Just to be sure you know you have the option its entirely possible to get other NPCs involved in the fight. Gerik's probably a bit redundant given that you have a bard so I'm assuming you would not want to split XP - he's not really a fighter in case you didn't know. Ishirou would need persuading, though it'll be a different DC than making him friendly.
The crones description has been kept vague because of the distance.
I'm fine with Gerik doing the Inspire courage +1 this time. I'll be able to save mine for later, should we need it. ;)
My next shot is at -8, so I probably need a 20 to hit with it as well. Even if I did hit, the damage would likely be entirely negated by the DR. :P We're facing the very real threat of 15 monsters in close quarters with us who will not be easy for some of us to deal damage to.
Get ready for this one.
On the other hand you have two channellers.
Oh right, we have Jask. I keep forgetting he's a holy guy. The NPCs have been kind of downplayed as of late, so I forget they're still there sometimes. I'm a bad person, really.
Yikes! o_o Those skeletons are pretty darn effective! I'm hoping a lot from the burst of healing energy...
Dragolan has to roll a 4 or higher on 1d6 to kill the ones that failed their saves. If not, they're all still alive. Jask might be able to finish them off if that's the case, though.
It's pretty likely that the majority of them will die this round, thankfully. If not, they can always try again on the next round, but we'll have to endure another assault of skeletal claws. :x
It's been nearly 2 days since the last post. Everything okay?
I'm barely able to post currently, takes about twenty minutes to get the boards to load anything, anyone else experiencing this? I'm afraid I've not got the time to do that the numerous times it takes me to construct a DM post today, but if you are not so inhibited and go before the skeletons feel free to post.
I think it's clearing up a bit now.
I had some mild lag earlier in the day, but nothing so crippling as all that! I do notice that the paizo website in general has some relatively frequent lag storms, though.
I think everyone who can go has already gone at this point. Well, Dragolan might want to dress his post up a little, but his roll is there, at least. xD
P.S. - It took about 30 seconds for this post to go through, and like 2 minutes for the page to refresh so that I could post about how laggy it was. So yeah, I get what you're experiencing now!
The site has been slow for me but I can manage. I'm just waiting for Joll's turn to embarrass himself again.
The past couple of days were bad for the boards because of the MMO Kickstarter deadline; traffic seems to have settled down, though.
On the off chance that Jack is killed during this encounter, would you like me to roll a new character? xD
I'd allow you to, I'd prefer it if you could be persuaded to take over one of the NPCs, rebuilding as you wanted while trying to stick to the general template. I'd allow you to create a new character if you really could not persuade yourself to run one of the other castaways, but it might take a while to get you into play.
Not that I am particularly worried about Jack here. Worse comes to the worse cannibals usually take their prey alive! Expect fattening foods if things go that badly though ;)
Dragolan's the one that has to worry about cannibals.
"And he kept on giving us suggestions! It was horrible...but so, so tasty."
Oh, I didn't even think of that. Yeah, I wouldn't have a problem converting an NPC.
Jack is such a fussy eater, it would be kind of funny to see the cannibals try and fatten him up.
I'm going to be at a con this weekend, and am not sure how much access I'll have. (Haven't checked if hotel internet is free.)
We're not doing so well by poor old Jack, are we...? :-| Not unless that cannibal is mighty skittish and a 13 Intimidate check is enough to scare him off...
Look, there is no need to worry. Jack is a clever guy, right? This whole incident is probably some ingenious plan of his to get close to the cannibal and grab the upper hand. By this evening the entire party will be laughing about it.
Lol, well Alexite is in reach of him and going by the previous traps cutting someone free is an auto success so I'm not very worried ;)
Personally? I think you should let the cannibal grab him.
Sounds crazy, but hear me out. He's only 5 feet from the top, and 45 feet from the bottom. He will die at -8 hp, and he is currently at -2. Chances are, if he's cut loose, the fall will be fatal. There's nobody at the bottom to catch him since everyone is climbing up. Climbing down while trying to carry him is unnecessarily risky for both Jack and the person carrying him. We have no idea if this cannibal has a ranged weapon, and he very well may start firing at whomever is trying to help Jack down. If I were to hazard a guess, he's going to be pretty pissed off.
