Out of Character chat goes here

OK, the 3 of you have been added, and later today I will put up the opening post as you guys figure out your avatar and post your character sheets. I've already looked over ALix's and it looks fine.

We also have a request from a random 4th guy who has been looking for a PF game on RPol, who would like to play a summoner in this game. Do you guys want a 4th or shall we keep it in the group?

We should keep it small.  Thats my vote, 3 people is manageable, 4 people is a lot of waiting for posts.

having a 3rd will inhibit us from ever doing sessions via skype.  I think we should keep it in the group.

/agree

James.  Can you change my character name from Eliara to Desra?  I've had a cold, been totally out of it.  Eliara was the name I decided against.  For some reason, I asked for it.  I dunno.  So sick.  Change it to Desra.  Nn.

Alrighty, Desra it is then, and I'll let the guy know that the game isn't open.

btw, are we going to have a specific tab for character sheets?

also, will they tell us when they put our new character portraits up or will we just have to guess?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:49, Wed 02 Nov 2011.

OK, I have opened your character sheets and they should now be editable by yourselves.

The game will start on my birthday tomorrow (Nov 3) :)

And the game is afoot!

At the moment, your characters are on board the Swallowtail, a twenty-man longboat from the port of Egede, in the service of the City of Brevoy, a Duchy nominally in service to the Empire of Cheliax. It has been a long journey from Egede, almost two months traveling along treacherous rivers, and then nearly a week without any sign of civilization besides skulking goblins and the scent of lizardmen from the river's shores.

Your characters each hold a charter and Writ of Passage (see the documents section) from the Lord Mayor of Restov with your instructions. You are to explore and map the Greenbelt for Brevoy. Yours is one of four groups of prisoners, adventurers, or soldiers sent south into the Stolen Lands to defeat the resident creatures and bandits and, hopefully, to establish one of four new nations in the River Kingdoms.

Please take this time to introduce yourselves a bit and ask any questions about the Stolen Lands that you would like. In the game thread you may make any knowledge, gather information, or other checks if you think they will help. The captain is already Helpful to you, so further diplomacy checks are unnecessary.

I at first read, "execution by sword or rope" as "execution by sword or rape" and thought, "wow, I'm glad I put olive oil in my list of items."

James, with regard to the Skype game, will we be doing it on Gametable?  If so, can you link us to the exact download so we don't have to worry about differing versions?  Much appreciated!

Good question Alix - I'm on my old laptop tonight (it's more portable than my other and I'm at Charles' place), so I'll confirm version #'s for gametable/mapmaker tomorrow.

Link for Gametable download: http://sourceforge.net/project...les/Gametable%202.0/


Also, here is the document charging you lot with exploring the area and slaying bandits, which is also in the Documents section:

A Royal Charter

Be it so known that the bearer of this charter has been charged
by the Swordlords of Restov, acting upon the greater good and
authority vested within them by the office of the Regent of the
Dragonscale Throne, has granted the right of exploration and travel
within the wilderness region known as the Greenbelt. Exploration
should be limited to an area no further than thirty-six miles east and
west and sixty miles south of Oleg’s Trading Post. The carrier of
this charter should also strive against banditry and other unlawful
behavior to be encountered. The punishment for unrepentant banditry
remains, as always, execution by sword or rope. So witnessed on this
24th day of Calistril, under watchful eye of the Lordship of Restov
and authority granted by Lord Noleski Surtova, current Regent of
the Dragonscale Throne.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:41, Tue 08 Nov 2011.

Random crimson throne thing I saw on the PFd20:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe...sable-company-marine

I saw that, it was pretty sweet.

Did you see this feat?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/...s/companion-figurine

But where's the panther figurine option?!

Also, there are extra PF rules for Girard!

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamema...g/performance-combat

Note that Pg 11 of the Players Guide has a map of the lands you came from. Your last location was in Restov, in the bottom right corner.

But where are we on that map?

I'm ready to head out if everyone else is.

You guys are so far south that you are off the map. Assume you're about 3 inches further along, or ~72 miles.

Just to be clear, you guys are not "the reinforcements" - this is the 1st you've heard of the post having problems, and your job is to map this area and clear it of bandits. With that said, if Oleg's having bandit troubles, then it is part of your job description to murder-death-kill them.

