MMII_GM's page

I'm going to make this inactive. I will eventually start my own campaign as GM and I'll let you all know when I do. Have fun.

If you two want to RP a plan of action, I will moderate something for you and Qat. Maybe the other two will return if they see activity. If not, you can give them other leads to follow up on and I can make a few rolls for them to give the results when you get done with your investigation.

There have been no posts in 10 days, and for some players it's been no posts for 3 weeks or a month. I'm still interested in being the GM here, but unless there is activity from the players, I'm inclined to put this on hold until people can post on a daily basis or every two days at the most.

I may be offered the GM duties in another campaign I'm in where the GM is having health problems. If that happens, I'm inclined to take it, in which case, I should probably not try to be the GM to this game as well. Give me some feedback soon to help me make up my mind.

Hope everyone is well.

Thanks for checking in. Real life can make PBP life impossible. Post when you can. I might suggest short posts just to keep some continuity and once things open up, get more into longer posts. But we can wait for a while. I'm impatient, but this campaign had birth pangs from the start, so I will not rush anyone. Just post maybe once a week so we know you're still connected and haven't dropped out.

We're still not getting any posts here. No need to wait for everybody to be active. If you are able to post, please contribute to the ideas already posted. I'm ready to go, but so far not much discussion has occurred. Once I have anybody interested in pursuing any particular lead, I'm prepared to proceed. I promise if one or two characters go out to look for information, I won't hit them with an encounter they can't handle. The city is dangerous, but individuals such as yourselves who are savvy to the risks can deal with those threats without traveling in a pack.

Welcome back. Things are taking a while to get rolling, due to some of the players dealing with RL issues as well, so don't worry about being behind. Read the newspaper accounts and jump into the gameplay whenever you're ready. I've made a few requests for standardizing the profiles, but don't worry about that until you have some time.

The theatre is working on a new production that has some elaborate sets. Onstage at the moment is a large replica of a volcano with a mechanism for causing glowing material to ooze up from the top. There are also some pulleys and cables that can cause an actor to appear to fly. Behind the stage are some sound effects devices for generating the sounds of thunder, etc.

I discovered the theatre map was set wrong and did not allow editing. I changed it so it should allow you to move your icons around. It still might not work with an iPad, but might give it a try just in case.

Check to see if you can move your icon. Let me know if you have any trouble. I put Qat by the door and Einar and Izzy in a backstage area near the door, where there is a crate with copies of the newspapers and a map of London. Nearby is a chalkboard for writing ideas down.

Norman: regarding your profile, it's looking good. Much easier to peruse. Thanks.

I notice you have a luck pool. Include a readout on current luck level and maximum luck level in the header that appears above your character's posts, if there is room.

If there are any special race traits that you get, list those in a spoiler at the bottom.

It appears you did not take any traits. Feel free to add 2 traits if you want.

No need for the build details, unless you want to include them under a spoiler for reference yourself. I don't anticipate running this campaign long enough that people will go up levels, so I doubt there will be a need for it in terms of leveling up later. I personally usually keep track of that somewhere, just because it can be hard to remember all the details.

Regarding the stories, I now understand the issue with the reference to the high priest's daughter in one article and wife in another. This is the kind of thing you can find a lot of if you compare reports closely, so the best thing, if you think something is important to sort out would be to try to locate the source (reporter) or the witness the reporter talked to or other witnesses not mentioned by the report (if they exist).

Note that there really isn't a profession which could be compared to our current day reporters. At least they don't operate with the same sense of professionalism as they have after newspapers have become a regular part of the public discourse. Right now, the paper just publishes what is has and may not include a byline or author. Also, there's no pressure to get it right, since everybody knows some papers lie to slant news toward a particular agenda and some papers will believe (or at least quote) just about anyone.

FYI: Most of the places that publish newspapers are on Grub Street, which is just west of Moor Fields, near Bedlam in north central London.

