GM Parrot's Sea Change

Game Master parrot familiar

Staying positive!

...and by that I mean, I'm still not able to travel. Or move around a whole lot. But every day, I'm a little better.

I'm going to start mashing keys on the catastrophe so we can get this party started. A little more narration--then the game begins.

I'm going to start mashing keys on the catastrophe so we can get this party started. A little more narration--then the game begins.

character prepared for your approval or rejection

Looks ok to me!

So, if I'm reading this right, you're a shark-man who can also self-heal and grow claws and spines (and shoot spines). Anything else I should know about?

Looks ok to me!

So, if I'm reading this right, you're a shark-man who can also self-heal and grow claws and spines (and shoot spines). Anything else I should know about?

That's about the long and short of it. The only tricky bit is going to be keeping track of how many of those he can do at a time, and how many times a day, but still way simpler than a proper druid. (Like, if I'm reading it right, he can take the gills of a shark man and breathe underwater or the fins of a shark man and gain a fast swimming speed, but not both at once, at least until he levels some. But he can have claws that whole time because one's a shifter ability and one's a skinwalker ability, etc.) Should be interesting, at least.

Sounds fun!

Relevant Reddit post

Made it home at last!

We may have another player joining us soon.

Witch, Brawler, Shifter, Bard(?).....

That is a solid foundation!

We may have another player joining us soon.

Cool,

Witch, Brawler, Shifter, Bard(?).....

That is a solid foundation!

Did markofbane give up on his grippli monk and did Spazmodeus drop out?

Bane is probably still planning on doing that monk, but has a lot going on IRL. Spaz usually has a lot of real life happening at all times, but I'm hopeful that he'll be around.

So party of 6? 7?

Party of whoever shows up. It's homebrew, so encounters will be handcrafted to be challenging without being impossible.

We'll start as soon as I get the story off the ground with whoever is posting, and then others can join if/when their circumstances allow.

I have a couple more intro sections to write and then we'll get started. Sorry for the long ramp-up. Getting sick has put me behind in all things.

Bane is probably still planning on doing that monk, but has a lot going on IRL. Spaz usually has a lot of real life happening at all times, but I'm hopeful that he'll be around.

Sweet, do we know what spaz is thinking about, I don't want to step on anyone's toes.

...how about a barbarian using the Toe Stomp totem to stomp on the toes of evil?

I want you to play what you want to play! Within the hopefully reasonable restrictions laid out above...

I may be teetering....

Although that happens every new Campaign..

....play what you like, RH, and I will decide the opposite...lol

...how about a barbarian using the Toe Stomp totem to stomp on the toes of evil?

I think I have one of those someplace :)

Like I said, after thinking about why I felt nervous after blowing up a different game. I didn't want to try a new class in a new world. I've got a bard that I've played in several games, she's an old soul. I think she might be a little easier to work into the new city, especially since I've done that with her before. She actually started in 'Lost Lands' campaigns and then moved to Golarian (and then back again.)

For me the perfect party size is between three and five. If the party needs a little magical boost that a bard can provide, I can bring her in. If there are plenty of folks I'll just read along.

One more story post and then we'll get started with whoever is ready!

Might be a dumb question, but if our monk was our rogue, would an archologist make more sense than a famous singer? I realize she would give up buffing you all. As far as backstory, if we're off to explore the world, a 'archologist' would make more sense than a 'bard' Just sayin'

Any thoughts, yeah yeah, I know Play what you want. Trust me, Naomi will be the same person whichever class, we just trade famous musical parents for famous exploring parents.

Archaeologist would be a great fit. I mean, bard would too. But an archaeologist might be more into figuring out the whys of what just happened to the planet. There won't be too many ruins to explore initially, seeing as most inhabitable places will be under water, but a general air of curiosity will always have a place in this world.

Everyone: it's juusst about time to start playing for realsies. I am about halfway through the first intro post. You don't need to have your characters fully drafted right away because we'll start with RP and then do the first quest, but it'd be good to have at least an alias with a name ready.

Just to be clear, the island is floating on the water, not in the sky?

Definitely water. Wet and wild water. Don't go chasing waterfalls. Knock. Knock. Who's there? Water. Water who? Water.

In case it is not too obvious, Oswald has Cha 8...

How did I do?

So an alias with a name, see the problem here is, I really like Naomi's 'musician look' more than her 'librarian look' Wanna guess which one this one is?

Really not too certain...

