MechaPoet - Cathran Ingwood - Ranger (Witchguard)
Mechanical : Witchguard Ranger is a very good mechanical choice to fit with the current group while also providing a melee front liner. The class bonuses work especially well with the group considering how many casters there are. Good balance of melee and special abilities.
Background : Very detailed, and fits in well with the current story plot. Has ties that bind, but also experience outside the village, in case the plot slides into travel.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Excellent posting in the recruitment thread. Character's personality comes off as very complimentary toward the existing group without matching any of the existing personalities. Player seems to have a very strong idea of the character's motivations and personality.
Other : Player is new to the threads (both a pro and a con). I like to give newbies a chance to join in, but it's also a gamble given that newbies are also the most likely to vanish.
Nazard - Emilian - Fighter (Brawler)
Mechanical : Fighters are hard to beat for front line defense, and the build is a sword/board type build, which adds to the defensive abilities. The ability to also do subdual damage could come in handy.
Background : Mixed bag. The background is well thought out, and shows a great deal of attention to detail. This is obviously a good thing. Unfortunately, it is also a background that leaves the character a wanted man, with a price on his head. If things progress beyond the village, it could cause major problems (of the type that can derail games, due to the nature of the crime, due to the aiding and abetting clauses in most bounties).
Roleplay/Character Personality : Very good posting in the recruitment
thread. Character has a believable personality, and it shows the player had a very good image of the character in his mind. The character's personality is, however, a very paranoid one (for good reason), and I'm not sure the character is good at 'playing well with others'.
Other : Nothing off the top of my head one way or the other.
HustonJ - Larry Andoran - Fighter (Polearm Master)
Mechanical : Polearm fighters are excellent at crowd control, which is a good thing in a group that's mostly magic, you want someone who can keep the hordes at bay.
Background : Very good background, very detailed, obviously a good deal of thought put into it. Background leaves the character somewhat in the same boat though as Emilian with regards to what could happen if the plot goes beyond the village. Not as catastrophically for the other characters, as there would be no aiding abetting a deserted in such a situation, unlike a murderer.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Very good posting in the recruitment thread. Shows a lot of thought put into it by the player. On the down side, the character is rather jaded (understandable from background), so may be a bit rough around the edges for dealing with a group who have known each other all their life and therefore are already friends. Similar to the issue with Emilian.
Other : No other observations at this time.
John Hathaway - Raliscar Fane - Ranger
Mechanical : Ranger's are always a good mix of skills and front line tank. Damage output is decent, and works well at soaking up hits. And it will soak up hits since it has a low AC. :)
Background : Excellent background. Works into the whole Cadavarwoods theme, without being from Perdition's Point. Shows a lot of thought, and also builds in the reason for the low dex. Background works well with the existing group's backgrounds.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Excellent posting in the recruitment thread. Shows a lot of thought by the player, and quite a bit of humor. Personality would fit right in with the existing personalities within the group, and character is affable and easy to get along with.
Other : No other observations at this time.
Eminem80 - Riley McKormick - Human Rogue (Knife Master, Scout)
Mechanical : Rogue build is not ideal as a melee tank, but, it does have the advantage of offering a wide range of skills that the party lacks, including someone good with traps and such. Rogue builds are also inherently team oriented, so that's a plus. Player has alerted me via PM that they are more than happy to do a ranged bard build with the same personality, if the group chooses. Ranged Bard would be useful, but I'm not sure it covers the 'meat shield' requirement. :) The right kind of bard (archaeologist) could handle the sneaky trap skills type stuff however. Anyway, I promised to bring it up in discussion as an option.
Background : Excellent background, and player worked hard to weave the background into the existing group's backgrounds, including ties to Elena. This is both good (in that it meshes well), and a bit self serving (in that it increases chances of being picked). It's hard to be upset about the second part because, well, everyone wants to be picked, and so why not? :) Background was very detailed and in depth.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Excellent posting in the recruitment thread, and character's personality is just avaricious to be useful, but affable enough not to grate on the nerves or come off smarmy. Character would fit in well with the group.
