Ummm ... Kessa? Your 'mini' is in the wrong room. It is in room A9 with the players I already had, whereas you're supposed to be in room A11 (further South). You will see BG & Gansu already there.
Sama we are just waiting for you to place your 'mini' on the map now.
I've placed my token behind the frontline. :)
I had a really hard time finding a drawback that fit the characterization I wanted, but I grudgingly eventually settled on meticulous.
If Brother Guiness wants to take the lead, that's fine. Kessa is slightly lower in HP, noticably lower in AC, but higher in saves. If we're in an area we are really worried about traps, it might make more sense for Kessa to be up front with the rogue since she has a much better reflex save.
Good point!
I suppose we could use the following test: listen for noise.
If we hear noise that suggests monsters, Guinness goes first. No noise, Kessa goes first.
At higher levels things may be different. There are also the other three characters. We do seem to be hogging the thread right now. :)
GM: Any chance of a quick description of the area we are in? I take it we are coming in through the secret door in the southeast corner.
I have had another long period without internet. And I expect more. Sorry but there is SFA I can do about it. Please bot my character if I am holding things up. :(
Also just so the new people are aware, I have what I like to refer to as CDO, but is more commonly known as OCD. I just spell it alphabetically. ;) While technically it has no effect on the game I tend to notice things like the format on the dice rolls doc not being followed, or the 'moving around' of things on the map and such.
Stormstrider, just a slightly nosey question. Do you actually have medically diagnosed OCD? Or what people loosely refer to as OCD, meaning they like to see things done just right?
Super excited for all the new characters and players joining. Can't wait to get our characters together and do some in-game introductions. :) This party looks fit to take on anything that comes our way. Huzzah!
Except perhaps the room full of homophobic Balrogs with an attitude problem that Stormstrider is threatening us with.
Super excited for all the new characters and players joining. Can't wait to get our characters together and do some in-game introductions. :) This party looks fit to take on anything that comes our way. Huzzah!
I agree! I'm even excited for the balrogs!
Hahaha! You all funny! Sorry I haven't been feeling too well last 2-3 days and still having headache tonight ... been fighting a migraine since Sunday.
I'll try to post some replies tomorrow, or Friday? Or Saturday? Sunday? ... sometimeish soon??? ;)
Okay, feeling somewhat better this morning so going to answer some of the simpler posts in order they were asked - if I have that right!
Gansu, and all newcomers probably want this as well! - First of all, for a description of where you are, ... ahem, ... if you really wanted it you could go back through previous game-play posts to get it as I have suggested multiple times reading those to get up to speed, but I'll give it here again.
"This curving hall has been badly damaged, but there are intact doors to the north, east, and south, as well as a large double-door leading west. The southeast corner of the room has collapsed in a mound of green glass rubble, but a tunnel runs through the debris, shored up with rough timbers."
All floors of this entire level are considered difficult terrain because there is rubble of the green 'glass/rock' everywhere!!! So no charging on this floor.
Since the newcomers have a dwarf in their group I am going to say that yes, you did come in through the secret entrance in the SE corner, after 1-2 hours hard labor to remove the blockade that had been put there. The secret door had been blocked up by a large pile of this green 'glass/rock' and 1 goblin body that had obviously been tortured and then incorporated into the blockade while still alive! Punishment for having 'helped' the invaders previously! Very funny story! I'll try to find it later and copy it over here for you all, or again, you could read through previous game-plays!
*******************************************
Tamlara & Gansu, I'm still working on answers to your PM's. Sorry, like I said I haven't been feeling too well and was kind of outta commission there for a few days. No rush since neither should have much affect on game-play yet at least ... but I will try to have an answer by this weekend at latest for both.
*************************************************
Boudacia, I am sorry to hear you're still having internet connection issues! I know that would be driving me up the wall! But as Aldhranhald/Mended said in our other game, if that is your main problem in life, then you are doing very well indeed! - Trust me, no car is a whole lot worse! :) I'll bot you if I feel it necessary.
And as far as my CDO/OCD, no it is not medically diagnosed technically, but every single case I have ever heard of through any media, there are multiple symptoms that fit my life exactly, so I suspect if I went to the trouble of an actual diagnosis that it might come out that way? For example, my room looks like an absolute mess I'll admit! (A tornado could only help to clean it up!) But if you walked in with a complete list of my belongings and randomly asked me for different items, I could lay my hands on them within seconds almost literally for about everything I have!
