GM Otha's Consortium Compact (Inactive)

Game Master Otha

Hi, welcome to the Discussion thread for GM Otha's Consortium Compact. We're looking at starting around Tuesday. Please post your relevant PFS information here, when you get a chance...and feel free to discuss your characters amongst one another...

Player Name:
Character Name:
PFS ID#:
Faction:
Normal or Slow Progression?:
Day Job:
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC):

You can also dot and delete in the Gameplay thread, at your leisure...

For those whom I haven't GM'ed before, I hope to post a bit more by the weekend about my GM'ing style...and I'll also post a link to the Maps/Slides file once I've got that set up...

Looking forward to running y'all through this scenario...

Player Name: Soulnova
Character Name: Elena Endari
PFS ID#: 29065-3
Faction: Silver Crusade
Normal or Slow Progression?: Normal
Day Job: None trained
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC): ☆The power of friendship.☆

Player: RePete
Character Name: Omnia Kahlo
PFS #: 126566-21
Faction: The Concordance
Progression: Normal
Day Job: Profession Solutions Consultant: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Special Abilities:
Quibble: I can force a single creature to reroll a single d20 once per day before the results are determined. If the creature wishes to resist, it a Will Save. Since my DC is 9...I'll most likely use it to try and help a companion.

GM: My abilities change based off where I happen to be at the time. The determination is based off the ranger's favored terrain aspect. From my recollection of this scenario, we'd encounter urban, underground, and water. There's nothing you have to track in these regards, just giving you a heads up.

Player Name: VixieMoondew
Character Name: Bibi Bourjis
PFS ID#: 222176-9
Faction: The Concordance
Normal or Slow Progression?: Normal
Day Job: This!
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC): Bibi’s one of those “wade into combat” oracles you see now and then, using a touch attack to deal damage, and her spell selection is largely unrelated to fighting (really more geared to laziness, like Scrivener’s Chant)

She also has the Wrecking Mysticism curse, so if there’s something revolting around a corner, try to warn her, since sickened/nausea/poison effects last 50% longer on her!

Player Name: Will H
Character Name: Wesley Hoggins, the Mad Cow of Macridi
PFS ID#: 171333-1
Faction: Exchange
Normal or Slow Progression?: Normal
Day Job: Profession Merchant: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6 time to sell some merch!
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC): wearboar Skinwalker! Doesn't go great with a brawler, but I can run fast!

edit well, I might want to use my reroll on that if I still have it at the end of the scenario.

Player Name: philipjcormier
Character Name: Huong Chan
PFS ID#: 55792-17
Faction: Grand Lodge
Normal or Slow Progression?: normal
Day Job: Profession(Scribe): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC): Huong Chan has 2 Arcanist Exploits:

Damn. You all have cool powers. To be fair Elena just hits people that hurt her companions with weapon focus and power attack. xD Not much at the moment, I'll give her some sister-in-arms levels later.

No worries Elena. We're all low level still. Most characters don't really start to function in their plans until at least level 3.

I suspect my Archetype won't be massively powerful at high levels. I thought it definitely worked with the Chaotic theme of the ganzi's so thought I'd give it a go. :-P

Hey, hitting at +4 for 1d8+7 damage at first level is a pretty dang nice power to have! And you can keep doing it! Once I've done my 1d6+1 Frosty Slap seven times a day, all I have is biting people and making sure we can eat and carry heavy stuff without dying.

To be honest, biting people sounds gross. And "people" is pretty much the best-case scenario, there. I'm gonna grab a backup weapon before we head out. Probably a shortspear-- always liked the "spear and shield" thing, and I'm not cool enough to one-hand a dory yet.

No worries Elena. We're all low level still. Most characters don't really start to function in their plans until at least level 3.

Realllllly looking forward to level 4 for Frost Fall + Magical Lineage + Rime Spell + Freezing Spells reasons!

I got the slides/maps finished and the link can be found at the top of the page, in my GM header, as well as below:

Slides/Maps

Double-check me to make sure I've got your Initiative & Perception blocks accurate; you can change if needed. Also, you can put in your preferred marching order, at your leisure...

Serena is the only one who hasn't checked in yet and I sent her a pm this morning...

I think I've GM'ed a couple of y'all before but I think there are several I have not...so below is just a tidbit on my GM'ing style...

I don’t pretend to know everything when it comes to Pathfinder rules; I'm sure many of you have been playing longer and know the rules better than I. If, more likely when, I err, call me on it as you see it and I’ll fix it; I have no qualms about retconning if I screw something up. You won’t hurt my feelings as I like to think I don’t have too much of an ego. By rule of thumb, I’ll retcon if my mistake is detrimental to the PC/party no matter when it's discovered; if my mistake is beneficial to the PC/party, I will not retcon unless I catch it almost immediately. My main goal is that everyone will enjoy themselves and have fun; I try to roleplay the NPCs with that in mind, as well as to, hopefully, add flavor...

