Tinkergoth's page

Sorry guys, ended up dealing with family stuff on Saturday and then having to go to IKEA. Then spent literally my whole Sunday putting together IKEA furniture. Going through the gameplay thread now to see where we're at so I can post.

Hey guys. I've been away for longer that expected. Just came off two weeks of on call with multiple 13+ hour days. Currently feel like a zombie, I've set a reminder to check in and catch up on things tomorrow morning once I am functioning properly again.

Sorry guys, I've been really slack on checking in on this. I'll make sure to get on and catch up, and make any necessary posts for Xargin tonight.

Tinkergoth wrote:

Having been stuck (literally stuck) in China for about six weeks a few years back... trying to remember what my access was like...

Paizo access was fine. Social media and blog sites are blocked. Personal vpn sites are blocked. Email works fine, though for the most part I ran everything through my work VPN just to be safe

I meant to follow up on this one, how did it come about that you were stuck in China for 6 weeks?

Work trip. Gear I needed to do my job (hardware replacements) kept getting held up in customs, so I spent a lot of time sitting around hotels, or wandering around looking for places where the staff spoke english so I could get a meal away from the hotel restaurants. Got shunted off to a couple of offices that weren't on my schedule because their gear had arrived while mine hadn't, so I took care of those while I waited. By the time I was done it had been just shy of 4 weeks... and two days before I was due to leave the air pollution from the cities took it's toll on me and I ended up with a severe upper respiratory tract infection that kept me quarantined to my hotel room in Guangzhou on large doses of painkillers and antibiotics for around another 2 weeks. Was a nice room at least, and they had plenty of movie channels and stuff available. When I finally got home it took months to actually shake the illness, infection kept moving back and forth between respiratory tract and lower in the chest.

Having been stuck (literally stuck) in China for about six weeks a few years back... trying to remember what my access was like...

Paizo access was fine. Social media and blog sites are blocked. Personal vpn sites are blocked. Email works fine, though for the most part I ran everything through my work VPN just to be safe

Sorry for the delayed responses guys, things are still a bit messed up around here.

Is Jasminder one of the characters we're losing due to player not being available? Do we let her die here or keep going with her for a hopefully insanely cool blaze of glory moment?

Most of its just general crap happening all at once. The expensive thing was my bike deciding to start having mechanical and electrical faults. The fixes turned out relatively cheap for now, the $10,000 thing was what it looked like I'd need to borrow to get new wheels when it looked like it was almost certainly a writeoff. Still going to have to do it at some point in the next year, but hopefully I'll be in a better position to do that at the time.

Hey guys. Sorry I've been offline so much, been an... interesting... couple of weeks. Kind of an "everything that can go wrong will" sort of interesting. Like, potentially needing to put myself $10,000 further in debt levels of interesting.

Still. Only way is onwards and upwards, so on with the game!

Hi customer service team,

Could you please cancel my Adventure Path subscription?

Thanks in advance

Xargin draws his bow, turning to look where Yumiko is pointing.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Disappointing haul this year for RPG books. The variety is getting narrower every year. Managed to pick up a couple of books for The Esoterrorists and one for CthulhuTech, and the second hand store had a couple of Conspiracy X books and Elminster's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, but that was it. Everything else was just the usual D&D, Pathfinder and other mainstays.

Coup. They're never too young to learn to bluff and scheme in order to claw their way to the top of a pile of the bloody corpses of their enemies. For added fun, throw the Reformation expansion in, and teach them the joys of using their authority to interfere with their opponents (via use of the Inquisitor character) and demonstrate the essential truth of alliances, that all are temporary and will eventually fail or fall to infighting.

In all seriousness though, it's a great game. Might be a bit tricky for the 5 year old, but I've played with a mix of adults and kids as young as 8, and they've all loved it. It's fast, easy to learn, and teaches you to read people as well as helping develop your own poker face. We've played with up to 10 players, which is when the allegiance system in the expansion gets really fun. You can usually get through a round in 15 minutes at most, depending on how many people are playing and how aggressively people call bluffs.

