Sure
Question: How many fights would you like?
If you have fun hacking through orcs you can have a lot of that here. But if you could do without, I'd cut out those, that are the same over and over again and do nothing to further the story.
Your opinion?
How many fights are there? I wouldn't mind one or two that is just us hacking through the orcs, but if we're talking 5 or 6, that could get a little repetitive.
A couple of representative fights to give the flavor of the battle would be good.
You'd still be hacking through orcs about half a dozen times, only to face more orcs in the next part. The decision is if you fight the orcs in this house now and be done with it, or you fight the same fight for all four of the L6 houses.
But depending on the general opinion I can also cut it down further. Just wanted to know your opinion, as you were promised a dozen or more fights without rest as precondition for character creation. Some of you might have taken that as a treat. Don't want to take that from you. But if you see it as a burden and would like to come to more RP heavy parts again, I can check what's essential and cut to the case.
And all of this is still not the dungeon crawl that makes up the last part of every AP book. ;)
If it's the same fight in all four houses in L6, I think only the one fight in this house, then maybe just narrate the rest? I don't want us not engaging in these fights to have an effect on the plot or successfully repelling the attack.
Sorry again all. Made a post sayin I was back but then had other things happen. Hopefully now things will settle for me.
Just to make sure, are we assuming Ivan didn't finish his armor in time for the assault? Just wanted to clear that up.
I think Ivan won't have time to finish his armor until after the battle (ie. the start of Book 2).
On his next turn, Bupis is going to give Menrozzar some kinetic healing (I think Menrozzar is at 3 HP after that crit).
Yes he is and for sure can use some healing. I hope he wasn't already below that 23 HP to start with.
Btw. I didn't ignore Ivan. It's just not his turn yet, so that will get resolved later.
Given that Menrozzar is now stable, and would have to provoke an AoO to stand up, Bupkis is going to concentrate on killing the orcs first.
It's also better to use the wand where possible, as kinetic healing costs burn.
Hi.
I'm away over the weekend and don't know if I'll have internet.
Besides that, if you think I should post and don't, please trigger me in discussion. I wait for a dot, and sometimes I remember that there wasn't something for quite some time and check. Like I've done now to bot Ivan. If you think I should no longer wait and check immediately, just give me a trigger post in discussion, so the thread shows up in my alarm.
The website has been down a lot for maintenance these past few days and has been almost unusably slow at times so I wouldn't be surprised by the game slowing down regardless. Anyway have a good weekend!
Thanks, I have. And I have wifi. So we can game on.
Posting capabilities seem to have at least partially returned.
Yay for working boards.
Ready when you are.
Finally able to make a post!
For some reason it only worked after I sent a test PM.
FWIW, sometimes I have to type ipconfig /renew in a command window (Windows) before I can successfully post.
Test.
Site was down for a few days, but it's finally back up, and I can post.
Test works. Productive post in Game?
It seems to be up, although I'm not sure how much I trust this forum anymore. I'm investigating alternatives for the games I run :(
Once Daseem is able to post again, I will take several wand charges, please.
It seems to be up, although I'm not sure how much I trust this forum anymore. I'm investigating alternatives for the games I run :(
Please tell me if you find some.
Once Daseem is able to post again, I will take several wand charges, please.
Having played in a number of games and seen what works well, Can I suggest you roll it yourself in future? :) The wand is a party resource after all.
I'm flying on business to Canada for 10 days, so there will be a couple of days I can't post (although the hotel and the office will have WiFi). Still with all the forum downtime nobody will notice anyway...
oof, so like, did paizo come under a hacking attempt or something?
So far I haven't heard from them what it's about.
Supposedly they are upgrading their server tech to make things faster. Quite why that entails all the downtime I'm not sure.
Paizo's site engine was originally built using Web Objects (which was close to end-of-life when the site was built), so it was desperately in need of an upgrade. Due to advances in hardware technology, they probably had to replace all the hardware in addition to upgrading the software, since the older hardware couldn't run the newer software, and newer hardware couldn't run the old software (as a more user-side example of this, the Intel Skylake generation of processors cannot run Windows 7 or older OS's).
