PS: Guys, I need a response in the Gameplay thread on which way you'd rather go to head to the Trading Post. By my count it's Theo, Annika, and Gallidren heading back with Kilarra. If you guys are waiting for recruitment to be done so people can jump in when you get there, don't worry about it as it should be fine if you guys start on the way back now. As for Prophet and Marcus, we'll go over what happens with you two once they're all on their way.
The posting monster strikes again and I do not realize it. Foul beast is after so many of my games!
I mentioned this earlier, but to any and all interested parties I'm running a Shadowrun 4E recruitment at the moment. I have all the books and don't mind providing them if you're interested but don't know the system very well.
Also, recruitment is getting down to crunch time, but I've received preliminary thoughts from a lot of you. I'll be giving you guys my personal preferences from the lot (probably 3-5 people) and ask for your opinions on them, then I'll make the final selections and we'll get them into the game.
So, here are my personal favorites of the current completed applications:
Jericho Dask: Jericho is a sorcerer built to be a competent blaster caster with +3 damage per die rolled with damaging spells, and as a human sorcerer his favored class bonus lets him pick up a new sorcerer spell every level in order to fill out his spell list with other needed utility spells. As a sorcerer, he also offers a high Charisma meaning he's good with social skills and can aid the party in such a way. His backstory was also something he developed with me to an extent, and the character is very well tethered and connected with this AP.
Kahurangi: Built as a support and utility caster along with some possible healing, Kahurangi is well-built to aid the party with what it's lacking on the divine spell front. He fully plans to build to buff and support other characters, meaning everyone will perform better with him on the team. His backstory, while not tied to Kingmaker necessarily, is very interesting and I think he has a lot to offer in terms of role-playing when you start building your kingdom.
Minas Terran: Sort of an out-there concept, but it works for a Kingmaker game. He's built to be adequate at social skills and provide teamwork feats and such to the party through his archetype. While not a traditional sort of support character, it is an interesting take on it and I think he would still be of good help to the party.
Tristan Aislin: Bards are good support characters, something I think we all know. They can be competent at a lot of things and certainly do help fill the social role. He has a backstory that also proposes some healthy sources of conflict although it isn't quite as well-tailored to the game; his conflict is more with generic nobles than specific ones who have more of a concrete presence in the game. Still, it is a very interesting one and there's a lot we could do with it.
Elena Vortizova: A very recent entry, I think a changeling could be a neat addition to the party; while not directly related to fey, hags themselves are and she would have a unique connection to certain elements on the campaign. Druids are well-suited to the AP in general and can be very good support casters, although the nature focus isn't as necessary with the current group's set of skills. Still, one more never hurts and the concept is certainly both unique and interesting.
At the moment, I think my two picks would be Jericho and Kahurangi, but Elena is a close 3rd. Still, these are in my opinion the best of the lot, so feel free to weigh in on why you might suggest we take any given character... or why you feel one that didn't immediately catch my eye might be worth a second look.
Hmmm, well I haven't gone through everything yet, but I took a look at your three favorites. I have to say that I do like them. I'm a little torn between Kahurangi and Elena for who makes a more interesting divine caster actually.
I agree with your picks. I really like Kahurangi in particular, but given that there's some thematic overlap with Prophet, I would want to make sure Prophet is fine with that before inviting Kahurangi in. Maybe some backstory tie-ins to turn their overlap into purposeful synergy could work?
Jericho would be my other top choice. I like MisterLurch as a player, and Jericho's backstory fits in nicely with the kind of game this is.
It looks like we have a number of solid submissions here. I agree with your notes, Jon: Jericho, Kahurangi, and Elena all strike me as very interesting characters and solid additions to the party. I might even bump Elena over Kahurangi slightly since she has a more direct connection to an NPC we've met, and therefore the story, but Kahurangi also has a very detailed backstory that's promising for RP opportunities and character development. It'd be hard to decide between them, as they all have neat backstory stuff going on, and they all seem like interesting characters.
As far as overlap or tied backgrounds between Kahurangi and myself, I don't see any real need for worry there. Sure, we're both half-orcs with a bent on summoning spirits from the past, but Kahu is clearly a lot more spiritual about the whole process, geared toward spellcasting and mysticism, whereas Prophet mostly sees it as a means to an end, that end being heaping misfortune and violence upon his enemies. He's good at what he does but what he does isn't very nice, yada yada.
I also don't think linking backstories would work well, since Kahurangi's from the Mwangi Expanse and Prophet's from Belkzen. He's a kid who got out of an untamed land driven by violence and chaos, and into...
Well. He's trying, anyway.
I'll also note that I like one of the newer submissions, Jonathan Crestfallen. Emissary's a great player in my experience, and the character looks to fill a similar role to Creon, who we're losing, with the addition of some spellcasting support. Of course, I love inquisitors, so I may be slightly biased, but he does seem like a neat potential party member.
