GM Feyrial's PF2e Kingmaker [Closed]

Game Master feyrial

Welcome to my Kingmaker PF2e game!

(Almost) all of you know me relatively well, so I will keep my introduction brief:

You can call me Fey or Feyrial, don't care which - GM Fey was taken by someone else, so I went with my "full name" (randomly picked from a name generator way back when I was like...12 or 13). I'm an autistic/ADHD woman, my pronouns are she/her, and I work as a high school English teacher in the USA.

I started and finished The Fall of Plaguestone recently with four players and managed that pretty well. This AP will be a bit of a jump in terms of players - we will have around 7 folks (if everyone who expressed interest joins).

Barring any life-altering events, I am dedicated to seeing this through to the end. The life-altering events would have to be something that impaired my cognitive/physical ability to GM on PBP for me to be willing to give things up.

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I'm opening the discussion thread so that you all can start talking about your character creation and backstory and such so you all can work things out.

Here is the player's guide link, if you need it (it will take you to the download): Kingmaker Player's Guide.

Note: I do not have the 1st edition bestiary, nor do I have the Kingmaker Companion Guide. I will need the majority of the group to be interested in me including these things for me to justify the additional purchase.

For those of you less familiar with me and my GMing style:

I strive to be on the side of the players. I am very much into the collaborative element of collaborative storytelling.

I will always give justification for rulings. I don't mind if you challenge my rulings, either. I am not perfect and will be happy to consider your points should something come up.

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I have asked most of you for your "absolutely do not put this in my game" things, and here is what I have so far:

* Sexual assault is not something that will ever be used as a plot point by me, nor will it ever be used by another player. You are welcome to have it in your backstory, but it is not a plot device I like or will be using. It makes me very uncomfortable.

* Because this came up multiple times in the Skulls & Shackles game I was in, pregnancy is also not a plot device I will be using in the game. As in, I will never force it on a player and am not going to play around with it as a "consequence" for any actions in-game.

* If your character wants to romance another PC, be sure you've gotten consent from the player so nobody is uncomfortable. We have a few folks in here who aren't fans of romantic plotlines. You are more than welcome to hit on NPCs that I play. Keep things PG-13 in Gameplay. I will speak with you privately if I feel you are crossing a line.

* I operate under the rule that when a character snips at another character in the game, it is not reflective of the player's feelings outside of the game. That being said, it never hurts to reiterate that if there's a particularly tense dramatic moment.

Please PM me if you want to see something else on this list, or if you would like to privately let me know that you're not cool with something.

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I'll be posting the adventure teaser and character creation guidelines shortly after I post this.

Happy to be joining, Fey.

Most of you also know me already. I go by male pronouns. And you can use any of my aliases from other games if you want. I am aware that my username on here is nearly impossible to pronounce and even harder to spell.

Playing a Sprite (draxie) Summoner with Beast Eidolon. I have my profile built already if anyone wants to read through it.

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As promised - the list of things needing ruled on. Some of them I have a preference on how it goes and have tried to indicate them as such. Others I don't care which way it is run, I just need to know which we are doing.

Since I am playing a Summoner, I'm focusing mostly on those for now. Though I do have some for some of the other characters that I am aware of.

If a spell or effect gives temporary HP, does that only apply to one of the pair, or both? Relevant rules thread discussion

Act Together: Do I get to pick each time which of the two does their action first? Does the result of the first action affect the other action?

Can I use Act Together while unmanifesting the Eidolon so that the Eidolon gets one action during that turn before it disappears?

Ready and Tandem actions. Can I ready ◆Act Together or ◆Tandem move?

Not so much a question as a complaint - The Summoner and Eidolon are not granted exception from AOE effects that the other one creates. Not even by things like Eidolon's Wrath and Ostentatious Arrival. And not even when mounted on the Eidolon or otherwise sharing a single space.

Similarly, can a Summoner mounted on their Eidolon aim area effects like line and cone such that they do include the Eidolon in the area if they wish to do so? Most notably, when casting Rejuvenating Flames.

