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7163592.jpg
Occupied Equestria OOC
GM Pony
009b194
?
No.188149
188150 194652
Please keep out of character discussion contained to this thread. The previous one hit bump limit
1594 replies and 249 files omitted.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192647
192648
>>192642
>fighting on the dangerous front lines to succeed on a military objective is in fact a thing that they would normally do
These circumstances are very different from the front lines of WW2, nor are all these soldiers. They are mostly sailors, with a couple of marines and scientists, who are tired, cold, scared and possibly hungry. They have aligned with us against their own country, possibly with the consequence of being labeled as traitors. They did so because we told them, correctly or incorrectly, that they will be disappeared by their own government if they manage to survive this incident at all. We also have a group of hapless foreign griffons who are not soldiers at all and joined us just because they are afraid of the communists.
My point is that although our entourage is numerically strong, it is delicate and throwing it into a serious live-fire situation will likely cause every creature to scatter to their detriment and ours. They're like town militia in Medieval 2: Total War, weak but generally inexpensive to use and useful to secure the flanks for stronger units. We need to be cautious.
>GM has said before that he uses lvl 2-3 elite array Fighters for even his unimportant NPCs: all of the soldiers are trained fighters.
I'm pretty sure he specified that applies only to veteran soldiers. Although clearly wrong it slightly tempts me to start a bar fight with Salt Mixer to see if it's true.
>Furthermore, attacking the Kostroma with a large force may actually draw attention away from the airponies, because the Traveller would be distracted by the larger group attacking it nearby.
Counterpoint: the airponies are above-average capable fighters for our entourage, and although we don't want them placed in direct danger they're more valuable supporting us than anypony else. Also although a bivouac may stay hidden for a time, attempts to attack our force from the rear might mean enemies stumble upon it, endangering the now isolated ponies. We could bivouac closer to the Kostroma and beeline for the ship, but it would be trivial to locate that camp, or we could put it farther way and take a winding trail, but we'll lose precious time and the ability to reinforce them.
>>192644
>You have with you multiple experienced Naval personnel who know things about destroyers, tactics, freighters, weather conditions, what happened on the Kostroma, what the GRU are likely to do, and so on. There is no excuse to be ignorant of almost anything except what the Traveller is going to do, and even then, quite a bit is known.
Mea culpa. We really should treat them less like chess pieces and more like characters with unique skills and experiences. We were doing that before but the time pressure of finding that airpony got to us. I think once that objective is resolved, we can properly formulate a strategy.
Posey
2aa467d
?
No.192648
192649
>>192644
>I mean, I'd like to do something with the location of the ship
I think that part would be easier for all of us if map were provided, or at least a vague drawing of the battlefield in MS Paint.
>Let me consult with historical ships to determine of decks would have been wooden or steel
Alright. I did consider that there was a nonzero chance that the deck would be metal: amoebic crawler acid does not effect metal.
>There are ways around this
Worth considering what those are. I was considering volleys.
>Usually I would just do a half dozen distinct attacks, but volleys can be done for firearms. Something similar was done in an earlier large scale battle
I would strongly recommend checking the volley rules in Heroes Of Battle, instead of individually rolling the attack of every lvl 1 chump. It just makes things so much easier to run, and it makes lvl 1 humanoids more effective against AC they could not otherwise hit.
I can link it, if you want.
>Please don't simply assume that I know what it is, what it does, what it can do, what it will do, or that just dropping it will not create problems
https://dndtools.net/spells/players-handbook-ii--80/kelgores-grave-mist--2929/
This is the spell that Posey learned through her advanced learning class feature. It does piss damage, but it's good for freezing slow-moving groups of targets due to its Fatigue effect which can escalate to Exhaustion. It is my one and only AoE damage spell, which is why I brought it up.
>You have with you multiple experienced Naval personnel
Good point. Once we finish the airpony priority, we can ask the sailors all about that.
>only a small percentage of all of the rescued creatures are actual combat infantry
Noted. They're useful so long as they can fire a gun or hurl a sling though.
>>192647
>These circumstances are very different from the front lines of WW2, nor are all these soldiers. They are mostly sailors, with a couple of marines and scientists, who are tired, cold, scared and possibly hungry. They have aligned with us against their own country, possibly with the consequence of being labeled as traitors. They did so because we told them, correctly or incorrectly, that they will be disappeared by their own government if they manage to survive this incident at all. We also have a group of hapless foreign griffons who are not soldiers at all and joined us just because they are afraid of the communists.
Keep in mind, I am arguing from the perspective of an evil character from a country that considers friends to be expendable, and furthermore wants to flex her charming powers to lead others into battle. I am not strongly rooted in my opinion, but I am explaining what my character would want to do and the tactical advantages to doing so.
>Counterpoint: the airponies are above-average capable fighters for our entourage, and although we don't want them placed in direct danger they're more valuable supporting us than anypony else.
I don't really consider them to be that much more valuable, tbh. Any character would be valuable so long as they're a token on the battlefield for monsters to target instead of us. The amount of damage they deal isn't really a priority. I would prefer the airponies stay alive so that we can S+ Rank this quest and also get paid.
>attempts to attack our force from the rear might mean enemies stumble upon it, endangering the now isolated ponies.
Why would the Traveller direct its forces towards some irrelevant airponies when the ones who promised to destroy it are currently attacking its lair? It's not unintelligent.
There's still a risk, but arguably being away from the party should make the airponies safer for the duration of the combat.
The Floof and The Noodle
90b1360
?
No.192649
>>192648
Silver would like to keep all of the survivors and possessed ponies alive if possible, partly because he's a Harmonist who values life, partly because he'd like to see if they'd want to join him, and partly because he must have a bigger herd
Posey
4480997
?
No.192650
>>192637 →
>>192639 →
>>192640 →
Iirc, Silver mentioned something about a flashlight in the eyes being able to expose changelings? Can we do that?
What does his uniform look like once we get a good look at him? What does his dogtag say?
If he turns out to be a changeling, I'll just cut off his head and wrap his dogtag around it to deliver to Captain Waters. Maybe I can liquidate him for a celebrant boon.

