Looking at the mirror Dirk says, "The pattern continues...". Then on a hunch he grabs some ashes from the fireplace and tosses them at the reflective surface of the mirror.
"Still looks mostly like foor, but everything in here is cold. The way a keep kitchen retains heat, I'd say its somewhere around a week since this place had people walking around in it."
Selena looks over the glass shard after Dirk has finished looking at it. She picks up the piece and travels back downstairs to retrieve the other pieces, hoping to find a way that they would fit together.
"There was a toymaker in our village who would make little games like this. Pieces of wood that fit together just right."
The ashes land on the reflective surface of the mirror and lay dormant, no flash of light, no glow from the mirror, nothing happens. As far as you can tell, the mirror shard is nothing more than a mirror.
Armand Nods at Lash "I think that's about as good an estimate as any. The blood in the room back there was still somewhat fresh though quickly drying. I would put the estimate around 5 to 7 days myself. Something happened here, something very deadly. And it happened quickly, other than the some of the destruction, this place looks fairly well upkept and it looks like people were going about their daily lives."
Looking around the Kitchen, Armand Adds "I would say whatever happened, happened after lights out. Note the lack of food in any of the pots or pans, the emptied casks without water in them, etc. The cooks and staff obviously had time to clean up after dinner, putting the attack likely after dark sometime. The fact that one of the tower staff seemed to have been in bed at the time of the attack also lends to that thought."
As Armand is talking, Selena walks over and picks up the mirror glass from the floor. Then, before anyone really even notices what she's doing she exits the room, headed for the prior room and downstairs, you can hear her footfalls as the souls of her boots tromp down the hard stone staircase to the lower floor.
As Armand finishes looking around the room he notices Selena has left. Putting his hand to his mace he glances over at Dirk with a questioning look.
A shrug and nod later, both Dirk and Armand start moving toward the door, only to almost run over Selena coming back into the room carrying three pieces of mirror glass with her which you recognize to be the ones from the last room, this room and the one you noticed down stairs in the foyer.
She carefully places the pieces of glass on one of the central tables in the room and begins examining each piece to see if they fit together.
I am assuming the rest of you are going to help Selena examine the mirror pieces to see if there is any way that they fit together?
Dirk shrugs as the ashes bounce harmlessly off the surface of the mirror. Magic is not his strong suit.
He considers smashing the mirror just as Selena picks it up and begins inspecting it. So he decides he's probably better suited to protecting the group while they figure out the mirror mystery.
As Selena returns with the other mirror shards and the group huddles around the table, Dirk will stand guard.
Time today for me to post is short, so I'd like to get a perception check and an initiative roll for everyone and I'll try to get a real post up tomorrow morning sometime.
Phew! That was a long time off. I apologize profusely to everyone, it's been a crazy last few weeks. As of a week ago Sunday I was out in the woods with my son's boy scout troop for 3 days (till Tuesday), then had to get home and pack for a trip to Indianapolis for the Pokemon National Tournament, then head back out and pick my son up and get him to indi...4 days working in Indi (Thursday -> Sunday) and a trip back home, one day at work and 4th of July and...
I'm finally done! Indi went ok, my son took 63rd (the worst showing he's had in 3 years) but still managed to secure his World Tournament invite (Hawaii here we come). The big talk of the tournament however was one of my Masters division players (from the League I run) took 1'st in the national tournament out of over a thousand other contenders. We're all very excited about that...it was a heck of a weekend.
So, without further ado, back to the game here.
Recap:
------------
You've escaped capture in Kiren's Keep after you were set up for the murder of the Commanders of Kiren's Keep, one of which is Armand, a king in hiding and still very much alive, and the second was a member of the Brotherhood who tried to kill both Armand and the rest of you. You are currently on the run from the law, and are trying to make your way to Speclarium to meet with Duke Stefan to try to clear your names.
After stopping at a small town for supplies and some magical equipment, you were accosted by the order of the white hand, another organization of assassins like the Brotherhood, this one infamous among the founding families of Norwold whose deeds have been kept hidden from the average member of the population for centuries.
Hunted by two assassination organizations and the law enforcement operations of the Duchy of Kermikeos, you continued down the road toward Speclarium when your presence was discovered and a chase began.
Finding a side road you proceeded down it only to find an "abandoned" fort/tower whose previous owners seem to have fled or met some kind of grizzly end based upon the evidence you've found recently.
Now you are standing in the kitchen on the second floor (Room 2.4 on the Map Linked Here) of the tower where you are about to be introduced to the same "problem" as the previous owners experienced.
The five of you (Thantos, Armand, Selena, Lash, Mird) gather around the Mirror pieces arguing about the methods by which they might fit together for several minutes. During one particularly heated exchange between Selena (standing at the center of the mirrors) and Thantos about the relative nature of the mirrors you are all watching the exchange of words between Selena and Thantos.
Shortly enough your attention is drawn back to the mirrors but the sight shocks the 5 of you to the core.
Standing right behind Selena is what can only be described as an extremely large, malformed Baboon!
The unnaturally wide head is overly large with a mouth that splits from one side to the other of it's extended snout, partially open you see a glimpse of jagged and sharp teeth, the extent of which gives the baboon's face a resemblance of a steel animal/bear trap.
The Baboon's body is covered head to toe with a thick, dense night-black fur. It's long arms end in claw/fingers but they look more suited to climbing than attacking.
Looking up in shock, the night black figure is standing behind Selena where there was no creature only moments before.
As Selena tries to turn to face her attacker, the black haired baboon like creature opens it's jaws wide and bites down on Selena's shoulder, causing her to scream in pain as several teeth puncture her skin.
(Selena takes 11 damage.)
Moments later the ape-like creature disengages it's bite from Selena, taking a step back.
Round 1 in folks. Actions up. Initative as follows:
Selena wields the healing staff defensively and takes a 5 foot step away from the beast. Theras immediately launches from Selena's shoulder and buffets the beast to prevent it from attacking Selena.
"Theras, don't. That thing's dangerous."
(Full Defense with 5 foot movement away, and Theras aiding to grant +2 AC.
Theras buffets the creature with its wings and attempts to distract it away from Selena, who is wounded.
Not sure about the exact setup. I'm going to have Dirk charge the beast. Remove the bonus if the layout does not permit the charge.
Dirk is startled momentarily as the gruesome baboon makes its sudden, and mysterious, appearance. The helpless feeling of watching the viscous attack on Selena turns to rage as his corded muscles flood with adrenaline in an effort to provide more power to his charge.
Hoping to distract the beast from Selena, Dirk shouts forth his familiar battle cry, "BLADES OF HELL!!!"
With a yell of mingled alarm and rage, Lash launches herself throught the air, tumbling bast the horrific beast to land behind it, her blade striking out before her feet have touched the flood, striking deep into the creatures body seeking the depths of a vital organ.
Yelling a warning, Lash springs almost backward in, what you later remember, as one of the most impressive feats of acrobatics you've ever encountered. Twisting in the air, she lands lightly on her feet, sword drawn on the creature's back left side, blade lancing out to strike the creature between the ribs, drawing a line of blood and obviously skewering something internal within the baboon like creature, which shrieks a high pitched screech that, you're sure, could break glass...certainly piercing eardrums and causing each of you to momentarily close your eyes against the wall of sound.
