Azure Zero, who has taken over another game we both were playing in a similar plight, has kindly agreed to do the same here, until (if) Solos retutns. Many thanks to him, now to reassemble our party :)
Good afternoon Gentlemen
This will be the 3rd game I'll be taking over due to DM disappearances
I run until the GM returns or you find someone better.
I'll get to work on the map of the area.
and making some extra NPCs encase some player's are missing.
I see I don't need to run the outpost encounter since it's finished.
It's finished but not resolved; i.e. we've captured the bandits group leader but are yet to question him.
The question is; what will the players do, and how they do it?
As these answers will have different results.
Hello again! I had thought this game dead, so I reused the alias for something else. I'll get all that fixed tonight.
Thanks for stepping in, Azure_Zero.
Here's the greenbelt map (without any game markers, so no spoilers)
Greenbelt map
"IT"S ALIVE!!" Apparently, you can beat a dead horse, many thanks to Azure Zero for stepping in to fill the gap that Solo left. I'm sure we all really appreciate it, at least I know I do.
Good to see you Royston, that makes three, if Eamon and Gunther resurface we'll have the whole party back, if not we'll need a couple of fighters (i.e. meatshields).
When last we left off we had subdued the bandit party at the outpost through a series of spells and beatdowns. And had just finished securing the bandits, stabilized the injured, and relieving them of their weapons, armor and valuables.
I don't know if we killed anybody, but at this point I think the only one still conscious is the bandit leader who surrendered when we took down his men. The rest of them are either unconscious or still sleeping off the effects of my sleep spell.
We haven't interrogated him yet, received a list of what we found on the bandits or been given XP for defeating the bandits.
I think that pretty much sums up the current situation, don't you?
Sounds about right. I doubt any are dead unless enough time passed for someone to bleed out.
Gunther = pixel cube
and pixel has not posted since Dec 17th, hopefully he's alright, and on winter vacation still.
I'll get my Recruitable+Romancable NPC list created.
(I'll organically create some NPCs to flesh out the game world and that can be recruited and or romanced)
Got 4 randomly generated recruitable NPCs, (I just need to make them) List of Custom made Recruitable NPCs so far
- Half-Nymph Ranger, (race is custom template)
- Succubus-Touched_R2(Half-elf) Barbarian (ARG playtest sample)
- Half-Succubus_R2(Aasimar) Cleric (ARG playtest sample)
- (Red)Draconic(Human) Monk (Race from "Races of the Dragon")
Two of the NPC's are a little more powerful than the current level of the group so either have them be recruitable a bit later or encountered later.
If you have a problem with these recruitable NPCs please speak up so I can fix any problems.
Wow, those are some random NPCs. But they look cool to me and could be a big help in the future. I don't know too much about this adventure path, but I'm assuming that we can recruit people to help us build up the area. These guys would be a blast to fit together into something greater.
And, yes, I finally find enough information to rebuild this character. So, I look forward to our future adventures as the holidays wind down.
It would be interesting to have some female characters in the party. Anyways, I see nothing to object to here.
To have more control over the PBP data I might move the game to a new game thread?
restart the game or continue from this point?
Your thoughts?
Wow, those are some random NPCs. But they look cool to me and could be a big help in the future. I don't know too much about this adventure path, but I'm assuming that we can recruit people to help us build up the area. These guys would be a blast to fit together into something greater.
And, yes, I finally find enough information to rebuild this character. So, I look forward to our future adventures as the holidays wind down.
Funny thing is the Half-Succubus Cleric is a result I have gotten in more than one game that had recruitable NPCs
I'm back. Glad to have you, DM Azure_Zero!
Thanks.
The game will only continue to live as long as the players are playing, and the GM running the game.
Any thought on my above questions?
To have more control over the PBP data I might move the game to a new game thread?
restart the game or continue from this point?Your thoughts?
Even if I were inclined to complain (which I'm not) our previous DM is either unavailable or unwilling to continue, so you do what you think is best Azure.
It does seem a bit redundant to restart the entire campaign, we haven't gone that far into it, but that same argument could be used for a reboot.
