Congratulations to those that made the cut. Go ahead and report in here to let me know you're present and ready. Going to be very informal for the moment, but once we get things squared away here we will begin the game in earnest.
Having said that, I would like everyone to acquaint themselves with each other and everyone else's character sheets. Make any final changes you wish before the game begins, and feel free to discuss options and ideas with one another. Also be thinking about how much your characters would know about one another as well as any sort of connections or bonds they could have formed. You are all living in Trunau, some longer than others, so most of you are bound to have at least some idea about the other PCs. Whether it's a positive or negative impression is entirely up to you.
Gameplay post won't be ready right away, but you guys can go ahead and make an OOC post if you'd like.
Finally, I'll go through and do one final character crunch sweep. I looked over them during the recruitment reviews, but I didn't really give them a fine comb treatment. I had intended to scale the stats of PCs who had rolled poorly up to a 10 point-buy, but I think everyone here either elected to take the 15-point or rolled above that threshold. Just to let you know I'm not that merciless, hah!
Checking in, and ready whenever the rest of us are.
I agree with bossman here that those of us with histories in Trunau should converse about what we would know about each other, as it's not that big of a town and surely we at least know something about one another.
I've somehow broken the Gameplay thread as well, it would seem. We'll see if that can get resolved.
Yo! I'm here. Thanks for the pick, Brimley :)
I'll say Grafelda has been in town about two years now. Anyone involved with arcane magic or the militia would know her. She works for Agrit in the magic shop and when she's not doing that volunteers for the militia. She's pretty weird, and doesn't like to talk about her past. She's also very masculine, takes no shit from anyone. She's probably a lesbian, but no one's really sure. What is for sure is that she's tough as nails and likes to bite people when fighting. She can also do some kind of magic, but she usually keeps that to herself as well.
Checking in, and excited to be taking part!
I can see Tharok knowing and being on friendly terms with all the PC's from Trunau, though his long absences as he spends months on the plains and in the Mindspin Mountains might prevent him from growing particularly close to anybody.
Of the group, I imagine he might be fondest of Qytheerah, given her combination of friendliness, earnestness and devout nature.
I can see Tharok and Arctorus having a tumultuous past friendship that lasted while the half orc was growing up. Sparring, getting in trouble, and being basically rebellious teens. This would have most likely ended or grown once Tharok returned from his disastrous trip north and decided to become a serious member of the community.
Grafelda and Tharok would share a natural affinity due to their half orc heritage, but her strange ways, gruff demeanor and magical side would also keep him at arm's length.
Tharok would probably remain distant from Morgder until he learned of the dwarf's time spent in the mountains, upon which the half orc would begin asking him numerous questions, and perhaps even consulting with him before heading out on his trips.
Let me know if these ideas work, and I'm happy to change them.
Greetings all! Thanks for the selection!
I knew Skrioth was a long shot from the start, but I figured I would swing for the fences and hope it worked out.
A quick admin note for you guys. The GM had reservations about the actual tail, so we agreed on a swift action for her to change from fins to legs or legs to fins, so she presents as a bronze skinned red headed elf girl, with a holy symbol of a dwarf fire God.
I'll get my mini stat bars and quick dice links later this weekend or Monday.
With that said I'm gtg to start any time.
I would say I've not been in Trunau for long, gods are notorious about "just in time delivery" for their heroes.
Some general notes on your character sheets:
I will also be asking everyone to keep a status bar up-to-date. You can copy-paste this. . .
HP: xx/xx | Daily Ability: x/x [spoiler=Stats}(AC xx, T xx, FF xx) | CMD xx | Fort +x, Ref +x, Will +x | Init +x | Percept +x[/spoiler}
. . .in your profile if you'd like. Doesn't have to be exactly the same, so long as all of the information is there for me to see. The Daily Ability portion refers to limited, important abilities. Like a Brawler's Martial Maneuvers class feature, or a Bard's Bardic Performance class feature. You don't have to list every single ability you acquire on this line, just the important ones you use frequently. Be sure to include situational modifiers as well (I'll forget to apply them otherwise).
Hi guys!
Been skimming through the backgrounds to get a general idea of each character's role and tone; as of now, I've carefully read Phil Tucker's and Jelani's submissions () and I envision Qytheerah reciprocating Tharok's friendship, probably anxiously waiting for his returns to hear the stories from the world beyond Trunau's walls.
