It's that discussion thread some of you mentioned! Here's a place to introduce yourself/your character for general knowledge and, you know, do discussion-y things.
A bit about me: I've been DMing pathfinder for like 3 odd years now on and off, though this is the first time I've done pbp as I told all of you, so I'll likely have format or "how do I do this?" questions for some of the veterns. I'm a huge lore and Lovecraft nerd (though I get the feeling that's pretty typical at the table) so hopefully I can do the setting and themes justice. I managed to get through two books of Strange Aeon's in an irl group before it died so I have some idea of how to do this, but the group didn't really connect with the horror themes and so it didn't really go super well. Hopefully with more time to explore character motivations this can go more smoothly.
Hello all I'll be playing your Paladin for this adventure and hoping to avoid excessive amounts of character death and insanity but my hopes may not pan out given the adventure path!
Hi there!
Meloriel here, checking in With Amalthia, an ectoplasmic sorceress.
Although I'm not versed in Lovecraft lore, I love a healthy dose of horror and the occult in my d&d, So I am thrilled to be here!
Hey! This is Something Wicked with Malugar, a swarm monger druid. I'm very glad to join you all on this horrific, mind-melting adventure!
While we're waiting on our fourth, here's a little about me. I'm 34 years old and living in the southeastern US. I'm a lawyer, but recently took a full time teaching position at a private college. I've been playing tabletop for just over three years, pathfinder being the only system I've had much experience with. I got involved with Pathfinder Society and learned the ropes, then took to GMing live games before discovering the beauty that is PbP, which I started nearly two years ago. This summer I moved and started a new job, which threw my PbP gaming for a loop and forced me to cancel my participation in nearly all of my games (including a Crimson Throne game that I was particularly enjoying), but I returned a few weeks ago and have been looking to rebuild my PbP hobby. This is really my only creative outlet, but that's just fine, as PbP gives us such flexibility to create fun characters and tell compelling stories, while also (hopefully) entertaining ourselves and our fellow players.
When not typing away here I'm teaching, which I love, or cooking, or working in the yard. I also have two dachshunds, my real-life arcane familiars.
Hello everybody. Introducing Shirrin here. A knowledgeable sort but not an overwhelmingly great fighter.
The character is designed to see how well all the psychic unlocks work in actual play :-)
Knowledge is very valuable too. Good to have you on board.
Now that we're all here I've started the game play forum. Things start off mid-initiative, so just take what action you want when it's your turn. Again, if I do formatting errors or just general bad pbp things just tell me and I'll figure it out!
Sorry if the formatting on my post is off. It looks fine on my pc but my phone displays it differently.
I'm loving the intro gm.
Agreed.
Now that you've all died horribly and woke up from your nightmare, I got some questions for you all!
First, how are things? I hope we all enjoyed the intro to this guy, I think it's cool and it works a lot better in pbp than irl to be honest.
Second, is how I'm writing okay? I mean the change between second-person to third-person isn't confusing people? I realized after the face I should have written the second-person segments in italics or something to make it less confusing and differentiate it from the story bits, so I think I'll be doing that moving forward.
Third, to my pbp veterans, how should I differentiate from the story bits and responding to you guys trying things or looking for stuff, especially when all of you post before me? Is writing stuff ooc better or should I try to make it part of the story bits? The joy of formatting!
Last, now that we're soon to be entering sections with combat, how do you guys want to do that? Do we want maps? Roll20? Just describe things and go for it? I can make anything work, I just need to know what you guys would want.
Thanks for sticking with the game so far, and baring with me as I learn the pbp format. The madness is just getting started!
First, the important bit.
I think that you've been doing great so far. I've had no problem following what is going on, the actions you've had the characters (well, mine at least, I was paying more attention to those :-)) do have been perfectly reasonable. The scenes have been very evocative.
The dream sequence has been wonderful for me to get a better grasp on my character. Looks to me like exactly that was happening with the other players too. I'm a "Character mostly develops in play" kind of player and, at character creation, I hadn't "realized" that this character would want to go down defiantly fighting to the extent that he did.
Responding to our questions in story is great when you can (for example, my question about equipment was handled wonderfully "in story" without breaking immersion). When that can't be done (and sometimes it just won't be possible) personally I'd do but it really doesn't matter all that much.
Depending on characters maps may be all but essential for combat. Some characters can do theatre of the mind but others rely a lot on exact positioning (eg, a trip build really needs to see the map). But if the characters are just going to stand there and hit or move and shoot then theatre of the mind may work.
I agree with Shirren on everything, actually.
I'm really enjoying it so far, and haven't been confused. Fitting observations into the story narrative us great when it can be done, but don't be afraid to use when it can't.
I'm fine so far without maps, but I imagine when we get out if these Cells lt will be important. I'd prefer Google slides for maps, but I can use roll20 as well if you go that route. Honestly, if no one really minds, Since the beginning is quite horror themed, I wouldn't mind going without maps for a while to keep the suspense up. Up to the other players.
Either way, thanks, and great job so far!
Yea Shirrin's post sums up things nicely.
I've really enjoyed your descriptions. It's clear you're committed to the horror themes and that's coming through in your posts--excellent!
Maps are very useful and I prefer having them in pbp games. It doesn't have to be anything very involved, as long as I can see what's going on generally. Since I have a pet, positioning can be important.
I think we're off to a really strong start, and I look forward to seeing where this crazy rabbit hole leads!
Quick question to you all, if want to try something and don't know what to roll, is it cool if i roll it in my post? I don't know if that's against pbp protocol, but I feel like it'd help speed things up a little if I could do the roll you want and then say the result in one go? I'm just wondering cause you guys are posting so fast (which is super cool!) so it's tough to say what people need to roll (like Ragnar wanted to know, so I just did it form him) as they come up before the scene has moved on so to speak. If that's not cool I won't do it again.
