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

[beowuuf]

The armour that Aurek picked up, and the armour that Passin wore, is normal appearing black armour.

The armour Thinpas and Arbrut wore, aswell as being worse for wear, also has the weird skulls, etc on. Drommal also had the same kind of armour. Also, the four soldiers that stayed at the entrance actually had that style of armour/

Aurek's abilities are active - he needs to invoke them.


And lol, yes, Drommal opened a pit behind him...oops!

[beowuuf]

Ok, so just waiting for money and LB to make any posts they wish, and thne I can update later on this evening. Sounds like a choice of movement tomorrow, and I can easily summarise what you guys want to do rest wise

Questions:
1) Do you want to rest only as long as you can physically heal? Westian can heal, on average, 35hp every @15 minutes, and Aurek obviously adds another 1d6 healing to that. Helm will probably feel ok to travel after a single flask of healing.

2) Does anyone actually want to try and leave? Ameena, you've said you'd want to, but will your character actually split from the group? Would she split from the group if Helm decided he did not want to accompany the group? Obviously, this is one place where you can meta-game - do you, as a player, really want to be divided from the group for an intederminant period of time?

[ian_scho]

If his detect evil didn't pick anything up, then Haynuus would be happy with it. However, he will get the opportunity to have another go later! I wonder if only certain soldiers got special armour...

[beowuuf]

*Whistles*

As a player, you can even see a hint at the answer. Oh bum, I meant to get you those AC stats...

[beowuuf]

Ok, to break it down again (my I've made it so complex!):

Haynuus's breastplate on it's own:
+3AC, -4ACP, +3dex max bonus

Soldier parts on their own:
Breastplate: +4AC -3ACP, max +2dex max bonus
Greaves: +2AC, -2ACP, max +4dex max bonus
Poleyn, etc: +2AC, -2ACP, max +4dex max bonus
Greaves+poleyn: +4AC, -3ACP, max +2dex max bonus

Wearing soldier's outfit:
Platemail +8AC, -6ACP, +1dex max bonus (this is standard stats for this armour)

Haynuus wearing other breastplate and soldier greaves/poleyn:
+7AC, -7ACP, +2dex max bonus

[Ameena]

Heh, I'm glad I don't wear any kind of heavy armour (well Ameena's completely nude right now, and even if she was wearing her cloak that doesn't count as anything mechanically since it's just plain clothing) - that looks bloody complicated, lol. I still don't know what those ACP things are (I mean, I know it stands for errm...Armour Check Penalty or something, but I dunno what that does except it's some kind of penalty thing when using some skills or casting spells or something).
Anyway, with regards to character desires right now...yeah, Ameena would be happier if she could find a way out. But as has been established, she doesn't want to be alone. Not just a case of "better the devil you know", as a murafu she'd take some pretty nasty psychological damage from being alone in a place like this before too long, I expect. Not having a known exit makes all the difference.
If Helm decided he wanted to split, Ameena probably would be happy to just go with him - she's the only one in the group so far that she feels really comfortable with right now, due to the combined factors of having already met him, him taking a more murafu-ish stance during the fight, and also him just generally being friendly with her the whole time. I suppose conversations in a larger group in a PbP RPG are a bit more complicated than if you're sitting round a table, 'cause people's questions and responses and actions all end up sort of overlapping as people post at different times, addressing different things, and some stuff can get lost or missed out where someone forgets to reply to someone else's point or something. Not that I'm suggesting we should try and split the group, but it might be interesting, if such a thing happens later, to see how that turns out. Group splits before have only been one person going off by themselves and then they've more or less only interacted with NPCs or monsters.
Basically I'll see how it goes and RP accordingly, but for now, no, Ameena won't split if doing so would mean going by herself. And if they did find an exit, who's to say she would immediately just leg it far away and never come back? If said exit looked like it wasn't goign anywhere any time soon, she might be more willing to try and explore and stuff. Although given the number of aggressive/hostile/belligerant/moody creatures and things she's met in the dungeon so far, she'd probably (from a murafu PoV) be a bit silly to turn away from freedom and go back in. But it'd depend on how her relationships with the rest of the group had developed by then. If she can get a bit more un-freaked-out and decides talking to someone won't result in getting yelled at or told to mind her own business or whatever, her natural curiosity will probably lead her into asking questions of people (general stuff about where they come from etc, nothing too personal to begin with I would think ). I think the whole Falkor thing needs to be sorted out first of those, though .

[beowuuf]

ACP - that's basically it. If you are skilled in your armour, you take penalties on the skill checks you would expect to take penalties on. If you aren't proficient, you take it on all strength and dexterity checks - hit rolls included.

Funny, by now Falkor and Helm have probably had the same levle of interaction with Ameena in her memories, and of course Helm was running away and sodding the whole group after freezing in a fight (though to be fair, he had just been speared through the soldier then). Perception is a funny thing

[Ameena]

Hmm yeah, I suppose she did meet Falkor before too (or at least, so she seems to remember)...then again, Helm never nuked anyone when their back was turned, so, you know, that does make a bit of a difference . Plus avoiding trouble is what murafu tend to do, though it does depend on the circumstances - if it had been, say, Arbrut who'd taken violent action first, she might well have joined in (though less with the intent of spilling innards all over the floor and more kind of disarming the opponents or knocking them out or something - murafu only do what's necessary in a fight in order to escape, and then do so - they don't kick enemies while they're down, just leg it ).

[beowuuf]

so she seems to remember

So untrusting!

[ian_scho]

Thanks Beo!

[oh_brother]

As for the breastplate - Westian will take a breast plate if possible. If Haynuus takes the soldier's one, then Westian will take Haynuus's old one. If that is too big, then maybe one of the others. I suppose the charred one is preferable to the blood-stained one!

