Mended Wall's PBP for beginners (Inactive)

Game Master Hoary and Wizened

Btw, I've never been in a game that treated the grid nearly so literally, if it used one at all, so bear with me as I try to figure it out.

Not a problem at all. We all have adjustments we need to make to make things work. :)

Speaking of making things work, if I'm going to have enough steam for a full day of work tomorrow, I need to get some Zzzzz's myself. Yeah, I'm that old. :D

Talk to you all tomorrow.

I got some bad news today ... My supervisor came up behind me & saw me on this site. She has seen me before & reminded me that we are 'not allowed' to be on other web sights, & today she warned me that if she sees me on it again she'll have to 'do something about it' - which could potentially mean losing my job. Others do it all the time, they just haven't got caught. So, until they make me change desk again & I get a diff Sup, I'm going to have to force myself to stay off while at work. Sorry folks.

Sucks as Mended Wall says. Don't risk losing your job over a RPG man!

Hooray for our party's smallest member, taking out those damned razorcrows.

I am tempted to have Chillel start acting like John Cleese is the classic dead parrot sketch. May not be in character, but it would be very funny.

Hooray for our party's smallest member, taking out those damned razorcrows.

I am tempted to have Chillel start acting like John Cleese is the classic dead parrot sketch. May not be in character, but it would be very funny.

I just wish he had rolled the hobgoblin's save first. If he had I could have incapacitated it instead of one of the crows.

No, it's Mended's way of giving the perfect opportunity for smack talk right after a smack down :D

One bad pun, that's all this samurai needs.

Kairon, my reading of the rules for the Firebolt ability shows that you get a +1 on that, so that would be a total of six damage. I'm calculating it as such. A lot of what comes next will depend on Goruck's actions, whether he takes the provoked AoO, if it hits, or not, if it hits, how much damage it does... and then his action in the initiative afterwards, because he could just elect to attack even if he missed the AoO, as the creature did just try and stick him with an arrow of sorts...

Roger that. I've always waited till 2nd to add the +1, so I left it out there.

Does anybody speak goblin?

Edit: More importantly, would he actually have been speaking goblin? Both the monster listing and the PC race rules say that he should also speak common. I suppose that he could just be a particularly uneducated hobgoblin, who has only ever interacted with other goblinoids (in which case, we should expect to run into more of them), but if he knows common, he'd be insane to try to declare his surrender in a language that we're not likely to understand, when he also knows one (even if he speaks it very poorly) that he can be almost certain that we'll understand.

Second edit: It does make sense that he would curse in goblin when his arrow missed, though.

Third edit: I just checked, and nobody speaks goblin. We would probably still understand him dropping his weapon and raising his hands as a gesture of surrender, but it's going to be hard to get anything out of him if we can't communicate. Kairon probably doesn't even have comprehend languages prepared anymore.

As soon as the hobgoblin looses the strange arrow, Kairon looses a blast of flame.

Aimed along the diagonal toward his left shoulder to put his allies at less risk --

[Dice=Fire Bolt Attack]1d20+1
[Dice=Fire Bolt Damage]1d6

So even with a -2 penalty for firing into melee, that's a hit -- and maybe a meaningful one!

Miss chance for concealment?

Does anybody speak goblin?

Edit: More importantly, would he actually have been speaking goblin? Both the monster listing and the PC race rules say that he should also speak common. I suppose that he could just be a particularly uneducated hobgoblin, who has only ever interacted with other goblinoids (in which case, we should expect to run into more of them), but if he knows common, he'd be insane to try to declare his surrender in a language that we're not likely to understand, when he also knows one (even if he speaks it very poorly) that he can be almost certain that we'll understand.

Second edit: It does make sense that he would curse in goblin when his arrow missed, though.

Third edit: I just checked, and nobody speaks goblin. We would probably still understand him dropping his weapon and raising his hands as a gesture of surrender, but it's going to be hard to get anything out of him if we can't communicate. Kairon probably doesn't even have comprehend languages prepared anymore.

All of which could easily be addressed by any character asking the following: Do you speak common?

Kairon Daaltin wrote:

As soon as the hobgoblin looses the strange arrow, Kairon looses a blast of flame.

Aimed along the diagonal toward his left shoulder to put his allies at less risk --

[Dice=Fire Bolt Attack]1d20+1
[Dice=Fire Bolt Damage]1d6

So even with a -2 penalty for firing into melee, that's a hit -- and maybe a meaningful one!

Miss chance for concealment?

