Falger Ortio's page

Hang in there. :)

Hey I'm still here too. :P

I would assume that means you have the necessary knowledge and skill to make a passable map, but not to run a successful cartography business.

"Well that's just great, apparently the intelligent giant evil wolf thing can fly." Falger sighed, "I'm not sure there is anything we can do other than keep an ear out to see if it crops up again down the line. We'll warn anyone coming this way to keep a sharp eye out."

"We may as well finish our exploration of this area, just have to keep a good watch tonight."

Falger glanced around at the others before speaking up again. "I don't think anyone would object. Do you want to come up with us, at least until we're gone from this area?"

Looking back up at the others Falger sighed, "Unless someone is a stellar tracker I don't think we're going to find that worg any time soon..." He paused as though he had just thought of something and looked back down at the blinking canine. "Could you track it by scent? If you can, would you be willing to?"

Spellcraft DC21: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19.
Spellcraft DC12: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18.

Falger watched the worg and its wolf pack with furrowed brows until the vanished in the distance. With a disgruntled sigh he sheathed his old fashioned sword and turned back to the others. He studied the strangely intermittent canine for a few moments before speaking. "My grandfather mentioned something like this once...I think he called it a blink hound or blink dog, or something like that. They're supposed to be pretty smart, even speak. I think he said it was Sylvan. Oh, and they do whatever it is he's doing."

Falger glanced at Jarix as he made his attempt at interspecies communication. After a moments hesitation Falger offered up his own suggestions and questions.

"If you can understand us then nod your head for yes, and shake your head for no."

"Are you alright?"

"Do you live around here?

"That worg, is it new in the area?"

Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6.

Falger takes a few strides and sets himself so he's out of reach of the horses. He studied the wolves for a moment, trying to figure out if they would come at them, and how fast, before deciding on a plan of action.

If the wolves and worg seem like they will come straight for the party Falger will cast a spell or spells. If he's only got one rounds worth of time he'll cast Shield. If he has two rounds he'll cast Enlarge Person on himself, then Shield. If they wolves look like they won't come, he won't waste a spell.

Falger slid down from his horse, drawing his blade. "That big, dark beast over there is a worg, we can't let an evil creature like that run wild. I don't know what this thing is saying, but we should help it."

How big is the pack of wolves with the worg?

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18.

You know I really wish the window to edit post was longer. I hate noticing a really dumb spelling error/typo and not being able to fix it. It just kills me a little bit on the inside.

Falger found himself nodding in agreement with Korvin about the time Kezzin spoke up. Glancing at the kobold Falger said, "I don't here anything..." Then young man's eyes lit up with excitement, "but we should go check it out anyway!" Falger grinned as he directed his mount after Kezzin's.

Falger was beginning to think things wouldn't be as exciting as he had hoped, but he was enjoying the warm sun. He shrugged to himself, something would happen eventually.

Perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10.

Falger listened while the others discussed their plans for the day. Not having anything to add he simply nodded in agreement and set off, whistling cheerily, to make ready for the days explorations. The rain had evidently not dampened his spirits.

I don't really have anything to add that wouldn't more or less be a repeat of what's already been said.

I think we should perhaps plan our explorations 3 or 4 moves ahead, that way we aren't stopping for input at every step, just when something interesting happens to warrant a decision point, or it's time to plan our next set of moves. Basically break this whole exploration thing down into chunkier bits.

I'm still for the farm and apiary.

Provided I've done it correctly, just working on the city without claiming a hex results in a 1.5BP/rd after consumption with our current stats, and a 20% chance of generating unrest on the stability roll.

Claiming the hex and building a farm and apiary will generate and average of 2.75BP/rd after consumption, though with a start of cost of 9BP, a cost that would be made up over about 7 rounds. There would be a 25% chance of generating unrest on the stability roll.

So if you went straight for the Town Hall it would take the first town 14-15 rounds to get there. It would take the second town 11-12 rounds to get there, including the setup cost.

Further, these numbers don't take into account unrest, if unrest were generated it would affect the first town much worse, because if they fall their economy roll they lose 2BP, each point of unrest is a +5% chance they will a net loss 2BP (they're starting with a 15% chance of that happening anyway). Whereas the second town will neither gain nor lose BP on a failed economy roll.

