NEWB combat practice.....

Game Master BoJengo

how's it going?

i am new to pathfinder and this message board forum but have been playing RPG's since i was a a kid. i really love the concept of play by post especially now that i am older with a job & family. i already have a few people interested in starting a play by post adventure, 'Master of the Fallen Fortress', on this message board.

before we undertake our adventure a few of us would like to get more familiar with the combat system and how its all going to play out online. so we want to try to iron out some of the kinks & technical difficulties before we invest in the main adventure.

is anyone interested in running thru some combat scenarios with us? start with the basics and run thru different types of combat possibilities: poison, grappling, etc....

everyone is welcome to be part of this whether you are new or experienced & wouldn't mind showing some of us the ropes.....

I'd be interested. I've never gotten to do PbP before, and I'd love to learn alongside you guys.

Cool, Seranov.....we'll just take it step by step & solve problems as they come up. waiting on at least one of my buddies to get on here and then we can start running some different scenarios.

i am not sure how this all works, but i got a message stating that since i started this thread that i can use this thread to start a campaign thread. so i might be able to bring you start over to the other thread? but i saw on others recruiting post that the GM wanted everyones emails so he could invite them? or maybe it was so he could send them a map?

i am think we can start with a basic square map and use a coordinate system. A-Z & 1-##? i know others use the free map tools. we will have to explore all options as we get there

Sounds legit. You can toss me a PM or something if you like!

Are you looking for people to run through some practice combat scenarios with, or somebody to run a few for you?

I wouldnt mind running a few, i have some experience pbp DMing, and lots of playing experience, so i could help you. Just tell me what you need practice on. Also, would this help me secure a spot in your pbp campaign later? :)

sounds good guys!

Seranov, i'll keep you updated

Nazard, either way.

Faelax, sounds good. someone with experience is definitely a welcomed invite. i think we should start with just a basic 3v3 or 4v4 scenario against goblins. nothing too complex then eventually evolve to into specific combat situations. so if you want to walk us thru this whole process it would be appreciated. what would be the first step? for me to create a campaign thread from this thread? how do i make you the GM?

and faelax, you are more then welcome to join our campaign once we start......

also what do you recommend we do for mapping? i heard map tools is good? http://www.maptools.org/ or is there a better system?

Maptools is cool but take a good bit of work to set up.

Roll20 is nice, too. It's like a lighter version of Maptools that's browser-based.

roll20 looks cool! without any objection we'll use that for our maps then

Im not too familiar with roll20, but ill look into it some more

What are you guys looking to practice anyways? Flanking, manuvers, casting? I can put together anything, but i need to know first

I'd be interested in getting involved in this as a player or GM. Do you guys want to take turns running the combat scenarios in a round robin?

faelax, a little of everything. i figure the first battle could just be the basics so we could get familiar with the way combat resolves and then start to add creatures that have different abilities like poison, grapple, etc.... so maybe a goblin group first then giant spiders then maybe face some magic users, etc....

psychic, sounds good. that might be a good idea for us all to get a chance to run different battles in order to get some experience. i really like the idea of GM'ing a game but would hate to put everyone thru the pain of waiting for me to figure things out. sounds like a good idea

lets let faelex design the first couple of battles for us and then after that we can all take turns. sound good?

so i guess the next step is to start picking characters & rolling for attributes or should we set a certain amount of points? and do we do that in this thread or wait for the combat thread? not sure how this all works....

Hey there,

How would you feel about someone else joining the party? Another relative newbie here...

for sure jason! we haven't finalized anything yet. still just getting things together.

I would say roll up a 1st level character on a 20 point buy for now. Do whatever with classes.

Sound good to all here? If we all go through with it, we have 5 people as of now.

I say 20 point buy, 2 traits, average character wealth for first level. How does that sound to everyone else? I think I'll make a sword and board fighter.

Sounds good, standard stuff for training. Im leaning towards Magus for this, just cause they tend to be awesome

Okay, I am thinking this might be a fun game to try.

The first battle will consist of a number of bandits from the back of the gamemastery book. 1st level human warriors. just a heads up. Ill link the roll20 game here when i get it figured out.

We're doing this as pbp, right? The roll20 is for maps, correct?

yeah pretty much. Ill open a thread i guess here soon when we have everyone on board, but the roll20 is for maps

Would it be cool if I played a Magus, too?

I've had a Staff Magus I've wanted to play, but nowhere to try him out.

@BoJengo: I've been thinking of creating something like this for a little while now - are you interested in creating a constant NEWB combat arena? It could keep turning over new combats as needed...
Personally my PF-combat is rusty, and my understanding of some of the grittier techniques is poor - I'd love to see a mentor-led approach that shows the die-rolls, the reasoning, the math etc....

