#4-S Race for the Runecarved Key (Tier 8-9) - PLAY-BY-POST GAMEDAY XI (Inactive)

Game Master noral

This game is part of PLAY-BY-POST GAMEDAY XI!

PbP Gameday IX Event # 2708830

When: September 11 - Nov 20, 2022

SIGN UP HERE! (Tier 8-9)

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Discussion Here! Those that have signed up on the official sheet for PbP Gameday IX can dot and DELETE into the game.

/waves - only have L10's available, but happy to be OoT.

Truddig reporting for duty. I still need to apply his most recent chronicle sheet, which will level him up to 7; I believe that means he is eligible for this game. Considering Shifty is playing down--which balances me out--I'm comfortable playing up.

Hmm bugger just checked that out:

For scenarios with more than two subtiers, characters must be in adjacent subtiers to play together.

So all players must be tier adjacent - we can have a 6-7 in 8-9 or a 9-10 in 8-9, but not a 6-7 AND a 9-10 in an 8-9.

I have two 9's, but it is two Paladins.
10 - RangerBarian (has decent skills)
10 - Barbarian (Melee beatstick with an animal companion)
10 - Rogue (face and skills + combat)

I was leaning to the Rogue...

Oooh, didn't realize that. Truddig will bow out, then; I don't have any in tier that are available, and you were here first, Shifty.

Just checking in.

Confused and uncertain about this, but for the moment at least, considering.

I have, of course, many characters of many Tiers to potentially field.

Are there any other 1st-Ed games coming up???

There's always 1st ed games coming up, the real question is are they the ones you want? ;p

At the moment we're 8-9 (with a whiff of 10).

After checking the sign-ups I think I'll just run with my Rogue.

Psychic/Monk
Shaman
Paladin/Field Agent
Rogue

If we do get a 5th that's great.

I got confused by the whole waiting-list thing.

The cat-lady rogue raises an eyebrow..."A fellow entertainer?"

CAN EVERYONE PLEASE FILL OUT SLIDES 3-5.

Thanks

@the party:

Everyone can add +3 to their day job checks.

Chairperson:
The discount and bonus on Day Job checks that the Entrepreneur boon provides increase to 10% and +10 respectively. When another PC attempts a Day job check, she gains a +3 circumstance bonus on the check and can earn 200gp on a result of 45 or higher.

Day Job Take 10 (Sleight of Hand) = 10+10+13 = 33 = 75gp

Craft (Toymaker), take 10: 10 + 35 = 45

200gp, nice!

Day Job--Profession (Scholar) w/ Entertainer Bonus): 1d20 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 6 + 3 = 26

day job Profession (Soldier): 1d20 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 6 + 3 = 28 50 Gp

Sorry for being late, folks!

I will bring one of the most nasty but overpower characters to the table who withstood even battle with phoenix, when Hao-Jin was out of her mind.

Meet Chirium.
I never used him to play PbP here in the Paizo forum, so have only this character sheet

Please, let me know if it is necessary to fill up local charsheet. Maybe I will edit at least statblock when have some more time...

Dayjob - Craft Alchemy: 1d20 + 19 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 19 + 4 + 3 = 42

Scarlet did two Bonekeeps - I suspect we will have quite the party :p

We will start soon guys!!

Sep 10 in the US evening the first overseer post will come in.

It is super important that everyone has filled out slides 3-5 please!! @Lil"Eschie Brallenera Barbarian 9

Please also post in the GAMEPLAY

GM - do you also want the details for Poppy (a Lyrakien) my familiar? Shes an active combatant.
Happy to tie her to my initiative, but the other stats are probably relevant...

@Scarlet Scoundrel: What kind(s) of Barbarian/Rogue are you, and how ever did you get a Lyrakien Familiar - and from the looks of it, TWO Minor Artifacts???

Sorry, busy week end!

Straight Unchained Barb/Unchained Rogue.

The familiar was a bit of a feat-chain, but I was happy enough to invest in... 3 feats for a familiar seemed an OK deal.

And clearing out two levels of Bonekeep will net you some nice toys, but it is a tough challenge. Now people are doing it PvP it would be a lot more achievable though - which is why I think it really needs to have stayed as a face-to-face challenge.

This is the first time I am doing a special so if you have suggestions or if I am too fast or if something is strange then tell me please! ;)

I see I missed most of the social interaction, but honesly person with Wisdom 6 (sometimes even 4) and Charisma 8 should not participate in such high society oriented for the sake of common sense

You have 5 more npcs to interact with!!!

