I'm still here. Ventiine has had long absences before, in her Ruins of Azlant game, and picked up again afterwards... I'll admit, it's inconvenient, but what can you do?
My big question about the 2 offers is: does Gm Wulfson want to play it in 2nd edition rules? I'd be a no on that...
I'm still here as well, and will try to reply to the recruitment thread a bit later. No real preference at the moment.
As for your question Erik, I think GM Wolfson is just saying tat he will be using the added content that came with the 2nd edition of the adventure path, not doing a full conversion to the new edition.
That was my understanding as well. Just using the additional content from 2e to enhance the AP.
Si looks like It's GM Pinvendor everyone good with that? Any one want to wait? Any other opinions?
Welp, let's see what GM Pinvendor has in store for us...
I'm happy to see what he has in store for us.
Hello, everyone! Thank you for the opportunity to play some Pathfinder with you.
I glanced through the original recruitment started by Dm Joseph Rauel, and wow, a rather strict bit of requirements. Also, it seems GM Ventiine made some changes after taking over, so I'm assuming we are using the updated CharGen presented in this post. If there were any other updates, please let me know.
At this time, I'm settling in, getting my resources ready, and making some plans on what to do in the game. However, I don't want to keep you waiting too long, so I will probably try to have something in the Gameplay thread soon just to get some activity started for you to respond and roleplay.
Some questions to get things started:
Again, I'm excited to get started, and I look forward to your feedback. Please let me know any suggestions or requests for character development you have whether here or in PMs.
Happy to have you, and thank you for taking this on!
Haven't heard from LizArdoc since we started looking for a new GM, but her player is still active in other games, I'll send a PM. Lucky just vanished last September and seems to have done so with multiple aliases in different games so looks like they're off the boards. I'm good with mob\ving forward and interested in your ideas for recruits.
I'm good with continuing where this one left off, but if the general consensus is to restart I would be okay with that as well.
I'm pretty sure the heirloom weapon thing got dropped with the last takeover.
Good with the existing build on my end.
I'm fine with keeping player knowledge separate from character knowledge, and find scenes like that enjoyable and immersive.
Regarding 3PP: I'm all for anything that makes things fresh and interesting, both for players and GM.
To clarify, I meant creating a new campaign thread over which I have control. My expectation is to keep your place in the story so far.
AS Rhiann said Lucky vanished sometime before the GM went missing.
I've sent PM"s to Alyssa, Eric & Liz. I've heard back from Alyssa & Eric has posted here so he's aware.
Liz is the only one still silent.
I joined in the last takeover and there were no heirloom weapons.
I'm happy with Adela as she is. Currently she is just dipping her toes in the adventuring waters. She may change as life hits her head on. :)
Agreed with keeping player & character knowledge separate. As a GM I often put the npc's back stories in spoilers for the players who like to know these things.
Creating your own campaign thread works well.
Dropping out
@LizArdoc: Thank you for the notice.
@Remaining players: I think I'd like to recommend a small retcon. For one, it seems several of you may have been a bit displeased on how the bandits were going to be treated. Second, your first order of business was obtaining the moon radishes which Ventiine appears to have completely forgotten and immediately placed you back at the bandits' Thorn River Camp to get the broken wagon.
If it's alright with you, I think I'd like to roll us back to your return to the trading post with bandits in tow. We can exit LizArdoc and Lucky Bignoodle as wanting to make sure the captured bandits are treated fairly and will accompany Kresten Garess to Fort Serenko instead of Restov for a type of work camp rehabilitation under their watchful eyes.
We can assume all of the interactions in which you engaged occurred, so no need to rehash any of the questions and requests from Oleg and Svetlana, etc. unless you have additional questions, of course. I'd like to address your request for a hireling which can be made available, and we can also potentially add some new recruits if you would like. From where I sit as a GM, you're only really lacking in a Skilled class as you have the damage, arcane magic, and divine magic covered. Maybe a Bard and/or other trapfinding focused character?
Let me know your thoughts.
I can definitely imagine that we'd need someone who can deal with traps and other skill challenges at some point, but other than that we're pretty balanced between the 4 of us.
If the retcon works best for how you see the story unfolding, that's fine by me. Personally I expect some of the bandits to be unrepentant and need to be punished/executed if need be, but those that can be redeemed should be. I mean it's hard to establish a kingdom if you kill absolutely everyone you meet.
