Luke's Crimson Throne Campaign

Game Master GM Crimson

Landing spot for the discussion thread!

Checking in. Thanks for having me. :)

Thanks for picking me!

I'm on mobile right now so it's more difficult to take a look at the other characters. Do we have ranged combat taken care of or not? I'm wondering whether or not to set Emileva up as a switch hitter or stick to melee.

Hi guys/gals. Hopefully everyone makes the journey from the recruitment thread to here safely :)

I've done alot of groundwork to start this campaign already. There's a campaign website I've put together on Google Sites that requires an email address to create a login. It's currently a private site because I want to be very careful with Paizo's excellent IP. If each of you will send me an email address either in a PM, or by sending an email from that account to smoochy.knave@gmail.com, I'll get an invitation to the website sent your way. It will mostly be used as a means of providing some background information on locations in the city and images related to locations and people you meet.

My selection of your characters was based on well-written backstories and posting habits you've established in the other threads you've played in or run. I haven't gone through the crunch of your characters or brushed up on certain class abilities, etc. So as I do that over the next day or so, I will probably have some questions. Likewise, there may be some requests to change minor points in your back-stories to line-up with the plot of the AP, or some subplot I'm spinning in my brain. I'd like to take the next several days for this kind of Q&A activity. If there are any synergies you see in your own backgrounds that might serve to link your characters, I'm open to that but it's not necessary to get you guys together in the first act.

So watch for individual posts for your characters with these questions, etc. I'm also mindful of motteditor's absence coming up right at the beginning of things, so will likely reserve the opening game post to sometime near the end of that timeframe (10/13?).

So a personal introduction:

I'm a 44 y/o father of two. I manage software development for a living in the Tampa Bay, Florida region. Both my kids are teens (daughter got her driver's license tonight!) - just old enough to abandon all our table-top quests in favor of studies and soccer :( I'm also Team manager for my son's club soccer team and heavily involved in the months before summer in a local violin institute. So with all these distractions, there will be times when I get stupid-busy, and I'll try to just be up-front about those when they come along.

I've played this game off-and-on since its inception. Be it D&D in its editions (up thru 3.5), or Pathfinder, or years of Rolemaster-based stuff. I do make mistakes, and as I think I write in my profile, am very willing to learn where I'm screwing things up. Most often mistake is missing something that changed from 3.5 to Pathfinder. Please just point it out in this thread and we'll adjust for my mistakes as they happen :)

Welcome and super-duper thanks for your interest!!! I haven't had an active game since the death of my table-top Jade Regent game with my kids, so I'm itching for some great adventures. Let's breathe some life into Korvosa!

Me? I'm a 25 year old fellow from the Great White North--or rather, the part of it down east with all the indecisive weather (Nova Scotia). I'm currently studying for my GREs to get into graduate school, so I have more free time than I'd like to admit on my hands.

I've got a few campaigns that I'm running on the boards--one for RotRL, one for Iron Gods, ones for Jade Regent and Carrion Crown, and my longest-running one for CotCT. That being said, my players and I ended up going off the rails so many times in my CotCT game that I've learned to expect things to be changed from the source material. :) Keeping player & character knowledge separate won't be a problem for me.

Thanks, all. Not only am I leaving on vacation soon, I seem to be coming down with something (trip to the doctor confirms it's not strep, though!). I plan to post more tomorrow when I hope I'm more coherent. :)

Thanks for chosing me. Could you please open the campaign thread so we can post a dot so it shows up on the campaign tab? I'll just post and delete my post again (though you have to avoid deleting yours or the thread will become unavailable).

I'm a 30 year old guy from Norway working as a software developer/programmer/consultant. I got a 2 year old son.
I'll send you a pm about some minor adjustments.

Done.

I worked very closely with a development shop in Oslo for about 5 years named Colibria. Ever heard of them?

We're just waiting on Kayleigh's player to check in now?

Just made an alias for Kayleigh; should have her character sheet input and double-checked shortly!

I'm typing up PMs and sending them out as I go through the backgrounds. I'll surface some of the questions coming up in those PMs onto this thread as they come to a head. With the common backgrounds there's strong potential for some of you to know or at least know of each other.

Hey all,

Feeling a bit better today so trying to get caught up. I'm a 41-year-old newspaper editor, who's been gaming for some 30 years or so. I do mostly PBP these days, though I recently started up a live game again, which I'm really enjoying. I also do a fair amount of game design work, which I really enjoy.

My wife is in med school in the Caribbean, which is where I'm headed on vacation. I'll be able to see posts while I'm down there, but because I've just got my ipad, it's tough for me to respond.

