OK. I've prepped enough to start the campaign thread. I'm going to write it up, then post it. I will post a link to it here. Anyone who has been approved can post on the thread.
A note -- as some people are still getting their characters together, the first part of this will be pure roleplaying -- there will be NO dicerolls, and that includes relationship rolls, sense motive checks, diplomacy checks, etc. This will be the case until I post on the thread .
When you make your first post, your character should enter the room, and please include:
- A physical description
- Anything about you that any other character would generally know
- A note about your relationship with your trait NPC (this does not have to be specific, it can be an "often seen hanging out with ..." kind of thing.)
At that point you can begin conversation with whoever else is there, etc.
A few notes about the game:
1) You might wish to know that pursuing relationships with significant NPC, whether those relationships be friendship, rivalry, or romance, can end up having significant mechanical in-game benefits for your character, beyond the XP bonuses. All four "trait" NPC's can be assumed to offer such bonuses, but other NPC's may do so as well.
2) If you are a slower poster, and check in to find yourself confronted by a wall of text, please remember that actions will only be resolved once a day ... the rest will mostly be talk.
If you are a faster poster who likes a lot of interaction, I intend to make my monsters very chatty whenever appropriate. Remember that limitless conversation can happen even during combat.
3) If you have not read the Fog of War rules (posted on page "1" of this thread), please familiarize yourself with them. Meet & Greet aside, whenever in doubt about whether you should make the roll, just make the roll.
Note that the "under the spoiler" rule for rolls only applies during combat; in noncombat situations (initiative not rolled), you are welcome to post any actions and dice rolls publicly -- or, if you like, hide them under spoiler tags if you wish to keep them secret from some or all other players.
OK -- writing up the first post.
Hi,
I was just wondering where everyone is from (currently) in real life, that way I can figure out the best time to lurk on the in-game thread.
:)
I am currently in Honolulu.
I'm in Tucson.
I'm in Heidelberg, Germany. But I keep odd hours. I will be most likely to post (in my local time) in the afternoon, and in the very late evening.
The campaign thread can be found here.
Incidentally, those of you familiar with the map of Golarion may wonder why I chose the name Journey to the West for a campaign which is entirely focused on an eventual journey to the east.
I'm going to go with, the journey to the west will be IN YOUR HEARTS.
Yep.
Ry, i has a sheet, it is done except for languages (i think). i would like your approval to be able to get: thassilion (the precursor to Varisian) I need special permission cause it's not a language I can normally take as an elf. However, as I have the Rune domain, for my Druid, I think it's appropriate. Thanks.
Your character is currently listed as male; I'm pretty sure you intended female, no?
Especially since you can spontanously cast your domain spells, please make a Domain Spell list under Special Abilities to list them (or, well, for now, to list the spell "Erase"). Under the "Druid (Urban Druid) Spells Known" section, please change "1 (2/day)" to "1 (2 +1 domain/day)".
When you get a chance (you can post on the campaign thread before you do this last one), please let me know exactly how you met Shalelu and a bit more about your interactions with her. I would also like to know if you know Myriana, Shalelu's stepsister who has been traveling with her of late.
Also, please add a section to your sheet labeled "Relationships" and add "Shalelu: 5" to it. This is unspoilered because I want to remind everyone to do this.
Once you have done the above, the Liothonae Cromvathar will be APPROVED (silent sound of the ghosts of dead orphans clapping) and you can post on the campaign thread.
Myriana Bayden is APPROVED (sound of the Black Arrows toasting her success). You may post on the campaign thread.
as per Ry's request, a little bit about Sasha Ilarion, NPC in Sandpoint:
People say many things about Sasha Ilarion.
They say she is beautiful. This is true. Her lustrously bright red hair, dancing green eyes, and flawless fair skin are the envy of royalty near and far, and has been for years. They say she is dangerous. This, too is true. She carries a rapier on her slender hip, and walks like she knows how to use it. She is quick as lightning, and people say she is more deadly. And they would be correct in that as well.
