That sounds great, where can I find the add on? Edit: Oh the Chrome store, doy.
Only tried the avatar ability thus far, but that is already spectacular, I am going to have to tell everyone in my other games aout this, it is amazing! Thanks Amandine :)
@GM: politicking (senatorial hopeful) spoiler doesn't seem to be working?
@Amandine - that is really great, thanks for the heads-up! Can see this being really useful.
Thanks for the heads up, should still have time to edit I hope!
Should be fixed, though I confess I don't know how. Parsing was right, had to move it for it to work, but all the ode was the same, odd.
Looks like you got there in time.
@Khalil: I see we both have the senatorial hopeful campaign trait. Do you want to take the politicking mission? I could probably be good at the discovery one instead.
You could probably collaborate a fair bit, the systems for the missions in the Gala are all basically new concepts involving social rounds that last fifteen minutes each amongst other things. In my experience the one off AP mechanics are uniformly bloody awful so I'm taking a detailed look and might make some changes recommended in the GM threads. I'll try to get them up and explained in the next few days.
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I'm not very good at any of them. I think my best choice mechanically speaking is Aide (I have slightly better cmb/d, but not escape artist training). Backstory wise, my military background is a nice fit for the Spy mission, and it's poetic justice to get back at my own house (theft), but I have none of the recommended skills.
True, but your knowledge (nobility) is sky-high. I can easily see you providing really useful information to the rest of us about the particular nobles we're trying to influence. Or even just alerting us to basic customs that us commoners aren't aware of :)
I'm primed for theft and sabotage. Amandine has Disable Device and Sleight of Hand. Fraud is fine too, she has Linguistics and K Nobility.
She's fine with handling all the dirty work the lawful types won't touch. :)
Funny, I've had the addon so long I'd forgotten the avatar thing wasn't a regular site feature. Yep, it's very nice.
@Olivia The DCs you will need are not that hard to hit and you basically get a chance at them once each social round, which is 15 minutes at tthe Gala. I would probably say either Discovery or Aide. For discovery Knowledge Nobility is probably the main skill.
If you wanted to swap out a skill point Sense Motive is a Paladin skill and would likely be more helpful in this game than most by a considerable margin with it Discovery would be a great fit.
Chana's the other Young Reformer, but she's hardly a good match for the given skills under Sabotage.
I'd say she's better suited skill wise to: Discovery, Fraud, or Spy.
In a more general sense though, Chana doesn't seem well suited to the "remain unobtrusive" part of the Spy role, if only because I figure she'll stand out like a sore thumb. And from a character personality point of view, I don't think she'd have a sense for creating a fake scandal, for the Fraud role.
Therefore, Discovery role it is unless someone wants to fight for it!
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Thanks GM, but I can't bear to part with any of my skills, even my weird K.Planes. I took that one to represent my time at the Worldwound, helping to fight against the demonic incursion. I can promise that by level 2 she'll have at least one rank in Sense Motive.
Chana if you want to take Discovery I'm happy trying my hand at the Aide one.
Lol spy would be funny. Who the heck would suspect a paladin?
@Damrak Yeah I think that its going to be his best bet. In-character a few of the options wouldn't sit particularly well with him I think. And that is the one that most directly furthers his goals while also being something he has at least a chance of accomplishing.
As a side note, as someone who normally plays skill-monkeys its painful to be a Cleric right now with so few skills to contribute with. At least my choice to take Linguistics in order to learn Kelish for purely story reasons might grant me some use here. hah
@Chana: any chance you could take the Fraud? Damrak has no suitable skills for that whatsoever.
Summary so far
Aide: Olivia
Discover: Chana/Damrak (depending on Chana's reply to the above)
Fraud: Chana? (depending on reply)
Spy:
Theft: Amandine
Politicking: Khalil
Sabotage: Amandine
I should point out that you are only required to do one each, you do not need to cover them all. I suppose with Amandine covering 2 a pair could cover one together if you wanted.
