Thirteen Kingdoms: Order of the Righteous Trinity

Game Master Nathanael Love

Cool and cool.

Cool and cool.

same ^^

I'll have to make up an NPC for Frank to go to about his... eidolon problem, haha

Also a thing to consider: Perhaps limit the customization of cohorts somehow? If you don't, I'm going to make a guy who gets all the crafting feats xD

Funny, i was trying to figure out how large a harem Ivar could have with the leadership feat for free.

I'm unsure what Vaux would do with leadership. Get a Shadow Drake as a mount? Start his own tribe of multi-coloured Kobolds? I have a few levels before I need to think about it, so hopefully his desires will solidify more by then.

GM Update!
Looks like between 2-3 characters are listed as complete at all the tables, so we are making progress towards all 15 which will be the kicking off point.

Based on the straw poll, I've made the following four decisions for these games:

1. Sacred Geometry- banned
2. Blood Money- banned

Reaction was in two categories- "I'll exploit it if its legal" and please no, so I'll just go ahead and quash them both now- I'd rather not have options that feel obligatory to not "fall behind" other tables.

3. Death- not a lot of love for the alternate was expressed, so I am going to keep the usual PF1 death rules- with max HP at all levels that should blunt wonky insta kills while still being dangerous.

4. Leadership feat: this will be given at a Bonus feat for all at 5th level- two levels lower than usual, knowing that low leadership scores for some will give you very little at that point.

I will have more details on cohort builds when we get closer to that level.

I'm exited about this game! Loving all the characters as they are fleshing out! I'm working on finishing the other Kingdoms- all but two have descriptions of some kind added to the Thirteen Kingdoms Slide Deck, so check those out when you have a chance.

My next GM task towards getting us ready to start here is going to be assigning what Kingdom Building assets each Kingdom is starting with, and designing the military units costs- getting close to ready to shoot the starter pistol on these games.

I'm also trying to decide how far "back in time" this game is from the other games in my world-- I've been toying with either 50, 100, or 200 years from my typical start point.

Ok everything is done for Ichabod. I might add more to the backstory as I wait, especially figuring out ties to other members of the Order.

Anyone want to have worked together before? We could write up a brief about our first mission together.

Sure ^^
Not sure on what, though.
Anything that requires a distraction, climb checks, probably swim and/or survival checks, disabling devices, scouting, or summoned monsters would be right up Frank's alley.

Frank would also feel very ambivalent about spelunking for treasure, but he was definitely a treasure hunter in a past life :3

It's also possible that Frank approached Ichabod (or any other full caster, probably with a preference for arcane ones) about a certain problem he has xD

I'm unsure what Vaux would do with leadership. Get a Shadow Drake as a mount? Start his own tribe of multi-coloured Kobolds? I have a few levels before I need to think about it, so hopefully his desires will solidify more by then.

ooooh. I forgot you could get an intelligent mount...

If your cohort will be a crafter, then I'll push mine more toward dedicated healing and bardic buffing.

Lol woops, Snowball probably shouldn't be my default alias anymore xD

Haha. I figured. Questions:

1. So your cohort will be an item-crafter? In that case, mine will double down on healing and buffing.

2. One mission that is in Ichabod's background is hitting a slaver outpost on the edge of the wastes. Should we have gone on that together? We could say your summons wounded the slavers and herded them into a small area in which Ichabod could blast them. Something like that. And Ichabod would certainly be interested in helping with any unusual or interesting problems of an arcane variety.

Definitely Frank would've gone. Who would find where all the slaves were before throwing fireballs around [s]carelessly[/i] in exactly the right places?

Also SMI and SMII are a great way to get meat shields, for sure ^^

Edit: whoops, wrong sheet- in this table pending the all's clear from Vaux.

Also- you may now notice the "Kingdom Sheet" at the top!

This is the spreadsheet that will "power" the game- the back sheets feed into the front and give your Kingdom stats at a glance!

There are also slides added to the deck which detail the "stuff" that your kingdom has that are powering those stats.

Just translating my note version of the backstory into humanspiel, but it was my daughter's birthday so I'm a touch tired. Should finish tonight or tomorrow.

I was just looking through things for nice hooks to hang bits of backstory on, and I was curious: would it make sense for Frank to be in Zantamin earlier in life? (possibly born there or something, maybe just making the trip to see about magical solutions to a recent death)

GM, are you waiting on anything from our table for game start? Do you think we could set a date in a week or two when all tables could start?

