Reaper Miniatures. Goblin Squad Member. Organized Play Member. 257 posts (327 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 1 alias.
Although this thread was begun last year, and I'm doing a bit of threadomancy, Reaper will be at PaizoCon 2014 as well, Myself and freelance painter Shannon Stiltz. We will be running the paint and take and will be available for painting tips and advice throughout the show.
We do not have any official classes or panels lined up, but will be more than happy to teach you what we know at the Paint and take area!
I live in Texas where it's not always easy to admit to being bisexual or to having gay or trans friends, because of the omnipresent risk of violence or scorn, to say nothing of the never-ending sermon.
Paizo's fiction represents a fantasy world - yes, but in this regard fantasy is as much "dream and hope" as make-believe. It is a world where LGBTQ characters do not have to afraid or ashamed, and the example it provides to the Heterosexual, CISgendered people of the world may be overlooked or missed (or worse, feared and reviled) but to the LGBTQ readers and gamers, the message is overwhelmingly positive and accepting, something that is really hard to find, and means a lot to us.
Kingmaker, as GM - finished.
Carrion Crown, as Player - Finished.
Serpent's Skull as GM - Finished.
Way of the Wicked (by Fire Mountain Games) Books 1-3. As GM
Skull & Shackles, as player, currently in Book 5.
Carrion Crown - as GM, just started, still in Book 1. Hoping my experiences as player will help me be a better GM than I was when I ran Serpent's Skull.
Read each individual book in the path. My preferred method is to read each book twice. At this stage, I am looking to see who the book works - how elements at the end of the book are presaged by elements at the start, how to use the events, where to point the PCs, etc. My primary focus here is on mastering the content of the one book by itself, six different times.
Then, a third time, I will read each book in order, one after the other, specifically looking for how the books connect. Is there something in book 3 that was hinted at in book one, or something on book 6 that was important to make sure the PCs got an item in book 2? Make sure you know what parts of a book connect that book to the next book, or some other future book.
I put sticky notes in my books to remind me what parts are presaging future events, and to make sure not to skip those. After this, I hit the forum for the AP in question and see what problems people have, or neat player handouts they have come up with.
For Serpent's Skull, Kingmaker, and (soon) Carrion Crown, I have found the resources players created and potential pitfalls they point out to be invaluable. Knowing what encounters are too easy or too hard can be difficult from the read through, and the members here can not only find plot holes, but invent the most amazing solutions.
You're already 99% of the way there - you've found the resources of the forums, and you're asking for advice.
One final thought - if you get something "wrong", don't stress about it. Just change it so now the thing works the way you said it did. That guy isn't a villain anymore. That house isn't there in your version. The PCs likely won't know, and as long as the "job" that the element you changed is still done by somebody or something, it won't matter in the the long run.
I don't know about the OP, but I know when i begin an AP I always start by going to these boards and seeing what encounters are muy lethal, and which ones are cakewalks, and what plot holes have been discovered, or what advice means changing one paragraph in the book makes it 10x cooler.
The Paizo team do a great job, but it's never perfect, and I learned form Kingmaker (the first AP I ran) that to expect to be able to open the book and just read it and do not adjustments of events, monster stats, or tactics would be very unsatisfying.
I'm not telling anybody how to play their game, but at my table, I assume an AP is a very well fleshed out outline of suggested events, encounters, and interconnected backstories and motivations, and sometimes I need to move, add, or delete things to make it fit better, and to make it fit the events of previous sessions.
Which was all relevant in response to the OP's concerns about the AP not being flexible enough to cope with various things, but not so relevant to the above discussion.
"When first I embarked upon this mission of mercy for mankind, I was simply doing it by rote. Going through the motions as I had designed them with little to no variation. Your intervention has sparked a sensation I have not felt in my work for years - passion. And for that, I am eternally grateful, no matter which of us succeeds in our ambitions. All of my work and all of the sacrifices I have made are justified by your valiant pursuit. Know that, should I best you, I will not let your sacrifices be in vain. You are all hereby guaranteed a place in a newer, quieter, more peaceful world, one where death can never touch you. Should you best me, know that I will die content in the knowledge that I have already made my mark upon the world. Through you."
