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

[beowuuf]

I see. Fingers crossed for you then

[raixel]

So far, this has been the longest running (and most interesting) forum dnd game ive ever lurked/played in. Heres to work not keeping us down and many more years! ( even if beo doesnt wanna dm forever, like I said I'm interested)

On a side note, as an anthropology major/creative writing minor, I find myself way interested in races' lives/religions/culture ect. (and a giant blow it was when they took habitat/ecology out of the MM in 3rd edition). So, I am interested in fleshing out the world, doing maps, cultures of races, ect. So far, in my spare time which unfortunately I dont have much of I have been working of a Sylvan dictionary. But if anyone is interested, I would be happy to work on making the world a bigger, vibrant place. Of course canon always takes precedent, but there isnt much canon.

BTW on another side note, did you know the Elder scrolls games' (arena daggerfall morrowind oblivion) world of Tamriel was some developer's DnD world in the late 80s-early 90s? (ive been on an Elder scrolls kick lately) That would be so cool to see your DnD world turn into a major bestselling CRPG. I always wondered if the people at FTL ever notice what we're doing here and what they think of it....

[ian_scho]

It's passion like that can turn a hobby into a profession! Very cool indeed.

If anyone from FTL does visit the forum they'll act as a lurker. I'm sure they aren't that interested in participating!

[beowuuf]

I don't see the game running very far into the new year (I would be surprised if we were still playing it by July, say) though it's not outwith the brealms of possibility.

Depending on my workload and feelings, there were a few options I wanted to explore. One was running two games. One a 4th edition game in a 4th edition bog standard setting, posting every 2-3 days, to catch any casual players who might like a shot.

The second would be pretty much as we are playing here, perhaps slowed to posting updates every 1-2 days. I have an idea for the next story - based on the RTC dungeon I was once going to do - that could continue with many of the cuirrent characters, still in the current game setting. Although it would also be a chance for another DM to come to the fore.


As for the world, it's amazing how something with so little real canon, just many hooks, inspures the imagination so. The only trouble I can see with worldbuilding is that there is so little canon, I think everyone has their own idea of the world and it's easy to hit a wrong note. I know Lunever's ideas didn't quite mesh with mine when he started posting them. I know I've resisted after a while to go too broad with my own world building, being guided by how other people saw it first.

I'm certainly not adversed to slowly world building with you guys, setting some of the stuff thrown out down somewhere, and gently expanding out the world

[Ameena]

I'm happy enough to slot stuff into a world that's already been created - the Murafu could fit in pretty much anywhere. I originally came up with them for this game, when Wuffy said we could have a custom race if we wanted so I instantly leapt on the idea and created my own sentient rats . But I like them very much, so I'd be happy to use them anywhere else (ie in another Fantasy setting outside of this DM-based one). I have plenty of little details and stuff in my head regarding how they live and stuff like that, so if anyone's just interested generally in stuff about the race then feel free to ask (either IC or OOC ). I imagine lots of the details will never come up during the course of the game, because due to having to save the world from Chaos and so on, I don't expect everyone's gonna have too much time to sit around and chat about the backstory of one particular party member . And of course, that one party member can't express everything about her race because of the situations she's being put in and having to act a little outside the way she would normally - you haven't seen murafu properly until you've met a whole group of them .
Anyway, Raixel, your Sylvan stuff seems pretty interesting - I've been wondering what some of the language words mean but I'm happy not knowing since it prevents me inadvertently meta-gaming .
I've always got a kick out of creating stuff - it's why I got so excited when Spore came out - omg endless creation of masses of creatures with tons and tons of ways to edit them with great ease and so on . I should get back to creating more stuff there at some point, and probably will . I tend to prefer creatures to, say, civilisations and politics and stuff. Whenever we'd get a new RPG when I was a kid (back on the Atari), I'd always go to the Bestiary section of the manual and just look at all the cool pictures of creatures with big teeth and claws and stuff .
if anyone wants to come up with more stuff, I'm up for helping - comng up with ideas, adding to them, writing backstories/myths/legends/histories, etc. What I quite like is someone giving me a "skeleton" of a story (or whatever) so I have some kind of very basic structure to work with, and then I go nuts on embellishing it and turning it into a much greater creation. Even if no-one else reads/likes it, I don't care - I had fun creating it .

