Gm Aest's Kingmaker: To Forge a Kingdom

Game Master Aest

Glue Seal is an AoE so it should work.

By my understanding of the rules, Acid Splash and Chill Touch would not work. The thought is "Congratulations, you killed 1 of 1000 spiders, the remaining 999 still attack."

The basic rule is you have to be able to damage lots of creatures all at once. Gracious GMs may allow someone to throw a blanket over the swarm and then crush them or something equally creative.

The only thing I dislike more than swarms is haunts.

Sorry for my silence. The last few days have been really rough, and I've had to take a step back for my own mental stability. I'm back now, and I should be able to resume some semblance of a normal posting schedule.

However, I will be out of town from Friday night to Sunday night (my time). The fella and I are having weekend in Victor Harbour to recharge our batteries, and I may not be able to post. If it holds things up, bot me.

I have nothing I can do in this situation, short of lighting a torch and burning them. When I ran this encounter for my party last year, the paladin actually coated himself in oil and got the sorcerer to set him on fire, dealing damage to the swarm each time it tried to, well, swarm him...

Swarms take 1.5 damage from area spells, so this burning hands wand should do the trick. Luthor should be able to pick it up and use it, Burning Hands being on the witch list. With a decent roll or a bad on their end, this will be over and we can stock up on Alchemist Fire and Acid. I never make a character that doesn't carry an option for swarms.

For a Melee character, I usually keep a Swarmbane Clasp available, even if I don't wear it all the time.

Sorry I've been a bit slow lately too. It's been a rough week.

Well I think it's time to leave. We can plot out a new strategy and try again later.

Two nat 20s in a row Cyanne! That's rolling like a champ!

It was unintended, but hilarious. Have you guys ever seen Cyanne so furious? Kaz, you really may have to protect Bokken from her. It's a good thing that she'll have a week to cool off first.

Now, let's be fair. Bokken is both 1) clearly deranged and 2) probably an alchemist. Swarms probably aren't that big a deal to him!

Don't worry Cyanne, you can always use glue seal to stick something of Bokken's to the ceiling. ;)

I was getting tired of running combats, so I didn't exactly listen to the random encounter dice rolls. Hope no one minds.

Well I know I'm disappointed it turned out be Gratia instead of a bunch of spiders wearing a trench coat.

Nah, that'd be total BS. And also something Tyg and Perli might think is funny.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for a social encounter!

And yes, Perli and Tyg would think that funny! Fortunately, theirs would be only an illusory swarm in a trench coat.

I try to please, and it'd been a while since there was a conversation with an NPC with nothing really at stake.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here waiting for a Kingmaker recruitment to announce so I can maybe play this thing once. Two games so far, and both have died before the Thorn River Bandits encounter... Aris'larial may never get a real chance.

Ah man! I hope you make it into one! You deserve to, after the wonderful game you've given us.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here waiting for a Kingmaker recruitment to announce so I can maybe play this thing once. Two games so far, and both have died before the Thorn River Bandits encounter... Aris'larial may never get a real chance.

Congratulations on getting in to your game, Chris!

Hmm

*Shifts eyes left* >.>

*Shifts eyes right* <.<

"You following me?"

==========

In all seriousness, though, I'm pretty pleased. Aris is probably the most powerful character I've ever built in terms of stats, gestalt, and potential, and I'm hoping to have a decent opportunity to play her.

As for this game, I'm thinking about a post now, as well as one for the Vaults game.

Ha! It was a slooooooow day at work and nothing was happening in my pbps, so I decided to check the two active Kingmaker recruitment threads. And that's when I saw your character made it.

Hmm

I can appreciate that Aest. As far as stats/gestalt/potential my favorite is a summon/nightblade named Inara. So far both games I've had with her have bit the dust, the most recent after like two weeks. :(

One of these days I'll get her in, it's just going to take a special campaign. Where nobody quits on me :p

Hi, all!

I'll be botting Kazimir (as needed) for a bit here, for reasons his player will explain when she feels comfortable doing so. It's not my place to go beyond that at the moment.

Also, and in related news, I'll be "proposing" a change to your traveling course in the Gameplay thread here shortly. Although it's a bit meta-gamey, you'll have good reason to take the change of plans, I promise.

Okay. Kaz and Cyanne can always have their conversation later.

Kaz, if you read this, I hope you're okay. I'm sending many virtual hugs your way.

