Glad to hear you are started to feel better, Ben. Being sick is not fun :(
I'm finally home too. Yay, I can't wait to see what happens in the story! Also, I have a family vacation July 16th to July 20th. We might leave as early as July 13th but we haven't solidified plans yet.
I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not but just in case: I'll be out of town at a convention June 7th through June 11th. If last year is any indication I won't have much time for checking the forums or posting except maybe a little at night before bed. So in light of that, I'll likely just have GM Euan bot Florence until I return so as not to slow anything down.
So...now we're getting into the levels of Pathfinder where I don't have as much experience so please bear with me if my tactics sometimes seem questionable. I second-guess myself a lot which tends to be exacerbated if a lot of fights end up being real sphincter-clenchers...
Hey folks. Look, we’re slowing down, and that is not a good thing. There’s a rhythm to campaigns, and the better ones tend to have a faster pace in my experience. I know we all have things that get in the way, but if you’re going to be gone - please make sure to let folks know before hand so we’re not waiting for you.
To help, I’m going to get more aggressive about DMPCing your characters. Please note - when I DMPC you, that’s what you do (or not do). I may simply have your character delay, in which case when you return you can do as you will. But if I state an action, even an incomplete one, that’s it. I’ll let Benedictus’ scorching ray go as planned since I haven’t made that clear in the past, but going forward I’ll be more strict.
I do not like DMPCing characters. I do not do it well in some cases (it’s hard to know the is-and-outs of everyone’s build), and it may result in poorer choices, mundane choices, or no choice at all (skipped turns). We all signed up to post twice a day, and it feels like we’re struggling to post daily. Please pick up the pace if you can, or talk to me if that’s not possible. Lots of ways to communicate - don’t leave me in the dark.
Yesterday in another campaign, we did three rounds of combat with five players and our DM. That’s a lot of posts, and I’m not saying we have to be that fast, but we took two days to finish this last round.
I'm pretty guilty of this lately as well. There's a lot of stuff I could go into as contributing factors but I think it would still ring of making excuses. Some of said factors may change over the next month or two and lend themselves to better consistency on my part but in the meantime I'll make more of an effort to post once before work and once after work and at least that or more on the days I have off and don't have to be out and about all day - though if Flo isn't up in the combat round before work then it may be several hours/all day before I can get around to trying to post again.
I've already mentioned that I'll be out of town for a few days starting next Thursday; would it help you if I tried to make a botting profile with some basic IF/THEN instructions on what Flo will most likely do during a combat?
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
I am guilty too, but this is not a general problem caused by the difficulty to adjust my schedule to the game. I had two events, in the last weeks, that prevented me from postong as much as I can: my illness and then these conferences I am attending, which occupy the whole of the day, from breakfast to dinner (both included).
I am sure I will be able to pick up a stable 2 posts/day rate once I get home on Thursday.
Sorry for the delay folks! I have a long meeting once a week, usually Tuesday mornings, which throw off my schedule. Just getting free now and should have the rounds post up shortly!
I see too I missed a question from Flo. No - no need to throw down some options. In most cases I'll do what you'd usually do, or what makes sense, or I'll pick a couple options and roll-off to pick the final one (so I'm not giving you the benefit of DM knowledge).
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
Hi guys, had my last day of conference today. Tomorrow I will travel all the day, and hopefully I will be able to post at least once on Thursday, when I will be traveling for half of the day.
Hey folks, I'll be heading out of town to DieCon 18 from today through Monday the 11th. While I'll have my phone and Kindle with me, I don't anticipate having much time to catch up on posts so please bot Flo (and Bynx!) as necessary!
Hey folks, I'll be heading out of town to DieCon 18 from today through Monday the 11th. While I'll have my phone and Kindle with me, I don't anticipate having much time to catch up on posts so please bot Flo (and Bynx!) as necessary!
Totally funny: I’m in Chicago this week/end for a conference, Flo. So...we’ll be sharing the same state for a bit. Sadly, the opposite sides of the state but anyhoot. Here I am. ::waves across state::
Hey guys, just a quick check-in to say that DieCon was a blast and that normal operations should resume tomorrow afternoon/evening once I've gotten home and had a chance to get settled in :)
For anyone that's interested in reading about my convention experience:
DieCon Stuff (Spoiled for Holy Crap That's A Lot to Read):
So, DieCon 18 - my second DieCon to date - went great. My brother and I hit the road around 8:30 or so Thursday morning and, even with making a couple of stops to hit up a game shop, use the bathroom, and eat, we arrived in Collinsville, IL just after 4:00 pm. We met up with friends Chris (who lives a couple hours north) and Becca (who flew in from Las Vegas and was crashing at Chris' place), got checked in to the Super 8, and then loaded up and headed into downtown St. Louis, MO to have dinner at Blueberry Hill. While there we also met up with another guy that Becca & Chris know from their time in World of Warcraft. This was the second year I've met him and he's a rather odd duck, but nice enough. After dinner we went down the street to the Snow Factory for some Thai-style ice cream. While good and also a rather novel experience, I'm not sure it was worth $8. I'd have been just as happy to go across the street to Fitz's for shakes. After all this the hour was getting late so we headed back to the Super 8 to get some sleep.
