Kingdom Building for Beginners (Inactive)

Game Master robertness

Welcome to the discussion thread for my Kingmaker campaign. Thanks for joining me. I'll be posting more information about the setting and what we need to do to get the characters squared away in the next couple of days. I'd really like to have everything good to go by the end of the weekend and start playing on Monday, March 12. Right now, I'm in desperate need of nutrition, so I'm off to make dinner.

Thank you for picking my character. I have never played a PBP but have wanted to give one a try for years so this means a lot to me. Let me know if anything needs to be corrected and I look forwarded to getting started on Monday. Congratulations to everyone else who was selected. This looks to be a great group already.

I very much look forward to it! Has been a while since I've played, but I absolutely love the setting, the game and the "feel" of the Kingmaker campaign... The idea of a "borderlands" where we're pioneers is always a good one!

I'M GOING TO BE A KING!
I'M GOING TO BE A KING!
I'M GOING TO BE A KING!

@KingMeander: In case you haven't already: you might want to have a look at other running campaigns to get a feel of how pbp works. Especially the formatting of your posts and how dice work.

@Everyone: hullo! I'm looking forward to this game. I'll finish my character today (any suggestions for a feat?).

@Juwwem: depending on your mystery, Extra revelation can't hurt. spell focus depending on what type of casting you want to do or dodge is always a solid choice.

cant wait for this game to start

@Ishmell: Thanks! I was indeed thinking about Extra Revelation and Dodge. The first seems like more fun so I'll probably go with that one.

I just noticed I had Command as a spell... bad idea considered Juwwem has the Tongues curse. Unless we're going to encounter loads of Terran speaking opponents :s

@KingMeander: Can I still change some things (spells, skills)?

I send you a PM about my second,"house- created" trait, Robertness.

I still have to complete my skill and equipment, will work on it this week end, as I don't have my books now.
I'm glad to be able to participate!

Plenty of time to switch stuff around. Until we start playing, feel free to tweak stuff.

I'd like everyone to set up character aliases and put your character profiles there. I think most of you have them already, but in case you don't know how:

* Click on the My Account link in the top line of this page.
* Enter your Paizo account password if prompted.
* Look for the block labeled Message Board Aliases and click the Create New Alias link.
* Change the character name to your character's name
* Change the Avatar Image if you'd like to use a pretty picture from Paizo's gallery
* Once the alias has been created, Use the Edit Profile link to write the stats, background, and stuff

Here are links to a couple of my characters from other campaigns so you can see possible formats. Yvette Gallowfall, and Naiethua.

Done!

heh, I just noticed I directed a question to the wrong person. Luckily robertness is paying attention. :)

I think i did it.

Vivian full stats

bonus
STR 12 +1
DEX 14 +2=16 +3
CON 13 +1
INT 12 +1
WIS 14 +2
CHA 13 +1

Neutral Good
Worship Pharasma

Hp (9)
Base attack bonus +0 (+1 hand held weapon,+3 ranged attack)
Initiative +3
AC 15 (leather armor, Dex), flat footed 12

Saves
Ref +2 (+5 Dex)
Fort +0 (+1 Con)
Will +0 (+2 Wis, +3 vs Fear)

Feats
Deft hands
Dodge

Traits
Caretaker
"Death Sight" (created trait)

Skills (8 rogue+1 Int+1 Human+1 Favored class=11)

Appraise (rank 1; bonus+5)
Bluff (rank 1; bonus+5)
Climb (1; +5)
Diplomacy (1; +5)
Disable device (1; +7[Deft hands feat])
Heal (1; +7 [Caretaker trait])
Perception (1; +6)
Perform (singing)(1;+5)
Sleight of Hand (1; +9 [Deft hands feat])
Stealth (1; +7)
Swim (1; +5)

Starting Money 240 gold pieces
Leather armor (10 GP)
Dagger (2GP)
Short sword (10)
holy water -one flask (25GP)
First aid kit (50Gp)
thieves tool (30GP)
sling (-)
10 sling ammo (0.1GP)
backpack (2gp)
2 sacks (0.2 gp)
2 torchs (.02 GP)
flintstone (1 Gp)
4 days rations (2 GP)
Belt pouch (1 Gp)
waterskin (1 Gp)

Money spend so far 134,32 GP

Total weight 37 lbs/43
unencombered

Since the Pathfinder sheet on Myth-Weavers is still in beta I'll copy everything to this profile in case the MW sheet gets lost. Most of the stuff is already here, I still have to copy the skills.

I am very much looking forward to the start of this campaign!

