Generic post to all games: I've been ill the last couple of days. Fever and Headache, and no real interest in any activity that includes, as the name implies, being active, as opposed to passively enduring.
I do feel a bit better today, but not good enough to return to work. As such, I expect that over the next 16 or so hours I will get to post/update in most(maybe not all - dunno how I'll feel later) of my games. This is as much an Aviso as a notification, though, as depending on how I will feel in the next few days(and after returning to work), post rate may be...slow. Where applicable, feel free to bot - (just to be clear: "botting me" is not applicable when I'm GM.)
No rush. Although, I must point out, we totally wouldn't abuse the power of the botted GM.
Honest.
Well, Nissim might, just a little bit, once he realizes that his dreams of infinite yogurt are now possible. But it wouldn't go any further than that!
Probably.
Pretty sure Varuzhan wouldn't go mad with power and create a horde of pygmy werelemmings to serve as his personal army, or anything like that. Mostly sure about that.
The rest of us are utterly trustworthy though, for certain.
The slime creature lurches forward further, dragging Miranda along(regardless if you are prone or not) but not pulling her closer.
I forgot the conditional quantifier. Obviously you are not dragged along if you are no longer grappled at this point due to breaking free. As such, insert: "...forward further, dragging Miranda..."
Going to wait until thw outstanding R3 actions have been resolved before making my own post, because the split between the two rounds is just a bit distracting :p.
Not at all. Technically, since this is "Blocked" initiative, it's you, then them.
As such, those who have actions left in R3 could as well "delay" until the start of Round 4, and then you all act in Round 4 before the enemy.It has no relevance for you at all. In most fights.
In some, things may "happen" at certain round counts, in which case the "bold" would be limited to those above the cutoff, and when the new rounds comes, I'll update with the new situation info for the others(new round group bold), and then after enemy we're back to "you" vs "them".
Alternatively, there may be a hidden Initiative count left(such as in this battle, for the Gnome)...which may break block initiative so I'm keeping you guys in order.
Basically I'm only keeping track because in some situations, it MAY make a difference. But I'll bring those cases to your attention. Outside of them, you're all effectively acting in one block.
I meant distracting from a standpoint of responding to actions those in R3 are doing. For example, if Varuzhan does something for his R3 action that Boros, who is timewise in R4, can't see, but I don't realize it's his R3 action, and I incorporate that action into my own post, well, the little hamster powering the wheel in my head falls down and goes *meh* because its poor little brain can't cope.
It's the humidity down here, doesn't do anything good for my ability to focus.
Aye, but thats the beauty of block initiative: You all act simultaneously. So you could even act in reverse order and thats how things happen.
If there IS an event that depends on initiative order, I'm still sticking with what was rolled. That way, Initiative is a little more meaningful than "go first at start of combat" which is important, no question, but of little importance beyond then with Block.
So, what you see is what you get, as said, you're all there doing stuff simultaneously, and what you see is what you get. Consider it being dynamic chaos of battle. If you act before, Varuzhan reads your action and can coordinate with you, if he acts first, you see his action and can try to coordinate. Some suspension of disbelief is needed, otherwise it would never make sense how flanking even works. ^_^
@Miranda: You are free to make an Escape Artist check during your action, as regular, trying to wriggle free and get away.
The inmediate action as strenght check was an option above and beyond the regular ruleset, consisting of an reflexive attempt to break free by pulling away...with strenght, not smart application of force, shifting away or flexibly pulling free. As such, also the attached penalty, trying to use force to pull away and failing will unbalance you and cause you to fall when the grip is tightened.
Please clarify if you are going with the inmediate strenght check, or using the result as your escape artist check in the round.
Result as my escape artist check in the round then : )
Nope, you narrowly missed, even with the inspiration from Juliette.
Even if it has resistance against slashing, 12 damage would have netted a reaction.
I hope you're feeling better soon, that's a long time to feel unwell. Get the rest you need even if you have to delay this game for a little while. It's not a problem.
I hope you're feeling better soon, that's a long time to feel unwell. Get the rest you need even if you have to delay this game for a little while. It's not a problem.
