12 hours of travel with only a 30 minute break? Plz Mr.DM, what about second breakfast?
8 hours of travel at a comfortable pace is the rules default.
More is absolutely possible, but fall into the Forced March rules. You could walk for 24 hours if you had a Fort save high enough to make all the checks.
Heck, you could take the Fatigue and the Subdual Damage and just keep going assuming you have enough hit points and don't care about the pain. Lesser Restorations and a few bursts of Channel Energy throughout the day are really all it takes to keep a party moving past the 8 hour mark.
I'm fine with hand-waving travel though. Unless the drawbacks to strenuous or extended travel is meant to be part of the story, I would be fine with "some time later, our heroes arrive at their destination..."
As for the take 10/20 rules, I'm all for it. Anything that cuts down on unnecessary rolling is fine with me. I there's really no consequences for failure, the Take 10/20 rules are the way to go.
I tend to think of Take 10 as "this is the baseline when I'm not really thinking about something" and Take 20 is "this is what I can do if I take my time and concentrate."
Which means everyone has a "passive" score for Perception and Stealth, which is pretty useful.
Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Bella... :)
I agree, Greyson. Sometimes the dice can add some tension to certain circumstances, but otherwise are just added weirdness.
As far as the travel goes, for this module it's fairly important due to the amount of time it takes to get the ingredients and return, but after that... It starts to become a rather moot point. After reading and then rereading the forced march rules... (and reflecting on my own experience with this sort of thing) I think we'll stick with the standard rules for 8 hours without issue and then enforce the saves if you decide to push past that. After my reflections I do remember being darn near exhausted upon arriving at our operations camp lol.
Hey guys, just a reminder, I'm leaving tomorrow for vacation and will not have any of my reference material with me. I'll be back home on the 18th.
Have a good trip! Should we keep posting while you're gone?
Thanks, Bella. Yes, you guys can keep posting while I am away.
Also, any of you guys have any thoughts on the story feats I mentioned above? If you guys are not interested, just let me know. I just didn't received any feedback, so I wasn't sure.
Oh derp derp derp I forgot about that. I'll take a lookie.
I had a whole bunch of family stuff come up and have been out of it ever since. Everything's okay though.
I think the one that fits Belladonna the best is Vengeance (Kreed).
Glad to hear everything is okay, Bella!
Also, I will be around and available to post today until 2:45 PM CST today. If you all are wanting to engage the drivers for a ride, then I will work on getting that going before I leave. That way you all can get some RP time during the ride while I'm gone.
Right now, the drivers appear Unfriendly because of the foul mood they are all in due to the miserable weather. Some Diplomacy checks, or even engaging them in conversation, may help influence their attitudes.
Adjusting Attitudes - Another little clarification I'd like to throw out there for you guys. The way I like to work things is not everything will need a skill check. Certain actions or offers can effect a "creature's" attitude towards you all without having make a successful skill check. If I think the situation would warrant one, I'll likely just roll it for you after the fact (if you don't provide one up front) and perhaps even add any additional bonuses I feel are warranted for exceptional roleplaying. Any questions/concerns/ you guys have about that let me know!
I love the idea of story feats.
I'm also a fan of the GM making as many checks as possible for the party and putting them in Spoilers so that the players aren't aware of their own rolls (but the rolls are still documented in case there's an issue). This works especially well for things like Initiative, Knowledge checks when we run into monsters, and perception checks when there are hidden things or creatures around.
Basically any time in a table top game where they GM would say "everyone give me a ______ check" in a PbP game the GM should roll it all for us and use the results to frame the scene.
That works for me! I think I'll have a post up today. I have an idea in mind. (Unless someone beats me to it, that works too.)
Are we writing our own feats?
Yeah, I figure I'd let you guys select one for yourself if you guys have one in mind. Or if you'd rather me pick a few that might fit with your PC's background and then you guys can pick one of those. Whichever you prefer!
Also, Greyson, I like the idea. I think that would make things go quicker and smoother. I just want to get input from everyone before I start that.
Belladonna, your choice looks good to me!
Checking in. Caine is fairly recognizable as the violence-prone town drunk, so I won't be stepping in to take point with there wagoners.
Hey guys, I'm back home now so let's get this things going again. The ball is completely in your court right now.
Also... Nathaniel, Ruhk, and Zilka... I still need to hear back from you all on the story feats.
I'm going to check with Zirren again and see if he has any idea on a return date. I hate to replace him, so as long as he's still interested I leave his spot open for him.
Well, it sounds interesting, but I doubt I could come up with a good one on my own just yet.
I am sort of with Ruhk on this one
About the only thing I would really like to have is an Animal Handling feat ability that goes along with my background of being a grounds keeper.
