The Smiling DM's page

I'm sorry! I actually planned on continuing this one...and then I rebuilt my wife's computer and we've been playing World of Warcraft again...

I....would like to continue, but every time I think to come make a post, it's when I'm at work or about to go to sleep or otherwise not at my computer. And when I sit down at my computer, I'm logging in to WoW.

I don't think I can realistically continue. I'd like to, but my attention is several places elsewhere. I'm so sorry. :(

1d20 - 2 ⇒ (13) - 2 = 11

As the group moves forward towards the wagon, Avery takes the lead. As she begins to examine it, however, she sees a sudden movement up the path further. Before she can pinpoint the source, however, she sees the small stone strike the ground in front of her foot. A deafening crack sounds as it does.

Avery Fort Save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

The others can hear the sounds of rustling and shouting coming from further into the woods to the northeast, hinting of incoming trouble.

Initiative, please.

Map above.

By this do you mean that the tracks cross the ford and lead away from the river to the other side? Or do they continue to follow the river on the same side?

The river (and thus the ford) are on your left. The tracks lead off to your right.

Is the wagon open or covered? Does it look old and abandoned, or is it serviceable?

Open. You can't tell anything else about it from here. Without being on the horse, Numalar wouldn't be able to see it, at all.

Also, how thick is the forest growth here? Will straying off the path count as difficult terrain?

Yes.

Oleg grumbles something about the bodies and a warning to other bandits, and doesn't otherwise respond.

Riding a little harder than the others, though not hard enough to hurt hte horses, they are able to meet up with the rest of the group as they reach the river. The tracks of both Happs, on foot, and the group of horses that the bandits used the day previous. They lead up the river's bank for several miles, until the river reaches a natural ford. The tracks lead away from the ford, into the forest. Though the path winds a bit, a wagon can be seen several dozen yards in.

*prods Cal*

-Posted with Wayfinder

You all heard it! Avery is giving up her portion of loot! ;P

I'm sorry. Do I see a player questioning a quest reward? >:D

Edit: I've added a picture of Oleg and Lana to the links above. Shame not to use the wonderful art in the books. Should have posted the picture of Happs, too. Will do that here in a second... now: Happs

It doesn't take long. With Cal's help, Oleg walks the men up to the palisade and, one after another, puts a noose around their neck before pushing them off the wall. As they realize what's happening, each of them struggles against his bonds. One actually manages to slip free, but only seconds before he is shoved off. He grasps at the noose, but to no avail.
Within ten minutes, it is done. As the final bandit stops writhing, Oleg looks down at the four corpses hanging off the front of his wall with a sort of grim satisfaction, "And that'll serve as a warning to the others."

As Ansha finishes getting her things together, Svetlana approaches her, "Um, excuse me, ma'am? I...I'd like to ask something of you, if I can. Oleg...he's been under a lot of pressure recently. He's been....stressed. I...I've been wanting to make his favorite meal, but the ingredients are rare, an...and I can't go out and gather them myself, anyways. I need moon radishes. They grow in the forest...somewhere. If you come across some, could you bring them back, please? I...I'll pay you. Two-hundred and fifty gold, if there's enough....please?"

Are Ansha and Cal going to follow the others? Sorry to put the away team on hold, I wanted to make sure what was happening back at Oleg's, to be clear if we will have 4 people or 6 in the next part...

I try to shy away from alignment, as a rule. It's there to act as a guideline, not a straightjacket. Now, if Cal continues to act as a murderous bastard, without any regard for life, then I will call for an alignment change, but hanging a couple of murderous bandits? Not grounds for a shift, imho.

Within minutes, the trading post goes from calm and peaceful to a whirlwind of activity. Most of the group gets ready and storms out on horseback after the escaped bandit, while Cal and Ansha remain behind to "take care of" the remaining bandits, all of whom look terrified by Cal.

Happs' tracks are easy enough to follow, especially as they join up with and continue along the horse tracks that were left by their arrival the day before. The path leads the group southwest, around the edge of the forest before meeting up with a river, and continuing northward along the bank.

Back at Oleg's

As soon as the others leave, Oleg begins tying a noose. He looks to the two that stayed behind and shakes his head, "Help me get them up to the wall. Shouldn't take long, an' you can get followin' yer friends."

Map is linked above.

Numalar:

Donkeys and mules have the same statistics as ponies.

Nothing is preventing you from riding a light horse on your own. It might be a bit more difficult, but it is quite capable of carrying a gnome. I mean, hell, elephants are capable of being mounts...

