Okay, once Peasant Railgun and Xabulba have their characters finished and posted we will start. I'll post a link to the thread as soon as I get one going.
Okay, once Peasant Railgun and Xabulba have their characters finished and posted we will start. I'll post a link to the thread as soon as I get one going.
Have a look at Roedd, I made some changes that affects, stats, hp, and skills.
I'm still interested in playing, but only if Peasant Railgun doesn't finish their character, since I realize I dropped the ball on replying on time. I was gone from my computer for a few days, and somehow overlooked telling you all. Bad move on my part, sorry.
I decided to change Tulgeikh to an minotaur. I also adjusted his background, I changed it to Guild Orphan because it fits in better with the home-brew champaign.
I working up a back story right now but the basics are;
Past 10 generations of his family fought for the Naltanic Empire. He was raised in a military fashion and was disowned by his family, all noncoms, when he became an officer.
Acid, you are still in, I was giving PR the go ahead if I didn't hear from you. Both of you are still welcome, I'm fine starting with 7, it's how many we have at our RL game.
Xabulba, sounds good, the minotaurs are actually most prevalent in the Empire over any other region. (My minotaurs have always been of the DragonLance variety).
Alright, I should have my character's stuff all written up later tonight, when I'm at home with my books.
Cool. Nice to have you on board acidrica :)
So:
Booj (Pat), Goblin Monk, mobile melee striker and acquisition specialist
Yuriel (Art), Water Elf Fighter, melee defender
Tulgeikh (Xabulba), Minotaur Warden, tank melee defender
Roedd (Ralif), Shifter Seeker, ranged controller
Armand (Rev), Human Sorcerer, ranged striker
(Peasant Railgun), Runepriest, melee (assuming) leader
(Acidrica), Cleric, leader
Dang, we went from front-line light to front-line very, very heavy. But some of our melee types are fairly mobile (Booj and, I think, Yuriel). Two leaders in a party of seven is a good thing.
This looks like a very tough party.
Data-crunch, it's what I do . . .
Thank you for the summary Pat.
Just want to make sure for all the characters that those are the pics you will be using. I'm making icons for the map and want to use the right one. I know Roedd is using a different one and his is made.
Armand, Yuriel and Booj have their's made of the profile pic. If you want something different let me know (link it), but ideally keep it as a color pic of just shoulders up so it is recognizable when I scale it down.
Good by me.
Yeah Yuriel's profile pick is good for me too.
And thanks for the analysis Pat - I'm amused at how much the group has changed focus with a couple of additions. Yuriel should be pretty mobile, and with a Warden in the mix I can explore that more.
I hate to say it, but something happened today that will greatly reduce my availability for the next few weeks, so I'm going to have to drop out. I will keep watching you guys though, since this seems to be a pretty awesome group.
I hate to say it, but something happened today that will greatly reduce my availability for the next few weeks, so I'm going to have to drop out. I will keep watching you guys though, since this seems to be a pretty awesome group.
That's a shame, but life does tend to happen at inconvenient times. Hope it all turns out OK.
That's a real pity and I hope your rl stuff works out soon for you.
"Greetings all, and may the glory of Kavast bring hope during these trying times."
I'll finish the background and alias profile soon, but I hope this is enough to start the game.
That's too bad, Acidrica. Hoping for the best.
Welcome, Jacen!
I'm sorry to hear that Acid, I hope everything works out for you.
PR, a little write up I have for Kavast. Which background arc did you take? (spy, soldier, officer, slave)
Kavast (CAV-ust) is the god of Honor and courage. He is born from ideals of the ancient humans, during their times of civil war and conflict. He is brother to Tara, husband to Dalia, and father to Chalyse and Graf. He opposes the ideals of Azaul, his Arch-rival, and they are said to be in a constant state of conflict. He espouses the mindset of fair fights, offering surrender and never fighting deceptively. He looks down on those who use stealth and trickery to defeat their enemies, preferring to be face to face with ones' enemy. He demands his followers put others' needs above their own, putting the weak and family first. He uses the battles for righteousness to achieve these. He doesn't start wars; only fighting for those that can't fight for themselves, and he expects his followers to resort to violence only when the other options have failed.
His favored weapon is a Bastard Sword, his holy symbol is a lion's face (with a mane of course, and mouth closed)
- Does the Church of Kavast have an order similar to that of the Knights Hospitaller?
