WabbitHuntr |
No problem Koan. . I'm trying my best not to do anything stupid like getting Koan and Sorek taken out by a trap
-Posted with Wayfinder
Sorek |
hey everyone. I'm looking for input on what to do after we finally Keeeel this snake.
I think that we have explored all the area that can be reached through the doorway we entered.
Our options are:
A) to go down the stairs in the room we are in
or
B) Go back outside to the Main Entrance and choose another door to enter through. In all likelyhood we got lucky with the first door not being trapped.
I think we have cleared this section and should not have anything blocking our escape route, if we need it.
brvheart |
Just a heads up folks. There are a couple of unwritten rules that you may want to know about Rappan Athuk:
1) You don't try and clear levels. Explore what you need to in order to fulfill your objective.
2) If the DC on a door is about impossible, you probably don't want to be opening it! Not until it is more appropriate for your level.
3) Someone needs to keep really good maps. Otherwise you will be hopelessly lost. Virtual maps are probably best for a PBP so all can share them. So in the future if you say we are going back to 'x', I will say, ok how are you getting there?
Now that being said, this is the Mouth of Doom and you are more than equipped for about any challenge on level 1 so you could stand to clear more of the first level.
Thousand-Faced Koan |
Has anyone else been having troubles accessing Paizo? I've been getting errors while trying to log on. I'm able to get on now though, so I have some catching up to do.
Sorek |
I had some trouble last night. but it's been fine today.
Let's see what have you missed??? A whole lot of perception checks from Koan and Sorek. We found a way down to the 2nd lvl but have chosen to clear this lvl. and Sorek has the dubious distinction of being the first member of the party to fall victim to a trap.
Sorek |
@brvheart Almon has Craft Wondrous. Would it make our lives immensely easier if he crafted
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 2,000 gp; Weight 1/2 lb.
DESCRIPTION
Upon command, this item draws your surroundings, out to the limits of your normal vision, rendering them as if depicted by a competent but unexceptional artist. It does not record any details you cannot see. The autonomous cartographer creates the map as needed to fit upon a 1-foot-by-4-foot parchment or scroll contained within the item. A second command erases the scroll, allowing you to use it again. You may insert or remove a scroll as a full-round action.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, erase, prestidigitation, Cost 1,000 gp
also on my wish list as we have not found any Secret Doors even though we know there must be a lot of them in Rappan
Goggles, Treasure Hunter’s
Aura faint divination; CL 3rd
Slot eye; Price 6,400 gp; Weight —
DESCRIPTION
These sturdy but plain goggles help the wearer locate secret doors and coins and identify treasure.
While wearing these goggles, the wearer can use detect secret doors at will. The goggles do not aid in determining how secret doors are opened.
Once per day on command, the wearer gains the ability to locate object as per the spell, but only to detect 100 or more coins in a small area, such as a backpack, chest, pouch, or sack.
Three times per day, the wearer may use identify.
CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Craft Wondrous Item, detect secret doors, identify, locate object; Cost 3,200 gp.
I think these 2 items would be Awesome for this dungeon crawl.
Basically these 2 items free us from having to do endless perception checks for secret doors which there have to be a ton of
and maybe the cartographer will save me(us) from having to draw endless dungeon maps
Almon Elros |
Unless it was forgotten, (Of which I should up my perception), Almon is an elf and will get the free checks if within 10 feet of a secret door. Dwarves get it for stonework as well. No saying that will find all the secret doors, but should help uncover the occasional one.
brvheart |
Elves no longer get the check on pathfinder. And Sorek, I am not going to do your mapping for you, item disallowed. Source Pathfinder Chronicles Seekers of Secrets.
The second is from Ultimate Equipment. Find your own. You really, really DO NOT WANT THIS ITEM! Disallowed. See RA rule #2. There are too manys secret doors you are really not meant to find at level 3.
brvheart |
See errata: The errata now says "Page 414—In the Doors section, under Secret Doors, remove the last sentence of the first paragraph."
The sentence in question says "Elves have a chance to detect
a secret door just by casually looking at an area."
So Elves NO LONGER have the chance to detect secret doors that they used to have.
