DM themed play-by-post D&D game : OOC thread

[beowuuf]

Oh really? Haven't they? Helm and Ameena were gone before Brighteyes met the group... your player lies mean nothing!

[oh_brother]

I think I have leveled up ok. Got minimum hit points (6 + 1). One extra ON level spell. 3 skill points, used in concentration, heal and knowledge (religion). I think that is it?

[beowuuf]

Will ahve a better look tonight, but seems fine. The sad life of a cleric Though you do get your second domain next level, so that will be exicitng!

Oh, and your armour is +8 for full plate, not 6. And another +2 when you use a shield. Hence why you guys took so little damage from the critters. The penalty being, of course, the fact you had no way to away from them. More importantly, there are some skill checks like stealth you will just suck at without question

[oh_brother]

I thought that I gave the greaves and polyen to Haynuus, and just kept the breastplate for myself. Something like + 4 for the breastplate and + 2 for the shield?

[beowuuf]

I think Westian offered, and then Haynuus decided that you needed the proper get up, and took the weird face greaves and poleyn from one of the sergeants. Otherwise yes, +4 for the breastplate and +2 for the shield would have been right.

If you would like me to go back over my dice rolls and apply the extra damag,e I have absolutely no problems with that

But I think you can safely just assume you have a normal, if black, suit of armour.

I have some plans for presenting what you guys have as your inventory (lol, can you guess?) but I need to finish a few other things first.

[oh_brother]

No, it probably is easier on you if you don't apply extra damage to Westian. It would just eat up your free time, and I would feel bad.

a) Did your character do their part ok? If not, why? (like the turn undead seemed to be a big miscommunication on my part. Yell if I have not made cool moves or powers understandable or obvious)
b) Do you like your character as they are for dealing with encounters, or is anything starting to bug you about them? If so, we can do some hand waving retcon.
c) Did you as a group feel you all complimented each other, or managed to work as a team ok? If not, was that for RP reasons (cool) or was there something else?
d) Could the group have got more information beforehand? If so, why didn't they? (If RP reasons, great! If some other reason, yell!)
e) Could the group have got more items beforehand? If so, why didn't they? (Again, RP reasons are cool. I think that's what happened in the meeting with Brighteyes. Everyone snuck some items from under his nose, instead of just ignoring the NPC and going looting).
f) Did anything throw your group dynamic off? Were updates unclear (eg would an map showing what had moved be useful). Were NPCs/enemies erratic behaviour knocking your plans?

I think we worked pretty well as a team.

(a) I suppose Westian did his part, but that largely involved running away. From the outset I thought running away was a better option - I hope that did not make other people feel like he was abandoning them! Westian can stand and fight, but is not a hero and has no problems running away if things get tough. As for turn undead, looking back I maybe should have picked up the details the first time it was mentioned. It jsut kind of slipped through the cracks!

(b) I think we are all ok? Everyone has a personality, and that is well role-played in each case.

(c) Falkor and Brighteyes apparently were not that helpful at the begining, but that turned out to be a misconception - they (in particular Falkor) opened the door. Note: this is just an RP comment, even if they did not help out that would be fine...might even make the game more interesting! Get us all a bit paranoid!

(d) More info...I would have liked to have grilled Brighteyes a bit more. Not sure why I did not, I suppose because it would have taken up too long IC.

(e) Westian was fine looting from Brighteyes, but if possible he would prefer if other people did the actual stealing. A fine distinction, but it makes rationalisation easier!

(f) Up-dates clear, maps clear.


Most importantly, my wish...I think I will make it tomorrow!

[beowuuf]

Hey, nicely timed, I just posted a thread you might be interested in further down....and I'm just going to reply to Ian and now you...watch this space

[ian_scho]

Yeah, without the maps I wouldn't have been able to have get my head around what was going on. I keep 'flipping' to them when I'm at work sometimes, pondering, pondering

[beowuuf]

I think that you were kind to us in on few counts:

- AHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH yes I was, wasn't I. Won't happen again! No, seriously, I do try and act as characters might, setting up the challenge at the very start for myself to keep me honest in not goign too easy, nor actively killing you because I can. After a few combats you guys do seem to manage to get out of situations. A combination of good luck and good actions, but perhaps I'm allowing too much wiggle room for bad luck to occur and be curbed. Then again, read the golem hall fight background first, consider the action that got you out, then tell me if - genuinely - you think it was still being kind, or if it was the bastard-like thing I think it was going to be. The plan is that you are on 'level 2' (in terms of difficulty) and just abotu to enter 'level 3'. I might need to pitch it higher if I'm being to kind. I want you to start sweating in the next few encounters.

