Black Waters Gestalt (Inactive)

Game Master Just a Mort

Things I wish to playtest:

1)Can a PFS adventure of earlier seasons be accomplished solo?
2)What are the differences between solo play and a full party?
3)What do you miss out as a solo player? Do you get the full story experience?
4)Is the story telling aspect enhanced because the GM can give the player more attention, whereas in a group, some may not be willing to participate in an individual player's story arc, plot hook?
5)The PBP medium has always been a slow one. Is it because the players are waiting for each other, or the GM?
6lWould a PBP be enhanced with fewer people so there is more communication between GM and players?
7)Can a PBP be both engaging and fast at the same time?
8)How fast can a PBP go if both GM and player are willing to work on it?
9)How stressful is it on the GM to run a PBP at a fast pace?

My weekend activity isn't as good as my weekday activity. Also, gone to bed, brb in...8-10h or so.

Sleep well, I will get a post in.

As for my schedule, I get one out of three weekends off, this happens to be my weekend, so I am off four days. While off I will be posting mostly between 9 am and 9 pm EST; also going out of town for my daughters birthday on Sunday. So this weekend I also will be a little slow during my regular hours, however I will check the boards several times a day.

Having said that I will check back in five or six hours.

I will keep your nine questions in mind as we play, and I hope I can help you with your experiment. A little personal history; I played D&D back in college in the 80's. I learned of pathfinder and found the boards here and have been playing just over two years. The highest I have played a character to date is level five, though I have some characters that I started higher, like Valda. I tend to play characters classes I am familiar with so I don't have to learn a lot of new rules. I have played both a bloodrager and oracle but not this high. So if I make a mistake I promise it isn't intentional, just still a little new, but I will learn.

Thanks for inviting me to play, I am looking forward to it. I have wanted to try a solo game also.

I am, on the other hand fairly new to the hobby(about maybe 6 tops?). I'm a lorekeeper and rule lawyer.Yes hopefully of the Praecepta leges pulchritudinous variety. Most of my posts are from phone, so I may actually need your help moving tokens on the combat map.(Is it possible to manipulate simple stuff on Google Drive on phone?)

I would say curiousity is one of my sins. I've ever ending up touching a wriath because I was wondering what that poor lonely soul was doing out there, and he stretched his finger out to me like the movie ET.

I am, on the other hand fairly new to the hobby(about maybe 6 tops?). I'm a lorekeeper and rule lawyer.Yes hopefully of the Praecepta leges pulchritudinous variety. Most of my posts are from phone, so I may actually need your help moving tokens on the combat map.(Is it possible to manipulate simple stuff on Google Drive on phone?)

I would say curiousity is one of my sins. I've ever ending up touching a wriath because I was wondering what that poor lonely soul was doing out there, and he stretched his finger out to me like the movie ET.

I like rule lawyers, they normally give exact answers to questions, and I tend to ask a lot of questions ;)

Happy to help with the map! I take my lap top practically with me everywhere but I'm still using a flip phone, so I know less than most about google and the phone...

I like those who are curious, my only pet is a cat and you know what they say about them. hhhmmmm that segues right into meeting that poor lonely soul .... wraith ... well if he is like ET try using 'reeses pieces' it can't hurt.

Wooo. So what you get in the module and what you get trying to run a PBP are totally different! Ok, that's something I learnt today.

Wooo. So what you get in the module and what you get trying to run a PBP are totally different! Ok, that's something I learnt today.

???, or should I not ask?

Usually I can copy and paste and yesterday I tried to copy and paste on several games yesterday and wasn't able to. Are you able to copy and paste items, I'm trying to figure out if it's a "Paizo" problem or a "my computer" problem.

Nah. I looked at the module box text, decided it wasn't appropriate, then started improvising ^^

The module assumes you will make knowledge checks, but since you're in the middle of a huge, busy town, I see no reason that you cannot ask people nicely(letting you use diplo instead of knowledge local to gather info). But because of using diplo - the way knowledge is conferred is in a more interactive manner instead of a text book rendition of the relevant facts.

Nothing wrong doing what you're doing, just remarking differences between the last time I ran, and this.

Nothing wrong doing what you're doing, just remarking differences between the last time I ran, and this.

good to know, the copy and paste is working now, sorry I didn't post in game earlier, I had to go do some outside work for my 78 year old mother...will post soon

edit: I lied it's still not letting me copy and paste, looks like I'm typing instead of just copying some of your texr ;(

Drandle Drenge pulls an iron key from his waistcoat.

