (Koya/Friendship)
-Piper Hemlock: Human (Varisian) Bard: Childhood Crush (Ameiko/Friendship)
-And yours truly: Alara Dawnchaser: Elf Ninja: Rescued (Shalelu/Friendship)
-All above characters are either Lawful Good, Neutral Good or Chaotic Good.
Our old GM's character creation rules were as follows:
• Races: All standard races from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook will be allowed. Any other 0HD race will be considered on a case by case basis.
• Classes: All classes (Base and Prestige) and Archetypes from Paizo Publishing will be allowed. 3.5 or 3PP classes/archetypes will have to be approved by me prior to acceptance.
• Alignment: Characters can be of any alignment, but must be able to play well with others.
• Abilities: Characters will be based on the High Fantasy (20 point) buy, found in the PFRPG Core Rulebook on page 16. No ability can be raised higher than 18 (prior to racial modifiers). Only one ability may be lowered below 10 and that ability cannot be lowered below 8 (prior to racial modifiers).
• Feats: Any feat published by Paizo Publishing will be acceptable. Any 3.5 or 3PP material you wish to use will have to be approved by me prior to acceptance.
• Traits: Character's will start with two traits, one of which MUST be from the Jade Regent Player's Guide.
• Hit Points: Characters will start out with Maximum hit points for their class at 1st level. Thereafter players may either roll for HP's or take the average (whichever is greater).
• Starting Gold: Characters will start with Maximum starting gold for their base class as found in the PFRPG Core Rulebook on page 140, the APG on page 26, UC on page 8, or in the UM on page 8.
With regards to leveling up, the AP uses the Medium track, but our old GM planned to level us up at appropriate points during the AP.
EDIT: Dammit, ninja'ed!
Alara turns to Piper and says: "Clearly, I've taught you well. Hee-hee!"
Interesting group of characters. Looks like a fun game so far (I haven't had a chance to go over the discussion or play threads yet).
I haven't run a game over here on the Paizo boards yet, but I am experienced at running PF and have run message board games before - just at a different location. At this point, I'm interested. I'd just like to have a chance to review the other threads to make sure I'm not a bad fit for your group.
By the way, what pace was the original GM setting/looking for?
If you're refering to the posting rate, our old GM said this:Interesting group of characters. Looks like a fun game so far (I haven't had a chance to go over the discussion or play threads yet).
I haven't run a game over here on the Paizo boards yet, but I am experienced at running PF and have run message board games before - just at a different location. At this point, I'm interested. I'd just like to have a chance to review the other threads to make sure I'm not a bad fit for your group.
By the way, what pace was the original GM setting/looking for?
Don't worry too much about posting rates. I know some GM's who want at least a once a day rate but I'm not one of them. I'll be happy with a 3-4 times a week rate. I don't need someone posting "So and so scratches his butt" type posts just to post something everyday.
Edit: I agree with Sharrd. This group is FUN!! It's also my first Pathfinder game! So it's really special to me.
Oh please, please run. This group was FUN!
That's a decent pace. After seeing the RPing ion the first coupe pages of the discussion thread, I was beginning to wonder.
I don't have time to read the gameplay thread right now, but after skimming the character sheets I'm interested as well. I've been GMing various things for several years; I got into Pathfinder this past summer, so I'm not a rules expert on this particular system yet, but I'm more than willing to do the legwork.
And the first thing I GM'd for Pathfinder (this past summer) was the Brinewall Legacy. We finished that module up right as the summer was closing and all had a great time, so I have a great deal of familiarity with and affection for the AP already. :)
Although I am increasingly feeling that I'm gonna need a flowchart to track who all is "related" to others and who's in love with whom.
This is not a bad thing. In fact it makes for interesting reading, this group's dynamic seems fun!
As I was reading through the game play thread, I was beginning to wonder if I had stumbled into a soap opera thread. That was a lot of drama development in a short time! I'm really impressed by the group's dynamic, so, yes, I'd be interested in GMing for you.
Since there's another prospective GM interested, I should post a bit more of a résumé. As you may have inferred from my message board name, my name is Bill. I'm a software tester in Verona, Wisconsin. I'm just about to turn 45 and I've been playing various forms of D&D since 1981. Most recently, I've been playing mainly Star Wars Saga Edition (for a Mass Effect campaign), D&D 3.5, and Pathfinder (Skull and Shackles - I'm getting to play this rotation as a half-orc summoner and pirate captain). The most recent campaigns I've run (face-to-face) is the Council of Thieves AP for PF. Before that I ran the Shackled City campaign for D&D 3.5. And the last campaign before that I ran was a 3e-rules, 1st edition module classics campaign including Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, the Scourge of the Slavelords, Ravenloft, White Plume Mountain, and Against the Giants all converted to 3e (mostly 3.5).
