PBS PBP Gameday IV: #06-15 The Overflow Archives -- GM Hmm Discussion

[GM Hmm]

Okay, try slide 3 now and see if that works.

I hope you guys enjoy the absurdity of the pyramid drawing selected...

Hmm

[Dioneo II Starnon]

Way too cute! :D

[Oloch Firebrand]

Oloch will take 'cute' pyramid monster and either adopt or eat it, he is still undecided :D

[Archon the Divine Caller]

GM Hmm wrote:

@ Archon:Checking the special rules on Handle Animal skill, it says that you can use it untrained on domestic animals. I’m going to rule that you can just take ten to get the horse to run, since that is something it would like to do.

Part of the Herald Caller Archetype is that I can automatically communicate with anything I summon, (though the list drops a lot). Normally with Summon Monster, the creature will simply Attack unless you can communicate with them. The Celestial (and similar) Templates do not actually grant them a 3+ Int, so they are still animals, and can not understand instructions, but . . .

Herald Caller - Divine Heralds (Su):

A herald caller can use summon monster spells only to summon creatures particularly appropriate to her deity. This includes all creatures listed as summon monster options for priests of her deity (see Expanded Summoning for Clerics), creatures whose alignment matches at least one aspect of her deity's alignment, and creatures of an elemental subtype that matches a domain granted by the deity (if any). When summoning a creature that is normally summoned with the celestial or fiendish template, a herald caller of a chaotic deity can instead summon it with the entropic template, and a herald caller of a lawful deity can instead summon it with the resolute template.
-
Because of these summoned monsters' strong ties to the herald caller's deity, the herald caller also gains specific benefits with creatures she summons with summon monster spells gained from her cleric spell list. The herald caller and her summoned monsters can understand each other's spoken words as if they shared a common language (though this doesn't give summoned monsters the ability to speak if they normally lack it). Whenever the herald caller uses channel energy to heal, she can include all of her summoned monsters, even if they are out of her normal channel energy radius or of a creature type that would not normally be affected. If she channels energy to deal damage, she can exclude any of her summoned monsters that would normally be affected.

:)

[GM Hmm]

Excellent. I shall keep that interesting ability of yours in mind!

BTW, Quinn's player has once again given Bot Buddy permission to stand in for him. Does anyone wish to help his disable device?

PS Archon, nice celestial pony on the map! Very cute. Whenever you bring in one of these to fight, can you put its stats in spoilers?

[Oloch Firebrand]

People, just wanted to let you know I am going on vacations with my family next Monday, and won't be back until Sunday.

Tomorrow I am probably available to post, and during the remaining days I should have access to a laptop and internet, but as you may presume, RPG is not going to be a priority during these days - it is possible that I may drop a line or three, but feel free to bot me at any given point if needed.

[GM Hmm]

Can someone who's not on mobile do me the favor of copying all the PCs to Slide 4? My next post will move all of you into the next set of rooms, but I'm busy drawing a map for an IRL PFS game that's today, so need to do that first.

And don't worry about the concealed doors... I ran the perceptions. Enough of you see them that I decided to leave them uncovered on the map.

Hope you're enjoying your vacation Oloch. Are you still on the beach?

Hmm

[Jan Itor]

GM Hmm wrote:

Can someone who's not on mobile do me the favor of copying all the PCs to Slide 4? My next post will move all of you into the next set of rooms, but I'm busy drawing a map for an IRL PFS game that's today, so need to do that first.

And don't worry about the concealed doors... I ran the perceptions. Enough of you see them that I decided to leave them uncovered on the map.

Hope you're enjoying your vacation Oloch. Are you still on the beach?

Hmm

Done, hopefully correctly. Have a good IRL game. Out of curiosity what are you running?

[GM Hmm]

Thanks. I'm not running the game, my boyfriend Bret is. He's subbing in last minute for a sick GM, and needed maps for Jester's Fraud. So I drew his detailed and intricate maps while he prepped everything else. It's got a really fun-looking tavern to draw and some great crumbly ruins, so I had fun doing that.

