Hey GM, sorry for the delay, I'll be equipped and ready to non-lethally smash some dudes in a few hours.
I'll be glad to pick up Stealth later if it becomes a "thing" for the group. That is always a good still to have. Not worth asking to rebuild for now IMHO though since its only 1 point at the moment.
All: Two trips I need to mention.
1) Taking kids to a convention this weekend so will not be posting a lot after about 7:00 tonight. Playing 6 slots of PFS. :) Will be back late Sunday.
And 2) I leave on the 13th of March for a two week trip celebrating a significant wedding anniversary (I am an old married guy :) ). Going to travel in Turkey. Not sure of price/availability of internet as I travel but will try to post at least evert other day during that time. Please bot me as needed.
Alright, I will do so! Have fun!
Back from the con. Played 7 games. Wizard leveled to 12, which puts him into retirement as far as Pathfinder Society goes. Got to play with both kids a little. Good fun.
Lets get out of this prison now. :)
Do I need to post something or is it Harhzen's turn?
It's Herzhen's turn but you haven't really done any DMing. You need to summarize where everyone is when the combat starts, the results of throwing the smokes sticks, post initiative and possibly the map (with tokens on if possible) again so everyone knows what's going on.
Then you should ask for surprise round actions from everyone, and round 1 actions for everyone who goes before the guards.
A slightly harsh, but accurate assessment.
GM, at the beginning of combat it really helps for you to set the stage. We need to know how many of them there are, how effective the Smokestick is, what the dimensions of the room are, that sort of thing.
We don't have a physical map, so lots of details really help.
Apologies for not taking the initiative, as it were, and bringing that up - I was waiting for a scene-setting. I'll post a generic action shortly.
I guess that was kind of harsh of me. I was just trying to be honest in what needs to happen for this combat to occur. I probably could have worded it more diplomatically. Apologies.
It helps to have a clear and repeated indication of initiative every round as well. I know that sounds like it would be overkill, but in play by post, when combats can stretch for days it really helps to move things along to know if you are next, or almost next.
Group initiative blocks really help there. Speeds things up a lot.
Alright, my apologies. Thank you for helping me out!
No problem. GMing Play By Post games is pretty different than normal games. The learning curve is a little steep.
Are you familiar with Group Initiative?
I'm quite happy to bear with you while you get used to the format, GM :)
Are you familiar with Group Initiative?
No, how does it work?
I'm quite happy to bear with you while you get used to the format, GM :)
Thank you!
Are you familiar with Group Initiative?No, how does it work?
Basically, the GM makes only one initiative roll for your group of enemies (if they have differing initiative mods, average the enemy's bonuses or something like that).
So, when you roll initiative for everyone, it might look something like this-
Then, you post your pre-fight heading and the initiative results, something like this-
Then, group A would act (in any order).
When they are done, post the results of Group A's actions and take the enemy's actions.
At the end of that post you give Group B the go ahead.
The bugbear falls with an arrow in it's eye! Player 3 gets hit by a Bugbear axe!
Group B then acts (again, in any order).
Then you give us an end of round wrap-up describing the results of Group B's actions and any changes that happen
Player 3 lops the bugbear's head off! The Smoke gets thicker!
Then you give us the next round header-
Basically, what this initiative system does is allows players to post in whatever order they can which speeds things up a lot since they don't have to wait for someone else to find posting time), but still maintains the general feel of "faster than the bad guys" and "slower than the bad guys".
I hope I've organized it all in a way that makes sense.
Are you familiar with Group Initiative?No, how does it work?Basically, the GM makes only one initiative roll for your group of enemies (if they have differing initiative mods, average the enemy's bonuses or something like that).
So, when you roll initiative for everyone, it might look something like this-
** spoiler omitted **
Then, you post your pre-fight heading and the initiative results, something like this-
Then, group A would act (in any order).
When they are done, post the results of Group A's actions and take the enemy's actions.
At the end of that post you give Group B the go ahead.The bugbear falls with an arrow in it's eye! Player 3 gets hit by a Bugbear axe!
Group B then acts (again, in any order).
