[Gameday XI, PF2/Farol] #4-02: Return to the Grave (Inactive)

Game Master Farol

A thread for ooc discussions

Hey folks, welcome to my table. AFAIK most of you have played at my tables, so you know the drill:
- be friendly
- be nice
- update daily :)

:D I am kidding, but above should be followed. I expect you to update daily during the week and once during the weekend is nice (altho it dont' have to happen). When something happen it is good to let us know, so we can bot you.

What I do like the most in RP games is ... role playing. I love it, and I value it dearly. GM'ing on its own is not my favorite thing, so I try to not GM too much to keep the enjoyment high.

But where were we, I will create slides, macro and such in the following days. So let me go through the usual

Hey there @WaterySoup, I am glad that you picked my table to join! Great to have you at so many of my tables! I do hope that Peter will enjoy going home ;)

@UncleFester good to see you mate, it seems that we ended up on each other tables! I haven't seen Olaf yet, so let me know if there is anything special about them! And what is their connection (if any) to Gravelands

@cmlobue! Ha, I was hoping that you will find your way here. And you come with Ratfolk alchemist! I love both ratfolk and alchemists!

@Palandri and @Professor Plum - good to see you both, we also seem to have ended up on special table together (I saw you jumping from one to another ;)), I am like Heimdall I can hear grass growing and I see everything :D Good to see you two. I know Mimi (or I saw her around lvl 1;)) I don't know Morc the Orc and I only played Thaumaturge during playtest, so please be more descriptive about mechanics as I don't know them!

And finally, @FrozenFrost great to have you at my table mate! At last, I can repay some of the social debt that I took playing at your tables!

So, the scenario did not drop yet (will be 'here' today or tomorrow), but if your PC is somehow connected to lastwall/gravelands, and want to RP something around it, let me know. I could find some hooks, plant some items that you could recognize, or add a face to some zombie to make the game 'more' personalized.

I actually might change my character. Olaf is a Warpriest of Nethys but he's mostly defensive and almost no skills... Planning to bring Quickblade instead... and you've met him :)

Olaf played Escaping the Grave some time ago, which is why I thought I'd bring him... After much thought, I might either bring Quickblade or someone else.. decisions decisions...

Just a note, I think Peter will be Level 3 by the time this begins - he's level 2.2 right now, but I may play him at an in-person convention this weekend.

What I do like the most in RP games is ... role playing. I love it, and I value it dearly. GM'ing on its own is not my favorite thing, so I try to not GM too much to keep the enjoyment high.

A person after my own heart. I love the RP; game mechanics are secondary. Also, I enjoy your playing and GMing, so please keep doing both.

@Palandri and @Professor Plum - good to see you both, we also seem to have ended up on special table together (I saw you jumping from one to another ;)), I am like Heimdall I can hear grass growing and I see everything :D Good to see you two. I know Mimi (or I saw her around lvl 1;))

Ha ha. Since I was in a weird timezone, I gave Professor Plum permission to pick out the Special he liked and sign us up. I guess he had trouble deciding :)

And Mimi is still, well, Mimi. She just hits a little harder than before but is otherwise unchanged from Level 1.

Hello, GM Farol. I enjoyed the games with you all and I thank you all for that. The Qadiran arc is my favorite game I GMed so far, though I could count with my fingers the games I GMed since I started last year. Haha! Hopeful that I would earn my first GM gylph before the year ends.

Hi Farol. I think you've met this character... Officially swapping to a more versatile character with some medical skill as well. I'll let Henri deal with magical healing... :)

To those who have not played with Quickblade before, I'll get it out of the way now -- I'm not a bird. I just liked the tengu icon when I was choosing an avatar... :)

Mimi, I recall we should play a game together and invite Cassimon Dohl to join us... then we'll see how long it takes him to tackle us for butchering the French language... :)

Hello, GM Farol. I enjoyed the games with you all and I thank you all for that. The Qadiran arc is my favorite game I GMed so far, though I could count with my fingers the games I GMed since I started last year. Haha! Hopeful that I would earn my first GM gylph before the year ends.

♫ Hi Frost, you did a great job with 3-08/3-12! ♫

And we see Quickblade the bird! Cool.

Yesterday the scenario dropped, from first glance there is no reference between it and the 'previous' 1-03 scenario. There is a tiny benefit when recalling knowledge about the Gravelands, but that is it.

