I assume it's just that Auric was 'Team Leader', like Tanith, and was selected by his team (which in this case would have just consisted of Khellek saying 'Yeah, sure.') to take the belt and the title.
I'm still puzzled by how Auric's the champion when it's a team event. Does he just have a way better agent than his wizard buddy?
Think of it this way: Khellek is the pitcher, Auric is the batter.
Or to put it another way: Look between those two faces. Which one do you think goes better on a poster?
Auric is the team leader, and so he gets the belt. He's also a hell of a lot more marketable, and he cares a lot more about the attention, so he gets to be the "star". If you want to learn more about their dynamics, you'll have to talk to them a bit more. :P
This is a great time for people to be splitting up and pursuing their own conversations, by the way. There are about two hundred people in this event, mostly comprised all the other contestants—roughly six of which you will be fighting if you do well in the Games.
Out of curiosity, would rain allow Carina to trigger her Hydrated Vitality racial trait? I'm not sure it would, but it would make for pretty nice fluff if it did...
Like I said, better agent. Calling Auric is the champion of the Games is like saying Tom Brady is the champion of the Superbowl. The title just seems weird now that we know more about the Games.
Besides I doubt Auric's charisma is any better than Khellek's. Everyone knows that every fighter ever has a 7 charisma. =P
The Superbowl has much bigger teams with much less pronounced personalities. It also lacks the distinctiveness of the belt, which is a symbol the winner is constantly displaying. But mainly it's the first thing—nobody (except hardcore fans) really cares much about the personalities and styles of the individual athletes, because at the end of the day they're all performing the same roles as their counterparts on other teams, wearing the same uniforms where you can't even see their face. It's kinda different from a 4-6 man team (or less, in Auric's case) where each member has a drastically unique set of abilities and looks completely distinct.
We don't really have a proper comparison for today's culture, because that s&#$ is no longer legal and there's not a ton in the way of "Pro Wrestling - Team Edition".
You're seeing "Champion" as more competitive a term than it is in this case. It's not about who beat everyone else, it's about who's the "best". :P
KC, did you see my question earlier?
One thing at a time. In a bit of a hurry right now.
I'll say fine, but only because Hydrated Vitality does pretty much zip in most cases. By rules, it pretty obviously wouldn't.
This isn't Football, this is the WWE with teams.
Auric is Hulk Hogan.
I understand what you're saying. It still seems strange. Is Auric the 'best' when Khellek is just as responsible for their victory? Again, I guess it's a PR thing. Auric's agent went out signing endorsements with Wheaties boxes and Adidas. Khellek just doesn't care so everyone associates their victory with Auric.
We don't really have a proper comparison for today's culture, because that s+%% is no longer legal and there's not a ton in the way of "Pro Wrestling - Team Edition".
There sort of is. Tag teams and stables are still a thing. Tag teams never have an individual champion. Hawk and Animal aren't champions the Road Warriors are.
Bah I say!
^Maybe the fact that I have never heard of either of those things is part of why no individual team members get sensationalized.
These seem like in-character questions more than anything. "The best" is solely about "who the crowd loves more", which is by a longshot Auric. He's more attractive, more conventionally "heroic" in fighting style, and a lot more fun to watch in a lot of cases.
If the question is "Why do the Champion's Games have champions?" it basically comes down to this: Everyone who wins the final battle is a champion. The guy who wears the belt is the best of his bunch, though, and therefore a champion of champions. Of this gang, those who pursue fame the most will linger most in the crowd's memory. Those who love the spotlight stay in it longer.
With his 7 int, Tanith's less likely to question oddly worded titles than I am.
Think of Michael Jorden, or Billy Mays (two people whose names I'm pretty sure I can't even spell, but I know they're a big deal). Or even try thinking of people like Auric and Khellek as less like football players and more like celebrities. Auric is the male lead of the movie, or the lead singer of the band. Khellek is the male lead's best friend, or the drummer. Who do you call the star?
I guess bands are a decent comparison. Some bands are known as a band and other bands are known as a specific person.
Okay KC, you found an analogy to appease me. =)
Excellent.
Unfortunately, these rules only apply to NPCs. No glory for Tanith!
;)
^Maybe the fact that I have never heard of either of those things is part of why no individual team members get sensationalized.
Wat! You've never heard of these guys?
Oh man these promos as so good. The 80s was hilarious.
Excellent.
Unfortunately, these rules only apply to NPCs. No glory for Tanith!
;)
=(
Note to self: start putting ranks into Sense Motive. Also, get a feat that grants Sense Motive as a class skill.
I'll get more stuff for Rodrigo and Astraden soon. Gark wasn't able to post yesterday, so I avoided involving his PC in anything. Those posts will be up within three hours.
Catching up on gameplay now...
The strange thing is I only learned where the "One of Us" thing is from today, through a completely unrelated source.
Don't worry Rodrigo, you haven't triggered anyone. Tanith was embracing his new persona as a female gnome with gender identity issues.
