Shadow over Riddleport

Game Master Joana

You'd have to pry it from my kids' cold dead fingers, but, yes, it does eat up gaming time.

Hope you're getting settled in, both into residence and job, Mark.

Mostly yeah. Real killer has been phone only access to net and limited data. Need my laptop back! But should be 2 weeks or so from smoother sailing.

I'm just going to issue a blanket apology that will remain active through Christmas. While I intend to keep the game moving, if I don't post, please assume that I am:

Phillip and Snake: Are you going to look up one of the other Gold Goblin employees to ask some questions while Tendal and Gristav are shopping, or are you staying behind with Braddon and waiting for their return?

I'm just going to issue a blanket apology that will remain active through Christmas. While I intend to keep the game moving, if I don't post, please assume that I am:

wrapping presents;

addressing cards;

shopping;

baking;

dropping my kids off at various holiday-related activities; or

picking them up afterwards.

I so get it.

The season has been nuts. And my daughter is not cooperating with sleep.

Per the season: Work this week has been a beat down for myself. But after tomorrow I can finally get a break with some time off. I must confess, though, with all that business you got going on, Joana, I think I've got it pretty easy. :)

Per the game: Probably just wait until they return.

Braddon sheathes both blades, jumps forwards and draws them both smoothly, a beat apart, slicing through the air in front of him.

"Nice. When I do it like that, I don't even come close to losing my hand."

/voiced by H. Jon Benjamin?

Braddon Hurst wrote:

Braddon sheathes both blades, jumps forwards and draws them both smoothly, a beat apart, slicing through the air in front of him.

"Nice. When I do it like that, I don't even come close to losing my hand."

/voiced by H. Jon Benjamin?

Who?

Before TWF

And Merry Christmas to all. :-)

I hope everyone had a happy holiday! We had two days of festivities Sunday and Monday with various branches of the family, went to see The Last Jedi yesterday, and spent today recuperating.

I still have my kids out of school for another week, but I should be back to a more reliable posting schedule. If we get the shopping done, we can reunite the party and get back to the action.

"All wands carry a seven-day warranty against insufficient workmanship," he advises Tendal. "Keep your receipt."

LOL

Happy hols to all. :-)

Man, dudes(talking to Braddon and Mark here), I tried out that Heroes 3 game y'all recommended and man you weren't kidding about "1 more turn". Pretty fun game even though I've been getting my backside handed to me time and again.

Man these dudes roll up with Ghost Dragons and Pit Lords and Super Naga chicks that I think are really Mariliths. Man I got waxed by that crew. That's when "starting over" came into play. :P
I'm like, "How in the heck did you chumps get all that crap?!" Doing about 3000 damage. Man that was sickening.

After about the 4th or 5th time of starting over, though, I finally managed to get a win. :P

Heh - welcome to the grind.

Treasure your ranged guys like they're made of solid gold. Upgrade them first and aggressively! Marksmen and monks are the business... griffins die like they're made of cardboard though. (You can see who I prefer to play :P)

I know what you mean re: getting rolled though, it's a tough climb but you'll get there with persistence.

Yes! Those Zealots are awesome! Man if you got a good number of those dudes they can slap out some MAJOR damage. Same goes for Marksman. While they may not be as powerful, they do get 2 shots every time instead of 1 which is pretty freaking cool and quite the handy.

And you ain't kidding about griffins! Man they just get wasted like they're nothing. Harpies are equally as pathetic I feel. They get wasted equally as easy.

I tell you another class I like is the Champions(I think that's what they're called. The knights on horseback with the lance is what I mean in case I've got it listed wrong). Anyway, I had 28 of those stacked up, just 28 mind you, and those cats were dealing over 1000 damage! And they can take a pretty good punch as well. Man those guys are awesome as well.

It trips me out, when it tells you how much damage a creature can do to another at the bottom of the screen it'll say something like: "1k - 1.2k". The first time I saw anything like that it was, "0.8k - 1.1k". And then I'm like, "What the heck is .8k - 1k? They can't possibly mean 1000 can they?" Sure enough. Blew me away.

Mwahahahaaa!
The troops are nice, but spells are where the true power lies.
Congrats on becoming one of us :-)

In stuff relevant to the game, I'm away for a week and may not have much net access.

Gristav casts Unseen Servant.

[snip]

Gristav casts Prestidigitation.

[snip]

Gristav casts Detect Magic.

Unseen servant has a duration of 3 hours. Directing an active spell (i.e., to give commands) is a move action. "Walk to the shed" is a command. "Lift a tarp" is a command.

