Rise of the Runelords by DM Doctor Evil (again)

Game Master DM DoctorEvil

@Kizzy - unless my memory has completely failed me(*) I would suggest putting the skill point into Survival, even if the 5th player has Survival maxed.

-- david

* - At my age, my memory does occasionally fail.

I was leaning toward that as well. If nothing else, my helpful trait will give a nice boost if I can consistently aid another on tracking rolls.

I am dutifully stalking the recruitment thread, even going so far as doing "background checks"... *grin* i.e. checking out their other campaigns, post rate and style, etc. I definitely have 2 solid faves, though it probably isn't prudent to name them just yet.

Someone is asking in Recruitment if a campaign trait from Mummy's Mask (Trap Finder) would be allowed.

I am also in Central time zone (GMT-6) although as I said before, my schedule can be wonky. I'll look for when posting times tend to be most active and make an effort to be available.

@Cadas - Safe travels and I hope you have a good time on your trip. I love ancient Greek theatre and I've always wanted to go to Athens and see the Acropolis and the Parthenon. ^_^

Trap Finder - While legal for PFS play, and even though our group might benefit from it, I do not like this trait. It make is so no one really ever needs to play a rogue.

While I have allowed Trapfinder in my home campaign because there no one wanted to play a rogue or other trapfinder character, I tend to agree with Cadas on this one. There are several submission that have trapfinding so unless anyone objects, I will respond with no to that request.

-- david

@Cadas - Safe travels and have a good trip.

I am looking over the candidates. A couple I want to see have not posted their characters yet. In fact over half the candidates do not have their character up for review. Lets give them a deadline. Here is a list of candidates sorta from the bottom up:

Throsha Lafara - Cleric Rogue
Azrael the Avenger - Monk Pally
Mathias Gabriel Warpriest Ranger - but missing a level - I like this in concept
Rohan Drake - Summoner 5 DD
GreySector - Dwarven Ranger but still missing
mbauers - Shield champion Brawler but still missing
Sam C. - Tengu Ranger, but I have not seen it
Tessara Winkol - Half Orc melee ranger with wolf
Oterisk - Hunter but have not seen it - NOTE Oterisk is known to me and a good guy.
Vagabond? - Beastmorph Alchemist melee fighter - nothing posted yet
Adolina d'Jhaltera - Half Elf Slayer/ shadow dancer, Dex Based - Hmm. All his characters are PFS - no PBP characters yet?
ElegantlyWasted - fighter/Investigator. no character up yet.
Sanita Malvanna Or'Fana Kalnath - Rogue Alchemist
Raltus - ?
Olaf the Holy - ?

I haven't had time to look the recruitment candidates over in detail yet, but I will as soon as possible. I'm in EST as well, so that's easy...I generally post in the early morning, late evening, or both, though for games I play in (as opposed to GM'ing) I'm more able to check in throughout the day!

Have a great time in Greece, Cadas!

Pacific time here. I have a lot of free time lately, but if/when that changes I post in the mornings or evenings. Will check out the recruitment postings and provide my initial thoughts over PM -- I do think this recruitment can probably wrap up surprisingly soon!

@All: Someone PM'd me about why no PFS Chronicles. To stave off other questions about this, I'll just answer here.

Most Importantly, I do not understand the rules, restrictions, etc. for PFS play, and have so many questions on them that it would be a large chore for me to learn them all and enforce them.

For example:
1) Are you Core or "Standard"? Do the others in the campaign have to be Core or Standard?
2) Does everyone else have to play by the same rules for PFS or just your character?
3) How am I supposed to get you your sheets?
4) Where are the blank sheets (Chronicle, Inventory, other????)?
5) Do I have to generate an event? How do I do that?
6) Do I then have to fill in said event? How do I do that?
and the list would go on from here.

While I appreciate that some folks would like this, and I do understand that some folks are very interested in this; if you wish to have PFS Chronicles, I am just not your guy.

