Currently DMing - Shattered Star

Game Master Currently DMing

Welcome Iradyiel Madras, Estel Castdelo, Khyron ‘Kuno’ Aendar, Rosalyn Vanderale!

Hey I am sorry for the slight delay on the start. But I am looking to get things going.

A few things I would ask from each of you. I saw some people in the submissions had a character image linked to the profile, if you are able to find one that you think fits the concept please go ahead and tag that to your character profile. Also, in one of the PBP GMing guides I found a great tagline code that you can put on your character profile that will give me easy access to much needed info.

And a few more fun questions just so we can get to know each other.

What show/s are you currently watching?
What are you currently reading?
What is your favorite sports team, if applicable?
How long have you been gaming, what was your first class and system?

I will have our first gameplay thread up in the morning!

I'll build the tags when I'm on the computer again tomorrow night. Was checking on my phone on the way to bed.

Currently watching WandaVision, and just started watching Titans to try to prep for the 4 hour extravaganza which is being released this month.

Currently rereading A Secret Atlas, and have one of my Celtic Myth books lined up for afterwards.

I was drinking my way out of Texas A&M when I met my wife of nearly 38 years so far, so we cheer for Aggie football.

I started gaming in the Summer of 1979. I built a wizard using the brand new AD&D Player's Guide, and we ran using the Red Box DM rules.

My first character in a Tabletop RPG was a Bard in 3.5 who eventually replace Demogorgon as the prince of the abyss. That was 12 years ago!

I'm not following a TV show at the moment.

Very cool. thanks for the invite 'Currently DMing.' Sadly, very rairly do I find an image that I really like for a character. I just generally describe the facial features of the Icon I use.

I will double check my tagline and make sure it has the information you have requested :)

Ok the questions:
What shows are you currently watching?
Hmmm, Don't watch a lot of "tv" but tend to binge: The Expanse, Peaky Blinders, The Boys, WandaVision, the Mandalorian, Gate (yeah it's anime, I know), The Witcher and Altered Carbon. There are more, but I think that's a good representation.

What are you currently reading?
The books sitting at my elbow is Brandon Sanderson's "Rhythm of War" the fourth book of the Stormlight archive. The last two books I've read from my online library was Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the ninth, ninth house series, book two finished it 2/22/21 and Robin Hobb, Assassins Apprentice trilogy book one: The realm of the elderlings finished it 2/14/21. Recent authors I really like include, Joe Abercrombie, S. M, Sterling, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfus and of course Sanderson.

What is your favorite sports team,
The only sport I really follow is football. NFC team is the Packers. lived in Wisconsin when I was little started to follow them in the mid 60's. Moved to Ohio eventually started dating and married a Cleveland fan. So My AFC team is the Browns. I follow OSU a little, but since I lived in four states with 'big ten teams' before I moved to Ohio I can't say I 'bleed scarlet and grey.'

How long have you been gaming, what was your first class and system?
College freshman 1980, first class was a fighter in the original D&D, we switched to the AD&D books the next summer. After college 'the real world' happened. Didn't play again until about six years ago here on the boards. I was working third shift and needed something to help occupy my time. I had read up on the new systems including Pathfinder and found the boards here. Been with it since. Presently I stay at home, taking care of the house and my mom who has Alzheimer's.

I am currently watching WandaVision with my wife, and any number of semi educational shows with my two kids.
I am finishing up The Hobbit with my son during bedtime and we will then be transitioning onto Lord of the Rings. I am personally currently reading a book called Brief.
I am a Detroit Red Wings (hockey) fan. It have been a rough few years as they are in a rebuild.
I have been gaming for 17 years... wow how has it been that long. I started in 3.0/3.5 playing a Human Paladin of Palor that after the home-brew campaign became the king of the nation... talking about inflating future expectations.

The first gameplay thread is up and ready to roll. I will be making a post every morning, and will check in on the post 1-2 times throughout the day and move forward as needed. I am setting that expectation for myself, my expectation for you all is making a forward moving post once a day.

