If you do decide to allow them, I would suggest that you give the players a chance to retcon their builds to add any type of trait/feat associated with hero points if they so choose.
If we were to introduce Hero Points to the game, are there any players who would want to retcon their character in this way, and if so, what changes would you make?
Dunagan, here’s a list of farming tools. Feel free to edit your purchases accordingly if something takes your fancy. I’ve excluding some ‘farming’ tools (e.g. billhooks, mallets, picks, pitchforks, scythes etc.) because they can easily be used as weapons, thus might get you into trouble with the Watchknights. Though, should Dunagan be willing to court trouble I’ll happily add these as well.
1. Haresses and yokes for draft animals (from 15 lbs) – from 5 gp to 20 gp depending on the size of the team and the type of draft animal (oxen or horses)
2. Hoes (5 lbs) – 3 gp each
3. Plow (15 lbs or 30 lbs) – Small 8 gp (pulled by a mule, man or donkey) Large 15 gp (pulled by a horse or ox)
4. Rakes (2 lbs) – 2 sp each
5. Leather Seed-Sowing Bags (0.5 lbs) – 2 gp each
6. Shovel (6 lbs) – 3 gp each
7. Sieve (0.5 lbs) – 2 gp each
8. Sturdy Wheelbarrow (12 lbs) – 15 gp each
9. Shoddy Wheelbarrow (10 lbs) – 5 gp each
10. Packet of Seeds – 1 gp per pound
Pyotr, hopefully things have calmed down for you as I am looking forward to typing up some more jests about the super-persuasive half-orc of Lastwall =).
Business is booming! I will not complain about that.
Two brand-new trainee managers, my oven crashing and requiring 2 separate specialists to repair (and 8+ hours of work time which bled in to 2 separate peak shifts), a surprise internal inspection (which I passed quite nicely), and a boatload of extra nonsense dumped on me by the vice president of operations and my area director... all during the busiest weekend we've had since the Superbowl! Bah...!
[/rant]
Should be fine from here on out. =)
Hi guys. As mentioned in my PM, I've invited Pellius Fullonna's player to join our campaign now that Tibal has withdrawn. I hope this okay; I certainly didn't get anything to the contrary by PM.
Assuming Pellius wants to join (I'm pretty sure he does!), I've asked him to introduce himself on the Discussion thread. At an appropriate point in play he'll join the Gameplay thread.
Please make him welcome!
If it's useful, storywise, for the group to begin coming together, then Pyotr can begin spending his nights at the caravan camp. Otherwise, I think he would remain as long as possible at the Cathedral. (Though, I hated missing the exchange between Bonegrit, Ironcoffer, and Zriorinta...)
Actually, it would be more useful for him to stay at the Cathedral tonight. Cackle
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Hey everyone,
I love the game you guys have going here and I'm excited I was asked to join. I hope I can add to it and make it even better.
I've been following the game since the beginning so I actually know what's going on and it was very lucky on my part that one of the players had to drop out.
In any case, I'll be playing Pellius, a magus-soldier of Lastwall, originally from Cheliax (with a healthy hatred of House of Thrune and an unconditional love of Iomedae).
I'll wait until the DM comments as I don't want to step on anyone's shoes but I have some ideas how Pellius may have come in contact with some of your PCs.
Keep up your great game!
Pyotr, hopefully things have calmed down for you as I am looking forward to typing up some more jests about the super-persuasive half-orc of Lastwall =).Business is booming! I will not complain about that.
Lucky you. My business is booming but we don't get paid by how much business we have, we get paid by... On second thought, I'll refrain from the politics ;)
Delkaneth, your experience sounds very familiar to my own. I've always thought of hero points as 'get out of jail free' cards. Very useful for unforgiving campaigns (or DMs - not to say DM Tadpole is one, so far he's been quite the opposite =)).
I've added the trade goods to my character sheet. I went with the 1 shovel (along with the salt and 4 pots of honey). Hehe, 'the man' is keeping the poor farmer down with those outrageous prices!
EDIT: Hi Pellius! Welcome to the group... it's too bad you didn't choose Krogar, there would have been some interesting roleplay there between the dwarves =)
EDIT: Hi Pellius! Welcome to the group... it's too bad you didn't choose Krogar, there would have been some interesting roleplay there between the dwarves =)
Well, it wasn't much of a choice. The DM said that Pellius would be a better fit and I said, "Yes, sir!" :)
All kidding aside, Krogar was pretty neat but I think Pellius will be just fine and he IS a better fit for the current party.
