Wecome to the following:
Captaincortez - Adina Correll, CG Human Urban Barbarian
halplm - Jynerva, N Elf Witch
Tilnar - Dracius Ludio, NG Half-Orc Cleric of Shelyn
There should be two to three other players also joining us. For the moment though, I'd like to go over a few things.
What I expect:
- I expect my players to post at least once a day during the weekdays, with allowances for life during the weekends. During combat, if it takes you more than 24 hours to post, I may take control of your character so that we can move things along.
- Please type your posts in this format: Thoughts = italics, Speech = bold
- Don't ruin the fun for everyone else. I love in party conflict, I really do, but please try to keep in mind that there are other people sitting behind the avatars you see, and they want to enjoy the game as much as you do. Don't make it your mission to ruin everyone elses day. I'm going to trust you guys on this.
- IC =/= OOC If a character says something hurtful to your character, please don't assume that the player has something wrong with you. On the flipside, if you have a problem with another player, don't use your character to passive-aggressively make jabs at said player. We should act like adults here. That's what the OOC thread is for.
- In the interest of tailoring this game to the players, I am not going to have you automatically start at Vizio's Tavern (unless, of course, the majority of you want to). The game starts with your character being approached by a woman named Janiven, who will then try to convince your character to come to a meeting at said tavern. Now, I try my best not to railroad my players, but this AP absolutely requires that your character at least check the meeting out. After that, you can jump the rails all you want. I wouldn't bring this up if I hadn't had issues with it in the past.
- Even so, please keep in mind that I'm fairly new at this. If I had loads of experience and ideas of my own, I probably wouldn't be running this AP. I'm going to try my hardest not to railroad you, but I'd appreciate it if you would be...gentle. If somehow you guys do manage to completely jump the rails though, the game -will- continue. I just may need to take some time to think of what exactly I'm going to do with you.
- Track your hit points on your sheet. I will be tracking them as well, but I may need to reference your sheets if I have to post from another computer.
- I prefer players to type at least a paragraph or two every post. One liners make me sad. I'll allow them every now and then, but if they are all you post, I may have a stern talking to you. If things don't improve after that, then I may have you leave the group.
- With that in mind, posting a one liner is better than not posting at all. If your character isn't doing anything, at least pop in and let us know that they're still there.
- If you can't post for more than a day, please let us know in the OOC thread!
- Have fun!
What to expect from me:
- I will be checking the thread multiple times a day, and posting at least once a day, though I may be a bit more erratic in my posting during the weekends.
- My timezone is EST, which is UTC - 5 hours. I post mainly during the day and night, though as my sleep schedule becomes more set in stone, I may post during the morning and night.
- I will be making maps in either maptools, photoshop, or a combination of both.
- If things aren't moving along due to the absence of a player, I may assume that their character simply isn't paying attention/doesn't have anything to say at the moment, and move on.
- If things are moving TOO fast, I may ask you to slow down. This may occur if I notice two of you posting back and forth rapid fire at each other, without allowing the rest of the party time to react.
- I am new at this. I may make mistakes. If I do, I will apologize, profusely. That said, what I say goes. I will not spend post after post arguing over a ruling. PBP games move far too slowly for use to waste time on that.
- I plan to run this game to 20th level, under the assumption that I will have enough experience by the end of the AP to come up with more ideas after said 'end' occurs.
- I have a secret. I draw. I draw other people's characters. I might draw the entire party at one point if everyone gives me permission.
- And finally, if at any point I find myself unable to post for a while, I will let you know. If for some horrifying reason I find myself unable to continue the game, I will let you know. I'll consider this a sort of 'social contract' that I have signed.
What I need from you now.
- I need a completed character sheet on your profile. If you need an example of how to do this, look at my character Rica Hismar. Please include appearance, personality, and history. Starting gold is average for your class, and you start with maximum hp. If you have any questions or concerns, post them here. I -will- be checking your sheets, so please don't try to get anything past me.
- Your character's campaign trait.
- A way other than these forums to contact you. This can be an email (which I'll need anyway if I decide to do maps with googledocs), an im screen name, or whatever. I understand if you're uncomfortable with giving me any of those though.
- Your time zone.
- Where your character lives within Westcrown. I can help you with this if you have no idea.
- A detailed description of your characters appearance, along with whether or not you're comfortable with me drawing your character.
