Once Upon a Time in Mercuria (Inactive)

Game Master rando1000

Rogue 6 HP: 1d8 ⇒ 4

Would the verbiage here also include thrown weapons (ranged attacks) and not just ranged weapons?

Somewhere along the line thrown weapons came into being (differentiating them from ranged weapons) although both are used in ranged attacks.

Link >>> Feint of Shadows (Rogue Talent)

Also, could someone help me with a language... he's supposed to be an infiltrator/spy. Currently has - Celestial, Chicoan, Common, Dwarven, Britanglish, Russkin.

Wow, that's a rarity. Posting at the same time that is.

"First, I'm going to borrow some Starfinder goodness, in modified form. Add a Stamina Score. This score equals 1/2 your Max HP. You can regain these the same way you can in Starfinder: if you rest 10 minutes and spend a Resolve Point, they come back. Resolve equals 1/2 your character level rounded down (4 at 9th level) so you can renew Stamina 4 times per day."

In case peopled need a stamina refresher.

I’ve got Billy’s next level built, just need to port it to the site. Should be done today or tomorrow.

Would the verbiage here also include thrown weapons (ranged attacks) and not just ranged weapons?

I would play this as any weapon attack made at range. I believe that's RAI.

Also, could someone help me with a language... he's supposed to be an infiltrator/spy. Currently has - Celestial, Chicoan, Common, Dwarven, Britanglish, Russkin.

I would recommend either Pruscian or Ugarian. Both of those are likely to come into play relatively soon.

My thinking is Knowledge (local) to try and find some clues on our target, and Knowledge...Nobility?

Go ahead and do Nobility. Close enough to politics, which will apply in this situation.

Alright, Billy is updated.

OK, then that would be +16 for Local and +22 for Nobility. You roll both, Rando, and tell me what I manage to peek in the Akashic Records. If you roll a 1 then you get to have lots of fun, and I don't get to know what was rolled so I have to assume the info I get is good.

Local gives you...very little. The Records are hazy regarding Shicagopolis in this time period, for some reason. It is possible the unusually potent effects of your team's intervention is still rippling through history, effecting the fabric of existence.

But for nobility, you do gain several powerful images imprinted upon reality. First, a Pruscian Prince is assassinated on a visit to the Ugrin city of Darthapast by an Ugrin Liberation extremist. This sets off the already chaotic political balance in the region, causing a multinational war.

Your mind follows the same individual to a secret meeting, where an ancient and evil ritual takes place. They are attempting to summon something horrible, something Sir Walter cannot even bring himself to look upon. He is able to finally see the face of this assassin, however. It is none other than your bomber, Marko Gavri.

Well, the name is worth the spell slot alone. Should be useful. Do you want me to write out Walter performing the spell or are we shuffling along?

I'm still working on the details of the next adventure, so it will probably be next weekend sometime before I have something up. I'll leave it up to you whether to post it or just let it happen "off camera."

Next Steps:

In prepping for the next part of the campaign, I'm seeing two motivating factors for the PCs: 1) Avoid any negative attention for the government, 2) track down the bomber. Based on Sir Walter's vision, you have a good idea where to start looking, and that would also solve problem 1.

However, I don't want to directly push you in one direction, as there are other ways this could go. How do your characters see the immediate future going?

Pretty much that way. Walter will want to complete the job he took, as a matter of personal pride and honour - he gave his word, and he'll be dead before he breaks it. Laws and rules don't matter, but that does.

He also doesn't want to fight the entire military, but he's arrogant enough to think he - personally - is scary enough to put them off so long as they don't make too much noise.

Scarily enough, Djon is of a similar mind though obviously their chosen methods are varied.

Are we steampunky enough to have access to airships?

Are we steampunky enough to have access to airships?

A dirigible is about the closest you could hope for, but they are not yet commercial at this place in history.

I had intended that to be one half the journey, the first night, but since I had nothing particular planned for the trip, we can skip ahead and say you've arrived.

Comments like these get me thinking... :)

Is there something specific or at least a type of activity you'd have expected or taken as a player (were you in our shoes).

Perhaps it's something we never considered and knowing would help us "think that way" for the next time.

No, not particularly. I mean, you have in the past made some choices that have gone a way I hadn't envisioned, but not so out there I couldn't roll with the punches.

I just wanted to leave the train ride open for possible interactions if someone wanted to walk around and interact with the setting, but it's also fine to ignore.

Sometimes a train is just s train after all

All good, take your time, Sir.

Unrelated to this game, but I need opinions of gamers I trust. In your estimation, what would the CR of a gibbering mouther be without its Engulf ability? I'm thinking CR 4, but it might be as low as 3.

Probably CR4. It still gets 6 attacks a round, and while the damage is minimal the Con drain once it grapples is nasty, and will hurt for some time. Gibbering is probably gonna put a PC out of action each turn, too.

I'd err on the side of over CR. Don't have much experience with that monster specifically.

Thanks guys. Think I'm going to consider it a 4.

