All good points.
Guys, apologies for the slow/absent posting - trying to do too many things at the same time will cause that. Will start posting more often, and give this game the attention I think it deserves ;)
Without wanting to throw any sand in the gears, Heldar would probably be against simply an all out theft, mostly because the Crook-bearer has apparently not committed any crime. He seems to be the rightful owner of the mask, and it is in fact his right to have it on display or not.
I am for dealing with the Neversword first though, because I really don't think this is simply coincidence - he has probably been requested to delay and frame us (or the other way around) for some reason, and of course I would like to know why.
As far as dealing with the Crook-bearer, Heldar would prefer the diplomatic way - gathering as much information about him as possible, then trying to approach him with a reason for us wanting to take the mask. Heldar could perhaps be convinced to go as far as finding a pretense reason for wanting to "observe" the mask, then replacing it with the fake (if we can get our hands on it), going about our merry way, but returning the original once (and if) we get back - if it is for the "greater good" the Oracle may be swayed to follow that route.
Ahhh, you guys are fun. :P I like seeing your creativity so far.
Dien - what is your stance on the morality of these options given our various alignments?
Javi - CG
Heldar - LG
Rosalia - CG
Shaggar - CGAnd what about if we just 'borrowed' the mask - stealing it and then returning it? :)
So, for me, alignment is really never a huge deal. Obviously there are characters, like your traditional paladins, who I would expect to respect and uphold the law (and who might face divine consequences if they deviated from it), but on the whole, your alignment to me is whatever you guys choose to do, and not some class feature that I'm going to ding you guys points for if you 'deviate' from it.
Since nobody in this group is an LG pally or an L monk, there are no mechanical consequences that need to be worried about as far as 'straying' goes.
I think that Heldar would probably need to make some sort of stab at trying to do this lawfully in terms of 'it makes sense for his worldview' but it's not the sort of thing that I as a GM am going to start going 'no, you can't do that because your alignment is lawful' or whatever. And, of course, Heldar's already said he'd like to try the diplomatic approach anyway. ;) Just roleplay out whatever OOC decision you guys come to and I'll be satisfied, at any rate.
You guys have it fairly easy, alignment-wise. ;) Our other table has a warrior of Osirion who is bound in service of the Ruby Prince and to uphold Osirion's laws....
Anyway, hope that answers your OOC questions-- I was assuming the rest of them were meant for your fellow players, not for me, but if you need anything else clarified just let me know.
I'm really enjoying y'all as a table, just so you know.
Hey, just a heads up, the next couple of weeks (and possibly running up until closer to CHristmas) are likely to continue to be incredibly busy for me. It's the busiest time of my team's production year.
I'll try to stay active. Don't' let my absence slow the game down too much. Play Javi as needed to keep things rolling. I'll be on as I can.
Good luck with holiday hell!
I'm personally glad you're rather lax with the alignment thing! Sometimes I feel like Rosalia is veering a little too far towards the Chaos part of her CG alignment, and it's a bit rough going trying to figure out how to balance her sense of individualistic morals with her, uhhh, general disdain for most things that breathe.
Rook is for sure CE though. All cats are.
So true re: cats.
I went looking for a new cat pet today, as my last one vanished back in May and my local adoption center was having a grand opening thingjig. I saw many cats! But none of them grabbed me by the heart. Yet.
I was assuming the rest of them were meant for your fellow players, not for me...
Yes and no.
The one thing that bugs me about the PbP format (as a DM) is the inability to get a feel for the table through non-verbal cues as well as listening in on the player discussion to figure out where I need to provide more hints, do a little course correction, etc. So, I thought it would be nice for us to keep you in the loop so in case we do go off on a tangent by misreading something you wrote, you could tweak things to get us back on track... or plunge us further down the rabbit hole. :)
All well and good. At the moment, I see nothing that needs corrections or clarifications, but when necessary I'll hand-of-God ya. :P
And to answer something you semi-asked earlier about whether this bit is all improv or not... yes and no. ;) The scenario gives me rough outlines of things I can do to make things ~fun~ and then I muck around with amusing ways to fulfill those. Well, amusing for me, at least.
