Welcome everyone!
The opening post is more or less finished, but before we kick things off, I just wanted to ask a few preliminary questions. I was rather upfront with “no combat maps” aspect of this campaign, but there are other things that I am more flexible with that I wanted my chosen players’ opinions on. The answers to these questions might address how fast combat - or even the game in general - moves along.
1. Do you want me to keep information such as the AC and hit points of enemies hidden?
2. Do you want me to perform all of my dice rolls in plain view, within the post?
3. Do you want me to roll your saves and initiative for you during combat?
4. During combat, would you rather that everyone post in initiative order, or that everyone post in any order?
5. Keeping in mind that this AP is sandboxy at times, would you rather level up based on experience, or at loosely established points in the main story?
There might be a few other things that have slipped my mind, so feel free to ask any other questions about how I plan to run the game.
1. No, because nothing is more maddening than not knowing if you confirmed that crit or not.
2. I say spoiler them if there's a lot (And trust me, there will be times you're making two dozen rolls for saves, attacks, and damage.) If it's only two or three, I'd think it's pretty much up to how open you want to be.
3. Initiative yes. Others, I'm okay with either or.
4. I'd prefer block initiative.
5. I'd say follow the advancement track (Hooray for less bookkeepinG!)
Do you mind if I offer some unsolicited advice? It's spoilered below in case you don't want it.
First is roll for initiative when you do the first combat post. Second is use block initiative. There are different ways to do it, but I'm going to tell you mine because it's dead easy. Roll for the baddies, roll for the party, then take the highest rolls and use those to determine who goes first. For example, if the party's highest roll is 18 and the baddies is 15, then the party goes first.
The advantage is that it doesn't matter what order the PCs are in and you don't have to wait for someone to post before moving. The disadvantage is that it can be really devastating if a group gets the drop on another and wins initiative.
I'm more than happy to help if you want, and I'm also happy to be playing this again.
1.) I think keeping it secret is probably the best way to go, but it's up to you.
2.)It's completely up to you. There's benefits to keeping things secret and negatives as well. I think it's probably up to your preference as a DM.
3.) I think this would be good to speed things up. :)
4.) I think any order is fine to speed things up though this might require a bit of back tracking if people end up colliding with one and other. I would be happy with it either way to be honest.
5.) I've come to prefer leveling up at loose times chosen by the DM, but if everyone else prefers experience points I wouldn't have any qualms with it.
Thanks for running you're awesome! :D
First of all, thank you for selecting me. There were a lot of great candidates, and I'm honoroed to have been chosen.
My thoughts on these:
1) I'm split. Knowing them might cause people to change actions. But not knowing them might slow the game down. Eg. If I know a bad guy has 5 hitpoints left, and I do 6 with my first hit, then I know to apply my later attacks, or to move, or whatever. That's info I'd have at a tabletop game. And I can write that right into my post. However, knowing the guy's AC is low, could allow for me to choose to Power Attack freely, etc. Anyways, like I said, I'm split. If forced to vote, I vote for you opening the stats up, but the other route I'm fine with too.
2) Yes, please! Be sure they have names in the code, so we know what they are for. Individual PCs might have specific abilities that would nerf specific damage, etc. Eg. Fire damage and Ifrit (muahaha), or flanking damage against an unflankable opponent, etc. We'lll know what to include in our damage totals and what not to.
3) I have found that you rolling up Initiative is the way to go. It allows you to immediately set up the fight, take your attacks if you go first etc. I would prefer to roll my own saves, but would not be offended if you did it in the heat of combat. However, again, we may have situational save modifiers (vs enchantment, vs fear, etc) that you may miss.
4) Posting in order will take forever. You should resolve the actions definitely as PCs vs NPCs, but I will not personally be upset if my Init beats another PC, who announces their actions before I do, because they see the combat first, and then you resolve their action to kill the lead monster. I'm not in this for the body count (although my PC could be, well not this PC, but I have characters who would be). So, to keep it moving, I don't care if when the PCs are up which order we go. Just don't let the bad guys go before us, etc. Did I explain that well, or poorly?
