Blades of honor- warriors of terra

Game Master rorek55

Gotcha. 750 moneys!!!

Anyone care to help me spend my funds?

I only spent 9855 gp. Can't remember how much I should have started with...

I have armor and weapons and a cloak of resistance...

So is Argus' whole family stuck, or at least a few of them?

Argus, his little sister (who wanted to join his brother in something as he had become increasingly distant after his accident.)
and Nishida his uncle (Who is templated off the character of the same name from the show.)
Nishida was seduced by the saccharine sweetness of a sad little girl who was in no way old enough to play such a violent game as Blade of Honor but desperately wanted to reconnect with her older brother.

I figured I could do some flash back stuff but I hadn't wanted to write a novel for my first post. I will write up some stuff for both of them and may end up making a separate Alias for Mallory depending.

In addition there is the issue of Argus/Richards actual appearance, I'll likely do something relating to that when our players next meet in the game.

Also PUPPETS! SOCKPUPPETS EVERYWHERE!

Ugh. I calculated wrong:

8855 spent. (of 11,250 (10,500 + 750) starting funds)
Weapons 2455 gp.,
Armor 4400 gp.,
Magic Misc. 2000 gp.

Thanks for the advice on the boots of the cat Argus...still got 2395 left...

Hrmm... Healing potions, perhaps just one big one. as small ones won't do a whole heck of a lot when the Boss knocks you down to 3 HP and you only have a round to get back up to full HP.

Pendant of the blood scarab is a cheap little item that can give you a satisfying strike once a day.
Swiftrunners shirt can net you a move action as a swift action once a day.

Aegis of Recovery could save your life though.

Talori did you receive the email?

Talori did you receive the email?

???????

GM how important are traps in this game?

Hadn't planned on using many.

Thinking about switching out trap aster for combat feat and getti parry weapon just don't know if it's a good idea to try that with a longsword only has 12 hardness and 15 hitpoints maybe get impervious at some point?

Just having a high perception lets you detect traps, so long as you are genre savvy to keep track of when you should be looking for traps you don't really need more than that.
*shrug* you have two weapons right? block with your unimportant weapon. you don't get hit if the weapon breaks after all.

Wish I could just block with both and cut the damage in half. Since I believe this doesn't ignore hardness.

there is also this. if you want to make your weapon more survivable its what Argus has to make his bow require more than one blow to break if targeted.
fortifying stone.

Oh I like that. All right as soon as I get 1000 gp I know what I'm buying. Also I've now switched out the talents.

I was wondering what kind of bonuses if any do we get for the guild?

Thats still a conundrum that bothers me.

For now, assume that you gain guild points(fame) in much the same way Talori mentioned. Also, the members gaining the fame for the guild receive some of that as personal fame. (personal fame gives no benefits atm but reflects how well your name is known)

Guild fame- For every 20 points of fame, you gain +1 to all social interactions with guilds within the same faction. and -1 for any opposed to your faction. For ever 40, you gain +1 to neutral factions.

(say you are an assault guild, you have 20 guild fame points. you have +1 interactions with other guilds of the assault guild and -1 to all interactions with anyone from the Renegades or PKers. If you had 40, you would be at +2 for the assault faction and +1 for the craftsmen. )

thats all for now at least.

@Rorek, there are some rules relating to Fame and other stuff like that floating about 3.5/Pathfinder. I think I remember at least one interesting method laying around on the home brew forums for it as well.

I know that the Skull and shackles campaign had infamy/disrepute score that could work if you removed the impositions on account of them being rather heavily magical. I'll see if I can compile a cliff notes on the other methods so you can see if anything works well for your concept. Game smarter not harder yeah?

And here comes a wall of text ladies and gentlemen. Also, yes I am aware that we are currently in the Blade of Honor game. However it is spawned from SAO so SAO will be the acronym I use to explain all this. Means less confusion in the long run.

I think i'm going to attempt to explain ToB maneuvers better. It seems to be a stumbling block for some of our players due to the books history and lack of exposure due to it being one of the last big books to come out for 3.5.

Plus the whole Glut of home rules we are rolling with on them.

HOMEBREW CHANGES TO TOB POWERS:

All ToB abilites have a cooldown in the SAO universe. this is a cooldown in rounds equal to 1/2 the Level of the maneuver rounded up.
EX: a 1st level power has a cooldown of 1 round, meaning you may use the power every other round due to the Cooldown expiring at the end of your combat round.

Several schools use a skill check for certain strikes or maneuvers. due to ToB being 3.5 when a skill check is required the closest pathfinder equivalent is made.
EX: Diamond mind required a concentration check in 3.5, it has been changed to Perception to better represent its nature due to concentration no longer being a skill but an ability check modified with caster level.
Jump, tumble and balance all fall under acrobatics in PF so that is the skill any ability that would normally require one of the previous abilities requires.

the normal limitations of needing x maneuvers of school X to select a power are no longer required. Pick what you want so long as you fit within the martial "Caster level" of fifth level IE: level 3 or lower maneuvers 2 of 1st level and 1 2nd or 3rd level.