I'm not against having Krogar as an NPC so if you want to 'tag him' and the DM is Ok with that, feel free to do so and I will respond.
Welcome to the Discussion thread Pellius. You've a PM from me in your inbox, and feel free to suggest ideas about how your character might be linked to others in the group. Pyotr seems like an obvious choice given your shared love of Iomedae.
I'm happy for Krogar and family to be existing NPCs of Vigil; I can easily imagine the city having two excellent families dwarven smiths (after all, weapons are always going to be an expanding market considering Vigil's troubles). I'm not sure whether they'd be any reason for him to 'walk on stage' before the caravan departs, but you never know.
outrageous prices!
I know what you mean! Didn't find any tool prices in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, but did come across quite a neat list in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue (now that's going back aways). The prices did seem a little steep, but I marked that to the fickle nature of the market and left them be.
Welcome to the Discussion thread Pellius. You've a PM from me in your inbox, and feel free to suggest ideas about how your character might be linked to others in the group. Pyotr seems like an obvious choice given your shared love of Iomedae.
I'm happy for Krogar and family to be existing NPCs of Vigil; I can easily imagine the city having two excellent families dwarven smiths (after all, weapons are always going to be an expanding market considering Vigil's troubles). I'm not sure whether they'd be any reason for him to 'walk on stage' before the caravan departs, but you never know.
You stole my thunder with regards to Pyotr but it wouldn't be crazy to think that Pellius spends a good deal of time in prayer the night before the caravan leaves.
In fact, I think the link with the Paladin will be strong as I intend to explore the aspects of 'why didn't Pellius become a paladin' so he will be spending plenty of time with the half-orc.
The fact that Pellius is an accomplished rider may be Pyotr's link.
With the other PCs, a soldier is always looking after his weapons so Pellius could have known Dunagan in that aspect.
Delkaneth may have been seen in the mage's civil guild, of which Pellius is a regular.
With regards to Bonegrit, maybe the ranger knew Pellius' brother (also a ranger now gone missing) who served the city scouting unit (which Pellius also serves) so the link could be forged there.
I'm just thinking out loud here so feel free to add to or discard the above.
Welcome to the game, Pellius!
With regards to Hero Points. My only experience with it was the modified "Harrow Deck" version in the Carrion Crown AP. I enjoyed it in that campaign. I wouldn't mind using it here.
Hmmm... Endlessly cackling Skeletor... That can only be good news, right?
Hmmm... Endlessly cackling Skeletor... That can only be good news, right?
Though like his mother, DM Tadpole is prone to make a big fuss over matters which are really not that terrible . . .
Oh, thanks for the stat spoiler by the way.
If I may comment on the Hero Points:
I've never used them in my games; I always thought they were too powerful but I guess it depends on how 'severe' the DM is.
I use 'action points', of which you get a maximum of 3 per level and provide 1d6 bonus to any d20 roll.
Hey guys,
Pellius was asking about Vigil's marks of justice and checking my notes posted on page 1 of the Discussion thread I realised I made a slight goof
Soldiers of Vigil bear the Shield Mark, a second mark of justice upon the left palm in the shape of Iomedae’s symbol, swearing to faithfully serve their commanders, to protect the life of any citizen in danger (even at the risk of their own), and to temper justice with mercy and uphold the crusader ideal.
This should of course read Sword Mark. Soldiers of Vigil bear the Shield and Sword Marks. Citizens have just the Shield Mark.
@ Pellius: That's OK about Krogar. I think I really just wanted another Dwarf on the team so that I wasn't the only dwarf in the realm of orcs =)
Perhaps I should have begun my backstory with, "Call me Pyotr." ;)
Let the record reflect I tried to avoid going down this path.....
Sorry Del, I think I must have misinterpreted your wishes. I wasn't sure what you wanted to do at that juncture.
jogs after her. I wonder how SHE would have countered that move.....?
I took this to mean he was going after her to ask her the question in his head. Still, it didn't seem to go too bad, and we all got a nice tale from Delkaneth's past as part of the bargain! :-)
Hey all,
Loathe as I am to take Bonegrit’s important decision out of his hands, I think we need to move the story forward to the next day of the campaign, when the Strander Stakes horse race is due to take place. Rather bad luck that his character moment coincided with his sad news from the real world.
