Strike the Earth: Histories of Greed and Determination (Inactive)

Game Master djdust

Not much point in me grabbing brewing stuff yet; that'll mostly have to be built onsite I would think. Besides, mine's a profession, not a craft anyway.

I figure once we get there and open up the trade route, we can request stuff to develop the settlement anyway, right?

Sure, IF we can keep the trade route clear of orcs and the like...

After armor and weapon upgrades I am happy to put my remaining gold (45 GP +3.6 left from initial equipping towards any group needs. Was thinking the climbing kit would be handy while both under ground and in the mountains, but if there is greater need that is fine.

The bison is not battle trained. They tend to cost...A LOT. Though I do have handle animal, it's not an easy check for me to make to teach it Combat Training. It's a DC 20 and Toulbe is only a +7.

It's up to you if I'd have had time to train her over the period of time I've had her.

I'd have thought though at least that she'd be trained for Heavy Labor and for Stay (Both are just DC 15 so a fair bit more doable)

@Gunnar, if you want Toulbe has already got a Pavilion sized tent. So purely up to you if you buy the Large tent. I had that purchased purely for his roadside cooking purposes.

Toulbe: Just wondering. A battle trained bison would be a formidable addition to the party, might be worth considering making that check once you have downtime.

Glor: I think a climbing kit would be handy indeed. Let’s see who else has remaining spending cash.

Gunnar: Yes, once you’ve got a site established and trade routes open, expect trade caravans to start coming your way. Also, your profession skills, because they are mandatory, are going to be pretty viable. You can substitute your profession check for a craft check for sure.

I’m cooking up an idea actually for your profession skills. The idea started with Toulbe, so I’ll use him as an example. If Toulbe uses his proffesion(cook) skill to cook up a hearty meal, he can make a check against a DC 18. This DC will increase by level, btw. If he beats the DC, whatever amount he beats the DC by can be differed across the group as a morale bonus to be used on any one attack roll, skill check, or saving throw in the next 24 hours. So, let’s say he makes a 22 on his profession check, that means he has 4 points worth of morale bonus to spread to the party as he sees fit (he can give himself one +4 bonus, or two people a +2 bonus, or four people a +1, etc.)

I think we can treat a profession(brewer) check the same way, once we have a brewing stand established.

Those with a profession(miner) skill, you can make a check against a DC 18 while exploring a hex to search for signs of precious metals or gemstones. A successful check may turn out some native gold ore or gemstones, the value being related to how much you beat the DC.

Let’s see if we can fill out the rest here while we’re at it:
Architect- will come into play once you’re building things for your settlement/s, will reduce BP costs, can roll for a bonus to Kn. (Engineering) checks
Engineer- same as architect but for terrain improvements. Also can roll for a bonus to disable device or craft(trap), Kn.(engineering) checks
Weapon Smith- roll for a bonus to craft(weapons) checks, appraise checks.
Soldier- if preparing for combat, you can roll to access the tactical situation and differ out situational bonuses as described above to be used in that combat encounter.

I like to reward player creativity, so, if you want to, say, use your profession(architect) skill to shore up and stabilize the walls of a half-collapsed tunnel, yes, please, make your roll :) It might take a day or two, but if you’re successful, you’ve just helped secure a new trade route or abandoned mine and increased your kingdom’s production!

Later we can figure out how your profession skills can help your kingdom management roles.

Oh, Hezekh picked up a spelunking kit, which includes a climber’s kit. Fancy that.

Looks like we need to hear from Boomer and Urist and maybe some revisions from Barik, but feel free to RP while they get their requests together.

Funny you should mention that....This is a huge reason why I don't combat train my preferred choice in mounts till around level four or more >.> Bison...are....broken early on in combat. I think it would be too huge a boon.

But if a GM is telling me to do it as a suggestion, who am I to say no ^_^

GM, are there any sourcebooks that are off limits, or is anything from Paizo ok? (there's a lot of weird alchemical stuff scattered around the sourcebooks and I want to make sure it's all allowed before I start my list)

OK, trying again.

Masterwork dwarf axe = 300

Suit of chainmail = 150

Contribution to party coffers for food, consumables, etc = 50

Knowing that today is a good day for someone else to die = priceless.

Boomer: Anything Paizo is allowed. Alchemical items are certainly allowed. Basically, if i can find it on D20pfsrd and it isn't 3rd party, and for the sake of this shopping spree it isn't a magic item, it's good.

