Beacons of Hope: Wrath of the Righteous!

Game Master GM the Fifth

I haven't been able to log in since thursday. Had to clear my cookies for it to let me log in. Now I'm having trouble posting on the play thread. I'm trying to do the OM roll, but it won't go through. Its like I'm clicking Preview repeatedly

The site definitely had a hiccup. Or perhaps indigestion.

But it looks like your roll went through.

It's definitely wonky, and I can see how the flaws act against the players more than the enemies. Maybe a way of altering it would be rolls to see how the general background battle is going, while moving us as a unit from fight to fight, basically acting to either target an enemy strength or put out fires when our side is in danger of faltering.

I guess my big question for everyone is, "Is mass combat doing anything for you?" It doesn't seem particularly fun from a player standpoint since it's just two or three die rolls.

It will be a while before you have more of these. The module is structured such that I could just do away with the ones that come later. The two you've had so far were the only ones that weren't easily replaced since there wasn't anything specific for the party to be doing.

Feels like a formality, not really fun other than reading the description of the results.

I mean, I do enjoy the descriptions! It DOES make it feel like a military campaign.

Meh. It'd be nice if we could take a more direct role. Uriel would've been trying to drive directly for the commander in the last battle, for example. Could he have kept her from escaping, we might could've caught this lot off guard.

OK. That was my general sense. And I appreciate the feedback on this subsystem. We've followed the rules as written, and they aren't interesting, so we won't use them going forward.

There's a more direct tie between your actions and mass combat when you get to Drezen. I'll keep mass combat in the background, and allow your actions to have a more significant influence on the outcome as well as give you opportunities that aren't strictly in the book.

This is also a good time to say: if you are familiar with the AP, don't expect things to match the book 100%. I'm not going to wholesale rewrite storylines or anything radical like that, but there will be variances. And stuff that just doesn't work well in a PbP format will either be modified or excised completely.

For advancement, I'm going with story-based leveling. That way I can dump things that have that "we put it here because we needed XP" smell to them. :P

I mean, I was expecting you to do that anyway. :P

This ain't gonna turn out like the upcoming PC game from Owlcat! XD

I spent most of the weekend in bed. I am trying to catch up now.

Now is a good time to talk about your standing orders. Specifically, marching order and watch schedules, but also any unusual you believe I need to know (e.g. you prepare spells at night instead of in the morning, you cast certain spells every morning/noon/evening, you sleep upside-down hanging from the ceiling like a bat, and so on).

My base assumption is that you stick together as you explore unless someone says otherwise. But I need to know what your rough lineup is, assuming you have sufficient space. Who is in front, are you 2-wide or 3-wide, etc.

I'll also need a sleeping schedule. You can assume the army does post guards at night, but I would still like to know who is up at what hours as we get closer to Drezen.

For marching order, Kelly will go wherever the more tactically-minded people put her. For schedule, a cook needs to get up early to start breakfast

Arloric is probably going to stay closer to the front of the group, but let the actual frontliners go first. He's more a backup/flanking buddy. As far as scheduling goes, he's used to getting up early to make the most of any daylight for work in the garden, though that's probably not as applicable on the march.

Uriel is happy to take point, whether that means riding with the vanguard of the main force or being first through the door when it's just us.

Darya would be near the front but also tries to keep the main grouping within range of her holy light abilities (30ft).

I hasten to add that I am open to tactical suggestions that may be better than what I've described in my post. I fully admit I can be a dumb*** when it comes to tactics.

As far as watches, we should always make sure to have people with Darkvision on the overnight watch. (I don't have ...traded out for halo).

I'm thinking Uriel and Alexa as out point people (Alexa scouting a little ahead, Uriel there to lead off against any oncoming threat.)

Then Darya/Kelly, Arloric/Telerin moving pretty much as a unit (in twos when there's room)

@GM the Fifth: I'm PMing you a bit of info on Kelly.

I got Darkvision too, so I'll contribute in that regard. Thanks for the suggestion, Darya!

As this is our first battle, I am still getting the hang of pacing, posting style, and posting the information I think you need. Do not hesitate to make suggestions, ask for more (or less) of this or that. I want to do what works for the group as a whole.

I am also trying to make enemy die rolls public, but in some cases a die roll would give information away so I may hide what it's for, or hide it all together (e.g, preview the roll, then delete). To take one example: Gargoyle 1 watched Alexa (since she started in the open and was being observed) walk up to the building stealthily, so the rolls didn't apply until she got out of view. At that point, he got to roll and he rolled well. But I didn't want to give anything away at that point, so I didn't post it.

