GM Tyranius Murder on the Silken Caravan Sub-Tier 1-2 (Inactive)

Game Master Tyranius

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Day job Perform (oratory): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Day job, Perform (Stringed) Take 10 = 17.

Pathfinder # 9165-5

Day job: None. Unless taking "Profession: hitman or fixer" is valid :).

Pathfinder # 9165-5

Day job: None. Unless taking "Profession: hitman or fixer" is valid :).

You could go Prof:Merchant then buy the 'Front' vanity?

My Rogue went Exchange faction (Totally legit? fuggedaboutit), then Thieves Guild etc - makes for a more fitting feel.

Thanks for the suggestions. I wasn't aware of vanities so I had to go look them up. The front idea is a good one but costly at the 40 Fame prerequisite. My original idea was tying the character to the Bellflower network to assist in the dirtier jobs; it sounded like a more plausible role for having a ninja without falling back to Japanese influences. Nonetheless, having a respectable cover profession makes sense here as well. Merchant cover it is.

Pathfinder # 9165-5

Day job: Profession(Merchant) +2
-Escape Artist Rank.

I love the ninja class mechanics. I agree flavor-wise it is hard not to jump to a stereotype of them instead of rogue. Samurai is the same way as your idea always leads back to Asian influences instead of just a normal person with a sensible code of honor and duty.

Indeed!

For me personally I was disappointed that Sczarni became a non-entity and the merger was pretty much one sided and took away all the underhanded aspects. I even wrote in my complaint about the Faction card and pointed out some of the obvious shortcomings - they had to resort to trickery and diplomacy, there was no angle for sending 'Fat Tony' down to 'send a message'.

I was delighted when they seemingly took that on board for the second iteration and made some progress to re-Sczarnifying the faction.

The other thing missing in PFS was the ability to sort of dress up a broader and bigger world from the characters side. You can buy a vanity, but it feels a little transactional - you buy a caravan so you can use intimidate once a session for some extra gold on a day-job at the end.

So I had to work out how to turn it into a 'Thieves Guild Experience'.

The Exchange faction vanities:
Master of Trade - Which gives mechanics but not fluff, so YAY you can wheel and deal and be a fence, buying stuff at a discount.

Expert Entrepreneur - Once again is 100% fluff free, so go to town.

Validated appraiser: makes you a better 'Fence'.

Trade Prince - sounds a bit 'non-rogue', I don't want to have a 'legit' front. Pasha equally sounds silly.

The Exchange faction card:
Entrepreneur - stacks with MoT above = 15% discount can be big news.
You are now clearly an even better shady operator.

Associate: Allows easier purchase of higher end items, seems Rogue-riendly

Chairperson: aka 'Godfather'.

***

With a few of the other vanities you can start to build the semblance of a Guild or 'totally legit business' around yourself with the Front vanity (which is completely overpriced for what it does, and at 40 fame is a joke), Thieves Guild, and Assassins Guild affiliations. Extra points if you go Information Broker.

I think the most natural 'underhanded' faction is now Sov Court, allowing Lion Blades (a touch legit, but my Sov Co guy is pretty much 007) but good faction goal rewards (and tasks to get them)

Andoran has the Bellflowers, but being all Captain Andoran Eagle Knight of the Empire is a bit too out there for a rogue. The faction card rewards though are appropriate, especially being able to gather up your troops (you can call them fat Tony and the boys!)

Have fun, they make it hard :P

Yup, just have to do a bit of research and re-skin a few things. That is the hardest part for me is figuring out how I want to reskin items and with what.

Thanks for the pm, Tyrannius, with the year change I had little time, but I´m here.

Forgo downtime to advance the cause of liberty: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Hello All! Checking in, late add-in from the Flaxseed Lodge thread.

Glad to join up, Kajar is a verbose half-orc ranger/skirmisher. Favored enemy is humans, he is quick to combat when weapons are drawn.

As of now more a follower than a leader, but always willing to offer an opinion, and happy to follow if that is the case.

Kajar is a team player and not afraid to jump into the fray. He does try to talk his way out of things, to varying degrees of success.

He spent his early years as a guide for Pathfinders and crusaders through Belkzen, and moved to Absalom recently with his mother, where he joined the Pathfinder Society.

Hello All! Checking in, late add-in from the Flaxseed Lodge thread.

Kajar wrote:

Glad to join up, Kajar is a verbose half-orc ranger/skirmisher. Favored enemy is humans....

Sensible.

As of now more a follower than a leader....

Also sensible.

Welcome aboard.

Tell me though, do you have any intentions in regards to our paladin?

Tell me though, do you have any intentions in regards to our paladin?

Don´t have any. She saw her first ;D

Heh heh heh, Kajar respects paladins as people, not objects ;D

Rilia, Sacred Hetaira wrote:

True enough, but there are still things such as player/character knowledge to consider in tactical situations.