Other : Showed a lot of initiative to read the gameplay thread hard enough to work up a background that incorporated a lot of Elena's chracter into it.
Jared Henninger - Saardonis - Ranger
Mechanical : As has been stated, rangers make good skill monkey meat shields, and this one is no exception. Decent fit to shore up the team. Nothing unusual about the ranger parts. Being a fey foundling can bring in some advantages at higher levels, with the right build.
Background : Decent background, if a bit abbreviated. Saardonis was the last addition to the submissions (unless the last person get's in a submission on time). So a brief background is not unexpected. The background covers the basics of the build, and gives a good reason for the character to be bumming around Cadavarwood.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Good posting in the thread. Harder to gauge than the others, due to the lack of in depth interaction due to late arrival, but that shouldn't be held against the player. What posting there has been is good, and shows an affable character who's friendly and open.
Other : None at this time.
Nightdeath - Thorn Silverleaf (Silvertip?) - Barbarian/Rogue (Scout)
Mechanical : Good solid mechanical build for a front liner, and also has the advantage of covering some of the sneaky/trap type skills that are missing in the party (and always have been). Additionally, character has darkvision, which is always useful and rage to assist in quick takedowns.
Background : Decent background, but it was really written with an eye more toward the starting group, not being inducted into the existing group. Still, it should be able to be tweaked if he's selected. It's certainly serviceable and as detailed as some of the starting character backgrounds were.
Roleplay/Character Personality : Good posting in the thread, and a very solid character personality emerging, showing the player is into the character. Character is cool but willing to engage, and has no major baggage to stop them from integrating into the group. One advantage is the character is a half-drow, rather than a half-elf (see racial traits), meaning the character would have a strong in with Lineera, and give her some comfort of having another with drow blood around.
Other : This is the second submission for this game by the player, which means the player is obviously fairly jazzed about this game. That's always a good sign.
Good analysis mdt, doesn't make the decision easier though, we really do have a good run of applications. I'm going to take some time to think this through some more, see what's what.
Once everyone has had some time to digest my analysis, and make some decisions on their picks, I'll put forth mine and explain why, and we can go round robin until we make a decision. I really hope Mahb comes back before we make the decision. I've been GMPCing her for now to keep the game from being held up. I'm hoping it's just the holidays and nothing untoward happened.
Two things,
1) I think Lineera's comment in Recruitment confused the recruits. :)
2) MechaPoet (Cathran) dropped me a note to let me know they are switching ISP's this friday, and will have limited internet activity over the weekend, and possibly into early next week. So keep that in mind if you ask any questions during deliberations and don't get an answer. They said they'd try to get on via library or something, but couldn't guarantee it.
Ok, I've been trying to figure out where Cadavarwood would be on Golarion. I'm not an expert in it by any means, I run my own sandboxes.
However, after some investigation, I think I've found a perfect spot, and I want everyone's input. (Especially Eva's, since I'd rather keep the two games kind of in the same spot world wise to keep it straight in my mind!).
If you look for Lake Encarthan, there are several countries, Ustalev, Lastwall, Razmiran. There's also a city called Caliphas. This is the capitol of Ustalev. Directly north of it are the Hungry Mountains. At the base of the hungry mountains, bracketed by two small rivers, is a small little wood that looks perfect for the Cadavarwood. The whole mountains are supposedly haunted, and there was a major lich imprisoned on the northwestern side of the mountains. The whole area is steeped in cursed magic and undead, so it fits in perfect, and the map even matches what we've been drawing so far.
Given all this, that would put Hamsberg at the mouth of the lake, stradling the river, halfway up from Caliphas. It would make Perdition's Point a very far point from anything important in Ustalev, and far off the trade paths. This seems perfect to me.
This is specifically what I'm talking about, done up.
Input? Concerns? Better suggestions?
Well, to go from what LM initially said.
"This is going to be a homebrew campaign. I think setting it in Golarion is a good choice to give people something to relate to. So using this map as a reference, I would put Cadaverwood in the unnamed forest on the edge of Ustalav and Razmiran, northeast of the big lake in the middle."