If there's one thing I can do really well, it's draw... It was a fun way to spend the morning, and it helped Bret out. Though he grumbled that I was putting in too many details, he liked the end result. :D

I'll compose a post for all of you and get our game moving again.

Hmm

[DM Beckett]

GM Hmm wrote:

Order:
Crowe, Sarcophogus, Jan, Archon, Wadi, Quinn, Oloch

** spoiler omitted **

Crowe is up!

I'm not trying to cause a problem here, but the reason I suggested the alternative is to break up Init into smaller groups. I'm playing in another game with a blaster that uses the above Init Style, and we where in a BBEG fight with about 10 enemies. I didn't realize that even though everyone had stated their actions and made their rolls, that none of it kicked in until the end, so I hurled a Fireball into the middle of everyone, thinking it would clean the floor and allow the rest of the party to start making their way to the bosses faster.

I Didn't realize that the enemies had not actually acted yet, because the DM was waiting to do everything at one time, and it nearly got my party TPK'd, partially because they retroactively got hit about 10 extra times and then I threw a Fireball at them.

It's something I wouldn't have done if I knew otherwise, and in game, there is no reason I wouldn't have seen all this happen as it actually played out, but because everyone, players and DM just posted an action, but it hadn't actually happened yet. It's a bit different here, but I just wanted to explain. The idea is to break up the action a bit more so that the strict format.

[GM Hmm]

Okay. I thought you just wanted it more readable. For me initiative is more readable the other way.

Hence the spoilering.

If there are multiple bad guys in a fight I will spread your initiatives so that all the baddies don't hit at once...

But you're not talking about legibility, but about having more initiative blocks?

Hmm

[GM Hmm]

Archon / Beckett --

If it's not about clarity of format, but instead about content, is it alright if I stop listing the alternative initiative presentation? I'll admit, I I'm unhappy with it. I find it long, awkward and aesthetically unpleasing. I just went ahead an edited it out of my post.

I promise not to hit you all with 20 bad guys at once. I'll take actions in order and won't TPK you all because you missed some action that happened three pages back in combat.

I just want to be aggressive about moving this one forward because of our deadline. For this purpose, blocked initiative makes a ton of sense for keeping everything moving.

I'm a first time PbP GM, and I know I'll make mistakes. I also want you guys to share if you think I really doing something problematic, or if you think what I'm doing is working. I want it to work out, and I want you all to have a great time.

Does this all make sense? Can this work for you?

Hmm

PS If you have another dolphin hug, I'll take one.

[DM Beckett]

That's fine. I should also point out that the it wasn't really anyone's fault. I just didn't understand the was initiative worked in that game.

:)

[Jan Itor]

Ahh, very cool. I may miraculously have to draw a map over the next couple of days for RPG superstar, but generally mine are fairly basic - unless I have a bunch of free time. For some reason I can paint minis but can't draw for s$%*

[Jan Itor]

Also, yes my positioning is fine.

[GM Hmm]

Wadi, can I have a second Perform Acting roll?

Quinn, when you return to us, can you tell me which character number you're applying this chronicle to? I am trying to have all my ducks in a row for the reporting paperwork when we get to that point.

Hmm

PS Jan, I'm firmly of the opinion that painting minis and drawing figures are completely different skillsets. I don't have the patience to paint minis... but drawing is something I love to do, whether for mapping or to illustrate the theme of this week's storytime at the library.

[Ignatious the Seeker of Flame]

Dang. I just finally hit level 12 with my main character, and he has been collecting rare oddities his whole adventuring life, which, in my head canon at least, he transports to his secret Pathfinder Lodge on a island hidden in the Lake of Mist and Viels. I really wish I had Maurice with that guy. That would be awesome.

[GM Hmm]

I'm glad that you've been enjoying Maurice so far!

[GM Hmm]

Can someone not on mobile move the characters to where they need to be on slide 5? Jan and Crowe are in the room 13. Quinn and Archon follow. Wadi and Oloch in the last rrank.

