GM Euan's Mummy's Mask (Inactive)

Game Master Euan

Oh, man. I've been out of commission for two days due to strep throat. I went to the doc yesterday and I tested negative but my tonsils were swollen and striped with white so they went ahead and prescribed me Amoxicillin. I've had a fever of 102 for the past two days. I finally feel "better" (enough to sit up and do a few things around the house) but my throat still hurts even with Chloraseptic. You never fully appreciate being healthy until you're sick.

On the plus side, I've watched a few movies. One of them was called Reign of Fire, one of my husband's favorites when he was younger. It has Christian Bale AND Gerard Butler so no idea how the hell I hadn't seen it. (Matthew McConaughey was in it too but I don't think he was right for the role.) The credits had *this* awesome song and it's one of my new favorites. They remind me of Chevelle.

Sympathy on the strep thing; that's what I ended up being diagnosed with when I was sick a couple weeks back. I even tested negative like you did but they went ahead and prescribed me amoxicillin as well. Mine was caught pretty early so the fever/headache/sore throat were largely gone within a day or two of starting my antibiotics but the amoxicillin made me feel SO. FREAKIN. TIRED. while taking it.

Also, holy crap, I remember seeing Reign of Fire in the theater! I don't actually remember a ton beyond the basic plot but I do remember that my 17ish-year-old self didn't find the experience to be a waste of time or money. A couple of my gamer friends I went to see it with thought otherwise though, especially one who had a reputation among us for being a rather harsh critic when it came to movies and television.

Yeah, that movie is awful: I loved it for all its awful and bad. It was bad fun. My kind of bad fun.

Hope you feel better.

Whaaat?! You had strep too? That's crazy - I didn't think it was so common.

So, my husband is a mechanical engineer so whenever I watch the Fifth Harmony's Work From Home video he likes to jokingly point out all the OSHA violations. So, at the beginning of Reign of Fire I was doing the same thing back to him. Like letting a young child into an underground mine and with without a hardhat, lol. I was pretty skeptical at first, but when the movie time jumped and the boy turned into Christian Bale I was like alright, alright, alright Ahaha, I had to pull in a Matthew McConaughey reference

I'm glad you're all better now. People at work are still recovering from this also. I didn't realize that they were talking about Strep until now.

Hit me hard and fast, nearly passed out. Maybe I did, briefly. Fev 102.

Had it once. Hope I never get it again.

I have found taking probiotics a couple of hours after the antibiotics helps a lot feeling less destroyed. Those small bacteria at the intestines are more important that you would ever tell...

GM at what level can Kosei wild shape into a bacteria? :)

GM at what level can Kosei wild shape into a bacteria? :)

Hrm....

21.

:)

DEAL! :D

Hey guys, I'm still alive but I've just been dealing with I finally had to realize was PbP burnout. Been PbPing in varying capacities and with varying game loads since early 2014 so I guess I was overdue for a burnout spell, eh? At any rate I've been doing some work behind the scenes to get my load lightened a bit so I can focus more properly on my player games and the GM games I have that excite me the most.

I've also been taking a little more time to do not-PbP stuff too, which has been nice.

At any rate, I'm going out and about for a bit this afternoon but once I get home later I'll catch up on what I've missed here and get back to posting.

I feel you! Life gets busy and sometimes it's easy to get distracted by other things.

I've been playing ALL the League and finishing up my Master's. Home stretch!

So, I've been playing a tabletop game with friends - homebrew but following Pathfinder rules real close - and it's SO SLOW at times! I'd forgotten/taken for granted how nice play-by-post can be. I am, in the grand scheme play-by-post is probably long in terms of the actual passage of time passing before the game concludes but sitting and waiting for someone to look up a spell is painful. I'm glad I'm a paladin so at least my part isn't too complicated. But, let me tell you: we were in an encounter last night where there was a sea hag 8 feet below a bridge. We didn't know if the height effected the distance of the sorcerer spell and we didn't know what the rules were for jumping off a bridge down into the pit on top of her (invading an enemy square.) The druid debated with the GM for a minute, wanting her cat companion to pounce down, and finally GM put the foot down and make the cat move as full round action. I mean, they basically had to move at max distance just to get there anyway. I kinda helped with the decision. Don't know if it was right but they wanted to jump down using a 5 foot step after moving full-round. The GM frequently turns to me when they have a question and half the time I know the answer which is strange. I feel out of my comfort zone at times. I've learned so much, guys! I love y'all! Like, there's a ton I still don't know, but man, play-by-post has taught me a lot. At least the basics, lol. I hope to continue to learn though another wonderful year! You know, I keep my play-by-post mostly a secret. Not an intentional secret, but nobody else in my immediate friend group plays so it's something I do quietly by myself. Everyone's a nerd in their own way, video games, cross stitch, baseball cards, baking, disc golf... I'm glad I'm into play-by-post. Maybe hobbies are sweetest that way - when they're your guilty pleasure and yours alone.