Other good ones... I like Entropy, it's a pretty simple one, based around trying rebuild a shattered dimension. Each player shares 4 abilities and has one unique one. The trick that each ability has a priority, and if any other player plays an ability that shares your priority, they cancel each other out, so you need to try and guess what they're going to play (and as each round goes on, also figure out what people have already played so you can avoid clashing).

Honestly, I never really play anything there. I'm not big on competitive wargaming, mostly because the only one I'm good enough at to actually stand a chance at is Relic Knights, and as far as I can tell there's not enough interest in the game here in Australia to get actual tournaments going (I've struggled to get more than 4 other people interested enough in it to buy in, though at least that means I do have people to play against), I gave up competitive Magic: The Gathering years ago, and I'm not big into convention RPG games.

Mostly I go out to raid the cheap RPG books (I pick up a lot of the World of Darkness stuff that isn't available as print on demand yet there) and buy some cheap card and board games.

Alright, I'm back in it. Catchup post made. I didn't notice, but did anyone take Walthus' cloak?

In non-game news, it's CanCon this weekend. Is anyone coming to Canberra for it and wanting to meet up out there to check out the vendors and maybe play some games? I'm thinking I might roll out on the Saturday morning, there's usually some good deals on out of print RPG books. Otherwise, if you're not around for it, is there anything you want me to keep an eye out for to see if it's cheap enough to justify buying it and posting it to you?

I'm off to bed for now, body is still in recovery mode so I'm sleeping about 12 hours a night at the moment. Thankfully it's a public holiday tomorrow.

Hey guys. I'm feeling significantly better now, just still kind of exhausted. Back at work but pretty much been coming home and going straight to sleep. I'll make sure I get on and catch up/post after work tomorrow.

Sorry guys, I've been pretty distracted between getting back to work, having my bike break down, house hunting and being sick. Honestly I just straight up forgot to check in. I'll try to catch up on what's happened in the next couple of days

Aye, merry Christmas to all

My net access over the next week will be a bit hit and miss. I'll try to check when I can

I'll be unavailable for tomorrow. Mothman of it gets to my turn Xargin will prepare an attack for if Walthus tries to get past, or if necessary he'll assist with healing since he has one more 1st level spell for the day.

Xargin sighs in relief as Marc regains consciousness, then retreats back to block the door, drawing his rapier on the way.

Sorry guys. I'm back to house hunting and it's leaving me kind of drained. I'll try to keep a closer eye on what's going on

Hey guys. Between work and a few personal things going on at the moment my posting may get a bit spotty for the next week or two. I'll try to check in once a day but can't guarantee anything.

Mothman if I'm not responding fast enough feel free to text me or just make a decision for what you think Xargin would do. Texts I should be able to respond to pretty quickly between meetings/tasks.

I won't be able to check back in until Saturday.

If you need to make some moves for Xargin for combat purposes, he'll stick to the bow unless the leech gets too close, in which case he'll pull out his rapier.

I'm in Canberra over the next couple of days for work, so posting may be a little slow from me. I'll just put down a couple of rounds worth of rolls to keep us going.

Give me a yell if you want to catch up. I'll pm you my number.

Won't be available the rest of the night. My brother's playing a gig, so I'm having dinner at the pub to catch that, then going to the 20th Anniversary screening of Children of the Revolution, after which there's a Q&A with Richard Roxburgh, who I plan on asking to sign my copy of Van Helsing, because a) I'm a bastard and b) the movie was objectively pretty trashy, but he was glorious as Dracula. The largest ham in a veritable sea of large hams.

Hey guys. My posting may be erratic from tomorrow to Sunday. It's Canberra Intensional Film Festival time, and between that and work I'll be pretty busy.

If anyone's interested, the podcast I did yesterday has been posted as well: Professor Jimbles Dice Bag - Party Cohesion discussion

It got a bit rambly at times, and we had a guy who hadn't been on before that talked over the top of people a few times, so I'm not sure if it'll be particularly clear at some points.

