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Post poste posted:Commerce. The noblest pursuit
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Jan 4, 2018 23:47
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It was one of the good gods in the core Pathfinder book. Don't remember which.
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Jan 5, 2018 00:49
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Last night we finished up a fight that ended up spanning two full sessions, a fight that claimed one life and nearly claimed two more. It started with the players tracing the path of Asenath Derby, the leader of the doomsday cult they've been railing against since pretty much the start of the campaign. She has it out for the world in general for taking her husband from her, and the party in particular for murdering her little girl once and her sister twice. And what do you do when you have nothing left to live for and a dragonmark that gives you Apocalypse From the Sky as a spell-like ability 1/day? You go around devastating cities, of course! Which is what she did. Destroyed several cities on her way including the capital of Breland, making travel very difficult for the PCs. Eventually they caught up to her in the ruins of Black Pit, a town with a reputation like Mos Eisley but with 100% more giant horrible pit to the underdark. The fight itself was brutal because in addition to her own formidable shadowcasting and the ability to deal con damage to gain extra metamagic effects on her magic, she had friends: 4 Brood-spawn Vivisectors, aka the first "boss monster" the party faced. She also summoned up a couple of Blood Necromentals, who feature the one-two punches of wis damage+sanity blasting, and nauseating+drowning you in itself. Between the monster party and Asenath dispelling his buffs, Follow ended up dying for the first time. Fortunately, he has an extra life!  Mevil managed to confuse the hell out of the Vivisectors and Jimmy managed to tear down the Blood Necromentals by full attacking, but Asenath's strategy of "stand on a rooftop and blast the poo poo out of them" was fairly successful; by the time anyone started to really focus on her she had already dispelled Follow's absurd defenses twice, nearly killed Skurrg via freezing his heart, given Mevil and Jimmy a 50% spell failure chance by freezing their blood, and given out a decent amount of con and wis damage while forcing sanity checks on nearly everyone every turn. Unfortunately for her, she was running on magical fumes almost as bad as the PCs and so was mostly down to trying to use her con damage touch along with a heavily metamagicked touch attack. She eventually died to a combination of Mevil bringing her down to 2 dex and Jimmy getting big & hitting her repeatedly with his pyramid head machete, but it was not a dramatic and well-orchestrated victory; it was a knock-down, drag-out brawl that the group only barely managed to survive. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with their last set of challenges.
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Jan 8, 2018 17:52
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Yawgmoth posted:It'll be interesting to see how they deal with their last set of challenges. There’s something else out there even tougher? 
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Jan 8, 2018 21:05
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CobiWann posted:There’s something else out there even tougher? A daelkyr. My suggestion is to summon another daelkyr and let them work it out.
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Jan 8, 2018 21:20
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CobiWann posted:There’s something else out there even tougher? JUST MAKING CHILI posted:A daelkyr. I'll bet if you go through the books you've acquired & translated, you'd figure out what terrible thing Asenath has awoken.
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Jan 8, 2018 21:59
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I'm sure whatever it is will manage to kill Follow 3 more times.
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Jan 9, 2018 02:06
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 quote:The raised throne bows under the weight of the blackened plate mail and the man sitting within it. He leans forward, elbows on his knees, his blade hovers above his forearms, resting across the arms of his hard-wood cathedra. His eyes blaze orange beneath his helm as he gazes down at the woman on one knee, bowing before him. "Sheloch informed me that you requested an audience," he says, his accented voice deep and touched with gravel. "I hope, for your sake, that you have real news for me today." ***** quote:When you first met, it didn't seem like the start of something bigger... it was an act of mutual defense, a shared battle to be talked about among friends, but surely not the beginning of a long term partnership. But that is exactly what it became, unlikely though it may have been: six people looking for their place in the world, thrown together against rising odds, coincidences leading to threads, threads leading to the spider at the center. *****   quote:Krowe - you were hoping that Rune would be at Mountain Run when you rode out to escort the "princess" to Fallcrest. Of course, you were also hoping for some company, but Brian, Rebekkah, even Noth, all had actual responsibilities that needed their attention. But then, that was becoming far too common a theme since the wedding. quote:Aya - it would be an understatement to say that you've had mixed feelings about this whole affair... "finding who you were meant to be" shouldn't require you to leave your entire life behind, but your father seemed excited for you, and that caused at least a little anticipation to grow within you as well. When you left with Krowe, things still seemed somewhat "normal," the wide-open plain in front of you... but then he spotted the caravan and seemed to find some odd comfort in it... and the two of you have been traveling with it for just under a day. quote:Kynwal and Biff - it has been a long road from Bridgekeep. You set off over a week ago, traveling on your own for several days but eventually joining up with a caravan in Thane. You traveled down past the Colossus of Kel, past the Serpent Hills where the caravan master warned you all about the terrifying "boar-man" that you might see -- though no one did --, and past the Battlefield of the Hounds, where legends tell of an ancient battle that predates the southern Kaerns. Finally, the caravan master announced this morning that you'd be in Fallcrest by nightfall. For Biff, this is the next step on the adventure called "life." For Kynwal, it is far enough from home that he may finally be able to have a life of his own. quote:Typhomine and Hale - you made it across several seas before the Firbolg's dropped you off in Kaern Kel. As city's go, it was enormous, and considerable culture shock given the population sizes that you are both used to. There were so many people, that -- even as uncommon as both your races are on this continent -- you easily found yourselves getting lost in the crowd. For Hale, that was a godsend, and for Typhomine, a chance to meet many, many people and learn everything he could. Unfortunately, the shop he most wanted to see was nowhere to be found, and what few places they had that passed for "magic shops" were ruefully understocked. Thanks to Typhomine's guild status, you were both able to find work, but after a few months of "getting by," you both started getting a bit antsy. For Hale, it was being in one place for too long. For Typhomine, it was that one unfulfilled goal and the waning feeling of being on an adventure. Hearing rumors about goings on in the Eastwyld, however, some intriguing and some disturbing, the two of you finally agreed to find a caravan and head off to the southeastern quote:The caravan stopped for lunch at a coaching inn called the Three Arrows. Those of you who have been with the caravan since Thane or beyond noticed the addition of a pair of travelers, one armored, male warrior and a young woman -- with a large blade -- looking like she'd be more at home with the plainsfolk. The recent joins noticed for the first time the presence of a dwarf armed with a pair of their strange, tube-like weapons, and a creature the likes that Aya had never seen before, a humanoid with shimmering scales like some kind of silver dragon. Roll Initiative! *****  A pack of lean and hungry jackals led by their large, jet-black alpha descended upon the caravan. The alpha let loose a series of high-pitched yips as the pack split in two, each half streaking towards the cows and goats nestled in the middle of the caravan. With a loud war-cry the Barbarian threw herself from her horse and swung her two-handed sword at the alpha, intent on crippling the alpha before the battle even began. Her sword cut deep into the flank of the alpha, only for the wound to stitch back together as soon as the blade was pulled from its body. Her companion, a Fighter clad in blue-and-black chain mail, barely noticed as he stuck his blade into the spine of one jackal while barely holding off a second with his shield. Clad in steel armor, the Cleric stepped forward and pointed towards one of the jackals in the pack which had broken in his direction. The sound of a tolling bell echoed across the caravan, one ring that caused the jackal to let loose a cry of despair before it dropped to the ground dead. From behind the Cleric streaked three crimson bolts of arcane energy, Magic Missiles from the Wizard that struck down two more jackals. The silver dragonborn quickly traced a rune on a small piece of parchment which then exploded into a ball of flame in the palm of his hand. He threw the fire at one of the jackals, scorching its fur and causing it to quickly turn tail. The dwarf took one of the metal tubes, aimed it at the larger alpha which had turned towards her flame-flinging colleague… BANG! Horses nearly bolt and those closest to the dwarf cover their ears as an extremely long bang accompanies the gout of flame and cloud of smoke emanating from the metal tube. The alpha stopped in its tracks, a large chunk of flesh and bone torn into its chest. As the dwarf lowered its weapon however, the wound stitched itself back together, flesh and bone mending, as the alpha’s body twisted and cracked as it stood on two legs.  What was once a four-legged jackal was now a two-legged jackalwere, teeth bared as it lunged towards the dwarf until another set of Magic Missiles slammed into its chest, staggering it and leaving several wounds that remained open. As the Barbarian held its attention, the magic users used their abilities to tear the jackalwere apart. Behind them the Fighter hacked down the remaining jackals, scattering the rest back towards the hills from which they came and ensuring the livestock and peasants of the caravan remained unscathed. After properly clearing the road of bodies, including burning the jackalwere’s corpse, the adventurers escorted the caravan the rest of the way to the city of Fallcrest. Sitting on the Brandywine River just north of the Brandywine Forest, Fallcrest is a growing city whose economy is currently structured around the logging and lumber industries but is slowly starting to discover the abundance of natural resources sitting inside the barony surrounding it. The developing economy has allowed the various merchant and crafting guilds to gather a modicum of power, only for it to be balanced by the rule of Baron Kegan Stormchapel. Upon arrival, the caravan and its passengers go their separate ways save for the group of adventurers as the Fighter proclaims that, since they shared in the fury of battle, they should at least share in a round of drinks – he’ll be buying of course.  The group retreats to a tavern called the Lazy Wyvern, a halfway decent establishment located in the middle-class district of Fallcrest known as the Overlook District. Once drinks have been procured (ale for most, apple wine for the Wizard, and unbeknownst to the rest of the party apple cider for the dwarf), introductions are made. ***** Biff McLaren – a Cleric of Lethik, the eidolon (balance-oriented demigod) who serves as the Patron of the Dead and of Judgment. Lethik serves to not only protect and judge the newly dead as they journey to the afterlife, but to watch and oversee those who assist in the service of death, such as embalmers, undertakers, and those who watch over crypts and graveyards. Lethik REALLY does not care for the undead as they provide imbalance to the cycle of life and death, and as such his martial followers are tasked to seek out and destroy the undead wherever possible. McLaren, a practitioner of the Grave Domain sphere of divine magic, is the opposite of what one would expect for a follower of Lethik in that he is loud, boisterous, and enjoys a good drink and an even better party. Kynwal Starkweather – a Wizard who uses an ancestral family sword as their magical focus, moreso the hilt and pommel than the blade itself. Hailing from the capital of Kaeryn, Kynwal seeks to cut his ties to Kaeryn and carve out his own life and fortune far away from his former home, although the Starkweather name seems to follow him wherever he goes. Kynwall is accompanied by his faith familiar Lloffrud, a large hawk. Aya Bearmantle – a Barbarian who’s full tribal name is “Aya, Daughter of Jerrik, Bearmantle.” The daughter of the Chieftain of the Mountain Run plains barbarians, Aya has found herself on an impromptu journey of discovery at her father’s insistence which involved her leaving her life and tribe behind. Aya is excited but nervous about her journey, which at the moment finds her ready to experience city life inside of Fallcrest. Unfortunately, she only knows one person inside of Fallcrest, the loyal-but-foppish nobleman husband of her cousin Rune. Krowe Dragonhall – The name “Dragonhall” conjures up noble deeds and heroic ballads. The name “Krowe Dragonhall” draws muttered curses and shaking of heads. The youngest son of the local Dragonhall branch, Krowe is a valiant warrior but also a drunken buffoon, more at home with the peasantry and likely