Sinister Secrets of Sandpoint - GM Jester's Rise of the Runelords AE (PF 1)

Game Master GM Jester

Welcome Heroes of Sandpoint (eventually).

This is a place to check in and begin OOC dialogue about how you came to be in Sandpoint, either a traveler or a resident. If you are a resident, it is unlikely you know any of the main NPC's. If you think you do, then let's discuss here.

You may have written it in your background for application, but let's flesh out the motivation for your PC to be in Sandpoint at the time of the Swallowtail Festival, the annual celebration of the goddess Desna which coincidentally falls on the same day as the dedication of the new temple in Sandpoint. What happened to the old temple, you ask? That's a very good in-character question...

Glad you have you here, but you can see I will require a little more character development before we proceed. In addition to the backstory, I want you to answer these other questions for me:

1) what are the three best adjectives to describe your characters personality?
2) What are the three best adjectives to describe your characters appearance?
3) What fictional character (book, tv, film etc) best espouses your character concepts? Doesn't have to be class, but the character more than the build.
4) What is your characters motto or mission statement if reduced to a few words or phrases?

Answer these as you can, in posts in Discussion, while I prepare the world for you entertainment!

Thank you for including me!

Xenobia has lived about half of her life in Magnimar and previous to that Alkenstar. She studies the Thassilonians (Scholar of the Ancients trait) and her mother, her teacher for wizardry and clockwork, advised her to go to the festival, enjoy herself, and take a look at the Thassilonian ruins in the area.

Personality: Inquisitive, Intense, Friendly

Appearance: Blonde elf, richly dressed, clockwork flying lizard (not really adjectives, but those are the outstanding characteristics)

Character: Girl Genius! (I had not thought of this until this question was asked and I thought about it for ten minutes but Girl Genius comics is perfect - I haven't read it in years but I think I'm going to go back now and crib some ideas :)

Motto: I'm going to figure this out.

Thanks for giving me a chance! I'm excited for this.

Stefan and his father used to live in Sandpoint, but they left when Stefan was very young, only recently occasionally visiting. Stefan's aunt (his father's sister) invited them to visit during the Swallowtail Festival. Stefan got separated from his dad on the way there, and he's staying with his aunt and her husband for the duration of the festival.

1) Personality: bright, cooperative, gauche
2) Appearance: average, hunched, unattractive
3) Character: Hard one... maybe Sam Winchester? Stefan's identity is closely tied to his father. His father is important to him, but he's starting to chafe under his control, and he wants to get out of crime and do something more honorable with his life.
4) Motto: Survive however you can, but if it doesn't hurt you to help someone, then help them.

I've kept Stefan's backstory as broad strokes with lots of gaps to be filled in later or to be left unfilled. I'm willing to incorporate new elements or change some elements if need be.

As far as personality goes, I don't want Stefan to be some kleptomaniac Rogue. He won't steal from the party, and he and his father agreed that all of Sandpoint is "off limits" in order to remain welcome within it.

Woohoo! This is my first PF PbP (I've done some ACG stuff on here before. May need a bit of guidance regarding formatting though). I'll do a super quick background of Hasslo for those of you who are interested. Can write more if needed.

Hasslo Holt grew up in the poorest sections of Magnimar. His parents were dock workers. His dad died in a horrific accident when he was young. Hasslo grew up hating the city and would escape into the woods whenever he could. Some rangers took him under their wing and taught him the trade. As he grew up, he started a program to take inner city kids out to the wilderness. Around reaching adulthood, his mother passed away from cancer. About a month later (after dealing with the funeral and such), and with no real connection, Hasslo decides to depart Magnimar to explore more of the world having never been further Sanpoint. First stop on his adventure: Sandpoint - a city he visited only once when he youtng And his visit just happens to coincide with the Swallowtail Festival.

Questions:

1) Protective, passionate (especially about nature), adventurous

2) Dirty (more like covered in dirt/smells like trees than unkempt), short beard, sinewy

3) Kinda based Hasslo off my uncle who was a priest in a large/poor city. He would take inner city kids out to hike ~50-100 miles in the woods. For fictional character, Hasslo is loosely based off of Captain Planet.

4) Expose others to nature and help them see its beauty.

