Shattered Star

Game Master Zesdead

This is our Discussion Thread for all kinds of 'Out of Character' chat - social, rules clarifications, etc

Checking in. Thanks for choosing me!

yes, thank you! and thanks for posting so early in the day- i had already checked once before your post came up and thought i was going to be checking over and over most of the day before the announcement, lol.

i think i have everything in his profile now, if there's anything you have questions about (or want modified) just let me know. i'm really looking forward to this.

Thanks for picking me, I'll have to wait until I get home to get Jo's Alias up.

(Her full name is Josephina Annabelle Whitehall, that Had be kinda confused until I saw my name next to it.)

So, basically Nalathi has very sticky fingers. If it's ok with you all, from time to time things of yours will find themselves in her pack-- not because she wants to keep them (she isn't even fully aware how she gets them), but because she found them interesting at the time. She'll readily give them back when confronted. I won't pick things you're likely to need, such as weapons, cure potions, etc., just random out-of-combat stuff.

Anyone who doesn't want this, please say so.

Checking in, thank you for choosing Briana; she and Rowenna are happy to be here! I see especially interesting interactions between Briana and Jo/Ziomarra in the future; Jo because of the shared noble background and Ziomarra because of her connection to the hear-er spirit of the cards ;)

@Nalathi - Sounds good to me!

@GM Zed - How do you prefer to handle familiars in your games?

@Nalathi: As long as you don't mind getting a tongue lashing from Jo (Who's LG,) I don't mind. Besides, it sounds like it'll be fun RP.

@Briana: That will be interesting to see play out. Especially when they get to know why the other ran away.

Checking in. Thanks for the invitation!

@Nalathi: That could be a fun RP thing. I'm game.

@nalathi- Teldon can be a little bit anal about his stuff... he places a lot of value on knowing things, so not knowing exactly where his own stuff is will definitely frustrate him. that said, as a player it won't bother me at all as long as its not a distractingly common occurrence.

Briana - I am happy to leave it up to you as to how much you want to involve your familiar...some games I have played where the Familiar is very much a 'silent partner'... Some where it has it's own avatar, personality and posts - obviously that can be more work...and you can overdo it on terms of being centre stage too often...I will leave it up to you...whatever is most fun!

So, one thing which I find helpful...and who wouldn't want to be nice to their GM!...is posting your 'essentials' in your character's profile in the same manner as Nalathi has done...

p.s. Glad to have you all here!!!

Sounds good! Since jumping into the PBP world I like to give my familiars/ACs/eidolons their own alias and such and involve them a little more so they aren't just playing Silent Bob all the time, but I try to be mindful about not overdoing it, either. Rowenna has her own alias but I may not make much use of it until we reach a point where she's able to communicate more and do more as a creature in her own right.

@briana- Lore shaman? well, I think I might know whom Mr. Moore will find most interesting...

Haha, indeed! Since I see Teldon is opting for a knowledge/skill route as well and we've got a more focused healer in Jo, I'm happy to tailor Briana's skills/spells to fill in gaps or act as backups so there are fewer toes that get stepped on; I believe I can do that and still stay true to her character concept. From what I've seen, most folks on the boards don't mind overlap but I have run across some that dislike someone else horning in on their character's specialties.

Believe me, I play fighters and barbarians most of the time, and I'm all to happy to let someone else take the heat off my character for a bit. :D

Didn't get a chance to post in the gameplay thread. My in-person game is running tonight, so I'm not going to have a chance until tomorrow.

Okay....I will keep things moving tomorrow morning UK time with a post to describe everyone arriving at the Manor...Ziomarra can be a late arrival to that...

I don't mind redundant skills at all... I was actually worried that you might be upset about it. I get a big bump to all my knowledge bonuses at 2nd level (plus have inspiration to push them even higher), so I was hoping you weren't going to feel overshadowed.

From an RP perspective though, shared interest in knowledge really will most likely make Briana Teldon's favorite teammate.

Not at all, it never hurts to have backup on knowledge checks and it looks like we've got the majority of them covered between the five of us. I'm hoping the hex choices open up a lot of versatility with her as well :)

Finally got the Alias done. And over lapping skills is not really a bad thing. After all, it helps to have buddies that can cover your flubs. :D

cool- as long as nobody is bothered by it, i'll probably end up putting at least one rank into each knowledge eventually (just so i can use Inspiration on them). i'm planning to probably keep arcana, dungeoneering, history, and nature at max ranks; nobility will likely be the last one i pick up and will probably never get a second rank; the others i'll probably try to raise in accordance with how much relevant info i've been exposed to during the adventures.

