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Its tough being a DM! I think with PBP you need to keep restating goals to an extent, a lot of players are involved in many games so it can become hard to keep track. If you have handouts it helps to keep them readily available for referencing, in a game where we all got lost because the GM deleted the first handout which basically outlined our rather complicated mission.
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I would be all over it, with the right character anyway. And a horror adventure, too! I was a big Call of Cthulhu fan 'back in the day'.
I've enjoyed the PFS investigations to mixed degrees. One adventure was good, with enough clues, but the other one just left us stuck (as with about everyone it seems) until the villains reveal themselves. (And, unfortunately, since it was PFS, the GM couldn't just add clues to make it a proper mystery to solve.)
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Its tough if your PC is not the investigating type, a couple of my PCs would be hopeless - Vesparo couldn't investigate his way out of a paper bag. Just signed up to run a 1st level Investigator in that new Lion scenario, everyone else is 4th and 5th so a bit nervous, but looking forward to it. I really need to read up on tiering don't understand it at all.
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I am kind of confused about one point of tiering: If a 3rd level is playing with a bunch of 1st and 2nd-level characters in a Tier 1-2 scenario, do they really get more gp for less relative risk? Conversely, would a 3rd level really get the Out-of Subtier (level 3, essentially) gold playing a 3rd level with a bunch of 4-5th levels?
If the PC’s level is not wit hin the subtier played (such as a 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-level character in Subtier 4– 5), circle the Out-of-Subtier gold value or calculate the Outof-Subtier value for Seasons 0–4 by taking the average of both subtiers and rounding down. Write this value beside area F and circle it. This value represents the total gold piece value a character may receive for defeating all enemies and finding all treasure in a scenario.
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@Rellen - two items I've found helpful with 'handout'-style things - 1) put 'em in a google docs directory and share 'em with the players, and put a link in the campaign description (as is the case with our current map..), and 2) put a summary in the campaign info block for ready reference (to the extent space permits). Spoilers can help with that too (f'rinstance for faction goals...).
making those things part of the fabric helps keep 'em from getting lost - both for players and for the GM.
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Wasn't someone considering a roc companion? Any thought to the Hipogriff Rider archetype? I haven't done the maths, but it may scratch some of the same itch, without being obliged to be aerial.
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Choamski please don't misinterpret, I'm enjoying this investigative part thoroughly! Shandor isn't much of a social/investigative type though, so his presence isn't always helpful. ;-)
Knorrin, a PC gets Out-of-Subtier gold if his level matches the scenario's tier (which is a prerquisite to play the scenario in the first place), but not the subtier played.
Eg. Out-of-Subtier gold would be given to a 3rd-level PC playing either a subtier 1-2 or subtier 4-5, since he doesn't fall into either category. It would be given to a 1st-level PC who plays in subtier 4-5, like Rellen's investigator in the upcoming Library of the Lion. Or to a 5th-level PC playing in subtier 1-2.
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By the way, please keep metagaming to a bare minimum, this thread and stats look-up included. I'm a firm believer that it ruins immersion.
I appreciate the sentiment, apologize and deleted my post. I will say it can be hard to completely not metagame, both as a gm and a player. You don't attack a fighter with a fort spell, you attack them with a will save. How does a monster know this, how does a wizard? Do they all have ranks in K(local), to identify human weaknesses? Heck, it's sometimes written in the monster tactics in modules. (FWIW, thos stats on alcemists were off the top of my head. :P)
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Thanks for removing your (remarkably accurate) estimate of this level's boss's AC. I feel I need to explain a little better what I meant with my earlier post. My desire is not to remove metagame completely, but keep it to a minimum. The causes are simple.
On the one hand, your character might say "Wow, this monster is hard to hit!" or "His leathery skin makes him hard to hit but I wonder if he's that nimble... I'll use my rays against him!" or even "What a heavy hitter, but he's dumb as a rock, so how about trying to mind control him. He surely will have a hard time resisting that." In other words, I don't mind adapting your tactics to your opponent (in fact, I expect you to), and that is acceptable metagaming in my book.
On the other hand, discussing the calculation of a monster's AC score or abilities in terms of gameplay is not something your character would do, so I'll ask you to refrain from engaging is such "table talk". Frankly, I find it disrupts immersion and the sense of danger one could feel for his character.
By the way, immersion is precisely why I hide my GM rolls behind the spoiler tag (and kudos to Choamski for doing so!), since it basically represents the GM screen, and prevents players from metagaming too much (such as estimating a monster's touch AC score, etc.). I expect people to refrain from looking at the spoilers in the interest of the game and immersion, precisely.