I have been reading a lot of guides/tips for PBP DM/GMing and GM Damo's Play Guide was great. I highly recommend all of us reading it, but here is a brief clip from that guide. Read the "Keep it Moving" section for what I mean by forward moving post.

I am very excited about getting into this game, but please give me time to learn. I like to think that I am teachable. If there is anything that you think I could be doing better please shoot me a PM and give me any tips you might have. I want to continually improve so that I can be a better DM for you so we can all have fun.

Sorry for the wall of text. I will try to not to break that commandment from the guide above.

Sorry for the late reply, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday. I think I’m doing better today though! I’ll set up the tagline once I’m back at my PC.

TV: I just finished watching American Detective, now I need to find something else. Pretty good show if you like true crime.

Books: Flu by Gina Kolata. Fascinating and a bit scary!

Not a sports fan, except for the Olympics.

First tabletop RPG: I don’t remember the exact year, but it was right when DnD 3.5 came out. I found a Living Greyhawk group at the local game store, made a cleric of Celestian, and the rest is history!

Looks like a solid group of players :)

CDM you don't mind to terribly if I abbreviate do you? You highlighted GM Damo's page, He makes several PC rolls to keep things moving. Will you be doing the same? That would speed things up.

What method will you be using for combat. I find block initiative goes very fast. Also, a timeline in combat. If someone hasn't posted within the designated time stated, they will be botted or the character will 'defend.'

I learned how to divide quotes! lol. Celebrate the small victories right?

CDM you don't mind to terribly if I abbreviate do you? You highlighted GM Damo's page, He makes several PC rolls to keep things moving. Will you be doing the same? That would speed things up.

I don't mind the abbreviation. I have received a few PMs and it is actually how I signed them.

I really like what GM Damo says under the Rolling button. It seems like it would help from bogging things down, where when the roll is needed per the AP I can make them on the side and pass out said info.

In another article I was reading from Painlord's Guide to PBP GMing he mentioned a cool method about Knowledge of monsters in this cool example from another game. I believe I will be using this method with Knowledge checks.

What method will you be using for combat. I find block initiative goes very fast. Also, a timeline in combat. If someone hasn't posted within the designated time stated, they will be botted or the character will 'defend.'

When it comes to combat I was thinking about having doing it as I would at the table, but block initiative does speed things up. I'll think on this.

As far as botted characters I think that if each of you had a designated "bot me" spot that says your top 3 actions you'd normally take then I would have a good guideline to run with if a person is away for whatever reason.

I like posting the knowledge check that way, so you can continue with your post after rolling.

The thing that slows the games down the most is combat. Either waiting for the person in front of you in init to go or the slowest person to go so we can finish the round. Obviously it compounds if you are waiting for the person to go that's in front of you and they are the slowest person.

Even if we are available to post every day. If we are waiting for the person in init in front of us to go, we may end up waiting till the next day to post. Whether it's because were in different time zones. Or one of us is only able to post at a certain time, Block init. prevents that. Everyone can post that day and you can either sort out their actions, or just have them go in order of posts. Either work well.

Two examples (Notice they both roll init for group)
GM Euan let's people post when available but keeps peoples actions in order of Init.
DM Trawets let's people post when available and actions happen in the order of posting

Since you quoted painlord another thing he recommends (I can't find where he posted it, but he reminded me in a game we're in) that the group moves after two players basically agree on what their doing. Instead of waiting for everyone to state what their doing.

Also I don't think it hurts to have a marching order set out.

I do see your point about how combat can become bogged down on this format. I will probably head down the block initiative.

Marching order! Great idea to have set. What is the single file order and your 2x2 order? Don't forget about Marius. Not that you have, you have all done a great job adding Marius into the game. I have in person games that don't RP with the familiar as much.

Finally, I apologize for todays wall of text. I did try the "stepping" concept and placed the numbers to help break up the text and allow you to interject if your PC sees the need.

Great job RPing on the first day everyone!

Hey party!

