Tales of Sorrow

Game Master Raging Bull

Welcome and congratulations on making it to the campaign!

For starters I'm going to give a few rules, tips and advices for you to use while playing. I'm certain some of these are no-brainers and I'm very sorry to bore the more experienced players, but I think it's good to say anyway. Everyone is happy when you know what you're up to. Ah, and do forgive me for the silly comments/examples in italics.

• 1. "Suddenly the rogue falls dead. The alchemist sees nothing strange and concludes the rogue died from a heart attack. A few miles further, Light smiles and closes his Death Note."
  As I said in the recruiting topic, I expect you to post daily. No problem if you got some busy days, I'll have some of those as well, but just tell in advance. I'll kick those absent for 48h without notice, just because the other players deserve to be able to go on with the game.

• 2. "You can shout white all you want, if I say it's black, it's black, even if reality says it's grey."
  I'm very open to suggestions about your character, the setting and how to play. Just do in a respectfull way and don't forget it's me who decides in the end. You can also send suggestions in private to: dm.raging.bull@gmail.com

• 3. "The Barbarian uses Climb. He rolls a 3 tough, so he falls to the ground. And takes damage of 2 HP from falling."
  Limit the ooc talk as much as you can in the Gameplay discussion and come up with good descriptions of what is actually happening. Much more fun to read. If what you have to say ooc is longer as the narrative, consider putting it up in the discussion thread or putting up a spoiler.

• 4. "The Bard stepped forward and made up a story on the spot to try and get past the guard. You don't remember the details, nor everything he said, but it included a sick person and the party having the necessary ingredients for that person."
  
  rolls:

  Bluff Check: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
  
  I like this way of posting since it further "hides" the gameplay and puts the focus on the RP. Feel free to use it, I won't be angry if you don't. I just send a Tarrasque at you ^^ (kidding, really, this is just a tip for those who want to further put the focus on the narrative)

• 5. "This is called a game. We use it to relax when not doing our job and to have some fun."
  Need to be more clear? Game and fun are central here. No one dies when it doesn't go the way you'd like it and we all try and have fun.
  

Can't think of anything else. Ah yes. Doublecheck your languages. I changed the first rule of bonus languages for divine and arcane casters so you might reconsider before you start playing. Your choice is final from the moment we enter the gameplay.

Bonuses will follow. They take different forms, not all are traits as I said initially, but you all will have some reward for the stories.

My thanks again for including Errik. These rules look good.

I am a little concerned at our lack of healing capabilities and I'm wondering if I should swap out 'charm person' for 'Cure light wounds'. What do others think?

I had a question, how are we leveling up? With EXP or are you going to have us level up at predetermined points in the story?

Also as to the lack of healing, wands of cure light wounds are going to be our friends.

Thank you and hello all. I agree we're a little light on the heals... My character would assume he would have it covered.. He can brew potions and share cures. We will see what is available when we get going.
Lose a finger- keep it in ice for the time being.

Anxious to get started .. and I have read and understand the [listed] rules.

Euchrid (pronounced You'krid) for those whose internal monologues need clarity.

Thank you and hello all. I agree we're a little light on the heals... My character would assume he would have it covered.. He can brew potions and share cures. We will see what is available when we get going.

Lose a finger- keep it in ice for the time being.

Anxious to get started .. and I have read and understand the [listed] rules.

Euchrid (pronounced You'krid) for those whose internal monologues need clarity.

To bad your cures don't become infused until 2nd level. Healing is going to be tough the first level, but we do have enough secondary healers that eventually we won't have much of a problem.

Levelling will be at predetermined points at the story. I work in chapters, after every chapter you gain a level. You should be able to shop, do a personal mission, ... after every chapter, before a next one starts.

The lack of healing should work out starting from second level, when Hissarion gains his Lay on Hands and Euchrid gets his Infused Curative. Don't forget Euchrid's Healing skill as well. I tought these would get you trough starting from lvl 2. As for the first level: if Errik is going to take a cure as well, fine for me. I am aware of the problem and I won't exploit it.

The rules sound great. I'm excited to get going.

I am aware of the problem and I won't exploit it.

That's good to hear. It'll definitely be easier after level 2, but until then it could cause real problems. Even without exploiting it.

I saw that Varro took Charm Person so I've decided to change to Cure Light wounds.

Allright, here's the bonuses. I might make use of them later in the story, perhaps even going as far to modify 'em, but this is what they give you at the start.