No issues copy pasting here. I think its a bug :(

guess I'm going to have to run a test again, oh well better minor computer problems than no computer at all.

I'm still working on Valda's personality I like accents and speech patterns but I'm not sure how to sound out a Viking accent. If I figure it out will phonetically sounding out the accent be an issue? I only ask because of your posting location. I had a German GM ask me not to use slang and accents to keep things easier on him. I'm resisting the urge to assume you are an American overseas or an Aussie, solely based on your use of idioms, slang or vernacular ;)

Sorry, I did change the stuff on tides a bit. When you go to the beach, you don't usual go thinking about how many tides there are in a day. Or when I actually went to the beach. You see, there was a heat wave, and the decreased oxygen levels due to the ambient water temperature rising, coupled with the increased temperature put so much stress on the fish that they died. I found 50 dead fish on the beach one day. I've decided not to go to a beach for now.

I'm a Singaporean actually. Its a Fine City.

that would be enough to make me not go to the beach for a while, not that it's an issue, Lake Erie (about 75 miles or 120 km north of me) doesn't really have beaches. well it has beaches but not beaches

Singaporean, about ten years ago I took a class with a young man from Singapore, he was a college professor at OSU at the time, we were both taking the class for fun he spoke very highly of the city.

this week is an odd schedule, I work tonight so I'm going to sleep, I will check the boards a couple of times Sunday morning and early afternoon and then a lot after 11 pm Sunday and early Monday. It appears that we are presently 12 hours ahead/behind each other, at least until "Daylight saving time"

This is the Spike

Zzong, enjoy your daughters birthday party!

thanks ;)

Massive fastfoward, hope you don't mind. Also, you may use the Pathfinders Lodge as your base of operations for the duration of this adventure.

no happy with massive fast forward, and since it its available she will use the lodge ;) I am reading the ingame post but will have to leave for work I should respond in a couple of hours.

Working on a Sunday night is meh :(

it's ok, we do a three week rotation so I work two weekends and have the third weekend off. However the weekend I am off I am off Friday through Monday so I have four days instead of two. This was supposed to be my four day weekend but I am working for a fellow staff member who was given tickets to a NFL football game. I though it would be only kind to work for him so he could drive over to Pittsburg Pennsylvania to watch the "Steelers" play.

Peace binding usually occurs when Pathfinders bring weapons to a social occasion. Usually what they do to circumvent this is to get the party rogue to help them conceal their daggers.

Yes, pathfinders are a paranoid bunch, but not without reason. Some parties are wilder then others...

And yes, I enjoy poking fun at pathfinders =)

Well for the scene in the classroom, I always thought the first 10 secs of this track was apt.

I am on phone. You may look at the combat map, but please do not touch the black box. The two water bugs have been placed on the screen. They are not of appropriate size but unfortunately, phone manipulation of google maps is quite limited. Please help me resize them and put them side by side to the severed arm, marked by the X on the map.

Oh, one more thing :p Do you sleep?;)

Should you choose to fight in the pool, its DT to move, but the underwater combat rules will not apply. Won't be making you roll swim checks, just standard combat. In 20 min from this post, I'll be away from phone for 1.5h. Then I'll have comp access.

Oh, one more thing :p Do you sleep?;)

lol, umm yes, yes I do. So sometimes when I wake up I check the boards, that's when I accidently posted as RH instead of Valda ;(

This week is odd, and will be, I train 9-5 am Tuesday and then I'm off Wednesday since I worked Sunday. I won't be back on third till Thursday. I will be posting more Tuesday and Wednesday during the daylight hours, which means a little more sporadically.

I will adjust the size of the bugs and not move the box! Is it sad that I needed to check the pfsrd to make sure I knew what "DT" is?

ok, an hour and a half, that's enough time to get a post in...

This mod is a bit strange that I will be taking some creatures from 3.5 monster manual and some from pathfinder(basically if equivalent CR, use pathfinder version, not 3.5 version). If you wish, when the module is done I can show you where I got which creature.

Probably wise you chose to fight them out of water, since if you get knocked unconscious in the water, you drown. Again, for a solo game, if you get knocked unconscious, you're as good as dead, anyway.

It's like a certain gamebook:
"Your life and quest ends here."

unfortunately I need to go to bed, I will definitely post by 7:30 AM. If I wake up before then I will post then also. Sorry about the sporadic nature of my schedule this week!

Lolz :p

What you training as?

We do training every three weeks, this week it happens to be on "safe crisis management" that's basically a fancy way of saying "restraining someone" I work at a treatment facility for at-risk youth. So when I'm at work at night I'm basically watching teenage boys sleep. But we need a certain amount of hours of training every year to maintain our license.

