I'm indifferent to using the relationship rules. Raith is absolutely loyal to Ameiko and will give his life to protect her. That's why he's here. He likes the others for the most part, but would choose Ameiko over any of them without question unless Ameiko were doing something insane.
The only person Raith feels even slightly competitive with is Izumi. He doesn't care for Izumi's strange worldview, talk of honor and other such trash (his view as a simple, sensible handyman), and his lack of interest in taking an extra effort to protect Ameiko. As far as he's concerned, Izumi is useless to him. He considers him nearly useless to Ameiko since his only action if she is in trouble is to let her put herself in harm's way so she can "fight honorably". To Raith Izumi is an idiot he can barely stomach.
Pavel is the only person besides Ameiko he views as a friend. Pavel's direct and solves problems without thinking about them too much, just like Raith.
Sorin talks to much for his tastes about things he doesn't much understand. He doesn't dislike Sorin, just doesn't much understand him.
Garand talks too little and also about things he doesn't much understand. He feels the same way about Garand he does about Sorin. Damn strange man has a bear as a pet.
That's about as Raith sees it. He's just a simple handyman learned some strange fighting skills from a man he doesn't know all that much about he can use to protect Ameiko. That's what drives him. He's never traveled much and follows the others, mostly Pavel, as far as deciding how to go about this adventuring business. Though he's pretty happy with the pay and trinkets at this point, a great deal more than he made as a handyman, though a great deal more dangerous as well.
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Garand's already made some giftage, as I recall, but he's not competing with anyone for Koya's old bones (or Shalelu, for that matter, whom he gifted some neat looking non-magical arrows we found, IIRC).
Ooh. Just in time for relationshipping, I have a character with Diplomacy as a class skill!
Pity Ameiko does nothing for me. Maybe Garand will offer his courtship advice to Izumi and / or Raith, a la Cyrano de Bergerac? :)
Considering Shoanti 'romance', it will probably be more like 'Love advice from Worf, the Klingon.' "First you bring her the warm heart of a freshly slaughtered Targ, that you killed with your bare hands."
"If the gift pleases her, and she judges you worthy, she will try to kill you..."
Considering Shoanti 'romance', it will probably be more like 'Love advice from Worf, the Klingon.' "First you bring her the warm heart of a freshly slaughtered Targ, that you killed with your bare hands."
"If the gift pleases her, and she judges you worthy, she will try to kill you..."
LOL!
You know, I have the same problem. If the npcs we can form relationships with were more active as characters during exploration it would be easier. But I find it hard to relate to them right now.
Perhaps when there is more politics involved?
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More than cursory characterization of the NPCs would likely be a ton of extra work for our already generous GM, so I wouldn't want to overburden with too much in the way of expectations on that front.
I had the picture in my head of Koya as a kindly old biddy, having spent her entire life caregiving for others, and setting aside her own wants, now free to go on a grand adventure and see the world in her golden years.
And then she pretty much egged Garand on to slit the Quicklings throat (and made approving noises afterwards) which makes me realize that the sweet old gypsy lady has an edge of steel in her that I hadn't noticed before. In retrospect, being a healer means confronting grim concepts such as triage and the ones you can't save, and she's been around long enough that a hard core of pragmatism is going to be all that's kept her together, through the rough times, so it kinda makes sense that she's not just weathered by the years on the outside...
Shalelu seems to have strong opinions, but be very taciturn and standoffish, which makes her a bit of a dud, characterization wise.
Sandru's kind of the opposite, all boisterous and quick with the song and dance, and yet, that's all surface, and his deeper personality remains obscure.
Ameiko's got the whole plot revolving around her, which, as is my contrary way, makes me less interested in her. I tend to gravitate towards the Lower Decks type of characters, who don't appear in the credits.
And I'd rather keep the pace than fill pages and pages role-playing with NPCs. Work in a little character development with some combat and puzzles, I'm pretty happy. We're leveling at a good bit faster than I'm accustomed to with a play by post, which I like.
Sorin needs time to work on scrolls. We are heading to Riddleport before heading north right?