Actually, we aren't losing Creon per say; Storyteller Shadow offered to take over the character and supplied a great RP sample for him. I didn't mention him on my top picks as I think I said earlier that I was just definitely going to take him on for that role.
That said, I do also like Jonathan as a character, and I also like having Emissary as both a fellow PC and as a player in my games. If no one had volunteered to take on Creon I would bring him in for sure, but I'm hesitant about taking away a spot for a more dedicated caster for a ranged Inquisitor... I'll really need to put some thought into this. If I really can't decide I may take up an extra player and just deal with the consequences of that action later. So long as kingdom roles don't overlap I think I'll be fine with it personally. PbP is less hectic than an IRL table and I'm already rebuilding encounters to the nines anyway. Kingmaker feels like a game that fits having a larger party, too.
I'm going to mull over Kahurangi vs. Elena vs. Jonathan for a little while before posting in Recruitment. If you have thoughts on the matter and see this post before I make my final picks, do feel free to weigh in. If not, just be ready to welcome our newcomers!
PS: You'll get a post from me in Gameplay right before I post in Recruitment, probably in the next 3-4 hours.
The upside of having so many good submissions is that Kingmaker is a story well suited to a large party. There are a lot of great threads on the boards about how to convert encounters to challenge larger groups.
Gameplay post got delayed, it'll go up later tonight instead. Say hi to your new group members when they show up!
Hello.
Howdy, everyone. I was told you had insect larvae for Chief Rongo!
Greetings, new folks! Good to have you, glad for the additions to the team.
Greetings! This looked like a really fun game and I am glad to be a part of it!
Hey folks so many strangers in this thread not sure we'll all get along but I guess we can try. :-)
Thanks for the selection DM Jon. I'll have my alias up and ready to go by tomorrow just wanted to check in here on Discussion.
Welcome aboard! Happy to have you all here
I'm not the newbie anymore! Yay!
I do believe that was my title!
GM Jon do you have any ruling on making knowledge checks untrained?
You can meet up to DC 10 untrained, but knowledge beyond that isn't something you can really get.
In addition, hello newcomers! I'll be shooting you all PMs with the various situations in which you're entering the game pretty shortly, so be on the lookout for that. You should be meeting up with the party very shortly, as they're not far from the Trading Post where it seems you should all reasonably be located. I'll have a few questions for all of you a little bit in the future about what direction you would like this AP to go (specifically in terms of certain themes like political intrigue and such) so I can better gauge what direction to take the campaign in as I've already been delving pretty far into some of the community-made changes to the AP. If you're familiar with the AP because you played/ran it at some point, I would love to know (if I don't already) so that I can try to spice it up for you. I've already made some pretty substantial changes in a few ways, but I of course always want this game to be as fun for you as it is me.
In short, expect your PMs within an hour or so if you're a new player for this game, and feel free to ask any further questions at that time as well. I'm really excited to have you all and I hope it turns out to be a great game for all of us.
I did not get any cookies! I would like some too!
Sorry friends, no cookies until you murder the Stag Lord and build your own city so you can have a baker who makes cookies. Not my call, that's actually a sidebar in the first book of the AP.
Marcus sneakily and guiltily brushes crumbs off his front.
Welcome all!
Shortly, I'd like to make a post regarding Kahurangi's trek over to Oleg's. I've read through the past few pages of gameplay, but is there anything strange you feel would be noticed by him? None of you covered the walls in carrots or anything, right?
Also, I don't have access to the roll20 campaign at this point, so I can't see a map of the place there if it's been edited - or, more importantly, the terrain in the surrounding area.
No it was coconuts. A wall of coconuts ;)
A good point Kahu .. Jericho's trip to Oleg's is lightly covered at the end of his backstory. He has been there for about three days.
He likes to play dice, tell stories, and play his violin. He is also a rather devout follower of Sarenrae, and makes his devotions to her every sunrise.
As for future Kingdom roles, Magister is an obvious fit, but with his diplomacy and charisma, grand diplomat would also work well for him.
I've given a bit more exposition to Kahurangi's arrival in the main thread. Jericho, he strikes up a conversation with you. We've got a bit of time to build some foundation, I think!
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A good point Kahu .. Jericho's trip to Oleg's is lightly covered at the end of his backstory. He has been there for about three days.
He likes to play dice, tell stories, and play his violin. He is also a rather devout follower of Sarenrae, and makes his devotions to her every sunrise.
As for future Kingdom roles, Magister is an obvious fit, but with his diplomacy and charisma, grand diplomat would also work well for him.
Cover me in grease and tie me to an owlbear! I used a trait so I could play the fiddle mightt well!
Do ya wanna make some preliminary work with me so our stories are slightly intertwined? With which I meann if you'd like for our characters to have been talking bout music, religion and made the first contact towards a future possible friendship.
I have a feeling our characters will get along real nice.
In the intrest of back story tie-ins, if anyone has been in the stolen lands a while and has history that deals with either bandits or ghosts, we should talk.