5) Level up when you say so! I know the APs have lines like "they should be 2nd level before approaching the..." so I say go like that.
On the subject of the battle maps. I know some had angst about it. Some characters require diverse positional things to execute, etc. As long as a statement like "I move to flank" works with you, then it works with me. Likewise "I drop a fireball on the bad guys, and do it in a way to miss the good guys." If everyone is reasonable, it will work fine.
It looks like the players agree on quite a few of these!
1. Do you want me to keep information such as the AC and hit points of enemies hidden?2. Do you want me to perform all of my dice rolls in plain view, within the post?
3. Do you want me to roll your saves and initiative for you during combat?
4. During combat, would you rather that everyone post in initiative order, or that everyone post in any order?
5. Keeping in mind that this AP is sandboxy at times, would you rather level up based on experience, or at loosely established points in the main story?
- I prefer to have that info hidden with one caveat. You describe the state of the creature so we can make a decision based on this description. Since the PCs don't see things in a mechanical sense, the player can make adjustments with this info.
- I like the GM rolls in a spoiler. This becomes important when you have a lot of rolls to make, and it keeps the game play thread clean for everyone.
- I don't mind the GM rolling a save in the heat of combat to keep things moving. Out of combat, I prefer to roll saves myself. As for initiative, I prefer to have everyone keep their own number and have the GM roll for us to keep the game moving.
As many people play a PC with varying abilities which add to initiative in one way or another, rolling PC initiative and taking the highest number for which side goes first can diminish said ability.
Case in point, a battle oracle has access to the War Sight revelation. It allows two dice to be rolled for initiative and to take the highest. Rolling block initiative takes that away.
- As long as the actions resolve in order I am fine with posting out of order.
- For experience, I like the thematic feel of leveling up at rough points in the AP based on how you feel we are doing and how far we have gone.
Looking forward to playing!
Of note, does anyone have any build feedback on Khasra before I finalize him? I think I have everything but sometimes even I do miss things in my zeal to have fun.
@ Grand Moff Vixen: About Block Initiative, it doesn't necessarily make it less valuable. If the GM is aware of the ability and rolls accordingly, you don't lose the advantage. It does lessen the importance for the individual, yes, but it can still help the group.
using your example, say we have a party of four, and one is your oracle going against a group of four goblins.
Okay, so the goblins go first, but what if the ranger had rolled abysmally, and those 20s were 15s? Then the ability comes into play and it helps the group cinch the initiative.. Yes it doesn't matter as much on an individual basis, but that doesn't automatically make it worthless.
Maybe I misinterpreted "block" initiative.
I'd prefer each PC to have an initiative number.
I'd prefer each group of NPCs have a number (4 goblins all get a 12 and the hobgoblin BBEG has a 9, not 5 separate initiatives).
Intitiative would resolve as
PC A and B
Goblins
PC C and D
Hobgoblin
PC E
Or if noone is is between the groubs of bad guys, in round 1 it is:
PCs A, B, C, and D
Bad guys
PC E
And from then on, it's more or less:
US
THEM
US
THEM
With no true healer, I notice the Bard has CLW at 1st level. Should I take it as well?
Wouldn't hurt. At the very least it'll keep us on our feet until we can get a Happy Stick or two. :D
I just suddenly realized that Khatijah and Khasra sound and look somewhat similar. :-)
I understood what you were getting at. And no, you didn't sound preachy at all. Thanks for illustrating that for me, I appreciate it. :-)
Huh, I didn't notice that until you pointed it out.
Well, she's true neutral, and pretty much a lump of clay at this point. IF Khasra plays it right, he might have a buddy in the NE corner. :D
(Also glad to know that I didn't come off preachy. I worry about that when I get close to soapboxes.)
With no true healer, I notice the Bard has CLW at 1st level. Should I take it as well?
I have ranks in heal. Also my blood has healing properties if I'm not too beat up myself.
edit: I realized my name wasn't spelled the way I intended it to be pronounced. I hope no one minds if I add an H.
With no true healer, I notice the Bard has CLW at 1st level. Should I take it as well?I have ranks in heal. Also my blood has healing properties if I'm not too beat up myself.
edit: I realized my name wasn't spelled the way I intended it to be pronounced. I hope no one minds if I add an H.
