Welcome! Please dot-and-delete into the Gameplay thread at your leisure and please attempt to keep the bulk of OOC chatter confined to this thread.
Hello GM Ladile,
If anyone drops out please inform me! I would very much like to join. ;-)
I can bring front or support characters.
Thanks!!
Player: noral
PFS: 314670
Hello! Your interest and enthusiasm have been noted; if we should have a dropout then I'll be sure to check in with you :)
Thanks a lot!! :-D
SOON...
>:)
Okay folks, the pre-briefing post is up so please feel free to make introductions and chatter among yourselves for a bit (or not). I'll also need the following information from everyone...
Player Name:
Character Name:
PFS ID#:
Faction:
Progression Track:
What do you do as a character that's cool or complex?
...as well as any purchases using PP and such. You may also make Day Job checks now if you like, or you may wait until the scenario's conclusion. We'll also resolve any potential Faction Journal questions at the end.
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I believe that I've GMed for most of you at least once before but for those unfamiliar with me, I'm Lady Ladile and I'll be your GM for this adventure. I enjoy the fun and creativity that being a GM allows and I love having players willing to get into the story and interact with it and with each other. So have fun! Be creative!
While I do try my best to run my games in accordance with the rules of Pathfinder and Organized Play, I will occasionally make mistakes. Please don't be afraid to point them out but also please do not assume malicious intent if I get something wrong to the 'detriment' of a character; I'm not an antagonistic or 'me vs. the players' sort of GM because that's frankly an unenjoyable and exhausting mindset (for me, your own mileage may vary).
As far as posting rate goes, I generally do my best to adhere to at least 1 or 2 GM posts a day. That said, I work night shifts. The nights I work fluctuate somewhat from week to week and schedule to schedule (though I do seem to consistently work every other Sat/Sun/Mon). My sleep schedule is a hot mess. So...while you're more likely to see posts from me in the evening/late hours CST, you might also see some at high noon, like this one.
And now that basic introductions are out of the way, I want to say that I'm happy to have you all join me and I'm very much looking forward to being your GM for the next several weeks :)
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Player Great Green God
Character Abaal Zadeir, Sword of Katapesh
PFS # 139009-9
Faction Dark Archive
Progression Track Standard
Day Job
What do you do as a character that's cool or complex? Abaal, the Daring Swordsman of Katapesh™ is a fighter, scholar, aesthetic, and rogue. Still he is a fighter, so all-and-all pretty bland. ;) He has an large, unbreakable, black, adamantine blade that he can draw with the speed of Iaijutsu master thanks to his Quick Draw feat.
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Player Name: Massee
Character Name: Hanlin Ciderbrow Jr.
PFS ID#: 202046-6
Faction: Silver Crusade
Progression Track: Normal
What do you do as a character that's cool or complex? Channel focused Cleric. You've played with Hanlin before in Daughter's Fury.
No Day Job.
I'm about to apply a chronicle to him once I get it this week, but he won't level up, just gain some sweet cash to play around with.
For background for the other players:
Hanlin is a melee cleric wanna be. He focuses in channeling goodness and likes to try to mix it up in melee but his attacks aren't very good without some buff time and he ends up focusing much more on healing support usually.
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Player Name: Nomadical
Character Name: Akazim ("ah kah ZEEM")
PFS ID#: 151562 - 7
Faction: Exchange
Progression Track: Normal
Day Job : Take 10 +20 +5 (Journal Card) = 35
What do you do as a character that's cool or complex? He has 2 abilities that catch people by surprise. The first is the ability to apply any +1 or +2 weapon special ability to a weapon as a standard action. Typically, he gives Bane Whatever It Is (along with an extra +1 on top) to the primary fighter(s) first. The second thing is the ability to apply Enlarge Creature (yes, not limited by type) as a Standard Action, though it doesn't last as long. "Hey, front liner, wanna get big and have Bane? Great, which one you want first?"
Abaal, the Daring Swordsman of Katapesh™ is a fighter, scholar, aesthetic, and rogue. Still he is a fighter, so all-and-all pretty bland. ;) He has an large, unbreakable, black, adamantine blade that he can draw with the speed of Iaijutsu master thanks to his Quick Draw feat.
Still useful information to know! Especially since even fighters can come in a variety of flavors. My first 'proper' game as a GM had a mounted combat fighter and a combat maneuver fighter :)
Channel focused Cleric. You've played with Hanlin before in Daughter's Fury.
