GM Bret’s PbP Gameday VIII PF2 The Mosquito Witch (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

If no one objects, I would like to take a break over the weekend.

I will be at SkalCon all weekend.

Have fun.

No problem. Have fun, both of you. :)

Enjoy.

Diplomacy and other social skill rolls

Please be careful about making social interaction rolls. Although the mechanics were not used here, I have seen many instances where you only have a limited number of attempts at a social skill and after that the NPC will refuse to speak with you. You also increase the risk of a critical failure.

In PF2, there is even a risk if you attempt an Aid roll as a critical failure results in a penalty to the primary roll.

The interaction that caused me to write this had several failures with a skill before someone succeeded. A critical failure on any of those would have closed that door. If the encounter had listed a specific number of failures ending the conversation, each of those rolls would have counted towards it.

There are also a number of instances where mention of a certain thing may cause a bonus or penalty. Content does matter with the social interactions. Good or bad and regardless of who may be the primary, I will take mention of key things into account.

Your character can still speak and make points. If there is no roll called for, great. If there are rolls called for, I will tell you if there are special mechanics involved and take the roll of whoever claims they are going to be primary.

You can also do something like:

If you are miserable at the skill called for but think you have a good idea, please to the interaction. The person who is rolling the skill is assumed by me to step in and smooth anything they can out (depending on the check result). If you are afraid the NPC may react badly, you could also consider having having your character whisper an idea to another that then presents it in what is hopeful a better way.

I will not force someone who has ideas to stay silent.

I personally would have preferred the game kept the no risk Aid Another on social skills. There was evidently a large and vocal set of play testers that felt any roll should have risk. I do need to stick with the rules as I understand them.

Please don't take my relative silence as lack of interest in the game. Given the investigative nature of this scenario, I am finding it more challenging than usual to really contribute without any metagaming (having run it now several times).

For my fellow teammates - if you want Tasaria to do something particular feel free to direct her, or ask her questions etc. I will do my best to answer only within character.

Sorry, will not be able to update again until tomorrow.

I will move us forward then.

Sorry, it seems I’ve come down with something. Been asleep most of the day. Hope to feel better tomorrow.

No update today.

Take your time, get well soon!

Take care of yourself and feel better soon.

Take care of yourself. In the words of Count Rugen, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.

Feeling better. Thought it was time to give you an update.

Not much there, should have called for the check sooner.

Please do give me an idea what you are doing in exploration mode. At least one of you should be using Survival. I expect the closest match is Sense Direction. You don’t need to use the exact game terms as long as it is obvious or the game term is in your header.

Exploration activities are on pg. 479-480.

Let me know if you have questions.

Scout, avoid notice, or recall knowledge are probably the best choices for Chug.

I like the idea of one party member scouting.

Tasaria could also use detect magic or use perception (+6) as a lookout or if no one is better than survival (+3) as needed for finding our way and being aware of hazards.

It probably wouldn't hurt to have more than one of us using survival.

Glad you are feeling better, Bret.

Detecting Magic!

I'll second Tasaria's suggestion to have more than one person use Survival. Getting lost would be a shame. Other than that, I can see Perception and Recall Knowledge (Nature) working. Helène isn't too good on outdoors skills and her Perception isn't amazing (+3), so she'll take scouting duty.

Happy to scout or use survival while travelling. Looks like we are out of that mode now though.,

Thought I posted here last night that we were given warning of potential power shut down from early this morning through the next couple of days. If we do lose power it could last for up to a week.

So far, so good, we still have power and at least one map indicated we are a couple of blocks from the nearest affected area. Still, if I disappear that is likely why. Feel free to bot as needed.

Keep safe! Hope you keep power as well.

I have a family event tomorrow and either will not update or will only do so late that day.

Enjoy the family event.

I must say that I enjoy the scenario, even though it take some getting used to the 'sandboxy' nature and the fact that many things will apparently stay a mystery. Let's see where our stumbling about brings us. :*)

If people want some hints, I can give them. It is difficult in PbP to read the table and know when the players want hints or not.

Hints can be as simple as a list of things you have for things to investigate.

Just so players know, Treat Disease usually takes eight hours. The thing is that would keep you there overnight, which I suspect people wouldn’t enjoy.

I am going to apply the 2 hours of reduced symptoms to allow you to move the person — hopefully getting back to town. Assuming you get back to town, Tarasia can then complete the treatment. No additional rolls, just complete what she started.

Sounds good. Thank you.

[dice=Aid Survival, if allowed]1d20+3 Nevermind.

It is allowed, but now it is risky doing so. A critical failure to Aid will impose a penalty on the original skill rolls. See pg. 470 for details on this.

