Not to be a total nerd but swarms of tiny creatures only take half damage from piercing or slashing. A firearm does bludgeoning and piercing.
@Mylok: my understanding (which might be completely wrong, mind you) is that, as long as one of the boxes is ticked (i.e. P+B against an enemy vulnerable to P or S), you cause damage.
In this case, your damage was 3, plus 1 from inspire courage (which in initiative order came right before your action) for 4 P+B damage, halved to 2. Does that sound right to you?
I took a small liberty, or perhaps better to say interpretive license, with the scene. Hope it wasn't overstepping the bounds of setting- in a face-to-face game I would have asked before just going for it, but don't want to slow down the action.
@robo: no problem. I appreciate when anyone takes some licence to make things more interesting and try to reward that sort of behaviour whenever possible. Just one request: whenever you move during combat, please move your pawn on the maps (link should be right above the campaign tabs) to help us visualise the scene, plan flanking, calculate reach, etc. Feel free to do so out of combat as well whenever you want Skurly to be somewhere specific.
I'm back! Thankfully, I didn't miss out on too much action.
@Talib: welcome back!
@Mylok: sorry, just realised what you meant now. I had always read that as bludgeoning causing no damage at all, whilst the P and S would at least cause 50% of the damage, but, indeed, that seems to be an assumption without much base in the actual writing. Corrected the amount of damage on the last summary.
@GM If I had thought of it (or had time to get back to you) I would've clarified. But yeah, that's what I had meant.
+1 to my attack and damage from inspire courage because I'm silly and forgot. Thanks Rissi!
@Skurly You have inspired me.
GM is the judge's bench higher ground or that just a wall separating?
@robo: no problem. I appreciate when anyone takes some licence to make things more interesting and try to reward that sort of behaviour whenever possible. Just one request: whenever you move during combat, please move your pawn on the maps
Certainly! I would have done so in this case, but the place he would be moving to (or if it was a valid action at all) wasn't clear to me yet as the location/existence of the cover wasn't define, so I left him in place pending your feedback.
Question: In the main hall where Malgrim was killed, is the remaining chandelier suspended by a pulley system or is it fixed, and in either case, is it rope or chain holding it up? Or, if this is the kind of thing I might need to roll to notice/remember, what's the appropriate roll and action type?
@Mylok: If you can't beat 'em... take cover and stall till you have a better idea!
Mylok: it is slightly higher ground. A bit less than 1m/3ft.
@robo: it is a pulley system using chains. Are you going to try and crash the thing on these poor birdies?
@robo: it is a pulley system using chains. Are you going to try and crash the thing on these poor birdies?
Darn tootin'.
I'm positively surprised by our success. First level is scary enough without swarms!
Yup, and the glass cannon hasn't figured out her powers yet. It's an interesting challenge to have a PC be proactive without using their abilities beyond skill checks and movement.
Sorry if I'm posting too much—just trying to keep things moving!
I've seen many PbP games fall apart for a failure of forward momentum; never seen one actually suffer long-term for one player's enthusiasm becoming excessive. Always a treat to see what Talib's going to do and say next, for my part.
Yeah, no worries here. :)
I just hope Talienda's isn't getting on everyone's nerves.
All good for me! Play on!!!
Will do. ;) Pretty easy to play a person who's out cold. :D
That's good to hear! Just let me know if I'm hogging the spotlight. That's something I've caught myself doing in the past, and I try to stay cognizant of it. I'm a very goal-oriented player, and it tends to bleed over into my characters: most of them are proactive go-getters, in one way or another.
Every party needs a leader, and it keeps the game rolling.
All good for me as well, Talib and Talienda.
Being the GM, I obviously appreciate your play style, Talib, as it is indeed very helpful in keeping things moving forward. I also believe that, as long as everyone is having their fun and no one feels left out or deprived of opportunities to act, there's absolutely no harm to it. This also counts for you, Skurly, as you have previously asked about multiple posts outside of combat.
I'm also taking the opportunity to say that you can feel free to give me directions at any time (things are too slow, too fast, something is annoying you, I did something wrong, you have something that you really want your character to do, etc) either here or with a PM. My inbox is always open if you prefer privacy.
Hooray for communication! So far, I think we've been pretty good about sticking to the original goal of keeping a sharp pace. No complaints here.