Claptrap? Lol.

It's in the book, I swear!

Hey, guys.

As Chris mentioned, I'm going through some rough times. I've let my GMs know, but I'll let y'all know as well that I've split with my fiance. Since we were together six years, I've got a lot of pieces to pick up.

I'll be trying to post here and there, and I'll definitely hang around here, but you may not hear a lot from me in gameplay for a while. I'll be rather hit-and-miss until I feel like I can actually get into character. I just managed a post in one of my other games, and it drained me like a leech, so I may need to even put them all on a roster or something; I don't even know.

I love you guys, and I love this game, and I'm not giving up on it. Just be patient. Leave a light on for me; I'll come home when I'm ready.

Love and prayers. You can always talk to us if you need to. I've got some friends going through the exact same thing (albeit with a baby).

Big hugs, Kaz. We love you lots. Feel free to come here and just vent. We all know what it's like to break up with someone you love.

Kaz, is it okay if I attribute these words to you from the grounding conversation that Cyanne sought out?

I'm really, really sorry to hear that Kaz. We'll be here whenever you want to come back. Lots of love and hugs. :(

I've been sitting around being miserable with an ear infection. My brain shut itself off a couple days ago. Which is why it surprised me when it suddenly went "HEY! I know where I've heard that horse name before."

Nice catch on the horse name! I didn't catch that!

What is the Perception DC to wake up?

Well, I'm not super-serious on enforcing Perception DCs to wake up in the case of Svetlana stumbling into camp, since I want to have a conversation. In the case of an actual event, I think it's a -10 penalty for being asleep on top of whatever modifiers may exist.

Working on a post now.

Happy Halloween, all! Anyone doing any great costumes today?

Well, I live a ways outside my town and I'm a school employee, so Halloween was actually yesterday for me. I was Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey Mouse. I had a hat from when I went to Disneyland in 6th grade (14 years ago), a red robe from my high school graduation (7 years ago), and a pair of my mom's white gloves from who-knows-how-long-ago.

I didn't dress up for Halloween due to spending the week in a sort of empty haze. However, a friend of mine was working on Halloween in the local library, so he dressed up in a purple suit and carried a bloodied candlestick.

So he was Professor Plum... in the library... with a candlstick

Cyanne, can we flex-time the 'grounding' conversation? Kaz is one of my more stoic characters, and I'm finding it hard to get inside his head right now.

Sorry about the delay folks. Our only vehicle broke down and it was my daughter's birthday this weekend. Been just swamped. I'll get something up tomorrow.

Totally. We can always do the conversation later, Kaz. I realize that its timing sucks.

* Hugs *

Your friend's Halloween costumes sounds adorable. I was more traditional. Maybe Bret could post a link to a photo of my son and me as bees -- we were pretty cute!

EDITED to ADD:

Don't worry, Daen. Real life happens! I hope that your daughter had an excellent birthday despite the vehicle problems.

Real life always comes before PbP. I'm fine with any and all delays caused by real life :)

Darn you RNG. Laliytsa comes in all 'Pffft no, I've got a way better idea' and then fails horribly at her own plan

Anyone who wants to, feel free to participate in Laliytsa and Gratia's ambush. Just plop yourselves onto the nonexistent map and have at it!

BTW, sorry for the crazed rhinos comment, but I couldn't resist after Lali trashing Cyanne's plan and then rolling those ones and twos!

Yeahhhh. And then I get 1 for initiative....darn you RNG

If Daen and Cyanne get a surprise round, shouldn't we go again before they do since we sort of beat them on Initiative too?

Lali, your sacrifice is well noted.

I'm thinking this book could be ended by sometime between late January and early March, depending on decisions you all make. Given that, and the fact that I have the interlude between books one and two overly planned, I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you all.

First: How are you all liking the hexploration aspect of the game? I've been feeling like the quality of my posts has gone down in terms of what I'm writing for hex descriptions, and I'm wondering if you're finding the exploration sequences boring or repetitive. I'd like to know if I can continue them through book two, or if they might need to be phased out during the beginning of the book in favor of something more befitting a barony's leadership. There are a couple of ideas on the forums that I could use without too much work, but I'd like to know what you all want.