Yeah, but our characters have been traveling together for quite a while, so I think it is reasonable to assume that they have discussed their powers (unless a character for some reason wouldn't) and likely tactical scenarios.

Well, in Kirian and Rilia's case probably not, considering their previous interactions, alignments, and the fact she does much of her Perform (oration) amid pillows in bed.

Rilia, Sacred Hetaira wrote:

That and tipping off the bad guys and just shouting what you are going to do above the sounds of battle is probably not advisable either.

Depends. It is only a problem if knowing you are going to do X gives the foe a plausible chance to counter it.

One thing that often disappoints me is that there is little teamwork and coordination in most TTRPGs I play. I don't want long tactical discussions in the middle of combat. But i'd like to feel like we're a team-- even though it is tricky, especially when all of us have not met before. I don't have all the answers, but figuring out how to work together is something I care about.

I imagine that when you say table-top role-playing game you are comparing it to online games like World of Warcraft and such? There's a difference in play style no doubt. Online games in general still rely heavily on non-human elements and concerns (damage per second, grinding for power and such) while pen and paper style games are still infinitely more variable. Anytime there's something that is not covered by a rule a carbon-based co-processing unit (the GM) must make a call rather than just disallow it as impossible. People can use diplomacy and dirty tricks or other nonstandard methods of achieving goals, and a character's backstory, emotions and experiences can help influence their actions and shape their path rather than a say a feat tree guide. Tactics are easier to manage in setting that doesn't take into account that your character might swing down on a chandelier to bull rush their ally out of the way of an oncoming fireball. There's room for all kinds of tactical confusion in a setting that allows for it.

Again this is something that could be resolved by forming a more permanent group and adventuring together for a while. On the messageboards, in a formalized Pathfinder Society setting, that may difficult (players often can only get credit for adventures once, or want to play at different rates of speed or want to play in certain games for specific reasons), but that's the nature of the beast.

A home campaign with a regular group of reoccurring characters and actual sit down face-to-face gaming theoretically should be better at alleviating your concerns given time, but even then the first few levels are often about discovering the group's tactics. Rilia might be perturbed but I'm not upset about lack of cohesion at this point in the game. In fact, at this level many of the characters and players themselves may not have settled on tactics yet--let alone the whole group as a unit.

Personally, I've found that table-top games tend to get bogged down in tactics mainly due to indecision paralysis and the desire to find the "optimal" play. That's not to say that PBP is perfect, either. PBP's strength is that it removes the bottleneck of waiting on a single player to take there turn and allows for more roleplaying/descriptive text. Although you would think that the asynchronous play would allow for more tactics, the reality is that most games that play at the rate of a single post per day tend to bog down any decision making process and is hard to interpret from the DM side weather the party is waiting or taking action as opposed to needing to move on for the sake of keeping the game alive.

I've played all sides- caster, martial, TT, PbP. I've found that the best solution for strategy is to make clear the caster's intention. What is important is that we agree on a plan.

My home game's strategy is - "OK, what spells are you thinking about?" Saves many deaths by friendly fireball :)

So, as this is a PFS scenario, let's be sure we get a solid tactical plan together going forward. This battle, though we tried to play to diplomacy, quickly broke down, and as a martial character I'd love to know what the caster is thinking of doing before I act.

Reason? Your spell might be better than my weapon, and I'm willing to let that happen, 100% of the time.

I'll admit I wasn't sure what Rilia had planned, and then blades drawn and then, well, half-orc...

I think it's better to have an overall strategy/coordination, even for a short adventure. It lets everyone put their best talents on display, which will of course lead us to great success!

You guys did fine. You would have needed a very high diplomacy for this guy anyways. he already hated you and just wanted to take the body if you left. When I played this my entire table biffed every role on this guy with a paladin. We were best friends with this cleric of Lamashtu and went and ate stew. Came back at nightfall and the place was empty lol. SO you guys did good.

Perhaps it would be best to declare a "***PAUSE***" if someone from the party wants to discuss tactics before continuting? Just a thought. This way it's clear to GM Tyranius, as well as everyone else, to hold off on resolving player actions until the group has reached a decision?

Just a suggestion. I'm open to better ways to coordinate going forward.

Regarding tactical decisions, I usually consider characters had talked before the encounter about their usual tactics, their strenghs and weakness, etc. Even if that´s not being effectively done.

Well better if it has not been effectively done, because it sustracts time from roleplaying your motivations, talking with NPCs and fellow players, etc. (I prefer to pass more time describing how Jhon Doe is performing a stage play to impress a girl than telling everybody he doesn´t carry slashing or bashing weapons, and he doesn´t carry a rope because he has not enough strengh).

With a ninja, a cavalier, a melee ranger and a swashbuckler I think most of the tactics will be "hit hard with your prefered stick". But Rillia can diversify it a bit.