I particularly enjoy your characterization and have blatantly stolen your words above for my personal campaign.
I would be honored if you would post other letters for me to blatantly steal and enable my laziness.
Based on this thread, declaring a new format, I checked out the MM book. The new format is more likely to encourage me to read the story, because it has the map. That by itself makes it more useful to me as a GM than I personally feel the fiction alone did, and makes me more likely to experience the content. This is as someone who has actually never read the fiction in a single AP.
Can I use the trip attempt to make the character prone again.
Being most generous to you, that's the extent of the question. So there'd be no reason to deny a trip attempt using Meteor Hammer's trip/drag or the Seven Branched Swords trip/flat-footed functions.
I am accusing you of presuming what my intent is. Your position is that I want to be able to allow unending trip attacks provoked by Greater Trip. Please tell me where, in any of my posts, I have said anything remotely to that end?
The purpose of the FAQ is to avoid disallowing a character to stand up from prone. It is not addressing whether a prone character can be attacked with a trip.
"Trip: When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again?"
This is precisely as I had quoted it, and precisely what it says.
When I said the only reason to argue is "blah blah blah" I was stating my opinion, and the "you" used within that context was, at that time, a vague general "you" oriented to no poster in particular.
In this case, however, I am currently speaking directly to you, Fretgod.
What I care about is the words of the question, and the words that you (Fretgod) repeatedly claim to be there simply are not. The FAQ does not use the phrase "to make the character prone again". You have added those words for purposes about which I shall refrain from speculating, although I suspect world domination to be the ultimate goal of anyone I meet, as a rule of thumb. NOTE: The You in the preceding post refers specifically to you, Mr. Fretgod, as in "Fretgod has added in words that do not actually appear on the FAQ"
I shall also point out that this is the second re-phrasing of the question you have presented to me, which once again, fails to be the words of the actual question. Twice now you have tried to convince me, contrary to the evidence, that the question in the FAQ which I have helpfully linked is something other than what it actually is.
The bottom line is the context of the question is "Does a trip attempt on a character standing up prevent that character from standing up". It goes no further than that. And other statements from Jason Buhlman himself show his stating that you can make a trip attempt against a prone character, but that the net effect is nil.
Anything in quotation marks is a copy/paste. No sleight of hand on my typing.
You say the question is:
"Does a trip attempt on a character standing up prevent that character from standing up"
This strikes me as odd, since the question clearly actually is:
"When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again? "
these are not the same question. What you are saying the question is, is not what it is. I have evidence to back up my claim. Here we go, to the clipboard!
It is
"When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again? "
it is not
"Does a trip attempt on a character standing up prevent that character from standing up"
when I copy/paste the question in the FAQ I pretty clearly see
"Trip: When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again? "
Shall We compare them one more time?
"When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again? "
"Does a trip attempt on a character standing up prevent that character from standing up"
Sing it with me, little kiddies: "one of these things is not like the other..."
It is clearly not the same question. Somehow in two previous posts I have copy/paste the exact same question and you have seen an entirely different question than the one I posted.
now, before you accuse me of presuming to tell you what you think the question is, remember, I copied it form your posts. These are your words, "Does a trip attempt on a character standing up prevent that character from standing up" and these are the FAQ words: ""When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again? "
No, that's not the question that was being asked. The question that was being asked is, "If I use a trip attack to trip a character standing up from prone, does that mean I knocked the character back down from standing up or does the character still get to stand up after I've used my attack?"
You're saying the question is, "Can I use a trip attack on a character that is prone?" That was not the question.
The Question:
When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again?
No.