Second: Politics: How much of this do you want in the game? Kingmaker can move either very political, with relations between the PCs and the Brevic houses/Pitax/the other exploration parties/Mivon playing more of a role, or it can be a faerie tale. I guess what I'm asking is do you want more of a "Game of Thrones" or "Brothers Grimm" feel for the next book?

Third: Images and Sounds: I've linked a number of images, and last time I asked, this was a positive. However, I've been hesitant to link too many sounds, since people may be at work and the sound of a fox screaming is certainly NSFW. Would you like to have more sounds linked in the Gameplay thread? I try to put warnings on them that there's noise.

I like both fairytales and politics. Can we have a little of both? I think that Daen was buiilt to be swimming in politics. Kaz wannts nothing to do with them as a simple knight, but it could be interesting to see what he does with it. Luthhor is the bastard child of somebody important or he would not have wound up at Aroon & Lirpeth's school. Lali will just sit all the political disputants down by a dead wolf and tell them not to come back until they've skinned the thing.

If iits between Game of Thrones and Fairy Tale though, I lean fairy tale. I like the gentleness of the storyline so far.

Hmm

Should the horses have made Will saves vs. the Glitterdust?

Er, yes. However, I'm going to work in just a moment, and can't roll them and tell what happened in the time I have left. I'll get that when I can, but it shouldn't have much of an impact on the situation, really.

Ive mostly been leaving the hex map aspect to the others. Usually Daen will already have a post up about our options, and I just comment on that really. So I cant really comment too much on that aspect of the game.

I do very much enjoy politics in things like game of thrones, but also feel that a middle ground would be best, simply because while I can understand and appreciate it, im not certain how well I could play it. So in a hard choice situation, id probably go for Fairy Tale as well.

I dont really "expect" to get the sounds and picture links, its mostly just a nice little surprise when it happens. So id say, keep doing them if you enjoy it, I certainly do, but I wouldnt be too bothered if you decided not to.

First: Hexploration is fun to start. It sets the mood and landscape off in a fun way and helps us establish our characters in a immersive environment. As long as you are enjoying writing them, your style comes through and the enthusiasm is infectious. If you tire of them, we'll tire of them too, and I don't mind hand waving a few to get to something of interest later. Personally, I like details. They help me get into the game. I'm generally exited about any mechanics or minigames or rulesets within the game that help add to the experience. If we find that we want to pursue other things though, I'm cool with that.

Second: Daen is very much a political animal. But his politics is going to be very much behind the scenes strategy. He'll be the kind of guy who, like he does now, comes up with ideas and plans and it will be up to others if they want to follow them. He's an idea man, and he'll be valuable in that role.

He won't be the speaker, because he'll really screw that up. If we want to RP the heck out of that kind of thing, I could go along with that, but Daen won't be the primary speaker in that situation. He may accompany to translate or provide bodyguard duties. So in my mind, I could see most of the politics being handled in general terms with rolls determining outcome. Otherwise it will be a strain on our diplomatic characters, Kaz and Cyanne while Lali and Luthor would be mostly in the background. To keep things moving, I'd suggest a more minimalist approach to diplomacy, although I'm in favor of being diplomatic, with special emphasis and actual RP on just the important negotiations.

Third: Love them. Don't ever stop.

Hexploration: I'm liking it. You've done a fantastic job of describing the hexes, and really making the Stolen Lands feel alive. Like Daen said, though, if you tire of it, that will show, and we'll likely do so as well.

Politics: I'll be honest, I don't have much of a mind for politics. If we can have a balance, I'll cope, but if we go full Game of Thrones, I'm not likely to enjoy it as much. And poor Kaz won't know what's going on.

Images and sounds: Love 'em. Since I'm in a classroom all day, I do most of my posting from home, so things being NSFW isn't an issue for me.

Lali will just sit all the political disputants down by a dead wolf and tell them not to come back until they've skinned the thing.

This is close to the truth. Lali's approach to politics would be very blunt. Between the two I'd lean towards the Fairy tale over GoT. But I do think we need some politics in the game, that's an area Daen's going to shine in.

I'm having fun with the Hexploration. But I think I'll like anything you come up with, so do whatever you think is best.

I really like the images/sounds. I post from home so they work for me.

Just to double check. One of the bandits is dying and the other is blind and trying to crawl away right?

Actually, one of the bandits is badly hurt, prone and trying to crawl away (but not dying), while the other is blind and still mounted.

Ah. I'm glad I checked!

EDIT: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

RNG is a troll.