Selena, bleeding from the wound on her shoulder, draws and raises her longsword in a crossways hold across her body, a defensive stance that puts the blade in position to block any incoming strikes, stepping back and continuing to slowly retreat from the foul creature in front of her.
Mird steps forward and rips the two handed earthbreaker mace from the carrying strap on his back bringing it up over his shoulder in a two handed strike without slowing to bring it into position first. The overpowered strike looks true except for a quick twist of the jet black creature that causes the mace to barely miss and crack into the hard stone of the floor...chipping it and sending a hard vibration up through Mird's hands.
At the same time as Mird's strike, Armand swings his mace across at the ape like creature's head but again, its twist and backstep manages to dodge the blow from the mace as well.
With another ear-piercing screech, the baboon takes an impossibly long step to it's back right (away from Lash and her blade, but toward Dirk) and starts to turn away from the battle. (Full Withdraw action)
Seeing the creature turn from the attack, and knowing instinctively what that means, Dirk raises his sword and starts to charge the baboon, angling to keep himself between the door to the room and the creature to ensure it cannot escape.
With a sudden burst of speed, however, the baboon hurls itself right at the fireplace and jumps literally through the cold ashes and up into the chimney.
Realizing it's trapped, Dirk sprints toward the cooking pit and, blade leading, stuffs his sword, and then head up the chimney looking to skewer the creature from behind.
But there's nothing there. The chimney continues upward another 20 - 30 feet into darkness, and a dimly lit portion of the chimney about 15 - 20' above Dirk identifies an opening into the next floor up, but it should have been physically impossible for the creature to have scaled the sheer walls of this chimney for a minimum of 10' and more like 20' in the half second between it's disappearance and Dirk's entry into the chimney himself.
Dirk steps out of the chimney, his eyes still burning with battle lust. "The damned thing vanished!" His eyes dart around the room half expecting another sudden attack.
His focus finally lands on Selena, concern obvious in his voice, "Armand... can you do something for her?"
Looking at Lash, "You scored a good hit, but it may yet return."
Then to Thantos, "Any idea what that creature was?"
As he speaks, Dirk moves over near Selena to act as a barrier in the event of another sudden attack.
Armand moves over to Selena, moving behind her, partially to examine the wounds on her shoulder, partially to cover her back in case of another attack.
"The gouges aren't deep, but will take a while to cure without this."
Armand snaps off a short chant like prayer, clapping his hands together and placing them directly over the oozing wound. Flinching at the pain as the healing light flows through her, Selena immediately feels a warm light penetrate her shoulder.
Armand Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
As if they were never there in the first place, the wounds close over completely, not even the slightest cut remains. The only reminder of the attack being the shredded clothing exposing Selena's right shoulder.
Smiling to Selena in a fatherly way, Armand turns back toward the rest of the group, though you all notice, his mace remains in his hand.
Considering for a moment, Mird puts away his hammer and unstrings his bow from his back, knocking an arrow. He moves back toward the far wall, between two tables, places his back against it, and raises the bow/arrow, obviously keeping watch and awaiting another attack, eyes continually scanning the room.
In the middle section of the room, almost as if coming out of a trance, shaking his head in the negative at his obvious thoughts. Thantos looks up at Dirk at the question. "I've been trying to place that monster in my memories and knowledge. I know I've never seen anything like it, but one or two monsters I've heard about over the years have some similar properties. As it is, I simply don't have enough to go on to give you a better idea of what we're facing."
Looking up at the rest of you Thantos says "I'm sorry all, I simply don't know what it is we're facing yet."
Dirk considers the party's options as Armand tends to Selena's wounds.
"The way I see it, we have two options; head back out into the snow storm to look for other shelter; or continue on here and purge this place of its dangers."
"I'll respect the opinion of the group, but I'd rather stay. Whatever is in here will continue to wreak havoc on innocent people unless we put a stop to it."
Looking over at Selena, still pale from her loss of blood, Dirk's jaw muscles tighten, "Besides... we have a score to settle."
If everyone agrees...
Making eye contact with Lash, Dirk nods, "Lead on."
Yes, I've been busy with work, and some kind of weird illness that drains me completely of energy during the day... and keeps me up til 4:30 AM with various headaches. It's not fun. I think Lash was leading, but I can post something maybe on Friday or Saturday.
Leaving the large mirror shards from the three rooms you've been through on the table of the Kitchen (Room 2.4), and realizing you're not the only things in this tower, the six of you keep your weapons at the ready, tighten up your formation, and proceed out the door of the kitchen and down the hall to the north west to the next door on the floor, the Dining Area you could see through the pass through window of the Kitchen.
Pausing at the door while Lash goes through her normal checks, the six of you keep a wary eye on the surroundings around you, on heightened alert for the presence of whatever that black-furred baboon-like creature was. The blood on the floor of the bedroom, bed, walls and ceiling you entered earlier now makes sense, the thought slightly turning your stomach as to what must have happened to the poor individual who was in bed at the time he was attacked to have made that much mess.
Lash pops open the door slowly, rapier leading the way, as she slowly enters the room, the rest of you following.
This room is obviously a mess hall of sorts, several long tables standing in rows identify this as a mess for a large number of people. Between the benches and chairs in the room you guestimate about 15 people could be fed in this room comfortably, with around 25 being a maximum capacity if you crammed them in hip to hip along the benches and chairs. Given the sparsity of furniture, the number and arrangement of tables and chairs, and other decoration, it's likely this is more likely a servant's or soldier's mess hall than a more private dining room for the tower owners.
The most visible oddity in the room is the fact that a single chair has been placed on one of the tables facing the door, and, propped up on the chair, is yet another of the, what is quickly becoming, ubiquitous pieces of mirror glass. Squarish in shape and about 2 feet by 2 feet, it's very obvious that this mirror glass was placed where it's at instead of having fallen or been discarded there.
Your visual scan of the room also notes that several of the tables and benches are damaged. Each of the damaged tables looks like it's been scorched in places by either fire or acid, and on a couple of them the seating benches are entirely missing, though the metal brackets and other hardware to hold them up are still in evidence.
Without further information, I will assume the party's standard motus-operandi of spreading out and searching the room for treasure/information. Anything specific you want to look for? Anyplace you want to examine? What's the next step?
Campaign Status post up in the Discussion Forum. I'd like everyone to read and make a determination if you're still happy with the way this is laying out. Basically the post boils down to: "We've lost several people since we started. Do we build back up or do we close down the campaign?"
Please post comments back to the discussion thread.
Mird looks back down the hallway again before going into the room 2.6, I believe. His breathing quickens slightly and a long slow breath following, nocking an arrow to his bow, he checks the room for any other signs of the...creature's...attacks.
Knowledge Arcana to identify the beast1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21 Knowledge Nature to identify the beast1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32 Perception to notice signs of the beast1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Dirk moves into the room and immediately begins the process of scanning for possible threats. Remembering that the last attack came suddenly - and at a weaker party member - Dirk protectively stays near Selena and Thantos with his Falchion drawn and ready.
Perception for threats: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
Glancing uncomfortably at the new mirror shard, Dirk resists another urge to smash it with the pommel of his weapon.
Dirk's relatively limited exposure to magic has him feeling like smashing the mirror shards might be a good course of action.
You think back through your history as a hunter and your limited training in the Kethlenican school of knowledge (which all hunters society spend a short time at to learn some of the basics of magic...better to be prepared against).