I had an idea as I was falling asleep last night (That's when all the best ideas happen, you know). In DF, dwarves are basically a race of functioning alcoholics. If they go too long without alcohol, they suffer and gain penalties in everything they do. I'm thinking we can houserule that if a dwarf PC goes, let's say, 48 hrs without a proper drink they take a -2 penalty to all skill checks. if it becomes 72hrs, the penalty becomes -4. That'll make our two brewers all that more important.

Y or N?

If Y, I'll throw in a few kegs free of charge.

LOL. YES!

Ha! Works for me.

Sure, that's very dwarf fortressy. Dwarves need their booze.

Thanks for the clarification, GM. I'll have my shopping list up tonight.

Holycr--seriously?

Sigh...alright, alright...I'll take skill focus in brewing at 3rd....

I don't think you need to take it that far, Gunnar. The DCs for making any kind of food aren't very high.

Glor will buy 25 gallons of Apple Jack to take with us for 10 gp.

Shoppin'!

Masterwork Portable Alchemist Lab & tools (includes brewing gear) (125 gp)
Bedroll, cot and folding chair (3.1 gp)
Soap x2 (.2 gp)
Bear Trap x2 (4 gp)
Weaponrack backpack (25 gp)
Dwarven Trail Rations x30 (60 gp)
Pony keg of Oldlaw whiskey (10 gp)
Smelling Salts (10 gp)
Traveling Formulae book x3 (30 gp)
Chalk x100 (1 gp)
10' heavy chain (30 gp)
Average lock (40 gp)
Manacles x2 (30 gp)

(365 gp total)

leaving 135 gp left over for unspecified alchemical supplies.

Glor will buy 25 gallons of Apple Jack to take with us for 10 gp.

That's a good idea, since we need to drink every day. Hezekh will buy a barrel or three of dwarven stout. I've got 76 gp to burn, room in the wagon will be our biggest limiter.

We really only need enough booze to get us all there, and then a bit to get our still set up. After that, us brewers will be cranking it out for 1/3 the base cost. So, we might not want to dump a bunch of money on booze since it will be cheaper to just make it once we are settled.

GM, how much are seed costs for Plump Helmets? I want to be able to grow indoor crops in the dark.

Holycr--seriously?

Sigh...alright, alright...I'll take skill focus in brewing at 3rd....

Nah, shouldn't be that bad. We can all pitch in to ease the burden!

GM, how much are seed costs for Plump Helmets? I want to be able to grow indoor crops in the dark.

The easy answer to that is, 1lb bag of seeds is 1gp. How that translates into like crop yield and things, I don’t know.

The more complicated answer is, plump helmets don’t have seeds, they have spores, but that’s being pedantic. More so, I would consider the cost of seeds being included in the 4 build points it takes to make a farm terrain improvement. So, my suggestion is to not worry about seeds for now.

Alright, that sounds fine to me. I think I'll still spend a few gold on some seed bags because I like the verisimilitude rather than the build point abstraction.

They're my mushroom seeds.

You have fun mixin' mushrooms, Boomer; I'll be harvesting something with a little more...bite.

I would like to update my shopping list with a 1 gold Grappling Hook because that seems pretty obvious.

Also, my apologies for fumbling through an over-exaggerated dwarven accent. If it helps, you can assume that Urist is at least a little drunk most of the time :D

I'm pretty sure we all figured that was a given at this point, aye?

Apologies for the delay in posting - I started my own PbP campaign this week and it took more time/energy than I thought it would.

I'm still around and will definitely get something posted up today. Sorry for keeping you waiting.

happy to have you with us Barik :)

let me know when you're happy to wrap up the feast.

Apologies, I am in the middle of a move, so I will be a couple of days before I'm able to post again. Again, apologies for the short notice. We closed on our house three weeks early.

And I left Sunday for some training for a job I started recently. Until I get hope on 08/11, I’ll be a bit limited. Going to try to do better than I have the past couple of days.

I'm ready to move on whenever.

Ok, feel free to RP for a bit, get to know each other!

Congrats Toulbe! And Hezekh for the new gig!

I am ready to move on.

Urist got to have some fun and drop a little story nuggets. I'm willing to move on whenever the group is, but I'm in no hurry.

Grats on the new place and the new job!

