Having a "DMPC" is usually something I try to avoid, but on the other hand I did not want to just say "Marianne dies or leaves for no reason". Just wanted to be clear that if "Marianne" feels too much like "the DM is railroading us", I definitely want to know, and I will correct. She is simply being impulsive, argumentative, and a bit vengeful at the moment.
"Marianne Faithless" makes sense to me, and I don't feel it's too railroad-y. Apologies for not posting sooner, I had little free time the last two days.
Wamblee - I appreciate the rules quote on an obscure part of the rules. Very helpful.
Something to chew on for the weekend:
I like to think I am not a heavy-handed DM (reality may differ) and I will never "tell" you what your character's alignment is, make you lose levels for your actions, or anything else ridiculous like that. It would be different for paladins I suppose, but for this group your characters are entirely your own - as it should be.
Anyway, the one defining element of capital G Good for me is:
"Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others."
Leaving Root was pragmatic, and smart, but I would not call it Good. Again, your characters are your own, always. It made me wonder again what is motivating each of your characters right now - an ideal? your father's vision? curiosity? fear? apathy? etc. A lot has changed for each of you in a very short period of time- it would be interesting to hear how that has changed from the start of the campaign up until now.
As far as Samoon can tell, very little these characters have tried has worked. They lost their whole town and have no idea how to defeat just about anything they've faced save for some minor combatants (darkspawn, Pugliesi), so staying and fighting what could be a lost cause is out for him.
Heck, we couldn't even find Bree's sister. That was a moral failing if I ever saw one.
Samoon's reacting the way a fairly broken and beleaguered and tactically overwhelmed character would.
Understood. It's cool to hear where your character is coming from.
Samen is in a similar place, but he's still mad at the world for not letting him have the comfortable life he wanted. If he thought that anything he did would actually help someone, he might be willing to try it. Barring that, throwing his life away for nothing just seems pointless.
Wamblee was willing to try to save Yuma, because he is willing to believe that other masters could be corrupted. But he cares more about his family than about Root, something that has been made very clear to himself in the turbulent recent weeks. Wamblee has inclinations towards good deeds, but he is more interested in following his "path". Often these coincide, but not always.
Appreciate the responses everyone!
Busy weekend - I will plan on updating Sunday evening.
Fair enough!
Thinking on it some more, I think Samen is so pissed off that everyone they meet is trying to kill them he's willing to perform some decidedly 'non-good' actions upon their persons. Considering he's never done anything even mildly altruistic this whole campaign, I'd be willing to bump him down to Neutral if you'd like.
He's helped his family and the air elemental(?)
Samoon isn't gonna stop Samen from killing things! :D
It's truly up to you - I originally posed it because it popped into my head. I think it's also fair that most of these situations have indeed been overwhelming and you all have not had the opportunity to make those kinds of choices except as a "I'm almost certainly going to die from this" kind of way.
Ha! Though my opinion on Samen's relative morality may be changed once I actually read your Gameplay post.
friendly reminder Samen - Bertrude gave you two poultices (exactly the same as cure light wounds potions)
A heads up. I won't be available to post at all on Friday, and I likely won't have much availability until Sunday evening or Monday evening.
Thanks for the update!
Thanks for the mechanical details on your post Samen! Always appreciated!
I'll be camping from 4/14-4/18; please bot Samoon as needed.
Any word from Marianne's player, by the way? Samoon is surrounded by oreads these days!
Unfortunately not! The last PM I left was titled simply "You are Welcome Back Anytime", which is still true. I hope she is well, and perhaps comes back some day.
:( That's too bad. Hmmm.
Agreed. I'm honestly not willing to give Marianne to a different player, as she was played far too well by Dotraj to do that.
I'm somewhat-but-kinda-not considering the idea of recruiting a fourth player, as I think it does help pacing, discussions, etc to have 4 rather than 3 PCs in general, but I'm at a loss as to who the actual character would be. Bertrude?
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Abigailiwy!
On a less comical note, if we get to our ancestor's tribe or Light, we could find a cousin or something.
I think Samoon and Wamblee are away for at least the weekend, so I won't do anymore updating until we get at least 2/3 of our players here :)
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I'm here for two more days! Although don't count on me for much :P
To kick the week off,
Wamblee, having survived going hand-to-hand with an earth elemental, you find your fists feel harder, more powerful than before. They now count as +1 magical weapons.
Samen, you notice with a start of surprise that Abigailiwy has left you a gift - she (for lack of a better word) squished some of the dying earth elemental onto the bottom of your boots. (add +20 to your burrow speed so you should be at 30 ft now; still dirt etc only, no stone) You get no sense of thought from the heavy, sleeping presence that now resides in the soles of your boots.
Oh nice!
Catching up here.
Edit:
What HP should Wamblee be at?
You are at 5 HP. :)
Right now the vote is -
Samoon posted in strong favor of continued battle and going back into Root
Wamblee just posted the same.
Samen is opposed.
So just with three, the party is voting to go back in, so that's what I'm assuming in Gameplay. Marianne can easily be persuaded to go in as well, especially if Wamblee rolls well on the checks I just posted.