Unfortunately while you have heard of of several creatures similar to something like this (anything from displacer beasts to primates with magical abilities) there is nothing in your past or history that would put a finger on the enemy you've seen only briefly and faced.
Your knowledge of the Arcane simply isn't broad enough to have covered this creature specifically, and there's nothing "generic" enough to match the description.
Mird: Knowledge Nature:
There's one thing you can say for sure, there is NOTHING natural about this beast. While you're familiar with the habits of baboons (though only through study of nature, not any direct contact*) the general shape/appearance is about the only thing of similarity.
This creature is obviously larger, miss-colored, smarter, and a WHOLE lot meaner than any primate you've ever run across or studied in your knowledge of nature.
You're unsure what this thing is, but you know for certain it is NOT a baboon.
* Note: while I maintain your character has general knowledge of most animal life, including most mammalian life, keep in mind the entirety of Norwold is Temperate Forest (from the far north where the climate is almost arctic in nature) to the far south (which is basically midwest in nature). Consider the area to run the gambit from mid-Northern US to northern Canada in weather and Climate.
You would have no direct experience with tropical creatures or jungle like habitation. That said, it's not that humans don't HAVE knowledge of that kind of area, it's just you've never had the opportunity to experience it in your every day life.
Perception 15:
The room seems empty of threat, no signs of footprints that would match the creature you're looking for's bulk and size, no bloody mess from some slaughter. If the creature has passed through this room recently, it's done a very good job cleaning up after itself.
Your attention keeps getting pulled back to the damaged tables. Something about that seems weird...
Detect Magic (Knowledge/Spellcraft):
Magical Radiance you definitely detect.
Coming from all of the mirror shards (the one on the chair on the table, and the 3 pieces in Selena's hands) each is radiating a VERY dim magical radiance. The tricky thing is that as you focus stronger on each piece you cannot determine the nature of that radiance. The mirror glass pieces are glowing as if each is magical, but the aura of each is not lending itself to determining how each piece is magical.
The more you concentrate, the more you're convinced, while it's likely each of the pieces of mirror glass are magical, they have no magical "properties" to them...
More like you're looking at an area of magic instead of an item of magic...or perhaps a mundane object made of magic than an object imbued with magical power.
Selena: Keep in mind each of the pieces of mirror you've seen and acquired are at least a foot by a foot (at least in some direction since the shards are like large broken shards of glass, they're not regular in any way), many of the ones you're holding being somewhat larger...you won't be able to carry more than a couple more pieces...and your hands are pretty full as it is.
We'll stop here while you each get your information before I identify the findings of the room search. If there's anything you'd like to do with the information from your ability usage please let me know.
"That wasn't any natural animal I've ever seen, and isn't like any primate I've ever heard about. I know there exists some forms of magical beasts that could well be what this is, I can't tell for sure." Mird says quietly to the group, all the while eyes constantly roving the area to notice anything happening.
"Armand, do you mind sticking close to me? I would prefer if you didn't unnecessarily put yourself in harm's way."
Lowering his bow, but keeping an arrow nocked, he says, "Does anyone else find the tables and benches...odd? Something seems to have scorched them, or even burned through them in some cases."
Having finished his assessment, Mird holds the bow and the arrow in one hand, and draws his mask out of his pack. He dons it as quickly as possible, the nondescript image replacing his natural appearance. The bow hums slightly as the arrow is once again nocked in position.
Dirk nods approvingly at Mird's concern for Armand.
"I find this whole place odd and I suspect these broken mirror shards are some how related to this destruction."
Looking at the mirror shard that is propped on the chair (that is atop the table), Dirk allows his gaze to continue up to the ceiling.
In the last room the baboon scurried up the chimney before the group could attack. Dirk is considering other routes into and out of this room, hoping to anticipate an entry (or exit!) should another surprise attack come. Hence his inspection of the ceiling.
The ceiling is a standard wooden subfloor and rafters with stonework laid over the top of it (you can see the stonework through some gaps/cracks in the wooden subfloor).
The only way through that ceiling (so far as you can tell) would be to punch through a half inch thick piece of hardwood followed by probably half a foot, at least, of solid stone.
Looking around the room your practiced eye notes a lack of windows, doors or chimneys in this room...as far as you can tell, the only way into or out of this room is either through the doorway you came in, or through the cutout in the east wall that leads back into the kitchen (the pass-through from the kitchen to the dining room, where the cooks could pass the food though to those in the dining area).
I'll award the party 200xp for good observation and preparation. From an XP Award perspective (for the new players) don't worry about keeping track, when I actually do the xp award (generally between chapters) I'll have track of everything.
Armand nods at Mird's suggestion and breaks off from beginning his search of the room to move to the east wall with Mird, putting his back against the wall (away from the pass-through) and holding his mace at the ready.
According to my interpretation of your tactics at this point I have Mird and Armand covering the room visually, with Mird nocked and ready to attack should something show up. I have Dirk moving through the room with Selena/Thantos, trying to stay close to the squishies, paying more attention to possibility of attack while letting Thantos/Selena search the room, and Lash is roaming freely in a standard room search. Selena is moving toward the Mirror Shard to remove it from it's perch and pick it up.
While Mird and Armand hang back at the eastern edge of the room, Mird drawing a bead on the areas ahead of where the party is moving and Armand scanning the area close to them to protect Mird's position, the others of you (Dirk, Selena, Thantos and Lash) start moving through the room in a search to see what clues you may be able to come up with.
As Lash starts moving past one of the central tables (just beyond where the mirror shard is) a sickening slurp as of some viscous liquid being sucked through a straw is faintly audible, followed by a very wet "plop" and slurping sound.
A Yellow-Orange amoeboid creature, with no definitive body or shape, comes slithering out from under the table only a few feet from Lash, pseudopods grasping ahead of it's approach.
Roll Initiative Folks, Round 1 rolls and actions in please.
For the new players for combat procedures: please roll initiative (ROUND 1 Only), then for each round post action with description, and both a to hit and damage roll. You may also either post a Crit Confirmation roll + Crit Damage roll, or you may wait till you see your post dice rolls and go BACK and add a crit confirmation roll and damage rolls, up to you I don't care which. Please note: I run a house rule whereby a natural 20 ALWAYS crits (no confirmation roll needed) but ONLY for weapons with a 2x multiplier. If your weapon has more than a 2X multiplier, I require a confirmation roll on Nat 20s (This is so I don't end up killing a PC out of hand). If your weapon is a 2x, you do not need to confirm nat 20's but you still need to confirm Crits that are NOT natural 20's
Example 1: If you are using a weapon with an 18-20 crit range and a 2x multiplier, you will confirm crit on a natural roll of 18 or 19, and will simply roll an additional damage die (no confirm) on a natural 20.
Example 2: If you are using a weapon with a 19-20 crit range and a 3x multipler, you will confirm crit on either the natural 19 or natural 20 roll, if you confirm you will roll damage dice 2 more times.
Example 3: If you are using a weapon with a 20 crit range and a 2x multiplier, you will only roll an additional damage die any time you see a natural 20 come up, you will never have to confirm crit.
Gah! That's disgusting! Thantos quickly moves away from the creature, careful not to block line of fire, then fishes a ball of tallow, brimstone and powdered iron out of his spell component pouch. He squeezes it in his hand as he chants words of eldritch power and a flaming sphereappears on the creature, burning its gelid body.
