Welcome to the group Sven!
Thanks, happy to be with everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!
By the way, where is everyone staying? I know Noro and Sven are at the Feedbag, is everyone else at the Rusty Dragon?
Yeah, Adarion is staying at the Rusty Dragon.
Belated Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating it.
Rusty Dragon
Happy thanksgiving as well!
As a side note, I believe we may have lost Marvin as well. I sent him a PM today. If I don't hear back in the next day or two, I will see about getting a replacement.
In the meantime, I will move us ever onward.
Hopefully not. The forum blowing up seems to have hit a lot of games pretty hard, slowing things down and/or losing players. Thanks for all your efforts to keep the game moving Dak, I'm really enjoying it!
Yeah, it happens. Sad that it happened so soon to the start of things, but I suppose it is better to find replacements now instead of later.
Waiting to hear back on my spoiler from Noro today, otherwise I will move us forward tomorrow. If I don't hear back from Marvin tonight I will start looking for a replacement tomorrow.
So I have a question for you all. Since we've lost 2 people and potentially a 3rd as Noro hasn't really been around, what would be your preference?
1) Continue on and just re-recruit.
2) Start over and recruit for the missing 1-2 spots?
I'm ok either way, I just thought since we aren't too far along anyway, that a restart may help with some of the disjointedness and avoid having to keep introducing new characters.
Let me know your thoughts. Also, I'm hoping it's a "not me, but them" type of thing, but if there is something you think I could be doing better to keep people invested please let me know. I haven't had this problem with my other games so far so I'm hoping it was just a poor combination of circumstance.
It's a bit of a cop-out but I'm okay with either option. I can see advantages to both and we're not that far into it.
It's definitely not you GM Dak. Another game I'm in is having similar, if not worse, issues. After the forum blew up we lost the GM and then a slow succession of players. That was even after a new GM graciously agreed to run it for us. It's looking like that game might die if things continue as they are. These types of game don't seem to do well with a long break in posting (like the forum going down) and it's difficult to get them back on track again.
I’m happy to do either, as long as you’ll have me. About half of my games have become ghost towns, so I expect this is more common than many people would like.
Will wait for Nyx to chime in, but I'm personally leaning toward a fresh start. It's one thing to lose a player 6 months or a 1 year and find a replacement, but losing 2-3 of the originals, plus one replacement already and we are still only at the beginning of book one, just leaves a sour taste in my opinion.
Maybe as a sort of compromise we could do a bit of a mixed fresh start. IE instead of going through the whole goblin fight again, we pick up at the point of you chasing off the goblins? That is about the point where things started going crazy with the forums. Or if you don't mind playing through a bit of what you've already done we can just start completely fresh.
Either way with a fresh start, you guys are more than welcome to adjust your characters, backgrounds, etc if you like and then I can fill in the remaining roles from there.
I'm A-OK with a fresh start. Also, I can recommend this AP to some IRL friends who also happen to PbP consistently and well, if that's OK?
EDIT: I'm OK with a fresh start or a "mixed" fresh start. Whatever works. I don't want to change my PC or role in the group; I've had this particular character in mind for a while and this AP is perfect for his concept. I originally put him together for a different AP but the flavor was all wrong.
@Adarion and Sven: are y'all keen on keeping your same characters/roles?
I'm fine with the restart. If you'd like to start completely fresh (initial goblin battle included) for the sake of the replacements, I've no issue with that.
@Nyx: I've no issue with bringing in your friends in provided the GM is okay with that. I'd like to keep Adarion roughly the same. I might adjust his spells a little. I haven't used gravity bow at all yet and don't think it'll be used for a while yet as his accuracy isn't really good enough to waste the spell use on. I was thinking of taking grease instead but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any?
Grease is one of the best spells in the game, useful from level 1 through endgame. My 17 wizard in Mummy's Mask AP used it to make a boss drop his weapon recently.
Unfortunately, a Sorcerer's accuracy with a bow will never be very good because their BAB only progresses at 1 per 2 levels. It doesn't keep pace with the typical monster armor class. You might feel more effective using your spells to debuff enemies, buff allies, and control the battlefield than you will shooting with a bow. Acid Splash is an excellent cantrip for early levels as well because it targets touch AC rather than regular AC so it's more likely to hit. If you use a flask of acid as a material focus (you just have to hold it, not expend it) it adds +1 to the damage (so 1d3+1).