******************************************************
And last, but not least! Just somebody has to be last! Kessa, I just wanted to say thank-you for correcting your mini's position!
************************************************************
EVERYBODY I will try to get an in-game post up today sometime to get things rolling here!
I think I've covered everything currently? If I missed something please forgive me and remind me! I do make an effort to answer all questions in a timely fashion - health and RL permitting! :D
Great! Looking forward to it.
FYI Stormstrider, I have finished buying mundane items. I have 5 sp left. :)
BTW Guys: If anyone has encumbrance issues, I can carry another 100 lbs. without negative effect.
Okay, feeling somewhat better this morning so going to answer some of the simpler posts in order they were asked - if I have that right!
*************************************************
Boudacia, I am sorry to hear you're still having internet connection issues! I know that would be driving me up the wall! But as Aldhranhald/Mended said in our other game, if that is your main problem in life, then you are doing very well indeed! - Trust me, no car is a whole lot worse! :) I'll bot you if I feel it necessary.
And as far as my CDO/OCD, no it is not medically diagnosed technically, but every single case I have ever heard of through any media, there are multiple symptoms that fit my life exactly, so I suspect if I went to the trouble of an actual diagnosis that it might come out that way? For example, my room looks like an absolute mess I'll admit! (A tornado could only help to clean it up!) But if you walked in with a complete list of my belongings and randomly asked me for different items, I could lay my hands on them within seconds almost literally for about everything I have!
Glad to hear you are feeling better.
The internet has been fine for the last 2 days. Hopefully it will stay that way. Before that it had in fact driven me all the way up the wall. I could go no further due to the ceiling.
I don't have a car at all. But my life is structured so I don't depend on one. Even no car is hardly as bad as, say, protracted torture, so it could be worse. My sleep is currently seriously disrupted, which is a more serious problem also. And one I can't ring my internet provider to have fixed. :(
On OCD, I am no psychiatrist, so I can't say anything definitive. Ideally, such a suspected problem should be looked at by a qualified psychiatrist. My guess is you lack the money, especially under the US health system.
|
So, I am going to try out some dice rolling. Since I haven't done the PBP thing much yet, I could use some help on the right format.
Question 1) Do the rolls change between preview and posting, or do they stay the same?
Question 2) How much can I assume about the roll in terms of success? A natural 1 is a failure, a DC 10 is basic or routine success, a DC 20 is an advanced success, a DC 25, 30+ is a wonderful success?
Case in point: Brother Guiness went into town and tried to get some good Dwarven Stout to replenish his supply.
- Preview tells me I got a total of 9, so while I found some Dwarven Stout, it wasn't a particularly good batch. A natural 1 might have meant that they ran out or I got a bad batch, and a natural 20 might mean that I got a particularly good batch.
I was also thinking BG might respond to Gansu on the stability of the Spire with a Knowledge/Engineering roll and he may have needed a Diplomacy roll in town to see if Kagen trusted him enough to let him know where Tamlara was...
BG - correct on die rolls. Don't change.
Sorry folks, migraine is back.
OCD is a term that gets used both for the clinical condition and a milder form that is probably best accepted as a quirk and left alone. I have at least one family member who was diagnosed and required treatment. Many of the rest of us have milder versions of the same thing. We don't seek treatment or diagnosis simply because it doesn't get in the way of living a normal life; in us it just makes 'quirks.'
That is precisely right as I understand it.
Somebody who has what is loosely called OCD is a bit of a perfectionist, which is very much a positive for some purposes.
A lot of mental health conditions are perhaps exaggerations of characteristics of some perfectly healthy people. OCD is thoroughness and perfectionism when it gets out of control and becomes pathological.
A question Kessa. How much help was the treatment for the OCD recieved by your relative?
Question 1) Do the rolls change between preview and posting, or do they stay the same?
They stay the same. Furthermore, if you make a post, don't like the roll, and cancel, the next post the roll will still be the same. It prevents people from just trying over and over until they get a roll they like.
Question 2) How much can I assume about the roll in terms of success? A natural 1 is a failure, a DC 10 is basic or routine success, a DC 20 is an advanced success, a DC 25, 30+ is a wonderful success?
