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

[Lord_BoNes]

@Ian: The feat "Monkey grip" grants the ability to wield as a one-hand weapon instead of two-handed, in your primary hand only. Then there's "Improved monkey grip" for the off-hand. It's not listed on the d20, but it's in Neverwinter Nights 2, so I know that it exists (NWN2 is based entirely on the 3.5 rules).

[oh_brother]

Double post in the IC thread with Lord Bones, we both said slightly different things to Helm...I hope he does not get too confused by our indecisive group!

[Ameena]

Triple-posted, actually . I must've been still typing mine when you made yours, but it doesn't overlap too much, I don't think, so I'll leave mine as-is for now and see what happens.

[oh_brother]

Ha ha...well at least Ameena's comment ties in with the conversation, Westian now just seems crazy! Or else it looks like he is desperately trying to get rid of Helm

[Ameena]

Lol yeah, it does a bit .

[beowuuf]

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Improved_M ... (DnD_Feat)

The wiki tends to be a good source of combining rules variants. Anyway, I would gladly let monkey grip be a feat. As I said, in the rules set I used, feats were blended into classes so monkey grip wasn't explicitly called out, and wasn't allowed with all weapons just a broadsword.

From what I can understand though, if I gave you such a feat, it sounds like it should apply to any two-handed weapon. Also sounds like a fighter feat.

So yeah, feel free to choose it at 6th level or beyond if you like


Anyway, quick;ly taking a break but will be at work for a while - so hopefully you guys can wait or figure out a de-tangling until much later tonight!

[Lord_BoNes]

In NWN2, it is a general-class feat that anybody can choose. It applies to any weapon that is up to one size category larger than you. So I could have a two-handed large-class weapon in my primary hand, and a medium-class one-handed weapon in my off-hand... and Falkor or Ameena could weild a two-handed medium weapon in their primary hand with a small weapon in the off-hand. The Improved monkey grip, merely makes this for BOTH hands, so I could have a two-handed large weapon in each hand.

If you want to include this feat, I think that 'monkey grip' should also have a -2 or -4 to attack rolls... until you get 'improved monkey grip'. Then have normal attack for the primary hand and -2 or -4 for the off-hand.

[beowuuf]

Ok, will reply to the questions in the IC thread here.

In general, there no opposed rolls in straight roleplaying between roleplayers. It's up to Ameena to decide if she wants to go with this or not, just as OB you don't have to worry about a crappy roll knocking your good argument. Rolls usually dictate retroactive hidden/external factors that influece NPC interaction, as players you guys know what's happening with yourselves and usually that's enough. The only time I'll roll opposed rolls would be if the players have opposed goals that cross - eg someone wants to hide a dagger, and the other person wants to spot it being hidden. I would also allow, if Ameena wasn't sure how her charatcer would react IC, let you lot roll and adjudicate based on that Like a player to NPC.

Usually Diplomacy is opposed by Diplomacy if it's a mutual debate, if you are just trying to persuade someone of something you can turn it into a DC. As Ameena isn't arguing for the party to come with her (which would be opposed rolls), her resistance would be a static DC if she were an NPC.

Anyway, it's up to Ameena! As a player, work out the sort of game you want to play. If you want to be part of the group, then I think there's been enough hooks to justify a torn reaction but her sticking with the party, assuming sadly that Helm is going off to his death )or hopefully jsut capture and being taken to the mage)

If you want to follow your character's instincts, then if you know them go with them, or if not then we can go with the dice If Ameena would go with Helm, then obviously I can run her separately for a while, giving her the chance to either a) find a satisfying path back to the party, of b) have the chance at a satisfying conclusion to her story in this game, and then you can roll a new characters to sneak into the game.

Since this isn't a tabletop, we have the advantage I don't have to railroad you in this decision as much as I might have to face to face - both stories can go on parallel without a disruption.

Anyway, that seems to be a satisfyingly tense ending for today! I so much prefer it when the cliffhanger is player interaction not jsut story or NPC comments - hence the Ameena/ Falkor trumphing Passin speaking however many days ago!

[beowuuf]

If you want to include this feat, I think that 'monkey grip' should also have a -2 or -4 to attack rolls... until you get 'improved monkey grip'. Then have normal attack for the primary hand and -2 or -4 for the off-hand.

I don't think there is any reason to impose an additional penalty unless it was present before. I have no problem with the penalty already being losing a feat slot. Considering a feat can give you some powerful things anyway, effectively upgrading your damage dice by one step seems ok.

Consider, if you take the grip feat to gain a shield (+1 or +2 AC bonus), you are only marginally better than if you fight defensively. Well, unless you have magical shield, of course.