Some silly Hot Fuzz trivia:

-Simon Skinner ("I'm a slasher!") is played by Timothy Dalton...I did not realize that

-Features four actors from various Lord of the Rings adaptations. Peter Jackson plays "Santa Claus" in the opening montage. Bill Nighy (he's the Love Actually guy) played Sam Gamgee in the BBC Radio broadcast. Cate Blanchett (Galadriel, also CSI girlfriend for main character). Martin Freeman (sergrant at start) will play Bilbo Baggins in Jackson's film of The Hobbit.

In reply to Akal (msg #22):

happy thanksgiving everyone.

Whoo, they put up the picture I wanted.

James, link your were-spider template link.  I want to do some theory crafting with it, but I can't find it anywhere.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a

And the build that used it:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums...06&postcount=106

Much obliged.  Check out the Sword Spider in the Monsters of Faerun Compendium.  I think it would make an awesome entomanothrope.  The ECL is steep, but its basically just LA +2 on top of 5 HD of awesome.  Check it out.

Woot! Penny Arcade actually mentions Pathfinder in a comic!

http://penny-arcade.com/comic

Read my post before checking the link

http://oglaf.com/masquerade/3/

You'll get what I mean

Just warning, it's Oglaf, so definitely NSFW
This message was last edited by the player at 22:20, Thu 01 Dec 2011.

DM needs to railroad us into more encounters.  It seems like we do more talking about what we're going to do then doing anything.

DM will take that as an affirmative that ya'll are ready for the encounter then.

Charles must have gotten back from work around 2 or 3 am last night (2nd night in a row for the poor guy), so I will forgive him for not posting in the combat :P

Charles, when you do post, here's what has happened in the round so far:

1. My round.
2. Desra sneaks into position
3. Girard moves into position and demands a surrender.
4. Desra backs him up with her own bluff
5. Happs screams "Never give up, never surrender!" and is promptly beheaded by Girard.
6. Desra shrugs her slim shoulders and runs her cool steel straight along her bandit's neck, giving him a second smile along the jugular
7. Your move
8. Panicky-looking remaining bandits' move.

As you guys can see, I have posted a number of possible quests that are listed on the wall of Oleg's trading post. Whenever you want to discuss them, I suggest using the inter-PC chat thread rather than the main one. Over time you will of course encounter more quests - this is a little over half of the ones in this module alone.

Quests! Nice!  Btw, how do we explore the green belt?  We have to go to each hexagon on the map and say we explore it?  How does this work exactly?

Good question!

The Kingmaker Adventure Path utilizes a type of gaming called sandbox exploration. The essential element of the sandbox is that the world exists as a laid out area, and the PC's job is to explore it.

In fact, in 'Kingmaker', the PC's overarching quest is to explore the entire region known in the world of Golarion as the Stolen Lands, beginning with the Northern Greenbelt. To this effect, the Greenbelt has been divided into a hex map, with each hex covering a 12-mile area (that is, a line from one edge of the hex to the other is 12 miles long - overall, the hex covers an area of around 120 square miles). Each hex is dominated by one specific terrain type - plains, forest, hills, mountains, water - which affects travel time through the hex.

Traveling through a hex requires a certain amount of time, with the party's speed being determined by the slowest party member. Fully exploring a hex, however, requires that the party take much longer - whereas traveling through a hex is mostly a matter of hours, exploring a hex is usually a matter of days.

When you explore a hex, you not only go through the action of charting and fully mapping a hex, but you can uncover Sites of Interest. There are three types of Sites: Landmarks (example: Oleg's), which you uncover automatically once you enter a hex; Standard sites, which you discover automatically after exploring a hex; and Hidden sites, which require the PCs to pass some kind of skill test - usually, but not always, Perception - to locate.

Once you fully explore a hex and uncover all Sites within it, you are awarded XP for taking a step forward in completing your assigned mission.

Exploring the Stolen Lands

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:11, Sun 04 Dec 2011.

I think for a play by post game, in which the DM states he will try to post 2-3 times a week, a chase that can require up to 10 rounds (4 rounds if someone rolls double successes for every round) is not an efficient use of time.  You post once or twice a day however, which still means a chase will resolve after 3 days at best.

