Balladic & Zwain,
Seeing no responses from either Rhiannon or Satinder I think it is time we move on with out them. I will PM them and let them know I have decided to remove them from the game, but I will be open to letting them return if their Real Life situation changes and they feel ready to return to regular posting.
So that means we need to recruit. I would like to keep it to 2 new characters to allow room for one or both of them to return and with fewer posters I think we will see more regular process.
I recently got PM from a player I was in another game with a while back. He was a good role player and a regular contributor over a three year span. He saw we might be looking and is interested in joining us. With your permission I'd like to invite him.
Baldric you also indicated that there were some reliable posters in another thread of yours, would you like to invite one of them?
I suggest we invite them to come to this discussion thread and have and OCC chat about what characters they could bring to round out the group and how we might be able to insert them into the game directly after the first group bonding event.
I will wait to invite Sniggevert until I hear back from both of you.
On a side note, either of you entering the RPGSS?
I entered.
The first year I entered (2012) was the year I made top 32, but I had a lot more free time back then... Last year I was so busy i didn't even try and this year I wasn't going to but when I saw they changed the first round I couldn't help but throw something together.
As for other players- there were two who had at least some curiosity... Should i mention it to both of them and let them sort it out here or PM them one at a time to try tongauge their interest?
Good Luck with this years entry, I am entering for the first time in several years. During seminary and my move to NE it wasn't feasible, but this year I am eager to give it another go.
As for the recruiting, I think you should judge interest and invite the one who is most interested as long as they have good role-play and posting habits.
I can ask some of my other groups once we see if your guys pan out since we dont want to grab too many options at once.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I know Sniggvert is interested, should I invite him here to say hello and suggest a character option or options?
I think that's a good idea, invite him and then we will have Baldric target another and then take it from there
-Posted with Wayfinder
I sent Sniggvert a PM with a link to here so he can introduce himself.
i hope nobody minds but I thought i'd post a link to the initial roleplaying... i know the majority of those characters are gone, but there's some good stuff in there establishing Zwain and Baldric's characters... plus the new characters will, presumably, have been there for the festival too (no doubt off fighting some other goblins which escaped our notice), so they may well have witnessed some of those interactions (and could potentially even insert themselves via flashback if that would help integrate them more quickly/easily into the party).
Good Call Baldric, that indeed could help tie a new character involved. For ease we will describe their activity during the attack and the blend them into the story. To keep book keeping easy they will start with the same XP as Baldric and Zwain for the goblin fight.
Hello! I'm one of the players that Baldric mentioned from his Shattered Star game and he directed me here to say hi and maybe talk some possible character concepts that the party could use. Feel free to check out the other games I play in if you're curious about my writing style and such :)
MDDM, do you know what your other person was thinking about playing? Right now it looks like the group could use a divine/healer type and maybe a skill person?
Right now it looks like the group could use a divine/healer type and maybe a skill person?
I think either of those (or both if you like inquisitors, lol) would bring a lot to the party, and have their own niche. That said, I also think there are a lot of ways to build a functional party without a dedicated divine caster or skills person if neither of those roles really appeal to you (to either/both of you).
Welcome Lady Ladile, If Baldric trusts you will be an asset I am glad to have you join our game. I have not heard from Sniggvert since yesterday before I sent him an invite to come check out our thread here.
The only characters still active out of the six I inherited are Baldric .. Fighter with a nasty reach weapon, and Zwain -- a "crazy" spell casting wizard. That leaves the traditional rouge and healer roles open for the taking.
Ultimately I want the new players to make characters they will enjoy playing, not fill party roles. If we end up with out a healer, I will just have to bump up the number of potions I give out, or an NPC relationship might develop that can help the party out.
Story is more important to me than Stat Blocks, so feel free to suggest a character or two you would be interested in playing (no need to stat them fully out until you have a final selection). You will have the final word on what character you pick, but I think getting feed back from the other players on what/how a character might join the group is invaluable to party cohesiveness. I will help then tie the character to the campaign.
While you are brainstorming some character ideas, please let me know how familiar you are with the RotRL. Have you read it, played it, or DM'd it? I am okay if you did any of these, just want to know how familiar you are with the AP over all.
I'm actually playing through it now in a real life group, currently just a little ways into Book 4. That said, we've been at it over a year so while I remember most of the major plot points of the earlier books, a lot of the smaller details are fuzzy/forgotten.
Since everyone seems flexible on what we two newcomers should be, I'll do some more thinking. Currently I've got a character or two from failed PbPs that I could rework, a character I put forth for a Feast of Ravenmoor recruitment (that I'll probably withdraw from), and I've also been itching to try a bard character as well. Decisions, decisions...