I left several notes within my skill set, because, frankly, my skills work so differently, I don't think either I or the GM could figure it out otherwise, though I removed most of the "point+bonus+otherthing" type stuff. (I like it, but I understand why others might not.)

I have my old stuff saved in a word document. Let me know if there are any errors!

I'm not concerned to have the details of how each skill level was reached. I trust you all to be honest and as accurate as you can be. If I happen to notice something that seems odd or unusually high, I may double-check. I'm fine if you just list the skills that you have ranks in rather than all the skills, although if it's easier for you, that's fine.

I posted in gameplay, though I'm still working through the awesome and very thorough murder articles, while comparing them against what the GM said my character knew about the mentioned individuals in her gameplay post.

I can see the theatre map, but I can't move my character, probably because I'm on an iPad. I don't mind saying stuff like, "I move five squares to the right, and one square up," and having someone else move me, though.

FYI I will be out of town for a week starting Monday and probably won't be able to post much during that time, but please do consider me part of the game. :)

I think the inability to move icons on such maps from iPad is a known limitation of such maps. If you need me to move your token, just give specific instructions and I'll do the moves.

No problem about being out of town. Safe travels.

EDIT: Also, my class abilities were integrated into a single list. I no longer have an easy way of separating them "by class", as it were.

At present, I'm going to list them all in order - if you need or want me to separate them more, that's fine, it'll just take me longer and I'll do it later. That okay?

EDIT 2: Also, also, you listed a few basic bardic abilities my archetype lost or replaced. I removed them for right now, but let me know if I'm supposed to put them back into play for some reason.

Anything you can do to make it all a little easier to parse will be appreciated. I did not particularly care for all the character creation options that were used (by the original GM), just because it makes the characters very complicated. Between the gestalts and the 3rd party content, it's all hard to keep track of as the GM.

My main interest is not policing everybody to make sure everything everyone does is legal, but just knowing in advance what characters are capable of so I present encounters that are suitably challenging but not overpowering.

Upon Reading all the articles:

- People to Investigate: the various unnamed folks who discovered some of the bodies, the daughter of the Bishop, the news reporter(s) (each article, if different; as well as the "it's only mundane" newspaper), the two watchmen with Master Ludwig, the Biggleswade office (and the accuracy of their reports), the "Sugarloaf" prostitute (Malinda O'Neele), Ms. Boatwright's neighbors (noted surprise: nothing was stolen from her home...).

- Errors in reporting: if the High Priest's wife witnessed the murder, why did someone else discover the body?

Regarding the "errors in reporting": The first article noted, "She [the bishop's daughter] was found wandering the streets shortly after the city guard arrived, in a state of shock."

Note, however, that accuracy can in reporting cannot be assumed or even expected in some cases.

Investigation can be done to determine the identify and locate various people listed above. I won't necessarily role play all these details of how they are located. Just let me know who you want to locate, or perhaps a short list in order of priority, in case you can't find your first choice.

Languages in SRD

Of these languages, the following may be useful when dealing with outsiders:

Abyssal: language of demons, so not commonly spoken, but essential when dealing with demons via summoning spells and such.

Celestial: language of angels, and important in many good religions.

Infernal: language of devils. If making a deal with a devil, it is essential to read the fine print! Used commonly in Cheliax by the upper class.

The following are the languages of elementals, as well as certain races associated with particular elements:

Aquan ("Tongue of the Sea"), Auran ("Tongue of the Heavens"), Ignan ("Tongue of Fire"), Terran ("Tongue of Earth").

All of these languages would be rarely encountered, but if dealing with summoned creatures, they can be important.

Languages

Since this world is connected to Golarion, all the languages of Golarion may be encountered in London and surrounding countryside. Common is Taldan, same as in the Inner Sea area.

Human Languages of Golarion. Since trade with Golarion is essential to the existence and wealth of London, most human languages of Golarion can be heard in the marketplaces and wharves of the city.

