I'm so excited and I hope everyone has fun. I thought we'd start off with a session 0 to flesh out any party details and get familiar with the other players.
So to start off discussion: Why do you play pathfinder and what do you look forward to in this PbP game?
Hi! Thanks for selecting my character for this adventure!
I mostly play pathfinder to weave stories and explore new experiences through my characters. Of all the RPGs I've played this has been the best world and rule system to do that in. I've been playing tabletop RPGs for about 6 years now. In all that time I've never played an arcane caster so I'm really looking forward to getting to try it out in this game. I'm also looking forward to the real dungeon crawl/old school vibe you are going for, as it's true these style games don't come up often and even though they aren't heavy on story they usually create the greatest memories in the end.
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Thanks for picking me for the game!
The reason why I play pathfinder has a lot to do with my gaming origins, I come from games like Warhammer 40k, Mutant Chronicles Warzone, Mage Knight (the original), and other tabletop wargames. For me a lot of the joy of games comes from complexity and utility. I love the depth of complexity and the completeness of Pathfinder. I always try to make sure that rules reflect my character. The large toolkit that is Pathfinder provides that for me as well as a tactical depth for combat that I enjoy more than any other system.
It also doesn't hurt that I tend to roll poorly with Dice, and Pathfinder has ways to get around that by carefully building and planning your character out.
As for what I am looking forward to the most is getting back to my roots in the RPG world with MUD games, or playing Achaea way back in middle school with my friends.
Ilyana/Arachnofiend reporting in. Thanks for selecting me.
I like tabletop games in equal parts due to the ability to craft a narrative and play a character and for the tactical gameplay aspects; while I can get the former with pretty much any system, I've yet to find one that satisfies me better than Pathfinder on the latter.
What's got me excited about this game is the prospects of a no-nonsense down and dirty dungeon crawl; the people I typically play with have an affinity for grand narratives, which I do enjoy quite a bit but has the effect of making a "kick down the door, kill the monster and get the loot" adventure novel and exciting to me.
Thanks for picking me!
I got into pathfinder 2-3 years ago after someone recommended it to me, and one of the reasons I love it so much is getting to create new characters/monsters/magic items, etc.
I'm excited to play this specific PbP because I got to use a race I've thought was interesting for a while, but never got to build anything with, and to play a classic dungeon crawl.
I'm glad you all could make it!
I like just how much variety Pathfinder provides for you in its ruleset and content, while also encouraging players to ignore what it provides and have fun telling their own stories.
I recently got into play by post and I have an idea of what the format COULD be. So know that i'm learning and experimenting with the medium and I hope that we can all have a good time. I see it being like those old text based computer games only I'll be the computer so possibilities are endless.
One thing I like about pbp is that players can take the time to describe their charters actions or thoughts in a way you can't at a table. My expectation of you as players is that you will be curious and creative and interact with eachother and the word as you see fit. I'll do my best to keep up with you. If you start doing things that are more interesting that what i have planned, then we're gonna do your thing. So I hope that your characters take initiative and pursue your goals together, rather than wait to be acted upon by the story.
What are your expectations of me as GM?
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Just keep throwing fun challenges my way, and I'll be good, I plan to make some fun RP here with my superstitious barbarian and a bunch of casters. Should be a blast seeing him just saying "That s**t ain't right..." when people start hurling magic all over! I'm very easily pleased and honestly it seems like most of what I typically want to see from a GM has already been met, you've given us a fun hook, and you're telling us that while you plan to have a fun story for us, if we go right instead of left, you're gonna give us free reign to do so! To me that's plenty.
I think that one of the best things about PbP is the freedom it gives everyone to explore what their character feels, thinks and does in detail as you said. I think the same goes for the Dungeon Master. You don't control a specific character in as much depth but the extra time you can put in to describing situations and settings really pays off in immersion for us players.
Play by Post is worst when the GM comes off as if they are reciting a script. It sounds like you are pretty keyed into this already. By the sounds of it you are intending to take your time crafting your posts as the story develops. I think if you can do that right then your inexperience with actually running PbP will be a non-issue.
I definitely agree that one of the main advantages of the PbP style is the level of detail; it's much easier to explore a character's head when you have time to craft exactly what you want to say rather than having to speak quickly to keep the session moving. Really brings out the "cooperative storytelling" aspect of tabletop RPG's.
I definitely like being able to take time to think about what you're going to post. Also, being able to post ahead of time (for example, saying what you're going to do on your turn in combat even if you're not going for a few turns.)
So to business!
We've got a Barbarian, a Cleric, a Paladin and a Bard. What questions do you have for each other for build stuff to work out before we start?
