Where should we go from here. We have people in the middle of building. My vote would be to get Blythe safe and return to the boat all together. What does everyone else say? If the ones who are building want us to go on. I'll get Nngara's rope and we both can climb down to search the boat with Blythe.
Blythe is safe! fall of the - jump off the blasted cliff and come loot the summoners body with her, lol.
In regards to the charge rules, my interpretation:
You can always charge in less than a double move, i.e. single move. Charge just allows you to double and still attack. But to do so, no matter the amount of movement, it IS a FRA. FRA cannot be readied, I think. Don't recall specifics on this, but it seems right in my head.
Either way, where I think other bloke felt slighted was he was moving through a building but didn't realize the DM considered him to be in combat because of the tremorsense. So when he went for his actions, they were all used up by his moves. Poisonblade started combat (but didn't state it here) when the tremorsense was triggered. Pouty bloke started combat when he saw the snickety snick creature.
Communication error, simple fix. And either way, DM Poisonblade was right. Because that's what he ruled. His story. His call.
Instead, I got to watch my five-year old throw a fit at the first die roll that didn't go her way and storm out of the room.
Oh wait...my five-year old doesn't do that.
Anyway...glad there are sensible people here who know how to role-play with people. Cause then they can roll-play with imaginary people, and not fight.
+4 acrobatic means I need a 16 to land safely from 20' or 11 for 10' (1d6)
-1 climb isn't much better ;)
2d6 damage is tough for a 9 HP player!!
Wuss. ;)
Lol. True!!!!
See those rolls??!! Thank goodness for rope.
Oh...and easy for a monk to say!
Bah - lets all get to the ship and see what is there. Before it decides to fall into the ocean. We can secure the rope to a tree at the top and since the cliff is only 20', 50' of rope should be no problem. Heck, we can loop/tie off the middle and have two ropes going down to the deck of the boat in case we need to climb up faster.
The benefit for the Piranha Strike is that it works with weapon finesse and don't have to have Str. like Power Attack. I think I saw a thread talking about high Dex characters without Str using is and monks.
The Rhino Charge thing is one I saw before but said nothing because it is never clarified in the threads discussing it. I think Paizo wants the person in charge of the game to make some decisions.
Wow. Good thing you waited for the rope, lol.
I'm sorry to see Rax go over one wasted action which didn't really change the outcome of a fight.
I'd also like to say that if at some point you think my slow posting rate hinders the game, please let me know about it and I will think about withdrawing too. With so many posts and branching conversations in every post it's hard for me to keep touch on the events so far.
I'm fine with staying at 5 players, but do not object to hiring a 6th either.
I really like your character and see interest things for him in the future. I plan to slow my IC posting to allow you and Angada catch up and stay abreast of what is going on.
After the ship everyone while be on the same time frame.
I am very interested in seeing how Linard's and Jask's conversation/relationship plays out.
I am fine with whatever. I easily keep up. My life is such that the pace is slow for me. I sometimes might misread something but my life is such that a day or weekend might miss but overall browse these boards multiple hours a day. I am not complaining. It is how PbP works and I get to do things that I don't with my home PFS group. PFS has gotten stale for me as I don't really develop my characters.
I'm on a computer for a large portion of the day, and check it regularly, so it's easy to just refresh and see what mischief I can cause. ;)
Same with me. I check with my phone every hour or so. Sometimes every two-three hours if I'm busy ;)
Lets just say that I am on way too much. For instance I am riding the train and posting from my laptop which is tethered through my phone right now. Bet AT&T really hates me.
Lol. Good. Haters gotta hate. I'm on computer, iPad 2 or phone...in decending order, lol.
Sorry on that post, Nngara. I did totally miss my punctuation, and it did look a little confusing. I don't do inner dialogue, (as you can't read Blyhte's mind, and I bold names so that the character I'm speaking of knows they are being refered to. Italics just doesn't read well enough. I figure if I can't give you a sense of what She's thinking without telling you outfit, I'm writing her wrong. :)
Anyway, I am enjoying that your broken common differs from mine. :)
Are we waiting on something?
How should we handle loot?
I prefer even splits among the party. If something cool shows up, you can go into debt and then pay back by taking less at a later time. I assume that the game will no be so unbalanced that all the loot will favor one class or another.
I have seen pbp games practically come to blows using the "whoever can use it should just take it" method. This way, if there is a +1 longsword, it most likely goes to the fighter, rogue, or bard. If it is scrolls, they go to the wizard or cleric.