Oh crap! Totally forgot about that, probably because I watched Baradim and Lunarinus miss with arrows projectiles, and Dolok hit with a magic missile, so in none of those cases did the concealment miss chance come up.

Kairon if you want to call that and roll it, you can (remember it's a 30% so you're calling 1-30, 71-100, or if your feeling really strange, 31-60, do I hear 61-80?). Or if you want to just say, "your mistake, now live with it." I'll just suck up that six points of damage for not keeping my head in the rules. :)

Edit: Also, my little ranges for the "calling it" would be the miss, not the hit. If you want to call a hit range you're selecting ranges of 70 numbers, not 30. I'm sure that's as clear as mud...

Kairon, my reading of the rules for the Firebolt ability shows that you get a +1 on that, so that would be a total of six damage. I'm calculating it as such. A lot of what comes next will depend on Goruck's actions, whether he takes the provoked AoO, if it hits, or not, if it hits, how much damage it does... and then his action in the initiative afterwards, because he could just elect to attack even if he missed the AoO, as the creature did just try and stick him with an arrow of sorts...

He could also take offense at a creature cursing at him in a language he doesn't understand and put it out of its misery for that slight to his honor. :P :D

Edit: Are you all picking up on the signals I'm throwing out here? That I would not be terribly upset if diplomacy breaks down and somebody sticks the pointed end of something sharp in this hobgoblin's gullet?

Edit: More importantly, would he actually have been speaking goblin? Both the monster listing and the PC race rules say that he should also speak common. I suppose that he could just be a particularly uneducated hobgoblin, who has only ever interacted with other goblinoids (in which case, we should expect to run into more of them), but if he knows common, he'd be insane to try to declare his surrender in a language that we're not likely to understand, when he also knows one (even if he speaks it very poorly) that he can be almost certain that we'll understand.

Illiam, I think it is abundantly important that you take a piece of paper and write the following down on it: "My GM does not think as deeply as I do about the rules and mechanics of the game. In fact, it's entirely possible that, most of the time, he's flying, as the expression goes, by the seat of his pants." You should then have that piece of paper, with the writing on it, next to you at all times, and read it before you decide to post something. :D :D :) ;)

"Burn 'im! 'E's a witch, 'e is! Throw 'im inna rivva!"

EDIT: I'm talking about the hobgoblin. For the record.

Flying by the seat of our pants is the best roleplaying!

Also, I'm totally down for capturing a hobgoblin, redeeming him, and having him be our torchbearer. Totally doable. <.<

Only workable if we're talking "Tao of Pratchett" torches . . . .

Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a night; light a man on fire, he's warm for the rest of his life.

Only workable if we're talking "Tao of Pratchett" torches . . . .

Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a night; light a man on fire, he's warm for the rest of his life.

LOL <---- Probably that should have been LLOL, because I literally just laughed out loud, and sometimes I think people use "lol" to mean, that's funny, or I intend humor here, but have not actually laughed out loud. I actually laughed out loud.

Illiam Taal wrote:

Edit: More importantly, would he actually have been speaking goblin? Both the monster listing and the PC race rules say that he should also speak common. I suppose that he could just be a particularly uneducated hobgoblin, who has only ever interacted with other goblinoids (in which case, we should expect to run into more of them), but if he knows common, he'd be insane to try to declare his surrender in a language that we're not likely to understand, when he also knows one (even if he speaks it very poorly) that he can be almost certain that we'll understand.

Illiam, I think it is abundantly important that you take a piece of paper and write the following down on it: "My GM does not think as deeply as I do about the rules and mechanics of the game. In fact, it's entirely possible that, most of the time, he's flying, as the expression goes, by the seat of his pants." You should then have that piece of paper, with the writing on it, next to you at all times, and read it before you decide to post something. :D :D :) ;)

When I bring these things up, I hope you understand that I'm just trying to be helpful, not trying to tell you what to do or to make you look bad for not knowing a rule (and I hope I've also shown that I'll do it whether it benefits the players or not). I point it out when I think something's been missed, and you are always free to ignore it.

After all, never forget rule zero: The GM is the arbiter of the rules, and they are what he says they are. If players don't like it, their only recourse is to quit the game.

Only workable if we're talking "Tao of Pratchett" torches . . . .

Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a night; light a man on fire, he's warm for the rest of his life.

Love that saying. Never knew who said it first. I'm aware of Pratchett, but never read his stuff.

When I bring these things up, I hope you understand that I'm just trying to be helpful, not trying to tell you what to do or to make you look bad for not knowing a rule (and I hope I've also shown that I'll do it whether it benefits the players or not). I point it out when I think something's been missed, and you are always free to ignore it.

