Hey guys, figured we'd talk about reviving the game as a group!
Here are my initial ideas for how the game would go.
Make it Gestalt to compensate for two players and do theatre of the mind combat to speed things up. Anody would be there still but don't worry he'll be a supporting NPC. No desire to make him an all powerful GMPC of any sort
Sounds like a great idea... you're happy having Anody slipping into a more supporting role? It'll be fun to see how our characters grow - in the first instance, what are we going to do re: frontliners? I think we were all the supporting folks? I'll have a think about how Sharae could front up a bit more...
Also 'GM Stargin / Azih', do you own the Iron Gods AP? Maybe it might be worth looking through the Iron Gods part of these boards to see if there is any advice on trimming the AP to keep it moving at a good speed - there certainly seems to be a viewpoint that the Choking Tower could be a little slicker...
Hey Sharae.
I bought the entire AP :) a few weeks before it got crazy cheap on Humble Bundle :| But hey Paizo deserves my money I guess!
I'm pretty sure chillblame is still on the board and I could definitely invite him as well but, honestly, I like playing with posters that I can see are regular contributors to their games or at least give a heads up when posting time gets tight and chillblame, for all his other qualities, proved to not be that.
So that's why I'm only reached out to you and Criek. From what I can see Nemina Sho isn't on the boards anymore.
Low player count games can move much faster than the alternative so that's why I thought of Duo. I remember you wanted Sharae to have a bit more of a swashbuckly progression so I figured a duo gestalt might really help with making your characters well rounded and let you be more versatile to make up for that. You can leave Anody to be the knowledge monkey :).
If you guys think the game would work better with a frontliner type added then I'm certainly open to that though.
I think, if we are going Gestalt, then there's probably no need to go out and recruit a fourth player... three players (with one GM'ing) and theatre of the mind will make for a good pace... let's do it.
I'll start to look at the Swashbuckler options for Sharae - thoughts about how Anody and Criek might change up?
...also, I guess I need to re-read and see where we got up to.
I was thinking of Anody being a sort of a remote helper character so he wouldn't be able to help in combat. Basically he's going to become a kind of a techy tinker character and he'll be FaceTiming you guys from some safe place.
What do you think Criek?
Where we left off was we'd just killed Birdfood.
As mentioned in PM, I'm happy to see you pick this game up again!
And hi, Sharae!
I've never played gestalt before, or even really spent much time thinking about putting together characters that way, so would have to do some pondering about what to do there. Rogue or ranger, maybe.
Have either of you played in a PbP with this few people before? Do we just pause for a few days when one of us is AFK? (I ask, looking at my calendar for the next couple of months.)
At any rate, I'm in -- just noting those uncertainties.
Basically he's going to become a kind of a techy tinker character and he'll be FaceTiming you guys from some safe place.
"Anody's Angels"? Or more like Q to our James Bond?
Very definitely Q!
I'm in a solo game actually and it usually goes faster I think with fewer people. Pausing is far less of an issue when you have advance notice and you can depend on the player coming back.
Gestalt is fun Criek. You can bounce ideas off us if you want.
So I think the next decision is whether we want to get a third PC.
Check out the house rules I have on my profile too. No reason not to use them.
OK. Since it's been so long since the last game let's do this for the continuation.
20 point buy just like the last game and Level 6.
Gestalt.
ABP and redo gear to WBL/2 and replace any of the big Six that ABP gets rid of.
I'll provide a NPC type replacement for front line if you guys want.
My House rules in my profile are in effect. Will make a difference to your rebuild.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Okey-doke! Gestalt and those house rules mean we can probably do with the two of us.
Sharae, if you're looking at cleric/swashbuckler 6, then you've probably got stabbing things under control?
I was thinking rogue or ranger alongside alchemist, for skulky-shooty-blasty goodness. But could also go wizard (conjurer?) / alchemist, for ultimate nerdiness, and spells. Strong opinions either way? Either ranger or wizard would come with option of animal companion/familiar/summons for extra hands on the battlefield, too.
I think I will definitely go Cleric / Swashbuckler - bit of work to do to get her levelled up but I am travelling to France tonight (2 hours on the train followed by another 3 on the Eurostar...) so plenty of opportunity to work out plans... I like the idea of Criek going Ranger - having an animal companion may work in our advantage given there will only be two characters (and could get mobbed quite easily)... Summoner might be another option?
ABP is a really good idea... it replaces the boring items and lightens the loot calculation burden for the GM...
Is there anywhere semi-official that we should look to for working out gestalt HP, Saves and BAB?
Take the better of all three is the rule and the class features of both. I don't think there's anything semi official.
You could even consider Hunter if you want Criek.
The other nice thing about ABP is less need of a magic mart. Level up and you just get the stat bump.
...awesome - in terms of resetting our equipment to half WBL, do you have any restrictions about what we can buy? I'm kinda thinking Sharae would be looking for some tech (specifically a cool one-handed firearm of some sort) ... and Anody would surely be helping with that...
