Woodsmoke's Reign of Winter

Game Master Woodsmoke

Oop, didn't press send and I imagine I'm a few hours too late now...

But Merry Christmas team! Happy Boxing Day for those that follow that ole tradition (us in Canada used to get sales but sadly that's largely been usurped by black Friday for no reason other than proximity)

Yes, happy holidays to everyone!

God Yule to you all - yeah Boxing Day Sales still a thing here also - but not as popular.

Hope everyone had a good festives and are gearing up for Hogmanay!

Hope everyone had good holidays indeed. I've been dealing with a very fun abscessed infection in my gum that my very kind wisdom tooth decided to gift me, so forgive me for the absence this week. Hopefully I'll be able to get into the dentist in the coming days to get it sorted.

Feel better, GM. Take your time.

Ooft. Never a good time to get the ol' teethy pegs seen to... especially this time of year. Be well GM and hope it gets fixed with minimal bother.

Oh dang, yea that's never a fun time especially with all the good eats around this time of year. Take your time WS!

Thanks guys. Managed to get into the dentist and they cleaned it all out. Still pretty sore and annoying but this is the first time I haven't had a splitting headache in almost 2 weeks so that's been wonderful. Feeling better in time for the incoming snowstorm in the Mid-Atlantic states which is good because it's my favorite weather!

We have gotten slammed in southern KY. About four inches of snow and now we are getting freezing rain on top of it.

Dear lord, you guys are making me feel less Canadian... If it weren't for the surgery I'd be eyeing up a less rainy day for a round of golf... (And there is about a week coming up apparently). Glad you're on the mend boss!

Post incoming tomorrow gents...just been one of those weeks.

Pardon if this is metagamey but... I could fog the room out, is that... A good idea team?

Worth a shot no?

Hey guys, sorry for the silence as of late. Been dealing with some health issues, bouncing around between doctors and spent 8 hours in the ER on Wednesday getting a bunch of tests. I think things have calmed down for now until a follow up appointment Monday so I should be able to get back to it over the weekend. Thanks for bearing with me.

Don’t worry, woodsmoke. Take care of yourself and when you feel up to it, we will be here.

Take your time! I've also been less responsive than I'd like lately, will be happy to pick it up when you're ready.

Agree hombre - take your time, we'll be here as/when your ready.

Works kicked up a notch here in Bonnie Scotia gang - posting might be spotty at best until end of the week. Please bot Skane as/is necessary Woodsmoke.

Getting a post up today. For some reason this week I kept getting 404'd trying to post anything on the forums except on mobile? Wasn't about to try and type up a combat round on my phone (though I guess I could have typed it on the PC put it on Drive or something..hindsight) but looks like it is working again now!

I’ve had weather issues the last several days, so I’ve not noticed any delay in posting. My little town got slammed by a tornado a week ago and service has been really spotty since then.

I’ve had weather issues the last several days, so I’ve not noticed any delay in posting. My little town got slammed by a tornado a week ago and service has been really spotty since then.

Damn, hope you made out alright with that tornado and didn't sustain any damage!

Sorry guys, it's been a week. Wife's grandfather passed and she got some other unrelated bad news as well. Should be able to get a post up tomorrow after work though as things are calming down.

Take your time, GM. We are here.

I got really lucky with the tornado. I lost a tree and that was it. 20 people were killed in a small community, so it has been pretty awful for the town.

It was the first real weather event I’ve ever been through. Terrifying stuff.

Thoughts to you both - as Geedra says we're here when you are GM (applies also to you Puka! :)

@Team sorry folks some real life stuff womping my narrow ass... Requesting a bot for a minute as I thought I'd got a post up but appears not ..

Might be closer to the weekend before i get some breathing space folks - summer shutdown season is upon me here in the North Sea and I've just kicked off our involvement in an 8 well P&A (Plug and Abandonment) campaign that'll see me and my team through to end of Sep.

Needless to say work is kicking my hairy arse but I'll get back on it once I clear my feet. Your collective patience is hugely appreciated.

No worries all, whenever time is good. We'll keep truckin'

As an aside, any of you tried Pathfinder 2E? My in-person group I run is taking a break from our homebrew 5E campaign and we are thinking of starting up a Pathfinder 2 one. I've skimmed the books a bit and it looks interesting (though part of me still wants to run 1E to utilize my entire bookshelf of P1 and D&D 3e books, haha).

I’m in an online PF2 game right now. It’s my first run through under 2e. I still prefer 1e, but it is probably because I am so much more experienced with it though.

Yeah, that's my initial thought. So far 2E seems like a lot to wrap my head around, but 25 years of 3rd/3.5/Pathfinder 1E experience is pulling rank there perhaps.

Feels like certain aspects of needlessly layered and complicated. The proficiency stuff in particular; having to track multiple levels of proficiency bonuses for multiple things seems like a nightmare. Like, Fighter Weapon Specialization is "you deal +2 damage with weapons with expert, +3 if master, +4 if legendary" and that's on top of the weapon master giving you different levels of proficiency of weapons within the same weapon group depending on its..rarity, I guess?

I'm guessing "oops everything is Feats" is kinda the same as class/racial features but you just get more than one choice and can pick different stuff.

The main reason we are starting up a PF game is so I can run an AP I don't have to do much prep work for so I can spend my downtime prepping the latter half of the 5E game because I have a lot to write and prep for everyone's personal character arcs/stories, but cracking into Pathfinder 2e might be a bit counterintuitive to that, lol. Seems like a lot to learn.

I've heard the encounter quality is better and more fluid and all which was my main reason for wanting to try it, but we shall see.

We have made it to 4th level and the flow is pretty good for low level encounters so far. Leveling the first time was tough, but as I became accustomed, it got easier the next two times.

I’m still too new to make any proclamations, but there is definitely a place for it, even if I probably prefer all the fiddlety bits of 1e.

I know we are a bit stalled here waiting for Byakko and Skäne but just wanted to say no rush, we'll keep truckin when you are all back. I'm more keen to wait for everyone rather than DMPC 90% of the encounter, lol.

Kind of readjusting things in my life from a hobby standpoint and I've discovered that I really want to shift RPGs back to being the nucleus. I've been running into snags trying to divide my attention to too many different things and probably letting my creativity get dejected in the process. Recently been looking over old worldbuilding stuff and campaigns (I was even doing a nighttime reread of our old Red Hand of Doom campaign, Gerald!) and it's kind of snapped me back. I think falling into a forever DM role in my offline games had been beleaguering me a bit (hence taking a break from the homebrew 5e game) and that probably spilled over a bit. Anyway, hoping to inject a bit more vitality into my posting, and hopefully find some more roleplaying opportunities to layer in to our game here. I think that's the primary issue I have with some of the adventures in this AP (this adventure in particular) - just a lot of dotted lines of combat encounters and less roleplaying opportunities since 99% of what you are coming across is hostile, lol. Might also try to find a better way to handle the map thing. Should probably just utilize the Google suite to cut down on map editing and all, so I'll look into that.

God, RHOD is such a great adventure! One of my top ten of any RPG system that I’ve been through.

Whatever works for you is fine with me for our game, GM. Make it easy on yourself!

It's one of my favorites as well. The first half of my 5E game was RHoD and when it concluded we just continued the adventures in Elsir Vale. I liked it better running it in 3rd Edition / PF1e though. I don't think 5E is rough and gritty enough to hammer home the long, exhausting slogs.