DM Papa.DRB - Rise of the Runelord 2 (Inactive)

Game Master Papa-DRB

Richie sent me a PM telling me of your decision for me to take over.

That works, for me. Like Rich said, I am DM'ing several games (5 to be exact), and one of them is Rise of Runelords, and they early in Chapter 3, where you guys are fairly early in Chapter 1.

As I have played and DM'd this before, It is good to let Rich just play Cordwin. Having a DMPC that is Arcane or Skill / Knowledge is hard. Not so hard for a DMPC that is a warrior.

So, what I propose is:
a) I will post in the website forum to rename the gameplay / discussion / recruitment threads to "DM Papa.DRB - Rise of the Runelords 2 - <gameplay/discussion/recruitment>" and make me the DM.
b) As you need another "front line", there are two options,
.....1) Recruit a fighter or paladin character
.....2) I could bring in an Oradin that I was working on submitting as a front line. He is a Paladin 1 / Oracle 1 and would be taking levels in Paladin with maybe 1 or 2 levels in Oracle before the end. Skills are Handle animal, Heal, Perception and Survival. He will be the silent combatant and no knowledge etc. Girad the True

Let me know 1 or 2 from your perspective and if the rest is ok.

-- david

I would prefer recruiting. DMPC do not bother me unless they the silent style.

Are you set on it having to be a fighter or paladin? Cause rangers are awesome?

Are there any build changes you want to make before we pick back up? Anything we should know about your GMing style?

Just as a sidenote Tylur was always designed to start taking levels in Paladin he just hasn't had a transcending moment.

@Aurora - Rangers are awesome. My favorite class. My only issue with Rangers is durability on the front line, but yea, that would work also.

@Tylur - Ah, have not gone over youse guys characters in detail. I'll do a recruitment then.

-- david

Aurora is a healer and support. She is bad at melee. As she levels I will get some of the important buffs, some damage spells, and the summon spells. Channeling is a big thing. I do not plan to multiclass

Cordwin is definitely a knowledge boy/skill monkey whose curiosity might get the group in trouble. ;)

My red heads temper might do that :D

HERE is the recruitment thread. As folks post, you can comment. If there are several candidates by Monday 8 May, let me know which one you like.

Are there any build changes you want to make before we pick back up? Anything we should know about your GMing style?

No build changes that I currently see. I'll have to spend time this weekend looking thru the character sheets in more detail, but I can't see anything at first glance.

DM style
Combat / Roll play
I purchased, a long time ago, a macro generator that helps with both DM'ing and Playing. For instance, this campaign, I will type "--<no space>r2-in" and the macro will insert the initiative rolls for everyone, including the foe(s). HERE is a link to one of my other campaigns showing it. I also include near the bottom, the "sorted" initiative list, and the basic statistics on the foe(s). All DM Rolls are in a separate spoiler near the top. I expect everyone to post (except when told not to) what they intend to do, with if/then/else statements if necessary, and I'll weave the story together. For instance lets say the order of initiative is Bard Bob, then Fighter Joe, then etc. with the Foe being last. However Fighter Joe responds before Bard Bob. The Bard then responds with a Inspire Courage. I will add the +s and -s as appropriate, there is no need to wait and do the posting in order. As people do have lives outside of here, I usually wait 48 hours before bot'ing someone.

I also do group perception rolls, usually before combat. Occasionally a Knowledge, or other, roll, but that is rare. I will spoiler knowledge, non-combat perception, survival, and other types of rolls, ie. "Knowledge (local) DC 15" will be the spoiler tag, and the information on the inside, same thing with saves, ie. "Cordwin Fort Save DC 20" with the pass / fail data inside the spoiler.

Role play
I like role play to be driven by the PCs mostly, among themselves. NPCs will respond to questions, role play, etc from the PCs, such as Ameiko at the Inn, and others. They will also provide information, and "quests" as needed.

Me & PbP
My biggest problem with PbP is that sometimes I either push the game forward too much, or just the opposite, and do not push forward enough. I've gotten better at it, but fair warning.

Me personally
Almost 70 year old male. Retired. Married 47 years, 2 children, 2 grandchildren. Been playing DnD since 1986 when we moved to NY from KY.

Richie was part of my table top group for 15(?) years before it broke up 18 months ago.

-- david

Initiative macro for the group.....

Oh... Other generic things.

I use Google Drawings for Maps:

EXAMPLE MAP

You will be able to move your tokens on the maps, if you wish.

and for Handouts:

EXAMPLE HANDOUT

-- david

Glad to have you Papa.DRB! Thanks for picking up the game!

A comment on recruitment: we actually are using background skills currently.

I also notice you said no CN alignments in your recruitment and René is currently CN. To my knowledge, normally when that's restricted it's due to players making "CN but really CE" characters, so I figure I should give a short blurb about my thoughts with René's alignment/why he isn't CG (which would be the next closest alignment choice and what I hope he will eventually become).

To me, René is CN with CG leanings. I haven't put him as CG because right now he is too selfish for me to consider him "good". He has good leanings, but it's more of a "I will do good if it doesn't cost me much". So if an old lady needed help crossing the street, he would help her. If she was also being attacked by a horde of undead, he might try to help but it would be from afar/out of danger, and he'd run if need be.