So I'm pretty sure you've come to the same conclusion, and therefore, we're all on the same page!
And yeah, after looking our applicants over a bit more, I am returning to my initial choices. Cathran and Riley are my picks for new players to bring aboard.
LOL, I missed that from him. :) I guess that's a good spot for it then. :)
I'll give you comments on things and a combat post when the chaos calms down here at work. It's been chaos here since the work day started.
Updated the top of the thread, added in a link to the map showing the location of Perdition's Point on the Golarion map. Also added in a link to the Population of Perdition's Point. Let me know if I missed anyone, or got anyone's jobs wrong. I added enough people to make the town make sense, but I may have missed something.
And I'm going to go back to sleep. Woke up enough to remember I needed to do that. The Chaos never ended today, and it's going to be bad tomorrow, maybe just as bad. Hopefully not worse. The joys of being in both the Accounting and Propane Industry.
Tomorrow Night => Sometime Saturday: I will be without internet, for up to 24 hours. mdt, you can take Elijah to keep things moving if need be during this time. I'll post during the day tomorrow if work is less chaotic, can't make promises and I'm sorry.
No problem, it is Scath's Curse for using drugs on him.
Hang in there, here's hoping for a surprising lull in the storm.
I look at the map, and I ask myself...
Self, is this the round the thing should use it's breath attack?
Ah, the same round that I said to myself...
Self, nothing to do but let Elijah and Elena take it on at this rate, you should probably clear the hall so you're not a target. It'd be good to be a champ on the initiative so you can get out before anything unsavory happens.
I don't know if anyone saw it, but the original post I forgot Elijah could charge, so the crit was the creature's AoO, plus a free grab that succeeded, and then it killed him on it's action with a free squeeze attack.
I am a little confused then. Everything else seems to indicate that Elijah killed the scary tax collector boogie-man. But here it sounds like you're saying Elijah's the one who got taken out. Which is correct?
No, first time around it was Elijah that was taken out. I just... happened to see it.
Also, I believe Eli is mostly finished, minus me getting the time to fluff and finish with equipping him.
And since I'm on lunch (extremely late lunch at that), I'll just put a few things here that I started writing down yesterday, once again, at lunch. I'll give my reviews of the candidates once I have a chance to go through all of them again, though I do know who is currently in my top few.
Placement of Perdition's Point:
Very nice. Mountains, a river, a landmark or two that also fits with the theme of the story. Ustalav really seems to fit as a location to be in Glorion. The locations also makes Perdition's Point very removed from the rest of the country. Which makes sense, as an isolated and small town. I definitely approve. You and I do need to talk sometime about some other landmarks and cities for future things.
Sorry Lineera, yes, as Eva says, I'd posted a whole half round worth of things, including Elijah getting killed by the creature. But it was all because of an Attack of Opportunity that Elijah did not have to provoke. As soon as I realized it, I went back and removed the AoO.
That meant the Crit devolved to Elijah instead, who then critted the zombie.
And yes, we can surely talk, whenever you can get free time to trade PMs.
Or we could log into the Google Docs and IM back and forth, either one.
I'm sorry, I'm confused... That's kind of what I did? I mean, I rolled the damage, then I rolled below the "critical part" of the damage. The bow is 20-x3, so I rolled the first dice (normal damage), and 2 more in a separate roll (critical part).
I don't want to be a bother, but could you make a fake critical damage roll here in this thread, so I see how you want it? Thanks! ^_^
Also, yes you placed Perd. Points in the PERFECT spot, I love it! :D
And finally, I'm making up my mind about the characters in the Rec. thread, and I'll post what I think about each asap, but I just wanted to say right now that quality wise the characters are extremely good, and mdt analysis is absolutely spot on! :)
I look at the map, and I ask myself...
Self, is this the round the thing should use it's breath attack?
Ah, the same round that I said to myself...
Self, nothing to do but let Elijah and Elena take it on at this rate, you should probably clear the hall so you're not a target. It'd be good to be a champ on the initiative so you can get out before anything unsavory happens.
