GM Feyrial's Fall of Plaguestone (Private) (Inactive)

Game Master feyrial

Edit: I am open to being convinced on this, though. If you want to persuade me. :)

Where's "Shark Bait" when I need him? ;)

Yeah, that's actually how I read it too. I've got no issues with it. No need in bothering with looking it up, Feyrial, it's all good. You know me, it's all about the RP. The mechanics of it all are just a by-product. I am good with anything. :)

GM Feyrial wrote:

Edit: I am open to being convinced on this, though. If you want to persuade me. :)

Where's "Shark Bait" when I need him? ;)

Yeah, that's actually how I read it too. I've got no issues with it. No need in bothering with looking it up, Feyrial, it's all good. You know me, it's all about the RP. The mechanics of it all are just a by-product. I am good with anything. :)

Haha, Shark Bait would only be useful for Atia. She'd say yes to anything he asked. :P I'm a different story. *cracks knuckles*

Yeah, clarity and lack of surprises is all I am going for. I think Drake should be a fine character.

Similar idea; different character.

Read Psychometric Resonance and more specifically the Psychometric Assessment action. It lists that it may cause 1d6 "psychic damage". I don't think that is actually a damage type. I hear that it should be Mental damage instead.

Haha, Shark Bait would only be useful for Atia. She'd say yes to anything he asked. :P I'm a different story. *cracks knuckles*

Lol!

I'm gonna switch Diplomacy out for Medicine on one of my skills. I don't know. It's just a gut feeling. I'm trying to wrap my mind on how this guy's going to roll, and I'm not sure Diplomacy 'fits'. Thought about it and thought about it and just having a hard time seeing it.

Sounds good! It can be hard to nail down what actually fits on a character concept sometimes.

My dad used to run a couple of sessions for face to face games and then give people a chance to retcon stuff that just wasn't fitting the character, which I've always thought was a cool idea.

My original train of thought for Atia was pretty different than how she played out & makes me wish she had a tad more charisma, lol.

Yeah, I hate that. You always have an 'idea' of how the character is going to play out but ultimately it's a crapshoot it feels like(to me anyway). You get them to where they 'fit'(for lack of a better word) into the campaign, and it turns out a bit different than you originally thought, and then their stats don't quite match. So annoying.

Personality has always been a roll of the dice for me. I have the idea of how they're going to be initially but it could easily change depending on whether or not I like it or if it even works.

And man that is cool. Your dad? That's just cool.

Retraining is an official option in PF2. Though it does take some downtime and not everything is able to be changed.

At least not without working out something special with the GM.

Retraining is an official option in PF2. Though it does take some downtime and not everything is able to be changed.

At least not without working out something special with the GM.

Yeah! I remember seeing those rules. I like that there's an option for it. For both, even.

So once KingHotTrash finishes their character and I've looked over everything again, we should be pretty set to go!

I'm excited. :)

And man that is cool. Your dad? That's just cool.

Yeah, my dad was big into GURPS and d&d back in the day and spent many, many years running campaigns and the like. He got so excited when I started playing stuff. He's been working on a massive homebrew based on the Hero system & bounces ideas off of me a lot. My dad's autistic (like me! And my sister. Runs in the fam) and this is his special interest, haha.

I tried to explain the Skulls & Shackles game and what was happening there and ended up feeling like this hahaha

I tried to explain the Skulls & Shackles game and what was happening there and ended up feeling like this hahaha

Lol! Definitely been down that road with family of my own. Pretty funny. :)

Here's the guy I was telling y'all about: Storyteller Shadow

Didn't realize he was pushing for 27. Funny enough, I found a post to where he was only at 8 just 1 year previous. From 8 to 27 in just over a year! That's insane. I still don't know how he did it. I was in one game with him back in the day. He was a solid poster.

Feyrial said it best with the one simple word: "Escapism". He had a big long post explaining why he was running as many games as he was. (Probably somewhere in that thread, I don't know). In a nutshell, he was going through some serious RL stuff and that's how he coped.