Thank you for reading all of that, and thank you so much for being a part of this! I apologize for my long-windedness, but I wanted to get all of that out there at the beginning to avoid any possible conflicts/problems later on. If you have a problem with any of that, let me know and we can talk it out. :)
1. Post in this thread.
2. Failing that, email linacrow at yahoo dot com
3. Failing that, bug her at uberacid over aim.
Failure to follow said order will result in a stern look from me.
Mostly complete. I will amend with the starting gold and such. I can reformat it to match your example. My only real outstanding issue is figuring out what my familiar's stats, tricks, feats should be, but I'll work on that.
To be clear, are we doing 2 traits, plus campaign trait?
Sent you an email.
I'm PST at the moment and post at any time of day.
I'll look into where I live in Westcrown. As of this moment, I have no idea, but I'm sure I can figure it out.
I'd welcome any drawings of my character. Sounds great. If the appearance description is not good enough, let me know. I can always suggest changes after seeing the drawings as well if you don't mind.
We're doing two traits, including campaign trait. So you would pick the campaign trait and then one more.
An amazing map that I've found is this. You don't have to give me a specific building, just something like 'an apartment in x district' will work.
I'll look into familiar stats and see if I can't help you out. I'm currently at a friend's house without my book, but I'll sift through the prd and see if I can't find the correct stats.
There are two things that confuse me, but I think I've figured it out.
Saving throws: Use Familiar base (2,2,0) or my base (currently 0,0,2) whichever is better, and add it's own modifiers. I think this means the base would be (2,2,2) and then his modifiers. Eventually they will just match mine.
Skills: Use Familiars or Mine, whichever is better. I think this means just use a Cat's skills since they will be higher at first, and anything else just use my stats... if a cat could do it, like Sense Motive.
In any case, I think I've got it all there in the profile now. Let me know what you think.
Almost done guys, although I might have to finish putting the story into context tomorrow. It's almost 5am here and I have 9 pages of story to go through.
My stats and everything like that are actually complete and under my Adina profile now.
Also, I've sent you a message on the recruitment thread, Acid. :)
As for the map of Westcrown, is there a labelled version, telling us all which district is which?
I've said Adina's living in Rego Laina, but have no idea where that is on the map. The details of districts can be found in Cheliax: Empire of Devil's. :)
I would say Jynerva lives in Rego Pena, if there's a place that is cheap enough. She definitely wants to be able to find rich clients, but she's going to want to keep tabs on the underworld too, but I figure she can do that anywhere. But to get rich clients, she's going to need to be in a nice area...
I'm still working on some build ideas, so I wouldn't say my skill set is finalized yet.
I'm looking at arcane trickster as a possible Prestige class... yeah I know I'm all over the place. Thing is it would give levels similar to rogue but still improving my magic. Anyway, still working.
ETA: Hmm, well, that plan might not work too well. I guess it will depend on how things play out. I think I'm set for level 1 at least ;). I only made one skill switch, decided I'd rather potentially intimidate than Perform: dance...
I also had an idea we can talk about, DM Acid, about dipping into sorcerer for the fey and/or the infernal bloodline. It would fit how I want to play witch (bloodline power adds to DC of compulsion and/or charm spells), and it could potentially tie into why people wanted me dead, and who my patron is. But anyway, no need to think about it too much now.
I am also in the EDT timezone, and my posting is usually during the day (in the week), though I try to get in one evening post (also).
I can't find enough detail about Westcrown to see where the artist quarter or theatre would be -- but wherever that is, Dracius would be using his mother's funds to live there (and may have gotten the apartment in the first place because of her connections). The other option would be to put him in the apartment his grandparents bought for Vrak and Atia, which would be in Rego Pena, I imagine. [I think, based on what I can tell, either way, Dracius will be living in Parego Spera]
I am extremely comfortable with (read: excited about) you drawing my character and only wish I could have it as an avatar. Feel free to ask for any additional details you find lacking in the description.
I'm hammering out the final details of the character (including equipment, feat selection and I'm really eyeing that non-campaign trait and so it may meet with an accident and get itself replaced as well), so I'll be posting him within 24 hours -- I've just copied what I used in the recruitment thread as a placeholder for now (though it does have my trait selection).
And I'll email you an email address, if you don't mind, Acid. I'd rather not put one somewhere a bot could scrape it from.
We've been discussing the feat I picked in a different game, and I wanted to get your opinion on how it operates before selecting it when we start.
The feat, Breadth of Experience, lets me get +2 to all knowledge and profession checks, and to make those checks without training in the skill. To me, particularly with Knowledge checks and my INT modifier, means I can get +6 on all knowledge checks (which makes sense with the flavor of the feat) even without skill ranks with them.
