Anya,
I'm adding a spoiler because some of the other players want to keep their knowledge of the characters to roleplay. I'd suggested this very thing to Mawj when I was considering a different family but he wasn't so interested.
Anyway, I'm perfectly willing to coordinate backgrounds if you're interested in doing so.
Lev is sort of the scandal of the branch of the family that he was born into. I'm still working on the details but to put it simply he was raised by servants rather than his mother. When it was discovered Lev was half-elven, his father wanted to kick he and his mother out. It was only after the mother was able to prove that she'd had no affair (to her knowledge) that the man relented and he was handed off to a servant to raise.
So we could have easily come from the same branch but rarely met. Or we could be from different branches and you'd know of Lev due to the scandalous nature of his birth. You could even have been born in the same branch after Lev (he's 26) and never even known you had a half-brother.
I'm perfectly flexible, either way.
So does that make five women and one man? You lucky dog, you. ;)
Also, I count three CN, one N, and one LN. This should be interesting.
So does that make five women and one man? You lucky dog, you. ;)
I don't know, it sounds like a whole bunch of trouble to me. :)
And not a good person in the group! We're bound to have some interesting roleplay.
By the way, Wrath, aside from my background my character sheet should be done. Let me know if you see anything I didn't get right or you have any questions about. I'll be finishing up his background pretty soon, though probably tomorrow.
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I've checked the characters over and so far I don't see any glaring errors.
I'm thinking that with Lev's charisma of 7 having 5 women around him isn't going to be much of a boon any way (I'm getting an image of brow beaten quitely subdued hehe)
As long as we have no evil characters I don't see it being an issue. Just remember as an Adventure path, there is an underlying assumption that you will go off and do things. In this one at least, neautral characters have a reason to do things for self serving reasons as it means they get a more stable kingdom and such.
We've got some fragile charcters in there too. Should be fun BWAHAHAHAhahahahahaa....sorry, unleashed my darkside for a moment there.
I'm goiong to be running a RL game tonight so won't be on again today at this stage. Will check back in tomorrow. At the rate you guys are getting through prep we'll be ready to fire up an IC thread sooner rather than later.
Cheers
Hey Wrath, great to see you DM'ing again. If you ever have a spot let me know.
Ready.
Background draft is done. GM and Lev, please check it and see if it matches your ideas.
If so: Ready. :)
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TN, your background is great, as always. I'll let Lev determine if those parts pertainign to him are fine, but the bits I'm concerned with are perfect, even leaving me some room to play with at a later date. Thankyou.
I've checked all the characters so far and I can't find anything mechanically wrong with them. I'm not amazingly great at checking those sorts of things though, so if you see anything I've missed let me know. I think you're all pretty much ready to go at least.
I'll give Rimrock another few days to get Alandra's background worked out so he's comfortable enough with her to begin some roleplay. She's an old character of his though, so he might be ready as is. Having read over her character sheet again, I remembered how interesting a chracter she was Rimrock.Looking forward to seeing her in play again hehe.
I'm meant to be preparing for my home game right now, but I couldn't stay away from the boards :)
Cheers
In my rpg experience ( more than 20 yrs ) i prefer when there are no good alignments in a whole bunch of CN or TN . 2 selfish usually get along better than 1 selfish and 1 selfless.
Anya:
Most of that looks pretty good to me. I'll make some adjustments to my history to get names corrected and so on.
The one thing I'd change is concerning his birth. There were witnesses to see that the child born to our mother was a half-elf; she and the child were exiled from the house at the evidence of her unfaithfulness. She was just as horrified at the appearance of the child as your father, and protested so vigorously that a cleric was sent for who could determine the truth of the matter. The cleric determined that she was truthful about her loyalty and after that the child was given to a servant to raise.
Eventually the servant married one of the household guards/ scouts who began taking the boy along with him on errands in the Gronzi Forest (which also helped keep him out of sight).
So people would know of him, and the mystery of his birth and he was always near but kept kind of hidden as well. I figured the parents refused to speak of him, but were not so cruel as to insist he be sent out into the wilderness.
Eventually he decided he was tired of his half-life with the family (and discovered the truth of his origins -- a fey trick on his mother and an elven man -- and left the area to seek his own fortunes. After that, I think it's a great idea that Lev and Anya meet and he helps her to find her place in the world.
How's that sound?
Anya and DM: I actually put up the first draft of the background this morning. It's not complete yet and may need some revision but this gets you a look at what I've done.
Sorry it's so long. I can go overboard with the backgrounds sometimes.