Move 30' away from it, cast flaming sphere, DC 17 Reflex save for half of fire damage:3d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 6) = 16
Dirk's warrior instincts scream at him as he watches the creature grope for Lash, "Ware its touch!"
Not wanting to get near the disgusting thing (unless necessary!), Dirk sheaths this falchion and draws his heavy crossbow (fitted with an incendiary bolt).
Mesmerized by the large shard and being careful not to let the others cut her hands, she is slow to react to the blob-y thing. The butterfly flashes in front of her, alerting her to the danger.
"What's that, Thern--- eeeeeeeeek!"
Before she can drop the shards she is laboriously carrying, Selena steps back from the creature inadvertently. (5' away)
Mird, after blinking in surprise for a moment, looses an arrow directly at the creature.
"Lash! Watch out for that thing!
Mird gives a sideways glance to the Father while nocking another arrow, "Armand, I don't know what this is, but be careful. It may be responsible for these burned areas."
Hey guys, sorry, I'm back from Hawaii and ready to go. Post will be up by this evening moving forward on this. :) Hopefully that should be the end of the post lagging for a while.
This is the official discussion thread for the Rise of a Regent Campaign.
We'll use this thread for offline discussion (player/GM questions, rules discussions, etc.) as well as for all of our startup information (player character creation, links to general information for the campaign, etc.)
I'll start with some basic information:
* This is NOT an official Pathfinder Society Campaign (that probably didn't need to be mentioned), though I will be using the pathfinder rule set.
* The setting for the campaign is an old D&D world called Norwold, I will have maps and information up soon. Keep in mind this is not in the pathfinder universe and thus the pathfinder factions and such are not in play. This is also NOT in any 'official' D&D world either (Mystara, Forgotten Realms, Birthright, etc.) so don't expect to be meeting Drizzt Do'Urden on the road...and don't try to apply a particular political agenda to any lands you might recognize.
* I AM using the pathfinder Deity selection in case it matters to any of you.
* Characters should be generated at level 1 (exceptions notified) and should use standard basic rules for starting gold and other character selections.
* We will be using the point buy system from the pathfinder rules for stat creation, 20 points base.
* Starting character ages will be pre-prepared for each player character. It is important that your characters start at the ages I give you because of the timeline of the campaign.
* I would appreciate it if everyone could use the pathfinder character spreadsheet found at: Pathfinder Character Spreadsheets (the sCoreGen-b40 spreadsheet, and for you casters needing to manage your spells you can use the adVance-b24 spreadsheet). This should make it much easier for me to track your character as well as to verify proper character creation. I will need a copy of the spreadsheet periodically to keep "up to date" with changes. If this is a problem for anyone (technical ability, inability to access a spreadsheet application, etc.) please let me know and we can work something out.
* Please do create a pathfinder society character (if you can) to match your player character (basic information only, you don't need to get into huge detail). I'm just looking to be able to have you posting as your character names, it'll make the campaign easier to follow. If this is impossible for technical reasons please let me know.
* I will be sending the character histories I have written to you via e-mail, for all of you I am happy to discuss changes, additions and modifications to the history as written. PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR HISTORIES OPENLY. I am ok if you wish to use the spoiler tag or if you wish to do things over e-mail, either is fine.
* I will be adding to your characters based upon the histories I have written for you. It is likely (don't do so yet) that one of the things I will be adding to all of your character's possessions is a mount. For some of you there may be other things.
* Some general rules I tend to use for my campaigns:
Food, Drink, Lodging, and Equipment
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As one of the PC's is a ranger (who *should* be taking some kind of survival skill (hint)) I am going to be very "loose" with things like food and water. The land area you all are playing in is a northern/temperate forested mountainous region. I suspect that game and water are plentiful, at least in most places. If, during the course of the campaign, it becomes important to be tracking your food/water resources you will be notified well ahead of time so you all can make plans. Until that time feel free to note a week's worth of Trail Rations on your character sheets (please buy this if you have the available starting coin) and some kind of container for carrying drink (waterskin, etc.) and we'll call this good for the majority of the campaign.
From the Lodging standpoint, things are a little different. Hardships befall PCs on the road and proper lodging can and may come as an issue when traveling through the wilderness. While, again, a woodsman can greatly assist you with finding shelter, such that much of the time this may not be an issue, there is still a difference between sleeping on the ground in the middle of winter and having some kind of shelter when none can be found in the surrounding lands. I leave it to your discretion as to what you feel you do and don't need to bring with you.
For the rest of the equipment, if it's not listed, you don't have it. Please do not "assume" you are carrying a torch with you when you wander into someplace that's dark. If and when you do acquire a mount keeping track of what is on the mount and what is on your person will be important.
Weight and Gold
-----------------
As you will all see when you get a chance to read the history of the lands you are in, I have implemented something slightly different when it comes to carrying cash with you.
First, weight is an issue and I do intend to keep weight as an issue in the campaign. Make sure you understand that what you carry with you does in fact have weight and that moving from say light to medium encumbrance does in fact come with penalties.
Money, as well, has weight to it along with value. Carrying 10 gold coins in your pocket does add weight to you, gold is a heavy substance. That said how are PC's expected to carry hundreds of coins on them and still be able to adventure?
In this campaign the larger land of Norwold has implemented a rather sophisticated (for D&D Campaigns) banking system. The end result of this banking system is the ability to translate coinage into "gold notes" that represent coinage. This can be done in any major city as well as many minor cities. Outlaying areas still trade in raw coins, most areas trade in either, and some major areas will trade only in gold notes. PCs should be ready to track the 4 major coin types (PP, GP, SP, and CP) as well as their stock of "gold notes". Gold notes carry the benefit of no encumbrance while their coinage equivalents do.
I believe the standard weight translation for coins is 1 pound of encumbrance per 10 coins, but I'm open to other interpretations as well.
For now, for each 10 coins you posses please add 1 encumbrance to your character. Feel free to, after purchasing items and equipment, split your coins to the best possible weight advantage for you. If you run into encumbrance issues between equipment and coinage, please let me know and we'll talk about whether or not your character might have had the ability to translate their starting coinage into gold notes.
I find this kind of system properly allows players the realities of adventuring. Finding a dragon's horde with fifty thousand gold coins in it may sound exciting but how, exactly, do you intend to get fifty thousand gold across the miles of land to a city? Yet, how do PCs intend to become rich when their 10 strength allows them only to carry cloths, a bow, and 2 gold coins?
About Spoilers (This isn't a spoiler in and of itself, please read it).
-----------------
I wanted to make a quick section for this because, while this is true for all campaigns you've played in, for this one it is especially problematic.
Much of this campaign, particularly the later parts of this campaign, are "information" based. Knowledge of the wrong information at the wrong time could, literally, ruin the enjoyment of the campaign for any and all of you, or even make it worthless to continue playing.
It may be tempting at times to click the spoiler button on a post just to get ahead of the game. I implore you guys NOT to do this. At best you'll likely ruin a surprise I have setup for later in the game, at worst you'll make the entire campaign obsolete.
I also would ask you all to play your characters. While it makes sense from a player perspective to share as much information as you possibly can as soon as you can (even to the point of shaking hands with someone you just met and telling them your entire life history just to ensure it's out there), it really doesn't make sense for a character to do so, at least until a bond of trust has been established between you and the party.
