I catch it down intermittently, but not consistently.
Well this is gonna take a little while x_X I'll try to get caught up during my breaks at work.
Breaks weren't enough, I just finished catching up at 10:30 am x_X. I'll have a response soon. Triss will have held any info from Sapphire until she's heard Adrien's side of the story though
Crap well, I can't edit now. Would Grellik fill in the gaps or keep Triss' silence?
I'll reread the Triss and Grell stuff, but I'm pretty sure I only got the bare bones about Sapphire. So Grell would be forthcoming with info, but I don't know if he has much extra to share if any at all
Umm I think the general story would cover Sapphire, going to the tower, and the barter with silvers. So I don't think he would have been out too much information to still respond the way he did.
Grellik's briefing RE Sapphire is on page 25 if you wanted to check it, Adrian
Bogsharks: Where the hobgoblins and bugbears are the voice of reason
A happy familllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Oh btw, I told Triss, but forgot to tell you Grellik. Disclaimer, I'm not mad at you guys the players, at all, I think this is going great :D
Proof that Trissae is slowly becoming a completely separate entity from me:
I started reading the responses at the beginning of my shift, having finished my portion just before the start of the it. I spent 8 hours in a mental debate with this "person" on what to respond with, I say debate and "person" because it would have been very easy to just go with my initial response, but like some strange force of will I kept just thinking about it, changing it, trying to gain the approval of this invisible force (yes I do have the response but won't post it till we get the chance). So here are some of the ideas that were thought up and ultimately shot down:
"Not everyone is a warrior, Adrien" is the theme, she was going to point out being an actor and diplomat, cite other sharks that aren't combatants by choice, and the describe her plan. In addition tackle point for point a few of the gripes -Grell's spell couldn't reach, I did try to distract him, etc...
It basically came to a point by point rebuttle and while it would have functioned it wasn't "right" so we continued on...
"You call that a plan!?" Here, she attacks Adrien's 'plan' and knowing now that they insisted she be followed would use that as the lynchpin counter argument to the misapplication of resources. She's still go over what her plan was but end with a rather sarcastic comment: something to the effect that they were both just as useless..
This one got shot down fast, while it had its points it neither had the tone or feel of a Triss response so we moved on...
Fooled you! I don't want to share this one because it was so exciting but difficult of an idea that I want to talk to the gm about it, and maybe use it down the road.
Triss wouldn't really respond at all really, leaving it to Grellik. Honestly this one was close to the response because Triss does feel terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad. She would likely be pressable for information but there would be a sharp dip in her liveliness.
I'm glad now it wasn't used because what we came up with feels much better, and is a tad touching.
8 hours of bouncing back and fourth, re-reading the posts, seeing the new ones, re-re-reading posts, going back to ideas. I can honestly say the intrigue is thick and suspense is killing me. But I thought I'd share the process and hope I get to dole out at least a little bit of what she planned to respond with.
oh as a side note, none of my post-regathering plans are even on the radar anymore lol.
So I was thinking to myself at work tonight and while listening to music (heard a couple of the songs I've mutated for triss's use) it got me thinking about the internal voice I've subconsciously given each character. This is what I've come to:
Trissae- Joyce Jonathan. She's a French singer, I always imagined Triss with a slight accent when she speaks common since she spent the first 50 or so years speaking almost exclusively undercommon.
Adrien- None other than my man, Bruce Willis. I'm thinking a Hudson Hawk era fast talking, wise cracking, quick on his wits that snaps to a gritty John Mcclane when s$@! hits the fan.
Grellik- Michael Clarke Duncan, but this is only a proxy. My grandfather has the voice I really imagine but I have no way in words to describe his voice, it's just magnificent. So I went the next best thing because MCD was the man.
Ozz- Danny Trejo. Only like 1 octave deeper and without an accent. We're talking Machete kills Danny. You know.
Tease- Carlos Larkin. He's the voice of Magni Bronzebeard from Wow and pretty much as dwarf as I can imagine. It's terrible and awesome all at the same time.
