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 hotsauceman1 wrote:
There was an idea, We where also thinking Skype.

Skype works well too, I just find google hangouts to be less resource intensive (since I'm generally DMing ) There is also roll20.net which you can also use with Google Hangouts

We use Roll20 and Obsidian Portal, as well as a Facebook group.

Roll20 is a good tool, but it's buggy as hell. We sometimes find ourselves having to a do a total reboot of the browser 2-3 times a session because things like audio just drop.

Obsidian Portal is a great place to centralize all of your campaign stuff. Also provides a good forum to allow for in-character roleplay to occur between sessions.

We primarily use facebook to coordinate when sessions will be and stuff like that.

I think I'll go with a Drawf Monk to get things started, and run around punching everything about the groin level for most humanoids. The problem still being the initial point spend. Here is what I have come up with, after racial adjustments:

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 5

OR

STR 17
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 16
CHA 5

The latter has more long term potential as it gets a primary stat to 18 at level 4, but the first is more well rounded, but harder to grow. Either way he is not going to make friends easily, and probably going to annoy NPCs at the worst possible time, such as when we are asking someone to help us out.

Paladin: We seek permission to cross your lands unmolested.
Noble: Perhaps..but...
*Monk In the background* Good lord that is one ugly baby, is the nobles wife a Owlbear? At least his son has a good strong beard.
Fighter: Shut up! And he doesn't have any sons, only daughters.

I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

I heard it in a more gruff Sterling Archer voice...

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

 djones520 wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

Did it now laddy? Well ye best be getting o'er such things if ye wanna be a Dwarf. Next your gunna tell us that ye dunna have a beard on yer character.

All Dwarves are Scottish.

It's a scientific fact.

Just like all female Dwarves have beards and everyone that tries to play their Halflings like a Kender will suffer a PC on PC kill.

 Ahtman wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
I like that dialog a lot -- best part: I could hear the dwarf and he didn't (didnae) have a Scottish accent.

The dwarf I'm playing right now doesn't speak with one. A new player to the group called me out on it. Kinda pissed me off.

Did it now laddy? Well ye best be getting o'er such things if ye wanna be a Dwarf. Next your gunna tell us that ye dunna have a beard on yer character.

Actually, he does shave. He only wears a goatee. Take a look back to page 2 and you'll see the pic of him. His divine focus, aka holy symbol, is a mark on his cheek, so he has to leave it uncovered.

 Ahtman wrote:


There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

Hah! The thread has come full circle. And I will take my +1 internets for victory.

 Zygomax wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:


There is a Pathfinder Society group starting up nearby soon, and I am thinking of trying it out to see what the organized play is like.

Hah! The thread has come full circle. And I will take my +1 internets for victory.

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

The GM for our Rise of the Runelords campaign is leaving for Boston after 2 sessions. (He's also our group's Chaos and Necron player). Great GM, funny guy. I'll miss that fether.

Anyway, I'll be taking the reins of this campaign, retiring my Bard that I played all of once.

I haven't GMed anything in at least 3 years, so this will be fun. I have the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Hardback since that's what he was running and started flipping through it last night. I have until mid July since another GM will be running our other campaign (Carrion Crown) in the mean time. We rotate campaigns, giving the GM a break after each module. It works out very well and prevents GM burnout.

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

Well, it was a bit hard to discern what the discussion was about since I was mainly getting "memed".

BUT I am OK with life and I hope you enjoy PFS. I played and GMed it at a con last weekend and had a good time.

 Zygomax wrote:

In what sense? OGL is still the least of the D&D iterations, but that doesn't mean there aren't good people playing it or no fun to be had with it. I never claimed that I would never play, or had ever played play PF. It isn't like we are talking about FATAL here. You might want to go back and reread what the discussion/debate was actually about.

Well, it was a bit hard to discern what the discussion was about since I was mainly getting "memed".

You do realize you can go back and read what was written, it hasn't disappeared, other than in your memory. I'm pretty sure saying that 4E isn't an MMO isn't 'meme'ing someone, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Well, I apologize for being a bit argumentative.