-- david

Saw this and thought I could shed some light on this issue. I play and GM Pathfinder Society scenarios both here on the boards and at in-person games. Let me preface this by saying I am not trying to push you to give us PFS credit for this AP. I am playing in two AP's here on the boards and am immensely appreciative of the opportunity to do so. AP's are so intensive, I've never had an in-person game go further than a few encounters before scheduling and other issues become a problem and everything grinds to a halt. Giving credit does involve more documentation and let's face it, the worst part of nearly any job is the paperwork. Not trying to make your job any harder, but you do seem to be under the impression that PFS credit is a lot more trouble than it actually is. Let me explain:

Guidelines for giving PFS credit for the sanctioned portions of approved APs are included in Chapter 6 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide, which is always a free download but is subject to change from season to season. The Chronicles for any sanctioned module or AP can be found on the Additional Resources Page and the chronicles for RotRL are right at the top of the list. They are downloaded in PDF format in a zip file and I believe there is only one chronicle per each book of the AP, and they are HUGE in terms of rewards. (Hence the intense interest in getting PFS credit for an AP)

Ok, with that out of the way, I'll refer to your questions by number now.

1) Our party is most definitely not "core". Core was primarily created to give avid players the opportunity to replay content they had already completed with the added challenge of more restrictions on character building. They operate as two separate campaigns and they are not meant to mix.

2) You do not need to adhere to PFS rules to grant PFS credit. We could play the AP as if it were a "home game" with whatever house rules you prefer and then we would apply the credit to separate PFS characters as if we had used a Pre-generated character. This sounds all good, but if our RotRL character dies, we would have to apply that death to an appropriately leveled PFS character as well. Rewards are great, but so is the risk!

3) Most GM's generate a single sheet PDF of the chronicle using a "print to PDF" function of a PDF manipulating program and then fill them out and email them or load them up to dropbox for the player to download.

4) Inventory tracking sheets come with the Guild Guide download I linked above, but again are not necessary for the actual AP game. Chronicles are on the Additional Resources page, also linked above.

5) Events can be created through your paizo account. Go to My Account> Pathfinder Society> GM/Event Coordinator tab> Create Event. I created one event each for online games and in-person games and have continued to use them for several years now.

6) The event does not need to be filled out extensively. If you intend to continue using it, it's best to leave it vague.

Once again, I just thought I'd explain it isn't quite as complicated at you seemed to expect. But generating chronicles is fairly tedious and time consuming if you are new to the process. I don't have tons of PFS characters to throw under the bus if poor Kizzy did die, so I am perfectly fine with not receiving credit. Anywho, thanks for reading all that if you bothered. I enjoy PFS and do my best to advocate for it when given an opening. I'd be happy to give you a spot at my next table if you'd like an opportunity to play. ^_^

(I for one lean toward not doing PFS credit...I like PFS too, but I'd rather just play the AP! :P)

Question. I have found several maps.

Did you guys finish off the ground floor? Or is the map at the top of this page (Foxglove Manor, Ground Floor) accurate and you have only done part of it.

I believe that you are on the second floor with only part of it done.

-- david

@Kizzy - Thank you for the explanation, but I really don't want to do PFS Chronicles.

Foxglove Manor Map

Check out the map above. I will add your tokens later.

Let me know if it looks correct to you.

Also let me know if you can move your token.

Understood. Since I made Kizzy to literally take the hit, I'm also not keen on putting my PFS characters on the chopping block since I fully intend for her to be the first player to fall if it comes to that.

As for the Manor, we did go through every room we saw on the first floor, but nothing more than a few weird haunts and a deformed rat bothered us. I don't know the AP myself, but Cadas does and I got the impression from ooc remarks that some things might be getting left out or glossed over. *shrugs*

Second level map looks right.

We finished exploring the first level, as Kizzy stated. My token moved just fine!

Second level of the map looks right, but as said we cleared the first floor. On mobile right now so I can't test my token, but will do so ASAP!

