Hello, I'd like to jump in.
There's a certain giddy glee I feel at seeing a dying campaign reborn. As dismayed as I was to see our original party drop out, given the promising RP during the introductory chapter, it's hard not to be excited at new blood and new momentum.
I look forward to our re-launch.
and there she is. :)
Thedra, here's a handy guide that will help you with formatting.
Beylinda, I sent you a PM.
Welcome Thedra! I see this is your first time in a play-by-post, on Paizo at least. Do you need any help figuring things out or does Mamoru have you covered? If you have any questions feel free to post them here or send me a private message (Referred to as a PM,) and I will answer to the best of my ability. Do you have any ideas on what sort of character you would like to make? Don't worry about trying to pick a class from an 'empty role', as I modify campaigns based on group composition. The only thing that is truly needed is a healer and we have one already.
Mai, I hope to keep that excitement up throughout the campaign! We may slog a bit through combat, but the RP should make up for that! Well, that and I'm thinking about perhaps a 2 post/day minimum rule for combat periods if everyone is amenable to it.
Mamoru, I will need a few days to get some notes put together and such, but will be spending most of Halloween partying, so I will not start piecing things together until Friday. Plus, we need one more player and everyone has to finalize their character as well. So we'll start, say, Sunday hopefully? As a notice, I will only post once Monday, due to an early birthday trip so I will not be available for questions or anything of that nature.
Happy Halloween everyone! Well, it's after 2:00 in the A.M. here, so it's Halloween right now for me!
well if you roll our initiative for combat it does speed up things :)
well if you roll our initiative for combat it does speed up things :)
It really helps to have a GM roll Initiative, Perception, some kinds of Saves and other "reflexive" rolls for us. Speed things up a lot.
Also, I'm a big fan of "block" initiative in PbP games.
that i what i do in the game i am currently running
I plan on making those rolls for PC's and implement initiative blocks. Players must still roll for 'activated' skills such as Acrobatics, Knowledge, and Stealth, obviously.
I'm about to go grab some caffeine right quick as I barely had over 3 hours sleep last night. Cursed early morning college classes!
Ugh. Don't even talk to me about missing sleep right now. If I can make it through Saturday I'm going to reward myself by not getting out of bed all damn day sunday.
The two posts/day for combat may or may not be practical for me. College has me doing night classes, which will change slightly in a month or so when the next quarter starts, and job-hunting is...never fun.
But I'll post as often as practical.
Mamoru, I hear that!
Mai, that's fine, I can accommodate!
Thedra, got an idea yet on a character? Just curious!
And yes, I do love my exclamation points tonight! Great party, cool info about the Bestiary 4, vacation coming up soon! It's just great! Better because I'm about half-drunk on Everclear, but I'm sure you get the idea!
Thedra and I have been involved in a haunted house that has basically eaten all our time. Tonight was the last night. I'd imagine she's going to take the day off tomorrow. We should see a character concept out of her on Sunday or Monday.
Hey all! Sorry I didn't get to this last night. A combination of bad timing and being exhausted from a fever I'm recovering from. That's a weird way to introduce myself though.
I'm Marko and I'll be playing Alaren. About the only thing not done on him is the nickle and diming I need to do for his gear. XD He is a monk, of sorts, from the twilight monastery who will be joining the party. Mechanically I went ninja, ranged, so I can help out with some skill rolls and the like! If you want to check him out feel free. I'll be reading through the gameplay thread to get caught up today.
I look forward to playing with you all!
Mamoru, no problem, I was just hoping she didn't have any problems arise.
Alaren, good to see you here! A fever you say? Demon Fever or Filth Fever? Hope you made your save quickly!
I had a regular fever for about a week and a half. Got over it a couple days ago. T.T
Thank you for the invite. I look forward to gaming with everyone. My name is Joe and I will be playing Hiriko Itou a Scroll Master Wizard. I have a lot of experience with roleplaying games but fairly limited experience with PBP games I have been apart of a couple short lived ones. Hoping to see this one go the distance.
I have been wanting to play a Kingmaker style game for awhile and this one looks to have an interesting twist. I am excited to have lucked into the opportunity to play in one. I expect to be able to post regularly the only issue that may come up is that I care for my ailing mother and she can be hospitalized unexpectedly. I will try to let the group know if something like that comes up during the game since it will take me out of play for a at least a few days when it happens.
