Sounds good to me.
Quick question guys. How would you like to handle XP?
In my previous games, I've simply fudged the numbers and leveled up my players as the campaign progresses, crunching the numbers beforehand. Would you folks prefer to track your own XP, have me track it for you, or will we shunt the mechanic entirely?
Having you track it is probably for the best. Though I am good with any of the options.
I generally do away with xp when running APs, since if the PCs are exhaustive in their desire to do sidequests, there is a high risk of trivializing later encounters that are meant to be memorable, and if they miss too many, they run the risk of getting mauled later on. In the RotRL game I'm running right now, I'm just having PCs level up after specific "boss encounters," which frees them up to explore as much or as little of the setting outside of the storyline as they'd like.
Personally I found that leveling when the GM says so works best, for a couple reasons. Less guesswork/math on the part of the GM, and less of the "thought you'd be higher before fighting the BBEG, so right before you storm the castle, you get attacked by something easily killed to get those last few hundred xp!". Also, it lowers the desire of the players to feel compelled to scour every nook and cranny of a location for anything and everything to kill, so as not to miss a single xp...I love the Carrion Crown game that I'm involved in, but I felt a few times going through the first dungeon we were looking for minor monsters to kill so we'd be high enough to take on the main guys, when, at least in my opinion, it would have made more sense to go in and whack the head off the snake and let all the minor guys run out of evil gass...but I digress...
At the end of the day, I'm good with just about anything.
Also, I'll go ahead and stick with rogue(eventual wizard, eventual arcane trickster) as opposed to bard. Qualin has some social ability as is, and with the Missing Parent trait, has a reasonable Intimidate and Sense Motive, even though his charisma and wisdom aren't prime attributes. I kinda see him as acting sort of the bully when he thinks he can get away with it. He'll size someone up in a social situation, and if he can use his class(social, not character) to strong arm someone into making a deal, super...if not, he can negotiate and diplomate. Think semi-pushy retail salesman, rather than sleazy and offensive door to door vacuum salesman (didn't plan it that way, but I've actually at least tried to do both in real life...)
EDIT: I through together some words to give both a little bit of background and some personality for Qualin, on his profile sheet. I took liberties with my knowledge of things...if I crossed any lines let me know and I'll edit. Just saw some fun threads with the trait description and wanted to see what they looked like with a bit of tying...
I agree the 'level up when the GM says so' works best.
And I confirm that my role is manly party buff/heal. I wouldn't want to end up anywhere near the front line, at least not at low levels.
I'm all for you keeping track and just letting us know.
Km Aldo fine with you tolling initiative for us at the beginning of combat, so we dint have to wait for everyone to roll.
Yeah, I've got no qualms about you just telling us when we level up, Twigs. That's the way I usually see PbP's run.
Akrem brought up a good point with initiative. One thing I've seen used, beside the GM rolling initiative, is saves also. Seemed to work pretty good. When I was running a game I did a lot of the background type checks, instead of having people roll initiative when they walked into somewhere, I'd go ahead and roll it, and just spoiler different description for different people. Just throwing out ideas.
Sounds good, folks. Glad to see we all feel the same way.
Yes, I'd planned on rolling initiative myself. I'm hoping to update the map once per round (or alternatively, ASAP to avoid confusion). I'll try to rememedy a few issues I have in my current game, namely numbering the enemies to avoid confusion. Also from what I can see, maptools converts the screenshots as a little small. If there's an issue with the maps I post I'll do my best to fix them.
Rolling saving throws would certainly save a lot of time. If there are no issues I'd be up to try that too.
Yea, I'm totally cool with you rolling all the reactive checks/saves for us. It makes things go faster too.
Okay, I'll be leaving in the morning. Hopefully we can iron out our characters over the weekend?
Boiko, you still need traits and I believe either your dex or your cha will have to be dropped by one. Qualin you have one trait too few, you may choose one more from the list on the srd.
Yeah I'll get everything in order over the weekend. I think the ability scores were alright though (remember the middle-aged stuff?), but I'll double-check. I'm also inclined to get rid of the variant channeling - while I think it's cool flavor, it seems I'll be more useful as a healer than a buffer. That will also mean lowering Cha and re-taking feats.
