RoW GM's page

Thanks! Solution 2 is definitely more along our price range, I think. Knowing to search for 'echo cancellation' is the biggest help.

Mumble sounds great, but they only have one PC to split three ways, and no smart phones, so the shared mic should pair well with Roll20. Thanks gain!

Question: Our group is Gm + 4 players, three players are all in the same family. They only have one computer to play using Roll20, so all three are at the same table. What's the best audio solution for them? I've had two ideas, shared below, but am trying to see if there are others.

Cheapest = One webcam, video optional, just needs a decent microphone, but might have a lot of background noise.

Complicated Option = Get a pair of micro mixing boards, one with audio in, one with audio out, then get each a headset with split audio jacks. that way! they each have a headset, for ease of hearing, but am I making this too complicated for them? This would be a pretty extensive investment for gaming.

Have others had similar circumstances?

Thanks!

My apologies, all. A series of events this weekend made it abundantly clear that running an additional game at this point will not be a viable option for me. I thank you for your time and interest, and hope that you will continue gaming.

Any interested GMs, you've got a lot of great ideas up here. Feel free to pick up.

I'm sorry.

Sorry for my delay, all. Ended up having a lot going on yesterday. I'll finish looking at submissions over noon today, and get back to you with more thoughts either by late afternoon or tomorrow morning.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far, and look forward to working with you.

Thanks, all. Looking good. 23.5 hours to go.

@RoW GM: I'm going to roll out a Kobold sometime this evening. His questions will be answered early this afternoon.

Would you consider allowing a minor rewrite if "Kobolds of Golarion" has a more balanced statblock for Kobolds? It's due out in two months and I figure it's worth asking.

I've got a pretty decent image of this guy at this point. Hopefully he pans out.

ETA: Are you alright with us answering the questions IC if our character speaks poor/ broken "English?" Should I include OOC clarifications?

I'll be surprised if there is a change, but willing to consider. Let's see what it brings, but for now use the ARG rules.

I would prefer plain English responses to the questions. They aren't so much being asked of the PC as they are being asked about the PC. Let's keep IC for the actual game. Again: sanity protection.

Alphonse Gregori, marking for interest. either an Alchemist/Fighter or an Alchemist/Magus, I'll work out more details later. Did I miss something about starting level because it doesn't appear to be listed. Regardless, I'll put together a character sheet at first level since my current version is 8th level. He's a Half-elf alchemist using the Racial archetype, more information to come later including backstory.

Yes, Level 1.

Dotting for interest.

Later today, I'll post a winter witch. Can I use the alternate heritages for dhampirs from Blood of Night?

Not having that sourcebook, can you point to the information on an online resource?

Greetings and salutations. I'm marking my interest here.

Given the direction this AP takes, I'd really like to try something inhuman looking. My eye fell to the Kobold, but man are they gimped in the extreme. Should I move on to Ratfolk or Tengu, or would it be possible to negotiate something in regards to the Kobold?

I was thinking of playing up the Dragon Aspect line a whole bunch.

I would prefer to keep things as printed, again for my sanity.

Roondar would like to volunteer, so I'm dotting for interest.

When I get home i'll post so it works out according to your parameters, but the background sounds about right

Is it okay to submit more than one character?
Looking for one group to play it, doesn't really matter what character. Maybe something that will fit the group's needs.

I would prefer that you only submit one PC, if only for my sanity.

Dotting for extreme interest. I have a human ranger in the works for a Reign of Winter game already; just have to get him finished up. What would your expectations for posting frequency be? How would you describe your particular style as a GM?

Finally, I assume the alternate abilities for the social skills are in place of the standard?

Posting: 1 post / 36 hours.

My style: Terse (usually).

Actually, they are in addition to the standard, and I'll be modifying the DCs of each check to compensate.

Welcome to the Reign of Winter Adventure Path!

I'll look at taking 4 PCs for this adventure path, and selecting 4 backup PCs to be ready to go in the event of disappearance or death.

1) Ability Scores: 20 point buy

2) Race: Core and Featured Races (and alternate racial options) from the Advanced Race Guide are permitted.

3) Class: Paizo-Published PRG Classes and Archetypes permitted. Please indicate if you are gearing your character to Arcane, Divine, Martial, or Skill.

