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Thanks for the motivation! I really miss playing this too, and knowing that you folks are still out there really helps.
These last several weeks have been a whirlwind of busy to complete insanity. I feel like my company unleashed a Chaos Beast on me.
Almost every night I make a plan to post something after dinner, but by then I am totally zonked.
Some good news and hope, they are hiring someone to take over my Pennsylvania clinics which will take away about 1/3 of my work.
We did hire someone already, but they only lasted 6 days. We have someone else who should be starting by the end of the month. After some training, I am truly hoping that I will then have the time/energy to save these damn colonists already.
As of now, this weekend looks open. With the motivation, I am hoping to post something.
Thanks everyone for sticking with me. Let's slay some Sahuagin!
Brief post is up to get us back into the game.
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@GM, I believe you indicated in the Kingmaker thread that things might ease up for you in mid-May. Is that still a reasonable hope? Missing this game!
Hello there,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I have been away for a bit enjoying the woods. Not much reception but the streams are wonderful.
A quick update. Yes, there is reasonable hope that this game will restart soon.
With the added staff, my workload has eased significantly which is allowing me to get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather that we have been having in eastern Pennsylvania. I have been hiking a lot, and attending some minor league baseball games. It is really awesome to go to the games and scream my head off to blow off steam. Very few places is screaming socially acceptable, and I am loving it. :)
I think I am finally coming out of my burn-out funk where I did not even want to look at a computer after work. I have been thinking of this game more and more and will hopefully dive back in soon. Creative energies are starting to flow again. It feels real good.
Bear with me a bit more. I want to make sure that I can truly commit to 3-5 posts a week. This stopping and starting is not fair to you wonderful folks.
For now, may your rolls all be Nat 20's
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Great news! I'm glad things have lightened up for you so you're getting more quality time with things you enjoy. Looking forward to getting the game moving forward again.
Hello! This is an FYI that I'll be away in nature (and away from internet and computers) starting Friday (5/26) evening, until I return late Monday (5/30). I will catch up on posts that evening.
Okay, I've heard from two of the other players, and Malakar seems to be off the boards entirely.
Of our four remaining players, three have spoken up in favor of continuing. So I'm going to look for a GM and hope that our last player is also willing to continue.
I've been missing this game and would love to have it back.
If I can't find a GM, I am happy to GM Book 2 with Brannart as a GMPC for now, so that I can keep him in the story until we do find a GM. I really like him as a character.
Checking in! It's great to be getting this campaign back on its feet! I've missed it as well.
Heyo. Disaffected halfling checking in.
I put out a request for a GM in a Discord full of good GMs, but only have an offer for a temporary fill-in so far. And to be fair, I am not exactly doing my part in keeping PF1 going through GM'ing.
So I am leaning towards GM'ing Book 2, and keeping Brannart as a GMPC. He's not Idea Guy anyway, so he can take direction well. I just would like to keep him in the story.
I could look to add another player, someone who could take over as GM for a future book. Or we could continue with 3 players and 1 GM/player. What do you all think?
I know someone who might be interested in a rotating GM scenario. I doubt they'd take over as full time GM, but maybe adding a PC + 1 book GM might be more productive right now than looking for a full time GM.
If Brannart GMs Book 2, I could take Book 3 or 4 depending on if the person I know is interested and wants to take a book sooner or later in the series.
Hello,
Hope I am not intruding. :)
Sorry for the disappearing act.
It has been a hard few months for me. Long story, but my wife is in surgery atm.
I hope you can revitalize this game.
I'll keep an eye out if a new GM does not work out.
@Mioki, if you think you could consistently post as a player, I would welcome having you rejoin us in that capacity. I know you've put a lot of effort into this game. But if I take over running Book 2, as looks likely, my custom is that everyone is expected to post daily, with an expectation of finishing a book in about 9-12 months. I don't expect lengthy masterpiece posts, but something more than a dice roll (usually). Playing certainly entails less work than GM'ing. Do you think that is something you could manage?
If not, I am going to post in Recruitment for another player who can possibly GM a future book.
Hi Mioki! Good to hear from you! I'm sorry it's been rough going the last several months. I'm wishing for all the best for you and your wife.