Hey Parrot, Covering a couple angles, Naomi's parents are famous, one is an archologist who was a professor, the other a 'pop artist' who was a guest professor. They met late in life and married, had two daughters. The oldest a very experienced musician, the youngest a bit of a dreamer.

Naomi is the youngest. So, she wants to get out from under her parents shadow. She is skilled both in music and archeology. So either a bard/ archetype Archologist who plays the lute. OR a regular bard who sings and plays that has also done enough archeology with her mother to know how to deal with traps: ie I would need to be able to use the traittrap finder as well as probably Maestro of the Society.

I would really rather play a traditional bard who can deal with traps, You ok with trapfinder?

And, please, allow Background Skills option!

I never found an answer to DG's question, Background Skills?

Floating on water, yeah!

Lots of people I've talked to about this game have heard "floating island" and immediately picture Laputa, though.

There might be floating islands (air style) later.

Background skills are fine!

Trapfinder looks pretty good for a trait, but I'm ok with it.

As for professor parents: are they wizards, or, like, lecturers teaching nonmagical subjects as electives? Are they in Morgen/W or in one of the other schools in a far-away town? Note: if full-blown wizards, they are going to die really soon.

As for looks, we on PbP have to use one little icon to represent pretty much our entire visual personhood with only occasional divergences, so I'd pick whichever appeals! And FWIW, years ago I dated a punk-musician-library-worker who rocked something not unlike Naomi's current style.

Cool, thank you for the use of the traits and background skills.

As for the parents, they are both bards. Mom an archeologist and dad a performer. Would the university have bards teaching classes for magic? If not, a 'science' professor and a visiting 'music' professor. Just some core class material for a liberal education. I'm good with them being magical or 'normal' professors, just let me know.

Edit: So no one thought to have knowledge skills?

I have Arcana. Witches don't get much skills.

I have Arcana. Witches don't get much skills.

Sorry, my bad, I was so enthralled with the perform fortune telling that I missed it. I was trying to decide what knowledge checks she should take, but it's not like she can't roll them anyway :)

So now, it's what knowledge checks does she want to take.

I'm still juggling Naomi's performance styles, Singing (bluff, sense motive) and Keyboard (intimidation, diplomacy) yeah the accordion feel like fun, but Oratory (diplomacy, sense motive) and comedy (bluff, intimidate) seem more practical. And lets face it, cracking jokes at y'alls expense feels like a good time too. Whichever she picks, she will learn them from her parents or will be in reaction to her parents.

Dad's a musician, so she refuses to play instruments and starts telling jokes instead. Something like that, obviously the nitpicky details will be filled in once I decide.

I need 5 levels of Perform to qualify for Harrower Prestige Class, so I had to come up with something!

With Bardic Knowledge, you can cover all areas.

Maybe you can take the Weird Al archetype and play accordion AND tell jokes!

Brains? Isn't that what got us into The Thaw?

So I'm starting to wonder why wasn't the W included in on the conspiracy to thaw the planet?

Brains? Isn't that what got us into The Thaw?

If this is the sentiment towards wizards post Thaw, perhaps there may be some sort of Wizard Hunt scenario?

Rise of the Melee! Down with Casters (except our Witch and Bard because not Wizards)!

Remember that the W is basically the community college of Tlan. They wouldn't be invited.

As for wizard backlash, well, if someone wants to play a wizard it'll take some finagling but I think most people will understand when the old wizards die off, they'll be taking a lot of the blame with them to the otherworld.

Speaking of wizards and bards, Dominic, how comfortable are you with handling healing? Naomi has two first level spells, I'm going with grease as the first. Do you think she should have CLW, or will just being able to use the wand later on be enough?

Edit:
Hey Parrot, I dotted in game, but it put Naomi with me in the Previous Players. Could you move Naomi and RH back to active character and player, respectively? Or at least that's what I think needs to happen.

I think we will be needing to prioritize the purchasing of a CLW wand. My spellcasting will be focused on debuffing.

Ask the janitor. He probably knows where to pick up a Wand or seven....lost and found department doing fine!

I think we will be needing to prioritize the purchasing of a CLW wand. My spellcasting will be focused on debuffing.

So I'll keep CLW on the spell list to start with, I like battlefield control spells and buffing spells, I worry about debuffing due to the saving throws. But we have to make sure we keep our meatshield healthy, well, at least alive..

One thing to know as you plan your roles and resources: you're going to have an entire community to work with you. But they might not always be easy to work with.

