Well, you haven't currently found another way into the deeper levels of the mines -- you're not going to be able to probably side step all the critters all the way down. Kidnapping one of the morlocks is a realistic possibility that would let you get some more information on what else is in the mines, etc.
Drakes are not intelligent like dragons, they're basically big animals. They receive offerings from the morlocks, but they're actually probably not going to be super interested in fighting -- one really just showed up to see if it was getting fed. They can't even reach you until someone directs one of the platforms over to them.
Ah, ok, having a bit of trouble visualizing the positions of the different entities in a 3D space - I thought the drakes had their lair near the main entrance to the mines.
If you look at the map (it's in my profile, can you see it?), there's a big gap. The morlocks are in the fort on the top of the map, the Athasian party is on the eastern cliff, and the other party is on the western one. The bottom caves are the drake's home.
Also, I just want to emphasize again how open this scenario is -- the Athasian party can absolutely visit the Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved world (that's where the other party is from), if they want to once they've resolved the current issues.
I brought this up a while back, but a reminder that I'm away without internet from July 14-22. Bot as necessary.
I'll update tonight, have some crap to take care of at home first and just can't concentrate right now.
Okay, I'll assume we're going to fight for a while unless anyone suggests something different.
I'm ruling that the PCs have one surprise round before we roll initiative, so come up with your best attacks.
Also, does everyone understand the strategic layout here? I posted a map of the level we're on, which is in the signature of this profile, but I keep getting the sense people are confused about the layout of the space.
Small request: can you roll initiative with the surprise round? Speeds thing up.
Example:
PC has surprise round and can post round 1 actions
Figure I’d just bring it up as I’ve seen GMs do surprise round, and then wait for round 1
One more thought -- the highest initiative modifier in the group (as in the highest individual initiative modifier possessed by a single character) will also be applied to the group initiative.
Why don't you roll for the party Malkaer, and I'll roll for the NPCs?
Everyone can start out by posting their actions for the surprise round. If the NPCs get the initiative thereafter, then I think we have to pause to adjudicate if their actions disrupt casting or stun characters etc.,
Does everyone see I posted a map?
It's under the name 'Sebecloki' when I post with the 'Sebecloki' profile -- there are two links. -- the one you want is "The Riese: Level 1" I can see how the verbal description is confusing if you can't see it, but I have made a very detailed map for you!
I think this got lost somewhere in the discussion, because more than one of you seems to be posting as if they can't find/don't see it.
I just want to make sure we're all clear on that before we do combat -- I'm not trying to add new obstacles, I have a map for you!
Yes, I've been able to see it. I think I needed to surmise paths of platforms that I can control, but it seems I (correctly?) assumed that I can get us onto one and have it approach the surface of the ceremony/morlocks.
Yes, they can move between all the different entrances/areas on this level.
Posted action for the surprise round, assuming that this occurs after platform operation
I've been studying the map, but it doesn't show the verticality of the space. Is the fire drake on the same level as the morlock party, below us? Is it on a different level?
Here's my attempt at a cross-section -- is that clearer?
I've added that map to my profile -- I still sense some confusion on the geometry of the battle area -- does this clarify matters for everyone?
Can everyone please double-check that their proposed actions accord with the Alternative Action Economy from Pathfinder Unchained? I'm still waiting for clarification on a couple of points before I start adjudicating the surprise round.
Wow, the alternate combat system is way better than the normal system. We get one extra set of action (yes, even in surprise round which means we can move and attack in that round instead of doing one or the other) as long as it is not advanced actions such as a full round action, using a supernatural/SLA ability or any other actions listed on the page that uses two or more actions. It's even better that haste got buffed even the extra action can only be used to attack. Although the downside is that the ones that we will be fighting also get to benefit from this system.
I see that in the surprise round you get two actions, casting a "standard action" spell is 2 actions. I assume that would be equivalent to manifesting a standard action psionic power. Seems to check out.
Just to take a quick survey -- both Kethe and Malkaer have expressed some interest in visiting the Arcana Evolved world -- how interested is everyone else in that idea. I'd like to start thinking about it now if we're going to do that because it's a fairly underdeveloped world and I'll probably have to make up a lot of stuff. One idea I have is House Vordon will want to establish a trading post on Serran, and you can help set it up with the visitors, who also want help against the giants, so we can do some kingdom building/Game of Thrones kind of stuff. Another idea I have was having a spy mission in the giant capital as part of that whole scenario.
Well, I figure that it can wait. For awhile, as we have this campaign to go through.