Grafelda, though, she's probably a bit intimidated by. Both training with Trunau's militia, they're likely to have had the chance to spar in the Commons from time to time, where she witnessed the half-orc's superior stamina and ferocity first-hand. As a consequence, she might have developed some sort of respect mixed with fear towards the gruff witch, leading her to act in an unassuming fashion every time the scarred refugee's around.
Every time Tharok returns from abroad, he first visits his mother Halgra, drops off what game and provisions he's brought back, then heads over to the Ramblehouse for a heaping plate of Cham's home cooked food. I could easily imagine an informal tradition of Qytheera and Morgdeh joining him for these welcome-back meals, as well as a couple of his favorite siblings, to hear of his latest adventures in the Mindspin Mountains. And for them to catch him up on the latest in Trunau!
Looks like you shorted yourself 1 point on your point-buy, Qyth. You've got 14 points currently. Think the only place you can stick it currently is Dex without changing other scores around.
Oh! Almost forgot. . .
: If you can hit your target DC on a Take 10, you can pay the crafting price (1/3) for your gear instead of full list price. So, in Qytheerah's case, she could make anything lower than a Crafting DC 16 for 1/3 cost.
Did I? Oh – that must be because, for lack of an official ruling, I considered a 7 as bestowing only 3 extra points instead of 4. That would go to DEX, yes. At this point, if I could go back to the drawing board, I would then move a point of CON and place it on DEX as well; though ONLY with your permission (and please be assured I'd be totally cool with you not being okay with that – that's the character you recruited, after all, and you have every right not to see it altered in any way once selected).
And nice to hear about pre-game crafting! That would do wonders to offset her unlucky gp roll. Only good news today it would seem.
I've got so little stuff that encumbrance is the least of my worries, but I've got Hero Lab tracking it! My armor will likely be my movement limiter for the most part.
I swapped spark in for create water. Seemed more appropriate for the character. I'll repost her stats later.
So we've got:
TN Female Half Orc Witch (witch doctor)
LN Male human Bloodrager
CG Male Half Orc Ranger
CG Male Dwarf Barbarian
LG Female Aasimar Battle Oracle
NG Female, "Elf" Flame Oracle
Not a bad group!
I'm guessing the Bloodrager and the Barbarian will be the front line. Either of the Oracles, especially the Oracle of Battle (not me) can step in and melee if needed. The Ranger, I'm hoping is ranged? And of course the Ranger can probably switch hit if needed. The Witch might be our squishiest character, but that particular witch has nothing soft about her.
Only the human fails in the darkvision department. We will not be able to fix that with spells, so maybe a magic item at some point.
Q, we'll need to sync our spell lists as we grow older, so as to not double duty on utility spells, probably even counting on Grafelda to account for many utility spells as a spell book caster.
Be advised, I am a clouded vision oracle, so while I have darkvision out to 30', I'm blind beyond that.
I intend to wield a reach weapon and take AOOs whenever I can get them, backing up the front liners.
Every time Tharok returns from abroad, he first visits his mother Halgra, drops off what game and provisions he's brought back, then heads over to the Ramblehouse for a heaping plate of Cham's home cooked food. I could easily imagine an informal tradition of Qytheera and Morgdeh joining him for these welcome-back meals, as well as a couple of his favorite siblings, to hear of his latest adventures in the Mindspin Mountains. And for them to catch him up on the latest in Trunau!
I like this idea very much. A small club of young warriors meeting at the Ramblehouse to discuss events and make plans. Here's to us!
I'm guessing the Bloodrager and the Barbarian will be the front line. Either of the Oracles, especially the Oracle of Battle (not me) can step in and melee if needed. The Ranger, I'm hoping is ranged? And of course the Ranger can probably switch hit if needed. The Witch might be our squishiest character, but that particular witch has nothing soft about her.
Indeed. Also, with three character having access to curative spells, even without a full cleric we should be durable enough. In what I'm starting to realize might be a leitmotif of my campaigns here, we lack a true 'skill' PC. Let's hope those giants aren't too keen on traps.
Only the human fails in the darkvision department. We will not be able to fix that with spells, so maybe a magic item at some point.
Well, he'll get it when raging once he makes it to 16th level .
Q, we'll need to sync our spell lists as we grow older, so as to not double duty on utility spells, probably even counting on Grafelda to account for many utility spells as a spell book caster.
Oracle's spells are few and precious, agreed. I think I'll mostly focus on buffs, both for me and the other front-liners, leaving you as our main blaster. And yes, utility spells are absolutely best left to pure Vancian casters if at all possible.
