GM Giuseppe's Serpent's Skull (Inactive)

Game Master Giuseppe Capriati

Tell me about it. It's been doing this quite a bit lately now that I think about it. It seems to take place in the mornings and early afternoons.

At work at the moment, so I'll try and post something once I get off. And I'm like Kali'da too as I'm on my iPhone and can't tell where I am on the map in relation to the shocker lizard.

We're sadly slowing down here...

Ah yes, the pain that is combat in PbP

Are we just waiting on Hakeem? He hasn't posted since last Friday I don't think.

Hakeem is not with the group. We're waiting for Sizara and Jesari.

To speed things up, I'm going to bot Jesari. Sorry about that, but we really need to keep things going fast.

Dang. Just got off work too. =( Also, please stop rolling high. K, thanks.

You can already make your next turn, Jesari.I would like to stop rolling high, if I could...but this lizard is amazing!

Some more unsolicited feedback which you are free to ignore...

You are a very 'by the rules' GM and have experience with this very same AP. Therefore, I have no doubt that you can handle 'diseases and weather patterns' that you are throwing at the party.

You are also playing with wandering monsters and those are also being handled well.

And I do realize that you are doing this to show everyone that the island itself is a dangerous place (and you're doing a good job, too).

However, from my perspective, I know I am not playing these games to have my PC overcome 'disease, weather, and wandering monsters'. I want my PC to be involved in some 'epic adventure'. And I dare say that this is what most players want as well. And that's not what's happening here and now in this game.

I am also a firm believer that 'situations' (getting lost, encountering wandering monsters, diseases, etc.) are great roleplaying opportunities. But once you fight one snake, fighting another snake is more of the same.

In a face-to-face game, the game moves quickly and you will get past the 'disease, weather, and wandering monsters' fairly quickly and move along with the story. PBP is much slower than that and if you keep rolling wandering monsters and us getting lost, then we will stuck in this pattern for the next few months.

As has been suggested previously, perhaps you can downplay some of the environmental issues and move to the part of the story that is 'epic'. I think you will find that your players will be a lot more involved as well.

Again, just my humble opinion so take what you want out of it.

This time I have to turn down your advice Fabian. I never said PCs would be involved in "epic adventures" from the beginning. This is not my style of GMing. I start to make things epic when PCs level up a bit. At lower levels, I prefer to focus on aspects that later in the game gets completely removed from the game due to the increased power of the PCs, such as weather, diseases and so on. I know this isn't everyone cup of tea, and I'm sorry if you're not having fun: but if I've chosen to play Serpent's Skull and not another AP it was precisely because I wanted to explore things like these. Of course it's a matter of tastes, and I'm well aware of this.

I realize random encounters can be frustrating, but the chances of them occuring are very low. You're only being especially unlucky. I'm also working on improving the exploration rules to allow the Avoid Natural Hazard checks to decrease the chance of random encounters. I think it might work.

As I suggested long ago, if you really want to jump to the "epic part" of the adventure, you should have committed to much more than 1 post/day: just take a look at the best games on these boards, and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's not my style to just "jump" directly to the epic part. I had hoped you would take the chance offered by the travel to roleplay between yourselves, something which is not happening at all, at least until now. I said it before: if you want to reach the climax of the adventure faster, just post more often. With only 1 post/day, I think the game HAS to be slow.

I realize this can easily be something you may not share at all, but that's my taking on this matter. I can't and won't just jump to the climax ignoring all the rest just because it isn't really funny to play. I think that it's not the situation to make a game funny, but how someone play that situation: you can have fun even in a boring situation. You can always roleplay with your companions, after all. Sometimes things happen even in a PbP campaign. I can certainly reduce the chance of them happening (I think my improvement of the exploration rules will do the job); but sometimes random encounters are still going to happen, and sometimes you will still suffer from diseases, poison, bad weather and so on. It's just my way of rendering Serpent's Skull: a campaign in which the true threat is not that posed by monsters and dungeons and champions of evils, but from the harsh environment, the constant fight for survival against the forces of nature. This is how I imagine this AP, and I'm sorry if it isn't your cup of tea, but I'm not going to change that.

I've PMed you for more personal answers.

Ah thank you for pointing that out. Typo. And I'm just waking up. Haven't had my coffee yet either.

I actually don't mind the encounters although we have been having a lot of them though.

If I could make a suggestion: maybe have an encounter after a site on the island (site=shipwreck, cave, ruins, abandoned village, jungle temple, the usual stuff you find on an jungle island) is explored? Like say after we explore two or three sites we have an encounter. Keeps us moving but at the same time we will continue to have a few encounters. Or have an encounter while we are exploring the site just to spice things up and keep us on our toes?

And I agree maybe having the avoid hazards task reduce the likelihood of running into a random monster.