For some of the other characters:

Adventure "Teaser"

Your characters will eventually become the rulers of the Stolen Lands (hence "Kingmaker" and all). But before you become the rulers of the Stolen Lands, you are merely individuals in the southern reaches of Brevoy in or near the city of Restov, each of you with your own history and goals.

As this adventure begins, you all and many others have caught the eye of one of the nobles in the city of Restov--Lady Jamandi Aldori.

Lady Jamandi is a wealthy and influential swordlord of the city of Restov in Southern Brevoy. She's come up with a bold and somewhat unusual plan to officially lay claim to the so-called Stolen Lands, an enormous swath of wilderness wedged between Brevoy and the River Kingdoms that have long resisted attempts at settlement. She is planning a "call for heroes" that promises a great and perilous opportunity to claim an equally heroic reward.

As this adventure begins, your characters will be answering Lady Jamandi's "call for heroes" and will be at her manor in the evening for dinner and information about her interesting plans.

Your characters, regardless of background and backstory, should have a good reason for answering this call for heroes.

Character Creation Details

Kingmaker is relatively open and has very few things they explicitly don't recommend.

You need to run any uncommon/rare ancestries, classes, and backgrounds by me.

You all are meant to work together, so I would like your alignments to mesh. I do not want to deal with a murderhobo among mostly good folks.

We will be using free archetype, ancestry paragon, and automatic bonus progression rules. If you are using Pathbuilder, you'll want to be sure to check those when you create a new character. I do believe these things are in the paid version of Pathbuilder. If you can't buy the paid version, I'd be happy to work with you on creating the character and throwing the stat block your way.

Please have a fully fleshed-out alias. This makes my life a lot easier when I need to double-check your abilities. If you need a template, give me a shout.

Please put your vital stats in your alias with this format.

Race: HP | AC | F, R, W | Perc (and special notes like darkvision)
Classes/levels: Speed | Class DC | Active Conditions | Hero Points (you all start with 3)
Gender: Alignment, gender, ancestry, background, classes and levels

Maps/Characters/Etc.

I'll be using Roll20 for maps/combat. I'll get the link up in the description when I get it bought and set up.

I will use Google Slides for character art/portraits/handouts.

Pacing

To steal from Painlord's Guide to GMing, I know life and time zones are a big thing for people.

I will hold you all to the same standard that I hold myself: I expect you to post as often as is needed, adjusting to the pace of the group, as set by me. I generally plan to post at least once a day--if there is a lot of player interaction going on that I don't need to be involved in, I may just post a little something in the discussion thread so you know I'm there and watching. When you do post, I expect you to be pushing the action/story/RP or leave/pick up some RP hooks.

If our pacing changes to the point where you struggle to keep up, I expect you to talk to me sooner rather than later. I promise to do the same if our positions are reversed.

All that being said, I know Life Happens, and I am willing to slow things down to cut down on player attrition. I am pretty flexible. What I expect if Life Happens is that you contact me in some way - via PM, Discord, text, whatever - and let me know something as simple as "Life is going on, I will have trouble keeping up, please bot me as needed, etc."

I do not expect long novels for posts, so please don't put that pressure on yourself. If we are in the midst of combat, and all you have time for is rolling the dice and indicating your actions/movement, that is totally okay.

All I ask is that we maintain a line of communication.

Combat

I use block initiative for combat. I'll roll the initiative for everyone & resolve whatever needs resolving in summary posts. I may fudge initiative things to make things easier on me, but I always fudge in the favor of my players.

Kabit, I will look into all of those questions in the next couple of days.

I appreciate you telling me your research and what your thoughts are on each. That's very helpful for me.

I am trying to recall all of the House Rules I used for Plaguestone and what I want to keep here.

Hey there everyone! Super excited to be playing with you all. I have not decided what I'm going to be because I want to see what everyone is making and I am *super* indecisive and want to be everything. Thinking of something focusing on spellcaster as my main class because I don't normally have the chance to.

Hello everyone.
I am Kabit's IRL wife. Go by female pronouns.
I am new to this type of online gaming, but have played DND, Pathfinder and a bit of Starfinder in the past.
I will be playing a dwarf ranger, that in her free time knits things.

