By the way, Valachi, I don't know if you've read Haunting of Harrowstone or not, but I thought I should warn you that you won't see a lot of milage out of Favored Enemy (Human) in this adventure. If you want to stick by that choice for flavor reasons, I completely respect that. If you do want to change it, undead is the obvious choice, but there are a handful of vermin making an appearance as well.
I had a radical thought last night, and it is a shame I did not post it immediately, as now Orlok will likely be in bed until tonight. So that being said, forgive the late hour this idea presents.
Looking at the composition of our group, and trying to make sure Zhan is completed fully, with all edges rounded off, an idea occurred. Zhan is at present essentially a generalist. Inquisitors are good at that, much like bards mechanically. He's an investigator/face/secondary healer/secondary fighter.
Our group has effective fighters, a primary divine caster/healer, and a couple of 'face' characters. What we are lacking, as previously discussed, is a primary Arcane caster.
Looking at his concept, I noticed that I could potentially change his class to a few others without any appreciable change to his "character" or core-concept. Ordinary man, crossed by necromancers and sworn to hunting them. I am wondering if he would serve the group better as a wizard, probably as a Diviner, in order to continue his investigative theme and hunter-mentality. In presentation and description he would be exactly the same, only the numbers and mechanics behind the scene changing.
This is not a change I am dead set on, nor one I am reluctant to play either. I have been wanting to play a wizard for a while, just as I have been wanting to really try out an Inquisitor. So, what I would like to know is what the team thinks of replacing the team's Inquisitor, with a Diviner instead. The character concept, and above-board details will all stay the same, either way.
Actually I'm still up for about another hour. We really haven't started anything yet, so changing Zhan to a diviner wouldn't really be a problem, and personally, I love to see players that are more attached to a concept than a class, and willing to be flexible with the latter.
Well, I think the concept with this character is what I really like.
It was funny, because I chose the inquisitor class first, came up with the concept, and now when I think about it, the concept might work even better as a different class.
When we had first brought up the idea for this campaign on the Ringtail OOC forum, I had said I'd likely play a wizard, but then changed my mind. I like the look of the inquisitor, but I've never really gotten around to playing one. The last time I was set to play one, I switched him into a Paladin at the last minute because of that group's lack of a good melee fighter. Again, I kept the concept, but changed the mechanics of that character.
I think in this group, our lack of a strong arcanist makes me a bit nervous, and I think I could easily see Zhan, still as an investigator, using complex divinations to track down Necromancers, and then using magic, along with his comrades, to take them down.
One issue I was having with the Inquisitor was that I didn't picture Zhan as a particularly religious person (which was why I was having trouble picking a deity). The Inq is supposed to be a religious zealot, I know, but I always saw the class as more of a semi-religious investigator, like a holy themed law man/ranger. I would actually picture Zhan more as one of the non-deity specific, concept driven Inquisitors. If he stays Inquisitor, I should actually ask if he can go that direction, and forgo a deity. Being a diviner eliminates that issue.
I like Inquisitor they are pretty cool class good for a lot of different things. I do not really see a problem with not really having a full arcane magic caster but you have played longer than I have. It is up to you though if you really feel that we need a wizard play one.
Hmm. "Need" is highly subjective. We could get by without one I'm sure, particularly using the strategies we talked about before. Having one might make some things easier, however.
I will consider that a vote for Inquisitor though.
I've always been a big fan of "play what you want to play" over play what you think is needed. If what you want to play AND what you think the group needs are the same thing, then I'm okay with it.
Well, as there has not been a lot of interest in the idea of having a wizard in the group, I think I will leave things as they are. I will of course remain open to any suggestions anyone has.
Our group is fairly rounded. I don't think lacking a full arcane caster should be a problem; we have a 2/3 caster and I'll be using UMD. The group has a lot of character and that's what is more important than anything. I'm sure we can think out of the box and find away around any challenges that would traditionally be the area of expertise of a full caster.
By the way, Valachi, I don't know if you've read Haunting of Harrowstone or not, but I thought I should warn you that you won't see a lot of milage out of Favored Enemy (Human) in this adventure. If you want to stick by that choice for flavor reasons, I completely respect that. If you do want to change it, undead is the obvious choice, but there are a handful of vermin making an appearance as well.
Not sure how I missed this post the other day... I haven't read the adventure(s), so I was just going off the suggestion in the player's guide. It recommended humans, so I'm guessing it may be worthwhile down the road. If you think it best, I can take undead now and take humans second.