Dead languages of Golarion. These are like Latin or ancient versions of modern languages. Sometimes, these are known mainly as written languages, with pronunciation details lost.

Nonhuman languages of Golarion. These are much less common in the city, except the main nonhuman races such as the languages of elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. Races who are not generally welcomed in the city or who would have trouble living in a city will rarely be needed.

Darklands Languages. These are not spoken in public, but denizens of the Darklands who manage to survive undetected in the city may know and use these languages among themselves.

The most commonly used languages (after Common itself) would be (in rough order of frequency of encountering):

Most commonly encountered:
Varisian, Elven, Dwarven, Halfling, Draconic, Gnome, Sylvan.

Less commonly encountered:
Vudrani, Osiriani, Tien, Minkaian, Catfolk, Shoanti, Kelish, Iobarian, Druidic, Skald, Polyglot, Hallit, Hwan.

Rarely encountered:
Hon-La, Dtang, Garuda, Tengu, Goblin, Samsaran, Syrinx, Vishkanya.

I edited the profile template to correct the error with the italics closing tag.

Updated Document

Let me stress again, don't let the request to use the template be a deal breaker. Also Izzy's and Rae's profiles look fine as is. My only suggestion might be to put some of the longer sections near the bottom in spoilers to make it easier to access without scrolling. But that's a minor thing.

As for languages, I'll put some suggestions in the next post.

I'm back. I'll respond to things people have posted so far on Sunday. Thanks for hanging in there.

I'm going to be away from the Internet for the next few days. If you're reading this, please post to indicate when you will be able to start posting or if you are dropping out. Thanks.

If the profile revisions would be a deal-breaker, than don't worry about them. Keep in mind, however, that the template I made available has done most of the work. You just type in the numbers and details and it's done. Keep your old profile underneath if you like. If/when I get time, I can create the standard Pathfinder data for each characters for my ease of reference, but then as you make changes, I won't have them updated.

I am more interested in seeing people begin to post and the rest can happen or not. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for the condolences, by the way. My father-in-law was in his 80s and had a full life and was suffering from failing health, so this is not a sad as it might be were things not so.

Just a head's up, I'll be away from my usual computers and routines from Friday to Sunday. My father-in-law died and so I'll be out of town for the funeral. I may have access to wifi and some time to kill, so I'll try to check in but don't expect any posts until Sunday night or Monday.

I know a few people said they would be rather busy for a while, but I hope those who have time will begin to post in the gameplay. Other than this weekend, I'm ready to roll and Qat can interact with PCs even if not everyone is posting regularly. No rush, but do post when you can.

I'm going to need a lot of help keeping track of things like re-roll options. Because of the gestalt and the 3rd party content, and house rules of the other GM, I'm going to have trouble keeping track of things like that.

It would help if people would take some time to organize their profiles, particularly Norman. Rae's is well organized but generally, people have the details in different places.

I would prefer if the main crunch stuff is in the open (not under spoilers) and in the format used by Paizo.

If you have time, please download this template for use in this campaign. See Qat's profile for an example. It works well for me and keeps a lot of the clutter under spoilers but easily accessible.

Profile Template for Bards

If you work with the SRD, you can quickly copy and paste the details of class features and feats and traits. This saves me having to look these up if I want to see what abilities you have or how a particular ability works.

The other option is to follow the example of the SRD and for each feat, ability, etc., put a link to the SRD entry. The format is {url= *Paste URL here*}feature name{/url} except use square brackets.

No rush on this, but it will help me prepare for encounters if I can quickly check what abilities you have. Be sure to include magic item descriptions, including, if available, information on the aura, caster level, slot, etc.

Some people have not yet written anything for background. You may have been holding off on that to see if the campaign materialized. It will help me integrate your character into the fabric of the city to know how long you've been there, what you've been doing, your general goals and alignment, etc.

