No worries. Have fun!
There is never a better reason to delay a posting. The IRL I GM is down to once a month at best since we are all old farts with kids.
...Stuff about combat organization...
That's a good topic to bring up. I prefer to use the method I am currently using, where I list initiative in all of my posts and bold those whose turn it is while mentioning them in a comment underneath. I find that the fewer places I have to edit the better because I will forget to make both a post and edit the header.
As for the sequence, post in whatever order you want in the block thats currently up and I will recap. I generally try to go in the order people post within a block as it allows people to make more educated decisions without the waiting of having people post in order.
Example:
So in this instance, either the Fighter or Paladin posts first, and I recap their actions. I generally assume they do the best they can given the limitations of PbP so the order they act in in game doesn't really matter.
I will also alter people actions when it makes sense to. Like if Zig and Solace are attack a group of three adjacent Hobgoblins and both say the attack the left one, but then Zig kill it in one hit, I will have Solace attack the middle one. Makes things go faster this way I find.
If you have any questions/comments/suggestions about this feel free to bring them up.
On another topic, I am going to attempt a back country camping trip tomorrow. I will probably post really early Saturday if anything has happened and then post quite late on Sunday. If my trip gets cancelled or we come back early I will post as I can, just want you guys to know what to expect.
Sounds good.
To the group: I think there are a couple of us new to PbP (and maybe Pathfinder as a whole). If I botch something or am just trashing the ruleset somehow, please point it out!
Sorry about jumping the gun on my post for yesterday, i did not read the initiative close enough and didn't account for the surprise round. Just saw zig post and went after him...
Luckily my action should still work fine for this first round after the surprise, so I'll just leave that post if that's ok.
Just noticed I messed up that crit a little, but in your favor.
When you crit you don't roll once and double the number your roll and add all relevant bonuses twice, with stuff like precision damage.
Next time you think you crit please roll damage twice either with two dice call outs or by doubling the relevant values in the first die call out.
And no worries Elyas, everyones still getting used to how other people work. DM-Player interaction usually takes a few dozen posts to smooth out due to expectations and such. And yes I will use your posted action.
On another note, could we work out a SOP for door breaches? Doors are pretty much the worst enemy of PbP parties without a SOP.
Just noticed I messed up that crit a little, but in your favor.
When you crit you don't roll once and double the number your roll and add all relevant bonuses twice, with stuff like precision damage.
Next time you think you crit please roll damage twice either with two dice call outs or by doubling the relevant values in the first die call out.
Will do. Terribly sorry about that, it's a habit from an old house rule of mine. It won't happen again.
Camping cancelled due to too much rain.
@Zig, no worries. I missed it as well.
I realized I had posted in the recruitment thread that posting expectations are once per day. I will amend that to once per day, except weekends. Since I generally have a lot going on during the weekends anyway I won't expect you to post at all since I might not be able to.
Also, if we are in combat I will bot you after a day without a post (excepting weekends as per above). Your action will be the least resource intensive action available while still contributing. Examples of this would be having a caster shoot a crossbow, melee character making a normal full attack vs an adjacent target (no Power Attack or Arcane Strike,etc), ranged characters attacking without moving, etc. The target of a botted action will always be the nearest enemy that is a valid target regardless of if they are the best option of who to attack. I will also not move a character more than 10 feet, drop a weapon, use consumables, or commit actions that will provoke attacks of opportunity (including moving).
I will also generally not attack botted characters with any creatures that aren't adjacent, unless they have a grudge (damage dealt, dislike your race, etc), or you made yourself an obvious High Value Target in previous rounds (casters I'm looking at you!).
This should help keep the game moving without taking away to much player agency or resources, while keeping everything fair. To give people some leeway I won't start this until Wednesday to make sure everyone has a reasonable chance to see it.
Thank goodness we went over crit specifics early on... the dice gods decided to bless me with some pretty great rolls for this combat!
Can we move on to spaces that have townsfolk? Or can we shift them out of our way?
When not in combat assume their compliant to simple demands like 'pass me that item', 'move', 'let me through' etc. In combat they act like normal combatants.
For the knowledge-gated stuff like the Knowledge(local) spoiler, do you want us to roll in the gameplay thread?
Yes please. Though you can always take 10 on knowledges out of combat if you want.
Will post tomorrow, giving Solace a bit more time now.
Sounds fair.
I didn't want to have to make this post but here it goes.
I am going to put a 1 week cap on not posting. If you do not post for 1 consecutive week, or if you only post sparingly over the course of many weeks I will remove you from the game and find some one more able to meet the 1/day posting expectations.