I've thought over the age question again, and I think I do like the idea of Zhan being older. That is just the way I picture him. He's a middle aged man, who is a bit past prime, old and weathered, but fierce in spirit. The aging affects are hard to deal with and still get the stats I wanted, but reducing his age kind of messes with his character in my mind. So, what I think I will have to do is make changes to his stat block based on the "Middle-Age" aging affects; namely a -1 to STR, DEX, and CON, and a +1 on INT, WIS, and CHA, and then rebalance the stats a bit to find a set that works (redistribute his points on a 20 point buy, with the modifiers listed above).
In the end I end up changing this:
- STR 10
- DEX 18
- CON 12
- INT 12
- WIS 16
- CHA 7
- STR 10 (11-1)
- DEX 17 (16+2-1)
- CON 12 (13-1)
- INT 14 (13+1)
- WIS 16 (15+1)
- CHA 8 (7+1)
Making him a bit more mentally focused, without too much impact to functionality.
You don't need to worry about the age modifier at creation. Actaully, I was asking because if Zhan continues to act the way he has been, Kendra may begin to look at him as a surrogate father.
Good to know. I think he would be happy to look out for Kendra, both out of sense of responsibility to Petros, and because he has always thought fondly of the girl.
In regards to the age modifiers, could he use them if I wanted to? After looking at ways to rebalance, I might want to play with it a bit to see if I do like the mental shift more. I like the idea of the higher INT, which this allows me to pull off.
So how is the game so far? I've tried my hand at GMing a PbP only once before, but that died pretty quickly because of work, a short attention span, and one or two deva PCs. Point being, I'm pretty new to this, so I'd be open to any feedback you might have.
Also, how would you guys like to handle combats? I'm not too savvy when it comes to various maptools, but if someone can suggest a good one, I can try and learn (assuming China doesn't have it blocked - my proxy server has become really unreliable). Or we can go mapless, just working with descriptions and reasonable actions.
Seem to be doing fine to me. It is good that the characters are starting to get to know each other. No idea what to tell you for the maps wish I could.
You don't seem inexperienced at all. I enjoy your vivid descriptions. The game's great thus far.
I would prefer avoiding complicated map programs; if they require any downloads to interact with I cannot use them as I post from several computers that I don't own throughout the day. Simple spreadsheets/images or descriptions get my vote.
I'm enjoying the game very much so far. I'd prefer a map of some sort, though it needn't be anything complicated. The grid/spreadsheet that Ringtail uses in his campaign is quite sufficient, if you could manage something like that. In a written game, I think it would be difficult to convey all the necesary information to all parties without a map of some sort. If people cannot see, and need to wait for a response to questions like, can I charge, do I have line of sight, is (ally) in the blast radius, etc., then things will get severely slowed down, and combat will take a long long time.
I use PowerPoint for my maps. The hard part was the grid overlay, and some of the basics, but as I got used to it I got a lot better.
Examples of what I've done:
Zombie Battle
Hyena Battle
If you want, I can e-mail you the template base I have (it has a few of my basics in it as well, trees, tables, chairs, etc).
As far as the game, I think it is going well. I like a game where we have more posts of character and NPC interaction, than those of combat and obstacles. I love PbP's due to the ability to see more RP than I get at my TT games.
EDIT: I use flikr, cause it's one of the few I can see at work. In another game they are using something like i.imgur.com I can see that one too.
I like a game where we have more posts of character and NPC interaction, than those of combat and obstacles. I love PbP's due to the ability to see more RP than I get at my TT games.
Agreed; in my limited experience I'm finding PbP RPing to be quite fulfilling.
Alright, I'm afraid I don't have power point, but I'lls e what I kind find - truth be told I'm not to savvy with computers. Ringtail, do you think you might be able to give me a rundown of how to set up the program you've been using in our RotRL game?
Sure. Do you have a gmail and/or google.doc account? And are you at all familiar with excell or similar spreadsheet programs?
And don't worry, I'm barely computer literate and even I managed to work out the bugs after making several practice maps.
I have a gmail account (martinanjo@gmail.com, if any of you need to reachme). I used to know a bit about excell, but I haven't used it since my sophmore year in college, so I'm going to be more than a bit rusty.