A Bluff roll of '15' should do it, shouldn't it?

No Sense Motive even necessary, I don't think.

Sorry, what did you intend to do with the bluff?

This is the first time I am doing a special so if you have suggestions or if I am too fast or if something is strange then tell me please! ;)

Love the speed - normally I have to slow down and let the game catch up.

Sorry, what did you intend to do with the bluff?

Send a secret message (AKA Innuendo, back when that was its own skill) to tell the party - in a way that could dodge whatever kind of magical surveillance might likely going on around here - that I've got something important to tell them, while also hopefully insinuating some of what I saw...

Got it. ;-)

Just so you know Sihir, the vision was from me and is not part of the scenario but your natural 20 and high roll had to give you some information so I told you a little about the key that is revealed only in later scenarios. :-D

Looks like this mission is an unpopular one and I can see why.

My proposal is that Scarlet and Poppy simply do what rogues do and attempt to quietly infiltrate and steal the goods without setting off any alarm.

They both have solid stealth/perception/disable skills so they should be able to get away with it - if it all goes bad they can probably outrun the guards. Worst case we blow the mission, but seems no one likes this mission anyway.

Happy to detail the plan if the GM wants.

We can roll each step or happy for the GM to call it take 10's all the way to keep things running quickly. I have got that info in my spoiler 'Scouting SOP' that i have used on previous adventures where we needed scouting etc.

Please do whatever you think makes sense!

There are Pathfinders in reach so in case you fail then they can reach you fast.

But where do you store all the gold?

Just make your stealth, DD checks as you believe your operation should look like.

This can be done sandbox-ish!

Handy Haversack and Pathfinder Pouch :)

We dont even need to misplace all their money, all we need to vanish is enough for their bids to fail.

OKAY, THIS IS IMPORTANT: I did not understand they were asleep; I had been more under the impression they were rolling down the road and there was time to set up the illusion before they even arrived.

How do we want to do this? I figured there'd been time to prepare.

I actually thought that it’s a super cool idea. ;-)

But we can retcon. I go to sleep now and you decide here.

That they were asleep was mentioned three times by the GM

There was a whole discussion on planning and how we were approaching this. There are even lines and locations drawn on the map.

Even if they were all awake, which they weren’t, we were deep into the plan without being detected or any change necessary.

Keeping it all quiet and the gold vanishing means thieves in an area full of thieves, high level magic suggests Pathfinder interference.

No take-backsies. No reset.

Mate, please read what is going on in the game, and please use ooc or ask questions before of whoever is driving an encounter before doing something major. There’s a spot for rule of cool for everyone, but this looked like one of the very few times rogues get to actually be rogues.

Sitting out this encounter.

What I saw people complaining about the ethics and feasibility of the encounter; I saw proposals, but no commitment to action with certainty they'd work. I thought I was solving both problems in a way that would minimize danger of anyone getting hurt.

Sometimes I have a hard time making sense of what I read on here, for reasons I don't care to share.

The DM offered a retcon; why would you - or anyone - insist on the worst of both worlds in a situation you're unhappy with?

Yes there had been some discussion of ethics, then we moved to posts on planning and we were into the execution - there was no sign of any problems or issues - so far so good.

I think it was because I sat up for an hour reading into the solution at 1am and ensured not only had I accurately read what the gm had given us to work with, and had cracked out the specifics of what our actions were and do the homework for the GM and provide the references and links, map illustrations etc..

I wake up 5 hours later and the thing has gone sideways and we’re now in an essentially unrecoverable encounter where we can’t get in and out without being seen. It was incredibly frustrating to see.

It just felt like the situation wasn’t read and someone just decided to do their own thing rather than include others on the journey. I understand your point about possibly not interpreting everything going on, so I can only re-suggest engaging OOC or sideline discussion. Involve the other players in the decision making process.

I wake up 5 hours later and the thing has gone sideways and we’re now in an essentially unrecoverable encounter where we can’t get in and out without being seen. It was incredibly frustrating to see.

I have no idea where you get that from; that wouldn't be true even if the DM hadn't specifically offered a take-back...which you, not I, for some reason insisted 'no' to.

I saw a problem, and people giving up; I thought I had a solution.

From the four posts in the gameplay thread that preceded your post where the plan was being put into effect and progressing, which was based on the discussion with the gm in this discussion thread.