Or, if you are doing it to upgrade a sword to a greatsword, you may as well take the penalty for a guaranteed +2 damage bonus with power attack feat instead of the chance to +1 or +2 with the upgraded die.

Just my thinking, anyway

So yeah, Ian, monkey grip can be yours. I'll run down the exact requirements if anyone else wants to take it at 6th, etc.

[Ameena]

Ahh groovy. Well, I just replied to Helm's comments. I was thinking, maybe the two of us (us, them, whatever - Ameena and Helm) could bugger off together, fail to get back out the way in (door won't open, can't get past guards, scary monsters have eaten everything and are lying in wait so we have to run away, whatever), then end up taking a completely different route (across that pit or through the door Passin just used, or some other way we happen to discover) and end up popping up later and surprising everyone else (you know, if they haven't all been barbequed by that mage dude, whatever his name was...Seeroc or something? Or eaten by fericious beasties or stuck in a room and starved/suffocated, or whatever ). Hehehe that would be funny...group is in stand-off with scary mage, spells are about to fly, horrific death seems imminent...and then Helm and Ameena come bursting through the door and crash into mage, knocking him down and he conks his head on something on the way and is knocked out, thereby solving everyone's problems in one go (unless he is marked as "Evil" in which case then Aurek goes bananas and rushes forward to gank him ).
Aaaaanyway, wheee look I'm getting sidetracked - that happens far too rarely these days . Erm yeah, anyway...I'm not really sure I can justify Ameena going off with the mage-hunting soldier-nukers when she has a rather scared-seeming (maybe I should Sense Motive him) friend about to do the non-murafu thing of buggering off by himself. I think trying to convince a murafu that killing people is necessary would be a bit like errm...ohh, I dunno, trying to convince someone else of something that they can never really understand. Sorry, a suitable analogy has totally deserted me here - put it down to brain-falling-apart...ness .
Anyway...yeah...erm....ohh, I think I said about all for now. Really must go to bed soon, lol.

[beowuuf]

Feel free to sense motive if you like

And lol, I love how everyone is convinced I would be so boring as to let a closed door stop you at the start. I almost hope you escape out the front door! Funnily, if you had (or do) attempt to escape via the level 6 exit, it would be a totally different experience to going out the front door IS this a good or bad thing? On of these days, I'll do a 'raod not taken...' for all these exit options if you don't trigger them.

And I think the metaphor is 'convnce a paladin to befriend a pure evil character'!

Anyway, sounds like the party might split Whether Ameena the character is ever seen again by the party, who knows. Whether Ameena the player gets to play with the party sooner or later, who knows!

[Lord_BoNes]

I think trying to convince a murafu that killing people is necessary would be a bit like errm...ohh, I dunno, trying to convince someone else of something that they can never really understand.

Hence why I rolled. I just wanted to add that extra "kick" to the comment. And given your roll, it'd be a fair reason to at least "ease up a little". You know... running into battle like Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYA!!!!!"

[Ameena]

Hehe, hey, it could be fun. Anyway, just blame it all on Falkor for starting that fight (and so violently and surprisingly, too) .
Might as well do a Sense Motive...it can be what Ameena notices as she's talking to Helm - he seems to be getting more animated and excited even as she's starting to do the same. So let's see...Sense Motive = ...oooooh...27 (19+8). See, what did I say about "utility" rolls being usually good?
Btw if this split does happen (and it really does look like it's about to), please don't kill off Helm while it's just the two of them, or she most likely will finally fall apart and become (probably) the first ever murafu to actually go insane .
I suppose after all this dungeon exertion he's gonna be a bit whiffy (like all the others except for Ameena herself of course, who, being furred, won't sweat), so I suppose she at least has something (albeit somewhat less pleasant) to bury her nose in when they trudge through that bloody corpse room again .
It'll be interesting to see how the other characters react to this pending split (can't see her not leaving them, now, given how the conversation is going), especially those she first woke up with. Or will she get a "Oh yeah, it was great to walk with you for a while, okay, see ya then, have fun, byeee!" like Passin and now Helm have had (sort of) .

[beowuuf]

Well if you don't want Helm to die, you shouldn't be encouraging him to run straight into the jaws of potentially five soldiers. And don't forget the scary broken passages that can contain anything beforehand

Remember Falkor hasn't had a chance to speak yet. He might say something persuasive, he might offer to go with you both, or he might just throw a fireball! I might just leave the next update to Monday if people want to properly react and talk more for the split - basically Westian and Hanyuus have had one reaction to Helm, and Falkor has had had none at all!

