Madness in Kintargo (Inactive)

Game Master Profession Smith 6 ranks

OK with me.

Cool, in which case I'll just wait for Falina's okay (and any thoughts she has on how to play it, my first reaction was do an "overprotective brother" bit).

On an unrelated note, I finally got around to updating Dom's equipment. of note is MW gear, some disguise-related stuff, and a couple of potions. LMK if you have any questions.

Works for me Dom.

Sorry about the absence, things have been a little hectic. Getting caught up.

I forget, or more accurately, I don't know that I ever knew this. What are the rules around costing out the mithril version of an item that has no listed weight? I'm developing an unhealthy attraction to the kerambit as a backup weapon.

I forget, or more accurately, I don't know that I ever knew this. What are the rules around costing out the mithril version of an item that has no listed weight? I'm developing an unhealthy attraction to the kerambit as a backup weapon.

I have no idea. Let's go with a minimum weight of 1/2 a pound for item creation/cost; that way the math shouldn't be too hard or the cost too prohibitive.

EDIT/ADDENDUM: In the case of weapons, since they count as masterwork, let's make the cost a straight 300 gp.

Do we have anyone else who can make the Linguistics check? I haven't looked yet but I'd be shocked if Davina can't do that.

Sorry for the slowness of posting; some minor real life stuff's been interfering. I'm hoping to get things rolling again tomorrow...Wednesday at the latest.

And yeah, I'll be using Davina's checks for the Linguistics check for the forged papers...I keep forgetting about that nice +1d6 she gets from inspiration.

Gotcha. For my part I'll try to reach a go/no-go decision about that mithril kerambit by the morning. Such a terrible stat block, yet I can't pull myself away. :O

Are we going with our usual, well-thought-out backup plan?

(cue jump to Ghostbusters: "Get her? THAT was you plan?")

I'm sorry. The end of the federal fiscal year has been kicking my rear. I'll do my best to get caught up on my posting.

Unfortunately I can't help worth a damn on a Diplomacy check.

Side note: not that I have it, or even have room to pick it up in a timely fashion, but would the Coax Information rogue talent be worth a damn to this sort of thing? AFAICT the coercion rules (which that talent modifies) imply but don't really seem to make clear whether you could do that.

After taking a quick look at the coercion rules for the Intimidate skill (from the Spymaster's Handbook), I think that Coax Information would apply. The time requirements make such a use tricky and potentially challenging, IMO.

Intimidate I can do

Intimidate I can do

Sure, so can I. But sometimes the situation seems to call for a little more finesse. IMO, the value of Coax Information is that it doesn't make the target go "Screw that guy!" afterwards.

Just about having another tool in the toolbox. :)

Okay, I've made one of my daggers mithral, and deducted the appropriate 502 gp from my money. Expensive, but I kind of needed to make some upgrades to my weaponry anyway.

Thanks.

Any thoughts on how to handle this? Think we can knock, and ask nicely for prisoner #4...?

(I'm not saying I think it'll work, but hey, you never know...!)

I'm getting ready to shoot, but we can try.

Did we settle on a safe place to take them?

Did we settle on a safe place to take them?

I remember raising that question, and I am fairly sure we dragged ourselves into an answer, but I'm working on like 2h sleep so can't say for sure. (I've developed a bad habit of falling asleep on the sofa while watching TV, I went from "6th inning of Yankees-Twins" to "Ah dammit, it's 3am!")

The Tooth and Nail tavern is located a block or so northwest of the Holding House, so that's the easiest place to take the armigers. Of course, you probably don't want to march them directly there.

Here's my two pinches on the thought, with the caveats that I'm incoherently tired and doing this in between meetings.

Get them out of the Holding House, take them some pre-determined place (maybe not in the direction of the Tooth and Nail, to throw off pursuit) we could have stashed some clothes into which they could be changed, then get them to the T&N.

Did we plan anything even remotely like that?

I have to preface the following with what my friends and I used to call the Dave Berry Oath: I swear I am not making this up.

So I just got to my Dad's apartment from work and on the drive there on Rt 80, I saw an SUV whose back window had in it, in purple letters at least 6 inches high, "ZEA."

Now in my head, Dom's sitting there all pissy, glaring at me, and I'm all like, hey, what did I do?

Weirdness, man.

QUICK QUESTIONS

How are you all feeling about this game? Posting rates have slowed, and I'd like them to pick back up again.

I should have asked this between Books 1 & 2 of the AP, but...are you all happy with your characters? I wouldn't be averse to some tweaking or even bringing in new characters if that's what some players want.

What can I do to be a better GM and make the game more fun for you all? I've tried to stick to the plotline of the AP while adding in a few things to personalize it more for your PCs. Should I cut those out and focus strictly on the AP as written? Hand-wave a lot more stuff and fast-track social encounters to get to the combats?

I'm open to all suggestions and fairly thick-skinned if you want to make any criticisms about my style.

Keeping the game as-is is also an option.

Let me know your thoughts.

I'm quite pleased with my character so I am happy to continue. I think most of the slow down was due to summer time and the start of the school year.

I'm happy with Davina. It's just a bad time of year for me to keep up with daily posting. I'm doing my best to keep up.

As I think I said to you earlier (or maybe I implied it, or maybe I meant to say it and it slipped my mind, b/c scatterbrain), I have zero problems with you customizing bits of the AP to tailor it to the group. IMO that's a mark of good DMing. :)

"Hand-wave a lot more stuff and fast-track social encounters to get to the combats?"

If you'd asked me that when we first met in Aria Park, and all I had in mind was "falcata-wielding murder machine," I might have said yes, but I also might have missed out on Dom as he's developed, and I love the hell out of him. So I don't think just focusing on combat is a great idea. Hell, I'm loving being a sneaky bastard, right up until I'm not.