1. Okay; you go to google.com and sign in at the top right of the page.
2. Then along the top left of the page there are several tabs (web, images, videos, etc). Look for the one that says "documents" to get to google.doc. It may be under the tab that says "more".
3. Once you are in google.doc there should be a tab on the left hand side of the page that says "create new". Click it and look for "spreadsheet". It'll open up a new window or tab that looks much like older versions of excell.
4. I believe the standard page set up 20 columns and 100 rows, so to cut down on the number of columns you will want to highlight the bottom 80 rows by clicking A21, holding shift and clicking T100, then I believe that you either left click, or click edit and click remove highlighted row(this will leave you with a 20 square by 20 square table, which is a 100' by 100' map, which should work fine for low levels at least).
5. Now this table is still shaped as thin, elongated boxes. Use ctrl+a to select all boxes, then click and drag the division between any two rows and any two columns to re-size them as you see fit (I tend to just make the 20 columns fit perfectly inside of whatever screen size that I'm using and then try to make the rows match). This can take a couple of minutes to be happy with.
6. Once getting to this point you'll want to name your blank map; I suggest "blank map". You can do this by clicking the top of the page where it says "untitled document" and typing whatever you wish.
7. To avoid needing to do these steps every time you need a map I would suggest clicking the "file" tab and clicking "create copy" whenever you would like to make a map.
8. Once you get to this step, let me know and I'll continue. If you have any trouble, just let me know where you get stuck and I'll see if I can word it a bit more clearly.
I'm a bit of a Cartographile, so would be more than willing to draw the maps if you give me the dimensions/description of the area. I have PP on both my home and work comp, and spend roughly 12-16 hrs a day lurking on the forums (both at home and work).
I'm really enjoying how Zhan seems to have fallen into a leadership position and is driving us forward. And Kirill is looking forward to infuriating him at every turn later on once the whole inquisitor v. graverobber thing; that is if he doesn't mind, of course.
It's actually better than you think, Kirill. Zhan spent the years of his first career as an undertaker and the graveyard watchmen. He spent more than a decade trying to watch out for the kind of scum who would rob a grave, and drive them off or thump them. He probably has quite the soft-spot built up for grave robbers.
I'm not trying to get nitpicky, but Zhan I was wondering how your social skills were so high?
Actually, yeah. I mean it's easily in the cards to have a +7 bonus to a skill at 1st level (between feats and traits, Dherisan had +9), but how do you have +7 to diplomacy with a 7 cha? I don't want to sound accusatory, I'm probably just missing something - I'm just trying to figure out what that might be.
No problem at all, it is always good to be skeptical, especially when something is out of the ordinary. It basically comes down to his Inquisition Ability. All Inquisitors get to choose either a clerical domain or an Inquisition Ability. Zhan has the Conversion ability.
Conversion Inquisition
You are a powerful persuader. A honeyed tongue empowered by divine argumentation sways the indifferent and adversarial to your side.
Deities: Any deity.
Granted Powers:
Charm of Wisdom (Ex): You use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Charisma modifier when making Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks.
Swaying Word (Sp): At 8th level, once per day you may speak a word of divinely inspired wisdom that causes a single creature to switch its alliance to you. The target must be within line of sight and able to hear you. If he fails his Will save, he is affected by dominate person, except the duration is only 1 minute.
The reason Zhan's social skills are so high is simply because he is basing them off of Wisdom, and not Charisma. I believe I did mention it during character creation, and our introductions, but with many new characters, it is not surprising it was missed. I've alluded his odd low Cha/High Wis combo few times in game, and in his character write up, but I'm not sure it was ever spelled out point blank. So, here we go.
The in-character explanation is that in his early life, before the life-altering events involving professor Lorrimor, he was a loner; an Undertaker who lives alone in the graveyard and acted as its watchman and caretaker as well as interring any who passed on in his village. He had little in the way of social skills or friends, and was very isolated. He was an introspective man though, interested in philosophy and art, but had no real way to share his observations on mankind. When he encountered the Necromancer, and was changed and then saved by the Professor, his body took on a bit of a harrowed gaunt look. His skin is pale and a bit drawn, and his face appears scarred. His voice is a low growl or rasp at most times. He looks a bit older than his years, and his hair has been silver white since the incident that introduced him to Lorrimor.
When he rededicated himself to a new purpose, Iomadae allowed him to take his introspective and observant nature, and gave him the ability to communicate with ideas, instead of charm. He is not a kind sight to look at (though not hideous either), but he has kind eyes, and a genuine manner of relating himself to people that allows him the chance to speak, and his words manage to convince as well as charm ever could.
