Deleting your Paizo cookies should work. Seems to be what is wrong... it was happening to me too until I tried that.
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Regarding elves and sleep, I haven't read anything about elves in warhammer being different than humans when it comes to that. For their biology, I think that when compared to humans the only differences are: a natural lifespan (1000ish for normal elves, 2000+ as shown by the Phoenix King Bel Shannar, and as Malekith was almost 7000 years old, functionally immortal with the right magic), a seeming inability to gain excess weight, and having "intense" minds which make them especially yummy for Slaanesh.
Elves not sleeping seems to be a D&D thing.
Good for me!
I'm still paying attention (most of the time - weekends are rough) but only Magda has responded in the last three weeks or so since my last Gameplay post. Is anyone confused about what is going on?
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I always underestimate how lazy I'm going to get on the weekends. Trying to put something together today, but if I manage to write it up, it will be a late posting.
Anyone have any complaints about helping haul the remaining cargo into camp?
I was lazy over the Memorial Day weekend anyhow. Hope you are doing better!
Axel just got his second Fatigued Condition, which is unpleasant. He had -10 to all his Tests before. Now he is at -20. Fortunately, he still made the Insight Test with the -10 before more Fatigue set in.
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Travel and sick... expect to be back soon
I'm off on vacation & don't have the book I need for the next bit with me. Feel free to respond, but I'll be delayed for this one.
A quick reminder that Heal isan Advanced skill & that Zarine's examination of Rutger's wounds probably needed to happen under Perception. (I think she doesn't have any Heal advances)
Very not important here. Do you guys want me to post something as reminders when an Advanced skill test is called for?
You don't have to post it, but I might make the mistake again. I don't know when I can and can't roll something I guess. Sorry.
No worries!
The "can't roll" element in this case is due to Heal being an Advanced skill (rather than a Basic skill). See page 117-118. The sidebar on 118 gives a list of all Advanced skills. Even knowing that, though, I understand if it is easy to forget when making a post. We'll work things out.
Looks like I already had those marked on my sheet, but made it clearer for myself by putting big Xs on the ones I can't roll. Sorry again.
So, a different pbp Warhammer game I joined is looking for players to replace some from the recruitment that went silent on us. We otherwise haven't really started. If I understand right, they're looking for up to two players.
If you'd be interested in joining another game, let me know. The GM is running Enemy Within, which Magda and I have played some of in the other game.
Amusingly, this time I'm the witch in the party...
The campaign is here. I've already talked to the GM about getting more people, but no one else.
https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivmjw
Responding to Zarine's question here.
First of all, you haven't actually failed the Haggle test yet, although passing it was always going to be hard given how well Stiegler rolled. You are at +1 SL and Stiegler is at +4 SL. If you got two assists from your party members (they would need to have advances in Haggle to be able to do this) and you spent a Fortune to improve the roll by +1 SL, that would get you to +4 SL as well and you'd lose the tie on the units value of your skill (your 5 to her 6). So a reroll would need to be involved to have a chance.
Sidenote: after-the-roll assists are really awkward in play-by-post. If you are hoping for an assist on your test, it's probably best to spoiler your roll so they can make the decision before seeing your roll.
In theory, Magda or Axel could also Haggle separately from Zarine and pass the test.
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But let's assume you fail, since that's looking likely. A failure here does not mean Zarine is forced to give up the key. It does mean that she has failed to argue for more money from Reuter's earlier promise to pay you one crown for helping to carry the cargo into camp after the Trandafir sank. If it helps, that really was a ludicrous amount he promised you: Zarine wasn't here for all of it but Reuter was consistently profligate and wasteful ever since the party met him. Even half of what he promised is excessive for the work incurred. (On the other hand you were promised money, so your side of the argument isn't absurd either)
I forget: did Zarine help bear cargo during the event in question?
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Regarding the status of the key, Zarine should probably be realizing that its value as leverage is declining rapidly. She could throw it into the bog, but that doesn't help anyone.
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The amount they're offering to pay right now is:
* 7 shillings per worker that helped to remove the ogham stones (one shilling per stone removed)
* 10 shillings per worker that helped carry cargo into camp from the wreck of the Trandafir
The amount they're offering for hunting down Reuter's murderer (payable later):
* 10 crowns total
shilling=silver
crown=gold
The 10 shillings is a little under half as I understand it. I mean even half would have been okay.
