Yeah that was the vibe I got, except they are lumbermen and not miners. I have lived in (well, near) a lumber-driven town before and that song is not far off. Not that different of professions in many respects.
Great stuff guys. Work's been busy today but just posted something.
Anyone want to do anything else in town? You found everything you were looking for in the Goose N Gander thanks to Aelerie.
Nothing further in town. Albus will be watching out for anything that is out of ordinary or any ordinary thing that is of concern. Perception, survival, any applicable Knowledge. He'll stop for rest at the forest's edge. If you wish I could make a post tomorrow with more detail or make rolls in the gameplay or we can just go along until we encounter something.
As the camp is about a day's hike away you will camp overnight and should get there early the next morning. Will move ahead in a few hours unless anyone has an objection.
Albus I just noticed. Can you create a status line like the other players? It's actually going to matter soon!
Done, If you need any adjustments, just let me know. If Aelerie tells Albus the witch's location it may revise plans as I understand it going anywhere in the forest means going up the same road first.
I'm ready to move on.
Seems like everyone is good to go towards the Lumber Camp.
Before we do so here's another house rule that I came up with to prevent the frustration that comes from rolling a natural 20 when rolling an aid another check! (My first Natural 20 ever was on an Aid Another that the other character ended up failing anyway!)
'The Sidekick Takes Over'
In the situation that a player character rolls a skill check and other players roll aid another checks that have a higher result than the original player's result, the highest aiding player's result will be the one that applies against the Skill Check DC while the original character's roll will become an Aid Another Roll.
Of course this only applies if the skill check allows other players to aid.
***
What do you guys think?
Also what are your opinions on rolling initiative? In the games I've played I've preferred it being as automated as possible to speed the game along. Which means the GM rolls Initiative for everyone and Block Initiative is used as much as possible (so the players initiative rolls are averaged together and the opponents initiative rolls are averaged together and everybody goes in a group). The restrictions of PBP just makes it hard to wait for everyone to roll initiative before combat starts. Any mistakes I make on initiative rolls can be retconned easily enough.
What do you guys think though? I can perfectly understand why people like rolling their own initiatives.
I'm perfectly ok with the GM making any and all rolls he feels will speed up PbP. As you pointed out it tends to be slow under the best of circumstance.
That aid another variant is interesting why not try it out and see the result? I suspect it will rarely come up, but it might encourage the use of aid another. It too often is a forgotten rule.
Certainly can go for Lumber Camp, that I did say we would rest at the forest line for a bit. However if that would be boring by all means go to the camp.
The lumber camp is right at the edge of the forest line.
Oh I thought it was closer to the lake, I was thinking that they floated the logs down river, usually cheaper than carting them any distance overland. The picture of the logs floating near the lumber mill on the Falcon's hollow map influenced my thinking.
Does the status line contain everything you need?
So far in all the PbP games I've played (including my own), the GM rolls for initiative, so that's just a thing as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sold on doing block initiative for PbP games, because I've had to do too many adjustments/retcons by having players go in a specific turn order. My policy has been that players post as they can, then the GM sorts everything at the end of the round by init. But that's become cumbersome, so I'm only doing block init now.
Yes it looks good Albus.
I'll let you guys have a little bit of back and forth before we move on.
And Block Inititative rolled by Me it is!
Just wanted to chime in and say, whatever you feel you need to do as the GM to keep this going is fine with me. Init rolls, saving throws if you want. Getting bogged down seems like the worst problem in PbP.
Also, I really like your Aid Another rule and I wish it was just the standard rule. I hate the decision of "Should I just try to Aid and give +2 to that PC's middling roll, or should I try to beat their roll?"
I'll give it another hour for any other on the road RP anyone wants to do (Albus wants to know your powers!) and then I'll roll Perception and we can move ahead in the game.
Aelerie I think I cross posted with you. You guys are now in combat (this happened a few hours after the conversation. Virdel you can retroactively respond to Albus if you wish).
Let me know if you think I got any rolls wrong.
No problem, I edited in Aelerie's combat actions. =)
Albus perception is +10 I've foggy all day today, wish I could shake this cold.
Albus I think you need to redo your turn :).
Ah, a minor mistake on my part Astrianna. It's not as hard to break free from the stirge as I thought it was. I had a brain fart and thought it was an opposed check rather than a straight test against CMD. You haven't taken your Round 2 action yet so if you want to try grapple again rather than attack you're free to do so. You could also draw your weapon and attack the thing as well as an option.
Hey guys. I've got a long weekend so I probably won't post again until Monday. The Stirge has AC 17 now and in Round 4 will escape. You guys can finish off the combat yourselves :).