Thanks.

For some reason, my clumsy fingers are having trouble moving the tokens tonight.

[Crowe, Rager of the Society]

I really loved that part :D Very creative!

[Archon the Divine Caller]

I may not be able to post much. Can you bot me as needed. Ill start of with Bless, then as needed.

[GM Hmm]

I sent out Bot Buddy to cover you. We'll see if I need to cover Oloch who's on vacation, or if he'll chime in himself.

[Archon the Divine Caller]

And back. :P

[GM Hmm]

Welcome back! I hope that my botting was appropriate.

Hmm

[Archon the Divine Caller]

Absolutely fine. Like I said, I trust you.

[Hmm]

I thought I was going to move everyone forward, but kids had homework and I'm suddenly wiped with fighting with them.

Room 14 awaits, but I'll take you there tomorrow. Have a good night, all!

Hmm

[GM Hmm]

And... we're back!

Sorry it took so long to move us forward. Lots of kid drama this morning, but at least I'm on the late shift tonight so I had a little time to put this together before leaving for work.

[Jan Itor]

I should be back on in time but in case I'm not Jan will most likely make a Knowledge check and pass on information and move up to a place where he can threaten the enemy (attack if possible) and be adjacent to a teammate to use AoO's for defense.

[GM Hmm]

Noted.

I reorganized the order of the slides so that the current slide with the current map is in front. Now that we have so many slides, I thought that would be helpful.

I haven't bothered to hide room 15, since the door to it is obvious. We're nearing the halfway point, which I think which bodes well for us finishing the adventure in time to do chronicle sheets and any changes you guys might do between now and Overflow Archives.

Hmm

[Jan Itor]

Hey, I think I mentioned before but my next few days are crazy busy. (Dad's getting re-married) I will do my best to post whenever possible, but feel free to bot me as needed. Jan's fairly simple self-buffs for damage, but tries to help teammates whenever possible. He's also totally okay provoking to let other people move in and place themselves more easily.

[Crowe, Rager of the Society]

I will not be able to post until tonight so feel free to bot me as needed :)

[Archon the Divine Caller]

I'm just curious, because it is also happening a lot in my games, but it seems like a lot of people are out recently these last few weeks, and I don't really recall this happening so much.

Anyone else notice players being "AFK" a lot these last few weeks or is it just me?

[Bot Buddy 2000]

Whirr. Click. Everyone's favorite construct, Bot Buddy, rolls into the room.

I'm botting half the group! Soon I will be the only one left, and I will bot the GM.

Mua-ha-ha-ha.

I think this is a popular time for Europeans to be on vacation, and half our group is operating out of a non-US timezone.

[GM Hmm]

Jan, have a fabulous time with your dad's wedding. Crowe I will assign Bot Buddy if needed. Archon, Wadi and Quinn -- I'm counting on you three to lead the way with creative thinking.

Bot Buddy only does skill checks and combat. Oh, and taking care of Quinn's stylish coat.

Hmm

[GM Hmm]

Archon the Divine Caller wrote:

No, I'm good. I was just warning. I've never really be comfortable with resting in PFS. It's not a rule, but the intent is normally to not be able to rest and renew spells, with a few exceptions.

This module may be one of those exceptions. The average PFS scenario has 3-4 combats. This has much more than that. From GM discussion on this one, many GMs not only allowed their PCs to rest in this one, but also encouraged it. If you all want to seal up a room and rest at some point, I'll allow it.

[Wadi Ahk'kolon]

GM Hmm wrote:

Archon the Divine Caller wrote:

No, I'm good. I was just warning. I've never really be comfortable with resting in PFS. It's not a rule, but the intent is normally to not be able to rest and renew spells, with a few exceptions.

This module may be one of those exceptions. The average PFS scenario has 3-4 combats. This has much more than that. From GM discussion on this one, many GMs not only allowed their PCs to rest in this one, but also encouraged it. If you all want to seal up a room and rest at some point, I'll allow it.

