[GM Arcadius Blue] On The Fourth Day, We Kill Them All (Inactive)

Game Master B S 207

Boom! Discussion thread. I’ve got a few topics to start us off.

Character Portraits
Bane88 provided me with an image for Azul Undi - I’ll be using that for his token and character sheet on Roll20. Does anyone else have a particular image they’d like used for their character? If not, I’ll default to the one used for your alias.

Party History
I know Ashe suggested tieing Havark’s story to others via PMs. Did anyone take him up on that? Glówen and Azul are about the only solid connection that’s been forged out in the open at this point. Let’s start to get a real handle on this while I finish tying things up for the gameplay thread.

Posting
Third Person Limited, speaking in "quotes & bold", thinking in italics - OOC in OOC tags. Shirking the 'theater of the mind' approach, I will provide ACs, CMDs & F/R/W bonuses, such that players may describe their turns in full. To offset this free information, Knowledge checks made to learn about creatures will be at +5 DC. I would also like in-combat play to list round of combat, actions taken, and status effects. Ashe told me he was going to work out some macros for his character on Roll20 - would you rather roll dice on the forum, or on Roll20? It doesn’t matter to me - I will check Roll20 regularly during combats regardless for positioning and so on. Did I forget anything I should specify about posting in regards to combat, or otherwise?

Finally, here’s a brief rundown of the critical hits/fumble system in use.

Laying Waste Critical Rules:
We will use rules from Laying Waste for determining critical hits, fumbles, and their effects. The book is not required for play, but critical threats/hits are changed to work as follows (new or altered terminology will be BOLDED AND CAPITALIZED):

• Whenever you roll within your threat range and would otherwise hit (or always, on a 20), you get a CRITICAL HIT. Forget about multipliers, you instead deal maximum damage with the usual applicable dice. For example, a sneak attack with a dagger (normally dealing 1d4+1, +1d6 sneak) would be deal (4+1, +1d6 sneak), rather than (2d4+2, +1d6 sneak)
• When you get a CRITICAL HIT, you then make a SEVERITY CHECK. You do this by rolling 1d20 + (your original total attack roll) + (other modifiers, discussed below) - (target's AC).
• If the result of your SEVERITY CHECK is 20 or less, then you've gotten a MINOR CRITICAL with no additional effect.
• If the result is 21-30, then you've gotten a LIGHT CRITICAL.
• If the result is 31-40, then you've gotten MODERATE CRITICAL.
• Finally, if the result exceeds 40, then you've gotten a SEVERE CRITICAL.
• If you achieved a LIGHT, MODERATE, or SEVERE CRITICAL, you get a draw from one of the severity decks I will have available on Roll20. These decks are organized by bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage - if your weapon does multiple types, then you may choose which deck to draw from (the effects vary slightly in function and flavor, but are balanced against each other).
• These cards will list an effect, usually a save type & DC, what happens on a successful save, and a way the target can attempt to recover from the effect, if any. Whenever a card mentions BONUS DAMAGE, it is referring to (critical multiplier)d6 (e.g. a longbow’s bonus damage is 3d6). Pay close attention, the card may instruct you to add ‘additional’ bonus damage, which would stack with any that is already implied.

• Any modifier you would add to or subtract from a critical threat confirmation roll (such as Critical Focus).
• For each step your weapon’s multiplier exceeds x2, you get +4 to your roll.
• For every size category that you are larger than your target, you get +2 to your roll; likewise, for each size category that you are smaller, you get -2 to your roll.

Image is in profile but I will make it easy and put it Here Please make that a token.

Reading the rest of what you have up.

I would prefer to roll on here. I'm cool with just using Role20 for maps and moving. I guess I got excited :) And no one has approached me about joining stories together. So looks like I hired them. I like the critical hit table and fumble system. I will see if I can think of any other mods, but the ones you listed seem legit.

The reason I didn't think to really connect backstories is that Azul is very young, only 18 and while his village is more diverse and visited by people than most Jotun villages, he has never left.

And with Glowan, its more that Azul is brazen and tactless, than him being stupid.

If you have a suggestion Havark, I'm ears.

I would also like to do the dice rolling in this forum.

Default Paizo avatar is fine for me

Excited to see this critical system in action.

I did like your suggestion of linking Havark and Tyv's backstory...