If you let the cannibal pull him up, there's a chance he'll be skewered, but the cannibal is probably quite aware of how close Alexite is to the top, and has his own survival as a priority here. He'll probably address a conscious combatant banging on his shelter before worrying about what to do with the currently harmless Jack. Once you take care of the cannibal, you can worry about how to transport or heal Jack.
Of course, that all depends on the rest of you being able to climb up there, but time won't be as much of a concern as it is currently. If Alexite has a rope, he can toss it down to the rest of you.
Even if the cannibal tries to drag Jack off, he won't be able to outrun anyone unless he's got a way to transport him other than on foot.
This is just a suggestion, of course. I don't know how Carpe would actually handle the process of getting Jack down. I'm just erring on the side of worst-case-scenario.
The slopes not really a hazard in this encounter Jack, other than to slow the party, its vine covered and though steep not conductive to rolling free. Plus Alexite is directly beneath him. And the cannibals are barbarians with pretty high strength and fast movement, so letting him run off with Jack might not be work out too well!
Ah, I assumed that it was steep enough to incur falling damage! That changes a lot. Cut him down! :D
OK, he's ugly, and his momma dresses him funny.
In other news, I'm back from the con and recovered. Will read the game thread and catch up.
Nice to have you back Dragolan, how was the Con?
It was fun. ConFusion is a skiffy con, not a gaming con, and two of my favorite authors were there. Though one of them probably spread his Scottish cold through the membership, the bum. We'll see if I manage to avoid catching it.
Over 1000 gameplay posts! Lets try to keep it going!
Also don't forget that you get to roll diplomacy for Ishirou once a day to see if you can win him over.
Oh, Diplomacy, I can do! It's a class skill for both my classes. ^^
Woot!
Natural twenty on a Diplomacy check! ^^ Who da diplomat?
Maybe now we can finally figure out what his deal is.
Apart from his having a quiet, suffering crush on another NPC?
In other news: Sense Motive rules! ^^
Oh, I already kinda guessed that since he was staring at Aerys longingly in like.. every single scene. Haha.
Lol, yes you were supposed to get a +4 to the check if you agreed or hinted at helping him with Aerys. Its a bit weird though because he is rather unattractive and old, and Aerys is a looker with a half elf's longer life span. I can see why he'd be attracted to her, but...
Incidently I don't suppose anyone has been adding up the XP each time have they? I'll need to retally soon, though you should still be a ways off from leveling.
By my count, we are at 2767 xp after winning Ishirou over.
I've got us at 2607, but I might have missed something.
Okay looking for some feedback here guys!
I'm getting a little worried I might be advancing things too quickly in places, and glossing over the everyday problems that give the Island some of its flavor. What do you think would it be better to flesh out the difficulties of the island a bit more, or is my pushing things along working for you?
There does not seem to be a great deal of interaction between PCs, is there anyway I can encourage this? I'm not sure its a problem, and I do feel I have a decent grasp of all the characters and how they interact, but I'd like to see a little more. Any way for me to encourage that - other than asking here?
And as always please tell me if there is anything you think I could do to improve any aspect of the game.
Overall I'm really pleased with this game and you guys have all been great, I just don't want to see things slack off and have high expectations!
I never got the feeling that you were pushing things at all. o_o
As for PC interaction, I thought that was pretty decent...
There might be a conflict on the distant horizon between Quinta and Joll if/when she finds out about the Asmodeus worship and he picks up on her revulsion for that deity and his little minions. Not something I want to start PvP over, but it could be the cause of some lively debate.
Should we start on that? Could be fun, though I'd hate for it to trip us all up during the next combat.
