Seriously, it's crazy. I also have two birthdays to celebrate this month. There should be a rule about people being born in November and December.
Public holiday for me tomorrow - Deepavali (Indian Festival of Lights)...
Though at least in Malaysia the holidays get smeared out alot because of the racial mix. eg. The chinese take CNY, muslims get Hari Raya, expats get christmas, etc. Helps to lessen the load.
AWESOME use of Varasian slang Phillip!! +1 +1 +1!
Reference material - it's a wee bit o' fun like innit?
My apologies, everyone. Due to some unexpected and unpleasant surprises, work has been kicking my arse for the last couple of weeks. I haven't had much time to log in and contribute to the games during the day and haven't had the energy to stare at the computer screen in the evenings. I'm taking some time off after Thanksgiving. Hopefully it'll allow me the chance to recovery my momentum and a small portion of my sanity. In the meantime, feel free to autobot my PC if I'm taking too long to respond.
It's a decent time to be sidelined, what with the party split and Sarien basically being alone. I'll just assume he keeps gambling/mingling until there's a disturbance. Hope things settle down for you soon.
There could be a minor disturbance pretty soon if Phil tanks a couple of rolls ;)
Phil's really just kicking back for the rest of the evening until opportunities present themselves. He's made a decent contact with the half-pints, started courting a lady of as yet undetermined repute and is up 10 gold... so he's feeling pretty good.
He's still intrigued enough to stick around, but doesn't necessarily want to push his luck too far.
Not to worry, Mark. I know I've left Phil hanging a bit. I was hoping Wander Weir would have checked in by now, but I'm about to move forward anyway, now the holiday weekend's over. Expect an update to the gamethread within several hours.
The Gold Goblin map is really large and unwieldly, so I've posted both an overview of the whole floor and closer-in shots so you can determine just who is where. Phillip, in particular, is hard to pick out, being Small. I'll update the map as often as possible as combat advances.
You'll have 24ish hours to post before I'll bot you. (And I'll probably do something lame like have you delay unless I think your likely course of action is pretty clear.) If you think you might be busy or unavailable when your turn comes up, feel free to post a spoiler or PM me with your plans and/or priorites for the round.
This will be my first PbP combat, and feedback is welcome. If you notice me making any mistakes, please feel free to call them to my attention so I hopefully don't make them again. :)
I've noticed Phil's hirsute and mustachioed token near to the entrance and the half-orcish bouncers :)
As with everything thus far Joana, you're doing a sterling job!
Ah the pitfalls of PbP sometimes. Though they are few, they do sometimes arise.
What I'm refering to, and what I want to ask about is a timing question.
What I had planned to do is this:
Would he have had time to do the before the singing started? It seems to me he should have, as the convo shouldn't have taken for than a few seconds and Saul had to go and speak before the singer even got to the dias and began her song.
But if you decide that wouldn't work timewise Dayn would have done the same thing, except go check on the girl while the song was being sung.
So how do you want to work this Joanna?
I have no problem with retconning a few minutes of conversation among Malkith, Daynadrian, and Braddon during Thuvalia's introduction and the beginning of her song, and there would certainly have been time for Dayn to do as you planned. I can move your token so you start combat in the room Oliver and his companion were using, having finished your investigation, if that's what you would like.
Ok cool, thanks. Should finally have a pc I can post with tomorrow (was Supposed to have it today) so I'll do Dayn's whole post then.
Bleah. If I ever try to run an encounter with this many moving parts again, I hope someone tells me I'm nuts. Run away, little commoners, so I don't have to move you on the map anymore!
I actually ran an encounter at the table before with more than 100 orcs. I used pennies. It was totally worth it just for the looks on the players' faces when I kept putting more ... and more ... and more tokens on the battlemap. :)
Gets to be a drag doesn't it? - if it helps, I'd be happy with just considering the shop floor difficult terrain due to crowds and save you the hassle of making the tokens dynamic.