Changed my FE to Goblin so its at least somewhat useful.
Also updated my Background to match the FE change, and added a bit to Physical Description.
Focusing on healing as a Cleric is boring.
Don't ignore it, but you shouldn't really be doing it in combat. We can always spring for a wand or two later.
I agree. You've got to make sure the game is fun for you, not just for everyone else. A well made cleric can be a very useful team member even before they start healing.
@GM Twigs:
I know you said you read my game review, so I assume you have looked through the RotR boards, if you dont mind, I'm going to suggest a few links that you may find useful or entertaining.
Info for how one guy changed RotR to be for 6 players
Greycloak of Bowness' RotR/Kingmaker mashup campaign journal
If you arent reading this one, you're missing out. he's got some really cool ideas.
A RotR PbP game
Ive been reading this one as the players have been doing this for a little over a year now. They are on their 4th(?) GM since theyve started cause people keep dropping on them, but so far the game is pretty awesome. Really good characters, and the GMs have done some cool stuff with the story. They are just now getting towards the last 'act' of book 1.
Hope you dont mind me suggesting these.
Ah. Right you are Boiko!
Not certain if you're looking for advice... But My experience with channeling is it's amazing at early levels and scales horribly. By contrast, turn undead is fantastic.
Personally I'd opt for turn undead over one of the channeling feats. I'd reccommend it later but I find deadly aim or power attack at third do wonders. Alternatively, dodge and mobility as your first level might help your manueverability somewhat, weaving around to flank and cast touch spells.
Hey, thabks for the links, godsdmit. I have the three threads bookmarked already. (I do a fair bit of lurking on the runelords forum, you've probably seen me around) but I'm digging this pbp.
Really looking forward to this game, and can't wait to get it started. Here's to hoping that my character doesn't end up brooding too much.
Boiko, the cleric in my game is going to be an archer style character, which your stats would be slightly skewed towards right now. Thus far he's been sort of mediocre, but that's because he's 1st level and relying on his 14 dex and +0 BAB, but if you like, I can keep you posted on how that progresses.
I'd also have to echo Twigs's stance on channeling, especially regarding its use in combat. It's fantastic for healing the party between combat, but most of the time in the middle of a fight you're going to have better (and more interesting) options.
I second the can't wait feeling, and thank you Twig for running this.
I like clerics in that they can do almost anything, melee, arching, blasting, buffing/healing. I have to disagree and having a mass heal usable in combat can be very useful, especially with selective channeling. It may not out damage a fireball spamming sorceror, but if you have to heal up multiple people, it's a good substitute for mass cure light wounds.
I'm third-ing that one.
I'm not saying that our Cleric shouldn't be prepared to heal in-combat, I'm just saying that, more often then not, a Cleric has something more useful they can do at that exact moment.
I tend to think that there are two forms of damage mitigation. The type that controller wizards use through summoning creatures and controlling the battlefield (damage prevention), and the type that healers use (damage removal). In almost every case, damage prevention is better than damage removal (prevention is better than the cure).
But I know my clerics have always been ready with a clutch heal in case things go sideways. But that's just me.
I do agree that prevention is often times more effective than cure, however I subscribe to the motto of s&&* happens. Sometimes the bbeg gets the drop on the party and nukes/full attacks some PCs down. So thats why having a good hail mary heal is a good idea.
I know. Healing is an awesome power to have. And like I said in my last post, the clutch heal is pretty awesome when it happens.
A happy new year to everybody! I'll be kicking this game off asap, so good to see folks as excited as I am. We'll start with a little roleplay at Sandpoints Swallowtail Festival which you'll all be attending. I've stuck the towns statblock on the campaign info page. Note the "base value" of 1,300gp. This means you have a 75% chance of finding an item of that value or below.
Rohan, what would you like to do with your draconic companion? We could start him off as an offscreen presence if you like, as your last remaining link to Hermea. Alternatively we can handwave him as part of your character, but ignore him in combat. Whatever you'd like. You've given me a really interesting character to roll with.
Happy New Year everyone! It has been so for about 11 hours now.