Yes, that is very likely of them, as Tara, goddess of healing is his sister, he would have soldiers for healing. She avoiding combat at all, will have regular hospitals and hospices.
Are healers accorded officer status in the Legio like nurses and doctors in modern militaries?
Healers would not, as most of them are women and or non-combatant and are not given military rank. Clergy however, are afforded more esteem. So a warrior-priest could be an officer, but not as a healer as much as a rallying symbol.
So, we have:
Armand - Human Sorcerer (Spy arc - Merc officer?)
Yuriel - Sea Elf Fighter (Soldier arc - Merc)
Booj - Goblin Monk (Slave arc - Naltanic slave)
Roedd - Shifter Seeker (Slave arc - Naltanic slave)
Tulgeikh - Minotaur Warden (Officer arc - Naltanic army)
Jacen - Human Cleric (Soldier arc - Naltanic army)
correct me if the arc/connection is wrong.
Rev and PR, as humans did you take the alt +2 to stats, and if so which other human option did you give up?
I will get a thread started in the PbP area, and be ready to begin by this evening. (I'm in the EST zone).
Looks right to this slave, boss.
Armand kept the the extra at-will power rather than the stat boost. Merc officer sounds as close as we'll get so let's stick with that.
This looks like an entertaining group for sure.
Thanks for the well wishes guys. Don't worry, nothing bad is going on, I just got GM duty shoved on me irl, so most of my time will be spent freaking over that.
The party looks pretty awesome so far. Can't wait to see you guys start! :)
Well, it's official, the thread has started. Here is the link.
And we're off!
Sweet! See you on the other side.
Aardvark,
As discussed - here is the character (I will be taking the Soldier thread). Dice roll for appearance coming up - lets hope it comes up ugly!
Darn it, guess not.
Alright, Seljak, looks good to go. The link for the game is above, I will do a quick write up to work you into the game.
Go ahead into the thread, look for the map post HERE
follow the directions and you are ready to join.
welcome!
Likewise.
"'bout time you showed your ugly mug around here!", said the pig-wookie. ;) Can't wait to see Seljak in action.
Now that we're into style, I thought I'd move it over here.
First, Aardvark, I didn't mean to step on your toes, and I apologize. When I looked back just now, I saw you'd bolded 'Tulgeikh' in the initiative list, a clear indication you wanted to go in order. I tend to get frustrated with the weekend slowdown (which happens to almost every game), so I was quicker on the trigger than I should have been.
Rev's games are the ones I have the most experience with, and she has great success with keeping them going. She can speak for herself, but she's normally quick on the reminder at the 24-hour cap -- but 24 hours since your turn was called, not since you last posted. And a player known to be reliable tends to get some grace. (Did I get that right?)
For everybody to post every 24 hours is extremely fast-paced, but also not -- in my opinion and experience -- workable in combination with a strict turn order. What if the person before you goes 23.5 hours after you last posted?
Some GMs do the very fast pace with "muddy" turns, but that IMHO weakens some of the strengths of 4E combat, which relies so heavily on character interdependence, relative to previous versions.
I have a flexible work schedule with a desk job and insomnia, so I'm online almost constantly, so my take is probably extreme. I think that sometimes the combats using Rev's rules can go pretty long in real-time, but that's more because of the grace periods than the rules. If you want a strict turn order, I think a DMPC-or-delay (depending on the situation) after 24 hours is a good way to keep things moving, with an allowance for weekends (many people have much less online time on weekends).
Out of combat, I think a 24-hour complete silence is a good reason to have someone burst through the door waving a gun.
More free advice . . .
No foul on the advice for Yuriel to go. Where they are in the order, and that their two roles are built for stand and take it, AND having 4 monsters to choose from, made it an easy interchange.
I too have a desk job (where I have a copy of my PPT file I map on), and check a lot from there as well. I also have rotating shifts, so my schedule will be different every 3 weeks. I think I'm just antsy now that we got started.
So, the 24 hour is fine, just as long as it's since your turn was called? I think I can deal with that. I will prob often defer to Rev's advice or advice close to it, since, in case anyone hasn't noticed, I tend to try following a lot of her techniques (character layout, initiative order, names with statuses, etc..).
That is what I do on the whole. If I know a player is normally reliable and hasn't posted I'm normally a bit more forgiving. Some folks just don't (or can't) post at weekends, some can't post from work - and that includes me at the moment.