About the only thing I would really like to have is an Animal Handling feat ability that goes along with my background of being a grounds keeper.
Well that's easy. A similar feat already exists. Animal Ally. Combined with Boon Companion that gives a character a full strength Animal Companion.
Animal Ally has the restriction that it can't be taken by people who already have animal companions or mounts (because the system doesn't want characters to have more than one animal companion), so we would need to alter your Divine Bond to account for that.
So, how about this-
Righteous Companion
You gain an Animal Companion s through you were a Druid. At 4th level, you do not gain the Divine Bond ability, but you gain the ability to summon your Animal Companion, as per the Mount rules.
This gives us a baseline to work from as far as the rest of the story feats are concerned. It is essentially just an amplification of an existing class ability, or taking a class ability from another class.
Ah, I suppose I worded that badly. I do not want Animal Handling (I do not want a companion or animal ally) What I should have said was that I want something that works like Wild Empathy, so I can use my Charisma to effect the attitude of wild animals.
Ah. Well, animal empathy is a much less powerful ability. It is essentially a trait. Less than a trait, actually. For reference, Unnatural Aura allows Intimidate (which is actually a more powerful skill than diplomacy because of Demoralize) to be used against Animals and Vermin (two classifications of creatures as opposed to Animal Empathy's one)
To make it worth a feat something would need to be added. How about the ability to use Diplomacy against Magical Beasts with Intelligences of 2 or less as well?
Really, that is still only a trait in terms of power level. It's a good starting point for a thematic ability that scales with level.
Wild Empathy does already work against magical beasts with Intelligence of 1 or 2, I thought?
You're right.
That makes the power you want even more tiny.
I'd be fine if you guys want to tailor make a story feat, I would just review it and then approve if I think it works well. Ruhk, if you see one that you like in the published Story Feats... that'd be fine as well. Or if you even see one with benefits you like, but just want to tweak it slightly to fit your specific character I would be fine with that as well.
Haven't heard anything back from Zirren. I plan to give him until Monday to at least get me a reply with his interest and then I will send him another probably Monday evening. I will then give him a week or so to respond. If I don't hear anything by then I will likely look for a replacement for Zirren as it's been a month and a half since he has posted.
GM, why don't we give a few ideas for things we'd like our characters to be able to do, and you can design the feats for us and give them out as we earn them?
Works for me!
Anyone in the party feel like actually saying something?
If someone doesn't jump in today, the guy with the 8 charisma is going to start talking to people. Nobody wants that.
If not I can always have Zirren say something....
Hey guys, had something come up yesterday and couldn't get a post in. I'm going to be busy today, but I will work on getting something up today. Sorry for the delay.
I'll be up and running tomorrow. Srry tonight is crazy.
No problem guys! Going to have a post up shortly in response to Greyson's.
I'm picturing this conversation as one of those movie scenes that jumps between a few different unrelated conversations to form a coherent bit of dialogue.
Like we're all in different wagons but having similar conversations. That's the only way I can make sense of it in my head. :)
Ultimately it isn't really important. We can assume these conversations happened before the wagon ride, or after, or while we're all working to get a wheel unstuck, or whatever works.
Because there isn't some plot-relevant event happening the communication and momentum of the game is way more important than the continuity issues of who is in what wagon.
I just assume that we're close enough to be heard
In different wagons, over the downpour? Seems unlikely.
if that man doesn't stop putting his hands on Bella, I might have to develop an attitude
Hey guys, just an FYI... Zirren will not be returning to the group. Life has given him quite a bit to handle right now and just does not have the time to devote to the game. He apologized for not being able to continue with us. So on that note, I'm going to try to recruit a new player... ideally I would like for someone to simply take over the Zirren PC and make whatever tweaks they would like for continuity.
Actually that would be fine as well, to at least fit the general theme of Zirren's character. I'd be okay with that.
Seems like you guys are enjoying the roleplaying between each other, we can continue if you all want. Or if you guys would rather move on, then I can push us forward. Your call!
I have a friend who would probably be willing to take over Zirren. He's reliable and writes well.
I have a friend who would probably be willing to take over Zirren. He's reliable and writes well.
Good to know! I also had someone reply in the Recruitment thread that they would be willing to take over Zirren as well. I looked over his profile and he has quite a few profiles with not many posts per profile. I'm a little weary about signing him on and then him disappearing... Can you check with your buddy and let me know, Greyson?
Will do.
Will do.
Thanks man! Would that be your buddy who just posted in the Recruitment Thread? lol
Yes.
Looks good! I'll invite him on in.
Okay guys, as soon as our new player is ready I'm going to push on forward. I never did hear back from you all, so I'll assume you guys are ready to move on.
Just finished catching up. Going to create character and be good to jump in later.