If, for some reason, you want this to work differently, let me know so I can decide if I really want it.
I've tidied up her profile now, providing a brief description of her and her current residence, along with her occupational status.
I've also changed her statblock layout to look like everyone elses now, making it easier to find the information you need.
Once I've put the story in order it'll be 100% done. :)
Also, hey to you guys who are playing with me. I don't think any of us have spoken (typed) yet, so just thought I'd start off by saying hi. :p
Hey :).
I'm still in flux... I'm going to be concentrating more on spells and hexing than I was planning before... which makes a lot more sense, but it's going to mean shifting some stats and skills again. I may wait to see the rest of the group to see what skills I want to cover.
And I'll email you an email address, if you don't mind, Acid. I'd rather not put one somewhere a bot could scrape it from.
I'm starting to think that I might be a fearless fool when it comes to email bots. >> Oh well, I'll just take one for the team.
I'm going to finish going over everyone's sheets now.
Also, the current party is now:
Captaincortez - Adina Correll, CG Human Urban Barbarian
halplm - Jynerva, N Elf Witch
Tilnar - Dracius Ludio, NG Half-Orc Cleric of Shelyn
Everstride - Razik "Raz" Azkul, CG Tiefling Rogue
My next few choices are going to be made in the interest of party balance, and how I think the characters will interact.
I know for a fact that Everstride is going to be away most of tonight, but he should be back either late tonight, or in the morning tomorrow.
I should probably introduce myself now, if we're saying hi. Hey all! I'm known over most of the internet as Acid (that's a low ph, not the drug). I'm a 20-something funeral student, artist, and rabid Paizo fan. I enjoy clerics, non-core races, kobolds, and long walks through the Heights of Korvosa. :D
Thanks, Acid. Still really excited! :)
My concept has moved away from the Assassin/stealth ideas. The story isn't changing, but I don't expect to try to do much melee. Only multi-classing is the possible dip into Sorcerer.
I've updated the stats and skills to reflect this. Haven't double checked things yet, though, so if I messed things up, I'll fix :).
Final Roster for Council of Thieves
Captaincortez - Adina Correll, CG Human Urban Barbarian
halplm - Jynerva, N Elf Witch
Tilnar - Dracius Ludio, NG Half-Orc Cleric of Shelyn
Everstride - Razik "Raz" Azkul, CG Tiefling Rogue (Thug)
PaizoFan - Tito Grulios, N Human Infernal Sorcerer
Mr. Rainy Day - Lucius Talamont, LG Human Paladin of Iomedae
And NOW I'll be checking over character sheets. @.@
Once I get everything I need from you guys, and get any questions answered, we can start.
Thanks Acid, I've 100% finished my character off now, but fear it's not as good as it was earlier as without realising my net died, I hit save changes and it failed to load, deleting everything I typed, so I had to stay up for another hour to fix it.
It's now about 4am here, which btw I'm on GMT London time. :)
Anyway, go and have a look if you want. There's stacks to read. :p
I've left some bits on show for other players to read, but apart from that, the stuff I've spoilered I may use as a plot device for when our characters are discussing their pasts with one another.
Humans don't seem to have a favoured class option. They just seem to get this:
Skilled: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.
Unless I'm mistaken and would in fact get 6 ranks per level because of a favoured class and Human rank bonus?
It doesn't mention favoured class for any race, so I guess I do get 6 ranks or 5 ranks and 1 extra HP a level as I'm guessing every race gets a favoured class. What do you make of that?
Humans can be found at the bottom here:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/races.html
Edit: Yep, I just checked it out. The extra skill rank is just something a human gets and you get an additional rank or hit point on top of it due to your favoured class, so what I'm going to do is have 5 ranks and 1 additional hp. I need as much life as I can get with low armour.
15hp at level 1 isn't bad, and with the possibility of rolling max on any other level, grabbing 15hp a time is pretty good. :D
The way I do hp rolls is that you take either what you roll, or half, whichever is better. I do this because I think I would be in physical pain if I saw any of you roll a 1 for hp during a level.
Speaking of level up, I have a very simple system for leveling the party up. The party levels up when I say so. That's it. I prefer to have the party grow as the story moves forward, instead of basing it on exactly how many zombies you've killed.
The way I do hp rolls is that you take either what you roll, or half, whichever is better. I do this because I think I would be in physical pain if I saw any of you roll a 1 for hp during a level.