There's also the question of what form Paizo's network infrastructure takes. Do they have several physical servers, or do they use less physical infrastructure and use something like VMWare for most of their server-side applications? As part of the upgrade, did they also upgrade their internet connection for more bandwidth? There are a lot of factors that go into a server upgrade, and that can result in downtime. In a corporate environment that doesn't affect outside users, the IT staff may choose to do the upgrade overnight to minimize impact. For a website with an international client base and users across the globe, that isn't an option.
It is an option though, to set up the new system and switch over when you have it ready. Or you can at least tell the people in some prominent place what you're trying to achieve and why this may lead to downtimes. And when.
Or you have some guy who does the IT as a side quest, as all your staff is about building a RPG and get on a hard ride when something old falls apart.
I'm sure they are swimming in technical debt. Thing is it should be possible to put a server in front of the legacy system to transparently route requests either to it or the new replacement (or both). Pretty much what I did ~5 years ago when we migrated a very old super gnarly ad server over to it's replacement. The old server had an unbelievable amount of custom buisness logic for various customers. Sorting that out was a ton of effort, the database migration was exciting with everything going to both the old and new schemas for a while. Mind you that had an advantage, it was possible to do side by side comparisons to make sure the new system returned the right results. We did have a longish feature freeze but there was no downtime, we migrated one customer at a time (after making damn sure the new system worked) and had a bit of a party once the old servers could be decomissioned. Anyway glad I don't work on ads anymore.
Hopefully, the lost revenue in August will serve as a wake-up call. All of Paizo's revenue is ultimately dependent on their website, so the real cost of downtime is about $1000/hr (based on $9.5 million annual revenue).
That is too simple a calculation. In my opinon the only effect would be people who turn to something else in the meantime like D&D 5e. Which you can't measure. It doesn't impact the delivery of subscriptions, which would amount to quite a sum. And most people who want to buy something would probably buy it afterwards.
It's the customer satisfaction that is suffering, but I guess it's hard to put a $value on that.
The website is mostly a marketing tool, and when it's working it represents a vibrant community. The fact you can talk to the designers is one of the reasons I became interested in pathfinder in the first place, I doubt I'm the only one. I'm pretty sure the website must be revenue positive, but I'd agree putting a value on it is hard.
The thing that's suffered the most is the launch of the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path. James Jacobs said the website downtime has delayed the release of the Player's Guide, and it's probably made it harder for those who aren't subscribers to purchase the first volume, especially if they want the PDF.
I doubt it will affect overall revenue (since this AP has been highly anticipated), but it's likely a partial culprit for the reason 12 Return of the Runelords recruitments haven't popped up yet.
Perhaps Scrabbler could climb the outside of the tower.
I was actually thinking that. He is quite good at climbing.
I added a "trapdoor" to the map and put you all outside the tower for now.
From Bupkis I'd like to know how he is going to throw the smokestick. Climbing up and throwing it over the crennelations? Throwing from the ground outside the tower? Throwing it out of the arrow slits will not work.
You throw vs AC5 + range increment.
Is the trap door to the top closed or open?
Closed but not locked
If the smokestick can be delivered by telekinesis, Bupkis could wait for Ivan to open the trap door, and then put it up on the drummer side of the opening.
You need line of sight for telekinesis?
I was thinking he would move the snokestick to the limit of his vision, and then give it a nudge in the appropriate direction. He wouldn't be able to get it very far from the opening, just enough for it not to fall back down.
Ok. The direction for that is pretty clear, as the trapdoor is at the wall.
Please read the description of the smoke stick. And then tell me how you want to make use of that in the group.
You need to light it, which is probably a standard action. And your telekinesis too. And you bet that I have some fun with the instant effekt ;)
Does it require a standard action to light, and then a standard action to throw? Because then it couldn't be used effectively by a single PC.
I checked and it takes a standardaction if you have a tindertwig, or can use the cantrip spark. If you use flint and steel it's a full round action (from the combat chapter, CRB, actions table for lighting a torch).
I guess the use is to hide yourself. But you'd need help with that, if you want to throw it.
The trick with using a smoke stick in combat is preparation. You tie or glue them to a tindertwig and wind the smokestick fuse around a tindertwig so striking the twig automatically lights the smokestick.