"Ilvarandin, Cradle of Nightmares" Investigation & Darklands campaign (Inactive)

Game Master CrusaderWolf

Alright, so it is almost midnight here for me, so I'm headed to bed and will get the Gameplay thread up tomorrow. Welcome and I'm excited to game with you all!

I'm excited to play! Glad to get chosen!

By the way:

Uuzkhangr (Incidentally, how is that pronounced?)

My guess is (OOZE-*Phlegm*ar)

Thank you for the invitation. I am really looking forward to your campaign.

It's always exciting to start a new game. :)

Okay, first Gameplay post is up, I've got some links & house rules in the Campaign Info tab, will be leaving for Berlin this evening but will try to check in over the weekend.

Also, if everyone could post their immediate combat-relevant stats the way Ceinwynn's is done I'd appreciate it, helps makes combats go much more smoothly when hp, AC, & expendable abilities (i.e. rage rounds/day) are posted up there.

Gaziq: I took the liberty to join you. I hope that is OK?

It's perfectly fine by me.

It's perfectly fine by me.

Feel free to respond. We can get to know each other.

By the way:

CrusaderWolf wrote:

Uuzkhangr (Incidentally, how is that pronounced?)

My guess is (OOZE-*Phlegm*ar)

Close. Humans can never handle the *phlegm* quite right.

CrusaderWolf wrote:

Uuzkhangr (Incidentally, how is that pronounced?)

I envision it pronounced as "ooze-KANG-gur."

Green Smashomancer wrote:

By the way:

CrusaderWolf wrote:

Uuzkhangr (Incidentally, how is that pronounced?)

My guess is (OOZE-*Phlegm*ar)

Close. Humans can never handle the *phlegm* quite right.

Uuzkhangr, Duergar Druid wrote:

CrusaderWolf wrote:

Uuzkhangr (Incidentally, how is that pronounced?)

I envision it pronounced as "ooze-KANG-gur."

That should help those silly humans.

Side note: So, we're all setting up at the inn instead? Raleigh's getting a bit hungry then.

Here I am! Ready to play!

Just to confirm: everyone is alright with using Roll20 for the combats? It's the system I have the most experience with regarding online play, and it's useful for modifying maps on the fly. If you don't have a free account with it yet it's really easy.

We would use it only for tokens, posting our actions here in the PBP thread. With the latest gameplay post I'll include a link, will get y'all's tokens assigned to you as you all check in over the next day or so.

As long as we use it just for the maps, I have no problem with it. The character sheets have been rather buggy since the last update, so I'd prefer not to do any more with it until they get the issues worked out.

Just for the maps, promise. I've had some unpleasant experiences trying to use it for everything. But having maps is more fun than no maps!

I've already assigned Gaziq's token, everyone else please post here to let me know when you've joined the game so I can assign your tokens as well.

I've joined the game - I am Peet S.

Don't forget to add Zyxl to the map!

I am fine with Roll 20. I post from my phone a lot. I can view it, but someone may have to move my token some of the time.

***I just went to the link and noticed that you use the free version (tablets are not supported). I will have to post combat turns at night so I can view it. Just an FYI.

Understood, thanks for the heads up. The bulk of the posting will be here so I don't predict it being too much of a problem.

Joined the game. Tag name is MaUC.

I don't have a strong opinion on the merits of square vs round tokens. Square was easier to screenshot and upload, so that's what I did.

Well... I don't have a strong opinion either. They're just tokens, after all. I just think the round ones look better (and they can be turned around without going into other squares). ^^

Joined also. Tag name is James U. Or Smashomancer, tried changing it, not sure if it took.

Hey guys, heads up but this is a house rule we use a lot in my IRL games (both as a player & GM). Are y'all alright with using this too or would you rather not?

The AC differences between bucklers, light shields, heavy shields, & tower shields is strange, so to correct that light shields now grant +2 AC and heavy shields grant +3 (bucklers and tower shields are unchanged). Weight, Armor Check Penalty, & other stats remain unchanged.

Doesn't affect me, I'm cool with it. Although, that reminds me you mentioned you'd put the use of background skills up to a vote. Is that still a-go? I'm super for it, but I think Craft skills are too useful to be on that list personally.

Have you ever tried Party initiative? I do that in my games and it seems to make combat go smoother. You just average all our initiatives and roll us as group. Players can post at any time during the group initiative. So you would have Dire Rat's, Party, and Swarm groups. That way others could post instead of waiting on Nathalion. Just an idea. I am fine either way.