I should point out that Lady Martella also suggests that you use the Gala as an opportunity to make connections and garner as much influence as possible - we have not quite gotten to the point where this dialogue is "triggered" yet, but it will make the following mechanics make a bit more sense.
Descriptions of the areas and the NPCs list a variety of possible skills the PCs may use to influence the guests. A PC can attempt only one major action each round, including influencing an area, influencing a specific NPC, or attempting mission-related skill checks, but they can travel freely around the senate between rounds
to investigate or influence new areas or characters.
Influencing an Area: A PC can attempt an appropriate skill check with a set DC for one of the areas of the senate, hobnobbing and impressing the general crowd in that area. Each area has two thresholds, which represent levels of influence over that area. Every point by which the PC’s result on one of these skill checks exceeds the DC is added to a pool of points specific to that area.
When the number of points earned by the party as a whole exceeds the threshold of an area, then the GM provides the PCs with the information and story award associated with that area’s threshold value.
Influencing an NPC: A PC can attempt various skill checks to influence the NPCs listed in the Dramatis Personae section. Each social round, a PC can move to any location on the map on page 16 and select a single NPC in that area as her target to influence. She then attempts either a discovery check or an influence check. A discovery check allows a PC to learn either one of the skills she can use to influence the target or a weakness that grants her (and any other characters with whom she shares this information) a +4 bonus on future influence checks. The exact skill and DC required for a discovery check varies; learning an influence skill normally requires a successful Sense Motive or Knowledge (nobility) check with the DC listed in parentheses in the Influence entry of the target NPC’s social stat block. Learning a target’s weakness requires a successful skill check using the skills and DCs listed in parentheses in the target’s Weakness entry; the GM can reveal the skills needed to recognize these weaknesses without need for a separate discovery check.
An influence check is an attempt to win the target’s favor. PCs must attempt a skill check using one of the skills listed in the target’s Influence entry, though discovering what these skills are requires a
successful discovery check. A successful skill check against the listed DC counts as one success, indicating growing affection or respect for the PC. Each target lists the total number of successes needed to gain their favor. At the GM’s discretion, PCs can attempt to use a skill not listed in an NPC’s stat block, but doing so increases the influence check DC by 5. A PC earns one additional success if her influence check exceeds the listed DC by 5 or more. A failed discovery or influence check can be attempted again in subsequent rounds with no penalty unless otherwise noted.
Thanks GM, I've gone with your suggestion.
Looks like the mechanics are straight from Ultimate Intrigue so hopefully not too 'bloody awful!' :)
A simplified version thereof, apparently, and yes, I think that is the case, its helpful that they have gone through more playtesting than the typical AP only mechanic :)
@Chana: any chance you could take the Fraud? Damrak has no suitable skills for that whatsoever.
OK I can try for Fraud instead. Chana's not half-bad at bluff vs. humans. Though someone's going to need to explain to her what it means to 'discredit' someone. :>
BTW, I've noticed that this thread is pretty busy when I'm asleep. I guess that means there are some folks from Europe here? (I'm a US East Coast-er) Either that or people are incredibly early risers!
Wake up at 2-7 am? That's both kind of impressive and kind of worrying. I can't get myself out of bed before 7am without some kind of emergency siren blaring. And that's on weekdays when I have to get to work
I'm in the UK, but I work to a number of different time zones. It's complicated.
I'm U.K to, but do shift work so my timings can be all over the place :p
West Coast of the U.S. here. Kids keep me on standard hours.
Ick. Paizo forum is all kinds of crappy today. Lost 2 posts already. Rewriting now >_<
Ick. Paizo forum is all kinds of crappy today. Lost 2 posts already. Rewriting now >_<
Yeah, I've learned to never type into Paizo's forum, just use a notepad file and then copy/paste. Or if you absolutely must, make sure to CTRL-A/CTRL-C before you submit or preview.
So I wanted to throw up a post tonight because I'm likely not going to be able to post at all tomorrow. I work from 9am to 11pm essentially after working till 12am tonight so Im just gonna be wiped out. Ill try to get on early the next day to write up a post.