I am all in favor of this strategy should it become necessary! Keep in mind too, this was not written as an actual PFS scenario, he he.

[Archon the Divine Caller]

Oh, in that case I'm fine. Fine doing HARD MODE, that is.

KIDDING

Or am I???

[GM Hmm]

Bah. I'm posting from my phone to let you know I've got a power outage. This means Bot Buddy is temporarily powered down -- my phones screen is making it too challenging to bot properly. As Wadi said, no flank on your fiery friend so Crowes readied attack will miss.

I'll give y'all another update when the power comes back up.

Hmm

[Archon the Divine Caller]

GM Hmm wrote:

Bah. I'm posting from my phone to let you know I've got a power outage. This means Bot Buddy is temporarily powered down. . .

[translating]

Archon manages to triply crit, ending the encounter with ease then lading the party on to great victory and glory, with equal measures of riches and treasure to account for their awesomeness. Plunging his spear deep into the BBEG undead heart, the lost pyramid's ceiling erupts opening allowing the party to escape with all their plunder just before it fully collapses and is once again lost beneath the sands.

Afterwards, Maurice decided to join the Pathfinder Society, but is so impressed with Archon, he also joins the Silver Crusade, and decided to buy everyone a drink afterwards.

[GM Hmm]

[translating]

The evil Mummy Dearest sends an army of killer pyramids to auto trample Archon. Once her power comes back up, mind.

Hmm

[Archon the Divine Caller]

I like my translation better. Did you cross-reference the source material, or was that just a quick word-for-word approximation?

:P

[Hmm]

So, all.... I figure that some of you are now coming back from your long holiday weekends / vacations / and family weddings. Tell me all about the fabulous things you did. If you didn't do anything interesting, feel free to make something up. Extra points if your descriptions include fruity drinks, cabana boys or glamorous beaches.

Hmm

[Crowe, Rager of the Society]

Well I wasn't on vacation but all of my week-end tend to be really full, as I'm working in church (I'm learning to be a pastor) and the swiss football season that began last week occupies my Saturdays ("american football" as we call it in Europe is really less than popular). But yes, I'm a metalhead, motorcyclist, rolist, gamer and US football player pastor :D

[Jan Itor]

Crowe, Rager of the Society wrote:

Well I wasn't on vacation but all of my week-end tend to be really full, as I'm working in church (I'm learning to be a pastor) and the swiss football season that began last week occupies my Saturdays ("american football" as we call it in Europe is really less than popular). But yes, I'm a metalhead, motorcyclist, rolist, gamer and US football player pastor :D

That's pretty awesome. (I grew up playing what we call soccer and you call football despite being American, so I guess we balance out)

Really long weekend. Got off work on Friday morning at 8am, came home and packed and grabbed my brother, went to Indianapolis (about 90 minute drive), went to a barber shop for a shave and a haircut. Then we drove to NE Indy to pick up tuxedos, SW Indy to pick up sister and Aunt at the airport, hotel check in in Richmond (another 90 minute drive), rehearsal dinner and hang out. Eventually I just don't remember what happened that evening, a little bit of alcohol and 40 hours awake is not a ton of fun, or maybe it is I don't know. Blessed sleep, then out to Dad's house to make sure everything is set up correctly, change into tuxes, pictures, service, dinner, party. Sleep, brunch, back to Indy for tux drop off and airport drop off, then finally back home in time for a couple hour nap and back to work. It was fun but intense. No cabana boys, though I did make pitchers of Moscow Mules and Vodka Cranberry. Oh and somehow the bridesmaids dresses weren't ugly.

[DM Beckett]

I had a four day weekend, which is nice because it's been a long time since I have had any sort of break, and I'm getting close to another deployment, so things are going to get a lot more stressful. We had my youngest daughters birthday party (-> 2years), I ran out of alcohol on Saturday night, but couldn't muster the umph to get dressed outside of my sweat pants to get more, so I just enjoyed sitting around the house. I had considered hiring a few cabana boys for the back yard, so I could send pictures to the DM, but again, I just could not manage to pick up a phone, so I guess that's going to have to wait. :P She might just have to imagine what they looked like in their thongs with foreign accents and homemade fruity drinks.