Welcome Hasslo!

Here are a couple of good guides:

Doomed Hero's Guide

Painlord's Guide

Those look helpful to me too. Thanks for the links!

Thanks for picking Rudak!

1) what are the three best adjectives to describe your characters personality?

Easy going, adaptive, big headed

2) What are the three best adjectives to describe your characters appearance?

Rough, LARGE, solid

3) What fictional character (book, tv, film etc) best espouses your character concepts? Doesn't have to be class, but the character more than the build.

Geralt
4) What is your characters motto or mission statement if reduced to a few words or phrases?

Dont swing your blade without reason, but if you do, swing fast, hard, and decisively.

Gideon was sent as a representative of the Church of Iomeade in Magnimar to try and carve out a slice of the citizens faith in this growing town. What better time than the initiation of a new cathedral, and the festival made it even more tempting. This is his first time out from under the rules of the church since he started, and he is very excited and maybe a little apprehensive.

1) what are the three best adjectives to describe your characters personality? Curious, Judgmental, Deadpan humor

2) What are the three best adjectives to describe your characters appearance? Athletic, Rigid, Fair skinned.

3) What fictional character (book, tv, film etc) best espouses your character concepts? Doesn't have to be class, but the character more than the build. Cross of Barry from the HBO Series and Clint Eastwood from the spaghetti westerns.

4) What is your characters motto or mission statement if reduced to a few words or phrases? Rules are there for a reason, and I expect everyone to follow them to the best of their ability. There is great pleasure to be accomplished by adhering to the order of life.

I'll update the avatar when I get the chance. Trade show and lots of travel this week, but should get some time.

Awesome, thanks for doing that exercise, it helps me picture your characters in my head, hopefully close to how you picture them as well.

Many campaigns of RotRL start at the opening of the Swallowtail Festival, but I plan to start the day before and offer some hooks into people and places of the village itself. I have GM'ed entire sessions of shopping trips and interactions with NPC's and love that part of the game, so we shall see how that settles.

For those new to PBP, there are no stupid questions. Part of why I selected you was to give you a chance to interact and build up your skills over time.

As I work on development, I will likely offer a plot hook to each of you in turn, and you can use that to start to play off your person. My only request is when I start to steer you together, you take the cue, and help "get the band together" so to speak.

If you have OOC questions, please post them here. I will be adding some links to the top margin for maps, flavor-adding pics and the like. I will generally try to keep a list of NPC's on the Campaign tab, so you can recall who is who and how they act.

I will start the individual hooks tonight, but may not have enough time to finish them all.

BTW, the Gameplay tab is now open, so you can dot the thread (that is make a quick post) then delete it. That will mark this an active thread for you and make it easier to follow when someone updates.

Feel free to respond, when you see your story come up.

So, Stefan's in-game post prompts me to discuss one of the quirks I will try out in this game -- the concept of the secret check.

In Pf2, that concept is fleshed out more but I'd like to bring it this game as well. To be mroe clear, skill checks or other times when you don't know if your check was a success or not, the result can be given away by the die roll. Like Stefan's sense motive, wiht a 22 total, he can be fairly sure that whatever "sense" he gets, it will be very accurate. If he didn't know the result of the die check, he'd be less sure (and more like real life).

My intention is to make these checks for the players. You provide the modifier in OOC and I will describe the reaction. Without you know if you have it right, wrong, or in-between. This will apply to most instances where success or failure are not really clear. For example, most Charisma checks, disable device, and most saves will be secret, but things that you can see if they are successful or not -- physical checks like Acrobatics or combat or spell attacks.

Hope that makes sense. I know it will take some getting used to, and I will be patient, but at some point, if you roll a secret check, I will disregard your roll and do it behind the curtain.

LMK if you need more clarity.

Finally went and looked at the maps of sandpoint and let me just say... WOW, those look great!

Some questions that won't be relevant for a while but I would like to know the answer to. There are some fighter options from the weapon masters handbook and armor masters handbook that give some really neat fighter abilities in exchange for extra weapon training groups and armor training boosts. Would those be cool to plan for?

can you link them?

Advanced weapon training

Advanced armor training

I'm more interested in the weapon options than the armor ones but I included both. Level 5 is the earliest it would come in to play as there is a feat in those same books to pick one of those options.