Hmmm I think that's about it for right now.
Hiriko, welcome! I plan on this being a long-term campaign that lasts until completion, so don't worry about drop issues unless everyone else collectively drops. I definitely intend to have the campaign utilize Kingmaker aspects, as I loved the 'Game of Thrones' feel to it. Asian Game of Thrones + Jade Regent = Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, that's awesome! And no problems if you miss a few days if your mother has a problem, as my dad has lots of health problems as well, so I understand completely!
Once our last character checks in, we will begin the following day!
By the way, has anyone heard from DundjinnMasta? Hoping we can get a GM ownership transfer soon so I can modify certain tabs and such.
Welcome to all
Okay, that last set of posts had me laughing. Hmm... it's going to be a little difficult adding and shuffling around the old characters gone by and the new ones, but nothing a good, unfortunately blood fight scene can't cure. And the DM probably has plans for that already. Over all I love the story so far, and hoping I'll be able to make Alaren has integral a part of the story as Mamorou and Mai have already become. While all the others were fun to read I'm really glad both of you guys are still playing!
Thank you Beylinda and Wu Fen. So us new guys and gals are we to be introduced during a logical part of the current narrative or will we just kind of be hand waved in?
I wrote up my character such that the Twilight Monastery was where I learned the Scroll Master archtype. I wanted to trace out some possible relationship ties with the other characters. I figure she was training for 5 or 6 years. Which I believe would mean she would be aware of Mai and Mamoru as faces around the monastery at the very least however I am not sure how Beylinda or Alaren would tie in but I am sure we can work that out :)
I can see Hiriko getting along well with Mai Her dedication to honor and nobility makes her someone Hiriko could respect and emulate. They both uses the written word as a part of their fighting styles as well as both having left their wealthy/noble families in less then ideal situations giving them several things to bond over.
Hiriko would likely shy away from Mamoru because of his nature and her past experience with Oni making close ties with him difficult however his admittance to the monastery would at least mean that she would tolerate him unless he proved to be untrustworthy. Then again you never know if Mamoru consistently proves to be honorable she may be able to get over her prejudice.
I am not certain how to tie Belinda's back story to Hiriko but her easy going manner and compassion should make it easy for them to get along. At the very least Hiriko has Necromancy as one of her opposition schools so raising the dead seems an unlikely issue between the two of them :)
Hmm Alaren looking over your characters traits Poverty Stricken could mean that Hiriko and Alaren could have trouble relating. Except for the period she labored under the Kami Koto and possibly during her period of training Hiriko has wanted for very little in her life. At the same time Hiriko would respect the dedication you show to your martial training ie Honored Fist of the Society.
I believe that is everyone except Thedra's character.
I shall be posting Alaren's Backstory up shortly! Anyone is free to know him to some degree, but since I am as of yet uncertain about the DM's plans on how to introduce us I am hesitant to forge any particular bond we might have to give up on. One thing that could probably be noted is that, of the group, Alaren was in the Monastery the longest, having been there since he was a child and being a full blooded elf.
I think it would make fine sense for the newcomers to have been part of another group sent away during the attack, only to meet up now and exchange stories.
*Puts on cool GM shades*
Don't worry, guys, I've got it covered! :)
*Takes off cool GM shades*
Alaren, I wonder where I've seen that scene before... oh wait, just every movie from the 70's and 80's, silly me! And yes, I saw them long after they came out, due to being a late 80's baby.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qa6c?Jade-Reagent-GM-Wanted#12
How is this going?
You still looking?
We're at full capacity right now Rickmeister. If I had known you were interested in Jade Regent, I would have invited you (This is Silver Prince/Cap'n Sparrowshanks, by the way,). If someone drops or their character gets wiped out, I'll be more than happy to include you! Sending you a PM!
I wanted to ask how you would rule on these two spells. Launch Bolt and Gravity Bow. I ask because gravity bow is a personal spell and the text of launch bolt indicates that the bolt is fired as if from a crossbow including magic. I don't see any issues but I wanted to run it by you Wu Fen so it wasn't sprung on you during combat.
