expectorus's page

* Pathfinder Society GM. 19 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters.


RSS


Isaac Zephyr wrote:

The dual identity allows each to be scried separately. I have a Vigilante "Rovagurl". If you're looking for her social identity while she's in vigilante mode, you get nothing. Looking for Rovagurl while she is Rovagurl works fine though. Looking for social while she's social works fine.

Do the players /only/ know his social identity?

Isaac, yes. As he expressed a desire to help the halflings, he was ‘kidnapped’ and taken for training. This was his first mission as a vigilante. He did meet his friends before, but chose not to tell them where he was going. (Side note: he lives with his BFF,-another pc-but upon returning after 6 weeks, said BFF didn’t even bother to ask what he had been doing

Dave, I would concur, but he just turned lvl 2, so I almost want to give some opportunity for rescue.


Sounds good-I’ll try that tomorrow!


A PC wanted to play vigilante, but a botched rescue mission left him unconscious. He chose to go just with his mentor and not let any of the party know. I've told him he's tied up in a location, and I have an out if the PCs look for his mentor. Failing that, I don't have any ideas how of he could located in vigilante form. Any thoughts?


I've got a (growing!) group currently playing in Council of Thieves. Many of them are new to Pathfinder and to tabletop RP. To make it easier I've been more descriptive than rules heavy, but what's happening now is many of them are overlooking the fact they can do Sense Motive, Knowledge, and other checks, which is vital for the AP. A senior player in the group suggested taking time at the start of the session to highlight and explain one or two skills. I was also thinking of having some sort of NPC in Westcrown that could teach them (think in-game tutorial). Any ideas or votes on these? I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Kifaru wrote:

I have a cleric of a lawful good god in one of my games. The short version is that he did a number of things the god would probably not approve of. He was given a few warnings and then stripped of his power.

Every session that he acts in a way that his god would approve of he gets back a D4 caster levels.

Thanks-that gives me another look. We play again on Tuesday, so I think if he meditates he'll get a vision where he gets to choose. As he's L3 and to make it easier, I'll say he gets his orisons and channel back. Good acts will restore his caster levels. However, bad acts will 'poison' his channels and pull him closer to Asmodeus.


Mysterious,
The were rescuing a friend, but I read the act more as CE rather than LE. I did warn the character after chopping off the victim's nose there would be repercussions before the executions.

Side note: This isn't the first beheading of the group-it's how they ended up in Westcrown.

Wheldrake, I think you're right and I'll 'return' the powers next session. But I do think I'll keep the temptation gambit in play. I'm interested in teasing out the 'destroy everything' and where it leads. However, I think I'll keep the powers out for longer if he continues on this path.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm GMing Council of Thieves, and some of the characters were brought it from a 5e module. There, a dwarf cleric of a custom deity (LN) cut the nose off, then beheaded a man that was tied up because he wouldn't give answers. Consequently, I've had his powers removed, and in his meditation, Asmodeus has said he would be better to worship him rather than 'Bob' as they both desire to destroy everything that gets in their way.

In this order only male dwarves, everyone is known as Bob. Gametime wise, they've spent 6 months in Westcrown, and the dwarf has met Arael, who's offered to help him restore his connection with Bob. He's also met another Bob-this one left the order and now serves Milani. This Bob has helped our Bob learn to resist the calling of Asmodeus (Demon Hunter Trait) and has suggested to him that there are other ways of fighting evil other than destruction.

Bob doesn't trust anyone that isn't a male dwarf, and thinks that because of the evil in Westcrown, the city should be destroyed. I've used this as a way for Asmodeus to continue tempting Bob, but in classic dwarven pride, Bob thinks he's repented enough.

I'm looking for ways to go beyond just removing his powers and make it clear that it's not just repenting, but this pride, this stubbornness will be his downfall. Should I have him start to channel negative energy? I'm thinking of a story that would lead him down to serving Asmodeus directly if he's not careful. Have you encountered this in your game(s)?


Thanks @Shorticus-I'll work on that. I don't know how familiar you are with D&D beginner box, but they've just cleared the Redbrand hideout and slayed Glasstaf. I've an instinct to make the Black Spider someone exiled from Chelix and is creating the portal back. This should take them up through wave echo cave and level 4-5. Any suggestions otherwise?