Meh, the idea is that as the floor clears, it becomes easier to move around. I prefer the tactical choices and the hassle to simpler homogeneity. I'll probably avoid crowd scenes for a while after this, though.
24-hour-rule is suspended for the weekend. If Wander Weir hasn't made an appearance by Monday morning my time, we'll move on with the Hellknights' actions.
Re Called Shots: My initial reaction is that they just add an extra layer of complexity to keep up with in combat, from differing range increments and soft cover bonuses and concealment percentages to keeping track of applied conditions.
Couldn't help but notice that neither Tendal nor Daynadrian included the -4 penalty for firing into melee on their ranged attacks. Oversight, or you just don't care whether you accidentally hit the hostage or not? ;)
I am shocked! Shocked by your blatant and malicious allegation!
Heh - doesn't matter if Phil can see Larur or not does it... I mean he doesn't know him from a bar of soap :P
True; just indicated his square in case anyone else wondered where he'd got to, since he had total concealment in the map update. :)
Yeah, I guess so. Bugs me that there's no way in RAW to model the scene where the villain grabs a hostage and uses her as a human shield and everyone's all "I can't take the shot! I might hit the girl!" I mean, yeah, he can use her as soft cover to make himself harder to hit, but there's no actual danger to the hostage herself. If the -4 to fire into melee is supposed to model the care needed to avoid friendly fire, there ought to be a way to attack and just not care if you hit your own ally. If it's two enemies in adjacent squares, you don't have to take the -4 to hit one of them and not the other, and there's still no chance of hitting the other one. I think I'm okay with adding in the possibility of friendly fire if the characters choose not to take the precaution.
(In my home games, I made it a four-point range where the damage applied to the friendly rather than the hostile, to model the four-point swing in the attack roll, but my guys all have PCs with at least fifty-odd point buy so I like to do things to mess with them; otherwise, everything's a cakewalk at low levels.)
Nothing, near as I can tell. Looks like damage from an AoO from the grapplee at the time of the grapple adds an equal penalty to the grapple roll, but damage taken from normal attacks in subsequent rounds doesn't appear to affect the grappler's roll. If anyone can point me to anything that says otherwise, please do; I'm far from an expert on Combat Maneuvers.
I've used similar house rules for shooting into melee combat before. Since adjacent enemies aren't actively attacking each other, I can understand the penalty not applying to them, but if I want to "damn my allies" and take a risky shot, then an penalties I'm suffering for having my allies in the way should just go away - at the risk of hitting my ally if I miss.
The AoO against someone attempting to initiate a grapple has no bearing on the outcome of the attempt - unless the successful AoO would somehow impair the attacker from then being able to make the combat maneuver check (such as if they were knocked unconscious).
You can find the PRD rules on grappling here: Grappling Rules
And the grappled condition is here: Grappled Condition
Under Combat Maneuvers in the PRD:
Unless otherwise noted, performing a combat maneuver provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of the maneuver. If you are hit by the target, you take the damage normally and apply that amount as a penalty to the attack roll to perform the maneuver.
So the AoO incurred by performing the combat maneuver can make the attempt more difficult, but no other attacks seem to apply a penalty to the roll. One might wonder about Grapple in particular, as I think it's the only one that can be "maintained" from round to round: Should damage incurred by the grappler make it more difficult for him to maintain the grapple?
Oh, I didn't read the generic combat maneuver rules. Good catch. And you do pose a good question about taking damage as you maintain a grapple. I believe the RAW would say that's not how it works, but I could see a case made for the what you're suggesting as well.
Yeah, by RAW there's definitely no penalty. And I can understand why, as adding up the amount of damage a grappler might take in a round from a grapplee's allies would most likely raise the DC to maintain the grapple to impossibility in most cases, but it does seem odd that no amount of damage that leaves him at more than 0 hp can give the grapplee a better chance to escape.