[oh_brother]

Ok, I levelled up. I took 1 extra point in wisdom. For skills I gave one point to knowledge (religion), concentration and heal. All seem reasonable - he has been casting spells and remembering runes, plus he has been there for many healing attempts by Falkor. I got the minimum hit point bonus (7). Added the other bonuses...and that is that I think!

[beowuuf]

All seems good to me. Tell me how you want to handle healing -you've used up one UM potion to Farel, so you still have one more UM and three LO potions. Plus of course another round, and another. If you guys are staying until you are all healed, I'll just figure out the average time it would take unless you won't to roll for it. If you are paranoid your DM is gunna strike....well, I dunno what to say

It sounds like Haynuus would probably let Westian have the new armour instead of shuffling old stuff, but you two can figure that one out. Your new sword will be one handed, black steel, have a wicked looking set of serated edges to the blade, and do 1d8 damage on a successful hit


Oh, money is playing catch up, so I won't do the threatened party moving on tonight actively - if you guys wanna move on, you'll need to do it yourself!

[beowuuf]

Nice RP LB! I think that, rather than the 20, will be the thing that nets you some interesting behind the scenes changes to the soldier. Though high rolls never hurt!

[Lord_BoNes]

My eyes nearly popped out. On BOTH rolls, I just sorta threw my dice (as in rolled, but not going for anything in particular, or even aiming at a particular spot on my floor... I just rolled it) and both times it came back with a 20...
I've DONE that math behind it, I've got a 0.25% chance of double rolling ANY number on a d20... Now, I'm gonna laugh if it does it again! (0.0125% chance)

[beowuuf]

It's scary maths until you realise how many times you are called upon to roll the dice. You have a 1 in 400 chance... so eventually it's got to happen.

If they roll too many twenties, I'd smash them though. They've already denied you one fun puzzle solving/combat encounter!

[Ameena]

Hey you never know, maybe they'll balacne out by giving you loads of crit-fails later .

[Lord_BoNes]

And THAT's exactly what I said to myself when I rolled them both... "BRILLIANT! I got a 20... Oh sh*t! Now I'm gonna roll a 1 when I NEED a 20."

[Ameena]

Generally speaking, I seem to get high rolls (not necessarily natural-20s, but say, 15+) on "utility" stuff like Perception checks and the like. Then as soon as it comes to combat rolls I start getting crap like twos and fives and stuff, lol. Hey, meta-game-wise, that's yet another reason to have my character avoid combat .

[beowuuf]

Lol, well I wouldn't be much of a DM if I let a run of good or bad luck spoil the game too much for you For example, your good RP is probably just as much allowed to have an effect from the 1 intimidation that let you be less of an active threat as the 20 you rolled with it.

Weird balancing act, I have to ensure dice rolls get fair play, or else I'm not rewarding good luck and your choice of attribute assignment (and level/equipment advancement), and I have to ensure bad luck doens't screw you over too much yet does have an effect, and then I have to ensure that good RP compliments the mechanics, without being overpowering or underwhelming, and I have to ensure that 'bad' RP choices have an effect without being a punishment.

Really, it's easier just to kill you guys off with a fireball trap!

Nah, just joking, poison cloud is more fun

[beowuuf]

And yes, let's not forget the hysterically funny set of poison save rolls, even though the poison save DC was actually decreasing in that case!

Actually, Ameena did score an 'aid another' better than AC10 attack against the mummy. Not enough to wound it (or she did score what would have been a hit, but Damage reduction would have blocked the blow) and instead ensured the mummy moved away and didn't automatically target her. If I recall correctly, it required both you and Falkor to hit or else there wasa chance of being attacked. Or something. That was months ago!

[Ameena]

Lol yeah. I know sometimes I get good luck in combat rolls (albeit there haven't been many for me in this game so far) and bad luck in non-combat ones, but generally it's the opposite that seems to be true. And yeah, I had forgotten about those Fortitude saves. And that wasn't even including the -1 penalty (racial or low Constitution, I forget which) - I don't think I rolled higher than a five the whole time, lol.

[oh_brother]

To save dice rolls I would be happy just to wait an appropriate amount of time and have all hit points healed. If needs be, you can estimate the length of time it takes for that to happen, and see if the wandering dragon (or whatever) reaches us before we are finished!

[money]

I would also like to get upto 100% health before moving - I don't have many HP's so assume this wouldn't take too long?

[ian_scho]

OK. Full health with a chance of generating a random accounter. Sounds good, if we're not all starving by the time the cleric and paladin have finished curing!

[beowuuf]

sweet, full house! need sleep, update will need to be tomorrow morning

and any encounters for delaying here won't be random

[beowuuf]

actually, feel free to react to money's comment. the leg cramp was funnie.

I'll probably try to push the timing in the next update or two

[oh_brother]

To give my suggestions for the questions in the IC thread

(a) We take him with us, regardless of what information he gives
(b) I wouldn't be much help with lock picking, but would be willing to give him water, mop his brow, lift up Ameena, etc. I missed out a reply to his request because Westian was talking to other people, but I could move Passin away if Helm wants that. If we don't open it successfully between Helm and Ameena, then I suppose we will have to use the RA key.
(c) We could have a quick look there - if anything is of interest you could put it in your update? If not, we simply move on.

[beowuuf]

Ran out of time this morning and first thing at work, have the notepad with the next update post open, will try to post it sooner rather than later

Good/bad thing about quality work - your brain needs lots of breaks to digest stuff!

[beowuuf]

Falkor - inwardly questioning, outwardly pushing the questions back onto other people. I like I might slip Helm's answer into the mix when I get home...