Damage modifiers aren't quite right. Spear is 2 handed melee weapon. Your strength goes to 22, so using a 2 handed weapon is 1.5 times modifier. +9 for base. You used power attack, +6, total 1d8+9+6.Also, if base AC 21, once you rage, it drops by 2 to 19, no?

Do you learn martial arts to help you restrain people? How do you restrain people? When you mean at risk facility, do you mean suicidal or bad behaviour or both?

Also, sorry for confusion, the grapple to beat your CMD was very close. I needed to double check your raging cmd calculations. Turns out to be 23.

your right on the attack, I will adjust..

the base armor class is with the shield is 23, she wouldn't be using the shield with a spear. so base goes to 20 (+1 shield) then with the rage it would go to 18, if she was raging with the shield it would be 21.

We use hold techniques when we restrain to keep them from hurting themselves or others, our boys have bad behavior, some threaten self-harm but they are with us because of delinquency.

I will be back on in around four hours.

K because I was stealing off your stat block for your armour class.

PA damage is 1d8+6 +4 +1. Since you have more then 4 BAB, your 1 handed PA is at -2/+4. Also the -2 matters only if you are not hitting the bug grappling you, because when the bug grapples you, it gains the grappled condition as well, so its AC drops by 2. The attack penalty and AC even out for no net change in your case. If you were a dex-based fighter then it'd be a different story.

Yeouch. That's hard. I've never been much of a people person myself. Do you try to counsel them to turn over a new leaf?

Ok I will try remember, I thought I had it right

we have treatment councilors and therapy councilors what work with them, so some council to learn social skills some council to deal with specific issues; anger, addiction etc.

will be back on in about six hours.

Whats a day down there like? Or is it something you can't disclose due to confidentiality?

Something you might want to look into is about your spell component pouch. An oracle serves as his/her own divine focus. So generally most divine spells are fine(exceptions, spells requiring expensive components like restoration, you technically need the diamond dust, but I'm not going to be anal and insist on you having it, as long as you have equal value in gp, I'll allow the cast). However the problem is with the mystery spells.

Say, enlarge person - Components V, S, M (powdered iron)

Since it was taken from arcane spell list - there's no mention of divine focus. You could take the argument that since its casted as a divine spell, so it uses a divine focus, but its not stated in the spell itself, so some GMs might not go with that.

I'm not really going to fuss about it, but it might be something you might want to keep in mind for PFS play with its many table variations. You won't know if your next GM is going to be a prickly puss.

My usual day starts at 7 am, I usually up stay till 10-11pm at night. Tuesday was odd because I decided to wake up early for an early morning gym session. Weekends I wake around 8 -9 am, stay till midnight.

hhhmmm I need to check to see if I had her buy a spell pouch ;)

I will look into the "enlarge person" as the mystery spell and see what I can find, I would rather play by "The Rules" I just don't know a lot of them.

Thanks for the heads up on the divine focus and the components, right now I only play a slayer in pathfinder, and I mostly play melee and rogue types with a cleric or oracle here or there. I don't play any magicians now, I've only rolled up one and he is an elf ranger/magician who wants to be an eldritch knight. I don't like to play wizards, read to much Robert E. Howard as a kid.

schedule, I'm off Wednesday but I will be posting late since I will stay up late to get ready to go back to work.

Do they try to bully each other, start fights or things like that? How much interaction do you get with the boys?

People not knowing the rules is one thing. We all had to start somewhere, afterall. But you should try to know most common rules about your character. I.e, if you're a caster - what happens if you're silenced/grappled. People deliberately misreading the rules to benefit themselves gets my goat. Id throw a Core Rulebook at them, but I know that would fall under assault.

Say protection from evil - a spell both on divine and arcane spell lists
Components V, S, M/DF
There it clearly states that you use either materials(which you need spell component pouch/false focus/eschew materials), or you provide a Divine focus, which as an oracle, you easily fulfill. I will generally give all my spell casting characters a spell component pouch, if possible, just to avoid arguments with picky GMs.

I'm on the opposite spectrum. Keeping me away from magic is like putting an octopus out of water. Though as a lorekeeper, I (hope) I can play a melee class to an acceptable degree of proficiency(no rogues and paladins, I'm allergic-I break out in itches ;)). I'm more of a trickster when it comes to playstyle, and would rather have someone to do my dirty work for me.

They may try to bring in a negative culture at first but hurting or disrespecting others is not put up with. Staff interaction is constant, my interaction is limited because they sleep all but 15 minutes while I am there. If they wake up then I would interact with them, helping them take care of whatever-it-is so they can go to sleep.

