S03-18 The God's Market Gamble (Inactive)

Game Master Awenydd83

Hi there! Thank you guys for giving me this chance to try my hand at being a GM. A little back ground before the meat and bones of things. I used to DM quite frequently.. back in Ye Old AD+D... I stopped for several reasons back when 3 and 3.5 were coming out, so that should give you some brief idea of a time frame. Granted, I have only been playing Pathfinder for about a year and a half, but I was getting bored fighting to get into games so I though I would give this a trial run.

So... Welcome! And thank you for taking the time to tell me how much I suck and how horrible this idea is! LMAO. Anyways, I *used* to be a RAW/RAI kind of DM. I did, and plan to, make adjustments as necessary to make things better, but I don't just make things up as I go and tend to be rather anal about having my crap together and ready. This being a test run for me, please feel free to point out any deficiencies or mistakes. Let me know where I screw up so that I can learn how to do this correctly.

Now, For the real reason that yall are here. Taking Zach's advice, I have whittled things down to three choices. I will lay them out here with a brief description, and then we can agree on one (or, in one case, SIX!)

The Gods Market Gamble: This was Zach's first choice. I think that it will be fun. It has a good mix of fighting and problem solving, and a good story line

Rise of the Goblin Guild: Once again, the possibility for a lot of fun. Due to a couple of things that I cannot divulge, I could have ALOT of fun running this, if I get it right. Less puzzle, more fighting.

The Silverhex Chronicles: Six mini adventures that are pretty straight forward, and can be played in any order. This choice has some really neat loot and boons attached to it, and is a replayable tier 1. Advantage: Not a lot that I can screw up here. Disadvantage: must use pregens and only assign the chronicle to a level 1.

Dot in below with your vote, or discussion. If anyone has played one of the first two, then we can talk about dismissing that choice. Right now, I am more about a good group and effective feedback than I am about being picky with what game I am going to run. If you have any other choices to present, let me know.

I haven't played any of those options so whatever is fine with me. If you say Rise of the Goblin Guild will be fun, I'm all for that. (I'm not sick to the gills of goblins, like Ian is haha.) I'll be playing a human inquisitor; what's everyone else running?

In terms of GMing style, in PFS you're supposed to use RAW for everything, rather than RAI. Now if we aren't doing this for PFS credit, throw whatever you like in there and let's have fun. But just wanted to let you know.

O.k.. Nate, Good point on the RAW/RAI. I will keep that in mind, but I have seen a lot of GM's here take things pretty loosely. But I will keep that in mind so as to err on the side of RAW.

Also, We will need at least one more person. Any ideas?

Nate and Zach.. Think Ian would would like to join us?

I dunno, he didn't seem that into PbP but I could be wrong, I would actually suggest you take it to the public-- put that you've got 4 slots to fill (or less, if you don't want a big group). I'd be surprised if we didn't have a full group in a matter of hours.

Hi everyone. VinGoodman/Gary Wang here. Thanks for inviting me to the table.

I have played Rise of the Goblin Guild. As for the other two, I would be happy to play either one. Do you want fresh characters if we play The God Market Gamble?

Checking in! And I haven't played any of those options either.

Gary: if we do gods market, than it doesn't have to be a new character. If we do the silverhex, I'm still trying to figure out the language they used.

-Posted with Wayfinder

And btw, Silverhex chronicles is 6 "mini" adventures.. 1 hr each instead of 3-4.. but you will end up with 6xp and 9pp

Someone posted you get the "best line" here for Silverhex Chronicles.

I would go with this interpretation, since it looks most reasonable relative to length in comparison to scenarios. For 4 of them, you would get 1 xp 2 fame 2 pp, which is what you'd typically get for a 4 hour scenario.

ok.. I see that many people have had the same problem with interpretation that I was having. So.. You are right, but the loot is worth it.. i think

Yea I don't really have a preference, so it's whatever you think would be the most fun. I don't choose based on the loot and stuff, I just play whatever modules sound interesting.

