Welcome to the discussion thread for the players that were selected for this scenario. Once you've decided on a character to play, please check in by providing the following information:
Player name/alias:
Character name:
PFS-#:
Faction:
Day job (roll):
Anything else I should know: Slow advance, peculiar character abilities, things you'd like to get my ruling on, etc.
Also, please post in the Gameplay thread, either with a dot or a character introduction. If everyone has signed in, I'll kick off the game on Friday with the mission briefing.
Some expectations:
- Please have your character profile ready by Friday.
- I'd like everyone to post about once a day. Things might slow down over the weekends. I'll do most of my posting in the evening (GMT), with a short update in the morning when time allows. Please inform me if you'll be away for an extended time.
- In case anyone goes missing for a while, I will generally move on without them. If we're in combat, my default action after 24 hours will be to put you on delay. If you would like me to bot you, please consider putting some instructions for me on your profile. For some suggestions, there's the excellent guide by Hmm: (Link).
- I tend to use quite a lot of spoilers for skill checks. I'll rely on the honor system that you won't read the spoiler unless someone makes the check.
- When necessary, I'll roll group perception and group initiative. If you have any reactive abilities interacting with these rolls, please let me know in advance.
- I use block initiative in combat. This means that I group PC's/NPC's together if they have similar initiative rolls. In case of NPC's of similar type, I only make one initiative roll for that group as a whole. Within a group of PC's with the 'same' initiative, I'll resolve actions in posting order.
- I use Google Presentations for maps and handouts. The link will be at the top and on my GM profile.
That's about it. Have fun. If you have any questions up front, let me know.
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Here I am! (Massee) I'll make sure he's all set by Friday but I'm pretty sure he's updated.
Player name/alias: Massee
Character name: Guisseppe "Lil Frankie" Franko
PFS-#: 202046-1
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day job (roll): None
Anything else I should know: A Halfing that thinks he's a human child that's currently pretending to be a Halfling...
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Player name/alias: CariMac
Character name: Shera Dionas
PFS-#: 110249-4
Faction: The Exhange
Day job (roll):No Day Job
Anything you should know: Not that I can think of.
Good to see you again Iff. I'm looking forward to playing with you again.
Edit: I have some purchases before we start.
Darkwood Composite longbow Masterwork St+2 630
Sell Longbow +2 -150
Masterwork Darkleaf Lammellar leather armor 810
Sell Studded leather -12 GP
Scroll of Protection from Evil 25GP
It think all those items are on the always available list.
Welcome, all. Nice to see you all getting off to a good start with roleplaying and introductions. We're just waiting for Matthais777 at this point. I'll send a reminder later tonight if he hasn't checked in by then. They seemed excited for the opportunity to play.
Welcome, all. Nice to see you all getting off to a good start with roleplaying and introductions. We're just waiting for Matthais777 at this point. I'll send a reminder later tonight if he hasn't checked in by then. They seemed excited for the opportunity to play.
That I most definitely am! I'm still learning how to work the Paizo threads and goofed and didn't see the update! So sorry! I'll have Cypher up in a minute.
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Player name/alias: Matthais777
Character name: Cypher Starchild
PFS-#: 176948-6
Faction: Sovereign Court
Day job (roll):
Anything else I should know: Slow advance, peculiar character abilities, things you'd like to get my ruling on, etc.
Cypher has several abilities that are based on if a being "Could be" sexually attracted to them. This causes a little table variation as some go by the rule the pre-gens go by, which is "bisexual unless stated otherwise", some say it only works on opposite genders. Cypher dresses purposefully androgynous to help on that distinction if it matters to you, and I could make a disguise check to help blur that line if required.
Cypher is also a Silver Tongue human and can shift people's attitude by 3 stages at a time instead of 2.
And we're off! :) Couple of things I noted with regards to your characters:
- Cypher, that works for me, with regards to the trait. I have one request, though. Could you please add some extra things to your character sheet? I didn't see anything with regards to equipment, bloodline powers, etc.
- Frankie, I'm a little torn on how to adjudicate your Disguise checks. I get the feeling that you try to play as a little boy but have to be a halfling under Society rules. Because there's two transformations in essence, by the rules, it's a little hard to think about what a failed Disguise check could be. How about you take the -4 penalty for race/age; that means with Take 10 you would still have +6. Success means people see a halfling 'swashbuckler'. Failure means they see a young guy (halfling or human, doesn't matter to much to me) who tries really hard to fit in with the big-guys. Would that work?