Lastly, please keep IC (In Character), OOC (Out of Character) and GM information provided to you separate from each other. If you do happen to get ahold of a piece of information you shouldn't have (or your player knows more than your character does, a likely scenario in this campaign), please keep in mind what information your character should have and act upon THAT information.
I promise that regardless of how complicated I make the story there will always be an opportunity for the players to "catch up" at event ending points to ensure you're all on the same page with a story. When a specific spoiler becomes irrelevant to a story I will announce it's availability to everyone to read. I promise I won't leave anyone in the dark wondering what's going on, so there's no reason for you to try to 'stay ahead' by reading what you shouldn't. :)
Thanks for bearing with me on this humongous post. I apologize but there may be alot of reading to do, particularly at the beginning of the campaign, to get the background information you need.
Lastly, I should note: Prior to the official start of the campaign there is a short back story I am running one of the PC's through. We will be posting to the PBP thread I will open up in entirely spoiler text. This text is not for public consumption among the rest of the players (you'll get to read it eventually). There may be a bit of a lag between now and the "first turn" of the real campaign so please keep with it.
For now, go ahead and download the spreadsheet, create your characters, read the histories I will send you and feel free to add/enhance what you get ahold of. Please use spoiler text for any history based information (things other players wouldn't know) and feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Let me know of any problems either by posting back here or at douglasw at wagnerweb dot org.
What material is allowed for feats? Not trying to break the game with obscure feats from some 10th party splash book, but am curious about some of the WoTC stuff, Complete XXX, for example.
As to traits, I'd like to get your opinions on them. Do you all want to play with them or without, either way I am OK with.
As to feats, please stick with those from the Pathfinder Rulebook unless you have a REALLY good reason why your character would have something outside of those rules.
Another question asked was whether or not I was planning on switching up to the official core rules after they came out in August. I won't rule it out but at the moment I have no real plans to do so.
All of you here should have received an e-mail talking about your particular character and histories. Please take a look and we'll go from there.
As to your character sheets, when you are done with them please e-mail them to me, I'll likely have a place to post them up. If you would prefer to link me to a place you have that too would be ok.
I would like to play with the background traits (or a bonus background feat, if people would prefer that). The ones I've chosen seem particularly fitting for my character.... lol.
Okay, I could be completely wrong here as I've only been messaging for a little while, but I don't think you actually have to join the Pathfinder Society to get an online character presence, just use the messageboard alias feature and set up the alias profile. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. :)
Yea, Ill agree that I love the traits. At worst they help you round out your skills if there's something you'd like to be a class skill for your character, at best they can add some very very fun flavor to your character.
Ok, lets go with the character traits then. I have the web download so shouldn't cause me much heartache. I'm ok with up to 2 character traits then, and we'll use them as "bonus" and not taking up feat slots. If you do wish to use more traits I believe there's a feat that allows you to "buy" more traits, and I think the standard rule is you can purchase a trait instead of a feat with feat points? I forget, it's been a while since I've looked.
For the moment, lets look at 1 or 2 traits on each of the PCs (at your discretion) but I'll be looking at them as part of the character review I intend to do to ensure the traits fit at least somewhat with either my or your idea of your player character.
There was another question about starting Hit Points. We'll go with the usual Level 1 maxed + Con bonus to get everyone starting out on the right foot. For each level, we'll have you guys roll HP but (based upon your current HP) I may have you on a case by case basis re-rolling 1's.
There was a question about OpenOffice. For any of you who do not have access to Micro$oft Excel, OpenOffice will open the spreadsheets just fine, albeit with a few macro issues. Generate as best you can and if you get stuck or if a dropdown isn't working feel free to skip it and/or send it to me and we'll get it fixed. 95% (at least) of what you'll need to do or edit should be perfectly viable through OOO.
And looking at character creation a moment. I realize I wrote the back story for most of your characters. Please don't think that precludes you from "making it your own". I am willing to discuss additions or modifications as you see a need and keep in mind that your characters have been "black holed" (most of you) for at least 5 years...that's a long time. If you wish to define what you've been doing in the interim from where my histories take a leap to present day and/or change things about your character that could have changed based upon your experiences of the years I don't have documented you may all feel free to discuss that as well.
Also keep in mind there is no rush on these characters...I still have at least a week before we're going to be kicking off the first turn of the campaign for real here, so feel free to let things percolate and ideas come to the surface if you wish to.
How basic would you like us to be in the online character description? I just put an appearance descriptor.
Oh... and I forgot about that 5 year gap... Have to think about that one. Normally, I am not this forgetful. I've just been very excited about a number of things recently, including finding Pathfinder, getting the campaign book in the mail, etcetera.
To be honest it doesn't much matter to me. If you wish to include your stats and other information the "create a character" form is listing, I have no problems with that, or if you want to simply include a description that too is ok. I think the description is important, try to include the visible elements of your character (height, weight, hair/eye color, clothing, visible weapons, etc.)
Mostly what I was trying to save you guys from doing is typing in your skills, feats, spells, etc. I think "stats" actually goes to description...a 6'5" guy wearing plate armor with an 18 strength looks like he could take out a house bare handed, while a 5'6" guy with a 10 strength looks like maybe he'd blow away in the wind. Dexterity speaks to grace and clarity of movement. Charisma speaks to beauty (at least PARTIALLY, we all know Cha holds more than just physical beauty, however a 3 charisma person isn't going to be getting many dates and an 18 char person is likely not going to be all that ugly), etc. etc. etc.
I'll leave it mostly up to you, but the description will save us some time on the introductions...when your character meets someone else we can all assume that the description in the box for the character is well known and we don't have to spend time describing what others see when you walk into a room.
Just test posting on my newly created Pathfinder Society character account. First time for me. First PBP as well... so be gentle. Looking forward to it!
As the human warrior I'll be involved in the pre-campaign stuff. I've submitted my spreadsheet for DM review, but have not received a background. I'll flush in a few details after I get that...
Description of character actions.
"Character Speak"
Out of Character speak - usually for humorous asides and comments
DM?:
A question for the DM
DM!:
A comment for the DM
A reference to a spoiler in character sheet or on other post (likely for magic items/spells/or other rule type things:
Example. Selena changes into her scholar's outfit)
Likewise, it would be nice if the DM could use titled spoilers to give specific information to specific characters.
A
Selena:
Spoiler for Selena
is better than
Spoiler:
something that doesn't stand out at all
.
You might also want to include numbers or some other system, so you can say which spoilers are viewable at which times... just ideas really.
Excellent concept, lets go ahead and get this down now so as I will be opening the PBP thread very shortly.
In this campaign I will actually be playing the role of both the DM and an NPC Character. I have the character created online and will post as that character when he is conversing with the party. Where the character and NPCs are dialoging with each other (a moment where the party should listen) I will be posting as Illydth-DM and denoting the conversation with "".
When posting to the PBP Thread anything not in special text should be in character. Please use "" to denote spoken text.
NPC123: "Selena, we need to go now."
I will use the ooc tag for requests from the players and other general information:
Selena, please give me a d20 roll for perception The party sees a large tower off in the distance
I'd also like the party to respond to roll requests in OOC as well:
Perception Check: 15 <link>
More on rolls in a second.
