AS here again. Alright, I've gotten the crunch and fluff of my character figured out; it's in the alias profile. C D, I hope you don't mind but I kind of arbitrarily decided/assumed a couple things about the setting.
1. There's a college of magic in Silverkeep.
2. Spellcasters view wordcasting as an archaic form of magic that's not really worth studying.
If either of these is a problem, let me know and I'll do my best to change my character's background. Though I admit that, at the moment, I haven't the faintest idea how I would.
I am utterly shocked and offended by both of these assertions.
:P
AS here again. Alright, I've gotten the crunch and fluff of my character figured out; it's in the alias profile. C D, I hope you don't mind but I kind of arbitrarily decided/assumed a couple things about the setting.
1. There's a college of magic in Silverkeep.
2. Spellcasters view wordcasting as an archaic form of magic that's not really worth studying.
If either of these is a problem, let me know and I'll do my best to change my character's background. Though I admit that, at the moment, I haven't the faintest idea how I would.I am utterly shocked and offended by both of these assertions.
:P
Quit being a troll. Thank you much.
It looks like NM might be joining us as well. I've sent copies of the relevant documents to him, and he should have a character up and running soon.
IL, I still need your character sheet.
The last setting document should be coming out tonight sometime. It shouldn't necessitate any changes to characters, as it merely serves to flesh out the world in which you'll be playing. In addition, if you look at my aliases, you can find profiles of several important people in and around Silverkeep.
Hey guys,
Sorry that took me so long. Turns out im a druid/fighter who loves him some fire. So stoked to play this!
I'm excited that you could join us! Looking forward to your fire lovin' character.
2 Things:
1. You should organize your backstory/traits/feats/skills/equipment in your profile using the spoiler tags. Look at some of our profiles for reference.
2. Your dwarf is 37? This means that he has not even reached adulthood yet. The adulthood age of a dwarf is 40, and the suggested starting age for a dwarf druid is 40+7d6 years. This may be intentional, and if it is, go for it, but if it isn't, then you may want to reconsider.
Latest google doc shared with you all - an overview of the main players in the politics of Silverkeep.
Baldor's backstory is not inconsistent with being underage for a dwarf, so I'm okay with that choice. If it so happens that the party has a pyromaniac teenage dwarf as one of their number, so be it.
Also, is your character's name Baldor or Bardol? You're very inconsistent with your spelling in your backstory.
Okay everyone, we're almost ready. We're just waiting for NM to create his character and for folks to finish updating their profiles. At this point, please look over your profiles and make sure your math is correct. I'll create the game thread and we'll be up and rolling by noon on Monday.
sounds good
Yeah, let's get this started. I want to stab an orc in the face!
Yeah, let's get this started. I want to stab an orc in the face!
I WANNA SHOOT SOMETHING!!!
It's also very possible that I have mono right now. I get my blood test results back tomorrow to confirm that. In either case, I feel like s~$& and will have plenty of time to stare at my monitor and pretend to be someone who has immunity to disease.
Yeah, let's get this started. I want to stab an orc in the face!I WANNA SHOOT SOMETHING!!!
It's also very possible that I have mono right now. I get my blood test results back tomorrow to confirm that. In either case, I feel like s%%@ and will have plenty of time to stare at my monitor and pretend to be someone who has immunity to disease.
Also, any word from NM or RL?
Hello Everyone! NM here. I don't have internet at home, so I've been a little delayed in setting everything up. I should be ready for play time this evening, so Monday at noon works well for me. I'll only be able to post after I'm done in the lab for the day, so you can expect my daily posts to be between 5 and 6.
More to follow!
Hello Everyone! NM here. I don't have internet at home, so I've been a little delayed in setting everything up. I should be ready for play time this evening, so Monday at noon works well for me. I'll only be able to post after I'm done in the lab for the day, so you can expect my daily posts to be between 5 and 6.
More to follow!
Glad to hear you're on board, Jagar. I need a copy of your character sheet and backstory.
I have not heard back from RL, so we will carry on without him for the time being or until one of us hears from him.