Awesome :D

Started play. Make sure your character is in the tavern or arriving at it, from the moment he is introduced I'll take steps to put you together.

Thanks for the opportunity to play. This is going to be fun.

I will have a chance to post everyday, but I should warn you that I am in China, and thus likely in a very different time zone from everyone else.

Different time zones shouldn't be much of a problem. The forum RP's I did before all went great if everyone kept the habit of posting daily, even if time schedules were all different.

@Senthiri: The initial DC (10) was too high for overhearing a conversation. (Overhearing a conversation = 0, I took distracted since you're in a lively tavern so DC + 5)

I edited shortly after but noticed you rolled already. Feel free to edit your post and take your second roll as a succes.

@Senthiri: The initial DC (10) was too high for overhearing a conversation. (Overhearing a conversation = 0, I took distracted since you're in a lively tavern so DC + 5)

I edited shortly after but noticed you rolled already. Feel free to edit your post and take your second roll as a succes.

That last one I had posted just before work so I wasn't able to edit it after I saw the new DC, but I reposted for the second half of the conversation.

Ok I made it, better late than never!

Interesting mix of characters. Three Tintalians, three Valesmen; two warriors, two scholars, two scoundrals.

Good to have you with us! I would've hated it if the Raven wasn't part of the campaign now ;-)

Hissarion/Caleth, I noticed you use combat maps in your own campaign. Are you using a (free) tool to create them?

I use MapTool, which is free and has quite a lot of features. Making the map initially takes time, but then updating for each round does not take long at all.

The program is here. I also downloaded a free set of images from somewhere, I'm sure that if you poke around a little you can find it.

I want a running joke with Hissarion to be that he often tries to put words and phrases of Divina in his speech but he can't actually speak the language and thus always says something grammatically incorrect. I have made Divina a combination of Greek and Latin in the one example of this so far, since I can actually come up with grammatically incorrect Greek/Latin off the top of my head; but if you had a different idea of what it sounded like I will keep that in mind in the future.

I didn't have a sound in mind for the languages, but I like it this way, so feel free to go on with it ^^

Should you have any good ideas for accents of Valesmen and Tintalian, feel free to discuss them here. I'll see how far I get with the MapTools. Since we're still talking I might even make that before the first actual combat.

Telling you something I tell to groups I play with for the first time: As you might have noticed, you got a lot of freedom in deciding where you go or what you do, since I'm not telling "go do this or that". Making good choices is part of the game IMHO. NPC's will react to it from their point of view. I do this to increase immersion, not to force you into a certain direction. If an NPC is reacting "No, don't do that, you're going to get me killed that way!" the DM is actually saying "Oh yes please do, interesting plot coming up!".

I may have just made up a word. Phosflouresent, I think it means glows in the dark?

Also sorry Senthiri I only saw your post after I submitted mine.

Also sorry Senthiri I only saw your post after I submitted mine.

Meh. No big deal. I think your idea might be more believable anyway. Except for the whole "Phosflouresent" thing. But you were close enough.

Bad spelling, but the word exists.
phos·pho·res·cent
[-fuh-res-uhnt]
- adjective 1. luminous
- Related Forms    sem·i·phos·pho·res·cent- adjective    phos·pho·res·cent·ly- adverb    phos·pho·res·cence- noun
=)

Tsk, go on, give me a hard time inventing new words and all ^^

"I am Manuel, I am from Barcelona, I know nothing!"

City map is yours. No credits for me, I stole it from the internet and erased the original names. Didn't found the name of the creator tough, so I'll just ask you to give credits to the unknown maker of this beautifull map. The position of the inn, if Stoogie wasn't clear:

Put your finger at the most southern tower, go up and go a little to the right. First big building is your inn.

in that case I guess the tavern by the docks is the one we are already in.

Lol, Sorry. To everyone who speaks English as a second language I salute you! I come from Australia I live in the Bush somewhere between Sydney and Canberra. I know a little German, Japanese and French but when ever I have been overseas I have always been able to find someone nearby who could speak enough English to help me out.

No kidding. I've studied a few languages myself, and there is nothing as hard as English. I'm glad it's my first language, and have extreme respect for anyone trying to learn it as a second language.

I'm a 3.5 player and discovered Pathfinder only recently. I don't have much experience DM'ing, but this is not my first campaign either. I've done some forum RP before, but this will be my first PbP campaign. What I enjoy most is the RP part: creating a world and making others part of it. I'm not native English so I'm sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes. I do hope the players will have a wonderfull time and look forward to start this.