Shhh, I always ask this question as part of my standard questionnaire. Helps to avoid nasty surprises later on! It also gives me a little time to read up on and get a grasp on any builds or tactics that are on the complex side...like basically ANYTHING involving AoO shenanigans, for example.
That said, I do remember how Hanlin generally operates :)
He has 2 abilities that catch people by surprise. The first is the ability to apply any +1 or +2 weapon special ability to a weapon as a standard action. Typically, he gives Bane Whatever It Is (along with an extra +1 on top) to the primary fighter(s) first. The second thing is the ability to apply Enlarge Creature (yes, not limited by type) as a Standard Action, though it doesn't last as long. "Hey, front liner, wanna get big and have Bane? Great, which one you want first?"
Oh, nice! I think your fellow mates will greatly appreciate the boost to damage. And what melee fighter doesn't like getting swole? :3
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Player: Otha
Character Name: Ingrge
Character Level: 7th (Urban Ranger 4 / Zen Archer 3)
PFS #: 239913-5
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job:
Progression (Slow/Standard): Standard
Ingrge provides ranged support, scouting, and has several rogue-like abilities (Trapfinding, Stealth, Disable Device, Escape Artist). He can also fight with his bow at melee distance without drawing AoOs due to the Point Blank Master feat. Or, as Abaal would say, I’m good at using a stick to fling other sticks...
Hi Lady Ladile, thank you for running this. While I don’t recall if I’ve played a game you’ve GM’ed before, I did have the pleasure of recently playing with one of your characters (Fran Belmont) in the Mysteries Under Moonlight series; I was Dylph (the half-Orc with a fear of pickles).
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Abaal, the Daring Swordsman of Katapesh™ is a fighter, scholar, aesthetic, and rogue. Still he is a fighter, so all-and-all pretty bland. ;) He has an large, unbreakable, black, adamantine blade that he can draw with the speed of Iaijutsu master thanks to his Quick Draw feat.Still useful information to know! Especially since even fighters can come in a variety of flavors. My first 'proper' game as a GM had a mounted combat fighter and a combat maneuver fighter :)
Technically he can do that too (Mounted Combat or various Power Attack feat tree feats, among others), via another feat he has--Barroom Brawler, which I often try to save for Throw Anything and the big 80's sword-flinging finish.
*ahem* And Cirri has a familiar. A pseudodragon!
^Splendid!
What's not quite so splendid, for those who haven't seen it yet, is that we are officially pushing back the start date for Gameday VIII by two weeks to September 9th.
It's not ideal as we specifically selected the original dates (August 26th-November 3rd) to give people a breather after Gen Con and to get done well before US Thanksgiving but the situation is what it is. At least we have the luxury of being able to adjust our convention dates as necessary, which is something that can't be said for a F2F convention.
So we will be in a holding pattern for a bit longer. Please feel free to take a short break from checking the campaign if you've got busy days coming up within the next two weeks. For those who will be around to one degree or another and dislike big stretches of nothing happening over in Gameplay...I'll see what I can whip up in the meantime to help kill some time and keep everyone entertained :)
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Akazim would like to buy a Shawl of Life Keeping here in Goka.
Doing so will complete the 7th goal on his Exchange Faction Journal Card from Season 6. That would have 3 effects related to the party's Day Job checks:
Everyone else in the party gets a +3 circumstance bonus on their Day Job check. That bonus would push Ingrge's day job up to the next tier!
They could now earn 200 gp on a Day Job check of 45.
And Akazim would get another +5 to his Day Job, pushing him to 40.
So, GM, wanna take us to the market to kill time?
Sorry guys, between having some trouble sleeping and being busy at work I've not yet had the time or mental energy to sit down and post anything here. That said, we can certainly go visit the local markets! Please give me until Tuesday evening (my next night off) and I'll see what we can do :)
Heyo folks, I'm going to be out and about some this afternoon/evening (F2F lodge game) and then for a while tomorrow afternoon/evening (hitting the lake with family). So posts might be a little slow.
That said, I hope everyone's having/been having a fantabulous Labor Day weekend :)
Congrats on the move/new house! And please don't worry if you can't find your purchase list right now; you'll have another chance to make purchases once we start the scenario proper :)
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(A dramatic reading)
With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore
'Twas the night before Game Day, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The minis on the mantle had been painted with care,
in hopes that St. Jacobs soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of adventure played on in their heads.
