I'm not familiar with groups.io. Is that how you handle maps?
It sounds like in-character play happens via email, dice rolls are handled on Discord (and linked to in the emails), and OOC chat is on Discord. Is that about right?
Just because I'm nosy - did you decide not to submit a character, or did we just not get your questions answered?
All my questions were answered, and I'm still kind of interested in playing a PBEM game. But things got busy for me, and I haven't been able to give a PC for this game much thought. Since you've already got three submissions, I decided not to submit one.
Please do submit. We like to see options, and we're not 100% sure how many we'll be taking.
Kamaloo wrote:
Andostre wrote:
Since you've already got three submissions, I decided not to submit one.
I'm in agreement with i.jason - absolutely put up something! :D
Okay, if you guys are going to twist my arm...
Delanicaei Ilamath:
In the decades-long war against the Whispering Tyrant, the Shining Crusade saw numerous nations and peoples come together to battle Tar-Baphon. The most commonly known armies were comprised of the Taldan Empire, the dwarves of the Kingdom of Kraggodan, and the Knights of Ozem, but they were not the only ones. The elves of Kyonin were also drawn to the conflict, determined to end the threat of the lich ruler.
Delanicaei Ilamath, a scholar of history and culture hailing from modern-day Kyonin, learned of his ancestor, Arnvodel Ilamath, who fought and died for the Shining Crusade in Ustalav. Feeling drawn to his ancestor's story, Delanicaei travelled to Ustalav to learn the missing pieces of Arnvodel's story. With the help of Professor Lorrimor, Delanicaei was able to find the exact battlefield where his ancestor was slain.
At that site, Delanicaei felt a pull from somewhere beyond the mortal plane. He grabbed hold and pulled back, and he found that he had summoned an eidolon. Delanicaei believes that this summoned being holds the soul of his ancestor, stating that he was called to this site for just this purpose. However, the eidolon that has been named Arnvodel refused to follow his summoner back to Kyonin. Delanicaei has surmised that there is more to his ancestor's story to discover, and he now travels Ustalav searching for the missing pieces of Arnvodel's tale.
Delanicaei is a tall, taciturn scholar, who has become somewhat hardier than he used to be thanks to his travels throughout Ustalav in search of lost knowledge. Arnvodel takes the form of a beast of indeterminate type. None of his bestial features are unusual, but his specific combination of features are not found together on any natural beast.
*********
That's my submission! He's an elf summoner, obviously. I tied his background to Professor Lorrimor to justify whatever Campaign Trait I would choose. I see from the discussion earlier in this thread that it might not make sense for him to be in the Professor's will, and I'm fine with that.
About me: I've been playing ttrpg's since D&D 1st edition (sort of, we had no idea what we were doing), and PbP's for just over 20 years. I've never played in a PBEM game, and I would love to have the experience.
On the Carrion Crown AP page, the icon for "Digital Editions" displays a Starfrinder product. The icon is still incorrect when you click the link to the new page, but the page does display products from that AP.
However, the Carrion Crown Player's Guide isn't listed.
Azothath, I genuinely can't tell if your answer is Yes, No, Maybe, or I don't know. You've used too much technical jargon for someone not knowledgeable about AI to know what you're talking about.
(Speaking for myself, not trying to speak for Oli Ironbar.)
I'm not familiar with groups.io. Is that how you handle maps?
It sounds like in-character play happens via email, dice rolls are handled on Discord (and linked to in the emails), and OOC chat is on Discord. Is that about right?
Just because I'm nosy - did you decide not to submit a character, or did we just not get your questions answered?
All my questions were answered, and I'm still kind of interested in playing a PBEM game. But things got busy for me, and I haven't been able to give a PC for this game much thought. Since you've already got three submissions, I decided not to submit one.
I'm not familiar with groups.io. Is that how you handle maps?
It sounds like in-character play happens via email, dice rolls are handled on Discord (and linked to in the emails), and OOC chat is on Discord. Is that about right?
I like the idea of Ranalc as the warlock's patron. Ranalc was banished from the First World, probably because he gave too much power to Nyrissa. He has still carved out his own place of power, and it seems reasonable that he wants to get back together with Nyrissa. Or maybe he wants to manipulate her for some other purpose.
Having an agent in the campaign involved in Nyrissa's machinations and to regain Briar and restore her (or not! He's fey! Who knows?!) seems like a reasonable way for a banished eldest to influence things from a place of banishment.
Search has been down at least since July, but I recall it being down before that for a while.
Andostre wrote:
Back in 2021 I asked about it, and from the response it seems that they have to manually run an index for the search feature. Once they did that, the search feature was caught up.
...Until it wasn't, again! Numerous times since I've tried to search for something recent, but the results don't show up for a while. Presumably, they run the search indexer occasionally. It would be great if they could automate it to run on a certain schedule, but I don't know how difficult that would be.