Exceptions to this are if you warn me before hand, either in the discussion thread or via PM. If you warn me via PM to give me more details than you are comfortable giving in the Discussion section, I will make a post giving everyone a heads up about the situation. The extension to your no-post grace period will not be infinite, and if it happens so frequently as to be disruptive to the game I will talk with you about it via PM to see if a solution can be found.
Given that this is going into effect today I will only start counting days since last post starting today.
...
On another note, I will also only move the party forward if there is a definitive post of action. Post along the lines of "lets do X", "We should do Y", and "I will do Z" will not move the game forward. They are all sentences about something you intend to do in the future. I need posts like "I do X", "We go to Y", etc. This has not been a problem here thus far, but I have had problems with it elsewhere and I just want to get it out of the way now.
...
I have made a spoiler in the Campaign tab for all of the posting etiquette and rules.
If you take an item, please go and mark what you took on the loot sheet as I did for Zig and Marcus in the Owner column.
If no one wants an item, but you want to sell it for loot you someone must still claim the item and account for its weight on their character sheet.
You may have noticed the word 'Open' in the Status column beside the Owner column. This is where I will track if you can claim an item still. Generally, once you leave the area the item will become 'Closed' and you can no longer take it. Exceptions being if you return quickly before something else takes it or it goes off.
I find this helps with the "Oh, but I would have grabbed it!" syndrome some people have. If you don't say you grab it, then you don't grab it.
All sounds good, thanks.
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And that is good GMing in PbP. Games die because of things like that. Thank you.
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Thank you. And sorry about the mix-up with Jericho and Alaina. In the post where I had described Zig's day, I stated that he sat down with the two of them in the tavern. I had incorrectly assumed they were still there.
I'm on my phone ATM, but should post in gameplay in about an hour or so. Love the way you're running this game, Rostam, and I'm very impressed with everyone's posts so far.
No worries Zig. There's a metric ton of NPCs to deal with, and unlike the others I forgot to mention to you that they had left. My fault as much (if not more than) yours.
Not quite sure where everyone is queuing up to head out, but I suggest out the back following Olivia (after the commoner group heads out towards bridge) and back behind the buildings to Claustipher's house...
Sounds like a plan.
Oh, I thought we were going to Claustipher's for his spellbook?
Yep, still the plan.
What does everyone think of our current marching order? Do we want to broaden the formation a bit in the future instead of going single file?
Something like:
Olivia
.
.
.
Zig
Sander Elyas
Claustipher Ian
Solace Markus
Daniil
It would keep us from being too strung out if something surprises us on one end or attacks our middle unseen.
What else do we need to figure out? Door breaches, anything else we need to spell out ahead of time?
I'm new to PbP, so could someone who has done this before give us a starting point on a door breach method?
What does everyone think of our current marching order? Do we want to broaden the formation a bit in the future instead of going single file?
Something like:
Olivia
.
.
.
Zig
Sander Elyas
Claustipher Ian
Solace Markus
DaniilIt would keep us from being too strung out if something surprises us on one end or attacks our middle unseen.
What else do we need to figure out? Door breaches, anything else we need to spell out ahead of time?
I'm new to PbP, so could someone who has done this before give us a starting point on a door breach method?
For reference to everyone else, hit "Reply" to Elyas's comment and you'll get a much better idea of his intended spacing.
I'd actually suggest that we throw Ian in the exact middle, with armored characters on either side. He's the smallest and squishiest, and in his current position he's vulnerable to attacks from "Party-Right."
Solace was planning to follow the group and take the rear position.
As long as Claustipher is in the middle he will be happy as a clam. Heck even rear in a pinch just not the front lol.
Given that Daniil and Solace both want to be at the back you could try something like this:
.
.
.
........Olivia
.
.
.
............Zig
Sander.........Elyas
.....Claustipher
Daniil..Ian..Markus
.........Solace
This way Ian is fully surrounded, anyone charging Claustipher takes two AoO from if they try, Solace and Markus can easily act as a rear guard, and Daniil can still cover pretty much everything with his bow.
I'm good with that order.
Same.
I've placed my family's house dot on the western most house in the village. I imagine that there would be room for the family farmland beyond that.
Marching order works for me. Any ideas on doors?
Knock politely twice and then Zig kicks it down?
I'm not sure I agree on a pre-made SOP for doors. There are too many different situations for door breaches, especially whether we want to rush in or not. Not sure why it's too cumbersome for someone to just say, "we open the door".
Perhaps we should agree on a voting system for when/how often to move through things? Another GM I game with uses majority ruling, and moves on from situations after 3 people have chimed in to say that they want to move on.
