PbP Gameday VII: Dungeon Master S's "Rose Street Revenge" [Playtest] (Inactive)

Game Master Chris Marsh

I'm SURE this thread will see a lot of use. For now, the standard fare:

Welcome to my Play-by-Post!

Here's the ctrl+P for all my games:

1. I've been running games since the late 1980s, I've seen a lot of editions. I started playing PFS with Slot 1 Season 0 at Gen Con. I'm solid with the PFRPG rules, but everyone makes mistakes. I'll try to be as fair as possible.

2. I'm a Venture-Lieutenant for Southern NH. If you're ever in the area, or you need help finding games/conventions there. PM me.

3. I post with a high rate of frequency. That being said, if you guys can post 2-3 times per day, awesome. If it's only 1/day I understand. No worries. Real Life Comes First (tm).

4. Feel free to preemptively roll Perception, Disable Device, etc. It makes the game run more efficiently. I ask only that you make sure minis are placed in their actual position in case your choices have consequences (good or bad.)

5. Let's get started:

Player Name:

PC Name:

PFS#:

Slow Track or Normal:

Faction:

Day Job: Feel free to roll now.

Perception and vision/senses:
Initiative:

Notes: Anything I should know; passive abilities, boons that are way out there, etc. If you have abilities that are immediate actions that interrupt an enemy, I'll be as fair as possible, but you can help me out by telling me under what conditions you typically use it.

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Some expectations in my games:

Dungeon Master S - thank you for accepting me into this game, I appreciate the opportunity.

Hello all,
I am excited to be here for Playtest. I have ninja dotted the Gameplay thread and in another month will be downloading those PDFs and start the reading and research so I can generate a character and be ready to play.

Does anyone have any idea of what character type they wish to play? I am pretty open to trying almost anything. I am least keen on playing an alchemist though still open to the possibility.

As long as I have internet, I should be able to post at least 2-3 times each day. There may be occasional days that are an exception to that; the most likely being 23-26 August when I am part of the team running a local convention. Even then I should be able to post at least once per day.

I experienced a little bit of Playtest at PaizoCon, I must say I liked the three action economy. I am still undecided about including identifying those we face as being counted an action but I am staying open to the idea.

Looking forward to meeting the rest of you. If you have any questions of me, feel free to ask.

We are about to enter a new edition — an edition not only of sight and sound, but of mind.

I got a chance to dip my toe into the playtest waters back in March at Gary Con (yeah, it's a real thing, not just something the writers on The Big Bang Theory made up), and while I'm cautiously optimistic about PF2, I'm hoping that my caution is quickly replaced by hell yeah.

My favorite class over the years has been the Ranger. If numbat1 wants to play an Alchemist I will not stand in their way!

Thanks for having me here DM S! Looking forward to finally sitting in one of your games! :D

As far as my experience with playtest goes, it's only what I've read in the blogs. My favourite class has been fighter, but i'm extremely excited to try the spellcasting functions in PFS2 and will want to try out a cleric for the playtest.

Thanks for having me here DM S! Looking forward to finally sitting in one of your games! :D

As far as my experience with playtest goes, it's only what I've read in the blogs. My favourite class has been fighter, but i'm extremely excited to try the spellcasting functions in PFS2 and will want to try out a cleric for the playtest.

The reverse has been true so many times, and I like the cut of your jib!

After the most recent blog, I am seriously considering a ranger. :-)

I am still wanting to stick to my roots of play. I am thinking either Monk or Paladin.

Sorry I'm late! I'm very happy to be included for the playtest!

I'm interested how the Bard will shake out. I could also do a Sorcerer.

Hey everyone!

Check out THIS BLOG for some relevant information.

Hey everyone, so I've been thinking about the logistics of PF2 and rolling initiative. I typically have a quick post at the top, but that won't always be the same skill. I think the cleanest way is to keep the modifiers off of it, but have them in parenthesis after. So for example:

Ezren: Perc +3, Stealth +2: 1d20 ⇒ 3

If it's ever a really strange skill, we'd just use that situational modifier.

It certainly does add a complicating factor for PbP that I had not thought ahead to. Glad you are on top of it, though. I suspect both FtF and PbP we will be needing to tweak our thinking and defaults as we learn this new system.

It certainly does add a complicating factor for PbP that I had not thought ahead to. Glad you are on top of it, though. I suspect both FtF and PbP we will be needing to tweak our thinking and defaults as we learn this new system.

I've recently relearned how to play 2e D&D, a system I once knew so cold I could cite page numbers. It's SOOOO different. I really like much of what Iv'e seen for PF2 so far (the lone exception is mutter utter disdain for goblins as a PC race.)

I think we need to be ready for a jump the size of 2e to 3.0, not a jump of 3.5 to PF.

I'm ready.

I've liked a lot of what I've read and experienced so far. Some of it I am undecided on and looking forward to reading and experiencing more. I am new enough to PbP that I had not been thinking much about how the new system would affect gameplay in that arena, though it is one of the reasons I wanted to sign up for Playtest during this event, so I could experience and provide feedback on the new system for this style of play.

