Sometimes life just goes that way...
As far as the RPing, that's always been my favorite part. I'm still getting the feel for Pathfinder and all, so I'm good either way. This is a learning experience for me, and I hope I'm doing OK so far. None of the other players have killed me yet, so I suppose that's a good sign...
My favorite from Bree so far is asking what's going on when you can clearly read the posts above. :) Good job
Yeah, my last GM was a real stickler about metagaming. If I acted on information that my character(s) wouldn't have, but that I did, he would punish my characters usually through very malicious means. Such as sending her to a plane where she would be killed on sight simply because she was a magical entity and then forcing her to use magic while there, further inciting the hatred of the locals.
Awe, gee, thanks Sable! :P
...sending her to a plane where she would be killed on sight simply because she was a magical entity and then forcing her to use magic while there, further inciting the hatred of the locals.
tsk..tsk..tsk
That's like this GM I had once for RIFTS. He didn't like my character idea, so set me up with a 1d6 mega-damage laser pistol, and faced me off against a dinosaur.
He could've just asked me to roll up something different.
The primary reason anyone becomes an adventurer! Gratitude in the form of nudity!
hmmm...does pg-13 nudity count?
I'm liking the roleplay/combat ratio so far personally, at any rate it certainly hasn't become boring yet thanks to the good roleplaying from everyone. Your efforts definitely aren't going unappreciated, Tom. Keep up the good work, and I hope you're successful in your interview!
Alright...I really should go do some blog posting, so I'll check back in awhile..
This was how he treated the characters he liked...
Well Winter isn't likely to gut you like a fish and throw you in the harbour Bree, he's a soft touch and all about savin' souls.
Mind you, he hasn't had to get "Real Mad"(tm) yet, except with one other character, and they got a savin'!
As I say, its a fun challenge mainating a LG character in said party, but I'm sticking it out - makes it entertaining! Lawful Good, not Lawful Stupid :)
I think most of us have had experiences with that GM or that player, but they make you appreciate the others that much more! And make for great tales later.
Yeah, well I haven't had a lot of experience with other GM's so, here's hoping I don't push Tom over the edge and have him torture Bree :P
Well Winter isn't likely to gut you like a fish and throw you in the harbour Bree, he's a soft touch and all about savin' souls.
Mind you, he hasn't had to get "Real Mad"(tm) yet, except with one other character, and they got a savin'!
As I say, its a fun challenge mainating a LG character in said party, but I'm sticking it out - makes it entertaining! Lawful Good, not Lawful Stupid :)
I've been following the game for quite some time, I've read all the posts. You were actually one of the reasons I felt inspired to create the character in the off chance I got into the game.
I understand completely why you didn't greet Bree with warm fuzzies, but she hasn't had the chance to see nice Winter and let's face it, you two aren't on the path to being best buds anytime soon. Doesn't mean I don't like ya :)
Ha!
The lone light, candle in the darkness, bulwark of the faith, defender of the faith inspired...a rogue bounty hunter? :p
The way I put him together I favoured Int AND Wisdom, which allows him to have his earnestness of faith, but not be completely blind to the fact that there's only so much that can be done and the wisdom and smarts to be able to pick and choose his battles... the dump Int clerics tend to get a bit too 'yipee!' Lawful Good and and up snookering themselves really badly I find.
It's also tough for the Paladins too, as they get so caught up in absolutes that they win battles and lose wars... I'm figuring this guy is a bit smarter and wiser.
Ha!
The lone light, candle in the darkness, bulwark of the faith, defender of the faith inspired...a rogue bounty hunter? :p
If you knew me better, you would see how it makes perfect sense. Mostly though, I created the human to balance the elves, the rogue simply because it was what first entered my mind and the bounty hunter because it gave me a reason to be there. What you helped to inspire, was the desire to play here :) All of you did to one degree or another.
Sebastian had me giggling non-stop. Kira had me rolling my eyes, and at moments gritting my teeth. Kaylen reminded me of someone I once was long ago. Who wouldn't get a kick out of Sable's bird-speak? And Sweeney had me just by choosing the name Sweeney :)
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I love how vivid all of the characters are. Sebastian's theater anecdotes, especially when they turn against him, Kaylen's grit and where others would drown amongst all the Elven being tossed around she just waits until there's a skull to bash, Winter's unending faith and the country boy in the city feel, Sweeney's snarky attitude, and Bree's rough n' tough take on things.
In all fairness, Winter isn't an Elf :p
I love how vivid all of the characters are. Sebastian's theater anecdotes, especially when they turn against him, Kaylen's grit and where others would drown amongst all the Elven being tossed around she just waits until there's a skull to bash, Winter's unending faith and the country boy in the city feel, Sweeney's snarky attitude, and Bree's rough n' tough take on things.