Also, the previous episode I was on (I'm only on it rarely), wherein we discuss characters we've always wanted to play and never got to. Includes discussion of the character I created for a Vampire: The Requiem game that creeped the GM out so badly the game was cancelled (it was actually due to a combination of my character and another one, who is also discussed on the show).

Professor Jimbles Dice Bag - White Whale Characters

Personally I think the character episode was a better one, just because we all had more time to prepare.

Fair warning, there's a fair bit of swearing in most epsodes.

"Xargin, if you do not mind," Haelynn says, "Please stay by my sister, she does not benefit from armour as we do."

"As you wish"

Xargin moves slightly closer to Yumiko, hand on his rapier.

I'm going to be offline for most of the day, visiting some family and helping a friend with an episode of his podcast. This episode is apparently about party cohesion and its importance for certain types of games. I suggested heartbreaker RPGs since they're a surprisingly interesting topic, but that'll have to wait.

On another topic, I've whittled Xargin's gear down to almost light burden levels... anyone with high strength and a bit of spare carry limit want to carry his waterskin and mess kit? :P

First magic item on the list to obtain later... muleback cords...

Aight I'm going to dump a few of the heavier items. Will take another look tomorrow, I have to be at work work early again.

Doctor Strange is great. Really funny, awesome effects, solid story and acting.

I'll check back in later tonight, I've just made a quick response post at the moment, but Xargin doesn't have a whole lot to say right now.

For now, I'm off to see Doctor Strange. You may commence being jealous.

I'm equipped and ready, but I'd forgotten how restrictive gear weight limits are in this game. I only have half of the standard gear for a bard, leather armour, a bow and a rapier, but I'm 25lbs into a medium load already, so I get hit with -3 armour check penalties.

Anyone else had issues with weight limits?

Sorry guys, I got held up at work and had to go straight to the movies. Not sure if I'll be able to get on tonight afterwards, I have some stuff that has to be done tonight. For now just assume that I'm following along, and that I've detoured to buy the gear I need before we leave town. I'll fix it all up soon as I have time at home.

Tinkergoth wrote:

I'll be at work from 7 AM tomorrow, should be home early afternoon and will check in, then I'm at the movies. Thursday I probably can't check in until after my radio show, should be home by 8 PM.

What radio show do you host Tinkergoth?

Reel Time. It's a movie show on 2XX, a Canberra community station.

Thanks Diego, much appreciated :)

There is only one page of rules content in the entire book.

Even better. I couldn't remember how much was there, I haven't read it in years.

Good call. I completely forgot that book. Any rules content in it (NPCs etc) will be 3.5 instead of Pathfinder, but that shouldn't matter much at all, it's the general info about the city that you want.

I'll have to take a proper look at Xargin's gear tomorrow. Most likely what I'll be buying is just the Bard's kit minus a few things I don't need (torches etc).

I'll be at work from 7 AM tomorrow, should be home early afternoon and will check in, then I'm at the movies. Thursday I probably can't check in until after my radio show, should be home by 8 PM.

Hey customer service peeps!

Been a long time since I've really had a subscription running, so I'm not sure if there's been any changes.

I've just noticed that the next RPG line book is the Villain Codex, which I don't really have much need for (I rarely run games anymore, I only really resubscribed for Strange Aeons and Horror Adventures, and maybe a new Bestiary). Is there a way to skip a single product on a subscription now, or do I still need to cancel the sub and restart later if I want the product after it?

If it's necessary for me to cancel to not get the villain codex, please cancel my PFRPG subscription.

Thanks in advance.

The player's guide is just a free document to help players make characters suitable for the AP (it provides campaign traits etc). There's no GM's guide because all that stuff (gazetteers for important locations, stats on important NPCs and items etc) are in the AP itself.

To run it, all a GM should need is the AP itself, and the core rulebook (unless they've updated the AP to use rules that were introduced after that, but even then they'll either be listed in the AP itself or available from the Pathfinder Reference Document, found on the left hand navigation bar of this website). Bestiaries would be a nice to have, but if it's a Paizo creature that is in one of the Bestiaries, you'll be able to find it in the PRD as well, and if it's not there, the full stats will be in the AP.