Also, I think Jhon Doe should go first when/if exploring due more HP and AC than anyother, so I can take a hit for the party if needed. And Jhon thinks he´s becoming a hero, so going first to protect people fits well. But I don´t mind to stay back to let others start the hostilities and rush to combat if needed. Or just protect Rillia as any gentleman will do ;D

A pause could take a week in Pbp and isn't truly necessary. It makes a good RP conversation starter on your journey to the next location if the first fight is jumbled on tactics. :)

Please auto my character. Been pretty sick for the last few days, may not be back for a few more.

Sounds good. thanks for letting us know.

Get to feeling better soon.

Geez this scenario knows how to shaft players... strip em off, surround them, and give them penalties to hit... :p

get well soon, Kirian! Wishing you a quick recovery!

Geez this scenario knows how to shaft players... strip em off, surround them, and give them penalties to hit... :p

Give them a disease that won't show itself until after the adventure and because it could be your first adventure with the character leave them penniless and without equipment or dead at the end... It's great! Just the way I GM!

Get well soon Kirian.

Shifty wrote:

Geez this scenario knows how to shaft players... strip em off, surround them, and give them penalties to hit... :p

Give them a disease that won't show itself until after the adventure and because it could be your first adventure with the character leave them penniless and without equipment or dead at the end... It's great! Just the way I GM!

Are you refering to scenarios like

I was thinking more of scenarios like this (click at your own risk). ;)

Yea this one can be kind of vicious with the disease. But you can use your gold at the end to cure it, which doesn't cost too much. The DC wasn't too bad on the disease.

That and I just follow the scenario as written :)

I was thinking more of scenarios like this (click at your own risk). ;)

You win :P

The biggest shafting of a party takes place in The Elven Entanglement.

Don't think I have played that one yet.

Feeling better :) I'm back.

Awesome! Welcome back. :)

Glad to hear you´re better.

Sorry for the delay, too much work and familiar obligations lately.

Discussing tactics.

@Lance, regarding ranged weapons. I only have darts, Kirian has a longbow and you have a sling.

I was thinking in put the captivated people safe until the harpies come to us. I can move one per turn as you protects them and Kirian shots arrows. I´m trying to avoid the harpies can focus in a captivated character to kill it easily.

Or all of us can pick one of our captivated companions and move to the cave, forcing them to come for us if they want to bite us. I think we haven´t seen any ranged weapons in their hands, so letting them come looks a good plan for someone who had never seen any harpy and know nothing of those creatures

Once any harpy is near melee range we can focus in kill she.

EDIT: If Kajar and Rilia climb up, we should think in climb after them to defend them from the harpies. I can try this.

I rolled Climb as per GM request, but I'd love to be rescued!

Also, Kajar has a light crossbow should you get to him, or he falls. He is also carrying 50' of rope.

Sorry, Roscoe does not have any ranged weapons on him.

Does anyone have a way to block the sound? Impromptu ear plugs anyone?

EDIT: If Kajar and Rilia climb up, we should think in climb after them to defend them from the harpies. I can try this.

Lance will probably have to resort to ranged weapons, he is going to be climbing really slowly in heavy armour, so its probably not too bright to attempt.

Kajar has ear plugs...

Rilia can use countersong. ;)

OK, we got this then- Umm, next round, We got this then!

What's the play? Charge in and attack the multi-colored group to get to the BBEG or soften them up with ranged attacks? I'm assuming the Genie will keep the lower half busy, but we may want to rescue Jamila earlier to get another combatant?

I'm thinking Roscoe's choices are:

(1) Hop on Lance's mount, add an extra attack while mounted, and then dismount after the charge for cleanup/flanking opportunities.

(2) Skulk around and try to free the prisoners.

(3) Skulk around for flanking opportunities.

All that open space and not a charge lane to be had :p

I think we are just going to have to roll up on the coloured group and get to Gaspar who seems to be hiding at the back.

@ Roscoe - I'd assume Lance is on his mount, and freeing prisoners might not be that helpful- I'd say flanking.

@Shifty - I agree I think it's a pull-all-the-stops-out kinda fight. Ranged on Gaspar till we close and wipe the mooks as they advance.

I also hope the genie holds of the southern half, and that getting Jemelia to safety should be considered, as she is paying us.

@Roscoe Flank with Rillia´s horse ;D

Most of us are melee combatants, so I think we should go foward carefully trying to kill mooks to avoid being surrounded. Soften them with ranged attacks don´t work when they have much more ranged weapons than us, in my opinion.

It looks like Gaspar is coming at us.

I agree we should stick together and avoid getting anyone surrounded.

Kirian would not last in the front line (no armor), but he can drop the bow and weild his reach weapon from the 2nd rank-- probably using if for Aid, since his to-hit is lousy.