GM Granta's War for the Crown (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

Sorry, no update this morning. Netflix just released the new season of Lucifer, and I've been up late the last two nights binging it. I made it through yesterday okay, but this morning it caught up with me!

Will hopefully finish work early and post later today.

Woohoo! They actually have Martella's picture as one of the avatar choices.

I am going to make aliases for a lot of the NPCs, particularly those that will appear in multiple books. Hopefully, this will make it easier for you to remember who is who--or to search through the campaign if you don't remember a detail.

Potentially useful information from pages 11-12 of old discussion:

Some clarification on primogeniture and the effect it has had on women.

Research a Spell instead of Independent Research.

This is a link to a link on Goods and Capital!

List of private assignments by Lotheed (with descriptions).

Thread summarization assignments.

Question (relates to potential purchases during the intermission):

I know nothing about forging wine labels except what I've seen on 'White Collar.'

What would I need to remove a wine label en bloc without ruining the ink and then what would I need to re-affix it using a conspicuously too modern material/glue?

Great show!

A forger's kit is 200 gp, so I'll say the non-masterwork version is also 4x cost. 20 gp for a forgery kit that doesn't provide a bonus, but does negate the penalty.

Hmm. Since creating forgeries is a trained-only function of Linguistics, and I have not yet the rank in Linguistics, I would expect to not be able to carry out that part of my plan.

GM, it wouldn't have mattered this time around, but how do you want me to handle Favored Enemy on Sense Motive rolls? Would you mind putting the creature type as applicable, or otherwise notifying me if it triggers?

For the most part, I will mention if someone isn't human. And the vast majority of NPCs that you socialize with will be human.

As to knowledge checks, I have been planning to change the way I do creature IDs, and will be including more of the basic info. For example:

If you miss the roll by your favored enemy bonus, just go ahead and peak. I trust you not to meta-game.

I like the knowledge change! I'm going to give that format a shot.

Noted, thanks GM!

I usually give creature type upon a successful roll unless it's obvious. Sharing alignment is definitely an extra bonus, so I'm not sure if you meant to include that. Although, when it matters it's usually obvious (evil outsiders are usually evil so cast dispel evil).

I did mean to include alignment, yes. I've long felt that knowledge checks were too weak, so am going to experiment a little.

I'll have Pavo purchase the non-masterwork amateur forger's kit in case some other task pops up at an inconvenient time (or in case Lady Delena finds time to visit the kitchens).

Who is following and who isn't? Some of the posts aren't clear. You can split up if desired, nothing is horrible is going to happen either way this early on.

Unless Delena initiates combat. And yes, any non-consentual spell that targets an NPC would take us into initiative.

It sounds to me like Delena and Tiber want to stay in line; Ayalina, Pavo and Thalasou want to follow the inspector. The game will progress tomorrow under those assumptions, unless you post a different action today.

I'm fine with that. I'm not going to get into big trouble, if it starts to look serious Delena will follow.

For some reason I didn't get the new message notification here. Anyway, yes, I'm following the inspector.

I'll be at PaizoCon Thu-Mon. If any of you are going to be there, maybe we can meet up. Let me know.

Please check the maps link and read the following directions by tomorrow.

Also, I was unable to find the appropriate avatars for Baron Nicolaus Okerra, Lady Gloriana Morilla, Princess Eutropia Stavian I, and High Strategos Maxillar Pythareus. One buckeye each if you can find them for me. Note: I need the Paizo avatar that can be used with an alias, not just an image from the internet.

Social Rounds: The Events in the Senate section details the timeline you should use to run this social focused portion of the adventure. Each event lists a number of social rounds that follow it. During these social rounds (considered to be roughly 15 minutes each), the PCs can attempt various skill checks to influence NPCs or to generally carouse a specific area of the senate. 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. These rules are a simplified version of the rules for influencing an individual presented in Chapter 3 of Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue.

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.