Next weekend will be busy, but I'll tell you about that WHEN IT'S TIME.
IT'S TIME.
Our CoC game last weekend was cancelled due to The Weather™, and we won't all have another free day to play until February 20-something.
This past week my wife, kids, and I have been playing the Talisman 5th edition boardgame I got for my birthday, and it's pretty fun! I don't remember the older version we played or its specific rules, but this version feels the same. We've been playing it in fits and starts in between work, swim practice, Girl Scouts, and homework.
My son and I watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie just a bit a go. He'd never seen any of them before, and I thought it was fun revisiting the movie. I don't think I've seen all of the sequels, so I'm looking forward to hopefully watching the series with him.
I've got a poker game tomorrow night! I'm looking forward to it, although the buy-in is a bit higher than usual. It's not too bad, but I'm wary of this trend if it's going to keep going up. One of the things I like about the poker games that my friend hosts is that the buy-ins are low. Real money to win means that people make realistic bets during play (instead of the guy who goes all-in every hand), but if it starts being a significant buy-in, then it feels more like gambling instead of a game with friends.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
I tell ya what, if you yahoos want to try Blood on the Clocktower I'll reup my sub to storytell on the online app for you.
Yeah, we postponed our Call of C[insert correct spelling here]u game due to freezing temps. I got grocery/supply shopping done today, so we are good to go if the world shuts down on Sunday and Monday. Both kids' schools have announced that they will be closed on Monday.
My wife works for the City's health department, and any time there's weather or some other event that impacts the city like this, she on-call and basically has to be able to drop everything and take a call or get on her laptop (and sometimes go somewhere) at the drop of a hat. This can be stressful as she feels like she's not supporting the family during an emergency, but that's the job. I don't mind, since I know her work helps people who need it, but it can be hard to take care of things at home AND help her deal with her stress and guilt.
I couldn't really find any from the Stolen Lands, but according to PathfinderWiki.com, here's a few I've found that share the same regions as the Tiger Lords (but across the border in Numeria):
The category box at the bottom of the Tiger Lords article also lists a few others that don't have articles: the Black Horses, the Mountain Crows, and the White Scars.
Slow weekend between my kids' school events and my gaming events. Next weekend will be busy, but I'll tell you about that WHEN IT'S TIME.
But, my birthday was on Monday, and we finally did my presents this weekend. I got two cool items of note. The first is the book Puzzlecraft: How to Make Every Kind of Puzzle, which should be neat to read through, and maybe actually apply if I ever start GMing again. The second item is the most recent version of the Talisman board game. I loved playing this in my 20s with my gaming group when we weren't screwing up D&D, but that was an earlier edition. The earlier editions are hard to find nowadays, outside of very expensive listings on eBay. I'm hoping the 5th edition game that I now have is still fun.
I'm off today, so I'm squeezing in lots of chores.
My son's swim meet tomorrow.
Call of Cthulhu on Sunday.
Monday is my birthday, so I'm taking it off!
The supposedly final session of our Call of Cthulhu has been postponed. Most people are saying they are available a week later, but not everyone has chimed in. Fingers crossed!
On a side note, last week Rich shared to backers a long delayed Kickstarter reward from years ago, the OOTS Dim Sum spoof of the Dark Sun setting. 25 pages - which I haven't gotten around to yet, but will over the holidays.
Yeah, it was very surprising to get that. I'd love to see an updated version of the stretch rewards progress tracker that he used to send out. Not that I'm bitter, or anything, but he's put so much importance on fulfilling those rewards (and good for him) that I'm really curious what's still left to go.
Still need to wrap the presents and actually cook the Christmas Day dinner (presumably on Christmas Day), but I also think that we are ready!
We have a Christmas party to go to tomorrow night, and then we have another Christmas thing with my mom and sister. I'm working on Monday, but then I'm off for the rest of the week.
Friday night my son had a swim meet. Saturday night is a neighborhood block party. Sunday morning is the final (probably) session of our CoC game!
Today's CoC game was cancelled, because the GM is ill, but that works out, because last night's block party was a lot more fun than I expected! (I didn't get drunk; I just stayed up too late.)
My son had a swim meet Saturday morning, and I got to relax for a bit Saturday afternoon, and most of today has been grocery shopping and food prep for the week.
You are right about the challenges writers have telling compelling Superman stories. But moral quandaries are only one way to twist the storytelling style to create interesting stories. Many Superman stories focus more on solving a mystery or solving a problem than they do defeating an enemy. Sure, there usually is an enemy, but once Superman solves the mystery/problem, the boss fight is often just a satisfying capstone.
