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

[ian_scho]

I don't think you need worry too much about the difference in time speeds -> before Haynuus meets up with the others order me to stop posting in the other thread! I'll wait for your command It's more difficult for you keeping track of the other encounters, I understand.

@Ameena Haynuus left so quickly as people were getting crushed under a door (he didn't know that), Helm could be dieing, and he promised that he would return as fast as possable to help the others. The 'thanks' was a mistake in my mind I was sort of thinking 'thank goodness Ameena's alive' and it came out the wrong way!

[Ameena]

Oh well, I suppose that can be excused then, seeing as it was Haynuus who said it . From Ameena's point of view she's basically just told him "I really really don't want to go back there so please, please don't make me", and all he's done is go "Thanks!" and disappear again, lol. I think we just need to wait and see what Falkor does so we can see what happens from there. I'm not sure how long Ameena will be sticking around, having just been apparently abandoned, but since she herself doesn't really know what to do right now, she'll probably stay where she is for a little while yet. Probably.
Don't forget that she has no clue about the whole door-shutting thing. She doesn't know what's going on with Aurek and Farel (one is wearing skull armour but apparently didn't mind turning on his fellows, while the other was apparently a prisoner who had no trouble freeing himself - but apart from anything else she still doesn't know anything more about them so they're still complete strangers to her), and is still confused about how two soldiers could apparently get away from the bloodbath fairly easily, though separately, while Haynuus is apparently acting as though nothing too disastrous has occured despite having a substantial amount of blood all over him. I imagine he'll still have a bit of a gash in his side too, since I don't think that Vi potion healed him up to full health, did it? Ameena does want to know what's happened to Helm, but she doesn't want to go back through and see the dead bodies (she knows there's at least one, since she saw Arbrut get pwnzored). Plus she has her own problems, what with getting her face kicked in and stuff. All in all, she's pretty messed up right now .

[beowuuf]

"Thanks for all your help" and he's respected your wishes? That would be sweet.

Poor messed up Ameena, right when they could use a thief! Right, I have some behind the scenes dice rolls to do, just for my own interest and just incase...

[beowuuf]

Ok, again another 'chapter' seems to be coming to a close. Let's say Falkor doing whatevre he does, Aurek letting the door close, and Haynuus leaving Ameena signal the end of this section. The start of the book has officially passed. I think you guys have got enough information not to be said to be starting on a middle of the story

Quick summary on the status of everything:

The good bits

Who - you guys sorta know who you all are now and have had vague memories even of your current situations. The next week should see you learning a little bit more about each other, about your new comrade in arms, and of course about the NPCs you've accumulated (who will of course seem to be equal comrades in arms right now).

When - I think by now you have tied down (thanks to Helm's comments) that not much time has passed - if any - since your last memories. Certainly, Helm did not say 'Ameena, but you died 5 years ago!'. So that still puts you at @ 1 year after CSB.

Where - well, still in Anaias, one would assume. After all, I wouldn't be evil enough to have the teleporter link to somewhere els,e right? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, you still have a chain of travel that puts you back to the front door of Anaias. where you are when you've stepped through the teleporter? Harder to know. Depending on what you do, you might get a huge hint to ground you again soon enough.

The fuzzy bits

What - what's happening? Well, that one seems to be a little bit foggier. It appears that nasty soldiers are claiming to regulate Mount Anaias in the Grey Lord's absense. It appears they claim Theron is allowing this! More importantly, there seems to be some issue with a person called Gholst, a spirit of a woman, and Theron. And it seems to be that the creatures - or at least some - in the dungeon are fading and dying. At least, those created by Chaos.

Why - hmm, another weird one. A series of strange rhymes from a spirit of a woman and a journal entry from Theron seems to give a vague hint at things. But what exactly they are pointing to, and if they have anything to do with the Grey Lord's disappearance.... hmm.

How - hmm, another weird one. The above hints at why also point to a how. Something to do with sleeping and balance and guilt maybe? Certainly, the party can't very well correct this situation - if they want to - without figuring out how it's been done in the first place!


So there we go, the party perhaps has a basic starting poitn to explore the mystery further. Or perhaps the party will wish to jsut run the heck away! I've sent you all PMs to try and get your character's personal goals firmly locked in their minds.