If you could find the time to join as a player, we'd love to have you back!
I appreciate the offer, but I know that daily commitments just do not fit with my schedule anymore. I really do miss this game, and I wish that I had the time and energy to continue.
I hope you all take this game to the next level and have a blast. I'll try and follow along. I really do enjoy these characters and would love to see them get to the end.
Best wishes!
Sorry for the delay. I have been reading the forums but not posting much so missed the PM. I am down to continue playing I will have my eyes on it again now that it is resumed.
A recap may be helpful.
Cool! Great to have you back.
Do you think you would be up for GM'ing a future book?
Anyway, I will get this restarted in the next few days. No need for a recruitment, I think.
Maybe? At the moment I am still a little overwhelmed from the situation I mentioned in the Kingmaker game a few months ago also as a GM I have fully swutched to 2E. When/if we get to the next book ask again maybe I will be more sorted out and able to run.
I am sure it isn't an issue but as far as daily posts for this my posts will be after 5pm EST as my new job has a no phone policy since we do some DoD contracts so I don't get much time to check ot suring the day.
Anybody who's played with me over the years is probably used to a very late poster :) My work has no such policy, but I tend to just be kept busy enough that it practically isn't an option to post except for the rare occasion. Posting after 5 or 6pm, and in US/Pacific time no less, I'm often bringing up the rear for daily posts.
There is no specific rule for speaking underwater so it is up to you. However being able to breathe underwater does allow providing verbal components for spells. So one could argue that you can speak it is more a matter if you can be understood.
Amphibious and aquatic creatures with languages must be able to understand eachother since there is no cryptic description of them using only sign language or telepathy.
A decent rule may be that creatures who aren't native have a gard time producing the proper pitch for them to be heard from more than a certain distance.
The real question is if it is fun or condusive to the story for there to be some limit on it. And if it were a hard limit we would probably look for a permanent telepathy to overcome the difficulty.
I'm going to go with "if you can breathe water, you can speak underwater and others can understand you." Because it is actually water moving through your larynx in that case, and so the sound waves are compression and rarefaction of water (as opposed to air-then-transmitted-to-water which makes speaking underwater to hard to understand).
Whales don't actually breathe water, but they have a different mechanism for their songs than humans do for speech.
Would a limitation be fun or conducive to the story? It could be in some situations. There are any number of story elements that depend on characters not being able to communicate seamlessly with one another.
But in this case, I'm good with it. Water Breathing lets you speak underwater at normal distances.
Very sorry for the delay! I work in social services and this is our busiest time of the year due to the holidays and winter coming on. I've been slammed at work for the past few weeks and I doubt things will let up for another couple of weeks. Thank you all for bearing with me.
So, this will sound a little crazy considering my post right above, but...
There's a Pulp Call of Cthulhu game recruiting right now to play the Horror on the Orient Express campaign. It's hardly attracting any attention, just me and maybe one or two others. I've been hoping for a Pulp CoC game to come along for ages so I'm looking around to see if I can find anyone who might be interested so it makes the quorum of players need to run. The game won't be starting until the end of December so I'll be out of the red zone at work by then.
If you're not familiar with the Pulp version of the rules, they make investigators stouter and more durable, so it's more action oriented than the classic rules, and (theoretically) there are fewer investigator deaths.
How easy are the CoC rules to pick up?
Easy I think. Compared to Pathfinder it's quite rules light. All dice rolls are percentage, based on skill points in an area. Combat, non-combat, all the same. To succeed you need to roll under your point total in the appropriate skill.
So, to shoot someone (or something) with a pistol, you need to roll under your pistol skill. If that's 30, you need 30 or less. If it's 80, you need under 80. There's a little more to combat than that, but not much. For example a person can try to dodge an attack or dive for cover if it's a gun.
Communicating in a foreign language, or library research, or persuading an NPC to do something works the same way. The hardest thing is probably building a first character because you're distributing a limited number of skill point among a bunch of skills without prior experience in the skills' comparative usefulness and so forth.
