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omg omg omg you guys
omg
the theater kid in me is vibrating in excitement (so much so I got the URL formatting code wrong)
I want to run this but I don't have a lot of experience and I think it'd be a terrible idea but I want to run this
Do it!
The best way to learn how to GM a PbP is to GM a PbP. And there’s a ton of advice and people willing to help on the forums
Also, I'll head off on a brief family vacation (we're going to Legoland!) tomorrow and return Saturday. During that period, I'll only be able to read and post via mobile phone.
I may just do it :D I'm a little intimidated by it starting at level 11, but, well, what's the worst that could happen?
If you're going to Legoland, may I also suggest The Art of the Brick? It's in nearby Philadelphia (hi!) and I keep seeing advertising for it :D It's about 45 minutes to an hour from Legoland by car. Haven't been myself, but seems really interesting!
If you're going to Legoland, may I also suggest The Art of the Brick? It's in nearby Philadelphia (hi!) and I keep seeing advertising for it :D It's about 45 minutes to an hour from Legoland by car. Haven't been myself, but seems really interesting!
Thanks for the suggestion, but it’s a little out of our way. I live in Denmark and the Legoland we’re visiting is the original one in Billund, the birthplace of Lego :-)
I'm not a theater kid, but I also like the idea of Curtain Call.
Have you checked out the Player's Guide for it yet? There's even a section in the back where you can figure out with the group what they did from 1 to 10 in case you are not leading into it more organically from your campaign.
If you do start one at 11 - and like Zothan I would echo that if you want to you should - hand-pick at least some players. Higher levels always get more complicated.
When this AP came out, I thought it would be the one I liked least of all from last year. But, as I read it, it really was interesting from a story perspective and seems to work really well for PbP as it's not a heavy combat focus. It's what made me take the plunge into GMing in this format.
I'll be moving us forward once more on Monday, using this week to give everyone a chance to make sure that they are all set.
There are three parts to Chapter 3, and the first two are ones that should be quickly resolved, with the third being more time-consuming. We're setting a pretty good pace overall.
I'm reading through it and I'm in this terrible situation of desperately wanting to play it but also desperately wanting to run it at the same time. A few folks here will remember my champion, Talindra Ravenheart, from another game, and her dedication to Shelyn and the arts. I put a lot of myself into creating her; there's so much of me in her, so many bits of internal monologue and her history and mannerisms that you can easily identify are very directly taken from real world experience. There's such a strong pull to play her again... and the fun thing is that that's exactly how it works for people who put a lot into characters they play in theater productions.
anyway um can you see why I'm so excited about this? :)
Hand-picking players sounds like a great idea, I definitely want to be sure I can find folks who will put in the time to really keep things fun. I agree that the narrative focus works great for PbP! And on that note, you're doing a great job with running SKT.
Ahem. Back on topic for this game, I'll see about some more shopping over the weekend for any incidental items, though as I've mentioned, bulk is currently Halanestra's major challenge in that regard.
OKay, after a new prescription for my eyes making reading print easier, I finally got Dyrm up to 4th level. With Knockdown/Slam Down for his Fighter feat, and Intimidating Glare for his Skill feat.
Looks like the cold iron has been claimed which is good because we'll likely need it in the party against this or that foe's vulnerability
I can't think of any of the items that Dyrm is SCREAMING to have. So selling seems fine by me. Of course, there's always the chance that oil of weightlessness some how could have saved us all two chapters from now, but thems the breaks ;)
I'll be waiting as per the GM's kind suggestion to see what Archtypes might as some are coming out soon. Otherwise Dyrm will likely be dealing with anger management and taking Barbarian.
On the topic of cold iron, Korox, how often have you been in melee so far? I don't really get the impression you've done much in melee, are you sure you're going to use the cold iron hammer regularly? It would make more sense for Dyrm or someone else using weapon attacks regularly to have a cold iron weapon.
