GM Blake's PF2 Extinction Curse Campaign

Game Master Blake's Tiger

Wishing you the best on the procedure.

Take care!

Sending good thoughts and well-wishes to you, GM!

Sorry about the long wait for the Push.
Procedure was tolerated decently well. Results weren't what I was hoping for but nothing catastrophic.
Then work became insane.

Also with holidays, I am expecting that a lot of people aren't putting as much time and mental effort into these games as normal.

Good to hear you are doing decently well.

Oops! Sorry. I didn't mean for him to not reveal his name. I edited his dialogue a few times and left off his name by accident.

Yeah, not a problem. Chani is just really, really nervous around new people. It is nice to have an opportunity to let that show in-game.

Glad to hear you're doing okay, GM. My sympathies on the work front; we've also been busy here lately.

Sympathies right back. I hop down to micro and/or molecular at least once a day to ask them to do something extra for me.

Apologies for the silence. Half my house has been sick with back to back illnesses and work has been intense.

Ick! Hope you are all doing better now.

Half my house has been sick with back to back illnesses and work has been intense.

That... actually describes my situation pretty well too.

I've been down further with recurrence of injury flare-up and a concern about an infectious matter.

It has been a trial the past few months, sorry for evaporating (again).

Ick! Hope you are all doing better now.

Thanks. Everyone is now capable of taking care of themselves--to their baseline age appropriate limits--and am catching up on work.

Sorry everyone. Things got out of hand IRL.
I'll be gone from tomorrow through 3/16 with uncertain internet access, so no rush to pummel the last xulgath standing.

Time to put the medical training to work....

No worries GM; safe travels!

...and my wife didn't check her passport. So we're pivoting our vacation into a drive to the consulate. At least I got more than 50% of the airfare back as credit. :'(

Oh no. I am sorry to hear that. It is a bummer to lose a family vacation. Can you pivot to a more local venue stateside? I suppose that is a reminder to me that it is time for me to renew my passport.

Also, I should probably talk about the fact that I'm not posting, and quietly resign from the game. I'm having trouble engaging because this AP sold me on the circus and has just dished out nothing lately but demons and demon minions, and I don't feel like the plot is taking me back to the circus...

I probably should let this game go so you can replace me with someone who really likes demon hunting plots.

I'm sorry to hear that, I've been of mixed minds on the circus part. We HAVE been running into a metric poop-tonne of demonic excrement, and it did burn me out a smidgen.

Also, I forgot that hitting DC20 on Battle Medicine also gives +5 HP for Medic Dedication, just fyi.

Yeah. We've rented a Vrbo so we can vacation around the city.

On good advice, I have narratively completed the combat.

I am still interested in running this campaign and regenerating the inertia. We're now at the half-way mark for Book 2. Also on good advice, I wanted to survey the table to see who is interested in continuing now rather than trying to force anyone who's not interested (or botting) to finish the last two chapters before asking the question.

I do apologize for my own loss of momentum and most of all for not communicating the interruptions on a regular basis.

EDIT: I will also add that if someone feels like their character is just not working for them the way they wanted and might have more fun with a different character, this intermission of reflection is a good time to say that as well.

I might take you up on the offer of a change of character.

Chani is a decent character, but isn't nearly as interactive or engaging as many that I have created.

It's okay, GM. Seems like life's just been busy and hectic in general for a lot of people the last several months.

I'll need to think on the question(s) but initial gut response is that I'm tentatively interested in continuing.

Something I've seen some GMs do for big dungeon-crawl games/sections that might help is to narrate past most/all of the non-plot combat encounters (or cut back on random encounter rolls, if those are a thing).

I had been considering--actually had done a little--that very thing with the dungeons. I cut out the "random" encounters, but I could certainly streamline the experience to story relevant encounters.

Combat does tend to slow down PbP a bit. Combat is the most common time when I can see that a game has 3 new posts, open it up, and realize that I still have nothing to do since it isn't my turn yet.

I would suggest there being something to replace the combat with. Something to interact with and react to. That could be non-hostile NPCs if that is appropriate, interesting objects to look at and wonder about, or even skill challenges (I am a big fan of the Victory Point challenges) like door puzzles or terrain to navigate. Otherwise we are still just going from one combat to the next.

That does come with the need for us as players to interact with and react to such things though. The GM will burn out rather quickly if a lot of work is put into making a room of a dungeon interactive and interesting and we just treat it like an empty room.

If we have a group, I am interested in continuing.

I’m not sure how interested I am in facing more Xulgaths where it feels like every battle starts with a Fortitude save or be sickened. On the other hand, it looks like the plot is coming back to Madam Dusklight, which I think is good.

It also looks like there will be a fair number of Unholy creatures we should expect to fight, so I will need to keep that in mind as I level.

Interested in continuing, and I enjoy Ephie!

CAST REPETITIVE ENCOUNTERS INTO THE DARKNESS BETWEEN THE STARS.

SGN'WAHLOTH Y-KADISHTU 'AIOTH YA LW'NAFH.

I've thought about this, and the AP just isn't the one that I thought I was signing up for. I really think that GM Blake is an awesome GM and the group is pretty awesome, but this game really is not a match for this player.

I will be dropping. If you wish, please keep Song as an NPC. Blake, can you remove me as a player in a day or two?

Hmm

I'm in a weird spot.