Depends on the roll.
For saves and attacks a natural 1 is always a failure and a 20 is always a success. This is not the case for skill and ability checks though.
Attack rolls you usually won't know the enemies' AC, so you need to wait until the GM lets you know that you have hit. But roll the damage anyway just in case.
Skill and ability checks that are opposed (such as your Stealth versus a monster's Perception) you normally won't know what the opponent rolled, so again you need to wait to hear from the GM.
Many skill checks have specific DCs listed in the rulebook for specific tasks. Normally for that kind of roll the GM will assign a DC and often will let you know in advance what you need to roll.
For something like a profession check, there is no "success or failure," merely a scale of quality of the result. Look in the CRB for more details.
I was also thinking BG might respond to Gansu on the stability of the Spire with a Knowledge/Engineering roll and he may have needed a Diplomacy roll in town to see if Kagen trusted him enough to let him know where Tamlara was...
The diplomacy roll for Kagnin can't hurt, but it might be more of a DM call. Tamlara has a . . . complicated history, to the point that she might not remember Bro. Guiness at all. That's the PM Stormy's working on for me. I needed to remind him a bit of my backstory.
|
|
Tamlara, that sounds fine. I will keep it pretty vague unless you and Stormstrider tell me otherwise. It has been a while since we saw each other, and BG will probably describe you as being in your mid-20's by now (apparent age) from his assumption of your aging progression, which will throw him off...I will write a post about it when I get on my computer next unless we jump into battle first...
Let's try to get this game rolling! (Pun intended Boudacia!)
Okey-dokey! New people! Everyone feel free to give me a perception check! Hearing based if that makes a difference. I would prefer you post it as part of some action in the game-play if you can please, or even without an action, still post it there please. Basically all of you have noticed some sort of sound in the room to the north of you, your perception checks shall determine how much. Please let me know if you're planning to go ahead and 'burst' through the door or 'sneak' in or what, though I realize you may want to wait on that decision to find out what you hear.
BG & Gansu I don't see any languages listed for your characters? Am I missing them? For now I'm going to have to play it as if you do not know goblin speech. Though if BG wants to spend one of his languages on it, it would make sense for a Dwarf, just not very useful after this floor.
Now I'll move on to try to answer more questions ...
So, Gansu, Tamlara and BG, heads-up I have sent each of you a PM!
Kessa, there are some more house rules, though I don't think anything is pressing for the game right now from what I can remember. I'm going to come up with a list and make a Google doc and post a link at the top of the page once I have it, so that it's easily available to all future players. I will put a post in here as well letting you all know once I complete it. In the mean-time, EVERYBODY, please feel free to help out and post any house rules you remember us having in this game. This might be a good time to submit suggestions on house rules as well.
And Kessa, I'm looking into the 'Lay-on-hands' with the Dhampir ... Aldhranhald - my go to guy, any thoughts?
Aldhranhald, also if you don't mind, I remember there was just something in your campaign about the rules on taking 20? Would you please refresh my memory? And everyone is always welcome to post on whatever the subject is or even new subjects. Part of the purpose of this game is to learn as well as have fun!
One house-rule I have is that for a full rest you receive 1 HP per level + your Con Bonus.
If your posting anything about a house rule, please include the words 'house rule' in the post to help make it easier to find in the future.
Also here's the link to the google doc I'm working on. Everyone should be able to comment on there, but due being what it is I did limit the editing to myself. :) Not that I don't trust anyone, this just keeps it clear that no one did anything 'mischievous'! ;) :D
Sorry, I just realized I was not clear on what that previous link was to!
Here is what I have so far on House Rules. I still need to double check on my rulings of taking 10 and taking 20, and I will add them there asap. I did post a link to this at the top of the page as well.
Glad to hear it!
BG & Gansu I don't see any languages listed for your characters? Am I missing them? For now I'm going to have to play it as if you do not know goblin speech.
Gansu doesn't understand goblin.
According to Gansu's profile, he speaks Common and Tian (Tian-Min specifically if it ever comes up).
GM: Normally Aasimars speak Celestial, but the scion of humanity alternate racial trait takes that way from me. It doesn't specify but if I am allowed to replace Celestial with a human ethnic language then I would take Tian with that and I can use my language from INT to speak Sylvan (since Gansu has a history with fay it makes sense... unless aquatic fay speak something else).
|
|
I'm going to go ahead and say yes on background skills. Though in all honesty I'm not sure how useful they will be in this setting. There will be little role-play in town, most of your time will be in the Spire's depths.
