Going to play a PFS game of the Confirmation. I've played PFS and PbP before and want to give running a shot. I'm a two star GM, so this isn't out of the blue for me.
Akashi, I feel you pain! That's why I GM now. Everybody cheers when I roll bad!
Hans and Konnief both pummel the Minotaur from both sides. Hans hit it pretty hard, so battered and beaten, the big beast sees its surrounded and desperately tries to escape the fray.
damn Hans! That was a hell of a hit!
Minotaur tumble:1d20 ⇒ 1
The Minotaur, blood streaming into its eyes stumbles right into your blades as it tries to get away.
Everybody in the combat get a free attack. If it survives, it runs away as fast as I can.
The Minotaur desperately tries to leave, dodging Konnief and Kisuke's attacks, but doesn't see Hans or Akashi's blows coming. Both hit hard, and the Minotaur falls down in a broken heap on the grass.
The halfling is also lying in a heap on the ground close by.
Janira coughs hard, then gasps as she bolts upright under Tovar's touch. By the gods! What happened She looks at the downed minotaur, the group, and finally here view lingers on the cave. I led it away. What did you find in there?
What group did you all train with? Are you a Sword, a Scroll, or a Spell?
Male Dwarf Cleric 1; HP 10/14; AC 15 (T 10, FF 15); Init +0; Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +6; Per +3
Cayden's holy beer stein! Are you OK Janira? That beast really walloped you good.
We found some pretty interesting stuff in the cave. It looks like it used to be a shrine to Aroden, in all of his many roles. There is this really neat miniature city built next to a pool of water. If you move the bits and pieces around, Aroden will confer his blessings on you. And then there was the gillman. We had a nice conversation, and he traded me this wand for a old cloak I found. Nice guy. Anyway, the gillmen have been making a pilgramage to the shrine to worship. I don't think they are a threat. Although, we ran into a few that never made the journey back. Those were not so friendly. But we took care of them. And then the cave lead out here and we found you.
Janira stumbles to her feet. She looks around once more pretty weary. Then, she dusts herself off and says Good job pathfinders! You've figured out what I couldn't alone! Now that we know why the gillmen are coming to this site, we can begin to really study it and find out what else might be here! You've done an amazing job. Let's head back to Absolom and report our findings. Along the way you can give me a much more detailed report on what you found.
Is there anything you DON'T want to tell Janira about your journey? Also what are you PFS numbers and please give me day job rolls along with an email. In the next few days you will each get a spoiler tag of your own detailing what happens when you get back to Absolom and after Janira gives her report on your performances.
You arrive back in Absolom without incident. Along the way Janira listens intently to all your stories taking detailed notes on each occurrence along the way. When you get back into town, Janira is almost bouncing with excitement. As soon as you back it back to the Lodge, she drags all of you to Kreighton Shaine's office. As soon as she steps foot in the door a tide of stories and words beging to flow. She goes into amazing detail mentioning all the events with gillman, the Minotaur, traps, wolves, and everything in between. Shaine listens with intense interest taking detailed notes as Janira talks for almost an hour before pausing for breath. At the end of this marathon, Shaine looks around the room with pride. Well done pathfinders! I'm amazed at what you've found. Now, get some much needed rest. You will be called by your Masters soon to discuss your results of your test. Shaine begins to go over the notes he just wrote down as you leave the room and head off for some much needed rest.
Konnief:
Three days latter, you receive an invitation to Master Shaine's office at noon. When you enter, you are greeted by him, his 12 closest students currently talking with the teacher, and an empty chair in the middle of the room. Master Shaine sees you enter, he silences the conversation and says sit sit! Today is about you! as he gestures to the center of the room. Shaine continues You've done a major service for the scrolls. You've discovered a secret cave and understood its purpose. You worked well with your fellows and reported to the world your findings. And for that I award you the rank of Pathfinder field agent With that re withdraws a wayfinder from this robes as the room erupts into cheers! He hands you the tiny compass and shakes your hand. The other students begin to ask questions about your journey, and for a while you can answer, but eventually Master Shaine begins to pose counter questions and the room begins a round robin of questions that relate to your adventures, experience in the Mwungi expanse, some ancient runes in the north, and other events in the Chronicles. Eventually you slip from the room as the other completely ignore you as the questions get further and further from your adventure and the hours grow later.
