GM ShadowLord's Rise of the Runelords Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master GM ShadowLord

I read an article by JJ once where he commented that the beginning parts of this AP were the darkest that they dared tread into and they were approaching a very real line of going to far.

That being said I was attempting to simply stick with the theme and if people aren't enjoying said theme it's entirely in my power to shift things around somewhat. I completely admit to playing up the horror theme as I thought it fit, I apologive if I've taken it too far.

I won't being GMPC'ing Kiley or Tal, and it seems that without Kiley Sunday isn't moving forward. So I would assume that he will be rolling up another character. Rysky can weigh in on the best possible direction.

I recognize that there has been a lot going on which is why I suggested we fast forward a little to give the characters a chance to breath and decompress from everything that has happened. If you would rather roleplay through all of that, I have no qualms here and please continue.

I am running a PFS game tomorrow and hosting a monthly game night tomorrow night, my availability this weekend will be more limited than normal.

I agree it's been very dark, but I think it fits with the theme just now and gives us real reason to get to the bottom of things. I agree though, at the moment Jess has almost no reason to keep going withh al that she's lost. Not saying I'm dropping her, meaning more from a depression point of view. She definitely needs something to give her reason to keep going.

This is going to sound a little odd but...

... And emissary of Shelyn already appeared to Jess and Kylie once. We assumed it was there for Jess but what if it was there for Kylie? What is, this time, it doesn't free Kylie but draws her up to her destiny to become one of Shelyn's lesser spiritual servants.

Kylie appearing to us as a vision of sacred spirituality, telling us to end this madness would certainly be enough to restore some of Jess's faith and give Sunday a reason to keep going.

*scratches head*

Well Kiley was a follower of Desna though...

Pathfinder deific cannon is filled with emissaries that switched from one deity to another. Many of the good aligned deities work together so that wouldn't be too unlikely.

Eh, true.

Maybe Desna was being nice and raising Kylie for Shelyn!

>.>

...

Kiley

So I think I'll go with Misfortune. Since Grace and Elisae are buffers, I'll debuff.

Sunday, level 6

+11 HP
+1 BaB
+1 Fort
+1 Ref
+1 Will

+1 Fearless
+1 Superstition
Rager Power: Spirit Totem

He'll also take the Reaper's Mask unless someone else wants it.

@ Sunday. Lol, I think it's more not wanting to deal with the hassle. Which is all good.

Trying to make the newcomer all around useful while maintaining the supernatural feel of witchiness.

K

Shameless plug, anybody want some awesome Dark Souls' minis? :3

Elisai's conversation partners right now :3

Lol, I should have just used that link instead.

Muahahahaha!

Hey Gang - We're in a very precarious time of interesting group dynamics! There has already been a lot of change dropping two characters and picking up Yavenee, but there is about to be some more. I've been in discussions with two characters about changes to their characters between no and the end of chapter as well as possibly adding in an old familiar player here again.

I'm usually quite loose with the rules and enjoy having a good group that has fun instead. I'm opening up possibilities for the new players to play some classes and expanded rules that weren't allowed in the original recruitment. Since this was not awarded to the rest of you, I wanted to run it past you and make sure this wouldn't cause any ill feelings in the group. Feel free to PM separately if this the case, otherwise hold on to your seats!

Fine with me.

I am more than fine with it, but want to give my opinion on available sources nevertheless:

I usually prefer a restricted amount of source material because I think it helps focusing on other aspects of the character and reduces the over-optimisation syndrome. In particular I find hybrid classes considerably overpowered respect the core ones, and the occult ones unnecessarily complex, although I feel more exhausted by the large and ever increasing amount of options added by the Pathfinder Companion line and in perhaps less degree the Setting one.

But I think we are in general a prudent group and I do not think there will be any issue.

I really appreciate you told us about it and asked our opinion.

