Warden! Right, sorry.
Best not to get too excited about Kingdom Roles. Solid chance someone will run afoul of undead before that stage. Settle it in RP when the time comes. Even the stats aligning with particular roles matters a lot less long run.
Tomas covers Spymaster well, which could be interesting as he's in Rau's camp regarding keeping the crowns hands off the Inquisition.
Considering what a mess the previous setup was he's also wondering why we would set it up again?
"Lets have a Republic!" :)
Best not to get too excited about Kingdom Roles. Solid chance someone will run afoul of undead before that stage. Settle it in RP when the time comes. Even the stats aligning with particular roles matters a lot less long run.
We're not getting all too set on the roles. It's just something to chat about while we wait for game start
Here is a link to the master map.
Note a few of the larger cities, two relatively new forts (established by Lastwall), and crossed swords marking four major battle sites. Red lines are main roads - in good shape, currently patrolled by Lastwall forces - while dotted yellow lines are single track trails. They are not in good shape, and not patrolled, but taking them can potentially save days of travel vs the roads. Hexes are 12m across.
I'll add the link to the Campaign Info tab in the coming days.
I am also in favor of developing roles organically, through RP, etc.
But just to get it out there, Keryn's two best scores are Dex (18), and Wis (17).
He is best suited to be a Spymaster, Royal Assassin, Marshal, or perhaps High Priest (since it doesn't say the priest has to be a cleric/oracle/Inquisitor, etc.)
By RP inclination, as a martial follower of Iomedae, he would not favor working as an assassin, could be persuaded to work as a Spymaster in sort of a "chief law enforcer" sort of way, and would easily fall into the role of Marshal given his interest in duty, justice, etc.
First post is up. Your characters all know General Gallispar as the man who led the Crusade of Reclamation to victory after victory over the undead hordes. He is one of the 10 most powerful people in Lastwall, a brilliant commander, and a national hero. He is also a professional soldier, stubborn, and can be close-minded at times.
Just wanted to let everyone know that right now Christian is trying to figure out everyone's motives and who they are...I hope this RPing internally does not upset anyone. It will not last long. I am very much enjoying the players and how different they are to one another.
It’s all good with me. Especially as this campaign will have a lot of inner discussions between Thorek and the Ancestors who haunt him.
Doesn't bother me either. Rau will do a lot more thinking than talking himself. I plan on putting any thoughts that might be obvious via facial expressions etc )or that the group really should know) in gameplay italics so everyone understands his reactions better.
I figure this will be much better than just playing the silent type and never expressing anything to the group.
No worries. Volkar may be ambitious, but he understands that making death the penalty for every crime is not a good thing. Think of him as a kinder version of the Count of Barstoi.
Evening all,
@GM: Hope it's ok to make that statement about the Prince. It fits with Rau's backstory and if you didn't want him to be dead I assume you would have mentioned it in your response.
I am 100% fine with this - feel free to add and expand the background. I think it adds depth and interest to the game, and I'm excited to see what you all create.
Of course, whatever you add becomes part of the story, so I get an opportunity to use it as well. :)
I do not have a horse, but I do have enough gold left over to buy one.
I can also afford 2 more if someone needs one and can pay me back (as it literally takes me down to broke AKA 3g left if I buy 3 light combat trained horses)
Dalliv will loan you all light combat-trained mounts and saddles. Or a mule and cart, etc.
Light horses to get us to Fort Justice fast. Then we can see where we need to go and decide if we move on foot or keep to horse?
That works for me. I'm debating buying a horse anyways as opposed to being loaned one. I prefer crawling around in the brush to riding but I'm sure this won't be the only time we have to travel fast and Dalliv will want his horses back eventually
And even trained horses aren't to reliable around the more powerful undead.
But even "more powerful" undead aren't too reliable around an Inquisitor of Pharasma. :P
I wouldn't mind borrowing horses, at least to make it to Fort Justice. I figure eventually we'd be able to afford our own if we needed them.
Looking at travel speeds for 20 miles:
On foot = 12 miles a day, we'd need to rest
On horseback = 32 miles a day, we're good in 1 day
On Donkeyback or Mule and Cart = 16 miles a day, so we'd need to rest anyways.
Just throwing that in there so we have the info while we discuss
I will be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend here in the US, starting tomorrow. I will have my phone, but cannot guarantee my posting availability. Please bot me if necessary.
Says the man who showed up AFTER most of us. Call me ill prepared for not owning a horse if you want, but don't call me late :P
Ok this did make me laugh...no you were not late but WE are late in leaving...lol
To explain a few things that I will be doing with this character. I am a member of the SCA and a lot of what I will be doing will come from my almost 20 years of fighting as a mercenary. Iron lance is a mercenary company that I have hired and have been hired by over the years. Really good friends. When it comes time to move out or be somewhere they are missing pieces of armor, weapons, forgot their ID or decided last minute that they wanted to fighter combat archery instead of spear. So when they get all that done we are late for the battle. So yes you are late as we are getting horses and wagons and such that could have been gotten last night when I suggest we have some drinks. LOL
When you have almost 1500 fighters on a battle field fighting in medieval armor, (the vast majority drinking till four in the morning and most are overweight.) it is hard to get everyone to one spot from 500 acres of campground.
