Raian Oweraven's page

Raian grabs the papers and reads through them briefly. "A desk job back at Harbor Guard." He shakes his head. "No, I don't think I could survive that."

He grabs a pen off the desk, turns over the stack of papers and scribbles out a resignation notice. "I think it is just time for me to find something else more permanent. I'll go see if my spot at my old hunter's guild is still available. The place could still use a few less monsters."

He takes off his badge and places the papers on the desk with his badge on top of it. Then straightens up and salutes. "Sir."

He turns to the others. "It was nice meeting you - even if only briefly. Best wishes to you all." He then turns around and leaves the office.

Roster Shift

Raian Oweraven, I am asking you to step down at this time, as this is potentially a multi-year game and I am finding you already difficult to GM for. Check out the "Dismissal Policy" in this AP Alias if you're interested in bowing out gracefully.

Yeah, that's fair. Was considering that myself too. I think you are a pretty good GM - just not a good fit for me personally.

I'll finish the scene gracefully and turn in my badge when we get back to the office.

Raian also declines the offered drinks. "I'm on duty. And I don't hold alcohol well."

On the way back.

"OK, Ms Tibeth. When you get a moment to collect your thoughts, what did you figure out? Because that entire thing seemed a bit off to me. Maybe I am just paranoid."

Well, I'll hold off on judgement for the social skill stuff until I actually see it in action then.

As for exploration mode, I usually pick something appropriate once we know where we are exploring in.

Some standard ones that I would be looking at would be Defend, Scout, or Avoid Notice if we are somewhere dangerous. Search or maybe Investigate if we are somewhere reasonably safe.

If I need to pick one for default, it would be Scout unless someone else wants that one, then I would happily switch to Defend.

I can't think of anything to do with a day of downtime already. I'll also throw in my vote for returning to the precinct.

OK. So let's kick off a session 0 then.

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First:

It appears that some spoiler tags we are expected to open and read, and others we are not unless we have access. How do we tell the difference?

Is it based on which character posted the spoiler? Things posted by AP Edgelord shouldn't be opened without permission, but things posted by Skill Challenge should?

Or is it based more on the label of the spoiler? Something along the lines of: open it if it doesn't have a character's name or a check with a DC listed.

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Second:

That said I do temper NPC responses to both the words you use and the recognized die rolls of skill challenges.

This is somewhat concerning to me.

When rolling checks, you roll the check first, then describe the action. And it should be just that - a description of the outcome of the roll. It shouldn't affect the outcome of the roll.

We see this with things like Long Jump over a gap. You roll the Athletics check, then role-play the outcome of the result. Same with an attack roll. You roll the attack, then describe the outcome of the attack.

It should be the same with social skills. You roll the check, then describe the in-game events. And the description of the action should match the outcome of the roll - not influence it.

At least, that is how I have always played it. Hearing that I may end up getting double penalties for a failed roll - one for the outcome of the roll and a second one for playing out the failed roll accurately - is a bit of a problem.

Should I instead be role-playing the roll as though it was a success? Even though we all know that it wasn't.

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Third:

How much of a pompous know-it-all do you want me to be here on this discussion thread? Because I absolutely can be if that is what you want.

But I don't really find that to be fun. And I really don't want to get into a competitive rules-reading battle of wits with the GM. That doesn't sound like fun at all.

For anyone still confused by the mechanics of this particular skill challenge: we have 1 round of 1 action each to gain points. We can also opt to instead of trying for gaining points to spend our 1 action on learning more about the characters using Perception.

Initially only Diplomacy checks would gain points. We currently have the option of Crafting and Arcana as well.

With the rolls that we have made and the DC that is posted, we currently have 1 of the 3 points needed with one character to go.

That character being Iomar "Greyjay" Youbol, who hasn't posted in the campaign proper since it started.

Also according to the Bot Tree rules that Edgelord has listed, if we want him to take any actions, then we need to do it for him. Preferably Chomski Bramblebuckle or Lazverinus because of the alphabetical location of the names. I'm not sure if one of the other two of us can post for him instead.

"No, I don't think I have heard of you."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

"But we are just city guards. Perhaps you could introduce yourselves better some time when we are not on the clock."

OK. Not quite sure how this next skill challenge is running.

Since there is a Discovery entry, I am thinking it is using Influence subsystem.

But there is only one round. What would be the purpose of doing a Discovery check since those don't gain victory points? We wouldn't have time to then make an Influence check.

Unless we are doing a Discovery and an Influence check both during the one round?

Skebs hesitates, then hands back Raian's purse, advising him "Bes' kep a bitter eye unit nex time!"

