GM Woran's Rise of the Runelords

Game Master Woran

I did jury duty last summer. It was pretty interesting stuff when we were in court, and purgatory when we were just sitting around the jury pool.

(And why isn't the jury pool literal? I now have an image of cabana boys and swimsuits... So much better than what I experienced!)

Hmm

Esther Williams was renowned for her elaborate deliberations.

Pretty much, in Germany we sometimes (in really serious cases) have 2 "Schöffen", normal people who have as much to say regarding the verdict as the judge.. it is usually seen as a way to keep to population involved with the process. It is a complicated Position, and likely not as easy to fix as convincing one of 12 (especially since the "Schöffen" can apparently talk with the Judge at length.

remember we're founded on the idea that government is a tyrannical beast out to take away your rights. If you can convince ALL 12 random people that your rights should be taken away...then maybe you have a point. Anything less than that is just one part of the state rubber stamping another part of the state.

I understand that jury duty can be a burden for one, and their duty to society for others. But the whole 'judged by your peers' thing has to be hard.
People tend to judge by their gut. Also, because finding enough people every time to do jury duty, getting actually 12 people who are the peers of the one on trial can be really hard.

Also, can a jury say someone is guilty, but ask for a reduced sentence? I can imagine a jury of parents say, yes, this parent beat up this child molester. So is guilty of assult. But as the peers of this parent, we are parents ourselves, so we ask for less of a punishment because we would all do the same?

People tend to judge by their gut. Also, because finding enough people every time to do jury duty, getting actually 12 people who are the peers of the one on trial can be really hard.

Which is a feature, not a bug. Its SUPPOSED to be an enormous pain in the rear for the government to abuse (remember 12 people was a good chunk of the town back then) Sure, it can be used oppressively but you're going to make the government WORK at it, which gets you less of it. It also cuts down on a small number of people in government passing laws that people don't agree with via jury nullification which.. has historically had its pros and cons.

No human is infallible. Therefore human law can not be infallible.
Therefore, a jury, especially in a colony were everything is rural and faraway from anything, makes sense. A jury not only watches over a case but also the procedure. Also, if you can't explain why that guy over there is guilty or not, in a way that a layman can understand and base a decision on, than maybe somethings wrong in your reasoning
Problem is, things gets so technical that people hardly understand what's happening .
But professional jurors are hard to keep objective

Time zones and AM/PM is confusing.
Redblade is wanting to post, so'll wait on that.

Right-o!

Ridrak, you are of course free to act on what is happening. I am mostly waiting so everyone gets a chance to react so it doesnt become a private conversation between me, Rataji and Snowflake.

That's why Taj is waiting too. To give the rest of you a chance to chime in. After all, you literally saw her hair burst into flame... Character discovery moment: she's a hot head!

Oh, no, I'm good. This character is not particularly talkative, and your characters are obviously having an interesting discussion.

That's why Taj is waiting too. To give the rest of you a chance to chime in. After all, you literally saw her hair burst into flame... Character discovery moment: she's a hot head!

*Scotty from star trek accent*

Hey, its OK redblade. We all have those kind of days. Welcome back.

spotify plays "Break Stuff'by Limp Bizkit. Seems appropiate

BNW, for what it's worth, yes, Rod is a legit target for Enlarge person. Taj and Snowflake don't, unless they take whatever racial feaure lets you count as human (there is some such trait, yes?).

Yep, you cannot enlarge us.

This is the first time I've made an aasimar without scion of humanity trait. I'm trying out a completely out there 'flaming' 'woo-hoo, I'm an aasimar' aasimar!

I just realized that none of us are going for the goblins on the other side! Oh well, maybe our archer will take care of them!

Hmm

BNW, for what it's worth, yes, Rod is a legit target for Enlarge person.

hehe. I know. Ratfolk and dwarves don't get along apparently. And justin... isn't the best at being polite.

Taj and Snowflake don't, unless they take whatever racial feaure lets you count as human (there is some such trait, yes?).

Scion of humanity. I was in pfs for the aasimar bumper crop :)

As to the goblins on the other side i fail to see the problem, there are plenty of humans between us and them..

Exactly. I want to save those poor humans! I really enjoyed saying what I said to the goblins!

Currently we see the Goblins survival mechanism in action: Sheer dumb luck :P

Soles. MOAR soles for the Master!

Yep, we are rolling terribly, but that is the game ;-)

And this is why i make characters that either don't touch the dice, or have so many attacks that even the polyhedral gods themselves cannot stop me.

Rodrick's to hit goes nowhere ...yet. (+1 strength but -1 size) , the damage goes to 2d6, and he has reach (without the pesky can't attack the next square in restrictions). Unfortunately that's academic given the fact that the dice love goblins.

Dice always love goblins.

Yay, Enlarged!

As a support wizard in Dragon's Delve this was my main round 1 tactic for our fighter. ;-)

Goblins need dice luck. Otherwise they are nothing more then a speedbump.

This really would be much quicker, if the goblin had the good sense to nail themselves to the ground... and the townspeople were to run behind us^^

I am not to worried though, our elarged dwarf alone should outweigh the entire goblin group. ^^

*moving out of Gallagher range if the dwarf manages to land a hit* Goblin is impossible to prestidigitate out of velvet

Are we allowed to act yet?

I just added the action, in case that we get to act, I am currently prepping for another convention though ^^.

Sorry for the confusion everyone. I had a course today (hilariously, it was about communication). Normally when we have an internal course, they are pretty lax if we want to 'multitask' a bit. We're an IT company and all huge nerds, so I can sneak in some internet time.
Todays course was given by an external party, so I had to be on my best behavior. Also, I had to GM in real life this evening. Also, phones suck for lengthy posting :P

Death by Watermelon.
Watermelons from on high
Metal Melon of Death

Just trying out new band names...