Lev:
Lev: ** spoiler omitted **
Anya:
Posted another draft of my background. I still might tweak it a little (particularly if there's something that should be altered, DM or Anya) but otherwise I'm now ready to go as well.
I'm eager to see how the game and our characters develop!
Just extended my background to better reflect the PC attitude and persona. And don't mind mistakes in grammar please :)
Antonio kept the baby as his daughter , he said out of guilt complex ; if someone asked the servants, especially the womens, probably they 'ld answer it was because he hopes to have her as he had her mother. Truly, Elsbeth , even as an adolescent had the beatiful look of Opadara and something more....during this period of her life Elsbeth received frequent visits from the church of Asmodeus, they always said they were worried for a little girl whose life was saved by “ one of them “ ;without talking directly of Asmodeus their intended to drag her to serve their lord like he was promised she someday would have done. Neither the clergy of Asmodeus nor antonio – who really didnt care which deity Elsbeth was destined to serve, as long as he could have her in a few years-had taken in account childish cruelty; by the time she was 14 she already had many troubles with boys from the other houses who, while very attracted by her ,were scared by that something -like an aura she constantly had on her-neither Elsbeth nor them could understand, and because of her fire-red hair and eyes they had already began to harass her like tiefling are in Cheliax because of their infernal ties. At 17 she could not take any more harassment and confronted Antonio asking if there was something of her life she didn't know, and despite the fact he did not want to talk of Opadara the manners of Elsbeth combined with her beauty had little difficulty in convincing him.
Outraged, Elsbeth turned her shoulders away from the father determined to leave to never return, but Antonio could not permit that to happen: he assaulted the daughter in a raptus trying to rape her...during the short fight which Elsbeth was most certainly going to lose the amulet of Opadara slipped from the pocket on the chest of Antonio's shirt, the sight of which led Elsbeth to instinctively pray to Calistria.
Antonio fell ill all of a sudden releaising the daughter and passing out. He never recovered from the apparently incurable disease that would have resulted in the man' death.Elsbeth thought it was the revenge of Calistria for what he did to a priestess of her and for the use he did of young, beatiful women.With the death of her father she took over house ruling and honed her skills in talking others in doing what she wants;unluckly it didn't last long.
When she was nearly 22 her father's many debts caused the house to fall in disgrace as the other houses reclaimed their rights and, even thought she believed she could work out something she really did care no longer.But she also knew she could not stand to become property of another noble, so rather that suffering more vexations or , worse, being sold in slavery she used what she had – outstanding beauty, a tongue sharper than any sword and quite a selfish attitude- to flee from Cheliax to , maybe, Brevoy where she heard fugitive half elves can find better life expectations if they are capable enough. What she doesn't know is whether or not Asmodeus will reclaim her as someone whose life has been promised to him....be it willingly or not.
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Well the game thread is up.
Since the majoity of you are ready to go and I want you to keep momentum and enthusiasm up, feel free to pop in and give some intro description and possible interractions for your characters.
I've written in the thrid person and past tense which is my preferred style, (years of scientific writing is ingrained in me I'm afraid). I'd prefer if you could post in similar fashion but in all reality, post how you feel most comfortable an we'll work it out from there.
This will gove you a couple of days to flex your writing style and get into character before I move things along to lands further south.
Cheers
Vanulf!
Is Arianna Ravenswood still playing with us?
Since there are some of my players asking to try plp , i'ld have to GM them. I'm not saying i want to drop this game, i'll stick as long as it lasts, but would be interested to know how i can start a new pbp of mine ( but i'm afraid that would have to be italian only - or at least require a good knowledge of the lang ).
Sorry, was distracted yesterday. Got her first post up now.
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GreatNagai, at the top of every forum page is a link that says Create New Thread.
All you need to do is click that link, create a name for your thread and put in your first post and you are on the way to a play by post game.
I'd advise you create one here in the discussion forums first so your friends have a chance to find it and post in their character concepts for you. Then when you are all sorted , start and in character thread in the other forum and away you go.
Cheers
"The elf and half-elf seem competent enough while his sister will get by" She then turned her ice blue eyes, a gift from her unknown ulfen father,on the remaining two women "like lambs to the slaughter'...
Just wanted to say that those thoughts amused the heck out of me. I was laughing quietly as I read them. :)
I'm seeming to have a hard time getting a handle on how play Arianna. In the last campaign I played her with a lot of sass. There just hasn't been an opportunity for that to come through, yet.
I'm seeming to have a hard time getting a handle on how play Arianna. In the last campaign I played her with a lot of sass. There just hasn't been an opportunity for that to come through, yet.