Do ya wanna make some preliminary work with me so our stories are slightly intertwined? With which I meann if you'd like for our characters to have been talking bout music, religion and made the first contact towards a future possible friendship.
I have a feeling our characters will get along real nice.
Go ahead and write an arrival story like I did in the gameplay thread; you can bump into Jericho and I, and it'll be easy to snowball a conversation from there.
Yeah, and feel free to talk amongst yourself like that until you come in the next morning. Once the group is finished talking to Jhod they'll be introduced to you all in the morning.
I will try and get a post in later but that darkness Jhod was brought up before. Though that was before I joined. Is it just a creeping feeling he has had or something more tangible? At the moment I cannot scourer the gameplay thread and I figured I would ask here.
Jhod doesn't know of anything in particular, but he suspected once he began receiving the visions after leaving Corran's Pass that it was connected to their problem with the werewolf. He likely felt it was involved somehow but he didn't really have a clue as to what the real connection was between the two. He's seen it in his visions and dreams--the darkness, I mean--but he doesn't know exactly what it means or why he's seen it. The other reference is from the white stag the group found locked in a trap, which referenced something that definitely sounds like a prophecy or something of the sort; here is the post I'm referencing.
Cover me in grease and tie me to an owlbear! I used a trait so I could play the fiddle mightt well!
Do ya wanna make some preliminary work with me so our stories are slightly intertwined? With which I meann if you'd like for our characters to have been talking bout music, religion and made the first contact towards a future possible friendship.
I have a feeling our characters will get along real nice.
That sounds like a plan, Jonathan. Jericho is always happy to play with a fellow musician and the chance to play duets on the violin...well that is just a piece of heaven. He is skilled in a variety of styles, some "classical", some fiddle, etc.
As for religion, he is a devout Sarenite.
I just realized, reading all these posts where everyone refers to a character named Jonathan is gonna be really weird...
It's a good thing I don't do drugs, I feel like that'd make for a pretty bad trip.
OK first post is in. :-)
To elaborate on selling/purchasing now at Oleg's:
Oleg can now purchase about 1,000 GP worth of gear a week, and can request additional funds from Restov to be available the following week if your loot is worth more than that. Otherwise, he can take anything you guys want to sell without any sort of trouble, just feel free to post here in Discussion what you're selling and the approximate selling value, and then you can all just add that money to your sheet. Obviously treasure will end up being a little more bountiful considering you now have a party of nine rather than the original four, so you should still end up roughly about WBL. As for selling, he has 1,000 GP worth of items available, and any fairly common items you can purchase for that amount can be assumed he has it in stock for you. If you want something specific or that costs more than that, he can put in an order and it'll in the following week. I'm going to add a day-by-day counter to the Campaign Info tab to help with that.
As for anything else, now that the bandit camp harassing Oleg has been cleared out, you all might find new quest-givers or other NPCs at the Trading Post that can offer you things in exchange for completing tasks for them. It's worth it to stop by every once and a while for that reason as well.
Finally, in regards to offerings to the fey that are pulling pranks, you can spend money to purchase trinkets the fey might enjoy, and each 5 GP spent increases your Diplomacy to make them Friendly by +1. Money itself doesn't work as well as they have little need for actual coinage, but enjoy interesting trinkets.
PS: The link at the top of the page (labeled Roll20 Link!) will now take you to the game and make you a player in it.
I've gone ahead and activated the Roll20 link. Been a while since I used it, but nothing seems amiss.
I'll be posting in tomorrow, this week has been busy with my last semester starting and I've been sick the past two days. Sorry for the wait, all.
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Sorry for the lack of posting last couple days, sudden increment of busyness in my usual complete clusterf*$! of an agenda.
Will post tomorrow morning, complete with blessings I got prepared for the party's different critters. This are the moments I like when I play a good natured divine character ^^
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Regarding the 'Stag Lord' mistake, my bad. Wiki mentions Old Deadeye, Estig the Hunter and Stag God as other aliases and titles.
Darned words, always confusing me.
That said if this bandit dared to use a name so close to Good Ol' Deadeye's Jonathan will be even happier to turn him into a pincushion.
Given what I know about the Stag Lord, it's actually quite possible that he picked a name that resembles a god to stroke his own ego.
Actually, I believe in the original writing of the AP that's exactly why he has the helmet and takes that name to begin with. He wants to build up his mystique and look like some crazy powerful bandit king, so he never takes the thing off and he acts like a god or something.
Of course, since I'm telling you that, clearly that's not how it's gonna go down here.
Actually, I believe in the original writing of the AP that's exactly why he has the helmet and takes that name to begin with. He wants to build up his mystique and look like some crazy powerful bandit king, so he never takes the thing off and he acts like a god or something.
Of course, since I'm telling you that, clearly that's not how it's gonna go down here.
OR it is and you are just throwing us all off!
GM, does Marcus have his traps with him?
No, your traps appear to have been left behind, but all your other items (including your spear, for instance) are still on your person.
Alright, thanks.