Silvers- Sandra bullock. To be fair, I kinda imagine her looking like Sandra aswell so.... awesome.
What about you guys? what's the internal voice in your head dig up for the characters?
I don't know how to describe my internal voices for the characters, though I will remember to add French lilt to Trissae's. Grellik's...is a sort of deep resonating voice(like, say, Goliath from Gargoyles), with a bit of Batman gravel in there. For the others, I didn't go super dwarf with Tease, but I tend to avoid stereotypical dwarfness :P. For Ugly, I have an older sage-y voice (not super old and crackly, just middle age tenorish. I don't think I can describe any one else's. :D
I hear Grellik as a burly, deep-voiced Snarf.
;_;
I always imagined Cavell sounding like the Humor/Charm dialog option in DA2, british accent and all:
https://youtu.be/nraCgNbNNQI
I was trying sleep and instead couldn't stop thinking about dueling rules. Would you guys be interested in implementing something like this into the game?
DUELING 'MINIGAME'
Prerequisites: No more than 2 (3? 4?) combatants fighting among each other to allow for proper focus, each of which is able to see the others.
-Combat works as normal except for as stated.
-On their turn as a free action, each dueler is able to give themselves a Dueling Bonus to their choice of AC or Attack Roll (or maybe gains temp HP/damage bonus?). This bonus lasts until the beginning of their next turn. (It is obvious that someone is choosing to fight more aggressively or defensively)
-Your dueling Bonus is equal to your Proficiency Bonus, but is otherwise unaffected by things that modify Prof. bonuses.
-If someone outside of the duel attacks one of the duelers, they are considered to have been unaware to the dueler (Granting them advantage/sneak attack where relevant). This breaks the duel.
I'm up for tweaking ideas, suggestions of feats that might improve dueling capabilities, or being told "This is terrible, stop."
The spirit I'm going for is the facing off of two enemies (or maybe even one versus two and three versus each other [Stand-off style!]). Take two enemies meeting on a bridge and dueling to the death, or a full-pitched battle lulling to watch two generals fighting each other, forming a circle around them allowing them to concentrate until one falls.
All my dragon age heroes die.... The inquisitor's still kicking though!
I suspect that if you make Defensive and Offensive balanced choices (one not clearly better than the other), there wouldn't be any practical effect on the duel.
For example, Bob fights offensive, gains +2 attack. Steve fights defensive, gains +2 AC. No net change.
Bob and Steve both Offense, both gain +2 attack. No net change, just a slightly shorter duel.
Bob and Steve both Defense, both gain +2 ac. No net change, just a slightly longer duel.
Doesn't matter if it's AC, attack bonus, damage, temp hitpoints, or anything else--if the choice between offense and defense is balanced, it won't have any net effect on the duel.
Some brainstorming...
Rush-Counter-Harass: A sort of rock-paper-scissors is a way for the choices to have a net effect on the outcome.
Rush: If the enemy uses Harass, gain +1 attack, +1 damage.
Counter: If the enemy uses Rush, gain +1 AC, +1 attack.
Harass: If the enemy uses Counter, gain +2 AC.
Momentum: Imagining a line in the center of an arena, and the duel pushes back and forth across that line, as one fighter puts pressure on the other.
Any attack that misses by 2 or less: Striker gains 1 Momentum, target loses 1 Momentum.
Any attack that hits: Striker gains 2 Momentum, target loses 1 Momentum.
If either side reaches 4 Momentum, their next attack is an automatic critical hit.
Random test fight with momentum
Red vs. Blue. 15 AC.
Red
Hit. Red: 2, Blue: 0
Blue
Hit. Red: 0, Blue: 2
Red
Hit. Red: 2, Blue: 0
Blue
Miss by 4. Red: 2, Blue: 0
Red
Hit. Red: 4, Blue: 0
Blue
Miss. Red: 4, Blue: 0
Red
Crit
Hit. Red: 0, Blue: 0
It kind of makes the fight more luck-based, and shorter. Maybe some other kind of effect on reaching max momentum, or maybe the max momentum could be higher, like 8.