And like I mentioned earlier, he crashed and burned badly. That much is GOING to take its toll eventually and it did.

Looks like I was off a bit... Looks like he made it to 30. Crazy. :P

Anyway, I gotta quit scrolling through that thread. It makes me tired just thinking about it. And it makes me just feel sorry for the guy. Cool dude.

I've never seen anyone else do that on these boards. I've known a few run 8,9,10 games but never that many.

Wow, that looks...exhausting. But if it helped, it helped! even if only for a time.

I will admit that right now I am really heavily leaning on this stuff for escapism. My dad is in the ICU and it is rough. I don't think I could go as far as running a bunch of games, though. Or joining a bunch.

All the games I'm in are because of Fern or folks in the same game as me with Fern DMing, lol. I get super intimidated by the application process.

I am, admittedly, refreshing the "Campaigns" page on my profile a lil too much though. :P

In terms of our game: I've been talking to KHT on Discord about his stuff, so that's why y'all haven't seen much yet. He's getting stuff done. :)

In terms of our game: I've been talking to KHT on Discord about his stuff, so that's why y'all haven't seen much yet. He's getting stuff done. :)

Cool. Good to know.

Sympathies for your dad though.

Really hope and pray your dad pulls through, Feyrial.

I HATE the application process. Just hate it. I know the feeling. My reasoning is due to backstory being my Achilles heel. Sometimes I do okay but for the most part, it's such a struggle.

And I've rarely gotten chosen because of it. The one thing I know I'm good at is being reliable. If nothing else I've got that going for me. But they don't know that, you know? I've never sweated it though because I've been the ultimate "replacement" guy. :) It all happens the way it's supposed to happen so it's all good. Of all the games I'm in currently, I was originally chosen in only 3 of them. Well, counting this one will be 4. Out of soon-to-be 11.

And for what it's worth, they'd be CRAZY not to pick you, Feyrial. Crazy. If it was me, and you came in the recruit thread and said: "I'm thinking of...," I'd be like: "Done! That's one!" (Totally not kidding) :)

Also, I switched out a few hatchets for light hammers. Figure I better have some bludgeoning weapons as well just in case we run into skeletons.

I should do the same for my own character too.

We already had some discussion about "That's Odd". Basically I will try to use it as an activated ability rather than making Feyrial have to remember that it exists. And I am not opposed to red herring and troll "odd things" as your creativity allows.

Pursue a Lead: the big question is, how broad is too broad? I'm not entirely sure how to answer that. I think we will just have to negotiate it out on a case by case basis.

I am planning on tracking my two active investigations in gameplay posts occasionally as they change. Much like I do with Caiten and his prepared spells. For example:

Clue In: It lists that the reaction can be used when an ally attempts a check to "investigate". I expect that means it won't apply to attack rolls. Yes on recall knowledge, or search. Maybe on thievery, diplomacy or intimidation (to interrogate someone), or other things. Again this may have to be judged on a case by case basis.

Devise a Strategem is pretty straightforward. It only works on physical attacks, but it works on all types of them (melee, ranged, thrown). It doesn't look like it works on spell attacks since it only mentions the Strike action, not "attack rolls" generally. It doesn't work with saving throw spells since I wouldn't roll anything for those anyway. It also doesn't apply to skill actions like grapple, feint, or demoralize (though there is an upgrade feat that changes this for some of them).

Everything sounding like what you would expect?

In terms of the red herring/troll stuff, I don't want to lean on that *too* heavily...I don't like deliberate misleads, but we'll see what happens. It will depend on whatever activates it. Sometimes they will be meaningful, sometimes they won't - it'll just depend on where/what/etc.

In terms of "How broad is too broad?" for Pursue a Lead - I think you're on the money with it being a case-by-case basis thing. Same with Clue In.

I like having the investigations there under the spoiler tag. That helps me remember, too.

Everything is indeed sounding like what I would expect.

Javell - sounds good on the hammers.

