Yewstance:
Oh good :) I thought not, but wanted to make certain, since I'm having a lot of fun too!
While we're waiting for Wei Ji to have time to post, I have a question for the GM.
I've read that, if players and GM want to/agree to, we may be able to continue the play-by-forum after Outpost has officially ended, but do any 'formal' Organised Play rewards still count if they're not reached by that point? In our case, we're on scenario 2 of 5 for this adventure nearly 20 days in, so it seems uncertain that we'll complete this adventure by the 30th of April.
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Yes. We can keep playing. And it can be part of organized play. We can even add more players (assuming they are the appropriate tier).
...
Well those were some rolls.
I'm going to bed.
To clarify; I'm having fun, I'm loving this play-by-post.
But the dice are wearing my patience thinner and thinner. Right now, the worst part is I'm going to be going for 2 full turns without even being able to complete an exploration (last one was an unlikely failure against a barrier that emptied my hand, this one I won't have any hand to begin with), and I'm expecting to lose Honaire and thus have precious little to contribute to the team at all whilst I just burn blessing deck cards.
Also, the silver lining to losing my whole hand last turn was that "Hey, I get to redraw my Cure spell!" and it's immediately taken away from me on the very next exploration. That also hurts.
Incidentally, do aggressively explore off your blessings/allies, please? If I'm going to be eating up turns, the least I can do is just try to cycle through my cures to keep those flowing. If I don't keep having to throw them away.
I guess you were right that I should've Honaire+Cure'd myself, EmpTyger. Though then I'd have no card at all in hand. Possibly still better.
P.S. Gronk, you get to recharge a card from your discard pile. Check your character powers.
Oh, and I did a quick analysis.
During this Play-By-Post (not including the turn I took for Qualzar), I've had the following dice rolls for each size die in the following order.
1d4 (Good): 1,1,4,4,1,1,1,3,3,1,1,2,1,3,3,4,2,4,1
1d4 (Bad): 1,2,4,4
1d6: 1,1,5,2,4,2,1,6,4,3,2,2
1d6 (Bad): 4*,6,4
*Lightning Storm movement. '4' was worst-case outcome.
1d8: 1,3,3,3,8,6
1d10: 3,9,9,4,4,5,7,3,1,7,4,9,9,1,2,2,2,8,6,2,2,2,10,1,6,8,3,9,3,1
As it turns out, discounting the "Bad" or "iffy" dice (movement on gnolls, lightning storm, damage, damage types, etc), my averages come out pretty close to standard.
1d4 (Good) average = 2.15
1d4 expected average = 2.5
1d6 (Good) average = 2.75
1d6 expected average = 3.5
1d8 (Good) average = 4
1d8 expected average = 4.5
1d10 (Good) average = 4.73
1d10 expected average = 5.5
Sort of. They're all below average, with some approaching a full -1 to average (which would be the equivalent of rolling with a -1 or a Haunt permanently affecting me, or having 1 less skill feat in every single skill, or using 1 die size smaller all the time), but not significantly below average.
That said, the '9s' and '7s' in those 1d10s are almost exclusively recharge checks for non-Cure spells and items, or rolls to acquire, and in many of both cases I only needed to roll "4s" or so. The "1s" are generally particularly badly timed, in comparison, re-reading my own posts to get this data.
Meanwhile, the 'bad' dice are indeed above average (2.75 for 1d4), with two 'full' 4s in a sample size of only 4, but the sample size is too small to make up. It is amusing that my average 'good' 1d6 roll is identical to my average 'bad' 1d4 roll, but again, tiny sample sizes.
TL;DR: My overall dice averages are not far from the expected mean, but they ARE below-average in every single size of die that I can roll, and above-average when rolling 'bad' things. More importantly, there's a huge amount of '1s' and '2s' skewing the 1d10s, and often at bad times.
Wei Ji:
Don't feel bad if you do need to skip flavor. And besides, I had no idea what a Shasalqu even is! Aside from, apparently, an Animal.
Yewstance:
My silly theory about Honaire plotting to reunite with Estra in death could easily become canon.
However- Estra need not have unproductive turns, even next turn! Remember, there are no unknown banes at the Caravanserai. If Estra goes there, she will likely scout either a boon or the Aspis Analysis. (The former means she can safely explore. The latter, learning that that's on top, is hardly a 'bad' result.) Even with the 1/7 chance she finds the Aspis Agent, you have options. If you do want to encounter, there is at least a 50% chance of evading which would helpful by shuffling it off the top, and failing you would still have the chance of a Black Spot Combat check or a Black Spot Diplomacy/Stealth check (the math gets messy, as it depends on how you use Honaire/whether you are willing to use someone's blessing/what the top blessing is). You could decide not to chance adding an extra barrier and pass the turn instead; but even so, at least wait for that decision to come up before dismissing your turns as wasted.