Disposable items to benefit the party should not be counted against your take. Thus, a Wand of CLW would not be charged to the cleric, but a +1 Mace or armor would.
Wizard scrolls that I can scribe into my book should be charged to me, but those that will be cast for the benefit of the party probably should be party loot.
As a character, Linard would probably be all for fair trading, no free exchange of items, etc. As a player, it bores me to no end, and is detrimental to the party success. I will try to enforce equal splits if we come to find something of pure monetary value, but the combat items should probably go to whoever uses them best.
No, put it all in a pot.
(1000) +1 Sword
(1000) +1 Mithral shirt
(50) 4 level 1 arcane scrolls
(75) 1 level 2 arcane scroll
(75) 3 CLW potions
(1000) Ring +1
3300 gp
Total value: 6500
--> deduct 150 for potions --> group treasure
split value = 6350/5 people = 1270 each
Sword+270gp --> Harper
Armor+270gp --> Angada
Ring+270gp --> Blythe
Scrolls+1145gp --> Nngara
1270gp --> Linard
But, if it was a +2 shirt instead of +1, then:
(1000) +1 Sword
(2500) +2 Mithral shirt
(50) 4 level 1 arcane scrolls
(75) 1 level 2 arcane scroll
(75) 3 CLW potions
(1000) Ring +1
3300 gp
Total value: 8000
--> deduct 150 for potions --> group treasure
split value = 7850/5 people = 1570 each
Sword+570gp --> Harper
Armor-930gp --> Angada
Ring+570gp --> Blythe
Scrolls+1345gp --> Nngara
1570gp --> Linard
Since Angada is 930 in the hole, he just records this as owing either Nngara or Linard the coin and then pays it off with the next loot. So, he might owe Linard 500 so that Linard only received 1070 from the loot, and owed Nngara 430 so that she received 915 from the loot.
___________________
I have used this method in several games and never had a problem. We can just split stuff, but invariably someone will suddenly discover that they are way behind, or way in front of others which can create some disgruntlement by those with less.
I've seen a system where another equal share is assigned to hold the items which can benefit everyone (such as money for transport or healing potions). This way we get 6350/6 = 1060 gp each and the party fund holds 1050 gp.
Another thing which is not clear to me is if it's better to count items at purchase value or at sale value. Because if you get a +1 sword you can use, it's equivalent of spending 2000gp to buy it. But if you're not proficient in it, you'll have to add 1000gp to swap it for one you can use.
I am fine with any system. I just don't want to be the main one tracking it.
Taking 10%, or one share, as group loot/Wand of CLW money/etc. is fine with me. While I am proposing the system, I am likely not the best one to keep track of this stuff. Currently I am 3 weeks behind in updating the Campaign Info on the campaign I am running. I will get to it at some point, but doubt you all want to wait like that. (The campaign is rolling on, I just hope the players are keeping good notes.)
Well I certainly want a system that isn't accounting heavy, as I will no doubt be keeping my own person records on this.
However Nngara makes a good point, one that I aggree with, or at least the spirit of her point. Scrolls and Potions shouldn't be track.
I never count them when figuring out a characters over all wealth. There so easily used up in a flash that it matters very little who has what when. Aside from they are typically very weak and it seems like only the defensive potions and scrolls are of any use.
It is also rare that I track a wand. Typically only if its 3rd level, has nearly full charges, or is offensive. However I do keep a loose idead of where the charges have gone. For instance a PC is using Wand of Magic Missiles at every fight, and now that we have had our sixth epic CR fight he still has charges (not to mention the 11 others) then I might ask how many charges are left. If they say 'I don't know' then I wack em' if they give me a high number I wack em' even harder. If the estimate seems right I find a way to reward them, generally by giving another wand of a different spell in the loot.
I take pride in tailoring adventures to help the characters. Yet sometimes I throw in a twist or two. I also try to keep in mind who got what last. Sometimes I hold off on giving someone something, if the player seems patient, in lue of a bigger better item later. Shoot I even gave out an artifact staff at first level to one guy. Though the staff was asleep, and awaken based on his levels.
We will give Blythe and Angada a chance to post, and then we will see what comes together.
I dislike having to buy items from the pot and I for sure don't agree with individual and group loot. I consider armor for the fighter to be group beneficial. Same with weapons. Spells might be affecting the group but overall so is the extra damage or protection not requiring more things.