Everyone: Sorry I've been quiet. I'm out of town for business training, and I've been a bit run down afterwards each night. I'll be back home tomorrow afternoon, and posting should pick up on Saturday again.

It looks like everyone is preparing just to head out after Happs, except Numalar, who is asking about what to do with the other bandits.

Do I have that right?

-Posted with Wayfinder

- 2nd of Pharast -

Each of the bandits gives Ansha the same answer; That they did not notice that Happs had left until Svetlana's scream woke them up. With any luck, he is on his way back to camp to warn Kressle.

Searching around the north side of the outpost, Avery finds the point where Happs made impact with the ground, and can easily follow the tracks as they lead southwest.

Oleg growls at Linora, "Just put an end to that man, like you should have done in the first place." He pauses a moment and holds up his hand, "Wait. The first time they came, they stole Lana's wedding ring. I know it's been months, and it's probably in Pitax by now, but if you can keep an eye out for it, I'd appreciate it. It's a simple brass thing, got a single pearl in it. Was all I could afford. I did etch Lana's name into the inside, though..."

Regarding Numalar's post regarding purchases: I'm going to ignore it, entirely. Here's why: One person should NOT be making purchasing decisions for the ENTIRE PARTY. Please come together, as a group, and decide what is being sold (and possibly bought for everyone's use), and allow anyone who wants to to make purchases for themselves afterwards do so.

Avery's punch does indeed connect with the bandit's face, knocking him to the ground. He glares at the woman with murderous intent, though seems to think better of trying to attack while unarmed and outmatched.

**********************************************************

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully. Oleg and Svetlana thank the party several more times, and agree to give them free room and board for the entirety of their mission in the Greenbelt. Good to their word, the lunch and subsequent dinner that Svetlana prepares are warm and filling, and taste divine (though that could simply be from having trail rations for four straight days on the trip from Restov). The bandits, however, get to enjoy none of it. Bound under the walkway of the northern wall, they rest just out of reach of any nourishment, but well within range to smell it. Unless someone in the party shoves a pack of rations down their throats, the bandits do not get anything to eat.

Oleg does not have any scrolls available, but the materials are simple enough to come by, and he has some available; enough for two scrolls. He does offer to send a request for more with his weekly shipment to Restov. In fact, he extends this offer to everyone, stating that he will do his best to keep his stock supplied with useful goods, and can retrieve special requests if the party has any, though it will take at least a week to fulfill such requests.

As night falls, a watch is set up to keep the bandits from attempting to escape. All seems to go well until the morning comes. Svetlana's scream awakens anyone in the group still sleeping. As they come into the yard, they find that while the other four men remain, Happs is no longer in the outpost. It seems that somehow, last night, he slipped his bonds and escaped. The bar to the gates remains in place, which means he must have gone over the walls.

Sorry. He rolled a 19 on his Escape Artist (just barely hitting the DC 21 necessary), and then a natural 20 on his Stealth check.

Whatever the plan is, with this development, please enact it quickly. Any purchases or sales, please note them, as well.

The issue I am trying to address is that what will often happen is that one player will get N gold while another player gets N gold plus a cool item. If that happens often then party members will end up with widely varying amounts of gear, and people that aren't getting things that are useful to them will not be able to afford to catch up.

This is FAR less of an issue than you're making it out to be, just in normal play. And in Kingmaker, it's even less of an issue.

Of course, the simplest system is actually for all stuff to simply be held in common by the party; people take what they need and the money we find or get for selling things goes in a common party fund. I'm fine with that too, and it makes it simpler to track things; we only need to keep track of one number instead of six. It also means that if someone needs to buy something expensive they just need to ask the group.

Actually, I think this system might be the best as long as people aren't too attached to the idea of having their "own" gold.

It's a good idea in theory, but in my experience, the need to ask the party's permission for purchases begins to come dangerously close to the issue I mentioned above; in that people never buy anything and the "group loot" chest just becomes huge.

Mind you, it's better than the anal retentive "everyone gets even value!" system...

Considering the whole drama over the prisoners, I am wondering if I should have rolled up a CN "Vlad the Impaler" type instead of the LG character I did create. :) Too late now, but I wonder how often this kind of thing will come up?

Depends on how often you lot decide to capture your enemies instead of kill them in battle.

A couple of points:

The Smiling DM wrote:

...especially once you get to the kingdom building portion of the game and there are "random" magic items being created in your cities.