We've already got a cleric, what we need are a few fighter types a ranger wouldn't be bad either.
I think we ought to continue from where we are, using this forum. It's easy to take over a forum, I'm given to understand.
As soon as that's done, I think you should give our one missing player a few more days to realize we're here. Then, recruit one more player. I'd really like this to be a team of four. The game is designed for four, after all.
Current list of characters:
Human Cleric of Desna (Desriden)
Halfling Alchemist (flykiller)
Human Wizard (Malkovitch)
Human Paladin (Tarondor)
The group is magic heavy
has some muscle,
next to No skilled.
I'll give pixel cube until Friday, if he doesn't show I'll assume Real Life took over.
I can see good reasons to keep going or to reboot, honestly. While we have started this game, little flavor has been given and there has been little role-play because of the lack of posting by the original DM.
What we kept circling around the first time this started, and again now that we are restarting, is the need to fill specific party roles. I remember offering to play various things, such as a druid to provide heals and nature skills along with an animal to help the front line, and basically the conversation boiled down to "we need heals." So I offered to play a nature cleric with the animal domain. Then something else came up and the idea seemed to be I would go full heals and someone else would "tank." So then the full BAB classes started to feel pressure to "tank," especially since both wanted to play ranged builds.
Then the DM basically said let's worry about it later and started the game while we were still discussing roles and classes. Now, I could be remembering this all wrong because it was a while ago. The holidays were hectic for everyone, after all. Mainly, I remember that my character kept changing around and we seemed to start before everything was settled.
Sorry for the wall of text. I'm fine with a reboot or continuing on from here with a bit of hand-waving if need be. And I can change around my character some if we need someone on the front line or with more skills (ranger, druid, oracle, etc.) Mainly, I'd like to play an explorer who is eager to see this region. That can fit with many classes and concepts.
I can see good reasons to keep going or to reboot, honestly. While we have started this game, little flavor has been given and there has been little role-play because of the lack of posting by the original DM.
What we kept circling around the first time this started, and again now that we are restarting, is the need to fill specific party roles. I remember offering to play various things, such as a druid to provide heals and nature skills along with an animal to help the front line, and basically the conversation boiled down to "we need heals." So I offered to play a nature cleric with the animal domain. Then something else came up and the idea seemed to be I would go full heals and someone else would "tank." So then the full BAB classes started to feel pressure to "tank," especially since both wanted to play ranged builds.
Then the DM basically said let's worry about it later and started the game while we were still discussing roles and classes. Now, I could be remembering this all wrong because it was a while ago. The holidays were hectic for everyone, after all. Mainly, I remember that my character kept changing around and we seemed to start before everything was settled.
Sorry for the wall of text. I'm fine with a reboot or continuing on from here with a bit of hand-waving if need be. And I can change around my character some if we need someone on the front line or with more skills (ranger, druid, oracle, etc.) Mainly, I'd like to play an explorer who is eager to see this region. That can fit with many classes and concepts.
Reading that is makes me think that a reboot should be done, and character roles straightened out.
But I believe in democracy, and will put it to a vote and the dead line will be Friday.
I'll also add,
the cleric that was generated to the game after I finish her character sheet and alias, then add the others when I have time.
Also, I just remembered I wasn't part of the original group. There was a Druid/cleric mystic theurge type (not sure how that works with two divine classes) who would focus on item creation. So the others might know more than me. Also, part of that is my impression. I could have been misunderstanding things.
Also, I just remembered I wasn't part of the original group. There was a Druid/cleric mystic theurge type (not sure how that works with two divine classes) who would focus on item creation. So the others might know more than me. Also, part of that is my impression. I could have been misunderstanding things.
Just checked the recruit thread, only flykiller and Pixel cube were from the original selection, the rest didn't show up.
If everyone wants a reboot, we can reboot or we can continue on and work out our issues in game. I mean it's only been a couple of days game wise since our characters met and we're still 1st level.