Definitely happy to intertwine some backgrounds if that works for others. Nebbin grew up in Brdigefront, the DM Luke mentioned Kayleigh lives in Bridgefront and Emileva has been working as a guard-for-hire in the district as well, so if either of you are interested, we can compare notes...

I post well over 50% from my phone. A pad is easier than that, though I understand it seems like a huge step down if you're used to a computer. I imagine finding time to post will be more difficult than actually doing it from an iPad while you are on vacation though.

I absolutely love how well the setup for this ties the characters together. A lot of other campaigns you have to work for it much more, which can sometimes makes things seem a bit forced.

Seeing as my background has a lot in common with Kayleigh it would be nice if we could work out some relation between them. Perhaps the girls were friends and helped each other out in captivity?

I admit it's been a while since I studied the player's guide so I'm not sure where Brdigefront is. I'll read up on it some and write a blurb on Neziana's current living conditions in the poorest part of town.

I have the Guide to Korvosa pdf.

It's in Old Korvosa.

Seeing as my background has a lot in common with Kayleigh it would be nice if we could work out some relation between them. Perhaps the girls were friends and helped each other out in captivity?

Well, Kayleigh wasn't in the Lambs long enough for her to become close friends with Neziana (Kayleigh was inept as a thief), but if they were Lambs at the same time they'd likely at least remember one another. How old is Neziana? Let's see if their timelines mesh and go from there.

Let's match up the timelines so it meshes well. I haven't actually decided on how old Neziana is, but we are definitely using blood of fiends/angels maturity levels for tieflings as I dislike the other rules. She might be in her early 20s or even late teens. How old is Kayleigh?

Neziana is an excellent thief, so maybe she helped Kayleigh out?

Question for the GM: How many traits should our characters have? Two regular plus a campaign trait or two TOTAL, including perhaps a campaign trait?

My wife is in med school in the Caribbean

Being a Floridian, let me extend my hope that all's well in whatever slice of paradise your wife is currently studying in.

Question for the GM: How many traits should our characters have? Two regular plus a campaign trait or two TOTAL, including perhaps a campaign trait?

My assumption was two total. One a campaign trait and one an 'other'. Is that abnormal for campaigns?

I'm just now starting to look at the crunchy bits for the characters. As others can attest from the PMs going around, I'm open to changes to your character details at this stage - especially where it makes the math match the story.

I thought I edited the following into my last post, apparently I didn't:

I think having a strong background connection could make things more immersive and fun, so I'm willing to change things if it'll make that easier for you. Especially seeing as Neziana is going to have a hard time fitting in anywhere, she could really use a friend from the get go.

Note, Neziana's appearance isn't quite as inhuman as the alias picture, I do have one I think suits her better.

Might I switch my rank in Sense Motive to one in Profession, GM?

Might I switch my rank in Sense Motive to one in Profession, GM?

Absolutely.

Kayleigh Fairwind wrote:

Question for the GM: How many traits should our characters have? Two regular plus a campaign trait or two TOTAL, including perhaps a campaign trait?

My assumption was two total. One a campaign trait and one an 'other'. Is that abnormal for campaigns?

Nope, but I've seen some AP games on the boards that allow 2 regular traits plus a campaign trait. Also, before asking I peeked at some of the other characters and noticed at least one more beside Kayleigh who had three traits (I forget which one; I'll eliminate one of Kayleigh's tomorrow).

Least havoc is best. It looks like Nebbin, Kayleigh and Emileva took 2 + campaign. Neziana and Tassira each took 1 + campaign.

As I said at the outset, heroic is better, so take 2 + campaign and Neziana and Tassira can each add a trait. I'm already assuming I need to scale/customize the encounters. Why wouldn't you in a medium that moves this slow? :)

Sorry, I've a really busy day today and might not be able to get posts in until tonight or tomorrow. But quickly:

A couple of parallels with Luke. I'm also 44 and currently I'm taking my son, who is 9, and a couple of his friends through Jade Regent. I'm in Portland, Oregon and do freelance design research, UX, CX, and some SEO. My background is in cultural anthropology and previously I taught college. I also do some content writing when research gigs are scarce. I started playing with AD&D back in high school but quit when I went to college. I only picked it back up again fairly recently, about 3 years ago, when I started going to local PFS events.

Emileva has 3 traits right now, if we're doing only 2 traits with no drawbacks option then I'll drop one. There are a few small things I'll need to change about her since she was originally built for a different CotCT recruitment.

I have a couple of ideas about background links, but that will have to wait a little while.

Nice to meet you all!

I think I only had one at the moment, but I'm happy to have two plus a campaign trait (I'd say two total is more normal, but they're not a big power boost in general).

I actually haven't read others' backgrounds; I like being surprised in general, since my character (probably) doesn't know yours.