@Palandri and @Professor Plum - good to see you both, we also seem to have ended up on special table together (I saw you jumping from one to another ;)), I am like Heimdall I can hear grass growing and I see everything :D Good to see you two.

Thanks for the welcome. My, aren't you the all-seeing eye! Haha, yes indeed, as Palandri said, after I signed us both up for the Special, I realized that we knew a couple ppl (like you) at the other table, so I moved us over.

I don't know Mork the Orc and I only played Thaumaturge during playtest, so please be more descriptive about mechanics as I don't know them!

This will be my first time playing him PbP, so I might be figuring out the roleplay as I go. He's a combination of playtest XP, re-skin, GM credits, and some in-person games. But yes, since it's a new class, I'll definitely include plenty of description with links (or in spoilers) to describe his actions. (To make him more complicated, I took Psychic dedication -- figured I might as well go all-in on Darchive!) I included links/details on all his feats/abilities on his character sheet.

Heya Folks,

In the links I added Slides & Maps link and macros, I would be grateful if you could fill them in. I stole slide templates from Frozen ;), and macros from DougH ;)

We will be starting this game on Monday ;) If your PCs have leveled up please remember to update the RPGChronicles

Please go ahead and describe your PC, how do you look, what you carry, how did you arrive to Ustalav?

How do I look?!I'm a bird, what do you expect?!

--Sorry, couldn't resist... :)

If your PCs have leveled up please remember to update the RPGChronicles

I, uh ... didn't sign in, so I can't edit my entry. :\

♫ Peter's very sorry
He will make it up to you with a song ♫

GM Farol wrote:

If your PCs have leveled up please remember to update the RPGChronicles

I, uh ... didn't sign in, so I can't edit my entry. :\

♫ Peter's very sorry
He will make it up to you with a song ♫

Ok, removed your entry from RPGchronicles so that you can put your details again ;)

Ok, I pinged cmlobue as I think we are missing him, and I posted the intro, mission is simple get in and get out :D

Ok, in this scenario you will be traveling with supplies to the town Steadfast. You are beginning with 10 Supply, it represents food, medicine and such during the adventure you may loose some of the supply (usually as a result of failed checks and such). But you also have access to the following:

At any time, except during an encounter, the PCs can spend 1 Supply to rummage through the supplies for 1 minute. If they do, they gain three vials of holy water and three bottles of bottled sunlight (Pathfinder Book of the Dead 18). For levels 3–4, they instead find five of each item

Mimi you will probably like Zhamie... We should have a game together and torment some unfortunate GM who will need to tolerate our exaggerated French accents... :)

Heya Folks,

In the links I added Slides & Maps link and macros, I would be grateful if you could fill them in. I stole slide templates from Frozen ;), and macros from DougH ;)

We will be starting this game on Monday ;) If your PCs have leveled up please remember to update the RPGChronicles

@cmlobue could you please fill in the slides and macro sheet, so that when I have to roll initiative there is your modifier there?

==================================

@All - please keep your exploration activity in your status bar as well as you are changing something that would result in different skill being used for Initiative then also Macro sheet

As GM Farol pointed out, I believe this Scouting Lore check is a secret check, since it likely counts as Recall Knowledge, and Mork has the Dubious Knowledge feat.

So while you're all rolling publicly to Aid (thanks everyone for trying!), I think I'm supposed to let GM Farol roll for Mork. If that's not true, I'm happy to do the honors.

As GM Farol pointed out, I believe this Scouting Lore check is a secret check, since it likely counts as Recall Knowledge, and Mork has the Dubious Knowledge feat.

So while you're all rolling publicly to Aid (thanks everyone for trying!), I think I'm supposed to let GM Farol roll for Mork. If that's not true, I'm happy to do the honors.

That means Quickblade will get reprimanded by the GM again... (hangs head) :)

To those who don't know, Quickblade and Farol have quite a comical history... :)

I was not sure ont he above, so I took the aids as they were (failures) and rolled for Mork. Anyway we are in the combat, but don't worry Quickblade there are seeds for you in the rations ;)

GM Farol -- I tried to be detailed (with links) in my post. Let me know what else you'd like to see to make it easier for you, and I'll include that next time!

