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This arc DEFINITELY needed that extra space to breath imo (even if I wasn't here for a couple of months of it lol). It kept it really atmospheric.
I missed all of your guys character and the group, too. I'm very glad I was able to come back. And VERY glad so see SOME KITTIES
seriously. I just browse the humane society looking for cats I can get and lamenting that I can't take care of them ;_;
No worries, braindead is understandable - an online game has the kind of flexibility where you can afford to be awol story-wise for a couple days!
...unlike trying to run a biweekly game when you have been cursed by the horseman of plague because you can't skip a game cause then it'll be a month break between sessions.
I'm glad to hear that, because there is no internet here. I'll try to post in Miami, otherwise I get back to L.A. on 10 hours or so.
Good luck with your RL game Henri!
Do people know about kitten cams? I watch kitten cams too much - my usual one isn't up right now, so I googled to find the above. (Kitten cams are webcameras set up to watch kittens, usually foster kittens. A bunch of the early ones were actually set up for the foster parents to be able to monitor them in case of trouble, but they have since gotten popular.)
...
:: stares at kittens ::
... Oh my gods, they're in a pile. It is a pile of kittens on a cat. (This is surprisingly therapeutic.)
Sorry all for the delay. I am now back in LA - I should be here for the next two weeks, and I expect to be able to post during all my upcoming travel 'til I have to cross an ocean again in July (and then only a day break).
By the way - something to be thinking about as this arc wraps up: your PCs will be going up two levels essentially overnight this in-game night. At least one PC plans to spend some time re-training (which will fit into the story pretty seamlessly), so the next in-game days would be a convenient time if that's something you'd like to do.
Admittedly this is usually the point where I tend to not remember what my character build was going to be and DRASTICALLY change it but I will have to think on it for a little while xD
I do look at kitten cams, and am sad I can't hug every cat.
Character evolution is encouraged. If you have questions about what you might see next arc that I can answer without spoiling anything, fire away.
I'm still new to cat appreciation (I grew up with big dogs). Do cats enjoy hugs? (Tolerance being distinct from enjoyment.)
I'm TEMPTED to add something from the occult classes/mayyybe something bard? But still thinking about how it works character-wise, primarily. Obviously since they're semi-casting classes it may not work xD
Cats tolerate hugs. Sometimes. Usually you let them set the pace and sometimes they will just hang out in a room with you without coming near you cause they like you but don't wanna intrude
basically if you're chill with them they're chill with you.
I miss my cat.
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I already have my character built from level 1 to 20, so it'll be easy! When I get some time I'll level him up. There's a chance I get some space to do it before we actually level up, but I'll pretend the current stats are still in effect until it officially happens.
I've had a character evolution idea.
I'll send it to ya, Mikkel, once I've got it a bit more nailed down :P
I like this plan. Btw Henri, Henri had an interaction with Blaine that may be worth noting (starting in #1283).
That is definitely an interaction to keep in mind :P thanks for bringing it back up.
I think I'm going to keep on keeping on with inquisitor.
Any party thoughts on my spell selection? I'm thinking Bloodhound as well to give us some tracking ability.
Oh, and Blistering Invective because who doesn't want to set people on fire by cussing them out.
Sorry about my radio silence, I had state HOSA and could not manage any time to post. I barely managed to have time to keep myself in shape.
Hmm, if anything between spiritualist and inquisitor peak your mind, let me know. I'm really bad about misjudging what spells will be effective, and wouldn't mind any advice :D
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Oh man, those two spells bring back memories... I played through half of RotRL with an inquisitor who basically lived on intimidating people and had bloodhound up 90% of the time. The party would always ask if he could smell anything suspicious. Solid picks IMO.
I always liked flames of the faithful thematically, but it only really came in handy when we ran into ogres. Invisibility and communal protection from evil are standard buffs but not super interesting. Lesser restoration is similar, especially when you have some spell slots left over and can spam it to cure some ability damage - from a meta perspective something that starts to come up more often around this level. If that's not enough 2nd-level spell options for ya, Weapon of Awe and Zone of Truth are personal favorites.
As for spiritualist, I've never really delved into the occult spell lists, but there's some decent stuff on there at level 1 - Liiike Sanctury (if the enemy fails their save this can be a f#~@ing LIFESAVER), Summon monster (always a classic. Although you may already have that...) Touch of Gracelessness (situational, but can COMPLETELY shut down flying creatures. I've seen this spell bring down dragons), and Burst of Adrenaline seems a bit out there and situational as well, but that immediate action could add a LOT of damage to a roll (I meaan, it's either a +4 to a save or an additional +6 damage, and that's just stat-based uses for it). Otherwise it seems like it hangs around in buffs and debuffs territory, stuff like Protection from Alignment spells and Cure Light Wounds are ALWAYS useful, if not a bit redundant.