—Jason Bulmahn, 08/14/10
This is far more straightforward than you seem to think it is. Note that I have edited only the answer and not the question. The question IS NOT, as you claim, "Can I prevent a prone character from standing up by making a trip attack against them?". If you insist on rephrasing the question, it could be rephrased as "Can I make a trip attack against a prone character as part of the AoO they trigger when attempting to stand." However, I am not basing my comments on this second version, but on the version Bulmahn posted in the FAQ, which is "When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again?"
The only reason to argue at this point is because you want the cheese of being able to trigger AoOs from many party members instead of being relegated to using only your normal attack.
Can I make an opportunity attack as a trip to trip a prone character? NO. This is precisely the question, and precisely the answer given by Jason.
Can I make a (non-opportunity) trip attack to trip a prone character? NO.
There is absolutely no game reason why a trip attack would be allowed against a prone character as a normal action but not as an AoO.
This has been addressed by a Dev. Arguing that it has not is counter-productive.
I'm not saying that - I'm pointing out that Jason said that one could not make [an] attack to trip the [prone] character.
This does not preclude other types of attacks being made, but trip attacks were specifically called out and forbidden against already prone targets.
re: meteor hammer
Benefit: If you succeed at a trip attempt with a meteor hammer, you can drag your opponent 5 feet closer to you rather than knocking her prone.
As I interpret the two-letter word "no", you cannot make a trip attempt (also known as a trip attack, also phrased above as an attack to trip) against the prone character, meteor hammer does not give you the ability to make trip attacks/attempts against prone targets. It lets you generate a different result (in this case, a drag) other than "knocking her prone".
Not that from a flavor and rule-of-cool standpoint I think it shouldn't be allowed, but according to Buhlman, you cannot make the trip attempt, and I interpret that to mean that you could not, therefore effect the drag result.
Purely for rule-of-cool, in a Non-PFS home game, I would personally allow the drag option.
Again, many people are asking for a Dev to clarify, and 100% of my point, whether I agree or disagree, is that a Dev, in fact, already has.
Show me one rule that says prone characters can't be tripped.
Would this apply?
FAQ wrote:
Trip: When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again?
No. The attack of opportunity is triggered before the action that triggered it is resolved. In this case, the target is still prone when the attack of opportunity occurs (and you get the normal bonuses when making such an attack). Since the trip combat maneuver does not prevent the target's action, the target then stands up.
—Jason Bulmahn, 08/14/10
Not really. As was mentioned above, the answer does seem sort of contradictory. But the ultimate effect of the FAQ is that tripping a creature rising from prone does not prevent the creature from rising from prone. It does not necessarily mean that you cannot still attempt to trip said creature. On that point it's a bit ambiguous.
It's not even a little ambiguous. Some very minor edits follow:
FAQ wrote:
Trip: When a prone character stands up and provokes an attack of opportunity, can I use that attack to trip the character again?
No. (explanation of why)
—Jason Bulmahn, 08/14/10
Can you make a trip attack against a prone character? No. This is not ambiguous. Bulmahn already answered this.
The only time it's ambiguous if if you think "can I make a trip attack against a prone character?" is not the same question as "Can I use that attack to trip a prone character?" They are the same question, because an we call 'using an attack to trip a character' a 'trip attack'.
Surely all this depends on that particular deities code that the paladin follows?
A good deity would not demand evil actions (such as smite on sight) from his followers. A neutral deity might demand them, but a good paladin of such a deity would not obey those demands.
Torag requires Smite on Sight. Strangely Pathfinder made him LG despite his code.
Funny that priests of Torag live in Absalom, which also has priests of Asmodeus and yet they never seem to be killing each other on sight.
Any Good character would be riddled with doubt and self-loathing for taking another life so casually. No one with a good alignment can take a life easily or carelessly and walk away saying "but he glowed as evil when I detected evil". this is what GOOD means - a respect for the sanctity of life and of others.