Ah, I was feeling better last week, and didn't want work in the office to pile up - headed there too early and re-lapsed...is that the word? Like, stopped recovering too early and then went ill again? I'm just taking it easy for the time being.
Relapse is a word yes, I even think it is the right one : )
Purely because I love to watch the world burn, I'm going with yes. ^_^
That, and his medical condition left him with a rather low Wisdom-Score.
@all: I will have about 16 hours left before leaving for my best friends wedding on saturday. It will be a whole-day affair and I am not sure WHEN I'll have access again on sunday or monday.
@Miranda+Nissim: That means I WILL update tomorrow before leaving. If you can, do try and get a post in beforehand. Due to the specific nature of this encounter, it's not that easy to bot you, especially since you both remained somewhat neutral so far.
Ah! Sorry sorry I thought I was still waiting to get unstuck - which upon rereading the last update seems very clear. Sorry!
Also - I can't really think of a good post at this hour so that is another thing I'll have to apologise for.
I think I'll take a look at that rat-summoning skull stick if possible ...
It won't be very flavorful becasue it's turned out to be a long day, but I'll get a post up in a few minutes. I still haven't the slightest idea what Nissim should do.
*Silly 3-at-night stuff*
What I meant to say is that "sure I can get an update in" :D
Also have fun at the wedding!
And tell them that random people on the internet wishes them well :P
All right! Quick tally - since the beginning of this combat the following attack roll dice numbers have been produced by the party:
2 three times
4 one time
5 two times
6 one time
7 two times
9 one time
11 one time
15 one time
17 two times
It is sorta interesting/annoying to note the number of at/bellow ten vs eleven and higher ... :P
(10 vs 4)
Yeah, our dice are sucking hard lately. Think someone touched them and stole away their mojo?
Note that that is just the attack rolls, our skill checks seems to be a bit weighted to the upper end instead.
(Or it could just be that gnome and his cursed totem!)
Edit1:
On a completely different topic I just realized we have a huge portable fire to play with. Hmm hmm hmm ...
Edit2:
Also just realized what icon our new friend is represented by. Nice ... :P
Tally updated :3
1 one times
2 four times
4 one time
5 two times
6 one time
7 two times
9 one time
11 one time
15 one time
17 two times
19 one time (as a touch attack vs inanimate object*)
Things are still looking stellar. But perhaps it is good that we use up our poor rolls here in the beginning and save the nice ones for later : )?
*Well I bloody hope so!!
It's funny about the dice. I've noticed what seems to be "streakiness" in dice before in other campaigns. Long periods where the dice rolls are (what seems) freakishly bad or good.
Yes, I know that dice rollers aren't truly random, but they are close enough to mimicking randomness that it doesn't really matter. I also know that randomness doesn't actually look like what people tend to think it does. But it's still weird...
I've been thinking of running d20 games with 2d10 instead myself, mainly to get a much less random distribution of rolls. Would require some tweaking though so it hasn't happened yet :P
Lol, I'm glad we're at least good at hitting inanimate objects!
2d10 would be an interesting way to revise the game rules, but would it be tricky to have critical hits then? I suppose that might be one of the tweaks you're considering.
Yah crits would probably be something one had to rebalance. Not sure how though : )
It's fun. For a homebrew game, I actually designed a combat system that was loosely inspired by Shadowrun.
Base attack+attribut modifier would be a dice-pool, and each weapon added or subtracted from this dice pool.
Then the dice in this pool would be rolled against a target number, with each "hit" adding damage according to the weapon type.
There were dodge values, which subtracted from the dice pool to roll, and armor, which subtracted from the hits scored(but limited your ability to dodge heavily).
Weapons were grouped in "types", as in, there were a couple categories loosely balanced against each other, which covered a wide range of weapon types.
Result was that e.g. you had a crossbow, which added to the dice pool, and rolled against a moderate target number, but doing little damage per hit(1/2th point). An easy to use weapon, which was not heavily hindered by armor but would never be very damaging.
But you also had something like a two-hander, which subtracted from the dice pool and rolled against a low number and did heavy damage per hit(3 points). A weapon that takes training to use effectively, could be entirely dodged by someone skilled, and moderately affected by armor.
