Darling_Rabbit's page

Even as the author, I agree that this archetype is not correct for every player. It's easy to say "Yeah, this is great for everyone!" but it isn't, and this book is part of my way of opening the archetype up to more players than before (since before you had to make all your masks on your own, which cuts off another section of players). I think that knowing your players and deciding from there is a wise idea--just the fact that you're thinking about that is a good sign that things will go well for your game.

As a new GM, that means a lot. Thanks so much. (:3

I am running Jade Regent, and I put a masquerade reveler NPC into the game who has worked nicely so far. I admit that there isn't really any good reason for a reveler to be involved with the initial hook of a goblin hunt, but this NPC joined the caravan in between part 1 and part 2 (in a settlement in Grungnir Forest, she joined the caravan to escape a witch hunt). I also added some ice fey to Part 3 as additional potential encounters, and a reveler could easily see eye to eye with the mysterious kami (and Miyaro--I gave her the Realistic Likeness feat, so she also wears many masks) in Part 4.

That's all good news. I have a few other players pretending to be things they're not/pretending not to be things they are, which I dig in terms of the context of the AP. I think a lot of my big concerns are player-based: Does this person have the rules mastery, organizational skills, and RP chops to play the class effectively and not like, torpedo the party with OMGCRAZYPANTSTIME. Writing in some fey seems like a great idea if I get the impression that my player has a good grasp on his concept, and I love the idea of playing the party off of each other given that they've all got secrets like Laura Palmer up in this biz.

The archetype looks delightful, but for whatever reason I keep thinking it's more suited (PC wise) for a campaign like Kingmaker.

Ultimately, I hate telling players "No," unless I have really overwhelming reason to do. I will see what my player has to offer in terms of long-term vision and plan for his Reveler and go from there.

Any additional weigh-ins are, obviously welcome. But Rogue Eidolon's response helped a great deal.

<3
Rabbit

TheCSpider wrote:

Anyone know if this has or will be getting the Hero Lab treatment?

I love the class, but it seems a lot to keep track of on just paper.

If I recall, the usual Rite Herolab coder asked about coding this class in Herolab on the Herolab forums, and they basically told him he was out of luck. If you use prebuilt masks, I imagine it shouldn't take up too much space on your character sheet. One piece of advice is to write your masks on your character sheet, just the mask names (even if they're your own inventions) and then have a notecard for each mask with a quick rundown of the evolutions. It seems like it would make it a lot less messy on the sheet itself.

Hope that helps!

The note cards are an excellent suggestion!

I have a player proposing this class for an upcoming Jade Regent campaign I'm GMing. We're in the early planning stages, and I feel very hesitant for both mechanical and RP/Flavor reasons to permit the class in the campaign, despite how delicious it looks (so yummy). I've asked my player to submit a more robust outline of how he sees this PC evolving, and also what his in/out of combat roles would be, for both party balance and "do you actually know what you're getting into?" type of reasons. As a GM, I tend to be cautious about when I allow someone to play "Probable Psychopath" in the context of an AP (as opposed to a homebrew). So far, I'm not seeing too many connections in the Jade Regent AP for fey involvement

If anyone has run/played Jade Regent and looked at the Masquerade Reveler in detail, please hit me up with your thoughts?
Perpetually Grateful!
Rabbit

They each now think of me as a loving friend, and a bearer of great gifts. Perhaps I will be those things – I’ve not yet decided. But now, I need my own Citadel! A place where my new friends may visit me and give me gifts and names and power. It will be a grand place.

“As a gesture of my friendship and love, take this mantle of stars. Let us share the skies, my citadel and yours, and allow their light to keep us warm in the cold Darkness over which the Lord of Earth presides. I ask in return that You simply name me Keeper of the Night, since my Citadel will shine at night, when You are away. What do You think? Does my gift satisfy you?”