Raian snatches back his coins while raising an eyebrow. "Bes' kep your sticky hands to yourself." He replies - trying to mimic the drunken slurring for at least the start of the sentence. He quickly counts the money returned as well as checking for the existence of everything else he came in here with.

That is strange.

I can't see the code that you actually have there. Can you copy it into the chat here - replacing the '[' characters with '{' so that it doesn't try to render.

For example, this is mine currently:

{spoiler=Stats}AC 19, Shield 21 | Fort +7, Ref +9, Will ?4 | Perception +6 (low light)| Speed 25, swim 10 {/spoiler}

As Raian approaches his dwarven ally, Antaro Boldblade takes notice and suddenly seems to be... pouring him a drink from a pitcher in anticipation of his arrival!?

Raian notices that he has the attention of the pitcher wielding man. "Well, I guess I had better get talking." "Care to explain why you guys are busting up the place?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

"This is the place to get drunk after all, but you have to do it without breaking things and making a mess. It isn't good for business."

Yup. Works for me. Thanks.

Edgelord, what info do you want in our displayed headers, and do you have a preferred format for it?

"Lazverinus" he says when, later, when the rest begin their introductions. "Laz is ok."

"Yeah, that is quite the name you've got there. Good to meet you Laz. I'm Raian."

At the Tipsy Tengu.

Raian steps into the Tipsy Tengu. The commotion immediately obvious. "Wonderful." :sigh: "
OK, let's get this under control."

He notices Lazverinus standing at the door, his large frame nicely preventing people from leaving easily. So Raian instead takes up a more central position in the room, ready to protect the other officers if the need arises. And trying his best to portray a friendly, but formidable presence.

He scans the room and determines that the Dwarf seems to be the most physically violent threat and starts edging towards him.

"My name is Chomski, in case we haven't already met in training. Chomski Bramblebuckle."

Raian shakes hands solidly and with a smile.

"I have heard the name before, but I never really followed politics all that much. Good to meet you in person. And yes, let's go do some good."

Welcome. And no worries. If you need or want help on something, just ask here.

Raian stands at attention reasonably comfortably as Lieutenant Lavarsus begins his announcements. Raian is a fairly average looking Human man in his early 20s. Though people who know what they are looking for can tell that there is a little bit of elemental blood in his ancestry.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Raian only barely manages to keep a straight face as Lieutenant Lavarsus describes him as "practically got gills". He mostly succeeds and hopes that the Lieutenant didn't notice. "Yeah, I have had to swim back from being booted into the harbor before. It's how I ended up in this job assignment actually. But, it is good to be in a job where we are expected to not kill anyone."

As the group leaves the office headed towards the Tipsy Tengu.

"Hello everyone. I guess it is good that we have our first assignment. Though I am not thrilled about knocking some heads together in a bar. I guess someone has to do it. Well, talking some sense into them would be better than knocking some sense into them."

Greetings. Glad to be invited to the game.

Some up front ruling questions on rules minutia things that I have seen be ambiguous and that affect me.

Shields are held items, yes? You drop them if you go unconscious and you can deliberately release them as a free action.

Spellcasting from items via spellcasting archetype. Are we going with the CRB where I need the level 4 'basic spellcasting' feat (I lean towards this ruling), or are we going with the APG where the dedication feat alone is sufficient to cast from scrolls?

I'm good with any way that the ruling falls, I just want to know what to run with rather than do it wrong the first time.

Raian walks through the lobby and into the waiting room. He glances around at the others there. "Hmm... There are quite a few really good candidates here. Looks like some pretty stiff competition."

"Well, today is the big day. Good luck everyone."

He takes a seat against the wall where he can watch what is going on.

I improved the backstory and filled out more details of the build. Things like picking the dedication cantrips, making links for everything, and determining basic level 1 gear.

I'm not sure how to handle gear starting at level 2. There is a table for that, but it is just guidelines and often gets changed by the GM.

Badge Number: 1d1000 ⇒ 968

Agent #968 reporting.

I know my way around a battlefield. I even have a minor amount of magic to help with.

Human(Undine) Fighter. Harbor Guard Moonlighter background. Sorcerer(elemental) archetype.

Personality: I am going for a young man just getting into the world. He has a bit of an idealist mentality, but he is having to come to terms with the way that the world actually works. Being demoted transferred out of the Harbor Guard stings more than he likes to admit, but at the same time he realizes that he wasn't really fitting in well there. He is looking forward with optimism to prove himself in the new assignment.

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As for me as a player. I have no problems checking in regularly. Usually about once per hour or so since I can fit it into lag time at work. I don't try and steal the show though. I know that not everyone can participate that frequently.

In my mind, rule #1 is that fun trumps any printed rules. And rule #2 is that GM rulings also trump any printed rules.