A) You let us know that we weren't destroying these things, we were shifting their body parts around. Unsubtle hints abounded

I hope it was subtle at first and then got more obvious after you killed them a couple of times. The background plan was this was a case of masking a puzzle with combat. You were never going to win, though it wasn't just goign to be a respawned rush, so hopefully you had some good tactical choices to make about how fast to kill them or how to delay them without killing.

B) You let us know that it were the religious types that caused the problem in the first place. Maybe this was the plan anyway, however. Not a criticism.

To be fair, Westian did ask Brighteyes a direct question, instead of just asking him to help! Plus with the two religeous guys wearing matching armour that no one else did, I wasn't sure if I'd get you lot to have the remove their protection. That would have been funny! But yeah, ask the right question, and get rewarded wit hthe right answer. Again, the next step up in severity means you guys need to use your own gained knowledge.

C) The end scene where the critters all suddenly converged on the golems instead of fighting the party all the way back to the doorway - you should have been harder on us? I'd have taken a free attack from them to have gotten out anyway.

Actually, the creatures were acting very tactically. If Falkor hadn't sealed the door behind you - and I mean properly sealed, not just making the mechanism go back to it's half-assed on off state from before - then the golems would have created two super-powered foes that would run at you and would have delayed the golems so in a straight run the golems would never have touched them again. Well, the phasing in and out door would have given a chance of delaying the big critters. Fun as it would have been to do that, the creative decision of using the glove along with two natural 20s to super charge and super discharge the glove is the definition of combined good thinking and good luck that should be reqarded somehow. Hopefully, there will be other fights where it doens't go your way like that. Thank luck and money for your ultimate escape, not the DM on that one Still, perhaps I do tend to use AoO and other mechanisms narratively instead of tactically.

Z) We didn't really organise ourselves to attempt the alcove/pressure plate idea. Although to be honest Falkor rolled so high with his attempt at the door that it didn't matter If you would have FORCED us to have used the trick to open the door though it would have been much harder, that's for sure. The forum is a difficult medium to bounce quick ideas around, tbh.

I always go on about pace, but if you guys need a time out to decide an intelligent plan, feel free to ask for a day or two's worth of break in the action - liek a bullet time! Usually though, your first instincts are probably best.

I found it hard to know how to place Farel in that situation. I don't want NPCs to become substitutes for PCs. They have to be just a little less good for whatever reason (less quick to respond to idea, too focused on themselves, etc). But in this case, perhaps Farel should have been quicker to aid Haynuus as a backup to his plan.

Y) I kinda like the simplicity of Haynuus tbh. No messin' about with psychological or philosophical issues for now I realise that this is 'roleplay', yet the puzzles and rushing to the aid of yer mates is fun for me. Especially as you've bent the whole thing around the DM universe.

Heh, and it's fun to watch you at work. You guys keep sidestepping or solving the puzzles, I'll be sure to be a sneaky railroady DM in future and add a little more of the action/puzzle elements to the mix.

X) As for the teamwork, it was fine. Keeping away the nasties from the people trying to get the door open. Would have been more testing if we had to use another method to get the door open though!

Yeah, don't want to railroad too much, but perhaps too many options leads to a paralysis of which action combined with a feeling of doing something useless with your efforts. I usually try and make it so as two or three different characters require success for something to be pulled off (or one person getting alot of good successes), perhaps I need to narrow the field to maximise those efforts.

I liked you started using your readied actions, especially to help yourselves and each other. It's a little annoying in a real time game to keep swapping initiative orders, in a PbP it's easier - especially since you can leave the final rulings ansd timings on me thewn just come back and see where you ended up

Don't forget you can also use aid another to either protect weaker members with a +2AC bonus, or to provide a +2attack/skill check bonus to someone with a particularly effective attack/skill.

