Lords of Themselves: A Kingmaker Adventure Path.

Game Master Red Ramage

Oh, and by the way, the 1k is MIIIIIIINE!

Ahh! You sneak attacked the 1000th post! Foul play! =P

Happy anniversary to Red and Mrs. Ramage! Oh, wait... might ought to wait til after dinner and the gift to call her that! XD

How much exp did we receive for the boggards and the tatzlwyrms?

Congratulations Red! My 2nd wedding anniversary just passed at the beginning of this month.

Congrats to both Red, and Idris on your anniversaries. I hope both of your marriages are times of happiness and joy.

It's cracking me up how unfailingly dense Idris has been where Bara is concerned. XD

It cracks me up too. My meatspace group has a theory that the more points you put into a skill, the worse you will roll on it. In kingmaker, we had a ranger who pumped Perception as high as he could and never rolled over a 5 with it. Our skull and shackles group has a dhampir captain with a massive diplomacy score and a string of horrible diplomacy failures. The educated part of my brain knows about statistics and confirmation bias but it's still good fun at the table. The group has a PhD chemistry student, two computer programmers, a polymer scientist with a MBA, and my engineering-savvy self, and it's crazy how fast all that education goes right out the window when it comes to dice rolling.

Expanding on my previous comment about having a blast, play by post is new to me. I've been playing rpgs since I was 9 years old but always pen and paper, not in a message board format. It's a very different kind of experience because of the medium. At the table, I have to make rulings and decisions and react on the fly. Here, I get to mull things over. At the table, I am sometimes hard-pressed to come up with in-character conversation that's both good and flavorful. Here, I get to compose and edit before firing it off into the forum. The anonymity and barrier of the forum also helps me get into character more. It can be awkward doing serious role play at the game table, both from the angle of having to improvise in-character and from pretending you're an elf princess in front of your sweaty nerd friends. Meatspace games tend towards the beer-and-pretzels style of RPing. I'm digging the change of pace.

I also have an ulterior motive. I would like to be a published author someday. Writing is really a craft; there are some prodigies who are naturally good at it, but most authors got to where they are with sweat and practice. It's a meme among the writing crowd that one must write a million words before being able to produce readable material or find your style. You poor bastards get to be the training dummies that I bludgeon with my amateur prose! Bwahaha! I theorize that writing and/or narrating RPG material that keeps people interested and having fun has much in common with writing novels that are enjoyable to read. Good novels are about characters, not events. The books that I love focused on interesting, lovable, and realistic people more than the setting or story. The Dragonlance original trilogy is a great example. The setting is a boring, run-of-the-mill good-vs-evil here there be dragons fantasy scene, made enjoyable by the Companions. I'm a weight-lifting, meat-grilling, gun-toting, whiskey-drinking, blue-collar manly man and I legit laid down and cried when Sturm sacrificed himself at the High Clerist's Tower.

You guys showing up day after day with your interesting, awesome characters and letting me write stuff at you is awesome, and I'm very grateful for all your work and dedication. so TLDR, I'm having a blast.

Yes, I pressed preview on that post with the roll, thinking, "OK, am I going to roll low again, or is Idris going to finally figure out that Bara has the hots for her?" And... a 1.

One of these days, it'll hit her like a ton of bricks.

I'm considering what to do with the RP opportunity. My only concern is the effect it may have on the rest of the group. If it wouldn't make any of the other players feel uncomfortable, like feeling that I'm appropriating the experiences of a minority I don't belong to (lesbians), I just might bite on that hook. (If it would, you can let me know by PM and I won't say anything in public.)

That's funny about your theory. I myself am a student of science and the creator of a psuedo-pagan dice cleansing ritual, which I used to perform (tongue-in-cheek) when a friend at the table was getting crappy rolls. I also have friends that bring 10 sets of dice when we game and swap them out when they believe this set or that set is "rolling badly today". It is amusing the things we do to help ourselves imagine we're in control of a random element. ^_^

I really enjoy the PbP medium too. I think it's especially appealing to those of us who enjoy reading and writing. I also feel like it's good writing practice and I don't feel bludgeoned at all. I feel really lucky to have found such a great GM and players to game with! <3

I seriously doubt I would ever publish anything that would earn serious dinero, but I'm also honing my writing craft. PbP is a really good fit for me. My brain is not fast to commit rules to memory (especially arbitrary ones that don't make realistic sense to me, lol), so at a face to face game, I end up deferring to someone more confident in the rule rather than bog down the play by looking it up. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me learn the rule. So now, after over a year of PbP gaming and GMing and taking the time to look it up for myself, I'm finally starting to really know the basic rules and getting better on the more detailed ones.

