GM Mezegis The Begger's Pearl (Inactive)

Game Master Mezegis

(I was joking. I really liked your end to it (I never write anything that good for my players), and keeping it going would probably have ended in the other disaster I alluded to, especially with your rolling/my luck.)

I am happy with your GMing. I think everyone's frustration was with the scenario, although even that could have gone very differently with the 'right' party (e.g. one with one of your archers carrying enough silvered arrows).

On the plus side, I think we learned about having the right kind of weapons and ammo (I would suggest cold iron (cheap) blanched with alchemical silver), and probably need to beef up ranged support, generally. Probably need to get Ebon a strength bow, and he could probably lug a lot of ammo, too. Having just fought a shadow, maybe some ghost touch blanching would be good.

The darkness question is still a hard one since 300 each for Darkvision potions is a bit of a hurdle, although we should each save for one, it seems, and see if we can convince Targost to buy a few scrolls of darkvision. I'm not sure if I should get one or not, since I don't do much in combat or with ranged spellcasting, and I've been typically stocking up on medical stuff (gotta replace those Diagnose Disease scrolls!).

I've invested a fair amount in my sling ammo, which was probably silly. I should probably sell what I can and buy a crossbow and the bolt equivalents.

I would hardly say that I didn't enjoy your style of GMing, Mez. If that were the case, Avora would have bowed out long ago. To the contrary, I enjoy a challenge. I was worried for us for a while there, but why play if there isn't a risk of failure (even if such failure ends in death)?

Speaking of possibilities of failure and death, should do we explore any more or call it a day? I would assume that we walk around already cleared areas using detect magic and searching for such treasures.

Just in prep for a conclusion:

Day Job check, Profession (Sailing): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
1 gp!

Norine finds surprising few opportunities to earn coin sailing ships in the mountains of Varisia...

Gotta echo Brandon here. I have absolutely no problem with your GMing, Mez! You're certainly good at it. Thanks for running the game.

Mostly I was just annoyed by this scenario. I also like a challenge - but this module was just filled to the brim with ridiculous things that were totally unbalanced for this tier. And that's not your fault at all.

Whew, that ending was E-P-I-C Mez! The kind of writing I might aspire to in a few hundred thousand posts or so. Your style's great. I'm still the lazy barstid that can't be bothered to make his maps player-editable and struggles to bring anything extra to a scenario.

I only hope I am beginning to achieve that in some small way. I was pretty happy with my City of Strangers game, so you'll have to let me know over there what you thought.

And it sounds like Alice is all set to GM for us next time. I know better than to argue with a lady (well, at least I think I know when to quit!).

:) Indeed, I loved that post.

So long as you're happy to wait until the new year before starting, I'm down for it! Any particular desires for mods to play?

Glad you liked it. It isn't the end of the scenario, but pretty darn close. I didn't do a grand "find the loot, make the deal, return to civilization post" since I thought the group might like a minute or two to catch their breath.

I tried to have all the people really involved in the plan have a bit of the spot light for a moment, alas, I couldn't think of a really good way to bring Brandon to the front. I just hope as a sneaky Halfling who likes the shadows, WhtKnt is OK with that.

That said, I am putting the finishing touches on my homebrew's Obsidian Portal page and looking to get recruiting started there in a week or two. I won't be offended if someone else wants to GM, but I definitely want to pull my weight. I just know that from February to mid-April I'm usually going 65-70 hrs a weeks at work, with less time for posting.

Btw Derek, any chance of a sneak preview of this? :) Really curious to see what you've been up to.

It was fantastic!! Rarely have I been in fear of a TPK in a game!! I think Targost will be moving to take a level in a martial class soon...and enjoyed your DMing! Looking forward to continuing with the group into the next adventure!

I agree Mez. You do a Grand job of DMing. Tho I think Ebon might need Iron Will at some point!!! XD. Enjoying the Frosty game as well!!

@Alice - I'm curious too! I guess what I mean is I'd like a few more days on that. I put together a bunch of stuff from memory and added some new items. I then let my friend who helped me create the setting at first take a look. His comments were pretty useful, but I haven't had a chance to take them into account. One issue is that I built the setting for a GURPS campaign, which had such a radically different system for magic that I've had to work out a number of things with deities and divine casting. I'll be sure to let you all in as soon as it's beyond the first terribly rough draft.

There's so much good content out there. I liked "Stolen Heir", but since Mez played he wouldn't be able to earn an XP for it. There is a new 1-5 due out on Dec. 25th that I mentioned above. "Library of the Lion" or somesuch.

