Expedition to Demonweb pits. (Inactive)

Game Master Aku Warashi

[ Lurking Rat ]

Hey guys, Happy New Year's!
I've been lurking in this (really cool) PbP since the beginning of December, trying to learn more about how PbP works and I have a quick question...

In a published campaign how do you handle Player knowledge of the adventure? Like, if anyone's familiar with "Sigil" or "Rule of Three" or "The Oarsman" -- how do you deal with that in a PbP where you don't have the benefit of sitting across the table from the other Players in someone's living room?

Is it a problem?

[ / Lurking Rat ]

Well, I personally find it a bit hard. Because knowing what can happen, limits what you can do. I mean, I know that in that particular room, the puzzle is solved in that particular way, but because I know it, I can’t say if I would discover it for myself, or if I would fail at noticing it.

An example about this happened in one of my games.
The party went into a city and they had to infiltrate into fort. One of the players had already played that part, and before any rumor about the secret passage from the Inn to the fort could be found, the player said this: “We ought to check the church and other important places for any secret passage. The inn owner is brother to one of the fort captains, what would be a suitable place for an emergency exit from the fort….”

For the most part, unless it's something really troubling, I really don't mind off game knowledge. For my personal taste, I usually don't try to enter in games where I know what will happen, but others may find it fun anyway.

Ahahah! Wow... What a clear example of things going wrong!

If I smell this in a game I'm DMing, I will try to shuffle things a bit (without making life too miserable for me). For example, in one game, I changed who the bad guy was. Same stats, but different name and role in the town.

But Aku is right. It can taint things... In the case he mentions, it would have cut my wind completely!

Fortunately, I've read only bits, and a long time ago. Everything is very fuzzy and I make efforts to make it fuzzier :)

I have often passed on some games where I knew too much, like the first two parts of RotRL, but I did join a game that started at book 3.

Okay, I’m a bit confused.

Karla used a spell to give ‘darkvision 30ft’ to the entire party.
30ft is not enough to get into the cave entrance and shoot at the drows.
Please update your current position at the map, don’t forget that you need to move half of your walking speed to move silently, and your stealth check when you do so.

@All

Ah, just so you know, I'm not using the drow race from pathfinder.

I'm using the good old one from 3.5 ed.

Ok, moved to within 30' of the target and will roll stealth.

Stealth: 1d20 + 17 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 17 + 4 = 38

Sorry for the confusion, I thought that this was the plan we decided on...we can retcon if needed to get things to where they should be...

[ Lurking Rat ]

Is it a problem?

[ / Lurking Rat ]

The way I see it, there are four ways that RPGs are enjoyable. puzzle solving, storytelling, winning challenges and tabletop camaraderie. If you know the adventure well, you won't be able to enjoy puzzle solving, and it may compromise your enjoyment of winning challenges (if you know tricks to defeat monsters, traps, etc.). There is always storytelling and having fun with the people you are gaming with, as well as some challenges to enjoy that are, by design, more cooperative or left to the dice.

Enjoying other aspects of the game makes it easier for me to separate player and character knowledge, as Karla's player described. Just focus on what would this personality know, and what would they do given what they know.

Sorry, I was just trying to move things forward. I didn't take in to account the short range of that spell. Of course, Taurven has goggles of the night which grant him 60' darkvision. He's waiting on Gargamal's lead though, so we still do need to get in close.

I already included my stealth roll in the IC post. I can only hope that the drow roll 1s for their perception.

GM Aku - I was actually aiming at the riding lizard of that Drow, in the hopes of forcing him to dismount...not a big problem I suppose if it went to the drow warrior instead
The drow should also take an extra +4 damage (per hit) due to fav. enemy bonus for ranger, and a +4 to hit (if necessary) for same reason..
sorry for the confusion

@Gargamal

Sorry my bad. Should I keep it to hit the drow or the mount?

Lets just leave it as is for now....to keep the battle flow going :-)

@Gargamal

I have a different approach about things like that. If you want to say something to others, write it up and say it.

Just bear in mind that a combat 'round' has more or less six seconds. So you have, per turn, about six seconds worth of words to tell your friends anything you want during combat.

Did Taurven hit the drow with either of his shots?

Both Missed.

I have a question for after the fight. Are the Drows using the Mounted Combat feat to protect themselves with their mount?

ok, sorry. Other games we just needed to say we told the party and they could read the spoilers...I will make sure I actually have Gargamal tell the party in the future.

Hey, sorry for the short notice. I’ve not been feeling very well those last few days. I’m getting better, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to catch up today.

I’ll get back on business tomorrow. Thanks for understanding.

get better Aku...we will be here when you are ready to continue, I am sure!

Best wishes of health!

I completely understand; there's a lot of messed up germs going around the office here. Take care!

Sorry about your illness. Get well soon Aku.

Hey, I'm back.

I have a question for after the fight. Are the Drows using the Mounted Combat feat to protect themselves with their mount?

Here and here Karla.

I think that’s the only time they used it, as immediate action to try avoid being hit, not that it really made any difference tho.

I always thought Mounted Combat was to save the mount from being hit. I didn't know you could use it for the rider.

I just got surprised. End of rule-lawyering ;)

I always thought Mounted Combat was to save the mount from being hit. I didn't know you could use it for the rider.

I just got surprised. End of rule-lawyering ;)

And you are right!

By bad, I misread it. Thanks for correcting me.

No worries, I thought I had it wrong! No biggie...