Ok then.. God's Market it is then. I will try to get everything together today.. but Chris has a stomach bug and I think he gave it to me. I will do my best to get everything updated. I will also open the recruitment tab so we can get one or two others in here.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Recruitment thread is up, we will see what we get. Zach and Gary, would you mind dotting in on the gameplay thread for me please?

Alright. I have Aerondor and Doublegold reporting in, both with Lvl 3 characters. Please check in with the character you wnat to use, and we will get going soon. If everyone gets checked in, we can get going tomorrow, otherwise it will be monday. Well met, everyone!

I'm in, going to double check things to see if they are updated before I go to gameplay.

Level 3, here we go. Have a purchase or two to make, but he should be pretty updated. I'll check through him tonight to make sure everything is in order.

Val/Aerondor here.

BTW, Val will be spending 1000gp on a pearl of power for a first level spell.

no problem. Please remind me of that at the end what I do the chronicle sheets.

Looks like a group that could use some good company. Perhaps that's why I'm sent. Etiana (VinGoodman) here, at your service ;).

And while I am thinking about it, could everyone post thier PFS info please?

-Posted with Wayfinder

Chronicle: 2
History: 0–05: Mists of Mwangi
My Name: Gary Wang
AKA: Etiana
Faction: Sovereign Court
PFS: 152845-6
XP: 1
Prestige: 2
Fame: 2
Gold: 562.4gp (3.4 + 509 + 50)
Day job: Profession (Courtesan): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Purchased:
wand of CLW (2pp)
mw whip (301gp)
spring loaded wrist sheath[AdvA] (5gp)

Sold:
whip (1gp)

Net Gold: 257.4gp

Nathan aka Hush
PFS #: 89635-5
Faction: Sovereign Court
XP: 0
Fame/Prestige: 0
Day job: none
Starting gold: 28 gp

DoubleGold: Zac Freelan
#135676-2
exchange
stuntman: 6 + 1d20 ⇒ 6 + (13) = 19

Name: Dominic Barvasi
PFS #: 89501-5
Faction: Liberty's Edge
No day job at this time.

PFS character: 100387-2
Faction: Grand Lodge
Next Chronicle: #5
Current XP: 6
Fame / Current Prestige: 10/10

Dayjob(calligraphy): 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (10) + 16 = 26

Thank you guys

Ok, so this happened a little sooner than I thought it would. How do the rest of you guys handle it when a character asks a question that is not covered in the scenario?

read ahead to determine if the question asked is answered in the scenario, and maybe roll to see if the NPC would know. If the answer is not covered just make it up, as it might not be important. Like if I asked an NPC, what his/her favorite color is, it surely wouldn't be in the scenario, it would be you the DM would make up.

Right. And that's what I've been doing. Halfway through her second post I ran out of source material and have been making it up or supplying info found elsewhere. But the direct question about the guard, if answered incorrectly, could lead you astray.. that was more my point. I know that later on there is a possibility of the Grey cloaks getting involved and it's a 1d6 roll to see how many show up but other than that I don't know

-Posted with Wayfinder

Roll things ahead of time and put them in spoilers for only you to see, then have the NPC answer it either way you want him/her to, NPC can lie, not lie, or not know.

In this specific instance, anything that isn't covered you could easily just say she doesn't know or can't remember-- she was focused on other things, didn't get a good look, whatever. More generally, yea you just do the best you can to steer us in the right direction. :-)

False clues are fine.

In this case you hopefuly know the person was either a greycloak or not, and involved in the killing or not.

If they were not a greycloak, and did the killing alone then that may be a clue we could undercover.

Alternatively if they were a greycloak operating alone that could be a nice red herring.

Generally the scenario should give clues (like that 1d6 greycloaks turing up).

Ok.. So dominic is my real life GM and he and I were texting about this today. The Module says that the arrow is covered in large scorpion venom but gives no mechanic for the PC discovering this. Zach said that I should have you roll a Craft (Alchemy) check vs the save DC of the poison. He based this on the Ultimate Equipment guide for making the poison but couldnt find anything about identifying things.
So..
1)is this just the module assuming that I would be smarter than I am (or more well versed)
2)What is the correct method for dealing with this? Should I just come out and say "this is blah blah blah" or make some kind of mechanic up so that it is player knowledge and not metagaming?