I like the idea of the Fort, since right now I'ms sure O;leg wouldn't want to host a prison, and it gives us an option other than execution.
Ok, four PC's should work.
WRT to skills/sneaking, the build plan for Erik is 1 (possibly 2) levels of slayer, then 4 levels of Unchained rogue, and then more slayer. So, that should help fill the trapfinding hole...
Retcon is fine by me.
WRT to 3PP and technology, if you're the GM, you get to run your game your way...
Cleric, Fighter, Sorcerer & Slayer fill all the roles quite well. If we find ourselves getting overwhelmed then we can recruit another player.
Taking Rogue trap finding at 2nd level for the Slayer talent means Slayer can do all that a Rogue can. Except for as many Sneak attack dice that is.
I've played a Slayer through to the end of the Giantslayer AP and like the class. :)
I appreciate the sweeping latitude, but I do not want players to feel the game is only by my whim. My last GMing experience was punctuated by a miscommunication where a couple players felt I was merely making arbitrary decisions when I was attempting to inject (fantastical) realism to the situation leading to the game breaking down until I ceded the role to another GM.
I truly desire everyone’s buy-in for elements introduced, and I’m aware Numeria represents a part of Pathfinder’s Golarion some would rather ignore. That said, I’ve had an idea for an encounter scenario which I think could be rather fun but would definitely require everyone’s acceptance of Numerian tech.
As long as you communicate clearly when and why you are doing something I can't see any problems with your adding your own touch to the game. Every GM has their own style.
The stolen lands border on Brevoy with its unstable political situation. Numerian with all its weirdness. The River kingdoms with their various little hot spots etc. You have to expect strange guests. :)
I have no problems with Numerian tech. It is part of the world and it shows up in Kingmaker in light amounts anyway.
Thanks for taking on our group!
I agree with everyone else on all the issues so far: I think we're fine as far as party roles are concerned, would prefer to keep going from where we are, and I'm fine with the retcon. I'm also happy with Alyssa's current build, so as far as I'm concerned, we're good to go.
I'm also fine with whatever you want to add to the campaign if you think it makes sense, as long as the main theme stays the same (including 3pp content, Numerian technology, and whatever else you feel like adding to the AP).
And I agree with Adela that as long as you make it clear when and why you're doing something, there shouldn't be any problem.
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@everyone: Thank you for the feedback, and I'm happy to move forward with just the four of you. I've formally requested control of this campaign, and I will have a quick summary of the new position posted soon. I will be sending links to the Roll20 map for exploration (and probably the battlemap) via PM soon. I prefer those remain private and unpublished if you don't mind unless prior permission for a non-party member to lurk is obtained.
As I mentioned in the GM Recruitment, any details or interests you (or your PC) would like to see explored during the campaign, I'm all ears.
Sorry about the delay. Been a busy Monday at work, but I am aiming for this evening at the latest for a new summary of the party's current standing.
And no, I am not likely to ever refer to you as the "charter". Party, group, or expedition will be the most probable collective descriptions you'll see from me.
First post up! In the future, I'll try not to Wall of Text you too often, but I do have a tendency to wax a little poetic from time to time. Let me know if I get too verbose.
I've PM'd the link for the exploration map to each of you. I think I still need to update a few places, but you will see it's a tad more sparse than what the prior GM was giving you.
As Kingmaker is all about exploration and discovery why they already had opened up half of the map with icons and everything when you haven't visited those hexes or ever performed any actual exploration is a mystery to me, so I'm trying to reconcile what I feel should be known visibly v. "it's somewhere in the south" type knowledge.
At the moment, I've left the Roll20 fog of war off which I usually use to hide unexplored areas for Kingmaker, but if you think you can view the map as more player knowledge than character knowledge and remember that until actual exploration has occurred, you don't actually know distances and actual terrain features, I will leave it open. It's much nicer unfogged, in my opinion, because otherwise all you will see is a mostly black screen and two inches of your travel path on the hex map.
Saw the message about maintenance coming. Haven't had a chance to post a response yet in gameplay. Sorry for that. I'll try to have something up once the maintenance is done.
Sorry for the silence. Spent a good part of the day on Friday at the car mechanic and yesterday was “Easter” with the in-laws. I’ll have something up tonight for sure.
Been thinking about this since I saw the in-game date the prior GM used...weather.