I've made a start on rebuilding but it may take a little longer than I anticipated!!!!
No, you can do as you want. We might have to work something out for your concept Sharae. Tech pistols are 10k which is over level 6 WBL/2 and swashbuckler doesn't really help the pistol side. Maybe techslinger 5/picaroon 1 for the other side of the Gestalt?
Think I'm going with Ranger (Skirmisher) / Alchemist (Trapbreaker).
Looked at hunter, too, but has a little much divine feel for Criek, and regular ranger offers more bow/bomb synergy.
In process on overhauling character sheet, but having a busy week, so slow going.
Let's aim for sometime second week June to restart. Sharae, gunslingers give a battered pistol that is a replacement for a 1000 gold pistol. Let's replace that with a battered tech pistol (your choice of one of the 10k options) for 4000 gold. Does that sound good?
Let's aim for sometime second week June to restart. Sharae, gunslingers give a battered pistol that is a replacement for a 1000 gold pistol. Let's replace that with a battered tech pistol (your choice of one of the 10k options) for 4000 gold. Does that sound good?
Sounds awesome... it's all good flavour :)
How are the builds going?
And just curious, what do you remember about where we left off?
How are the builds going?
And just curious, what do you remember about where we left off?
Most of the way there with the build - I had a couple of hours earmarked for finishing off the Swashbuckler elements and then I had no wi-fi!!!
As to where we were.... arriving in Scrapwall looking for someone and we fought (defeated?) some fellow named Birdfood? tbh, what with the big gap between book 1 and book 2 where we fought some randoms on the river - which seemed to take forever - I did somewhat lose track!!!
Mostly there, and have updated profile; still have to tweak gear and get animal companion put together.
As far as where we left off, we'd relit the torch in Torch, addressing the imminent threats to that community, but there was still some sort of control signal being beamed in, right? And we'd traced that back to Scrapwall, which is why we headed in that direction.
And yep, wandered into a fight on the river with a boat and a fort and two bands of bandits that had taken the fort, and a necromancer -- all of which seemed to have very little clear connection to The Plot, as it were.
And upon getting to Scrapwall, found ourselves wrapped up in a gang war; Birdfood and his crew had recently offed the leaders of another band and claimed them, and the remnants of that group asked us to take out Birdfood so they could regain control, and we're helping them in hopes that they help us find the signal? And, on fighting birdfood, we found a display screen with a demonic thinger talking and casting spells out of it. Yay fun.
How's this?
The Story Thus Far:
Sharae of The River, a human wanderer from the Riverlands, and Criek Prisil, a native ratfolk of Numeria, were roped into trying to save the town of Torch when the mysterious pillar of light that gave the town its name and reason for existence, mysteriously vanished.
Delving into the tunnels beneath the town Criek and Sharae, along with some other adventurers, including a gnomish Professor from Absalom, followed in the footsteps of Khonnair Baine, a wizard and popular town councilor. He had not returned from his second expedition and the town was growing increasingly worried, not least because the forging of sky metals in the flame of Torch's light is how the settlement earned its prosperity which the tyrannical Technic League taxed the town heavily on. Without the Torch, and without Khonnair Baine, the very existence of the community was at stake.
In the tunnels the three friends found a mysterious metal wall and managed to bypass it and discovered, as Khonnair Baine had suspected, that under Torch lay the remains of an ancient starship which had crashed down onto Golarion during the Rain of Stars millenia ago. While exploring the ship the three found many technological wonders still functioning even after all this time. They found Khonnair Baine trapped in a mysterious pod and managed to rescue him. Then returning into the ship they managed to explore and fight until they reached the heart of the vessel where they discovered that a mysterious priestess calling herself a 'Lord of Rust' Meyanda had been redirecting the power from a still operation fusion reactor to a power relay in Torch and then onwards. The party defeated the robot guardian left by Meyanda and ended the theft of power which reignited Torch and brought hope back to the residents of the town.
Back on the surface Sharae, Criek, and their friends discovered that Meyanda had recruited corrupt helpers in Torch that were protecting the power relay that was sending the power on to a tough scavenger settlement known as Scrapwall. The party defeated these and recovered the power relay, ending the threat to the town.
The town councillors urged the party to travel to Scrapwall to discover what Meyanda and the Lords of Rust even wanted with the power of Torch!
After arriving at Torch, Sharae, Criek, and Anody were convinced by a tough gang leader named Sevroth Slad to 'take care' of a rival gang leader named Birdfood in exchange for her cooperation. The party agreed. Birdfood attacked them and as they fought back a mysterious demonic figure appeared on a tech screen and mocked the party while disparaging Birdfood. Then lending Birdfood demonic strength the visage vanished. The party defeated and killed the maddened Birdfood and now they return to Sevroth Slad for answers...
wrote that up pretty quickly so please forgive any typos!
Looks good to me :)
Just getting the last of my games up to speed and then I'll get Sharae finished...