I'll admit I was one of the people pushing for people to accept the role of either "tank" or "healer". As a 1st level wizard, I am uniquely unqualified to be either a front line fighter or a healer, I don't believe Wizards even have Heal as a class skill.
And when we were first starting out neither our Archer paladin, or our Musketeer cavalier wanted to be wanted to be melee fighters. This caused me to push partially out of a sense of frustration and partially out of a desire to start the game.
If I offended people or forced them to accept a role they didn't want to play because of my own selfishness I apologize. The thing is I've been playing D&D a long time and one thing I've noticed about roleplayers is they tend to be too creative.
They tend to go for the "exotic" or "exciting" characters, because they think they'll be fun and then they get bored and lose interest and the game peters out.
This was really bad in 3.5 D&D with the multitude of prestige classes they had available to them. A players whole goal was getting the prestige class and when they did get it and it wasn't as fun as they thought it would be, they'd get bored and move on to something else and the campaign would usually be abandoned for lack of interest.
So here's were I'm coming from, I would like to start this campaign and see it through to the end, I would like to play a Wizard and next level pick up a level of rogue, with the stated goal of qualifying for the prestige class Arcane Trickster and the Kingdom role of Spymaster or failing that Magister. That's what I would like to do, what would you like to do?
While we're on the subject how do we want to divide up treasure? In past groups I've found what works best is people who can best use an item can have it if they want it.
For example, a magic breastplate wouldn't do my character much good, but a ring of protection would. Whatever is left over that nobody wants or can use can be sold and the gold split equally among the party.
At least that's what works for me, what works for you?
If I offended people or forced them to accept a role they didn't want to play because of my own selfishness I apologize.
Oh, please don't think I'm upset. I always meant to play someone with access to healing in some way. I've rarely played divine casters, so I saw this as a chance to learn about the classes.
The only thing that upset me about the process was the discovery that the cleric of my original god (Erastil, recommended by the player's guide) often are misogynist. I had no desire to play such a thing, so I switched to Desna at the last minute because I thought the extra movement would help me reach people in time to heal them with touch spells.
My main complaint from the early start was that, without a tank role filled, I envisioned a situation where we would struggle for a while and then someone's character would die. That player would be pressured to reroll as a tank, and they would be angry with me because I didn't save them. I don't want that to happen.
As for my role in the kingdom, I was thinking Councilor or High Priest. It depends on what other people we get to play.
ATM, if we all stick to our original characters, we probably will end up recruiting one or two more people. Either NPCs or PCs from the boards. Then we would be looking at a six person party. I don't have a real problem with that, and it could be handled without a reboot. Basically, we spend a couple days at the fort and more people show up over time. Perhaps they were delayed by bandits or storms.
At the earlier levels, I'm always in favor of giving useful items to the person who can use it. It ensures we all live long enough to reach the point where we split things up evenly. Most of the time, the starting items only really help those on the front line anyway (Masterwork armor, swords, etc.).
Since we're talking about this now, should item creation feats be part of my future picks? Toughness, combat casting, heavy armor prof., quick channel are the only things that come to mind as possible feats. Maybe some metamagic, but not a lot. This guy will mainly be a support caster.
Since my cleric has 30 foot move even in heavy or medium armor, can I assume he won,t slow the group down?
The ability is from the travel domain power and given it's wording you could wear medium and heavy armour and be at a 30ft land speed, but in light or no armour your speed is 40ft.
Sorry to intrude. If you're going to be recruiting, I am an orphan of another Kingmaker game. Currently I am a switch-hitting ranger gunning for arcane archer someday, but I can be reworked or even reclassed (Rogue maybe) to better mesh with the party.
Thanks for your consideration.
Lots of issues to chime in on!
1) Roles. I've been playing for a long, long, long time. I don't peter out or fade away, so no worries there. I chose the archer paladin because I really wanted to play a paladin. And an archer. But I'll make the same offer now I made at the start of the game: if the party needs a tank, I'll bring a more traditional paladin.