At a special last year, Quickblade unintentionally implied that one of Farol's gnomish characters was the offspring of a dwarf... with comic results.. :)

Mimi brings up a good point about it being reasonable that we had our weapons drawn. If our benevolent GM would allow that, Mork would have used his last action to bring up an amped Shield cantrip (from his Psychic dedication). If so, his AC increases +1.

Mimi brings up a good point about it being reasonable that we had our weapons drawn. If our benevolent GM would allow that, Mork would have used his last action to bring up an amped Shield cantrip (from his Psychic dedication). If so, his AC increases +1.

I am fine with that. If you feel that your PC would walk with weapon that is fine. I will provide a longer explanation later

Regarding weapon in the woods. I can see it going both ways, in theory walking through the whole day always with your weapon drawn limits your options when you slip, increase chance that you will stab someone while sleeping, and finally make it easier to break weapon when you actually do slip and drive it into the earth while pulling it to the side.

So would adventurer travel with weapon drawn risking that they could loose, drop or destroy it? Maybe, maybe you walk slower and learn how to do it. Some weapon could be useful, Machete was nothing else than a curves sword used to clear the road. But above all, I don't want to project my experiences from walking in a safe forest vs adventurers walking in Gravelands.

So I will leave it to you, if you feel that your PC would walk with a weapon out, than just assume that they are. If not, than not. I don;t think that one action will change outcome of the fight.

Regarding snapping to grid issue ;) When doing the initial positioning I don't like setting teams in fireball formations (neat squares and such). In VTT you never start like that, as there is always some who are further forwards vs others that are further back. While walking people also don't stick in such cubes so I spread out folks based on the landscape. And At that time I didn't spend enough time aligning everyone neatly hoping that players will do it on their own, during the first round ;)

So in this case goblins in Mimi's head made her align the avatars ;) Thanks!

Now regarding thaumaturge, I think a link to the ability is enough for me to go and read it, thank you Profesor Plum!

Now a thing that surprised me:
Exploit Vulnerability Is actually not a secret check. It is not a recall knowledge as it only speaks about vulnerabilities/immunities. But also I think the DC could be different: 'Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check against a standard DC for its level'

So it is not saying anything about the rarity of the creature (unique creatures normally have higher DCs).

I can see why this check is not secret, as the result of the check are completely different, so by hearing the outcome you know whether you got CS, S, F or CF.

Just my rambling.

So I will leave it to you, if you feel that your PC would walk with a weapon out, than just assume that they are. If not, than not. I don;t think that one action will change outcome of the fight.

Fair enough. Since I didn't say Mork had his weapon out, he'll use an action to draw it and not cast Shield.

Now a thing that surprised me:

Exploit Vulnerability is actually not a secret check. It is not a recall knowledge as it only speaks about vulnerabilities/immunities. But also I think the DC could be different: 'Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check against a standard DC for its level'

I think your interpretation makes things much easier in a PbP game (where damage may take a while to sort out). But it does say: "Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check..."

And the Thaumaturge Class describes Esoteric Lore as follows: "You become trained in Esoteric Lore, a special lore skill that can be used to Recall Knowledge regarding haunts, curses, and creatures of any type, but that can't be used to Recall Knowledge of other topics."

It could be interpreted that since Exploit consists of Esoteric Lore, which is a Recall Knowledge check, then it would be secret. But again, it makes the PbP combat clunky if the player has to wait for the GM before damage is calculated. So I'm good with non-secret. Whatever makes your GM life easier.

To add to the confusion, the Diverse Lore feat (which Mork has) says, "when you succeed at your check to Exploit Vulnerability...you gain information as if you had succeeded at the Recall Knowledge check."

@Morc - thanks for sharing that. As I clearly did not read the whole Thaumaturge class with enough attention. My interpretation (and I am not saying that it is right):

1. It seems you could use Esoteric Lore to Recall knowledge vs haunts, curses, creatures. So you could say: I am recalling knowledge vs the dead owlbear => secret check giving you information like any recall knowledge (could be vulnerabilities/resistances and such but also saves, nature of the thing etc.)
2. You have a different option: Exploit Vulnerability - that does not tell you what the creature is, but what it is vulnerable to. This seems to not be a secret check. You get one vulnerability (or all on crit success) or you can make up your own. But in fact you still don't know what it is
3. You have Diverse Lore which allows you:
- to use Esoteric Lore for any recall knowledge check with -2 mod, so not only on creatures, haunts and curses. But also diseases, poisons, places (Absalom, Oppara etc.). So it becomes like Barding Lore or the Gossip Lore
- WHen using Exploit Vulnerability and getting crit or a success you get information like on success from recall knowledge - this gives you more info on Exploit, but it is still pretty clear what you have. As it does not give you false info on crit failure. Nor it would give you false info from Dubious Knowledge.