It does seem to be a really awesome group. I'm honored to be a part of it.
In all fairness, Winter isn't an Elf :p
'Tis understood. But he has elf involvement, which is what I was referring too.
Honestly, I'm enjoying this a lot, too. I'm having fun playing a character who's way out of my normal comfort zone. I usually play Rogues or Casters. Playing Tank is fun, especially since I get to try my hand at CN. My other characters at the moment are a LN Aasimar Druid and a LG Kobold Rogue.
The RP/Combat balance is cool. If this were a different group or a worse DM, I might not be as interested in it, but with this group and Tom running things, I'm having a huge amount of fun.
GASP! He's not?! :P
Alas, I'm sorry you had to hear it this way...
The RP/Combat balance is cool. If this were a different group or a worse DM, I might not be as interested in it, but with this group and Tom running things, I'm having a huge amount of fun.
Thanks. The best part of this AP is that there are a lot of open spaces (read as: nothing written here, so do whatever you like). I won't tell you guys where nothing is written...yet. :P
I think someone had mentioned dabbleboard before, and I figured out how to get it working, so I'm going to test it out, and see if I can use it for combat...won't have all my fun health overlays which I was playing around with, but could be faster.
Edit: Okay, after a couple of minutes, I realize I will need my fancy schmancy maps and overlays :) We'll have to assign everyone a color for drawing on the map to indicate movement, targets, etc.
Any other wrinkles, we'll work them out as needed...atm, playing in a game that's using dabbleboard, so I can have some hands-on before I bring it up in-game as live.
Hmmmm...someone's been drawing random lines on the map...
Hmmmm...someone's been drawing random lines on the map...
Shows clean here.
ghost in the machine....now it's all clean
Mildly confused on how Dabbleboard works, but I can see why it would be useful (provided we all spent a bit of time figuring out the details of how it works). I'm a bum and like MapTool combined with GoogleDocs/Photobucket uploads, but it is a bit time consuming.
If its easy enough to use, could have all maps, handouts, and other misc pics on one dabbleboard page. I'll play around with it this weekend.
Ideally I want some kind of online map sharing where you all can move tokens on your own and have pinned notes. I do like maptools, but everyone would have to be on at the same time...otherwise, I'm not sure my data plan could handle hosting it 24 hours a day.
Dabbleboard Update: So I can add tokens, and move them around. Maps are going to have to be huge to used detailed tokens.
Can't really write on the screens, as I can't find an eraser.
And so I go out looking....
Dabbleboard is nice because the players and the DM can all move tokens. So on the player's turn they can move exactly where they want. Instead of a turn of everyone giving coordinates and then waiting for the DM to do the work of updating the map.
Freehand button allows one to write on the screen. Click on an object to highlight it, and you can then delete it.
I guess the maps and tokens don't have to be all fancy...
Sorry Sebastian. Couldn't let you get the girl this early.
I guess the maps and tokens don't have to be all fancy...
Yes, they do. They have to be super fancy. :P
I guess the maps and tokens don't have to be all fancy...Yes, they do. They have to be super fancy. :P
Did you see the Gold Goblin map? I think there's a link inside my SD GM profile
This group is awesome...every time I come online I'm always smiling and laughing. :)
Gives me the urge to set up a MapTools game...but that won't be for awhile.
Did you see the Gold Goblin map? I think there's a link inside my SD GM profileI guess the maps and tokens don't have to be all fancy...Yes, they do. They have to be super fancy. :P
I did see it, I thought it was pretty nifty. I <3 Visual Aids.
Dabbleboard Update #2: After spending endless hours looking last night, there is no such program that is going to work for what I want.
Stupid peer-to-peer virtual tabletops.
The only option for 'real-time' combat with all the funky bells and whistles I want is to keep a MapTools server running.
If combat is going to be short enough, I can always have it running until the fight is over. Or keep it 'open' for certain hours of the day, which isn't going to work for everyone.
I'm on this weird flex plan internet server, and I really don't know how much bandwidth I would use keeping it open. I guess it would only be when it's pinging, and I could probably lower the number of pings.
Will ponder over the weekend....
Sorry Sebastian. Couldn't let you get the girl this early.
HaHaHa! I was even starting to fall for Sebastian there.
Back on the earlier topic of gameplay. As I am sure everyone is aware, I am having a blast running Sebastian. The professional student who knows a little bit of everything and thus really knows nothing. He wants to do good, but doesn't really know what that means so he makes it up as he goes along (loving the NG aspect).