Announcement: Mylok's player contacted me earlier to say he won't be posting for the next few days due to health issues. Hopefully he will come back soon, but in the meantime I'll remove him from action.
Also, if Skurly does not post in the next half hour I will move the action to the first floor, as I can't seem to access his character sheet to get his disable device modifier.
I hope he feels better soon!
Someone with detect magic and ranks in Spellcraft should probably try to identify the magic incense.
Sorry. Missed the transmutation aura.... Trying?
Can I be the first to say... really missing Mylok, both IC and OOC right about now?
Same. I was really liking the way things were developing between him and Talienda.
I agree =(
Haven't heard anything from him since last week, but hopefully he'll rejoin us soon. Will let you as soon as I have any updates.
OOF 8 damage is rough at this level, holy crap.
Yeah, zombie Malgrim, much like its living version, does not mess around.
Talib continues to hack away at the reanimated dwarf, but is having trouble severing any essential appendages.
[dice=Falchion Attack]1d20+3+1
Damn, last couple of posts were a bit of a trainwreck as far as my text comprehension goes. Sorry, guys, it's been a long week at work and I haven't been super sharp.
It's fine. We all have days, weeks, even months like that. I moved Talienda back to where I had placed her since that was as far as she could have gotten. While I appreciate the free move, I think it'd be more narratively interesting for Talienda to be a little slow in getting out of harm's way.
Damn, last couple of posts were a bit of a trainwreck as far as my text comprehension goes. Sorry, guys, it's been a long week at work and I haven't been super sharp.
It's not a big deal—a zombie is a zombie.
I moved Talienda back to where I had placed her since that was as far as she could have gotten. While I appreciate the free move, I think it'd be more narratively interesting for Talienda to be a little slow in getting out of harm's way.
Also, now that you're out of immediate danger, it might be wise not to barge into more elsewhere. Halgrak is probably just looking for an excuse to off himself and get zombified sooner rather than later, but I'd like to keep Talienda, if at all possible. :P
Quick rules question- is Fighting Defensively per core rules no longer a combat option, under the "Feat Tax" rules as we are playing them? I assume so, but if not I would have taken that option on my attack.
Also, now that you're out of immediate danger, it might be wise not to barge into more elsewhere. Halgrak is probably just looking for an excuse to off himself and get zombified sooner rather than later, but I'd like to keep Talienda, if at all possible. :P
To be fair, this danger found us! :P
I'll try to keep Talienda out of the fray and as alive as I can. I like playing her and I'm hoping that we'll be able to continue this after we finish up this module.
If you'll all forgive me, I'd like to indulge in a little sentiment for a moment.
I'm an expat living in an unsettled country, freshly divorced, working in a high-pressure and unremunerative job, and in many ways my life is, to put it lightly, a little pear-shaped these days. Not bad, per se, just a bit chaotic and unsettled, and with a greater dose of uncertainty than most humans are prone to enjoy or thrive in.
This game is something I look forward to each day. I get off work, and my first priority is to see whether Talib is going to get stern with Skurly, how Talienda is going to cope with the next trauma, what pithy quip Mylok is going to drop, what beauteous horror our GM is going to expose, and how I'm going to respond to it all. Thanks to all of you for making this a truly stand-out experience for me- and this is coming from someone who has avoided D&D and high fantasy generally for many years as an "immature" genre in the medium.
If there's any willingness to keep this group together after the end of the module and fold it into a campaign proper, I for one will be rah-rahing it the whole way. If not, I'll keep happy memories of the experience with me regardless, and if Skurly sees action in other campaigns he'll speak wistfully of his dear friends Talib, Talienda, Sinesiel, Rissi, and Mylok.
That is to say, assuming we make it out of here alive.
Ouch! Been through the divorce myself, after 25 years of marriage. It's like the death of your previous life, but life does go on. Give it time.... I won't offer any more unsolicited advice as everybody is different in what works for them.
I'd love to continue along with Rissi and this group if there's a game/campaign available. I'm loving the "real" characters in this game rather than the min/max power characters that I've seen in many other games that I've played. (and I'll confess I've played a couple myself)
Valid point though, if we make it out of here alive! :)
I'd love to stick together! I've wanted to get to check out occultist for a long time now (the class simply drips with flavor) and I'm having a good time playing Siné. This has been a really cool experience so far, and I'm really kicking myself for not having gotten involved with the online community here years ago.