As a GM, I usually post at least two or three times a day, sometimes more, and try to keep things moving along. While I don’t expect that much posting from my players, I hope you can post once a day during the week and once over the weekend...but feel free to post more if you wish. Real life comes first though, especially in the crazy times we live in now, so please let me know, if possible, when you may have a hard time posting. If I have to bot you, I’ll check your profile for botting instructions; lacking that, I’ll bot you conservatively equally considering the best interests of the character and the party.

As far as initiative goes during combat...for those players in the same initiative block, I usually play things out in post order as opposed to initiative order as I’ve found that moves the combat along more quickly. But if it’s a situation where it’s more beneficial to the party to play the block in initiative order, I will do so.

Looking forward to running y’all through this scenario...

I am currently restricted to my tablet until my computer is done at the shop Tuesday morning. I cannot interact with the slides until then.

I noticed my Perception is incorrect. It should read +5.

I would prefer position 6, but will take position 5 of someone would prefer position 6.

Sorry ‘bout that, Huong, I’ve corrected it...

No worries, as we won’t be starting in earnest till Tuesday. I’ll probably make an intro post in Gameplay late Sunday/early Monday just to let your PCs role play, introduce each other, and interact a bit before the briefing starts...

Otha, you sound like my favorite kind of GM.

I've put some comments on the page, since determining an ideal marching order is kind of like one of those logic puzzles. "Huong wants to sit next to Elena, but would hate to be next to Bibi. Bibi, meanwhile, wants to sit next to Elena, but would hate to be next to Bibi! Omnia doesn't care who he's next to, as long as he's in the back."

Thanks for the PM, Otha!

Player Name: GeraintElberion
Character Name: Seren Elberion
PFS ID#: 3812-8
Faction: Silver Crusade
Normal or Slow Progression?: normal
Day Job: none
Any special abilities (or anything else you'd like to share about your PC): Seren can use her domain abilities on allies within 30' after we have all had a sit down together. This is totally dope.
She will use the harrowed feat before breakfast each day. I will just roll a d6 and stick to stats in classic order:
1 = strength
2 = dexterity
3 = constitution
4 = intelligence
5 = wisdom
6 = charisma

Ok seems good. I added Elena's marching order. She would like to be on the front with Wesley.

Just made the initial post in Gameplay to allow for introductions/roleplaying...I plan on starting the briefing late Monday/early Tuesday...

Wesley, have you been listening to the Glass Cannon?

They have a brawler, Raffo Rumblebeard, who is right up your alley.

I have been listening to it, but Wesley predates Raffo by at least a year. I've had bad luck with that podcast, my terrible amoral clown (in Starfinder Society) Bonko the Clown premiered shortly before Erik Mona started playing his Tiny Murder Clown in GCP Live.

I’ve enjoyed reading your introductions; the role playing is very good and entertaining to boot. And very nice picture, Elena; I wish I could draw like that but, sadly, my artistic ability goes no further than stick people and stick animals...

Thanks! I got really excited to play this character again. I originally made her 12 years ago in 3.5 and I found some sketches... so I decided to go for it and make the full color pic. :3

Awesome!

Technically I've drawn Bibi dozens of times... but that's because she's a self-insert.

I'm a very tired person :D

Sorry for the huge wall of text...it seems Pathfinder briefs are either minimal or huge blocks...

Also, the two handouts (Notes & Tasks) are also rather lengthy; you'll probably need to zoom in to around 100% to be able to read 'em comfortably (at least that's what it took for my eyes)...

That's always the problem with running this scenario in PbP-- it's such a big ugly wall of text that it's easy to space out reading it. At least in F2F you can keep people involved the whole way through!

No problem. :)

BTW as Seren took 5 in the marching order, I wrote Huong on 6. Only Bibi and Omnia left.

I’ll go ahead and take 3, then!

And, just an FYI, the marching order is not set in stone...I just kinda use it as a general default when placing icons initially on the maps or in a new room, unless otherwise specified...if someone mentions they're leading the way, hanging back, etc., that takes precedence over the marching order...

Sorry for the delay. My computer was in the shop until just now. While my tablet is ok for short posts, longer ones are a bit....umm....difficult.

My post will be a bit long while I catch up. Again, sorry.

With the holiday, work, and family issues I've been away a few days. Didn't see we'd got going already.

Sorry if my delay caused any issues. Will be jumping in shortly.

No worries, Omnia, just getting into it...

Inn first sounds good. Since we are starting in earnest the "Next Day" and we have a divine caster, I will switch out my Disrupt Undead Cantrip for the Prestidigitation one.

