What size is that earth elemental? Being that it has tremorsense, it can pinpoint where to go :)
OK so, I am assuming you cast mage armor on Brodin before doing this.
As things are now going to get interesting, please see the map on roll20.
Initiative Belle, Garrosh, Reynaud, Agyen, Tony, Brodin
What size is that earth elemental? Being that it has tremorsense, it can pinpoint where to go :)
OK so, I am assuming you cast mage armor on Brodin before doing this.
As things are now going to get interesting, please see the map on roll20
Small. I hadn't thought of that. Nice that it can find the nasty thing! And yes, the order of events were cast mage armor, start summon spell, cast summon spell, cast vanish, instruct elemental to attack .
Surprise Round begins after Belle summons the earth elemental.
Belle's action is to cast vanish (on herself or the elemental is unclear) and send the earth elemental to whatever is under the earth.
Mage Armor has been cast on Brodin.
If anyone else wants to do any buffing or reading of actions. Please do so. You pretty much have several rounds as Belle is casting. I'll give you two full rounds of actions and one action for the surprise round.
Depending on what actions are taken, may accelerate things.
Should we discuss the rule about ammunition breaking? Or are we completely ignoring that rule?
Your game, your rules as far as I'm concerned.
My opinion?
The rule is a pain in the butt as far as I'm concerned. For magical arrows it makes a bigger difference, but for mundane ammo it just means making sure you have 60 arrows in your backpack. For a strength based archer so what. All that record keeping for a teensie bit of realism that just isn't worth it.
Now if you are dealing with adamatine or +1 arrows, that's a different matter. I still would prefer a more streamlined way of doing things like 20 arrows always gives you X shots with a constant rate or recovery instead of rolling 20+ times.
But I agree with Reynauld - any GM deserves the respect need to let him or her make that call. It is a rule even if it is a pain in the butt rule.
If we were playing a game with a simpler system, like FATE or Cypher, I wold consider it a GM Intrusion to say 'hey, you are out of ammo' and give the archer player an FATE chip or XP. I don't like tracking stuff like this closely, but I also don't like the idea of an archer walking around with 20 arrows and being able to recycle all 20 of them after every combat. I don't have a good system, as the one pathfinder game I run with an archer, the archer has an efficient quiver and spends every night making and repairing ~120 arrows, so it has been a non-issue.
What I would like is someone that is somewhat realistic in that you can't recycle limited ammo forever, but doesn't track every piece of ammo. For now, until I figure out a better system, normal ammo can be recycled after a combat, but any hit with a critical or miss with a 1 will break or lose the ammo. But, within a combat, you need to be aware of your ammo. If you got 20 crossbow bolts, and you shoot 5/round, you can only sustain that for 4 rounds before you run out.
Magical/medical special material ammo will go by the rules, until something better is worked out. For special materials, I would like to figure something out so you can retrieve the adamantine/iron arrowhead and affix it to a normal arrow at a later time.
Is this acceptable? Does anyone have a different idea or a system that has worked in their own game?
And this is not 'my' game. It is ours. If there are rules that don't work, let's talk about them and figure out an acceptable option.
Hmm, so, now that the caffeine level in my system is returning to normal, the thoughts have acquired speed.
Mending is a 0-level spell. As long as someone has this memorized, normal, non-magical arrows can be repaired. Even those of special material. No need to track broken arrows outside of combat if someone has a mending spell handy.
Magical arrows, can be repaired by make whole and will restore magical property if caster level is sufficient.
In combat, need to keep track of what you have shot, but can be retrieved afterwards.
for
That all sounds fine to me.
FWIW Rappan Athuk is the only campaign where excessive bookkeeping makes sense, since you are so far from a place where you can replenish your supply, but the system you propose seems a reasonable alternative.
Sounds groovy to me
Hi everyone - I am posting this to all my games: unfortunately these past few days have not been easy, and only now I had the time to post anything at all. I have a close one in my family who is sick, and we have been in and out of hospitals and other doctor appointments non-stop.
I am not really sure when this will be sorted, but I am hoping it will happen soon... Maybe by the end of next week. I will try to keep you updated as I can.