I’d like you all to go and take a look at Bonegrit’s dilemma if you haven’t already (in the spoiler of the second post of the second page of the Gameplay thread). Then I’d like you all to post in the Discussion thread what you think Bonegrit would do in such a situation.
If Bonegrit hasn’t been able to check in and give us an answer in roughly the next 24 hours (which I really hope he can do, because it’s a real shame to take important character defining moments out of a character hands), we’ll go with the consensus of our opinions and move the campaign forward to the Strander Stakes.
Hero Points
Having read over the rules, and taken on board the thoughts and opinions of my good players, I’d like to implement the Hero Point system in our game and give each PC one hero point.
However, I have one important caveat. I’d like to exclude the feats, traits, spells and magic items associated with hero points. My reasoning being I don’t want to put too much emphasis on hero points. They deal with a game space that is by nature somewhat foggy (to quote the APG “you can petition the GM to allow a hero point to be used to attempt almost anything that would normally be nearly impossible”) and I’d rather have everyone on a fairly level playing field in that regard. I’d also rather you spent your feats and traits etc on choices that give your PC more definition as a character.
If you agree, shout the name of your favourite hero on the Discussion thread below, like this:
Hey all,
Loathe as I am to take Bonegrit’s important decision out of his hands, I think we need to move the story forward to the next day of the campaign, when the Strander Stakes horse race is due to take place. Rather bad luck that his character moment coincided with his sad news from the real world.
I’d like you all to go and take a look at Bonegrit’s dilemma if you haven’t already (in the spoiler of the second post of the second page of the Gameplay thread). Then I’d like you all to post in the Discussion thread what you think Bonegrit would do in such a situation.
If Bonegrit hasn’t been able to check in and give us an answer in roughly the next 24 hours (which I really hope he can do, because it’s a real shame to take important character defining moments out of a character hands), we’ll go with the consensus of our opinions and move the campaign forward to the Strander Stakes.
I see no reason why Bonegrit would take the 'potion'. He would ride as is after explaining the risks to Dierik (which it sounds like he already knows).
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I like what you did with the hero points (I'll have to read up on them to see what they can really do): allowing them but not making them available for 'metagaming' so:
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This is from Bonegrit's "Personality" tab:
He has always harbored a secret longing to belong, however, which always manages to eventually coax him out of hiding and into one of the human settlements to be found in the vicinity...
...He does not wish to make himself an easy target, but he will be no one's lapdog or mascot either....It is Bonegrit's hope that he might one day find his way among friends some day, accepted for what he is rather than being cultivated into something else. He is neither human nor orc, and will never pretend to be.
Certainly, he could take the potion and then spend some length of time being seduced by the memory of the experience. But, truthfully, I think the idea of becoming the beautiful, dashing hero would be somewhat anathema to Bonegrit.
Also...
^ oh no, Im fine with where its going (and so is he, by the way). He was just trying to not be a hound and I was trying not dominate to the thread with him gettin' his groove on.
Glad to hear I wasn't stepping on your toes there. And making friends with abrasive young swordsladies is just as valid character development as saving the world or fretting about terrible events in the backstory.
Which is a bigger part of his personality; the wisdom of being cautious or the thrill of man and beast working together to victory? I'd think he would spend some time in the public places of the city like markets etc and gauge the crowd's reaction to him to help make the decision..
Unfortunately Bonegrit's not here to answer these questions for us.
However, I can offer the following. Half-orcs do live in Vigil without being lynched (Pyotr the obvious case in point), and many Vigilants see past their fear of orcs to the individual beneath the skin. However, the truth is that discrimination is a fact of life for these few half-orcs, though usually this comes in the form of looks of disgust or verbal abuse rather than outright violence.
In the case of the Strander Strakes, the problem lies in 'a perfect storm' of factors likely to leave the Vigilants mightily annoyed.
1. Isabellina's Arrow is from a line of horses famed in Lastwall, and he should be bearing a brave knight to the battlefield, not bearing Dierik Ironcoffer into the Hold of Belkzen on a mission to fill his own money purse.
2. Dierik Ironcoffer left Vigil known for being a scoundrel of the worst sort; broken hearts, shamed maidens, unpaid debts, sordid defamation of his fellows and all kinds of other bad behaviour. For him to show up back in Vigil intending to lead a caravan into enemy territory, then buy the best horse in the realm in the hopes of winning a popular horse race has affronted many.