to accidentally insult his fellow noblemen than he is to play along with their social games. As a noble with little future he was the perfect candidate for an arranged marriage. His wife is Rune, Daughter of Bran, Wildsky, cousin to Aya Bearmantle. Their marriage is part of a treaty signed generations ago that keeps the peace between the barbarian tribes and the civilized folk of the Eastwyld. What should have been nothing more than an unfeeling political union turned out to be much more as Rune was the perfect match for Krowe, and even though both are living separate lives until both are ready to truly settle down, the true love between them is forcing Krowe to clean up his life and fly right, with incredibly mixed results. Typhomine Zvalleous – A silver-scaled dragonborn Artificer hailing from the continent of Thyrin far to the west. After centuries of being under the rule of the ancient fiend-blooded red dragon Pyrefang, the enslaved races threw off his rule and slew him during the Third Incursion of Kaos. After one hundred and fifty years of freedom, the descendants of those revolutionaries are beginning to find their place in the world free from Pyrefang’s influence. Typhomine is an Artificer, a homebrewed class that wields magic through the use of items and devices as opposed to arcane or divine methods. Growing up, he had always heard legends and stories about the lands of Ceilar to the east, and was able to parlay his membership in a crafting guild into a journey to Ceilar in order to learn new methods and techniques for his chosen field. The lure of adventure and meeting new people drew him away from the coast and towards the nation of Kaeryn where legends such as the Lightning Lord and Abeforth’s Apothecary began. Along the way however, he picked up a companion… Hale – A dwarven Gunslinger, a Fighter variant. Specifically, Hale is a Vaergar, or Bronze Dwarf, hailing from the northern Fellhorn Mountains of Thyrin. Newly freed from slavery, the Vaergar are leaner and quicker to smile when compared to the Aedar, or Iron Dwarfs, of Ceilar. While the Vaergar are learning more about the wider world and their part in it, the Aedar retreated into their mountain holdfasts after the Third Incursion of Kaos. The Aedar blamed the humans nations and Sidhe (elven) kingdoms for all the woes and misfortunes that their ancient kingdom has suffered. As a result they pulled back their diplomats and merchants and shut the doors to their domain. Only the gnomes and the sea-fearing Firbolg dwarves maintain relations and enjoy free passage among the Aedar’s underground highways. Hale didn’t reveal much about herself, keeping quiet save for needling and taunting her optimist dragonborn companion and stating that among her people she is known as a “gunslinger” and that her iron tubes are her “pistols.” What did stand out about her however were her constant glances towards the local authorities and a keen study of any “WANTED” posters that she passed by. ***** Aside from being a place to drink and socialize, the Lazy Wyvern also hosted the local community notice board. Various wanted posters, bounty offers, and potential employment offers were attached to the pockmarked wooden surface. As Krowe bought the second round of drinks after introductions had been made, the adventure seeking Typhomine ambled over to the board and came back with an armful of papers…     The party traded various snippets and pieces of gossip that they had heard over the past few days (OOC – the DM had placed little pink pieces of paper in each PC’s folder with three or four rumors – and eventually find themselves talking more and more about the strange goings-on in the Brandywine Forest and the notice put by the Woodcutter’s Guild. It’s decided among the group that they will head to the Guild the next morning and follow up on the notice. As newcomers to the city, taking on such a task would allow them to get a foot in the door of one of the most influential guilds in Fallcrest. Each member also has their own various reasons – going on an adventure, seeing a wider part of the world, being paid to hit things, and simply getting the chance to hit things. The group scatters for the evening. Aya volunteers Krowe’s home to house the party, seeing as it’s one of the Dragonhall’s summer manors complete with servants – specifically one servant, the long-suffering Cavendish who somehow manages to run the entire household by himself while putting up with Krowe’s drunkenness and Aya’s insistence on opening the windows every opportunity she gets. Kynwal finds the Broken Goblet and the “underground” casino in the back room and spends the evening winning just enough money to make some new friends. McLaren discusses the restless dead with Aislin Ironsky, leader of the city guard known as the Halberds, while Typhomine and Hale use their guild connections to lease the use of a local forge for their individual crafts. The next morning, after a run-in with the Sisters of Arwin as well as their head priest (”Truthseeker.” “Mister Dragonhall.”) who acknowledges and greets Kynwal, the party heads towards the Woodcutter’s Guild. Upon arrival, the party is held up for a few minutes by several guardsmen keeping watch on the door of the Guild. Their presence is explained when the door opens and out steps Kegan Stormchapel, the Baron of Fallcrest. A ruler who likes to look his subjects in the eyes when hearing their petitions, the Baron nods to the gathered crowd, pausing when he sees Krowe. “Your Excellency,” Krowe says with a bow. ”Please Krowe, you know that is not required of you. Have you received an invitation from my daughter Koraline for her upcoming birthday?” “I have not. However I did not have a chance to check yesterday’s correspondence. It may be in there.” The Baron proceeds to climb into his carriage and departs as the party enters the guild hall.  Josiah Hammond, leader of the Woodcutter’s Guild, is surprised to see that someone took up their notice and explains the situation. The Woodcutter’s have spent decades harvesting trees from the Brandywine Forest to the south of Fallcrest. The lumber is shipped to the large lumber mill that sits on the nearby river for cutting and treating before being sold, with a portion of the profits dedicated towards replanting and replenishment of the forest. In recent weeks however, there have been strange incidents happening within the camps of the lumberjacks scattered throughout the fringes of the forest – namely that some of the cut-down trees have been sprouting legs and walking away from the woodpiles! None of the lumberjacks have been hurt, save for one whose legs were pretty cut up during a run-in with a pile of brambles, but the workers are becoming nervous as along with the missing lumber there have been reports of clicking sounds coming from the trees and undergrowth. The party manages to snag an escort to one of the nearby camps to meet with a group of workers where one of them explains what he had seen a few nights earlier. He had been outside relieving himself when he saw movement near the stack of newly-cut trees from that day. As he watched, several