Party: What dynamic should we have between the Dean and the rest of us? I see a few options that have their pros and cons but I'm sure there are more possibilities.

A. The Dean makes the lion's share of the decisions IC and OOC. Correspondingly, he'd probably also have the lion's share of the responsibility for making sure we were on the right track, making sure loot was allotted, etc.

B. We make decisions equally OOC but IC the Dean is in charge. Would require a little coordinating our OOC first so the Dean could then pretend it was his decision.

C. We play a unit of warriors who respect the Dean as the leader but everyone has nearly an equal say in the decisions IC and OOC due to lots of mutual respect. This one seems good but the major downside is it is maybe less faithful to how authority would work in the setting.

I think option C is the closest to what Aedward would want. Both in terms of logistics and character, I have no desire to make all the decisions, but the Order is very meritocratic by design and I think the Dean and his closest advisors (all of you) as being a more or less equal group.

I’d definitely have to take center stage in official dealings and the like, but one of Aedward’s main goals is to make the order even more egalitarian than it’s been and I think that would show through.

Done, although I'll probably revisit things when I feel better. Got a cough the last day, which is nice right now.

Ok that sounds good to me!

I was hoping for a potential start tonight, but I have to admit that I am feeling like utter dog crap today after my vaccine yesterday- sorry, I am going to have to push a few more days most likely- will aim for Wednesday evening kick off.

Take you time Storm Crow, get yourself feeling better.

Well great to hear you got the vaccine!

And we are off!

Huzzah!

Question for GM before I post: it sounds like we've heard of the storm crow before. What kind of reputation does he have and what do we know about him?

I'm about to post- I'll include the knowledge check on him.

"Traveler before you go a qvestion, have you eaten yet? You must be hungry Ya? Der kitchen keeps en pot of stew for der guards who come und go. Please help yourself. Tell zem Ivar kaptein of de guard said it vould be alright." He pauses for a moment, holding the storm crows gaze. finally looking away, he thumps the end of his northern axe on the floor like a gavel. Obviously coming to a decision he continues. "If you need a place to rest, tell vone of my guards. I have en spare room, you may rest der."

Turning to the Dean, Ivar shrugs. "It seemed like de polite thing to do, Ya." He then resumed his spot behind the dean, waiting for the scout from the south.

oh boy, wait till you hear B's accent... in fact, Jagermonster isn't that different, maybe Frank grew up not too far from where Ivar comes from xD

I like playing with accents, I usually use a German or Russian accent for a northerner, just because their easy to mimic from old tv shows. I tried sort of a Norwegian accent with Ivar before and wanted to stick with it. There are a couple things that are more German like using 'und' for 'and' but we'll see how it goes.

Stoked to 'hear' B's accent :)

"Ectually, dere are plenty uf poshts vit me usink diz accent from anodder geme, zo dere's no need to vait, haha"
T/N:"Actually, there are plenty of posts with me using this accent from another game, so there's no need to wait, haha"

also, about Frank's title
Councilor Frank sounds pretty good, though I feel like that should be a synonym for our party xD
Is "eyes of the dean" taken? Is that too much? since we aren't doing standard rolls, Frank could totally be the spy master XD

Nice accent, very Germanic. I'll confess, occasionally I've used a Translator it was wonderful for my dwarven paladin.

favorite quote was "Th' hin' Ah hate abit gobo's is ye can aeonly burst 'em ance!"

so I hadn't read if we had actually been given titles. So since it was a meeting of the Council, councilor Frank just sort of came out. I figured if Ivar was a guard, Captain of the Guard would be ok. So I gave him his own title.

same xD
Not that there's never stuff to adjust, but it's a pretty good translator xD

Also, I think we're supposed to pick our own titles, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't too far out there before grabbing it xD

Eyes of the Dean is my first choice :3
Magister (or similar) is my second choice xD

We are all members of the council, right? So councilor certainly isn't wrong. Ichabod has several titles, as most of us probably have. Councilor, diplomat (specific role on the council), and monsignor (official, clerical rank within the Order of the Trinity). I'll add titles to his tagline!

Councilor is definitely a solid title pick. The Eyes of the Dean is a really cool name, and definitely something that could get developed as time goes on and the intrigue gets thicker.