Well we're still in sort of the prologue to the adventure, as I understand it. I suspect you'll have more opportunity to get into her head when we get on the road, or whatever happens next.
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Also, it's harder to put the same sass into this group since the majority of them are women this time round, and many of your interactions in the last one were with men.
I'll be posting answers to the questions soon then we'll hit the road. At work atm so need to squeeze this in between jobs.
Cheers
Another rules question.
One of my strength points is the bluff skill, but obviously i'm talking of Elsbeth's skill, not my personal one. I guess i have to write in general what Elsbeth wants to talk into someone, and then roll the check, no matter if the phrase isn't spelled like a real pro bluffer would have.
But when i can do it ? Master's call or i can try bluff checks whenever i want ?
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Depends on the situation. If you want to try to bluff someone or keep information from someone, then make a bluff roll. Generally you make bluff rolls whenever you want. Very rarely I'll ask for one if the situation calls for it.
There are times when what you say is going to be important and may modify your result (up or down). Given that english is your second language though, I'm not going to go overboard on this with you. If you come up with something plausible, then it will work in your favour.
The same goes for diplomacy rolls and other skill checks. We have to remember that what our characters are capable of is far different to what we can do. Elsbeth has a Charisma of 19, which puts her far beyond my ability to write anything close to charismatic enough for her. So we have to let the dice do the talking for us sometimes.
As an example, I made a bluff roll with the Lord Chncellor to hide his reaction to the questions. That is what set the DC for the sense motive roll I put in there. He is meant to be a diplomat and politician, and supposedly a pretty good one. However rather than just have him automatically succeed I rolled to see if you had a chance to understand what was going on behind the poker face.
So far no one has :) (at least in character, not sure how many of you have been tempted to read the spoilers or not hehe)
So far no one has :) (at least in character, not sure how many of you have been tempted to read the spoilers or not hehe)
Yeah, the chancellor's bluff was so good that it's absolutely impossible for Lev to succeed. Which is fine; I designed the character that way on purpose. His upbringing was such that he simply doesn't understand most people.
I don't tend to read spoilers unless I've earned it (by roll or it's directed at me) but I can imagine his viewpoint on the subject. I'm curious to see how he reacts to my question. :)
(at least in character, not sure how many of you have been tempted to read the spoilers or not hehe)
I don't read spoiler either,unless they are for me or i rolled high enough, a play is a play
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Ok, if everyone is happy enough with the deal as presented by the Chancellor and his friend, are you guys ready to roll?
I think if there's any more mechanical type questions you can post them in here and I can deal with them so we can progress the story along somewhat.
You'll have at least one day in Restov before heading out if you want to spend more money (particularly if some of your gold was freed up by the cities donation of tents, ropes and supplies.)
Cheers
Moving my ooc post from the actual IC forum to this one.
I've updated my equipment list with a few minor changes and now I'm all set to go. Let's head on out!
I'm having heavy problem of blue-screen (comp restarting itself with no apparent reason) constantly. Am waiting for the technician right now. For my first post IC of the initial trip i may need to wait tomorrow ( Sunday ) and log with the comp of some friends. Will let you know.
I know we are not playing GURPS, but even if i did not read her spoiler i can tell Arianna took the "personal enemies" disadvantage. Did her ?
She has people who would like to see her "removed" from the situation. The answer is in her background.
Read everyone's background..as i guess everyone already read my own. It is just that in GURPS this should be exactly a variable points value disadvantage. Anyone who read mine should figure who is coming after me :)
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Well, I must say that combat began rather more explosively than I thought it would. Caused a bit of confusion and showed me how rusty I was at providing details and calling for initiatives etc.
Lev, I rolled for you and Anya in terms of initiatives, but I'll let your new roll stand instead.
I have some options for combat.
1) My preferred method is to let people post when they can, then I write up a summary of the round as needed. If you go later in the round you can post options and I choose the most appropriate. This worked really well in my last PbP I DM'd but it does require the players to trust me with your characters options a little. Sometimes I'd take an attack meant for one enemy and put it against another if the first option became null and void during combat for instance.
This method makes combat really fast as we can generally get an entire round over in a day.
2) I have seen and played in games where the posting goes in blocks. In this combat for instance, it would mean Mawj and Lev post, then I post bandits, then Anya and Alandra post, then I bost the bandit leader, then the rest of you. This method means less interpretation and fiddling with player actions on my part but leads to slower combats if one group gets bogged down (most liekly me as my time is limited to post). Still, we should get through combat rounds in a little over a day in this method.
3) Have everyone post in order, each player wating their turn. This prevents all confusion but I find delays combat quite a bit. It's my least preferred option but I will run based on the players vote.