Very sorry for your situation, Garrosh. Sending lots of healing light in hopes that things resolve themselves soon. When you get back, just give a heads up. I'll DMPC you in the meantime.
alrighty then, let me see what a Warpriest can do....
FYI - Brodin, that was the surprise round. One action doesn't mean one full round action. ;) Not that it matters between all teh damage done to the poor ghoul.
FYI - Brodin, that was the surprise round. One action doesn't mean one full round action. ;) Not that it matters between all teh damage done to the poor ghoul.
Doh! I should have realised, sorry.
I will reduce the arrows used to 1 (going up to 4 this round), and not charge myself for a ki attack this round. Just ignore the extra attacks
On a long vacation this weekend. Traveling most of today and Monday. Unsure of how much time I will have online.
Eeeesh, complicated last couple of weeks people... Still not out of the woods yet, but I think I can start slowly getting back to it.
Thanks for the patience throughout this absence.
not a problem Garrosh. Thanks for poking your head in. Will continue to send all the ghoul attacks your way ;)
As it should be :)
Ok, So who is doing what? Maybe it's the vodka, but I have no idea if you are going for the sarcophagus or the trapdoor?
I figure whomever posts first - Tony of Agyen.
Did I get it right? Is it whomever or whoever?
Former ESL teacher here: simplest way to decide if you want whom or who is to change it to the correlating gendered pronouns, such as "I figure it is him that posts first" or "I figure it is he that posts first". Which one makes the most sense to you?
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Then it should be who! Thanks for the grammar lesson :)
Guys, I'm just bringing this up on Discussion because I'm not really getting how we are planning to tackle the game.
Belle, you say if I DO need to mess with the sarcophagus... I mean, we don't have to mess with anything, so my question is - how do you intend to ascertain what we are going to mess with or not?
Let's not forget Garrosh on the one hand is a Warpriest, and by definition a religious one. He is in Rappan Athuk because his village was raided by cultists he believes may be related to this place, so he is here to wreck havoc and to pay them back in the same coin.
So... What is the plan? Are we bypassing everything that doesn't directly jumps at our face? Heck, in one way or another we are adventurers right? And even if this is the most dangerous place ever, we have to risk something, right?
I already think we quit too fast on the ghouls because it seemed too hard - we really didn't risk an ounce there.
Now we are thinking about bypassing the sarcophagus because... It is a sarcophagus, and may hold something dangerous in there...?
Please keep in mind Garrosh is not reckless, he is not going to roar in and open it regardless of whatever - he is headstrong, but intelligent, values intel and information, so there's that.
As a player, I am here to succeed, but I am here to PLAY also - I agree with being as careful as we can be in a place such as Rappan Athuk, full stop.
But I completely disagree in bypassing something because it MAY be dangerous - everything in here will probably present a danger one way or another, so that will mean simply avoiding (if we can) all possible danger, and go... Where? Do what?
Sorry for the long winded post guys, maybe I'm just tired, but I'm really not getting this.
I'm totally getting you. I'm getting a little frustrated myself at the lack of initiative. I don't think everything should be decided as a team. It is WAY slowing the game down. If you want to touch the sarcophagus, do it. If you want to open the trap door do it. At this point I'm ready to accept any consequences.
My comment above about the sarcophagus and trap door were that since the two of you posted that you wanted to do something, then just do it and whoever posts first will have their action go off and something may happen.
My comment in gameplay was more of an IC reaction.
I can see why it would be confusing. Belle is cautious and scared, while I as a player I just want the game to move on. I was actually thinking of making her more impulsive - there is precedent you know, but only when a person is in trouble - even though I intended for her to be a soft artist type that is more a follower.
Couple comments from the GM.
1) I very rarely post IC on weekends. If that is slowing things down, please let me know. However, I will do what I can to accelerate the pace without taking all decisions away from the party.
2) my normal MO is when two characters have expressed the same course of action, I go with it. UNLESS two other characters express contrary opinions. That's what we got here.