Korox is a jack of all trades type character. He did not have a way to do bludgeoning damage. Also the Light Hammer can be thrown. It's only a 10 gold piece savings to use cold iron correct. I don't maintain 10 more and letting him use the Nugget
Hey guys, just wanted to apologize for not being around. Life got a little crazy, big vacation left little time for posts. But I'm back now, Jaxi is updated to level 4, and ready to go!
Welcome back and I hope the vacation went well. If Jaxi wants anything from the loot list, mention it, and if not, the group can sell and split what's left.
Welcome back, Jaxi! You were missed! I was, in fact, beginning to worry a bit.
GM Lia, do I understand correctly that you will be distributing hero points at the start of each section of the chapter according to your understanding of their difficulty? I don't think I saw anything about hero points in your most recent posts, so I'm curious what we have to work with.
Yes, you understood correctly. In this second, there are no hero points, as there is no danger at all. You also have more people than the AP was meant for, and even if every roll failed, there'd be no derailing.
You'd miss out on some
Jaxi wouldn't mind taking the Spore Staff. Since she can actually use that now thanks to her new Summon Fungi spell.
Jaxi claims the staff, and all 5 of you get 16 more gold. We're now loot caught up.
Getting caught up now.
I just realized that Korox only had a striking rune on his hand crossbow, not a potency, so I spent 35 gold to have a potency rune inscribed on it as well.
Ah well, at least it wasn't a Nat 1
,
Thank you as well! I should add that I am VERY grateful to our GM that the rule of cool bumped up the roll.
Side note, if anyone likes the adaptation of the poem that much, please feel free to use it in another game if it fits . I'm vain enough to like the idea of it making rounds :)
My current strategy is to use my skills to Discover as much as I can about everyone to open the way for the rest of the party to use their skills, and influence in areas where I can where the rest of the party may not have the skills to do so.
Is the bonereader's name Valaskah or Valashak? It's been written both ways. Additionally, they don't seem to have interacted at all that I've seen.
As a point of strategy, should we be focusing on influencing a few people as much as we can, or is spreading that influence more valuable?
Sounds like a solid strategy. With his Diverse Lore, Zothan is pretty much a Swiss Army Knife of influencing, as soon as he knows what to shoot for.
As for who to target, I’d say that’s up to personal preferences. But we should try to influence everyone at least once.
I'm in a very similar position as far as skills go, though I do have my limits--Rosha's skills are entirely outside of my purview. Maybe you can use Diverse Lore to substitute for Alcohol Lore for Rosha? I think my next post will be a Discovery on the bonereader, just need for some info from GM Lia. In particular, anything about the bonereader that would help me get a Discover success would be appreciated!
Okay. I think I've got it now after watching this video...
* So we make either a Discover or an Influence Roll
* Discover is a "Secret" roll usually using Perception.
* The result of the Discover roll gives clues as to how to influence.
Okay. I think I've got it now after watching this video...
* So we make either a Discover or an Influence Roll
* Discover is a "Secret" roll usually using Perception.
* The result of the Discover roll gives clues as to how to influence.
[Olsen Twin from Full House]You got it, Dude![/Olsen Twin from Full House]
Well, leaping up to his feet when the meal was announced was the best way I could think to use Athletics at the time. Let's hope it impressed instead of having Rosha go "No more caffeine for you!" ;)
One thing to remember is that each NPC has a lot of skills that can be used to Influence, and their jobs also give clues.
For example, if I were to have Halanestra here as an NPC and described her as 'a curious rogue' that might hint to use skills like Thievery to Influence her.
So, you can use those clues to think wide and figure out skills that might work to Influence without Discovery time.
If you look at Bulgra, for example: You know she is a retired puppeteer who put on large shows for years that lets her handle a massive event like a festival easily. You also know that Theater Lore and Performance can Influence her. What other skills might impress someone who put on theater shows for years?
I'll also say this to you Halanestra: You are a Rogue! I guarantee you have skills that match up well with everyone you need to Influence!
Also, in regards to Disoverly, just roll the d20. I'll apply the best modifier you have for the person in question. This is just to prevent confusion between Discovery and Influence skills needed.