I hope 2012 is kickass for all of you, and our game!
I think I'd prefer the second. I'm actually surprised u like him. I've been told that he was too silly. But I'm glad you like him. You mentioned letting me take taking leadership to have him? Do I have to wait until level 7 as normal and how did u want him to be built. I.E made/run by you or by me? And happy new year to everyone! I've got another 6-7 hours until the new year.
Psh, you guys. I've been in 2012 for almost 11 hours now. Hey Twigs, doesn't it rock living in the future?
By the way, Rohan, were you going to be multiclassing later on? That 12 Cha makes me a little curious.
Yea, as I said. I' going to go dragon disciple and I'll probably multi-class barbarian too. Don't worry I'll always have enough charisma to cast my spells. I'm just not a primary spellcaster. I plan to be in melee and will use my spells to buff myself.
Psh, you guys. I've been in 2012 for almost 11 hours now. Hey Twigs, doesn't it rock living in the future?
I'm not Twigs, but I live in the future too. And it is WAY cool!
Really? Where are you from?
Australia. East Coast.
I think I'd prefer the second. I'm actually surprised u like him. I've been told that he was too silly. But I'm glad you like him. You mentioned letting me take taking leadership to have him? Do I have to wait until level 7 as normal and how did u want him to be built. I.E made/run by you or by me? And happy new year to everyone! I've got another 6-7 hours until the new year.
Personally, I'd rather run him, at least in combat, by myself. My group has found this works excellently. It discourages too much metagaming, doesnt bog down combat too much and we often have the cohorts delay and wait for orders, which fosters roleplay in combat as well.
As for roleplay we have three options: Having him be a relatively silent presence (whether voiceless or using telepathy), you voicing him or me voicing him. Id honestly prefer the first option, but either one would work just as well, but you'll probably have more fun talking with the others than to yourself. (Having roleplayd two characters at once before, it really isnt a good experience.)
Either way, give me a rundown on his name and personality and I'll build him up. (Despite how horrifyingly complicated dragons can get).
I'm having my last day as DM over my IRL campaign tomorrow, so I may not have a lot of time to post. I'll do what I can.
Sweet. Tell us what happens. There'll be no great rush to post early on. I doubt this first week will be very combat heavy.
Australia. East Coast.
Sydney?
If anybodies curious, I'm going on 19, going into my second year of an arts/education degree (I'm something of a history nut, though I managed to fail my history classes last semester thanks to a crippling lack of essays. :P) and work as an (unqualified) sparkie on the side.
I play on/off with some very tempermental friends of mine in a multi-character homebrew campaign, and I also ran some rotr and lof for them over maptools/im, and play in a great CoCT and Second Darkness game on these boards, so I usually spend a lot of time on these boards.
As for the game itself, I'll be watching Priscilla Queen of the Desert for the first time and then we can get this show on the road! Stay posted, folks.
Oookay, thanks for all the feedback on the channeling!
I've decided to leave the variant channel, but removed the archetype. Boiko is now slightly more survivable (is that a word?) in combat, and also sports a knowledge(geography) skill from his travelling experience. Looking forward to get him into action!
Happy New Year everybody. Been in it for about 23 hours now. Pretty good, so far. :P
The Gameplay thread is (finally) up!
Once you post in the gameplay thread as your alias the campaign should be added to your profile. You'll be able to check for updates by clicking on your name in the [WELCOME, X.] at the top of the page and clicking "Campaigns."
Posted!
Awesome! I just finished up my DMing, so I shall post in the morning. Very wiped out from 9hrs of play.
Hope it went well. Give us the scoop in themorning. :)
Personally, I'd rather run him, at least in combat, by myself. My group has found this works excellently. It discourages too much metagaming, doesnt bog down combat too much and we often have the cohorts delay and wait for orders, which fosters roleplay in combat as well.As for roleplay we have three options: Having him be a relatively silent presence (whether voiceless or using telepathy), you voicing him or me voicing him. Id honestly prefer the first option, but either one would work just as well, but you'll probably have more fun talking with the others than to yourself. (Having roleplayd two characters at once before, it really isnt a good experience.)