Hans, Akashi, Kisuki:
Time passes and you never recieve a letter from your Master. However three days later while you are practicing in the yard with your fellow students, Master Marcos Farabellus walks in with a bag over his shoulder. He puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles loud enough to almost shake your teeth out. When the noise stops and you can hear again, he begins to talk in his loud way PATHFINDERS! TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL OCCASION! He withdraws three wayfinders from his backpack as he throws the empty bag to a side corner. He beings to juggle the compasses as the crowd watches for a few moments, then he catches each one and throws one at Hans, Akashi, and Kisuki. The toss is hard, but not enough to hurt. Today we have three new field agents! Good job Pathfinders! He begins a big clap that spreads through the crowd until everyone there is clapping and cheering. He then approaches each of you in turn and claps you on the shoulders and gives you a hearty hand shake. He then turns to the group in the yard and says Well that's enough disruptions today. Why don't we break and enjoy the rest of the day! Another cheer goes up as the rest of the people poor out of the yard.
Tovar:
Three days later, you are approached by Master Aram Zey of the Spells while you are at prayer. He looks you up and down with a somewhat disdainful glance. After he finishes appraising you, he begins to speak in his harsh tone I hear congratulations are in order. You have passed your confirmation. You are now a full field agent with all the RESPONSIBILITY and BEHAVIOR that is expected of such. He then reaches in a belt pocket and hands you a wayfinder from the pocket. May your unique approach to adventure prove to be an asset to the Pathfinder in the future. I won't detain you any further. With that he stands up and walks away.
Congratulation on finishing the adventure! Thanks for bearing with me and I hope you had fun. Chronicles will go out tomorrow.
Male Dwarf Cleric 1; HP 10/14; AC 15 (T 10, FF 15); Init +0; Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +6; Per +3
Whoa, this is most excellent! I will strive to uphold the tenets of the Pathfinder society to the best of my ability. Come. We must go perform the sacred celebration rites of Cayden Cailean! And since we're celebrating me, that means you're buying. Although, since you are not one of the devout, we don't have to stick to the letter of the ritual. Wait, where are you going? Let's go have a drink...
I always knew that guy was a godless heathen. Oh, well, I won't scorn the sacred rituals of my god. To the tavern!
Hello all!
Here is the OOC thread for the campaign. Feel free to talk about anything you life from the Steelers game to how your last roll sucked.
A quick word on expectations. I'm going to try to post once a day, each weekday. Weekend are harder, but if you guys post, Ill try to post also. What I want from you is one post a day each weekday. Id like you to preroll initiative before each combat and after each one. That way we have the order going in and life is easier. Ill give what my monsters and NPS have for initiative when combat starts, so you know when you go in relation. As for if you can't post, I'll give you 48 hours in a combat, then I'll do the smartest thing for your guy be it heal the group strait up sword to the face the bad guy etc. You guys can track your HP and all the other stuff.
I tend to be more of a push over GM and am in it to tell a story. I know you could roll and roll again to get that perfect nat 20. Please don't, but I know I can't stop you. Lets just have an awesome game and get your your wayfinders!
And one quick word on knowledge checks. You know what you know, so knowledge checks don't cost you turn parts. Just roll them as part of your turn. I'll find a way to get images to you guys soon.
I will be on vacation starting tomorrow. I won't be posting much until next Wednesday. My daughter is graduating and we are taking her to the beach and camping.
Ok the game is done. A few last things. One, any suggestions you have to improve things are appreciated. I'm new to the play by post thing,so I had fun. But, I know I can improve. What did/didn't work? Two, next week I might start up another. Anyone interested/have a game they want to play?