Color Spray is another excellent 1st level spell. My favorite 1st level wiz/sorc spells are grease, color spray, and enlarge person (to use on the frontline brutes).
Yep, I want to play a Goliath druid in Rise. I also would like to stay as a muliclassed character, though if I had my druthers, I’d get ranger later on, and start as a druid.
Mixed restart is fine with me, I’m just eager for progression - so as long as we’re going at a good clip, I don’t mind going back!
@Nyx If you want to have them submit a character I am good with that. Will prioritize them over other selections.
I'm going to go ahead an open recruitment for a complete fresh start. Specifically looking for a front liner and a ranged focused character. Will note a priority on someone that also has a focus on skills so that if Sven wanted to start out with Druid instead of ranger we can go that route.
Feel free, if you want to make adjustments to spells and the like, or if you want to add/change your backgrounds to maybe know one another before hand. Once I get the recruitment thread up, I will link it here and you all are welcome to post in there as well. I will start a new thread for all this and set this one to inactive when we move over. In the meantime, feel free to use it for any character prep discussion or questions you have. So we don't bog things down too long I'm going to make it a pretty short recruitment and end it next Friday. Also, feel free to give any thoughts you have on people that apply.
New recruitment here.
Feel free to throw a dot in the gameplay thread so it shows up in your campaigns.
Also, please jump into Roll20 at some point and just type in chat which character you are so I can remove the old players.
@Nyx: Thanks for the advice! I decided to go with grease and replaced the light cantrip with acid splash. I'll definitely be looking back at this and getting further advice from you as more spells etc. become available.
@GM Dak: My Roll20 name for that link is the same as my character's name. Do you still want me to drop a post in chat?
Looks like my buddy Hawthwile put up applications for both available roles (frontliner and skills/ranged). Again, I vouch for him in all ways. LMK if you have any questions for me about him.
With things having slowed and a good number of applicants already, I think I'm going to close recruitment early. Before I do, feel free to give me any thoughts on the current applicants.
Re-reviewing all the applicants now. I have immediate concerns about any submission by Mystic Ankh just from their inappropriately hostile attitude. Something, in particular, they said: "...the anonymity of the internet means I couldn't even yell at the GM for ruining a large investment of my time..." I definitely am not okay with. I don't want to play alongside people who feel the need to "yell" at anyone for anything. They seem like a disruptive problem waiting to happen.
Reckum the pig-riding bloodrager is not only my friend and a person I vouch for but sounds like a really fun, flavorful frontliner; especially if he can somehow acquire his pig from Squealy Nord the goblins' pig.
Sarai Shae going Arcane Trickster as our skills/traps person sounds intriguing to me; they stand out among the others to me.
Bartholomew Valdimar II (my friend's application for the skills/traps role) feels like a fun fit too, as alchemists can be helpful in many ways.
Ferretal, the Elf Barbarian has a starting CON of 12; that low of CON is worrisome for a frontliner to me.
Nothing else really stands out as concerning or exciting to me.
Here’s my thoughts, in order:
Gudada - Human Rogue (Melee/Skills) - looks like a good, straightforward rogue that is well-built by someone with a good history.
Sgaithan - Human Brawler (Melee/Front Line) - brawlers are great for frontline, but flexibility seems to me to be tougher to do in pbp (or maybe easier?).
Khalbar - Human Barbarian (Melee/Front Line) - looks like a solid barbarian. A person dming seems like they’re likely to stick out playing.
Reckum - Gnome Bloodrager (Melee/Front Line) - I like the concept a lot, and as my character probably will have a companion I’ll have the spells to support/shrink/hide it. The only concern I have is whether or not the player can play a mounted character/companion character in a pbp. There’s a lot to track.
*Mystic* - Human Druid/Paladin (Melee/Front Line) - I’m more sanguine on the player, but the character seems to have a lot of pieces that require exceptions to build, or have a confusing overlap. I like the raven theming, but I’m not certain how paladin fits in with it and abadar. Something may be lost in translation (I’ve been guilty of that in the past, so I empathize) from his/her idea of the character to the execution. There seems to be a LOT of moving parts.