In that case, I'm going to take the Focused Mind trait. It'd make the most sense with Tass' backstory.

I was thinking to take the hedonistic drawback to make her inherit a lesser version of the obsession with earthly pleasures from her Rakshasa heritage and then pick up the Clever Wordplay (bluff) trait for their decitful nature. Now I can pick up the trait without the drawback, though if allowed I'll still pick up the drawback for another trait. If not I can just roleplay that part without the mechanics.

background stuff

My first bachelor's degree was in anthropology with latin american studies and archaeology as areas of focus. Parallels all over. :D

Please don't feel rushed on our account. We're not kicking off for a while yet and I'm only posting so much now because I have the week off! Once Monday comes it'll be evening posts only for me again (at least on weekdays).

I like being surprised... doesn't know yours.

This also works very well. There's a mechanic to pull you guys together at the start of this thing that doesn't rely on any of these links, I'm just reading the backgrounds and fishing.

According to Kayleigh's backstory, she was 12 when she fell in briefly with Lamm's Lambs, so this would have happened 7 years ago.

I know rogues are supposed to be 21+ due to the slow maturity rate, but can I make Neziana 19 as well? I don't want her to be too old when she left Lamm, but not to have spent too much time on the streets after having left the Acadamae either. Maybe she left Lamm about 17 then spent a bit over a year in the Acadamae. You don't learn much magic at first anyway, and she did have a lot of other things to learn as well.

I've had a chance to look through backstories now and there are a couple of possibilities for prior acquaintances. There isn't much time to work with because Emileva isn't more than a year or so out of the military academy.

Tassira: If Ansel, Emileva's douchey ex, ever sold shiver to Tassira then Emileva might recognize her. I figure one of the reasons Ansel wanted Emilava around is for protection. She might have been there as well, or nearby. When Em starts looking for Lamm she might have tracked down Tassira to find out of she knew of any other shiver dealers. All Emilava got from Ansel was the name and she would need more information. The two of them could even have combined their efforts at that point since they both want the same thing. THey would only have know each other for a number of weeks, maybe a couple of months? If they had met this way.

Kayleigh: You're likely one of the more visible people around Bridgefront so it's possible Emileva came to you looking for help recovering after she OD'd, or that a neighbor of hers contacted you to come help her. As with Tassira, that would be very recent and would mean they don't have a deep relationship of any type at the start.

Kayleigh: You're likely one of the more visible people around Bridgefront so it's possible Emileva came to you looking for help recovering after she OD'd, or that a neighbor of hers contacted you to come help her. As with Tassira, that would be very recent and would mean they don't have a deep relationship of any type at the start.

Sounds good to me.

I don't have the link without a bunch of digging, but the age categories for tiefling and aasimar were changed in an errata to match the human age categories. Apparently that was always what was intended, with the extended lifespans for them being a mistake that went uncorrected.

Neziana - yes to the age change.

I think I want to start the gameplay thread by creating a kick-off post myself that sets the mood of the city and the circumstances of the day. I'll then send each of you a PM with some guidelines for your first post (stuff that happens), and leave it for you to get your characters to the first collective location with your posts. Emileva and Tassira are free to collaborate on the opening posts or not. You will see by the PMs that its not required.

I thought they were like half-elves, not humans. If they are like humans, I'll just make her 16, which means she was 9 when she met Kayleigh rocking that nice +2 dex bonus from the young template ;).

Edit: Yeah, they are like half-elves now, so then she is 19. Googling "age pathfinder" turned this up as the first result.

@DM Luke: You didn't answer my PM about the slight nechanical changes to Neziana. Are they ok or not? I already updated her profile, but I can remove them again if you want.

The long explanation came from James Jacobs. They are meant to age at human rates and the timeline in ROTRL is actually built around it in some ways. The incorrect slower age categories mess up that timeline. That's what was meant by "always intended to be that way." ROTRL predates aasimar and tiefling as playable races.

Here is a post on the topic it seems the post errata version on the srd is correct, they age like half-elves now, not humans nor the weird 60+ starting age they had earlier.

Neziana - haven't forgotten about you. Nothing escapes the big white board! :)

I'm building out your characters today and will try to get all crunch questions approved and double checked over the weekend. I also downloaded 'Hook Street' and am giving that a look over today, just for inspiration and possible inclusion of the awesome map there.

Tassira: If Ansel, Emileva's douchey ex, ever sold shiver to Tassira then Emileva might recognize her. I figure one of the reasons Ansel wanted Emilava around is for protection. She might have been there as well, or nearby. When Em starts looking for Lamm she might have tracked down Tassira to find out of she knew of any other shiver dealers. All Emilava got from Ansel was the name and she would need more information. The two of them could even have combined their efforts at that point since they both want the same thing. THey would only have know each other for a number of weeks, maybe a couple of months? If they had met this way.