In Game, I am playing him deliberately verbose, to reflect that he relies on words to communicate and convince, and not just base charm. He is still low Cha, so I'm playing him a little bit presumptive, a little bit brash, and perhaps a touch egotistical. He sees that he is by far the oldest party member, and probably considers his past more severe/significantly life altering than anyone elses. Therefore, in his mind, he is the obvious choice to bind together this group of youngins and give them the benefit of his experience.
Edit: Actually, strike that last; I don't see him as egotistical (though I had been considering that approach), rather I think he is trying to take more of a guiding father/grandfather kind of relationship to the rest of the group. He is being presumptuous, that his experience is more significant, but he is genuinely trying to be supportive and nurturing. In the end, it may still be for egotistical reasons (my experience is more extensive and significant than yours) but I think he is kind and coming from a place of a genuine desire to support the party members.
For note Agnar is picking on Delia. Yes he has reasons no I will not tell them you have to find out later or just ask him.
For note Agnar is picking on Delia. Yes he has reasons no I will not tell them you have to find out later or just ask him.
Ooooh, he liiiiikes her. Next he will pull her hair and put a frog in her desk. :P
No he does not like her but the frog in the desk seems like a great idea.
Orlok Jr, I was looking over the Summoner Archetypes and was wondering if it is too late to make her a master summoner? The effect it has on Father doesn't kick in until 2nd level (due to the minimum 1), and since we haven't fought, nor has she used a summon yet it won't affect what has happened already.
That would be fine, Delia. I'll just have to make sure not to give you time to flood a room with summoned minions!
Heads up, I will be unable to post from Fri afternoon to Sat evening (Eastern). I will back on Sat night to update all my posts.
I am heading on vacation starting tomorrow. I am just visiting family around western Canada, so I should have internet access whenever I am stopped with someone, but their may be gaps here or there. I am travelling during the day tomorrow, so I will be out of contact until at least the evening.
Orlok, if it is not too much trouble, I would ask you to control me if any action comes up and I have not posted in the last 12 hours or so. I am pretty sure I will have internet most days, so hopefully it will not come up.
Disappeared from my Focus list; redotting.
As you can probably tell from the frequency of my posts, I'm back from my vacation. Things seem to have been moving slowly. I hope the end of term crunch and coworker absences you mentioned are going relatively smoothly Orlok.
Has anyone got a copy of Ultimate Combat yet? I'm still waiting for the local shop to get them in.
I just bought the PDF, but I haven't been able to download it yet because the page for doing so is down.
I haven't yet; but I hear it is much better than UM. I'm excited.
I have bought this though, which was an excellent investment.
Well, I finally got my copy of UC. It's not bad. It looks like there is some pretty interesting stuff. The archetypes are good for the most part, and there are a lot of feats to look through. Unfortunately, there are no archetypes that I think would benefit Zhan, or my character Gorgoron in Kirill's campaign.
I was looking at Zhan, and realized I did not give him an ethnicity. I am not really familiar with Golarion though. Delia was talking about being from a small Ustalavan village, and Zhan would likely be from something similar. What are the ethnicities in this general part of the world, both in Ustalav, and in the countries bordering?
Chelaxian they are part of the devil worshiping empire.
Kellids these are basically Conan type race of humans.
Shoanti native american type of people.
Taldans they are a mix of Spanish and roman people.
Ulfen these are the vikings.
Varisian are gypsy type people.
Those are the ones from around or in Ustalav.
Just to let everyone know, I'm not disappearing, but my fiance, whom I get to see very rarely, is going to be in town until the 20th, so I may be rather quiet for a time. I'll try to keep posting as much as possible, and should be able to catch up a bit and post frequently while at work Friday night and Sunday morning for 9 hours each.
Sorry I haven't updated yet - as I've said, work's been pretty busy, buuuuut, this is the last week of the summer schedule! I've got a relatively light day today, but the office's wireless has been finicky, so if I don't update during lunch, I'll do so after work.
And Zhan,Agnar pretty much has it, but I loooove going on tirades about Golarion, so here's a run down of each race in more detail than you might prefer.