Hey Florence! As I told you in another place, just give you some time to do other stuff and the desire for PbP will soon come back 💪

I have been through a similar experience Nidhi. In PbP you just have much more time to check out how things really work and look for interpretation and advice in the forums. I rarely see a rules discussion in PbP campaigns nowadays. I really started to fully know the rules when I started doing PbP.

A downside is on tabletop I often find myself biting my tongue to avoid correcting people or interrupting the game to explain ruling. Similarly, the in-depth of characters I find in the boards I miss it during normal play.

One other thing I discovered is the Spanish translation of the rules has problems here and there. Words that are usually synonyms, you cannot really interchange them in reference manuals. For example, Spanish elves and half-elves have +2 only vs charm spells instead of all enchantment spells 🤪

And it becomes even more irksome when they just plainly fail on translating a rule. In Spanish clerics with the Earth domain deal 1d6+level with their ray spell-like ability, instead of the 1d6+level/2 for each other elemental domain 😤

Another goodie I got from PbP has been becoming much better at writing English.

I don't really keep my PbPing a secret from my home group/local PFS lodge but I'm the only one who really indulges in it to any serious degree.

(That said, my brother is looking to indulge a bit more so if any of you ever start up another AP game let me know - I've GMed for him once before so he's not totally unfamiliar with how PbP works and I like to think that he's a pretty good RPer and writer.)

And yeah, one of my favorite things about PbP from a purely mechanical perspective is that it's much easier to look up rules and such without having the entire game come to a grinding halt. This also makes dealing with people who backseat game/backseat GM much easier as well.

(I like to think I'm generally a pretty laid-back and patient person but backseat *anything* gets my dander up in a hurry.)

Yeah, all I do is PbP now, far preferring it over face to face gaming, for a lot of the reasons mentioned here.

That and it's uncomfortable sitting in a chair for as many hours as I want to game... Gaming conventions were great fun, but so much sitting! It becomes hard to move after a weekend of that. :)

It's almost Friday y'all!

This is the sort of thing I read about in my free time.

Middle Earth Plants

That's really cool :D I love plants! I was looking at hardy indoor plants the other day for the library.

Also, I'm really tired so I'll post after I sleep. Hopefully I'll wake up early before I need to leave.

Hey! No need to suffer for not understanding or expend resources, 90% of what Kosei is saying at any time is just rubbish. Don't overthink him!

I can almost imagine Euan behind his GM Screen smiling while we run around like headless chickens xD

Mwuahahahaha! (Insert evil laugh here.)

Actually I'm not too worried. You've all taken something I thought would be dull and made it interesting. Perhaps by accident, but it's fun none the less!

Yeah, this has definitely been entertaining so far :)
______________

In other news I've been on a subscription box kick lately and it's been (mostly) awesome! What's not as awesome is trying to keep all the stupid Facebook meme groups, political junk, and ads blocked. It's like fighting a hydra, you cut off one head and two more grow to take its place :(

I'm still here. Just busy and tired. I'll post tomorrow afternoon/evening

So...in spite of my weird burnout issues (which are much improved but not entirely gone) my brain keeps returning to the idea of maybe, possibly, one day, some day, trying to GM an AP.

*This is not anything I would be doing anytime soon.*

Not in the next few weeks, not in the next few months, probably not even in the next year unless a bunch of my other games somehow ended all at once.

But I've tried to ignore the idea and it refuses to go away so I'm going to throw in the towel and humor my brain by giving it slightly-more-serious consideration.