@Chris: I like that option for displaying initiative rolls. Might also go part in partial to a SOP for Dungeons and what not. "I am Scouting and ducking constantly from shadow to shadow." Well we know what that person is doing for their initiative rolls.

I agree with you 100% Numbat. I have been looking at all the fun bits for playtest and starting to like it. I have a renewed vigor for roleplaying in general.

That is partly why I am coordinating at my local store to get things going for playtest played in mass to get as much insight and feedback as possible.

I am cross posting on all of my threads even those currently on hold and pending.

If you happen to be following the news my Home county in California is on fire at this moment and I am in an advisory evacuation location.

Not only this but I am also a County Employee and am being pulled into emergency services and response.

Please Bot me as necessary at this time; I am unsure when I will be able to return. My apologies in advanced and thank you all for understanding.

Real Life Comes First. Be safe, and thank you for your service.

Thank you Chris, things are starting to calm down a little for me at this time now that they are getting the fire lines under control. For those of you who havn't seen my little community of Lake County has two fires that have devastated over 90,000 acres and the smoke is measured at more than hazardous.

My family and myself are safe at this time and have heard word we may return home by this weekend possibly.

Hey everyone. We're almost there. A couple of updates:

1. This will be my 3rd time through. It's been a different experience every time.

2. I've done a mock up of a character sheet. You can find it HERE. Feel free to steal.

3. Pregens aren't up yet.

Caveat: the six pregens they released to EnWorld (Fumbus, Kyra, Valeros, Seelah, Merisiel, and Ezren) are available.

Caveat to the caveat: apparently Ezren was yanked at Gen Con. (I will refrain from further comment on that.) So it's just the five.

For any Herolab Online users - Playtest is now available there, it will automatically be upgraded to 2E at the appropriate time at no additional charge.

Just to be clear, we can use a pregen or try our hand at creating a character of our own?

Also, GM, I was playing around with a dwarf paladin as well. How did you get 16s in both Str and Con with a 14 in Cha? I can't seem to make that work with the new stat method.

Pregens or new.

I keep finding a bunch of mistakes in my own math (until yesterday I hadn't added my level to most things.) I'm actually on vacation right now, so I can't get to my notes.

Odds I messed up.

Starting in 10 hours or so, I will be travelling for approximately 48 hours to my vacation spot.. please bot me if required during this time. I should be able to remain to normal posting, or even better since i'm free from the burdens of work!

Dungeon Master S: in light of everything happening in my part of the world I humbly wish to step away from the table.

Things have been quite hectic with the Mendocino Complex Fire now reaching the status of the largest fire in California ever with more than 300k acres destroyed.

Thank you all for understand and for the late notice.

Poblano.

PS: if you would please remove Gary Pepper from the active character I would appreciate it.

Just to be clear, we can use a pregen or try our hand at creating a character of our own?

Also, GM, I was playing around with a dwarf paladin as well. How did you get 16s in both Str and Con with a 14 in Cha? I can't seem to make that work with the new stat method.

I haven't try to do that math specifically, but just going through my own notes, if I interpret the rules correctly, I can only get one ability to a 16.

Sorry everyone. I'll start the game today. A little family vacation got extended a day.

I haven't try to do that math specifically, but just going through my own notes, if I interpret the rules correctly, I can only get one ability to a 16.

I can get Str and Con to be 16s for a dwarf paladin, just not with a 14 Cha too. I have an extra stat bump, but I can't stack it into Cha (or Str or Con) because I've already put ones there for 1st level. So it means putting it into Dex, Int or Wis. Maybe a Human could do it since you don't have the Dwarf Cha penalty. (Edit: Yep, you can get the 16, 16, 14 as a human and still have a 12 Wis like a Dwarf would have)

This might be easier for a newbie (debatable), but I would rather be able to put points freely a la Starfinder instead of being restricted by discrete bumps. I don't mind the class and background bumps, I just want the flexibility afterward.

And based on what I'm seeing of the system, I have a feeling I'll be saying similar things like that. I like some of the setup, I just want more freeform at a certain point. I agree it's daunting to have to choose from 3000 feats, but this is equally frustrating when I can see exactly what I want, but it's just in a different category than I have. (PF1 traits are a bit like that with Combat, Magic, Faith, etc categories) But I will try to reserve my opinion until I encounter those things.

Anyway, I said I would try out a Bard or Sorcerer. Murder mystery? Bard it is!

Right! I noticed my mistake. I did not realise we have 4 free ability bumps. I had only taken in the ancestry, background, and class. Now that clears things up...

Sorry for the late submission, life has blown up in my face but I will try to stay on top of things once we get started properly.

I have three potential characters mostly ready to go. They are fully generated though I need to add more to their online presence here.

Would you like a bard, a rogue, or a ranger to join the party?

Feel free to take a quick look at my aliases. The last three, Gypsy, Jorgon, and Seveen are my Playtest characters at first level.

If you want someone else I am willing to consider cleric or sorcerer.

I've got bard, so rogue or ranger is good. Ranger gives us more of a heavy hitter, but this being a playtest, it doesn't really matter.

Ranger it is then.