For what it's worth, I'm probably going to arrange a melee early on just to have a shake-down event to get a sense of how people fight and what spells get used, etc. This may not have a lot to do with the murders but just a consequence of getting attacked by criminals or some noble's bodyguards. But for now, please focus on posting in character and discussing what you want to do first.

Rolls for Knowledge (Local) regarding people named in the newspaper articles connected with the first five murders. Be sure to read the post in the discussion board about these rolls.

Heifestus Taketis

Carter Wedgewood

Annice Taketis

Ludwig Chrysostom

Festus Warwick

Owain Biggleswade

Gianaconia Boatwright

Malinda O’Neele

Look under your character's spoiler for what he/she knows about these characters, if anything.

I've been looking over your character's stats and abilities and everybody has an intelligence of 18 or higher and very high knowledge skills. This is certainly due to the original character creation rules, the emphasis on bards abilities, and the expectation that knowledge skills would be helpful in digging up clues in a campaign that was obviously going to involve some detective work.

This, however, presents some issues for the GM. In particular, how to use knowledge (local) rolls when most everyone is guaranteed a result of at least 14, an average of 25 to 27, and results as high as 36 to 40. Einar is the one exception, but even he has a knowledge (local) of 8. This is all good in general, but the GM has to be careful not to let such rolls do the legwork for the characters.

So generally, I'm going to break knowledge (local) rolls into the following categories: Use to know something about humanoid creatures, use to know something about the city geography, use to know something about individuals.

The first two categories don't need any modifications and so characters will be generally very knowledgeable about what to expect from relatively uncommon humanoid creatures, as well as how to get around the city.

The third, however, I'm going to treat something like combat where as characters go up in level, their fighting skills increase but so do the armor class and hit points of the creatures they fight. So the DC of knowledge (local) checks that pertain to investigating the murders will have correspondingly higher DC's to discover key clues relative to other mundane knowledge (local) rolls. So a good high knowledge (local) roll to know something important about an NPC will still net you something special, just getting a result of 20 or 25 won't be the boon you might expect in other situations.

As a reminder, I'm going to make the rolls for knowledge and certain other skills and hide them under a spoiler. I'd prefer you did not look at the rolls, but I want you to know that the rolls are there and if a question comes up about the roll, there will be a record of it.

I posted the text of the newspaper accounts in the campaign header, so you can reference them more easily. There is also a link to the city map. A second map link shows the markers indicating where the first five murders took place. I'll soon have a map link showing the characters in the theater, although I don't expect there to be any need for it right away. I just want to make sure the map works so when there is melee, I will know how to set it up. Please try to access the map and see if you can move your character around. I'll put a link to the local map in my GM header for easy access.

At the end of the meeting in the Mended Drum (See here for the role playing of the characters who met there) Qat invites everyone to meet at the City Pantheon Theatre first thing in the morning. There was a performance the night before, so no one is in the place for the first few hours of daylight and the group has the stage to themselves, although if they want more privacy, there are some prop rooms they can use.

Qat waits by a side entrance and lets people in after they give a knock with 3 long pauses, 3 short pauses, and 2 long pauses between. Once everyone arrives, she locks the door and joins you. She has collected newspapers (sometimes called 'libels') with accounts of the murders, provided by the bartender of the Mended Drum. Once everyone has had a chance to look them over, Qat says, "Suggestions as to how we can identify and stop the Black Fog Killer?"

I'll post some info on what characters already know about the names mentioned in the articles later tonight or tomorrow.

No rush. Post when you can. I'm likely to be a little slow as I discover things I need to work up.

Just a reminder: newspapers are a recent development and the interest in them has led to a free-for-all of competition for readership that would probably make our tabloids look tame. So information in newspapers is not necessarily reliable and it would be good to investigate anything mentioned in the paper to discover how accurate it is.

