Hello, and welcome to the game! All out of character conversation will take place in this thread.
Before we get started, I'd like to share a few thoughts to lay the groundwork for the story we're about to tell.
1. I'm learning just like you are. I will get some things wrong, and while I don't want to presume too much, I'll bet you all will, too. That's totally fine and expected. Let's all learn this system together in a spirit of fun and camaraderie.
2. I haven't done PbP before, but I've been reading some examples from other games. It seems like combat can get tedious and really slow things up. If you guys have any tips from other games you've played in, I'm open to ideas to help streamline this part of the game. That said, I don't want to mess with the mechanics or rules too much, since part of the reason for doing this game is to learn the new system.
3. I think I'll be using Roll20 for maps and combat. Please let me know if you have any issues accessing that site.
4. I haven't pored over the character creation rules yet. I've approached the game from the perspective of a GM, so I've only read through those sections. I won't be much help with complex character creation/build questions, so hopefully you can help each other out a bit there.
5. I'd like to have some "clean" character stat blocks, but I haven't found any yet. Have you guys seen any?
I'm excited to get started with you guys! Please post below and introduce yourself. We'll finalize character creation and then get into gameplay as soon as possible!
Now, let's tell a story!
Thank you for the chance to play this AP! I'll have an alias for Rizz put together around lunch today.
For combat, I'm sure you've seen many GMs run initiative in blocks for combat, and resolve actions in the order they're posted. On the players side, I've noticed a good rule of thumb is to post back-up actions, in case whatever action you're going for is impossible at the time. (i.e. 2 bad guys, player 1 attacks bad guy 1, player 2 attacks bad guy 1 but also posts an alternative action to attack bad guy 2 if player 1 kills bad guy 1, etc.)
I have a Roll20 account, but have never used it. I'm looking forward to trying that system.
My favorite part about Pathfinder, both 1E and so far 2E, is character building. I'm more than happy to help anyone that asks, and feel free to tell me if I overstep.
GM Black has put together a block geared at Society play, and I plan on using a modified version of that for Rizz to start with. I'm more than happy to adapt to any style requested.
More for my own purposes, we have myself as a druid, a bard, a barbarian, an alchemist, and two rogues. I dunno if party comp will affect anyone else's build, but it'll influence my spell prep for the day for sure.
I'll post a better introduction of myself and my character when I get the alias built. ^.^
Welcome, Roxxxie! We will only have one rogue, as Wolf will be updating his build to a spellcaster, so we should have a fairly well-rounded comp. Fairly.
While I definitely understand the appeal of the group initiative, I think we'll start with normal initiative rules, just to get a feel for the rules. Once we get rolling, we may transition away from this, especially if things are moving super slowly.
That stat block looks good to me. It's insanely detailed, which is a good thing! I'd also like some stats below your name, but I don't know how to do that. I'm sure some of you experienced players can help us figure that out. :D
Hello all! Thank you for the opportunity to play and try out this new edition. :)
I have no problem with Roll20.
Group initiative often greatly speeds up play, but starting with normal initiative makes sense to me. We will probably also need to figure out a way to handle reactions.
The way you put stats below your name is by writing the stats you want in the class, race, or gender section of the character's profile, as those will appear in gameplay threads. (class generally works best since its the last one listed)
Unfortunately I do almost all of my posting from mobile, and roll20 is very inconvenient from mobile. I can't even view the maps unless the GM has a paid account, and even then it takes a while to load. I find that the game I'm in where the GM has a paid roll20 account I still don't look at the map often.
I would encourage you to strongly consider block initiative. Players having to wait to post until it is their turn is one of the biggest factors in making combat go slow in PBP. Most people only check in once or twice a day. If their turn doesn't come up before they check in, another whole day will go by before they post. It can turn a combat where every player posts their action on the same day to a combat where only one player posts an action per day in the most extreme case.
Google slides works really great for doing maps from every platform, and has multiple pages for maps of different areas. You can see an example by following these links for Arclord's Envy or The Confirmation.