Charges with standard action equivalent attacks at the end are permitted.
This means you may Vital strike at the end of a charge, it also means you may use a ToB maneuver that takes a Standard action at the end of a charge. You may not use a Standard action Maneuver in addition to a full attack. Swift action powers and Maneuvers that specifically work with full round attacks still work as normal.

Tome of Battle maneuvers are broken into three categories and then stances. Much of the words in the maneuvers are descriptive bloat, so

Strike- Which are attacks that overwrite or severely modify how an attack is made. Usually a strike is a standard action, but others can be different. It will state what type of action a strike is.
In most cases a strike is expected to be as good as a full attack of equal level. If it isn't it tends to incorporate additional mobility, status effects or other fun stuff.

Boosts- Which modify an attack or other effect already being made. Typically these effects are swift actions, boosting the power or mobility of a boost user.

counters- which counteract or change the outcome of an attack or ability used by an enemy. these are typically immediate actions to allow you to use them on your opponents turn.

The odd duck is
Stances
tome of Battle Stances are very similar to how Pathfinder combat styles work. They activate with a swift action and have no limitations on how long you may keep them on. Similar to one of the Animal styles you may only have one stance active at any time. you may have both a PF animal style and a ToB stance at the same time due to them being similar but separate things.

Think that's the basics. After having read the whole chapter on how this stuff works again I think I have a decent working knowledge of it again.
Let me know if there is anything I missed in my rambling explanation of this. I would love to make all this stuff as easily digested as possible so we can keep our players rather than driving them off with complexity.
got something specific?
I get everything right?

As far as I can tell that's how its all supposed to work. Or at least how I believe it to work.

So how mch fame do the Night Ravens currently have?

And how much Personal Fame do we each have?

Ok, sorry for the late change, but after checking all the available options, I changed out my feat: Weapon Focus: Greatsword for Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword. I've also changed my Greatsword for a Large Bastard Sword. :)

I was on the road all day yesterday and passed out when we finally got to Savannah at 10:30. Sorry to miss a day.

Yeah and the GM's PC exploded, so I have no doubt that the game is going to slow a bit as he works on getting a new one/ getting his settings right.

@ Melin, why you gotta ask the hard questions huh?
Also for those who are currently watching the shows first 13 episodes this stuff contains some spoilers. (people try to kill the main character *gasp* shocking)

Far as I can tell there is a pretty stark difference of opinion between people. If you think that what the big red cloak dude said at the start of the game was correct then every person who you destroy in game is actually dying in the real world.

Ultimately Players in this game are a limited resource. Killing someone means you remove them from the field as a possible meat shield in
future. If the GM was telling the truth and the only way out is through 150 hyper dangerous levels then the biggest problem that the players face is ultimately PC attrition due to PKing and other stuff like that.
I could say that Assault guilds loathe the idea of killing someone unless they are also a PKer.
Renegade guilds ultimately want t make the game unwinnable so they can stay here. Pking would likely be frowned as the less PC's exist the fewer people they can rule over once they convert the game to their liking.
Theiving guilds likely make their bread on being too small of a target to bother with normally. PKing attracts a boatload of attention.
Likely the only group that is actually alright with flat out killing people is other Pkers. Well that or the crazies.

It seems like a really big hot button topic in the game, I can only assume that the best answer for it is to not broach the topic.

Put my response in spoilers since it's true not everyone may have watched/read this series yet.

I get the feeling that much of the PvP mindset evaporated after the big robe guy came out of the sky and spoke unto the players
1. gave them a goal to work to (escape or die!)
2. replaced their avatars with copies of their meat-self bodies in the game so people could know what was at stake.
3. Mine is an evil laugh! so you may know I am the bad guy!

and now for game based speculations, yay.

I can only assume that the assault guilds patrol the cities mostly to prevent sleep PKs and other clever tricks to harm people. Escorts on the main roads would likely be common as would bandits.
Normally folks and those in crafting guilds likely have cozy agreements with the assault guilds to defend their merchandise for lowered costs or free stuff depending.
I would make the guess that major actions in a guild would depend on the type of people running it, if it is run by a guild master or a group of leaders or if it is small enough for everyone to have a say.
I can only guess that group events (like boss raids) get dealt with by a group meeting of these guild bigwigs to ensure everyone knows who's doing what. If one guild or another is running the show then their commander tends to lead.

Pretty much what argues said. Actually 0.o

I knew my Goggles of GM mind reading would come in handy some day.
Hrrrmmm... I just said that out loud didn't I?

also feel free to rp any reactions and events of the opening day set just after the small speech of my first gameplay thread

Zero

Finished workig on Zero what do you all think?

