Forben Stralken's page

Just wanted to say a few words to Inspectr, your journal has been a lifesaver many many times when it came down to my still poor GMing skills to find interesting ideas ans freshen up this adventure.

We're still playing book one, but it's been a blast!

I'm really hopeful we can hear from you again in the near future! :)
Take your time, health, friends and family first! <3

Forben

As i see it, the tactics are only here to give you a basic point of view on how to handle it exploration mode, and more precisely how to handle the transition between exploration and encounter mode.

As the book states, these are merely exmeples to help you decide as a GM what's the appropriate roll the PCs have to make, and what kind of activity is fatiguing.

Nowhere does it states that these are the only ones your PC can use, so yes, your PC should be able to make any check given the situation seems logical to you, the GM.

New Identified Problem #12: Janky Lockpicking Rules: The rules for picking complex locks are tedious. Oh so very tedious. They involve the rogue's player making roll after roll after roll just to unlock a complex door, until they critically fail and snap their lockpick, or until the door finally budges. In this game, the Dexterity 16 cleric removed their breastplate to try to unlock a door with a DC 20, three-success lock. After 26, yes, 26 consecutive rolls, they had snapped a total of four lockpicks, and the door remained locked. Everyone else was twiddling their thumbs and simply watching this embarrassment unfold. What is this, a Bethesda game? This needs to go.

It only states 3 successful checks, not 3 consecutive successful checks. Did your players really rolled bad on 23 checks before success?

That's true :)
Ans also very cute, i gotta try something like that sometimes! My next character will be a Barbarian gob knitter!

Aaah i see ok, that's kind of weird though as in written APs there'll only be some kind of "most common" checks, they're not going to put Lore [knitting] in the game! :D

So, i've been looking at the book for the past 20 minutes to look for an answer, but i cant find a definitive list of all the Lore Subcategories, is there even one?

Maybe i'm just blind, but if so may someone point me to the page of the book?

Well, that sucks. I’m not going to complain for now because the PDFs are on the way, but we already know how terrible that PDF release will be especially since physical orders are screwed up. I hope that maintenance of yours yesterday was to build a back up for the back up server, cause you’re gonna need it.

Maybe it would be wise to release the pdfs a tad earlier since everyone will try at 6am PST, if you release it say 30 mins before some very dedicated people will already have theirs and it will unclog the servers. Well, you know better than me. Or maybe not given what just happened!

Forgot to post the Character sheet:

We're using the Unchained Monk version with some tweaks for the Hungry ghost archetype.

Enzaru Klein, LG Male Human Monk Hungry Ghost
Init +2; Perception +7,
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 10 (DEX +2, WIS +3, dodge +1)
hp 12 (1HD)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will 4
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Unarmed strike +4 (1d6+3)
Face 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 20

Abilities Str 17, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 8
Feats Crane Style, Dodge
Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +3, Escape artist +2, Intimidate +3
Possessions: Poor as a stone :D

SA:
Punishing Kick
flurry of blows

Probably missing some stuff, i'll edit if people are interested but that's what i remember

I'm back with a new PC introduction:

His name is Enzaru Klein, he's a Irori Monk, human, from the Jalmeray Island, with the hungry ghost archetype. Loyal good hungry ghost Monks is i think quite hard to believe like that, so we had to twist the story a little, and i think we found a good way to make it believable (even if the events leading to it aren't really RAW... at all^^)
Let's dive in his story:

Enzaru lived his whole childhood as the son of the Templemaster of Irori on the Isle of Jalmeray, perfecting his martial art skills and meditating. There's a very ancient (and also made up by me >.>) tradition that every 5 years, the monks of Irori across the world would meet to contest in a Martial art tournament, the winner being able to keep for the next five years the mystical Robe of Master of Masters, granting good fortune and displaying the winner's monastery's perfection for all to see.

Usually the Temple Masters, being the strongest, wisest and most educated in Irori's faith monks, battle for the title. But since a couple years ago, Enzaru's father wasn't in the best condition and no one knew why, so he asked his son to participate instead of him.

Enzaru agreed and practiced even more after this annoucement to be ready for the tournament the following year.

So here we are, one year later, the tournament begins and Enzaru unexpectedly wins most of the tasks (breaking objects contest, martial art fighting, and precision/speed contest).
After the win, it's praise time, clapping time, and as per tradition, the winner gets to tour for the next few days with all the Tournament Judges in the neighbouring villages so local people can know about the Monastery and this particular monks achievement.

Tour goes as expected, and finally the Judges leave Enzaru at the closest village from the monastery, which is still a 7 hours walk to get back.