Really hope and pray your dad pulls through, Feyrial.

I HATE the application process. Just hate it. I know the feeling. My reasoning is due to backstory being my Achilles heel. Sometimes I do okay but for the most part, it's such a struggle.

And I've rarely gotten chosen because of it. The one thing I know I'm good at is being reliable. If nothing else I've got that going for me. But they don't know that, you know? I've never sweated it though because I've been the ultimate "replacement" guy. :) It all happens the way it's supposed to happen so it's all good. Of all the games I'm in currently, I was originally chosen in only 3 of them. Well, counting this one will be 4. Out of soon-to-be 11.

And for what it's worth, they'd be CRAZY not to pick you, Feyrial. Crazy. If it was me, and you came in the recruit thread and said: "I'm thinking of...," I'd be like: "Done! That's one!" (Totally not kidding) :)

Yep, I am massively insecure about backstory stuff sometimes - for reasons discussed earlier, given how sometimes characters don't always line up with what I originally imagined them to be like. I don't often put a ton of effort into a detailed backstory as a result :P It depends on the character/game.

Well, if you ever run a game, I'll keep that in mind. :P I was cruising the recruitment threads earlier and didn't see much that struck my fancy (that didn't already have like 50 people applying!)

Fern spoiled me as a DM. I'm liking the DM I have for another game, too - Talomyr - he's a player in the Witchlight PBP I'm in and he's been great.

In terms of the red herring/troll stuff, I don't want to lean on that *too* heavily...I don't like deliberate misleads, but we'll see what happens. It will depend on whatever activates it. Sometimes they will be meaningful, sometimes they won't - it'll just depend on where/what/etc.

A long con style of red herring would probably be too much work for both of us.

But something simple like a mis-positioned rug that covers a loose floorboard that opens up to a hidden compartment - that is empty. Just something every once in a while to remind us all that not everything that we see is relevant to the prebuilt plot.

I could see that making the game world feel a lot more alive and that we aren't the only people in it.

A long con style of red herring would probably be too much work for both of us.

But something simple like a mis-positioned rug that covers a loose floorboard that opens up to a hidden compartment - that is empty. Just something every once in a while to remind us all that not everything that we see is relevant to the prebuilt plot.

I could see that making the game world feel a lot more alive and that we aren't the only people in it.

Oh, absolutely - I already have some notes in a doc on that sort of thing. :)

A long-con style would indeed be far too much for my teeny tiny brain.

Fern spoiled me as a DM. I'm liking the DM I have for another game, too - Talomyr - he's a player in the Witchlight PBP I'm in and he's been great.

Talomyr is a solid player. He's been around a LONG time.

Also, I switched out a few hatchets for light hammers. Figure I better have some bludgeoning weapons as well just in case we run into skeletons.

Just punch them in the face, I hear that works. ;)

Lol! I know, right?! What are these stupid weapons for?! That's where we've been going wrong.

Scratch that, Feyrial, I'm going all fists. Caiten has inspired me.

Not only does Caiten bring the hurt with the rules and the numbers, don't ever piss him off. He'll simply walk up to you and slap you down!

This is what Caiten does when the bad guys jack with Joran.

My apologies for my slowness; weekend has been hectic. I'll have Baradim done in a little bit. Thank you all for your patience <3

Baradim is mechanically all set. Just need to write out his harrowing backstory of surviving the onslaught at Lastwall and how he looks. It was really really hard to not find a hot orc. Ridiculously hard. Hopefully, the picture I got is a nice middle-ground.

I need to double-check everything when I'm not deliriously tired, but once that's done, I'll have the first gameplay post up sometime today (Monday? Monday.)

Ah. Shields. Lisi has a shield and shield block, but really hasn't used it. Cev now has shield block, but doesn't have a shield.

The question on shields is what damage types they block and how many at a time.

