GM BPChocobo's Thornkeep Level 4 - The Dark Menagerie (Inactive)

Game Master Black Powder Chocobo

Miss Dominique will also be at GenCon... Elindriel, Julian/Maul, you heading to Indy, too?

We need a reunion!

Heh - nope, too much to do, unfortunately.

No, I just started a new job. I consider myself lucky enough to skype with my family 2x a week at this point

Just want to say, it was awesome to be able to meet GM BPC, Miss Dominique, and Ki at GenCon this year.

One of my highlights this year was being able to meet so many people in person that I know from the boards.

Ahhh! I missed meeting Miss Dominique! Sorry. How did that happen?

I too was pleased to meet in person 6 different people I know from the boards.

Indeed, always cool to meet people to put a face to a name.

Ahhh! I missed meeting Miss Dominique! Sorry. How did that happen?

I too was pleased to meet in person 6 different people I know from the boards.

I volunteered at the Cardgame (Organised Play in 232 and Demos in the tradehall), so I didn't have much time to spare to go to the ballroom. I was lucky that both GM BPC and Jostrum spotted me the few times I was there!

I played all the evening slots though and I played Bonekeep at the most visible table (with Cris Hays as GM and Kyle Baird, Carlos Robledo, Dan Cornett, and Derek Blyler as fellow players)

I do not know or Derek, but know the other players all pretty well. I too played Bone Keep. My table played high, but our arcane was a 7th level iconic sorcerer. This was a problem… We did not finish and had two recoverable deaths. We did get into the final room at least. To say more would be spoilerish. I will say that Zach Hall was a most excelled DM for the event. If you ever have a chance to play at his table, do so. You will find him prepared and knowledgeable.

That's one cool thing about GC; the number of top notch GMs that show up is inspiring to see. Taking in everyone's play style, eyeballing and listening in on other tables during what few brief seconds I saw... it's great to see others having so much fun.

<Rant Mode On>
I did not have a lot of good DMs at Gen Con and had 2 that were just plain bad. There exists a truism in this world that you get what you incentivise and not what you want. Players that can afford to travel to Gen Con and pay for expensive hotel rooms usually have good jobs, are intelligent, and make good players. So the level of player at the event is high. But There is a subset of DM that can only attend because hotel and badge are provided and they can be there basically for gas money. SOME of these guys are not good DMs and should not run. They even know it in some cases, but hey, free badge.

This is hard to fix. In the past there has been various vetting. DM testing can help, but does not fix the non-dymanic, way to soft spoken, lacking confidence dm who knows the rules. I had that guy one slot. Sitting right next to him and watching his lips move I could not understand him. Older Living systems allowed players to grade the DM. I liked this, but must admit it was sometimes abused by unhappy players that did not get 100% gold or died due to their own fault.

This somewhat fixes itself in local settings where poor DMs get a rep and people just do not sit at their table. We have one of those down in Birmingham. I will slip the slot before I sit with him again. But at mega cons there is currently no way to assign a quality to a DM before you experience him.

<Rant Mode Off>

That's the flip side of the coin. I think, as a whole, there are few "average" GMs at cons like this. You typically get the incentive driven folk as you suggested or the quality GMs that are passionate and put the time and energy to make it awesome.

I did hear of a couple horror stories myself, but here is the worst story I heard:

6 pregens in Bonekeep. I believe three of the players just started playing Pathfinder that day. After 30 minutes and all but two PCs slain, two of them said that they wouldn't play again.

This is both a mustering and GM snafu: the musterer should have never grouped that table at all. And the GM should have realized this and either get them moved to another game or, despite not running BK, run something else.

But overall, the good stories I heard far outweighed the bad.

One DM was sure magic missiles worked on golems, allowing it to happen, while deciding that they could not be tripped for some unknown reason. He was also very defensive about his ruling and did not want to hear he might be able to learn something about the rules. Oh well. I still managed to have fun in that mod. Another DM was just so soft spoken that I could not understand him sitting adjacent and trying to read his lips. And he seemed to soft ball most things, cheapening the win. Another mod had the DM giving us hints to do the wrong thing resulting in us loosing half the gold and getting 1 exp. His explanation - "oh, I guess I should have have encouraged that choice." He really did make us think it was the most sensible course of action so

Actually if you send your complaint to Mike Brock he will put those GMs on a blacklist and he'll make sure they are not concidered as GenCon GMs next years.

Well, I am off tomorrow for DragonCon and will not be back until Monday night. I'll have a laptop and should be abel to post most days but likely not more than once a day. Please bot me if you need to. Everyone have a good Labor Day weekend.

You too! Thanks for the heads up!

I am back from dragon con and ready to play. Lets roll some virtual dice. :)

I posted less than a minute before you Mr. GM. I think you may have missed it.