@Cadas - in THIS post there was a note addressed to you "We have spoken of this before, my master. Now it begins, join The Pack and it will end. -- Your Lordship"

I have looked thru the rest of the gameplay thread and did not see other notes to you. Did I miss any?

Map is updated to show the complete First Floor.

-- david

Likely. I can go back and look. I think I recall at least one more. But I am catching a plane in an hour so it might be a while.

And yes, I can move my token.

Someone posted about having lots of submissions to choose from, and to my mind perhaps implying that maybe the choice should be made now.

What do you guys think? I could sorta force fit a new player while you are in the Manor house, especially if you go outside to spend the night to rest, or should we just wait till youse guys are almost done with the Manor house?

-- david

I'd say let's add the new player now. Maybe announce the closing of the thread and give those who already posted some time to finish things up. It'd be great to get the selected player involved without making him or her wait too long.

I m good either way, and am fine adding now.

I'm also in favor of sooner as opposed to later, but hate to jerk the rug out from under people who thought they had more time to submit. I tend to mull a lot when coming up with a new character. =/

I won't have much time to really read over much today, my son is leaving soon on his first ever far-away trip away from home. His band group is going to Orlando to workshop with and learn from professional Disney musicians! Very exciting, but the packing is definitely less so...

Oh, and my token is working fine as well.

Ok all, submission deadline is Wednesday 11 May at 20:00 EDT.

It looks like there will be 13 or 14 final submissions, so all try and take a look Wednesday evening so we can decide starting after then and announce on Thursday.

Here is the list:
Nikolaus de'Shade – Adolina d'Jhaltera – female half-elf slayer
JAF0 - Azrael the Avenger - male angel blooded Aasimar monk/2, Paladin/4
mdt - Sanita Malvanna Or'Fana Kalnath – female human Rogue 2/Alchemist Chir/Viv 4
Daxter - Rohan Drake – human male Summoner 5/Dragon Disciple 1
Nenkotoman - Tessara Winkol – female half-orc ranger
Sam C. - Pazeek Splitbeak – male tengu Ranger (Infiltrator) 6
Jesse Heinig - Krag Vinder - Male half-orc fighter (tactician) 3/rogue 3
Tyeal - Throsha Lafara - Female Elf Rouge 4/Seperatist (Cleric) 2
nate lange - Baldric Moore – human male slayer (VMC[magus]) 6
Death-Lok - Esmerelda Skyleaf - Female halfling swashbuckler (flying blade) 6
Jovich - Grayson Waylander IV – male human Rogue 1 /Swashbuckler 5 (Inspired Blade)
Valjoen_KC - Laëlynn Guidici, aka "Clank" – female human swashbuckler (inspired blade) 6
Xunal - Hanzir Majjal - Male wereboar-kin skinwalker (ragebred) barbarian 6

mbauers - ? - brawler
GreySector - ? - ? dwarven ranger
Albion, The Eye - ?
Vagabond? - ? - ? female Vivisectionist Alchemist
ElegantlyWasted - ? - ? Fighter 2/Investigator 4
Gavmania - ?
Oterisk - ?
Raltus - ?
Olaf the Holy – ? - ? investigator

Withdrawn:
adsapiens - Shogunto Heineous – male half-orc Ranger (Trapper) / Druid (Lion Shaman)
wanderer82 - Mathias Gabriel – male tiefling warpriest 4 / ranger 1

So manY good submissions. Wow. I'll try to read them tonight.

Robin UP
Init (HP Cur/Max, AC)
Robin 25 (60/60, 19)
Foe 20
Marcellano 16 (46/46, 15) 40 current Max
Cadas 12 (56/56, 22)
Kizzy 7 (78/78, 24)

Please check all the numbers, Initiative, Perception and the Initiative.

Thanks

So how should we go about discussing who we would like to pick? Should we decide on a personal favorite and then campaign for them here, or should we discuss the merits of the various applicants and whittle them down as we hone in on our best bet dialectic style?