There aren't classes really, or races. You pick an Archetype, which is sort of like a personality /set of tendencies / worldview, and an occupation. You get more points to allocate to the skills the archetype and occupation give you. For example my character for this is a Thrill Seeker archetype / Doctor of Medicine occupation -> She's a doctor who likes fast cars and mountain climbing. Since you decide how many points go where, you're quite free to color outside the usual lines and be good or bad at whatever you choose.
There are no character levels either. Periodically there is a pause to improve characters. If you have used a skill successfully in the period before, you roll percentile dice for it. If you roll over your skill points you get to roll a 1d10 (if I remember correctly) and add that number of points to that skill. That's it.
The setting is 1923. Personally I'm a sucker for the setting.
You would need to get the Pulp rulebook, but I think you could get by fine on that alone. It costs $22.50 to get the PDF version from DrivethruRPG.
In sum, the Call of Cthulhu games tend to be more about role play and atmosphere than crunch.
@GM When Moiki was running the game we discussed the necklaces you just gave as loot as I found them accidentally while doing build planing for Malakar and Razor and than saw the source was the AP. I asked Mioki if/when they showed up if Razor would be able to have one and either modify it to be a belt or allow him to have a neck slot even tho the piscine body shape usually doesn't have a neck slot, they only have belt, body and eyes. He said yes but I don't remember the which solution we agreed upon. I can look for the PM if you want. I mostly just want a way to have access to Razor while on land.
@Malakar, I would allow you to have a custom version of the Sea Steed spell called Land Steed (and appearance-wise Razor would then resemble a bulette). Or there is Carry Companion if you want to just bring him along but not use him in battle. Druid is an extremely strong class even without the animal companion, and I speak from 1-20 experience; I don't think you'll feel sub-par.
I know that Mioki said yes, but they were very generous in a lot of ways, moreso than I would feel comfortable being. If whoever GMs the next book wants to revisit this, they are free to do so.
The land steed solution works. My only concession would be that it would be nice if that soon for me to be able to get a lesser extend metamagic rod, and or have settlement access to scrolls of the spell. Because the 10/level won't last most adventuring days and I don't want Razor suffocating in the middle of the day.
There is the opportunity to commission items, have them made in Almas, and get them to arrive on a future ship.
Scrolls could probably be scribed at the settlement. I don't think anyone at the settlement is of sufficient level to have Craft Rod.
When you level to 5, you could take Scribe Scroll or Extend Spell of course.
10 min/level absolutely will not last most adventuring days. Some of the sites on your list might be hours from the settlement, meaning multiple castings of the spell. So what you might do on such days is cast Carry Companion on Razor when he is in shark form, and then when you get to your destination bring him out of statue form and cast Land Steed on him.
GM Mioki had given max HP for levels 1-4. We are now going to do PFS style (average rounded up). Technically PFS does "strict average" for animal companions, meaning it is 5 HP on odd-numbered HD and 4 HP on even-numbered HD, but we can just stick to 5 HP/HD for Razor.
Level 5 Rogue
HP +5
Favored Class Bonus +1 Skill Point
Class features Danger Sense +1, Sneak Attack +2d6, Finesse Training (Rapier)
Feat Arcane Armor Training
Skills Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Disable Device +2, Escape Artist +1, Intimidate +1, Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (Local) +1 Sense Motive +1, Slight of Hand +1, Stealth +1
He'll need 3rd level in both rogue and wizard before proceeding to arcane trickster... may as well go to rogue 3 first since that is where he started.
☑Alignment: ☑Any nonlawful
☐Skills: ☑Disable Device 4 ranks, ☐Escape Artist 3/4 ranks, ☑Knowledge (arcana) 4 ranks.
☐Spells: ☑Ability to cast mage hand and ☐at least one arcane spell of 2nd level or higher.
☑Special: ☑Sneak attack +2d6.
Alright! Level 5 Bard:
Not a whole lot happens at Lvl. 5 for Bards.
HP +7
Performance +2
Class Abiliities: Inspire Courage +2 & Lore Master 1/day.
New 2nd level spell: Allegro.
Using FBC for an extra 1st level spell: Saving Finale.
Feat: Arcane Strike
Skills: +1 Perception, Stealth, UMD, K History, K Religion, Spellcraft, Swim.
Background Skills: +1 Perform (Oratory), Perform (Dance).