The details don’t matter in this case, but since this is a change and many may not be aware of it I wanted to point it out.

The person doing the skill check does not have to accept attempts to Aid.

I have my turn ready, I assume it is proper pbp etiquette to wait until turn comes up to post rather than put my turn up and wait for initiative to apply results?

I do grouped initiative, so all characters within the same block can post in any order and I resolve them in posting order unless someone specifies they are waiting for someone else.

So for the current battle we would have the following ‘groups’

Teja
——
Green
——
Tasaria
Max
——
Blue
Peaches
Black
——
Chug
——
Red
——
Phineas
Helène

Once Green or Red die we would have larger groups.

You can always post in advance within a spoiler. I would then resolve it as soon as your group came up.

By the way, I am being a bit more chatty about the mechanics because it is a new system. If I say something you disagree with, let me know here in discussion (preferably with references to the rules) so that we can work things out,

A lot of things are different in PF2. I have GMed PF1, Starfinder and the playtest so it is also very easy for me to mistakenly apply something that was in one of the other systems.

In the case of disagreement, if it isn’t critical and there are a lot of rules elements to wade through I may make a call and go forward. That doesn’t have to end the discussion as long as things remain civil, but unless it makes a big difference I would rather not RetCon something.

OK. You inspired me to go peek at the initiative rolls. I believe that you have sorted them using the standard PF1 rules as my understanding is that in PF2 ties with opponents go to the opponent, ties within the party are decided by the party. In PbP the latter usually makes no difference as we run things in blocks. The only real difference here is that Green would have gone first and Teja would be in the first party block. Nothing game-changing at all but may have made your life just a little easier.

I will need to dig out the actual rule ...

Unlike a typical check, where the result is compared to a DC, the results of initiative rolls are ranked. This ranking sets the order in which the encounter’s participants act— the initiative order. The character with the highest result goes first. The second highest follows, and so on until whoever had the lowest result takes their turn last.

If your result is tied with a foe’s result, the adversary goes first. If your result is tied with another PC’s, you can decide between yourselves who goes first when you reach that place in the initiative order. After that, your places in the initiative order usually don’t change during the encounter.

Thanks! I hadn't realized they had changed that.

I will change it on the next round and try to remember this difference.

Blue dives down and attacks Peaches. It is able to latch on to the dog! It then starts to draw blood from it, seeming to gain health apps it does so.

Barbed Legs: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Blood Drain: 1d4 ⇒ 2

I believe that is a critical hit so, sad to say, Peaches would actually take 4 damage.

Normally, yes.

Here it is two actions, one to attach and another to drain. The attach is treated as a grapple so the crit would be:
Critical Success Your opponent is restrained until the end of your next turn unless you move or your opponent Escapes (page 470).

Best I can tell, the creatures with never get crit damage. I assume this is intentional.

Does someone want to Bot Chug?

Does someone want to Bot Chug?

Sure

Chug - I didn't quite understand your botting dice so I spelled it out how I believe it should work.

OK, looks like we cross-posted so GM, please ignore Bilby Bot post though I am going to leave it up so we can discuss if needed, this being a learning game.

Edit - I moved you back to where I remember you being on the map.

Sorry,sick. Don’t think I will update until tomorrow.

Feel better soon, Brett.

Glad to see you back, Brett.

Team - I have copied our tokens and placed them double-file entering. Leaving it to the leaders or others to decide which direction we go. Feel free to adjust the order, I based it on what had been posted.

Glad to be over that cold! No fun.

Now to finish this adventure off!

Since we are close to the end, it is time for people to roll for Downtime activities.

The most common downtime activity is using Lore, Crafting or Perform to earn money. Since everyone is 2nd level or less, the DC is the same for everyone: DC 14.

Since GM’s also get downtime, I will do it for my 1st level arson investigator.

Crafting T: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12 Failed.

1 cp / day for a total of 8 cp!

crafting: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Ohh, good time for a critical!

Helène will use the Bargain Hunter feat, which lets her use Diplomacy to Earn Income.

Diplomacy, earn income: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 Meh...

Chug hits the taverns and sings.

Performance: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Tasaria spends her time gathering and selling medicinal herbs.

Herbalism Lore: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Failed = 8cp

Sorry for my absence, caught something on Saturday and was laid up until today recovering.

Earn income: Performance: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 Phineas sings drunken bar songs while slinging drinks to entertain the patrons. He specializes in organizing rounds.

Max - token moved

Would someone like to bot Max?

Max strides forward and summons another arc of electricity.

Stide, cast electric arc at green and light blue
electric damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 Basic reflex for half

Alright, guess I will copy the result into Gameplay.

Max, I still need a Day Job roll from you in order to fill out chronicles.

We are very near the end.