Shalina Sekh-at |
We did...and because of her schedule I think the ball was left mainly in my court. Which of course led to a minor freak out on my part because I've never GM'd before.
It's not that I'm completely unwilling but the negative thoughts get going. I probably wouldn't ask you how you're enjoying the game because I'd just assume you hate it ;)
Angie suggested running you through a module but then of course there were too many choices and I didn't know where to start which translates to paralysis of thought for me...so, spurred on by your question (which tells me you're still interested) my question to you is 2 pronged:
As a GM, how do you find your material? Is it all homebrew? Do you modify pre-existing modules? Or what?
As a player, what kind of game do you enjoy? Is there anything you've been wanting to play and haven't had a chance to?
I lied, I guess it's 3 pronged - which I guess makes it a trident...are you sure you trust me to not screw this up?
Once you give me a little guidance, I'll check back in with Ang.
GM Mowque |
It is funny, because I am at least as insecure as you are about my own GMing. The only reason I ask how you are doing all the time is because I firmly believe in hearing/discussing the worst. When I was planning my recent trip, I constantly put in 'if the plane doesn't crash in a fiery explosion' during the planning sessions. (For some reason people hate that?!)
So onto the questions....
1. I do all homebrew stuff. I troll the pathfinderwiki and the various lore books looking for inspiration and ideas. I also often copy books, movies and such that I enjoy. For this game I am riffing off of Indiana Jones a great deal. In another game Les Mis is a major inspiration while in another there are heavy themes stolen from HBO's Deadwood. Then I sort of just make it up as I go, and based on what you do, and bounce ideas off my co-GM sometimes (depending on our schedules). For example I have no idea who Amon was or going to be until you started interacting with him the way you did. Luckily PBP gives me unlimited time to ponder such things.
2. I enjoy games where my choices matter. This doesn't mean every plotline has to involve me founding a grand dynasty that lasts a thousand years (although that would be cool), just that everything isn't a set of encounters that are pre-planned and choreographed. I want it to matter if I befriended that gnome and how I did it. Small scale, large scale all is good. I'd be happy if, to get your feet wet, we ran something with a fixed end date and goal in mind that was deliberately short.
3. I trust you entirely. Is that too short? But seriously, you are a great gamer. You post often and quickly, and Shalina is a well rounded character with internal debates, considers NPCs motives and realistic reactions to the world around her. Every player does things their own way but you are really good and fun to do this with. We wouldn't be doing a Season 2 if I didn't think you were fun to hang out with!
Shalina Sekh-at |
Isn't it our wills that keep planes up in the sky? I think it was quite thoughtful that you were taking on the responsibility of not having the plane crashing in a fiery explosion. They should have been thanking you. You made sure the worst didn't happen.
I'm pretty intimidated by starting off with a homebrew. Mainly I'm not that creative. I need some parameters to work within. It doesn't mean that I'm not willing to follow rabbit trails but I need some sort of framework.
I guess this is where I'm pretty naive as a player or else I've always been blessed enough to play with good GMs...I always just assumed that our choices matter as players :) But point taken, no railroading.
More the fool you for trusting me :) but thanks for the kind words. I enjoy our game and I wouldn't want to mess that up by failing as a GM.
All that being said, is there something you're interested in playing? A specific character class or a particular environment? Anything you're adamantly opposed to?
Also, are you ok if it takes us a little longer to start? It will take me longer to get my ducks in a row. And let's face it, it'll probably be more like a scurry of squirrels in traffic.
GM Mowque |
No matter how badly you messed up (and I don't think you will), it wouldn't effect this game.
If you are nervous and worried about having too much to choose from, maybe we can do a 'training' session of some type? It can be a very small, set adventure.
'Rescue the damsel from the castle' or something and we can openly discuss in OOC on running it. Just so you can get your feet wet in GMing.
If you want. This is entirely up to you, after all. You don't owe me a game or anything like that. No pressure (although I will admit I GM far more then I play these days. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride).
Shalina Sekh-at |
I like the idea of training wheels :) I guess what we end up doing depends on what you'd like to play as a character. Maybe your character wouldn't want to rescue a damsel...
What resources do you recommend having as a GM?
And do you have a bunch of characters statted just in case you need them?
So...many...questions...
I know there's no expectations, well, other than the ones I put on myself.
I'll also chat with Ang again.
BTW, I have houseguests for the next couple days so my posting will probably be sparser than usual starting tonight.
GM Mowque |
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I figure, if we do a 'one-shot' training wheels sessions, we can build up a simple scenario and just meld a basic character around that. No use getting plot heavy with grand unfulfilled needs if all he is going to do is kill some giant rats in a wizard's basement.
Resources?
For lore I use the Pathfinder Wiki. Free, easy to use, great for sparking ideas.
For crunch stuff I use the SRD the online rulebook. It has everything paizo uses on it. Sometimes a bit of a rats nest but not bad.
They also have lists of pre-built NPCs to use. But I'll tell you a secret (which I have never told anyone else), I don't stat out everyone. There have been long periods of this game where even your NPC buddies haven't been officially statted. If I need a number I'll look at 'about' what I want them to be, look up some pre-build examples. For when I need a full build, I admit I am lucky as my co-GM likes to do it. Baskir, for example, was fully statted with equipment and everything.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Ooooh, secret. Thanks for sharing the info.
I haven't talked to Ang yet but I hope to this weekend.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Probably try to hide in the Captain's crawlspace but she would be conflicted because of obvious trust issues about being locked in a space where slaves were usually locked.
