I'm all for getting started directly. Having things to react to makes for better RP than "you're sitting around the dinner table, find a reason to compare life stories".
I am good with jumping right in. A little backtracking once in a while is fine by me to share backstories if needed.
Also, in the main thread I had Tragershen share what he knows from the spoilers. I suggested that since he wasn't holding anything back and he could give the info under all the spoilers, is it okay for me to tell the other players they can look under the spoilers if they want?
Edit: never mind, I saw your response in the main thread.
I'm all for getting started directly. Having things to react to makes for better RP than "you're sitting around the dinner table, find a reason to compare life stories".
Oh sure! I like this, I'm just saying that the other thread on the Google site could be handy for people who like the other kind of thing too. That's all.
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned/discussed already... but where is everyone from and/or currently residing?
I am in Edmonton (Canada) making me UTC -7. But I don't sleep too much so I post all day (and night) long. ;)
PS And slot 1 wasn't "reserved" for me... I started to edit the page and all I got in was the name. :)
Your GM is EST, Atlanta, which is UTC -5 I believe. I post mostly during the day, but will check this thread once per night now...
I'm ESTish for the most part. My posting times are erratic but steady on a day to day basis, I usually check in twice per day or so, more if I'm feeling particularly neurotic. Sorry I didn't get in till today, I thought we weren't starting until today and I had a window where I didn't have computer access for most of sunday.
I am from and residing in Paizoland. I live in Seattle, work in Bellevue and was raised in Redmond. On weekdays I can post from work on breaks and typically do. Also, I check in from home on the evenings and weekends as frequently as I can, which is typically a few times a day.
I'm also west coast, which is UTC -8 I think. I'm free to check through most of the day, but I keep latish hours so about now is usually the soonest I do.
How do you want to handle combat? Stick to posting in Initiative order with a DM response to each action, or have enough post their action for the round and then deal with it all in one DM response? I've seen both used before.
I'm on PST, living and working in Oregon, near Portland but out in the country a bit (which makes up in peacefulness what it lacks in convenience). This is lucky; all of us being so close in time zones should make back-and-forth posting easier. Most of my posts will be evenings, weekends, and Thursdays, since I can't post at work except on breaks, and even that's a challenge.
How do you want to handle combat? Stick to posting in Initiative order with a DM response to each action, or have enough post their action for the round and then deal with it all in one DM response? I've seen both used before.
Go ahead and post your action ahead of time if you want unless you are waiting on a crucial action from someone, then I will understand.
I am okay with a retcon if something makes sense like "I heal X instead of my attack".
Yes indeed! I managed to pare my excessive wishlist down to just one ranged weapon that doubles as melee and threatens AoO (sling staff), one utility tool that triples as melee and thrown weapons (dagger), one melee weapon that doubles as thrown (trident), and a high-damage reach. What's more, the only non-piercing weapon is a halfling one, so they all fit either his racial culture or his personal background: hating sahuagin, and therefore favoring stabby weapons that work well in water. I was pretty proud of myself for that.
You find that even your keen senses are not enough to have seen the creature!
'
No sorries! I based my decision on the character and his situation, so I would do the same again. And I appreciate the explanation of the terrain; from the snippet of map there, north looks as passable as south.
Yes please assume all terrain is rough in the jungle unless I specify any trails or areas that are not rough terrain on a map. So far no trails or flat areas not covered with vegetation or roots or little pools of water...or snakes...
** spoiler omitted **
Don't worry, hotmail works fine, it is only for the invite, the google site is not an account for you guys, just me, this will enable you to view it.
Cool
So, a totally random question: if three characters were to move into flanking positions on the same initiative count, would that work for them all?
So, a totally random question: if three characters were to move into flanking positions on the same initiative count, would that work for them all?
You have to ready an action to attack once the flank is completed...its hard to put together...and with 3 characters I believe the creature in question would most likely have to be larger or bigger.