Sorry for the delay in responding, but a couple of deadlines are fast approaching and things are a little more chaotic than normal here. Once that passes (this Saturday) I should be a little quicker on the uptake.
Well met all!
Baldric, thank you for the link. I have read the gameplay and discussion threads leading up to this, an I hope to be able to blend in here. I agree with the assessment of the missing parts of a "standard" group, and actually have a couple of ideas depending on what Lady Ladile would like to play to complement the group.
Either one would be a varisian, possibly sczarni for the skill type, but probably using the Family Ties trait. I have run the 3.5 version of this, as I had to run it when I read it the first time through...I just loved the old school fantasy feel of it. It has been 3 years since that party finished the AP, so some of it has gone the way of the cobwebs of the mind, but I do have a lot of player knowledge on this. I am generally very good about keeping player and character knowledge separate, and will strive to do so with this.
Basic character outline would be as a member of one of the caravan varisian groups coming to town for the festival, that's distantly related to Jubyarl. Possible intro: while herding the less able of the community out of the way that he could, he would have seen the efforts put forth by the fighter and been impressed by his prowess.
For the divine style character, I was thinking a little older, but with some ties to the older varisians still in town, and possibly willing to band together to look into a common threat.
Play what you want to play and we will find a way to work around the missing pieces. The number 1 most important thing is that you look forward to posting your character, so make the right one at the beginning.
^ This is true, but it's harder when you have lots of different character ideas and they all sound fun!
Most of my character ideas start out relatively abstract, usually as a personality concept first that I then build a backstory and history around. I strongly considered pulling my character from the ongoing Feast of Ravenmoor recruitment to play here (with some adjustments to fit this AP) but instead I'm thinking a vanilla bard since I've never actually played one. My tentative idea is for a local who sings/works at one of the taverns in town (it can be the Rusty Dragon or a different one) and has picked up her abilities in bits and pieces from travelers that have passed through Sandpoint.
I've been at work all day and working on some other things since I got home so I've not been able to read the previous gameplay thread(s) yet, but I could see her being POed enough by the goblin raid and impressed enough with Baldric and Zwain's capabilities that she insists on joining up with them. Of course she wouldn't initially intend to stay with the group after the goblins are taken care of, but it's funny how things tend to work out... :)
And fair warning, I'm terrible at coming up with anything remotely sensible for songs on my own so I'll likely borrow/use real world songs with lyrics that won't be immersion-breaking for the setting, if that's okay.
*edit* And I just realized that she'd already know Zwain or at least know *of* him if she's a local, could make for another good way to get her into the group.
Sorry, it's been a hellish couple of weeks, and I've barely even payed attention to the place. Did get the PM's, however I'd rather everyone hear my thoughts instead of just a conversation with just me and the GM. About a month and half ago, I hit a huge stress point that just completely threw me off of everything. I tried to keep up and failed. Obviously you guys saw my lacking. However, over the last few weeks I've not been so stressed and have had time to actually post. Reason I haven't posted however, is that despite the availability and desire to post, goes back to the exact same concern I mention way back when we first started. The entire game being ran by only 2, and just maybe a 3rd player, putting the rest out of even having a say in the matter. And quite frankly, over the last few weeks that I've been keeping tabs, that's what I've seen and therefore has killed my desire to post because it's going to be quite clear that whatever I post is going to be meaningless and swept under the rug because I can't rapid fire posts 10 to 15 times a day because I unfortunately live in a different time zone and am literally gone from my house 12 plus hours a day. So if that's what you seriously and honestly want, then just friggin tell me and I'll just drop out. Otherwise I really won't have no desire to post until I see more than 2 people run the friggin and then complain about how no one else posts in a game for 6 people.
Satinder, we aren't even close to 1 post a day, let alone 10 to 15. You get what you put into the game. It's either something you want to do or it isn't.
Would love to have you stay on, but if you can't, so be it. And for what it's worth, Baldric and I are certainly arw not running away with the game, we're maintaining CPR on it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Satinder, I am honestly sorry you have been having a rough time. I have been there, I know that real life things need and must take precedence over an online RPG game with virtual strangers. I respect that your life is more important than this game and that you will and should make choices that put everything else in your life before posting in our little adventure. That is why you always have a place at our "table" you were forefront about issues holding you back from posting and I agreed to DM post for you. Later you came back and said you were ready to get your posting mojo back. I waited and waited and you did not return.