Shalina Sekh-at |
She's still on the fence as to whether she'll tell him. We'll see if he sees where she looks while she's talking to him. If he asks her, she'd definitely tell him.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Tell me about it
Some grey morality is ok. However, it's always easier to accept when you're not faced with it directly. Shalina will also not allow Tekk to do anything that will compromise his divine code.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Sorry for my created confusion. I meant that I'm ok with grey morality. I only mentioned Shalina because I would naturally have limits to the amount of grey because of how she'd respond as a character. Does that make sense?
But yes, I'm ok with it.
Shalina Sekh-at |
So it looks like Ang will kind of be like your super secret co-GM. She's just too busy to be directly involved so it looks like it'll be just you and I if that's ok.
Instead of a 'damsel in distress' storyline, I was thinking more along the lines of a kidnapping. So if you're still interested - because you'll probably end up knowing more than usual about the story than a player usually does - what is my next step? I don't even know how to create a game on the paizo site...
GM Mowque |
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Kidnapping. Am I the kidnapper or trying to save someone kidnapped?
When you say your next step, do you mean how to create a game on this website or do you mean how to plan ahead storywise?
As for the site, it is quite easy. I will tell you how I do it.
Go to the Play By Post DIcussion Forum. This holds all the Discussuion threads for all the games (including where we are talking right now).
Then above where the page links and search box is. Just above that is a blue link called 'Add a New Thread'.
Click that.
You will get a prompt to type in a title and text. Name the thread whatever you want it to be called and type whatever you want in the text.
Click Submit post.
It will then give you a prompt to link that thread to a pre-existing campaign. Obviously you don't have one made yet so you can create it right then (following the Prompts) or wait until later. If you want to wait, make the thread then provide me the link and I can walk you through the next steps.
That makes it sound complicated but it really isn't. Way harder for me is coming up with campaign names....
Shalina Sekh-at |
My question about what's next encompassed both of the things you mentioned. Both creating a thread and next step gamewise :)
You would be rescuing, not kidnapping.
GM Mowque |
Well if you have any trouble with the above, just ask.
As far as game wise...I usually pick a place first. A canon location (using that wiki) and see what feels right. I suppose for this game you probably want a city? Read about the city, see what things inspire you.
Then plan out the very basics of what troubles I have. Who is holding the kidnapped person, what do they want, what allies/resources do they have?
Consider any other factions (if you want any) that I can interact with. Perhaps rivals to the kidnappers, or law enforcement I am working with. Just general.
Give me a place to start and then see what I do.
I'm a big plan of not over planning, since PCs tend to do stuff you don't expect. My only exceptions are big set-piece dungeons. For example I spent about 15 mins today working on the first dungeon for this game. Most times I don't but they are a big part of this game and you (I hope) expect something good. I also, unlike this small one-shot we are planning, have lots of plots to deliver.
Did I help at all or merely make it more confusing?
Shalina Sekh-at |
I hope to be able to work on this enough this week/weekend so that maybe we could start. But I have a feeling that it may be slower going than our usual pace :)
Shalina Sekh-at |
I'm trusting that it will be fun :) I will just always doubt myself.
On a completely different note, I was going to ask whether you'd allow Shalina to change out some of her spells. Completely understandable if not but there were a few choices I'd made that were never used.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Hopefully I created the Game thread properly. I guess we'll find out when you try to go there.
Shalina Sekh-at |
And yes...I'm sure the storm is nothing to worry about.
Shalina Sekh-at |
Ummm...that's because I completely forgot - both to level her up and about the mythic rank. My bad. I will look into doing that later tonight.
Shalina Sekh-at |
I keep forgetting if I should be adjusting her damage with the damage reduction she has or if you're giving it to me with it already taken into account. I have a feeling that it's probably my job and I forgot with this last amount of damage in which case is it ok to give her back 6 hps?
Shalina Sekh-at |
Can she also attack or is casting Haste it for her this round?
GM Mowque |
So I had an adult look through our game, and he spooted a few errors.
"although on the upside for Shalina she is right about the numbers, she has been calculating her damage wrong
the glaive is two handed so she adds 1.5*strmod, so she should be dealing 1d10+9 when raging and 1d10+6 when not and she can use mythic power 3+(2*MythicRank) per day, not just once
also she didn't take a mythic feat"
Want to change that up? Mythic feats are the best part!
Shalina Sekh-at |
It's good to have adults around. It's been my experience that they can be helpful at times :)
I'm pretty new to mythic stuff so I wasn't aware I got a feat. I'll definitely look into that. I was going to add her mythic stuff to her last attack which was why I was asking how many uses of her power she had but if you want to move this ahead then it can wait. I probably won't have a chance to look into it until much later tonight.
Shalina Sekh-at |
So it looks like most of the mythic feats have the original feat as a prerequisite so that at least narrows down my choices.
I was thinking of taking Extra Mythic Power to give her 2 extra uses of mythic power a day.
The other choices I was leaning towards were Weapon Focus (glaive) or Combat Expertise. While raging, can she still use combat expertise? It doesn't drop her Int below 13 but I'm not sure if it makes sense for her to be able to use it. Weapon Focus doesn't seem very exciting but it is useful.
Any thoughts?
Shalina Sekh-at |
I guess I was waiting for your opinion on her mythic feat but I guess that wouldn't affect her using it this round.
Did you want to me to just add the mythic attack and leave the other with the previous damage? Or did you just want me to re-roll the damage only in the new post?
Shalina Sekh-at |
If she opts for the AoO and not the saving throw, does she automatically get engulfed?
Shalina Sekh-at |
Ugh - the murky grey of morality issues...not that there's anything wrong with that :) Before I answer next, is slavery illegal in these areas? Not that that would make it morally right but it may help assuage Tekk. I seem to remember that it wasn't illegal but I may be misremembering.
Shalina Sekh-at |
It's very hard arguing against your own morality...