I found this article a quick read that gave me some great insights. Give the Painlord's Players Guide to PBP and let me know what you think. As a person new to the PBP style, I though this was a great players guide.

It's good to see Painlord is still being read. I reread it occasionally, just to try and remind myself. I often feel like I can still do a better job with hooks.

I'm fine with block initiative. It really helps PbP games move along.

As far as marching order goes, Rosalyn is definitely somewhere in the middle! She'll keep Marius with her unless she thinks it's safe for him to explore. Which he frequently wants to do, but he's a 1st level familiar, he only has 4 HP right now!

Oops, I forgot the +2 Perception from having Marius within arm's reach. Probably wouldn't make a difference with that roll though.

as for marching order, with Iradyiels high perception and med armor planning on being in front

Player already knows the answer to this puzzle. I had forgotten, but I remember it now. I am going to try not to ruin it.

If someone else wants to set a marching order, I'm fine with it.

I didn't think about people already playing this Adventure Path when picking the party. I would say that given the years of experience that we all bring to the table, digital or physical, we all can keep player and character knowledge separate.

If you want to give yourself a check to help prevent the blending of the two, go ahead and to an Int check at the beginning of your post and RP accordingly.

Marching order possibilities:

Single File:
Iradyiel - Estel - Rosalyn/Marius - Kuno

Two by two rows:
1st Iradyiel & Estel, 2nd Rosalyn/Marius & Kuno

Let me know what you think and I will add it into the notes.

Certainly able to keep player knowledge and character knowledge separate. Sometimes I struggle with playing what I consider "average" intelligence, But rolling the knowledge checks help with that.

For what it's worth this is my first time to play Shattered Star, so very happy to be here with you all!

The marching order looks good to me.

Solving the puzzle is easier if you remember the author is British, not American.

The difference in common language use is very important in this case.

That should help, without flat out giving the answer away.

And I had honestly forgotten about this puzzle until the anagram clue came up. I really had.

Didn't get much further through the module, sadly.

The marching order looks good to me. :) This is my first time with Shattered Star too, Iradyiel! Always wanted to play it though.

I understand the solution is a somewhat common slang-term for cash, even though the traditional formal definition fits the theme better. The slang use would make the word far more obvious to British players than American.

I remember the first time I did this as a player, we were completely lost on it. Thankfully there is another way to solve the puzzle if the party cannot figure out the anagram.

Critical Hits Convo: I know tables do things differently at times, so I just wanted to clarify. If you roll a threat, could you have it written out like this in your dice algorithms.

attack roll (Threat)
dice damage (1d6+1)

attack roll (roll to confirm)
extra damage if confirmed (1d6+1)

Hope that makes since. This will make it easier for me to see what is going on.

Side note.... anyone watch the last WandaVision yet? Moving to spoiler box to continue that convo.

So, a question about the crit, do you want us to always roll for crit just in case? (I've seen people do that) Normally I roll my attacks like this:

[dice=attack]1d20+?[dice] for [dice=damage]1d?+?/dice]
if it crits, I post a follow up roll afterwards
[dice=crit]1d20+?[dice] for [dice=damage]1d?+?[dice]

Example of regular attack
example of a crit attack

if there are mutliple attacks I post it after all the attacks, so it doesn't interfere with the previous rolls.

Example of regular two weapon attack
example of two weapon crit attack

Are those OK?

The "example of a critical attack" is exactly what I would love to see. Basically so I can see thing laid out, easier on me.

One last thing on casting spells (and really anything you do in this game) Have fun with it. See what the components are and describe what you are doing. Make the words come alive with your description so we can have the combat come alive.

Oof, finding Natalya is going to be interesting with such a low Knowledge: Local roll. :P

you can say that again, maybe we'll be able to track her... says the low charisma ranger

Sorry. Really bad day at work, followed by the older grandchild acting out all night. I'm almost clamed down. Let's go see what's happened here . . ..

Inventory.... How do people would you like to handle this? As you come across items you all split it up and keep track on your sheets? Or, I also saw in one of the guides I read that some people use a spreadsheet. I am not an excel wizard so if anyone would like to take ownership of doing that it would be a great help.