4) Skills: The following social traits will also be affected by the ability listed below -
- Bluff: Intelligence
- Diplomacy: Wisdom
- Disguise: Intelligence
- Handle Animal: Wisdom
- Intimidate: Strength

5) Feats: Paizo-published feats permitted.

6) Traits: 2 traits total from Paizo-published sources. Campaign trait encouraged, but not required.

7) Equipment: Average per level. May include PC-crafted equipment if this could be completed by Taking 10 on the roll to craft the item (say if your wizard wants to put together his own scrolls, or a witch her own potions).

8) Hit points:
- Level 1 = Max per Hit Dice
- Even Levels = PM to me Hit Dice Roll + 1 HP
- Odd Levels = PM to me Hit Dice Roll

9) Finishing Details (50 words or less each):
> As one of 171 people in Heldren (in Taldor), what is my role in town? Am I settled there, or just passing through? How do I make a living? (Good examples include Craft skills, occupations listed under Profession, or as an unskilled laborer.) Is this a family business or trade, or am I doing something new? How long have I been doing this in Heldren?

> How are the Traits that I have a part of my story? What training or experiences have I undergone to get the Skills, Feats and Class Features that make me good at what I do?

> Did I I inherit my equipment / receive it as a gift? Did I save up to purchase it? Did I steal it / steal to get it? Did I kill for it?

> How strongly do I live out my alignment? Am I a constant beacon of good/evil/law/chaos? Or am I more surreptitious about my moral choices? What are my religious commitments, and how do these shape me?

Questions? Post below or PM me. I'll do what I can to respond.

Recruitment will close at 5:00 PM EST on 3/1/2013. I'll select characters that night. Good luck!

A few delays over the weekend have delayed me from posting. I'll be completing the recruitment post to go live this evening, I hope.

AP is looking fun so far. I'll come up with recruitment thoughts here in a bit and post to the Recruitment area.

I'll be picking up the first chapter of the AP in PDF form tomorrow. I'll take a few days to prepare before calling for submissions, but will likely start recruitment this weekend for beginning the following weekend.

Glad to know that there is so much interest! Looks like we'll have a good pool to draw from. When thinking about your character submissions, think of a response (50 words or less) to each of these questions:

1) As one of 171 people in Heldren, what is my role in town? Am I settled there, or just passing through? How do I make a living? (Good examples include Craft skills, occupations listed under Profession, or as an unskilled laborer.) Is this a family business or trade, or am I doing something new? How long have I been doing this in Heldren?

2) How are the Traits that I have a part of my story? What training or experiences have I undergone to get the Skills, Feats and Class Features that make me good at what I do?

3) Did I I inherit my equipment / receive it as a gift? Did I save up to purchase it? Did I steal it / steal to get it? Did I kill for it?

4) How strongly do I live out my alignment? Am I a constant beacon of good/evil/law/chaos? Or am I more surreptitious about my morality? What are my religious commitments, and how do these shape me?

So, 200 words or less, really, to completely answer the above. You can post them here for shared thought or comment if you want, but they wont be considered final until they are posted to an official Recruitment Thread.

Assume that starting equipment is avg. gold per class for now. Two starting traits, campaign trait not required. Don't worry about ability scores yet. We'll get there.

I just maximize my monsters HP and have a tendency to play mean with things that are a persistent resource drain, like Poison, Fatigue and other status effects.

A few failed poison saves will turn a 25 point character into a 15 point character pretty quick.

oh, and Vile damage. Love me some Vile damage "You were stabbed with a Mhor'gul blade..."

Evil GM laugh

Max HP does seem to be another good choice, and fair if all the PCs HP are maxed instead of rolled.

Vile damage sounds like all the curses we got saddled with during our LoF home game over the past couple years. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks ROW DM I appreciate the prompt and informative response. I am personally a verbose fan so I'll probably hold off and apply for a version of the AP that caters for that style. Best of luck with the game once it gets underway!

Glad to be of service in clarifying. Hope you find a good crew!

RoW GM wrote:

I think that's a fun part of the challenge, personally, but I know folks like the 20 point buy quite a bit. You can do more fun stuff with more ability points.

