Kingmaker

Game Master Rackal28

Alas. That is a thing that sometimes happens, unfortunately.

EDIT: I'm thinking of investing in a shield cloak, maybe even putting it into +1 enhancement bonus. Thoughts?

Also, Rackal, would you allow me to use my feint trait if I was using the cloak as a shield at the same time? Feels a bit odd, so I thought I'd ask.

Lina, with 48 hours of you referencing the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, one of the historians that I follow online wrote about that very event. I was unfamiliar with it, and I now want the letter either as a cross-stitch in my house, or else transformed into an oratorio to be performed at the highest of art venues.

If Signy expresses concerns from the anarchist perspective, Brental will likely have something to say (partially because his player may also be an anarchist at heart).

Sometimes unfortunately, in my line of things, one is likely to develop a bit of appreciation for smack-talk. Same part of the world, -ish, I’m also fond of the rather less extensive message of Idanthyrsos to Darius in Herodotus. (4.127) There’s probably some interesting folkloristics on just how moments of defiance get worked up to iconic status.

Although, speaking of embroidery, don’t tempt me! It would be an interesting break from my current project, but still very involved. (Back-stitch for the lettering? With a few ornamental capitals? In what style? And what embellishments? Darn it, now I’m thinking. :) ) I would volunteer, but I’m nowhere near inflicting my visual sense on anyone, since I’m no draughtswoman. (It would probably have to be something appallingly traditional to get done anytime remotely soon. Geometric / abstract floral motifs, probably.)

I feel like Meneas wouldn't quite get anarchy. He's from too aristocratic a society, and while he's more than willing to have a hands-off leader when it comes to non-criminal activities, he's not quite Andoran in terms of democracy.

That said, I do think he'd happily have something akin to a representative elected body with which a ruler should/must consult on certain matters. At any rate, it's an open question. I'd love to hear suggestions.

Likewise. I would love to dream up an anarchist utopia, but I don’t get that vibe from Lina, since she’s got her head full of fairy tales, and grew up in a puppet state at the end of some very loose strings but, I imagine, fairly strong propaganda.

But absolutely, I don’t think she can imagine calling for anything harsher than a constitutional monarchy with extreme local autonomy and a vitally strong parliament. I mean, elves is probably like cats, in terms of herding, what with all the chaos.

Her main concern for when a leader should intervene would be to make sure that people play nice and let the forest flourish, tbh.

Completely unrelated, the shield cloak looks neat, Meneas, and very on brand for someone with many mysterious wrappings!

Lina, what is your line of things?

So, I had Signy sort of punt on the question. I read a quick bit of reading on anarchism but it wasn't really helpful. Anything after the 19th century is responding to industrialized economies and doesn't apply very well to a Kingmaker type of situation. On the other hand, the earlier stuff tended to place a lot of focus agrarian or crafts-based systems of mutual or common ownership in some form.

Since I'd really rather not get into economics very much, there wasn't much there to work with. High politics mostly gets relegated to some kind of "and eventually there will be no government!" utopianism like everything seems to in the 17th through 19th centuries.

Anarchism is an untidy subject! :p

Yes, anarchy as a political ideology is fairly modern. There's some roots earlier, but not anything really concrete around the time of Golarion's relative period. You've got representative democracy, but even that's still kind of new (as we see in Golarion, too).

Lina, what is your line of things?

So, I had Signy sort of punt on the question. I read a quick bit of reading on anarchism but it wasn't really helpful. Anything after the 19th century is responding to industrialized economies and doesn't apply very well to a Kingmaker type of situation. On the other hand, the earlier stuff tended to place a lot of focus agrarian or crafts-based systems of mutual or common ownership in some form.

Since I'd really rather not get into economics very much, there wasn't much there to work with. High politics mostly gets relegated to some kind of "and eventually there will be no government!" utopianism like everything seems to in the 17th through 19th centuries.

Anarchism is an untidy subject! :p

Philology, on a good day? (It has not been - for quite a while, sadly. :( )

I definitely need to do some more reading: I’ve mostly seen a pittance of Goldman (for obvious reasons ;) ).

And yes, it gets very messy very quickly, as I understand it, which is not much.

I would naively think that the communists and anarchists would have got along better than they did, but then again.