Luckily my mystery will grant me some pretty good blastiness, so I can use my chosen spells for other things. My fireball will be better than most sorcerers, when you add in the benefits of the flame mystery's burning magic
The Ranger, I'm hoping is ranged? And of course the Ranger can probably switch hit if needed.
Indeed. Tharok is a switch hitter, but with an emphasis on the bow.
Now that I've read about everybody's character a bit more in-depth, I feel confident to say that Qytheerah surely knows about Arctorus (if not for the fact that a hulking half-dragon has a hard time remaining unnoticed for long, especially in a small community such as Trunau), but after witnessing him provoking and subsequently beating up one too many trouble-makers, she probably decided the wisest course of actions would be to give him a wide berth. Even as a 6' 1" reasonably fit Shoanti warrioress, she knows a foe that could easily mop the floor with her when she sees one.
I'm fine with having Skrioth a late arrival in Trunau. Let's start with a blank slate and see where it leads. Though, from what I've read in her description and responses to Brimley's scenarios, I'm willing to bet they'll get along very well.
I now want to revise Qyth's stance about Grafelda a bit. Partly because I might have misinterpreted some of her personality (I now don't really think she can be labeled as 'ferocious'), and partly because I've just realized I've put a rank in Spellcraft without ever mentioning her getting a proper instruction in that regard, I was thinking that Sarah Morninghawk, her boss at Clamor, upon witnessing her apprentice's blossoming magical abilities might have put a good word with Agrit Staginsdar, her partner and Grafelda's 'mentor' of sorts, to at least give Qytheerah a basic instruction about the fundamentals of magic. So if not friends, she and the half-orc could still be acquaintances, with Qytheerah trying to at least establish some sort of connection while at the same time still be a bit intimidated by the scarred witch's feral appearance and gruff demeanor.
Of course, all of these are just suggestions. If you feel I misinterpreted your character's motivations, or you simply had different ideas to develop their stories, just let me know ;)
I too have been reading up on the others, only one to go.
Morgder's eyes areis a pale green.
There, I fixed that for you.
I'm very excited to get to play in this AP, thanks for picking me!
Morgder has very recently come to Trunau. As in, probably within the last few days he just woke up from his thrashing. He only knows Helena in the town, but it's entirely possible to have heard about the dwarf who tried to fight a giant toe-to-toe. Some might see him as brave. Some might see him as suicidally stupid. Either way, that one act may have earned him a little renown in the town.
Mark down item weights and keep track of your load.
Separate skills into individual lines and denote ranks and modifiers (so I can find relevant stuff quickly). Greatly prefer bullet-listings for skills myself, as it's readily apparent with a quick glance.
If you have special abilities, particularly those gained from a Class, list it on your profile. You can keep it in a spoiler if you'd like, or add it somewhere in your stat-block directly. I generally copy & paste an ability wholesale on my own sheets. This will save me from having to comb through the SRD every time you're activating something I'm not familiar with (or have forgotten).
Not to brag, but I have created a character creation guide for formatting characters on the board. My character sheet is a good example for what Brimleydower wants.
~
Skrioth, I would be interested in knowing more about this dwarf fire god you worship.
I'm guessing the Bloodrager and the Barbarian will be the front line.
Correct.
Only the human fails in the darkvision department. We will not be able to fix that with spells
Why not? Light cantrip fixes that pretty easily.
Morgder's eyeThere, I fixed that for you.s areis a pale green.
Haha good catch!
Skrioth, I would be interested in knowing more about this dwarf fire god you worship.
Me too, you will note the absolute lack of Knowledge skills on her. She's been called, but she knows nothing about him.
Only the human fails in the darkvision department. We will not be able to fix that with spellsWhy not? Light cantrip fixes that pretty easily
Weak eyed humans, why are there so many of them? Seems silly to announce our presence like that!
Morgder has very recently come to Trunau. As in, probably within the last few days he just woke up from his thrashing. He only knows Helena in the town, but it's entirely possible to have heard about the dwarf who tried to fight a giant toe-to-toe. Some might see him as brave. Some might see him as suicidally stupid. Either way, that one act may have earned him a little renown in the town.
So it would seem that Qytheerah and Tharok meet without Morgder at the Ramblehouse. Either way, Tharok would be curious about this suicidally brave dwarf, and would probably look for an opportunity to speak with him and learn what Morgder knows of the lands beyond Trunau's walls.
