GM mechaPoet's Serpent's Skull (Inactive)

Game Master mechaPoet

This is the discussion thread! Dot once you're here, so that you can see when there are new posts.

If you could also edit your profiles such that you have these nice little spoiler tags like Tolla here, that would be wonderful.

Fill in your relevant numbers and such after copying these into the relevant fields:

In your Race Entry:

Race HP (x/x) [ Spoiler= Stats]AC/Touch/Flat x/x/x | Fort/Ref/Will +x/+x/+x | Init +x[ /spoiler ]

In your Class Entry :

[ Spoiler=Skills]Skill A x, Skill B x, etc[ /spoiler] Class (Archetype) 1

Feel free to list any of your tracked resources in these if you want as well (rage rounds, channel energies, bard song, etc)

Thanks for the pick! I'm looking forward to it.

Checking in! I'll update my profile and get started in the intro thread when I get home and can type properly on a computer. Looking forward to it :)

Hey Aleris, what hexes did you take? I see that you have the extra hex feat for flight, but there's no section for hexes on your sheet. Just curious what the party has to work with, thanks.

Per the DM, updated some stuff that I forgot to add or just plain got wrong >.>

*Patron - Deception
*Hexes - Evil Eye, Flight
*Adjusted attack bonus for my light crossbow, forgot to account for holding it in two hands rather than one
*Added Spell Sponge feat to familiar since their innate Weapon Finesse is counted as a freebie for them as well (thanks!)
*Adjusted attack bonus for sickle & melee touch to account for Weapon Finesse

I *think* that's everything, finally. Derp.

Dotting here - Siri should be good to go whenever we start.

Dotting. Got in late tonight. Will have everything up and updated when I have time tomorrow during lunch.

About to head to work (long shift) so it may very well be sometime this afternoon or tonight before I'll be able to jump in and get started; I'm still here and reading though :)

Map added!

Pictures of the other passengers are also now in the Campaign Info tab.

I don't think it'll be relevant for a little bit, but do you prefer that familiars/eidolons/etc. have their own aliases?

I'll leave it to your preference. Also, so you know, Fidget is safely with you, and will wake up when you wake up.

Have any of you played or run Serpent's Skull before? I'm just curious. :)

I made it to the end of this fight in a previous game. Then, it died suddenly and really hasn't come back.

I have not played or run this before. It's pretty fun though so far - you really bring the NPCs to life.

I've not played in or run this one, either. The only two APs I have any experience with are Rise of the Runelords & Wrath of the Righteous, both games I'm playing in with RL friends :)

The NPCs in this one are pretty neat, but when I first ran this for some friends in a face-to-face game, they kind of got pushed to the side. I think that PbP will really allow me to bring them out if you all want to get involved with them, but in my meatspace game it was a little hard to play 5 NPCs at once, and my group didn't really care that much about them anyway (except for Gelik--they wanted him to teach them dirty jokes).

Our RL group(s) tend to have that same issue with NPCs. For example, the WotR group has a total of 7 PCs, soon to be joined by an Improved Familiar and an intelligent weapon gained via Mythic stuff. Between all of that, the poor NPCs (of which there are now uh...7 traveling with the party for reasons) don't get much screentime, which is a shame.

*edit* Ironically, the PC I'm playing in that campaign was the first one that I ever sat down and wrote a detailed background for and based on game/time limitations most of it will probably never be mentioned or come up in the actual game. I think I might recreate her as a PbP PC and just rework the background as needed for whichever game I submit her to.

I'm running Reign of Winter for my RL group, and they're disappointing me in their disinterest in interacting with the NPCs in a town they're in. One guy died who had helped them, and the chaotic neutral rogue decides to rob his store since the guy's not there anymore. (This was a home made change so not a spoiler for the AP.)

There were alignment shift talks.

That's why I love PbP games so much. RPing is necessary and feels natural in written form.

There were a few NPCs that my face-to-face group liked from this AP. And a lot more that annoyed them. They did get pretty riled up by...well, you'll see. ;D

Never played it or read it. So far I'm liking it :)

What are we waiting for in the gameplay thread? An AoO?

We were just waiting on Paulinus to go. That stomach ache just doesn't seem to be doing him any favors, though.