[beowuuf]

Feel free to create a world thread in this forum, or add to Lunever's thread in the creative forum if you guys want to explore some ideas.


Update's up... playing it slow and being mean. Is it Dolo? Is it something else? Are all of you finally cracking after the nasty things I've done to you all. Whoooooo knows

[Ameena]

Lol I thought Dolo might be a bit obvious, but then as far as I was concerned there was only one thing those weird appearances of Westian and Aurek could have been a few game-minutes ago . Still, as it seems a bit dodgy and Ameena's now got something weird of her own to notice, we shall see I suppose. I've had a secondary thought that it might be some aspect of Theron or something (escaped from the influence of Gholst, or at least evading his notice for a while), or maybe even the Grey Lord (they're carrying a part of his soul around, after all, though I can't remember who's actually got it at the moment - Deephold?). As it doesn't seem to be displaying any aggressive tendencies at this moment, my thoughts are that if it isn't aligned to "Good", then it's at least "Neutral".

[raixel]

*singsong* IIIIIII'mmmm prettty suuure I knooow whooo it issss!

Of course it would be just like you to have it not be said person. .

As far as world building, my idea would be to have everyone develop their chars race/culture/area and then have the entire group mesh it in to a whole, IE im not doing any greyhawk tropical-forest-right-next-to-a-desert-bit. So then everyone has their chance to let their imagination run wild, but mesh well. I'll start posting stuff in a world building thread as soon as I get it up. And personally, I think we should have our own thread in this forum because we are actually playing here, and I like to read Lunevers stuff but I wouldnt want to start dumping ideas over there, as we have kinda got our own thing going over here.

As far as a second game....i really really dont wanna play 4th edition, but I really really like this game. Ive even gotten used to the condensed skills, sort of. It has captured my attention in a way...well lets just say after playing dnd for 20 years im kinda jaded. So I'm really torn.

I dont have any desire to learn a new system though, and I can be really stubborn and opinionated (im sure you guys have figured that out by now, eh?) so i wouldnt want to ruin the game by going off about how much this rule or that rule is stupid. But.....i might still give it a try...maybe. As long as I didnt actually have to learn the system inside and out like i know 2nd/3rd/3.5 or buy new books id never use except for this game, then it wouldnt be like I was actually playing it right? and be the laughing stock of my gaming circle here.

[ian_scho]

@raixel You can teach THAC0 to me one day... I think I must have played 1st edition (red box)?

[Ameena]

4th edition is nice - it's easy, there's not tons of numbers and skills and stuff floating about (ever played Dark Heresy, for example? That's not a very nice one for beginners, especially if you don't know your Warhammer 40k very well/at all ), and while I've heard that its mechanics are really only useful for combat, I don't understand that - the skill list is short because it's all been tidied up. So for example, instead of having Run and Jump and Climb and Swim, you just have Athletics, which covers all of those (basically any Str-based movement, while Acrobatics covers the Dex stuff). It depends on the GM, I suppose - if you have someone who doesn't leave you much chance for open RP, then yeah, of course it's gonna be a bit crap .
I have never understood that THAC0 thing - games like Icewind Dale use it, and I don't really get the whole "a low AC is good" thing - it just seems rather counter-intuitive, though I suppose the person who designed it must have thought it was a good idea at the time. I prefer my games to have less messing around with numbers, and more talking and acting stuff out with words.
4th edition also has this really cool character builder program - maybe you could check that out, Raixel, to give you an idea of some of the skills and stuff that 4th edition has (if you haven't already looked into that game much). It's on the DnD website (something like dndinsider.com) and you can download the trial version for free (lets you level characters up to level three) to have a mess around with it. I have the full version, but so far no game I've played has lasted long enough for me to get any character past level three, lol. I'm trying to run a game at home, but so far we've only had two sessions over the past two or three months because my friend can't get many weekend days off work in order to come round and play. The fact we only have two players (my aforementioend friend and my dad) means things like combat are a bit slow, but I'll try and liven it up a bit by adding in an NPC party member or something, just so I can have a fight where I get to go wild and have spells and stuff flying everywhere .
As for our current game-in-progress here on the forum...well,I have no idea whom this mysterious invisible person is. I had thought of Dolo, but what's happening doesn't really seem to be his style. It seems Raixel knows this person, so unless Dolo's got inside her head in order to figure that out and is now manipulating her, that means it'll be someone the rest of us don't know. The fact she seems reluctant to have Deephold know about it (and because it's been mentioned that this is because he's a priesty-type) makes me think this is because the creature is some kind of undead, maybe a spirity-ghosty thing. Is his name Casper?