Thanks! I'm toying with the idea of them being gathered by Janiven, then quickly brought up to speed and hearing about adventures 'that didn't do as well'. I may introduce some downtime to allow them to adjust to their new environs (and pick up new traits as well)


As I mentioned previously, I wanted to bring my characters into Pathfinder from D&D. They're currently playing through the beginner box (Lost Mines), and I think I've a way to teleport the characters into Chelix. However, they'll be level 3/4 when they arrive, which would be pretty much past book one. Should I move them into book 2 automatically with a brief summary, or would it be better to start from the beginning, and make adjustments in difficulty?


Thanks guys!
Richard-completely understand the electronics at the table bit. Right now I've got Sirynscape on my ipad, and already it's a bit fiddly (great for atmosphere though)
TimD and and Meraki, love the post-its and 3x5 (I've tons of those)

Eltacolibre, like the good docs idea too, and making it offline is great.

Currently the party takes turns hosting, so what's important is that I can stay as agile as possible. Currently I look like and adventurer with my books, chest of die and stands and maps!


Hi everyone,
I know there's no right/wrong way to take notes and prep for a session, but as a new GM, I'm curious to what's everyone's workflow? Currently taking my group through 5e to then jump into a Pathfinder campaign. At the moment I'm reading up, planning encounters with HP, noting and interactions that could happen. For enemies, I'm taking snapshots on my phone to reduce dragging the monster manual around. Any thoughts/ suggestions welcomed!


Great-thanks so much!


Redelia wrote:
Crypt of the Everflame was the first module released after the Pathfinder rules, and it has lots of good explanations. The module is fight heavy, but the sequel is very intrigue base.

Thanks! I tried to find the sequel-might you have the name?


I'm currently running a group, some of them brand new to tabletop RPGs, and they love it, which is great. It's also my first time as DM, though I have been playing in 2 Pathfinder campaigns previously. What I'm realising is that DnD 5e lacks a lot of the flavour I've come to expect and I'm looking to move everyone once we've finished the starter story.

As I'm still new to DM-ing, I'd like to find a campaign I could move onto (after the beginner box) that would still help be get a hold on all the rules (I'm still lugging around the Players Guide and Monster Manual). In addition, the group isn't heavy on fighting-they quite like plot intrigue and talking their way through situations. I'm fine with that, but having played RoTRL and RoW, I'm not sure if there's as much resolution with words (could be just the DMs). Any suggestions that would satisfy these conditions? Thanks!


expectorus wrote:
I don't know if anyone else has the same problem, but I can't seem to proceed. I've finished 'Brigadoom' on Legendary, but when I try to sort out the deck, I can get the Deck numbers to agree for the characters, but the some of the bottom numbers are still in red and I can't proceed. Any thoughts?

Update-had a look at the story screen and it seems my characters have been duplicated. I don't see a way to edit them without restarting. Shame :/


I don't know if anyone else has the same problem, but I can't seem to proceed. I've finished 'Brigadoom' on Legendary, but when I try to sort out the deck, I can get the Deck numbers to agree for the characters, but the some of the bottom numbers are still in red and I can't proceed. Any thoughts?


Hi everyone,
Thanks for the replies everyone-it seems the take home is the get everyone to chip in and see if I can get another box going so I don't have to swap cards around as much.

@Frenciois, I like that idea. I'll see how that works.
@skizzerz and @Longshot11 I've been adding the cards from the previous scenarios-I thought maybe that was contributing the the card amount.


I got the S&S set for Christmas, and have enjoyed playing it. I also run a games night at work sometimes, and have got others, 'on board'-so much so they bough either the same game or Wrath of the Righteous.

I notice two 'issues' when trying to get the game start, and mainly it's around the card setup. Even with the base and character set, it's taking at least half hour to set up all the locations, which can be daunting when showing people for first time. I notice this scales considerably as I'm up the third scenario(Tempest Rising). I currently separate the scenario decks, but any thoughts or suggestions on how to speed up setup/teardown would be great. Playing it is great, but spending almost 90 min to setup and play a 90min game can be intimidating.

Also, as a random aside, should playing scenario 3 also include the cards from the previous scenarios as well?