Speaking of level up, I have a very simple system for leveling the party up. The party levels up when I say so. That's it. I prefer to have the party grow as the story moves forward, instead of basing it on exactly how many zombies you've killed.
Ah, that's strange, but I guess depending on how you do it, it might make us level 20 by the time other people are only level 17, giving us a better chance of survival.
As for the HP thing, I had a Halfling fighter who by level 6 had 41hp even with a +2 Con mod. So, instead of 70 something, he had 41 which was the lowest HP in the entire party and he was the front man, because I rolled a 1, then levelled up again and rolled another 1, then a 3.
In the fight against the Carrion King, he took my life down to half in one hit, so I stepped back, healed and rolled a 1 on my first cure mod and a 3 on my second, then got taken to -37 on the Kings next attack.
I could have run away but had a Sorcerer right behind me and an invisible Half-Orc somewhere who might have been able to help, but he was waiting invisible to come out and sunder the Kings weapon. So, I gave my life so the party could survive, but all but one died and the CR jumped up to 18 when a giant Centipede popped out.
The monk who told us all to play his way, expecting us to work as a team literally all of the time, hating it when I refused to do what he said as I wanted to scout around decided to leave us, not bother checking if we were alive, then attempt to save some slaves until he couldn't be bothered as Unchosen Gnoll's were after him, so he ran off.
The DM had about 5 different instances where the monk should have died and forgot to implement every single one of them and apparently he didn't want my character to die.
The only reason the monk survived was because he was broken and over-powered. The player was one of these people who has to find every loophole and boost his character to the max.
I don't have much luck when it comes to rolling life. I also had a Barbarian called Arcapello who has something like a +7 or +9 to hit and literally never hit!
He was just useful at doing stupid things such as flicking peanuts at other characters while at dinner with a king, then being told to leave by the king for his childish behaviour and deciding to make an igloo in the snow outside, where he then peed on the snow in such a way that he wrote his name.
Do you do criticals as whatever the weapon says, or use crit and fumble cards instead? :p
I do crits as what the weapons says, since I don't have any crit and fumble cards. I also don't want to add yet -another- thing to deal with during combat. However, if a monster or npc fumbles, I might get creative with what happens.
Ah okay.
It's far more complicated online than it is on a table, so I understand that.
Anyway, Adina's now completely......complete and I'm ready whenever. ;)
Hopefully I've given you enough to work with and you like the story/concept.
Ok, Dracius should now be available via profile -- ready for any questions. ;)
Ok, I'll rework to 18max
Tito Grulios, reporting for duty. While I shall keep the main sheet in Hero Lab, I will track health and consumables in the profile. I shall update just now.
Also, Tito resides in Rego Laino at his father's estate. Mechanically, this does nothing as his father's business is bankrupt and it is only by the good graces of the Grulios family at large that they remain there, in case Tito actually makes something of himself.
Well guys, I am now posting as a girl. She's a good looking one though, so it's alright. :p
Ok, I think I'm set. Only question I have left is the one I asked earlier about the Breadth of experience feat.
Might I suggest that as we level and gain extra feats that we keep teamwork feats in the back of our mind? Perhaps we could have a quick discussion on which feats would benefit us?
They're not even on my mind to be honest.
I looked through them when making my build, but the ones that will help me the most are all single player feats, so I won't be getting any teamwork feats.
That doesn't mean I won't work in a group once we get past the whole "deciding which characters our character will get on with" thing though.
I've got my level 20 loadout and will work towards it as much as I can. I will be hit A LOT, but hopefully I'll roll well enough to get enough life to make up for that fact. :)
Fair enough. As the father of a month old newborn, I should get at least one post in a day. However, I work over an hour from my home so if I don't get a post in during any given period then feel free to DMPC Tito for any require actions.
Tito is still very much a family man, determined to get revenge on House Drovenge for what they did to his mother. Once he learns of the plot to overthrow the rulers of Westcrown he will gladly join with them but will act in a way that will not affect his own family. Assassination is a way of life in the noble houses but he would not play part in the a outright daylight confrontation without some form of disguise, hence his knowing Disguise Self, which I plan to use to implicate House Drovenge at any opportunity.
Just a quickie but do any of you have specific pronounciations for your characters names?
I assume Tito Grulios is pronounced Tee-toe Groo-lee-oce.
Mine's pronounced A-dee-nah Cor-rell.
Jynerva I'm guessing is Ji-nerv-a and Dracius Ludio I'm guessing is Dray-tious Loo-dee-oh.
If I'm wrong, let me know. :p
That sounds right.
Yup, that sounds about right to me!