It's a bit like browsing a meat market, but I don't wish to be indelicate. Should we use PM's?
<.<
>.>

Boy, I'm burning up the die roller today! *cough*

Unfortunately, my initiative is worse than posted. My bonus is a paltry +3.

Perception, initiative and AC are good for Robin!

I agree, selecting a character will be quite the challenge.

I would suggest the following but am open to another method.

Pick, in order, your top 3 and list them.
1st place - 3 points
2nd place - 2 points
3rd place - 1 point

We all get 1 vote, including me, and if there is a tie the character with the most 1st place votes gets is chosen, or we have a runoff between the tied characters.

You can, and perhaps should, give reasons for your choices, but stick to positives. If one of youse guys has a particular problem with one of the submissions / submitter send me a PM.

From my perspective, I am looking for a character that fills the following roles:
a) decent in combat
b) trap finding & disabling, scouting, and some general skills
(let Robin the bard be a bard and not have to do the trap duties, unless he wants to)

I also do a check on posting history. I would like to give someone that is not playing in a PbP currently, or is a relative newbie a chance if possible, but that is not an essential thing for me.

-- david

My token works fine on the map. I'll send my picks for the recruitment later today!

Marcellano's initiative is +6 (thanks to Improved Initiative). His Perception is correct, though it's worth noting that it actually goes up to +8 if Narcizia is on his person. The AC is correct.

Actually, I guess his init is +5 right now...stupid disease!

Seriously, though, these knowledge rolls...

I would suggest the following but am open to another method.

Pick, in order, your top 3 and list them.
1st place - 3 points
2nd place - 2 points
3rd place - 1 point

We all get 1 vote, including me, and if there is a tie the character with the most 1st place votes gets is chosen, or we have a runoff between the tied characters.

You can, and perhaps should, give reasons for your choices, but stick to positives. If one of youse guys has a particular problem with one of the submissions / submitter send me a PM.

From my perspective, I am looking for a character that fills the following roles:
a) decent in combat
b) trap finding & disabling, scouting, and some general skills
(let Robin the bard be a bard and not have to do the trap duties, unless he wants to)

I also do a check on posting history. I would like to give someone that is not playing in a PbP currently, or is a relative newbie a chance if possible, but that is not an essential thing for me.

-- david

The voting proposal looks good to me.

I'm totally fine having Robin doing the trap duties. It's sort of part of his character now, having been there from the beginning. But I'm also fine handing that off to someone else, or even sharing the duties? (I don't think I've even once see an Aid Another on a trap disable, but why not?) Obviously, someone with Trapfinding would be a superior trap disabler, but that's a very specific thing that I've always thought a party can live without.

My selection criteria include the following:
1. Background
2. Posting reliability. With so many submissions, I would agree to picking someone relatively new to PbP, but still shows evidence of having lasting power.
3. Combat ability
4. Survival skill - given the warning that we'll need it!

I might not get to this until tomorrow. I have traveled for 30 hours today.

My criteria include:

1) Viable Character to fill the roll we need
2) Posting history
3) Past experience, if any
4) Background

Well, out of the 15 completed submissions so far I have:

2 on my YES list
6 on my NO list
7 on my ? list

At 20:00 I will close down submissions and hopefully we can all post sometime tonight and/or tomorrow morning.

-- david

Ok, I have closed down submissions. Please look them over and let me know your top three in order. Post them here or send me a PM and I will aggregate the totals.

thanks -- david

Ok, my homework is all done and I'm ready to discuss. My criteria list is as follows:

1) They fit the needed role well. Extra consideration given for paying particular attention to our specific requests.

2) Character is well defined in personality and I can see them meshing well with the group. We tend to be a jovial bunch, so characters that reflected a good sense of humor drew me especially.

3) Experience and reliability. I'm happy to always include new players in short-term ventures and give them a shot, but AP's require drive and commitment. I don't want to be back here choosing another new recruit because the one we pick now doesn't pan out.