Let me know your preferences thanks.
Cheers
#1
I'm glad you're opening the subject. I was a little confused by how quickly people were jumping into the combat. I wanted to take part, but I figured that the people who were prepared for us would probably get a surprise round before we had a chance to attack.
Anyway, I'm fine with option 1. It does seem like the more fluid of the options. Do you want us to continue to post initiative on our own as we did today?
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When I resolve round 1 this afternoon I'll call for round two actions. This one has been a bit messy for round 1 but we'll get better with it as time goes. I'm posting mroe frequently at the moment becasue it's the first combat and I have some time at work (not that I should be doing this at work, but I'm sure I'll get past the guilt....yep, there it goes).
So for the moment, just hold off till I get things sorted then post away as we did today. I generally wait for everyone to post then do a summary of how the round progressed. At the end of that I call for next roundd actions and update the map.
As for surprise round, the bandits were actually trying to bluff you into thinking nothing was wrong, in the hopes you stop briefly to water horses then move on. Mawj, Lev and Alandra pretty much saw through the facade so it developed into combat pretty fast. They were nearly as surprised as some of you to tell the truth.
I'd resolve combat right here but I don't have the mapping software at work to update the map for peoples locations at the end of round 1.
Cheers
How do you handle the action of reading a weapon?
If i remember correctly it is a standard action unless with the Quick draw feat.
With that in mind and since i wrote that Elsbeth dropped her gear in the wagon i'm assuming she doesn't have her crossbow or staff ready now.
How do you handle the action of reading a weapon?
If i remember correctly it is a standard action unless with the Quick draw feat.
With that in mind and since i wrote that Elsbeth dropped her gear in the wagon i'm assuming she doesn't have her crossbow or staff ready now.
Drawing a weapon (that you have on your person) is a move action. Quick draw makes it a free action.
If you left your weapon somewhere then you have to move to get to it and it's another move action to pick it up.
Well i have the crossbow on me, but have not readied it yet.
Also, i saw on map i wasn't near any horse...hope i don't need to check for acrobatics because i rolled just in case and got 1 :(
Well i have the crossbow on me, but have not readied it yet.
Also, i saw on map i wasn't near any horse...hope i don't need to check for acrobatics because i rolled just in case and got 1 :(
You're right, you're in the clear with the horses. It'll be a move action to draw the crossbow. Unfortunately, if you don't have it loaded it'll also be an action to load the crossbow, depending on the crossbow you have.
Incidentally, I haven't read anyone's backgrounds except Anya's; my player knowledge is exactly the same as character knowledge. Easier that way, sometimes. :)
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You're fine in terms of dodging horses, nothing near you. Even if you were near a horse, rolling a 1 just means they may knock you over accidentally (their CMB vs your CMD) or may kick at you (their attack vs your AC). It's not a guarantee to get damaged, just a chance.
Also, you don't reroll intiatives each round. I'm thinking that's a GURPS hangover for you hehe. If you want to adjust your place in the intiative order, you have to spend a round "reassessing" which then gives you an effective 20 on the intitiative count. Probably not worth it since Mawj and the regular bandits all got 23 for their initiative, and Lev has a 22. They're pretty much all still going before you. Strange stats on the bandits. They have +5 on their intitiative but their leader onlygets +2. Go figure.
As for the crossbow, if it's on you then you can ready it and load it in a round, then fire and load it the next round. Takes a move action to ready a crossbow, and then you can convert your standard action to another move action to load it. After that its just load, shoot and repeat.
Cheers
Yep....LOOOOONG love affair with GURPS. But stopped at the 3rd ed.
And for the crossb. no thanks. Looking at Elsbeth record sheet i forgot i had it on her person, but it isn't ready anyway, and she isn't exactly a pro sniper so i'll stick with spells.
Lev, since Anya asked, i told her a summary of my background after the meeting. It's no problem for me if you want to ask her or to read my in-spoiler story. As long as char's background are concerned i read them out of curiosity ( but in play is another thing...i haven't read all the spoilers you and anya shared with alandra ) but i keep player's knowledge out of play.
And if i may ask...what you use to put pc's faces on map and to update it round after round ? Could try myself since i'm gathering players that would like to try pbp here.
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Mawj
Another post i had to rewrite :( it is only me ?
I don't have any problems, mainly because I type up my post in notepad and then copy and paste it to Paizo when I'm done. That way if something does happen with Paizo, I still have the original post and can just paste it in again if the post is lost. I highly recommend you do the same if you're having a lot of problems with your postings.