Nar - Human Slayer (Ranged/Skills) - slayer isn’t my favorite class for whatever reason, but the character is fine.
Sarai - Tiefling Rogue (Ranged/Skills) - ranged rogues are hard to be good with if you can’t consistently get sneak. I tend to assume most people are bad at that. If in 6 levels, we're dealing with a character that does 2 attacks at +10 doing 1d8+2, that’s not going to cut it for most APs (but the RP looks solid!)
Bartholomew - Tiefling Alchemist (Ranged/Skills) - always like an alchemist, but my opinion of them varies depending on if they make a lot of alchemical gear for the party and take the infusion discovery or if they just self-buff. The proposed build seems to solve that problem of infusion, at least.
Ashius - Lizardfolk Barbarian (Melee/Front Line) - I love exotic races and weird monsters in parties. Looks good to me!
Ferretal - Elf Barbarian (Melee/Front Line) - I echo the 12 con issue, though that can be mitigated with FCB and the toughness feat.
If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.
I'm not massively experienced at Pathfinder so I'll defer to you guys on the character mechanics.
I don't like to make assumptions about other players but I'm inclined to agree with Nyx about Mystic Ankh. They seem pretty hostile/angry about not being selected for other games. That doesn't bode well for when things don't go their way in this game (the dice gods are awfully fickle). Their character also seems to need an awful lot of exceptions to be made to be acceptable.
In terms of preference, I think most of the characters are pretty well thought out and meld into the setting pretty well and I'd be okay playing with whatever the majority are happy with. I will say that the idea of a raging gnome boar rider is pretty amusing if the player can pull it off. Again I don't know if it's mechanically sound.
It’s very good to be small and mounted, especially if you can find a way to have your mount get the level 7 advancement and have someone who can reliably cast reduce animal.
I do think Mystic had a point about getting access to games on the pbp boards as a new player, and I empathize with their frustration. That said, I try to empathize with everyone if I can. :)
Hmm, interesting to learn that. I might try to create a similar character in a future game.
I agree and understand their frustration too. It can be tough sometimes to get into games here as a new player, especially with the volume of applications most games get. I'm a relatively new PbP player myself and was fortunate to get selected for some games pretty quickly.
That being said, I think the way Mystic approached the recruitment didn't help at all. You basically nailed it with your post in the recruitment section. People want to play with someone with a positive attitude and that won't just up and leave. Taking the time to create an interesting character that follows the GM's creation rules and integrates into the game world goes a long way towards making your application successful, even as a new player.
I didn't want to fuel the sidetracking of the recruitment thread by responding, but I first discovered PbP in July I think, and I started getting accepted into games right away. Part of it is that I'm very active in PFS (5-star GM), but I applied and was accepted into another of GM Dak's APs quite soon after I got into PbP, which led to this one. Anyway, I guess my point is: we were all new once and throwing a temper tantrum in a recruiting thread is simply not helpful towards getting your foot in the door or whatever. You just, you know, do your homework, read the forums, learn how PbP works, and apply for interesting games. I know he said he had a bad experience with PFS locally, and that's fair, but projecting that bad experience onto ALL PFS and extending it onto all PBP isn't going to help anything.
Thanks for all the feedback. I figure since we are restarting this journey together it would be helpful to get all of your insight as well. Went ahead and made my selections, added a 3rd just so we had a little wiggle room if someone disappears again. Feel free to jump into the discussion thread.
I think 6 is perfectly fine, I usually run with 6 players at home. Usually it just requires adding an extra mook to each fight. :)
Hey GM Dak. I just wanted to say thanks for making all the extra effort to keep the game going. I think most GMs would have just dropped the game, so I appreciate that you've gone out of your way to make it happen!
No problem. I want to actually get a RotRL game to the end. The furthest I've been able to do was a home group through the end of book 2. It's one of my favorite AP's but can never get it finished.
GM: thanks so much for resurrecting the game! I too am very excited to play through this (entire) classic AP. I think the current new party of 6 looks great.
Same! Character updated, back to druid and he's got a companion too.