...I think about crunch way too much >_> obviously these are just a list of suggestions, don't take any of it as gospel xD
Honestly, I think we could use a bit more healing around here. With the serious lack of full Divine casters here, we're going to run into a situation where one or more of us die. Hells, I came close in that last fight if not for those lucky rolls.
Got some time to level, doing that now.
@Henri
Cool! I'm glad to hear those spells are useful, and Dulae can be a scary lady.
@Alaina
I feel like we need more ways to impede the enemy and limit their advantages, rather than more healing - last fight we got swarmed pretty bad and I feel like a few good Grease/Pit/Summoning spells to keep the enemies off us would have helped a lot. We were also separated from each other - a worst case scenario for an ambush by mobile opponents that outnumber us. If Alaina, Xizoh and Henri hadn't rushed forward we might have lost Silo and if Cel, Dara, and I hadn't hung back we might have lost Vasquez, so the options were pretty much suck all around for tactics.
I don't want Dulae to take a healing spell - it doesn't fit her personality very well and she's built to do other things better. Emergencies happen of course, but I think its better for the character in danger to retreat and drink a potion.
I have several scrolls of Lesser Restoration and I'm going to get a new wand of CLW, which should help out of combat healing (considering how amazing Xizoh is at Heal, its a pity that magic is so much more effective :/).
@Xizoh - Very glad to have you back! (Also, what's HOSA?)
@Cel - for HP we're still doing the expectation value of the appropriate die (rounded down) for each level after first; i.e. 5 levels for a d8 would be 8,4,5,4,5. (A pity, since you rolled so well).
@All - I've been advising everyone to stick to the 1-1 caster-noncaster ratio set out in the character creation rules. However, this game has evolved beyond my initial setup idea (throw a bunch of noncasters together), so if there is interest in taking on a majority of caster levels in the future, that's something we should decide jointly now so everybody can be thinking about it in terms of setting up their build. My view is if that's what a PC wants to do and it fits with their background and motivation, I am open to it.
We will make sure you have adequate healing resources, in whatever form the party prefers.
@Henri-Thanks for the help. Crunch and I don't always see eye to eye.
@Dulae-You're telling me. It's weird to advertise myself as the party heal bot and never end up healing anybody. I toyed with the idea of psychic healing, but that seemed too wasteful in regards to time.
@Mikkel-HOSA is a student organization similar to BPA and FFA, just for people who are medically inclined.
I fully intend to stick to the ratio, but I'm fine if someone wants to start slinging spells about. Anathema should have a little more meat for combat after leveling, so that should help provide some breathing room.
@Xizoh: BPA and FFA, those are some mighty fine sounding TLAs.
@Mikkel-Sorry, habit to shorthand them. Business Professional of America and Future Farmers of America.
Hah, no worries Xizoh. We have many hundreds of TLAs in my field and little short of a taser can get me to remember to spell them out when speaking in public. Cool, sounds useful.
Oops, I forgot! I'll adjust that now
Brain. Gone. Sleep now.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I know them feels. Rest up.
Diversity in art and writing drives what kind of stories get told.
I just read a few sci-fi books: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and the first two books in the Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemisin. Wow wow wow. The characterization of the world and its inhabitants through the eyes of a spaceship's AI blew me away. And a setting where people can throw mountains at each other was also awesome, but even more so was getting to experience the 'gods in chains' storyline from the perspective of the gods in chains.
There was a long time where I thought what I wanted in diversity was diverse characters to get cut-and-pasted into roles traditionally reserved for SWM heroes; defeat the evil, maybe earn the affection of the person-of-appropriate-gender(s). For race/gender/SO/other-identity to not be 'a thing'. But not only does it get boring to hear essentially the same stories over and over, it paints that good-vs-evil/savior-syndrome perspective as the norm and even idealizes it. I'm coming to appreciate that the characters that tend not to be the central actors in the stories we're used to hearing, particularly the oppressed or ignored, are really interesting protagonists. They tend to make much more meaningful not-straightforward choices and IMO that makes the story all the better.
People with different experiences have different stories for the telling. (And they're really f*cking good, in these cases.)
Also, I'm not on Twitter myself, but apparently N.K. Jemisin's twitter feed is awesome.
Happy Tuesday all.
