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A Call to Arms (OOC) (Recruiting)


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M'faro

First Post
Re: Stuff & Skills

Listen and Spot, however... did we discuss in email that swap? I can't remember but I'm assuming you're swapping out Craft and Swim for Spot and Listen, which I'm cool with.

No, we didn't discuss about Listen and Spot by mail. Sorry about that. I also didn't take into account the swapping thing so I considered them cross class skills (2 ranks/2 + 1 Wis = 2).
If the swappping for Caft and Swim is ok, then it would be: Listen +3 (2 ranks +1 Wis) and Spot +3 (idem). Right?

EDIT: Ooops! I just saw it on the character page at the campaign site. :)
 
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Grenier

First Post
I'm going to kill that Halfling bastard ;) lol.

Hey Djoran can you change Grenier's spell list, taking out Detect Poison for Read Magic, thanks.
 

DDK

Banned
Banned
M'faro said:
The ones that can post more often maybe have some advantage over the others, but they also keep the thread moving swiftly. I don't mean that you give XP for just posts like "I agree" or "Yes let's go", but when you give those XP take into account not only the rate of participacion but the quality of it.
That's pretty much what I've been trying to do. At 5 to 10+ XP a post, it's not so much that the game will be unbalanced by it, but it's a nice incentive and reward for posting. But the 'I agree' posts and whatnot I tend not to give anything for whereas if I think it was a really cool post, then I usually give 10 or so.

To be honest, it's totally by whim and mood, really. I hate being that arbitrary, but at the end of the day, it's an on the spot judgement call and so is influenced heavily by what I like at the time.

As for the previous comment about combat XP... even though it might not be entirely logical, I've found that it's best to give group XP for things like that. The justification is that it all evens out in the end and that players rely on each other to pull them out of danger or rescue them if seperated, etc. so it's all much of a muchance. For instance, it looks like Garik is about to kick some butt but if things turn out bad for him, Bor is only just upstairs and will run down. But if they get thumped and thrown in jail then you're gonna bust 'em out, right? So without the party, he alone couldn't get away with it. Bad example, maybe, but I think you get the idea.

RE: Grenier's spell list: Yeah, I'm just lazy and forgot. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get some webspace with PHP and CGI and SSI which will enable me to make up a character sheet you can edit yer damn self :D
 

Grenier

First Post
Cool, that'll be good.

Ah, there's one more thing; I decided to only get the 1 CLW potion, didn't make it too clear sozza.
 

Narrator

Banned
Banned
Rolls and XP

Heh, I'm glad you liked the combat. 'twas my first... I'm no longer a combat virgin! :D

Just a couple of things, though. With me doing all the rolling, I kinda felt like you were taken out of the equation. Even though you decide tactics and whatnot, most people feel that half the fun is in the rolling.

So if people want to roll, I'm happy enough to trust you with the rolls.

The only disadvantage would be speed, I think. With me rolling, it seemed to go a lot faster than most combats I've witnessed in PBP's.

That said, Gary was giving me multi-round instructions which I'd prefer not to get since things can change WITHIN rounds, let alone through several of them. In this case it worked out well enough but then, I think that was also because of luck of the dice. If Garik had of been hit then would've he provoked an AoO with his punch? Btw, that sneak attack missed by one... what? You didn't know there was a sneak attack in there? Yeah... that's another downside of not rolling yourselves. Although, I guess I could always include all the results in brackets or something.

I don't know... remember I'm new at this so I'm open to suggestions.

Also, I decided to use proper XP for CR's which you'll probably note simply by seeing most characters are at around 400XP now after the fight in the bar and the 'defeat' of the guards (I ummed and ahhed but ultimately, they were about to shoot you and so the risk was valid, just because you 'won' by using a piece of paper doesn't make the victory any less because of it, the fact that you faced them and came up with a solution was enough... remembering the permit was just one way to win). To be honest, I'm not averse to continuing like this as it seems to be rather novel-like. Ever read a novel and about three-quarters of the way through, said to yourself, "Geez, just half a book ago he was fumbling with that sword and now he's doing all these 'Crane-with-stick-up-butt' manuavers... that was quick!"?

Let me know if you think I'm being too generous. It is fast and on reflection, I think I probably should've only given half XP for the encounter with the guards, but retrospect is only good for determining what to do in the future.
 


johnsemlak

First Post
Re die rolls in combat

I wasn't involved in the first combat but my general opinion is I'm OK with the DM doing the die rolls. Seems to flow better that way. Might be better if we roll dice in none-combat situations (skill checks for example) but even then I think often the DM doing the rolls speeds things up.

But I'm new at this myself. I've only read that from the boards.
 

DDK

Banned
Banned
Yeah, I do think a benefit of it is speed as I can do all the rolls immediately instead of waiting for a response.

Also, there's the benefit that it remains in the background. You know there is a solid mechanic at work and so not everything is arbitrary or story-based, but at the same time, the character and story take the mainstage instead of the mechanics.

I also try and write the combat descriptions in a way that I give certain aspects of character and foes strengths and weaknesses away, like for instance:

"The woman seems to have disappeared but the ugly little man is still thirsting for blood and so takes yet another slash at you, this time, however your attention is distracted between him and the brute behind you and as he lunges, you feel the blade snick past your armour and almost pierce your flank. Luckily, the blow was averted by the twisting of your torso at the last second."

Oops. Upon reading this I realized I changed a word or didn't put in the word I thought I had. I had meant to say 'kidneys' instead of flank, d'oh! Anyway, my point was that I was hoping this would give away the fact that a sneak attack had been attempted. I think if I had used kidneys in the above example, that would've been more obvious though, oh well.
 

Manzanita

First Post
die rolls

We roll our own dice in another PbP I'm a player in. I don't really like it. For one thing, it does tend to take longer. For another, in terms of metagaming, the PCs wouldn't know if they were just being unlucky by missing, or if their gods were angry with them, or if their sword was cursed or whatever. Also, in this other game, I start to feel guilty if I roll a string of high numbers. It takes away some of the thrill of rolling a 20, if you're vaguely paranoid your DM is going to think you were cheating.

You haven't mentioned my bard's skill points lately. The obvious compromise would be to give her one extra skill point (7 per level). I also think 8 would be pushing it. If you want to keep it at 6 that's fine too.
 

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