I dislike using skill checks to resolve combat/action encounters and don't feel they advance the story like a good fight or completing a quest.

This is only my opinion however, and if others feel that chases are worthwhile, I withdraw my complaint.

Apologies to everyone for stating my dislike for skill challenges.  I didn't like them in 4th Edition at all. =/

I would have to agree, I was actually really hesitant on running the chase portion of the fight on PBP.  I looked at it and though... wow, this might take 2 weeks or more for something that could take around 20 minutes on a chat.  but with teh advent of the make both checks, you advance 3 squares, that might make it faster.

Well so far I have posted a regular 4-5 times a week, so I figure this chase will be finished by the weekend or so, unless everyone's rolls are abyssal.

Anyhow, we're trying out a mechanic for the 1st time, and personally I'm enjoying it, if only because I liked coming up with 20 possible obstacles to interfere with a chase. Everybody has an opinion, and I think it advances the story in a more interesting fashion than continuing the chase as a lengthy fight scene.

I seriously doubt chases will come up too often in the game, so I wouldn't let this 1 case get under your skin, Alix. It's not like skill challenges where they will come up 2-3 times at least in a long module. And if they do come up again, I'll shop around for an alternative method of adjudicating one before relying on this.

So far I'm having fun with this, 'specially having to describe how I get past or fail my checks.  I like this mechanic so far, just worried if it's good for pbp.  Course, full attack and miss also sucks.

Your DC 20 checks for 1st level characters suck.  >|

Charles, remember the problem that gunslingers have when fighting with 2 pistols and reloading?

One poster on GiTP had a awesome idea for getting around that issue. Take 2 levels of alchemist, and use the 2nd level's discovery to take the Vestigial Arm discovery, granting a 3rd arm that can be used to reload your pistols, to the horror of all who behold you. :P

and while you do it you can groan out "Quaaaaiiiidddd!"

The 8-day chase is almost concluded!

WHOOOO chase over! it was grueling but we did it!

We will also loot the bodies.  We should also put all the bodies outside of Oleg's, far away, as if they never got there, just so no blame could be placed on Oleg.  Wouldn't want bandits coming and harassing them while we're away.   I suggest we put their heads on stakes, for intimidation factor. or we just hide them so its harder to find them. Course, if they're never found, Oleg might get blamed.

Heads on pikes.  Done.

My dear Alex, you think far too mundane.  If they see a head on a pike, they will just get angry.  That's their friend. and now he's dead, and his skull put up on display.  No no No..... I have much better plans.  When I'm done, they will see their friends, but it will be terror that fills them.  THey won't think they're dealing with government agents, they'll think they're dealing with monsters.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:54, Sun 18 Dec 2011.

so, we're meeting up with the Kobold King.  I like Kobolds, and always hated Mites, ever since AC.


EEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeee eeeeeee eeeeeeeee!

We need to do another skype game.  It was baller.  Great fun.  Bravo.

Glad to hear it =)

I found a feat in Dragon Magazine that lets you use Int to determine bonus HPs instead of Con. The only downside is that every morning, you and another elf have to spend 15 minutes gamboling, frolicking, caroling, or engaging in an exuberant sensual act.

http://realmshelps.net/cgi-bin...e_Mysteries_Initiate

Well... glad that Girard counts as an elf.  Now who wants to spend some 'sensual time' with him?

Some book-keeping notes for experience:

-Each hex explored is 100 xp/3 = 33 xp (I mistakenly said 250 earlier)
-Each quest complete is 400xp/3 = 133xp each
-By DM fiat, the Stag Lord quest is worth substantially more at 1200xp or 400xp each

So for the quests and hexes in the last 2 sessions each PC gains an additional 669 experience. Also note that there are experience rewards for building a kingdom up over time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:24, Mon 02 Apr 2012.

Some crazy PF news:

Top 5 RPG sales Q4 2011:
1 Pathfinder
2 Dungeons & Dragons
3 Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch
4 Dragon Age
5 The One Ring
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/22214.html

Wizards of the Coast is still doing super well of course - the CCG market went up by 25% this year with Magic as the big winner.