of the logs rolled off of the pile to the ground. The trees suddenly sprouted a dozen sets of tiny legs and proceeded to walk off into the forest, accompanied by a few more trunks, some walking and some seemingly floating in the air. The head of the work crew said he didn’t believe what his man saw, but he could speak of another strange events. A series of cabins sat deeper in the forest, a permanent camp set up for use during the spring months. The last time the work crew had visited the cabins, they found that several of the floor planks were missing from the cabins. However, all of the nails that had been hammered into the planks had been neatly stacked up at the forest’s edge, every single one accounted for. The party decides to go check the cabins to see if anything else has gone missing and perhaps track down whoever has been stealing the lumber. Just as twilight begins, the party reaches the forest clearing containing the cabins. Aya and Hale check out the perimeter of the camp while the rest of the party prepares a cabin for the evening. Hale is the one who notices that several thorn bushes on the edge of the clearing rustling slightly. When she calls Aya over, the Barbarian’s response is to stab one with her sword…  Little tiny bramble men form from the thorn bushes and attack them. Their shouts of alarm draw the rest of the party who manage to easily cut them down…although the fact that we’re playing level one characters after two years of high-level PC’s was made evident when one solid hit from a bramble cut Hale’s HP in half. That night while keeping watch, the party sees that what the lumberjacks have been saying is true. With her night-vision (the only one in the party with it), Hale sees a group bramble men come from the forest, accompanied by a few taller creatures comprised of thick vines. The vine-men pull several of the logs from the logpile to the ground where several of the bramble men stand in a straight line. The bramble men catch the log and begin to match it back towards the edge of the clearing. This get repeated several more times, with the vine-men each grabbing a log at the end before making their retreat. The party follows them into the woods…where a group of humans and one dragonborn who can’t see in the dark are following a dwarf more at home in the city than in the woods. A bunch of incredibly lucky Stealth checks on our part allow us to remain undetected as the bramble men and vine-men’s path takes them into a large grove. The three vine-men each take the lumber in their arms and turn them vertical before slamming them into the ground…where they instantly become fully grown trees restored to their natural state.   ”YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE. LEAVE.”   At the far end of the clearing, voice booming as it strides towards us, is a large tree with humanoid features – a treant. It points with a branchy arm back the way the party had come and once again asks us to leave. McLaren and Aya step forward at this point and proceed to converse with the treant. quote:McLaren – ”Why are you taking the fallen trees?” At this, the treant reaches into a hollow in his chest. He brings out a small sparrow. Instead of wings however, the sparrow has what appears to be a series of metal flaps attached to its back. The treant gently strokes the sparrow causing the flaps to flare out into a beautiful intricate set of clockwork wings. Typhomine notices that the wings are incredibly detailed and complex. To simply create one of the central gears that are a part of the wings would take him a few weeks, maybe even months. quote:Treant – “This sparrow had been injured by a predator. The humans have somehow turned this creature into a mockery of nature for whatever reason. I will not allow this forest and its denizens to become half-flesh, half-metal.” ***** The party marched away from the grove for two hours, listening to the cries of Lloffrud as he guides us through the dark woods. Eventually we settle in for the night after finding a clearing with a stream and set up the watch. It’s on the second watch with Aya and Krowe that Aya hears something from deeper in the woods – the sound of a wounded deer, softly crying in pain. And the low quiet sound of a repeated series of clicks. Krowe wakes the rest of the party… quote:Krowe – “McLaren, wake up. There’s something in the woods. Help me wake…” ….as Aya comes across the deer. It’s lying on its side, eyes open, still softly crying. A series of metal staples hold what appears to be an arrow wound partially closed. Inside the wound, Aya can make out a series of metal gears like the ones seen on the sparrow, but much bigger. They appear to be partially embedded in some of the deer’s internal organs. The gears slowly click and turn with each breath the deer takes. quote:???- “CYCLING CYCLING STATEMENT COLON MOVE AWAY FROM THE SUBJECT PERIOD” A mechanical voice comes from high up in a nearby tree out of sight of Aya. It repeats itself before Aya steps back. Hiding behind a tree, the Barbarian watches as a strange metallic figure comes down from the branches.  With quick precision, the figure cuts into the deer and quickly replaces its wounded flesh with the metal clockwork components. Once its complete, the figure steps back as the deer slowly gets to its feet. Its first hesitant steps are accompanied by the ticking sounds of clockwork evident underneath the freshly stapled wound. A moment later it bounds away, the picture of health if not the sound of it. At this point the rest of the party has gotten closer, and the creature senses their approach. It leaps back into the tree as Aya calls out to it. quote:Aya – ”Wait! Don’t go!” I had to go let the dog out during this conversation (Hale’s player switched spots with me from the last game because she was always the furthest from the game mat, which means I’m the closest to let the dog outside) so I will have to summarize at this point. The creature (which the players knew was a modron, a race of clockwork creatures from the Outer Plane of Mechanus dedicated to law and order) called itself Four of Twelve and served under a modron called Three of One. Four of Twelve has been given a directive to preserve and repair its fellow modrons during its existence and followed that directive to the letter. Through some kind of mystical means, Three of One and several of the modrons underneath it had crossed through an inter-dimensional rift from Mechanus to Tanicus. The rift sealed behind them, stranding them in a new world but still beholden to the same directive that they had been issued on Mechanus. That directive saw them “preserving” the wounded animals of the Brandywine Forest by “repairing” them with the highly-advanced clockwork technology of Mechanus, but with the added directive of remaining unseen as not to arouse the suspicions of the native of this new plane. The session ended with the party offering to see if they could reopen the dimensional rift and send the modrons home, following the sounds the modron would make by shaking the branches, thus allowing it to follow its second directive to remain unseen.