Well, I've slept and am feeling better. Yeah, as much as I want the relatively small benefit of being at the Oasis when it closes, I can't close it even if I do come across a Henchmen. Anyway, so I'll head to Caravanserai, and since I think there are few negative "Trigger" effects on non-bane cards (though I'm certain there are a few) I'll run my examine effect first. I think there are some positive Triggers, and there's a small chance that I'll scout a card I don't want to risk failing to acquire or the Aspis Agent.
Then I can probably get at least one exploration in. Still unwilling to let go of Honaire unless I have to.
Nothing bad at all happens. Your maximum hand size (unless a card references it) only matters at the end of your turn. At the end of your turn, the following things apply.
1. End-of-turn effects (powers, cards, etc).
2. You 'reset your hand', which means the following.
2.1. You may optionally discard any number of cards. If you are above your maximum hand size, you must discard down to your max hand size (some cards allow you to recharge them during this step instead).
2.2. Draw up to your max hand size, if you're not already at it.
Gronk and Qualzar at at the same location, with their normal hand sizes (4 and 6, respectively). At the start of his turn, Gronk passes off a Blessing of the Gods to Qualzar, so Qualzar now has 7 cards whilst Gronk has 3.
- If Gronk needs to use a blessing for an extra die, Qualzar can still use it for him.
- If Gronk takes damage or needs to recharge his hand due to a card he encounters, he doesn't need to lose the blessing - you can't spend more than you have cards in hand.
- When Gronk finishes his turn, he draws up to refill his hand, bringing him back up to 4. If Gronk wasn't going to use the Blessing on his turn,
then that means that Gronk has effectively been able to draw an extra card.
- After Gronk finishes his turn, Qualzar still has 7 cards in hand. As a result, as a 'team', Gronk and Qualzar have 11 cards between them to potentially help the team, not 10.
- If Qualzar wants, he can even hand the blessing back to Gronk at the start of his turn, allowing Gronk to start his turn with a full 5 cards in hand, and a lot of the same benefits apply.
- In this situation, the biggest downside (if not the only) is that Gronk could not use the blessing for an exploration. Gronk will also be 'digging into his deck' more, but he may be preventing Qualzar from having to draw more cards so it should pay off.
The most significant limitation is that you can only hand off 1 card a turn, and only at the start of your turn to someone at your location (you can't move and hand something off). Most teams seem to usually just hand off cards that they can't use (like a spell they acquired with Intelligence even though they're not an Arcane caster), but in truth handing off cards is a very efficient play in a lot of cases.
Just...having multiple characters on one location can be a downside. Area-of-effect attacks come to mind, as well as less opportunities to Temp-Close locations.
(For the record, I edited my last Discussion post with a little strategy side-note. It reflects my opinion more than anything else, but I feel it quite meaningful, and especially if you want to make use of swift-moving characters who can Move at unusual times/extra times.)
EDIT: Oh, actually Gronk, did you ever make a recharge check on Cure? I can't see you actually doing that anywhere in our Gameplay thread. If you didn't, you should make that now (and it would be recharged before your Viper Strike, so put it 'above' Viper Strike in your deck Handler). If you fail, you can recharge it anyway with your character power, as I previously pointed out, but if you succeed you can recharge another card (like the Blessing), which again would be recharged 'before' (above) the Viper Strike.
1. On Qualzar's turn, he used Gronk's Cure.
2. Gronk never made the recharge check on Cure. This needs to be done.
3. Gronk takes his turn, defeats a bane with the Animal trait. He gets to recharge a card of his choice from his discard pile (if he fails the check to recharge Cure, he can recharge Cure now instead).
4. Gronk recharges Viper Strike.
To avoid this happening, I do recommend keeping strict track of when other players are affecting your hand (using blessings, spells,
etc) and do your recharge checks and post your hand summary as soon as possible, even if you're not writing flavor or taking a full turn.
Either way. After this, Gronk is going to have either 1 or 2 cards in discard, and have the most full deck of the party by quite a margin, and I'd like to see him spend more blessings and allies to explore faster, since he can certainly afford to.
When Qualzar said "Qualzar uses Gronk's Cure", what that meant was that EmpTyger/Qualzar had Gronk use his cure.
It's impossible for one character to play a card from a different character's turn. It was just a way to indicate that Gronk took an action, whilst making it clear that EmpTyger/Qualzar was making the decision during his turn to do it.
In other words, Gronk was the user of Cure, which is also why Qualzar said at the end of the post where he used it that you need to make your recharge roll.