The trigger conditions say that you can only block physical attacks. The question is caused because some spells cause physical damage types (water and earth spells often cause bludgeoning damage for example), and melee and ranged weapon Strike attacks can have energy damage added to them (from Frost rune for example). Also some attacks have rider conditions, such as poisoned weapons. Some of those say that if the initial weapon damage is reduced to zero, then the rider conditions are not applied, but others don't.

So the questions are:
* Does shield block apply to the three physical damage types no matter how they were generated (including spells), or does shield block apply to weapon strikes only?
* Can shield block reduce damage of energy damage types if they are caused by a weapon strike?
* Does shield block work like Resist All (reducing all damage types separately) or do you only reduce damage from the final total even if there are multiple damage types that could qualify?
* If the shield block prevents all of the physical damage, does any energy damage still take effect? How about rider conditions such as poison?

Usually how I hear it ruled is that:
* shield block can only block weapon or unarmed attacks, not spells even if the spell deals a physical damage type.
* shield block can block energy damage from a weapon attack. This does leave the question about unarmed attacks that only deal energy damage, such as Foxfire.
* it does not work like Resist All - you only reduce the damage once no matter how many damage types there are.
* energy damage from a weapon attack does still take effect.
* rider effects normally happen unless the attack itself has a rule in it saying that the rider can be avoided by reducing all of the initial damage to zero.

So the questions are:

* Does shield block apply to the three physical damage types no matter how they were generated (including spells), or does shield block apply to weapon strikes only?
* Can shield block reduce damage of energy damage types if they are caused by a weapon strike?
* Does shield block work like Resist All (reducing all damage types separately) or do you only reduce damage from the final total even if there are multiple damage types that could qualify?
* If the shield block prevents all of the physical damage, does any energy damage still take effect? How about rider conditions such as poison?

Usually how I hear it ruled is that:
* shield block can only block weapon or unarmed attacks, not spells even if the spell deals a physical damage type.
* shield block can block energy damage from a weapon attack. This does leave the question about unarmed attacks that only deal energy damage, such as Foxfire.
* it does not work like Resist All - you only reduce the damage once no matter how many damage types there are.
* energy damage from a weapon attack does still take effect.
* rider effects normally happen unless the attack itself has a rule in it saying that the rider can be avoided by reducing all of the initial damage to zero.

Do you have anything handy on why most folks would choose not to let the shield block spells with physical damage types? In my mind, it makes some sense for it to negate something, but I wonder if it's a balance issue that I hadn't considered that would make shields feel really OP.

Energy and rider effects working make sense to me since they're damage in addition to a physical type. So the shield could help with the physical damage, but the extra stuff would still get through (unless it's got that rule in it you mentioned for the rider).

I would also agree with the idea that it doesn't work like resist all. That would be very OP I think.

Also some attacks have rider conditions, such as poisoned weapons. Some of those say that if the initial weapon damage is reduced to zero, then the rider conditions are not applied, but others don't.

I would lean towards the ruling that if all physical damage is blocked, the rider conditions wouldn't apply. Need to make contact with the PC for the rider condition to work, imo. I'm open to discussion on that, however. It's a learning experience for me!

Do you have anything handy on why most folks would choose not to let the shield block spells with physical damage types? In my mind, it makes some sense for it to negate something, but I wonder if it's a balance issue that I hadn't considered that would make shields feel really OP.

Not entirely, no. I don't think it would be a big problem to run things either way.

My only thought is that it would change how the spells balance against each other.

Burning Hands and Chilling Spray couldn't be blocked, but Pummeling Rubble could.

Or Ray of Frost and Produce Flame couldn't be blocked, but Spout could.

As the person who plans on telekinetically chucking rubble at people and manhandling them with the Force, I am fine with shields being able to block the crap I throw at bad guys. However you want to rule on it is fine with me!

I will look at this a little bit more when I'm at a computer and fully decide then - should be a bit later. I'm at the hospital & didn't think to bring my laptop.

I think unless there are any other major mechanical things in character sheets, I am ready to post the first gameplay post. It'll just be a sec while I futz with slides on my phone, ha.