A paladin has a duty to oppose Evil, and sometimes that means they must take a life. In RPGs like Pathfinder, this happens in fact disturbingly often to our party of murderhobos. But "oppose Evil" does not mean "smite on sight".
If you have a character that is doing this, they need to be stopped. This needs to be addressed at the player level, so the player understands that even in made-up-world, this is not how the righteous behave. Somebody else brought up that redemption fails, and sometimes they do more evil - yes. Your paladin will have to live knowing that because they did good, evil yet lives. but this is better than for them to do evil to stop evil.
I play non humans, but usually stick to core races personally.
And I agree with the above that the reason all the weirdo's group together is the same reason all the 'members of group' stick together in real life. How many HS lunch tables did you see where the jocks and nerds and goth kids and punks and stoners didn't clique-up?
Of course my band of non-human fire-headed monkey people banded together. The cool kids never let us sit at their table.
There's no improved mount / leadership cohort equivalent feat in pathfinder?
I once had a halfling character spend all his gold on a scroll of Awaken, and had my dog that I had bought at character creation awakened, and at the same time I took the Leadership Feat and my GM allowed my to declare my Awakened Dog to be my cohort. I somehow do not think that such a thing is PFS legal though.
I'm designing a campaign I want to GM where the PCs will need to become the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This is not going to be set in Golarion, but will use Pathfinder rules in a homebrew world that is fairly standard - my own gods, my own nations, but typical Fantasy RPG fare. If it could work on Golarion, it;s probably acceptable for my game.
Ultimately, the problem I have is that I have more than 4 players, and I want them all to have a Horseman they can be. I have a list of ideas for alternative Horsemen, some of which are just synonyms of the traditional Western Four Horsemen, but I'd like some better ideas.
I already have, for example, broken Pestilence into Pestilence (Disease/Plague) and Infestation (Plague of Locusts/insects) and Pollution.
I'm almost ready to start shipping, but the biggest real news is that after crunching numbers, my estimate of this only taking 3 weeks was stupidly optimistic. This is going to take at least 5 weeks, and possibly longer. Add to that ReaperCon happening in the middle of that fulfillment, which is going to halt everything for at least a week while we do that...
I should also add in response to Dennis' suggestion that we ship the "vampire only" orders first to clear room - there were less than a full pallet of those, so we'd clear a partial pallet. Most people got something that's on the next shipment.
There's a LOT to consider as we complete the planning so that shipping can begin, and it's been an interesting ride!
We're anticipating shipping to take about 3 weeks from day one to end right now, although we all know that plans sometimes don't end up like they did on paper, so things may still change.
At this time, we're looking at finalizing an exact start date for shipping in March.
We are still working out the details of our PaizoCon presence. I am sure we'd love to do a Bones class, and I know that we will have Bones at the Paint and Take with instructors there, at the very least, if we cannot muster up a class.
So this is two sessions play, since i neglected to do a play report for session one.
The PCs arrived in Farholde, and immediately set to learning everything they could about the Horn. One of the players was paranoid as heck about finding a cure for the disease first before even beginning to look for the horn (he doesn't want to become infected) but I managed to convince him that he was jumping ahead and he'd be fine. They asked really good questions, investigated the town for rumors, learning much. They bought magic items, shopped around, and pretty much spent the entire first session of book 2 in non combat situations, acquainting themselves with the local smith and crafters of magic items.
Session two they left the town in search of the horn, having found Aiden Kael's map. They battled the Hangman's tree, which really did a number on them - I don't know if they were unlucky and I was lucky, or they were just not thinking right for the challenge, but most of the group was very low on HP by the end of it. Knowing dark was approaching, they sallied on. They made it past the Treant by stating that they knew of the great evil within, but Aiden Kael was missing, this map made them think he might be inside, and they needed to find him. Sense Motive failed the Treant, and he believed the PCs to be there on a mercy mission, so he pointed them to the boggard's caves. They made it inside, past the cave with the acid pool, and decided to hold up for the night in the dead-end on the other side of the acid pool.