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Jan 9, 2018 18:37
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This campaign is definitely going to be a departure from the last one. It was more "theme park" by the end, by which I mean the PC's were racing against time to get to certain locations and grab certain artifacts before the bad guys could. We were on a path and allowed to do what we wanted within that path, but there was still a start point and an end point. This campaign, the DM is going for more of a Skyrim/Fallout New Vegas feel. He has a "main quest" set up for us however he's also throwing at us a number of plot threads, rumor, and possible side quests, and we'll pull on whatever grabs our party's attention - like for the first session Hale argued about checking the Aedar raiders out because she doesn't want to be accused of being one while McLaren wanted to go after the restless dead before realizing it might be a bit above our capabilities at the moment. Aya wants to follow up on the boar man since it might tie into the jackalwere somehow, and Krowe is thinking about crashing the birthday part of the Duke's daughter with his new friends... If we pull on something we'll follow it, but the the other plot threads will still be going on so we can't hit on them all, and some rumors/threads might be false leads or dead ends. And some of the ones we ignore may come to an end or blossom into another thread or possibly a complication down the line...
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Jan 9, 2018 18:47
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CobiWann posted:This campaign is definitely going to be a departure from the last one. It was more "theme park" by the end, by which I mean the PC's were racing against time to get to certain locations and grab certain artifacts before the bad guys could. We were on a path and allowed to do what we wanted within that path, but there was still a start point and an end point. This is the same group as before, right? If so, can't wait for the writeups...
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Jan 9, 2018 20:08
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Samizdata posted:This is the same group as before, right? If so, can't wait for the writeups... Yep... Krowe - Varis Aya - Ksena Typhomine - Cullus Hale - Aeana Kynwal - Falinrae McLaren - Taleissyn
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Jan 9, 2018 20:25
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CobiWann posted:This campaign is definitely going to be a departure from the last one. It was more "theme park" by the end, by which I mean the PC's were racing against time to get to certain locations and grab certain artifacts before the bad guys could. We were on a path and allowed to do what we wanted within that path, but there was still a start point and an end point. Have I recently expressed my envy at how badly I want in on your DMs campaign?
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Jan 9, 2018 21:02
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Have I recently expressed my envy at how badly I want to be able to DM like that? Also, thinking of following the principle of  for my campaign - it's not been going long, but so far the players have robbed an auction house, exploded a terrorist base, stole what they stole from the bank, killed 4 cops, made friends with a necromancer/demon cult, introduced the necromancer/demon cult to the mafia, negotiated an alliance between the two, started a bank run and 2 riots, impersonated police and stole files, impersonated a foreign noblewoman and attempted to assassinate an ambassador.They're level 3.
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Jan 9, 2018 22:37
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Jan 9, 2018 22:49
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Spoken by the capering, cackling, Mako-like Aeromancer in our new FATE game last session: "Good sirs! We have need of your poo poo-wagon!" Yeah, it's going to be one of those kinds of campaigns.
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Jan 9, 2018 23:03
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Cobi, I sincerely wish I was half as good as your DM.
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Jan 9, 2018 23:44
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Ichabod Sexbeast posted:Have I recently expressed my envy at how badly I want to be able to DM like that? My players destroyed a horde of orcs by using a demon lord's artifact to allow the eldritch horror one of the PCs worships to enslave the demon lord, in doing so unleashing it's tentacular grasp upon the horde. In full view of the city the horde was beseiging, who are now obliged to roll out the heroes' welcome to their terrifying saviours. I've got a swashbuckler who's dabbling in magic and is probably going to turn into a vampire through sheer bloodlust at some point, an elementalist who's started summoning eldritch elementals, a wizard who's gone full-blown necromancer, a martial artist who collects orcs' teeth, a shadow elf (non-copyright-infringing drow) assassin, and an Elder Cleric who worships his distant ancestor. At some point, they're going to go from anti-heroes to full-blown villains, and I can't wait to see the fallout.
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Jan 10, 2018 01:06
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Ichabod Sexbeast posted:Have I recently expressed my envy at how badly I want to be able to DM like that?  But I am very much excited at hearing more from that campaign. Just the opening had be gripped.  Speaking of something similar I actually sat down last night and wrote the opening narration for a Warcraft campaign (or most likely a one shot thing) I've wanted to do for a while now. Even if I struggle a bit at making it sound interesting. Even if I haven't gotten the foggiest how structure the whole thing, or write it. 
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Jan 10, 2018 03:06
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Cooked Auto posted:Speaking of something similar I actually sat down last night and wrote the opening narration for a Warcraft campaign (or most likely a one shot thing) I've wanted to do for a while now. Even if I struggle a bit at making it sound interesting.
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Jan 10, 2018 04:42
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Yawgmoth posted:I always thought the Warcraft setting would be really fun to play in but the few times I've actually had anyone attempt to run it we just got a handful of the actual starting quests from WoW with little to zero actual plot to bring us in. Oddly enough, I don't want to RP out hunting kobold candles and skinning bear asses! I want Van Cleef at level 1-3 and C'Thun (or whatever expansion-defining raid boss you like) and its minions threatening us by level 6. I've long dreamt of a campaign that was basically "what if you got to Van Cleef's ship, and decided that they were the good guys?"
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Jan 10, 2018 04:49
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gradenko_2000 posted:I've long dreamt of a campaign that was basically "what if you got to Van Cleef's ship, and decided that they were the good guys?" I mean all the Defias Brotherhood wanted was to get paid for the work they did rebuilding Stormwind...
