My thinking is this: A CR 4 encounter would be a difficult challenge for a party of four 1st level PCs, but just a challenging encounter for six 1st level PCs... And you have several routes by which to retreat if the battle goes against you... But, yeah, pretty Gygaxian lol! :-)
Just pray that the sounds of combat don't bring more undead to join in the fun! Lol...
Well... at least I got that crap roll out of the way early...
/facepalm
...then what?
Well, for my next guy I was thinking maybe a paladin?
Things are admittedly starting to look grim lol... Sorry, Cardinal Lucius. :-(
Hopefully the others can pull this out of the nosedive it appears to be headed for and get Lucius stabilized before he bleeds out!
Currently at -5 hit points, Lucius will bleed to death in 9 rounds (at -14) unless stabilized...
Also, don’t forget that you all have the Pope’s blessing, granting a +1 competence bonus on a single attack roll, saving throw, or skill check within the next 24 hours...
Yay Zagathoth! That's what you guys needed to avoid a disaster, I think...
I get that botting players helps the game move more quickly but It would be nice to have a little bit longer before that kicks in. Didn't really have time to post when I checked this morning and when I came back now my action had already been taken. Not a big deal but still.
I get that botting players helps the game move more quickly but It would be nice to have a little bit longer before that kicks in. Didn't really have time to post when I checked this morning and when I came back now my action had already been taken. Not a big deal but still.
Sorry it I'm rushing. If the group is comfortable with taking the combats a little more leisurely, I can refrain from botting until, say, 24 hours have passed since a player's last post? Does that sound reasonable?
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I think 24hours is reasonable. Due to real life I haven't checked this game for about 20 hours. I get back and find 44 posts and that I am on the floor and dying! That's a lot to catch up on, and does remove a degree of agency as a player.
I'm in the UK so I usually miss the 'flurry of posts from people in the US' time so if it carries on like this I'm liable to miss everything important...
Okay, moving forward, I won't bot until at least 24 hrs have passed since a player last posted. Some of us are in different time zones, and there's really no reason to rush things with PBP.
My apologies to Quinlan, Lucius, and whomever else I botted in my haste! Lol... Especially to Lucius, I can see how coming back to 44 posts to catch up on and finding that your PC was not only botted but is now unconscious and dying would kill the fun a bit! :-(
I'm enjoying everyone's contributions to this epic tale in the making, and hope to continue to provide a fair, and most importantly, a fun game, that keeps your interest and enthusiasm up. I'm always open to constructive critiques of my GMing style, as feedback helps fine tune my game for everyone's benefit. :-)
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I'm rolling like crap. Sickened is really really bad for someone who has 3 attack rolls that do little damage on each one.
As for a fair game... hmmm. Ghasts at level 1 are probably never fair. They have an AC of >16, which means all of us are going to miss quite a bit more often than we hit, and as shown they can take out a PC in a single turn. But I feel like we will get out of this all alive, unless reinforcements show up.
I think you'll be alright at this point... Until that first ghast dropped, I wasn't sure lol... Two ghasts at 1st level, even if the party is 50% larger than standard, is obviously a tall order lol... But I believe this encounter will unfold to prove that it is certainly doable, given a little luck with the dice and sound tactics. I feel like everyone is doing the best they can given the circumstances... Now that there's just one wounded ghast, who looks like it wants to retreat, I think we can all breath a sigh of relief lol! :-)
On the plus side, if your PC survives to reach high levels in my campaign, you will truly have bragging rights. As I stated before, I run a fairly dangerous (especially at the fragile first few levels), Gygaxian sandbox-style world, so the potential for PC death is maybe a little higher than in most GMs games... But the heroes who prevail really earned their glory and bragging rights! Lol :-)
All joking aside, I don't want to scare anyone off, nor am I interested in gaining a reputation for running a sadistic meat-grinder campaign, so I will go through my notes on the Catacombs of San Callisto and tone down anything likely to produce a TPK lol...
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Character death is part of the game and can be an important story driver for it. It is just extra heartbreaking in a game where all of us had to put serious effort into getting accepted in the first place. I would never have written a five page backstory for a face to face game... and death wouldn't bother me as much. :)
Character death is part of the game and can be an important story driver for it. It is just extra heartbreaking in a game where all of us had to put serious effort into getting accepted in the first place. I would never have written a five page backstory for a face to face game... and death wouldn't bother me as much. :)
Rest assured that it is the player who has secured a spot at my table, not only the character, so if you die, but you still want to play in my game, your next PC (created at the same XP and wealth as the deceased PC) is guaranteed a spot...
The new heroes have prevailed! Well done, all! That was a first combat I guarantee you will never forget lol...