Is anyone interested in purchases. Again I have enough, (185 GP),for a few Alchemist Fire/Anti-plague/Antidotes. If you are let me know and I can purchase and let you hold them. Anything you don't end up using I will just collect and carry for future use.

Costs are:
Alchemist Fire: 20 GP
Anti-plague/Antidote: 50 GP each.

Purchases:

2 Acid Flask (10g each = 20g total)
Anti-Plague (50g)
Anti-Toxin (50g)

Spent: 120g

I’ll grab some anti plague and antitoxin as well!

Elena is broke. xD Has like 7gp left.

She can... buy a bunch of rats (1cp) and someone can sneakily set them loose in the inn to cause a scene? xD

Huong will purchase 2 Alchemist Fire (40 GP total) and let Elana carry them for the adventure.

By their wording, is it safe to assume Bibi and Omnia are making their own purchases?

Please clarify and speak out if you wish for Huong to make any other purchases, please.

I would assume so Huong, but they can pipe in if otherwise...

Oh, no worries Huong. I'm using my own funds for mine.

An Oracle runs pretty cheap early on, especially one that isn’t carrying anything fancy and metal—I can afford my own (and if unused, will probably turn them in at the end of the adventure under the “free rebuild under level 2” rule).

So, i'm not sure laxatives will work as the onset is ten minutes.

I've just been perusing the PFS-legal poisons and they are generally very expensive and have low DCs and/or long onsets.

For a fast acting nausea, for instance, you spend 400gp and it is only DC15 to resist.

So, poisoning their grub does not seem that great an option.

However, putting live insects in their food might work as a disruption of their meeting. I know i would lose my train of thought if a centipede crawled out from under my potatoes.

Can't we just go there to party like fratboys and 'spill' a five-pint pitcher of ale over one of them? Then Wesley can accuse them of tripping him up and it's all 'what did you say?' and 'do you want to take this outside?'

Just throwing out ideas.

Yeah, poisons are a bit rough for sure.

Drugs are much cheaper. :-P

Definitely not opposed-- insects are cheaper than laxatives!

I'm surprised a good laxative costs more than a katana, though...

Just a note on the procedure here for those who haven't played/GM'ed this scenario before...

For this specific task, you'll all come up with a plan and put it into action. The plan will have three phases:

Preparation: You will make preparations for your plan. Then each PC will make an appropriate skill check against an unspecified DC; if 3 of you make that DC, this phase is completed and you move to the next...

Enact the Plan: You put the plan into actions. Each PC will again roll an appropriate skill check against a slightly higher but unspecified DC; again, you need 3 to pass to succeed...

The third phase you have little control over and I'll keep a little mystery in that till we get to it...

In any phase, if only two of you succeed, you may try again but ALL of you must reroll (even the two that passed). If you still fail, then you must alter the plan at that point, and try a different approach...

When I've played this task, we really had a lot of fun with it, so I hope you all will as well...

At this point, I'll stand back a little and let you come up with your plan and role play...

Bibi:

Yeppers. And the changes aren't subtle either. They immediately change when I go into a different terrain style. At this level it's not really a major issue. Just changes my cantrip style things and my blasts.

When I get additional utility stuff and the kineticist defensive abilities, it may become more troublesome. I just hope I'm not flying or something when I enter a terrain that doesn't have that infusion and drop. ;-)

It's honestly the main reason I chose this archetype. Chaotic archetype for a chaotic race. I can't wait to get this guy into a special or something that changes terrains regularly. lol

What about going up to Paltus Flynter, telling him we are here to renegotiate his contract with the Kortos because his fake pearls aren't selling well enough to cover the smuggling costs. Then suggest that we are going to be smuggling stuff for the Aspis instead. Sort of a "better go talk to the Kortos agent before he talks to the Aspis agent if you have any hopes to maintain your fake pearl side operation" type of thing.

There's a slight risk there as we don't know if Paltus is working with the Kortos or not. I was under the vague impression that he was working on his own-- but if we pretend to be dissatisfied customers...

Yeah, the less attention attracted to us as being related to anything the better.

I'll go for loud music/frat boys + bugs in soup/drink.

Alright, just to keep us in line, my proposal for The Mad Cow of Macridi's actions in the two phases.
Prep - Profession (Merchant) to find, recruit and pay the musicians to come to the bar.
Enact - Acrobatics or CMB for a wrestling move to make a convincing fall and start something with the agents. I suppose the GM could insist on bluff, but i'd prefer not to.

I think we're allowed to help each other out with our plans of action, so I'll use Diplomacy to assist with the Prep part of Wesley's plan...

...and then use Stealth to sneak some bugs into the food.