Shattered Star (Inactive)

Game Master thomrenault

I don't have anything to say here right now, but this is the discussion thread for general discussions.

Oh well I thought of some things to say. It's nice to meet you all, and I'm looking forward to DMing for you all. I am in my 3rd year of Law School. My name isn't actually Thomas Renault. He was my favorite PC, but my middle name is Thomas, so you can call me that ooc. Or just "DM". I think you all made really really awesome characters, and I wanted to start sooner rather than later so that the other Shattered Star campaign didn't gobble you up first. I've posted the first post of the campaign, I expect you'll all meet there in the foyer. If you want to draft up longer backstories, now that your character is in a campaign, that's awesome, but regardless I like the hooks I found in all of them. If you have any other questions, or any issues, just let me know.

Glad to be on board! Look forward to it

I am pumped, I hope that we are able to pull this together :) I am very excited about this!

This is my first pdp game, though I am playing a private on not on the forums right now and have really started to get the hang of it.

Falco I think Rameth will be meeting you shortly in the foyer :)

Looking forward to this :)

That was I believe the fastest recruitment I've seen. And it looks like we covered all the bases fairly well too.

Bimbur is ranged combat, scouting, and tracking in one package. He won't truly start to peak until third level, but that is how it is with dwarven zen archers. If there is no true thief or trap disabler, Bimbur can quickly be changed to have disable device as a class skill and have +11 disable device at first level with masterwook tools if needed.

If no one else has it, it could be nice.

Falco will eventually be about fighting next to someone and giving them bonus to AC from AoO via the bodyguard feat, but like Bimbur doesn't kick in until third. Until then I have a good AC and will try and keep the focus on me.

That was fast!
I was recruited in less time than I spent on my character development and background!

Guess I don't need to add disable device to my skill list with an archaeologist around. I'll plan on concentrating on noticing others while not being noticed myself.

Well forgive me for being fast. I said I wanted to run Shattered Stars, not recruit it!! :-p But seriously I really liked everyone submissions, and I didn't want to lose my ideal party to the other Shattered Star!

I definitely didn't build Adrielle to be a melee combatant, but she's definitely capable of holding her own and until I get more spells, I will largely be helping in the melee. Once I get enough spells that I won't run out super quickly I'll mostly stay back and buff (and once I have it, I could always righteous might and come in for some secondary melee support).

hi just pokeing my head in so you can see me.

Yea Rameth is a melee, and trap disarmer.

The Archaeologist is more like a rogue than a Bard in the sense that he does not buff others.

I envision him as the 2nd into melee after our cavalier friend.

Really excited about this all. Lets go get em!!

Well Bimbur is designed to be on the front lines to scout and be stealthy. When combat starts, he stays where he is and fires away. I just need to convince someone to cast mage armor on me.

Malena is ment to be a melee brute, with some casting to help with utility outside of combat, now to change my char to reflect this game, ie money and str

I realize that you lack an full arcane caster, and I'll make sure that scrolls wands etc are available for those characters with UMD.

divine- Adrielle, cleric
skill -Rameth. bard
arcane,Malena, magus, Rameth bard
assault
melee, Falco, cavalier. Malena magus
ranged, Bimbur monk

so 1 full caster, 2 6th lvl casters, 1 full base, 1 ranged.

i feel i covered it well with some overlapping roles that we can do, i might not have gotten all each char can do but just as a base for a class.

"Let's get down to business."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64

Bimbur went through the best stealth training of how not be seen. Disciples of Irori do it old school. The rule not mentioned below is not to wear the flashy cape with the shiny needlepoint and embroidery when hiding.

How not to be seen

note, I should have put new skill point into spellcraft not stealth. Can't swap that on phone.

I think we got bases covered and as long as we learn to work together we will be fine, but I won't sneeze at some scrolls either :)

Well I'm busy the rest of the day, I'll see you all tomorrow and we'll keep things moving right along. Boy, we really are awesome at all of this, huh? I mean party assembled and Adventuring in less than 24 hours.

Bimbur beat me to writing down anagrams.. the only other one I can think of is "ulcer" and somehow I think that probably isn't the word we're looking for.

Maybe the box is from the little known 8th kingdom of Thassilon ruled by excessive worry? :)

Yes they were conquered by the Great Warrior Malox

It is a very tragic story really...:)

thomrenault, As a fellow pbp GM, I would suggest you doing everyone's initiative if you like to keep things moving. Having 5 people roll their own initiative can be a days worth of posts. Up to you and everyone has their preferences.

link to my campaign tab

You can do it like the spoiler in my campaign above. That way you can cut and paste it and adjust for the Enemy1 and Enemy2.

After the roll you can adjust the results into an order of action/ initiative list. I suggest tracking round numbers too, it works out for spells with timers.

Initiative
Surprise round
Gremlin 1
Gremlin 2
Round 1
xxxxx 22
yyyyy 20
zzzzz 18

Thanks for the suggestions. I've generated initiative for everyone. For your actions, you can go ahead and also make the wisdom check (and the Perception check for Rameth) if that check beats the DC in the gameplay thread, you may act in the surprise round and the 1st round.

Question... how are we doing reach weapons? I've never used a reach weapon in a PbP, and I can't use the weapon on adjacent squares. That said without squares for reference I'm a bit confused as to when I can attack.

I wouldn't worry about it in this combat (or in any combats where we're not using a battlemap), that said I am working on a solution for more involved tactical combats, and dungeoncrawling.

Those of you who are prior pbp dm's how would I create another discussion thread. I would like to make a 'party business' thread for tracking inventory and xp.