But as we get so Mythic that Athas can’t hold us...well, an undeveloped world with warring gods and dragons? A great place for high mythics
I don't know anything about Arcana Evolved but I think it would be fun to try. TBH for me it's option overload, all of the above sound great. I've love to explore your interpretations of Athas some more, other worlds sound cool. Whatever order others want to do these things in is fine with me. Just let us know if some options become mutually exclusive.
Well, we still have a ways to go before we finish up the Kalidnay scenario, so this isn't a super pressing issue, but I think Malkaer has a good point. Actually, though there aren't really gods in Arcana Evolved either -- there is no cleric class and all the gods have basically gone to sleep or retreated from view. I'm interpreting that as there were no real gods to begin with.
Okay, I'm adjudicating the surprise round tomorrow night. Anyone who wants to post additional qualifications to their proposed actions, do so by then.
Malkaer, please roll for the party, and I'll roll initiative for the villains. Add the initiative modifier for the individual with the highest modifier to that total as well.
Rokan: the platform crush maneuver does a ginormous amount of damage (10d6). I'm just trying to use the NPCs to hint at stuff you hadn't thought of, I'm not trying to railroad you, but I also wanted to make clear that this is a significant weapon.
Yeah, that's a nice improvised weapon? How much psionic power does it require?
It's not really an issue of 'putting points in' -- the idea is that it's just increasing the effect of your abilities 100 fold for certain kinds of psionic powers. It's really more like an ability amplifier with some toys it assumes you'll want to use it with. So you can float up this ginormous thing and the stop of the telekinesis effect, which then drops it on whoever.
The platforms are 64ft long and look like this
Actually, I just re-read the rules -- it will do 20d6 damage if you drop it from more than 150ft.
I'm with Malkaer that the exploration of the other world can wait - there is still a lot to do on Athas. Kethe's main interest in that world is the potential securing of allies, resources or knowledge to help her in her quest for the restoration of Ahtas.
I'm genuinely soliciting what will keep people interested, here are my major ideas outside resolving the Kelmarane situation, tell me what you'd want to play:
(1). A series of linked adventures near Raam; this would incorporate the Dregoth Ascending trilogy with a version of Assassin Mountain converted from Al-Qadim. This would probably also involve a portal to the City of Brass somewhere, in which I'd use Necromancer Games' version of the city.
(2). Something in Gulg that would incorporate jungle/African themed adventures, like a jungle cruise, King Kong/giant apes, something like King Solomon's Mines, and killer lions. There are some old Dungeon adventures I might use for parts of this.
(3). The Black Spine mega-adventure (I'd have to fix a few parts with the plot in this, as some of it makes very little sense, but the maps and set pieces are really cool).
(4). Something in Balic with a pirates theme, except it's silt pirates on levitating psionic ships.
(5). Any other places people especially want to visit/explore?
Okay, there are several conditions in effect here -- Rokan's drop is going to cause massive damage AND wound threshold issues, and Kethe's spells will probably stun several of the morlocks. I had to look up a bunch of rules about falling damage to make sure I was understanding the rules correctly for this scenario.
I'll sort it all out tomorrow in a post where I describe the action.
At least one urban athas setting (a-la Freedom/Tyr) would be cool.
Soooo many characters, and not sure who is active. Can everyone post their initiative modifiers?
There should be a list of characters in the campaign info tab.
It's probably not going to work to ask for people to post when some aren't posting but once every other week if that (that's why I have more people than usual, so the game keeps moving and we just keep recruiting as needed to keep the game moving forward). If you really can't find it, I'll look it up for you.
I made a new map for the city-state of Raam too Map of Raam. You can see the Mountain of Assassins mentioned previously -- I think I'm leaning towards Raam as the later location of the campaign, and using that instead of Katapesh for some of the later Legacy of Fire adventures, which will allow some urban adventuring.
Raam sounds great!
I can agree, Raam sounds like it will be fun.
Hi everybody. I thought I'd be able to keep up with my pbp despite recent changes in my workload, but it's apparent that isn't the case. Regretfully I'm going to withdraw myself from this game as I'm unable to reliably participate :(
My apologies, and best of luck to everyone!
“The idea was one roll for the whole group and add the highest individual modifier, so I think that's 28“
How about take the average? This takes into account both lows and highs. So...
/8 = 5.4, so it becomes +5 for the party. Then we just roll once.
———-
Or do block initiative. So fast characters go first and slower ones go slower...usually. Thus it become:
Round 1
PCs who rolled high <—— (go)
NPC rolled medium
PCs who rolled low
Just some ideas. But happy to do it anyway you want
I don't conceptually have any problem with some of your ideas, but practically what I'm trying to get around is having the game locked up because we're waiting for people to post -- such as waiting for the fast characters to post before the medium rolls, etc.
