This is the discussion thread! Dot once you're here, so that you can see when there are new posts.
If you could also edit your profiles such that you have these nice little spoiler tags like Tolla here, that would be wonderful.
Fill in your relevant numbers and such after copying these into the relevant fields:
In your Race Entry:
Race HP (x/x) [ Spoiler= Stats]AC/Touch/Flat x/x/x | Fort/Ref/Will +x/+x/+x | Init +x[ /spoiler ]
In your Class Entry :
[ Spoiler=Skills]Skill A x, Skill B x, etc[ /spoiler] Class (Archetype) 1
Feel free to list any of your tracked resources in these if you want as well (rage rounds, channel energies, bard song, etc)
Glad to be aboard, and I'll set up the skills/stats spoilers.
Hello to everyone! Glad to be aboard! Just got home from GMing Reign of Winter for 6 hours and it's fairly late here so I'll update and post in the gameplay thread tomorrow morning.
Hello! Glad to be playing with all of you.
Hello beautiful people! Good to be here.
Ive got Perception and Sense Motive in my spoiler for all my characters, which are the only two "really" relevant skills for the DM to be able to look up quickly (imo)
Do you need a spoiler with other skills or will that suffice?
The way you've got it there should be fine. My version (which I have shamelessly stolen from another PbP GM) is more of a guideline than a requirement. :)
Ok, that should do it. Copied the templates from one of my other characters -- but triple-checked the numbers.
Hey Kayle, wheres the concept art pic from?
Also, your concentration bonus is 5, think you forgot to add your caster level :)
Oops! I did, thank you for that. And its from Deviantart, if you look at the URL it should link to the artist's page.
I've added pictures of the other passengers (and Jask the prisoner) to the Campaign Info tab.
Waiting to give Silmayre a chance to talk to someone who's actually there before I move forward. :)
Have any of you played or run Serpent's Skull before? I'm just curious. :)
I own it but have never done more than flip through them because I didn't want to spoil myself in the hopes that I would get to play it.
I haven't - I tend to do homebrew campaigns when I pen and paper, so I don't buy APs very often -- and online I find people generally want to run the newest AP (Winter or Righteous, ATM, earlier it was Jads Regent, etc.) -- and sadly, my luck with getting into such things and then having the GM fall off the planet before level 2 has been... well, depressingly high. ;)
and sadly, my luck with getting into such things and then having the GM fall off the planet before level 2 has been... well, depressingly high. ;)
Unfortunately that does tend to happen. I like the APs and would like to play in more of them but I don't apply to many for exactly that reason. I generally only apply if I have played with the GM or know their reputation. I got into a S&S game where the GM disappeared three weeks in. We eventually found another GM but only after losing two players. The new GM is pretty slow too so we're still not moving very quickly, which is frustrating.
Yeah, I know. Sadly, I thought I'd had a solid GM -- he'd been doing well (well enough to be running multiple APs -- and me being in more than one) -- and then he, too, went away.
It's this weird catch 22 -- everyone (primarily) only wants to play with "solid" GMs (which only increases the number of applicants for those games) - but they often only want experienced players, and the whole thing swirls into a vortex.
But I know what you mean -- the current Runelords I'm playing in -- it's my 4th campaign -- we're up to 4th level, now, so I'm ahead of where I've ever been. ;)
Well, for what's it worth, I'm not planning on abandoning you all anytime soon!
I've also realized that part of the plot that gets you all to this beach doesn't account for something like Sticky...buuuuuut it's too late for that now, so maybe I can retcon something in dialogue. In any case, Sticky is not currently sickened like the rest of you.
Hes floating in the surf, 50 feet out? :P
Or he's in the equipment pile? :)
Sticky had a side adventure with a friendly volleyball, which unfortunately floated away to be forever lost at sea...
"Wilsooooonn!!!!!"
I played part of Serpent Skull with an IRL group a few years ago, but we never finished the first book.
I've had relatively good experiences with playing games on Paizo's PbP. Out of..maybe four or five I've gotten into, one of them has been going on for a year. Even with the others falling apart, that's pretty good!
In that one, we just finished the first book of Way of the Wicked. I'm a -huge- fan of adventure paths as I feel less work = Dm can spend more time making certain parts really interesting. I've been running a Kingmaker game (using a different d20 system and with a heavily modified story) since last September and have been having a blast with it.
I just want to say thanks for bearing with my rapidly changing way of displaying initiative. As I said, this is my first PbP as a GM, so I'm trying to figure out what works best and what I like most for running combat and such.