In and around the current issues (Ameena missing, and the closed door), you guys are going to be given at least complete freedom next week to just RP stuff. RP your introductions and information sharing with each other (you will sudden;y find you can talk wuite alot in six seconds) and just general take a slight breather (in and around the desperate door issues, if you consider them issues) and desperate lost/potential discovery issues (if you consider those issues)

You DM promises not to be evil and throw a gotcha at you if you choose to take a well earned pause to RP some needed intros and summaries of your situation and possible actions.

Well, at least I promise to give you as long as you need up to next weekend. Then you might get poked again

Nah, joking, take the time you need, and I'll interject with wacky OOC comments and IC updates as required, and when the natural flow of everything winds donw, I'll push the story forward again, in the direction the party has decided to go.

Will you explore? Will you go all do-gooder to figure out the mystery? Will you be in full escape mode? Your choices are up to you. Right up until I throw a spanner in the works again.

Good luck!

[Lord_BoNes]

Well, at least I promise to give you as long as you need up to next weekend. Then you might get poked again

Sounds..... fun....
I think the RP side of things definately needs doing. Aurek doesn't even know anybody's name (except Falkor, because Westian said it. He asked him it, out of curtesy) on top of that, the person standing right in front of him is the reason he's here

[beowuuf]

21/42 OOC pages gone through for info.
I did get through a small amount of the IC posts a while back, but want to restart, so currently 0/17 pages
I then need to go back through the notepad notes and tidy them up

Then I will be caught back up on this game!

Getting on for three months worth of game, you know - pretty cool!

[Ameena]

Hehehe meanwhile my character is lurking around, too scared to really do anything much constructive atm. Stupid stinky dead bodies. And horrible sword-swinging soldier people. And fireball-chucking halflings. And...well, people fighting in general, really . None of it is the business of a lone murafu. Or any murafu, really. It's sort of weird - this isn't really how I planned this charcater going, but it's just sort of...well, it's how she's gone, hehe.
I await further postings to see what I end up doing!


Ecit - I had a thought - since both Aurek and Westian are religiously-clericy types, wouldn't either or both of them want to do some kind of "last rites" thingy (or something) over the bodies of those they've killed? Just a thought. I mean, the gods they worship/follow might not encourage the respect of your enemies, but seeing as both characters are "good guys" (I mean, you can't have an "Evil" Pally - they're forced into Lawful Good as an alignment), I thought maybe leaving corpses strewn about the place in various agonised death poses might not quite sit right with them .

[money]

Apologies for the delay in posting.... the bathroom was far from easy, I really hate plumbing! But alas, post is in and bar a few hours tonight to finish off, "my work here is done"

[beowuuf]

Lol, no problems, those bathrooms are tricky, tricky things I think you are missing where the characters are - everyone is still on the teleporter side of the door, only Farel and the last soldier went through. Well, Thinpas went through too, but it was the last mistake he ever made

I don't think Aurek's runes will have kicked off any more knowledge revelations in Falkor, however Westian - please make a knowledge (religeon) check! Make it good, and you might have a useful spell to teach Aurek in return!

And more importantly, note that Aurek automatically knows not only VI but YA as a spell, so now so do you. Hello temporary hit points to all the weak mages and rogues!


Anyway, after this door thing is out of the way for good or ill, it's your favourite part - levelling up again! Has it been so long? Who knows. Soon everyone else will know the dizzy heights of level 4 that Aurek has experienced.

I'll provide a cheat sheet for those not comfortable with the process yet. More importantly, everyone is getting an attribute point at level 4. Woohoo! Well, I thought it was cool

[oh_brother]

Lol, don't worry, we all think it is cool too!

Right, well invisible castle is down again, so I rolled on the DnD website. Following on from Aurek's roll of 1 for perception, and subsequent comic fall down, I have also rolled 1! It is like we are the three stooges here (well two of the three stooges - one space is still vacant for whoever wants to join in our slap-stick troupe ).

For religion I rolled an 18 + 4 = 22, good enough?

[beowuuf]

Oh, I forgot to say that anyone confronting memory loss issues like Westian where someone says something thye may have forgotten, then they can make a will save to perhaps probe their reticent memory.