Yes we only have two people posting regularly right now. One player resigned mid combat, one player vanished with out a comment. And two others have has life issues that have interfered. Those of us who have been patiently waiting have been maintaining the game as best we can. It may look like the game is all about them, but we have only had one combat and one "turn" of PC interactions. While we want to be fair and hold places open, we also want to game to go forward so how long are we supposed to wait?
I undestand your concerns about only a few players getting all the attention. I was in a game like that and I quit because it wasn't fun. I could only post once a day or so and the game got way ahead of me since three players and the DM could post multiple times. I think they may have all been in the same group off the boards and had arranged to meet on line at a specific time.
As a DM I hold my post to one Turn or Round each day. Yes sometimes I will post secondary posts that clarify PC questions, or edit OCC information (map updates). But usually when I post is when the action moves on to the next round, turn, or necessary time jump. I try to allow everyone a chance to post before I make the next DM post, even if that means waiting a day or two. If everyone is posting fairly regular this works well.
I looked back over the thread and there are only two calendar days that have 8 posts in them and one day with 7 posts and those were both back in the beginning of October. Eight posts in one day is the most the thread has ever had. There are only nine days where the same player/DM has posted more than once, and in those cases the post didn't significantly move the thread beyond the other players, usually they were OOC types of posts. In the past few weeks there have been at most 3 posts in a day. From November 21st through 26th there were four posts made three of them by me.
In the time you have been keeping tabs, I probably made 2-3 post on your characters behalf. You could have been making those posts on your own and we have three players contributing instead of two. We have been patiently waiting for you to return, we are hopeful you would return.
From our perspective we lost 4 of the 6 regular posting characters and we want to keep the game going. After what I feel is a fair amount of time, with open communications to try and encourage you and Rhiannon to post, we decided to seek other players who were willing to post more frequently. By more frequently I mean once every day or two, which is not a very fast pace.
I like your character, and If you are ready to keep playing then great. While we recruit our other replacements take a few days to read the thread and see what has occurred, and be ready to post in the post combat DM post I will make to RE START the game. I expect that will happen after Christmas while the new players make characters and delays on posting that will occur due to Christmas. It's kind of a busy season for me as a pastor.
If things in your life are too much right now and you need to let this go, we will still hold a place for you. I want you to have fun and a PBP should not stress you out and if waiting and join us at a later time is better for that is okay. I don't want to add to your stress, in fact I would hope our adventures together would be an enjoyable way to let some of that stress go. Thats why I play.
So it is up to you. You are welcome to stay, but if you go you go with our thanks and support and an open invitation to return.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see about the new people who join and give it a shot with them to see how things go.
I think I've got it...
Varisian Stargazer Lunar oracle follower of Desna member of a clan that generally travels and makes a wide circuit from Ustalav to The Lost Coast.
Middle aged human, whose troupe made a stop to honor the Swallowtail Festival and new church in town. Would have been wandering the temple pre-attack and trying to assist getting those less than fit to the sanctuary during the assault. Could have seen the heroics put on by the party in standing up to the goblin horde.
Will try and do a full write up over the weekend if that sounds like it will fit in. Any suggestions for a tie-in would be appreciated? Since you spent some time by the temple before the attack, you may have noticed him earlier...
Sincerely,
Snigg
Rhiannon was interested in info about the temple... You could write a flashback where you met us inside and shared some interesting facts with her...that would allow her current status (mostly dead) to have more emotional impact for you and create a per-existing connection when you come running out to heal her?
And, for whatever it's worth, i think a bard would be a big asset- you could handle some of the skills we're lacking, offer some combat support (I hope) and sweet, sweet buffs, and cover some backup healing if needed.
SATINDER: I am glad you want to give it another go. Like Zwain said, you will get out what you put in. If things get hectic and you need a few days/weeks let us know and we will work around it. Communication is the key.
LADY LADILE: I think a bard is a great idea, I personally love bards. I think being an apprentice of Amekio at the Rusty Dragon is a neat tie-in to the campaign setting and Zwain's character. We can easily put her at the plaza for the goblin fight...I am sure we can insert some goblins for her to take care of while the other part of the fight was happening. We will have to take some story liberties.
SNIGGEVERT: The oracle looks good too, easy to put them at the celebration of the festival and easy to insert into he goblin raid...as well as some flashback conversations with the current PC's to help make their connection a bit stronger.
Over all I think that makes a pretty good party.
Baldric - Human Fighter
Zwain - Human Enchanter
Satinder - Assimar Ranger
Unnamed - (race) Bard
Unnamed - Human Oracle
We have combat, skills, arcane, divine and STORY!
Baldric, Satinder, or Zwain can you share what your original build rules were so all the characters are built on the same base.