Only dwarves have that ability in Pathfinder and only if they are made of stone and yes I am secretly making the rolls for Aggrammar and Koan.
brvheart |
Elves even sleep now although they always have in my game as I used Dragonlance as a reference. Tanis slept every night. They are still immune to magical sleep though except the exceptions.
Sorek |
I should have phrased my question better regarding the Autonomous Cartographer. I certainly was not trying to add to your workload. My question should have been as follows:
Is there an option you can check off on the roll20 program that would allow previously explored areas to remain visible on the map?
If this option could be enabled, then the crafting of a Autonomous Cartographer would be a great idea. There would be no additional work on your end or mine.
I still don't no how to go about drawing a map and then distributing for everyone to see, unless everyone wants to share their email addresses, if so I can scan the hand drawn map and email everyone (daily,weekly) updates on the map. Obviously I am not a computer guy.
Almon Elros |
Well, one issue with the cartographer whether it becomes available or not, is I can't craft it until 5th level. Until then, we still need to decide on the maps. I could do it (as I have a mapmaker's kit on Almon). But as most of the action and movements happen in the evenings when I'm unavailable, I'll need to have the roll20 stuff up showing where we started and ended during the prime-time slots so I can add it in.
Also, I don't have survival as a skill, so it might be best if someone that can put ranks into it as a class skill does the actual map making. I'll give them the mapmaker's kit off my character.
brvheart |
Doing the mapping as a player doesn't require the character have any skills. We can work out the details on Roll20. I can leave lights where the party went that day until the map is updated. It does require someone to have a little computer savvy though:) Even doing it in a simple graphics program or excel would work for dungeons. Now caverns will take something more than a spreadsheet.
Sorek |
Once the Autonomous Cartographer becomes available at 5th (if allowed) leaving the lights on Roll20 for areas that we have explored would save everyone from the necessity of drawing maps.
I don't think that would break the game in any way. It would just make things more convenient and save us from having to reproduce the map in excel or a graphics program. It would not add any GM workload.
When we go to another level of the dungeon would the map of our explored areas disappear for that level? If so, just saving a screenshot of those explored areas would be enough to save our progress. Even I could do that. But I would have to be taught how to make that available so everyone else could see it. Either distributed via email, or preferably in the campaign links on this forum.
brvheart I'm sure all the groups you've run through RA in the past have kept detailed maps somehow. But I don't see how us coming up with an in-game solution to that problem with the Autonomous Cartographer breaks the game in any way. Whatever you rule is fine. Sorry but I'm not computer savvy. I know nothing about excel or graphics programs.
Unfortunately the best candidate for the mapping job is probably me as I have been scouting up front, leading the way most of the time. I just don't know how to do it. That's why I'm pleading our case for the Cartographer.
and let me say once more. I am not asking you to do the mapping for us. I am asking you to allow roll20 to keep track of our explored areas. This would not add to your workload.
Sorek |
We could even say that we bought the Cartographer prior to coming to RA and it is a party item. It would cost 333gp from each of us. And solve the map problem now, not at 5th lvl.
brvheart |
Biggest issue with trying to use Roll20 as your maps is that only works on the level you are on and with 58 levels that doesn't work real well very soon. I can't keep that many in the site. I can only keep one active at a time and then I can only keep about eight due to the restrictions on what I can keep. It is only 5 MB per game.
Sorek |
I think a great solution will be to leave the lights on for any explored areas on our current level and before leaving a level, take a screen shot of the areas we've explored on that level and save that to Google Drive with the rest of the maps to this campaign.
I really think that will be a great solution to our mapping needs.
The map will be saved to Google Drive and you won't have to worry about the restrictions on what you can keep in roll20.
I just saved a screenshot of our current map. Works just fine.
if you give me access to the google drive account i can upload each map b4 we leave the lvl
brvheart |
Ok, we need to discuss the mapping question. Neither way works width dynamic lighting as the lights turn out when you are not in that room you don't see them. So either we need to turn off dynamic lighting for wait for the person doing the mapping to explore.
Sorek |
Go to Fog of War..
Go to Dynamic Lighting.