As Pat says, combat using this system can take a long time and so far I've not really found any sensible way around it. I tend to roll same type monsters on one init, so I can run them all at once which helps a bit, but really you're always going to be constrained by when your players can hit the keyboard.
In my experience, the real longeurs are not usually mid-combat, but when a decision must be made. This can take a long time and unless something interesting is happening in terms of character development, I am pretty ruthless about saying "time to move on, left or right?". In those cases my standard procedure is to take a concensus from the first three to post after the statement goes up.
I think in a pbp, people tend not to want to over-post as they feel as if they're thread hogging. That can happen, but it's fairly rare. For the most part, when a thread goes quiet and it's not in combat, the GM needs to get pushy.
Another essay. Apologies - but I hope some of this is helpful - even if it isn't. There aren't any easy solutions that I've found so far.
And just realised Aardvark posted just before me.
HAH! Ninja'd Rev! lol.
I think one of the reasons I wanted to run a PbP, instead of only playing, is I get to do something that much more often. I can post with almost every player's turn, and have to update the map, almost just as much. It keeps me occupied.
I think it's when I end up waiting for a post (even if it's only a few hours) that I get kind of stir crazy. In the same way, though, I understand that if the pace was faster and all the good stuff happened while I was unable to post I would be irritated that I missed all the action.
This being my first time as a PbP DM, I'm just trying to find my style. I appreciate all the advice.
I completely understand that one. It was one of the reasons I started running them as well. You'll find you own style. I pilfer shamelessly from all over the place and then tweak it to work for me.
In a wild fantasy universe, I dream of everyone being in the same time zone and online at the same time and finishing a combat in under two weeks. In fairness, I have wrapped up a combat in about a week once or twice, but usually because I was rolling appallingly. Sometimes though, you just get lucky.
It helps to keep your own life simple and spot check monsters for things which are going to be a real pain to run. Anything with an immediate interrupt is an unholy pain. Anything with multiple powers to choose from is a nuisance as well. Don't be afraid to prune out stuff you find un-fun to run. I've frequently removed/added powers that I find tiresome and will continue to do so.
With a lot of recent monsters I've tended to drop their hp and up their damage which has the double advantage of making them much more dangerous and also likely to die quicker.
Thanks for the advice so far guys, and keep it coming :) Aardvark, I'll check up on the precise rules for cleave when I'm back with my books. I may have oversimplified the description when I transcribed it into Yuriel's profile.
Speed-wise, so long as there's something new to look at every day, that's probably the best we can hope for. I'm happy to be DMPCd or OPPCd after a day. Particularly to keep a fight moving.
As a heads up I'll be off hiking for Easter Sunday and Monday.
Checked the full description for cleave. It reads: "1[W] + Strength modifier damage, and an enemy adjacent to you other than the target takes damage equal to your Strength modifier."
So looks like the two targets don't need to be adjacent to each other, just both adjacent to me.
No Art, you're good on the Cleave, I looked it up as I typed that post, and thought I took my comment out.
After the fact though, looking at mark, I'm not sure if Cleave will let you mark the second. Since it is auto damage on hitting a different target, and you don't actually 'attack' the target, it may not count. I will discuss it at work with my TT friends. We can feel free to discuss it here as well if anyone has an opinion.
Either way, it will stick, you just might not be able to do it again.
Thanks for the heads up about Easter. I expect a bit of RL on holiday weekends.
EDIT: Ninja'd by Art
I believe our DM is correct on the mark -- an attack is a specific thing, almost always involving a to-hit roll.
However, bizarrely, "Fighter" appears to be missing from the current Compendium update, and I'm not near my books.
Wait, PHB is before the PDF ban, so I have that one -- Aardvark is correct.
Silly me, I only needed to search on "Weaponmaster." Obvious, really . . .
Seems fair enough, and I guess it makes those multi-attacks at later levels a bit more desirable. Happy to lose the mark on the second hyena...
Question about playstyle.
I was reading another game thread, and a few had suggested that the GM just roll things like init to speed up simple actions that don't rely on someone's turn or decisions. As everyone rolls init when it's time for init.
What do you guys think?
I like GM-roll-init, myself. Otherwise, it's often a day of not much.
Agreed. I'd actually go a little further and support the GM making any roll that isn't initiated or impacted by my characters actions.
GM rolling init works for me and shall probably adopt it myself in my own games if nobody objects.
Agreed.