I figured 'Councilor' would be like 'Lord' or 'sir' also assumed calling the Dean, 'Sire', was ok as well. not my intent to 'name' anyone/

So as Ichabod said, if we have multiple titles please list them. I like having different things I can call people... you know that won't make them want to kill the barbarian :)

I imagine Vaux has titles, but doesn't care. He just does whatever he's meant to get done, and expects fear and respect as his dragonic due regardless.

Fear and respect? That's so perfect xD
Frank would probably feel exactly those things about anyone with dragon-ish or lizard-ish scales xD

I figured 'Councilor' would be like 'Lord' or 'sir' also assumed calling the Dean, 'Sire', was ok as well...

that's exactly what I was thinking. Except for the Dean, we're all 'Councilor' among (probably many) other things. Though I suspect Frank and Ivar have only 1 or 2 more official (or official ish?) titles :3

I was just looking for descriptive references, I've read that in writing you want to use the same name or description so readers can know who your talking about. But I really like having different terms to use in description. So Lord Frank or the Summoner, or Councilor Frank. That sort of thing. So feel free to keep those titles coming, I will try and work all of them in at one point in time or another.

I figure Ivar is first and foremost the Captain of the Guard. Then a part of the council. If for no other reason than he refused to leave the Dean in the room with you all. And he refused to keep his opinion to himself. So you made him an official part so you didn't have someone usurping the councils authority... so call he Councilor Ivar, or councilor Theodinson, or Captain or even by his 'given name' Goldilocks, just make sure you say it with a straight face.

I was reading joe abercrombie first Law trilogy and decided I wanted a northerner that was a 'named man'. But I wanted it to be less scary and more interesting... so 'Goldilocks' read the back story if you want more... if you read Joe, it was sort of a cross between shivers and Golden...

Noice.
I should check out at least that backstory xD

SO, anyone besides Ivar want to go on a trip? xD
We could just ignore it for a bit and see if that part of the kingdom is still there afterwards :3

If I read the map right there are seven areas/states in '12.' And three more in 13 the country called the Wastes. I would think we would first expand south into the wastes. So going south to deal with the problem gives us a perfect excuse to take over 13.

Country building questions:
Do we have any of the areas/states named? A location for the capital? Are there any duchies, counties or Baronies yet? Any Cities towns or villages? Do all the things mentioned that are already in our country (area 12) already swear allegiance to us, or will we need to subdue them?

Then we marry the dean off to Queen Erindair and bring 11 into the fold.

Vaux would very much be of the opinion that we go to look for the missing kids and make whatever took them suffered. He'll be quite loud about it, too.

Weird, my post got eaten by the site. I think everything in region 12 is loyal to us.

That's an interesting point about a royal marriage. I had thought about trying that but I think the structuring of the Order's government and their distaste for landed nobility makes succession like that impossible.

That said, Fathomir does seem like a good possibility for an initial alliance, possibly even Daercia too.

Correct- everything in 12 is part of the Righteous Order- those seven smaller regions correspond to one where the capital is, three which are currently organized as duchies with a duke (or equivalent) level ruler in each, and three that are duchy sized (and could be granted as duchies) but have NOT been granted-- these are on slides 5-8 there each in their own text box showing what else is in each region.

At some point we can establish which of the map duchies is which of those-- it probably eventually matters where exactly the capital is, ect, but it can be any as of now.

fun ^^
I suppose we'll have to make up some more dukes :3
Time to make up a bunch of fanatics that would never betray the empire! xD

Apologies for misapplying the DR! I thought claws were just S for some reason.

It will help when we're fighting stuff with DR/B or DR/Slashing if you guys mention what type your attack does hasn't been too hard to figure but I don't want to miss stuff too often.

Lots of claws are just slashing, but it seems that the universal monster rules natural attack table has them default B&S.
Eagle talons are just s, iirc...
Anyway, no worries ^^

Vaux's claws also do piercing and slashing, his bite is piercing and ironically his tail is slashing, as Vaux is using a tailblade.

just P, not all 3 types? OH WELL...

btw, I get the feeling that B won't find any traps in a necromancer's tower, so we should probably just go pick a fight xD

btw, I think Ivar is superstitious, right? So maybe everyone but him should get a Lucky Number? xD