“Greetings, Lord of Earth. I must say, You’ve done well for Yourself. You are a beacon in the void! Oh… this? This was a gift to me from the King of Heaven! Isn’t it lovely? He said I could live on the Moon that He made, and now I am the Mistress of the Moon. In return, I traded Him a Mantle of Stars to keep Him warm in the Darkness over which you preside, and He named me Keeper of the Night. Stole it? I did no such thing, my Lord. It was a gift! … Oh, You say it was Yours as well? How funny, The King of Heaven didn’t mention that to me. Well, perhaps I can give You something to offset Your loss. Here, take this.”

@Mark: I meant to ask what the age-range of your players was, and totally failed to do so!

My initial assumption was that they were in the adult range, but I recognize players can be much younger (and might find different story telling styles more appealing).

Also, out of curiosity, as a GM do you speak in the first person? Or are you a disembodied third person narrator? One of the parlor tricks I sometimes use is to speak in the first person, only to have the players find out at the boss battle: I'm that skeleton on the floor over there. "You enter the room where I died. I see you all for the first time, and it is like greeting friends I've never known. The foul monstrosity that flayed me alive and left me to die towers in the corner. I know you will avenge me." I've also GM'd in the voice of the boss monster, which can get downright creepy if creepy's what you go for. Pick a PC to 'possess' as your eyes and ears. It gives you a chance to foreshadow and otherwise play with their perception of their surroundings.

It can add an element of fun, it doesn't change the substance of the adventure, but it sure can change the flavor (especially for players who may have run a scenario before).

My only beef with GMs is when they describe everything in the room in minute details, they talk about how the air feels, the humidity, the tension, and THEN they say "Oh, and there's a big dragon too."

HOW THE HELL DID WE NOT SEE THE BIG DRAGON FIRST!?!
I do it now when I GM only because it's a running gag.

My favorite way to buck that trope is to act like I, as the narrator, am reacting in equal surprise to the presence of said dragon.

Example:

Players: "we break down the door"

Me: the door buckles under your weight and OH MY FREAKING GOLDEN TAP SHOES YOU GUYS THERE IS ABSOLUTELY A DRAGON IN HERE AND SHE LOOKS CHEESED AT YOU. The room is a broad expanse of thick stone and the floor is littered with bones and broken wayfinders. That would likely be startling if it weren't for the sulfur fumes and dripping acidic saliva that is pooling next to your shoe as the HOLY CARP DRAGON RIGHT IN YOUR FACE blinks her eye and prepares to annihilate you so thoroughly that it actually hurts your ancestors retroactively. Roll for initiative. Aim high. This is going to hurt.

The NPC cards make a LOT of sense. I have a ton of trouble keeping NPC's from a Skull & Shackles campaign straight in my head, and have considered drawing them all (I'm a face/feature person followed by a story person) and making writing down conversations my character Cassia has either had or overheard involving them to keep them all sorted. Simple notes don't do much for me, especially since a lot of that particular campaign is spoken-only.

Kinesthetic learners (like me) are likely to have the most difficult time, so the cards (or a sketch pad or moleskin) might really work for me as a /player/!

Great idea!

rabbit

Have you considered supplementing with pictures or really good miniatures?

My GM's often simply say, "you see this... <show terrifying picture of a gibbering mouther>. If we have an expert in <knowledge whatever>, more could be learned."

The other tactic I sometimes use is I have the narrator (me) tell a personal anecdote (either something that actually happened to a character I play or know with a monster of a similar type, or a made up folk tale) of how creepy, terrifying, or certain-deathy a given monster might be.

People process information really differently, and auditory learners are actually much rarer than visual learners. It may be that without visual input, the theater of the mind is simply not connecting for your players.

For a serious moment or series of moments in an adventure, I might also do things like light candles or incense, or play music or sound effects I've selected in advance (drippy sounds for a cave, feet on sand and stone for an abandoned ruin, it's easy enough to set up with a smart phone).

Small tricks like that contribute to a more robust experience for a player who might process information more emotionally in an olfactory or non-verbal way, too.