It's also very possible that I have mono right now. I get my blood test results back tomorrow to confirm that. In either case, I feel like s@&% and will have plenty of time to stare at my monitor and pretend to be someone who has immunity to disease.
Ugh, good luck with that man.
And NM, please post your stats and a character description in your alias profile. Take a look at any of ours for examples.
Looking forward to getting this started.
IC thread is up! Feel free to commence with the roleplaying. The thread can be found here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/playByPost/dMCDsUnres tInAtlus&page=1#1
As a head's up, I'll be out of town until tomorrow evening, likely without internet. So any questions you have here may have to wait until then. In the meantime, happy roleplaying!
Also, 250 points for anyone who can correctly identify the reference in the first post! Please put your answer in spoiler tags. The points don't matter, but they're fun to tally!
Tally of Points: (Also Post #69)
Caladrius: 250
Pygrado: 250
Gareth: 9001 (For starting the point tally despite missing the reference)
I'll keep this updated!
Tally of Points: (Also Post #69)
** spoiler omitted **
I'll keep this updated!
The reference was in fact to the linked comic, but I'm prepared to accept the basic reference. My wording was unclear. As a general note, I will announce references in this thread, and you have 24 hours to identify it.
In that case, I'll give Caladrius half points, and Pygrado full points.
In that case, I'll give Caladrius half points, and Pygrado full points.
No, give him full points. It was my fault that the reference wasn't quite clear. Also, while I appreciate the reference (below), give yourself 250 points instead of 9001. We need to keep things fair, after all!
Just a note to Baldor that you may want to pick a picture for your character. It'll help us remember who you are. Paizo has a library of pictures that you have to pick from, but it's quite extensive. I recommend sorting by most used.
Updated Tally! (Because apparently you can't edit posts after some amount of time)
Gareth: 250 points
Caladrius: 250 points
Pygrado: 250 points
DM CD: 250 points (as requested by Pygrado)
Rolling a d percentile for what percentage I am that is awesome:
Updated Tally! (Because apparently you can't edit posts after some amount of time)
** spoiler omitted **
Rolling a d percentile for what percentage I am that is awesome:
1d100
You have 1 hour to edit your posts. The purpose of this restriction is to prevent people from needing to reread older posts in a thread because those may have been edited.
Who are we waiting on to introduce themselves in the thread? NM?
Who are we waiting on to introduce themselves in the thread? NM?
Yep. I'll post the king's speech tomorrow.
Right, IL has dropped out. He's apparently rather busy, so let's move this game along.
Yes, gunpowder exists in this world. It is still in a crude stage, mostly used for fireworks and mining charges. Known in universe as blasting powder, it works a little differently than gunpowder does in the real world. Its existence is common knowledge, but its use is a specialty based off of Knowledge: Engineering. A 5 pound charge will blast out a single 5-foor space or open a small fissure. A 5 pound charge will cost 100 gold.
It doesn't come in sticks like dynamite, but rather is carried in canvas packages that are wedged into a fault. The blast itself is often shaped with magic (a shield spell can be used to block off a direction from the blast), although most engineers take pride in their ability to work the powder without magic.
Right, IL has dropped out. He's apparently rather busy, so let's move this game along.
Sadpandas. Partly because no IL, and partly because no more healers (unless Jamros is an Oracle.)
Right, IL has dropped out. He's apparently rather busy, so let's move this game along.Sadpandas. Partly because no IL, and partly because no more healers (unless Jamros is an Oracle.)
He is, and he does have CLW.
For what it's worth, I can heal to some extent with lay on hands, and I am planning on eventually getting a wand of cure light wounds to take up some of the healing duties if necessary.
I have a really great idea for a campaign and I am going to try to run it as a PbP. I think that my style of GMing would translate well to this form of play.
Take a look and if you guys want to play I will of course reserve you spots once recruitment starts.
I have a really great idea for a campaign and I am going to try to run it as a PbP. I think that my style of GMing would translate well to this form of play.
Take a look and if you guys want to play I will of course reserve you spots once recruitment starts.
