Are you enjoying the campaign? I know the exploration bit is vastly different from the intrigue bits, but I'm curious about the entire package.
You may have noticed I whited out part of the map - and that the tile you explored is faded. Let me explain a couple of things about the tiles - this is purely meta-knowledge, so I assume you know not to take advantage of this in-character.
Each tile with an event or location has one of three qualities: Landmark, Standard and Hidden. You are made aware of Landmarks in a Landmark tile the instant you enter it. Oleg's is an example of a Landmark tile.
Standard tiles have events or areas that you are made aware of the instant you begin exploring - or if you accidentally move across it when moving from tile to tile (my discretion).
Hidden tiles have a skill check DC. Even when fully exploring a tile, you don't automatically find it. The tile you are in is an example of this - it's like a secret door in dungeons: unless you explicitly search for it, you won't find it. I roll secret rolls (or spoilered rolls for PbPs) to represent the "off chance that you accidentally find it" deal, but you usually will not know it is there.
That's what the faded tile and whited out parts of the map mean. Out of character, you now know something is there, something you missed. In-character, you don't. If you are made aware of it, either by finding it later or being informed, or what have you, then I will lift the white text and the faded tile. It also serves as a reminder for me to know what you do and what you don't know yet.
I apologise if you dislike how I am handling this.
Are you enjoying the campaign?
Definitely. There were a few parts where I wasn't sure what to do with Ingle, but that's to be expected. He's sort of an oddball in this group I think. His kind of seriousness is different from the other character's kind of seriousness, so fitting it in, without just being disruptive or annoying, is proving a little challenging. Hopefully no one is finding him too annoying though. (But he is intended to be a little annoying.)
Apologies for not putting in an additional post last night - it was a take cat to vet after work, rush like an idiot sort of day.
And yes, so far things are going well. I'm especially enjoying the character interaction.
Hopefully no one is finding him too annoying though. (But he is intended to be a little annoying.)
Nah, even Gathien's finding himself wanting to strangle Duckie less and less.
I am enjoying it all thus far. The exploration can be a bit slow...wish we could come up with a way to streamline that a bit in situations where we don't encounter things there. But from what you said earlier almost every hex has something going on in them. So not sure how to handle that.
I suggest this: when we get back to Oleg's, before we set out again we already have it decided our planned route. Then, Patcher can easily flow our travel. Hexes we have explored we just ride through, hexes we haven we explore then move on. Unless something comes up to deviate our plan, we proceed as described.
Also, as we venture further from Oleg's, it may be necessary to brin our wagon of supplies to help sustain our travels. Unless we find another place to use as base camp.
Nah, even Gathien's finding himself wanting to strangle Duckie less and less.
Oh, no, I'm fine with annoying Gathien. I was just talking about the others. ;)
And yes, Kragath, that's a good idea.
I suggest this: when we get back to Oleg's, before we set out again we already have it decided our planned route. Then, Patcher can easily flow our travel. Hexes we have explored we just ride through, hexes we haven we explore then move on. Unless something comes up to deviate our plan, we proceed as described.
This is a good idea, I think -- and to be fair, probably more realistic -- you know, planning ahead instead of flipping a coin in the morning.
Also, as we venture further from Oleg's, it may be necessary to brin our wagon of supplies to help sustain our travels. Unless we find another place to use as base camp.
Actually, in a similar vein, as we gather up goods and get farther away from "home", it might be worth setting a few caches of supplies for ourselves (especially ammunition) for when we can't get back to Oleg's (or at least not fast enough to matter).
I suggest this: when we get back to Oleg's, before we set out again we already have it decided our planned route. Then, Patcher can easily flow our travel. Hexes we have explored we just ride through, hexes we haven we explore then move on. Unless something comes up to deviate our plan, we proceed as described.
I was thinking more or less the same thing. Set a course of action, let if run its course until something interrupts it.
If you wish to put your progress on auto-pilot until something interrupts it, then I can do so.
Not necessarily suggesting auto-pilot. Just trying to streamline things for your sake so that if a situation comes up that we can't post mid-exploration, we don't get bogged down waiting for people to find an opportunity to post. Especially if we happen to be in a hex that has nothing of interest anyway.
I don't know how nitpicky we're going to be regarding supplies, but if it matters, how many days did the bear stretch our food supply?
Ready to ride, SIR!
Before we sleep for the night (this may require a tiny bit of retcon)
After getting the information from Peregrine, Gathien would try to find something sweet to offer the fey..
While he's not going to go too far from the campsite, he'll try to find a source of either honey or sap that he can boil down to a syrup to offer them. [In the real world, trees are usually running in February-April, so the date would suggest it's possible -- although if it's sap, I'll need to collect it overnight and boil it in the morning]
I assume that would either be a or a ... or both.