The ponies in this village are strange: at least two of them were alive but unconscious, and yet none of them were enthralled by the Traveller. Maybe that means that there is only a partial chance of being controlled by the Traveller, or perhaps there is an upper limit to how many minds the Traveller can control at once. This could be good news.
Posey
38add16
?
No.192672
With the party's permission, I would like to put this mutated pony out of his misery.
Posey
c3ce6f9
?
No.192676
192677
So... Is Cavalier going to make an attack roll and/or roll damage for a coup-de-grace, or could I finish him instead?
If the Traveller is magic-jarring him, he could be worth a lot more HD as a subject. Maybe I could expend him as a celebrant and get Bless for the party for 24 hours. A lesser planar ally wouldn't hurt either if I could meet the DC.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192677
192678
>>192676
Maybe I could instead attack the tendrils ensaring the pony, though that has a low chance of success and we'd probably have to kill the pony anyway. It irks me to take the Fellow Traveler at face value that the pony would be dead anyway, but the possibility of it lying makes me reluctant to follow through.
Posey
edc5594
?
No.192678
192679
>>192677
Well, I would very much appreciate a POW to sacrifice before the battle. I could even fly him to the top of mended horn and try to make an icegaunt out of him if others are are willing to wait.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192679
192680 192681
>>192678
That would be the opposite of what Cavaliere's intent is, which is to stop the torture and desecration of a pony by killing him if saving him is not possible. It's also ironic since Posey would be doing the exact same thing as the Fellow Traveler but in a different way. But, there is a small chance the Fellow Traveler is lying with his claim that the pony would be dead anyway, and if it's at all possible to free the pony, then we (the good-aligned characters) have an obligation to try to save him. However if either possibility is false then it's safer and quicker to just kill the pony.
Silver/Kira's player, what do you think? I think a mercy kill is the right choice but we don't know enough to know for sure. Should we risk a few turns of combat to better understand the pony's condition?
Posey
381540b
?
No.192680
>>192679
>stop the torture and desecration of a pony
How body is already desecrated, and he has no mind left to torture.
I wasn't super serious about the icegaunt thing. It's a thing I want to do and idk when I'll get a chance to go it again, but it's not the most reliable idea. Rolling for a lesser planar ally would be more helpful.
>there is a small chance the Fellow Traveler is lying with his claim that the pony would be dead anyway
If he's somehow alive after having tentacles growing out of his spinal column, we'd be doing him a favor by killing him.
>However if either possibility is false then it's safer and quicker to just kill the pony.
My only reservation against killing him is because I suspect he might be a plot device by DM to drop plot-relevant information.
The Floof and The Noodle
90b1360
?
No.192681
>>192679
I definitely think at least an attempt should be made to try to heal the pony. Maybe if his body is healed, when the Traveler is defeated the pony will be alive. Either that or his soul has already left his body, in which case he should just fall down dead anyways once he's no longer puppeted by the Traveler. At the very least I imagine Kira would prefer that the mercy killing wasn't so...brutal.
The Floof and The Noodle
90b1360
?
No.192682
Also it's unfortunate when the EaW devs update the region your character is from and you have to change your character's lore to compensate. At the very least now I know for certain who the aggressor against Kira's tribe would be.
Posey
a7a3531
?
No.192683
Tbh, I don't care what we do with the captive. I would like to liquidate him for power, and in-character Posey just wants to cut his head off because he insulted her by comparing her to an unsophisticated flesh golem.