The Taldan people are probably the most common human ethnicity in Ustalav. They tend to have bronzed skin with dark hair (they're sort of Spanish in appearance and naming conventions, but a combination of French and Roman in culture). Most Taldans in Ustalav are descendants of the humans who fought in the Shining Crusade nearly a thousand years ago, which defeated and imprisoned the Whispering Tyrant. They have a reputation for arrogance, which is not undeserved, but they have the oldest surviving human culture in Golarion.
Varisians follow Taldans closely in commonality. They're more or less Romani gypsies, though most of them no longer wander. They've mostly settled down, but kept all other elements of their culture. They're the people that this land is most often associated with, as they lived here long before the Taldans, and they're far more exotic. Skilled diviners, they're known for their use of the Harrow deck in readings of the future. There are also the Sczarni, Varisians who still wander and travel in caravans, and they have all the stigmas and stereotypes of the gypsies we know and love.
Kellids are uncommon in Ustalav, but not unheard of. Very clearly based off of Cymerian barbarians, various Kellid tribes lived here a loooong time ago, and a few of their descendants still live here today. Others wander in from nearby by from countries. They're not nearly as barbaric in Ustalav as they are in nearby Numeria, but they still endure a fair degree of discrimination for their perceived barbarism.
The Ulfen people might be found in Ustalave as well, though the afore-mentioned examples are the chief three types of humans. The Ulfen are Nordic vikings, most prevelant in several parts of northern Avistan. Since Ustalav is near to the north, and the Ulfen are an adventurous people, it's only natural that a handful of them would make their home there. Ulfen are hardy warriors with a deeply rooted desire for glory. They're capable on the sea, and in the wilds. One of two "barbarian people" from Avistan, though they are considered worlds more civilized than the Kellids.
Finally, there are the Chelaxians. Today, they're probably the most prevalent human race in Avistan, and as such may be found in all of its countries. They tend towards pale skin and dark (commonly black) hair. Regarded as cunning, shrewd, intelligent, and often ruthless. They've become widespread enough that those living outside the nation of Cheliax are not necessarily burdened by that nations reputation for open devil-worship, as these people make up the base stock of most nations in southern Avistan, many of which openly oppose Cheliax itself.
There are also Shoanti, who are like American Indians, but with shaved heads, but they mostly stay in Varisia, and would be pretty unusual in Ustalav. The same can be said for the Garundi(northern Africans), Mwangi(African tribesmen), Kelishites(Arabian peoples), and Vudrani (Indian).
Remember too that if you're human, you speak Taldane (common) and (according to my houserules) one other ethnic language, which matches your ethnicity or region. For Varisians, they speak Varisian. Kellids speak Hallit, Ulfen speak Skald. Taldans and Chelaxians both speak Taldane as their chief language, so you would get your choice of a valid regional language. In this case, Varisian or Hallit.
So yeah, I've been beating around this for a couple of days. I'm afraid I don't have what it takes to GM a PbP - things haven't been slowing down as I'd hoped, and addressing each PC (or even just three of them) and keeping everything moving is turning out to be more trying than I'd thought. I just don't think I've got it in me to continue. I'm really sorry about this, because I do think this is a great group, and I do love Carrion Crown. I hate to let you guys down, but I'd rather admit my limits than keep stringing you along.
Ringtail, and those of you in the RotRL games, if there are hard feelings over this and you guys would prefer I bow out of that one, I understand.
It is cool stuff happens.
No problem - it can be a lot of work. And of course Dehrisan is more than welcome to continue with us. If you ever choose to strike CC back up just make sure you let us know first. ;)
That is unfortunate, Orlok Jr. I for one thought that you were doing a very good job, and I was enjoying the unfolding storyline. I also thought our group was forming a good dynamic, so I will be sad to see it go.
If we could find someone interested in stepping into the GM shoes, would you be offended, or would that be alright? It would be nice to try and continue the game if possible.
That is unfortunate, Orlok Jr. I for one thought that you were doing a very good job, and I was enjoying the unfolding storyline. I also thought our group was forming a good dynamic, so I will be sad to see it go.
If we could find someone interested in stepping into the GM shoes, would you be offended, or would that be alright? It would be nice to try and continue the game if possible.
Agree with Zhan here 100%! I thought you were doing a nice job with the PbP, especially if it was your first. No worries if you have to drop it - RL and other things pop up, and always have precedence.
If anyone is able/willing to take up the GM ball, I'd happily stick around...
I would almost be willing to take the role, but I am running three and playing in six, and have a RL game, outside of this one and don't think I can run another. I have no problem sticking around.