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Jan 10, 2018 10:48
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Yawgmoth posted:I always thought the Warcraft setting would be really fun to play in but the few times I've actually had anyone attempt to run it we just got a handful of the actual starting quests from WoW with little to zero actual plot to bring us in. Yeah I can see that being an issue. I have a vague plan of how I want to do things, which includes Hogger and later on Defias and Deadmines. But I have but no real idea how to pull it off without it being just a series of combat encounters. Or what rules system to use.  Kavak posted:An evil dragon masquerading as the regent told them to gently caress off. Oh yeah, I forgot about that part. That does give me the excuse to drag Onyxia into it if I ever want to keep going and have an excuse to recreate one of the more memorable quests from the classic game. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 10, 2018 13:23
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CobiWann posted:I mean all the Defias Brotherhood wanted was to get paid for the work they did rebuilding Stormwind... An evil dragon masquerading as the regent told them to gently caress off. As for why this obvious, horrible error was not corrected, well...
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Jan 10, 2018 14:01
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Cooked Auto posted:Yeah I can see that being an issue. I have a vague plan of how I want to do things, which includes Hogger and later on Defias and Deadmines. But I have but no real idea how to pull it off without it being just a series of combat encounters. Well there are plenty of roleplay opportunities along the way - Goldshire Inn, maybe being asked to give a morale boost to some of the tower guards in Westfall, escorting a group of settlers from Westfall to Darkshire and just playing up how spooky everything is and never dropping a combat encounter on them, just making them THINK there's going to be (the howls of the worgen, Mor'Ladim or Stitches calling out for them) but have them arrive safely to Duskwood and then fly back to Westfall via griffin.
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Jan 10, 2018 15:28
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CobiWann posted:Well there are plenty of roleplay opportunities along the way - Goldshire Inn, maybe being asked to give a morale boost to some of the tower guards in Westfall, escorting a group of settlers from Westfall to Darkshire and just playing up how spooky everything is and never dropping a combat encounter on them, just making them THINK there's going to be (the howls of the worgen, Mor'Ladim or Stitches calling out for them) but have them arrive safely to Duskwood and then fly back to Westfall via griffin. All pretty solid ideas I can admit. Although quote:Goldshire Inn, maybe being asked to give a morale boost to some of the tower guards in Westfall  But I'm sure I can figure something out. At some point when I know how to prep for this kind of thing.
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Jan 10, 2018 15:38
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Cooked Auto posted:Sounds so wrong in one way, it's not that kind of campaign. Oh? Oh. Oh! Oh God! OH GOD NO! *curls into a ball, flashbacks of walking to the second floor of Goldshire Inn and seeing what can never been unseen*
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Jan 10, 2018 15:43
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CobiWann posted:Oh?
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Jan 10, 2018 16:18
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All the people loving in the inn also makes it impossible to put out the Fires come halloween because it scales up the difficulty to the people in the immediate area. There's people cybering in the inn while a dude screams in iambic pentameter outside and is literally burning down the house around them.
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Jan 10, 2018 16:56
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Kurieg posted:All the people loving in the inn also makes it impossible to put out the Fires come halloween because it scales up the difficulty to the people in the immediate area. You've seen what I've seen If you know what I mean Trust me, you want these fires To scrub the image clean!
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Jan 10, 2018 19:41
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That's hot.
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Jan 10, 2018 21:21
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the_steve posted:You've seen what I've seen You forgot HUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
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Jan 10, 2018 21:50
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CobiWann posted:Oh? Was... cybering at gold-shire inn a thing, and that prominent? I played way back in the day, but I dind't really stay very long in the city areas.
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Jan 11, 2018 02:23
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Foolster41 posted:Was... cybering at gold-shire inn a thing, and that prominent? I played way back in the day, but I dind't really stay very long in the city areas. But that was just the RP servers really. On normal servers people generally were playing the game to play the game.
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Jan 11, 2018 02:43
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Yawgmoth posted:On the RP servers and especially Moon Guard, Goldshire Inn was the place for cybersex. It was so much so that it had become a tremendous meme and was so pervasive that it couldn't even be trolled away. Another big place was the Ironforge <-> Stormwind tram; you were almost guaranteed to see someone cybering on one or both ends during peak times. Rest assured, Moon Guard is still a wretched hive of ERP, there's a whole thread about it (well, lovely roleplay in general - from freaky 7 dicked sex stuff to just super indulgent RP profiles) over in the WoW subforum.
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Jan 11, 2018 02:47
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the_steve posted:Rest assured, Moon Guard is still a wretched hive of ERP, there's a whole thread about it (well, lovely roleplay in general - from freaky 7 dicked sex stuff to just super indulgent RP profiles) over in the WoW subforum. Thank God Dungeons and Dragons campaigns never get that freaky.
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Jan 11, 2018 02:50
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CobiWann posted:Thank God Dungeons and Dragons campaigns never get that freaky. I know, right? Could you imagine the nightmare stories that thread would have?