I try to know the rules, don't really want to "bend them for my favor" I would have done that years ago when I played D&D in college, but now I like to play because of character personality and the story, bending the rules "to win" just doesn't matter.

interesting allergy!

My first character was a paladin, I've only played two on the boards here. I find I like Slayers a lot and then probably bloodragers, well those are the classes I play more, unless the GM wants core classes. Then it's rangers, rogues and the occasional barbarian.

Thank you. The rogue is poorly designed - you do decent damage only when you get to sneak, and tumbling to get sneaks, besides being risky, often gives monsters a chance to full round you. Combine that with light armour = splatted rogue.

Rogues also are supposed to be in front. With a poor fort and will save >.< Many monsters have paralyzing attacks based on fort/will. Doesn't really bode for long life expectancy.

As for paladins, its a waste of table time to argue your version of the paladin code with the GM. I find being unable to tell lies, extending mercy to all your enemies,no running from combat, being expected to help every Tom, Dick and Harry who asks for help too restrictive.

Some people don't deserve mercy, period.

And during the Holocaust, if there were Jews in your house, and the SS knocked at your door and asked if you if you offered the jews sanctuary, would you not lie to save their lives?

The no running from combat is totally stupid. Facing overwhelming odds just means you're going to die. How does your death help the world?

If a kid I didn't know was going to be knocked over by a car, I sure wouldn't be diving in to try to shove them out of the way and put myself in harms way.

That's why I have allergies.

Paladins in my games generally just need to be on the side of good. Good does not need to be nice, afterall. I don't really care how they do it, but as long as they don't wantonly slaughter stuff, I won't make them fall.

very rarely do I stick to the traditional code, I've read a couple articles on writing a Paladins code. If I'm playing with an old school GM who insists on the traditional code I play something else. The last paladin I played was Ala'Ihys a servant of Sarenrae. He was based on a combination of a couple Arabian figures from fiction that I liked. As part of his code I listed "Tell the truth in grace" I like finding ways to interpret truth as the character sees it. Anyway it always reminds me of this quote from the movie "Hook.'

Lol. I suppose I could twist the truth or tell part of the truth, but honestly, I never been very good at it. Actually, make it totally horrible (can't tell a lie for nuts). I've gotten a bit better at it now, though >.<

I work hard at telling the truth, used to lie a lot when I was a kid to keep out of trouble. The best lies are the ones close enough to the truth to put yourself out there a little. I like the military approach, "your on a need to know basis and you don't need to know!" I wish in society we could just say "That's a very impolite question and your not getting an answer" but it would never work here.

I like the "Fey" in the Dresdon Files" written by Jim Butcher, they cannot lie, so how they say things becomes very important.

Ok, guess I should go figure out what we are going to do in game!

Try tell kids or too curious people that. Yeah, read the Dresden files. Please don't tell me about the latest book, whatever it is, because it hasn't shown up at my library yet(I read only till Skin Game).

Kinda feel sorry for Molly and its sad that Word of God stated that it's the best possible outcome for Michael.

ok, mums the word on Dresden ;)

There is also a neat collection of short stories edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois called "Dangerous Woman" that has a short story about Molly, and other stories by some of my favorite modern writers.

Both great characters! On we go, I will stay up late tonight so I can sleep tomorrow and get back in the rhythm for third, so I'm going to go post now...

I've read Skin Game, so I'm actually fine talking shop. I hope the post wasn't too confusing as I think it looks more and more like a choose your own adventure book kind of thing.

If you get swept off by the water, you may look at the necropolis map, but please do not touch the black boxes.

made the acro check, so I read that post and climbed down. Haven't looked at the map yet, once I'm at the bottom of the tunnel can I look?

I liked the story in Skins Game, I like what happened to the sword when butters picked it up. I was surprised by the turn of events with Mr. grey and I'm glad that Harry and Karrin acknowledged their feelings for each other.

I'm glad you mentioned your library. When I wanted to read in the past I just purchased the book. Now working on third shift I read a lot more and have started to use our local library again. I cheat a little, my daughters live in Columbus, and I have them get books out of the Columbus library for me. It's much larger than our local library. I need to learn to check out books to read on my computer. Still fighting the whole electronics thing....

i'm running out of steam earlier than I thought, I will be back on in three or four hours and later Thursday morning,

Np np, give me more time to get this right because I had a post and I crashed and lost it :(

Tell me if there are problems with the tokens. I hope my luddite nature isn't getting in the way.