W) I enjoyed the encounter. Brighteyes adds some sauce to it all, doesn't he!

Glad you like it! Glad you like him!

3) Screamers. Just a slice of one would do.

I'll keep that in mind

[beowuuf]

Yeah, without the maps I wouldn't have been able to have get my head around what was going on. I keep 'flipping' to them when I'm at work sometimes, pondering, pondering

Glad they get the job done...speaking of which, I need to generate one for the tunnel you are on now!

Will leave the update until LB has posted, though will have somethign ready to go tomorrow morning if he's stuck in business. I think he was for the 'go' decision anyway, and you guys can be suspicious of Brighteyes on the move

[beowuuf]

I think we worked pretty well as a team.

Yeah, you guys seem to be good together. Aside from the mechanical actions during combat, that take some getting used to, the only other thing I can point out is general support. Falkor could perhaps do with a YA potion so he has a sane amount of hit points, or a shielding potion. While there are some interesting effects of giving away the flasks that might come up at another time, I'm surprised everyone isn't in DM mode tryign ot get a flask of healing each

Also, watch out for lighting mechanics... I gave you guys a slight pass this one because I hadn't really kept up with it myself. However, it's too fun a vector for me not to get you guys with at some point. Figure out, just like in DM, whose going to have the torch so that it's not goign to get in the way during combat. Remember, for the moment Falkor's FUL spell will remain centred on him should he choose to cast them - and can't be recanted yet!

(a) I suppose Westian did his part, but that largely involved running away. From the outset I thought running away was a better option - I hope that did not make other people feel like he was abandoning them! Westian can stand and fight, but is not a hero and has no problems running away if things get tough. As for turn undead, looking back I maybe should have picked up the details the first time it was mentioned. It jsut kind of slipped through the cracks!

I thin kthe undead turning was a miscommunication on my part. And of course, if you are turning undead and not successful, you've wasted an action for getting out of the way
Westian is a very well qualified back row guy - perhaps needed for using magic more than weilding a weapon, but he is more than capable on his own of protecting the actually weaker members of the party like Helm, Ameena, Falkor, Brighteyes, etc.

(b) I think we are all ok? Everyone has a personality, and that is well role-played in each case.

That was a question purely for you guys to think on, more than the rest - I'll stay out of that one I'#ll just re-iterate the 'I love my players' and leave it at that.

(c) Falkor and Brighteyes apparently were not that helpful at the begining, but that turned out to be a misconception - they (in particular Falkor) opened the door. Note: this is just an RP comment, even if they did not help out that would be fine...might even make the game more interesting! Get us all a bit paranoid!

Yeah, it's another reason I might seem to be going light on you. I don't want to force all four/five of you guys to have to mechanically do something all the time, since this is a shared story. I want someone to be able to do RP things (like Ameena running off, Falkor taking a moment to assess, or perhaps in the future one of the fighters refusing a fight they don't believe in). Of course, I want to balance that with making sure there might be consequences to not acting together at times - even failing the task at hand and being forced to find alternate means.

(d) More info...I would have liked to have grilled Brighteyes a bit more. Not sure why I did not, I suppose because it would have taken up too long IC.

Yeah, I need to figure out ways to let you guys mesh a little better and have some breathing space. Then again, you want it, you maybe just need to take it and sacrifice a combat round or two As mentioned to Ian, feel free to declare a group bullet time if you want, or perhaps ask if you can spread an action over multiple rounds (Like getting stuff from Brighteyes) in the OOC. We'll figure it out.

(e) Westian was fine looting from Brighteyes, but if possible he would prefer if other people did the actual stealing. A fine distinction, but it makes rationalisation easier!

It's just funny, there are times when players will be players (like Aurek tryign to get as much info from the cell room and its scrolls as possible) and other times when sudden;ly a loaded room with stuff barely gets touched!

(f) Up-dates clear, maps clear.

Cool! Now that I've typed so much, I'll give my usual promise to try and keep update sizes down for those of you who are busy. *whistles*

[ian_scho]

One thing that I could be critical of, talking about myself, is that I haven't been jotting down the plot on a notepad. THIS IS CRIMINAL. I've lost the plot a little, so to speak, and have nearly missed Brighteye's reference to the mold...