None of this takes into account addition building/bonuses by either town. Nor does it take into account that for one round the second town would have a consumption cost of 1BP. I'm probably missing some other things too, but I'm pretty convinced the farm/apiary is the way to go. It's less risky and has higher return. Either way though it's going to be a slog at first.

"What's a little rain? We've got important work to do, let's make sure this area is secure." Falger looked around at the flat landscape around them with a sigh. "I wonder if there is anything interesting around here..."

Indeed, let us carry on.

Falger had bid his grandfather farewell with a hearty hug and stepped out from the gathered villagers, beaming from ear to ear. The sight of the horses gave him pause for only the briefest of moments (he wasn't much of a rider), before he swaggered forward grinning at the small group of youths present. After managing to mount his horse without looking like a complete ass, he waved confidently to those there to see them off and urged his steed after the others.

As they rode Falger listened to Korvin's tale telling with great interest, in fact he seemed to be paying more attention to the goblin than to where they were going. Taking most of the stories at face value Falger found his opinion of the, evidently quite adventurous, rogue significantly raised.

"Really?!" Falger eyed the ground incredulously.

Jarix, would you mind terribly putting your out of character comments in the [ooc] tags? It's a little less jarring to have a clear separation when reading. Thanks. :)

Sorry I haven't posted yet, I've caught some kind of cold/flu thing and the time I sat down to post instead became (extended) nap time. I've just woken up and it's like 3 in the morning here, so I'm going back to bed, I'll try to post in the next 12-13 hours, but please if you're waiting on my input for something, by all means proceed rather than let me hold things up. Falger will go with the group since Jarix was the only one with an opinion on the subject. Alright, sleep time.

Just to avoid bogging down, making decisions it might be best to fine tune the details in the OOC thread (unless of course everyone is having a ball hammering things out in character).

I think we're all pretty much in agreement regarding that we need to explore some of the plains first.

Now that I'm looking at the exploration times, we should probably be able to cover several hexes easily, if we don't have any delays, before our next building cycle. Given that it's probably more logical to start in the SW hex, rather than SE hex, and go counter clockwise from there until we've made as much of a circuit of our settlement as time allows.

On a separate note, I'll mention here as well, I think I like these characters equally well, so for now I'll let you all decide which one you would rather have with you, and who will stay with the villagers. Polmora or Falger.

Falger's eyes shone brightly as he looked around the room, what had been his family's dream for so long was finally becoming a reality, and here he was, getting to take part in it. He fairly bounced up from his chair with the energy reserved for youth. "This is the start of something great, I can feel it, but there is so much to do, so many things we'll need, a town hall, trained guards, and of course, proper walls..." He stopped, furrowed his brow, and rested his left hand on the old sword that hung from his side, seeming to come down for a moment. "Well, I guess Korvin's right, we do need food first." Perking back up, Falger beamed at the others, "We should go scout out some good farmlands, and make sure the surrounding area is safe and secure as well."

"I vote mill and smith. With light taxation, no promotions and no festivals."

My vote stands with this, but I think Msosth is right abut the Southern and Eastern borders being water.

I had wanted to get my second character finished before we started, but my weekend was simply too busy. I'll do that this week. They'll be able to fill a similar role to Falger, though in a different way, so I'm not fussed about swapping.

Roles people seem to be interested in.

Irikar Vareth: Warden
Kezzin: Magister
Falger Ortio: Marshall
Korvin: Spymaster
Msosth the Grey: Treasurer
Alrich: High Priest
Jarix: Ruler

I think you may be right, I thought the inquisitor did, but I was mistaken.

I think between the lot of us, we might actually catch all the little nuances. :)

Ooh, but claiming hexes increase the kingdom size, right? I read forest tiles can reduce consumption by 1.

It does. So claiming a forest is a net of zero, but I don't think there is anything you can put there to further decrease consumption (although it's entirely possible I've missed something). Whereas grasslands (and hills at a slightly higher start up cost) will cost +1 consumption, but the building options can be up to -3, netting a -2 overall.

