Meraxes may be selfish but he isn't stupid. He will do what is required but not much else. As much as I'd like to lead I'd doubt many of you would appreciate Meraxes' management style. :)
Being stuck on an island with you all will open up to two choices: make friends and learn to trust your fellow survivors or become sea-lobster (or worse!) food.
Hate to say it, but Meraxes isn't doing a great job concerning that first option, at least towards Allia.
>:)
He's cold blooded. Let him stay out in the sun a bit and he'll warm up. I promise!
I am very pleased that Kalis' wild superstitious suspicions turned out to be true!
Oh, could be he's just totally fallen in love.
Or it's all the fault of... uh... bees.
Well he is alive so besides looking for jask's evidence we can look for the captain and Ieana... not to mention maybe there are things the other NPCs need help with.
IF he's alive. That might have just been his plan, and the crew killed him.
But yes, it's a hint that he might be alive.
Per the leadership issue from earlier: Kalis is generally probably not a good choice. He is usually rational and goal oriented, but he is neither subtle or long suffering of other's personality quirks. Plus he has no face skills whatsoever.
Well Allia got face skills, but she'd not try to lead the group, but would be more than happy to negotiate with the native savages, so they eat someone else and not them.
Well, by default then, just like in my tabletop games, my Army-trained RL leadership skills will filter through my character player.
Is everybody OK with this? It means Petry will talk a lot. A lot. It means he will be cajoling everyone. I can deal with pretty much everything but psychotic players and duels.
Sorry. I've been away most of the day.
First, let me apologize for bouncing around a bit from loot to Jask to roles. I was posting from my phone using pre-written snippets. This was good in theory, but not in practice. We should divvy up the loot, but that can happen here - the character-driven goods have kind of been distributed already. There is of course financial implications, but these can be resolved at the first center of commerce you encounter.
Secondly, Meraxes earned everyone 100 XP for the clever and timely usage of an Arrested Development clip. Seriously.
Finally, you gave probably seen my post to Brin. Should he not respond, I have a player to take his place.
I'll try to catch up and retcon anything I missed in the game thread tomorrow - specifically Allia's question for Jask and brandy for Aerys.
Thanks, GMT. I'm happy you appreciated it. I'm also happy you have a replacement lined up worst comes to worst. I forgot to ask in-game: Did I ever find my lockbox on the ship? The one my trait is tied to?
Petry- I'm totally cool with you leading. I promise to make your rule as intolerable as possible without going too overboard (assuming our next captain doesn't spend time with a varisian scholar too).
Although it would be better to have Brin back, it is great that you have a back up if necessary. The level of participation and the characterization has been great thus far.I'm very happy with our beginning.
Merax, I assumed that youvstill had it on you. So yes, you have it.
Excellent. I wasn't sure if it was on me or with my belongings or on the ship. Great!
Petry, as you examine the maps from the captain's cabin, you actually run across a map of Smuggler's Shiv.
Great! I made a link under the Jenivene spoiler on my profile page. It might be "tonight" with the castaways, or in the next "morning".
-----------------------------------
Edit: Everybody casting Detect Magic at Petry when he does his "pull a portable ram out of a hat" trick. I should've thought of that. Now GM Todd's forced to choose between "Magic vs Psionics Transparency" and "Psionics is Different". We talked about that on e-mail, but I'd hoped to not set it in stone just yet. What will GM Todd decide....
Now you've done it Petry. Now you've done it.
I went with transparency. For now. Perhaps in time you will learn to create differentiation between your powers and magic. Or I will just change the rule.
Sorry, GM Todd! I should've seen it happening as a knee-jerk reaction from the others. So much for "keeping low" in the plot line until we reached Level 3 or so.
Where is Dragolan? Holiday excursions?
What knee-jerk reaction? you mean the Detect Magic?
You're conjuring stuff out of thin air, heck you even demonstrate it to everyone. What do you expect?
Honor among sorcerers? Other people coming to my defense? :) We're not going to play "eleven people locked in a room accusing each other", are we? Because I've watched both The Thing and Clue, and it's hard to imagine a murderer among us.
Maybe we can get through this and on to the "working our way off the island" instead.
C'mon, people, let's not be at each other's throats like this! :)
That's part of the adventure - haven't you seen LOST? :)
You tried to steal my journal! I should have let you be sliced! MUAHAHAHA!
But I'm just too nice for that.
Uh-huh. Women who think men deserve punishment for the words they use. Maybe we should have our characters sleep for the rest of the "day" until Dragolan and Brin come back to us.
Or somebody else can take the narrative ball and run with it! :)
I agree with waiting until Dragolan and Brin/Replacement are back before moving too far forward. We'll get back into the swing of things tomorrow and Wednesday - I know Dragolan mentioned he was going to be travelling most of tomorrow.
Actually for that very reason, I advice against going to sleep for the rest of the day, as that robs Dragolan and everyone who's not posted yet of the chance to contribute to all the stuff that happened.