This is hilarious. Featuring K2S0, "a droid with more personality than any of the human characters". Truth.
(Spelling rogue 'rouge'. Pfff. F*cking amateur hour over here.)
Inside joke: I made that mistake at least twice with Dara's class. (Probably more that I'm not aware of.)
(pfff, that's pretty gr8, and I assume rogues use a lot of makeup in general.)
*Narrows eyes at Henri* Hey, I resent that.
For disguises and junk, geez
and sometimes to look fancy after doin an assassination
u never had to re-apply after offing a noble?
Has never come up.
ＵＮＦＯＲＴＵＮＡＴＥ
Hah, on my phone I just saw 'UNFORTUNATE' in all caps and I was like oh gods, what happened.
Anyway, I find a deep scarlet pairs best with a heist.
===== GM travel advisory ====
Hey all, I'll be at UC Santa Cruz next week to do some science. I'm driving up the coast on Sunday and I probably won't be able to post until late that evening. M-F I should be good to post as normal. Next Saturday I'll be at the March for Science in San Francisco and I'm swinging by Yosemite on my way back to L.A. Sunday. (Really looking forward to it.) I should be able to post tomorrow (Saturday).
tl;dr: Limited GM posts 4/16, 4/22, and 4/23.
*did not listen*
Ahhhhhh, it's stuck in my head, Alaina whyyyyyy
(This is great, thank you.)
Hey, I put a disclaimer. Not my fault you didn't listen.
Fair enough. Also, DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK.
(But if you're going to, it's worth enabling flash.)
Not clicking.
Hah, what do you think I could've put in there that caution overcomes curiosity?
Relevance to warning labels: high
Likelihood of making you chuckle: high
Likelihood of making you outright laugh: low
Likelihood of causing fear, pain, or discomfort: low (unless you really, really don't like disobeying)
Likelihood of holding your attention for more than 90 seconds: low
Khan worm magnitude: approaching zero
Hey, I figure you were trying to get vengeance.
It was probably worthy of vengeance - it was stuck in my head until I (apparently completely predictably) clicked on the next one, which is now stuck in my head (Alaina whyyyyy).
Even so, I don't think I know of anything as catchy. The history of exoplanets Aladdin medley (surprisingly good and scientifically accurate) maybe comes closest, but it's not nearly as brain-invading.
Both very amusing - nice finds.
Apologies, I've come down with the flu, but on the bright side I found a job! A little risky, being hired on to treat patients still, but also grow the business (which also means support my caseload). Should be fun! In my brief scannings of this, I hope everyone else's struggles are going better/resolved too.
Ah no, get well soon Cel! Congratulations on the job. I'm guessing it meets your location/commute criteria?
If you or anyone you know has wondered what harassment looks like in real life, here’s an excellent series of short videos by Sigal Avin, Mazdack Rasso, and David Schwimmer.
These are *great* not only because they concretely show what the heck people are talking about to those who haven’t experienced it, but because they (finally!) make the point that smiling is a defense mechanism. A smile doesn’t necessarily mean all is well, it could mean damage control. Saying “no it’s fine” doesn’t necessarily mean it is fine, it might mean ‘I’m trying to avoid retaliation’. Saying “yeah we’re good” may mean ‘I don’t want to get labeled ‘difficult to work with’ and miss out on a promotion or lose my job’.
There’s a power dynamic at play where women are expected to smile, give hugs on command, and be agreeable or otherwise suffer the (sometimes violent) consequences.
If women aren’t really free to object without risking serious fallout, how can you know if you cross the line? I advise you ask for consent _first_, ideally clearly and yes-based (i.e. always ‘may I…’ or ‘is it okay if…’, not ‘do you mind if I…’ or ‘tell me when to stop’).
Or if you notice someone else cross it and you hear “it’s fine”, now you know that it very well may *not* be fine, and there’s a lot of pressure to say it’s fine. You could make a big difference if you speak up. (Important: speak on your own behalf, that _you_ have a problem with it - probably the last thing the target wants is more attention drawn to them and their other-ness.)
(Also, I can see how it might not seem obvious to someone empathizing with the unwitting harasser, but oh gods when he blocks the exit in The Boss it makes my skin crawl.)
15 minute walk to work! Down 10 minutes from my current one :)
Glad to hear it.
Have a good march tomorrow anybody who's marching for science. I'll be at the one in SF.
Is anyone else paying attention to the presidential election in France? (This is me waiting for the runoff looking at the chances the EU will dissolve. (Fuuuck.))
This made me chuckle, given our proclivity for discussing social justice: