Welcome Cort, Larcenara, Pastorgrym, and Eleanor. Glad to have you join the cast for the Stoneford Campaigns
I'll be posting the first scenario in the campaign thread shortly.
In the meantime, check these links
DH's Guide to Play By Post gaming
Building a Better Doomed Hero
Cort checking in
Larcenara checking in
Pastorgrym checking in
Eleanor checking in
"Where is Larcenara?"
She might be out with Sebastian Hyggeburrow, the halfling who studies herbs, looking at some unusual tracks he found in the Tickwood. (improving tracking skills).
She might be at Ockar the Blacksmith's shop, trying to describe a puzzle lock for him to make for her. (working on lock-picking skills)
She might be with Jillian chatting while Jillian prepares some hides for sale in Magnimar.
She might be talking with Halsted, the former Pathfinder who has the climate-controlled library in the basement of his house, asking questions about any number of things (Knowledge skills)
Janessa charges 4 cp per mug of ale.
Janessa is initially friendly to Larcenara, Cort, Pastorgrym, and Eleanor.
Larcenara:; Mel has beckoned you over to his table. What are you going to do?
Be sure you check the "Campaign Info" tab for the details about Stoneford inhabitants
You can edit or delete a post for a couple hours after you make it.
While it is still editable you will see this menu above the post
9 seconds ago | Flag | List| Delete | Edit | Reply
When it can no longer be edited it looks like this
Yesterday, 07:35 pm | Flag | List| Reply
Rather than make a new post for every sentence, try to edit sequential posts by the same character into a single post.
I'm having a lot of fun writing dialog, but I'm not sure about how well I'm doing with each characters "tone". We may need to discuss this IRL.
Remember that the dialogue has only covered about 15 or 120 mins of in-game activity. As you go, your characters will react to events and you'll actually discover some of their personality.
For now, two things to do: Use body language. Describe expressions, body posture, etc. People converse with body language all the time. Look back at how Mel leaned forward, lowered his voice; Janessa rolled her eyes. A lot of information is conveyed IRL by physical expression.
Create a "feelings" backstory. We've got some description of how these characters got to Stoneford, but we haven't given them any emotional fleshing out. Is Cort stoic, stern, and disapproving? Is he easily amused, jolly, and a born-story teller? Is he shy, observant, and quick?
Here's a resource for creating descriptions of NPCs. The first one helps with speech patterns, the rest with personality and looks. Not exactly what you need, but may give you some ideas
Speech Pattern
Traits
General Person
Personality
Character description, Humor
On this page, be sure you check the box for 'motivations'. The rest you can leave as the default
NPC motivation
Who, or what are the bloody knuckles crowd?
I left a spoiler for Larcenara that explains what she knows about them. People in Stoneford would have heard of them, but only in a 'bogeyman' sort of way. As a rogue, Larcenara would have more 'professional' information.
Janessa charges 5 coppers for a mug of porter
Mel is going to continue to sit at the table for a while so that people can come back to ask him questions.
Background Information About Aroden
Most of the characters will be aware of the dead/missing god Aroden, but they aren't likely to know more than "it was a world-shaking event several generations ago".
They probably know as much about it as you know about the Spanish American War: vaguely aware that it was important and that there was something about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders..
Pastorgrym will have heard all of this, but how much he remembers is uncertain. As a first level cleric, he will have mostly focused on his own god and his own religion. Not much time yet for ecumenical religious studies.
Halsted, as a historian, has a lot of information about Aroden's disappearance because it is now a "historic" event.
Roll20 map is showing the tavern. ?
Oops, sorry. It should be fixed now
Remember you have a room description from when you first entered the room
I am going to assume that you know how you first described the reliefs behind the thrones and act accordingly.
That's right out of the module.
I think you need to imagine scenes that include all aspects of the descriptions, ie, the left throne scene "On the wall behind the left throne is a relief of a king signing a document while speaking to a crowd of featureless faces." but that the crowd contains " a farmer, a fisherman, a hunter, a monk, a shepherd, and a thief"
On the right "On the wall behind the right throne is a relief of a thief who holds a knife to a featureless man's throat while picking the pocket of a nearby woman", but the crowd there contains "an artist, a beggar, a craftsman, a scholar, a soldier, and a tailor"
Confusing that they both seem to have a thief, but rationalize it as 'a center of attention" + "a crowd"
Remember that Pastorgrym knows some information about Aroden as well.
I have reviewed the issue of hit points and falling and balancing on the column. It looks to me like the fact that Cort had a rope tied around his waist probably nullified both of those checks and thus the damage.
Assume that Cort has full hit points.
I'm thinking of having the party attempt to flip the throne onto it's back, rather than slide it along the floor. I would do this by placing two of the party in front of the throne and two behind. Everyone grabs the throne up high, those in front push those behind pull. Will the party members in back of the throne need to do an agility check to avoid being hit by a falling throne? Or can it be assumed that they will have stepped back far enough in the process of tipping it to avoid that?