Javi's partial to the "borrowing" idea. We take it and return it as quietly once we're done. If we find out the crook bearer is a bad person, we can reconsider giving it back.
And I'm not sure how much trouble it would be, but tracking down the fake is still a good idea. Having a convincing duplicate of the mask on-hand could come in really, really handy.
Heldar may agree with the "borrowing" idea, but only AFTER we find out if the Crook Bearer is a bad person :D
Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't moved you along yet. I've been meaning to, but my days have been full of busy and/or the boards were down whenever I found myself with the time to post. I'm a caregiver for my grandmother, who's been nastily sick most of today, and I am beat. I'll post tomorrow come hell or high water, with a little surprise for y'all too to make up for it.
No worries, dien! I've been hella busy with my maths exam yesterday too. (I think I did alright, at least.) Hope your grandmother is feeling better soon!
Sad to see the other game apparently dead in the water as well. Such is the fate of many PBPs though.
No worries from my end - my project is giving me hell this week, and probably will keep on doing it until Christmas -> Project = Going back to school after 35 and with a built family - believe me, it can BITE at times.
Take good care of your grandma - they are the best there is ;)
@Rosalia: What other game are you guys playing in?
Oh, not playing in. The other Entombed with the Pharaohs group seems to have imploded. Sadly!
That sucks, and happens oh so often in PbP. I did notice Dien recruiting for it, but didn't realize it was going downhill.
There is at least one survivor of the SS Team Halo. Permission to come aboard, Captain?
Hello Lyrian, sorry for hearing the game went sour on your end
And now welcome to this end ;)
Welcome!
Also, in all the craziness, I never got to welcome Lyrian.
So... welcome! (I wasn't snubbing you; just crazy busy at work)
Now let's catch us a halfling thief!
... well, the other halfling thief ...
Thanks! No reason we have to limit ourselves to one, is there?
Gotta catch them ALL!
I'm working on a big work-project at the moment, and simultaneously traveling (because that's always a great idea), so I will try to get up a post to move things along in the next 24 hours but no promises. Sorry for the delay!
No worries dien, take as long as you need. December's a particularly bad month for everyone I think.
I guess we are all on the same boat. I guess the upcoming days will become even more frantic, as the Christmas madness settles in ;)
Yep. Agreed. Take care of yourself. Gotta keep our Dien in good emotional/mental health so she can bring her A-game to trying to kill us. :D
IN all seriousness, take care of yourself. We're here and ready when you are.
*flops* Kiddos, don't procrastinate
this message brought to you by someone who procrastinated on copy-editing someone else's 65-page paper on incontinence issues in people with spinal cord injuries and thus wound up doing it in a 14-hour block while in las vegas
and if you do procrastinate
then don't get paralyzed from the waist down
because let me tell you, you are not in for fun shit
(pun intended)
Well, I tried to come up with a runs/run-ons joke, but I just couldn't get it to flow.
I can sense that work is not being kind on you Dien :/
Btw, that was me ;)
I figured. ;)
And yeah, just been a very busy couple of days. Thanks for bearing with me, guys.
We await your return with bated breath.
Also, with Cheetos.
Year's end is just like that - this week is killing me. Next one will ease up ;)
Hey, i said it in the game thread, but it bears repeating so it doesn't get lost in the game talk. Sorry for my blunt post last night. I certainly don't want to set a tone of unfriendly competition or one-ups-manship or anything. Lyrian and Javi are both thief-types, let's play to that strength. :)
I didn't take it that way. No problems.
Cool. Just making sure.
Heads up: I'm pretty busy lately and doing my best to get in a post a day, but it's not always possible. If I'm holding anything up please move me along as necessary. Assume a default reaction of snarky and irritable. :)
Also, I'll be out of town for the next four days or so. I should be able to get Wi-Fi in the hotel, but can't promise anything.
Hope you're having a good trip!