I also enjoy rping too. I wasn't able to do much what with my character being sick and all but hopefully I can make up for that this time.

Ah thank you for pointing that out. Typo. And I'm just waking up. Haven't had my coffee yet either.

I actually don't mind the encounters although we have been having a lot of them though.

If I could make a suggestion: maybe have an encounter after a site on the island (site=shipwreck, cave, ruins, abandoned village, jungle temple, the usual stuff you find on an jungle island) is explored? Like say after we explore two or three sites we have an encounter. Keeps us moving but at the same time we will continue to have a few encounters. Or have an encounter while we are exploring the site just to spice things up and keep us on our toes?

And I agree maybe having the avoid hazards task reduce the likelihood of running into a random monster.

I also enjoy rping too. I wasn't able to do much what with my character being sick and all but hopefully I can make up for that this time.

** spoiler omitted **

Thank you for your feedbacks, you're most welcome.

I'm really enjoying the quality of your posts Jesari. The way you explained Jesari's first use of her bite attack was just amazing!

You're welcome. Usually adventures start out small and work their way up to epic. Although depending on the adventure it can start out epic like Hell's Rebels or Wrath of the Righteous but Serpent's Run from what I can figure out creates suspense in order to increase the epic meter if you will.

Also in terms of disease maybe the take care exploration task could help in decreasing the likelihood of illnesses as well or even decreasing their severity? Just a thought.

And same here! Excellent post Jesari! Sizara will be asking you a million questions on your spirit animal!

Also in terms of disease maybe the take care exploration task could help in decreasing the likelihood of illnesses as well or even decreasing their severity? Just a thought.

Excellent idea. I'm going to update Exploration Rules as soon as possible.

Cool! And thank you!

I've been thinking that also the foraging and hunting task could also allow us to find those berries for Aerys and maybe even medicinal herbs and plants to use for when we run out of potions and spells? Again another suggestion.

Just trying to contribute.

Thanks for the compliments guys. It helps that everything I try works out because I'm apparently a dice wizard and only roll 20s. I just need my spells to be attack rolls now and I'd be unstoppable.

You're welcome! And that was a very creative way to use that ability.

Indeed you would be unstoppable!

Just curious here, but was a reason why you didn't pick magic missile as one of your starting spells? I always pick it mainly because I've found it to be useful, but lately I've been thinking of changing things up when I create sorcerers so I was wondering. Might give me some things to think about. Any advice you have would be helpful.

Exploration rules updated. Please check the new features, marked in orange text. Thank you all for your suggestions.

Hey everyone, I need to know where you want to head in the next day of travel before posting. Please mark your intended path on the map with a black line.

Once we have the berries, Jesari would absolutely want to return to camp so that's my vote.

And I mostly picked spells that are useful now. Jesari's not really the type that would go with damage spells either. It doesn't really fit the character for her to be a killing machine.

Hey everyone, I need to know where you want to head in the next day of travel before posting. Please mark your intended path on the map with a black line.

Ok, I marked it, basically get back to main camp by way of the western coastline.

I also want to move our main camp to this new spot we just found if it proves suitable or another close by if not.

GM Giuseppe wrote:

Hey everyone, I need to know where you want to head in the next day of travel before posting. Please mark your intended path on the map with a black line.

Ok, I marked it, basically get back to main camp by way of the western coastline.

I also want to move our main camp to this new spot we just found if it proves suitable or another close by if not.

Thank you Alexite.

In order to move your main camp you will have to convince other NPCs, but apart from that it's completely fine.

GM, pardon the interruption. :)

I started a homebrew PBP (Demon Hunters of Golarion) for which I will take various published works (mostly Pathfinder Scenarios and parts of the Worldwound AP) to craft my own campaign. The game is intended to start PCs at 4th level and roughly end at about 10-11th level (my sweet spot for gaming).

Since PBP is slow, I was able to start the game but I still don't have all the pieces 'buttoned down' for the entire campaign.

Would any of you be interested in critiquing and providing ideas to hash this out?

If so, we need to carry this conversation to another medium (email probably) so we don't hijack this thread more than necessary.

If interested, shoot me a PM with your email address.

Thanks,

@Jesari that makes sense. Those spells truly fit your character will probably come in handy.

@GM I'm guessing Sasha is giving Sizara the silent treatment since she didn't reply during their conversation with each other. :(

Guess I'll try talking to her again.

I just forgot Sizara, don't worry. Her answer will be in my next post.

Hey folks, do you prefer to have some time to roleplay a bit or you prefer me to go on and post now?

Hey folks, do you prefer to have some time to roleplay a bit or you prefer me to go on and post now?

I was going to add my successful (albeit painful) experience with the berries but I can write that later tonight (when I have time) and put it in a spoiler.