I'm not sure if you can link two discussion threads or not. (If so it would be under the campaign info tab, then edit campaign)

What I do is keep track of loot in the campaign info tab and xp is my GM Alias. Then I let the players know when they level.

Example Campaign Tab for my AoW game

My GM Alias sheet where I keep track of Initiative, perception, marching order and XP

So current loot

Assumed that no one objected to the even split of the gems.

We also have a Masterwork Silver Dagger

I suggest we hold onto it, at least until we get more ways to overcome DR, then sell it. I think that Malena, or Rameth should hold onto for now, since they are the most capable to use it. Unless we can hand wave the size of the dagger, in which case I would say that Falco should hold it.

A ring of Featherfall

I think we should either sell it or if we want to hold onto it I suggest perhaps having Bimbur hold onto it for now, in case he needs to go stealthing for us and goes somewhere up high. If we have to climb down somewhere as well, via Prestidigitation, or MAge Hand we could feasibly pass it back and forth to keep people from falling.

Thoughts? I have no horse in this particular race, but that seems to be what makes the most sense to me

Well the ring is worth 1100 GP (Rameth would know this from his appraise check), if you wish to sell it in Magnimar, you could certainly find a purchaser.

splitting the loot, we can do it in a few ways, everyone take a equal share of the gems, and sell the ring and knife, splitting the money from those sales.

find out how much the ring and knife are worth and who ever takes them owes to the party fund when we get new loot,

and who ever can make best use of the item.

for me and the ring, i would like it both for char idea and crunch. wearing wealth is what my char does, as seen from the 50 gold worth of jewelery on her, for crunch if i have 150 worth of jewelery on then i get +1 on bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate,

Actually I think that for that 'Extremely fashionable' trait bonus, the jewelery must have no other game bonus.

Considering our characters don't know one another well enough at this point, I would say it should be a combo of who can best use the magic item, and also that person owing the party the worth of the item.

My only thoughts on these two items are that if we can't get sufficient use out of them, we would be able to buy a wand of cure light wounds if we sold it, which is always nice for out of combat healing.

Extremely fashionable says no such thing, if you wish to make it a house rule you can, and i am fine with it, just wanted to let you know what trait said on that subject

Extremely Fashionable

You really know how to make a good impression when you’re dressed well.

Benefit: Whenever you are wearing clothing and/or jewelry worth at least 150 gp (and not otherwise covered in gore, sewage, or other things that mar your overall look), you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks. One of these skills (your choice) is a class skill for you.

Extremely fashionable says no such thing, if you wish to make it a house rule you can, and i am fine with it, just wanted to let you know what trait said on that subject

Extremely Fashionable

You really know how to make a good impression when you’re dressed well.

Benefit: Whenever you are wearing clothing and/or jewelry worth at least 150 gp (and not otherwise covered in gore, sewage, or other things that mar your overall look), you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks. One of these skills (your choice) is a class skill for you.

My mistake, :)

Also. For the party. I noticed I'm the only one who put ranks in diplomacy. Should I keep maxing it to be the party face, or does someone else want to take that role?

If you were to sell off the items (i.e. the dagger, gems and ring) each party member would have 315 GP to spend. The decision is ultimately up to you all.

I know that the dagger is worth 322 and 1100 is a total of 1422, selling would not quite get us to the wand, if we all payed another 7gp 8sp

I am also content with the if someone wants they owe the party the sale price (less their share) It makes sense to me, though perhaps difficult book keeping

Rameth, in this instance feels guilty so he will go along with selling or letting others take, or buy on layaway.

[b]As to Diplomacy, If you can spare the skills and want to put the ranks into it I think that Rameth and Adrielle could be potent. She tells it like it is, and he spins it. He has ranks in Bluff, and I planned to continue to put them into it. Though if you do not have the points to spare I can also alternate each level a rank in Bluff then Diplomacy. Seemed more fun to have a second person involved in the Facing for the party.

I definitely have the points. Mostly planning on maxing diplomacy, sense motive, and spellcraft while training knowledges like religion and arcana. Having two characters with a strong social skill would be good :)

Great we can have good cop/lying cop

Bimbur will take the ring and take no treasure until he has passed on shares equal to 1100gp. Definitely useful for the party scout.

assuming we sold the dagger that would be 306 divided 4 ways or 76 gp and 5sp per person and bimburs debit would be 1023.5 gp

is that right? I may have done the debit wrong.

Bimbur gets one fifth share 61.2 gp which he gives to the others and owes 1100-61.2=1038.8gp. He will continue to contribute his one fifth until the debt is gone.

He would pay his share of the loot, so you still should divide everything 5 ways, and subtract that share from the total debt. so 306/5 = 61gp 20 sp, and 30 gp per person for the gems. that would cut him to 1008.8 gp

As much I like the CLW wand, the feather fall ring can save a raise and restoration at 7000gp+

I may be old school, so pit traps may be passe', but I sure saw a lot of them :-) Ring of feather fall makes climbing much less stressful too.

the 306 counts the gems.

150 gp gems and dagger sells for half of 312 or 156

I am content to make this our loot method. We can reevaluate if we want when we get to the second part of the AP if we want. That would represent us knowing each other better.

anyone take umbrage?

and malena expressed interest in the ring as well. How do you feel bout it

I think in terms of utility, Bimbur should get the ring, because he's right. Rings of feather fall are a very nice addition to a scout.

In terms of the wand of CLW, I would say we should invest in it when we can comfortably buy it. To be honest, the wand just makes my life a ton easier, and I don't have to worry as much about running out of spells from out of combat healing.

EDIT: This might not have been implied super well but I also think the loot system works, from an ooc and an ic point of view.

I like the idea of using what we find when we can so I am good with Bimbur having it.