All that considered, here are my top 3.

1) Rohan Drake and Copperscale!
Rohan does not fit our skill requirements but Copperscale does. The player has experience out the wazoo and the character background is very thorough. Past roleplaying with these two is very humorous and personable. To my mind, this is two excellent characters for the price of one and Rohan's summoning will definitely bolster our combat prowess in a big, big way. Also, they are RotRL orphans. Finally, I adore dragons and Dragon Disciples, especially of the copper variety. ^_^

2) Pazeek Splitbeak and Squork!
Not quite two for the price of one but at least one and a half. Character is beautifully and extensively defined and practically tailor-made to fit our requirements. Player doesn't have a lot of board experience to refer back to, but seems committed and has been a consistent and detailed poster for a few months now. He did take that Trap Finder trait you guys disapproved of, but I didn't see where anyone specified not to and he also took a drawback without being prompted. If it's a problem, I'm betting he would would further tweak to fix it. Finally, I have seen a Tengu Slayer in action and they are very effective.

3) Adolina d'Jhaltera!
Another orphan and as this was the first full character completed, the player either seems very motivated to win the spot or just happened to have the character ready to go. Player might be a little mixed up that this is a PFS campaign though, so that might bear explaining. Background looks good and even has a tie in for us to run into her at Foxglove manor. Overall, I think she would be a good fit for the party and quite capable on the battlefield.

Alrighty! Those are my picks, looking forward to seeing what you all think as well.

Three of the five (including me) have reported in (one via PM to me) and here is the tally so far.

1st)
Adolina d'Jhaltera
Rohan Drake and Copperscale
Adolina d'Jhaltera

2nd)
Pazeek Splitbeak
Pazeek Splitbeak and Squork
Pazeek Splitbeak

3rd)
Laelynn
Adolina d'Jhaltera
Laelynn

-- david

Alright, just finished going through all the applicants! Whew! Lots of good submissions...

I'm going to PM my selections to you, DM.Papa, but everyone else, let me know if you want me to forward them to you as well. I just am playing/have played with multiple applicants, so I'd rather not discuss merits here in public. :P

But my criteria are roughly as follows:

1. Background/Writing Style - This is most important to me. Who are they, how will they fit into our party? This includes questions of personality and goals. Also, while it's not the most crucial thing in the world, we all will have to read what this person writes for a long time, so I'm biased toward applicants who can string a sentence together. :P

2. Posting history/reliability - Number 1 is by far my biggest concern, but with all the people I liked I checked to see that they've posted consistently before. I'm also open to someone new to the boards, but it's good to have some evidence that they're going to commit.

3. Build and how it fits our needs - This is lowest on my list, but I do value it.

Alright, just finished going through all the applicants! Whew! Lots of good submissions...

I'm going to PM my selections to you, DM.Papa, but everyone else, let me know if you want me to forward them to you as well. I just am playing/have played with multiple applicants, so I'd rather not discuss merits here in public. :P

*raises hand*

Ooh! Me! I want to know!

PM sent. :P

@All - I have sent a PM to you all, regarding the submissions. Respond as you can please, but try to do so within the next four hours if possible.

If all is Ok with what I said, simply reply Ok (but you can say more if you wish to). If Not Ok, then I would need more information.

-- david

Announcement made.

Hey everyone, delighted to be on board. Thanks for picking me! :)
Just to mention something Kizzy picked up on earlier - Im aware its not a PFS game. Adolina was my second character on the boards and I didn't actually know what the difference between a 'core' and non-core character was... too late to change it now! :)

Are people interested in meeting Adolina within Foxglove Mansion or shall I accost you all on the way out? For herself Adolina will want to go in at some point - although maybe coming back in future would be better? Either way I'm excited!