Sorry I wasn't on last night. I have a couple errands to run this morning, then I'll be back to give everyone's stats a quick run through Hero Lab. Meanwhile, the journey from wherever you were when you received your charter to Oleg's Trading Post would take several days. Feel free to come up with ways your characters may have met on the road or possibly even before getting your charters. This isn't necessary, being the mysterious stranger that blows into town at an opportune moment is also acceptable.

I had some questions about how we got started:

Do we have any specific information about how we came across the charters? Were they just posted on a "bounty board" or did we have to obtain them from a court house?
Did we get our charters separately or all together?
Is Oleg's trading post considered a safe location, a base camp of sorts, or are we going to have to worry about danger on the way there?

Just trying to get a more complete idea of how things are starting, how we're meeting, etc...

Hi everyone! I will be playing Najara.

Gordom poses a lot of good questions. Would like to hear the answers for the bigger picture.

As for Najara, I think it's easiest to say that her church sent her on this mission, not that they had to really twist her arm or anything. Kicking bandit butt is right up her alley and mission statement. If anyone's character needs extra motivation to join this cause, we could say that Najara actively recruited you on the way.

I really like Najara's background, and I think my good natured,good willed Rogue and your color-blind, law abiding, justice obsessed Inquisitor will have some great moments together...

The charters were granted to you as individuals. Somewhere, somehow, somebody decided you were worthy of being sent on this mission. You may have asked for the charter or you may have had the charter thrust upon you. I figure Najara falls into the latter category, but as Lyn said, it probably didn't take much convincing for her to accept it. And I just had an evil idea for how Vivian got hers. One thing I'll do before starting is go over your character backgrounds and help iron that out for each individual.

You are aware that the Swordlords have granted charters to four groups of explorers. More information about the other groups will have to be discovered in play. Your group has been granted the right to explore an area known as the Greenbelt. The Swordlords' expectation is that you will work together, but have no means of enforcing that expectation.

Don't worry about danger on the way to Oleg's Trading Post. The Trading Post is a former Rostland border outpost that was abandoned many years ago. You have heard that Oleg took it over a few years ago as a way station for fur trappers and others operating beyond the edge of civilization. Whether or not you'll be safe at the trading post will be determined. ;)

If I missed anything, or you have other questions, please ask.

I'll open the How I Met Your Mo.. uh Partymember festivities:

Juwwem has had enough. "Oh come on Poi! Not another break! We've been on this road for six days now and the trip was only supposed to take three. I know you carry my heavy stuff and need to eat once in a while but you're a mule, you're strong, you're supposed to be able to carry ten times that load with ease!"

Juwwem sits down next to the road as he watches his mule Poi stand still. Poi doesn't even start to eat, he probably doesn't feel like walking. That's when Juwwem sees someone on the road, travelling in his direction.

"Oh look, another person that travels faster than I do!" Juwwem sights but his curiosity gets the better of him so he stands up to great the other traveller.

All righty, this is what I've found after crunching the numbers on everyone's stats. In short, it's looking good.

Stealth: down to 3 because of ACP.
Knowledges: you're right, I was planning on training them at the next level (or one of them, depends on how this story goes). Would that be weird if you consider the trait.
Profession: yes joke, sorry, forgot to think of a serious one. Any ideas?

@robertness: When I was picking traits, I didn't know if there was any limit about both of them being campaign specific (I did look, I promise) but I just really liked them both and how I could fit them into a back story. Also, I was looking at the map supplied in the Player's companion. It does not have the Greenbelt marked as best as I could tell. However, if Oleg's is a trading and fur post, I figured that it would not be impossible for Gordom to already be familiar with it as most of his income to this point has come from trapping and hunting. In fact, Oleg's might have already been the next stop for Gordom after his claim to nobility was rejected by the court of Restov (and if you don't mind my inclusion of such details in my background, at some point Gordom is going to want his ring back...)

I know that was a lot, but the main question was: is it feasible that Gordom already knows Oleg?

It is actually a general rule regarding Traits that you may only have one trait of any one type. Campaign Traits are type: Campaign. That said rule 0 applies.

@Irnk: Thanks for the feedback. I was implicitly applying Rule 0 in this case as I didn't see the harm in working around the rule. Perhaps I should have been more explicit since this is labeled as a new player friendly game.

@KingMeander: The Greenbelt is new territory for Gordom and his trapping hasn't taken him to Oleg's yet. You know by reputation that he's a fair trader. More than that needs to be found out through play.

@Juwwem: Thanks for the clarification. I'll take the knowledge skills as flagged for future reference. We'll see if they come into play between now and second level. In regards to the profession, I don't have any recommendation. Since you're headed to the back of beyond, crafting skills that help you and your companions mend broken gear or replace expendables would be beneficial.

Is rule 0 that if the GM says it's okay, it's okay?