As always, if Samen wishes to stay behind, he can. Abbygailiwy does not seem bothered by the idea of going underground now that she is... 'wearing a shell' is the phrase she would use to Samen.
Apologies for delay. Busy weekend then week so been trailing on boards.
Understood - glad to see you back!
Cheers. :)
Re: 4th player
The suggestion of a cousin or something is good. Before I think about it any more, quick poll, on 'should we try to get a 4th player?'
1) Sure, adding a 4th could be fun!
2) I'd really prefer not.
3) Don't mind either way.
Marianne would still be welcome back even if that got us up to 5.
I vote for 1, if an enthusiastic player up for this particular style of campaign is available to play. And I absolutely would be fine with five players should Marianne's player return.
I vote 3. I'm happy either continuing as is or adding an extra player.
:D I choose 3 as well. This game works best with players who write well and often, so adding someone who wouldn't be able to keep up (and heavens knows I feel like I can't keep up sometimes) is the thing to watch out for.
Interesting poll results. Historically when looking for replacements for missing players, I've actually had the best luck when other PCs recommend players from their other PbP games (rather than general recruitment)
Do any of you have ideas for a player that posts often/well, and would be willing to submerge themselves in a homebrew world like this?
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't know of one who isn't booked up, but I'll ask around.
Have you been keep track of bombs used, etc, Samoon? When you get a chance, could you update your stat line?
I'll have a think about it, but yes the better players I know are all booked up, which means different things for different people's schedules.
Ah well, thanks to both of you for looking. If it doesn't work out at this exact second, I'm still really happy with the group we have right now, so no big deal. Keep your ears to the ground, and let me know if you hear anything from your other tables.
So I'm happy to leave the scene for tonight - feel free to post as you will.
So I know how to update, please vote something like:
--Rest here
--Rest somewhere close, but not right here
--Get the heck out of here! Put in a half-day's march, then rest
(as a side note, all your potential destinations are east (cedarsmoke, light, and breathless valley), so I'm assuming East unless told otherwise)
It struck me that it would be interesting (in a way solely interesting to me) to have 'monk' weapons that were in the style of african or native american hunters rather than 'eastern' weapons (like a longspear for a reach weapon, instead of a three section staff). Monks and monasteries are influenced by oread society, so I wonder if it's even possible to implement.
Any weapon buffs in here? I could probably do it myself, but if any are inclined to do so it would be much appreciated.
And Wamblee, I'm definitely not asking/forcing you to change your weapons here and now - this would be for subsequent campaigns. Just like with warpriests, I probably have to ramble about it a bit before I actually do anything.
Hey GM, I have a friend who's interested in an online game. I will point her in the direction of this campaign for her to read over. She hasn't played -much- Pathfinder--I took her and some pals through Master of the Fallen Fortress, but she's interested. She's played other RPGs iirc.
Awesome! Have her send me a PM if she's interested after reading it over a bit.
The intro page might be a good place to start for an explanation of the basics, but then again the actual beginning of one of the Gameplay threads would be more immersive. Up to you!
I like the idea for a different theme on monk weapons.
I would not object to switching Wamblee's for different weapons. Not even necessarily functionally identical either.
And let's see what Samoon's friend makes of this campaign!
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So on monk weapons:
Monk weapons are weird, because some of them are terrible, and some of them are straight up worse than others (the siangham is identical to the kama except it doesn't get trip, and they are both exotic for some reason?)
So I'll be doing a few weapons that I found interesting and iconic, but aside from that I'm letting most of the giant pile of monk weapons (like eastern weapons) lay fallow unless there is a great desire for a translation of one or two others.
Shuriken ---> Njiga, the african throwing dagger
Njiga
Stats: thrown weapon, ranged ; 30 ft ; 1d6 ; 19-20/x2
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Siangham -----> Nimcha, african curved blade
Nimcha
Stats: same as siangham, but give it 19-20/x2 so it is not strictly worse than kama
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Cestus ----> Ngigolio, the african finger dagger
Ngigolio
Same stats as cestus
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Kama -----> Trumbash, a highly curved short blade
Trumbash
Same stats as kama
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Temple Sword ----> Rungu, a big african curved beat stick
Rungu
Same stats as a temple sword, except bludgeoning.
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Nunchaku ---> Sjambok, an african leather whip
Sjambok
Same stats as nunchaku, can be used to disarm.
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Reach weapons like the kama double chain ----->Assegai, a spear
I'm taking some huge liberties here because I wanted at least one "cool" weapon, so this will act like double spear with the reach quality. You cannot use both the "double" quality and the "reach" quality in the same round.
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Among other weapons monks receive proficiency in, clubs, daggers, handaxes, javelins, spear, shortspear, quarterstaff, and sling remain unchanged.
I like the flavour.
What becomes of Wamblee's current weapons? I'm okay with reflavouring/reskinning them for the new theme. Though then what becomes of the Sansetsukon, Dan Bong, and Lungchuan tamo?