It sounds uneventful, but much was learned, Next week, explorations of the caverns!
We are still working out the details of our PaizoCon presence. I am sure we'd love to do a Bones class, and I know that we will have Bones at the Paint and Take with instructors there.
@Fromper - you could also check out our tutorials and how-to's on the Reaper Forums. We're very helpful with teaching newcomers to the hobby over there.
Ed had suggested that I open everything, until I reminded him that when Michael and I opened the baggies inside to glue them to the black runner in the opening crawl, it took the two of us about 45 minutes, and as impressive as that is, nobody wanted to see a 45 minute video of me cutting open bags.
Yep. If you want a really lovely, super detailed mini, it will definitely look best in resin over another material.
I see this a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves. I call BS. Sorry, but here you go:
I have worked in the manufacturing of figures for over a decade. The material in which the figures are cast makes no difference in terms of detail. The molds are both exactly as capable of picking up as minute a detail as you can see with any magnifier that is reasonable to use at the table (3x, 10x, etc.). The materials involved are both exactly as capable of reflecting that detail. A tool mark of 1/1000th an inch is just as visible on the finished product of both materials. The ONLY place resin is superior (and I'll qualify this away, too, in a moment) is in thickness.
What???? Explaining. if you have a large, thin, flat surface, like a Dragon's wing, for example, it's much easier to get the resin to fill out that shape, as it stays liquid longer and can be more easily forced to flow into the shape by rotating the mold, etc. Pewter has a low melting (and conversely, freezing) point and we work with it at about 650º F. It freezes when it gets to 450º F. It loses those 200ºF in about 15 seconds. Inside a centrifugal caster, such as we use at Reaper, if it left any air pockets (or the much cooler mold froze the metal over the very thin membrane before it had completely filled in the piece) then it won't work. For me, trying to fill out anything with a surface area larger than 2-3 inches but thinner than 1mm is next to impossible in just 15 seconds. With Resin, you have a slightly longer working time, and aren't usually spin-casting, but tap casting, and can make that work better. Heck, If I had 2 minutes, instead of 15 seconds, I could make it work in metal, too.
So resin makes really large thin pieces better. Dragonwings, etc. Usually. I know that, for instance, the upcoming Clockwork Dragon for the kickstarter, rather than make the prototype wings out of metal, we had them made in resin, precisely because they were too thin to be feasible in pewter.
But I said I'd qualify that away, and I shall. If I can heat the mold up above 400º F, which takes a LOT of effort, I can keep the metal from freezing for several minutes. It will severely damage the mold, but will enable me to cast what is, under normal conditions, impossible otherwise. We could have manages to make those wings in pewter, but it would have taken hours.
So why does everybody say resin holds more detail than pewter? Marketing is one part of it. The resin people work very hard to convince you of this. the other is Sculpting. When you know your piece is going to be sculpt in resin, you tend to put more really thin bits - the hair fine filigree, the thin membranes, etc. because they THINK that it will show up better. I can tell you that as far as filigree, surface textures of less than .5mm are no different to me than if there were no texture. You take a green, cover it with human hair, and when I cast it, the hair will still be perfectly visible. It's if you make a membrane of hair, then I can't really do it.
Show me a resin piece that isn't a membranous object that I could not replicate given the legal right to make, and I'll eat my hat. But I'll swear up and down that that's the difference (other than price) between pewter and resin. Membranes. NOT detail.
I will continue to advocate that it's really really hard to find bases cheaper than a US Penny (if you live in the US). Failing that, a US Nickel. If you can otherwise find bases for LESS than a penny apiece, I'd love to know!
The praise is well deserved. This is a wonderful, open ended adventure.
Just take a look to the different reports. Every group finish the adventure in a different way. The challenges are well designed, you have several options, most encounters can be solved out of combat, and you can choose stealth, bluff, magic, or front fight in most of the situations. I take that as a sign of a well designed adventure.
