I have added a link to a txt file for party xp and treasure.
You can find it on the top right of the page as well under party information. It is an editable doc so any of you can edit it when you need to.
Jack
I'm going to be out of town for the weekend, I likely will still be able to get a post in, but don't wait for me by any means.
Just a heads up about this weekend. I will be off line this weekend as I will be heading out do some bass and crappie fishing with my boys. I will be back on line Sunday night.
I will get posts up today as you add posts in throughout the day.
Jack
Hey. Real life.
I live in a 3 generation home.
This last weekend, both of the youngest generation (one is 2 the other just had her first birthday) got sick. So did their mom. Monday so did their dad. Somewhere in there, grandma got sick, too. Now I'm sick. At least the youngest seems to be over it.
If you need to bot me to keep things moving, please do.
I'm sorry, but I'm not even managing to focus to play spades on my phone right now, and that's amazingly brainless.
When everyone gets a moment I would really appreciate if you set up your character profile like this:
RACE: Class/Level; HP full/current; AC | T | FF; Fort, Ref, Will; Init; Percept; SM (Sense Motive); Stealth; CMB, CMD; Spd (full/encumb)
CLASS/LEVELS: CURRENT AC | T | FF; Often Used Skills; Skill 1; Skill 2; Skill 3 ((This helps me when making passive rolls or when I need to roll for you.))
GENDER: Health Status: Healthy/Grazed/Wounded/Critical; Sex;Race (ethnic (if any)).
Example:
Naia Temlow:
Grazed Female Human (Flan) Fighter 1; HP 11/8; Grazed: 8; Wounded: 5; Critical: 2; DR: 1/- || AC 17 || T 12 || FF 15; Fort +3; Ref +2; Will +2; Init +2; Per +6; SM +2; Stealth +2; CMB +4; CMD 16; Spd 30 ft. Current AC 16/12/14
This would really help me a great deal. Especially if your character is using Diplomacy a great deal, a certain Know skill and so on.
If you are unfamiliar with the Wound Thresholds:
Healthy: Full to 3/4 of HP. No Penalty.
Grazed: Below 3/4 to 1/2 of HP. -1 penalty all ATK, Saving Throws, Skill, Ability, AC, and Caster Levels.
Wounded: Below 1/2 to 1/4 of HP. -2 penalty all ATK, Saving Throws, Skill, Ability, AC, and Caster Levels.
Critical: Below 1/4 of HP. -3 penalty all ATK, Saving Throws, Skill, Ability, AC, and Caster Levels.
Healthy
A character above her grazed threshold (3/4 of her maximum hit points) is healthy, applying no special modifiers. The character doesn’t gain a condition in this state.
Grazed
A character above her wounded threshold (1/2 of her maximum hit points) but at or below 3/4 of her maximum hit points is grazed. She takes a –1 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks, as well as to AC and caster level.
Wounded
A character above her critical threshold (1/4 of her maximum hit points) but at or below 1/2 of her maximum hit points is wounded. She takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks, as well as to AC and caster level.
Critical
A character at or below 1/4 of her maximum hit points is in critical condition. She takes a –3 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks, as well as to AC and caster level.
Disabled
A character with a Constitution score of 12 or higher who is at or below 0 hit points is disabled until she falls below a number of hit points equal to the negative of her Constitution modifier. For example, a character with a Constitution score of 18 would be disabled from 0 to –4 hit points and unconscious at –5 hit points. A character with a Constitution score of 11 or lower is disabled only while she has exactly 0 hit points.
Staggered
Instead of being staggered only when their amount of nonlethal damage equals their remaining hit points, characters using this system continue to be staggered from that point until their nonlethal damage exceeds their current hit points by an amount greater than their Constitution bonus, at which point they fall unconscious. A character with a Constitution score of 11 or lower is staggered only when her nonlethal damage exactly equals her current hit point total.
Wound thresholds make HEAL and magical healing as well as recovery times important. This also often shrinks the length of time a combat occurs as players and encounters start to dip into GRAZED/WOUNDED/CRITICAL. I check morale for encounters when they hit WOUNDED and if it needs to be checked. Intelligent encounters fight intelligently and with tactics that protect themselves from falling into wounded threshold. The 0 Level spell Cure Minor Wounds is very important as is the Healing Salve...
Just some sage advice for everyone.
My Greyhawk campaign plays with the Unchained Poison/Disease rule as well as POISON DAMAGE for any poison that does ability damage as well as Wound Thresholds. Poison in that campaign is really bad...as is disease.
Jack
Im pretty sure I'm compliant with that already, it was in the recruitment post right?
Im pretty sure I'm compliant with that already, it was in the recruitment post right?
Correct. Your's looks fine.
