Well, after today I won't be able to post for a week, so he could probably fill in there. By the way, how should we handle that? Could I just fade into the background for a while, still "there" but not actively doing anything?
Stop me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that you'd be starting with a horse Ruarc, never mind a War Horse.
Having the ability to ride a warhorse is very different to owning one, on account that they cost 2500 Florins. And no I didn't do a typo - two thousand five hundred florins...
Apologies, I hadn't intended the travel to last so long, but I keep getting called away. I'll get something up later today. Are you all happy to gloss over the travel with a couple of paragraphs?
Couple of questions for you all. How did you want to do combat? I'm thinking that you have an allotted time after I post to make your move for a round, then I'll resolve the round and you can move again, if the combat's not finished. If that suits everyone, how long do you want the rounds to be? 12 hours, 24 hours? After that time, if you've not posted, you can be indecisive for a round, perhaps just applying your defence in a reasonably intelligent manner.
And sometimes there are events which the other players can't be aware of. For example, Cedric has used his Premonition ability to sense danger. You don't know what he's doing or what he has discovered, but he probably doesn't care if you do know. So is everyone fine with that sort of thing going in a spoiler box with the player's name above it? Officially you shouldn't read it, but it's not really important enough to keep hidden.
If a player has something important happen that the others mustn't know about, you'll get a PM telling you about it, for example if you're being mind controlled or something.
If anyone disagrees and has a better idea for any of the above, I'm open to suggestion. Oh, and apologies if you use Imperial measurements in your country. As both the books and my thinking are in metric, I'm afraid we'll have to stick to that, despite the slight lack of realism.
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Last edited by ValhallaStreet : 07-08-2012 at 04:42 AM.
Whatever timeframe you want to set should be ok for me... but, maybe we should work out everyone's timezone first?
I am GMT +10, NSW, Australia.
Happy with the Spoiler Tags and PM's for information relevant to individual players.
Also, If someone doesn't post in time, might I suggest that they attack or defend depending upon what is going on and seems most logical for their character to do.
I have a lot of experience with this and would like to make some comment.
I once played in a DragWars PbP on RPoL, where the GM did just as you suggest. A fairly simple skirmish of 4 v 8 took 6 weeks in real time to resolve! It nearly killed the game off.
The new unofficial convention used by many DragWars GM (including me) is to post rolls and narrative for five Combat Rounds all together.
Obviously the Players/Characters are never quite sure how things will turn out, but it gives the GM enough scope to fudge, fiat, and be flexible with the resolution. It also gives the oppotunity to kill/defeat an opponent in just one 5 CR post.
It also gives the players the opportunity to be creative in their narrative, trying to cover the bases and foresee the following rounds. It can be useful if you want to RP particular combat styles, manuevers, and the like. It can also be very frustrating if you keep missing your to-hit roll, or you ABR roll, and spend a week posting and not even scratch you opponent.
You may bulk at the though, but 1 CR, 1 Post over 24 hours can be much slower than you imagine! I have even used the above method to conduct small battles of 20-a-side to great effect.
This is, as ever, just my humble opinion.
I am happy with Spoiler or PM's, as dictated by Player Knowledge principles.
I'll give it a go, but 5 rounds at a time, a lot can happen in a single round let alone 5. But lets give it a go and find out how it works. I'm game to try anything.
An excert from my game on RPoL. This describes the PC's holding a shieldwall against an assault by foot Knights. This is a good example of resolving a complex situation with the 5 CR Rule, I think? The Gm posts are first and last, for context, with Players posts in between.
Second Wave Attack
Einar smashes at the articulated joints on the knights armour, trying to deform it and eventually drawing blood.
Sir Thomas skillfully strikes the same knight in the armpit, puncturing his maille protection and tearing nerves.
Under such a rain of blows the knight cannot defend himself and staggers backward, collapsing on the bank.
In the centre John Swithans and Sir Jacob lock shields and stand firm, fending off all enemy attacks. Likewise they are unable to find
a weakness in their opponents defences either. John losses grip on his spear in the frey and must sacrifice an attack to regain it.
On the right, down the bank, Vonlax and Davina butcher the young impetuous knight. Warhammer spike and Battleaxe blade
rending the armour in twain. The knight dies cowering on his knees...