'The Fog of War features allows you to gradually reveal areas of the map to your players. This is useful if you have a party that is exploring an area like a dungeon, where they shouldn't be able to see parts of the map that have yet to be explored"
"You can use Fog of War in combination with Dynamic Lighting, but one is not dependent on the other to function."
I feel the best way to continue this game at a good pace is to allow roll20 to handle the mapping functions by keeping the explored areas of the map revealed. And then before leaving the current level take a screenshot of the map showing all the explored areas of that level and saving it to google drive and linked to the campaign.
This will have several benefits.
1 We will not need a designated explorer/mapmaker
2 Anyone will be able to advance the game on roll20
3 This option will not add at all to GM or player workload, enabling us to just enjoy the game.
4 If a designated mapmaker/explorer is chosen the game will have to slow down as only that player will be able to advance us through the dungeon otherwise we will risk getting lost.
I know your previous RA games have had a designated mapper. But this seems unnecessary with the capabilities of roll20. This solution will work out great for this group and is worth trying.
If for some reason the Dynamic Lighting and Fog of War combo does not work as it says it should in the roll20 wiki. My vote will be to turn off the dynamic lighting so that we can use roll20 as our map. This will be the easiest solution for all involved and will allow this game to proceed at the quickest possible pace. Which is something (I think) we all want.
My goal when having Sorek explore is to get through areas (without getting killed by traps) as quickly as possible and get to a point in the game where we need input from other players for a combat or to solve a problem. I think that has been working so far.
by using roll 20 as our mapping solution anyone, not just Sorek can continue our progress through the Dungeon. This keeps the momentum going and keeps everyone involved.
Lars the Crusader |
Personally I have no problem with him moving us along. I guess I do have decent perception and could help with the searches, but honestly the whole poking around empty rooms and probing for traps is a bit on the tedious side.
brvheart |
Botting one player when they are busy is one thing. Botting the entire party makes this a one man show. I think the solution is to slow the game down to a pace the other players can/wish to handle. This is not a roll20 issue here. Sorek, I know there are a lot of rooms to explore, but one player cannot be doing it all by himself and just bringing the others in for combat.
brvheart |
Now we have one for and one against. You guys need to get on board with what pace you want this to go at going forward as a team. Input from the other players is appreciated.
Aggrammar Deepdelver |
Botting one player when they are busy is one thing. Botting the entire party makes this a one man show. I think the solution is to slow the game down to a pace the other players can/wish to handle. This is not a roll20 issue here. Sorek, I know there are a lot of rooms to explore, but one player cannot be doing it all by himself and just bringing the others in for combat.
Exactly this.
brvheart |
I can turn off dynamic lighting and use Fog of War, but inevitably in RA this is going to increase the chance of a TPK.
brvheart |
Both RA games are going about the same pace: 691 vs 747 posts since May 29. So it is up to you guys if you want to slow it down or not.
Sorek |
ok we seem to have 2 issues here:
1 mapping
2 pace of play and the concern that Jaime/Sorek may be trying to make this a one man show.
Addressing point 1: by using roll20 as our mapping solution, we have the option of any player logging in to roll20 and if brvheart is on line, they can advance the exploration through the dungeon. If not, we will have to slow to the pace of whoever is doing the mapping and it will not be me as I do not know how to do it.
point 2: I am not trying to play a one man game here!!!! If I was, I would play Oblivion. My goal when I log on to roll20 and I see brvheart online as well, is to advance the plot/exploration to the point where other players have meaningful input into the game
by meaningful input i do not mean: "do you want to go through the North door or the South door?"
I also do not consider meaningful input rolling perception checks!
Lets review the actions explorations undertaken yesterday:
There was extensive botting of Koan, who needs to be in the lead for his trapfinding ability and perception checks.
I do not feel bad botting Koan. And I will not be upset if Koan bots me, as we are both in the lead (risking our characters) together trying to find/disable traps and clear the way for the rest of the party.
Koan and Sorek together rolled approximately 16 perception checks while investigating/clearing 8 rooms.
