City of Ashes (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

Actually, DM, can I switch out one spell? I've been thinking with a large group that it might be problematic to safely get a Burning Hands spell off regularly. As such Id like to switch it out with Magic missile, if that would be okay with you.

Course! Go for it.

Well, I admit I usually honor-system for encumbrance and trust players to have tallied up their own weights correctly, etc.

Well it wasn't a trust thing here, I just asked for the weight cuz it was taking me forever punching everything in that spreadsheet without them listed :D

Encumbrance rules seem really unpopular though, in general I'm seeing now.

Gerald, its great to have another game with you. Though our archer/arcane caster roles are reversed now. :)

Encumbrance rules seem really unpopular though, in general I'm seeing now.

I like them.

I mean I usually play high STR characters so take that as you will.

Oh, I enforce encumbrance- and I do a lot of play in PFS, where it's definitely an enforceable thing and GMs will call you out if you just keep producing endless inventory items (at least in my experience). It's just that I, personally, expect encumbrance and encumbrance tracking to be the problem of the player to track and to be honest about, and not the GM's responsibility. *shrug*

Thats what i like about HL. It tells you and it shows in your skills etc

So who wants to open gameplay early?

Priscilla and Urrnir voted for early, Lilia voted for either way.

What do Cairenn, Erin, Lueck and Ronen say?

Early is fine with me

Oh, I enforce encumbrance- and I do a lot of play in PFS, where it's definitely an enforceable thing and GMs will call you out if you just keep producing endless inventory items (at least in my experience). It's just that I, personally, expect encumbrance and encumbrance tracking to be the problem of the player to track and to be honest about, and not the GM's responsibility. *shrug*

So do you guys feel funny about the spreadsheet thing?

I just like it because I was able to say "Priscilla, you can haul 2050 gold coins from the Nereid pool, but you have to leave behind 874 gp and 3,401 silver." And it took two seconds because I had the info in front of me.

Just checking because I found out in my other game the spreadsheet was upsetting to one player.

I'm fine with the spreadsheet, DM, but I'm not familiar with them, so I'd be terrified to try and do anything expect look at them, lol. I know it will make your job easier, and I'm all in favor for you to make running a hopefully epic campaign as simple as you can!

I'll switch out the spell.

Ah, mark, I didn't notice you were here. Awesome! Can't wait to fire up another campaign with you!

No problem Lilia, you can just tell me or Ronen to edit the sheet for you when something changes if you are worried about editing it.

Glad to see you and Mark have gamed together before.

Starting tomorrow I have a big show all week so I won't be posting as much.

I'm going to try to do the initial info dump of lore pertaining to your characters today so you have something to chew on.

It's your game, run it however you want. :) I'm just expressing "oh, this is new to me."

Ok cool :)

Just checking because it rubbed someone the wrong way in another game.

Just checking because I found out in my other game the spreadsheet was upsetting to one player.

I don't get it.

Was the accountability intimidating or something?

It might be that people want to steal stuff IC and having an open sheet kinda made it difficult

I don't have a problem with the spreadsheet, though I do track my characters' encumbrance very closely unless the GM specifically tells us not to do so.

And I am just fine starting now or later. Grimmy, he way I look at it, is that you are doing us a favor by putting in the time and energy to run a game for us. I know it is a lot of work, which is why I haven't jumped in to run one myself online.

I agree with Lueck...if I can find someone who is awesome enough to DM a game for me, I am good with any of his/her rules. I look at it as they are doing me a favor, and I can at the very least, accommodate whatever they need to make things run smoothly for themselves.

I like the encumbrance sheet personally but I'm going by my encounters of some f2f players thinking they can haul an over abundance of items.

As for starting early I'm good either way I will say that b/t Feb 1 to Feb 9 I'm away on vacation so at best I'll be able to read but I don't think I'll be able to post very often if at all.

As to the role that I foresee Ronen playing I'll admit I personally don't like pigeon holing characters. To me it doesn't seem organic and it makes me feel like I'm playing an mmo with people. That said Ronen will be splitting levels with his cleric and monk classes. Next level I'll be taking cleric though.

Even though we have a bard on board Ronen will still be built with high diplomacy and knowledge history and religion. As well as being able to discern the truth from those he talks to.

In Combat I can't really say until we actually get into a battle. In my mind I see Ronen as having had experience fighting as a unit but I don't see us all knowing how the others work in combat so Ronen's actions might not be how you expect him to act.

Looking forward to play with you peoples. And im also glad GM liked character idea. I hope i pull it off as i described her. I think she will make for an interesting character and addition to the party.

Personally i can barely wait to see how this plays out. And i hope she doesnt give herself away too quickly

I think i need to link pictures of what she looks like with and without her "uniform" ;)

Will get the weights done this evening.

