So on the one hand, I appear to be able to get away with one post a day. Y'all'll fill in the blanks.
On the other, is there a pause button or something? I only just got home, so trying to read all of this is going to be what we call 'a nightmare' insofar as there's just so much. I'll be making a few perception rolls. If someone notices something someone else's character didn't notice, they'll be informed in PM and asked if they'd like to do something about it IC or not. If they answer no, I'll mention in my post that their character noticed but decided against speaking, unless they'd prefer that I keep their inaction/apathy secret.
That said, I'd like to ask y'all to pause for a moment so that I can catch up and make the rolls.
It's about time someone got attacked, y'see.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
I'd also like to take a moment to remind you of something from the very first post, which I took pains to not edit so that no one could accuse or insinuate that I'd been deceptive.
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Originally Posted by Lucretia
12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?
You'll roll in the OOC thread for things which you should roll for. To Hit, damage. Most skills I'll roll on your behalf, and report the results to you in either a spoiler or a private message, depending on the secrecy required (should there be any secrecy required). I'll be rolling physical dice, so I'm asking you to trust me on this. As my first DM said, 'there's no point in me lying about the dice roll. If I didn't want chance or the players to be involved, I'd write fiction on my own. This is a game we're playing together, not against each other.' I hope the sentiment can be shared by y'all!
On that note, things like Listen and Spot are skills I'll be rolling. If you want to roll as well, that's fine, but I'll probably reroll and approach the situation using my own dice as the results. If you'd like to ever spot or listen or whatever -- if you want to observe things -- just let me know (or go ahead and roll), but be aware that the number you have probably isn't the actual result. If you get a natural one, for instance, I don't want you thinking "yup, I've failed a listen check" or what have you.
Of course, everyone has pretty high modifiers so I'm not overly concerned with that level of metagaming, but it's just an important note.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
Speaking of which, Vardoth is hoping Sythini and Galizur will fight?
Hell, Sythini was gonna Snake's Swiftness Vardoth.
Well, in his mind you and Galizur are the most dangerous enemies, so if they were to soften each other up that would be just fine. And Vardoth assumes everyone is an enemy until they prove themselves otherwise.
Interesting for a warrior type, but Vardoth acts more like a rogue. Not keen to initiate combat, and he'll probably attack wounded foes from the sidelines and try to keep himself out of direct melee.
@Lucretia: We are moving things on rather fast, aren't we? Just the inter-party stuff will take up a lot of time. Being forced to work together is going to be interesting, to say the least.
Also, I'll probably keep posting rolls in spoilers, because I like rolling. But I realize that they may be deceptive, and I try to stay away from rolling spot and listen myself anyway. And with the bonuses Galizur has to those, it's not like I'll need to use them much when the campaign starts(assuming we can work together, of course).
Edited post. Combat is going to be hectic, especially because of the sheer number of combatants and the fact that I have no idea how to handle combat in a PbP. THUS, I decided to make it the first thing y'all do, so that we can figure out, together, a system that works. Or we'll just use narrative. The only five remaining will be you five. So there's nothing to worry about in THAT sense. Destiny won't allow some no name Neville Longbottom take the place of Harry Potter, y'know?
So yeah... [pause][play]
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
You'd know he had an arcane spell-like ability, and then the highest level SLA that he has (which if I recall is '4th level' since it's Warlock level / 2 round down), but you wouldn't know it's eldritch blast (arcane sight doesn't say it allows you to know which spells or SLA the observed has) and therefore couldn't feasibly jump to 'aha, it's Warlock!' since there're all sorts of things that have SLAs, especially 4th level.
EDIT: Sorry, forgot to answer the second part of your question. Yes, if you made a spellcraft check when you witnessed Vardoth using an SLA. Since I believe the maximum he's got DC-wise is 19, you'll auto-succeed at that.
Which I feel is incredibly low, since it means even a particularly low-leveled novice can identify 9th level spells with a 24. That just seems... I dunno, a little low. But I suppose you've been taught how to identify spells. It's the whole 'casting them' bit that's more difficult.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
That's a good question. Initiative would be nice because it would then dictate posting order [for instance, SW rolls a 10 and Strain rolls a 9, so SW should post before Strain] but that's a danger because it can cause blockages. Then again, I'd be breaking the posting order whenever I felt like it in order to provide additional information, and that seems mean.
So initiative can be tricky. What are y'all's thoughts on the matter? As I said, combat is something I've always had trouble with on PbP so I'm really invested in getting this to work. Thus, I decided to make it one of the first parts of Chapter One, so that we could get it out of the way early on when there's still ample steam power in my players.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
In games I run, I'm pretty lenient on initiative. People post out of order, and if there any conflicts, such as something dying or someone trying to move into the same space that something went before it went into, I let them adjust accordingly, or I do it for them. It doesn't create a blockage. Delaying an action just lets people coordinate things for plans as normal, and readying an action is still the same as ever.