Two of us had stealthed into position and had identified the chest, the sleeping monster, and sleeping main npc at that stage, as well as the magical emanations coming from the wagons,

The GM offered a take back after the effects were known, and a few hours later when I complained about it and you asked for a retcon.

The vibe is off now and to me the feeling for this encounter has now become negative.

I’d almost have preferred the Gm did an ‘are you SURE?’ Before letting that post go ahead.

Let’s just move on to the next mission.

From the four posts in the gameplay thread that preceded your post where the plan was being put into effect and progressing, which was based on the discussion with the gm in this discussion thread.

Two of us had stealthed into position and had identified the chest, the sleeping monster, and sleeping main npc at that stage, as well as the magical emanations coming from the wagons,

How does that make it "unrecoverable"? Nobody's fighting yet, and even if we went forward without the retcon, nobody'd need to. Perhaps we're not defining "recoverable" the same way.

Just waking up. Please let’s not escalate this.

This is a game and at the end we should have fun.

I can understand the frustration on one side but I also have been on the other side that a fast paced special and little time due to work/family did not allow to actually read everything.

~

At a real life table this never would have happened.

So let us please vote: Who wants to a) retcon and who wants to b) keep the scene with the mirage?

Please vote within 18 hours and I’ll move us along then.

Given especially that I apparently did what I did under an erroneous understanding of the initial setup (like I said, I'd assumed the party'd be 'on the scene' before the Aspis caravan), I see no reason not to vote

a)

I would vote b, not against Sihir's player, but because sometimes anyone can make a bad decision under pressure, in the heat of the moment, being honestly willing to help but worsening the situation.

It does feel more "realistic" (as far as a fantasy rpg can be) that way, even the best seasoned agents can make a bad decision and fail a mission. Where would be the joy of success if there isn't the threat of failure?

I fall in the "no takebacks, no ret-cons" school of GMing, where whatever happens, happens, even if it's not ideal. So I'd lean toward option B.

We can handle this with the mirage scene. I'm fine with b).

(in calm and dulcet tones)

B it is.
I too dislike retcons and takebacks.
We have [ooc] and Discussion chat as a safety net, but what is dropped on the table is dropped on the table.

I take the time to read everyones posts. I value the contributions you all make to the collective game, and I think it adds when everyone posts something to the game.

Last night I came home from a 14 hour shift, it was midnight, I was tired off my head (after a series of long work days) but I still made sure I read the posts to clearly understand the situation and what our challeges were.

I had been engaging with the party to work out a way forward that kept everyone onboard, and also ensure we can complete the mission effectively and also mindful that we are on a timer, both in game and out.

At the GMs direction in OOC, I started laying out the plan and put the time in to make sure I had given heaps of detail and crunch so the GM (and all the players) could see exactly what was going on, and how to contribute to that plan eg made it clear this was the stealthy approach, had the non-stealth people waiting as a diversion. I probably should have just gone to bed, but I stayed up anyway getting things right because I felt it important to get things moving and ensure the party wasn't going to be stuffed around waiting for a day for me to outline what we were doing.

I got to bed around 130am then back up to go to work around 6am.

I open the thread with my morning coffee and find it has all been derailed with some other course of action that wildly differed to what was playing out, and essentially just threw my plan and the time I had put into this out the window.

I was left feeling that either someone hadn't bothered reading the posts and what was going on or just flat didn't care and ignored them. Either way, I was pretty disappointed and annoyed that the time I had put in was wasted and that there was no engagement with the broader party prior to simply overtaking the scene and dropping significant event-altering spells, and now having no idea what we were supposed to be doing. We had gone from one person on watch to a fully awake and aware encounter with no indication how this was now supposed to progress.

I also admit to being put out because the number of classic heist encounters in Society can be counted on one hand, it almost never comes up, so a good old-fashioned 'rogues get to be rogues' is a super rare opportunity that I was really enjoying the challenge of; the planning, the execution. And doing it in a way that the party Paladin would not be disappointed about.

So yeah, that is where I was coming from - very tired, and very grouchy, and feeling put out about it all. I'll go have a nap and be less grumpy, it is now the weekend and I can get some sleep and be less of a bear with a sore head.

I'm not going to hold a beef about it and I appreciate what IHIYC brings to the game and don't want them to feel like there is now tension in the air or something, let's just pick up and move on.

I'll sit this encounter out and rejoin for the next one, Scarlet does two things, sneaking and killing - and we just lost the sneaking option.