What do you four think?

I'm good either way, I've done both. The question I have is how hard do you want us to track items. Do you want us to add whatever we pick up to our 'weight carried,' Do you want us to specifically say we pick something up, or does it 'automatically' join our list whether we say we pick it up or not.

So for instance, three garnets, a silver dagger and a ring. If no specifies that they pick an item up and put it in a pouch (or whatever) when we go to 'sell' everything will we still have them? Did it make our way to the 'mysterious holding place' or is it still sitting on the table back in the room?

The other question for our players, how do we split up wealth? Do we claim items, letting the person with the least treasure claim it then split what's left? Or do we calculate what everyone claimed into the split?

I prefer the first method, it encourages people to use what we find, but I know others prefer selling more so they can purchase more specific things.

I'm not very good at excel either, but I can copy the items and track them, if we need a 'mysterious holding place' I can add items to this link But if we need to 'state that we pick up an item' I think it's best if we each track our own stuff, so we are accountable.

I prefer the first method as well, given that you never get full value when you sell stuff. But if nobody wants a given item it makes sense to sell it and split the proceeds.

While I can use spreadsheets, I’m not what you would call an Excel wizard. If the group wants to go that route I can probably figure something out though.

Let's move forward with people keeping track on their sheet. I really like the idea of the simple sheet Iradyiel put up there as a place holder until you sell or do whatever you do with them. This hasn't come up in the RP but you all have rooms here, so that is where you can store the stuff. I would only ask that you keep track of what is with you, and what is at the house.

As far as weight goes, since you have a home base I am not going to be overly picky about the weight. BUT, if you go and take on "The World's Largest Dungeon" that is like 800 pages long with 16,000 encounters, you will not be able to carry all of that loot around. Yay for Heward's handy haversack!!

When it comes to the items, I think if we focus on the need vs want stance everything "should" balance out. I will also be keeping little tabs on what all you have come across and if I need to tweak loot here and there I can and will do so.

Track what we carry. Got it.

As for loot distribution, I'm a team player kinda guy.

I think that the vast majority of the time, it is quite clear to the group where to put something so that it best benefits the group as a whole. Efforts to distribute things evenly tend to break putting things where they are the best benefit, eventually if not real quickly. Ties and near ties can be handled with comparisons about who has made out better in the past.

This process mandates that everything be available for use as hand-me-downs, of course. Don't sell replaced items that somebody else could be improved by using.

The generic utility items that are good for everyone start much harder to figure where they will best serve the group, but as the group falls into roles, even they become easier to identify. Got somebody who dishes out lots and lots of damage compared to everyone else? Her Will save just got more important than mine. Do we have a combat wall build? If it is an AC build, then protective magics need to stack on the wall to keep it standing. If it is a low-AC HP/DR build, then Con and DR boosts become prioritized there. We don't know for sure what our combat roles are going to settle into, but once we know, we'll all know, really.

And, of course, sometimes story reasons may have someone pass up something everyone else assumes they should get. Never forget that the story is why we're here.

”Ah... it would probably be a good idea if someone other than me did the talking with Zograthy and any of the other Sczarni. My accent won’t do us any favors in the seedier parts of Magnimar.”

Hey everyone. As a recent transplant to the system I think there is some Pathfinder lore stuff that I am missing, specifically with Rosalyn as a Chelaxian and the Sczarni as noted in Rosalyn's RP in the gameplay thread. I don't want to mess things up and wanted to know if someone could give me a brief info dump on the apparent bad blood here? Or, I would also totally take a link to where I can read about this situation.

Thanks so much, always wanting to learn more so I can improve for you all in this game.

Short, quick version:

Ethnic Varisian nomads "owned" Varsia. Thus the naming relation.

The Cheliax empire invaded, violently took over, and continue to view Varisians as lesser beings. The loss of Chelaxian power has not eliminated this attitude/behavior.

There's some heartburn on the Varisian side, as you might expect.