From a game balance point of view, allowing a penalty to maintain the grapple equal to the amount of damage the grapplee manages to inflict with a light or one-handed weapon might not be unreasonable, although the numbers with magic weapons might get out of control there, too. Doesn't totally fix the verisimilitude problem anyway. If the grapplee's ally stabs the grappler in the kidneys, you'd think it would make it harder for him to hold onto her. I guess that's where Khaladon's called shot mechanic comes in, or magic effects that prevent someone from taking actions, if you're really focused on breaking the grapple. Damage just can't do it, as written.
EDIT: Also, forgot to specify in the game thread, but Phillip can take his action at any time, as he's delaying.
Phil is indeed delaying - his lack of getting captured stealing has made him more worried about keeping hold of his winnings rather than heroically risking himself. Plus the crowd of people neatly isolates him from where all the action is taking place.
He's having fun watching though ;)
ZetaGilgamesh, if you get a chance, could you please confirm that your color spray is directed the way you wanted it? My reading of your post indicated that you wanted to cast westward toward the Hellknights to clear the intervening crowd, but I could have misinterpreted you. If I have it wrong, I'd be happy to correct it if I can do so before too many other people take their turn; it shouldn't affect Daynadrian's action.
Stupid question...where are the badguys? I thought that I knew which tokens were the baddies, but I guess I missunderstood.
Hold the spellcasting if you don't mind.
Put your feet up and get over the infection Joana - hope you're feeling better soon.
Tendal, the bad guys are the Hellknights numbered 1-4, although you can only see #3 on the last map update. Their last positions you were aware of were Q8, S9, T8, and one that disappeared behind the cloud of smoke somewhere a moment ago.
The half-orcs in U20 and V19 are Croat's boys Saul hired to guard the front doors, Gord and Gord's friend. Their loyalty is presently unknown; they haven't acted since the heist started except to close the doors.
If you'd like to redo your turn based on that information, you started in N18. Just let me know what you'd like to do.
Thanks, Mark; feeling a little better this morning. Hopefully if I can take it easy this weekend, I'll be back in the swing of things by Monday.
Joana, its cool. I will keep the move. Tendal obviously lost sight of them and got turned about. So save the spellcast and he can stay where he is now.
Hi so sorry all! Did get another computer, but then the fan went, so needed to replace it. And then was away this weekend with no signal (when I thought I would have) But I will For Sure post tonight and keep up from now on. Promise!
I botted you this round, Dayn. You even hit!
Much prefer the players handling their own characters, though. :)
Squeezing: In some cases, you may have to squeeze into or through an area that isn't as wide as the space you take up. You can squeeze through or into a space that is at least half as wide as your normal space. Each move into or through a narrow space counts as if it were 2 squares, and while squeezed in a narrow space, you take a –4 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to AC.
.......
To squeeze through or into a space less than half your space's width, you must use the Escape Artist skill. You can't attack while using Escape Artist to squeeze through or into a narrow space, you take a –4 penalty to AC, and you lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
Mark, near as I can tell, you don't need an Escape Artist roll to move from T21 to T23, as there's at least a half a square of open space in each square you're moving through. Each square costs double, and you're still technically "squeezing" in your endsquare against the wall; but unless I'm missing something, you didn't have to use Adaptable Luck.
I was just throwing it in there in case you wanted it as a working against the human press side of things.
I'm fine with burning the Adaptable Luck use on the move :) - flavor wise he would have invoked his fickle luck to make sure that he wouldn't have been put in a place where a falling brazier ruined his day anyways.
Sorry for the prolonged silence, everyone. I'm going through a family crisis at the moment, and haven't been able to tend to my online games (or much of anything else, really). You're not forgotten.
This is a great game you've got going, and I certainly don't want to miss out on it. I'll attempt to keep Malith active, but I totally understand if you need to take action of him, Joana, to keep things moving along.