Let's just decide what to do so that we can get to our real priority of finding the airpony. Have we searched all of the buildings? You could leave Posey here to execute the prisoner, or you could stay and try to extract information of it while Posey goes to search the other buildings.

There is a nonzero chance that the airpony is aboard the Kostroma. Perhaps we could quicken our search by asking the corrupted pony if it has brought any new "friends" aboard the ship, in a way that does not give away our intentions.
Posey
6790fbe
?
No.192688
192689
So... How alarmed would the party be if I tried to call a demon to assist us in the fight against The Traveller?
A goat-like Artaaglith could serve the time of a Cleric help us as a healer, and use its Animate Dead to bolster our ponypower in the fight. I have called an Artaaglith before, and I would be interested in making him a recurring character.
A bat-like juvenile Nabassu could serve the role of a flying Rogue, possessing stealth and Sneak Attack; it's Death-stealing Gaze is a potent AoE debuff and has the potential to create ghouls to help us in the fight. Downside to the Nabassu is that due to its nature it cannot be trusted not to consume enemies in battle to make itself stronger, and once it consumes enough creatures it will planeshift away to mature.
Both creatures have about the same number of HD as we do, and could functionally fill the niche of characters with similar class abilities, affording us critical redundancy.
Posey
6790fbe
?
No.192689
192690
>>192688
Worth noting, I only have about a 25-35% chance of success for this.
The Floof and The Noodle
90b1360
?
No.192690
192691
>>192689
That seems rather low. And risky.
Posey
8c410be
?
No.192691
>>192690
I have to roll high on the dice, and my last sacrifice conjured some kind of evil fungus monster, and I anticipate other kinds of chaos to be unleashed if it try it again, but it was definitely fun.

Just something to consider. This next fight looks like it's going to be hard.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
3c352aa
?
No.192717
192718 192728
Not immediately replying to canonize Cavaliere’s coup de grace was a mistake
Posey
351250b
?
No.192718
192719
>>192717
Well, we could still kill him now...
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
3c352aa
?
No.192719
>>192718
Not immediately replying to canonize Cavaliere’s coup de grace was a mistake.
Posey
351250b
?
No.192723
192725 192732
Devourer_3e.png
I'm thinking that immediately after we kill the Traveller, I could execute this prisoner in a sacrifice, use the boon to cast major creation to temporarily create an object made out of thinaun, and use the thinaun to temporarily trap the Traveller's soul (or other spiritual incorporeal body). Then I could immediately either offer the Traveller's soul to the dark powers to be devoured or burn it myself as a spell component to cast a chill touch that is virtually impossible to resist. That way we could destroy the Traveller permanently on all planes of existence.

For that reason, it may be more useful to keep this prisoner alive to expend later.
Posey
351250b
?
No.192725
192732
d1npj7w-d685e5d3-ef28-4821-bc49-0286057b2b01.jpg
>>192723
This would require a readied action, if the Traveller was correct about keeping the creature's heart beating.
Something like:
>Prepare to explode the whale with tht harpoon
>Explode the whale, slit prisoner's throat as a readied action
>make prayer, succeed
>thinaun cage immediately forms around where the whale corpse was: soul trapped (for a few seconds)
>Soul is now in a receptacle, can be consumed
>Consume it

It requires careful planning, but I think it could be worth it.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192728
>>192717
I think it would have turned out for the best. I did like the monologue you wrote.
Posey
cae56ca
?
No.192732
>>192723
>>192725
Does anyone oppose this plan?
Posey
f611dd6
?
No.192762
192763
So... Can Kira and Cavalier just roll Survival to go right to the airpony immediately? They have the airpony's scent, and they both have the track feat. The village is only so large. I think this situation could be resolved quickly with a skill check.

