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I wonder... Does the Minotaur burst through the trees, watch Janira give her speech, watch her cast a spell and run around and then it waits silently for the PCs to act? At the very least the Minotaur has acted and isn't flat footed.
*GMs, don't forget to trip your non reach charging PCs. Poor little PC wasting their full round action to end up prone at a Minotaur's hooves.
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I wonder... Does the Minotaur burst through the trees, watch Janira give her speech, watch her cast a spell and run around and then it waits silently for the PCs to act? At the very least the Minotaur has acted and isn't flat footed.
*GMs, don't forget to trip your non reach charging PCs. Poor little PC wasting their full round action to end up prone at a Minotaur's hooves.
I have found as a GM that attempting to decide the rules of flat-footed or readied actions before initiative is rolled is a recipe for disaster. Similarly, logical or not, if you have not acted yet in the first round of initiative, you are flat-footed, even if you see the other person standing there. Call it being slow on the draw or what-have-you, it's just a fact of initiative. I fully support our GM in this regard. Not that it would likely have mattered, as all the chargers except me had reach weapons, and the minotaur was highly unlikely to beat my CMD or hit my AC as a smiting paladin.
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Need a clarification on replay.
As a Tier 1–2 scenario, The Confirmation can be replayed
for credit with 1st-level characters an unlimited number
of times. A player may also receive credit for playing and
GMing the scenario once each for a 2nd-level character.
So it is clear that you can play as a 1st level unlimited times. It is also clear that you can play at 2nd level, or apply gm credit to a 2nd level, once. Can you GM for credit on a 1st level character only once or unlimited times?
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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Second run is tomorrow, full table. :)C'mon mosquito swarm and jelly cube!
That's what we ended up with when we played it. It made for an interesting evening (especially since our GM glossed over a fair bit of the useful advice, etc., that Janira gives the party, neglected to draw in the log bridge over the river, along with a few other complications).
My wife was originally muttering "Curse you, Kyle Baird!" throughout the evening, but now that we've read the scenario it appears that we weren't playing it entirely as Kyle had written it. No characters died, though.I'm GMing it myself a couple of times in the next two weeks.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Reporting one character death due to bleeding out from battleaxe wounds.I wondered where this vial of liquid came from. Please thank your player for their donation to my collection of tears.
Your ooze digested a swashbuckler, and a few minutes later a lucky charge & gore crit claimed the life of Janira at my last game.
Fortunately, she was successful in her final act of disarming the beast with her own natural 20; this allowed the remaining PCs to earn their first bloody victory.
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He will be missed. I liked him.
If I'd been missed I might have pulled off my heroic rescue of Janira. :) (Although I decided to do it just as much because I suspected that the big goon was working with her to frighten the noobs.)
Next time I play in it, I'll have a squishy level one (and I'll choose one that has enough Wisdom not to charge anything bigger than he is.)
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But now he will be missed as he's incorporeal!
The only reason I lived is because I was level 1. If you weren't level 2, the first hit would have konked you out giving you a must easier Con save. Mine was only to -1 HP. Easy sauce. For once I think it was more dangerous for level 2's than for the newbies.
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Yeah, I was very close to unconscious from the first hit; the second put me into the deep negatives - a higher damage roll would have taken me out immediately. Of course, if I'd been thinking and at least tried to tumble on the way in, then I might not have suffered the first hit in the first place.
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You seem to forget that she is a halfling. That gives her a flat +1 to every save.
Fortitude: Con 12 is a +1, Bard 4 is another +1 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Reflex: Dex 15 is a +2, Bard 4 is another +4 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Will: Same.
So yeah, you did something wrong with Hero Labs. ;)
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You seem to forget that she is a halfling. That gives her a flat +1 to every save.
Fortitude: Con 12 is a +1, Bard 4 is another +1 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Reflex: Dex 15 is a +2, Bard 4 is another +4 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Will: Same.So yeah, you did something wrong with Hero Labs. ;)
This is correct. We halflings are a bit more resilient than you tall folk. Besides, I'm not one for caring about the latest fashion trends. I'd wear just about any old cloak, especially if it's found at the bottom of an old pit trap.
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You seem to forget that she is a halfling. That gives her a flat +1 to every save.
Fortitude: Con 12 is a +1, Bard 4 is another +1 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Reflex: Dex 15 is a +2, Bard 4 is another +4 and Halfling Luck is the last +1.
Will: Same.So yeah, you did something wrong with Hero Labs. ;)
Seems to be a glitch in Hero Labs. I have replicated it twice and the bonuses for Halfling Luck just don't show up. Thanks for the heads up tho....
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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The darklands map wasn't discontinued when I wrote it. That makes me sad if it is indeed discontinued.
Not only that - it's out of stock almost everywhere I looked. I managed to find one online merchant with a single copy (which I purchased). There are a couple of other merchants who claim to have one in stock, but the packaging illustrated is an old-style Steel Skwire "Game Mastery" Flip-Mat (small "Game Mastery" as boxed text over a yellow background), which doesn't match the Darklands maps I've seen. Was there an earlier Darklands map, or is this just a packaging difference? The piece of the map shown in those product listings doesn't seem to correspond to any part of the map I can identify, but maybe I'm missing something.
Venture-Captain, Vermont—Peacham
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I am planning to run The Confirmation in February at Total Confusion and from what I am reading, this is going to be great! However, I have a question with regards to B2. The History of Humanity.
"So long as the PCs decipher one of the sections, they also identify that the selections of the holy text depicted are slightly different than those that appear in the known version of the History and Future of Humanity, suggesting that these might represent an earlier version of that work. Even though Aroden disappeared or died over a century ago, these caves store a hint of his divine magic (like a wand with a single charge left) that can impart a minor blessing to those who perform a short series of rituals based on the parables. The PCs have an opportunity to perform the respective ritual for each in area B3. For each parable the PCs decipher, provide them with a description of the image and the clue about its meaning, as detailed further in area B3.