I with brvhearts consent botted Almon 1 time to roll a knowledge check to identify green slime and botted Thomas 1 time to open a stuck door. Neither time were either character in danger. I will not knowingly endanger another players character, exception being Koan and Sorek who have been taking the lead together, and it is unavoidable.
Through the actions listed above we managed to clear 8 rooms.
If you want we can ask for party input as to which door to check first "do you want to check the north door or the south door?". If we do that we will probably clear one room per day.
brheart has stated that there are 58 levels in RA. If we assume that each level has 200 rooms
58x200=11,600
If we clear one room per day, which is possible if we wait for everyone input/perception checks it will take us:
11,600 rooms/365 days= 31 years to finish this adventure
I Jaime/Sorek am more than willing to take a step back and let others take the lead. If you want, place me to the rear of the party and you will be able to count on me to post reliably whenever it is needed.
Someone else can take the lead! The last thing I want is for my actions to be perceived as selfish or monopolizing this game. I thought I was doing everyone a favor by advancing the game to where everyone had MEANINGFUL input. But I think my actions may have been misconstrued/misinterpreted.
"Botting one player when they are busy is one thing. Botting the entire party makes this a one man show." WOW... if that is what I have been perceived as doing, then please someone else take the lead and I will chime in whenever my input is welcome.
disclaimer: online communication can miss nuances that verbal would not. We do not know each other personally. Please give me the benefit of the doubt. That I am trying to be a team player and have been trying to advance the game for the sake of all of us. Not just myself . I will abide by whatever the majority feels is the best way to run this game.
brvheart |
I think first of all you are under a vast misconception on how large Rappan Athuk is. While there are now some 58 areas and levels to it, no one has explored more than about 30 of them and each level averages more about 20-25 rooms. Going at this pace may be fine when the party is 2 levels over what the dungeon is designed for but once you start hitting more level appropriate areas it will slow to more of around a room per day. We never hit more than 4-5 rooms a session running weekly so at one a day you are still ahead of a normal pace. It makes me wonder if you are trying to explore all of RA in a few months when normal games take a year or two and then still only get to 10 levels or so before going elsewhere. No one goes to every room on every level either. It is not a good idea and I am not young enough to run that!
In reality, we only cleared rooms 2,3 and 4 but even at that pace I missed a trap. Not a huge deal, but I feel like I am running a solo dungeon for one player. One of the areas was unmarked and you are now in room 5. I need input from the other players more than just do you want to roll a perception check. So I am slowing it down for my own sanity if for no other reason.
As for mapping, if no one wants to do it, fine. I can turn off dynamic lighting and use fog of war if that is the party's decision. Forewarned is forearmed.
brvheart |
I turned off dynamic lighting much to my annoyance and reset the Fog of War. I think part of this is my fault for asking Sorek to lead.
Almon Elros |
For now, I got a copy of the map with the FoW turned on. Doing the google drive because it works well enough for the games I run.
If people send me e-mail address I can set it up for anyone to edit. Just make sure you do time stamps on your picture (I did that one in paint). Should make it easy enough that way.
Good Thomas |
I'm barely keeping up with the speed things are progressing, and then am only dropping in for combat rolls. I absolutely have no problem with the way Sorek has been pushing things along, nor do I fault him for trying to maintain a brisk pace. However, I think I misunderstood the nature of dungeon exploration in a PbP game. It looks like we have a whole ton of die rolling ahead of us and little else, and as such I'm finding that I don't enjoy that as much as I'd thought.
As such, and with sincere apologies, I'd like to withdraw from the game.
brvheart |
With no apologies from the Introduction:
Once upon a time, there was an idea—an idea formulated by Gary
Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974 and published in a little paperback bookcalled Underworld Adventures. The idea was simple: it is a lot of fun
to go into a dungeon and kill evil monsters. Why is the dungeon there?
No one knows. Why do the monsters usually fight rather than talk? We
aren’t really sure. Why are there 16 trolls in a cave with a jug of alchemy?
No one cares. What do all the monsters eat? We don’t know that either
(although “adventurer” probably tops the list). And we don’t have to
know these things. This isn’t an ecology experiment, it’s a dungeon—the
quintessential setting for pure swords and sorcery adventuring.