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Ya that's about the size of it. On my first mission I started with the childlike feat and played him as a Halfling that was pretending to be a human child. After some thought I decided to forego that feat as its not really required for what I wanted to do and I wanted to free up the feat for something else. Also, considering it would be hard to justify why a child would be in the Society and going on missions.
SO, I wanted to try to keep the persona of childlike due to some mental drawbacks and childhood trauma, but he feels he needs to act like an 'adult' to adventure with adults and pretending to be a Halfling would be the best way to do this.
Your ruling on the penalty makes perfect sense, as does the success and failure results. Perfect. Sorry this character is a little confusing but I couldn't let 'Little Frankie' turn into just a regular halfling rogue/swashbuckler type. Once he levels he'll be rogue 1/swashbuckler (mouser) 1.
OK, thanks. Just a few follow-up questions:
- Is it correct that you don't have any combat gear?
- You show AC 12, with a flat-footed AC of 11. Where does that +1 (armor?) bonus come from?
- Could you clarify what your Diplomacy bonus is composed of? I get 1 rank, 3 class skill, 4 Charisma, 3 feat, 1 trait and possibly 2 circumstance. That's 12 or 14, depending on circumstances. Please note that circumstance bonuses from different sources don't stack. Also, they only apply in the right circumstances, so please don't include them in your default skill bonus.
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Only combat gear I have is my haramaki which is where the +1 ac comes from and a emergency dagger I forgot to list. At this level, if I get in combat, I've done something wrong and I'm going to die terribly.
My diplomacy is made up of Cha 4 + 3 familiar + 3 feat + 1 rank + 3 class + 2 silver tongue + 2 fashionable accessory/masterwork tool. Double checking, that last one is circumstances so I can remove that from the block, but it should apply between the two to pretty much any circumstance that I actually interact with someone.
Figured out the problem. I changed extremely fashionable to charming during character creation, forgot that sorcs don't have diplomacy as a natural skill, I'll change it back. I don't have the +1 trait yet cause i haven't been able to buy enough jewelry.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Right. Then I see where your math is coming from. However, you should understand that I had a hard time figuring that out. You only have Tattoo familiar listed on the character sheet, but I couldn't find any indication that you actually have a familiar, what type it is and what bonus it would give you. Similarly, it took me a while to figure out that you have the tattooed sorcerer archetype; it was only listed behind a spoiler.
I think we're on the same page now, but you could help your future GMs by adding a bit more explanation to your character sheet. I might suggest you look at some of the other characters for inspiration.
(As a final point, please check the description for the "Fashionable accessories" you listed. They only work in one city, and only on Diplomacy checks to make requests. Similar limitations would hold for the masterwork tool, although those are at GM discretion. That's the kind of limitations I was talking about earlier, and why I requested that you shouldn't include them in the Diplomacy skill modifier on your character sheet.)
I fully agree with our kid halfling. Love all the effort you people are putting into your posts.
I'm a bit busy tonight. Next update tomorrow morning.
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Wanted to answer Iff in regards of the Module I played, didn't want to clutter up the gameplay thread
It was a pretty intense weekend... we spend the following hourse over the weekend
Friday: started at 7:30 till 1am
saturday: 11am till 11:30pm
Sunday: 10am till 18:30
as you can see, long hours were put in, some encounters cut short on sunday due to having quit at 18:30 since one of the players had a home campaign to run. Overall it was long and intense... But the module made it worth it.
We started as lvl 1 chars (in campaign mode) and when done were lvl 6. Some fights were like close calls while others were pretty good. Thurston made a great module and I would recommend it to anyone (make sure for a 4man party, possibly split it out over several days / evenings and not like what we did :D
Thanks for the info. That confirms that I would never want to try and fit it into a weekend. :) However, I might give it a try spread out over a few weeks, or maybe even as a PbP. I've been hesitant to start an AP, but this seems like a good intermediate between a scenario and a full campaign.
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Thanks for the info. That confirms that I would never want to try and fit it into a weekend. :) However, I might give it a try spread out over a few weeks, or maybe even as a PbP. I've been hesitant to start an AP, but this seems like a good intermediate between a scenario and a full campaign.
If you want, before you run it, I am willing to GM it for you over PbP (it will take time ofcourse).
It is doable in a weekend, but it will exhaust you big time.
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That much RP time over a single day is a bit much, over 3 consecutive days goes beyond enjoyable. You'd end up just wanting it to be over by Sunday.
yes and no.
Yes, in the end you want to be done and move on... but no because we had a good fun group, lot's of laughter and fun was to be had (also had to do it in a weekend because we had one guy from the UK fly in just for it).
Overall, it is doable, but it is something I don't wanna do every weekend ;)
Thanks for the offer, Psyblade. I'll think about it. It seems to be a long term committment; could take about a year, I assume? Alsmost equal to two volumes of an AP?