It’s not bad blood (although there is some of that) so much as the fact that Rosalyn is Nobility with a capital N. Which means she has a posh upper class accent that she hasn’t figured out how to effectively disguise. I figure that might as well be blood in the water around gang members, you know? Oh look, a potential source of money!

Wow, got ninja'd by Estel and Rosalyn, i must be getting old

Sure several generations back the Chelaxian 'conquered' Varisia displacing the two native people groups. The Varisian who are stylized after the Roma and the Shoanti. The Chelaxians view all Varisians as criminals and scum. The Varisians basically hate the Chelaxians. Even though the country is no longer under the rule of Cheliax the nobles and rich people are still of that people group. So there would be bad blood between the Sczarni, the Varisians Maffia who gave Varisians a bad name and a spoiled, rich, noble, Chelaxian princess.... or that's how they would see her.

Iradyiel doesn't see her that way at all. Nope not at all. Would never think it... :)

Oh, I’m sure at least some of the party will think that of her, Iradyiel! But Rosalyn is out to prove that she can make her own way as a Pathfinder without her family name. Might take her a while after failing her save against the sleep spell though. :P

A lot of the Magnimaran common folk would also be of Chelaxian descent. Varisians don’t typically like to settle down in one place permanently, so they tend not to take jobs that require them to do so. And most of the Shoanti dislike cities on general principles. But I figure that rich people in Magnimar have their own fancy accent, as they tend to do in real life.

If you want more information about the city, I highly recommend the campaign setting book Magnimar, City of Monuments! Or you can just ask and I’ll do my best to answer, given that I am the type of nerd who reads campaign setting books for fun.

Thanks so much for the brief info dump. I am reading through the Magnimar, City of Monuments campaign setting since it appears we will be spending a good amount of time here. If I ever mix things up and lay/do something that would go against standard known lore, please do not hesitate reaching out and letting me know. 9 times out of 10 it will be due to ignorance. But, I am hopeful as we progress that if/when it happens it will be fewer and fewer between.

Might take her a while after failing her save against the sleep spell though. :P

If you ask my daughter she would just say that every "princess" needs a good nap... who am I to argue with her?

Well, Rosalyn, don't worry about Iradyiel, he's from so far back in the sticks he wouldn't know what your accent represented :)

I don't know how it compares to other sources but I tend to use The Pathfinder Wiki for general information. So for instance the page on Magnimar

The funny thing is, Estel really doesn't mean stealing! <grin>

I have a Hobbit halfling rogue named "Boram the Burglar" He's very particular about what he's called, he's not a thief. He's hired to help adventures search for treasure or hired by people to 'reacquire' things that had been taken from him. But he's no thief :)

Boram are you?

I'm Sorika Zan. The bigotry has not yet begun to show. Not a one of you are real people. <wink>

Hey everyone, I wanted to give you a heads up that I have quite a busy Saturday lunch/afternoon. I will post and update maps later this evening. Please feel free to RP as you see fit, but I will have to wait to post until tonight. Just wanted to give you all a heads up so you weren't waiting for me to act next.

Sidenote - this has been a fun learning experience and hope you all are having fun.

Having a great time so far CDM! No hurries, have fun at your luncheon!

Hey team!

I have been locked out of my Apple ID since Sunday, that whole thing has been a headache. Not sure if someone was trying to get into my accounts or what but here we are. I am getting ready to have a meeting then head to work. I will have out next post up today tonight. I am sorry about the past few days. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

It's Cool CDM, get your apple taken care of and we'll hear from you tonight.

A Great weekend, it's been like the last 53 or so, sitting at home twiddling my thumbs...

Hey, can I roll Knowledge: History to learn about the Founder's Flame so I can use the bonus from Monument Scholar?

Hey, can I roll Knowledge: History to learn about the Founder's Flame so I can use the bonus from Monument Scholar?

I'll allow it because the trait is specific to the monuments in the city.

Knowledge: History: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

Hey Currently DMing, everything cool? Just figured I'd check in...

Hmmmm, two weeks tomorrow, it is not boding well my friends.