Well, the same round that I said to myself...
Self, this is how we all die! Unless we roll, like, a few crits back-to-back! Yeah, right... *roll* *roll*... Well, I'll be damned, a crit! Oh look, there goes Elijah! Maybe he could damage it a b-HOLY F@°K IT'S DEAD! O.o'
Now I feel bad he's goin' away! :(
Sure, First I'll show you how you did yours.
So, as you can see above, you're actually doing less damage on your crit.
To avoid situations like this, do the check's like this :
As you can see, in the second example, your final damage is 17. In the first, it's 6. This helps make things easier to keep track of and doesn't lead to situations where your crit did less than your base. :)
Wait, wait, wait, maybe I get what's happening! It's possible there is a misunderstanding.
When I rolled for my bow, i DID in fact roll the first the 'normal damage' (1d8, 1 dice), THEN the 'critical part' (2d8, 2 dices to add the first dice!), since the bow has a x3 crit, not a x2 crit.
This is what I wrote:
I meant it as: Normal damage is 8, then, if crit is confirmed, add to it +1 and +7, for a total of 16.
If this is not the case... Then I still don't get it, and believe me I'm very sorry! :(
AH!
Sorry! You are correct, my bad. I forgot the bow was x3.
Just ignore my complaint. :)
Ah, ok! I'm happy we managed to sort this out. ^_^
Sorry again. :)
Just waiting on Lineera to advance the combat.
Village Map Updated
My assumption is Lineera's been living at the inn, being a new arrival.
I know people are busy and sick, but we need to make a decision on the new players today or tomorrow if possible. Lineera's given her thoughts, and I've given mine. Need Eva and Elena, if you can feel up to it/find time.
I'm putting it down in a coherent fashion right now! Gimme only a little time and I'll post everything. ^_^
Sounds good. I hope Eva's feeling better. Cave is almost done, thank goodness. :) Just one baddie left.
Ok, I've reread all the roleplaying posts in the recruitment thread, all the backgrounds and all the builds and here are my thoughts:
If I didn't have to cast a vote and make a choice, but simply evaluate the characters, I would really give them all top scores. While I do believe some are slightly better than others, they are all top notch, with interesting concepts, sensible builds and great roleplay (seriously, the roleplay was excellent, I really enjoyed it!).
With that in mind, the negatives I found in the submission are mainly nitpicks, but since a choice has to be made...
Emilian: Nice build, right class and convincing roleplay. I wasn't completely sold on the background... It's good, but 'generic', and doesn't hook up all that well with our theme of 'we came from a small village and banded up together to save people and got caught in something far greater than any of us could've imagined!'.
Vote: No.
Larry Andoran: Build is very solid and interesting, and the roleplaying is very good as well, but background wise is basically in the same bag as Emilian: detailed, well-thought, and has nothing to do with us. We are supposed to meet him... And what? Hire him as a bodyguard? A decent hook, but not a great one.
Vote: No.
(man, I sound like a complete jerk! O.o I reiterate, they are all really good submissions, but when you have to choose between awesome and 'only very good', you are bound to be picky about details! Anyway, back to voting...)
Raliscar Fane: This one I like! Strong concept and build, great roleplay, and finally a background that gives him a reason to be near Perd. Points, and even possibly care about what's happening! Yep, I like it.
Vote: Yes.
Riley McKormick: Ah ha! Come on how could I not like him? Sensible build (and we could REALLY use a rogue's services), great roleplay, and awesome background! He even reworked it to take out inconsistencies and the like... Plus he has close ties with Elena! And I'm excited to see how that would play out. ^_^
Vote: Strong Yes!
Saardonis: While still very good, this is possibly the submission I liked the least. It feels a bit rushed, expecially the background. Good, but not great?
Vote: No.
Thorn Silverleaf (Silvertip?): No please, no more drows, even half-ones!
Naaaa, just kiddin'! xD
Still, like many other submissions, it's very good but I wasn't completely sold...
Vote: No.