Skrioth, not even knowing about inns and taverns, would, presumably still have ended up at a gathering place within Trunau, the Ramblehouse is as good as any.
Hey now! I have low light vision!
I just started a 5 night stretch at work, but I will add in depth input here as soon as I can.
Still no word on the Gameplay Thread issue. If it isn't resolved in short order I'll just create a new game and we'll migrate over to that location. I'll go ahead and start getting the Roll20 page setup in the meantime. After I do that, and after everyone signs in and gets their account squared away there, we'll see to getting things started. Sunday night is my weekly table game, so you can expect little to no GM activity on that day of any given week. Tomorrow will be a limited exception, in that I want to get this game kicked off proper-like.
On Darkvision: It's always awesome to have, but given the purview of the game (giants, giants, GIANTS!) I don't foresee one person with low-light vision being at a noteworthy disadvantage. Then again, I've only the first book so far—for all I know it's 100% caves and dungeons after Trunau.
On Combat, Format, Posting: Beyond tinkering in Roll20, I'm also working on getting a list of guidelines that will go up on the main Campaign Info tab. I doubt much of it will be new ground for most here, but there will likely be a few personal preferences I've collected during my time on the boards that deviate a little. For the most part, they are things required of me in past games that I've grown to prefer.
On Grimdark: I'm not going to be doing any drastic changes to the ruleset or crazy house rules to accommodate the thematic elements I want instilled in the game, except for one: Injuries.
- Hit points are not exclusively meat points. When an orc successfully hits and deals damage with a falchion, it doesn't mean the orc has sliced open their opponent. There might be superficial wounds—shallow cuts and the like—but until you reach zero hit points, you will not have sustained worthwhile injury.
I'm going to be be borrowing the injury tables from Savage Worlds for this, as I am not really a fan of the Wounds & Vigor variant in Ultimate Combat. After a player goes Down, they have finally sustained a legitimate injury. The nature and severity of this injury is going to depend on both a roll on a random table (fun for me!) and the amount of damage that brought the character down. At this point, the character is allowed a Fortitude Save against the damage dealt to determine one of three outcomes: no injury, temporary injury, or permanent injury.
Worth noting, it will only be the attack that dropped the character that is tallied against the Fort Save. So, if a giant has three iterative attacks, and deals 28, 22, and 24 damage on its respective attacks—and assuming the last attack (24) is the blow that dropped the character—it would only be the last attack that is considered against the Fort Save (as opposed to tallying all 74 damage to calculate the DC).
I'm not 100% on how I'm going to calculate the DC at the moment. So far, I'm leaning towards 5 + 1/2 of the damage dealt. A success results in no injury, a failure results in a temporary injury, and failing by 10+ results in a permanent injury.
Beyond the introduction of injuries, I'm just going to be playing it grim and gruesome with scenery and write-ups. Things will probably be a little more somber overall than they were intended. Hopefully that translates into the gameplay well.
Now. . . are there any specific questions you all have for me?
All seems to make sense. No questions here Brimleydower. I like the gruesome, dark games.
Grafelda is ready to hex people and bite their throats out.
Everything's clear Brimley. The quadratic progression of damage over level (especially considering the nature of our foes, who perhaps don't hit as often, but when they do, they hit hard) might make this mechanic a bit more punishing at higher levels, but once we get there we will probably have access to such spells as heal and regenerate to mitigate its impact. Hopefully.
Swapped the greataxe and studded leather for a falchion and a set of lamellar armor (leather) (45gp => 135gp/3=45gp, so no change here). I've also picked up an oracle's kit for free, it that doesn't sit well with you just tell me and I'll see what I can afford (I'd be 5 gp short). Other than that, packed up and ready to go. Just going to repost this in case you missed it earlier...
Looks like you shorted yourself 1 point on your point-buy, Qyth. You've got 14 points currently. Think the only place you can stick it currently is Dex without changing other scores around.Did I? Oh – that must be because, for lack of an official ruling, I considered a 7 as bestowing only 3 extra points instead of 4. That would go to DEX, yes. At this point, if I could go back to the drawing board, I would then move a point of CON and place it on DEX as well; though ONLY with your permission (and please be assured I'd be totally cool with you not being okay with that – that's the character you recruited, after all, and you have every right not to see it altered in any way once selected).
One last disclaimer if I haven't brought it up earlier: I live in GMT+1 (continental Europe), so I probably won't be all that active during EST evening hours. It has never been a problem before and I don't think it'll start now, though. Only thought I should mention it for sake of completeness.