I will be using the character template you can see on Emilio Tramonte. It looks like it is the same template that Roxxie linked.
I will create my alias before the weekend ends. Possibly by the end of today.
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Thank You! I am very excited to get going.
I'm actually on holiday from tomorrow until the following Saturday, but I'm not leaving the country, and I'll have wifi, so I'll be checking and posting frequently, just not quite as reliably as normal times.
One tip I've picked up from a different PbP forum, that I really like, is to get players to post a "status" block at the start of each of their actions in combat, so things don't get missed/forgotten about. Simple stuff like current AC, HP, Effects or spells (and their duration). It makes it easy for everyone to see at a glance where things stand.
I'm good with everything in the post. Ranzak is almost completely built.
P.S. There is a "Campaign Info" tab, if you put something in there (and I think, possibly have to create the game thread too) then this game will start showing in everyone's "Campaigns" section of their profile, which makes going straight to the threads a *lot* easier.
Right, if you create a gameplay thread, then we can all create a post in that thread and then delete that post. That will add the alias we post with to the characters tab and make the game show up in our campaigns view. This is typically called "dotting in" since most players just put a "." in their post that they delete.
Hmm...well we may consider group initiative then. We'll start with it and see how it goes. I have some concerns about how reactions will work, too, so we'll all just try this as an experiment together.
Those Google slides look great! Is there some kind of template I can borrow to do something like that?
Is the Campaign Info tab working for everyone now?
Thanks for all the input everyone. Keep it coming - I don't have any preconceived notions about how this game should be managed in this format.
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Campaign tab is working, but looks like it needs the gameplay thread for it to show up in my active campaigns.
What Caps said will probably work.
Before we open, the Player's guide refers to a Goblin from the Bumblebrashers tribe. I was intending for my PC to have come to town with that goblin, so having a name would really help in the first few posts. Thank You!
Reactions (or attacks of opportunity and immediate actions in PF1) are not perfect in PbP, but are usually managed by "retconning" things.
Generally it will be a good idea when a PC posts to state which of their reactions they will take if the trigger occurs. i.e. "Raskel will take an attack of opportunity if someone provokes, or he will use Shield Block if he takes more than 15 damage from a single attack; whichever happens first" or "if an enemy attacks someone within reach, Pally will use Retributive Strike" etc. etc.
PbP runs smoothest when the GM is allowed to roll certain things for the PCs. PF2 rules almost demand that certain things (like secret checks) are rolled by the GM.
Ok. The first gameplay thread is up. Feel free to post in-character when you're ready, but let's avoid doing any skill checks for now. Just introduce your character and start interacting with each other and/or NPCs.
EDIT: Has anyone used Obsidian Portal? Is it mobile-friendly? I've used that for real-life games in the past.
The goblin's name is Warbal Bumblebrasher. You probably wouldn't have come to town with her that day, as she lives in Breachill, but serves as the ambassador to the tribe. You also wouldn't have come from directly from the tribe - it would've been a few weeks since you were last there. Perhaps you were traveling, on vacation, or visiting another city selling wares? I'm open to your thoughts!
I'll try to add a few thoughts later, but I wanted to throw out a couple resources I use.
When I'm running a game, I make a google doc like THIS that has some common rolls, an initiative tracker, and the text from the scenario formatted for BBCode. Since we're doing a campaign and there's going to be a LOT of checks, I tend to have a seperate doc with the commonly used skills that everyone fills out.
It does really speed up combat to have initiative like this:
Each group of Friendly or Enemies is in their own "block" and can act at the same time as each other.
In this example, it's the end of round 1, start of round 2. Here, Robert, Grimkel, and Ord went in the first group, then the Enemxy S, then Anivash, then Enemy Z, then since there isn't an Enemy action between them, Jean, Nalshene, Robert, Grimkel, and Ord can all act at the same time. If there's a contradictory action, I try to smoothe things out as makes the best sense.
I can explain further later.
So, I haven't had a chance to check, but what was the final classes of the group? I'll tweak some things to accommodate a balanced party.