More later if I think of it, I have some things I have to finish before I leave work.

I am also fine with customizing parts of it. The best games I've been in are where that is done.

I much prefer the social encounters to combat honestly.

I'm happy with my character, of course I've had far less time to develop her than the others, but I'm very much in favor of the tailored approach. While Arani is definitely the type of character that shines in combat, I'm all for the social encounters as well.

It's been extremely busy and stressful lately, contributing to the somewhat lax posting. That and the decision-making on how to go about things tends to slow everything down.

I like my character just fine - I just hate my die rolls. :)

I'm pretty sure the only thing about Dom with which I'm dissatisfied is his ranger combat style. I don't think I've come across a single circumstance where attempting a dirty trick maneuver had a better payoff than just hacking away at the dude. Of course, I'm also terrified that the second I spec out of it, all those opportunities are going to come flooding in right after that. :) So I think I'll just hold on to it, is my one token character option that is not pulling its weight.

EDIT: actually, it does occur to me that there was one option I could conceivably swap-out Underhanded for, and that's Menacing style. it appears to have that right mix of things I might actually use and circumstances that might actually come up. Anyone got any thoughts on that?

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention.

Dukkan will absolutely want to wage war on the CCG, right up to the point where he hangs Tombus Regegious' corpse (whoever that is, anyway) off the bridge. I realize we might soon get to the point where fighting them has all the tension of "Spider-Man takes down three street goons on his way to the real story"*, and I don't want to turn this into something that bogs down/sidetacks/derails the plot, but that is definitely very important to Dukkan.

*Unless we get to fight them like, thirty at a time using the troop rules or something.

Untitled Silver Raven Game

To-do list:

• Burn down dottari barracks
• Sneak up behind Mayor Barry, honk
• Mourn Zea
  

Leora's player hasn't posted in almost 3 months now, so I'm going to slide her into NPC mode shortly, having her go off to investigate the Hellknight who seemed to recognize her name. If her player returns to the boards, she'll be worked back into the storyline.

The lack of a dedicated healer will present a challenge, but the party has a pair of healing wands (cure light wounds/29 charges and cure serious wounds/23 charges) that Davina and Arani can use. Although he gave up spellcasting for his archetypes, I'll rule that T'chazzar retains enough of a link to his deity that he can activate the wands as well.

If there's enough interest, I could work up a side adventure where the Silver Ravens go up against a district stronghold of the Queensmen/Chelish Citizens Group; I've got some maps ready and am fairly sure I've got at least some stat blocks whipped up. Let me know if anyone other than Dom is interested.

I'm down with whatever it takes! If we wanna recruit a new healer a side adventure would be a good way to meet/introduce a replacement PC.

That actually would be a really good way to pick up a new healer. The wands will work for now but as we level, the lack of a full divine caster will hurt.

Sabrina tells everyone that a large contingent of dottari raided Hocum's Fantasmagorium that afternoon, so that's probably not a safe place to set up a new headquarters. Turl the dwarf reports that Laria's coffee house has apparently been sold; a new establishment called Diabolically Delicious Coffee & Pastries will be opening in two weeks.

That moment where your favorite little coffee place gets turned into a Starbucks

I'm down for a side adventure.

I am very down with sending Queensmen scurrying like cockroaches (ideally pronouncing it "cock-a-roach", like Pacino in Scarface). Is the general idea then that we'll save the lictor, then go reminding the CCG what fear feels like?

All right we have three actions.

1. Gather information (place to set up headquarters?}
2? Lower notoriety in some way?
3? Gather support?

Davina, it looks like that can be achieved by the "Spread Disinformation" action, see p30 of the Player's Guide.

LMK if you want a hand sorting through the actions.

EDIT: GM, following up on a point from a day or two ago, would you be cool with a change over to Menacing combat style? I'm still making sure it's a thing I want to do but I'm very strongly considering it if we've got an "open enrollment period." :)

Sounds about right

I'm up for it.

EDIT: GM, following up on a point from a day or two ago, would you be cool with a change over to Menacing combat style? I'm still making sure it's a thing I want to do but I'm very strongly considering it if we've got an "open enrollment period." :)

I'm not familiar with combat styles, honestly, but I know they're in the rules so I'll allow it. Maybe I'll read up on it after lunch.

Much appreciated.

For your reading pleasure, here is the relevant AON page. Slayers get the option to choose those with their Slayer Talents, and I have never ever had the opportunity to use the one I selected. (Underhanded style, Improved Dirty Trick was the feat I took.)

I'm down with whatever it takes! If we wanna recruit a new healer a side adventure would be a good way to meet/introduce a replacement PC.

That actually would be a really good way to pick up a new healer. The wands will work for now but as we level, the lack of a full divine caster will hurt.

Well, it turns out that a player in one of my other games on these forums is a Hell's Rebels fan and has been lurking for a few weeks, checking out our game. He sent me a PM expressing interest in joining, in the role of a divine spellcaster.

I can vouch this fellow's PC in that game is quite memorable (if perhaps a little creepy, crazy, and prone to violence--but it's a pirates game, after all), and that he's extremely reliable--that game's been going on for over 8 years, long before I joined my first PbP here.

I'll have to adjust encounters to make them an adequate challenge for a party of six (seven if Leora returns), but I'm up for that.

And I think T'chazzar and Arani are right: the Queensman/CCG side adventure I've got half worked up would be the perfect place to introduce a new character.

So...should I invite this new potential player into our group?

Sounds good to me.

No objection, as long as "creepy, crazy, and prone to violence" doesn't turn into intra-party conflict.

Jesse, you raise a valid concern. But GM did say what he had going fit into the pirate adventure; if he's "a HR fan," I'd expect he'll come up with something that fits the tone.

Works for me, with the same caveat