Alice could take us back to the Blackros Museum in "The Penumbral Accords".

Those would be my top 3 for now. One issue is that I have Mez and Norine in another group, so avoiding overlap there makes things slightly harder. Still, there a lot of ground to cover.

And I've made this offer to some people via PM. I may be feeling a bit of holiday cheer, so if you have an updated wishlist don't be surprised if a new scenario finds its way to you. (That is an invitation to update your list if you haven't yet).

I'm looking for a scenario to do for the next gameday for my main other group, and while there are so many out there, I only know really anything about those that I've played.

It would be fun to continue with the Blackros Museum theme. Is Voice in the Void next? I remember looking up the order at one time, although I'm not sure what difference it makes.

Voice in the Void is definitely next chronologically. I have both played and Gm'ed that one in "live" games. So if you guys want that one, I would prefer to run it so I can at least get credit towards my next star and another replay credit.

It's a pretty neat one, without having anything too ridiculous. Maybe I could run it after the next one?

I'm willing to try most anything from Season 0 too. That older stuff is pretty neat for establishing Pathfinder lore too.

The Stolen Heir looks kind of interesting, from the description and a few reviews. I might play it for my group if Mez doesn't want to run it.

I did find Stolen Heir suspiciously lacking in a few areas as a GM, however. At Tier 1-2 it somehow failed to incorporate at least two of the following: darkness, DR, hardness, and flying enemies. Despite these obvious flaws it was the gem of early season 5 to me, although reading The Wardstone Patrol makes that one sound quite awesome too.

And Norine, I remember who bought Beggar's Pearl for Mez ;-)

Was that me?! Well, it just goes to show that I don't preview the scenarios!

I really liked stolen heir because the scenario was very fluid and left more options than the typical PFS railroad. I suppose I could run that one later, but I already have 2 more scenarios in my GM queue for you guys.

Has anyone played The Devil We Know series yet? I enjoyed parts 1 & 2, and one day I'd like to get the credit for 3 & 4 as well.

Alice - I was just about to say 'no, I hadn't' but it turns out I am in #1 right now, lol, and she plans on doing all 4. (She doesn't have the title of the scenario in the campaign title and I had forgotten it.)

That said, I seem to have less playing/GMing capacity than others, so perhaps you could do it with an alternate group, less your favorite cleric. Or, I could play it and do my best at separating knowledge.

Dietrich is currently on Table B of that Devil We Know series, but I can drop after any part. Were you looking to play or GM parts 3 & 4 Alice?

If it's to play, I really wouldn't mind running those at some point either.

Matt, I don't really preview them either. I try to go by the reviews but avoid the spoilers unless I'll be GMing it. Sometimes I skip them even when I GM. That's how I ended up running the Dalsine Death Wish twice!

My paladin (who I played I and II on) is currently in a module and that will put her at level 5. So unless it's a higher tier game, probably not playing for now. :) If you guys are playing it now, don't drop out! Stick with it!

That's right - My guy is on the A team.

I am playing the first one as well...am I in a game with any of you?? Its hard to tell sometimes as people use different characters! LOL My character is Nguyen An.

I have played the full DWK series.

Targost - I'm in Bluedove's Team A as Otiophon, and Derek/Todric is in her Team B. It looks like you are in someone else's DWK series. (Man, you are in a lot of games!)

Yeah...unfortunately most die in a few turns.....then the DM does not close them!! Most of the ones I am suppose to be in now are not actually running, or running so slow I am lucky to post once a week....I would really like to get into a game that posts daily, or more and keeps up the posting....plus I am running 3 games (actually only 2, 1 is for an old tabletop group I use to ply with...they are slow posters..lol

Fortunately, Mez, Derek, and Alice are all good and reliable - and myself (GM FurtiveZoog), of course. ;-)

I only can GM one or two at a time because I try to post responses to player actions multiple times per day. (Plus, I'm really slow and have a toddler pulling at my ears and typing for me.)

Derek, I know you wanted to play Tod tonight. As far as I'm concerned you can, we are really just in clean up mode atm, or do you need the chronicle before you can?

Thanks Mez, but fate has conspired against me again. I managed to catch my own toddler's cold, which kept me up much of last night. So I won't be attending the FLGS game this week. *sigh*

No problem on Brandon, Mez. I knew when I created a specialized character that there would be situations where he would be relatively useless.

As for DWK, I have also played the full series, but I'm happy to play again for no credit if everyone else wants to play through.