The folks of Sandpoint have long heard Sasha play upon her violin, and sometimes when the mood strikes her, she lends her honeyed voice to the tunes she plays. Her songs are haunted melodies, from a long forgotten time, and it is said she discovered these songs upon a grand adventure, an adventure far beyond anything the townsfolk can imagine.
She is sometimes seen in the presence of her sister in law, the half Ork Elena, and it is said that she keeps even more dangerous company. Some say she is married to a wayward elven Bard, and although they have been a couple off and on for the last 15 years, this isn’t precisely true, for he has never asked, and she has never said yes. They have two children, twins, and some say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
But there is one thing the people of Sandpoint dare not say about Sasha Ilarion. Confuse her with her identical twin sister Ana, and that dashing rapier may find its way into your belly. For Sasha Ilarion is completely and irrevocably insane. Of course, this is all Ana’s fault, but that too, is something better not said within Sasha’s hearing. Ana is the only one who has ever truly understood her.
If you ask Rana, the elven father of Sasha’s children, sometime enabler, and occasional honest man, you might get a little more information. You see Sasha wasn’t always insane. She was the bright young daughter of a Corvosan wizard. Her talents ran wild, towards music and joy, while her sister Ana’s talents were the mystical ones their father approved of. It was at the Academie that something horrendous happened to Ana, and it was this that drove Sasha off the edge. And that’s all that he will tell you, because it isn’t his story to tell.
You never see the twins together. Not once, ever, have they walked into the same room, or gone to the market, or had a drink at the tavern. But you know Ana, because she is scarred where Sasha is flawless. She is clear and concise, where Sasha is vague and lilting. And you know Sasha, because she thinks Goblins are cute, and she likes the fireworks, and she just doesn’t understand that her fiddle is really a violin. And it is very clear that the sisters care for each other, and spend nearly every waking moment together, in fact, they can even speak to each other’s minds.
Sasha is a loving, if somewhat absentminded mother. Her children learned at a very young age to be self reliant. She depends on her sister to remind her of things, because to Sasha, things don’t really exist. She probably wouldn’t eat, if it wasn’t for her sister’s regular interruptions into her chaotic mind. She lives to play her music, and to see beauty in the world, and sometimes, she lives to destroy. Her impatient temper is legendary, and so is her beauty. She doesn’t look a day over 20 years old.
Sasha Ilarion: Bard
** spoiler omitted **
Also, please add a section to your sheet labeled "Relationships" and add "Shalelu: 5" to it. This is unspoilered because I want to remind everyone to do this.
Once you have done the above, the Liothonae Cromvathar will be APPROVED (silent sound of the ghosts of dead orphans clapping) and you can post on the campaign thread.
The Mana tells me she is adding the stuff to the list as you requested.
Sometime later, Lio was sitting on a roof top, listening to the music coming out of the tavern without having to go inside, when a girl just happened to be looking up. It turns out this girl was Shalelu's little sister, and having heard about the elven girl from Shalelu, she was curious and climbed up on the roof to say hello. The overly cautious elf took a little while to warm up to (insert Gavin's character's name here). The sister and Lio have formed some bonds of friendship. Although Lio is very reluctant to talk about her life, she has learned quite a bit about the adopted sister.
** spoiler omitted **
Also, please add a section to your sheet labeled "Relationships" and add "Shalelu: 5" to it. This is unspoilered because I want to remind everyone to do this.
Once you have done the above, the Liothonae Cromvathar will be APPROVED (silent sound of the ghosts of dead orphans clapping) and you can post on the campaign thread.
The Mana tells me she is adding the stuff to the list as you requested.
** spoiler omitted **...
Ry: so I'm thinking Shalelu was impressed because Lio noticed her tracks and was able to find her camp in the first place...
jsrose -- all sounds good to me!
location location location... rock in the pacific ocean, aka Hawaii.
Location: Leiden, the Netherlands.
@DM: According to the Player's Guide, we're supposed to be informed of one "favored gift" type for our NPC of choice...
Yep, was just about to post about that, actually.