I am fine with Delendir, the bad business of the trapper archetype gives him a more realistic feeling I enjoy. But perhaps it would be nice if you offer the opportunity to retrain some aspects of our characters so everybody feels with the same opportunities.

You can break a character with just the core rulebook, adding other options doesn't hurt.

Obviously being a witch, I'm fine with options being available.

You can break a character with just the core rulebook, adding other options doesn't hurt.

There are, but the overall increase in flexibility and capabilities is there also. My main complain is perhaps the increase in the complexity of the character mechanics that brings little to the game other than keeping the money machine working.

Oh boo f**%ing hoo, a company makes books stuff that most people have to pay for if they want to use them.

What do I care though, I'm not going to be here much longer anyway.

That's fun because in fact I meant I am glad it keeps the hobby working xD

If you say so.

Sure, I was trying to say that's the only positive thing I see to keep adding rules and options to the system passed certain point.

That point greatly depends on the length and intensity of your playing experience and your appeal for building the mechanical part of new characters.

Besides, I was just expressing my personal opinion and I think I have not written in answer or opposition to any of yours.

Okay

Thanks for you feedback Delendir. I agree there is a lot of source material out there, no one could possibly know it all. I actually like it this way because it allows ultimate flexibility on creation. Despite thousands of feats and traits, I almost always see the same 20 always being picked though. Building a powerful character is fun for some people, but when I play I usually like to add flaws or be less than perfect. I find it allows more role play opportunity. To each their own!

Ok barring any complaints from Eli or Grace I will green light the new characters to proceed with creation.

But perhaps it would be nice if you offer the opportunity to retrain some aspects of our characters so everybody feels with the same opportunities.

Sure, I'm open to that. We just leveled, let me know what you had in mind.

Sunday, I'm calling you out on this. Del expressed an opinion. Don't be a jerk about it and don't be passive aggressive either. It's not worthy of him or you.

That said, I'm confused as to what's going on. We've got a party of six, why are we recruiting?

You originally had seven and said you wanted to stick with that dynamic. One of the players who left wishes to return and continue to play with you again. If you would like to stick with six I will inform the player we want to stay at six, I was simply going along with your original request.

Sunday, I'm calling you out on this. Del expressed an opinion. Don't be a jerk about it and don't be passive aggressive either. It's not worthy of him or you.

Which would be fine if he hadn't opened with "I don't like options because they're only made to make a company money".

It was annoying and dismissive to those who like having all those options.

I missed that. Was that Ky or Tal?

It was annoying and dismissive to those who like having all those options.

Re-reading my quote I see I wrote it defensively, and I apologize if it offended you. I hope it was properly clarified later.

Sure, I'm open to that. We just leveled, let me know what you had in mind.

I was just meaning in general, nothing really in mind for Delendir.

You originally had seven and said you wanted to stick with that dynamic. One of the players who left wishes to return and continue to play with you again. If you would like to stick with six I will inform the player we want to stay at six, I was simply going along with your original request.

Oh, I really want to see Kiley, Tal or Vivi back. Otherwise a group of 6 is more than fine to me.

I'm also fine with bringing back the player/players that wish to return.

Adam has expressed interest in returning, but not with Kiley. He suggested he had another character in mind to play. I had reached out to him on his thoughts of writing Kiley out efficiently and he mentioned coming back.

No objections here.

Absolutely none.

Adam's in another campaign a few of us are in. I definitely look forwards to seeing what comes.

Right-o. I'll send him the all clear smoke signals!

In taking to Sunday, somethings have made me think. Is our reluctance to go after Kiley right away and our attempts to help Jessica relax enough to be able to adventure partly an OOC acknowledgement that she's an NPC and likely fated to die so not quite as important? I want to make sure we are reacting properly. I'm suddenly not sure myself. There's so much death and horror in this campaign I'm having trouble tracking my reactions.

Just because she's an NPC, just because she's about to die, doesn't make her any less important. It doesn't erase all we've done together, nor does it erase all the memories.