[beowuuf]

Oops, double posting! Well, I think those terrible rolls are penalty enough, and are probably due to your rune discussion. So the universe balanced out there.

A very good knowledge check is more than enough - go check my rules summary thread for details on a couple of spells you can now cast. Not only the YA spell, but YA IR (party shield) are currently open to you, sir. If Westian and Aurek get @5 - 10 minutes to sit down quietly, and Aurel makes a basic knowledge(religeon) check, then you can teahc him the YA IR spell in return.

With the YA spell, originally I had only allowed for 1d3 temporary hit points per level. I'm trusting I'm not screwing over the challenge of the game later by increasing this to 1d6 per level.

Currently, the potions flasks possessed are 1 from Arbrut, Aurek has two (I believe he kept both), and...umm, that's it, really. Brohur smashed his flask, and everyone else ran or died at the otherside of the door . You can try to loot Passin's body, if anyone does, please roll me a d20 since there might be something hidden to spot.

[oh_brother]

Yay, cool spells! Of course if it turns out that 1d6 messes the game balance just switch it around and make it a (geometrically absurd) d3

[beowuuf]

Head=1, tails=2, edge=3. All good

[Lord_BoNes]

(knowledge religion 1d20 + 10 = 12 + 10)
I hope that is enough... even though (I'm pretty sure) I count as a 1st level cleric, Westian is still, by far, the group's best healer.

Side question: will the "3 spells per encounter" increase as our levels go up? EG: when we get to level 5 or 10, we get an extra spell per encounter.

[ian_scho]

Oh, and is Haynuus back in the room yet? Westian's firing a question at either an apparition or a disorientated half-orc.

[beowuuf]

Haynuus can be back just then

[beowuuf]

@LB (sorry, caught on phone): More than enough, I would have played it by ear on the circumstances surroundign the teaching (DC10 for total rest, DC15 for on the move/distracted), but a DC22 success means Aurek will pick YA IR up pretty quickly. Once OB started teahcing him the spell IC, just assume you pick it up within a few minutes of practice even if the party is on the move or solving something! Nice roll!


Hmm, spells. The spell-likes per encounter will stay at 3 until level 8, when they will go up to (and stay at) 4. It's more in line with the mage limits, which also stopes pretty quickly at 4 spell-likes per encounter.

However, while there were reason of game balance to both a) limit spells to per day, and b) to put paladin special abilities lumped in with spell-like/encounter, I honestly can't see what they were in terms of balancing out the party. I have a sneaking suspicion some of them were to do with balancing out NPCs and to ensure the paladin stayed balanced if multiple paladins were in the party. However, it's looking a little restrictive compared to other classes right now.

Sadly the paladin spell progression is pretty low, you basically seem to increase a spell useage every two levels (as opposed to every level) and a spell grade every three levels (with a blip of four levels to start with) as opposed to every second normal casters get.

Anyway, so I think for now let's try de-linking your paladin powers from spell-like usage (they are now just per 'day' again, use them all up in a single encounter if you want!) and I'll let you cast your spell alotment per encounter (currently 1 LO spell just now, upped to 2 LO spells at 6th level).

No point 'balancing' the class to theoreticals and making it not fun to play. May as well let you enjoy it, and if I spot the game-breaking reasons I was shackling it harder, I can say when I spot them. As I said, part of it was to round out the difference between a wisdom-less paladin and a wisdom-having one (since unlike clerics and mages, you get extra spells for wisdom), and another part could have been the worry that would be seen further in potion preparation (without flask and time limits, a paladin with spells can essentially have as many potions as he can carry).

Hmm, thre might have been some odd synergy with paladin/cleric, but if there was I'm not seeing it.

Sorry, hope that long answer actually answered whatever the question was, and makes the class a little easier too!

[Lord_BoNes]

If I understand you correctly... I get 1 LO spell, and all my "special paladin" skills, per encounter. With the limit on LO spells, I can't go "en-masse" with the potions anyways.

Now, that sounds good... and fair.

[beowuuf]

Indeed. And cool! Actually, you are still limited 'per day/per levelling up' with some of the paladin abilities. Just you can use them all in one encounter if you wished, and you could also use a magical item 3 times too. If later levels see the fighter class start to outstrip the paladin in terms of abilities in combat that aren't balanced by the clerical spell use, I might relax that 'per day' limit.