Back to regularly scheduled programming... Warning: minor spoilers.

I went to a con two weeks ago and had a good time mainly playing PFS.

In my first game it was Day of the Demon, the Season 4 special that "previews" Season 5, Year of the Demon. I was playing a level 4 at subtier 6-7 with 4 players (didn't want to make them play down.) I got ganked in one round by a beastie. Fortunately I was taken back to "town" and raised (I had a one-time 50% discount on raising too.) We had a bit of trouble with another encounter but we made it through. This scenario was pretty cool in terms of storyline and plot hooks. I'd recommend playing Blakros Matrimony before this one if possible.

So I had my first PC death under my belt...

Then I played a non-PFS PF game where we were drakes that helped a village fight off full-sized dragons. It was nice to be more effective than in my first game.

In the morning it was time to GM God's Market Gamble. It was going pretty well--I felt like I was in the GM "zone". Then the players forgot to check for traps... there's a nasty one. There was something built into the scenario that I used to avoid killing anyone, but their mission failed. Nevertheless they were very complimentary about the game.

Then I played a blast from the past: Warhammer Quest. I played HeroQuest back in the day, never played this one. I needed time before the evening's session to level my PFS PC, but our third game of WQ just kept going... and going... So I feel I didn't have time to do enough shopping and optimizing.

The evening session was Way of the Kirin, which wraps up the Lantern Lodge storyline. It went pretty well--I won't spoil anything.

In the morning it was The Fabric of Reality. After the dust settled, my first TPK experience. There was a spell that opened a 50' pit underneath two players, our damage-dealer was neutralized for a few rounds... eesh. Later I heard that the GM uses pretty tough tactics. Not that I am saying there should never be a TPK or the GM should coddle players. Fortunately I had enough gold to raise again.

I debated whether doing one more PFS game and reaching level 6, or playing an indie RPG. I went with PFS--The Veteran's Vault. I found this scenario a little flat. There were some humorous moments (due to our actions, not the scenario) at the end though. I lived to tell the tale without much trouble--good thing, as I wouldn't have been able to be raised.

So my PC is up to level 6 although he doesn't have a huge amount of gold or enough PP to raise should he perish. I will keep plugging away with him though and hope to get him out of this rough spot.

I feel I need to work on being more participatory when I'm a player. I don't exactly have an outgoing personality. I enjoyed GMing a bit more than playing, since you have to participate.

In the meantime I have been GMing PFS at home. We are playing First Steps Part III tonight--we're up to six players! Hopefully it will go well.

Happy gaming!

Ok so we got skype, everyone went in and we where ready, jokes a bit, a new comer made his chracter and stuff.
half an hour in our friend gets a call, had to leave.
If you are couting, 4 games in a row we have failed to get together.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Ok so we got skype, everyone went in and we where ready, jokes a bit, a new comer made his chracter and stuff.
half an hour in our friend gets a call, had to leave.
If you are couting, 4 games in a row we have failed to get together.

Bummer!

Well for repeat offenders, sometimes you have to try to form up your game without them. You don't have to "defriend" them or anything, just subtly leave them off the next email. Of course, I realize that some people will be like "when are we going to play? I'm all set" and then flake out. And finding a replacement can be tough sometimes.

Best of luck.

We are trying in two weeks again.
The last 3 times where problems with the ride. And heck, finding a game is even harder.

 Zygomax wrote:
There's an opinion that 4E resembles a computer MMO in that every character action is represented by a separate power, which can be used a set number of times.

That's all I meant. It is merely an opinion.

It also strips away elements of "simulation", i.e. how far can a horse-drawn cart travel in 4 days. In many cases, traditional RPGs (i.e. Pathfinder) also skip over such things for simplicity.

I suspect if I played 4E I'd like it fine.

What is your preferred RPG system?

1st edition D and D. You'd hate 4E, by the way. It's WOW on steroids and turns the game into a insane mix of MMO stat padding on paper. Not in a good way, either.