Great work, Skizza. 2 locations down, 4 to go, with less than half time remaining... ugh.
I have a pretty quick and easy turn coming up, but I'm heading to work and will have to post it later, for certain within the next 5 hours. I'll be moving to the Caravanserai, examining, then probably exploring. As much as I want the Oasis' closing effect, I'm going to have no way of closing it if I try any explorations there.
Strictly speaking, I can't close the Caranserai either, but as Qualzar pointed out; there's no banes but the henchmen, and so a bunch of boons that I can at least try to pick up.
Going to slowly work on my turn as time allows.
Eclipse/Skizza, despite the wording, FAQs have confirmed that the text "Summon and acquire" means "Summon and encounter". Basically, you need to roll for that Blowgun, and it's banished if you fail to acquire it. So you still need to make the roll (and redraw a card and/or choose to banish something else if you fail to acquire it).
Sorry, I meant that if you failed to acquire the blowgun you may have wanted to banish something besides your only weapon, and I think you'd have been allowed to re-do that if you didn't know you wouldn't get the Blowgun.
Turn posted. I can help with quite a few types of checks at my location. Amusingly, I have an Ally, Item and Spell that can potentially help, which means I could even stack them if they're all valid. (Though Spiritual Ally and the Osirian History Guide wouldn't ever be valid on the exact same check, unless someone had the Survival or Knowledge skill based on their Charisma.)
We still want to explore really aggressively to make up for lost time, but I encourage people to hang out at Estra's location and keep in mind I can help with a variety of checks. The exact card texts of cards in my hand are available via my deck handler.
[...] I encourage people to hang out at Estra's location and keep in mind I can help with a variety of checks. The exact card texts of cards in my hand are available via my deck handler.
True, but also keep in mind that the closing check at the Caravanserai is banishing an item. If you don’t have one in hand you can part with, it’s probably better to go to the Oasis or Dilapidated Plaza.
Good point.
Anyway, Gronk, please use your blessings and allies to explore as many times as possible. I have mentioned it in the past, but right now time is getting shorter and shorter. We have only 12 turns left, and we've only closed 2 of the eventual 6 locations we need, and one (technically, two) of those locations hasn't even been started.
Don't forget that your Blessing of Horus allows you to move AND explore, if necessary.
You also have your Cure recharge roll to go, as I mentioned earlier.
Okay, so I was successful on the Analysis, right? So do I recharge a card from my hand that's Divine, the random card that's drawn, or something in my discard pile?
Yep, you defeated the Analysis! Well done! So here's what happens:
1) First of all, you actually get to recharge 1 more card from your discard pile.
- The Cure recharges because of the back-dated Divine 8 check you just made.
- The Viper Strike recharges because of the Divine 6 check you made during your last turn.
- One other card recharges because of your druid power, since you defeated an Animal last turn. (This card could be either the Frilled Lizard, the Blessing of the Gods, or the Amulet of Mighty Fists.)
2) Make a Wisdom/Divine 6 check. If you succeed, you gain the Fireblade spell into your hand; if not, it is banished. This is the reward for defeating the Aspis Analysis.
3) Recharge a Liquid or Divine card from your hand. (This can be the Fireblade spell if you acquire it, but it doesn't have to be.) This is the requirement to close the Oasis.
After that, you could use the Blessing of Horus to move and then explore another location. (That's what Yewstance was advising. I would suggest that you go to the Dilapidated Plaza, because you don't have any items in your hand, and those are needed for the Caravanserai.)
In general, if you're unsure about whether to end your turn, or if you should use a blessing to explore again, feel free to ask the rest of the players for advice. (Just as you might ask the rest of us on whether to use a blessing to add dice to a check!)
Oh, I see the confusion. You don't always need to make a recharge roll when you recharge a card. Sometimes it happens automatically. "Recharge" just means "put a card at the bottom of the deck". There doesn't have to be a check for it to happen.
The closing requirement for the Oasis doesn't have a check. You just have to put a card from your hand on the bottom of your deck. The location is what is telling you to do the recharging, not the spell. So you don't need to make an additional roll.
(Gronk's druid power works the same way. The recharge happens because you beat an Animal. Not because you played a spell and then succeeded on a roll.)
Hopefully that makes more sense now? You probably should redo that last part of your turn (with Hawkmoon's permission), since you don't need to use the Blessing of Horus- because there is no roll! You just automatically recharge a Divine card.
You have to make the recharge check in order to use the spell's recharge power. But when you recharge using the location power or the druid power, that bolded part isn't being used.
Awesome work! A new spell acquired, your discard pile mostly 'healed', and the location closed!