Given current affairs, and since it’s been a while since I’ve dabbled in the history of the part of the world my family came from, I did do some browsing in the neverending cabinet of curiosities that is Wiki and stumbled upon the Makhnovshchina. Been a very long time since I thought much about interbellum Ukraine. TL;DR: economics is complicated, even more so after industrialization, and getting stuck between the Reds and the Whites is very bad news, especially if one’s not even Russian.

Also, people are awful. :/

Man, Meneas already has too many ideas. Like how to prevent mortals from infringing on fey spaces - he's heard tell of Andoran, and knows even the best intentioned mortals can clash with goodly fey because of their differing lifestyles requiring different things.

Here's my thought on how to handle the assembly/constitutional monarchy bit. For the foreseeable future, we don't make it formal or enforced by law. We can be sure that we will listen to the gathered people. As time goes on, we establish it more firmly and make it legally empowered, because while we might listen, there's no guarantee our successors won't. That way we can slowly introduce things like Andoren ideals to a people who are probably almost totally unfamiliar with it. Brevoy doesn't strike me as especially, uh, willing to accept that sort of thing.

De facto / unwritten constitution for the win!

As probably the character making the most aggressive push for leadership, Lina would be on board with that.

Despite her ambitions, she’s chaotic, so there are definite limits on what she thinks she could get away with or would want to, and she probably assumes the rules of the game involve considerably more local autonomy than is normal outside elven lands and/or loose collections of city-states.

“What do you mean, ‘Do the cities of the Five Counties have an individual choice as to whether they want to raise their levy?’ Of course! How could they not? … Should someone write that down? Somebody should probably write that down.”

:)

Anarchism is deeply untidy and oft-misunderstood, especially with regards to the different economic strains. In service of storytelling, we don't need to necessarily get into the nitty-gritty. So much utopianism.

For now, though, I agree that a less-legislated, unwritten path forward is the best way to establish norms. It will be important to be flexible as we see what challenges the world *ahem* the GM throws our way.

By the way: here's a link for a Kingdom Sheet, if you want to use it. Might make things easier to track.

Through the aether, Brental senses a great disturbance in the force, as if a single voice suddenly cried out in disgust and was just as suddenly silenced. :-P

In all truth, a bit of toponymy could be fun. I'm trying to recall a meme that I saw a few years ago using a format from the Regular Show, which had toponyms/endonyms as the sole surviving aspects of endangered languages. I can't find the meme, but the idea of place names is fascinating.

We seem to have a general Scandinavian theme with naming, at least as far as Signy and Brental are concerned (with the Birkirsdottir and Fenson). Kellid/Hallit isn't based on a specific real-world language, nor the culture anything specific from Earth. I do love learning how places are named, though.

After I get off work, I may sit down with this list and scroll through until I get some inspiration.

Kellids seem to me like they're supposed to be pre-agricultural revolution humans (possibly even Ice Age), with a little bit of Conan thrown in, too.

When I played Iron Gods I fashioned my Kellid Skald character as sort of Dacian/Scythian and built out Kellid culture in that mold, with a little early Balt religious and ritual stuff to round things out.

But mostly I did that so I could use a re-fluffed Nodachi as a Falx/Rhomphaia. I never really tried to make it systematically coherent.

The closest I've ever gotten to philology is linguistic anthropology, and then only the fundamentals. From what I know of philology it's pretty neat.

It really is fascinating stuff. It's a way to date historical documents, too... though not necessarily reliable.

“Ha! Take that, Mr. Pope! No donation from Constantine for you!”
[...]
“I’m just curious, Mr. Simonides, why your ‘original manuscript’ of Homer on lotus leaves just happens to reproduce all the misprints of Herr Doktor Wolf’s edition.” (Richardson’s Classical Victorians is a delightful repository of scandal and adventure.)

There are some really great stories, that’s for sure.

But I’m only getting my feet wet, so I’m not any good at it, really, yet. I’m aiming more for the lit-crit / cultural history angle more broadly, too, as opposed to the more laser-focused, more strictly linguistic take that some folks go for.

Brevoy has elements of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, what with its two distinct cultures and vaguely Slavic neighbors in Iobaria and such. That said, I can't recommend having any Polish names, simply because I don't know that most English speakers could pronounce them.

One could go with Krol, though. It sounds simple enough to be Kellid in origin, and means "king" in Polish. I believe it was the title for the PLC's ruler. Other than that, I don't mind Helikia.