As Enzaru makes his way back, he sees the sky darkening above the monastery. Two hours later, he's finally able to see what's happening in the sky, it looks like a thousand bats are flying around the roof, screeching in a cacophonous symphony. Enzaru starts running, pushing his limits further and further. When he finally steps foot before the monastery's entrance, he's frozen in place, because what he sees is unbearable: Blood, everywhere, splashed on the walls, bodies split by what looks like very sharp claws, the atmosphere is heavy and dark, and as he moves in the main Hall, there's a huge hole in the floor, he can barely see the bottom of the pit. After a few minutes to let his eyes acclimating to the darkness around, he can distinguish one very big open coffin. He doesnt quite know what that means or what this is, so he keeps navigating in the rooms until he hears a scream, and a man begging seconds before a gushy sucking sound and another faint scream.

Enzaru recognize the voice of his father, and rushes to the next room, where he finds himself face to face with a very powerful vampire, carrying the robe of the master of masters on his shoulder like you'd toss a towel. Enzaru is too slow to react and the vampire casts an invisibility spell before he can do anything. The vampire is now talking to Enzaru: "It's nice to know you can't hurt me, now let's have a little fun, i'm sure you have hundreds of questions right now, let me answer two of them before i fly off to my other duties." Enzaru asks him who he is. "my name is (random vampire name i can't remember), i'm a vampire, as you probably guessed by now". Enzaru's second question is why, why all this. "Well... It's hard to explain, but let me try my best. I'm tired of this vampire life. I want out. But this is tricky, nobody knows how to remove this curse and if this is at all possible. So i need time to make my research, and i need to be descrete because well... i'm not the highest rank so if anyone in the higher ranks hears that i'm trying to escape my fate, they wouldn't be very happy now would they... So i met a man, Ralph Lamm, in Korvosa, he's giving me and some vampire friends of mine a place to study, but the fool wanted this robe, apparently he doesn't know it doesn't work if you're not an Irori disciple but well... that's not my problem now is it... So we've been digging around and found out where the robe was, and spent some time lurking around, having minions and charmed persons tell us everything we needed to know. I figured i might as well do some experiment on your dad since he is the previous winner, it's been a while now that i cursed him with slight vampire traits, but that didn't work well, he realized he was stronger, but he didn't want to use his new and improved powers, tsss... so ungrateful... Oh by the way, before i leave. Do you know why you won this tournament? Well.... I had the same present for you, i hope you'll use your new powers, not like your father. I wouldn't mind meeting you again to see what you'll become. Maybe one day."

At this point Enzaru was destroyed, his will shattered, he didn't even try anything to stop the vampire leaving, not that he could anyway. He spent the next three days digging graves for everyone, helped by villagers from the town he last left that were curious about the dark Cloud over the monastery. The mayor gave Enzaru some coins and promised him the villagers would take care of the now empty monastery and try to restore it to its previous impressivness.

Enzaru had to go. He had to find this Ralph Lamm, he had to take back the Robe. He used all the money to get bunkbed in a ship on the way to Absalom, and offered his service as a martial art teacher for a ship crew on the way to Korvosa. The trip was long but one morning Korvosa was in sight. Enzaru had no money left, only his father's necklace, a monk's robe and a rolled up sleeping bag. He asked around for help and after a few disapointing encounters with locals, was directed to the Bank of Abadar, to meet this woman's acquaintance Ishani Dhatri. This guy will surely help him if he can.
And indeed, Ishani said Enzaru was welcome to stay in one of the Orphinage as long as he would give a hand in taking care of the kids there. Enzaru was pleased with the offer and accepted right away.

The next morning, after helping at the Orphinage he took on a stroll to discover the city, and when he came back to his room, a Tourment card representing the Demon's Lantern and as he turned the card around, I ended the session.

GM's note: Now i know this is not very reallistic but heh, we're not playing IRL Rpg and Enzaru was so pumped up to start the campaing, so i think we're good to go!

Next player will be Keito, a Ninja from a very old forgotten Minkai Ninja clan that had to go in exile for an unknown reason. Can't wait!

Send me a private message Colorspray, i can't seem to be able to send you one

Oh i wasn't even aware of this, i only watched the first 7 episodes ^^ Good to know

I found some times ago a group from the youtube channel "PSYLP" playing the Curse of the Crimson throne, they have about 20 episodes released (length varies) and even if the sound quality is not perfect for the couple first episodes it gets wayyy better later on, and the GM has a very cool view on Korvosa and the campaign Setting!

PSYLP playlist

Thank you everyone, i'll follow your advices and read (again :p) the guide to korvosa, guess i got a little overboard on this ahah! My players are going to bounce from shops to shops so i'll just tell them "hey, look, all the shops are conveniently gathered at the Golden market and Eodred's walk!"
And it wouldn't be far from truth too.

I missed the part in the guide to korvosa about shops i guess, and totally forgot about the appendixes in the hardbook sooooo i have some reading!