No worries, I like the way you're playing him. It's Rau that has issues with officer types, not me. Christian will probably be the one that takes him the longest to trust just based on personality types.
All I do know is that people better come to a consensus and move out the gate soon or he's just going to start walking. He's willing to work with people but is so used to being alone in the wild that he'll get frustrated and just meet everyone there.
Personally I don't think that's the best move but he makes the decisions, not me.
I will be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend here in the US, starting tomorrow. I will have my phone, but cannot guarantee my posting availability. Please bot me if necessary.
Thanks for letting us know, have a safe and fun holiday.
I'll be around, family is visiting us this year so we have it easy.
I posted last night but I guess it got lost. Or maybe I passed out and just thought I hit "post."
Anyway, I'm planning to post the travel/arrival update, but do you want to explore the hexes you'll be traveling through, or do you want to get to the Tower asap? Exploring would take you a half-day for plains hexes with a road.
I'll get the full rules posted in the next day or so.
And to Rau's point, I'll progress when at least 4 people have agreed on an action, especially for something mumdane like travel, camping, etc.
Since this could end up being a major route from Lastwall to Ustalav I think we should explore it properly. We don't need bandits or other pests on our roads.
Agreed, I am for exploration, and am fine with going on horseback.
Agreed. The route back to the only known safe area should be secured. It's not a long trip so exploring it shouldn't delay us too much.
IRT style of travel, Tomas and I are already on horses just waiting on y'all
Speaking of scouting vs going straight to the tower, do we have a map of the hexes available? There's no link on the page or the campaign tab and if it was linked earlier I missed it.
Here is a link to the master map.
On my phone so this is best I can do at present. You are in Grayce, which is on the Western border of Ustalav/Eastern border of Lastwall.
Only a short post from me today, quite rushed... and my internet is down so had to use my phone.
I think exploring is a good idea on the way to the Fort. Once there we'll either be following up on rumors or exploring in a pattern until a problem catches ou attention.
Azorius, you and I will have to spend some quiet time together. Just saw you have profession(cartographer) ... I have craft(mapmaking) lol
I had a very long day and just getting finished now. Too tired to post, will have one up sometime tomorrow.
I'm away from home this week and next, looking after my father. My posting may be slow at times. Please Bot me as needed.
Rau may be a zealot but he's a thinking man's zealot. Learn about them THEN purge them.
Or maybe just get them talking so you have proof of their heresy before you crush them. That always works too.
Thorek, I sent you a PM about your sage roll.
Hi all, sorry about not posting last night. Had a busy night and just passed out before I could get to it. It's a fairly impotamt one so I want to make sure I do it justice.
GM,
I’ve found combat moves quicker if you just roll Initiative for everyone, instead of having us do it. That way it’s easier for us to figure out our actions.
For instance, Thorek and I both got a 16 Initiative. Thorek has the higher Initiative modifier, so he goes first. But, if I’d posted before him, I would have cast burning hands, since no one was in melee. But, Thorek would have sought to charge into melee, and my spell would have caught him as well. But, I wouldn’t cast the spell if Thorek could possibly be hit by it.
I hear you, I'm reconsidering a couple of my ideas about how combat should work. Let's get through this fight and we can implement changes going forward. I'm certainly open to ideas and "best practice" ways of playing PbPs.
FWIW, I'm fine rolling init for everyone.
While we're having this discussion, I'd also appreciate thoughts on using Roll20 for combats.
Most of my games use Google slides, but I've been in a couple with Roll20. Honestly the slides are just as easy to move tokens the maps and seem to be less complicated in my experience. I'm ok with either though.
I’d be okay using Roll20 for map hosting, but I’d prefer to keep the actual rolling and action to the forums. It’s easier to go back and reference things that way.
Agreed, should have specified Im interested mainly for maps.
I’m having a lot of trouble with roll20
Would prefer google slides
You can have the formula done out in the campaign tab for everyones initiative and copy paste at the start of combat.
I prefer good slides a little bit but it's not a deal breaker.
We definitely do need some kind of map for next time tho. People are trying to get in flanking positions and such on something 40' away, so not knowing the layout it's unknown how many move actions that would take, when/if AoOs are possible, etc. No big deal for first battle but foreseeing issues in the future.
I run a few games and find it works better if the GM Rolls for init, Perception and saves. Things move quicker when everyone isn't waiting around for one person to do a roll.
Google docs and slides are good for maps I find as well.
All, I've created a battle map for the fight, and have placed everyone approximately where the descriptions of the action put them. Please check and make sure: 1) you can move yourself around (aka did the DM share the map correctly), and 2) your character is where you want them to be.
The link for the map is *here*. I will also post it above in the campaign notes section at the top of the page.
Works perfectly for me and I can move around
good to go on my end
Looks good to me.