GM Ladile's League of Kick-Ass Dudes: A Pathfinder Society Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Lady Ladile

Frankie is for all he knows a human child (childhood trauma, etc, etc repressed memories, etc, etc. Mechanically/gamewise speaking of course he's a halfling and I took the pass for human and childlike feats to reinforce his personal storyline, even though they have almost no mechanical benefit.

Ironically, he thinks he's a human child and sometimes he needs to disguise himself as a halfling if a child would be very out of place (One such scenario was inside a prison as an inspector.)

The long and short of it is he's just a silly character that I enjoy doing childish things with (often a representation of my own childish ways sometimes).

Ah, ok, cool! Thanks for sharing! :)

Frankie is a good boy, and he likes hanging out with the Boss.

Also, Denair has a good guess but she's not telling!

Ladile's Random Observations

So, if you ever get to feeling like it's just a little too easy to sit and write your PbP posts, up the difficulty level and get a cat. Mine likes to indicate he's ready to play by walking up to my chair and making 'Prrt!' noises.

If I ignore him sometimes he'll wander off to amuse himself elsewhere...and sometimes he'll get more insistent and start swatting my legs and nipping my feet.

(I very seldom ignore him.)

Quang Chi, I like the way you've mixed Animal Focus with the Monk ascetic! Very clever.

Thank you. As you likely know, it's generally accepted that advancing a zen archer beyond 6th level doesn't benefit him much. I didn't like the idea of him going into Inquisitor, which many people advocate, as I just couldn't see it given the nature of the character.

Hunter is Wisdom based, makes effective archers, adds spell casting, and I love the animal focus abilities. The forester archetype eschews an animal companion to give the PC one full-time animal focus, and the feat Extended Animal Focus gives him a second simultaneous use for a number of minutes equal to his Wis modifier. So, mechanically it all made sense and works well together.

In addition, I liked how Paizo flavored the forester: "While all hunters have a bond with the natural world, a forester has a stronger tie to her environment than to the animals within it. While most foresters feel strong bonds with woodland regions, the archetype functions well in other terrains as well. In such cases, a forester might refer to herself by a different name that more accurately reflects her chosen terrain. For example, a forester who favors bogs and marshes might call herself a “swamper,” while one who favors frozen regions might call herself a “glacier guardian.”"

I don't yet have a unique name for his tie to cities (and I doubt I will as titles (particularly in Taldane) aren't something he'd care about), but like me, he prefers the bustle of a new and interesting city, though he's also got a secondary preference for beaches (as GM knows I do, too.) He's still learning about his new mystical ties to the environment and their attendant powers. I see him calling upon the Animal Focus abilities as if they were a new set of ki powers, but something he certainly didn't learn in the monastery. Thanks!

Ladile's Random Observations

So, if you ever get to feeling like it's just a little too easy to sit and write your PbP posts, up the difficulty level and get a cat. Mine likes to indicate he's ready to play by walking up to my chair and making 'Prrt!' noises.

If I ignore him sometimes he'll wander off to amuse himself elsewhere...and sometimes he'll get more insistent and start swatting my legs and nipping my feet.

(I very seldom ignore him.)

Ya our kittens make similar noises, but since there are two of them it usually is followed by a tromp of feet from the other coming in for a tackle.

Frankie, since you're already getting flank (and therefore sneak attack), I plan on using Vanish on Meredith so she can attack from invisibility. In a circumstance where you don't have sneak attack, does invisibility work against or help your whole pass around crazy amounts of AC thing?

Blundering Defense (Combat): Your feverish and sometimes comical defensive techniques offer enough distraction to aid allies. Prerequisites: Cautious Fighter, halfling.

Benefit: Whenever you fight defensively or use the total defense action, allies gain a luck bonus to AC and CMD equal to 1/2 the dodge bonus you gain from the action you are taking. Allies only gain this bonus while they are adjacent to you.

This the ability in question. It doesn't make any mention of invisibility affecting the ability. I could certainly wander around invisibly and just spam total defense if I wanted to give adjacent allies +4 dodge/CMD.

Where it may not be a good thing is that typically I want Frankie targeted with melee attacks since he's got a great AC and I can use:

That ability when triggered, assuming total defense, would effectively add in the following: +4 dodge bonus to all adjacent allies, -4 to hit from the baddie if attacking not Frankie, and if I decided to attack defensively instead of full defense, disoriented for additional penalties to hit for the round.

Frankie getting in a sneak attack for 2d6 isn't that much. The debuff is nice though he can apply.

That's a sweet combo! :) I will do my best to Vanish you only when it'd be beneficial, but feel free to wave Vosk off if he ever ruins your plans! ;)

I've returned to work today! The first week back is always a doozy, apologies in advance if my posting is sub-par or I miss a day!

What do Gummy Bears do at work?