The only solution I see to incorporating the kind of granularity/stratification you're suggesting is using the combat phases/phased combat system I suggested thinking about at the beginning of the campaign. I remember Tkk-Tkk hated it, but that player is gone now, so maybe we could reopen that discussion.
If people need a refresher, this is the link to the book with the combat phases system on pp 89ff.
But, in any event, let's finish up the combat the way we're doing it right now, and we can talk about other options for the future.
Let's actually go ahead and have another discussion about combat rules since we've had an almost complete turn over in players.
My preference is to have a fairly gritty system where you need to look into strategy heavily in any combat, and any potential melee is deadly, even at high levels.
There are already elements of that built into the massive damage, and Wounds and Vigor system.
However, I'd also like to add in a more robust wound system -- one which would increase penalties based on what percentage of your Wounds/Vigor you have left, as well as have a system where every attack potentially inflicted significant wound damage. I'd be responsible for the bookkeeping on these subsystems, I'll just tell you what the effects are in they apply.
I think the phased combat would help with initiative issues, since then we can just have a 24hr hour period where everyone posts their actions without having to deal with initiative in the future.
Yeah, let's complete the encounter.
It seems our ranged attackers got this. No need for melee intervention.
I'm genuinely soliciting what will keep people interested, here are my major ideas outside resolving the Kelmarane situation, tell me what you'd want to play:
(1). A series of linked adventures near Raam; this would incorporate the Dregoth Ascending trilogy with a version of Assassin Mountain converted from Al-Qadim. This would probably also involve a portal to the City of Brass somewhere, in which I'd use Necromancer Games' version of the city.
(2). Something in Gulg that would incorporate jungle/African themed adventures, like a jungle cruise, King Kong/giant apes, something like King Solomon's Mines, and killer lions. There are some old Dungeon adventures I might use for parts of this.
(3). The Black Spine mega-adventure (I'd have to fix a few parts with the plot in this, as some of it makes very little sense, but the maps and set pieces are really cool).
(4). Something in Balic with a pirates theme, except it's silt pirates on levitating psionic ships.
(5). Any other places people especially want to visit/explore?
I vote for scenario 1.
Let's actually go ahead and have another discussion about combat rules since we've had an almost complete turn over in players.
My preference is to have a fairly gritty system where you need to look into strategy heavily in any combat, and any potential melee is deadly, even at high levels.
There are already elements of that built into the massive damage, and Wounds and Vigor system.
However, I'd also like to add in a more robust wound system -- one which would increase penalties based on what percentage of your Wounds/Vigor you have left, as well as have a system where every attack potentially inflicted significant wound damage. I'd be responsible for the bookkeeping on these subsystems, I'll just tell you what the effects are in they apply.
I think the phased combat would help with initiative issues, since then we can just have a 24hr hour period where everyone posts their actions without having to deal with initiative in the future.
I am fine for whatever system the majority of players prefer. I am so used to the traditional HP system that something different is fine for me.
I have a document for discussion before we proceed:
I've made up a 'work in progress' document that collects the various alternative rules mentioned in the house rules document, along with the phased combat system, organized them, and made a table of contents. I hope that will make using these rules easier, since you can search it, and don't have to look through the larger online databases for things.
My idea of the phased combat is everyone does a 'battle plan' where they start an entry with ooc text that schematizes their actions with the following template and insert their action with the AP total in (1) -- i.e. full attack (1 AP).
1. Free Actions
2. Fast Casting
3. First Step
4. Standard Spellcasting
5. First Attack
6. First Half Movement
7. Second Attack
8. Second Half Movement
9. Remaining Attack(s)
10. Final Spellcasting
11. Final Actions
Then, you describe what you are doing in a narrative fashion.
Also, I'm not really sure what the plan is here.
You've created a whole where the captive can be rescued, or some of the weaker morlocks picked off as hostages, but everyone is continuing to just lob bombs.
You've done very well in the surprise round, but that isn't going to work as a general tactic. You haven't seen their full capabilities yet, nor are some of these strategies going to function in more confined dungeon areas. I just want to encourage people to start thinking strategically.
I have a question for players using arcane magic - are you attempting to disguise that in any way?
@GM, I think there is no plan. As this is our first fight together, we are not aware of each others' capabilities, so coming up with a strategy would be a bit difficult. Additionally, we have the Table 2 group - we have no idea what they can do either. It is also difficult to come up with a strategy with this many people and in a PbP format, not sure what a good solution would be there.
Kethe has a bunch of concealing spells, like fog cloud and obscuring mist, but I'm not sure if those would be of us in this context.