One of my goals with this game is to create a campaign that I'd love to play myself. I love city sims and strategy games. I like thinking about demographics, and it bothers me when, using Skyrim as an example (favorite video game? Maybe? In the running.): Whiterun, a "city," has a population of ~70 people. And like, three kids?

Morgen currently holds 680 people + you all for about 700 total. As we go, more and more people will emerge from the social fog of war and get names, personalities, goals, and struggles.

I am going to reveal more in-game and especially more details once y'all have become bigwigs around town, but here's my first draft of the demographics you can expect.

Edit: Oh my gods I'm bad at counting. Redoing some math.

People who lived in town before the collapse (280 people):
- Professors and lecturers: 25 (will soon subtract the main wizards who will die of old age shortly)
- Students: 75
- Town officials, administrators, and guard: 20
- Clergy and ascetics: 10
- Merchants and traders and hedge-psychics: 25
- Artisans and craftsmen and actors and boxers: 50
- Servants and laborers and janitors: 50
- Homemakers: 25

Country folk who evacuated successfully (240 people):
- Farmers and agricultural laborers: 100
- Shepherds and herders: 25
- Woodcutters and foresters: 10
- Hunters and trappers: 10
- Fisherfolk: 25
- Homemakers: 50
- Traveling performers: 10
- Peddlers and local traveling merchants: 10

Thinking of the children: 160 youngsters who aren't working yet. Some could be given jobs.

- Infants (0-2 years): 25
- Toddlers (2-5 years): 25
- Young children (5-10 years): 50
- Teenagers (11-15), pre-employable: 30
- Young adults (15-20 years for humans): 30

There are non-humans, too! But I'm not going to do separate age-ranges for everyone. Assume that so-far unemployable "teenage" elves of age 40 are present.

So, why bring it up now? On healing:

Many members of the clergy will quickly re-adapt to the new rules of divine magic and might, with the right incentives, be willing to attend adventures as especially helpful NPCs. Of course, if they die, they are gone, and their friends won't be happy with you.

Much appreciation from the Janitor's Union of The W.

With only twenty five professors, May I assume Naomi's mom can be one of them and we'll call her father more of a performer (artisan)?

hmmmm crunch is done, went with the speaking performances. still trying to figure out how to pick up the lute or the accordion. Still thinking about dumping clw for something else.

The mysterious sounds of janitorial equipment being hastily gathered, stored and inventoried is heard coming from the flooding basement of the Unyvyersyty ....

Where the f*+$ is that steel mop handle...

I couldn't do it, I couldn't leave a lute out of Naomi's backstory. First, I tried not to have an instrument at all. Then I decided the accordion was just wrong on too many levels. Lastly her father is a famous lutist, and her sister a famous singer, so the lute had to be included. Yeah I dumped some stuff out of her pack so she could carry it... Looks like she's expecting one of the boys to be doing the cooking.

Dominic was sure to pack some cheese.

Are we to assume the Headmasters or whatever are like lvl20 wizards?

Ok, Naomi's backstory, appearance and personality are up.

I combined parts of two different backstories, so it's a little 'all or nothing.' I may go back in and work a little more on the time she spends playing in grandpa's tavern. The part I cut out was about 'visiting the big city with father and sister' and playing there. It didn't quite fit, so I'll work on that a little.

Also the physical description is part of an 'introduction' but I left it pretty much as is. Anyway. If something needs clarification let me know.

Basically she's a local girl who's a student at the 'W' Dad's an ex member of the Beatles 'Bardings'. Moms a professor and the daughter of the famous archeologist Indiana Jones 'Sledgeboat' Narrah. They met fell in love had two beautiful children. The oldest wants to be just like dad, the youngest (Naomi) loves her parents and emulates them both in different ways, but most of all wants to be her own person. Oh, and tell jokes that gives friends, allies, and acquaintances courage.

Are we to assume the Headmasters or whatever are like lvl20 wizards?

Nope! Assume that magic followed different rules pre-collapse and the Pathfinder 1e rules are the result of the aftermath.

The professors of the W are very powerful, but y'all would know that the sorts of magic they just cast would be very out of character for them. To this point, they've mostly kept it chill out of laziness and a sense of the unpredictability of consequences.

I have some work to do now but I'm hoping to get the next piece up soonish!

A little warm up music for you, something she pulled out of dad's play list

A little warm up music for you, something she pulled out of dad's play list

I was literally singing (badly) that today at work!

I often break out a Beatles tune on the occasions...