Yeah, that many NPCs to run and keep consistent is what made me take a pass on running Jade Regent- and likewise for Serpent's Skull and Skull and Shackles. The DM really has their work cut out for them. I'm also with you on the scoring system for relationships; I always felt like social mechanics in the game are tricky and I'd rather just save the die roll for if you just really don't want to RP something or if there's a falsehood or intimidation factor involved.
Still about, apologies. Busy couple of days, then when I got a little time to post I saw like 30 new and got intimiated. Have some time now, getting caught up, posting shortly.
I realize this might not be possible, but it occurs to me that I'm gonna need.. like, a forge. You think it's possible for Izumi to purchase a "forge wagon". Some sort of portable forge?
I will do so in the future. As far as rules... a quick google revealed this (rules for a magic portable forge from 3.5), but there is also the "Traveling Forges" used by armies in the 1800s (mostly for quick repairs to artillery, as well as horse-shoe repairs and the like). I think the basic idea could be adapted to a weapon/armor forge. I don't mind paying a significant amount of g for it, but if I'm gonna style Izumi like a Master Craftsman, it'll be hard for him with no forge.
Which solution were you thinking? Magical vs. non-magical?
Did we divide up the loot yet? Decided what we're using and selling? I'm going to take one of the katanas to practice with if no one else takes one. Just the regular MW Katana.
You going to automatically sell and divide anything we don't take? I was assuming Izumi,Pavel, or Garand would want the armor, but I guess not. That is pretty nice armor.
We should probably keep The Wayfinder. Someone must want the Ring of the Ram and magic bow.
Sell the +1 leather, Half-plate armor, Masterwork light steel shield, divide the rest of the coin and trinkets.
I'll take a look at the loot list when I'm out of jury duty for the day. I don't much want the leather armor, though, since I tend to be up front a lot.
The Do-Maru is cool, but a little bit heavier than what I really want. Izumi, you're sure you don't want that? It's 3 points of AC for me for a trade off of a -3 armor check penalty, which isn't small at 4th level. It's already equal to what Izumi is wearing, though and it comes with a lighter AC penalty for him... and it has Ameiko's family crest thing on it. I could use the magic bow, but I have a lot of magic stuff as it is and I don't want to be a hog. Garand could probably use it, right? Or we could give it to Shalelu- but they are Ameiko's grandfather's stuff so it may be best to leave them to her and not sell them if we don't use them ourselves.
I would like to see the items put to use. The magic bow might come in handy against a fying creature with magic DR. Be real bad to run into something and lack the tools to fight it. Probably best to go to Izumi or Pavel who can use the bow.
If useful items come and someone can put them to use best, they should take them. It's up to Celestial to keep the items spread to people can use them. It's up to us to distribute them where they can best be used. The melees can use the magic bow and weapons best.
I could probably take the magic bow, but to be completely honest, a set of full plate would be better than the do-maru, and even we're only able to get half-price for the do-maru, we could still buy a suit of full plate with lots of change to spare.
Whether or not it's okay to sell those things is a different matter. I could probably also take Rokuro's katana, and I don't think Izumi would be resistant to using it (in honour of Rokuro). That way we don't have to sell that either.
I imagine it's Celestial's call if Ameiko wants to preserve her grandfather's armor as an heirloom of her house.
Okay, so we should divide up the flaming arrows between myself, Izumi and Garand. Izumi has the +1 composite longbow and the katana if he wants it. I believe Sorin was interested in the wayfinder. I would say either Raith or Sorin should have the Ring of the Ram and I'm fine with selling the rest of the stuff.
She would buy them from you. No problem.
I doubt any of us would take money from Ameiko for heirlooms from her family. If she wants to keep them, then exclude them from the sold treasure. If she doesn't care, then we'll liquidate what they don't take. No way we sell something Ameiko wants and take money for it.
At least that's how Raith sees it.
Give Raith the ring of the ram. Sorin can take the pathfinder and use it to help with survival if necessary...plus the ioun stone slot is nice.
Go ahead and sell the ring of the ram.
No one else seems to have much of a care for the remaining items in the unclaimed loot, so I think we should get as much as we can for them, and move on. Don't wanna get too hung up on loot.