Looks interesting. I'll have to think about a possible character - starting at level one, I presume?
Pygrado, I just did some snooping and found out that you're playing a paladin of freedom in Caleth's campaign. Hope you have as much fun with it as I'm having so far :)
Pygrado, I just did some snooping and found out that you're playing a paladin of freedom in Caleth's campaign. Hope you have as much fun with it as I'm having so far :)
Well, things are going pretty slow because Clark is on vacation, but I'm looking forward to it. And playing an a&!!*+~ paladin is even more fun in PbP where you have all the time you need to think of a biting retort.
Holy automatic swearword censorship, Batman!
Holy automatic swearword censorship, Batman!
I forgot to mention that to you guys, didn't I?
Hey guys,
So it's been less than a year since I've started playing Pathfinder, and I've had a total blast. It's crazy thinking about how much I am still learning on a game to game basis. However, one thing I have yet to do is be a DM. I have a group of friends at home (surprise!), at least 3 of which have shown interest in starting a campaign or just goofing around and learning the game. Unfortunately, none of them have played Pathfinder or 3.5 (maybe one of them has played 3.5 a few times, I don't remember).
This is where you guys come in. I am starting to design a world for these guys and I'm a little overwhelmed because I have never DM'ed before. If you guys have any pieces of advice for a total DM noob who is teaching 3 people how to play this game, I'd love to hear them.
Specific Questions I have:
-My friends are definitely into the idea of progressing along from low levels. However, would you suggest starting at level 1 or skipping some of the b#%&&!&& and starting at level 3 or something along those lines?
-What's the best way to balance encounters? I know a few things about CR from reading, but I don't want to screw up and give them something that's way too hard and will kill them all, and I don't want them to cakewalk their way through the game.
-How much general world design do you guys do before introducing characters? As this is just an introduction to the game that may turn into a campaign, I don't want to overplan, but I don't want to totally improvise everything.
If I can think of more, I'll ask you guys. Thanks for your input!
In response to your specific questions:
1) If they're new to pathfinder/3.5, run a 1st-level one shot game. Spend time building characters together. This will allow you to explain the different classes and basic rules to them, and then to demonstrate those rules and class abilities in the game. After this game, they should have a better understanding of the rules. It isn't that big a leap from 1st to 3rd for most classes, so you should be able to jump straight there and level them up to the desired level gradually. They'll get the hang of things pretty quickly this way.
2) Balancing combat encounters can be somewhat complex. The major components I will address here are enemy stats, tactical ability, and use of terrain.
- Enemy stats: Most pre-designed foes in the pathfinder bestiaries function pretty well at their designated CR. A few things to watch for are reach, spellcasting, and precision damage. All three of these can catch unsuspecting/unprepared players and DMs by surprise. When I design enemies with class levels, I often use a 10-point buy. This lets the enemy have decent-enough stats to provide a challenge and to use a couple of tactics reasonably well without having full PC power. An additional caution: power attack and rapid shot can be exceedingly dangerous to first-level characters. Also, avoid equipping enemies with high-crit weapons until your PCs have a couple of levels. It is extremely easy to accidentally kill your PCs with these things. When trying to decide on CR for the party, I assign 1 point of CR to the party for each level (or equivalent) each character has (3 level 3 characters have 9 CR points). I can add up the CRs of their enemies to reasonably estimate the difficulty of the encounter. NOTE: Avoid using any individual monster whose CR is greater than 150% of the highest-ECL party member's CR unless you really know what you are doing and/or the party consists of shameless munchkins. For example, against a 4th-level party, I seldom use anything with a CR higher than 6. There is a lot of room for error, however (one AP sends a CR 15 abomination against 7th-level characters), and done well, high-CR foes can make for great encounters. Experience is the best teacher here, though.
- Tactics: Some players are very good at tactics. Others are not. How well you play your NPCs should be dependent upon the skill of your players. When dealing with newbies, go easy on them. The Tucker's Kobolds route is a no-no. Tactics can be adjusted from optimal to suboptimal on the fly, so this is one of the best tools in your arsenal as a DM. If the PCs are having trouble with flanking enemies, stop using them to flank so often. If the party needs a greater challenge, use a combination of enemy tactics.