I think loot is better served helping the party. I am not saying that just because loot helps a character that they should get it. I think something for saves, armor, and a weapon is important for each character though I know some that armor is more difficult but could easily opt for something else. Unless everyone is equipped the same amount then if ahead have to decide to trade in old for sale for group gold or pass on new item for sale.
I do not look to be the most heavily outfitted magic item character. Normally want a magic weapon (or 2) and armor. I will take saving throw item but normally would rather have something else.
I think loot should be viewed at how it helps the party. If there is a +2 shirt that would help the cleric better then I am not worried that the 2125 is not being split by the party to help make our cleric tougher. If he already had + 1 hide then would have to pick which one he wanted and the other is sold for the group money. Normally it is 2 to 3 items picked before have to start trading unless everyone has same number then it ups by 1. This is one that allows less bookkeeping and less worries about trying to remember who has done what. Can easily look at character sheets and see how many items someone has.
I do agree with a share of loot going to party needs.
I am not planning on tracking and if other system is used then I will state now that I plan on taking no loot and just wish to be given my money.
I am less worried about how much gold I have and what not. I keep meticulous track of what I have, but I'm not going to ever cause an argument over "you got".
GM, I have a house rule (as I hate tracking wands, and find that most don't get used over the course of levels, where as a FRA you may apply any metamagic feat to a wand, but it uses three times the spell slots to use it. Example:
Anyone who wields a wand, or successfully activates a wand with a UMD check, may utilize it with metamagic feats. Using metamagic feats increases the UMD check by the number of levels the metamagic feat requires.
If you want to use your wand of fireball with the maximized, quickened and silenced metamagic feats (+3 spell levels, +1 and +4), you use 1 (for the normal) +9, +3, +12 (each tripled) for a total of 25 charges, and a UMD DC of 26. Which means you may use the wand twice before it is burnt out. It also is very expensive for just two attacks (or more, depending on how you play it), but you are more likely to use it.
This means that for battles with mooks, I am unlikely to drop a fireball on them, dominating the fight. I must use lesser spells, or at least other spells. I save this for the BBEG. Which my BBEG, and even Elites are pretty scary.
Anyway, it's just a thought. I know some people hate the idea.
And keep in mind: I'm a monk. Even when I take a few levels of Magus, I won't be able to do much with wands. This is more beneficial to others in the party, not myself. :)
Personally I find attack wands worthless because of the cost. Wand of Mage Armor, Wand of Mount, Wand of Unseen Servant, Wand of Shield. Those are all useful as the long duration makes them useful. Fireball and lightning bolt wands are ungodly expensive and a Wand of Magic Missile is a waste of money and a standard action in my opinion.
Just my 2 cents. Mind you, if we find a Wand of MM CL5, I will be sure to use it when running out on other useful options.
I've felt similarly. My thought in implementing this at my table was to get players to actually use them, and want to use them. To be able to do something pretty cinematic, rather than pretty repetative.
Anyway, just my thoughts. :)
I'm heading to L.A. this weekend. Will try to keep up on posts.
I am a little concerned due to lack of posts. Willing to give it another week, to see what happens.
I am definitely still in!
I am on most of the time. Been waiting for others to respond.
All - if people are already uninterested in this campaign, please let us know so that we can find replacement players who are. Blythe and Angada have not posted in nearly a week and posting has been intermittent from others. If we are going to play this, people should be posting at least once a day. If people cannot even commit the few minutes it takes to read 5-10 posts and type up a thoughtful response, then please let us know that you are bowing out.
Nngara/Tirion
I'm with you, Nngara. My character is a quieter one, anyway, due to language barriers, but I check daily. My biggest issue is we all responded with wehat our plans were for camping, and then we had the Ishiro bit...but then nothing happened.
Proactive rather than reactive.
It seems prudent to allow time for inner PC conversations slash relations to develop, or for actions based on the Player initiation. While I am no expert on PbP it seems to me that the players should be proactive and less led by the GM. This matches exactly how I like my personal games to go as well.
So when you don’t see something from me this is what I am doing. Giving you each a chance to do something. I love sand boxes and this AP is as close to one as you can get.
Minimum post is once every three days, which is more than fair. I wave this if you post something about being gone, naturally. It is also not an instant boot on the forth day of not posting. That will happen only when it is obvious that the ‘player’ doesn’t give a sh*t.
