[PbP Gameday XIII] The Cosmic Captive (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

For discussion among the GMs.

Here's my first cut at timing for the various parts:

Part 1 start: September 8

Part 2 start: September 11, assuming all the players are ready to go on the 8th

Part 3 start: October 6

End: October 23

That gives us some time to float before the end of the event, if needed. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

I'll be putting together a Google form for reporting successes and distributing it before the start of the game.

I'll just need to know beforehand which table I'll have to deputize on, so I can prepare on my side (I preferred to be a sub rather a main GM)

I will need backup coverage September 20-23 due to family travel.

The schedule looks good to me. My first thought was that it seemed aggressively fast, but looking back at the timing from the Cosmic Captive run in 2019, its pretty close and that one felt like it moved along fine.

The rule of thumb I was given is around one day PbP per six minutes tabletop.

We'll be starting in a few hours (midnight UST, so 8PM US Eastern/7PM US Central/6PM US Mountain/5PM US Pacific). I have a Google form for reporting successes and ancillary information--please PM me your email address so I can send you the form.

I will need backup coverage September 20-23 due to family travel.

Philippe, will you be able to provide that?

We'll be starting in a few hours (midnight UST, so 8PM US Eastern/7PM US Central/6PM US Mountain/5PM US Pacific). I have a Google form for reporting successes and ancillary information--please PM me your email address so I can send you the form.

For some reason I thought we started on the 8th. Strike that last; we'll begin in just under 24 hours.

I put a link to the status board in the header.

As multi-tables don't have 4 player adjustment, is it worth seeing if we can get a few more players to fill the remaining spots on the 3-4 tables before the mission gets properly started? It's probably worth pointing out that players form adjacent tiers can join those tables (so long as they are all from only one adjacent tier) and that the gold reward is based on character level not tier played, so if anyone has a level 5 or 6 character they wanted to play they could join a 3-4 table with no issues.

Good point. I'm not as worried about the Core table, because they already have a few people playing up, but the Standard T3-4 table is kind of squishy. The T1-2 table is less so but could still use a sixth.

ETA: if any of you have the bandwidth, you can play and GM (and a couple of you are already).

GM Redelia wrote:

I will need backup coverage September 20-23 due to family travel.

Philippe, will you be able to provide that?

Yeah, I can no problem - do I need to warn the players beforehand or I just drop by the table and continue as if usual ?

Good point. I'm not as worried about the Core table, because they already have a few people playing up, but the Standard T3-4 table is kind of squishy. The T1-2 table is less so but could still use a sixth.

ETA: if any of you have the bandwidth, you can play and GM (and a couple of you are already).

I think I'll join the 3-4 table. Wasn't thinking of playing, but yeah this one is needing some tanking capacity. Never really played PbP on the Paizo websites so I'll get to grips with that

I'll post something in the Flaxseed Lodge recruitment tread to see if we can fill the last few slots.

Thanks much! We also just got a sixth for the T1-2 table.

We'll be advancing Thursday since we started a day late (Brad said we weren't the only ones), and I still don't have email addresses for cmlobue, Redelia, or 7th Gate. Please PM me, or email me at jbwoodford815 @ gmail.com. Thanks!

Just in case I wasn't the only person who didn't spot this (as its hidden away on page 53 of the appendix), but the Planetary Adaptation being offered as a spellcasting service is slightly different from the standard Planetary Adaptation spell. According to the details of the spell in the appendix, this casting doesn't proved the recipient with resistance 20 to a single energy type, but instead "For the purpose of this adventure, planetary adaptation grants no energy resistance but does protect the recipient from environmental temperature extremes, the vacuum of space, and damage dealt by radioactivity.".

My table has some fresh new 1st level characters with no prestige. Others are asking if they can spend PP to get a teammate planetary adaptation.

Last time we ran this we let people in that situation get an advance from the society of one PP they are earning this adventure.

That seems reasonable--cmlobue, go with that. Thanks, Redelia!

You should get the reporting form shortly, if you haven't already. I would appreciate a sanity check on it--I think it's comprehensive and easy to follow, but I may have missed something(s). Thanks in advance for the feedback.

I'm leaving Sunday for a three-day business trip, and I probably won't have a lot of time to post. I've got the Overseer posts set up in Google Drive, though, so if necessary I can post them from my phone.

My 10-11 table is heading in the Earth direction. It should be interesting to see if they decide to take either of the optional fights; I think they are close to being able to do the Ravener but might be missing a few key countermeasures (I'm not sure they can align weapons or have an answer to some of the nastier Prismatic Spray effects), and have the right countermeasures available to do the Ghost if they want. I am not sure how adventuresome they're going to be with regards to the optional fights yet though.