Still overall, it would probably be a good idea after we explore at least 1 hex of grasslands for the farm, to explore a couple woodlands hexes, if we can find one with a valuable resource it would be worth it claim on round 3, because a camp on such a site is very efficient versus the cost, IMHO.

I vote mill and smith(or the equivalent). With light taxation, no promotions and no festivals.

That should put at the following, before ruler.

Economy: +0+1+1+1=+3
Loyalty: +2-1-1=+0
Stability: +2+2-1=+3

If we took the butcher instead of the smith with normal taxation we would get:

Economy: +0+1+1+2=+4
Loyalty: +2+1-1-2=+0
Stability: +2+1-1=+2

But I'm a little afraid of raising the risk of unrest, I don't think we can afford much in the way of penalties.

Can't we add a farm in the mix on turn 0 to reduce that consumption ASAP?

I don't think we can, we'd need a hex without a city, which we don't have yet.

[edit: or what Alrich said.]

I think our best bet after this round, as it currently stands, would be to claim some grassland and get a farm and an Apiary on it ASAP. If we can counter act our consumption we'll gain BP nearly twice as fast.

I think you overlooked Edicts?

I did, and was editing it. :)

Oi, 15-(1+3)=13... derp, I fail at math.

okay, so we have...

Economy: +0
Loyalty: +2
Stability: +2

So let's say we built 2 from the following, Bakery, Fletcher, Mill, Smith, Tannery, Weaver, they would give +1 economy and stability each. And let's assume our leader is adding a +4 to the economy. Then we end up with this.

Economy: +6
Loyalty: +2
Stability: +4

The control DC is 11.

We pass the stability check on a 7 or better and gain a 1 BP extra. If we roll a 2 or a 1 we get +2 unrest instead.

We pass the economy check on a 5 or better for 2-5 BP

So we start the round with 3 BP, lose two to upkeep, gain between 3-6 in income, giving a total of 4-7 to work with, two of which must be carried over to the next round for additional upkeep, dropping us back to 2-5 we can legitimately spend.

If I've done this right, I think this means we can really only build income increasing buildings every other round, maybe 2/3 if we're lucky...

[edit: This doesn't take into account Tax rate, assuming we were willing to risk dropping loyalty to 0 (and assuming it can't go into the negatives) we could add another +2 to economy rolls). Still only enough to earn 2-5 BP, but on a 3 or better, and the chance of bumping up to the next rank of extra BP is 10% more likely. So 90% for 2 BP, 65% for 3 BP, 40% for 4BP, 15% for 5BP, on the economy roll.]

I would imagine, based on his personality and views, would want to be the Warden.

Patcher -- how would this be as a trait for Irikar:

Spirit of the Wilds: Select one woods hex controlled by your kingdom. As long as you are present and able to patrol that hex, it increases the ability of that hex to reduce consumption (from 1 to 2).

In order to fulfill a leadership role the character has to spend a week in the capital, if your character has to spend time elsewhere as well it might make it hard for him to either do adventury things, or bring his trait to bear.

Just to make sure I'm understanding this clearly. We start with 15 BP. Prepping the site cost 1 BP, and the upkeep at the start of the next round will cost 2 BP, leaving us with 13 BP to build with.

Just out of curiosity, before building any extra characters, so that no ones toes get trod upon, what roles are you all shooting for. There are only 3 for which Falger Might be ideal. General, Marshall, and Royal Assassin. The later would be out of character for him, and besides it is the only role that isn't damaging to forgo (beyond the loss of the bonus it would provide). Marshall seems like the most obvious for him, as it's vacancy penalties are the worst of the remaining two, I think he's the only one statwise that could currently cover it, and guardian role sort of suits his personality.

Regarding Jarix, I have no problem one way or the other.

On the second character thing, how do people feel about it as an optional thing. You can if you want to, but if yo don't want to be bothered then no big deal.

Falger Ortio wrote:

I kind of like the First Lord/High Lord idea that was floated.

Given our party make up, how about something a little more gobliny/monstary (look I'm making up words) like: Boss, Big Boss, Boss Boss/Grand Poobah/Biggest Boss/et c.