Based on the location of Brevoy/Iobaria/River Kingdoms, I would expect the weather to be similar to eastern Europe especially with how the terrain is laid out. Which means if we kept to the current date, it should be cold and probably snowing.
I think I want to adjust the date to the end of spring, beginning of summer.
Canonically, the charter itself is issued on 24 Calistril 4710,
Be it so known that the bearer of this charter has been charged by the Swordlords of Restov, acting upon the greater good and authority vested within them by the office of the Regent of the Dragonscale Throne, has granted the right of exploration and travel within the wilderness region known as the Greenbelt. Exploration should be limited to an area no further than thirty-six miles east and west and sixty miles south of Oleg’s Trading Post. The carrier of this charter should also strive against banditry and other unlawful behavior to be encountered. The punishment for unrepentant banditry remains, as always, execution by sword or rope. So witnessed on this 24th day of Calistril, under watchful eye of the Lordship of Restov and authority granted by Lord Noleski Surtova, current Regent of the Dragonscale Throne.
so I admit a bit of confusion why it's only Fireday, the 18th of Calistril, 4710 currently.
However, given it should be rather cold and snowy (especially in Restov at that time of year), this seems like an ill-advised time to begin an expedition, but rather Calistril would be the perfect time to start the process of one. Basically, start gathering your people then getting the equipment and gear together and then setting off once the snow started melting—all a couple of months down the line. Essentially getting the project resources lined up before actually moving forward.
Obviously, the date is arbitrary, and weather doesn't have to be realistic, but there's a part of me that's always wanted to include weather changes in Kingmaker given it takes place over a serious amount of time. If you guys are interested in implementing "real" weather that could impact supplies, planning, combat, etc., I'd like to move the date forward to a more "forget about the weather" time like end of spring post-melt, beginning of summer before it's hot. Then we can play without worrying about winter and the snow until later in the campaign.
If this feels like too much to worry about, we can just say First World magic keeps the region at a perpetual spring/early summer, and this is one of reasons the region has been so sought after all these centuries.
Weather thoughts?
I like the idea of incorporating weather, but I definitely think it's too early in the campaign for us to be sitting around waiting for the weather to change and completely lose any momentum we're trying to build.
If an arbitrary jump in the time of year keeps things going I'm good with that.
I agree with you both. Weather seems like a nice idea, but not one we should be having to deal with right now, as the campaign focus is on moving out from Oleg to explore, deal with the bandits, get the radishes, etc. Bringing weather into it right now would only work against that and we don't have many options of dealing with it outside just staying at Oleg's until things get better. So moving things up a couple months is perfectly fine with me.
I have not been paying attention to the timeline, so if you want to bump things around so that it makes sense to you, go nuts... If we are including realistic weather in the campaign, your proposed timeline jump to Spring is the easiest solution to us not having gone bandit hunting in snowshoes...
Long, heavy winters. A rush to go adventuring & exploring in the spring & Summer. Doesn't bother me.
People from Brevoy would be used to working around the seasons. So adjusting for the weather is fine.
Thank you all for your feedback. I will get another post up altering the time and prevailing weather conditions, etc.
One thing I will advise is you should expect rain with a fair amount of frequency though it may never be a deluge, but spring rain showers will likely pop up here and there for general descriptive purposes in my posts. Unless we roll random for an actual rainstorm, we're not assuming difficult terrain (muddy conditions) or any other mechanical effect. There's a lot of greenery in The Greenbelt (spoiler alert) which sucks all that water right up, so just expect things to be wet periodically but still easily traversable most of the time I mention rain.
That said, you may decide that investing in some water proof containers, lanterns, ponchos, tarps may be a good idea. And because I can't imagine any reason people in Brevoy in Calistril (February) wouldn't be rocking warm clothes, everyone gets some free equipment:
At this time of year, the days are beautiful, but the nights may still get a little chilly, so tents and blankets are recommended. How fortunate you've been offered some for free from a happy spice merchant!
We should sell off the things we don't need (excess armor/weapons and the like), maybe equip Roderick if he doesn't already have armor or a decent weapon.
Alright, we're at one of those points where I want to point out what I mean when I claim to be a subtle GM.
There's nothing happening with which you are required to interact or do. The presence of Big Alru, Vesé, Roderick, and hooded figure are (so far) set dressing to be played with or ignored at your discretion.
Think of my style like one of those really old Text adventures:
You are standing in a square with a fountain. Next to the fountain is a bucket.
