Good deal.
As for tables, obstacles, and the bar (concerning cover).
Small objects grant partial cover (upright tables, benches and what-not).
Bigger objects that don't fully cover you grant cover (flipped tables & the bar when standing or shooting from behind it).
Anything that fully blocks LoS obviously grants full cover, but you can't fire back from these positions (prone behind the bar, prone behind flipped table, etc).
Let me know if there are questions.
Ambrose, still reading up/reasearching your feat/net question. I have some concerns with my initial reading of those feats and the net rules (mostly allowing a character to use a touch attack—in range and in melee) to bypass a creature’s CMD when trying to trip and disarm. That seems really potent.
Love to hear your thoughts as I look stuff over.
I assumed it was a touch attack when you use it simply to entangle, but if you try to trip or disarm it is not a touch attack. I'm fine with whatever you decide--I don't want anything that's too game-breaking.
Let’s go with the following.
Net: 2h ranged (10ft) weapon that Entangles on a successful touch attack. Other net stuff.
Net Adept: 2h ranged/1h melee (reach) weapon that Entangles on a successful touch attack. Can make melee attacks with no penalties even when unfolded. Folding requires 1 full round. It being considered a melee reach weapon allows normal combat options for melee weapons (trip, disarm, etc using normal combat rules)
Net Maneuvering: In melee, net gains the Disarm and Trip weapon abilities. Further, you have an opponent entangled in your net, you can attempt to drag or reposition that opponent as long as he is within your net's reach or you control the trailing rope on your net.
…….
Also, if I hit someone with my net and entangle them, can I still use the net to make other attacks (since it has melee reach)? Not sure how that would work.
I’m gonna say that if you’re using your net to entangle an opponent, you can’t use it against other opponents and you don’t threaten with it anymore. I mean, there’s a dude thrashing about in your net trying to get free. I’d think whipping around and using it to trip another incoming opponent would be impossible.
You comfortable with all that?
... though it may already be a one-handed weapon. I can't actually find that spelled out anywhere. If we can find a place that references it as a 1-handed weapon in core, we'll go that route.
I think it's a one-handed ranged weapon in core, but the feat allows you to also use it as a one-handed melee reach weapon. I'm good with all of your rulings.
Yah, i think you're right. Whoever wrote those feats didn't do the best job (not that all of my own writing is always so understandable).
Cant... take.... suspense.... much longer.....
Yah, so sorry. My weekend was crazy. I'm going to try to get an update or two in over lunch today.
Also, Mbauers, I got your PM, but haven't had a chance to consider it. I'll try to have an answer for you pretty quickly.
Alright, there are now numbers/letters on the grid, so hopefully that'll help you guys clarify attacks and what-not. Though if you guys want to keep drawing little circles/squares/whatever on your targets, feel free to do that, too. It's just as easy for me to work with.
Also, I went ahead and gave everyone editing rights to everyone's tokens. I figure this way if someone goes MIA or has to go on vacation/work stuff, someone can easily take control of their character on the roll20 site.
In that situation, Ambrose would die. Total damage taken is calculated by adding Strain and Injury received. Otherwise, the dying rules remain unchanged. So, assuming he took that damage in the order you listed it (Strain first, then Injury), he would be sitting fine and operating at normal with just the 14 Strain (as it hasn’t surpassed his Health yet). Then, he takes the 21 Injury (by way of a critical attack or by failing a saving throw … or even if he just took 21 Strain, which would become Injury because it all surpasses his total Health) … leaving him at -15 total. He dead.
Had that second attack only been 15 Injury, he’d be at 14 strain + 15 Injury = -9, unconscious, and dying as per the normal rules. He’d need to make stabilization checks as normal.
Apologies for the novella.
I could benefit from some clarification on how you guys want the captain-crew relationship to work in this game.
I'm working with the presumption that up to this point, Ambrose (and potentially the rest of the crew) have acted in a manner reflected in this post by
mbauers. If I misunderstood, or this has changed, let me know.
Personally, I don't normally play this sort of character, taking on the responsibility of others - more than just general teamwork. I took on the cap'n role mostly because the crew seemed to want one, and I thought it would be fun to stretch outside my normal play style. That being said, I'm just going to play Cal as I think he would approach things.