Also worth mentioning, IRL I live in the UK so GMT and am a teacher - which means I will never post between about 7.15am and 5pm weekdays. In the evenings I check the forums a few times and tend to be in bed by about 10.30. That should give you some ideas of when I post. Weekends are more variable although it's rare I don't check at least once a day (usually more!). :)

Welcome Adolina! We're really happy to have you.

I know we've talked about trying to introduce you into the game earlier. I think, given the way your background is written, it's very natural for you to stumble upon us, through your own investigation of what's going on in this manor.

Hello Adolina! Thrilled to have you here. :)

Like Robin said, the way your background is written makes it easy to work you in now, so I'm all for that if possible. It's really DM.Papa_DRB's call, of course!

Adolina, thanks for checking in.

I have figured out a way that you can meet the group at the Foxglove Manor at an appropriate time. I'll get with you over the next few days and work it out.

-- david

Welcome Adolina! Looking forward to meeting you in character! ^_^

Hey everyone, delighted to be on board. Thanks for picking me! :)

Just to mention something Kizzy picked up on earlier - Im aware its not a PFS game. Adolina was my second character on the boards and I didn't actually know what the difference between a 'core' and non-core character was... too late to change it now! :)

Ok, I see. It's not really the difference between standard and core, though. It's the difference between a PFS alias and a regular messageboard alias (which are generally used for non-PFS games on the board). Looks like you have made all Pathfinder Society aliases but you don't use them to play PFS, which will unfortunately lock in those PFS numbers and character names. But it's not really a problem, especially if you never play PFS on the boards. Just remember that if you do, your character numbers 1-10 already have established names. This can be changed before the alias has 10 posts, but not afterward.

Ok, I will stop PFS tutoring now. Apologies, I'm an advocate. ^_~

Glad to have you aboard!

Welcome Adolina! Looking forward to meeting you in character! ^_^

Ok, I see. It's not really the difference between standard and core, though. It's the difference between a PFS alias and a regular messageboard alias (which are generally used for non-PFS games on the board). Looks like you have made all Pathfinder Society aliases but you don't use them to play PFS, which will unfortunately lock in those PFS numbers and character names. But it's not really a problem, especially if you never play PFS on the boards. Just remember that if you do, your character numbers 1-10 already have established names. This can be changed before the alias has 10 posts, but not afterward.

Ok, I will stop PFS tutoring now. Apologies, I'm an advocate. ^_~

Glad to have you aboard!

Oh! Well I've done my new learning for the day! It goes back to my first time again - I hit 'make new character' cause that's what I wanted to do... and I like the green names! If I'd known you could change alias names I could have avoided character bloat... darn! I'd be interested in playing PFS but probably as a RL thing since it would likely be the only way I could meet a regular group. Would that mean that if I went to a game IRL I'd have to use one of Siobhan, Adolina, Edric etc?

Oh! Well I've done my new learning for the day! It goes back to my first time again - I hit 'make new character' cause that's what I wanted to do... and I like the green names! If I'd known you could change alias names I could have avoided character bloat... darn! I'd be interested in playing PFS but probably as a RL thing since it would likely be the only way I could meet a regular group. Would that mean that if I went to a game IRL I'd have to use one of Siobhan, Adolina, Edric etc?

No worries. I was initially concerned because I know my OCD tendencies would be howling to have my first few PFS numbers burned or locked into names of my AP characters. But it's nothing to fret over. If you begin PFS you can go one of two ways.

1) Just use the names. Either draw them up as PFS versions of your AP characters or go with a completely different build and background if you like. Only the name is set in stone right now. PFS characters are free to rebuild until they have played at level 2. Then you have to "buy" (with prestige) the rebuild if you want to do so after that.

OR

2) Consider those numbers burned. You have no limit to new PFS characters you can create, so if you don't like reusing the names, just start your first actual PFS character at number 11 and go from there.

Feel free to contact me regarding any other questions you have about Pathfinder Society. Always happy to help! ^_^

Thanks Kizzy - I may well take you up on the offer of extra explanations but I'll stop cluttering up the discussion here at least! :)