Didn't mean the teams would be permanent, just the initial parties. I think we should be flexible and disassemble/reassemble parties to do specific jobs. For exploration, I think those two parties are balanced.
If on the other hand, one of the jobs is 'explore ruins', and the other is 'explore open area' then the teams would probably change, with the ranged people doing the open area, and the more up close people exploring the ruins.
I dissagree with splitting the group. I know it MAY make it "easier" but it also causes time scisms between the groups and one group may have to wait on another and such for timing to be correct due to frequency of posts and such.
And depending on encounters it would levy one party's experience ahead of the other. Only way to prevent that is everyone splits experience evenly.
Also, this GM has already proven that he can handle large groups and makes encounters sized for them. If he has already made all the prep work for encounters to come than it is possible he would have to rework everything should the group decide to split.
NPC Recruitment/Distribution
I don't have many arguments here, the end of this module or the start of the next I think covers many of the concerns about where people will be located and such. For now Oleg's seems like the best bet and it "growing" probably could be a good suggestion. I have ideas but its not the right RPing time to add them just yet. After the conversation with the woman is finished then Hella will suggest what she thinks after a couple of questions to them.
LOOT
That actually puts the party at a disadvantage if we don't use that nifty bow/ring/magic item until everyone gets one. Parties have this problem all the time and they find a way to civily handle who gets what. That shouldn't change. My character is limited in what she can use so for the most part weapons and armor isn't something I will argue over since 80% of them I can't use. The few I can I may ask to use if it fits my character.
Didn't say that we don't use the nifty bow/ring/item. What I said was Jimmy Greedbucket doesn't get to claim the nifty bow/armor/ring from the loot pile all by himself. The nifty stuff needs to be spread around.
If we did party splits to do specific jobs, I'd absolutely expect all XP to be split amongst all parties, in both groups. Only fair. My big concern with the huge party and how it slows things down is that PBP's biggest cause of death is slow down.
Ho-ly S*** folks.
I sooo apologize for not being able to post. GM, thanks for running Rodric in my absence.
Had a death in the family (on the wife's side) that took me away for a while. I'm back to work, and will be able to post regularly again.
The exploration encounters are fine to split the party for. The main story encounters will pretty much require the group be together. I'll be running under the assumption that the groups at least try and touch base on a daily basis to share their experiences so EXP will be split evenly.
Not every fight will be a pitched battle. I needed these two to fully gauge your tactics and capabilities though.
Can't you stumble upon some of the main encounters just exploring?
Yes and no, Neila will be giving you intel that will outline where the bandit story encounters are and another npc will be warning you of others. Not going to just drop those on you. I'll worry about book 2 when we get there.
Im concerned about if group A gets in combat and Groub B doesn't Group B having to wait for possibly a couple of days to continue on and if they keep "exploreing" then time wise that is leaving the other group behind.
I took some items on the spreadsheet. A horse, bit and bridle, saddle, saddlebags, mwk composite longbow (str +1), alchemist fire, and some arrows. I'll be leaving non-combat stuff in the saddlebags, such as my mess kit. Otherwise the alchemist's fire brings me up to medium load.
I'm not really in favor of splitting the party. It would be difficult to time getting back together again. But if we do split, I'd like to put in a request to generally be in the same party as Miri.
How many ex-bandits do we have now? 3? One's on bed rest for the next week, one is a kid, and the other... we should just ask what he wants to do. Reynholt is the only one who might possibly follow us around in the field at this point, but I feel it's really up to him.
That was part of the questions Hella was going to ask. I was waiting for everyone to be able to comment/rp with Neila before pushing on.
Honestly I don't really feel like we need a bunch of NPCs following us around if we aren't splitting up the group. We've got 11 as it is with NPC companions. If you add in 3 more NPCs, that's 14, which ups the number of enemies the GM has to throw in, and then there's tons and tons of time taken up in the fights. :( I'd be fine with Reynholt signing on as a guard at the outpost if he wanted to, same with the elf girl, and the kid.
As to the issues of 'time management' due to some being in combat and others getting exploration done, I don't see an issue. I think that would even out over time, and basically give the 'combat group' 'down time' to work on down time rules things, like building out the outpost, retraining, etc. We're going to have to be doing a lot of management activities anyway to build up our base of operations and such. That actually gives us the best of both worlds. We can explore things faster, get resources faster, and get down time stuff done while keeping the story moving.
Just my opinion of course.
Ah. I went ahead and posted it, since it really seems like something Aluxion would ask. Since we're out of combat, order of conversations doesn't matter especially much as long as the DM can keep track of who is talking to whom.
Not all exploration is going to be close enough to Oleg's to do things like that and Combat, only takes a few "moments" out of a given day. So there seems no reason to have one group ahead of the other and able to do such things.
That works Aluxion. ^.^ The answer will give me what I need to formulate my plan. I have an idea but their answers matter.
Ok, done arguing then. I've posted my points, if everyone insists on doing a top heavy group with tons of npcs following, so be it.
On a different note, if everyone likes my spreadsheet, and we're going to use it, would the GM be so kind as to put it in as a link on the campaign tab? So it's easy to find?