1,200 XP awarded, divided by 6, so total of 410 XP per PC so far...
Plus a bonus 40 XP per PC for continued excellent RP brings each PC's current total to 450 XP!
Table two had a much easier time with two giant crabs (same CR as the ghasts), which shows that circumstances and design flaws mean that one CR 4 encounter does not equal another... Lol
Two more of those encounters and we'll almost be 2nd level! =)
Yup! That's the reason for the brutal initiation lol... I know its kind of like the dad who teaches his child to swim by throwing them in a deep lake, but it levels the survivors up pretty quick...
This! Is! Sparta! Lol... With some friendlier Athens-style democracy thrown in to make it bearable lol
So, this just happened at table two...
At around four hours past noon, as the sun is slowly sinking westward, a winged shadow crosses the deck... Circling some hundred feet above the Sereia is an albatross...
It spies a suitable target--Lord Perpireen, in the crow's nest--and excretes a payload over the little sprite!
Albatross poo 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29...a direct hit!
Lord Perpireen is splattered by a glob of white-and-green albatross droppings!
In Portuguese: HEEHEEEE!!! BULL'S EYE!!! I AM THE BEST BOMBARDIER!!
MJ66, do we the the ghost now that the Fox has pointed it out?
No one else sees her...
This is so awesome. I was wondering what would really convince this character to push on in here at risk of life and limb, and now I have it!
This is so awesome. I was wondering what would really convince this character to push on in here at risk of life and limb, and now I have it!
Hauntingly appropriate, you might say lol
Awarding 600 XP to the party for peaceful communion with the talking rats and Saint Cecilia, so 100 XP per PC, bringing everyone's total so far to 550 XP...
So far, I've purposely tried to keep both tables equal with XP, essentially following the same formula lol... If you guys get a CR 4 encounter, so do they. You meet talking rats who tell you secrets? They get pooped on by a talking albatross lol...
Flash forward to the 1980s... Hanna Barbara releases its popular and extremely violent cartoon, Bear and Fox... Episode one, the pilot, is entitled, "Bear and Fox meet the Ghost of Saint Cecilia"... The Nielsen ratings indicate major success...
In 1510, a ratfolk apprentice sorcerer makes a comical error that floods his master's tower.
In 1797, a poem by famed bard Johann Wolfgang von Goethe commemorating this humorous disaster is published, entitled "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"...
In 1897, French bard Paul Dukas composes the symphonic poem in F minor entitled L'apprenti Sorcier based on Gothe's poem...
In 1940, Walt Disney Studios released the animated tilm Fantasia, in which their character Mickey Mouse, based on the ratfolk sorcerer's apprentice of the early 16th century legend, reenacts the fabled folly to Dukas' enchanting score...
lol lol
Bahaha Johann I don't know why the dice roller has it in for you so far in this game...
Get all the bad rolls out of the way, right Johann? :-)
Awarding 600 XP to the party for getting past the collapsible floor trap! Total so far is 650 XP per PC!
Lol! It’s about to get fun as hell with Johann failing that Will save against Rumplestilskin’s scrying... so much fun! Haha!
Just to give you all a heads up, Licitus has submitted a cleric who is a Hungarian follower of Jan Hus, and uses Jan’s mummified hand as a holy symbol lol... He will be sent down by Pope Eugenius to reinforce your party, and to make your number a more “holy” 7 instead of a “diabolical” 6 lol...
Oh interesting! But Jan Hus was burned as a heretic by the Catholics not so long ago, was he not?
Channel energy will be so nice...
Yes, this is true, so perhaps this follower is doing penance for following a heretic :-)
In lieu of excommunication and being burnt at the stake as a heretic, Boga the Bohemian Reformationist ecclesietheurge has been assigned to aid the party as penance by Pope Eugenius, a nearly unheard of act of clemency on the part of the Church lol
Hello everyone! Please meet Bohumil "Boga" Horacek. He is an Ecclesitheurge follower of Jan Hus, but he is very diplomatic, focusing on the enemies of God, so perhaps a little cooperation is in order. The enemy of my enemy and all that...
I have read all the gameplay and discussion to date. It's been great! I am quite pleased to be joining the campaign. I still need to tweak some items, but I expect to start posting soon.
Looking forward to it!
Shhh. We don't want everyone to know.
But really, it's no secret. I'm a total fox...
Do you have some program that formatted the stats on your alias page that way, or did you do it manually?
Do you have some program that formatted the stats on your alias page that way, or did you do it manually?
I created it from a template I got a few weeks ago. I've altered it a fair bit from there, but, unfortunately, it is manual. I haven't really given much though on automating it. Perhaps I could create a spreadsheet that would output it like that.
Thanks for the welcome. I'm really looking forward to this.