I'm Ok with you moving things along.

I would like to do a bit more roleplaying. What to try and socialize with Sasha a bit more. And sorry for the very long post!

Alright I will post again tomorrow morning (your night).

If you'd like to roleplay a bit, you have until tomorrow morning.

Sorry for my confusion, but I thought we would be back in the main camp.

Did we camp out twice out in the wilds?

Sorry for my confusion, but I thought we would be back in the main camp.

Did we camp out twice out in the wilds?

You just need 2 days to get back to the main camp.

Seems Sizara is just making things worse with the npcs.

Well unfortunately Sasha just did a big social taboo among the Ekujae. So now Sizara feels confused and concerned.

Seems Sizara is just making things worse with the npcs. Creepy how the hell is she being creepy!?

This is making me feel that the npcs are racist and it's making me feel uncomfortable.

Sasha is unfriendly towards you, Sizara. How would you react if someone who you don't trust and don't even like comes to you and begins to tell you all of his story, tells you about his people, culture and so on? You won't like it. Sizara acts in a peculiar way, especially for being an elf: usually elves are reserved and insular, and don't share the stories of their people so easily. Sasha is a stranger to Sizara. As detailed in Elves of Golarion, friendship is highly valued by elves, but they take years, if not decades, to forge a true friendship. I thought you knew that.

Sasha is not racist. She's simply feeling like Sizara is invading her personal spaces. She isn't ready to tell Sizara her story (remember: she's unfriendly towards Sizara, she doesn't like her!), she isn't interested in Sizara's story and she's not afraid of showing it. She's just...unfriendly! Unfortunately you were not able to shift her attitude to indifferent at least with your Diplomacy checks. As a consequence, Sasha doesn't like Sizara, but the elf keeps on overwhelm her with compliments and stories of her own past. Sasha is not ready for that, so she finds Sizara creepy because she tries to befriend her even if she has clearly shown she isn't ready yet. No need to feel uncomfortable. Sizara acts strangely, as other have already brought to your attention: she passes out theatrically, hugs people she has been knowing only for some weeks, speaks constantly about spirits without asking if someone is interested and so on. Not every NPC likes that. Sasha definitely doesn't like that.

If you're still feeling uncomfortable, try to roleplay with your companions, it might help :)

Well I thought Sasha was indifferent. And yes I read the sourcebook but that's probably on high elves. Sasha is a wild elf who act differently from other elves.

But I'm going to try roleplaying with the other players.

Still she's value friendship immensely and to be called creepy is forcing her to feel that no one wants to be here friend.

Sorry this is just making me feel uncomfortable as I was constantly bullied for being different as a kid. I was different because of my psorisais, I had ADHD, I was friendly, I liked going to Church, I likes video games, I liked playing golf, I was an excellent student, and I listened to my parents. So yeah the way the npcs are acting is opening up a lot of old wounds.

And the thing about the fainting was to add a touch of humor. This adventure has been serious from the beginning. And it's getting depressing. Add some humor to the story please! Yes we are in a serious situation but even real life throws us humor once in a while. That's what makes life interesting.

Well, lets be honest. Kali'da thinks Sizara is creepy too for being so touchy feely with who are essentially strangers. It's abnormal behavior, nothing to do with dry skin, having something that half the population was diagnosed with for a few years while I was in primary school, or having normal hobbies and respecting ones parents.

If you're looking to improve relationship building in the game, think of what that looks like in real life. Which is chatting and not touching people or kissing them w/o permission. That'll get you slapped, or some times jailed, in real life. It's not exactly getting a better reaction here.

For example, chatting about generic topics like maybe pointing out something interesting you see like an exotic flower, then move into a funny story about how you once sniffed a flower you were gifted, only to sneeze and get a huge booger on it.

That'd make Kali'da laugh, anyways.

Ah I see. Although just curious here: would Kali'da be willing to talk about spirits with Sizara? Just wondering. And yeah that should work.

Maybe I was getting too way into character. Sizara's meant to be a friendly warrior who does have a bit of a temper when her friends are in danger (and who wouldn't).

Not to mention relating with the other characters might help as well.

I mean, it's your character. Maybe she's got personal boundaries issues. Weird for an elf but w/e. Your character. Play her how you want, just don't be offended because people think your toon is creepy.

As for topics, that's the point of starting small. You'll have to discuss things IC to learn about peoples characters and what topics are appropriate. No need to metagame relationships.

Alright folks, a complex post awaits you, but I'm sure you will have fun and prove more than capable of handling the situations. Just a few clarifications about what do I expect from your next post:

• Take your time. It's a complex post involving a lot of different moments. You have 24 hours to work on it, but if you manage to post before tomorrow noon (your dawn or so), I can answer you and keep things moving.