Should I assume that Anton ate his trail rations the first day? I didn't notice anything about foraging, and I picture him as having a healthy appetite; not that he eats a lot at once, but that he's a nibbler, eating at least a little snack every couple of hours.
Should I assume that Anton ate his trail rations the first day? I didn't notice anything about foraging, and I picture him as having a healthy appetite; not that he eats a lot at once, but that he's a nibbler, eating at least a little snack every couple of hours.
Yes you ate rations, you didn't have time to forage. To feed yourself and potentially others it take 4 hours and a survival check.
Reposted from Gameplay where it got lost in the shuffle... I noticed that Tragershen neglected to include his elven +2 to ID magic items on Larissia's compass and the contents of her backpack. I would need to know how that changes things, if at all, before deciding what Anton suggests to do with that compass.
The roll is good enough to determine the item is a wayfinder, normal.
Description:
A small magical device patterned off ancient relics of
the Azlanti, a wayfinder is typically made from silver and
bears gold accents. With a command word, you can use
a wayfinder to shine (as the light spell). The wayfinder also
acts as a nonmagical (magnetic) compass, granting you a +2
circumstance bonus on Survival checks to avoid becoming
lost. All wayfinders include a small indentation designed to
hold a single ioun stone. An ioun stone slotted in this manner
grants you its normal benefits (as if it were orbiting your
head)
Cool
** spoiler omitted **
Wise Owl, the site invite was just sent, let me know if you have any issues with it!
Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out, but I can't seem to access this without disclosing my google account. I suppose I could always just make another junk account.
Yeah, I have two Google accounts: one for the Yahoo address that I mentioned earlier, and the other for a throwaway Gmail account that I never check. Annoying, but it works for keeping things separated.
Apologies to anyone if I'm moving things along too fast, but it's a Thursday. Four tens with Thursdays off, so I actually get to enjoy myself a bit. :)
***strolls into PBP thread after taking eyes off it for half a day***
Holy crap! What happened in here? What? Where? When? Who left the post faucet on?
*runs off to read and post***
glad to see you all getting into it. I have a little more time until Saturday so I am trying to stay ahead of you and keep things moving. This is a heavy RP section...but don't worry, there will be plenty of action....
Okay! I updated our loot log. I used the "owner" column for the borrower, in the case of things that we intend to give back to Larissia's heirs. I'm also making note of transfers, like my giving the trident to Sasha, unless you think that isn't necessary. Please note that we have an unidentified potion and an unexamined rapier.
Also, forgot to mention that Anton would rather go first or last in the watch order, due to not being able to sleep in his armor. It's just annoying, having to take it off and put it on one extra time.
ETA: I interpreted the potion of cure disease to be remove disease, but it could as easily be homebrew or from a supplement, so correct me if I'm wrong.
ETA x2: And that's why Anton had studded leather pajamas, but those went down with the ship. And he's very sad. They came with bunny slippers and everything!
Since it's been so long, I needed to review the other half of our group..
Aerys Mavato: This severe half-elven woman boarded in Port Peril, where she immediately got into a scrape with a crude sailor. She spends most of her time in her bunk, seeming to purposefully avoid fraternizing with the ship’s other passengers.
Gelik Aberwhinge: A sharply dressed gnome from Magnimar, Gelik spends much of his time writing in the ships’ common areas, and takes every opportunity to tell long-winded stories, boast of past journeys, or quip about anything in his field of view.
Ishirou: A scruffy human of Tian heritage, Ishirou boarded at Bloodcove and waits to reach Sargava with a quiet eagerness. Aloof but not rude, he gives the impression of one who has had a hard life but find himself currently without direction. He now has Alton Devers's rapier.
Jask Derindi: A prisoner loaded aboard in Corentyn, Captain Kovack sees to this taciturn human’s needs with curt courtesy, but insists he be left alone, sequestered in the ship’s brig. He is now free.