3. He's chosen a rather orcy looking half-orc to ride his horse to victory.
Of course, Zriorinta is exaggerating. If Bonegrit rides the Arrow to the back and stays there, the Vigilants will feel pretty pleased with themselves and Bonegrit will be in no danger. If he wins, it's hard to guess what will happen.
:-)
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Bonegrit seems happy to please, but the potion goes directly against that last sentence in his personality description. I would say that he would not take the potion.
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Sorry guys; been rough going and not been staying in a spot with internet. I should be officially back home and more stable by Thursday. I can briefly say Bonegrit would not take the potion. For him, it would be tantamount to being ashamed of his nature, and he's not. He also wouldn't think he had a shot of winning, so he doesn't see the lynching as a possibility.
That said, I apologize again for the absence all, and look forward to diving back into this game when I got some traction again.
No need to apologize. Some things take precedence.
Bonegrit! We look forward to getting you back, and I'm glad we got to hear the important decision from the horse's mouth, so to speak. That being said, take all the time you need.
And certainly, no apologies, necessary.
With an almost full chorus of heroes, I have this to say: "Award yourself each each."
Also, to Pellius:
Running the Stakes
If you’ve checked out the Gameplay thread, you’ll see that it’s time for the Strander Stakes horse race. A chance for a bit of action and drama, and also a chance to make a killing if you choose to bet on the right horse . . .
Just a bit of info on how I plan on running the race:
• Although there are twenty horses in the race, to make things easier we’ll only be focusing on ten of them, mainly to make bookkeeping easier for me. The rest are the 'also rans' . . .
• I’ll make a map of the race track, but I won’t track the horses’ movements on the map, I’ll describe them in the thread (the map will just be a useful reference tool).
• Progress in the race will be made by a series of Ride checks. Until Bonegrit’s back with us full-time, if I ask for a Ride check whoever posts first can make it on his behalf. This will keep things moving quickly. Most of the Ride checks will be opposed checks with the other competitors (with a few exceptions). I haven’t got a concrete system of tracking progress, it’ll be much more narrative (describing progress based on the how high the rolls are and the difference between the rolls of different riders).
• Whilst Bonegrit’s busy racing, there’ll be other stuff for the PCs to do beyond cheering him on.
There's been some lovely RP posts overnight. Well done guys! Off to work.
Pyotr; just a couple of notes to get us on the same page visualisation wise; the ‘race track’ is little more than the normal trade road turned over to the purpose of the race. As such, there’s little in the way of infrastructure, the Vigilants have long since learnt building anything outside of the city walls survives only so long as it takes for the next orcish warparty to dare come close enough to smash it. Thus your descriptions of manicured lawns might not be on the money, nor the luxury box (I imagine there are comfortable folding chairs for hire, perhaps with a canvas umbrella to keep off the sun for the more well to do like Lyrica). On the whole though, it’s a humbler, temporary affair.
Not that I want to curtail on the elaborations any of you add to your posts, they add detail to the campaign world, and pointing in interesting new directions for the DM to go. :-)
I especially like the creation of Lyrica Ericsdottr (some Ulfen blood there it seems) to explain Pyotr’s insider knowledge. I like how due to Lyrica’s blindness, it’s left ambiguous as to whether Lyrica knows Pyotr’s half-orc heritage or not.
I think I understand. I wasn't intending to imply a coliseum style setup, or anything like you might find at the Kentucky Derby... I guess I just assumed that the wealthy and socially affluent would have "preferred seating" at the starting line (which I assume is also the finish line), and that they would have provided for their own creature comforts (even in just a temporary or modular fashion).
I'm glad you liked her! She was fun to flesh out, even just for a little bit. Makes me wish I had more time to write... sigh.... Well, back to work.
The weather for one; it’s rained in the past few days and the field is heavy.
The ground is good and hard. How does it look to you, dear? It feels to me that it's in quite good condition. That's a blessing.
Hmmm... Our experts seem to be of differing opinions! Lol! Who will be proved more knowledgeable? The gossipy Dame, or the retired jockey? =)
The weather for one; it’s rained in the past few days and the field is heavy.The ground is good and hard. How does it look to you, dear? It feels to me that it's in quite good condition. That's a blessing.Hmmm... Our experts seem to be of differing opinions! Lol! Who will be proved more knowledgeable? The gossipy Dame, or the retired jockey? =)
LOL. Given that your diplomacy roll soundly beat mine, I would say... "it's rained in the past few days BUT the ground drained quite well AND the ground is good and hard..."