A mace-like weapon was in the middle area, not altering the amount of dice, rolling against a moderate number and doing small damage per hit(1 or 2 points, don't remember). Dodging could still be effective, while armor was only moderately relevant, and the damage potential higher than with crossbows.
I have the details stashed away, it was a more elegant system than I can explain here, but it's been a while. It basically increased damage potential by experience via an extension of the dice pools, and meant that different weapons were more effective for rookies versus veterans(e.g. a crossbow was easy to use and more effective at lower levels, but basically completely outclassed by a longbow at higher levels of training)
It also meant that trying to dodge weapons that dealt heavy blows(few dice, low target, high damage) would be more effective than hoping for armor to protect you(by reducing the dice pool to effectively limit the number of possibly hits), while with other weapons(high dice, high target, high damage) it was more helpful to be heavily armored(by reliably reducing the number of hits done).
On other news, the wedding was fun, I did not get as drunk as feared, and my baby daughter(only baby at the wedding) showed her best behaviour and inspired approximately 4.2 female guests to become pregnant within the year.
So, I feel fine if busy. Would have updated now, before drowning myself in work, but will give Juliette until evening(~12 hours) to get a post in and update later today instead-
She's a very persuasive baby! But .2? Glad you had a good time.
She's a very persuasive baby! But .2? Glad you had a good time.
I imagine some were not entirely convinced, YMMV and what not.
Or perhaps some of the guests inspired to become pregnant were not entirely female?
Glad the wedding was fun, GM Mordred!
4.2 because it's fuzzy. They may or may not become pregnant because of here. Or it may not work for them. The 4.2 is simply a statistical expression of a calculated likelyhood. Most probably, though, it will be 4 or 5, respectively. Maybe 3.
On other news: No mistake - no AoO this time, it basically 5-foot stepped-
Just repeating here in case it gets lost in my gameplay post:
@Varuzhan, you gain an extra attack at your highest BAB for as long as Aldous can concentrate (a move action), which I plan on doing until I can't anymore, due to danger or being dead :)
Just to add to that: Someone already asked about initiative/player order. I stated that normally, what you see is what you get, except in the case of buffs which I gladly add retroactively in order to avoid "lockdown" with people waiting to see if anybody will do certain kinds of buffs before their round comes up.
As such, Varuzhan, feel free to already take the extra attack this turn.
I actually linked the second rule part on the rules question I posted, as well. Because it graphically fails to demonstrate what happens if the attacker is exactly in-between two directions.
The rules question came up inconclusive.
However, I would, in the future, want to avoid needing to roll to find the correct direction to start counting from.
So henceforth, as a house rule, we will use 1= upward direction on map and counting clockwise from there(so 8 ends on square upper left of target)
As such, using this new established ruling, I concur with the sentiment that after clarification, things should be re-rolled. As such, Nissim will get to roll a single scatter die(1d8) with 1=>North, counting clockwise.
Since we're already there, it will not automatically scatter the maximum distance as per range increments thrown. Since it's easy enough to do, we'll instead "scatter" once for each range increment, in single 5-foot steps and ignoring results that would go closer to the original target again.
(so if you scatter northeast, only northwest, north, northeast, east, or southwest would be valid for subsequent scatters. If you scatter south, only west, southwest, south, southeast, and east would be valid.(yep, it could go west, then east, and end up only one range increment away)
I doubt it will come up much with the ease of hitting touch AC and the close quarters in urban environments, so I'm happy to simply roll those myself and present the result, no need for people to remember them, just wanted to put it in writing beforehand so it does not seem arbitrary later.
That all works fine for me. However you want to handle it is good. I'll roll again.
So I confess I don't understand something: what caused the burning wagon to catch on fire? Does that fire appear like it will consume this building? Varuzhan has had a one-track mind for a while, so I missed the necessary background.
Aldous created a fire blast the first time around, and has a casting tradition that is linked to a skill. He rolled a 20 on the linked skill check, and I rolled max damage on the roll.