Since the background skills are a variant rule, I would say this should be included in the house rule listing (for clarity)...
And Kessa, I'm looking into the 'Lay-on-hands' with the Dhampir ...
The entry in the Paladin class doesn't specify that lay on hands is positive energy, but it seems pretty clear that it is intended to be so. It functions in the same way, healing living creatures and harming undead, and at 4th level the ability can also be used to channel positive energy like a cleric. So it seems that RAI it should be considered positive energy, though it doesn't explicitly say so.
Actually there is a FAQ:
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9p08
Having a character in a good party that is healed by negative energy is always a problematic issue.
I hadn't planned on learning inflict spells but it is a possibility.
Excellent, they are a curse.
Stormstrider, you rejected my suggested house rule. That is OK in itself, but perhaps an explanation?
About House Rules:
The only 'house rule' I have found so far is that taking 10 on a skill takes one minute (by the book it's the same as a rolled attempt in terms of time). Is this correct? Is this the only house rule?
If this is up for negotiation I'd prefer that we play with the take 10 rule as originally written, instead of it being a special thing that takes 1 minute. The reason is that the take 10 rule exists simply to speed up play. In a PbP format that is important.
GM: in the PbP environment this means that if someone is capable of succeeding on a listed skill check by taking 10 you can just say they do it and move ahead, rather than ask the player for a roll and then wait for them to respond.
In the home game I run I don't allow the players to take 10 on opposed checks but that is because my monsters always take 10 for those.
OCD is a term that gets used both for the clinical condition and a milder form that is probably best accepted as a quirk and left alone. I have at least one family member who was diagnosed and required treatment. Many of the rest of us have milder versions of the same thing. We don't seek treatment or diagnosis simply because it doesn't get in the way of living a normal life; in us it just makes 'quirks.'That is precisely right as I understand it.
Somebody who has what is loosely called OCD is a bit of a perfectionist, which is very much a positive for some purposes.
A lot of mental health conditions are perhaps exaggerations of characteristics of some perfectly healthy people. OCD is thoroughness and perfectionism when it gets out of control and becomes pathological.
A question Kessa. How much help was the treatment for the OCD recieved by your relative?
I'm talking about something between just perfectionist, which is still normal, and clinical OCD. We all know to keep an eye on it and seek help if it starts to interfere with life. As an example, we have the urge to check if we locked the door over and over again, we just only check once and then tell ourselves we already checked.
The treatment was actually a lot of help. It was very intensive (at least 8 weeks residential), and it wasn't supposed to make everything go away; instead it was to teach tools to cope. That family member has achieved a much more normal life than we would ever have thought possible.
Interesting.
I am glad your relative found the treatment effective. Especially given the amount of time it took.
... Stormstrider, you rejected my suggested house rule. That is OK in itself, but perhaps an explanation?
Sometimes I find it hard to tell if you're being serious or not?!? So, are you being serious about asking for an explanation?
Just so the rest can be aware, someone had added a couple of rules to the House Rules doc saying something along the lines that any player whose name started with a 'B' should get treated as always rolling Nat 20's ... and something - that I didn't bother to take the time to understand - about if it weighed the same amount as a duck, then something, something ... blah, blah.
First of all, I set that up so that you all could only comment.
Second, as far as any explanation, I did say serious suggestions would be taken as such. Thus implying that suggestions that aren't serious, will not be taken seriously.
On the subject/s of Taking ten and Taking twenty:
I am trying to study up/read up on it. At the same time I have multiple people asking multiple questions and all the usual complications of trying to incorporate new people into an ongoing game. Plus, my 'go-to-guy' for rules questions (Aldhranhald/Mended) is not very active on here on the weekends. Not to mention people making up silly rules wasting my time ...
Just making a statement of the facts as they are, so as to say please be patient with me. For the new people let me be clear that this is only my second time running a campaign, so I'm still very new to the DM stuff! I am going to make mistakes! But I will admit it when I do, and I will honestly do my best to correct them and be fair about it.
I will give everybody a response, it just may take a little bit longer than you would like. I am sorry, but those are simply the facts of life.