Thre good ones in my opinion is a weapon one that lets you add your bravery bonus to all will saves instead of just fear and one that gives a poor man's version of the magus's arcane pool weapon enhancement ability.

If you still want these when you get to level 5, I will allow them. They are Paizo-published material, and that is my general rule.

So initial posts should be up for all of you now, and the fun has already begun. Feel free to read the posts for the others, as there may be different perspectives on the same scene, like a Kurosawa film...

I see the opening scene of the AP shot was one running shot moving up and down the queue outside Sandpoint, telling little vignettes as it pans along. Hopefully that comes across...

Reply, interact, and enjoy! The world is yours for the taking!

I found out late yesterday that I need to give a presentation to our CTO Thursday morning so we can get approval to do a project that will make us $30 million a year. No pressure - and those darn jerks for not giving me more heads up :D

I will read the gameplay thread tomorrow evening after the presentation and respond. Sorry for the one day delay - this is literally out of the blue.

Dang it! I changed Gideon's profile to the new one last night, but for some reason it reverted back... or didn't change. I'll get it updated before the weekend is over... hopefully tomorrow.

Hey guys, I will not be able to post tonight, as I have a previous social engagement. Will be off work tomorrow, and will have some time mid-day to get updated. Sorry for the night off early on...

No worries! Have a great night.

Okay, good news is that I convinced the CTO to fund the project that will make us $30 million a year. Bad news is my brain is fried and I will need to finish reading the intro posts tomorrow and reply then.

Thank you for your patience.

Is anyone else having trouble uploading an avatar? I haven't been able to for the past few days.

Okay, good news is that I convinced the CTO to fund the project that will make us $30 million a year. Bad news is my brain is fried and I will need to finish reading the intro posts tomorrow and reply then.

Thank you for your patience.

Awesome! Get back with us when you can.

Is anyone else having trouble uploading an avatar? I haven't been able to for the past few days.

Have the same issue. Think others do too.

Yep, that's why rudak doesn't have a picture yet

I am auditing the build of your characters one at a time, just to make sure we don't have any out of rule situations when fur starts flying. I will post questions or things I notice here for you to address or explain:

Gideon - it does not appear you have a RotRL AE trait? I can't find the trait you do have Outlander - Missionary. Can you replace with one of the campaign traits. It appears you are at medium encumbrance, but with heavy armor, it doesn't matter for movement anyway. I show you with 59gp from the original 150, is that right?

Hasslo - it doesn't appear you counted your hide armor in the money you spent or the weight you are carrying. I show you with 36.78gp and medium encumbered at 84.5 lbs wt. Not sure where else our discrepancy is. Because you get a FCB, I have you with 13hp, not 12 to start.

The rest will get the same treatment as I get the time to review. I will eventually get a Loot Tracker posted to the top margin where we will track treasure found, coins held, and distribution by party member.

Ah, you're right about the Hide armor. I'll make sure to update that. Though looking at my encumbrance, it should be 71 lbs. (8 lbs (Dwarven Waraxe) + 8 lbs (Dwarven War-shield) + 25 lbs (Hide armor) + 28 lbs (Ranger's Kit) + 2 lbs (Misc.)). Is there 13.5 lbs that I'm missing?

For my FCB, I gave myself +1 skill rank. Though, you're right - I should probably give myself +1 HP. I'll drop 1 rank in Swim to boost +1 HP.

Ah, you're right about the Hide armor. I'll make sure to update that. Though looking at my encumbrance, it should be 71 lbs. (8 lbs (Dwarven Waraxe) + 8 lbs (Dwarven War-shield) + 25 lbs (Hide armor) + 28 lbs (Ranger's Kit) + 2 lbs (Misc.)). Is there 13.5 lbs that I'm missing?

For my FCB, I gave myself +1 skill rank. Though, you're right - I should probably give myself +1 HP. I'll drop 1 rank in Swim to boost +1 HP.

Ok, I am square with you on HP and skill ranks now.

On weight, I think you are counting 10 torches as 1lb. when they are 1lb EACH. Same with daily rations. This may get us to equalize.