Sasha Nevah: This red-haired human boarded the Jenivere in Ilizmagorti. Since leaving Mediogalti Island, the woman’s somber demeanor has gradually faded, revealing a boisterous and optimistic personality. None have yet questioned her about her missing left pinky finger. She now has Anton Green's small trident.
..and the ones left behind..
Alizandru Kovack: A Chelish man whose family has made the Magnimar to Eleder run for generations, Captain Kovack is pleasant enough with his passengers, but a strict disciplinarian when dealing with his crew.
Alton Devers: The Jenivere’s first mate is friendly with both passengers and crew, but he sometimes seems to chafe under the strong discipline of Captain Kovack. His rapier on the beach, signs of a fight with water scorpions, drag marks going out into the water but also signs that two of the survivors were dragged up out of it, the survivors' loss of consciousness while still on the Jenivere, and its apparently burning and sinking in place where anchored, all makes for quite the mystery.
Ieana: A bookish Varisian scholar who tends to keep to herself, Ieana is traveling to Sargava to explore the ancient ruins there. Rumors aboard the ship alternately suggest that she’s the Jenivere’s owner, a Chelish agent, or Captain Kovack’s secret lover. Ieana keeps mostly to herself, and grows more intent on her studies with each mile the ship travels closer to Eleder.
Rambar Terillo: A taciturn man from Senghor, Ship’s Cook Terillo has served in that capacity aboard several ships, though apparently not on account of his culinary skills, which seem to be limited to watery soups.
..and I figured that if I needed it, then others might too.
As a point of order, our original purpose in going around the Island was finding a place to make camp, did we find one?
That's an excellent point, and a beautiful service. Anton was moved; thank you. (I decided that an entirely ooc post would be better off here.)
I lost track of time, so I reviewed the events so far. I figured that I probably wasn't the only one, so here's what happened.
On 28th of Rova 4708, Larissia called a meeting on the Jenivere and told us what we were going to do the next day. We reached the Shiv the next morning, so 29th of Rova was our first day on the island, which greeted us with shocker lizards and a black hooded king cobra. After Larissia's death, we didn't make it back to the beach before nightfall; we chose to camp where we were overnight, making it back early the next day.
30th of Rova, our second day on the island, was a very busy one of fighting euryptids, foraging for food, freeing Jask, and setting up a temporary camp on the beach. It ended with a funeral at the edge of the jungle, soon followed by a green radiance at the shoreline.
Our third day on the island, 1st of Lamashan, began most unpleasantly with arguing, followed by the discovery that the Jenivere sank where it was anchored; however, Nora and I managed to encourage the shipwreck survivors into at least making an effort, Nim and Tragershen found a decent location for a more permanent camp, and we all set it up together as best we could. At the end of the day, some jungle goats presented themselves for our dining pleasure; which is why we're not having to forage on our current outing.
Today, 2nd of Lamashan 4708, our fourth day on the island, began with the castaways settling into their roles; which was good, because our party headed west into the jungle to explore the shipwreck on a shore. We were soon attacked by a red tipped viper; although large for a snake, it turned out to be Medium for a character, and Nim pretty much one-shotted it. And that's where matters stand.
Referring to the mapping discussion in Gameplay... If the east side of the map had half-hexes included in the numbering like the lettered north side does, then the numbering would be much clearer. The X would be in K5, and our NPC comrades would be at our new camp in K7, with J6 and L6 beside and in-between both.
Nim, I can't relate to being able to whip up a map over the weekend. I'm a little intimidated by the thought of updating the current one. ;)
I'll have more questions once we've settled on a numbering scheme. For now, I think I'll just add to the Supporting Cast.
Oh, now I see Smuggler's Shiv on the voyage map! I hadn't magnified it enough. We're really not that far from Eleder, and Anton is once again back in Desperation Bay. This is where he lived with the Ijo for a time and learned to hate the sahuagin. The reason why he became a professional transporter was in order to learn how to defeat them, and the point of this trip was to use Larissa to find lost Azlanti relics or knowledge or something that he could use against those fishy monsters. This whole time, I was just picturing "somewhere off the coast of the Mwangi Expanse," not in Desperation Bay itself. How fateful!