Sounds good. I'll have a closer look at that once I'm home from work.
It's been on my mind to do the last few days, but work has a habit of interfering. :p
I will get mine up tonight.
So I adjusted my stat block with some minor modifications. Let me know if there's anything that you want me to change.
The wound system is simple enough, but just seems strange to me when written out. Not sure why. :p
I will have posts up tonight. Have been in the middle of a soccer tourney with my oldest son all weekend. Last game is getting ready to start in a few moments.
When everyone gets a moment I would really appreciate if you set up your character profile like this:
But, but, but Daaaad! That's like work 'n' stuff!
The generic post to share before attempting to recovery post:
So, I got the flu. Not really over it, yet, but past the worst of it.
I went to get tested to verify it was flu, and the care providers went down the "better safe than sorry hole" a might to far, in my opinion.
Standard questions, designed to check for other, deeper concerns/problems, right? "Do you have any tightness in your chest?" "I've been coughing for about three days at this point, yes, I have a tightness in my chest!" So, they stopped everything about verifying the flu in order to check for a heart attack. Thing is, my fever had just started to break, and I was not only DRENCHED in sweat, but I was still actively sweating that hard. They couldn't get a good EKG read because the contact stickers wouldn't. Stick, I mean.
They called an ambulance and transferred me to an ER, to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack. The ER team was focused on EXACTLY one thing, for obvious reasons. First thing they did different? They took that super medical tape and taped the sensors down. EKG told them almost immediately that there was no heart attack going on. I was still in that ER for nearly 15 hours . . ..
IV fluids. Roughly 2.4 liters of fluid pushed into my system. Breathing treatment. Seems when I arrived in the ER, my O2 saturation was around 82. They started to admit me in order to watch my O2 saturation levels, but after I sat in their ER for that long without any further dips, they accepted it might not still be required and discharged me instead of continuing to wait for a room. Having an asthmatic wife means we have a nebulizer at home, and that helped sell the release, too. Still spending more time asleep than awake, for now.
Missed a couple of Santa gigs the family had lined up. Went to a photoshoot with a family yesterday. I was there for about 10 minutes, just needing to sit and smile, but I stumbled into the house when I got home, completely exhausted. I'm supposed to go get caught in a neighbor's house tonight. Very worried about going. Just as worried about denying their kids.
Sorry to hear that you've been having such a rough time. Make sure to take care of yourself.
Ok, I am back in town and will have posts up today for us but no rush from anyone as it is still the holiday.
Interesting week. We rented a cabin on the top of Angel Fire mountain and the heating and hot water went out and we had a fire in the basement at the furnace ventilation system. Luckily my in-laws were in the cabin during the day and put it out. The skiing was great but the stay in the cabin was not wonderful. My wife has been going to that mountain since she was a little girl so it is sort of a family tradition. We have been taking the boys for nine years now and we love the resort. We usually get a full suite and just stay at the resort but this year we decided to rent a cabin and spend the whole Christmas at the ski resort. Not sure we will do that again (cabin) as it was a bit isolating for the rest of the family. Me personally I like it...I would live on a mountain in a heartbeat as I like the wilderness and isolation (at times).
Got to go see the Rise of Skywalker (new Star Wars movie) in Taos on Christmas day. I won't spoil it for anyone that has not watched it but I enjoyed the movie. Did a nice job of concluding some major storylines and setting up the next series of movies.
Who has watched the Witcher series on NetFlix? Interested in everyone's thoughts? I just started listening to Last Wish on Audible and I am enjoying it. They appear to be using Last Wish as the first season but tying in other books (not sure about that) into the season to fill out the stories. I am enjoying both the book and the series but it starts off a bit slow in the series. It has the makings of a good show from what I can tell. Love the set up of the world but I don't know that much about it as I have never played the games and this is the first time with the Witcher world (Books and Series).
Jack
Welcome back. Witcher is pretty good so far. I have played the games but not read the books. It seems to be following the books which is nice because it means more surprises. It has the common fantasy series starting problem of trying to get the lore out taking away from the pace of the story but I find RPG players and fantasy fans tend to not mind that as much as the other people.
Sorry to hear that your holidays didn't go the greatest, but it's all good in the hood when you're with family, right? :)
Haven't seen the Witcher yet. Honestly not top of my list, but I'll get there. Did finish watching The Mandalorian, though. Loved it! Also watched a crap load of anime. Also enjoyed Rise of Skywalker, and I'll admit... I blubbered like a baby at the scenes with Leia.
My holiday was very busy too! Nothing as exciting as what you mentioned unless looking for a new job qualifies as exciting!
I didn't care for episode IX but will give no spoilers.
I've played some of the Witcher games but not seen the show. Geralt is hot though, so maybe!