I'm actually working on an integrated spreadsheet with the kingdom sheet that will be able to provide some additional tracking info for you guys. I already do all this stuff on excel so it's just a matter of getting them all synced up
Ah, oh well, I guess I did all that for nothing. :)
Well you showed me it was possible to share this stuff, need to look around at more of these tools XD lol
Yeah Rav, had it not been for that list i wouldnt have thought about silly minor yet important things like replacing arrows shot and the like. The items i had planned on taking should i take off Rav's list or wait till yours is done Dm ravenlord o' Aldori nomenclature?
For the most part i think a lot of the mundane things like swords and armor can be sold. Its only when things get masterwork or above that its probably favorable to distribute. At least thats how ive seen things tend to go.
the list of things i was going to take just to put them out there was
1 set of the MW studded leather, 1 potion of Cure light, 1 tanglefoot bag, 3 alchemist fires, a horse, bit+bridle,riding saddle, saddlebags, and 6 arrows.
use ravbooms for now, won't get mine up until the weekend probably
I kind of feel like we should hold onto some of the armor/weapons (mundane ones) for equipping recruits. If we're going to build a community we're going to need people to be guards, police, etc, and a lot of them probably won't have weapons.
he's not wrong, mundane loot can be converted into build points once you are at that stage, downside to doing that is that it lowers the parties overall wealth. Regardless you aren't going to be able to dump that much stuff on the local economy all at once anyway, Oleg will be willing to sell it for you but he can only currently move about 100gp in value for you per week, although this can be modified by any orders you place with him to bring goods in
Makes sense, my only experiance with a pbp campain so far, not entirely sure what to expect. Im used to PFS and well old Greyhawk and living city for my public gaming. Quite obviously if during the course of play someone needs to borrw or take like say the cure light wound potion i took i wont expect any sort of renumeration. We are a party after all!
Yeah, I think Ravboom's got the right of it. If we're going to build a nation, then the common man is going to need a head start in defending himself and that means eventual guards, watchmen, and militia since we can't watch them 24/7 (And would be bored if we could)
I'm still here, sorry not to post for a while.
Equipping the locals is a good start for sure.
Are there any questions for the npc's before we move on, any actions people want to take throughout this day besides starting the corpse bonfire?
Stripping the corpses of clothes and equipment, having Miri prestidigitate the bandit clothes to clean them up (getting blood off, etc). It's river country, so given the mists and rains, all the bandits probably have cloaks, yes?
Heal up anyone we have magic/channels to heal tonight. If anyone can't attack in the morning due to injuries, we'd have to leave them behind, can't chance losing someone, and we need tomorrow's magic for the battle.
As I said earlier, Aluxion is OUT of spells and channels, and I'm fairly sure everyone else is out as well. I technically have one spell left, but I can't spontaneously convert a domain slot spell to a cure spell (and Calm Animals isn't very useful at this moment). If anyone is still injured in the morning, perhaps we can not assault the river camp quite yet. It's a good 24 miles away anyways. That's a good half day journey on horses. The Stag Lord's fort is a good 36 miles beyond that. It's unlikely that they'll suspect something is wrong for a couple days at least.
We could travel to and scout out the river camp tomorrow, and then assault it the following day once we've drawn up a plan of attack. I'm not really sure how to say all of this in character as Aluxion, so I'm posting it here in the Discussion thread.
If we are full up on hp tomorrow morning, I'd still vote we scout the place out... and then maybe attack in the dead of night when the river camp is mostly asleep. Scouting is great when utilized well. It gives us options. The 'disguise ourselves as bandits' option is good too.
Edit: And I'm very against using valuable consumables to heal when we don't need to. CLW potions are really expensive for level one characters.
The only concern I have is, if we burn the place today, they'll be expecting the bandit's to return tomorrow. If they don't, then that'll actually raise their suspicions. I think that if we can get everyone healed up in the morning without using too much resources, we should go ahead and attack. The problem with scouting it out is we need to not be seen. That means sending someone way ahead of the party.
If someone is ok taking that chance, I'm all for it. But the important thing is to hit them fast and hard while they are not expecting it. What I'd love is if it was raining tomorrow, we'd go in in the rain, cloaks up, and poor visibility, and then unload on them.
map posted
cover and concealment versus possible traps.. and the camp half split... makes things a bit more complicated but not too much i suppose. As one of the stealthy folk how does everyone want ot handle it? split up? stick close?
GM?
How many of the bandits can we reasonably impersonate in a storm? With cloaks up, it's mostly body build. Hella's concerned about her size, but there were several large bandits. Like baldy. So we really need to know that. There was only one small bandit if I remember, so that's Miri. Ravboom would have to go in as a corpse or a prisoner (he'd prefer corpse). Miri can use her prestidigitation to soil everyone's clothes so they look like they've been in a fight, but not actually have them blood soaked (like most of them are).
If we can get everyone rested up, I think getting in at the height of the storm is our best option, as Hella suggested. It takes their bowmen out of the picture, makes it nearly impossible to see beyond 20 or 30 feet for them, and covers the sound of fighting under heavy rain and thunder.