Rule 0 is something along the lines of "What the GM says goes." It's also supplemented by the so-called Rule of Cool which sort of goes, "If something goes against the Rules As Written but doesn't unbalance the game and everyone thinks it's a good idea, go for it."

Of course we don't want to get carried away with either of those. The Rules As Written help give us focus and clarity for something that can turn into a horrible mess without focus and clarity. The rules also keep this a game instead of more badly written cooperative fiction.

Speaking of badly written, I'm working on little pre-game stories for all of your characters. Some are getting longer stories than others, but that's not because I like the character or player better. Once I've got that done, I'll get the game thread started.

The game play thread has been opened here.

Don't feel rushed to post anything. If you have anything you'd like to square away before starting, feel free to ask it here.

Almost have my stuff squared away. Just need to work out the equipment.

I really like Najara's background, and I think my good natured,good willed Rogue and your color-blind, law abiding, justice obsessed Inquisitor will have some great moments together...

The perfect odd couple. I'm afraid of the results :)

langage chosen: Aquatic (as Pharasma has the Water Domain, Vivian could have learned it in her early years..)

Some OOC infos: I'm french (sorry for that!^^), so that's GMT+1 for me, and I apologise for any mistake in grammar or spelling. I should be able to post once per day, mostly in the end of afternoon (well, it will be the end of the afternoon for me at least!)

Here, finally here, the green belt......its very green and ..uh belty?

I live about an hour and a half from Washington, DC. One of Washington's oldest suburbs is Greenbelt, Maryland. I find myself doing a mental juggling act between the Wilderness on Brevoy's southern border and mid-century suburban sprawl.

Your English seems fine, actually great considered you're French! (I'm half French btw, no hating here).

Your English is great Vivian. I just wish I could speak as good German (or any language for that matter) as you can speak English :)

I'll be posting "house rules" to the campaign info tab. I'd like to remind you of the only rule I've posted so far:

Snappy patter and witty banter are free actions. If a PC talks to another PC, the other PC doesn't have to wait for "everyone to have a turn" to reply.

Please feel free to have your characters talk freely among themselves.

@Najara: I hope you don't mind that the post assumes you got to Oleg's already. If there was anything more you wanted to do "on the road," just include it in your next post.

@robertness
I don't want to assume anything, but since my build should make it rather obvious is it safe to say that my mount has already had the benefits of being combat trained?

just to know: why i'm the only one not having my sex,race,and class/level after my name?

Vivian is still not sure about all those things? ;)

You should probably put that info in Vivian's profile where it says class, level, etc.

lol!

Ah there she is! Good job ;)

So Escharid, where in France are you from?

Im from the north of france

Hello all! You have an audience, because this looks like an interesting game. :)

The mysterious stranger ponders his decision. Although it isn't important, perhaps I should say something anyway. "You can do it however you like, but the convention around these parts is italics for thoughts and bold for speech." He smiles and winks to show that it's just a friendly tip.

Hello all! You have an audience, because this looks like an interesting game. :)

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

The mysterious stranger ponders his decision. Although it isn't important, perhaps I should say something anyway. "You can do it however you like, but the convention around these parts is italics for thoughts and bold for speech." He smiles and winks to show that it's just a friendly tip.

triple thanks for the tips, I forgot to mention the italics/bold thing earlier.

Considering craft: I'll go with Stonemasonry. I'm going to BUILD a Kingdom after all.

Okay, so I just realized that I don't really know how the dice format works. Does someone mind posting a breakdown of it? And does Paizo automatically generate the number that goes in the expression (it rolls for you)?

Check out the link to the FAQ (scroll down a bit):
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq#v5748eaic9n1d

edit: nevermind, you already managed to use them.

edit2: I'm not sure how robertness would like us to post but it's quite common to only have actual descriptive text, thoughts and conversation directly in your post (aka the Fluff). The rest (game mechanics, dice results, ooc things) you can put in a spoiler (the Crunch so to say).
Again, it really depends on how our GM would like to see it.

Well, I did manage to use the dice format, but I couldn't get it to show that I rolled a 15 "in the real world". It just kept saying an 11. So I didn't know if I was formatting it incorrectly or if it randomly picks a number.

Thanks for the tip about the spoilers though. Sorry about that. Still learning.

I was asking myself the same question, so dont' worry

Using the dice roller on the message boards, type in the formula for what you want to roll like this only using square brackets instead of curly:
{dice}1d20 + 5{/dice}
That should give you a random number from 1-20 plus five. It will also show the steps, like so:
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Once you've rolled the dice, you can go in and edit the post, but the die roll will remain unchanged.

Cool! So we should put all dice rolls and OCC stuff in a

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 2) + 1 = 7
1d3 ⇒ 2

The map of Oleg's trading post depicts a catapult in each of the four palisades. Are they actually present or is that artistic embellishment? Just curious.