PFS PBP Gameday IV: #07 - 04 The Ironbound Schism -- GM Hmm (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

I've opened discussion for all of you!

I'm going to start off with a question of my own here. I know that Nefreet and the Fox are new to Play by Post. Is anyone else?

"Greetings, everyone! I see that we are discussing tactics. I rouse the spirits of dead warriors with my battle songs. If you accept their strength, they will protect you."

Grigorii turns to address the samurai spirit.

"Honored warrior, it would please me and my ancestors to fight beside you."
Grigorii only has 22 AC when he rages, but he does have DR 2/- and fast healing 2.

Yojimbo nods, but he says nothing.

Yojimbo will probably opt-in to inspired rage if you do it. He uses weapon finesse to attack, but the strength bonus would increase his damage, and the will save bonus and extra HP are nice to have, too

Immediately after seeing Yojimbo merely nod, Kiku turns back to Grigorii and bows once more.

"My sincerest apologies. Yojimbo is just very focused on his work, so he does not talk much unless needed. We are very honored to travel and fight with you as well."

Checking in. I've got to dot and delete this afternoon. I'll get a proper post tonight.

Yeah, the inspired rage is pretty sweet. I will need to think about whether or not Juniper will accept it. I'm mostly hesitant because it seems so out of character for her, but I might get over that.

Juniper doesn't know the spell enlarge person but it is on her spell list. She could use a wand for you, but it is tough to lose a full round worth of actions. So potions might be the better way to go, from her point of view.

If anyone likes to charge, let me know so that I can stay out of your way.

Just a test: 1d100 ⇒ 64

Everyone, I have the Lucky Halfling feat. Here is the text:

Benefit: Once per day, when one of your allies within 30 feet makes a saving throw, you may roll the same saving throw as if you were the one subject to the effect requiring it. You may use this ability after your ally has rolled, but before the GM declares if the roll was a success or failure. Your ally may choose to use your saving throw in place of his own.

The best way to handle this, I think, is to give you all the option to use this ability whenever you are within 30 feet of Juniper. If you are subject to a saving throw, and you want to reroll it using my save bonuses (F +11, R +10, W +10), feel free to do so. Keep in mind that this ability can only be used 1/day total. So let me know if you use it, and I will cross it off of my daily resources.

Edit: nevermind. See my post below. :)

Juniper, is it possible to just edit your header to have your current AC in parentheses, next to the normal AC? I'll try to pay attention to the one in parentheses.

Everyone, I'm working to catch up on my prep. I'm hoping that I can start us up for real on Thursday or Friday. Thank you for your patience with me... I usually take a full week to prep a game, but sort of decided to run this on a whim, so I'm a bit behind where I'd want to be!

Let me explain some conventions that I plan to use.

I will have a combat map for us hopefully soon that will be linked in my header. It will likely work the same way that the Oveflow Archives map does, with different slides for different maps and other handouts.

I will be block rolling Party Perception, Initiatives and Saves. I do this to save time and keep the game moving.

When there's an appropriate Knowledge Check, I'll try set up a spoiler for it so you can have a chance to roll.

AC 41, touch 25; CMD 28

I have done both for this post. Adding it into the body of the post is easier for me because I don't have to edit my profile, but if you tend to look at the character page instead of my last post it is probably better to put it in the status bar?

Edit: My post above about Lucky Halfling was based on the assumption that we would be rolling our saves. I hadn't considered that there would be block saves, so let me modify how I want to use that feat to make it easiest to everyone.

I will use it on the first character who rolls a Fort or Will save of 16 or less (except against channeled energy), provided they are within 30 feet of me. I'm not worried about Reflex saves.

BOT POLICY

Whirrrrrr.... Click....

A closet door opens and a gleaming robot comes out.

"I am Bot Buddy. If you disappear, I will emulate you. I am not a creative thinker. It is to your advantage that I do this as seldom as possible."

The closet door shuts again.

________________________________

I wound up having to use Bot Buddy way too much in Risen from the Sands so that we could make the group deadline of finishing before the start of Play by Post day.

Since we are not under as tight a deadline here, I will use Bot Buddy under the following circumstances:

• It's combat, and 24 hours have passed;
• The group needs a skill check from you, and 24 hours have passed;
• You tell me that you will be gone for a few days, and ask me to bot you.

Does all this seem reasonable?

Hmm

Juniper, I like it in the header. I will look there first, though body of the post is fine if you're willing to put it in almost every post.

Let me think about the saves situation.

Do you want me to roll the saves under a spoiler and give you the option to add your halfling ability in before announcing the result of the save, or do you want to tell me that you'll be activating it for a certain battle or encounter?