I decided that despite the blast being short-ranged, the critical success made it go a bit further, and set the wagon ablaze. It was mostly for flavor and unlikely to consume the building unless someone helps it spread.
Daughter got an ear infection, skipped school yesterday and today, but she'll be going back tomorrow.
Saturday is my daughter's 4th birthday, and tomorrow is her last day of summer school and then she has 4 (I think) weeks until the new school year starts.
Well happy birthday to your little girl from some random dude on the Internet :D!
Indeed, HBD to your daughter, Juliette!
Happy birthday to her and no worries.
I already suspected something and didn't want to advance too far while you're unable to post. Alas, I will update today, because I myself will be presenting my baby girl to her grandparents this weekend. That means I will be unlikely to post from Saturday to Monday (again), but I'll see if I can manage.
+1 on the Happy Birthday : )
So, some stuff to keep you possibly occupied over the weekend ;)
On other note: Aldous, could you fill in your skills in the Skills spreadsheet? I'm lazy, I know -_-
But I would like people to keep their stuff maintained themselves, because if I get in a habit of doing that for them, I won't ever get to put more information added there(like languages known, that one would be handy) and would have to cross-check on every level-up.
I'd like to make an Intimidate check, would flashing those scars get me a bonus of any sort? I mean, they are the real thing, and a lot of them are, by size and location, indicative of injuries that would be crippling or even fatal barring swift treatment with magic or a s!!~-ton of luck. Only, in Boros' case, a lot of those scars were crudely stitched or even burned shut, and some didn't even get that level of treatment, being left to close on their own. I imagine that would be pretty ghastly to see on a person, especially if that person then offers to show you how those scars were made to begin with.
First of all, do make the check. If a bonus or malus applies, it can always be added to the roll afterwards.
Regarding a Bonus: You will be getting a circumstance bonus, having him at your mercy, being more, and having witnessed what happened. Depending on how other people react, that will be between +2 and +4.I am NOT keen on the idea of adding backstory-elements like your gnoll scars as elements that give actual boni...because that is basically what traits are for.(or some Feats, actually) Traits=>background elements that affect game mechanics. Letting background elements persistently affect mechanics without taking an trait, then, quickly escalates.
I DO, however, reserve the option of giving out boni for fitting roleplaying, such as your reasoning here with your scars. But i do NOT want people to try fishing for boni by roleplaying, or expecting them. As such, these "boni" will always result in a lowered DC or a penalty on the opposed roll unless those have already been stated/rolled.(It's also one reason I sometimes don't explicitly state the DC, because the way you do things can affect it ever so slightly(-1 or -2 max)). That allows me to apply them when applicable without explicitly stating so(which means you always have an incentive to roleplay well, but cannot make assumptions or expectations regarding boni.)
In this case, you already do get a higher situational bonus which would not stack up.
Understandable. I asked in this case, because Boros specifically used the source of the scars as the threat, with the scars themselves serving as proof, of sorts, that he knows what he's talking about. I figure gnolls have a shit reputation just about everywhere, and that even a common meathead on the street would have heard some horror stories at some point in his life.
Boros merely lets the guy believe that the scars are the result of vigorous interrogation, instead of being from battles or adult fun time activities as they truly are.
Aye. and that middle part is exactly the "problem". If gnolls have a shitty reputation and showing those scars will work on some low-life from the slums, then they should work against pretty much any other person too if you have time to give them a story.
Hence why they would need to be a trait bonus to apply "flat" to every attempt to intimidate. Glad you understand.
So, as mentioned before, I'm leaving for my parents place after a good nights sleep. I tried to set you up with some potential topics for interaction and speculation among yourselves. Feel free to make use of that.
Time will advance until such time Slimerina reaches the stairs, your captive will still be bound, most likely, so you have a couple rounds of actions. But everything that depends on feedback from me will be delayed.
Have a nice weekend and hopefully read you on monday.
Have fun : )
@Dices - I say we torch our current ones and get some nicer ones :P
@Loot - I just want to reassure people that even though Miranda is really happy to stuff things into her bag she will empty that bag later on once we have a chance to breathe so we can all look at and split the loot fairly : )