If I don't find anything, I'll want to keep an eye out as we travel for signs of the right sort of stuff.
One of the reason's I don't like to post in a hurry is that I almost always wish I'd done something different. If you don't object, Patcher, can I retcon Ingle's shout in that last post to being in Sylvan? If not, no worries. I was just re-reading and realized that that is what he would have done, had I been taking the time to think properly. :P
Once Rorgrym feels better, he will start thinking that the Stolen Lands are even "busier" than he thought they would be and he'll start travelling with his Crossbow loaded. This won't occur to him until after he feels better though.
Kragath's plan is fine with me.
I apologise for my lack of replies this evening - and I apologise once more for not advancing tonight. I just came home from a night of board games, and I am horrendously tired, with a stinging headache. I will advance tomorrow.
Work tomorrow, then headed out of town this weekend. Will post when I can. If I can't, feel free to NPC Kragath in combat if necessary Patcher. I figure his gpfighting style is obvious by now. Stand there looking all tough and the like, get hit a couple times, and fall down. Shouldn't be too tough to replicate. ;-P
I apologise for my lack of replies this evening - and I apologise once more for not advancing tonight. I just came home from a night of board games, and I am horrendously tired, with a stinging headache. I will advance tomorrow.
No problems. Thursday's my RL game anyway, so I wouldn't have responded until this morning either way.
Just as a gentle reminder, though, did Gathien find anything suitable?
Truth be told I can't find the post you're referring to, Gathien.
Patcher -- This is what I was referring to:
Before we sleep for the night (this may require a tiny bit of retcon)
After getting the information from Peregrine, Gathien would try to find something sweet to offer the fey..
While he's not going to go too far from the campsite, he'll try to find a source of either honey or sap that he can boil down to a syrup to offer them. [In the real world, trees are usually running in February-April, so the date would suggest it's possible -- although if it's sap, I'll need to collect it overnight and boil it in the morning]
I assume that would either be a or a ... or both.
If I don't find anything, I'll want to keep an eye out as we travel for signs of the right sort of stuff.
Ah, no wonder I didn't see it - you posted it in this thread.
I'll update the topic shortly.
I apologise for my slow posting today. I am currently not in a good place, and I am feeling the stress of running 5 campaigns simultaneously is catching up to me. It is unfair to you, and for that I apologise as well.
No worries, Patcher.
I'm waiting for you to do something in character.
Patcher, is the terrain clear enough for me to charge on Maelstrom?
No. The trees are trees, so they're obstacles for all intents and purposes.
What a sneaky bunch.... Are we sneaking while riding Harley's or something? lol
What a sneaky bunch.... Are we sneaking while riding Harley's or something? lol
The lack of stealth was all part of the Master Plan(TM, patent pending)...uhm, as is my apparent inability to hit anything in melee.
Well, yeah...obviously...
You just wanted Gathien to feel like he was contributing. I get it. :) Boost the little chap's ego.
I have to admit you confuse me. First you attack without negotiating, then you want to question the only surviving kobold (who would have died if not for being saved by a spell)?
I do feel a little sorry for the poor little critter.
To be fair the only one that seems really intent on questioning the kobold is Peregrine, and he just went along with the attack in the first place because he didn't think it was worth using up the his interpersonal capital to argue against something the entire rest of the group seemed intent on in the first place. I think he is actually a little perplexed and frustrated that the kobold seems to have no regard for its own life, given the situation, but that may just be a flaw in his character. I think part of him would actually like a good excuse to let it live, but currently logic demands otherwise.
Speaking for myself, our actions make sense based on the fact that they're evil humanoids who outnumbered us, and our job is to clear the area of such threats. Attacking first allowed us to reduce their numbers, and leaving one or two alive to question allowed us to get information.
Gathien would be more interested in the interrogation, but I don't speak Draconic.
Ditto to Gathien in regards to lack of a Draconic language.
Their curious behaviour was odd and having Gathien sneak to try and learn more seemed like a good idea. As a player, I thought maybe the kobolds had been enchanted in some way. When our stealth epic failed their response indicated hostility and since most of us don't speak Draconic, combat seemed inevitable.
Rorgrym thought the interrogation was a waste of time (though he didn't say anything) as it's a known evil creature, clearly defiant and we've killed 10 of it's comrades. He thought the charm spell was an excellent idea, however.
I had pretty similar thoughts to Rorgrym. If we run into their den, I would rather try to talk them into leaving, rather than immediately attacking. We should have had Gaithen and maybe Ingle get into position and then tried to talk before attacking. Hindsight is 20/20 though :-).
I apologise for my lack of posts as of late. I am currently overburdened with real life, and will be very occupied until next Saturday or Sunday. While I will do my best to respond to your actions, I ask that you otherwise keep the plot going with character interaction for now.