Ive got no complaints personally :)
Borrowing a bit from my technique I see ;) stealing and modifying ideas from other GMs tends to happen a lot on PbP. I used to use Roll20 for maps when I first started (and my Shattered Star group still prefers that) but most GMs use google maps and a few players told me they had problems with Roll20 at work so I switched to google. I've picked up a few things from other GMs along the way too.
Sil: Maaaaaaybe. I might try (or steal) an entirely new initiative technique next combat! How about rolling initiative every round? If y'all have any preferences or suggestions, feel free to let me know here or in PM.
My personal preferece is the DM rolls initiative once, everyone get lumped into groups either before or after the bad guys depending on the roll, and then anyone who is in the group whose turn it is, can take their action any time, regardless of what initiatives other people have in the group.
Keeps things flowing...I think thats how you are doing it atm.
Yeah, that's the best strategy in my opinion.
While I haven't seen it done with the grouping before, I think it works splendidly for PbP. The only thing I'd recommend is listing a Round X type thing at the beginning of each post. It makes it easier to keep track of whether you've gone or not (if players do it as well, helps the DM to)!
I haven't ever kept track of rounds when I GM but I agree that it is a good idea and I probably should start doing that in my own games.
One other suggestion I learned from experience: taking people's actions as they post them works fine 95% of the time (because people can just hold for each other anyways) but when someone is injured and needs healing (potentially to save from death) it's best to keep the original initiative order handy. That way if someone is unconscious they can't just 'hold' or wait to post until they are healed and then take their action. You wouldn't be allowed to do that in real life; if your turn came up before you were healed you would roll to stabilize and not get an action that round. So even if you don't pay attention to the order after the first round (because it becomes they go-you go-they go-etc), it's good to keep that order handy for those situations.
I did not do this at first and then I had a player one point away from death. The cleric posted first (channeling obviously) but we all agreed it was more fair to go back and use the original initiative order when determining the order in which actions took place, even though that meant the unconscious guy had to go before the cleric (and consequently failed his stabilize roll and died). I felt bad having to do that but the players all agreed that letting him live just because the cleric happened to post before he did wasn't fair and bent the rules a little too much. That's why I always repost the original order when I update even if people sometimes act/post out of order-just in case anyone needs to reference the actual order for something like that.
Anyways, just an anecdote from my experience that you might find helpful.
I'll make a post about the camp soon. There are some survival camp rules in the back of the AP that the NPCs can help with. Unless y'all don't care, in which case, I'll just bypass that. I'll post the relevant information below.
Camp rules:
In addition to setting up camp for shelter and safety, PCs (or more likely NPCs) can fulfill special roles to aid the camp. If a character performs this duty, that's what they do for the whole day.
Roles:
Defender: Ensures the safety of the camp by setting up traps and maintaining the walls. Should something attack the camp, the first attackers of the day take 2d6 damage (per defender) spread evenly among them.
Entertainer: Helps keep up morale and hope for rescue. NPCs get +2 (per entertainer) on their daily morale rolls (they make these every morning--they can fluctuate between hopeful and panicked, but a hopeful NPC doesn't have to make these rolls anymore unless something terrible happens).
Guard: Each guard reduces the chance of a wandering monster attack on the camp by 5% (can't go to 0%, though).
Hunter: Each hunter provides food and water for 8 medium creatures per day.
Medic: Each medic reduces the chance of disease by 5%, and increases natural healing from sleep by 2.
NPC Roles:
Aerys: Entertainer or Guard
Gelik: Entertainer or Medic
Ishirou: Defender or Guard
Jask: Hunter or Medic (must be un-manacled)
Sasha: Hunter or Defender
An NPC will only perform one of these duties if they have an indifferent attitude or better (attitude toward party and morale are listed in the Campaign Info tab). Attitudes can be improved by diplomacy checks, per the diplomacy rules.
Sil will volunteer himself as the hunter and Sticky as a guard. Sil has a decent Survival and KN (nature) and Sticky can't really do much more than guard. His tricks should allow him to do that just fine too.
That should be fine for the night, but usually these jobs take all day (i.e., you can't go exploring/adventuring if you have a camp Role). Also, as far as the hunter job goes, you can do that and get food and water for 8 creatures. Or, you can hunt and forage for 4 hours, with a DC 10 Survival check. DC 10 gets you enough for yourself, every 2 points by which you exceed the DC gets you enough for one more person. Also, because of the oppressive heat of the island, everyone needs to drink twice as much water as usual per day. Currently, there is no food or water except for what people have in their packs and waterskins.