Every so often I will throw something out. By dropping a hint, giving a hook, or simply by alerting the players to the tasks at hand. I will always leave plenty of room for the players to wiggle around in.
Just so you all are aware, I know the NPCs very well, and will enjoy any conversation starters a PC decides to post up.
Oh one more thing
If you want to recruit go ahead. Just post who you think would fit and why. If Angada doesn't post by like next Friday I think it is safe to assume he is out.
I am comfortable adding two people regardless of Angada’s status.
Everyone seems to be doing ok, I was just a bit concerned when Harper and Bylthe weren't, or didn't seem to be. Linard is slow, but there is nothing wrong with it. His posts are good quality and he has informed us of his variation.
If it was just some different expectations/assumptions that is understandable and we have no problem.
Right, mention that you're leaving...which I did. And it was still pointed out that I wasn't posting...even though I did. My character went back to sleep, as she was exhausted. Not much I could do. I was waiting for the night to end, or an attack to happen. It still hasn't. Nngara assumed we survived, but we were never told. Which means my character is technically still asleep. But becuase it had been a freaking week since I stated that, and not a bloddy thing had happened, I got involved in the conversation.
Sandboxes don't work on pbp's, just my opinion. Pbp's are reactive venues, not proactive. You need direction, and options. I can't say "I think I'll go climb the mountain, cause I could see from there"...cause there isn't any mountain to my characters knowledge. It takes way too long to come up with my own plotlines, and have six characters going in different directions, in this "speed" of gameplay. We needed an encounter (not combat) a week ago.
I think your storytelling is fine, Poisonblade, even good. But if you feel that this is going to be succesful in a sandbox setting, with zero forward movement in a week and players disappearing, then perhaps this won't work as a campaign. I'm unfamiliar with it, but I've literally questioned several times to myself "why would we choose a campaign to run that makes us roleplay survivor, and count our coconuts? At a table we'd be done in 30 minutes.
But over a week? Thats not fun. :(
PbP definitely need direction from the DM. Q&A between the players and the NPCs is tough as 2-3 questions can take 2 days time. When parties get split, it becomes very slow and tough for the DM as time may progress at different rates resulting in half the party having to wait for the rest to catch up.
Nngara does not have a lot of personality, but she knows that keeping everyone together is in the best interest of all. However, she is not going to fight people if they want to stay here and die. I do not know whether the other survivors are supposed to be henchmen or like red shirts from Star Trek. Probably Harper or someone else other than Blythe and I should try to convince them to come with us and throw up a diplomacy roll or two. If the NPCs want to stay here and take their own lives into their own hands at that point it is fine. Then we can get to exploring the island.
Regarding the island. Lets finish off the peninsula we are on and then move around the island from there.
something I have taken to heart
Meh, we have a differance of opinion there Bylthe. However do read the Note about Mysterious Strangers and Character Interactions.
Aside from that this thing is dead in the water. Thanks for giving it a try. It just may be the GMing PbP isn't for me.
lol, .
Well I guess you would have to be mad. Really I think I should have just shot this first attempt in the head a week or so ago.
At anyrate sorry for taking my bat and ball and going home, but I just can't do this. Its way to much work and utter bullsh*t for not much reward.
Wait, what the heck is going on? It's been 27 hours since my last post and we've had another drama unfold? Really?
GM Poisonblade, I really like your GMing style so far, but in my opinion (not that it should matter to you) you have to re-adjust your expectations. We're all complete strangers, from all over the world, different age, with daily jobs, families and friends. Of course there will be moments of disagreement or simple miscommunication. People will drop for weeks or sometimes months due to various IRL problems.
You are completely free to set a rule that a week of not posting without warning drops you from the game, it's quite fair. But since you set this rule, you must have expected that it will actually happen, and it's not a good reason to drop the game over.
Similarly, if you've been silent and waiting for us to be proactive, it means that YOU haven't been proactive in engaging us into a situation which calls for interactions. (I'm fed up with this 'proactive' BS at my daily work where it's like a mantra, to be honest). We are thousand miles away and engaged in dozens IRL tasks, it is not the same as looking meaningfully at your players across the table to let them know you expect something from them. Use OOC to ask us to respond IC. It may be considered faux pas in a real table where it breaks immersion, but in PbP you're not going to reach this immersion level by default, so it's OK to sometimes use the most simple and effective prodding tricks. There are also PM's to ask people what's going on.