A party "needs" a tank, in my opinion, if it doesn't have at least two "off-tanks". When we had an archer paladin and a gunslinger, both were capable of front-line fighting, so the need for a pure tank was less. If we don't have that, common sense dictates that we need at least one front-line meat shield. I'll volunteer for that role if we need it.
As for other roles, I doubt we need a rogue, but I'd like to make sure we have a dedicated healer and a dedicated arcanist.
2) I'm not personally keen on the idea of NPCs in the party. Four half-way competent players should be able to cover all the bases. NPCs should be for interacting with; the heroism should remain in the hands of the PC's. That, however, is pure opinion. I'm much more firmly committed to letting the GM run things his way (as a long-time GM, I know that's critical) and to trust that he'll do what's necessary to provide the best time for all concerned.
3) Treasure. I have some definite ideas here, and I think they're compatible with Royston's vision. I recommend the following procedure:
A) All potions and similar consumables are party treasure, period. Given out to whomever can get the most use out of it for the party's benefit.
B) All other items are party items only so long as we're "on adventure", distributed to whomever can use it best.
C) Once we're no longer "on adventure" (e.g., back in a city somewhere, we total up the sale value (not the market value) of all such items and cash and divide by four. Everyone gets an even share and can "buy" those items from the rest of the party. Anything not bought is sold for cash.
This method ensures that everyone gets the same value of treasure over time.
Example: The total value of the party's haul, including cash and the sale value of all magic items is 8,000 gp. Each party member (assuming four members) is due 2,000 gp. But the best item in the haul is a sword worth 2250 gp, and the paladin wants it for himself. He pays in 250 gp of his own money and takes his share as the sword.
I am mostly on Eamon's point of view, especially points 2 and 3 look quite sound.
Regarding party composition, my Chirurgeon archetype is compatible with the Cryptbreaker, which may give us trapfinding if Halloran wants/needs to be a dedicated arcanist. Myself, I'm a fan of hybrid characters in all RPGs. If hybrids suck in a given system, I blame the system ;) The Cryptbreaker goes against my current backstory, but I'm not sure how important a backstory should be for a 1st-level character.
Eamon, I'm fine with your treasure suggestions. I'm neutral on NPCs in the party. I've done it both ways over the years and they both work. Usually the NPCs are a support character (often a cleric in my home games because no one wants to play "healbot") and it worked out well. If we go that route, I don't mind crafting a tank, reflavoring myself as an oracle of battle, or just taking fighter levels from here on. I'm flexible when it comes to the crunch because I've been on both sides of the DM screen for so long.
As for skills, we have Diplomacy, Survival, Linguistics, Spellcraft, Heal, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Sense Motive, UMD, Craft: Alchemy, Carpentry and Knowledges (Nature, Arcana, Religion, Engineering, Geography, History).
The following skills no one has a skill point in: Acrobatics, Appraise, Bluff, Climb, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Fly, Handle Animal, Intimidate, K: Dungeoneering, K: Local, K: Nobility, K: Planes, Perform, Ride, Stealth and Swim.
Disable Device, Handle Animal and the knowledges (perhaps not so much with dungeoneering) seem to be the only weak spots in the group, to my mind. I'm sure the lack of physical skills will haunt us out in the wilderness, but I don't know that we have to spend more than 1 point max in any of them unless it's for character concept.
If Halloran does want to go Rogue for a level (You don't have to, I'm mentioning it because of your earlier post), we can cover most of these gaps in skills. Even Rory can pick up Disable Device as a class skill, IIRC. Again, I'm not saying you must, Rory. Your backstory was interesting to me, so don't feel any pressure to change it.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of us seem OK with continuing onward from here without a hard reboot, or at least none of us seem to strongly feel a need to hard reboot. If we need to do a few tweaks to more forward in the form of a soft reboot (changing a few skills, etc.), I'm fine with that. What does everyone else think?
I think the 4 of us can make this work, I don't see that Eamon needs to change, with our current party make up we'll probably be most comfortable standing off at a distance to attack enemies. When they move into melee he can move up to attack them.
I have no objection to Eamon's treasure division policy, although I might suggest holding gems and jewelry in a common fund for large purchases like "raise dead".