And while I pride myself on my acting ability, I'm much more likely to be laughed at than taken seriously at a face-to-face game when I attempt more than a minimal vocal characterization of NPCs. So yeah, no immersion there. >_<
But it's awesome how well we can do that here. My buddy Shifty mentioned it's really rare for an AP to run to completion on the boards, so I'm glad to hear you're enjoying running the game, because I really want us to go the distance!

And for my .02, I have no issues with Idris swinging any which way she chooses. ^_~
Might ought to give some thought to what a half-orc assassin scorned might get you though!

My meatspace group has a theory that the more points you put into a skill, the worse you will roll on it. In kingmaker, we had a ranger who pumped Perception as high as he could and never rolled over a 5 with it. Our skull and shackles group has a dhampir captain with a massive diplomacy score and a string of horrible diplomacy failures.

Crap, with 11 skill points per level Pretty will be screwed really really soon! Fortunately for her she doesn't have skill oriented feats...

Well, I'm having a blast with this experience. I really like to roleplay and improving my writing skill is certainly a must, since English is not my native language. I remember in the beginning people had a hard time understanding what I wrote (and I usually get some errors when in a hurry). So yeah, everyone wins.

I'll hope one day you write a book with someone like Pretty in it ^_^
I must confess that she is one of my hardest characters to "know I'm doing it right", and I'm not sure why's that. Perhaps it is because of her behavior, as the lonely wolf, but it could be something else. The lack of an specific voice to represent Pretty's might also be factor, as in other characters I can usually think of a voice that goes along with its behavior. Anyway, I'm enjoying the opportunity. When we first joined the recruitment I was expecting her to be the only weird one around, but I guess things change, right?

And yes, Idris is screwed ^_^

Oh, by the way, I certainly do not mind with you using all the time you need to roleplay. I'm in other games where we opted for speed, passing through dungeons without asking questions, but in most cases that doesn't result in a real roleplaying experience, specially in a scenario like this, where we will meet the same people over and over, so, take all the time you need.

sorry for the delay, swing shifts suck and that was a lot of bookkeeping!

Good stuff! Finally the backstory of the Pretty and I even worked in a favorite H.G. Wells quote. Yay! <3

But hey, if Pretty is our own resident Imp, does that mean Sera gets to be Khaleesi? Cause ya know...

Your time to rule will come, my Khaleesi!

But don't get so down, Kensten!

RE: blinding and Light, the design intent is to limit the combat power of 0th level spells while using them to give spellcasters utility. Light also used to be a 1st level spell. Glitterdust, a 1st level spell, has the blinding part rolled into it.

While the spell Blindness is permanent and a 2nd level spell. Which, in my opinion, is overpowered...

Oh yeah, I know why they changed it. It was just kinda cool back in the day.

Forums were down for maintenance overnight, pausing for a moment to make sure everybody gets a chance to weigh in

Yes, sorry! I'm typing now. ^_^

I keep trying to think of a line of RP but I think Idris has said everything she's going to say.

Apologies for the holdup again, been struggling with migraines the past few days. Makes staring at a screen for long torture! >_<

no problem! Just glad to hear from you. Gotta hit the sheets now, I'll set the next few days in motion tonight so everybody has something to do while Sera gets yelled at by an old coot kobold.

So looks like Pretty's gotta catch 'em all and Idris needs a shiny new rape whistle! lol XD

It's more of a struggle snuggle

Idris did already challenge Bara to a wrestle, this is just negotiating about the time and place.

(Gorumite negotiations tend to be very physical.)

Whew! Had to do some research on that post... I don't think we ever told the kobolds what Tartuk claimed to have done?

Have we reached level 5 yet? Just asking because of the wyrms, the bogards, and exploring.

no, but with the story award from completing book 1 you will

apologies for the delay, the last days of gen con got out of control. The missus and I got lured by friends into a $5 well drink party and then a strip club. Partying way out of our league ate saturday's post! Regular posting to commence.