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I thought you were embracing your new persona as a Social Justice parody—er, I mean, Warrior? :P
The strange thing is I only learned where the "One of Us" thing is from today, through a completely unrelated source.
Oh? Huh. So did you originally come up with the name with another intent in mind, or was it already in the adventure as written?
Already in the adventure. :P
If anybody else wanted to place independent wagers, post them in the Gameplay thread, preferably with the word "wager" in the post so it's easier to search for.
FYI, we're going to be running with block initiative for this combat, with one block per team. I think that's probably best for all involved here.
Fair enough.
Oh, come on, you know the perfectionist in you really wants to roll and keep track of 25 separate initiative counts each turn.
On the one hand, yeah, it's a kinda ridiculous gimmick. On the other, which one of us is running twenty-five opponents at once? I gotta have fun somehow.
I ask because I might want it for myself at some point if it's something else: was the ability to fire through my mirror image the 'seeker arrow' ability of an arcane archer?
Oh, and on the bright side: Rodrigo was totally right! Using create pit against horseback riders works super-well!
It shouldn't have worked in that context, though.
It actually did work against all but Korush. It prevented the other three from charging this round. Korush was just a mistake with square tracking, but he was about to dismount anyways. He's not really big on mounted combat. :P
Rennida's an arcane archer. The other three are just fighter/wizards. What she did is actually from a true strike (as Carina will likely determine with a Knowledge check)—closed eyes to negate the mirror image, and the true strike to negate the miss chance from blindness. This wasn't why she cast true strike (all of them had it but Rennida), but it did contribute to the decision to shoot the "summoner".
Notably, that archer won't be considered "sighted" again until next round, so she makes a good target for the time being.
Oh, and that explains the extremely scary +30s.
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S%$@, I forgot to include the +20 in those rolls.
I may have skipped a few installments because they looked boring or something.
Yeah, that's what I figured they were...
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My Council of Thieves game officially wrapped up last night. We were the second group on these forums to finish it and the fourth PBP AP ever to be completed. The final stats were 55 months and 11.1k posts.
I think our SD game will be next KC. =)
Yay! :D
Nice.
Also, the fact that only 4 APs have ever been completed in PbP is BEYOND depressing. Especially since two of them were the same AP.
I'm aiming to change that too. :)
Nice.
Also, the fact that only 4 APs have ever been completed in PbP is BEYOND depressing. Especially since two of them were the same AP.
..and especially, especially, since that AP was CoT.
CoT isn't really that bad as an AP. Most of the flak it gets is for the tonal bait and switch (a problem shared by SD) and the poorly built up BBEG. As far as overall stories go, it's much more cohesive than some of the more popular APs like RotRL.
I started reading it to see if it was something I wanted to run and was immediately turned off by the random sewer chase scene at the very start of it.
RotRl has always struck me as being a very varied series—almost more about the adventurers themselves than about the quest. Like a series of pulp novels, really. It sounds like it gets more cohesive around the end, but I kinda like the diverse style.
That said, what I really like about AoW is that almost every installment is very directly connected with the, well, Age of Worms. The main exceptions are Hall of Harsh Reflections, an upcoming installment and Whispering Cairn, which are a bit more tangential.
There's actually another Age of Worms PbP that I think is on the third-to-last or second-to-last installment. They have an insane ratio of installments-to-posts. I'm aiming to make this the second. ;)
New round will be put up...sometime. Tomorrow, probably.
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RotR suffers somewhat from the whole process of Paizo figuring out what worked and what didn't, leading to some odd construction problems like Sandpoint being amazingly well detailed and then suddenly receding into the distance. (Mind you, I think Diamond Lake might have been a prototype for that, so you can argue they should have already realized that.) Still, I'm willing to forgive a lot of big picture problems there just for the very strong concentration of awesomeness throughout.
Neither CoT or SD are TERRIBLE, mind you, but they definitely have some of the bigger flaws of any AP. But the elements are certainly there for a good GM to pull together, gloss over or shore up the weaknesses, and make a more coherent experience.
I just think it's funny that (especially if your SD game winds up being the 5th completed AP PbP) half or more of the completed APs are from what conventional wisdom hails as the 'Paizo not putting its best foot forward' APs. But really, that kind of makes for a heartwarming implication in itself: the GM and players in those must have been really willing to go the extra mile and make it a fun experience for all.
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IIRC, Diamond Lake is supposed to be more like Torch in Iron Gods. It's designed to be a hometown, so it's given enough detail for people to make up backstories, but the PCs are also sort of supposed to want to leave it and only come back a few times.
Meanwhile in RotR, the PCs have to go back to Sandpoint for at least 4/6 adventures.
I'd love to run Iron Gods as a PbP at some point, but I've only got physical copies of the adventure books (except for The Divinity Drive).
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I was in an Iron Gods pbp for like . . . 2 months last year (we got through Fires of Creation), but it was very dull because half the party didn't RP and the GM didn't describe much. I would also love to run or play it again some time in the far distant future.
However, can't you just scan the maps? That's what I've done for all my online games. We're kinda lucky to have a scanner at home here, though.