I'm sure the GM won't have any issues with you redoing that last part of the turn. As EmpTyger explained, there's no roll or anything necessary to close the Oasis - just put any card in your hand with the Divine trait on the bottom of your deck (in this case, either Blessing of Horus or Fireblade).
I'm certain it's perfectly fine for you to just recharge Fireblade and then you're free to use your Blessing of Horus to move+explore. Be sure to undo your drawn cards (Just Dog, I think?) first.
Alright. 3 locations down, 11 (and a bit) turns left. If we explore quickly enough, and get a bit lucky with where the henchmen are, we can do this. Phew.
Little annoyed. If my hand wasn't wiped out last turn, my first exploration would've been the Analysis and I could've closed the location and recharged my Liquid.
Oh, and full disclosure; I changed the order of Gronk's recharged cards in the Deck Handler to reflect the order in which they were recharged. Order will be very important; if you don't have an effect that shuffles your deck, they define when they're drawn. (First cure, then the 'defeat an animal' bonus recharge for the Blessing, then the attack spell which goes afterwards, then the card you recharge to close the location)
Oh.That does explain a lot.
If that'd be okay, then if the site is closed then moving to the Plaza and doing an explore would be in order using Blessing of Horus
Yeah, that's fine. Do you want to pick your turn up from when you closed the Oasis?
Well, the good news is that the barrier will get banished even if you fail?
If it doesn't matter, then you can just announce it in ooc tags and suffer the consequences of a failed roll. In this case, you'd roll 1d4-1 to discard that many cards from the top of your deck, and then the barrier would be banished.
Since the barrier gets banished no matter what you do, the unused blessing is more valuable than a random armor. (Especially since Gronk already has an armor in his hand. And since you have lots of cards in your deck, so discarding 0-3 isn't as severe as it might be.)
I will mention that you could use Gronk's other druid power to discard a card to roll 1d10 + 2, which has a 20% chance of winning. Not high odds, but it is an option. But I'm not sure what powers the cards in your hand have- you might prefer to hold on to them.
Wei Ji:
Your sacrifice here has helped us, for what it's worth. Maybe think of it as, "discard 2 cards from the top of your deck to defeat the barrier"?
I also just realized that, since none of us have Diplomacy, blessings are even more valuable: they may be necessary not only for extra explorations, but also to be able to help someone make the Dilapidated Plaza's Diplomacy closing check.
Nicely done! I think 2 cards from the deck is worth banishing a barrier, especially this late in the game where every exploration counts.
None of us have Diplomacy, but at least I have Falto that can recharge himself to support a Diplomacy check. It's a start, but we need to get to the point where we can even attempt the closing check first. 11 turns left!
As much as Qualzar's hand was suited for combat, since neither Gronk nor Skizza have any items in hand, I figured it was better if took on the Caravanserai, and left the Dilapidated Plaza for them to handle.
I took the liberty of checking the next card in the Blessings Deck (for Skizza's turn). Blessing of the Ancients, which means that Skizza's own Blessing of the Ancients will be recharged on use. Good, because we may need to be spending blessings and discarding extra cards (as I saw Qualzar do) to finish these locations, and the Laboratory, in time.
It’s Skizza’s turn. How are we handling Agent Eclipse’s absence?
Without permission to do anything, I think we are just going to have to wait for him to be available.
I was taking the stance that we'd wait for him to return, giving him at least the two days he alerted us for. We've had longer turns before.
One of us could take his turn for him if it goes for an unnecessary length of time, but I'm willing to wait at least another 24 hours, personally.
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'At least the next two days' could be as long as a week depending on the nature of the duty rotation and situation based on personal experience.
Even if the two days of duty rotation are relatively painless, 23 on/1 off / 23 on/ 1 off takes a toll on the body and mind, and by law and regulation the US military (at least, when I was in) could demand that of a member of the Armed Forces.
As a result, the safer bet would be closer to three days if all goes well, and admittedly I was a bit overlong in posting my last couple of turns so I can't really complain if we take a bit of a breather here.
Nice work, Eclipse. Good to have you back, and go get some rest when you can!
Waiting on input from EmpTyger/Qualzar. No hard feelings if he doesn't want to spend Black Spot now, though - I do have good odds regardless here, to be fair, but that hasn't been good enough for my dice throughout most of this scenario.
(If he uses Black Spot, feel free to post your recharge roll in gameplay. The outcome of my check won't effect your ability to do that at all)
Yewstance:
Go ahead and take the -2!
Agent Eclipse:
Welcome back!
Will do. Work calls, though, so I'll be posting my turn in something like 1 and a half to 2 hours from now.