Hiriko, looking over the spells and seeing as how there is no conflicting texts or clauses of mutual exclusion, I would deem it perfectly legal. Oh, and as a future note, I will allow the use of spell combinations that make thematic sense. That is, if you create a Wall of Iron and someone tries to climb over it, you could hit the wall with an electrical spell and it could hit anything touching the wall. Things of that nature. I reward creativity and logical thinking, just like I reward those who show boldness and a flair for the dramatic (Jump plus attack equals aerial charge attack,).
Cool, thanks for the info and the prompt response. The mental image of a aerial charge attack makes me smile. Its has a very anime feel to it :)
Ooh! As a Ninja who will have awesome acrobatics I am more then happy with a DM who likes boldness and a flair for the the dramatic.
Hiriko, no problem. I try to be as prompt as possible in replying to player questions!
Alaren, since you are a ranged character, note that the environment can be used to your advantage. For example, in the event of a chandelier-style object above enemies, you can shoot the chain (Having to hit AC to do so,) and have it fall on enemies, possibly dealing far greater damage than a single arrow shot.
If anyone wants to do some really awesome maneuver like I've been talking about in gameplay, just post what you want to do and if it makes sense to me, I will allow it, but be sure to post an OOC comment on an alternate action if I rule that the action does not make game sense or is too OP. Chances are from what I can tell with you all, you are logical enough to know what makes sense.
It doesn't look like Kaulta will be joining us after all. She underestimated her existing time commitments.
I can get another PC. Let me contact someone.
Rickmeister to the rescue!
I'll getsomething up and running asap :-D
Welcome rickmeister
Sorry, guys. Turns out my free time isn't what I thought it was; I've gotta back out.
No problem Thedra, we were informed and I have found a replacement. If you are ever interested in playing, just let me know and I can see about getting you into a campaign!
Welcome Rickmeister!
I have created an alias and a character sheet, for you all to look at and give me appropriate feedback.
I first thought of a bo-fighter, but since we have plenty of CC guys, I opted to go for a ranged bard, so add some versatility to the bunch. Hope he can find his place amongst you giants! :)
EDIT:
> Euh, I noticed you have a bard already.. Silly me. Of what does the current party consist? I can edit Takeshi without problem :)
Sorry you won't be able to game with us Thedra. Hope everything goes well with the projects that are taking up your time.
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I am not sure what you mean Rickmeister I believe this is our current group makeup. I may be wrong however.
Mai - Sword Saint (Samurai)
Mamoru - Samurai
Alaren - Ninja
Beylinda - Cleric
Hiriko - Scroll Master (Wizard) Me :)
With 2 Samurai that tells me we have 2 melee fighters with Mai and Mamoru. Mai appears to be acting as the face of the party according to her skill selection. Which seems dramatically appropriate with her being the long lost emperor's daughter.
I am uncertain how Alaren plans to use his character but looking at his feats and equipment he looks to be set as a ranged attacker/ Rogue duties. the only thing Alaren might have difficulty with is magical traps and I am certain that Beylinda and My character would be able to help with that at later levels with spell support but I am not an expert with Ninja so there maybe something he can take to emulate Trapfinding.
Beylinda playing a cleric will logically be taking care of divine spell casting and seems to have several ranks in face skills.
Then there is my character I am playing a wizard and plan to provide battle field control, item creation in the form of mundane alchemy for now and later on with some magical stuff. Also I was going to provide intel on enemies with through knowledge skills. I was going to be a back up face with diplomacy but having taken a closer look at everyone's character I am thinking that I might be better off concentrating on something else since it seems pretty well covered :)
I believe a bard would fit in well since your character would be able to pitch in as back up on several fronts. At the end of the day though its your character and you should pick something that you will want to play for awhile :)
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Wu Fen Chang is their anything I can help with to make your DMing duties easier? I appear to have a good deal of free time right now.
I am still lurking about but I have been unable to find information about transferring games. Is there a method to do such or do we need to contact Paizo through their email address they have up in the online campaign section?
Mhmmm bizar, must have been confused with some of the characters (Tengokuno and Palasam) on the character page.. Maybe people who have left the game?
Edit: Didn't even know we had a cleric.. /confused/
I will stick by the bard then, as it was my obvious first/second choice. Hopefully we will be able to evrything we should :)
And yes, the emailaddress... Don't think they are very fast in their response though... :)
Hmm maybe I can be the face when facing animals in a couple of levels I could even be able to speak to them :)
Did you inherit a play-by-post?
