Work for the government in DC. Not telework eligible, and am waiting for approval. In the meantime they expect me to spend 3 hours a day on a train to come to work. Luckily my week long national guard duty just got cancelled.
Hey, DC! I went to high school in Prince George's County and my aunt and uncle still live in northern Montgomery County.
I'm in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. I live with my daughter. Currently a casual worker at a local school, but I also write. At the moment still going to work, but we are expecting closures soon. cases are growing here, but less than ten I have heard. But it was only one a couple of days ago.
House rules
I have a couple of thoughts on party skill rolls. I use these as house rules, but I thought I would see if everyone doesn't mind first.
Group checks.
If several characters are searching, or examining something then everyone rolls, with the highest roll being the actual roll, and the rest automatically aiding. This applies to perception, knowledge rolls, survival tracking rolls and so on. Not to things like surprise checks, or if a character wants a separate check. Some of these would require talking to each other (eg, knowledge checks). I think this will streamline things.
Passive check
Usually applies to perception (sometimes survival, spellcraft or animal handling). I usually use what I jokingly refer to as a take 5 check, which is a character's walking along without actually checking check. Mostly for trap detection for the uncautious.
mobile trap detection
This is for detecting traps on the move, say for example pits or even ambushes. This is a bit of an expansion of the standard rules.
Uncautious - use the take five option above. No movement penalty
aware - standard check, with a minus five penalty. half to full move
Cautious - standard check, half move or less
Paranoid - +5 to check, five-foot move
skill range
May have mentioned this before. I really don't like the -1 penalty per ten feet rule. So I use a simpler rule. Under-five feet +1. Over five feet no penalty. Over one hundred feet -5. Over 200 feet -10. Modified for target size and so on.
I live in Manassas, VA and I work in a tax accounting office as the office administrator. Just today we closed our doors to the public - they'll have to knock if they're picking up a package and use the mail slot if they're dropping off.
About the only good thing in this whole mess is that my commute to work on the I-66 (which is usually a snarled mess taking an hour or so to drive 18 miles) has been completely devoid of any traffic during morning and afternoon rush hour! With schools closed and (as Eldric knows!) a LOT of government employees probably networking from home, it's been almost spooky driving the normally crowded freeways around here.
Chill, I like the House Rules! It sucks so bad when an Aid Another check is a natural 20 helping someone who rolled a 1 on the dice!!
I like the rules. Sensible.
House rules sound good to me. And Horek, be safe! Never know what might be infected out there
I too am good with the house rules. Thanks.
Cool. And onward
Fine by me as well.
Sorry, real life has been real. Very tired right now, I will post tomorrow.
Sorry, real life has been real. Very tired right now, I will post tomorrow.
Totally understandable. Thanks for letting us know.
Definitely! Take your time Chill, we'll be here! :)
This week has been a bit of a wipe. Sorry about that guys, but the stars kept refusing to align. I will continue on Monday once the new normal is, er, normalized.
Stay safe, everyone.
So hi everyone.
Last week was fairly overwhelming and I had minor eye surgery on Monday (went quite well). But I am sorry for the delay. I will start reposting tomorrow and should remain consistent from that point.
Glad the surgery went well Chill, no worries at all about the delay. RL has everybody reeling in shock I think. Playing D&D to get away from reality for a short bit has never seemed more sane!
Apologies for my absence. Our current shared home internment is not great for my psychological well-being, and one way I tend to manifest is to withdraw, which is not fair to all of you. I'll try my best to fight that urge.
Don't feel bad. This is hard on all of us. One day at a time.
I'm not pushing to hard at the moment, as everyone is a bit off right now. As long as we slowly move forward, that's good.
Horek will hold in place for now, but I'm thinking we might not want to sit out there for too awfully long. I'd hate to see them try to outflank us and pick up reinforcements as they do...
Internet was out for a few days, but I'm back.
Cool
Can someone link me into the Roll 20 game? I lost my acct info. Can't join.
Can someone link me into the Roll 20 game? I lost my acct info. Can't join.
Seltyn HERE'S the link.
Thanks. I'll get hooked up eventually.