Response incoming (It'll be a long one)

So I’ve been thinking about this for a bit. Something kind of unique about this is that this entire party are all survivors of pretty notable trauma, some far more so than others. Everyone deals with trauma differently.

What the group just went through was both emotionally and physically brutal. Jessica just watched even more people she loves die or almost die, seemingly for nothing other than the amusement of some sick bastards. At this point it’s easy to see why a large part of her just wants to give up.

Grace just not only had to wade through death and destruction by people who were out to forment chaos by nature of being evil, the same kind of evil that made her leave Cheliax, but actually lose control of her own mind for a moment falling under another’s command. For someone with a dominant personality that will shake you the hell up. And she’s trying to keep it together while others are crumbling.

Delindir just had to deal with not only a ton of old personal scarring but then watch his own father in law butchered, which despite needing to happen will result in a ton of emotions that are gonna be hard to control. And so far he’s been shrugging it off but it’s settling in. And being savagely cut up doesn’t help

Elisai has her own issues but right now has been trying to keep things going, keep Sunday moving, keep investigating with the birds, giving the others time to deal.

For Yavenee her day went from, sitting in her shop, meeting up with an old friend, carrying out a powerful ritual that took a substantial amount of energy and tied her to new people, to fighting for her life against a horde of lunatics. That's a hell of a lot to wrap your head around in less than 24 hours.

Sunday’s been through hell. But Sunday grew up in hell. He was a monster hunter before this. Trauma and chaos and death is pretty much home. When it comes to $#!+ like this, he’s the pro. And hence the one that can shrug this off and focus on what’s next. In a way that’s easy for him. You survive by just going forward. And he doesn't have the outlook and maybe the empathy to get why everyone else doesn't deal with things the same way.

For a lot of people after dealing with something horrible, you need the distraction of something familiar, or even a tiny bit of comfort. I was in Manhattan on 9-11. The next day the only thing I wanted to do, and angry and sad and shaken as I was, was to go to a yoga class. That bath isn’t them lounging. It’s healing and recovering the mental energy to keep going, knowing we’re going to be walking into worse, and knowing the kind of thing we’re likely to find.

Also I’ve always thought of magic as something integral to the being of magic users. Almost running out of spells isn’t like running out of arrows. I figure the way a spellcaster feels when practically drained is how a high level fighter feels walking around with his last 5 hp.

In taking to Sunday, somethings have made me think. Is our reluctance to go after Kiley right away and our attempts to help Jessica relax enough to be able to adventure partly an OOC acknowledgement that she's an NPC and likely fated to die so not quite as important? I want to make sure we are reacting properly. I'm suddenly not sure myself. There's so much death and horror in this campaign I'm having trouble tracking my reactions.

I'd say that in a weird way this is a success of both the writing and the GMing of the campaign, that the players are feeling a sense of emotional disorientation from the overload of what they've been through.

It also speaks to the immersion style embraced by the players.

Hiya! I just wanted to say that I haven't had a chance to work a new character yet, but I did need to know two things, what level do I need to make her and if I need to roll for HP or take the average? I'm guessing that it's level 6.

Also, glad that you guys want me back. :D

Considering we just hit 6 I doubt we'll have made 7 by the time you show up.

Considering we just hit 6 I doubt we'll have made 7 by the time you show up.

Good point. :)

Okay, now that that's out of the way, are we using background skills?

I think Elisai's reluctance is primarily (ironically enough) due to Sunday's reaction. Sunday is very much concerned with recklessly charging right into a rescue mission, whereas Elisai believes in being a bit smarter about picking an engage. I guess she suspects more that Kiley is a lure or a source of leverage, and doesn't really want Sunday running in half cocked and putting everyone in danger, which also doesn't help Kiley.

Unfortunately even if you know it's a trap the whole "being tortured" kinda forces our hand, short of simply not going at all.

Forced to go, and forced to go in blind are totally different things.