Ruins of Pathfinder: The Quest for Arcadia (Inactive)

Game Master Robert Brookes

I believe there was talk in the recruitment stage of having home and away teams. Looks like we've got those starting to form up :)

Hrm, I guess my post got eaten. I was reviwing the rules and just to be clear, if Mineko was to go with a group, she would not be able to use diplomacy to prevent unrest via additional actions, correct? I assume this would be the driving factor for why some people might want to hold down the fort, but I want to make sure I am on the same page.

I think Quint's onto it. So far, it seems like we're getting two squads emerging.

HOME TEAM:
Maven (healer, melee and outfitter)
Mineko (civil management, security)
Quint (logistics, morale, general backup)
Dwunderbran (guard duty, water work, and choppin' nasties)

AWAY TEAM:
Angrin (traps rogue)
Dakun (Switch hitter)
Rogath (Healer and melee backup)
Logem (knowledge and make it go boom/squish/gush/scream)

Upon cursory evaluation, my first instinct puts this arrangement as a balanced approach. The away team may be slightly lower on arcane "oomph" but they're likely to be suited for exploration, identification, and general survival. The home team is definitely geared to keep the peace at the camp and focus on upgrading our lifestyle in various ways. It's not perfect, but each team would have a magical and mundane healer, a dedicated frontliner, a brain for problem solving, and a face for chit-chat with the locals.

Feel free to amend as desired; this is after a quick scan of character sheets and open to adjustment. And besides, nothing says we can't switch out now and then.

side note: I figure Logem will appreciate the chance to "explore" the local flora and fauna away from so many prying eyes, won't you, you sadistic bastard?

Actually, while I mostly agree on this, I would sort of prefer to stay back at camp and work on creating more supplies. Dr. Logem isn't much of an explorer, and would probably prefer to let the grunts do their work, while he gathers more materials.

But if no one else wants to be on the away team, then I'll go without complaint, as I COULD definitely check out the flora and fauna..

See what kind of narcotics I could cook up..

Yeah I think swap Logem and Dwunder perhaps? I dunno, not really sure what Dwunder's goals are now (if any :p)

I definitely see the teams changing and mingling now and then depending on what we run into. Nothing's set in stone :)

I think this is a good summery. Mineko would be happy to keep things calm back at the base camp.

Angrin can do either - just remember that he does have some call for being at camp, too. Who else will make the traps to keep the monsters from eating all the food and drinking what booze we have? :P

Anyhow, that sounds good for me - I will have my post up today, promises.

So we can explore adjacent hexes then Rob, but do those require a separate kingdom action to perform?

We're not entirely on kingdom actions right now, though Sandbox exploration toes the line. Right now we're just on day-to-day measurements per the downtime system.

Exploring the adjacent hexes will take time; 1 day to get to the adjacent hex, and 2 days to fully explore, and 1 day to return with news (barring delays).

Or if we split two smaller groups of say 50 dwarves and send them north and south would they then gain their own kingdom actions (and consume extra goods)?

If you sent 50 dwarves out in every direction, you're basically assigning a "supplemental task" to the settlers of "explore." The supplemental task never said they had to be in the same place.

If you only task the settlers with exploring, then you will consume 1 unit of goods for the day for the entire group of settlers. Each supplemental action beyond the first consumes 1 more unit of goods per normal. How you divide up the dwarves for one task doesn't affect consumption (for now.)

If Mineko was to go with a group, she would not be able to use diplomacy to prevent unrest via additional actions, correct?

Correct, her day(s) would be devoted to traveling and exploring.

Dakún can has most of the skills needed for exploration under his belt, but a few additional hands could be useful. However, I think we want stealthy dwarves for exploration as we'd like to avoid conflict if at all possible. I'd be fine with a smaller group of 2 or 3 dwarves.

Dwunderbran, while a skilled fighter does not strike me as stealthy and i'd hate to see what happens if we encounter natives...