Maybe Havark would have died a babe, had Tyv not intervened with magic to sustain him. A scaled-baby could be captivating. Perhaps, since Havark never reached a full size or height, Tyv's fascination never ended, pushing him to make contact.

... but hesitated because Havark seems very...grim. On reflection, that could actually work well, as Tyv becomes a moderating, light minded influence to Havark's darker, jaded viewpoint, reminding him of simpler times growing up with his adoptive father before the jabs of the other students and the trails of the monastery.

For combat, I've seen two styles. One requires the characters act in melee order, regardless of posting order, just like in face to face. The other style, which surprised me at first, was that the DM would take any character's action, in post order, for the group of characters that would go before a bag guy. For example, if the party has four members and are fighting one monster, and two of them roll-on higher init than the monster, he would resolve the first two character's actions in the order they were posted. Then the monster would go. And then the entire rest of the party (including the first two) could go. It might be more complicated than what I saw, but it really worked out well. Which way do you plan to run combat?

Alright, I'm not going to get the gameplay thread up tonight. I'm doing the heavy lifting on Roll20 while I'm at home, because the connection doesn't suck here. So I'll set the scene and introduce NPCs tomorrow. You guys can take some time interact with NPCs and each other, and unless you guys tell me you're ready sooner, we'll kick off the adventure this weekend.

Sounds like we're rolling on the thread. To answer your question Archmage, I am planning on going the second route; it makes a lot of sense as far as keeping pacing in the format. The bonus is that it works in context of initiative rules as well - if you say that characters who post later than their place in the order are simply delaying initiative. :-) For similar reason, I will roll initiative for mobs as a single lump. And to help keep it all straight, I will also post recaps at the end of each round.

I'm glad to hear everyone's excited and on-board with the LW crits system. Two of the three F2F games I participate in use it, and probably the only complaint I have regarding it is that the book makes no mention of what to do for coup de graces. In the past I've ruled it as follows:

• Automatic critical hit dealing max damage, but roll an attack to use in a severity check.
• Roll for severity (keeping in mind that target AC is much lower due to helpless/unconscious).
• For each step above a minor critical, add your bonus damage once (so up to triple bonus damage at a severe critical). Target then makes a Fort save against DC (10 + damage received) or dies, as normal.

Another question I had for you four, as human beings: are you all amenable to adding each other (heck, or just me) on FB and getting a gaming group chat going? Wouldn't need to be right away, and given the fact that there are crazy weirdos on the internet, 'no' is a completely acceptable answer. But it's an good way to reach people, and I'm down with getting to know you people OUTSIDE of the context of the game. Thoughts?

I'd be fine with it (I'd just clamp all the permissions down), but I don't use facebook much and I definitely cannot use it during the day. Outside of work, I typically use the Wayfinder app for pbp games (which does not show you pending Paizo boards mail). I could give you my home and work emails. That would probably be fine to reach me, but I wouldn't be very 'chatty'. Sorry, wife complains about it too... and she even has my work phone number (and usually winds up talking to voicemail).

Sorry, you rolled a 1 in your recruitment thread when you picked me :)

I'm fine adding people on FB or whatever, Here I am. but I too don't use it during the day at work, unless I remote into my home computer.

I'm fine with the tie in with Tyv, So Tyv would have offered him supportive words the few times they came to town for supplies. I'm sure Havark was made fun of and maybe even a bit feared as the baby left to die that still lives. Maybe Tyv was the only person that though so and offered him treats or something when he and his father came to town.

He is a bit jaded but he just wants to be excepted. Though among a group that worships strength he found the only way he could measure up would be trials by combat.

I need to stop trusting Paizo to not eat my posts...

Regardless, I sent you a request, Ashe. The rest of you can add me here at your leisure. I'm not looking for a big commitment or anything Archmage - I'm fairly bad at online correspondence myself. The motivation's a little more 'teambuilding' than 'accountability'. That said, I've got my personal email address on my Facebook, if you want to send me a message so I know where to find you, feel free.

I've got the 200 cards for criticals/fumbles up on Roll20, so feel free to draw from the decks and mess with those before game starts if you'd like. I'll get the gameplay thread up sometime this afternoon.

I'll echo Archmage on the Facebook thing - got it, never use it. Sending friend request anyway, just don't take it personally if I miss stuff there :>

EDIT: ...and that's why I don't use facebook. Just sent you a request from my wife's account. Please disregard <blush>

LOL!