If you are the GM for a play-by-post campaign but didn't start the thread, please email webmaster@paizo.com.
We need:
A link to your profile page (click on your name at the top where it says "Welcome, your name!"
A link to the gameplay and discussion threads for the campaigns you have inherited.
Just copy and paste these links from the address bar in your browser, please.
They're pretty quick about it.
Takeshi, there is no bard currently, as that was a character that did not rejoin. There is no conflict with 'face' skills in multiple characters, because for example, the future Empress should not be seen having dealings with certain 'individuals' due to her reputation she will need to uphold and the Empress cannot be in two places at once in other cases. So no worries on your design!
Hiriko, thanks for helping provide input for Takeshi! Just woke up not too long ago, as I love weekends where I can sleep in! As far as what you can do, I am still thinking on that. Most of what has to be done is GM work. I have a few questions I would like everyone to answer, so you can work on replying to those!
DundjinnMasta, could you message Paizo about thread ownership transfer, since you are the thread's creator? I'm ironing out some of the final details I need to have the campaign operate smoothly to finish Tengoku Castle.
Everyone, your attention please! I have a series of 7 questions for you all that will help me in making this a campaign to remember.
1. How do you want to handle leveling? Regular EXP gain or leveling at key moments? The only difference really is book-keeping. I am only slightly biased to the latter, so select your preference!
2. How does everyone feel about me granting each player a bonus feat I feel fits their personality, abilities, and role? For example, Mai would gain something like leadership, Mamoru something like cleave or toughness, ect. I feel this would be thematically appropriate, while it would also minutely increase party survivability (Except with leadership, but that will ensure that the castle is stocked with useful NOCs, as well as a seneschal to run things while Mai is 'adventuring',).
3. How does everyone feel about continuing to have a 'supernatural ally', like the Kami masquerading as the Vanara that sometimes works as a font of exposition?
4. Which places in Tian Xia do you all want to explore? I know some places are far more interesting than others and I would not want to bore you with trips to places that do not interest you. If you have no idea about Tian Xia's makeup, see question 5.
5. Would everyone be interested in me scanning my copy of Dragon Empires Gazeteer and putting it in Google Docs as a reference for you all or seeing if a friend can do so with an actual PDF copy? I would ask that no one copy it to avoid all the copyright infringement stuff, but I think it's legal to have it merely viewable. Am I incorrect in this?
6. How does everyone want to handle kingdom-building: whole party decisions, decisions by an elected member, or what?
7. How does everyone want to handle treasure? In some places, there will be set treasure, but in others I was thinking of rolling for items to make things slightly more interesting. A bit of chaos is always fun in campaigns! Well that and I had so much fun rolling treasure from my early 3.X days! It should be fun coming up with descriptions for items rolled, giving them that unique Oriental flavor!
Ah, thanks Mamoru! I will get that done soon!
Will everyone be ready by Tuesday? That is when I am thinking that we will start!
1.) I prefer the latter as well, since it also gives the DM a bit control and players a bit less to worry about OOC when it comes to facing counters to strong for us. Plus, lot less work. XD
2.) Considering I am an elf taking what is arguably one of the most feat intense combat roles with a class that doesn't get any bonus feats, I have no problem with this and would in fact encourage to the point where I may start giving you (do it) subliminal messages in my posts about (do it) it. As it stands, just to be effective, I'm going to have to focus my ninja tricks on getting feats instead of some ninja goodies I want to get.
Also, other people getting bonus feats in the party is awesome. In the end bonus feats give a lot more freedom and leeway to players choose things we want to do and so on, whether it be specialize further in a way we weren't expecting or allow us to broaden our horizons a little. -nods- (do it!)
3.) In a game dealing with the threat of a mass of Oni trying to launch a savage attack I'd be surprised if Kami didn't help out at least every once in a while, but I'd definitely prefer if it wasn't always the same one and was appropriate to the why of how the Kami act. Like a Kami of a particular forest or farmland or something we come across giving us a warning. -shrug-
4.) All of them! XD I have no idea about the setting so I'd be interested in exploring a lot of places! Any place with lots of roofs or trees to climb/ninja around in particular would be nice though.
5.) I don't know what that is so -shrug-.