I like Ian's idea. Unless in character we've established some sort of leadership group which would constitute Ian's "three voters" (hasn't happened yet), with this many players it seems like two days of realtime discussion about each thing could bleed off any momentum real quick.
I suggest we go with majority to push on as well. However, I would still like a position stacking order for door openings, though I do understand not wanting to have one.
...Not sure why it's too cumbersome for someone to just say, "we open the door"...
My concern is not really with how cumbersome it is, its that its too reliant on everyone being okay with what I do when the door opens. With a SOP for door opening I know where everyone is when it opens, and there's the assumption that unless you say otherwise you wait for everyone to get into position for the door to open.
With no SOP, I assume everyone is where they were in the last post they made. This leads to some one saying "I'm going to open the door, everyone get ready", then everyone posting what they do for when the door opens, then the first person having to say "I open the door" since I am not going to move the game forward with out a specific "I do X" statement from a player. I've seen all of that take 2-3 days before, to open a single door.
And if you couple that with the majority of votes to move forward then you get 5 people who have gotten declared actions, I move the game forward, and the other three are left doing whatever they were in their last post before some one said "I'm going to open the door", which is hardly fair.
***
That is why I would like either a door SOP, or for everyone to be okay with me adjudicating what happens when a door opens without everyone getting a say on what they do when the door opens. Those who haven’t posted an action would still be doing what they were in their last post.
I would also like to point out that there’s two door opening situations, hard or soft. I am only asking for a specific stacking order, not specific actions or spells cast. A Hard door opening will have the same stack pretty much every time, you guys can call out an exception if you don’t want to use the SOP. A soft door opening is going in nonchalantly, no danger expected, first come first serve through the door.
Since the hard door opening rarely changes, we can more easily set up the player positioning in 80% of door openings, even if people haven't responded. In the other 20% you can all decide whats up in that special situation.
Either way, I'd like to hear from everyone on this. I will abide by what a super majority of people want to do in this case (6/9, I am included in this vote).
The two options to vote for are either have a SOP to use most of the time or simply go with majority rules for door openings, possible leaving some people without a say in their position.
My vote is for a SOP.
I like an SOP and use it in the games I GM on here. It just keeps things clean. I doesn't need to be anything fancy.
- My suggestion for a hard opening.
- Best trap finding / perception
- Best disable device if needed
- Good reflex save opens
- Well armored first and 2nd threw the door making room for others to move in if needed.
For a soft opening anyone but Claustipher goes first and once they don't scream and die he goes in.
You can expect a lot of not wanting to be hit from him.
Oh no, I get it. I thought you were talking about what we do after the door is open. What's stopping us from making it just the normal marching order? Maybe move two people up to adjacent to the door?
I'd say whatever method the GM is comfortable with is usually the best at the moment, so I'm voting for SOP although i don't have a strong preference either way.
As for a possible SOP, Olivia would probably work best by moving up to the wall adjacent to the door, fighting with a reach weapon and all that, and she can use her trait to bolster the door opener's AC if need be.
In a bit of a pickle today. Will update the game tomorrow. Sorry for the wait folks.
I don't have experience in PbP, but I can see the advantages of having a specified door breach SOP, if just for the time savings.
@Ian, I think it would be good to spell it out, since wht we decide to do to open a door might be significantly different than travelling. When in a line we need to cover the backside of the formation, going through a door you know most of the trouble will be up front. we also would have a higher priority on a high DEX character up front for opening the door and having a good reflex save.
Do we have anyone with a decent disable device?
We have no traditional rogue-type character. We have two clerics, two paladins, a warpriest, a bloodrager, a wizard, and a sorcerer.
I think the person with the best Reflex saves is going to either be Daniil or Olivia.
I think I might dip rogue in order to get some of those class skills to fill in some of that skill void.
Olivia will have the best save by far once she reaches second level and can add her Charisma to saves. I'm not sure you need to dip rogue if you are willing to invest the skill points, there are other ways around magical traps.
I am an idiot sometimes.
I had already purchased Claustipher a Masterwork Backpack because his stregnth was so low. Since he has been to his house he would have grabbed it and handed off the other to someone else.
So 1 MW Backpack would be up for grabs.
Hi all,
I'll post later tonight. I've had an unexpectedly busy few real-life days.
Hey all,
Sorry for the delay. Just a heads-up: I've been overworking myself for the past few days and in my exhaustion seem to have caught a case of the flu. If I post less frequently in the coming days, it's probably because I'm in a NyQuil fueled haze...
No worries, thanks for letting us know. Get better soon!
Tried to post early this morning instead of late last night and under estimated the time required. Will get the post up this afternoon. Sorry guys.