Character Creation
1st Level Characters
20-point Buy
Non-Evil Alignments
Core and Featured (from the Advanced Race Guide) Races Only - No goblins
Any Paizo-created class or archetype is fine (Including the new(ish) Advanced Classes)
Max HP at level 1
Average gold for your class
2 Traits - One must be from the campaign guide
You may craft gear if you have ranks in the relevant crafting skill
You may (you're not required) take a drawback for an extra trait
I know you didn't technically ask for this, but I figured I may as well answer some of the questions you had everyone else answer when you took over this game, or at least the ones I haven't already answered that are relevant.
How familiar with Sandpoint are you?
I know a little about some of the more prominent NPCs like Shalelu, Ameiko, and Sheriff Hemlock both from playing in a real world game of RotRL and from making a character/playing the first little bit of the Jade Regent AP here on the forums. That's really about it.
How much experience as a gamer do you have with Pathfinder? How much have you had with PBP?
I've been playing Pathfinder just over a year and PBPs since March of this year. Aside from that, the bulk of my tabletop gaming career (~17/18 years) has been with AD&D 2nd Edition and AD&D 3.0/3.5. There's been a few other gaming systems my group has played (Dark Conspiracy, Vampire, Deadlands) but that's about it.
What do you want most as a player out of this campaign? What do you want most as a character?
The same thing I want out of any PBP I apply to or play in, enjoyable RP! More specifically, my real world group is a hoot to play with but they tend more towards 'roll play' than 'role play' - this is fine, but sometimes I want the chance to have deeper connections to the story/NPCs/other PCs with my character. I also view PBP as a way to improve my own writing and RPing skills, especially as there are a handful of things that I've needed to consider my personal comfort level on that normally don't come up with my real world group.
As for what my unnamed bard wants...well, I'm still working on that :)
Is there anything you want to know about me?
I think anything I could have asked has already been asked by one of the other/previous players, so nope!
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Regarding some of the concerns raised earlier about posting rates and such, I can commit to 1/day but beyond that it really depends on what's happening on a given day for me. If I'm working, 1/day is probably all it'll be since I work a 12 & 1/2 hour shift and have a 1 hour drive time each way; sometimes if things are slow in the evenings I might be able to post a little more. On the other hand, if I'm not working then I may post a little more than 1/day depending on what's happening in the game (and on my own whims at the time). If it's relevant, I'm on CST (GMT -6 I believe). Also, I'm a bit of a night owl and keep odd hours when I don't work so you'll probably see posts from me at all hours over the course of the game.
Something that I've taken to doing in the games that I'm in is adding in 'flashbacks' if the game has progressed forward but there's something that my character would have responded to or did during an earlier point. It can make posting one initial post a little long if there's a bunch of things I want to respond to that happened earlier, but it seems to work out in that I've never had any GM or other PCs tell me to cut it out.
@Satinder specifically - For what it's worth, I think I get where you're coming from, too. I've been in a few games where the posting rate could be gonzo (at least initially) and 10-15+ gameplay posts might accumulate while I was at work and unable to get in on the action. While seeing that many new posts made me happy because it was obvious that the GM/players were enthusiastic (which usually makes for a better game), I'll admit that it sometimes made me a little anxious too, a sort of 'Oh no, all this stuff is happening without me' feeling. Maybe I've been lucky, but so far people have been understanding of my posting capabilities and will respond to those 'flashback' parts of my posts if it's appropriate for their own characters to do. Whether our characters get along or not, if you make a post that involves her in some way or involves Satinder doing/not doing/saying something that I feel she'd react to, I'll post a response to it and that goes for everyone.
****************************************************
Anyhoo, I'm glad that my bard idea seems like it'll work for everyone and I'll get started working on her! I was out and about most of today but I'm off work until Tuesday so even with some other things happening over the next few days, I should be able to finish her fairly quickly.
Pretty early on the group agreed to a 1-2 post per day rate... As the GM pointed out (after surprisingly thorough research) that rate has rarely been exceeded by anyone (though obviously it dropped significantly below that for a while). So (assuming we're not revisiting that rate) if you can commit to once a day there should be no issues (though on days off you may have to exercise some restraint and try to limit yourself to 2 posts).
Really, I think that if you look at the discussion threads you'll see that we are an understanding and accommodating bunch and, like Zwain and GM said, if your willing to put a little effort in you should be able to get a lot out of this :)
Damn Lady, you've got a schedule worse than mine lol.