I will use spoilers to communicate directly with players:
#1:
Selena:
Selena, are you still wearing your hat?
#2:
Dirk:
Quit staring at Selena's butt
As we get to specific points in the campaign I will note in OOC again when spoilers are available:
Spoilers #1 and #2 are able to be read by all.
Lastly, rolling.
I will be requesting rolls in this campaign. There is an onllne website that will do dice rolls for you and will provide you links to those rolls, but I don't have it off the top of my head. When you do rolls, please note what the roll is for, what the FINAL RESULT is (including bonuses) and then a link to the base dice roll. I will post up the website ASAP or if Dirk gets here before I do he can do so as well.
Anything else we need to cover before I open up the PBP and kick us off with a prelude between Dirk and the DM?
Do you want us to post our rolls publicly like that, or just certain rolls? Some rolls you may want to keep just between the player and the DM, so we could do it in a spoiler.
Perception Check:
15 <link>
or
Perception Check 15 <link>
?
I'm seeing Perception, Search, Sense Motive and other personal sensory checks as being more private. While checks that show actions that are immediately resolved in such a way that everyone knows if they succeeded or failed can be rolled publicly. But that's just me. It will be more streamlined this way.
I am very curious about DMing PBPs so if I have a tendency to meta-DM, or drive from the back seat, someone please cast silence on me.
I believe the dice roller you're looking for is Invisible Castle. Also if you create an online alias I have found with the sCoreGen program you can go to the last tab (Can't remember the name right now) which is an extended stat block, then you can copy and paste that material in the notes portion of the Alias. I'll create my character tomorrow afternoon as an example. Or check out another of my characters (Erizi the Landless is my last to see how it looks.
I think I'm going to end up making a call on that on a case by case basis. For the moment, unless I say otherwise, please put rolls in OOC text. If I feel a roll needs to go into Spoiler I'll note it.
Generally in this case I'll do one of the following:
Please give me perception checks in spoiler
DM:
Perception Check: 15 <link>
#3
Dirk:
Please give me a perception check.
DM:
Perception Check: 10 <link>
One last item of note: I do reward good role playing as well as good puzzle solving skills. I DO NOT MIND Table talk to solve a problem. If you guys want to have a brainstorming session with the information available to all of you to figure out what's going on, just use ooc to do so and feel free to chat as much as you like. It does not necessarily have to be carried out in character if it's appropriate for it not to be. If you do this, however, ensure the following:
1) Use OOC for table talk.
2) Use ONLY that information available to your character and the entire party. If you don't know, ask in spoiler and I'll let you know.
3) Please don't break action or a story sequence to do this. Wait for an appropriate lull or downtime in the campaign storyline (at camp for the night or in a pub in town somewhere would be the perfect time for something like this).
Player 1: Why the hell did that monster do that?
Player 2: I don't know, but didn't we see something like that earlier in the campaign?
Player 3: Yea, wait a minute we did. And it happened when we did this.
Player 2: Uh huh, you're right, on the next one of these we encounter lets try this out.
Player 1: Sure, I think we should probably...
Please do try to keep OOC conversations to a minimum unless being in character hinders the thought process. In this campaign it's going to be much more important for you to correctly think through problems than to dialog it through IC. Where In Character communication hinders your ability to think through an issue, feel free to discuss it "off line", but try not to go on forever with that discussion.
And I think you're right about the roll site, let me check it out and post a link if that's right.
Selena ponders the old man's words for a moment, struggling to recall if anything in what he said resonated with the memories of her dreams.
I'll probably post IC and OOC at the same time, having two conversations going, unless that gets irritating to people. Not in all posts, but probably in a few of them at least. If I'm engrossed in the story, I'll stay IC through and through.
If you don't mind go ahead and create an account and when rolling dice use your character name and "Rise of a Regent" in the "Campaign Name" box...it'll allow me to view your rolls.
Over the next couple of days most of you will start to see spoiler posts created in the thread between Dirk and myself. As usual, please keep out of the spoilers. This is what I'll call the campaign's "Prolog" and should hopefully be pretty short.
Once the Prolog is done I will shoot you all an e-mail message and we'll start up with the actual campaign.
Black Tom: You've got about a week to two weeks max to get the Wizard character together (you're only starting about 2 days behind everyone else so hopefully this isn't an issue).
Most of the rest of you are moving right along with character creation, this is excellent. I believe Dirk and Selena are complete, with the bard and ranger in progress.
Looks promising folks. Thanks much for your fast responses and interest in getting the campaign off the ground.
You don't necessairly have to sign up for membership. That said, if you are signed up it will track your rolls so you / I can see past rolls and such.
Without being signed up you can't denote campaign, not sure if you can denote character or not, and you can't denote notes at all either. My "preference" is for this to be done attached to an "account" so we can go back through rolls if needed, but I COMPLETELY understand the "I have too damn many online accounts" thoughts.
I have character sheets for Dirk, Selena and Lasciel. I am missing information for the Hunter, Bard and Wizard at this point. Black Tom, you started after everyone else so I know you've got a bit farther to go. That said if you could at least ping me on e-mail so I know you're working on it I would appreciate it.
KJob and Scranford if there's anything you need from me please let me know.
You've all still got some time...I wouldn't expect to get fully underway till sometime late next week at the earliest.
I'll get it posted tomorrow. If you could resend me the history to my personal email account I would appreciate it. I am out of town this weekend and it's on my other computer. I forgot to save it.
Black Tom speaking. Just started building my character, but I'm not sure about my starting age or if it will work playing a half-elf. Human is fine otherwise.
So I've forgotten to check this thread for the last couple days, apologies folks. :)
Black, let me know how you're doing or if you have any questions. You've probably got to the end of the week or the beginning of next week to finish up would be my guess.
Scranford: Did you still need me to re-send the history? I think I'll do so just in case...sorry for the miss on this one.
And a quick campaign update:
For anyone watching the campaign thread, the prelude has started and is well underway. Again, a reminder not to click those very inviting spoiler "show" buttons but to be patient with me as I finish up this prelude...you all will get to read back text eventually so you won't miss anything. I suspect this prelude will be done within the week and sometime next weekend we'll get setup to start the real campaign.
Again, thanks to everyone for joining me on this adventure, if you have any questions don't hesitate to post back here or send me an e-mail and I'll try to get to you quicker than recently. :)
Black: The starting age I have for your character is 30, while a little young by half-elven standards it's not so young by human standards and given the kingdom is MOSTLY human (though all races are represented) it's not entirely out of the question that the culture of the region would treat a half-elf as more "half human" and push you along the same timeline for adulthood as a human child. I could even see some opportunities for role-play in this to "cover for" any low stats, like charisma (you're not as graced as an adult would be in social situations) or strength or constitution (still not matured).
I think it works either way (human or half-elf) so don't feel you need to switch on account of the history...it works either way.
Making a couple of small changes to the campaign rules:
* .5 Weight / 10 Coins (Still 0 weight for any coinage translated to 'gold notes'). I will update any character sheets I have so don't feel the need to go back and do that. This ought to allow you all to carry just a little more coin or not to feel too overburdened during the campaign.
