☠ Season of Ghosts w/ DM rainzax ☠

Game Master rainzax

Dunzo

Updated the downtime activity. Sigurd will keep working on the teahouse until it is done. Please spend a Hero Point if Sigurd rolls a 1 or 2.

Added my character information to RPG Chronicles. Note that she has 17 XP now, which means she will level up before you give the 3rd chronicle. So please give her two level 2 and one level 3 chronicle.

For my Chronicles on Nhorri Ephema, it'll be one level 1 and two level 2s.

We are 3/5 RPG Chron!

Dunzo

Whoops. I missed the chronicles link when I filled out the downtime macros. Doing that now.

Did I do the downtime macros correctly? Since Sigurd is also rebuilding The tea House, should I do something else for the final week?

Players,
First,
I made a tiny adjustment to the Macros Skills sheets for your characters, granting Willowshore Lore as "Level + INT" to those who have not formally taken Willowshore Lore as a specific skill selection (not quite Trained, but not quite Untrained). I think you should have a baseline for the Lore of the settlement you have lived in your whole life.

Also, I noticed a couple of you had not bumped your Background Lore to Expert, so I have gone and done that for you as well. (Per a Houserule that Background Lores scale from T>E>M "freely").

Next, Lan, you said you wanted to create other activities for First Long Night (real world analogue) - feel free to come up with a couple more activities (maybe two? so that d10>d12...) as you like, and we can incorporate those.

Finally, whether or not you choose to spend the week preparing for the festivities, you can still participate in the 2-3 activities on the day-of without otherwise interrupting your Downtime week, if that makes sense.

Why 2-3? Yes, your character can participate in everything, but you essentially get to roll 2-3 additional check based on the 2-3 activites you pick, as these will serve as narrative "focus points" for your character's participation!

We will play these "day-of" scenes (including skill checks) after we do Week Three Downtime...

Thanks for the reminder to update the Macros, and for the free Lore!

@DM rainzax: Off topic, I recall at the very beginning of Book 2, we received messengers from both Granny Hu and Old Matsuki. We RP'd the meeting with Granny Hu, but not with Old Matsuki. Was what he wanted essentially an overlap, so that if we'd gone to him first it would've been Granny Hu who'd been hand-waved?

I believe you have had an Influence encounter with both in recent memory. So yes, you are welcome to meet with him again, but not as another Influence encounter, per se. For now.

Does that answer your question?

I see Sigurd helping with First Night, but Auntie Wu not helping. I assume Lan will help, but am unclear on Vekka based on most recent post. Awaiting Kazuki.

Several of you have already chosen 3 activities (again, separate from Downtime Weeks) to participate day. Go ahead and start thinking about which skills you will use to represent that participation - you have great leeway in deciding.

Once I've heard from everyone, I will move us along:

Upcoming Rolls
0) Week Three Downtime
1) Activity 1
2) Activity 2
3) Activity 3 (optional)

I will roll the Downtime for you, and you will roll the Activities, in that order, once we are all ready!

but am unclear on Vekka based on most recent post.

I think I misunderstood the either/or prospect of the First Night. If it would replace his previously stated downtime then he should probably keep those original actions.

DM rainzax wrote:

but am unclear on Vekka based on most recent post.

I think I misunderstood the either/or prospect of the First Night. If it would replace his previously stated downtime then he should probably keep those original actions.

Sounds good - stay the course.

That means Vekka will take a break from his studies to participate in First Night without impacting his prior plan.

Lan and Kazuki?

I believe you have had an Influence encounter with both in recent memory. So yes, you are welcome to meet with him again, but not as another Influence encounter, per se. For now.

Does that answer your question?

Yup. I wanted to make sure our PCs didn't ghost him in game. I'm fine with hand-waving that meeting, considering there's no benefit to RPing it. Thanks!

-------------------

First Night Skills:

2) COMMUNAL REVIVALS: Diplomacy +7
4) GHOSTS... OR ANCESTORS?: Nature +10
5) BRIBING FUMEIYOSHI: Religion +11

DM rainzax wrote:

I believe you have had an Influence encounter with both in recent memory. So yes, you are welcome to meet with him again, but not as another Influence encounter, per se. For now.

Does that answer your question?

Yup. I wanted to make sure our PCs didn't ghost him in game. I'm fine with hand-waving that meeting, considering there's no benefit to RPing it. Thanks!

Old Matsuki (and, by extension, all of Southbank) Likes the PCs, on account of their 12 Reputation points with him. (I am recording this in the Campaign Header).

"At this reputation, only moderate and major favors accrue Reputation Points; it takes more to impress the group further"

I've added a tab to the NPC Relationships spreadsheet to track Reputation.

Based on the info in the campaign header, it looks like we're Liked by both Northridge and Southbank and Ignored by Granny Hu.

Thinking about relationships vs. reputation: is it reasonable to assume each NPC would only have one or the other with us? It seems like personal relationships would supersede reputation.

Lan, you said you wanted to create other activities for First Long Night (real world analogue) - feel free to come up with a couple more activities (maybe two? so that d10>d12...) as you like, and we can incorporate those.

I apologize for the delay. I needed some time to consider all the current options, since I think the author(s) did a decent job of covering a lot of real-world analogs already.

Cleaning graves is already covered by the Enlightened Self-Interest category; offerings to the gods is covered by bribing Fumeiyoshi; and the lanterns were already done in the mid-Autumn Festival.

I don't think I have anything to add at this point, and there are a lot of really cool options in the game as written.

Checking in. How's life treating everyone?