The party will be crafting items by that time, so the magic items being created by citizens is only significant if we don't have time to make the item or don't have the requisite crafting feat available. Usually they will get ignored.

Possible, but the fact still remains that there are TONS of options for the party to gear up, and no one will be left out.

The Smiling DM wrote:

I once saw a GM give up on making the cool and intricate backstories he made for his custom items, simply because they kept getting sold off ...

An item with cool fluff but little practical use should be sold off. Maybe it could be put in a museum, but it is wasting space if someone in the party is carrying it.

I am currently in a 3.5 game where the GM has created a set of custom artifacts for the party that have grown in power as the game progressed. They can't be sold, and they have to all be kept in the party for them to work. They are neat, but basically we have been forced to adjust our character builds to accommodate the artifacts instead of building our characters however we want. And that sucks.

And when did I say that the items had little practical value? In fact, most of the ones that were passed up on were rather powerful, as they were custom items, and thus had high gold prices.

Perhaps I should have said "simplest."

If you all want a complex loot division system, I won't stop you. So long as it doesn't slow down the game or make it less fun to play.

In my experience, a system that revolves around each character picking up loot that is useful for them as it arrives, with all money, either looted or coming from the selling of useless loot, being divided evenly, is the simplest, and causes the least problems, overall. There will be plenty of loot options for all characters, especially once you get to the kingdom building portion of the game and there are "random" magic items being created in your cities. Note that I will also be tossing in more tailored loot for the party, in addition to or in place of what the AP actually has written.

A system of, "Well, you get less coin because you're getting that cool sword." or even worse, "Well, if you want that sword, you're going to have to pay the party for it." becomes antagonistic and petty very quickly. On top of that, it oft times devolves into characters passing up on items that have a cool flavor, just so they get an equal share of the gold. I once saw a GM give up on making the cool and intricate backstories he made for his custom items, simply because they kept getting sold off because no one wanted to give up a portion of their precious coin loot. Kingmaker has a few pieces like that already, even before I start building custom ones.

Use whatever loot system makes the party the most comfortable, so long as it doesn't cause conflict.

Avery finds nothing more on most of the bandits, but does get more a than a few lewd comments, most of which are followed by laughter from the others. On Happs, however, she finds a hidden dagger and two flasks of Alchemist's Fire. Around his neck, she finds a silver pendant in the shape of a stag's skull.

Oleg grunts at Linora, and looks as if he's about to answer, but stops short as Ansha approaches him. He sighs, shaking his head at her words, "You'll forgive me if I'm not convinced. 'Justice' would be the rope, not taking them out into the woods where they can all get free and run wild again." He sighs again, looking over as Avery finishes binding the last man, "Lemme get my stock. Excuse me..."

He heads inside, and over the next couple of minutes, he and Svetlana bring all of their stock out of the house and lay it out on the tables that just the previous night had been their dining table. The stock contains:

1 Suit Leather Armor
1 Heavy Shield (Wood)
2 Hand Axes
5 Javelins
1 Longbow
24 Arrows
1 Scythe
2 Spears
2 Vials of Antitoxin
6 Torches
14 Servings of Trail Rations

Aha. I had missed that. I'll change it to a day, then. Tomorrow when I get home from work, we'll move forward.

And yeah, it's a retcon. PM had more than a few things wrong with his start.

Avery: Your profile isn't as detailed as it needs to be. I need a sheet or a statblock, please.

Avery will ball up her fist, and try to smash it squarely into the bandit's face.

Attack roll, please.

Yesterday, Oleg was happy to have us eat at his table. Now, after we defeated the bandits that threatened him, he refuses to let us set foot in his house. Is it just because we have not executed the bandits? Or is there something else? Perhaps the bandits did more to him and Svetlana than they were willing to admit? Or perhaps he knows something more about them that he hasn't shared with us? Do the bandits themselves know something about him, that he doesn't want to come out?

You've never been inside the house. The meal was served at the tables outside, by the fire pit.

The best way to handle loot is for anyone who wants something to mention that they take it. This can be done in character or in the discussion thread. Coin will always be assumed to be split evenly. If it makes it easier, I can state the division. For example, the current distribution would be 19g, 1s, 6cp with 1cp left over.

As for what is to be done, both with the captured bandits and with their camp, I would like a plan formulated within the next 48 hours. I don't care if it's done OOC or IC, but this is stagnating quickly.