My question is about how much of a clue is given to the players? Do the players even know that they need to perform a ritual to receive a benefit? As a GM, how much information do I give them?
I presume that the clue is that the player knows for example that "the Beggar is depicted kneeling with an alma bowl raised high, representing Aroden espousing humility in all, lest they forget their shared humanity."
However, to tell them that "a PC must kneel before the city, admit a personal shortcoming to another PC, or perform some other act of humility beside the pool" would be saying too much.
As a GM how much should I say to even give them the idea that performing a ritual by the pool will result in a benefit?
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What I have been doing if the players begin to have a problem is to have Uori (sp?) tell a story of long ago when his great great grandfather use to come to these caves and would at times see people of the land performing rituals here. At this point he describes one of the rituals that they uncovered, I do make sure to mock Aroden with him where ever I can.
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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Not only that - it's out of stock almost everywhere I looked. I managed to find one online merchant with a single copy (which I purchased).The darklands map wasn't discontinued when I wrote it. That makes me sad if it is indeed discontinued.
While I was visiting my wife's family over Christmas, I found the map in a tiny game store there. I was overly excited. :)
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While I was visiting my wife's family over Christmas, I found the map in a tiny game store there. I was overly excited. :)Not only that - it's out of stock almost everywhere I looked. I managed to find one online merchant with a single copy (which I purchased).The darklands map wasn't discontinued when I wrote it. That makes me sad if it is indeed discontinued.
At this point, whenever I go into a new FLGS, the first thing I do is check their flip mat collection to see if they have any out of print ones. It's gotten me 2 out-of-print flip mats so far...
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Area B4 list several possible treasures that the PCs only get 2 of, but the entire list isn't on the chronicle sheet. Do I write in the missing items or are then not supposed to be there?
Can't recall which items are "missing", but could be that they are items which are always available, regardless of fame score.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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At this point, whenever I go into a new FLGS, the first thing I do is check their flip mat collection to see if they have any out of print ones. It's gotten me 2 out-of-print flip mats so far...While I was visiting my wife's family over Christmas, I found the map in a tiny game store there. I was overly excited. :)Not only that - it's out of stock almost everywhere I looked. I managed to find one online merchant with a single copy (which I purchased).The darklands map wasn't discontinued when I wrote it. That makes me sad if it is indeed discontinued.
I checked my usual FLGS today, and found a copy of the "Caverns" map pack hiding in a corner. That's going to come in handy for this scenario, too.
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He was level 2.2
I know the scenario has options for 2nd level PCs, but I just don't "get it" why a PC with five adventures under their belt would want to play an intro mod???
Unless, of course, it was the only available option to play that night, but even then, I would think a brand-new PC would be a better choice. YMMV
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Well, the free wayfinder is nice. :) (But not why we are supposed to play the scenario.)
Other reasons:
It genuinely is a fun scenario.
Given a limited number of scenarios published, if you are starting to run out of available scenarios to play, it is in your best interest to insure that each PC you play goes through each repeatable mod.
He was level 2.2I know the scenario has options for 2nd level PCs, but I just don't "get it" why a PC with five adventures under their belt would want to play an intro mod???
Unless, of course, it was the only available option to play that night, but even then, I would think a brand-new PC would be a better choice. YMMV
I think it may also be an attempt to get some more experienced players at the table with the complete newbies. Sometimes that seems a bit difficult.
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He was level 2.2I know the scenario has options for 2nd level PCs, but I just don't "get it" why a PC with five adventures under their belt would want to play an intro mod???
Unless, of course, it was the only available option to play that night, but even then, I would think a brand-new PC would be a better choice. YMMV
As outlined in the scenario, and found to be fairly common in play, is that sometimes field commissioned pathfinders want to "experience" what they missed at the lodges or a desire to join in with their brethren/sisters at the lodges in their journey to learn. The "experience" can be a very driving factor, especially for anyone who aspires to the ideals and mission of the pathfinders. I really could see for anyone who plays this as Grand Lodge.
And on a sidebar, having ran this for a few weeks now fairly regularly; it seems most stories people come up with are agents who are established in the field than via the lodge.
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Area B4 list several possible treasures that the PCs only get 2 of, but the entire list isn't on the chronicle sheet. Do I write in the missing items or are then not supposed to be there?Can't recall which items are "missing", but could be that they are items which are always available, regardless of fame score.
That would be the case. I couldn't get it unstuck from my head that if it is listed <---there, it should be listed there--->
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What I have been doing if the players begin to have a problem is to have Uori (sp?) tell a story of long ago when his great great grandfather use to come to these caves and would at times see people of the land performing rituals here. At this point he describes one of the rituals that they uncovered, I do make sure to mock Aroden with him where ever I can.
Thanks, Benjamin! That sounds like a good way to handle it. What have other GMs experienced in their own sessions running the Confirmation? Have you found that players usually perform some of the rituals in B3 or are many missing these opportunites to gain benefits? It sounds like it will be a great role playing opportunity.
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We GMed this one for 2 crowded tables (with 6 and 7 players) ca. 2 weeks ago in a store event and had a fantastic evening. It's a bodaciously written adventure that drops tons of knowledge and good advice, especially for new players (and yes I know that's the intention). Even some of the old timers just nodded in appreciation.
I really liked that
There was just one thing that made me knit my brows:
Also for the minotaur (I love scaring the s@~$ out of low level players with such beasties :-) I was missing a nice, big Baphomet tattoo or branding, to draw the connection to the overall Worldwound incident.
P.S. No PC deaths occured. I'm very sorry Mr. Baird, I'll try to be meaner the next time.