Strip club!! Aye!!

Hah, Idris finally gets a clue, right when she doesn't need it anymore.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I've had an exhausting couple of days so I will post later tonight.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Couple things,

Restov isn't detailed in the adventure path, nor is there a great amount of detail associated with the process of turning in your charter and getting back out to the stolen lands. I normally embellish the printed adventure heavily, but for the next while the content will be mine from the whole cloth. I would greatly appreciate feedback and criticism on my material. I'm working towards the goal of writing for a living, and you lot are helplessly trapped on my 1,000,000 word journey to competence. I have an extremely thick skin and shan't be offended in the slightest at anything negative you have to say - please let me know what you think of my stuff! PMs are fine if you're not comfortable posting in public.

I would like to add another player to the game. She's from my meatspace gaming group and I can vouch for her style, regularity, and post quality. Would anybody object to this?

The Advanced Class Guide is out, and full of some pretty nifty stuff. If anybody would like to rebuild their character in light of the new material, you are absolutely free to do so.

I'll have to look at what it would take to rebuild Idris as a Swashbuckler.

Kivan is fine where he is right now, and I would be fine with another player as long as you vouch for her Red.

Looking forward to it! I had left Thora and Zak's current location open so we could insert them somewhere... I think that was the original GM's intent to use our relationships that way. Feel free to establish one or both in Restov, Sera was not impressed with Thora's husband and will want to look in on her if possible.

I'm good with bringing in a new player, we'll need the bodies to fill various kingdom positions soon! I don't want to pigeonhole what she should draw up, but it wouldn't be a terrible idea to double check we have all the ones with negatives if the position isn't filled covered.

Oh, and no usurpers! ^_~ *is the Khaleesi*

yes, she's keen on not stepping on toes.

Bring her aboard!

I've been very happy with your writing. I'll keep a critical eye as we move into uncharted waters.

I say welcome already!

I'll try to tell you whatever I think about the next part, but I'm pretty sure you will be alright ^_^

I don't know about you, but I've always thought in "assassins" as something bad. Now, if Bara walks beside us, why don't we choose something less offensive (in our vision, at least), like Ranger? What do you think?

Pretty waits until Sera has moved out to add her own comment to the situation, showing she does not share Sera's concerns. "Oh my god, she's suffering so much!" He voice denounces some sarcasm, and she continues making a drama out of it, putting both hands over her heart. "Thanks god it's not me in that situation! No, no, that would not do... I don't know if I could withstand having draconic blood in my veins... even worst, blood of a metallic and good-aligned dragon, granting me magic abilities!?! Gosh I'm so lucky!"

I know, right? What a diva! Oh, wait that's me... XD

Oh! We forgot to visit Bokken! We have to take him the fangberries and fish before Restov.

It's definitely intriguing to see the parallels between Sera's present and Pretty's past.

Indeed! Join me in the dark side of the force!

I don't know about you, but I've always thought in "assassins" as something bad. Now, if Bara walks beside us, why don't we choose something less offensive (in our vision, at least), like Ranger? What do you think?

I'm not a crazed gunman, dad. I'm an assassin!

I know she doesn't care, but like, in every civilized society the term "assassin" is taken badly, so maybe we should do that. That's my point of view, at least ^_^

post delayed for the night. I got my right hand chewed up by a stray dog today, and some bits that should be inside are now outside. Full use of the hand, nothing bad, but it hurts pretty decent and my next few posts will be novel-length. So, taking the night off.

Ouch!

-Posted with Wayfinder

Oh my goodness, that does not sound good at all.

Holy lord! Get better man!

Pretty is interested in hearing how did you got bit by a stray dog, when you have the time, cause seriously, those dogs are usually scared and run away when near human.

I hope it isn't to serious. Hope you get better soon.

not too much of a story, really. I saw the dog wandering, and it had a harness on so I knew it was somebody's. Went over to it cool enough, but I guess I rolled a 1 on my handle animal check irl because when I went to check its tags it chomped on my hand. We got it reunited with its owner, then went to the clinic and got my hand checked out. It'll just take a bit to heal, nothing's messed up too bad. The tetanus shot I got hurts worse than the hand. Typing now, but it's slower than usual.

Meant to ooc it in my post, but you all hit level 5 as you ride out from oleg's