Also, sorry if my initiative queue gets kind of funky; like I said, this is my first PbP as a GM, so I'm trying to figure out how best to run combats.

I think Siri made a friend! Yay! Just curious, but when you do NPC attitudes, to you attribute them to the whole party or individually per PC? A GM of mine likes to attribute to the party and designate a PC Favorite of the NPC.

I haven't usually had any use for the change-attitude part of Diplomacy, but there are some specific stuff about the NPCs in this AP that have to do with their attitude. Generally, they'll have the same attitude toward the PCs as a group, but I'm sure they'll certainly have favorites (and least favorites, if you annoy them). The other thing is that you're all not exactly a "party" yet, but I'm sure you'll remedy that soon.

Hey PbP friends,

I'm moving this weekend, so I may be without internet and time to post for a couple of days. I'll do my best to get on and post once a day, but we'll see what time permits.

No worries, mP! We'll see you when you can manage it :)

Good luck with the move!

Take care and don't throw your back out with the heavy stuff.

Still here, just chilling out at work (bleh night shift). I'm just curious, what do you guys think of character backstories and such? Do you like to create real intricate ones or do you prefer to keep it short and sweet and just play it by ear on how your character develops? For the DM and those that DM/have DMed, do you like seeing in-depth character backstories or does it not make a lot of difference to you either way? :)

I usually like to see that a character is more than just a statistics sheet. If you can answer questions about your character like 'Who are their parents', 'What was their childhood like', and 'why are they the class that they are', then I'm usually satisfied by the background.

That's not to say that you can't add details from their background later. Important people in their lives, events that changed the way they lived, so long as it doesn't contradict the existing background, I'd say it's fair to throw it in there.

I prefer to make fairly detailed backgrounds that answer the same questions Siri put forth.

As a DM (which I am more frequently than a player) I prefer as detailed backgrounds as possible for PBP play. Around a table knowing the basics is usually okay, since 99% of people only RP characters with the same personality as themselves, and say stuff "out of character" as often as they do in character (at least in my experience).

Backgrounds are important, but I actually think the character really shines through in dialogue and roleplaying. I'm actually going to be starting up a Reign of Winter PbP soon once I get my materials together. One of my first moves will be to open up discussion for roleplaying so I can see how people interact for recruitment purposes.

Part of the reason I'm trying my hand at PbPs is to become a better role-player, so character backgrounds play a part in that. I'm still not to the point of having really *long* backgrounds for all of my characters, but I'm definitely doing better at having an idea of where they came from and why they're in the location that they're in. If nothing else, having some general idea makes it a little easier to get into character.

@Kenton - I like the "roleplaying test" that I've seen some of the DMs do for their recruitment threads. I can understand why not everyone chooses to take that route, but it really does help to see how everyone plays and to figure out who clicks with who and which PCs might have issues (in character) with others.

Slightly more on topic, but who wants to keep track of party treasure? I can do it, but Aleris herself can't actually carry a lot of gear so that's something to keep in mind.

@GMmP - Aleris will basically move everything of interest, including the brandy and the model ship out of the captain's cabin and down to the beach below. The party doesn't have to take everything with them, but she does want to at least get things off the wreck before it sinks.

I actually just added a loot list Google spreadsheet to the top of the campaign. Write in your name next to the things you want to claim, or just put "Group" or "Shared" or something. :)

There's also one more room that no one has been in yet: the one on the same deck as the supply room, with the one-hit-killed sea scorpion in front of it.

Just wanted to ask how everybody feels about Siri burying the poor first mate with all of his masterwork gear. It just seemed less like a 'loot the dead guy' event and more of a 'respect for the fallen' one.

I don't think Aleris would mind either way. While she could see the practicality in taking his stuff (he won't need it anymore and who knows what might come in handy), she's also not inclined to argue with being respectful, especially if doing so is obviously important to someone else.

I was going to say something, but Paulinus can't use the gear and he's LG.