Superman may have X-Ray vision, but he still needs to figure out where to look to find what he's looking for. He may be able to see atoms (depends on the writer, I think), but he still needs to make his Knowledge: Physics roll to know what to do with that information.
I may just be rambling here, but changing up an adventure in a way that makes the players use their non-combat abilities to discover where to go next may be a good way to tackle high-level play. When players talk about system mastery, they usually mean combat. Other sorts of challenges can be good for the right group of players. But make sure you have a boss fight at the end.
I don't know what "plinking" is. Google tells me it's a type of marksmanship, which doesn't seem like what you're implying. Shooting well seems very useful in combat. :)
I think D&D/Pathfinder is very much a combat game with other roleplaying elements added on. Even social interactions have an air of defeating an opponent.
I've considered non-combat PCs before. For example, I really wanted to make a wizard or druid in a Kingmaker game that focused their spell selection on the spells that help build buildings and terraform terrain. It would be fun, but that would put the burden of successful combat on the other players. And since combat is such a big part of D&D/Pathfinder, it tends to attract players who find combat a very important/enticing part of the game.
Starting in my Homegame The.Very.Next.Session I eliminated ALL happy Sticks (I had *Never* allowed Stupid-Crap-Bag-Infernal-Healing!!!!) and made a 'Staff of Healing' a little easier for my group to get. So now at early and mid Levels Potions and such are coveted by the PCs and starting around 9th or 10th or so the PCs get a Staff.
When you and James Jacobs say that you eliminate "Happy Sticks," are you saying that you eliminate wands completely, or that you somehow eliminate the way wands can be used repeatedly outside of combat for cheap healing/buffing?
I'd consider your party composition, also. After talking with my GM, I recently switched from Sorcerer to Arcanist, because the party was hurting for Knowledge skills. Switching to arcanist solved that problem.
(My sorcerer PC merged minds with an ancient wizard, so, thematically, (sorcerer + wizard)/2 = arcanist.)
Because I already had a lot of experience with an arcanist from a different game, when I switched my sorc over to my new arcanist, I decided to not choose Quick Study. Honestly, I haven't really missed it. I did use it a few times with my first arcanist, but not having it with my sorcerer is fine so long as I pick a variety of types of spells. Actually, what I do miss the most on this new arcanist is the Dimensional Slide exploit. A free level-dependent teleport that's part of a move action is very useful.
Exploits bring up another point that I just thought of: Sorcerers have some really cool, thematic bloodline powers, but an arcanist gets to pick and choose their exploits, and that flexibility is very nice.
One downside to the arcanist is the confusion over whether they can use magic items designed for spontaneous or prepared casters. I know that, often, an official ruling on specific scenarios has been officially decided (such as whether arcanists use pearls of power or runestones), but it really needs to be defined in the class description. I've heard a lot of talk about how it's "obvious" that arcanists use items specific to one or the other, but then there's always scenarios that pop up where the item doesn't make sense for an arcanist, limiting their selection.
Ultimately, though, when deciding between sorcerers and arcanists, I prefer wizards. :)
@Vibenia, I believe that the Thor river camp is already occupied. One of the original players retired there to do much as you wish to do.
That hardly seems fair. Who was the player? I can't think of anyone likely to come back (maybe Colwyn), and we can just as easily say that they moved on to live somewhere else. Or that they become part of the training camp!
Or they died horribly to one of our many enemies!
And they willed all of their possessions to Niadroub Kliip!
You know, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that certainly seems reasonable.
Marcus Kingston is an Associate Professor of Egyptology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He is rather large, both in height and obesity, and he unfortunately does not overly concern himself with is appearance, often going throughout the day with unkempt hair, wrinkled clothes, and has an overall messy quality. He has no issue using his size and appearance to intimidate students into line, but it's also apparent that he genuinely loves sharing his knowledge of Ancient Egypt's history, culture, and languages.
He considers himself a bit of an outdoorsman, mainly due to his yearly duck hunting trips with his older brother. He loves his brother and would join him on a hunting trip any time of the year, despite his phobia of wild animals.
Marcus has met Professor Farnwright a handful of times in academic circles, and while he respects the man, he never expects that Elias would remember who he is.
Quick note: Marcus is enamored with the idea of being part of a secret society, and has eagerly followed through with any invitation or hint of an event that might lead him to an "in" in such an occult society. It was such an event at a backroom meeting where he witnessed an argument that turned into a brawl that turned into... something else? A local politician was attacked by a person that Marcus recognized as a grad student at Brown University. Due to the chaos and commotion, it was unclear just how injured the politician was, but it seemed serious. The mysterious part is that the local politician was never seen in public again, but there was no consequence to the student. Marcus never got up the nerve to confront the student, but occasionally a news article pops up talking about the politician's mysterious disappearance.