And Mama with her fighter, and my redeemed Darkfire Adept,
had just stolen into the lair of that false Razmiran sect.
When out on the roof there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like CW's Flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
gave the lustre of midday to objects below,
when, what to my wondering eyes should into view dance,
but a miniature sleigh and eight writers who freelance!
With a haggard editor, fresh from an all-nighter,
I knew in a moment it must be Wes Schneider!
More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
"Now Tim! Now Amber!
Now, Greg and Russell!
On, Richard! On, Nick!
On, John and Michael!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away!
Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wind elemental fly,
when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky
so up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
with the sleigh full of gamer swag, and audio dramas too.
And then, craning my ear to the roof perpendicular
I could hear the heavy tread boots of each contributor.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
down the chimney Young Wes came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fake fur, for they are not overfond
of that sort of thing in blue Washington's progressive Redmond.
A bundle of books he had flung on his back,
and he looked like a peddling librarian opening his pack.
His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
and the beard on his chin was in need of a mow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He looked a bit high, and slightly less then regal,
but that's what you get in a State where pot is half-legal.
His character, a multi-class ninja, pirate, half-dinosaur elf,
its huge Hero Lab™ sheet made me laugh, in spite of myself.
With a wink of his eye and a flip of his thumb
he showed me the new archetype that was yet to come.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his editing work,
and corrected our character sheets, even Bill's the rules jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Game Day to all, and to all a good game night!"
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@GM, I apologize, but I forgot to mention something that my character can do. He has a feat called Soulblade. It allows him to do 2 things. It acts like trapspotter for haunts, allowing him to make a Check to notice a haunt any time he's within 10 feet of it, though he takes a -4 on the check. The second thing is that he can make a weapon attack against a haunt, dealing his weapon damage dice plus its enhancement bonus but no other bonuses, like Strength or weapon spec, etc.
Given the name of this scenario, I probably should have mentioned it earlier :)
However, checking both AoN and PFSrd, I noticed they don't have the full text of the feat. I went back to my copy of Haunted Heroes Handbook, and noticed that the first paragraph of the feat ends at the bottom of the page which is all that the sites show. But it continues on the next page with the following:
"Whenever you come within 10 feet of a haunt’s area, you can attempt to notice it as though casting detect undead (with the standard –4 penalty)."
I'll let Blake (the owner of AoN) know, and we can come up with a way for you to verify the text if you want.
@Akazim - Ah yes, that may or may not be important later :)
No worries on confirming the text as I own the PDF and was able to verify the text for myself. Thank you for pointing that out though and I'm sure AoN will be appreciative!
@All - Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. I'm starting the process of looking for/buying a home which has taken up a fair bit of my free time when I've not been working. That said, post incoming shortly...
Done with paying more for rent than this place is worth >:|
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Thanks! Luckily my situation isn't such that I have to move soon or even at all, but doing so would be such an improvement in a lot ways so I'm very hopeful and excited about the process. And anxious, of course.
So very, very anxious.
But it'll work out in the end; things usually do :)
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This gave me the very hilarious and very wrong mental image of Abaal lurking in a corner while such an encounter takes place, offering translation as well as narration for the proceedings.
My mind is weird sometimes.
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Something that I attempt to do when I GM a scenario is provide additional background and flavor about the places the group might go or pass through and the peoples they meet. This is because if I had any one complaint about PFS scenarios, it's that they often take place in very interesting or unique locales but many of them fail to take advantage of it in regards to setting and flavor. Or they might include a rather unique setup or detail that...ends up not being relevant to the scenario at all, but might have made it more memorable if it had been.
So I try to reference the Pathfinder Wiki and what setting materials I already own to fill in details and hopefully make the experience more unique and more 'real', for lack of a better term. Google can also be handy when it comes to referencing the real-world things that much of Golarion is an analogue for, such as climate, flora & fauna, food, etc.
(I have Googled all sorts of random stuff since I started playing PbP.)
This is also as much for my own benefit as anything else because doing this means I learn more about Golarion, too!