Whoops, I'm dumb and forgot that we also have a witch with us! I'll be mindful to not overlap too much on hexes either since shaman can pick from some of the standard witch hexes as well.

(Witches are really awesome; I'm playing one in another PbP. In fact, shaman kinda seem like a divine witch with a lot of their flavor and mechanices.)

My normal rule is that the first time I play a character class, not to take an archetype. Ziomarra is the first witch I've ever run, so I'm breaking my own rule. But the character concept was so strong, and the archetype was such a good fit, I had to go for it.

Re: Hexes:
I know that the Slumber hex is more powerful, but Evil Eye seemed much more on-theme for a mysterious fortune-teller.

I know where you are coming from Ziomarra, I always play 'vanilla' characters first time out with a class...but I am glad you picked something so essentially Varisian for this AP...rules are there to be broken after all!!!!

Also, I am looking forward to seeing how our two ACG characters fare...

hey all, i know everyone does their PbP a little differently... this is actually the first one I'm doing through the paizo boards (and the first pathfinder PbP I'm doing, though I've been using the system in RL for years), so if there's anything I'm doing in my posts that you would prefer I do differently (or not at all) please let me know.

also, am I correct that the only knowledge we currently don't have between us is engineering? I know its a little bit meta-gamey but (if GM doesn't object) I'll probably take that when we hit 2nd so that we have every base covered (and, in my defense, I was familiarizing myself with the city's structures and studying its monuments before noticing this).

Didn't realize Teldon's the only male character, that's pretty funny. He's got a harem!

...I never noticed!!! That may prove interesting as the story develops...

Hmm, isn't there one of those belts of gender change in this somewhere? We could potentially have an all female party. :D

lol- i noticed this morning when i was working on my post

Hmm, isn't there one of those belts of gender change in this somewhere? We could potentially have an all female party. :D

also, am I correct that the only knowledge we currently don't have between us is engineering?

I've got Arcana, Geography, and History, even thogh one isn't a class skill. Seemed appropriate for the character.

Question for Zed:

Looking over Ziomarra's character sheet, now that I have a better understanding of her character and personality, I'd like to switch some of her stats a bit. (Specifically, I'd like to change Con, Wis, and Cha.) Would you mind if I did that, since we haven't really started in earnest yet?

Hey, a question I always ask everyone in every PbP I'm in...

Where in the world is everyone located?

I'm in central New York State, USA, about 25 miles south of Syracuse.

Central Alabama, USA, about an hour from Birmingham, AL.

Where in the world is everyone located?

I'm in central New York State, USA, about 25 miles south of Syracuse.

I'm actually not that far from there... in western New York, about 40 miles south of Buffalo (around half-way between Jamestown and Olean).

On a totally different topic- my guy has a very high Int and a pretty low Cha so he'll probably come across as a condescending know-it-all at times... if it ever gets so its frustrating anyone OOC please say so here and I'll tone it down.

On a totally different topic- my guy has a very high Int and a pretty low Cha so he'll probably come across as a condescending know-it-all at times... if it ever gets so its frustrating anyone OOC please say so here and I'll tone it down.

I got that, and I like it!

I'm going for "cryptic and mysterious" with Ziomarra. Expect her to do a lot of speaking in riddles. At least, that's the intent-- not sure how well I'll be able to pull that off.

I'm going for slightly naive, unsure, and easily embarrassed at first, but as time goes on she'll become more sure of herself, wiser, and more poised.

To be fair, this is her first time on her own, and she's bound to do silly things, like bring all of her gear with her to a meeting she's not even sure is going to result in her leaving Magnimar.

yeah- Teldon is a bit green too (and totally brought everything he owns to this meeting, lol).

Ziomarra - no problem with people swapping their stats around to fit their concept / personality as they see fit...same goes for everyone...

For info, I am based in the UK...so I will generally post early in your day and everyone will be wearing Armour, fighting for Honour and Andoran will always seem a little 'Hmmmm' to me.....

That's what I figured. I'm at work so posting is a little on the sparse side, even if I check my games throughout the day.

That said, poor girl is feeling a little out of her depth at the moment.

My typical posting pattern is once or twice on my lunch hour at midday, and sometimes once or twice in the late evening, depending on what's going on in real life.