Well, choosing a name is a very fun thing when I make my characters. When you get the spelling in such a way that you realize you want to change it. Go ahead, I don't mind.
I don't mind, it's just a good thing that you caught it before you hit the post count that locks you out of editing it. Happened to me before.
And I suspect that there will be enough healing available to the party, even before you all get a, ahem, Happy Stick.
At any rate, thank you all for answering my questions. There seems to be a pretty good consensus on certain issues, with slight dissent at others. We won't be hitting the first combat just yet, so we still have time to get our last member's opinion on things.
Speaking of whom, I've PMed Marossa letting her know that she is in the game. I didn't necessarily expect you all to show up today, so it isn't particularly troublesome.
All of that being said, I've went ahead and put up the first post of the campaign. Mostly exposition and elaboration on what got your characters into this mess - any information in it can be regarded as being common knowledge. This is mostly just your chance to establish your characters' personality, appearance, and whatever else you want through roleplay. God knows your characters had to pass the time somehow. :P
Turns out I already had CLW!
Hey everyone! Thanks for accepting me into your campaign DM Mahorfeus! Marossa is pretty much ready to go since she was previously built for another campaign. As for your questions...
1. Do you want me to keep information such as the AC and hit points of enemies hidden? I prefer hidden, but with descriptions.
2. Do you want me to perform all of my dice rolls in plain view, within the post? Hidden behind spoilers is how most DMs I've met here have done dice rolls. I like the look of a clean role play thread.
3. Do you want me to roll your saves and initiative for you during combat? This one is a pretty sticky situation for a lot of groups I find. Personally I prefer the same style as Thurrios, but Marossa isn't an initiative machine either so she's unlikely to influence a block initiative style either.
4. During combat, would you rather that everyone post in initiative order, or that everyone post in any order? Posting out of initiative order works great for me as long as you're willing to handle adjudicating group actions that contradict each other DM. Otherwise I've found that arguments can arise among the party about which actions happen and which don't, etc.
5. Keeping in mind that this AP is sandboxy at times, would you rather level up based on experience, or at loosely established points in the main story? Level us up whenever you want to DM, I don't mind. :)
I'll have a post up in the gameplay thread in a little bit, but I wanted to ask you something as well DM Mahorfeus. I was wondering how you wanted to deal with my characters addiction to Pesh? If you don't want to deal with the darker aspects of drug addiction I am perfectly willing to gloss over it but it is a pretty integrated part of my character's back story. The Chronicles guide to Katapesh has some stuff to say on addiction to Pesh and it's effects on characters and if you don't have that book I can give a short write up of the basic effects.
Anyway, just wanted to get your opinion.
I do not actually have access to that book, so I would definitely appreciate a brief write-up since the fluff isn't covered by the OGL. Glancing at the PRD however, it does reference how drug addiction is more or less a disease. I'm fine with you addressing it mechanically like that (despite how punishing it can be), or purely through roleplay. It is largely up to you regarding how deeply you want to explore it - I am not opposed to doing so. Pesh is (obviously) quite common in Katapesh, so it is a thing bound to come up rather soon.
I'll put your name on Thurrios' "To be redeemed" list.
Gonna spoiler this because its pretty long.
Pesh is an addictive narcotic that has a mild analgesic effect. Anyone ingesting a dose of raw pesh takes a –2 penalty to Dexterity and Wisdom for one day. Pesh smokers enter a pleasant, dreamy state of bliss in which pain seems less severe but pleasant feelings are amplified. Multiple doses within a 24-hour period do not inflict additional ability penalties but may intensify the narcotic effects, depending on the individual. In addition, anyone ingesting a dose of raw pesh receives 10 temporary hit points, which last for 1 hour, and gains a +1 morale bonus to saves versus fear effects for one day. Multiple doses within a 24-hour period do not bestow additional hit points or renew the saving throw bonus. Refined pesh has the same effects as raw pesh, but the ability penalties increase to –4, and one dose grants 15 temporary hit points and a +2 morale bonus to saves versus fear. The narcotic effects are also more pronounced. Pesh whey has the same effects as raw pesh, except no Dexterity penalty, no bonus againstfear, and only 1 temporary hit point for 1 hour.