Cathran Ingwood: *nods* Yes, I like it. Strong build, and very fitting, awesome roleplay, and nice ties in the background with Perd. Points.
We may need to work out exactly who knows who (since she left the village for many years), but entirely manageable.
Vote: Yes.
- FINAL DECISION -
First pick: Riley McKormick.
Second Pick: Raliscar Fane or Cathran Ingwood. If I really had to choose only one of the two, then Raliscar.
Aaand this is it, hope this helps! ^_^
Just give me a bit of time to re-read things. Just got back into internet access to stay here. I feel I know my choices, I just wish to review them all. I'll get you my comments tonight! (Then I need to go do some posting around everywhere ^^;)
Welcome back!
Welcome back! Here, lemme give you a hug
So, just waiting on Lineera's post in the main thread, and her confirmation of her first thoughts, since she wanted to go over them again. (And Eva's votes, obviously).
Okay, here's my thoughts:
As I read through and followed recruitment, a few characters stuck out to me more than others. This is not to say any of the characters where necessarily bad characters, but that there were a few that seem to fit our game and it's style more than the others.
Riley: Love the thought he put into his character, and the effort to tie him to the existing characters and story. He not only built one, but two characters to be flexible. I also greatly enjoy his roleplaying ^^ I feel he's a great fit for the party.
Cathran: Both her backstory and her role-play are well written and fit with our style of play here. As Elena said, we may need to work out who knows her based on when she left the village but that's not a huge thing.
Emilian: This may be a strong build, have well written backstory and role-play posts. But I really didn't care for this character at all. His role-play posts were good and enjoyable, but I didn't care as much for the backstory and the posts didn't make it up enough for me. And he also just doesn't seem to be a good fit for us here.
Larry: It was an interesting character, and the game play posts where good and interesting. His background was really thought out.
Raliscar: I enjoyed this clumsy dwarf. He brought a smile to my face to read both his posts and his backstory. He fits the game, and even has a reason to be heading to Perdition's Point.
Saardonis: The background, it just doesn't cut it for me. He may be a well built character, but I don't think he's one of the ones for us. Just wasn't sold on the character.
Thorn: I know this player has tried twice, and that shows commitment, I just don't feel sold on the character.
To summerize:
I vote for:
1st Slot: Riley McKormick
2nd Slot: Cathran Ingwood (though Raliscar is a very close third for me. Very close.)
These two played well off of each other in Phase 2, have ties to Perdition's Point and fill the roles we as the party need.
Ok, so far it seems :
Riley & Cathran, unless Lineera changes her vote.
Honestly, I was leaning that way myself, although Cathran/Thorn as well. Mostly from the 'you need a rogue' standpoint. Honestly, to me, Cathran was so strong, she had to have one of the two slots. That basically hurt a bunch of people though, as there were a lot of Ranger builds. The only other non ranger builds were Rogue (Riley), Fighter (Larry), and Barbarian/Rogue (Thorn). I think taking two ranger's would have been a mistake, and in that category, Cathran took the lead. And if you take Cathran, then that kind of knocks Larry out, since they're both polearm builds.
Not that the other ranger's weren't awesome. I really did like Raliscar, he was hilarious. And I liked Thorn as well. Persistence is a big plus for me as the GM (means they are much more likely to not vanish). :)
Wow, this was an awesome recruitment, and I've never seen a recruitment with such strong characters and backgrounds and builds combined. Neither that I was in, or that I ran (granted, only ran 1 so far before this one LOL!).
I'm really going to feel awful sending out 'sorry' PMs.
I'll hold off on that though.
On a separate note, has anyone heard anything from Mahb? I'm concerned as it's been a week since she posted, and her alias aren't posting either. :( I really don't want another vanished character. :(
I think Lineera posted earlier that she was sticking with her first two choices.
I haven't seen Mahb around but then it is the new year and things got crazy for me at work. (I'm hoping after Monday, things will be less crazy because all the last minute coding for Allocation is finished.)
Ok, then I'll make an announcement in the recruitment thread, and send PMs to Cathran and Riley.