Honestly, the best group to explore might just be Dakún and Angrin, maybe Rogath if he sheds his chain shirt... maybe.

PS - Maven & Rogath, I am/was waiting for a response before posting a reply to Quint. I don't want to leave him hanging, so let me know whether I should go ahead.

It's alright with me, I think Rogath hasn't chimed in on that paricular convo yet, though.

Ok, based on what Rob is saying, I think it makes the most sense for Mineko to say back. She can fill two roles as both a damage dealer via Komainu-Kun and a face via herself.

Well Quint can now make the check taking 10, but he isn't going to complain about MIneko sticking nearby :p

Alright, so no matter how we split up our tasks we can only ever have the max of 5 actions per day. So theoretically we could take 4 explore actions to start exploring our current hex and the three adjacent ones, and if we took a fifth defend action then that would count as the explorer teams setting watches and the like as well?

Can we take explore actions like that? I thought that was only for scout actions?

I realized the "explore" action never got posted anywhere, only scout. I managed to miss it both in the original post and in the campaign info tab. I don't think I scrolled all the way down when I copied/pasted.

SPECIAL ACTIONS:
 > Explore: The dwarven settlers are typically considered to be a cohesive whole working together and cooperating towards a unified goal. If the PCs desire, they may divide out members of the settlers into "exploration" teams that may travel apart from the whole. Choosing to divide the settlers into exploration teams costs 1 daily action for the settlers, and may cost additional actions depending on how many dwarves are involved. Using 1/2 of the total settlers to explore costs 1/2 the total daily actions allotted to the settlers.

Since settlers off exploring another hex from the base camp do not have access to the settlers' cache of goods, they must be provided with a base number of goods before they depart. Each team of exploring settlers consumes 1 unit of goods per day.

Exploring settlers can gain unrest as normal, through encounters with monsters, disasters, or other hazards. Furthermore, exploring settlers who consume all of their rationed goods gain 1 point of Unrest (independent of total Unrest hedl by all settlers.) They do not add this additional Unrest until they return, and if their Unrest reaches 20 before returning home, the exploring settlers become anarchic and refuse to return, breaking off into their own independent group.

It's in the campaign info tab as well now. Basically, exploring takes 1 action (or more, depending on how many settlers you send out) and each team consumes 1 unit of goods (regardless of size/makeup, for sake of ease) each day. They have to be given provisions before they depart, since they will not have access to the cache of goods at the beach camp (your current base of operations.)

Most of the settlers are 1st-level dwarves with NPC classes like Expert and Commoner with a mish-mash of warriors and aristocrats thrown in. The majority of them are craftsmen and laborers.

I should clarify, if you explore the Hex your base is in you do not need to allocate Goods as the teams can come back and resupply before setting out again on any one day's work.

Heh, okay that helps. You can see why I was asking so many questions now :p

Yeah I was baffled at first, then I went to go check my wording and was like ". . . . ."

Arg. Nothing's coming. Sorry, guys. I'm wrestling with a dozen worries right now, and my mind is toast. I'm hoping the holiday weekend will give me the chance I need - if not earlier. Sorry. x_x

I was reading the posts since my last and wanted to clarify something: Is Dwunder's action of catching fish/etc supposed to be on the same day as the beach landing/scouting/etc or is that for the following day?

Given that posting has slowed down, I was going to move us ahead to the morning of Day 2 tomorrow and just wanted to get that cleared up before I do.

Also, since we'll be moving on to Day 2 shortly, could everyone let me know their plan for this time? There's been some discussion of scouting, teams, and such. I need to know what the settlers will be doing, and what you all individually have planned.

Sorry; that would have been after the meeting on the firs day I believe. I lagged behind on giving the Downtime rules a good digestive process. It is also possible I misunderstood a sequence somewhere. I suppose a more definitive answer would be based on another question: is Maven setting up her triage center on the first day after the meeting, or on the second day after the scouts have returned? Whichever day her actions take place on is one and the same in regards to Dwunderbran's guard role call and fish/salvage trip.