Right now it's been pretty much a player-DM type of roleplaying. I'm looking forward to when we all meet and can interact with each other in addition to just with NPCs.
Whilst Bonegrit’s busy racing, there’ll be other stuff for the PCs to do beyond cheering him on.
Who says I'm cheering him on? C'mon Samair!!! :)
Game on!
1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
Ugh... Not exactly first out of the gate. Sorry, Bonegrit.
More on the Stakes
All bets are in and the race is on! A couple of extra notes on how we'll be running the race.
- Tipped by the Tipsters. Two horses have been singled out by the tipsters as having a good chance of winning: Arnisant's Valour and Tallaset Tarn. To reflect this, Tallaset Tarn will get three chances to reroll a bad dice over the course of the race. Arnisant's Valour will get two chances.
- Over the first lap, I'll call for single Ride checks over each stage; describing that stage of the course in the Gameplay thread. After the first lap we'll pick up the pace, and I'll call for multiple Ride checks to represent a single lap.
It seems to me that there is a lovely little rise just northwest of the obstacle at the Ashelflow that would grant an unobstructed view of the bend south of the Great Golden Oak, the Turning Post, and the Ashelflow herself. May I suggest that locale?
Gaming Philosophy: Natural 1s and 20s
We all know a natural 20 on an attack roll is an automatic hit and threatens a critical hit. I’d also like to implement a natural 1 as a critical fumble; i.e. an automatic miss, plus something bad happens. I might get hold of the critical fumble deck for this purpose, but I’ll also take into account the nature of the combat and the surrounding environment when deciding what happens (e.g. fighting on the slippery deck of a rain swept ship; you lose your feet and fall prone). A natural 1 firing into melee will invariably mean you strike someone you didn’t mean to. I’ll try not to take critical fumbles too far (e.g. your new longsword+1 won’t break in half).
I’d also like to extend the same philosophy to other 1d20 rolls. 1s and 20s don’t indicate automatic success or failure on skill checks, but as the DM I’d like to have the option of saying something cool (on a 20) or uncool (on a 1) occurs. Perhaps not every time, but if there’s a potential for something fun or interesting it would great to grab hold of it.
May I suggest that locale?
Sounds good to me. You probably wouldn't be able to see the start/finish line itself from there.
Regardless of where you are seated, I'll be describing the race in its entirety :-)
Natural 1s and 20s:
As long as the monsters and NPCs are effected the same, then I agree. Hero points will undoubtedly be used to try and negate the critical failures by a re-roll =).
Why do I get this feeling that some sort of combat is going to erupt... At least Dunagan has Callan at his side!
I’ll assume the spells prepped on his character sheet are the default spells he has ready at any given time. If Pellius prepares different spells for the day, record it as such in the Gameplay thread (in the same way Dunagan’s been doing).
For the sake of fairness, let’s say Pellius can purchase a horse at a reduced rate similar to the other PCs. The horse will have no individual traits, but it will have traits based on its breed. Feel free to have a look at the spoilered section regarding horse breeds in Vigil on the 1st page of the Discussion thread (no need to roll). Let me know what kind of horse you might be interested in and I’ll give you a price.
Of course, a horse is by no means necessary; Pellius may wish to spend his coin elsewhere.
As long as the monsters and NPCs are effected the same, then I agree.
Dunagan has the right of it, monsters and NPCs affected just the same.
Gaming Philosophy: Natural 1s and 20s
We all know a natural 20 on an attack roll is an automatic hit and threatens a critical hit. I’d also like to implement a natural 1 as a critical fumble; i.e. an automatic miss, plus something bad happens.
I’d also like to extend the same philosophy to other 1d20 rolls. 1s and 20s don’t indicate automatic success or failure on skill checks, but as the DM I’d like to have the option of saying something cool (on a 20) or uncool (on a 1) occurs. Perhaps not every time, but if there’s a potential for something fun or interesting it would great to grab hold of it.
Critical fumbles can be very bad, depending on how 'bad' the DM wants it to be. For example, dropping a weapon in the middle of a fight surrounded by the enemy can be nasty.
In a similar manner that a natural 20 requires a 'confirmation roll', may a suggest that a critical fumble also require some sort of confirmation roll.
BTW, thanks for the character study; I'll make comments in 'my morning'.