This game has been great. I don't think I've ever felt anxiety over a Pathfinder character like I did when I hit 2 HP.
Thanks for sharing that, @robo. Having lived the past 10 years outside my country of birth and currently in a sort of soul-crushing job, I believe I can empathise with some aspects of what you're going through. As Rissi, I will restrain from any unsolicited advice, but wanted to say I feel honoured that this game can help even a tiny little bit with things.
Regarding The Future™: I am enjoying this as well and would have no problems continuing. I haven't made any specific preparations so far and am happy to take suggestions regarding what you'd want to do next. I also have started working on a homebrewed module set in Golarion to get familiar with 2E rules and although I'm enjoying the new system, I'm not sure that's a route we'd want to pursue (not in the least because of PC conversion shenanigans).
But, of course, whatever happens afterwards depends on you surviving. I was so scared for you, Sinésiel.
Thanks again, @robo, and stay strong =)
Solidarity, my friends! It's a rough world out there, but at least we can play games and tell stories to take the weight off for a while.
This is certainly a stand-out group. I wouldn't mind carrying on with our current cast, though I'm not sure I want to keep playing the same character. Depends on the adventure, really—I like making characters that fit the scenario, and Talib isn't really tailored for anything outside urban Absalom. I might not have any choice in the matter, of course, since the likelihood of him dying in combat is... well, more than zero. First level is scary.
Regarding The Future™: I am enjoying this as well and would have no problems continuing. I haven't made any specific preparations so far and am happy to take suggestions regarding what you'd want to do next. I also have started working on a homebrewed module set in Golarion to get familiar with 2E rules and although I'm enjoying the new system, I'm not sure that's a route we'd want to pursue (not in the least because of PC conversion shenanigans).
I'm more or less open to anything 1E, but I have absolutely no interest in 2E. The playtest left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Solidarity, my friends! It's a rough world out there, but at least we can play games and tell stories to take the weight off for a while.
Storytelling is an old and time-honored past time. I think that's why DnD and TTRPGs have endured and even flourished in an age where video games and movies have glutted the market.
I've also experienced a divorce, but as a young kid. Most of my issues came about from my dad and his mother, though.
Regarding The Future™: I am enjoying this as well and would have no problems continuing. I haven't made any specific preparations so far and am happy to take suggestions regarding what you'd want to do next. I also have started working on a homebrewed module set in Golarion to get familiar with 2E rules and although I'm enjoying the new system, I'm not sure that's a route we'd want to pursue (not in the least because of PC conversion shenanigans).
This is certainly a stand-out group. I wouldn't mind carrying on with our current cast, though I'm not sure I want to keep playing the same character. Depends on the adventure, really—I like making characters that fit the scenario, and Talib isn't really tailored for anything outside urban Absalom. I might not have any choice in the matter, of course, since the likelihood of him dying in combat is... well, more than zero. First level is scary.
Absolom is a big city, and we have a ready-made plot hook for several adventures with Talienda's background. I'm sure we could have Talib around for most of them. I wouldn't mind a noir-style game with our rag-tag bunch tackling the criminal underworld and crooked officials and righting wrongs, especially after this module. That sounds like it could be a lot of fun and I can try out an idea I've been wanting to play with. (Which would have to be 1e since 2e doesn't have an oracle class if I remember right.)
And yeah, first level is scary. It's even scarier when most of the things your are fighting can KO you in one hit. :O
I'm more or less open to anything 1E, but I have absolutely no interest in 2E. The playtest left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Just curious because I didn't play in the playtest, but what was bad about the 2e rules? I know why I passed on them, but I'd like to hear others' thoughts.
2e.... I bought the Core Rulebook. Really heavy, kinda hard to hold for long to read it! I've read about half way through it. Not impressed. To me it seems a lot like 5th ed, plus a bunch of character background, race, etc. modifiers to make a min/maxer drool. (and who knows what it'll be like once the splat books work into the system!?!) Just my 2 CP. I haven't had time to really read it enough to try and create a character from it!
Eesh, I'm glad I passed on it then. I love playing DnD 5e in the games I'm in, but Pathfinder 2e just seemed to want to put things in neat boxes. I like playing characters that are more well rounded and I like playing characters that may not be the most optimal. Heck, I'm playing a 5e cleric that has a higher STR than WIS! :D I don't think PF2e would let me do that to the same degree.