Sorry for the long delay. We were out of town on vacation all weekend, spent monday catching up with chores, and today was Rosh Hashanah.

Happy healthy and proerous New Year to all!

*checks watch* Uh, y-yes! Happy new year!

I think?

Ah, crap, did I accidentally sleep 3 months again?

Jewish New Year... come on, Dudes! Shana Tova!

Yes, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (one of four on our calendar, but that's a different story; Rosh Hashanah's the big one). Rosh Ha Shanah literally translates to "Head of the Year." Shana Tova is year + good, or "Good year." You can also say "L'Shana Tova" which means "For a good year."

Speaking of which, Thursday will be Yom Kippur.

Yes, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (one of four on our calendar, but that's a different story; Rosh Hashanah's the big one). Rosh Ha Shanah literally translates to "Head of the Year." Shana Tova is year + good, or "Good year." You can also say "L'Shana Tova" which means "For a good year."

Speaking of which, Thursday will be Yom Kippur.

Atonement! Get ready, boys...

Ah, starting with an L, like L'chiam! I pick up bits and bobs.

Well, at least I can count on the fact the same players are spread between both games...

Notable changes:

- HP: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14 HP Goes up by a healthy amount it seems
- Cold resistance goes up a point (neat)
- Picked up Improved Critical for a bigger chance of super smash attacks.

I don' tknow if it's an anomaly or I am, but I never understood Knowledge Local and what it represented.

Yeah it's weird. I'd imagine people have knowledge/local in areas they've traveled, but it seems odd that you could have one skill, and basically have knowledge for the entire campaign area. It's like part of a bunch of other skills mixed together. Sometimes it functions like Nobility (Rulers are listed as part of Local), sometimes it functions like a kind of Streetwise (Local laws, Popular locations), sometimes it functions kind of like Cultures in Starfinder.

I'm fairly flexible with it. A Rogue could probably use it to walk into a new town and find the seedy underbelly pretty quickly. It might play out more like asking a few of the "right" people than just knowing off the bat, but it would work.

The train ride is quick and uneventful for most of the ride; the weather outside is increasingly gray. After the gray day comes an early night.

I took that to mean we were done with the train, perhaps I misunderstood.

I took that to mean we were done with the train, perhaps I misunderstood.

Unfortunately you seem to have. No big deal though. No one really got into anything off-scene yet.

Sorry folks, catching up tomorrow morning.

For the cheaper seats... mile high view.

A third party is intending to invade/border skirmish with the country who's leader was just assassinated?

For the cheaper seats... mile high view.

A third party is intending to invade/border skirmish with the country who's leader was just assassinated?

It's a little more complicated than that. Prince Fernando was actually the Pruscian prince. Ugrin is a vassal state of Pruscia. The assassin was Ugrin, Marko Gavri. He had known ties with an Ugrin nationalist movement. So this was an act of hostility against Pruscia by a citizen of their own vassal state, Ugrin, but the act of hostility was not supported by the Ugrin government (at least, not openly).

Where the Brask soldiers heading to Darthapest fit in is hard to say. Knowledge/Nobility, Knowledge/History, and Knowledge/Local all might supply additional information.

How far would our destination be by train, and alternatively, by coach?

You're about 3-4 hours away by rail, approximately 124 miles/200 km. By coach, it gets iffy. There is no national highway system, so you'd have to wind your way there by whatever roads you could find. Plus, a coach would travel at approximately 1/4 the speed of the train. So you're looking at probably at least 16 hours by coach. If you can find an automobile, probably at least 6-8 hours.

Steampunk Automobile <<< link

Walter can cast Conjure Carriage a few times, if needed, which wouldn't be nearly as fast but would get us there. Probably.

I'm open to methods of travel, though Tarasik would much prefer something 'real'.

The option exists to take the conjured carriage to a nearby town (you just passed one a few miles back) and inquire about more solid transportation, or perhaps use the conjured carriage to head on your way until you can get to a bigger town that would have an automobile available.

Not to sidetrack the current line of questioning, but do I have an Dr Who fans here? I've been working on a custom D20 Timelords game, based loosely on FASA's old concept from the 80s. Figured I'd ask here first.

I like Dr Who, but my son is a much bigger fan. I might ask him if he's interested, if that's OK?

I like Dr Who, but my son is a much bigger fan. I might ask him if he's interested, if that's OK?

Sure. How old is he?

Havn't been a fan of the series since the Tenant era, honestly. Everyone seems to have liked rhe guy who came after, but never really clicked with me.

Okay, the party wouldn't be playing The Doctor, but rather agents of a rogue Gallifreyan agency known as The Celestial Intervention Agency (yes, the CIA). It was dealt with in one or two episodes of Tom Baker's Doctor, but FASA wrote a game concept based on it back in the day. Essentially, the party consists of a Timelord who's decided the non-interventionist policy of Gallifrey is BS, and the companions of that Timelord.

Not that I'm trying to convince you, just wanted to let you know there's limited tie to any specific Doctor's era.