Well, it's really up to all of you. I had a player the first time I ran this who took the first mate's gear, but then again he was a LE rogue. It would certainly be reasonable for a character to honor the first mate's final heroics of dragging you all to shore by putting his gear to use; no point in saving your lives if you die from lack of a good sword. Then again, the rites and rituals of death are important. I expect that Kenton is probably the one who could benefit most from the gear, so he might want to weigh in. Since he uses a gladius, which is essentially a short short as far as the rules are concerned, he may want to take that, if not the armor. It's up to all of you.

Speaking for the one guy who might be a jerk enough to steal from a dead man, I'm going to say no on the armor. That would be disrespectful.

But it's not like he'd be using the short sword...

There are some survival camp rules in the back of the AP that the NPCs can help with. Unless y'all don't care, in which case, I'll just bypass that. I'll post the relevant information below.

Camp rules:
In addition to setting up camp for shelter and safety, PCs (or more likely NPCs) can fulfill special roles to aid the camp. If a character performs this duty, that's what they do for the whole day.

Roles:
Defender: Ensures the safety of the camp by setting up traps and maintaining the walls. Should something attack the camp, the first attackers of the day take 2d6 damage (per defender) spread evenly among them.
Entertainer: Helps keep up morale and hope for rescue. NPCs get +2 (per entertainer) on their daily morale rolls (they make these every morning--they can fluctuate between hopeful and panicked, but a hopeful NPC doesn't have to make these rolls anymore unless something terrible happens).
Guard: Each guard reduces the chance of a wandering monster attack on the camp by 5% (can't go to 0%, though).
Hunter: Each hunter provides food and water for 8 medium creatures per day.
Medic: Each medic reduces the chance of disease by 5%, and increases natural healing from sleep by 2.

NPC Roles:
Aerys: Entertainer or Guard
Gelik: Entertainer or Medic
Ishirou: Defender or Guard
Jask: Hunter or Medic (must be un-manacled)
Sasha: Hunter or Defender

An NPC will only perform one of these duties if they have an indifferent attitude or better (attitude toward party and morale are listed in the Campaign Info tab). Attitudes can be improved by diplomacy checks, per the diplomacy rules.

For the first night on the Shiv, PCs can fill a role that they could feasibly perform. For subsequent days, though, performing a Camp Role takes the whole day, i.e., you can't explore or adventure or craft.

I'll also allow everyone to make one Diplomacy check for the night to improve NPC attitudes, and probably about one per day after that. I'll call Siri's influence on Aerys earlier in the day a freebie, so Siri can make a diplomacy check like everyone if she wants for the night. Aerys will talk to you soon, and then you can talk to someone else, if you feel like trying. There is a penalty for failing the diplomacy check by enough, but those will only last a few hours, as opposed to the successes, which remain in effect unless you're all just like, huge jerks to them or something after you make them friendly or helpful.

That sounds cool to me. I'm on my phone now but I'll try to get an RP post up tonight when I get home.

Hmm, seems like a fair amount to keep up with, but I do like that it essentially gives the NPCs something to be doing if the rest of us want to branch out and explore the area a bit. I'll wait and see what everyone else thinks, though.

The rules sound good to me - seems like we have enough NPCs for the camp to have at least one of everything while the rest explore the island. Though I'm hesitant to have Siri make any Diplomacy checks, being a rough barbarian lass.

The map of Desperation Bay you found in the captain's cabin shows Smuggler's Shiv, although it is unlabeled and is simply marked with a warning not to approach. Ishirou points it out to you all though, and an outline map of the Shiv can now be found above! I've made it so you all can comment on it, so you can plan your foray into the jungle.

Seems like we'll probably want to start off with the part of the island to the right of the camp - the point and tip, that is. Then from there, work our way south. Are there any omnipresent features on the island that can used as a landmark, or is it all flat forest?

Added a compass. As for landmarks, nothing particularly sticks out to you so far. From the rocks you climbed up to the Jenivere, it appeared that there isn't a whole lot of beach to walk on; most of the shore is steep cliffs. The elevation of the island changes a lot, and there are dense jungles, steep hillsides, jagged ridges and cliffs, and swamps.

So, based on the map, I think that the party should tackle the western peninsula right now. Its closest, so if we run into any snags (like someone getting knocked out) it won't be too difficult to bring them back to camp.

Sounds like a plan, plus we won't be leaving unexplored areas at our back, so to speak.