GM Crunch's Bid for Alabastrine (CORE)! (Inactive)

Game Master Saving Cap'n Crunch

That's always one of the handier items for characters without a lot of muscles.
Like sorcerers (like me!).

or wizards ;-)

Additional items bought 2 sets of courtier clothing (2x30=60gp)

them too!

Or scholars. Especially scholars. We have lots of books to carry.

Two MW books (100gp total; Planes and Religion) and one set of courtier clothing (30gp) with appropriate jewelry (50gp, bahh, that could have been another book for my library).

Looks like I had a post eaten. Here's how the magic items are divvied up:

scroll of resist energy (5) - Beronûsh
scroll of lesser restoration (5) - Riceak
wand of cure light wounds (22) - Riceak
wand of cure light wounds (50) - Khellek
wand of enlarge person (49) - Beronûsh

Of course, hopefully we won't need them!

Got it, thanks!

That scroll of Resist Energy has 5 uses, does it?

That scroll of Resist Energy has 5 uses, does it?

Yep.

Thanks!
Just want to make sure I plug in the right information in my HL file.

nICE!

Okay, I shared the map and the tracking sheet with Khellek and Beronûsh before I discovered how to make them public. This new-fangled technology! Anyway, please place yourselves as you see fit and tell me if it still doesn't work.

It's working.

Looks good.

Got it now.
Thanks.

For purposes of this spell, an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe.

If you target a square that currently has a foe in it, then that breaks your invisibility.

Magga's only useful skill for the bidding is likely to be Knowledge (local), so if you guys could leave some of those checks for her, I would appreciate it. That is, assuming you guys have the other necessary skills trained :-)

We'll put together a sheet with what skills are required and who has them, and then see if we can work out an optimal mix for folk. Still need to think about who we should try to get the wharves as well as their own preferred area.

Luckily with six of us, we can hit them all each turn, with a couple of goes against any we are getting misses on.

Good idea about that skill spreadsheet! The bidder tracking sheet will contain the information you have on each one, including applicable skills, strengths, weaknesses, results of each round, and so on.

Also, one thing I forgot to mention: Succeeding or failing influence checks by high margins. Success by 5 or more also gives a piece of information, as per a successful Analyze check, 10 or more yields either that or two successful Influence checks, PC's choice.
Failure by more than 5 or more means the specific PC can no longer influence the NPC with the skill they used, 10 or more means they are unable to influence the NPC for the rest of the scenario.

And we need the analyse results to get an idea of the skill DC we would be targeting?

Are take-ten's allowed in this situation?

All I can tell you there is that the DC is moderate, and you will probably have an estimate as you begin to make more checks. The DC of the free check is slightly higher due to the increased difficulty of getting information at the manor alone.

From what I can tell, there are no more opportunities in the scenario to take ten. All of the checks, although not "threatened" or performed under duress, were too pivotal in the eyes of the designer to have a skilled character automatically succeed at them too often.

I've added a skills tab to the bidders sheet, and populated the skills in it as we become aware of their relevance.

I've put know Khellek's matches against those skills as well, if the rest of you can put down your matches that would be great. Then we can work out who should be targeting which bidder.

Rather than bog down the game play forum too much:

Analyze checks require Knowledge (local or nobility) or Sense Motive checks. Influence checks vary by NPC, and require successful Analyze checks to figure out what they are. The ones you know are in the spreadsheet.

That explains why Irith Nomazmo and Myrosype have empty Influence slots!

Yeah, I probably shouldn't post my entirely OOC posts in the Gameplay thread, but I'm learning. For your free Analyze check, Beronûsh, since you don't have Knowledge (local, nobility, or religion), you can either do a Sense Motive on Temel Passad, to learn his strengths or weaknesses, or determine the trade interests of Cyran Androtus.

Also, having reviewed the Exchange faction thingy, Beronûsh can get help on identifying trade interests, if he asks for it. It doesn't actually say anywhere that he can't, just that he must also impress the bidder at their event and personally succeed at a standalone Influence check. It came to my attention because the only usable skill for the task that he has is Knowledge (arcana), which makes it much more difficult, drawing out of party time and resources for the check to be made and potentially failed.

How many people do we want to try and succeed at? I suspect that this is one of those situations where we will fail completely if we try to accomplish too much.

Magga will have a penalty for all influence checks, so that leaves five players times four rounds. Let's assume it takes 2-3 checks to succeed with a given bidder, that means we need 10-15 successes out of 20 attempts. Since we won't always succeed, it will probably take at least 15 of our 20 attempts. That doesn't leave much room for analysis, error or Beronûsh's faction goal. We might be better off completely ignoring one bidder, probably Myrosype.