The knight wounded by a spear climbs the smouldering barricade and hobbles back to Duke DeVeragon. Some others hesitate, seeing more of their kinsmen slain upon your walls of steel. Yet the blood-letting continues, as Knights step forward to fill the gaps made in the line.
Everyone make 5 more Attack, ABR, Shield rolls please. Except John, who only gets 4 due to his fumble.
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Sir Jacob feels reluctant to be killing knights who are misguided in their actions... Though he have to continue to do so...
16:38, Today: Sir Jacob of Wincastor rolled 29 using 5d8 with rolls of 7,6,8,3,5.
16:38, Today: Sir Jacob of Wincastor rolled 33 using 5d10 with rolls of 10,2,6,5,10.
16:38, Today: Sir Jacob of Wincastor rolled 77 using 5d20 with rolls of 11,9,18,20,19.
=====
Eyes glaring with rage, a disturbing grin and with arterial spray fresh on his lips Vonlax roars in triumph after hacking down the jung knight. Proceeds to attack the knight facing off Jacob with full blood rage, cursing and swearing in his native Kurland....
20:16, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 1 using 1d8 with rolls of 1.
20:16, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 3 using 1d8 with rolls of 3.
20:16, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 3 using 1d8 with rolls of 3.
20:16, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 7 using 1d8 with rolls of 7.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 3 using 1d8 with rolls of 3.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 14 using 1d20 with rolls of 14.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 4 using 1d20 with rolls of 4.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 2 using 1d20 with rolls of 2.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 17 using 1d20 with rolls of 17.
20:15, Today: Vonlax Aghalion rolled 8 using 1d20 with rolls of 8.
=====
Sir Thomas ran a quick eye over his men and allowed himself a smile at their mettle and skill. And then the next enemy was before him...
Sir Thomas Greymarch rolled 55 using 5d20 with rolls of 12,3,13,8,19.
Today: Sir Thomas Greymarch rolled 26 using 5d8+1 with rolls of 5,6,6,5,3.
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John desperatly clings onto Theodred's spear, desperate not to lose this one, too - then returns to the fray with a renewed fury...
Today: John Swithans rolled 2,6,5,5,5,10,2,4,8,16,3,10 using d20,2d4+1,d10,d20,2d4+1,d10,d20,2d4+1,d10,d20,2d4+ 1,d10 with rolls of 2,3,2,5,5,2,2,10,2,1,2,8,16,1,1,10. spear, abr, shield - four times!
=====
Einar roars and swings his handaxe with all his might. The weapon was not best suited to this fight, but enthusiasm seemed to be enough right now!
09:13, Today: Einar Tamberskelf rolled 3,2,6,12,1,6,14,3,4,17,3,8,15,6,1 using 1d20,d6,1d10,1d20,d6,d10,1d20,d6,d10,1d20,d6,d10,1 d20,d6,d10 . Handaxe, ABR, Shield.
=====
Combat Round 6 to 10 From left to right along the shieldwall...
The knight steps forward into the gap, swinging wildly to distract Sir Thomas and Einer tor deliver a nasty blow to the Northman.
Sir Thomas has seen this maneauvre a hundred times before and with a deft twist of his left wrist disarms the knight!
The Lieutenant follows up with a cruel stab, punching through maille and plate. The wounded knight is driven back
by an onslaught of concussive blows from Einar.
John Swithans stabs and sweeps with Theodred's spear, blocks and parries with his shield, drawing blood and forcing his opponent back.
Sir Jacob uses superior technique to strike and wound his knight while parrying the knights attacks. The ferocious attacks from
Vonlax in support drives the knight to his knees, bloody and beaten. He drops his sword and holds his right hand up in surrender...
The second rank has been broken as a wave upon the shore. The third rank of knights do not advance,
but allow egress for their comrades to retreat. They air is filled with war cries, screams of pain, whimpers, and prayers.
The entire column withdraw slowly, fresh knights coming to the front to allow their wounded comrades time to climb the barricade,
which now has small yellow flames licking up at boots. They are retiring!
We'll have to make the decision on behalf of Rourke, but what do you think, Grail, Ralasha? For myself, I find it a bit ugly and it seems to take a bit of the narrative control away from players. But as Bonivant noted, even small battles could take weeks otherwise, and of course you'll have plenty of opportunities to contribute to the narrative outside of combat.