Axel is a bit beaten down... AND bitter (he WANTS to think of her as a no good thief who always screws her employees) that he'd be willing to accept 10 shillings for the cargo and 7 for the stones. It's close to a mythical gold crown!
As for the hunting of the murderer? Bugger it, he's game for now as he wants to further the overall favour in the great boat treasure rescue storyline.
Gimme a bit to post.
Yeah, she'll hand over the key if the party tells her the deal is good, and she doesn't seem to have any other choice, but she is still upset that they aren't keeping the promise of a lawful representative.
She did help carry. She didn't do the ogham stones though because she was exhausted, so none for her there.
Google was telling me that someone requested access to our slides for the game. I thought the link would work without specifically granting access. Is anyone having trouble getting to it?
it wasn't me, but I tried today, and Gogle does ask for access
I requested access yesterday.
(But able to get in today.)
First minor issue: I've changed the sharing setting, so try accessing the Notes & Maps page from the link again.
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Magda: you picked up the Luck talent during my holiday giveaway & I think you might not have taken that into account on your character sheet. If you've only spent two fortune since our last Fortune refresh (which was a long time ago in real world time since I've been going super slow) then you still have one remaining.
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OK, the Beast of the Ortschlamm is finally here, and it's a really big critter. This has a ton of implications that we need to go over before we get started. Page 341 has most of the size discussion.
This creature's size category is Enormous, a full two sizes above most of the combatants and three above Magda. It's easy enough to read over the Size entry in the rulebook, but what all of those things mean takes longer so I'll summarize:
Damage Rules: the basilisk gets a ton of benefits from how big it is in terms of being able to hurt you.
Damaging: if it wins an offensive combat test vs someone, it can choose to replace the number of SL used to calculate damage with the units die if it is higher. So a win with a 38 would become +8 SL instead of maybe +1 or +2 SL. The same win with a 30 (technically a better roll) would just be +1 or +2 SL.
Impact: It adds the units die of its roll to damage dealt anyway. So the 38 above is really +8 SL +8 damage. This can add up fast.
Damage multiplied anyhow: x2 multiplier vs most people and x3 multiplier vs Magda. The book isn't 100% clear, but I'm reading it like this: if the basilisk hit an Average size combatant with +2 SL and a 3 on the units die with a +6 damage weapon, we'd go:
+6 damage +2 SL +3 Impact -3 Toughness = 8 Wounds * 2 = 16 Wounds
So even a moderately light hit can put someone out of the fight. That got me reviewing the Injury rules and the penalty for going massively negative in Wounds isn't actually that bad. You take a worse Critical Hit, which is scary, but taking a Critical Hit is scary in the first place. Death is caused from things other than massive negatives in Wounds. But you don't want to get hit by this thing...
Deathblow: any successful attack lets the creature move into the space of the creature it hit and attack (someone else) again. It doesn't have to reduce the enemy to 0 wounds to Deathblow. You guys don't have to all be bunched up together to attack this thing though and we aren't using a combat map, so you can probably mitigate Deathblow if you just say 'we spread out'.
Defense:
Normally you can defend vs melee attacks with either Weapon Skill/Melee or Agility/Dodge and the choice doesn't matter much. Each size category applies -2 SL on Weapon Skill/Melee defense, though, so Axel & Zarine would take -4 SL on defense attempts with those skills. Dodge is unpenalized and I highly recommend using that instead.
Fear & Terror:
This creature has a Terror (2) rating vs Axel & Zarine (as well as the NPCs) and a Terror (3) rating vs Magda. Before you can even think of starting to stab the critter, we'll have to deal with that. Resolve can be spent to ignore Psychology stuff like this for one round which might be very helpful. This is where Terror is much worse than Fear though...
Normally, if you get up in something's face, Fear might give you -1 SL on all your tests against it, but that's the only problem. Spending one Resolve can usually take care of most of the Fear bad implications of Fear. Terror doesn't care where you are or what you are doing: if you fail the related Cool test, you are getting Broken conditions and you'll run away, which is super bad if you are Engaged.