For the descent into the crater in B1, the damage for the lower two climb checks is supposed to be coming from a Ravener dragon beath weapon:

Subtier 10–11, the PC instead takes 9d4 sonic damage as a crystal dragon ravener (see area B4) flies by and rakes the area with its breath weapon.

This is a little confusing/misleading, because that's not the Ravener dragon's breath weapon damage or effect. I don't really want to mislead them on that if they are going to need to decide if they want to fight the thing, but I probably shouldn't gloss over the source here because one of the players has a sacred bonus on saves vs. evil sources that would apply if its coming from a Ravener and would not if coming from a controlled Crystal Dragon. I also don't really want to imply the standard crystal dragons are evil since that could influence the decision making on freeing-the-controlled-dragon option in the next encounter.

I'm thinking maybe describe it as coming from the Ravener, but mostly blocked by the stone wall, or maybe as a weakened impact from being out of range as it cinematically blasts some other group descending. Curious on how other people would handle running it.

I think those both sound like sensible options. The text doesn't specifically say the damage is from the breath weapon itself, just that they take the damage as it flies past and blasts the area with the breath weapon. So I think there is scope there for making it clear it's not from the full on breath weapon.

Definitely--I agree that indicating to the party that the damage done is a fraction of the breath weapon's full potential is a good idea.

Wouldn't be technically a lie either since it's also a byproduct of the ravener sweeping past through

As for whether they choose to face the Ravener or the xiomorn, if they unanimously say they want so but lacks some of the needed tools, then it's on them only. I would only intervene if at least one player says about not feeling it (and it's fair)

So ultimately yeah depict as best as you think you can, and then hope for the best.

Might have to consider botting a not small part of the current sequence in Redelia's table, no new activity since her last gameplay post yesterday

So far I've only seen one success reported--has anyone besides Mustaparta tried to use the form?

I used it to report an Asteroid Surface success a while back.

For some reason it didn't take--could you reenter it?

I didn't report an asteroid success since the scenario says not to do so, I did not realize that was an option on the form.

The first encounter descending the Crater on the earth path doesn't count either, so my table has not gotten one yet; they're in round one of the combat in B2 right now.

I missed the line in Development where that direction was given; it did seem odd that the initial encounter area wasn't assigned an element, but I decided to err on the side of caution and include it. Don't bother reporting any further successes there.

I'm still on the encounter in the crater due to lack of activity. What I should do ?

Only one crysmal and the mephit left, so the outcome is likely in little doubt

I also thought we were not supposed to report a success for the first encounter. Tier 1-2 is now fighting on the Sea of Light.

For a multi-table special, the GM needs to bot any players who don't post within about 24 hours of the turn of their initiative block.

I strongly believe that it needs to be botting, not delay, because delay is far too likely to get characters killed.

Also, I'm back, and will be taking over again.

Thanks, GM Phillipe Lam, for taking over for a few days.

For a multi-table special, the GM needs to bot any players who don't post within about 24 hours of the turn of their initiative block.

I strongly believe that it needs to be botting, not delay, because delay is far too likely to get characters killed.

Also, I'm back, and will be taking over again.

Thanks, GM Phillipe Lam, for taking over for a few days.

I almost considered short-cutting the whole fight and doing it in a cinematic way considering the lack of movement. I think I was afraid of botting entire blocks of characters, but if you think it's fine, then I should have taken my gloves off.

I brought home a bug from my trip, so I'm really not feeling well. Can I please get backup coverage again? I'll post in just a minute to keep things moving.

So I don't forget to tell you, I've copied the next map over from my private map deck so that you can use it when needed.

Hope you feel better soon, GM R!

Hopefully a quick rest, GM Redelia

I'm on it for the backup - every 24 hours for the bump/bot if I don't see a move ?

Just to double check everything is working correctly, I've just reported a water success via the form, did it report successfully?

Yep! Showing one regular Earth success from Redelia, a special element Water success from Mustaparta, and a regular Water success from Mike...R.

Fantastic!

Encounter B2, successful Diplomacy, tallying a clue for part 3

Yep! Showing one regular Earth success from Redelia, a special element Water success from Mustaparta, and a regular Water success from Mike...R.

My error, Special success from D1 should have been regular water success instead.

Ah. I'm still kinda new at this--should I revoke the Allies benefit?

I submitted a normal success for B2, also successful diplomacy for a clue. Reading the form it sounded like we're supposed to track the clues ourselves and report it when we do H1?

I submitted a normal success for B2, also successful diplomacy for a clue. Reading the form it sounded like we're supposed to track the clues ourselves and report it when we do H1?

That's how I set it up, but in retrospect I should have had you report them as they happened and tallied them up when we got to H1.

They probably actually should have been something to report by themselves, because when a GM reports the success, they probably won't have the result of the check to get the clue yet.

I would not revoke a benefit that was already announced. It would be too disruptive.