Maybe I'm just misinterpreting how tracking is supposed to work. It's been a while since I've done it in 3.5e.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
64f9b97
?
No.192763
192764
>>192762
You cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby
Posey
c54ef36
?
No.192764
>>192763
Okay.
Just to be clear, how many buildings are there left to check?

Posey will defend the herd in the meantime.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192804
192827
Isn't the last airpony the Lieutenant that wandered off? Or do I have things mixed up again?
Posey
ec91ebb
?
No.192827
192884
>>192804
Idk, I just recall there being a hook that led us here.

Maybe the Traveller already enthralled him and marched him onto the Kostroma. It would make sense.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192884
192887 192888
>>192827
We had a specific name and rank. What was it again?
Posey
205d4cc
?
No.192887
>>192884
I don't recall.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
73e9aaa
?
No.192888
192889
>>192884
His name is Hooked In. No rank is given, but presumably Seaman, given the other ponies' ranks
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192889
192890
>>192888
Before I lock in a reply, what color uniforms did the New Baltimare seaponies wear?
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
73e9aaa
?
No.192890
>>192889
New Mareland Naval Air Service? Green, tending towards olive with a slight yellow tint.
Posey
04a6972
?
No.192918
Now that I think of it, the griffon whalers affected by the magical tiara are the only creatures that were not enthralled by The Traveller. Perhaps we could use this to our advantage...
Posey
a014d9a
?
No.192954
192955 192958 192959
1160127__safe_twilight+sparkle_rainbow+dash_pinkie+pie_fluttershy_rarity_applejack_spike_trixie_starlight+glimmer_maud+pie_female_pony_mare_alicorn_t.png
1122949__safe_pinkie+pie_rarity_maud+pie_female_pony_unicorn_smiling_earth+pony_eyes+closed_wide+eyes_patreon_water_patreon+logo_nervous_artist-colon.png
1063840__safe_rainbow+dash_pinkie+pie_maud+pie_female_pony_mare_pegasus_earth+pony_tree_water_official_river_boat_facebook_manehattan_the+gift+of+the.jpg
2521170__safe_princess+celestia_simple+background_smiling_alicorn_cute_eyes+closed_happy_chibi_water_bird_cutelestia_swimming_duck_momlestia_goose_ar.jpg
>>192951 →
Oh, we're right in front of where the ship is moored? No horizontal movement across the beach necessary?
Then I guess we should find some boats.

We could use our Swan Boat feather token to carry the whole herd there, although that would mean forfeiting our emergency escape item.
>Swan Boat: A token that forms a swanlike boat capable of moving on water at a speed of 60 feet. It can carry eight horses and gear or thirty-two Medium characters or any equivalent combination. The boat lasts for one day.
The Swan boat feather token is quite a formidable vessel despite its low price. It has a base speed higher than almost any ship including modern ones (twice as fast, actually), and its seemingly self-propelled. The wings should provide cover against incoming fire, and half cover against attacks from above.
It lacks any notable seaworthiness modifiers though, which arguably might imply that it's only good for calm waters: relying on it to get us home was probably a bad idea in the first place, so we may as well use it now. It can still give us a getaway boat if the fight on the Kostroma goes poorly and we just have to resort to just sinking the Kostroma and everypony onboard.

Alternatively, we could have a flyer drop it above the GRU ship to crush and potentially skink them, but using it for its intended purpose might be more useful right now.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192955
192956
>>192954
32 is a good number. If we tie the rowboats to it, we might be able to fit the entire entourage and sail away.
Posey
a014d9a
?
No.192956
>>192955
I do not want to bring the airponies into line of fire.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
73e9aaa
?
No.192958
192960
>>192954
The ship is not "moored" in a proper sense, it has presumably run aground on a hopefully soft sandbar, with its engines having hopefully gone out or turned off. It is in the bay sort of near the center, a bit off to the north. It is a few thousand feet away from the party in the water. The bay is a "U" shape, meaning that the beach curves around and there are multiple locations that are close to equidistant from the ship. Technically the beach a little further north is closer but it isn't that great of a difference.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
73e9aaa
?
No.192959
192960
image.png
image.png
>>192954
Okay, I know you in particular have trouble with the visualizing, but think of a U or Horseshoe shaped bay like in pics related, and think of a freighter sized ship that's kind of in the middle of it, a bit off center.
Posey
a014d9a
?
No.192960
192962
>>192958
>>192959
I see. Is the GRU ship within line of sight too?