Let me know when you want to get together on PM or in a discussion in one of the Google drawings to discuss future stuff and plots and plans.
Ok, announcements made, PM's sent out.
Wow, that was hard to do, I really felt bad sending 'Very Sorry' to 5 people. :(
I just received the PM from mdt! Thanks! I am very excited about joining you guys! I have thoroughly enjoyed the gamethread.
Which of the two character builds do you guys think rounds out the party mechanically? From what I have seen, the bard may be a little bit better since you guys do not have a ranged threat. With that being said, the rogue will do more damage; but will have less utility and poorer will saves. Once I read the thread, I was concerned about the rogue's will save. Either way, I feel they are both good builds and I will play whichever build you guys think is superior for the group. Thank you again for picking me!
I think it's more important to play the build YOU will enjoy more. :) As long as both can handle magical traps, you're filling the biggest hole they have. Everything else is just you having fun.
Also, feel free to read back through the discussion thread the last few days, there's some stuff that I put up (village map, Ustalev location, etc). I'm considering moving the ustalev location a tiny bit, but want to talk it over with Eva first (given she has the other game) after reading the original GM's comments and looking at the map again.
Welcome guys!
Now that we know Riley and Cathran are our new companions, I'd love to have some kind of timeline to better undestand exactly who knows who, who knows OF whom, and so on...
For instance, for Elena is super-easy: She's 17, and lived in P.P. all her life. This means she knows very well Eva, Elijah and Mahb, and has known Lineera from the moment she arrived in the village. Since it was enstablished in his background, she also knows Riley from when she was a little kid, and she probably considers him a little bit like an older brother of sorts (if this is ok with Eminem80 too, of course! I don't want to step on anybody's toes. ^_^).
For Cathran, on the other hand I'm unsure... I need more input! (exactly when she left the village, and her relationship with the other village families, and so on.)
Sorry to be a bother! ^_^
Cathran sent me a PM saying she'd be mostly unavailable this weekend, switching ISPs. Lot of that going around apparently. :)
Anyway, the character is 30, and per her background, she left Perdition's Point "when she was old enough to go on her first hunt". I would peg that about 12 or 13. So she's probably pre-Elena's birth, and certainly pre-Elena's Memory.
Eva, on the other hand, and Mahb, both being in their 70's, would almost certainly remember her. Eva has probably not changed at all in the last 20 years. So Cathran would likely recognize her on sight. Mahb not so much.
On a related note, Eva? Did you like that picture I sent you in PM for Eva's appearance? I forgot to ask.
Okay, Eva left home at the Age of 35, traveled the world trying to find herself for 20 years before she settled in P.P. and opened her shop. She's been there 20 years making her 75. (Hence, all of Elena's Life lol)
Just wanted to include this for people to reference and so we can work out timelines with our two new companions ^^
Eva has probably not changed at all in the last 20 years. So Cathran would likely recognize her on sight. Mahb not so much.
On a related note, Eva? Did you like that picture I sent you in PM for Eva's appearance? I forgot to ask.
Does this mean Eva is alive after all? THE PLOT THICKENS! O.O'
That would be awesome Elena. I built my backstory off of yours because I fell in love with your character concept. The Ebonlocke's would have last seen me when you were 9 or 10. I left without telling anyone shortly after graduation. I should be eight years older than you.
To All: Thank you for the kind words in your evaluations of Riley. It was very flattering.
I am also stoked Cathran was chosen. I enjoyed RPing with her in the recruitment thread. She will be a great addition. I personally thought she was the best candidate, though Raliscar is a rock star too.
Maybe she's alive, maybe not. It may be she's recognizing her as she walks past the open casket of the funeral.
*sigh*
I think HustonJ misunderstood my comment about his background being the issue. :( It wasn't that he wasn't from... oh well, I'm rehashing.
If she IS alive, she is a significant ranged threat, especially as she levels.
I would know Mahb as the creepy old lady who brought remedies to my family when I was a child. All the poor kids believed she kidnapped and ate little children (or at least that was the urban legend)