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Yes, I'm enjoying myself quite a lot! As I mentioned before, this is the first time I'm playing the Doc, so I'm enjoying the chance to flesh out his and Hogo's personalities and relationships. This is a great group to bounce interactions off of (especially that talkative gnome!)
At 7th level, Hogo will be "Improved" into a nosoi, so I'm trying to set the stage within their character development for that to happen, too.
I'm off for another week and a half, so I've got a lot of time to post now without having to work around my flight and sleep requirements.
Hope everyone gets to feeling better soon.
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Edit: I wrote the above before reading Ayla's latest gameplay post. LOL!!!!
Hey, no worries!
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I feel like I'm doing a horrible job in this game. My problem is that I'm overseeing a special. My campaigns page is full of games where my job most of the time is to keep an eye on things, and it puts my brain into a really passive mode whenever I visit it. I apologize, and will strive to do better.
It's okay Koani, I know you've been busy with RetroCon and getting stuff in order for OutPost! And I can't talk because I know my own posting is a little sporadic at times. As long as folks are having fun and the pace isn't too fast or too slow for them then it's all good; we'll get it finished up when we finish up :)
(And speaking of posts, I'll be getting an update done tonight!)
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Hey everyone,
Not sure if any of you are interested in Kickstarters, but my brother's gaming company just launched a Kickstarter today for a fun new gaming book that's Pathfinder 1st edition compatible! He's been published in some Pathfinder books before and written some PFS modules, so you might already be familiar with some of his work. I had the chance to do a lot of freelance work for the new book, which is really exciting. It's gonna be great! If any of you are interested you can head on over to the Kickstarter and help make this project a success!
Oh! He wrote Signs in Senghor? That was a fun scenario to play! Can't promise anything since money's always kind of tight but I'll definitely check it out :D
Hum...usually I do something like:
"Hey guys...wait...*wheeze*...for me!"
^Understood. I hope you feel better soon!
Okay, noted.
I saw that! It shall be glorious :D
And you're welcome!
Hey folks, I wanted to check in and say that I'm sick/have been sick. While I'm definitely feeling better than I did, I still seem to have a lot of general malaise and mental fatigue happening + I work the next three nights in a row starting tonight (Saturday). Given the circumstances I'm just going to take the next few days off from PbP; I should be back in action by Tuesday evening at the latest.
Hah, nice! No kids here so I'm painfully out of the loop when it comes to popular kids' entertainment these days.
In other news, thank you for the well-wishes! I'm feeling much better now aside from some congestion and ready to pick things up again. Thank you for your patience!
So.
Strictly speaking RAW, Diplomacy can't be attempted against creatures with Int < 3 and a lot basic 'animal' monsters fall into this category. Handle Animal can't be used untrained and to my knowledge, only rangers and druids get access to Wild Empathy outside of whatever archetypes/feats are out there that might grant access.
So what's the point of using Speak with Animals if you can't even make use of it to try and learn any information or get a critter to do something relatively easy for you - such as move somewhere else, in this case? If I were homebrewing, I'd allow Diplomacy a shot at working provided you make half an effort to RP it out in a manner that an animal might actually understand. Which makes sense to me - Speak with Animals allows you to be understood and if you can be understood then you *should* be allowed to try and convince a critter of something or to try and ask a very basic favor.
That said, you might be able to combine Ayla's ability to communicate with Baijiu's little project and make the bear a good-faith offer she can't refuse.... *whistles*
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So what's the point of using Speak with Animals if you can't even make use of it to try and learn any information or get a critter to do something relatively easy for you - such as move somewhere else, in this case?
Well, I think you could learn information. Asking basic questions wouldn't require a Diplo check. It's only the Gather Information function that would, but that use of Diplo is a simplification for walking around town talking to multiple people. So, Where did the Dragon go, or are there any two-legs hiding in those trees would be acxeptable uses of Speak with Animals.
Similarly, I think you could relay basic information but within the understanding of an animal. There's a fire in the trees over there, the fog in that valley is poison, those berries over there are riper...
Hang on! What if someone made a Survival check to ascertain the best berry patch, then Ayla points it out to the bears. That's not really Diplo, cause we're not trying to convice them of anything, just appealing to their basic animal nature of wanting the best berries.
^That would also work :)
And true, I guess you could just ask basic questions without needing a Diplo check.
Of course I'll need someone to actually put said plan into motion, or any sort of plan into motion ;)
I know I've been a little sluggish with my own posting but I'm not going to autopilot you guys through everything!
Just a note that I've got an early day tomorrow which necessitates going to bed much earlier than I normally do. Depending on how tired I am when I get home from work, updates will either happen tomorrow in the early evening or possibly in the wee hours Thursday morning!
Hey guys, real talk time. I know that my posting habits (or lack of) have been really erratic lately and out of character. While it's something that I've been aware of, the fact that a few of you guys (my players across various games) have checked in with me privately via PM is just further proof of it.
This is frustrating for me because I can't point to any one thing as an explanation for why this is. I still feel excited when I think about the vast majority of my current games as both a GM and as a player. My terrible traitor brain continually whispers, 'Hey, you know <scenario> or <module>? You should totally GM that in the future!' But when I sit down to write, I just...can't concentrate. Sometimes I can't concentrate at all, other times I may be able to get through a few games before my brain pulls me in a different direction and I get distracted with something else.