After all, never forget rule zero: The GM is the arbiter of the rules, and they are what he says they are. If players don't like it, their only recourse is to quit the game.

No, I get it Illiam, that whole post was made with my proverbial tongue planted firmly in my proverbial cheek. :) I've learned that part of the fun of the game for you is intensely analyzing every subtle nuance of every mechanical function of every situation. It's fine. It's interesting. I just want you to know I've never been that guy, and I won't ever be that guy. There will probably be a lot of situations in this game where you'll think, "that's not supposed to happen that way." When it does, you can just chalk it up to me flying by the seat of my pants and only putting the barest minimum of thought into anything. :)

Btw, just so you don't think I'm any crazier than I am, I don't have all of this stuff memorized. I'm just really good at looking stuff up (had to be when I started GMing a game before ever really playing in one), and will do so at the drop of a hat, just because it's interesting to me. I also do have enough of a sense of these rules to know when something might not be right.

The pace of the game is also a factor. Part of the way I deal with waiting for the next action when I really want to post one of mine is to double-check the rules for whatever just happened, or what might happen next, and calculating probabilities.

Yeah, like I said, we're cut from different cloth. I'll never be that guy, but you have at it! You search away! High ho search engines, away!!!

Are we still acting in intiative order or can anyone post?

Still in initiative, because Goruck's post is of vital importance to what happens afterwards.

Pratchett's Discworld stuff is, at least, interesting to read, provided parody is something you find entertaining. However, if I were to put something on the "Required Reading" list, it would be Good Omens -- great all on its own, and carries the same tone and mood of everything else of his I've read.

Continuing the sidebar -- a short list of favorite authors and works, in no particular order:

1) Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle
2) Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files
3) Star Wars Expanded Universe (pre-Disney or non-Disney ONLY -- shame on them for ruining a good thing)

Love Rothfuss, when is the next book of his due out?

71-100 is a range for a hit (70% chance to hit, 30% chance to miss), so with a 42, you hit.

Yup. The melodrama was more about how predictable it is for me to roll lower than higher, despite the "rules" of "probability".

Love Rothfuss, when is the next book of his due out?

On the 54th of Octember in the Year of Dread Cthulhu 4,237.

1) Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle -- Loved it. Can't wait for the next one. The protagonist is a pretty big Mary Sue, but I enjoy the writing enough not to care.
2) Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files -- I've heard good things about it, but the TV show looked dumb, so I've never bothered. I should probably give it a try.
3) Star Wars Expanded Universe (pre-Disney or non-Disney ONLY -- shame on them for ruining a good thing) -- Read some of these as a kid (definitely pre-disney), so it would make me feel kinda childish to go back to it even though I know they're not all written for kids. The sheer volume also makes it hard to find an entry point, and the fact that they've been excised from the canon makes it just that much more difficult to justify the time commitment.

MendedWall12 wrote:

Love Rothfuss, when is the next book of his due out?

On the 54th of Octember in the Year of Dread Cthulhu 4,237.

Again LLOL, I'm guessing that means nobody knows. He's got a process people! Respect the processes preciouses!

Btw, I'm generally more into scifi. A few of my favorites:

The Expanse series, by James S. A. Corey (a great series of books recently made into a good tv series by SYFY)
The Singularity series by William Hertling
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein

I love stories about emergent AI.

As for more magic-y stuff, I would recommend the Void trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. It's part of a larger scifi series, but it would definitely stand alone (Though I would recommend going back to the first books in the Commonwealth Saga before continuing beyond the Void trilogy). It takes place in a sort of artificial pocket universe called the Void, where technology doesn't work, but there's a form of magic that is kind of reminiscent of the stuff in Rothfuss's books.

Oh, and I can't forget The Martian. The movie was really good, but the book was so much better.

I never watched the Dresden TV show. Didn't get into the series till years after an ex recommended it. The first two books are a mite dull, looking back, but once you hit Grave Peril and Summer Knight, it really picks up. I routinely go back and re-read bits and pieces of it, and we're . . . 16 books deep now?

How much of the EU did you read before you got out of it, Illiam? Thrawn trilogy? Corellian trilogy? I would point you toward R. A. Salvatore's Vector Prime (published in '99) to begin the Yuuzhan Vong story arc, but if you've got that one under your belt, the Legacy of the Force ennealogy is quite good, mostly for Karen Traviss' work. Revelation, the eighth, is easily my favorite of them all; I've gotten to where Allston and Denning bore me a bit, but all nine are worth at least *one* read.