It's just three days a week and I have the other four days off (though not always in a row) so it's actually not that bad. It just makes for some long periods where I might not be able to post :)
Anyhoo, just popping in to say that I've the crunch done for my character and a little of the fluff. Shopping blahblahblah, parties blahblahblah, IRL gaming today and tomorrow blahblahblah...you guys know the drill. I'm hoping I can get her finished before I go back to work on Tuesday.
Yea, I've got 5 (occasional 6) days a week, so I can get drained pretty quick.
The next two weeks are going to be crazy for me. Holidays, kids off school, RPGSS voting, WORK....I will post as I can, but this week with Christmas Eve on Wednesday I am craving all my admin work into the first two days of the week.
Happy holidays everyone!!!
Happy holidays everyone.
Sorry, I have been a bit slower than I thought to get this together...but I think I have it all put together minus the backstory, which I work on as I can here, and hope to have done by end of this weekend now.
I haven't vanished, but I am now doing a funeral on top of all the holiday hustle and bustle. Hope to post early next week, but it might be after the New Year.
Still here, still need to write Gillian's backstory but I've been able to at least think about it so it shouldn't take long to write it now that the holiday bustle is more or less finished.
On that note, sad job duties aside, I hope everyone has had a good holiday.
Reading over Vili's character sheet I got really excited and then disappointed, lol. I don't know why but I love the idea of a stargazer lunar oracle with eldritch heritage [starsoul] (i had a heavens version in a short lived campaign before lunar came out)... When I saw you took focused study I thought maybe you were going for that but then saw it was just perception....
Okay, I think I've got everything done. Made one minor adjustment to my stats (everything is the same except I moved things around to free up one more point that went to Dex) and added some background information. Let me know if there's anything I need to adjust or flesh out further :)
I like your back story Gillian, I think our characters will find a few things in common down the road that could possibly make for interesting group dynamic. Anyways, so now that I'm back and actually have focus towards PbP once again, I'd like to try and catch up with what's going on here. Are we restarting this campaign with Mithril at the helm? Or picking up from where we left?
From what I understand, MDDM is going to continue the campaign and pick things up immediately from the end of the big combat with the goblins. I think there might be a little retconning done to make Gillian and Vili more visible and 'known' to the rest of the party; this might be via flashbacks to the festival where we two new folks might have interacted with you guys or flashbacks to the combat where Gillian and Vili were fighting off goblins as well. It sounds as though we might not start until early next week or after the New Year, but it seems most campaigns slow down or go on temporary hiatus for the holidays anyway.
And thanks! I was a little worried that parts of it might seem too 'samey' to Satinder's, but I think there's still enough differences that give each of them rather different backgrounds and outlooks despite sharing some things in common.
Huh, sounds like it'd work, but kinda sounds confusing... Oh well. But yea, you're fine. I'm cool with it, like I said, our characters could wind up having an interesting dynamic with similarities like that in our backgrounds. It should be fun, I look forward to seeing what happens.
Huh, sounds like it'd work, but kinda sounds confusing... Oh well.
I guess we'll have to wait and see what MDDM and the rest of the group would prefer to do. I can go either way; we can do some retconning or just pick up after the combat and let Vili and myself show up then, whatever works best.
Funny thing about Gillian's background, I determined parts of it by rolling on the tables in Ultimate Campaign for kicks, or at least the tables that made sense; that's how she wound up with two siblings. At any rate, I'm looking forward to getting started as well, it sounds like our group has quite the cast of personalities in it :)
As an aside, I normally don't follow other people's campaigns because I'm too busy writing for the ones I'm playing in, but after reading the RP for the original group, I'm really sad that it didn't pan out because it would've made for a great game to follow as well as one to play in.
I love the background generator. That's how I piece all my characters together now. Keeps my mind on my toes lol.
As I understand it, Gillian is right- after everyone confirms they're ready (and possibly after New Year's at this point) DMMD will pick things up with the aftermath of the combat. There may be some flashbacks for the two new characters, but largely the new party will come together in the wake of what happened and move forward from there. Satinder, I know you were away for a while so it might not hurt to re-read the thread (although, IIRC you hadn't actually connected with the old party at all so maybe that's moot).
Looking forward to getting this moving again :)
ps- I'm ready whenever everyone else is!
Onward, to pastries and paper hats!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Yea, I didn't get much of a chance to connect with the rest of the group.
Happy New Year, everyone! :)
Happy new year's to you all as well!
Happy 2015 :)
I know everyone's been busy with the holiday and whatnot but I don't think we've had posts confirming the new characters are all set... is everyone ready to go?
I'm ready to go, pending MDDM's approval of Gillian :)
Should be back at it soon, Happy New Year to every one. It has been a busy week for work, doctors, holidays, and family.