Exactly what it says on the tin.
I like the title. When you open gameplay can you please post a link to that in the other thread too?
Ditto on the title.
Also looking forward to this getting started. :)
Ready by Sunday at the latest.
I linked a city map in the campaign info, so it should show at the top of every page in this game, just above the Campaign Info tab. As we progress I'll be linking any additional maps up there.
I'm trying to have descriptions of most of the key map locations added to the campaign page sometime today, I just have to go through and perform some minor edits on them. I've noted the Vale home as location number 17 on the map (in SE corner of the city, number is in highlighter yellow).
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Also, feel free to begin play!
Of course the day I make the official opening gameplay post for a 6 module adventure path is the day they announce PF 2nd edition.
Campaign page updated with descriptions of Kenabres's districts and the locations noted on the map. Anyone with a rank in Knowledge (local) knows all the information presented. If you have no ranks in that skill, you will need to make a DC 15 check to know any information that is in the location descriptions.
Ten, it's presumed you failed said check in regards to the Tower of Estrod in your prologue bit.
I'm still relatively new to running PbP games, but there are some things I've started doing in my other game that I feel helps move play along that I'd like to do here as well. These include:
It helps me out a great deal if your character header includes your bonuses to initiative, Perception, and Sense Motive checks.
Also, if you're all cool with it, I'd like to roll your saves for you whenever possible. I know that as we progress you'll gain the ability to add bonuses to your saves a limited number of times per day at your discretion, which may put the kaibosh on this, but in PbP I find it kind of a waste of time to be waiting on a player to post their save so everyone can know the outcome and act accordingly. Not the end of the world if folks prefer to roll their own.
In my other game I've actually implemented a different system for saving throws that has worked for us so far, but is a more drastic change - details are spoilered below if you'd like to look. I know most players like to have as much control over how they use their character's abilities as possible, so I don't at all expect we'd have a unanimous agreement to use this alternate method.
So, by way of an example: Let's say an enemy casts sleep on Auric, who would then make a Will save at +2 against DC 12 to resist the effect. In the alternate method, the enemy would instead make a check at +2 (the spell's normal DC 12 - 10) against Auric's Will DC 13 (11 + the his normal Will save bonus of 2). This speeds things up as it allows both me (enemies and NPCs) and other players to post reactions without having to wait for Auric to post up a saving throw roll or resorting to if/then chains.
For abilities that allow PCs to add a bonus to saves at their discretion, we have sacrificed some of the flexibility these abilities afford for the sake of streamlining play. If an ability grants a random bonus it instead grants a static bonus equal to 1/2 + 1 of the usual randomized amount (so +4 instead of 1d6). I then automatically apply the ability to boost their DC if it would result in them successfully resisting the effect. So, in the above example, if Auric had a use of mythic surge (+1d6) and the enemy had beat his Will DC by less than 4, I would automatically apply it to boost his Will DC to 17 and the effect would fail.
Overall this system sacrifices some player options/flexibility for the sake of expediency.
I'm in favor of options that streamline the flow of combat, and use several of these myself. I am a little concerned about the saves, though. You (GM) have to be really on top of what our saves actually are for it to speed things up instead of slowing them down. For example... in your example my Will save vs sleep is actually +5 because I use Cha instead of Wis for saves against charms and compulsions. So, whether you rolled it for me or used it to set my defense there's about a 1/3 chance we'd have to retcon something (15% that you used mythic power when I didn't need to, plus 15% that you proceeded as if I failed when I should have succeeded).
Those modifications seem fine to me
I don't see anything that should be an issue for me personally.
On another note, I'm getting a feel for Astra, so she may be a little inconsistent for a little while.
@Auric: Yeah, I'd need to stay on top of saves. My original "example" was a confusing "Astra casts color spray on Auric" scenario, and when I revised I didn't re-check all the save/spell info, which basically proves your point. If we decided to have me roll saves I would put a spoiler on the campaign page with everyone's saving throw details so that I had them all in one place and you guys could review for accuracy.
@Astra: No worries - I think that's to be expected for all new characters :)
I have a free moment, so I thought I'd throw up a post with some more thoughts on my usual GMing style.
First off, I like fluff. I'm in gaming to participate in creating great stories with other people, so most of my GMing style revolves around that. I do, however, also like to follow the rules, so that all participants are working with the same set of tools to tell their story.
I'm all about verisimilitude. I like the plots, characters, and settings of my games to make sense and follow an internal logic.
In table top games I tend to dislike laconic, wallflower, and/or loner-type PCs. However, in PbP, I think such characters can shine as long as the player takes advantage of the ability to describe their character's thoughts, feelings, and motivations out of character; ie not through dialogue but through internal monologue or their narrative.
I really don't like ret-conning action. Really, really don't like it. 99.9% of the time if we discover we've been doing something wrong I greatly prefer to leave the past as the past and fix it going forward. While this may at times conflict somewhat with my love of verisimilitude, if necessary I find it preferable to come up with an explanation for the sudden change rather than re-writing history.