I think using the feather token is the fastest and safest option to get to the ship. The boat should be a tall enough platform to climb while boarding the ship too.
Cavaliere
67c6a5f
?
No.192962
192964
>>192960
Why don't we use the rowboats and scale the sides with rope? They are conveniently placed. We don't want to risk the swan boat being sunk in case the Kostroma fails to be seaworthy.
Posey
a014d9a
?
No.192964
>>192962
The Swan boats size means that it should withstand sustained damage from even heavy artillery unless targeted damage is done towards specific portions of it, which is near impossible to do in low light conditions. That also assumes the enemy is targeting the boat, and not the creatures on it. It moves moves over six times as fast as a rowboat, which reduces the chance of being shot at all; and since it's self-propelled it gives all creatures on board free arms with which they can fire weapons.
Furthermore, the Swan boat is a Gargantuan object, being about 50 ft long and 20 ft wide. This means that it can act as cover for even huge sized creatures: particularly Monstrosity, as Monstro could fly behind it while towing all of the remaining rowboats on ropes.

I think the Swan boat should have naval combat statistics similar to a keelboat, with a seaworthiness score of -2 and a hull section HP of 50. Perhaps it could be viewed as a barge with a seaworthiness score of +0.

Based on GM's pictures, the distance we will need to travel over water to get to the ship is actually very small. If we move on the high-speed swan boat, we might be able to avoid naval combat altogether, which is the ideal.

Also, it's simpler to manage this way, imo.
Posey
480a5a1
?
No.192969
192970 192985
If the next battle turns into a circus fire and we find ourselves unable to escape with the Kostroma, the Swan Boat, or the GRU vessel, we might be able to camp here for one night and then have Defiant Dust prepare Make Whole multiple times to repair the Griffon's whaling ship to make it seaworthy with the rest of us pitching in to repair it. Monstro should be able to tow it if it has no motive power.
Just putting this idea out there as a plan C. We don't necessarily need to fight to the death to enact our initial plans if things are going south, since we might be able to escape this way.
I probably should have thought of this earlier.
Posey
480a5a1
?
No.192970
>>192969
>tfw Clerics can just solve all life's problems in two business days
I probably should have played a Cleric, but Dread League means Dread Necromancer.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
73e9aaa
?
No.192971
192972 192973 192985
>>192642
>All the communists we looted have been broke so far. This has been a rather low-magic adventure and scarce with treasure.
Okay, I want to talk about this.

Yes, I'm sure that there actually has been a dearth of items on the bodies of soldiers and there could probably stand to be more, but I'm absolutely astonished by the complete disregard of everything that actually is found.

Like the disregard of the money on the soldiers. Okay, fair enough, the total value is probably relatively low, like maybe 30 bits per soldier. And on top of that, it's not in Equestrian currency, it's in foreign currency, so you can't just spend it anywhere. But still...

New Mareland is an autarchic state that thinks that it can obtain everything it needs within its own borders. This means that they are probably desparately in need of things beyond their borders, and especially the money to buy it with. Foreign currency is probably at a premium. And if it isn't, what of Ny Winghaven and Nova Griffonia? Both Trottingham and Ny Winghaven, and especially the Village Up North are near Stalliongrad. Surely it's worth something to them? Also again, sure it's maybe 30 or 40 bits per soldier, but when you encounter a dozen dead soldiers, don't you think that maybe that adds up? Like if you saw a five dollar bill on the ground, would you think "That's not worth anything! I'm not picking that up!" Literally it's just paper. Bend over and pick it up. What does it cost you to pick it up and carry? Like what's the harm? It weighs nothing and takes up almost no space, and it adds up to hundreds of bits.

Also rings. Wedding bands are just ignored. I can get if you feel bad for looting it, but like, if you leave it there you can't give it to their loved ones later.