Fine for starting the Gameplay thread up and getting the ball rolling if you like... looking forward to it...
Well alright then! Game has started! Sharae, I think I might have to ask you to at least dip one level into Techslinger. Otherwise you're going to have spend a feat to get proficiency with your pistol. Up to you though of course! You guys are getting a bunch of 'bonus' feats anyway with the feat tax reduction house rules.
How often do you guys think you can post? I'm hoping for around a post a weekday from all of us. Only possible way to get through an AP I think!
Well alright then! Game has started! Sharae, I think I might have to ask you to at least dip one level into Techslinger. Otherwise you're going to have spend a feat to get proficiency with your pistol. Up to you though of course! You guys are getting a bunch of 'bonus' feats anyway with the feat tax reduction house rules.
Cool - I'll check the Techslinger...
Also, totally with you on Daily Posting!!!
How much do you guys know about the AP.
Knowing ALL THE SECRETS is a bit of an odd space to be in :).
I know the general arc as to the individual adventure synopses... I do own the AP but, as were playing in Chillblame's game, never read it...
Sorry I haven't been keeping up, have been down with a cold. Just chimed in to gameplay, and should be able to do at least a post every weekday without problem.
I skimmed Lords of Rust in the fall, after chill stopped running it and I was wondering if I had the space to pick up GMing. So I'll probably find some things familiar as we go along, but I couldn't say from memory how the book proceeds from where we are now.
Man the website problems are really putting a damper on all the games :|
And I'll be annoying and asking for feedback as we go so... how's the intro guys?
I'm planning on you finding your pistol in the Clockwork Chapel Sharae.
So it wasn't just me having forum troubles the last day or two, then?
So far, so good, otherwise! Though it has dawned on me that the proper animal companion for a ratfolk is a big cat, obviously. Assuming it's okay to restat, since he hasn't actually made an on-screen appearance yet? I can do that tonight.
Hah. Criek with a large cat following him around is a wonderful image. Just like Sharae's pistol though let's find a way of introducing it organically. I have an idea for that.
SOunds good. Looks like technically the ranger's animal companion choice is "cat, small", so whatever the local variant of mountain lion/cougar/puma is rather than tigers?
Do what you want with your companion. Wouldn't a small cat be like a lynx or a bobcat or something like that?
Are your characters updated (other than Sharae's pistol and Criek's kitty cat of course)? A combat encounter is coming up.
Are your characters updated (other than Sharae's pistol and Criek's kitty cat of course)? A combat encounter is coming up.
Okay... get that sorted over the weekend then!!!
Preeeetty close.
So far, only significant gear upgrades are a Mithril chain shirt, and a
composite bow with the adaptive feature.
Are we starting with full hp / daily powers, or keep stuff marked off from the Birdfood fight?
Oh yeah, get all your resources back as you rebuild and let me know when you're ready to move on!
Think I'm ready to roll! Though, Sharae, let me know if you think there are any shared gears we should split cost of.
Nearly there... nearly there...
I had a bit of a mis-step and had Technomancer in my head... and was trying to work out how to get Sharae various levels of Arcane - then decided it just didn't fit with her. Was about to write a 'please can we make her Techslinger instead?' message to the good GM... and then saw that is what he had said all along!!! Should be done today... not posting in any of my other games until Sharae is finished :)
Busy today. Post Wednesday
...and Sharae, all bar skills and a quality check to root out the inevitable errors, is done!!!!
...and so this combat will reveal that Sharae, even in her new Gestalt Swashbuckler guise, is a bit low on damage output!!! I am anticipating that getting a brand LAZOOORZZZZ type pistol will help there plus she will move away from using a starknife as her sole melee weapon (I think she's going to find a swanky rapier somewhere...)
Whereas Criek is either a major DPS machine, with ranger BAB full-attack and favored enemy bonus, or a hazard to all around him! whee!
...and that's without even using rapid shot. Which I suppose I probably ought to consider, when I've got favored enemy and naturalist performance bumping my ranged touch to +19/+14
Yeah I think we're okay without another PC for now :). Though do let me know if you guys think the game would be better with one.
I'm putting NPC pics up in the Campaign Info page for your reference.
Crazy weekend. Will move forward Tuesday
Equally crazy here... lots of taking the kids somewhere fun whilst it was warm and the evenings were taken up with a heady mixture of Glastonbury coverage, beer and Doctor Who - back to the normality of the working week with a refreshing bike ride and my normal PbP catch up on the train...
Sounds like a good time Sharae. By the way you can use your Grit and Panache points interchangeably.
Sounds like a good time Sharae. By the way you can use your Grit and Panache points interchangeably.
I thought that was the case but couldn't find it stated explicitly anywhere... and then, when I saw that Grit and Panache were effectively two separate pools keyed off separate stats, I incorrectly drew the conclusion that they were entirely separate... looking forward to going full sword and pistol with Sharae!!!!
Going to have to play off myself a bit at some points I think! Let me know if it gets too much.