I tend to use separate aliases for major NPCs. I've given up on trying to curtail my alias count, and so far I've found using separate aliases for major NPCs a) makes it clearer who's doing and saying what, and b) provides a nice meta-clue to players which NPCs have something important to offer (for good or for ill) versus being some tertiary or spur-of-the-moment schlepp who's little more than their one-line description and canned dialogue. This isn't to say that players have to explore an aliased NPC if they aren't motivated to do so, nor that an un-aliased NPC might not rise in importance through play and earn their own alias. I've just spent many an hour at tabletop games where everyone wasted a lot of time obsessively pursuing dead ends, and see this as a way of curtailing that a bit before having to resort to stating 'this npc has nothing more to offer you, please move along.'
I generally like to keep dice rolls in spoilers, so that gameplay reads like a narrative rather than a set of narrated math problems. I often use a 'Behind the Scene' spoiler where I put all the mechanics - dice rolls, an action economy breakdown, and clarification of whatever abilities/spells/effects are being used.
Overall I think I'm pretty good at going with the flow and accommodating players. I think my 2 major flaws as a GM, which I'm actively trying to overcome, are trying to make everything perfect and going for too slow a burn/build for plot arcs, such that by the time events come to fruition the players have sort of forgotten their original set up. (The old "Don't you guys remember that mysterious note scrawled on the dungeon wall 10 sessions ago, and the strange dagger you got from the inscrutable riddle-witch three sessions after that?" and receiving blank-faced, 'you-gotta-be-kidding-me' stares from players.) I've pretty much exclusively run homebrew adventures for the past 20+ years, and hope that using a pre-made module (albeit with some meddlesome editing on my part) will help in both these areas.
@Luna: Having spent the majority of last Friday through this past Monday home sick sleeping, you have my sympathy.
I like the idea of spoilering the rolls, but it's not something I have done before, so bear with me if I forget.
@nate: FYI I'm not worried about rushing gameplay along, I just want to make sure I post when I have the opportunity so that I don't stall you folks.
I remember the note from 10 sessions ago.
Also, I do those long setups as a player too, lol. My character in one game (Teldon) bought a stack of papers and a bunch of charcoal sticks so that 6-8 RL months later (when we got in game down time) I could take 20 to draw something for another character. He also bought a potion of speak with animals specifically to be able to talk to her cat if he upset her (which didn’t come up for probably more than a year).
I’m also a huge fan of verisimilitude- it’s the number one thing I look for when I run recruitments, and my number one goal when making and playing characters. I’m not used to spoilering dice rolls but I’ll do my best to remember.
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Ugh......fine.....I'll look up verisimilitude already. ......
@Luna: Oh man. I'm sorry you felt that bad. I hope you're over whatever bug you had.
@GM: Oh boy. I think you're going to like Astra then. I imagine there are a number of noodle incidents she has been involved in.
@Ten: Ah, one of the nice things about having a Mac. I can highlight the word and bring up the context menu to look up something I don't know.
Of course, if you hate wrinkly brains, you may not want to look it up. :P
Have we talked about a target rate for posting for this game? I don't really have a preference, but it will help my mental state if I get an idea of expectations.
Wow! It looks like you folks were busy over the weekend!
As for posting rate, my thoughts were leaning towards a goal of 1 post a day every weekday, more if we're able. I'm usually busier with RL on weekends than I am on weekdays.
Let me know when you're all done getting acquainted and I'll move gameplay along :)
That sounds great. I'm in the same boat, especially during summer.
Posting rate works for me. I'm kinda limited as to when I can post weekdays, so I tend to be more active on the weekends if something's going on.
I do most of my posting from my phone, and whenever I'm bored with what's going on around me (which is a lot, thanks to my ADD) I hop on and check the boards... so, once a day shouldn't be an issue at all, except for those fairly rare times when I'm overwhelmed with work and school and other RL stuff. I'll try not to overpost too.
Poor Auric. He should have known that this was going to happen. :D
Lol- getting into trouble was pretty much unavoidable, he was just hoping it might take a little longer, and maybe not involve armed men who actually sort of have some authority...
Alas, poor Auric. I knew him, Horatio....
I won't have a gameplay update until later tonight, but I just wanted to pop in and say that with Auric's Intimidate check this guy would be pretty much be doing whatever you say even if he was 100% in the right :)
I wanted to assist to try to give him +4, but honestly, Ten is just like 'holy crap'
Did that clear it?
I'll have a gameplay update sometime today, was stuck at work all day and some of the night yesterday.
@Nate: Try marking the campaign as inactive.
@Da GM: no worries. :)
Sorry folks, just got home from dinner after work and am going to crash for 8 hours, after which I intend to brew myself a cup of coffee. With the aid of that hot panacea I will write up a gameplay post that isn't the garbage I'd produce right now.
@Adam- I was trying to avoid that... I was hoping to be able to use the thread for other discussions in the future. Won’t it drop you if you stay marked inactive? Anyone know how long that takes?
I just figured you could reactivate it when needed.
I think it'll drop after three months of not posting. At least that's what I've seen before. Not positive on that though.
Assuming I fail this (which is statistically likely) I won’t have anything more to post right now... so, rather than drop a roll with nothing else in gameplay I’m making it here.