Well you can always try to assist us. Never underestemite the power of aid another. And worst, I can lend you a book to boost your knowledge skills :-)

I think the GM said no aiding on these checks :-(

I don't think there is any point in trying to influence Myrosype as we are going against her anyway. We should just ignore her. Sounds like she will be trying to get everything anyway, which kind of works in our favor as it spreads out her resources.

The only reason I want to analyse Myrosype is to get an idea of how to
get others to stonewall her by figuring out what her weaknesses might be.

As I see it, influencing someone else to mess her plans up is a good way
to go about things.

We already know her plans though, she is trying to get all five areas :-)
Still, if we can learn something helpful it may come in handy later.

I'm thinking along the lines of a debuff.
How best to cause her problems; but indirectly, through someone else.

We do know her plans.
But it would help to know her strengths and weaknesses too.

I think Beronûsh's idea depends on what mechanics the scenario allows us for disrupting Myrosype. If our influence is limited to increasing bids, then what do we gain by interacting with her? However, what if we also have the ability to influence someone into not bidding? Then we can influence her to stop chasing places.

There are variables, true enough.
Might not be able influence as we'd like.
I'd like to figure out how to manipulate others to stonewall her.
If possible.

Just made yet another massive post, but the only way to get other bidders to "stonewall" her is to get them to outbid her on districts.

Sounds like a piece of cake!
(Cake made out of granite. :D)

In future rounds can we continue to influence the same people with the same skills, or is it a "once per skill per character" type thing?

Sorry I wasn't on today, I had to take my cat to the vet yesterday after school and then taught this morning/afternoon for the diocese. Catching up on games now.

Khellek: You can certainly continue to do that.

Riceak: No problem. Besides, I will automatically condone any excuse that has anything to do with a cat.

Edit: Oh my sweet possibly-existent-but-still-has-yet-to-be-proven God, are you seeing what I'm seeing?! Thurston Hillman made his post at 7:22 AM (for you schmucks who use 12-hour time, although most of the world does). The number of this scenario is 7-22. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

As a GM, I don't have a set rule or method for allowing rerolls. As a player, I make the decision when posting. And there's no way I'm wasting a reroll on a check where Magga has a penalty :-P

As a GM I'm not too strict about rerolls. But I hate them. In fact, as a player I have a strong aversion to using it at all and the only way I would consider using it anymore is to save another character's life. I guess I'm showing my true colors here by openly calling it a bogus rule but when I spoke out against it a couple years ago I just got shouted at for being a mean GM who just wants to kill characters. I think those of you who have played in my games know that's not the case; I just think that in a ~4 game with maybe 3 combats at most, a reroll (especially with a bonus!) is a bit of a game-breaker and as a player it kinda takes the fun away knowing I've got an ace in the hole in case anything ever happens. Takes away some of the suspense and risk of failure imo. So I really try never to use mine, but if others use them it's technically in the rules so they have a right to do so.

You might like my local group, Hakotep. Many of our players use their rerolls on rp-related skill checks that have nothing to do with the success of the scenario.

Normally I use mine on my day job.

That said another character of mine just used hers to stop being turned to stone. That group had no real way to get her back, so it was kind of helpful :-)

I've played in homebrews that had some sort of reroll mechanic, either as a reward for good RP or as a symbol of the party's heroic importance. For me, the larger problem isn't the reroll, but the nature of organized play.

In a long campaign, character death doesn't prevent one from playing like it can in PFS. I think that Paizo keeps the scenarios easy because they are afraid to lose customers if too many characters die.

Riceak, "impress the host" and "influence a bidder" are different actions. I believe Diplomacy can only be used on the second action. Yes, the host is one of the bidders, but did you mean the influence or impress him?

Indeed, to impress the host requires a skill check, which varies by event. In this case, the skills you can use are Craft (alchemy), Knowledge (nature), and Profession (gardener). The Craft and Profession skills can be made untrained.

This is a little confusing in a PbP

Yeah, I see what you mean.

The way I see it, the bidding rounds are kind of like combat rounds. Instead of a movement and a standard action we each have a chance to

1: Impress the host (gives advantages against the host later on)
2: (this round, not sure about others) analyse someone to get ideas about things we should or shouldn't say to them to get bonuses and
3: Either Analyse or influence someone. (impressing someone is like getting a hit on them)

The combat will be "won" if we get enough influences (hits) on each of the targets (bidders).

At some stage we need to work out one that we want to try and go for the docks as well as their preferred location.

Khellek: Great way to put it! I have been talking to someone via PM and they suggested something similar. I will implement that at the start of the next round.