That could work, certainly. :)

I'm putting some last-minute finishing touches on Kayleigh as well. I notice that she's got two Background Skills (from Unchained) that aren't a part of this game, so I'm weighing which to drop.

Also, she's got too much weight in her equipment that slows her speed down from 30 ft. to 20 ft. Might switch out her light crossbow and buy a masterwork backpack instead and make a few more tweaks to keep her speed up.

So, going back to my first post, a question for both Luke and the rest of the party.

I've kept Emileva's build fairly blank slate, figuring I'd make alterations according to what was needed when the rest of the party was assembled. She was always intended to be a fill in character like this unless there was no other full BAB character in the party. I can see a few different possibilities, so I'd like to get some feedback on what everyone thinks would be most useful.

A straight melee build would be simple enough. I even have the DEX for a two-weapon fighter as a possibility. However right now our ranged combat options are with characters who will get busier with spells and such later on, making them less likely to use ranged weapons. Also Nebbin is a barbarian and they don't tend to need a lot of help in melee.

A switch hitter would also be easy. I could use the slayer talents to pick up only the ranged feats needed to be effective without having to get the prerequisites. So ranged if it's out of reach, melee if it isn't. This would best be done by staying slayer until 8th level or so before switching to fighter. That's not a bad plan anyway, there's a good amount to be gained by staying in slayer longer. But since this is an urban campaign is there as much need as usual for ranged options? If we're mostly in buildings maybe it doesn't matter so much?

Concentrating on rogue abilities and staying betwixt and between Neziana and Nebbin as an opportunist who pairs with Neziana for flanking and sneak attacks, while fighting in a more straightforward way with Nebbin depending on what's best at the moment. This would mean using slayer talents more for rogue abilities and maybe picking up the Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat. In this case it might be best for Emileva to just remain a career slayer.

This is mostly about advancement, but I might need to switch out gear and a feat or so at 1st level depending on which way she goes.

Neziana is going to be mostly a melee character until ranged sneak attack is an option. That'll come online level 5, 7 or 9 depending on how generous GM Luke is feeling (do you really need combat expertise, improved feint and greater feint to feint at range? Oh Paizo you really do love feat taxes...). After that I'll probably mostly hang back since she's always going to be quite squishy. Of course stealth, darkness, invisibility and surprise rounds might allow her to sneak well before that.

I'm actually picking up accomplished sneak attacker in order to qualify for arcane trickster with only a single level of rogue. That means I won't be getting any rogue talents. Which rogue talents were you looking to pick up? For skills Neziana a lot of rogue stuff, but also some knowledges. She won't be amazing at perception which worries me a tad (especially if she's going to scouting in a trapfilled area), but it's hard to be best at everything.

As mentioned Neziana will go into wizard and then arcane trickster. She'll primarily focus on blasting and buffs, leaving Tassira and Kayleigh to handle most of the controlling.

I think you should go for whatever you want to the most Emileva. Whatever you chose we'll try to find ways to work around it. All the options have merit (two weapon fighting, two handed weapon, archery, skill-focused). Since you are thinking to switch over to fighter. Have you considered going for a prestige class instead? Personally I'm a huge fan of the Sentinel (and the other Defic Obedience classes), but Lythertida's favored weapon is unarmed strike and I don't even know if she got any boons (though it should be listed in Divine Anthologies if she does I think, but I don't have that).

Since Neziana will eventually go towards fighting at range I think melee (or switch hitting) might be slightly better, otherwise we'll just have Nebbin to stand in the way of the enemies for all our squishy back-liners.

Tassira does have the Quick Study exploit--she can change up her spells on the fly as needed, so she can potentially fill a different magical role if someone else is incapped or otherwise occupied.

Just thought I'd put that out there. :)

I'm putting some last-minute finishing touches on Kayleigh as well. I notice that she's got two Background Skills (from Unchained) that aren't a part of this game, so I'm weighing which to drop.

Also, she's got too much weight in her equipment that slows her speed down from 30 ft. to 20 ft. Might switch out her light crossbow and buy a masterwork backpack instead and make a few more tweaks to keep her speed up.

Per my PM, Kayleigh is good with current choices (where unchained content was concerned).

Does that mean we get background skills? :) That would be sweet. For those not familiar, the system is basically +2 skill points per level for skills that don't have much combat application. Never have sleight of hand been a more appropriate choice (that would free up a point for bluff), the other would probably go into one of the knowledges to symbolize what she learned at the Acadamae.