Edit: I will make knowledge rolls for all the people mentioned in the articles and post the results, once I have the core group gathered and posting, so no need to make rolls for that kind of thing. In general, if you want information based on a skill roll, let me know and I'll do the roll. I think that's better and helps keep the dice results from tipping off when information is good or bad; plus it distances the role-playing from the game mechanics.

Newspaper accounts (link to a document on Google Docs shared drive) is up in the newly opened gameplay board, so go ahead and post there and begin to discuss what you want to do. There is also a link to a map of London in 1767, which I'm using as a default map.

The newspaper accounts refer to names of months and days of the week that are from Golarion. May want to check out this link to have a reference guide to the calendar: http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Calendar

My plan for the initial encounters is to get your plans for learning more about whatever you want to investigate. I'll make rolls for your knowledge and other checks to get a general sense of how well this goes. I'll summarize some things and pick a few things for you to roleplay and gradually get useful information to you. Moving around London may involve risks, so some encounters might be a somewhat random introduction to hazards of life in London.

Generally, the further west you go, the more aristocratic the environment and the further east you go, the lower the class levels and higher the risks of crime and environmental hazards. There is developed city south of the Thames, but the only way across is London Bridge and various boats. One can purchase use of a carriage or a sedan chair carried by a couple of porters. There are city guards patrolling the streets, more in the west than the east.

There is no formal system of government sponsored prosecution of crime. If a criminal is to be brought to justice, he must be captured and delivered (by people called thief-takers, forerunners of bounty hunters) to the appropriate authorities, where he/she will be held until a trial. Someone must serve as the prosecutor and present evidence to a judge, who passes sentence and assigns punishment. Everything from getting branded, having body parts cut off, up to being hanged or drawn and quartered are possible sentences, as well as prison.

One other institution of note is Bethlam Hospital for the Insane, known more popularly as Bedlam. It is a huge building keeping a wide range of people with problems thought to be forms of insanity.

If you have other questions about the city or how things work, please post them here.

Go to the following link to read a sample of newspaper accounts of the murders committed thus far.

Characters have gathered after discussing options for catching the murderer the previous night in a tavern. They are now on the stage of the City Pantheon theatre, on Portugal Street, just south of Lincoln Inn Fields.

The role playing may begin. Please post as you are able to indicate your availability.

Progress Report:
I've got two newspaper accounts completed with two to go. I hope to have the rest finished and move toward starting the campaign by next weekend.

I have no major house rules when it comes to game play. The main one that comes to mind is that I'd like to roll certain skill rolls for the characters. This will mainly be knowledge skills, bluff, sense motive, and sometimes perception. I'll put the rolls under a spoiler so if questions arise, you can see what the results were, but I'd rather players not know the results of the rolls. Sometimes a knowledge roll fails because there is nothing to know while at other times there may be something to know but the roll is too low for the character to know it. Not knowing the roll result avoids giving away which is which, something the character would not necessarily know. I think it also distances the player from the game mechanical effects.

There are some magic effects or traits or feats that allow a character to re-roll after seeing the number but before learning the effect. If a player has such a skill/spell, just let me know and we can work something out.

Also, I may ignore the roll if the player role-plays the attempt particularly well or poorly. This would be for things like diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff.

I don't like the RAW for charging and withdrawing. My ideas for how to change them are somewhat complicated, but more realistic, IMHO. I'll spell those out eventually.

I have some mild chances of a fumble if a character's initial attack roll is a 1, but it is limited to only about 10 to 30% chance. Nothing too deadly or innately damaging.

I'll open the gameplay board soon, but let's keep preliminary stuff on the discussion thread. More when I can get it ready.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, let me know.

Welcome all. I'm new to this, so I should not even promise to be ready to post every day, at least at first, and I'm not particularly concerned that everyone else do so. Let's all just agree to post as often as possible. There won't be any combat for a little while, so I'll work with whoever is posting. The point is to have fun.