GM?
Those little + signs are those watch towers? Did she mark the deadfalls and traps on the map? If so, what indicates them? I assume that brown rectangle is the square thing where people can hide in?
Also everyone,
We can use the whistles to coordinate again. Miri and Ravboom can hear them directly, Wolf and Darcy can hear them. So that's up to four groups who can coordinate independently if necessary. So whistles would go to Ravboom, Miri, Hella, and one other person?
As far as I know. I'm the only one with a silent whistle that I let Farin borrow
Ravboom had 4, which he loaned out for the fight at Olegs.
So you're saying we have 5 total?
the plus signs are just to indicate those are the raised platforms, the blinds in the trees. The rectangle with the rounded edges is the wagon yes. As for how many you could impersonate, well really that depends on how well the disguise checks go lol
What I'm looking for is how many of them (build wise) can we match with somoene else of a similar build?
I mean, for example, if they have someone who's 7'5" tall, we can't match that no matter what the disguise check is. Nor can Ravboom pass for any of them.
Still comes down to a disguise check, you'd have to pick who you were emulating and the modifiers are all laid out in the book. There's two halflings on the MIA list for the group you guys slaughtered so im pretty sure you can wear one of their outfits, a pair of dwarves so Farin's got someone he can easily enough emulate, there was even a male elf that makes it easier for one of our male elves to copy.
Ah and i missed the other question, the traps are not marked, she mentioned she had no clue where they were
If no one has any other reason for it, I'll be taking the shortbow and 10 arrows from the loot. Sadly until I level, my abilities for combat are sort of subpar. I think once combat starts I'll use my inspire courage +1 and afterwards just pick bandits off with the shortbow.
Ok, we need to decide what we're doing OOC, because we're just going around in circles posting in the thread.
Either we attack fast, or we don't attack at all, is my opinion. If we don't attack fast, they'll either reinforce, in which case we have to take our time and whittle them down away from their base. Or they abandon and leave it trapped or burn it down to keep us from having it, either way we don't attack it any time soon.
I'm tired of going back and forth in character about this. Either we do it or we don't, but let's decide and do something as this has been dragging on for a week or more now, and it's no fun to keep posting back and forth the same arguments.
Honestly I think we need to pick someone as the group leader who can make the final decision on some of this stuff, as right now we're a council of cats.
So far only 3 or four people have put in thoughts and such IC. And considering it looks like it has been a busy week for some people this may be a lull.
So far it looks like people are agreeing to attack early, the conversation is now is how. Scouting has been agreed is a good idea. Leaving the party some distance away but not all the way back at the fort and scouts go ahead and see what they can find out. Once they report back people are leaning towards the use DISGUISES to try to get into camp as much as possible.
My opinion is that the scouts aren't really necessary since we have a basic layout already. Sending scouts is a bad idea if there's traps around the camp. Odds are there won't be traps at the main entrance to the camp, since the bandits would be tripping them all the time. You trap the sides and back, and guard the front.
Since we don't need scouts, we're just assaulting the base, hoping that our bandit disguises and the poor visibility from weather will be enough to allow us to at least get close before the alarm is raised.
Since we only need the appearance of bandits from a far distance (and things like gait and demeanor change when you're slogging through the mud, so I don't expect that to be an issue), we can just take their old supply wagon, toss some empty barrels and crates in, and cover it all with a tarp of some sort. An empty covered wagon looks the same as a full covered wagon in the rain.
How hurt is your wolf still?
(I was initially the one who proposed scouting the place, but I believe that was before we got the map. We wouldn't get much more information from level one characters scouting)
He is actually at half health currently. He got dropped to -6 in the fight. Even with all the healing he recieved from you and I he is at 9/18 Yes, this is about the same as a pc's health but its still half of his.
Yeah, we can drop the scouts. But I still want Ravboom and Cerian to be near me because ai'm going to boost Ravboom's first attack and Cerian's AC before combat to give them an edge in combat's first round.
I'll be unsteady posting the rest of the week. My wife's grandmother died this morning. This is the widow of her grandfather who died on new years eve. Also, I have to travel for work Thursday and Friday. Yay 2014. :(
You and yours will be in my prayers, MDT.
Sorry for not pushing forward more. I was sort of playing up the 'elves don't tell folks what to do, they just hint strongly' angle and that might be to the determent of my input.
I'll be unsteady posting the rest of the week. My wife's grandmother died this morning. This is the widow of her grandfather who died on new years eve. Also, I have to travel for work Thursday and Friday. Yay 2014. :(
My sympathies
I have not put much input with Cerian for the simple fact he doesnt have a lot of input, most of this is a little out of his area of knowledge. Personally the only reason i was okay with the scouting is im pretty stealthy, Ravbooms pretty stealthy, night time mixed with storms i would imagine give us a few bonuses.... and coup de gras sleeping bandits in tents evens the odds up a lot. Though the disguise idea will probably work just as well, depends on initiative a bit though. I think the majority of us are waiting til a decision is made.