Journeys Across the Tablelands

Game Master dickie

Posting this to all my games, so sorry if you see it multiple times:

This week both my office and I personally are going to be moving. It's been crazy busy and I am not going to be able to post until Monday at the earliest. Please bot me if I am in your game, and if you are in a game I am running, I will get a post up as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience.

I'm guessing Derlan is still tied up. I'll give him a little more time before taking a bot turn (since I can't actually update-update tonight).

Sorry, I posted last night, but it looks like my posted was nommed by the server. I'll repost it.

So I am posting from work:
Apologies about not posting sooner, but I have been down internet wise for roughly a week, and will not have internet back up yet for a week or so.
This means that I haven't had internet for the last 4 days (as we had 4 days off at my work for the holiday).
It's been...an experience where I learned that I use the internet more than I thought I did.
With all of that being said, I will try to post from work as I can, but if I am in your game, please bot me as needed.
If I am running your game, please bear with me while I try to post when I can. Hopefully, sooner than better, but I want to be up front about this issue.
again, I apologize about the delay.

Argh! I'm rushing and posting on phone too much, Ludi is correct, Ko intended to go for the baddy, likely why the question about movement now that I think of it. So I'm weighing options to fix that.

Leave it as it stands and explain it off as Jaryx blocks the path too much/AoO thing.

or

Retcon so Ko hits the monster but ends up getting shut in with the thing. Honestly, Ko might be fine if Jaryx is not able to get in the way of her fighting it.

Opinions are welcome, especially from Jaryx and Ko since they're doing an unfortunate PvP dance at this second.

I am fine with getting locked in, I knew that might be a possibility.

Id say Ko's choice to rush past as she was about to close it.

Also, no worries on the retcons, it happens and most of us are probably pretty used to it.

I will say that one of the reasons I was interested in pbp 2e was because of the RAW combat sequence...which sort of goes along with movement topic. I know there's a lot of strong opinion about it but I always thought the RAW combat sequence would be really well suited to pbp:

1. The DM decides what actions the monsters or NPCs will take, including casting spells, if any.
2. The players indicate what their characters will do, including and casting of spells.
3. Initiative is determined.
4. Attacks are made in order of initiative.

And without optional initiatives, there's only 2 initiatives (monster and players). Its future tense. So we all describe what we want to do before we even know who wins the initiative and it gets resolved into a description. Probably more work from the DM but I dont know, something to try maybe.

My main concern is that it leads to either double posting actions as they're first declared then resolved, or it let's in way more room for error because it means me rolling the results in a big post. I actually love declare then resolve personally, just seems like a slowdown.

"Declare then resolve" tends to lead to characters trying to do things and then losing their turn because the situation has changed and their action is no longer valid. And, as anyone will tell you, losing your turn is No Fun.

The reason I don't use it is because it's trying to model battlefield uncertainty and saying "Ok you were going to try to do <X> but that is no longer valid, so..." - like you were going to target a gith but the gith got killed - and then penalizing the player by making them effectively lose their turn.

Instead, taking your action when you turn comes up means you at least get a shot at doing something.

The former system is supposed to model "battlefield chaos" but the real question is is it fun and is it effective. What it winds up doing is creating confusion, making players hedge their bets and resent when they lose their turn because of ordering issues, and making it take longer to resolve turns. It's also punitive to players because the DM is running all of the monster actions, so unless the DM decides to complicate the situation even more, the monsters don't have to worry about stepping on each others' toes. The players' coordination can affect their success but the monsters have the benefit of their coordination all coming from one person controlling them all.

And if you want to have battlefield chaos you can do that narratively! "Ko was about to bring her gythka down on the belgoi, but it fell under two of Ekee's arrows. Instead the kreen pivoted and slashed at the anakore." Voila, the scene now explicitly includes that Ko was going to act against a particular foe, that foe died, but Ko doesn't lose the turn and instead gets to be a baller-ass warrior in the midst of a heated combat.

I'll give some honest thought to how I can adapt a declare/resolve on PbP but my guess is that I personally won't be easily capable of doing it as GM.

One way to share the load might be to allow a character a contingency of some sort, but that clutters the posts. There are a lot of times you can simply change the target focus, especially when fighting lots of goons at once.