Ok guys. Let's start this thing.
I'm going to allow Toughness and Diehard to have an impact on the Injury Table rolls. Toughness will likely provide a flat +5 bonus (on top of the usual hit point gains) while Diehard will allow you to roll twice and take the better roll. Gives a little more oomph to those feats that could probably use it, I think.
I'm fine with small rebuilds. You can redistribute your ability scores a little if you'd like, redistribute skills or feats, etc. So long as the overall character concept isn't damaged or altered, it's fine.
Timezone won't be an issue. We're just using Roll20 for ease-of-use in combat (maps, tokens, tracking, etc.) and won't be attempting any live session games.
Everyone feel free to shuffle on over to the Roll20 page too, by the way. Get your account setup, and I'll see about getting your icons set up. The link is in the Campaign's Short Description (you should see a Giantslayer Roll20 link beneath the campaign name in your Campaigns Tab now -- also at the top of this page).
Thanks!
Nice icons!
Indeed, Skrioth is perfect. Long sexy legs, red hair, and a reach weapon. Sure, it's not a boarding pike, but it'll do.
How do I change the green and white checked icon to be the same one?
Your google-fu is strong indeed, Brimley. While I on the other hand have tried tinkering with the roll20 page and only managed to create a second token of my character which I'm unable to delete. D'oh.
Nice work with the injury mechanics by the way. Being knocked unconscious is one thing, but suddenly having a limb bending in ways it shouldn't or a hole in your abdomen really drives the point home as far as grittiness is concerned. Let's see if I understood it correctly, by the way: a temporary injury lasts until the character is brought back to full hp, while a permanent one can only be cured by means of a heal spell? Or even regenerate, depending if the body part was chopped off or simply damaged?
Well, we won't have Heal and Regenerate for some time.
I'm going to allow Toughness and Diehard to have an impact on the Injury Table rolls. Toughness will likely provide a flat +5 bonus (on top of the usual hit point gains) while Diehard will allow you to roll twice and take the better roll. Gives a little more oomph to those feats that could probably use it, I think.
Ah what a shame, those feats are thematically appropriate for me but I can't really afford to use up the feat slots on them.
Get your account setup, and I'll see about getting your icons set up.
Set up under my character's name.
I was fiddling with the aura tool on Roll20. It doesn't do things the "Pathfinder Way" per se. It doesn't originate at a corner, ands up giving a 10' effect I to a 25'x25' square.
Oooh I like the idea with the injuries, Brimley. I might snatch that idea for my next campaign!
..also don't mind me, just lurking. I was one of Brimley's past acquaintences that almost got in, but I was particularly busy and couldn't get a char up in time (Although I would have if Brimley gave me till the 25th :P)
I was fiddling with the aura tool on Roll20. It doesn't do things the "Pathfinder Way" per se. It doesn't originate at a corner, ands up giving a 10' effect I to a 25'x25' square.
Not sure what you mean, they appear to be working fine for me...
They work fine counting from the center of the character, but they don't properly template an aura, or effect given how Pathfinder templates such things.
So just make it 5' bigger than it's supposed to be, and circular? That would fix it right?
I've never played PF or D&D in 15 years with aura's leaving out the square of the person in the middle either. Weird.
I'm not sure why the templates are centered on a grid corner instead of a square. Creatures and objects don't occupy grid corners—they occupy squares. At any rate, the range adds up w/ the Roll20 centered circle. Any space that falls within 10 ft' of the aura is in range, while any that surpass are without. Even if it ends up not being completely RAW, it is what we'll run with for simplicity's sake.
Altered the Injury rules a bit. The Fort DC is now equal to half of the damage received, rather than 5 + half of damage received.
Gameplay Thread still hasn't been fixed. I'm going to go ahead and pre-type up something to have it ready to go. Will migrate over to a new game if it isn't resolved shortly.
Swapped the greataxe and studded leather for a falchion and a set of lamellar armor (leather) (45gp => 135gp/3=45gp, so no change here). I've also picked up an oracle's kit for free, it that doesn't sit well with you just tell me and I'll see what I can afford (I'd be 5 gp short).
Everyone gets a free outfit, but the Oracle's kit will cost money I'm afraid. You can buy most of the stuff inside the kit individually though and just pass over the extra stuff that doesn't see much use.
Gameplay's still fubar. Migrating and posting now. I'll leave this thread open for a week and just pointing to the new one, then set it inactive.
In the meantime. . .