Using FBC for an extra 1st level spell: Saving Finale.
I always loved this FCB for bards :)
Not a whole lot happens at Lvl. 5 for Bards.
Are you kidding me?
Back in my day we got 1d6 HP for going up a level and we were grateful for it.You kids these days with your "class features" and "skill points" and "feats"...
Think we are just waiting on Malakar.
Okay, let's get moving again, even if we are waiting on Malakar to do his level-up.
Back to the Sahuagin lair to battle Elder Maw, or doing something else first?
Will Update on sheet when I can But Malakar gains 7 HP, 1 3rd level slot, a feat(I am thinking extend spell) and the Totomic Summons ability of my archetype.
Razor Gains a feat Dodge and 8 HP
What is your policy on Animal companions taking non ac feats? It would be nice to grab a few teamwotk feats down the line.
Razor would need Int 3 to get any non-Animal Companion feats.
Since a shark animal companion normally has Int 1, you would need to put 2 ability increases into Int.
If you wanted to change the 4 HD stat bump from Str to Int I would let you do that - then you would just need the 8 HD stat bump (at level 9) and Razor's next feat could be a teamwork feat (9 HD, at level 10).
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Not a whole lot happens at Lvl. 5 for Bards.
Are you kidding me?
Back in my day we got 1d6 HP for going up a level and we were grateful for it.
You kids these days with your "class features" and "skill points" and "feats"...
I was mostly referring to the clean sweep of no increases to BAB, and fortitude, reflex, will saves, but yes, I am spoiled and I don't care. :p
I am out all day tomorrow so won't be able to post. I'll be back late evening and around the rest of the (long) weekend, so I don't believe this will disrupt the game.
I have been away from my computer for a couple of days, just on my phone, but I should be able to update tonight or tomorrow morning.
Still some handover busy from holidays, and we have a winter storm here that knocked out my power for a while. I'm back.
Obviously it's a little tricky with a GMPC as I don't want to hog the spotlight. Brannart had the AC, HP, and some tricks to survive two rounds, but that is why he moved up to take on Elder Maw. He's that guy. That's his job.
Brannart has a free-action one-time Haste boon (courtesy of Mioki) that he will probably use up on his next turn (and which I had entirely forgotten about). And he's a primary damage dealer so there is a fair chance that he will get the kill here with the Haste. Because of that, I will have him hold off so you can get your turns in.
This is a rather new realm for me so please do advise if I am spotlighting Brannart too much or if you have other concerns (either publicly here or via PM). I hope to be fair in my rulings and NPC actions regarding him, and I hope that his presence continues to be an asset to the party.
Certainly, a replacement GM would be preferable, but I've had mixed luck with that in the past. I may ask around again in the future but for now I think we are doing okay.
I think things are fine with Brannart. He's just doing what he's always done. Besides, we don't have anyone who can stand in for him. I think if anyone else had the couple of rounds he just had they'd be dead now.
I'm glad you seem more positive about the outcome of this combat than I am; you're better informed than me. I don't see how we're going to manage it. If Brannart can do it, I'm for him hogging all the spotlight he needs to!
Maybe if you don't want ti steal spotlight set it up in narrative as an alley-oop and whoever next hits gets the kill.
Brannart stabs the beast and presses his weapon deep and lifts upward exposing its soft underbelly for his allies.
Or maybe in those case go for a combat manuver for a similar result. Make the takedown more sure for the next person.
That is something I may consider, Malakar.
Are you waiting for anyone else to go before you take your turn?
I'm with Fenna. While this battle looks dire, the spotlight is the last thing I'm worried about.
Thinking on what else Vexas can do...
- switch to rapier and try to flank for sneak-attack damage (now at 2d6)
- he has a scroll of haste. Use it on Brannart or other remaining tank'ish (but I think just Brannart).
- use scroll of blur to survive a little longer
The scroll of Haste would give Sho an extra shot, and she potentially does a lot of damage (Guide ranger focus + Inspire Courage + Deadly Aim + maybe Rapid Shot). It would also give Razor another bite attack. It affects 5 targets, remember.
Vexas would suffer an AOO if he closed to melee range. Elder Maw is Huge (15' space, 10' reach).