The party (and GM) have made generous concessions to make Leaf-On-Wind appropriately medical bad-ass.

At the same time, I've felt sort of 'flat' portraying him, like I'm not quite 'gelling' with the character.

That includes working with Song-of-Air on brother/sister sorts of things -- we had a dynamic when we started but it's also kind of faltered (and I blame myself for that as much as anything).

This being said, I would very much like to continue, but am also trying to figure out options that would not overly ruin our party's dynamic or hamper our future adventures.

At the same time, I've felt sort of 'flat' portraying him, like I'm not quite 'gelling' with the character.

That is similar to how I feel with Chani here. Though probably to a lesser extent.

You might also take advantage of the option to relegate the character to NPC status along with Song-of-Air and Chani.

------

Speaking of which...

I am debating between Gnome, Goblin, or Kobold. I'm on the fence between all three of those. So would any of the other characters engage better or worse with one of those ancestries?

I'm also considering Magus unless someone wants to talk me out of that.

After Tengu kobolds are my next favorite but I'm very hesitant to do anything with them until Player Core 2 comes out.

Goblins give me a disconnect but that's only due to PF(1) conditioning, when I've seen folks playing them in PFS they are quite possibly the most conscientious of players and characters at the table.

Gnomes are good and fun when they're Hmm-ish sorts, painful when they're Jubilost (from Kingmaker) to me.

After Tengu kobolds are my next favorite but I'm very hesitant to do anything with them until Player Core 2 comes out.

I'm not overly concerned. I trust that the new version will be mostly additional options and additional flexibility. Like not having scale color required to match Draconic Exemplar choice (which almost certainly won't be color-based any more). As well as non-character-visible mechanics changes like being a dragon type instead of reptilian.

There might be some new options that I would be jealous of not already having, but the existing character should be mostly unchanged.

That is what I am anticipating, anyway. And if that isn't what happens, we have the option to run this campaign with the current Kobold lore and mechanics instead.

That answer my question for Chani: did you want to change the whole character or remain a catfolk named Chani.

I'm not certain I'll have the ability to build new non-combat encounters, but there are things to investigate in the dungeons.

You've just about finished this floor.

Regardless of any rebuilds, I believe I see Chani and Ephie confirmed to continue. Rulean as long as we have a fourth. And Clover and Leaf as a maybe, so one of them deciding to stay would put us at four.

I'd suggest finishing this floor then return to camp. There you can sent other circus members back to continue the exploration as a way to justify any radical rebuilds/new characters.

I'd be on-board for 'new blood' to arrive to help from my corner. :)

Already have a couple of ideas.

Hokay, I'm still in. While I certainly don't *dislike* Clover (or Snowy!) I'm also admittedly not as attached to her as I have been to some of my characters. I'll give it a day or two and see if any new and exciting character ideas - or perhaps a new twist on an old favorite - occur to me.

Hmm...so I presume that as far as characters go, Rulean & Ephie will be continuing as-is and I saw that Chani is considering a new magus character. That still gives us a pretty good mix of fighty + arcane/divine casty.

Thinking of swapping Clover out for a leshy but still noodling around on what class I'd go with. Right now I'm looking at Druid, Kineticist, or maybe Summoner.

I do plan to stay with Cleric(Warpriest) but if given a full rebuild would consider changing some of the other things on him. Would need to think on if I would change his Charisma or the Free Archetype.

The Warpriest’s Armor feat would work well for him.

Still in, still figuring out options to cover the gap Leaf-On-Wind would create while striking out for something newish -- right now thinking maybe Cloistered Cleric with Rogue Dedication but not sold on Cleric if someone has a different thought, willing to work with folks.

Wood and Water kineticists have healing powers if you are looking for something different.

Not to overlap with Clover's replacement (and I can still adjust if needed) but my 'back of napkin' thinking is Ardande kobold Kineticist (Wood/Water/Earth) with Free Archetype Rogue.

If that's okay I'll work them up into a character, otherwise I can wait until other character is lined up.

@ Rulean: Yes, you can rebuild as much or little as you want.

@ Everyone: In your tweaks/rebuilds/new characters, you'll be leveling to 7th by the end of this floor, which is soon. Start planning those additions as well.

That's really how that fight goes. It was a summoning trap with a random duration.

I am packing for another convention happening this weekend. We will be driving most of tomorrow and Monday. It is a new convention for me, so I don’t know how the connectivity will be.

Not to overlap with Clover's replacement (and I can still adjust if needed) but my 'back of napkin' thinking is Ardande kobold Kineticist (Wood/Water/Earth) with Free Archetype Rogue.

If that's okay I'll work them up into a character, otherwise I can wait until other character is lined up.

A bit late on this, but don't worry about overlapping with me! Take the concept that speaks to you and run with it :D

Madame Darkmoon is my Ardande Kobold Phytokineticist, haven't worked up easy-paste combat macros yet.

Okay with being fit in where-ever.

Yes, yes, I know that there's already at least one fortune teller here. It's more a thing to do on the road rather than make fruit at the snap of a finger. Everyone wants exotic fruits, but then they take one bite and they toss it because it's not what they were told it was going to taste like. Kinda disrespectful, y'know?

You can be the one to interpret Tikomel's delirium ramblings.

Please finish up any character rebuilds or replacements and everyone level to 7th. :)

Will finish up on character tomorrow, just lost all body/brain energy here.