I'm enjoying this game, and I don't mind the pacing. In fact, I often do prefer to move things along if there's nothing much happening in a scene, or if the party has some really pressing business to attend to. This is especially true if a scene has been set up, a couple of us post several times interacting with it, and then we're waiting around a day or three for the rest of the group to chime in (which creates a sense of slow pacing). There's nothing wrong with moving it along in those cases.
In the case of the current scene, we went off on a HUGE tangent the last time Jack, Quinta, and Pezock were together. That was really fun for me, but people who didn't post much were left out. This time around, I didn't want to do that, so I just had Jack go to bed and left the scene open for anyone else who maybe wanted to talk to Pezock more last time but didn't get a chance to.
Here are some things that I've noticed with regards to PC interaction, and some thoughts I have about how we can all up our game (including me):
I'll admit that I probably post way too much; sometimes I have to just tell myself NOT to post. I try to create interesting scenes and interactions with Jack that other people can hopefully play off of. Sometimes it seems to work, and other times I get the sense that people are just not really interested in mucking about. I get that, though. I'm the kind of person that can usually take any given scene and run with it in some way (which annoys people sometimes, I'm sure).
In that sense, I've sometimes thought that maybe I'm contributing to an environment that feels a little overwhelming to people who may be checking the gameplay thread and wondering "How the hell do I get in on this?", or "What do I even say to that?". Say exactly what your character would say. If your character would say nothing, type that. Be descriptive -- about nothing; I do it a LOT.
If you get left out of a scene, it's likely because you weren't posting frequently enough, you didn't post at all, or you were doing something incredibly banal.
Make your posts count. Take some time on them to consider what your character is doing, and what everyone else is doing. A lot of times, I'm the first or second to post, so I just post something in reaction to a scene itself, but then I usually try to have follow-up posts when something interesting happens with the other party members. I'm guilty of the occasional misreading or glossing over, but in general I do try to include everyone who is including themselves in an interesting way.
Some people don't post very frequently, or post very minimal things when they do. It's hard to have meaningful interactions with people that are less frequent, less descriptive posters. Jack and Quinta have interacted with each other quite a decent amount compared to everyone else, and that's because we post more than anyone else. It's only natural!
Read other people's posts. Don't just scan them looking for your character's name or something relevant to your current interests. Paying attention to what's going on in a scene is very important, not only from a character development standpoint, but a game flow standpoint as well. If you don't know what's going on or what people are doing, you're limiting yourself!
If players want their characters to be a major part of this story, then they will need to take it upon themselves to project their personalities in each scene. It's not really a DM issue, it's a player responsibility. We've had ample opportunities for role-playing, and I don't feel as though I've been rushed at all.
However, if you would like to slow things down to promote fleshing things out in a scene-to-scene fashion, I'm down for that. I'm interested in doing whatever works for the group and allows everyone to have fun from the experience. We're in this for the long haul, so it's definitely important that we get into a groove that everyone's comfortable with.
I'd be interested to hear from the others in regards to their playstyle and what they expect from their fellow players.
There might be a conflict on the distant horizon between Quinta and Joll if/when she finds out about the Asmodeus worship and he picks up on her revulsion for that deity and his little minions.
Lowly heretic!
I have been enjoying the game and the player interactions. I would like to post more often but my three-month-old occupies a bit of my time, as you can imagine. This causes some of my posts to be briefer than I would like.
Initially I had planned for Joll to be more of an SOB but time constraints have curtailed this. Also, I decided to play as I think he would in this situation: as more of a pragmatist because of the circumstances. If he were in Corentyne he would be back to his true form as a Judge Dread wannabe.
Not a lot of experience with other PbPs but definitely better than the other game I was playing in.
Overall, I'm enjoying the game and will try to be more involved.
One thing I didn't like was the 'whoever posts first gets to act first rule'. I think that's going to favor some people who are at the computers with time on their hands and doesn't really reflect proper initiative mechanics.
I understand that the other way of doing it (waiting for people to post in initiative order) takes a long time.
One thing you can do is have everyone post whenever they are ready but then you sort out actions according to initiative order.