CaptainCortez, I think your profile is set! I'm still looking over everyone elses. Should be done with that within the hour.
Cool, thanks, I'm all set then.
I'm off to bed for the night, but will catch the game thread if started in the morning.
Dracius Ludio I'm guessing is Dray-tious Loo-dee-oh.
That sounds right to me. :)
I'm having issues with either my internet or the Paizo site, so I'll be slow tonight until it's cleared up.
Alright, everyone that's finished their character sheet is good to go, unless I missed something blatantly obvious.
Mr. Rainy, there is a good chance that I'll be up for a while, so I should be able to check over your sheet and be ready by tomorrow if you manage to finish your sheet tonight.
Everstride called me and informed me that his internet was acting up today, and by the time he got it working he had to go to his job. He should be able to post when he gets home though.
CaptainCortez, I think your profile is set! I'm still looking over everyone elses. Should be done with that within the hour.
Haha, well good job I gave it one last check over. I just had to fix my Sense Motive score. :p
It was on +2 and although it's untrained (meaning I can't put ranks into it), I didn't include my Wisdom score at +1, so I've sorted it now and will have +3 on Sense Motive throughout the entire campaign. It can't be raised any higher as I have no way of changing it from untrained to trained.
Urban would give me Knowledge Local but due to her past, I kept it as Knowledge of Nature. However, with her living in Oppara for 14 years (and now having already lived in Westcrown for a month) I could switch it to knowledge of Local as she should know more about towns and cities than where she originally grew up. Besides, I'd still have survival as a nod to her past/origins.
I just had a thought about it and didn't think there would be any point focusing in Knowledge of Nature when I assume this whole campaign is set inside the City of Westcrown.
Also, I'll start working on a picture for Adina over the next day or two to see what I can come up with. She'll be wearing a tiara that looks like the Crown of Taldor, probably with a big red cape (like what you'd find on a king or queen) with lions fur lined around the collar. Her chest will have cleavage on show with a broken chain shirt fused into the material that flaunts her fashion sense and I might make it so she has high boots with a lower dress/skirt that cuts off to one side, being short on one side and long on the other. Gonna try and mix some ranger clothing into her design. :)
She'll also probably have the Taldorian symbol on her cape in gold coloured cotton, though her hair will be long at the back, then layered from short (at her forehead) running into long bangs.
Hopefully that's descriptive enough. Other info on how she looks and comes across is on her profile which I've left on show so you know what you're all seeing when you first meet her. :)
I checked over your skills again, and it seems like I missed something else. You only get the +3 to a class skill if you have a rank in it. You can also put ranks in skills that aren't class skills, you just don't get the +3 bonus.
So, just try to forget about that for now. It's a note to myself to say what I have class skills in, just so I don't have to double check it when it comes to putting ranks into them.
The only things I'll be using at level 1 are Perception, Knowledge of Nature (I may as well keep it then), Knowledge of Nobility, Diplomacy and Intimidate. With the exception of Sense Motive that I may use untrained at any given point.
I don't think I can put ranks into Sense Motive as it's an untrained skill. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought I read that untrained skills only allow you to put in your base mod, unless upon putting one rank into it, it becomes trained? Which I guess would make sense. :/
Do you mind if I swap out ride for Knowledge of Local? I don't intend to ride anything to be honest, so rather than having it in my unranked section, maybe I could move down my Knowledge of Nobility into that until I reach level 2, swap out ride for the Urban Barbarian's Knowledge of Local and then put Knowledge of Local up in my current skills used, just to be on the safe side.
Apart from that, the only thing I need to draw is a picture and then no more work for me other than writing. :p
When do you plan on starting this? I know we're waiting for one or two people to sort out their character sheets.
I hope to start either today or tomorrow, depending on how quickly we can get everyone's sheets done.
She'd definitely have knowledge of Oppara, but Westcrown not so much. She'd probably know the shop workers names where she shops for her fashion and obviously know her landlords name, but that's about it. Although as a player, I have no idea of their names lol.
Do you know where the Rego Laina district is on the map? I just want to know where her house is, as if it's on the middle island, just below the top and most important looking district, I already know where her house is and can draw a circle around it for you?
Hopefully we can start soon. Also, you'll be alright as Tark has a Council of Thieves campaign currently going on, so it'd be a good place for you to get reference from if you get stuck on anything.
I'm doing that with the Rise of the Runelords campaign I'm going to be running for people in about three weeks time.
I wouldn't worry too much about riding, I have a coach. Just need a driver.