Being a (former) career military man, going against orders is a big deal to Callum. It divides the crew, and to him, a divided crew is a potentially dead crew. Moreover, the crew is his responsibility, so any consequences ultimately fall on him. On the ship (and any related jobs/missions, since it's his name on the line,) he expects orders to be followed. Outside of that, if it's not a threat to the welfare of the ship or crew, everyone is their own captain. If he can't trust the crew to follow orders, it makes for pretty hairy possibilities.
On the player side of things, I tried to cater my character design to the captain you guys were wanting, both in style and mechanics. I don't know if I misunderstood, based on that post link above, but if you aren't really looking for the sort of captain-crew relationship anymore, I'm not really sure what Cal is bringing to the game. Without a chain of command, he's mechanically just a hired gun with people skills.
So in-character, Cal is going to be understandably upset that most of the crew went against him, and will respond accordingly.
OOC, I'm trying to just roll with the punches, and play Cal in a way that feels natural to the character, but isn't stifling to the game. I definitely don't want to pull an ounce of fun out of it for anyone.
Well, for my part, Ambrose will follow orders (like I stated in that post). He will give his advice and accept any decisions that are made. But in this context (and Ambrose not being a military man), Ambrose didn't know where to flee to and thought the order to flee couldn't be carried out successfully without fighting somewhat.
Meaning, with all of those guys having guns, if we try to run past them we're going to get shot to pieces. That's why I tried to bottleneck them, to give us some time to take out some of the foes to be able to escape better. It certainly wasn't my intention to fight all of the enemies and directly disobey Captain's request. I can see how it came off that way by Ambrose's IC response and the outcome of the fight. The truth is that Biggs just dropped really quickly due to some lucky hits.
As far as IC repercussions--Ambrose is aware that Callum is not happy and he (Ambrose) is fully expecting to be chewed out and/or punished.
Eben - do we have a plank that he can walk?
8)
psh! Rookie. 'Keel haul' him - that is WAY worse.
I'll be writing up my thoughts on this subject later but I wanted to show my support for keel hauling over the vastly overrated plank walk.
psh! Rookie. 'Keel haul' him - that is WAY worse.
Yeah, but in the sky, that's just danglin'
There is no dangling in a good keel-haul. You are tied front and back and dragged tightly across the hull of the ship. Of course the marine version is excellent there because you get forcibly dragged across the sharp barnacles encrusting the ship in addition to testing how long you can hold your breath. But we digress...
My understanding of the game is that the Captain (like in Firefly) could dictate the team's course of action at key moments. Now, at some point I'm sure that everyone is going to 'go rogue' and disobey orders due to some baddy hitting one of their triggers or the DM throwing in an all-consuming character motivation:
Bastard kilt my Mum and the Cap'n says to let him go?! Not gonna happen!
That is all well and good... but not in the very first encounter.
So, if we are going to play as a team and the Captain has the final word, great. Or if we are going to play this with some variation of no-rules-no-leader-go-cowboy mentality, fine. I just need to know the ground rules and expect everyone to make a good faith effort to play by those rules. Also, if we are 'going cowboy' on this... then I think Callum has earned the right to re-do his build to make him more fun for Jimmy and less 'leader-oriented'.
Well, I don't want anyone to have to rebuild their character, especially as this issue arose due to my character not really acting in accordance with how I said I was going to.
This was my bad, so I can make it right--I'll "fall in line", so to speak.
I don't think it was necessarily JUST you. Gilly did make an attack after they were already given the order to retreat, etc. As stated, my idea with that was her laying down 'a parting shot' as she booked it after Callum and cap'n's orders.
Anyway, I do actually envision Gilly as following orders about.. 90% of the time. The 10% would be things like... if Callum told her how to do something in the engine and she thought he was wrong, haha, or situations like the one we just had: the purest definition of 'following captain's orders' would have been for her to double-move after Callum. Instead, she threw a bomb and single-moved. Partial obedience. ;)
If Callum is angered by that, that's completely valid and he can bring it up ICly-- "next time, you run WITHOUT chucking chemicals!" or whatever.
Anyway, TL;DR-- yes, I actually intend my character to mostly follow cap'n's orders, and I appreciate having a 'captain' character who is genuinely the captain and not just in name. Whatever changes you need to make are fine by me, but Gilly will usually do what her captain says.