I have no problem with the flex time, though if it seems to be overwhelming less active players I might ask participants to condense a little. I think if we really get going, the flex time will become a little less overwhelming of the thread posts.
I tend to try roll up system-related dice off line when I can with real dice (as DM I'm scrupulous about being fair - though I don't consider myself a slave to the dice roll results, I don't fudge to save my villains under normal circumstances). I would, for example, probably roll up many of your knowledge and sense motive checks as they would trigger and just work appropriate results into the posts I make, though I wouldn't stop you from specifically making one of those rolls yourself.
PbP combats can get pretty long and tedious. This doesn't seem an ideal forum for really intricate tactical combat, so I would also condense where I think it's appropriate - narrating the end of fights with foregone conclusions - opponents surrendering or simply dying as the scene and your characters' behaviors seem to fit to shave off a round or two of details in unimportant fights.
I'm also willing to tailor some of the treasure hoards in the campaign to the PCs currently in the game. I'll hand wave away size differences for weapons and armor as well as wondrous items under the assumption they'll adjust to fit (which saves small characters a lot of hassle in gearing up).
Um… anything else you'd like to know about how I run games so you can decide if I'm a good fit for the current game?
I like the sound of your GMing style!
I'm sold!
What do the rest of you think?
EDIT: I'm John, hailing from Nova Scotia, Canada! :)
You seem to be very qualified, Bill. I approve! My question is how will combat be done? Could you go into a bit more detail please?
Yeah, there's a lot of RP stuff going on. But then again, our GM was gone and we were left to our own devices.
I would like to apologize if it seems that me and Alara are kind of hogging the spotlight. If it makes everyone uncomfortable, we can dial it back.
Also, hi Bill. My name is Joe and I'm from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Well, I certainly don't think I can compete with that resume! :P I've been DMing for several years now, but I don't have nearly that much experience, particularly in 3.5/PF. If this doesn't work out feel free to send me a PM, but I'm happy to cede this to Bill.
Have fun, everyone!
The way I would handle combat is I would roll all the initiatives myself (it's easy enough to dump a standard block into the format here and put out the initiatives) and treat it as a task check against opponents to create groups. Any players rolling higher than the opposition would be able to post their moves in any order and coordinate as they desire. Then I'd post up the opponents and their moves as well as summarize the results of the first group's actions. And after that, the next group of PCs would go, again in any order and hopefully I'd have time to respnd with the round-end summary. Then we'd start at the top of the order again with the faster group. I started doing this with another game because it was a lot easier than trying to get everyone posting in a more specific order and the game tended to really slow down.
I do like to use maps, particularly online because of the clarity of presentation, so I will almost certainly check out what was done (if anything) on the Roll20 site. The PDF versions of this path includes some interactive map files so I'll experiment with how those work and try to make up some tokens. There are also some collaborative graphics features in GoogleDocs that we might be able to use, which would allow PCs to move their own tokens on the game board. I'd see how well I could get those to work.
Ultimately, I hope that we'd be able to get combat moving relatively quickly with me posting fairly standard or characteristic actions for players who are out with computer trouble or away from home for a while in order to keep things moving.
I want to avoid showing too many dice rolls on my side mainly because I think they clutter things up when better handled by narration. I'd also prefer if players roll their damage at the same time they roll their attacks to avoid having to revisit posting too much. Once characters get into multiple attacks, if you want to post contingencies to avoid over-committing attacks, I can accommodate that and make sure it gets incorporated into my battle summaries.
If you'd like, I can post a running total of conditions and hit points (damage taken for opponents) in the summary post too.
For minor battles/random encounters, I'm OK with a more theater-of-the-mind approach and not using a map. For example, if the group spots a troll in a copse of trees about 100 ft distant, I don't think we need to use a battle map. We'll just keep track of general statuses and location in text.
As far as what I posted yesterday about not finishing battles that are pretty much foregone conclusions, I would simply say something like "With that last shot, the giant collapses, unable to fight any further. You mop up his hobgoblin minions with little extra effort." I'd rather do that than play out a fight with another half dozen minor figures. It would be more or less contingent on when and how authoritatively you broke the back of the encounter by wiping out most of the threat. If, however, there some fights you prefer to finish out (if you want to try out a new power or spell or something), let me know and I'll hold off on that kind of resolution.
I certainly can get behind the idea of causing minions to flee when their leader falls. I also like the way you're proposing to handle initiative.
I'm all for it!
I'm game.
Sounds Great!
BTW I'm Roger, I do receiving for a grocery store, but I'm a bit of a physics nerd. Live in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Looking the faceless, nameless god directly in the eyes, he nods and walks off, muttering about meddlesome deities.
Great! If there are no objections in the meantime, I'll start getting the game switched over to me as GM with the board admins in the morning and get myself up to speed. I'll include the original GM's setup at Walthus's shack and initial PC reactions to start back off for easy reference as soon as I can once the game is switched.