[money]

I'm happy to go for food, Falkor is always interested in filling his belly - happy to take lead from the rest of the group though.

[beowuuf]

Lol, Brighteyes and Falkor go off for food, come back with an army - I like it

And @Ian - yeah, I will try to put up a reminder post soon since you guys have kinda reached another milestone. I'm also tempted to tell you lot to repost your own character sheets as separate posts here, so each of you has a 'scratch pad' to put up interesting plot points, etc


Edit: Oh, and yeah, I'm guilty of letting pages go by and forgettign to jot down plot points, or jotting them down on an open notepad window and saving them as separate texts. I have my full word document and my proper note files, but I need to order them. Which I'm doign now.

Afetr that's done, I should be far more ontop of everything, and more importantly will share those neat files with you lot so you can get up to speed on old bits faster too

[Ameena]

Ooh, it's getting interesting!
I wonder what kind of things you will be saying about my nice little sentient fuzzle behind her back...

[Lord_BoNes]

Forgot initiative roll... 1d20 = 18

[beowuuf]

OOC: Initiative roll (1d20=1) - looks like he shuffled too much.

[Ameena]

So, after this talk of Ameena, I wonder if anyone is gonna start giving dodgy looks toward those drumsticks...

[oh_brother]

If Westian knew they were rat drumsticks, he might be less likely to eat them...lets hope beo has not been mean enough to kill and barbeque Ameena, and then feed her to her former friends (and Falkor).

[oh_brother]

Regarding the room, Westian will pretty much ignore the soldiers and act like he belongs in the place. Also, he will issue some orders to people in the group, to maintain the appearance of being in charge. Nothing harsh, just "fill up the water skins" or something, said in a way that shows he expects it to be done. Though he won't make this kind of comment to Brighteyes, in case he does not get it and drops the ball. The change in demeanour relative to his normal behaviour should be enough to signal to the others that it is just an act...I hope! Otherwise we will have a 6-man brawl in front of the soldiers!

Westian will not make any potions here, the less the people know about the group the more unsure they will be.

[beowuuf]

I wouldn't feed anyone cooked Ameena. If I put charred Ameena beside your characters, and they it, well that's nothing to do with me - you would be the sick ones!

[Ameena]

But you're not feeding anyone cooked Ameena. Yo're not feeding them anything - they seem to be tucking into the meat quite nicely by themselves . Well, Westy and Haynuus anyway.

[beowuuf]

Preceisely, see the ex-murafu steak understands!

I mean...Ameena. Ameena understands.... *runs*

And yeah, Westian and Haynuus are doign their eating thing, I just need money and LB to to show us what Falkor and Aurek will be doing. It's probably not spoiling thigns to say that, for the moment, you seem set to get to Seeroc's room next and confront the mage.

After the next update, I'll just refresh the plot in the OOC chapter to refocus you on why your characters went this way, and I'll also get you focused on what you'll need to be thinking of (possibly) next week for that.

[oh_brother]

Quick question: do the Ameena steaks taste good at least?

Looking forward to next week, it is getting exciting!

[beowuuf]

A little charred and poisoned, but that's what you get for letting a half-orc to cook

I'm excited to see what you guys do with the next area...providing you actually go to the obvious place, of course!

[Ameena]

Hehehe, it would be funny if you got to Seeroc's place with Brighteyes leading the way, and it turned out that Brighteyes wasn't quite as "well-connected" as he claimed and Seeroc just told him off and then nuked him or something. Or if it turned out that Seeroc was something weird, like umm...an Antman or something .

[beowuuf]

Or Ameena. That would be just too, too funny.

Hahahhahahahah. Ahahahhahaha. Hahahah.

But he's not.

O.O

No, really.

O.O

[beowuuf]

Time marches on, two players down, so I guess it will be a weekend update. Enjoy the drumsticks!