Why do short people gotta have all the hang ups. seriously.

Anyways was a brutal weekend but I am back and see so many posts! Wow I feel like the snail in a room full of cheetahs

We could participate in off-topic discussion to pass the time:

Would you play a game that drew story/theme elements from the Dark Souls and Shadow of the Colossus games?

Does it come with the frustration of those games? hehe
One of my buddies was doing a pbp based on the shadow of colossus game

Possibly, though they would likely have to be repackaged. RPGs aren't nearly as conducive to multiple trial-by-error deaths. Most of the mechanics would need to be translated over so really the central themes of the games are what would be the driving elements.

Hey guys I've started compiling a list of starting secrets to get the ball rolling. I'm doing my brainstorming in a thread over in the campaign journals sub-forum.

Campaign Journal Thread

I see Lilia has already discovered my little workshop ;)

OK folks, I'm off to put up the sound-system for Disney on Ice.

I'll be swamped next couple days.

In the Campaign Journal you will find I have addressed a post to each of you with a starting campaign secret.

Check them out, maybe favorite the post with your secret so I can see that you've read it.

I'll be popping in from mobile when I can, and back to normal by thurs or fri.

Good Luck!

Yeah, good luck with the sound system!

I've went through my secret...I like it!

Even if I'm not posting much, I'm here...

I doubt this will really interfere with our actual start of the game, but I may be slow the next few days.

Congrats, dien! That's awesome...I voted your item up a few times, as I recall.

Supastah!!

OK so Dien is busy for a while with RPG Superstar, and Ronen is going on vacation Feb 1st -Feb 9th.

So what's a good scene to open with featuring the others?

We have

-Urrnir wakes up on a bier in the Freya shrine, goes to Muir Temple to tell them Ares is alive...

-Priscilla goes to ask Lilia who was the buyer of the head of Muir...

Don't we also have to cover Ares returning from the Valley of Shrines? Or has his body already been recovered?

Yeah we sure do.

The only thing I can think of is that the temple of Muir asked the Lyreguard to fly up and grab him on their Griffons. The politicians will complain about wasting the defensive resources of the city on the needs of an outdated temple and their conspiracy theories about evil cults conspiring against Bard's Gate... But the griffon riders will do it for Muir this time.

That way we can intro Ares with no delay.

Think I will open with Urrnir waking up at the Freya shrine (in BG), Griffons are already dispatched for Ares. Meanwhile Priscilla is talking to Lilia.

This brings Ares, Priss, Urrnir together with sights set on investigating Cemetery.

Meanwhile Cairenn and Lueck are at/en route to cemetery just for lulz.

Erin comes in at cemetery.

Ronen comes in either at Temple scene or cemetery scene depending how far we are by feb 9th (his character has business at both locations).

Then boom.. everyone together.

Normal and unmasked

Masked

The Mask

Then boom.. everyone together.

Sounds good to me.

*artwork*

Not to be a wet-blanket but have you considered that it may be redundant to just hide your face when you have large wings that make you pretty easy to recognize?

I love seeing character art. Nice.

One can hide wings. Just fold them. Then put a cloak over :)

Works for me.

Okay Postie Time

Ok. Sounds good. Let me cook up the first post. Ok to dot gameplay.

Edit: Nice. And we're off!

Priscilla probably has the right idea diving right in. If you know what you want to post go for it. I mean it might get kind of chaotic with everyone not together yet, but if you see a chance to jump in go for it.

We'll just do our best to make it flow as a narrative until everyone's all together.

Great first posts everyone!

I say we just RP for a bit until everyone's ready to go.

I guess we can just use spoiler's and phrases like Meanwhile... to keep the narrative from being too disjointed.

Soon everyone will converge on the cemetery, after maybe a scene at the Muir temple first.

Edit: I copied all the campaign secrets into gameplay from the journal thread. In this case you guys can read the ones that are addressed to other characters if you want.

Sorry I have yet to post. Will try and get one up this evening.

There's no hurry dien, the party hasn't formed together yet anyway, I just figured we may as well use the gameplay to setup the scene and get into character since we're all here anyhow.

But Cairenn is "off screen" still anyway. You can post whenever you're ready and see a good spot to jump in.

Cool so we got Priscilla and Lilia talking at Lilia's house, and we have Urrnir and Ares flashback in the abyss. Pretty soon we move things along to converge those two at the Temple of Muir, then everyone mobs out to the cemetery.

Bit messy maybe but hopefully more fun than "you are all at the cemetery, you know each other somehow."

Yeah, I didn't mean to push with that post. It was more to make sure Grimmy knew I was still around and had made my way to the in character thread. I think everyone here is sympathetic to your time crunch! :)

Right!