To Bryan: I'm happy you find the Dark Favor interesting :).
Thanks! I was looking for a way to introduce a dark version of Hero Points, and after reading your post, it hit me! I'm pretty sure for the next group to run this one I'll use the same conceit - no Dark Favors at first, until they either achieve similar things or otherwise please Asmodeus in a more liturgical sense!
The kids, having set fire to the chapel and killed the archons last week as we concluded, immediately used their headbands to transform into the captains, Eddarly, Mott, Varning, and Barhold, which they had also killed last week (and hidden the bodies in the cellar where the wine the innkeeper was stealing was). When the other knights and Lord Havelyn showed up, instead of combat,the PCs used bluff to pass as the captains, and set to organizing the soldiers to putting out the fires and finding the perpertrators - the Troupe of Actors!
Two PCs stayed behind to help organize the fire detail, and arranged to have another 12 soldiers killed or incapacitated from smoke, burns, and falling timbers before the fires were put out. total Soldiers out of combat now: 60. The remaining soldiers were now mandatory guard shifts and hunting down actors.
The other PCs went with Havelyn to "safeguard" him and thus were in premium positions when the actors were brought in. I judged with only 40 active guards, and the actors not being very threatneing, and what with Havelyn having Donnegan and all 4 captains int he room, that only 5 guards were needed at the "hearing". The actors protested their innocence, and, of course, Havelyn cast Detect Evil.
Immediately recognizing this act, the Inquistor, disguised as Eddarly, cast Silence on Donnegan, and the Barbarian (disguised as Mott), seeing the attack had begun, attacked Havelyn. The others soon followed, and in the chaos, Captain Barhold ran away - only to go to the roof and light the flare, then out to the gatehouse to blow the explosives he had been planting when he was working alongside the dwarves for the last 2 weeks.
After a long fight (Havelyn did not go down fast!), Havelyn was slain, along with his 5 guards, and Donnegan was brabded with a Forsaken Rune and thrown from the roof!
The defenses are now in shambles, the leaders dead, the rookery emptied, the munitions shattered, and the chapel a smoldering wreck consecrated to the kingdom's enemies, and the bugbear horde arrived! I tallied 37 Victory Points, which was enough for a hard fought victory! They shared the spoils of the Watchtower Balentyne, and were whisked away by Tiadora, ready to lay low for a short time and begin Book 2!! Future play reports in that thread!
Having played it now my thoughts:
Spoiler:
Obviously, the kids could have done more mayhem, and most of that was my fault for not noting all the mayhem they could have caused, given 2 weeks of time spent working alongside the dwarves. I should have made a big deal of the Siege Weaponry on the roof, and the Great Seal, the defenses of the gatehouse, etc. Note to SELF: More Emphasis on the things that earn VPs next time!
Beyond that, I think the VPs for defeating the soldiers was maybe a tad low - 12 VPs for 60 soldiers, and only 20 VPs had they killed them ALL - and yet 20 VPs results in defeat. So I think next time I run it, I'll probably change it to 1VP per 4 soldiers, so killing ALL would be worth 25 VPs - a narrow victory, assuming no other mayhem. It's a small change, and would have only net the kids 3 more VPs, but I think it's a fair one.
Beyond that, and the Optional Rule addition of Demonic Favors, (Hero Points), I think the module was very solid, very well done, and the kids (and this GM!) had a BLAST!!
Major Kudos to you, Gary, for a wonder time running this so far, I'm happy to continue to support FMG!