Isidora is built using the archeologist archetype, which makes her a lot more rogue-like and that's the role I intend to fill here. You can count on me to find any traps and pick any locks we come across, as well as providing my bardic knowledge and diplomacy skills.
I've taken clw so I can give out some healing if it's needed, most of my spellcasting is meant to support my exploration though. Detect and read magic, detect secret doors etc.
Isidora is built using the archeologist archetype, which makes her a lot more rogue-like
Dskani is going to be focusing more on combat, with magic to support that. Most of his spells are combat-based, such as magic fang, weapon of awe, and sun metal. He can heal if necessary, but doesn't have many spell slots, and would need to spontaneously cast to use cure spells.
Ilyana can definitely handle any out of combat healing as well as emergency healing with LoH, though her primary goal is to hit things really hard with her sword. I'll try to step up and provide party buffs but with a 4th level list that's generally not too feasible.
Do you have any questions for me?
You mentioned in the recruitment thread that post expectations are every other day or better. During combat, does that change? I know some GMs give you 24 hours to take your turn, but I'm not sure how you wanted to handle that.
That won't change during combat. I'm not sure the best way to handle initiative during combat. To start, I'll roll the party initiative and you can post in whatever order but things will resolve in initiative order. I'll wait till everyone has posted till the baddies go again. If you don't post in two days you'll just delay I guess.
I don't know if there is one best way to handle initiative. I am in a game at the moment where the GM has rolled initiative and is working through the list slowly, allowing groups of players to act in between each enemy's turn and resolving their actions in initiative order. In another group, the GM is averaging the modifiers of all combatants on a side, then making an initiative roll for each side. When it's the party's "turn", we all act in the order we post in.
I guess what's best will depend on how often everyone can post.
I think that Dskani mentioned already, one of the advantages of PbP is setting up your actions ahead of time. That's a big help to make combat flow smoothly if someone is going to be away for a day.
It's also handy to set up "if x happens I do y, otherwise z" in situations where you might be planning on taking a certain action but want to know how someone else's turn plays out first.
So during the exploration of the castle, I want to give you guys the exits of the are you are in, like "there is a door to the north a window to the east and a trapdoor on the floor."
I think voting each time may be too time consuming, so do you guys want to elect a temporary leader to determine which direction you guys go? or I can roll for it while we play and change who is leading occasionally. Or if you have any other ideas of how to handle that kind of travel I'd love to hear them.
Ilyana would likely elect herself if there were no objections; I actually had an idea as to how our little group got put together related to that. Ilyana has the church's backing in this expedition since they believe the Eye is a phylactery. Ilyana would set up a deal with fellow adventurers that, if the church's belief is true, then they will be properly compensated for their time, and if not, then they could take her share of the fortune since she's not really in it for the money regardless. We could RP this in greater detail once the game starts for real.
Sounds good.
Great! I opened the gameplay thread. Can i get everyone's Inititive, Saves, and Perception bonuses?
Sounds great!
Initiative: + 6
Perception: + 9
Fort: + 1
Ref: + 5
Will: + 5
Perception +2
Initiative +1
Fortitude +5
Reflex +2
Will +5
Perception +2
Initiative +1
Fort +8
Ref +6
Will +6
Isidora, for solving the riddle you got a reroll. Not for the shaken effect but a reroll you can elct to use on any d20 roll, similar to the kind in pfs for gm stars or buying merch. Make sense? Should have given more info. My bad.
Oh, sorry, my mistake! Well that's more satisfying than failing the will save again!
So if you make a roll you don't like (or a group roll like initiative or saves) then just declare a reroll like you did.
I use rerolls to reward RP and things. Probably should a mentioned...
Cool, I'll keep that reroll in mind then. I'm sure it will come in handy.
That moment you identify that the construct has hardness and suddenly realize you forgot to purchase any special ammunition for your pistol...
no worries. I've been travelling for work and have had delays as well.
Honestly, I'm not sure. This is my only means of contact with GM Ska, so I don't know what's going on.
Remember when I asked players to post every other day or better in my recruitment thread? that's pretty embarrassing. I'll do better.
I'm going to to be away and unable to post for a few days, until Monday or Tuesday.
Did we loose Ilyana?
I'm going to be travelling interstate for a four day conference from tomorrow and probably won't get a chance to post anything while I'm there. Please bot Isidora as needed.
Ilyana hasn't posted in over two months. I've reached out and got no responce from her either. How would you feel about recruiting another player or two?
Hows everyone else doing with the game so far. any advice?
I would be in favour of recruiting some new players. I think having more people around might speed things up a little.