In Northern Michigan, we have some manageable mountains with really nice lakes. It's a setting I'd consider were I wealthy or retired.
Welcome back. Witcher is pretty good so far. I have played the games but not read the books. It seems to be following the books which is nice because it means more surprises. It has the common fantasy series starting problem of trying to get the lore out taking away from the pace of the story but I find RPG players and fantasy fans tend to not mind that as much as the other people.
I would agree with that. One thing I noticed is they really left a lot of the depth of discussion out of the stories in the show. There were lots of good opportunities to let the discussions in the book play out in the show and that would have given greater understanding of the world in the show. I didn't like that but I am hoping it gets better.
A good example is the story of the elves and how there are really two factions from what I can tell. One that has fully integrated with mankind and their social norms and those that live in isolation and regards humans as invaders and foreigners. In "Last Wish" the story I was talking about above(the specific name escapes me) did a really good job of explaining this.
Sorry to hear that your holidays didn't go the greatest, but it's all good in the hood when you're with family, right? :)
Haven't seen the Witcher yet. Honestly not top of my list, but I'll get there. Did finish watching The Mandalorian, though. Loved it! Also watched a crap load of anime. Also enjoyed Rise of Skywalker, and I'll admit... I blubbered like a baby at the scenes with Leia.
We had a blast. Did seventeen runs down the mountain Christmas day so it was great. Most days we get six to nine runs in but Christmas day there was hardly anyone on the mountain and we had snow come in the night before. The runs were amazing and with no one really on the mountain, you could be more aggressive in your runs.
I am trying not to get the Disney channel but I might lose that fight :)
I am trying not to get the Disney channel but I might lose that fight :)
I paid for the year, so we'll see what happens when that runs out, but in general, I can't say that I'm disappointed. Doesn't hurt, I guess, that we've always had Disney movies around to watch since I was little, so it's pretty much old hat for me.
Also, Happy New Year, all. :)
They also have shows from my childhood like Gargoyles. I tried to watch Darkwing Duck but the puns... they overpowered me.
All,
I hope everyone had a great New Year and Holiday.
I would like for us to work for our 1 post per day on the weekday and post when you can on the weekends. I will work for that goal as well. Weekends I intend on posting as much as I can.
Looking forward to this story moving forward. I think we have the makings of a great group.
Jack
Sweet. I had a chill holiday, I'll work on my posting.
I know for myself I've been feeling a bit sluggish regarding postings, so I'm going to dig in a bit more to get my postings up to snuff. :)
Holidays do that. I was run ragged after we got back from our skiing trip. Between projects and soccer tourneys dropped on us at the last minute and having to take my youngest son to pitching and catching workouts along with wrestling practice I was ready to tap out myself :)
Now that my wife and I are back to work and the kids are back in school things have settled down...hopefully :)
All,
Sorry for not posting. I was in the middle of setting up a few posts and a family emergency popped up that took me away.
I will have a few posts up today for us :)
Jack
No worries. Real life first. Thanks for updating up.
Similarly, no worries. We had not been the best at keeping up, so you have more than a few breaks coming your way.
I will have posts up tonight for us.
Sorry about the slow post rate from me the last week or so. I and my team got pulled into a project to assist another team and it has caused a few late nights as we mine out data and conduct fixes and add some AI to their application flows. It has been a lot of nights burning the candles at both ends to get this done before this Sunday. Should be back to normal now...hopefully.
Hey.
First, I owe everyone apologies for vanishing without a word. I've come back to try to apologize for doing so, and to let you know that I have no idea when I'll be able to meaningfully return.
That's as far s anyone needs to read. If you're curious, you are free to keep going, though.
Why did I vanish? My wife had started an evaluation of her knees, scheduled to run for about 2 months. First appointment was on a Monday. Late that same Thursday we were told the evaluation was over and they were going to schedule her for a full knee replacement in her worse leg. We found out that next Monday that surgery was that Thursday, a week after we were told she would be having surgery.
I took some sick leave to help her through the surgery and earliest recovery stages. I've been working half days, taking sick leave for the rest, for the past couple of weeks, trying to keep her from doing too much with the live-in grand kids and doing her exercises, with only partial luck.
She's doing her exercises while I type, and the grand kids are down for their naps. Today is going to be the last day I PLAN to do the half-day thing. Thing is, even having been home so much more than normal, I've been going non-stop. We were two weeks past her surgery before I even got into the office where my computer sits, and we're over three weeks past it now and I've had to steal the time to let people know what's going on.
I don't know how long it will be before I can reasonably expect the leisure time to properly contribute to these games again. I am sorry for vanishing, but I have to focus on my wife's actual needs before I play.