So my usual strategy of spending a Resolve (if available) to Engage and then just dealing with the consequences isn't necessarily that great in these cases. You guys might want to take some actions to rally the troops. Without talent or spell backup, the only one I can think of is a Leadership test. Whether it is really worth an action is another question.
I'm going to give the three NPC guys three rounds of Cool Tests pre-combat to try and overcome the Psychology problems.
Size Rules Cleanup:
I'm skipping over some things about Size, but that mostly takes care of us. You guys do get a +10 to attack the creature. It has a lot of Wounds, ect.
Many Attacks:
This creature obviously has multiple attacks: one primary Weapon (likely representing its claws), a Bite, a Tail and Stomp due to its larger size. It can only use its Weapon attack without spending Advantage, however, so you don't have to worry about it going Weapon (miss), Bite (miss), Tail (hit). That sequence would just look like Weapon (miss) assuming it started with no Advantage.
Especially due to the Deathblow mechanic, you are highly incentivized to not allow this thing to win combat.
Fortune/Fate & Resolve/Resilience:
Mostly just don't forget you have these. You may want to read up on all the possible uses of these resources. This is the sort of fight that you might want to use them (but not frivolously).
Gang Up:
The way you can deal a lot of damage to things like this quickly is to gang up on it. Gang up bonuses can go up to +40 to hit, which push your SL (and damage) way higher. Doing so will be tricky due to Fear/Terror but if you can get to the point where you have 3-4 people attacking it, this thing should go down pretty quickly.
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Let me know if you have questions! At a minimum, remember that you have Fate if you just want to get out of this alive.
So the only effect of it being in bad shape is -3 toughness? Does it have any negatives to being able to see us because of the previously mentioned bad eyesight? I mean, so far it sounds like we should just leave and go buy bows.
Not that we will, of course. Have to save these guys even if I get chopped in half, I suppose.
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No, it has more penalties than that. The -3 Toughness above was me assuming that the target had a Toughness in the 30s. The target of an attack gets to take its Toughness Bonus off damage before the result is multiplied for Wounds.
If I was writing it up, this thing would be penalized differently than it is. It has a bunch of penalties though.
There's no penalty the creature suffers that is clearly labeled (this is due to bad eyesight). I can pick out one that is probably a direct result of that, though. Assume it can see you enough to pick out targets and attack them.
Your first turn will be a bit complex.
Step #1: deal with Terror - either Resolve out of Psychology for a turn or make your Cool test. If you fail the Cool test.
Step #2: if you succeed on the Terror Test, make a Cool test vs Fear. Unlike the Terror test, this is an Extended Test & you need two SL (three for Magda) to be free from Fear.
Step #3: If you are Broken, run away. If you have Fear, you can't advance on the Beast, but can otherwise act.
Might as well remove me from the combat. Axel aint coming back.
As a player, I'm still playing, disappointed AF but still playing.
After combat might as well start crit failing survival checks.
Were You out of Fortune as well, Axel?
Even if that was also the case, there are...options. It is possible to plead to the Dark Powers for aid. See page 182. The Campaign hasn't had much of a Corruption facet as yet, so you have some room to work with.
If anyone needs clarity, by my reading any given roll allows up to one Fortune reroll and one Dark Deals reroll. I'm not certain if I said multiple Fortune rerolls on a single test were allowable or not, so consider this a minimum for now.
But the Four are always listening...
I failed too. I say we just bail on this place and go see if we can make our fortune somewhere less freakily dangerous.
At this point, that sounds very reasonable. I'll assume Magda doesn't want to hold the line on her own.
So I played this with my Seaman a good ways back, before Magda & I were in the prior Enemy Within campaign, and our group beat the basilisk. We had more player characters, though, and now that I've evaluated the basilisk myself I think our GM didn't run the creature to its full effect. Its attack rolls were based on a lower skill & I don't remember Terror coming into play. We just sort of all rushed it and beat it to death.
So my earlier impressions of the difficulty of this encounter seem off in retrospect. I knew you'd have a rougher go of it but figured if I played the NPCs more courageously then you'd have a fair shot. Them all being Broken didn't help.