I don't object to NPC's per se, but I would prefer PC's. And on that note if Silstaren wants to join the party I'm all for it.
I have no objection to Eamon's treasure division policy, although I might suggest holding gems and jewelry in a common fund for large purchases like "raise dead".
Good idea. What about calling it a fifth share? Divide everything by five and put the fifth share aside for moments of need. At later levels we could cap the amount in the fifth share at some agreed-on number (like no more than 10,000 gp, enough for two raises).
I don't object to NPC's per se, but I would prefer PC's. And on that note if Silstaren wants to join the party I'm all for it.
Agreed. NPC's are okay, but I prefer PCs and I'm good with Silstaren.
These suggestions sound good to me, both treasure and tactics.
Fifth share policy sounds good to me, does anyone have any suggestions for what we should do with these bandits? We seem to have reached a point in game where we are deciding their fate.
... does anyone have any suggestions for what we should do with these bandits? We seem to have reached a point in game where we are deciding their fate.
Your actions and words will have impact on what happens and may effect alignment, so chose your words and actions well.
...
I'm neutral on NPCs in the party. I've done it both ways over the years and they both work. Usually the NPCs are a support character (often a cleric in my home games because no one wants to play "healbot")
...
I'm flexible when it comes to the crunch because I've been on both sides of the DM screen for so long.
Herr DM:
Two suggestions:
First, you should rename the campaign.
Did you inherit a play-by-post?
If you are the GM for a play-by-post campaign but didn't start the thread, please email webmaster@paizo.com.
We need:
A link to your profile page (click on your name at the top where it says "Welcome, your name!"
A link to the gameplay and discussion threads for the campaigns you have inherited.Just copy and paste these links from the address bar in your browser, please.
Second, is it possible to create another tab on the forums (fora?) where the players can keep track of loot distribution?
Herr DM:
Two suggestions:
First, you should rename the campaign.
Second, is it possible to create another tab on the forums (fora?) where the players can keep track of loot distribution?
Answers;
1) I can't change the name even if I inherit it from a lost GM, unless I start a new campaign thread. (I am inheriting the game and asked for a campaign name change)
2) The only forum tabs the players can post stuff in is Gameplay, Discussion, and Recruitment, and I can't create any other tabs, as most are system generated and not under my control in how they operate, I can edit and control some things, but that's it.
Are ya sure? I'm betting an email to the webmaster can cure all ills, at least as regards the name.
I have sent a name change request with the inheritance email, so we'll see if it does get renamed. To quote a good line from C&C Red Alert "Time will tell, sooner or later time will tell."
I'll try to keep a running total of party loot here, then, along with sale values (not market prices):
_______________________________________________
From the bandits at Oleg's:
alchemist’s fire (2), (20gp)
leather armor (4), (20 gp)
dagger (.5 gp)
composite longbow (+2 Str) (150 gp)
longbow (3) (112.5 gp)
80 arrows (2 gp)
shortswords (3) (15 gp)
8 days of trail rations (consumable)
silver Stag Lord amulet
65 gp
Total SALE value of non-consumables: 385 gp.
_______________________________________________
So that leaves everyone with roughly 75gp worth of loot. I'd call dibs on the alchemist's fire, being, you know, an alchemist. That leaves me with 55gp saved for later. And we can divide the 8 rations evenly.
Sorry to intrude again, but since I picked up two votes, I thought I'd check in and see how the rest of you feel about me joining the party. No worries and no hard feelings either way.
DKP stands for Dragon Kill Points; it's a loot distribution system used in MMOs to decide who should receive items from raids. It started with Everquest IIRC.
I have no problem with more people joining, but that decision is up to the DM ultimately.
I don't look like someone who would be a bandit since I'm wearing a rather obvious holy symbol. Someone other than me or the paladin should keep it for later. It also could go into party loot share until we deal with the bandit situation since it is an item that could help the whole party.
EDIT: No, I don't play any MMOs at the moment. I did play World of Warcraft and City of Heroes years ago, which is where I learned the term.