So my current weapons are sketched just need to be colored same with Argus' bow. Talori's sword is finished and colored just needs to be put online for everyone's viewing pleasure. I feel like some else wanted me to do their weapon but I can't find it anymore... :/

Looks good.

Khode's code became compromised and has evaporated.

Going to leave this one guys - I have way too much on my plate and need to pull out of some PbPs. Enjoy.

Thanks for all the help and advice guys, and I'm stoked to have had an introduction to Roll20 and to realize the ToB is really really fun.

@Havoc - still chasing those sword art pieces for Ygggdrasil...

Dang, sucks to see ya go. I had been interested in khodes reactions to argus and his mannner of speech. Ah well, best of luck to ya.
@shadow, best of luck to you, hope you find something enjoyable soon.

:(
Speaking of art...OSW check your email if you see this...

On my art I've always like a certain flair in my characters outfits. I mean if your going to be the hero why not be a bit eccentric? That's why I like to do jackets/vests/jewlery/etc... make them stand out in a crowd. My WoTR character is walking around in a bright red jacket reminiscent of Dante, Alucard, Vash, countless others. Gives a lot of extra detail and stuff to work with.

*chuckle* flair is nice for those artistically inclined. I tend to avoid it due to having crap drawing skills. Adding flair just means I have to trawl through even more google image pages before finding something acceptably close.
It is unbelievably hard to find an unarmored dwarf on the internet.
One with a bow? doesn't exist far as I've seen.

Also, have you come across any good dragon/ skull based helms or headdress type things in your fantasy art experience? I'm not having much luck with finding something to match the hat Argus is in possession of.

The number of snails I find in the art on your DA page amuses me, they are a creature I am fond of due to a small throng of them being one of my very first pets.

Yea the page is both mine and Cyra's everything on the first folder is her's and the other folder is mine. One of my favorites involving the snails is the family on its way back from fishing :)

Essentially all the weapons are mine and the little character sketches, the true art is all her's.

Also if you google dwarves archer you get a ton of dwarves with bows, some them are armored but it's mostly correct.

Thanks for the quick answer. It could be interesting to play an Orange-name paladin.

I didn't notice whether the guys on the road had orange names or not. I'll go back and check and then deal with anything that needs dealin' with in-game. 8)

Alright so we seem to have coasted to a stop here. So lets see if we can prevent any further delay eh?
Rorek, how goes the quest for a non-exploded computer to permit easier posting and use of Rolld20/ faster turn around on posts?

@ L1 (Melin,Hronfel,Jon) group I assume you guys are waiting for Rorek to respond and go from there.
If Rorek is still stalled PC wise I can likely provide you with someone to talk to. Though it would just be a fluff conversation with my characters younger sister.
@ Raven guild, I assume that we are all pretty much agreed that we need to go and check the fortress out. I figure we are waiting on Rorek for any last minute info before wandering that way.
@ All, I think I can engineer a situation to get the lot of us in one group if you guys on the 1st floor would like to catch/kill some bad guys in the goth fortress of gothness-ness.

PC will be a bit. I will try to keep things moving but I won't be able to give in depth responses.

Argus would you mind coding and fights for me when wenreach them as I probably won't have a PC for a bit.

Yeah sure, I can help with that stuff.
Though maps are going to be a challenge as I have never used rolld20 outside of joining the one you've hosted.

So Rorek, could the Night ravens get a general description of the information the Nyan Kats had beyond "thar be bad stuff in thar" or is that pretty much all they had?
I figure once we get that our group can move forward with the plan to go beat some people up.

Sorry we are still here just busy.

Blah, no worries. Real life is important, need food and power from somewhere after all.

It's the end of the sodding year and suddenly, everything becomes real busy. I do suppose that makes summer break "all the sweeter", but damn me if it can't get here sooner!

*shrug* not a whole lot we can do about it, but I try to be positive and post when I can. Activity encourages more activity. I am personally still amused by this games concept so heres hoping schedules align again and the computer gods decend from the skies with a fancy device to let rorek type at lightning speeds and be in three places at once.
Im waiting for argus and meilin to meet. I get the feeling that it will be a glorious trainwreck.

Most of the dungeon is simply one Level with a torture dungeon theme. The entrance is a giant room with two large doorways. Right goes to a rumored item, left is the supposed door that leads to boss.

Most mobs are low level but high in number, with powerful 'lead' monsters. Other than that not much

Got it, more skeletons and trees or do the leads change inside the fortress to something like rotting zombie hill giants or big brother skeletons?

@Havoc and Cyra,

I'm playing in the Avalon Chronicles game right now, and I have a question: are you guys going back there or not? I kind of want to take the mantle of Champion of Darkness, but I want to make sure that's okay with you first.

No, take it if you want it's not the same game we remember it has evolved and moved off without us.

So have we still go interest here? cuz its now been two weeks since someone posted last in gameplay.
I know Zero/Eira are dealing with computer juggling problems, and that our GM has the whole "computer caught fire"thing.
So whats up folks?

welcome back...