You can decide what the other NPCs do either here or in gameplay (although currently Ishirou is unfriendly and won't help, and Jask can't do anything with those manacles).
I wonder if Druids can memorize produce water...
You mean create water? Yeah, I've already got it prepared.
Well, we can start trying to make nice with the NPCs -- Gathien's skills (so far) are largely limited to guard on his own.
Sil's not the best at Diplomacy (+0). Most of his skills and spells are for staying alive in the wilderness, so that'll be my responsibility I guess. But I agree we should try to win the NPCs over and make sure everyone gets along (and likes us).
Since Sil can simply create water, I'll let your Hunter shifts count for 1.5x food, instead. I'm about to post NPC camp role assignments, but let me know if you want them to do something else. You'll have a chance to make some diplomacy roles with them, too, or some Sense Motive (or equivalent) rolls to figure out how best to get on their good side and avoid their bad side.
Well Lionel will definetly go hunting with his survival atleast.
Hey PbP friends,
I'm moving this weekend, so I may be without internet and time to post for a couple of days. I'll do my best to get on and post once a day, but we'll see what time permits.
Kayle has a +5 Diplomacy, its not a class skill but she picked up a rank in it anyway.
She'll definitely start working on the NPCs.
I added a bit at the top of Kayle's sheet with NPC info and Smuggler's Shiv geography information. We can use that to know who we've made friendly, what roles NPC's can take, what roles they currently have and what quests we have. I will try keeping it updated with NPC and quest information we come across.
It may make sense for us to have one person elected as quartermaster as well. Someone who keeps track of what has been found, where it was found, etc.
I've got NPC info in the Campaign info tab, so I could update everything there if you'd like. I can set up a Loot List Google spreadsheet, too, but I was sort of waiting to do that until you all, you know, found some loot. :)
Small but important question: now that you're all getting ready to head out and explore, and face what the island has to offer, there will be a lot of jungle animals, some hostile, some not. Does anyone have any phobias that they'd like me to avoid? For instance, someone near and dear to me isn't the biggest fan of spiders, so I always change them to giant centipedes or something. Any requests? (Caveat: I may not be able to take out too many snakes; but then, you knew the AP was called Serpent's Skull).
I'm good, though I appreciate the offer.
Bring on everything.
Gathien don't forget to heal yourself after a night of rest (forgot to heal Kayle that too!).
For instance, someone near and dear to me isn't the biggest fan of spiders, so I always change them to giant centipedes or something.
I know someone with the same problem! She hates having to fight spiders in PFS (because, you know, the GM can't really change them in PFS). I have some spider minis that I like using for anything creepy-crawly (since I have about four of them) but I have to remember to use something else when she's at my table.
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I don't have any problems with anything. Although a warning to fellow players that if we come across plant creatures Sil will not want to kill it. I have Green Empathy (which is just Wild Empathy but against plants) so I would prefer to talk them down if possible. So if you pull high initiative on a plant you may want to hold to see if Sil can recover the situation first. If that doesn't work, then by all means kill it-our lives are more important.
To a lesser degree Sil is not going to be too excited about killing animals either if there's a way around it but usually its us or them and Sil understands that so he'll have no problems fighting them in the end.
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One last thing, mostly for the GM: I don't know if you noticed my one trait but I get a +1 trait bonus to Will saves when there is an animal Tiny or larger within 30' of me. I have not included this in my header's save because the animal has to be indifferent and wild animals are usually unfriendly. If possible I would like to pick up a pet bird to nest in Sticky's branches or a pet. . . anything. . . to carry around with me.
Yes, do remember to heal. Because you had a camp medic, everyone heals 3 overnight (and every point of healing gets rid of 1 lethal and 1 nonlethal at the same time).
@ Sil: I did notice your trait, but thanks for reminding me. Let's call it a DC 15 Survival check to find a suitable animal and a DC 15 Handle Animal check to befriend it. In the meantime, let's just say it's active as long as you're in jungle terrain right now. There's bound to be birds or monkeys or whatever within 30ft of you on the Shiv (and you'll at least hear them, if not see them). As for not wanting to kill any plants...well, we'll see. :)
Ok. I'm going to think of what pet I want Sil to have before I have him go find one.
As for the plants: well, if they are hostile he'll defend and help the party (he's not going to sit by and let the plants hurt his allies) but hopefully he can calm them down first. Not likely at this low level since my Green Empathy is kinda piddly but by midgame I'm hoping Sil can start up a little Green Community of the plant creatures he has befriended.
Being afraid of things is for little girly men, Lionel will be fine with whatever the jungle has to offer :)