Fine by me.
Second question, I don't know how to use google slides to make a map, so I set up a roll20 map for you all. If this works, you should see the map, the guy on the gurney and the nurse. Feel free to put yourselves in the cells that are across from each other. Amalhia and Ragnar are in the south cells and Malugar and Shirrin are in the north cells. If this does work tell me! I've never used roll20 with other people before! Wee! Learning!
https://app.roll20.net/join/2766194/LMH3pQ
Yup, I'm in and it worked, but I don't know how to add myself to the map.
Not sure how to add either, only used roll20 sparingly and never as a GM.
Okay I can try to fix this, I just don't have the time right now so I will tonight. I'll also try to find your actual character tokens then too. Until then I did what i could to give you guys an idea of what's going on
No problem, just started a Kingmaker campaign and the players keep going, can you extend the map because they are ranged heavy... still trying to find the sweet spot for map sizes in that one.
Yeah, Kingmaker's rough for that.
Hey, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to post in here but I've been following along in your game. Pretty awesome so far!
Anyway, I have thousands of hours played in roll20. I'm happy to help you get it set up if you want.
Oh, hey LCF! Meloriel here. I'm excited for your campaign to start soon, too. Haha.
Agreed. I'm really impressed how well this one's starting. Thanks Freman (and everyone else)!
I think i managed to get Amalthia and Malugar set up but I don't know who Kevin is and we're missing one of us to take over the last one.
I'm Kevin
Nice work on the initiative rolls. I suggest keeping those and perception rolls handy somewhere, either posted over in the campaign tab or in a Google doc you can easily access.
Shirrin you will need to use the link to roll20 and enter the game before GM can set up your token.
As an aside, Mal will always try to position his swarm so it doesn't occupy a friend's square (it's 10x10). While he's immune to his own swarm, others aren't!
Amalthia worked fine.
Is anyone else vaguely disappointed in a game with a Swarm Druid and a character called Shirrin they aren't the same person?
Haha I'm not familiar with starfinder so I had to look it up. But you're right, it would be fitting :)
I just logged onto roll20 for the first time. Sorry for the delay.
Could you please make the names of the characters visible to all the players? I'm finding it hard to tell which character is which.
rat swarm confirmed op
The swarm definitely proved effective for this first combat. That's partly because Toothy was so easily able to escape the cell. A swarm can wreck a low level group (at least, those without splash weapons or flaming hands), and there's no reason why it shouldn't also wreck low level enemies. Some things to keep in mind, though:
- Its damage is only 1d6, an average of 3.5 a round. Your average barb or fighter is hitting for way more than that, even if they have to roll an attack.
- The swarm must end its turn in an enemy square to damage it, and it only moves 15'. Most enemies can use a single move to move out of its range.
- Tiny swarms like toothy take only 1/2 damage from slashing and piercing weapons, but full damage from blunt weapons, and 150% damage from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.
- The swarm is fragile, with only 10hp at level 1. If it hits 0hp, the swarm disperses and Toothy reverts to his familiar form with 0hp. If he's killed, he's expensive to replace.
- At level 1, a swarm is deadly, but as we level up Toothy will quickly become obsolete against higher level enemies. At that point, his greatest advantage will be to disrupt spellcasters by requiring fort saves and caster level checks.
- His use is limited to 4 times a day.
Yah I get the feeling toothy will be less useful in the next few fights but we'll see. Is it times per day or rounds per day?
Just as a note, I've played a Swarm druid in PFS. It rapidly became somewhat under powered (although an under powered druid is almost an oxymoron :-). It was still a VERY viable character).
The other big drawback is placement. It can be hard (even if the other players are cooperating) to place it so it isn't interfering with the party a fair bit. And (as often happens in PFS :-() if the players are "cooperating" the way that cats "cooperate" it can be a nightmare :-) :-)
A swarm monger can transform her familiar into a swarm a number of times each day equal to her Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), and the transformation lasts for 1 minute per druid level, or until the swarm monger reverts her familiar back to a singular form as a standard action.
4 times a day, for 1 minute (10 rounds) each time.
I've actually never read the swarm druid before, but it sounds fun. Also, loving the descriptions you gave it Malugar.
Thanks! Sometimes it's fun to be disgusting :).
Okay I think I got everyone set up on roll 20 and as more bits of the map are reviled I'll open them up on roll20 so you all can see what I'm talking about. If you can't move your tokens let me know and I'll fiddle
Hey guys, just letting you know I've had a family emergency come up, and unexpected house guests. I will be unable to post Saturday. Hopefully, I should be able to post late Sunday night and again late Monday night. I will be able to post regularly by Tuesday. Sorry for holding up the game, and feel free to bot me as needed.
Thank you for your patience.
Sorry to hear. Hope everything works out okay. See you soon.
Just so you guys know you've accumulated 600xp each so far. Figure I should say something.
Thanks, fast or medium XP track? ...hopefully not slow!
medium.
also map change!
Although I intended Mal to have an explorer's outfit, I have failed to list that on my character sheet, so I won't hold it against you for declaring his hands are bare :).
Sorry I keep forgetting to use all your chosen names when I'm doing my descriptions, considering that you guys are and that's great for the vibe of the thing. Just distracting to see your character names when I'm looking through the posts
Yeah, I was just hoping we'd find some handy paperwork with our names on it and nothing else so its easier. lol
Now that we're getting into the asylum proper, is the roll20 map working? should I just put up the map of the place somewhere and you guys can look at it? what would work best for you?
She looks at her hands in horror, and shrieks again.
I love it! :)
Hahaha. Thanks!
Victor used detect evil :).