As for turning off creature knowledge, of course I can't expect you to do it all the time. Even I struggle with trying not to metagame when I'm a player (or a GM for that matter), and I agree it's really hard at times. I'm just asking that people make an effort to keep the game clean of that "table talk" that I'm not so fond of.
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Noted, I learned the game during my time living in Florida with a group of complete minmaxers, with game design aspirations, so table talk tended to be exactly that. I always rather enjoy the statty stuff, but am more than happy to refrain.
I'm never quite understood why knowing how something works OOC should ruin immersion, but I do appreciate a lot of people feel that way. That said it's always fun to come across something I don't understand, but for me part of that fun is trying to figure it out OOC. Things like players discussing if something hit seems like a very positive indicator of their interest and investment in the game :)
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I assure you that the sense of danger is in no way diminished in this case by my personal experience from playing an alchemist. Alchemists, fighters, barbarians, (invisible) magi archers and at high levels spellcasters are the scariest opponents. I await with dread my first fight against a gunslinger.
I don't think I remember ever actually having a character death fighting just a "monster" in LG/3.5 or PFS/PF. In every case it's been tricked out humans or eq. with PC levels. PC abilities can be so much deadlier then monster abilities, especially when fully buffed and prepared (and when you've exhausted your own, say at the end of a dungeon crawl...)
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Frankly I'm expecting Rellen to die at some point, lol, err, did I not mention his Osirion heritage because that cheap get out of dead free card is great. That, the Quadiran club card, and the Silver Crusade cut price Shining Wayfinder, the Andoran prestige awards are very nice flavour wise, but don't come into play until highish levels.
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I do enjoy the metagaming (he admits sheepishly), but I will try to refrain. Fortunately, I am pretty ignorant about Pathfinder.
As Choamski noted, I do think some things, like casting particular spells against low-Will "martial types", are essentially in-character, being part of NPC tactics.
Rellen - I frankly keep expecting Rellen to die, too. :-P Going through the door first requires remarkable bravery. (I kind of have to do it as a 1st-level Paladin in another game, even though I don't have the best AC or hp. We'll see if he makes it to 2nd.)
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For me - the separation between Gameplay thread and Discussion thread is a master stroke for game design. I need a side-channel 'discussion thread' at my live tables, and probably another side-channel 'social chatter' thread too. :)
With the tool helping provide the separation between discussion and play, I can better manage the in-play spearation between mechanic and story, without a lot of overhead. I can see a couple of other possibilities (side-by-sides...) that might help as well, but I'm pretty content.
I can see the desire to drive more immersion - and ('ll try to support that more thoroughly. But from a content perspective I feel way ahead of the tabletop - just turnaround time issues. As a player. As a GM, ramped up pace would swamp me very very quickly...
so... for the asynchronous media, I think this is a solid tool set design. A vast improvement over single-threaded, no-markup chat boards, or play-by-mail. I think the next big leap is good tools for online GM support - and I'm betting roll20 or some of the other synchronous platforms will probably spawn those.
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Choamski,
I seem to be losing my characters a bit with a missing person's case. I am thinking that they didn't watch as many mysteries as I did growing up or something. But, basic questions haven't been asked, such as, "What does she look like? What was she last wearing? Who was the last person to see her and when and where?" The real problem is that they aren't going to search her room - I even said something about "nothing being found on the ground floor". Oh well.
I guess it just goes to show that one person's 'obvious' isn't necessarily another's.
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I was thinking that the Wand of IH could - albeit a little wastefully - be used as a little 'pre-paid healing' before a battle, being applied right before or right as the door is opened. Even if you are not injured in the first 4.5 rounds on average, it is still as effective as a Wand of CLW, and it happens (albeit more slowly) without having to act during the combat. So, if you take a shot in the first round, three rounds later in the combat you have healed 3 points and still have about 7 to go. Plus, if you go down, you are automatically stabilized and working your way back to consciousness. (If that makes any sense and/or isn't too obvious...)
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Hey, since this is a very knowledgeable group, I have another character, an aasimar (angelkin - +2 Str, +Cha) 1st level paladin of Iomedae, Otiophon, currently working his way through the Devil We Know series. So, for character purposes, he is a longsword and shield type, currently in banded mail. He has Toughness right now to get through 1st level as the frontliner, but what should his feat be when I finish him up at 2nd level, and what about the 3rd level feat?
I am thinking I will downgrade the shield to a darkwood buckler, and then possibly have that hand available to help with a Power Attack. I will probably need to move from the heavy shield he has currently to a light shield or buckler anyway so as to free up that hand for spell-casting, laying on hands, and working the Wand of CLW.
Thanks for any advice!
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For maximum cheese, there is always this Quick Draw Shield
There is also a cracked vibrant purple prism ioun stone - 1 level of spell storing, so you can put the shield spell in it. Although, it's technically better for monks and shapechangers.