I'm not in a position to speak for Callum, but I don't see a problem with responding to the captain's directions with a variation on a theme as long as we are all roughly pulling in the same direction... Gilly dropping a bomb and then falling back, for instance. Or Doc, shooting one guy to try and make a line of retreat for other characters and covering any retreat from behind the bar while making sure he can duck out through the kitchen when the time comes. In both cases, we are looking to fall back in accordance with Callum's strategy. Now if he said "F#c< it! Run for your lives!" And we dithered around for a few rounds... I could see him getting cranky.
Mostly, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't being presumptuous - that what I envisioned in the captain crew relationship wasn't just my own assumption. My Player Rule 0 is "Make it fun," so I don't want to push a position nobody likes.
I'm not trying to raise a stink - I just to make sure I understand where everyone is coming from on things. Done is done; we'll see how things work out with the locals. I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out.
Okay, serious apologies for disappearing. Work is kind of kicking me in the no-no's this week. i'll kick things forward as soon as I can.
Sorry for the timing of it (ya know it being the tail end of the very first encounter as well as a fairly important OOC discussion). I'll way in on all of it when I can.
Again, sorry, folks. Bear with me. More gun, bomb, knife, and net fights to come.
: coolly reloads Gladys with Black Talon AP rounds :
"4E? That must've been a typo, son. D&D went extinct after 3.5..."
Whoops, looks like I misfired on that first shot.
Guys, I'm so very sorry. Please just bear with me. I know what's happening next, I just can't seem to get my feet under me this week.
We had two major projects come in simultaneously at work, a freelance opportunity I just couldn't turn down, and my wife and I are getting into that time in the late pregnancy when you suddenly realize that you haven't prepped all the kiddo rooms for the new arrival (which is to say, she's telling me all the projects i have to get done because she can't do any heavy lifting/paint fume smelling).
Bear with me guys, I'll move this thing along when I can get the time to do any creative writing.
Again, I am really sorry for the poorly-timed pause.
No worries. I just wanted to get any IC conversations posted. I figure we can do that on our own, and you can jump in when you are ready.
While I didn't like much of what 4E was, there were some things I thought worked well ... like the ability to rest and heal non-lethal damage, for instance. :)
My perspective on the whole Shivers Place thing and Callum's role as the captain:
Callum is right about a few things. Had a few rolls gone differently, Ambrose very easily could have been swarmed and gotten stuck in a bad, bad spot. I'm not a fan of the idea of killing off a character in the first encounter of the game, but I'm also not a fan of games that are played with kiddy-gloves on (and i say this as primarily a player, but that's what's influencing my decisions as a DM). So had those rolls gone poorly, that would have been a very different encounter.
Now, as to how you guys interact with the captain and how you're structured as a team, I'm of two minds. It's very helpful for me to have a captain on your ship. It simplifies how I push jobs, leads, and encounter opportunities towards you guys. And it seems more realistic in general.
I certainly don't have expectations as to how you guys play that out specifically. I'd hate for Lekku to feel like he's got some empty figure-head position (and a wasted character build), and at the same time, you guys should have the freedom to make the personal decisions that are right for your character.
I hope everyone's able to find that balance. Let me know if I ever need to help in that regard, but it sounds like you guys are getting on the same page ... so we can get back to the fun.
... and again, thanks for bearing with me as I got some project work off my plate. Hopefuly I'm back to a more normal posting schedule.
Pardon me for sticking my nose in, but I used to play GURPS special forces.
One of the suggestions they had for a military structure in RPG setting is to discuss what is going on before hand out of character, and have the team leader make the "right" decision for the team in character. Also, have players be clear in advance if they are being insubordinate, so that they are clear there will be consequences in game, and everything is still cool out of game.
It seems to me that you are doing a really good job of keeping the chain of command issues out in the open. They can get wonky quickly if the chain of command expectations don't get discussed.
P.S. Watching this unfold is one of my favorite things to do each day.
You're welcome to stick your nose in, bilbax (well, the discussion thread, anyway).
Yep, we've got a pretty savvy and team-oriented players here (it's why i recruited them :D ), and they seem to be working things out nicely. Those are good observations, though.
And thanks for the encouragement. I'm pretty much my own worst critic when it comes to this sort of thing, so it's good to hear i'm not baffin' it up too bad from the get-go. ;P
Again, sorry for the delay ... but Lekku's helping me toss together a map (his is lightyears better than mine would have been).