Numalar Auritonius wrote:

As Karsh begins securing him, Numalar begins to pat him down, searching him for other weapons and valuables.

The Smiling DM wrote:

As Numalar searches Happs, he finds no hidden weaponry.

What about money? Jewelry, anything like that?

Please keep all posts with no gameplay content in the Discussion thread.

Numalar finds nothing else on Happs.

Oleg has not shown you anything, and there are no chain shirts.

Oleg grunts, "Plenty of hunters and trappers come through here. You ever deal with a wild boar? Weapons and armor get bought pretty often. And no, yer NOT walking through my house. Like I said, bind him or hang him and I'll bring out my stock."

The bandits roll their eyes at Numalar's attempt at coercion. The one he had been speaking to before even mutters, "Fμck off, short stack." As Numalar searches Happs, he finds no hidden weaponry.
When Ansha gets involved, though, they seem to loosen up a bit. None of them seem particularly talkative, but neither do any of them seem actively aggressive anymore, at least towards the enchantress.

One more thing: Can you take 10 on things like Diplomacy and Bluff?

No.

Lady Ansha Saeralyan wrote:

...Man, I'm rolling a lot of 19s and 20s so far.

Hey, leave some 20's for the rest of us! We're all sharing the same random number generator you know! :)

Good save though, BTW.

That streak will end at the WORST possible moment.

Yeah, he's not going to hit that...

Happs snaps his jaw shut, glaring at Ansha for a long moment before walking over to where his mean are bound and dropping himself onto the ground next to them.

"Of course I will. I'm no crook. And yeah, I've got some stock you can look through. Nothin' fer a fella yer size, though. I'll be glad to bring it all out once he..." Oleg points fiercely at Happs, "...is bound or hanging from the walls by his neck."

Happs rolls his eyes, "You got a fμcking problem, old man? Come and get a piece!"

Oh. Right. Bless is an AoE spell and thus can't be made into a potion.

Crap.

Yeah, it only affects the person who drinks it. I'll do better in the future about that. I wasn't exactly in the best state of mind when I made that post. Sorry.

So, the consensus is that the party is dragging a bunch of bandits along with them while they march? Should be interesting.

SDM wrote:

I...what? That was entirely random...

Diplomacy has to make sense. You can't tell a man that he smells like horse manure and expect a high diplomacy roll to make him like you any better. Saying random things without any kind of context doesn't do you any better...

In the future, you can actually try to start a conversation with the person. Even if the majority gets handwaved away, the start of the conversation makes the roll actually make sense. Even the way it is now, it's a bit random. It's taken from the middle of a conversation with no beginning. I'll take it this time.

Diplomacy (improve attitude): 1d20+11

While the others debate, Ansha strikes up a conversation with Happs. "Oh? Yeah, I like blondes too. Of course, that might be because I am one...."

I...what? That was entirely random...

Diplomacy has to make sense. You can't tell a man that he smells like horse manure and expect a high diplomacy roll to make him like you any better. Saying random things without any kind of context doesn't do you any better...

Detect Evil is a Cleric 1 spell, but I don't have it prepared, unless we want to wait a day.

Please keep all posts with no gameplay content in the discussion thread.

Every roll made so far has been towards asking favors. None have yet been made towards improving attitude.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Don't read anything into my posts. OLEG wants them dead, not me.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Oleg grunts, "So long as you got somebody keeping watch on them, that's fine. But yer not leavin' 'em here unattended, and yer not tearin' up one of my buildings to build a prison. Those men deserve the rope, plain and simple." He sighs, "First time they came here, they said they were gonna take Lana back to their camp and...
You don't just change yer tone just cuz you got beat. They're still the same rapists and murderers who showed up three months ago. There's nothin' good left to 'em. Just tie a rope to their necks and shove 'em all off the wall. I'll leave 'em there as a warning. Cuz if you let 'em all go free, they'll just go and pull this same sh¡t on someone else, somewhere else. Ain't nothin' changin'."

When he has finished his rant, he extends his hand, holding out the sack he has been carrying, "Here. Yer payment fer helpin' us." Inside the sack are 75gp and four potions. Two of them are potions of Cure Light Wounds, one Shield of Faith +2, and one Bless.

Hey guys! Guess what, I'm still alive.

Been moving and working and I actually don't have Internet in my new place yet. I should have it activated today, and we'll see if I have the time to actually sit down and make up a post tonight.