* We will add a Light Riding Horse, Riding Saddle and Saddle Bags to the character sheet for free. All of you have been traveling a VERY long distance (many hundreds of miles) in the years since you've left Kethlenica and I would suspect at SOME point you'd have had to have picked up a horse. Anyone may, at their discretion, purchase a better horse or barding or whatever else they'd like but this needs to come out of whatever starting gold you have.
* Each of you will need to identify which items you typically store "on your horse" and which items stay with you at all times. Any items "on the horse" can be had for 0 weight (and thus less encumbrance) but if you are ever in a situation without your horse, you will be without the items stored on the horse. Any items on your person need to be weight tracked. Generally I use the right side equipment column for "horse carried" and the left side column for player carried.
* I will make a few changes to each of the character sheets myself and send them back, you can either approve or modify as you wish and send me the final char sheets back. Please be checking your e-mail sometime this week to verify/approve/modify the final char sheet.
Just some notes on coin weight... you don't have to use this information if you don't want to.
Dungeons and Dragons official (at least in 3.5, don't know about PF): 50 coins = 1 pound. (ridiculous, no one would use coins that weigh 1/50th of a pound)
Most precious metal coins in the real world are 1 troy ounce of metal (.997 ounces) And it seems likely that a coin in a fantasy world would be the same weight. So you could rule that 16 coins = 1 pound. (that would put it about halfway between 10 coins = .5 pounds and 10 coins = 1 pound.)
But whatever works for you is good. :P
***casts silence on herself to prevent from gushing on about the virtues of a coin-based currency over a paper one
Ooooh! For some reason this interested me. According to yahoo answers, the $10 gold coins (which stopped being minted in the 20's or 30's) weighed in at .48375 oz. and was made of 90% gold. So by those measurements it is over 32 coins per lb!
I also happened to notice that it takes 80 quarters to make a pound. So 50 doesn't sound too terribly far out of the realm of possibilities.
The half ounce coins are usually referred to as half dollars (from the day when the word dollar meant a coin of a specific weight of metal). I have a few silver half dollars.
So I suppose it depends on the minting of the realm. If the coins are half-ounce size: a copper piece would probably buy about the same as 50 cents. A silver piece would buy about $10 worth, and a gold piece (in a non-inflated economy) would buy $200.00. It doesn't exactly match up to the RPG, but the RPG system is a lot less complicated.
Anyway... lol... just some fun coin stuff to throw around. :P
Interesting, and this is a good example of where players can start influencing the game rules. It sounds, potentially, like the D&D Designers did their homework with 50 coins to a pound.
Anyone have any objections to it? It allows you guys to carry more, that's for sure, and if it fits both rules and logic I see no reason not to play it that way.
Interesting, and this is a good example of where players can start influencing the game rules. It sounds, potentially, like the D&D Designers did their homework with 50 coins to a pound.
Anyone have any objections to it? It allows you guys to carry more, that's for sure, and if it fits both rules and logic I see no reason not to play it that way.
So, 50? Going once? Going Twice?...
It will make it easier to carry treasure, but I think 25 coins to a pound sounds right, unless you want the coins to be quarter sized... lol :) I like the idea of a gold coin being worth something though.
Since we've got the official rules and they do make some kind of sense, lets go ahead and stick with them. 50 coins / pound, and track weight to the half pound.
One other comment, if I'm coming across as a real rules lawyer here, I'm certainly NOT trying to. I am MUCH more interested in a good story than any given rule in a rule book. Where something makes sense or I think it could enhance the story (encumbrance, food, weather, etc.) I will add it and work with it. Where I start finding that things are detracting from the story line, however, I will not hesitate to remove them.
Keep in mind it's been YEARS since I've run a D&D campaign and when I did I was "much younger" and a bit less mature so alot of things that give the game "depth" I have really never dealt with, preferring the "hack and slash" of D&D at that age.
I mention this because I want to encourage you all NOT to take me as looking for ways to cause you misery during the campaign. I know I've made a bit of a "deal" with weather and food and such above, but I really DO NOT expect it to become a problem for your characters...and if it does it will work into the story as opposed to being an arbitrary "you're too cold, no spells for you *cackle*" kind of thing.
Now on to Business
==============================
T - 1 Week to Campaign Start.
==============================
Hopefully if I can get my butt in gear and get a few more turns out the door by the end of the weekend I should be ready to start you guys on the actual campaign with introductions and such.
If the two of you could shoot me an e-mail in the next day or two and let me know you're still watching this thread and give me some kind of timeframe on character completion I would appreciate it.
Thanks to everyone for the e-mails and work you all have put in so far for this and hopefully the campaign will be as fun as I hope. :)
Since the jump rules are a little far-stretched also, I suppose I could believe that gravity is less effective on these fantasy worlds and still imagine my coins to be big, round, and shiny.
So I wanted to provide some idea as to what I've done with combat and get some feedback. I'm going to take a snippet from a combat sequence Dirk and I just went through and see how it all works out. I'd appreciate you guys reading through this and commenting. Specifically I'd like to know if you like the way this is being done or if you want me to run combat sequences a bit more "traditionally".
Note that in the sequence below Player 1 had already rolled (by request) an initiative of 12 and 5 attack rolls, the first 3 misses the second 2 hits. Note also, the text is rough in that it's translated from a second person voice (you, your) to a 3rd person voice on the fly.
I didn't try to pretty this up, look at how the text looks and flows and tell me whether or not you all like it or don't.
----------------------
Player2: Initiative Roll (1d20=3)
NPCs: Initiative Rolls (1d20+3=22, 1d20+3=22)
Before you or Player1 can even take a step toward the two they turn and spot you, draw short swords and leap to the attack.
NPC2: Acrobatics Check (1d20+8=12) Fail
Player2: Attack of Opportunity (1d20+4=15, 1d8+2=10)
One npc2 goes into a diving roll trying to get behind player2 for a fast attack. For a moment you are sure Player2's counter to the tumble came just a bit to late, but the tumble started just a little too far back and didn't happen quite quick enough...as the forward roll completes the head of player2's mace is right there to connect directly with the underside of the attacker's jaw, stopping his acrobatics maneuver cold and slamming the npc2 in the face, the crackle of breaking bone clearly audible as the npc2 stumbles back a few feet and tries to recover from the blow. Expecting the acrobatics maneuver to be more effective than it was player1's opportunistic attack at the npc2 came way to soon and flew wide.
NPC2: Attack Roll (1d20+3=7, 1d6+1=4)
The npc2 feebly swipes his sword across to keep Player2 back but the blow comes no where near to connecting, the npc2 having stumbled back too far and the blade swinging past the player2's Chest with several inches to spare.
NPC1: Attack Roll (1d20+3=15, 1d6=3)
The npc1 comes directly at Player1, shortsword leading for a piercing attack at Player1's chest. Coming on too fast for Player1 but managing to deflect at least some of the blow Player1 parries his shortsword across from player1's chest to player1's side, but the sword draws a small line of blood across player1's ribs as it slides between player1's arm and player1's side, edge cutting through a corner of player1's heavy leather shirt. 3 Damage
Countering with a straight across cut of Player1's heavy blade, the npc1 simply ducks his head, already being partially low and simply ducks under the blade of player1's sword, the overpowered blow leaving player1 wide open for a counter strike by npc1. Critical Fail
Player2: Attack Roll (1d20+4=7, 1d8+2=9)
To Player1's right, Player2 strides forward, swiping at the seriously injured npc2 with his mace, but npc2 continues to retreat dodging back from the mace and the swing.