Are there any descriptions for the areas? It is a bit challenging to write posts where I'm using something like Spellcraft if I don't have an idea what is in there.

Yes, I can post those after work. Not sure if they will help much, though.

Do we need to spend time to learn about the nobles (especially with Diplomacy) or can we just roll for all of them right away?

Roll away

No update this morning; I gave a prayer to the porcelain goddess instead. Will post after work if I'm feeling better.

Feel better!

Roll away

If these represent pre-existing knowledge, can I Take 10 (and consequently know about all of those people)? Or is it more, "Oh, shoot, I should recognize that face, come on brain!"

You can take 10 either way.

Are we still working on each of us influencing one area or are we able to move to another area and try again?

Also, this is an extension to Delena's question, can we roll knowledge checks for each of the NPCs immediately or do we need to move to the room they are in first?

Roll immediately. Too complex otherwise. And only influence one room for now.

When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10.

Since that is rather vague, let's try something more specific and see how well it works. If you have ideas to improve this interpretation, please chime in.

"Immediate danger" includes:

Also, I was unable to find the appropriate avatars for Baron Nicolaus Okerra, Lady Gloriana Morilla, Princess Eutropia Stavian I, and High Strategos Maxillar Pythareus. One buckeye each if you can find them for me. Note: I need the Paizo avatar that can be used with an alias, not just an image from the internet.

Are the tokens on the map the real pictures for these people?

Are the tokens on the map the real pictures for these people?

The other half are, yes.

Apologies for the question: Is this scene within the Social Rounds or is this an eventful intermission? If so, please let me know when Social Rounds resume.

This is an Event. I will announce social rounds when they happen. They are basically like combat--explicitly announced, take turns, etc. And the social rounds are more like the intermission.

Will wait until tonight to give everyone a chance to post.

The first social round will begin Sunday morning (EDT). Please work together on missions/NPCs whenever possible. That will get you to the success thresholds faster, and make updates a lot easier for me.

I'd like to get Pavo's side mission out of the way, then he'll be able to help with the social missions. I could use a distraction in the kitchens, which is what I was angling to get Ayalina's help with.

EDIT: Tiber, if you want to keep working the servants, that might help, too.

Since it's a holiday weekend, we'll give Ayalina a little longer to post.

Posting this in all of my games:

As of yesterday, I have moved to London!

1. This should not impact my posting regularity, but it will change when I can post (around five hours earlier now).

2. If you live in London and enjoy playing with me/in my games, shoot me a PM! I'd love to get involved in the local PFS, a homegame, or even 5e (although I'd be brand new at that).

Wow. Congrats, I think. I've only visited London but when I was there it looked like it would be fun to live there.

Based on the "five hours earlier" comment I'm guessing you moved from somewhere in the middle-ish of the US.

Good thing you already know the language. :-)

Forgive me - had a lot of chaos going on this week so I'll be catching up tomorrow morning and posting. @_@ Sorry for the disappearance! I should be back on track. c:

Thanks! Yeah, we moved from Ohio. We are excited to be here and see all it has to offer!

For the record, I strongly opposed the move, but wasn't given a vote.

Information about each NPC has been added to the map slides, including which skills to use. As a refresher, your available actions are:

All caught up! @_@ Sorry again for the delays -- if all goes well, I should be posting one-two times per day now, but I'll create some sort of botting protocol just in case!

@Tiber: Oof, that sounds like an exciting move! Congratulations! :)

Thanks! We are very excited :)

GM, where is Lady Lotheed now?

Marcella's location is unspecified, as she is not to be contacted.

Will give Thalasou another day, because of the holiday, but then we are back to everyday posting expectations.

@Tiber: You are correct, and it is confusing. Martella just happens to find you, when you choose to perform your mission. Either that, or she is so easy to find that it didn't bear mentioning in the AP.

Perfect! Thanks GM!

Ayalina, no. Not all rolls at once.