Response posted. Next wedding starts in two hours, time for me to get ready and head off. I'll check back in late tonight or early tomorrow.

Just got home from first wedding of the weekend. I'll catch up on the gameplay thread and make any necessary responses over brunch (no way I'm up in time for breakfast). Now is sleep time.

Man I keep forgetting to post as my character and have to change it afterwards. If anyone's wondering, that's why my primary account is listed as a character as well. Sorry about that.

I just noticed how irritating my drawback makes my statblock output from HeroLab. The burned drawback adds the text (+X when standing next to fire) to every single stat affected by it, including all skills.

Okay, I've tweaked and locked Xargin in. Only changes were that I added a trait (resilient, from time spent travelling on his own and fending for himself) and a drawback (Burned), and I've dropped two points of Wisdom and taken an extra point in Dexterity (fits with his background of being somewhat unstable).

I'm going to wolf down some dinner while I craft a response to the intro stuff, then I'll get that posted and get onto my backstory.

I'll finish off my tweaks when I get home tonight, do a quick backstory writeup and will be good to go.

Saturday I'll be unable to post for most of the day, since I'll be traveling to, attending, then returning from the wedding. Sunday's wedding is relatively close to my place and not until early afternoon so I'll check in on the thread in the morning.

Tinkergoth wrote:

Hey, I didn't say he won't reciprocate. Just said he's likely to strike up a friendship from the start. Play your cards right and you could be the queen of Minkai :P we could rule this world, aasimar and tiefling side by side!

I don't exactly know what foolin' around with a curse-witch is like, but I assume they would get on like a house on fire (ie. people ending up in hospital, uncontrolled fires and a fair amount of toxic smoke.)

Sounds like a pretty standard date for me.

Tinkergoth wrote:

Quick post before I go to dinner. Given Xargin's background (which I'll try to finish and post if I'm sober enough when I get home tonight, but it's free booze, so...), he's likely to strike up a friendship with the more awkward and strange people around him, since he knows how hard it can be to be that person. So he's likely to actually be friendly towards Yumiko.

Just great, Us's been put into the "fiend zone*".

** spoiler omitted **

Hey, I didn't say he won't reciprocate. Just said he's likely to strike up a friendship from the start. Play your cards right and you could be the queen of Minkai :P we could rule this world, aasimar and tiefling side by side!

Chubbs McGee wrote:

As for background, my original idea for Haelynn was her father accompanied the "heir" to Varisia and fell in love with a local woman. He died in battle, and she died in childbirth. Considering the nature of their children, the birth was probably very abnormal and might still be the talk of local legend.

The sisters have grown up under the partial guardianship of Koya (Friend of the Family trait) and by their own skills and talents. I was thinking Haelynn and Yumiko have looked out for each other and supported each other to survive, and probably have a reputation for being quite mischievous in their youth.

Since they were born in Sandpoint, the two have only ever known the town and are long-term locals. Haelynn probably has a strong connection to Ameiko and Xargin as she worships Shelyn and enjoys performing (especially dancing and singing). If Marc is the dashing knight in town, she might also spend time trying to see him sparring or riding about town.

I am seeing a scene where, moments after the sisters are born, the two of them are laid head-to-toe swaddled in blankets while the town's midwife and clerics desperately attempt to save their mother. As the camera pans up and over them, we see the two babies forming a yin-yang symbol with their sleeping infant forms.

I can see Yumiko having a hate/lust/envy thing going on with most of the high Charisma male characters (I like him, he's handsome, but unobtainable because I'm this cursed thing. What a jerk. I'll be mean to him so that he pays attention to me. *Turns to jelly if shown any interest*).

Quick post before I go to dinner. Given Xargin's background (which I'll try to finish and post if I'm sober enough when I get home tonight, but it's free booze, so...), he's likely to strike up a friendship with the more awkward and strange people around him, since he knows how hard it can be to be that person. So he's likely to actually be friendly towards Yumiko.