NG as a kingdom sounds good to me.

Final conversation about the kingdom today, other that that I'm gonna move us on towards the wedding tomorrow~

Meneas isn't nearly lawful enough to play Stannis' role.

I think it's the dourness that I had in mind, more than stickler-for-rules-ness. :)

Or what reads as such to Lina. Tough nut to crack, is Meneas, under the cowl and all. She should probably pay more attention, or maybe she just doesn't quite grok his angle. Sure, keeping the lands and roads safe, but, if we manage to do that? What do a good life and a good time look like to him?

... (Memo to self: probably don't play poker with Meneas.) ;)

Meneas is ill-suited for any of the tasks except probably hunting down something to eat. He's also probably the least motivated of the PCs to be involved. I'll try to figure out what else he may be willing to pursue, but if I can't in time, feel free to assign him to whatever.

Signy's totally up for:

5. Drinks must be served!
7. Singing!
8. Dance instructions for Oleg! (As long as it's not serious formal dancing)
11. Lana needs help with getting dressed. (But Lina would need to make the dress, and Signy's too!)

Meneas is ill-suited for moving tables and chairs? Driving a carriage? Or is he just lazy and antisocial? :p

Asocial! Not anti-social. But his player is bad at reading and may not have been invested enough to pay too much mind, so missed those ones. Those are fine, though.

So I think it's:

Brental
12. Decorations must be hung up from high places!
14. Handwritten place cards must be made.
15. A wild beast must be hunted down to serve as the main course.

Lina
6. Flowers must be obtained for centerpieces.
9. Music~
16. Lana needs make-up.

Meneas
2. Lana will be getting dressed and ready at a small cabin a bit away from the trading post someone will need to drive the carriage for the event.
3. Claptrap needs prettying up!
13. Tables and chairs will need moving.
(Claptrap is the horse, if I recall, so that it a reasonable course of action I think.)

Signy
5. Drinks must be served!
7. Singing!
8. Dance instructions for Oleg!

Which leaves the following skills to some other folks at the trading post:
1. Any Craft to make a wedding gift but all must choose a different Craft skill.
4. Food must be prepared!
10. Greeting guests.
11. Lana needs help with getting dressed.

Does that seem good?

Looks reasonable to me.

I imagine each of us could take one more as well, if it comes to it. Lina could help to craft, Meneas could help to cook, Brental could help to greet, and Signy could help Lana get dressed.

By the way, speaking of skill challenges, I want to share a story of a recent skill challenge that I participated in with my Monday night gaming group.

Brental I need
Acrobatics, Fly, or Climb
Linguistics
and Survival

Lina
Know. Nature
Perform- Any Instrument
Disguise

Meneas
Ride
Handle Animal
Strength Check

Signy
Profession Barkeep/Barmaid or Dex Check
Perform Sing
Perform Dance

Posting to my pbp games: sorry for the radio silence on my end! Trying to diagnose a dreadfully inconvenient network issue in my apartment – I suspect it’s a router or provider issue, but that’s just a best guess and it’s a terrible thing that I’m the techiest person around (my first instincts would probably do my character proud: “Have you tried hexing it really hard?” :/ ) – so I currently have very spotty access at best, and may not be able to post regularly until I get that sorted, unless I can snatch a moment at the library or the like.

I will try to get something up tonight, if I can.

It looks like Morof hasn't posted since Feb. 7th. What should we do if anything?

He could fade into NPC for now, and if Anthorg is able to return, Morof could too. But for balance, we have four, with a good mix of melee and range, divine and arcane, martial and magic, with most skills covered well enough.

It does leave us without any big blastiness, but since that wasn't ever really Morof's thing, I doubt it'll hinder us overmuch.

Mind you, I don't have a strong opinion on either recruiting someone new or sticking with the four we've got.

Yeah I was thinking Morof could just be an NPC for now and if he decides to return we can have him jump on in.

I think four members will do fine for now with the group.

I suppose Brental will have to start preparing one blast per day, just in case. Aggressive thundercloud, flaming sphere, flurry of snowballs...just gotta tap into that elemental nature.

Biiiig post coming tomorrow for the actual ceremony if yall wanna do anything before then do it now!

*Gestures at Gameplay in despair.* :) That was impressively disastrous, I have to admit.

I don't even want to imagine what it might have looked like.