Marcus is an Egyptologist, but I'd be happy to change his focus if that fits better for the campaign.
Thanks! But the low rolls weren't the issue, just which stats were high and which were low. I'll stick with the above rolls and make an academic type character.
I'm in a real life CoC7 game, but we play infrequently, and my GM prefers more modern era game, while I've been hoping for a more traditional early 20th century setting, so this sounds exciting.
I'll come back and roll when I can, but the holidays are a busy time.
Hmm. This is much more brainy than the concept I was working with. I was thinking more of an outdoorsy type. I suppose I can go with the classic university professor. That doesn't step on the toes of any of the concepts put forward so far.
I'm in a real life CoC7 game, but we play infrequently, and my GM prefers more modern era game, while I've been hoping for a more traditional early 20th century setting, so this sounds exciting.
I'll come back and roll when I can, but the holidays are a busy time.
I found out a few weeks ago -- when my wife put it on our family calendar -- that we're going camping this weekend. We were supposed to be going with three other families. Two of the families have cancelled, so the trip keeps getting shorter and shorter so we're not all bored of each other, and when the trip was truncated to just Saturday and Sunday (instead of the original Friday through Tuesday), the other remaining family decided they didn't want to pack everything up for camping just for one night. But, they are going to come and hang out with us at the campsite on Saturday. The state park where we're camping is about 90 minutes out of town.
Well, the final family cancelled (with a legitimate reason), so it was just us for the weekend. We had a nice time, though!
I found out a few weeks ago -- when my wife put it on our family calendar -- that we're going camping this weekend. We were supposed to be going with three other families. Two of the families have cancelled, so the trip keeps getting shorter and shorter so we're not all bored of each other, and when the trip was truncated to just Saturday and Sunday (instead of the original Friday through Tuesday), the other remaining family decided they didn't want to pack everything up for camping just for one night. But, they are going to come and hang out with us at the campsite on Saturday. The state park where we're camping is about 90 minutes out of town.
I was told at one point that the setting was the classic 1920s. We are employees at a small private investigator office. I created a young college kid, who was very eager to be there and hoped to learn the trade. He'd be willing to do any task from getting coffee, to doing research, to donning a city workman's vest and setting up cones around a manhole cover to create a distraction. He'd say things like, "Yes sir, Mr. Marlowe sir! Right away! You can count on me."
But then I found out after I finished the personality that the GM has a mid-2000s game in mind, and the PC I described above doesn't feel right to me. But I didn't have the motivation to go back and re-tool the character, so I kept the skills the same and decided to just have him be less eager and more directionless, and his attitude is closer to, "Why not stick with this job and see what happens?" The general gist is the same, just a bit more... snarky, maybe.
And THEN I realized this morning that my college kid doesn't know how to use a computer, because the 1920s character sheet I was using doesn't have the Computer Use skill, but the CoC Modern Era sheet that I transferred to (because it printed out better) does have that skill.
Aside from passing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters tonight, nothing else out of the ordinary going on this weekend.
Kids dressed as characters from K-Pop Demon Hunters was the clear favorite costume, but I also saw quite a few kids dressed as Peely, a banana character from Fortnite.
That's what's popular with the young folks, today. What's hip. What's happening.
Massanutten, Virginia, up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I just looked that place up on Google Maps, and I didn't recognize anything I saw until I zoomed out far enough to see D.C. and Richmond. I bet it's beautiful, though.
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How was the swim meet?
The swim meet was fine. He's still pretty new to being on a swim team. They had all the parents set up on one side of the pool with their foldable chairs, so it was like trying to work your way through a crowd at a festival to be able to get close enough to the water to see someone swim.
It's been a while since I've read the 2E version, but I'm very familiar with the 1E version. One piece of advice that I've always given players asking similar question is to just drop Nyrissia from the plot altogether and make one of the earlier BBEG's the main antagonist. They don't even have to be a behind-the-scenes villain. They could just be someone who turned their attention to the PCs when their kingdom got big enough.
Dropping Nyrissia from the plot (at least in 1E) is no big deal, because the AP really doesn't let the PCs know about her until higher levels. I don't remember if it's the same in the 2E version.
This AP has lot of BBEGs and/or high-CR henchmen. Choose one of them that the PCs should encounter at the level range you're looking at, and make them the final battle. Bonus points if you can connect the PCs' backstory to this encounter.
I love hearing others talk about things they enjoy and how they enjoy those things without immersing themselves in every single bit of lore about the thing. I love ST:TNG, and I love it without having watched all of the episodes. The same goes with Voyager.
Of course, as I get older, many times I've seen far more episodes of a show than I remember seeing, which is essentially the same thing. :) I say this because I may in fact have seen every episode of ST:TNG, but I've forgotten about half of them.