Either way, give me a rundown on his name and personality and I'll build him up. (Despite how horrifyingly complicated dragons can get).
Well, when I had him as my eidolon last game, I just posted all my actions at once and the Dm resolved them as they came up so my turn(s) didn't bog down combat. For roleplay, if you can play him as I envisioned him, feel free to run him. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my witty banter. It made the back and forth easier and more fluid. But the rundown is his name is copperscale because he is a golden wyrmling with a solitary copper-scale on his forehead. Most call him Copper for short. He is your typical fun-loving carefree party animal who eats/drinks alot, but occasionally had some words of wisdom. To get a better idea, you should read some of my posts from my previous Rise game that featured him. The main things though is that he is always trying to get Rohan to open up and to stop being a wallflower. To the point where he will just embarrass him a little bit.
For building him combat-wise, you can use whatever rules you want. I think animal companion/cohort rules would work best as opposed to building a dragon from scratch or something.
"Stop to see yourself as we see you..." he whispers as he reads the words beneath the sign.
Oh man. Why did I not think of using that? I was really stuck with Lorghan, but that's a really great note to start on.
:D
I honestly didn't realise how much of a two-man act Rohan was or I probably would have handled things differently. I should've really done more homework than skimming your background. These hot summer nights don't do much for my powers of observation.
I think I'll npc him myself, if that's alright by you, and introduce him sometime in the coming days. Gold or not, a wyrmling probably wouldnt be able to waltz around a human town, but I think I've thought of a home for him. He'll probably play a backseat role rather than a full time sidekick. If there's too much in the way of creative differences or you're not satisfied as things pan out I'll be open to changing things around, but right now I'd rather handle him myself and let Rohan (and the other PCs!) get their screentime.
I realize this is getting pretty far removed from your original concept. I apologize. I was pretty set on a core only game from the get go but I realise it's making converting characters a s&*$ty experience. Just let me know if you're not satisfied with the way he's turning out.
As for right now, I'm going to slink off and tinker with that statblock. I'll let you know what I end up with.
Is there anything of interest going on in the center of town?
Apart from the markets, there's a dueling contest at the garrison, an archery contest on the beach and all of Shark Alley is fenced off for the greyhound races, under the watchful eye of the local guardsman.
In the Cathedral square, there's a respectable crowd of people as the opening speeches take place. I'll get right on that.
Rohan, I've got three versions of Copperscale statted up, ready to scale with you as you level, as a lizard, a half dragon lizard, a young template wyrmling and crawling up the age chart. I'll revisit these when he first sees combat or you get closer to picking up leadership. You should be able to grab a wyrmling as a cohort as you take the feat. The actual rules for monster cohorts are pretty unforgiving but I'm willing to make concessions there.
I was going to post, but my brain is crashing. I'll get to it in the morning. Night all!
Sorry I havent gotten around to posting yet. Just getting to it now. I work in a bank...and we're open today. 0.o
Had to get some beginning of the year and beginning of the month stuff done before anything else.
Gonna try to post before noon (about an hour from now), though.
I honestly didn't realise how much of a two-man act Rohan was or I probably would have handled things differently. I should've really done more homework than skimming your background. These hot summer nights don't do much for my powers of observation.
I think I'll npc him myself, if that's alright by you, and introduce him sometime in the coming days. Gold or not, a wyrmling probably wouldnt be able to waltz around a human town, but I think I've thought of a home for him. He'll probably play a backseat role rather than a full time sidekick. If there's too much in the way of creative differences or you're not satisfied as things pan out I'll be open to changing things around, but right now I'd rather handle him myself and let Rohan (and the other PCs!) get their screentime.
I realize this is getting pretty far removed from your original concept. I apologize. I was pretty set on a core only game from the get go but I realise it's making converting characters a s&*$ty experience. Just let me know if you're not satisfied with the way he's turning out.
As for right now, I'm going to slink off and tinker with that statblock. I'll let you know what I end up with.
It's fine. It is a big party so screen time is already going to be a little spread out, so him being in the background is whats best. Frankly, I was actually willing to live without Copper as part of my character. But since you seem to like him, I think having him be an actual wyrmling would be appropriate when I do get leadership.