I hadn't had the impression that you were one of the fairer sex, but I also make an effort to not decide that ahead of time. It's all good :-)

In other news, the gameplay thread is up!

k ,played around with the deck a bit.

So if I'm using a 20/x3 weapon and rolled a crit with a total of 21 against an opponent with an AC of 14, Id then roll...
severity: 1d20 + 21 - 14 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 21 - 14 + 4 = 15
... which means I draw a bludgeoning card and use the light severity entry.

So the card I read said if the save was successful it instead deal bonus damage, which in this case would be 3d6. On top of max damage? That seems like a lot for a failed save. Especially at the character level we are playing at. Did I miss something?

So before I dig into this, I slightly borked a rule. Corrections are italicized.

• If the result of your SEVERITY CHECK is less than 20, then you've gotten a MINOR CRITICAL with no additional effect.
• If the result is 20-29, then you've gotten a LIGHT CRITICAL.
• If the result is 30-39, then you've gotten a MODERATE CRITICAL.
• Finally, if the result is 40 or above, then you've gotten a SEVERE CRITICAL.

• What you rolled is a minor critical, which is just maximum damage. You don't draw a card until you've reached at least a severity of 20.
• You mixed your terms, but I assume you meant "a lot for a successful save." Which... yes and no; I'll get to this in a second.
• Keep in mind that though the decks are balanced with each other, there is some variance in the cards themselves. Some effects don't allow for saves. Additionally, each deck has one result, that on a severe critical, is an instant kill if you fail your DC 30 Fortitude save. But severe criticals are EXTREMELY RARE, and that's combined with a 1/50 pull.

Finally, bonus damage almost only comes up if someone succeeds at a save against a critical effect. It's meant to be the less devastating alternative to the roll, and so I do allow the following: You may choose to voluntarily fail your save against a critical effect. That said, in my two face-to-face games that use this system (Carrion Crown AP: 6 players, started at 7th level, currently halfway to 11th; Mummy's Mask AP: 4 players, used from beginning, almost 5th level), neither PC nor NPC has ever voluntarily failed their save. The option is there regardless, though.

I've included some math below for your benefit; I might have flubbed my addition here or there, but I think it illustrates pretty well.

Does that answer questions/alleviate concerns? I realized it far too late that though I did state it, I kinda hid my desire to use this system in my recruitment post. But I've had enough good experiences with it that I'm pretty resistant to reverting to the traditional way of using crits.

I'm not going to try to understand, LOL, but I'm good with whatever. If I roll a 1 or a 20, I gleefully relinquish control and ask that you resolve it and tell me what happened. :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

Sure! I'm not too worried - it can look really intimidating on paper, but I've found it's pretty intuitive once you see it in action. But it will be no problem for me to do it for you either. :-)

right, got it. Thanks for the math - that really helps put it in perspective. I was getting hung up on the fact that if I fail a save I suffer an effect but if I pass I take extra damage. Seems counter-intuitive at first.

No prob. So I had to take my girlfriend to the ER last night - no worries, she's doing alright, but we're still at the hospital for the rest of the day. I should be able keep up on posting, but there's a lot of vistors coming in and out, making it hard to lay some text down. Just as a heads up.

np, rl > pbp :)

Don't worry, I know. :-P She has chronic health problems - my employment, as a fact, is as her primary caretaker - so interruptions like this figured into my schedule when starting out the PbP. So these things can happen a lot, but I intend for it to have minimal impact on the game.

Home from hospital tonight. All's good on this end. I also cancelled my usual weekend schedule because the original estimate for the stay was up to four days. So I'll be freer to post than I normally would be.

I've also granted IronDesk access to the Wild Magic macro - give it exactly one test run if you'd like. I'd hate for you to spoil what's in store...

I did not expect casting message would be as much of a production as a standard spell. I figured the somatic component was the pointing and the verbal was the whispering. If so, can he make a stealth check next time, possibly subject to a concentration check?

-Posted with Wayfinder

From d20PFSRD.com

A verbal component is a spoken incantation. To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a strong voice. A silence spell or a gag spoils the incantation (and thus the spell). a spellcaster who has been deafened has a 20% chance of spoiling any spell with a verbal component that he tries to cast.