In the meantime, please come to a consensus about what to do with your prisoners. You can do it OOC if you'd like, but I would like to move on as soon as possible.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Oleg wanders into his house while the party talks, returning with a small sack. Hearing the talk of keeping the bandits at the outpost, he narrows his eyes and growls, "Were any of you planning on asking ME if you could start tearing up MY HOME to build a prison? Or if you could leave that band of murderers here? I won't have it!"

Happs shrugs, "About a day's ride. Probably make it before nightfall, if you leave soon."

-Posted with Wayfinder

When asked, Oleg spits on the ground and emits a sound very near to a growl, "Yer showin' those bastards a lot more mercy than they deserve. Just give 'em all the rope. It's what they deserve."

Lets keep the posts with no in-character content out of the gameplay thread, please. That's what the discussion thread is for. Unless I'm mistaken, there hasn't been anything else that needs a reply. If I missed something, please let me know.

Going to apologize. I had a rough day, and just can not find it in my power to write out a post.

The one thing I will note, Numalar, is that the primary purpose of the chartered expedition is to properly chart and map the Greenbelt. You're not just traveling and exploring. You are an expeditionary force charged with creating an accurate map of the area. The secondary purpose of the charter is to reduce the rampant banditry in the area, since the area has become rather dangerous of late.

Anyways. I'll make a proper post tomorrow, once I've had some sleep.

"That is hardly sufficient, young man. What river is that? How far is this river? And when you reach it, do you go upstream or down? How long does this journey take?"

"The one you reach when you go southwest, short stack! Upriver."

He doesn't give Numalar any more information or directions. Remember that Numalar didn't actually do the intimidating, he aided.

"Now, what will this 'Kressle' do when you do not return? Will she order your compatriots to attack this post? And how soon?"

"She'll come looking, probably burn this place to the ground. And sooner than you think. Heheheh."

It's not metagaming. Not until that conversation happens in character.

I'm home. Need a shower and then I'll start posting.

-Posted with Wayfinder

The other possibility though is to rebuild Cal as a switch hitter Ranger... another skill based class. We'd loose some arcane ability, but pickup range without loss of much (or any) skills. Just another thought. We're still early in the game, adjusting these things now wouldn't be too much of an issue I don't think.

Are you really so unhappy with your character? This is the second time you've thrown yourself up to switch out your character for another one...

These men are expected back at their camp by nightfall.

Um, what? When was that EVER stated?

So....uh....

Looking over the chosen characters again....do we seriously NOT have a dedicated ranged combatant? Cal's got a crossbow, but everyone seems pretty melee, except the two casters...

Once the men are properly tied up and disarmed, a good portion of the party comes down on them, making threats and generally harassing the poor sods. One of them actually starts crying. Another, somewhat more stalwart man, chokes up, "We've got a camp, southwest. On the river..."

Oleg assists Karsh in gathering and cataloging all of the gear the bandits had on them. Minus the leather armor they all still wear and whatever Happs still carries, there are four short swords, four longbows, a composite longbow made with stiffer limbs (+2 Str), eighty arrows, eight days worth of trail rations, and forty gold pieces.

Aaaand there we go. I officially own the game, now. Yay.

You'll notice I changed the name. Different GM's running the game, no sense in having the tables named the same anymore.

Need to take a shower. After that, I'll throw up a game post.

Haha, that and Color Spray is a Standard to cast, while Sleep is full round. Goes off on your next turn, and meanwhile they've had a chance to beat the crap out of you.

I'm not accusing anyone of metagaming, by the way. I've been playing and running games since the 3.0 launch. I trust all of my players...but I still feel the need to have a backup plan, just in case.

-Posted with Wayfinder

As the bandits wheel their horses around to flee, the group jumps into action to stop them. Suddenly, Karsh appears from his hiding place, growing too large to continue hiding. Linora, meanwhile, leaps from her hiding place willingly, prepared to cut down any that cross her, alongside Avery, who shouts her own challenge.
Then, the casters get involved. Ansha dives to the ground, unleashing a blast of light that knocks two of the bandits, and their mounts, unconscious. They fall to the ground in a pile, just before Cal unleashes his own spell, creating a slippery patch of grease under the feet of the remaining bandits' mounts. The horses whinny and slip for a moment, but remain stable. The confusion, however, gives Karsh the time to shove the wagon in front of the gate.
Stranded, surrounded, with only each other left, and a patch of slippery ground beneath their mounts' feet, the remaining bandits throw their hands up and sag their shoulders in defeat. Happs shakes his head sadly as he approaches the scene. He walks up beside Ansha, and she feels his hand meet (and squeeze) her backside, "They never were the brightest." he states causally.