I decided, though, that whatever else it might have been, Lina has a bit of an opposite problem to what my mum has: like Lina, though not quite as much, my mum's tall and so - no points for guessing - when she was taught how to dance in high school, since there was an uneven number of girls and boys in her grade, she was taught "the boy's part"/how to lead, which she does to this day, to the frustration of many gentlemen of her generation.

I don't dance, but I'm glad to hear from my brother, who's taken lessons in swing with his partner, that these days folks are teaching everyone both parts.

Sorry it took me a bit longer to get everything put together than I thought it would but the post is finally up!

Enjoy!

Oh, and I may have alluded to this earlier in your campaign Meneas when Riftun was talking to Zaiobe at camp xD

I think that it'd be a quarter movement, but that's just a gut feeling.

As someone who’s got another character working towards shadowdancer, I think I should have a better feel for the rules about vision and whatnot than I do. ;)

I guess it depends on if it works more like a fog or obscuring mist, maybe?

I don’t think there’s technically anything stopping one from blitzing full speed through those other than common sense and fear of running face-first into a wall or worse.

Even blindness lets one make an Acrobatics check to move at full speed, right? So maybe Lina should be rolling that (to move at half speed) as she rushes in where angels fear to tread.

Blindness does allow for Acrobatics to move at full speed, yes.

Ack, a natural 1! I'll get a post up tomorrow morning my time. It's been a bit hectic around here of late.

What. Gods. Damned. Prophecy.

[...]

"Is this the Will of the World? Or the Will of Sevenarches?"

I hope not, for the sake of intra-party concord. Lina probably doesn’t need any reason to get any more paranoid about the place. ;)

Although this Salazar has definitely got her attention, and I’ll have to think about a suitable response in-character, once Lina has a moment. Right now, I imagine she’s kind of distracted.

Though, hopefully, if we manage to get these lugs under control and/or running off to whoever sent them, to be a fly on that wall, at least for some of the debrief!

Ominous mysterious patron: “So you’re saying Bill and Ted got f@*$ed up by … Lethal Weapon Barbie?”
…
Goon A: “Yes’m.”
Goon B: “Her dress was really flattering.”

Much as I’m tickled by Lina’s luck so far, I do hope Meneas gets a break soon. I wasn’t planning on it, originally, but maybe Lina should add fortune to her list of hexes to consider, at least for occasional rotation by way of Ritual Hex when she takes it. (Soon! Ideally, anyway.)

Right, though? Brental is having a major personal crisis right now.

Just in case anyone was worried that Brental might turn traitor on y'all, heck no! But is there therapy in this part of Golarion? Or is he going to have to travel to Ustalav and visit Briarstone Asylum?

Signy's been trying her hand at it here and there. Maybe she should hang out a shingle when the time comes.

Yeah I feel that. Brental would seek her services.

</3 Poor Brental! Some drama belongs in history and on the stage, not in the lives of intrepid heroes!

Lina would try to be sympathetic, but she’s not really a fan of her local kinglet, and as I understand it, Kyonin isn’t likely to stoop to (visibly) noticing anything any of the River Kingdoms get up to, so she can only imagine what it would be like to have her people gunning for her. Probably angsty figuring out how to go nonlethal, pronto, with a possible exception for the jerk leading the wicked plot against her? … Great, and now I’ve spoken that into the void for fate to take hold of.

Although, with the “damnable priestess” this Salazar mentioned, maybe there’s a slender hope that it’s some terrible misunderstanding and/or we’re going to have to root out a bunch of double agents from our turf?

Oooh. Tricky. Lina’s probably touchy on the whole subject of witch hunts. More drama! ;)

... Maybe all adventurers need therapy.

Signy doesn't need therapy, just her clarity of purpose and the stiff drinks to keep it that way. ;)

Meneas is going to be so confused. Being on fire isn't really conducive to paying attention to what's going on.

Sadly true.

Though I'm running with the idea that all that Lina's really noticed is, "Blah blah, will of the land, we are very cross about some lady." ;)

Also, as far as my last gameplay post goes, one of the bits of lore in one of the Pathfinders' Journals that is just too gruesome for me to pass up if the opportunity to include it comes up, is that apparently orcs tell their kiddies that an elf called the "Happy Fellow" comes in the night to devour children who do anything as wicked and un-orcish as smile.

A just punishment indeed.