I'm a very new GM in Pathfinder, but I did a lot in the World of Darkness and Deadlands settings. So the tricks I'm suggesting might not port as well as I'd hope. My favorite GM's in Pathfinder Society are just really excellent at 'doing the voices' and acting out particular NPC's. Goblins are a favorite.

The theatrics of GM work are actually what I enjoy most about the enterprise. I'd love to watch this thread more, and see what others suggest!

Great question. (:3
Rabbit

Shelyn: Love Me Like A River Does, Melody Gardot
Desna: Astronaut, Amanda Palmer
Pharasma: Naked As We Came, Iron & Wine
Calistria: Cola, or Gods & Monsters, Lana Del Rey (both exceptionally, delightfully NSFW)or Bang Bang, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Erastil: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Neko Case
Sarenrae: I'm on Fire, Bat for Lashes

As a self-identified sapiosexual, body-positive, sex-positive, and consent-positive cis-woman reading this thread, I found myself both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised in turns. I'm going to keep my comments on the positive side because I think that's Important to Try To Do.

Things that happened that were Totally Awesome:
- People talking about the line between a fantasy world as fantasy and as a reflection of our existing world;
- People saying smart, respectful things about how we can use a fantasy world and our participation in it to undermine patriarchy and hetero-normativity;
- People actually trying to answer the OP's really interesting questions about how sexual orientation and identification play out in the game canon and also from table to table;
- People recognizing that hetero-players can choose to play nonhetero-characters and vice versa, in addition to people playing whatever gender they choose;
- I clarified some of my thoughts on what I hope for in a fantasy world in which I invest my time and money, and that was helpful;
- I learned some things about the game world I didn't know (Which is actually why I risked reading the thread);

I'm new to this community, and don't always know how much is safe for me to say or share as I explore the game and its players. I'm fortunate to have a really amazing group of people I play with in both the Society, and AP's. Some of you out there are doing a great job showing me that the culture I expected is far less vitriolic and hazardous than I imagined. Thank you for helping to create safe and happy and intellectually rigorous space for non-traditional players and the characters they build and love.

Rabbit.

I believe it's already been established that coffee is available in Garund, along with potatoes.

Neat! I'd love to see source material/references, especially since I'm new and interested in the culture of the different regions and ethnicities.

(:

If food/game nerds are interested in collaborating to come up with real-life options for in-game food -- Hi, I'm Darling Rabbit. Let's chat.

@Matt_T: while ancient mayan/incan cuisine probably doesn't resemble modern (especially modern served-state-side) Mexican, Arcadia would probably be the business end of our Columbian exchange. That means things like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, etc would be native to the area. I feel like for fun purposes, I'd fudge it and just make lingua all day every day because why not. The interesting part for me is to see what cultures are interacting where (and when) to determine what the cultural fusion might yield. What are subcultures up to? Can I research this. Will there be footnotes. Can there be footnotes.

tl;dr I could probably brainstorm this all day instead of working.

I keep hitting "refresh" in the hopes that this thread will blow up, and I can start making Golarion selections for my AP group.
*ctrl-R* crap.
*Ctrl-R* crap.
*Ctrl-R* crap.

Vudrani and Arcadian seem like the easiest to extrapolate or embellish. Varisian also doesn't seem hard (plus, who doesn't want to make Paprika Hendl? People I don't know, that's who).

I'm working on a Lyra Silvertongue and Mrs. Coulter, both from His Dark Materials.
Both are witches, though they have very different focii. I'm not sure either will ever see Society play, but I like having some options in my barracks for AP's.

I also have an Orual from "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis, but even a biblio-nerd like me wouldn't call that 'pop' culture.

Other ideas I have floating around include Mina Harker (archivist), Babydoll from Suckerpunch (Dervish Dancer, or possibly a battle oracle), Queen Boudicca who will likely be a barbarian with a dip in Oracle, Malificent, and there might be a few ladies from greek mythology bumping around in my brain.

I'm an RP/story heavy player (and also quite new, so my characters are often interesting but extremely imperfect), so I like the exercise of seeing how close I can get to the spirit of the character from within the confines of the rules and skills available.