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Jan 11, 2018 03:32
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Yawgmoth posted:On the RP servers and especially Moon Guard, Goldshire Inn was the place for cybersex. It was so much so that it had become a tremendous meme and was so pervasive that it couldn't even be trolled away. Another big place was the Ironforge <-> Stormwind tram; you were almost guaranteed to see someone cybering on one or both ends during peak times. Huh. I think my main (a dwarf hunter) was on a RP server. Weird I never noticed that (or maybe I don't remember it, like I said, it's been years.). the_steve posted:I know, right? Could you imagine the nightmare stories that thread would have? No female clerics have ever tied up a male NPC to "interogate" him on an infiltration mission, and made him call her "mistress". And that cleric wasn't obsessed with wearing a baby monkey fur bra. Nope.  (I totally don't know this from experience of being in the party with said cleric)
Foolster41 fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 03:35
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Catpiss Thread: Still Better Than Moonguard
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Jan 11, 2018 04:05
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I have a friend. He is a member of my regular gaming group, and occasionally been the GM. Every time he has GMed, it has been a uniquely terrible experience. I am the only person who has been involved in every game he’s run and I think I have finally given up all possible hope. And I’m going to share each and every one of them with you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. The first time was before he’d actually become a member of the group. At this point he was just the housemate of a friend of ours who was playing with us. Me and a couple of others were asked if we wanted to be in his newly set up game of Dark Heresy, one of the Warhammer 40k RPGs. Me and my regular GM had met him a couple times at this point and it seemed like a fun time, so we signed up. Here is the point where I assign names to people. So, Dramatis Personae for this section: Judas – The man in question. So called because every game feels like a betrayal! And also because his name also starts with a J. Erica – The housemate. She was playing a feral world psyker, so she had pretty much 0 idea what was going on at any time in character and her brain could theoretically summon a demon to ruin the game. In an effort to avoid this likelihood, Erica’s character was also loving ripped and was very good at bashing things Rob – Rob will be a constant presence in these stories, as he is my regular GM. Rob was playing a Priest. Abe – Abe had been a player in Rob’s game that was at the time ongoing. A slightly odd man, Abe was not one who got super into roleplaying but seemed to have a good time. Abe played an Arbite, which for those not familiar with Dark Heresy is basically Judge Dredd. And then finally me, who was playing a Guardsman modelled after Solid Snake. Because I like Metal Gear Solid. Anyway, I’m not going to go into tremendous depth with this one, both because it was a long time ago now and because… Well. The game started off with the group of us, independently, being witness to a terrorist attack which was followed by us being kidnapped by the Inquisition. For reference, the Inquisition in Dark Heresy is 100% capable of just kidnapping people so this part was fine. What wasn’t fine to me and the other 40k nerds at the table was that this was an incredibly flimsy excuse for us being recruited into the inquisition. Furthermore, our new boss was throwing around psyker powers like he was a tenth level wizard in D&D, which is a huge deal because of aforementioned potential demon summoning. So, we were collectively tasked with finding out who or what had been the motivation behind the terrorist attack that we had witnessed. Which… is kinda more a job for the Arbites, since nothing that we were told gave us any indication that this was anything more than your garden variety lawbreaking writ large. But whatever. So, after this? Literally nothing important happened. Oh yeah, we went places and did stuff, but literally nothing that we did or said or found was of any importance whatsoever. We spent two hours achieving nothing, desperately trying to find the magical solution that would allow us to advance the plot and wouldn’t you know it? There wasn’t one. Judas had created a mystery solving police plot… and then not actually come up with any solution that we could work towards or anything. And you know what, that can be fine. Letting your players solve a mystery in a holistic fashion by just following through on whatever little details they latch on to is fine. But this wasn’t that. This was flat out “I just let you guys gently caress about for two hours because I didn’t think of an ending and was too stupid to just let you guys turn out to be correct.” The only good thing that came out of the session was in character discussion between me and Rob about the nature of worship and our relationships towards the God-Emperor. The idea that the only good thing that came from a game was inter-character stuff is one that will turn up another couple of times. So, Sin 1: Pointlessness and a lack of story Suffice to say, nobody came back for round 2 of Dark Heresy. But, eventually, Rob took a break from GMing a series of really good, fun games, and Judas decided to take another swing at GMing, with a game that he was very intimately familiar with: Exalted 2E. Exalted is the system that Judas had been playing the longest with his old group, that he knew inside and out. Or so I thought at the time. Later things would reveal this to be false. However, this time he came at us with an actual pitch beyond just the game: Anime High School. Now, Rob and I, and indeed most of our table, are huge nerds and watch a fair bit of anime. So we made our characters according to this idea. Exalted is a game about being larger-than-life epic heroes of legend and myth. We were playing Dragon-Bloods, the most common form of Exalt. They rule most of the world, and the kind that we were playing, Dynasts, pretty much want to murder every other kind of Exalted. This is achieved by the Immaculate Order, an order of kung-fu monks who operate the Wyld Hunt, which is where they go out and murder any and all non-Dragonblood exalted they can find. Dramatis Personae for this one: Rob – Playing Tekai. Tekai was built as pure unadulterated muscle, and his idea was that he was the biggest baddest dude around, because once you graduated you were in the wyld hunt and needed to be capable of kicking rear end. Homer – Homer was introduced to the group in the previous game run by Rob and had integrated spectacularly. He has consistently been a fun, imaginative player and just a pleasure to have at the table. However, in this game? I cannot remember much about his character. I know that he was playing a sorcery-focused character, with a lot of social stuff. Rusty – Rusty is Rob’s best friend, and can be a bit of a wild card at the table. Continually interesting, but sometimes aggravating, Rusty’s characters are often min-maxed to hell. In this one however, he was not. See, Rusty had come up with a concept and wanted to run it by Judas. Judas said no. So Rusty created Lee Chen: Tekai’s hype man and The Most Averagely Competent Man In The World. Lee Chen had no charms (things in exalted that allow you to do ridiculous anime bullshit) beyond Excellencies, which literally just means that you are good at doing Things. This was 100% a protest character. Marie-Anne – Rob’s girlfriend. Always a pleasure to have around, but unfortunately suffers from some health issues which means that she’s not always the most consistent player. It is our loss. Marie-Anne only turned up to one session of Exalted and that makes her the smartest one out of all of us. She was playing a very high-breeding Dragonblood, so she was technically more important than