I apologise for the inconvenience.
I also need to apologize for not posting as much as I'd like to lately. Work has been very busy and a few things of a personal nature are taking a lot of my time and energy right now.
Ditto on the work thing. Trying to post when I can.
The radish patch is a natural occurance.
I have a request.
Could you tell me what you currently wish to do? I'm having difficulties determining what you wish to do in-character, a biproduct of my stress and depression. What I mean is, could you state your actions clearly in regards of exploration and progress of the story? "We explore the tile" or "we go east." I have asked this before, but as it is right now it's difficult for me to respond to any campaigns without a clear sense of what you wish to do.
I was also thinking, for when I return, to adopt a a "Two in agreement is consensus" rule - if two players agree on the course of direction then I advance with that as consensus, so we don't come to a half. If you could offer your thoughts about this... Of course, since you're six, maybe three instead of two... a lot of my problems with carrying on, besides the stress, is that I do not wish to tread on your toes and push you in a direction that your character wouldn't.
Players are mindless zombies, push them when the need occurs, otherwise they wait for the holy retainer +5 to land in their lap... :)
Right now I stand by my call of finishing off the exploration of this hex, then setting up camp somewhere in the SE portion of it, following the direction of the kobold tracks on the next day.
As far as a consensus rule goes, I'm fine with that, especially with the sporadic nature of input in a PbP game. I mean, I'm trying to post and take a leadership role as much as I can, and I can tell Jonas is too. But with my work schedule it's been a bit rough. On the other hand, I also don't want to steal the reigns of the game, as I'm sure Jonas feels. Like, if the group got behind me or Jonas or whoever as leader then we just start pigeon holing the campaign, nobody would be having any fun cause they wouldn't feel like they had any input. So a 3 player consensus on direction sounds good to me. That way people have input, and IC very little changes.
If you would like, Patcher, from now on when I make a post regarding travel plans, I can OOC place a clear description of what my suggestion is.
If you would like, Patcher, from now on when I make a post regarding travel plans, I can OOC place a clear description of what my suggestion is.
I would like that very much, Kragath. I appreciate it. Thank you.
I'm totally fine with Kragath's plan of action. Would have said as much already, but I think the kobold disappearing kind of upset the applecart a little bit.
Speaking of which any trace of what happened?
I haven't found time to write a consise post yet, though you'll only spot faint traces of magic.
No worries, take your time. :)
I should be in bed anyway. :(
I have a request.
Could you tell me what you currently wish to do? I'm having difficulties determining what you wish to do in-character, a biproduct of my stress and depression. What I mean is, could you state your actions clearly in regards of exploration and progress of the story? "We explore the tile" or "we go east." I have asked this before, but as it is right now it's difficult for me to respond to any campaigns without a clear sense of what you wish to do.
I was also thinking, for when I return, to adopt a a "Two in agreement is consensus" rule - if two players agree on the course of direction then I advance with that as consensus, so we don't come to a half. If you could offer your thoughts about this... Of course, since you're six, maybe three instead of two... a lot of my problems with carrying on, besides the stress, is that I do not wish to tread on your toes and push you in a direction that your character wouldn't.
I think, to some extent, it's because we were hoping to find some hint of the kobold who just vanished before making a decision. :)
However, I will be clear with an OOC about any vote that Gathien's making in terms of direction, and I think that the "3 is a consensus" rule is probably an excellent one -- assuming one of those 3 is Kragath or Jonas due to the current charter.
Congratulations on gaining your first step. Please record your progression in this thread and on your character sheet.
A quick reminder of what each step entails.
A: Hit dice, Hit points and Base Attack Bonus.
You roll for hit points. If the result is below average + 1 (4 for d6, 5 for d8, 6 for d10, 7 for d12), you may instead pick the average.
B: Saving Throws
C: Skill Points
D: Special
Special entails all class features, including spells, that you would gain at the next level. Do keep in mind that your caster level does not increase, though you may use higher-level spells. Example is Wizard at 4th level selecting Fireball - he can cast fireball and has the same spell slots as a 5th level Wizard - but the spell itself will only be doing 4d6 damage until he has gathered all 4 steps.
Favoured class bonuses
If you select an additional hit point as your favoured class bonus, you gain this hit point when you select Step A.
If you select an additional skill rank, you gain this rank when you select Step C.
If you have an alternate favoured class bonus courtesy of your race, you gain it when you select Step D.
If you haven't decided which favoured class bonus to take, you can hold it off until you have gained the complete level.
Clear enough?
I'm leaning towards D) Special. Two questions:
For my lay on hands (1/2 paladin level + Cha bonus), do I get 4 or 5 uses? And I assume they heal 1d6 each use? Just want some clarification before I make it official.