I'm using the Ranger's Kit which is 28 lbs. Must not account for the torches/rations individually. I'll drop the torches. That'll put me at 74.5 lbs encumbrance - which is Light encumbrance for Hasslo.

I am auditing the build of your characters one at a time, just to make sure we don't have any out of rule situations when fur starts flying. I will post questions or things I notice here for you to address or explain:

Gideon - it does not appear you have a RotRL AE trait? I can't find the trait you do have Outlander - Missionary. Can you replace with one of the campaign traits. It appears you are at medium encumbrance, but with heavy armor, it doesn't matter for movement anyway. I show you with 59gp from the original 150, is that right?

Hasslo - it doesn't appear you counted your hide armor in the money you spent or the weight you are carrying. I show you with 36.78gp and medium encumbered at 84.5 lbs wt. Not sure where else our discrepancy is. Because you get a FCB, I have you with 13hp, not 12 to start.

The rest will get the same treatment as I get the time to review. I will eventually get a Loot Tracker posted to the top margin where we will track treasure found, coins held, and distribution by party member.

I’ll add Student of Faith, and maybe shop a bit more.

I’ll add Student of Faith, and maybe shop a bit more.

So noted. I will let you swap out until we get to first combat. Just LMK.

I was finally able to change avatars. This one actually looks a lot like how I described Stefan, though a bit different from how I pictured him at first. Ears and nose a bit too big, sorta ugly but a "normal" ugly. It should do, at least for now, I think.

Hey all, sorry for the lack of posting this week, but as I said my college freshman was home for Spring Break. Sounds like she may be home rest of semester now, so I'll pry myself away tomorrow and start running the game in earnest.

I plan to have a more consistent cadence than this, just didn't plan the start very well. All of us in the US may have just a little more downtime these days, so perhaps we can get a running start at this...

Hope you are all healthy and hale in these troubled times.

With just about the entire country shut down... I think we all will have more free time. My work has half the office teleworking at a time.

Don't feel guilty about dealing with real world issues first. I can't speak for the others but I'll be here.

No worries! Take care of your family and yourself.

Family and health are the most important!

I'm in Seattle a few blocks from downtown and staying inside all of the time. Health and care right now is very important.

Sorry guys. Got sidetracked and lost the time to get a post up before bed. More tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in there.

Corona virus has waylaid my free time, so I apologize for slow or no posting. It may be that way for a while, but we will slowly plug along if you are patient with me. Working 12 hour days, and then doing email until just now, so if I fall asleep, please wake me.

Again, my apologies.

Stay healthy! It's the most important thing now!

Yes! No worries. Be careful and don't overwork yourself.

That is a wonderfully told story! Well done!

I agree. Don't be afraid to mark a post you really like as a favorite. It encourages great RP and is a nice reward to your teammates for a job well done.

Hit the little + sign in the top right corner of post to "favorite" it.

I am unable to post tonight. Sorry. Back tomorrow.

I'm fine with ending the day. I assume we should remove the price of an inn stay if we didn't get it for free?

Sorry to not post over the weekend, I was derailed by my partner's mother being hospitalized for pneumonia. I will catch up tonight.

Hope all is well i that regard. Not a good time to be in the hospital at all....

I will try to carve some time out of my own work to post tomorrow to move the story forward. Again sorry for the scattergun approach.

Friends, I have unfortunate news for you. I have taken a promotion at work, and that's good for me, but it really eliminates any free time I planned to dedicate to this game. Have been doing that work for several weeks, and even after the outbreak subsides, I will be traveling more, and have less time than I do now.

Unfortunately, I will have to fold these games before they really start. It makes me sad, but I don't think I can do them any justice at all with the circumstance change. It is unforeseen, or I likely would not have started a new game to begin with.

Sorry to let you down, but figured you should hear the bad news officially rather than a complete ghosting.

Best of luck in whichever direction your gaming takes you!

No worries. Good luck on the promotion at work!

I completely understand. Thanks for telling us. I’ve had my fair share of games fall apart to ghosting, so I really appreciate the explanation.

Congratulations on the promotion!

Well done on the promotion, and hopefully things will slow down a bit anc you can come back online... and thanks for not ghosting. I'm assuming you'll shut down the campaign in a couple of days.

Other PC's Do we want to search for a takeover GM or are we done?