Works for me
Works for me!
Are the kingdom and staffing votes supposed to be the players voting or the characters? Presumably Ryle and Thurl haven't arrived yet or become acquainted with the personnel.
Works for me!
Are the kingdom and staffing votes supposed to be the players voting or the characters? Presumably Ryle and Thurl haven't arrived yet or become acquainted with the personnel.
You'll be included in the voting; I'd prefer we stretch plausibility a bit rather than have you guys excluded from the very start of kingdom building. Also, there's going to be roughly a year time gap from where you guys get introduced and where the action starts.
I'm working on the IC intros for you guys.
Poking in before doing some more traveling. So far Thurl mentioned Warden and Treasurer for Leadership Role while Ryle mentioned Treasurer and Spymaster. I haven't seen any objection to either of those, so Thurl=Warden and Ryle=Treasurer would certainly work, if that's what you'd like. If we get that nailed down, I'll post the voting for the remainder of initial Leadership positions. Also as a follow up, we'll be running the "stat determines Bonus" as opposed to skills. If there's any more questions I missed, let me know :)
If I said Warden before, that was my error; I meant Marshal.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Poking in before doing some more traveling. So far Thurl mentioned Warden and Treasurer for Leadership Role while Ryle mentioned Treasurer and Spymaster. I haven't seen any objection to either of those, so Thurl=Warden and Ryle=Treasurer would certainly work, if that's what you'd like. If we get that nailed down, I'll post the voting for the remainder of initial Leadership positions. Also as a follow up, we'll be running the "stat determines Bonus" as opposed to skills. If there's any more questions I missed, let me know :)If I said Warden before, that was my error; I meant Marshal.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I keep getting those confused myself ;) That's probably a better fit, heh
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +12
Defense
AC 14, touch 10 , flat-footed 14
hp 31 Fort +2 Ref +4 (+5 vs traps) Will +2 (+4 or +11 vs. Illusions)
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee greatsword +6 (2d6+5 + 2 pwr attack) (+8, 2d6+7 studied)
Special attacks studied combat (+2, 5 rounds), studied strike +1d6
Statistics
Str 14 (+2) Dex 10 (+0) Con 13 (+1) Int 20 (+5) Wis 7 (-2) Cha 13 (+1)
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 16
Feats Martial weapon proficiency (greatsword), Power attack, Furious focus
Skills Acrobatics +4, Appraise +12, Bluff +4, Climb +6, Craft (alchemy) +10 (+14 to create alchemical items), Diplomacy +8 (+13 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +9, Disguise +4, Escape Artist +4, Heal +2, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (engineering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +11, Knowledge (history) +13, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +13, Knowledge (religion) +13, Linguistics +10, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Sleight of Hand +4, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +4, Use Magic Device +9
Languages Taldane (Common), Azlanti, Draconic, Hallit, Tien, Varisian
Skill points per level: 11 =
Inspiration: 7
Traits, Racial Features, Class Features, Feats
Accelerated drinker: can drink potion as Move rather than Standard action.
House Orlovsky: + 1 trait bonus to Diplomacy, CMD
Extra feat (human): spent on weapon proficiency
Comprehensive education (human racial trait, replaces Skilled): +1 racial bonus to all Knowledge skills (if being an Investigator did not grant all Knowledge skills as class skills, this would make them class skills rather than give the racial bonus.)
Alchemy: ability to prepare and consume extracts (and hand them to others with the Infusion discovery)
Inspiration: Have 7 points to spend to give +d6 on any skill check, free to use on any Knowledge, Linguistics, or Spellcraft skill checks without expending a use of inspiration, provided he's trained in the skill.
Trapfinding: +2 (that is, half-level) bonus to Perception skill checks to locate traps and Disable Device checks; can use Disable Device to disarm magical traps.
Ceaseless observation (empiricist, replaces poison lore/resistance): use Int for Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, UMD, and (for purposes of gathering information) Diplomacy checks.
Infusion (investigator talent, spent on the infusion alchemical discovery): others can drink and benefit from Ryle's extracts.
Keen recollection: can make Knowledge checks untrained
Trap sense: +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks by traps.