I'd like to watch if that's ok.

I bought the core rules and the inner sea book so far. Will you be using rules outside the core rules?

I guess im answering DM questions

Yes, anything that can be found on D20PFSRD is fair game
Constantly, id have to have other people DM occasionally
Watching, yes that is fine.
Go ahead and run your magus Seranov, i'll draw up something else

Cool, thanks Faelax.

This is great. I don't think my brain can take making another character, but I'll gladly run some combat for you guys if needed. Just PM me whenever.

@BoJengo: I've been thinking of creating something like this for a little while now - are you interested in creating a constant NEWB combat arena? It could keep turning over new combats as needed...

Personally my PF-combat is rusty, and my understanding of some of the grittier techniques is poor - I'd love to see a mentor-led approach that shows the die-rolls, the reasoning, the math etc....

that sounds like a really good idea. not sure of the logistics of it but i love the concept.

i'm really liking the ninja class, if not i might go with a cleric.

so far we have DM Faelax, BoJengo, TrueChaos & psychic machinery? Tor Sasun are you in as well? and shizzle will be the backup QB ;)

if anyone is interested please just let us know

Yeah, I'm down.

I'm interested. I'd like to play a spiked chain/kusarigama wielding inquisitor to check out trips and disarms, grapples etc...

I'm happy to play in the second group if there are too many right now, and jasonwire also said he was interested before me... :)

(BTW I'm going to investigate starting a PF Novice Combat Training Arena by making a thread and see if i can't get some traction on it...)

DM Faelax, BoJengo, TrueChaos, psychic machinery, Tor Sasun, Oceanshieldwolf, & jasonwire. (thanks for bringing that up ocean cuz i overlooked him without the avatar)

(BTW I'm going to investigate starting a PF Novice Combat Training Arena by making a thread and see if i can't get some traction on it...)

sounds good! i bet it would be really popular. seems like pazio should hire people to do this to get more involved in the community. i think the medium can be a bit intimidating for most to take the initiative to get started. if they a user friendly entry level way to get familiar with the system it would only grow the community. i can see a big shift taking place, back to these type of games after people get sick of playing shallow video games that are more eye candy then substance.

i think the medium can be a bit intimidating for most to take the initiative to get started. if they a user friendly entry level way to get familiar with the system it would only grow the community.

I've been playing RPGs since the late 80s and I find Pathfinder a little confusing...I was hoping if I could see some example characters, how feats work, etc I could pick it up. I have a ton of stupid questions watching might answer. If I could ask questions on occasion I'd appreciate it.

BoJengo wrote:

i think the medium can be a bit intimidating for most to take the initiative to get started. if they a user friendly entry level way to get familiar with the system it would only grow the community.

I've been playing RPGs since the late 80s and I find Pathfinder a little confusing...I was hoping if I could see some example characters, how feats work, etc I could pick it up. I have a ton of stupid questions watching might answer. If I could ask questions on occasion I'd appreciate it.

this thread is going to be all about the learning process, the more questions the better. I think what we will do is have a combat thread just purely for combat with a seperate discussion thread so we can all communicate.

My schedule is pretty open the rest of the week. So faelax you can start the combat thread whenever your ready....

Will open up combat tommorow. Have your characters ready

Hey guys, life got in the way and I haven't been able to stat my.character up. I'm going to sit the first combat scenario out and come in later if that's ok.

Is there any particular character someone would want to see created/played?

I would happily assist the GM as needed, or create a sample character to showcase particular rules (CMB, for example).

Hey guys, life got in the way and I haven't been able to stat my.character up. I'm going to sit the first combat scenario out and come in later if that's ok.

its all good. just hang around. hopefully we can just keep turning over battles and you can join whenever.

Is there any particular character someone would want to see created/played?

I would happily assist the GM as needed, or create a sample character to showcase particular rules (CMB, for example).

i don't think we have a healer or magic user yet....

as far as GM'ing. it sounds good to me. this isn't really too formal so we were going to all take turns GM'ing to get a hang of the mechanics. faelex is putting together some combats and was going to post them yesterday but i understand things can get busy. so lets give him at least today to get this combat thread up

OK, i will toss up a couple of quick examplar type characters, just to show what can be done.

OK, i will toss up a couple of quick examplar type characters, just to show what can be done.

awesome!

Hey guys, im going to have to drop. Im in far to much stuff rigght now to be able to do this. Sorry

its all good faelax! come around when you get time. this is about having fun and not an obligation

well, in that case i'll start the combat thread and at some point i can pass the reigns to psychic and/or psionic

Sounds like a plan to me.