IRL people did use their horses as cover though.

Of course, in this game it's for high level fighter types, whose mount has far less hp than they, and they want to stay mounted.

As I know what this creature was, do I also know what these vines are and maybe how to get rid of them?

Sure.

Hey there! There’s a big system delivery planned for next week for our company branch in India, a Project I’ve been struggling with for a couple of months now.

Alongside with that, we are moving an entire project from testing to Live servers, and I’m the one responsible to help with this transition and solve any issue that may (and believe me, will) appear with it.

I still have some things to finish before we are ready to do this, and I’m sure I don’t want to be the one blamed for any delays, and thus because of that, things may get a bit tricky for the next weeks, coupled with university terms starting as well next week.

Anyway, I’ll try to keep posting to at least 1/day. However, if you don’t hear from me for a day or two, I blame the events that I described above.

Thanks for the warning. RL first and foremost. I hope the deployment goes well!

Same. And thanks for the heads up. Very appreciated.

Best of luck and update when you can! Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah, what they said.

:)

What the party decided about the demon?

Wait? Fight?

Fight! Fight! Fight! :)

Karla is waiting to know if she should prepare her Align Weapon spell.

I say cast the mass version, and let's get to it.

ok...off we go once the spell has been cast!

It was there Eamch. I moved it over by Garg.

Thanks! I advanced it to where he would stop to throw his shuriken.

np :)

@Taurven and Eamch

I know that mostly was because the badly rolls in dice, but I'm give you guys a change to make some small changes and modifications, to keep you more in pair with Karla and Gargamal, is you guys wish to do that.

Taurven is pretty weak...

In this particular combat I forgot to add his favored enemy bonus, which would have helped some.

His +2 bow is not built for his strength, something I was going to do, then forgot. So I'd definitely like to fix that.

I'll have a look at the rest to see what else I can fix, I don't want to hold everyone else back.

I think that would be helpful. When I build Eamch, he was pretty scattered so he could respond individually to a huge range of scenarios. I think if I adjust his gear and attributes, I can make him contribute better for the team.

Taurven is pretty weak...

In this particular combat I forgot to add his favored enemy bonus, which would have helped some.

His +2 bow is not built for his strength, something I was going to do, then forgot. So I'd definitely like to fix that.

I'll have a look at the rest to see what else I can fix, I don't want to hold everyone else back.

I was curious about the bard (archaeologist) 5/ranger (trapper) 4 combo. What were you aiming for with that mix?

Taurven Wess wrote:

Taurven is pretty weak...

In this particular combat I forgot to add his favored enemy bonus, which would have helped some.

His +2 bow is not built for his strength, something I was going to do, then forgot. So I'd definitely like to fix that.

I'll have a look at the rest to see what else I can fix, I don't want to hold everyone else back.

I was curious about the bard (archaeologist) 5/ranger (trapper) 4 combo. What were you aiming for with that mix?

Looked like it would be fun to play.

OK, so this version is a little more focused...

If you would like to look it over and tell me what you think, DM Aku. I don't mind input from others, but obviously need DM approval. :)

I'm almost done with a more focused version of Eamch. It is just some changes to his stats to bring his strength up some and adjust some equipment.

I realized I wasn't running the existing character to his full potential. At all. I should have been getting mage armor up on him with his wand, and I was completely missing his Exploit Weakness ability. That should be allowing him a +2 to hit and bypassing DR in most cases if he makes the check vs. CR.

OK, so this version is a little more focused...

** spoiler omitted **...

Well...

That was way more than some small changes... :)

Initially, I was thinking about keeping the same classes, but changing Ability scores, feats and gear.
If you think you should change that much, I’ll not really be against it, but I would prefer to keep some semblance of what was before, such as keeping the same class distribution bard4/slayer4, after all, what I had in mind was adjustment for the character you created, not really rebuilding it with other classes.

Okay, Eamch's profile is updated. I mostly shifted attributes and equipment. It bumps up his AC a bit, and to hit and damage bonuses a little. That, combined with playing him correctly should make him a better contributer.

Well I did re-work Taurven before I made ol' Slayer McSlayton.

Probably the main change is trading blind-fight in for extra performances, doubling the number of times that Archaeologist's Luck can be used. Fixed that bow of course. Took a skill rank out of appraise and put into handle animal. Had to sell the ring of feather falling to afford the bow. Bought an amulet of natural armor with the left-over.

Fate's Favored is a good trait for the bard (archaeologist). And if you really want to stretch your performance rounds, lingering performance is a great feat. You activate the performance for one round then discontinue it; the feat gives you three more rounds of benefits. The downside is if the encounter goes more than four rounds, you have to spend an action to fire it up again.

Fate's Favored is a good trait for the bard (archaeologist). And if you really want to stretch your performance rounds, lingering performance is a great feat. You activate the performance for one round then discontinue it; the feat gives you three more rounds of benefits. The downside is if the encounter goes more than four rounds, you have to spend an action to fire it up again.

Fate's Favored. That is really good for a bard. Herolab adds it to skills, but not attacks and damage, which is weird. It can be manually added, so that's OK. I'll probably trade extra performances for Lingering too, it's only a swift action to activate archaeologist's luck, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

@Taurven

You can change one of the classes if you want. I just did not wanted an complete redistribuition.

Anyway, tell me when you are finished so we can resume the game.

@Eamch
Looks almost the same to me. :D
But I saw you changed some bonus in your attacks.