Oh, yeah...

The "We Be Goblin too!" thing yesterday was a riot and a half. Gaming like that makes me want to play games.

Still having piles of fun with my all Dwarven Brothers pathfinder campaign.

Players have been punking CR9 baddies at level 6, but that's with clever play and prep, which I think is fairly normal for a 3.X game.

 Da Boss wrote:
Still having piles of fun with my all Dwarven Brothers pathfinder campaign.

Players have been punking CR9 baddies at level 6, but that's with clever play and prep, which I think is fairly normal for a 3.X game.

My current party was almost all dwarven, then we were struck with other idea's.

I just had an encounter the other day, CR8 and the APL was 5, and just 3 of us. It was rough, but we made it through it. Goblins with barbarian levels...

The "We Be Goblin too!" thing yesterday was a riot and a half. Gaming like that makes me want to play games.

I played it as well! Tons o' fun!

Fun session last night, players dealt with a Glabrezu at level 7. That's CR 13, so it was a close fight! The wizard and the ranger both went down and the Cleric and Figher were fairly close. Reverse Gravity is a hilarious spell, and 5 attacks on a full attack with 15 foot reach is just horrible. Kept critting as well.
But the most fun was roleplaying him as an insane genius during the fight.

CR13 vs level 7s was a "close fight"? Isnt APL + 3 supposed to be a hard encounter? How did APL + 6 not end as a slaughter?

 streamdragon wrote:
CR13 vs level 7s was a "close fight"? Isnt APL + 3 supposed to be a hard encounter? How did APL + 6 not end as a slaughter?

A lot of things can happen... Single target fights can actually be a little higher than the APL+6 kind of thing... I was running an adventure and had a Barbarian, Wizard, Rogue, Cleric and a fighter?(I don't remember the last party member ) and they, at level 6 destroyed a level 12 Green Dragon, but were slaughtered by a spellcaster and a few lackeys. Having a single target means that you can all focus on one thing, so the spell casters don't have to worry about expending certain spells on certain monsters, they just unload on the big guy, rogues and fighters can flank giving that ever so important sneak attack, and unless the monster has some fancy combat tricks he's only going to get 3 or 4 attacks at most... Which if he splits them up is going to generally do damage a cleric can keep up with. He also did say that 2 of the party members did go down and the other two were almost down...

The answer is really: Clever play, luck, and circumstances.
The had a situational bonus that gave the Glabrezu -2 to hit and neutralised it's summoning ability (it could have regained these abilities in the right series of situations), but aside from that:
-Good positioning for the cleric to ensure he could heal without exposing himself too much.
-Clever spell selection by the wizard focusing on reflex saves, not allowing the Glabrezu much mobility without spending an action teleporting or dispelling various webs, greases and so on. (The wizard did pay for this with a massive buttload of damage, though).
-The party has been fighting a lot of demons and has tech-d up appropriately. They sorted out align weapon for the fighters, protection from evil communal, the ranger had Demons as a favoured enemy, the Fighter had a feat selection that included disruptive which stopped the demon from teleporting away.

So I was confident they could handle it and tried to play him as intelligently as I could manage. I find my players can usually deal with APL+5 if they're prepared, with the situational benefits I figured I was in that range here, and if they don't run away I don't pull punches. We also generally only have 2-3 encounters per session, so they tend to be average or higher than APL to make them mean something.

Looks like my worry about being the party tank was justified- got killed in a combat today. Looks like it might be a TPK- the game is still ongoing!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yup, TPK! That was kinda fun!

So me and some buddies are gong through thorne keep.
No spoilers, but we unlocked a door(Two rogues with INSANE lockpicking) And went through(Or are) it backwards, we fought the boss at lvl one......who needed magic weapon to kill it, just what we didnt have(I had two castings of magic weapon thankfully)

Also: Is throwing unconcious goblins down a corridor to check for traps evil?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Also: Is throwing unconcious goblins down a corridor to check for traps evil?

That depends on what caused the goblins to become evil, and if any died as a result of your trap checking...