Friday morning, we got up and headed to the nearby Denny's for breakfast before going over to the Gateway Convention Center to get ready to sign up for games! Normally registration and sign-ups open at noon but for some reason they started about a half-hour early. Since I'd already preregistered I was able to get my t-shirt and convention booklet and hop right into the registration line.
Event signups for DieCon are interesting in that, with the exception of Organized Play programs like PFS or DnD AL, you sign up in-person and the events tend to be something of a first-come, first-serve basis. You have a card and you write down three sessions that you really want to get in to (first choice) and then write down two alternates (second choice) and then go through the line. The people at the desk then look at your paper and go to see how many slots are still open for the events you want. They then give you stickers to place in your booklet for the events you're able to get into. One limitation they *do* impose for Saturday and Sunday events is that they only give out maybe half of the tickets for those on Friday and hold the rest in reserve for folks who can't get there to sign up until Saturday or Sunday. Luckily for me I was able to get into all of my first choices right away and for the PFS/SFS I'd signed up for, my tickets were held in reserve and waiting for me since I'd done my signing up via Warhorn.
After a quick walk over to the nearby Mexican place for a drink (no lunch since several of us had just eaten) we then filtered back over to the convention center for Session #1, which started at 2pm. My event for this was a board game called 'Mansions of Madness' - gameplay seemed somewhat similar to 'Betrayal at House on the Hill' except with a heckuva lot more Cthulhu creep factor. The rules were a little complex and took some getting used to but the game itself was quite enjoyable and it came right down to the wire on whether we, the players, would win or the GM! I enjoyed it enough that I would've shelled out money for my own copy but none of the vendors seemed to have one. Sadness :(
Each session has an hour-long break before the next session starts so those are good times to hit the restroom, grab a bite to eat, go smoke, wander around the convention hall, etc. I brought some of my own snacks and flavor packs for my bottled water (which I just kept refilling using the canteens placed around the hall) because the snack bar is crazy expensive.
Session #2 was my first foray into playing Savage Worlds. What I didn't know, because the blurb for it didn't mention this part, is that we were going to be using the 'Pirates of the Spanish Main' setting for the game. So when I sat down and ended up being the only one at the table who hadn't played before, the GM grinned at me and said, 'Okay then, you're the captain' and tossed said character sheet my direction. Pretty sure I had an 'Oh god' look on my face but hey, it's good to try new things right? And actually, it turned out pretty good! I mean yeah, we narrowly escaped being executed only to have a rival run off with our ship (after having 'repaid' me by helping to bust us free) and had no navigator and like 5 NPC crew and no money or supplies but we did manage to take a merchant ship (using our persuasive smooth-talk and the one sword we had between 6 characters) and made it to what amounted to Tortuga. The session ended right as we'd finished negotiating a deal for our cargo and making some preparations to buy supplies and start tracking down leads on where to find some cannons...but the rest will be detailed further down for I'd also signed up to play the second part of this little adventure during the middle Saturday session! I also received a copy of the Deluxe Explorer's Edition of Savage Worlds - hooray for free swag!
After a decent night's sleep, we all got up early Saturday morning and trooped back over to the convention center for moar gaming! Session #3 was a game of 'Call of Scooby Doo' using a game system called 'FAST' that was developed by brothers Larry and Woody Babb. Larry himself ran our game and the best way to describe the experience is like a standard Scooby Doo mystery (including special guest stars as playable characters) mixed with puzzle solving and some Cthulhu-style horror. I played this last year, where the scenario was called 'Wednesday Mourning' and featured Wednesday Addams as the special guest star. This year's scenario was called 'Cereal Killer' and featured Count Chocula (or his daughter, the Countess Chocula) as the special guest star. I played Velma, same as last year, while my brother and another con-friend reprised their usual roles as Scooby and Shaggy. The player of Shaggy even brings Scooby Snacks to the game each year! Much fun was had by all and we solved the mystery and defeated the crazed Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, who was the villain for this year's scenario.
