Okay, first discussion topic: how do we want to handle experience?
All my PBP campaigns to data have been "I tell you when you level up", and my FTF campaigns have gone that way too. However, I notice that a couple of PBP campaigns are handing out experience old-school style, after each encounter, with the players keeping track on their charsheets.
The disadvantages of this are obvious: it's more bookkeeping, players might forget to add some XP,, and so forth. On the other hand, it adds an "old school" flavor that kind of intrigues me. Also, it makes it possible to reward good RPing and badass gaming with little hits of XP, which was something I always liked doing.
I'm open to suggestions. Players (and lurkers, too) -- what do you think?
I am fine with any method, but I do like the old school way, and don't mind the bookkeeping.
That being said - if you do adopt the old school method, it would help if you adopted a specific text format/tag for assigning experience/loot at the end of a battle that stands out so that a reader will not miss the reward (also makes thread-searching easier if there is a consistent syntax). Something like the following:
>> XP (all): 1000 xp <<,
** XP (Player1,Player2): 100 xp for stellar RP **,
Notes on my campaign style. I think you all know this stuff already, but it's been a while, so let's refresh.
-- I like NPCs. Be prepared to interact with NPCs. The first arc of this adventure is light-ish on NPCs by my standards, but after that it's closer to my norm.
-- I like flavor text. (I also like burying hints and clues in flavor text.)
-- I like it when you guys RP. RP it up. Sometimes this may mean making suboptimal choices. I will respect that.
-- I consider the concept of "level appropriate encounters" to be, as the man said, more what you'd call guidelines. Sometimes you have to run. Knowing when to run is a survival skill.
-- As a DM, I will not screw you over. But neither will I rescue you from bad decisions. And sometimes, crits happen. Don't get too attached.
Let's try handing out XP, then, at least for a while.
Meanwhile, a couple of minor rule modifications. We'll be using the fear rules from Horror Adventures. Plain vanilla PF has just three categories of fear (shaken, frightened, panicked). These rules make it more granular -- there are seven levels of fear now.
Fear!:
1. Spooked: The nature of your surroundings or events that
you have witnessed makes you uneasy. You take a –2 penalty
on saving throws against fear effects and on Perception
checks, as your mind conjures potential horrors in every
shadow. However, you are ready to face danger, and gain a +1
circumstance bonus on initiative checks.
Being Spooked does not affect psychic powers.
2. Shaken: Fear has taken hold of you and you are no
longer thinking or acting clearly. You take a –2 penalty on
attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
Being Shaken -- or any higher level of fear -- shuts down the ability to use psychic magic. (Mesmerist, this is the price you pay for being able to skip verbal and somatic components. You can cast while pinned, paralyzed or silenced... but not if you're afraid.)
3. Scared: You are noticeably afraid, jumping at shadows
and easily panicked by odd sights and unexplained noises.
You take all of the penalties of the shaken condition, except
the penalty on saves against fear effects becomes –4. In
addition, if being subject to a lesser fear effect would increase
your fear level, you are staggered for 1 round instead.
Greater Fear
At these levels, your fear begins to overwhelm you.
4. Frightened: You are so afraid that you must flee from
the source of your fear. On your turn, you must move away
from any source of fear you perceive. Once you can no longer
perceive any source of fear, you can act as normal, but you still
take all the penalties of the shaken condition. You can use
special abilities, such as spells and equipment, to flee and must
resort to such abilities if they seem like the only way to escape.
If you flee from the source of your fear and it later reappears
while you are still frightened, you must immediately begin
fleeing again. If unable to flee, you can fight.
5. Panicked: This functions as the frightened condition,
but you drop anything held whenever you are forced to flee
and you flee in a random direction. In addition, you treat all
sources of danger as fear sources and must flee from them as
well. If unable to flee, you cower in fear.
6. Terrified: This functions as panicked, but you do not
treat any other character as an ally and thus must attempt
saving throws against spells that allow them, even if the
spells are beneficial. If unable to flee, you cower in fear. In
addition, once you have fled from fear, you do not act as
normal. Instead, each round you roll on the following table
to determine your course of action.
d% Result
1–25 Continue to flee, moving away from any known source
of danger.
26–50 Find a place nearby to hide, using Stealth as normal. You
do nothing until you are discovered (and forced to run
again) or you are no longer terrified.
51–75 Lash out at the nearest creature, even an ally, attacking
it with whatever weapon is available.
76–100 Do nothing. If you get this result in two consecutive
rounds, you no longer need to roll on this chart starting
on the third round and can act as normal unless you
encounter a source of fear or danger, in which case you
are still terrified and act accordingly.
7. Horrified: You are transfixed with fear and can take no
actions. You take a –2 penalty to your AC, are flat-footed (even
if you normally cannot be), and are considered helpless.
Let's hope we never reach that last one, right? Heh.
Diplomacy +6, Religion +4, Perception +6, String +3, Sense Motive +4 Human Paladin of Iomadae Vital: HP 24/24 AC 21/11/20;San 24/24; Will +5 (+1 v evil), Ref +3 (+1 v evil)Fort +7 (+1 v evil) ; Smite 1/1 ;Guilty Smite 1/1 Lay on Hands 3/3
NICE. Can you put that fear list in the Campaign tab?
I'm also considering the Sanity and Corruption rules from Horror Adventures. However, the Sanity rules as written are pretty brutal -- the designers had obviously been playing a lot of Call of Cthulhu. Not that that's a bad thing! But if I use those rules straight up, half the party is likely to go barking mad at some point.
Are we at the point where we can name our characters?
I thought we were holding off on that for some time? Of course that makes it hard to create PBP avatar's.