Player1's last strike having been so far off base has put player1 in a very bad position and npc1 takes full advantage of it, reversing his cut, drawing another line both across player1's rib and then all the way across your chest, his sharpened sword making quick work of player1's leather shirt and digging a deep line across player1's body. 6 Damage. Knowing Player1 is in a horrible position Player1 cuts his blade directly down in front of player1 forcing npc2 to step back and come back in at player1. While the attack had no chance of hitting, it did the trick to put player1 and npc2 back on even footing.
Meanwhile, NPC2 makes another feeble swipe at Player2, but likely due to the severe damage to his face his blow comes no where close, but it does leave NPC2 open to a devastating overhand chop by Player2 that practically flattens NPC2's head and almost disintegrates the bones that were already broken. NPC2 crumples to the ground, quite dead.
NPC1 tries the same attack that succeeded the first time, coming straight in with his short sword for another strike at player1's chest, but this time player1 better understand NPC1's speed and power. Player1 sidesteps the thrust and brings his blade around to cut a deep line from NPC1's shoulder to his other side (7 Points of Damage) practically severing NPC1's arm from his body. Player1 realizes he's left himself open for another strike but realizes also that NPC1 is finished.
The predicted counter comes and Player1 dodges aside as best he can, NPC1 thrusting his sword behind him knicking your outer thigh (1 Point of Damage) as Player1 comes back across with the blade, taking NPC1's head clean from his shoulders (15 Points of Damage).
Combat Award: XXX XP
-----------------------
In the example above, I asked Dirk to give me an initiative roll and then 5 attack rolls. I then performed the same rolls on the opponents and created the story from there. As you walk through the text above you should be able to see the round by round hit/miss rolls displayed in story form.
The upside to this way of doing things is that I can move a combat sequence along very quickly, one post, in this case, was 5 rounds of combat and (though not intentionally so) actually allowed a single combat sequence to finish without requesting more rolls. It also allows me to "storyize" the campaign a bit more, editorializing the story a bit to mask the OOC rolls.
The Downside to this, of course, is that Dirk had practically no interaction with his character during this combat. He got to make 5 rolls + an initiative roll and sit back and see what happened. He wasn't able to react or take part in the definition of the tactics or swings taken by him or his compatriot, but instead was forced to allow the DM to make up the story.
A couple points above I'd like to point out.
In the initial volley it was exceptionally helpful to have Dirk having given me 5 rolls. One of the opponents attempted an acrobatics move that moved him through the PC's threatened squares and failed the rolls...which opened an attack of opportunity to BOTH players. Had Dirk not given me 5 attack rolls, I would have had to have used his attack roll for the attack of opportunity, and had to re-post asking him for another attack roll for his first round...I wouldn't have even made it through a single round of combat before having to wait on Dirk to re-post.
However this expediency to the accomplishment of the combat has the downside of lessening Dirk's interaction during the combat (and thus his interaction with the campaign in it's entirety).
So I guess I'm looking for ideas on the best way to obtain the expediency of multiple rolls with the player need to be in control of his or her own character.
Open to suggestions, feel free to throw your 2 cents in here, I'm really interested to hear the responses.
(Note also the use of OOC in various places to denote rolls from text. Is this too distracting to the story? Not visible enough? Does there need to be a "roll everything up front and get the math out of the way in one section the story in another" or is this integration of Numbers and Math combined with the story a good way to do it?)
Hmm, well for me, I like the rolling multiple rolls in advance and watching the story unfold, but I'm not a combat class. A fighter, ranger, or a rogue may want to keep their tactical options open. :)
I guess as long as you allow for contingency plans, such as "If npc2 does this, I'll take a 5-foot step to the side" or something like that, I'm good.
Now that I think about it, a wizard may want more tactical options open as well. Me, I can be a spell machine gun, and just cast the same thing over and over again until I'm out of ammo, but a wizard will have more limited options.
I agree, for some of the more tactical classes, this could be an issue. For me, as a ranger, though, I mean I can tell you what I'll be doing and you could probably guess pretty well what my tactics would be--Rapid shotting every round I can make a full action, prefering to keep enemies within 30ft, attacking favored enemy first, etc...but for someone in melee range (who might want to attempt an acrobatics check to move here or there for flanking or to not be flanked him/herself), or espescially a caster who has to pick and chose every round which resources to spend, this could be an issue.
Granted, this is your campaign to run as you wish and I think you had mentioned it would be more story driven than a combat-y dungeon crawl, anyway. I guess for your random encounters (3 thugs come out of nowhere!) this could be fine, but during bigger battles, espescially a BBEG fight, probably want to slow it down a little?
I understand, though, as this process will help our campaign move at a rate faster than a glacial crawl, and that is always a good thing!
So I got some feedback over lunch from the player playing Dirk today and I got pretty much what I an hearing from you all here:
While the story combat sequence above works to move things along it does "extract" the players from the game. In one way, this can be a good thing to keep a campaign moving along, but on the other hand, this is D&D (Ok, Pathfinder) and there's no way around the fun of rolling a die and cutting someone's head off. :)
What I'm going to do next is something a bit 180ish from what we've seen above, I"m going to go with a round by round and see how that goes.
Tactics and allowing you guys to write your own parts of the story will likely keep you all alot more interested than merely seeing your character names written into a larger plot.
This is going to work out much better if this is "our" story instead of just "my" story.
More information as I get through the second combat sequence of the Prelude. Thanks for the feedback.
Campaign Update
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I've heard back from KJob and he's in the process of character creation so we're on track there. I also heard back from Black Tom and unfortunately his life situation right how has caused him to have to turn down the campaign, leaving the Wizard slot open.
No fear, however, as I already have the slot filled and will be diligently working with our new player to get the Wizard slot filled out as soon as I can.
Should be all good to go for my hoped for campaign start date of this coming Monday.
Hang in there ladies and gents, we'll be rolling along pretty quickly.
A good compromise could be to roll two or three attacks at a time, to represent the main attack/action of the character and then any attacks of opportunity, etc. It would still be a round by round accounting, but unused rolls would just be discarded.
That way you won't bring the flow to a halt if there is an attack of opportunity, but at the same time you allow the players to control the action.
So, in this case, my main attack would likely succeed, but my next attack of opportunity doesn't look like a very high roll. If for some reason I get more than one attack of opportunity in a round, the third roll would represent the next one.
I suppose you could let a character roll all the possible attacks he or she could make in a round, including all attacks of opportunity, at once, and then just resolve the ones you need to.
Male Wood Elf: AC-15, HP 9/5, INI +4, SPD 35', Passive Perception 16 Rogue / 1: Saves; STR -1, DEX +6, CON +1, INT +1, WIS +4, CHA +1
I'm fine with making several rolls and letting you dictate the action. On a PbP without a real battlemat combat can be very tricky anyway. Perhaps we could come up with a "Standard" approach to combat for each character, and unless the PC chimes in with a change of tactics you could roll with the combat...ie...When forced into melee Fyird continues to sing, and uses his short spear, and shield for attacks.
That's true.... Certain characters don't really need to make round by round tactical decisions, so you could just involve the characters that do in that type of thing.
As a rogue, especially with some of the feats available in Pathfinder i find tactics to be key to how I play, and often define my character's attitude through actions and descriptions.