3) I agree with Garrosh. If you run away from everything that may be dangerous, just go home now. Characters will die. There are traps in this dungeon which will TPK the entire group, no questions asked. (You may be standing in one right now....) The progression of CR from dungeon level to dungeon level is not your normal level progression. You are 7 days from anything that remotely resembles a 'home base'. This is a VERY tough scenario.
As much as I want to push things forward, I will not go 'reckless mode', not even with an half-orc Warpriest of Ragathiel :D
But yes, thank you for the feedback Belle and HoF - I do think we need to get the game moving, or else it will slowly die. Even more so, since we are looking at a dungeon crawl, which needs to be agile in PbP :P
Will put the pressure on just a tad further with Garrosh.
I'll do what i can to accelerate, but if you require posting on weekends, I would suggest you find yourself another GM. That is where I need to draw the line.
Not really pushing you to go faster. I really think the slowness is our own fault. We are pretty wishy-washy and tentative about facing danger. This is VERY realistic considering the places reputation, but not conducive to an action packed dungeon crawl. We, the players, need to step it up - not you the GM.
Besides, slow weekends are the norm in PbP. I really don't think any of us are surprised or in any way pushing you for faster weekends. Being the exception rather than the rule, any player or GM that wants fast weekends needs to push that point when the game starts. Even the fastest GMs (I'm thinking Feral here) allow for slower postings on the weekends. I have seen some GMs start off recruitment by saying that weekends are their sweet spot and ask for players of like mind, but that is VERY rare (actually I only remember this happening once).
My opinion - you are doing great and we, the players, are being wishy-washy. When Belle dies, I plan on introducing an impetuous character with more balls. So there you go - the solution is to kill off Belle :)
I'm not trying to kill off anyone. It will happen in it's own time. Most likely in a very messy and spectacular way.
BTW, I think we need to start a running obituary column. Now that I have access to change the Campaign Info, I'll start it there. I'll just need epitaphs for those who have passed on.
Are you taking epitaph requests?
that's exactly what I am doing. Sort of a "Write your own Epitaph", but if others want to chime in, that's fine.
Nope, from my part there is no need to push this on weekends - that is when I am the slowest at posting (though I admit I do come to this game often on the weekends ;)).
Family and kids take precedence for me on weekends, and as Belle said, I don't think that is the issue.
We need to find our rhythm, and just go with it. Or maybe we need to find A rhythm :D
Also Belle, I don't think a character with more... Huh... Guts, is the response here - I think too much guts will get you killed in a place like this - what we need is decisive action. Don't worry, because Garrosh is a 'decisive action' kinda guy (Or orc. Or half-orc.).
the other option is to come up with a series of, for lack of a better term and because I come from a regulated industry, Standard Operating Procedures, to cover what you do in certain cases.
i.e Door Procedure
1) Tony checks for traps while, Garrosh, Belle and Agyen assense it magically and psychically. If clear, Reynaud and Garrosh step to the front. Garrosh opens the door and Reynaud steps in and to the right, if possible.
Some groups do not like this as they want to be able to make the choices at every juncture. However, if you had standard procedures for highly likely circumstances (Doors, Obvious traps, Getting Separated. Lost in a Maze, Coming to n Intersection, etc) I can fall back on them when you encounter, say, a door, run through the procedure, and if additional die rolls are needed, call for them.
I do try and build things like Perception rolls and Knowledge rolls into my posts before you call for them so things don't get bogged down.
I have been playing with my current PNP group for 11 years. We all know exactly what happens when we get to a door. As I GM, I don't even wait for them to tell me they are searching for traps and listening. I make those rolls, and tell them the results when I give them the description.
All really depends on how much you want me to take out of your hands.
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I think as we start to go deeper, we'll start to get more proactive about the operation. Especially since we'll be locked in after we go in
I'm all in favour of S.O.P. for doors, traps, etc. It would speed things up tremendously.
As to the question of player proactiveness, we are all aware that Rappan Athuk kills the unwary, maybe it is making us more cautious than normal. I think in time we will strike a happy balance between undue caution and necessary boldness; but it may take us a while to get there.