Silly me didn't even realize Kezzin had floated that when I posted "my" idea for first among equals, the exact words used by Kezzin.

It's okay. He may have been first, but they're equally valid. :)

I kind of like the First Lord/High Lord idea that was floated.

Given our party make up, how about something a little more gobliny/monstary (look I'm making up words) like: Boss, Big Boss, Boss Boss/Grand Poobah/Biggest Boss/et c.

I've only just started absorbing the kingdom building rules, so I don't know if this would even be feasible, but I've a suggestion that might fix out stat allocation problem. While I understand it would normally be well outside the bounds of what a trait is normally capable of, what of a trait that allowed a different stat to be substituted for Charisma. For instance, Lead By Example: Use Strength instead of Charisma, or Wise Leader: Wisdom, Diligent Planner/Crafty Schemer: Int for Chr, et c.

Not entirely sold on it myself, but just brainstorming a little.

On a different note, Falger doesn't have his second trait. Where you going to pick something appropriate, or should we come up with something and run it by you, or what?

I like one character - otherwise you are too split. It would be easy for us to have a muscle bound brute, a few super charismatic bards and so forth to fill the roles and call them our alternate characters. We started with 6, lets stay that way. If people want to create NPCs, go for it, but I think 1 PC/player is the way the game is designed and the way we should have played it. If we become a really small group due to attrition, then we could rethink this at that point.

Not any more split than playing characters in multiple games. And I don't know about anyone else, but I don't particularly have a desire to min/max a character just to fill a leadership roll, I want to make a character I'd be interested in playing. They might not get equal screen time all the time, given that only one or the other would be with the party when they're out and about, but that seems reasonable, you expand on the things the camera happens to be focused on. And actually I think it could have some potential from a storytelling perspective, it would allow for the focus to be able to shift between the town and adventuring more easily.

Personally I think it would be more interesting to have the various leadership roles filled with actual personalities rather than some NPC's statted just to fill them. Asking Patcher to have them all as NPC's will in the end either put a lot more work on his plate creating distinct personalities or will cause them to fade into background statistics. Do we really want to min/max an NPC ruler just to have a high stat for the kingdom, I mean at the 15 point buy a 16 is a solid stat. Honestly, I'm not super keen on an NPC ruler, they either have to be a complete Milquetoast and roll over for the PC's or end up having the GM making important decisions for us.

Plus being able to swap characters back and forth can help keep things fresh without being too disruptive.

More the idea is that they should be the same level to avoid logistical headaches.

Ultimately if you split split the xp between two characters, if those characters are using the slow track they'll be about 2 levels behind a single character on the slow track, if the two characters use the medium track, they'll be about 1 level behind a single character on the slow track, and if you use the fast track for the pair, they'll be about equal level to a single slow track character. What does all this mean, I don't know, I just thought it was interesting.

Mostly splitting was a thought of fairness to the other town if we happen to go with the same continuity. But you're right, too slow a rate of advancement can be a real drag, especially in PbP since the format is already so slow.

Ideally in most situations it would be one character or the other, especially anywhere conflict is liable to be involved. A sort of gentleman's agreement that one stays behind to help run things while the other is in the field.

I just had a random idea. What if we each made a second character. We could split xp between them. It would allow us to cover most or all of the decision making positions if we wanted. We could trade off which one is with the party if we desired to play something a little different without causing a lot of disruption or introducing an entirely new character. One group would be at home taking care of business while the other is in the field. If an event occurred at the village while we were away, we could play the second party to react to it. If a character dies, we've got a backup with an instant in.

Good idea? Bad idea?

Assuming the same continuities, contact doesn't necessarily have to mean confrontation or conflict.

More random group name ideas.

The Brotherhood of Many Bloods aka The Brothers
The Order of Freeblades aka The Freeblades
Or just so any marauding adventurers are clear: The Good Guys

Also, I don't know if we made a final decision on this, but are we going it alone or with a sponsor. I'm assuming the former, but the sort of sponsors this group might have could potentially be mighty interesting.

Oooh, let me muddy the waters and throw out some more ideas.

