Greetings all! Post in here for the time being to check in and start tracking it. This'll be our discussion thread for OOC chatter, questions, all that good stuff. You know the drill.
Yoyoyo everybody.
Hello.
My character is now done, with the exception of backstory. I'm... not super knowledgeable about Minkai's history or anything, so I might need some help with that. I do have some very basic ideas, though, so I'm ready to play.
Can we start this? I know not everyone is 100% done but we can at least RP the opening scene and get the ball rolling while we put the finishing touches on stuff. Generally speaking stretched out recruitments like this tend to kill game before they begin.
Yeah, I know, I was intending to get this going sooner. Today is actually fairly clear of commitments, so I'm planning to get this going a little later on. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but I only have one class today, so after that I'm going to take a quick nap to catch up and then I'll open this up! Hopefully three hours from now or thereabouts.
Thank you for your patience thus far. I'm really hoping this will be a fun game, and I love your characters.
Gameplay is live, along with my new GM alias. (The others didn't feel appropriate here.) Post in when you get the chance! Action will start up soon enough.
Also, I've been struggling with something for a little while: what to call Minkai in this game. It became known as Minkai after the five families took control and the Teikoku Shogunate was established, so what should it be called now? I've considered going simple and saying it was known as Nihon, or going back a little further to Wakoku (although that has some negative connotations). At this point I'm opening it up to you guys to discuss as well, because I'm not sure and can't settle on something. Thoughts?
(I'd ignore it, but it's getting more and more awkward to not refer to this region by a name, you know?)
Not totally sure about the name.
Also, I just realized that I don't actually need Exotic Weapon Proficiency to use my Scarlet Einhander maneuvers if katanas count as one-handed for the purpose of effects, even if they're wielded two-handed. I might need to switch that to something else. Will get a character introduction up in a bit.
While awkward, it does kind of fit for a place that is made up of small warring clans and has been for centuries.
If you want an on the nose name, I like "Konotochi" (literally "this land").
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Hey guys! Dot didn't work, decided to check two minutes ago just in case and found out first posts are in order.
It's 2 AM here, so will post tomorrow morning, sorry for the waiting!
Also I noticed that Paizo's Monster did ate my last update to Ryushi's profile, and so the full inventory and background doesn't appear u.u
Gonna fix that too, after all, you should know who I am and how cool my wu tang sword style is.
No problem, Emissary, I figured it might be something like that and was planning to PM you later today. I believe Jon's gonna post soon as well, I know that yesterday into last night we were involved with... more pressing matters. Moving forward.
Also, Sun, are you putting your stats in the profile for your alias, or are they hosted off-site somewhere and I missed a link? Just wondering cause it's nice to be able to check info during the game--see if an enemy hit, occasionally roll for you guys to keep things moving. (Usually initiative, Perception, and the occasional saving throw.)
I'm going to be making a quickbar and adding a link to my sheet later.
Alright, no problem, just wanted to check. Unlike a lot of folks on here I don't have any issues with firewalls, so I should be able to view links without trouble.
How are the men equipped?
They're each wearing leather lamellar and have a spear for their weapon. These are very much basic foot soldiers, sent along for numbers more than skill. You can task them with whatever, but it doesn't take a skill check for your characters to know these men aren't great warriors like yourselves.
Alright, here's my plan. We order the men to remain close together and to fight together. I'll give a rousing speech about unity allowing them to defeat these selfish brigands, then start my bardic performance and my tactical presence. That should give all of them within 30 ft. of me Diehard to keep them going and a +1 to hit and damage. At that point, we focus fire any particularly strong looking bandits while the men act in groups of 2 or 3 to gang-up on the others and bring them down together. The performance and the multiple hits at once should help them get in the damage they need to help us out.
Sound solid?
Sure.
Just realized I missed we were doing Background Skills. I'm dropping some in Profession: Soldier, wondering if you would classify Knowledge: Martial as a background skill?
I'd allow that as a Background skill, yeah. It's a potentially useful one, but so are several, including Knowldge (nobility) which is going to be fairly commonly useful in this game.
In the vein of adding Background skills and the like, I will say that as usual for my games, you're free to make minor changes to your characters as desired until we get through the first "adventure" arc; I'll let you know when-abouts that is.
Hmm, Nobility was one Iwas noodling over too. I've never seen it be useful, so if it will be maybe I should get it for the novelty.
It'll get more mileage than usual in this game, since you're explicitly and openly dealing with a lot of noble families and stuff like that. It'll help with identifying clans, remembering information about them, that sort of thing.
Going to update tomorrow, it's been a long day and I want the next post to make sense, not sure I can formulate that right now.
Just updated--my apologies about not getting to it yesterday, but I should never have suggested getting up a decent, coherent post on a Wednesday.
oving now, not sure when I'll get to post before Monday
So, having just found this, I see somebody has been watching Extra History...