[beowuuf]

The idea was two games, one 4th edition (plain) and one this world, not play this world with 4th edition rules. Like all plans, it's subject to change - I might not carry on as a DM

Anywya, shhhhhhhhhhhhh, no edition discussion. Shhhhhhhhhhhh.

As to who or what is affecting the party, and who knows or does not know anything.... well, it will be both straightforward and complicated, like everything I seem to do!

THAC0 (to hit AC 0): Actually, it was originally tables to read off the hit score, but because it was a logical slide, it was easy to have a target number for hitting 0, and then you could deduct the AC of your enemy from that number to get the target. As said, this worked because the AC started at 9 and then reduced in size, instead of starting at 10 and getting larger.

So if you had a THAC0 of 15, and your enemy had no armour, etc (AC 9) you'd hit on an 6 or more.
In this game, you'd have a +4 base attack bonus, and your opponent would be AC 10. You still hit on a 6 or more.

With one system its easy to know your target number ahead of time, it just need a single deduction. With the new system, the caluclation is more intuitive, but the tendancy is to keep doing the addition in your head each roll rather than deduct all the + bonuses. THAC0 was only really developed to save time from looking at tables anyway, so it's not really intuitive by itself nor the actual design. just an easy way to avoid tables:

[Ameena]

Nope, still doesn't make sense, lol .

[beowuuf]

The chart would originally look like this:

AC_ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Hit 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For each AC, you'd have defined the number you needed to roll to hit that. Fighters, lesser fighters (like crlrics and dwarfs) and then wizards all had separate lines per level.

Anyway, because it's a straightforward table, it would just be easier to take one of the numbers - THAC0 - and then you could deduct the AC from that number to get the rest.

[raixel]

LOL I remember trying to teach my roomie thac0 (he plays 3rd-3.5 like me) in EXACTLY the same way Beo was saying. He goes 'what?' and im like 'The gnoll has an AC of 7. You have a THAC0 of 16, what do you need to hit?' ummmmm 13? *facepalm*. It was a stupid and complicated rule I admit. 3 is better. Ahh, yes. I would love to keep this game, with the same rules, going.

And like i said before beo, if you wanna take a break from DMing, ive been working on enough background for an adventure that id be happy to take over. My style is touch different tho. I'm not as...mean. <teasing>

[Ameena]

Lol I think you probably should just not worry about it, Wuffy - I'm still not sure I get it even with that table thingy...
Glad we are using much simpler and (to me) obvious rules of "the bigger the number, the more AC you have" .

[beowuuf]

Awww, I'm not mean! I'm just challenging! At leats, I hope I'm challenging *makes a note: be more challenging*

[raixel]

No, actually I like the challenging. Especially when everyone appears to be going insane and theres a horrible undead shapeshifter leaning against the wall watching it all. Fun times!

[beowuuf]

Hmm, my lunch is split in two today, so my plan to update early might be scuppered.

What will happen? Who knows!