Studied combat: can use a move action to study a single enemy; gets +2 (= 1/2 his investigator level) as an insight bonus on melee attack rolls and as a bonus on damage rolls against the creature. This effect lasts for 5 rounds (=Int mod) or until he deals damage with a studied strike, whichever comes first. The bonus on damage rolls is precision damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit. An investigator can only have one target of studied combat at a time, and once a creature has become the target of an investigator's studied combat, he cannot become the target of the same investigator's studied combat again for 24 hours unless the investigator expends one use of inspiration when taking the move action to use this ability.
Studied strike: upon successfully hitting his studied target with a melee attack, can do additional 1d6 damage (and end study.) The damage of studied strike is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit; creatures that are immune to sneak attacks are also immune to studied strike.
Unfailing logic (empiricist, replaces swift alchemy): +2 Will save vs illusions, and can spend inspiration to swap Wis=>Int on such saves
Martial weapon proficiency - greatsword: Ryle recieved some knightly training in his youth.
Power attack: +2 damage, -1 to-hit if using weapon one-handed (first attack each round with both hands no penalty due to furious focus, so assumed on by default)
Furious focus: no penalty to use Power Attack on first two-handed attack each round
Gear
mwf chain shirt (250 gp, 25 lbs., +5 AC, max Dex bonus +4, ACP -2)
mwk greatsword (350 gp. 8 lbs, 2d6 dmg, 19-20/x2 crit, Slashing, +1 enhancement bonus)
Investigator's kit
[spoiler=Alchemy]
2nd-level Extracts (2/day ): cure moderate wounds
1st-level Extracts (5/day ): comprehend languages, cure light wounds, enlarge person, monkey fish, polypurpose panacea, see alignment, tears to wine
If it's Hanukkah or Kwanzaa
Solstice, Harvest, or December 25th
Peace on Earth to everyone
And abundance to everyone you're with!
(Holiday stuff should be winding down tomorrow giving me a day to get some more work in.)
Holiday festivities survived! Here's some movement, I need everyone to vote for the remaining Leadership Roles
Please go to the above link, and drag your votes for who you think best would fill the available roles. The '1' vote is your first choice and counts twice.
Once there are some clear leaders (Roles with 7+ votes) I'll start removing options and filling in the handy new Kingdom Sheet
Metagaming perspective: do we know the candidates' Ability Scores?
Diegetic perspective: after being accepted by the group, Ryle would want to extensively vet any prospective high-level staff - it is, after all, his whole bailiwick. Grilling people long enough to take 20, maybe in conjunction with Thurl using Abadar's truthtelling and other inquisitorial hijinx, should surely be enough to thoroughly suss out people's abilities, ideologies, and external obligations.
"Keep it moving" perspective: I guess based purely on this description
Newcomers we now have available to select from:
Kesten Garess - professional soldier and leader Jhod Kavken - stodgy "misogynist" cleric of Erastil Latricia Evanore - progressive cleric of Erastil Akiros Ismort - former paladin, "bandit" leader and mercenary Oleg & Svetlana Leveton - included for completion's sake - not really suggesting we bring them on as kingdom leaders Lloyd Rezbin - aristocrat & outdoorsman
I would say:
Diplomat - Lloyd (secondary Latricia)
High Priest - Latricia (secondary Jhod)
Enforcer - Akiros (secondary Kesten)
Spymaster - Jhod (secondary Akiros or Kesten?)
Warden - Kesten (secondary Akiros)
If I were really interested in keeping things moving I'd cast the above votes, but that's prior to knowing more than a sentence about any of them.
You can actually move the little 1s and 2s to vote ;)
Also, a reminder that technically any NPC you meet could potentially become a leader, although these are the ones that have expressed interest.
Ryle / Thurl, I'll see if I can get all the in character intros streamlined somewhere, but if you start reading here I made a few intro conversations they had with the party (assume they'd make the same for you as well)
If anyone has questions about the NPCs or anything, lemme know
I put both of my votes into Lloyd for Spymaster, since it looks like he's the only one really all that qualified out of all of the potential NPCs. Is that okay?
I'd rather you at least pick a second for things like this (heck, Svetlana could be a spymaster in a way ;)) but we can roll with that for now.