Session #4 saw the continuation of Friday's Savage Worlds game and most of the same players returned, including myself. For those of us who played both sessions, we actually got to 'level up' our characters before getting started, which was nice. More pirate hijinks were had wherein our fence wound up murdered and our money stolen...along with someone's daughter? I suspect that said daughter was originally supposed to be my character's daughter but see, I hadn't paid close attention to my character sheet during the earlier session and had given my captain a female name and gender...which in the real world setting and time period the game was set in, would've been really unusual. Oops. But it did lead to some amusing comments from the rest of my crew. At any rate, we raced off to Haiti to try and rescue our money (and the girl, I guess) from the clutches of Baron Samedi and encountered storms, hostile locals, and a bloodthirsty shark along the way. Unfortunately we kinda ran out of time after the shark encounter and the GM had to narrate the rest of the adventure and conclusion but I had a surprisingly good time with the whole thing and would definitely play with this GM again at future DieCons.
Session #5 is where I finally sat down and played my first ever game of Starfinder! Starting with the very first published scenario, Claim to Salvation, which is run using 4th level pregen iconics. Most of the other players had about as much experience as I did, which was none, so it was nice to be more or less on a level playing field with everyone else. I also saw a familiar face at this table, a kid (probably 14-15ish) who was at all of my PFS tables at last year's DieCon. He seemed to have grown up a little in that this time he didn't try to go all murderhobo right off the bat and also didn't keep interrupting the GM as they were trying to talk. All of the other players, as well as the GM, were super friendly and helpful and we all had a great time playing through the scenario. While I think Pathfinder will remain my main squeeze, I definitely enjoyed Starfinder enough that I plan to make my own character for SFS play.
Sunday morning rolls around after another night of adequate sleep and this is the day where my brother and I are in all of the same events together. Session #6, our first of the day, was a PFS game playing the scenario 'Scourge of the Farheavens'. We only had four people for this and had a really weird level split with one 5th level character and everyone else being 1st level because most of said players either only had those characters to play (the 5th level shaman and the 1st level fighter) or just really wanted to play a particular character (my brother and his 1st level druid). I can't say a lot about the particulars of the scenario itself as I want to avoid spoilers but it was highly amusing and surprisingly challenging in certain parts. It was also pretty straightforward and we finished with an hour to spare so it'd probably be an easy one to run for anyone contemplating GMing PFS scenarios.
Since we got done with plenty of time to spare, my brother and I actually hit up the nearby steakhouse for lunch and had the first proper meal we'd had since Friday morning. Afterwards, we went to Session #7 which was a homebrew game of Deadlands titled 'Large Trouble, Small China' wherein we had to solve some issues with gang violence occurring in San Francisco's Chinatown. Oh, did I mention we had to fight an evil wizard and his nigh-invincible henchmen? That was a thing. I've played Deadlands before and would actually like to play it more in the future, if our home group can ever finish some of our Pathfinder campaigns.
Last but not least, our last game of the convention was Session #8, where we played another PFS scenario titled 'Beyond the Halflight Path'. This one is a 3-7 evergreen with multiple story arcs that can be played and it was my first time playing it. The beginning has plenty of social stuff happening and then the latter part was more dungeon-crawl than anything, but that's okay. Once again, we just had 4 PCs but at least this time there wasn't quite as much of a level gap. We won and survived, but man we had one or two tough fights! Our ectoplasmist spiritualist was the MVP of the scenario and I'm positive that without his assistance we would've wiped on at least one of the encounters. On the other hand...what's up with characters not having any ranks in any knowledge skills? Some classes that are skill-starved I can understand but otherwise, I mean...really? Especially when you're 5th or 6th level? I've seen this several times now with live play but I don't know that I've ever seen it in a PbP game. I try not to tell people how to play but sometimes some decisions leave me shaking my head a bit. Ah well.
Anyhoo, that's pretty much the tale of my experiences at DieCon 18! Had lots of fun, picked up a little swag, and managed to survive through all of my games. I'm totally looking forward to next year :)
Also, apologies to those of you who will see this posted across several games!
In other random PFS news, we finally finished up Session #2 of the Solstice Scar B multitable special last night - so that means I now have a little more time for all my other games, including you guys <3
I'm not sure that I'll volunteer to GM any of the specials that will be on offer for Gameday VII. While they're fun and rewarding to run, they're also quite time-intensive due to the timed nature and my inner critic keeps telling me that I've not been doing them justice due to my erratic schedule and posting habits. Of course my players have all seemed like they've enjoyed themselves so maybe I'm just being my own worst critic like usual? I've also discovered that as a GM, I don't really like to rush or feel rushed.