PF will release Rise of the Runelords 5th Anniversary edition with PF rules instead of 3.5:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8mqq


Also, any interest in chipping in for what looks like an awesome start to a 1-20 AP for $10?
http://paizo.com/products/btpy...k-One-Knot-of-Thorns
Summary: Eeeeevil adventure
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:52, Fri 06 Apr 2012.

Cool character creation rules from that AP I linked above:

Focus and Foible

Choose a Focus, an ability score at which you excel.
You receive an 18 in that score.

Choose a Foible, an ability score that is your weakness.
You receive an 8 in that score.

The other four, roll 1d10+7 four times in order. There
are no rerolls or moving of ability scores. Those are your
other four scores.

Wow.  Focus and Foible is great for 1 stat classes. (Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, Sorcerer)

Sure, con is a secondary stat for fighter, or maybe dex, but with a high strength, you can make anything work.

Glad to see Pathfinder and Deathwatch high up on the charts! I am going to post that on my face book in a second if I can.

I will gladly buy that "be evil" module..  Hell, I may buy it and give it to a friend here in LA who was interested in running a pathfinder game.

Will investigate further.

Heh...this image cracked me up: http://www.grogtard.com/kingma...ck-of-owlbear-zilla/

Don't read too much of the text though - there are some spoilers from the 2nd module. Also, the party's cavalier was ripped apart by 1d4 trolls.

I will not be available this sunday (tomorrow, may 27). So no game tomorrow~

Most horrifying campaign I've seen in a long time: link to another game

In reply to Akal (msg # 58):

Awesome.  I think I'll check it out.

Some upcoming PF materials announced recently:

Demon Blight Crusade -- the next AP after Reign of Winter. (so its a long ways away)

Mythic Adventures -- mythic add-on rules for Pathfinder, to enable stuff like PCs fighting demon lords and the like. Open playtest starts next month-ish. (Mythic = epic level rules)

Chronicles of Righteousness -- covers angel lords - pfffffft.

Champions of Good -- part of the Player's Companion line.

Munchkin Pathfinder -- not from Paizo, but licensed from Paizo. Munchkin the card game, with Pathfinder flavor.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:04, Mon 20 Aug 2012.

Great PF guide to all sorts of oddball optimization/theory: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=248582

This October we are coming up on this games 1 year anniversary!

Great game!  Here's to another year of Kingmaker!

That said, it won't be another year at least until we finish our Kingmaker campaign and I take the reigns to run the next one.  Recommendations are welcome, but realize its a ways off!

Especially as I'll be in Thailand for most of November, then I'll probably be in school there as of June.

Paths of Prestige is now 50% on the PF SRD:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe...-classes/other-paizo

Some of the cooler ones are...

Here's the badass gunslinger PrC - it is basically Justiciar meets Gunslinger: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe...zo/s-z/shieldmarshal (Easy to adapt to Stolen Lands)

Spellcasting Hellknight: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe.../hellknight-signifer

Daggermark Poisoner (they really REALLY like poison!): http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe.../daggermark-poisoner

Noble Scion (the Aristocrat on speed): http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe...aizo/n-r/noble-scion

and my favorite, the Mammoth Rider: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classe...zo/i-m/mammoth-rider

Something awesome I just learned:

I don't really look forward to the PF MMO, except for one thing: It will be based on the Kingmaker AP. The game "setting" at release will be the River Kingdoms!

Another silly/cool idea: The taverns in the MMO all will be named or run by Kickstarter donors.

Celebrating Our Kickstarter Success with a paizo.com Discount!

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for helping the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter succeed in such an amazing fashion! We raised nearly $1.1 million to make Pathfinder Online bigger, better, and faster, and the world took notice. We have had some pretty high-profile stories run in places where the word Pathfinder had never been uttered before, and we've already seen the community grow as a result. And I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. The Pathfinder community is strong—very strong!

I also wanted to thank you for putting up with the barrage of emails, blog posts, Facebook updates, tweets, and other messages that we used to get the word out about the Kickstarter. This Kickstarter was changing on a daily basis and we felt it was important to keep everyone abreast of the changes on at least a weekly basis. Now that it's behind us, Paizo doesn't plan on emailing this list about Pathfinder Online for a long time. (If you're interested in getting emails about the MMO from Goblinworks, please go to goblinworks.com and sign up for the mailing list at the bottom right corner of the page.)