All of that said, I know several of you have GMed and/or played through or are playing through various APs. Since the first thing to do is narrow the field a bit, any suggestions on what to avoid? What might work well in PbP vs. what would be more cumbersome? I'd admittedly like to avoid APs that revolve heavily around fiddly subsystem stuff (looking at YOU, Kingmaker & Hell's Rebels), heavy dungeon crawls (looking at YOU, Shattered Star), or APs that involve alternate rules that may or may not be totally broken (looking at YOU, Wrath of the Righteous).

What might work well in PbP vs. what would be more cumbersome? I'd admittedly like to avoid APs that revolve heavily around fiddly subsystem stuff (looking at YOU, Kingmaker & Hell's Rebels), heavy dungeon crawls (looking at YOU, Shattered Star), or APs that involve alternate rules that may or may not be totally broken (looking at YOU, Wrath of the Righteous).

Oooh...and no Skull and Shackles or Kingmaker. They are both *huge* trouble for an infinite little reasons in pbp.

To be honest, start with something shorter than an AP, if you're starting fresh. Or just say you're running *one* book of the AP. Don't commit to eating the entire pie...maybe just have a slice.

That's the best advice I can give. I believe you in, Flo.

Hey, thanks! I've thought about your suggestions to start with something shorter as well. One of the games I've got on pause (been staggering out restarting my GM games) is a module, From Shore to Sea. I figure if maybe I can get through a module with my sanity and GM drive intact then I'll be more prepared to potentially take on an AP.

The 'just commit to one book at a time' thing is another piece of advice I've seen before and have considered. It's a good thing that in my experience, most Book 1s can stand on their own fairly well if you need them to.

(Personally I think Carrion Crown Book 1 would make for a great standalone adventure if need be.)

Of course, 'Don't do it, goober!' is also a perfectly valid piece of advice as well. I promise I won't take it personally ;)

Of course, 'Don't do it, goober!' is also a perfectly valid piece of advice as well. I promise I won't take it personally ;)

Lol, no. That's not what applies to you.

What matters is consistency. In fact, I grow to believe that that's all that matters. Can you post and push on a daily or whatever schedule? That's the #1 skill that GM Evilan has...he's there and he posts and pushes every day.

What matters is consistency. In fact, I grow to believe that that's all that matters. Can you post and push on a daily or whatever schedule? That's the #1 skill that GM Evilan has...he's there and he posts and pushes every day.

Yes. That right there is why I've stressed to anyone that I've mentioned this vague idea to that I am *not* going to actually be doing this anytime soon. Because right now, I can't promise that level of consistency - even if I could wave a magic wand and already have all the maps and monster stats and macros and whatever else already laid out and done for me. There's simply too much on my plate and some other IRL interests/hobbies that are competing with PbP for my attention right now.

So at the bare minimum I'd wait until some of my long-term games wrap up before I'd consider trying to do any of this :)

Florence, I have to run to a meeting, but briefly, you can totally do this. :)

I jumped in with a full AP, but I've done a lot of DMing in my life, and did a lot of one-offs with PFS (though not online). I started with a group of players I knew, and who would be forgiving of my early mistakes.

I'm happy to help in any way though.

One quick thing. Read it all before you begin. Some DMs read only whats coming, but you'll miss some nuances you can add in from future books (if you do a full AP), help clean up little problems in the AP (especially between books), etc.

But starting with a module, or even a series of linked modules, is an excellent idea.

Thanks for the vote of confidence! When and if I get to a point where I start needing some guidance on how to go about the nitty gritty then I'll be sure to pick your brain :)

Man, being a GM seems like a TON of work. You've ran quite a bit of modules so I'm sure you're capable of it! The second Starfinder AP is only four books long ;D

I was able to move Nidhi on the map :D

Great!

I think Zilchus and Euan covered the main advise already, consistently push and read the whole adventure before you begin recruiting.

My main is just find an adventure and people that both motivate you and helps you having fun. Ah! And try to make it good and memorable. To that end I have found it is much more easier when you take time to help your players built up their backgrounds giving them relatives, goals and motivations that already appear in the adventure main plots (for that reason it is very important to finish reading the whole campaign). When you start being short in time to prepare or the campaign starts to span too much in time, you and your players would enjoy being part of the main plot without having to add side quests.

Given initiative. Stelle would have cast +2 to AC to allies in a 30' radius as a standard.

Not given initiative, Stelle would have done this anyway, if rules allow.

Don't know what

'The party is not yet in initiative, but please limit your actions to two rounds for the moment…'

actually means.