Hello! I'm excited to be playing in a Kingmaker game, especially with all of you from the AoA gang and some new people. I'm thinking at this moment that I'm going to be making a Monk, since I haven't played that in PF2 yet. Quick question though, will there be a Discord for this?

There is a Discord that we have. I'm not familiar enough with Discord to figure out the invite process for it. KHT created it and I'm sure he can get you an invite sent.

Hello! I'm excited to be playing in a Kingmaker game, especially with all of you from the AoA gang and some new people. I'm thinking at this moment that I'm going to be making a Monk, since I haven't played that in PF2 yet. Quick question though, will there be a Discord for this?

I'll send you an invite via PM :)

Just a dot for now.

Kabit, before I go through and answer all those questions, are there any other than the one you already messaged me about that have alterations/answers already that you're aware of?

Hello all! This is Voomer and here is my character in the game. I'm playing a catfolk bard named Remqaur, or Rem. Looking forward to the campaign. I'm a forever GM, so this is actually my first PF2e player character. If anyone has any suggestions related to my choices, such as spells (but anything, really), let me know. There may be a narrative reason for my choice, but maybe not!

Kabit, before I go through and answer all those questions, are there any other than the one you already messaged me about that have alterations/answers already that you're aware of?

The one about spellcasting items like staves and losing lower level spell slots has been answered in errata. It is allowed for Summoners to keep their access to those lower spell levels as far as items go - they just don't have any spell slots to cast from.

To give my thoughs on the rest of these:

The question on status effects like persistent damage is important, but you just have to make a decision on it. Flip a coin if needed. Either way has good and bad points.

Temp HP is similar. I lean more toward having it be shared along with the actual HP because it is easier to keep track of.

Not allowing Activities in Act Together would be harsh. It would prevent some things that really seem like they should be allowed, like having Kabit cast Boost Eidolon as his only action for the round and letting Teanan use the rest of the actions.

Allowing one last action from the Eidolon as it gets unsummoned is a niche edge case that probably will not come up. But it is good to know your thoughts on it. Personally it doesn't matter to me, I just don't want to post a turn that does that and put you on the spot to have to tell me to retcon the actions for the round.

Ready and Tandem actions is also something that has good and bad points in both directions. There is nothing in the rules that prevents it. But Ready wasn't written with Summoner/Eidolon in mind. If it is allowed, the Ready has to use the same trigger for both characters.

Tandem actions and polymorph is something that I am planning on using. So if you don't want me shapeshifting and tag teaming enemies, let me know now.

I'm pretty sure that the Polymorph trait will prevent spellcasting even if the particular form allows manipulate actions and/or speaking. I'm fine with not casting while shapeshifted.

I will fairly quickly have a cone spell that will be useful to use on allies. As well as cone spells that will be enemy-only. So again, I want to know how those should interact with mounts. I'm asking up front so that you don't have to be pressured to correct things in-game later.

Persistent damage: Imo, if the Eidolon is unsummoned, it would lose that status effect between being summoned and unsummoned. The action economy on summoning is steep enough that I don't see that being abused.

Temp HP: Sharing with the actual HP sounds good to me. Making stuff easier to track is beautiful. Tracking things is the bane of my existence.

I think Activities in Act Together is fine.

With the one last action before the Eidolon is unsummoned...I think that would work for me, but I would maybe restrict it to a single-action move that the Eidolon can make before disappearing. What do you think? I am open to negotiation. I think it has the potential for drama/good RP, so I am interested in letting it play out.

Tandem actions and polymorph sound good. I'm interested in seeing that play out.

Unless otherwise noted in a form, I would say that spellcasting in Polymorph wouldn't happen. However, if the form does specify you have speech or manpiulate or both, I would consider those forms you can do specific spells in. I'm fine ruling on that in the moment.

In regard to the cone/line moves - I think the mounted summoner can absolutely aim it so that they don't get their Eidolon in an attack OR so that they can include their Eidolon in a useful spell.

I think I got everything! Let me know your thoughts.

That all looks fantastic.

Regards, fire-bloods. I am Zirkash, by the clutch of Ssaru and the line of Hakhiss, upstream and ages past.