Does this bother folks? If so, I will find a better solution. If not, I'll keep things as is.

On the combat map page, I am posting the current image (largest) with the last three map images as thumbnails below it (click to enlarge). My hope is that this gives you enough context so you can keep track of what is changing between updates.

I'm good with the die rolling. Can only access the map on my phone, but can't move the icon, there. My work computer can't access it due to VPN settings, and my kid's been on my laptop most of the time for school.

I might have to just let you know where I'm moving to after viewing the map.

My work computer can't access it due to VPN settings, and my kid's been on my laptop most of the time for school.

I might have to just let you know where I'm moving to after viewing the map.

I can try running it on a standard port. That may solve the VPN issue.

In the mean time, I'll make sure to get the coordinates showing on all map images. I just need to remember to move them into view before taking a screenshot.

We're gonna need to get Kelly some magic weapons ASAP

I'm gettin' a privacy error when I try to go to the VTT.

I'm gettin' a privacy error when I try to go to the VTT.

That's because I am using a self-signed certificate for the encryption/security. Eventually I will get around to getting a "real" certificate from Let's Encrypt, but until then you'll get that error. Accept the risk and continue, even though the browser yells at you not to.

That's just it. It WON'T let me accept the risk and continue. There's only a "back to safety" option (I'm using Chrome if that's important).

Got this fixed. The problem ended up being: the cert had expired over the weekend. Just had to get the new one in place.

Thank you! I can access it now! Um...how do I move my character model on it? *blush*

If you're on a traditional computer with a mouse, you just click and drag. Make sure the "person" icon is selected in the icon bar at the left, and that the '[]' tool next to it is also selected.

If you are on a mobile device...I am not sure. One option is to tell me which coordinates you want to move to and I'll do it. :)

Sorry been dealing with a lot of crap with students and parents the last few weeks

I think the problem was I hit "Save Configuration" instead of X on the popup. I've fixed it now!

I may not get an update posted today. We got our new Irish Wolfhound puppy last night. Direct pet cargo flight from Sacramento to Portland was supposed to arrive at 5:15pm. Actual arrival time: 9:12pm. A four hour delay due to an aircraft swap b/c of mechanical issues. We got home at 10-something. Had to do all the first-day puppy things at a ridiculous hour in the dark. Got to bed at 1-something. Our elder wolfhound woke me up at 5:15 or 5:30 or some other ungodly 5ish time. I am non-functional at the moment and going back to bed.

Eeeee doggos! <3

Get the rest you need, they're worth it!

Hi everyone! It's been roughly 3 months since we kicked off again, and I just wanted to check in and see how things are going. We've had a bit of a windup, a lot of RP, some overland travel, a minisystem that no one liked, and some combat. Which is a lot!

What is working for you? What isn't working for you? What would you like to see more or less of? How is the pacing and my occasional prompting?

If you don't have a lot you want to say, and feel that "steady as she goes" is about right, then that is fine, too.

Enjoying it! The mini-system was definitely the low point so far, but otherwise, the pacing RP and balance of combat is enjoyable.

I appreciate the prompting and stuff, everything in the game itself. Only thing I'm struggling with is figuring out the intricacies of HeroLab.

Be ready to pull me out of there in case the worst happens.

Will do, pal-e-roo! :D

Definitely!

The only problem for me is that I started a new job just after Thanksgiving and it's limiting my time. Speaking of, I need to get a post up.

Hey, Telerin, checking in to see how things are going. If you are still in a crunch--unsurprisingly my wife is have the same issues--I can bot you as your turn comes up.

Posting to show I'm paying attention! :3

A couple of things:

1) I have heard from Telerin, and I expect her to update in the next day or two now that Spring Break has started.

2) Our internet service is getting upgraded tomorrow afternoon (PDT) so the Foundry VTT server may go offline for a couple of hours.

FoundryVTT server is back online.

Thanks for the update, GM the Fifth!

This week has gotten away from me. Will try to update tonight but it may not be until tomorrow. I'll bot Telerin unless we hear from her before then.

Take your time. I needed to take a day off the internet to sleep, and it made work today MUCH more tolerable!

Will post in the morning. Sorry to have kept you waiting!

Bleeeeh, ghoul fever. That sucks!

If only there was a Paladin nearby...

The ghouls up front look like they might be clerics. You could maybe ask them for help?

Heh. I've got you once we take them down.