I have a bookkeeping type question. So, I get a leshy familiar, and I'm working out its specifics. I definitely don't plan on the thing being a combat pet. Do you want it to have its own statblock? It'll probably talk and give me extra cantrips on most days. Might give it little vine propellers and make it fly some days. ;)
Rizz is almost built herself as well and will introduce herself presently
@Wolf - We have:
Nevynxxx - Ranzak - Goblin Alchemist
Roxxie613 - Rizz - Gnome Druid
Javell DeLeon - Joran Bravestone - Human Barbarian
Caps - Fuzbizzle Nokfigit Bramblequalmy - Gnome Bard
Captain collateral damage - Aerel - Human Rogue
@Rizz - I don't think we'll need a statblock for it. I'm not a jerk GM who goes after innocent, tiny plants with my baddies.
Obsidian Portal looks cool! I might check it out for my home group. Their website says they support mobile. I'm willing to try it out for this campaign for sure.
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I've used obsidian portal before as a gm and loved it, I couldn't get my 0layers to use it much though so it fell away. I'd be happy to give it a go, somewhere to track loot and XP s always good and let's us take a job off your hands ICT.
Popping in for a minute, it looks like we have a well rounded party so far! The classes that would be most useful would be either a Champion, Cleric, or Sorcerer / Wizard to provide more tankiness, healing, or arcane casting (respectively.) If anyone (especially ICT) has a preference I'll roll with that :)
My personal vote would be for a sorcerer or wizard, but I’m not set in stone on that. All of the options you listed have merit. So...go wild!
Hello all! And thanks for picking me up, ICT! I appreciate it. Oh, and welcome to the boards!
Nevynxxx! Been a few years, bud! Like... a few lot of years. :P How ya been?!
As far as the maps go, it really doesn't matter to me. I will say I've never used Obsidian portal so I have no idea if I'll be able to access it. It doesn't cost, does it? If it doesn't cost, do you have to set up an account? I know nothing about it obviously. There's been various games over the years that I've been in that have used various type of maps and I've had no issues with them. So I would gather OP probably wouldn't be any different.
1. I'm learning just like you are. I will get some things wrong, and while I don't want to presume too much, I'll bet you all will, too. That's totally fine and expected. Let's all learn this system together in a spirit of fun and camaraderie.
2. I haven't done PbP before, but I've been reading some examples from other games. It seems like combat can get tedious and really slow things up. If you guys have any tips from other games you've played in, I'm open to ideas to help streamline this part of the game. That said, I don't want to mess with the mechanics or rules too much, since part of the reason for doing this game is to learn the new system.
4. I haven't pored over the character creation rules yet. I've approached the game from the perspective of a GM, so I've only read through those sections. I won't be much help with complex character creation/build questions, so hopefully you can help each other out a bit there.
5. I'd like to have some "clean" character stat blocks, but I haven't found any yet. Have you guys seen any?
I'm right there with you on the 'still learning' team. Trying to teach this old dog new tricks sure feels more difficult than it did 30 years ago. :P
Yeah the creation rules are a beast. So bear with me on finishing up my character. Man there are SOOOOOOOO many options. But I'm slowly figuring some things out. It just boils down to choosing this or that.
Per reactions: What I've done in PF1 games, if I had a ready action to do, well, whatever, I'd just put it under a spoiler. That way, it only gets used it if comes into play and it just keeps things cleaner. With the whole "reaction" bit PF2 has, I would guess "ready" actions might come into play a bit more. But who knows?! I'll guess we'll see. :)
Per "Status block": I actually do that during combat. Any time combat starts, I put all that type of information that Nevynxxx mentioned at the bottom of the post. It helps me keep up with it from one round to the next because I really don't like - nor do I remember - to update the status line under the character's name every time something changes. That's just far too tedious.
So that's why I always slap it at the end of my post. Because that will always be his current stats and it's just WAAAAY easier. I like easier. :)
But I'll still put his stats in the profile though. That's no prob.
Also, what do you mean by "clean" character sheet? I can't quite figure that one out.
My first rule is always to play what you want.