So, as has been mentioned before, you will gain significant in-game benefits (as well as role-playing happy funtimes) from developing friendly or competitive relationships with significant NPC's. You can develop such relationships with any and all significant NPC's, but you get two starting advantages with your trait NPC.
The first, which should already be incorporated into your character sheet, is a one-time +4 bonus to your relationship score.
The second involves gifts or insults. Each significant NPC has several categories of gifts they particularly like, or insults that particularly bug them. Once per character level (effectively starting at second level), you can attempt to improve your relationship score with an NPC through a thoughtful gift (if friendly) or a perfectly crafted insult (if competitive).
For your trait NPC, you also have the advantage of knowing one of these types of gifts or insults in advance. I will note also that always giving a single category of gift or insult will diminish in effectiveness over time and eventually accrue penalties to your attempt. Finding out some of the other categories will therefore eventually be useful.
(Do bear in mind that this means that if you wish to find out more appropriate gifts or insults with your trait PC, or to develop a relationship with a non-trait NPC, one of several ways to do so would be to attempt to get another PC close to them to tell you what the person likes/dislikes, through roleplaying.)
Below are the gifts or insults those of you who have picked a trait character, and for whom I know whether they are friendly or competitive. If you have a trait and are not listed, it was because I was not 100% sure whether you were friendly or competitive (I may be 99% sure, but I did not want to go ahead without asking), so tell me which if your character is not below.
No matter what trait you picked, you can choose either, by the way -- best friends can be competitive, and some people deal with their feelings for a crush in a combatitive manner, for example. And either path can potentially lead to romance if that (may be) your ultimate goal, with any NPC.
You do not have to decide whether you are friendly or competitive with your trait NPC until the end of the Meet & Greet, if you want to feel out your character's approach with roleplaying a little first, but whenever the Meet & Greet ends I will ask for a decision (there is no penalty for waiting, as making dice rolls for the results of gifts/insults are not allowed at the Meet & Greet, or really at first level in general.) And of course, you're welcome to choose now if you already know. And note that it is possible to change from friendly to competitive mid-game, or vice versa, although doing so has a penalty for your relationship score.
So --
Everyone else, please confirm whether you are friendly or competitive with your trait NPC, or waiting until the end of the Meet & Greet.
And having re-checked my messages:
Though I'm rather having fun exchanging playful jabs with Ameiko right now, I'll go for friendly. I'd feel bad having to think up particularly painful insults for her. :P
Can we attempt one gift/insult per level or one per level and NPC? I feel like it would be fun to insult Sandru every now and then, but I don't want to fall behind on Ameiko's favor either.
Given the mechanic, I am fairly sure it would have to be one per level per NPC. You can assume that unless I find out otherwise and say so.
I do see your point. That tea-with-milk part was fun, and I can't imagine a "you're so cuddly, here's a flower" approach working well on someone as explicitly independent and individualistic as Ameiko. She has also been turning down her obvious suitors for a while now, so maybe a less conventional approach is needed? Makes sense.
Assuming these insults are allowed to be of the good-natured, "well played, Sir" kind rather than the "argh! the anguish! how could you do that to me!" kind, I'll go with that.
On second thought, I'll go for this arrangement:
Ameiko: Competitive (in a good way ;)
Sandru: Competitive (in a we might end up as friends but first we'll have to go through that climactic bloody fistfight-in-the-rain scene way)
Koya: Friendly
Shalelu: Friendly
Note to all: You will eventually all start to form relationships of one kind or another with all the key NPCs (there is a mechanic by which your relationship score automatically goes up as you travel and adventure with people, if nothing else). So if you want to start keeping track of all of them now, feel free. But the mechanic will start to matter much more starting at 2nd level; I basically asked for your relationship and score with your "trait" NPC now in order to help flesh out backstory, Meet & Greet, and some other matters.
Did I understand correctly that we're not yet allowed to make mechanically relevant gifts/insults until 2nd level? Why is that?
For some reason, I would have expected Ameiko to be more sensitive about gender than about race, but maybe that's just another pressure point waiting to be discovered.