Thanks for checking in, the loreweaver; I appreciate being kept in the loop. Hope your RL concerns are resolved as quickly and congenially as possible.
Mark, by my reading, you can't make an attack of opportunity unless you are armed or have Improved Unarmed Strike.
If you're unarmed, you don't normally threaten any squares and thus can't make attacks of opportunity.
You could ready an action to Trip (assuming you had the standard action to do it in) but you can't Trip as an AoO unless you have a weapon in your hand ... which ... is kind of odd.
Fortunately (for my sake at least) your Trip attempt failed anyway so I don't have to think about it too hard right now. ;)
Ah... bugger - another of the grumble points for a BAB +0 class at first level. That is that one needs to spend a specific move action to draw a weapon and can't just draw as part of a move.
And you're right - just saved Phil from falling on his butt.
Just curious how HK#4 moved so far? Getting to AC 7 looks like he moved 70 feet or so?
And also, can you please give us an update, all together, on the remaining HKs and the (apparent? : ) health Joana?
60 feet in a straight diagonal line from U1 as a Withdraw action. MapTools measured it out for me, so I was pretty sure it was kosher, but a manual check comes out the same.
Hellknight #1 has been limited to a single move action a round since Braddon nearly disemboweled him in the casino (disabled at 0 hp). Hellknight #4 is very badly injured from your two arrows (and I think he got cut going the window as well) but not yet disabled. Hellknight #3 is not badly injured but moving at half-speed due to stepping on shattered glass. Hellknight #2 is bleeding out on the floor. :)
In roughly twelve hours I will willingly subject myself to an eight hour period of physical exertion, sleep deprivation and general sanity slippage.... that is to say I'm flying down to Australia with two kids on a red eye. I shall be doing the christmas thing, familial visitation thing and even attending a ten year University re-union... which should be interesting to say the least.
That will mean that I shall not be my usual self when it comes to internet connectivity and PbP response. I should still get online here and there, but it's unlikely to be every day - and even when I do time will be short so you will have to endure a lesser amount of my usual sesquipedalian loquaciousness. If at any time you feel I'm holding things up, feel free to DMPC... or you know have Phillip selfishly attempt to profit from whatever circumstance he finds himself in.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Krazy Kwanzaa or even Positive Emotion Non-Religious Holiday Vacation Day... depending upon your own predisposed proclivities. I look forward to further electronically shared adventures in the post-Mayan calendar New Year.
Have a safe trip and a good holiday, Mark!
24-hour posting rule will be suspended through Christmas (although I'll be around to respond to anything posted). Anyone else expecting to be unavailable beyond Tuesday?
I should be around.
And thanks for the update! Most helpful : )
And huh, I must be remembering the movement rules wrong. I thought you were only able to take one diagonal movement at 5', otherwise it's 10'? Or can you do a certain amount every certain distance moved or smoething?
It alternates.
When measuring distance, the first diagonal counts as 1 square, the second counts as 2 squares, the third counts as 1, the fourth as 2, and so on.
The alternation adjusts for the fact that when you're moving diagonally you're actually moving a little over 7 feet instead of 5; it evens out over time to keep movement rates reasonably static, whether you're moving in a straight line or diagonally.
Hope everyone's had a good holiday! (Suppose it's well into Boxing Day already by now in Australia.) We had a white Christmas here, which is very rare in North Texas. Rain turned into sleet and then big fat snowflakes shortly after lunch. Everyone was outside their houses taking video on their phones. :)
I'll move the thread along in the morning, some twelve to fifteen hours from now.
Thanks for botting me. That was precisely what my course of action was going to be (although probably without the successful roll). Between the holidays and having a week and a half off from work, I wasn't checking the Internets much. Back now, and ready to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Glad to see you back ... and you're up again! :)
Haven't seen Khaladon on the boards since before Christmas; hopefully, he's just been enjoying some time off over the holidays too and will check in soon.