Regarding PF2, my own 2CP is that it indeed feels like 5E in a lot of places, but gives more leeway for character customisation than DnD whilst cutting back on some of the worse excesses of minmaxing that I have seen in PF1. It also feels like it's easier to make unorthodox characters that are still playable/competent (such as Talienda's swole cleric). Take that with a grain of salt, though, as I haven't really played it yet and might be completely wrong about everything.
To be fair, most of my interest in PF2 is due to me searching for systems that feel a bit less crunchy than PF1 but that can still gather some traction in the forums. I'd love to run/play something like Fate here, but last time I tried there was very little interest.
Anyway, going back to the actual question at hand: I'll have a think on what I have here and propose something once we're closer to the end of Hangman's Noose. Staying in Absalom makes sense, though I believe we would have to rely on scenarios as there are no other modules set in the city.
My biggest pet peeve about the playtest was that in order to create "choices," they basically stripped every race and class of their core abilities. So, everything that (in my mind) makes a bard a bard or an elf an elf was now optional, and you couldn't get all of it. Maybe it's easier for a beginner if you only get a couple of toys to start with, but I found it immensely unsatisfying at every turn. Paladin was the only class I played that seemed to retain most of its characteristic abilities, and it ended up being the most fun I had during the playtest.
Overall, I wasn't really a fan of the modular feat system for character building. It just felt too gamey, for my tastes—fiddly and lacking in flavour. They had some good ideas, like the revised action system, but otherwise they went too far in almost every aspect. I was hoping 2E would be more like Starfinder: further honing and improving on the principles of 3.5, without losing the spirit of it. Not that Starfinder is perfect, but playing through the 2E playtest certainly improved my opinion of it.
Again, all of this is based on the playtest, so things might have changed.
I'd love to run/play something like Fate here, but last time I tried there was very little interest.
FATE is, in my humble opinion, the single best RPG system ever devised, and I'd stop at nothing to get in on some of that if you could find likeminded people.
Anyway, going back to the actual question at hand: I'll have a think on what I have here and propose something once we're closer to the end of Hangman's Noose. Staying in Absalom makes sense, though I believe we would have to rely on scenarios as there are no other modules set in the city.
If designing a handmade plot is more work than you're able to put in at the moment, what about something more loose and sandboxy? I think based on what we've seen here that this group is up to the task of generating their own motivations and pushing a story forward without needing to have a wizard hand out quests for them, and Absalom is so chock-full of built in plot hooks, you really don't need to do much more than crack open the book and say, "Ok, they're going to the Puddles today- which of these 10 NPCs shall they run up against?"
(I feel that, in the very best games, "plot" doesn't exist- the characters do stuff, the world responds, and vice versa, but there's no real plan beyond that, and the story that comes out of it is way better than whatever any one person could have planned out on their own.)
Very true. I remember seeing a guide to Absalom a few years back. The only thing I didn't like about it was the factions. Reminded me too much of the Forgotten Realms setting and the various "superpowers" that always seemed to be sending low level characters on various quests, against level-appropriate encounters, etc.... I preferred the choose your own adventure style of play once the characters had gotten a little bit of experience. (First level characters don't know how to find adventure, or survive it!)
@Talib: That's an interesting perspective. I agree with a big part of your assessment at the same time I arrive at the opposite conclusion: I found the modular design more flavourful and less gamey precisely because what makes a bard a bard or an elf an elf is not completely set in stone. Different strokes and all that =)
@robo/@Rissi: I actually far prefer plot-less games, or at least games where whatever plot exists arises from the PCs actions instead of being dictated by the GM, but last time I tried it with PbP it didn't go so well (admittedly, it was my first attempt at GMing PbP and we had pretty much every possible issue, from OOC conflict to illness to defections). My approach now is to have some sort of guiding framework (such as a module or a scenario) and experiment within that, so if I feel the energy is becoming a bit dispersed and unfocussed I only need to pop back into the railroad tracks, if that makes sense. Of course, once (if?) you're out of the courthouse, I'm not going to put invisible walls to prevent anyone from doing anything.
And regarding FATE, I might open an interest check thread again, eventually. I have never played it, but loved the extremely narrative-driven rules. I have heard similar things about powered by the apocalypse system too, but never got around getting one of the books.