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I have and know about Roll20, it works well... I like it and should use it more often. There is a whole community for PFS that uses roll20 etc (discord, warhorn).
Modules might be worth using roll20 and doing it over there. For me, PbP is a bit easier since I can look up rules when I am not familair with them before posting (just started my first PbP scenario and got 2 more lined up for gm'ing).
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Congats on the Gming Psyblade. If you are looking for players, keep us in mind. ;)
@GM Iff: I've read that Dragons Demand can take up to a year to finish. We're on a slow post track so it's going to be a long time.
I just picked up an PbP of Jade Regent to GM. The fact that I can look up the rules and think about posts is a real plus for me. They went through 3 different GM's one of them twice before I decided to give it a try. Nothing wrong with the players. The GMs just went AFK with no warning and no response to PMs.
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Congats on the Gming Psyblade. If you are looking for players, keep us in mind. ;)
@GM Iff: I've read that Dragons Demand can take up to a year to finish. We're on a slow post track so it's going to be a long time.
I just picked up an PbP of Jade Regent to GM. The fact that I can look up the rules and think about posts is a real plus for me. They went through 3 different GM's one of them twice before I decided to give it a try. Nothing wrong with the players. The GMs just went AFK with no warning and no response to PMs.
I will, I am running to Judge a soul pt 1 and 2 back to back (and then doing them core as well due to popular request). After that, not sure what I am going to run... :)
I'm sorry if it seems like I'm ignoring them. That's definitely not the case, I like reading them. It's just that I think they seem best-suited as a tool for PC interaction, not something that these NPC's would necessarily react to. I'll do it on a case-by-case basis, but I wouldn't want them to overshadow the storyline and the party's ability to pick up hints and follow the storyline. If that makes sense?
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Nah they are mostly for PC interaction to keep the RP flowing is all. But feel free to interact with them as you see fit! There isn't a ton a Frankie can accomplish in a sleuthing mission with his mental penalties. But I am more than happy to roll them up and play them according to his stats and mindset. Who doesn't like a conspiracy theorist with the mind of an adolescent?
Sorry, Cypher. It doesn't work that way. Since both parties were aware of each other, there can't be a surprise round. That only happens when one side is unaware, or in special cases when there's subterfuge like Sleight of Hand. In this case, everyone was already on their toes. The moment you intend to cast a spell, that triggers combat and we're in initiative mode. Even though you were the first with the intent to perform a hostile action, that doesn't mean that Cypher actually gets to act first. That's what the initiative roll is for.
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Sorry, Cypher. It doesn't work that way. Since both parties were aware of each other, there can't be a surprise round. That only happens when one side is unaware, or in special cases when there's subterfuge like Sleight of Hand. In this case, everyone was already on their toes. The moment you intend to cast a spell, that triggers combat and we're in initiative mode. Even though you were the first with the intent to perform a hostile action, that doesn't mean that Cypher actually gets to act first. That's what the initiative roll is for.
Huh, okay, that's not how it's been played for me in the past, but your the GM. I will continue to curse my poor rolls for giving me terrible initiative and hope for better circumstances next time. :)
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Just to throw in my two cents - Iff plays it the way I'm used to. When everyone is watching each other warily it is not the first person to say they are acting that necessarily goes first. I've been hammered on that myself before. It seems logical, but when you consider how much actually goes into an attack or spell it makes sense the other way too. Now if it were a FREE action, then I would say it goes off first. For example if you were to shout "let's get them" (which is a free action), then that would occur before anyone else took an action. But standard actions take time to complete and you telegraph your intention when you begin the action unless you disguise it with stealth or sleight of hand or a feat like spellsong.
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Hi folks, just a heads-up that I've had a very busy day today. Sorry to leave you hanging in the encounter like this, but the update will have to wait until tomorrow. Trying to figure out a way to resolve the encounter that will do justice to everyone's actions while still preserving suspension of disbelief.
From the gameplay thread:
Shera ... tries to catch Frankie before he takes a seat at the Counsel table.
I felt a need to quickly explain myself here. In cases where there's tension between characters, I have a preference to let the players sort it out between themselves. Asking you to roll dice would lead to characters actually being at odds in-game, would mean that someone (decided by dice) would not get to handle as their player would like and that might lead to escalation. I'm very happy with the way Frankie handled the situation.
In other news: We're nearing the end of the scenario. I expect things will slow down a bit over the weekend, but things should be resolved about halfway during the next week. (Please remind yourselves of your mission objectives, if needed). For now, I'll make the next update when Cypher has posted.