We should just try not to start a fight till they're back and can join the fun ;)
Ok, no sleep, I'll do the maps that GM Todd requested a Knowledge check on immediately. I'll leave it open enough for discussion by others in the party.
So here's the view: Petry, sitting cross-legged in the grass, with about five or six maps in front of him, including the map to the island they are on. He calls out to the others that he has a map. Everybody crowds around Petry's bedroll, inadvertently throwing him face-first to the ground. ;) Ya'll don't abuse poor Petry, now.
Fair warning: I WILL go back and edit posts within the 60-minute window, so be sure to re-read posts as necessary!
And it looks like Brin is a no-show. I have a plan for how to reintroduce him if he comes back by the end of this week, but for now, it looks like he's been replaced. Watch the game thread. She/He will be introduced there, first.
That sounds ominous... just a warning, if you write "You hear suspicious noise and then a green goblin comes running towards you", we might shoot first. Those of us with ranged weapons anyway :)
I didn't allow any goblins during character creation, but now I'm wishing I had. That would have been some kind of intro...
As I try to find something for Petry to prestige class into, there's not much for psionic characters. So he may stay a straight "sorcerer" type psionic with energy attacks (Missile, Bolt, Cone, Wall, Wave, Ball, etc). I wanted something that would give him all simple and martial weapons, instead of just daggers and crossbows.
We've got divine and arcane covered with Dragolan, Meraxes, and Allia. So a Wizard is all right, but so would be a Fighter, Ranger, Druid, etc. to replace Brin. I will keep Petry learning Disable Device, but if there's a lot of traps in our future nothing beats a full-class Rogue for finding traps and disabling them.
Everything might change depending on where the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path takes us, of course.
Hi guys and gals! Just wanted to say hi on here and that I have been following the posting. Awesome stuff, I have loved your interactions and hope that I can add to the already great rp. Jasper is a full class burglar rogue working towards shadowdancer so traps shouldnt be an issue anymore if you want to go a different direction Petry. Looking forward to gaming with you guys and try not to shoot me when I come in lol.
Sorry, GM Todd! I should've seen it happening as a knee-jerk reaction from the others. So much for "keeping low" in the plot line until we reached Level 3 or so.
Where is Dragolan? Holiday excursions?
Yep. Traveling tomorrow, traveling Saturday, and otherwise being familial and/or visiting the rest of the time. I'm about to post on the IC thread after I go over what happened once or twice.
Jasper, if you could bring the lifeboat with you it'd be much appreciated. ;)
Having a Rogue will help Petry not have to take several psionic powers like Breach, Danger Sense, etc, to find and disable traps. He's already got Control Object, which has a "look-over-another's-shoulder" clause to add +4 to open locks.
Not that I'm not telling anybody to pick up Knock! I love to assist and help others, and having more than one solution to a problem.
I will be on the road myself tomorrow, but only for an hour or two, and I will take my laptop and Mi-Fi device to stay online from hour to hour.
Y'know, I can see this as a reoccurring theme: Jasper enters the room unannounced, and proceeds to say "Don't shoot!" as several volleys narrowly miss him from all the players.
Everybody's a little jumpy right now, Jasper. Your turn to convince us you didn't have a hand in shipwrecking us on this island.
Not to be pushy, but should we discuss how we are going to divide up the labor among the NPC's? That way we can be ready to go once we roleplay out the rest of today's camp.
Gelik continues his lecture and intelligently suggests five major roles you can assign the NPC's. In order to get the bonus, the individual must devote the entire day to them, so these roles are best given to the NPC's unless you plan to just sit at the base camp for the whole chapter. Unfortunately, a castaway will only perform their role if their attitude is "Indifferent" or higher. The roles are as follows:Defender: A defender works to set traps, shore up a shelter’s walls, and see to the safety of the campsite. Sasha and Ishirou can serve as defenders.
Entertainer: An entertainer helps to raise hopes for rescue—each entertainer grants NPCs a +2 bonus on Will saves to increase morale (wel'll talk about morale, soon). Gelik and Aerys can serve as Entertainers.
Guard: Each guard reduces the chance of a wandering monster attacking the camp during the day or night. Aerys and Ishirou can serve as guards.
Hunter: Each hunter provides enough food and water for eight Medium creatures per day. Jask and Sasha can serve as hunters.
Medic: Each medic reduces the chance of being exposed to disease and increases the number of hit points healed naturally during a night’s rest in the camp by 2. Gelik and Jask can serve as medics (note, with shelter and a fire your chance for disease is already decreased).
I guess I'll make a suggestion and people can comment on possible changes as you like.
First, all the NPC's except Aerys is at the indifferent level or higher which is good, and continuing to roleplay with the NPC's will undoubtedly get us better attitudes from them. We are such a friendly lot after all. I know Kalis is.
Second, I guess there are five roles and five NPC's and we could do
Jask-Medic
Sasha-Hunter
Ishiro-Defender
Aerys-Guard
Gelik-Entertainer
but I would suggest letting Medic go for a few days to get the camp's defenses up since the camp and fire already give us a bonus.