Do you guys want to try to circle back around to the camp, or do you just leave the area and never come back? Assume that neither choice will get you killed.
I'm thinking we should try to recruit another player? Small parties are just so much more vulnerable.
Would love another character... heading back to camp and saying it was a damn dragon beast and dropping We're good fam... good luck seems appropriate.
It's not as though they've engendered any loyalty.
Honestly, I think I'm leaning towards having Zarine go back to the elven lands and be done.
I feel like maybe warhammer fantasy, even though it is an interesting system, is more in the horror genre where you just have to keep fighting against overwhelming odds or eventually go insane/corrupt yourself or whatever, and I like my games more heroic quest fantasy where there is always a way to win... you just have to find the way. Even if you get thrown in prison, there is hope, because you are destined to save the world or something. Here, it just feels like we can't help other people or ourselves much... life sucks, let's move on sort of a thing. ... and for me, I have enough negativity in real life, so I like some positivity in my escapist hobbies. :)
... I'll stick it out as long as you guys need another player to help fight. I'm in lots of other games, so I'm always around, and don't want to leave you in the lurch. However, if you are going to recruit, I'd rather you found a replacement for me as well.
I'd say you might want to give the next story arc a chance. It looks more like what you are wanting.
That's fair. I'm willing to give it a chance.
At Ubersreik, you'll have the option to press on to Grunberg at some expense or spend some time in the city, allowing a Downtime segment. You might want to review the rules for Downtime starting on page 192. The Changing Careers Endeavour encourages some weird behavior from players I don't like, so I'll be banning that with some compensation in its place.
A big thing that Downtime allows is learning Characteristics & Skills outside of your Career. There is an option for learning Talents as well, but that one is super risky & I do not recommend it.
We'll get some experience when you get to Ubersreik & a Fortune refresh when you are ready to leave the city. I know how much xp you are getting for the If Looks Could Kill arc, but need to check to see if xp is due from events further back than that. Hopefully I can find time to go over the older parts of the thread today.
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Some of you are out of Resolve, so it's probably a good time to look over Motivations. Magda's Motivation can probably be read as 'Caring for Others' which I can see coming up in play often enough.
Axel might want to consider refining their Motivations somewhat. Axel's Motivation of 'To become skilled enough to be welcomed into the colleges of magic' won't have many opportunities to trigger unless the situation at hand concerns wizards and might be more like an Ambition. That isn't to say the Motivation is bad, but it doesn't fit the mechanical role of Motivation in serving as a source of Resolve recovery very well.
Probably the best thing to do as a GM is to start asking why Axel wants to do join the colleges of magic. Not being killed for being a Witch is certainly part of it, but it doesn't cover the skilled part of the Motivation. Is he looking for recognition? Money? Power? Just to prove himself? Maybe vengeance? What is the driving factor here? If we can get at a deeper part of Axel's driving force, we might find more situations in which it would come up. Or he could reconsider his Motivation altogether in light of the need for Resolve. Motivation and Ambitions don't have to be about the same thing.
Zarine might be in a similar state. "Promoting or protecting elven interests" may not come up very much if we read it narrowly. Since her reason for being on the expedition to find the Earl of Harwich is related to elven interests, that might not be too limiting as long as we are pursuing that goal. Any side-trips we take like our last arc might be harder to justify. A deeper motivation for why she wants to see after elven interests might be broader and applicable in more situations.
Err... well, maybe she wants to pursue elven interests because she thinks that only elves are doing things right. So far a theme for her is treating other people with respect and trying to help them, whether or not you think they are going to die anyway (the fight to save the woman who fell overboard) and standing up to injustice (trying to help and get fair pay, etc.). People are trying to take over elven lands, and she sees that as wrong, so maybe her whole thing on a larger level is just right and wrong, justice and injustice, and trying to do the right thing, even at personal cost.
She wanted to fight that giant monster too, but the choice was taken away from her by a fear she couldn't control... but when she *can* control things, she will try to do the right thing rather than whatever is easiest or least painful. Respect life, treat others as valuable rather than disposable... that sort of thing.
Does that work?
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That said, there seems to also be a side quest here to go after the dwarf that absconded with the money. Is that a real option, or just story background?