5E-Ravenloft - Hour of the Knife (Inactive)

Game Master Dennis Harry

Opening for Discussion

Dot

Dot.

Dotting in. Looking over some of the other characters submitted, it seems possible for Derrick and Marcos to have known each other in the past. I haven't quite decided where Derrick grew up, but Blackchapel seems at least as likely as anywhere else, so they very well could have run together when they were younger. Probably fell apart a little around the time Marcos started getting assassin work and Derrick took up with the Divinity of Mankind... although it's quite possible Derrick would be willing to assist Marcos in his work, whether providing direct backup, a second blade, a lookout, or just gathering information on the target and area.

Wyatt and Derrick may have met in passing as Wyatt's parents were members of the Divinity actively preaching the word before they were slain.

Are we doing rolled wealth or starting packages from class and background?

I was originally thinking Trickery domain (paired with Urchin background), but in playing up the 'good of heart' street urchin bit thought it might be cool if he was blessed with divine power by an unexpected benefactor of virtue. Thus, I am debating between Life domain and Light domain... any thoughts?

Hit Points: 2d8 + 11 ⇒ (6, 4) + 11 = 21

Wealth: 5d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 2, 3) = 15 *10 = 150gp

I just took the starter package

I assumed we'd be doing the starter package. However, your other roll for hit points did raise the question for me of how we're doing that. I don't recall seeing anything on it in the recruitment thread, and it seems that among us recruits we've used a few different methods--I think I see a couple "half+1" folks, someone who went with max, and you rolling, wanderer82. DM, how would you like us to go about getting HP?

Hit points can either do half+1 or roll, your choice, but if you choose the dice, they fall where they may.

Gear, I'd rather you picked up the starter package, plus an additional item as noted above (potion of healing or climbing or 1 mundane item of up to 250gp value)

Adjusted my HP to 1/2 + 1.

Alright, cool. I'll leave my HP at half+1, since it seems like a good amount. For my extra mundane item I took a silvered short sword, if that's acceptable.

I rolled half plus 1 = haza! (6, 4 = 5, 5)

No worries, starting package works, though can I sub out items for others of equal or lesser value? A quarterstaff in place of a mace/warhammer? Studded leather in place of scale/chain mail?

Yes, no worries.

Wanderer82 Life or Light would be fine.
Healing is always good, on the other hand Light can be quite handy, especially in Ravenloft, and has a nice symbolism to it.

Jam412 Contacting certain creatures via telepathy in Ravenloft can lead to Madness checks, just to make you aware.

Looks like Derrick, Wyatt, Marco and Dunstan are natives. Wanderer82's Halfling is Faerunian and Khalid is of the Vistani.

Not seen anything that's likely to provoke issues in characters thus far.

Jam412 Contacting certain creatures via telepathy in Ravenloft can lead to Madness checks, just to make you aware.

Heh, all part of the fun!

Sorry for being a slow poke, been pretty busy, plus this is the first time I've made a pbp character without the aid of a PDF or the PRD.

Khalid is mostly done mechanically, just have to write down gear and HP (though I am probably forgetting something).

I'll get cracking on his background too, but can continue to fill that in as we start if you like.

Yes, you're fine to fill out while playing. Just let me know if there are any major updates to your sheet.

How would people prefer checks done, are you all in the roll your own dice crowd, or should I roll certain checks to speed things along?

i.e. should I have just rolled Wyatt's check and give him the required info if he passes?

Should I roll up everybody's initiative/surprise at the start of a combat?

Just trying to get a feel for how the group likes to play things...

Also I don't know if anyone is actually familiar with the adventure, but I am by no means intent on making it run entirely as written (for a start it's written for 2e).

Finally in my note-splurge on here, I've not had a massive amount of experience with 5e & I'm the rules guy of my group - so I think everyone I play with tends to assume I'm doing it right, so if I do anything wrong, do feel free to call me up on it.

I am ok with you making rolls or us making rolls whatever seems smoother. I am a long time DiD player but a 5E noon so you will rarely be challenged by me on rulings.

Ditto

Looking up victorian terms and found a great one I intend to use shortly in a post.

Podsnappery

This term, Forrester writers, describes a person with a “wilful determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at the same time assuming airs of superior virtue and noble resignation.”

Yep, same here!

Roll away good sir!

Also perfectly fine with you rolling for us. Especially things like random Perception checks (beyond Passive Perception, not that I'm any good at that or anything, ahem), Knowledge, and Initiative, I think it usually goes faster if the DM rolls them, and I'm fine with you doing that. After all, it's not like you can really fudge the dice or anything on here.

Are we still playing?

I hope so! Sometimes as a ST/DM on these boards I have lulls, RL happens. Let's hope it is just a lull.

Yet another dead game I think.

Hope the GM is ok though

I hope so as well!

Unfortunate but these things happen, happy gaming all :-)

Sent email to Paizo to change the DM from Alex M to me.

My Avatar as DM. I will leave Wyatt as a DMPC and keep the party as is.

I'm up for continuing! Thanks for taking the reins on this.

Question for you though. Would you mind if i switch Khalid over to a wizard? I kinda just want him to be a class that is in the PDF. Working out of the physical book has been a pain in the butt.

We could always use a wizard. They're fun.

Go for it! A wizard I think is always helpful in Ravenloft.

FYI, I ran a LOT of Ravenloft campaigns back in high school so I am fairly familiar with the theme and mood of the setting. Let's see how this module plays out.

Its funny, I was going to convert this to 3.5 and run it in my FR table top campaign but had too much content so I did not bother. It seems fate has stepped in and I will be running it after all!

I ordered the Monster Manual 5E and I am just waiting for Paizo to get back to me on switching this game over to me as DM. Then we can begin (again).

Sounds great!

I ordered the Monster Manual 5E and I am just waiting for Paizo to get back to me on switching this game over to me as DM. Then we can begin (again).

Dont be afraid of 'reskinning' some monsters to the description of one while using the stat block of another.

I am about to run one game with the olde D&D crystal statues. Golems would be waaaay too hard core for the party so I am using the Gargolye stat blocks and changing the claw attacks to fist attacks.

Amazon Prime has delivered to me the 5E Monster Manual.

Thanks for the advice Dunstan, I will try to keep this simple so we can move through it relatively fast. If at the end seems seem to be flowing well, who knows, maybe we will run another one.

Still waiting for Paizo to respond to the request I sent on Sunday. I may start the game tonight so we can just finally move on, if I do not hear from them by tomorrow I wills end another follow up email.

Cool! I'll try to get my wizard stats fully in place today.

And we're off like a prom dress in May...

Okay, I think Khalid should be fully changed out to a wizard.

I sent another request to Paizo to switch control of the campaign to me.

OK great Khalid, I will not be checking so I will assume you did everything right.

I will try to post once per night to update the campaign thread. The weekends if I can I will as well. That should keep things moving along well enough. Interesting plot in this adventure though I need to adjust away from some of the 2ED module railroading that was pervasive in Ravenloft releases.

Some Railroading is not necessarily a bad thing in pbp games

I am now officially Game Master of this campaign. :-)

Just finished my table top session. Too beat to post anything I/C.

Will update tomorrow.

Long day, will update in the evening tomorrow. Plus giving Khalid and Gavin a bit more time to chime in.

Sorry for the absence, I was out of town for a few days and it was much harder to post than I thought it would be.

No worries, this is a slow rate posting game anyway :-)

Will give another day for responses before moving on.

Had a hectic weekend, will post my updates to the thread tonight. Looks like everyone is on board for facing evil!

Waiting for the other PC's to post before I update the last event of the night...