On the list of random, fascinating, useless crap I've learned because of RPGs, you can now add Prince Rupert's Drops to things like 'the weights of sarcophagi lids'. Essentially, it's glass teardrops formed by dropping molten glass into cold water; they have a very high strength on one end and will literally explode if you tap them on the other end! Kind of a neat video here, if anyone else likes also learning random geeky trivia.
(This came about due to trying to figure out how much a 5x5 inch-thick sheet of tempered glass would weigh, since I know you're all curious.)
Very cool, Dien. I feel smarter already!
Sorry for my extended absence. I got sick while I was out of town and I was basically bedridden over the weekend, blah! Catching up on all my games while drugged up on flu meds is hard.
That Prince Rupert's Drops thing is awesome though, dien. Super cool!
So sorry for the sudden drop-off in posting. Holidays came harder/faster than I expected.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Merry Christmas (or whatever you prefer) everyone!
No worries, Javi, it's hitting all my games right now. Holidays do that.
Yes, a very merry Festivus season!
re: Prince Rupert's Drops-- I kind of want to make them an alchemical item of some sort! Does a d4 of piercing damage with a chance to cause bleed....
But only if you bite down on them.
Merry Christmas everyone! Holidays are still running strong for me, as my girls now need the time to play through all of their gifts ;) I'll update as soon as possible.
Wanted to drop a line to wish you all a Happy New Year!! Today and tomorrow posting will not come easy, and next weekend the family is going on a snow trip, but I'm still around. Posting will be sparse though, until next Sunday.
Enjoy the holiday everyone!
One additional note to our GM, and to our group - I am really enjoying the game - the narrative, descriptions and NPCs are well rounded and coherent. The atmosphere is immersive, and the characters all have a distinct feel and personality. Thanks all for running, and playing this. I'm sticking around for as long as it lasts ;)
I think it's slow for all of us at the moment (as evidenced by Javi, hee). I've been stuck at home minding a bed-bound grandmother, so I'm like REFRESH REFRESH on the paizo boards in between less pleasant chores...
And thanks, Heldar. I like this group too-- everyone puts thought into their tags, and all the characters, as you say, feel rounded and fun. I hope that we'll get collectively back into our regular swing in 2014, and that I'll kill you all in horrible, painful fashion continue to entertain as a GM.
I’m really, really sorry to everyone. I had anticipated the holidays being difficult to post, but (to quote that one bad guy from the WoW commercials). I was not prepared.
the holidays kicked off with two last-minute projects coming in at work. Being one of the ACD’s of the creative team, we’re left holding the bag. (Sh!t rolls downhill and all that.) So I was scrambling to get work completed right up until christmas… when we had more family than we expected come into town. we’re happy to oblige. Family is family, but it was crazy.
Then, we’re driving back to our house after Christmas, looking ahead to putting our two little ones down for a few days of R&R with just our little family… then my littler one (18 months) woke up vomiting that night. Apparently she had gotten a stomach bug from someone… which kicked off nearly a week of all 4 of my little family being sick non-stop.
Good times.
I do apologize for not posting. I thought I’d have more time than I ended up having. But at least I have this one day to get a few of our home projects done before work starts up again tomorrow.
Yay!
I figured it was holiday craziness in general, Javi. Glad that you're still with us, even through the crazy of family and sickness.
I've been having a week myself. *facepalm* My grandmother had a fall and managed to hit her head... in two different spots, I'm not sure how you do that with one fall, but she's talented. Add to that car troubles, late paychecks....
Let's all hope 2014 is better! And full of excellent gaming for us all.
Oof. Hope your grandmother is okay. And car and paychecks... sigh... yep.
Your GM is laughing hard right now, guys. I forgot that I needed to roll for how many of them appear-- at first I was just assuming one. But eight is much funnier. :P
For the record, Javi, you would have to hit a 40 to open that lock. Good lock = DC 30, with Arcane Lock bumping it to 40. The fault lay not with you but with your stars, or something.
(And my grandma seems to be improving, thank you!)