I think I would prefer to play a game with declarations before trying to run one. *CoughyoushouldrunSpellJammercough*

Quietly decides not to run ravenloft aboard the spelljammer.

Not to get my friends killed faster... Jaryx your strength stats is off. It's +3hit +8dmg.

For the record, Ravenloft on the SpellJammer would be awesome.

Or riding in a spelljammer in the mists of dread.

Think Space Hulk.

Damn, what a great idea for a game!

Used to run it as a campaign end for spelljammer. You find the spelljammer, board it, and the mists envelope you. You find out that you have boarded the spelljammer from the prime material plane in which the Fool managed to turn the ship undead so he could captain it once again.

I've had this idea about starting a groundling game in each of the three major old settings. Come around level 5 or so major crossover where the three groups meet up and form two new groups, one in SpellJammer, the other in Planescape. Ambitious and difficult, requires multiple GMs, but it'd be cool...

Anyway, update post coming soon.

Does anyone know if warrior exp bonus for killing blow is based on actual hit dice or effective hit dice? The thing Ko finished off was only 3 real HD, but an effective 9 HD for experience purposes..

Not sure. I didn't know that there were effective HD in 2e.

It isn't common, usually it is factored into the stat block or monster listing. There are some beasties, however, that are very similar to templates. The dwarven banshee is one such critter. It retains the HD and class abilities it had in life, but gains a lot of significant abilities as well (psionics, hit by steel/magic only, special ability, etc.).

Which gives me the answer, actual HD. It isn't broken down in the MM after all.

I am posting this to all of my games, so apologies if you see this multiple times:

Unfortunately, I have some bad news.

A combination of work-related stuff has lead to me having to take some time off from the forums. I am, in all honesty, going to need to be gone for several months, as I am going to be travelling for extended periods of time (weeks or more) and I'll likely not have good access to the internet.

As I am not someone who would want to have you all sit and wait for me here, I am going to be withdrawing/closing all of my open forum games.

I want to thank everyone who I have had the pleasure to game with over the last couple of years here, as I have immensely enjoyed my time on the forums, and hopefully, once my work stabilizes, I will be able to rejoin the community.

Thank you again for your time and energy, and I am sorry that I won't be able to keep things moving forward in any of the games that I am running.

Sorry to hear that Vrog, hope to game with you again in some months.

You're welcome back any time you want, we can always figure out where Derlan wandered off to if needed!

Also, my apologies for the delay, just a lot going on my way including some power loss from a snow storm, getting back up to speed, hopefully update post soon.

So yeah, multiple attacks by the same weapon occur staggered. I had forgotten about that. Multiple types from a creature/character (claw/claw/bite type of deal) are all at once. You could post the secind (or more) attacks at the same time, though it might be easier for me to remember the timing if you do separate it or find some other way to highlight it.

So Derlan was your healer...would someone like to swap a character tree healer in at rest, or would you all like me to bump recruitment to look for one?

My alt on my tree isn't a healer, but I could make a #3 that is, if desired.

Oh yeah, that brings up another point: We really have to stay on top of xp as we go, not only because different classes gain levels at different rates, but people need to be at their accurate xp totals any time they switch out on the character tree so they aren't missing out.

Okay then, we'll just push it forward, lol. Good time to wrap this ruined building up and reorganize. That means there are no current threats because the curse ends as soon as Jaryx hits Ludi for 30. Go ahead and react as you like in the gameplay thread to Jaryx critting Ludi just before the curse ends.

Ludi - we can figure out how exactly Farcluun dragged your replacement cleric into this however you like. The character would be waiting at the camp by the time the rest returns.

For warriors tracking killing blows, the gith were 3 HD. As as the dwarven banshee. And uh...so was Ludi. Take the extra 30 and run, Jaryx. lol

Experience gained from that entire mess: 400 each.

Ludi, the new cleric can begin with base experience value plus the base accumulated so far (140 from the bog waders, plus 400 from here), but no bonus for class abilities or prime ability score.

Wealth: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 1) = 4 x30 = 120 cp
Hit points: 2d10 ⇒ (7, 6) = 13 + 10 (1st level) + 6 (Con) = 29

New character, who dis? :)

Paraelemental, cool. She may have actually felt the pull of one of the artifacts and ran afoul of Farcluun and his elf patrols as a possible jumping in idea.