I imagine that climate control at the Gummy Bear offices is critical. Too cold and they're too stiff to move. Too warm and they're all melty and stick to each other in a big clump that's just an HR nightmare.

I'm really just curious what line of work you're in. And why the first day back is always a doozy? Do you get extra long sets of days off like I do?

I’m a middle school social studies teacher! First week back is all pre-planning stuff, but (especially with covid) it’s a lot of being talked at about policy and the like. Kids are back next week, but by then I’m usually back in routine and ready to go!

Good luck and stay healthy.

You teach? Cool, so do I. I am just glad that the college I work at has decided to keep all Humanities classes on a remote platform until January 2021. Who know what will happen then.

Huzzah for teachers! (My dad used to teach.)

I echo the Huzzah! So when you say "first day back" you really mean it. And this isn't just another "first day back," either.

Be safe and healthy!

Thanks y’all :)

Tired from work so I'll update later tonight after I've gotten some sleep~

Okay, NOW there's an update :)

Also guys, in retrospect I realize that the subject of this scenario is potentially upsetting (or maybe just tiresome) given all the...*gestures around*...stuff happening in the world of late and that I never actually thought to actually ask and make sure that everyone would be okay with it before we started the scenario.

While we're obviously in the thick of it now, I do want to say that there'll be more opportunities for punching things in the face before scenario's end and that we're almost done with the 'working on a treatment/cure' section, in case anyone *is* finding the subject tiresome.

Thanks GM! :)

EDIT: Have we run out of time to impact the healing, or is it time for another round of rolls?

^I was pausing for any potential reactions to Annea's Augury results, including from Annea herself. Since I see a couple of you have posted I'll look to move us on shortly.

Repeat of rant regarding bats and darkvision removed. Sheesh.

^This reminded me of this (SFW) and luckily you don't need to have played the game to hopefully find some humor in it.

Apropos of nothing, I'm going to go ahead and start doing some prep for our next scenario after this which will be My Enemy's Enemy.

(May as well take advantage of what 3-7s we can run while Quang Chi is slow-tracking.)

Don't worry, we've still got a decent amount of this scenario left but I'm making a concerted effort to prep way in advance for what I'm expecting/likely to be GMing during the fall and winter months.

So don't forget and sign up to play it between now and then with another character or I'll have to beat you with a wet noodle or a sock full of oranges, depending on my mood :D

;)

Sorry for not posting I was under the weather for the past couple of days.

Question: A 1 round duration ends on Vosk's turn, but since this is PbP, he could feasibly cast another Vanish on Meredith before Denair has even gone. GM, how would such a thing be resolved? I'd like to Vanish Meredith too while she is still adjacent, but I think that would technically mean the end of Denair's Vanish!

It isn't a huge deal, I want to wait to post for Vosk anyways since Quang Chi "means no harm" but also just 360-no-scoped one of them ;) Three vs four foes will change what spell he casts this turn.

If it came down to it I'd resolve those turns/actions in actual initiative order which would mean that one Vanish would wear off right after you cast the second on another person. Doing otherwise would lead to too much cheese potential.

Happy September 1st! Remember folks, the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere isn't until September 22nd so slow your roll with the pumpkin spice everything and the fall decor for just a bit longer ;)

Also, Happy Gameday IX! I hope everyone who is participating has a grand time with it! I'm running 3 games and playing in 2 (PFS2) and hopefully I won't regret it...

I saw that Starbucks had started pumpkin lattes again. Ugh, already?

But you can't beat the fact that I heard a Christmas song being played in a coffee shop today. Of course, that was in Korea, so I can't be sure they knew it was a Christmas song.

Wow! I'm doing 2 GD IX (G-DIX?) games, on top of this one, the 3-part Faithless & Forgotten series, and a SF game that keeps dragging on and on (GM has been having personal, work, and residence issues.) Five total feels like a lot to me, so I can't imagine running 3 plus adding 2 more and that on top of the PBP load you already carry, and being a Venture Angel. Please don't burn yourself out! (Really, please don't - we all love you too much.)

Its fall when it feels like fall... and its felt like fall here for a week now. But don't worry, that pumpkin spice crud doesn't invade my life until Thanksgiving when I make a fresh pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin... NO!!!

Heh. Don't get me wrong, fall is actually my favorite season...but it's also hard to get into the spirit of it when the local highs are still routinely 80+ Fahrenheit every day!

I've actually been feeling pretty good regarding PbP as of late but I'll definitely do my best to avoid burning out. Sometimes it helps to make sure I fit other 'fun' things into my free time or even to just take an impromptu day off from PbP entirely here and there.

I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, but y'all are quite the fighting team! I promise Vosk can and will do more in fights, but with how effective y'all are, sometimes it feels like a waste to pull out some of the higher level spells! XD

^Honestly, Vosk absolutely strikes me as being all about efficiency regarding his spell usage anyway ;)

I do think the addition of Quang Chi to the group has helped as far as ranged damage goes, too!

