[PF2e] The Fall of Plaguestone (Inactive)

Game Master GM Red

Discussion thread. Dot in here!

Guys, the following optional Backgrounds were included in the Adventure that you may consider for your characters. You can still choose any of the CRB ones, of course.

Lesser Scion
You are the youngest child in a noble house (in Cheliax, Isger, or Andoran) and stand to inherit nothing from your family. Although you have a minor title, it affords you no lands or wealth, but it has garnered you a small amount of respect and deference in your travels. When play begins, you are riding in a caravan bound for Almas, where a cousin has promised to allow you to stay with them for a month.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost.

You are trained in the Diplomacy skill and the Heraldry Lore skill. You gain the Hobnobber skill feat.

Lost and Alone
You were training to become a knight in Lastwall when the Whispering Tyrant escaped his imprisonment and destroyed the nation. It was only by dumb luck that you are alive at all, but the memories of that fateful day haunt your dreams. When play begins, you have boarded a caravan heading toward a new town, having worn out your welcome at the taverns and inns of Elidir.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.

You are trained in the Intimidate skill and the Warfare Lore skill. You gain the Intimidating Glare skill feat.

Missionary
You received training from clergy in a faraway temple, who sent you out into the world to spread the faith. Although you are relatively new at this, you are always on the lookout for new places in need of your deity’s teachings and guidance. When play begins, you are riding along in a caravan making your way through sparsely populated regions of Isger, spreading the news of your faith to those who will listen.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You are trained in the Diplomacy and Scribing Lore skills. You gain the Group Impression skill feat.

Refugee
The fighting around the Lake Encarthan region has forced many of the people residing there to flee from the violence. Although your home is gone, you have managed to survive and are making your way south in search of a better life. When play begins, you are riding along in a caravan taking you to what might be either a new home in Andoran or simply another waypoint in your journey.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost.

You are trained in the Survival skill and the Hunting Lore skill. You gain the Forager skill feat.

Teamster
Only 1 PC may select this background
You left your home a few months back for a life on the road, working for one caravan company and then another, always on the lookout for a new job and a better life. Last week, you were hired by the Bort Bargith’s company in Elidir. You don’t know anyone from the company just yet, but most of its members seem to be honest merchants and traders.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You are trained in the Nature skill and the Mercantile Lore skill. You gain the Train Animal skill feat.

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In what seems like a new 2e feature, some of these Backgrounds are also tied to a 'Side Quest' included in the adventure, though some CRB backgrounds also tie to these quests (specifically, Warrior, Acolyte, Noble).

Dotting here!

I plan on playing a Human Wizard with the Scholar Background :) I will get started on putting together an alias, but it may take some time as I need to go through the steps of building a PC first he he.

Dotting in; no idea what sort of character I want to make at this point but I'll try and get it noodled out sooner rather than later.

Though I can say that it probably won't be a bard or a druid since I've already got one of each for PFS2 characters.

I just got my books so I'll start browsing.

Were you running this as PFS or no? And the estimated start date was what again?

I'm not sure I can make it count as PFS, but I will ping Hmm and find out. Unless you know, Lady L?

Thinking of starting on the 10th or 11th, if that's good with everyone!

^I don't think Plaguestone is sanctioned for PFS yet but I'll try and find out!

Okay, straight from the horse's mouth - not currently sanctioned for PFS2 but on the docket. Probably won't be super soon though, given all the other irons in the fire...

That's fine, was just curious. An FYI: I'll be out of town until the evening of the 11th, but feel free to kick off without me. I'm more than happy to make a dramatic entrance.

Thanks K for confirming.

By the way, looks like Chad will be joining us as well.

Oh yes, I'm here. (What level do we start at? 1?)

The current character ideas I have are:

1) Feyblooded Sorcerer

2) Fighter who wishes he was a bard

3) Hippie Atheist Storm Druid

Still noodling character concepts, blargh. Maybe I'll try an Alchemist? Maybe even try out the 'multiclass/archetype' stuff. Dunno.

Also I'll be working the 10th through the 12th but I should be okay to start; just might be a little slow to post initially.

I wonder if this becomes PFS-sanctioned during the time we're playing it, we can still apply chronicles as if we had run it with the PFS rules (ie. campaign mode).

Oh! And yes, start at Level 1.

I'll go for a sorcerer, then. Probably divine or primal in nature. I want to see how sorcerers with different spell lists work.

Alrighty, aside from maybe fleshing out a background, tinkering with the profile formatting, and getting a profile set up for her familiar I think Gillian here is mostly ready to go.

Okay finally completed my wizard :)

Sweet. That's two so far - thinking I'll start tomorrow afternoon/evening, giving Joe a chance to finalize his PC and get back from his trip!

Eeek, I'm behind! Time to make my character, quick!

Ok he's not done but he's coming together at any rate. I can at least RP with him to make things move along at your leisure Frank.

I'm hoping you'll be fluid with allowing us to make some changes as we figure s~+! out as we go.

Two things I'm noticing, but please correct me if you find otherwise. 1. The flat-footed before acting in combat rule no longer exists. 2. There is no such thing as Touch AC anymore.

As I understand it, that's correct for both.

I haven't noticed that yet in my brief reading but it makes sense. Also you don't get penalties for shooting into melee other than possibly soft cover. And its also rare for things to get AOOs from movement unless they are a fighter.

Yes, no AoOs is a huge change, IMO.

Some early complaints about 2e involved the loss of Spring Attack, since it's Fighter exclusive. But you can just Stride, Strike, and Stride away most of the time without danger, so it's unnecessary most of the time.