Fabian (aka Alexite)
Hmmm, thanks guys some interesting points I'll mull over. Alexite I'm fine with playing init that way, there's often little difference, but when there is its true it can be important.
Sorry for the delay folks! I'll advance tomorrow, time got away from me today.
It happens. ^^
Hey Byden,
Don't take this the wrong way because I think your maps are fine and certainly more than adequate for the game.
That being said, I wanted to let you know that it takes me little time to grab a map from a PDF, add a grid to it, and turn it into a JPG.
Once I have the JPG, I then basically move 'PCs' and 'monsters' around, just like you do.
I'm not even sure if this technique would have been applicable for the maps you already produced for us but if there's map on a pdf that you want to use, just let me know and I can put a grid on it and send it back to you.
Take a look at the maps at the bottom of these files to see what I'm talking about:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFp bnxwYmVtY2FycmlvbmhpbGx8Z3g6NGUwOGFhZmRiYjgyYmM3Mg
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFp bnxwYmVtY2FycmlvbmhpbGx8Z3g6NWZlOWRjZGY5ZmJmZDMzMQ
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFp bnxwYmVtZmFiaWFuc2NhcnJpb25jcm93bnxneDo2NjEyOWFjODM5MmQxMDBj
Let me know if you're interested.
Keep up the good work!
Fabian (aka Alexite)
How are you generating the grids there Fabian? The grids do take me a fair while as a rule, it would be nice to have a swifter method to generate them. That being said we are really talking 5 minutes for the grid, so its not something I'd be worried about sending off, etc. I used to just use preexisting maps, but Serpents Skull does not give me many - none you've seen so far - and I've struggled to find them from other sources, hence the recent move to wholly self done maps using textures.
How are you generating the grids there Fabian? The grids do take me a fair while as a rule, it would be nice to have a swifter method to generate them. That being said we are really talking 5 minutes for the grid, so its not something I'd be worried about sending off, etc. I used to just use preexisting maps, but Serpents Skull does not give me many - none you've seen so far - and I've struggled to find them from other sources, hence the recent move to wholly self done maps using textures.
You have to use a program that allows for 'vector moving' and has 'layers'. I particularly use AutoCAD (expensive which I have because of work) but I heard people make good use of the free program (Inkscape).
I can't help you about making maps (no experience). In fact, I have an encounter coming up in a small shack on a small island in a swamp that I need to find a map for.
It sounds like you got things under control. I guess I just didn't know that Serpent's Skull didn't provide that many maps. I'm running Carrion Hill and Carrion Crown, which have many maps. Well, the offer stands should you need anything, let me know.
Thanks Fabian, if you have a layer with a grid that could be helpful. I'm sure I tried making one and it didn't work for some reason - I can't really remember why, but I recall spending a few frustrated hours and just thinking fine I'll use the line tool.
I think this is alright for a swamp map, you would need to insert a hut and a grid, but otherwise pretty nice.
Alternatively, you could download MapTool from rptools.net. It has a grid feature built in and you can just move players/monsters (represented by tokens that snap to the grid when you move them) around it in real-time. Import your own map image to it, set it under the grid and you're good to go. You can make the grid thinner or thicker depending on your preference, and any color you prefer. It has an export function to get it into image form if it's too large to simply print screen/paste. From there it would be as simple as adding the numbers. You could even just make tokens that ARE numbers and then you wouldn't even have to manually add them in post-export. A library of your tokens is saved across map files in a master folders, so once you've got an art resource in, it's there forever.
It's java, it works on both windows and mac, and has drag and drop functionality for easy importing of custom art for tokens, maps, whatever. Tokens are a snap to make with the token.tool program they provide. Drag an image, drop, adjust position/zoom, and export. Most people use MapTool to run live games, but it's actually pretty handy for PbP maps too. It's free.
Check it out if you've got the time and see if you like it.
If you go that route just be sure you're running the latest version of java, and that your anti-malware software is all up to date. Java apparently has some serious security issues.