I'm currently working on the script of some newspaper articles which I'll post to give you the initial information on what is being printed about the murders. This will give the characters some ideas on how they can proceed. Initially things will be in sandbox mode, but I'll try to make sure the party always makes some progress toward sorting things out. In my experince, sandbox games where characters are looking for clues can be frustrating if the PCs keep trying things and keep coming up with nothing.

I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's The System of the World, part of which takes place in London in 1714. It's a wealth of information about life at that time and place. Here's an interesting quote, in which the narrator is explaining how a character who had been away from London for over a decade discovered a new source of information, daily newspapers. He is recovering from an injury and his hostess has been bringing newspapers along with his breakfast.

Now, most places did not have newspapers, and so, if Mrs. Arlanc had not brought him any, he would never have known that they were wanting. But London had eighteen of them. 'Twas as if the combination in one city of too many printing presses; a bloody and perpetual atmosphere of Party Malice; and an infinite supply of coffee; had combined, in some alchemical sense, to engender a monstrous prodigy, an unstanchable wound that bled Ink and would never heal. Daniel, who had grown to maturity in a London where printing presses had to be hidden in hay-wagons to preserve them from the sledgehammers of the Censor, could not quite believe this at first; but they kept coming, every day. Mrs. Arlanc brought these to him as if it were perfectly normal for a man to read about all London's scandals, duels, catastrophes, and outrages every morning as he spooned up his porridge.

At first Daniel found them intolerable [Daniel is a Cambridge educated man with a PhD and a member of the Royal Society]. It was as if the Fleet Ditch [a sewage choked canal] were being diverted into his lap for half an hour every day. But once he grew accustomed to them, he began to draw a kind of solace from their very vileness. ...

So, inasmuch as it made him feel better, Daniel began to look forward to his daily ink-toilette. Immersion in Bile, a splash of Calumny on the face, and a dab of Slander behind each ear, and he was a new man.

So I'm going to say that the city has printing presses and newspapers. Note, however, that there is no professionalism to most of these, so the things printed in them may be true, but there are lots of reasons for them to be inaccurate, ranging from unreliable witnesses to outright making things up.

If anyone is checking this thread wanting to join, please note recruitment is closed for now.

Welcome all. I'm new to this, so I should not even promise to be ready to post every day, at least at first, and I'm not particularly concerned that everyone else do so. Let's all just agree to post as often as possible. There won't be any combat for a little while, so I'll work with whoever is posting. The point is to have fun.

If you all want to post on the Discussion board, please do so. I'll be posting all new information about the game there.

Discussion thread for Murder! Murder! II. Some general description of the setting will be posted here, along with house rules. Once everything is ready, the gameplay thread will be launched. Welcome.

I've created a recruitment thread for my version of the Murder! Murder! campaign. Please post here (link) if you are still interested in playing your character created for this campaign in mine.

First priority to the following characters:

Izzy Carbuncle
Norman J. Smith
Einar Colby
Vir Invictus
Rae Keisinger
Lady Kelendia

Qat Tzgane will appear as an NPC.

I'm still a ways from starting, but I wanted to figure out how to get the main threads posted and get people dotted in. I'll be posting details, house rules, world background, and some details to get things started in the weeks to come. PM me if you have any problems finding the site. I'm not entirely sure I've set things up right and I'm still trying to figure out how to get the other parts of the game created.

The recruitment for this campaign has already taken place on another thread. The GM solicited new characters and then just as it seemed the game was about to start, the GM disappeared. I created a character for that campaign and was disappointed to not get the chance to play, so I decided to GM the game and invite the other PCs created for the game to play in this one.

Players for the other campaign are encouraged to post here to express their interest and then we'll move to the gameplay and discussion boards. If this fails to draw enough characters then I will post a request for new characters.

The original game details can be found here: Murder, Murder

While I intend to carry forward my own version of the ideas expressed at this site, I will be using my own set of house rules to be spelled out in the discussion board.

This is my first time as GM of a PBP game, although I've been a GM in many other games over many years.