See you on Monday (probably) then! I hope it's the good kind of long weekend.
A lot of kid birthday parties Aelerie. Fun but it is tiring.
Do you guys want to do anything special for camping or move on to the next morning when you arrive at the lumber camp?
Unless anyone wishes to react to Albus's industry, I'm willing to move on to the next morning.
You guys are at the lumber camp now.
Any feedback on how the first combat went?
Do you guys feel the game has slowed down a bit or is this pace (roughly at least one post every day by the GM) fine for everyone?
Things might be a bit slower on my end for a bit. We're in the process of moving right now, but I will try to keep up with the group's pace. Under normal circumstances, I would prefer a slightly quicker pace, but I know that not all of us may have the time for that.
By the way, I thought the first combat went well. As far as the averaged initiative goes, are our actions still going to be resolved in order of our individual rolls, or is it first post, first resolved?
I think first post, first resolved. If someone really wants to go first (to get a buff or a spell off for example) but posts later then we can always retcon to some degree.
Good luck with the move Aelerie. I hate moving.
I'll be careful where I pop off my color sprays then. =)
Thanks GM! Yeah, I can't think of a single thing I wouldn't rather do than deal with the hassle of moving. Luckily, it's only around the corner this time, and not across the country like my last move.
The combat was good, stirges are an odd monster, can be very dangerous to a low level party that cannot return for recovery. When I first played DnD we went to Tegal Manor (yes ancient history) and were so badly hurt we had to go back home and recover.
I'm afraid things are still a little crazy here too, the horrible weather has everyone I know, and myself rather sick. I'll try to pick up the pace as I recover.
No worries at all guys. I'm actually pretty happy that we're steadily ticking along. Post as you can and I'll keep gently pushing!
Good stuff in game too. You know where all three places are now. Here's a map of the region. (Nice thing about running this is that there's a lot of images you can find online)
http://i.imgur.com/werlu0c.jpg
Ouch. Two good rolls for the hobgoblin. Party is up.
The rest of you are 40 feet away from Albus. The arrow came from a tree 60 feet away from Albus. Forming a rough triangle.
Basically
Rest of Party is about 60 feet from the Hobgoblin as well. He's 10 feet up the tree.
I wasn't quite sure how to start the combat as there wasn't really a surprise round for either Albus or the hobgoblin. So I just went into Round One that the party spent moving.
I think it's a reasonable ruling. What do you guys think?
I think that seems fair. Combat probably would have been a lot messier had you not done so, so thanks!
Here's another house rule that another GM on another PBP on another site used that I really liked playing with myself.
Out of Combat healing items and spells are fully effective (No need to roll the die just take the max).
What do you guys think? It makes sense (in a fantastical sort of way), it's high convenience, probably leads to faster play, but leads to a less 'gritty' survivalist feel.
A variation would be that any roll for out of combat healing will be at least half the die of the roll. So for a 1d8 a roll of 1, 2, or 3, will be taken as 4.
I'm fine with either of those rules.
Any other opinions on the houserule? With the way Virdel rolls it might not be needed either way....
Also Albus on a critical threat you add the normal modifies to the weapon die as well.
So for your axe if a crit lands you'd roll 2d12+6 additional damage not just 2d12.
I'm good with the healing rule as well ... less grim more speed is a very reasonable way to run PbP as stalling out is the number one killer.
Okay, the wording in Pathfinder is ambiguous and I've had DM's play it either way, and it's been awhile since I've played any D20 but your word in your game is law :) .
Word is law works for me!. What doesn't get multiplied on a crit from my understanding is precision damage as well as damage you get by additional enchantments like flaming or holy etc.
Alright putting in the "Healing Respite" house rule. Outside of combat don't need to roll die for cure spells. Just take max.
Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Another question. I put in a pretty large description of the campaign which is probably showing up in your campaigns tab. I've shortened it a bit. It's probably not serving any value though. Would anyone miss it if I just got rid of it entirely?
That's fine with me. Often the only thing in that description is a link to maps or whatever.
Yeah. I figure everybody who's in the game already knows what the deal is. Redundant to be repeating it in gthe short description.
Want to give Aelerie a chance to respond but I'll move on by the end of the day.
Thanks GM! I appreciate it! The last few days had gotten away from me.
No worries. I think moving quickly on through the less exciting bits and pausing a while at more important points is a good compromise.
Hey Guys
Busy the rest of the day. Will be back to normal tomorrow. Give me some stuff to respond to!
Hope your move is going well Aelerie.
I'll wait until end of workday today (4 PM EST or so) and then move forward.
An hour to go ladies!