EDIT: RE: Weir's The Martian -- That is a story. I loved the idea of being an astronaut when I was younger; that book is an effective monument to the goals of exploration I, personally, believe toward which we should be reaching.

EDIT II:

How much of the EU did you read before you got out of it, Illiam? Thrawn trilogy? Corellian trilogy? I would point you toward R. A. Salvatore's Vector Prime (published in '99) ...

No, the last time I read a Star Wars book was definitely before '99. Probably stopped reading them around '95 (looking at publication dates, it must have been later than that, but definitely no later than '98). Mostly the stuff about the kids Han and Leia had before they were stricken from canon and replaced with Kylo Ren.

Jacen and Jaina were born during the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. You might be able to find Vector Prime in a library somewhere.

Wrt Thawn, his series isn't cannon, but he has appeared in the animated Star Wars show that is running now, which is canon, so the character does still exist.

Yeah, so I heard. A weak effort to draw some fans back into the fold, in my opinion.

I'm a hard-liner. :)

I apologize for the wait. Today was a madhouse at work, (we found a custodian napping in a closest).

I'm not a Star Wars fan, but I have read some of the Star Wars EU books. I remember them being pretty good.

Anybody going to stuff the birds in a bag or something before they wake up?

There is nothing saying you can't do it Illaim. And did you get a Personal Message I sent you a day or two ago.

And someone should really free that fennec.

Not only is it in a trap, but:-

It is a desert fox in a wholly unfamiliar environment,

It is nocturnal and stuck out in the sunlight, and

It is probably terrified of Athena. The fennec's only known predator is the eagle owl.

There is nothing saying you can't do it Illaim. And did you get a Personal Message I sent you a day or two ago.

Illiam's backpack is smaller than everyone else's and it's full of small items that would have to be dumped out to make room, some of which would get lost in the process. He doesn't have any other appropriate container.

I hadn't noticed your message, but have replied now. Does this forum have an option to notify by email when a private message is received? I couldn't find one, and I never notice the icon.

And someone should really free that fennec.

Not only is it in a trap, but:-

It is a desert fox in a wholly unfamiliar environment,

It is nocturnal and stuck out in the sunlight, and

It is probably terrified of Athena. The fennec's only known predator is the eagle owl.

Sound like a job for Baradim to me.

Thanks for the reply Illiam.

What is weird is the feat quicken SLA shows up as valid on my version of herolab. Will ask my GM. I want more feats than I have anyway. Reason I asked is you seem to know the rules backwards.

Flying sharks are not that powerful, or I don't think so. But it is awesome! I have so many combat options to summon it is not funny. Manta Rays with blindsense are more of a balance issue imho.

You can see the build if you are curious.

I don't know if you can get an email when you get a personal message. My account shows up at the top of this page, so I notice fairly quick.

Flying sharks are not that powerful, or I don't think so. But it is awesome! I have so many combat options to summon it is not funny. Manta Rays with blindsense are more of a balance issue imho.

They probably aren't, but as a GM, I would want to do some research to be sure of that before allowing it. If I can accomplish the task with skinning, I think that is the best approach, because it means that we'll be working with something that's been playtested.

Okay, before this parley begins, I would just like to remind everyone, that you all were the aggressors. Goruck went hulk smash on the tree where the hobgoblin sat, and the worst thing he did in the fight was try to make Goruck stick to the ground, which was in an effort to run away. The only damage dealt in the fracas was by his birds, and they were just doing what they had been told to do, guard and defend. So if you all are going to accuse him of doing something wrong, it darn well better not have to do with harming you... Just sayin'

Nuh-uh!!! He started it!!! Pickin' on that poor little firefoot fennec!

Give the little beast the longbow and stick the hobgoblin in that trap!!

They probably aren't, but as a GM, I would want to do some research to be sure of that before allowing it. If I can accomplish the task with skinning, I think that is the best approach, because it means that we'll be working with something that's been playtested.

I am not sure what you mean "skinning". A gaming term I am not familiar with?

On the hobgoblin- We saw he had set a trap. And he had, but he may be doing nothing more sinister than hunting. In which case we better not murder him much, if at all.

Correct, a hobgoblin has to eat after all, and a fox provides very little in terms of protein. A plains lion on the other hand...

"Skinning" in rpg terms frequently refers to taking a mechanical construct as-is and putting a "new skin" on it -- for instance, taking rules for a baboon and turning it into a mandrill (not that such an example is entirely reasonable). It's an aesthetic thing, usually. I've done it pretty often with my homebrew stuff.

Since I don't have the full context of your ongoing conversation, I could be incorrect, but that's what I think he's talking about.