At home with folks for Thanksgiving. Dealing with family drama as expected. But otherwise I'm doing ok.

All is good! Picked up some extra hours at work this week due to others taking time off for the holiday.

@Kazuki: Nice! I hope your extra shifts aren't too crazy.

@Sigurd: I hope the drama lets up enough for you to enjoy your visit.

Things are quiet here, which is the way I like it.

Closing on a house next week!

So much homework - watching from far away, but got the rest of the week off work.

Tomorrow looking good.

=)

Good luck on that house closing. There's a LOT of paperwork to fill out...

Yes, hope the closing goes well. I find that process to be about as fun as gouging out an eye with a spork.

Yes, and.

Sure beats throwing away my life’s work to the rent game!

Fingers crossed!

Congrats rainzax, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

My brother has been in town, so we've been doing all the touristy things.

I introduced my nephews to Pathfinder. They wanted to behead someone but I said we could have a tug of war instead, and did Q14.

Haha! Your kids sound like ours. The accounts one of our kids told us about her middle school DnD club's games were very...interesting.

Cleared for Closing on house December 5th, then we lay new floors and pack and move by the 18th, flying out the next day to visit family in the Bay.

Thanks for bearing with busy days - hoping this slow pace can pick up January when the "to do" is a little in the rearview.

Updating now!

Fair enough, and congrats! It's nice to be able to get the new floors down before moving in, but that does add to the "this is a lot of stuff happening all at once" vibe.

[dice=Random NPC in attendance]1d25 ⇒ 16

Yun Mong-Un comes over to Kazuki. ...

After the competition, she shares ”I know you spend your time in the woods helping us to prepare for winter. Let me help you out too. We gotta pull together, right?” offering a discount to him (and the party) at her own wood shop at Mercantile Street.

+1 Relationship with #16 Yun Mong-Un!

Verifying that I'm doing this right: +1 Relationship from which level? Since we're Liked in both Northridge and Southbank, do all NPCs start there as well? Or do they all start at Indifferent no matter what our Reputation with the town?

Also, what discount is she offering?

Start with Indifferent as a default assumption, yes.

What she offers is in this alias - Mercantile Street (17)

Thanks! Is it a 10% discount?

Yes.

Easy math.

Updated in our tracker that it's specifically Kazuki who is doing better with Yun Mong-Un.

Bumping this is case someone has more clear (than me) thoughts about it.

Thinking about relationships vs. reputation: is it reasonable to assume each NPC would only have one or the other with us? It seems like personal relationships would supersede reputation.

Yeah, the two different systems measuring what feels like the same thing in two different ways is confusing. I've read the rules pages for each of them, and am still unclear on it.

Sorry guys, busy Thanksgiving. I will catch up as soon as I can.

Ran out of time tonight. Will be my first non-work task tomorrow morning.

+3 Relationship with #17 Huo Tian-Zhe @ Second Besst (W18)!

Now I am definitely confused. When you say "+3 Relationship", do you mean Repuation Points? Vekka and I thought you meant relationships based on Make an Impression all this time, but there aren't 3 tiers above Indifferent. Should I only use "Reputation Points" to track relationships and ignore "Make an Impression"? Currently the spreadsheet has both. Do we need to track Reputation Points for the group as a whole and for each PC separately? (i.e., when Kazuki gets +3 Relationship with Huo Tian-Zhe, does the whole group get that or only him?)

Thanks for the clarification! :)

Indifferent > Friendly > Helpful would be "+2"

I will give an in-game benefit to your guys' hot rolls - just deciding how to approach it...

I assume Halfling Luck doesn't apply, so:

I see one of your three First Night actions as legitimates uses of Halfling Luck - and won't "charge" you a Hero Point for this re-roll. Moot, as both rolls were insufficient to generate a success.

It's the checks that represent a whole day or whole week of work that seem out-of-phase.

=)

Okay, so when you mention Relationship points, we're using the Make an Impression scale. Got it.

And thanks for the Hero Point back. I'll mark off Halfling Luck until the First Night is over.

BTW,
The reason I ask for the rolls to be in order is because otherwise it takes a lot of time to track...

...in the future, please be considerate of that...

=)

Closed on the house a couple of hours ago.

It's moving weekend. And at the end of next week, visiting home.

I'm around but will be slow moving.

Congrats!

Question about Zheng Peng: He started as Unfriendly with Lan and Auntie Wu. With Relationship +3 for the whole party, does he go up to Helpful for all of us? Is there any point in tracking individual relationships for our PCs going forward, once we've earned any Relationship points with a given NPC for the group?

For each +3 Relationship, the party earns one Permanent Item of level 5 or less (or, instead, 5x same-Consumables of same level)!

For each +2 Relationship, the party earns two Consumable Items of Level 5 or less (these can be different items)!
For each +1 Relationship (or higher), a 10% discount on all related Wares so long as Relationship lasts!

What do you guys think? We have three +3s and one +2.

For a level 5 consumable, we can get a 3rd rank scroll.

@GM rainzax: For the permanent items, can we choose Runes on weapons or armor?

Only if that would match the Wares description (see spoiler)

Think of it as early access. When you advance to 5th level, you will have to “buy back” any items you want to keep, even “free” ones earned during the adventure path.

A little late, but congrats on the house!

Thanks!

I'm all moved in, returned the keys to our old place, and now just unpacking.

I think I’m missing two tokens and two sleeping orders!

Lan will take the last watch. Early to sleep, early to rise, makes Lan happy, wealthy, and wise.