And thanks for the kind worse raixle, especially as one directly in the ey of my full evil right now And what do you mean 'appears to be'? *realises I've been using the Call of Cthulhu rules all this time*

[raixel]

Ugh. I had a friend really into call of cthulu, added the rules to the 3rd ed campaign he was running. Personally, I'm not a fan of the 'roll to go insane' type forced insanity. A real good dm will make you not realize you are going insane, and the chars will start seeing stuff like moving shadows and hearing voices and....

oh wait.

nevermind

[beowuuf]

As with all systems, it depends upon how the person running it aswell as the rules. The rolling to go insane is a good way for the player to gamble on the horror, and for it to have cool real consequences. The DM shouldn't really be using it as a hammer to drive you insane.

And hehe, I don't think I could have got such an interesing stand off set up in a real-time game. Then again, that wans't me setting that up, that was so organic I don't mind calling it great, cause I didn't really cause it. That was having Deephold act, and then realising that the way all your character beats and histories were going, you all had created this perfect story point.

I was smiling, and couldn't personally work out all the strands that had made it logical that any one of you could be insane and taking the wrong actions... and it was even more satisfying that you were all actually acting outside of Dolo's influence, and that were were at least two equally valid points of view clashing Fun times!


Heh, imagine that scene if I was doing what I used to do, and keep all your personal thoughts in PMs... then you guys would have had no idea if Petal was evil, hearing voices at all, etc


Anyway, lunch over...time for more work!

[beowuuf]

Just for the sake of interest, here was something I could make work due to time (plus realised there was no way to let you guys easily edit your own ones)

It's a character inventory in DM style! http://www.dmjump.net/party%20inventory.jpg

It's a WIP, and a jpg of the original file. Meaning there are floating items because I Was reading the threads and making sure I had the items tranfering correctly, and also meaning my file has layers. So I can easily move items without destroying the inventory underneath, etc.

Note that you guys originally had a hunger, thirst and tiredness 'meter' that was green, yellow or red. However, as the game moves to its final phase (and as you gys are not really being affected by the odd temporal speed I had yo nder at the start, one that aped DM's fast metabolism and need for sleep) I'm not really tracking that anymore. Well, I'm tracking it, bt the remaining game time shold not see yo really need to sleep/eat again nless yo feel yor characters wold do that. Ok, if yo spend too long in game time somewhere, I'll track that. Bt it is by no means as rgent as I was going ot have it originally!

[ian_scho]

Quick post to say that I missed todays stuff

Just ran out of time. Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!1

gtg to bed but will try tomorrow morn

[beowuuf]

Not a problem, lets me catch up on sleep too :p

[ian_scho]

Hey I like the inventory mock up! If I ever had the time (the sound of maniacal laughter in the background) I wanted to improve upon InvisibleCastle.com and with your mock up it could add yet another module to the site. Equipment!

[oh_brother]

I am possibly going home tomorrow (snow and a few other things permitting). Plus I just found out that the modem at home is broken, so I will be incommunicado when I get there.

So don't be surprised if I go "dark" soon until January! Anyway happy Christmas to you all, I hope you have a good one! I cannot believe that this is the second Christmas we have been trapped in this dungeon, time flies.

[oh_brother]

Oh, and I forgot to add that the inventory stuff would be great, nice idea. And I look forward to Ian's redesigned InvisibleCastle.

[beowuuf]

Yeah, it would have been, and I can make the template available if anyone wants to personally use it, but it's getting late in the day and more difficult for me to keep tabs on your guys to that detail.

Really need to do it from the start and figure out a cool (evn shareable) way to have it around!


Anyway, it is cool I've trapped you guys for over a year deep in Anaias Happy Christmas OB!

The Westian/Falkor thread will have a potential break point built in with today's update. If money wants to keep going, that's going to be possible without Westian being scuppered.

[oh_brother]

Feel free to auto-pilot Westian if need be! Just try not to kill him!

[beowuuf]

Oh, of course I'll try, but these things are quite tricky, there's dice rolls and unknown variables and sadism and simple distraction.

[raixel]

Just letting you all know I will be out of town from wednesday till either sun or mon for the holidays. I will be posting, and I will try and keep it everyday but I may miss a day or two.

Happy holidays!