But if you're truly undecided I would say sorcerer or wizard sounds great
Also, what do you mean by "clean" character sheet? I can't quite figure that one out.
Just clear and easy to read. I want to be able to quickly and easily find what I’m looking for. I’m obscenely lazy. :D
That's a good rule.
Me personally, I'm a Champion/Cleric type cat and that's what I'd go for for sure. But only because I'm just not into arcane. I've played a couple of arcane cats in my day and I liked one of them quite well. But for the most part, no thanks.
So it's probably best you DON'T listen to me. :P
caps said it best though, play what you want, bud.
@ICT: HA! That's what I was thinking but I just wanted to be sure. Sounds good. And hey, when it comes to lazy, that's my favorite four-letter word. :P
I'm gonna work on something to that effect. I HAVE to have a neat profile so I'm gonna try and figure something out that works and is not so insane. I'm a stickler about it because "I" want to be able to know how I came about said numbers. And if I figure "I" want to know, I'm guessing the DM would want to know too.
If you look at some of my other aliases, I breakdown everything. It's a lot of work but I just have to know how everything came about. Otherwise I get annoyed. :P
Working on a Caster now. Likely will have it ready to roll tomorrow.
Some more resources, as I dig them up: Passive Rolls Doc As I'm incredibly lazy, when running a campaign I make the players fill out something like that with the appropriate modifiers. That way rather than saying "Roll a perception check" to see if anyone notes the enemies sneaking up or "Roll a reflex save" when a fireball goes off, I make the rolls and move along. It keeps the flow moving better.
For Reactions, luckily most classes only have 0-1 reactions, which actually streamlines the obligatory "Roll AOO" and retcon. Since they're more active, it would be useful if everyone has something like:
If someone within 10' range damages a party member, reduce the damage by 3.
Alright, This is Captain Collateral Damage's half-orc rogue. I believe I am finished. :)
Okay! I think I'm done. But don't hold me to that.
If there's something that you're curious about or doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll go in and try and clean it up. I try to make it as understandable as possible - mainly for me because I hate asking myself: "Why is that that?" type questions - so I'm open to suggestions.
And per Wolfspirit's "Reaction" idea... I love it. I think that's perfect. Love the spoiler bit. Keeps things clean; it's descriptive. That's a good idea.
I will say I don't really know what Reactions are at this point, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.
It has indeed! Hopefully this campaign lasts a little better than Gears and Greed did! It's going well, a few more kids and a few more grey hairs!
Lol! Man you ain't kiddin' about the grey hairs. I'm right there with you. Of course, like I tell everybody, 'It's just the way the light hits'. :P
After some consideration and failing to get a Dragon Bloodline sorcerer to really "work", I've opted instead to make a Dragon Monk with the concept I was going for (potentially MCing later.) Just think of him as a mage that has a bunch of spell-like abilities and casts the "Kick" cantrip ;)
If anyone is super concerned about a lack of casters I can swap, though I imagine between a druid, bard, and alchemist we'll likely be ok on that front. I'll be joining in the scene shortly otherwise.
Just for a heads up, I can only post roughly after 6:30pm CST during the weekdays. My job is not a "post at work" type job so I can only post at home.
The weekends are no prob! :) But I know weekends are the typical dead time on the boards, so, there you go. :P
Just wanted to shoot that out there for "just in case you're wondering why I haven't posted" type purposes for during the week.
Fuzbizzle's stat block is put together. Please review.
And I just realized I didn't have the gameplay thread in my RSS app, or I would have started RPing sooner.
I"m with everyone else. Definitely play what you wanna play. I think having two schools of magic covered at the start should be fine, and Rizz is trained in Religion as well. She may take a cleric dedication, but that's to be determined later.
Several GMs I've played for in 1E like to see pro-active solutions from players for things that occur outside of their turn, and the most common one I've seen is the spoiler solution. I also used that solution for readied actions, like this:
I don't see readied actions being used quite as much in 2E, but they're still there.
As for a status block, I'd be willing to try it, though I usually try to keep my taglines completely up to date when I check in my games.