Granted, somatic gestures are a movement of the hand, and not the whole arm, but since the spell focus is a copper wire, I figured there was a small bit of commotion. There's not much to be said for combining it with Stealth -the way I read it, the Perception DC to notice starts at 0.

Hear the details of a conversation: 0

Hear the details of a whispered conversation: 15

This was the basis of my ruling regarding Stealth with wands and their command words. You're better off creating distractions or being in a noisy environment in the first place if you want to get away with it. That said, as we haven't dug into anything important, if you want to make adjustments to your build knowing this (be it nabbing Silent Metamagic, or grabbing more spells without verbal components), you are welcome to. Just tell me what changes you want to make before incorporating them.

I did like your suggestion of linking Havark and Tyv's backstory...

Arcadius Blue wrote:

Maybe Havark would have died a babe, had Tyv not intervened with magic to sustain him. A scaled-baby could be captivating. Perhaps, since Havark never reached a full size or height, Tyv's fascination never ended, pushing him to make contact.

... but hesitated because Havark seems very...grim. On reflection, that could actually work well, as Tyv becomes a moderating, light minded influence to Havark's darker, jaded viewpoint, reminding him of simpler times growing up with his adoptive father before the jabs of the other students and the trails of the monastery.

...or an interesting option could be that Havark doesn't know of Tyv's involvement in his childhood. Tyv has watched and protected Havark on and off through his life, feeling a sort of duty of care to the infant he rescued in the woods all those years ago, and now that Havark is heading out into danger, Tyv has decided to tag along to "protect" him, mirroring the role Havark has taken on with Fanna.

Ooh ooh! and/or maybe Havark's young mother fled the shame of unwed pregnancy and got lost in the wood, giving birth in the wood and dying soon after. Her dying dreams of the father of her baby are what summoned Tyv from the first world and formed his seeming.

...or I could take the fact that Havark didn't respond to this topic the first two times it was raised as a polite sign that he's not interested, and move on :>

I thought I did reply sorry. I am fine with this tie in, but it would have to be option one without changing my story. Being left as an infant your help would not have been know to him. Then the dwarves that he called parents farmed and hunted only going to town to trade for needed goods so only a few times a year. He only lived at home until age 10 before going away so it is very likely he doesn't know Tyv at all but Tyv remembers the scaled boy.

Cool, lets go with that then. So, at risk of turning Tyc into a Disney character, that kind a makes him Havark's fairy godfather.

Any recommendations on how Tyv can slowly break through Havark's walls?

Cool, lets go with that then. So, at risk of turning Tyv into a Disney character, that kind a makes him Havark's fairy godfather.

Any recommendations on how Tyv can slowly break through Havark's walls?

His last loyalty is hope. Hope that he can show the world a face not shown to him and that he can be accepted. Treat him as an equal and accept him and I'm sure he will show the same in return. :)

I'm posting my response to it in this thread, as my last post was already pretty long, but I dig the strategy to keeping Glówen's magic on the DL, Archmage.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the Disney-parallel IronDesk. I think the coming-of-age, small-giant-in-the-big-citylongship tale, costarring his mischievous, intelligent ratfolk is WAY more Disney. ;-)

I know we're pretty early in, but any feedback so far? Since I am new to PbP, and you all seem to run the gamut from somewhat to quite experienced with the format, maybe you have some pointers. Is the pace good? Descriptions too long or too short? Nord's speech impossible to read? :-)

Feedback is by no means limited to the format either. I really enjoy GMing - prefer it to playing by a longshot, and I take pride in trying to do a good job with it. But my tabletop RPG gaming experience is nearly exclusively limited to my friends and family, who learned how to play from me. Well, my dad used to play AD&D 2nd edition a lot when I was a baby, but from what I understand, it was pretty much straight dungeon-crawling. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-) So even if you don't have any comments now (because as I stated, it's early), please be forthcoming with any good/bad/constructive things you have to say. I'd absolutely appreciate some fresh perspectives.

So far so good. Pace seems fine. It is important I think for you to find a pace you are comfortable with. Combat is usually the tricky part on PBP. A good rule of thumb is to give 24hrs during combat for a player to post if they have not then you post for them or assign a player too and just take their action. If combat doesn't keep moving the games can stall. The RP stuff is easy to catch up on, but sometimes if the pace is fast the ones that don't check or post a lot may feel like they are reading a story but not playing in one. I don't have this problem as I post tons during the week. Now when I leave work I don't always sit down at the computer. So sometimes I show up in the morning to 10 post or more.