Thanx again for the answers :)

Hello everyone, i hope this wasn't a hot topic recently, i couldn't find any thread about that even though i'm pretty it must have been asked before:

I'm having trouble setting up shops in my campaign, precisely magic items shops, like wands/scrolls/magic armor and weapons etc. I have no idea how to handle such task as it's my first time GMing more than a simple module, and i'm a bit overwhelmed with this as i know my players will try every now and then to grab some.

How did you guys set it up?

Thank you MrVergee!
It's partially thanks to you that i'm running this AP and not another, my friends were asking me to run a Pathfinder campaing (we're usually playing D&D with another GM, but we wanted to see what other fish in the medieval fantasy RPG sea are there!), so i looked in these forums and found yours and Moonbeam Logs, i instantly was hooked!

I'll try my best to make my players have a good time!

My second PC will be an Elf Alchemist Surgeon. Since i'm usually the only player healing in our RPG games, and since i'm GMing this time around, one of them had to pick a heal class! And he found the Surgeon archetype. As i said i'm not sure it'll be enough to heal the whole group, so i might have to tune the encounters and certain rewards for them to be able to go all the way to the end and still provide a good challenge. But i think Alchemist has a very strong potential, so we'll see as we go!

I still don't know all his backstory yet, but i know he has been doing some kind of magical/medical research with his wife with the support of the Academae before she dies.
I'm gonna have his wife take a different path and take a contract on the side from a certain Rolth Lamm, about some kind of medical cure (foreshadowing the necromancy thing that Rolth is focusing on atm), research funded by Gaedren. At some point Gaedren will want the research to go way deeper in the necromancy field, which his wife will refuse, and i'll have Gaedren stab his wife to death as the PC is getting in the Lab and ears-dropping the conversation.

Something like that.
I'll post what happened as soon as we played the session :)

All right, my turn to post some kind of Blog on how my campaign will turn out.

First and foremost, english is not my mother tongue so expect a few some a lot of grammar mistakes etc. Also, i'm a new GM, i've only GM'd one Module so far, and Curse of the Crimson Throne will be my first large campaign. And in that sense, i'm a little overwhelmed! So for my first attempt, i'll mostly stick to the book, changing a few things here and there. Most of the stuff not in the book i found in these forums (and even though i didn't finish reading them, i already wanna thank Moonbeam, Mr Vergee and Skeld for their GM logs, as they gave me some insight of what a fully fledged campagin can look like and some very good ideas.)

So as i said, it'll be mostly run by the book, as i know my players will torture me with unplanned events, i don't want to add my own weird stuff yet. Maybe after the first chapter if things go very smooth i'll add things, but Edge of Anarchy will be run by the book. Mostly.

Right. Let's get to it. I left a lot of freedom in the character creation, and i'm not so sure the party will be balanced, but we'll figure things out as we go, We've been friends for a long time now so they all know it might not be perfect and we might have to change things as the story unveils! (like, i'm not sure the healing will be enough but we'll see!)

Session 0:
I Asked my players to give me a quick rundown on the idea they have of their PC, who they are, where they come from, what's their goal in life, any family ties, this kind of things. And i'm going to make solo sessions for all of them to tie them right in the CotCT campaign, and give them a reason to hate Gaedren Lamm.

1st player is:

Ikky Bloodmoon, LN Male Human Gunslinger bucanneer
Init +3; Perception -1,
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (armor +3, DEX +3)
hp 12 (1HD)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will -1
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee scimitar +3 (1d6+2)
Ranged pistol +4 (1d8+2)
Face 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 16

Abilities Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 13
Feats Armor Proficiency, Light, Exotic weapon proficiency (firearm), Point Blank shot, Sea legs
Skills Acrobatics +8, Bluff +5, Climb +7, Craft (Firearm) +3, Handle animal +1, Heal -1, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (engineering) -1, (Local) -1, ride +2, Sleight of hand +2, Survival -1, Swim +3
Possessions: studded leather, pistol with 20 ammo, scimitar

SA:
-Grit (2/day)
Deeds-> Deadeye (Ex): At 1st level, the gunslinger can resolve an attack against touch AC instead of normal AC when firing beyond her firearm’s first range increment. Performing this deed costs 1 grit point per range increment beyond the first. The gunslinger still takes the –2 penalty on attack rolls for each range increment beyond the first when she performs this deed.
Seadog’s Gait (Ex): At 1st level, the buccaneer gains Sea Legs as a bonus feat. If she spends 1 grit point, she can ignore difficult terrain until the end of her turn.
Gunslinger’s Dodge (Ex): At 1st level, the gunslinger gains an uncanny knack for getting out of the way of ranged attacks. When a ranged attack is made against the gunslinger, she can spend 1 grit point to move 5 feet as an immediate action; doing so grants the gunslinger a +2 bonus to AC against the triggering attack. This movement is not a 5-foot step, and provokes attacks of opportunity. Alternatively, the gunslinger can drop prone to gain a +4 bonus to AC against the triggering attack. The gunslinger can only perform this deed while wearing medium or light armor, and while carrying no more than a light load.