I'm surprised about Touch AC going poof, but it looks like now you make a saving throw against the Spell DC instead. Simplifies things without adding yet another way to defend yourself.

Enjoying learning this new addition and this game in particular, thanks for running it Frank. I do love me some low level combats, especially when they're bar fights!

^Ditto! I know I mentioned GMing some PF2 myself but given Gameday and all that jazz I think I may wait and leave that for next year.

My pleasure. :) Best way to learn the system is to just dive right in!

Enjoying learning this new addition and this game in particular, thanks for running it Frank. I do love me some low level combats, especially when they're bar fights!

Speak for yourself Scratch! Ed will watch this unfold safely from outside the action he he.

By the way Frank, keep Jan's player in mind if you happen to decide to try running any PFS2 scenarios anytime soon. He PMed me asking if I was going to be running anything or if I knew of anyone that might be doing so; he's also interested in low-to-mid-level PFS1 scenarios too.

Will do! I won't be starting another table in the near-term but will keep him in mind once some of my tables wrap up.

Hey folks, I've been/am fairly busy taking care of some RL business yesterday and today + I start three nights in a row at work tomorrow night so if posts are slow, that's why. Please feel free to bot/delay Gillian if needed. Thank you for your understanding!

I'd mentioned this to most of you already, but I'll be traveling for the next few days and I'm really not quite sure what my schedule is going to be like. I'll post as I can, but it'll be much less frequent.

Think I'm going to shift Gillian's alignment over to NG; she's not really super chaotic but I still don't really ping her as being super lawful, either :)

Hey guys, I'm headed off to AVL Scarefest tomorrow and won't be back until Monday. While my time isn't booked solid I have no idea what the internet situation will be so my posting here may be slow or nonexistent until I return.

(I wanted to try and make one round of updates tonight but noooooo, internet is not being cooperative and my patience is limited.)

So, please feel free to bot or delay Gillian as necessary, if necessary :)

Since the dog was in someone's backyard, it's definitely a pet, so I'm not sure how much they'll like you taking him with you :) That said... I suppose you could still do it anyway via Nature (Command an Animal)

You issue an order to an animal. Attempt a Nature check against the animal’s Will DC. The GM might adjust the DC if the animal has a good attitude toward you, you suggest a course of action it was predisposed toward, or you offer it a treat. You automatically fail if the animal is hostile or unfriendly to you. If the animal is helpful to you, increase your degree of success by one step. You might be able to Command an Animal more easily with a feat like Ride (page 266).[/qupte]

If it looked like a pet I'll leave it.

Our current situation is where we would be in exploration mode. You pick an 'activity' to a degree and that's what your character focuses on. Searching, stealth, etc.

Right! It looks like you're all trying to Avoid Notice? Can one Search while Avoiding Notice? Can activities be combined? I'll start searching the boards, but if anyone else knows, let me know.

I think its one or the other. But that needs to be confirmed. They seemed to want to make things straight forward vs characters that say they're doing 4 things at a time... *whistles*

I didn't mean to ruin your agency here. The front door with the trap that Gillian noted is also an option, though I take it you'd want to disable that trap first, and I'm not sure how good Scratch is at that...

Oh I misread, I thought that was the way we went in!

Scratch is trained in Thievery +5 but doesn't have tools. If it requires tools then he'd pass I guess and go this way.

Yep, that's a plain old trap (unlike the false window) and requires tools. Into the trash heap we go...

Is Taking 20 no longer a thing in PF2?

I don't think it is, or at least I haven't noticed it mentioned in the book.

Taking 20 is no longer a thing. You can't take 10 without a feat, either.

What has everyone's opinion been so far of the exploration activities bit? Does it feel clunky and distracting to anyone else? Or is it just because its new and I don't have a great handle on it yet...

I'm starting to like the change to combat and the three actions thing. Its more defined and other than the possible boost to low level damage output at least it defines the options nicely. It'll be hard to get used to almost everything requiring an action but it should help level the playing field better for classes.

The seek function I'm not 100% on, they definitely made it more rigid when it comes to finding/looking for hidden targets. I'm sure that'll come up in this adventure at some point.

I still am having a tough time adjusting to the new actions. Maybe it is because you just say I do *X* action instead of stating what specifically you are doing here. Plus a lot of the rolls are handled by the GM so that is also is something to get used to.

Maybe we should settle into a standard operating procedure?

I just have trouble remembering the list of actions needed.

Like Scratch, I like the 3-action combat system but I'm also struggling a bit with the Exploration Mode stuff. It's difficult to put into words exactly, but the best way I can describe it is that it feels less like I'm actually playing the game and more like I'm being narrated through parts of it.

The RP sections are still fine as always but I feel like it's harder to put my own character's personality into my posts when the GM is making the majority of my rolls for me.

I'm hoping that once we get more familiar with exploration mode and the options it'll be second nature.

I do like the standard operating procedure though. Everyone picks a standard mode and we go with it unless they speak up with a different one. You also need to remember that many drop your speed to half, or worse. There are feats to make that speed reduction better but they seem pointless unless everyone has them since someone is going to be slowing things down.

I'd be happy to adopt a standard operating procedure. I second the idea that the GM making rolls for players takes away from the interactiveness of the game. I was actually wondering why I've been rolling in secret for things like Search actions, though. I could see it happening for things like Knowledge checks (because a failed check could result in the wrong information), but why a Perception check to search? I'd prefer if you guys rolled there unless someone can convince me why you shouldn't. :)