I also try to do this (where it's applicable and makes sense) to flesh out parts of scenarios that are very brief. Our current scenario is one such case; I could just throw out a bunch of knowledge/gather info. spoilers, have you guys make your rolls, then shuffle things onward to the next section. It'd certainly be quicker, but where's the fun in that? We have the time and the perfect medium to explore the setting more than we would at a live game, so why not take advantage of it?
That said, this sort of approach - while fun for me as a GM and as a player - is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. But I occasionally like to share thoughts on my reasoning for why I GM the way that I do and this has been on my mind of late.
Ugh, I've been there and done that so I feel your pain. Don't worry about the game - just focus on resting up and feeling better!
Hey folks, I think that when I get my next chance to do a proper update that I'm going to streamline and fast-forward things a bit. I had thought that it might be more enjoyable to give you guys an opportunity to engage with the fine citizens of Nagura instead of simply dropping a bunch of Gather Information checks for you to make. Instead, I feel as though I've left you feeling unsure of how to proceed (or that you can't proceed at all thanks to the language barriers) which wasn't my intention. So while I'm still happy to backfill any conversations or activities you might've wanted to engage in, I'll be looking to advance the action next time I post.
*edit* The above also takes into account RL stuff; I know both Hanlin & Cirri have been busy, that Malusha has been ill, and that Akazim's schedule irregularities put my own to shame.
Hey guys!
As an update, an offer was made & accepted and the paperwork has been signed. Aside from getting the loan business started with the bank, I basically have a home! Closing happens on Halloween, if all continues to go as planned/expected.
So this means I'm going to be busier than usual for next couple of months. That said, I'm committed to doing my best to get us wrapped up by the end of Gameday or very close to it. I realize that my posting here has been sporadic and for that, I apologize. Now that we're getting down to business, as it were, I hope to keep things moving at a better clip and that the game will hopefully be more engaging for everyone than it has been up to this point.
As always, thank you very much for your patience.
Thank you!
Also, I changed the slide permissions so *now* everyone can hopefully edit them and move their tokens around.
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@Ingrge, you already did a Day Job roll back in This post. In addition, because Akazim got his Faction Journal Card purchase, that roll gets an additional +3, pushing you up to 75 gp. See my post here.
I'll echo Ingrgre's praise for your slide deck. The art you found is incredible and the fact that it's all in a similar style really helps set the mood.
But who is the lady in Slide #9? Did I miss something?
Thanks guys!
And Ingrge is right, that's Kimie. I'll go back and add a tag for her on that slide so there's no more confusion.
@Malusha - Yep, I'll allow your bonus channel damage to work against a haunt!
@Abaal - I've not forgotten your question re: the Knowledge check; I'll answer it in my next post :)
@All - In case there is any confusion, you suffer no ill effects from the vision you just witnessed.
(Well, not any ill effects in a purely *mechanical* sense, anyway.)
In doing research about haunts and the haunting rules, I stumbled across a way to handle them that I really liked and am going to utilize whenever I run them.
If no one is able to destroy the haunt before it 'acts' then things proceed as they normally would under the rules; the vision occurs and anyone within range is subject to the haunt's effects.
However, if you happen to destroy a haunt before it 'acts' - which Malusha managed to do - then it will effectively 'defang' the haunt. The vision still occurs but there are no ill effects.
I like this manner of running them as it ensures that the rules are still followed but that players also don't get 'punished' for being good/lucky haunt-busters by missing out on potential story and atmosphere.
^Yep! That's why I said I hadn't forgotten Abaal's result on his knowledge check. I just figured it'd flow better to wait and put some follow-up things in a new post.
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@GM, you know I love you! Finding those ukiyo-e prints and including them in the narrative was inspired.
But now I have reason to hate you, too. (jk) Who is the artist(s)? I don't have time to do an exhaustive search, and my google-fu is pretty poor to begin with. Are they both Hokusai's? The little bio you gave of the in-game artist sounds like Hokusai, but I can't find those prints! You're killing me!
I don't have time to find them because I have to hustle down to the pier for my all-day snorkeling trip... on the Great Barrier Reef! I'm in Cairns, Australia, for the next three days doing one Reef snorkel today and another probably on Tuesday.
:D
Actually, it's Hiroshige - but you'll note in the linked article that Hokusai was definitely an influence on Hiroshige's work!
I kid! No actual hate, just a bit of envy perhaps. My relationship with water is complicated but that sounds like a lovely way to spend a day in Australia :)