Ok - the kids took a short rest, taking advantage of the illness to retire early and wake before dawn. Balentyne was short handed, so guard rotations were light, and they easily snich into the quarters of Mott, Eddarly, and B...the other guy? Anyway.. The bard disguised as Father Donnagin, and they proceeded to break into each captains room and in short order kill each of them. A few errant shouts were heard, but they all were along the lines of "Donnagin! What treachery is this?!" The seeds were planted. The PCs used the secret tunnel to Aldencross to hide, and when they could venture forth again, just before sunrise, they stepped into the chapel. Immediately confronted by a very loud Lantern Archon, they panicked, dropped their alchemists fire (Bringing Asmodeus' holy flames to the vile chapel of thine enemy!) A protracted battle in the hallways occurred, and though they have slain the archon(s), the jig is kind of up. They will not be able to sneak to Lord Havelyn's room and dispatch him by night as they had hoped, and are now on the run.
Luckily for them, as the archon died, the holy seal of Mitra, the great sunburst, split, 5 cracks appearing along it in a star formation. The chapel was consumed with fire, and thus consecrated with the blood of 9 archons - symbolic of the 9 hells! - it became now a chapel of Asmodeus. Tiadora's voice rang out in their ears, congratulating them, and offering them a new boon (shamelessly lifted from this thread - the Demonic Favor (Hero Points, with the added twist that they can be spent on coincidental favors - like "I need that door to be unlocked for this to work", but it only works if they door has not been already proven to be locked.
Now, the secret is still safe, because the new temple to Asmodeus will burn any evidence of the desecration before it is able to be put out (The seal for example will be just ashes, consumed by it's own unholy flames) - Asmodeus understands the need to not advertise just yet, after all.
Next week, the chapel burns, the guards are rushing to the keep, Havelyn is alerted, and the jig may be up, but for now, they are victorious, and moving things faster than ever before!
Kybryn: could you maybe introduce a suspect to take the fall for the PC's so that the alert level drops? Make it easy for the PCs to frame an NPC or group of them?
I also like the fire and poisoning the well ideas.
The kids succeeded in poisoning the stew, and poisoning the drinks of a few actors and using their circlets to pretend to be them! They used these disguises for a short term, and then changed to disabled guards and managed to get into the tower - taking out the colors, the armory, and the rookery! One player even used the forges to improperly reheat and cool a goodly number of the swords in the armory, thus rendering them brittle. Breaking on a nat one isn't much, but it "takes out" about 5% of the soldiers, at least that's how I'm counting it.
They're planning on desecrating the temple of Mitra next week - Lantern Archons, UNITE!
I had one issue that I'm not sure about. The text is very specific that 70 soldiers will eat the stew. 1d10 will die, and 4d10 will be sickened, and because we used arsenic, a cholera outbreak, presumable brought into the keep by those filthy actors, has been assumed. But that's a maximum of 2/3 of the dining soldiery, and an average of 27 - about 1/2 (but not quite!) our party rolled low, despite taking two weeks to have 6 PCs each buy a healthy dose of rat poison every few days ("Nothing seems to work! The grain stores are in danger! I need another bag!") so we got 23 of 70 - about 1/3. I'm not very happy with that, as I believe arsenic to be more potent, even if not administered by a "skilled poisoner".
I'm happy to rule that another group of X soldiers become ill 24 hours later (24 hours have not passed) because of good fort saves or some sort of game rule thing. What do yall think?
Mythic power to modify your rolls is not a boon when you are required to use it against every foe.
I think that's the point - your Mythic Character CAN survive against that Foe because he has that Mythic power to use against the foe - a "normal" character would never face that beast, it would eliminate them, and their village. Hearkens back to classic Hercules, etc.
I'm a bit late with our Game Report from last week:
Spoiler:
The kids entered Aldencross in the guise of Yutak Merchants peddling the spears and Narwal Horn they had taken from the Yutak. They spent a few days shopping for magic items and listening, and learned of the Stew, the dwarven work crew, and the play. They contrived to slowly buy up over the next two weeks the arsenic, and are planning now to infiltrate the play, arrange to serve the poisoned stew the night of the play, during the performance.