• Try to separate the different times of the days. If you could use my code it would be great. Link to my coding.

• Please try to make your rolls in a separate OOC section of your post, as I do in my posts. This helps me out a lot to focus my attention on your roleplay rather than your dice rolls and allows a better reading of the gameplay thread itself.

• If you have any OOC comments, please mark them with an asterisk and write them in your OOC section.

• Do not peek at my dices: I say it for your fun's sake!

• Do not be metagame-y.

• Goodnight and have fun!

I don't know. I feel that having one person decide for the entire group isn't fair to them. I mean what if everyone else wants to just get back to camp and come back to the shipwrecks and I want to force them to explore right now so I go ahead and post. I don't want to force them to do that. That's just bad sportsmanship. I feel that we as a group should decide. I know you want to get through the first adventure before the end of the year but as of now I don't think that's possible.

Just so I know what I'm posting, are we, or are we not exploring these? Sounds like there might be some concern if I just assume one way or the other.

Sizara, I think you have to deal with it. This is the pace I want for this game, if you don't like it maybe it's not the right game for you.

That said, my idea was that you could use the discussion thread to discuss wheter to explore the wreck or not. As a general rule, if an idea is seconded you can assume the entire group choose to perform that action. For example:

Do we want to explore those shipwrecks? I vote yes.

I want to explore those shipwrecks too. Working on my post now.

If a player doesn't want to perform that action, he can easily do so by making a post in which he says that his character does not follow the others. For example:

(Character's name) stays on the shore, looking at his companions with hopeful eyes. "I'm not a great swimmer, I fear I won't be able to reach that shipwreck. I'll wait for you here".

This way, the game gains a lot in terms of pace.

I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but we need to keep things moving. You have to deal with the fact that you're not playing in your face-to-face game, where taking a decision only takes few seconds: discussing wheter to do something or not and waiting until everyone has expressed his will in PbP would take away at least 2 days for every single action. That would be a nightmare. Have you read Doomed Hero and Painlord guides? If so, you should know that in PbP both the GM and the players should be constantly pushing for action. Otherwise, the game just freezes. If an idea it's seconded, you have to assume that's the party decision. Use the discussion thread to check if your idea is seconded, then go on and post.

If you cannot accept this, maybe PbP isn't the right format for you.

Always Be Pushing. (ABP!) A, Always. B, Be. P, Pushing. Always be pushing. This is the most important thing you can do as a PbP player. It's not about posting often or quickly, it's about doing stuff when you post. It's about pushing your character's involvement in the story forward. Whenever you can, push the action, push the direction, push the party along.

Player #3 wrote:

(Character's name) stays on the shore, looking at his companions with hopeful eyes. "I'm not a great swimmer, I fear I won't be able to reach that shipwreck. I'll wait for you here".

Can I steal this for my post?

GM Giuseppe wrote:

Player #3 wrote:

(Character's name) stays on the shore, looking at his companions with hopeful eyes. "I'm not a great swimmer, I fear I won't be able to reach that shipwreck. I'll wait for you here".

Can I steal this for my post?

I was thinking to you when I wrote it XD

Doing some major cleaning up. But I'll try and post something up tonight. Sorry about this but what with the holidays around the corner I want to try I get as much cleaning up done before I start putting up Christmas decorations in the next few weeks. Plus on account that it's an old house it tends to get dusty here. And I'm highly allergic to dust so I have to do some fall cleaning.

Sorry y'all. Bad day today. My iPhone has decided to refuse to do long posts as it kept crashing on me plus my glasses broke. And I don't see my eye doctor until next month and I can't see him earlier as he's booked until November of next year! I have contacts but today has been a bit stressful (stop calling me you dang telemarketers and no I'm not Penny!).

So is it okay if I just jump to the battle? I can try and do a much detailed post when I can get online on my laptop at the library. Today was Veterans Day so library was closed.

Again sorry about this.

Sorry y'all. Bad day today. My iPhone has decided to refuse to do long posts as it kept crashing on me plus my glasses broke. And I don't see my eye doctor until next month and I can't see him earlier as he's booked until November of next year! I have contacts but today has been a bit stressful (stop calling me you dang telemarketers and no I'm not Penny!).

So is it okay if I just jump to the battle? I can try and do a much detailed post when I can get online on my laptop at the library. Today was Veterans Day so library was closed.

Again sorry about this.

It's no problem, go on and jump to combat.

Thanks for understanding!

Has it been long enough to get the +2 concentration from doing Jask's thing? And should I be able to move my token on roll20? I tried dragging it but it wouldn't work for me. Just wanted to five foot step to the right so nothing hits me. And I also couldn't help but notice that Hakeem's token had a skull over it. I'm sure that was an accident.