Life update: two kiddo birthday parties down, one little dude's bed constructed and placed in room, one father's day and one 11-year anniversary successfully celebrated, and three freelance animations completed, posted, and invoiced ... back to gaming.
I think you get some kind of Achievement badge.
Is it the "doesn't know when to cry uncle" award?
Okay, weeks of crazy should be behind me. I'm a little sick of typing "i'm sorry" and "I apologize" to you guys in this game, so instead I'll just assure you I'm still in the pilot's seat and still engaged.
I hope you've been able to bear my unexpected terrible posting schedule over the last month, and I hope you're still interested on seeing how your characters get out of the Lope.
I won't be able to post today, but expect a post sometime tomorrow.
8D
Yay! My show is back on!
FYI, it took me a few days to finally get my init post to go thru. Dunno if its a site issue or a comp/phone issue on my end, but if its a site issue that may be why some people still haven't rolled.
Yay! My show is back on!
LOL. Awesome.
So here's where I find myself, and I'd like you guys's input.
I'm having a hard time staying on top of my games, much less putting in the time this game deserves to run it. It's due to continuing work and personal life responsibilities and busy-ness. It's basically the same stuff as the past month or so ... we're preparing our family for our third child (due in early August), my team at work has been reduced to me and the guy I manage while—at the same time—my boss was let go. And it's summer. Some of that stuff should change in the next few months (work situation and summer craziness), other stuff (like my new baby girl coming) will change the type of stress and busy-ness, but not really reduce it until my wife and I have had some time to transition.
I see that we could do one of two things. I could continue trying to work towards moving things forward as I get time ... which might mean a continued slow and sparse posting rate from me. Maybe things will get better sooner than I think, maybe they won't. I really don't know.
Or, as one of you guys has suggested offline to me, we could officially put this on hold until i can actually put time to it.
I don't really want to do the second, but I don't want the game to move at such a slow and inconsistent pace that you guys lose interest or we run out of steam.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, or if you have other opinions or ideas.
... and just for transparency, I don't really want to have a third failed pbp dm'ing credit to my name. :/
Well, I'm going to continue to remain interested in this game for a long time. I don't mind putting it on hiatus for a while, as long as that hiatus doesn't equal death for the game. I'm perfectly content to wait a few months until you have more time. Of course, with baby #3 coming, you may never have time for anything ever again. ;-)
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I think the obvious choice is to scale down your family. You probably need to trade in two of your kids for a bunch of gaming materials and upgraded ISP bandwidth. :)
On a more helpful note... If you'd rather keep going with 'posts of opportunity', I'm OK with that. Personally, I'd go with the hiatus option and commit to giving us a monthly update so we have some idea when play will commence again.
I can do either, really, but I do lean towards hiatus because when the posts come days and days apart, or more, it's hard to sustain interest and memory in what's already happened in a fight/scene/story. Re-reading for the sake of refreshing can get old quick.
That said, I'll certainly be here regardless. Sorry to hear you're being swamped, but do what's best for you and your family, bro.
This is the just like firefly... boo! Hiss!
Every show I like gets canceled.
It's tough to get swamped Eben, good luck. I will save my book mark and keep an eye out for updates.
Personally, I think we're all a lot more likely to keep better momentum if we take a short hiatus. I yield to Eben's judgment on his schedule, but for an example, we could break until Augist, and see how things land then.
either way it goes, ill keep checking periodically to see when the game opens again. ;)
Okay, for my own peace of mind, I'm going to say we're on hiatus. I'll bump this every few weeks (or if I get my feet back under me sooner). Mostly I'll be giving you guys updates, or an ETA on the game's restart if I have solid info.
I'm certainly planning on updating you guys in August, just know that the baby is due in the second or third week of August ... meaning she could come pretty much any time between now and then. If her older siblings are any indicator, she'll come early.
I'll let you know. Thanks for the patience ... sorry for the situation. :(
I heard Bad Company the other day when I was driving and it made me think of this game, so I figured I'd post.
I was born, a six gun in my hand...behind a gun, I'll make my final stand.
Or, you know, behind our ship-mounted heavy weapons. Either way.
Alright. Most important news first. My baby girl is here! Mom and baby are doing great ... making me one happy, relieved papa!
Secondly, I've been eyeballing this campaign again. Let me put some thought to when I think I can be back in the saddle. Mostly I just wanted to see who was still on board.