By far the most disappointing thing has been the complete and utter disregard of dropped firearms from enemies and on the ground. For example, in the church there were two dropped rifles that were just ignored. Yes I get it, they are literally Mosin Nagants, a type of rifle that was substandard by the time it first saw combat in the Russo Japanese war in 1903. I know, just 12 years ago you could go into a store and buy one surplus from Russia and the Ukraine for $125 or less. Even now you can buy one for $375. It's a meme gun and the name I've been using for it has been the Russian translation of "Moist Nugget." No character is going to want to equip with it. But like... It's worth something, surely? You could resell it for at least 150 bits in Ny Winghaven, maybe even more. So when you have a half dozen or a dozen of them that's thousands of bits of value. I had a previous player who saw four old guns as wall decorations and immediately he thought "I can resell this to the criminal underground for a lot of money!"

And like... You can equip NPCs with firearms. Pick it up, and tell the NPC to carry it. Or tell the NPCs to carry it. Yeah sure, you probably don't care for the improvised weapons because that would necessarily require putting the NPCs in danger. But a rifle does good damage, almost every NPC can use one, and they have no practical range limit. You just have to know that there's going to be a major battle on the Kostroma that will be a mix of a boss/multiple mini-bosses and mooks, and you could have the players attack, while NPCs stay in the background and either shoot at the mooks, or provide covering fire to discourage other enemies from joining the fight, or maybe shoot to harass the boss, or just do something to help. Like, you have to have known that. So why have rifles just been completely disregarded and left on the ground after every single battle? Why were two left behind in the church? How many rifles have just been left behind and ignored? Six by now? That's 12d8 of damage just left behind to rot and rust. 900 bits of resell value just ignored and discarded. That's not even counting the pistols, and honestly I think it may be more than that. Again, I get that obviously the players don't want to carry these things, but you don't have to at all. Give it to the seamen and engineers and such of the Kostroma survivors who have been carrying wrenches or nothing at all, make them be artillery in battles, and then sell it later. Or don't, I guess. But it still feels really weird to have a complaint about loot when thousands of bits of value with extremely obvious value in combat are just entirely disregrarded without a thought.

Like with the final airpony and his pistol. I was intending to have a little story with the pistol. Like maybe it was empty with the hammer locked open to show that he was defending himself. I decided against that because I assumed characters wouldn't care to pick up a gun that obviously didn't have any bullets. I thought maybe there could be a single bullet to suggest that he may have been contemplating killing himself to avoid capture? And also I wanted the gun to be of a foreign make to suggest it was a trophy gun or self supplied, or to suggest that captured weapons are being reused, to do something with it. Now granted I forgot to include this when I first wrote the airpony, but after it was included it was just ignored. I mean, surely the players could assume the airpony is going to want it back later?

One of fact of a twentieth century setting is that all of the tools, implements, and machines involved are themselves heroes and legends of the era. Like the "Automatic rifle" of the GRU non-commissioned officers. I thought before "Oh, it would be really cool if Silver could get one" Maybe cavaliere, because that's the SVT-40, the coolest looking rifle of all of WW2. I love those so much. I was so happy when I was finally able to buy one. I love including those and other guns in the game, usually with oblique references to what they actually are.
Posey
246163c
?
No.192972
192976 192983
>>192971
Hey, GM, I'm sorry if my comment came off as inconsiderate. It was really just an off-hand complaint about not having enough healing items or potions for the other party members who don't have unlimited self-healing like me, but it's not something you should take seriously. I was low-key hoping that by saying that the next couple soldiers we fought might have standard issue healing potions on their belts, but that was really just obnoxious of me.
As for money, I thought we agreed to evenly split any liquid treasure we found during the adventure at the end, so I have not been pay a lot of attention on who gets what. I also really wanted the cursed Tiara, and having claimed that I didn't want to come off as greedy to the rest of the party.
As for guns, I didn't pay attention to those because my character is not proficient in guns, and I lost my minions that were. Resale value is something that I should have considered, but I also don't know how much any particular gun is worth, and my character has no context for me to roleplay that. Posey as a character only really values gold, magic, and artisan craftsmanship because she comes from an archaic low-tech country, and vanity is supposed to be her flaw as a character. Maybe I should be rolling appraise more.

I understand that it can be frustrating to put loot right in front of players noses only for them to not use it at all or leave behind items that they were supposed to sell, especially if they make annoying complaints about it later. I have DM'd multiple year-long campaigns where the players did exactly that, and it annoyed me because wealth balance is important for smooth story progression, so I should have known better than to be so inconsiderate.