Also, Sorry! -- Still a noobie to playing the game, can offer no ideas yet as to how to GM one.

Probably a good thing for everyone!

I think Zilchus and Euan covered the main advise already, consistently push and read the whole adventure before you begin recruiting.

My main is just find an adventure and people that both motivate you and helps you having fun. Ah! And try to make it good and memorable. To that end I have found it is much more easier when you take time to help your players built up their backgrounds giving them relatives, goals and motivations that already appear in the adventure main plots (for that reason it is very important to finish reading the whole campaign). When you start being short in time to prepare or the campaign starts to span too much in time, you and your players would enjoy being part of the main plot without having to add side quests.

Thank you for the advice, Kosei! And yes, I definitely want to try and find a potential AP that I think I would have fun GMing. Even though I don't have as much GM experience I've discovered that it's a lot harder for me to GM something that I don't find all that interesting or compelling.

Stelle - good call. It just means I haven't rolled dice yet, and I'm not tracking who goes in what order.

You however can do whatever you do in combat, now, and the party isn't considered flat footed at the start of battle (if there is one), that sort of thing.

Mostly it's just a way of making sure someone doesn't get too far ahead with their planned actions and let the party know that they think some sort of trouble may be imminent.

What's the council of thieves AP about? The name sounds interesting

I'm going to be tired this week. I've been collaborating for a while and this week I'm finally putting the unit into action. I don't have enough eyeballs and arms for everything I want to do

So, I never thought it would happen: my husband talks more about Pathfinder than I do. He's really invested in our homebrew campaign atm. It's almost too much (this was my special thing - my escape! :,( but it is nice to enjoy it together I'm just an introvert so I like to hide away at times) I've grown used to enjoying this hobby privately that it's weird to have someone irl talk to me about it. Also, I don't know the answers to the majority of the questions. Like, he was asking about meta magic yesterday which I've never looked into

I finished my big project. Woohoo!

Congratulations!

I just discovered Fairytales According to Kids. Pretty funny

Oh that movie! I have just so many memories. I think my sister and I saw that VHS cassette like 10 times at the least. Nowadays it seems like an absurd idea to rewatch a movie again.

What's the council of thieves AP about? The name sounds interesting

I played through the first two books some years ago. I still have no idea what did they mean about the thieves. It starts like a small rebellion idea against the government in Westcrown (Cheliax) but I could not figure out the main plot, it was just too undrawn.

Zilchus doesn’t inhale too deeply from the gorgon farts, thankfully.

That made me laugh out loud

It's a little early but I finally got my work schedule for the month and wanted to note the following now:

I'll be out of town at a convention April 13th & 14th. Given the nature of conventions I likely won't be checking in or posting at all except for maybe quick notes in Discussion if necessary.

I'll also be out of town April 22nd - April 24th. For this I will have my chromebook and should be able to check in and make some posts in the evenings before bed.

That is all :)

Woohoo! A convention! That sounds fun. :)

I'm playing a paladin in my friends tabletop game and I'm really enjoying it. I like being tanky, immune to certain conditions, and able to smite things. Oh and healing myself as a swift action is sweeeeeeet

Well, if the majority of the party just got petrified that suddenly makes things a lot more interesting...

*sweatdrop*

Wow! Florence is really full of resources! :D

Thanks! Unfortunately it seems stone to flesh is weirdly not part of the druid spell list, so Kosei cannot help.

Fortunately, Florence might be able to break the petrification herself, as it seems break enchantment might be able to revert it. The spell cites stone to flesh, in a weird way, but it does, I think it means break enchantment can dispel any enchantment, transmutation or curse that can be dispelled by stone to flesh.

*sweatdrop*

Yeah, no pressure...none at all. :(

This is exciting! I'm excited to see how it plays out

Interesting reading of Break Enchantment, but I do believe it could apply here. The creature's ability is not technically Flesh to Stone, but I think that's a bit of sloppy writing, and I am treating it as such. It is not a normal gorgon ability in any event. This gorgon is unique, normal gorgons petrify, slightly different.

So caster level is the tricky part - I think 13 is reasonable here. Higher than a normal gorgon ability, but lower then his HD. So when Break Enchantment is used, it'll be a caster level check DC 24. As a plus though, one casting covers everyone still stone, so a high failure rate isn't so bad. As a real bonus, it dispels the enchantment, and does not require a fort save to survive.

Good find Kosei!