I don't know if it's stress because I don't feel particularly stressed, but who knows? I don't know if it's lack of proper rest - my sleep schedule is *still* somewhat erratic, especially lately with having to pull random day shifts at work due to being short-staffed. I don't know if it is burnout, just manifested as inability to concentrate rather than feelings of apathy/dread/loathing. I really don't know. But what I do know is that it's affecting my ability to provide fun, quality games for my players and to be a fun, quality player myself. And that's not fair to you guys, to my GMs, and to my fellow players.
As much as part of me feels like it's admitting defeat - for I can actually be a pretty stubborn person under the right circumstances - this has been happening for long enough that I think I need to make some changes and seek outside assistance to reduce my game load as a GM and as a player and see if that will help the situation. This game will only be affected insomuch as posting will still be a bit erratic while I get the rest of my PbP business sorted out; without getting spoilery we *are* getting closer to the end of the scenario and I actually do want to finish it out for you guys because it's one of my favorites. I hope this won't be a deal-breaker for anyone but I also understand if it is.
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(Sending Hugs!! from across the waves)
I hadn't pinged you cause I assumed that life just got in the way. I can sympathize. Your crazy shift work schedule is much like my crazy flying schedule. And GMing is a whole another level of effort and commitment. So although I was a little concerned about how you were doing, I knew you'd sort it out and let us know.
I would like to continue this game with you as GM. I have no need of the good Doctor in the immediate future, so he can stay in Varisia as long as it takes us.
More importantly though is that you take your time to sort it all out for your own health. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help, and know that there are people out here who care.
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It is fine! I understand burnout, as I see it in different people at different times. I think you need to sit down and enjoy some time not behind the screen, as coming from someone who works behind one all day. I do hope I see you at game this weekend, and that you feel better. We are all here for you, and just message us if ya need us!
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Thank you all for being so understanding! I've been working on getting replacement GMs for a couple of my other games and I will also probably cut out one or two of my player games as well to free up some bandwidth. All of my other players have been just as understanding and are happy to have a replacement GM or to go on break for a little bit while I get my business in order.
For this game here, this is currently one of my favorite scenarios and I wasn't kidding when I said we're getting close-ish to the end. I've got a few days off work and what I think I'd like to do is focus my posting energy on taking you all the rest of the way to the finish line - as much as other people's posting allows, obviously. I'm going to be out and about for part of the afternoon today but I'm going to tentatively say to keep your eyes peeled for a new GM post later this evening :)
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Hey everyone!
It's both of my kids birthdays tomorrow and we have a lot of parties to attend this month. It's unlikely I'll be able to post any weekend in March, starting with this one. And I definitely won't be posting tomorrow. If we happen to be playing on a weekend this month and you're waiting on Ayla, feel free to bot me.
Thanks!
And wishing you all the best, Ladile.
Thanks for the update Ayla; I'll keep that in mind!
And thank you; I'm doing well (and feeling better) but since I'm clearly having trouble sticking to my, "Hey there'll probably be an update at <time>" notices I'll just have to go with, "Keep an eye on the campaign and there'll be updates when I can manage it" for the time being :\
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And thank you; I'm doing well (and feeling better)
I know that I speak for all of us when I say it's good to hear that you're doing better.
"Keep an eye on the campaign and there'll be updates when I can manage it" for the time being :\
I don't know about everyone else, but I've been using an RSS reader app that pops a notification on my phone whenever someone posts to the games that I've set it up to follow. It's also great that when I land, it'll check the threads and I can read any new posts while I'm in the crew van on the way to the hotel and start crafting my posts.
Le gasp! A new post, at long last! Happy Friday! :D
^Gotcha. I hope things improve/you feel better soon!
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Hey, GM, Hogo here. I wonder if you could do me and the Doc a little favor. Tiny, you could say, like yours truly here.
The Doc has this spell called grasping corpse. Basically it animates a corpse and makes it move toward an enemy and then grapple or trip him. Really off-putting and unsettling when you make a guy's former friend, mount, minion, or even lover stand up from dead and give them a zombie grapple hug!
Problem is, Doc has to know where the corpse is to start with, cause it can only move 30 feet, one time. So, if it's not too much trouble, would you mind leaving the dead dudes on the map? Maybe just rotate them upside down, or something easy to distinguish them. Thanks!
Glad to see you're back to your usual posting style. That last post was awesome, and it's a great example of why we all love playing in your worlds and alongside your heroes.
Alright, time to get back to Doc's wrist. I think he's planning on using that grasping corpse spell on the guy the drunk lady just skewered, so we'll wait to see where he fell.
@Hogo/Doc - Thanks and will do! I've admittedly not GMed for any characters that have a vested interest in knowing where enemy bodies are so it's been habit for me to remove them from the map to keep things less cluttered. I'll try to remember to leave them where they are going forward :)
@Koani - No problem Koani; hang in there!
@All - Sorry for the delay! I worked Friday night (and had a trainee with me) and then the rest of the weekend was unexpectedly busy. New post at some point today.