I think they are concentrating enough on this activity that they will know when the tipping point comes. Let's not do an agility check here.
Let's run this this way:
You type in four strength checks this way:
[die=Cort Strength] 1d20 + 3 [/die}
[die=Larcenara Strength] 1d20[/die}
[die=Eleanor Strength] 1d20 + 1[/die}
[die=Pastorgrym Strength] 1d20 + 2 [/die}
The first time, Cort enters the rolls
The second time, Larcenara enters the rolls
The third time, Eleanor enters the rolls
The fourth time, cPastorgrym enters the rolls.
Stop when one of the results is 20.
Notice that the last square bracket is a curly bracket. If you copy this, you can simply paste in the four rolls and fix the curly end bracket to a square bracket. That will speed up doing strength checks for these thrones
One of the results 20? Is that 20 or better as a total of the four rolls?
One character out of the four has a result that is 20 or higher. Tell me which throne they are working on. You can go back and forth between them, or you can push on one until it slides
I'll then post something like this:
"The group continues to push and pull at the thrones for (a few minutes, quite a while, nearly an hour) when suddenly the throne slides back revealing ......."
Was working on the throne on the right (see map). got a 20.
I *strongly* urge you to check the other throne as well.
Use the same rolling technique until you get a 20
OK, think that was a pretty good run. but, for tonight I'm done.
Need to fix a couple mistakes:
Pastorgrym is a dwarf.
Hatred: Dwarves receive a +1 bonus on attack rolls against humanoid creatures of the orc and goblinoid subtypes due to special training against these hated foes.
So, the role is 1d20 + 2 +1 for a total attack role of 21.
We forgot the sword damage roll. So I'm gonna do it here
The goblin still dies, but not as dramatically as previously.
When you make an attack, go ahead and roll the damage at the same time. Don't wait for the GM to tell you whether or not you hit.
That keeps things moving in combat, and everyone can take their turn even if the GM doesn't post right away.
In the gameplay thread, all four of you should let me know what you are doing before I post again
Generally, a simple lock has a DC 20 to open. Also, if Larcenara is using her Theive's Tools for the check, she should say so. Otherwise, there's a penalty
Some options:
Check around the room to see if there is a key nearby. Goblins aren't into "complicated".
Use the "Take 10" option for another skill check. Failing to open a simple lock (1 round, full-round action) generally will give you a chance to try again.
Taking 10: When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure—you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn't help.
Or you might consider "Take 20" for opening a lock
Taking 20: When you have plenty of time, you are faced with no threats or distractions, and the skill being attempted carries no penalties for failure, you can take 20. In other words, if you roll a d20 enough times, eventually you will get a 20. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, just calculate your result as if you had rolled a 20.
Taking 20 means you are trying until you get it right, and it assumes that you fail many times before succeeding. Taking 20 takes 20 times as long as making a single check would take (usually 2 minutes for a skill that takes 1 round or less to perform).
Since taking 20 assumes that your character will fail many times before succeeding, your character would automatically incur any penalties for failure before he or she could complete the task (hence why it is generally not allowed with skills that carry such penalties). Common "take 20" skills include Disable Device (when used to open locks), Escape Artist, and Perception (when attempting to find traps).
In this case, Larcenara can take the 2 minutes, but sometimes, in a dungeon, this wouldn't be possible (you'd get attacked by the residents if you just stood around that long).
Edit To Add:
That worked.
After Eleanor checks the items for magic, Larcenara should probably use her Appraise skill to check their value.
Skill Check = 1d20 + modifiers
There isn't an appraise skill listed on the beginner box character sheets.
Ahh, ok. I forgot we were running BB.
Role a Perception check then
I am assuming the masterwork bonus applies however the weapon is used, like throwing instead of stabbing.
Yep, it's just an overall "better" weapon no matter what you use it for.
You should be able to see the room on the map now
Can we take it as read that everyone doing their various checks has shared their findings with the rest of the party?
This time, yes. But generally, no. If something is behind a spoiler, only the person to whom it is addressed is assumed to have that knowledge.
Usually, the character would share as much as they wanted to with the rest of the group. You might not always want to share everything.
If something is behind a spoiler, other characters are assumed not to know that information unless there was actual character dialogue that shared it.
Usually, if a GM wants the whole group to know something, it would be included in the GM post
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Larcenara discovers that the fountain is magic and appears to have beneficial effects.
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The polite thing to do is not to read other people's spoilers, or the spoilers for DC checks that are higher than you rolled. If you do read them, your character still needs to pretend they don't know that information.
Map updated; check your PMs
If anyone wants to search the spider, they must make a DC 12 STR check.
That means the character has to roll 1d20 plus their STR modifier. If the result is 12 or higher, they have cut through the webs in that square and can search the body.
The same check must be made for each square you move into, so that trying to reach the goblin body will take two checks by someone who is outside the web.