I'm also considering the Sanity and Corruption rules from Horror Adventures. However, the Sanity rules as written are pretty brutal -- the designers had obviously been playing a lot of Call of Cthulhu. Not that that's a bad thing! But if I use those rules straight up, half the party is likely to go barking mad at some point.
Tempting, though.
Please keep in mind the already high levels of physical challenges you like to put us all through...and as a rogue with likely the worst Willpower saves in the party I must object :].
Of course I am just a participant in this so do what you must...lol
Okay, point of clarification: in order to give your character a name, you must spend at least two Starting Points on fugue (Fugue 2 or 3).
If you have Fugue 1 or 0, you don't remember your name. You can give your character a temporary name based on a mannerism (Twitchy), distinguishing mark (Tats), obsession (Ratty), or the like.
Diplomacy +6, Religion +4, Perception +6, String +3, Sense Motive +4 Human Paladin of Iomadae Vital: HP 24/24 AC 21/11/20;San 24/24; Will +5 (+1 v evil), Ref +3 (+1 v evil)Fort +7 (+1 v evil) ; Smite 1/1 ;Guilty Smite 1/1 Lay on Hands 3/3
Question: if I want to show you an illustration, I could e-mail it to all of you. That seems simple enough. However, is there a better way? Could someone do a google doc or something, where I could place pictures or whatever?
Maps: I will eventually have to grapple with maps, though we can get through the first encounter arc without them well enough I think. Leave that be for now.
Thinking about it, I'd like to try the Sanity rules. So: you all start with a Sanity score that is the sum of your three mental attributes. So if you have Int 10, Wis 15 and Cha 12, you would start with San 37.
When bad things happen -- not ordinary combat, but creepy, disturbing, freaky things -- you can lose San. If you either lose too much San, or lose San too fast, it can affect your mental health.
Recovering Sanity requires either magic or long periods of rest and quiet (long meaning more than a single overnight). At the start, you won't have access to the necessary magic (no 1st level spell will help), and you probably won't be able to get a long period of rest. So, if your San score is getting low, you may not want to open that door with the strange sounds coming from behind it...
DMDM - are you going to give guidelines on what our starting point scores mean regarding gameplay? I mean, since Ghelik is going mist-diving he/she might not need them (kidding - I hope), but for the rest of us ...
So, in previous campaigns I might say "This happens. Make a Will save," and then wait two or three hours, and then if there's no response, roll the Will save for you.
In this campaign, I believe I'm way the hell on the other side of the world from five of the six players. My time zone is Central Asia, so I'm 10 hours ahead of the US East Coast. There's some overlap in the early morning and the evenings, but there's a solid slab of the middle of the day when I'm online but y'all are probably asleep.
I *think* I'll continue with the "post, wait a bit, roll" pattern, just in case someone wakes up in the middle of the night. But I suspect that, because of the time difference, I'll be rolling more checks and saves for PCs than the last time around. Let me know if that's an issue for you.
I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I wanted to poke my head in before work and say that I am still alive and apologize for the delay! The short version is I've been caught somewhere between travel and being a moving crew (we're moving my grandmother into her new retirement home, which is a decent distance away). So my access to anything has been spotty.
But I am still here and will be able to post properly this afternoon once work is finished! Sorry to go so silent suddenly! When they say RL kidnaps you, they mean it!
Male Aasimar Mesmerist 1 (HP 11/11; AC 17/13/14; CMD 12 Fort +2; Ref +5 Will +3/+4, Init +3; Perception +7; Darkvision 60 ft)
Hi
First off thank you to DM for allowing me to join! Means a lot, I have been trying to join one of his games for 3+ years now, I hope my luck can hold and I last more than a few months in game!
Second, I apologize if I have kept the game from rolling on, I will be posting as regularly as I can, I was traveling cross country the last 24 hours.
Also if any of you DM or players have suggestions for the Mesmerist build please post here or PM me.
This PC is using an old template please ignore its current stat black after its stats.
Male Aasimar Mesmerist 1 (HP 11/11; AC 17/13/14; CMD 12 Fort +2; Ref +5 Will +3/+4, Init +3; Perception +7; Darkvision 60 ft)
DM_DM wrote:
Notes on my campaign style. I think you all know this stuff already, but it's been a while, so let's refresh.
-- I like NPCs. Be prepared to interact with NPCs. The first arc of this adventure is light-ish on NPCs by my standards, but after that it's closer to my norm.
Er, don't you change your adventures almost whole cloth sir?
-- Your SAN score is the total of your three mental attributes, Int+Wis+Cha. You don't want to lose more than half your San, and you don't want to lose more than three San points at any one time.
-- If you were killed in the Dreamlands (Rogue, Mesmerist, Oracle), you lose d4 San. Roll it the next time you post.
-- Bard, you chose to look at the Yellow Sign, and then rolled a natural 1. You lose d6 San.
-- Wizard and Paladin, you're fine. For now.
-- Post your total and current San scores in your character line, like hit points: 33/36.
Male Aasimar Mesmerist 1 (HP 11/11; AC 17/13/14; CMD 12 Fort +2; Ref +5 Will +3/+4, Init +3; Perception +7; Darkvision 60 ft)
DM_DM wrote:
Let's do the other Reflex saves.
Oracle 1d20 ⇒ 15 <-- made it
Paladin 1d20 ⇒ 18 <-- made it
Mesmerist 1d20 ⇒ 10 <-- failed
Wizard1d20 ⇒ 7 <-- failed
Hi DM have to check with you, since I have a Ref Save +5 did I make this save?
Also, did I miss an email or PM, since I only joined Monday did your former Mesmerist get info I do not have as I do not understand what this means, I am reading up on the gameplay thread now.
Mesmerist Physical 2 Mental 2 Stuff 2 Fugue 3 <-- above average rolls, I'm guessing you want to keep these.