Game specific:
I really enjoy Jack's style, so walking away from these hurts more than some of the others.
Take care of your wife. She deserves it. As much as it sucks, this stuff is always secondary. Hope that she recovers well.
Hobbies are supposed to make life more fun. They only do that when we have the time and mental space. I hope you both are working through things well.
All,
I am really bummed about Hustonj. One of my favorite people to game with and we have lost him into two campaigns. Estel
Our current party make up is five players without Hustonj. Estel was filling the skill slot for the party. This is a pretty significant hit on the party in this campaign. We have several options I wanted to throw out to the group and let you decide.
1) Keep Estel on as an NPC. This would afford us the ability to bring Hustonj back on if things get better in RL for him and if not we can slowly roll him off the group. That would mean that the party will need to fill the skill void. This AP requires a good skill player.
2) Slide him out right now and run with what we have. We just started so we could easily just remove him from the group and press on with five players. This would mean that the party will need to absorb the skill abilities as you advance. This shouldn't be to terribly hard as you have a ranger and an alchemist in the group. I set the party up to absorb a loss or two with the overlap.
3) Recruit another skill player. I do have a few ideas on this as there are several players that would make good candidates that I know of.
Let me know your thoughts.
Jack
I am mostly okay with any of those options as well, though I don't think that I will be able to do much more to fill in the missing pieces. It would probably fall more to the Alchemist in this regard.
In the end, finding a new player may be the best option, as you've said yourself:
This AP requires a good skill player.
But if we want to NPC Estel for a while to see if he's able to come back, I'm okay with that.
As for skills, I think we are down Estel exceptional perception (we do have a lot of decent scores among us so if we are careful we should be ok), disable device (We can use a 10ft pole if need be) and diplomacy.
I have +5 to diplomacy, and a reasonable perception.
I am going to reach out to a potential player who submitted a UC rogue in the recruitment. They have been trying to get into a game for a while and with no luck. I do think with this AP you need to have a really strong "rogue" player. Hustonj's player really filled that role well and I can see this becoming an issue.
I am still spinning this all around in my head.
Jack
Ok. I put feelers out to a few people that submitted characters in the recruitment and I have not gotten a response back so I posted in the recruitment to see what we get.
Obviously, as we get submissions feel free to give me feedback.
Jack
All,
One thing I wanted to point out to everyone about Wound Thresholds. There are several feats that come into play and one that becomes significantly more important (Endurance).
I thought I would mention this so everyone knows and can account for these benefits as they progress in levels.
Wound Threshold Feats
The following feats are either new feats or feats adapted to work with the wound threshold system. Though the system doesn’t require their use, they’re a great way to expand the role of wound thresholds in your game.
Critical Cure
Your healing is more effective if your patient is badly injured.
Benefit(s): When you cast a conjuration (healing) spell, it cures 1 additional hit point if the recipient of the healing is grazed, wounded, or critical. The additional healing increases by an additional 1 point at caster level 6th, and every 6 caster levels thereafter.
Endurance
Harsh conditions or long exertions do not easily tire you.
Benefit(s): You reduce the penalty from being grazed, wounded, or critical by 1 (to –0, –1, and –2, respectively).
In addition, you gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion, Constitution checks to continue running, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, Constitution checks to hold your breath, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves to resist damage from suffocation.
You can sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
Normal: A character without this feat who sleeps in medium or heavier armor is fatigued the next day.
Twist the Knife (Combat)
You’re especially dangerous against enemies who are suffering from injuries.
Benefit(s): You gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls against grazed, wounded, or critical enemies.
I also finally got around to adding the Make Craft Work 2010 doc that we will be using for Crafting. This simplifies crafting so if you have time and choose to craft use this and the Magic Item Crafting doc.
All,
When you get a moment if you could review the submissions in recruitment I would appreciate any feedback. I am strongly considering PatricktheKid. He has a good submission on the original recruitment. He has not had the chance to get into a PBP game and this would be his first.
Jack
Not a ton to choose from.
I would have to agree, for a couple different reason: 1) he submitted the character at the beginningl, which should give a bit of a leg up; 2) the first female member of the group!; 3) kinda ties into #2, being female might actually make the character easier to introduce what with the current happenings in the story.
I'm cool with giving the Kid a shot.
Not a ton to choose from.
I would have to agree, for a couple different reason: 1) he submitted the character at the beginningl, which should give a bit of a leg up; 2) the first female member of the group!; 3) kinda ties into #2, being female might actually make the character easier to introduce what with the current happenings in the story.
LOL...actually that was what I was thinking as well. It does work well to get him introduced into the story line. Smart minds think a like.
Jack
I'm cool with giving the Kid a shot.
Awesome!
Jack
I have no strong feelings one way or the other.