Male Human Bloodrager 4 (HP 30/40) (AC 18/12/17) (CMD 20) (Fort +7, Ref +3, Will +2) (Init +1) (Perception +7)
Generally speaking, I was fairly happy with it :-)
Two things that I have noticed with PbPs that help to keep things moving:
1) Having the GM roll initiative for everyone.
2) Having 'identical enemies' move on the same initiative (for example, three zombies would all act on the same initiative).
Both tend to help speed up action flow in combat, as you don't have to wait for everyone to post an initiative roll, wait for those to be collated, and then post a round 1 action, and it means that combats do not become delayed waiting for multiple (identical) enemies to act, often with only or two PCs between them.
As I said, I was happy with the game - these are not criticisms - simply mechanisms that I have observed elsewhere that help to keep the game moving :-)
I would definitely be up for another game :-)
If you want to do an 'evergreen' product, there is always 'Master of the Fallen Fortress' or 'First Steps, Part I'...?
Other than that, a low-level scenario that I would not mind doing is 'The Frozen Fingers of Midnight'.
Acrobatics +5, Climb +6, Disable Device +5, Knowledge (local) +4, Linguistics +4, Perception +3, Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +5, Use Magic Device +6
Attacks:
Snk Atk Dmg: 1d6+1 | Kusarigama TWF: +2(1d3+4)/+2(1d6+2) Single: +4(1d3+4 Reach or 1d6+4 Adjacent) | Cestus/Dagger (-1 to hit when throwing) TWF: +2(1d4+4/19-20)/+2(1d4+2/19-20) Single: +4 (1d4+4/19-20) | Sling +3(1d4+4)
I, personally, am a fan of maps/battlegrids. Especially when playing a sneak attacker. I don't want to take liberties and assume I always have the flank, but then I will sometimes waste a turn getting to the flank when I didn't need to. Maps remove the need for all that.
I concur with Standard about GM rolling initiative, and block initiatives in combat. The GM I'm doing Rise of the Runelords with does it that way, and it works well.
Two things that I have noticed with PbPs that help to keep things moving:
1) Having the GM roll initiative for everyone.
2) Having 'identical enemies' move on the same initiative (for example, three zombies would all act on the same initiative).
I like the idea of GM initiative. I never thought about that before. I typically don't like to take rolling away from the players, but it would make things much faster.
I tried something different here, and the reports are in. Don't do separate inits for each monster. Thought it would be a bit more realistic, but as we saw, that didn't help.
Kisuke Hitomi wrote:
I, personally, am a fan of maps/battlegrids. Especially when playing a sneak attacker. I don't want to take liberties and assume I always have the flank, but then I will sometimes waste a turn getting to the flank when I didn't need to. Maps remove the need for all that.
I concur with Standard about GM rolling initiative, and block initiatives in combat. The GM I'm doing Rise of the Runelords with does it that way, and it works well.
I wondering about battlemaps. I want to do something, but I wasn't sure if we needed them or if they would work. Based on this game, I see we need them!
Akashi wrote:
Google Docs is a very easy way to run a map. It becomes important for flanking, sneak attacks, and any time you have a caster with AoE spells.
Google docs look like an awesome idea for the next game I run. I will be a bit harder coordinating the stealth elements, but I think it will make life better.
Acrobatics +5, Climb +6, Disable Device +5, Knowledge (local) +4, Linguistics +4, Perception +3, Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +5, Use Magic Device +6
Attacks:
Snk Atk Dmg: 1d6+1 | Kusarigama TWF: +2(1d3+4)/+2(1d6+2) Single: +4(1d3+4 Reach or 1d6+4 Adjacent) | Cestus/Dagger (-1 to hit when throwing) TWF: +2(1d4+4/19-20)/+2(1d4+2/19-20) Single: +4 (1d4+4/19-20) | Sling +3(1d4+4)
If you make it so player's can't edit the map you can cover parts of the map they can't see with opaque boxes. Preserves the mystery of the upcoming rooms and lets you hide stealthy monsters. Of course if they go invisible you just drag their marker off the map.