Quick question before I make my next post: should we all be disguised as nobles or members of noble households at the gala? Or would Tanglefoot arriving as a fool, as part of the entertainment, be acceptable, and amenable to getting close to some of the nobles?
Good luck Khalil! That sounds super dreadful.
@Everyone: Chana's not one to verbally dance around and hide things from her allies (assuming she doesn't think they're untrustworthy, they become part of her extended "family" soon enough), so I figured she'd want to dispense with the BS right from the beginning. I'm also hoping from a meta-perspective that people are OK with being open with things within our group. I've played in games where PCs kept big secrets from each other and I've always felt like it takes away more than it adds. More specifically, the fun gained by adding a complex layer of hidden motives is less that the fun from everyone supporting each other on their true goals.
I have no issues with that, although some characters are simply cautious. I wouldn't expect Olivia (for example) to spill the beans about her family to people she's not met before. Or for Amandine to explain how she makes a living as a courtesan.
Damrak's happy to explain some of his reasons, but his personal stuff is personal - some more roleplay is needed before he's comfortable sharing. I suspect that this may be true of the others.
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Yeah, I see your point Chana. But Amandine is just too vulnerable and out of her element to be particularly open at this point.
I fall somewhere in the middle myself. Big secrets like "I will betray you all when the right opportunity comes along" sure no good. But I think that trust building is better for role playing than all cards on the table up front. It allows for aspects of a character to come out over time, the way highly personal information about a person actually does.
Yeah, I'm not expecting people to spill their history. But I am expecting for people to be able to explain (with honesty) why they are worth trusting. As you'll see in Chana's next post, that needs to be better than "I'm in it for the gold".
Though its a bit meta and convinient, I'll probably have her accept any explanation that seems reasonable and isn't a total falsification. Though the more open your character is the more Chana-Brownie-Points you earn.
I'm ok with that, I think it's fine for a bit of disagreement/character growth. As long as we the players resolve things in an exceedingly lovely fashion, I think our GM will be ok with our characters not necessarily having much in common.
That said, I would be very careful about issuing ultimatums (ultimata?) like the one you just pushed on Tanglefoot. What if he doesn't go your way? What if the other characters agree with him, and not with Chana? Are you (the player) prepared for your character to back down?
If not, we hit an impasse, which isn't very comfortable.
Are you (the player) prepared for your character to back down?
Oh absolutely yes. We're all at the same 'table' after all.
Amandine really isn't interested in Chana brownie points.
No, she actually isn't hiding anything. She answered the question completely and truthfully.
Good point, I mixed up the Sense Motive checks (thought Chana got low on Amandine's). Now edited.
Sorry for the wait folks unexpected double shift. I should be able to get a post up shortly, but the 27 posts is scaring me a bit! Slight chance of falling a sleep on keyboard :)
Beautiful folks, bravo! Really pleased with the interactions and how well everyone seems to know their character and be deeply invested. I really wish I could be playing with you all as a PC, though to be quite honest I doubt I would have gotten in :)
Amandine really isn't interested in Chana brownie points.
Heh. Nor is Damrak, particularly, but as a Lawful type he likes to work well in groups.
Just reread my posts from yesterday. Apologies for any excess aggression + meanness. I had an idea of putting people's characters on the spot to force people to define in character what makes them tick, but I took it too far. And perhaps more importantly, I pushed it more for meta reasons than for in character reasons.
I'll be letting things evolve more slowly from now on.
Now I just have to dig Chana's character out of being thought of as an overly aggressive weirdo :> (Well, at least the overly aggressive part. She's weird enough.) That's going to be an uphill battle!
Well Amandine was very put off, but I'm not. Don't worry about it. Chana and Amandine can go on comparing evening dress designs. :)
So, I'm a little fuzzy on exactly how the Gala rules are supposed to play out. It seemed best to hand off the Abrielle Pace stuff to Damrak since it's his mission, but if that's not how things work perhaps we can adjust.
With a roll like that there should be more diplomacy in the post, but it's late and his player is tired :/