Pathfinder: Burnt Offerings

[CanadienneBacon]

Still really busy trying to square away my best friend with her acute back inflammation. Her husband's deployed, so I and the other church members who've been swapping shifts at her place are all she's got. Glad she's got us, though. Looks like she'll be in bed at least through today again. No time to start our game up. Thanks for waiting, you guys have been polite and I appreciate that. Seems like three of us have had issues crop up all at once this week, eh?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

They do say that things come in threes.

Olaf the Stout

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Whizbang, the Scarnettis provide an interesting dynamic within the town of Sandpoint. As described by James Jacobs (who wrote Burnt Offerings), the Scarnettis value tradition, to the point where they strongly disapprove of several of the town's more liberal-leaning residents (namely in the form of the gay theater owner and the female abortionist and healer). The Scarnettis are alluded to being borderline evil, in that they seem willing to cross the line of decency in order to keep to tradition and to insure profitability for their business ventures.

My question for you is two-fold. Are you comfortable having your PC be a member of that family, their prejudices and tendencies included, and do you feel you can comfortably operate in the game, given the description of the Scarnetti family as written by Mr. Jacobs?

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I hope to finalize character sheets on Friday and get the IC up as well on Friday. I do have comments for Insight, kaodi, and Olaf's PCs, but being that the last time I reviewed the contents of the RG was ten days ago, it may well be that any comments I could post will be outdated due to you all having edited and revised in the interim. That said, please state if there is something specific that you feel I should pay careful attention to on your character sheet. If you have a specific question, drop a post so we can labor through this stuff on Friday during the day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Whizbang, the Scarnettis provide an interesting dynamic within the town of Sandpoint. As described by James Jacobs (who wrote Burnt Offerings), the Scarnettis value tradition, to the point where they strongly disapprove of several of the town's more liberal-leaning residents (namely in the form of the gay theater owner and the female abortionist and healer). The Scarnettis are alluded to being borderline evil, in that they seem willing to cross the line of decency in order to keep to tradition and to insure profitability for their business ventures.

My question for you is two-fold. Are you comfortable having your PC be a member of that family, their prejudices and tendencies included, and do you feel you can comfortably operate in the game, given the description of the Scarnetti family as written by Mr. Jacobs?

Good lord, James Jacobs totally stole my character idea!

Yeah, Rainer is supposed to be a bad man who just thinks he's one of the good guys. We'll see how long he lasts.

 

[Insight]

I've altered my character's background to more closely fit the adventure, as you had previously pointed out. As long as the adaptation is fine, everything else should be all right.

 

[Rhun]

I can't wait for you guys to start so I can follow along.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Insight, here are my questions and comments regarding Gron. I wish to preface this comment to you and to the others by saying that we're all adults here. Anything you think I may have wrong, please let me know. If I've made a comment regarding your character that you feel is misguided, well...the character is yours. You own him, so please feel free to disregard my ideas. As long as you play by the rules as stipulated in the module and in the core D&D material, and by anything to which the group as a whole has previously agreed, I will be satisfied. If I have a serious quibble with something regarding your PC, I will let you know in a respectful manner. I require the same from my players. Other than that, we're all here to have a good time and it is my intent to conduct the game with fun in mind.
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• How old is he?

• Does his CG alignment match his background?---this question begets a subjective answer, I admit. I'm basically looking for a reason why you took CG and not something like N, given Gron's admitted bloodlust.

• Looks like you used a 29 point buy. Please double check that; we're using 28 point buy for this game.

• Thrown weapons (ie: the dagger) use Dex on attack and Str on damage. Please double check your attack and damage for your thrown weapons, I think you may have jipped yourself.

• Regarding Craft (bowyery), are you wanting Gron to make bows or arrows? Bowyery will grant him the ability to craft bows. Fletching would grant him the ability to replenish his (and others') arrow supply. Just checking before we start playing.

• Knowledge (local) as taken by Gron would support a knowledge of Sandpoint and a few of its outlying areas. Is this what you intended? Again, just checking. Perhaps more importantly, Knowledge (local) isn't a ranger class skill (at least not as published by the PHB). Unless I missed something somewhere in the RotRL PG where local is suggested as a class skill for rangers, I will allow you to take local as a class skill but you'll need to give up one of the other knowledge skills that rangers normally get. Let me know if you feel I've overlooked something here.

• The belt of goblin skulls will not go over well in towns and may even be off-putting enough that some shopkeepers and hosteliers will charge more or deny service (at least at the start of the adventure). I get why you'd want the belt for your PC; the items is supported by the character's background.

• There is more than one goblin tribe in the area, and they are all distinct and compete with one another. Would you be interested in working with me to select a particular tribe to have kidnapped Gron when he was younger, or would you prefer I surprise you with a DM selection?

• If you want Gron's favored enemy to work against goblins, might I suggest swapping favored enemy ("humanoid") to favored enemy (goblinoid)? Goblinoid would give you bonuses to both goblins and hobgoblins.

• Please add in Gron's ranger level and his Cha bonus to his Wild Empathy check.

• You've taken a character flaw (weak will) from UA. That's fine. Would you like me to roll to see if Gron gets a character trait from that same book? It'd be random but randomness if fun, eh?

• Please take a look at Gron's fortitude save. I'm getting Fort +3, not Fort +4.

• Gron's skill points look to be correctly tabulated and distributed, thank you.

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[CanadienneBacon]

Olaf, here are my comments regarding Penn:
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• In talking with you here in the OOC and from reading your background for Penn, I have no issue with Penn's CN alignment. CN is a well-justified choice, based on his background. From a DM standpoint, I appreciate your intention to use the alignment as a means to further the story. When things stagnate in the game, as all games are at times wont to do, we can look to Penn to do something inspired that will get us into the next vignette.

• With a Dex of 16, Penn's AC looks like it should be 16, not 17. His touch AC should be 14, not 15. Please double check that.

• Ditto with Penn's Reflex save. A Dex of 16 should get him a save of +6, not +7.

• Ditto with all ranged attacks. If you feel I've missed something, let me know, but it looks like a simple accounting error across the board with regard to a 16 vice an 18 Dex.

• Skill points look to be correctly tabulated and distributed. Please do go ahead and adjust for the +3 Dex modifier, though. The Hide check should go at +10, not +4. Knowledge (local) will apply to Sandpoint unless your background supports some different locale or you simply wish it to apply elsewhere.

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[CanadienneBacon]

Kaodi, here are my comments regarding Pythas:
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• The background story of the Burnt Offerings adventure is predicated on the assumption that goblins in the Sandpoint area have been lying somewhat low in recent years. Any raids by goblins, and I am not denying that raids would have been conducted, would likely have been small in scale. Please double check your background for Pythas to make certain that past events fit with the bucolic feel of the areas surrounding Sandpoint.

• Everything else looked fairly well straight to my eye. Thank you.

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