Crowe, Rager of the Society wrote:

Well I wasn't on vacation but all of my week-end tend to be really full, as I'm working in church (I'm learning to be a pastor) and the swiss football season that began last week occupies my Saturdays ("american football" as we call it in Europe is really less than popular). But yes, I'm a metalhead, motorcyclist, rolist, gamer and US football player pastor :D

That's awesome. What denomination?

Crowe, Rager of the Society wrote:

Well I wasn't on vacation but all of my week-end tend to be really full, as I'm working in church (I'm learning to be a pastor) and the swiss football season that began last week occupies my Saturdays ("american football" as we call it in Europe is really less than popular). But yes, I'm a metalhead, motorcyclist, rolist, gamer and US football player pastor :D

That's awesome. What denomination?

Jan Itor wrote:

Really long weekend. Got off work on Friday morning at 8am, came home and packed and grabbed my brother, went to Indianapolis (about 90 minute drive), went to a barber shop for a shave and a haircut. Then we drove to NE Indy to pick up tuxedos, SW Indy to pick up sister and Aunt at the airport, hotel check in in Richmond (another 90 minute drive), rehearsal dinner and hang out. Eventually I just don't remember what happened that evening, a little bit of alcohol and 40 hours awake is not a ton of fun, or maybe it is I don't know. Blessed sleep, then out to Dad's house to make sure everything is set up correctly, change into tuxes, pictures, service, dinner, party. Sleep, brunch, back to Indy for tux drop off and airport drop off, then finally back home in time for a couple hour nap and back to work. It was fun but intense. No cabana boys, though I did make pitchers of Moscow Mules and Vodka Cranberry.

Sounds like good times. Sleep is for the weak! ha ha

Jan Itor wrote:

Oh and somehow the bridesmaids dresses weren't ugly.

How dare they! :P

[Oloch Firebrand]

Well, I'm back - or at least partially so, since I still have a week of vacations ahead of me. Still, I should be around to post enough to keep up.

That being said, this past week had a lot of this - with continuous splashes, between myself and my girls (or all of us at once) - I swear keeping them busy has been as a much needed workout :D

Fortunately, it was interspersed with a lot of this, which actually works wonders under the sun - yep, most of the latter was taken while here, here, aaand here.

Good food and drink, lots of sunny beaches - above all I got to relax, and it sure didn't felt like long enough. That means it was GOOD! :D

[GM Hmm]

Portugal is too beautiful. Oh, those beaches! I'm so jealous.

Thanks for sharing, everyone!

[Oloch Firebrand]

That swimming pool pic is not actually in Portugal, and was used just as an example - the other ones are indeed ;)

[Zinou]

Wow, such busy week-ends :D

DM Beckett wrote:

That's awesome. What denomination?

I'm from a reformed church (calvinist), l'Eglise Evangélique Réformée du canton de Vaud, in Switzerland :)

[Hmm]

That's the perfect avatar for you, Zinou!

My weekend was more prosaic. I did aikido training (I'm working towards my shodan this year) in a sultry dojo. We were all moving as if in slow motion through a steam bath, but hey -- that's the loosest my muscles have ever been!

We had friends over for grilling and cards, and today I had a glorious 20 mile bike ride, looping around Minnehaha Falls, riding along the west river parkway with its glorious view of the Mississippi, and then coming back cross-town on the midtown greenway. I actually posted my last combat post from my phone on a water break, while my sweetie and I were taking a moment to rest in the shade and enjoy a view.

I've enjoyed everyone's travelogues so far. Thank you for them! And if you were stuck working the entire weekend, you can still feel free to make something up. Perhaps you were delivering smuggled goods on llama back in Peru...

Hmm