The only significant change I notice is that low point buy favors Single Attribute characters a lot. You see a lot of Barbarians, Wizards and Sorcerers at that value. At 25 points you start seeing more monks, dex-fighters, Inquisitors and odd multiclass combos.

So basically, low value feels more like "classic" d&d.

True enough. Have you seen a good way to up the challenge to be a bit more balanced, since Paizo APs tend to be written for 15? I've tried a few things, and they work ok. One is to provide a new ability point every even level, instead of every four levels. That's in the SS campaign right now. Working ok, but time will tell if it is a good idea or not.

I would be interested, but I expect a few of these games to be going up shortly - I certainly hope so anyway! - and I would hate to be in one that dies prematurely or struggles along. To that end would you mind giving us a little information about your DMing experience and PBP experience, what you plan to do for maps, and what kind of postage rate you expect from yourself and your players? Doing so either here or in the recruitment thread would be much appreciated.

Hope that does not come across as rude, I've just been in too many PBPs that have died early deaths due to DMs leaving, etc., and have high hopes for this AP.

Non-rudeness understood completely.

1) I'm running a Solo PBP of the first portion of Serpent's Skull right now. We had a while off when I was in the midst of a pretty crazy job transition, but are now back to posting 3 or 4 times per week.

2) I'm currently test-running a PBP w/ 6 PCs of Kingmaker. I may begin running this in RL with friends later this year, but that might stall. I try to stick to a 1 post per 36 hours or so. This helps me craft without burning out.

3) I did try running a Skull & Shackles PBP, but when the job crazy-ness referenced in (1) happened, this PBP was a casualty. However, I'm still sane now, so I think it was the right choice at the time.

4) I'm quickly becoming a big fan of Roll20 for maps. If you haven't yet, Google them and check it out. I will generally not have time to play live very often.

5) I tend to not find myself chosen for playing in PBPs, so that's why I tend to want to run them. Probably just don't fit a niche.

6) I'd likely stay to 1 post every 36 hours, and follow up with PMs if folks fall behind.

7) I like to try and pre-write as many descriptive texts as possible, and usually keep them updated across devices w/ Evernote. It works pretty well so far.

8) I also tend to prefer terse posts to verbose ones. If I thought it would work well, I'd play by tweet, but I don't think that'd solve many problems.
The big problem I see is that if a player who falls behind for a day or two comes back to see that she has to read through 2000 words just to figure out who she should respond to, then that gets discouraging pretty quickly.
The game might feel a little rushed for some, or might feel like it is moving too slowly for others.
Generally, a post should encapsulate one round of action. Using a post to write out seven questions for five different PCs and NPCs to respond to can be frustrating.

Hope that helps. Of course, I realize the irony of (8) given that I've just submitted a 500 word response. But then, I think a slightly more descriptive GM is a helpful thing. Just need to keep it reigned in.

Other questions?

*reads guide*

I have troubles believing this is made for 4 PCs made with 15 pb starting at level one (and running on the medium XP track).

dotting for possible interest.

I think that's a fun part of the challenge, personally, but I know folks like the 20 point buy quite a bit. You can do more fun stuff with more ability points.

At this time, hold off on full character pitches. I wouldn't mind getting a bit more information about your ideas, but I'd also like to read the first chapter of the AP before committing to choices.

My reading of the guide is that most characters might have some tangential ties to the far frozen north, as exemplified by the traits in the Player's Guide. However, I also get the feel that things are a bit more focused around how the 4 PCs are the ones that are best suited to respond to the sudden onset of winter in the middle of summer.

Just FYI - when I look for players in a party, I try to go with the standard fighter, mage, cleric, thief (or their rough equivalents) set of PCs to make sure there is a good balance of talent and skill.

No lone wolves. That's for solo play, and generally the lone wolves we have in mind aren't good enough to be lone wolves for the first few levels of play.

Guide just went up today. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Planning to pick up the first chapter of the Reign of Winter AP next week when PDF becomes available. Could potentially start on 3/3/13. I'm guessing folks would be interested, curious to know how many.

Might also be interested in trying to run a solo AP version of this, sort of a solo survivalist. This is still to be determined, but if more than one person is involved I'd be looking for four maximum. I like giving folks the opportunity to play, but 6 can get unwieldy.

Thoughts?