I cannot speak for the other players, but a few of other PCs are specialized in the weapons they wield, or have magic weapons that they would rather use, particularly since we a have been fighting unidentified monsters who may have damage reduction or otherwise may be impervious to nonmagical attacks. Perhaps they just ignore nonmagic, nonmasterwork weapons for those reasons.

>And also I wanted the gun to be of a foreign make to suggest it was a trophy gun or self supplied, or to suggest that captured weapons are being reused, to do something with it. Now granted I forgot to include this when I first wrote the airpony, but after it was included it was just ignored. I mean, surely the players could assume the airpony is going to want it back later?
In my experience, if you have an item that you want to be a plot device, it helps to describe the item as unusual with some kind of fancy intricate design or glowing runes, and at least a masterwork item. Players leave nonmagical items behind, but nobody ignores a +1 weapon at lvl 6.

I will try to take weapons in your game more seriously, particularly once I can start producing my own minions. It would help if I knew what the damage, prices and proficiencies for various weapons were.
GM Pony
!PonerGM.4A
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No.192973
192974
>>192971
And then also there was the set of keys on a dead soldier that was also just ignored. I don't get it. How many times have you played a game, seen a set of keys or a keycard, and then thought "yeah, I'm sure that doesn't unlock anything and won't be important later."

I did have Mala go back and at least loot the jewelry and precious metals off of the dead soldiers. Maybe I should have had Black Heel order the taking of the rifles? He can't possibly trust the party that much. Surely he'd want to try to build his own power independent of the party by arming the Kostroma survivors. Maybe that's what should have happened. But just... There's been at least 6 rifles, two pistols, several hundred bits in foreign currency left behind. Plus wedding bands and watches that the party has left behind for its scavanger NPC...

Even the medical kits in the life boats. I guess the idea is that they are probably just mundane medical kits with no magical potions, so just leave them? Then again I guess the priority was the airpony, so... fair enough?

When this post was first made, I was going to reply something like of course the ponies on the island don't have many valuables on them because the mutiny was very quick and the survivors didn't have the ability to go to their rooms and get their valuables, so it's left on the ship, and obviously the entity doesn't care for gold. So everything of value is in their lockers on the ship, plus the ship probably has gold as an emergency, and it was probably carrying other valuable items, and all of this other stuff. But I think it's pretty obvious that the party is task oriented and is unlikely to really explore much of the ship, so I think it's a moot point. If you explore you should be rewarded for it, and if you don't care to explore then that's fine too. Thousands of bits of value, including imminently useful combat value have been left behind already, so I'm not entirely sure what's considered to be valuable loot

Anyways, I think it's fairly clear that unless a dropped item is one that the player thinks is going to noticeably improve their character's performance in battle, that item is not worth typing "my character picks up x." If that's the philosophy, I think that everyone needs to be expect that these picks up will happen about once or twice per quest, after the midway point, and shouldn't be shocked that lower-level enemies and the environmental story telling are not containing +4 magic items.
Posey
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No.192974
192983
>>192973
>Maybe I should have had Black Heel order the taking of the rifles?
I kind of just assumed that that all of the soldiers were arming themselves as they went.
>But just... There's been at least 6 rifles, two pistols, several hundred bits in foreign currency left behind. Plus wedding bands and watches that the party has left behind for its scavanger NPC...
Tbh, Posey did have that conversation with Mala about civility and loot-sharing where the point was "Let's put everything valuable in a bag, and divine the treasure later", at the beginning of the quest.

>key
I forgot about the key entirely. That sounds important, but I must have missed it.

I see your point, GM. I will try harder.
Posey
246163c
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No.192975
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I feel kind of bad now... I dropped the ball.
Ngl, after the first couple months of this adventure, I started getting really lazy when it came to bookkeeping of mundane loot. Idk why, I just went through some difficult stuff irl and it became difficult to track things as the months/threads went on, so I began to check out. Back in the swamp adventure I was meticulously appraising the value of mundane items in d20 modern and converting them to 3.5e gold pieces, and indexing the prices for nonhumanoid armor and figuring out the resale price of the medical kits, because a every gold piece goes towards funding my army. I even considered the captive diamond dog an asset to be liquidated. Half of my current wealth came from reselling weapons and armor (although most of my starting wealth went into spellstitching and becoming undead).
I will take mundane items more seriously going forward, and I will take anything that nopony else takes. I will invest in a Bag Of Holding too, so I won't leave anything behind.

Is it too late to say we picked up the key? I would have picked that up if I noticed it.