Addiction
Pesh is an addictive substance (Fort DC 10 to avoid addiction, 5 days satiation, 1d4 Dex and 1d4 Wisdom withdrawals), but as the GM you can ignore this if you don’t want to deal with addiction in your game. The benefits granted by pesh aren’t significant enough to offset the penalties it imposes, and as such allowing the characters to indulge in pesh without ill effects should not disrupt the power balance of a game. Many individuals in Katapesh, especially those native to the region, are able to enjoy pesh recreationally without risking dangerous addiction.
In a darker campaign, however, or one that explores more adult themes, pesh can be significantly more dangerous. While the drug’s effects are at first pleasant and innocuous, repeated pesh use can create a dependence that is both physical and psychological, leaving the user with a desperate craving for more. An individual who uses pesh may need to make a Will save at increasing difficulties until he is unable to resist the call of pesh; he may also find himself growing immune to pesh whey and raw pesh’s effects and may have to seek out the more expensive refined pesh. Pesh addiction causes otherwise stable individuals to lose fortunes, destroy their families, and in many cases, lose their lives. Slavers, pimps, and gang leaders may use pesh as a tool for controlling others, and the Pactmasters or the Aspis Consortium might have sinister plans in motion to bring all Katapesh under the control of the drug.
Hm. I am in agreement with the blurb's sentiment that the negative effects of pesh already outweigh its benefits, even discounting addiction.
That being said, I am going to be a little unhelpful and just say that it's up to you whether you want to play out the addiction mechanically or just through roleplay. In either case, pesh should not be too difficult to get your hands on, so withdrawal is unlikely to come into play.
I will say that it is an interesting aspect of your character that I do want to see work out one way or the other.
Alrighty then. Since I've gotten everyone's feedback, I'll address my own questions at this point.
1. Without combat maps, managing the hit points of individual enemies will be a tad more difficult, but I'll be differentiating enemies through description as much as possible. That being said, we seem to be a little divided on this one. I will go ahead and keep hit points hidden, but as already suggested, describe the overall state of the enemies. (The deathwatch spell might be a good thing for me to go off of.) I will keep things like Armor Class hidden as well; I think it is easy enough to guess what it is after a few successful hits and/or misses. Stuff like Spell Resistance and concealment however, I will roll for the first time it comes up, and then reveal so that you can make the rolls yourselves.
2. I will definitely be putting my dice rolls into spoilers. That will definitely help since as Marossa stated, they don't play nice with roleplay, especially since we're using descriptive combat. These spoilers will most likely be at the end of my posts. Individual dice rolls will be labeled accordingly (and should also make individual enemies easier to identify).
3. I will roll your initiatives for you (using your individual scores) and, at least during combat, your saves as well. For effects taking place outside of direct combat, you can roll for yourselves.
4. In regards to block initiative, while it does have its merits, I think those moments where the enemies get the drop on you would hurt way too much. Even rolling for groups of enemies (one set of skeletons, one set of goblins) can be painful if their numbers are large. That being said, we will be using individual initiative rolls. For the sake of not letting combat stagnate, you can post in any order, and I will arbitrate any possible contradictions - if necessary, those can be sorted out in here.
5. We seem dead-set on the advancement track, which to be honest, I am okay with. I am not a huge fan of random encounters. Since the game is nonlinear at points, the times at which you level up can vary from close at hand to far away.
5. We seem dead-set on the advancement track, which to be honest, I am okay with. I am not a huge fan of random encounters. Since the game is nonlinear at points, the times at which you level up can vary from close at hand to far away.
Having overcome 5 rules obstacles and done some roleplaying we're on to level 2?
Not that close at hand. :P
I just wanted to say, that I was trying to write from Khat's point of view in that last post. Getting across that she's not all that savvy is going to be hard with that cynical streak she's been developing.