Ya, Quang is the one that does the damage.

"You embarrass me with your praise. Thank you, my friends."

But seriously, he can't rain down the pain without a front line to protect him. And a "ninja" to boost his AC in close quarters. It takes a team!

I don't usually make many characters that push out too much damage. Some do but most don't.

Quang seems like a very well rounded character with his skills, versatility, and of course ranged damage.

Well, it's also helping that the level range(s) among the group's members is slowly narrowing and that some of you are getting to the point where some really cool powers and abilities are coming online, like Frankie's 'ninja' antics :)

By the way, I've heard from GM Red (Serge's player) and while his PbP break over the last month has helped he still wants to keep his game load light and ease back into his other games at a much more sedate pace. So he won't be rejoining us for the next scenario and also said it was cool to replace him if I/we wished.

It's not something I'm particularly worried about either way at the moment but I did want to give you guys a heads up. Normally I'm a 'the more the merrier' sort and prefer to fill my groups but a lot of the folks I'd ask are already at their max bandwidth or they're paring back PFS1 activity in favor of SFS and/or PFS2. So I may just hit up the TL;DR table and see if anyone there wants to cross over to this group like Vosk did and if not, just leave us at 5 players for the time being.

Also, PbP Gameday is ongoing, so I won't be surprised if we finish this scenario with 5 players. Either way, it's important to know your limits and take a break when you need to. As soon as this stops feeling like fun and more like a chore it's time to take a break.

*Reads Scenario's title*

Oh, I see now. I understood that reference.

:)

There's a game I watched a Let's Play of recently called Little Misfortune and the (child) protagonist reminds me a lot of Frankie in that she has a lot of commentary that's amusing in a, "Haha oh geeze that's actually pretty awful, yikes forever" sense.

Its fun to play a kid. You can say pretty much whatever you want!

Frankie returns with a pair of broken hoes under each arm "Meredith, can I keep them?" Insert play on words here.

They must be very petite ho's for Frankie to carry two under each arm! Does he even know what to do with such a bounty? Is he planning on sharing?

ಠ_ಠ

That's just wrong :P

How did you make that face?????

And seriously, what does it even mean? You kids and your computer graphical imagery language.

Full disclosure: I keep using emojis wrong. There's so many of them. I just pick something I think expresses my mood, and then one of my GFs will ask why I sent that one. She'll explain that it means something in particular, that is not even remotely what I meant. I guess I'm going to have to learn a whole new pictograph language to communicate with the younger generation(s).

Copied it from --> here.

What's a Lenny Face? This seemed like a decent --> explanation.

The one I posted above tends to be used as an expression of consternation - or at least that's how I use it!

(Of course I was using it in jest; the quoted comments actually made my inner 13 year old giggle.)

If it makes you feel any better I feel similarly about a lot of the phone apps floating around nowadays. Like...I understand how SnapChat works but I don't really get the why. I'd rather just send messages and pictures via text...

We need to finish this up. (kidding) But I got inspired by something and had time during a transcontinental flight, so I’ve already written QC’s intermission post. It’s basically a short story (is 1400+ words too long?) GM wanted #popcorn, and this one’s got it!

^I fully endorse any and all creative writing exercises such as this, if people feel inspired and want to share! Way back in the day Hmm and I did some collaborative writing in a shared Google Doc (our characters went on a date) and it was a lot of fun. 'Journal entry' writing is also something I've seen a fair bit of.

As someone who has interest in creative writing, but zero formal education in it, are there any tips/suggestions/pointers anyone wants to share? :D

No formal training here, either. But you have to focus on the WHY. Why should the reader care about the words in your post? If you can imagine what your reader is thinking as they read the post (and not what you're thinking as you write the post) it goes a long way.

Also, find good writers. See what works and doesn't work. Then take the best parts and put them together. The way you analyze others' work and put them together is how you will find your style.

No formal training or education either, beyond just the usual sort of thing in grade school and low-level college English/Lit courses.

I definitely agree with watching what other writers do, especially if you happen to enjoy their writing or their style. It's something I've done over my years here participating in PbP and I definitely think it's helped. Same thing also applies to GMing styles too; I take a lot of inspiration from some former GMs whose games and communication styles I really enjoyed.

*cough* Queen Syntira may actually, technically, be Queen-Not-Appearing-in-this-Scenario >.>

Unacceptable! We were promised a meeting! The former Queen of Thorns and her Guardian Spirit will not be denied! We respectfully request, nay, we *demand* an audience!

Though we do recognize that there is probably a labyrinthine bureaucracy we must work through to get such an audience. And satyrs probably aren't very high in the bureaucracy. Something about "numerous sexual harassment incidents" being reported to HR means they don't get promoted to supervisory positions often. Or ever, really.