Now that's just not fair! Grease AND Color Spray in one encounter. One that was meant to be steamrolled anyways...

The Smiling DM wrote:

Also this. Well, sort of. The 25 pt buy thing is in your favor, but the encounters you meet with in my game have been modified to more appropriately challenge a 6-person party.

I'm assuming you're using the 6-player conversion stickied on the Kingmaker subforum here on the Paizo boards?

Assume what you want. Though if OOC knowledge starts to be displayed IC, the Baleful Anomaly Negation Hammer will be deployed...

It's funny, because I have heard stories on the forums here about this encounter being a character-killer.

Not sure why that would be, according to what you say, unless people were all making high CHA weak combat characters (anticipating gunning for the ruler position perhaps), or GMs were being cruel.

The bandits have longbows and longswords. A lucky crit will annihilate a first level character in one hit, and most characters simply won't survive two normal hits. The guidelines for running the bandits, though, tell you to run them with terrible tactics. Waste rounds moving instead of attacking, provoking attacks of opportunity, etc. And that's if you actually get into combat with them. Even without judicious use of Color Spray (like we used), you can kill them all before they even know you're there...

Kingmaker seems to swing wildly in difficulty based upon group composition (25pt buy/6 PCs in an AP assuming 15pt buy/4 PCs is in our favor) and 'the luck of the dice.'

Also this. Well, sort of. The 25 pt buy thing is in your favor, but the encounters you meet with in my game have been modified to more appropriately challenge a 6-person party.

Mounted movement uses much the same jog/hustle ideas. Applying maneuverability to mounted combat would by necessity mean applying it to ALL ground movement...

This first encounter is simply not designed to actually test the party. At all. Trust me, this one is meant to be steamrolled and moved past. It's more to give the group a taste of working together tactically and introduce them to the greater plot of the first part of Kingmaker. It gets sufficiently challenging shortly, and everyone will get their moment to shine, I promise you.

Numalar Auritonius wrote:

Ansha wrote:

I prefer the old 3.0 rule that they're 5'x10', rather than 3.5/PF's 10'x10', personally.

I don't personally mind that, but then you need facing rules. It makes mounted combat more complex, though in my mind it does make more sense, since a galloping horse can't turn on a dime (as it can in PF). I don't mind added complexity personally but WotC and Paizo both wanted to avoid that.

I imagine you could just use the Flying rules, and give horses Average maneuverability. It's not like Paizo/WotC didn't have the rules in place elsewhere--don't know why they didn't just use them for mounted combat in general.

If you're going to go into THAT level of detail, you would have to do the same for humans (and elves) as well. At which point, movement becomes a whole lot more complicated than I have the patience to deal with.

Numalar Auritonius wrote:

Ansha wrote:

Of course, since we're not using the grid, things like 'how much space a creature takes up in a grid' don't really matter. No horse is actually 10 feet wide--that's just how much space it takes up in a PFRPG gridmap.

Sure. But the area of effect is also based on the gridmap. Doing away with the grid doesn't make area spells more effective.

If we're thinking in gridmap terms, sure. If we're going for narrative, then things are a lot more up to DM interpretation. Medium creatures taking up five feet of squares in and of itself is a grid concept, so in narrative...well, who says there can't be two Medium-sized humans in any given five-foot space without penalty for squeezing? It makes sense, and only might affect things if they were both trying to attack with larger-sized weapons like a mace or longsword, which require swinging room. But let's say that one of them is left-handed and the other right-handed, and the lefty was on the left...who's to say there's any penalty for that, either?!

The comparative emphasis on narrative combat was one thing I loved about AD&D 2e. That said, I think grids work better in PFRPG. Kinda interested in seeing how the narrative emphasis works out in this game.

Very good points raised, here. I will say that grid will come into play when serious combat is going to happen. This plan didn't really call for it, but I have the maps saved from the last time I tried to run this, and was ready to pull them up if necessary.

Anyway, it isn't really productive to argue about that, since it all depends on SDM, and he seems to have figured it out already. I do hope though that other characters have a chance to do something though, considering how long the windup for this encounter was.

This isn't an argument, it's a discussion. I sense no animosity, here. This is entirely civil, so there's no issue with it. I personally LOVE discussions like this. It expands everyone's understanding of the game. :)

Please, carry on.