*said snootily, in an arrogant voice, while quickly trying to remove evidence of having watched Extra History in order to look more sagacious*
(Extra History is awesome. If you haven't seen it, you really should. :D)
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Do you lurk all the PbP threads? I thought I was special. =(
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So, having just found this, I see somebody has been watching Extra History...
*said snootily, in an arrogant voice, while quickly trying to remove evidence of having watched Extra History in order to look more sagacious*
(Extra History is awesome. If you haven't seen it, you really should. :D)
I, uh... what? Extra... Would you believe I honestly didn't know what that was? I mean, it looks really neat and I'm going to check it out now, so thanks. But no, I don't know that I could really put my finger on how I started learning about the Sengoku Jidai and all that. I've always liked history, though, especially military history, so probably just through that.
Also, enjoy your lurking! It's always welcome.
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Do you lurk all the PbP threads? I thought I was special. =(
I actually just happened to notice this one, and since I'd seen the Extra History thing recently I'm such a brilliant historian, I kind of felt compelled to make the joke. :D
I will occasionally lurk in them, but I've found myself really short on time, recently - I've not actually kept up with this one, even, though I'd really like to.
I've finally decided what I should take since I don't need katana proficiency. I'm going to grab combat casting so I don't get screwed trying to cast.
Hmmm, how much authority does Haruto have in the delegation? I mean, he's a commander among the Amatatsu forces and he's a noble, but the soldiers are really just loaners from another house. Could he say, have some of the soldiers escort to villagers to a safer place?
That would be reasonable, yes. He'd be held accountable if it resulted in trouble of any kind, but since you're part of the honor guard on this mission, and the families are attempting to work together as best as they can, it would be within the rank of your characters to command something like that, especially since Nakano--and, through him, Shojinawa Miu herself--put you in charge of the soldiers.
Where exactly is the meeting taking place? Is it city or an isolated castle or what? Because moving the civilians somewhere safe until we can come back and clear the area properly and give them some help rebuilding is what he'd want to do.
The meeting is at Moekami No Kaori Castle, a massive fortress near the "peak" of Mount Yogan. That mountain is part of the Kyojin range, which runs north-south across most of the country, dividing it east from west unless people want to make the perilous trek across. (Most people don't--not only is it arduous due to terrain, but it's also well-known that a lot of dangerous creatures live higher up in the mountains.) Mount Yogan itself is a volcano, although it hasn't erupted in a few generations, and from what history people have it doesn't seem like it's going to do so anytime too soon.
The castle belonged to a fire yai lord in the past, but it's been reclaimed and restored over the past several months for this meeting; you don't know exactly what it looks like at this point, but it's safe to say it will be a very functional and quite sizable fortress. (After all, fire yai are nearly three times the height of humans, and they themselves like spacious, luxurious dwellings.) You're aware the fort, and perhaps some surrounding space, will be able to hold all the people coming to the meeting--nobility, their servants, their guard, their soldiers, all that--but hard numbers have very specifically not been shared.
If you're wondering timelines, at this point you're still at least a week from the castle, since the going will get very slow once you're in the mountains.
In lieu of excuses or reasons, I'll just give an apology: I'm sincerely sorry it's taken me this long to update. I'm now in the final week of classes at school, with a week of final exams to follow, and that workload has been steadily eating away at time; likewise, other personal commitments have been keeping me busy as well. None of that necessarily kept me so tied up that I couldn't get up a post, especially a simple one to the tune of "I'm busy, sorry guys," but my mind's been all over the place lately and it's been hard to make myself sit down and formulate a full, coherent post responding to developments.
So, again, my apologies. Posting for me is likely to stay kind of slow the next week or two, but hopefully it can pick up a little bit as time moves on (although by then we're hitting the holiday season, and I've got a family trip planned in early-mid-January...). I'm doing my best, so please hang in there if you can, everyone! I really hope for all my games to be wonderful things and I'm in it for the long haul--delays may come and go, but I don't plan on disappearing or shutting things down.
Just dropping this in Discussion for all the games I'm running: Much as I'd love to break my horrible pacing and post in here, finals are taking up a ton of my time between writing essays, putting together portfolios, and studying for exams. I sincerely hope to have time to post on Wednesday, but it's not very likely; Thursday is probably the best bet, since I'll be done by then and heading home for winter break. Hopefully you can all hang in until that point!
Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I'm gonna be recruiting for a couple games coming up soon. Two of them are re-recruitments for games I'm running, both of which already have some of you in them.
Kingmaker: A Light in the Dark is a Kingmaker game I'm running that's significantly modified from the base module. I'm currently running a homebrew adventure for the party that's taking them up against a werewolf, and the game will feature more homebrew elements along with some published modules. Familiarity with the AP isn't a huge deal, as even the main villain is actually different, although still somewhat similar to the original. I'll be recruiting for a lost player in addition to 1-2 more players; if interested, taking over the departed player's character would be a huge help in not shoehorning in more people than necessary. Both our GM and Haruto are involved in this game.