My concern isn't so much for the narrative of the combat, I usually like to leave most of that to the GM anyway. My concern is for the tactical decision making in the combat. Depending upon the character, I might decide to
run
hide
push the attack
offer terms of surrender
change my target
change sides
change weapon
heal someone
and that is just a fragment of what I might do given current combat status of all parties. With a 5 round turn these decisions are removed from the player and left to the GM, and that's what I'm concerned with, it litterally does become a hack and slash. I R Hit it 'Ard.
One of the other ways for speeding up combat is to give mooks 1 hp and only let bosses have more. DnD 4e, True20 etc do this, and it works well. Reducing a mook to 0 or less hp doesn't mean that they've necessarily been killed, but often it does. It could mean that they have been rendered unconcsious, lost the will to fight, they might flee, surrender, sit on the ground and cry, whatever, but they become non-combatants. It allows the characters to be heroes against rank and file entry-level enemies, but need to worry about bosses.
And a mook can be a boss given the right circumstances of narrative. It doesn't mean that all of Duke Bignose's guards are gonig to be mooks all the time, especially when you're fighting two of them guarding the captive Princess Pineapple who is about to be devoured by the dreaded dragon Dreadwing. You've got 5 rounds to get in and save her before the dragon arrives. In these cases, the mooks are upgraded to boss status, because a single dagger to the big toe will kill dramatic tension.
Anyway, that's my concerns, but again, I'm happy to try anything.
To be honest, I favour that approach. I had been wondering how to handle the issue of people wanting to change their tactics in cases where circumstances change, and it seemed I had the choice of either deciding for them, or just interrupting the flow which was not really much better than just running it round by round.
So give me a chance to run some of the fights beforehand, it should be easy enough to just add one or two more if I find you just trample them completely. If it seems the system just isn't suited for battles to be run like that, we'll go with Bonivant's idea.
Apologies to you all for not getting this worked out earlier.
There will be times when I need 24 hours. So, I favor that.
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My concern isn't so much for the narrative of the combat, I usually like to leave most of that to the GM anyway. My concern is for the tactical decision making in the combat. Depending upon the character, I might decide to
run
hide
push the attack
offer terms of surrender
change my target
change sides
change weapon
heal someone
and that is just a fragment of what I might do given current combat status of all parties. With a 5 round turn these decisions are removed from the player and left to the GM, and that's what I'm concerned with, it litterally does become a hack and slash. I R Hit it 'Ard.
I completely agree and understand all of the above. I like to write detailed tactical post myself. In my experience, many players do not type descriptive tactical narrative - rightly or wrongly. Making them do it can also be negative. It's a compromise of game flow and feel.
Sometimes a step by step fight is called for, particularly versus NPC's. Other times a bit of light relief and mook bashing is required.
I think that both techniques can be used within the same game to good effect.
And yes, Mooks which you can kill with one good hit is a very good way to keep the combat flowing.
Thanks, everyone. Now, the action will be continuing in a few hours. Christopher Loh's character will be joining shortly, and I think this is a good time to remind everyone that anyone who looks like a thief or magic user needs to remember to keep their abilities under wraps around civilised people.
I'll be lenient on this at first, but expect it to get harder as the campaign goes on and we get used to things. Probably best to get in the habit now. Brother Cedric might convince people he's a living saint, but then again, he might not.
For those who are interested, Maiden's Vale is just south of the Shriven Hills in the northwest of Albion, near the end of that road there.
It isn't especially common, but it happens, and it depends mostly on the lord in question. If the King receives too many complaints about a lord, he might find his title revoked, but more because of the risk of rebellion than because it's cruel. Of course, doing that can cause rebellious lords, so he tends to favour nobility over peasants.
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Last edited by ValhallaStreet : 07-10-2012 at 04:01 AM.
Officially? A lord could legitimately use the stocks, but he would be under an obligation to prevent serious injury or death (in theory). That said, anything could happen this far away from the King, and little would be said. This is just about as far as you can get from the King or Baron Aldred, Olvar's liege lord, and still be considered part of Albion.
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Last edited by ValhallaStreet : 07-10-2012 at 05:10 AM.
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