This adventure pays homage to that original idea. True, there are
opportunities for role playing, but most of this module is dedicated to
“roll playing.” Hopefully, while exploring the halls of Rappan Athuk, you
will recall the thrill of discovery, the terror in your heart when you fought
your first skeleton, the joy of rolling your first natural 20 and the despair
you felt when that 1 came up for your poison save.
This module, Rappan Athuk—The Dungeon of Graves, is nothing more
and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned, First Edition dungeon crawl
updated for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Very difficult, it should
strike fear into the hearts of the most stalwart adventurers. It offers an
abundance of traps, tricks and monsters.
RA is a lot of hack and slash as any dungeon delve is, however how many perception check you want to keep making over and over is up to you. Not sure what to say at present. One wants to quit, another is rarely here and a third wants to keep a breakneck pace and not map. We going to find a common ground here? I am seriously questioning whether I am the right GM for your group and if I am not that is ok, I understand. Not everyone likes my style.
Almon Elros |
For me the during week pace isn't horrible, but I seem to be on the opposite time-line from when all the action takes place. As for weekends, well, I'm lucky if I get a half hour to catch up on reading from time to time. But like you said, brvheart, room movement and clearance will be slower once we get to harder challenges.
Sorek |
Good Thomas I am very sorry to see you go. I enjoyed having you here.
Regarding the brisk pace. Whenever I logged on to roll20 and saw brvheart online my objective was to advance the exploration so that others in the game had something meaningful to do when they checked in the next time.
ie something more significant than rolling a perception check or choosing right door or left door.
I thought that I was doing a good thing for the group! When brvheart and I were on roll20 together he never once indicated that I might be taking this at too fast a pace or making this a one-man game.
Let me say it again. I thought I was doing a good thing for the group by clearing empty rooms and rolling tons of perception checks so that when everyone else logged on progress had been made and they had something meaningful to do or contribute.
I wanted to help keep everyone engaged and interested in this hack and slash dungeon crawl. And I thought I was helping to do that by handling the mundane activities like choosing door #1 or door #2, or rolling perception checks.
It seems that some may not have understood my intentions in doing that.
Please someone else step up and take the lead for the exploration. I will abide by whatever pace the group wants to set.
Aggrammar Deepdelver |
Well, I think we need to be objective about this one:
- Sorek, from my end I am not upset at you at all. So if you are worried about my thoughts or opinions don't be. There is no reason for it. I perfectly understand your reasons, and the intention to keep the game moving - in fact, I applaud your availability and commitment.
My sole concern is the fact that this is supposed to be a group game, and we, as a group need to find common ground for it to move along in such a way that all involved can enjoy it. Without drama or fuss about it, this is the pace we need to find. If we cannot find it, then we need to be grown up about it, and go for what the GM and most players want. I'm not trying to be a bas%#rd or anything like that, just saying this is how things are. But again, without drama - if I joined a game where everyone posts mad fast, and I can't keep up, I don't think there would be a 'culprit', or anyone to blame, but I would most likely leave, simply because it would not be the game for me. The same goes in the opposite direction - if I want fast pace, and everyone posts once a week, I need to just step up and admit it is not the game for me. I don't think anyone needs to be upset or frustrated, but simply accept that this is a game for all to enjoy.
That being said, Good Thomas I think you are making a mistake - all games have ups and downs, and like brvheart said, this one seems to be moving at breakneck speed because we are above our challenge level - soon things will change I'm afraid :D For that reason, I think you should stick around. Your call of course.
Sorek, I have no issue you taking the lead on exploration - you are doing a great job, in my opinion. We just need to understand if Koan is with us or not because I don't like the fact that you are botting him ad eternum. If a replacement is needed, then a replacement is needed.
As for pace, we had agreed on one post a day, and I agree it can be dramatic to explore a dungeon like that, but hey, if that is what we are able/want to offer to the game then, and this is important, if the GM is ok with it (yep, the GM is part of the game, and is in it for the fun as much as anyone else), then that is how we'll play it.
There will always be chances that player A or B can post more frequently - that's ok in my book, though it doesn't mean he will be playing for all of us, it just means we can take some liberties, if it allows the game to inch forward.