Thanks for that, Wolfspirit! Very helpful to have that pointed out for us. After reading back through them, I wonder if Grigori might also be a possibility? His character seems Bard-ish, and since Grand Diplomat requires high charisma or intelligence, a character with some experience in the social disciplines should be a good fit for that role.
Also, how do I access the voting spreadsheet, if it's still up for us to vote through?
Just click the link in his post.
On mobile for now, can't really move the selections.
Alamina'a choices:
Diplomat: 1st, Lloyd, 2nd: Svetlana
High Priest: 1st: Latricia, 2nd: Jhod
Enforcer: , 1st: Akiros, 2nd: Kesten
Spymaster: 1st: Oleg, 2nd Lloyd
Warden: 1st: Kesten 2nd: Akiros
Just click the link in his post.
I discovered my problem! Thank you; I had clicked that link several times, but I hadn't bothered to scroll down to see the choices for the open positions. I was just ready the initial screen that came up.
Made Alamina's votes. If anyone else has difficulty, let me know. It's not really mobile friendly, I'll admit.
Wow, Wolf, I just looked at the full spreadsheet, and thank you! It looks like it took a lot of work to put together - but will save me, at least, a ton of work over the course of things, and presumably everyone else as well - so I don't want it to pass by unpraised. Major high five. :D
I made a more humble spreadsheet for determining who should be best at what job on paper, and consulted it for my own votes. I also took the liberty of adding the PCs' ability scores to the Kingdom spreadsheet, assigning the PC roles already agreed upon, and fancifully styling myself the "Coinkeeper General," but if that futzes with anything it should all be undoable.
Is it possible for Raven to, knowing that they need somebody to count the coppers, reach out to Ryle? They already know each other, and Raven would figure that having somebody that she trusts and who knows how to navigate politics would be handy on the council.
Makes sense to me!
Ryle could then have brought Thurl on as his spiritual advisor, or, since Thurl is interested in conquering the wilderness anyway, Thurl could have dragged Ryle away from his liquor cabinet to answer the summons. (Or of course they could have arrived independently.)
Ryle's default agenda going in, although of course this is likely to be adjusted for the specifics he encounters (and also I should just jump ahead and read the part where y'all discuss the actual thing you've got going):
1) Survey the land and identify points of optimal taxation where rent can be collected - chokepoints on waterways, mines, especially fertile land (though since the land is sparsely settled collecting rent on ordinary land should not be possible without slavery or other abbhorent practices.) The principles governing taxes/rent/fees is that they shouldn't be large enough to change behavior (except where that's specifically desired), they should be fixed and known, and ascertaining the amount to be collected from any one party should be easy.
2) Identify opportunities to disperse these funds into public works, of which law and order is presumably the first. After that waterworks, lines of communication, &c. can be worked on.
3) Recruit a bunch of young men and women, as well as a few established experts, to form the start of a professional civil service to administer all of the above. Minimum requirements: literacy, numeracy, LG/NG/LN alignment and willingness to submit to regular magical checks of alignment and truthfulness. They will receive fixed salaries rising with seniority, and depending on the fiscal outlook at least some will have guarantees of long-term employment depending on their not doing anything wrong.
Wow, Wolf, I just looked at the full spreadsheet, and thank you! It looks like it took a lot of work to put together - but will save me, at least, a ton of work over the course of things, and presumably everyone else as well - so I don't want it to pass by unpraised. Major high five. :D
I made a more humble spreadsheet for determining who should be best at what job on paper, and consulted it for my own votes. I also took the liberty of adding the PCs' ability scores to the Kingdom spreadsheet, assigning the PC roles already agreed upon, and fancifully styling myself the "Coinkeeper General," but if that futzes with anything it should all be undoable.
Oh, I totally re-purposed the sheet from someone else ;) It's pretty amazing, though a bit unwieldy. I was trying to trim it down, but there's some hard-coded values *everywhere* and it breaks other stuff, so I decided to leave it in.