First day, yeah. Okay, that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure to account for it (and adjust the listings of goods appropriately on the campaign info tab).

Also, I'm going to be getting the wiki finalized this week, which means some of the micromanagement stuff will be kept there; (kingdom stats, resources totals, running tallies of loot, etc.) So I recommend everyone head on over, make a wikidot.com account and join the site (password: chainsaws) so you can make edits to pages on your own if need be.

So Mineko is electing to say behind and use Diplomacy to allow the dwarves to continue actions. My question for the group is what actions do you want the Dwarves to continue working on while you scout the hex?

The trick to Maven's plans is that they require we figure out where we're really settling down first. She'll want to get a smithy up and running, as well as a more established medical center, and somewhere along the way, get the word of good ol' Torag flowin' with some temple-y type structures.

I don't see any reason she would have waited to set up the triage tent, assuming she had the energy for it and even semi-suitable supplies could be salvaged, since mending can take care of any items not completely destroyed by the trip.

As for the others? Can't think of anything specific, other than just strengthening our position in terms of supply and defense.

I would be in favor of setting the dwarves to a crafting option.
I still think building wagons, carts, and the like is a good idea. We need to get moving off the shore and into the land beyond (The western hills look good to me). Salvage should also be an action.

As an OOC note, Maven, I would say we should wait on the temple. Unless you mean something more like a shrine? A temple means a more permanent structure than we want right now, to me.

I'm not sure that wagons are viable yet; we only have three beasts of burden currently that I'm aware of (donkeys) and two of those are likely laden with Logem's lab equipment. Sleds and barrows would help though.

Dwunderbran would prefer to be on an exploration team. He is a poor choice to leave at camp consistently. He'd probably go stir crazy and start finding increasingly intolerable ways to entertain himself.

Alright then, Dr. Logem will stay behind and let Dwunder take his place. Though I'm good at combat, I'm also quite good at downtime activities as well - so this might be for the best.

Just make sure you guys bring me any samples! I'll make a post about it before everyone leaves, but.. Dr. Logem will likely be willing to trade something for any corpses (Humanoid or otherwise) brought to him, in addition to plantlife. Live specimines of the former would be best!

Peanuts/Quint's suggested activities for the camp:
1. Defend
2. Craft (Dwarf powered items such as sleds and barrows like Dwunder said. Unless we have some additional livestock I'm not aware of)
3. Salvage
3. Salvage

Logem, you want to crunch the numbers on how many hand carts, barrows and etc. that we can make with our +50 to craft rolls? :)

Here's a recap of what we have settled thus far

HOME TEAM:
Maven (healer, melee and outfitter)
Mineko (civil management, security)
Quint (logistics, morale, general backup)
Logem (knowledge and make it go boom/squish/gush/scream)

AWAY TEAM:
Angrin (traps rogue)
Dakun (Switch hitter)
Rogath (Healer and melee backup)
Dwunderbran (guard duty, water work, and choppin' nasties)

- - - - -

ACTIONS
1. Defend
2. Craft (Dwarf powered items such as sleds and barrows.)
3. Salvage
3. Salvage

PERSONAL ACTIONS
Quint:
Maven:
Logem:
Dwunderbran:
Mineko:
Angrin:
Rogath:
Dakun:

I don't see any Explore actions for the settlers, so are some of the PCs going out exploring while the camp gets to Defending/Crafting/Salvaging? What is everyone going to be doing on this fine (cloudy) day?

My vote: Explorinate the hills to our west (aka, explore the hex to the west). Maybe we can designate a team to explore the beach landing hex while our PC-Away Team explores wherever we end up exploring? I think we should certainly be trying to find a better place for a basecamp further inland asap. That beach just doesn't seem friendly.