^^

And you are doing an awesome job! Both with GMing and with the English. thanks!

And you are doing an awesome job! Both with GMing and with the English. thanks!

The Sky turns open and Ishtar shows herself to Errik. She changes his destiny by making him a Demigod. He is now a Golden Dragon with bard class lvl 20. Ah... Sorry, should've made that spoiler. ^^

@Euchrid: Yes. From the moment you've visited some more places I'll add markings, I just was too lazy to do that already.

Nice ;)

By the way, I don't want to give the wrong impression when I say I know a little of a language I really do mean a little and there is no way I could read or write in them either.

I tried my hands on a battle map using a normal photo editor (GIMP) by enlarging the city map. It will serve for now, at least you have some visuals. Squares are 10ft.

It's just experimentation from my part, there's no battle waiting you... Or is there? *evil smile*

I really hope that the window of the inn was open. I am trying to run all the way around the block to come up behind the person hiding in the alley. judging from the map, it should take me about 3 or 4 rounds to run south, past Liam and then through the back streets across from the inn. Hopefully he does not decide to bolt in the next 20 seconds.

Entering our first battle (yay!).

I will roll the initiatives for you so we don't have to wait for everyone to throw a dice. I'll allow you to describe your actions of that round before it's your turn, but obviously action will only happen in order of initiative. You're not obliged to, this is just to make combat a little faster as normal.

Example:

Order of Initiative: player A - monster - player B - player C

Post 1: First round: Player B says he will attack the monster
Post 2: Player C says he will cast magic missile on the monster
Post 3: Player A attacks the monster
Post 4: DM makes monster attack player B, then defends against attacks from player B and player C. DM announces second round, everyone can post again.

I added coordinates to the map. When you move, give me the position where your character would end. That way we avoid misunderstandings as I did with Hissarions jumping out of the window, plus it will make it easier for me to track your steps.

Sorry. J3. Are the squares still ten feet?

It was supposed to be 10ft, but it's likely I made some mistakes. Therefore the coordinates as well, so you can track your steps and protest if I made a false move ;-)

The combat map system is something I've never used before and I saw a great opportunity trying this out now.

I haven't noticed any mistakes. I didn't want to step in my own grease spell. I normally use a battle map in RL games and I'm used to working in 5ft squares. That's not to say your doing something wrong. I admire the effort your putting in, I haven't even attempted to make a map for the game I run on the boards and to be honest I wouldn't even know where to begin.

If there are none: excellent. If others notice some after all: ah well ^^ I tought I'd make mistakes in a first-timer.

I'm using the boards as tryout for a setting I would like to do RL, so all effort done will return eventually.

I had some internet connection issues, should be allright now. DM intervention arriving soon ;-)

Wait, the map shows me at H3, and your initiative says I'm at H1. Should I stick with what I see on the map, or initiative?

Good thing you saw that. Positions at initiative were of a previous map version, I edited my post now.

You're at H3, since you said Senthiri stepped forward next to Hissarion.

Thank you. Also I'd kind of like to know what the female bandit does before my turn as I've got an AoE I might like to use.

Sure, it's by no means an obligation to post before your turn. But in some situations it might speed up affairs. I registered the movements and attacks made so far, it's your turn now.

not sure how you would like to do bombs with 10' squares (I added splash damage rules from core rulebook to my profile) was planning on doing a lot of throwing at grid intersections (ground ranged touch attack AC5) at least until I improve my aim.

Damn, I really need to switch to 5ft squares to make this all work... Ah well. I'm sorry for all the trouble with me experimenting with the battle maps, I hope the story and events are making up for it.

Euchrid, you can take the rules literally. I will switch to 5ft. maps in our next fight.
For this fight: "splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the target" -> splash damage to all creatures on a square horizontally or vertically adjacent to target's square.

I'm sorry for all the trouble with me experimenting with the battle maps, I hope the story and events are making up for it.

Don't worry, about it. I've been enjoying the game, even though there have been a few uncertainties in position etc. But that's all it's been, is uncertainties. Could ne a lot worse, but it's not.

Yea no prob its all good... considering that I'll clarify on this first bomb - when I typed "at the feet of" Esker I meant hit ground in front of him avoiding hitting injured girl (barring pretty unlucky rolling) not his actual feet... (that's why the vs AC5)

Done, I figured that ;-)

Oops! Just realized that enlarge person is not one of the spells that can be done with spell combat. Sorry.