The Unseen Servant forums

Out of Character discussion, part 3!

@kenjosephus I have been in contact with Juramenta. He is alas rather ill at the moment, which is why he hasn't responded in a few days. Hopefully he'll recover soon!

Ah, i see. Hope he gets well soon

shaidar wrote: ↑Fri May 09, 2025 12:54 pm Corvin

Corvin raises his eyebrows in surprise "Do you have any preference as to who should go?"

Do Lupines have eyebrows?

That's a very good question

I would say like cats and dogs, right? Those hairs sticking out? Not sure how they can be raised though. It's the thought that counts I guess

The muscles above the eyes would still lift up, widening the eyes.

If Corvin looks at me like that, I will have him committed

Juramenta is alas still too sick to play. I'm going to bot Luca for a while so that we can keep that group moving.

I've added a bit to House Rules on how Thief skills interact with Statistic checks. I've been trying out a new approach in both games recently where characters with Thief skills add the appropriate Thief skill modifier to a statistic check when doing something "thiefy" that I judge non-thieves can attempt (i.e. hiding in a dense tree, sneaking up on sleeping goblins).

I'm actually liking how this is going so far, much more so than the default "roll both the statistic check and the thief skill and succeed if at least one succeeds" that the book advocates. I think it helps make the thief skills feel more impactful even at early levels since they can either dramatically increase the chances of success in contested checks, or guarantee the success of uncontested checks, and helps justify just how darn weak the thief classes are in combat (Lupines become powerful at higher levels, but early on even they're pretty vulnerable).

And since thief classes still add just their skill modifier when attempting things that non-thief classes can't (sneaking past an alert guard, hiding in the shadows of a room) there's still plenty of opportunity for tension!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Shadow of the Kinslayer, and we're still going strong! Woot!

To date, we have 5 PC's, all level 2-3 broken up across two teams (plus 5 henchmen/women). We've wiped out a criminal gang, saved some folk, contended with an ancient, awakening evil, and formed deals with powerful women (some with mysterious motives, some not-so-mysterious). Both teams have met Princess Flora. Both teams have had at least one member die and get resurrected. At the moment, one team is desperately trying to get a whole lot of helpless people back behind the Wall, while the other is navigating a goblin's nest.

Here's hoping we have another great year!

Everyone gets 75 our-game-is-still-going-strong-after-one-year XP. Why 75? Because that's exactly the amount that we need to get our last few level 1 henchwomen to level 2 (Astrid and Akiri)! Since this is mostly the DM celebrating that he's managed to stick with it, henchmen get the full value.

Also, 50 felt like not quite enough, and 100 felt like just a *hair* too much.

Thanks, Archolewa. Happy 1st Anniversary of this campaign. Here's for more cool stuff down the line.

Also Troy got enough XP to get him to level 3

Kenjosephus wrote: ↑Thu May 15, 2025 11:27 pm Also Troy got enough XP to get him to level 3

Awesome! Looks like we'll have at least three level ups next time you guys rest. Maybe even everyone, if you can get your hands on enough treasure on this adventure! Also means you'll be able to get Skilled in a weapon next time you're in town, which is exciting.

Tempus Fugit!

Thanks Archolewa. For the XP and for a really run game. Here's to many more years.

Wow crazy - hard to believe it has already been a year!

Thank you archolewa for running a great game, and shaidar for being the perfect teammate. I really do not have the minerals for deeply involved RP, so thank you for picking up my slack

Thanks, I think we make a good team.

However if you feel I'm overshadowing Mordred just let me know. It's sometimes difficult to tell when it's enough or too much.

All good! No overshadowing felt

I like the tidy-up.

Is it worth making the PCs thread a sticky too?

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 4:59 pm Is it worth making the PCs thread a sticky too?

Where we define Player Character sheets? Yeah, probably. Lord knows I reference those enough!

Edit: I've also tweaked the titles of some of the threads to make them a bit more organized if you organize threads by Subject.

The renaming looks good, brings related threads together nicely.