Taking inspiration from another famous group: The Hearthfinder Society*
Korvin's Krazy Kool Keltaran Krew (Did you know the letter "C" doesn't exist in goblin?)
The Expendables
League Of Racial Diversity (L.O.R.D.)
The (Town?) Guard

*I actually kind of like this one.

Ok, Team A, lets get this over with by a vote. I'll post suggested locations and names and you just vote for them. The ones with the most votes win. =)

We already decided on Neutral Good.

Location:
1. Little oxbow in the river just below and to the left of the rightmost compass.
2. Upper peninsula in the Kobold's claw.
3. The small island to the far left and bottom of the map.
4. The far left and bottom where the road meets the forest.

Adventuring Group Name (I refuse, in character, to be called the A-team =P):
A. Redeemers of Lost Dominion (AKA Redeemers)
B. Guardians of Celtara
C. Celtaran Protectorate
D. The Celtara Club
E. The New Celtara Expeditionary Force

Write-ins are acceptable. Just posting what was out there, minus the jesting ;)

City Name: New Celtara (I think we had a lot of votes on this)

There seems to be a lot of support for 4, so I'll go ahead and vote for that, with the caveat that I think Alrich's suggestion is well reasoned from a logical point of view. I'm sure every location will have it's ups and downs.

Regarding the group name, I'll vote E, I like the serious yet faintly ridiculous tone. Though really, this is the sort of thing that's tends to come out through play, so I'm not really fussed about it one way or the other.

On an unrelated note, I see we've got lots of casters, if everyone were to take an item creation feat as they become available we'd get most of the worthwhile ones covered without it being an overwhelming burden on any one character.

Patcher, is okay if I make a few alterations to my character? I'm a little concerned about his low AC and would like him to be a little hardier, especially given the A Team's makeup.

I'm cool with the groups.

Group names, hmmmm...
The Celtara Club
The New Celtara Expeditionary Force - I can see Falger suggesting this, oblivious the officious sounding nature is completely at odds withe group makeup. He'll of course strongly want to name the village New Celtara.

For building sites for the A-Team, I might also so suggest the upper peninsula on the three pronged lake, I think it has all the advantages of the second suggested site, but with more space to expand, access to the lake, and possibly easier/alternate access to the northern riverways (depending on the lay of the land in the mountains). Alternately somewhere around the upper part of the two part lake, maybe not quite as defensible, but it's very central and has access or a lot of waterways, easy access to the forest, and it's kind of bumping up against plot stuff since it's near the island, which could be cool in it's own meta way.

Though before we settle on a site for a settlement, I'd be curious to know where the primary Celtaran cities/landmarks were as it might give something to build on top of or a resource to pillage.

As has been said, people will probably drop, making the groups smaller, so let's do this.

Yeah, losing people is an inevitable part of PbP, so I'm inclined to say two larger groups will eventually end up being two smaller groups and ultimately less work than running three groups and then either having to recruit to keep them afloat or trying to do some kind of merger.

[

Agreed - I think the 2 witches and 2 wizards should form our own group. Our town will be Arcanium.

Not really here nor there, but I've always wanted to do an all wizard game.

I have some houserules to simplify combat with multiple people - particularly group initiative, where, instead of adhering to a rigid initiative schedule, each group acts in turn, the members of each group acting in whatever order they prefer. It works wonders IRL, at the very least.

I've done this in a few other PbP and it works well IMHO. My only issue with it is it hurts people who put character resources into initiative. Two things I've considered doing is having the monsters roll init as a group and the players individually. Anyone who beats the monsters essentially gets and extra action in combat. I.e. players A, B, C, and the monsters roll init. Only player A beats the monsters init, so A can act, then the monsters, then A, B, and C (acting in the order they post), then back and forth from there. In addition to that, or alternately, roll individual init for the players, players can act in the order they post, but if say player A beats players C's initiative then even if player A post after player C he can say, before C does this, I do that.

Also if a player doesn't post within 24 hrs, just take some basic action for them and move on to the next round, I think generally people don't like having others decide their characters actions and it kind of motivates them to post, and it helps keep things from bogging down.