6.) I believe, with the Empress technically at the head, everyone would get a different position no? Like Mamoru would be in control of the military, Alaren in charge of the spies, and so on and so forth? Thats how the kingmaker game I planned handled things before it died. The group worked together and agreed on goals that needed to be done, but had an understanding that you didn't step into another's area unless they specifically asked for help so no one got showed up. Given that we'll have someone literally in charge this may be a little different but otherwise there should be ways to do it like that.
7.) Uhm... hmm... I... hmm... Uhhhh....
Rolled treasure can be a lot of fun, but a lot of my experience with it usually involves getting an item we'd basically just loot and sell at the nearest town so that we could get gear we actually needed or could use. Every once in a while something awesome came up, but in my experience it was just more money management for players to deal with. So... -shrug- I'll differ to the rest of the group with that, since I'm not exactly unbiased when it comes to it.
Sounds good Alaren!
Everyone else?
1. How do you want to handle leveling? Regular EXP gain or leveling at key moments? The only difference really is book-keeping. I am only slightly biased to the latter, so select your preference!
-I usually prefer regular XP because it gives me a feeling of satisfaction but I can see the advantages of leveling at key moments. So I will defer to the groups wishes on this.
2. How does everyone feel about me granting each player a bonus feat I feel fits their personality, abilities, and role? For example, Mai would gain something like leadership, Mamoru something like cleave or toughness, ect. I feel this would be thematically appropriate, while it would also minutely increase party survivability (Except with leadership, but that will ensure that the castle is stocked with useful NOCs, as well as a seneschal to run things while Mai is 'adventuring',).
-I love feats so yes please. When I have GMd in the past I have provided similar bonuses to players to round out a character.
3. How does everyone feel about continuing to have a 'supernatural ally', like the Kami masquerading as the Vanara that sometimes works as a font of exposition?
-I don't mind as long as it isn't too heavy handed. It would make sense that the Kami would wish to fight against the Jade Empire do to their association with the Oni. As an added bonus they do have their wards to worry about so their is always a easy excuse for why they can't directly act, provide limited or even no assistance. The consequences for ignoring a ward are pretty sever for them after all.
4. Which places in Tian Xia do you all want to explore? I know some places are far more interesting than others and I would not want to bore you with trips to places that do not interest you. If you have no idea about Tian Xia's makeup, see question 5.
-I haven't had the opportunity to really explore Tien Xia on a area by area basis so I can't really provide an informed answer. I did purchase the Dragon Empire Primer but have only made a cursory review of its contents while I was putting Hiriko together. I will be reviewing the primer over the weekend so I may be able to give you a better answer a little latter.
5. Would everyone be interested in me scanning my copy of Dragon Empires Gazeteer and putting it in Google Docs as a reference for you all or seeing if a friend can do so with an actual PDF copy? I would ask that no one copy it to avoid all the copyright infringement stuff, but I think it's legal to have it merely viewable. Am I incorrect in this?
-I have the Dragon Empire Primer in PDF format. I recently purchased it to gain some info about Tien Xia since the Inner Sea World Guide didn't have much info on that part of the world. Are they the same thing or different resources? As to the legality of placing a read only copy up I am not certain. Something that might help. This is the webpage I put together for a kingmaker game that kind of died before it had a chance to begin. The nice thing about it is that a site like this could be secured with a password and shared between the group to access the information. Keeping access limited is not much different then sharing a book at the game table as I see it. Though again I am not certain if it would matter from a legal stand point.
6. How does everyone want to handle kingdom-building: whole party decisions, decisions by an elected member, or what?
-That is a good question. I have read up a bit on Kingmaker in preparation to run the campaign at one point and I have been told that the paper work for it can become intense and many players suggest putting one person mostly in charge of it. I can really see the advantage of doing that with the occasional suggestion. I would also suggest using the new rules from Ultimate Campaign since it appears to have smoothed out many of the rough edges of kingdom building.
7. How does everyone want to handle treasure? In some places, there will be set treasure, but in others I was thinking of rolling for items to make things slightly more interesting. A bit of chaos is always fun in campaigns! Well that and I had so much fun rolling treasure from my early 3.X days! It should be fun coming up with descriptions for items rolled, giving them that unique Oriental flavor
-I would suggest mostly set campaign or selected treasure rewards with the occasional random low level loot to get your random tables Fix :) That should keep from making things to difficult for everyone while still having an element of randomness.
I look forward to playing tuesday.