I think everyone should take a step back, and a deep breath, and think on what they want to play - like I said before, I can commit to a post a day (usually more), but sometimes not even one on the weekends - this is what I got to offer. Sometimes I will post more, and (less often) sometimes I will post less. When I go absent, I usually give 'carte blanche' for the GM to bot me, and that's about it.
Does this look like a decent common ground? Are we interested in playing like this?
Lars the Crusader |
I've already said I like what Sorek was doing. A fact of PbP gaming is that someone will generally drive things. If there's a lot of boring stuff (like empty rooms and endless trap searching), you really need a person willing to do that.
I can post a whole lot, but I generally don't if there's not something which the character is likely to be involved in. We have a trap finder, so it's not my role. I do mostly combat and some spell casting/healing.
I have other characters who do trapfinding and they are quite active in that role. Fact is the constant threat of traps means that most people will twiddle their thumbs while the expert handles it. Sorek was mitigating the portion of thumb twiddling and I commend him for it.
If we instead decide on a post a day by the trap finder, I imagine I will stay, but daily thumb twiddling will be about as exciting as watching paint peel. Mind you, I make sure I have multiple games to juggle so I won't really care, will stick around, and can wait for something to happen. Not sure everyone has that patience (Thomas appears not to).
brvheart |
Here is my issue with what has been happening. Sorek has been exploring, that I have no real issue with and did encourage at least to an extend, but with Koan not being around he has been botting Koan for what is now about half a level and I have to agree with Aggrammar at this point that it has got to be more than a little excessive there. On top of that in room 3 he had Aggrammar check for secret doors in room 3, Almon do a knowledge dungeoneering in room 10 and Good Thomas a STR check on the door to room 7. This is what I mean about it being a 'one man show'. Players should not be effectively botting the entire party. I should have stopped the action in all three rooms, but was hesitant to just say no. So now I am saying it. This is a bit too much of running other people's characters. I am ok with Sorek doing exploring, but let it be Sorek, not Sorek running Koan and the rest of the party as needed.
Sorek |
And this is where I am confused. . I was directed by you more than once to roll for another character ie a knowledge check or something similar. In the interest of speeding up the game.
At any time while we were online together trying to progress the game to where others could have significant input you could have said sorry we need to wait for Almon to roll his knowledge check before we can proceed.
I thought we were both on the same page trying to advance the game to where the other players could have something more significant than a knowledge or strength check to do. . At any time you could have said wait.
Sorek does not have trapspotting so he cannot take lead without Koan.
I will be happy to step back and let someone else take the lead.
Thanks Lars for appreciating what I was trying to do.
Sorek |
Just let me say brvheart. . I feel very lucky to have what seems like a responsive and reliable GM take over this campaign.
I very much want to work out the details on how to make this work for you and all the other players.
brvheart |
Ok, I think there is some misunderstanding here. For instance on the STR check. Here was the conversation:
25
koan
July 04, 2015 11:24PM
brvheart (GM): seems to be stuck
July 04, 2015 11:24PM
Sorek: rolling 1d20 + 9
(
8
)+9
= 17
locked?
July 04, 2015 11:24PM
brvheart (GM): stuck
July 04, 2015 11:25PM
Sorek: so we need someone stronger like thomas to open it?
July 04, 2015 11:26PM
brvheart (GM): yes, like Thomas. it is very stuck
July 04, 2015 11:26PM
Sorek: ok we'll have thomas open it"
At that point you rolled for Thomas. I did say that someone like Thomas needed to make the check but at no time did I ask you to make the roll. Same with the Knowledge (Dungeoneering) Check.
So, from here on out let people make their own rolls please or I will as DM if it is necessary to be botted.
Sorek |
"At that point you rolled for Thomas. I did say that someone like Thomas needed to make the check but at no time did I ask you to make the roll. Same with the Knowledge (Dungeoneering) Check."
If I was mistaken in making the rolls, all you had to do was simply say let's wait for Almon or Thomas. Very Simple. I am at a loss as to how this became a big issue. All you had to do was mention something while we were on roll20.