Prestidigitation has a duration of 1 hour. Directing an active spell (i.e., to clean things) is a move action.

Detect magic has a duration of Concentration, up to 3 mins. Concentrating to maintain a spell is a standard action.

You can have all three spells active at once, but keep in mind the limitations, primarily of speed and distance. (Unseen servant has a move speed of 15 feet, frex.) As long as we're still in dialogue, you're not going to get a whole lot of feedback from your magic, and if you want to actually get a good look at what your unseen servant is picking up, you're going to have to get pretty close to it.

The intention was to throw a lot of magical gravitas around, On the theory we were being watched, and Gristav was on point, and therefore preferred aggro-sink. The Servant is making noise, and might confuse a listener planning an assault. Presti because why not, and DetMag because we ought open every eye.

And a Guidance from the butterfly.

Sorry slow response, worked the holiday on a server issue, needed a new server, so then, cleanup after new installs.

Wow.

Noooooo! It's 3.0 to 3.5 all over again!........ Although, my interest is peaked. Can't help it. I sure hope it's cool. Because 3.5 was cool. :)

It will be interesting. Ancestry instead of race? Meh. Backgrounds- I suspect they've stolen themes straight from Starfinder, which isn't necessarily bad. But junking all those little magic items so you don't have a book of scrolls and a chest of potions- smart move.
We will see.

I am totally geeked!!! I can't wait to see what is coming, just the few things that they have talked about...like taking more actions and building up stronger spells sounds fantastic!

Reading my latest post now, and I see that it's not clear (hush, Snake!).

Aside for the glance at Snake, the rest of it is directed to our host the hermit.

Here is a list of rules tidbits someone was able to tweak out of the podcast of the first public playtest of Pf2.

Reading my latest post now, and I see that it's not clear (hush, Snake!).

Aside for the glance at Snake, the rest of it is directed to our host the hermit.

lol! I'm sure it was to Joana but gamey-wise I'm guessing this bum who hangs out in this dump(literally obviously) probably don't know his left hand from his right. :) (Honestly, it just gave me something to roll with so I figured what the hey). *shrugs* ;)

Has been a whirlwind of circumstance and obfuscation on my end. Work remains a no go re: logging on, and I've had family visiting for a couple of weeks as well. We still don't have a home computer set up - and my wife's needed our one laptop for her night job... so all up a bit of a balls up. Won't get fundamentally better overnight - but should smooth out a bit once my folks drive back westwards on Monday.

Still dealing with the change of career as well - even though I'm three months into the role. Getting up earlier, working till later and coming home more tired and half brain dead.

I do apologize for being that arse that disappeared without word and didn't let people know what was going on. Don't have much of an excuse, but I would like to worm back in iffin I'm still welcome. Will just be a bit slower and not as loquacious.

Yeah sorry to lose you in Bloodmarch and Kingmaker, bud. But as far as I'm concerned you're welcome as long as you want to keep rollin', friend! All good to me. :)

I rushed over to Bloodmarch to find you gone. :-(

Glad you're still around though.

Has been a whirlwind of circumstance and obfuscation on my end. Work remains a no go re: logging on, and I've had family visiting for a couple of weeks as well. We still don't have a home computer set up - and my wife's needed our one laptop for her night job... so all up a bit of a balls up. Won't get fundamentally better overnight - but should smooth out a bit once my folks drive back westwards on Monday.

Still dealing with the change of career as well - even though I'm three months into the role. Getting up earlier, working till later and coming home more tired and half brain dead.

I do apologize for being that arse that disappeared without word and didn't let people know what was going on. Don't have much of an excuse, but I would like to worm back in iffin I'm still welcome. Will just be a bit slower and not as loquacious.

It happens!

I have shifts in how my schedule goes every month as I move from rotation to rotation. I had another ICU month in February, so I was literally working every day from 5-5.

I am down to this game now, and as much as I would like to play more, I know that at least at the moment, I don't want to give my commitment to any others without some honest certainty that I could put adequate time in.

Please don't think I'm anything less then enthusiastic about your sticking around in Riddleport, Mark. I've just had a bad cold since Thursday and am struggling to find the energy to post.

So, were you completely off-line for the duration, or did you occasionally check in without time or opportunity to post? I only ask because if I had been away and came back to find the website updated and Pathfinder 2.0 announced in the interim, I'd wonder how long I had been gone! :D

I am down to this game now, and as much as I would like to play more, I know that at least at the moment, I don't want to give my commitment to any others without some honest certainty that I could put adequate time in.