I have bad experiences with party initiative... When a whole side of the combat moves before their enemies, it makes swarming and being swarmed way too easy.

Giving shared Initiative rolls to creatures of the same type works reasonably well, though.

Party Initiative sounds like a good idea (I think everyone but Nathalion has joined the Roll20) for ease of posting, but on second thought I share Borumuru's concern about overwhelming or focus firing each other. Especially in higher-level play it seems like an all-or-nothing gamble if, say a rival adventuring party gets the drop on you.

For now let's wait on Nathalion, sorry guys.

And while Crafting is extremely useful, I don't mind it being included in Background Skills. Thoughts?

Like I said, I've had bad experiences with party initiative... But whatever you guys decide.

I don't think craft is good enough to be considered an "adventuring skill". I've honestly never seen it being picked by anyone, unless the player is given extra skill points specifically for investing in crafting/profession/etc.

Spellcraft is a whole other story, of course...

Oh, right... I forgot to add:

You should probably add the final initiative order, round current turn to the campaign information tab.

e.g.:

Round: 1
Current Turn: Nathalion

Also, there should be a time limit on waiting for people to post their actions... The way I do it is to allow other players to decide the character's action after 24h without the correct player posting. After 48 hours, the GM simply skips their turn.

Yup, after a day I bot. Thing I've seen another GM do that was cool is marking a ">" by each player's name and removing it once they'd gone that turn. I think I'll adopt that particular habit.

I don't think craft skills are that useful unless you are in a game with LOTS of downtime.

I put "Craft (chitin-worker)" as a craft skill on my character. Like a leatherworker, but uses giant insect chitin. :)

I don't like party initiative that much either; characters that dedicate resources to having good initiative should get rewarded for it. As it stands I will probably go last most of the time and I can live with that.

Background Skills are fine with me. I'm not heavily for or against.

Alright, executive decisions: no to party initiative, yes to Background Skills.

Also the PDF version of "Heroes of the Darklands" is available tomorrow and I plan to buy it sometime tomorrow afternoon!

I like the idea of allowing Craft/Profession skills to be used in place of Appraise... Simply because it not only makes more sense, but also because Appraise is a horrible skill that does nothing but increase book-keeping for players and GM.

Like I said, I've had bad experiences with party initiative... But whatever you guys decide.

I don't think craft is good enough to be considered an "adventuring skill". I've honestly never seen it being picked by anyone, unless the player is given extra skill points specifically for investing in crafting/profession/etc.

Spellcraft is a whole other story, of course...

I agree with you. It makes the GM's job harder. Action economy is everything in Pathfinder. It is definitely not optimal. I use it because of the medium. So many PbP games end due to people getting bored waiting. Plus if I am busy, and I can only check once or twice a day, people may be waiting for me even though I checked the boards.

I am happy either way though. I love background skills. Thank you for including them.

Do you GMPC after 24 hours while in combat? This is why I mentioned party initiative.

The other thing you can do is just skip their turn as if they are delaying.

Alright, went ahead and skipped. Sorry for the slow start guys!

No problem. Of course, when players are next to each other in initiative, there's no problem letting them attack in whatever order they want... But using group initiative as a general rule is a bad idea, IMHO.

I know it speeds up PbP... But it only takes 1 incident of getting swarmed before you even have a chance to act for players to get really frustrated with the game.

I couldn't get my token to move on the map.

You'll have to wait for the GM to assign it. Now that you've joined the game on Roll20, you'll just have to wait for him to get back.

I still don't know if I hit my target... :P

You are the exotically-dressed man whose blade killed the grey dire rat, MaUC

I took a stab in the dark on the description, because it seemed less immersion-breaking than "an [appearance coming soon] man..." :p

Oh, ok... Cool! ^^

Ooh, I get it, I misunderstood. Yes swarms take +50% damage from AoE sources including splash. I though you were saying that your splash is 50% of your direct damage.

My error!

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I was halfway done with my description of Borumaru appearance and background when I accidentally closed the g&&%~$n tab... ><'

Ugh...

And now Paizo devoured my f@@!ing profile update!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

And now Paizo devoured my f%$!ing profile update!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

I have learned the hard way that copy/paste before submitting is my friend. I have lost so many posts!

I like to edit these things in google docs to avoid the achiest of hearts these issues cause.

I have learned the hard way that copy/paste before submitting is my friend. I have lost so many posts!

I always copy before posting as well... But of course, the one time I forget it...