As to spell casting, If the spell is per encounter, it sort of means once every 5 - 15 minutes (I'm assuming adreneline allows mana to regenerate faster in combat as opposed to out of it!). So even with only 1 LO spell, if you can cast it per encounter, you can restore all hit points as long as you keep recasting the spell every so often, even alone. Not too shabby. It's just that quick set of spell use, of the flexibility of spells, that you really need a cleric backing you up. And if he's as handy with his attakcs as Westian, all the better

As I PM'd you, if you are playing around with the D&D mechanics for DM in the background anyway, if you ever do figure out why I thought those harsh penalties were necessary, please let me know, I can't figure it out definitively. I think it was based on how I thougth the game would go, not how it's actually going. Certainly the NPCs will play by the old rules and limits.

[beowuuf]

@money: Hey, since you guys have a full set of alignment runes bar one, and since Falkor has been occasionally sneaky (I did offer you a rogue level once!) I think Falkor can be allowed a knowledge (arcana) check to attempt to intuit the ROS rune. Good luck!

[Lord_BoNes]

May the force be with you, Money...

[beowuuf]

Ok, so currently everyone will get +2 to perception for Haynuus's little wall-bashing stunt (since it's focused the search), and currently Falkor has two successes to his name for another +4 bonus.

As noted before, you can either try to search yourself and spread the luck, or concentrate your search with one person (Falkor) and everyone else uses aid another to give him more bonuses (DC10 to grant the bonus)

[oh_brother]

Will try to post IC if I have time (work is going crraazzzyyyy!!!) but I was going to aid another on Falkor (no pressure there Money!). Assuming that I have an action left, I kinda lost track.

Westian: Rolled 1d20 and got 5 => 5
Even with + 3 that is just 8... sorry!

[beowuuf]

Actually, you benefit from Haynuus's +2 to all, so you squeak the aid another check - so money gets a +2 for his next check! That's +8 in total so far...

[Lord_BoNes]

So.... when are we due for the next update???

[beowuuf]

Once money and OB post again with a major action, one assist and a miss ain't doing much on their own! Night all!

[Lord_BoNes]

Me guesses that I'll talk to you all tonight (11:04am now, so, in about 10-12hrs time), because my housemate wants the internet, and we don't have a router or LAN cable long enough for both PCs.

Catch you guys laterz

[beowuuf]

Oh, forgot to mention light sources. I'm assuming Aurek and Farel dropped their torches on the floor (Farel definitely did at the exit to the room, LB can say where Aurek's is) and similarly the other torches were either dropped where the soldiers dropped them aroudn the room, or where they were killed!

So the room has plenty of light (especially since the room is lit anyway from the teleporter glow), but you might want to think about picking a few of those up and extinquishing

I forgot to say that fun as a skill rolling challenge can be, this one ends one way or the other tomorrow. The bonuses are getting good enough that you will succeed soon anyway, so the real question is do the party lose a round or two from tomorrow's rolls, or will you roll the crap out of it and have that door instantly succumb to your might! As you will see once you get beyond the door, the time ticking away is important. Ish.

I'd like to hear everyone's views on the 'keep the door open/find the switch' challenge, but personally I think it's a little bit too long of a process to do well in play by post, and a little bit too hard to keep from being 'dry'. I had hoped doing it around about the introductions and general speaking might make it go down smoother, and certainly bits like Haynuus just running at the wall are the sort of thing I'd hope for to keep it fun and interesting (and imaginative for solving) but I'm still nto sure it works.

Anyway, let me know if you feel the same or if you are happy enough with it. I know it didn't help that part of it was over a weekend that some people were busy (And now poor OB has crazy work too) but I think that's just exagerating it.

Right, I really must get sleep this time Don;'t feel like I'm getting enough recently! Night all!

[ian_scho]

It's one of those things isn't it... The fights are like knife edge events that can last a week yet don't seem to 'go on' at all. But finding a tiny switch in the wall can take 4 days as well! Personally I'm the patient type

Of course if there was perceptive rogue type person here we'd have gotten through by now!