I still think the best send off so far has been Passin - armour (bloodied and evil and scary) bundled into his arm, thrown through a door, then torch thrown throwugh as an afterthought, then door slammed in his face

Best non-goodbye is Farel, who has kept saying bye to the party like three times, yet seems to be still with them and going in the opposite direction now!

[beowuuf]

Awwwwwwwww, Falkor said goodbye too

Ok, I guess I need to set up the private thread once Westian has said his piece, and Ameena has said any last words.

Update tonight to get you guys going forwards to where Aurek and Farel were originally being held. That will leave you lot figuring out that decision point.

Ameena, I'll start running your private thread tonight, but I hope you'll keep commenting on the main action in the OOC thread too

Right, time to go to that work thing

[money]

all too aware that Ammena admited she was a Theif in part - but steeling for survival is more instinct then to steal for profit. Also - lets not forget Helm was not very nice to Falkor when they met - he was very "off" with him and I think blames Falkor in part for getting into this mess!

[Ameena]

Ah, but what makes you think Helm ever stole for profit? I don't recall him ever saying so, and if Falkor's moody with him for legging it during the fight (and for leaving now), Ameena's done/doing much the same, and for more or less the same reason(s). Anyway, if murafu were more prone to actually getting angry and openly disliking people etc, Falkor would not be very high on Ameena's List of People She Wants to be Polite to .
But aaaanyway...looks like these people of differing opinions are finally rid of each other...at least for now . I'm sure it will be interesting to see how things turn out...

Edit - So, do I now continue in a separate thread with Helm, to avoid mixing in my (probably) unrelated posts with those of the rest of the group? Oh, and how come everyone seems to have mysteriously warped all the way back down the corridor to the teleporter room without actually moving? We were all the way down by those old Ra doors and then suddenly they are able to watch Helm disappear through the teleporter? If we'd been that close Ameena would have legged it already, lol.
Oh well, I'll hold off making my next IC post till I know where I'm putting it .

[beowuuf]

What I love is your character's clinging to Helm even though she has had less contact and memories with him than with the rest of your party. And he's basically abandoned the group, while Falkor's fought twice and died twice for the group Always interesting to see where character's point of view takes them!

And you got warped because the plot needs you to move there ...so you all walked down there together, etc - you were all preparing to go, it's the logical split! I really don't want to have to detail every single step and movement, sometimes it gets a little too much. So if a character ever temporarily bows out (like silent Farel) it's most likely because it seems redundant to have his reaction.

That said, I did take the party step by step down the twisting corrdior right after, ah well!

And you have a forum all to yourself way down...oh bugger, need to let you in again.... hang on....

[Ameena]

Ahh maybe you forgot about the uber-stinky corridor (burnt/chopped/bashed dead bodies that have now been lying there for a little while, in a heap in the corner) just outside the room, which Ameena would want to try not-smelling as soon as possible .
Helm and Ameena are really quite similar so far...they both ran away from conflict and they both decided they'd much prefer to leave - Ameena was just temporarily (psychologically) prevented from doing so by her instinctive need to not be alone. And even if she doesn't have many memories of Helm, at least the ones she does have are of friendly conversation, and in no way contain any death, blood, violence, burning, or anything else that might get a quite high film certificate .

[beowuuf]

So can you see the forum at the bottom?

[Ameena]

No - the bottom-listed thread for me is the rules summary one.

[beowuuf]

Not a thread (not sure if I can hide a thread) I mean the actual forum at the bottom of the main forum, just like last time!

Hmm, or maybe last time I had it just below this one....I forget...

[Ameena]

I can't remember...either way, it's still not working right now .

[ian_scho]

My suggested marching order - quote and edit to change! Not sure where to put Aurek tbh.

Code: Select all

Haynuus    Farel
Westian    Falkor
Aurek

[Lord_BoNes]

I say swap Westian and Falkor, a wizard is a softer target than a cleric

[ian_scho]

Code: Select all

Haynuus    Farel
Falkor       Westian
Aurek

[Lord_BoNes]

We're just his "human/orc shields"... hehehe

[beowuuf]

And collateral damage if you get in the way of a fireball

[beowuuf]

Advanced warning, I'll have a friend down on Friday - so no update from Friday evening until Monday evening. Might sneak in question answering, but probably not.

Will have to see if Thursday will bring a convenient cliffhanger point!

[oh_brother]

Perception check 5 + 4 = 9

I am happy with the party order, not sure what to do next though! Wait and see what he does?

@beo: what can we see of the mage?