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And the lack of a map works? I can give you information on the foes nearby and give distances, but that feels like it's not a very good system. Also, why isn't there a =/ smiley on the side of the board? Le grr.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
And the lack of a map works? I can give you information on the foes nearby and give distances, but that feels like it's not a very good system. Also, why isn't there a =/ smiley on the side of the board? Le grr.
When I don't use a map, I just say how many feet someone is away from something.
I use Photoshop to make my maps. I had a DM use weird programs. And another uses MS Paint. They help, but aren't required.
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Avatar drawn by LostOne, many praises and prayers be to he.
It's also the uploading to the site that I'm not sure how to do, but I guess it's just "Photobucket" or "imageshack" or something. We'll see if that's necessary.
Also, if anyone gets disturbed by the events that go on, please let me know. I should have warned y'all and it completely slipped my mind. I can always censor myself if need be. Not trying to weird anyone out.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
It's also the uploading to the site that I'm not sure how to do, but I guess it's just "Photobucket" or "imageshack" or something. We'll see if that's necessary.
Also, if anyone gets disturbed by the events that go on, please let me know. I should have warned y'all and it completely slipped my mind. I can always censor myself if need be. Not trying to weird anyone out.
I generally use Photobucket. Lot simpler for me.
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Well, I can't speak for others, but you'd have to be actively putting effort to disturb me. I'm fine, and should be fine.
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Avatar drawn by LostOne, many praises and prayers be to he.
Hmm, combat can be hard to run if you don't have a system worked out. In the other games I've played I've found a free-form attitude to initiative, particularly in large fights such as this one, to be best. Basically everyone acts when they are able to post, but you can't act again until everyone has posted. The shifting nature of actions using this method better mimics a chaotic fight, but it does favor those who are able to post at certain times.
For one on one battles or more structured affairs, rolling initiative as normal seems to work. As a DM I've always found it easier to let all the players go first before having NPCs react to them, although of course this changes on a case by case basis.
I've never found a map to be necessary, unless the area is particularly hazardous(such as a room full of grinding gears and steam vents, or something similar where a map is all but required). Imagination and ad-hoc ruling generally suffices.
In the end it's up to Lucretia what system we use, of course, so I'll roll Initiative just in case it is used, and wait before posting what Vardoth does to see how this will work. Initiative: (1d20+2)[4]
Edit: Hmm. It seems Vardoth was somehow caught unawares by fighting breaking out. Perhaps he was too focused on Galizur and Sythini, and so was startled for a moment by the ogre attacking him(with a dagger?).
Where is Synthini, is Dejas, is Galizur, is Ash and is Vardoth.
It's not very pretty but it's good enough for a very pathetic representation, just to give you an idea. There is a circle around you, but in the 'arc' between and is the strange green thing exuding gas, between and is the bugbear and dwarf, between and is where the elf is, aiming towards the green thing's arc of the circle. There are more, of course, randomly spread out.
The break down of the Touched other than the Main Five go as follows:
12 Humans
11 Hobgoblins
8 Dwarves
8 Elves
4 Bugbears
1 Troll
1 Strange Green Thing
One human down.
The represents the Strange Green Thing, which is using some sort of toxic cloud on its surroundings. That'll take care of a lot of the Touched, presuming they can't take it down. Galizur stepped into the circle, if my reading is correct, so remember that he's technically not on the circumference.
I can provide relative distances if desired. Just let me know if the above is helpful.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
It provides a understanding at least of what direction each other are. But with 45 others, you'd have to roll a one to not find some other target I'm assuming. Honestly I thought the shade would have been such a nice guy to drop me in the middle of everyone. How nice he just put me on the side.
What lays between and ? Anyone? Distance?
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There'll be a swarm of people attacking soon, so there's that. But at the moment (paused in time as initiative is sorted out), there's just distance. And green toxic gas.
Don't forget that you aren't attacking with an area weapon -- rolling to hit and missing doesn't necessarily mean you've hit someone else, but that you could have hit someone and they weren't injured by it, deflected it, et cetera. There're many different ways to interpret failure to hit.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The only one you can determine would be the two hobgoblins and the ogre who attacked Vardoth and Ash. Your wisdom allows you to consider that those of a similar race will probably work together primarily, but there's nothing particularly telling at the present.
Sorry for the mistake on my part, just misinterpretation.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
Strainseir, I believe. The consensus seems to point towards initiative (since they've all rolled for it except for Strainseir) so I'll go with that and if it doesn't work we'll drop back and punt. I understand how it could be frustrating that I'm not entirely sure on combat, but it's better to be handled now than later, I think.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
I'm at work, so I'm posting when I can, and feel free to resolve my actions in the proper spot in the order, or if something someone else does invalidates them I'll post again later.
Alrighty, then I think I understand how this'll work.
I need four more posts, one from each of our participants, and I'll resolve the actions logically (i.e. not allowing you to cast Disintegrate after someone else already ashed the target) through your initiatives.
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The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
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Re: The Mortal Coil [OOC]
But I realize that they may be deceptive, and I try to stay away from rolling spot and listen myself anyway. And with the bonuses Galizur has to those, it's not like I'll need to use them much when the campaign starts(assuming we can work together, of course).
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