I know this feeling. Hearing of games that had lost a Mark, I had the instinct to raise my hand, but have to wonder if I really have time. (And if I'd be able to fill Mark's berth (but never his shoes).)

But then I find that I've burned through another Netflix series, so I clearly have _some_ time.

Lol! Netflix'll do it every time. ;)

My dance card is definitely full with the games I have now. I was feeling tempted by Crownfall, but now I'm totally distracted by the new shiny so I don't want to commit to anything else before August so I can be part of the playtesting.

Gristav, Mark Seifter pointed out to me that a butterfly familiar has been printed in Ultimate Wilderness since we went looking for one.

Oooh... Crownfall.
I was so tempted. :-)

Crownfall sounds so good. A giant political mess. Backstabbing, spies, revolutionaries...

[drool]

*nods* Low-combat. Lots of talking. Slews of NPCs to play. It'd be right up my alley.

But then the Player's Guide was (and is still) delayed, and then the playtest was announced. Considering how long it takes to complete a PbP, particularly a talky one, I don't want to commit to 'old and inferior' after the world has moved on to 'new and improved.'

I'll be honest and say I haven't even had the wherewithal to check what the new AP is... and I've barely looked partway into what 2.0 portends to be.

In answer, I was mostly absentia whilst busy... so the website redesign and PF 2.0 did hit me up as a big surprise.

You missed quite a kerfuffle.

First, the Player's Guide for the new AP wasn't ready by street date (and still isn't, with book 2 shipping, which I do find quite surprising), and there was outrage! Then, the website was redesigned, and most of the outrage left the War for the Crown player's guide threads and reassembled in Website Feedback threads. Then they dropped the second edition bomb, and it got a whole new forum for the outrage (and, to be fair, a lot of enthusiastic excitment as well).

It has been extremely diverting to watch the worst thing ever! migrate from the late player's guide to the site redesign to the edition change, though. There are a few lone people who really just want to play Crownfall bumping the player's guide threads occasionally, but the people who just want to be outraged! have moved on to P2e as the issue du jour.

Because, you know, should someone trusted do Crownfall, an amazing GM who loves low-combat, lots of talking and slews of NPCs to play and who it'd be right up their alley, then I'd be totally on board and may have a Sorceror who is a master of disguise ready to go and who would probably be too disruptive in a FtF game. :-D

Lol! Well, if nothing else, ya got me curious. :)

There are a few character ideas that will not work well in a face to face party. One of these is the Master of Disguise. Few games are written to accomodate a character that can look like a fellow guard, a superior or a friend, thus bypassing huge swathes of combat. This character also tends to work best alone, so it's not a very party based character.

Cat burglar characters have issues for the same reasons.

I'd say another character idea that doesn't work well in a party is a summoner. Once you have a player controlling 3 or more characters, they're taking up more game time than the rest of the party.

In PBP, many of these issues are mitigated, especially if you have an awesome GM who runs with the idea. :-)

War for the Crown Player's Guide is up, at last!

YES!!! :-)

Braddon's glance finds Phillip already practicing what he was about to preach. Picking his footing carefully the halfling is wary and sending furtive but intent filled glances around them. Trusting that at least Magnimar will shine like a beacon light and shelter him in his glow... he doesn't spend much effort at stealth.

LOL!

Had a long day today, guys. I'll update the gameplay thread tomorrow.

A long day? Given this game started almost 6 years ago, I think we can afford you a day off.
Thanks as always for entertaining us... for the last 6 year. :-)

6 years?!?! No freaking way! My gosh has it been that long?! Dang. That is truly impressive. I haven't been here that long but that's impressive. And to be all the way up to 3rd level is even more impressive. ;P

Honestly though, I'm impressed on both sides of it. The GM for keeping it so player driven. I don't know how you do it, Joana. I really don't. I've played this game in RL and it's nothing like this. You are obviously rolling this game in the direction of the player's choices and coming up with crap out of the blue! Trips me out. And, to me, it appears so seamless. Just incredible.

And you, the players, kudos to you who've stayed around through it all. I just have a hard time thinking just 'any' player would hang around that long especially due to the fact they wouldn't be 20th level by then. Y'all are some solid folks all the way around. A crew of folks who truly appreciate the value of "role-playing".

I applaud you all. :)

Two years per level is the new sweet spot for advancement, they say. :P

Man, six years ... is a long time. It doesn't feel like that long.

Hmmm...I started and finished med school, got married and had a kid...

Time flies!

LOL.
Joana's game took so long

I started and finished med school, got married and had a kid.

Okay, I'll bite.

What did you cast, Tendal?

Mirror image! I get maximal snakes that way.

"bite" heh.