It the Lore categories that are most tricky, though. Even with a feat like Diverse Lore, those are a needle in a haystack without some king of clue.
But yes, we should have good odds of gaining influence with all the NPCs even without further discovery.
Yes, that's true.
However, remember that Lore's will often be revealed first since they will have the lowest DCs, and with Discovery, DCs are revealed from lowest to highest. Also, only 2 of the 5 NPCs even have a Lore for Influence, and only one has more than one - and one of those, Bulgra, you already know.
As for the other, if you were Lore guessing, you have the clues you need already from the person's title.
You guys are doing really well.
Strong-Blooded Dwarf is more for poisons, but I imagine it and the 16 Con mean Dyrm won't get TOO Tipsy
He won't get tipsy at all. The Fort Save there was basically for a skill check, not a save. Unless you want to RP him as tipsy, but there is nothing mechanical that will make him that way.
Not in my skill set, but perhaps someone could make a google sheet or something to keep up with who we've tried to influence, the score, what the potential influence factors are etc. It's a bit daunting to have to go back through the post history to reconstruct all this?
Hey, folks, will get a post up today or tomorrow. Haven't been sleeping the best so writing has been hard.
I really am struggling with this system on PbP with this. I don’t have the time or energy to read back through pages of posts to see what to roll. I know you’re frustrated with the inattention to the details in the game I run… keeping up with this is my anathema. I’ll struggle through this till the game is fun again, but without a summary somewhere Korox will just sit in a corner and pout… like his player.
A suggestion I could make is to use your profile to keep notes. We are getting close to the end of this phase, and almost to the end of the festival.
But, that leads me nicely into something I was going to bring up today anyway.
It's become clear to me that I am not presenting information in a way that you are all easily understanding. This is on me. I am not, in any way, saying that any of the five of you are doing, or have done, anything wrong.
I am asking for advice. How can I present information in ways that you can pick up on it easily?
For instance, I bounced my instructions for phase 4, into 5, off my IRL players, and they, with no context, got it. They just might be more used to processing how I give out information. I want to know what I can do to help you all understand what I am saying better.
Glad you asked. I usually post from work... which means I have five minutes here and five minutes there that I can take a quick break and post. I have neither the time or desire to take notes, and/or search back through previous posts for this information.
I too have run this and the Research activity in tabletop games, but we are able to bounce ideas off each other and remind of things we forgot. In addition, I am able to dedicate this time for note taking so it works because of this ability to instantly interact.
I might suggest that when you post the summary for each NPC of what the influence score currently is perhaps you could also list the persuasion's uncovered then we could quickly review this without having to spend the time or take notes. If we see that someone needs more topics revealed, we can concentrate on discovery. If we see that we have a skill that might be helpful we know where to concentrate our efforts.
I know it's a little "meta-gaming", but with the PbP format sometimes we need to take some things at face value.
It was pretty clear to me from the start what to do, for what it's worth. The confusion with me earlier was because my post was unclear. I wanted to roleplay my declaration to fight alongside Ria, rather than declare it OOC, and I didn't use the clearest wording for that declaration. If I'd said something like "I'd like to fight by your side this evening", would that have helped? I will say that there was one bit you could have done better, which was to include my declaration to fight alongside Ria with the summary post after I made mine--but we've talked about that already. Otherwise, I still have no complaints, you're awesome :)
I do think Korox's suggestion of summary posts for relevant skills, weaknesses, and resistances would help those who are time-pressed.
There was no need to RP out asking someone to fight with them, since we had not even reached the 'fight' yet, so clearly I did not convey that very well.
I'll keep trying to improve.
Didn't mean to try and derail things by trying other actions. Korox isn't really good at this, but I don't want to mess up your game by trying other things. So, from now on I'll push X,Y,A or B when asked. :-)
A suggestion for keeping track of who have acted in the research turns and similar scenarios:
Add the names of the PCs that still need to perform an action in bold at the bottom of a summary.