[beowuuf]

Ok, a little summary post of where the game is, since you're goign to hit a milestone:

Who:
You guys know who you are by now, with one small mental lapse between you getting into Anaias somehow and waking up in the first room. A priest with a mission, a paladin with a charge, a half-orc with a chance at a new life, a halfling with a third for knowledge, and....well, I won't say anything about Ameena right now

You had a thief called Helm who also wanted to leave, who knew Ameena and didn't seem to like Falkor (knowing him apparently by reputation). You still have the knight Farel, apparently hailing from an area bordering on Banville, who is lookign for his squirely charge. And you have Brighteyes, a psychopathic gnome whom apparently has served both Theron and now Gholst through Seeroc.

Potentially friendly NPCs you haven't encountered but have heard of are Deephold, a cleric of Westian's order who was apparently dispatched to check on Anaias two weeks ago, and Deephold's paladin bodyguard Umgold. Obviously, Farel's young squire is hopefully somewhere. And apparently Fex the mage who led Deephold into Anaias, and who Falkor apparently knows.

And you know who the main antagonists are now - Gholst the leader of the soldiers, a nasty man thought dead, apparently a second in command called Garax 'the warblade', a priest causing problems between them, and a mage called Seeroc who apparently creates nasty undead that even the soldiers fear. There is still a ghost girl around, though no one seems to know anymore about her except her possible connection to Theron.

Theron is around, last seen aggressively using Zo against a door on level one and eminating an evil aura. And apparently the Grey Lord is not. Though Fulcrum, the raven, might be...

What/when:
Well, you know now a group of soldiers, claiming to be allowed in under Theron, have entered the mountain and are taming it. Somehow, a 'soul stone' seems to have been broken so that, whereever the Grey Lord is, he cannot feel what is going on in the mountain to know something is amiss.

This would appear to have happened more than two weeks ago, for Westian knows that two weeks ago Brother Deephold had been dispatched i na secret mission to discover what had happened here, somehow Westian's order knowing something was amiss!

Why:
This is still an area you guys seem to be in the dark over. Why did the Grey Lord leave? Why is Theron helping - there have been cryptic clues to this, if they apply to Theron. And what does Gholst actually want in all this anyway?

Where:
You guys are at the end of level 9, takign the apparently open 'Path of the Dead' skeleton key stairs as a short cut. Apparently, Seeroc's room is very close, just down the stairs to level 10, and for some reason, Brighteyes seems to the think you need to get through Seeroc's room if you want to go further.

Ameena was last seen heading for the way back to the main door, along with Helm.

Brighteyes seems to think Farel's squire could be with Seeroc. He also seems to think Deephold would be most likely to be with the priest.

Apparently the priest and the rest of the soldier's high command are down even further.

The part have heard of a FUL YA pit existing in Anaias, of unknown location for now. Similarly, there seems to be some form of mechanism - requiring knowledge of the four elemental languages - written on some scrolls the group carry, that may or may not be connected the the pit.

Where this 'soul stone' is, apparently broken, no one has been clear on.


Your mission:
Well, Westian's mission is to find Deephold. And perhaps people like Falkor might like to meet the mage Seeroc to find out why he's been targetted. And Farel wants to find his squire. And so to that end (any of them), the party needs to at the very least visit Seeroc's room. Whether they decide to stay and confront the mage, or instead try to figure out a way to bypass the mage and go deeper is up to you guys, of course.

After that, there are a few mission 'options'. Carryign on to seek the way to the priest, hoping to find Deephold. Carrying on downwards to confrotn Gholst himself. Seeking out Theron to perhaps learn more of the mystery. Perhaps seeking out the soul stone, for perhaps if it could be reconstructed, the Grey Lord could be contacted. Or perhaps seeking out the raven Fulcrum, for similar reasons - it might know something it could communicate, or communicate to its master.

There are a couple of ways to solve this situation to an ultimate end. There are ways for the mystery and your quest to involve moving from the mage to the priest to Gholst's lieutentant to Gholst himself, with potential detours to many other thigns mentioned above. That would be the natural expanded version of this game.

As you hit the first of those confrontations (the mage Seeroc), you can maybe get a feel for how long and involved this game could be. Certainly not three months per section, but there are potentially alot more stages to go through as a game. Many can be bypassed or amalgamated together without any real narrative dissonance. Just somethign to think about as you adventure!

[oh_brother]

Thanks for the recap, I have not taken any notes so I probably am losing some vital information everyday!