That is reasonable. Angrin will go out to explore, naturally - does this restrict what actions he may take on a personal level? It stands to reason that it does, but I wanted to be sure.

If not, he'll set up his bear traps on key perimeter locations around the base camp.

I would say that someone should also try to cheer the people up - Dakún already did a memorial service - a rather nice one, might I add, - but I think that we're still at Unrest 2? Perhaps someone should diplomatically explain who is going to be gently guiding the dwarves from now on?

Unrest is currently at 1

Thank you. xD I wasn't quite sure.

Yeah Angrin, that's what I meant; most of Maven's real work can't get underway until we're established. Anything major that I start right now would just have to be torn down and packed up, or abandoned for now. No bueno.

Robert does explore count as our Personal action?

Everyone: I think we should either explore our current hex or the Western hills hex. If we can do both, that would be best. Perhaps a fifth action for the settlers? I think currently even Quint could pull off a take 10 DC to give us those actions.

Explorers: I recommend removing all armor that gives armor penalties. We want to be stealthy as well as able to run if needed.

That is wisdom. Angrin's got some good armor, though, so it should be fine. Loving the masterwork studded leather.

Robert does explore count as our Personal action?

Everyone: I think we should either explore our current hex or the Western hills hex. If we can do both, that would be best. Perhaps a fifth action for the settlers? I think currently even Quint could pull off a take 10 DC to give us those actions.

Explorers: I recommend removing all armor that gives armor penalties. We want to be stealthy as well as able to run if needed.

Yep, exploring takes your whole day's worth of actions (and will take two days worth given dwarfy speed.)

I'm working on a post for Mineko for the morning segment. My intention today is to prevent unrest via additional actions for the dwarves. Have we figured out how many carts we can put together?

Not yet no. I was hoping Logem would take care of that for us :p

As to Quint's personal action, he is going to be completing a census of the surviving dwarves and using the opportunity to curry some favour and grease some palms as it were, with promises of allocations and goods and such ;) Which is to say he'll be using Knowledge (local) for skilled work to gain influence. 1d20+7

In case anyone is wondering or interested, his short term goal is going to be recruiting a team of bureaucrats to help him with his administrative efforts, and to increase his and Mineko's stature within the camp :p

If we want to explore the current hex as well as the western hex the PCs are heading for, then I'd say either add another action, or swap out a salvage (since people seem keen to move on. Given the way the weather is this morning Quint's not inclined to argue too much).

So the below with the fifth one up for debate:
ACTIONS
1. Defend
2. Craft (Dwarf powered items such as sleds and barrows.)
3. Explore
4. Salvage
5? Salvage

Carts specifically, or any of the different wagon-like vehicles?

Anything that can be dwarf powered and handle some rough terrain since we don't have any beasts of burden.

I don't suppose anyone took ranks in Handle Animal? We might have to domesticate us some wild beasties!

My Driver has a +4 Handle Animal.. he's most just a cart driver though.

Well hopefully some of the NPCs know about it... Would that come under a craft action Rob? :p "Dwarves, craft us some horses!" heh...

Build an ale-powered tank.

Drink all the ale and wander off in a stupor.

Loaded up a few questions for ya Logem to get the conversation going :)

That seems somewhat counterproductive Dwunder. Also the last attempt at brewing ale exploded so our supplies are likely dangerously low already for a dwarven expedition :p

out of his makeshift tent

Makeshift tent? Silly Rob, I brought an actual tent! :D

Also, working on my reponse now, Quint.

Haha! Oh, I was picturing him in a tarp-tent like the rest of the survivors. I should've known better ;)

Well hopefully some of the NPCs know about it... Would that come under a craft action Rob? :p "Dwarves, craft us some horses!" heh...

Serious Answer: I think animal husbandry would fall under Profession/Handle Animal.

Non-Serious Answer: You will need a lot more raw meat before you begin crafting horses.