Ready to go any time.

I suspect the party is mostly dithering because people were trying to figure out how to deal with the Jaryx situation. Now that that is settled - Ludi gets ripped in half and then Jaryx snaps out of it - we can move on!

As a reminder, among other goodies, Ludi was carrying a metal scimitar, a potion fruit of extra healing, and two gallons of water.

Any chance of an experience points check? Id like to start including it in my profile line so I can better track it...I think I have neglected some since the scorpion.

The current base total is 540 xp earned each. That doesn't include any specific bonuses such as the +10% if you have met or exceeded the prime attributes for your class. Some of that is a story award.

There is an explanation for Derlan's disappearance, aside from the meta-reason that his player is unavailable for a bit, that is. Feel free to look around for him if you like, but it is getting late and that was a rough encounter, so it might be best to return to camp (where you will pick up Ludi's replacement).

Thanks, Ill try to stay on top of that better.

Also, side note, I'm thinking of prepping a low level Forgotten Realms to see how well I could pull off the decalre/resolve rules. Not for sure on details, just thinking something I can do super easy low level as a laboratory of sorts. If anyone is interested, I will keep y'all updated.

Id certainly be down. There's sadly not many premade adventures at that level, maybe Doom of Daggerdale.

There are a few others, most set around the Dales, or Maztica. Main reason for thinking FR is that it is a setting that has most everything available and established, so it provides lots of options for a lab project, lol. I can easily modify a generic module or Greyhawk.

Edit/update: I am actually looking at the intro to Maztica 1st level module tonight since any character might have a reason to go to the "new world". Makes a natural setup for a group of characters from all over the realms.

So, I just noticed the post where Ko attacked Jaryx for killing Ludi was eaten by the paizo gremlins... and now it feels extremely out of place for her to do so now... not sure how to continue as I feel she is going to be very confused by this issue.

Lol, probably for the best. I would like to see someone get a level before the original characters die!

There are a few others, most set around the Dales, or Maztica. Main reason for thinking FR is that it is a setting that has most everything available and established, so it provides lots of options for a lab project, lol. I can easily modify a generic module or Greyhawk.

Edit/update: I am actually looking at the intro to Maztica 1st level module tonight since any character might have a reason to go to the "new world". Makes a natural setup for a group of characters from all over the realms.

I'm a pretty big fan of Maztica, as flawed as it may have been.

We missing anyone else? Is there anything holding up gameplay? Party going to head back to camp as suggested by Dismoon, or are Jaryx and Ko going to get into it now?

Recommended format for quick reference:

AL Gender Race Class (Kit) 1 | HP X/Y | AC 10 | DA -1 MDA +1 | PPD 20 RSW 20 PP 20 BW 20 MS 20 | Reaction Adj +1 | Vision XX’ | [spoiler =Status]None.[/ spoiler]

Comments on improving that are welcome. I'm thinking of adding MV somewhere for the Maztica lab one-off. I have really been enjoying AD&D with fresh eyes since playing 3.x through PF, so perfecting how to set games up well is of interest to me.

Alright folks, I've got enough ready to go (except for finding a few stock maps for random encounters and such) for the declare/resolve AD&D play-by-post setup. I'm making it general recruitment, however, I'm basically allowing players from my games an automatic acceptance. Just post in the recruitment thread as an alias I would recognize or otherwise identify yourself in the post.

Fires of Zatal Recruitment Thread

That is 14 exp for everyone for that brutal massacre, lol. Ko, they were 2HD.

Another 14 for everyone. Will update when I'm not falling asleep. Again, both were 2 HD.

Sorry, been a super busy few days, will get you guys moving again ASAP.

The silt runners were 2 HD for those of you warriors looking for bonus exp.

Dismoon - take 200 XP for thief abilities. They made things way easier for this whole lair so it is about time to drop that bump on you.

Otherwise the team gains 35 XP each.

This basically leaves you guys with exploring the gith's cave or one last obvious ruin site.

Nice, thank you! That will ease the pain when I get one-shotted by a desert rodent ;)

Hey DM, I'm supposed to get 100 xp/spell level for casting cleric spells; should I be counting the cure light wounds spells that I've cast?