People are not posting as often as I had hoped. To be blunt, my thoughts are that moving on my encourage more posting.

I agree.

Other tan asking questions about where we're going, Boomer doesn't have a lot to add right now. I haven't gotten any character responses yet. Feels a bit like each of us is having our own conversations with the GM.

It's ok though. Party gelling will happen once the first encounter or puzzle happens.

Hey gang, can we talk about party roles and play styles?

In my experience there's two basic party formations that work well in PbP games.

1) The Special Forces Unit

Sneaky bastards. Scout(s) up front (alone or in a pair), staying Charge distance from the rest of the party. They operate without light as much as possible. The scout sets the pace of the game and should expect to post about 3x as often as everyone else.
The rest of the party mostly maintains silence and tries to keep lights low or off, passing the time with character interaction.
At blind corners or doors, the party goes into a "breach" formation and moves through with quiet precision and careful planning. (this is the "tactical" style usually preferred by immersion players and wargamers)
This approach is slower, but has the highest success rate. Also, being the ambusher is way more fun than being the ambushee.

2) The Marauders

Loud and Proud. Light sources galore, not bothering with stealth. Everyone knows they're coming and they don't care. The group only slows down for traps and hazards. The character(s) with the highest defense take point, acting as vanguard. Any frontliner can move us forward. The party tends to be more boisterous and engaged between encounters. (this is peak Murderhobo style)
This approach is much faster, but tends toward more dangerous situations (which can be fun, so isn't necessarily a drawback)

As dwarves, I think either approach would fit us, but I think it's a good idea to talk about which we want to lean towards.

If we’re drunk all the time, Style 2 would seem to be more our sweet spot.

Yeah, much as I prefer the "special forces" approach, we're a band of Dwarves who, as per the agreed upon ruling, have to have alcohol every day. I just don't see us acting like a band of rogues--not all at once, anyway.

We din't have to take the 'Urist needs alcohol to get through the working day' thing too seriously, but what I take it to mean is that dwarves are at peak mental and physical performance when they have had at least one drink a day. It's when they don't drink they get 'drunk'.

As long as everyone feels theyre participating and contributing and that their build choices are being rewarded, at least i feel its my duty as GM to challenge the group in such a way, or variety of ways that no one feels like a load or a waste.

Glor, at first level, is very much like a ranged rogue. He has perception, stealth and acrobatics and good ranged attacks and not much else. Decent at Sense Motive but that will likely not be useful for a while.

Barik would definitely favour the marauders approach - we're dwarves! Get in there, axe swinging, and back yourself to take on and outlast anything that might stand against you.

Urist could stand to work with the first style, but the second style could lead to more "fun." Also, I'm thinking his phantom tends to be on the loud side when danger is afoot.

Still, a soldier can appreciate a tactical advantage, so Urist will be perfectly happy to swap to caution mode when the situation demands it.

While Toulbe is a sneaky guy himself, he's likely to be driving his own wagon. Now, if there comes a time in which they circle the wagons and fear there be trouble ahead, he can scout alongside Glor.

But, Toulbe would more than likely let the Dwarves do the decision making....except what they're having for dinner.

Have fun circling two wagons...

Alright, sounds like we're set on the Kick In The Door approach. We can always switch things up as the situation requires.

So, let's talk tactics.

We have a kinda weird group of classes. From the looks of things Barik is our best frontliner. So here's what I propose as a standard formation (w's are wagons, a's are whatever animal we have hauling them, P is Urist's Phantom)-

........B........
......T...H....
..................
....P.....G......
...a.......a.....
..wU...Bw...
..ww...ww...
..ww...ww..
.................
........G......

Discuss. I'm not married to this, it's just to get the conversation started.

If everyone would put a stat line in their profile it would help making such considerations. Being able to see AC and HP is a quick way to consider such things. I am sure our GM would appreciate it too.

If everyone would put a stat line in their profile it would help making such considerations. Being able to see AC and HP is a quick way to consider such things. I am sure our GM would appreciate it too.

yes, yes he would.

Make sure you've got your inventories updated. I might try to get a group inventory sheet going this weekend.

Does anyone have a template for such a thing that they prefer? This is the one I created for my other campaign, and I'm not exactly happy with it. It's, uh, unwieldy.

Myth-weavers for the win, IMHO. Screw the spreadsheet noise.