anyone else but it never really came into play because of said absence. And then me, playing “Squints”, a character who I imagined as being a cross between a Shadowrun-style Fixer and Hustler Kid from Recess, who was supposed to be the guy you went to if you needed to know anything about anyone… but everything had a price. This went right out the loving window because, you see Sin 2: Mis-selling the game (AKA Judas has no idea what anime high school is like and so ran a game none of us were expecting) The game itself was a mess. Despite Judas being a huge Exalted fan, which I think is one of the most anime RPGs, he has a loudly stated dislike of anime and so really we should have known better. I’m not going to do a long ramble of what the actually happened in the game but I will give you highlights: • Dragonbloods, who are according to the official religion of the area just flat out better and to be obeyed at all times, being ordered around by normal-rear end humans • Obnoxious NPCs who had access to all of Judas’ power-gaming setups and were, as a result, just flat out better than us. • Villains who also had access to the Power-gaming, and were also completely out of the left field for us as literal children to deal with • Ignoring setting stuff because he felt like it, even though it was stuff that’s pretty integral to the setting and to most of our motivations • Ending on the villain just being like “Haha, turns out I’m not that bad a guy, here’s a super cool present for you all, peace out” after having a plot that had a very, very little in the way of player agency. The one really good bit was when we pretty much said gently caress the plot and engaged in Anime Boarding School Shenanigans, by essentially starting fight club in the dormitory. The third one? Was apparently so bad I have repressed it. I literally have no memory of the events that took place. It was an Exalted One-shot that took place after the campaign with completely different characters, and I’m just going to let Rob tell you about this one: Rob posted:Summary of Bull of the North game: Team of 3 solars arrive in north village, hearing tales of 'BotN' with impoverished, rag-wearing locals. Told that something is threatening them in the nearby forest, making it hard for them to flourish. Solars go to investigate. Meet Full Grown Bear. I'm not joking about the lack of memory, by the way. I literally cannot remember any of this happening. I know it happened, but I have literally no memory of when or anything. Sin 3: Pointlessness, and also being a jackass with plot twists. And so we come to the final game of his that I played in. Now, I am incredibly forgiving of people when it comes to running games. I will usually be the one with a cheery smile saying I had fun. There have been, in my life, two games that I have dropped out of. The first one is a story for another time, the other? So, Judas says that he is running another Exalted game. Not with the regular crowd though, he’s bringing in his own people. Most of them are new to the hobby, and he is close friends with one of them. So, once again, Dramatis Personae Swan – Swan was the one who knew Judas beforehand. They’d gone to uni together before moving to where I live. She’s nice enough. Had never played with her before, and never will again. Sam – Swan’s boyfriend. Also a really nice dude, but was busy a lot due to when the sessions happened. Jane – Oh Jane. Jane was a newbie to the hobby, but had heard a lot about it and was really keen. Hands down the best roleplayer of the bunch, and she deserved a better game. So, I was slightly wary going into this. I knew the problems that Judas could have, and apparently he did as well. He asked for GM advice from Rob, and even ran a one-shot session so that people could try to get used to the system in a low stakes arena. And, surprisingly, it was okay. He didn’t pull any objectively bullshit ploys or twists, although looking back there were a few red flags. Nothing too major though. However, the gameplay revealed two things: One, Sam was a goofball, and not taking things seriously. Which would be fine but the game was not presented as goofy funtime, it was us trying to be serious. Second, Swan was a bit… robotic. Didn’t really have a character as much as something she pushed around to do stuff. But that’s fine, it was a one-shot with pre-built characters. Maybe she didn’t have enough to latch on to. So, a LONG time later (literal months) we start playing. I can’t be bothered to recount things, so I’m bulletpointing things again, and in no particular order • Start with the good: Sam had actually toned things down and was endeavouring to roleplay the character. • And now to the bad. First off, much like Anime High School, core tenets of the setting went right out the loving window. • She also just acted like a complete rear end in a top hat in character • Swan was kinda a complete rear end in a top hat, and had been allowed to play one of the villain races in a mixed group. We all had an unspoken agreement that we weren’t gonna discover what she was, so we didn’t then immediately kill her. • Judas wanted to ease us into the game, and so decided to not give us our goddamn charms. They are a very important part of your character in Exalted, and he wouldn’t let us have access to them. Not just not use them, but we were not allowed to look at them for… maybe four sessions? • Sessions happened infrequently due to illnesses and other such situations. That’s not on Judas but was a negative of the game in general • Despite being just another player, and not hosting, I ended up having to play sheepdog because Judas would never actually try and get confirmation that we would all be there, leading to multiple “Oh yeah I’m halfway across the country that day” moments. • Eventually Rob was brought in (due to my pleading) as a GM guide of sorts. On the session he sat in on to assess the damage, Judas let us run around for an hour and a loving half trying to open a box that A) didn’t have anything important in it, B) belonged to a character who had been involved (albeit marginally) in our efforts to get it open and C) should have been able to be opened immediately, because he forgot how the loving rules of the game he was running worked. • I, through trying to investigate the mysterious disappearance of several hundred people, caused a riot through the temerity of daring to ask where the people might have gone. This got two goddesses angry at me, despite the fact that I literally, with no magic or rolls on my part, asked if this was a normal thing to some dude down at the docks. This proceeded to get the whole party geassed. That isn’t even all of it, but it is all I can be bothered to remember right now. We spent sessions loving about and, despite the game ostensibly being about epic heroes of myth and legendary status, and despite being given a healthy XP boost to start, we never felt like anything other than the most basic of level 1 D&D characters. Eventually, the continued disappointment, along with my growing frustrations with Judas and Swan, led to me leaving the group. My official excuse was that I wasn’t fitting in with the party and didn’t want to drag everyone else down. In reality, it was just thoroughly boring, depressing, and my girlfriend was getting fed up of me bitching about it. The game has quietly died an ignoble death, with no activity on the group’s facebook chat since I left in early December. I still see Judas every week for the game of Orpheus that Rob runs, but those stories are also for another time. Sin 4: Absolute chaos, not actually having a plot, and not establishing a consistent tone. Hattie Masters fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 02:04
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Man, you have way more patience than I do. An Exalted game where you weren't allowed to even look at your charms? I would've walked instantly.
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Jan 12, 2018 02:33
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