If you still cannot link, PM your email to me and I will do it
I actually forgot that Pathfinder (and 3.5 D&D) is less forgiving about using Animate Dead than 5th edition. I'm not even sure Mazrak can cast that spell, can he? Given the dwarf is NG and the spell has the 'evil' descriptor?
It only matters if Mazrak had the good aura class feature. If he continues to use it or Misuses it his alignment may shift but he CAN use it.
My judgement is that it takes more than one evil act to shift alignment. If this is a habit, it may cause problems down the road, to be sure.
Eldric may act negatively.
But if the zombie is used for a short time, for an ostensibly good purpose, then the harm is small. Though it is more a neutral act. Mazrak is NG, so this should be out of character. But still...it does make this interesting.
In the end, it is player choice, as long as they live with that choice. I hopefully indicated that in the spell cast description
It only matters if Mazrak had the good aura class feature. If he continues to use it or Misuses it his alignment may shift but he CAN use it.
Ah! Good deal, I missed that. I like how you're handling it Chill. Makes sense that it's ostensibly for a good purpose now, but as they say 'the road to Hell is paved with good intentions...' ;)
I actually forgot that Pathfinder (and 3.5 D&D) is less forgiving about using Animate Dead than 5th edition. I'm not even sure Mazrak can cast that spell, can he? Given the dwarf is NG and the spell has the 'evil' descriptor?
Mazrak gets these abilities through his Mystery of Bones. Its an Oracle thing. It makes up a little for not having Channel Energy. His speaking with the dead has been helpful too.
But the issues of this is why Mazrak asked for permission. The Dead are dead, and not in and of itself evil. Mazrak uses the dead for good purposes, and only good purposes. How is using a dead formerly evil Hill Giant evil if it is used to destroy other evil? Is it the road to hell? That is for a higher power and for another time.
Plus, it always makes for interesting roll playing. I had the NPC Droja in a campaign that Chill played in. It was fun and interesting playing this Mystery of Bones Oracle.
By the way, have we lost Eldric?
Eldric and Jeeves both have rounds of actions that could include talking to the Orc.
It is still an evil spell. It is in the descriptor
I think more like the Zombie Master Johnathan. ;) Is it evil to use evil to fight evil?
But you are the GM. Your call. I likely should have made Mazrak a true Neutral instead of NG. However, all he does is for goodness sake.
I have always thrown wrenches into the gaming system. Explore the possibilities, a good Hill Giant Bard, a good Goblin Thief, etc. that may be members of a party. A good use to an evil spell.
hey, if it is good roleplay, and it doesn't disrupt the game in a bad way, go for it. It is all your stories when it comes down to it. I do think you are skirting the edge of dangerous territory for your character, the whole ends justify the means thing, but on the other hand, your oracular predilections lead you that way.
As long as it is good story-making.
chillblame,
I posted earlier that I had shrunk back down to normal size. I'm not sure I can change my character's size in roll20, but I bet you can. Would you mind? Thanks!
No problem
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Sorry about disappearing. I'm in GenCon heaven/hell and busy running two games a day. I'll be back next week, I promise!
Sounds like fun/a real pain. :D
Sounds like fun/a real pain. :D
It was a great weekend, especially since I haven't been able to attend GenCon since I moved to the West Coast in 2010. Not the same as actually being there in person, of course, but that was impossible this year.
I'll be on a camping vacation until Monday, so no updates this weekend. Feel free to bot me if needed, but I'm low on the initiative so my turn might come up when I get back anyway. You've got a good idea of Horek's tactics thus far if needed though!
With regret, I am going to have to drop this and the other game, as I am overstretched a lot. (currently, I am playing in six games, and game mastering 3). You may have noticed the slow game progression. However, if you want, I can hand the game over to one of you. I can also hand over the roll20 part of it as well, as I can designate another DM.
What do you think?
I understand Chillblame. As you know, I too had to give up games due to other demands in my life. It happens. As always, I wish you well in your future endeavors. Game on!
Blessings to you.
Bill aka Mazrak
Understandable. I thank you for running this and wish you all the best.
I'm still willing to play if someone wants to run it.