For party role, René is mostly buff/debuff (thus far mostly focusing on the debuff part via the Evil Eye hex). I'm trying to go for an overall "manipulating luck" type feel. He's been doing mostly subtle magics because he doesn't want people to know that he's more than just a dumb villager less they start trying to give him responsibility (hence why he's less than pleased with Tylur constantly bringing up the whole 'Heroes of Sandpoint' thing. ;-) ).

Also, DRB, out of curiosity, do you remember the name of the macro thing you bought? It sounds handy.

Dang. I missed the background skills. Only looked at one (Cordwin) in detail and missed it. I'll update the recruitment.

Almost all of the CN characters that I see really mean CE, so I would rather not start it off, however yours looks like the exception.

ShortKeys. Unless it has changed, you can creature up to 10(?) macro for free, any more won't take and you would need to buy it if you need more than that. But that was several years ago, so it may have changed.

Monday 8 May at 1700 (Eastern US) is submission deadline. I would like each of you to look over the submissions and let me know, preferably via PM, on which one you like best.

I'll make a decision Monday night and announce Tuesday morning.

I am going to "roll back" where you guys are now. You are back at Ameiko Inn, and while you are getting ready to head down to the tunnels, you decide that you need another warrior type and will meet up with whomever the new character is. Then back to the tunnel.

-- david

Ok are you knocking us back from the sheriff? Cause we got some info there.

I will check in on the submissions sunday and pm you my votes.

What I would like to do is:

You are at Ameiko Inn, and you have spoken with everyone, however you have decided that you need someone to help Tylur, and you meet the new character before heading to the tunnels. There will be some RP in the Inn for the meeting, then you take off.

-- david

sounds fine with me

Sounds good to me

Sounds good to me as well. IIRC, René is currently pretending to be drunk. And Tylur's lucky number is 19.

Edit: Oh, also, thanks for the link to shortkeys! I was able to find a nifty mac equivalent of it. :-)

Sounds good to me as well.

This is going to be interesting.

All four of you agree(*) on one candidate. Two of you also agree on another candidate. 1st or 2nd "place" is essentially random at this point. My vote, since I only picked 1, makes it a 4 - 3.... heh...

Let me get your opinions on 5 vs 6 person party.

-- david

* "agree" means this candidate would be a good fit.

I am fine with 6. My only reservation are that the adventure is scaled for 6 players. I personally like being challenged by an adventure whether combat or intrigue. I'm not a fan of cake walking through adventures.

Also if we are going to have 6 characters then it is important that all characters be part of the ongoing dialogue. When that doesn't happen that is when someone gets left out.

I am fine with 6. My only reservation are that the adventure is scaled for 6 players. I personally like being challenged by an adventure whether combat or intrigue. I'm not a fan of cake walking through adventures.

Yea, that is the other thing to consider. My other RotR adventure has 5, and scaling it up is usually a simple a) give the foes max hp, or b) a generic +1 to everything. I am concerned a bit about scaling up for 6.

-- david

I am fine with either five or six players. I am in a group that has has had eight players for nearly a year, a few months ago I joined a game that now has nine players and that has had no issues for the players.

Like Tylur says so long as everyone keeps an open dialogue then people do not feel left out. Sometimes someone shines more than another but that is normal and so long as everyone talks about it then no one should feel left out. I have been left out of games, this was due to the posting rate of the other players. That was fixed with an open dialogue

With a larger party it is easier if someone one drops. And with a larger party you have the opportunity to split the party easier and with less chance of death. Something PbP lends itself very well too.

Along with there are more people to roleplay with. Our new DM has said that he primarily likes the roleplay to be driven by the players and between for it to be between them. Considering that a larger party seems like the idea since that gives more people to bounce off of.

Concerning combat instead of max hp which in a PbP could take weeks you could add more people to the combat maybe. By all means experiment. I love trying new things. Alternatively there are those lovely templates. I use them frequently in the game I run. That game has six players, two animal companions, two chorts, and is mythic because I am insane. Templates are a fun spin to put on baddies. There is no max hp or extras in combat just a beefed up baddie.

I think my text wall is done.

I don't have a preference either. If someone has created a well done character, then they will find a way to be included. In one of the games I am running, the PC's like to RP more than adventure and they have created such interesting and complex characters all you can do is sit back sometimes and enjoy the show.

Ok, I have invited both the top two folks.

Logar Brazenbew Cleric of Cayden Cailean
Nimreass Avundarod Cavalier

Would you folks also check in on the new Discussion Thread. Paizo is slow in changing games over to new DMs so the easiest thing was just to create new Gameplay and Discussion threads with pointers back to the original.

Campaign Header
Discussion Thread
Gameplay Thread

Don't post in the Gameplay thread yet. I'll have a post up as soon as everyone checks in on the newly created gameplay / discussion threads.

-- david

For youse four, if you want the old campaign "hidden" from your "campaign" tab, just hide the old (GM Nightingale's Rise of the Runelords Gameplay) thread and it will disappear. I believe that in 1 (3?) months it will auto inactivate itself.

-- david