To celebrate the success of the Kickstarter—and to thank you for putting up with all that messaging!—we're giving everyone a special discount code for use in the paizo.com store during the month of February. Just enter the code ksthanks during checkout between February 1 and February 28, and receive 10% off of one entire order! This is an untyped bonus, so it stacks with other discounts; if you're a Pathfinder Adventure Path subscriber, you'll receive your Pathfinder Advantage discount as well. This discount code does not work on subscriptions, backorders, preorders, gift certificates, pledge drives, books from Completist Publications, or non-Paizo electronic products, but there are tens of thousands of fantastic gaming products it does work on!

[James note: Oh good, so the 10% discount stacks with my dodge bonus to discounts]

From today's Paizo blog...

Ultimate Campaign: The Total Game Changer

Thursday, February 7, 2013

If you heard the trumpeting and roar of cheers last week, that was us, as we just sent our first hardcover of 2013, Ultimate Campaign, off to the printer. This is just the beginning of that book's long journey from the realm of electronic files into the real world, but now that it's out of our hands we can start sharing some of the secrets locked away within this guide to greater gaming.

So, without too many spoilers, here are ten tantalizing teasers about Ultimate Campaign to tide you over while it's printing.

    10. Do Over! Ready for something different? Wish you hadn't taken that one suboptimal feat at first level? Eager to test out the newest base class? The choices you made yesterday don't have to sour the game you're playing today now that you have complete rules allowing characters to retrain class features, whether they be feats and skill ranks or entire class levels!

    9. There's a Table for That. How many siblings does your dwarf character have? What were your parents' professions? What has your alchemist character been up to before you started playing him? What is your relationship to your fellow adventurers? You'll know, because with the background generator, there are tables for all that and much, much, much more.

    8. Build a Legend. The downtime system unlocks awesome new challenges for your character to take on between adventures, like creating a headquarters for your adventures, starting a tavern, or even building a castle. With downtime, use your wealth, influence, and magic to shape your game world like never before.

    7. You're the Boss. Downtime isn't just about building structures; it's also about building groups. Once you've constructed a temple to your own glory, you're going to need sycophants to staff it. Cults, mercenary companies, thieves guilds, ships crews, and more are ready and awaiting your orders.

    6. Alain Is a Jerk. Sutter and I tackle the fiction snippets at the start of each chapter, and this time around you'll love to hate our pompous iconic cavalier.

    5. It's Going To Be Good To Be the King. Are you the heir to a lost dynasty, seeking to reclaim your throne? Of course you are! And now you can turn your quest into a benefit for your character with story feats, a new breed of feat that helps drive you toward a character objective and that gets even better once you achieve your goal.

    4. Play Harry Potter. Or Arya Stark, or Aang the Last Airbender, or whomever your favorite young hero might be, with rules for playing young characters.

    3. Theater of War. A dramatic system for running massive battles gives you a way to quantify your tales of battle. Lead skirmishes between war bands, decide the outcome of legendary battles, or even take your nation's knights toe to toe against the towering tarrasque!

    2. On Your Honor. Honor points allow your valorous knight, your noble samurai, your rogue with a criminal code, or any other character with rigid guiding principles to gain benefits from their strict lifestyles. Choose a code to live by or create your own!

    1. Kneel Before Me! The Kingdom Building rules popularized during the Kingmaker Adventure Path have been revised and expanded, allowing you to found a dynasty, build cities, and chart the course of your nation in more depth and with more control then ever before!

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag this for deletion)

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag this for deletion)

I just really.. love this game.

I hope we play again soon!

Soon enough, my friends! Soon enough!

Trivia: Jeffrey Combs played Weyoun, Shran, and Brunt, along with like 6 other Star Trek characters!

(Just posting so RPol doesnt delete this game)

Posting in this thread to keep RPol from locking the page! =P

Posting to keep RPol from locking the thread!

Posting to keep RPol from locking the thread!

 Posting to keep RPol from locking the thread!

 Posting to keep RPol from locking the thread!

 Posting to keep RPol from locking the thread!

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag the game as inactive)

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag the game as inactive)

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag the game as inactive)

(Posting so RPol doesn't flag the game as inactive)

 (Posting so RPol doesn't flag the game as inactive)