The speech on Nord isn't bad. It take me a moment longer to process. You could always spoiler what he says in normal text as well this would help.

Description is good. Don't feel like every post needs this but when setting a new scene like here where the boat ran upon ice I feel it is good and lets you feel what is going on on the situation.

To me if you keep posting and the game flows you can't really do a bad job.

Cool, I will keep the thought of spoilers for affected speech in mind. I'm glad the pace is working for you as well - I have intended to keep a closer eye on posting times when we move into initiative order. Thanks for the feedback.

Archmage, you seem to post about as often Ashe, so I'm not too concerned regarding game speed & you. You're of course still very welcome to leave feedback, if you'd like. But is the pace working for IronDesk and Bane88? As you two generally seem to post about 1/day, I don't want to leave you in the dust. I can definitely let up on the gas as wee bit as far as 'time elasped' in my posts if it would help. My thoughts are that I'm less worried about IronDesk; he seems to post around the time I'm making my second one for the day, so it's pretty easy to keep Tyv involved. Does this sound about right?

But Bane88, you seem to be the AM to my PM, so it'd be especially great to hear what you think.

Yeah, I'm most active posting between 6am and 2pm. I wake up at 4am for work so I am usually asleep when you post your second post for the day. If I post once, I think it works for everyone to post as many times as they want and then in the morning I can respond with a post and the cascade begins again.

Sweet. Glad to hear your take.

I'm fine with the pace. And I commit to never complaining about postings going too slow since I sometimes fall off the map.

Pacing and rate of posting is fine for me too, though I do appreciate you touching base with us. I alternate evening and morning shifts kinda randomly through the week, so its unlikely I will be consistently posting at the same time day to day, but I'm good playing catch up or backdating non-essential actions for the sake of not slowing things down.

Cool. Thanks for the responses everyone.

In other news, I discovered something new I like about PbP. I am getting a kick out letting the simulation run against all of the NPCs, as opposed to handwaving an amount of deaths like you'd have to do in F2F. Not that I mind it the other way, but it's a nice change of pace.

If we don't hear from Azul by midnight tonight, I'll bot his weekend turn and get us to Round 6. Any suggestions for his action? Considering he's got +11 to Swim, my gut goes to just swim to shore ramp-side with Tyv on his back - don't even bother with the floes.

Yes, that seems the simplest most direct action.

If he swims, are you doing anything such that I shouldn't advance to the next round? He'll likely be back AM tomorrow, so it'd be cool to move forward if at all possible so he has something to work with for his post.

EDIT: Going forward with Round 6 turn, but as stated in the gameplay thread, do whatever you planned to in Round 5, I'll work it in.

Since I've seen the warning that room-by-room exploration can drag a game, is there any particular way in which we'd like to handle it? Like first one to post decides for the group, or a designated caller? Or another idea?

I've seen the 'first to post decided' done and it works OK. I've seen one or two characters carry the group forward for several days with no one else posting because they were content to let them lead (or were too busy to care). With a group that knows each other's strengths, sometimes the main poster will specifically say that he is waiting to see if another char finds/detects/opens something first.

It seemed to go OK, but then again, we never walked headlong into a nasty trap that someone else could have averted, had the DM waited for him/her to post. Had that happened, I may have had something different to say. :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

yeah, room-by room can drag, but it is the nature of the beast. The GM pushing through non-essential intersections and rooms when appropriate helps somewhat. Also GM making checks behind the screen to open locks/ detect traps, critters etc that any halfway competent adventurer would choose to do anyway can be a good tool.

It seems I ninja'd havark there, I can retcon my post if you wish. Azul, would do as he's told but if he is not told or doesn't hear an order, he will do as he sees best, which is what I posted.

I'm fine breaking the ice and getting to the furniture. I just didn't know how deep or thick the ice was and how long it would take to break through it.

I think we get a fire going to keep the men warm then we move as a group. The best and fastest way is for the GM to narrate what happens and what rooms we explore until we run into something.

agreed

I am full of lies. You guys will get info on the new items in ~4 hours. In the meantime, does someone want to volunteer to be lootmaster?

My wife would tell you I'm not very organized. I am not a good look keeper.

I'll track loot if no one else cares to.