XCOM: Enemy Unleashed is a Savage Worlds based game that is obviously based on the XCOM video game series. We've recently lost an assault player, and our sniper is taking a leave of absence leaving me to control her as a DMPC. The PCs have just actually encountered XCOM and were drafted into its ranks after being witness to the possible first-leg of an alien invasion while working as UN Peacekeepers. Everyone but Sundakan is involved in this game, actually.
Also, I'm going to be running a Pathfinder game in a custom setting with new magic rules and spells, along with a vastly different cosmology and understanding of a lot of outsiders. It'll also feature a new player race that's highly customizeable and be a magitech setting, so firearms are common and often used. In addition, I'll be opening a Shadowrun 4E recruitment as well.
The XCOM game sounds cool in concept. Main problem is, for some reason I don't understand, Niles hates my guts. Or he's just an a!&&&*% to everyone, and it's nothing personal. But he's rubbed me the wrong way in a different manner every game I've played with him.
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The XCOM game sounds cool in concept. Main problem is, for some reason I don't understand, Niles hates my guts. Or he's just an a*%@~+~ to everyone, and it's nothing personal. But he's rubbed me the wrong way in a different manner every game I've played with him.
That's bad and specially sad for me,as I usually love your concepts and I am currently playing this in that game.
Also, the Kingmaker one sounds nice. I've always liked RPG games where your actions have effects at a larger scale. Qould you be so kind as to point out who's the leaver, I may be up to taking him if he fits my 'style'
I mean, I have had my own... interesting dealings with Niles, but I think it's probably more of the latter. The guy seems like he's just kind of... not personable, for lack of a better term. He seems to be a bit better as a GM than as a player, no idea why. That said, he's actually my player who just left, so if that's your main hold-up I can assure you it won't be a problem. I know you're a strong player and you know SW, so if you're interested I'd guess you'll probably get the spot. I'll probably open the recruitment thread tonight if you want to take a look through the game and get a character together. My old build rules in the recruitment thread stand, but they're now at 19 XP so they have another advance.
If you have any questions, just feel free to PM me. I can fit you in ASAP, since they're with a bunch of other soldiers at the moment.
The leaving party is Creon 18--his player disappeared from the boards a few months ago, leaving games as a GM and mine as a player. He had a nasty illness just before that, so I think his health may have faltered and had issues with that. I'm still hoping maybe he'll pop up after New Year's, He was an Android Slayer with a really neat and unique roleplaying style, so I'm hoping someone can keep that running.
Cool, I'll get started on a guy.
I didn't want to alter it without comment, even if it isn't necessarily a huge thing, but does anyone else feel like Path of War's DC to recognize a maneuver as it's being used is... kind of low? 10+maneuver level makes it borderline trivial to identify even masterful techniques; even an absolute basic scholar (1 rank, no Intelligence bonus, not even a class skill) may recognize and identify maneuvers that might only be mastered once in a generation, which feels kind of off.
I'd put forward 15+maneuver level as a better DC. It keeps things from getting too hard to recognize, but makes them a little harder to guess at. It also lines up with the Spellcraft DCs for identifying spells on the fly, which seems like a decent comparison to me. Like I said, probably not an earth-shattering change, but thoughts?
Doesn't seem like a huge change to me.
Sure, I guess.
I've honestly never used the skill even when I do have ranks, so it'll rarely come up either way.
Though the argument could be made that such a ridiculously niche skill SHOULD be easy to make when it comes up. Spellcraft has other uses besides identifying spells, after all. Kn. Martial? Not so much.
Maybe we could up the DC but let it recognize active Feats too?
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I would propose keeping the DC to know the name of the maneuver/stance or maybe to only know to which Discipline belongs, but boost it to actually know what it does unless you posses the maneuver.
I'm basing this completely on Rule of Cool, as it isn't uncommon in Wuxia films for minor characters to identify what the starring character or his nemesis is doing, even if they've only heard of it.
Example: "Oh! He is about to do Nine Tigers, Seven Steps from Fu Long School! I heard nobody can survive that..."
I don't really care, but Hiro also doesn't actually have that skill (not at the moment, anyway) so the decision doesn't really affect me that much. I may swap out for it, as I feel like Hiro would know that sort of thing more than he'd know a damn thing about Religion, which is currently one of his trained skills. I'm considering either taking levels in an initiator class or swapping to one of the archetypes that gain them for the Monk/Kineticist, which just gives me more reason to do it.
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Now that you mention multiclassing, I didn't think about it as I built Ryushi, but it might prove interesting if it's a flavour based multiclass.
Like, if he starts to develop a stronger faith or devotion, picking Paladin alonfgthe way.
Other question I can't remember if was discussed are Prestige Classes. I know for a fact of one that totally fits Ryushi's style and theme, Dragon Fury, but I might considerate picking another for his other half of the gestalt if at all allowed. Once again it would be one that fits the theme and flavour, as mechanically speaking he is already well rounded and won't need any kind of pseudo-optimization. An example that comes to mind is Shadowdancer in the plausible scenario of him getting jaded and more grizzled Every flame casts a shadow....