Darn it. That 19 roll was nice. Okay. Before I post again, I should ask to be sure, can he try the Friezes again the next hour?
Until any wing has 10/10, you can try them each hour. You could even try them after, but that would have no benefit.
As you are nearly to it, let's go over rituals.
Rituals are just this: ritual casting of magic that takes a significantly longer time, both in set-up and actually casting the 'spell'.
Each Ritual has four elements to it.
1. Time. Every Ritual has a significant in-game time component. For instance, the one you will be doing takes one hour to set up and one to perform.
2. Cost. Every Ritual has a financial cost. For instance, this ritual has a cost of 5 GP times the target's level - the target in this case being High King Taargick. House Tolorr is covering the cost, but if you were going to do your own rituals later, you would have to do that.
Now, the word Caster is used in the next elements, but you do not need to be a spellcaster to participate in a Ritual, you just the proper skills to do so. Ofter spellcasters are at the heart of Rituals, but non-spellcasters can both aid in them and perform that as the Primary just fine.
3. Primary Caster: This is the person who will actually make the roll that determines if the Ritual succeeds. Every Ritual will have one or more skills that the Primary Caster will need, and a training level for them, for a person to be able to be the Primary Caster.
In this case, the Primary Caster will need to be trained in either Occultism or Religion.
While Krohan can fill the role, it is better for two reasons that a PC does. First, PCs should get the chance to shine, and second, Krohan does not have a Hero Point should the roll go poorly.
4. Secondary Casters. Most Rituals have at least one Secondary Caster that aid in the Ritual. Typically, there are a wider range of skills that they can use, but that is not always the case.
In this ritual, Secondary Casters can use the same skill the Primary Caster uses. In addition, they can use Diplomacy, Dwarf Lore, Performance, or Society.
This Ritual has a fifth element - RP. As part of the Ritual, there will be an RP segment before the dice are rolled that has the possibility of adjusting the DC.
The mechanics of the Ritual are simple and yet can be seen as complex.
When it is time to roll the dice, the Secondary Casters roll first. What they are doing is modifying the Primary Roll.
If they Crit Succeed they add 2 to the final roll.
If they succeed, they add nothing.
If they fail, they subtract 4 from the final roll.
If they crit fail, they subtract 4 and reduce the degree of success on the final roll by one.
These all stack. So, if four of you crit succeed, and one fails, then the Primary Caster would add 4 to the roll that they make. The DC stays the same.
Once all the Secondary Casters have rolled, the Primary then rolls for the success or failure of the Ritual.
If you have any questions, ask. If no one asks anything, I'll assume that you all understand it clearly.
Now I see why I should have saved my HP.
Korox would be willing to lead the ritual... but keep in mind no Hero Point is available.
This is the kind of thing where rogues--particularly masterminds, who have strong incentives to keep their knowledge skills high--excel. I can fulfill either role, and indeed I have the best occultism in the party and only Korox has a higher religion score. OOCly, I'm happy to be the primary caster (high-stakes rolls are indeed the rogue's thing), but ICly, Halanestra is going to need some convincing :)
I nominate either Korox (+9 Religion, but no Hero Point) or Halanestra (+8 Occult and a Hero Point).
Thematically, it would be fitting if a dwarf led the ritual, but I'm confident we can make anything work RP-wise.
It's up to you all. Once you decide, I'll push us forward.
Which of the two will it be?
Korox has the additional +1, giving him a slightly better baseline chance.
Krohan has a +8 occult, the same as Halanestra, and no hero point, making him the worst choice via math.
Halenestra has a slightly reduced base chance, but she has to the hero point, effectively giving her 5E advantage on the roll.
Also, Krohan and the rest of you will also be rolling as secondary casters, so you will all be playing a part.
I think the hero point is a big deal. She should do it.
For me, player motivation trumps mechanics, but if neither players feel strongly about their character performing the ritual, I agree that the Hero Point is more important than a +1 advantage.
I want to be clear that I'm quite happy to do it; Halanestra the character needs some convincing, though, and Korox has provided some :)