The Cart Goeth Before the Fall And here's their SMASH hit!

Rodrak the (suddenly) large
Fought some goblins but could not charge
So he hoisted up a melon cart,
Roared "This will do for a start!"
Then cart and melons rained from the sky
No more goblins. Splat. Bye-bye!

Rodrak, that was EPIC.

You are all insane and I love you.

I clearly should have taken the Greengrocer archetype instead of Foehammer ;-)

I want to post but I just cant find the words to describe your action.

Too bad it weren't cabbages...

Honeydew you see what he did to that goblin?

Oskar, if I double-moved to the SE corner of Purple, would that block your charge? If so, I'll wait until you charge before posting and moving.

Taj

I honestly don't know. Can I get a GM ruling on that?

I dont think it will block. Charge lanes are always a bit weird, but I generally permit it if it doesnt look too weird.

Fair enough. If there's ambiguity, I usually assume it's *not* unless I get told otherwise, so expect to get this question from me a lot. :-)

No problem. Its a good way to approch things.

I'm starting to like this mystery guy with a club. I hope one of us hits the blasted thing!

Hmm

It would have been a good idea to discuss how to handle combat BEFORE combat. But thinking things trough isnt always my strong suit ;)

Anyway, I tend to group initiative. With play by post not everyone can post quickly, so I handle initiative in groups as you noticed. Set of PC's followd by those NPCs/monsters.
I also prefer handeling the actions of those grouped together in order of posting. Using the current combat as an example, the literal initiative order is:

Oskar
Eldira
Rodrak
Rataji
Justin

But as it often gets confusing if you have to wait and build in several if/else statements into your posts, I resolve them in posting order. So if Eldira posts first and shoots and kills a goblin, then that happens first. Even tough she has second position in this list.
That way, in my opinion, everyone's actions flow more natural.
It is slightly awkward at this moment as so many of you are close in initiative at the moment.

Please let me know if this is actually agreeable to you all.
(I wanted to make this make more sense but I am tired and lost my train of thought somewhere. Choo choo)

I do straight out blocked initiative as a GM. Everyone is organized in before monster and after monster blocks. The first person to act in a block acts first. Less bookkeeping on my part.

But your method works equally well. So long as you're consistent, we'll be fine!

Hmm

I do straight out blocked initiative as a GM. Everyone is organized in before monster and after monster blocks. The first person to act in a block acts first. Less bookkeeping on my part.

But your method works equally well. So long as you're consistent, we'll be fine!

Hmm

We might be doing the same? I'm going to re-read all this and post something sensible about it tomorrow. I've gotten to the 'words hard' stage of being tired ;)

I hope you and Vy both sleep well.

Taj loves her big furry brother! He's the best!

Actually Fantasy Flight uses a similar memethod in their star wars rpg.
Everyone rolls initiatives which creates "slots" for players and enemies. Each round they use those slots as they see fit, as long as players use the player slots and no cs their own

Let me see if I can do this again:

Hypothetical initiative situation.

Bob
Hank
Goblin
Frank
Goblin
Jake
Bill

So, Bob had the highest initiative. But he and Hank are before the goblin. They post their actions first. I resolve those in posting order. So if hank posts first, I resolve hanks action first, and bob can adjust his actions to Hanks post.
I summaries their actions in my post together with the action the goblin takes.

For the second 'group' it doesn't matter, as its just Frank. As soon as frank posts his action, I summarise that together with the goblin action.

Then its Jake and bill. They are not grouped with an enemy, but again I resolve their actions in posting order. So if Jake posts first, his action happens first. Ten bill's action. I still summarise their posts, as its the end of the round, and that might have significance. Also: time keeping.

Resolving actions in posting order, is less bookkeeping for me, and also for the players. If you're together in small groups, its not much of a hassle for Hank to say, I do X, unless Bob does Y, then I do Z.
But if Bob, Hank, Frank and Jake we're all in one group, either Hank has to hold off posting until the others do (not an ideal situation in play by post as you loose too much time to people waiting on each other), or he has to build in so much if/else statements his post becomes illegible.

Am I making sense now?

BLOCKED INITIATIVE ACCORDING TO GM HMM

What you have makes sense. Blocked initiative works exactly like that in the PBPs I run. So let's carry this further.

Once Goblin 2 acts, then you can have...

Jake
Bill
Bob (on round 2)!
Hank (on round 2)!

...because they all come before Goblin 1. The more people that can act, the faster this goes. If Gob 2 gets dropped, then the whole party may act to beat up on Gob 1.

OTHER TIME SAVERS

Spoilered Knowledge Checks

Instead of calling for a monster knowledge check, put it in a spoiler block and let the characters roll for it.

Blocked Perception Rolls

When dungeon crawling, I block my players perception rolls and throw them behind a GM screen for every room that they hit. I do this if there is a trap or not. Half the time, there are spoilered perception blocks that I never look at, but this way the players treat every room with appropriate suspicion. And if there is a trap, I know if they spot it.

Then I might post something like this:

Blocked Saving Throws

This is a bit more controversial, but let's say that an Alip comes along to fascinate the party.

I do blocked will saves, fort saves, etc. If I throw a spell that requires a saving throw for a single player, I often roll it so that we can know if it happens or not. If the player had a bonus that I did not know to add, we can always retcon it later.

Does this make sense?

Hmm

Actually Fantasy Flight uses a similar memethod in their star wars rpg.

Everyone rolls initiatives which creates "slots" for players and enemies. Each round they use those slots as they see fit, as long as players use the player slots and no cs their own

Unsurprisingly, Fantasy Flight is a big local influence out here. Their game center is one of the main places I do PFS live. That's where we host SkålCon!

Hmm