So,
Jask-Hunter
Sasha-Defender
Ishiro-Defender
Aerys-Guard
Gelik-Entertainer
Even with one person hunting we are losing 3 rations a day, so before very long we will need to move an additional person to hunting. Perhaps we can give up the Entertainer role once the NPC's morale is up, since I assume bad morale is a bad thing. I would suggest slowing the PC's down to forage while exploring, but I think survival is probably going to become increasingly difficult and exploring at a good pace is probably pretty important.
I agree that for now we perhaps won't need a medic.
But... do we really want our local booze adict on guard duty?
From how I understood the survival skill, a result of 14 would be enough to also save those last 3 rations.
Kalis can even make that on a take 10 :)
I'm not sure if higher than 14, or using 2 hunters for that matter, actually increases our rations. We get 16 from 2 hunters, but only need 11, do we have 5 left over for another day, or do they spoil and waste too quickly? Same for stuff PC hunters hunt.
3/day doesn't sound much, but we only have a bit more than 30 left, so thats 10 days. If hunting can restock that, than no problem, if we get low we just take a day break and go hunting (or send 2 NPCs for a few days). If not we should try to reduce that even further and use the rations for emergencies.
I didn't build Petry with Survival (who knew?), so he's not going to be able to do much with hunting. He did buy a fishhook and twine, and we have 2 fishing nets, so we should use those to add to the food supply. Fishing at the shoreline might be easier than hunting in the jungle.
But I agree with the NPC layout as is, except for the Medic part. Never underestimate disease and injury for low-level players. I'm not sure how much Dragolan can do just yet, but I can guess these potions we have are probably all we're going to see, and although I'm counting 5 healing potions, I'm only seeing 1 cure for disease. That's ominous, in my book. In the tabletop games I've played we keep the potions to heal the healer in battle, but disease can come at you anytime.
Good points Petry.
So, I'd suggest we use Gelik as medic, Aerys as entertainer (you really want her guarding your sleep?) and Ishirou as guard. Jask as hunter and Sasha as defender sounds good.
Don't forget you've still got Brin around. That's an extra mouth to feed.
However, it's also an extra body at camp. For now, he can serve as a guard or hunter. Consider his attitude friendly.
Brin as hunter and Jask as medic then?
Ok, so:
Gelik- Medic
Aerys- Entertainer
Jask- Hunter
Sasha- Defender
Ishiro- Guard
Brin- Hunter
How's this for now?
And we learn that Kalis, until he puts in 10 ranks into Diplomacy at Level 10 or so, should never, ever talk to the NPCs. :)
Argh, Kalis! What have you done! I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon and evening before starting the exploring the next morning.
GM Todd, yes, the number is 12 now. I hope for Brin to become a DMPC, and not the first person to die on the island. It's one of Petry's main goals to get everybody off of the island. He's going to be "slow but steady, with lots of rest inbetween" as a result. Plus he's almost out of psionic power points for the day. If there's some kind of breakneck speed involved in Smuggler's Shiv, Petry's going to use the wrong kind of leadership.
With no one calling "dibs" on the pile of equipment from the Jenivere, I guess it stays in the pile at camp. I've already re-organized Petry's Google spreadsheet and his profile page to show his much lighter backpack. I guess the NPCs get Petry's two-man tent. I was hoping Isirou would use the caltrops to guard the camp.
Oh hey there guys. Don't mind me making sure the NPCs don't stab us and/or run away into the wilderness...
You got pretty lucky on that roll, Meraxes.The DC was 26. I was pretty sure Aerys was outta there.
(Standing ovation for Meraxes...clapping hands all around...)
Well considering how awesome I have been in our two combats this far... I figured a little luck was around the corner for me. :)
Why would my soon-to-be best friend ever want to leave camp!? >:)
Darn, when I'm gone for a few hours the fun things happen.
As for diplomacy, I get half my bard-levels as bonus ontop of that. Right now thats just a +1, but eventually it will be more :)
At level 2 I get the same on Bluff and Sense Motive as well.
But yes, good job Meraxes.
Good job Meraxes!
I'm sorry. I knew it wasn't going to go well, but as I have been playing Kalis so far he's not going to let something like that lie. If it makes anyone feel better, he considered it a while before actually talking to her.
Plus....a little (more) conflict isn't bad :-).
(Grumbles from his man cave with his home computer...)
A little conflict. Argh. It's already what, 12noon on day 01 on the island? I'd like to avoid any running after leaving NPCs until dusk, at least.
I don't have a problem with how Kalis is played, don't get me wrong. Petry is just as motivated to keep everybody together and happy, especially on a deserted island. But I'm trying very hard to not post 100 times a day and dominate the conversation. :)
I had an interesting e-mail today. Here's a picture of our castaways if they had been shipwrecked in World War II:
shipwrecked picture
I'll check it out after work.
No worries here either Kalis! Besides- what kind of fun is a party that agrees on everything?