EDITED to ADD:

I will use it on the first character who rolls a Fort or Will save of 16 or less (except against channeled energy), provided they are within 30 feet of me. I'm not worried about Reflex saves.

That works for me!

Juniper, I like it in the header. I will look there first!

Roger Wilco. :) I might not bother with the parentheses if that's ok. I'll just have the current AC. I might include IT for incorporeal touch AC as well if it comes up.

Let me think about the saves situation.

Do you want me to roll the saves under a spoiler and give you the option to add your halfling ability in before announcing the result of the save, or do you want to tell me that you'll be activating it for a certain battle or encounter?

Is it ok to just say that it triggers on the first character to roll a 16 or less (total modified roll, mind you) on a Fort or Will save (except against channeled energy)? Those are the ones I'm worried about.

:)

I forgot to mention specifically, that I use the rage bonuses from my level of barbarian in place of those provided by inspired rage.

No worries, Juniper! My boyfriend's cleric has one of those. I know that they do.

Everyone: If I have a question about one of your character's abilities, like: "How did you get +85 to attack and damage back there?" it won't be snarky. Instead, I'll just be asking for a clarification.

(And taking notes!)

Kiku, I don't own occult adventures, but I see that the classes recently made the Nethys site. I'll try to read up, and allow you to explain your class features to me as we go. Fair?

Kiku, Azara, and Yojimbo... Can you set up headers in your tag lines? Just click on one of the other character's profiles to see how they did this.

Thanks!
Hmm

@GM Sounds good to me. It's pretty straightforward imo (certainly compared to the summoner, at least!) and I will explain and link to anything that is out-of-the-ordinary.

All done with the header thing. I always forget that part >_<

I will use it on the first character who rolls a Fort or Will save of 16 or less (except against channeled energy), provided they are within 30 feet of me. I'm not worried about Reflex saves.

Oh, dear, then I think Azara will be requiring the Halfling's help a lot more than she'd care to admit. Her Will save just increased to +1 (though with Negative Energy resistance 10 I agree with the "don't use it against Channeling" statement.

Moved from the Recruitment thread.

Azara doesn't usually stand still, so a lot of the buffs you hand out normally wouldn't help her, but given that dynamic action in a PbP sounds like it'd slow things down I'm totally fine playing her as a regular full attacking Fighter if need be.

If you are adjacent to Juniper when you are attacked, you will get the luck bonus from her Blundering Defense. You don't need to remain adjacent to her throughout the round for that bonus.

For the guarding ability on her shield, one would need to remain adjacent to her, so I will try to remember to use that on someone else.

+1 Fortuitous Viridium Scimitar: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22Damage: 1d6 + 21 ⇒ (3) + 21 = 24

GM Hmm, how do you want me to separate Precise Strike damage? Or do you? It's not multiplied on a critical hit, and lots of creatures are immune to it.

Right now damage is +1 Magic, +6 Power Attack, +5 Dex, +1 Weapon Training, and +8 Precision. I could do this if it helps:

Damage: 1d6 + 13 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 13 + 8 = 26

I'll edit my header tonight when I have access to my sheet (NO! My precious precious formatting!!).

@Azara If you're within 20 feet of Kiku's phantom, you get a +2 competence bonus to all saves, so the will save will go up a bit :)

Angry people also get a +2 morale bonus to Will saves. Are you planning to accept the rage song?

I'm not familiar with Skalds.

Define "angry people".

When you are within the effect of Grigorii's raging song when he starts, he can choose immediately to opt-in to a rage (it works like a barbarian rage, though the bonuses aren't as high at low level). At the beginning of every turn, you can choose whether you want to opt-in or opt-out of the rage.

The inspired rage rules are spoilered in my first post. It's my bardic performance. You decide each round if you want to go into a mini rage. The strength bonus won't help a Dex fighter, but -1 AC might be worth the +2 Will, +1 Fort, and spirit totem powers detailed above.

I think shel will use it as she needs any little damage boost possible!

The inspired rage rules are spoilered in my first post. It's my bardic performance. You decide each round if you want to go into a mini rage. The strength bonus won't help a Dex fighter, but -1 AC might be worth the +2 Will, +1 Fort, and spirit totem powers detailed above.

Oh, gosh, thank you for the offer, but Azara will pass.

It's interesting to read that the effects only last during your turn. So the penalty to AC isn't much of a penalty at all.

I might have to look into making a Skald. With those spirits it sounds perfect for a Shoanti.

I'm pretty sure that is supposed to read "until the beginning of the ally's next turn, or until the song ends..."

GM Hmm, how do you want to run it?

That interpretation works fine for me, Grigorii. So... Updates. I have a few things I want to do still, prep wise, but it looks like we're fine for a Thursday or Friday start. I hope this works for all of you.

Works for me. I'm enjoying the roleplay quite a bit.