I have started working on a Settlement grid sheet though :)
Oh, and just a friendly reminder, don't agonize too hard over the current leaders. There's a penalty for changing around the Leaders, but is definitely expected that you'll be making modifications. For example, Rezbin can be persuaded to fill the Spymaster role, but it's not particularly something he's thrilled with, and the NPC the AP suggests for the Spymaster hasn't made an appearance yet. Right now you're making a best stab at getting your fledgling settlement off the ground.
I also updated the alignment sheet, with current totals at:
LG: 4
NG: 5
CG: 2
N: 1
Assuming Thurl prefers LG, it's appropriately enough (assuming no strategic vote-switching) up to our Ruler, Elvara, to determine the Kingdom's ultimate alignment, and if she goes with her own it presumably lands up in NG.
Another thing to consider: what's going to happen if Elvara ends up having to drop the game?
That's uncontestable majorities for Latricia as High Priest and Lloyd for Spymaster, and, if Lloyd is thus no longer for other posts, Svetlana for Diplomat (whom Thurl could put at a tie with Lloyd if he desired.) Thurl could also in principle put the positions for Warden and Enforcer in a tie, if desired; if there was a runoff election without any changes to preference order Akiros would become Enforcer and Kesten the Warden.
I've updated the Kingdom sheet to reflect the above: Svetlana as Diplomat, Latricia as High Priest, Akiros as Enforcer, Lloyd as Spymaster, Kesten as Warden. That includes some leaps about how hypothetical ties would be settled and hasn't even allowed Thurl the dignity of voting, and should not at all be taken as a final word - just a Push to keep things moving if it works for people, and also a chance to see how the statistics work out - by default we have something of a prosperous, but mutinous, little kingdom, like a pirate ship that can't figure out how to divide the booty.
(Also: an obvious min-maxing move given all the above would be to try to get Elvara and Grigori into each others' pants so the latter can be her Consort, lmao. If Elvara's still playing then that's presumably hers to resolve by fiat or character arc - but if she gets NPCed then us all having to play matchmaker in order to make the settlement not revolt or w/e is just hilarious - and, I guess, an at least somewhat accurate representation of medieval politics.)
I would suggest that the Ruler be a non- NPC character; it makes it a lot more fun that way. You guys have a dearth of Charisma, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there; hopefully Elvara will be able to get back into things with the Holidays spinning down.
I *will* caution that meta-gaming for pure stats can have disastrous evil-GM chuckling consequences.
I *will* caution that meta-gaming for pure stats can have disastrous evil-GM chuckling consequences.
Operating off an abstract idea of meritocracy while ignoring contextual and harder-to-quantify factors is exactly the sort of move Ryland would make, soooooo
You don't necessarily have to fill all the leadership roles, either; not to a one. I would think that Consort is one of those that, while providing some perks, is not one that must be filled in the same way that something like High Priest needs to be.
Assuming I understand the kingdom alignment grid correctly, I've cast my vote for that section with Lawful Good as my first choice and Lawful Neutral as my second choice. Thurl is less concerned about an action being morally good or bad as he is a codified and established set of rules for the kingdom to abide, so while he would likely lean, I would still put him in LN territory.
The decisions that have been made thus far regarding kingdom roles for the NPCs all seem good ones to me. Latricia seems a better choice for high priest and I don't really think we have a particularly stellar choice for Spymaster at present, so Lloyd seems like the best option we have to this point.
From a non min-maxing position, Raven has the most "leadership leadership" experience, no? Ryle's familiar with the nuts and bolts of governance, and his noble background would likely be good for optics - if he we're disgraced and flush with enemies. I hope Vorsirion wouldn't take offense to hearing he's make a terrible choice for ruler - compromised by the voices in his head and just all-around creepy. (Vorsirion's player certainly shouldn't take offense to this because it's all played with marvelous gusto.)
You don't necessarily have to fill all the leadership roles, either; not to a one. I would think that Consort is one of those that, while providing some perks, is not one that must be filled in the same way that something like High Priest needs to be.
Oh, totally, it just struck me as a fun case of min-maxing leading to potentially quite entertaining storytelling.