Finally, players who join a PbP should expect GM to occasionally take over their characters when they can't keep up the pace, because it only means the adventure continues forward and they will get to shine elsewhere. From what I've seen on these boards, PbP games take about a year to finish one AP book, and that is best-case scenario. This is also the reason why players are not always eager to engage in idle chat - because they are impatient to know what happens next, and it's just normal. Same as you are impatient to know what the players do next.
Sorry for the rant, but I liked the start of the game too much to just let it go. If you don't feel like continuing, that's OK. But please make up your mind and try to not go from 'no problem' to 'rage quit' in three hours, it just feels strange.
It's done. I refer you to my last sentence. I didn't have a problem up until I was dealing with another one. At that point I had no reason to continue.
The decision is certainly yours, GM Poisonblade. Good luck in whatever you do and perhaps we'll meet in another game.
If anyone is still interested in salvaging this game, please respond. We can fire up a search for a new GM or I can humbly propose to run it myself. I tried it once on GitP boards and it fell apart in a roughly the same way as this one. Since then I've taken over a CoT game on these boards and still run it. I am satisfied with how it goes and was pondering running another one anyway. You can check it out here to see how I run things. Caveat: it is NOT a fast game. The party has gained half a level in half a year. But I enjoy it a lot nevertheless.
Wow. This stinks. I really liked my character and the group. We started so well.
I am sorry to see this end. For all the players, lets see if we can find another DM willing to take over on a new thread. This one was fairly short, but I think that we all had a good group and this AP has really intrigued me. If anyone knows a good DM willing to take over, shoot them over here.
DM Poisonblade - I did like your DM style and am sorry this did not work out. All I can say is please read through some of the other long running campaigns to see how the players and DM interact. I direct you to my Kingmaker campaign which had some real drama before I joined about a year ago, the Runelord (Heart of Runes) campaign I am in, or the Sheik Voodoo's Katapesh Nights (a Legacy of Fire) campaign. All of these have been going for over a year. Some have had people drop out - actually, the Katapesh Nights campaign is actually the only campaign of all the ones that I am in which has not had a single player drop.
Either way, thank you for your work and I hope that you continue to like the game and hopefully can regain your interest in pbp as it is a lot of fun for those of us unable to get multi-hour blocks to play regular tabletop gaming.
Tirion/Nngara
I'm still in if we can find another. The game was rocking.
Poisonblade-I'm sorry for your bad experience. I really enjoyed your GMing style. I hate that you are done with us. Good luck with your future games.
Thanks for the invite to continue guys, but I'm already in two, so losing one will actually take a little load off, as much as I'd love to continue. And that is with me being so excited to play this character. Sigh.
I wish you all well. You seem to have the patience and tenacity to actually deal with conflict and not cry and run. I'll be damned if I didn't see it twice in this game. Lol. I don't have time to deal with people who act like children throwing fits and rocks. Luck and adventure to you all! :)
So, that leaves Nngara, Harper and Linard ready to continue. Are we going to look for a DM and then have the DM recruit more players? Or are we going to have NPCs assist us? Or are we going to call it a day?
I want to say that I had been checking and had forgotten about this game. My campaign threads did not even show this game unless I scrolled to the bottom and it showed it was inactive. I was curious and apologize for that. I did not wish to cause any issues. I don't know why the campaign went inactive for me. I saw the post about the continued building of fires and red eyes and then the campaign wasn't listed and I was working on others so forgot about it. I apologize greatly for that.
I will see whether I can find a good DM. No guarantees. I will post on a few of the OOC's on campaigns I am in. If that does not work, I will try on the recruitment thread, but would prefer a known quantity for the DM.
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This is what I posted on several threads. Will see if anyone responds. Feel free to cut and paste it to any other ooc threads where there might be good DM's looking for a campaign to run.
________________
If anyone here is interested in running a campaign, I am in a Serpent's Skull campaign with pretty good players. We were about 3 weeks in and then the DM just switched the campaign to inactive and said he did not want to deal with the issues. Issues that we have all seen a dozen times on PbP. If anyone is interested, or know someone who wants to DM a Serpent's Skull campaign, please let me know.
Here is the OOC thread for the now inactive campaign.
We have a mwangi elf wizard (me), a vanara ranger, a human cleric, and a human bard(archeologist). If someone wants to take over, we can play with 4 players, this group is decently balanced I think, or pick up 1-2 more.
As I said, we had only played for about a month, so very little has happened and we could easily restart if necessary.