Also, I realized I never actually gave my opinion on the relationship rules. As someone who had GM'd the Jade Regent almost all the way through, I found the relationship rules helpful in some cases, and burdensome in others. Mechanically, the main problem with the rules as they are in that they only really let you develop a strong relationship with one member of the caravan, if you plan on ever getting the "boons". It actually discourages people from getting to know everyone.
Having said that, in a PBP setting, when we have a bit more opportunity to flesh out characters, the rules are probably not neccessary, especially because it would be extremely difficult to setup a numerical value that accurately defines realistic relationships.
Raith is not taking the 1800 gold jewel from Ameiko. So if someone else wants to take it for party items like scrolls for healing, restore scrolls, buffs, or other such things, go ahead and do it. Ameiko is offering it up to provide the party protection and Raith is ok with that as long as he isn't personally taking any coin from Ameiko for things he does because of his affection for her.
I know being a wizard is expensive having to purchase spells and Garand can't shoulder the entire cost of party healing items, so either of them taking it would probably be best.
So Garand and Sorin, divide up the 1800 gold as you see fit.
Sounds good to me.
I was going to burn the 1800 on the scrolls that I talked about specifically for Raith...make a little stash of Raith buffing items.
Anyways what spells are available for purchase, scrolls, and magic items? Or do you want us to RP out shopping?
I am pretty sure that sorin has the pearl of power, the potion of identify and the wayfinder...and that is it for now.
I am hoping that the market has some good magic items, like a metamagic rod or something similiar.
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Garand currently has from previous loot divisions, in case we need to adjust party split to compensate anyone who has gotten less;
150 gp each 2x scroll of cure moderate wounds (CL 3),
375 gp scroll of dispel magic (CL 5),
375 gp scroll of remove disease (CL 5),
700 gp scroll of restoration (CL 7),
1250-ish gp wand of inflict moderate wounds (CL 3, 12 charges),
1000 gp phylactery of faithfulness,
2250 gp wand of cure moderate wounds (CL 3, 25 charges)
1165 gp +1 leather armor
375 gp wand of cure light wounds (11 charges)
The scrolls of 3rd and 4th level spells, and wands of 2nd level spells, really rack up the gp value, so Garand may have gotten way more total loot value than others...
I don't worry about what a person takes as long as they use it. Having equal coin in items is nearly impossible. Over the long term it all balances out. If someone gets an expensive item early on that pushes their wealth by level higher, it will balance down the line when another expensive item a different player uses shows up.
Spell Shopping list:
Level 1 @ 5gp:
1. Color Spray
2. Comprehend Languages
3. Detect Secret Doors
4. Detect Undead
5. Identify
6. Jump
7. Magic Missile
8. Obscuring Mist
9. Shield
10. Shocking Grasp
11. True Strike
55gp to copy
Level 2 @ 20gp:
1. Blur
2. Cat's Grace
3. Continual Flame
4. Darkness
5. Darkvision
6. Element Touch
7. Endure Elements, Communal
8. Fire Breath
9. Flaming Sphere
10. Fox's Cunning
11. Invisibility
12. Levitate
13. Locate Object
14. Mount, Communal
15. Protection from Evil, Communal
16. Scorching Ray
17. See Invisibility
18. Shatter
19. Stone Call
380gp to copy
Level 1 spells to learn: DC16
Identify, failed to learn.
Level 2 spells to learn: DC17
Darkness, failed to learn.
4670+67=4737
4737-380-55=4302
Buy Metamagic Rod of Extend (1 per day) = 1,500
Buy Bag of Holding I = 2,500
4302gp-4000=302gp
Spellbook (yes, another one) = 15gp
302-15=287gp
Sorin spends 4 days creating scrolls = 4 Bull Strength @ caster level 4 (4 minutes or 24 rnds)=400gp
Buy 2 Bull Strength @ caster level 3 = 300gp
Buy 4 Mage Armor @ caster level 1 = 100gp
Total spent = 800gp
CB: Purchases, crafting and spell buying approved?
Waiting for a price on the forge-thingy before anymore shopping.
Definitely buying a set of full plate though. That'll run me about 1500gp.
Fair to assume those penalties include the masterwork tools you described? Probably will go for the more expensive option. More comprehensive post in a couple hours.