Huh, wall of text sorry ;)

Not sure how many are in the same boat as I am, but I appreciate walls of (polite) text.

I don't know much about the Thaumaturge, so at the very least, I need to know how to GM it, and I will probably buy Dark Archive at some point so I would like to know how to build/run it.

Not sure how many are in the same boat as I am, but I appreciate walls of (polite) text.

I don't know much about the Thaumaturge, so at the very least, I need to know how to GM it, and I will probably buy Dark Archive at some point so I would like to know how to build/run it.

Polite text? ;) I will ask my text to bow and wave their hat before laying in front of your eyes next time :D

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Mork, just to fully dissect your damage:

1d8 + 1 + 5 + 10:
1d8 - is the trident
1 - is Inspire courage
5 - is 3 (str) and +2 from the fact that you use exploit the vulnerability on a target
10 - is actually vulnerability to positive damage of Owlbezr.

Is that correct? Just triple-checking ;) As you took the Owlbear by 2 dmg ;) so it does matter :D

Watery Soup wrote:

Not sure how many are in the same boat as I am, but I appreciate walls of (polite) text.

I don't know much about the Thaumaturge, so at the very least, I need to know how to GM it, and I will probably buy Dark Archive at some point so I would like to know how to build/run it.

Polite text? ;) I will ask my text to bow and wave their hat before laying in front of your eyes next time :D

I'd love to see that... :-)

My apologies for continuing these wall of text posts. Used a Spoiler in the middle to help a little....

Mork, just to fully dissect your damage:

1d8 + 1 + 5 + 10:
1d8 - is the trident
1 - is Inspire courage
5 - is 3 (str) and +2 from the fact that you use exploit the vulnerability on a target

Right-ish. In my attack rolls, I'll try to be descriptive. For example: "Piercing Damage +IC (+5 +10 positive)" To hopefully make it clear that I'm including IC and the 10 Positive from its weakness (arguably, I should let the GM do the weakness, but thought it would be easier since it was made public).

The +5 consists of +3 Str, but the +2 is officially from Implement's Empowerment. No direct link, but from the Thaumaturge Class page, it says:

So, by level 4, he'll be doing 2d8(striking) +3(str) +4(empowerment for 2 damage dice) +Weakness(minimum=4).

It's not the least bit important, but as long as we're waiting for the new turn ...

Peter casts telekinetic projectile at the most damaged one, and guides Mimi.

Since Peter used Guidance on Mimi the previous round, she's immune for 1 hour, yes?

That is correct with guidance.

===================

Let us continue directing Thaumaturge ;) You said:
`Mork's strikes vs all zombies in this encounter activate the zombie's mortal weakness.`

I read it a bit differently: Exploit says that on crit you learn all immunities/weaknesses. But you still only exploit them vs that creature.

I don't think it lets you exploit weakness for the 'whole kind'. Or are there some rules that I haven't seen?

I read it a bit differently: Exploit says that on crit you learn all immunities/weaknesses. But you still only exploit them vs that creature.

I don't think it lets you exploit weakness for the 'whole kind'. Or are there some rules that I haven't seen?

Yes, there are additional rules, and Archives of Nethys could be a bit more clear.

This Exploit Vulnerability link includes what happens on various successes, but annoyingly does not include info on Mortal Weakness vs Personal Antithesis.
Using the main Thaumaturge link you'll find the following included in the Exploit Vulerability section:

Short answer: With Mortal Weakness (which you can use when EV is success or crit success), you apply the weakness damage to all creatures of the same type.

Awesome, thanks! I was suspecting there is more to your sentence than wishful thinking ;)

And digging further along. I am a bit surprised by the wording of Amulet's Abeyance which says that the target of your exploit vulnerability has done xxx.

From the RAW (rules as written) that would imply: you trigger vulnerabilities to all enemies, but can use amulet reaction only to the one that you Exploited Vulnerability. Which is a bit asymmetrical.