(Today's a very slow work day, so I'm posting a bit more often than normal.)

Ziomarra - no problem with people swapping their stats around to fit their concept / personality as they see fit...same goes for everyone...

Thanks!

I'll try not to over-post... I often have downtime between work responsibilities and could post pretty often most days. Wednesdays and Sundays are less flexible but I should have no problem always posting 1/day (or more if things are moving fast).

I'm located in southern Indiana, USA. Central time.

For my character I'm going for childlike, always curious, and predictably unpredictable. Getting into places she isn't allowed to go will be a particular curiosity for her-- I'm looking to prestige into Master Spy to reflect this. I check the game routinely, so like Teldon I'll try not to overpost haha.

I'm in middle Tennessee, central time (I believe that's -6 GMT). My posting habits tend to vary depending on whether I'm working on a given day or not; if I'm working then I can usually only manage one or maybe two after I get home at night but if I'm not, then I can post several times a day if I'm feeling inspired.

Briana's disposition....hmm. I see some similarities to Joanna in that they're both probably a little naive and easily embarrassed at this point, but I think Briana might be having an easier time adjusting to being "free" from her family (just based on what little RP I'm seeing). On the other hand, Briana is going to stress easily under pressure due to an ingrained perfectionism streak so -that- will be interesting when it comes up.

...and we are all here...great!!!

And it's good to see some of the personalities being discussed and thought about...

...in terms of this adventure...the first part of 'Shards of Sin' is a good bit of exploration across Magnimar (all will become obvious) and so you should have plenty of time to interact and get a good bit of RP...one thing I would say now, is that I am going to encourage you to add flavour and life to the city as well...if you want to describe journeys, conversations, streets, shops, whatever...please do so...I'm not precious about Magnimar being 'my creation'...it should be 'ours'....

...I'll give you a couple more hours and then you get to meet your host...

I have a copy of Magnimar: City of Monuments, which I referred to in my intro post. When I ran "Rise of the Runelords" for my in-person PFRPG group, my party ended up settling in Magnimar for a while, so I got pretty familiar with the place as written.

Magnimar is probably my favorite city in Golarion.

Ok good. I'm never sure how much creative license to take with a place when I'm not the GM and I'd like to do something with my character. Thanks for clearing that up. :) Also, I've played through the first several books of Rise of the Runelords, and while Magnimar features heavily in them I don't remember much beyond the Kaijitsu family.

yes, thank you (GM) for clarifying that, I was also concerned about how to handle that. i have not played RotRL before, but I have read the ISWG and the player's guide for this and RotRL so that I can be as accurate and unobtrusive with my portrayal of the locale as possible.

Normally, before taking something I'll roll not only for the person but also a percent chance to see if I even do it (probably 30% or something). This time was kind of a special case.

Got both of those, but I tend to, well, play fast and loose with the source material. If you want an example, I'd recommend the Rise of the Runelords game I am running here on the boards.

Hopefully it's still good and entertaining despite that.

Didn't realize Teldon's the only male character, that's pretty funny. He's got a harem!

Funny thing, this is the second PbP I'm in that only has one male character. Just started an Iron Gods run and that party consists of:

Female Human Arcanist
Female Human Warpriest (Pharasma)
Female Human Summoner (me)
Female Human Slayer
Female Gnome Cleric (Brigh)
Male Tiefling Barbarian (Breaker)

I guess you could technically count my eidolon as male too, but that's probably not much consolation for the barbarian :3

@Nalathi - That's cool! Briana tends to forgive fairly easily :)

For the Varisian language on the boards, I've been using Romanian (via Google Translate).

Why Romanian? Well, the Varisians are the Golarion analogue to the Roma (or "Gypsies," although they don't like that term). Their language is Romani. There is no Romani option on Google Translate, so Romanian stands in. I think it had the right look and feel.

Of course, I don't speak Romanian, and have no idea how well it translates.

On another note, Ziomarra is the third Varisian character I've played on the boards! (The others were a cleric of Desna who pretended to be a bard in a Cheliax-based game, and a Sczarni con artist.)

I'm out of time to post more this morning, so next post should be this afternoon.

When I post I tend to err on the side of moving the story along, so if it ever feels like i'm doing too much in my posts please say so and I'll slow it down a little (technically the post that just went up would have taken 3 turns- 1 each to draw and drink the vials, and 1 for the linguistics check, if it was necessary).

5 and 7... way to rock those first rolls, Teldon... smh