Re-gameplay post: I can picture Adrien going "Damnit, Ozz!" the second Grellik makes a noise, despite him being across the city and who-knows-where.
Re-Dueling: I was thinking that my system led to the same problem, Adrien, and have even considered a rock-paper-scissors style system to fix that.
However, momentum is kind of fun. Maybe I'll link them together somehow.
I don't know how fluidly RPS style would fit in PbP, if it were in person it would be easier, but since someone HAS to post first it kind of ruins the effect. I guess I could always say that the player declares first (in a spoiler so I can declare before reading), but the illusion that I COULD check might ruin the fun for the players.
Grellik, Trissae. Do you two have any opinion if a dueling system is something you would LIKE to implement? I'll not give it anymore thought on how it would work unless everyone thinks it is a fun idea.
I havent even had a duel with the default system :P
So there's still time for the mechanics to be canonical!
I am interested in a good dueling system, sounds fun. I agree with Adrian RE: numerical bonuses--they will end up a wash. (also, Grey, did you mean Bonus action, or that assigning the bonus is not an action?)
Momentum is good, though I would perhaps, to keep it more dramatic, have momentum be a line where only one side has momentum (also, I would consider only gaining on misses/hits of two or more), and have a momentum break concept: if the person who does not have momentum succeeds by 2 or the person with momentum fails by two, instead of moving the momentum "line" back one, it gets reset and moved one in the opposite "direction"
So if A had any momentum, and failed by 2 or more, or B succeeded by two or more, than B would break A's momentum and have Momentum of 1 now
What worries me about the momentum idea is it amplifies luck. So if I get super lucky and land 3 hits in a row, I also gain whatever bonus from momentum.
With d20, and especially with 5e's clamped AC/hits, your attack is a small number, plus 1 to 20. So most of it is luck. It takes a lot of rolls to average out in a fight. So I'm worried momentum would just make fights shorter, and shove more power on to the lucky side, on top of what they already got from being lucky, making turn-arounds less likely once somebody is ahead.
to be perfectly honest I'm not interested at all. Not that its a bad system or anything, it just doesn't appeal to me very much.
Yeah honestly 5e is new enough to me that I'm not super excited about add-ons.
Well, the d20 already pushes things on the lucky side, especially with the smaller numbers you are adding to it in 5E (given how small their bonus numbers are for this edition, they really should have dropped down to a d12)
I just don't see any way to not push into the lucky side with momentum. Though shorter duels might be good too. nothing says exciting like slowly whittling away HP in a dramatic fuel sequence :P
I'm interested to see how well the system handles fiddling, since its streamlines, but I am fine without a dueling system, though I find the idea cool
Okay, let's shelve it for now. If we ever do get into some dramatic duel situations and feel that it isn't exciting enough to play as what it feels like it should be, then I'm fine with picking it back up.
There's also something to be said of WHEN such a duel would ever actually occur. The conditions I've described sound pretty damn rare for D&D. If it were a movie where each of the heroes separates to fight their own foil in a different location, that would fit better.
If I just challenge every npc to a duel, one of thems gotta accept, right?
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That's how you discover the random barbarians within a population.
Duels are gentlemanly :D
says the barbarian...
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Oh man, these are golden Trissae/Adrien references! WHO WOULD GRELLIK BE?!
Unsure..
But Trissae is TOTALLY Miguel (Scares 9/10 giant rats away)
I need to edit that lute playing gif to look like triss
on a scale of 1 to 10, how sad are you that I didn't get to sing about a ship wench?
I'd put it at about an 8.5 myself
9
10
Grelllliiiiik
Grellliiiiiiiik
Grreelliik
new Unearthed Arcana This month its a Ranger revamp. looks like they are really trying to get the beastmaster to feel more like you are mastering beasts rather than having a robot that you have to direct to attack :D
look, attack robots are cool.
Oh, they are cool as s%~+, they just don't make you feel like you are attacking with your animal friend :D
Oh nice, that's pretty cool
you think I should sing them my sailor tune now?