Finished adding the NPCs to Supporting Cast on the Google site. Just don't know attitudes or morale.
Regarding crafting Jask's holy symbol: I went back to see if there was something I'd missed, and it turns out that you can make checks by the day. To hit a DC 15, a check result would have to be at least 15, so (check result x DC) / 7 = at least 32 silver.
This means that any successful check would easily make a 10 sp wooden holy symbol in one day. Even so, without carpentry tools to allow Tragershen to take 10, it might as well be Jask to make the rolls and take the failures. I'm sure that he knows his own holy symbol; he'd just have to wait until everyone was healthy before taking a day off from tending them.
I feel a little weird sometimes about cluttering up this thread so much, but then I remember that clutter is what it's for. 8)
You know, I haven't seen anything from Corbrius in a week. I'm mildly concerned, while recognizing that this is just about the worst time of year for gamers' connectivity. Yet still concerned. Even just a "hey all i'm tackled by lilliputian ticklers and will post later" kind of thing would be awesome!
I have noted his absense as well, was going to give him until tomorrow to post then assume his exit from the game. Planning to fill his spot. If needed I will bot him for this combat.
With it being so early in the game I will probably do a quick remove and replace vs. trying to end him and introduce a new player into the game. I have a possible candidate as well as potentially some of the posters that didn't make the first cut.
Any concerns???
Hey guys, now that we know the castaways' attitude toward us and their morale, I see a problem. I think that we did pretty good, getting them all on board with working as a group, and so quickly. But their morale still sucks. (In retrospect, it was clear in their descriptions and behavior; but it was easy for me to dismiss as RP flavor.)
So. What can we do to raise their morale? We're already working out ways to arm (and maybe even armor) them; but Ishirou has a chain shirt and a rapier, and he's downright frightened. They need more than weapons and armor, and I'm not sure what.
Wait. I just remembered something, from when I was looking up the Golarion calendar... The harvest feast is the second Moonday of Lamashan. Dang. Anywhere from six to twelve days from now, depending on what day of the week it is (I don't know). Still, a celebration with a feast could raise everyone's spirits, and we could always make up our own reasons why. Successfully returning with salvage could be pretext enough.
Perhaps have him slip away in the middle of the night without a word to us -- reflecting what basically happened -- instead of cutting him out? Given the nature of the island, there's no end to the possible castaways we might stumble across the next morning; and then maybe he could rejoin the game someday, if his character can explain his absence. (That, or his mysterious disappearance could turn into another one of the spooky tales of Smuggler's Shiv.)
Let's see. Aside from castaways, there could be people who were deliberately stranded by someone (à la Cpt. Jack Sparrow), or who came on purpose but then their boat was consumed by giant termites -- or stolen by castaways, in an ironic twist -- or who were deposited by a natural phenomenon: wild magic surge in the Mana Wastes? random roc? The possibilities are endless.
FWIW, it would take three or four successful checks at DC 15 (with -2 for improvised tools) to make a composite longbow for Aerys in as many days, or one successful check to make it in a week. (Bows are their own crafting category, so Nim's weapon-crafting tools apparently wouldn't help.) Just ran the numbers out of curiosity; I doubt that anyone will have the time, even among the castaways.
Actually... it just occurred to me, one of my co-workers comes from a family of tool- and die-makers. He's told me some interesting stories about what they've done over the decades. What would be really useful is if we could use the theoretical Craft/Tools skill to make Artisan's tools (armor), Artisan's tools (bows), Artisan's tools (carpentry), etc. to bootstrap ourselves. But without a smithy, we'd have to make those tools out of wood, sinew and stone.