Caught that and accounted for :)

Hey guys, I'm going out of town for a business trip for a few days. I may have internet access, but I probably won't do much. I'll post when I can and should return Sept 30th.

Until then, please not if you're resting with Elindriel.

Hey guys, some family stuff came up and I'll be away from home from Thursday - Sunday. Decide on what you want to do!

So... for an after game, I just got a bunch of modules from the Great Golem Sale. I could run one of those for you guys to continue the growing shenanigans (assuming GM credit hasn't severely outleveled one of you).

So everyone, first let me know if you want to continue adventuring together! And second, let me know what level you will be after getting the 3XP chronicle from this game. I may need to run a 7-8 or 8-9 scenario first if balancing needs to be done :)

Heh, I bought a bunch of modules as well. 3.00 bucks a piece! I think I bought every sanctioned module!

Oddly, the level 8 one, No Reponse from Deepmar... I did not purchase. Accidentally purchased a second Doom Comes to Dustpawn. Rats.

I am very happy to keep playing. But for me it does not have to be PFS. We can continue with these guys, or switch. In truth I'd prefer starting something that can he longer lived with more continuity. Do you have mods that are part of a series?

I will be level 8 or 9 depending on some GM credit.

I don't have any credits to apply to Elindriel, I don't think, so she'll be level 7. I would be more than willing to play through with these characters, or to start a sanctioned AP for PFS credit at level 1 with the players. Along those lines, I'm already playing Skull & Shackles and Shattered Star for credit.

Well, one idea is, of course... starting from scratch for Emerald Spire. You'll be 13 when we're done with that!

I wouldn't turn that down!

Sounds good to me.

I have not played Emerald Spire… :)

I may try an archaist. Thoughts?

do we want to try and hammer out what we will all be playing if we decide to do the emerald spire.

I'm currently in an Emerald Spire. We just finished the first level.

That said, please don't change the module for me. We will likely find it hard to find a consensus. If it works for everyone else, I can certainly bow out.

Doing a total plow through Jostrum? The first level is repeatable otherwise :) Just making sure.

Yeah, we are supposed to be doing the whole thing. (Though, if you were to ballpark three months per level, it'll take four years!)

I might come along for the replayable.

Upvote fore that idea!

Any chance of rapping this current game up before the November 1 start of the PFS PBP Gameday 3? Posting rate seems to have dropped off.

Completely, no. There are 2 combat encounters that remain although one of them is trivial for this group. Mostly with me being gone for anfew days, just not feasible. However, I will give you fullgold and XP if you want chronicles soon. Inmay hust exclude an item or too from the chronicles.

Hmm. Well, lets see how far we can get. Next room?

Well, we need to decide on the wish. I have no further input on it, so if someone feels strongly about what the wish should be for, go for it.

I am unsure what the holdup is. I guess I need to change my mind and ask for my chronicle sheet soon. I am planning to play Ki in the PBP Gameday.

I posted up thread that I am out of the country until Sunday night. I think I will do the first level of Emerald spire since we can start that while finishing up Thornkeep. Sound good?

I posted up thread that I am out of the country until Sunday night. I think I will do the first level of Emerald spire since we can start that while finishing up Thornkeep. Sound good?

Edir: Saw the last line of Ki's post: I'll get Chronicles out by Tuesday.

So after some deliberation I have decided that for the emerald spire I am going to be doing a very odd two weapon finesse build. That will serve as a skirmisher/flanking buddy and back up healing/support. Basic idea is that he is a Red Mantis initiate sent to infiltrate the society in order to reach his target in the emerald spire.

I need to take a look at the Emerald Spire guide and see what will fit. I assume we're going to want a fairly good mix of healing/arcane/melee/range/skills?

Are we playing this with PFS characters, or in campaign mode and applying credit?

Emerald Spire is only sanctioned to be run with PFS characters. There are sixteen levels (modules), that will progress a PC from level 1 to 13.

As you see, there are sixteen levels, so, something like six of them should be played using slow track, if you want use the same PC. Essentially, it is best to create a character soley for Emerald Spire.

Ah, k, good to know.

I spent some time last night reading up on the classes in the ACG. I'm tempted to play a shaman or warpriest, but swashbuckler and bloodrager also look enticing.

Thoughts on what everyone else might be playing?

I think I'll play some arcane type. A caster for sure.

I have a tiefling that got credit right before the cutoff. Thinking maybe an arcanist, eventually.

*He will be level one and able to rebuilt, so I will build to fill in any gaps in party makeup.

My red mantis is going to going to have a level of swashbuckler, a couple of inquisitor and a couple of warpriest.

Level 1 will be a Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor.

I must say you build the most interesting characters Julian. I feel challenged to try to keep up.