- Terrain: Difficult terrain can significantly increase the difficulty of any encounter where the NPCs use ranged or reach attacks and the players don't. Like CR, knowing what terrain to use is something that comes with experience. Most CRs are calculated without difficult terrain in mind, so pay close attention to those monster's abilities - they might get very nasty when used in certain terrains. Also, enclosed spaces offer more opportunities for cover and concealment, so these can markedly increase difficulty as well.
In sum, consider the variables carefully when deciding how to set up each encounter, and remember that some options are more forgiving than others.
3) That's really up to you. I advise having some idea of what the main plot points/conflicts you want to have play out in your world are, and knowing a bit about the major players in each. Otherwise, have maybe one or two locations/situations very well fleshed out and several others roughly designed. You should start with a well-fleshed out situation or scenario and let your players explore it before setting off into the roughly-designed ones. This approach should allow a decent balance between planning and improvisation, but just remember that sooner or later you will need to make stuff up on the fly.
I hope that helps, and remember that becoming a DM is a learning process.
Thanks for the awesome advice CD!!
1) That sounds pretty much like what I was planning on doing, so I'll stick with it. I think I might have people over soon to build characters and get introduced to the game, depending on how far I progress with world building/encounter planning.
2) Does this mean that you should pretty much only throw CR 1 monsters against a lvl 1 party? I'll be sure to avoid the insta kill potential of the things you mentioned.
Also, as for the terrain considerations, I thinking about sending my PC's to a sort of roughly pathed, forest/jungle area relatively early on. Should I try to stay away from the difficult terrain shindig or just make sure that they'll be fighting melee monsters in it?
3) The main thing I want to stress is that the players have (close to) total control over what they want to do. I don't want to force them into a linear storyline, so this approach sounds pretty good. I sort of realize this means my life as a newbie DM might get ridiculous, but my friends know I haven't done this yet, so hopefully they'll go easy on me.
Of course knowing them, they'll probably troll the s!%+ out of me
You needn't only throw CR1 encounters at 1st level PCs. That was an oversimplification. Another good general guideline is that for a "normal" difficulty encounter the CR should be roughly equal to the party's average CR. For a hard encounter, try CR +1 or +2 relative to the PCs. For a boss fight, try CR +3. Remember that rocket tag happens at both low and high levels, and that low-level PCs are much weaker by comparison to the foes fought at CR 2+ than higher-level PCs are to foes several CRs above them.
It's more important to make sure that the PCs can return fire or respond to an attack. There is no such thing as "never do this" in terms of designing an encounter - you just have to know what strengths and weaknesses will be displayed when designing an encounter. For a jungle, you should definitely make it a torturous slog through dense undergrowth, quicksand, swarms, everything. Just be sure you understand, in each encounter, what you're signing them up for and that you understand their capabilities and those of their foes.
Sandbox games can be tricky insofar as you, the DM, have to be ready for just about anything. Be very sure you have a main series of events and/or conflicts planned out that will happen over time in your world that will happen independently of PC involvement, but that they can get involved with and influence. Just don't try to railroad them and you should do just fine.
In planning a setting for a sandboxy game, what I always do is just make sure to detail the geography and history of a world. Once I have come up with a few groups in the world and the interactions between them, I feel that I can pretty much come up with plausible repercussions for most crazy s%%! the players can try to pull.
Some Interesting Reads:
This is basically the way that I conceptualize plots.
More interesting thoughts.
An essay on encounters written for 3.0 but still applicable here.
Specific Questions I have:
-My friends are definitely into the idea of progressing along from low levels. However, would you suggest starting at level 1 or skipping some of the b*+!#+@& and starting at level 3 or something along those lines?
-What's the best way to balance encounters? I know a few things about CR from reading, but I don't want to screw up and give them something that's way too hard and will kill them all, and I don't want them to cakewalk their way through the game.