I had a massive test yesterday so I have been busy as all hell recently, which made me more passive on these boards, but I also don't know if we've run across enough stuff to have really established a pattern. My thoughts on the sarcophagus were more along the lines of "if there's anything worthwhile in the dungeon it's not gonna be on the surface or else someone would have grabbed it already".
I love the idea of an SOP for doors.
Belle will naturally do a detect magic on anything new - doors, statues, chests, items, whatever. If it could be magical she will check. Otherwise she will stay back over 30' s\while Tony looks over anything for a trap.
Reynaud, School takes precedence. No issue there. For the most part, you guys are posting very regularly and I have no issue with that.
I'll let you guys discuss the door SOP and figure out how you want to do it. For now, lets get on with the dungeon crawling.
Ok, here's my idea of a rough draft for that procedure:
DOORS
After Agyen and Belle scan it for magic from a safe distance, Tony scans 5 feet in front of it and to each available side of the door frame
(like this, s is a scanned square, - is a wall, _ is open floor:
------sDOORs---------
_____ssssss________)
and then the door itself for traps. He listens for activity on the other side, and if he hears nothing, he tries it. If he does, we play it according to the situation. Reynaud and Garrosh flood into the room as it opens, with Agyen and Belle ~25 feet back, and Brodin at the doorframe, ready to snipe anything hostile. If there's no combat, we analyze the door for potential valuables (embedded gems, precious metals etc.) We then play the new room by ear after Tony establishes a trap-free environment in the room near enough the door for everyone to come inside.
HALLWAYS Party moves ~30 feet behind Tony where possible as he scans for traps. Marching order is Reynaud, Belle (within Bodyguard range), Agyen, Brodin, and Garrosh at the rear, since he has darkvision.
CHESTS Detect Magic, Tony checks for traps, we check the exterior for precious metals et al, Tony tries the lock, and we go from there.
Passive Perception (Secret Doors, Traps where we wouldn't think to actively check and that stuff)I'm fine with Hands just rolling those in preview without telling us or even just with some physical dice laying about, but I'll defer to everyone else if we want them actually in a post, it's just we can see when they're rolled if that's the case.
I like the SOP.
Questions.
1) Hallways: does your marching order vary if the hall is wider than 5', or do you still walk in a straight line?
2) Traps: I will always roll Perception and Disable Device for traps. You should not know if you succeeded or failed. I may or may not roll online. If Invisible Castle were still around, I'd roll there. I like the traceability. Maybe I'll set up my own private game on Myth-Weavers so I can roll random stuff...
This is a good start. I'll let other people comment first and then I'll make record of it in the Campaign Info, for my reference.
I'll let Tony comment on how thorough he wants to be on searching for traps when walking down a hall. As a *FULL* scan of a 5' section of 10' wide x 10' high hall takes 48 seconds.
And I need to remember Brodin's Stonecunning
I'm not worried about transparency. If this were a society game I would, but its not. If you, as a GM, think it would be more dramatic or fun to change a die roll I have no problem with that. Just my opinion.
As for taking our time and being careful - yes. Well, usually yes. If the tunnel goes for 5 miles then I can't see scouring every inch. But most tunnels are not that long and a thorough examination just makes sense.
Heh, I don't change die rolls. If I want something to happen, I don't roll and just let it happen. If you're gonna fudge die rolls, don't even roll.
This is something I like about the Cypher System. If the GM wants to do something that would make the game more interesting, like the rogue blowing his disarm, he offers up XP to the player. If the player takes it, he gives half to another player, keeps half for himself, and the interesting thing happens. If the player absolutely does not want it to happen, the player needs to pay the GM XP to avoid it.
FATE has a similar thing with FATE points.
and you are ion Rappan Athuk....there are LITERALLY miles of passages
re: Hallways
If a hallway is wider than 5', Brodin would definitely be to one side; the better a view he gets, the better a chance he has at firing.
It's up to you guys whether the rest of you spread out; I would recommend that Garrosh and Reynaud do so, at the very least.
A tighter pack would be better if there is enough room.