They followed the innkeeper into the tunnels, ratted him out to the guards, and were rewarded for their honor and sense of duty to Mitra in apprehending the thief! They got the party dwarf on the work crew tasked with sealing up the tunnel, and he did an intentionally piss-poor job, and then got himself assigned to repairing the gatehouse, where he proceeded to weaken a few key structural points.
This upcoming session: The poisoned stew/play event, and the shattering of the gatehouse, the lighting of the signal, and the beginning of the breaking!!
Looks similar to the various Magazine storage/display boxes at Ikea or other home-furnishing stores. The big stickler is the precise dimensions. And of course the art. If you have the PDFs, you could do a color print of your favorite art, and that might solve some of that. My quick measurements of the APs I have suggests that a width of 1.5" would hold 7 AP books, which should be enough for 6 AP books, the player's guide, and the other splat-book that ties into the AP, like Pirates of the Inner Sea, etc.
A quick google search comes up with These at 6 for $16.50, in assorted colors (Color coded for your AP needs!) but they're 3 1/8", so about 2 APs wide each, not one.
likewise these are also 3" not 1.5", but you get 12for $33-35, so about $3 each, and you can color code them again, to suit the path, and then print custom stickers.
I was not able to turn up anything smaller than 3", though. Anybody else?
Innovative new story feats that tie your character’s background and experiences into the game, giving players goals to accomplish for even greater rewards.
When I read this, I wonder how it works:
you gain the ability X from the feat, and if you accomplish Goal Y, then the feat grants you Ability X AND Ability Z,
or if you accomplish Goal Y you now Qualify for Feat 2 which gives you ability Z.
Any details you can share at this point in development?
4) While I'm on the subject, discussions of mini painting in miniatures focused forums are also helpful, such as Privateer Press's Website or DakkaDakka (the latter are a slightly more volatile bunch mind, but good hobbyists).
The Watch Wall is not a physical wall. It is dozen defensive castles/watchtowers that control every viable crossing point that connects the savage north to the borderlands in the south.
So the Watch Wall at Balentyne, as elsewhere, is the place at which it is possible to enter the kingdom, fording the river elsewhere is unviable. Ok, I'd pictured a very Great Wall of China, with keeps and towers, but this is more like the series of keeps in LotR that alert Gondor and Rohan of trouble from Mordor.
I'm working on drawing out Balentyne on Gaming Paper, and it's going well. But I have encountered a problem, or at least a confusion with the map.
Spoiler:
Balentyne is the Watchtower and associated Keep along the Watch Wall. Or so I thought... except on the map, and on the drawing of Balentyne itself, I cannot find where the Wall itself actually is.
Is Balentyne inside the wall? Outside the Wall? Is this answered in the module and I missed it (it happens, I've missed things before)?
I had presumed the wall ran through the keep, or at least the gatehouse, and the text says that the "gate" the PCs had to have open was the gate on the map (18&19), but the maps do not support this theory, and I don't want to finish it and contradict a block of text that I have missed, but will certainly find after I draw it out completely.
My alternate theory right now, based on the side view drawings, is that the "wall" at this part of the land is the river, and the gorge it is in, although the map doesn't indicate that the river is in a gorge, this is purely from the drawing at the end, with the Bugbears burning the tower.
Since this is for the kids, I think if it is the gorge, I'm going to add an actual wall to the gatehouse, running along the river. Unless there's a more correct answer than that.
The kids are now on board the Frosthamar! Encounter one, with the Blade, went very well. Our ex-con who was in Branderscar for Fraud and Forgery forged a logbook indicating business in Daveryn although the PCs had avoided the city. When asked why they were so far "off course" by the Blade's captain they used the logbook to convince the captain that this was legit. Got away with it, no fighting! Not so lucky that night when they awoke to find 5 water elementals pushing them and the Frosthamar crew into the water! After a very long fight, and most of the crew and players dumped into the water, they finally managed to take out the tritons.
And they had a chance to see Captain Odenkirk fight, and now want to be sure they kil him at range, when the time comes!!
Reaper Miniatures