I'm just brainstorming here, but I know that there are ways to shape stone, that even very technologically primitive societies were able to use. Basically hitting a rock of one hardness against a rock of a different hardness, such that one of them breaks in the way you want it to. Then again, even if we really want to explore this island, it might make more sense to make a boat and come back later better-supplied, rather than re-invent Stone Age tools. I don't know, just thinking aloud.
I'll throw in some general comments here, just to say I suppose it depends on how 'cinematic' we want to be. Realistically it would be impossible, or very nearly unlikely, to make a compound bow in this situation. The technology involved is vary specialized as are the materials, still, as I said, 'cinematically'(i.e. depending on how the GM wants to handle this sort of stuff) it might not matter.
Tanning leather is certainly possible, though that process does take a while, though it's also unsightly, still not impossible.
As for making tools, some of that would be readily possible; Things like Hammers and Awls are easy to make. Making tool-kits though? I don't think that would be feasible without metal of some kind. We should readily be able to make spears, and if we have access to bone, than arrow-heads, Bows, and daggers, improved or made of bone should all be relatively easy. As should be rope(assuming some sort of reasonably strong fibre and our patience), etc.
Ultimately of course I imagine we'll get the most benefit out of scouting out these other locations and exploring the Island itself.
Though I do think setting up some defences for the camp-site might be a good idea; i.e. perhaps some pit traps or snares and such.
Cinema uses the Rule of Cool to solder gaps in verisimilitude. I think that if I do something implausible like make a compound bow on a jungle island, out of scavenged materials, with improvised tools, then I should at least give you a construction montage like something out of The A-Team or MacGyver. ;) But I expect to be too busy with exploring and whatnot anyway.
I'm willing to go along with taking time to build stuff, but overall Tragershen will push to explore the island. We may find things we need or can use. And as far as your friendly neighborhood elf is concerned, if we can find the ruins that we originally came here for, it may hold the key to getting all of us off the island. Power, raw power, left there for the taking!!! Ahem. You know, or find a boat close enough to sea worthy that we could fix it and get back to civilization. The Tattooed Lady might give us an idea of what we can expect to find in the way of usable resources around the island.
I'm noticing a pattern that our DM translates mechanics into descriptions -- morale, terrain difficulty, etc. -- and then leaves it at that. As a roleplayer, I think it's awesome; I'm just not used to it. So I'll start paying more attention to descriptions, which is kind of the point I guess.
Have we lost Corbrius?
It's going on almost two weeks since he last posted, I think we might have to assume so... though wow that was fast, I mean granted the holidays. Oh, incidentally, since I suppose this is the time to do it, I may be able ot get access, but I cannot guarantee I'll have the time to post on the 25th-26th.
I assume we have lost him...too bad, his character had promise for great RP...I will post for a replacement by tomorrow. I am willing to discuss any referrals you have... :)
I don't mind an absense, life happens but I do expect the courtesy of letting me know. BTW I am enjoying the RP so far, everyone is doing a good job of bringing their characters to life!
I will let you-know-who know that there is a spot open. :)
He mentioned to me that he is willing to step in and play Corbrius' character as is, removing the need to remove Corb (and introduce a wholly new character). Alternatively, he also has a character from another SS PBP that went belly up ready to go if carrying on as Corb isn't desired by you or other players.
I will let you-know-who know that there is a spot open. :)
He mentioned to me that he is willing to step in and play Corbrius' character as is, removing the need to remove Corb (and introduce a wholly new character). Alternatively, he also has a character from another SS PBP that went belly up ready to go if carrying on as Corb isn't desired by you or other players.
It would be fine if he wants to play him or even want to tweak him some into a slightly different character, just needs to be able to fill the bodyguard role...will be easier than figuring out how to replace him on this island, its up to him.
The main question for him is can he commit to posting frequently?There may be a character death or two so I have prepped a couple of different ways to introduce new characters...
I shall let him answer that question himself. ;)