I can run something, but at the moment, I have three campaigns going on online, so I'd rather not just now. After the New Year, maybe.

So are we all agreed on taking a holiday break? Drink a little eggnog, listen to some Michael Buble, etc.?

It seems like we could fit one more game in before the New Year, or before it's very old at least (I've done PFS in as little as 17 days) but that would involve some pretty heavy posting when we may not have tons of time to focus on it.

Can I get everyones email address so I can send out chronicles tonight.

Thanks!

Targost - dagda21@gmail.com

Just drop me a message when we are going to start again. I am willing to play any of the scenarios...they are all new to me (or most of them)!! :-)

I PM'ed you my email address, Mez. As I said there, thanks for the great, if humbling, game! I'm definitely going to have to talk to my other group about expanding their ranged and specialty materials capabilities.

I loved the part of the wrap-up where she gives us a gift and it is "that is then immediately confiscated by the Society and its gold sum equivalent given back." Too funny.

whtwulf at gmail dot com, Mez. Good game! I'm beginning to feel your pain, BTW. I'm running S&S online and what I perceived to be a nuisance encounter is very close to wiping out my group.

It is very interesting how sometimes a single ability or bad roll can completely change the face of a game, and an relatively easy encounter can get completely sideways.

In my RoW home game, the cleric fell into a river while crossing. 2 hours and 20+ checks later he doesn't freeze to death and manages to warm up enough to heal himself. All because he failed a DC 5 Acro check.

i remember that river. Ankih fell in too. XD.
Yrstupidity at att dot net.

I took it easy on everyone in my online RoW game. You should have been making saves every 10 minutes and been unable to heal yourself due to the wet cloths. That would have quickly lead to very close to death PC's as I think half of you fell in that one. My online RoW game is how I feel it should be run, and I run my table top version strictly as written. It has lead to some interesting differences.

Glad I'm in the online one then. XD. Not sure Ankih would survive the other. Tho I think he would have ben using endure elements more and having less healing.

I'm just the opposite. My tabletop S&S is being run with a free hand and giving PCs a few benefits here and there. My online S&S game is being run savagely as written. You're right, it does make some interesting differences in the game.

I'm not equipped to run an Online game, but I sure wish the hobby was more prevalent here. I miss tabletop games. TT

I did it as such because I only have 4 players in my home game and therefore it fits closer to the way it was intended, 4 PC's 15 point buy, etc... the PC's have the edge because they are 25 point buy instead of 15.

Online, having 6 ppl, I felt I needed to adjust things just to make it challenging. I take out encounters, smoosh some together, and adjust some stats so that the game can have some challenge.

luciddragon AT gmail DOT com

As far as posting over the next month goes, well, I can probably manage to play in a game but not run one. My partner is coming to visit in a few days for a month (yay!!!) so I will definitely not be in a mood to be organising a game. Hooray for long distance relationships. :P

Ok, so how do I make chronicle sheets if I don't have a scanner?

I use a PDF editor (NitroPDF, but there are plenty of others) to fill everything out digitally.

One way would be to use the free NitroPDF. It allows you to type text onto the 'blank' PDF and to save it.

I haven't exactly figured out the signature part, but it was suggested to me that you make a signature using a script-like font from their selection of fonts (probably one with 'italic' or 'engraved' in the name - not really sure how to find them easily). (I think Alice suggested it.)

You could also use a script-like font in another program, take an image capture of it, and save it to a file, putting it on the pdf with Nitro's QuickSign feature.

Let me know if you need help making the files editable...

Edit: Ninja'ed cause I'm slow.

If you want fancy fonts, I suggest DaFont. Everything's sorted by categories and you can test how it looks on the site.

Of course, you can also just use the default font, I've seen people do that too. :)

Oh, my e-mail is rexbrittania at yahoo dot com. Just in case you didn't save one of the e-mails I sent your chronciles in ;)

I had thought about GM'ing another game right now, but I really do need to clear my plate first. A little break could be a good thing.

And Mez, did you notice anything wonky about the PFS reporting page? I just posted in Wesite Feedback regarding this.

Mez, just a couple things.

1) A figured out my problem was with my browser. Paizo musn't like Safari :(, but Firefox worked just fine for the online reporting.

2) Can you date these the 10th? That's when we finished, right? If so, I can apply my City of Strangers GM credit to Tod.

3) Did you get things figured out regarding the pdf/scanning/etc? If there's any way I can help, let me know!

Thanks again for running a great game!