Ikky's story

Ikky Darkblade is a pirate, son of Rikky Darkblade, also a pirate. He's the proud owner of a wonderful pirate ship, the Hyppogriphe, a 100 feet long vessel, and cap'tain of a big crew of about 50 men and one monkey, Paolo, his companion since forever (at least that's what he says, Ikky being 40 years old...).
One day, one of his crew member tell him he has heard about a guy in Korvosa who knows about a big merchant ship making its way back, fully loaded with coins from its last cheliaxian trip.
Ikky goes to see the man, a certain Yargin, and after a good negociation, Yargin tells him when and where to catch the merchant ship.
Ikky and his crew have a week to prepare, and when the day comes, it goes as smoothly as Ikky planned, only lost a couple of guy in the process of taking the merchant ship, and managed to save around 3000 Gold coins before it sank in the waters of the Conqueror Bay.

Ikky and the crew is very happy about the attack, and decide to share the coins while they make sail to their lair. During the sharing, one guy stands up, a recently recruited sea dog named Reinak, and tells his companions that in a friend's ship, the crew doesn't take just one share while the captain and countermasters take 2 shares each. Ikky hears about the mumbling and tries to intimidate Reidak, but the harm is done, and half his men are trying to get a better share, claiming "Ikky, is it true what this guys say?" or "Yeaaaaah, more equality, we want a bigger share!". Some guys recently recruited probably think they can get a way bigger share if half the crew dies in the mutiny, and take the side of Reinak.

One thing after another, the crew splits in half roughly and they all start drawing swords. Combat starts and Ikky sees he's not in control anymore. He tries to fend for himself, when he sees with the corner of his eye Reidak putting fire to a fuse he just installed on one of the many barrels of Alchemist's fire in stock. Ikky immediately tries to run there, but quickly notices that he'll never make it in time, so he grabs his fellow monkey and tries to put down one of the little barge on the side to run away. Unfortunately, the ship explodes 5 seconds too early for him and Paolo to get inside the barge, and he's just fast enough to throw himself in the water right before the explosion.
Ikky is a very good swimmer so he doesn't have any trouble getting back at the surface but he's still shaken by what has just happened.
As he's floating on a broken wooden plank, he realises that Paolo isn't with him, probably pushed away further due to the explosion. He looks everywhere on the water around him, and after a dozen seconds, he sees not so far away another small barge, with Reidak in it, paddling his way to the coast as quickly as he can, and he can see too fully loaded bags of coins spilling on the small boat. After a few more seconds focusing, he also sees his poor Monkey, trapped in a little cage. Reidak notices Ikky after the pirate yelled at him "Thug! Scum of both earth and sea! I swear to all the mighty gods that i'll find you, and you better hope you be dead before i find you!" (or something along those lines) and Reidak to answer: "Ahahahahahah, Gaedren Lamm, my friend, will be very pleased to have a new toy to play with!"

Ikky manages to get on the coast, and immediately starts making his way to Korvosa, knowing some people there, and thinking that this Yargin probably was in as well.
When he arrives in Korvosa, all his contacts had disappeared already, and he cannot find anyone able to help him in his hunt for Gaedren Lamm, Reidak and/or Yargin.

One day, Ikky starts strolling in the korvosan streets, and notices something in his pocket, something that shouldn't be here. A Harrow card. The Rabbit Prince. The card has his name on it, and behind it, a message that makes him very, very curious.

And without telling him what was the message, i ended the session here, as i plan the same for all players until we can finally start the Session 1 in a few months.

Hey Stratt! Love your ideas and the one you found elsewhere and added n your campaign, i'm very curious about how it played out, hope your group could continue the game, and that you'll find some time to tell us how it went!

Good job!

Hey always cool to hear from GMs running the campaign, i'll start my own thread when we start!

Are you guys still playing? would love to hear what your players did next! :D

I'm running CotCT on fantasy grounds too, and it's been a blast, my group is used to fantasy grounds now as it's our second campaign on this software, but everything has been converted, and if you still feel like you're missing on something (for exemple i know my players always want to see pictures of the monsters they fight or something like that), then you can always add your own material.

It's a little tricky to use at first and you will probably need a few hours to find everything you're looking for, but when you do, it'll be a very good experience.

Expect sluggishness during the first few sessions though hehe

Hello, i didn't realize the "cheapest option possible" for shipping to France would be 23$, so i would like to cancel my sub and the sidecar (Ultimate wilderness).

I'd rather have to wait and get the same book in a year with an Amazon shipment of 6$! Sorry guys