The whole theater thing I did not have built into the character from the start. But you have to take some form of Perform so I choose Oratory. I was originally thinking dry lectures for the archivist, but then the whole collegiate actor angle just sort of developed cause I wanted to make a distraction, and then magnificently blowing his first attempt at it, just made me think that his college theater days did not go as smoothly as he likes to remember them as.
Sebastian is in quiet awe of the group. Winter's certainty, Kaylan's prowess, Sweeny's smoothness, and Sable's wisdom. And especially young Bree's toughness to actually thrive in this city when he felt he was about to fade away. All things he would like to develop in himself....well, he started on the smoothness. The pictures definitely helped inspire him, Thanks Tom! I am unaware of the source so they were both new to me.
As far as combat. If you hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't have thought about not fighting in a while. This is a great campaign so far, and just loving the RP.
As far as fights go. I don't mind the narrative approach you took with the first one, but planning out 5 rounds of actions felt like a bit too much. Perhaps 3 or 2? so we can get a bit of a participatory feel, like reacting to developments or help a fallen comrade.
I considered such an approach if I ever ran a game online. Sort of do away with the formality of initiative and collect everyone's actions and narrate the round's activity using initiative to note whose blade strike's first against paired enemies. But otherwise it is simultaneous actions. I was really wanting to embrace the shared story approach, and that is definitely something we have going on here.
I'm glad you liked the pictures...One of my pet peeves when reading is not knowing what a character looks like, so I work on making things more 'real' for everyone.
5 rounds of pre-planning. Hehehe...hindsight is 20/20. :)
I don't mind doing it all narratively for "mook" fights. For major fights, we'll go to more decision-making round by round. I would hate for someone to die because the healers didn't add enough 'if' statement.
For instance...beating the tar out of the sailor...not going to bother with init because I know what the outcome is going to be. It's just a matter of how hard you're going to beat him down.
I'm enjoying the theater bits. You've found the perfect balance where they're not too much.
So we'll just keep on keepin' on then. :)
I will have a map of the temple ready by the time the party gets there.
perfect timing to break out the '20'. I can see Sable being familiar with all kind of strange mushrooms....might explain a lot. :p
So, what is your back story on how you and Korax came to be companions?
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So, what is your back story on how you and Korax came to be companions?
Well a familiar is very integral to the witch, it's how they get their spells and advance in hocus-pocusry. Sable's always had an affinity for birds, and one day in his youth Korax approached him and started speaking to him. The rest of it is covered in my background on my profile, I believe.
I love familiars. They live as long as you do, and only get more intelligent as you progress. I've always been fascinated with ravens, and even though they can live as long as 80 years in captivity, Korax may very well get a few centuries under his belt. The brilliance of ravens just captivates me... they can count, develop a higher vocabulary than a parrot, and it seems they pass on genetic memories much like elephants do. I hope to own a trained one in real life someday even I can ever get the setup and the approx. $2000 :)
It would be pretty awesome to have a raven of your own. I'm much more attuned to large cats, I would love to someday own a large amount of land and to build my own conservatory.
I didn't know all of that about familiars, but then again I'm not on the up and up with all things D&D. So, not only do you speak to him in Elven, but he is capable of responding? I'm guessing he's considered to be something more than just an animal, what do the call that... just "familiar"?
So you can actually talk to Korax? (really need to do a complete read up on the witch class).
If so, I can have ooooodles of fun with that. :)
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It would be pretty awesome to have a raven of your own. I'm much more attuned to large cats, I would love to someday own a large amount of land and to build my own conservatory.
I didn't know all of that about familiars, but then again I'm not on the up and up with all things D&D. So, not only do you speak to him in Elven, but he is capable of responding? I'm guessing he's considered to be something more than just an animal, what do the call that... just "familiar"?
Well familiar is the game term but Sable is more inclined to call him companion or friend. Raven familiars can speak one language that their master knows, other familiars learn to speak with their master in later levels. Korax currently has an Intelligence Score of 6, so he's not super smart, but he is self aware. In game mechanics, most animals have an INT of 1 or 2, and it is accepted that INT 3 brings self-awareness, just as a Wisdom of 3 is sufficient for memories.
Occasionally you can end up with a familiar (or more likely magic item) that is more Intelligent than its master or user, which leads to some very fun roleplay. Had a wizard with an intelligent staff that Loved to berate the party paladin... and steal his name. The DM did a fantastic with the banter.
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So you can actually talk to Korax? (really need to do a complete read up on the witch class).
If so, I can have ooooodles of fun with that. :)
Yep. He speaks fluent Elven, but for now still has a low concept on things. Communing with Korax is how Sable regains his spells, and since Korax speaks Elven I imagine it's rather fun... much like a Second Grader explaining to an Art Major why his stick figure looks more like mommy than the artist's interpretive masterpiece.