Young maiden is here.
Young rascal is here.
There are exits to the North, South, and East.
What do you what to do?:■
[Commands: Go/Fight/Pickup/Talk/Drink/Eat/Bag]
If you all are ready to leave and start exploring, please pipe up. If you want to keep interacting and roleplaying, by all means. Mixture of both, and we can use some spoilers for "past roleplay" while keeping everyone happy and moving forward.
You all decide what's important. I'm just here trying to make the world breathe. :)
Work's been busy, but I've got some post(s) brewing for you. Thank you for your patience.
Adela will be fairly quiet. She is very much out of her depth at the moment. She's lived at her family home in Restov for her entire life and worked at the Temple of Pharasma.
She wasn't very talkative to start with. So unless it is something she has a strong opinion about she will be an observer.
Out here in the wilds dealing with monsters and adventurers, very much new territory. She's keeping her mouth shut and learning.
Sorry for the silence. Work was crazy last couple days, and today is my wife and my anniversary. Tomorrow is another special day, so I promise to have more by Saturday.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!
Why, thank you!
Alright, team. I will now allow you each to post your actions, reactions, questions, & ideas related to the current exploration post. It can be as simple as:
Rhiann is glad for the visibility the open plains afford, and while ready at any moment for battle, passes the ride until camp as relaxed as any warrior can be.
Or looking for more details:
Adela frowns upon seeing the crossroads emerge unexpectedly out of the brush. There are many folk tales and legends regarding such places, and for one to remain despite the overgrowth...
I'm just looking for a little something to know you're still around and what may interest you. :)
Edit: Obviously, any roleplay you wish to add between yourselves and NPCs or inner monologue/diary type entry posts are always acceptable.
Will post in a few hours, very busy day
While I definitely will own some slowness due to my own recent circumstances, what is the desired posting rate for this game? I see the prior GM and current posting has been very low and spaced out, but what level of engagement would you like to see from me?
I'd like to make sure we are all on the same cadence and if there is a desire for more or less than what you had before or are seeing currently.
Please let me know!
I'm good with a daily post rate for the most part. the last couple days have been my weekend and extremely busy, sorry about that. Should have a post up in a few.
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Daily posting is fine for me. Weekends are normally quieter though.
So I'm thinking we'd unload the following for store credit with Oleg:
Leather Armor (12) 120.0
Short sword (13) 130.0
Longbow (8) 600.0
Definitely lighten up our load for whatever we're likely to bring back with us.
Regarding Rhiann’s wordplay, is the party camping near the crossroads?
I'm good with a daily post rate for the most part.
Daily posting is fine for me. Weekends are normally quieter though.
I should be able to manage this despite my recent track record.
The trick, of course, is being able to read the room. I’d hate to assume because someone hasn’t posted in a day that everyone’s done with a scene. I really don’t want anyone to feel railroaded, but keeping things moving at a steady pace is the path to a successful PbP. :)
How about this. If everyone has posted (that means the four of you) to the wilderness exploration and no one’s indicated an action which requires GM adjudication, I will move us along hopefully within the next 24 hours. If not everyone has posted, I will wait until 48 hours.
Exceptions can be made if posts like Rhiann’s stating you’re working on something but it’s not ready for a particular scene, I will make a judgement call on what feels like enough time before advancement of the scene. Even if I do move us along, spoilers can always be used for “past” roleplay or actions that would have occurred had I not moved everyone forward.
I hope it is obvious this will not necessarily apply to “dungeon” time or combat. But once we’re in those times, I beseech you all to post actions daily if possible, but can even be faster if everyone is able. For example, today was a very slow workday for me. I would have been able to quick post and answer questions practically in real time. :P
@Pivendor, what map are you using that has the hex with Oleg's in it as B38? Looking at the maps in the header, Oleg's is in hex 5?
WRT to the posting rate, we can try to keep a post a day... but that is often stated as an objective, and is very rarely kept up.
Since I can’t claim control of those links, I would be referring to the map I set up on Roll20. Check and see if you got my PM with the game link for roll20.net I sent a few weeks back.
Since I can’t claim control of those links, I would be referring to the map I set up on Roll20. Check and see if you got my PM with the game link for roll20.net I sent a few weeks back.
Sorry, I should have followed that up earlier, but now when I do, it says that I am not authorized...
Eek! Hmm…let me see what I can do…
OK. New PM sent. Let me know!