2) Because the module is really set up for the characters to start interacting with the NPC's at about second level. It starts with you going off to deal with the goblins, and then you meet and start seriously interacting with the NPC's for the rest of the AP beginning when you come back to town. I thought that order was a little meh given the importance of the NPC's to the game, so when I decided to add a Meet & Greet I put them in because I thought it was a better set-up for establishing and fleshing out the characters and their relationships with the NPC's. But I didn't want to make it an artificial "leg up" on what is actually an important mechanic.
3) No comment; if you suspect that will be a good way to needle her in a friendly way, feel free to try it out at some point and see if it works.
I am going for Friendly with Sandru.
No rush on answering this but,
Blood Rage
School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level adept 3, bard 2, cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a drop of blood from each creature to be affected)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./level)
Targets one willing living creature per 2 levels, no two of which may be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
The targets of this spell become angrier as they fight, the pain of their wounds fueling their strength. An affected creature gains a cumulative +2 morale bonus to Strength and a cumulative –1 penalty to AC for every 5 points of damage it takes (maximum +10 Strength, –5 AC) for the duration of the spell. These bonuses last until the spell expires or the target falls unconscious.
With your approval this and Strangling Hair will be my first 3rd level spells... at level 6. (i might be getting ahead of myself)
Everyone: All AP traits except Caravan Guard give you a +1 bonus on all attacks against foes that threaten your trait NPC. Most of you haven't got that down on your character sheet; it should go both under the trait and under attack modifiers. It could come up a lot in this game.
Note: I am interpreting "threaten" to mean the Pathfinder definition of "threatened", i.e. a foe with a potential attack and melee reach extending to the square your trait NPC is in, etc.
Note: I am interpreting Caravan Guard as the Lame Trait for characters who join the game after you are already well into the adventure and have long left Sandpoint behind, when it no longer makes sense to run into a sudden extra sibling but you can easily hire a new guard.
I was wondering about this cantrip: Scrivener's Chant
I like the flavor, but it's from Seeker's of Secrets, so it is a no go right?
OK, the adventure has officially begun!
Couple of notes --
1) If you're bookmarking the thread rather than using RSS or another method, now that it's got more than 50 posts you can click on "last" to go to the most recent page. If you bookmark it then, your bookmark will always take you to the most recent page.
2) One place where a time-zone separated PBP could get really bogged down is waiting for everyone to decide where to go next. I could simply railroad you if it becomes a problem, but I'd rather not.
In general, while the group isn't in exploration or dungeon crawl mode, I'd encourage you to simply be independent on that -- if you want to go directly to the shack in the swamp, just start going. If you want to do something else, do that. Others will join you or not, and I'll handle it and make sure everyone has stuff to do and gets back together before anything critical happens.
If you want to all stick together and have everyone just generally follow wherever the first person happens to go, that's definitely a good and possibly easier choice, but don't feel obligated, especially not in situations where nothing is likely to attack the group while some people are off doing whatever.
3) Outside of combat situations, rolls can be made at any time. I encourage you to be proactive. :)
Liothonae, based on your interactions with Shalelu, I'm going to assume your attitude towards her is friendly rather than competitive. If I am mistaken and that is not the case, please do not click on the below and I will repost an appropriate insult rather than an appropriate gift. But if I am right, click away.
Everyone, you're still being awfully polite on the thread. :) If you genuinely don't have an opinion about where to go next, that's fine, but if you do and simply really don't want to just head for the door (although that would be fine, it really would), feel free to post something like, "I think we should head for the (place)." If there is general agreement on this, (my character) will head out.
But there's no need to hang out in the tavern anymore unless, for some particular reason, you want to hang out in the tavern (e.g., if you have more questions for Sheriff Hemlock.)
I was under the impression that there was going to be some kind of mission briefing.
That was the mission briefing. Well, that plus the information in the very first post, which he assumed you already knew, since you showed up to volunteer for the job. Please feel free to have your character ask for clarification if you deem it necessary.
Yeah, I just noticed there was a whole new page of responses :)
Ah. Yeah, I've been caught out that way too, on the boards. You can see my note above about how to bookmark it to take you to the last page, if it would help. (That's how I found out how to do that ...)
ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ ಕಲ್ಲು ಪತನದ ನಿಜವಾದ ನಿರಾಶೆ ದ್ವೇಷ ತುಂಬಿದ ಡ್ವಾರ್ವೆಸ್ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೇಲ್ಮೈಗೆ ಚಾಲಿತ ಅವರು ಓರ್ಕ್ಸ್ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ ನಷ್ಟ.
So ... having chatted with some players, a point I haven't made clear that I wish to clear up --
In noncombat situations, I am allowing "backsies".
In other words, if you leave a room or an area, and something AWESOMELY COOL happens there that you would have wanted to be a part of if you'd only waited a little while to post, you are allowed to say "OK, my character hadn't left yet, s/he leaves later, so I say ..." etc.
Similarly, if you wanted to do something or say something to someone else, and everyone else has already moved on, you are allowed to say, "Before everyone leaves the room, I ...". Or you can have instantly responded to a comment made in a conversation by someone that has moved on and is talking to someone else now. That's fine.
The only limitation I will put on this is that if another PC explicitly states they are doing something after certain other people or all other people have left, or something similar, please respect that -- e.g., if a character says, "Once everyone else has left the room but Sheriff Hemlock and I, I pull him aside and say, 'This thing between us. We must admit it. Take me now.'" -- then don't say you were there for that. The other PC said it was just them, so it is.
Codicil -- similarly, you can assume that (a) if you want to do/say something when the full group is there, everyone will be around for it, and (b) if someone does/says something on the assumption that the full group is there, you can be around for it if you want to, even if you haven't yet said you went somewhere.
In a nutshell, outside of combat rounds, time is flexible. Lunchtime doubly so.
also, yes, i'm friendly with Shalelu, sorry i didn't reply right away.
i think the flexible time thing is a great idea... sometimes two people might post at the same time, or close enough in time that they don't see each others posts until after they've posted... so that will be great with editing little things, and making sure we're all on the same page. :)
woot for flexible time. I vote for lunch now.
woot for flexible time. I vote for lunch now.
i just had lunch. inspired by last night's pizza, i made... pizza. but from scratch. sadly, not with pineapple, pepperoni, nor jalapenio. but i did put on extra sauce ;)
Addendum -- To keep things from getting *too* ridiculously out-of-whack, "flexible time" can happen in any period between the 24-hour resolution updates, but shouldn't cross them.
To make this clear, I'll head resolution updates OOC and in all caps, as I did with:
So, for example, the next one I post might be:
and until I post something like that, you can assume that you can "back up" and take care of anything that you wanted to take care of in town or on the road, including conversations with other characters.
But once I post the all-caps header, the "clock" will reset to 0:00, as it were.
Are you guys using Google translate or do any of you actually speak Welsh?
Poor Elves; one British guy liked the sound of Welsh for some reason, and as a consequence they're cursed with it for eternity...
If I'd been a Tolkienian elf, I'd have spoken only Quenya. ;)
I am abusing Google Translate so hard that it may break under the strain.
Me too. Although I could post in German without translation assistance and call that Druidic.
On that note, Ry, What language should I post in if that ever comes up?
:)
Too many people in this game would be able to understand the German.
For the language of the druids, I would reccommend the Irish setting.
Or rather,
Chun teanga na draoithe, ba mhaith liom a mholadh ar an suíomh na hÉireann.
If anyone wishes to keep track, so far we have:
Terran -- Christian's linguistic transformation
Elvish -- Welsh
Druidic -- Irish (Gaelic)
Goblin -- Maltese
Thassilonian -- Kannada
I plan to reserve a Scandinavian language for Skald and an Asian language for Tien, although I haven't picked which ones yet.
If you pick an option for a language you use, please try to make it appropriate but reasonably obscure for Americans and Europeans. Easily recognizable Romance, Germanic, or Slavic languages should be avoided if possible (e.g. French, Latin, Russian, German), although less common ones (Lithuanian, Croatian, Albanian) would be fine. Any African or Asiatic language is probably fine.