I'd go with that. I was going to pick knowledge(nature) against the poison DC, but craft(alchemy) would work as well.

Generally in this sort of case, pick a skill that sounds like it may be relevant, and pick a DC (using the poison save DC is as good as any other) and wing it.

If it is not that significant to the course of the scenario then folk get a feeling of value in having skills, and if it significant, they should provide the skill and DC.

Odd that they give a clue in the text, but no way to follow it up. Some scenario's are just odd.

I guess we are off to the last witness

I had also thought about Knowledge(Nature) as a possible DC check but figured it had to be Craft(Alchemy) since it's involved in almost all other poison-related checks. Also, I agree with Valindil that you just have to go with what sounds reasonable and wing it when this sort of thing occurs, which you'll find is surprisingly often. I can't count the number of time's that I've had to make stuff up on the fly because a PC thought/tried something that the scenario offers no info on.

So DevilDoc and I are discussing whether or not the merchant picks up on my sarcasm. The agreement we reached is that I'll roll a diplomacy check and he'll roll a sense motive. If he beats me, the merchant realizes that I'm a jerk. If not, then we're fine.

There actually is no stat in there for sense motive or even charisma mods, so I am going to forgo the Sense motive check, run off your diplomacy check, and see where we end up with the conversation. I have a bit of wiggle room here but not much. This part of the module reads pretty complicated with a whole bunch of "If this happens then this goes there" type of stuff. I originally thought that his first post was going to immediately scuttle the whole thing, but rereading (for about the hundreth time) i found a loop hole in how Dominic phrased the comment and what I knew was meant vs what Jared thinks is meant.

And if the merchant realizes you're a jerk, Etiana will try to rescue the conversation diplomatically :). If that's an option, that is. Etiana can resort to more demanding means...

That is most certainly an option, Etiana.

Or you could just make up a number. When I run into stuff like that as a GM, I just pick a reasonable bonus and roll. For example, a novice shopkeeper might have a +2 or +3 to his Sense Motive; a more experienced one might have a +7.

ok cool. I was actually going to roll with a +3.. figured that as a shopkeeper he would know when he was being swindled, but didnt want to make it too hard either. I guess the pattern that I am seeing in my deficiencies (that I know of) is knowing HOW to operate within the game mechanics and still go off script when needed. Is there anything else that yall can see that I need work on?

Or you could just make up a number.

I recommended a DC 13 but he thought this would be better.

The game seems fine so far. Especially with PFS scenarios if we start to go too off track I think you are totally within bounds of saying, 'you can do that but it is not catered for in the scenario, so it wont help your mission at all'.

Of course when the party decides to punch out their source of information a stronger hand is required. For me, I'd probably go with

"Did you actually want to hit him, or are you just trying to intimidate him?" - which is probably a good hint that punching shop keepers in the middle of a market district is more likely to land you in the stocks than it is to generate any information.

Etiana will try to salvage this scene here, as only a proper servant of Calistria can. Let's see if he takes bait.

You all try to handle the guards. Give up Zac if we have to, but I would prefer to salvage a win here for the whole team. Let them know a cleric of Calistria is "tending" to the man, if they do go somewhere private. If the guards are men, they should know better than to interrupt him at the moment.

Let's see if that 23 diplomacy roll is worth anything here (hint, hint - friendly reminder Etiana is pretty charming before this merchant)

If yall are still thinking of going to the Greycloaks, I can see to getting you Jareds information from there. There will be no further repercussions should yall move from the area. The market is crowded and you will be able to blend in and move out sight without problems

I think the Greycloakds is the last spot we have to gather information from. Let us hope our resident fighter doesn't poke them.

Not that Val is exactly the big diplomat

Ok guys. I can see your point, but lets please let bygones be bygones. Zac made a mistake, and I hope that the lesson has been learned. In order to complete this, I am sure that ALL members of the party are going to be essential, and team work is going to be required to beat the boss. Very soon now, the talking will end and it is going to move a lot faster.. feel free to take your stress out on the coming baddies instead of each other.

Fair enough.