My thought process was it's a simple roll not putting the character in any danger. Let's have the GM or Sorek make the roll while we're here online so we can progress the game to where significant decisions or actions need to be made by the players. That's what I was thinking and I thought you approved of it because nothing to the contrary was ever mentioned by you about it until out of the blue today.
Lars understands what my intentions were. I apologize if any of the other players didn't understand my intentions. But I certainly thought you understood my intentions. I posted things like this to roll20:
"jaime w.: I have to go in 10min lets see if we can make progress and get to a point where we need the others to chime in
yes we go through the left door"
"So, from here on out let people make their own rolls please or I will as DM if it is necessary to be botted."
message heard loud and clear. Looks like Koan will need to take lead as he has trapfinding and I can't roll perception checks for him.
If Koan wants to step up and lead I give him my permission to use Sorek at his discretion to accompany him up front and to roll perception checks and detect evil as he sees fit to keep the party safe.
brvheart |
The problem as Aggrammar has stated is that Koan has been posting at the rate of once every 4-5 days making it very difficult for him to be the trap finder. It does not work long term for either another player nor the DM to bot him in that role.
The other issue is that Good Thomas has decided to leave. So you are facing recruiting one perhaps two players.
The other four players seem to be ok with the current posting rate or feel that it can be adjusted so they can work with it.
The other issue is still to me mapping, but hey I can't force players to map.
We are also in a combat encounter. Are we continuing or putting this on hold for recruitment?
Sorek |
I really wish Good Thomas would reconsider but if his decision is final he probably will need to be replaced.
I'd like hear from everyone else how they want to proceed from here. I will go with whatever you all decide
Almon Elros |
Here are a few things that I am thinking:
1) Recruit a secondary trapfinder (not kicking Koan out, but get someone that can handle traps as well.
2) We need to see if Thomas has set his mind on leaving before we replace him. I don't want to make him feel like he is being forced out and not allowed to change his mind.
3) For both PbP and tabletop, there is almost always at least 1-2 players that take control while the rest of the party is almost like their side-kicks. It is just the nature of roles and individual personalities. I am okay with Sorek leading.
4) To keep mystery and not bog things down with player roll, in the PbP I'm running, if there is something important that requires a check or looking for an enemy, I roll for the players (sometimes without their knowledge). It all depends on why it is needed and how secretive the roll needs to be. I know that is a little harder to do on Paizo vs. private forums (I host my own which comes with its own headaches). In another game in which I am a player, the GM does all the rolling (I wouldn't wish that on brvheart). But the game is more story-mode and thus we just post our actions via RPing and a ooc explanation and the GM makes all rolls for everything so we never know how successful or unsuccessful we are. Perhaps we can have brvheart do our general perceptions as a group in terms of traps and searches but never let us know the numerical results. Then, we can decide when we want to do something more in depth in terms of searching or puzzle solving. If he is able, a simple copy+paste set-up with our rolls works, OR a single roll with a +3 leeway (5% variation combined with an automatic Aid Another for perceptions) and compare the highest to that roll. Along with the GM perception rolls, GM initiative rolls and block initiative really help as well.
5) I think we can handle the centipedes without Thomas for the moment. We can RP a reason he wishes to leave (if he is leaving) and then start making our way back for a re-recruitment of 1-2 people (a single player could fill both roles).
6) Sorry to backtrack, but I think along with letting Sorek make the simple decisions in direction, at anytime a more important decision is needed, then we can say the first 2-3 people the comment on the decision and agree make the choice for the party. I say 2-3 because maybe the second person might not agree with the first.
7) We can all share on the mapmaking with the group google drive link I put up. Just pm your e-mail addresses and I'll add them to the map. I'll save each layer as a separate drawing. For keeping the possiblity of getting lost, we can just say that Almon (the semi-reckless wizard thusfar) is the one holding the maps with his mapmaker kit. So should the kit and/or his body get lost, then it brings back the the reality that the party can still be lost and I'll close off the maps per request from GM. I mean, it Almon is dead he can't help, so it seems reasonable.
Sorry for the long post. Just was trying to help add in some thoughts for bringing us all to common ground.