Apologies, I forgot that I had Guided already.

And digging further along. I am a bit surprised by the wording of Amulet's Abeyance which says that the target of your exploit vulnerability has done xxx.

From the RAW (rules as written) that would imply: you trigger vulnerabilities to all enemies, but can use amulet reaction only to the one that you Exploited Vulnerability. Which is a bit asymmetrical

Agreed. In fact, several implements: The Amulet's Amulet's Abeyance, The Bell's Ring the Bell, and The Weapon's Implement Interruption (the AoO feat), all seem to be limited to the actual target of the Exploit.

It's unfortunate, but it's the reason I didn't go with the Weapon implement. AoO is awesome, but this version is so limited because it's only active on the baddie you're probably already engaging to the death.

Everything okay, GM Farol? Hopefully just busy and nothing too serious.

Everything okay, GM Farol? Hopefully just busy and nothing too serious.

Yeah, sorry for turning silent. Everything is ok! I just short-term moved again. Last time I announced it before and for the most part it was non-invasive (too much).

Now I was hoping that it will be fine, but it took out two days out of me ;)

Back to business as usual today.

Heyah folks.

So we are done with another fight, and I just realized that I haven't given up any Hero Points ;) So here we are:

Whom (Alphabetical order: 1d6 ⇒ 4 Peter, well done. Nicely sung!

===============

Ok folks, it is October, we skipped one encounter (with the robbers on the bridge), and we went through 2 of them + 1 haunt. Believe it or not, but there is more fighting to come :D And a bit of RP. So this is one of the long scenarios. So you know... make yourself a cup of tea, coffee, etc.

Wall of text in the gameplay!

Qen - a hint, there is no enemy in this scenario that can be poisoned :( Something related to this being the land of the undead ;)

Thank you!

Peter spends his ill gotten gains immediately.

Quickblade gives a talk on how to battle undead more effectively.

Warfare Lore, Downtime: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Looks like the dice like me... that's three in a row! :)

DC 14 Warfare Lore to Earn Income: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Crafting DC 14: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Wow! I see we have 2 more nat-20s for downtime in the rolls above. Well done, players.

Between missions, Mork spends much of his time in the Absalom marketplace, buying and selling tinctures, reagents, eyes of newt, etc. He can be overheard saying things like, "My frriend, Mork is happy to take that off your hands...." and, "Oh, you injure Mork with that offer. Surely that's just a starting point..."

Diplomacy to Earn Income DC 15: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22
Bargain Hunter allows Diplomacy for downtime. Success => 1.6gp.

Thanks for the game GM Farol. You ran it superbly and fairly. It was a lot of fun. And thanks for putting up with the Thaumaturge class. As I said, it was my first time playing him in PbP, and I apologize to everyone for the walls-of-text needed to describe his actions. Enjoyed all the player interactions -- hope to you all at another table.

What are your thoughts on the thaumaturge class? I'm thinking about getting Dark Archives at some point and making my next PFS character either a thaumaturge or psychic.

Since we're supposed to deal with our own downtime, here is my official Earn Income roll for Mimi's 8 days of downtime.

Between adventures, Mimi can usually be found at the grandfather's fencing academy in Gralton giving lessons on the proper use of a rapier.

Performance (Earn Income) vs DC 15: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

According to this table a regular success on a Scenario is good for 16sp. I will add a note to my chronicle to that effect if it doesn't show up there.

I'll echo Mork's sentiments as to GM Farol's running of the game and I look forward to playing again with everyone in the future.

Since we're supposed to deal with our own downtime

Since there's a few GMs playing, I feel compelled to clarify.

The rule is that GMs are not required to put downtime for characters. The rule is now agnostic as to whether the PCs or GMs should do it. The rule does not say that GMs shouldn't do it.

For my games, I always offer to do it. Earn Income is often confusing for new players (especially with the Character Level vs Task Level distinction), and editing PDFs (although straightforward) isn't something that many players are used to doing. If PCs prefer to take care of their own downtime, that's fine, I'll gladly save the effort.

I'm worried that in a year or two we're going to end up with a lot of players who don't have good downtime records because there's literally no place on Chronicles to indicate that there's something missing. Some won't realize they're 3-5% short on gold, while others won't have tracked things like retraining costs.

[/soapboxrant]