From a non min-maxing position, Raven has the most "leadership leadership" experience, no? Ryle's familiar with the nuts and bolts of governance, and his noble background would likely be good for optics - if he we're disgraced and flush with enemies. I hope Vorsirion wouldn't take offense to hearing he's make a terrible choice for ruler - compromised by the voices in his head and just all-around creepy. (Vorsirion's player certainly shouldn't take offense to this because it's all played with marvelous gusto.)
You don't necessarily have to fill all the leadership roles, either; not to a one. I would think that Consort is one of those that, while providing some perks, is not one that must be filled in the same way that something like High Priest needs to be.Oh, totally, it just struck me as a fun case of min-maxing leading to potentially quite entertaining storytelling.
Consort and second ruler are ones that are currently empty, though I'm sure they'll be filled at some point. No euphemism intended! ;)
Yeah, Elvara and I actually talked about Rav en being the second-best rulership candidate at least from a roleplay perspective via PM. Maybe if Elvara has to drop, Raven can take her position, using Intelligence instead of Charisma for the bonus?
Yeah, Elvara and I actually talked about Rav en being the second-best rulership candidate at least from a roleplay perspective via PM. Maybe if Elvara has to drop, Raven can take her position, using Intelligence instead of Charisma for the bonus?
Not that it's my call to make, but based on your Trait I'd say you should probably be able to turn that mathematical frown upside down as long as you flavor your leadership as bullying, which would really be a funny case of incentives, and also totally not the exact kind of thing Wolf just said could backfire on us.
Unless something significant changes, here are the remaining leaders:
Diplomat: Svetlana Leveton
High Priest: Latricia Evanore
Enforcer: Akiros Ismort
Spymaster: Lloyd Rezbin
Warden: Kesten Garess
You were pretty spot on Ryle.
As for leader if Elvara has to bow out, there are a couple options. I'd allow some re-adjusting of stats, character rerolls, or the like. I don't think Raven would be a good candidate as it stats. Brutal Intellect is not the way to win the hearts and minds of a population ;)
Oh, no. Yeah, I was thinking that exact same thing. Raven is going on a redemption arc, remember, not the equally-compelling but much worse for the game becoming-a-tyrant arc :)
From PMs with Thurl, our common background is that in his early adolescence, Thurl somewhat briefly met Ryle and adopted him in his mind as a role model and hero: fighting in a more civilized sphere than Thurl intended to, but nevertheless fighting the good fight for order. On those grounds, the adult Thurl recruited Ryle to go down to the Stolen Lands with him. He's now dealing with disillusionment and disgust at seeing a childhood hero be such an alcoholic mess, and Ryle is torn between a need to humble himself and seek spiritual guidance from a representative of his faith and a distinct desire to not humble himself before this very zealous kid. It's going to be a long caravan ride.
Maybe Raven contacted Ryle a while ago, he ignored it, then Thurl showed up and forced him to actually do something?
I like that a lot.
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I hope Vorsirion wouldn't take offense to hearing he's make a terrible choice for ruler - compromised by the voices in his head and just all-around creepy. (Vorsirion's player certainly shouldn't take offense to this because it's all played with marvelous gusto.)
Vorsirion doesn't want to be leader and would rather keep a low profile while he deals with...things.
He doesn't take offense at all. And neither do I. :)
But I certainly do...I will add you to the list of people to kill.
I rather like it myself! Thurl's personality is one that I envision as being more forceful in that way so him showing up to bring Ryle along seems in line with my mental picture.
Licit to just say that the caravan scene I posted earlier is my intro? I don't see anything that would contradict it.
I was looking through my notes and can't seem to find if the party has decided where they were going to start their capital city at? I'd assumed the ruins of the Stag Lord's Keep and has certain benefits., although Oleg's is also a potentially viable place.
I believe the ruins. The trading post is just a temporary staging area.
Agreed, Raven
For what say I have, I agree.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Ok, we have a quorum on the Keep. Have you guys thought / decided on a name for the city and / or settlement?
The only thing left for the initial settlement are the initial buildings you would like to purchase. However, I do advise early and often to avoid buying anything that is more than half of your treasury, especially early on. Things like a Castle are cool, but spending some initial funds to grow your borders / build farms are probably better in the long run.
How about AlaminaLand?
I kinda like the sound of that.
J/K, obviously