Not to mention after running Solstice Scar A during Gameday VI last fall and both sessions of Solstice Scar B during/after OutPost this spring, I'm kinda Solstice Scar'd out...
So I'm trying to come up with some other ideas for fun stuff to run during Gameday VII instead, maybe one game per session. I'll probably run a spooky scenario during the second half since that starts on October 1st and I like Halloween and spooky things. I'm also tempted to do some sort of 'theme' game like a table with all vine leshy PCs or something. The possibilities are endless! :)
I love it when I recognize usernames XD I'm not big on the forums but it's always nice to recognize a name.
I'm not ready to GM anything. I don't think I have the time to invest in a game and I worry about disappointing players with pace and rules mistakes. (So I sort of understand your worries, but I'm sure you're more than fine.) Flo, you seem to be on a roll! You've GMed quite a few games now, haven't you? I haven't really kept up, but you seem to at least have one GM game going at a time. Props!
I'm biased - because zombies are my favorite - but maybe you should do zombies NPCS. I love zombies. AAAAH Starfinder Society has had quite a few modules with undead in them. Good and evil. ...You are looking for Pathfinder, though? I wish I knew more Pathfinder. I know #8-06: Reaping What We Sow (Link) has a leshy NPC you interact with.
A lot? Guess it depends on what you mean by 'a lot', hehe. I believe this second session of Solstice Scar makes my 12th table as a PFS GM and I started GMing with the little GM school thing we did last year so...12 tables via PbP in a little over a year? Seems okay :)
As far as what to run, I was thinking of doing #7-12 The Twisted Circle for a bunch of vine leshies! Never played it but I've heard it's fun for nature types and those that enjoy role play and investimagatin' scenarios. Since that particular setup is a bit selective in terms of potential players (vine leshies are only available as a GM boon or if you trade for one), I'll run something else that's more open to the general player as well - just not sure what yet!
*edit* I can definitely understand your hesitation as GMing (PbP or F2F) is more work than you'd think but if you ever decide that you're in a good place time-wise to give it a try the Venture Critters over at Flaxseed periodically set up GM schools like the one last year :)
*edit the edit* And Reaping What We Sow may be my favorite scenario that I've GMed to date! Ran it during Gameday last year and had a great group who were willing to engage with the setting and story.
Now that we've encountered a couple of construct-types, would it be out of line for Flo to try and learn/find some spells that are geared towards fighting them?
Disable Construct came up on the witch spell list but in reading over it I can see how this might make encounters too lopsided in the party's favor if it actually works. But I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Sabotage Construct seems less of an immediate 'fight ender' than Disable Construct and still allows for constructs to maintain some threat to the party.
Drain Construct looks like it'd be the most 'tame' of options while still potentially being useful under the right circumstances.
If you'd rather me not, that's also fine too. Figured it couldn't hurt to ask :)
Disable is fine, it's basically a hold person for constructs, though it is fairly powerful in that it overcomes some of their native spell resistance. Sabatoge and Drain are a bit beefy however. Sabatoge might be OK for its level, but Drain feels more powerful than it should be. Let's set them aside for the moment, but Disable is fine if you want it. :)
Okay, that works for me! Unless we just happen to stumble across a scroll of it out here somewhere Flo won't pick it up until we level up again so it's not something that'll happen immediately. Thanks! :)
Regarding spell concerns, if the group would rather have Prayer in effect to go with Nidhi's Good Hope, Flo can start doing that in the future. Doesn't last as long as Heroism but it'd synergize fine with Good Hope and IC :)
Or Florence can start throwing all the lightning, instead :P
Some of the party went in round one (my first post). Now the rest of the party goes in round one while some of the party goes in round two (my last post). So it looks like round 1 went twice, but it was different people.
We are currently waiting for Florence to go, and then the stone giant will crush Zilchus some more.
Normally just two rounds at this level but as long as Flo cackles it's extended by a round. Soooo....it's possible to just keep it rolling on and on - though once the combat ends and it fades, it can't be used on you again for another 24 hours.
Yep, just Stelle! It'd take a bit to get going since it's only applicable to 1 target/round but I could theoretically have everyone tagged with it if a battle went on long enough :)
I'll track it; I'm used to doing it for other characters, especially my PFS characters with wands. If we were down to two remaining charges on the wand Nidhi had way back when, let's just say that Florence used that one up to finish patching up Zilchus just now. I'll go back and try to find where we bought more before heading out into the desert and see if I can figure out how many charges we're looking at on the remaining wands.