Thursday or Friday works for me as well. I'm still trying to finalize some of the purchases I'm making between my last session and this one.

I'm also enjoying the RP. It is a good group. :)

Thursdays will normally be terrible for me. Work 8-4, class 4:30-6, Fraternity stuff 7-9. Though sporadically in between I can post on my phone.

Normally Mon-Wed I'm free after 6pm. Fri/Sat I'm virtually free all day. Sunday is work/AP.

But you've all seen how often I post on the forums, so this shouldn't be a problem.

I'm glad that you brought this up, Nefreet. Don't worry about keeping up real time. Once or twice a day is good for most games though you guys are welcome to do more when you RP amongst yourselves.

I may do a bit of a slowdown in my posts for the next week until I can see how running two pbp games balances out. I want to maintain high standards, and avoid burnout, so I want to try this out in order to maintain my sanity as a GM.

You want a sane GM, right? (This is where you say yes.) What does a slow down mean? For me, no more than a couple GM posts a day per game.

On a completely different topic, here is a photo of Jon Dehning and Me at Skål Con! I figured that if I mentioned the bee costume, you should at least see middle-aged me in the aforementioned bee outfit. Jon is shown here in pre-shorn glory.

The official shearing of him and Andy is scheduled for this Saturday. Venture Flunky Keith assures me that there will be video.

Hmm

Thats a good pic of you two!

And Grigori, Shel isn't going to continue to be mean to you. It's just that she doesn't trust anyone she hasn't adventured with before, and until she makes it through a fight or two with the group, she will be icy at best. Can't be distracted from the success of the mission, you see.

here is a photo of Jon Dehning and Me at Skål Con!

OH!!

How did I not realize that was you??

Did you tell me your forum handle at GenCon?

Falls on Nefreet

There is little worry that I won't post enough. :)

*sighs and starts trying to clear rocks away*

Thursdays will normally be terrible for me. Work 8-4, class 4:30-6, Fraternity stuff 7-9. Though sporadically in between I can post on my phone.

Normally Mon-Wed I'm free after 6pm. Fri/Sat I'm virtually free all day. Sunday is work/AP.

But you've all seen how often I post on the forums, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Also, Nefreet, Hmm said she runs block initiative. That means that if you and I are in the same block of initiative (there are no enemies between us in initiative order), you can post at any time for that round. If I'm ahead of you, you don't need to wait for me to post; you can assume that I am delaying until after you.

Does that make sense?

On top of that, if you need to wait until after the GM posts, but you know that your next action won't depend on anything that comes before your next turn, you can post that action in a spoiler addressed to the GM ahead of time. That might make your Thursday easier, if you post a provisional action on Wednesday night.

GM Hmm wrote:

here is a photo of Jon Dehning and Me at Skål Con!

OH!!

How did I not realize that was you??

Did you tell me your forum handle at GenCon?

I haven't been to GenCon. You're clearly thinking of some other dazzlingly attractive fifty year old in a bee costume. Do I have a doppelgänger?

Hmm

And Grigorii, Shel isn't going to continue to be mean to you. It's just that she doesn't trust anyone she hasn't adventured with before, and until she makes it through a fight or two with the group, she will be icy at best. Can't be distracted from the success of the mission, you see.

Grigorii is the same way. Distrustful and dismissive of most people until we've fought together. I look forward to exploring this character development.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for songs, I will tweak the lyrics to use them for rage singing. If not, I will fall back on the Taylor Swift I use for F2F games. Cuz now we got Bad Blood.

Lol, back in the day I loved grunge and hardcore rap...now that I've gotten older, I love Taylor Swift! Works for me...

Also used to be a big fan of Insane Clown Posse, but those lyrics might not be convertible to a PG13 site, haha.

Folk metal is basically made for skalds. I'm a fan of just about anything from Turisas, Ensiferum, or Korpiklaani for raging song.

Alternatively, some dissonant Miles Davis jazz could do the trick. No lyrics though, sadly.

I am known for filking Disney in We Be Goblins the Musical. Go nuts with the Rage Songs! I encourage you to make up new ones!

@Grigorii: lol, as long as you finish your song of fire and ice before you sell off the rights to a major television network!

You guys are a challenge to keep up with, in the best possible way. :)

If there are no new questions, I'll move you forward in the morning. Averaka, ho!

Hilariously, I just played a scenario tonight with the same Venture Captain. I just felt weird.

She's been in a lot of scenarios recently, I've noticed. I don't have a problem with this, as she has some fun personality. It's not more blah Jorsal of Lauterbury :/

My Cleric of Iomedae sorceress is the niece of Queen Galfrey, so she will kindly replace him in my head canon as the VC of Nerosyan once she does EotT :D