Finoan, if you have a character portrait of any kind for your PC, go ahead and add it to the slide - I just take it and use it for the roll20 token. I can just use your avatar here if you'd prefer, though.

If anyone has suggestions on how to find a good portrait, I would be happy to hear it. I looked around and couldn't find much.

The stock photo avatar on these forums is reasonably close, so it would work if I can't come up with something else.

I figure it can be changed later if I do eventually find something, yes?

If anyone has suggestions on how to find a good portrait, I would be happy to hear it. I looked around and couldn't find much.

The stock photo avatar on these forums is reasonably close, so it would work if I can't come up with something else.

I figure it can be changed later if I do eventually find something, yes?

Yes, absolutely. I usually use Pinterest and Google for finding things. I generally use the keywords: fantasy character art, d&d character art, dnd, etc. Let me know if those keywords aren't doing it and I'll see what I can do. Research & keywords are my specialties.

I also found this on Reddit. It's a Google drive of a bunch of character art.

I think https://www.pinterest.com/pin/560205641146820205/ looks about right.

It won't let me download it since I don't have a pinterest account though.

I could probably get my wife to do it once she gets home...

So, I will post the first post in a moment, but Google Slides aren't super friendly on my phone for what I need to do, so as soon as I'm able, I'll get those caravan NPCs in your sights. My sister is going to bring me my laptop when she comes to see my dad, so I'll be able to do it then.

I think https://www.pinterest.com/pin/560205641146820205/ looks about right.

It won't let me download it since I don't have a pinterest account though.

I could probably get my wife to do it once she gets home...

I got it for you. I have an account. I'll put it on for you now. :)

First gameplay post up.

Got some clarity on the shield questions.

GM Friend said the two key things here are the words "attack" and "physical." So, it can only be used on something that produces an attack roll and deals either piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing damage.

He said, "So as an example you could shield block a hydraulic push but NOT, for example, pummeling rubble."

The primary difference, from my reading, is that a spell like pummeling rubble doesn't have an attack roll - it's a reflex save.

Friend also followed up with, "It's an odd case where they don't use the word Strike and the only reason not to use it would be to allow for stuff like [relevant spells]."

Usually how I hear it ruled is that:

* shield block can only block weapon or unarmed attacks, not spells even if the spell deals a physical damage type.
* shield block can block energy damage from a weapon attack. This does leave the question about unarmed attacks that only deal energy damage, such as Foxfire.
* it does not work like Resist All - you only reduce the damage once no matter how many damage types there are.
* energy damage from a weapon attack does still take effect.
* rider effects normally happen unless the attack itself has a rule in it saying that the rider can be avoided by reducing all of the initial damage to zero.

So, my ruling:

2. Energy damage will still take effect.

3. Rider effects will normally happen unless the attack itself has a rule in it saying that the rider can be avoided by reducing all the initial damage to zero.

Hopefully, this makes sense?

I am posting a million times in a row, pardon. NPC portraits for caravaners are up. Sweet, sweet laptop.

I am posting a million times in a row, pardon.

Doesn't bother me any. I'm glad for the information.

But here. I'll throw something in the mix for you. ;)

That makes sense for shield stuff, especially as in later levels you get things that help you reflect targeted spells and what not.

kitty. loaf. I am so happy.

Glad you appreciated that.

I do have some more RP stuff to do around the breakfast campfire, but I am waiting until Drake gets a chance to make his entrance.

Also, I am figuring that the stuff written in character profiles are at least mostly available for the investigator to deduce and react to in-game, yes? I'm thinking that the spoiler tags are for organization rather than to actually keep information hidden.

If I am wrong on that, let me know so that I know what not to react to.

The party so far when they meet the first group of enemies.

I finally got more than 3 hours of sleep!

The song made me laugh harder than I have in a couple of days. Just beautiful.

I figured I'd let y'all chat some more before interjecting with NPCs. :)

Just try to not actually kill me, OK Fern.

I wouldn't agree to that, Fern. ;)

Almost there. Trying to get it finished up.