Then you give us an end of round wrap-up describing the results of Group B's actions and any changes that happen
Player 3 lops the bugbear's head off! The Smoke gets thicker!
Then you give us the next round header-
Basically, what this initiative system does is allows players to post in whatever order they can which speeds things up a lot since...
That makes a lot of sense. We'll use this starting next combat. Thank you!
Also, when you do a combat summary you can use one post for all the actions. No need to post separately for each person.
Also, when you do a combat summary you can use one post for all the actions. No need to post separately for each person.
Got it.
Okay, do you guys want me to set this up as another combat round? I mean, I'm not really expecting you guys to attack the crying guy, and if you do, don't bother rolling for it.
We'll probably want to knock him out so we can escape. Grafelda will do the honors if no one else does.
All, this is a reminder that will be traveling for the next 13 days. Headed to the airport in a few minutes. I'll check in when I have internet but I do not know how often that will be. Please bot me as needed to not slow the game. Thanks!
Okay, have a great time! We will assume Beorn is just following you guys around, and in combat I will control him.
You may want to redo your spoiler tag GM while you can still edit it :)
You may want to redo your spoiler tag GM while you can still edit it :)
Oh boy, that's embarassing.
I'm gonna withdraw from this. Got too much on my plate. Thanks for the chance to play, have fun guys!
Alright-enjoy future gaming endeavors :)
If combat gets to be too much, we'll recruit somebody new. ALso-I've been keeping track of XP up till now-would you guys prefer I tell you how much XP you have after each encounter, or just tell you when you level up?
Just tell us when we level. The less bean counting, the better.
I agree :) the RotRL and Skull & Shackles campaign I play in in PbP don't bother counting XP at all, but the GM tells us when to level up. For a homebrew, I don't know if that would quite work (the campaign guides tell you at what points in the story your PCs should be a certain level based on the XP they should be getting for various story events/battles, whereas homebrew your encounters are fully from scratch) but it's worth considering, anyway.
Agree as well. Also, that way there will be no meta gaming of delaying a big fight so we will level first. :)
Don't mind me, I'm just making stuff up. Cillian's whole concept is that he knows the city and has been preparing for this for a while.
GM, if you don't like it, feel free to have the safehouse compromised so that we can't go back to it again without risking capture, or just lighting it on fire or something.
No, it's all good. Pretty cool actually.
My illusion-Fu is admittedly weak, so I might be wrong, but don't illusions only give saves if they are interacted with, or are something the observer would consider difficult to believe?
I suppose it's how you define interaction, but I don't see how it would do any good to give it a save if looking at it isn't going to be "interaction"--it can't fake any other sensation, so you would know that it wasn't real if you tried to touch it, for example, by the fact your hand would go right through, no willpower needed. But it's up to the GM :)
Generally it takes a specific action to interact with an illusion. The only way looking constitutes interacting with an illusion is if someone tells you it's an illusion and you attempt to disbelieve it, as far as I know. So no, just seeing it doesn't count.
Having said that, it's all really up to the GM, and how he interprets it. But I'm pretty sure that's the way it usually works.
I'd have an illusion just work if people were too far away to touch it, and notice the lack of sound. Now they might not believe it was us... What is your disguise skill?
Let's go with Beorn's interpretation. And do we have to use the disguise skill? I would say that creating a believable illusion is based upon a wizard's magical skill, and not his skill with physical disguise.
I agree. Illusions generally don't need additional checks. They just are what the caster wants them to be.
Good with that. The general ruling is that to make the illusion look like people is not problem. To make it look like specific people take artistic talent. These will likely be too far away for someone to closely interact anyway.
Let's do it
GM? Does anything happen before we head out into town after sundown?
Want to move us forward and set the scene for us? It's mostly going to be Ventus climbing up a tall building so he can cast his illusion at/over the wall (unless things go horribly wrong)
Scene set.
Sorry guys. The internet at my house is down, and my phone is not a good platform for posting. I'll resume posting within a day or so when I can get it fixed.
All good.
Hold up, are they coming to where we are? They spotted Ventus?
Lol, now we're screwed :p
Can I get a description of what's going on. I feel like I must have missed something.