-How much general world design do you guys do before introducing characters? As this is just an introduction to the game that may turn into a campaign, I don't want to overplan, but I don't want to totally improvise everything.
I personally like skipping the {stuff} at low levels, but with new players, it makes it simpler to not. But rush through them.
There is no good way to balance encounters. Period. Go with your gut, and don't be afraid to change things on the fly.
I do very minimal world design, and build it around what the characters are interested in. That said, I run one-shots, and an interesting world can make a lot of difference in a longer game.
Hey everyone.
I'm going to be running two PbP one-shots coming up, so if this game isn't satisfying your full PbP Pathfinder Jonesing:
-Blood Will Tell (OOC thread here) is a 6th level mystery/horror game. Hopefully. I'm not sure how much horror I can pull of on the brightly-lit Paizo forums.
-The Forgotten City (OOC here) is the third episode of the adventures of Teyth and Rhaegar (et al.) I see that JZ and Cd'A have already made aliases of their existing characters, hopefully CvH and NN-M can do so soon as well (rebuild rules are in the thread). I am willing to take one or two more players though, for a sandboxy adventure.
I'll be afk for most of the next two days due to driving to Utah, but I'll try to check/post as much as possible from my phone. Looking forward to seeing what happens to our hapless vista group.
- Level 1: No Guns – as it says, there are simply no guns in the world, and few or no applications for black powder.
- Level 2: Very Rare Guns – Early firearms are rare. Advanced firearms, the gunslinger class, the amateur gunslinger feat, and archetypes that use firearms do not exist. Firearms are rare and mysterious.
- Level 3: Emerging Guns – The secret of gunpowder is slowly slipping out, and early firearms are available, albeit rare. The basic gunslinger rules and prices for ammunition hold true in this sort of game. Characters who wish to use firearms will need to take the Gunsmithing feat in order to make them viable weapons. Advanced firearms may exist, but only as rare and wondrous items – the stuff of high-level treasure troves.
- Level 4: Commonplace Guns – While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 25% of the amounts listed in Ultimate Combat, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are still rare and cost the full price to purchase or craft.
- Level 5: Guns Everywhere – Guns are commonplace. Early firearms are seen as antiques, and advanced firearms are widespread. Firearms are simple weapons, and early firearms, advanced guns, and their ammunition are bought or crafted for 10% of the cost described in Ultimate Combat. The gunslinger loses the gunsmith class feature and gains the gun training class feature at first level.
After this introductory adventure, the campaign world will reach level 3, and you will have access to early firearms, the gunslinger class, and all firearm-using class variants. By the mid-late game, we might hit level 4.
Armor as Damage Reduction – No.
Called Shots – I quite like Paizo’s implementation of called shots, and am willing to incorporate them as described in Ultimate Combat if you guys want to use them. Note the rule that states that the True Strike spell and similar means of guaranteeing a hit are incompatible with called shots. This rule will be upheld, although I will homebrew a higher-level version of True Strike that is compatible.
Piecemeal Armor – We won’t use this variant unless you guys really want to.
Wounds and Vigor – No. We will continue to use the standard hit point rules.
All newly introduced class variants, feats and spells are available to you, minus the firearm-related ones. These will become available to you soon. You must still meet all prerequisites!
I may allow limited retraining on a case by case basis.
Looking forward to this coming out on PDF so I can know more about what you're talking about. I sincerely doubt I'll be taking levels in Ninja or Samurai. Even though gunslinger sounds interesting, I don't think I'll build up much grit with my current wisdom mod (if the same mechanic from the earlier testing is still in place) and it doesn't sound like guns are commonplace enough in the world that Gareth would investigate them... yet.
I'll probably explore one of those classes for my next few characters.
As for the other combat feats, etc. I'll check them out when I have access to the information.
Also, that's awesome that RL may be joining!
There is a cha-based gunslinger variant, as well as a gun-focused paladin variant. I would also allow you to spend a feat to gain grit based on charisma. A number of grit abilities are also available so long as you have grit remaining, rather than expending grit.
Hey CD, I didn't add traits when I was building my character. Can I do so now?
Thanks