And here she is.

Picture not entirely representative but the best I could find as I wasn't able to see all that Paizo kindly provide.

I will post as soon as Paizo gets around to putting up the pregens.

Caveat: the six pregens they released to EnWorld (Fumbus, Kyra, Valeros, Seelah, Merisiel, and Ezren) are available.

Caveat to the caveat: apparently Ezren was yanked at Gen Con. (I will refrain from further comment on that.) So it's just the five.

Caveat to the caveat to the caveat: Fumbus the alchemist, Amiri the barbarian, Kyra the cleric, Valeros the fighter, Merisiel the rogue, and Seoni the sorcerer are officially released on the Playtest page (toward the bottom) as of about 8 p.m CDT Monday.

I will play Seoni.

It occurred to me that we have not discussed secret versus open rolls. The general rule is that gather knowledge, recall information and some other checks are meant to be done in secret (ie GM rolls) especially as a critical failure can have consequences such as false information. There is also a statement that the GM can allow open rolls as long as all are willing and able to separate player knowledge from character knowledge.

Dungeon Master S, what is your take on this?

Fellow players, does anyone have an opinion one way or the other?

PbP provides a great environment for roleplaying and also relies heavily on open rolls and player cooperation to maintain the veil. I am good with either secret or open though I think secret makes a lot more work for the GM and has the potential to slow a game that is already at high risk of delays.

So I started playing 1st edition AD&D. There have ALWAYS been secret rolls in the game. Even in PF1 there were secret rolls. The only difference is that now it has an official vocab word for it.

PbP is now part of the core play styles that they list in the game (it's mentioned in the Playtest rulebook.) Just like PF1 in PbP requires a bit of difference in ordering and rolling, so too does the playtest.

I typically will do rolls that you REALLY shouldn't know in a spoiler. For example, in PF1 the DM would likely never openly roll the number of rounds until a dragon's breath resets.

I can see none of my posts from yesterday. I knew the ones in the morning were not successful but last night seemed to work. I have to dash to make a meeting on time but the short version is Seveen was happy to let others do the talking while she remained stealthily in the background ready to take action if needed. She would continue to stealth, prepared to act, as they depart with Snip.

Just a quick heads up. Starting Friday 17-Aug until Tuesday 21-Aug my internet connection is going to be spotty. I expect to get in a morning and an evening post, but likely only that.

Regarding secret rolls, I don't object to them. As DM S states, it's been part of the game forever. (I started playing in the same edition, though a few years earlier.)

Moreover, I feel it's important as a player to play the rolls as they fall. If I see someone botch a Sense Motive roll, as a player my instinct is to roll my own; but as a character one should evaluate how much you trust this other PC and play accordingly. And if the GM is one who says to roll your own Stealth check and I roll low on that, it's incumbent upon me the player to play that correctly.

Seoni is convinced she was as quiet as a mouse, without realizing her whispers of all clear were a little too loud to not be overheard.

That sort of thing. It's part of being a good player.

I need to correct myself... perception is not a "skill" so skill increases won't do. There is a feat that grants you expert proficiency in perception without any prerequisites called alertness.

I guess I'm noticing that without the ability to add skill ranks to Perception directly, then the stat modifier (and the dice to an even greater degree) plays a much bigger role than in PF1. Someone with high Wisdom in a class with middling Perception and no further investment may still have a better bonus to Perception than someone with low Wisdom, but who has tried to invest in it with Alertness. Even at higher level, that difference in Wisdom will be key.

It speaks to PF2 saying that your stats (i.e. who you are) matter just as much or more than the training and investment your character puts into the skill. At least for Perception, anyway. It seems different with other things where you add your level -- that says that your character's training ultimately will matter more than the stat.

Unless I'm wrong and you add your level to Perception checks. I don't see that though.

Unless I'm wrong and you add your level to Perception checks. I don't see that though.

I believe you are indeed wrong, you do add levels to perception checks.

From pg 301:
Perception modifier = Wisdom modifier + Perception proficiency modifier + circumstance bonus + conditional bonus + item bonus + circumstance penalty + conditional penalty + item penalty + untyped penalties

The term proficiency implies you add levels. Pg 290/291

I stand corrected in everything I said then. Level will tend to overshadow the other bonuses after a while, though the difference between same leveled characters might be decided by stats more than investment.

Hey Chris. Could you please remove me from this campaign, thank you.

HI!

I will have the most incompetent sorcerer with the group.

All his done. I only need to create his online profile.

Hello everyone.

I hope you are all doing well.

I am in the middle of some very busy packing and cleaning in preparation for moving the last couple of days this month. Next weekend I will also be at a convention. I expect through it all that I will still manage to check in a couple of times each day but please feel free to bot me if needed. I am afraid I don't have botting instructions up yet. If I can, I will work on that.

Long spear. (I know i must create my online profile.)

Given the recent situation, we have not progressed as far through play as I had expected before GMing this scenario at a convention this weekend.

Seveen will, from now, participate less in some of the decision making but will still happily support the party in all things.

Going to be away for a couple of days. Please bot me as appropriate.

What are the rules for swarm?