On the table-top version of the Spire that I am DM'g I just had to figure up their most recent XP and I had 5 characters go up a level! Then for my other tabletop game where I play an Aasimar/Efreeti Pyromancer Sorcerer - I was just told last night that we each are getting $ 60,000 Gp!!!!! So it's time to go shopping! And while I It is so hard to look at everything and try to sort what's best and make decisions on that, and the decisions have to be made by Wednesday evening! - Such a ROUGH life! ;) Very, very, busy!
************************************************************************
Nobody in the new group actually said they are opening the door, but since I believe/understand that to be the intent, I am proceeding as if BG has opened the door. - See initiatives post in-game! - Also I'm taking another chapter out of Aldhranhald/Mended's game, and will start putting the initiative order of the most recent encounter at the top of the page in case anybody needs to know or get 'lost-in-time'.
... Stormstrider, you rejected my suggested house rule. That is OK in itself, but perhaps an explanation?Sometimes I find it hard to tell if you're being serious or not?!? So, are you being serious about asking for an explanation?
Just so the rest can be aware, someone had added a couple of rules to the House Rules doc saying something along the lines that any player whose name started with a 'B' should get treated as always rolling Nat 20's ... and something - that I didn't bother to take the time to understand - about if it weighed the same amount as a duck, then something, something ... blah, blah.
First of all, I set that up so that you all could only comment.
OK, your house rules document can be added to by just clicking on where you want to add text. And I thought that as that was the way it was set up you wanted people to add suggested house rules. So that is just a misunderstanding.
And thanks for clarifying why you rejected the suggested house rules, because they are absolutely preposterous. Which upon reflection is a valid reason.
The business about a Witch weighing the same as a duck comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I was just joking of course.
Sorry, I did not realize the door was closed. BG will open the door, of course as requested, then patiently await his turn in initiative...
No problem! For future reference, if there is a door on the map, it is closed unless I tell you otherwise.
... The business about a Witch weighing the same as a duck comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Ah yes! I knew it came from something like that but my memory was failing me! It has been several years since I last saw that or any other Monty Python movie! I need to watch some of those again! I don't own them, and with my car situation I can't afford to buy them right now. Any idea if there available free on internet? I'll do some searching of my own in my limited free time.
Be advised that if a witch weighs the same as a duck, it also confirms that she is made of wood and is therefore vulnerable to fire.
Edit:
Bookmark
I'm working my way through the gameplay thread. Mostly through it but I need to have a bit of a nap before work.
*whew!* Just finished reading the Gameplay thread. It's a pretty RP-heavy thread. Which is good!
GM: Are we doing initiative by specific character, or are we doing it in 'blocks?'
For example, here's the initiative order right now:
Initiative order: Aldhranhald, Tamlara, Sama, Goblin, Boudacia, Gansu, Tangar, Brother Guiness, Construct?, Alex, & Kessa.
Does this mean that Aldhranhald must go first? Or can Aldhranhald, Tamlara, and Sama post in a 'block,' i.e. in any order amongst those three (unless one specifically says they wait for the others)?
Also, are you cool with me posting a conditional action in advance, even though it's not my turn? Such as "If I can get into the room, on my turn I move and attack the blue monster. Die roll etc..." Usually I would put it in a spoiler tag.
GM: Are we doing initiative by specific character, or are we doing it in 'blocks?'
Ahem .. see house rule # 5? Now I was previously going with following the initiative, but for sake of speed I actually do prefer the 'block' initiatives. So, Aldhranhald, Boudacia, and Tamlara? Are you all ok with me switching to 'block' initiatives?
And I can work with 'conditional advance posts' to some degree. They do tend to help speed things up, as long as they are properly worded.
Because there are a lot of people ahead of me I will hold off on the conditional post but when it is clearer what is happening closer to my turn I might do one.
Okay, I checked in just to see if it was okay for Aldhranhald to post before Tamlara does. I am fine with block initiative, as it makes it easier for players to post when they are capable of posting, rather than everyone waiting for their specific turn to come up. I'm going to go ahead and post Aldhranhald's surprise round action, to keep things moving. Once again I'm very excited to have all this new "blood" aboard. Welcome one and all!
Thank you again! :D
Yes, yes! The block initiative sounds great! I can't wait to get everyone together!