Everyone has now posted in the campaign thread, but I figure that I will give it just a little while longer before moving us on. That is unless, the lot of you feel ready to move on. I'm not pushy. :P
Sorry I hadn't posted yesterday. By the time I got home from work my energy dropped a lot. I hadn't slept well the night before and I went to bed very early.
I don't mind any interaction at this juncture, so when you feel the right time to move on needs to happen go ahead and move things on.
In other words, at your discretion.
However you feel. I probably won't be able to post again till later tonight. I will be able to check, but can't much type on a phone. D: At least not up to acceptable standards.
However you feel. I probably won't be able to post again till later tonight. I will be able to check, but can't much type on a phone. D: At least not up to acceptable standards.
If you have an Android phone, you might consider Wayfinder. I use it and it helps a lot.
Maybe some day someone will write such an app for the iPhone!
I've been considering Wayfinder myself. Well, not for GMing anyway.
At any rate, I will probably update tomorrow at the soonest. That's excluding anything Garavel might react to, or other informative stuffs. It will also give Khasra time to make friends with the rest of the party. ;P
Next post will be up sometime tomorrow. I apologize in advance if it seems a little railroady, though I suppose there isn't exactly anywhere else you can go in the middle of nowhere. At any rate, things should take off for reals.
Next post will be up sometime tomorrow. I apologize in advance if it seems a little railroady, though I suppose there isn't exactly anywhere else you can go in the middle of nowhere. At any rate, things should take off for reals.
The surprise is on you. We were just about to go to Brevoy! Rumor is the Swordlords of Restov are looking for a few good adventurers to clear out the Greenbelt "by sword or by rope."
Then it's off to Ustalav to investigate some weird happenings at some abandoned prison.
Then it's off to Ustalav to investigate some weird happenings at some abandoned prison.
Hehe, I use the same avatar as you have there in a Carrion Crown for a paladin.
I take it back, I'm not apologizing. This train ain't going off the rails. Choo choooo.
Anyway, minus things like initiative and monsters that are trying to kill you, this encounter is a decent example of doing stuff narratively. You have your standard and move actions and so on and so forth. I think it is safe to assume that you can get to anywhere within the camp (i.e. not Geb) with a single move action.
On a semi-related note, would anyone be opposed to private messaging an email address to me? It's not relevant just yet, but Google Drive is where I'll be hosting any reference maps and visual aids.
I'm not opposed, but you don't need them. Make a folder on your drive for this. Open it up and give us links to items in the campaign info.
'Twas only joking. :P
That said, it's okay if things are a little railroady. I have to do that, otherwise I'd spend all of my time having fun interacting with the PCs and seeing what they're like in the games I run.
As for email, My google username is salsa.the.geek
But why not just PM us the link and set the permissions to anyone with the link can view the files?
'Twas only joking. :P
I know. :)
And thanks for the feedback. My ideal situation was to give you all specific permissions to the folder so that I could post the link to it out in the open. Since there are official materials involved, I don't think I can do this with a folder that is open to anyone. By word of mouth I know that this is an approved way of going about it. I own the map folio, but I don't think Paizo would appreciate me giving public access to it.
But I can just PM you all the link as Khatijah says - you'd just have to hold onto it.
All right, I've sent everybody the link. Let me know if you can't get into the folder or see the images in it. :)
I'm still around. Just not much of anything for me to add until some of the others post. :)
How much smoke is being put off from the smoldering tree? Is it a small amount or is it billowing out over the desert?
The tree itself never actually caught on fire. The wagon is smoking, but it won't likely be visible at night.
The pacing working out for everyone so far? Still trying to get a grasp of our little group's quirks.
So far so good. I am liking it. The group dynamic is quite interesting. :-)
I'm good!
Pacing's good, and don't worry about getting a feel for the quirks, I'm still getting a feel for Khatijah.
Apologies for not having posted recently. I have not been feeling well. Having a very harsh headache, feels just about like a migraine, but I am not sure. I can't get myself in the mindset to play my characters when I am like that. It's a push just to be able to be at work. I'll get something in the morning when I settle in at work. I plan on quality sleep tonight so I'll be back in my groove soon. :-)
No problem here, family and health > gaming!