Good morning, everyone! May I ask a favor? Will you poke through each other's stat blocks to review? I'm feeling quite out of my depths when it comes to that piece of the game, so I'd prefer more qualified eyeballs reviewing those to make sure we're good-to-go.
And Javell, thanks for the head's up - we'll know that you're not ghosting us when we don't hear from you during the day! Depending on how the narrative's going and the frequency of the daytime posts (at least daytime in America), you may need to react to a couple of things in a single post. I likely WON'T be posting much in the evening, but we'll see how things go.
Finally, I've updated the gameplay thread. Feel free to make some skill checks if you want now - I'm not sure what they'll be for, but I know how fun it is to start rolling dice, even if they're virtual.
Thanks, all!
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FYI, to everyone Herolab online is a free trial for first level characters, so it's a useful sanity check.
The only thing I haven't figured out is if Monks can actually use shields...
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Good morning, everyone! May I ask a favor? Will you poke through each other's stat blocks to review? I'm feeling quite out of my depths when it comes to that piece of the game, so I'd prefer more qualified eyeballs reviewing those to make sure we're good-to-go.
I *know* this feeling! Running a PFS game on here, at about the same stage and, yeah, I'm not 100% sure I've built my character right yet!
In addition to Herolab, there's an app (at least on android) called Pathbuilder 2E that has been accurate for most everything except bulk calculations for me so far. It just does not have the AP backgrounds (luckily Haunting Vision is near identical to Acolyte from the CRB in my case).
I definitely don't mind lending an extra set of eyeballs to others' sheets, and I'm open to any criticism or suggestions for mine.
As for monks and shields, I don't see anything that says you can't, but I definitely see how that's testy waters.
I've added some information about Breachill to the Campaign Info tab. I think I removed anything that you wouldn't know about the city. Please to check it out at your leisure!
I was not impressed with HeroLab when I tried it at GenCon. Very clunky. Pathbuilder 2e on the other hand is amazing. It does not have the latest errata but it *does* have the campaign backgrounds. They're under a different dropdown. Make sure to note that they have erratta'd the adventurer's pack to be 1 bulk instead of 2.
Monks can use shields. They can even take the Shield Block general feat if they want.
Has Paizo published the errata somewhere?
I was not impressed with HeroLab when I tried it at GenCon. Very clunky. Pathbuilder 2e on the other hand is amazing. It does not have the latest errata but it *does* have the campaign backgrounds. They're under a different dropdown. Make sure to note that they have erratta'd the adventurer's pack to be 1 bulk instead of 2.
Monks can use shields. They can even take the Shield Block general feat if they want.
Okay now that's cool. Thanks for the heads up on the adventurer's backpack. Now I need to go back and check equipment again and see if I can swing that instead.
And, yep, anyone can use shields. A monk with a shield? That's interesting. I can honestly say I've never heard of that. I guess because I'm so use to them fighting with two fists all the time.
I just realized that everyone in the group has an 'r' as either the first or second letter of one of their names.
3rd letter for me, but yeah. Guess r is just a popular letter.
In answer to your question, GM, I will try to audit the other characters as I have time.
Rizz, at first pass your character sheet looks right to me.
I'm gonna be adjusting my gear with that new errata info caps gave about the adventurer's pack. That's gonna make a pretty good difference. It'll be a couple of days to get that done.
Man I forgot how long it took to do this stuff by hand. Ugh.
Aerel, your character lookss good to me.
Rory, you seem to be missing a heritage and background. Yet I'm assuming you must have factored a background into your list of skills because you have 5 instead of the four you would get from being a monk. I don't see a lore or a skill feat, though.
Joran, your character looks good to me.
Ranzak I'll try to get to you tomorrow.
@Nevynxxx: You didn't add your dex to your Reflex save. Should be +7. +5 is the Expert bonus only. Of course, you have a couple of builds under various spoilers so I could be looking at the wrong one.
I was just glancing over it and saw that. I don't really know enough about them all to check them all. Caps looks like he's got a handle on it though. :)